John Gunter: We begin with a scripture reading from John chapter 1 starting in verse 9. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people 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, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. Amen? We understand the story. We know the beginning and we know the end. Do you like stories?
It's, it's a common, statistic that once we leave high school, the normal man does not read much after that. Anybody say, uh-huh, yeah. But for some of us, we we love story. Now we consume that in different ways. I'm glad to, live in a time where I can listen to stories on Audible.
If I didn't have Audible, I'd read far less books. Yes, I count that as reading. Okay? That goes on my Goodreads every year. But I love the story, I love whether it's reading a book, whether it's listening, whether it's watching a movie, I love story.
How many of you love stories where you know exactly what's going to happen though? We kind of enjoy the the plot twist, the different things. I love scary movies. Now, I'll confess, when I know there's about to be a jump scare, I do turn the volume down. I'm a grown man, but I might scream.
I asked my kids this morning, I said, all right, what if I told you right now that I would write down all of your presents that I have gotten you for Christmas? Would you like that? So I'll give you the list, and so on Christmas Day you'll get those things, but you'll already know what you what you want. Evan said, dad, I would hate you. Because I think there's something to the surprise, to the experience, to the not understanding what's going to happen.
We want to experience that. Now, Logan said, give it to me, so don't just ignore that, that doesn't fit with my point. But I think we desire that, we we like a good story, I like, Tolkien, I like, Lord of the Rings, I like a lot of these, books that have been made into movies and things like that. Evan's got me got me into Harry Potter. Guess what?
The the professor that's dabbling in dark magic is always the person with the problem. Okay? So I'll just spoil that for you. But we enjoy the story. Now we read the we we read the story as someone who knows the beginning and the end, but can you imagine being in this story as Mary?
To being told what she was told, to experience the things she experienced, to live life the way she did. We enjoy stories where there are twists and turns, where we have things revealed, but how many of us really like that in our own lives? Some of you this morning, when you walked into this room, you looked for your exact seat, didn't you? I can look around and I can point, you're in your right seat, you're in your right seat, you're in your right seat. We are creatures of habit, so much so that in our own lives, when things don't go right to the way we expect them to, we get a little upset at times, don't we?
Isn't that interesting that we love the story and we love the twists and turns, but in my life, I want to know point A, point B, how we're going to get there, what's the temperature going to be when we get there, who's going to be there, I'm definitely not sitting by her, yada yada. Let's read the story of Mary together. In the 6th month, the angel Gabriel was sent from god to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, oh favored one, the lord is with you.
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
And Mary said to the angel, how will this be, since I am a virgin? The angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called the whole be called holy, the son of god. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son and this is the 6th month with her who was called Baron for nothing will be impossible with god. And we say amen to that because again, we know the rest of the story.
I can't, for the life of me, imagine what would have been going through her mind. Can you? A young teenage girl trying to process all of a sudden this this angel and and you see part of that, that's what I love about scripture, is you see part of that in this trying to discern what kind of message is there. I want to know. But what I want to talk to you about this morning is remember the people at this time expected God to show up in the world.
They expected God, though there had been a long period of silence, almost 400 years without prophets and different things like that, as they try to wrap their minds around, alright, well, how how is god now working in the world? They did expect him to work, and what they expected at the time was that somehow god would raise up this servant to overtake all of their enemies, all of the people who oppress them, all of the people and just kind of wipe them out so that he could rule and reign. And you even see this in this conversation between Mary and the angel. What I wanna call your attention to is, verse 32. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.
You hear that? Okay. That checks off the box. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom, there will be no end. Now, Mary does not ask any questions about that, does she?
The only question she has was, how is it gonna happen? I expect him to do this. I expect the Messiah to come and rule on David's throne and for that throne to continue forever. I expect this, but hold up. I'm a teenager, not yet married.
We we I'm still a virgin. How is this going to happen? And so, what we get in this story is something unexpected, and I think it's how we deal with the unexpected that says a lot about us. What we get in scripture, over and over is this understanding or or thought that, well, what I expect to happen is the Messiah to come and rule and reign and hopefully with an iron fist because I'm tired of these folks. I'm tired of people, being in my hometown.
You know, the the blessing is they're actually in their hometown. They have lived as a people through times where they are taken away. Right? Taking away long, stretches of of time, 70 years, even remember my favorite verse Katie's reminding me, Jeremiah 20 9:11, My plans for you, I have plans to prosper you. And we we like to put that on our wall, and I like to remind people that it's like 50 to 70 years there between that prospering.
And so we want the prospering now, but God has something different planned. We see this also with the disciples. We can see this in Mark 10, verse 35. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, this is talking to Jesus, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you?
