sunday sermon snippet 12 April
“Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness,…” — John 1:16
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon on John 1:14-18. In this final sermon on John’s prologue to his story, we explored two main ideas. First, that God has come to visit us in Jesus, and two, that Jesus — like any good guest — comes bearing gifts.
See the snippet below for the second of Jesus’ gifts to us…
And if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
The Second Gift
The second gift is one I heard Tim Keller talk about, and it is the end of the problem of guilt. In Jesus, God has come, the God who — remember what we read earlier in Exodus 34 — is the one “forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.” (Ex34)
What is rebellion? It means that we’re not centering our lives on God. And we should be punished for that, because it’s a tragedy, and it’s blasphemy, when we don’t give God mastery over our lives. And the Bible says that God visits in Jesus, bringing forgiveness with him. In other words, Jesus comes to take our punishment for our rebellion, our wickedness, and our sin. And Jesus has to be both God and man to make that possible. He has to be man, because suffering and death are required for payment, and only a man could do that. He has to be God, because the crimes are infinite, and thus, the payment, and only a God can do that. And why, exactly, is he making a payment? For what?
In 1986 I was an 11th grader in high school, and one of my classes was English literature, Mr. Wolter. And he introduced me to the magnificent world of William Shakespeare. I remember the play Macbeth, and having to memorize a soliloquy:
tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time…
I loved it. Many of you are familiar with it, and with another famous scene from the play — that of Lady Macbeth, who has planned and pushed for the death of King Duncan, though not murdering him herself. But the psychological impact of her guilt haunts her. She can’t get free from the deed, sleepwalking, imagining blood on her hands that refuses to be washed away, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!... Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” Over and over and over, she can’t get free of the guilt.
And maybe that’s you today. As Keller reflects, there are just some things in life you can’t get free of. You have guilt in you and on your soul that you haven’t been able to deal with. Some of it is false guilt because of things that friends or people or parents have said in the past about you, and you’ve never been able to get rid of it. But some of it’s true guilt, you’ve cheated in certain places, you’ve violated someone’s trust, you’ve betrayed things, you’ve defiled standards. And you see the stains of it, “Out, damned spot! Who would have thought there could be so much stain!? How can I be free!?”
Look to Jesus, friend. Visit with Jesus. You can be free, and you can be clean. He is God, and he’s died for you. He is man, and he understands you. Jesus knows exactly what you are going through, because he has been tempted in every way you have, and yet he is without any spot or stain that needs cleansing. Do you want freedom from your guilt, from that damned spot? Look to Jesus.
“From his fullness we have all received, blessing upon blessing. Grace upon grace.” Including forgiveness, cleansing, and freedom from guilt.
Friend, “No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side, [who is in the bosom, in the lap, of the Father] — Jesus has revealed him.” (v.18)
“And if you’d believe that,” as Keller has said, “if you’d base your life on it, there is no end to the miracles that can come into your life.”
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
