Passage: John 1:6-13
The Big Idea
Deep inside every person is a longing to belong: to be fully known, fully loved and fully accepted. The Creator didn’t come merely to forgive sinners. He came to adopt them. Everyone who receives Jesus and believes in His name is given the right to become a child of God, born not by human effort, but of God.
The Longing to Belong
Some families are healthy. Some are broken. Some leave scars. Some leave memories you’ll treasure forever.
Deep inside every human being is a longing to belong somewhere and to someone. To be fully known. Fully loved. Fully accepted.
In verses 1-5, John showed us Jesus as the Creator of the universe. Now he shows us something even more shocking. The Creator didn’t come merely to forgive sinners. He came to adopt them. He came so rebels could become sons and daughters. He came so people living in darkness could become children of light.
Jesus drove out the darkness at creation, and now He’s about to do the same thing in the rest of the world. John zooms his lens in from the dawn of creation to the moment Jesus was revealed to the world.
The Text (John 1:6-13)
God sent a man named John. He came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe. John wasn’t the Light; he came to testify about the Light. The true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world He had made, yet the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and His own didn’t receive Him. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, born not of blood, or of human desire, or of a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Witness (John 1:6-7)
John the Baptist was the greatest of all the prophets (Matthew 11:11). God saved His best messenger for last, right before the Messiah.
Why was John the greatest? He didn’t have to speak in shadows and pictures like the prophets before him. He got to speak plainly and point directly at the Messiah. He was the last big lighted sign on the highway: Exit here!
John was the best witness possible. The crowds were convinced he was a prophet, so much so that even the religious leaders were afraid to speak against him in public (Matthew 21:26). God sent the best, at just the right time, so that all might believe.
All. That’s God’s stated purpose. God wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). How? By believing. And the Gospel of John was written so that anyone who reads it can believe (John 20:31). It really works.
What is believing? Peter told Cornelius’s household that all the prophets testify that everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name (Acts 10:43). If anyone chooses to believe that there’s power in His name, in who He is, that will remove all their sins.
Not the Light (John 1:8-9)
John the Baptist was sent from God, but the passage makes it crystal clear: he was not the Light. He came to testify so people would believe in the Light.
The point: Christian faith isn’t built on anyone’s charisma or spiritual performance. It’s built on who Jesus is. He is the light. He is the life. His name, His identity, is all these things.
That’s why Paul resolved to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).
- I’m not the Light. He is. He is the Wonderful Counselor. He is the mighty Savior.
- So I’ll only promote Him. Never our talents, abilities, efforts or works.
- His gospel is all we need. It’s light!
- Who is Jesus? God. What did He do? He was crucified and rose again.
The gospel is for sinners. Light in the darkness.
John says the true Light gives light to everyone coming into the world. That means God hasn’t left humanity in total darkness. The Light has entered the world. God is drawing people, exposing darkness, and making Himself known through Christ.
Not Received (John 1:10-11)
The world was made through Jesus, yet it didn’t know Him. They had no excuse. And then it gets even more personal: He came to His own people, and they didn’t receive Him.
The real problem isn’t a lack of information. It’s a rejection of the Light. Why?
Shame. Jesus said the light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so their deeds won’t be exposed (John 3:19-20). So Jesus would deal with our shame on the cross, forgiving and cleansing us with His blood.
Blindness. Paul says the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they can’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
Satan tricks people into not believing or receiving the gospel. He twists the truth with lies:
- “God doesn’t want you to have fun.”
- “God is unjust.”
- “God is hateful.”
- “If God loved you, why would all these painful things happen?”
- “You don’t want to be exposed, do you?”
All lies to keep people living in the dark, when God is simply offering light and love.
Received and Reborn (John 1:12-13)
But everyone who received Him, who believed in His name, was given the right to become a child of God, born of God.
Received and believed go together.
Spurgeon described faith as “receiving” Jesus: the empty cup placed under the flowing stream, the penniless hand held out for heavenly charity.
That’s the heart of the gospel of grace. We believe and receive, and God supernaturally makes us His children. His little ones.
When the disciples asked who was greatest in the kingdom, Jesus called a little child into the middle of them. Unless they turned and became like little children, He said, they would never enter the kingdom. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest (Matthew 18:1-4).
Humility means this is all about grace, because God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).
The Fatherliness of God
If we’re His children, then He is our Father. God willed to make us His children and to be our Father, and He made it happen by His grace.
Earthly love vs. heavenly love. If flawed earthly parents know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will our perfect heavenly Father care for His (Matthew 7:11)?
- He takes responsibility for your life, with love.
- He’ll supply what you need through prayer.
- He’ll teach you to live by faith and simple trust in Him and His free gifts.
- He’ll break our addiction to supplying our own life.
The power of childlike trust. Effective prayer flows from a deep sense of God as a tender, loving Father, not a distant judge. Knowing this removes the unchildlike distance between us and God. We receive this Father-child relationship by humility and faith, and it shapes every part of life:
- What we need, we ask Him for.
- What we want, we ask Him for.
- When we hurt or are confused, we run to Him.
- He is our counselor and comforter.
Constant abiding. Don’t just come to the Father when you have requests. Let God be Father always and in everything. Living constantly in the Father’s presence makes a life of answered prayer natural. We often don’t pray because we don’t think He answers. But we’ll see His answers when we pray with childlike faith, depending on our Father with full confidence, like a little kid jumping into the pool and into Daddy’s arms.
Grace over performance. An earthly boss judges by results, but our heavenly Father looks at the heart and knows our specific weaknesses. He knows us. He isn’t disappointed in us. And He’s always working to transform us. He won’t leave us stuck in self-destructive sin. He’ll set us free.
Think of all the things God has set His children free from: drugs, alcohol, sexual sin, confused identity, shame, depression. And if anyone is still struggling, He’ll come to rescue you too.
God’s children must and shall go free. Their life flows from the source of all freedom, so His grace and truth will surely set them free.
Free from what? From sin, both its penalty and its power. Sin will not be your master, because you aren’t under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).
Grace is God’s total solution for all our sin problems, because it changes our identity: from children of darkness to children of light. By His wounds we’re forgiven and healed (Isaiah 53:5), transformed from rebels into sons and daughters.
Grace Takeaway
You don’t have to earn your way into God’s family. You receive Jesus, believe in His name, and you are born of God. The Creator of the universe is now your Father, and you are a child of light.