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00:01 Good to see everybody in the house of the Lord. Starting off, we are going to be doing the book of John. Uh in the
00:08 next better part of the year, it is a beautiful gospel. For some of you, we've
00:13 been doing it in gamma. Gamma gives you a good overview. When we actually go
00:19 into the book of John, we'll be taking passages and then we're going to drill down deep into the passages. Now book of
00:24 John is unique because 80% of material in John is not found in the synnoptic
00:30 gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. And people have described it as simple as a
00:36 pool of water as as shallow where a child can dip in as as deep as one where
00:42 an elephant can drown in as well. So it's it's beautiful. And uh we're going to take our time and go through the
00:48 passages and I believe God is going to speak to us. Uh let give you some background to book of John. Uh it uh was
00:56 written around the time of the emperor Domician from Ephesus roundabouts. Uh
01:02 and it's written to Gentiles and Jews. The Gentiles attracted to Judaism as
01:08 well as the Jews dispersed all over uh Asia. Um
01:13 this is the uh purpose why it was written. John says uh Jesus did many
01:19 other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in the book but these are written so that you
01:24 may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that by believing you may
01:30 have life in his name that is the purpose. So when you read the book of John that purpose should undergard every
01:38 passage that is what John is writing towards and here you actually have uh
01:43 who is John the disciple whom Jesus loved. He's actually uh John the son of
01:48 Zebedee was attributed to him by the second century AD. And today we're going to look at a portion of scripture
01:55 traditionally called the prologue. The prologue is uh the first 14 verses enclosed with the phrase God on either
02:03 side. Uh this is like uh we call an inclusio. A prologue is something like
02:10 if you go to go to movies, you see a trailer, right? And the trailer will introduce
02:17 you the characters to the trailer. We've got Kylo Ren and the rest of the movie will tell you uh you know you see a bit
02:23 of Kylo that how he became a bad person because some because this chap called what's his name Luke Skywalker tried to
02:29 kill him right and then those uh will introduce Rey and how she then transforms to be a true Jedi as it were.
02:36 So he introduces all the figures uh just in a very fleeting manner and then the
02:42 book will go backwards and show you the rest. Uh, so it's like a foyer. You come in and you read about the pre-existence
02:48 son of God, Logos. And we read about him in John 17. And we talk about light
02:54 coming into the world today. And that's picked up in John 3, John 12, the one
02:59 and only son. That's picked up in John 3:16. And in him was life. And that's picked up in John 5:26 goes on. So these
03:07 are all the characters, all the all the themes which is introduced within the
03:12 prologue. Okay. And then uh this the introductions and then we'll expand on it in the rest of the book. So this is
03:17 the scheme. Today we're going to ask three questions. What or who is the word? Why should we bother with the
03:23 word? And thirdly, how do we actually respond to the word? Let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask this
03:29 morning that you fill our hearts with the word. And we know Lord that the word
03:35 is a pulsating alive person. The word is you. And father Lord we pray this
03:41 morning you become real. You become real as the words are preached as the words
03:46 are read the words are hidden to our hearts that this reality of your word
03:52 will transform our lives. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen. We have before you the
03:57 uh outline. The outline will give you a guide of how we're going to go through the sermon. And at the back of the
04:02 outline will be Bible study questions which you will do in your life groups or if you don't belong to a life group or
04:08 gamma group then you can actually do that uh at home at least it's something for you to think about when you go home.
04:13 First question is what is the word? Now we start off with in the beginning was the word the word was with God and the
04:20 word was God. And you can obviously see the whole thing is about the word isn't it? The word's being repeated three
04:25 times. What is the word? Anybody know what the word is? We know it's Jesus.
04:31 Good. Mary always gives me the correct answer. Uh but and what does the word actually mean? The word means uh the
04:38 inner thoughts of someone or the reason another possible meaning is the outward
04:43 expression of that inner thought. Okay. All right. So it's an inner thought and
04:48 expression inner thought. You could have you you know think Mrs. Wong has a very nice uh orange dress on today or a coat,
04:54 right? That's an inner thought and I express it you know I've already expressed it. That's the word. So it's
04:59 what you think and what you express. The logos is different in different cultures. And so we've got two sets of
05:05 audiences in the book of John. So if you've got the Greeks and you've got the Jews, for the Greeks, the logos or the
05:12 word uh is a superior power in the universe that organizes and regulates
05:18 everything. If you look in this particular scene, you see many people.
05:23 Some people dressed in white, some people red, some people buying, some people selling, some people running,
05:28 some people, you know, sleeping. Uh it's all diverse. If you look outside, the
05:33 same thing. Birds are singing, cars are going this direction. There's a lot of diversity. They're going all different
05:39 directions. And the Greeks sort of think there must be some unifying factor to all this, isn't it? It's more obvious if
05:46 you see this crowd you know the yellow people are for something the red people are for something else that you can actually see ah there's an unifying
05:53 principle but the Greeks are thinking you look at the diversity of life there must be some unity out of this diversity
06:00 other diversity otherwise we'll be living in a multiverse not a universe there must be a unifying principle and
06:06 that universifying principle is called the logos so you talk to the average
06:11 Greek guy you talk about logos he understands what logos Los is come to you guys. You don't understand what
06:17 logos is. So you will understand what the force is, isn't it? Because the movie has been all over the place and
06:22 you'll understand what the force. The force is like the logos. It's the underlying power, the rational behind
06:29 the whole universe. So here is the word uh which is the unifying principle to
06:35 the Greeks. To the Hebrews, it's different. The word the logos is the one
06:42 that's active in creation. When God said let there be light and there was light.
