The Three “did nots” of Christmas
(John 1:1-14)
“Good news of great joy!” “The most wonderful time of the year!” “Tis the season to be jolly!” Is it not? The Savior of the world is born unto us! God came down…Immanuel! Getting in the Christmas spirit is a choice! One can choose to focus on the negative of the season or choose joy! Choose Jesus! The most glorious or the most discouraging – it’s a season of extremes. On one hand we are bombarded with images of children excited to open their gifts, while the commercials about loneliness, homelessness and mental illness play in the background. It’s a season of contrasts. Friends, this is Christmas according to the Bible: the King of the world, the God of the universe sleeping in an animal feeding trough. This is how life begins for our beloved Jesus.
John’s gospel opens with this incredible picture of the Creator of Heaven and Earth, indeed of all things, coming down as a man…in the flesh – incarnation! Life itself had entered into the land of the living – the living dead. The stark contrast is exemplified as the Light of the world, coming into the darkness – all that is good entering into all that is evil, corrupt, filthy, debased and depraved. This is mercy at its finest; grace beyond imagination! God’s gift of His Son given to the world! Is it any wonder that the first human response to so great a salvation is: “the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5 NKJ) Darkness hates the light, for it exposes its true identity (John 3:19-20). Like the policeman’s flashlight shining on the thief in the middle of his crime, the light scares, frightens, and repulses. The word comprehend has two meanings, which we find in the various translations. The first means comprehend, understand, realize and assess. It’s like, “what is this and what do I do with it; what’s this all about; what’s it for”. I have encountered many an individual who just do not know what to do with Jesus. They love their ‘darkness’ so much, they don’t want anyone messing with their status quo. They don’t want Jesus to be who the Bible says He is, or they have to make a serious alteration to their beliefs and their life. Add to the mix that they are spiritually blind, and the lost sinner really has no idea what to do with Jesus, until she realizes her lostness without Him. The second definition of the word is overcome - ‘The darkness has not overcome it’ (ESV) or ‘The darkness can never extinguish it’ (NLT). In the first instance, people don’t understand God coming down as Jesus, the Son of God; in the second instance there is a real strong resistance to the Light of the world and people try to get rid of it, or in the words of Isaiah, ‘despise and reject’ Him. He is mocked, scorned, hated and eventually snuffed out (only momentarily) – for this Light can never be extinguished! Jesus – the darkness can’t understand Him, nor get rid of Him!
The second ‘did not’ is found in verse 10 – “the world did not know Him (NKJ) or recognize Him (NIV)”. Steeped in sin, with a veil over their eyes, people still do not recognize Jesus for who He truly is. Thousands of churches, hundreds of years of Christian testimony, and many, many, many remain blinded by the light. Even the Jews who had been studying the scriptures for hundreds of years, anticipating the arrival of their Messiah, missed Him even though standing in His very presence. How is this possible? People have preconceived ideas about what God should look like and act like – how He should be and what He should do. Unless God meets their expectations, people just can’t believe in the god of their imagination even if the true living God was standing in front of them. The Apostle Paul says it best, “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused” (Rom. 1:21 NLT) Oh Friends, when you talk to people, it is incredible what their view of God is – an energy, a force, positivity, the universe, Mother Earth, etc. “God…a man!...Impossible!” What is even sadder is the ‘Christians’ I meet who have fashioned a god according to their own understanding. Their Jesus is so far from the biblical Jesus that he is no longer the God of the Bible. If one wants to know God, read the Bible and get to know the Jesus revealed therein (Heb. 1:1-3; 2Cor. 4:4). See Jesus and you see God, and He is knowable if you truly desire to know Him (Jer. 29:11-14). The Christmas story is that God comes down to be discovered and to be known by sinners. He walked amongst us and is still present to be seen, revealed and believed.
Thirdly, sadly, “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him”(John 1:11NIV). This Jewish child born in the midst of a Jewish people, fulfilling the Jewish scriptures perfectly, was missed by His very own people. They did not understand; they did not know; and for those reasons they did not receive Him. Although all the signs were there, and all the scriptures were fulfilled, the ones many have been reading about their whole lives, they still missed! How easy it is to do as millions every year at this time, fill churches, sing the hymns and still cannot discern that the little baby they are singing about is none other than God in the flesh come to save them from their sins and give them eternal life. It is not enough to know and understand, He must be received! Received as God, come to redeem and save and rescue and deliver! The Light of the world must be allowed into the darkened heart of sin for true life to begin. The Word made flesh must be received as the Way, the Truth and the Life. “But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan -- this rebirth comes from God” (John 1:12 NLT).
Children of God! How awesome is that! This is what Christmas is all about – wayward sinners living in darkness given the opportunity to become part of the family of God, by faith in the Son of God, born in the flesh to die for the sins of the world! We are not those who did not comprehend, nor did not know, nor did not receive! We are those who know our God and have believed and received the truth about Jesus – God in the flesh. This is all because of the grace of God, the free gift of salvation in Christ offered to us by a merciful Father. Can we make it a priority this Christmas season to bring people out of the land of darkness and “did nots”, by letting the Light of the world shine through us, testifying how we have believed and received the One who was born to set us free!
Have a blessed week!
"Advancing the Kingdom of God by releasing Spirit-filled followers to serve Jesus in freedom and joy."
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