Sound The Trumpet : Jesus was the stranger in a very strange land

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“Jesus was the stranger in a very strange land”
by Hugh Davidson
August 12th, 2007

John 1:10-13 says, “He was in the world, and though the world was made by him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

John is telling us that everything and everybody are the work of Jesus’ hands and yet as we read the New Testament we see that as He approached the human race it seems as if almost no one wanted anything to do with Him. And there are two reasons why the world refused back then and still refuses today to recognize that Jesus is God come in the flesh.

The first reason is; because of their sin nature they were blind as to who He is. The longer people live the more they’re scarred by sin the farther they get from God. After all, Jesus is God and He walked through the streets of Israel which is one of the more religious nations of the world and yet, no one even seemed to notice Him until He demonstrated how weak and ineffectual their religion was. So, the problem with man is that he can’t see God or even recognize the works of God because he’s been blinded by sin.

There are actually four views of what happened to mankind and only one of them is Biblical. First, there are those who believe that man fell upward and this is similar to the evolutionary theory as it’s applied to the spiritual realm. These people believe that we all have a godlike perspective and that we understand what good is and are more than able to withstand evil. Of course, we all realize how absurd this is, because as we watch the news every night we can see that man has fallen into sin and although he may appear good sometimes, there’s always the tendency to do wrong.

And then second, there are others who believe that man fell but he only fell part way and now he’s dangling over the edge and he needs someone to come along and help him get back on his feet. And this is where religion comes in for many because there are some who actually believe that the sacraments are all they need. It may sound good and it may even look good but the problem is, it’s certainly not Biblical.

And then third, there are some who believe that when man fell over the edge he got stuck half way down. And even those who hold this view are quick to admit that man is dead in sin but they still believe that he’s somehow capable of helping himself. Donald Grey Barnhouse once said, “You might say that such persons believe that although man is in his coffin he nevertheless has one arm outside of it working for himself.” And as absurd as his illustration is, their position is not much better.

And the fourth perspective and I believe the Biblical one is that man fell right to the bottom and that leaves him incapable of doing anything but calling out to God for help. The situation is, we can’t help ourselves and left to ourselves we wouldn’t help ourselves. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto Him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” Spiritual truth makes no sense whatsoever to the non-believer and unless God convicts him of sin and then he opens his heart to understand the truth, he’s eternally lost.

And even more surprising is the rejection of the Jews both in Jesus’ day and still today. John says, “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” Coming to His own conveys the thought of someone coming to a select group. And it would be expected that this select group would have received Him immediately because the coming of the Messiah was the hope of Israel. And think of all the evidence they had. They had prophecies that told of both the virgin birth as well as where He would be born and then His genealogy proved that He was a descendant of the house of David. And then they had the testimony of John the Baptist as well as Jesus teaching, His miracles, His sinless life and even the very method and time of His death was all clearly described in the scriptures. But, man in general and the Jews in particular have rejected Jesus and they wanted nothing to do with God’s plan for their lives.

And yet in verses 12 and 13 he says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” And here’s God’s universal plan of salvation available for anyone who wants it. And it all revolves around three verbs that are found in verse 12. And the first is to believe and to believe on someone in the Biblical sense is to put your full weight on them to save you and it means having no trust in yourself whatsoever. It means, realizing that you are unable to save yourself, you totally rely on Him. And the second word is receive. You see, it’s not enough o believe that Jesus is your savior but you have to receive Him. In other words, you have to invite Him into your heart to be your savior and to live and reign as Lord of your life.

I was watching the news one night and saw Jeffrey Dalmer who was a convicted murderer reading a statement and he said his problems came when he drifted away from God and if he had stayed with God then none of the murders would have happened. Here was a guy who seemed to have all the right words and yet his life was a total contradiction of the Christian life. He might have believed but there was no evidence that he had ever received the Lord.

We need to believe, receive and then we’ll become the sons of God. The believing and receiving are our part and when we do what God tells us to do then He does what only He can do because then we become the sons of God.

And then verse 13 tells us that the new birth is not of blood. In other words, it’s not something you can inherit from your parents. My salvation is no guarantee that my children will be saved. A preacher once made a wise observation when he said, “God has no grandchildren, only children.” And this tells us that every person in every generation must have their own relationship with God. Do you?

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13