The Priority of the Holy Spirit – Jesus Part 1

Ann Graham Lotz introducing today's Living in the Light. God allows us to go into some situations or some circumstances. He can paint us into a corner so that we can see what He can do for us.

And what do you do? You just pray and watch Him open up the Red Sea. He can make a way where there is no way. You're listening to Living in the Light with Bible Teacher Ann Graham Lotz. Today's message is titled, The Priority of the Holy Spirit, Jesus. And Ann will be teaching on the four aspects of the incarnation of God. In today's message, she'll give us insight to the first two from this magnificent passage found in the beginning of the Gospel of John.

Here's Ann. You know, our politically correct culture wants to strike the name of Jesus from government buildings and from government functions and from the marketplace, from public discourse, from boardrooms and classrooms and courtrooms and makes you sort of wonder, what are they so afraid of? You know, you can say just about anything in our society, but just don't name the name of Jesus.

Why? Who is He? So I'm so glad you asked because I want to tell you who He is. He's the Son of God and He's the Son of Man. He's the Lion and He's the Lamb. He is the Alpha and He's the Omega.

He's the originator and He's the terminator. He is the Creator and He's the Savior. He's the cornerstone and He's the stumbling stone. He's the bright and morning star and He's the sun who rises with healing in His wings. He's the crucified Messiah. He's the risen Lord. He is the servant leader.

He is the King of Kings. He is the baby of Bethlehem and He's the miracle of the ages. He is the incarnation of God's greatness and God's gospel and God's glory and God's grace and He is the priority of the Holy Spirit.

Isn't He magnificent? Open your Bibles to John chapter 1 and I want to read to you our text. It's the first 18 verses of John's gospel.

Some people think this is perhaps the pinnacle of all of scripture and certainly it's magnificent and I'll try to read it carefully and then we'll go through and pull out the characteristics of Jesus that are in this passage because He is the incarnation of God. That means God made visible, okay? So, 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. In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness is not understood or overcome it. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John, speaking of John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through Him all men might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through Him the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

Children not born of natural descent nor of human decision or of a husband's will but born of God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us and we've seen His glory. The glory of the one and only, and I like the King James better, the glory of the only begotten Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth. Verse 16, from the fullness of His grace we've all received one blessing after another.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God but God the one and only, the only begotten Son who is at the Father's side has made Him known. What a magnificent passage and there are four aspects of the incarnation of God in this passage that I want to point out to you. He is the incarnation of God's greatness, He's the incarnation of God's gospel, He's the incarnation of God's glory and He's the incarnation of God's grace. So let's begin as we consider the fact that He is the incarnation of God's greatness, the greatness of God's person. We see as eternity in verse one, in the beginning, not from the beginning.

In the beginning of everything, time and space and human history and anything that ever was, Jesus was already there. So He is eternal and it says, was the word and that's the Greek as understand it is logos and logos means the outward expression of the mind and will that controls the universe. So Jesus, the incarnation of God is the outward expression of the mind and will that controls the universe except I think we can take it farther than that because Jesus says in Matthew that out of the heart the mouth speaks. So if Jesus is the living Word of God, if He's the Word of God then then He's the expression also of God's heart. So Jesus is the outward expression of the mind and the will and the heart that controls the universe. So do you want to know what God thinks about you?

