May 27, 2026 • 52 mins
John 1:1-18 looks short on the page, but it’s heavy in the best way. Pastor Ryan and Pastor Tim sit down to unpack why John’s prologue is “theologically thick” and why reading Scripture on autopilot makes us miss what John is actually saying about Jesus.
We talk through seven core doctrines woven into these opening lines: the Trinity (“the Word was with God, and the Word was God”), creation through Christ, and the incarnation (“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”). Along the way, we address a modern claim that keeps resurfacing online, that Jesus never claimed to be God, and we explain why John 1 forces every worldview to deal honestly with Christ’s identity. We also connect incarnation to today’s “spiritual but not religious” mood, renewed forms of Gnosticism, and even transhumanist instincts that treat the body like a problem to escape instead of a gift God calls good.
Then we move into revelation (Jesus as the clearest explanation of the Father), salvation by faith and adoption into God’s family, general revelation and common grace, and John’s contrast of law versus grace. If you want a richer Gospel of John Bible study, practical tools like a solid study Bible or commentary, and a bigger view of “grace upon grace,” this conversation is for you.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined again thisweek with Pastor Tim.
Last week we had a little bit ofa special uh addition, Tim.
Joy hopped on the podcast withme, and we got to recap the
Mother's Day sermon and thenalso kick off our brand new
series, Signs and Glory, and uhtaking a look at the Gospel of
(00:47):
John.
And so uh week one was a lot ofoverview on John, and then you
dove into the prologue, uh, thefirst 18 verses in uh in John,
and I remember you looking at mebeing like, What have you done
to me?
SPEAKER_02 (01:04):
Right.
Well, I had 30 minutes to coverit.
It's only 18 verses.
You think that would be enough.
You would think it would beenough.
But it I don't know if you knewit or not, and we want to be um
we're we're trying to get uhJohn done in uh one summer, and
we're gonna get hung up.
We we know we are.
(01:24):
There's gonna be some thingsthat take a little extra time,
but we wanted to uh get startedin a way that would facilitate
us getting through the book uhby the time we start um
preaching our series sermon whenschool comes back in.
So uh John is a pretty excitingthing to preach out of.
(01:47):
The problem is the first 18verses in John have uh seven.
I didn't even know there wasseven.
I thought there was like five,but seven doctrinal statements
that uh really um are are reallythe backbone of Christendom,
Christianity.
(02:08):
And uh those first eighteen uhverses, as I said Sunday, are uh
theologically thick.
And um, you just we read over itquickly and and and we we skip a
lot of things that get said inthere.
John didn't do this on accident.
This was I want you to know whatyou are about to learn, and it
(02:34):
is deep.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
Just uh the opening in the beginning was the word,
and and you you were diving intothat on Sunday.
Just how much meaning John'spacking into to that, you know,
just that small little phrase toopen up his gospel.
And I I liked how you you said,you know, he doesn't even start
at you know John's birth, hegoes all the way back to the
(03:01):
very beginning, before there wasthe word was there.
SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
Right.
And that's I I think that'simportant.
One of the things I put um in myopening was that um the word,
that actual phrase is somethingthat uh if you were Jewish you'd
be familiar with it in the oldtestament.
And they had a they had adebate.
(03:26):
They they're who is this?
Because this word doesn't actlike you know, a voice in your
head.
This word walks a personoutside, this word touches a
guy's face.
Who is this word?
And um so there were back in uhuh right when they uh put the uh
(03:53):
Talmud together.
I was looking for that word.
Uh the Jewish Talmud together,they were they were already
arguing whether there was twopowers in heaven.
And it's something uh because ofChristianity they kind of veered
away from and uh because theywanted to know who this guy was.
Ezekiel in in Ezekiel, and hesees his uh vision, he sees a
(04:18):
son of man sitting on thethrone.
It looks like a human, is whathe said.
Daniel said, uh, there's a manriding on the clouds.
Um it looks like a human.
And that is something that umthe Jews didn't have a a hard
time with you know God showingup in a human form to do a
(04:42):
specific thing.
They didn't have and theyunderstood that that's just like
I think the term we would use,an avatar, and um, and then God
is in heaven and he's justrunning this thing down there.
And I think we all we allwatched enough movies that we
kind of figure all that out, butthat's in in Greek terminology
and Roman terminology, nobodyhad a problem with that, that
(05:04):
God was um in the heavens, butthen he could show up in a form.
Um and so there there was noproblem with that, but this this
form that kept showing up, keptum reacting like he was Yahweh.
And um just different thingswhen Moses was in the wanted God
(05:27):
to walk by him and and someoneput him in the cleft of the
rock.
Well, that was God, yeah.
But God was walking by him whilethe other one was put him in the
cleft of the rock.
So the Jews have been strugglingwith this kind of stuff for a
long time, and it was good tohave a sermon where we could
kind of pull that out and say,look, the word was doing stuff
(05:51):
in the old testament, and thatwas Jesus.
SPEAKER_01 (05:53):
Yeah, there's this if you just read through
scripture, it's real easy to getto the New Testament and think,
oh, this is when Jesus came onthe scene, and John's like, nah,
he's been around a while.
Yeah.
And one of the things that Iloved about the Sermon on Sunday
is it really reminds us is aspeople who study scripture, read
(06:14):
the read the word, we can't doit on autopilot.
You know, like you gotta payattention because these guys is
they're you know, this isinspired word of God, it's
useful for teaching, rebuking,correcting, training, and
wretched, all those things.
And they're very intentionalwhen they're saying this.
And so the word of the Lordspoke, and then he took me
(06:34):
outside, and you're like, onSunday, you're like, Well, who
took him outside?
Well, the word, right?
Wait, I thought, wasn't that didhe hear it?
Was it a vision?
Was it a dream?
No, it he took him outside,right?
And if you're just reading onautopilot, it's just so easy to
skim past that.
SPEAKER_02 (06:54):
Well, it's it's part of our vernacular because we use
um when we hear the term theword of the Lord came to me, we
we we've seen it in movies,we've read about it in books,
and in us, it's I'mschizophrenic and I I heard a
voice.
That's what we're thinking.
(07:14):
Um, but that's not what'shappening, and it did happen in
the old testament that way, butin some of the the um situations
you we find ourselves in in theold testament, it's actually a
person.
Like, I didn't know if you knewthis or not, but even when
Samuel was uh living with Eli,he was serving in the temple
(07:38):
just as a little boy.
And uh the scripture says theword of the Lord hadn't come
often.
And when you when you see theword of the Lord hasn't come
often, you're like Jesus hadn'tshowed up in a while back then.
You know, Eli was crooked, hissons were crooked, and then
(07:59):
Samuel shows up, and Eli'straining him to be a priest and
a prophet, and uh suddenly atleast he had enough brains, Eli
said.
Next time um you hear that voicecalling, you say, I am here, but
then we see um that word ummanifest himself right there in
(08:25):
front of Samuel.
So that's another one.
I didn't add that into the well,I had it in the sermon, but I
thought uh two's good enough.
We can't go, can't add anotherone to it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
Ryan gave me 18 verses, I gotta get them all in.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (08:38):
So the doctrine of the Trinity right there in the
beginning was the word, wasJesus, and the word was with
God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
There's again, just another thing to dive into here,
but there's this I idea goingaround.
I mean, I I've heard more peoplebring this up, and just in the
past couple years, and I thinkit surfaces every every so
often, but this idea that youknow Jesus never claimed to be
(09:10):
God, scripture never elevateshim to that point, and you're
like it's it's right here.
Yeah.
Um, let alone his otherstatements.
If you've seen me, you've seenthe Father, I and the Father are
one.
I mean, over and over again, itit's clear, but we we get this
idea, and you know, I think weread something on on the
(09:33):
internet or we hear some guy ina YouTube video say something
and it sounds good.
And it's easy to just run offwith that idea and be like, oh
yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (09:42):
Sounds intelligent is the problem.
And I think that's what ummesses a lot of us up is you
know, we wanna we want to dealwith the intelligent people who
really kind of know what's goingon, and when they say something
like that, you're like, oh well,my pastor don't know what he's
talking about.
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
And uh we we brought this up on the podcast a while
ago.
Remember that one guy he was onwith uh oh, was it Joe Rogan?
And he talked about, you know, Istudied Greek or whatever Hebrew
for all these years, and WesHuff got on there.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:16):
It's like uh some guy told uh Joe Rogan that he
spent 13 years teaching himselfto speak ancient Hebrew, and
then Wes Huff got on there.
And you know, that sounds wow,that guy was disciplined and
amazing.
Yeah.
And Wes Huff got on and says,that's just a two-semester
course in just about any anyseminary degree.
(10:40):
So it's it's um be careful whatyou what you see on there,
because what they want to do isthey want to crush the idea of
the Trinity that Jesus was justa man.
He wasn't who he claims to be,what John claims he is.
And I I think uh the beginningof John 1 1, there there's every
(11:03):
religion has to deal with John 11.
They have to do something, theyhave to change the wording.
Um I think the Hoba Jehovah'sWitness changed it in the
beginning was the word, and wordwas a God, and instead of with
God, or the word was God.
(11:24):
They they gotta mess that upbecause they they don't want
Jesus to be the incarnateChrist.
If you if Jesus is not God, uhthen Christianity falls apart uh
from the get-go.
And uh that's what they that'swhat they want to happen.
They want to say that Jesus wasa a good teacher and and and I
(11:46):
think it was um C.
S.
Lewis, he's the one that said,look, he's either a liar or he's
crazy, lunatic, or he's God.
unknown (12:00):
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (12:01):
And uh yeah, he said liar, lunatic, or lord.
Oh, and yeah, he's a whole lotbetter than we are at this
point.
SPEAKER_01 (12:08):
We gotta we got, you know, three points.
They gotta have the start withthe same letter.
He's a pastor's pastor.
SPEAKER_02 (12:14):
Yeah.
So and and that's prettyimportant.
So, right away, number one, thefirst doctrinal statement we get
into in those first 18 verses isthe Trinity, which is the
mystery, uh, trying tounderstand how God is.
