Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Light of the World*

John 1:1-5

April 27, 2008

 

Let’s start again with a reading from Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God Day-by-Day.

This one’s entitled,* Abide in the Vine*

“I am the vine; you are the branches.

The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.”—John

15:5

There are those who feel that they must be constantly laboring for the Lord in order to meet God's high standards.

Jesus gave a clear picture of what our relationship to Him ought to be like.

He is the vine, the source of our life.

We are the branches, the place where fruit is produced.

As we receive life from Christ, the natural, inevitable result is that fruit is produced in our lives.

In our zeal to produce “results” for our Lord, we sometimes become so intent on fruit production that we neglect abiding in Christ.

We may feel that “abiding” is not as productive or that it takes too much time away from our fruit production.

Yet Jesus said that it is not our /activity /that produces fruit, it is our /relationship /with Him.

Jesus gave an important warning to His disciples.

He cautioned that if they ever attempted to live their Christian life apart from an intimate relationship with Him, they would discover that they ceased to produce any significant results.

They might exert great effort for the kingdom of God, yet when they stopped to account for their lives, they would find only barrenness.

One of the most dramatic acts Jesus ever performed was cursing a fig tree that had failed to produce fruit.

Are you comfortable in abiding, or are you impatient to be engaged in activity?

If you will remain steadfastly in fellowship with Jesus, a great harvest will be the natural by-product.

The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted, "My Mommy looked back once, while she was driving," he announced triumphantly, "and she turned into a telephone pole!" \\ \\ Another Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan.

She asked the class, "If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?"

A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, "I think I'd throw \\ up." \\ \\ The preacher's 5 year-old daughter noticed that her father always paused and bowed his head, for a moment, before starting his sermon.

One day, \\ she asked him why.

"Well, Honey," he began, proud that his daughter was so observant of his messages, "I'm asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon."

\\ "How come He doesn't do it?"

she asked.

\\ \\ Art Linkletter was right, kids do say the darndest things.

But, like these children often, we have biblical misconceptions, too.

We’ll deal with one of them shortly, but first let me give you some background information on the book of John as we continue with this  series of messages that will take us right through the book from chapter one through to chapter twenty-one.

The book of John, the fourth of the gospels, is thought to have been written by John from his hometown of Ephesus somewhere around the end of the first century AD.  John and his brother James, who was martyred for his faith in 44 A.D., were the sons of a successful fisherman, Zebedee, and according to Mark 1:16-20, John and James were among the first four disciples chosen by Jesus to follow Him.

Jesus renamed James and John the “Sons of Thunder”, possibly because of their impetuous temperaments (Mk.3:17;

Luke 9:54).

It is believed John died of old age on the island of Patmos where he had been exiled in the last decade of the first century, possibly for religious reasons.

There is solid evidence that John also wrote the three epistles in his name as well as the book of Revelation.

John, who called himself “the disciple Jesus’ loved” (John 21:20,24) was an eye witness to the life of Christ, probably the youngest of Jesus’ apostles, and he is also considered to be one of Jesus’ inner circle – along with Peter and James (Mark 5:37; 9:2; 14:33) 

                       

The central theme of the book of John is to prove that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the unique Son of God.

No other Gospel has as explicit and precise a purpose as his (John 20:31).

Along with John’s excellent recollection of events in the life of the Savior, he presents a Spirit-inspired interpretation with the goal of encouraging his readers to accept God’s life, and to enjoy that life He provides through belief in Jesus.

Chapter 1, which we started a couple of weeks ago, contains in seed form most of the themes of the book.

Last time we looked at Jesus as the Word of Life and today as the Light of Life.

John displays an intense conviction of the centrality of the Person of Christ.

For the activity of Christ is only believable and understandable through the fact He is the Messiah, the Son of God, God Himself.

John also contributes greatly to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as the parakletos – the helper.

(John 14:16).

John records Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and to know Him is to have life eternal.

(John 1:29).

Elements of eschatology (endtimes prophesy) are also present in the book of John, including the themes of judgment and resurrection and the coming age.

In this book, the departure of Christ and the promised coming of the Holy Spirit tie together the realization and anticipation of the eternal life every believer enjoys through faith in Christ.

It is probable that John wrote after the other gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – and that he was aware of them.

As John did not set out to give the life story of Christ as the other Gospels did.

He set out to supplement the other Gospels with theological and philosophical interpretation of the Person and work of Jesus, especially suited to his Greek audience.

He has few parables, building his Gospel on seven key miracles.

He speaks much on eternal life, the Holy Spirit, and the deity of Jesus; he emphasizes events in Judea and south while the other gospels focus on Galilee and north.

John focuses on Jesus’ ministry to religious intellectuals while the other gospels emphasize Jesus’ ministry to the common people.

John provides our only information concerning the length of Christ’s public ministry.

So, let’s begin by turning to the book of John, chapter 1, and I’ll start by dispelling a common misconception found in verse 1. Let’s look at it together now: /“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God /

In the beginning was the Word and the Word is Jesus.

Jesus is the Word John is talking about in this verse, so let’s read it once more, this time substituting Jesus for His other name – the Word: /“In the beginning was Jesus, and the Jesus was God/

Everything we are and believe as Christians depends upon this: that Jesus Christ is God as well as Jesus Christ is man.

Fully God, fully human.

Everything depends on this.

Now let’s look at verses 2 through 5: /He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

/

The goal of the Bible and the goal of God in becoming human and the goal of this gospel of John are all the same.

And these goals are found in John 20:31, /"These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."/

So if my messages are going to be faithful to John's purpose in this gospel, my goal must be to help you believe in the Son of God and have eternal life.

That is the direction you should pray for me.

We begin today with verses 1–5 and I think I can make the point of these verses clearest by treating them in reverse order.

Here's what I see.

In verse 5 John says, /"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."

/(Some translations say, "have not understood it."

But an other place John uses this Greek word is in John 12:35 which says, /"Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you.")/

This is what I would call the "invincibility of light."

It is not overcome.

Here’s an experiment you can try some time.

Find a large totally dark room and light a birthday candle in the middle of the room.

Within a short time, your eyes will adjust and you will be able to see, not well mind you, but see, well enough, the whole room.

Light is like that, it pierces darkness.

There is no better analogy for Jesus than “He is the Light of the world.”

(John 8:12) John makes more references to light than do any of the other gospel writers (twenty three times in all).

Jesus pierces the darkness.

So you could label verse 5: "Light is triumphant over darkness."

But why is this the case?

Why does darkness not overcome the light?

How can we be sure that light will go on and completely overcome the darkness?

This is what verses 1–4 are written to answer.

They give three reasons why the light will triumph over the darkness.

So let's focus for a moment on the conflict of light and dark in verse 5 and then look at the three reasons in verses 1–4 why light will win.

When John says in verse 5 that /"the light shines in the darkness,"/ he means that the Word has become flesh.

Jesus has come into a dark world and is the light of the world.

In John 8:12 Jesus says, /"I am the light of the world."/

Right here in verse 9 it says, /"The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.

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

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not."/

So it's plain that Jesus is the one spoken of.

He is the light in verse 5.