Peace | John 1:6–13

Ok kiddos you guys are dismissed to go up stairs! If you weren’t with us last week we kicked off an Advent series and instead of having a kids story each week we are going to watch a video that helps us see what these 4 words mean that we reflect on during this season. Last week we looked at hope, and as you’ve already seen today our focus is on peace.

Now as I’ve reflected on this text this week and the word peace I’ve been kind of surprised at how much of our life is spent pursuing peace. I was talking with a buddy of mine who’s a self-proclaimed barely functioning introvert and he had been around people for like 4 days straight so he was just jumping in his pickup to go drive and get away for a while because he was just after some peace and quite. Can anybody else relate to that? Moms who stay at home with kids all day long look forward to the moments of peace. Parent’s with kids, spouses, friends, church, work, we just want relational peace. But it’s not just relational peace we seek, we also want peace of mind. We work hard so that we can have enough money so that we can have financial peace; at least we know our basic needs can be taken care of because there’s $ in the bank. If we were having a beauty pageant here the right answer to what’s one thing you want to see in your life? World peace. All of us, on every level of our life desire and I believe are hardwired for peace. And that’s a good thing, right? It isn’t bad to desire peace.

So what do we do? We seek peace. There’s a really great book called Peacemakers by Ken Sande and he argues that we try to find peace by one of two ways: fight or flight. We fight to be the one in control so that we can get people to do what we want. We fight to get to the next level of our job or of a position so that we can influence peace. Or maybe we even fight to gain perspective on a situation so that we can understand if more fully. Maybe your MO isn’t fight but it’s flight. There’s problem in a relationships, you’ve just been around people too much, the children are too loud, so what do we do? We fly. We get out of that situation or scenario or away from those people.

Church, the beauty of the Advent season is that we pause and remember that Peace came to us. And that because Peace came to us we can know and experience true peace in all or our lives. But how is that so? How can we find, how can we have true peace? Well, that’s the main point of our sermon today: True peace is only found in receiving Jesus.

I mentioned this last week, but I want to reiterate it again. When we read this text here in a second you won’t find the word peace, so you may go, how in the world is this about peace?? Remember, what we’re doing is more of a topical sermon series right now in which we seek to understand what the text says and mans and then look at the word peace through that lens. So with that reminder let’s go ahead and read the text and then ask the Lord to help us understand what he has to say to us today. John 1:9-13

John 1:9–13 ESV

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right 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.

This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s pray.

There’s 3 observations this morning from this text that I think tell us something about peace. Let’s start with the first one:

Peace came into the world

Now this one feels a little bit like captain obvious, but most good observations are just obvious. John says in verse 9, Jn 1:9

John 1:9 ESV

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

Now in this passage light and peace are not interchangeable and here in a little bit I’ll get to why the light coming brings peace. So let’s first seek to understand who the light is and why He had to come into the world. We looked at this a little bit last week, but here in the beginning of John we see the light who existed at creation and through whom all creation exists is God. We saw this back in verses 1-4. And then in John 8:12 Jesus claims to be that light.

John 8:12 ESV

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Similarly, a few chapters later Jesus not only declares to be the light but also his purpose in coming. John 12:46

John 12:46 ESV

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

So we don’t have to base who this light is off of mere intuition, Jesus claims to be that light and the purpose that he came into the world was because darkness existed. He came to bring illumination to a world full of darkness. Just like back in Genesis 1 when God said let there be light, when Jesus stepped on the scene light burst forth into darkness.

Now John makes an interesting statement here in the middle of verse 9. He says “which gives light to everyone.” What does he mean by that? Does light coming forth into darkness give light to everyone? Well, yes & no. It depends on what he means by giving light to everyone.

When we think of light coming forth into darkness we get the idea of someone turning on the light in a dark room. If we were to black out the windows and all of us try in live in this room for a year we’d get pretty frustrated trying to function, wouldn’t we? But if we turned on the light switch so that we could see would all of our problems be fixed? So just by the light shining in the darkness are all the problems of all men solved? Does peace now reign in the hearts of everyone? No. In fact, sometimes when light shines and things are illuminated, peace isn’t what comes, but division. In fact, didn’t Jesus say in Matt. 10:34

Matthew 10:34 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

So what then does John mean when he says that light comes to everyman? You see when the light shines you have to respond to it. You either love the darkness more than the light or you love the light more than the darkness. So then what the light does is it not only illuminates for you to see, but it helps reveal those who are truly his. And this leads us to our second observation:

Peace is rejected by the world.

Look back with me to verses 10 & 11. John 1:10-11

John 1:10–11 ESV

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

So the light that created the cosmos has now entered the very world he created. Church so often we lose the magnitude of that statement. The God who created everything and who still now holds it all together through the incarnation of the word took on our flesh and became like us. He entered into our world to bring light and to bring peace. And when he came into this world who did he come to?