And he's not um he's not likeyou, who's a son, but he's also
(12:38):
a father, and he's also ahusband.
That's not what they're talkingabout here.
Three distinct persons in oneessence.
And uh that's that's the mysteryof the Trinity, and and uh I
love it starting out in thefirst verse.
Here, let me lay this on you sothat you're not just jogging
(12:59):
down the street, you're carrying50 pounds.
SPEAKER_01 (13:02):
Yeah, Paul's like, I wish you guys could could mature
so that I can give you some meator something.
You know, I gotta keep feedingyou this milk.
And John's like, no, we're gonnawe're going right to the deep
end here, man.
In the beginning was the word,he was with God, he was God, and
then he moves right from the thedoctrine of Trinity, bam, right
to the doctrine of creation.
(13:23):
Everything was created by him,through him, nothing that's been
created, you know, wasn't thatwasn't created from him.
He just lays it all out there,and you're like, John, dude, let
me above water catch my breath.
And he's like, No, in the firstthree verses, he's already got
two doctrinal statements laidout here.
SPEAKER_02 (13:41):
I think it's I think it's great too.
I think we forget that Jesus wasthe one who said, Let there be
light.
You know, um Genesis chapter onelays it out for us, and and we
think because it's the oldtestament, we just say God, and
we forget that Jesus was there,and then John just reveals to us
that he was the creative power,he was the one who created, and
(14:06):
that doesn't take anything awayfrom the Father, uh, because
they're both God, they're boththe same essence.
Um, but it reminds us that theguy we call our Savior, our
Lord, our uh the Bible calls hima brother, uh the firstborn of
(14:26):
many brethren.
He's our um friend, you know,we're a friend of God.
And at the same time, he is ourcreator, he spoke us into
existence, he spoke life.
There was no life as we know it,no soul, no eternal being uh
(14:46):
with reason yet until he spokeit.
And uh so the doctrine ofcreation is uh right there,
smacks you in the face.
Um matter is not eternal,everything that exists owes its
origin to the Son of God.
Now, so when we say God createdus, um we get kind of Sunday
(15:09):
schoolish, but no, he createdthe laws of ph physics, he
created the uh black hole in thecenter of our galaxy, he created
it all.
There's uh uh I was watching avideo on uh Ion the the moon
around Jupiter and how it's umit's frozen because it's so far
(15:34):
from the sun, but at the sametime it's it's uh volcanoes are
erupting all the way to where wecan see it with the telescope.
It's crazy what's going onthere, and Jesus created that.
And we forget who we're dealingwith when we're uh because he
(15:55):
became relatable to us, youknow, and we forget that he is
God.
SPEAKER_01 (16:00):
That's so good.
Um three verses in, twodoctrines down, and then we move
on to the doctrine ofincarnation, um, which yeah,
man, it's like John, what are wewriting here, man?
Is this are you telling me astory?
Is this a you know uh yourdoctoral you know thesis?
(16:24):
The you know what what ishappening here?
And he's like, we're gonna laythis thing out.
And John 1.14, the word becameflesh and dwelt among us.
This idea that that God came andtook on the flesh, he became a
man like like us.
(16:44):
Um what other god in history?
You know, there's so much ofevery other religion, is all the
stuff that we can do to try torelate to that God and and get
that God's attention, and andthen ours is like, no, I'm gonna
come and I'm gonna be like you.
SPEAKER_02 (17:03):
And I'm gonna relate to you.
Um it's it's huge.
So let's just think about this.
We're on three.
We're in three doctrines, and uhwe're in 14 verses.
I could preach on the Trinity,take me four weeks.
Take me four weeks.
One on the Father, one on theSon, one on the Holy Spirit, and
(17:25):
one to bring them all together.
Wrap it up.
So that's a that's a month inthe first verse.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then secondly, creation.
Well, if we're going to talkabout creation, we got to go all
the way back to creation.
So we'd have to probably splitthat up in the first um half of
creation, the second half ofcreation, then creating mankind,
(17:50):
and then the fact that Jesus, hewas the one walking in the
garden when he showed up andsaid, Hey, Adam, where are you?
They were hiding from Jesus.
And we, you know, and so uhthere's another month right
there, and then we just getright into the incarnation,
fully God and fully human at thesame time, which takes a few
(18:13):
weeks to explain.
So if you're reading throughJohn today and you say, Well,
we're just moving right through,you probably need to uh pick up
a uh uh commentary uh to ridealong with it, because this this
is thick, and the word becameflesh and dwelt among us.
(18:34):
He that word dwelt meanstabernacled.
He pitched his tent with us, andthat you know, to the Jews of
that time, they're lookingstraight back to uh the
tabernacle where God's presencewas.
And that's what he's telling theJews, his presence was here, and
(18:57):
he goes on to say in just aminute that we walked with him,
we saw him, we experienced him.
Not not like we did in um thedesert in the Old Testament
where we weren't allowed in thatroom or we would die.
You know, this was he came, andwe got to lay hands on him, we
(19:18):
got to touch him and eat withhim, and I mean that's huge.
And then on the Greek uh side,dwelt or tent, Paul uses that
that same term when he likes, Iwant to get rid of my old tent
and put on my new tent and getafter it, you know, and that's
that's the way they begin tophrase the idea of us uh having
(19:41):
a body.
We've got to go back to C.
S.
Lewis again.
He says, You don't um you don'thave a soul.
You have a body, you are a soul.
And uh that's a that's adistinction that comes right out
of the doctrine of incarnation.
And uh so uh Jesus took on fleshand dwelt among us, but he took
(20:06):
it on forever.
He's always gonna be a humanbeing now.
Yeah, he's never not gonna behuman, he'll always be God,
fully God in the Trinity, buthe'll be a human doing that.
And I think that's somethingthat we it slips our mind a
little bit when we think that uhhe has this resurrection body
(20:28):
and we are gonna be like that.
Whatever that is, I have a classwhere we punch at it and poke at
it with a stick and and try toset it on fire and try to freeze
it, but we can't figure it out.
But we're gonna be whatever thatis for eternity, just like him.
SPEAKER_01 (20:46):
No, I read this uh statistic, I guess, one time um
recently, and it said that moreand more Christians are
identifying as spiritual but notreligious.
And so there's this increase inI want to do spiritual things, I
just don't want to have to showup anywhere.
Right.
You know, and I this whole ideaof like the body, um it's kind
(21:11):
of fallen out of favor, youknow.
Uh AI agents are becoming moreand more and more popular.
Um you can get an AI girlfriend,you can get an AI counselor, you
can get an AI therapist.
Um, we we you know was itFacebook tried to do the whole
metaverse thing.
I don't know if that took offlike they thought it was, but
(21:33):
this whole idea, you know, we'rejust gonna show up in these
virtual spaces, we don't gottabe anywhere anymore.
But man, I think there's there'sa lot of that in us where it's
like we're moving further andfurther away from that kind of
human interaction and becomingmore and more reclusive and
secluded.
(21:54):
And it's not new, right?
This whole idea that like I I'minterested in spiritual things,
but I don't Want to have to bethere to do it all.
I mean, 2,000 years ago, youknow, Paul and those they're
preaching at the Gnostics, like,hey, this is yeah, no.
And it the whole same thing.
Everything physical is bad,everything spiritual is good.
(22:14):
And I mean that we we're seeingthat come back around.
That let's just get rid of allthis and we'll do it all, you
know, in the metaverse orwhatever you want to call it.
SPEAKER_02 (22:26):
Yeah.
In Japan, it's not even a it'sit's the culture, you know, to
stay away from people.
I was watching this uh uh girlin China, and she's flipped her
life around, and I guess a lotof young people are, and they
are sleeping in the daytime,getting up at four, and staying
(22:48):
up all night, so there's lesspeople, so she doesn't have to
talk to anybody.
And I thought, okay, she's justcreepy, that's not a big deal.
But she goes into a restaurant,she goes into a restaurant that
is all separated, one seat forone person, there's walls around
(23:08):
the sides of you and in front ofyou.
You have your own hot plate infront of you, and they give you
the food.
You don't even get to look atthem.
It comes through a slot afteryou order it on your phone, and
you cook it and eat right therealone.
And these are these are therestaurants in China.
(23:30):
Um that that is we are gettinginto a weird place.
Social anxiety has turned into aplague.
SPEAKER_01 (23:38):
Right.
And so you you you take all thatand say, okay, you know, the
body's dirty, the body's bad, wewe gotta get rid of this.
Um and so we live in this, youknow, either this metaverse or
the spiritual realm or whereeverything's spiritualized, but
and if if that's where you go,and I mean the whole kind of
(24:02):
point of of Gnosticism, then ifa body's bad, a God who takes on
a body is pretty embarrassing.
You know, if that's where we'regoing, and the big distinction
here is Jesus is saying, I'm notthat.
I'm gonna come and I'm gonnatake this thing on.
And you were talking in thesermon on Sunday, like there's
(24:25):
only one thing that could havepaid the ultimate price.
An idea can't die for you, youknow.
It took a body, it took a man tocome.
SPEAKER_02 (24:36):
And we forget, we're we're these doctrines are tied
together, the doctrine ofcreation and the doctrine of
incarnation.
He created man, and what did hesay?
This is very good, and I'm gonnaprove it to you because I'm
gonna be one too.
This is how much I love it.
Um, so don't get caught up inthat uh transhumanism.
(24:58):
I don't, my body's not gonnadefine me or whatever.
Well, if you're a Christian,your body's gonna live forever.
So um, and you're gonna liveright along there with Christ,
too.
So let's uh let's be gratefulfor the creation he's given us.
And I don't have a great one.
(25:18):
My knees hurt and my hips hurt,and um, it wants to lay in bed a
whole lot longer than it should,and it doesn't want to go to bed
on time.
It it's a fight.
But one day, one day, I'm gonnabe like him.
unknown (25:34):
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (25:34):
And I'll still have a body, but I'll be like him.
