John

On Sunday night we began a new series on the book of John. One of the things I said but didn't justify was the centre of the prologue (John 1:1-18) is v12:

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become the children of God

Why is this the centre?
My answer is based around the structure of John 1:1-18. Many greater minds than mine (and that includes most!) see a chiastic structure to these verses. A chiasm is a literary device used to highlight a centre point of a piece of writing. For example, as my friend Tibbsy showed me, Hickory Dickory Dock is a chiasm.

1. Hickory Dickory Dock
2. The mouse ran up the clock
3. The clock struck one
2. The mouse ran down
1. Hickory Dickory Dock

The centre of this nursery rhyme is 'the clock struck one'. This same structure is seen in the opening 18 verses of John.

v1-2 (God coming into the world)
v3 (Through Jesus comes - creation)
v4-5 (Divine blessings)
v6-8 (John the Baptist)
v9-10 (God becoming a man)
v11 (Not about being a Jew)
v12 (Children of God)
v13 (Not about being a Jew)
v14 (God becoming a man)
v15 (John the Baptist)
v16 (Divine blessings)
v17 (Through Jesus comes - grace & truth)
v18 (God coming into the world)

So there you have it? This is the reason I chose to focus in on v12.

And it is a far cry from how he describes us later in 8:42ff (he is talking to the Jews but it applies to us as well):

If God were your Father, you would love me, for I cam from God and now am
here. I have not come on my own, he sent me. Why is my language not clear to
you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the
devil, and you want to carry out your fathers desire. He was a murderer from the
beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies,
he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

What a privilege it is to be changed from a child of the devil to a child of God:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not
know us is that it did not know him
(1 John 3:1-2)