Big idea: Receive and enjoy life in Jesus—the Word became flesh.
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Merry Christmas. Everyone. Welcome. If you are visiting with us today, I'm so thrilled you're here. I'd love to meet you, talk with you afterwards. I want to add my thanks to the creative arts, all the music, all of the lights, all of the tech that goes into it. Sunday night was fantastic. So encouraging. Hopefully you're replaying that on the streaming services. It's really, really great. So thank you. Our music team, our worship team, our Creative Arts team, so let's give them a hand for that. John had us applaud for showing up. Yeah, we did a lot of work showing up and enjoying they did. They did an incredible amount. I'm looking forward to to Sunday night as well, or Sunday night, Wednesday night as well. I have a couple of things to say else besides a word of thanks. The pastors received our pastor's appreciation gift on Monday, and we were just blown away. So thankful for your generosity and your kindness to us, we love giving ourselves to this church and the Ministry of it, and you give yourselves to us in so many ways. So thank you for that. Yeah, it's just, it's a pretty overwhelming offer of extra grace to us, and we are thankful for it. News on building updates this month, like, I think a couple of weeks ago, it finally happened. The City shook off the dust on a pile of papers, and they gave us the permits for the kids bathrooms, for the stairs and for the upstairs, we can start breaking stuff. Demo, demo day starts January 5. It will mean some changes down the wing. The ladies will, at some point, very soon, lose their bathroom. The guys will actually lose their bathroom, and we will be happy to walk down over here while the gals get the special treat of using the men's bathroom really close. Boy. We're gonna try to make up for it by redoing the women's bathroom in that process. So we're just really thankful to get the kids bathroom built as it should be, separate from the general public bathrooms, and that's the way it should be. So we're really glad things are moving along, and we're going to see other things happening in these next months. So with that, let's turn our attention to John chapter one. We're in a mini series, a little break from Genesis, and we're going through the PROLOG of John's gospel. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word. We looked at the word Jesus last week, really the deity of Christ. Sunday night, we looked at what it means to receive Christ, who needs to receive Him, and what it means. And then today, we're going to look at the incarnation, the Word became flesh. And these are profound truths simple language, in Greek and in English, profound mind blowing. Hardly get your arms around at truths that are transformational. Verse 14, John 114, and the word Jesus, the Son of God, became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, He who comes after me, ranks before me because he was before me. And from his fullness, we have all received grace, grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known. This is the word of the Lord, our God and Father. We thank you for what you have given. We come at Christmas time, one of the last vestiges, one of the cultural remaining cathedrals to Christianity. Christmas is our secular world still calls it Christmas, and we in the church get to revel again in the truths Jesus. We praise you and thank you for. For your condescension, Father, we praise you and thank you for sending your son spirit. We thank you and praise you for helping John pen these words, superintending these powerful truths. And now we need you to show us what they mean, a fresh what they mean. For some people, for the first time, we pray that You would open our hearts to understand the words of these gospel truths, and we pray that you would be at work. We confess that familiar truths are needed. We are still men and women and boys and girls who have the corruption of sin remaining in our flesh until you return or you call us home, it will be like that. So receiving and believing these truths is as important as ever. Many are here, and they have, for the first time, come into a church, and the lights have been interesting out and about in the city for their lives, the celebrations have and they're hungering for more open their hearts to see what's in this as well. We pray for churches around our city, I think from east to west, Life Center out west, real life out east. I pray that you would be using your word help, help them be faithful to preach scripture, gospel truth and God, we know what you do with the gospel. You change people's lives. Do that for your glory, and do that now for us in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. So why do we celebrate Christmas? We've been asking the question every week, or every message, last three messages. Here it is, if you're visiting a church, our church for the first time, I bet you have some answers. It's something about joy. It's something about tradition. It's something about baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You love the lights and the music, and who would blame you? But you're here probably because you're wondering if there's something more, something deep down, knows something is still not quite right. Let's get started with something simple. Maybe to illustrate, I love having an eight year old granddaughter. I think of, how do I explain the incarnation and why to an eight year old? Don't you love taking on that challenge? It's great. So let's start with something simple. It was really crowded at River Park Square this last week. You You were out with your dad and your older brother. You're eight, and it was time to shop for mom's Christmas gifts. You were pouting. Yeah, you're pouting. You wanted to go to the Lego store. You begged your dad for new Legos, but your dad said, That's not why we're here tonight. Some Santa somewhere gave you a candy cane, and your dad looked at you like, maybe this will make him stop pouting. You unwrap it, you start licking the candy cane. Head down, upset you're following dad to the elevators, you stop for a second. You look over at the Christmas tree. There it is. Wish I could go back to the Lego store. Maybe I will you follow your dad off to the elevator. Press the button you get on, doors shut, elevator moves. You're still pouting. BELL RINGS. You follow your dad off. He goes out to the parking lot on the pink floor, and when you look up, it's not your dad. Some guy has the exact same shoes as your dad, and you're on the pink floor, you can't even remember where you parked. I mean, you're eight. There are six elevators and 14 floors and you are alone. How are you going to find your dad? How is your dad going to find you? Get that image in your mind, Christmas is about Jesus' mission to find the lost and reunite them with his father. Jesus is on a rescue mission. When we get to verse 14 and we see the word became flesh, it's because. Jesus is on a rescue mission, rescue the lost and perishing, to forgive the sinner, to die, to rise from the dead, to return.