SPEAKER_01 (25:39):
Next one, doctrine of revelation.
I think this is one that youwere like, ooh, man, pulling
that out right out of here, outof John.
SPEAKER_02 (25:49):
Yeah.
I you know the problem with withwhen people are discussing God
is he's unrelatable.
And um I don't I remember yougotta pull it right out of
Exodus where he's like, you guyscome on up to the mountain.
You know, I want to talk to you.
(26:10):
And they're like, uh no.
Moses, you go, you you go andcome back and tell us what he
said.
Because he says, he says, comeup to the mountain, but don't
touch the mountain or you'lldie.
Don't let your goats get on themountain, they'll die too.
But come right up here, andthey're like, No.
SPEAKER_01 (26:31):
And like a little bit of a buffer zone, actually.
SPEAKER_02 (26:34):
Yeah, let's let's get some guys out there with
those little things that theygot at the movie theater to keep
us from getting too close.
But I think um we have a desireto not know our God.
Um, because then we feel like wecan misunderstand when we
(26:57):
understand completely, and thenwe can say, Well, I didn't die.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
Um but it's bliss, right?
Yeah, Jesus comes down and says,No, we're not playing that game.
I am going to be the God, theinfinite creator God, and I'm
gonna walk among you.
(27:18):
And that John positions uh Jesusas the ultimate statement of who
God is.
If you want to know what theFather is like, look at me.
This is what he's like, becausewe're the same.
And uh man, it's just it's huge.
The Greek word for declared,because he says, No one has seen
(27:41):
God at any time, the onlybegotten Son, he has declared
him, is the word that pastorsuse all the time.
It's exegesis.
Um, well, the the root is Ican't say the root, it's uh like
exegestapo or something likethat.
I don't think gestapo.
Something like that.
Something like that.
(28:02):
But in other words, exegesis ishow do I interpret the
scripture?
And Jesus is literallyinterpreting or explaining the
father to us.
That's what that's what John issaying.
He interprets the father foryou.
So you want to know what wasgoing on in the old testament?
(28:22):
Look at Jesus, because thefather is not any different than
he is, because they're the same.
SPEAKER_01 (28:28):
Well, that was Jesus' problem with the
disciples, right?
They're like, well, just show usthe father.
And he's like, How long do youguys have to be with me before
you get this?
Right.
If you've seen me, you've seenthe father.
I interpret him, I explain, Ishow the father to you.
(28:50):
If you've seen me, you want toknow the father, know me.
You want to see him, watch me.
You want to follow him, followafter me.
That man.
This is a huge idea.
And I mean, right?
It Jesus would.
I mean, it's one of the mainreasons the religious leaders
wanted to crucify him, right?
(29:10):
He claims to be God.
He says God is his father.
We're gonna talk more about thatin as we go through John.
Um, I was just reading throughit.
I'm trying to read through thethe whole book every single week
during this series.
So I'm trying to get through thebook of John uh 17 times over
the the course of this series.
Um, I just hit that part today.
SPEAKER_02 (29:32):
Um have you read it from um that group of Bibles we
bought that with no bibliothca?
Man, it is it is great, it flowsso much better without it being
broken up into um sermonizingpieces.
He knows what I mean becausehe's a pastor, you know.
When you're reading the Bible asa pastor, you get hung up on
(29:55):
titles and uh words and uhrepeated words and things
because you're taught from thebeginning, these how you build a
sermon.
You grab a hold of those thingsand you build the sermon around
it.
And uh, but when you take allthe um paraphernalia out and you
just got the words there, it itreads, it is.
SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
I'll have to pull that out and do that during the
series is read it, read it inthat that version.
Man, I so years ago, for if youdon't know what we're talking
about, I think it's a set uhseries of books.
Um I think it was calledBibliotheka, and I think it was
on Kickstarter or something, andI saw this guy doing this thing,
and I bought you and I both acopy of those books.
They've largely sat on mybookshelf, but I love them.
(30:41):
They're pretty.
The guy did an amazing job whenhe put them together.
One of my kids wanted to readthem, and I was like, listen,
you read this in the house atthis desk, you don't take it
anywhere.
Then I went and I got in mywife's van and I saw it laying
on the floor of the passengerside of the van.
What?
I about went ballistic.
SPEAKER_02 (31:00):
You bought me that stuff and I have hidden it, and
I put a handkerchief over it soit wouldn't get dust on it.
SPEAKER_01 (31:06):
I found it on the living floor of the van.
I sent a picture to my boys.
I was like, are you kidding me?
I'm gonna have to pull it outand uh I'll read it in that
version too.
SPEAKER_02 (31:19):
Um so where are we at?
We did four, right?
Uh four.
SPEAKER_01 (31:23):
You said that there was seven.
What's next?
SPEAKER_02 (31:25):
Uh the doctrine of soteriology.
Uh John contrasts those in thesefirst 18 verses, uh, who reject
Christ and those who receivehim.
He's mapping out how a personenters the family of God.
He says it in uh verses 12.
He says, To them he gave theright to become the children of
(31:46):
God, to those who believe in hisname, who were born not of
blood, nor of the will of theflesh, nor the will of man, but
of God, born of God.
Now, when we get into Johnchapter 3, probably one of the
most famous chapters in theBible, John three, sixteen, for
God so loved the world that hegave his only begotten son that
(32:10):
whosoever would believe in himwould not perish but have
everlasting life.
And that is John is alreadylaying the groundwork for the
foundation of salvation throughfaith alone, by faith, by
believing in his name.
(32:31):
Now, the two most important umscriptures, uh, I think in John
chapter three, as far assoteriology, is John chapter
three, verses sixteen, which Ijust quoted, and then three
thirty-six, because they gotogether.
The one who believes, this iswhat 36 says, the one who
(32:53):
believes in the sun has eternallife.
John says right here in theprologue, we're gonna get to
this.
This is what salvation is.
The one who believes in the sunhas eternal life, but the one
who rejects the sun will not seelife.
Instead, the wrath of Godremains on him.
(33:14):
And we we need to remember umJohn is gonna he's talking about
signs and glory.
And he's he's given us thispreclude.
Uh that's not the word I'mlooking for.
Give me the word.
It's not in there.
There's a big hole.
There's a big hole in my brainright now.
(33:37):
I'm trying to figure out whereyou're going.
Yeah, he's he's letting us knowup front that Jesus is gonna be
the answer um to our sinproblem, our salvation problem,
and that those who believe onhim, whatever you think that
means, but your belief, yourfaith in Jesus is going to
(34:01):
change your relationship withGod.
If you believe and you receive,you will not be rejected.
And uh and you will not be underGod's wrath anymore.
Right here in I mean theprologue before we even get
started.
Um so what do we get out ofthat?
Salvation is by faith.
(34:22):
It and what happens when webelieve?
We're adopted, we become part ofthe family, not part of the army
of light or however you want tolook at it.
No, you are going to be broughtadopted into the family to the
(34:43):
point that you um you are anheir with Jesus.
Whoever Jesus is, and we gotinto that, he's he's the creator
God, he's he's the God all overthe old testament, he's the one
who came.
Whoever he is, we're gonna beco-heirs with him.
(35:04):
And that's what God is actuallyoffering people.
I think we all we see is okay,and you know, I won't have to
pay for my sins.
That's all we see.
And he's like, No, you're gonnabe an heir to something that you
can't even imagine.
(35:25):
So that's five soteriology.
SPEAKER_01 (35:28):
You know, in I think it's uh Hebrews, um, right?
Well, everybody by grace, uh itwas um oh gosh, Martin Luther.
No, Romans, not Hebrews, Romans.
He comes I'm getting all thesemixed up in my head.
Uh you've been hanging around metoo long.
For real.
There's that hole that you weretalking about.
(35:49):
You got that, you got you gotthat black hole.
Yeah, it sucks me right in.
Um, Luther, he comes to that,you know, you are saved by
grace.
This is not of yourself.
And so he comes up with thiswhole, and we're saved by grace
through faith.
Um, and it changed everythingfor him.
John here is saying that.
Right.
(36:09):
I mean, he you he gave them theright to be children of God to
those who believe in his name,who were not, or who were born
not of blood, nor the flesh ofthe will, nor of the will of
man, but of God.
He's just laying it out.
Human effort had nothing to dowith this.
This is born of God.
God did this.
(36:30):
And who did he do it for?
To those who believe in hisname.
What is God's will that youwould believe?
You're we're gonna get to thatin John 2.
What does God want from you?
He wants you to believe in theSon that He sent.
That's what God wants.
And if you'll do it, He'll adoptyou as His child.
(36:51):
You will be a child of God.
SPEAKER_02 (36:54):
But that's that it's not over there.
It's just the beginning.
Right.
It's just the beginning of whatHe's gonna reveal to you.
Number six, uh, the doctrine ofgeneral revelation and common
grace.
Now, this is something um uhthat you kick around in the
seminary, doesn't show up uhmuch, but what it's talking
(37:15):
about is someone who doesn'tknow God, will God give them
grace or common grace if they'reout in the ocean and um they're
stuck in a raft and they say,God, I don't know if you're
there, but please save me.
Does God listen to that?
Um this is the doctrine ofcommon grace.
(37:38):
And then there's the doctrine ofgeneral revelation, which is the
same thing, and we get it out ofJohn um 1, 4, and 9.
In him was life, and the lifewas the light of men.
For us to even understand, uh,Romans 1 says you can look up
into the sky and see thatthere's something going on, and
(38:01):
we we got it going on right now.
We have um here in our culturethis struggle of look what we
found in our DNA.
Okay, this this has got it's acode.
Somebody has to write a code,you know.
Um, so how many times does um uhcrab walk on the beach and and
(38:29):
accidentally in some way says umI love my wife Joy in the sand
on the beach?
No, someone walking along withreason and intelligence has to
use those letters to write thatcode that as we walk by we can
understand.
Uh, Ryan loves his wife.
(38:49):
He's just trying to get points.
But this is uh my wife actuallydid that to me last vacation.
