The Light of the World
Notes
Transcript
Call to worship
Welcome everyone!
Announcements
Tonight at 5:00 we will have our Christmas Eve service
It will last about an hour, we will have cookies and hot chocolate afterwards
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord,
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord,
SERMON
Introduction
The sermon title today is “The Light of the World”. We have looked at the coming of Jesus from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and today we will study it from the Gospel of John. John is unique from the other gospels in how He presents Jesus. His focus is on His deity, His eternal status as God’s only begotten Son, His rejection by men, and as the source of all life.
In the first chapter, Jesus is called the Word, He is called God, and He is called the Light. And so we are going to look closely at these first 13 verses at the light of the World.
Turn with me to John 1:1-5
John 1:1–5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Explanation
“in the beginning was the Word”
John’s word for Jesus is the “Word”
In the Greek the Word is the “Logos”
There are many opinions as to why John calls Jesus the “Word” but it seems best to understand this title for Jesus as God’s revelation of Himself to the world.
Just as the words we speak reveal what is in our hearts, and what we want people to understand, so Jesus is God in the flesh, the revelation of the Creator to all of humanity
John says in verse 18: “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
⇒ Only Jesus has been in the manifest presence of God, before the very throne of God, and came to earth to reveal God to us.
⇒ The Word of God expresses or unfolds to us who God is, manifest in the flesh of man that can be looked upon with human eyes.
His words
His deeds
His power
His love
His grace
His truth has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ
“and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”
It doesn’t get much clearer than this that Jesus is God
“and the Word was God” means Jesus is fully God, but NOT God the Father
The Word is fully God, but God is not fully the Word
The Word shares the essence of the Father, but the Word is not the person of the Father
Jesus is God, the Father is God, the Holy Spirit is God but they are three distinct persons
And Greek structure of this verse demands this interpretation
It cannot mean anything except that Jesus is fully 100% God Himself, but not God the Father [“He (Jesus) was with Him (God) in the beginning”]
The very deeds and words of Jesus are the very deeds and words of God
The teachings of Jesus are the teachings of God
The heart of Jesus is the heart of God
The desire to come to the world to save us from our sins is the very desire of God
This why Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
This doctrine of the full deity of Jesus is essential for the Christian faith
If we do not believe that Jesus is God, nothing else really matters and we fall into the error of the Jehovah witnesses
Everything that dwells in God the Father dwells in God the Son
Colossians 1:19 (NASB95)
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
If Jesus is NOT God, nothing else matters!
There is no perfect sacrifice for our sins
There is no fulfilled Messianic prophecy of The Mighty God coming to earth
Matthew, Mark Luke, John, Paul, Peter, none of them matter any more! They are mere liars who wrote fables and myths about the God-man
Christianity is powerless if God Himself did not come to earth in the flesh to free us from the bondage and consequences of sin
BUT HOW DO WE KNOW IF THIS IS TRUE? How do we know that that Jesus Christ of Nazareth who walked this earth 2,000 years ago is God in the flesh?
There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
It is the testimony of John, of the apostles, of the writers of the NT who sacrificed their lives for it
The man sent from God was John the Baptist! He came to testify about the light!
Just as the men who wrote the pages of NT and testify that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh
Men may die for a lie, if they believe the lie to be true
But men do not make up a lie, then die for it knowing that it is not true!
Every apostle: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, James, Andrew, Peter, all of them were killed because they proclaimed Jesus Christ is God in the flesh
That is enough for me!
Jesus Christ is God, He is the Savior, He is the hope, Christmas IS because Jesus IS
If we truly believe this, then our lives should look like the lives of the apostles
We can bet our very lives on Jesus! Its a guaranteed victory!
It should mean everything to us
Willing to make radical changes to follow Him
Willing to give up things that this world sees as valuable to honor Him
Willing to make our lives completely about Him
AND WE DO NOT CARE WHO IT OFFENDS
If we please Jesus, it doesn’t matter who we displease, but if displease Jesus it doesn’t matter who we please
(v 2) “He was in the beginning with God”
The beginning reaches back further than the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, it reaches further back than the virgin birth, it reaches even further back than the beginning of creation.
