(John 1:16)
�And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.�
Linda and my saw our first wedding anniversary was while I was still in Viet Nam during the war. So, we had our first anniversary together the following year. I was still in the army, not making very much money at the time. We saved for weeks and went to the best restaurant we could afford. It was a national chain noted for their very specific cuisine.
We were dressed in some of our best clothing. It wasn�t our best clothing; but, it was close. We gassed up our car and made the fifty mile drive from our home near the army base to a larger city. There was no parking attendant, but there was ample parking near the door. We carefully locked our doors and went into the Chez Golden Arches.
O. K. The meal wasn�t exactly steak and lobster. But, it was a good meal. Actually, it was a great meal considering that we were celebrating our first anniversary together as man and wife.
Eighteen years later, on our twentieth anniversary, we picked a much more expensive restaurant. We were, by that time, an established couple in the town. Linda was well respected for her work and leadership at some of the agencies and organizations in town. I was... Well, I was well known - maybe even notorious! - around town.
This time we decided to go to a place nearer to our home. It was, in point of fact, one of the nicest places in town. This time we were dressed in our best. There was still no parking attendant; this town is much too small for such frills. We had to park a little further from the door than we had planned. We didn�t mind this at all.
As I said, this was a nice place. We�d been to better restaurants in larger cities. But this was the best that our small town had to offer.
The place was pretty much full; but, not crowded. As we entered we were met by the greeter of the establishment. �Do you have reservations?�, we were asked. �Well, I am worried about your prices being higher than I�m used to. But, since it�s our anniversary...� �No,� she said, �Do you have a reservation for a table?�
We had our twentieth anniversary meal at Chez Golden Arches.
Some things never change.
In this sixteenth verse of the first chapter of John we are given a glimpse of the remarkable reservation in that Jesus has allowed us for a home in Heaven and a seat at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
In the fifteenth verse we see how the fact of the coming Savior had influenced the life and message of John the Baptist. Now we are able to gain a picture of the influence of that Savior on the life of those who�ve accepted Him as their Lord.
The first thing we notice in this verse is the view of the explicit Savior. �And of his fulness...�
There have been many religious leaders throughout history. Some of these have been Godly men. Some have not. Some of these have influenced their cultures for good. Some of these have influenced their cultures toward evil. Some have, under the influence of and faith toward God, have led people to a closer walk with the Lord of the Universe. Some have, under prideful self will and demonic influence, led men and women far away from the God of love.
But, there has only been One Savior of the World. Jesus Christ is not another religious leader. He is God in the flesh, the Savior of those that trust Him.
Note, first, the abundance of His love.
We had a track team at the first college I attended. The problem was, the team was put together just a few hours before our first and only track meet. It was also just a couple hours after I had gorged myself on one of the very fine meals our school cafeteria put out. I�m not kidding; they put out real good food and I was never shy about appropriating as much of it to myself as was possible!
I remember a restaurant Linda and I used to go to when we lived in the deep South. They had the best chicken and dumplings I�ve ever had. Good food! But, one day while we were there a black couple came in. This was, maybe, 12:30 or 1:00 P.M. Linda and I, of course, didn�t pay any special attention to the entrance of this couple. Until... The proprietor of the restaurant told the couple, �I�m sorry. You can�t come in. We just closed.� ...and they did! On the spot! We found another restaurant for our weekly meals out.
�All-you-can-eat� places treat me like that. Except that they have a reason to do so. They�ve seen me before so they are ready to close when I go in. They know what havoc I can cause to their food lines when I load up!
Anyway, the day of this track meet I ran the �almost a mile.� Everyone else ran a mile. I, with my load of food slowly digesting, only made most of the trip before I gave out!
Many religious leaders and teachers have gone the �almost a mile� in their spiritual leading. They have taught moral ethics. They have taught self denial. They have taught religious precepts. But, they were unable to show the way to a relationship with God. They were unable to find the true means of salvation from sin.