06:48 You don't have to say let there be light and so angels go and put light on. You know the actual word is the power of
06:55 God. All right. It's it's uh the power of God to create. It's the power of God for revelation that the word of God came
07:02 to Jeremiah. The word of God came to Haggi or Malachi. So the word of God is
07:08 re comes in revelation. The word of God comes in salvation where Psalm 17:8 he
07:13 sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. So the word of God not only reveals it
07:19 also heals and delivers. Okay. So here we go through the whole thing. The word
07:25 in the beginning was the word. That's the first phrase. And this is a very
07:31 important phrase because in the beginning brings us back to what? Genesis chapter one. In the beginning,
07:39 God created the heavens and the earth. So John is trying to bring you back to
07:44 the days of Genesis and that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. That means in the beginning was
07:51 the word. They're kind of related. You know that? That means the word was eternal. It is from the beginning. Now
07:58 in the Greek and Hebrew minds, it's very simple for them. Everything is divided into two categories. One category is
08:04 created and the one that's not created. The one that's created is everything in the world. Everything that's exists
08:10 because they're created, not created, things or beings that were not created because they've always existed. And this
08:16 category must be God or the eternal rational principle or or something there. Okay. So therefore, John is
08:23 saying Jesus is eternal. And this is taken from John 8. We will study later on. The Jews said to him, "You're not
08:29 yet 50 years old and you said you've seen Abraham." So they're kind of upset with him. And Jesus said to them,
08:35 "Truly, truly, I said to you, before Abraham was, I am." So they pick up the
08:41 stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. He really got people upset.
08:47 Before Abraham was, the word is ginomi, which is born or created. Jesus creates
08:55 a difference here. I am. The I am is taken from Exodus 3:3-4.
09:01 The God of your fathers has sent me to you. Then they asked, "What is his name? What shall I say to them?" God said to
09:06 Moses, "I am who I am." And he said to this people of Israel, I am has sent me
09:13 to you. I am is the name of God. So he
09:19 is the ultimate being because he's eternal. And because of that, they pick up stone. You think people throw stones
09:25 at you for something? If you say yourself, I'm Santa Claus. Do you think they'll throw stones at you? They come and say, "Hey, give me present." Right?
09:31 But the moment you say I am, you know, they'll they throw stones at you. So they just realize that I am
09:38 Jesus is claiming to be God. So the beginning was the word. Okay, we can understand that. And the word was with
09:46 God. Haha, headache. Now I can understand the word was God, right? That
09:51 but the word was with God. That means they are two distinct persons. They're
09:58 not one. And the word was God. That's even worse.
10:03 You know, in the beginning was, you know, God and and you know, he was with God and then the word was God. And just
10:10 to make sure that you understood, he was in the beginning with God. He's eternal. Okay? And not only that, just in case
10:16 you missed the point, he was in the beginning with God. And all things were made through him and without him was not
10:22 anything that made that was made. And that's very very clear. This is one
10:28 being and three persons. And we'll talk about the spirit later on. And upon these few verses, most of the heresies
10:35 of the first 300 years of Christianity came out because of these verses they've been arguing about. And they had two big
10:41 councils uh the council of Nika and Calcedon 100 years later on just to
10:46 discuss this particular issue um as the identity of who God is. And and here we
10:52 have lots of heresies. They go in either direction. Either because you're too fixated on one god and they can be
10:58 nothing else but the one god or you are fixated the fact that there are three gods. All right, tritheism as it were.
