Behold What God Gives to His Children

Well, good morning. It's especially good because it's a little earlier this morning. Open your Bibles to John chapter 1, please. John chapter 1. You know, when I first sat down and the service was about to begin, I looked around and I was like, wow, there are a lot of people missing because they like their beds more. And so a little bit of a judgment there, but that was in my mind.

But then I realized the kids weren't in here yet, so they came up here and sang, and they sat down, and it looked a bit better. But it's still a little bit. So if you know someone, give them the snake eye. Yeah, I got to bed, all right? All right. John chapter 1. we'll read the prologue and Lord willing we will finish the prologue of John this morning.

John chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. and all things were made through the word and without him was not anything made that was made and him was life and the life was the light of men so the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it there was a man sent from god whose name was john he came as a witness to bear witness about this light that all might believe through him and he was not the light but he came to bear witness about the light.

And the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right, the authority, the power to become children of God. who were born not of blood, nor were they born of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but they were born of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, but full of grace and truth. John bore witness about Him and cried out, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because He was before me. For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Let us pray. Oh, Father, what a marvelous text we have before us, Lord.

Lord, we cannot glorify and honor and exalt the word made flesh enough. He is our hope. He is our salvation. He is the revelation, the full revelation of grace and truth. And Lord, what a blessing it is that through him, we have all who have been born again, who have been regenerated by the Spirit, who are children of God, we have all received and are receiving and are continuously receiving grace upon grace.

Oh God in heaven, we live in this already not yet, this sin-cursed world with our flesh still hanging on in which we forget these foundational, beautiful truths of what life is in Christ. So God, we need the reminder this morning. I need the reminder this morning. The people before me need this reminder. Oh, would you open up all of our ears to hear. God, would you be so kind to open up my mouth to speak something of value so that the Spirit could apply this work of truth to the hearts and it would be used as a means of grace.

Thank you, God, for being so kind to us in Jesus Christ by the Spirit that he has sent as he reigns on high even now. May he be glorified and may we, Father, grow after his image for he is worthy. We praise you and thank you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. So we have been going along in this prologue of John. We talked about how the prologue is like a summation of the book of John in poetic form.

These 18 verses of the prologue, and we've seen at the beginning the word as God, true God, with full life and all the capacity of what that means and fellowship with life created all things and we saw that the word as light he gives understanding his will his law to humanity to give his creatures so that they can live in his creation in a way that's filled with life but we also saw darkness fall on humanity instead in which we choose to disobey the understanding and fall into misery instead and we saw the witness to the light from john the Baptist who represents all the prophets of the Old Testament. But his witness to the light is not simply just law, law, law, but we saw it's also grace, grace, grace. That not only has Jesus as light came down to reveal the righteousness of God, but he also reveals his help for you.

But we saw a most surprising thing, that despite the help that he offers on this world, there is a surprising rejection of this light we talked about last week. And we saw that even his own people of Israel, who was formed to prepare for the Messiah to come even they rejected surprisingly this light But yet we saw because of the darkness that shrouds them which causes that rejection there is a surprising acceptance of this light. And we saw that it is not by our own power, but rather the power of God, who causes us by His Spirit to be born again and become children of God through belief in this light.

It is a most surprising rejection, a surprising acceptance of the light by the power of God to cause us to become children of God. And now as we close out this prologue, we see a most surprising blessing to these children that he has formed. You know, when the southern states, when the southern states broke away from the union from the north there was a big question of what abraham lincoln would do would abraham lincoln go and force the will of the north upon the south and fight or would he allow them to just stay in their rebellion and just ignore them and there was arguments for both sides that they had every right to succeed and so abraham lincoln ought to let them go and ignore it but then there's also the other argument that no he needed to go and oppose the will of the north upon the south in a war.

And that's exactly what he chose to do. And a war was fought. And in the same way, right, there's this understanding there has been a great rebellion against God. The light has been revealed and people have ignored, have rebelled against the light and there's darkness. And so what will God do? Will he go and in judgment destroy the wicked and rebellious?

Would he ignore it and let it go? But for God, there's a third option. And that third option is that he would go take on flesh and bless abundantly the people who have rebelled against them. What a shocking, surprising blessing we see at the end of this prologue. And it shouldn't surprise us that God would have a children that he would create and bless tremendously.