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Christmas is about Jesus mission to find the lost and return, reunite them with the Father. Christmas is about completion. It's about being found and united to the True Father. It's about transformation. It's about change from living a self centered, tiny, guilty existence into a God centered, big and joyful relationship with God and God's people. Why do we celebrate Christmas because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came as a man to adopt us into God's family. It's profound truth, the big idea all through the series, we unpacked it a bit last Sunday night comes from verse 12, all who did receive Him who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John, the old apostle, unpacked the truth about Jesus' deity in one through five. He talked about those who didn't and those who did receive him in nine through 12. Today, John is going to talk about the word becoming flesh. It says in verse four and five that the CO creator life shined in the darkness, and the darkness is not overcome it. What is the darkness? Secular culture has tried to rename it and medicate it, but it isn't working. Last week, I had a great comment from a visitor first time at a church, saying, like, you were really hard on those guys, hard on those guys. Who was I hard on? Tell me about that the Jews, like, there might be Jews in the audience. Oh, that's right, you don't know the story Jesus came to the world that he made, to the nations that he created, and they rejected him. He came to His own people, and they rejected him. But that's not all of the story. Some Jews, including the one who wrote this book, and some nations have believed, keep believing what's been lost in our culture. Let me relate it this way. Tolkien had an idea of it in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, if you watch the movie version of the first installment, Fellowship of the Ring Galadriel gives a history. She says this, some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend, and legend became myth. She was talking about the Ring of Power. Tolkien was talking about the darkness introduced by Satan and present in sin. The darkness is sin introduced by Satan, shared by all we all walked away from God, self absorbed, angry, trying to control our own world. We are lost. Jesus came into the world. He came to the nations he created. He came to His own people, the Jews, and almost everybody rejected him, but those who did receive Him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And if you look around, he gives the right to become children of God. That's why we celebrate Christmas, because of what Jesus did this morning, we're going to look at the incarnation. That's the big word, the fact that God took on human flesh. We're not going to have a 10 Point outline like we did last week, just three points my normal. We need to grasp the incarnation. We need to take hold of the historical witness. We have John the Baptist in this scene, and we need to receive the grace again. We need to receive the grace again. For you, it might be for the first time. Let's walk through this first let's we need to grasp the incarnation. I mean, you got to. Ready to drink the ocean when we talk about the Incarnation, simple idea profound and the incarnation is essential for adoption into God's family, and it is the central and brilliant light of Christmas, verse 14 and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is, this is the supreme revelation of all revelations. John chose the idea word, as we looked at last week, for the Son of God, for Jesus, because he wants to fasten into your heart with screws, the idea that God came to declare Himself in Jesus. Jesus is the visible member of the Trinity, and the word came became flesh. He's the message. I mean, I can tell you that dinner is going to be served at 6pm I can also put the food on the table. At 6pm when the food's on the table, you've got the message. Dinner's here when Jesus entered, the feast had arrived.
