Where Purpose, Truth, and Peace Are Really Found | Paul Malott

Everyone is searching for meaning, peace, and something solid to build their life on. But where do you actually find it?

This week, Pastor Paul Malott continues our What’s in a Name? series by unpacking the meaning of “Logos” from John 1. You’ll discover why Jesus isn’t just a teacher or a guide, but the very Word of God - the ultimate source of purpose, truth, and peace for your life.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- Have you ever received a text or a note that kind of just altered your day? Like it could have been something positive, you know, maybe something out of the blue like, Hey, just want you to know I appreciate you, but those are awesome ones, aren't they? But then there are other ones you get where it's kind of like, um, we need talk, not so awesome, but definitely altering of the day, for sure. You know, I, I remember I was, uh, a number of years ago, I was on a, a mission trip and, uh, I got a note from my wife and I was all excited. You get a note, you're gone away. And my wife sends me a note and it's, I'm thinking, okay, I'm gonna open it up and it's gonna say like, honey, I love you. So sad you're gone away, but you'll be back soon and I'm gonna have your favorite meal and all this kind of stuff taken care of when you get back. No, it's not at all what it said. No. Hey, Paul, nothing like that. The first line was, I want you to have an open mind , okay? That is not gonna go well. Okay? Already my mind is closed., regardless, needless to say, fast forward a few weeks when I got home and it was already determined that we were going to have a dog in my house. You know, words really matter, don't they? Some words can make your heart sore, others can make your stomach sink. You know, words are a big deal. The words we use have the ability to convey, meaning, trigger reaction, recall memories. In fact, some words that are spoken make things come alive. I'm going way back to the beginning of everything. In Genesis chapter one, it says that, God, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And in verse three it says, and he said, let there be light. And just by saying that light happens, see when Jesus speaks, or when God speaks, things happen. We're in week eight of our series, what's in the name, and we have looked at a lot of different names over this series that describe the characteristics of who God is. Now, none of these names are the totality of who God is. They're just aspects, different characteristics of who he is so that we can kind of understand a little bit more of who he is and, and what he is asking of us. Today I get to tackle one that, uh, we find in the New Testament, and it's the word logos described. God is described as logos as we translate it, the word, let me read part of the opening, uh, prologue of John's gospel. John's the fourth gospel In, uh, in ma we have Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. So four gospels are biographies of Jesus, uh, that are given to us in the New Testament. And John is the fourth one. I'm gonna start right off the hop. 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 all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. John is actually brilliant. Well, okay, he's inspired by the Holy Spirit when he writes this, but it's brilliant use of the word logos to describe God. By using that, he's actually grabbing the attention of both the Greek and the Jewish readers. See, for Greeks, their thought was around this concept of the universe and trying to figure out how in the midst of the universe could there be all this constant change and, and flux. But yet at the same time, there was a high level of dependability. You know, one action always produced a reaction of some sort, and so they couldn't figure this out. And so what is this agent that is controlling and having some level of dependability in the mix of the flux? Well, they describe this thing, this agent as logos for the Jews, the concept of logos, or the word was developed all the way throughout the Old Testament. And we get to a point where the word of God is described as his creative utterance, his power in action, fulfilling his purpose. So when John starts off his gospel by saying, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. Both the Greeks and the Jews could agree and probably showed a hearty Amen, brother , you know? But in verse nine, John starts to turn a corner. Let's pick it up. The true light that gives light to everyone 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 did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descend or of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the Father full of grace and truth. Okay? They just got hit with a text that altered their day. See what John is stating here would've challenged every aspect of their understanding of God. John just said that Jesus, and he goes on throughout the rest of his gospel to, to prove that this Jesus is logos is the word. I wanna highlight four things that I think are important for us to understand through this, this text. First off, John is sat, Jesus is eternal. In the beginning was the word. Notice how he says in the beginning, not at the beginning. This sounds eely familiar for the Jewish readers. John's blatantly copying Genesis one, one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He wants his readers to know that when creation began, Jesus was, Jesus was actively involved in creation. The writer of the book of Colossians kind of paints it well for us. He says, for in him that's in Jesus, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him. And for him, he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together. This means Jesus is not created. He's actually the creator. He was never born. He has no start date, and he has no expiration date. Listen, everything has an expiration date. All the fridge in your, or all