Northside Church - Sydney
HIStory Week 1: Jesus: The Reason
He'll be listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. So a bit of a pop quiz tonight, 10 bucks to the person that can tell me what the hottest biography on bookshelves this Christmas is. Steve Jobs, who said that? Jane Lam. Beautiful. It was just a sermon technique, by the way, I didn't have 10 bucks, so thanks for participating. Steve Jobs, right? The Steve Jobs biography is hit shelves. They're already saying in Amazon it's going to be the biggest seller on Amazon this year in America alone. In two months there has been 379,000 copies of this biography sold already and it's something like 600 pages long it's by a guy called Isaacson and in asking what was Jobs's legacy, he said his legacy is transforming seven industries, personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, digital publishing, retail stores, his legacy is creating what became the most valuable company on earth and one that stood all the intersections of humanities and technology and is the company most likely still to be doing that a generation from now. His legacy, as he said, in the think different ad was to remind us that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. I'll put it to you that there was a character that left a far greater legacy than that. And yes, Jobs has been one of the most amazing characters in recent modern history as far as when it comes to technology but there is no other man on the face of this planet in human history that has changed the world the way that Jesus Christ has. We want to start talking legacies. This guy gave birth to a moment that has swept the world and tonight I challenge you if you're going to read one biography this Christmas then maybe you might read the biography of Jesus and that's why we start this series called history or his story. The biography of Jesus in the gospel of John I 18 verses we're going to spend five weeks in 18 verses you do the math that's about three verses a week. So bring your Bibles or memorize it. Why look at the book of John because it's probably the best biography you're going to ever read it. And here's the kicker it's according to my NIV here it's only 60 pages not 900. So if you're not a reader then it's the sort of book that you want to read but look for all of those you know the top ten most influential people in the world you can think of Gandhi and Buddha and Muhammad and Steve Jobs. Jesus I only in Jesus did one was one put forward by John as being God himself the divine creator. Anyone else would be called a crackpot if they claim that you see the most penetrating question in all of history is not who is Steve Jobs and 900 pages later the question is who is Jesus Christ and as we start to move towards the Christmas season there can be no better question for us to ask you see in this passage tonight we will discover a truth that is so mind shattering that the only way to explain it is if you lived at the foot of a mountain for 50 years and you'd lived there all your life and someone came along and gave you a ticket and said hey let's go for a hot air balloon ride. And as you drift it up and up you began to see terrain and landscapes and aspects of your homeland that you would never seen before and it's going to blow your mind. And John does that in three simple verses the very beginning of the book of John in chapter one he says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was with God in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made. What I want to say to you tonight is that you need a reason. You need a reason. Now you're thinking what do I need a reason. It's like the story of a kid that went and took his dad's Taj Hure watch and he took it off and began to drive a rusty nail into a block of wood with it and in the splintering and the shattering of all the glass and the beautiful cogs inside it. One must ask the question is it a good watch or certainly not for driving nails that's for sure. You see what I'm trying to say here is outside of an understanding of the purpose for which you were created there can be no telling whether or not the life that you are living is doing you any harm or any good. Kind of understanding your reason tonight then you're going to not know the difference with your own life is whether you're in the watches sense of glorious display of chronology or the shattering of glass against a rusty nail. You see what it means for us is we're going to understand our purpose we're going to understand our reason in our lives and to do so we can approach that one or two ways we can seek to discover the real reason God's reason the reason of our designer and the master watch craftsman or we can go and create a reason for ourselves. One of two ways discover or create it and throughout the generations we've created all sorts of reasons for ourselves it's look different but it's in three main sorts of areas we create our reason what we do and what we desire or how we define ourselves. You see the traditional generation or grandparents generation if you're my age their traditional model was you create your reason by what you do through your duties you're a good husband you're a good worker you're a good wife you're a good man you're a good woman your reason was based on what you do and then along came the modern culture and didn't like that strict approach so your reason was just about discovering your inner most desire. And then we post modern kids realize that when you go and follow your desires you realize there's no coherent set you know one minute you like ice cream and then next minute it's making you fat like you