Jesus Is Our Light
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Today we’re continuing our teaching series called Visible God, and it’s all about seeing God through the life of Jesus. We’re studying a book of the bible called the Gospel of John, which contains the life and words of Jesus recorded by an original source, an original follower of Jesus. So we’re not studying secondary sources, sources written well after Jesus’ lifetime, which leads to secondary opinions about Jesus. Instead we’re studying an original source, an original follower of Jesus, so we can know the truth about who Jesus is, and what he came to do. As we do this study we hope you’ll get to meet with God, grow deeper in your walk with God, and see more clearly...our invisible God made visible, through Jesus.
It’s a great series to invite your friends too, including your non-Christian friends who are open to learning more about Jesus. Most non-Christians I know don’t have issues with learning more about Jesus, they just have issues with pushy Christians, pushy followers of Jesus who are trying to cram their faith down their throat. Their issues are less with Jesus, and more with Jesus’ followers. Well this is a series you can invite them to simply learn more about Jesus. It’s a great series for all of us to learn more about Jesus, from an original source of Jesus. So let’s turn to John 1:4-13, and get into it. If you open your bibles to the middle, turn right until you find Matthew, a few books to the right of that is John. We’ll be in John 1:4-13. The title of today’s message is Jesus Is Our Light, and here’s the big idea. Jesus is our light, and he can overcome any darkness in our lives...Jesus is our light, and he can overcome any darkness in our lives.
Context:
Here’s your context. John’s the author of this book of the bible, and he was very good friends with Jesus, he was a part of Jesus’ inner circle. Historians tell us he faced intense persecution from the Roman government, they literally boiled him alive, and then put him in isolation for nearly 2 yrs because he wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus. The things written in this book come from his persecuted, scarred hands, and last week he told us 5 things about Jesus. He told us:
Jesus is our Visible God. (Vs. 1-2 and 18)
Jesus is our Creator. (Vs. 1-3) He eternally existed before all created things.
Jesus is our Incarnate God. (Vs. 14) He’s our fully human, fully divine God who put on human flesh, moved into our neighborhood, and came to dwell with us. He knows what it’s like to bleed and tear like us. He can sympathize with us in every way.
Jesus is FULL of Grace and Truth. (Vs. 14 and 17) He’s not partially grace, partially truth, or one day gracious and one day truthful. He’s always full of both grace and truth!
Jesus came to give us Grace upon Grace. It’s not a limited amount of grace. It’s an endless, overflowing, cascading fountain of grace upon grace. (Vs. 16).
There’s way more things John tells us about Jesus than these 5 things, but these are the 5
we covered last week, and John’s main point is Jesus is our visible God, who came to give us grace upon grace. His point is when we see Jesus, we see God...When we see Jesus, study the life and words of Jesus, we’re getting to see and study the life and words of God...John didn’t risk his life to give us a biographical account of Jesus. He risked his life so we’d believe that Jesus is our Visible God, who came to give us grace upon grace, and he’ll spend the rest of his book showing us that. But before he does, he wants us to know something else about Jesus. He wants us to know that Jesus is our light. I’ve broken the text into 3 sections: The Light, the Witness, and the Decision. It’s the light, the witness, and the decision, we’ll start with the light. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
John 1:4-13 states, “In him was life...” John’s talking about Jesus here. He’s saying Jesus is the source of life, he’s the giver of life. We learned this last week when we studied vs. 3. In vs. 3 John says that all things were made through him, through Jesus, meaning he’s our Creator God.
Again vs. 4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” There’s our 1st major sectional break in the text, John’s talking about The Light. He says in vs. 1-3 that Jesus is our Creator God, the source of life, the giver of life, but now he’s saying Jesus is also the giver of light. He’s the giver of light, meaning he’s the one who gives us the eyes to see, know, and understand God. Just like you need light to see in the dark, John’s saying we need the light of Jesus to see certain spiritual realities. You can’t see certain spiritual realities without the light of Jesus. But once you have a relationship with Jesus, you start seeing and realizing things you didn’t see and realize before. It’s why your non-believing friends still don’t believe, even though you might’ve given them some solid reasons for the existence of God and the truth of the Gospel. It’s because they’re still walking through life without the light of Jesus.
