The Logos

In today's world, a person's identity is a big deal. But what if the secret to an identity is to know that the God of the universe loves you? That's the major lesson we'll take from the fourth Gospel, the one known as John. We'll learn what the Greek word logos means and how Jesus fills its many meanings. We'll see that we're so loved by Jesus that He came to give His life for us.

From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly broadcast of worship and teaching with Pastor Philip Miller. Today, join us for the first in a long series of messages from John, we're calling Loved by Jesus, a study through John. Our focus, the Lagos. Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and Executive Pastor Bill Birchie. Hey everybody, welcome to Moody Church.

We're so glad you're here this morning. We're beginning a new series titled Loved by Jesus as we go through the Gospel of John. Would you? Bow your heads and pray with me as we begin. Father, we thank you that the thing that is true That is most deep and real about each and every one of us is that we are indeed loved.

by Jesus. This truth matters more than anything else. That you have set your love and affection on us. You've sent Jesus to rescue us, to redeem us. You filled us with your Holy Spirit.

And so, Father, we want to say we love you back this morning. We want to respond to your love in worship, awe, and praise. Come and meet us here, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Let's begin by praising the Lord for His blessings to us. Let's sing. Praise God from Blessings for Praise Him all creatures here being one Praise Him of all Heares Praise Father Son and holy holy, holy Lord God almighty. Early in the morning, our song shall rise to thee, holy, holy, merciful and mighty.

God in three persons, blessed is thee, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee, blessing all them parts of thee, joy and self. Then holy God be thy shirt and arch and watch thee, holy, holy, O darkness thy sinful and thy glory name I see Holy Thou art holy There is none beside thee earth within thy All worship thy name in earth and sky and thee holy, holy holy words can glorify. Amen, amen. What a beautiful, beautiful song. Let's pray.

Father, you are indeed a great God worthy of our worship and praise. Holy Trinity. We thank you. We know that you're here with us. today.

I pray that your presence would inspire in us Worship in spirit and in truth, for you are worthy of nothing less. Father, may these truths That apply to your people transform the way we live. Not only the way we worship now, but the way we live. We commit ourselves to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning. Yeah. with God. And all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made.

That was made. In him was life. Mm-hmm. Life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness.

and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light. that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. Let all mortal flesh keep silent and with fear and trembling stand under nothing earthly might far with blessing in his hands Christ our God to earth is ended of all his truth King of kings and power Mary has of all on earth he stood for the horns in human pasture in the body and the heart he will give to all the faithful his own soul forever in his song. As you seize this voice, they will lie. Amelia bloodshore keeps the blood of flesh, keeps us all he was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world was made. did not know him.

He came to his own. And his own peace. did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, Who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.

But of God. And the word became flesh. and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Lori has often The only son From the father full of Grace and John bore witness about him, and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.

For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus. Jesus Christ. Store that.

No one has ever seen God. The only God God. who is at the father's side. He has made him known. In the darkness, we were waiting without hope, without light.

Till from heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes. To fulfill the law and prophets, to a virgin came the word from a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt to reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost. To redeem the whole creation, you did not despise the cross, for even in your suffering, you saw to the eyes. Other side, knowing this was our salvation.

Jesus for our Savior died. In the morning that you rose, all of heaven held its breath. Till that stone was moved for good, for the land that conquered death. And the dead rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in law. For the souls of all who come to the Father are restored.

And the church of Christ was born, and the spirit led the way now. His gospel, truth, above all, shall not heal, shall not reign by his blood and. In his name, it is freedom. I am free for the love of Jesus Christ, who has resurrected me, praise the Father, praise us, praise us here, free him more. God of glory, God shall see, praise forever to the king of peace.

Praise the Father, praise us, hear it free. King Lord, God glory and sing, praise forever to the king of thee, praise the Lord, amen.

Well, good morning, Moody Church. Today we begin a brand new series in the Gospel of John. Titled Loved by Jesus. This is of all the Gospels, of all the accounts of Jesus' life. This one is my favorite.

