The Life and Light of Men

Text

John 1:3–5 ESV

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Introduction

As we begin this morning, allow me to take my introduction and make a public service announcement.

Christmas is eight days away.

Some of you bought your children toys that require batteries.

When church ends today, get on Amazon and order yourself the variety of batteries that you need.

You don’t want to be the guy flying up to Wawa on Christmas morning ready to spend $15 on a couple of double A’s because nothing else is open.

We know this though, right?

We know that the things we buy need a power source if they are going to work.

Our Christmas lights need outlets to plug into.

Our phones, which we rely on to take picture and video during this special time of the year, will run out of life if they don’t have a power source to charge them.

Our toys will not work without the necessary batteries.

This reality relates to our sermon text for today.

Creation is running.

The stars in the galaxy are zooming through space at 500,000 mph.

The Earth is rotating 365 times a year at around 1000 mph and gravity is keeping you from being flung off into the far reaches of celestial darkness.

There are microscopic eyelash mites that are living in and around most of our eyelashes!

Humanity is alive and very active.

There are 8 billion people in the world doing 8 billion different things at all times.

We have powerful brains to create all sorts of infrastructure and culture and government to give substance to our society.

We interact with dozens of people everyday having intellectual conversation and communication.

We grope for some understanding of the truth.

We do jobs and we produce things.

But WHAT—or better yet—WHO is behind it all?

This is the question we will be able to answer as we study John 1:3-5.

Context and Outline

This month. in our The Word Made Flesh Advent series, we are in the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John—otherwise known as John’s prologue.

John’s Gospel is written in order to spread the news that Jesus Christ is God so that people would believe and have life in His name.

John 20:31 ESV

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John’s prologue is out to set the tone for the entire book.

Last week, we saw Scriptural evidence that The Word is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is God.

This morning, there is more proof for this to be found in v. 3-5.

For what we will see there is that Christ is the Creator and Sustainer of all.

He is the Life-Giver and the Light of the world.

Here is our outline today:

1. Christ is the Source of all Creation (v. 3).

2. Christ is the Source of all natural Life and Light (v. 4).

3. Christ is the Source of all spiritual Life and Light (v. 4-5).

Of All Creation (v. 3)

We begin this morning with v. 3, which clearly shows us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Source all of all things created—visible and invisible.

1. Christ is the Source of all Creation (v. 3).

The idea that Christ is the Creator of all has already been hinted at by the text.

In v. 1, John’s Gospel starts with “In the beginning...”

This is a clear allusion to Genesis 1:1— “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.”

John’s words have already put creation on the mind.

In v. 3, the Apostle says it outright— Everything is made through Christ and without Christ nothing is made.

All the things made are things made by Christ.

Without Christ, there would be nothing.

God’s Powerful Agent in Creation

To understand exactly what John means, let’s actually go back to Genesis 1 and think about what we read there.

In Genesis, when God creates, He does not do it by gathering up existing materials and then making something out of it, like a child who gets out his old Legos and lets his imagination lead him.

Instead, He creates out of nothing.

In fact, what God does is call things into existence that do not exist.

And how does He do this?

With His powerful Word.

His speech brings them about.

So in Genesis 1:2, the earth is without form and void, and darkness is over the face of the deep and God says “Let there be light.”

Genesis 1:3 ESV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Light did not exist until—by the Word of God—it was called into existence.

And this is the way it is with the earth and water and sky.

This is the way it is with animals and vegetation.

This is the way it is with the fish of the sea and the birds of the air.

Relating this back to John 1, we can start to understand John’s point in his prologue.

Jesus Christ is the logos.

In the beginning, He is the Word who was with God and who was God.

Therefore, when we read in Genesis 1, that God is creating with His very Word, we should understand that Word to be Christ.

Light is brought about through Christ.

The birds of the air are created through Christ.

The fish of the sea are created through Christ.

Jesus is the Word.

So then, as God creates with His Word—His divine expression of Himself—He creates through Christ.

