“This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Coming up this week:

• Tuesday 11/2, 5:30-7 pm: Food Pantry is open. And we’re starting “Soup Sisters” every other week, meaning a hot fresh-cooked meal to go available as well. Everyone welcome!
• Wednesday 11/3 6 pm: Adult Bible Study continues, studying Jeremiah
• Thursday 11/4 6 pm: GRATITUDE GATHERING Interfaith Holiday Celebration with Riverdale 6th Ward at Riverdale LDS Stake Center Parking Lot & Bowery (4000 N Parker Drive, Riverdale). Hot dogs, S’Mores and Pies provided. Come join us for Fellowship and Celebration (Outdoor Event, please dress accordingly).

Looking forward to seeing you soon! Today David Fowler preached a powerful message about grace.

Sunday October 31, 2021 “Grace” John 1:1-17

What do we mean when we say “grace”?

Grace in motion

• Merriam Webster’s: a pleasing appearance or effect
• Merriam Webster’s: ease and suppleness of movement or bearing

Grace in behavior

• Merriam Webster’s: a special favor
• Merriam Webster’s: a temporary exemption
• Merriam Webster’s: disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency

Thank you for this food? Merriam Webster’s: a short prayer at a meal asking a blessing or giving thanks

Music – Merriam Webster’s: a trill, turn, or appoggiatura

What about in the Christian world?

“Church” view

• Merriam Webster’s: unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification
• Merriam Webster’s: a virtue coming from God
• Merriam Webster’s: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance

Biblical View

• (NASB) John 1:16, 17 – “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

We talk about grace all the time. Or, at least, we used to talk about grace all the time. It seems to me that the word grace has dropped out of our vocabulary lately. I don’t hear it used nearly as often as I think that I used to a few years ago. At least that is my perception.

When we use the word grace, what do we mean?

Grace has several different meanings in the English language. So let’s take a look at the most common meanings. According to Merriam-Webster’s we can break it down into four primary categories in common use: motion, behavior, music and a quasi-religious use referring to food.

When we use it in reference to motion the word grace has to do with motion having a pleasing appearance or effect. Along with that idea is another closely related in that the motion has a suppleness or ease to the motion. We can see this demonstrated when we watch gymnastics, especially rhythmic gymnastics, or a dance competition. I am thinking here of the more formalized type of dance competition including forms such as Waltz or Tango, or Foxtrot. We can also see fluidity and suppleness in a form of martial art called Tai-Chi. Tai-Chi has various forms of motion described as stick, and push; all of which involve smooth continuous flow and suppleness.

Looking at grace in terms of behavior(s) Merriam-Webster’s refers to the idea of a special favor or a temporary exemption from some kind of penalty. Along with that is the tendency or disposition to act with kindness, courtesy or clemency. We see examples of this idea all around us pretty much every day.

As many of you know, I work for the Air Force right here at Hill. What I expect that most of you don’t know is what I actually do for the Air Force. I am what is called an Engineering Supervisor. I supervise the day to day activities of about 20 engineers and technicians. I recently had an individual that I supervise become involved in an incident that had the potential to cause a number of folks to get very upset. This individual has had pretty extensive training in how to handle closing a work area when he is the last person to leave. Because this area is specially designated for a special kind of classified work the procedures for closing are very specific.

The person failed to execute the steps for closing the area with precision. Now you might think that it would not be a big deal if one of the steps were left undone. Who would really know, except maybe the person that opened the area the next morning, right? This facility is contained within a larger building that is itself secure and guarded.  As long as the person opening the next morning didn’t say anything, who’s the wiser? Except for the cameras. Oh, and the Advanced Program Office security officers who were watching through the cameras. They saw.

The next morning they were waiting for the Section Chief who has his office right there in that facility. They told him what they observed because they thought that he was the individual’s supervisor. Unfortunately this wasn’t the first time the APO had observed this same thing. They could have handled this as a full-blown security incident. Which it technically was. That would have been a really big deal, but they didn’t. I know that they didn’t because I wrote the individual’s letter of counseling. The APO demonstrated, A perfect example of acting with kindness. Extending clemency or courtesy when it isn’t required.

This is a very personal example of the idea of grace. We can see larger examples of the idea of grace if we look around us. We can see it in the physical realm, in the intellectual realm, in the area of creativity, in society and in the moral realm. What I am talking about here is what is called common grace. Let me give you some examples of common grace.

Physical

In Matthew 5:44-45 Jesus is speaking to His disciples and says to them “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Farther who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” It is true that the point of Jesus’ statement is not about the rain or the sun, but, contained within the larger point is a statement of truth. It is supporting evidence if you will. The sun and the rain both belong to God. He can do as He wishes with them. He allows the unrighteous to benefit from the presence of both the rain and the sun. Because of this there are seasons and harvests of food. Paul points this out in Acts 14:17 “… yet He did not leave Himself without a witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Intellectual

Let’s take a look at the realm of the intellect and see if we can find any examples there. From my point of view I think that this might be the deepest well of all the examples of common grace that we could explore. But, in the interest of time let’s just  explore a couple of ideas.

I think that you can argue pretty successfully that all people have a built in knowledge of God. Turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:21 and see what Paul says: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. In the verse prior Paul states that the evidence of God’s existence is plain to see in all that is created around us, However, many people, I would argue with you most people, prefer to discard that plain evidence and attribute the existence of all things to something other than God. Even though people discount that plain evidence, God still places it there in the open, He doesn’t hide it.