Uh probably because our author, John, Actually, whenever he shows up, it's this phrase: the disciple that Jesus loved. was there. What's interesting to me is, you know, I used to think that John was being a bit presumptuous. You know, I'm the one that Jesus loved. As if I'm Jesus' favorite, or something like this.

But I've realized that's not really it at all. For John, the most defining, grounding, and meaningful identity he could ever find. was in the simple fact that he was Is and always would be loved by Jesus. In the end, nothing else mattered. All his accomplishments, all his connections, titles, his writings, he was a pretty big deal.

Even his life itself, at the end of the day, didn't matter at all because he what really counted was that he was loved by Jesus. And I think this is remarkable. Jesus' love changed John's life forever. John started out as one of the sons of thunder, one of these loudmouthed guys. You know, he was always jockeying around about who was going to get a sit at Jesus' left or his right in the kingdom of heaven.

But in the end, at the end of his life, John writes and he says, All that really matters is I was loved by Jesus. Jesus loves me. This I know. And here's the point for us. What if the key?

What if the secret to an identity So free.

So abundantly full of life, so solid and lasting. That all other identities fade into insignificance. What if the key to that kind of identity? is to be loved by Jesus. What if who we are isn't what others expect us to be.

Or what others tell us we are, or what we expect us to be, or what we tell us we are, but what if who we really are at the very core of our being is who we're loved by. That we are loved by Jesus, and what He says about us is what really matters. Most. See, this series is an invitation. An invitation to come and discover this Jesus who so transformed John's life with his love.

But to understand that kind of love, we have to first see the Jesus that John knows. This Jesus who turned John's world upside down, or maybe we should say, right side up.

So let's jump in this morning. But before we do that, would you pray with me? Let's ask that the Lord would be with us. We turn to you now, we ask you. That you would change our lives.

That you would ground our identity. That you would give us a sense of who we are in the love. of Jesus. We pray this in His beautiful name. Amen.

Amen. Today we're going to be in John chapter 1. We're going to look at the first 18 verses, and we're going to discover this first glimpse that John gives us of Jesus, who is the Logos. The Logos. The Logos, that's a weird word.

You don't hear it every day. Logos in Greek means simply word or matter or reason, something like this. And so, what we're going to do this morning is we're going to start unpacking that term. And I want to show us three things this morning. I want to show us the enigma of the word, the logos, the enlightening of the logos, and the infleshment of the logos this morning.

Okay, let's jump in. First, the enigma of the Logos. John 1:1 says this: 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 were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Now, just pause for a moment here. We know down from verse 17, we'll get there eventually, that the logos here, this logos, this word, is referring to Jesus. But here's the question. Why does John take 16 verses to tell us Jesus' name. Why doesn't he just start out and say, in the beginning was Jesus?

Wouldn't that be clearer?

Well, there's an extended metaphor here, and John is doing this on purpose because logos is actually a technical term from the first century. And by using this word logos, John is engaging both Greek philosophy and Old Testament theology at once. It is brilliant, it is beautiful. Let me show you what he's doing. I'm going to give you a quick.

Historical survey of the backdrop.

Okay, first, I want to introduce you to a guy named Heraclitus. Heraclitus, this is well before the time of Jesus. He was an early Greek philosopher, hailed from Ephesus. He said famously, listen to this quote: No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.

Sort of sounds like a philosopher, doesn't it? This is a very philosophical statement. His point is that the universe is an ever-changing thing. It's always in flux. It's impossible to step into the same river twice.

If you go down to the Chicago River and get in it, I don't recommend that, but if you get in the Chicago River, you will find that the water is flowing. You cannot get in the same water droplets twice, right? They're moving, and you are always changing. You know, all the cells in your body change out every seven years or something like this.

So we are always changing. The universe is always in flux. The rivers change. And yet... We still call it the Chicago River.

And yet, you still call me Philip. What is the stability? Amidst all the change? What is the continuity amidst all of the chaos? This is the question.

And Heraclitus used this word. He said, there's a unifying principle that undergirds the universe, and that word he called, this principle he called. The Lagos. That there was a a word, a matter, something anchoring and gluing together the universe, resolving all of its disparate parts. For him, the Lagos was the unifying principle of all matter, history, and reason.

