Let There Be Light
John 1:1-13
December 25, 2018
We gather here this Christmas morning as brothers and sisters in Christ
Because we believe that more than anything else,
TODAY IS ABOUT THE GLORY OF CHRIST.
After all, even in a worldly sense, we understand that someone’s birthday
Is primarily about them and not everyone else.
Well certainly that is true in this case.
• We celebrate Christ.
• We celebrate His birth.
• We celebrate His life.
And we gather to do that.
And the objective this morning is a simple one.
Primarily just to tune our hearts again to the truth
Of the blessing that Christ was born into this world.
Now, I know I promise you a shorter sermon on Christmas day,
But we still need to start this story where all good stories start,
And that is in the beginning.
The first 3 verses of the Bible give us tremendous insight,
Even into the miracle of Christmas.
Genesis 1:1-3 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”
In that verse we find something of the work and nature of God.
“The earth was formless and void”
“formless” translates TOHU
It means “meaningless” or “confusion”
Isaiah 40:17 “All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”
Isaiah 59:4 “No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.”
“void” translates BOHU
It means “emptiness”
Isaiah 34:11 “But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation And the plumb line of emptiness.”
And hopefully you pick up on the literary work of Moses.
The earth was TOHU and BOHU
It started in a completely unusable, formless, confused, orderless reality.
GOD CHOSE TO BEGIN IT THERE.
• He didn’t start with perfection and maintain it.
• He started with chaos and renovated it.
And there is a reason God did it this way.
It reveals God’s role as ONE WHO REDEEMS.
He always takes what is flawed and makes it new.
• He brings order from chaos
• He brings blessing from struggle
• He brings what is good from what is not
That is the point here.
His plan for creation was to take what had no value
And work it until it was perfect.
And the PRIMARY STATEMENT we see about this was:
“The God said, “let there be light”; and there was light.”
It was the first aspect of God’s creation.
• God intervened!
• God transformed!
• God took what was unusable, formless, confused, and orderless and gave it purpose.
• God redeemed the darkness.
That was His very first act.
And of course we follow from there THE ENTIRE CREATION STORY and remember how all that God created was good.
But we also remember the story of THE FALL.
• By reason of his transgression Adam fell and doomed us all.
What God created perfect had fallen back into that
Which was unusable and confused and without order.
• It was creation, but it was distorted.
• It was creation, but it was tainted.
• It was creation, but it was corrupted.
In short, DARKNESS RETURNED
(not necessarily literal physical darkness, but spiritual darkness)
And from there DARKNESS REEMERGES in the Scripture message.
And darkness comes to represent 2 different things.
ON ONE HAND darkness begins to represent sin and corruption and lostness and ignorance and defilement. Darkness begins to represent spiritual death.
Proverbs 4:19 “The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.”
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Darkness becomes an analogy for the return of
The corrupt and fallen picture of sin and rebellion and wasted life.
AND ON THE OTHER HAND darkness becomes the chief descriptor of God’s holy wrath on that sin.
Psalms 18:9-11 “He bowed the heavens also, and came down With thick darkness under His feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.”
Psalms 97:2 “Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.”
So after the fall darkness returns
And it is seen both in the corruption of man
And the judgment of God on that corruption.
And sinful man begin to recognize that in the darkness
They have a tremendous problem.
And many begin to cry out for deliverance from the darkness
And throughout the O.T. there are promises of salvation coming.
There are promises and pictures that the light might return.
There is a growing hope that what God did on the first day of creation,
That He might do that again.
Psalms 18:28 “For You light my lamp; The LORD my God illumines my darkness.”
Psalms 107:10-14 “There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, Prisoners in misery and chains, Because they had rebelled against the words of God And spurned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore He humbled their heart with labor; They stumbled and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death And broke their bands apart.”
Isaiah 9:2 “The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.”
Isaiah 42:6-7 “I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
Isaiah 49:6 “He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
There was a prophetic hope that what God did before; He would do again.
• Humanity longed for God to redeem the darkness.
• Humanity longed for God to make something perfect out of what was formless and void and corrupt and broken.
AND GOD DID!
God intervened again!
And the first to recognize it was an elderly man in God’s temple.
Who, after a lifetime of languishing in the darkness, saw God’s light.
Luke 2:29-32 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
And so you see:
• We are talking about redemption.
• We are talking about salvation.
• We are talking about redeeming the darkness.
And you’ve already figured out for quite some time now,
We are talking about Jesus.
This One who was born, NOT just as a moral example.
This One who was born, NOT just as a prophetic voice.
This One who was born, NOT just as promised relief.