11:04 You got heretics starting up like uh Aras. Aras is a priest in the third century and he said that there was one
11:11 god and Jesus created and not truly god. Jesus the first and greatest of god's
11:18 creation. He was a labeled the heretic in the council na uh where they actually
11:23 proclaim that Jesus is God the second person in the trinity and these poor
11:30 areas lying down here see that so he was put in disrepute u this is a very uh uh
11:36 common misunderstanding of the person of Christ then you've got ideas like adoptionism where the word was not the
11:42 son but someone who's adopted so when word is a human person okay And God says
11:49 this is my son. Means God adopts him. And then he goes to the cross. When he
11:54 goes to the cross, the spirit of God leaves him and says, "My God, my God, why haven't you for forsaken me?" So
12:00 that's how it fits in. U again that diminishes the son, the the nature of
12:06 Jesus Christ. And then you got Sabilius, a third century priest in Rome. And he
12:12 said this is God in three modes. you know, fast mode, super fast mode,
12:18 and slow mode. All right? And he said, you know, if you look at the rays of the sun, this is exactly what he said. If
12:23 you look at the rays of the sun, the rays of the sun are like the sun. So God
12:29 can appear in two modes. Either the one up there or the rays, they're both the same thing. For for some of us, we don't
12:36 understand. So the best way to illustrate this is like Eddie Murphy. You know, when you watch The Nutty
12:42 Professor, how many actors are there? only one. Okay. But he's not there at
12:49 the same time, right? I don't think that that's a camera trick. So, what he's saying is that God is God the father
12:56 and after a while he changes clothes and become God the son and then he be he becomes invisible and becomes God the
13:02 Holy Spirit. You think this is nutty? Well, there are people who believe in it. For example, uh TD Jakes, Bishop TD
13:09 Jake of the United States, Oneness Pentecostal, that's 24 million of them. They believe that God is father, son,
13:17 and the holy spirit. But the trick is when he's being baptized, there's God up there. The holy spirit comes down a dove
13:23 and then there's Jesus Christ. How do you be? It's like the nati professor at one scene. You know, it it's kind of
13:29 difficult. And if you believe in that, that's actually idolatry because that's not God. And when you say for God so
13:36 loved the world, he gave his son. He actually didn't give his son because that was himself disguised. Right? So it
13:42 makes it a bit funny. Okay, Jehovah's Witness uh take issue with this and they
13:47 they said they translate the word the word was God into in the New World
13:53 Translation the beginning was word and the word was with God and the word was a
13:58 god mistransation of the Greek very obvious mistransation when that means
14:04 the word was a god not the god okay I either believe in three gods separate
14:10 gods but not one god so uh that's a problem with them So look at the what the Bible says uh in Titus. For the
14:16 grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly
14:22 passions to live self-righteous upright and godly lives in the present age waiting for our blessed hope the
14:28 appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. It's
14:35 unmistakable. There is that God and God is Jesus Christ. What about Thomas? Some
14:43 people say, you know, Thomas dug his, you know, fingers into Jesus' side and then he put his hand inside there. No,
14:51 you know what he said? Oh my god. Oh my lord. Not true. He says my lord and my
14:60 god. You won't say ah my god. You know, so it's it's and which means he actually
15:05 worshiped and Jesus accepted the worship because he is God. This is uh verse 18.
15:10 Let's fast forward to 18. 18 is more clear. No one has ever seen God, right?
15:17 No one has ever seen God. But the only God, the word only is
15:24 basically monogenous, which means the one and only, the unique. You can't run
15:29 away from that God who is at the father's side.
15:36 Father's side is that word is corpos in Greek is translated his but the father's
15:41 breast or side is a place of great intimacy. How many of you will have
15:48 someone lie on your breast? I hope not anybody. It's either your wife or your
15:54 little children, right? Even the grown children won't lie on your breast anymore. They kind all right. So it is a
16:00 sign of great intimacy. um one of the disciples Jesus love was reclining table
16:06 on Jesus corpor which is basically his chest or his breast. So this is a nice rendition of it. So therefore uh Jesus
16:13 Christ is God. So the fact that Jesus is God the creator we are his creation gives us
16:19 identity. We are created as God's creation. We have a purpose and we have
16:26 accountability. Colossians says, "For by him all things were created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible,
16:33 whether they're thrones or dominions or rulers, authorities, all things were created through him and for him. We
16:42 live, we breathe. Even if you're 90 years old and sitting
16:48 in a home alone, you have a purpose. You live for him." All right? And sometimes
16:56 it's because we live in a world where we reject God. And you and your friends have all gone away. What are you left
17:02 with? Nothing. And you hope the guys will give you a call on the Saturday.
17:08 That's sad, isn't it? It's absolutely sad. It doesn't have to be like that. God will walk with you especially to the
17:14 twilight years of your life. And at that time after years of walking with Christ, he'll be even a closer presence. Okay?
17:22 Uh so we have identity. We have purpose and we've got accountability. This is
17:28 Romans. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and righteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppressed the truth.
17:35 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. And so this is the God of creation. It's
17:43 Jesus Christ. And so therefore, we go forward to uh John 16 8-9 talking about
17:49 the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world regarding sin, righteousness, and
17:54 judgment. Three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment.
17:59 Concerning sin, what about sin? That they will murder, rape,
18:05 steal. No, because they do not believe me. The biggest sin is the fact that he
18:11 created you and you don't live for him. You're not accountable to him. They do
18:17 not believe him which is Jesus Christ. The rejection of Jesus Christ is the sin
18:24 which God talks about. Second of all, why should we bother with the word? So if Jesus the creator, we're accountable
18:30 to him. Why else should we bother with him? In him was life and life was the
18:35 light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not
18:41 overcome it. One of the most difficult verse is this one. You know why it's difficult? It's difficult because John
18:48 is switching back and forth and using a metaphor or picture of light and life in
18:54 two different settings. All right. So if you look at uh John chapter 1 verses
18:60 1-18, he's using the light in one way uh and and when you look at John uh 1b down
19:07 to 21, he's using light in a different way. The first way he uses is light is a light of creation and the other way is a
19:13 light of redemption. All right. So there's a dual metaphor. Let me walk you through this here. Here
19:19 we have light. Okay. All right. We divide this. In him was life.
19:28 The life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the
19:34 darkness could not overpower it. So you've got the three pictures. Light,
19:40 life, light, and darkness. In the prologue John 1:18, this life is created
19:47 life. The light is physical light of creation and darkness, the chaos before
19:55 creation. So therefore, we John brings you back to Genesis and right at the beginning of time there's chaos and
20:01 darkness and then God brings in his light and his light creates through the
20:07 sun. At the same time just as that happens he also means in John 1 uh uh 21
20:14 uh to 21 that this life in him was life was eternal life that mean Jesus Christ
20:20 not only created life he has eternal life and this eternal life is the light of revelation to men and the darkness
20:27 could not overcome him which is unbelief cannot overcome
20:33 the gospel it's dual it's absolutely beautiful All right. The same agent, the
20:38 word. So why does Jesus matter? Jesus matters because the light shines in the
20:43 darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The light always overcomes.