God is a God a blessing. We often think of God and his hatred of sin, so it's wrath against it, and we mistake that this would be the normal disposition of God that is of wrath. But no, that is an oddity because of darkness. God's normal operation is to bless with the fullest blessing, like a father who loves to shower his children with good gifts. The father loves to bless upon blessing upon blessing upon blessing.

So all of history, all of creation is a story of how God blesses those he makes his children. And these final verses of this prologue is a crescendo, a culmination of God surprisingly and abundantly blessing his children. So we're going to see God surprisingly and abundantly blessing his children by becoming flesh and dwelling with them, by revealing grace and truth, by fulfilling all of scriptures, and by giving them, his children, grace upon grace.

So let us first see God surprisingly and abundantly blessing his children by becoming flesh and dwelling with them. Look at verse 14 again. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, as you read that, the word taking on flesh and dwelling among creation, and if you have in your mind the surprising, abundant blessing of God to his children, you've got to really pair this up with John 1, 1 and 2.

Because if you remember where we saw the word last, when he directly said the word, he said it in verses 1 and 2 when he says, In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God, he was in the beginning with God. We talked about the beautiful life that would have been. God is life of himself. The word is God. And he was enjoying fellowship as a person of the Godhead with God.

And so if you think of what the essence of life is, that's what it was. We can't even fathom all the beauty and the blessings and everything that the word enjoyed in eternity as God and fellowship with God. It would have been perfect, beautiful, beyond anything we can comprehend. And now keep that thought in your mind and then read verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Do you see the contrast there? Do you see the contrast? The willingness of God above to bless surprisingly and abundantly his people that he would take on flesh and dwell among us? The word us there is referring to the children of God. In fact, you remember in verses 12 and 13, that's where he was last. He said, to those who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God's power.

And so now it's the full blessing that comes upon the children of God. And he starts by saying, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. A most surprising and abundant blessing indeed. The word did not go as he took on flush to palaces. He did not eat the finest foods and drink the finest drinks. Instead, he says in Matthew 8, 20, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

Jesus did not come for his own particular enjoyments and fancies. In the world, he came to bless his people, his children. I remember my, I'm a millennial, and I used to play a lot of video games. Okay, that's just how it was. It's a shame. I know it's darkness now.

But I remember there was this game Sim City or one of those goofball game cities. It doesn't matter But you created your own city and then you could create your own Person avatar and place them in there and I got to tell you when I did that I was not living among the rabble I was not living among the the the poor the needy I was in the palace on the hill overlooking my creation right That just and we would all in our natural just disposition this is what we would have for ourselves The word desires to bless his children, takes on flesh and dwells among his people, and he has nowhere to lay his head. Driven by desire to bless his children, he dwelt with us.

For the word, creator of all things, to humble himself to take on his own creation is astonishing enough. It's astonishing enough that he would take on his own creation and humble himself in that way. But to do it when this creation has fallen into disobedient darkness? It's beyond comprehension. when it reminds us again if he's going to come it's either it's it's going to be to judge and destroy like lincoln did to the south but because our god is abundant and blessing there's this third option he came to bless when humanity rebelled against the word as creator he took on their flesh and dwelt with them to bless them.

And this is a surprising blessing indeed. But now let's zero in on verse 14. Let's zero in on the fact that he says, and he dwelt. Because that word dwelt is going to define the abundance of that blessing that he came to bring. Okay, it's a surprising thing he would do it at all. But the abundance of it is highlighted in that word dwelt.

I know it'd be strange, but that word dwelt is loaded with meaning that is captured from the Old Testament and given to us now, in which we can read it and see, oh, this is what he means when he says this. In fact, you know, we read in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, Paul says, now these things happened to them, that is Israel, as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. And so the things that happen in the Old Testament has been happened for our advancement, for our help to see it, to be instructed by it and say, oh, I see what's going on here because of what happened in the Old Testament.

And so John is taking hold of that principle and he's using that word dwelt so that our minds would go to what happened to Israel and we'd say, ah, I get an understanding of the abundance of the blessing that we have here. Now, how is it doing that? Well, that word dwelt. He dwelt among us. He tabernacled is the word. He tabernacled among us.

The idea is he pitched a tent and he tented with us. And John is purposely wanting to draw your mind to the Old Testament when the tabernacle was made in the wilderness to give you an understanding of the blessing Jesus came to bring when he tabernacled with us. And so with that said, turn to Exodus 33. Turn to Exodus 33 to see the identity of this exceeding blessing.