And they said to him, grant us to sit 1 at your right hand and 1 at your left in your glory. And the understanding still is here, is that they expect Jesus to rule on a physical throne and take back what is there. Now we sit here as people knowing the rest of the story. Now Jesus is going to do this in a way that they don't expect and they don't understand because God works in different ways. Have you lived through a time in your life where you knew exactly what needed to happen and God worked in a different way?
And on the other side of that, you understood and maybe even thankful. Have you been there before? Yeah. And I don't looking back, I I wouldn't even have chosen that. I didn't want it.
Please, God, don't give it to me again, but on the other side of it, I understand. I realized what God was doing. Have you been there? A lot of times it's a time of trial. Right?
It's a time where I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this. I feel like I'm in the pits, I'm in the ditch, and I can't get out. God, what are you gonna do for me? How are we gonna get through this? But on the other side, we see clearly how God was working and that He was actually working in a way that was beneficial to all.
Because that is God's plan and always has been. Remember the promise to Abraham that through you I will bless who? All nations. And we forget this. We get so in tune or or or our desires kind of get in the way that we know god, if I'm an Israelite, if I'm in Mary's shoes right now, god, you know the issue, those people won't leave, they're in our hometown, take care of them.
And he says, I'm going to. Not in the way you think. I'm going to, not in the way you think. Jonah had the same problem. Remember in Jonah, let me go go right here real quick before I get to Jonah.
I'm ahead of myself. But Jesus, again, comes in a place where they think he's going to rule, and he teaches things like this. You have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Anybody got to practice that this week? Anybody have this scripture on your wall?
I'll wait. No? Okay. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. Sounds like America, right now.
Everyone everyone's litigious. Let's let's sue everyone. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him 2 miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Now, I like Jeremiah 2911, I have plans to prosper you.
I don't like this whole turn the cheek, get sued, you know, give him my tunic, do all this stuff. So what they expected was this kind of righteous anger fulfilled in a military something where God takes back everything, and Jesus comes teaching what I'm sure a lot of people thought was this mess. I don't like this. This doesn't fit me. Does this fit you guys?
I mean, we are taught to go get yours. Right? If someone does something to you, you go get them back, you get yours, you get revenge, all of those things. I've heard it said recently that that we are not very good at actually getting justice, but we are good at revenge. Now justice is, you do something, you get a just punishment for that.
That. What we often experience is someone does something to me instead of just being just and getting them, I'm doing scorched earth here. I'm gonna take care of you and your mama and all of them. Right? We're in the South, right?
Your mama and them. We're gonna take care of all of them. And that's what we want, that's what we desire, and, unfortunately, that that that's what kind of comes to the top instead of understanding that God's goal is, again, the promise to Abraham, through you, I'm going to bless all nations. And this is where we get to the story of Jonah, because, Jonah is finally preaches to the Ninevites. He didn't want to.
You remember that old story. Old fish slash whale slash whatever. And at the end of it here in chapter 4, what we get, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly because god saved those people, because they repented when Jonah said, none of us gonna burn. That's about all he said. I mean, you almost hear the sarcasm in his voice.
He said, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry, and he prayed to the lord and said, oh, lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country that this is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster? Therefore now, oh lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. How dramatic was Jonah? I guarantee you, he was flopping on the ground saying this, wasn't he? Some of you had a kid do that this morning.
You know exactly what that looked like. But Jonah in this in this moment doesn't see with the eyes of god. He doesn't see what's supposed to happen, what God is all about, that he knows, and he says from his mind, I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love. Now some of you need a reminder, this is the Old Testament, right? Some of you were raised that Old Testament was angry God and all of a sudden New Testament, sweet Jesus, right?
Grabbing everybody and hugging them, making them feel comfortable. But but this is not this is Jonah says, I knew this is who you were. I knew intellectually who you were, but his heart did not line up with the desires of God. His desires of selfish motivation were the things that come to the top. So much so that when God saves a people, Jonah says, you know what, just take my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.
And you say, get up, boy. Start acting right, don't you? Because God is gracious. He is merciful. He has a plan for us.
And though it may not seem like we always know from a to b what that's going to look like, God loves us and cares for us and wants everyone to come to him. Amen? This is what the scripture says in John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And if you came looking for some kind of military coup, what you got was a person saying, turn the other cheek. God so loved the Jews, Americans, people from Mexico, God so loved the world, he gave his only Son.
It continues on, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. You hear that? We had a whole series about a lot of us kind of being raised or feeling like God was just ready to wipe us off the face of the map. That he had this eraser over the book of life, right over the word John Gunter, and he's just waiting for me to slip and fall and say the wrong word. But what his word says is god did not send his son to the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
That is his primary purpose. He didn't come to send everyone to hell. He came so that everyone will be saved. This is a free gift. I desired god to take over, for god to show up, for god to do something dramatic, and he did, but he didn't do exactly what I wanted.
He came not to condemn, not to fight, not to wipe off the map, but to save. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works are evil. They have the choice.
