Who is God

Automatically generated from the video captions and lightly tidied, so expect the odd misheard word.

Are going to look at 1 John. Sorry, John 1. Let me tell you a little bit about So, this guy called John, he was a friend of Jesus. He knew Jesus and traveled with Jesus for about 3 years. He was a follower of Jesus and in if you read your Bible, if you've heard of it before, it's called disciples. Really just means follower.

And so, he spent 3 years under Jesus' ministry day in day out living with him. He even when Jesus was taken and crucified, a lot of the disciples actually scattered. They were so scared for their own lives. They didn't want to be associated with Jesus who was who was having this horrific death. But, John was one of the disciples who stayed and witnessed Jesus' crucifixion. And he was one of the first disciples to hear about his resurrection.

He heard about it from two amazing women, both called Mary. But, they heard about it first and they went and told John and Peter. So, that this is the John who is writing So, John 1 starts with "In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God and the word was God." So, we're going to pause right there. John, when he's writing this, it's not right after Jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection. It's actually quite a number of decades after.

Matthew, Mark, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke have already been written and the church is growing and people are loving Jesus, but they're they're hearing the truth and then they're falling away and they're not really understanding. They're hearing, "Yes, Jesus is Lord and Savior, but he's the son of God. So, if he's the son of God, then he's not really God." And so, what John is doing, he's writing this letter very intentionally. He's writing it to teach people that God that Jesus is God. And so for anyone who grew up as a Jew, they would have had years and years and years of learning the first five books of the And in case you didn't know, the very first words of Genesis, which all Jewish men had to learn and a lot of the Jewish women did learn, is that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So when John is writing this letter and people are hearing this letter, it goes in the beginning.

They're like, "Ooh." It's it's like an automatic reaction. This is Genesis. This is the beginning of creation. This is where This is where God was and then spoke." And so he's doing this intentionally to bring people to a place. So in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So the big W is important in our English language because the original Greek is logos.

And I said if I pronounce it confidently, no one's going to argue with me. So logos speaks of not just word, but it's about routine, order, identity. And so he's using this word and saying there's there's reasoning in this. So in the beginning was reason, in the beginning was order. And this reasoning and order was with God. And the reasoning and order was God.

But again, in Genesis 1, it speaks about it speaks about God being there before creation. So now, the people who are reading it are saying, "Huh. Okay, reasoning and order was with God and was God. Let's move on." He was He was with God in the beginning. Sorry. Perfect.

He was with God in the beginning. So the first one is In the beginning was the word, and word was with God, and the word was God. And then it turns to he. So now we're seeing that Logos that John was speaking of is a person. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made.

Without him nothing was made that has been made. Again, John has already brought us to Genesis. And when you know the Genesis story, you know that God is the one who spoke everything into existence. And now, John is referring to Logos as he, who without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life. And that life was the light of all The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So, let's remember this for later on. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Again, referring back to Genesis. A lot of the Bible is very thematic and pictorial. And so, even in over the whole Bible, but especially in Genesis, when there's darkness, it symbolizes chaos and disorder and destruction and evil and death. And when there's light, it signifies truth.

It signifies God. It signifies And so when he's referring to this, there's very strong emotions that are already linked in the people who are reading this the very first time. And so just for us when we're reading it, when we look at it, we're like, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness hasn't overcome it." We're looking at light and dark, light and dark. But it would have hit different. And that's why I'm kind of over explaining and saying like cuz it does, it means something so much so much more when you understand it in the in the context with which it was written. So let's have a quick look at that.

From this passage, who is God? It's the other one. It's the first who is God. It's It should be verse 1 2 3. I can tell you. So God was there at the beginning.

And from verse 1 was In the beginning was the word. So God was there from the beginning and is a person God is life and God is So the final two ones let's remember. So God is life and God is light. Okay. So when I was 17, for my 17th birthday, I celebrated it by going out on a to a driving lesson. And that was very intentional because I just wanted my independence.

I wanted to I really wanted to be able to get out and go visit people. I was working at the time and I was like I just want to drive. I don't understand anyone who doesn't. I was so motivated that by 5 months in I got my full license first time. And as I was driving my friends around and you know after about a year or two I was like, "Yeah, but aren't you going to get your driving license?" They're like, "No, why would I? Why would I?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I guess.

You know, like I'm driving you around, that's fine. But then once it got into their to their 20s and as my friends started to learn how to drive, there was something different in what they were going through. So I was so motivated, had no fear. You know, I remember first lesson the lady drove me up the mountain then I drove back and I was like, "Yeah, grand, no problem." but then my friends who were in their 20s were really nervous and we're going like five or six or seven lessons in and we're still driving around a car park because they didn't want to be out on the road. And I'm like I don't get this. I'm like, "Is this person just a really nervous person?

Like what's going on?" But I it is something that I did notice that as you as you get older it seemed that it people were more nervous to start to learn how to drive I went to college and did psychology and I learned a little bit about the frontal lobe and about how it develops. So at 17 your frontal lobe isn't fully developed. Usually by age 21 in girls, 23 to 25 in boys, you are your brain is fully developed. And so at age 17 you have a higher you're a higher risk taker. You have less long-term consequential reasoning and you just you don't have the fear whereas at 25 you understand the gravity that when you're in this moving machine your life is in your hands and other people's lives are in your hands and so you have you have actual proper reasoning. So even when I learned that I was like okay that makes sense that makes sense but it wasn't my experience.