John 1:10 ESV

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

Scriptural Support

This is the consistent testimony of the Bible:

Colossians 1:16–17 ESV

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

ALL THINGS are created THROUGH Him AND—they are created FOR HIM.

All things were created by the glorious power of the Son in order to demonstrate the glory of the power of the Son.

It is done by the power of His name, for the sake of His name.

And lest we think that He is some Divine Watchmaker who created and removed Himself, Paul tells the Colossians that in Christ the Word, all that is created holds together.

He sustains that which He made for the glory of Himself.

Hebrews 1:2 ESV

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Once more, we have the same idea—the world is created THROUGH the Son.

Co-operation with the Father

What the Bible is teaching us is that the whole Godhead—Father, Son and Spirit—were active in the wonderful act of creation.

God the Father created the heavens and the earth.

The Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2

And the Son of God is the powerful agent of Creation, with all things being made through Him.

The Persons of the Godhead were co-operating together in Creation.

If we were to think of Creation like a painting, it would go something like this:

The Father is the Master Painter, with the brilliance of Creation conceived in His mind.

The Son is the power that actually gets the paint onto the canvas of creation.

And the Spirit—not to be left out—is there brooding over creation like a Mother Hawk, ready to give the breath of life to humanity.

This co-operation only serves as further proof that Christ is God.

For God does not look outside of Himself to some lesser power to create.

And He does not create for the glory of another.

Instead, God the Father looks to God the Son, the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of His nature, and He creates through Him.

God relies on His own power in the Person of His Son in order to create and ultimately glorify Himself.

For the Son’s creative power points us back to the Father’s creative brilliance.

Application

What this ultimately means for you and I is that with every glimpse of creation, we have an opportunity to behold the work of Christ and give Him the glory that is His due.

There is simply nothing that has been made that was not made by Christ.

Nothing has slipped into creation by any other means.

Christ created Mt. Everest—over 29,000 ft tall.

But He also created each .3 mm grain of table salt you put on your French Fries.

Christ created the African Elephant that weighs 7,000 pounds.

He also created the honey bee that weighs .0035 ounces

Christ created the sequoia tree that is 3 feet thick.

Christ created the human hair that is .08 mm thick.

It is all from Him.

And with each glimpse of the beauty and order and design of the created universe, we should all be left with a deep sense of how powerful Christ is and how praiseworthy Christ is.

These are helpful things to remember when things are hard.

We may think that our circumstances are too difficult...

We only need to remember that the One through whom the Sun was brought into existence is the One who hears our prayers.

We only need to remember that the One who etched the fine details of every leaf into existence is the One who cares about the fine details of our lives.

When things are difficult, we often feel short on power.

We say things like, “I am at my limit.”

Or we say, “I just don’t have the bandwidth for that.”

Or maybe, “I just can’t handle that right now.”

We have all been there.

Well, when we get there, maybe we just need to go outside.

Take a look at the expanse of the sky and remember that the who stretched it from east to east and from North to South is the same One stretching you.

And if He has the power to create and sustain the heavens above, can’t He sustain us?

Take a look at His intricate design on each piece of tree bark and realize that if He can design 3,000 pieces of bark on an old oak tree, can’t He design the trials of our lives in such a way that will bring about His glory and our holiness?

If He has the wisdom and brilliance to create through His Son, doesn’t He have the wisdom and brilliance to govern our lives through his Son?

Christ is the Source of all Creation.

And the same Christ is the Source of Power and Preservation for your life.

Take heart that the Word which created is the Word who is with you.

Of All Natural Life and Light (v. 4)

2. Christ is the Source of all natural Life and Light (v. 4).

Our second point moves our attention to v. 4.

John 1:4 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Life

This is the first use of the word “life” in John, but it is not the last. John uses the word life around 36 times in his gospel.

Sometimes it is speaking to eternal, spiritual life, which we will get to in a moment.

But here in John 1:4, it is meant to be a very broad term.

The context requires it to be broad.

v. 3 is mainly concerned with Christ being the powerful agent of creation for the natural world.

v.5 is mainly concerned with the spiritual realm—light and darkness—good and evil.

