John 1:4-9
(4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
(5) And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
(6) There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
(7) This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.
(8) He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
(9) That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
EOLS:
Jesus is God’s light to all of mankind and the only One who can dispel the darkness.
The Light is Life
The Light Conquers Darkness
The Light is a Person
The Light is for Everyone
Are you afraid of the dark?
Do you remember a time in your life when you were thrust into darkness? Perhaps it was on a “dare” from friends to walk deep into the woods on a camping trip. Maybe you ran out of gas on a dark lonely road in the middle of the night and had no choice but to walk.
Have you ever entered a large, cavernous building alone at night? Have you heard it pop, creak and groan?
It’s pretty typical for children to be somewhat afraid of the dark, but sometimes adults are as well. I can remember being terrified in darkness as a child at times, but also being uncomfortable as an adult!
I believe there’s an innate uneasiness that we have with the dark. There is the odd person who actually enjoys darkness, but the typical human response is to avoid it if at all possible.
Darkness is associated with fear and terror. I ran across a poem by one of the chief Romantic Poets, Lord Byron, which is aptly titled “Darkness.” I believe it well illustrates the sheer, innate terror of darkness in the human soul when the poem states in part:
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came, and went and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light:
Can you imagine with me total darkness? It’s rare that we see what can truly be termed a dark sky. Most of us live close enough to city lights, street lights or other artificial sources of light that we could easily read a newspaper outdoors at midnight.
But I’m talking total darkness. Many of us have experienced some blackened skies deep in the wilderness, yet starlight and moonlight are constant companions, constant sources of light that illuminate our world.
Technically, you can’t get away from light, even outside of our own solar system. Scientists tell us that even at the mouth of black holes in deep space, gamma radiation is emitted producing waves of light which can be measured by instruments as they reach the earth.
And speaking of measurement, it’s interesting to note a simple physics definition of light:
Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye (visible light) or, in a technical or scientific setting, electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength. The three basic dimensions of light (i.e., all electromagnetic radiation) are:
• intensity ( brightness of the light)
• frequency (or wavelength), (color of the light) and
• polarization (or angle of vibration), which is not perceptible by humans under ordinary circumstances.
For our purposes today (we’re not teaching physics!) light is energy. Light is measurable, it is active, it has observable characteristics.
Yet define darkness-it is simply the absence of light! You can’t describe the characteristics of darkness. You can’t measure it. It has no speed or no wavelength, and no equations describe it.
It is simply, the absence of light. We could call it utter nothingness, utter blackness.
And we approach John 1. After speaking of Jesus Christ as the Living Word of God, Apostle John calls him “the Light of Life.”
Once again, we see the unmistakable parallel to the Genesis account of creation:
Genesis 1:3-4
(3) Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
(4) And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
John’s allusion is clear. The first part of Chapter 1 sets the tone “In the beginning was the Word” …and that very Word was spoken forth as the logos of God. The Word of God, Jesus Christ was God’s complete and final word of revelation to man. The wisdom of God was communicated to man in the Incarnation.
But now John goes a step beyond the Logos; not only was the Incarnate Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ God’s final Word, He is the luminous Word-the very source of light to a dark world.
The first point that we see this morning in our passage is:
I. The Light IS Life
John uses the Greek word zoe to describe the life that is light. As we have preached before, zoe typically speaks to a “God” life, the special, purposeful and destined life that God has for His children.
The Greek word for light is phos. It speaks to luminosity, to a glowing, an uncovering of truth.
Both of these words are used liberally by John throughout His gospel to describe the work of Christ, His ability to impart Life and to light and dispel darkness.
The way that the sentence is structured allows it to be true both ways;
the Light is Life, and the Life is Light…the two are able to be used interchangeably.
And so we see that Jesus Christ, at His incarnation, was the very Word of God and the very Light of Life-His Life brings Light, and Light brings His life to the dark universe!
So we see some familiar concepts. In the same way the light energy breaks through the darkness, in measurable quantity and with distinctive attributes, the very Word of God has the same permeating, vibrant and active quality. The Light is LIFE. It is energy, it is dynamic and not static.
When the Light of God shines forth, it doesn’t just expose the awfulness of sin and what lies beneath the pale of darkness, it brings with it LIFE, the God kind of life. It shows men that they may be saved from the terror of darkness, from the raging maelstrom of night. It delivers the hope and the peace that there is a Savior and that He is loving, that He came to seek and to save the lost!
It gives great context to the later verse in John where Jesus uses the “I AM” identity to call Himself the “Light of the World”:
John 8:12
(12) Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
He’s once again speaking of the very phos of zoe….the light of life, and the life of light!
Isaiah prophesied it from days of old:
Isaiah 60:1-3
(1) Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
(2) For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
(3) The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
Matthew interprets Isaiah 9:6 in light of the Incarnation:
Matthew 4:16
(16) The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned." [17]
II. The Light Conquers Darkness
The Greek word translated “comprehend” is katalambano which carries with it the idea “to overtake” or to lay hold of, to seize.
So John is telling us that this Light of Life shines and pierces through the darkness, and the darkness cannot seize it, it cannot stop it, it cannot overtake it!
Through the Incarnation, Christ came as the Light of Life, to fill us and to empower us against the darkness.
Darkness must bow to light. Remember, light energy has dynamic qualities, it is measurable and it has force.
I remember a story told to me by a friend who flew combat choppers
In Viet Nam. He was radioed to a secret mission one night which required him to fly in total darkness, totally by instruments. Hovering above a jungle under heavy cloud cover, he told me that it seemed you could cut the darkness with a knife. He radioed to his man on the ground and said “what can you give me?” The guy had not even a flashlight. The landing had to be so precise, in a small “postage” stamp in the middle of the jungle-an error of five feet could crash the chopper and kill them all. Finally the man on the ground said “I have a zippo!” He said “Light it and hold it up.” So in the middle of the jungles of Southeast Asia, on a top secret warfare mission, a combat chopper pilot landed by the light of a zippo lighter that pierced the darkness.
John 12:35-36
(35) Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.
(36) While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
John 9:5
(5) As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
The darkness may not receive the Light of Christ, but it will never overtake it.
Matthew 5:14-16
(14) You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
(15) Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
(16) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Romans 2:19
and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
Ephesians 5:8
(8) For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
1Thessalonians 5:4-5
(4) But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.
(5) You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
1Peter 2:9
(9) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Walk as children of light! It is your high and holy calling! The darkness cannot overtake you…we will assault the darkness with the Light of Christ!
III. The Light is a Person
The “Light” of religion versus the Light of Christ-
He is a personal Light…not a “force” or an ethereal presence, but He is our brother, the firstborn from the dead, the Alpha and the Omega!
John the Baptist was sent to introduce Him…the Incarnate Word of God!
Isaiah 60:1
Luke 3:4-6
(4) as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ’Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.
(5) Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth;
(6) And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ " [18]
Act 19:4
(4) Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus."
It is a relationship with the Light of Life:
1John 1:5-7
(5) This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
(6) If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
(7) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
IV. The Light is For Everyone
It is by grace…
It is not selective, it shines throughout and cannot be eliminated or consumed by the darkness…it is light that is given to every man.
And we are responsible for it.
We must respond to it…either cower in darkness and try to avoid it… or receive it, the very LIFE of God. There is no neutrality!
John 1:9-12
(9) That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
10) He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
(11) He came to His own, [3] and His own [4] did not receive Him.
(12) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
1John 5:10-13
(10) He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
(11) And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
(12) He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
(13) These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, [17] and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