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The Food speaks in a better way than the announcements. Jesus' entrance speaks better than all of the Old Testament. That's what the apostles all wrote. God spoken many times in many ways, but he has spoken in this last time, the last word his son. So you have to do something with that entrance. God the son took on flesh. Just what is the feast? Then God the Son is CO equal in glory, co equal in majesty, whatever God is in character and attributes, Jesus is visibly, audibly. So we unpacked last week, and to get an idea of how God becomes man, the church has used really important language is and is not language. He is this he is not this language, because for a long time it was hard to keep straight. God really took on human flesh. He was fully God and fully man. Fully God, fully man, the creator took on creation, the Sustainer of All hungered when he hung on the cross, he held the iron molecules in the nails together until his body died. But
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he was not part man and part God. He was not a spirit that indwelled a body, Jesus, God. The son was both a real, plain, normal looking man and fully God. He didn't walk around with a halo. The Word became flesh. He didn't walk around with a halo. He didn't walk in with his robes to teach in the synagogue. And everyone went, Whoa, God is going to preach today. He was a man. In fact, it wasn't until he turns water into wine that his disciples think this is something more than a man. It wasn't until he started to do miracles raise the dead, and it really wasn't until he himself was raised from the dead that the doubters, like Thomas, really came to believe. Unless I see him, unless I put my hands in his hands and my hands into his side, I will not believe. And when Jesus rose from the dead, fully God, fully glorified man, Thomas finally says, My Lord and my God, you
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he looked like such a plain man that people were surprised when he equated himself with God, but He did such extraordinary works that. Are taught in such an extraordinary way that no one could ignore him. One point in the Gospel of John, the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders, send their goons, their soldiers, to go arrest Jesus. He's making a scene. They walk in and they hear him teach, and they stand open mouthed, listening to him teach, and one looks at the other and says, Have you ever heard anyone teach like this? Never fully God, fully man. Notice it says he dwelt among us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the word dwell, dwelt is like a shipping container from Asia, filled with truth, one of those massive barges with all of those. I mean, there's so much here.
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In the Old Testament, God dwelled with his people in a couple of ways. One was the pillar of fire and cloud night and day. But when God resided permanently with his people, it was in a tent called a tabernacle. The word dwell is related to that word, but even that required some special care, because holy God and unholy people cannot survive. Well, God can survive, but the unholy people cannot. And so in that tabernacle to mark out in their hearts that there was a distance between God and man. There was an outer court you can only go in the inner court with special preparations at special times of the year. Then there was a place that the priest could go who had extra special preparations and able to go. And then there was a special, special place that only one priest could go one time of year where the presence of God was said to dwell, the Holy of Holies. When they made a permanent version of that tabernacle called the temple, God came in glory so great and so profound, it flooded out into the rooms. It flooded out and the people had to back up because unholy people can't what can't dwell with holy God. But here Jesus took on flesh and dwelled with men, dwelled with women. They could see him. They could touch the hem of His garment. They could eat a meal with him. They could recline at a table with him. They could come up and ask him questions. They could ask him for his help, and he would heal Jesus comes to break down those barriers. This is important for three reasons. Probably the first in this passage is that he is restoring real face to face fellowship with God the Father. He has come to make the father known. After the fall, man kept his distance from God, and God kept himself invisible to man, for man's own protection. But now God was with us. We sing O Come Emmanuel, which means God with us. From Isaiah seven, we're going to call him Immanuel, God with us. The second reason why this is important is that he experienced human life in all ways, yet without sinning. Jesus knew every kind of experience, and therefore every kind of temptation and yet never sinned. Usually the question gets thrown out. Well, if he was truly God, he could never be tempted, so therefore he could never be tempted. So was he really tempted? Well, let's just ask the question this, does Grand Coulee Dam bear any real pressure from the water. It bears a lot. So what bears more pressure? You with a sheet of four by eight ply wood against the Columbia River, or the dam which bears more weight, which feels more pain, which experiences more pressure, naturally, the damn does. Jesus became man, fully God, fully man, to be able to stand against the greatest pressures in human experience and yet never sin. What that means? Means is he can relate to our pressures beyond what we can comprehend. He came to experience the great pressures of life. He can sympathize with man's weakness and man's experience that one who died and who rose, who sits at the right hand of the throne of God, until he comes back to take planet Earth. He intercedes for us because he knows the pressure. Third, it's important, because he could suffer for us. One human can bear the punishment for one human, the God man, can bear the punishment for all. Remember how forgiveness works? We often forget this. Forgiveness works when the one who is offended absorbs the punishment that the offender deserves. Jesus, absorbed fully the Justice required for every person who receives and believes him. He could suffer for us. He could pay the penalty for our sin. That's why this is such a critical passage. