sunday sermon snippet 29 march
“In the beginning…” — Genesis 1:1; John 1:1
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon which is both the first sermon of Holy Week 2026, as well as the truly first sermon in our series on the book of John (I preached a summary sermon of John a few weeks back to set up the new series).
Accomplishing both those things in one sermon may not seem possible, but we are spending our Holy Week at Grace Church in John’s biography of Jesus, allowing us to meet both aims in the life of our Sunday morning gatherings as Lent draws to a close.
As we make our way into John’s opening of the story, we observe how he masterfully connects the coming of Jesus to the coming of all things, all while painting a compelling vision of the King who, centuries ago, entered into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna!”
And if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
A Compelling Vision
Brothers and sisters, John is a man who is so captured by a vision of Jesus that he is compelled to write so that we might learn something about the story we are all living in. He has come into contact with Someone who turned his world upside-down and inside-out, a contact which became the defining moment of his life and transformed his life — three-plus years of a friendship and discipleship that radically altered who he was and how he saw everything in the world around him. Here’s how he describes what happened to him in a letter he wrote to some other believers in another church:
1 John 1:1-4
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Messiah. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
It’s little wonder that John became known as the evangelist, one who shares Good News, one who is a Good News-er of those around him. John had seen Jesus with his own eyes, heard him with his own ears, had touched him with his own hands, had been embraced by Jesus in love and kindness, reclined close to Jesus as they ate meals together, existed in the inner circle of friendship with Jesus among the wider circle of disciples and followers, enjoying a unique and intimate relationship with him. And so he couldn’t stop talking about him, because he wanted others to have fellowship with him, so that they could be invited into that same fellowship with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus. Why? Joy, that’s why. John had tasted and experienced a kind of joy that he never had before in his life, and it completely transformed and changed his life. And he wanted that for everyone he knew, and everyone he came into contact with, and for everyone who would follow him down through the ages and live in this broken world filled with darkness — he wanted that for you, and for me.
And I realized something that for me is well, and I really struggled for how to say this, still not sure I can put it into words, maybe “breathtaking” and “thrilling” are the ones that come closest — I realized that as I sat at the knee of grandpa John and listened to his stories over the past couple of weeks — what happened for John is that Jesus became the way in which he rightly saw and understood the world around him. In other words, he discovered that Jesus is the interpretive key of the story.
Have you ever had this happen to you? Maybe you’re reading or listening to a book or watching a movie, and this one event happens, this one thing, that unlocks the rest of the story for you. I mean, until that moment, maybe you even thought you were understanding the story, what was going on — but then this thing happens, this moment, this scene or speech or event or interaction between characters — and everything in the whole story clicks into place. It all becomes so clear! And suddenly the story is richer, more complex, vibrant, thrilling, and satisfying.
That is what happened when Jesus came into John’s story. That is what happened when Jesus became the central character in John’s story, and for the rest of his life. Everything clicked into place, and it all became so clear!
Things he thought he had understood in the past took on new meanings in light of Jesus.
The way he considered his present life took on new meaning and direction in light of Jesus.
The hopes he had for his future — and the future — took on new meaning in light of Jesus.
And so, friend, he wants you to know all about this too! Because he’s an evangelist, a Good News-er. Goodness, he comes right out and tells us this is why he wrote the story for us — so that we may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing, we too might have life in the name of Jesus! (20:31) Brothers and sisters, John wants to introduce you to someone who — if you don’t already know him, can change your life; and, pay attention, because even if you already know him, he wants you to know that Jesus can keep changing your life. He’s inviting you, welcoming you, to the adventure of a lifetime. He’s inviting you to a new life, an abundant life, a joyful life, an eternal life. He’s inviting you to a person who can help you see everything in a new way because you see everything in light of Jesus. And he’s inviting you into all that by inviting you into a story, a story about Jesus. Because he wants you to understand who Jesus really is — huh, that’s fitting, isn't it, on Palm Sunday? A day that marks the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the beginning point of so much mis-understanding about who Jesus really is.
And what’s more — John knows that if you’re really going to understand who Jesus is, then you have to go aaallll the way back to the beginning. John places his story in a cosmic context. He does by means of an ancient story device called a prologue — a kind of story before the story which helps prepare you to better understand everything you’re about to discover in what will follow.
And what a prologue this is! — radiating with resplendent images and a vivid vision of the central character in the story of the world……
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
