The Light Shines in the Darkness
John 1v5, 9-14
27th December 2024
Last week we read these words:
John 1v1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it.
This week I'd first like to say a little more about verse 5: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it". John’s Gospel was originally written in Greek, and some words in one language can be difficult to translate into another language. The Greek word "katelambano" means "to grasp" or to "seize". Some translations including the ESV say "the darkness has not overcome it" and others including the NIV say, "the darkness has not understood it". Both are true. The darkness of this world has not overcome the light of Jesus Christ. The world-wide church is growing and will continue to do so. Isaiah 9v7 tells us that "Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end". But I think John is saying that the world as a whole has not understood the light of Jesus.
Most people, going about their business as you read this, or reading the paper, or walking the dog, don’t understand about Jesus. Most people don’t know why He came to earth. Most people don’t accept that He is God, don’t know that He died for our sins, don’t want to turn to Him in repentance and faith, don’t realise that life with Jesus is so very much better than life without Him. They’re not worse people than you or me. The difference between us and them is only that God has revealed the light of Jesus to us, but has not yet revealed it to them. As Paul wrote:
2 Corinthians 4v6
God… made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ.
God has chosen to give us this great, life changing, eternity-changing revelation. We don’t know why He chose us. We’re just eternally grateful that He did. And we pray for our friends and neighbours that He will give them the same utterly transformative revelation that we’re received.
Verses 6-8 speak about John the Baptist but, this Christmas time, I'd like to move past that passage to verses 9-14, which also speak about Jesus as the Light. In verse 9, John says:
John 1v9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Jesus, the Word, the ultimate Message from God about His character, His ways and His plan, the eternal One, the Creator of the world, was born in a stable in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. The world has never been the same since. Now, because He came to earth, we can see the truth, we can see what love and morality really look like. And the Bible promises that, if we seek God, if we try to understand, if we pray and ask for God’s help, we will receive His mercy, we will come to understand that there is a way to God, and His name is Jesus Christ.
The second Person of the Holy Trinity was born as a man. How can God become a man? Well, God can do anything. A better question is: why did God become a man? Why did He leave perfect bliss with His Father in heaven to live in a dark, sad, lonely old world like ours? The only answer is, of course, that He loves us so much that he was prepared to make the sacrifice. He was born to a poor family in an occupied country. He grew up, learnt his stepfather Joseph’s trade as a carpenter, and, when the moment was right, He started preaching and healing, showing us what God was like. And then He gave His life as a ransom for us on the cross. Such love is beyond our understanding. May it never be beyond our gratitude.
Jesus was both God and man. How is that possible? Again, God can do anything. He got tired, hungry, cold, thirsty and lonely as humans do. He was, Isaiah tells us, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was rejected, lied about, and unjustly punished. So He knows how you feel. But He never stopped being God.
If you’ve never seen the true light that gives light to everyone, I pray you will see it soon. Or, rather, I pray you will see Him soon. Jesus Christ gives light to everybody, but we don’t all receive it. John says:
John 1v10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
Jesus, who created the universe, was born in a stable, and spent His first night in an animal’s feeding trough. He was born in an ancient city belonging to God’s ancient people of Israel. He grew up, and he walked their streets, and He taught in their synagogues and town squares. He befriended the friendless, healed the sick, loved the lonely, reached out to the outcasts, confronted the rulers and the religious types. Most of them didn’t recognise Him.
John 1v11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Most of the people rejected Jesus, the rulers and Pharisees persecuted Him, He often had nowhere to sleep except the open air. Eventually they – or perhaps I should say we – crucified Him.
John 1v12-13 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Among all the people who would not accept Jesus, all the people who clung to the old ways, all the people who wanted to be left alone in their misery, all the people whose desire to hold on to political power required them to oppose Jesus, there were some – some – who accepted Jesus. They became children of God. John says they weren’t born of natural descent, not of human decision, not because a couple wanted to be parents, but born of God.
Exactly the same is true today. Everybody who receives Jesus, everybody who believes in His name – that is, everybody who believes that Jesus is who the Bible says He is – the Messiah, the Son of God, God’s perfect Message, who is Himself truly God – has the right to become a child of God. Not because of our racial heritage, or our parent’s religion, or our social upbringing, or our own goodness, but because we believe the truth about Jesus the Word of God. Everybody who believes, regardless of what you’ve done, or what you’ve believed until now, no matter if you’ve denied Jesus in the past, or even slandered or misused His holy Name, no matter what crimes you’ve committed, against people or against God, if you believe in who Jesus truly is, you have the right to become a child of God.
I am a child of God. I’m nothing special. I was an average, lower-middle-class teenager from Gosport, when God revealed the truth about God in Jesus Christ to me. It has absolutely changed my life. I know God has accepted me, despite all the things I get wrong. I know the Holy Spirit lives in me. I know I’m part of His family. I know I have an eternal destiny with God in glory. I am a better person; more loving, more moral, more forgiving, more patient, than I was. And the more time I spend meditating on Jesus Christ, the more this process of character transformation happens. All this is because He gave me faith to believe the truth about Jesus.
Jesus explains this in Chapter 3 of this Gospel. He says, "I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless He is born again" (John 3v3) - born of God, not naturally but spiritually. Jesus says, "flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit" (John 3v6). Perhaps the most well-known verse in the whole Bible is in that same chapter: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3v16).
The Word of God has come so that you can be born again, born of the Spirit, born as a child of God, be adopted into God’s family, receive the Holy Spirit and inherit eternal life. This promise is given to whoever believes – not to the religious, or the morally upstanding, or the socially respectable, but to whoever believes.
Do you believe?
John 1v14a The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is? There is no more important question.
John 1v14b We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
We Christians have seen the glory of Jesus! We are nothing special of ourselves, but we are the objects of God's mercy. There is no inherent goodness in us, but He has chosen to love and reveal Himself to us. What amazing grace!
We’ve all probably been celebrating Christmas, one way or another, all our lives. Christians have a joy at Christmas that non-Christians cannot understand or even guess at. We can meditate on the immensity of what we’re celebrating, the enormity of God’s mercy to us. I like turkey and mince pies as much as the next man but, mostly, I celebrate the incarnation of the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, my Saviour.
Let us rejoice at the amazing grace we have received, as we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God.