John 1:1-5 (Who is Jesus,
Part 1)
Intro:
I have with me today some Puzzle Pieces My wife loves Puzzles
A)Pretend this morning that
each one of these Puzzle pieces represents a different part of your life.
B) This one Business
where work what you do. Occupation
1) Big one Probably 50 hrs of your week is dedicated to this
piece
C) Now there are 168 hrs in
a week. In the course of a week most of you will spend about 50 hrs sleeping
some more some less
1) 50
hrs a week working some more some less { In those two things 100 hrs
of your 168 is GONE -
D) That leaves about 68hrs
left to do everything else. What else ?
See
this piece; this piece represents YOUR family it is also a big one because
our families need us to spend time with them.
A)Next piece represents your social life your friends the
people you hang with small piece friends are important
B) Next piece Recreation
real small because well it doesnt always fit that well. Hard to make time
for that.
C)
Next piece Personal YOU TIME coffee at Starbucks
1) read the paper even
smaller most of us Know In this life not much time for you time.
D) Now let me show what this
looks like - Pieces placed together
1) Giant
HOLE in the Middle - Why the hole
What is missing from this picture is JESUS
E) Life
without Jesus there is a giant HOLE - - Great hole in the heart
Something missing - Lacking
1) But Who is Jesus? That is
the question that I want us to consider today. Prt 1 Read
Notice
4 things that John tells us about Jesus in these first 5 verses
1) Jesus
is eternal. "in the beginning
was the Word.
A)Before there was time /
before the earth was created There was The Word. Grk term Logos
B) The Grk
Philosophers described the Logos in the Abstract
1) as the Perfect thought responsible for everything in the Universe. Very ABSTRACT
C) The Jewish teachers made it Personal
behind every Perfect thought there is a Perfect Thinker
1) That is the Logos
D)
John identifies the Logos as Jesus In the beginning was the Word. He is eternal
2.) Jesus is Distinct
The Word was
with God. V2. He was in the Beginning with God.
A)He was with The Father in
the Beginning
3.)
Jesus is God. And
the Word was God God was in the Word.
A)The Father and the Word,
though two persons, are linked by an ineffable union.
B)Together from Eternity
Two persons yet one:
1)Equal
in essence, nature, power and substance.
C) Where God the Father was
from all eternity, there was also God the Son the Word,
1)their
glory equal, their majesty equal co-eternal, and yet their Godhead one. This is
a great mystery!
4.)
Jesus is the Creator. V.3
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was
made.
A)Creator of Time / space
& everything that was made.
B)Been
said that Creation is Gods first missionary !
The
Psalmist declared Psalm 19:1-2
The heavens
tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day
after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.
NLT
During
the French revolution a solider boasted to a peasant we are going to
pull down all that reminds you of God !
Peasant
replied You
will have to pull down the stars then!
C)
Creation all around
testifies to us of the reality of God !
D) Abraham Lincoln was once quoted as saying I can see how it
might be possible for a man to look down at man on the earth & be an Atheist
- seeing man But I can not conceive how a man can look up into the heavens
& declare there is no God!
Lets examine the Earth from an outer space
perspective.
A)The diameter of the Earth around the equator is
7,926.6 miles.
B)The earths circumference is about 25,000 miles.
1) It weighs an estimated 6,000 million, million, million tons.
B)And she just hangs there in mid air.
Satellite photos prove it; we are not being held up by anything visible to the
eye.
C)So its pretty HEAVY &
as we sit here, the earth is spinning 1,000 miles an hour on our axis.
1)And as it does, it travels
through space at 19 miles per second.
D)That may be a bit abstract for you
So Ill put it into MPH for you. Its 66,600 miles per hour.
1) That is 1,000 times faster
than what most of us travel driving down the freeway Most of you!
E)Now traveling at 66,600
miles per hour, the earth flies between 500 & 600 million miles every year
1) No wonder we feel so tired
we are always on the go!
So the earth is Huge but not in
comparison to the Sun
A)The Suns diameter is a whopping 866,000 miles in diameter from one
side to the other side, with a circumference of 2,720,106
miles.
B) Our sun so big that 1,300,000
of our earths could fit inside.
1)But
the sun is small, however, compared to Antares, a star in our galaxy.
C)Antares is so big that 64
of our suns could fit inside of it.
But
Antares is a relatively small star in comparison to Hercules
1) Hercules is a HUGE star. 110
million Antares could fit inside the star Hercules.
D)So,
110 million Antares each big enough to hold 64 of our suns, which are big
enough to hold 1,300,000 of our earths could fit into Hercules.
I
could go on and on talking about Betelgeuse and other stars but the numbers get
so big it begins to blow the mind.
A)But it was all spoken into
existence by THE WORD / THE LOGOS Jesus Christ God the Son.
For by Him all
things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things
were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him
all things consist.
Consider for
a moment: The Milky Way Galaxy that the earth finds itself
in.
The Milky Way
Galaxy is 15,000 light-years wide at the center
and about 100,000 light-years across.