This is how he used the word logos. Plato comes along a little bit later, and Plato says, this is an amazing quotation. He said this: It may be that someday there will come forth from God a word, logos, a logos, that will reveal all mysteries and make everything plain. Isn't that amazing? He asked it somewhat facetiously.

Oh, yeah, someday God may answer all the questions.

Someday God may send a word and we don't have to search for answers anymore because it'll all be plain and understood. And in the meantime, we just have to sort things out. But he said, one day Allah may come. For Plato, Lagos was ultimate reason, explanation, or answer. Aristotle comes along.

Aristotle, again a little bit later in his treatise on the art of persuasion titled On Rhetoric, Aristotle he identified three artistic proofs or modes of persuasion: logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos was rational appeal. Pathos was emotional appeal. Ethos was ethical appeal. And so, without getting into all the nuance of that, Lagos here for him was persuasive and convincing reason.

Then along come the Stoic philosophers, and this is a wide range of individuals, a very non-defined movement that brackets the coming of Jesus and the writing of John. But the Stoic philosophers, we even talk about it today, people are Stoic, you know, they're sort of emotionally detached, rational creatures. This was their philosophy. They sought to ultimately know the true rational universe, what was real and firm and not emotionally in flux, but what was real and true. They believed that the origin of the universe was found in what they called the Logos.

Here's our word again: that the Logos was the thing that gave order to and sustained all of life throughout all the universe. Lagos for the Stoics was the ultimate reality pervading and animating the cosmos. Then along comes Philo of Alexandria. This man is a contemporary of Jesus and John. He was a Hellenistic Jew, so he's a Jewish man, but he's Hellenistic.

He's influenced in Greek philosophy, Greek culture. And he was a contemporary of John when he wrote these things. He wrote this: this is an exact quote: The Lagos of the living God is the bond of everything, holding all things together and binding all the parts and prevents them from being dissolved. and separated.

So there's two things I want you to see here. First, Philo has connected Lagos with God Himself. This is the Lagos of the living God. He also has Lagos for him is a bit of like cosmic glue. It is the cosmic reality that is ordering and binding and stabilizing all of the disparate parts of the universe.

The Lagos is the order beneath the order. It is the being behind all being. It is the life beyond all life and before all life.

So, in Greek philosophy, if we could sum all this up here, Logos was kind of shorthand for ultimate cosmic reality. Ultimate cosmic reality. And John, by using the word Lagos, is entering into dialogue with these Greek philosophers.

So he's telling us, in the beginning, before everything in the universe, there was the Lagos. Ultimate cosmic reality. Order beneath all order, being behind all being, life behind, before all life. Heraclitus, that mysterious unifying principle that gives order to all reality, it exists. And it exists not just as a principle, but as a person.

The Logos is not only with God, He in fact was God. He was in the beginning with God. And Philo, here is your Logos of the living God who holds all things together. And Stoic philosophers, here is your Logos who pervades and animates the cosmos. All things, as he writes, were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. Aristotle, here is your reason beyond all reason. Plato, you surmise that one day there may come forth from God a Logos who will reveal all mysteries and make everything plain. And I'm here to let you know he's here. The Logos has arrived.

The deep mysteries of the universe are now being unraveled and disclosed and revealed in a person. The Lagos is coming. to light.

So, John here is brilliantly engaging with Greek philosophy. But he's also a Jew. And because he's a Jew, he has the heritage of the Old Testament scriptures. And he's also drawing on those. If we go back to the Old Testament and do a quick theological study of the concept of the word, the word of God, we will find four main strands all throughout the Old Testament.

The first one is that God's Word, the Word of God, is all about creation, creation and the word of God. John 1:1 here is an intentional echo of Genesis 1:1. He says, in the beginning. What does that sound like? It's like today if we were to say, we the people.

You know exactly what I'm referring to. It's not that those words are all that special, but when I say we the people, you know I'm talking about the Constitution. And for a Jewish person to begin his sentence in the beginning. Was to refer back to Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And how did God create? The heavens and the earth. What did he do? He spoke. Yeah.

