Light In The Darkness
John 1:1-18
Introduction
Several weeks ago my wife and her sister planned an 80th birthday party for their single aunt. She is a special lady and 80 is a significant number so they made it a special affair. People came from Vancouver, Toronto and Minneapolis to celebrate with us.
If 80 is significant, how much more significant is 2000? This is a special year for us as Christians to celebrate the birthday of our Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ. I know that the mathematical numbers tell us something different, but all our lives we have been celebrating according to that number system and so we probably should make a big deal of it. This year and indeed every year, we have great reason to celebrate.
At my wife’s aunt’s birthday there was some reflection of what the year of her birth was like. She was born in 1919 and she got a card from some people which contained a list of some of the significant things which happened in that year.
When we look back and think about the time in which Jesus was born, what kinds of things do we think about?
One of the things that comes to mind is that it was a time of great darkness.
If we think that sports is getting more and more violent today, the time of Jesus was even more so. In that time, gladiators fought to the death and throwing people to lions was a spectator sport. If sport is a reflection of life, sport that is that violent would suggest a very violent society. The world was dark with violence.
Poverty and economic oppression were great. Slavery was everywhere. They say that a majority of the people living in Rome were slaves. Indeed, the entire economy was dependent on slave labor. Darkness was great in terms of human rights.
We also recognize the great spiritual darkness. When Paul was in Athens, one of the great centers of intellectual advancement, he encountered numerous statues to all the different gods that people worshipped, including one to an unknown god, just in case some god would be missed and offended. Even the Jews with all their knowledge of the Word of God, were in darkness about God and did not know Him. They had heard the word of God through the prophets, but did not understand it.
Isaiah 9:2 speaks about “the people walking in darkness…” but then goes on to prophecy that they have seen a great light. John 1:1-18 is a wonderful passage which speaks about Jesus as that light which came into that dark world. This is a key concept among the many in this passage. It appears 7 times in 5 verses, more than any other word in this passage.
When I was young, my parents owned a photo studio and I often helped. Whenever we developed film, it had to be done in complete darkness. Every move you made, even in a room that you had memorized was done carefully by feel and you never felt quite comfortable. At a certain point in the process, the light could be turned on. What a relief to see again, to be able to stop feeling your way around.
The reason for the great celebration of Jesus birth at this time is because He came as a light into a dark place. What did this mean and what does it mean for us today?
I. Jesus is the Light
When we say that Jesus came into the world as the light of the world, we need to understand that he did not come as the one holding the light or a reflection of the light. The youth group in Manitou used to go on night hikes. Several times I went along. The person who was leading the hike would be one who knew the route and he would have a flashlight to find the way. The rest of us would follow. We did not call him the light, only the one holding the light. Jesus, however, is the light and not merely the one holding the light.
If anyone has ever played with a mirror on a sunny day trying to reflect the sun into your eyes, you know how annoying that can be. The game can be stopped very quickly, however, simply by taking the mirror away from the person because the mirror is not the source of light, but only the instrument that causes the reflection of light. Jesus, however, is the light and not merely the reflection of light.
One of the things this passage is very careful to teach us is that Jesus came from God, as God, to show us the truth and the will and the way of God. In that sense he is the light. Please take note of the different ways in which Jesus is presented as the divine source, the light.
In verse 1, we are told that he is the Word. This term using both Jewish and Greek imagery communicates that Jesus is the original source of all things. Greeks would have thought of the term referring to that which is the source. Jews would have thought of the term and reflected on the creation account in which God created by a word. To call Jesus the word was to use powerful language to describe him as the source of all.
We are told that Jesus was in the beginning with God and that he was God. This in itself reinforces the divinity of Jesus and that he was not just the light holder or reflector, but the source of truth, peace, hope and seeing.
We are told that he was creator. All things came into being through Him. The one who made light, is Himself light.
We are told that he was the life. He shines into this world to give life to all that is dead.
