Why does John call Jesus “the Word”?

In John 1:1-18, the Gospel opens not with a manger but in eternity: “In the beginning was the Word.” In this study, Dr. Toby Holt introduces the Gospel of John and its central claim — that Jesus is God in the flesh.

John writes as an eyewitness — one who saw, heard, and touched Jesus — grounding the faith in history, not legend. Dr. Holt explains why John calls Jesus “the Word”: He is God’s fullest self-revelation, the One through whom all things were made. John also calls Him “the light” that shines in the darkness, though people often love the darkness instead. The wonder of the passage is its center: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” — the eternal Son entered our world to save us.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why does John call Jesus “the Word”? Because Jesus is God’s fullest self-revelation — God speaking and showing Himself to us — and the One through whom all things were made.

2. What does it mean that Jesus is “the light”? He brings truth, life, and clarity into a dark world, though many prefer the darkness because their deeds are evil.

3. Why does it matter that John was an eyewitness? Because the Christian faith rests on history, not myth. John reports what he actually saw, heard, and touched.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” — John 1:14 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the John Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

In today's sermon, we're beginning a new series on the Gospel of John. John 1:1 starts with these words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." A few verses later, John refers to Jesus as the Light. Now, why did John use these terms to describe Christ's person and work? That'll be the focus of today's study.

When I've talked about Jesus to those who are from other belief systems, other religions. When I talk about Jesus to folks in those environments, what's interesting is they don't spit back at me a bunch of bile regarding Jesus. They don't say, "Jesus, ah, we don't need him." They don't do anything like that. They tend to compliment Jesus. What I found when I'm talking to those of other belief systems is that they tend to compliment Jesus. They say, "Jesus, yes. Jesus." And then they'll talk about how He was a great leader, how He's a great teacher, a great motivator, a wise man, He's a very wise man. Some will say He was a great prophet. But you know what they won't say?

They won't say that He was God. And that is the one distinction that John verses one through 18 labors to make again and again as we go through it. If you've ever heard anyone talk about Jesus as a great teacher, a great rabbi, a great leader, a great prophet, He was all those things, amen and amen. But those things don't save us. We are not saved because Jesus was a great teacher. We are not saved because He was a great prophet. We're not saved because He did any manner of great things, even miracles in times past. Those things don't save us. What saves us principally is this, that He was God in the flesh, that He was God incarnate, that God came down, that He who preexisted all of creation came down from His throne to go to a cross. He died, He was buried, He was resurrected three days later, and now He sits at the right hand of God the Father. We're not saved on the basis of things that He said or did apart from the divine nature by which He did them. Now, why would anyone from a different belief system give credit to Jesus at all? Why would those in other belief systems talk about Jesus positively? Well, here's the thing. It doesn't cost them anything to do that. In fact, even just in secular society, there may be celebrities, politicians, any manner of people who will quote Jesus, and they don't see any problem with that, even if they're not formal believers. They'll quote Jesus in reference to wise things that He has said. Now, why again do they do that? People want the latitude to quote things Jesus said without falling under the authority of those very things. They want Jesus, and they like a Jesus who is like this kindly gentleman from centuries past, this kindly gentleman that said wonderful, sweet, loving things to people centuries ago, and if He was with you right now, He'd say wonderful, sweet, loving things to you as well. They want a Jesus that they can define as just this kindly gentleman, this itinerant rabbi who went around loving people. Now, is that Jesus depicted in this Word? Well, yes. He was a kindly, itinerant individual who went around healing people. And He said all manner of sweet things, absolutely. With that said, the problem they have is when this same one says anything that conflicts with the way they want to live their lives, and furthermore, He has the authority to enforce that which He has said. You see, that's the demarcation line that the early church faced. The early church, their problem was this, that many would credit Jesus for things that He accomplished and maybe even some of the miraculous things that He did, and yet they would strip Him of his divinity. Some of the early church councils, the main arguments, the main fights they had were with regards to the person of Jesus. Who was He? Was He God in the flesh? Was He God-like? Was He a demi-God? What was His nature? With that said, John 1, verses one through 18, is written late in John's life, and the intention of this gospel is to explain forthrightly to any and all who would read it, any and all who would encounter these words, that this Jesus is not just a mere nice, kindly man. He's not just a mere kindly rabbi, and prophet, and leader, and teacher, and all these things. He is God in the flesh. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John doesn't start with any salutations. He doesn't say, "Hey, everybody, it's me." He doesn't start letters the other way you write emails. Sometimes we labor over that first line of greeting and so forth. He doesn't bother with that. He gets to the meat right in the first line. "In the beginning," which should've resonated with his audience the way it resonates with us. Because where did we first encounter those words? What book? Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." John knows what he's doing here. He says, "In the beginning

