Sermon on Third Sunday of Advent

John 1:1-13

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.[b]

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own,[c] and His own[d] did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.


Sermon

What I am about to say is not what pastors are supposed to say as they preach sermons at Christmas time. Pastors are supposed to warn their congregations that Christmas is not about the presents that are under the tree. We are supposed to tell folks that they need to avoid the consumerism, sensationalism and the festiveness of the whole holiday season. Pastor Darryl Johnson is fond of saying of Christmas, “It is not my birthday, don’t buy me any presents!” I can respect and appreciate that. Christmas, the way that Jesus intended it, should not simply be a marketing scheme. But I think often these protests are a little “Scroogy” and a little “Grinch” like, and at times overdone.

When I was little I was often taught by my mother that Christmas was more about giving than about receiving. When we were little she would say that we did not understand it then, but we would as we grew. Certainly, it has been true that as I have gotten older, I have learned more and more about the joy and the importance of giving through the Christmas season. But I don’t think Christmas is just about giving.




One of the best things about Christmas is watching a preschool aged child, somewhere between say 3 and 6, experience the joy of receiving on Christmas. Often parents stay up late putting everything together the night before. The kids wake up. They creep down the stairs. And their eyes light up. And all morning you hear all of the noises of toys being played with while kids are running around in footy pajamas.

With many children, it does not take a lot to please them. You can get a 3 year old 10 presents at the dollar store, watch them tear the presents open, and see them become so thankful because you have thought enough of them to get them the gift you got. They get what you give them, and they start playing with it right away.

Children have no means of providing for themselves. For this reason, many children are good receivers. They accept the gifts as gifts, and many times they are thankful. They don’t believe that they need to do something to receive what they have been given, they just experience the joy of being given to by someone that they love.

Somewhere along the road, especially in our culture we close ourselves off from being good receivers. Some people in our world are good “getters”. They work the system to get the discounts and freebies we want. But most of us are not good receivers of what we are given by others, or even by God. We say things like “I can’t accept this”, or “but I did not get anything for you” when given something by a friend. And when offered God’s grace and hope we recoil from simply receiving it. We try to justify why we deserve what God gives us, or we try and earn it.




Much of the sad part of Christmas is our unwillingness to receive the gift that God has given us through Jesus. We don’t receive him into any room. Instead he is born out in some barn somewhere. Stargazers may have brought him gifts, but the man who was king in the region did not want to receive Him as Messiah and future king. As a matter of fact, that king wanted to kill the gift of God before he ever got to live and carry out his mission.

This morning we are looking once again at John 1, and we are focusing in on verses 10-13. Verses 10-13 focus in on what it means to become a child of God—a part of God’s family. And, I think, as we go along, you will be challenged to understand that a big part of Christmas, according to the Bible, is not simply being a good giver or a faithful steward. To a large part, Christmas teaches us to be appropriate and excellent receivers of what we have been given.

One thing you learn to like if you study the book of John is that he makes it hard to mistake what he is getting at. In Bible study I have taught some of you to look for words that repeat themselves. John repeats his key words often.




The best way to understand what is going on here is to look at those words that repeat themselves. The first word that repeats itself is “the world”. The word world shows up 3 times in verse 10, and over 70 times in the gospel of John as a whole. Sometimes John speaks of the world positively in the gospel of John, such as when he says, “God so loved the world” in John 3. Other times he speaks negatively of the world, such as when he declares that neither he nor his disciples are “of this world” in John 17, among other places.

Here, John is emphasizing the global mission of Jesus and the opportunity that he offers everyone to know about and believe in Jesus. The whole world was made by Jesus, he came into the world he made, and he was not recognized or understood for who he was.

We have all, at one time or another, turned away from Jesus. We have all, at one point or another, failed to recognize him for who he is, and worship Him for who he is.

I remember working with a man named Paul when I was in Alaska working at an RV Park that housed sites to sleep in, laundry facilities, and shower rooms to shower in. Paul was a fast-talking, hard-edged, chain smoking New Yorker who had made his way to Alaska during retirement. He was merely a RV park attendant, but he always brought a briefcase with him to work with khakis, a pressed shirt, and a leather jacket.

Paul was difficult for a lot of people to work with. Originally from Maine he had made his way to New York to make his living. He split his career, as I understood it, between working his way up through JcPenney’s leadership, and then moving to the stock market. Paul started at Penney’s the way most start working there, doing the grunt work in the stock room.

