The Light Shines

Opening Prayer

Reading of the Text

John 1:4–5 ESV

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.

John 1

Jesus is Life

Key Passage: In him was life

Jesus embodies life because he embodies the truth and the way to God ()

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Since John identifies “life” with “light”, and “light” contextually refers to Christ, we must understand that on a functional level “life” is ultimately Jesus himself.

Old Testament passages that refer to God as the source of light and life include:

Psalm 36:9 ESV

9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.

“Life” in John characteristically refers to eternal life (see on ), the gift of God through his Son.

John 3:15 ESV

15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Here, however, the term must be taken in its broadest sense. It is only because there is life in the Logos that there is life in anything on earth at all. Life does not exist in its own right. It is not even spoken of as made “by” or “through” the Word, but as existing “in” him.

Jesus is Light

Key Passage: and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness,

This verse introduces the light/darkness dualism of the rest of the Gospel. Both light and day, darkness and night appear regularly throughout the Gospel, sometimes even with symbolic significance in the narratives.

The verse also introduces the theme of life, which appears some thirty-five times in the Gospel.

Reference to , with use of “light.” Also see . Taking “light” to mean believing in Jesus, the only way to avoid the darkness. We are to be light, which is spreading His good news, the Gospel.

Genesis 1:3 ESV

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

John 12:46 ESV

46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

Jesus as Light, is greater than darkness, Light defeats darkness

Jesus came “into the world as a light” so that whoever believes on him should not “stay in darkness.”

Notice that John changes his tense. Until now he has used the past exclusively, but the light, he says, “shines.” The light is continually in action.

Jesus, the Light, can open our eyes from spiritual darkness (worldliness) and the power in Him can not be defeated by the darkness. Jesus is the Hope all humans seek (God shaped whole) as all the things in this world are truly hopeless and meaningless when apart from God. Jesus as our Hope and Savior is only valid and relevent if He is who he Himself claims to be, the eternal living God.

Jesus is Greater

Jesus is an Overcomer

Key Passage: and the darkness has not overcome it.

This is the struggle between the forces of faith and unbelief, light and darkness.

According to NIV the darkness “has not understood it.” The Greek verb is not easy to translate. It contains the idea of laying hold on something so as to make it one’s own (its translation as “gets” with reference to a prize, ). This can lead to meanings like “lay hold with the mind,” and thus “comprehend” (KJV) or “apprehend.”

The darkness and those ruled by darkness can't understand Him (the Light) or overcome Him

Apart from the light brought by the Messiah, the incarnate Word, people love darkness because their deeds are evil ().

John 3:19 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.

When the light does put in an appearance, they hate it, because they do not want their deeds to be exposed ().

John 3:20 ESV

20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

In fact, wherever it is true that the light shines in the darkness, it is also true that the darkness has not understood it.

The language of indicates some sort of conflict between light and darkness, but the nature of the conflict is disputed. Does κατέλαβεν mean that darkness could not “apprehend” the light intellectually (so Cyril of Alexandria), that darkness did not accept the light, or that darkness could not “conquer” the light (Origen and most Greek Fathers)?

More than likely John, whose skill in wordplays appears throughout his Gospel, has introduced a wordplay here: darkness could not “apprehend” or “overtake” the light, whether by comprehending it (grasping with the mind) or by overcoming it (grasping with the hand).

Certainly the darkness did not accept it, but neither did it have victory over it. That is the reason confession and witness are possible.

Closing Thoughts

Closing Illustration

Fifty-Two Invitation Illustrations 12. She Had Religion but She Was Lost

She was a lovely young woman in her early twenties, graduate of a university, and a school teacher. She was a vigorous, intensely alert, and capable person. A Christian worker talked to her about her soul.

Confidently she smiled at the Christian worker. “I have always been religious,” she said. “My people were religious before me. Among my earliest memories are those connected with church and Sunday School. In fact, I received a prize one time for having had a perfect attendance record in church and Sunday School for five straight years. Then, in my late teens I began to teach classes of smaller girls. Yes, sir, I have a good religious background.”

Something about this courteous young woman’s statement made the Christian worker uneasy. There was something lacking, something about it that did not measure up. Gently, the Christian worker brought up the subject of personal salvation, the new birth, and regeneration. And the Christian worker talked of the atonement, the sin-offering of Jesus on the cruel cross, and of the empty tomb of the Son of God. Then said that something had to happen in the heart in order for one to be saved from his sins.

The eyes of this young woman opened wide and an expression of puzzlement came to her face. The Christian worker was talking of things foreign to her. She had almost no knowledge of the greater realities of the Spirit. A few minutes of kind probing told him that this lovely, intelligent, religious girl knew almost as little about salvation as some savage in a distant jungle.

Yet, she had spent almost all of her childhood in one church and under the ministry of one pastor. What on earth had that pastor talked about for all those years. Hundreds of times this young woman had sat under his preaching and in his Sunday School, yet she might as well have been in Africa as far as spiritual knowledge was concerned. She had religion but she was lost.

Is this true of you? Do you have religion, but are lost? If so, then by personal faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour.

Closing Prayer

Closing Prayer

If you have made a decision to surrender your life to Christ, please see me after our closing worship song