Hope Through The Light Of Men
John 1:4-5; 9-12 (ESV):
4In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He 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,
Henry G. Bosch, the renowned founder of the “Our Daily Bread” ministry, at one time wrote a story of the necessity of lights. This story happened when their family visited a cave in the state of Kentucky. As the guide led them through many beautiful and winding subterranean passageways, he suddenly turned off all the lights and said, "I'm the only one who knows how to get back to the entrance. If I left you here, you'd probably never find your way out. Anyone lost in this cave would no doubt become insane within a week from the oppressive loneliness. Be quiet for a moment and feel the darkness!" Hearing those words, he remembers his young child clutching to his arms so tightly. After about 30 seconds, someone in the party could no longer endure it and cried out, "Turn on the lights! I'm going crazy now!" The guide laughed and turned on the lights. He said he won’t forget that frightening experience.
Since we are so used to having lights all around us, we can all easily take them for granted. We probably don’t realize how essential they are in our lives. We all have to depend on them in our homes, schools, workplaces, and even in church. They help us feel safe when we are walking or even driving at night. There’s no way we would survive without them. If this is true physically, it is also true spiritually.
This morning, as we conclude our sermon series this month about “A Thrill of Hope,” we will study together this truth about Jesus Christ as the light given to us by God to help us navigate through this dark and dangerous world. If you can still remember, our text is a continuation of the passage we studied together two Sundays ago about Jesus being the Eternal Word. In the earlier verses, John helped us understand that Jesus Christ is God’s best communication of Himself, His will, and His actions. He has existed with God in eternity past, and He Himself is the God who creat ed everything in the world. All these facts are essential in Him being the Savior of the world.
However, we should not stop there. The apostle John continued to reveal to us that He also is the light that God has given us who are living in this world darkened by sin. To help us appreciate
Him as being the Light given by God, we must understand three significant realities that we find in our main text. Here are they:
I. THE LIGHT OF MEN DELIVERS LIFE (v. 4)
When you begin to read verse 4, John wrote, “In him was life, and the life
was the light of men.” Here, it is quite clear that John wants to highlight the truth that Jesus is the light who also brought us life. The question is: what kind of life did we receive from Him?
It is interesting to notice that in the Greek language, there are two important words used for life. First is the word “Bios.” It is primarily used to refer to our physical life. We exist physically be cause we possess this “Bios.” However, in our text, the Greek word used is “Zoe.” This word is a di rect reference to the spiritual life that we receive the moment we believe in Jesus Christ as our per sonal Savior. This life has three significant applications:
A. Spiritual Life
As sinners, our spiritual condition is that we are dead in our sins and separated from God. We are not able to respond or properly relate to God because of our sins, so God must give us life so we can begin relating to Him. This is the implication when Jesus told the chief Pharisee, Nicodemus, that he needed to be separated from God and born again:
John 3:1-3 ESV:
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
3Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the king dom of God.”
To be born again literally means to receive the life that directly comes from God. Being a good and religious man is never enough if we want to go to heaven. We need to receive the spiritual re generation that comes through our faith in Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul provides a great picture for us in his letter to the Ephesian Christians: Ephesians 2:1-5 ESV:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Prior to knowing Christ, Paul explained that we are totally dead in every
thing spiritual, and we were in rebellion against Him. Verse 4 signals the dynamic intervention of God; it happened all because of His mercy and great love that he made us alive spiritually in Jesus Christ.
B. Eternal Life
The second characteristic of the life we have received from Jesus Christ is that it is a life that will never end. Listen to these words of Jesus Christ:
John 11:25-26 ESV:
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Once a person is in Jesus Christ, they don’t have to be afraid of death. Death for believers is not the end; it is simply the gate to enter a more blessed existence. The life that Jesus gives is an eternal life, a life that never ends.
C. Abundant life
Thirdly, it is also a qualitative life, which suggests that it is a more meaningful life. John 10:10 ESV:
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
The context of John 10:10 is the fact that Jesus Christ is a “Good Shepherd” who is laying down His life for sheep. The moment that He is our Shepherd, He will be there to lead and guide us; He is always there to feed and care for us so that, in the end, we will be fully satisfied in life. No wonder when King David understood that God is his Shepherd, he declared:
Psalm 23:1 ESV:
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Have you received this life that Jesus offers us? God has made this life available through the light of Jesus Christ.
