God’s love and grace – this is what Jesus showed on the cross. – John 1
How much do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know Him enough to build a relationship with Him – to trust your life with Him?
Do you know Him enough to let Him love you, scars and all? In retrospect, what is your personal take as far as the word Jesus Christ is concerned?
Now, if we look closely, there is a difference between knowing about Jesus, and knowing Jesus – having knowledge about Him, and having a relationship with Him.
So, how do we move from just mere knowledge to a relationship?
We read the Bible. We study it. Why? Because the more you read and know about Jesus, the bigger He is in your life.
As Pastor Serge said,
“Your maturity, commitment, and willingness to be a disciple largely depends on how deep and wide your knowledge is of Jesus Christ.”
Pastor Serge invites us to study the book of John. In the other 3 gospels, the authors focused on what Jesus taught and did, while in the gospel of John, it focuses on who Jesus is.
As we start the sermon series on the gospel of John, we pray that you will know Jesus on a deeper, more personal level. And may this bring you to a wonderful relationship with Him.
The Greatness of Christ (vv. 1-3)
Among the four gospels, John started with “In the beginning was the Word…”- a parallel to Genesis 1:1.
When God created everything, He only needed to speak for creation to happen. Everything took place because of the Word of God. Now John uses the “Word” as the same level as Jesus Christ.
This describes Jesus as identical to God and co-creator with God. This teaches us that –
- Jesus pre-existed with God.
- God was with Jesus.
- Jesus was God.
What Jesus taught, and what He did, are tied inseparably to who He is.
John teaches us that Jesus is the “Word” of God, using the Greek word ‘logos’ (Logos means word, discourse, or reason).
Jesus is the message from God, in a language we all understand: RELATIONSHIP.
Right from the very beginning, God wanted to have a relationship with us. And through His Word, God wanted to reach out to us.
The Greatness of Christ’s love (vv. 4-9)
Ever since the beginning of time, Christ has always sought to reveal Himself to us. As it is said “In the beginning was the Word,” it shows that Christ has always wanted to communicate with us, to show us His love.
In verses 4-5, Jesus was described as the light. And where darkness is, light conquers. Therefore, just as light reaches out to every nook and cranny, Jesus reaches out to the very depths of our hearts and shines His light there.
This shows how much He loves us: no matter how much we have sinned if we let Jesus shine His light in our hearts, we have life in Him.
The Darkness rejects the light (vv. 10-13)
However, we find in verses 10-11 that the world that was made through Him rejected Him. How is that? It is because man’s heart was filled with darkness.
As Pastor Serge said,
“If you want to see the light, there will be more than enough life to see the light. But if you don’t want to see the light, then there will always be enough darkness for you not to see the light.”
As a believer, where are your eyes fixed now? Is it towards Jesus Christ who gives light or is it towards the world that had rejected Him?
Nevertheless, God still made a way for us to be in the light as it is written in verse 12. All we have to do is to receive Jesus Christ and believe in Him and we will become one of His own.
We will be called God’s children. We must contemplate this truth: Jesus, who existed before the creation, came to earth and became man. He was crucified and died, conquered death, and rose again. He did all this for you.
Only when we invite Jesus into our hearts and dwell in the light can we see how much God loves us.
Do you truly believe that He came for us? That He died for us?
The Greatness of Christ’s Grace vv. 14-18
The grace given by Christ will never be exhausted. Grace upon grace. What does this mean?
This means that wherever you are right now in your journey of life. And this further means that God’s loving-kindness, His forgiveness, His mercy, His acceptance towards us will never be empty.
God can always give us another chance and He can always give the light that He has promised us.
In verse 18, we learn that through Jesus, we can see God. He is the explanation of the Father. The greatness of Christ explains the greatness of the Father.
The greatness of Jesus’ love explains Father’s love. And the greatness of Christ’s grace is the explanation of Father’s grace.
If you want to come to the Father, come to Jesus.
Accepting Jesus is accepting God. And if you ask for forgiveness, God will forgive you because Jesus died for our sins.
We’d love to pray with you. Message us at +1 (707) 600 – 6010 or leave us a message on our Jesus Reigns Ministries Facebook page or DM us on Instagram @jrmvallejo.