Sermon Tone Analysis

John 1:1-18

 

 

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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.