20:49 You go to the darkest place on the planet. Iraq,
20:54 Mosul, under the ISIS in the darkest places on the earth. All you have to have is a
21:01 flicker of light as small as a firefly and it will never never be overcome by
21:08 darkness. That's what John is telling us. The fact that the gospel will triumph all over the world is as true
21:16 and as permanent as creation. That is what John is trying to tell us.
21:22 Uh John the Baptist, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness uh to
21:28 the light that all might believe through him. And he was not the light but came to bear witness to the light.
21:35 And the light true light which gives light to men was coming in the world and he was in the world and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not
21:41 know him. Did he came to his own and his own people did not receive him and to all who received he did receive him. He
21:48 who believed in his name he gave the right to become the children of God. The word comes and it always confronts and
21:55 divides. The story was told of a young girl who was in school. She probably was well taught in Sunday school. She got in
22:03 an argument with a teacher who's obviously not a Christian and and uh we're discussing Jonah and say Jonah
22:09 swallowed by the whale, you know, and the girls and then the teacher still told Jonah told the girl, you know,
22:14 that's that's rubbish. That's not true. The word is not true. You know why? Because whales are very big but the throat is very small. So they can't
22:22 possibly swallow a whole human being and he could be a riot three days later on. And the girl and the girl dis disagree
22:27 completely. You know, I believe God's word and all that. Uh you know, then when will you find out? Then the girl
22:33 said, "Well, when I get to heaven, okay, uh I'll ask Jonah." Then you know what
22:38 the teacher said? What if he h what if Jonah is not in heaven and he's in hell?
22:43 Then the girl turned around. Then you can ask him. So everywhere you go, the word divides.
22:51 You either believe it or you don't. It has got that effect. Isaiah says, God
22:58 says, I was ready to uh to be sought by those who did not ask for me. I was
23:03 ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here I am. Here I am to
23:08 a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to rebellious people who are walking the
23:14 way that is not good but following their own despises. God spread out his hands
23:19 all day through the person of Jesus Christ and they do not accept him. Uh
23:24 but Hebrews 1 long ago and many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets and in these
23:31 last days is spoken to us by his son. This is the last message we're going to
23:37 get and it is through his son. And this message will divide us when we are
23:45 heralds of the gospel. And Paul describes us. We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved.
23:52 Among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death,
23:58 the other a fragrance from life to life. So you know what? We're a walking
24:03 perfume bottle. You're either perfume or your cologne. Men wear cologne. Women wear perfume. I
24:10 once got it mixed up. You get it mixed up, you attract the wrong kind of people and all the men come running to you.
24:18 So the perfume divides. Imagine I put you in the middle of London and you put
24:25 on this perfume. Malaysian export. Half the people will run towards you.
24:32 The other half will run away from you. Absolutely. Isn't it? Half of them will sue you and put you in jail. The other
24:38 half will put you as king because the word comes in. It divides. It's like durian perfume. I never knew. So ladies,
24:44 line up and we'll take orders for you later on. But to those who did receive him, who
24:50 believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, but of the will of the
24:57 flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. I know. He says born not the blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of
25:04 man. He's trying to emphasize that this is not physical birth. It's not IVF. You
25:09 know, you know, you don't see a doctor for this. This is a spiritual birth. And it gives you a right to become children
25:16 of God. A tremendous privilege. You know, there there are two different relationships in life. He's saying
25:21 there's one where pagan or business relationship employer employee, right?
25:27 Or a father son relationship. Only two kinds of relationship. The first kind of relationship is the business
25:32 relationship. Employer employee based on what you do. Conditional if you perform
25:39 you are accepted. So if if you perform work hard I will pay you. If you don't
25:45 perform I won't pay you. If you don't pay me I won't work for you. And so therefore some of us have a business
25:51 relationship with God. Right? I've got people who say oh I'm not going to come to church. You know what? You know what? I have to get my life straight first. I
25:58 must be righteous first. I must be well behaved. Then only I come to church. That's a pagan relationship. That's not
26:05 relationship built on sunship. When you are a child of God, you have intimacy
26:12 with the king. You immediately go into his side, his lap. We have honor because
26:19 we are children of God. We have security because he will never let us go. And we
26:25 have an inheritance which is in heaven. How do we respond to this word?
26:31 There's a very interesting series out if you catch it at the Discovery Channel. It's a story of God by Morgan Freeman.
