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In his book called The Divine Conspiracy, a great teacher, a great man of God named Dallas Willard opens that book with this little story.
He says, "Recently, a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter.
He turned the controls for what he thought was gonna be a s- steep ascent upward, only to fly straight into the ground.
He was unaware that he'd been flying upside down the whole time." And that little story [clears throat] really gives us a pretty good picture of our human experience.
We go through our lives, especially now, we go through our lives zooming really fast, at high speed, and we really don't have a clue whether we're flying right side up or upside down, until we crash.
[clears throat] And many of us, we go through our lives and we have this kind of uneasiness, this instability, because something in us tells us while we may be upside down, but we can't tell, we can't distinguish that we're actually flying through our lives upside down.
You're in the dark, and you need to step into the light." Come on.
Have you ever thought, how would you tell somebody that's upside down that thinks they're right side up, that they're upside down? [laughs] It's like you can't convince them.
They think they're right side up.
And what John does first, in the very first line, to just jolt us awake to realize that we're flying upside down, is he starts with a very shocking statement.
Very first thing he says, "In the beginning." Now, I want you to understand, John saying that in his society, in his context, would be like if I got up here today and started my sermon by going, "Fourscore and seven years ago," [laughs] But I was being totally serious.
[laughs] I'm not, I'm not joking at all.
I'm saying, "Hey, what I have to say right now is as impactful and as important and as shaking and shaping as what Abraham Lincoln said." [coughs] Because John's saying, "In the beginning," this is how the Jewish scripture starts.
This is saying, "Hey, I'm writing you a new Genesis, a new creation story." Whoo.
So it's as bold of a statement as he can make.
It's a risky statement, a dangerous statement, "In the beginning." And so already John's audience, and us, we should be really awake and really alert.
And then- He makes this other shocking little move instantly where he starts to tell us a bit of a riddle.
Some of you can probably even recite John chapter one, but what the, the Christians who've been around for a while, the seasoned Christians never tell you is that nobody knows what's going on.
[laughs] How can a word be a person? It's a riddle.
Because his goal isn't to just clearly tell you, "Hey, you're flying upside down." His goal is to get you to see the light, and to do that, he uses a riddle.
In his book called The Divine Conspiracy, a great teacher, a great man of God named Dallas Willard opens that book with this little story.
He says, "Recently, a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter.
He turned the controls for what he thought was gonna be a s- steep ascent upward, only to fly straight into the ground.
He was unaware that he'd been flying upside down the whole time." And that little story [clears throat] really gives us a pretty good picture of our human experience.
We go through our lives, especially now, we go through our lives zooming really fast, at high speed, and we really don't have a clue whether we're flying right side up or upside down, until we crash.
[clears throat] And many of us, we go through our lives and we have this kind of uneasiness, this instability, because something in us tells us while we may be upside down, but we can't tell, we can't distinguish that we're actually flying through our lives upside down.
You're in the dark, and you need to step into the light." Come on.
Have you ever thought, how would you tell somebody that's upside down that thinks they're right side up, that they're upside down? [laughs] It's like you can't convince them.
They think they're right side up.
And what John does first, in the very first line, to just jolt us awake to realize that we're flying upside down, is he starts with a very shocking statement.
Very first thing he says, "In the beginning." Now, I want you to understand, John saying that in his society, in his context, would be like if I got up here today and started my sermon by going, "Fourscore and seven years ago," [laughs] But I was being totally serious.
[laughs] I'm not, I'm not joking at all.
I'm saying, "Hey, what I have to say right now is as impactful and as important and as shaking and shaping as what Abraham Lincoln said." [coughs] Because John's saying, "In the beginning," this is how the Jewish scripture starts.
This is saying, "Hey, I'm writing you a new Genesis, a new creation story." Whoo.
So it's as bold of a statement as he can make.
It's a risky statement, a dangerous statement, "In the beginning." And so already John's audience, and us, we should be really awake and really alert.
And then- He makes this other shocking little move instantly where he starts to tell us a bit of a riddle.
Some of you can probably even recite John chapter one, but what the, the Christians who've been around for a while, the seasoned Christians never tell you is that nobody knows what's going on.
[laughs] How can a word be a person? It's a riddle.
Because his goal isn't to just clearly tell you, "Hey, you're flying upside down." His goal is to get you to see the light, and to do that, he uses a riddle.
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