Therefore, v. 4 should be seen to speak to both.

We start by dealing natural.

Christ is the source of all natural life.

If nothing was made except that which was made through Him, then all things living find their source for life IN Him.

Christ the Creator imparts physical life to the world and in particular to the human race.

Creature-life is found in God.

Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17 that in God we “live and move and have our being.”

And since Christ is God’s powerful agent in the act of creating and sustaining, then we know that the life Paul speaks of is sourced in Jesus Christ.

The One born to Mary in Bethlehem is the One who gives life to all.

He IS Life to all.

Light

And the Life in the Word is also called the Light of men.

Light is another one of John’s favorite subject matters in his gospel.

He loves to compare and contrast the Light and the Darkness, as he does in v. 5.

Here in v. 4, John is saying that the Life of the Word is so bestowed and distributed by Christ in Creation, that the Life of men is also the Light of men.

The Life in the Word became the Light of the Word to human beings.

And I don’t think we are just talking about Christian people.

We will get there in a moment.

But even in a general sense, we can say that the Word is LIFE to the human race and LIGHT to the human race.

LIFE imparted to all.

LIGHT imparted to all by that LIFE.

The question is—how do we see that to be true?

In what sense are all people enjoying a level of spiritual light as those who created by God?

Well I think there are a couple of ways:

A. The Light of General Revelation:

Because God has created the world through Christ, the evidence of God’s existence is undeniably seen all around us.

Romans 1:20 ESV

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

God has generally revealed Himself in creation to humanity.

A survey of creation may not tell you how to become a Christian or how to have eternal life or what God’s name is.

However, it will tell you that there is a Creator.

Evidence of this light being in men is found in the fact that we’ve never discovered an Atheistic tribe.

Atheism is not natural to man because of the LIGHT that God has brought through the natural LIFE that Christ gives.

B. The Light of Moral Restraint:

It is only because of the Light that Christ gives to the natural man, that humans do not completely destroy themselves.

Though humans are depraved, He allows them a level of natural light in the conscience:

People who are not religious at all will avoid evil because the conscience tells them to.

If someone doesn’t cheat on their spouse due to conscience...

If someone doesn’t try to steal their neighbors things due to conscience...

If someone doesn’t lie to their boss due to conscience...

...it is not because of their own moral goodness, but because of the blessing of natural light and reason that God gives to that person.

And conscience isn’t the only restraint.

We see the evil of man restrained by institutions like government and family.

God has given government as a means of justice and as a sword to encourage good and curtail evil.

God has given the family as a means of procreation and protection and passing on truth and morality and skill.

Whenever we see people who are not believers, committed to seeing these things function well in our society, we are seeing examples of how God has given Light to the unbelieving world to curb their own evil.

John Calvin said that this natural Light is what separates us from the animals.

Still Depraved

Make no mistake—this Light doesn’t change the fact that human beings are morally depraved.

It doesn’t change the fact that they are born dead in sin and will die in those sins if God does not rescue them.

Saying that in the Word was life and that life was the light of men, does not mean that God has given everyone enough grace for them to come to Him on their own.

While the Light of Christ’s life is given by God to restrain man, there is a reason man must be restrained.

Humans are actively opposed to God in heart and mind:

Their reason is prideful

Their will is perverse

Their mind is at war with God

Their heart loves sin

Satan urges them to resist Christ

Their flesh urges them to indulge themselves

And the world urges them to ignore any work of God, including Creation itself

This is the course they will continue on, unless God acts.

Even though God may give them a level of Light in the conscience and in their reason, they are defiled.

Titus 1:15–16 ESV

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

This is the state of the unbelieving.

Spiritually dead.

Helplessly destitute.

Application

And yet, no one can claim that they have been abandoned by God.

Do you have physical life?

Do you have a world you can go look at and observe the fingerprints of the Maker in?

Do you have a conscience that keeps you from destroying yourself and others?

Do you have a government given to you by God to keep you and the society around you from devolving into total anarchy and godlessness?

If the answer to your question is yes, then you cannot say God has done nothing for you.