26:38 It's very popular. And what Morgan Freeman does is that he goes all over the world in every different culture and
26:45 he examines how people think of God, respond to God, and he's trying to draw
26:51 a composite picture of what God really is by looking at all the various cultures. All right. He's searching for
26:58 God. This Socrates and Socrates had great difficulty about this organizing
27:04 principle called logos. And it says that oh that someone would arise man or god
27:09 to show us god. He realized there's a limitation how much you can think about and theorize about god real who god is
27:16 you know only certain amount of research. uh Plato said unless a god man
27:22 comes to us and reveals to us the supreme being there is no help and there is no hope. James Urban, one of the
27:30 astronauts standing on the face of the moon looking at Earth, actually prayed for the first
27:36 time of his life, first time. And he said, "What's more important than man walking on the moon is that God should
27:42 walk on earth." That's a bigger miracle, isn't it? For an astronaut to realize that the first day on the moon. And so
27:49 therefore, the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the
27:56 father, full of grace and truth. John bore rudess about him and cried out,
28:01 this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was
28:07 before me and from his fullness we have received grace upon grace from for the
28:12 law was given through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The
28:19 word became flesh. This is astounding. The word became, which means it's a
28:27 definitive event in time. You can't turn it back. He took upon human substance is
28:34 a completed action. It is a time in the historical past. Okay? The word, the
28:41 eternal word who was with God. Okay? And who was God became flesh. A person with
28:48 two natures. The word as well as flesh. flesh in in Greek terms is yucky. You
28:55 get pimples, you get skin disease. It's it's degrading. For for for a Greek, you could never actually have the
29:02 combination of the two natures. And here you have a person with two natures.
29:08 That's why Matthew says the virgin shall conceive and a bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Emmanuel means
29:15 God with us. John writes later on in one John that was from the beginning which
29:21 we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we looked upon and touch
29:26 with our hands concerning the word of life. So the word of life come in. We've seen him. We've touched him. That means
29:33 actual real human flesh. It's all right. Human flesh. It's not make believe.
29:39 Okay. The word became flesh. So which means why sal we cannot save ourselves.
29:44 The only way we could save get salvation is where the word becomes one of us and
29:50 God punishes him for all our sin. That's the only way
29:55 it's going to happen. It's an affirmation of our human existence that we as dirty, frail human flesh, God
30:03 actually condescends to come into our form. That's a big deal. He identifies
30:10 with us when we're actually tempted. We cannot turn around says, "God, you don't really understand."
30:15 He understands. You know why? Because he was tempted in every single way. Worse than us. You know why? Because he never
30:20 succumb worthy of our adoration. I was reading an article
30:27 National Geographic 2003. This is a chap called Desh Pumar. Anybody know what his occupation is?
30:36 I take a guess. He he there are five casts in in in India. They've got the
30:42 Brahmins and then you've got whatever. But the untouchable is the lowest class. All right? They're called the Dalits.
30:49 And under the untouchables, there's even a lower subclass called the Bangis. He's a bangi. You know what his main job is?
30:56 It's not rocket science. He opens up that big hole on the ground called a septic tank.
31:02 And he and all the cockroaches will come out. The pong is enough to kill you and
31:08 you jump right in. Dangerous job. You know why? Carbon monoxide. In this particular article 22, other people had
31:14 already died going into septic tank to take out dead animals. A lot of you know, and everybody walks far far
31:21 away from him. Imagine how many of you would like to go to
31:27 India and take his place. No takers, right? It's like when God
31:35 comes in the world, it's as bad as that. We're talking about the almighty God,
31:40 creator of heaven and earth, becoming flesh. It's like that. And the word
31:46 became flesh and dwelt among us. The word dwelt is tabernacled.
31:51 which draws us back to the idea of a tabernacle where the people of Israel had God being their God and they're his
31:58 people and that is reflected in the fact that his presence is with them in this tabernacle. And then Jesus is now saying
32:05 that when I come I will be the ultimate tabernacle. I will be ultimate temple. In John chapter 2 he talks destroy this
32:13 temple right and in three days I will raise it. You see, it sets the scene for
32:18 John chapter 2. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have
32:24 seen his glory. Glory of the only son of the father full of grace and truth. And
32:29 we're going to talk about glory. Glory in the Old Testament is kabode. Someone's worthiness, heaviness,
32:36 weightiness as it were. This is Exodus 40. When the cloud
32:41 covered the tent of meeting, the glory of God filled the tabernacle. Verse 38, for the cloud of the Lord was on the
32:48 tabernacle by day and fire by night, and the sight of the house of Israel
32:53 throughout all their journey. So glory of God is manifested by a cloud, bright shining light, fire. But glory can be
33:01 taken in a different sense. What's the glory here, girls?
33:07 Huh? Muscles. So many young people, they're all doing this, right? There must be some glory there. Okay. Uh, what
33:15 about this one? Miss Malaysia 2017. You cannot remember.
33:22 Gee, you guys are bad. Your own Miss Malaysia. Ah, what's her glory? Beauty.
33:31 What's his glory? Brains. What's his glory?
33:38 character. This is Martin Luther. Fought for rights, civil rights in the United
33:45 States. Actually have a holiday for him last uh month, I think, with the most inappropriate person signing for it. Uh
33:53 and then what's her glory? Love, right? So glory comes in different
33:60 forms. Full of glory, only son of a father, full of grace and
34:06 truth. Now we talk about concept of glory and glory is actually the grace and truth. Now we're talking about
34:12 phrase this the the glory of the son from the father full of grace and truth. You know the the the phrase here great
34:20 full of grace and truth actually triggers something in your mind when you read this and and you won't it won't be
34:27 really apparent that I have to bring to you. It's like certain phrases it brings you back to a place in time. For
34:33 example, if I say a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, what does that
34:38 trigger in your mind, boys? Star Wars. If I were to say, I have a dream. What
34:46 does it trigger in your mind? Martin Luther, right? All right. King.
