Running To Win

Narrator: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The Greek word Logos means word or expression. In the Gospel of John, we read, the word was made flesh. So the expression of God to us is his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Narrator: From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running To Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line.

Guest (Male): Pastor Lutzer, tell us what you mean when you say that the word of God has visited us.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dane, by the way, I love that terminology. It's used several times in the Bible where it says, and God visited His people. Isn't that beautiful? To think that God comes and visits us. But specifically, the text that we're referring to today, found in John chapter 1, is that God has visited us in Christ. In other words, the word became flesh. This is breathtaking.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: When people looked on Jesus, they could actually be looking upon God. God in the flesh. I've written a book entitled, Managing Your Emotions. You know, the subtitle is, God's good gifts gone wrong. The fact is that emotions are a tremendous blessing.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Who of us has not been elated because of some emotion? But at the same time, emotions can be a tremendous hindrance in our walking with God, especially when we begin to think that truth is based on our emotions. Well, you've heard it before, but let us remind ourselves that feelings are not facts.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I think that this book will be a tremendous blessing to you. It deals with depression, rejection, fear, loneliness, and so forth. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you, and I would like to give you some contact info right now, if you have a pen or pencil handy.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Here's what you do. Go to rtwffer.com, that's rtwffer.com. Or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again after this message. But let us remember that we have a firm foundation in God's word.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: This is the last in a series of messages entitled, Changed by the Word. But we're all hoping and praying that the impact of these messages and our emphasis on being changed by the world, word, I should say, will take us all the way to eternity.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: We're so glad for the many who have been listening to the New Testament or reading the New Testament, for the hundreds of people here who have taken that on as a challenge, and what a transforming challenge it has been. In many respects, today is the most important message in this series because we are going to be introduced now. We're going to move from an emphasis on the written word to the personal word, Jesus.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Jesus is really the hub and everything that we've been doing are the spokes that feed into that hub and that point toward it. If you ask me what the purpose of this message is, I can tell you very clearly, it is to bring you and me into the very presence of God so that we encounter the almighty, unchangeable, eternal God. That's where this message is going.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I want you to engage with me as we move through certain texts because I believe that at the end we'll see the importance of the written word and the word of God made flesh.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, there are parallels, by the way, between the Bible and Jesus, and we should note those because it really does help us to understand. It would be wonderful if I had time to preach a whole message just on those parallels.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: For example, both Jesus and the word were conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, when he took upon himself flesh, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit. The Bible, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Both are conceived by the Holy Spirit. Both are both God and man. This is very helpful.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Some people look at the Bible and they see it as a purely human book. It has certain styles, it has certain human characteristics, and they're right. And other people looked at Jesus and said to themselves, well, you know, Jesus is a mere man. Unfortunately, they use the word mere because he is a man. He's also God, just like the Bible is also human and divine. Really helps us understand it. And both, of course, are filled with authority.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: There's no division in the Bible between the words of Jesus. You know, sometimes there are Bibles that have red letter editions as if to say, these words are really authoritative. Jesus spoke them. All words in the Bible, whether red letter or not, are authoritative, equally so.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And we can't get to Jesus without going through the written word. And both are eternal. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. The flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Well, all that is setting us up for John chapter 1.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: If you have your Bibles, please turn to it. And if you happen to have a Bible, but you just forgot to bring yours, you could look in the pew in front of you, and I think you'd be pretty close if you were on page 886. 886, that's at least what my Bible says, and I think the Bible that you have there says the same thing. And, of course, it can be found on your cellphone. So that's another way that you can access it.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, in the beginning was the word. And it's too, it's too interesting for me to go into this in the beginning phrase, because I hope to preach an entire message on the eternality of God in the near future. But this is the beginning before any other beginnings. And what it means is that in order for something to exist, something had to exist for all eternity because out of nothing, nothing comes.