Exodus 33 is the story of how the tabernacle came to be in the old covenant. It's a story of how Exodus 33 and moving on to the rest of the book of Exodus is all about the story of the tabernacle. It's need, it's provision, and what it did. So if we can understand that, we can understand what it means when Jesus tabernacled with us. So it's all about the tabernacle.

What we know in Exodus 32, we see that the golden calf incident happened, right? There's this covenant that Israel was entering in with God, and a big thing of that covenant was you shall have no other gods before me and what happens, they make a golden calf and broke the covenant, boom and then Moses to signify that has the ten commandments and he breaks the stone tablet showing you have broken covenant with your God and in parenthesis it didn't take that long to do it and so God responds in Exodus 33 verse 3 He says, go up to a land full of milk and honey, like I promised, but I'll not go up among you. In Exodus 33, I will not go up among you unless I consume you on the way, for you are stiff-necked people.

In other words, God says, because of Abraham, I'll let you take the land. I'll let you take the land. I'll send an angel to go before you, but I'm not going to go with you, because if I go with you, I'm going to destroy you because of your sin. Imagine the anger in God to see his people break covenant with him, and he says, I'm not going with you. If I were to, I would consume you.

I'm not going to be with you. And in verse 4, we get a very interesting reaction from Israel, which is spot on. When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments. What's fascinating about the Israelites, they sometimes got things right, and they recognized, what is the promised land if we don't have God with it? What good is it to have the promised land if we don't have the presence of God with us to enjoy it?

And this is exactly where we're at in John 1 when he talks about that the word created all things. He's the light for us to enjoy creation in understanding with God. And the Israelites there are on to something very true when they say, what is it to have all the world, to have all the physical blessings, but yet not have God as present with us in it?

That's a very true statement, and the morning is spot on. And Moses uses his closeness to God to intercede for the Israelites and says, show me your glory. Show me your glory, O God. Go up with the nation. Look at verse 13 in Exodus 33 Now therefore Moses says as he in the tent of meeting and the place is separated from the camp because God will consume him if it was in the camp Moses, as is near to God, the nearest that you could be to God at that point, he says, If I found favor in your sight, show me your ways, that I may know you.

In order to find favor in your sight, consider to this nation as your people. What is he saying? He's saying, God, show me your glory, and show it by being with this people. Reveal yourself, God, and show it by being with this nation. And God, for the sake of his covenant with Abraham and for the favor with Moses, says he would. In verse 14 of Exodus 33, my presence will go with you and I'll give you rest.

So he says, okay, I'll go with you. My presence will be with you. Because you have interceded for the Israelites, I will go with you. But the question remains, how? Can God just sit there and say, because of their sin, if I go with you, I'm going to destroy them, so I'm not going to. Then can you say, ah, no, just kidding.

Never mind. No, he can't do that. The question is, okay, he's going to go with them. His presence will be with them. Great, but how? How is it going to happen?

They're sin. They broke the covenant. He's angry with them. How will it happen? And then the rest of this couple chapters into the rest of Exodus is all explaining how God's presence can be with Israel despite their sin. And that is how he reveals himself. go to exodus 34 6 through 9 he reveals his backside his glory to moses and what does he say about it what does he declare well let's read the lord passes before him and proclaim the lord the lord a god merciful and gracious slow to anger how can he do it how can he be with israel when he's so angry with him because he's revealing himself to be a gracious and merciful slow to anger abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness.

Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. Verse 8, And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth in worship. And he said, If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us.

For as a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance. You see what's going on there? Is that their sin? I'm not going to go with them. If I do, I'm going to kill them. Moses says, please show me your glory and go with us.

And God says, I am gracious and merciful, so therefore I'll go with you. And the means he uses to do that is the law of the tabernacle. And the rest of Exodus is the law of the Ten Commandments, because he demands holiness, and then the law of the tabernacle, that is of sacrifices, that is with blood I can be in the midst of you. So you can imagine how the Israelites would see this.

They would mourn because God's not going to be with them because of their sin. Moses intercedes with them outside the camp. And then what happens is that he gets the law of the tabernacle in which all the laws of sacrifice and how they're going to meet with God would happen. And so therefore the tabernacle would be in the middle of their congregation.

