Stephen Introduces Jonathan at Church
Editor’s Note: Our church has a time every Sunday during the worship service where people can stand and share with the congregation. It is a common practice for dads to stand up and introduce their new babies. Below you’ll find the text of what Steve said when he did this on 12/18. –M
I’d like to introduce you to somebody that the Stork left at our doorstep on December 2nd. His name is Jonathan David Tupaj.
Now storks bringing babies, that’s not a very biblical notion is it? But perhaps it’s a notion that has something to teach us, something that relates to what we have all been learning in the book of John.
What do expectant couples who don’t get visited by storks say? Well in our culture, we say that we are going to have a baby. We then say that we had a baby. As though babies are there for the having. As though a series of events in the physical world reach their natural conclusion and “poof”, of course, it stands to reason, a baby is born.
Now what do people visited by the stork say? They say that they have received this little bundle of joy. Receiving something. Something that is received. Now there’s an idea that comes up quite a few times in the first three chapters of John. It culminates in the third chapter, in verse 27:
“No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven.”
Now this same chapter begins by talking about a man that is like me in some ways. Too many ways, I’m afraid. His name is Nicodemus. Now perhaps, when we read about him, we are so focused on the condition of his heart, that we forget to marvel at what he concludes about Jesus. What his mind concludes is really pretty amazing. He says this:
“Rabbi, We KNOW that you are a teacher come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with Him.”
But Jesus’s response is basically this… that concluding is not the same as receiving. Jesus said you must be born again. Nicodemus does not believe because he did not receive anything. Concluding will not get you to heaven, only receiving will.
For “to all who received him… he gave power to become children of
God; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God.”
Now like Nicodemus, I wake up each morning concluding a lot of great things. I’m able to conclude each day that Jesus is the Christ, who lives and sits at the right hand of the Father. But the question is this. To what extent do I open the doors of my heart each day to receive him. Is God’s grace towards me some blessed conclusion that I keep in my back pocket as my ticket to heaven? Or is Jesus Christ the portion of my cup, and the daily sustinance that I need in order to receive my life in Him?
Every day my flesh tells me that I have this child. It tells me that I’ve earned my paycheck. It tells me that I chose my wife. But the Spirit of God tells me different. It says that I’ve received this child. That I’ve received my paycheck. That I’ve received my wife as a blessing fashioned from above. And lastly, that I’ve received my life in Christ Jesus.
And if your heart is able to grab hold of that difference, and run with it… well then … that makes all the difference.