A)That means to travel the
length of this Milky Way would take you 100,000 years traveling at 186,000
mps which is the speed of light
B) There are an estimated 100 Billion
stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
1)And the Milky Way Galaxy is
just one of an estimated 100 Billion galaxies that Jesus spoke into existence.
C) Paul tells us that it is all being held together by Jesus.
1) The Scientist call it a Mysterious Atomic glue
The Bible calls the glue Jesus !
D) Jesus is Powerful But
He is also an artist
1)Each new day brings forth an illustration of his artistry. Every new
sunset
2) NEW LIFE PLANT / ANIMAL
But you know what our Lords greatest
creation is? It is You
A)Mankind. I want to spend the rest of our time this morning talking
about 2 Things
#1 How JESUS made you.
#2 Why JESUS made you.
First How He made you: Fearfully and wonderfully made Psalm 139:14
I will
praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul
knows very well.
Recent discoveries into Human DNA have magnified how incredible and
Unique the Human body is.
The
DNA code functions like a language based on four chemical "letters."
A)Each
piece of data is a like a letter that has to be arranged in a certain order
because the data spells out specific instructions which the cell will follow to
the letter.
B) In one single cell is
given the blueprint for the construction and the function of the human body.
1)That
blueprint contained in the cells DNA will be replicated into every cell that is
produced.
C)What
that means is that every cell in your body contains a coded language that
can communicate specific instructions, which that cell will understand
and follow.
D)Researchers today have identified the 3 billion
chemical letters that constitute the human genome (the sum of genetic material
contained in every cell of the human body).
Every
cell in your body contains 3 billion letters of information.
Yet this is
only the beginning. Scientists have merely uncovered the text for a language
but we barely know how to read, it. Said
" John Bloom of
Each cell in
our body contains the same DNA and yet some cells decide to become liver cells,
others brain cells, others heart cells Why?
Because the genes are differentially turned on and
off. But what this means is that is the genes are being turned on and off by
factors outside of themselves argues John Wells author of the Icons of
evolution.
He is baffled because the genes are controlled by
something OUTSIDE of the Genes No kidding.
Dr. Richard Swenson speaking at focus
on the family. Posed this question. How many atoms are in a Human Breath
" Everybody take a deep breath. When you do
that- you just inhaled 150 million air molecules that Jesus made.
According to Dr. Swenson "even though our bodies are indeed
discrete units, we leak." We leak a trillion atoms every one
millionth of a second!
We are leaking by the time we get out of
here we are all over each other.
Every cell has about a trillion atoms,
and there are anywhere from 10-100 trillion cells in the human body. And were
making over a trillion cells every day.
Take the DNA in a single cell> The DNA of a single cell
is about 5 ft long.
If
you take all the DNA from all the cells in your body, it would stretch about 10
billion miles.
Think
of that you have 10 billion miles of information in just the cells in your
body.
The lining of your gastrointestinal tract turns over about
every two days faster if you eat Mexican food.
The lining of your skin turns over every
two to four weeks, the average human being sheds 40 pounds of skin in a
lifetime. I guess thats why old couches weigh so much.
Scientist
talking
Reason
ladies to tell your husband to get you new couches
Now Because of
the staggering complexity of DNA, researchers have abandoned chance theories of
life's origin.
These are guys on the cutting edge of technology
they know that there is no way that slime can become a molecule and that a molecule
can become a fish, fish a lizard, lizard a Monkey and a Monkey a
Person.
Because there is a distinct language written there.
A)It tells us in Genesis that everything was made
after its kind.
B)There is a
distinct language that is written there and the language is not just distinct
to the human being but to each human being. Own distinct Genetic Code.
The DNA exhibits "specified
complexity"-an irregular sequence that fits a prescribed pattern. Other
examples include books, musical scores, and computer programs.
In
all known instances, specified complexity is produced by an intelligent agent,
not by blind natural forces.
Dr.
Gary Collins speaking at the Whitehouse briefing
These are top researchers and scientist talking here. A)Not college science professors because they dont like what it
implies
B)not High
School biology teachers because they dont like what it implies
C)Because WHAT it implies is that Creator is alive today is He was intimately involved in
the formation of every human being sitting here in this room today when they
were in their mothers womb.
That is what it implies.
Fearfully, wonderfully and uniquely made. But Why?
A)Paul
said in Colossians you were made By Him and for Him.
B)
News Flash God does not exist for you but you exist for Him
But
why did He make you? I want to quickly give you 4 reasons.
A)4 things that
are Unique to People above all the created beings in all the Universe.
C) When
considering these reasons it is important to understand that these are not
things God needed from us.
1)He was perfectly
CONTENT w/out us.
C) But when God created
man/ He created a being who uniquely can experience these traits &
functions
1) They are Privileges that are unique to man and are essential
for man IF:
2)He is going to
experience the true Purpose of his existence & the ultimate Satisfaction in
his existence
#1
Made for Friendship with God. Abe
A)We are unique
creatures in Gods creation who have been given the capacity of Friendship w/
God
B) God has
declared I am going to allow you to get to know me. Experience life with me. /
Communion
C) So God uses
metaphors like walking & being on a journey & even marriage to describe
our friendship with Him
23 And the Scripture was
fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him
for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.