was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now, in just a moment, we're going to talk about what that means, that reference to the Word. But like I said at the outset, as we go through this book, as we go through the Gospel of John, that he is intent, absolutely 100% intent in telling his audience that Jesus is not simply a kindly gentleman, but rather this is God in the flesh. And John says, "I have the receipts because I was there on the mountaintop when the Father said, 'This is my Son.'" John is regularly going to talk about himself as an eyewitness to these things. He's not going to say, "I heard from a guy who heard from a guy who have heard from my brother's sister's uncle's friend. I heard from someone out there about these things." He's not going to say that. He's going to say, "I saw it. I heard it. I touched Him. I witnessed all of these things, and I believe, and I want you to believe, too. And here's what you should believe about this Jesus." And that's where verse one opens. All right, let me reread verses one through three, and then we'll work our way through as time allows. Verses one through three. "In the beginning

was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made."All right. In verse one, John is making two theological statements. Now, the first is to refer to Jesus as the Word. He does this several times, refers to Jesus as the Word. Question is, why? Wouldn't it be simpler to say, "In the beginning was Jesus. In the beginning was the Messiah. In the beginning was Christ." Wouldn't it be simpler to do that? Why does he say the Word? Why does he say, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God?" Well, theologians have explained this in two different ways. Number one, they talk about the historical context in which John wrote. At that time, the world was populated with great thinkers, and those thinkers were influenced by Greece. And Greece's approach to philosophy and logic and even theology was very abstract. And when Greek philosophers talked about the universe itself, they had a word to describe the fabric that holds everything together, and that word is logos. That was the word that the Greek philosophers would use. So, in a sense, you could argue that what John is doing is he's taking a popular term, popular phrase, and he's saying, "Yes, there is a fabric that holds the universe together, but by the way, it's this guy, Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word. He was with God. He was God." And he formed all things. Verse three, "All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that was made." In a sense, he may be referring to Greek philosophy when he refers to Jesus Christ here as the Word, to go over and against the modern, popular teaching of that time. With that said, there's a second possibility with regards to why he calls Jesus the Word here. Now, let me ask you a question. What do words accomplish? What's the purpose of words?