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And that's why it is so rational to believe in God, not the eternality of matter, but God. More of that in a future message. John uses the word word now. In the beginning was the word. He's thinking of the Old Testament because in the Old Testament the word word created, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made. And the Old Testament, you have the word causing revelation, the word of God came to Isaiah or Jeremiah and other prophets.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You also have the word bringing deliverance. The scripture says, He sent His word and He healed them. Paul says, the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the word of the cross. It's not the cross as a word, but rather the message of the cross. So John begins here by saying, in the beginning was the word. And now notice how he nuances the Trinity.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. And the word was God. What an amazing text. The more I meditated on it this week, I realized this has to be inspired. Wish we could go through it phrase by phrase, but we must hurry on. He says, for example, all things, verse 3, were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dr. Don Carson of Trinity Seminary says that eventually, when you're witnessing to people, somebody might say, well, you know, that's your religion, but I have my own God. Maybe I'm into crystals or something else, because we all are spiritual. At some point, what you need to do is to say, you know, I can't just let this lie because I'm talking about the God who created you, and you owe Him. You owe Him.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And your whole life is based upon His will and His purpose, and it's prudent for us to investigate and to find out how we can connect to this God, which is, of course, what John's prologue is all about, and what my message is about today. So, He is the Creator. He's also the revealer. In Him was life, and the life is the light of men.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: John is speaking about creation, but He's also speaking about moral light that God reveals. God is light. In Him is no darkness at all. Well, all this sets us up for the verse I really want to get to, and that is verse 14. I believe that verse 14 is the most explosive verse in the whole Bible.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: John 3:16 is the best known, but this verse is explosive because of Gnosticism. Gnosticism, you remember, is a synthesis between Greek thought and Christianity. And so, Gnosticism, being influenced by Plato, believed that all matter was evil. Plato, you remember, believed that the forms of the mind are eternal and perfect.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Best example might be mathematics, 2 plus 2 is equal to 4. That's true even if you have a fever. 2 plus 2 is still equal to 4. But in addition to that, Plato taught that all matter was evil. And therefore, in the platonic mind and God became evil, the word became flesh.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: But of course, in the New Testament, it's very clear that not all matter is evil. And the word in becoming flesh became something it wasn't without in any way diminishing anything that it's always been. I hope that you are able to grasp that statement because it lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, we're going to continue on, though. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's what your translation say. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Everybody stop now. Now it's time to grasp this, that what we have here is actually a word that means it tabernacled among us.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And what John is doing here is he's alluding now to the Old Testament, and it's the story of Moses that we need to grasp to put all this in context, and then what we're going to see is how Jesus leads us all the way to the Father.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Remember the story? Moses is up on the mountain. Aaron convinces the people to make a golden calf. It's a tragic story. And they are willing to do that. Moses comes down from the mountain and he's angry. God is angry. God judges the people. And now it's time for Moses to lead the people one more time and to continue on to the promised land.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: But Moses is uncertain. The nation has been judged by God. Aaron has been compromised because of his leadership. And Moses says, I don't know if I want to go and God, you had better go with us. God says, my glory, my Shekinah glory, will no longer go with you.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And Moses said, look, if your glory isn't going, I'm not going. Moses was saying, it is better to be in a wasteland with the presence of God than to be marching into a promised land without the presence of God.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And you and I might say, it is better to be poor and to have God's blessing, and to be able to say that we have God's presence, it's so much better than to be rich without God's blessing. Moses says, unless you go, I'm not going. God says, okay, I'll go. Moses said, show me your glory.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: What Moses evidently was asking for is to see the very essence of God. And God said, okay, Moses, you found favor in my sight. I'll show you my glory, but my face you can't see. Now, this is very important because in the previous chapter, it talks about the fact that Moses spoke to God face to face.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Clearly, what the text means is this, that there's no contradiction. God is saying, you cannot see my essence. You cannot see me as God because it says there in the 33rd chapter, no man can see me and live. Nobody has ever seen God as God. But plenty of manifestations.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: In the Old Testament, God has shown up in different ways, veiled. And even the light, the Shekinah glory, was a manifestation of God. It was not the very essence of God, which no man can see.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And Moses says, okay, all right, I want to see more of you. And God says, I'll hide you in a rock and then I'll let my glory pass by, and you cannot see me directly, but you can catch a glimmer. And Moses was there and he caught that glimmer. And Moses was there in the tabernacle, administering sacrifices and everything else later on, and that's the imagery that's behind here.