The True Light

We saw in John 20:30-31 “30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

John is motivated to convince people about who Jesus is.

And if they believe that Jesus is the messiah, the son of God, then they may have life in his name.

John wants us to know and believe in Jesus b/c he is concerned with our eternal life.

He is concerned with our salvation.

He is concerned with our right believing about who Jesus is.

We can’t make up, form, or shape Jesus into someone made in our own image we have to believe on him based on who he is.

How he has revealed himself.

Then we switched gears and looked at the opening lines of John 1.

This is called the prologue in vs.1-18.

And what John is doing in these crucial verses is teasing out what he is going to prove throughout the rest of the gospel.

He is foreshadowing and giving us a glimpse of what it to come in the rest of the gospel.

In those opening lines of the prologue John wants to reassure us that Jesus preexisted creation.

That he existed before the world began.

And that he is God.

And for the rest of the prologue John is going to tease this idea out even further.

Why is this important?

Why is it so important that we understand Jesus’ true identity.

Because if you change who Jesus is you no longer have the truth.

You no longer have Christianity.

You no longer have salvation.

You no longer have God.

At the fundamental level, who Jesus was/is is way more important than what he did and what he taught.

His teachings and miracles served to prove who he is.

So we can’t go around and minimize Jesus to just the golden rule.

Or just to love our neighbor as our self.

Or just to the sermon on the mount.

We can’t minimize Jesus to just his teaching b/c if we do we are attempting to strip away his real authority.

We are attempting to strip away his lordship.

And we will weaken our faith, if we have any to begin with, if Jesus is simply a teacher, prophet, or moral authority.

It is only when we realize that these teachings come from God that we can trust that they hold any actual weight.

Authority.

and even relevance.

B/c if Jesus isn’t who he said he is, that is God in flesh, then we can’t trust anything he taught anyway.

But if he is who he said he is, then we have to believe what he said, what he revealed, and what he taught or else we are living in rebellion against God.

So this morning we are going to look at vs. 3-13, in these verses we are going to see Jesus as creator, John as a witness, and responses to the truth.

Let’s pray

John 1:3–5 CSB

3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

Creator

We touched on this last week a little bit, but I think it’s important for us to understand that Jesus is not part of creation, rather he is the creator.

There is not one thing that exists that wasn’t created by him.

I want you to notice how John states it.

He states Jesus’ creating in both a positive and negative way

Jn 1:3 “3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.”

Everything in all of creation owes it’s creating to Jesus.

I saw this post on FB earlier this week were they were talking about the size of our universe.

The post began by showing the size of our solar system.

It compared the size of the planets to each other and then to the sun.

Then it zoomed out and showed our sun next the closest start to us, and it looked tiny.

Eventually, the author of the post showed a picture that the Hubble telescope took.

The telescope pointed at the same part of the darkness we can see for four months.

To the human eye it was simply a speck in space.

But after four months of capturing all the light it could from this little speck in the sky, Hubble found that hidden there out of our view were galaxies.

Some 13 billion light years away, there are galaxies that we didn’t know existed until 2003.

And in these galaxies are planets, stars, and solar systems.

This was just a small slice of what is out there.

Now some people will say that discoveries like this should put us in our place.

That we should look out to the skies and the stars above and know that our lives are insignificant.

That we just happen to live on this pale blue dot in the universe.

In comparison with the universe our lives are insignificant.

How could our lives ever matter?

But instead I want to cry out with the biblical authors that Ps 19:1 “1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.”

and

Psalm 147:4 “4 He counts the number of the stars; he gives names to all of them.”

The creation of God should drive us toward him.

There are 125 billion galaxies that we know of.

And on average 100 million stars in each galaxy.

Meaning that there are approximately 200 billion trillion stars in the universe.

That is 200 with 21 zeros after it.

And the God who created all that, also created you.

You are not insignificant.

You are made in God’s image.

You matter to God.

His creation matters so much that he decided to enter into it.

All things created owe their creation to him.