Communication. Communication, right? [chuckles] Words help reveal things about one another. Now, let me ask you a question. There is one thing I hate above all things, one food substance I hate more than anything else. Celery. See? Now, how do you know that? How do you know I hate celery? How do you know it? Well, you know it because I've told you time and time again. I don't think a Sunday goes by I don't allude to the horrors of celery. Someone sent me a picture of celery this week. I couldn't get off my phone fast enough. [laughing] [chuckles] So, but you know that because I revealed something about my nature, something about my likes and dislikes, something about myself I have told you time and time again. And because of that, you know it to be true. That's revelation, but the revelation came through words. It didn't come because you've ever seen me eat it. I would never do such a thing. It didn't come because you've seen me push it away. I wouldn't even be in the same room as it. It didn't come through observation. It came through revelation because I told you. So when you talk about words, words are revelatory. This whole book right here is a revelation. This is 2,000 pages of God telling you about himself and telling you about his plan for your life. This is God's Word, his revelation to you and I. Now, in one sense, you could say this is the greatest revelation we've ever been given, the Word of God. What could be better than that? Well, I'll tell you. What if the Word, what if the Word that's open every Sunday here on the table, what if the Word was to be made flesh? What if God said, "I give you [Bible slamming] my word. I will tell you about myself," but what if the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst you? Would that not be a finer revelation of who I am than even what you have here? Well, the short answer is yes. There's no greater revelation God has ever given mankind about himself than when he sent his only begotten Son, the second member of the Trinity, to walk and dwell and speak and breathe amongst his people. The Word was made flesh, and that's what gets John so excited. He says, "For years we had this. We had the Old Testament. We had the prophets. We had what they told us about God, but in due time, the Word became flesh, and he dwelt among us." And by the way, this is not some demigod. This is not like God's cousin who came down. This is God himself. This is the one who fashioned the cosmos. This is the one who made the universe. Now, that's the second of the two theological statements that John labors over in verses one through three. It's the second main thing he says. He says, not only, "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God," but he goes on to say, "This one, this one made everything that you see in the world around you. This one made the forest and the trees and the fauna and the leaves and all these different things." And not only did he make that stuff, like some sort of cosmic Bob Ross with a great canvas, not only did he make all that stuff, but even now, it is Jesus Christ's power that keeps the entire cosmos from falling apart and disintegrating. It keeps every molecule in the exact place it needs to be, the Word of God, and the Word is Christ. So, in John verse one, John parallels the creation account in Genesis. Again, he knew what he was doing. He said, "In the beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," but in the beginning, Jesus was the principal means by which this happened. "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that was made." Now, if you ever read the book of Hebrews, what's interesting is the author of Hebrews starts the same way. Who wrote Hebrews? God only knows. There's a lot of speculation. It might've been Paul or Barnabas, Apollos. There's different guys it could be. We don't really know, but what we do know is this, that the author of Hebrews opens up his epistle in the exact same way as John did. Listen to how Hebrews 1, verses one and two starts. "God has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he has made the world." Both John and the author of Hebrews, they not only want to say that, by the way, Jesus is the Son of God, but they also labor to make the point that this Jesus is the one who created and formed all the things around us. That transcended whatever the common understanding of Jerusalem and Judea and Ephesus and Thessalonica, whatever the common understanding was about Jesus at that time. It was far less than what John and the author of Hebrews are trying to explain. They're not just saying he was a great man, a great prophet, great leader, demigod, sort of God, what have you. They say, this one. This one who came in real time and space and was born in a manger and went to a cross, he now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and by the way, he is God. There's references in verse one of today's text and verse 18, called bookends, to the TrinityJohn is not content, as we're going to see time and time again, with any lessened understanding of who Jesus was, and neither should we be. All right, let's look at verses four through 13. Verse four through 13.

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Now there was a man sent from God, whose name was John." This is reference to John the Baptist. "This man came for a witness, to bear witness of that light, that all through him might believe. Now he was not that light." So John the Baptist, many asked him, "Are you the Messiah? Are you the Promised One?" And he would say, "No, I'm not even worthy to tie the sandal of the one who's coming." Right? So in verse six it says, "His name was John. He came to be a witness of the light. But he was not that light." Verse eight, "He was sent to bear witness of the light. He was not that light. But this is the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world," this is a reference to Christ, "and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as did receive Him, to those He gave the right to become children of God." Not just peons in the kingdom, but sons and daughters. "To those who believe in His name," not those who earned their status, but those who believe in His name, "who were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man,

but of God."

