The Light of Life

John explains what the Savior, the Light, came to do, and how those He came to do it for would respond to Him, and how.

If you have your Bible, you’re going to open up to John chapter 1 today. There are no slides. So, if you want to follow along, we’ll be in John chapter 1 the majority of the time. I have some other verses I’ll reference, but I’ll read those to you guys. There are Bibles in front and behind you in case you didn’t bring one today. You’re more than welcome to use those. John Chapter 1, as Ingrid read the verses 1 through 18, we will be primarily hovering over verses 9 through 13. That was just to give us some context. Let me pray for us before we get started in God’s word. Father, we are so grateful for the gift of your son. Literally the calendar history centers around this event. It changed everything. Just like light impacts everything. The rising the fall in the sun, makes it warmer and colder in Minnesota. Gives us light. Illuminates our path. And God use that as a metaphor of you’re the light of life, you’re the light of this world. So, God we’re asking now, would you illuminate our minds and our hearts to your word? Make it clear. Make it understandable. God, we pray that you’d help us to be obedient and walk in it today. We’re grateful for the many gifts, the many blessings, above all which is the love of your Son. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

So the opening verses of John’s gospel introduces to us Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God. John wants his readers to know that Jesus is fully God in the form of man. He reveals the purpose of Jesus’s coming verses 4 through 5. He says “in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it”. Beautiful verse. Jesus Christ came into the world to be a spiritual light in the darkness. John’s Gospel and the Book of Genesis open up with the exact same three words “in the beginning”. And the process of generating life in Genesis, light was God’s initial instruments for illuminating the dark and the formless void that was Earth. It’d be the first of many instances in which Jesus, or God the Spirit, pierced the darkness. When John spoke of the Incarnation in John’s Gospel Chapter 1, he was echoing the creation account. Scripture tells us over and again that God is both life and light. Psalm 36:9 says this, “for you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see”. And 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light, in him there is no darkness at all”. Jesus Christ is God’s light sent down to earth, to pierce the very darkness we live in. Similar to how God introduced the light in Genesis to create life, he introduces Jesus in our Christmas story as the true light of the world. God’s son who was willing to bring about a turning life for all who believe in him and place their faith.

Life is a key theme in John’s gospel. The word life appears 36 times in this book alone, more than any other book in the New Testament. It’s very important to John. The key word for life here is derived from the Greek word Zoe, different from bios, where we get biological or physical life. Every time you read the word life in the Gospel of John, it’s not referring to your physical life, but your spiritual life. A weightier matter, an important one. A big question that we all have to answer when it comes to what we’ll do with God’s son who brings true life, eternal life. John uses the metaphor of light and darkness to illustrate this point further. In the New Testament, light and darkness goes a long way as a symbol for good and evil. It’s clear that in verse 5 of chapter 1, the light here represents life, truth, and ultimately eternal life, for all who believe in Him. Darkness is the absence of light, the lack of God’s love or God’s presence in one’s life. It represents the power of evil, sin and unbelief in this world, and ultimately will lead to eternal death. People love either the light or the darkness and are controlled by these affections. And verse 9, he says, He’s the true light, which gives light to everyone who’s coming into the world.

One of the natural qualities of light, even as we have light on this stage, is it illuminates everything. No shadow of turning. Nothing’s uncovered. Everything exposed. The light of Christ shines on every man, and every woman, every student. And that it reveals the motives of our hearts, the intentions of our thoughts. John’s point here is that the witness that comes from the light of Jesus demands a response. Everybody needs to respond to the light because we all receive it. When the light exposes the corruption and sin that’s in our hearts, some act like insects. When you turn on the light in the kitchen that scatter and run and crawl into the crevices, they hide and cover their sin. Some will receive the good truth from God. Others welcome it knowing it’s for their healing, and also because they’re good, because they trust God, even if it brings discomfort, difficult circumstances, maybe even suffering. John goes on to show the responses in verse 10 through 13. I’m going to talk about the negative response and Pastor Tim will share with you the good news a little later in the sermon.