John’s first verse echos the first verse of the Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:26 (NASB95)
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness
The existence of Jesus did not begin in a manger, nor did it begin when God created the world…JESUS HAS ALWAYS EXISTED AS THE SON OF GOD
There has never been a time when Jesus was not in existence
He has no beginning, he has no end
This is why Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Rev 22:13)
(v 3) “All things came into being through Him”
Not only was Jesus present in the beginning with God, everything came into existence through Jesus
Again Gen 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”
“Us” speaking of our Trinitarian God
It was not just God the Father creating, But God the Father creating through Jesus the Son
Paul reiterates this:
Colossians 1:16–17 (NASB95)
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
IfJesus can hold this world together, imagine what He can do with your life
I cannot imagine living another chaotic day outside of Jesus
As each day passes not knowing what will come
Living in fear of death, in fear of life falling apart, in fear of the unknown
BUT ITS NOT THAT WAY IN JESUS
Just as He holds this world together, so He holds our lives together
Carrying us through this world until we reach our final home with Him
(v 4) “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men”
Everything has to have light to survive, that is the way God created it
The first thing God created in Genesis was light” “and God said, ‘let there be light, and there was light’” (Gen 1:3)
That is because without light, life will end
You take the sun away from a planet, the plant withers and died
You take away the sun from planet earth, everything dies, including people
John says, Jesus is the light “and in Him was life”
Jesus is the very source of life:
both physical and spiritual
Jesus created the world, He brought it into being, He sustains the world, the reason we are not extinct is because the giver of life sustains us
Apart from Jesus, life withers and dies. It dies physically, but it also dies spiritually
(v 5) “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it”
Light has 2 dimensions in John’s writings: A moral dimension and a truth dimension
Jesus is both of these
He is the pure light that cannot be extinguished by the darkness
He is also an illuminating life that opens the eyes of men to allow them to see what life is really about
Now we will expand on these two dimensions of Light:
1) The Light of Jesus gives spiritual sight to mankind
1) The Light of Jesus gives spiritual sight to mankind
John 1:6–9 “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
Explanation
God’s plan for John was to bear witness to the Light of the world. He came to testify to the world that Jesus Christ is the key to the entire universe
Apart from Jesus, life doesn’t make sense! We do not fully understand it. We only have a partial understanding, and spend our lives chasing things that we think are the keys to life
We do not understand our purpose.
We search for satisfaction but cannot find it
We search for fulfillment in many things but never really seem to find it.
BILTMORE ESTATE
Ashley and I were blessed to be able to see the BILTMORE estate this week Which is America’s largest house.
And it was truly a sight to see. I’ve never seen another house like it:
175,000 sq ft
35 bedrooms
43 bathrooms
65 fireplaces
Indoor swimming pool
bowling alley
125,000 acres at that time
And as we saw this magnificent house, we could only speculate what it must have felt like for George Vanderbilt to have put so much into such a magnificent house, and property, only to realize having built the most magnificent structure and fulling it with the world’s treasures still could not give what his heart longed for the most
(v 9) There was the true Light which…“enlightens every man”
The world is full of “lights” that attract us to them
Riches and material things like Vanderbilt had, and pursed. Rare paintings and tapestries. (Here was one of my favorites)
People spend lifetimes accumulating knowledge, philosophy, wealth, power, or being praised by others.
Many in ministry today have fallen into chasing false lights in wanting to be known by the world
These are only false lights
The reason people continually chase after the things of this world is because they think they are the light!