All right, in verses four through 13,

John changes his metaphor up. Right? On the one hand, he had been talking about the Word. The Word was made flesh, right? He talks about Jesus as the Word. But now he uses a different metaphor. Now he's talking about Jesus as the light. Now, what does that intimate? I mean, everyone knows what light is. They knew what light was in the first century, we know what light is now. But what did that intimate? What did that convey? Let's say that you go into a room, a darkened room, and you turn on a light. What happens? What changes in that environment? During the course of the week, I'm at church at various intervals. Sometimes it's in the morning, sometimes I'm at night after session meetings and the like. But on many occasions, I go into that kitchen back there. Now, you know how many windows that kitchen has? None. I mean, it's got the little things in the door right there. But what I find is that each time I go in the kitchen, routinely, especially if it's at night, it's pitch black in there. But there's usually a little bit of light coming from out here that sort of shines in there a little bit. And many times I say to myself, it's usually because I have something I have to throw away, I say, "I can find the trash can," even though it's really just about pitch dark. So I kind of reach around, try to find it so I can throw my Coke can or whatever I need to throw away. The amount of times I've hit my kneecap on something in that kitchen, it's a veritable minefield if you don't have the light on. I mean, you should see me. I seriously sat there one day and I was just in agony. And I keep doing it because I'm silly. I don't know why I keep doing this. But the amount of times I've had issues in that very kitchen. There's a stool that showed up, I don't know where it came from. There's a stool in there that's now the bane of my existence when I go in there. But I always think, "I got it this time. This is the time I've got it. This is the time I'll navigate it." I keep thinking, if I just remember to take so many steps left, so many steps right, I'll be good. With that said, wisdom says, turn on the light. Wisdom says you don't want to bang your knee. You don't want to mess things up. You don't want to miss the trash can, because that's happened, too. Turn on the light. So what is the principles? What does light do for us? Why do we have lights in our house and in the room and the like? Well, there's four benefits. There's probably more, but there's four key benefits that light brings. Number one, light allows sight. Light allows sight. When the light is on, you can understand your reality. When the light is on, you can understand your circumstances. Reality is given contours by lights. If all of us were to practice, after worship let out, all of us were to practice closing our eyes to find our way to our cars, what kind of mess would we all be in? Right? If we all closed our eyes and literally tried to find our way out of this room, it would be a scene. Why? Because apart from the light, apart from being able to see, we can't define the contours of where our next footfall is going to land, let alone anything else. Let alone dangers we might otherwise engage in. Light allows sight. Number two, light reduces risk. Through allowing sight, it reduces risk. When our path is clear, we're able to avoid dangerous things. When God came into this world through the person work of His Son, when He shed light on certain sinful behaviors and attitudes and approaches, it helped the people to steer clear of those things and to avoid risk that would otherwise ensnare them or destroy them. So light reduces risk, which is one of the reasons that we turn on the light. Number three, light's comforting.

Light's comforting. Have you ever been a child or had a child who, at nighttime, you tuck them into bed, or you get tucked into bed when you're a small kid, and the request of the child is what? "Daddy, could you leave the light on?" "Don't forget the nightlight." "Is the hallway light on?" Things like that. Now, why does a kid ask that? Why do you ever ask that? What's the point? Well, light's just comforting.

Because apart from the light, in the darkness, we wonder what monsters exist. We wonder what monsters exist under the bed and the like, and we can be told 100 times there's nothing under the bed, there's nothing under the bed, there's nothing under the bed, but when it's dark, we can't really be sure. But there's something about light that gives us some comfort. Number four, light also gives knowledge. Light gives knowledge. If we were given a newspaper in the dark, you'd know it was a newspaper. You wouldn't have doubt about that. You could figure out this is a newspaper. But what could you discern from its teachings? What could you learn from it? In the darkness, nothing. You would have the basic understanding of what it is that you're holding and how it could serve you, but apart from the light being turned on, the knowledge that is written on its pages would be of no value to you. So light allows sight, it reduces risk, it comforts us, and it gives knowledge. Now, all of that and more can and should be said of Jesus Christ. There was a time when mankind was adrift. There was a time when mankind was left in the darkness, so to speak. When mankind enters into this world, apart from the light of Jesus Christ into our light, apart from His revelation to us, what is our options without any external transcendent light? Well, our options are to muddle our way through this world, to stub our toes time and time again, to lack understanding of why we're here and what we exist to do. And apart from Jesus, apart from God, apart from the one who formed us, instructing us about who we are and what our place is in this cosmos, we are going to be left to struggle and to flail.What John is saying here is that God, in times past, he revealed himself to us through his prophets, through his word, but then he gave us his Son to give us greater clarity as to who we are and what we exist to do. Imagine you have a man, and he goes out in the Gulf here and he goes out in a boat. Imagine he goes out there a little ways. He doesn't really know what he's doing. He goes to bed and he wakes up and he looks around and he sees nothing but water. Nothing but water. Now, what is his options at this point for getting home? What's his options for navigating home? What can he use? Yeah, he can use the stars. He can use the stars. If he sees nothing else, if all he sees is water, what most people try to do in that context, in the context, let's say that this is the human life. What most people try to do when we're adrift in the world around us, when we don't look for transcendent sources of help, what most of us do is we keep throwing down buoys behind us in our experience. We throw down some buoy in our experience and we say, "Well, that's where I was 10 years ago, and this is the lessons I learned, and this is where I am now." And we navigate on the basis of who we are and what we've done in times past. That's the way most people navigate. But a wise man, especially if you're out in the ocean, a wise man cannot learn a whole lot by throwing out buoys. All the buoys do is mark where he's been. They don't necessarily tell him where he's going. So what does that man need? What does the captain of that boat need? Well, what he needs is a transcendent source of revelation that's greater than himself. He needs a transcendent source of knowledge, a fixed point of reference that he can utilize in order to navigate the world around him, rather than just relying on his own experiences. In the darkness of our secular age, most people are relying on their experiences and their emotions and things intrinsic to this. They keep dropping buoys and navigating on the basis of the buoys. What they don't do is look skyward and say, "I wonder if God has spoken. I wonder if there's a transcendent frame of reference that can teach me who I am, how I should live, what I should do, what I should not do."

