©2006 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

04-30-06

But As Many As Received Him

4/30/06 But As Many As Received Him

JOH 1:5, 9-14 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

These are the same verses we were chewing on last week,

but I’m not quite ready to leave them.

If you were with us last week

you’ll remember that we spent much of our morning

looking at that facade that covers our society,

a facade that viciously resists the truth about the way things really are,

a facade that turns the light into a form,

and turns Jesus Christ into a ritual,

and turns the truth into a routine,

into a form that can be learned and perpetuated,

a form that makes us feel holy,

and protected,

and secure with God when we fulfill it,

while at the same time

doing no damage to the facade in which we live.

I received an e-mail this past week

from a man I’ve been corresponding with for the past several years.

I’ve never met him,

but he contacted me, I believe,

as a result of having read The Fisherman.

I want to read part of his note to me,

and then part of my response to him

because it can, I think, illustrate well

the way in which this religious facade

can so effectively blind us to what’s really going on

and what our God really wants us to see.

My friend wrote,

“I'm writing to ask you a favor. Since I was in High School I have felt a calling to service. I have prayed and prayed for some kind of help with this area. (Divine Intervention would be fine.) Part of me wants some gold plated invitation that will guide me in God’s direction. But a clear answer has never come. I think I have been buried in the spirit of flesh. However, I still feel this calling....

It was many years ago that I entered into the Seminary in college and bailed out after one year. I felt it was all wrong. Nothing seemed to work out. It seemed like folks were more interested in producing cookie-cutter "Reverends" than they were in helping to prepare you to serve God. I was so disillusioned. To this day I see ministry as a "career choice" an industry. Our doctrine is better that your doctrine. And I let it slide. But I still feel this calling....

Later I volunteered in nearly every organization out there, thinking that would help me feel better. I felt that I would go out and cure all the world’s problems. Once again trying to earn God’s grace. After reading your notes, listening to your tapes, and writing notes back and forth, I feel like God is providing my answer in the Love lessons you help teach. I have accepted my role to be me and let God work through me for His pleasure. However, I still feel this call to serve. I can't get it out of my heart. I continue to pray for wisdom and strength to step through whatever door is opened for me.

I'm not sure what I'm even asking for.

Can you please help?”

Here is part of what I wrote him in response:

“I think maybe you're looking for something in an organization that can only be found in relationship. The religious system around us has done such a powerful job of convincing us that "service to God" will be found in and through the organized religious structure around us. It is part of Satan's design to keep this thinking deeply entrenched within us. What God calls us to is not a life of service to Him, but rather a walk with Him in which He lives His life out through us each day. "Christ in you, the hope of glory". "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." What I think you've been seeking is a voice of affirmation from the religious system around you that says, "Well done! You have served your God well." But even if you could find and receive this voice, it would not fill the hunger within you. What your spirit really longs for is the voice of your God saying to your spirit, "Well done, my son. You have done what I have asked you to do." That voice will come as you understand and follow His leading in your life. But His leading will not point you where you think it might. It will point you, I think, to a person, or a few people whom He asks you to love and care for and fight for. They will probably be people no one else even notices, people the church structure doesn't even care much about except as one more number to keep on the attendance list. I can't tell you who those people are, I just know
they're there. I know who they are in my own life. Most of them are people no one else even notices. With me it's all one-to-one. And I don't try to "disciple" them or "mentor" them. I just love them and build the strongest friendship I can with them, and then pray and pray and pray for them. And when they need help I fight for them in any way I can. No one will ever give me a plaque, or an award, or honor me at some dinner for "the wonderful work I've done with those God has entrusted into my care". Most people will never even know. I don't want them to. It's none of their business. It's all between me, and my God, and the people He gives me. But I know it feeds my spirit as nothing else can do. And when I meet my Lord, I know that His affirmations to me, if He chooses to give them, will not be for any sermon I've ever given. It will be for those I have been able to love through His life within me. If you're looking for service, look around you at someone who needs to be loved. And then find out how God wants you to do it. I don’t know who it is, but it will be someone who needs a flesh and blood demonstration of the love of their God for them.”

It is so hard for us to believe

that so much of this massive religious system around us

is really in league with

and absolutely compatible with

the facade that so effectively blinds us to the real world in which we live.

And yet it is.

But we matter far to much to our God,

and His love for each of us is far too deep, too real

for Him to allow the darkness to blind us forever to the truth.

And so, after John tells us that ...the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it,

he then goes on to reveal to us the rest of the story.

He says, “There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

Which, in the terms we were using last week,

means that there will be a point in the life of every one of us

at which Jesus Christ will rip a hole through the veneer,

through the facade of our lives,

a hole big enough so that we can peak through

and gain a glimpse of the world as it really is.