We were down in Florida and wewere way up on the 14th floor,
and she wrote this big oldmessage out to me because I was
up there on the balcony and Ididn't see it.
So, and I didn't even get achance to lie about it, you
(39:10):
know.
She goes, Did you see me on thebeach?
I said, Yeah.
She goes, Well, what did youthink?
And I'm like, You look great.
She goes, No, when I wrote inthe sand.
And uh so fail.
It was a it was a bad fail,right?
But um he gave every my man theability to see the light to see
(39:37):
him as he came into the world.
And uh that's that is somethingthat is argued about a lot, you
know.
Uh, but I believe that every mancan see the light of Jesus and
he has to choose whether toreceive it or reject it.
Um the core truth is all humanreason and conscience and life
(39:58):
are sustained by the word, byJesus, giving every person a
baseline awareness of truth andexistence.
SPEAKER_01 (40:06):
That's why Paul said man's without excuse.
SPEAKER_02 (40:09):
Right.
We have you know, we want tobelieve they want to believe in
Gnosticism and you know thespiritual part is the good part
and the body is the bad part,and all these different things
that come up in this argument.
And John right here in the first18 verses is saying the only
(40:29):
reason you even think about thatis because Jesus brought the
light into the world.
That's the only way you canreason it, you know?
So um let's start uh let's startnumber seven.
The doctrine of law versusgreat.
(40:50):
Grace.
Great.
SPEAKER_01 (40:52):
It's great.
Law versus great.
SPEAKER_02 (40:55):
So, and this starts right, the law was given through
Moses, but grace and truth camethrough Jesus Christ.
That is, that is well, expoundon that a little bit.
SPEAKER_01 (41:08):
We needed the law, right?
The law was good.
Uh Jesus said, I didn't come toum to abolish it, but to fulfill
it.
The law was a good gift, itexposed our our need.
We needed a savior, we neededsomeone to come and to to rescue
us, and we wouldn't have knownthat without the law.
Paul goes on to talk a lot aboutthat.
(41:29):
We needed the law to show usjust how sinful we were, how,
how messed up we had reallygotten ourselves.
And and so we have this the lawhere that shows us that.
And the law was given throughMoses, but it was never God's
ultimate aim.
There was something coming, andand grace and truth came came
(41:51):
through Jesus, is how John saysit.
And so Jesus comes to to fulfillthat law and all the things that
the law was trying to get us todo, and and teach us how to be
right with God and how to getback into good standing with
God.
You know, every day I'd have tobring another sacrifice, and I'd
(42:11):
have to do this thing, and soand if I did this, now I had to
do this.
And Jesus came and he said, I'mgoing to die once for all time.
He fulfills everything that thelaw was pointing to and died the
death that we deserve to die,right?
And now we get to live underthat grace.
SPEAKER_02 (42:32):
Yeah, it it's an octopus.
It it's got these tentacles thatgo out everywhere.
This doctrine of law versusgrace.
Paul said that um the law wasour taskmaster, it was just
showing us our human need.
We needed a savior, and divinefavor and mercy show up in a
(42:53):
person, the word in Jesus.
That's right.
And uh I don't I don't think weunderstand it because we don't
have a full complex theoryaround it or thinking around it,
not theory, but thinking.
Uh, we got to understand thateveryone who had died up until
(43:13):
the time of Jesus uh went to theplace of the dead.
They didn't go to heaven, theyweren't in the presence of God,
they couldn't be there becausethey were sinful.
Yeah, but they had faith.
They didn't didn't uh Abrahambelieve and they counted his
faith?
Yes, that is true.
But that faith he had had notshown up in the person of Jesus
(43:37):
yet.
So there was a paradise andthere was a Hades part of the
place of the dead.
And if you were in faith, likeAbraham was, you were on the
paradise side.
And if you weren't in faith, nowonly God is complex enough to
know who's who and where theyshould go.
But when Jesus died on thecross, he went and sat.
(44:00):
The captives free because hebecame the faith that they had
already.
Um, that's not the same for us.
We choose to believe in him, andthat faith saves us, but that
faith hadn't shown up yet.
And when it shows up, he goesdown to paradise and he sets the
(44:20):
captives free.
SPEAKER_01 (44:22):
Well, Peter talks about that, right?
Um he read it, it's like he'spreaching to the dead.
What is happening here?
Right.
Man, when Jesus was in the tomb,he was busy, man.
He's like, I have to go.
There's some people.
Abraham, Moses, Noah, you know,all these guys, I gotta go set
them free.
SPEAKER_02 (44:39):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (44:40):
Let's let's go.
Um they they they were waitingon this, right?
Um God was gonna send his son.
SPEAKER_02 (44:48):
His um nobody could be in the presence of the Father
until sin was taken care of, andit was taken care of in the
person of Jesus Christ once forall time.
SPEAKER_01 (45:01):
This coming Sunday, uh, we're actually gonna take a
look.
John the Baptist Jesus shows upon the scene and he says, Look,
the Lamb of God takes away thesin of the world.
Picks it up and carries it off.
It changed everything.
Yeah.
(45:21):
It changed everything.
SPEAKER_02 (45:22):
It should lead us to praise him is what it should do.
And I think when we talk aboutTrinitarianism, creation,
Christology, Revelation,soteriology, and covenant
theology within just a coupleparagraphs, I think we're
overwhelmed.
Um but that whole I I just Itake this uh when he says grace
(45:50):
upon grace and just all thesedoctrine.
When we say doctrines,everybody's like, okay, that's
that's the stuff nobody wants tolearn about the Bible.
No, doctrines are the grace ofGod placed on you.
And and he describes Jesus asgrace upon grace, as sitting on
the beach and wave after waveafter wave of grace coming on
(46:14):
you.
That's John chapter 1, um verses1 through 18.
It's just wave after wave.
Every one of these doctrines isjust more grace.
He's just pouring on us.
So drink it in.
SPEAKER_01 (46:29):
Drink it in.
Well, what a what a start toJohn, right?
Uh we're only two sermons intothis series, introduction and
then the prologue, the first 18verses, and covering a lot of of
really foundational truth uh forthe Christian life.
(46:49):
And I want to encourage youguys, um, you know, show up on
Sundays for sure.
If you can't be in person, youdefinitely need to go back,
watch it on demand.
And then if you haven't, youknow, made the midweek podcast a
big part of your weekly routine.
I would encourage you to do itat least through this series.
Um, because there's, as you cansee, seven of these core
(47:10):
doctrines.
Like, how am I gonna fit that ina 30, 35 minute sermon?
SPEAKER_02 (47:13):
Um speaking of that, um, I stayed in my lane and I
skied behind the boat, is what Itold the first service.
I'm trying to just try to skibehind the boat because there's
so much to cover, and I'm notgonna get out in the waves.
And the second service, then andwe don't care if they sit there
all day, but um but we got toget the first we'd love for you
to come to the second service.
(47:35):
So uh the first service, we gotto get people out of there in
the parking lot empty so thenext group can come in, and
that's a great problem to have.
One day um we won't have thatproblem, but I just want
everybody to know that I wasdone on time.
So I'm the next the next passageof scriptures.
(47:56):
Um there's a lot going on.
So we'll see how Pastor Ryandoes this coming week.
I'm excited to be here.
I'm I think I'm gonna have astopwatch, and I'm gonna click
it on the time.
Um, but just what we've shownyou here today, seven doctrines
are mentioned here in the first18 verses of the Bible, first in
(48:18):
first 18 verses of John.
So this is this is a thick book.
It's gonna talk about things,it's gonna take every one of
these things and express them inmany ways.
And uh just like Jesus is theexegesis of the Father, we want
you to um have a greatinterpretation of what's going
(48:43):
on in John because it is it isfor you.
That's right.
It is for you to know.
And so pick up a commentary ifyou want to, uh, a commentary on
John.
Um pick up a book about John theBaptist because we're gonna talk
about him.
Um there's uh well, there's alot of things going on, and uh
(49:04):
John is he's showing you signsand glory all the way through,
and we want you to revel in thatgrace upon grace.
SPEAKER_01 (49:12):
Yep, definitely join us on Sundays, tune into the
midweek podcast where we candive into the the stuff that
kind of got left on the cuttingroom floor, but we'll save it
for here.
Uh, we want to cram as much intothe series as as we can.
Good CSB study Bible or ESVstudy Bible, something like that
wouldn't would help.
If commentary soundsoverwhelming, get you a good
(49:33):
study Bible as you read throughit.
SPEAKER_02 (49:35):
Commentaries are overwhelming.
They are.
SPEAKER_01 (49:37):
They they definitely especially some of those guys,
they're like, I'm smart and I'mgonna prove it to you.
SPEAKER_02 (49:42):
Yeah, and they prove it, man.
SPEAKER_01 (49:44):
I'm like, where did he get that from?
I just want to know whatdictionary he was pulling from.
I'm like, I gotta have adictionary just to get through
your commentary.
SPEAKER_03 (49:52):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (49:52):
Um, but there's there's so much here.
Um we'll we'll do our best to tobreak it down for you for for
you each week.
SPEAKER_02 (50:00):
We'll try to catch things like these seven
doctrines that were mentioned inthe uh prelude, um, so that you
you can figure out how rich thisbook really is.
Um it's not just another gospel.
Okay, this is the one uh whereJohn is is revealing to you who
(50:20):
Jesus really is, not just hishistory or what happened or what
he taught.
He wants you to know himpersonally.
And that's what this entire bookis about is you knowing him and
knowing that you can know him.
Um so we can talk about it allnight, but you better you better
(50:41):
pray and get us out of it.
SPEAKER_01 (50:42):
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you so much uhfor this book.
And Lord, just how much we'vealready learned in just uh a
couple weeks.
And Lord, I'm I'm excited aboutwhat you're gonna continue to
teach and reveal to us uh overthe next um I guess 15, 16 weeks
to go.
And uh Lord, you have you havedone all of this so that we can
(51:06):
we can be adopted and becomechildren of God.
Um you took on flesh.
Um we can't even comprehend whatall that means.