Most people navigate on the basis of the buoys, but it's wiser to navigate on the basis of light. What we see here in verses 4 through 13 is this idea that a light has come. A light has come, and cruelly, ironically, the light came to the very people who were told to expect the light. And what did they do? Well, here we read that he came to his own, and his own did not receive him. He came to the people who were told to expect the light, who were given prophecy after prophecy after prophecy, that told them what to expect, who to look out for, roughly. Roughly when he would come, where he'd be born, all that sort of stuff. And when the guy who showed up, when the guy who showed up who fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies to a T, when that guy showed up, they killed him. He came to his own, the own did not receive him. The source of greatest light that they could ever ask for or desire came to them, and they rejected him and hung him on a tree, hung him on the cross. Why? Well, John will tell us. Elsewhere, several times in his gospel, he'll tell him this. He says the reason that they did it, the reason that they killed him, the reason our generation would kill him still,

is because men prefer the darkness.

Men prefer the darkness because their deeds are evil.

They don't want the transcendent lights. They don't want that stuff, per se. They're more content navigating on the basis of what they find in here and dropping the buoys down to explore their reality. But that's not sufficient. Later on, John's going to say this. He's going to say, "This is the great condemnation that the light that came into the world and the men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."

I don't know if you know this, but South Mississippi's got a lot of bugs. We live in a swamp. We live over by the Chutakabuff River. We live literally, you can throw a rock and you'll hit swamp. When the rains come, we're always worried about these hurricanes and storms because we've had four feet of water under the house. We have an elevated house. Well, that said, I think I've seen every type of bug and insect that the South has to throw at you, milling around at different times under the house or in different areas of our neighborhood, just all manner of different things. And one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that you go into our house and you turn on those lights, what happens? Well, the bugs don't care for that. You move the pallet of wood that's been sitting under your house for four years, for the first time you move it, you go, "Ah!" There's all these bugs, and what happens when you move it? Well, they all flee. They all scurry. In a sense, this is what this passage is telling us in John. It says that men, like cockroaches, when faced with the light, men don't like the light either because it shines a light on their deeds, and their deeds are evil. You know why the world hates it when you quote this? You know why the world hates it when you put this even on a Facebook post, even apart from any other context, you just quote scripture. Why can that rile people up? Because oftentimes, it redresses things in their life that they want to keep doing that this word is saying that they should not. Oftentimes, it's because this word challenges them with regards to some presupposition that they've built into their actions, which comforts them and which this word convicts them of. Well, that said, the light of the word, if the book is a light, if the people hate the book telling them what to do and what not to do, how much more so would they hate it when the word became flesh and stood in front of them and instructed them and talked to these men about their sin, about their actions, about their deeds, and when his words were recorded and quoted years later.

