John began his Gospel quite differently from the rest of the Gospel writers.
• The rest started with the historical accounts of the events that took place.
• Matthew and Luke talked about circumstances leading to Jesus’ birth.
• Mark started off with Jesus entering into ministry, and how John the Baptist was preaching repentance and preparing the people’s heart for faith in Jesus.
• Matthew, Mark and Luke all starts off as story-tellers, except JOHN.
JOHN launched straight into the purpose of his writing – to present to you Jesus as the Son of God who came to save you.
• The first 14 verses lay down the theme of his book.
• At the end of this book, he said: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in our presence, which are not recorded in this book because if every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (20:30, 21:25)
• But “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (20:31).
The first 14 verses set the tone for the whole book, and it reveals TWO simple truths:
(1) GOD COMES TO YOU - His Presence is What You Need
We did not go for Him, He came for us. By our sinful nature, we do not want God to be around.
• But He came. Call Him IMMANUEL. He wants to be with you.
• To blame God for ignoring or neglecting us (at least that’s how we feel sometimes), is a great injustice, because it never the case.
• The Bible has never depicted God in that light. The Lord says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Josh 1:5).
The truth is we are the ones, because of our sinfulness, because of the distractions of life, been the ones who have left Him.
• Martha was distracted by all the preparations. We are consumed by all the activities of Christmas. We are preoccupied by the affairs of life.
• We did not seek Him. He sought us. “Only on thing is needed” (Luke 10:42) Jesus says. Mary has chosen the presence of the Lord. That’s what we need.
John paints this movement of God towards men in this passage.
• He starts with the creator God who is eternal. Jesus was there right from the beginning.
• In fact, John went even beyond Genesis 1 – that’s creation. John went further back, before creation took place – Jesus was there with God – from eternity and uncreated.
• And then “through Him all things were created” and that includes you and me.
And then as you read on, John painted this movement towards his creation...
v.5 "the light shines in the darkness...."
v.9 "the true light... was coming into the world." And then...
v.10 "He was in the world..."
v.11 "He came to that which was His own..."
v.14 "The Word became flesh..."
Paul describes it in a similar way in Phil 2:6-8
• 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
• He even died a human death, and a most shameful one at that.
The One who made this world, came into the world He made, became the man he created, and died the human death in a most gruesome manner.
• That’s the great DESCENT that Martin Luther says is “beyond all human understanding.”
• HE CAME TO WHERE I AM.
You go to a fine-dining restaurant, and you see the waitress standing close by waiting on you. Ready to serve; ready to meet your need, to change your plate and fill your cup.
• Jesus came and said, “I did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:28)
• “We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
Ever since Adam and Eve fell and went into hiding, God has been reaching out to man.
• He wants to draw near. Fellowship with you is at the heart of God.
• This desire was so great that He was willing to do whatever it takes to redeem you and restore the relationship, even if that means the sacrifice of His Son.
God proved His commitment to us at Christmas. Jesus made Himself understandable, so that we can understand Him.
Dr John Rosen, a psychiatrist in New York City, was a well-known doctor serving in the city’s mental institution for his practice of moving into his patients’ wards and staying with them. He literally moves in with them and spends time with them, and even sleeps over in their same wards. If they talk, he talked. If they don’t want to talk, he doesn’t talk either. He lives the life they live.
His being there, chatting, laughing and often hugging them, communicates something that they haven’t experienced in years - somebody understands. It is as if he understands what is happening.
Dr Rosen holds these unattractive, unlovable, sometimes confused persons, and loves them back into life. They saw marked recovery. And often, the first words they managed to say were simply, “Thank you.”
Jesus moved into the ward with us.
• He understands. He nurses us back to health. His presence is what we need.
His presence is all that we need!
• Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
A father may lose his job, a wife may become sick in bed for days, a child may fail his exam at school – we don’t like these but they do come – even so Jesus is with us!
• We don’t need to fight them, we don’t need to fear, and we don’t need to run from the situations.
• The best thing to do (and the hardest thing to do) is to rest in the Lord and enjoy His presence in the valley! He’s there, and He has been there all the time!
• Jesus’ parting words to us is: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:20)
Each time when I’m overwhelmed or weigh down by problems, I look for WORSHIP. I want to enter into the presence of God. I want to bring my senses back into His presence.
• That’s where I can hear His voice. That’s where I see His rod and His staff. That’s when I know that Him seated on His throne! He is present in my darkness.
• Be a Mary and choose what is better. Prioritize the presence of God in your life.
• It is a choice that you and I can make.
(2) GOD COMES FOR YOU – His Love is What You Have
Jesus is the answer to what we need. Notice the words John uses.
• We are dead in sin and John says, “in Him was life” (v.4)
• We are in darkness and John says, “the light shines in the darkness” (v.5)
• We are sick, Jesus says, the sick will need a doctor. He has come to heal us.
HE came FOR us, not to demand from us but to give to us.
• Jesus became a friend of sinners and failures. He showed compassion for the poor and fed the hungry. He touched the blind and loved the outcasts. He healed the sick and raised the dead.
• He was fully aware of man’s needs, and He was eager to meet them.
Jesus says, “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans… for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matt 6:8)
• “So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matt 6:30-32)
• Chip Ingram says it’s disgraceful if we behave as if our Father is unable to feed us.
God is always FOR you. We don’t always get this, especially when we are going through a tough time.
Herbert George Wells (H. G. Wells, an English author) wrote an interesting parable called “The Country of the Blind”.
He tells about a hidden valley shut off from the rest of the world by very high cliffs. Only blind people inhabited that valley, and no one there had ever been able to see.
A lost and weary traveller (an experienced eye surgeon) stumbled into this country of the blind, and stayed with them for a while. He tells them about the outside world - beauty, progress, eye treatments that may help them - but they don’t fully understand everything. They find him strange and even felt that his mind was confused and distracted by what he “sees”.
They felt he should live “normally”, just like them, and insisted that if he wanted to continue living among them, he would have to have his eyes put out and become as blind as they.
Of course the man was not willing. So he climbed out of the valley and returned to the world of sight.
We view God with suspicion sometimes. We question His motives. We blame Him.
• The truth is we need Him. He is our Saviour. He is our help. He is our healer.
• We are the ones who are lost and not realise it; we are the ones who are sick and not know it.
• God has our good in mind. He is FOR us and not against us.
Psalm 34:8-10
“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.
10The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”
Rom 8:32
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
What more do we want? What more do we need?
A husband was packing the decorations after Christmas and putting them into the storeroom. As he steps out, his wife asked, “Have you finished packing up the manger?”
“I think we’ll just leave it out this year,” he answered.
“Sometimes, the world seems out of control and Christ seems very far away. When it does, we can look at the manger and remember that God is with us and that He’ll make good on His promise of peace.”
... Isabel Wolseley in Daily Guideposts, 1997. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 1.
Let’s celebrate with grateful hearts this Christmas!