Um why you would do it.
What was it about us that youwould go through all of this?
But Lord, we're grateful.
And I thank you so much forJesus.
I thank you that he came, thathe paid the price we could never
(51:29):
pay, so that we could know him.
By knowing him, we could knowyou, and that we could one day
be like him and reign as co-heirwith Christ.
Um, Lord, what a what a gloriousday that's gonna be.
And so, Father, I just uh praythat you continue to lead and
guide us as we go through thisseries in Jesus' name.
(51:49):
Amen.
Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00 (51:51):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(52:15):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined again thisweek with Pastor Tim.
Last week we had a little bit ofa special uh addition, Tim.
Joy hopped on the podcast withme, and we got to recap the
Mother's Day sermon and thenalso kick off our brand new
series, Signs and Glory, and uhtaking a look at the Gospel of
(00:47):
John.
And so uh week one was a lot ofoverview on John, and then you
dove into the prologue, uh, thefirst 18 verses in uh in John,
and I remember you looking at mebeing like, What have you done
to me?
SPEAKER_02 (01:04):
Right.
Well, I had 30 minutes to coverit.
It's only 18 verses.
You think that would be enough.
You would think it would beenough.
But it I don't know if you knewit or not, and we want to be um
we're we're trying to get uhJohn done in uh one summer, and
we're gonna get hung up.
We we know we are.
(01:24):
There's gonna be some thingsthat take a little extra time,
but we wanted to uh get startedin a way that would facilitate
us getting through the book uhby the time we start um
preaching our series sermon whenschool comes back in.
So uh John is a pretty excitingthing to preach out of.
(01:47):
The problem is the first 18verses in John have uh seven.
I didn't even know there wasseven.
I thought there was like five,but seven doctrinal statements
that uh really um are are reallythe backbone of Christendom,
Christianity.
(02:08):
And uh those first eighteen uhverses, as I said Sunday, are uh
theologically thick.
And um, you just we read over itquickly and and and we we skip a
lot of things that get said inthere.
John didn't do this on accident.
This was I want you to know whatyou are about to learn, and it
(02:34):
is deep.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
Just uh the opening in the beginning was the word,
and and you you were diving intothat on Sunday.
Just how much meaning John'spacking into to that, you know,
just that small little phrase toopen up his gospel.
And I I liked how you you said,you know, he doesn't even start
at you know John's birth, hegoes all the way back to the
(03:01):
very beginning, before there wasthe word was there.
SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
Right.
And that's I I think that'simportant.
One of the things I put um in myopening was that um the word,
that actual phrase is somethingthat uh if you were Jewish you'd
be familiar with it in the oldtestament.
And they had a they had adebate.
(03:26):
They they're who is this?
Because this word doesn't actlike you know, a voice in your
head.
This word walks a personoutside, this word touches a
guy's face.
Who is this word?
And um so there were back in uhuh right when they uh put the uh
(03:53):
Talmud together.
I was looking for that word.
Uh the Jewish Talmud together,they were they were already
arguing whether there was twopowers in heaven.
And it's something uh because ofChristianity they kind of veered
away from and uh because theywanted to know who this guy was.
Ezekiel in in Ezekiel, and hesees his uh vision, he sees a
(04:18):
son of man sitting on thethrone.
It looks like a human, is whathe said.
Daniel said, uh, there's a manriding on the clouds.
Um it looks like a human.
And that is something that umthe Jews didn't have a a hard
time with you know God showingup in a human form to do a
(04:42):
specific thing.
They didn't have and theyunderstood that that's just like
I think the term we would use,an avatar, and um, and then God
is in heaven and he's justrunning this thing down there.
And I think we all we allwatched enough movies that we
kind of figure all that out, butthat's in in Greek terminology
and Roman terminology, nobodyhad a problem with that, that
(05:04):
God was um in the heavens, butthen he could show up in a form.
Um and so there there was noproblem with that, but this this
form that kept showing up, keptum reacting like he was Yahweh.
And um just different thingswhen Moses was in the wanted God
(05:27):
to walk by him and and someoneput him in the cleft of the
rock.
Well, that was God, yeah.
But God was walking by him whilethe other one was put him in the
cleft of the rock.
So the Jews have been strugglingwith this kind of stuff for a
long time, and it was good tohave a sermon where we could
kind of pull that out and say,look, the word was doing stuff
(05:51):
in the old testament, and thatwas Jesus.
SPEAKER_01 (05:53):
Yeah, there's this if you just read through
scripture, it's real easy to getto the New Testament and think,
oh, this is when Jesus came onthe scene, and John's like, nah,
he's been around a while.
Yeah.
And one of the things that Iloved about the Sermon on Sunday
is it really reminds us is aspeople who study scripture, read
(06:14):
the read the word, we can't doit on autopilot.
You know, like you gotta payattention because these guys is
they're you know, this isinspired word of God, it's
useful for teaching, rebuking,correcting, training, and
wretched, all those things.
And they're very intentionalwhen they're saying this.
And so the word of the Lordspoke, and then he took me
(06:34):
outside, and you're like, onSunday, you're like, Well, who
took him outside?
Well, the word, right?
Wait, I thought, wasn't that didhe hear it?
Was it a vision?
Was it a dream?
No, it he took him outside,right?
And if you're just reading onautopilot, it's just so easy to
skim past that.
SPEAKER_02 (06:54):
Well, it's it's part of our vernacular because we use
um when we hear the term theword of the Lord came to me, we
we we've seen it in movies,we've read about it in books,
and in us, it's I'mschizophrenic and I I heard a
voice.
That's what we're thinking.
(07:14):
Um, but that's not what'shappening, and it did happen in
the old testament that way, butin some of the the um situations
you we find ourselves in in theold testament, it's actually a
person.
Like, I didn't know if you knewthis or not, but even when
Samuel was uh living with Eli,he was serving in the temple
(07:38):
just as a little boy.
And uh the scripture says theword of the Lord hadn't come
often.
And when you when you see theword of the Lord hasn't come
often, you're like Jesus hadn'tshowed up in a while back then.
You know, Eli was crooked, hissons were crooked, and then
(07:59):
Samuel shows up, and Eli'straining him to be a priest and
a prophet, and uh suddenly atleast he had enough brains, Eli
said.
Next time um you hear that voicecalling, you say, I am here, but
then we see um that word ummanifest himself right there in
(08:25):
front of Samuel.
So that's another one.
I didn't add that into the well,I had it in the sermon, but I
thought uh two's good enough.
We can't go, can't add anotherone to it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
Ryan gave me 18 verses, I gotta get them all in.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (08:38):
So the doctrine of the Trinity right there in the
beginning was the word, wasJesus, and the word was with
God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
There's again, just another thing to dive into here,
but there's this I idea goingaround.
I mean, I I've heard more peoplebring this up, and just in the
past couple years, and I thinkit surfaces every every so
often, but this idea that youknow Jesus never claimed to be
(09:10):
God, scripture never elevateshim to that point, and you're
like it's it's right here.
Yeah.
Um, let alone his otherstatements.
If you've seen me, you've seenthe Father, I and the Father are
one.
I mean, over and over again, itit's clear, but we we get this
idea, and you know, I think weread something on on the
(09:33):
internet or we hear some guy ina YouTube video say something
and it sounds good.
And it's easy to just run offwith that idea and be like, oh
yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (09:42):
Sounds intelligent is the problem.
And I think that's what ummesses a lot of us up is you
know, we wanna we want to dealwith the intelligent people who
really kind of know what's goingon, and when they say something
like that, you're like, oh well,my pastor don't know what he's
talking about.
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
And uh we we brought this up on the podcast a while
ago.
Remember that one guy he was onwith uh oh, was it Joe Rogan?
And he talked about, you know, Istudied Greek or whatever Hebrew
for all these years, and WesHuff got on there.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:16):
It's like uh some guy told uh Joe Rogan that he
spent 13 years teaching himselfto speak ancient Hebrew, and
then Wes Huff got on there.
And you know, that sounds wow,that guy was disciplined and
amazing.
Yeah.
And Wes Huff got on and says,that's just a two-semester
course in just about any anyseminary degree.
(10:40):
So it's it's um be careful whatyou what you see on there,
because what they want to do isthey want to crush the idea of
the Trinity that Jesus was justa man.
He wasn't who he claims to be,what John claims he is.
And I I think uh the beginningof John 1 1, there there's every
(11:03):
religion has to deal with John 11.
They have to do something, theyhave to change the wording.
Um I think the Hoba Jehovah'sWitness changed it in the
beginning was the word, and wordwas a God, and instead of with
God, or the word was God.
(11:24):
They they gotta mess that upbecause they they don't want
Jesus to be the incarnateChrist.
If you if Jesus is not God, uhthen Christianity falls apart uh
from the get-go.
And uh that's what they that'swhat they want to happen.
They want to say that Jesus wasa a good teacher and and and I
(11:46):
think it was um C.
S.
Lewis, he's the one that said,look, he's either a liar or he's
crazy, lunatic, or he's God.
unknown (12:00):
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (12:01):
And uh yeah, he said liar, lunatic, or lord.
Oh, and yeah, he's a whole lotbetter than we are at this
point.
SPEAKER_01 (12:08):
We gotta we got, you know, three points.
They gotta have the start withthe same letter.
He's a pastor's pastor.
SPEAKER_02 (12:14):
Yeah.
So and and that's prettyimportant.
So, right away, number one, thefirst doctrinal statement we get
into in those first 18 verses isthe Trinity, which is the
mystery, uh, trying tounderstand how God is.
And he's not um he's not likeyou, who's a son, but he's also
(12:38):
a father, and he's also ahusband.
That's not what they're talkingabout here.
Three distinct persons in oneessence.
And uh that's that's the mysteryof the Trinity, and and uh I
love it starting out in thefirst verse.
Here, let me lay this on you sothat you're not just jogging
(12:59):
down the street, you're carrying50 pounds.
SPEAKER_01 (13:02):
Yeah, Paul's like, I wish you guys could could mature
so that I can give you some meator something.
