THE LIGHT THAT SHINES

Introduction

-In the verses that I read last week, John described Jesus as the Life and that Life was the Light of men. Jesus elsewhere calls Himself the Light of the world.

-When you just consider the concept of light, scientifically it is quite a mystery. It has both particle and wave qualities. It is a source of energy. It is a source of power. It illuminates and radiates and is absolutely necessary for all life. Nothing is able to live without light, be it plant or animal.

-But what does this have to do with Jesus? Why use this metaphor for Jesus? Well, Jesus Himself is the spiritual light for everything that exists. Only through Him is any spiritual truth made visible and becomes knowable. Without the light of Jesus shining upon it, truth cannot be known in its entirety.

-Jesus alone is the source of spiritual power and energy to live a life pleasing to Him. And He is light because He reveals God as best as man can grasp him.

-As John MacArthur described this concept:

Our Lord Jesus Christ makes everything spiritual truly discernible and visible. You see the way the spiritual realm truly is, only in the light of Christ. Apart from Him, everything is dark. Even in the world of religion, the realm of religion, everything is dark without Christ.

-Thus, if we are to make our way to God, and have relationships and fellowship with God, and have a true, living religion, then it is only through Jesus as light that can shine our way to make it to Him.

-Even as a Christian, you come to church and you say that you want some truth brought to you to take home and live out—but without Jesus as the light shining your way, you will not grasp anything from His Word and you will not have power to live it out.

-Sin has made this world spiritually dull and dark, and thus in a natural sinful state mankind is blinded to truth and life. And even Christians can turn from the light at times and try to feel their way blindly through the darkness. But Jesus, as the light that shines in the darkness, has illuminated the ways and works of God for mankind to find their way, and to walk without stumbling.

-My prayer is that today you will first look to the Light who is Jesus, and allow that Light to guide you on the path that you walk—to not lean on your own understanding and your own way, because you do not have any light in you except that which is given to you by Christ. And when you turn from that light, you will stumble in life.

John 1:6–13 ESV

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. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

-What does John teach us about the Light? First he talks about:

I) The testimony of the Light (vv. 6-8)

-In vv. 6-8 John the apostle speaks about the ministry of John the Baptist, which can be summed up that he was sent to earth to prepare the way of the Lord, prepare the hearts of the people for Him, and most specifically TO BE A WITNESS.

-Three times the apostle says that the Baptist came to bear witness to Jesus Christ as the light. To bear witness is a legal term, meaning to give a testimony about the truthfulness of something.

-We have all watched some sort of legal drama unfold, and they bring somebody up on the witness stand, and that witness gives a testimony about some truth. They might point to the defendant and say: I SAW THAT MAN KILL THAT OTHER MAN. But whatever it is, they give a testimony about what they know to be true.

-This is what John the Baptist did. He bore witness to the person of Jesus Christ as the Light. He didn’t bear witness to a religion, he didn’t bear witness to a ritual, he didn’t bear witness to some sort of spiritual mysticism as the Light. He testified that the Light by which people are able to see is a person—Jesus.

-That is the testimony by which we ourselves are enlightened enough to find deliverance from sins, and that is the testimony that we than bear witness—Jesus Christ is the Light that will shine through the darkness you or anybody else is in, and lead you in the everlasting path.

-We don’t bear witness to a church, we don’t bear witness to a denomination, we don’t bear witness to a tradition. You’ll even notice that we don’t bear witness to ourselves—I like how the apostle emphasizes in v. 8 that John was not that Light, but bore witness to the Light.

-When we give a testimony about the Light, the emphasis is not on us, but on Jesus. We don’t try to promote ourselves, point to ourselves, or make ourselves the center of attention. All we know is that once upon a time, we were dead; and now we have life. Once upon a time, we were in darkness, but we have found the Light.

-We give the testimony that Jesus was born, Jesus died on the cross, Jesus rose from the dead, and because of that we know that He is the Light that is able to give life. And once we have that life through the Light, we then live our every moment in the illumination of that Light.