You cannot say He has left you high and dry.

In reality, He has done quite a bit for you.

If you are alive and you have breath in your lungs, then you owe something to Christ.

If you are alive and enjoying the benefits of a civil society, then you are the recipient of grace of God’s common Light in the Life of His Son, Jesus Christ.

There is tribute and thanksgiving that should be paid to Him.

Imagine a neighborhood.

Some people in the neighborhood are good.

Some people in the neighborhood are evil.

Now imagine that new streetlights are installed in the neighborhood.

Who enjoys the light?

The Good? The Evil?

The answer is everyone. Everyone, wherever they may stand in terms of morality, is a beneficiary of the light.

It is similar with Christ being the source of all natural Life and Light.

If anyone is alive, they owe it to Christ.

If their life is sustained, they owe it to Christ

If their life is not destroyed by themselves or someone else, they owe it to Christ.

No one can say that Christ has done nothing for them.

The true light gives Light to everyone:

John 1:9 ESV

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

Of All Spiritual Life and Light (v. 4-5)

This brings us to our final point this morning:

3. Christ is the Source of all spiritual Life and Light (v. 4-5).

We have looked at v. 4 from a natural perspective—something that I think v. 3 requires us to do.

However, understanding v. 5, I believe we also must look at v. 4 from a more spiritual perspective.

Here is what v. 5 says:

John 1:5 ESV

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Here we really see how John loves to compare the LIGHT and the DARKNESS in his gospel.

John 8:12 ESV

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

For John, the LIGHT refers to holiness and purity.

The DARKNESS refers to sin and wrongdoing.

Christ, who is Holy and Pure, is the LIGHT of the world.

The world, who does not follow Christ and loves their evil deeds, dwells in DARKNESS.

John 3:19 ESV

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.

But here in John 1:5, the Apostle is making a defiant statement about the Light.

It will not be overcome by the darkness.

Hard as the darkness may try, the light will win out.

Light in Creation and Salvation

And Light is winning out in and through the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son.

This is where we can go back to v. 4 and let it bear spiritual weight.

V. 3 informs us that we should look at v.4 through lens of the natural.

V. 5 informs us that we should look at v. 4 through the lens of the spiritual.

To understand how Christ is the Source of all SPIRITUAL Life and Light, we should compare creation and salvation—a comparison that I believe the New Testament encourages us towards.

In creation, the earth was formless and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep.

And into the darkness, the Lord spoke and through His Logos—His WORD—there was Light that pierced the darkness.

This is a picture of what happens to the sinner in salvation.

As we stated earlier, despite the natural Light that God will give the sinner, the sinner is still dead in sin and trapped in darkness.

Their works make it clear that this is the case.

But God, being rich in mercy and great in love, looks to the sinner’s dark, formless, void-filled heart and He speaks.

And when He speaks, through the same Word, He opens the sinner’s eyes to the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The sinner would never know the light of the knowledge of the glory of God unless this happened.

God, in His grace, shows the sinner the glory of God written on the face of Christ.

God, in His grace, gives the sinner the Light to see it.

So then, what we can see is that in the same way that God created through Christ, God saves through Christ.

God raises the dead sinner to life.

God brings the sinner in darkness out into Light.

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The Overcoming of Darkness

The darkness of sin is daunting.

You may feel it in your life today.

You may see it in the lives of those you love and you feel hopeless in the face of it.

But the promise of v. 5 is that the darkness does not ultimately win.

The Light will win.

This does not mean that the Light will not be rejected.

John 1:11 ESV

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

There are some who reject the Light because they are blinded by Satan and they are lost in the darkness.

They do not comprehend the Light.

They do not grasp it.

In fact, this is how some manuscripts translate verse 5:

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:5, New King James Version

But here is the reality of Scripture—it is that God knows His people.

He knows them so well that He has had their names in His book of Life before the foundation of the world. Before creation itself.

We see this in Revelation 13.

In that chapter, the Beast, which represents persecuting, evil governments is spoken of.

Revelation 13:7–8 ESV

Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Who will bow before the Beast?

