©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

05-01-05

Beginning At The Beginning

5/1/05 Beginning At The Beginning

There are patterns established by God in His relationship with us, His creation.

They are not arbitrary patterns

that change from day to day,

or from century to century,

or from nation to nation,

or from group to group,

or from person to person.

Certainly there are unique things He has done in the lives of those who have come before us,

just as there are unique things He has done

and will do in each of our lives,

because we are unique creative works of His.

And there are special works He has done

and will continue to do

within individual nations and people groups.

But even those unique works of His in our lives and in our world

are all consistent with those patterns established by Him in His relationship with us

because those patterns are not so much things He has chosen to do

as they are windows into who He is,

windows into the unchanging nature of our God.

I mention this as we begin our study today

because we are going to look at one of those patterns this morning.

It is one that we will look at first of all

in the context of God’s relationship with the human race as a whole.

But then we are going to take that pattern

and look at it

as it plays out in our relationships with Him on an individual basis.

And we will begin our study

where the Apostle John begins it,

in the opening verses of the fourth book of the New Testament.

JOH 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Those are the words with which John opens his account

of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

They are words that set the stage

for everything else that follows,

words that forever remove the possibility

that this Jesus was just one more in a line of prophets

sent by God to teach and lead people back to their Creator.

They are words that begin not with the birth of the baby Jesus,

but words that take us all the way back

to the beginning of all things,

to that point at which God chose to create.

And what we see “in the beginning”,

what we see there, when time itself was created,

before there was yet one blade of grass,

or one tree,

before there was even rock, or dirt, or water,

before there was sun, or moon, or stars, or this planet on which we live,

before there was any of it

there was Christ.

And what we see first is that He was there.

You see what John is doing, I hope.

He wants to be certain

that, as we begin to read the words that follow,

those words through which he reveals to us the crucial events that took place on this earth

during the few years when Jesus Christ was here,

we hear those words in the correct context.

He wants to be sure

we do not ever fall victim to the deception

that the history of Christ’s relationship with this world

began with Mary and Joseph and a manger.

And so he takes us back in history,

way back in history,

back past the Roman Empire,

back past the glory days of Israel under David and Solomon,

back past the exodus from Egypt,

past Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham,

past Noah and the flood,

even back before Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.

He takes us back to that place,

that point in time when there was nothing,

to that point in time when our minds would at first imagine only darkness,

and emptiness,

and a silence that has no end.

And when he has taken us all the way back there,

as far back as our minds can go,

he then tells us that even before the darkness, and emptiness, and silence

there was Christ.

He was there.

And not only was He there

but He was “with God”.

And then, what John tells us next

is the truth that alters all things in human thinking forever,

for what we see next

is that He was not just there,

and He was not just with God,

but that He was Himself GOD.

And here is the first pattern,

the first truth I want us to see.

Because what we see John telling us about creation as a whole

is also true about your own personal life.

There are some of you sitting here this morning

who have just recently become aware

of...well...of what I will call the birth of Christ in your life.

You have certainly not thought of it in those terms,

but that’s not an inaccurate description of what’s happening.

Just as that baby Jesus entered the world 2000 years ago

and with His birth and the events surrounding it

caused many to know that something important was taking place,

something that made them wonder what would come of this Child’s entrance into the world,

so, in a special way,

Christ has also now entered your world,

and you know it matters,

and your spirit cannot help but wonder what will become

of what is taking place within you.

I remember the birth of Christ in my own life so well.

I was 19 years old,

just a year out of high school,

doing what I could to avoid getting pulled into the Viet Nam War,

wondering what to do with the life that stretched out before me,

and then, without warning,

without explanation,

all of the sudden there He was.

I didn’t know it was Him at the time.

I just knew something was happening within my spirit,

something that was creating within me

a hunger to know more about this Jesus.

And, just as Christ entered our world two thousand years ago,

so He entered my world in the fall of 1966.

And, I think, with most of you here this morning,

in a way that He knew was perfectly suited to your ability to respond,

He has done the same thing.

Why else would you be here?

But what I want you to know

is that, even though you may only recently have become aware of Him,

perhaps within the past year,

or perhaps ten years ago,

or 20, or 30,

if you were to go back farther,

back past your adolescence,

back past your childhood,

and past your infancy,

back to that point of your conception,

you would find that He was there, with you, even then.