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John says, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Translators have grasped this. Let's let's think about it this way. In eternity past, Jesus existed as the only begotten, the creeds are very clear, begotten, not made eternally, generating from the Father. The Father and Son and the Holy Spirit have always, always existed. There was never a time where this wasn't true where God was Father, generating the son, having fellowship as two persons with one substance, and the Holy Spirit makes it three with one substance. Yes, mind blown, but it means they existed in a special relationship and so only begotten, meaning coming from the Father without ever being born, without ever beginning this the nature of their relationship. He is a special son, the special son, one and only supreme. Visibly manifesting all the glory of the Father. He came to reconcile us the humility this took is unimaginable when he says, We have seen his glory, we saw the Only Begotten special relationship to the Father in His glory. One way to describe this glory is something that shines in a wonderful way, like usually glory and shining go together. There's an ancient illustration that's really helpful to look at the successes of the Incarnation. Is like looking at the ocean and seeing all the waves you ever seen an ocean scene. Watched all the waves, and you can see them as far as your eye can travel. Like that's that is what it's like looking at the incarnation. You try to count the waves, and it becomes better to look at one for a while and note its sheer majesty than the combination of all of them. You try to look at all and count them all. You get lost. You look at a couple of them, and you can appreciate the majesty of all the others. John picks out two in this passage, the glory, He picks out two grace and truth.
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Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Grace is favor kindness. It is help to undeserving sinners. And if we just did that in John's Gospel alone, you would see the glory of His signs and miracles, feeding the 5000 raising Lazarus from the dead, letting a woman caught in adultery go free from condemnation. You would see Jesus' grace. You would also see His truth, the reliability of who he was, the reliability of his message. You would see the wisdom where he taught like no other. You would see his zeal when He overturned the temples of the hypocritical money changers there in the temple. This is a lie. You. You would see it in the passion from the garden to trials to cross to resurrection. Why did he do this? Why did he take on human flesh? Why did he display grace and truth? We were lost. We were isolated. The father was not getting the glory that his loving character deserved. He came to redeem. He came to restore, and because Jesus came as a man died as a man was raised into perfection. He now Seth stamp of our future. There is a resurrection coming for his people and the very world that has been corrupted. He came and dwelt among us. I us first, we need to grasp the Incarnation, at least get our eyes on a couple of the waves. Number two, we need to take into account the historical witnesses. I bet you could think of these. We could have a fun at lunch exercise. How many Christmas movies are based on the premise that Santa is real, but a whole bunch of people don't believe it. So the whole aim of the story is to get everybody to believe in Santa. Hollywood loves myths. Isn't that a popular storyline? We want you to have faith and a myth. How many parents in culture enjoyed the joy of their children believing Santa came and delivered their presence like that's a thing in culture, we love believing myths. Why do we like believing myths the truth? The truth is going to expose you. Myths are a little more comfortable. Myth is the last thing John wanted. I know, often Christianity is considered a myth, but John lived in a Greco Roman world. Every country, from China to Britain, from norseland to Timbuktu, had their mythologies. They had their gods. And John was not writing a mythology. He was writing a history. God acted in history. How do we know this? Look at the we statement. We have seen his glory, who is the we, and we have seen his glory, and we have received His fullness, who is the we. Well John for one all of the apostles, 500 witnesses. And then there were the witnesses who saw the apostles, who also did miracles and testified to Jesus, so many eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry were available in the first 70 to 80 years of Christianity, that the Church Fathers could readily find examples In their congregations, people who had been exiled out of Israel after the Romans chased them out, they could find examples. We have seen his glory. Only a few saw his resurrection, 500 apostles, a number of others. But this was eyewitness. There's a second one that's almost more important than those. Those collections, verse 15, John. This is John the Baptist referred to earlier, the man. This is verse six, the man who came from God whose name was John. John bore witness about him and cried out. This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me, ranks before me because he was before me. John the Baptist is critical to every one of the Gospels, because John the