His word was his creative Force. The Hebrew word is debar. The translation into Greek is. Lagos. And God said, Let there be light.

And there was light. And on and on it goes. God speaks, and then it comes into reality. Land, planets, stars. Animals, everything comes to life and into being because of the word.

Now There's a little bit of a theological enigma going on here, though. And here's the question. How does a spiritual being, God, who is spirit, create a physical reality? You see, the physical is all this firm stuff. Spirit is out here, right?

What is the connection between spirit and physical, between immaterial and material? We see this tension in metaphysics today. We say, What is the connection between the mind and the brain? You see? One's a physical organ, but where's the mind?

How do you measure the mind? See? These are the questions. How do we have a spiritual, immaterial God creating a physical organ? Material universe?

What is the bridge between these realms, between these metaphysical categories? And the answer is. The word. The Lagos. The Word of God is the bridge between God and man, between Creator and Creation.

The immaterial spiritual creator, through his word, bridges to the material and physical universe.

So in other words, the word becomes the agent of creation and life. Does that make sense? The word is the agent. Creation and life.

So that's the first way we see the Word of God. The second way we see it is in Revelation. The Word of God in Revelation. God reveals himself in his word. For example, in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we see this phrase over and over again.

The word of the Lord came to Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel.

Now this is very interesting language. It doesn't say the Lord came to them and said, It says the word came to them. It doesn't say the Lord swept them up, caught them up to like some sort of vision. And they were with God and heard him speak. It s said the word came to them.

It's almost like the word left God and his person traveled some distance and showed up somewhere. The word of the Lord came to them. It's as if it was sent, it was dispatched, it's like it's a messenger. It's almost as if the word is living and active. You see this?

We see this even more clearly when it comes to salvation, the word of God in salvation. In Isaiah 55, this is what we read: So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

So here you have the idea of God's word traveling forth, being sent forth with power and authority and efficacy. It has agency. It is dispatched. It is sent here. Or in Psalm 107, this is what we read.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. That's Psalm 107 verses 19 to 20.

So here we have God's word. healing and delivering his people. It's as if God is sending his right-hand man, if you will, to carry out a rescue mission on behalf of his. People and the word of God is starting to take on almost a sense of agency for sure, and almost a sense of personhood. Do you see that?

Now, in the wisdom literature, this is what we read in Proverbs chapter 8. The Word of God is connected with wisdom. This is a long quotation, but let me read it. It's very important. Proverbs 8 verses 22 to 31.

The Lord possessed me. This is wisdom speaking, personified in the book of Proverbs. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago, I was set up at the first before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth.

When there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth. Before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned the sea its limits, so that the waters might not transgress his commands, when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Do you see all the allusions to creation here?

Then I was beside him. Like a master workman. And I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the children of man.

So we see here that the Lord's divine word of wisdom is personified as a pre listen, a pre-existent companion of God's before the beginning of time. He is a this wisdom, he is a master workman. God's daily delight. God rejoices over him. Always And this Whoever it is, this wisdom rejoices over all creation and humanity in particular.

Who are we talking about? See, in all of these texts, it's suggesting that the word of God is more than just utterance. There is agency and power and almost Personhood to God's word. God's debar. Translated here, the Logos, who is like the agent of divine life.

John is saying. He's engaging all of this history. In the beginning was the word. This bridge between the immaterial God and the material world who brought all life into being. Who was sent forth in revelation, dispatched as a messenger, who was sent forth and dispatched to bring salvation and rescue to his people.

This eternal wisdom who was with God before the dawn of time, this word, this Logos, this agent of divine life, he is now making himself known. This Logos is coming. To light. And so, John here is pulling together Greek and Jewish backgrounds, and he is saying, if we want to sum it all up, that the ultimate cosmic reality. And the agent of divine life is now coming.

to light.

The ultimate cosmic reality, an agent of divine life, is coming. to light.

Verse 5 says, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Friends, the enigmas of the universe. are coming to light. and no amount of darkness can stand in its way. Just as God spoke in creation and light went forth and darkness fled, now again God is speaking in the person of his Son.