Some hate the exposure of light. You guys ever have somebody wake up in the morning and pull back the curtains and you, you’re like, oh close those, I need to sleep longer. One thing I like about winter is that it’s darker longer. So, you know, if my alarm doesn’t go off, I can sleep in a little longer. But in the summertime right, places like Alaska where you get 24, almost 24 hours of sunlight, man it’d be hard to sleep there. But when people are exposed to the light, it brings a response that we see in verse 10. That’s what verse 10 says. Speaking of Jesus, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him”. The context of this verse is actually a little sad and sobering, as John is referring to the very nation of Israel, the people of God, who’ve been waiting and searching for their long-awaited Messiah who would deliver them from their trials. How could they miss out on the most important figure to the religion, to their faith? Let me give you two reasons. The first one is very subtle, very sneaky. I think it’s possible that they fell in love with a false light, a copy, a facsimile if you will. You see in verse 9 it says that he is the true light. He adds that description there, the true light, which means he’s the original of every which other light created is a facsimile or a copy of that light. The word true there means genuine versus a counterfeit. In Minnesota, right, we lack melanin. Let’s be honest, right? Especially in the wintertime, I drop a couple of shades. It’s so cold that nobody wants to go outside and get the vitamin D we all need. And if we do, we have to cover and layer ourselves up, right? And so, we lack that exposure to the sun. And I don’t know if it was invented here in the Midwest, chances are high, but we have these things I think they are called light therapy lamps, where you could sit underneath this electronic lights that you can get these sun rays sitting in the comfort of your warm, heated home on either couch. Nothing beats though, walking outside in your flip flops, your shorts, and a t-shirt, sitting with an iced tea that’s, condensation dripping down, and a straw, and a hammock, enjoying a good book outdoors. Soaking in the real sunlight feels good on your skin and increases your melanin. Nothing beats that.

I think that the people of God, the nation of Israel, fell for a facsimile, if I may. See, they had Moses in the law; 613 laws, written, codified, even expanded upon that they followed as best they could. Regulated it maybe even to an extreme. They had the temple and the sacrificial system, but they missed something. They worshiped at the temple, the place where God’s presence dwelt in a compartment called the Holy of Holies. And standing in front of them one day was the very incarnation of God in the flesh, where they could touch, speak, ask questions.  And they fell in love with these facsimiles like the temple, these facsimiles like the law, which Jesus came, by the way, to fulfill everything concerning the Old and New Testament covenants. The Jews were content with these copies. They did not comprehend that these lights pointed to the true light, the faithful light. Let me put it more practically if I can. More personally, I think it’s possible that you and I can go through the motions of reading the Bible and never experiencing Jesus. I think it’s possible that we can serve and give in ministry, serving religiously without ever experiencing Jesus. I mean, like a Martha. Jesus said, the seeing they shall see and not see, and hearing they shall hear, and they shall not understand. Church, can I ask you a question? Are you chasing facsimiles and copies of the light? Are you seated underneath a light therapy lamp when you need to go outside and get some fresh air and take in the real sun?

The next reason I think that they stumbled is not so subtle as following a facsimile or a copy, which could be easily mistaken. You can do a good thing and make it a God thing, missing the relationship that comes with serving a loving and gracious God. This next one is not so subtle. Some just outright reject the true light because they love the darkness more than the lights. The most often quoted Bible verse, John 3:16. A couple verses later there’s these very powerful verses in verse 19 through 21 it says this, “and this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out by God.” Now I’m speaking about myself. When I talk about turn on the light and these insects leaving because you have to cover up their sin, that’s me. I just don’t want you to feel like you’re being talked to. You’re being talked with. There’s been times where I found myself, you know, regularly being faithful and praising God through everything, and there’s times where I just feel like I can barely keep it together. And I found myself to be unfaithful at times struggling with that. I sought after lesser lights. I put myself underneath the light therapy thinking that was a real deal because I was too much to my comfort seeker. I didn’t want to get out. I flatly rejected the light sometimes, scuttled away, sewn my own fig leaves running into a corner.

One of my favorite Christmas gifts, and I’ve got a few of them, this one was years ago. Because many of you may feel this morning, whether you’re a believer or not, like you’re struggling, like you’ve been unfaithful, like you’ve sought a facsimile of the real thing, and you’re just holding on. We had a tradition at our house where we would give gifts to Jesus. And my kids being much littler than they are now, you know, they’d make crafts, they’d make pictures, they would throw something together and call it a thing-a-me-dewy, and then wrap it up. Right? And they would give it to us. And then I would post it on my fridge. And I said, look at this beautiful artwork, right? And then my kids would give gifts to Jesus, and they’d give him similar things. And one year, this is not it, one year I opened up the gift that one of my kids gave to Jesus. And to my surprise, there was nothing inside there. And I thought, oh, you just cut corners today, didn’t you? Did you just wake up and put it together? And she’s like, no, Dad. She’s like, I gave something better. And I was like, oh now she’s making something up. She’s like, you know Dad, I gave my heart to Christ a while ago, but I feel like sometimes I hold back pieces of it. I feel like sometimes, he doesn’t have all of it. And so, what’s in this box is the part of my heart that I’ve kept hidden from Him. You need to be preaching, you know. She was elementary age, out of the babes of mouths. If you’re here this morning and you feel unfaithful, unworthy, if you’ve never ever heard the Gospel and the good news that all your sins have been forgiven, that you can walk in light and not be ashamed because he’s made you new. Or if you felt like you have holding back part of your heart this morning as well, you can be like me: own it, repent and say God, I need you, I need your grace, I need your forgiveness, especially at times when I’m unfaithful.

