We Have Seen His Glory: A Study Through the Gospel of John

This Sunday we will start a new sermon series on the Gospel of John, entitled, We Have Seen His Glory. This phrase comes directly from the prologue to John’s Gospel: “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” (John 1:14).

When we think about the word “glory” today, our minds are often drawn to entertainment: sports icons, celebrities, professional musicians.  We think of money, fame, and adulation, the rarified air of the select few. For the common man on the street, glory is only achievable in daydreams or video games. In many ways, the Bible says that glory is even more exclusive than we usually believe — only God himself is glorious. Compared to God, humanity is a mist of vapor and a fleeting breath. We are reminded that “all fall short of the glory of God," (Romans 3:23). and of God’s exclusive claim to glory, “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8).

And yet, while God alone is the object of our worship and praise, from the very beginning of the world, God has actually made mankind to reflect his glory. “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You have crowned him with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:4-5). The word “glory” in Hebrew simply means weighty, or heavy, — to have glory is to have significance.

Glory is something we all want to find: What will give me significance? How can I make my mark? What makes life worth living? The modern answer to this question is usually personal: “Whatever makes ME happy.” But so often our attempts to find significance in ourselves end in failure, despair and the conclusion that nothing we do has lasting significance. And if what we do does not matter, we are left to wonder whether we really matter.

The Bible has long documented this problem. When humanity sinned and rejected the glory of God, exchanging God for worthless idols, far from becoming “like God” in glory and significance, we lost his glory, and the effects of that fall include the haunting sense of meaningless. “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity,” exclaims the author of Ecclesiastes, “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever" (Ecc. 1:1-4).

It is into this vanity that the Gospel of John speaks. In it we see the one who was with God from the beginning, his very Word, who has come down to speak to us. He is the final and authoritative interpretation of the Glory of God. But Jesus is not just a Word from God. He is the very presence of the Glory of God, who “became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Gospel of John will paint a picture of what true God-reflecting and God-glorifying humanity should look like. In this series we will walk with Jesus as he invites us to see true glory – the miraculous, the surprising, and the sacrificial love of God – who will restore us to our former glory. Join us as we start our series this Sunday!