This is the enigma. coming to light. Secondly, we see the enlightening. Of the Lagos. Don't worry, these next two points are a lot faster, okay?

Verse 6: There was a man sent from God, his name was John. This is not our author, John. Remember, he's the disciple Jesus loved. This is John the Baptizer. We'll learn more about him in a few weeks.

He came as a witness to bear witness about the light. that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. So we're introduced to this character, to John the Baptizer. He'll be important, but right now we want to be clear: he's not the light himself.

We're talking about the light, the Logos. This is not him, he's just a messenger. Verse 9, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

So this logos, this light is approaching, is coming. Coming into the world, is shining down like a beacon, beaming into this dark world, piercing the darkness. Verse 10, he was in the world. The world was made through him. Yet the world did not Know him.

So he's like a beam of light shining down and yet Incognito. Verse 11. He came to his own. And his own people did not receive him. This is scandal.

Rejected by his own people, Verse 12. but to all who did receive him. who believed in his name. By the way, we still don't have his name, do we? Wait for it.

He gave the right to become children of God. Who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, or the will of man. But of Gone.

So, this Lagos, this light, is shining like a beacon. You can't disguise. The darkness cannot overcome it, and yet it's incognito. Hidden, you have to search it out. And you can't miss it.

It's the light. but it won't overpower you. You can reject it. In fact, many people did. But if you will dare to receive the light.

The Lagos. Welcome him. Believe on him. Embrace him, something. Cosmic will happen to you.

You will be given the rights, the privileges. to become children of God. Born again, not the natural way. But the divine way. He sang the ultimate cosmic reality.

and the agent of divine life. Is moving toward us in self-disclosure with a life-altering destiny. Do you realize how remarkable this is, friends? All other religions basically give us a path to find our way to God. Keep these rules, follow this path, obey this teaching, seek out this enlightenment.

It's about finding our way to God. But the Bible is the story of how God found His way to us. This isn't about reaching up toward God. This is about God reaching out for. Us with a life-altering destiny that hangs in the balance here.

Because, friends, at the back end of the universe is not a principle. or a force, or a law, or avoid At the back end of the universe. is a God who loves you. Is a heavenly father. who wants you and me as his children.

And his logos, his word, his light has come. that we might have Life. Which means God is pursuing us. God is pursuing us. And I don't know about you, but I love to be pursued.

I love to be wanted. I love to have people reaching out and people loving me. That's what my soul longs for. And do you realize? That what the Bible is telling us is that the God of the universe That he loves you.

that he knows you. That He desires you, that He rejoices over you. and that He is reaching out for you. That he would move heaven and earth to be near to you. In fact, He already has.

Because he has sent his logos, his word, his life, his light, not in an abstract sort of way, but in the flesh. We come to the third point here: the infleshm of the Lagos. Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is literally, he tabernacled amongst us. He pitched his tent in our camp.

He moved into our neighborhood. And we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And so we're getting clarity here. This is not just the Logos in principle or the light in the abstract. This is now the Son, the Son from the Father.

Verse 15, John bore witness about him and cried out. This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me in terms of time ranks before me in terms of prominence, because he was before me preexistent. Or verse sixteen: from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. That this Logos, this light, this Sun has come now with unbounded, undeserved, and unexpected grace. Verse 17, for the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Ah, there's his name. Jesus Christ. Moses used to be the epicenter of the revelation and life of God, the covenant. And now there's another epicenter, the person of Jesus Christ.

Grace and truth have come. in Jesus Christ. Do you realize how important that is? This is what you and I need: grace and truth together. Because if you have truth without grace, it's harsh and you won't listen to it, will you?

And if you have grace without truth, It's just coddling. But grace and truth together That's Transforming. This is what comes in Jesus Christ. Verse 18. No one has ever seen God.

But the only God who is at the Father's side He has made him No. Friends, All of a sudden, God is up close and personal. in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now John is so very nuanced in these words here. In verse 1, he said, Jesus is the word who was with. God at His side. And then he said, and the word. Was God.