You want to know how God feels about you? Then you just look at Jesus. Jesus is the expression of God's mind and God's will and God's heart. He was the Word and not only is He eternal but we see His equality when it says the Word was with God and the little preposition with means there were two of them implies there's more than one. We know our God is one but He is three in one in this particular case speaking of Jesus He was eye to eye with God face to face. You know there's no difference. They're equally supreme, equally sovereign, equal in personality, equal in power and He's with God. In chapter one of Genesis remember God said let us create man in our image the plural pronouns if you notice the very next verse so God created man in His image He created He Him singular and referring to the trinity that our God is more than one He is three in one God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit. So we see His eternity we see His equality and I'm going to put in in verse two His constancy this is the King James that says that the same was in the beginning and I'm sorry the other translations have dropped that out because it's very meaningful when it says He's the same in the beginning meaning that when He came to Bethlehem He didn't go through a personality change that Jesus is the same in the beginning in the creation as He was to Abraham as He was to Moses as He was to David as He was to Elijah as He was to Paul and Peter and as He was when He taught His disciples as He was when He was caught up to heaven as He will be when we see Him and He comes back to receive us to Himself He is the same the same yesterday today and forever there was no personality change so that begs the question to me if He's the same yesterday and today and forever and if Noah could know Him as a refuge from the storm and if Moses could know Him as the bondage breaker and if Abraham could know Him as his friend and David know Him as a shepherd and Elijah know Him in His power and Isaiah know Him in His glory and Peter know Him in His forgiveness and Paul know Him in His grace and why can't I know Him like that what makes you think you can't know Him like that have you ever stopped to think and I stopped to think maybe years ago when I was first teaching the scripture I was teaching Genesis and came across Abraham and three times in scripture God says Abraham is my friend Abraham didn't say God was his friend God said Abraham's my friend and I stopped and I thought about that and I said you know if God is the same yesterday today and forever and if Abraham could know Him in a relationship that God identified as a friendship then why can't I know Him like that God hasn't changed so if I don't know Him like that there's nothing wrong with God there must be something wrong with me and I set out on our pilgrimage to know God better today than I did yesterday better tomorrow than I do today it's a journey of getting to know Him as I read the Word I apply the Word I live it out I experience Him in my life and get to know Him nobody's going to know Him fully until we see Him face to face right but I want to grow in my knowledge of Him and I want to know Him like those Old Testament saints did if they could know Him like that then so can you and so can I He's the same as He was in the beginning and I would just challenge I guess to take up that aim for yourself that you would choose to know God in a relationship that He would identify one day as a friendship it requires time effort time spent with Him obedience you know but it's the most wonderful journey you will ever embark on it gets better and better and better until one day our faith is going to be sight and we're going to see Him face to face so Jesus is the incarnation of the greatness of His person the greatness of His power in verse three through Him all things were made without Him nothing was made that has been made Colossians 1 says that by Him through Him for Him everything was made that is made everything He is the creator of it all so Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 God created the heavens and the earth verse 2 the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep verse 3 and God said and you have that little phrase and God said let there be light and there was and all the way through Genesis 1 there's that phrase and God said that's the word going forth that's not nouns and pronouns John is saying that's the pre-incarnate Son of God that's Jesus before Bethlehem by Him for Him through Him everything was created that was created He is the creator of big things our Son is big enough for 1.2 million earths to fit into it and that still leaves room for 4.3 million moons I don't understand all that but the sun is the nearest star the next nearest star is five times larger than our sun our galaxy has 100 billion stars I don't know who counted but they say they're over 100 billion galaxies and I think they're still finding them out there and the Bible says that Jesus hung every single one in space and He knows them all by name that's big and He created small things all of our memory brain cells would fit into a one half inch cube I think as I get older my cube is shrinking our heart beats 800 million times in a lifespan the wires that connect the information centers and the human brain if you stretch them out end to end would stretch to the moon and back that's tiny small and He's creative snowflakes no two of which are the same diamonds and dust and dinosaurs and raindrops and sweat drops and dew drops and blood drops and you and me and none of us are the same He's so creative so He's the incarnation of the greatness of God's power the creator of everything so how will you know His power if all you ever do is what you're comfortable with you stay in your comfort zone you never get out