Would you guys pray with me? Father, we thank-you God that you are consistent, that you are faithful. That Lord in you is the light of the world, the life that we need here, the bread of life. You’re the living water, your light and in you is all that we need for life. We thank you God that you glorify your father, by being obedient to him. And you fulfilled the law, completing it in its entirety, yet without sin. And then you paid the price for our sins. And in exchange for that, you give us a new heart, a clean slate, a debt that’s been canceled. Thank you, God, that it’s not contingent upon our own goodness, our own works, but it’s a gift of grace. That when we’re unfaithful God, you truly are consistent and always faithful. We love you and thank you. Pray these things in your name. Amen.

In him was life and the light. The life was the light of man. I have a friend who gave her kidney to a total stranger. I thought probably what many of our relatives and friends thought. Are you really thinking this through? A total stranger. Not many people give their kidney to a total stranger. I asked her why and she basically said God gave me to just need one. I got a spare. People reminded her, I’m sure the risks. I mean there’s the pain and lost time at work. But they probably mentioned, you know, they make you sign releases at the hospital though, as I could die releases. They make you sign those for a reason. The risk is low, but it’s real anesthesia not coming out of it. Something happening in the operating room, post-op infection. And then there’s the big risk. What would that be? You’ve got two. You only need one. What if that one goes bad? But she was unmoved. She scheduled surgery. And I want you to imagine with me for a moment. She goes to surgery. She’s in the recovery room. She wakes up and a nurse is fussing over her with the IV. The nurse smiles at her. Hey, good morning, sunshine. And she’s kind of drowsy, and she opens her eyes and looks over in her side table. And on her side table is this bloody thing in a tray? And she goes, what’s that? And the nurse says, Oh, that’s your kidney. She goes, why isn’t it in the donee? Yeah, about that. He decided he didn’t want it or need it.

So as you just heard John say, that’s the Christmas story. Jesus came to be a donor. Why? The need was huge. Not everybody sees that, as John says. We’ll maybe circle back to that. And it wasn’t for strangers. It was for the estranged. You know that word? You do, even if you don’t know that word. Estranged, that’s the Christmas card or call you didn’t get from somebody who you used to be close to, that now is very, very far away. Got somebody like that? He came to be a donor for the estranged. I’ve never had a problem seeing myself as estranged from a holy God. Some people do. I just don’t. Maybe it was that sign in my daddy’s barn. My daddy was a poor dairy farmer, and he had this old barn and about four calf pens. And in one of those calf pens was the sign about this big. And it was splattered with dung, four words. Christ died for sinners. I’ve never had a problem seeing the estranged, the darkness. As a matter of fact, it would have been almost this exact time, Christmas Day, 55 years ago, that I sensed the overwhelming need I had. I was playing with my brother’s Carrom’s game. Do they still have those weird things? It’s poor man’s pool, right? It’s a square board with pockets and the rings, and in the middle of this, Christmas morning should have been joyful. I just was overwhelmed with my darkness, and I sought out my mom, will come back to that maybe. He was a donor for people in terrible need. He was the perfect match. Look at verse 14. He, the word, was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was just like us. The writer of Hebrews loves to hammer this home, tempted in every way like us. Yet without sin, he was just like us. And if you’ve been in our Luke series with Pastor Kyle, you know how like us he was. So, he could be the donor for us. The perfect donor, yes? We can skip the risks part because there was no risk here. Risk is, there’s a chance of injury or loss. The chance, do this sometime between now and New Year’s, would you?  Read two chapters in the Old Testament, Psalm 22, written by Jesus’s ancestor David, Isaiah 53 written by the Prophet Isaiah, one, 1000 years before, one, 700 years before, describing what Jesus would go through as our donor. This wasn’t a kidney illustrated, this was heart and lung. He had to die to give us life, the light of life.