Jesus ran the entire mile. He was an ethical teacher, to be sure. He taught us of peace and truth. But, he also showed us the way to find peace with God and salvation from our sins. He, in fact, is that Way. �...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.� (John 14:6)
And then! And then Jesus went to the cross to purchase the only ticket we would ever need to go that way! He died in our place so that we could have forgiveness from the sin which had bound us to more sin.
The abundance of His love!
Then He rose from the dead. I just watched a television program which was looking at the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The program did some very good investigative reporting. They interviewed everyone they could find, of all religious persuasions, to give opinions on the veracity, and manner, of the resurrection.
They only left out One Person. None of these people which were interviewed seemed able to access the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, �And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.� (John 14:16-17)
Jesus proved the Truth of His revelations and sacrifice by His resurrection. Then He sent the Holy Spirit to give witness within our souls as to the veracity of this fact.
Jesus gave the assurance of His Person that we are, indeed, the children of God. He did this through His life, death, resurrection and post resurrection appearances. It is an historical fact, beyond serious dispute, that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead. No other religious leader can rightly make this claim!
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit also bears witness to the truth of Jesus in the heart of the believer. But, more even than this, the Holy Spirit bears witness to this truth in His convicting work upon the heart of the sinner.
There is also a third witness, which works in concert with the other two Witnesses of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, as to the truth of redemption through Jesus Christ. That witness is the inspired and preserved Word of God! This Word is attested to more fully than, probably, all the witnesses of all the other sources to all the other events in the ancient world. There are literally thousands of manuscripts, lectionaries, and portions quoted in the writings of the early church fathers which attest to the miraculous preservation of the written Word of God.
The Living Word died perfectly for our sins. The Written Word perfectly tells of Him.
The fulness of Jesus is also shown in the attraction of His sacrifice.
When we look about the world we see crosses on church steeples, on books, on jewelry, on signs, on hospitals, everywhere we go into the world we can come into contact with this visual reminder of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is a concept that has the attention of the world. Even, quite often, of the non-Christian world.
Many, probably most, of the crosses so displayed are simple ornamentation. They are a reminder of the culture that was. They are a talisman of many religious institutions. They are often, even used to mock the very Christ who died upon that cross. But, they are in evidence.
This fact of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ has had an effect on the world at large. People will point to His total sacrifice and say that we need to be dedicated to whatever task which might come our way. People will look at the Savior on the cross and talk of the great love which we must show toward others.
But, too often, these people don�t look beyond that cross. Jesus died. Yes. But, He also rose again. I would think that a more fitting object lesson for Christianity is the open tomb.
Yes, Jesus went to the cross on purpose. It was His Will to die to give us salvation from our sins. But, He rose from the dead. He proved that He was not just a way to walk. He was, NO! IS, The Way to life. The attraction of His sacrifice is that His love has given us a way to walk in newness with Him.
The disciples of the Emmaus way did not recognize the risen Lord. Somehow He hid His identity from these men. But, when He opened to them the Scripture and expounded the facts of His sacrifice from the written Word, they said, �Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?�. (Luke 24:32)
By the time they made this statement their eyes had been opened so that they knew Who it was that spoke with them. (see Luke 24:30-31) Even at this point, having had contact with the risen Savior, their minds went back to the Words of Scripture and the walk with the Master. That, my friends, is for us even in this day. The attraction of the cross should lead us into the Scripture and a deeper walk with the Master!
It will do so if we will really consider the great love and grace of that event!
Via the work of the Savior we are also given the exceptional gift which has been reserved for us because of that sacrifice. �...have all we received...�
We have received the exclusivity of His salvation. Many talk about the perceived �many roads to heaven� as though this were a possibility. They seek the wisdom of the world�s religions and meditate upon the road to a �God consciousness.� These read the Biblical stories as though they were only stories. They contemplate the road to their own spiritual journey and seek to find new wine in the skins what they see as old fables.
If that sounds like a bunch of gibberish, it is. Friends, there ain�t but one way to peace with God. �Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.� (Acts 4:12) Salvation from sin and peace with God comes only through a relationship with Jesus Christ. That�s it. There is no need to look further for a spiritual journey. It is either the way of Jesus and the Cross, or it is the broad way that leads to eternal destruction.
