Rejecting The Light...

This week we are looking at a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. Yesterday, we saw John reveal for us the reality that Jesus, as the Light, came into the world. Jesus Christ, as the second member of the Trinity, as the eternal Divine Being who has always existed in a close, personal relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, did not remain distant and disinterested up in Heaven. Instead Jesus, as the Light, left Heaven and entered into humanity as a baby born to a teenage girl in a cave and spent His first night on earth in a feeding trough for animals.

Now the fancy church mumbo jumbo talk word for what John is describing here is the word incarnation. The word incarnation simply means to take on flesh. In other words, Jesus Christ is God in a bod. Jesus, as God, as the Light, entered into humanity and took on flesh without ceasing to be God. John then explained that Jesus, as the Light, entered into humanity in order to make Himself known to humanity. Jesus, as the Light, entered into humanity in order to shed light upon who He was to humanity. Today, we will see John reveal for us what happened when Jesus entered into humanity as the Light to make known and shine a light on who He is in John 1:10:

 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

Now to fully understand what John is communicating here, we first need to understand a couple of terms. The first term that we need to understand is the word world. Throughout the gospel of John, the word world is used in two specific ways. First, the word world is used to describe the universe that Jesus created. This is John’s point in the first half of verse 10. Jesus, as the Light, entered into the very creation that He created. As God, Jesus did not remain apart from His creation, but took on flesh and entered into the creation as God in a bod.

Second, and most often in John’s letter, the word world is used to refer to everything in the creation that is hostile to God and sets itself in opposition to God and His kingdom. This is John’s point in the second half of verse 10. John is stating that Jesus, as the Light, entered into the very creation that He created and everything in the creation that is hostile to God and sets itself in opposition to God and His kingdom did not know Him.

Now that leads us to the second term that we need to understand, which is the word know. The word know here, in the language that this letter was originally written in, means to recognize or acknowledge someone or something. So John is revealing for us the reality that while Jesus, as the Light, entered into the very creation that He created to make Himself known and to shine a light on who He was as God in a bod, everything in the creation that is hostile to God and sets itself in opposition to God and His kingdom did not acknowledge or recognize Him as God in a bod. John then reveals exactly how Jesus was neither acknowledged nor recognized for who He was as God in a bod in verse 11:

 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

Now if verse 11 was written in the language we use in our culture today, it would sound something like this: “He came home, and those who were His people did not accept Him”. Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave what do you mean that He came Home, I thought Heaven was His home? And who were His people anyways?”

In another letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament called the book of Colossians, we discover that everything was created by Jesus and for Jesus. In other words Jesus created everything that exists and everything that exists was created for Jesus. Jesus owns everything, including this planet.

However, when Jesus entered into this planet that He created and that is His own to make known and shine a light on who He was as God in a bod, those who were His own did not receive Him.  The “His own” that John is referring to here are the Jewish people, who God had chosen to be in special relationship with as His chosen people. With this statement John is revealing for us the reality that the Jewish people, whom God had chosen to enter into a special relationship with, responded to Jesus appearance to make Himself known and to shine a light on who He was as God in a bod by rejecting Him instead of accepting Him. Jesus, as the Light, came home and was told by the very people that He desired to have a special relationship with “we don’t accept you, go away, we don’t want you here.”

And that is how humanity throughout history has responded to God. The world, the very creation that Jesus created and everything in the creation, is hostile to God and sets itself in opposition to God and His kingdom. The entire world, me, you, humanity throughout history refused to accept and live in the relationship with God and one another that we were created for. Instead, we rejected that relationship so that we can love ourselves and do things out of that selfishness and rebellion that hurts God and others. And it is this selfishness and rebellion that the Bible calls sin. And it is this sin that separates us from God.

 Now another question that arises here is “well Dave if that is the case, if what you said is true, if all of humanity refuses to accept a relationship with God Jesus but rejects God, then why did Jesus even bother to come in the first place? And how does one receive Jesus anyways? What does that mean? Again if those questions are running through your mind, I want to let you know that those are great questions to be asking.

Friday, we see John provide the answers to those questions…