The Rejected and Received Savior (John 1:9-13)

I want you to imagine something with me. Imagine that you’ve been away from home for a long time. You grew up in this small town in Wisconsin and you’ve been gone for years, working in some other state—away from your friends and family. Yet, Christmas is coming and you finally have an opportunity to come back home—back to your old stomping grounds. You’re really excited about the thought of seeing everyone again. As each day approaches, the excitement builds a little. Then, finally the day comes. You get in your car and you drive back “home.” 

As you pull into town, you see your favorite little coffee shop—the one you and your friends used to hang out at all the time—so you stop in to grab some coffee and, hopefully, run into some of your old friends. You hop out of your car and head to the door with a smile, thinking, “This is going to be great. They haven’t seen me in so long. They’re going to be so excited.” Yet, as you walk into the coffee shop and see all of your old friends, all you get are sneers. They look at you, sneer a bit, and turn their backs to you. Their body language is telling a clear story and that story is “You’re not welcome here.” It catches you off guard. So, you order you coffee and leave without talking to anybody. You have a few groceries to buy, so you run to The Pig. As you walk around The Pig and see a bunch of your old friends, everyone ignores you, avoids you, or even mutters things under their breath at you as you talk by. Again, “You’re not welcome here.” It really hurts because you’ve been looking forward to reconnecting with everyone again. 

Yet, you keep reminding yourself, “Well, I may not be welcome here anymore, but at least I have family around.” So, you head to the Christmas gathering at your parent’s house. Everyone will be there. Aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and your mom and dad. “At least they will welcome me.” Yet, as you walk through the door, your family members give the same reaction as the rest of the community. All of their body language is screaming, “You’re not welcome here!” 

In some ways, that’s the picture John is painting for us this morning. As John tells his version of the Christmas Story, he paints a picture of Jesus being born into a world that screams, “You’re not welcome here!” Let’s take a look at our passage. [Read John 1:9-13]

“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” (John 1:9–10, NIV). It’s a pretty shocking picture isn’t it? The true light—the light that brings fullness of life—is coming into the world that He created and the world didn’t welcome Him. Doesn’t that take your breath away? The one who created the world, entered into the world as a little child, lived in that world growing up into a man, and the world continued to scream “You’re not welcome here!” Not only did Jesus create them, but he also sustains them (remember the message from a couple weeks ago?). So, not only are they rejecting their creator, but they are rejecting the one who sustains them—the one who provides them with every blessing! Think about that for a moment. The fact that these people are breathing is a blessing from Jesus. The fact that these people have the ability to speak is from Jesus. Then, they use those blessings from Jesus to scream at him, “You’re not welcome here!” It’s incredible. 

Yet, the picture becomes even more bleak. Not only did the general “world” reject Jesus, but His own people rejected Him. John says, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (John 1:11, NIV). Now, this is taking things a step further. It wasn’t only the general people of the world who rejected Jesus....so did His own people—the Jews. If anybody in the whole world should have received Jesus with rejoicing, it should have been the Jews. Their own scriptures had been pointing them to Jesus for millennia. Their own scriptures repeatedly told them of one who would come to save them. Yet, even when Jesus came to his own people—to his own family Christmas gathering—they looked at Him and screamed, “You’re not welcome here!” 

Now, as we think about these things, it’s easy for us to think, “Those people were crazy! If I had been around back then, I wouldn’t have acted the same way they did.” Yet, I think it’s important for us to understand how easily we fall into this same pattern. John isn’t writing this to inform us about “how bad THOSE people are,” but is writing this to let us know the hardness of our own hearts. If we were placed in that same situation, we would have responded the same way. We would have looked at Jesus and screamed, “You’re not welcome here!” It’s really hard to admit it, but it’s true. 

One of the things I hear from atheists all the time is, “If God wants me to believe in Him, why doesn’t He just show himself to me?” My response is always, “He already has revealed himself in a powerful way, and the world killed him. If he revealed himself to you, you would do the same thing.” That’s the depravity of our own situation. It’s important for us not to think of ourselves in an ivory tower, looking down in judgement upon those who messed up throughout history. WE are the ones who mess up. WE are the sinners. WE are the ones who look at Jesus and say, “You’re not welcome here!” 

That reaction is deep down inside every one of us. It’s deep down inside of me. It’s deep down inside of you. Think of your life as a house, with the various aspects of your life being represented by a different room in that house. The Television Room representing all of the media you consume—Facebook, TV shows, YouTube, etc. The kitchen representing the food that you eat. The bedroom representing your relationships and your sexual life. The workout room representing your active life—sports, running, etc. The office representing your work life—your job. Add whatever rooms you need in that house for it to represent your entire life. 

Then picture Jesus standing at the door, knocking, desiring to enter into that house. As you let him into your house, are there rooms where He’s not welcome? Do you find yourself telling Jesus, “Hey, you are welcome to stay in the living room and the kitchen, but you’re not welcome in my bedroom or my office?” or maybe you tell Him He’s not welcome in your retirement plans, or maybe He’s not welcome in the media you consume—the books you read, the music you listen to, the shows you watch—or maybe He’s not welcome in your financial life. We all have areas of our life where we look at Jesus—the one who has created us and blessed us with every blessing—and we say, “You’re not welcome here!” 