I didn’t take the time to mention it last week,

but I want to be sure we notice

that, when John says, There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man...,

he is not talking just about Christians,

or about those who respond to God’s offer of Himself through Christ.

He is telling us

that, whether we respond to Christ or not,

whether we choose to bow before Him or not,

still every time an person has exposure to the Person of Jesus Christ,

that contact brings into their spirits

a light they must deal with.

And when that happens

people’s responses tend to fall into one of three categories.

First, there are those who,

well...as John puts it, “...loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (Jn. 3:19).

There are those who,

when the light of Christ comes into their life,

will do everything within their power

to shut out that light from their souls.

His entrance into their life

is simply not an option.

And when I talk about the light of Christ entering a person’s life,

I don’t want you to go all super-spiritual on me

and think I’m talking about some process of divine revelation

like Saul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus.

Sometimes Christ will sovereignly reveal Himself to a person

in a way that confronts that person with His reality,

but far more often

He does this work

through the lives of His people.

The most common

and frequently the most powerful tool through which Christ reveals Himself to people

is through the entrance of a Christian into their life.

Even with all of our faults,

and weaknesses,

and inadequacies as God’s children,

still in the most remarkable way

Christ is easily able to reveal Himself to those around us through our lives.

And the manifold wisdom of God is now made known through the church... (Eph. 3:10)

I love the way Paul describes this process

in his second letter to the Corinthians.

2CO 2:14-16, 3:5-6 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?... Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

What he’s saying is that

one of the key ways in which Christ intrudes into people’s lives

is by placing us next to them.

And just our presence in their life

and the evidences of Christ’s work within us

that they see in us

confronts them with the living reality of Jesus Christ.

For many years now

I’ve realized that, because I am such a public Christian,

people tend to relate to me

the way they respond to Christ.

Because they know I’m a Christian

I tend to trigger those responses in them,

at least until they get to know me.

I’ve found this to be especially true with teenagers

for two major reasons.

First, teenagers tend to be extremely transparent.

They haven’t yet learned how to hide behind

the thick social facade

with which we protect ourselves in our adult years,

and with teens,

what you see is frequently what you get.

I was with a Jr. High student this past week

and he began our conversation by saying,

“You’re SO OLD! And your clothes are funny.”

To which I responded, “Well, you’re just a kid, and I happen to think your clothes are funny, too. And yet, look at this! You and I are still really good friends. Isn’t that amazing!”

So often with teens, whatever is going on inside

is easy to see on the outside.

And second,

I think sometimes, as a preacher,

I trigger teenagers’ response to God Himself

because the teen years

are by far the most common years

in which Jesus Christ seeks access into our lives.

I think it has something to do

with that huge, rapid transition from childhood into adulthood

that takes place during those few years.

It is really the first point in the growth process

at which we begin to recognize that we truly do have total jurisdiction over our own lives

and can choose for ourselves

any direction we want to take.

But I mention this

because I have found it fascinating

that I can frequently tell where a teenager is at

in his or her own response to God

by their response to me as a preacher.

When I see a teen who is open to a friendship with me,

it tells me that they are very likely open to a friendship with God.

And when I see them trying to shut me out of their life,

it tells me that they are very likely trying to do the same thing with their God.

And it’s not just teenagers, of course.

From the time we enter this world

our God is seeking entrance into our lives,

but our spirits know instinctively

that, if we allow Him in,

He will bring profound changes,

changes that will potentially alter ever aspect of our lives.

And so, at any age,

it’s not surprising that there are many who,

when the light of Christ pierces their darkness,

respond by shutting out that light at all costs.

They want nothing whatsoever to do with Him,

and do whatever they can

to construct an approach to life that keeps Him and His light

as far from them as possible.

And then there are many others

who take a different approach to the entrance of Christ’s light into their lives.

And, to be honest, I think this second response

is by far the most common hiding place from the Light of Christ

that we human beings ever use.

It involves our turning to religion,

or to spirituality,

or to doing good,

or to superstition,

or to trying to save the world from some evil,

or some corruption,

or some real or perceived disaster.

It can take any form,

be found under any religious or social banner,

and focus its attention on any real or perceived enemy in the world.

It can drive people to fight for world peace,

or to fight against world hunger,

or poverty,

or crime,

or bigotry,

or pollution.

It can drive one person to invest his whole life

into trying to save some species from extinction,

and drive another

into flying a fully loaded commercial airliner into the World Trade Center.

We called that an act of terrorism, of course,

but it was really an act of extreme religious devotion.

It is impossible to overstate

the depth of the terror response within the human spirit

when the light of Christ shines in the darkness,

when we sense He is there,

and know He wants us, our lives on His terms.

Obviously there was a Divine plan being fulfilled through all that took place 2000 years ago,

but from a strictly human point of view,

what was it that Jesus did

that brought about His death?

Let’s see...