34:51 Um, to be or not to be, that is the question. Go back further in time.
34:57 Shakespeare. Who can tell me which particular sonnet? I forget about it.
35:03 Or what about this one? A local actor from Singapore. Don't play play
35:10 straight way you think about Puang, isn't it? No, Americans won't understand this. Okay.
35:17 But that's what the Bible is, isn't it? Every time you have the Bible, they come up with a phrase and the phrase triggers
35:22 everybody knows. The trouble is you don't live in the world of the Bible. So when it says grace and truth, nobody
35:27 cares. It brings you back to the time of Moses, Exodus 32-34,
35:35 where when Moses went up there to get his two tablets of panadol from God, he
35:40 came down with a headache. You know why? Because people started having
35:45 a golden cow. And who was involved in the golden cow? His brother. His brother
35:50 was the one organizing the worship service with the golden cow. And Moses really upset. God was really upset. They
35:58 broke the tablets and he was going to punish the people. Moses came before God
36:03 said look don't destroy them destroy me. He actually offered his life and what
36:09 was in question was will the promised people the the promise go to the promised will they be successful because
36:16 their actual existence is in jeopardy because they have betrayed the very God who saved them out of Egypt. And it was
36:24 a difficult situation and Moses was depressed. Moses was uncertain. Moses
36:29 was alone because he's lost his brother. And what did God do? So he said to God
36:36 in Exodus uh 33 198, "Please show me
36:41 your glory." Because he was so depressed. The only thing that can get me through the next few years is that
36:48 you show me who you are. Show me your beauty, your glory. Then maybe if I see
36:53 or Star Wars, you know, then I will have enough faith to go to the promised land. Show me your glory. And he said, I will
37:00 make all my goodness pass before you and I'll proclaim before you my name, the
37:06 Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. But he says, "You cannot see my face, for man shall
37:12 not see me and live." And the Lord said, "Behold, there's a place where you can stand by the rock. And while my glory passes, I will put you in a cliff of the
37:19 rock. I will cover you with my hands until I've passed by and then I will take away my hand. You will see my back
37:25 but my face shall not be seen. You can't see God. You can see his glory. Traces
37:31 of glory from backside but you can't see the front otherwise you will die. And that was enough for Moses. But what is
37:39 his glory? His glory is his goodness.
37:45 Right? And then let's read on Exodus 34. And the Lord descended upon the cloud
37:51 and stood with him and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a
37:58 God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and
38:04 loving kindness. This is the word that God's glory is his goodness and his
38:11 goodness is his steadfast love and faithfulness has said which is covenantal love and emtt which is
38:18 faithfulness. This is the same word this is God's glory his steadfast love and
38:23 his faithfulness is a guarantee of Israel's future and this is the same word which is then translated into grace
38:31 and truth in the New Testament. So God is bringing us back. John is bringing
38:37 back to see the glory of God. It's not in the lights and the lightning and and
38:43 the clouds. It's actually grace and truth in the person of Jesus
38:48 Christ. Moses saw the shining light. We will see the hidden glory of God in the
38:55 person of Jesus Christ through his grace which is unmmerited favor and love and truth. So if you look in the book of
39:01 John, you will actually see later on there will be seven signs in the first
39:06 11 chapters. And each of these signs or miracles show in some part his glory.
39:14 His glory is shown with power and purpose. Glory is always power and
39:19 purpose. And the and it expresses his love and faithfulness to the people. Let
39:25 me look at the seven miracles. John two, he turns water into wine. He heals a sick boy. He heals the lame man. He
39:33 feeds 5,000 people. He's walking on the water. He heals a congenitally blind man. In chapter 11, he raises Lazarus
39:40 from the dead, right? Does he ever do a David Copperfield
39:45 and do a card trick or maybe he can levitate 15 people up in the, you know, 15 meters off the the ground and say,
39:53 "Gee, or maybe by Superman, put on a cape and fly from one end to another." Don't you think that will be a more
39:58 effective miracle? Straight away I believe who is God, you know, but he never does that. His miracles are
40:05 display of his power and purpose. The power is what the miracles the purpose is that each
40:12 miracle is designed to meet a human need and displays the grace and love of God.
40:19 He meets a need when he turns water into wine. He meets a need when the boy is sick. He needs a need for a man lame for
40:27 30 something years. He meets needs when they're hungry, 5,000 people. He meets a need when the disciples are trapped in a
40:34 storm and he's seen walking on water. He meets a need when Lazarus dies. Always a
40:40 purpose and power. Now the next thing is that Jesus shows
40:46 his glory through his goodness, through the signs and finally the ultimate glory is what? death on the cross where he
40:54 dies for all of us. Not only is that we also have the hiddenenness of his glory
41:01 where actually he provides the grace and the ability to have faith. The ability to have faith is also a dispensation of
41:08 grace from Jesus Christ. Right? So it's like the beauty of beasts. I don't know how many of you seen this movie
41:14 recently. Got anybody? Yep. Okay. Good. So you're with me. Uh, Emma Watson plays a beautiful girl called Belle, and she's
41:22 got to decide. You've got two men after her. One is Gaston, handsome, strong, powerful,
41:29 questionable morals. And then on the other hand, you've got the beast, ugly, bad breath, no, you got
41:37 no table manners at all, and he's kept a father prisoner. But yet through it all, she
41:44 discovers that he's specular, faithful, loyal, kind, good, and even wanted to
41:50 sacrifice his life for hers. Guess who she chose? The ugly guy. See you guys all working
41:58 out and all that. No point. I I don't understand the the current obsession. All these boys, they all want
42:04 to be, you know, like Gaston. But you want to marry a beautiful girl like Belle.