Now because we’re all created in the image of God, we all start out with the light of Jesus flashing at us. The light of Jesus is flashing at us like a lighthouse on a seashore, guiding our hearts, prompting our hearts to ask questions about God. I mean every generation and culture in history keeps asking the same questions about life? It’s always: Does God exist? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Is there more to life than this? If so, then what’s my purpose in life? It’s nothing new! It’s always the same questions, which tells you it’s not a coincidence, because they exist in every generation and culture in history. It’s not a coincidence that those questions exist, it’s because God created us in His image with eternity in our hearts, and the light of Christ is flashing on the seashore guiding our hearts to come to him. Those who ignore that light will drift further away from it, until they can’t see it anymore. But those who put their faith and trust in Jesus, who follow his light, they’ll step onto the seashore, and have their eyes opened to an entirely new life. Their eyes will be open to an entirely new life, where they can now see the spiritual realities they couldn’t see before, when they were in the dark. But trying to explain this to somebody who doesn’t believe, is like trying to explain a rainbow to a blind man! The blind man can’t ever see the beauty of the rainbow, until his eyes are fixed for him to see it. John’s saying Jesus is the one who fixes our eyes...Jesus is the one who fixes our eyes, so we can see the beautiful, spiritual realties of God. Jesus is our light...Jesus is our light. He can overcome any darkness in our lives, which is what John tells us next.
Again vs. 4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The darkness hasn’t overcome it, the darkness hasn’t overcome the light of Jesus, and there’s two things I want you to notice here. First I want you to notice that John doesn’t ignore the reality of darkness. He acknowledges that darkness exists in our world, that there’s things like sin, suffering, jealousy, greed, hatred, violence, death, and the list can go on. It’s all darkness. John recognizes there’s darkness in our world, but the 2nd thing he does is he gives us hope in the darkness. He says the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness hasn’t overcome it, meaning the darkness isn’t co-equal in power with the light. We know this when it comes to the physical realities of life. We know that darkness can’t overpower light. In fact I recently read a quote from NASA talking about solar eclipses, and they said if we were to experience a solar eclipse covering 99% of the sun. That 1% of the sun that’s still shining, is still 10,000 times brighter than a full moon, still too bright for us to look at, and still produces enough light for us to drive without car lights. Despite the sun being covered in 99% darkness, it only takes 1% of sunlight, to still light up our world. That 99%, can’t overcome the 1%. In a similar way the darkness in our world can’t overcome the light of Jesus, and when Jesus returns, his radiance will cause all darkness to flee from us. Think about it like sitting in a dark room without any lights. As soon as you flip a light on, what happens to the darkness? Where does the darkness go when you flip the light switch on?...It flees...It flees...It hides under the bed, under the dresser, in a dark corner of the room, it flees...It’ll be the same way when Jesus returns. His radiance will shine upon our dark world and the darkness in our lives, causing it to flee for all eternity. We desperately need the light of Jesus in our lives. We need him to eradicate the darkness. Jesus is our light, and he can overcome any darkness in our lives.
Again vs. 5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.” Okay so first John talks about The Light, but now he’s talking about The Witness. He says the witness is a guy named John, which is John the Baptist, and his role isn’t to be the light, it’s to bear witness about the light. The text says he’s not the light, but he is supposed to point people to the light. He’s supposed to point people to Jesus, and that’s our job too. Our job isn’t to be the light, it’s to point people to the light, it’s to point people to Jesus. We’re to be like the person at a huge event directing people with a flashlight. They’re not the event, they’re just supposed to point people to the event. How can you do that in our city?...How can you personally point people to Jesus in our city, like John the Baptist?...
One of the ways you can do that is by living out our Love The Few code. One of our codes, one of our core values here at City Awakening is to love the few, so we can love the many. We want to be a church that loves a few people in our city so well, that they can’t ignore the love of Jesus for their lives. I say often and every time I say it, I wonder how many of us “amen” that in our minds, but don’t follow through with it in our hearts...I wonder how many of us are truly committed to loving a few people in our city so well, that they can’t ignore the love of Jesus for their lives...City Awakening John’s role, is your role. John’s role, is my role. John’s role, is the role of every Christian. We’re to shine the light of Jesus in the dark spots of our city, and point people to Jesus. So let’s not be a church that simply “amens” that, let’s be a church that actually lives it out. Spend some time this week thinking about how you personally can love the few? Spend some time thinking about how you can shine just a little light in our city? How you can shine just a little light, in some of the dark corners of your work, your school, your neighborhood, our city, and point people to Jesus? You’re not the light, but your role is to shine the light of Jesus in our city, and point others to Jesus. Jesus is our light, and he can overcome any darkness in our lives. We need to point people to that light, like John the Baptist.