He healed every sick person who came to Him.

He fed people, thousands of people for free.

He taught people how life works,

and presented to them a God who loves them with an everlasting love,

a God who is deeply concerned about each of them,

a God who is committed to meeting their needs at any cost to Himself.

He Himself loved without limits,

and forgave all those who sinned against Him.

And in response

they crucified Him.

Why?

Because then,

as now,

those who met Him knew that,

if He were to gain control of their world,

it would be utterly devastating to life as they knew it.

And what better place to hide from Him and His light

than within the world of religion and spirituality?

And just so that I’m not misunderstood here,

let me say that one of the many things Christ does within our lives

if we allow Him entrance into our world

is to reshape us into deeply compassionate people

who can recognize and war against true evil in our world.

It is a big part of what we’re here for.

And I am certainly not suggesting

that we should not fight against the evil we see in the world around us.

But fighting against evil in the world

can be driven by two radically different motivations within a person.

There are many who use those battles

as their hiding place from Jesus Christ,

as the way in which they keep themselves

from having to face His call to them that they bow before Him.

And then there are the people of God

who enter into that battle

because their love for their Lord

and their submission to Him

has given them no choice.

Twice this past week

I was involved in conversations with Christians

who had become aware of the presence of evil in their world,

and who knew that their Lord was pushing them into that battle,

a battle they would gladly have avoided at all costs

apart from the prodding of the Spirit of God within them.

Now that’s healthy.

That’s just the way it’s suppose to be.

But my point here

is that when the light of Christ enters a person’s life

it simply cannot be ignored.

But with most people

that light is so threatening,

so terrifying to their spirits

that they will respond either by shutting Him out absolutely

or, more often, by hiding from Him

behind a thick fog of religion,

or spirituality,

or actions driven by an intense social conscience.

I have frequently seen people who have rejected the Lordship of Christ in their life

then attempt to be more “Christian” than the Christians in their lives

because it helps them to “prove” to themselves

that they really didn’t need to submit to Christ in the first place.

But there is a third possible response as well

to the entrance of the Light of Christ into our lives,

the one that John so powerfully describes in these opening verses of his Gospel,

and the one that brought me back to this passage

once again this week.

JOH 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now we saw last week

that what God is offering us

and what we are receiving when we respond to the Light as God wants

is, quite simply, Christ Himself.

We are not joining a certain religion.

We are not choosing to “become a Christian”.

We are not making an intellectual commitment to a belief system,

or value system,

or an organization,

or a religious creed or system of doctrines.

What we are doing

is recognizing that Jesus Christ is really there,

that through His death in our place He has paid our debt for our sins,

and that He wants us to grant Him entrance into our life as God.

He simply wants our submission to Him.

But as many as received Him...

But what we did not look at last week

is God’s response

to our choice to let Christ in.

And here is where it gets truly amazing.

It’s amazing enough

that our Creator God would say to us, “Will you let Me in?”,

and then honor whatever choice we make.

And it would be even more amazing

if, when we received Him into our life,

the most He did was to forgive us for our rebellion against Him.

But that doesn’t even begin to touch

what really happens.

John tells us that, when we receive Jesus Christ into our lives,

God then responds to that choice on our part

by giving to us the right to become children of God...

And just so we don’t miss what’s being said here,

let’s look first of all at the academic part of it,

and then at what it means personally.

This word “right” that John uses is a fascinating word.

It is most commonly translated as “authority” or “power”,

and it is used frequently to describe the authority or the power possessed by Christ Himself

during His few years among us.

MAT 9:6 "But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"-- then He said to the paralytic-- "Rise, take up your bed, and go home."

MAT 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

It’s the same word.

Perhaps the easiest way for me to explain it

is to say that it is a word used to describe an act, or a choice, or a decision

that God Himself stands behind.

It is indisputable,

eternal,

irrevokable.

It’s not just an invitation,

it’s a done deal.

And then John goes on to make certain that we’ve got it right

by saying, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

In other words,

what happens within us

is not in any way the work of man,

it is the sovereign work of God Himself.

He recreates us at the spirit level of our being.

Now that’s the academic part of it,

but I can’t close without just a word about the experiential part of it.

The first time I was ever aware of this amazing work of God within us

was at the point of my own submission to Christ.

I was 19 years old,

and all I did was to tell God

that if He really wanted my life He could have it.

And though I didn’t have a clue as to what had really happened at the time,

I knew that something huge had changed inside of me

and I hadn’t changed it.

And ever since then

I have been trying to point people

to their own discovery of this remarkable recreative work of God,

and at the same time

I’ve been looking for those who have had the same kind of redemptive work of God in their lives.

And when I find them,

I have discovered that...well, that we know things about one another,

things that cannot be put into words,

and we share a kind of unity with one another

that can only be found within the family of God.