-That is the testimony John the Baptist gave, and now we give, about the Light.

-Secondly, the apostle talks about:

II) The availability of the Light (v. 9)

-In v. 9 the apostle tells us that this is the true light that came into the world—there are so many false lights that try to distract people from the true light.

-Have you ever been driving down a country road late at night, and a person coming head on to you forgets to turn off their brights, so that it shining to bright in your face you’re not able to see anything else: the road, the lines, the houses, the trees. Everything else seems to get drowned out.

-There are false lights out there that the world, the flesh, and the devil, put in front of us to try and distract us from seeing the truth of the Light of Jesus Christ. The world offers its entertainments, the flesh offers its pleasures, the devil offers false religion and false spirituality to make you think that you have your eternity settled. But those are false lights. There is only one true Light.

-And the devil works hard to distract people from the light, because he knows the truth—that the Light of Jesus Christ is available to everyone who is on the earth—just like it says in v. 8 THE TRUE LIGHT GIVES LIGHT TO EVERYONE, so he works hard to keep the people of the world from seeing the Light.

-But the Light is for everyone. It is not an exclusive Light, it is an inclusive Light. The True Light didn’t come just to shine for one particular nation or to shine for one particular race. He is the Light of the world, to lead all of humanity to God, if they would but receive and follow Him.

-And this has some implications for us.

~First, it is not for us to withhold the saving message of the gospel from anyone. It is not for us to figure out who will probably get saved, and who probably won’t, and choose based on our own wisdom who to share the testimony with and who not to. No matter a person’s nationality, race, gender, or life situation, the Light came to shine on them. We don’t withhold the message from anybody, but share it with everybody.

~Second, the work of the mission field ought to be a priority. It’s amazing that after 2000 years, there are still roughly 7000 unreached people groups, that represent over 3 billion people, who still do not have significant access to the Light. They have been in darkness far too long, and the Light came to shine on them, so we need to do what we can to get a witness to them.

~The third implication is that with availability of the Light also comes a great responsibility. While there are 3 billion people without significant access to the gospel, there are over 4 billion who do, and the vast majority of them have turned a blind eye to the testimony of the Light. Theirs is a greater condemnation.

~I believe that it was philosopher Bertrand Russell who said that if he would ever end up facing a God he didn’t believe in, he would tell God that he did not give enough evidence of His existence.

~What that statement really shows is that Russell turned a blind eye to the Light, for the true light came, and shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it; but people like Russell and others are like cockroaches, when the Light shines bright, they run away to hide.

-And this goes to demonstrate the third thing that the apostle talks about:

III) The rejection of the Light (vv. 10-11)

-The apostle goes on to say something amazing in vv. 10 & 11—the Light (Who is the Creator of all) came into His creation, and nobody knew it. Not just that, He came to his own chosen people, the people of Israel, and even they did not receive Him.

-This shows how depraved sin has made mankind, that they would turn their backs on their Maker and the Means of their salvation, and choose to live independently of Him, which only leads to destruction.----How far has man fallen that they would willfully choose darkness rather than choose Light.

-It’s not that there has been no witness to the Light. The Law, the Wisdom Writings, and the Prophets all prepared the people to look for the Light.

-Paul even says in Romans 1 that creation itself bears witness to the Light, demonstrating His deity and power. But what happens according to Paul is that people suppress the truth even though there are all these witnesses around them testifying to the truth of the Light. But because there is so much testimony to the Light, they are without excuse for rejecting Him.

-It is a willful rejection, not a choice of ignorance. It is a cry of thinking that they can assert some sort of independence from the reign of the King. It is a shaking of the fist at Jesus, saying: I WILL NOT LET YOU RULE OVER ME. I WOULD RATHER BE IN ETERNAL DARKNESS THAN SUBMIT TO YOU.

-It is like the rebellious teenager that will not listen to rule or reason, and thinks they know best, so rejects parental authority, only to find out too late that the consequences of their choice can have life-altering effects than cannot be undone.