He did not enter your life at the time you became aware of Him

any more than He entered the history of this world

at the time of His conception in Mary’s womb.

David said it perfectly.

PSA 139:13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.

And, as if that were not enough,

John then takes us yet another step,

telling us that not only was He there, in the beginning,

and not only was He with God,

and not only was He Himself God,

but that He was, in fact,

the One who brought into being all that now exists.

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

This world did not just happen.

It is not the product of chance,

the result of random forces bumping up against one another for multiplied billions of years,

(as if any logical mind could ever accept such an absurdity).

What exists,

all that exists

does so because of the wilful creative act of Christ Himself.

And the same pattern we see in God’s relationship to the creation of the universe

is the pattern we also see

in His relationship to each of us.

That birth of Christ within your spirit,

that awareness of Him,

that discovery of His entrance into your life is no more the result of chance

than is your very existence.

It is the result of the direct intervention of Christ into your life,

His creative work within you.

In fact John’s next words make this clear

as he himself begins to bring his comments about Christ

from the universal down to the personal level.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness...

It was not us, in our darkness, reaching out to His light,

it was His light reaching out to our darkness.

And right about now

some of you are teetering between boredom, confusion, and indifference,

wondering what possible difference it makes,

and why in the world

I have chosen to spend our precious and limited time together

making distinctions between the darkness reaching out to the light

and the light reaching out to the darkness.

Well, I want us to follow John’s comments through one more step,

but before we do that

I want to assure you

that I have led us into what may at first appear to be

a rather abstract theological discussion

because there is a crucial and extremely practical life principle I want us understand.

If you’ll stay with me for the next few minutes

I promise I’ll bring this home

in a way that I believe will be very practical indeed.

But first let me lead us one step farther into John’s comments.

OK, now, in these opening words of his Gospel

John makes it clear that when it comes to this physical creation

all that exists does so because of the direct creative intervention of Christ,

and also that

when it comes to our individual lives

all that exists within us concerning our awareness of Him

does so for the same reason - because of the direct creative intervention of Christ in us.

He reached into the darkness and void and nothingness in the beginning of all things

and brought into being life and a world system that would sustain that life.

And He also reached into the darkness and death and emptiness of our spirits

and shined the light of Himself on us

and offered each of us life as well - not just temporary physical life on this planet

but eternal life of the spirit in His presence.

And, as John continues his record of this creative work of Christ

this is exactly where he goes next.

JOH 1:9-10, 12-13 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now, he repeats the crucial truth that he wants to be sure we have understood, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

Christ’s entrance into our lives was HIS initiative.

He is the one who brings His light into our darkness.

He reaches out to our empty, pain-filled, enslaved spirits,

offering us an alternative to our futility and our inner death.

Then he writes one sentence mostly, I think,

just because he wants us to see the tragic absurdity

of the depth of our blindness apart from Christ’s intervention into our lives.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

That is John’s supreme one sentence description

of what was taking place on this planet

during those four years of Christ’s public life among us.

Not only did the world He created not recognize Him as their Creator,

but in the end

they did everything within their power to destroy Him.

But then John brings us to the statement he has been aiming at since he began.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And what I have just read

in my mind will forever be

the most remarkable truth ever to enter into human thought.

Now, we’ll look at it more closely in just a minute,

but first let me reemphasize

the power of this parallel John offers us in these opening verses of his Gospel.

First here is Jesus Christ, the Creator God,

existing before anything else existed.

And it isn’t even accurate

to say that He reached into the darkness

because even the darkness did not yet exist.

He reached into the nothingness

and, by an act of His will,

brought forth light, and warmth, and life

in all of it’s incredible richness and diversity.

And then John takes this same Divine pattern,

this same, redemptive, creative aspect of our God

and he draws a second parallel historical line,

and this second line is US.

And just as Christ began with nothing in the physical creation,

so He begins with nothing in His recreation of us.

John describes our situation prior to Christ’s involvement in our lives simply as “darkness”.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Because all we have ever known in our spirits is darkness

when we first begin to see His light

we don’t even know what it is.

But then, for all those who do not turn away,

for all those who will receive the light He offers,

who will receive HIM,

He does in us

what He did in the physical world so long ago,

He brings forth light out of our darkness and life out of our death.

John describes such people simply as “...those ... who were born... of God.”

And before I take us to the truth I’ve been aiming at since we started,

I want to be sure we have heard correctly

what it is John is saying to us here.

