The True Light

For some of you, this is your first time in Church in a while, or perhaps your first time ever.

There’s something I need to be up front about.

IF you come back to church this Sunday (day after tomorrow) the message I preach then will be at least 4 times longer than tonight’s.

I should probably mention that I usually only preach for 10 minutes for these Christmas events.

My goal in 10 (to 15) minutes is three fold.

1. Talk to you plainly about the problem of sin, but also to make sure you understand that talking about sin is not just a scare tactic of the church, but a battle plan.

2. I want you to get a sense of what biblical preaching is, and know that it is right to expect this book to be opened in church, preached, taught, and expounded on.

3. And finally, I want you to know the good news of salvation and the forgiveness of sins ! There is good news for us!

Ok, now you can start that 10 minute clock. Kidding.

Take a look at v10 from the passage that Dahlia just read. It will be on the screen for those who don’t have a bible.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him”

I said I want to talk to you plainly about the problem of sin. Here it is. It’s expressed in this phrase…the world did not know him. v11. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

They did not know him. They did not receive him.

If the purpose of life was to feel good, then this wouldn’t be a problem. If the purpose of life is to be happy, or gain knowledge, or to live to 80 years old without doing as bad things as the person next to you, then separation from God is not a problem. But if the purpose of life is to know and worship God, then this is a HUGE problem.

And that is the purpose of it all.

To know God, and by knowing him, be like him, and in being like him, glorify him.

But that’s not what we see. And that’s not what the natural man or woman feels.

Instead we have a world that loves darkness rather than light. We have a world full of sin, and by sin I mean what the Scriptures calls sin, which is rebellion and willfulness against God.

Now there is the atheist worldview, but this is a man-made construct that excuses what is built into the human conscience that not only is there God, but we are accountable to Him.

Sin has separated us from God, and the world suffers and spirals because of this.

The mention of sin at Christmas might seem ridiculous to some, but that’s not what our current situation is affording us.

Let’s be honest. People need answers. You need answers and solutions to what you’re seeing, and experiencing, not only in the physical sense, but in the Spiritual sense.

God is real, Satan is real, Sin is real, and the only way to truly live is to admit all three of these things and face the consequences of the truth. God is real, that’s how all of this got here. That’s the foundation.

Satan is real…the great pretender, and anti-type to the Creator. In His hatred for Christ he doesn’t just oppose, but seeks to replace what is true with a lie that looks good.

Satan has one goal, to ensure that you remain in the darkness and never come to the light of Christ.

And sin is real.... and that’s the greatest enemy of all. Sin came into the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and that is why when Jesus came into the world, they did not know him, or receive him.

If you can admit that you are a sinner, and that the problem is inside you, and not out there somewhere, then this next part will be like taking a long cold drink after 40 days in the dessert with out water. It it will be like seeing for the very first time, and all the colors come rushing in and you think, this is what I’ve been missing!!!

John 1:1-14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John’s message is not, Jesus is King, or Jesus is Prophet, or Jesus is Priest, He is all of those things…John’s message is simply, Jesus is God!

To make this argument, he says “In the beginning was the word.” That word in the original language is Logos. It carries the meaning of existence, and purpose, and message.

In the beginning was a message. THE message to the world, a Word for the world that would break under sin. That Word is a person. That word is Jesus.

In him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

That is Hope, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters! The hope for a world in the throws of sin is a Savior who is Creator, and who commands light to shine in the darkness…a darkness cannot even comprehend the power of it.

But darkness has a knack for pretending to be the light. Do you need to be aware. You need to be discerning and careful. You need the true light. It’s not science. It’s not discovery. It’s not politics or education. It’s Jesus Christ... v9...The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

CS Lewis said...“I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

There are many false lights…all of them with a sinister mastermind behind them to turn your eyes way from Christ.

Why?

Why such hostility toward Christ? Why is every other form of religion and spirituality being bought by people today?

When God reveals the answer this, you’ll be free.

Every practice of religion and spirituality, from Eastern religions, to paganism and witchcraft, even Atheism…has one common denominator that outs them as false lights…

False lights don’t give…they take. They demand your life and your blood for their success. They lay burdens on the backs of people, but never lift those burdens. False lights are full of half truths and distractions from the true light, which is Christ.

How did the true light come into the world?

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.

How do we know Jesus is the true light?

He is the only one worthy of the title, for He alone is God and creator, and he did’t just leave us to bear the burden and give our blood, but he himself took on human flesh, became like one of us so that He might die in our place.

See the gospel is this...

Sin separates us from God and leaves us guilty… We have all sinned.

God is a righteous and holy judge who cannot let the guilty go without consequence.

But God is also loving, gracious, and merciful, that though we deserve judgement, he sent a substitute and scapegoat.

God’s wrath will be satisfied.

The eternal Son of God came down, and by bearing human flesh he would live the perfect human life.

While living a perfect life of no sin, He announced a Kingdom that had come to earth, and he called disciples to join Him.

At the end of His life, having proven His power through miracles and signs, there was one final sign…the ultimate act of love…he laid His life down as a sacrificial offering and payment. The wages of our sin was death. We deserve this. And Christ became the gift that we did not deserve.

Christ does’t demand your blood in order to give you life. He gave his own blood. He gave all of it. He suffered in the place of sinners under the righteous wrath of Father God, because there was no other way to free the guilty, and satisfy God’s justice. In Christ, there is both.

After dying, he lay dead, buried in a stone tomb that could not hold him, and so tonight we rightly combine Christmas with Easter, because they are inseparable, and I declare to you that Christ came out of the grave victorious, crushing sin and death, appearing to 100’s of eye witnesses before ascending ascending to the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords.

My message to you is this as I reluctantly close, because I’d so love to talk more about my Savior...

1. Admit you have sinned against God and you are guilty.

2. Confess that you need a Savior, not to make you better and more moral, but to give you a brand new life, and reconcile you to the Father.

3.Believe in your heart tonight that Jesus is God, and that He was raised from the dead.

4. Finally, these things, if genuine and of God, will produce in you new desires. The old life of sin and rebellion…gone, and a new journey of following Christ as His disciple begins.

John 1:12-13 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.