Our theme for the Christmas season this year is God Enfleshed. And our exploration of that theme takes us to the Prologue of John’s Gospel in John 1. This last Sunday, we examined John 1:1–5. Today (Christmas Eve, 2024) we will look at John 1:6–13. And then we will return to John’s Prologue one final time this Sunday and specifically John 1:14–18. 

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In his Chronicles of Narnia series, C.S. Lewis describes a scene where one of the protagonists, Lucy, sees Aslan the Lion. Aslan is the Christ-figure in those books. And Aslan is always portrayed as a huge lion. But in one memorable interchange between Lucy and the lion, Lucy turns to him and says, 

“Aslan, you’re bigger.”

Aslan responds to her, “That is because you are older, little one.” 

Lucy responds, “Not because you are [bigger]?”

Aslan says, “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

I think that little interchange between Aslan and Lucy perfectly describes my journey of faith for the last 40+ years. It’s not that Jesus is any more important now to me than he was when I first got saved. It’s not that he’s any more my Savior now than he was before. He’s just bigger! I just see him more and more for who he really is. 

And I think that’s exactly what John wants to engender in us with his Gospel. He wants us to see Christ as bigger than we see him now. So he writes,

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

So Jesus is not just a man. He’s not just a good moral teacher. And neither is he just a Savior. He’s the God of the Universe. He’s the Word. He’s the God of eternity past. John is implicitly saying in this passage, “You’re view of Jesus is too small. You need to enlarge it.”

2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

We looked at these first five verses of John already. Today we want to build on that by looking at verses 6–13. John 1:1–5 is cosmic and epic and otherworldly. Jesus, the Word, is presented in cosmic dimensions. Our examination of Jesus in John 1:6–13 will be a little more down to earth… literally. Today we see the Word take on human flesh and live among us on this planet. We call this the incarnation.

We’ll see three things in the text today. We’ll see 1) The Witness for Jesus, 2) The Mission of Jesus, and 3) The Gospel of Jesus.

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Let’s start with the Witness. 

1) The Witness for Jesus (1:6–8)

John writes in verse 6.

6 There was a man sent from God, 

The word “was” in verse 6 is a different Greek word than the “was” of verse 1 (εἰμί vs. γίνομαι). So this is not the Word that existed before time existed. This is a man who was created in time and space and history. 

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 

So we have pivoted off of the Word. We are not dealing with Jesus directly here. This, instead, is talking about John. Not John the Apostle, the author of this Book. When John refers to himself, he doesn’t call himself “John.” He calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 20:2; et al.).” Verse 6 is not a reference to “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” It’s a reference to John the Baptist or “John the Baptizer” as he is called in the other Gospels.

And you might say, “This is a weird place to start to describe Jesus’s coming to the earth.” “Why does John start with John the Baptist instead of starting with Jesus in the flesh?” Well the answer is because God said that the Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner. Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 both speak about a precursor to the Messiah who would come to prepare the way of the Lord. And verse 6 makes clear that this man, John, was sent from God. He had a purpose. He had a mission. What was his mission? 

Well look at verse 7.

7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

His purpose was to be a witness and to bear witness about the light. You might say, “Well, who’s the light, Pastor Tony?” We dealt with that last Sunday. 

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus is that light that shines in the darkness. He’s the light of the world! Jesus is the light. Jesus is the life. Jesus is the Logos. Jesus is the LORD of our lives. And John bore witness to this light. 

Now just a quick clarification about that word “witness.” Both the noun and verbal form of this word are used in verse 7. We think of that word “witness” as a substitute for evangelism. We witness to unbelievers. We share our faith with others. And certainly that’s part of what this word means. But this word, μαρτυρία in Greek, also has a courtroom nuance to it. In this context, John is testifying before the world. He is letting the world know, on record, that Jesus is the Light, the Messiah. 

What does John say when he sees Jesus? “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). What’s he doing there? He’s going on record publicly. He’s testifying to who Christ is. He’s bearing witness.

7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, 

Why? Why did he do this? 

that all might believe through him.

And just to clarify who John the Baptist is, and to protect us from error, John says in verse 8.

 8 He [John] was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.    

This was an important thing to say, because John had quite a following in Jesus’s day, and even afterwards. John the Baptist was impressive. He was a charismatic guy… going around Judea, eating bugs and living in the wilderness. Preaching and baptizing and wearing camel hair. John the Baptist was cool… in a hippie-weirdo sort of way. John was respected and loved. And he died a martyr’s death. So people started to think, “Maybe he’s the Messiah?”

