Not Recognizing Jesus
John 1: 1-18
Could we be so busy that we wouldn’t recognize Jesus if He came among us today? The text today says that the world did that very thing.
Christmas is really all about God becoming flesh in the form of man, in the form of His own creation.
God, in the form of Jesus, came to the world and verse 10 of chapter 1 and we are told the world did not know Him. If this was true then is it still true today?
Can we hear about Jesus but not know Him or recognize who He really is? Do you really understand who Jesus is and do you know Him personally?
ILLUSTRATION: I was outside the dollar store a few months back about to get in my car when a man I had never met before approached me. He was visibly upset and wanted to talk with me. He wanted to talk to me about my article in the paper. I don’t remember exactly what the article was now but it mentioned the Trinity and also the deity of Christ.
He was upset because he didn’t believe in the Trinity and thought that I had written something that was not true.
The problem was that the man had completely missed the point. He had failed to understand that Jesus himself claimed to be truth and also claimed to be God.
The very real danger is that you might celebrate Christmas but never understand or know who Christ is.
It is interesting that the whole book of John was written to help us know who Christ is and by knowing receive Him and be called his child.
1. Jesus is eternally God. (1-3)
Jesus was not simply something God decided to do on the spur of the moment to fix the problem of man’s sin.
Jesus is, was and will always be God himself. The miracle we celebrate at Christmas is that out of all eternity He chose to limit himself and come and walk with us for a period of time and then endure the cross and death.
If He isn’t God, which He is, His sacrifice would be meaningless.
We must understand that Jesus is God eternal who was present with us on earth and is now present with us in the form of His Holy Spirit for all those who believe.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
These are the same words we read at the beginning of Genesis. “In the beginning” means that when Jesus was born in a manger it was not the first time He had ever existed.
2 [a]He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
When we read these words we must know that Jesus was one with God himself and the creator Himself.
The word with, in the original language, means oneness and complete unity. Jesus and God were one in the same. God loved us so much that He sent His own beloved Son to the earth in the being of his own creation.
2. Jesus was God in the form of man. (14)
Jesus was completely Holy but also fully man. He had to be fully man to die in our place but fully God to be the perfect and holy sacrifice for our sin.
Jesus was not created and was eternal. Christmas really means that the infinite God became finite, the Eternal was conformed to time, and the supernatural was reduced to natural. This in no way means that, in so doing, Jesus ceased to be God.
14 And the Word became flesh, and [k]dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of [l]the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The word of God says God dwelt among us.
God himself once again walked with man and was rejected.
The Word that was God became flesh. Just as the temple after it was constructed was filled with the glory of God, Jesus was filled with God’s glory since He was the very presence of God dwelling among us.
The world did not recognize or comprehend Him. They did not understand that the Creator himself came in the form of His creation.
General revelation in nature and in our heart tells us that there is a God. We can see his hand at work around us, but only His Spirit reveals the specific revelation of Jesus Christ.
The specific revelation that saves us comes from God by his grace and through faith. God sent his Son to save us and reveal to us His love, but the world rejected Him.
This is why the world could not receive Him and rejected Him and why they still do today.
Some may say that there are many ways to God. The only way is through God himself in the form of Jesus Christ.
No other religious leader ever claimed to be God himself. Not Mohammed, Buddha, or Hinduism, or any other world religion ever made claims like this. They rely on a dead religion, worldly philosophy or man’s efforts and teachings.
I place my faith in an eternal God who loved me so much that He came to share His very presence with me in the form of His Son and who died in my place.
Verse 14 says that Jesus was full of grace and truth.
This Christmas we need to understand these two words.
Verse 13 reads 13 who were [i]born, not of [j]blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
God sought us out. We did nothing in our own ability or effort to save ourselves but rather by God’s will we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ.
God grace means that only He saves, changes and protects and preserves us.
He sought us out and saved us. He came to seek and save the lost and they rejected Him. By His grace we are saved.
How did an infinite God become man? He became man through the miracle of the virgin birth that we always read about and celebrate each Christmas. He took on Himself sinless human form and identified with us in every aspect of life from birth to death.
Jesus was not an abstract concept, but a real person who could be seen, tasted and heard.
ILLUSTRATION: I was fishing with my dad one time on a large reservoir when a storm came up. We were on the far side of the reservoir from our car and really should have left before the storm but we were having such a good time that we lost track of time and ignored the weather.
We started back across the reservoir some several miles from the car when the storm intensified. The boat began to fill with water and the farther we went the more water came into the boat. I became very scared when I looked at my dad who was driving and he looked scared as well.
We finally made it to the far shore miles from our car and had to wade through the last several yards.
Jesus meets us where we are at. There is a similar story in the Bible.
We sometimes might struggle to understand the concept of how Jesus is completely God and completely human and what it really means. The best way to illustrate may be a very specific incident a little later in the ministry of Jesus.
Jesus and His disciples were in the middle of the Sea of Galilee when a fierce storm came. Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat. The disciples became afraid and even chastised Jesus for not caring about what was happening. Jesus simply said “Peace, be still” and the wind died down and the sea became perfectly calm. The text in Mark 5 actually says “He rebuked the wind and said to the sea.” He didn’t pray He simply spoke.
In Mark 4: 41 we find the words of His disciples “"Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"
The answer is that Jesus is the creator and God Himself. Jesus was fully man but also the creator. Only the creator could calm the storm by His spoken word.
If Jesus is not God He in know way can save us. His sacrifice would not be sufficient. He would not have power over death and we would have no hope.
God bridged the gap between sinful man and a holy God in the person of Jesus Christ.