Jesus came to his chosen people—his own. He fulfilled all prophecy that the Israelites knew. They had been foretold as to what to anticipate. Jesus didn’t just land at some random place to some random people. He came to his own. The idea there is Jesus came home.

And when he came to his own we see two things that they and the world did not do. The did know him and they did not receive him. Throughout the Scriptures the term “to know” means have an intimate relational knowledge of someone. Not to be mere acquaintances, not to have a sense of familiarity or to generally know about. This is as a husband knows a wife and a wife knows a husband. It’s to know the character, the impulses and expectations of a person. The world did not know him.

And his own did not receive him. This means that they saw the light. He came and illuminated their minds and their hearts, but they made a decisive rejection of him. They looked at Jesus and said, I don’t want you. John 3:19 shows us this:

John 3:19 ESV

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

We talked about this last week some, but this verse is integral to the book of John. The people loved darkness. Light shines in the darkness and you must respond to it. The world loves darkness. It chooses darkness over light. It chooses evil works. Why? Why in would people choose darkness over light? That seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it?

But remember what light does, it illuminates; it exposes what’s in the dark. So why would people choose darkness over light? Because they fear of exposure. They’re afraid of being seen for who they really are, so they’d rather hide behind their good works than allow the light of life to shine in. Ultimately, what is one doing when they do this? They’re proclaiming that they love themselves more than they love God. They fear exposure more than they fear God, and what’s at the heart of that? Pride. They think they can hide behind themselves—their good works, their abilities, their heritage, their treasure—and everything will be ok. But when we walk in pride, when we fear others more than we fear God, when we love ourselves more than we love God, we’re walking in the darkness. When we walk in the darkness, do you know what our lives are always in search of? Peace.

Isn’t this what James is talking about in James 4:1-3

James 4:1–3 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Our passions control us and our passions have caused us to choose darkness over light. So now since our lives are devoid of peace, and yet our hearts long for it we now are on an eternal search to find it. So we see that you seem to have peace and we don’t so we fight with you over it. We want what you have and can’t get it so we murder you for it. We refuse to ask for it because we’re too prideful and when we do ask we don’t receive because our purpose for asking is to serve our passions—which according to John 3:19 is what? To love darkness. So we’re in this constant circular spiral of trying to find peace from horizontal things—things between you and I or things found on this earth—when ultimately peace horizontally can flow out of peace vertically.

And when we refuse to allow the light to shine in and we walk in darkness what do we end up doing since everything that we touch doesn’t bring us the peace we desire? If I expect something to satisfy me and it doesn’t, I end up hating it. I despise the very things I thought would satisfy my hearts desires.

So for example, if I think that my wife is the person that is supposed to bring me all of my hearts deepest desires—intimacy, affirmation, acknowledgment, purpose, in other words peace of mind and peace of relationship—I begin to put undue expectations on her. Then all of the sudden a few years into our relationship she begins to not give me one of those things how do I respond toward her? Frustration. Quarrels. Fights. Before you know it I begin to see her as the problem to my life when originally she was the solution to it. What I looked to for peace brought about what? Brokenness. You might even say, darkness. Then notice what happens, after I’ve realized that she can’t give me what I desire I begin to look around for something else to either blame or something else to gratify those desires—to give me that peace and I realize that everything else falls short. So now the problem moves from being my spouse to being who? Gen 3:12

Genesis 3:12 ESV

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Whom who gave? Who’s fault is it? Who is the problem here?! It’s God. Now all the sudden the lack of peace I experience in my life is because of God. So then the question we’re left with is how do we get peace? Where can it be found? We desire peace here—horizontally, but everything we look for it in leaves us in the dark. That leads us to our third point:

Peace is a gift from God.

Look back with me to verses 12 & 13, and after we look back at those I’ll start with the negative and then move toward the positive. John 1:12-13

John 1:12–13 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right 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 what I ultimately am going to argue and that I think these verses declare is that peace is only found as children of God. But before we get there, notice there are three negatives in that last verse, “NOT of the blood NOR of the will of the flesh NOR of the will of man.” What does John mean by those 3 things? Not of the blood has to do with blood relatives. In other words, your heritage. What he’s saying here is that the right to become children of God has nothing to do with where you were born or who you were born to. We saw just a second ago that his own, his heritage, decisively rejected him. So to be clear here, just because one was born a Jew doesn’t make them a child of God. Just because you were born into a Christian family or because you were born into a “Christian nation” doesn’t make you a child of God.