Yet, John doesn’t leave us here. He continues saying, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:12, NIV). After John paints a bleak picture of Jesus’ entrance into the world—the picture of a rejected savior—he says, “Well, not everyone rejected Him. Some received Him.” Some people welcomed Him into their home. They received him—allowing Him to enter into their lives. Some actually saw Jesus for who He was. Some actually heard the things that Jesus was saying. Some truly heard, saw, and received Jesus for who He truly was. 

John says they did this by BELIEVING. See the parallel in this passage? All who received him—or another way of saying the same thing—to those who believed in his name. To receive Jesus is to Believe in Him. If you want to change from saying, “You’re not welcome here!” to “Jesus enter in” you need to BELIEVE in Him. 

Now, it’s important to explain what John means when he says the word “believe.” He’s not saying that you need to believe that Jesus existed. That’s not what he’s talking about. When John uses the word “believe” he is using that word in the deepest, profoundest sense possible. Imagine that you lost in a  jungle, struggling to find your way home. As you begin to get your bearings, and figure out the direction you need to head to make it home, you come to a bridge over a vast chasm. It’s not a bridge like we typically see today. It’s a bridge like you’d see in a movie—a rickety rope bridge. In order to get home you need to cross that rickety rope bridge that spans a two-hundred foot drop. If you were to look at that bridge and say, “I believe in the bridge,” you’re not saying, “I believe the bridge exists,” that’s obvious, what you are saying is, “I believe the bridge will hold me up as I cross. I trust the bridge with my life.” That’s what it means when John says those who received Jesus believed in Him. They looked at Jesus—the one who promised them forgiveness of sins, freedom from sin, a full life on earth, and eternal life—and said, “I trust you with my life. Every aspect of my life. I believe in you.” 

That’s what it means to believe in Jesus. It means trusting Him with your life—with every aspect of your life. Believing in Jesus means receiving Him into every room of your house—every room. There’s no aspect of you life where he is not welcome. You lay down your life and let him enter into every single aspect of that life. You do this because you trust Him with every aspect of your life, you believe in Him, you have FAITH in Him. 

To those who do this, He does something powerful. Our passage says, “…to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:12, NIV). To those who receive Him, to those who believe in Him, he adopts them into his family and makes them children of God. If you receive Him—believe in Him—he will (or has) adopted you into his family and made you a child of God. Isn’t that incredible? For all those who have struggled with dysfunctional families over the years, God has brought you into His family. The God who created the universe now cares for you like his own child. The One who was rejected by His own people, has not made you one of His own and cares for you as one of His own. That’s powerful. 

It’s also powerful to realize that you are a child of God along with every other person who has believed in Jesus. We are one big family. I’m your brother and you’re my brother or sister. You can move miles and miles and miles from home, but when you enter a church you are surrounded by family. That is powerful. We get together once a week for a family gathering. We welcome people to join our family and become a part of us. We care for each other like family. We commit ourselves to one another like family. We may even get annoyed with one another like family. Yet, this is a family and family stick together and toughs things out together and supports one another and cares for one another. 

Yet, we enter this family differently than we enter a typical family. John wants to make this very clear. He says that we are “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:13, NIV). We don’t enter into God’s family through natural descent. We aren’t born into the family of God. John also says that we do not become part of God’s family due to our own decision or through our own strength. We are not part of the family of God because we worked hard enough or were smart enough or because we were born into the right family. The only reason we are part of God’s family is because we’ve been “born of God.” God did a powerful work in our lives and we were BORN AGAIN into God’s family. 

It’s important that John ends in this fashion. It ties everything together. Jesus entered into a world that rejected Him. He was even rejected by His own people. Yet, those who did receive Him did not receive Him because they were smarter, worked harder, or were born into the right families. The only reason anyone received Jesus was because they were Born Again—because God did a powerful work in their life. He opened their ears to hear, their eyes to see, and their hearts to receive Him. God did it! 

Isn’t that humbling? We like to think that we received Jesus into our home because we were smarter than everyone else or because of our parents. Yet, John reminds us that the only reason we received Jesus into our house is because God did a powerful work in us and birthed us anew. Then we finally saw Jesus for who He truly is, then we finally received Jesus for who He truly is, then we finally BELIEVED in Jesus. It was His work from beginning to end. 

All of this forces us to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. Yes, things can look bleak at times. During this time of celebrating the birth of Jesus, we still see the world telling Jesus, “You’re not welcome here!” We still even see the church at times saying, “You’re not welcome here!” We even see our own lives telling Jesus, “You’re not welcome here!” Yet, in the bleakness of those moments, in the darkness of those moments, the true light enters and opens eyes and hearts. God speaks into our darkness and says, “Let there be light!” 

So turn to him in everything. As you see people walking in darkness, rejecting the one who created them and cares for them, look to Jesus to open their eyes and light up their darkness. Seek God in prayer for their souls. He is the one who can truly open their eyes and soften their hearts. 

Even in your own life. As you begin to see the areas of your own life where Jesus is not welcome, look to Jesus. Turn to Jesus in prayer, asking Him to give you strength to give your life more fully to Him, asking Him to open your eyes to the areas you need to submit to him, asking Him to open your eyes to the beauty and glory of the life He offers to those who fully receive Him into every area of their life. Then, as you get off your knees, trust Him to do what He has promised. Receive Him and Believe in Him.