At one point, he had left the room a little dirty as he took his break. In walked this elderly gentleman, who looked like he worked there. Dressed in clothes that were not awfully fancy, he cleaned up the mess that was still left. Paul thanked him for the help, explaining that he planned to clean that up after his break. The man said that he hated looking at the mess and decided to clean it up himself. Then he introduced himself. His name was J.C. Penney.

Paul was of course immediately embarrassed. First of all, because he was caught doing a job half way by the owner of his company, who was also one of his heroes. Secondly, he was embarrassed because he did not recognize Mr. Penney. He did not expect to see such a powerful man in his stock room, and he expected him to look a lot different than he did.

On a much larger scale than a department store, I believe this is kind of what we see with Jesus on a cosmic level. He came to earth looking common, did not put on the airs that everyone expected Him to, and so many ignored Him and many fought against Him, even though he was God in human form. They had blinders on. They refused to recognize Jesus for who he was, the Son of God, God in human flesh.

Verse 11 uses the phrase “His own” twice. Jesus did not come to the world as a stranger. He came to the world as its Lord. He came to the world as its creator and owner. He was made to feel unwelcome in the universe that was born through his Word. He was excluded and abused by the very people who existed because of Him. He came into the world with a gift in hand, and he was not welcomed in to give it. How very depressing.

It is a good thing that the story turns. As we alluded to earlier, the word “receive” also appears two times. This seems to be the goal. God wants us to receive Jesus. He doesn’t want us to simply politely listen and then ignore Jesus. He wants us to receive Him. To bring Him into our lives, to allow Him to enter the everyday life we inhabit and be a part of our going to school, looking for a job, trying to get along as a family, figuring out how to pay the bills, struggling with our health, wondering why we can’t get around as well as we used to kind of world.

According to verse 12, receiving Jesus means specifically that we believe on His name. John 20 says, as Dudley reminded us in Bible study last week, that Jesus came so that “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The word believe actually shows up over 80 times in John.

What is set before us is a choice. We can choose to reject Jesus or receive Him. We may try and ignore Jesus. We may try and put Him off. We may choose to accept the idea of Jesus as some moral teacher, but not as Lord. All of those are choices not to accept Him. All of those options are choices to not receive Him. All of those choices are saying, “Really, I don’t need your help, let me do things on my own”.



We can also choose to receive Him. And for those who receive Him he gives the right to be called children of God. A lot of people misread verse 13. They think it describes Jesus. It does not. It describes the experience of believers becoming children of God. It says that when we become children of God, it is not because of what family or nationality we were born in because it is not due to blood. We can’t earn the right to become children of God, because it is not of the will of man or of the flesh. No, God makes the way for us to become his children. By his will. It is our choice whether we will receive that gift or not.

What does it mean to be a child of God? What does it mean to have the “right” to be God’s child? What privilidges or power is that describing?

Simply put, to be a child of someone means that you are a part of their family. I don’t know how your family works, but in my family, well, family is family. It does not matter where I have gone, or what I have done, I am still the son of James and Patricia Walker. I belong to them and they belong to me.

Being a child means that I resemble my parents a little. I have my father’s gait and smirk. I have my mother’s spark and mischief. In the same way, a child of God resembles their heavenly father a little.

In a more practical and morbid sense, children inherit and have ownership in all that their parents own. Scripture teaches this truth about believers very clearly. We are joint heirs with Jesus of all of God’s kingdom.

Even more, being a child of God means that you have a place to call home. Up until I turned 30, my father often made the point that if I ever wanted to, I could come and live with him in Portland. He was telling me that no matter what happened, I always had a home with him if I wanted it. I just had to receive that gift. I never did. I wanted to do things on my own.

Of all the things a human soul longs for, more than anything in our world, we long for home. Either in our hearts or with our feet we wander near and far, chasing after adventures and treasures, but we really simply long for a home. A true home. That is why when Jesus leaves his disciples to go to heaven in the gospel of John he says, “I go to prepare a place for you”. He is saying,” I am readying a place for you in your heavenly home”. We want a place in our lives, and to be among people in our lives, where we know that we always belong.

Isn’t it interesting? Jesus leaves his home to come and let us know that if we will believe in Him and trust Him, we will always have a home with Him! How amazingly wonderful is that?

Most of all though, when we claim the right to become children of God, we come knowing that we can lay claim to nothing but the right to be children of God. We come to realize that we come into this world naked, and we leave this worn down and worn out. When we come to God as children we realize that everything we have and everything we are is a gift of God’s grace. We have no resources of our own. We can simply lift up our arms and joyfully receive the forgiveness, the love, and the grace that God gives us. We can simply open these gifts like a young child on Christmas morning, and squeal in delight, because we know we have been given everything we ever needed as God’s child, and we know we are loved.