You know, I gotta keep feedingyou this milk.
And John's like, no, we're gonnawe're going right to the deep
end here, man.
In the beginning was the word,he was with God, he was God, and
then he moves right from the thedoctrine of Trinity, bam, right
to the doctrine of creation.
(13:23):
Everything was created by him,through him, nothing that's been
created, you know, wasn't thatwasn't created from him.
He just lays it all out there,and you're like, John, dude, let
me above water catch my breath.
And he's like, No, in the firstthree verses, he's already got
two doctrinal statements laidout here.
SPEAKER_02 (13:41):
I think it's I think it's great too.
I think we forget that Jesus wasthe one who said, Let there be
light.
You know, um Genesis chapter onelays it out for us, and and we
think because it's the oldtestament, we just say God, and
we forget that Jesus was there,and then John just reveals to us
that he was the creative power,he was the one who created, and
(14:06):
that doesn't take anything awayfrom the Father, uh, because
they're both God, they're boththe same essence.
Um, but it reminds us that theguy we call our Savior, our
Lord, our uh the Bible calls hima brother, uh the firstborn of
(14:26):
many brethren.
He's our um friend, you know,we're a friend of God.
And at the same time, he is ourcreator, he spoke us into
existence, he spoke life.
There was no life as we know it,no soul, no eternal being uh
(14:46):
with reason yet until he spokeit.
And uh so the doctrine ofcreation is uh right there,
smacks you in the face.
Um matter is not eternal,everything that exists owes its
origin to the Son of God.
Now, so when we say God createdus, um we get kind of Sunday
(15:09):
schoolish, but no, he createdthe laws of ph physics, he
created the uh black hole in thecenter of our galaxy, he created
it all.
There's uh uh I was watching avideo on uh Ion the the moon
around Jupiter and how it's umit's frozen because it's so far
(15:34):
from the sun, but at the sametime it's it's uh volcanoes are
erupting all the way to where wecan see it with the telescope.
It's crazy what's going onthere, and Jesus created that.
And we forget who we're dealingwith when we're uh because he
(15:55):
became relatable to us, youknow, and we forget that he is
God.
SPEAKER_01 (16:00):
That's so good.
Um three verses in, twodoctrines down, and then we move
on to the doctrine ofincarnation, um, which yeah,
man, it's like John, what are wewriting here, man?
Is this are you telling me astory?
Is this a you know uh yourdoctoral you know thesis?
(16:24):
The you know what what ishappening here?
And he's like, we're gonna laythis thing out.
And John 1.14, the word becameflesh and dwelt among us.
This idea that that God came andtook on the flesh, he became a
man like like us.
(16:44):
Um what other god in history?
You know, there's so much ofevery other religion, is all the
stuff that we can do to try torelate to that God and and get
that God's attention, and andthen ours is like, no, I'm gonna
come and I'm gonna be like you.
SPEAKER_02 (17:03):
And I'm gonna relate to you.
Um it's it's huge.
So let's just think about this.
We're on three.
We're in three doctrines, and uhwe're in 14 verses.
I could preach on the Trinity,take me four weeks.
Take me four weeks.
One on the Father, one on theSon, one on the Holy Spirit, and
(17:25):
one to bring them all together.
Wrap it up.
So that's a that's a month inthe first verse.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then secondly, creation.
Well, if we're going to talkabout creation, we got to go all
the way back to creation.
So we'd have to probably splitthat up in the first um half of
creation, the second half ofcreation, then creating mankind,
(17:50):
and then the fact that Jesus, hewas the one walking in the
garden when he showed up andsaid, Hey, Adam, where are you?
They were hiding from Jesus.
And we, you know, and so uhthere's another month right
there, and then we just getright into the incarnation,
fully God and fully human at thesame time, which takes a few
(18:13):
weeks to explain.
So if you're reading throughJohn today and you say, Well,
we're just moving right through,you probably need to uh pick up
a uh uh commentary uh to ridealong with it, because this this
is thick, and the word becameflesh and dwelt among us.
(18:34):
He that word dwelt meanstabernacled.
He pitched his tent with us, andthat you know, to the Jews of
that time, they're lookingstraight back to uh the
tabernacle where God's presencewas.
And that's what he's telling theJews, his presence was here, and
(18:57):
he goes on to say in just aminute that we walked with him,
we saw him, we experienced him.
Not not like we did in um thedesert in the Old Testament
where we weren't allowed in thatroom or we would die.
You know, this was he came, andwe got to lay hands on him, we
(19:18):
got to touch him and eat withhim, and I mean that's huge.
And then on the Greek uh side,dwelt or tent, Paul uses that
that same term when he likes, Iwant to get rid of my old tent
and put on my new tent and getafter it, you know, and that's
that's the way they begin tophrase the idea of us uh having
(19:41):
a body.
We've got to go back to C.
S.
Lewis again.
He says, You don't um you don'thave a soul.
You have a body, you are a soul.
And uh that's a that's adistinction that comes right out
of the doctrine of incarnation.
And uh so uh Jesus took on fleshand dwelt among us, but he took
(20:06):
it on forever.
He's always gonna be a humanbeing now.
Yeah, he's never not gonna behuman, he'll always be God,
fully God in the Trinity, buthe'll be a human doing that.
And I think that's somethingthat we it slips our mind a
little bit when we think that uhhe has this resurrection body
(20:28):
and we are gonna be like that.
Whatever that is, I have a classwhere we punch at it and poke at
it with a stick and and try toset it on fire and try to freeze
it, but we can't figure it out.
But we're gonna be whatever thatis for eternity, just like him.
SPEAKER_01 (20:46):
No, I read this uh statistic, I guess, one time um
recently, and it said that moreand more Christians are
identifying as spiritual but notreligious.
And so there's this increase inI want to do spiritual things, I
just don't want to have to showup anywhere.
Right.
You know, and I this whole ideaof like the body, um it's kind
(21:11):
of fallen out of favor, youknow.
Uh AI agents are becoming moreand more and more popular.
Um you can get an AI girlfriend,you can get an AI counselor, you
can get an AI therapist.
Um, we we you know was itFacebook tried to do the whole
metaverse thing.
I don't know if that took offlike they thought it was, but
(21:33):
this whole idea, you know, we'rejust gonna show up in these
virtual spaces, we don't gottabe anywhere anymore.
But man, I think there's there'sa lot of that in us where it's
like we're moving further andfurther away from that kind of
human interaction and becomingmore and more reclusive and
secluded.
(21:54):
And it's not new, right?
This whole idea that like I I'minterested in spiritual things,
but I don't Want to have to bethere to do it all.
I mean, 2,000 years ago, youknow, Paul and those they're
preaching at the Gnostics, like,hey, this is yeah, no.
And it the whole same thing.
Everything physical is bad,everything spiritual is good.
(22:14):
And I mean that we we're seeingthat come back around.
That let's just get rid of allthis and we'll do it all, you
know, in the metaverse orwhatever you want to call it.
SPEAKER_02 (22:26):
Yeah.
In Japan, it's not even a it'sit's the culture, you know, to
stay away from people.
I was watching this uh uh girlin China, and she's flipped her
life around, and I guess a lotof young people are, and they
are sleeping in the daytime,getting up at four, and staying
(22:48):
up all night, so there's lesspeople, so she doesn't have to
talk to anybody.
And I thought, okay, she's justcreepy, that's not a big deal.
But she goes into a restaurant,she goes into a restaurant that
is all separated, one seat forone person, there's walls around
(23:08):
the sides of you and in front ofyou.
You have your own hot plate infront of you, and they give you
the food.
You don't even get to look atthem.
It comes through a slot afteryou order it on your phone, and
you cook it and eat right therealone.
And these are these are therestaurants in China.
(23:30):
Um that that is we are gettinginto a weird place.
Social anxiety has turned into aplague.
SPEAKER_01 (23:38):
Right.
And so you you you take all thatand say, okay, you know, the
body's dirty, the body's bad, wewe gotta get rid of this.
Um and so we live in this, youknow, either this metaverse or
the spiritual realm or whereeverything's spiritualized, but
and if if that's where you go,and I mean the whole kind of
(24:02):
point of of Gnosticism, then ifa body's bad, a God who takes on
a body is pretty embarrassing.
You know, if that's where we'regoing, and the big distinction
here is Jesus is saying, I'm notthat.
I'm gonna come and I'm gonnatake this thing on.
And you were talking in thesermon on Sunday, like there's
(24:25):
only one thing that could havepaid the ultimate price.
An idea can't die for you, youknow.
It took a body, it took a man tocome.
SPEAKER_02 (24:36):
And we forget, we're we're these doctrines are tied
together, the doctrine ofcreation and the doctrine of
incarnation.
He created man, and what did hesay?
This is very good, and I'm gonnaprove it to you because I'm
gonna be one too.
This is how much I love it.
Um, so don't get caught up inthat uh transhumanism.
(24:58):
I don't, my body's not gonnadefine me or whatever.
Well, if you're a Christian,your body's gonna live forever.
So um, and you're gonna liveright along there with Christ,
too.
So let's uh let's be gratefulfor the creation he's given us.
And I don't have a great one.
(25:18):
My knees hurt and my hips hurt,and um, it wants to lay in bed a
whole lot longer than it should,and it doesn't want to go to bed
on time.
It it's a fight.
But one day, one day, I'm gonnabe like him.
unknown (25:34):
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (25:34):
And I'll still have a body, but I'll be like him.
SPEAKER_01 (25:39):
Next one, doctrine of revelation.
I think this is one that youwere like, ooh, man, pulling
that out right out of here, outof John.
SPEAKER_02 (25:49):
Yeah.
I you know the problem with withwhen people are discussing God
is he's unrelatable.
And um I don't I remember yougotta pull it right out of
Exodus where he's like, you guyscome on up to the mountain.
You know, I want to talk to you.
(26:10):
And they're like, uh no.
Moses, you go, you you go andcome back and tell us what he
said.
Because he says, he says, comeup to the mountain, but don't
touch the mountain or you'lldie.