John the Apostles says, “No, no, no, no. Hold on now! He’s not the light.” “He came to bear witness about the light.” John the Baptist said himself, “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie [the Messiah’s sandals]” (Mark 1:7). John the Baptist said, “he must increase; I must decrease.” Jesus said about John, “among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” That’s high praise coming from Jesus. 

But when you’re talking about Jesus, the Word, that’s a whole other category. So John the Baptist was important; but he’s not the Christ. “He’s not the light; he came to bear witness to the light.” Applicationally this is significant for us. John’s like a lot of us. What do we do? Do we draw attention to ourselves? Do we say, “I must increase; Jesus must decrease”? No. God forbid that we would even think that or act like that. No, He must increase; we must decrease. We want bear witness about the light! We want to point people in the direction of Jesus.   

The Apostle Paul says in the NT that we are just “jars of clay” (2 Cor 4:7). Just turn to your neighbor right now and say, “You’re a jar of clay.” That’s what we are. “We are cracked pots.” And Paul says. “we have this treasure inside of us.” What’s that treasure? That treasure is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). That light shines inside of us cracked pots. 

So Jesus is the Light of the World, and we bear witness to that light. In fact we reflect that light. Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). Are we supposed to hide it under a bushel? No! I’m going to let it shine! So let it shine. You bear witness to the light just like John bore witness to the light. 

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That’s the Witness for Jesus. Let’s transition now to…

2) The Mission of Jesus (1:9–11)

Look at verse 9.    

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 

Remember verse 8.    

8 [John] was not the light, but [John] came to bear witness about the light.    

 Now we see in verse 9.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 

 John came to tell the world that Messiah is coming. John came to prepare the way for the Light of the World. Look at verse 10. 

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, 

 Jesus created the universe and everything in it. Jesus created the very grass that he walked on. Jesus created the very food that he ate. Jesus created the sun that shone on him, and the moon that reflected the sun’s light at night. Jesus created the cloth that was used for his clothes. Jesus created all of the matter in this universe. And yet in the incarnation, he took on matter. And he entered the world he created. If that doesn’t shock or perplex you at Christmas time, then you might want to check your pulse. You might not be alive. We’ve let familiarity with the Christmas story breed complacency. Like Lucy, your view of Aslan needs to get bigger.  

 Let me press this a little further. Jesus created the very wood that was used for his crucifixion. Jesus created the very thorns that pierced his brow. Jesus created the very hands and fingers and arms that took up the hammer and drove the spikes into his own hands and feet. Jesus created the very vocal cords of the multitudes of people who cried out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” 

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him,

But look at the end of verse 10. 

yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

 His mission was to come to this world. His mission was to come to those that he created. And yet, when he came to his own, “his own people did not receive him.” 

Now just a little nota bene here. I think that verse 11 is a reference to the Jewish people, the nation of Israel who had the Holy Scriptures. They had the expectation for a Messiah. They waited patiently for a Messiah for centuries. Yet when he came, they did not receive him. 

Look at verse 11 again, 

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

One of the things that you’ll notice if you read through this entire Gospel from start to finish is how John the Apostle, the author, is visibly distraught and heartbroken by the way in which his own people, the Jews of his day, rejected Jesus. They were the ones who cried out, “Crucify him.”

Paul was distraught by that too, and he said in Romans that he would be willing to be accursed for the sake of those of his own race (Rom 9:3). That’s how much he loved his own people, and that’s how heartbroken he was by their rejection of Messiah Jesus.  

Now not all of the Jewish people rejected Jesus. Obviously John was Jewish. Paul was Jewish. All of Jesus’s twelve apostles were Jewish. But enough of his own people rejected him, that John could say in verse 11, 

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But we need to be self-aware enough, as a mostly Gentile-crowd in this room, to understand that this could just as easily be said about humanity as a whole. “He came to his own…” In other words, he came to those who he created. And we rejected him and crucified him. 

It wasn’t just the Jews who crucified Jesus. Christians throughout the centuries have gotten that wrong at different times. The Jews were in cahoots with the Gentiles of their day, the Romans, and they conspired together to kill Jesus. 

And besides that, we are all responsible for Jesus’s death. We all bear the weight, as human beings, of rejecting God. First of all in Genesis 3, when our forefather Adam and our foremother Eve rejected God’s word. But also when we crucified the Messiah, Jesus. We did that! We, as part of humanity, did that.

I love that line from that hymn, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us!” The author writes, “It was my sin that held Him there.” I think that’s right. 

