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John 1:1-18
Have you ever found yourself on a vacation and your plans or your day was unexpectedly changed? Perhaps you went to the beach and woke up to a day of rain. Or maybe you went to the mountains and a storm knocked out the power. Or maybe that’s your idea of vacation – nothing to do and no place to go and no interruptions.
Well, several years ago I found myself on such a vacation. We were at the beach and it was a rainy afternoon and I found Sidney Sheldon’s novel, The Windmills of the Gods, on the shelf of the home we had rented. By the way, it’s not a book about windmills or God. But that’s beside the point.
There’s a scene where the main character, a lady named Mary, lost her young husband, a doctor. She was left with her two children, and was trying to put her life back together. She laid awake one night thinking how easy it would be to die, how happiness and love were so easily snatched away. Then this thought ran through her mind, “The world is Dachau, and we are all Jews.”
Now… add to that story this one:
It was the Christmas of 1968. Gerald Coffee was spending his third Christmas in prison. His Vietnamese guards gave him and his fellow POW’s some candy. He heard the guards outside talking and laughing with their families, celebrating Christmas. One of the guards had a son who was about three or four years old, and Coffee thought of his own children back home.
He ate the candy and looked at the red and silver foil. He began to form that foil into three shapes – a swan, a rosette, and a star. That made him think about the star of Bethlehem. He placed those three shapes above his bed and just laid there looking at them. Then, he began thinking about the birth of Christ. He knew it was only his faith that was getting him through.
Later, in his book Beyond Survival, Captain Gerald Coffee wrote that in that place there was nothing to distract him from the awesomeness of Christmas, even though he had lost everything that defined who he was. He wrote, “Yet, I continued to find strength within. I realized that although I was hurting and lonely and scared, this might be the most significant Christmas of my life.”
I share these two stories to highlight the fact that in times of darkness and suffering and disappointment and despair, one person saw nothing but darkness and the other saw the light.
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to John 1. On these Sundays in Advent, leading up to the Christmas season, we’re in a series that I’m calling Bethlehem’s Light – where we’re thinking about Jesus as the light of Bethlehem. Today, I want us to see Jesus as the light of life amidst the darkness of our suffering.
Today’s passage isn’t about the birth of Jesus, or about Mary and Joseph getting the news. Rather, it takes us back to the very beginning – before there was even a human history – and it introduces us to the Son of God, to Jesus, as the Word. Follow along with me as I read:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 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.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He 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.
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.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about Him, and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’”) 16 For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He [Jesus] has made Him [God] known.
The first eighteen verses of John’s Gospel are called his prologue. It’s this long statement about the Word becoming flesh. The Greek word for “word” is logos, the creative power of God at work in the universe, God Himself.
The Bible begins with this same kind of language, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) And the next thing God created was the light, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3).
This creative power in the universe, this Word, this logos, God Himself, has come into the world in human form. John tells us, in verse 4 that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
John also tells us that at a certain point God (Himself) stepped onto the stage of human history, and when He did that, He stepped right into the middle of human suffering.
The Jews were suffering under the rule of Rome. Now, it’s true that the Romans had brought about a time of peace (Pax Romana), but it was because no one could oppose them. They brought developments in civilization, and had advanced human life in many ways, but at the same time the thumb of Rome had come down hard upon everybody.
Added to the political realities of living under Roman occupation you also had to face life filled with disease and hunger, sickness and death, injustice and persecution. Yet, in the midst of all that suffering, the Bible says that Jesus was, “the light of all people” (John 1:)
Listen to me this morning; whatever it is that you’re facing right now . . . Christmas holds for you the promise of help and hope, the promise of light and love, the promise of joy and peace. In the darkness of your own suffering, there’s a light that still shines. To the darkness of sin, He is the light of holiness. To the darkness of lies and falsehood, He is the light of truth. To the darkness of ignorance of God, He is the light of wisdom. To the darkness of sorrow, despair and depression, He is the light of joy. And to the darkness of death, it’s none other than Jesus Christ who is the light of life. And this morning I want to show you three ways that Jesus – Bethlehem’s light – ministers to us in the midst of our suffering.