Don't let your goats get on themountain, they'll die too.
But come right up here, andthey're like, No.
SPEAKER_01 (26:31):
And like a little bit of a buffer zone, actually.
SPEAKER_02 (26:34):
Yeah, let's let's get some guys out there with
those little things that theygot at the movie theater to keep
us from getting too close.
But I think um we have a desireto not know our God.
Um, because then we feel like wecan misunderstand when we
(26:57):
understand completely, and thenwe can say, Well, I didn't die.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
Um but it's bliss, right?
Yeah, Jesus comes down and says,No, we're not playing that game.
I am going to be the God, theinfinite creator God, and I'm
gonna walk among you.
(27:18):
And that John positions uh Jesusas the ultimate statement of who
God is.
If you want to know what theFather is like, look at me.
This is what he's like, becausewe're the same.
And uh man, it's just it's huge.
The Greek word for declared,because he says, No one has seen
(27:41):
God at any time, the onlybegotten Son, he has declared
him, is the word that pastorsuse all the time.
It's exegesis.
Um, well, the the root is Ican't say the root, it's uh like
exegestapo or something likethat.
I don't think gestapo.
Something like that.
Something like that.
(28:02):
But in other words, exegesis ishow do I interpret the
scripture?
And Jesus is literallyinterpreting or explaining the
father to us.
That's what that's what John issaying.
He interprets the father foryou.
So you want to know what wasgoing on in the old testament?
(28:22):
Look at Jesus, because thefather is not any different than
he is, because they're the same.
SPEAKER_01 (28:28):
Well, that was Jesus' problem with the
disciples, right?
They're like, well, just show usthe father.
And he's like, How long do youguys have to be with me before
you get this?
Right.
If you've seen me, you've seenthe father.
I interpret him, I explain, Ishow the father to you.
(28:50):
If you've seen me, you want toknow the father, know me.
You want to see him, watch me.
You want to follow him, followafter me.
That man.
This is a huge idea.
And I mean, right?
It Jesus would.
I mean, it's one of the mainreasons the religious leaders
wanted to crucify him, right?
(29:10):
He claims to be God.
He says God is his father.
We're gonna talk more about thatin as we go through John.
Um, I was just reading throughit.
I'm trying to read through thethe whole book every single week
during this series.
So I'm trying to get through thebook of John uh 17 times over
the the course of this series.
Um, I just hit that part today.
SPEAKER_02 (29:32):
Um have you read it from um that group of Bibles we
bought that with no bibliothca?
Man, it is it is great, it flowsso much better without it being
broken up into um sermonizingpieces.
He knows what I mean becausehe's a pastor, you know.
When you're reading the Bible asa pastor, you get hung up on
(29:55):
titles and uh words and uhrepeated words and things
because you're taught from thebeginning, these how you build a
sermon.
You grab a hold of those thingsand you build the sermon around
it.
And uh, but when you take allthe um paraphernalia out and you
just got the words there, it itreads, it is.
SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
I'll have to pull that out and do that during the
series is read it, read it inthat that version.
Man, I so years ago, for if youdon't know what we're talking
about, I think it's a set uhseries of books.
Um I think it was calledBibliotheka, and I think it was
on Kickstarter or something, andI saw this guy doing this thing,
and I bought you and I both acopy of those books.
They've largely sat on mybookshelf, but I love them.
(30:41):
They're pretty.
The guy did an amazing job whenhe put them together.
One of my kids wanted to readthem, and I was like, listen,
you read this in the house atthis desk, you don't take it
anywhere.
Then I went and I got in mywife's van and I saw it laying
on the floor of the passengerside of the van.
What?
I about went ballistic.
SPEAKER_02 (31:00):
You bought me that stuff and I have hidden it, and
I put a handkerchief over it soit wouldn't get dust on it.
SPEAKER_01 (31:06):
I found it on the living floor of the van.
I sent a picture to my boys.
I was like, are you kidding me?
I'm gonna have to pull it outand uh I'll read it in that
version too.
SPEAKER_02 (31:19):
Um so where are we at?
We did four, right?
Uh four.
SPEAKER_01 (31:23):
You said that there was seven.
What's next?
SPEAKER_02 (31:25):
Uh the doctrine of soteriology.
Uh John contrasts those in thesefirst 18 verses, uh, who reject
Christ and those who receivehim.
He's mapping out how a personenters the family of God.
He says it in uh verses 12.
He says, To them he gave theright to become the children of
(31:46):
God, to those who believe in hisname, who were born not of
blood, nor of the will of theflesh, nor the will of man, but
of God, born of God.
Now, when we get into Johnchapter 3, probably one of the
most famous chapters in theBible, John three, sixteen, for
God so loved the world that hegave his only begotten son that
(32:10):
whosoever would believe in himwould not perish but have
everlasting life.
And that is John is alreadylaying the groundwork for the
foundation of salvation throughfaith alone, by faith, by
believing in his name.
(32:31):
Now, the two most important umscriptures, uh, I think in John
chapter three, as far assoteriology, is John chapter
three, verses sixteen, which Ijust quoted, and then three
thirty-six, because they gotogether.
The one who believes, this iswhat 36 says, the one who
(32:53):
believes in the sun has eternallife.
John says right here in theprologue, we're gonna get to
this.
This is what salvation is.
The one who believes in the sunhas eternal life, but the one
who rejects the sun will not seelife.
Instead, the wrath of Godremains on him.
(33:14):
And we we need to remember umJohn is gonna he's talking about
signs and glory.
And he's he's given us thispreclude.
Uh that's not the word I'mlooking for.
Give me the word.
It's not in there.
There's a big hole.
There's a big hole in my brainright now.
(33:37):
I'm trying to figure out whereyou're going.
Yeah, he's he's letting us knowup front that Jesus is gonna be
the answer um to our sinproblem, our salvation problem,
and that those who believe onhim, whatever you think that
means, but your belief, yourfaith in Jesus is going to
(34:01):
change your relationship withGod.
If you believe and you receive,you will not be rejected.
And uh and you will not be underGod's wrath anymore.
Right here in I mean theprologue before we even get
started.
Um so what do we get out ofthat?
Salvation is by faith.
(34:22):
It and what happens when webelieve?
We're adopted, we become part ofthe family, not part of the army
of light or however you want tolook at it.
No, you are going to be broughtadopted into the family to the
(34:43):
point that you um you are anheir with Jesus.
Whoever Jesus is, and we gotinto that, he's he's the creator
God, he's he's the God all overthe old testament, he's the one
who came.
Whoever he is, we're gonna beco-heirs with him.
(35:04):
And that's what God is actuallyoffering people.
I think we all we see is okay,and you know, I won't have to
pay for my sins.
That's all we see.
And he's like, No, you're gonnabe an heir to something that you
can't even imagine.
(35:25):
So that's five soteriology.
SPEAKER_01 (35:28):
You know, in I think it's uh Hebrews, um, right?
Well, everybody by grace, uh itwas um oh gosh, Martin Luther.
No, Romans, not Hebrews, Romans.
He comes I'm getting all thesemixed up in my head.
Uh you've been hanging around metoo long.
For real.
There's that hole that you weretalking about.
(35:49):
You got that, you got you gotthat black hole.
Yeah, it sucks me right in.
Um, Luther, he comes to that,you know, you are saved by
grace.
This is not of yourself.
And so he comes up with thiswhole, and we're saved by grace
through faith.
Um, and it changed everythingfor him.
John here is saying that.
Right.
(36:09):
I mean, he you he gave them theright to be children of God to
those who believe in his name,who were not, or who were born
not of blood, nor the flesh ofthe will, nor of the will of
man, but of God.
He's just laying it out.
Human effort had nothing to dowith this.
This is born of God.
God did this.
(36:30):
And who did he do it for?
To those who believe in hisname.
What is God's will that youwould believe?
You're we're gonna get to thatin John 2.
What does God want from you?
He wants you to believe in theSon that He sent.
That's what God wants.
And if you'll do it, He'll adoptyou as His child.
(36:51):
You will be a child of God.
SPEAKER_02 (36:54):
But that's that it's not over there.
It's just the beginning.
Right.
It's just the beginning of whatHe's gonna reveal to you.
Number six, uh, the doctrine ofgeneral revelation and common
grace.
Now, this is something um uhthat you kick around in the
seminary, doesn't show up uhmuch, but what it's talking
(37:15):
about is someone who doesn'tknow God, will God give them
grace or common grace if they'reout in the ocean and um they're
stuck in a raft and they say,God, I don't know if you're
there, but please save me.
Does God listen to that?
Um this is the doctrine ofcommon grace.
(37:38):
And then there's the doctrine ofgeneral revelation, which is the
same thing, and we get it out ofJohn um 1, 4, and 9.
In him was life, and the lifewas the light of men.
For us to even understand, uh,Romans 1 says you can look up
into the sky and see thatthere's something going on, and
(38:01):
we we got it going on right now.
We have um here in our culturethis struggle of look what we
found in our DNA.
Okay, this this has got it's acode.
Somebody has to write a code,you know.
Um, so how many times does um uhcrab walk on the beach and and
(38:29):
accidentally in some way says umI love my wife Joy in the sand
on the beach?
No, someone walking along withreason and intelligence has to
use those letters to write thatcode that as we walk by we can
understand.
Uh, Ryan loves his wife.
(38:49):
He's just trying to get points.
But this is uh my wife actuallydid that to me last vacation.
We were down in Florida and wewere way up on the 14th floor,
and she wrote this big oldmessage out to me because I was
up there on the balcony and Ididn't see it.
So, and I didn't even get achance to lie about it, you
(39:10):
know.
She goes, Did you see me on thebeach?
I said, Yeah.
She goes, Well, what did youthink?
And I'm like, You look great.
She goes, No, when I wrote inthe sand.
And uh so fail.
It was a it was a bad fail,right?
But um he gave every my man theability to see the light to see
(39:37):
him as he came into the world.
And uh that's that is somethingthat is argued about a lot, you
know.