II. THE LIGHT OF MEN DEFEATS DARKNESS (v.5)
The second essential application of Jesus being the light of men continues
in verse 5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Evidently, prior to the coming of Jesus as the light of men, the world was in total darkness. This idea of darkness in the Bible on the part of humanity could always be interpret ed in two ways:
A. Intellectually – There is spiritual blindness.
Ephesians 4:18 (ESV):
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the igno rance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
The apostle Paul, in this verse, stresses the darkened understanding of sinners, which sepa rates them from the life of God. If you notice, the darkened understanding is caused by the hard ness of the heart. In other Bible versions, the words “hardness of heart” are translated as “blindness of heart.” So, this spiritual blindness can keep people from knowing the truth about Je sus Christ. One more verse that reinforces this truth is 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV):
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Again, for sinners who are without Jesus Christ, all spiritual teachings are a waste of their time because they are all foolishness to them.
B. Morally – There is sinful behavior.
Darkness is not only visible in the mind of the unbelievers; it is also seen in their works. The apostle Paul mentions this truth in Romans 13:12-13 (ESV):
12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
The passage is written to believers who need to be reminded about the imminent return of Jesus Christ and how they need to cast off the “works of darkness.” Verse 13 mentions some spe cific examples of the “works of darkness,” such as orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, etc.
So, with spiritual blindness and sinful behavior, the people of the world are spiritually bank rupt. We desperately need God to intervene and give us the Light that we need. Praise God because more than two thousand years ago, Jesus, the Light of men, came to our world!
Of course, when He came, darkness tried its best to extinguish the light of Jesus Christ. No tice the last part of verse 5, “the darkness has not overcome it.” Meaning that Satan, with all his
dominions, tried their best to stop Jesus from shining in the world, but they failed to do it.
Also, John’s reference to Jesus shining in the darkness of the world is a di
rect fulfillment of the prophecy declared by the prophet Isaiah about the coming Messiah – Isaiah 9:2 (ESV):
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Thank God that the true Messiah came to our world to help us overcome our darkness! Tim othy Keller commented on this truth, saying:
“Jesus is the divine Light of the world, because he brings a new life to replace our spiritual deadness, because he shows us the truth that heals our spiritual blindness, and because he is the beauty that breaks our addiction to money, sex, and power. . . He walks with us even into the shadow of death, where no other companion can go. He is a Light for us when all other lights go out.”
III. THE LIGHT OF MEN DEMANDS A CHOICE (vv. 9-12)
In the last four verses of our text, John presents the two responses that people need to con sider with Jesus as the light of men:
A. Rejection (vv. 9-11)
Verses 9-11 declare, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own,[a]and his own people[b]did not receive him.”
Now, before we highlight the rejection of Jesus Christ, I believe that we should emphasize John’s reference to Jesus as the “The true light.” There are so many people who came or are com ing, claiming to be the light of the world. But there is only one who is true. He is Jesus Christ.
However, what is truly tragic is the people’s rejection of the true light. He even came to His own people. If there should have been people who did not have a problem receiving Him, it should have been the Jews. But the blindness of the heart is hard to overcome. It is only by the grace of God that our eyes would be enlightened. My hope and prayer is that none of us will be found re jecting the true light because He is the only one who can give us true hope in life.
B. Reception (v.12)
The last verse is quite familiar – “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”
To acknowledge Jesus as the true light literally suggests that we believe in
Him and allow Him to lead us in our journey. I’m sure many of you are familiar with these words in Psalm 119:105 (ESV):
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Contextually, I know that the “word” here applies to the written word. But I will not hesitate to apply it as well to the Eternal Word of God that functions as the light of our lives. Jesus is the light of the world. He is the one who guides us through the darkness of life. He is the one who shows us the way to safety. We can all testify to how difficult and dangerous this life is on this side of the world. It will take a lot of humility to acknowledge that we all need Jesus to be the light to guide us in our journeys.
So, have you rejected or received Jesus Christ, the light of men? I trust that we will all receive Him as the light of our own lives! Once you have received Him, you have also been given the re sponsibility to reflect the light that He has shared with you. Jesus said:
Matthew 5:16 (ESV):
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus calls believers to be the “light of the world,” carrying his message of love and hope in to our communities. Jesus sends us to this dark world to dispel darkness. And how do we do this? I believe it is by reaching people in darkness one life at a time. Again, if Jesus is your Savior, you should be willing to shine in the world for Him.