Yeah. Divine in every way. And he was with God in the beginning. In verse 18, he says, Jesus is the only God. Divine in every way.

Who is at the father's side? who brings into plain sight The God that nobody can see.

Now if this makes your head hurt, welcome to the club. John is nuancing carefully that while the Son and the Father are different in terms of persons, they are the same in terms of essence. That the Father is God, the Son is God. Elsewhere, we will learn that the Holy Spirit Himself is God. They are three persons and one in essence.

This is the doctrine of what we call the Trinity: that the one true God eternally exists as three co-equal and co-eternal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and these three are one God. And John's point here is crystal clear, that this Lagos, this light, this sun, is nothing other, nothing less than God Himself come to earth. That the ultimate cosmic reality and the agent of divine life has taken up residence amongst us, making glory, grace, and truth accessible to each and every one of us. And His name is Jesus. Until friends, don't you see?

That in all of this prologue, this beginning of the book of John, this is an invitation. It is an invitation. John is inviting us. Won't you come and see this, Jesus? Won't you come and see Jesus?

I want to talk to those of you who are maybe kicking the tires on faith. You're not really sure if you're into all this Jesus stuff. Maybe you stumbled on this stream, or maybe somebody invited you. Maybe you're related to somebody who likes church and you're just sort of sitting there on the couch. I'm talking to you right now.

A lot of us like Jesus, like the idea of Jesus, aren't so sure about church. I don't blame you. But could I just invite you? Would you just look at Jesus? for a moment, unfiltered, take all the others' baggage out of the way.

And just look at Jesus. Consider Jesus. Don't you owe it? to this man. If listen, if he is who he says he is...

If he is really the reason all of history got turned upside down, If he really is the person who has transformed my life and so many hundreds of thousands of other people who owe their transforming life story to the work of Jesus, if he really is who he says he is, the divine Son of God come to rescue you and me, ultimate cosmic reality, come to life, the very basis of life itself, come pursuing, reaching out for you. Friends, if he is who he says he is, don't you owe it to at least Look and see. To come and see who he is, to consider his claims, to look at his life. to wonder if there's not something to all of this. Can I invite you in this?

Just lean in. and come and see Jesus. Try to see him afresh. Not as the sick comes, portray him. But as he is revealed in the word of God, would you come?

and see Jesus. And for those of us who are church people, maybe we have been following Jesus a long time, can I invite you as well? Won't you come and see Jesus? Won't you come see him afresh? See him anew.

Would you come, admire him in his beauty, and brilliance and boldness? Won't you allow him to just sort of shatter, kick out the walls you've built around him? Won't you allow him to surprise you? to shock you. to woo you.

Won't you allow yourself to fall? in love all over again with Jesus. Because if you and I are ever going to discover the deepest identity of our lives. that we are loved by Jesus. we're going to need to see him afresh.

And it knew.

So won't you come and see Jesus in this series? He might just change everything. Yeah. Just mine. Would you bow your heads?

Let's pray together. Father. Help us see Jesus. Of all the people in all the world, The one whose face we most need to see. Unveiled.

It's Jesus. To see his face is to behold glory. Grace. And truth. To see the God we cannot see.

To know. The God beyond all knowing. To live. the life beyond the walls of the world. Help us see.

Jesus, we pray. In his name. Amen. You were the word at the beginning, one with God the Lord, most high. Your hidden glory in creation now revealed in you are Christ.

What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a beautiful name it is. Nothing complex to What a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus.

On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller with the first message in a series he's calling Loved by Jesus, the Book of John. we heard about the Lagos, Jesus as the expression of God.

Next time, don't miss the Lamb, the one heralded by John the Baptist, as he who would take away the sins of the world. The Moody Church Hour is a listener-supported ministry. We count on the ongoing financial support of listeners like you. Together, we share solid biblical teaching that transforms lives across America and around the world. You can call us at 1-800-215-5001.

That's one eight hundred. 2155001. Online, you'll find us at moodychurchhour.com. That's moodychurchhour.com. Or Write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North La Salle Boulevard.

Chicago, Illinois six oh six one four This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.