Then he says, “nor of the will of the flesh.” Remember, he’s talking about being born, and the will of the flesh is what happens when passion burns between a man and woman. To keep it PG, copulation is what happens when passion burns. An act is performed because the flesh desires it and when the flesh comes together and an act is performed a child is conceived. So in other words what John is saying here is that just because you perform some act, just because you do something doesn’t make you a child of God. So to bring clarity to that for us, just because you prayed a prayer and were baptized doesn’t make you God’s child. Just because you’re a Sunday School teacher or a children’s worker or on the safety or greeting team doesn’t make you a child of God.

The last negative, “nor the will of man” has to do with desire. Doesn’t always happen this way, but often there’s a point in a marriage in which a husband and wife say, ok, now let’s have child. By their desire, by their choice, by their will they seek to have a child. You take these three things and stack them up together and you add what we’re about to look at what John is saying is that the birth that he is talking about, the new birth, is nothing other than an act of God. If it’s not by the will of man or the will of the flesh, then whose will is it by? As one commentary says, “Nothing human, however great or excellent, can bring about the birth of which he speaks. The new birth is always a sheer miracle. All human initiative is ruled out.”

So if peace, which comes from being a child of God, isn’t found in who we are or what we do or a choice we make, then where does peace come from? How does one become a child of God? The first thing we must recognize is that peace is a gift of God. John says, John 1:12-13

John 1:12–13 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right 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.

He gave. Here we stand on the cusp of Christmas in which we find joy in giving gifts and what the advent season causes us to pause and remember is that God gave the greatest gift of all to us! He gave the gift of his son, the gift of light, the gift of life and hope and peace! The gift of adoption making us His children through Jesus, not by our will, but by the will of God. It is entirely by his gracious gift that light came so that we might become children of God. So the first way we find peace is by recognizing that this entirely a gift of God.

Second, we must receive this gift of grace. Look back at the verse, “But to all who did RECEIVE him, who BELIEVED in his name.” What was the problem with his own people? They rejected him, but in order for us to have peace we must receive and believe in him. By using both receive and believe John is reiterating the same idea but it’s not just that one receives and believes it’s the object of their receiving and believing that the emphasis is on here. “His name” is the we are offered to receive and believe in.

To our ears, what’s in name? For some families a lot, but for others, not much. In Jesus’ day the name encompassed the whole person. It is a description of they are. So what John is saying here is that receiving and believing in the name of Jesus is to “yield allegiance to, to trust completely, to acknowledge his claims and to confess him with gratitude.” It’s to let the light shine in the darkness of our own hearts, and instead of rejecting what is shown it’s to agree with what he reveals and then ask for him to save you. And what happens to those who place their faith in, who receive the gift of God and believe that it is for them? What happens?

“They’re given the right to become children of God.” There it is, the phrase we’ve been waiting to get to all morning long. How does being children of God bring about peace? It seems to me like there’s 2 basic things, 2 fundamental things in life that we need and are looking for: relationship & purpose. I think God has hard wired those into our hearts to desire those 2 things. He gave Adam a purpose in the garden to work and keep it and he saw there wasn’t a helper suitable for him so He created Even. Relationship. And our problem is that we have a tendency to look to relationships and purpose to give us peace and in doing so not only do we find that they fall short, but we find there’s brokenness in the midst of our relationships and purpose.

Illustration about how students have to find purpose at age 14??

But the good news is the true light has come into the world to help us see that the relationship and purpose that we were created for isn’t found in what we do, but it’s in who we receive. Peace then isn’t a feeling, it’s a person. Peace comes to us and when we receive him we are thrust into a relationship with him as children of God. We now have the privilege of calling God father.

Now I recognize that not everyone in the room has a great image in their mind when they hear the word father. You might have had a great dad, ok dad, bad dad or no dad, so when you hear that God is our father and we are His children your idea of fatherhood is jaded by what you’ve experienced. And that’s in all situations, not just the bad ones. But here’s the thing about this father. He’ll never leave you or forsake you. He loves you so much to come after you. He will give himself up for you and to you. He has always existed. As we saw last week He is omniscient and omnipotent. Everything your father lacked he is. Every way in which your father let you down, he won’t. He works all things together for your good. And church, while all of that is true and it’s good, and it’s full of hope it’s not the best part of it.

What is our deepest fear in relationship? It’s what we talked about earlier; it’s that we’ll be exposed and rejected. That someone, especially the ones we love most, will finally get to know who we really are and will say, nah. But here’s thing God the father KNOWS you. He isn’t an acquaintance with you. He doesn’t just know everything about you—where you came from, what you love doing, how many hairs are on your head (or aren’t). Know God the Father knows your heart. He sees your thoughts and your motives. The deepest darkest parts of you that you want no one to know about he sees and He doesn’t look at you and run. No He moves toward you in grace and gives you the gift of himself. So when you receive Him you are placed into a relationship with the one who fully and wholly knows you and yet still loves you. And here’s the other part of that, what did the world not do back in verse 10? They didn’t know him. You see now because of your relationship you can KNOW HIM! You can have an intimate knowledge of the creator God who stepped into creation to love and and bring light to you.