Another example of common grace in the intellectual realm comes in the form of the ability to distinguish truth from error. God has also provided us the ability to experience a general growth in knowledge. You can substantiate this by looking at Daniel 12:4 and also Proverbs 25:2. This increasing knowledge and the ability to distinguish truth from error are used in investigating many things within the universe. This is what drove Newton forward and resulted in his describing what we know as the laws of motion and reaction. The foundation upon which modern physics is built. But, many non-Christians are also deeply involved in carrying out a great deal of scientific investigation and invention. As a result of their activities and creativity many amazing things have been invented.

Consider for a moment an example of these amazing things I am talking about. I am holding in my hand something that we call a “smart phone.” I really question the moniker “smart” but none-the-less it is truly a very, very powerful computer combined with a couple of different radios and an incredible amount of memory. In 2013 AtntiqueTech.com posted a comparison between a Samsung cell phone mainboard from right around the turn of the century to the first US computer. It was a machine called ENIAC. The cell phone costs 17 thousand times less, is 40 million times smaller, uses 400 thousand times less energy to run, and is 120 thousand times lighter. Even so, the cell phone has one thousand three hundred times more computing capacity than ENIAC did. The many ways we are all blessed by the abundance of these amazing things. The outworking of common grace.

Truly wonderful. Truly amazing. The incredible abundance and amazing diversity of this world that we live in. Your brain is working and thinking about all this incredible richness and amazing things. Cell phones and computers and MRI machines. Oh my!

But that is not what I want to talk with you about today.

In our reading this morning we heard in verse 16 “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” The Restored Name King James version renders the last part of that sentence “… and grace for grace.”

Grace upon grace, or grace for grace. That is an unusual construction. Is John just saying that there is so much grace poured out by God in the natural world that the only way he can describe it is by saying something like “mound and mounds of grace”? Or, is it possible that the Holy Spirit is revealing something deeper to us here? Here in these words that He inspired John to write?

Grace upon grace. Grace upon grace.

Theologians talk about something that they call “special grace.” Special grace is a bit different than common grace. Whereas common grace does bear witness to the existence of God it doesn’t reveal the gospel. Paul talks about this very thing in Ephesians 3:3, 4 when he refers to the mystery. In fact, if you look at the wider passage from verse 1 through to verse 10 Paul says that the mystery of Christ was opened to him through special revelation.

So then, is special grace an extra helping of grace that is added on top of common grace to some lucky folk? Well, I suppose in some way that could be possible. We often hear some people say things like “God gave me an extra measure of grace today.” Often this is said in reference to some really traumatic event. But is that really what John is talking about? Is grace a sort of substance or medicine that can be pumped into a person when they are really struggling? Does a person have a “grace gauge” in the same way as your car has a fuel gauge?

That reminds me of an old routine that Bill Cosby used to do, back in the day when Bill Cosby was accepted as a good, wholesome comedian. He did this routine about getting a Ferrari and not knowing where to put the fuel into the car. Evidently the fit and finish was so good that the gas station attendant couldn’t find the fuel door. Asking Cosby where it was located, Cosby’s response was “I don’t know!” to which the attendant responded “Well, how about I just kinda squirt it on top of the car and maybe it’ll suck in somewhere?

Brother … is that what people really think? Pour a pitcher of Grace over your head

and maybe it will suck in somewhere?

Anyway, back to our discussion. Is that how grace really works?

Looking at verse 17 we see that it says “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Grace an truth were realized through Jesus Christ. A little ways further back in verse 14 we read “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. What is this telling us? It tells us that Jesus is grace. Jesus is the ultimate expression of grace. If you want to know what grace really is look at Jesus. He is perfect grace.

Further, if we look back at John 1:3 we see that John, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” I really like the way that the King James renders this verse – “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” So really, grace both common and special, although is slightly different ways draws us to look at Jesus.

Well that is great in and of itself. Jesus is wonderful. He healed many people and he is even acknowledged as a prophet by a number of religious traditions. But there must be a greater point. Isn’t there?

I am glad you asked! That greater point is the one thing that every single one of us needs to hear. Even, or actually, especially those of us who call ourselves Christian. It is the real point of why we come here every week. That point is this: the Gospel.

To refresh each of us, and I am particularly talking to me and about me here, we all need to hear every week the truth of this situation in which we find ourselves. Every one of us is a sinner and falls short of the perfection which a holy God demands for us to be in relationship with Him. Every one of us. Every day. No matter how good we manage to be for a few minutes of a day. Isaiah has a special way of putting it: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: and we all do face as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

How then can we have any kind of a relationship with the one, true, holy God? The answer to that is found in Jesus: Born of the Holy Spirit through a virgin, the virgin Mary, perfectly God and perfectly man, Jesus accomplished what none of us are able to do. Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life. He was falsely accused, tried and convicted by sinners, and suffered under Pontius Pilot though He was perfectly righteous. He was crucified, meaning that he was nailed to a cross, and though He was completely innocent, He was made to be sin in our place, bore the full wrath of God’s fury, died, was buried, descended into hell, and was raised to life by God on the third day. He walked out of the sealed tomb, appeared to the disciples for forty days and then ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father where He sits today. All of this is according to the Scriptures, Psalm 40:7 in the King James says,“Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, ….”