And so they would think God is merciful, he is gracious, he's revealing his glory in this, in the tabernacle, in the sacrifices to be with us despite our sin. So with the law of the tabernacle being fulfilled, given and fulfilled, we get the last few verses of Exodus being a sweet solution to the golden calf problem. Look at Exodus 40, 34-38. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up.

For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. So therefore, the presence of God was with them, was on the tabernacle, in the midst of congregation. Indeed, it is restored because of the law of the tabernacle, of sacrifices of blood, which covers sin.

Now, let's not lose where we're at here. You see the progression here, right? You see the progression where we're at. The people sin. God says, I will not dwell with them. Israel mourns.

For what's the point of creation without the Creator? And the godly man, Moses, intercedes and asks to see the glory of God in his gracious presence. And God permits and establishes the laws of the tabernacle, a meeting place with God established by sacrifice. And so then John says, going back to John 1, at the end of his prologue, the word became flesh and tabernacled with us.

And we have, he says in verse 14, seen his glory. Show me your glory, O God, and your graciousness. We have seen his glory, John says. We have seen his glory. Glory is the only son from the Father. as Israel looked to the center of their congregation, they saw blood and a tent tabernacle. And when John and the disciples looked into the center of their congregation, they saw Jesus, the God-man, full of glory.

Now when we, when men, when humanity sees the glorious God-man, they usually want to fall down dead. we see Revelation 1 John sees Jesus Christ in the heavenlies and he falls down as a dead man Gazing that the disciples had of Jesus here was not one in which they saw and were afraid and wanted to die, but was one in which they could stare for a while. We beheld his glory. The Greek is to stare a while.

They could behold him and not want to melt into the earth because of his glorious revelation. That's because the glory that was displayed in the God-man who tabernacled with them was a glory of what? grace and truth of presence with them in which they did not want to melt into the earth instead they wanted to grab hold of him and be on his chest grace is unmerited favor but more specifically god's presence with us when we don't deserve it just like what we saw in exodus 33 34 the graciousness of god was revealed in the fact that he would dwell with the israelites despite the fact that they deserved it not they deserved his complete and utter destruction so this glory that was revealed from the son who tabernacled with them was revealed specifically in his grace and truth a i am with you for you and fellowship with you there's an interesting contrast here I don't want to spend too much time here, but I think it's worth looking at. I thought about doing it just in the afternoon service.

But there's an interesting contrast in the transfiguration. The transfiguration is one of those times in which the disciples saw Jesus transfigured, and they were, the text says, frightened, afraid. And actually, turn there. Go to Luke chapter 9. Go to Luke chapter 9. Verse 28.

Verse 28. Now about eight days after these sayings, and we'll get to what these sayings were in a moment, it's going to matter. He took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of Jesus' face was altered, His clothing became dazzling white, and behold, two men talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

They're witnessing, in some degree, Jesus transfigured in a glorious state that they had never seen before. And when Peter sees the glory of Jesus, he makes a stupid comment. We see Peter do that often. It's pretty comical. In Luke 9, 32, now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, But when they became fully awake, they saw Jesus' glory and the two men who stood with him.

And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents. Guess what that word is? Tabernacle. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. And what Peter's saying here is, hey, let's capture this glory that we're seeing here, this magnificent glory that's frightening us, and let's tent it, let's cover it, because it's frightening, and then we'll have our worship here on this mountain.

This is where our worship will be, right here. This is how it's going to be established. But then he is corrected with this mindset whenever in verse 34, as he was saying these things, a cloud came over, shadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my son, my chosen one, listen to him. and the truth that jesus told them was something he just said before this episode in fact i just said i alluded to it now about eight days after these sayings what did he say before that well look at verse 21 before this happened in luke 9 21 and he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one saying the son of man must suffer see the contrast glory there you see the difference there hey this glory on the mountain we can we can dig that we can make tents and we can worship here and here the son of man say is saying this is the way i'm going to glory glorify myself i'm going to suffer many things that be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised and so peter here he's thinking it is so much better to have jesus glory up here on the mountain and the way we're seeing them here This is much better than what he weirdly said before here, that he's going to be glorified by his death and suffering.

