141221 The True Light

John 1:9-14 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The gospel of John does not include a birth narrative for Jesus. I try to imagine what it might have been like for John as he was inspired to write his account. I believe he probably had read Matthew, Mark and very likely Luke also. As he was mulling over those accounts I can imagine him going back in his thoughts. John had been a disciple of John the Baptist. He had met Jesus alongside the Jordan River. However, he knew that Jesus had existed long before his birth on earth. As his thoughts went back in time he came to the very beginning and saw Jesus with the Father before the world was created.

As a disciple of John the Baptist, John the Apostle joined in the witness to the light. He was there on the day after Jesus’ baptism when John the Baptist, for the second time, spoke these amazing words, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) I wonder how many times the Apostle reviewed that day in his memories. He may not have been there when Jesus was born but he was there when Jesus was introduced for He who He really was, “The Lamb of God.” This introduction to Jesus, the sin bearer, gave him and the others who became disciples an inside track on God’s plan. He was there when he heard the testimony that…

John the Baptist had come as a witness to the light. John the Apostle was made into an eyewitness as well. Turn with me to John 3:16-21. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

These words seem to conclude Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. John places this dialogue at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We can see that Jesus knew, in the beginning, that He would be crucified. He knew that He would be “lifted up” so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. Jesus went on to proclaim that He was the “light” that came into the world to overcome the darkness. In most of our Christmas traditions we do not recognize Jesus, the baby in a manger, as the light bearer who became the sin bearer for the world. We need to remember Jesus is…

The true light that was coming into the world. In our opening reading we have this testimony found at John 1:4-5, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 The darkness could not overwhelm the light, because, as we see in verse 9. He was… The true light, which gives light to everyone, (and it) was coming into the world.

In many ways the world Jesus was coming into was darker than our own world. The only spiritual light in that age, so far as we know, came from small groups of Jewish believers scattered, primarily, throughout the Roman Empire. There may have been other colonies of faith that God has not seen fit to inform us about. All we know of for sure are those who follow the faith of Abraham as recorded in the Bible.

Today there are light bearing groups throughout most of the world. The gospel of the kingdom is preached in all major cultures and is being expanded into the smaller cultures more and more every day. That is why the light, in Jesus, came into the world. He Himself said that He “came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) and that He came “that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) The great hymn writer, Phillip P. Bliss set it to song:

The whole world was lost In the darkness of sin,

The Light of the world is Jesus!

Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in.

The Light of the world is Jesus!

Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee;

Sweetly the light has dawned upon me.

Once I was blind, but now I can see:

The Light of the world is Jesus!

The Babe In the manger that day was, and still is, the light of the world! Yet, we are involved in sharing the light. In another song by Bliss we hear:

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy from His lighthouse evermore,
But to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor struggling, sinking sailor you may rescue, you may save

Jesus, Himself said, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” And “let your light shine before others….”. (Matthew 5:14 & 16)

You may be the light for someone else to see the way clearly to come to the narrow gate that leads to life eternal. Without your knowledge someone else may look at you and come to the Savior by your light.

Having been saved by grace, through faith, we must remember that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) Jesus, the Baby in the manger, is the “Light of the World” who. having left the world, has transferred the light to His people and, as the old chorus says we are to “Let our little light shine”. Jesus who was…

That light was the creator of all things. Turn with me to Colossians 1:15-17. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Yes, the Baby in the manger was the Creator of all things. “ALL” is an absolutely inclusive word. Of course Jesus Himself, the Father and Holy Spirit are not part of the “all” they are part of the Creator.

Jesus created the heavens and the earth and populated the heavens with an innumerable host of angels. There seem to be different orders of angels just as there are differences in the animal world. Jesus, as the Creator, placed Adam and Eve in the Garden and, I believe, provides humans with a spirit/soul as well as a reproducible body at the time of conception. David said that he was knit together in his mother’s womb. Zechariah talks of God (Jesus to us) as the one who forms the spirit of man. And Isaiah says that God (Jesus to us) gives breath and spirit to the people on earth.

John tells us that at the nativity Jesus, the Word, came to His own, meaning He came to His own property or country, but His own people did not receive Him. The Light of the world came to His own territory but…

The light was rejected by His people. Turn with me to John 5:39-40. Jesus had given various signs by now and the religious leaders had set out to take His life because, He was breaking the Sabbath and making Himself equal with God. In the midst of Jesus’ explanation of His authority we find Him saying:  You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

The Christ is not just a deliverer of Israel, He is the deliverer of all who will come to Him by faith. Sadly Jesus was rejected by the vast majority of His own people. But God already had a plan. That plan included the sheep that are not of the house of Israel. When Jesus compared Himself with a shepherd He said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:16) Paul would later tell us that their rejection was our gain. Through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles. Their rejection means the reconciliation of the world. (Romans 11:11-16)

Rejecting the Light brings condemnation but…

Receiving the light gives the right to become children of God. Turn over in the back of your Bibles to 1 John 3:1-3. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

In his Gospel John tells us that as many as received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Now, many years later, John tells us the love of God is reflected in our being called God’s children. I get the sense that, after all those years, John was still amazed at God’s plan. A plan that brings us into God’s family so that we no longer identify with the world. The old gospel song is correct when it says, “This world is not my home I'm just a passing through My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue The angels beckon me from heaven's open door And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”

Being born of God means, among other things, we are brought into the family of God. In fact, we are born into God’s family! Not born the natural way but, instead, born spiritually.

The bible teaches that, unlike Baby Jesus, we were born, as humans, dead in trespasses and sins. We were born subjects of the prince of the power of the air – Satan. When we are born again we become subjects of the Prince of Peace. As God’s children we are not born of our own decision, or of someone else’s persuasion we are…

Children born of God’s will. Turn with me to John 6:44. Jesus is in that long debate with the religious leaders. He tells them: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

No one can come without the Father drawing them. When we are born physically we are without the ability to do anything that will cause God to declare us righteous. From a human standpoint we may seem to be doing good it is only on the surface. All our righteousness is like a dirty, polluted, garment at a fancy dress ball. Without God the Father’s call and God the Holy Spirit’s illumination connected to God the Son’s sacrifice on the cross we have no hope in this world or the one to come. We do not come to Christ in our own goodness nor our own decision we only come because He has drawn us, or chosen us. Turn with me to what Peter had to say in 1 Peter 2:9-10. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The people of God are a chosen race. If God did not choose us we would have no hope. Once we were not a people but now we are because of the Baby in the manger. That Baby became the sin bearer for us. Then He became the man on the cross—the sacrifice for our sin. Having satisfied God’s wrath with His own blood He became the Risen Lord bringing victory over sin and death and delivering all who will come to Him from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.

Towards the end of his gospel, chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, John gives his reason for writing. He wrote, “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.” Obviously, he was not just writing a biography of Jesus. He was writing so that people through the ages could see Jesus’ work in the world and know that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father! Knowing his Lordship should lead many to confess their sins, wrongdoings, and become children of God by receiving Jesus as Lord of their life. The birth of Jesus should lead to our “new birth”. That, my friends, is what Christmas should be about. Have you confessed Him as your Lord and do you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead?

All scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.