of the boat to walk on the water there's some things that God allows us to go into some situations or some circumstances He can paint us into a corner so that we can see what He can do for us it's like you know having the mountains on one side and the desert on the other side and here comes Pharaoh's arm and you've got the Red Sea in front of you and what do you do you just pray and watch Him open up the Red Sea He can make a way where there is no way He's the God of the impossible so I love the fact that He is actively involved created big things and small things and things outside the box and so I don't know what big thing you're facing I don't know what small thing is irritating you I don't know I don't know if you need some sort of creativity for some project you're working on but oh just turn to the Lord ask Him to be Himself to you if He could do it in the beginning He can do it today for you and me so He's the incarnation of God's greatness the greatness of His person His power His purpose in verse 4 His purpose is to give us life in Him was life that's physical life life in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 He said let us create man in our image and then in chapter 2 verse 7 He breathed His own life into Adam and Adam became a living being so Adam received his breath from the pre-incarnate Son of God and then Adam passed that to his children and his children pass it to their children their children pass it their children generation after generation after generation until it comes to you and it comes to me our very breath comes from the pre-incarnate Son of God He has given us life and listen to me it almost makes me angry and actually it does because evolutionists will tell you that we didn't come that way they don't have any explanation for the beginning of life where life comes from but they say you know maybe an amoeba in some prehistoric pool and then we just evolved and we came and and what they're saying is that you're an accident you're a mistake that your life has come from nothing it's going nowhere it means nothing you can just live the way you choose because you know it just is meaningless it's what you get out of this life that counts and haven't the sorry the abortionists bought into that when they say that the baby is a mistake and I won't even quote what that politician said last week about an abortion and it just grieves me makes me angry actually because it's such a contradiction to what the bible teaches that there is a God up in heaven who loves you and he created you for the purpose of knowing him in a personal permanent relationship he wants to bless you and the evolutionists say we came from whatever so don't buy into it Jesus one of his purposes is to give us life and I'll tell you something one day every single person who's been given life and that's everybody who's born into the human race is going to stand before the one from whom their life came and give an account to how they spent that life that's a solemn thing isn't it that's why we want to live our lives so that they count live our lives for him so would you thank God for your physical life and then live it every day expressing your gratitude to him for the life he's given you and life can be hard and I know that but sometimes it's when we're in the prison and we're chained and we've got stripes on our back you know just in a really hard place and we start to praise him and we look up and we discover him in a way we wouldn't whatever that situation was that put us there if that hadn't happened so so thank him for the life that he's given you and the experiences in your life that you have of knowing him in a deeper way his purpose is to give us not only physical life but spiritual life in verse four that life was the light of men Ephesians chapter 2 says that we are born alive physically but we're born spiritually dead that we're like dead men walking in our trespasses and sins we have no ability to please God we can't do anything that's eternally significant we're spiritually speaking we are nothing have no power to have a relationship with God to understand God Romans 3 23 says we're all born in sin separated from God Romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death which means separation from God we're all born of the human race as sinners and as sinners we're spiritually dead I don't know if you saw this but that interview with Kanye West did you see that on I don't even know who James Corden is but I watched it on YouTube and he's interviewing Kanye West on the airplane that's filled with Kanye West choir and they're all going to a Sunday service and so at the end of the interview he asked Kanye West he said what do you say to these people who say that the change in your life is not for real that this is a big publicity stunt that you're just doing this to promote your album what do you say to that and Kanye West looked at him sort of shy you know and he said well he said you ever go to sleep and James Corden said yes and he said then you wake up and yes and he said would you agree that those are two states of being you're asleep and then you're awake and James Corden said yes and Kanye West said well everybody who does not believe in Jesus is asleep said they're spiritually dead in fact he said they're walking dead men and he said the difference he said I woke up amen so I don't know how familiar you are with Kanye West I wasn't that familiar with him just you know here and there but I have started praying for him almost every day that his faith would go down deep into God's word and that he would truly become a man of God talk about the creative power of Jesus wouldn't it be something if he would use somebody like Kanye West to spark revival and the next generation I mean why couldn't he you know so it's just thrilling so