A New Beginning

John 1 opens with one of the most iconic passages in the gospels. Jesus was not created. He is the Word, he was with God, he is God, and he has been from the beginning.

Through him all things were made, Pikes Peak included. Everything carries his imprint, which means you cannot go anywhere without bumping into Jesus. Pastor Brady told on himself: he was once a prodigal who made his parents' lives miserable, and when he finally came home, he told them that everywhere he went, he kept bumping into Jesus. He urged families with prodigal children and grandchildren to pray exactly that over them. Even now, across Muslim nations in the Middle East, people are coming to Christ after dreaming about Jesus.

In him was life, and that life is the light of all mankind. The darkness is real, and we should be vigilant, prayerful, and discerning. But the darkness has never overcome the light.

Paul says the same thing in Colossians: in him all things were created, visible and invisible. Pastor Brady said your faith is not based on what you see but on what you know. Six months earlier he never imagined starting a church at the Phil Long Music Hall. The whole time, God was working behind the scenes, until the invisible became visible.

Thrones, powers, rulers, and authorities were all created through him and for him. Whatever the bluster on social media or at a campaign stop, every knee will bow to the resurrected Christ. Be prayerful and diligent, but do not be intimidated.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Jesus has witnessed all of human history, every triumph and every evil. He was present on your three worst days, holding things together whether you noticed him or not. Nothing in your life surprises him. There is no emergency meeting in heaven over your situation.

Pastor Brady said Christians should take part in local, state, and national government and should have a voice and influence. But at the end of the day, he has one king, already established on his throne and interceding for us before the Father.

He promised the church will not avoid hard topics, and that he will say anything the Bible says. But the aim of every gathering is that people walk to their cars thinking about Jesus, worshiping Jesus, and being formed into his image. The songs, the prayers, and the table at The Village will all be focused on one person.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, full of grace and truth. Jesus became human without surrendering his deity. He was born of a woman, grew from a baby to a boy to a man, and was hungry, tired, angry, thirsty, and in pain like the rest of us.

One of the church’s earliest misunderstandings is coming back. Gnosticism taught that Jesus was mostly spiritual and could not truly suffer or die, so what people did with their bodies did not matter as long as they felt spiritual. Pastor Brady said that thinking has crept into our culture: I love Jesus, but I am not doing the Jesus stuff. Knowing Jesus means, somewhere along the way, becoming like him.

Because he was fully human, he understands your temptations. Because he is fully God, he can call you out of depravity, lust, addiction, and anger into something better. Not to punish you, but to renew you.

Jesus is the perfect one to stand between us and the judgment we deserve and offer grace and salvation instead. The first Adam was merely a man, and humanity was a mess within a few chapters of Genesis. The second Adam was both man and God, and he conquered death, hell, and the grave.

Your story is not over. Jesus knows what it is like to have a stone rolled across a tomb and to be declared dead. On the third day, just as he promised, life came back. Because of his resurrection, you can be forgiven and raised to new life.

You are not damaged goods. You are not beyond repair or beyond healing. Jesus knows how you have been tempted, how you have been treated, and how you have been betrayed, and he still chooses to love you.

Pastor Brady closed with a question for everyone in the room and everyone watching online. Not whether you like Jesus or admire him, but whether he is Lord of your life. Do you belong to him? Have you surrendered and confessed your need for him?

For long-time followers he asked for something different: go back and remember how lost you were and how forgiven you are. Not how righteous you have become, but how much grace found you when nobody else was looking. Then he led the room in a simple prayer of salvation on the church’s very first Sunday.