Perceiving and Receiving

 

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:10 – 13.

 

What do you see as you ponder the above?

 

The Creator is among those who He created but they do not recognize Him. The Messiah, the Son of David, the Descendant of Abraham, is among His subjects and brethren “according to the flesh” but they do not recognize Him. The Word walked among us and we did not know Him nor receive Him. Do we know Him walking among us today? To be sure, just as Jesus Christ walked among the candlesticks of Revelation, He walks among us today – but do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?

 

Throughout the Gospels we see John 1:10 – 13 being played out. We see Jesus recognized and received, rejected and finally crucified. How do people perceive Jesus Christ? How do we perceive Jesus Christ? How do we know Him? Are we perceiving and receiving Him?

 

Questions we, the disciples of Jesus Christ, ought to always be asking ourselves is, “How are the people around me responding to Jesus Christ? Are they receiving Him or rejecting Him? Are they receiving His Light or living in darkness? What is their response to the name of Jesus Christ?"

 

There isn’t a chapter in the Gospels that isn’t being played out in some fashion today – whether it is at work, at school, at home, in our neighborhoods, in our civic organizations, in our leisure time – in every sphere of life the Gospels are being replayed – God’s People are either living in Christ and as Christ or they are not; others are either receiving Him or they are not.

 

If we read the Gospel as something that only happened “back then” then we are to be pitied. If we preach and teach the Gospel as something that only, or primarily, happened back then, then we and those who hear us are to be pitied.

 

Can you see yourself in this passage (John 1:10 – 13)?

 

Can you see yourself in John1:3 (compare with Psalm 139)?

 

Can you see yourself in John 1:4?

 

Dear friends, as long as the Gospel is outside us, the fulness of Christ will not be inside us.