Untitled Sermon

John 1:5-9

December 5, 2021

“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.” John 1:1–9

PRAY

Since about 1880 our world has been awash with the glow of electric light. When the sun retreats behind the horizon each night, men and women everywhere gather around artificial lights in our homes and apartments.

The darkness that descends daily has long since ceased to herald the approach of danger and has become just….the sunset.

What to read? Turn on a light.

Play a game? Flip a switch.

Have a talk? Click the light.

Dinnertime? Get the light.

We are so used to living this way in the Western World that we forget how unusual this is in human history. We are among the very few who don’t think too much about the sunset because it doesn’t much impact our lives. Few of us alter our schedules or routines around sunrise and sunset.

But that was not the way it was.

For most of human history, people have associated danger with the night. They would rush home to be with their people and huddle around a fire before the sun danced over the horizon. The darkness outside was complete and thorough.

The first readers to the gospel of John knew the nightly routine where darkness draped itself over everything, leaving a woeful loneliness. Each day it was the same, night came and brought an all-encompassing baleful darkness.

And so for John to say—

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

The original readers would snap their heads to attention. They did not know a light of any kind that could shine unending into the void of darkness without being overcome. For them, when the sun withdrew, there were no matches, no flashlights, no light switches, no glowing phones.

Just fire.

And fire was notoriously fickle.

A fire provide light, but it was high maintenance. A campfire constantly needed wood or it would burn itself out. A lamp was fine, but the oil was expensive and didn’t burn forever. A candle was messy and you needed wax and wick. Eventually, all of these lights would be overtaken and darkness would rush in and claim that place again.

Darkness overtakes everything.

That is the way of our world.

Darkness overtakes everything. In more ways than one. There was another kind of darkness that permeated their world that had nothing to do with the sunset. There was and is a darkness about our world.

An evil, pernicious darkness still pervades our world.

It’s a—

A forlorn darkness: in our world, might makes right and those with the most money and power and fame and good looks come out on top. Darkness overtakes everything.

A lonely darkness: in our world, those who need help are so often afraid to ask for fear of being stigmatized or made fun of. Darkness overtakes everything.

An evil darkness: in our world, strife reigns. Strife between couples, siblings, neighbors, ethnicities, and nations is a constant reality. Darkness overtakes everything.

A malicious darkness: in our world is a place where special needs people are mocked and derided and taken advantage of, instead of helping. Darkness overtakes everything.

A violent darkness: in our world, death stalks everyone. Be it by accident, manslaughter, cancer, war, famine, pestilence, or old age. Darkness overtakes everything.

A dislocating darkness: in our world, too many people don’t have a purpose so they drift and wander through life like vagrants with no direction. Darkness overtakes everything.

Our world is dark.

Darkness, darkness everywhere that crowds out the light.

But Christmas celebrates the dawning of a new light. A light that cannot be extinguished.

You might say Advent (which means arrival) is a celebration of this bright and happy exception. For all of human history, darkness reigned.

Except once.

There is one light—and only one light—that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. For the very first time a light dawned that all the forces of darkness could not extinguish.

Christmas is an announcement that NOT that A light has come.

But the light.

The LIGHT shines into our forlorn world promising to make all things right.

The LIGHT shines into our lonely world assuring that there is someone to count on.

The LIGHT shines into our evil world pointing the way to the end of strife.

The LIGHT shines into our malicious world protecting the overlooked.

The LIGHT shines into our violent world illuminating eternal life.

The LIGHT shines into our dislocating world giving purpose to the wayward.

The light of Jesus Christ is not merely a merely an historic event but a current reality. This light of Jesus Christ shone then and still shines.

Last week we heard that there is no word like this word—today:

PROP: There is no light like the light of Jesus Christ.

Three things about this light we will see together—

The Word is the Light

Not All Want to See the Light

The True Light Still Shines

1. The Word is the Light—

John stacks image upon image to describe the coming of our Lord to that little corner of Palestine. Last week we saw that he was called “the Word.” This week he is “the Light.”

They are connected.

Jim spoke of it last week—look at verse 4,

[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.

In him was life. In Jesus, and Jesus alone, was life. The world was dark because it was a place devoid of life and dominated by death. John connects the life Jesus brings to the life Jesus brought.

See that? Of course you do. You are smart.

Another connection John wants us to make—The Word brings is the Light.

Through the Word—God’s first creative act was to call forth the light to shine upon all things. At creation, there could be no life without light. And there can be eternal life without the light of the word.

In the beginning—darkness was over the face of the deep. And in that moment darkness could not hold back the light as the Father spoke through the Word, “Let there be light.” And there was light. Darkness could not stay God’s hand.

Tragically, the sin of mankind plunged all things into darkness. This was a world dark and devoid of spiritual life. Again, the darkness could not stay the hand of God. Instead of speaking the light into existence through the Word, the Word himself became flesh, to shed light upon mankind.

Though dark forces sought to destroy this baby through Herod’s vile edict, they could not. Though the darkness incited his hometown to try and kill him after he preached in Luke 4, they could not.

How bright did this light shine?

Though Jesus was executed and his light was snuffed out, it was only a temporary victory. The light now shines and darkness has not, cannot, and will never overcome it. His light of his life shines forever and if there is one thing that mankind needs on this dark and decrepit planet its life. Not just any life—but eternal life.

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:28–29

Jesus is the Word who has come to bring the light of eternal life. The word is the Light.

There is no light like Jesus.

2. Not All Want to See the Light

How do we know?

Vs. 6,

[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.

We know that not everyone wanted to see the light is because John the baptizer had to bear witness about the light. Normally light doesn’t need an explanation, but the light of the Word did. And that is what John the Baptizer sought to do.

The world was steeped in darkness and liked it that way.