can't work it out I desire ice cream but and so we have to define ourselves have to set this patchwork quilt of our identities you know we're great parents so we've got a great career we do whatever we define ourselves and finally we're going to be right right let's see particularly in our younger generation there's one thing people want your people people want this here look are you telling me are you telling me what what I want you to tell me or am I getting the real thing are you manipulating me or you're telling me the real thing you know when you say you can define yourself you're not giving people in you're not giving people what you inherently are demanding and that is authenticity I call it the Louis Vuitton principle you know you know how it is from people go to Italy or probably also to Singapore and they go and grab by them a couple of those Louis Vuitton knock off type bags and and look they look pretty real particularly for me as a guy handbags a handbag as far as I'm concerned but from a distance it all looks good but chatting to some of the girls apparently if you look up close and you check the stitching you can tell that it's really not a Louis Vuitton and so you get up close enough and you see that looks different that's a fake you know and here's here's the thing you can go stitching up your own life with all sorts of different reasons as to why you exist but people are going to get close enough and and discover that it's fake it's not the intention of the designer you need a reason you need a reason to hold yourself together and and and christianity says no you don't find a reason yourself for this simple reason that christianity says we learned that there is a reason let's look at what it says again versus one to three lot of reading in this series three whole verses in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God I just said you need a reason you're reading the Bible they're saying I can't see where you got that my Bible says word Sam versus one to three in the beginning was a word but the Greek word was logos it was a specifically chosen term and so why does John who won't use the word logos he won't use the word Greek word logos for the rest of his gospel why would he use that in the first chapter why not use in the beginning was the sun why wouldn't he write in the beginning was the sun who was with God and was God why not when the beginning was the Lord why wouldn't he use in the big why in the beginning was Jesus why wouldn't he why wouldn't he do that let me ask you this question if you if you had to write the introduction to this book got the weight of the glory of God on your shoulders and you've experienced this and you sit down there what what would you write how would you do this see John first and foremost wants to grab the attention of the people that he's writing to and so he wants to grab the attention the water around him so he uses the word logos because logos rang deep chords in the the ears of people of the day it's because the word logos had been around in the Greek word years before Jesus was on the scene Heraclitus was an old philosopher in 500 BC and he was the first one in Greek philosophy to pay special attention to this word logos and he says the logos is the rational principle of the universe logos was the reason and then the Stoics in 300 BC they said it was the integrating principle of all of life it it made for all the laws of nature and so by the time of Jesus his thought around the word of logos was beginning to disintegrate and shatter through all sorts of Greek debate you can imagine them in the robes and talking about logos for three and a half hours I can't think of anything more exciting but but here's the point they got the point in the debate and they had argued it so much that they began to think was there any reason for life at all and so the Epicureans their solution was well there is no reason for life so just go and have fun it's a Cindy Lawford principle and thanks up there brother and then and then you had the Stoics who said there's no answers but we're going to live a virtuous life anyway and so they will live a good life anyway but there's still no answer look sound any different from how we aren't today does it sound any different one of the reasons I think the religion is so impolite to bring up with people is that people don't like to be reminded that when they get up of a morning they're not getting up for any reason at all they don't want to be reminded that there aren't any answers and we want to keep on living virtuous life we don't we don't think there's an answer we don't have one and so we don't want to be reminded and so the Greeks were debating in the Logos of the philosophical level what everyone including you and I are asking at the informal level when we get on the bus and we get on the train to work we asking ourselves what am I living for and in putting pen to paper can you say the predicament that John is in here in putting pen to paper how do I put into the words he says the revelation of God himself so that all cultures will understand and he says to himself I know I'll use a deliberately loaded term and as he brainstorms the gravity of what's been revealed to him in Jesus Christ he says in the beginning was in the beginning was I mean can you imagine the contemporary parallels in the beginning was the X Factor and the X Factor was with God and the X Factor was God or in the beginning was the force and the force was with God and in the beginning of some teenage girls was Justin Bieber and Justin Bieber was with God and Justin Bieber was God now he says in the beginning was the Logos and