I know that this may sound exclusive and narrow. That is not a bad thing because it works. I just took the eye test to renew my driver�s license. I nearly flunked it! I have a cataract on my right eye that seriously obscures my vision. I am waiting on the operation that will correct that little problem.
I have a choice. I can either sit and do nothing. Or, I can have the operation that will restore my sight.
It seems rather narrow to me that I have to go to an eye doctor to have an operation. Surely there are other things I could do. I could eat a lot of carrots; they are supposed to be good for one�s eyesight. After all, have you ever seen a rabbit with glasses! I could get some sandpaper and try to �sand off� the obstruction on my eye. I could just keep my right eye closed and I�d not notice the vision problem.
There are hundreds of possibilities as to what I could do. But, the visit to the eye doctor will work. The others will not work.
Faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ will save your soul. Nothing else will work. Take it or leave it. But, don�t expect another form of salvation. There ain�t one!
Christianity is a very exclusive faith. Jesus is the only way of salvation. That is the Bible teaching. If you have a problem with that... Well, one, take it up with God. He�s the One Who has mandated the sacrifice of Jesus as the means of salvation. And, two, if you don�t accept Jesus an eternity with no hope awaits!
This is truth. This is also why we are able to see the exquisiteness of His love.
This entire time/physical universe in which we view ourselves, is the creation of God. How does He stand outside it? Where does He stand outside it? I don�t know the answer to those questions. But, I do know that the universe, and all that is within it, are the result of the direct creation of God. At the moment of that creation, time - as we understand it to be, was also created as a sort of parentheses in the spiritual order of eternity.
This is something beyond our comprehension. We have no means of conceptualizing the reality of that fact. We have no frame of reference to that which is beyond our observed experiences.
But, somehow, before this creation God was able to look down through the ages which were to come. He saw the result of His creation of man. He saw the coming sin. Because of this He prepared a means of reestablishing the fellowship of the creature with that of the Creator. Sin did not catch Him by surprise. Revelation 13:8 tells us that Jesus was considered as slain, sacrificed, from the foundation of the world.
Think of the ramifications of that fact. God knew that the creation of humanity would result in the sin of the creature. God knew that in order to redeem the creature He would have to send the Son to die on a cross. Yet �...God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.� (Romans 5:8)
He loved you enough to die on the cross before you even knew about Him. Even before you were in existence, He died for your sins.
That is an exquisite love. That is an overpowering love. That is the love of the God of Eternity toward the creature who had turned his back upon Him.
We also must note the extreme ability of His pardon. He saved us from our sins. This isn�t simply a statement that He saved us from our sin - our lying, cheating, stealing, covetousness, etc. It is a statement that He saved us from ourselves.
Who we were was a creature of sin.
When my daughter was very young she took the net we used to clean out the fish tank and used it to take out one of the fish. She thought he must be bored by only being in that tank. So, she took the little fish out and gave him a little walk around the block. He was able to see sights that he never dreamed existed.
She said he had been an excited fish when she left, �He was just jumping up and down!� But, �He was real tired when we got back. He�s just laying there, now.�
We were like that fish. Our natural situation was as creatures of the natural realm. We could not approach the spiritual realm. This was unknown to us. This was something that we could not approach. Unlike the fish taken out of his element the natural realm of our physical existence ends in death.
Jesus had something better for us. But, we could not approach this better situation because of our sin. Jesus performed the miracle of reconfiguring our soul in such a way that we, while remaining in the natural, have an inheritance in the spiritual. He has saved our soul to an unending eternity of love and service.
Notice also the exceeding grace of Jesus. �...and grace for grace.�
This is really an overflowing grace which God has imparted to us.
This is what the term �grace for grace� means. It means, simply, grace upon grace. Or, grace in abundance. It is a double word signifying the great power and supply of the grace of our risen Lord.
I watched part of a program on the National Geographic Chanel last night. In it was described the great devastation caused upon an ancient city by a large volcanic eruption and earthquake. These, the eruption and earthquake, has happened hundreds of miles from the city being excavated. The natural phenomena had caused a gigantic tidal wave. That wall of water had moved some of the structures from the city being studied. It had moved these structure two hundred feet, or more.