I know that nearly all of us bring with us at least some religious baggage

when we first begin to see flashes of His entrance into our darkness.

With some of us

that religious baggage is extensive to say the least.

If you ever find yourself doubting

the reality or the intensity of the warfare Satan is waging against Jesus Christ on this earth,

all you have to do

is to look at the number and the magnitude of the religious empires and religious systems

that have grown out of what we see being modeled in those simple, uncomplicated friendships

that Christ developed with His followers when He was here.

If we begin with the historical records of those events

what we see taking place

is in every way identical to what we see John giving us here in these opening verses of his gospel.

We see Christ entering the lives of those in His world,

not to expound some intricate religious dance,

but simply to offer His friendship to those who would receive it.

And what He required from them

was just that - simply that they would receive the friendship He offered.

And, as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God...

And what He offers us

is nothing more,

and nothing less than friendship with Himself.

Which brings me at last

to the truth I have wanted to bring us to since I started this morning.

And let me state it both in the positive and in the negative.

And we’ll begin with the positive -

what God is offering you,

what He has been seeking to draw you into from the very beginning

is a real, personal, living, eternal friendship between yourself and your God.

When Christ died in our place for our sins

He was removing the one barrier

that prevented us from living in His presence every second of every day forevermore.

And if, when I was talking earlier

about Christ being born in you,

about Him shining the light of His presence on you,

if you identified with what I was saying,

PLEASE LISTEN TO ME NOW!

What He is offering you,

what He is seeking from you

is not your commitment to any religious system,

or Christian organization,

or pattern of teaching.

He is not asking you to find the “right” church,

or pledge alliance to the “right” religious system.

What He is offering you,

and what He wants you to receive into your life,

and submit yourself to,

and commit yourself to is HIM.

Did you hear those words of John?

Did you really hear them

in all their glorious and terrifying simplicity?

But as many as received HIM...

That’s it.

That’s what He’s offering,

that’s all He’s offering - a life lived in the submissive presence of Christ Himself.

And that is what your spirit is hungering for.

It is not hungering for

nor can it ever be satisfied with the “right” system,

or the discovery of the “right” church,

or allegiance to the “right” organization.

What your spirit hungers for

is Jesus Christ - with you, in you forever.

And then, let me state it in the negative.

If you are trying to satisfy that hunger within your spirit

by seeking God or by seeking union with God

through any group,

or system,

or organization,

or man or woman,

let it go.

If you are reaching out to anyone

or anything that is promising you

that they or their group can serve as the mediator between you and God,

you are being deceived.

The Apostle Paul says it a whole lot better than I ever could.

1TI 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...

Certainly we need one another for encouragement,

and for support.

And certainly God has established teachers within His family

who can help us better recognize and respond to His voice.

But let this be the measure of all such voices in our lives -

if what we hear leads us back to the reality of Jesus Christ in our lives

then they are valuable resources to us.

But if what we hear

points us to any form,

or group,

or ritual,

or system that promises to mediate between us and our God,

then walk away from it.

When I met my Lord in that dorm room in the fall of 1966

what I encountered,

and what I submitted myself to

was Jesus Christ Himself.

And now, almost four decades later,

through all the groups I’ve been a part of,

and all the teaching I’ve received,

and all the things I’ve learned over the years,

the basics of my walk with God have not changed at all.

When I get up each morning

it is still just me and my Lord Jesus Christ,

taking one more step together,

living one more day in the presence of one another.

And if, after listening to all of these words,

you find yourself feeling more confused than ever,

let me simplify what I’ve been trying to say this way.

If you have felt within your spirit

a hunger, a longing for your Creator

in a way that you have not known before,

what you are sensing is Christ Himself shining the light of Himself into your darkness.

And if you have been trying to respond to that hunger

by reaching out to some group,

or some leader,

or some system,

or some religious experience that has promised to get you close to God,

let it go,

and reach out instead to Christ Himself.

Do not begin with the world of religion

and then attempt to see Him through it.

Begin with Him,

With His presence in you,

and His friendship with you,

and then you will see the world of religion as it really is.

It is not nearly as complicated as you may have been led to believe.

Just talk to Him,

and tell Him what it is you hunger for,

and where it is that you hurt,

and ask Him to give you eyes to know

what it means for you to live in a submissive union with Him.