so can you can you imagine what these great people were thinking when they read that in the beginning was the reason in the beginning was the integrating principle of all of life and that principle was with God and that principle was God now just not a logical reason because Logos is where we get the word logic from the internal reasoning not just a logical reason but the reason for life you're saying in the beginning was what you were made for you say all religions are like that John's just giving us another guiding principle here but look what if it was just a guiding principle it's not all that attractive if I was looking at and I'd say that's hardly attractive because that's just some up in their abstract truth that I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around some of you probably get on a nosebleed from this theology already tonight it's just up there in the sky it's too hard to understand and we learn first of all that there is a reason but second thing that we learn from this passage tonight is that the reason is not abstract truth but it's a person here we approach the defining factor of Christianity right across the world verse 14 of his gospel that we'll look at in a couple of weeks time he says and the reason became flesh who's he talking about he's talking about Jesus the reason became a person the Greeks have been debating for years what the reason for life is and they thought it was a principle and John says something radically different he's saying there is a truth but it's not abstract truth it's not some sort of divine directives that come down and tell you how to live your life John is saying it's an absolute truth but it's not an abstract it's a person it's not an absolute principle it's an absolute person in the person of Jesus Christ and see that's the that's part of the challenge that we have people have with God right they think how am I supposed to relate to God what does God look like what does he think what is he how would he react in this situation what would he do here how can I know him isn't God something abstract and and that that is at the heart of the beauty of Christianity because of all the religions in the world there is no other way God has become a human person and every other religion still to this day wonders what the God is like we as Christians say it is a person it's Jesus and a very special type of person and we see it hidden with that word with in the beginning was God and in the beginning was the word and the word was with God you see what it means is like what does with me and if you're with someone you're in a dynamic relationship with them and so what it says to us first and foremost that in the beginning before the world was created there was Jesus but Jesus was with God and so the with teachers and ready for this we haven't got a nosebleed yet it's about to happen the with teachers is that God is a tri personal tri and three person God three distinct people in one I know it's crazy some people are reaching for the tissues and you see that that there whenever we have the questions around this notion of the Trinity in Christianity John chapter one verses one to three is if one of the first places we see it so clearly in the beginning was the reason and the reason was with God so the reason and God are together but it's also saying that the reason was God the Logos was God Jesus was God they were together and so here we have God in three persons blessed Trinity is that as the hymn says what is my question what were they doing for all eternity before time began what do you do up there hanging out up in heaven and it's amazing in John 17 in his high priestly prayer Jesus gives us a little bit of an insight he says and now Father glorify me glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began see how he's talking into this verse Jesus is affirming what John is saying here Father I want those who have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world before the world ever began was the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and what is amazing in this incredible state we learn something that is out there as it is and as lofty as it is we're made in his image and nothing is better than to be with someone to be affirmed by someone to be loved by someone to be in relationship with someone what we know in drops the Trinity knows in oceans infinite oceans and so like you know when you get the funny select the sprays at a soccer match when you thirsty at half time the glimpses that we get in the relationship that God had with the Logos with Jesus we can only ever get a glimpse of we're never going to be fully satisfied with how beautiful and wonderful this relationship is but if it's true that God's a Trinity when it says that we are created to participate and be in his glory didn't create it as created us because God needed glory you didn't say I'm going to you know Logos let's we're hanging out here I need some glory let's create humans so they can go to church at Northside on Sunday and sing his praises they weren't thinking like that they did God didn't need glory because they were already glorifying each other God created us because he wanted to share his glory and so as one writer says at the heart of it what was happening there when he sends his son the divine Logos into the world he did it because he wanted to invite us into the dance at the center of the universe God was in perfect glory with the sun the with dynamic relationship and you know what that is what's saying it's it's it's saying here look even the people in the Old Testament didn't get it they didn't have textbooks on the Trinity and