It's not that the world is neutral towards Jesus. They're flat out not. The world is at enmity with Christ, not only because of what he said, but because he has the authority to fulfill it. Again, people don't mind kindly Jesus, but a Jesus who not only tells them how to live, but has the authority to rule over them when or if they do or don't, that's a Jesus that they reject. All right. For time's sake, let's look at our last verse for this morning. Let's look at verse 14. Verse 14 says this,

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is the only beginning of the Father, full of grace and truth. Remember that when John is saying this, if you and I were to write down something like that, it would be poetryFor John, it was history. John was saying, "These are things I saw. These are things I experienced." When he was on the mountaintop, he was transfigured. A radiant light came down, and it wasn't just a radiant light filled his face and covered every part of him, it was also Elijah was there, and Moses was there. And it wasn't just that Elijah and Moses was there, it was that the God the Father's voice said, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him." John saw that. He saw that. He said, this one, this incarnate Christ, he existed way back when he formed everything, and in due time, he came to those that he had made, and he lived and dwelt among us. The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. There's a concept of tabernacling. Remember in the Old Testament, they had the tabernacle, the temple, God dwelt in the midst of Israel? Well, here he's saying he did it again. Guys, he's saying, "You remember when God came down and the tabernacle, the Shekinah glory that dwelt on the Ark of the Covenant, in the tabernacle, and then later in the temple, God was amongst his people." Well, here he's saying he's done it again, but he's done it even better. In times past, we had an ark, and it was hidden behind a cloak, and no one could go in there, and no one could encounter God in that context. But in due time, he came to us, and he dwelt amongst us, and we beheld him, and we saw it, and we're writing down what we saw. The glory of only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The question as we close this morning is that we can take that for granted, and we can say, "Yeah, he did that. Yeah, amen." But you notice John is marveling at it. He understood these things better than even we do. But even understanding it better, his mind is blown. He's marveling at this, and he's marveling at it for two reasons. Number one, he's marveling at it because how impressive and amazing and glorious and majestic God is. That's what he just says here, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So he marvels at how awesome Jesus is, how amazing, how just wonderful and majestic Jesus is. Absolutely. That's one of the things that amazes him, that causes him just to stand back, even as he's writing these words, and to process the glory and the majesty of his God. So that's one thing. That's one thing that he focuses and lingers on here. But the second thing is I think John's surprised that given who God is, given this majesty and this holiness and this radiance and this awesomeness and this majesty, all these different things, given that, who he is, why in the world would he come to save you?

[claps] Why did he come to save John?

And Psalm 8, the psalmist asks the same thing. He says, "Who's man that you should do this?" King David looks to the stars. King David looked to the stars, and he asked God, "God, what's man that you're mindful of him?" Have you ever asked that question, why you're worthy of any of this?

Again, we can sometimes take it for granted and go, "Well, I'm pretty awesome. Doesn't surprise me God would think I'm pretty awesome too." Right? We can fall into that mindset. But even King David, as awesome as he was, he stood back, he says, "Who is man? Who am I? A king among people. Who is man, who am I, that you're mindful of him?" You see, a right understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ not only sees God as majestic and amazing and transcendent and glorious and all these things, but it also understands that we're wicked, and it's a surprise that he wants anything to do with us. And yet he does. Despite who we are, despite our brokenness, despite our failings. Despite things, as we've said before, you've committed sins this past year, and especially in the course of your lifetime, that if you were to name them to others in the room around you, they'd shy away from you right now. But the God who knows all that and more, who knows every thought you've ever thought, he not only doesn't shy away from you, but he embraces you. Who is man, oh God, that you're mindful of him? Who is man that you, this majestic, amazing, transcendent king, would want anything to do with us, let alone

come to die for us. It's one thing that you formed us. I can get that. Maybe you'd spin the world like a top and stand back to see what we would do. And it's another thing that you sort of throw us a revelation from time and time. You throw us some prophets or an angel or two. I get that, too. But the idea that you would come to us, that you would live with us, that you would tabernacle with us, and that you would die for us, I don't get it.

John marveled at this.

We take it for granted.

As we go through the Book of John in the next number of months here, we should stand back and remember that this author, this apostle, this disciple, his intention, on the one hand, is to tell a skeptical society who Jesus was to help convert and save the lost. Absolutely. Is that part of his intention? Sure. But his desire for you this morning as a Christian in 21st century Gulfport, Mississippi, is not simply that you would acknowledge the basic truth that Jesus is God. You knew that when you came in. But rather that you would appreciate him all the more for what he's done for people like you and I. This is the Gospel, this is the narrative, and we're going to build upon it in the weeks to come. Let's pray.

[gentle instrumental music] To search through an archive of Dr. Holt's previous sermons, please visit us at fpcgulfport.org, or you can look us up at sermonaudio.com. [music fades]