Sunday Night: Grace Upon Grace
Place: BLCC
Date: 12/10/17
Text: John 1.6-18
CT: God’s grace covers us all.
In the last days of the Civil War, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, fell to the Union army. Abraham Lincoln insisted on visiting the city. Even though no one knew he was coming, slaves recognized him immediately and thronged around him. He had liberated them by the Emancipation Proclamation, and now Lincoln's army had set them free. According to Admiral David Porter, an eyewitness, Lincoln spoke to the throng around him:
"My poor friends, you are free—free as air. You can cast off the name of slave and trample upon it …. Liberty is your birthright."
But Lincoln also warned them not to abuse their freedom. "Let the world see that you merit [your freedom]," Lincoln said, "Don't let your joy carry you into excesses. Learn the laws and obey them."
That is very much like the message Jesus gives to those whom he has liberated by his death and resurrection. Jesus gives us our true birthright—spiritual freedom. But that freedom isn't an excuse for disobedience; it forms the basis for learning and obeying God's laws.
James L. Swanson, Bloody Crimes (William Morrow, 2010), p.46; submitted by Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois
Do you see where Jesus has given you freedom? You came in here tonight free to worship him. You came in here free to open the Bible and learn from it? Your spiritual freedom comes from Jesus even if you couldn’t be here tonight. No man can take your freedom to choose your spiritual choices. They are completely granted to you by Jesus. Let’s go to the Bible.
John 1.6-18
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
WE have been given grace upon grace.
Why did Jesus put on human flesh and enter our world? It is because of his great love for us. How much does He love us? He loves us so much that He put human flesh around his eternal glory and entered our world. He left the splendor and majesty of heaven to enter the demeaning environment of a cattle trough in Bethlehem to pursue us.
If you ever doubt his love for you remember the cradle he was born in. It is the evidence that he is pursuing you. He desired to give you a new spiritual birth. He came to make you a child of the King of the universe. That’s why he came.
The Father knew the best way to communicate with a bird was to become a bird. And the best way God could talk and interact with humans was to become a human. So the father asked the Son to put on human flesh around his glory and become one of us. Through Jesus you can know the true God and who He is. You can understand his eternal plan for your life.
Christmas is about receiving presents, but consider how challenging it is to receive certain kinds of gifts. Some gifts by their very nature make you swallow your pride. Imagine opening a present on Christmas morning from a friend … and it's a dieting book. Then you take off another ribbon and wrapper and you find it is another book from another friend, Overcoming Selfishness. If you say to them "Thank you so much," you are in a sense admitting, "For indeed I am [overweight] and obnoxious."
In other words, some gifts are hard to receive, because to do so is to admit you have flaws and weaknesses and you need help. Perhaps on some occasion you had a friend who figured out you were in financial trouble and came to you and offered a large sum of money to get you out of your predicament. If that has ever happened to you, you probably found that to receive the gift meant following your pride.
There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depths that the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do so. Christmas means that we are so lost, so unable to save ourselves, that nothing less than the death of the Son of God himself could save us. That means you are not somebody who can pull yourself together and live a moral and good life.
Timothy Keller, Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ (Viking, 2016), pages 16-17; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky
We are in a lost state without Jesus. How can you doubt that? Jesus is our hope. Our future. He is our refuge and our strength.
Makes me want to read Psalm 46.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
This same God of Jacob is the same God who sent us Jesus.
What is Jesus’ nature?
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. He is full of grace and truth. Never place one above the other. They are to be held in perfect tension in your life. Jesus is grace and truth. That is what our text tells us.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Grace without truth becomes a sloppy mushy kind of love—like a river with no boundaries. It produces a mosquito, laden swamp.
But truth without grace becomes rigid judgmentalism. Your soul will die and never flourish.
Seek grace and truth.
Follow Jesus!
And please know that Jesus not only wants to give you grace upon grace. The love he wants to place within you is limitless. It’s beyond any thing you could even hope for in this world.
Today. Right now. Live in his grace and truth. Even if you have been mistreated know that truth will prevail. All will one day be held accountable for their actions. And he oversees all human history. No one gets away with anything. Trust his perfect justice.
Let your heart be filled with grace upon grace. Know the extent the Father pursues you with his love. He yearns to be one with you forever. He wants to be linked with your heart for eternity. He loves deeply those that love him.
Even if you try to push God away he never quits pursuing you. He always is there with the grace upon grace. He loves you that much.
1 John 4.9-12, 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
The proof of his love is in the cradle in the stable. He came for you. He put on human flesh and he pursued you.
Bibliography: Chadwick, David, Hearing the Voice of God; Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 2016