1 Cor 8:6 “6 yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.”

Can you see how arrogant it is to think that they can live without God.

And yet many do.

God has been gracious to us.

He has shown us his beauty, creativity, and provision in the works of his hand.

His fingerprints are all over creation.

Did you know that there is yet to be a civilization found that doesn’t believe in a higher power.

Do they necessarily believe in the true God of creation?

No. but they do look out at our world and attribute all they see, experience, touch, and do to someone or something outside themselves.

Why is that?

Because the design of the universe.

The design of our bodies.

The design of our ecosystems

Tells us that there has to be something outside of us that made it all.

While I was thinking about this aspect of God creating everything I came across a field of study called Bio-mimicry.

Bio-mimicry is the "new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems".

So we look at nature and it’s design and think, huh, I bet we can use that to make our lives better and/or easier.

Here are just a few examples.

Needles mimic a mosquito nose.

Velcro was invented by a Swiss engineer that came up with the idea after taking his dog for a walk and noticing burrs that had attached themselves to his pants and his dog’s fur.

A woodpeckers head was used to help us figure out how to create black boxes for airplanes.

These are just a few of the examples.

So we as the creation can use what the creator has given us to help improve our lives.

And this demonstrates that there has to be someone outside ourselves that is way better at design than we are.

This is just one aspect of what theologians call General Revelation.

God has revealed himself to us through his creation.

But General revelation isn’t enough to get us to the true creator.

As can be witnessed by the many civilizations that worship false gods.

We need special revelation.

We need to know the life giver.

Jn 1:4-5 “4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.”

In John, the words life and light are used frequently.

They are used in relation to both physical and spiritual life and light.

Jesus gives life because he is self-existing.

He is the life b/c life springs from him.

And his life, the life he gives is the light of men.

There is a battle between light and darkness in the gospel of John.

Light represents the fingerprints of God in the world

Light is the goodness and beauty of God.

And though there is a battle between light and darkness, it isn’t an even battle.

It is a one sided battle on the side of light.

In Genesis 1:2, we see that the first thing created was light.

Now lets not conflate these things. I am not saying that Jesus was created.

I just want to be clear.

But Light was created in Gen 1:2, to dispel the darkness.

So that order can be brought out of chaos.

Light is a source.

Darkness doesn’t exist on its own, darkness is simply the absence of light.

When light is present, darkness is banished.

The ancient people knew this as well.

Where light is, darkness is dispelled.

Light is more powerful than darkness in every way.

So darkness has no chance of overcoming light.

Now in John’s gospel darkness is not only the absence of light, but it is also positive evil.

Evil is darkness.

Good is light.

So if Jesus, or the Word is life and light he is the prime example of Good.

He is holy, righteous, separated from the wickedness of this world.

Notice it doesn’t say that the Word is bringing the light.

John says that in him was life and light.

His very essence, being, and character was light and life

We also have to recognize that John is writing his gospel with a resurrection viewpoint.

He already knows about Jesus’ victory over the darkness.

The darkness of man’s heart is on full display in Jn 13:30 when Judas leaves to betray Jesus.

John makes sure to tell us that he left at night.

Under the cover of darkness.

Even with that darkness abounding the light could not be overcome.

It could not be overwhelmed.

It could not be snubbed out, snuffed out, or spit out.

The light wins.

Try as it may, darkness cannot over come the light.

Pause.

Now in the prologue there is what seems like a weird transition that happens.

John is talking about the Word, life, light, and then he introduces a new character.

Not Jesus, but John.

It may seem a little jarring as you read it, but it is there intentionally.

Because the Author John is moving from the God of Creation, to God’s incarnation.

Incarnation is just a fancy word that means Jesus coming to dwell with his people in human form, while also still being God.

Fully human. Fully God.

John 1:6–8 CSB

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

Witness

We are introduced to John the Baptist.

We learn essentially 3 things about John the Baptist in these 3 verses.

First, He was sent by God.

Second, He came as a witness.

Third, he was not the light.

