"Jesus is the Light" John 1:1-18
- Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on December 10, 2023.
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Audio Transcript
If you have your Bibles, you can be turning to John, chapter one. We’re going to be reading verses one through 18. We’re very proud of our kids, and we thank all the adults and Mary and the people in the sound booth that have made this a wonderful event today. Let’s just give them another round of applause.
How many of you remember being in a children’s program like this when you were little? You know, it leaves memories. This is a very important thing for kids to remember that they’ve been brought up in the faith all along. And honestly, I couldn’t help but thinking, with my grandkids up here, just wondering how many of these are going to grow up and kind of pair up one day, because this is the faith community. I didn’t have any one particular match in mind, but crossed my mind.
Anybody else think that today, or am I weird? Nobody else thought that. Okay. All right, John, chapter one. I’m going to begin reading in verse one.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All these things were created through Him. And apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created.
In him was life. And that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. There was 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. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created through him. And yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God. To those who believe in his name, who were born not of natural descent or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified concerning him and exclaimed.
This was the one of whom I said, the one coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me. Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side.
He has revealed Him. May we have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, as we briefly look at your word today and we see the spiritual side of the meaning of Christmas in Jesus coming to earth. We ask that you would shed some light upon our hearts and our minds, Father, that we might know more about you and if we do not have a relationship with you, that you would impress that upon us today. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. The other gospels, Matthew and Luke, tell us the story that we’ve heard today about the physical aspects of Christmas and what it means on the earthly side. But John gives us the the heavenly side, the spiritual side of what was going on, what the implications are. And there’s a lot here in John chapter one. And basically today we’re just going to look at a few things about the fact that Jesus is the light of life.
In verse four, we read in him was life, and that life was the light of men. Our existence today depends on light we wouldn’t be able to see if there was no light. We wouldn’t be wearing warm, we wouldn’t have any food, crops would not be able to grow, we wouldn’t have energy because we wouldn’t have had any fossil fuels. We wouldn’t have the sun or we wouldn’t have wind. So physically, light is of utmost importance to us.
And what John is stressing to us is that not only did Jesus give us light that physically blesses us, but he is the spiritual light that also provides everything that we need. In verse three, we read that all things were created through Him. Without him there is no life, because without light there is no life. And According to Colossians 1, we learned that he maintains and that by him all things hold together. Jesus is the light of our physical life.
Jesus is also the true light of our spiritual light. It tells us in verse 5 that Jesus is the light that also overcomes the darkness. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. When God created the world, it was all good. But Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and sin entered the world.
And with that sin came spiritual darkness. Everything evil that we know today that we don’t like in the world was a result of sin entering the world. But praise be to God, Jesus came into the world and the darkness was not able to overcome him. He was instead the light that shone through the darkness. He cannot be overcome by sin.
He cannot be overcome by darkness. He cannot be overcome by Satan. And his death on the cross not only paid the penalty, but that we deserve because of the sin and darkness in our own life. But his resurrection showed that his victory over the darkness was complete. And because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, we too know that we will have eternal life after our death on this earth.
We go now to verse nine and we see that Jesus is also the light that gives the true light, that gives light not to just some, but but to everyone. And this we find out at Christmas time when we give gifts, that Jesus Himself is actually the ultimate gift giver. He paid the ultimate price by dying on the cross for our sins. So that we could be new creations, so that we could have an eternal home, so that we could have an inheritance, so that we could be adopted into the family of God. Salvation was provided by Jesus, and He gave it to us as a free gift.
And he desires it. Everyone receives that gift that he has to give. Once again I say that the true Light gives. He doesn’t require us to purchase it, to pay for it, or to do anything. And he gives not just to some, but he gives to everyone.
We go on to read in verse 12, but to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God. To those who believe in his name. Again, he gave them this right. No money is needed, no special pedigree is needed. No beauty is needed, no skills, no talents, no effort on our part.
Jesus just offers us a place in God’s family completely, completely free of charge and without any prerequisites. Jesus is also the light of glory according to the Scripture. And here we’re talking about the beautiful manifestation of God, everything that he is, how it shines forth. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the One and only Son from the Father, full of grace, grace and truth.
We observed his glory, the One and only Son from the Father. No one had seen the Father. No one had seen God. Moses in the Old Testament had just a glimpse of his glory. But when Jesus came to live among us, we finally see the face of God and the powerfulness of God, his sovereignty.
And all of this that caused fear in the Old Testament showed a different side in Jesus Christ. Because in Jesus, we see the love of God reaching out to everyone. We see the complete goodness of God. We see his kindness and his mercy. We see his truth and we see his justice.
When Jesus came in the flesh, we were actually able to see what God is like in his relationship to us. Therefore, we can understand God better and he also understands us. Because Jesus came and lived among us as one of us. John then tells us that Jesus is God. We read in verse 18, no one has ever seen God, the one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side.
He has revealed him. John ends this passage with what he began with, because in verse 1 he said in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John wants us to understand spiritually that Jesus is God in the flesh. That’s God himself that came to live among us. That’s why we celebrate Christmas and we look forward to Easter when we celebrate his death, his burial and resurrection.
The next thing that I want you to see today is that Jesus is the light of grace, full of grace and truth. Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The word that’s emphasized there three times is grace. And what do we mean when we talk about grace?
Well, it’s all the gifts that God has that he gives to us that we cannot purchase. We can use an acrostic and say grace spelled G R A C E is God’s riches, everything he has. And it is at Christ’s expense that because Jesus came into the world and he died for us on the cross, it’s through that that we have this grace upon grace. And it fully comes to us because Jesus is the light of grace. And then we end today with this statement that Jesus wants everyone to respond to the fact that he is the light of the world.
Jesus wants people to respond to the fact that he wants to give you his lavish grace, that we might have eternal life. And how is it that people come to respond to God? Well, very specifically, we’re told in Romans 10, 9, 10, this is the way to to respond to God that we might receive the grace that Jesus offers us. We have to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. Going Back to John 1, we have to say he is God.
He came in the flesh. He has a right to have control of my life. He has a right to be my Lord and my Master. Someone who comes to true faith and responding to God in a proper way is willing to tell that to everyone. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
But there also has to be a belief, not just a head knowledge. But it says that we have to believe in our hearts and rest upon this fact that God raised him from the dead. And when we believe this in our hearts, we place all of our hope and trust in Him. Then it says that we will be saved. For one believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
It’s our desire today that you’ve enjoyed the program. It’s our desire today that you’re going to congratulate these kids for the wonderful job that they did. But more importantly, we want you to respond to Jesus Christ. If you never have in your life that you would make him the Lord and master of your life, being willing to tell that to others and that you would come to understand you have to believe in your heart. Place your faith in what he did for us by dying on the cross.
On the backside of that insert, it explains what the gospel means more fully. And there are a lot of us around today that have my name tags. Matt even remembered to wear his after I teased him last week. That anybody with a name tag would be happy to sit down and talk to to you about this today. But thank you so much for coming.
It means so much to your kids and your grandkids, maybe even your great grandkids that you were supportive of them today. Let’s have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the chance to sing your praises today. We thank you for the gift of all these children that you have blessed us with, Father. It is our intense desire that all of them would come to fear faith in your son, that they would not only sing about Christmas, but they would understand the meaning of it, Father, and make it part of their lives.