Christ The True Light Series

Christ the True Light

John 1:4-9

Rev. Brian Bill

December 9-10, 2023

How many of you have Christmas lights up on your house or in your yard? Anyone with more than the 25,000 Clark Griswald put up in Christmas Vacation? He was determined to win the Christmas light competition by having more luminaries than his neighbors.

This season of the year is filled with lights. Our Jewish friends and neighbors began an eight-day celebration of light called Hanukkah on Thursday night. At its core, Hanukkah is a reminder of how God did a miracle by providing enough oil for eight days over two thousand years ago. This act of God came after He preserved Israel from extinction by giving the Maccabees victory over a hostile enemy and allowed them to rededicate their temple which had been desecrated by the Greeks.

If you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend the latest episode of our 4G Podcast featuring an interview between Pastor Kyle and Gerad Hall about the events taking place in Israel and Gaza. Next week, Gerad will be speaking about Israel and prophecy. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Amazon Music. For more information, simply go to our website or app.

Lights and Christmas seem to go together, don’t they? I love how Pastor Chad and his wife Becky decorated our platform with displays of light. Our EdgeKids choir certainly shined like little lights, didn’t they? I love how our Children’s Ministry team partners with parents and grandparents to make little disciples. To help families with faith formation, we’re featuring a couple resources at the Café. You may want to pick one up for your child or grandchild – The Jesus Storybook Bible and The Christmas Promise Storybook.

As we continue in our series called, “Before Bethlehem” from the opening verses of the Gospel of John, we’ll see that Jesus is both life and light. Let’s read John 1:4-9: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through Him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”

As we begin, let’s pray the prayer the Lord taught His disciples to pray. We’ll use the more traditional version.

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Because the word “life” is used twice and “light” appears seven times in six verses, we can conclude John is building off the connection to the Book of Genesis, as He did in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word…” The opening of Genesis is all about the creation of life and in verses 3-4, we see how light was created first: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” My friend Bryan LaBerge made this observation: “We actually see the first spoken Word of God…it literally says, ‘And God said, ‘Be Light’ and there was light.”

Last week we learned how Jesus had His birth in Bethlehem, but not His beginning, because He has always been. Our main idea today is this: Jesus brings life into our deadness and light into our darkness.

1. Life brings light. Notice verse 4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John chose the Greek word “zoe,” which refers to real life, as distinct from “bios,” which simply speaks of natural life. John used the word “life” 36 times in his gospel. The second time he used the definite article “the” to show Jesus is the true life. This is the idea behind John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

When we were born, we received physical life. When we are born again, we receive spiritual life. Both come from Him. When Jesus gives you real life, the light comes on for you. I’m reminded of Psalm 27:1: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”

In Matthew 17:2, at His transfiguration, Peter, James, and John caught a glimpse of the true light as Jesus’ face “shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” In Revelation 1:16, John describes Jesus’ face “like the sun shining in full strength.” Revelation 22:16 refers to Him as the “bright morning star.”