Uh, but I believe that every mancan see the light of Jesus and
he has to choose whether toreceive it or reject it.
Um the core truth is all humanreason and conscience and life
(39:58):
are sustained by the word, byJesus, giving every person a
baseline awareness of truth andexistence.
SPEAKER_01 (40:06):
That's why Paul said man's without excuse.
SPEAKER_02 (40:09):
Right.
We have you know, we want tobelieve they want to believe in
Gnosticism and you know thespiritual part is the good part
and the body is the bad part,and all these different things
that come up in this argument.
And John right here in the first18 verses is saying the only
(40:29):
reason you even think about thatis because Jesus brought the
light into the world.
That's the only way you canreason it, you know?
So um let's start uh let's startnumber seven.
The doctrine of law versusgreat.
(40:50):
Grace.
Great.
SPEAKER_01 (40:52):
It's great.
Law versus great.
SPEAKER_02 (40:55):
So, and this starts right, the law was given through
Moses, but grace and truth camethrough Jesus Christ.
That is, that is well, expoundon that a little bit.
SPEAKER_01 (41:08):
We needed the law, right?
The law was good.
Uh Jesus said, I didn't come toum to abolish it, but to fulfill
it.
The law was a good gift, itexposed our our need.
We needed a savior, we neededsomeone to come and to to rescue
us, and we wouldn't have knownthat without the law.
Paul goes on to talk a lot aboutthat.
(41:29):
We needed the law to show usjust how sinful we were, how,
how messed up we had reallygotten ourselves.
And and so we have this the lawhere that shows us that.
And the law was given throughMoses, but it was never God's
ultimate aim.
There was something coming, andand grace and truth came came
(41:51):
through Jesus, is how John saysit.
And so Jesus comes to to fulfillthat law and all the things that
the law was trying to get us todo, and and teach us how to be
right with God and how to getback into good standing with
God.
You know, every day I'd have tobring another sacrifice, and I'd
(42:11):
have to do this thing, and soand if I did this, now I had to
do this.
And Jesus came and he said, I'mgoing to die once for all time.
He fulfills everything that thelaw was pointing to and died the
death that we deserve to die,right?
And now we get to live underthat grace.
SPEAKER_02 (42:32):
Yeah, it it's an octopus.
It it's got these tentacles thatgo out everywhere.
This doctrine of law versusgrace.
Paul said that um the law wasour taskmaster, it was just
showing us our human need.
We needed a savior, and divinefavor and mercy show up in a
(42:53):
person, the word in Jesus.
That's right.
And uh I don't I don't think weunderstand it because we don't
have a full complex theoryaround it or thinking around it,
not theory, but thinking.
Uh, we got to understand thateveryone who had died up until
(43:13):
the time of Jesus uh went to theplace of the dead.
They didn't go to heaven, theyweren't in the presence of God,
they couldn't be there becausethey were sinful.
Yeah, but they had faith.
They didn't didn't uh Abrahambelieve and they counted his
faith?
Yes, that is true.
But that faith he had had notshown up in the person of Jesus
(43:37):
yet.
So there was a paradise andthere was a Hades part of the
place of the dead.
And if you were in faith, likeAbraham was, you were on the
paradise side.
And if you weren't in faith, nowonly God is complex enough to
know who's who and where theyshould go.
But when Jesus died on thecross, he went and sat.
(44:00):
The captives free because hebecame the faith that they had
already.
Um, that's not the same for us.
We choose to believe in him, andthat faith saves us, but that
faith hadn't shown up yet.
And when it shows up, he goesdown to paradise and he sets the
(44:20):
captives free.
SPEAKER_01 (44:22):
Well, Peter talks about that, right?
Um he read it, it's like he'spreaching to the dead.
What is happening here?
Right.
Man, when Jesus was in the tomb,he was busy, man.
He's like, I have to go.
There's some people.
Abraham, Moses, Noah, you know,all these guys, I gotta go set
them free.
SPEAKER_02 (44:39):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (44:40):
Let's let's go.
Um they they they were waitingon this, right?
Um God was gonna send his son.
SPEAKER_02 (44:48):
His um nobody could be in the presence of the Father
until sin was taken care of, andit was taken care of in the
person of Jesus Christ once forall time.
SPEAKER_01 (45:01):
This coming Sunday, uh, we're actually gonna take a
look.
John the Baptist Jesus shows upon the scene and he says, Look,
the Lamb of God takes away thesin of the world.
Picks it up and carries it off.
It changed everything.
Yeah.
(45:21):
It changed everything.
SPEAKER_02 (45:22):
It should lead us to praise him is what it should do.
And I think when we talk aboutTrinitarianism, creation,
Christology, Revelation,soteriology, and covenant
theology within just a coupleparagraphs, I think we're
overwhelmed.
Um but that whole I I just Itake this uh when he says grace
(45:50):
upon grace and just all thesedoctrine.
When we say doctrines,everybody's like, okay, that's
that's the stuff nobody wants tolearn about the Bible.
No, doctrines are the grace ofGod placed on you.
And and he describes Jesus asgrace upon grace, as sitting on
the beach and wave after waveafter wave of grace coming on
(46:14):
you.
That's John chapter 1, um verses1 through 18.
It's just wave after wave.
Every one of these doctrines isjust more grace.
He's just pouring on us.
So drink it in.
SPEAKER_01 (46:29):
Drink it in.
Well, what a what a start toJohn, right?
Uh we're only two sermons intothis series, introduction and
then the prologue, the first 18verses, and covering a lot of of
really foundational truth uh forthe Christian life.
(46:49):
And I want to encourage youguys, um, you know, show up on
Sundays for sure.
If you can't be in person, youdefinitely need to go back,
watch it on demand.
And then if you haven't, youknow, made the midweek podcast a
big part of your weekly routine.
I would encourage you to do itat least through this series.
Um, because there's, as you cansee, seven of these core
(47:10):
doctrines.
Like, how am I gonna fit that ina 30, 35 minute sermon?
SPEAKER_02 (47:13):
Um speaking of that, um, I stayed in my lane and I
skied behind the boat, is what Itold the first service.
I'm trying to just try to skibehind the boat because there's
so much to cover, and I'm notgonna get out in the waves.
And the second service, then andwe don't care if they sit there
all day, but um but we got toget the first we'd love for you
to come to the second service.
(47:35):
So uh the first service, we gotto get people out of there in
the parking lot empty so thenext group can come in, and
that's a great problem to have.
One day um we won't have thatproblem, but I just want
everybody to know that I wasdone on time.
So I'm the next the next passageof scriptures.
(47:56):
Um there's a lot going on.
So we'll see how Pastor Ryandoes this coming week.
I'm excited to be here.
I'm I think I'm gonna have astopwatch, and I'm gonna click
it on the time.
Um, but just what we've shownyou here today, seven doctrines
are mentioned here in the first18 verses of the Bible, first in
(48:18):
first 18 verses of John.
So this is this is a thick book.
It's gonna talk about things,it's gonna take every one of
these things and express them inmany ways.
And uh just like Jesus is theexegesis of the Father, we want
you to um have a greatinterpretation of what's going
(48:43):
on in John because it is it isfor you.
That's right.
It is for you to know.
And so pick up a commentary ifyou want to, uh, a commentary on
John.
Um pick up a book about John theBaptist because we're gonna talk
about him.
Um there's uh well, there's alot of things going on, and uh
(49:04):
John is he's showing you signsand glory all the way through,
and we want you to revel in thatgrace upon grace.
SPEAKER_01 (49:12):
Yep, definitely join us on Sundays, tune into the
midweek podcast where we candive into the the stuff that
kind of got left on the cuttingroom floor, but we'll save it
for here.
Uh, we want to cram as much intothe series as as we can.
Good CSB study Bible or ESVstudy Bible, something like that
wouldn't would help.
If commentary soundsoverwhelming, get you a good
(49:33):
study Bible as you read throughit.
SPEAKER_02 (49:35):
Commentaries are overwhelming.
They are.
SPEAKER_01 (49:37):
They they definitely especially some of those guys,
they're like, I'm smart and I'mgonna prove it to you.
SPEAKER_02 (49:42):
Yeah, and they prove it, man.
SPEAKER_01 (49:44):
I'm like, where did he get that from?
I just want to know whatdictionary he was pulling from.
I'm like, I gotta have adictionary just to get through
your commentary.
SPEAKER_03 (49:52):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (49:52):
Um, but there's there's so much here.
Um we'll we'll do our best to tobreak it down for you for for
you each week.
SPEAKER_02 (50:00):
We'll try to catch things like these seven
doctrines that were mentioned inthe uh prelude, um, so that you
you can figure out how rich thisbook really is.
Um it's not just another gospel.
Okay, this is the one uh whereJohn is is revealing to you who
(50:20):
Jesus really is, not just hishistory or what happened or what
he taught.
He wants you to know himpersonally.
And that's what this entire bookis about is you knowing him and
knowing that you can know him.
Um so we can talk about it allnight, but you better you better
(50:41):
pray and get us out of it.
SPEAKER_01 (50:42):
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you so much uhfor this book.
And Lord, just how much we'vealready learned in just uh a
couple weeks.
And Lord, I'm I'm excited aboutwhat you're gonna continue to
teach and reveal to us uh overthe next um I guess 15, 16 weeks
to go.
And uh Lord, you have you havedone all of this so that we can
(51:06):
we can be adopted and becomechildren of God.
Um you took on flesh.
Um we can't even comprehend whatall that means.
Um why you would do it.
What was it about us that youwould go through all of this?
But Lord, we're grateful.
And I thank you so much forJesus.
I thank you that he came, thathe paid the price we could never
(51:29):
pay, so that we could know him.
By knowing him, we could knowyou, and that we could one day
be like him and reign as co-heirwith Christ.
Um, Lord, what a what a gloriousday that's gonna be.
And so, Father, I just uh praythat you continue to lead and
guide us as we go through thisseries in Jesus' name.
(51:49):
Amen.
Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00 (51:51):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(52:15):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
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