Sermon Tone Analysis

 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (1): REVEALS REALITY

(John 1:4-8)

November 20, 2022

Read John 1:4-9 An old joke asked, "How many people does it take to screw in a lightbulb in the basement of the White House?"

Ans: "None.

They prefer to work in the dark."

In many ways, that describes the world in which we live.

We are hiders by nature - bugs scurrying for cover when their rock is lifted.

But light is essential to life, especially John's one-of-a-kind light.

We have here two of John's primary themes - life and light.

"In him was LIFE."

All life originates in the Logos.

That phrase takes us back to Gen 2:7: "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life."

Without God we're what? - a pile of dust.

But we've been animated by His breath (Spirit), given life.

Because "in him [alone] was life."

From the get-go, we owe everything to Him.

But here, John moves quickly to LIGHT: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men."

As the one and only source of life, he is also the one and only source of light - the life leads to the light.

So what does it mean that Christ is the light, and why is light needed anyway?

Well, light warms, light melts (or hardens); light welcomes.

But John has something else in mind.

What is the primary purpose of light? 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Light pre-eminently reveals.

It uncovers truth.

It discloses the otherwise unseen.

All that the darkness covers; the light exposes.

There is little question that we live in a world of moral, intellectual and theological darkness.

So, that's John's subject from vv. 4-9 - Christ as the light.

Today we'll look at Light Revealed and Light Ratified.

Next week: Light Rejected and Light Received.

I. Light Revealed (4-5, 9)

To see the significance of Christ as light we have to start in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were given both life and light by God.

Perfect surroundings: perfect fellowship - truth reigned!

All was light and life.

And they might have earned sinless perfection forever!

But Gen 3 - they failed the simplest of tests, choosing the word of Satan over the Word of God.

And the moment they ate that fruit - darkness descended over them like a blanket of doom!

Instantly, everything changed.

God had told them, Gen 2:17: "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die [dying, your will die]."

They ate; and they died.

They died spiritually as evidenced by their running and hiding in their own fig leaves.

And they died physically as the forces of decay and disintegration were immediately set loose in their bodies.

God's good creation was now irrevocably subjected to the alienating power of the Enemy.

What the creative power of the Word had unified in a Garden of perfection was now at the mercy of disintegrating forces.

Creation was turned into de-creation; moral and spiritual darkness permeated all of Creation.

Man was alienated from God, from his wife, from nature and from himself.

An evil force was set in motion that man was powerless to stop.

So, a devastating spiritual darkness, the absence of God, has invaded every part of our being.

It is the de-creation of all that was good in God's original creation.

Our mind, will and emotions are all affected.

God describes us in Eph 4:18: "They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to hardness of heart."

A man might be a PhD in nuclear physics, but apart from God he has a mind that is blind to reality and a heart that doesn't want to know.

I Cor 2:14: "The natural (outside Christ) person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

When Adam fell the lights went out.

Isa 59:9-10: "Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

10) "We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes."

This is the state of mankind without God -- out of touch with reality.

One of the plagues in Egypt was deep darkness.

God told Moses, Ex 10:21: "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt."

This is life without God.

This is moral and spiritual blindness resulting from sin.

Without the light of God, mankind is not getting better, we are not more moral or wise or finding our true selves.

We are in a constant state of returning to the darkness of de-creation.

But God was ready.

Even as Adam and Eve covered up with the work of their own hands, God sought them out.

He covered them with animal skins which required a blood sacrifice.

Then, by grace alone, He promised them an ultimate sacrifice - a seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.

A promise - a glow of light.

And it was enough for them.

By faith, Adam named his wife, Eve - mother of all living.

He trusted God to deliver the promised seed.

So did Eve.

In Gen 4:1: "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord."

She thought she'd gotten the promised seed.

Instead, she had the first murderer.

But the seed was coming, just not yet.

Meantime, with a few exceptions, moral and spiritual darkness prevailed.

Cain became a murderer.

Lamech became a polygamist and murderer.

Even as mankind learned to settle cities, work with metals, advancing quickly in his secular learning, moral and spiritual darkness led to this conclusion in Gen 6:5: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Darkened hearts prevailed.

Only Noah found favor with God, so through the flood, God provided a new start.

A flickering of light.

But soon mankind again descended into the pit of unbelief.

By Gen 11, man is building a tower to "make a name for ourselves" (Gen 11:5).

God is crowded out again.

This time God thwarts the plan by confusing the languages.

Then He calls Abraham out of moon-worship to be His representative to bless all nations.

A flickering light.

But we know that story.

The trend, even among God's chosen people, is toward darkness.

They had the light of God's Word.

Psa 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

But that light was largely ignored, sometimes lost, and seldom treasured.

And it was not the seed, not the ultimate light that could provide salvation.

But suddenly, in 4 BC everything changed.

Hundreds of years after the promise to Adam and Eve, the seed at last arrived in the person of Jesus Christ.

Matthew characterized the beginning of His ministry by saying, "the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned" (Mt 4:16).

The light is now on the stage of world history.