Don’t believe me? Listen to Jesus,

“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.” John 3:19–20

The truth about all of us is that we live in a dark world and we have darkness bound in our lives as well. The darkness of the world does not just stain everything out there, but it also stains me and you and all of us.

And our eyes can get accustomed to the darkness and we can run from the light.

People are either drawn to Jesus or repelled from him. Some want help with their darkness others would rather hide in the darkness than give themselves over to him.

Do you see why?

None of us want our evil deeds exposed, even if we haven’t done anything THAT bad—we can HATE to admit that we really need help. It is easy to think that something in our lives needs to change but instead of looking to ourselves—we look to:

Our job

Our bank account

Our boyfriend

Our wife

Our kids

Our physique

We can be content to look anywhere, everywhere, expect at ourselves.

John the Baptizer called people to realize that they needed fundamental personal change.

All of us who follow Jesus remember the time when we realized that the we could not scrape the darkness out of our souls by ourselves. All of us remember the realization that we need help from Jesus.

I remember one time I got a call from a desperate friend. He called me and was in a panic. He said we had to talk and soon. We met for lunch and he told me that all of a sudden one day he had a deep sense of how dirty he was, how wrong and messed up he was. And he could do nothing to make himself right.

I told him about the life Jesus brings and he has followed Jesus ever since.

Is that the situation you are in?

The first step is often the most difficult. And that is admitting that you need help. That you are not enough. That you have done wrong and you need someone else to put you right. There are no magic words to say. You don’t even have to say anything out loud.

You can just ask Jesus in the stillness of your heart that you don’t want to live in darkness anymore and you want to dispel all the darkness that is in your heart. He stands ready and willing to forgive. His is a light that still shines.

Do you see?

There is no light like the Light of Jesus.

The Word is the Light

Not All Want to See the Light

3. The True Light Still Shines

Vs. 9,

[9] The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”

John makes explicit that this light that brings life was not going ot stay at a respectable distance from this dark world, he would come.

The Word that was in the beginning with God. The Word that was God. The Word through whom all things were made THAT word was coming into the world.

And his light, the true light still shines. We see this in two places in our text this morning—

Vs. 5,

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

Vs. 9,

[9] The true light, which gives light (now and forevermore) to everyone, was coming into the world.”

There is no light like light of Jesus.

His light shines still.

Christian, Does that bring you comfort?

Christmas comes and Christmas goes and the fact that God the Son became a man can become—dare I say it—cliché. The true light of Christ that gives light still shines.

It is not just that Jesus is the only way to eternal life. That is true. But it is also true that Jesus is the only way to real comfort for us who are Christians. The true light of Jesus shines still and his light is the only light that can bring genuine comfort to you.

How?

The writer to the Hebrews gives us one way—

“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. [18] For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Hebrews 2:17–18

He is a merciful and faithful to us in this our weak state. He knows how hard the temptations are that come and accost us. He knows what it is like to have of fend off intrusive thoughts and temptations. He knows and he is able to help.

Do you see?

The fact that Jesus has come as a man is the exact reason that he is able to help. He understands. Not just what we are going through but also how we feel.

Do you realize that? Jesus understands how you feel—not just because he knows all things—but because he became a man. He knows how you feel as Calvin says not just because he “put on our flesh but because he put on our feelings also.”

He put on our feelings also. I read that this week and it helped me so very much. Sometimes the angst inside my soul is so profound, so troubling that I scarcely have words to describe it much less know how to get rid of those feelings.

Sometimes negative feelings can plague me like stink on a skunk.

Our savior, the true light who shines still understands. He does not just understand he knows exactly how to help because he had had those same kind of negative feelings.

Calvin goes on,

“For in a priest, whose office it is to appease God’s wrath, to help the miserable, to raise up the fallen, to relieve the oppressed, mercy is especially required, and it is what experience produces in us. For it is a rare thing for those who are always happy to sympathize with the sorrows of others…

The Son of God had no need of experience that He might know the emotions of mercy. But we could not be persuaded that He is merciful and ready to help us had He not become acquainted by experience with our miseries.

Therefore whenever any evils pass over us, let it ever occur to us, that nothing happens to us but what the Son of God has Himself experienced in order that He might sympathize with us; nor let us doubt but that He is at present with us as though He suffered with us…” John Calvin

There is no light like light of Jesus.

There is no help for us like the help that Jesus offers—because there is no light like the light of Jesus Christ.

We still live in a dark world. It will continue to affect us as long as we live here. The darkness is not forever. The light shines into the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Yes, one day we will live in a bright city with no night and no darkness and all of the nations will walk by the light of Word of life. But his light shines today.

But what about today?

What about when you feel the forlorn darkness reaching for you as you see evil win and good look so inept? His light still shines and though darkness seems to have all the power, and one day he will pay back all the evil doers with exactly what they deserve.

There is no light like light of Jesus.

What about when you feel a lonely darkness grasping at you? His light shines in the darkness and he promises to stand with you in and through anything. He will not often deliver you out of your lonely darkness as much as meet you in it.

There is no light like light of Jesus.

What about when you feel all the strife of this evil darkness coming for you? His light shines in the darkness he as the word brings peace with God, and a peace which is greater than our understanding.

There is no light like light of Jesus.

What about when you feel the tentacles of that malicious darkness? The darkness is not dark to him—he helps ALL who call upon him. NOT the deserving but EVERYONE.

There is no light like light of Jesus.

What about when you feel the icy, dark chill of death? Jesus will not let you walk through that alone—his light shines from beyond the grave.

There is no light like light of Jesus.

What about when you continue to feel the winds of a dislocating darkness? Jesus gives the light of life and he can and will light your way and give you purpose.

There is no light like light of Jesus.

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

PRAY

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal. Hebrews 13:20-21