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, with that background, let's read this now with new eyes. And the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. He becomes the sanctuary. And we beheld His glory.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: What John is doing here is having a replacement motif. What he's doing is, he is showing that Jesus now is going to replace the whole Old Testament system. And that system was set up for this reason, how can men have fellowship with God without God contaminating Himself and compromising His holiness? And now Jesus is going to do it and do it completely. How fortunate we are to live in this era.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, first of all, then, Jesus reveals the presence of God. By the way, Moses said to God, he said, God, how else will we be distinguished among all the other people of the earth if you don't go with us, if it's not your presence? And this is confirmed in the New Testament.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: How can we as the Moody Church exist without the presence of God? We can't. Without the presence of God, we might as well become a social club. Without the presence of God, we might as well become the arm of a political movement. Without the presence of God, we can expect nothing eternal to happen here. If God is not with us, we're not distinguished from all the other people of the earth. It is God's presence.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And now, notice what the text says. We beheld His glory. The glory came to us in Jesus. Oh, it was veiled. That's why we sing a Christmas, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. And Jesus performed a miracle in John chapter 2 and it says that the people saw the miracle, but the disciples saw the glory. They said Jesus manifested His glory to them.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: At the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus Christ glory is seen. At the cross, Jesus Christ glory is seen. In John chapter 12, he says, when I be lifted up, this is the hour in which I'm glorified. David Bryant, who's going to be with us on Saturday, speaks about the cross in this way, the cross was the definitive display of God's sovereignty, and we might add His glory.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Because of it, slaves of the fall are liberated, because of it, Satan's minions are bound, because of it, death is destroyed, sin is demolished, judgment is absorbed, and fear is banished, because of it, all who believe are conquered by grace and transferred into the empire of His son. That's what happened on the cross, and Jesus was thereby glorified.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And you know what it says in John 17? I'm not making this up. You should always make sure that whoever preaches here, that he's not making stuff up. Now, if he is, he ought to tell you that he is. Bible says this in John 17, Jesus is praying to the Father and he says, the glory which thou gavest me, I've given to them. And he's talking about the disciples, and he's talking about us.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Jesus replaces the glory of the Old Testament, which was localized, that Shekinah glory, and now because he's in heaven as our high priest, he is giving that glory and sharing that glory as we shall ultimately understand it in His blessed presence, there we shall see the glory of God to the extent that human beings can.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: So Jesus, you'll notice in the text, he replaces the glory of God. We saw His glory. He also replaces the sacrifices, doesn't he? In the Old Testament, there was no end to these sacrifices. The priests had to stand in shifts, eight hours a day, three shifts, and continually. Why? Because there was no permanent sacrifice for sin, and God wanted to illustrate that.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for all time, sat down on the right hand of God. Why could he sit? Because it was all finished. It was all completed thanks to His perfect work. And that's why we don't offer sacrifices anymore.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: We don't come, you know, with our animals to be sacrificed because Jesus is our sacrifice. Later on in John chapter 2. He's going to say, destroy this temple, and in three days, I'll raise it up. And the Jews are saying, hey, look at this big temple that Herod built us. You're going to destroy it and raise it up in three days? But then John adds, but he was talking about the temple of his body.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: He is now the temple. He is the sacrifice. He also is the place of worship. We now come to Him. And we worship in spirit and in truth, no longer having to go to Jerusalem in the temple, no longer having to go to a place of worship. Though we thank God for those places of worship, and many of you are in one right now.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: We thank God for that, but we don't have to go there, so to speak. Why? Jesus said, from now on, you can worship in spirit and in truth anywhere. As he was speaking to the woman at the well, who thought that they had to worship, the Samaritans worshipped in Mount Gerizim, but Jesus said, anywhere because Jesus Christ has come.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: So he reveals the presence of God. He also reveals the person of God. You'll notice it says, verse 16. And from His fullness, we all received grace upon grace, the law was given through Moses, grace and truth comes by Jesus. Oh, how tempted I am to camp there for a while to discuss grace and truth, but the beautiful blend of both.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Today, in some churches, there's so much grace, you'd get the impression that God was never mad at anything, that everything was okay with Him. The balance between grace and truth comes to us in Jesus. And then notice also, the very person of God is revealed. No one has ever seen God, as I explained, no one has ever seen the essence of God as God. But the only begotten God, or the only begotten son who is at the Father's side, he has explained Him. Jesus explained.