We are talking about God’s Light.
We are talking about God’s salvation.
We are talking about God’s Redemption
SO TURN WITH ME NOW TO JOHN 1:1-13.
• You of course are familiar with this passage.
• And we are not going to work out the depths of all of it here.
• But I want you to see the ANNOUNCEMENT that is being made here by John.
If you notice the first 3 verses, what do you hear about?
CREATION
• We are reminded of “the beginning”
• And we are reminded who was there in the beginning – “God”
• And we are reminded that “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being.”
GOD CREATED ALL THINGS.
We saw that back in
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
The one difference here is that John makes the point
That God in a sense was not alone.
He was accompanied by Himself.
We are of course speaking of the nature of the Trinity
And the fellowship the Triune God has within Himself.
It’s mysterious I know, but you see that here.
Now there’s a reason John is so INTERESTED IN INTRODUCING you to the second person of the trinity here.
Because that second Person is huge to the story!
So…
• We are reminded of God’s creative work,
• And we are reminded how God took what was TOHU and BOHU and redeemed it.
Remember:
Genesis 1:2-3 “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”
Well now we look at verse 4.
“In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men”
ONCE AGAIN LIGHT SHOWN FORTH!
• God intervened!
• God transformed!
• God took what was unusable and useless and corrupt and broken and went to work on it.
• God reached in to redeem the darkness!
In short, John said this.
• God’s light came!
• God’s salvation came!
• God’s life came!
And it came through a “Him”
“In Him was life”
• Just as we aren’t talking anymore about literal physical darkness, but rather sin and the judgment on it.
• We aren’t talking about literal light, but rather salvation and the life that it brings.
But the point is, God moved again to restore broken creation
And He did it by sending One who brings life and light.
Now certainly we are reminded that the darkness did not love the light and that is certainly a theme of the book, but not our point for today.
We see more about this light.
Namely that this light (this salvation) was SO IMPORTANT that God sent a man to announce it to the world.
(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.”
And that is just a beautiful testimony to the light of God
And the salvation and redemption He provided.
Light came, it was true light (true salvation)
And it came to enlighten every man (it was available to all)
It’s just a restatement of the perfection of the new creation
Which God was providing.
Verses 10 and 11 remind us again that not every man was interested in the light,
But those who wanted the light received freedom from the darkness, (freedom from death, and freedom from the wrath of God,)
Received it!
(12-13) “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.”
Now, that is the introduction of this book, just like we saw it in Genesis.
• God spoke into the darkness and brought forth light.
• God through His word redeemed the darkness.
• God brought order to chaos
• God brought purpose to what was ruined
• God brought life to what was dead
We saw that in Genesis 1 – We see that in John 1
And of course you know that the name of that light is Jesus.
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
John 9:1-5 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”
John 12:44-47 “And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”
• Jesus came as Light
• Jesus came as Salvation
• Jesus came as Life
He is God’s redemption of what was broken.
• If God had never spoken into the darkness in Genesis 1 this world would not exist.
• And if God had not spoken into the darkness a second time in John 1 then life would not exist.
God Intervened!
That is why when Matthew saw Jesus walk into the Gentile region of Zebulun and Naphtali he wrote:
Matthew 4:12-16 “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES — “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
Matthew screamed to that Gentile region
“It’s the Light!” “It’s salvation!” “It’s freedom from the darkness!”
That’s why when Paul preached in his ministry he said:
Acts 26:21-23 “For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death. “So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”
And in short, this is why we celebrate Jesus today.
This is why we love Christmas.
• The birth of Christ was our new creation.
• The coming of Jesus was light in our darkness.
• It is the day God shone forth to correct what was TOHU and BOHU
Man was useless and corrupt and void before God.
And God said, “Let there be light”
This morning we rejoice in this
• That for us there is a Savior.
• That for us there is Redemption.
• That God did not leave us wandering aimlessly in the darkness, but that He intervened and gave us light!
Jesus is that light and the promise remains.
(9-13) “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 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.”
Salvation is now available to all who believe in Christ.
• Those who do are “born”, later Jesus will say “born again”
• And they are not born “of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
That is to say that through this Jesus,
All those who have become corrupted and broken and useless and who wander about in darkness CAN BE REBORN, that is RECREATED.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Jesus can save you.
Jesus can redeem you.
Jesus can recreate you.
He is Light!
This morning I invite you to leave the darkness of sin and shame
And run to Christ for forgiveness and life.
And if Christ has already made you new,
Then this morning I remind you to rejoice in it.
Simeon had it figured out:
Luke 2:29-32 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