We have the choice. You sit here this morning having the choice, and you understand the darkness in your life, don't you? I don't have to know that personally. I just know that we are people living in a broken, fallen world, and we have darkness in our lives that we have to fight each and every day. And what John is saying is that often, though we know the story, we are drawn to the darkness instead of the light.
That we know because he's given it to us, we know the will and the mind of god and his desire to save each and every one of us, and yet instead of going and being attracted to that, we run over here to this other thing that in the moment feels much better, that we desire it. But God wants to save us all. People love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in god, that it may be clearly seen that his works are being carried out in god.
Because sometimes what we do is we I kinda mentioned this last week. We we like to play church. We like to act. We like to be fake, quite honestly. Had a conversation with someone recently just talking about, how it is as a minister.
Sometimes you encounter people and you just realize they're a little bit different when they find out you're a minister. And so you understand kind of this, there's this facade, there's this, I want to act like somebody I'm not really. And it's pretty easy to to see through because, you know, you're around people all the time. But but that's what we we desire, we desire to kind of put out this facade, and as long as you don't know about this darkness in my life, I feel good about myself. But what John is saying is is there is going to be a light shown on all of these things.
It's gonna be revealed. Well, that's a scary word, isn't it? Because things in the darkness being revealed says I don't I'm not able to hide. I don't have that power anymore. They are going to be revealed, and it's going you're gonna see.
God is going to see. He sees whether you are truly a follower of his or you're just faking it. Now what I wanna talk to or talk about is, listen, we are all on a journey, and we are all doing that journey walking towards God, hopefully walking towards God, imperfectly, aren't we? That God doesn't say, hey, you messed up, you took that wrong step, you're out. But we are all on a journey, but we've got to call each other, we've got to encourage one another back to the right path.
That we desire, as God desires, for everyone to be saved and to come to him. And it may not look exactly the way I want it to look or the way I think it should look, but God desires it. And so I wanna align myself and my will with what he wants to do in this place. I wish I knew some of the future. I'm not one of those people that wants to know when I'm going to die or anything like that.
Boy, I'd live with anxiety for the rest of my life. Well, I've only got 2,000 more hours, and I'm I'm dead. I saw something this week that, you know, if you're 40 years old, you know, on average, you only have this many weekends. My goodness. That's depressing.
I don't want to know some of this stuff. But what God has given us, I think, is very valuable that we can live our lives not with a fear and anxiety of what's to come because his desire is for us to be saved and to be with him. His desire is not, oh, I caught you this week. I'm gonna make sure you're dead at that time you did that thing. Right?
But God desires for you to come to him. When Peter stood up, in Acts 2 to address the crowd and said, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him, Jesus, both lord and Christ, is Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, the crowd, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God ends well in you. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the lord our god calls to himself, and with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourself from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. I cannot imagine or fathom 3,000 people being baptized. Nowadays we'd be we'd probably freak out, you know, how are we gonna get this to work?
How can we be efficient at it? We'd probably be worried about all the wrong things. And quite frankly, we don't see near enough people coming to Jesus, do we? We don't see near enough baptisms happening, we don't see near enough people hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you don't have to be pursuing all of these other things out there, there is something better for you. That's what the people heard on the day of Pentecost, that god loves you and he cares for you, and though you've done the greatest thing, sin wise, though you've done this greatest sin of killing the son of god.
They said, well, what what shall we do? What can we do? That's probably what they're asking. We've done this. They said, repent and be baptized.
Repent of your sins. Come to him. There's nothing special about the water. It is nothing magical about the water, but the water is the point where you say, you know what? I'm done with all of this other stuff.
You know, you're gonna struggle. But I'm done with all of this other stuff leading my life, that I believe I'm I'm the author of the story and I know how things go and I often act like that to be honest with you. But I'm done with all of that and, God, I want you to lead me. And in being baptized, what we're doing is pledging allegiance to God. No longer these other things that I like to pursue, these other things that I desire, these other things that that lead me astray though I may not even understand.
And so understand the story this morning. God so loved the world that he sent Jesus into a time that wasn't perfect, into a place that didn't have all the freedoms that we have. That you had the choice this morning to do whatever you wanted to do worship wise. You could come here, you could not. We live in a place where you can go right down the street if you don't like us, can't you?
That's where we live. But God loves all of them, and he wants us to come to salvation. And so this morning, we're just gonna ask you to do that if you haven't. Put on Christ in baptism. I know it's cold out, but we'll find a hot tub.
But if you've strayed from him, we'd like to encourage you to to come back. And maybe you're asking this morning, what can I do? You don't know the things I have done. Well, I know what Peter told the people that killed Jesus. He said, repent.
Come back to him. I wanna ask you to do that this morning. If you'd like the prayers of the church, we'd love to pray with you. Let's put on Jesus in baptism if you come as we stand and as we sit.