So the scripture
reveals to us that Abe was declared to be the friend of God because he embraced
the promise of God thru faith.
That is how we
come into friendship with God.
A)We embrace the
promise that God has made in Christ.
B) Those who
believe in the work of Christ upon the Cross are saved. Justified
1) That is what
makes us friends of God
C) Of that friendship
God declares I want you to know me = Ginosko
1) I WANT you to
know that you can count on me a friend who sticks even closer than a brother.
The
rest of creation responds to God as His creation
A)He speaks and
the wind blows / the Stars fall / waves are still
B) But with Man
he has given us a choice to know Him to walk with Him to be his friend.
1) It is to us
ALONE that God says Draw near to me and
I will draw near to you.
C)It
is to us ALONE He has given the unique privilege of being eternal.
1) Heaven and
earth and all that are in them are going to be dissolved the bible says
D) But Man alone
has been given the Privilege of being eternal
1) Those who are
Friends of God will spend eternity with Him
2)Those who
reject His friendship will spend eternity apart from Him in Hell. Suffering
E)So God asks the Question today do you want to
be my friend.
1) #1 Made for
Friendship with God.
#2
You have been Uniquely designed by God to have a choice to Glorify Him.
A)The Stars /
the Galaxies they give glory to God by their simple existence.
"You are
worthy, O Lord our God,
to receive
glory and honor and power.
For you created
everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created."
NLT
B) The Natural migration instincts of animals like the Sparrow or the Penguin testifies of
the Genius
Of God in
Creation.
C) The Caterpillar
brings Glory to God in the way it is transformed into a Beautiful Butterfly.
D) But all of
those things have been designed by God to happen naturally
But
Man ALONE of the Created things on the earth has been uniquely given the
Choice to Glorify God or Not to Glorify God.
A)Man has been
made with a Natural instinct for worship
B) But we are
given the unique ability to choose WHO
OR WHAT we are going to
worship!
B)
God has declared here is a simple way that you can bring me pleasure and glory
worship
1) Does He need
it ? NO!
C)The worship of
the Angels in heaven make our humble attempts at it seem pathetic
D)He doesnt need
it but He Knows it is good and right for us to forget about ourselves
1) Reflect upon
and remember the greatness of our Creator.
Worship
= Proscuno it means to turn and to Kiss
A)Expression of
intimacy and Love.
B)We are told Love the Lord with all of our heart / soul /
mind / strength
C)That means our
worship of God is to be Authentic
All of our heart
& soul
1)
D)Worship in spirit
Sincere heartfelt worship
Worship
is Intelligent Loving with our mind
A) Not mindless
chanting but thought out meditating / on the Word
B) IN TRUTH: According to
the way prescribed in the word of God.
Our
worship is ALSO to be Passionate: all of our
strength
A)Jesus said in
B) The Bible
speaks of 3 kinds of fruit that THE Christian can Bear -
1) Fruit of our
Lips = Worship
2) Fruit of our
Labor = Service
3) Fruit of our
Lives = Witness
C) The Fruit of
our Labor and the Fruit of our lives give us insight into two more reasons why Jesus MADE US.
Fruit
of our Labor: #3 We were made for Service.
For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.
A)Workmanship =
Masterpiece Poema !
B) You are a Unique Creature:
Gifts / talents / drives / interest / abilities
1) God has given
you the unique Privilege of using all of those things to SERVE HIM.
C) God has made
you to be a part of a Unique family Family of God. THE
CHURCH
1) We are Connected by Blood
No
man is meant to be an
A)You as an
individual together as a Church make up the masterpiece of God
B)Seen the
clearest Serving each other The fruit of our labor
C) Blending of
our gifts talents and abilities
In order to
bless / build up each other.
D)Gifts given
Equipping of the Saints for the work of the ministry.
1) God wants you
to have a ministry in his Church
#4
Made to be His Ambassadors
A)The fruit of our lives our
Witness!
B) Ambassadors Represent
their Country / King their Leader
C) God has given us the Unique opportunity of Representing him here on
earth
1) Unique
privilege of being His Mouth pieces
D)Unique
Blessing Testifying of His Faithfulness
1) Testifying of His grace/
His Love / Mercy.
E)
Not Angels / Stars / Not Animals Us
1) John sent to bear witness so to us that all might believe.
So
you have been Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
A)For a Unique Purpose
1)Friend of God
2) Bring Him Glory Worship
3) Service Lives serving
in the Family of God
4) Ambassador Represent
him to those who are outside the family
Where
are you today?
A)Do you Know Jesus Friend
Walking w/ Him
Intimate or just know about
B) Spend eternity with Him
C) Glorifying Him in Worship
Service
Witness
That
is why you exist ?
A)Too busy Pursuing Work
/ Rec / Family / You time / Friendship relationships
B) Giant Hole Neglected
the most important relationship! JESUS
EAGLES SOAR EXPERIENCE
LIFE TO THE FULLEST IN CHRIST