In verse 18, another beautiful image describes the intimacy of Jesus with the Father. In KJV the phrase used is “In the bosom of the Father” NIV has created a little more distance, but still conveys the sense when it says, “at the Father’s side.” Another translation would be “lap.” The imagery is to suggest that Jesus was with God, knew God and indeed was God. The whole idea here whether using the imagery of light, the language of being with or the picture of being in the bosom, is to tell us that Jesus knew God intimately and had a close relationship with him. When He shone into this dark world, He shone as the source of light because He came from the source of light.
This in itself is reason to celebrate this Christmas. Light has shone into this dark world. Or to put it more simply, God has come. Many people honor Jesus as a great teacher, along with other teachers, but we have something much greater to celebrate. He is not merely a teacher, He is the truth. He is not merely a philosopher, He is the main idea. He is not merely a reflection, but the light of the world.
II. Jesus Came Among Us To Bring Light
But there is more reason to celebrate. At concerts or shows, there is a person who runs the spotlight. He is far from the action and shines the light down on the action with a powerful spotlight. Jesus was not the one shining from afar, but came right into this dark world and shone the light among us. This is the wonder of the incarnation which is described in this passage.
It is most clearly seen in John 1:14. “The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth.” This passage speaks of seeing, but not of seeing a light in the distance or shone at us from a distance. It speaks of the light shining in our midst as one of us so that we could see the light of God’s grace and truth right among us.
Although I have never watched all of it and find it to be quite irreverent, George Burns in the movie “O God” does give us one illustration that is helpful. When speaking to the grocery clerk to whom he has chosen to reveal himself, he is wearing running shoes and a fishing cap. When the grocery clerk questions this, Burns says, “I picked a look you could understand.” That is what Jesus did. He became a man and shone the light of God in our midst through the veil of human flesh. In Jesus, we see what God is like right here on earth.
Maker of the sun,
He is made under the sun.
In the Father he remains,
From his mother he goes forth.
Creator of heaven and earth,
He was born on earth under heaven.
Unspeakably wise,
He is wisely speechless.
Filling the world,
He lies in a manger.
Ruler of the stars,
He nurses at his mothers bosom.
He is both great in the nature of God,
and small in the form of a servant.
What a glorious thing it was for Jesus to come and shine as the light among us. In the Old Testament, God had lived among the people in the tent of meeting. His presence was hidden in mystery and fear. Now Jesus, God himself has come among us. God himself shining his light among us in a human being. Jesus reveals the Father, not in philosophical words, but in the Word that became flesh and showed us to our very eyes what God is really like. In Jesus, we see God.
This is an amazing thing. John 1:18 says, “no one has ever seen God…” Both the Bible and many philosophers tell us that it is impossible for people to see God. There was a philosophy which arose some years after the time of Jesus which taught that God is so holy and so far above all that is earthly, that He cannot come near it. In order to communicate with human beings, God sent out emanations from himself, each one a little less pure and holy and a little more human until there was one which was able to communicate with people, and that, they say, was Jesus. How different from what the Bible tells us here that God himself, the source of light has personally shone in this dark world to show us the truth and light of heaven.
This is reason to celebrate. The light of God has personally come among us.
III. In His Light We See!
So into this dark world of sin and violence and ignorance of God, Jesus came as the light of the world who would reveal the truth of God, bring peace and the light of salvation to darkened human hearts.
As we look at our world today, however, we wonder, “Where is this light?”
A few weeks ago, we participated in the Calvary temple production of the Messiah. The program included a video presentation of pictures of wars and revolutions, sung to the song, “Why do the nations so furiously rage together” from Psalm 2. It was a powerful presentation reminding us that though Jesus came into the world as the light of the world, it is still a world of darkness. Violence is everywhere. What makes people kill their neighbors? What makes children start fires? Why are so many people trapped in addictions?
A few days ago at the place I was working, I overheard a conversation which showed me how some people look at Christmas. Someone was upset that a relative of theirs had told their children that there was no Santa Claus. In further conversation, I suddenly realized that to them Christmas was the spirit of giving realized in Santa Claus. Jesus has come and this celebration is called Christ-mas, but people are in darkness.
