January 18, 2026
"Jesus Is the Son of God"
John 1:29-42
About a month ago we celebrated the birth of Jesus. Every year we celebrate His birthday because His birth happened in fulfillment of God’s promise to send a Savior into our world. How can we not celebrate God’s gift to us. The Savior of the world has come!
When Jesus was born, not everyone realized that He was the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world. Of course, there were some people who understood this. God had revealed that to them. The shepherds, Wise Men, Mary and Joseph, and a handful of others understood that Jesus was God’s anointed one, but the vast majority of people at that time didn’t know. Jesus didn’t come into the world with a lot of fanfare. There wasn’t a huge announcement made on His behalf. Everyone didn’t stop what he/she was doing when Jesus came into the world. The world more or less went about its business.
And for thirty years, Jesus lived a normal life. During that thirty years, most people never thought that He was the Messiah, the Christ. Jesus was thought to be the son of a carpenter. I’m sure there were some people who considered Jesus a wise man, a gifted individual, but they most likely didn’t consider Him the Son of God. He appeared to be very much like an ordinary human being.
But this was all about to change. Jesus would reveal Himself as the one who came to save the world from its sins. The time came for Jesus to be baptized. It was through baptism that Jesus was revealed to the world as the Son of God. This took place when Jesus was thirty years old. By the way, Levites began their service at thirty years old.
I think we are familiar with John the Baptist. John was Jesus’ cousin and was about six months older than Jesus. He had been given the mission to baptize people for the forgiveness of sins and to prepare them for Jesus. Our text tells us that through his baptizing, he would come to know the Son of God. John relates that he had been told by God that the one on whom the Holy Spirit would descend and remain on would be the Son of God. This was what happened when John had baptized Jesus. The Holy Spirit had descended from heaven and remained on Jesus. The other gospel accounts tell us that a voice came from heaven and said that Jesus was His beloved Son. Everyone should listen to Him.
At His baptism, Jesus was revealed as God’s Son. And it was at this point that Jesus began His ministry and set out to prove to the world that He was indeed the Son of God.
The gospels recount the miraculous things that Jesus did while here on earth. He did these things to prove to the world that He wasn’t just an ordinary human being. There was much more to Him. He was much more than just the son of a carpenter. He was much more than just a person who had brothers and sisters, a mother and father. He was God.
In our text, we see that John the Baptist did his part to promote Jesus. After John had baptized Jesus, he didn’t cease to witness on behalf of Jesus. He called Jesus the Lamb of God. He did this before his own disciples. John had followers at that time. John drew attention away from himself and toward Jesus.
It appears that some of John’s disciples or followers went after Jesus. I suppose they thought why should they stay with John when they could follow someone greater. John himself had admitted that Jesus was greater than he was. In verse 27 of chapter 1, a couple of verses before the beginning of our text, he said the following about Jesus, “He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” John certainly realized that he was lesser than Jesus. This explains why some of his disciples left him for Jesus.
After His baptism, Jesus began to gain followers. He appointed twelve of them to be His close disciples. Eventually, they would go on to reveal Jesus as the Savior of the world throughout the world.
It seems that most of the twelve were convinced right away that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior of the world. In verse 41 of our text, Andrew tells his brother Peter that they have found the Messiah, the Christ: “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon (Peter) and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ).”
But not everyone believed John the Baptist and Jesus. There was a time when Jesus’ own brothers and sisters didn’t believe that He was the Son of God. They thought Jesus had lost His mind.
We have the same today. There are people who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and people who don’t. We have people who follow Jesus and people who want nothing to do with Him. But that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Everyone who desires to live forever must believe in Him. That’s what God has decreed, whether people like it or not or believe it or not.
I’m sure this doesn’t sit well with lots of people. That’s why we have unbelievers in the world today. They disagree with God’s word and His plan to have Jesus as the Savior of the world. Unbelievers may be nice people, but that doesn’t mean their unbelief is to be overlooked. God will hold that against them.
Well, back to our text. Jesus is revealed as God’s Son, the Savior of the world. We’re not sure how many people were present at Jesus’ baptism. We’re not given that figure. It certainly wasn’t the entire world. So, Jesus’ revealing Himself as God’s Son at His baptism was done before not many people compared to the population of the world at that time.
But what is interesting is that the few people increased to many people as time went on. As Jesus began to minister, more people began to follow Him. His numbers increased. And from there, the numbers grew even bigger. News about Jesus as God’s Son spread throughout the world, literally.
My guess is we are wondering what the main point is in all of this. The obvious point is Jesus is God’s Son, Himself being God. This became more well-known at Jesus’ baptism. Before Jesus’ baptism, His divinity wasn’t apparent to everyone. Even John the Baptist said that he didn’t even know who Jesus was before His baptism. So, Jesus was revealed as God’s Son.
He is the one everyone must believe in for eternal life. Back then it was true, and today it is true. Jesus is the only way to eternal life. He is the only one who can save us. This is the main point.
Now, some of us might say that this is nothing new to us. We’ve heard this before. We believe it. We have no problem with it. So now what? What do we do with it?
We consider ourselves followers of Jesus. I don’t think we would debate that. What do Jesus’ followers do? His earliest followers told others about Him. In verse 42, Andrew told his brother, Peter, about Jesus and brought him to Jesus. The verse says, “And he brought him to Jesus.” Andrew was excited about having found Jesus. He wanted to share his excitement with someone else. In a way, Andrew revealed Jesus to Peter. Peter hadn’t known about Jesus until Andrew had told him about Jesus. `
Do we share Andrew’s excitement? I sure hope we do. Are we excited enough to reveal Jesus to others? I’m trying to get us to think about where we are in our faith. What does our faith mean to us?
The hope we have in Jesus Christ ought to excite us much. It should mean everything to us. Our hope in Jesus as the Son of God means life for us.
I think most of us are excited about our faith in Jesus. We are glad for our faith and regard it as a blessing. I think most of us realize that we aren’t going to be around here forever, and then what? We have thought about this. We look forward to life after this life runs its course. And we have Jesus to thank. So, most of us are excited about our faith in the Lord.
I pray that our excitement will carry over in our interaction with other people. I pray that God will give us an opportunity to share our excitement with others.