they didn't have Alistair McGrath systematic theology and all sorts of stuff to talk about the Trinity but they instinctively knew it they knew it like you and I know intuitively that the glory of God is what we are made for that's why in every outstretched arm in every piece of music that just sends you nuts every piece of art you can't stop staring at and every bit of nature that just blows your mind you got to tell someone that can you believe this it's just the glimpse of what you are created for and so what I want to say tonight is do you know it do you do you see it do you do you sense it because the Bible says so much more than a cliché to answer to the reasons of the world it says simply says this is that this is the reason you were created for if you made for a reason and the reason is a person then the reason for life is an interactive relationship with God through Jesus Christ pretty simple and some thought that meaning the life was forty three John saying get this there's a logos there's a reason and it's not abstract it's a person a person to be known a person to be loved the logos is is is not a set of abstract principles the logos is Jesus the one who existed before the world began the one who has been face to face with God and what we get tonight what we see in this is that God himself has pushed a hole in the roof of the universe and he's come down in the form of a person and he's climbed in you know whereas lots of philosophies will debate the great mysteries of the world Christianity answers some of these questions but it's not a philosophy create Christianity says come and discover who Jesus Christ is come and believe into Jesus Christ read his biography read his story the story of history itself and you can know God not as some abstraction but as a living breathing person lived and walked in areas that I can still look up in Google Maps today I love that every other religion gives you an abstract God but not this one this gives you one that is real guys let me I'm finished with this tonight look here's here's the thing if this this whole whole three verses is just some abstract truth to you then it's it's it's going to be dehumanizing it's if you think it's just abstract truth it's it's going to take away from from what you think it means to be a person you're going to say well you know I got to follow all these rules I got to follow the truth here but if it's a person then it's liberating this freedom in discovering that if what this truth is tonight is a person in the former Jesus Christ here's why I look at it's like love and love takes two parties to surrender to each other it's often a difficult process but if only one person surrenders and it's it's it's dehumanizing there's no there's no independence there's no there's no freedom in that one person's always surrendering to the other and for most people maybe it's you tonight you see a relationship with God like that you maybe tonight you were thinking if I have a relation with this logos with this reason if I discover this reason in Jesus then I'm going to lose my freedom and that's going to take away from what it means to be human you think you know I've got to do all the shifting I've got to do all the sacrificing I've got to follow all these rules I'm the one that's got to give up it's dehumanizing but not with this God you see there are lots of gods out there but only Christianity only Christianity says that the absolute truth became a person and went to the cross and on the cross on the cross God says you you worried about surrender I'll lose my independence for you God says Jesus Christ says I already did the surrendering bit and I got killed for it you surrender and you're gonna find life how can you ask more from a God than that a God that had the ultimate he was the ultimate free being and he comes down to earth he breaks in and he gets nailed for it he surrendered his freedom so that you can know yours look guys you were you were standing at the boarding gate for your hot air balloon this evening some of you if you're not a Christian haven't stepped into that basket and lifted up above the landscape of a life that you have known forever friend can I challenge you tonight if you don't know Jesus Christ if you don't know the reason for your life place your faith in the Him come and see one of the ministry team at the back of the auditorium come and ask what it means to follow the logos in the beginning was the reason and the reason was with God and the reason was God look I'm gonna ask you whether you're a Christian or non-Christian what gets you up in the morning because there are going to be lots of different reasons that you're gonna have tomorrow self-constructed reasons it could be your work it could be your finances could be your family there are going to be lots of your log oi that's plural for logos if you're wondering there you're gonna have lots of reasons see the thing is every other religion in the world leaves you with its teaching this religion if you want to call it that leaves you with its teacher and that's why I'm saying to you tonight for the next five weeks you need to read his biography you need to get into his biography you need to get into the insights of what made him tick what it was within him that left the greatest legacy that this world has ever seen and it's not the most valuable company on the stock market at the moment not who's Steve Jobs who who is Jesus tonight we see first of all Jesus is the reason the reason for everything have you got not just a reason but the reason make him your reason tonight and discover discover what you're built for let's pray [BLANK_AUDIO]