And so there are some things that you can know but until you experience them you can't really understand. And so in January 2025 I crashed my car and I experienced fear when driving. Not only did I experience fear when I experienced panic attacks as a passenger. They were so strong and triggered by something so little that my vision would go and I could not breathe while I wasn't even driving. And so thank God I'm out of that now. But now nervous drivers in the room now I understand.

Now I understand that when you see someone who hasn't indicated it throws you off. Now I understand that when you see someone just wibbling a little bit now I understand the absolute terror and fear that goes through your body because I've experienced this. Often that could kind of be said the same as with love. Sometimes you can know about love but until you experience it, you don't fully get it. So, when I'm like, who do I love the most? Which story will I tell?

When we were first going to have I remember we went for a ultrasound, and the sonographer we could see the little baby and we were we were looking at the TV and they popped on the little heartbeat and it goes It's very fast. And I'm like, what's that? And it's like And she's like, that's the heartbeat. And guys, that is the first time that I saw my husband cry for anything other than an Arsenal game. He cried with joy because he heard he heard and experienced this life. It wasn't just a concept anymore.

It was real. And so And so that's almost the same as with God's love. We can hear about it and we can know about it, but until we experience it, it doesn't really take root. So, we are going to we're going to look in John 3 at what God's love is. And I could talk all day about who God is, but I settled on one word, love, because otherwise we'd literally go through the whole Bible. So.

And I know I promised only an hour. So, I just want to I just want to reset our brains a little bit about what love is. And because our is a human love. And so, when I say love, or when I say God is love, as an answer of who is God, I want us to just reframe and reset it a little bit so that we see that human love is not the same as God's love. So, when I say God is love, it's not it's not it's not the empty, word love that's written on a card from an absent parent who maybe sends you something once or twice a year. It's not the word it's not the empty, worthless word of a of a partner who is there in the good times and then when times get hard, they leave.

It's It's not that kind of love. It's not the love of a best friend who suddenly stops texting. It's It's not even the love of a mom who's trying her best but still messes up because that's the type of love I give, but that's not that's not the love we're talking about. We're talking about God's love. So, we're not talking about human love, we're talking about God's love. And let's see how God loves.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, I'm like, this is a world who has rejected him. This is a world of people who have said, "No, God, I don't want to go your way. I want to go my own way." And yet God loved the world so much that he gave his own one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son. This is the verdict.

Light has come into the world but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. So don't get caught up in the light and the dark and the light and the What John is trying to show is that God is the light and he's giving opportunity and the light is moving towards his people. Because God so loved God so loved the world that the light stepped down into the darkness. Goodness stepped down when there was no So from this we can see John 3:16.

God loves you. Every single person in this room, every single person in this whole earth, God cares and God saves. The reason why he sent his son was so that everyone has an opportunity to believe in him and not to perish. Verse 18, God gives second chances. Again, John is very intentional with this. He's intentional with the repetition.

He's saying, "This is God and he and he's giving you opportunity to come back to him. This is God. He's giving you opportunity to come back to And verse 21, God values truth. If you can just go back actually to verse 21 again, that'd be amazing. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. That was literally my sermon last week, wasn't So, it's a little bit wordy.

But remember we were saying that when there's a lie spoken over you, if you have the truth, it's easy it's easy to recognize the lie. So, John is saying whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. He's speaking about Jesus. He's saying, "If you are living in truth, you're taking a step towards Christ, a step towards Jesus, a step towards God so that it may be plainly seen that what they have done has been done in the sight of God." Again, it's all very wordy. The intention behind it is that cuz the preceding verse was about second chances. And so and it's saying, "This is your promise.

This is your promise that, you know, God cares about your heart. He knows you're not perfect. That's why he's sent Jesus. He cares about He cares about the person who takes a step towards him. He cares about the person who just They know and recognize that they can't do it in their own strength, but they want to come before God. They humble themselves.

They take a step and say, 'Look, God, not in my own strength, but I know that you are a God of miracles. I know that you can do it.' And Lord Jesus, I'm going to keep messing up, but I'm going to try because I love you so much because I see what you've done. I see that you sent your son. You loved me so much. You loved me so much that you sent your son for me. Wow.

I understand that I understand that and so I want to take a step towards you. And isn't that even as earthly don't we don't we appreciate when even when our kids mess up, when they come and they apologize or when they come and own up, when we don't have to find that thing that's already broken and then accuse them and say, "I know who did it." But you really don't. When they come and they say, "Mom, this has happened and I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have done that. I know I disobeyed you. This happened.

I'm sorry." Don't we forgive them? But God's heart is so much bigger than ours. So if we if we love our children in the in that humanly way that we know is so false and so failing and it's so inferior to God, then how much more does God love us and give us a second chance when we turn to him and step towards him. So guys, I'm going to give you a challenge and your challenge is to just take the next step. S- For some of you, the next step might be coming on team. For some of you, the next step might be just coming back again next week.

For some of you, the next step might be giving financially or might be joining the Alpha. This is one thing that I want to encourage everyone to do. I did it for the first time, I think 2 years ago. And I became a believer when I was 11 and I'm not going to do the math, but even as Sorry, I apologize for that. Even as a Christian for a very long time, what Alpha is great at is it really goes more in depth as to who God is and who the Holy Spirit is and it's it is a course that is for people who are seeking. So, if you're not a Christian, you can ask all the questions without feeling like oh, I should know it.

No, it's for everyone. Or if you've been a Christian for a long time, if you're if you if you kind of like lost your joy and you just want to get closer again to God, then this is a great next step. So, I would encourage you to sign up for Alpha.