A month or two ago, my wife and I walked down Corydon, near our home, and visited some of the interesting shops. In many of them, there were book shelves with many books on spiritual topics – all along the line of what has been classified as “new age,” many of them on the occult. People are searching for light, but looking for it in dark corners. The darkness in this world is very great.
So if the light has come into this world, where is that light?
A. People Prefer Darkness
The answer is given in the text when we read in 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” It is further answered when we read in vs. 10,11, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
This is not really that hard to understand. Every morning, we get up about 6:30. My wife gets up first and every morning, she warns me, “I am going to put the light on.” Well you know my reaction don’t you. I shut my eyes tight and put the covers over my head. I don’t want to see the light.
So also people of this world do not want to see the light. They prefer the darkness. And the result is that after 2000 years of light in this world, most people are still walking in darkness. This is the sad part of Christmas. It reminds us that celebration is not enough, we must also keep on shining the light into this dark world. Jesus was the light that came into the world, we are reflectors of his light and need to keep on shining his light into the world.
B. Those Who Received Him
But the light that Jesus brought into this world is still shining in this world.
1. The light of salvation
The light which Jesus brought into this world still shines in the gospel proclamation which goes out and invites people to follow Christ and find life through faith in Christ.
The most exciting thing that happened to me this week happened on Monday when in the last hour of the day, I got to work together with a young fellow. We had never met and so I asked him some questions and he asked me some questions and found out I was a minister. When he found that out, he asked permission to ask me some questions and for the next 45 minutes, he asked one spiritual question after another. I was able to share the gospel with him. He asked about a confusion he had regarding the death of Jesus, was it the Jews or the Romans that killed Jesus. I was able to tell him that it was both, but that the real reason for His death was that he gave himself to die for our sins. The look on his face was one of amazement, he had never heard that before. When we finished, I offered my phone number so that we could talk again and he was eager to accept it. The light of Jesus shines when we share the gospel and when we and others receive the gospel by receiving salvation.
Is there darkness in your world, in your life? Jesus is the light of the world who has come to dispel that darkness by offering salvation.
2. The light which comes to the world
The light of Jesus shines when people live differently because of Jesus. This past week, there was an item on the news about a teacher who has offered to give her kidney to one of her students. In the interview, she made it very clear that she was doing this because of her faith in God. The light which Jesus brought into the world shines when people live giving and sacrificial lives in this dark world.
3. The light of missions
The light Jesus brought into the world shines when the gospel is spread into all the world. It struck me as a wonderful thing, when one of the Christmas cards we got had the greeting “Joyous Christmas” in 6 languages. That reminded me that the light which Jesus brought is now shining into all corners of the world wherever the gospel is being proclaimed.
4. The Light of Relationship
At this time in my life, the aspect of the light shining which is the most precious to me is the possibility of a close relationship with God. The light shines into my heart in terms of being able to know God in closeness of relationship.
One of the aspects of the light which we talked about is that Jesus was the light in the sense that He was in the presence of God and saw all that God was. We also talked about Jesus being in the bosom, or lap of the Father. His being the light meant intimacy and closeness with God.
When Jesus came into the world, and shone that light into this world, as we said, not from afar, but by coming right among us, he opened up the possibility for us to see God and to also enter into such a relationship of closeness to God. Notice the things which this passage says about such a glorious possibility.
For example, 1:12 says, that all those who believed in his name become children of God. That is a wonderful picture of intimacy, of beholding the light of God in intimacy. Verse 14 says that “we have seen his glory” which also reminds us of the light of knowing God which has come into our own hearts. Then verse 18 says that Jesus, who is close to God, has made Him known.
Light is seen when by faith in Jesus we come to God and receive not only forgiveness and salvation from our sins, but the adoption as sons and the possibility of knowing God in a close and personal relationship.