Now, we don’t have to imagine either the acceptance or the rejection. You’ve already read it in your passage and heard John talk about it. Look at verse 11 in your text, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him”. Yeah, about that, Jesus don’t want it. Don’t need it. I asked my small group this week, actually, I’ll just ask you, how is it that people today couldn’t see the darkness in our own hearts and need a savior? No really, we have time. What is it that would make us think we don’t need a savior in the life he brings? How could we miss it? Just speak up where you are. We are not that sick. Is that what you mean, John? We’re not that sick. If I can use our analogy. Whatever darkness or sickness is in us, we can cleanse, Dialysis, right? Or maybe we’re too busy to slow down and see just how sick we are. Those are the comments of our group. Jesus told a story about a need, a man who believed he needed a savior and one who didn’t. In Luke 18, I want to encourage you to read this. I’ll just give it to you quick. He said, two men went up to the temple to pray. There’s that fake light, the temple, right? That was meant to turn us to the light. One a Pharisee, and one a tax collector. Does this sound familiar? Yes. The Pharisee went off to the side and prayed. God, I thank you that I’m not like this man, pointing at the tax collector. I fast twice a week and give 10% of all I make, dialysis. But the tax collector, what did he do? He was on his face, beating his breath. Said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. There’s the darkness. And Jesus’s response, this man, this man went home justified. Right with God, a child of God, he’s the light that brings life. Amen?

I want to give you just a little grammar lesson as we move to 12. Now, you didn’t think on Christmas break, kids, you’d have to have English lesson. Okay, let’s see what you remember about grammar. Nouns do what? They describe a person, place, thing, or idea. You get extra credit for that one. It’s a thing, basically, like this candle. A verb does what? It shows action. Like, it burns. Now tricky one, a participle. I’ll help you. It’s an verbjective. I made that up. It’s a description of how a verb happens. So, Jesus, in one of his most famous sections of Scripture, his commission to his people, said this, make disciples, Matthew 28. That’s the verb. That’s what we’re supposed to do. How? The verbjectives, the participles. By going into all the world, by the way, “ings” are usually participles, “ing”. Going, baptizing, teaching. You all follow me? What are we commended to do? Verb, make disciples? That’s the action. How? By going, baptizing teaching. Now look at verse 12. “But to all who received him”, the verb is received, “who believed in his name”, believed as a participle, we’re coming to that. He gave the right to become children of God. We need to understand this. Today on Christmas, joy to the world. Received, that just means to take better, to grasp. It’s used of taking a wife. In this case, it’s an action you take that has ongoing consequences. How do we become children of God? We grasp something. That’s the verb. How do we do it? By believing.

Believe is John’s favorite word. It’s used 100 times, just less than that, 98 I think, in the Gospel of John.  If you go to the back, Chapter 20, John tips his hand while he wrote his gospel. He says this, Jesus did many other things and said many other things not recorded in this gospel of mine. But these things were written that you might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and believing might have life in his name. Believe is a really important word. Believe can be used as a noun, a thing, often translated faith. How many times do you think John used the word believe, and 100 times in his gospel is a noun. Anybody want to take a shot at it? Zero. None. All the times he uses it as an action. Believing is to go all in.

I did this on Christmas Day, 1967, 55 years ago. I bet you thought I was younger than that. No, not really. Playing that Carrom’s game, I did something about it. I sought out my mom. She explained the Savior and my sin. And at her bedside, on my knees, I gave it all to Him. Joy to the world. I did something. And what did he do for me? I acted on it. The result, He took my sin and He put it on Jesus. And He gave me Jesus’s righteousness. Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5 said this, God made him Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for me, that I might have the righteousness of God in Him. He became my donor. And am I going to break my arm patting myself on the back for that? Look at verse 13, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. All that saying in three ways, it’s not about you, friend. You did nothing but the will of God. If you don’t feel the darkness, there’s not a thing John or I or the worship team or Pastor Kyle can do to help you see that. But here our Savior knew that and gave us help. The last night of his life, He said to his disciples in the upper room, John 16. He said, I’m going to send my spirit, and when my spirit, the spirit of God comes, he’ll do this, he’ll convict the world of our sin and darkness and of God’s light and righteousness and the judgment that comes if we don’t accept his gifts. God does that.

So may I give you an assignment? Would you find 15 minutes of quiet? Set an alarm on your phone if you need to. Find quiet and just sit there and say God, spirit of God, speak to my heart. Or as David said in the Psalms, search me O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wickedness or darkness in me that needs a savior. Do that. For my friend, I asked her a couple of days ago, how’s the donee doing? And she said, oh Tim it’s kind of sad, the disease attacked this organ too. Which is the most important thing you might leave here today with, especially children of God, you’ve already trusted Christ. We still need the Savior every day because the darkness just can creep back in. We need Him every day, the light. Or as we sing, in joy to the world, Jesus, don’t let sin back in, or thorns grow up. Jesus said, I’d love to do that. Come beside me in the yoke. Walk with me every day. Be with me, learn from me. And when you do that, you will receive. As verse 16 shows us in our passage. The fullness of His grace. His grace upon grace, and God’s people said Amen.