Born to Give Light

One of my favorite things to do around Christmas time is to look at Christmas lights. I don’t know how many of you ever got to drive out to Yonkers and see the Tripp Family Christmas lights, but it was amazing to see them. You could see the lights as you turned down the road and saw the glow off in the distance.

Once you got there and got out of your car, you were able to walk through tunnels and see all kinds of intricate details that they did with the lights. I have a hard enough time just getting lights around the edge of my roof.

One of the things that always amazes me with these light displays is how to connect the power to all of them!

We have some other types of lights in our area that aren’t Christmas lights that you can see for a few miles away as well. Ever since they expanded Gillman and made it West Fraser, they built some massive processing centers and illuminated it like a tiny city at night. We once could see stars all over the night sky at my house, but now we see what looks like the shekinah glory cloud of the Lord off in the distance.

Light is funny like that. Even the smallest light from a candle can light up a room.

Light reveals things.

Light comforts us when we are afraid.

Light helps us find our way.

Light is essential to our survival!

Light is one of the themes that John uses throughout his gospel and we are going to take a look at how in his account of the beginnings of Jesus, he shows us that Jesus was born to give light.

John 1:1–18 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Pray

The gospel of John is unlike the other three gospels. We have four gospels that reveal that Jesus is the Messiah, or the Savior. All four present the accounts of Jesus’ life from a different perspective and with a different purpose in mind. Three of them are called synoptic gospels because they are pretty chronological for the most part and have a lot of similarities. Some Bible scholars even think that Matthew and Luke used Mark’s gospel as a starting point.

John is the oddball. He presents Jesus as the Savior too, but he uses miracles as signs and almost presents Jesus as if He is on trial for the world to see and determine if He really is the Messiah sent to save the world.

There are several themes that come up throughout the gospel like the theme of light and darkness. This morning, we are going to look at the light. We need to see a few things that John brings out in this first chapter about Jesus who was born to give light.

1. The Origin of the Light (vv. 1-5)

John begins his gospel unlike the others. He is writing to both Jews and Greeks. He is showing Jesus as the Savior of both

Like Genesis, John begins with the eternal, pre-existence of God. God as represented to us by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Jesus is there in the beginning as God and as the agent of creation

Genesis 1:1–3 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

John uses these similar themes in the prologue of his gospel and throughout the book.

2. The Witness to the Light (vv. 6-8)

John points out how the 400 years of silence from God was broken by the Prophet John the Baptist.

He was a witness to the Light and pointed Him out.

John’s gospel actually puts Jesus on trial. He gives us signs and major miracles that reveal the true identity of Jesus. Is He really the Messiah, God’s Son, the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world?

Look at the miracles and find out

The gospel of John ends with Jesus on trial before Pilate where he asks

John 18:37–38 ESV

37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

Well, truth was staring back at him and the greatest evidence of that truth was found in the resurrection.

It’s interesting that John shows Jesus innocence in John 19:12

John 19:12 ESV

12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

And truly there can only be allegiance to one king. Either you follow the kings of this world, be it Caesar or whomever, or you follow King Jesus. Those are the only options.

3. The Incarnation of the Light (vv.9-18)

Jesus did not come into being at his birth. He was the One who created everything that is (v.1-2; 9-10)

Jesus added flesh to his deity and willingly limited certain aspects of his divinity while He was on earth to relate to mankind and allow Himself to become our better representative than Adam

Jesus taking on flesh is described as dwelling, or tabernacling, among us. It is a concept that John is drawing from the Old Testament where God dwelt among His people in the tabernacle. Paul even describes our flesh as an earthly tent that will be shed when we die.

Jesus came in a form that we could relate to and understand and yet most people rejected him. Mankind rejected him, but even His own people who should have been looking for His coming rejected Him (v.10-11).

John describes Jesus’ glory, that shekinah glory that sat over the mountain at Mt. Sinai and over the tabernacle in the camp of Israel that represented the presence and glory of God. John describes the glory as being veiled and yet revealed. There are times where we get a glimpse into the glory, like on the Mt. of Transfiguration where Jesus revealed his glory to the three disciples who were with him.

4. The Gift of the Light (vv. 12-13; 16-18)

Jesus came to give us life. He gives everyone light, or life. We are all made by God and are His creation, but just as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, we can’t just be born of flesh, but must also be born again of the Spirit.

God reveals Himself to all mankind through His creation and through what He has written on every man’s heart.

We also have the grace and mercy of God given to us who believe so that the Holy Spirit draws us to God and helps us to believe.

For those who have the light of God and they “grope in the darkness” towards Him, God will give them greater revelation so that they will believe.

But, as John tells us in John 3, so many people love the darkness more than the light and will never believe or accept Jesus.

John says in John 3:19-21

John 3:19–21 ESV

19 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. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Conclusion:

This morning I want to ask you if you are living in the dark. Are you loving the darkness because it lets you hide your sins from God, and maybe even others? If you are, I want to warn you that God will expose your works in the light one day. The Bible says that even the darkness is not dark to God.

But maybe some of you that are living in the darkness don’t really want to be there. You have been struggling to get out and you really wish that you could end your battle with the flesh. You have been groping about in the darkness trying to find God but you haven’t found Him yet.

Paul said to the people of Athens,

Acts 17:27–28 ESV

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Paul told them to seek after God and if we will do that, we will find Him.

He goes on to say,

Acts 17:30–31 ESV

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

You have a choice today. You can believe on Jesus Christ and be saved, or you can reject this gospel as a fantasy. Many will do that. They love the darkness more than the light.

But, God sent Jesus, born to give light, that you and I might find Him; and if we do find Him, He gives us the right to become children of God and to receive grace upon grace.

You see we are born under the law. We are enslaved by it and cannot be saved by it, but Jesus came to set us free. If you know the truth and believe the truth, the truth will set you free.

Do you believe today? If so, do you believe you need to tell others the truth? It’s time to sit down with those you love, and those you don’t and have a serious conversation with them. It’s time to enlighten them and bring them to the Light that they might be saved.