They are drawn to them, they seek them, and when they obtain them they realize they are not the true Light
It’s because they do not have not been enlightened by Jesus Christ
The only place where we can find the true Light is by coming to Jesus
It is by looking unto Jesus
Not as a blind man looks unto Jesus, but by beholding Him as God’s gift to the world
It is seeing Jesus as the very Source of Life and knowing that without Him AND without our complete life surrendered to Him, without His lordship over our lives, without complete devotion to Him, without complete surrender to Him, without our complete service to Him, none of this world will ever make sense or really matter
Until we see Christ like this, we are blind men walking in darkness
John 1:10–13 “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The world is given the freedom to reject or receive Jesus
The world is given the freedom to reject or receive Jesus
Explanation
If Jesus is the True Light which enlightens every man, why does the world walk in darkness?
That is because God gives the world A CHOICE
God gives us a choice to receive Jesus or reject Jesus.
The very world that God created through Christ has predominantly rejected Christ.
Meaning this world rejected its Creator. They turned away from the True light to pursue, chase after other lights.
Even His own people, the Jews, whom wee given the prophecies that the Messiah would come into our dark world and bring light still rejected Him
The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.
God said to His people, the Light is coming! You who walk in darkness, without hope, without direction, without satisfaction or fulfillment, the Light is coming!
And they still rejected Him when He came
BUT NOT EVERYONE REJECTS HIM
(v 12) “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God”
Truth 1: Only those born of God are children of God
There is the common saying and belief in our world today that we are all children of God. There is one God the Father, and we are all His created children. That is not true. And this verse clearly refutes that idea. Not every one is a child of God. Only those who receive Jesus are children of God.
Now people can be children of God or children of the devil
Jesus told the Pharisees, “you are of your father the devil”
Jesus said this, he who is not with Me is against Me, and He who does not gather with me, scatters
This may be a hard pill to swallow, but we are either children of God or children of the devil
We either serve Jesus Christ, or we serve the devil
We live by the principles of Jesus, or we live by the principles of the prince of darkness
We either walk in the light or we walk in the darkness
We either practice sin or we practice righteousness
We are under lordship, it is either the lordship of Satan or the lordship of Jesus
Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
This is why Paul tells us to not be unequally yoked.
What fellowship has light with darkness?
One way to stray away from the true light is spend time with those who walk in darkness
We are either children of God or we are children of the devil, and what business does God’s children have with the children of the devil?
Would you let your children run with the bad crowd?
Is it any different with God?
Truth 2: God gives people the “right” to become His children
Notice that word: “right”
The word is ἐξουσία = exousia: authority; power
It is used here in a judicial sense.
Think about it like this: Adopting a child
A man marries a woman who has a child, and wants to adopt her son, to make him his own.
Marrying the woman or living together with that child under his roof will not make that child his legitimate. What that father must do is go before judicial power who legally grant sonship to that man.
Only a judge can do in a court of law because he has that authority. He changes the status of that child from an illegitimate child to a legitimate son of the man. He does this by his authority in the court of law. In the same way, one becomes a child of God legally giving them a new status as His legitimate His child
Who does God give this right to?
Those who receive Jesus
Receiving Jesus does not mean we open up some kind of metaphorical door in our hearts to Him, nor does it mean that we affirm Him as God, nor does it mean that we say something like, “I receive You Jesus” and somehow those words infuse Him into our hearts.
Receiving means to accept one’s authority
Now remember that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and He is like a judge that can grants us the right to become children of God.
When we receive Him, we receive His authority over our lives.
We begin to live by His principles
We follow Him and obey Him
We serve Him
We walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light
What happens when God gives this right?
They are born of God, they are purified by the Light of Jesus Christ
To those who receive Him, they are born of God
This is the new birth, the the spiritual birth that God gives to everyone who becomes His child. This is not a natural birth, but a supernatural birth.
Conclusion
Christmas is about the new creation
God created the heavens and the earth in Gen 1
Jesus creates a new spiritual life John 1
Christianity is a new life
It has meaning
It has purpose
It has understanding
And it washes us clean
Is that what Jesus has done for you?
The choice is ours
~PRAYER~
RESPONSE
PUBLIC INVITATION
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
OFFERING
We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.
BENEDICTION
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’”