-And what Paul goes on to say in Romans 1 is that in response to this rejection, God will give people up to the darkness. God will give them up to the darkness of sin in this world, and then when they die He will give them up to outer darkness that lasts for eternity.

-The Lord in essence says: YOU DON’T WANT MY LIFE AND YOU DON’T WANT MY LIGHT. I HAVE SHINED BRIGHT AROUND YOU, YET YOU STILL REJECT ME. YOU WANT DARKNESS, THEN I’LL GIVE IT TO YOU. YOU WILL HAVE A DARKNESS THAT WILL LAST ETERNITY. YOU WILL HAVE DARKNESS THAT HURTS. YOU WILL HAVE DARKNESS THAT WILL CUT YOU OFF FROM EVER HAVING RELATIONSHIP WITH ANYONE. FOR ETERNITY YOU WILL BE IN THE COLD DARKNESS OF LONLINESS, WITH NO LOVE, NO PEACE, AND NO HOPE EVER!

-And that is the price for rejecting the Light—you will get what you want==an everlasting darkness where the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die.

-But it doesn’t have to be this way, because what the apostle talks about next:

IV) The reception of the Light (vv. 12-13)

-The apostle says that all who receive the Light have the right or power or authority to become children of God. What does it mean to receive the Light?

-He clarifies that it means to believe in His name. That is, to place your trust in Jesus Christ in all the ways that He has revealed Himself. As the spotless Lamb of God. As the perfect sacrifice. As the King of kings and the Lord of lords. As the Alpha and Omega. As the Life and the Light.

-To become a child of God you receive Him as He fully is—the Son of God and the Son of Man—the one who takes away the sins of the world.

-Instead of rejecting Jesus, you receive Him in His fullness. That means you don’t just receive the parts about Him you like, but not the parts you don’t like. You receive Him as Savior, but also as Master and Lord. You receive Him as the Lover of your soul, but also the Judge of the living and the dead.

-To receive Jesus is to trust what the Bible says about Him for yourself—that He died for you, that He rose for you, that He rules over you. That He sets the standard for your life, not yourself.

-And the apostle goes on to describe it as a spiritual birth. We hit this later when Jesus tells Nicodemus that you have to be born again. To be a child of God means a new birth.

-So many people say that they are children of God because God created them—but that fact just means that you are a creation of God. To be a child of God means something different.

-Because the new, spiritual birth into God’s family is not by blood—your bloodline can’t make you God’s child. It doesn’t matter what your nationality is or who your parents are, you need to receive the Light for yourself.

-Some people are banking on going to heaven because their granddaddy was a preacher. I’m glad your granddaddy was a preacher, but it does you no good. You yourself have to receive the Light and receive the birth that come from God.

-This is not the birth of the flesh, the normal means of physical consummation and physical birth—it is not the will of man, your father and mother can’t choose for you to be a child of God.

-If you want to be a child of God, you must receive the Light (who is Jesus Christ) for yourself, believe who He is and what He has done, and receive this birth from God that brings you into His family.

-This means a repentance, a turning away from the life you are now leading, and trusting that Jesus is the Light.

Conclusion

-I’ll close with this:

A few years ago, the mayor of Toronto launched something called a “Light the Night” campaign. The idea was for residents to leave their lights burning overnight in order to discourage crime. A similar campaign was carried out in the Oakland, California, area. Reports did show that where there was plenty of light, crime was reduced, although it was not completely snuffed out.

-Where there is light, there is righteousness. Where there is light, there is holiness. Where there is light there is justice. Jesus Christ is THE Light. If you have not received Him, you are in darkness and always will be. Come forward and receive Him.

-Maybe you are a Christian, but you are not walking in light and things are messed up in your life. The apostle John said in one of his epistles:

if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 Jn. 1:7 ESV)

~Come to the altar, and cleanse yourself today.

-Maybe you are looking for a church home through whom you would like serve and shine the light of Jesus in the world. I invite you to come forward and join Harvest Baptist Church…