It much better to have him glorified here on the mountain so let utilize this while we have it right And God says listen to my son as he proclaims the truth of his glory what On the cross the glory of grace This is the surprising abundant blessing that God gives to his children. His divine son to take on their flesh and offer himself in humble sacrifice to bring the presence of God to his people. and all the old testament stories including the story of the tabernacle was just a preparation for what jesus would come and do and tabernacle with us this is why john says in verse going back to john chapter 1 verse 15 john bore witness about him the the the apostle who's writing this book he talks about john the baptist who represents the old testament who represents all of the Old Testament. And he says, John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.

You see, what John the Apostle is saying is John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet and stands as the representative of that whole Old Testament era in Jesus' day. And he says, the glory is to go away from me, from the Old Testament, and it's going to go to Jesus, who is the fulfillment, the greater. the tabernacle in the Old Testament revealed God's grace and presence through sacrifice. But it was for a time in Canaan.

It was for a short time in Canaan. But Jesus is the tabernacle that enables God's presence through grace and his sacrifice for eternity and completely. John the Baptist is saying, stop putting your focus here. Put your focus on him now. for from him do we get this abundant and surprising blessing of grace. So as we look to the Old Testament now, we see Jesus and his blessing to the children of God.

We see his glory there and we see his blessing to his children. We see the tabernacle in the Old Testament. That's not a story of itself isolated from any significance to us today. Don't ever read the Bible like that. That is revealing the glory of Christ and the blessing he's given to his children today. You ought to be able to see that throughout the Old Testament.

And of course it gradually grows as you get to know the scriptures more. But all the Old Testament was culminated to the glory of Christ and the blessing to his children. And we just saw, see a taste of that in Exodus 33 with the tabernacle. and of course this surprising abundant blessing is not just for the people that saw jesus walk the earth that's not just for john and the apostles but it's for all the people that jesus sends his spirit into to cause to be born again and bless them and bless them and bless them And we see this in verse 16.

For from his fullness, John chapter 1 verse 16. For from his fullness, that is the fullness of the word made flesh dwelling among us and his grace upon grace. From this fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. See, he's making a distinction here. It's not just the people that beheld him on earth. but it's all those who would receive the Spirit, believe upon Jesus, and become the child of God.

We have all received the surprisingly abundant blessing of grace upon grace upon grace. And if I could just say that forever, that would culminate to what Jesus has done for us. For from his fullness we have all, every single one of you who have called out and believed upon Jesus, our child of God, we have all received grace upon grace. We've all received the presence of God upon the presence of God.

We're all experiencing the presence of God with us here. This is what we get as an abundantly surprising gift from God, that we would receive his presence here and now, grace upon grace. The God-man has complete and fullness of grace. The completed thing is found in the word made flesh. where the tabernacle of the Old Testament served a purpose for a time, the tabernacle of Jesus serves an eternal purpose to provide fullness of grace, grace upon grace, presence of God upon presence of God, never ending, no matter the situation.

If you are a child of God, that means the grace Christ has accomplished for you is lavishly and abundantly given to you You are like the Israelites who really screwed up by making the golden calf Really screwed up, like tremendously. You deserve the wrath of God. And since the flesh hangs on even throughout your pilgrimage as a Christian, you kind of have a taste of that every day.

You are like the Israelites who screwed up with the golden calf and are astonished that God would still dwell in your midst. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The word may flush tabernacle among us, grace upon grace. If you are a child of God, that means the grace Christ has accomplished for you is lavishly and abundantly given to you no matter the circumstance you find yourself in.

When Israel was a slave to Egypt, guess what they experienced there? The presence of God. Whenever they were confronted with the sea before them and the army of Egypt behind them, guess what they experienced in that circumstance? The grace and presence of God. When Israel faced the stronger and more numerous nations of the promised land, God revealed his presence there.

Grace upon grace means that there is not one circumstance in your life, O child of God, that he is not going to use to make his presence known to you in Jesus Christ. There's not one corner of your life where Jesus says, oops, I can't be with you there. Because it's a fullness of grace, fullness of grace, fullness of grace, that you as a child of God receive. not only that but God ordains all things to happen in your life so that you would experience his presence in that circumstance do not misbelieve that do not disbelieve that and it's so easy for us to believe the lie and the liar and to think no not not this or this circumstance is terrible enough God has given you that circumstance so that you would enjoy grace upon grace presence upon presence because of the fullness of Jesus Christ.

