He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive 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 1:11–13
When I was a kid, some buddies and I wandered off into the woods. We did not pay much attention to where we were, and before long were utterly lost and had no clue how to get back home. Making matters worse, the sun was setting, and as the sky grew darker it became harder and harder for us to figure out how to get out of the mess we’d gotten ourselves into.
Ever since our first parents hid from God in the Garden of Eden, humanity has been utterly lost like kids that ran away from their Father into a dark woods. This is the storyline of the Bible. Thankfully, Jesus Christ entered into human history on a rescue mission for us.
Oddly, Jesus came first to save the Hebrew people, yet many of them rejected Him. This just goes to show how foolish sinners can be. Imagine a kid lost in the woods who runs as fast as he can from the rescue patrol that shows up to save him. This is how, sadly, many people respond to Jesus. They either don’t think that they are lost, don’t mind that they are lost, or think they can save themselves.
Conversely, some people do receive Jesus. They welcome His rescue.
How about you?
Do you see yourself as spiritually lost in the dark woods that is this world? Have you received Jesus as God and Savior come to rescue you?
For those who receive Jesus, God does an amazing thing. What if the kids lost in the woods were also orphans without fathers or families? Now imagine that a rescue crew finds those lost kids and gets them safely out of the woods. The child is out of the woods, but is still not home. Imagine that the person who rescues the child is a young man who has a fantastic father, and he takes these rescued orphans to meet him. Picture the father adopting the lost orphans, giving them help and a home, a father and a family!
This is precisely what happens when Jesus finds you: you receive Him and were made a child of God.
If you are not a Christian, in what parts of your life do you feel like you are lost? Ask Jesus to find you and save you. If you are a Christian, what has Jesus saved you from?
I will spend roughly an entire year preaching verse-by-verse through the entire Gospel of John and those sermons can be found for free each week after they are preached at MarkDriscoll.org.