42:10 Girls, you see the character inside. That's the real glory, isn't it? All right. Don't look at Gaston. He dies in
42:17 the air actually. This is YouTube uh singer Bono and I and he's become a
42:22 Christian and he and he's really active uh with the word and works of charity. I'm going to read his testimony to you.
42:28 He says the idea of that God if there's a force of love and logic in the
42:33 universe that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. that it would
42:39 seek to explain itself by becoming a child born in poverty and straw a child.
42:45 I just thought wow just poetry isn't it? I saw the genius of picking a particular
42:51 point in time and deciding to turn on this. Love needs to find a form.
42:58 Intimacy needs to be whispered. Love has to become an action or something
43:03 concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be
43:11 made flesh. Isn't that beautiful? This guy not only sings well, he also writes
43:16 well. But this is the explanation of his life. Only love can touch the human
43:21 heart. And Corinthians 3:18, my favorite verse says, "We all with unveiled faces
43:27 beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one glory to another. For this
43:33 comes from the Lord who is the spirit." You see, Belle lived in the castle with
43:40 the beast. And day in and day out, she saw a little bit and a little bit of the
43:47 glory of the beast. In the little kind acts he did for her, slowly she saw
43:52 deeper and deeper and deeper and she fell in love. Same thing happens with
43:57 us. As we see spend time with God in his word, we see more and more of him and we
44:03 are transformed as we fall in love with him. Let me give you a challenge. This is a huge telescope at Aerosibo in
44:13 Puerto Rico and it's basically trying to scour the universe for radio signals.
44:19 They've got this program called the search for extraterrestrial uh people, you know, searching for ET.
44:26 And one day in 2012, an amazing thing happened. ET rang back.
44:33 There was a radio burst of signals, big one. Uh from far off galaxy, 3 billion
44:41 light years away. And you know, everybody got excited. You know why? Because this radio frequency burst was
44:47 powerful and it was repeated sporadically. So all the you know PhDs
44:54 were pouring over the data. First time ET rang home. Why? Because they may be
44:60 we're not alone. There may be life form out there. I mean the jury is still out. But the point is people are still
45:06 looking for God. Morgan Freeman is still prowling all over the world looking
45:11 every single culture trying to look for God. But you know God has already
45:17 arrived. The word has already come 2,000 years ago.
45:23 I when I was preaching at Bangsal Gospel Hall in town many years ago, they told
45:28 me a real life story of one of their members who had gone for a Christian uh
45:34 for a mission trip to the remote villages of uh Indonesia and they came
45:40 to a part where they weren't too happy about Christians being there because things were happening. And a gang of men
45:46 came to the village and they were rampaging and pillaging and they were trying to grab everybody's Bible, you
45:52 know, and Christian literature and put in a big bonfire to set it ablaze. They came upon this boy clutching his Bible,
45:59 this boy from Malaysia, Koala Lumpo. And and they asked him for the Bible, he
46:05 refused. They insisted, he persisted. No. And a shot rang out and he fell to
46:10 the ground dead. and he took his Bible and put it on the bonfire and it burned
46:16 and it burned and it burned. You thought the word of God died, isn't it? Wasn't
46:22 preserved. It was burned. Years later on, if you go to Indonesia today, they will tell you there are churches 30,000
46:28 strong. You cannot burn the word of God. You know why? Because the word of God is
46:34 alive. The word of God is a person. You cannot kill it. And you know why they're
46:41 so afraid. You know why they persecute Christians? Because they're afraid. They're afraid of the truth. When the
46:48 truth comes out, you're terrified because truth will change your world. It will rock your life. And so therefore,
46:54 if you don't understand the truth, you don't want the truth. You reject the truth. And you try to burn it. You try to destroy it. You try all sorts of
47:00 ways. Across the world, you will see this Bible. And this Bible
47:08 comes from Wales. Uh 400 years ago, u some soldiers came in
47:14 and they they they they tore bits of this Bible out, the binding and the and the hard cover and and 40% of the pages
47:21 they burnt it to keep themselves warm and the rest they use as toilet paper. But the British being British, they
47:28 preserve everything. And this the rest of the 60% Bible is preserved. One of the oldest Bibles in Wales, 400
47:34 years old. The British are great at preserving things. You know, they got museums like we've got medical schools.
47:42 You know how many museums you got in this country? In this town, KL? How many know? Anybody know? One. You see all
47:49 ignorant fools? Nine. Nine. You know how many British
47:56 have in London itself? 215 Bibles. H sorry uh uh museums.
48:04 You see, the British are great at preserving stuff, right? They'll they
48:09 never throw anything away. You go to British Museum, you'll see bones, kings, queens. They never throw anything away.