the food in your fridge, expiration date, your job, uhhuh, , even some, all of our relationships will have an expiration date, but yet Jesus does not. Jesus is, he's not a trend. He's, he's the foundation of everything. And when you build your life on him, you're finally building on something that won't break. He's that constant in your life when everything else seems in chaos, Jesus remains true. And when he speaks, things happen. See, this is the difference between Jesus and every other religious figure. He's not even in the same category as Buddha or Muhammad or, or even our favorite influencers. He is eternal Well, because not only is he eternal, he's actually God. Second thing I think is important for us to recognize Jesus is God. In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. You see, here's what scripture teaches throughout the totality of it all. It says that there is one God, the creator who exists eternally in unity as three equal persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit. We call this the triune God. This is what John is saying. Jesus shares the very essence of God. He is distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit, yet he's fully divine. That's why all the miracles of Jesus aren't just nice stories. They're acts of God himself. There's not one of us that can fully grasp this. I know I can't. This is blows my mind away. How do I understand this concept of the triune God? It's a mystery. I don't fully understand it. But as I look at the impact we see through the gospels, reading the stories of Jesus, as I read through the history of the, of where we've come from, as I listen to stories from many of you, or even experience in my own life, how powerful Jesus has been, I can't help but know that he is God. Can I fully understand it? No. But can I trust that it's true? Yes. And so do millions of other people around this globe believe that Jesus is God? In the Old Testament, the prophets always started off by saying something like, thus sayeth the Lord, or, or this is the word of the Lord in order to give themselves some weight, that this is what God is wanting to communicate to you. Jesus never does that. He never, he never tries to weigh his words by saying, thus says God, or thus says no. He, what he says is, listen to what I say. In other words, what Jesus is doing is he's putting himself at the same level as the Father. Jesus himself is claiming to be God. And he backed his, his, uh, words up with action. And here's where it gets even more amazing, because this eternal God didn't just stay distant. He didn't just start things and then he walked away. Jesus actually became one of us because this eternal fully God is also fully human. In John one, we read this in verse 14, it says, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The eternal God stepped out of eternity. He put on skin and he moved into your neighborhood. The writer of Hebrews chapter four says this, for we do not have a high priest speaking of Jesus, who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as you are. Yet he did not sin. You see, Jesus experienced all the great things of humanity. He experienced learning new things. He experienced laughter. He experienced friendship. He experienced the joys of life, but he also experienced the pains of life, the challenges of life. He also experienced hunger, fatigue, betrayal. Yet he handled all the things that came his way without sin. Anyone getting a little hangry here? You know, anger as a result of hunger, your hangry, I i know what that feels like. Anybody, anybody here have, uh, have, you know, a a you're going through something and you just feel like you're being worked through to the bone. Like it just doesn't feel like you're getting ahead and things just seem to be crashing down on you. Any of you here experiencing any kind of a, a betrayal, you know, whether it be from a family member or a friend or a neighbor or coworker, whatever, you just feel like you're, you're being attacked by them. Listen, Jesus experienced all of those things as well. He also battled with the same kind of temptations that we experienced. Matthew chapter four, talks of Jesus being in the wilderness, spending time with the Father for 40 days and 40 nights. And it talks about how Satan attacked him in the midst of that and tempted him in a number of different ways. Things that we often get tempted with in the day-to-day. Things like indulging of the pleasures of life or or take, trying to take the easy way out or, or the pursuit of pride and power. All of those things I think are very relevant still today. And I can't, I can't tell you that I've tackled any of those and walked through them on the other side without sinning at some point. Like I'm human, just like you. And these challenges are real. Yet Jesus battled all of these to the extreme and never once sinned. The biggest one, I I think this is probably, you know, I've been, I've been thinking about it and somebody could challenge me on this and, and maybe may very well be right, but there's something that tells me the biggest temptation that anyone in human, in human history has ever experienced would've been the night on, uh, Jesus his last night here, you know, he goes, uh, let me kind of paint the scenario for you. He's, he has his Passover meal with the disciples and uh, we, we know this as the last Supper. And, and he, at the end of that, it's wrapping up and, and Jesus says, okay guys, let's go. We're gonna go and have a prayer meeting, and I'm sure the disciples are like prayer meeting. Like, are you serious? I'm going to bed. And he's like, nuh, let's go. We're going. And he takes them out to the garden of Gethsemane and he pulls, uh, John and uh, and Peter and James aside, and he goes, okay, we're gonna go over here. And, and then he extends himself a little bit further along and he begins praying and he challenges the three of them to pray. And, and he goes off and he prays on his own. Well, they had no idea what was about to happen, yet Jesus was fully aware of what was about to happen because just in a number of hours, Jesus was going to be hung on a cross and he was gonna be crucified for you and for me and for all the sins of humanity. He was going to do what none of us can ever do for ourself. He was going to make a way for all of us to have a right being, right standing with God, the Father again, just imagine the weight that was upon his shoulders. Mark chapter 14 describes this situation of Jesus praying and it says He was deeply distressed in troubled. And Mark actually claims or quotes, Jesus is saying, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. In Luke's version of this, he says this. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly in his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Like he's battling hard here. You can't tell me that in the words that he's speaking. You can just feel it. He's like, father, I don't wanna do this. Take this cup from me. I don't wanna have to go through this. And yet, after all the time that he took to pray into that, here's how he landed. He says, yet not my will but yours be done. I'm not sure I could do that. I'm pretty certain that I've bailed on things before and let people down. Yet Jesus, Jesus never sinned in any, anything that came his way. Here's what we need to lean on. If Jesus could endure the most severe challenges of life, so can we. Yes, he was fully God, but he was also fully human. Philippians two states clearly that he gave up his divine privileges. He didn't use them for his personal gain. The difference between Jesus and all of us is that he was without sin. So he was able to tap into the divine without hindrance. So no matter what we're going through, Jesus gets it. See, here's his point in doing what he did, he show, he wanted to show you that you can as well, you can get through this, but you can't do it on your own strength. You must do it with His. You must give all that you are to him and tap into his strength. See, most religions, they wanna make us climb our way up to God. So they put rules and traditions in place that we have to follow in order to appease God. And so we're always wrestling with the question, okay, have I done enough yet to appease God or the Gods? Do I have to keep going? Christianity is completely different. Christianity teaches us that actually God climbed down to us. He didn't wait for you to get it all together. He came right into your kitchen, right into your broken world. You don't clean yourself up before coming to Jesus. He meets you where you are and he longs to lead you and guide you from where you are to where he wants you to be. Whatever your situation is, regardless of how many temptations you've caved into, remember Jesus was tempted just as you are. He knows your challenge and the word logos wants to speak into your situation. He's eternal, he's fully God, he's fully human and he still speaks. Logos is an active word, meaning the word is still speaking like God spoke at creation and it came to be, he still speaks today. And his words are powerful, they're intentional and they're going to bring impact if you allow them to. God wants to speak to you today. See, Jesus communicates with us in ways or situations as no one else can. He interacts with us personally uniquely. Sometimes he speaks boldly and you you get it. You're not gonna question those ones other times. He actually speaks softly so that we lean in and he wants to take us along on a journey. Sometimes he speaks on our behalf, other times he wants to empower your voice. See, he speaks to each of us specifically because he knows you're unique, your one of a kind. So the way that Jesus will speak to you might not necessarily be the way he speaks to somebody else. So can I encourage you? Please don't compare. Don't compare how Jesus speaks to you with how he seems to be speaking to other people. The question isn't, does God speak the right question is, am I listening? So John records Jesus' saying a little later on in his gospel in chapter 10, he says, my sheep listened to my voice. I know them and they follow me. A number of months ago, I was pastoring a church in Ontario. I was loving what I was doing in that community and, and then I got a text one day that that changed my day. Hey, can we talk? That led me to a lot of soul searching and seeking counsel and hours upon hours of prayer asking God to bring clarity on whether I should pick up my family, move across the country, stop leading a growing church, leave my son or my daughter and son-in-law in Ontario and all of our extended family to take a position as the discipleship director here at Hope City.- We're glad you did.- . Lemme lemme just say this, , I, I'd say it, it would be helpful to know that you heard from God in the midst of making a challenging decision like that. And, and I know that he has spoken and I, and I'm convinced that logos, the word speaks. You know, I've been pastoring over 25 years and I can say I find it easier to explain God's grace to those who feel that God could never love them or forgive them because of what they've done. I find that easier. The people I find that struggle I struggle most with telling about Jesus are the ones who think that everything is good. You know, they got, they, they seem to have it all together. They're not a bad person. They're, you know, they're polite. They help their neighbors when they're in need. They love their family. They even go to church every now and then. So, so why do I need God? Everything seems to be fine in my life, but the truth is, Jesus had to come and be human to save us from ourselves. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Rome says this, us for all have sinned, not just some, not just the select few. All of us have sinned in fall short of the glory of God and the only way we can be justified. All of us are justified. He says freely by his grace because of what He's done, because of who he is, not because of you, but because of him. We are justified by freely, by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood. And so how do we receive that grace? We receive it by faith. That's all we do. We believe Jesus, you did what you said you were going to do. I believe it and I trust in you. Not one of us can save ourselves. We must receive the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. We must believe in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross.'cause it is the only way to be in right standing with God. Now that means you will change because accepting him is saying that the way I wanna live my life is no more. I can't live it that way. It's not healthy. It's not the right way. And I willingly give up my life for you, Jesus. So you can speak to me and help me now to know how I should live. That's what being a follower of Christ is. We don't get there and then we follow Christ. Christ meets us where we are. And then he begins the journey with us. John 10 10 Again, in that same chapter of John, he says, he describes it that Jesus came that we would have life and have it to the full, let me just say, following Jesus will be the greatest decision of your life. No, no doubt about that. His ways may not always be easy, but they are by far the most rewarding in the end. And he'll continue to speak to you through it all. You see, when you came in today, I'm not sure what your opinion of Jesus was. I know some say that he's a good teacher, others say he's a moral example. But if Jesus really is who John claims he is fully God and fully human, then ignoring him is, it's kind of like ignoring gravity. Like you can deny it, but I'm telling you, the next time you climb a tree and then feel the drum jump out, you're gonna hit the ground. Like truth is truth and truth is still, this truth of Jesus is still relevant today if you're willing to hear it. We live in a world drowning in words, notifications, group chats, TikTok, sound bites, 24 hour news. But with all the noise that we have in our ears, I am certain that there are many here starving for just one word that will cut through the noise and actually bring a level of peace and hope. Culture might be shouting to get your attention, but I'm challenging you to listen to Jesus, whispering to you, longing for you to lean in and hear him. But are you listening? If Jesus is just a teacher, you can respect him. But if he's God you, you can't just like him. You have to decide to follow him. Some of you came in today feeling exhausted, weary from life weighed down by anxiety or grief or just the pace of everything. Hear Jesus say to you right now, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Some of you, you came in searching, but if you're honest, you've been trying to do life on your own terms. You want Jesus to inspire you, but he wants to transform you. And so here his challenge today, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. Some of you are carrying hurt or fear or questions about the future. And you're wondering if, if hope is even possible anymore, listen to these words of Jesus in this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I've overcome the world. You must rely on the word, the eternal one, fully God, fully human. And still speaking, he's speaking to you. If you're here today and you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've never put your faith in him believing that he did die on the cross for your sins and giving you new life in him. But you know that this is a decision that you want to make and you want to begin that journey. Can I encourage you to pray something as simple as Jesus, I'm sorry for living my life the way I have. Forgive me. I need you in my life. I want to be a follower of Jesus. Accept me now and help me to grow in what it means to be a child of God. Some of you are here and you've been battling through the journey and you're just needing Jesus to speak into the midst of your situation. Well, I wanna pray for you as well, that God would speak into your heart and into your life in that way that you know he'll speak and he makes himself known. So let me pray with you today. Heavenly Father, I thank you for those who may have made that conscious decision to follow you as Lord and Savior here today. Whether they're in the room, whether they're watching by uh, livestream, God, I ask that you would be with them and help them on the journey. Allow people to come around them to help them grow and, and understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus. For those who may be just going through it, they're followers of Christ, but they're, they're being bombarded with the things of life. And they need you to speak into the midst of that situation. Lord, I pray that you would do so, that you would speak on their behalf, empower their voice, allow them to understand that you are in the midst with them. And so, Lord, we give all of these things into your hands. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, if you prayed with me to start the best journey of your life of following Jesus, can I ask you to scan the QR code up on the screen or on the seat back in front of you when you do so, we have a booklet, a digital booklet that we would love to get into your hands that talks more about what it means to follow Jesus. And it's also a way of us getting to know you a little bit better. If you're here and you would like someone to pray with you over anything, we do have a prayer team located at the front, left of the auditorium and uh, and after the service, they would love to pray with you along the journey with you. As you leave from here today, may you be sensitive to the voice of the spirit. May Jesus continue to speak and may you listen and obey what he might have to say to you. God bless. Thank you for coming.