None of this is based off of you. It’s not by your works, or your heritage, or your choice, it’s by the will of God that you receive him. This means 2 things: 1) since it’s by his will and you are his child not based off your works, then there is nothing that you can do that will ever make him love you any more or any less. His approval of you isn’t based off of you but off his perfect and gracious gift that He gave. Your relationship then is secure with him for eternity.

2) Since your deepest desire to be fully known and fully loved can be satisfied by the creator God, by the light of the world, do you know where you don’t have to look for that love from? From others. Because you have perfect peace in your relationship with God through Jesus, you don’t have to find that horizontally. DO you know how much freedom that brings to these relationships? Now I’m not expecting you to give me the things that I want or need most because I’ve found it in Jesus. SO I can live with you in peace and a good relationship. This doesn’t mean conflict doesn’t exist between us or that it will never happen. It just means that it doesn’t have to.

When we receive the gift of peace through faith in the person of Jesus it’s not just a relationship of peace but a purpose as well. Notice the intentionality in these verses. The true light was coming. He came to his own. Not by our will, but by God’s will. He gave. Every one of those verbs carries with them a sense of intentionality and we do things on purpose for a purpose, right? So then God’s entering the world as light to illuminate so that we could see clearly and to give of himself so that you might receive & believe in Him was not some random, cosmic accident. It was God’s sovereign and good plan that existed before creation. If that’s true then your receiving and believing in Him was on purpose and for a purpose. That primary purpose is to know him, but the secondary purpose is to make him known. You know what’s interesting about the light when you believe and receive it? He now dwells in you. This is why Jesus says in Matt. 5:14

Matthew 5:14 ESV

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Wait a minute…I thought He was the light of the world?? Yes! But when you receive Him he now dwells in you. So whatever path of life you choose, you now in that path radiate His light. This doesn’t mean you have to become a pastor or a missionary, although you might. It does mean that everywhere you go the light is shining through you.

Because our primary purpose is now in letting the light shine through us in all we say or do do you know what that frees us from? It frees us from trying to find purpose in all we say or do. So students, your purpose in life isn’t to choose the right career path or spouse so that you can live a long life of peace, but it’s to be a people of peace regardless of what career path or spouse you choose. And when that career changes in the middle of your life or that career ends later on in life, your relevance and purpose isn’t diminished because your relevance a purpose isn’t determined by what you do or what you age you have. Your purpose then last till your dying breath of letting His light shine through you. Because Jesus came to you you don’t have to find peace horizontally because you have received it vertically from Light who stepped into the world so that you might know Him and make Him known.

I’m reminded of the famous hymn writer Horatio Spafford. Horation was a wealthy businessman and lawyer back in the 1800s. He and his wife had 5 children, but during the great Chicago fire of 1845 his investment properties all burned to the ground. Shortly thereafter, there youngest, their only son, died. Heartbroken, and having lost their entire fortune, Spafford decided to take his family over to Europe where his friend Dwight Moody was effectively reaching the lost. Spafford thought they could join and support Moody on his mission and also take time to retreat. However, at the last minute an unexpected business issue arose and Horation had to say back. So he loaded his wife and 4 girls onto the ship to sail to England and told them he wouldn’t be far behind. A few days into the voyage the ship the Spaffords were on was stuck by another vessel and began to sink. All four daughters drowned. Mary, his wife was found floating in the water and was saved by another boat. That boat took her to Wales where she sent a telegram back to her husband that simply said, “Saved alone.” Horatio then boarded a boat to join his wife and it’s said that as he approached the location where his daughters drowned he penned these words:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way—this man had just lost his entire fortune and his entire family, what the world might say is his purpose and his relationship, when all of that was burned up and sunk to the bottom of a watery grave below him the words that came out of his mouth is “when peace attendeth my way.” When it comes to me. Peace was person for Spafford. It was a person that came like a river bring life, filling his heart, never ending. It came to him and helped him see. It came to him in a relationship and with a purpose. Peace attended his way when sorrows like sea billows roll. His world had crashed in all around him. Whatever my lot, thought hast taught me to say—peace does that. When we know the Prince of Peace he teaches us in the midst of our sorrows that it is well. It is well with our soul.

So church let me ask you this, is it well with your soul? Can you say that as sorrows like sea billows roll? Can you say that when all is good? Have you received the gift of peace found in the light of the world? You see, true peace is only found in Jesus. He alone can give you the relationship and purpose that your heart longs for. Are you seeking peace in the things of this world or looking to the one who came to give you peace and make you his child?