Again vs. 8, “He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He 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, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” This is The Decision. First John talks about The Light, The Witness, and now it’s The Decision. He’s presenting his readers back then and us with a decision. It’s will we trust the light shining from the seashore, or reject it? Will we trust in Jesus, or reject Jesus? John says some didn’t receive him, but some did receive him, and it’s the same responses we get today. There’s those who don’t receive him and those who do receive him. John’s really stressing there’s only 2 ways to respond to Jesus, it’s reject him or accept him. He leaves no room for nominalism, for indifference, for “I like Jesus, I think Jesus was a good guy.” John says Jesus came as our Visible God, as our Creator who died for his creation to give us grace upon grace. But those who reject him, will miss out on what it’s like to enjoy the seashore with God...They’ll miss out on what it’s like to enjoy the seashore with God, as a child of God.
See John says everybody’s a creation of God in vs. 1-3, but he never says everybody’s a child of God. A lot of people say everybody’s a child of God, but John’s saying that’s not what Jesus said. In vs. 12 he says Jesus only gives those who believe in his name the right to be called children of God. To believe in Jesus’ name means more than believing in intellectual facts about Jesus. It’s about trusting and submitting your life to Jesus as your God and Savior. It’s about trusting Jesus with your life. The word believe is used 241 times in the New Testament part of the Bible, and 98 of those times are used right here in John’s gospel. So out of the 241 times the word believe is used, 41% of those are used in John’s gospel, which again tells us he wrote this not to give us a bunch of facts about Jesus like a biography. He wrote it so you and I would believe... He wants us to believe in Jesus, to step on the seashore, to have our eyes opened by Jesus, and see our Visible God in all his splendor. The question non-Christians need to ask is will you trust the light that’s been shining on the seashore, or reject it?...Will you trust in Jesus as your Visible God who came to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of your sins, or will you reject that message?...Will you stand on the seashore with Jesus, or drift into darkness?...The question Christians need to ask, is how can I use my life, to point others to Jesus in our city?... How can I use my life to love the few, to shine just a little light, in the dark spots of our city, and point people to Jesus?...You’re not the light, but your role as a child of God, is to shine the light of Jesus in our city. It’s to point people to Jesus, like John the Baptist and John the author of this gospel.
The Big Idea:
Let’s have the worship team come up and get to the big idea. Here’s the big idea. Jesus is our light, and he can overcome any darkness in our lives...Jesus is our light, and he can overcome any darkness in our lives. That doesn’t mean you won’t experience darkness, because like I said, John recognizes there’s still darkness in our world. So believing in Jesus doesn’t mean you won’t experience darkness, it means Jesus will guide you through that darkness and won’t let darkness win. As children of God we know we can always go to Jesus for guidance in the darkness we face, and we don’t have to hide even in the darkness of our sin. As children of God we know Jesus will always forgives us of our sins, we know he’ll always love us, and because he loves us, he won’t let the darkness in our lives last forever. We can be certain of this, because our faith isn’t rooted in a mythical fairytale, it’s rooted in historical facts. No serious historian would ever deny the fact that Jesus walked among us. It’s a historical fact that Jesus walked this earth, he was brutally murdered, he was crucified, and things looked very dark at the time...It was a very dark time for Jesus’ followers, including John. To them it felt like darkness had won.
But the good news John’s telling us is that darkness didn’t win, it didn’t overcome because Jesus rose from the dead overcoming the darkness of the grave. We can be certain of that, because if anybody had a reason to doubt the light of Jesus overcoming the darkness, it was John. He saw Jesus die, he was boiled alive, thrown into exile for his faith in Jesus, and yet here he is telling us that the light of Jesus can and will overcome the darkness! The only thing that’d cause John to say that, is if Jesus rose from the dead and overcame the darkness of the grave. John’s saying he did, it’s all true, Jesus really rose from the dead, he really is our visible God who came to shine light in our dark world, and the darkness will...not...overcome...it...It won’t overcome it, so let’s respond by worshiping Jesus as our light, and then go into our city to point others to that light. Let’s stand and worship Jesus.
Don’t use bro and dude!
Jesus is our Visible God. (Vs. 1-2 and 18)
Jesus is our Creator. (Vs. 1-3) He eternally existed before all created things.
Jesus is our Incarnate God. (Vs. 14)
Jesus is FULL of Grace and Truth. (Vs. 14 and 17)
Jesus came to give us Grace upon Grace. (Vs. 16).