The Word Became Flesh: New Creation and Covenant

Guys, John is saying we have seen the glory that Moses could only see in part that he had to be protected from. Now the fullness of God's glory was in Jesus. And it's in Jesus. This is the Jesus whom we serve. And John is saying, he is the Messiah, the son of God. And if you believe, then you will have life in his name. This is what he's asking us to come to. [01:03:12] (27 seconds)  #GloryInJesus

Have you thought that God is distant? Have you thought that God doesn't care about this world? What we're told is that God entered into human history as Jesus of Nazareth. And what he did is he died a death and in that death, he did not remain dead. He showed that he was more powerful than death and evil, and he rose from the dead. [01:03:38] (24 seconds)  #ResurrectionPower

But maybe you need to have this reminder that Jesus wants for you to start living the life that he has for you today. Jesus is inviting you to live out his kingdom values. He's asking you to live out as if the kingdom is here right now. We can start to do that by a spirit that is resting on us. He wants to walk with you. So as we go through these weeks in the sermon series, as we go through learning about the person of Jesus, just remember, God is not far away. He has come close and he dwells with us now. [01:05:44] (37 seconds)  #KingdomLivingNow

Pentecost is celebrated. And what happened on Pentecost in the in the first century, right after Jesus rose from the dead fifty days after his resurrection, what happened was the spirit came down and descended and rested on his people there. And it's almost kinda like this new temple sort of imagery, where it used to be that the spirit of God would would rest in the temple and be there, but now it's in and with his people amongst us. So what they did in response to this, as they believed the message of Peter that was preached shortly after this, there's actually a response. [01:04:31] (34 seconds)  #PentecostPresence

Would God want anything to do with us? Does God care? Is he close to us at all? But then John, using these themes that he knew that his listeners were familiar with, he flips the script. And it's not that wisdom doesn't come. It's not that this word doesn't come with us. But like I said, that it starts off as a new creation story. The second part of this prologue is a new covenant story. [00:54:55] (27 seconds)  #NewCreationNewCovenant

And the Greeks and the Romans at the time who had a lot of influence in the philosophy and what people were thinking, they would say a lot that the flesh was bad and that the spirit was good. So it was oftentimes kind of, wanting for life to get away from the flesh, to get away from the physical, and to be one with this spiritual, call it heaven or the afterlife or the good place, whatever whatever you might want to call it. But a lot of times, the goal was to leave this corrupted flesh and to go and be with God. [00:59:35] (31 seconds)  #AncientDualism

but God's plan from the start has always been to dwell with his people. That's always been his plan. He's always wanted to be with his people. Thirteen hundred years, about before Jesus was even on the scene, God was leading his people, Israel, out of the land of slavery, out of Egypt, and bringing them to the promised land. And he makes a special agreement with them. He was saying, listen, I'm going to save the world through you guys. [00:56:15] (24 seconds)  #GodDwellsWithUs

God is saying this is what he wanted to do. And so God made a special agreement with his people and they made this tent for God's glory, his spirit to come and rest upon that we call the tabernacle. And God rested in this tent with his people. That this word made a dwelling with, it literally means to take up residence with with with somebody, or to pitch a tent, or to set up camp, something like that. [00:57:02] (25 seconds)  #GodsTabernacle