Many scholars believe that at the time of this writing that John the Baptist had a significant following.

That John the gospel author is making sure that followers of John the Baptist recognize that he wasn’t the one they were waiting on.

But John wants to make it crystal clear that John the Baptist is not John the Christ.

John the Baptist serves as a bridge between the Old Testament and the the New.

He is the final prophet to declare the coming king.

John was specifically called by God and sent by God to accomplish preparing the way for Jesus.

John was baptizing people and calling them to repentance, all the while knowing that there was one that would come after him that was greater than him.

Later on in John 1:23, John the baptist quotes his calling to those asking who he his.

He leans back on the scriptures and quotes

Isa 40:3 “3 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.”

John knew his role, even though others were confused or confounded by who, what, and why he was doing what he was called.

He was a mirror.

He was called to make much of Jesus.

He was created to bear witness to the light.

He could have amassed a following all his own.

He could have claimed to be the messiah.

Or be the prophet promised by Moses.

He could have made a name for himself, but instead he humbly served the Lord.

He was sent by God, to serve God, and to point to the Savior.

And why?

So that people would believe through him.

I think it’s interesting that here when speaking about John the Baptist, John the beloved disciple, first brings up the theme of belief.

John the Baptist is tasked with witnessing, declaring, and proclaiming the truth of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ.

That he is the herald of Jesus.

He is the witness to Jesus’ coming.

And it is his calling to tell others.

To testify to the light.

And the author wants us to make sure we understand that John isn’t the light.

I want to be transparent for a minute.

For many pastors, myself included, it is a temptation to want to build a bigger platform.

To want to make much of myself.

To want to rob all the praise and worship from God and place it on myself.

Think about it, week in and week out, we get to stand in front of a group of people, who willingly show up, and talk to them for as long as we can.

The temptation to talk about hobby horses or pet peeves or even pat ourselves on the back is real.

And unfortunately, many pastors fall into this trap.

Many pastors Sunday after Sunday preach their own preferences, their own desires, pet peeves, or hobby horse.

and in these instances it isn’t about what God has proclaimed or declared it’s about what I want God to say.

You’ll see it on TV, you’ll hear it on the radio, and even in churches around the country.

But rather than wanting to build bigger platforms or teach on our personal preferences, pastors should be more like John the Baptist.

Our calling is to testify to the light.

Our calling is to magnify Jesus.

We are not the light, we are testify about the light.

This is also true of all Christians.

We shouldn’t use Jesus to elevate ourselves.

We should use our lives to elevate him.

Our very existence is to bear witness about the light.

It’s remarkable that the witness of believers is the way that God speaks to people.

Witnessing is God’s Sovereign plan for people to come to know him.

Sure there are instances when people dream of Jesus, or when there is a vision of Jesus and people come to believe.

But God’s primary tool in bring people to himself is people.

People like you.

People like me.

We are God’s evangelistic strategy.

God is inviting us to join him in the mighty work that he is doing.

We show other people the light.

There are people all around us who are walking in spiritual darkness.

They are blind to the life and light found in Jesus.

Yet God in his mercy, grace, and love invites us to show them the light.

To tell them about the great love of Jesus.

So that the scales can fall from their eyes and they can experience love, grace, mercy, and acceptance like never before.

But to do that we have to be truly selfless.

We have to get over out doubts.

Get over our fears.

Get over our selves.

And testify to the light.

Now in our testifying to the light.

As we are obedient to our calling we will witness the polar opposite responses to the light.

Let’s see what John has to say about humanities response to the light.

John 1:9–13 CSB

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

Response to the Light

So the light that created the world came into the world to shine.

Yet the world did not know him.

The one who stood outside of creation, brought about all the order out of chaos, had now stepped down into his creation and his creation did not know him.

Did not recognize him.

And the kicker is in Jn 1:11 “11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

Even those with a special relationship with God did not receive him.

They had all the revelation.

They had experienced God’s hand moving through history.

They had the stories of God rescuing them from the hand of Pharaoh.