For you to deny that would just say, well, Jesus isn't that full. He's not that full, not there. I know none of you want to say that. None of you who are children of God, at least. This is how the children of God can carry themselves, a conviction that a most surprising and abundant blessing has been given to them. that the word took on flesh, tabernacled with us to reveal the completed and full glory of grace and his death and resurrection.

By receiving of the spirit, receiving of the spirit that he has sent, such grace upon grace can be experienced, the very presence of God in all that I experience in my life. What areas of your life, whether it be sin, a golden calf or circumstances that you groan and murmur at are you believing that the lie that the grace upon grace is not experienced in this the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth for from this fullness we have received grace upon grace we have all received this abundant blessing from our Father. And now, to finish, he gives a couple postlude statements in his prologue.

A couple statements that's kind of like a postlude. The culmination has happened with this, and from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. And then a couple postlude statements that we will go through quickly. He says in verse 17, For the law was given through Moses. grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He's not despairingly saying anything against Moses and the law.

He's not saying, ugh, the law. What he's saying is that the law was given through Moses in which there was a taste of grace there, a taste of the law of the tabernacle, of the presence of God despite their sin. There was a taste of it there. But we have received the word made flesh. And from his fullness, we have received grace upon grace. unimaginable grace and then he says in verse 18 and it's a similar kind of vein he says no one has ever seen God no one has ever seen God remember in Exodus 33 well I don know if I pointed it out but in Exodus 33 it worth looking at this right Keep this No one has ever seen God In Exodus 33, oh man, I'm missing it.

Verse 11, whenever he's meeting with, Moses is meeting with God outside the camp because God's angry with his people. The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. But then we see in the same chapter, in verse 20, but he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. The point that John's getting at here is that Moses certainly had favor with God.

And the law came through him. And there's a taste of grace that was found in what he has done. But he didn't see God face to face. He experienced them in more ways than any of the Israelites did, but he didn't see him face to face. He didn't have that nearness. But there's one who did see, and does see, God face to face.

And so he says in verse 18, No one has ever seen God, and I think he has his mind on Moses and the law that he gave. No one has seen God face to face, but the only God, that is, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. There is a greatness of the one that is the word who was with God, who is God, who is with God, saw him face to face. He came down, made him known, and fulfilled grace upon grace to its completion.

The Old Testament was pointing to that we read and we say, yep, there's the anticipation of Jesus there, and we see him glorified in his death and resurrection that we can take part in as children of God, the completed revelation of grace. so this is remember the theme the thesis of john i say i'm writing this book that you would believe in jesus the son of god the word made flesh the messiah and by believing you would have life in his name that you would have grace upon grace that you would have presence upon presence that of abundance upon abundance because Jesus came to fulfill all those things and to pour it in your heart by the spirit that he has left. So is this the life that you are enjoying? Oh, unbeliever, those who have not put their eyes on Jesus do not wait any longer, but receive the grace upon grace.

Oh, believer, do you understand that this life is chock full of the opportunity to experience the nearness of God in your situation? The only difference between you and your circumstance, the only difference between acting in a way that's filled with joy and misery is how you respond to that circumstance. You have full power in the Holy Spirit to say, this is for the purpose to experience the nearness of God who has been accomplished by Christ.

So may we enjoy the opening of this book as Jesus, again, as John shows Jesus more and more revealing what this grace looks like and the life we have in this grace. What a joy we have to look at this book together. Let us do so with holy anticipation. God in heaven, we thank you for this grace. We thank you for the mercies that's found in Jesus Christ.

We thank you, Lord, for all the testimony of the Old Testament that was pointing to the future fulfillment of the Word made flesh. Lord, what a surprising blessing it is. what a surprising blessing that instead of judgment you would give us the right to become children of god and your holy will to bless us beyond measure would be revealed in grace upon grace from the wounds and resurrection of jesus christ our lord lord you are working to be with us so i pray god that we'd be a most joyful and thankful people that would be our joy today to see how you are revealing that even in our circumstances today. And relying upon Jesus, we would experience you just like the Israelites did in the wilderness only to a greater degree.

And we thank you, God, that this work that you began, you will see to completion. That one day we have this hope that we will see Jesus face to face. We will see God before us, our Savior. So let us be people filled with hope, satisfied in you, and determined to use everything you've given to us as a means to experience you because you have enabled it by this great gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank you and we praise you in his name. Amen.