Those whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Who will NOT?

Those whose names have been written in the Book of Life.

For those whose names have been written...

...For those whom God has set His love on...

...For all those who have been saved or will be saved from the four corners of the earth...

...The darkness will not win.

It will not overcome the Light.

God will save His people.

God will shine His light into their hearts and they will see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

God will sanctify His people and make them more like Jesus.

God will preserve His people to the end as those who bear the Light in the dark world.

And then—in the end—God will bring His people into His presence forever.

Forever, the Word will be both our LIFE and our LIGHT.

We will live upon the life we have received from Christ forever.

We will see by the Light of the Glory of Christ for all time.

The dark world tried to murder Jesus when Herod slayed the infant boys of Judea, hoping to kill the newborn King in the process, but it failed.

Christ was in Egypt according to God’s plan.

The dark world tried to murder Jesus when Pilate had Him nailed to a tree in the heart of Judea, hoping to silence the Life and Light of men, but it failed again.

Christ was down in the well for a short time, only to rise again on the third day.

The dark world has tried to murder Jesus by coming for His body—persecuting His Church after His ascension into Heaven, thinking it can muzzle the Word made flesh, but it failed again.

For every time the church is struck and scattered, it only causes the Gospel to spread more and for the body of Christ on earth to grow soul by soul.

Yes—the world has tried.

With all its might it has tried.

But the darkness cannot overcome the Light.

God will save His people and prepare an unblemished Bride for Himself.

This is the fruit of the Life and Light of Christ.

The darkness cannot stop it.

Candle in a Dark Room

See—When darkness is having its moment, it seems impenetrable.

When the child lays in the dark and they are scared, mom and dad feel a million miles away. Light seems impossible. There is nothing but darkness.

And yet, if I take just one little nightlight with one 5 watt bulb and I plug it into the wall, the darkness is chased out of that child’s room.

An entire room filled with blackness is suddenly flooded with light.

So it was when Christ came into this world.

The Life and Light of Men is an Incarnational Candle who has flooded the darkness with Light.

And where the Light has truly shone, the darkness cannot withstand it.

Application

This is the way it was when Christ came into the world, and this is still the way it is now.

Jesus called Himself the Light of the world, but He also calls His people the Light of the World:

Matthew 5:14 ESV

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

The spiritually dark world is in desperate need of the eternal life that Jesus brings and the saving Light that He shines into the heart.

And He has sent His church into the world to bear that Light from our neighborhood to the nations.

You may feel like nothing more than a weak 5 watt bulb, but God just might use you to chase the darkness away.

And take heart that as you go about the work of boldly proclaiming the Life and Light of Christ in the world, the darkness will not win.

It will not conquer.

It will be overcome.

Conclusion

John 1:3–5 ESV

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

This is not poetry for the sake of prettiness.

This is not flowery language for the sake of fuzzy feelings.

John 1:3-5 is giving us a healthy dose of reality.

This is how things have been and this is the way things are and this is the way things will be throughout history.

The One who was at work in bringing galaxies into existence is the One at work in your life and in this church and in this world.

The One whose Life holds the world together will hold your soul together forever.

The One whose Light shattered the darkness when God spoke is the One whose power can shatter your addiction and your fear and your depression.

In light of these things, what do we truly need?

We need to look to Christ—the Source.

Some of you need to do that for the first time.

The time has come to leave the darkness.

In this room, right now, through the preaching of God’s Word—the Light of Christ is shining.

The question is not, “Is Christ the Source of all creation and all life and light?”

He is. We have established that.

The question is, “Will you come to Him or not?”

You will receive His life and walk in His Light.

Join in on the prayer of the old carol:

O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray Cast out our sin and enter in Be born in us today

Others needed the reminder this morning.

Maybe you have been living as if you are your own source of life and light.

Repent of forgetting that Jesus is the Life of men and the Light of the World.

If your own evil deeds have caused you to stray from Christ, repent and come back to the Light of the Lord.

If you need a sight of the glory of God, look no further than the face of Christ.

Christian—turn to Your Savior again.