Baptist has declared what the Old Testament has been promising for 1500 years. In fact, the Royal prophet Isaiah announced one who is coming, in the spirit of the Lord, to announce the coming of Messiah, Malachi, the last prophet, announced a coming one who will prepare the way for the people of God. John the Baptist is important to the Bible's storyline, and John the Baptist is the first and greatest way. Witness to Jesus, representing all the Old Testament taught. He is the eyewitness that says the whole testament is true about Jesus, and this is what you should expect. These eyewitnesses spread over the empire at the end of the book of Acts, the apostle Paul, in chapter 26 of Acts, is on trial yet again, this time in front of Agrippa and Festus, and he is able to look at Agrippa and Festus. You know about Jesus? You have investigated all of the reports you have heard, the first hand witnesses. Festus said, Would you so quickly? Want to convert me? Quickly or slowly? I want to see you converted. I might also like my chains taken off. Can you do something about that? Nope. Firsthand reports. Well, if there's so much first hand testimony, why didn't everyone believe Jesus has an answer to that people love the darkness because their deeds are evil. Remember the Ring of Power still holds great temptation. That sin nature holds great temptation. It was counter cultural during the time to talk about bodily existence. The last thing complementary to a Greek mind would have been a God who took on human flesh permanently, who was raised from the dead. And followers would do the same. They would be raised from the dead. And this was a culturally unpopular and because of the corruption of the human heart, sinfully unpopular. But John is not asking you to believe something unscientific. And he is not asking you to believe a myth. He is calling you to be truly scientific, to believe real evidence. God, the Son really took on flesh, and there were witnesses. The truth, the facts, the hope, are like none other, which leads us to our third we need to grasp the incarnation, the ocean of those truths. We need to take hold of the real evidence. And number three, we need to receive His grace. We need to receive His grace. When we dive into Christmas, we dive into the Christmas accounts in the Bible, they are always a fresh invitation to seek His grace. He came to give grace. We still need grace. I have had a string of stupid things husbands say since Thanksgiving, insensitive, unkind and like I'm driving in today going, Wow, I am. I am pretty much still pathetic. I need this grace. Does anybody else feel like that? The inward corruption that you just can't escape. That's why these words are so important, if you're first time in a church, or if you're fourth 1,000th time in a church, verse 16 from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. Jesus, the Son of God, is a never ending, never emptying fountain of grace, one Grace after another, one grace on top of another
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from his fullness. There are there are some of you. I know some of you. I know me. You like
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the idea of Christianity, you can't find a better option, but it's got these rules, things you've got to obey, and you're not obeying them, and you are drowning in Guilt. I mean, I know I'm supposed to do these things and I don't, and I'm just guilty and guilty and guilty. And you confuse what happens after the grace of believing Jesus Ian. You say, well, good, I got in that way, but now I've got to, I've got to finish this thing out like, you don't even, you don't even want to open your Bible because you do. You're just going to, like, I'm still guilty, but that's why you need to open your Bible, because only in Jesus will you find the fullness of grace. Does that mean there's no obedience? Of course, there's obedience. Jesus the King, calls you into his kingdom, and when you believe on the grace, upon grace, he does a work of transformation, and he does a work of empowerment, and he helps you. He gives you every reason in the in the world to want to obey Him, every loveliness, every goodness, every motive. We've all received grace upon grace. The King has called you into his kingdom not because you did merit it, or you will merit it, but because He loves you, this is what verse 17 is getting at. The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Moses gave the Pentateuch, called the Law, first five book of the Bible. It came 1500 years before Jesus the law, and then eventually the prophets and the Psalms instructed and predicted. The Bible calls the law good and glorious for all kinds of reasons. It displays the holy character of God and how God's people should live. It's good and glorious. But there's something significant. From Genesis to Malachi, there are promises and predictions about Jesus, there are commands of God. We have broken God's commands, and we deserve punishment, but Moses promised permanent forgiveness and a new heart, and so did the prophets, and so did the Psalms. That is grace. Jesus actually came as needed to forgive our sins. He came as promised as the Son of God. The Law was given through Moses, pointing ahead to our need for Jesus, pointing ahead to the satisfaction that only Jesus could supply. And then Jesus came. Jesus came
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came as promised, the son immortalized in Isaiah, nine, six, we sang some of the elements of them today, but you'll hear familiarly in Handel's Messiah, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father. This is the child that's going to be born to us, the child. Think about this. We celebrate Christmas because God, the Son, the word Jesus, Christ, came as a baby, to live, to die, to rise as promised, He will return to judge and restore the world as promised.