48:16 They preserve the form, but they missed the power. If you go to Britain today, there not many churches left. You're not
48:22 going to see a church of 30,000 strong in London. They're struggling. Somehow,
48:29 their Bible wasn't burned completely. Isn't it a paradox? But their faith
48:35 has gone down completely. That's a paradox. And this paradox is also apparent in our own
48:42 lives, isn't it? We can preserve the form but deny its power. How many of us have
48:50 Bibles at home? Well preserved, beautiful big ones that cost hundreds of
48:55 dollars. The NIV, how many you got at home? Nobody got NIV. New international person. Ah, good. Wonderful. What about
49:03 the ESV? Put your hands up. Good news Bible.
49:08 What about the NRB? How many got NRV? Put your hands up. Never read Bible.
49:15 What about the S&T Bible? See no touch Bible. Oh, what about the rest of us? Our Bible
49:22 is in a cloud over the rainbow and it shall always remain there.
49:29 We have the form sometimes but we don't have the power. It doesn't come alive for us. We need to understand that the
49:37 word comes. It's a live pulsating word that can actually change your life. The
49:43 non-Christians out there know that. You guys don't know it. You just keep it in the house. But they're so terrified of first chance they get. They burn it.
49:50 They burn it because they're terrified of the truth. We have the truth and we we preserve it but we deny its power. We
49:56 don't let it come into our lives. You don't let it speak to us. You don't let it engage in all the difficult decisions
50:02 of our lives, isn't it? That's the sad part of our encounter with the word.
50:11 Here we have Isaiah. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send?
50:17 Who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me." And he said, "Go and to this people keep on hearing, but do not
50:25 understand. Keep on seeing but do not perceive. See this is like the British.
50:31 You get the ro, you can read it but you don't understand it. You don't perceive it and you just preserve it. The only
50:38 difference that will break through in this situation is an actual desire in our hearts to see the power explode in
50:46 our lives. So we've got to make that step brothers and sisters in Christ. We're going to make that step today to
50:52 say I want this word to be a living power in my life. And one of the only ways to do it is to join a disciplehip,
50:59 a life group or gamma or alpha. You know why? Because we can actually see the word of God in each other's life, how it
51:07 works. And we can hold each other accountable to see how the word is actually transforming and pulsating in
51:13 our lives. We let it we'll let it answer all the difficult questions of life.
51:18 That's our first step. God will do the rest. This is Max Plank, one of the
51:23 world's foremost pioneers in science. He developed quantum theory many years ago
51:30 and he actually won the Nobel Prize. Story was told, Max Plank went around
51:35 Germany giving talks because he won the Nobel Prize, right? And he gave his talk
51:40 so often that the tropher that drove him around, you know, he said, you know, boss, you know, you give so often, I
51:46 also memorize every single word. I bet you I could deliver the lecture. Max Pan
51:51 looked at him. Oh, well well all right. One day he went to a town and actually Max Plank said, "Okay, you have a go."
51:58 And the the chauffeur took the podium and Max Plank put on the chauffeer's hat
52:04 and sat at the bottom and he gave the lecture and it was true. He gave the
52:10 lecture every single word perfect. Every nuance, drop the tone, lift the tone.
52:16 Exactly. Right. And then after the lecture ended, someone asked a question.
52:22 Oh, difficult question. He was taken back a little bit. Then you say he
52:27 smiled. Ah, that question very simple. I think you know it's so simple that my
52:33 chauffeur will answer it.
52:39 Some of us are like that, isn't it? The easy part is just doing the lecture. The
52:45 hard part is actually understanding the word. Some of us read the word simply
52:50 because it's in our quiet time. We got to do this my obligation to God. It's like a business relationship. If I don't
52:56 do it, something happened to my business. That's what we do. We don't actually allow the ex the Holy Spirit to
53:03 come into our lives and take that word and apply it to the difficult questions
53:09 of your life, to the relationship questions with your wife, with your children, with your boss. We don't let
53:14 it come in. And as long as we hold God at that kind of level, the word will
53:19 never pulsate with life. The word will never pulsate with power if we keep it a
53:25 bay. I'm going to pray in a minute the next few months all of us listen
53:33 very closely, prepare and read the book of John. It is deep. It is powerful. It will rock your world. The world is
53:40 terrified of the book of John. But you don't have to be because it's going to unlock such a intimacy and closeness to
53:47 God that when you are 91, you're not going to say, "I'm waiting for the phone call." You know what?
53:53 Because I'm when I'm 91, if I ever get to 91, I'm going to be worshiping God. I
53:59 don't care if you're there with me. It would be nice if you come visit me, too. But I'm going to be alone with him. And
54:06 one day I'm going to cross that river Jordan because the word is a person. It's not a
54:14 philosophy. It's not a principle. It's a living human person. Many of us have not
54:19 experienced this. I'm going to pray that you will experience this. Let's pray. Father Lord, we
54:26 thank you for your word. And we know the word pulsates with power. It's packed with energy. And the
54:34 devil is so afraid of this word. He's trying to burn and slash and cut and distort it all over this world. Father
54:42 Lord, we pray as we go home, each and every single one of us make a serious decision to actually take this word and
54:49 to just digest it and inquire about it and ask questions and and talk to our
54:54 friends about it, get some help to read it so that we will experience its true power. And we will through this word
55:02 through the printed word electronic form or iPad form whatever form it translates
55:07 to a walking living relationship with you. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen.
