God Comes to the Neighborhood

SR:

Beginning a Sermon Series. Ron has helped us with various texts in John.

The Gospel of John presents a challenging message for a church that would share the Gospel -- there is a strong current going through the gospel of how few people come to accept Jesus and that Jesus's coming is a catalyst of judgment (i.e., people reject him and thereby show they do not belong to him). But this judgment does not reflect God's lack of love or desire for all to be saved.

John 1:10–13 NIV

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

John 1:10-13

God comes to his Neighborhood and Ours. John is going to show that not many accept when God comes near, even God's own people, but for those who do, God gives them the power/ability/right to become his children - by his gracious will. We should not expect a warmer reception than what Jesus received but we can take courage in testifying to Jesus - living and present among us - because some will believe and they too are welcome into God’s family no matter their background our current situation.

No one has ever seen God .

Long tradition of being unable to see God: Lord told Moses no one may see me and live. Elijah pulled his cloak over his face and went and stood at the mouth of the cave. God is too terrible and wonderful to behold. God live in “unapproachable light.”

God is hard to fathom. A perfect being who created the universe, knows all of us perfectly, loves all of us, acts on our behalf in mysterious ways. Sort of hard to pin down. Not really a formula, pretty mysterious. We even say “God works in mysterious ways.” (Those words written in a poem called “Light Shining our of Darkness” by William Cowper in 1773. Cowper suffered from depression and hard a hard time understanding God’s working in the world. A few lines

Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill He treasures up His bright designs And works His sov’reign will.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

The poem wrestles with the unknown workings of God behind the scenes, but ultimately calls for trusting him because ultimately we find blessings, Gods smiling face, and his will made plain.

Maybe that’s the situation we find ourselves in now as we’re processing together our identity, our mission, our future. It’s not easy. It’s not clear. Oh sure we know much about our identity as God’s children, our mission to be lights in a dark world and our future is secure with Christ. But in our current discovery process much may still be unclear about God’s specific call on this body and what steps we should take together that we may continue to partner with God in his love and plan for our neighbors in Sierra Madre. Indeed,

Romans 11:33–34 NIV

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

So of course God made a way for us to see the un-seeable. John introduces a great irony: The world that was made through Jesus did not recognize him. Col and John agree by saying that all things were made through him, by him, for him. And Col uses the term “image” or “icon” the very thing that God’s people have been prohibited from making throughout the history of their relationship with him—an icon, an image of him. This is what we now see in Jesus—God’s face, his stamp, his reality, his knowable-ness.

And “knowing” is a better term likely than “recognize” that the NIV uses. The sad irony John is telling us is that people don’t have a relationship with their creator. Not that they don’t recognize someone that they do know. We’re going to see this throughout John’s Gospel. People who know him and receive him, believe in him, obey him and people who don’t know him, don’t understand him, reject him.

Word “world” used more times here in John than any other book of the Bible. “The World” comes to mean in many places: “all that which stands in opposition to God.” So Jesus says in vs. 14, concerning the Spirit, the world cannot accept him. In vs. 15 Jesus reminds his disciples the world hated him and therefore will hate them. In vs. 16 Jesus says the world stands condemned. Jesus doesn’t mean every person in the world or the whole entire world but rather all those people all those idea that stand opposed to God. The world in John is the riptide. It’s the current that flows through the ideas and the philosophies, it’s the attitudes and actions that pull us under and away from God. And Jesus tells his disciples—that is what I have overcome. Anything that stands opposed to me.

Just later here in chapter 1:19 John the Baptist talks with some Jewish leaders and they don’t know who he is either and ask him who he is. Are you Elijah, the prophet—who are you!? John answered in the voice of Isaiah that he is the one who cries in the desert prepare the way of the Lord. And in v. 26 adds “among you stands one you do not know.” The very people that God had chosen do know know God’s anointed King. —he came to that which was him own (his own creation, his own people, his own world) and his own did not receive him.

Just later in

“Yet.” There are promises that will be rehearsed in John several times for those who “receive him.” People being told they can drink living water, eat the bread of life, follow a good shepherd, go through the gate, live life to the fullest, walk in light that dispels darkness, find the words of eternal life.

That is what you and I need to remember and believe today. Right now in this midst of an uncertain future for the direction of our church. Right now as we discuss strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, mission statements and strategic plans, Who are we and where are we going? What does our future hold? Remember and believe--Some will receive him.

Some will receive him.

To our neighbors and friends, to those we work with, to those we might reach with formal marketing efforts or who happen to stop by for a visit. To those who are riding their bikes around, hanging out at Starbucks downtown, or who are stopping off at the dog dish on the sidewalk. Jesus has come to his creation, to our world, to this very neighborhood, and some will believe that. Some will receive life in his name.

And for those who receive him there is great power to become something they are not—God’s child. “Power “ or “authority” may be better than “right.” It’s not just someone’s “right” as you and I have certain privileges that we may or may not exercise. God empowers those who are weak and dead in their selfishness and sin to be part of his family. And God has empowered us to be his ambassadors of the good news for this very neighborhood that Jesus is living in because he has come to make his dwelling among us.