The Source of Grace and Truth

Larry Siegle
03/30/25 - Sun AM

Link to sermon video: The Source of Grace and Truth - L Siegle

WHO IS ‘THIS JESUS’? III

“The SOURCE of Grace and Truth”

(John 1:16-18)

Series:  WHO IS THIS ‘JESUS’?

Thesis:  The “gospel accounts” are designed to introduce the people to the person and work of Jesus Christ

INTRODUCTION

1.    The title of this series is Who is ‘This Jesus’?

2.    This is the third lesson in our study:  Jesus:  The SOURCE of Grace and Truth

GOD KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED

1.    The story of the rainstorm down in Arkansas…rising 18” every hour…

2.    The overconfident man who is certain that God has given him assurance “everything is just fine!”

        a.     The water rises to the point of flooding the inside of the house…A boat comes by to rescue the man…

        b.    The water continues to rise and the man climbs up on the roof of the house…Another boat comes by…

        c.     The water finally rises to the point the entire house is under water…a helicopter comes to help the man…

3.    Finally, the man drowns, and he is in heaven, demanding to know why God did not protect him…

        a.     God tells him, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter and you refused them all!”

4.    This tells us that our perception of whatever our personal situation happens to be, might be skewed without the

        realization of how God intervenes in our lives…to rescue us during those moments of crisis!

THE STATUS OF THE CORTLAND CHURCH

1.    Close your eyes for a moment and think with me…

        a.     Picture today as the very first day this congregation has ever met together…

               1)    There is a building…

               2)    People from all over the area…meeting together for the first time.

               3)    Open your eyes…look around the room for the very first time.

        b.    Is this the biggest building you have ever seen where a congregation meets?  NO.

        c.     Is this the largest crowd of people you have ever seen come together to worship God?  NO.

        d.    Are there as many children and young people you have ever seen in a church of the Lord?  NO.

2.    It is our tendency to come together and think about the past and use it as a standard of comparison of where we

        happen to be right here, right now.

3.    Linda and I have been here for just over a year now, and what I see is a beautiful foundation that God can use to touch

        this community, this area, and beyond…

4.    It is so very easy to forget where we are, what God has given us, and where we can and will be.

        a.     Do we have all the Bible classrooms and teachers that we need to minister to the children?  To the young adults?

        b.    Do we have an expansion budget ready to plunge the congregation into “bigger” and “better”?

        c.     God is blessing us with some things that are necessary and He will bless us as we work together to grow as the

               Kingdom of God in this area.

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

1.    God sent His only-begotten Son into the world of humanity---(isolated part of the world).

        a.     With Joseph and Mary young and inexperienced…not great wealth or riches!

        b.    Joseph and Mary did the best they could…Jesus was ‘born in a barn’ (stable, manger)…Terrible scandal…

        c.     They were just a family of three at the time…but Jesus came to change the world (Luke 1:30-32; Matt. 1:18-24).

        d.    The apostle John introduces “this Jesus” as “the Logos” (Word) that was “made flesh” (John 1:1, 14

               1)    God prepared a “body” of Jesus (Heb. 10:5)… “the days of His flesh” (Heb. 5:7).

               2)    Jesus laid aside the “glory” and limited the “power” of His Divine nature (Phil. 2:5-8).

               3)    Jesus “became poor” so that we might become “rich” (II Cor. 8:9).

2.    God gave “authority” and “dominion” to human beings (Gen. 1:26-28)—Jesus had to come into the world to deal with

        the problem of sin and death (Rom. 8:1-4).

        a.     It was God, ‘in the beginning’ who established the rules and the boundaries of how “authority” and “dominion”

               on this planet was to be exercised.

               1)    In order to have “authority” in this realm, you had to be born with a ‘flesh, blood, and bones’ physical body.

               2)    When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, their stance and relationship with God was affected as

                       likewise was the case with every human being (born with a flesh, blood, and bones body).

        3)    The only way for God to restore what had been lost through Adam and Eve was to send Jesus into this realm, to

               be born, in a flesh, blood, and bones body as the “last Adam” (I Cor. 15:38-49).

        4)    The “natural” body of Adam could be transformed but only through the “spiritual” glorified body of Jesus Christ.

               a)    There was a “natural” seed that was sown and from that came the “spiritual” seed in all of its power and

                       glory.

THE LAW AND MOSES IN COMPARISON WITH GRACE AND TRUTH

1.    God created the world and everything in it through this “Word” that became flesh (John 1:1-3; Col. 1;15-18; Heb. 1:1-

        4).

2.    The world was ‘created’ by the “word of God” (Psa. 33:5-9; Gen. 1:3-31)—God SAID, then God SAW

3.    God sent Jesus into the world to ‘accomplish redemption’ to bring ‘salvation’ to people who could not “save”

        themselves….

        a.     The “law” given through Moses was a graphic illustration of human inability and weakness…ONE sin made a

               person guilty of ALL… (James 2:10).

        b.    Through the “law” came the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16).

        c.     To have life they had to “die to the law” (Gal. 2:19-21; Rom. 7:1-4)

4.    Jesus came to bring “grace and truth” to those who would “receive Him” (John 1:16, 17).

        1)    Faith is essential (Heb. 11:6).

        2)    Faith provides entrance into the grace of God that saves us (Rom. 5:1, 2; Eph. 2:8-10).

        3)    God gives us the ability to receive that which we do not deserve (II Cor. 3:7-18)

JESUS IS THE SOURCE OF GRACE AND TRUTH

CONCLUSION

1.    How does God “deliver” us (save) from the bondage to sin and death today?

2.    We hear the gospel (Acts 18:8).

3.    We believe (have faith) in the gospel (John 3:16; Acts 16:29-34; Heb. 11:6).

4.    We repent (change our minds and life) for our past sins and failures (Acts 3:19).

5.    We confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Acts 8:37; Rom. 10:9, 10)

6.    We surrender to be baptized “into Christ” by faith (Rom. 6:3-5; Gal. 3:26, 27).

7     We are “born again” and God places us into His family—the church (I Cor. 12:13; Acts 2:47).

God is ready to bring us into covenant relationship with Him to “receive” Christ and to enter into the family of God.   God is ready to give us everything that is necessary to have a life of godliness (II Pet. 1:3) and make us “partakers of the Divine nature (II Pet. 1:4), to have access to “every spiritual blessing” that is “in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).  God is ready to “empower” each one of us to live a victorious life in Christ as a reflection of being created in the “image” of God and “according to His likeness” (Gen. 1:26-28).