Behold the Man upon a cross // My guilt upon His shoulders

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice // Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there // Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life // I know that it is finished 

Yet, we need to keep in mind, that this rejection of Jesus didn’t catch God by surprise. This wasn’t a shocker to him. This was part of Jesus’s mission. This is why he came to this earth. This is why he came into this world, so that he be rejected, and so that he could die for sins. He came to his own and his people did not receive him. And yet that didn’t alter God’s plan for redemption one bit. 

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 And what was that plan? That leads me to the final point. There’s the Witness. There’s the Mission. And finally there’s the Gospel. 

3) The Gospel of Jesus (1:12–13) 

 Some commentators have called John 1:12–13 the climactic statement of John’s prologue. D.A. Carson, in his commentary, says if verse 11 was the end of the story, that would be really grim.  

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

 That’s depressing. Isn’t it? All these epic descriptions of Jesus in verses 1–10. He’s the Word. He’s the Light. He’s the Life. He’s the Logos. And then, he came into the world he created. As verse 14 says, he took on human flesh, he lived among us. And he came to his own. But! His own people did not receive him!

 “That’s depressing, Pastor Tony. Is that it? Is that the end of the story?” No. Look at verse 12.     

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Now let me stop right there, because if that doesn’t blow your mind it’s probably because you are too accustomed to calling God your Father. There is a sense here where “familiarity breeds contempt.” So let me just peel this back for a moment, and then we’ll take another run at this verse. 

According to the Bible, no one is natural-born child of God. In fact, the Bible teaches that you are actually automatically born a child of the devil. You are created by God, but you are not automatically a child of God. People say all the time, “We’re all God’s children.” Technically that is incorrect. We are not all God’s children. We have to become the children of God. We have to be born again, as John tells us in John 3.

You might say, “I want to become a child of God.” “How do I become a child of God, Pastor Tony?” Well, you need to embrace the gospel. “What’s the gospel?” Well, here it is. Here’s the essence of the gospel. Jesus, The Son of God… By the way, you’ll never become “The Son of God”… but you can become a child of God through The Son of God… Everyone with me? John makes a clear distinction between child of God and “The Son of God” in this book. You are a child of God, but you will never be the only begotten Son of God… But anyways, back to the gospel… Jesus, the Son of God, came to the earth, died a horrific death upon the cross at the hands of those whom he created… And don’t get too judgmental of those men, now... Remember, “It was my sin that put him there.” … Jesus was tortured and crucified and died on that cross for your sin and my sin. That was the payment for the guilt that we had accrued, for the debt that we owed. And the Bible teaches that by faith in Jesus’s death and his resurrection, our sins are removed and we are reconciled to God, our creator. And that faith in Jesus gives us the right to become children of God. 

Look again at verse 12 with me.  

12 But to all who did receive him

Have you received Jesus Christ? 

who believed in his name

Have you believed in his name? That faith is more than just intellectual assent. That faith involves a renouncing of the ownership of your life. You turn to Christ and acknowledge his ownership and his lordship. And you surrender fully to his plan for your life…

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave [them] the right to become children of God,

If you’ve done those things, then you can say, “I am a child of God.” And you have the right to call God, “Abba, Father.” That’s what makes you a child of God. Think about that the next time that you start your prayers with “Father” or the next time you recite the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father, who art in Heaven; Hallowed be thy name.” 

You might say, “Well, I might not be a ‘child of God’ as you define it, Tony, but me and God are tight.” No you’re not. “Me and God have an understanding” No you don’t. I’m sorry to tell you this, but I love you enough to tell you that, “That’s not how it works.”  There’s only two categories: 1) Child of God or 2) Enemy of God. That’s it. And “God has no grandchildren.” Nobody gets grandfathered in by the faith of their parents! God only has children. Are you one of his children?

John writes, 

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave [them] the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood… 

In other words, they weren’t born into this. This is literally “bloods” not “blood.” John is saying, “It’s not an ethnic thing. It’s not a matter of bloodlines or pedigree. It doesn’t matter who your daddy is! It doesn’t matter who your mama is! It doesn’t matter if you Jewish or Gentile, male or female, black, white, or Hispanic.”  

[the children of God were] not of blood[s] nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Translation – Nobody can save you but God. You can’t will it into being for yourself or for someone else. This is God’s work. He gets the glory for it. He gets the credit for it. This is the gospel. 

Here’s the reality. We are all sinners condemned by our sin. And yet, God made a way for us to be saved. Salvation is not made possible by blood relations. It’s made possible by the blood of Jesus. Salvation is not made possible by the will of the flesh; Salvation is made possible by the Word that became flesh. Salvation is not made possible by man’s will or man’s work. It’s God’s will; it’s God’s work. He gave us the right to become children of God. Are you a child of God? Have you received him? Have you believed in his name?