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The Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. We have a barrage of songs telling us how wonderful the season is, don't we? But there are also plenty of songs that talk about our brokenness and isolation, aren't there those two? I mean, Darlene loves like I learned it from you too, Baby, please come home. Baby, please come home. What's what's where those kind of songs capture a longing for true love at Christmas, Unity reunion, the ear worm that I hate. I hate. I hate it a little bit more than I hate chestnuts roasting on the open fire. It's probably the most hated song that I have. Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. The very next day. You gave it away this year to keep me from tears, I'm gonna give it to someone special. Number one, number one, year after year. Can't you pick better? Ian. Oh, horrible ear worms. Number two, what's he talking about? You get to this year and you feel it in your bones. You know it in your life. You've experienced loss through death or sickness, and you're still in need of completion. I mean, I hate the song, but everybody knows there's something way down in here that knows, yes, Jesus came, yes, Jesus rose. But we still need him back. We still need him back. I mean, what? What is Dickens Christmas Carol and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas really about? What are those stories really about? They're about rebirth. They're about rebirth. And it's what everyone is longing for. Am I really plagued with this heart, this life, and my consequences are there no other options, sin in us, and sin and others still divides and destroys relationships and keeps our relationship with God distant, distant all that Jesus was and did at the first advent, set an anchor for the second coming, because Jesus was born as a baby, because he suffered, because he was tempted. He now prays for us as one who's gone through it, and he will return as one who will end it all because He is God. He retains crown rights to the whole creation. He is sovereign Lord. He will also effortlessly raise all his from the dead. Those who receive and believe will be raised bodily to everlasting life. Those that do not will be raised to everlasting contempt. Justice will be complete. He has the right. He has the power. He is God.
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What does it mean to receive him? It means to welcome Him as King, with Crown rights to your life, to the world, believing what he did, to accept you into his kingdom, to adopt you into His family. Those of you who think it's a set of commands or rules to obey and know that you can't plagued with guilt you never measure up. John can't be more plain. He can't be more plain. Look at verse 13. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,
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one of the most sad things I have is hearing people who make it week after week after week after week of great faith, Bible, church, and they still think they have to perform for everybody. They have to perform for themselves, that they have to measure up. But John can't be more plain, only the God man could do that. So it's not your heritage, whether you were born into a Christian family or a Jewish family. It's not of your hard work and passion your flesh. It's not a set of man made rules you need to receive Jesus, the God man. And he has done, he has done what was necessary to find you and reunite you with the Father. I mean, you were, you were the lost little kid in the mall, pressing buttons, trying to go up one level and down the other, until you find it, until you can get back there, when all you need to do is stand there and let the door open and your older brother comes. I will take you to the Father. I. What do you need to do? You don't need to try another floor. You just need to stand there in your guilt and your shame and your loneliness and your isolation and let the doors open and Jesus to come and take it away.
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Receive and keep the life in Jesus. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for the life changing words John 114, through 17. There's more to come. We're going to look at what you did to bring us to the Father Jesus. We thank you for the unimaginable condescension, leaving heaven taking on the limits of human flesh, never relinquishing being God, taking on the full weight of what it means to be human, so that you could restore us all who believe are given the right to become children of God, we thank You for this right and privilege, and there's enough indwelling pride that thinks we're making progress on our own. There is enough guilty sin that makes us wonder, could you really keep loving us? So these truths are here, those of us who follow you, who love you, love you all the more, relying on you. I pray for those who have a hard time believing that such good news could be true, that they would accept the facts of who Jesus is and what He has done, accept the facts that he's going to come again, to not miss out on the grace before judgment day. We ask all of this in Christ's name.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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