We have recently witnessed the great devastation caused by storm surges associated with large hurricanes. The power of the water to obliterate everything in its path has been massive. We are struck with renewed appreciation for the destructiveness in the power of these large storms.
That is a picture of what has happened to our sins. The blood of Jesus has not only washed our souls, it has wiped clean the slate of our sin laden soul. We are free from the bondage and power of sin. The sacrifice of Jesus has saved us from our sin. ...from our nature of sin. We no longer have need to bow to the deep-seated desires to sin against The Holy God.
Often we still fail Him. Often we still do what we know we ought not. Even the Apostle Paul had this problem within his life.
�For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind; and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.� (Romans 7:18-25)
What Paul is saying here is that he desperately wants to serve God. But, often his own base desires will betray his pure desires. In short, he sins even though he doesn�t want to do so. He realizes that this is the natural man, who he was, rebelling against the spiritual man, who he was saved to become. The natural equals death. The spiritual equals life.
Paul understood that even as his salvation from sin came as a result of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so must his daily strength to live for Jesus come from a reliance upon that sacrifice. Even though Paul struggled with problems every day, he understood that the power to overcome those problems lay within the hands of the Savior. His body may have been weak to live for Christ. But, his spirit was able to overcome his own weakness when he looked to Jesus in faith and appropriated that power which the sacrifice of Jesus had allowed.
Paul knew that he could be better than he was. But, this was not of his own working. Even this power was only through obedience and trust placed upon Jesus Christ. Even as our own souls salvation lies solely in the power of the sacrifice of the risen Savior, so also does our power to live for God on a day to day basis lie solely in living in that faith reality each second of each moment of each day.
We also note the overarching privilege of our calling in Christ Jesus.
We have the great privilege of being able to witness of Jesus. Think about that! We can tell the same story as did the writers of the New Testament Gospels. Jesus is not trapped in time back in those early years. He is alive today. We, who have received Him as our Savior, have experienced His love and redeeming power.
We can tell others of this great fact!
But, more than just being a witness, our witness means that we can work with Him. That is more than a little impressive! We can work with Him! Jesus, the Author of Creation, allows us to be part of His team!
About ten years ago President Bill Clinton came to Galesburg. I was selected to be on his advance party. I have a framed letter from President Clinton thanking me for working for him in the �Galesburg White House.� That�s impressive, isn�t it? I worked for the White House.
Big deal! So what? President Clinton has been out of office for five years at the time of the preparation of this sermon. My work, small to begin with, is yesterday�s news.
But, I have the privilege of working for the Author of the Universe every single day. I am part of His machinery to save men from a Christless eternity. That work will never be completed on this terrestrial ball until He comes and makes all things new. Even then, I am still considered part of the �team.� ...and, so are you if you are a Christian.
Are you doing, or shirking, your duty in this great task?
Also, we are allowed the privilege of watching for Him. Jesus is coming back. To the world He is coming in judgment. For us, the called of God, He is coming with great power and reward.
When I got out of Viet Nam, to return to Linda here in the States, I didn�t call her to let her know I was coming home. I wanted to surprise her. Imagine my surprise when I got back to the local airport and saw her in the waiting room.
�How in the world,� I asked, �did you know I was coming back tonight? I never called to let you know.�
�I didn�t know you were coming back tonight,� was her answer. �I knew you were coming back soon so I�ve been coming out to wait for you.�
Isn�t that a picture of what should be the attitude of the Christian? Jesus is coming back, soon! Watch for His coming. While you are at it, work for Him. Reach out to others that need His saving power.
We can consider this privilege as only part of the overwhelming future of our calling.
We have a home in heaven because of the sacrifice of the Savior. We are called to be adopted sons of God because of the sacrifice of the Savior. We have a freedom from sin, and an everlasting life, because of the sacrifice of the Savior.
Consider the truth which Paul related to us in inspired and preserved Scripture: �...Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.� (I Corinthians 2:9)
It is a great privilege to be a Christian, a follower of Christ.
What about you? Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? Why not do that right now! It is a decision you will never regret!