They had the stories of God bringing them into the promised land.

They had the promises that a Savior was coming.

The OT talks about the Jewish people as God’s treasured possession (Deut. 7:6)

That he would be their God and they would be his people.

They had

And yet they rejected him.

Jesus came home and the door was slammed in his face.

The God that had once walked in the Garden with his creation was rejected by those he came to save.

As people, we like to categorize people.

Whether it politics.

Race.

Which side of the tracks someone lives on.

Aggies or longhorns.

Cowboys or Texans.

It doesn’t matter what it is if we can categorize someone it dictates how we should think about them.

But I am here to tell you there are only two groups that matter to God.

Those who believe and those who don’t.

You either receive Jesus or you reject him.

I’m sure you have all heard it said that we are all God’s children.

It isn’t a nice sentiment.

And in a way I guess it’s somewhat true.

We are all made in his image so we have that relational bond.

But here John is distinctly telling us that there is group of people who are the actual children of God and it is those who receive Jesus.

Those who believe and hold fast to his message and his grace.

We become adopted into the Family of God.

We become heirs of the kingdom.

We receive spiritual blessings.

For those who believe in his name.

What does it mean to believe in his name?

First we have to understand again what it means to believe.

This isn’t a focus on head knowledge.

Knowing facts about Jesus.

Knowing stories about Jesus.

Knowing people who believe in Jesus.

Knowing Systematic Theology.

Knowing All the Hymns by heart.

Knowing where to find all the scripture verses.

No, this isn’t about “what” you know.

It’s about “whom” you know.

Jesus isn’t a baseball card to memorize.

He is a person to trust.

So until you meet him, trust him, submit to him, and believe him, then you really don’t know him.

You know about him. That’s not good enough.

If you want to be a child of God, you have to know Him.

That means you have to accept personally the reality that God left Heaven and came to live with sinners so that he could save us from sin and death.

You believe and trust in his character, promises, and life.

That’s what it means to believe in his name.

It means that you trust what he said.

You believe in what he did.

You know that he is the creator and you willingly submit to him.

His name, Jesus Christ, is more than a label, it’s his character.

And when you truly believe in him, then you are born again.

That means that your desires change.

You are made new.

Your heart and attitude toward sin change.

You have a spiritual birth in which the Light of Jesus has opened you eyes.

This new birth can’t be brought about by your own will.

By your families will.

Only by the will of God.

Only he can accomplish it.

I know that its’ going to make some of you uncomfortable, but you can’t save yourself.

There is nothing that you can do that will bring you into right relationship with God.

Being a child of God is a work of God.

I want within every fiber of my being for my children to know the love, grace, and mercy of God.

But at the same time I know that I can’t save them.

That doesn’t allow me to shirk the responsibility of teaching them about God.

But there is absolute nothing I can do to save them.

Becoming a child of God is a spiritual work.

Our only participation is responding in faith.

By believing and receiving what Jesus has done for you.

And if you are part of this family.

Your new birth is nothing short of a miracle.

Doesn’t matter what family you came from.

Doesn’t matter what your past is littered with.

All that matters is that God has saved you.

He has called you son or daughter.

You see the Jewish people believed that it was their right to be children of God.

That they deserved it.

But here John is telling us that it isn’t about your history, pedigree, or genealogy, it’s about the work of God.

His calling you to himself.

His saving you from sin and death.

So it’s not about your parents.

It’s not about your past.

It’s about what you do with Jesus.

So let me ask you.

Which group do you belong to.

Not which group do you hope you belong to.

But where are you today.

Are you certain that you are a child of God?

Are you walking in the light of Jesus?

Or are you still walking around in darkness?

Have you ever repented of your sins, asked for forgiveness, and given your life, all that you are over to him?

If not, you are probably still waking in darkness.

If you have seen the true light.

If you have been made a child of God.

What are you doing with it?

Are you being a herald of the light?

Are you being like John the Baptist and testifying to the light?

Because it’s a dark world out there and people need the light of Jesus.

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