maybe join us in praying for him and let's just see what God will do it's very exciting but I felt like he nailed it when he said that everybody who does not believe in Jesus is spiritually dead that's what Ephesians says they're all dead men walking but by God's grace he woke up Jesus came to give us abundant life not just physical life but spiritual life a personal relationship with God now heaven when we die but life and I feel like our culture you know they look for life and experience of life and satisfaction and fulfillment in pleasure and travel and clothes and houses and cars and sports and position and reputation and sex and all of these other things and they all come up empty they have to have more and more and more and more because it doesn't satisfy on in the long term it's the spiritual life that we're looking for that only Jesus offers it's that living water that quenches that thirst so he's come to give us physical life and he's come to give us spiritual life but he's also come to give us light and in verse five the light shines in the darkness but the darkness is not understood or overcome it the light is stronger than the darkness and the light reveals the darkness so I'll just define darkness as anything that's not light right so if light is truth and righteousness and goodness wisdom then darkness is deception and foolishness evil wickedness sinfulness it's the opposite of the light and so the light reveals the darkness and if you want to know if something's right or wrong you just turn on the light so my mother was years ago having dinner next to the head of Scotland Yard in London and he was head of counterfeit department and she asked him she said I guess you spent all of your time studying counterfeits and he said oh no Mrs. Graham he said I spent all of my time studying the real thing that way when a counterfeit crosses my desk I can spot it and if you want to know if things are right or wrong then read your bible turn on the light if you want to know what your view should be on homosexuality if you want to know what your view should be on gay marriage if you want to know what your view should be on transgender things if you want to know what your view should be on abortion turn on the light read the word okay read the word turn on the light the light reveals the darkness I think that's one reason they don't want the bible in schools they don't want it out in the marketplace they're so afraid of the light because the light reveals the darkness this is something else interesting I thought of this past week when you know when I was growing up our culture was compatible with Christian faith and so people went to church even programs on tv you'd see families praying and and so light if I brought a candle in here it wouldn't show up that much because it's sort of diffused by the light but then as you turn the lights off in here that candle gets stronger and stronger and it becomes more apparent there's a bigger contrast between it and what's around it and God hasn't changed his view on those social issues I just mentioned and I haven't changed my view on those things because the bible is clear on those things but as our world gets darker and darker then the contrast gets greater and greater and you know we're persecuted criticized marginalized whatever but we haven't changed this is the same that we were talking about when I was growing up even 10 years ago and then as the world gets darker then the light is revealed and it makes somebody living in darkness uncomfortable but Jesus came to give us light and the light reveals the darkness and it rains over the darkness it's stronger than the darkness using that illustration of a little candle again maybe this is silly but if I went in the back into a closet that's dark and I filled up a paper bag with darkness and I brought it out here and opened up the paper bag nothing would happen the darkness would evaporate but if I turn off all the lights and light a candle and put the candle here up into the last row you could see the candle flame because light is stronger than darkness and I want you to remember that when it comes to your witness because when you share your faith you share a verse or you tell somebody about God's word or tell somebody what God has done for you and Jesus and that witness is stronger than you know don't sell yourself short and it's not yourself it's the light that's stronger than the darkness and they may not like it they may push back and they may resent it but the light penetrates and it penetrates through your testimony verses six to eight is a description of John the Baptist and I won't read it but John the Baptist was so powerful in his witness people thought he was the light but he wasn't just a clear strong witness so go ahead and share your faith and share with people that don't know Jesus and just turn on the light the light penetrates the darkness through your testimony and it penetrates the darkness through the truth verse nine he is the true light that gives light to every man that was coming into the world and he's the true light for every man you might want to underline that there are not different gods for different cultures and different nations and different races there is one true light for every man it doesn't matter if you're American or you're African or you're Russian or you're Asian or you're Australian or you're Mexican if you're Israeli if you're Arab he's the true light for every man to help and encourage you in your work for the Lord we invite you to anagramlots.org it's a great opportunity to further read study live by and love God's word you'll find Ann's daily blog her messages Bible studies books audio and video that will enhance your study your going forward that Ann spoke of today and plan to join us again for living in the light