Jesus Is The Light That Overcomes All Darkness
That’s the testimony of these verses. Look at verse 5 again; “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John is giving us the conclusion of the story before he even begins. He’s telling us ahead of time how things turn out. At the beginning of Jesus’ life – even before His official ministry and His crucifixion – He had already defeated the darkness of sin and death.
Imagine it; lying there in the manger was God’s answer to physical death. God’s answer to spiritual death was the Babe of Bethlehem. Jesus is the light that overcomes spiritual darkness and sin. Do you know what this means for us? It means that no matter what we face He has already defeated it. He has already conquered it. He has already overcome it.
Now don’t misunderstand me. This doesn’t mean that we won’t face persecution or difficulty or suffering or disappointment. Christians still face unpleasant medical diagnoses. Christians still face persecution and death because of their faith. Christian businesses still face all the same struggles that other small-business owners face. Christian marriages and families still have to work through all the same difficulties and disappointments that life brings.
The difference is that believers in Jesus Christ, those that have put all their faith, hope, and trust in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, have the ultimate assurance that Jesus has overcome these things. This means that the awesome news of Christmas is also the awesome news of Easter and the resurrection – VICTORY! Jesus Christ has already won the victory, and everything you and I could ever possibly face has already been defeated.
That’s why we bow down around a manger. It’s not because Jesus is a sweet, cute, bouncing, baby boy. It’s because of what He became and what He did. He drove the darkness right out of our lives. This is something to brag about. This is something that should make Christmas an exciting time – God has done this for us by sending Jesus.
Methodist minister, and later bishop, Ernest Fitzgerald recalled a man who taught a Sunday school class at a little church in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. One Sunday, his lesson was titled, “What I Have Learned Thus Far.” One of the things he mentioned was this, “Never forget in the dark what God has told you in the light.”
This Advent season, I hope that you’ll remember Jesus Christ is the light that has overcome all darkness and sin.
Jesus Is The Light That Enlightens Your Life
Look back at verse 9. John tells us that, “The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.”
Jesus brought people out of the darkness and into the light. He called out a Legion of demons from a possessed man in the Gerasenes. He called Lazarus out of a tomb. He called Zacchaeus out of the shade. He called Bartimaeus out of blindness. In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Jesus is the light of life. The One whose birth we anticipate this time of the year is, indeed, the light of the world. He’s the true light that enlightens people – that is, He brings spiritual understanding and appreciation of exactly who He is and the truth of His Word.
The Bible is clear. From cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation and everywhere in between we’re told (and we know from our own experiences) that we are sinners. Proverbs 4:19 says, “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.” The Apostle Paul would put it like this in his first letter to the church in Corinth, “In their case [i.e. those that are perishing] the god of this world [i.e. the Devil, Satan, the great deceiver] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 4:4-6)
The light that Jesus gives can reach into the dark corners of your life, and illuminate the truth of His Word and who He is and answer the perplexities of life. The light of Christ can and will warm your heart so that you will see Him for who He is – your Savior. Bethlehem’s light can and will fill your daily living with love and good deeds so that others will glorify your Father in heaven.
Remember that Jesus Christ will enlighten your life. He knows how to turn the lights on because He is the light.
Jesus Is The Light That Empowers Your Living
Look at verse 13. John says, “To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God.”
Jesus Christ is the light that empowers your daily living. But this isn’t just any daily living. This isn’t just power to get through the day. It’s power for a specific purpose: “to become children of God.” That’s who we are. That’s who God has called us to be. That’s what Jesus Christ empowers us to become – children of God.
That’s what Paul was after when he wrote to the Christians in Rome, that all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God, and if they are the children of God, then they are the heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. That is, if we are willing to suffer with Him and thereby be glorified with Him (Romans 8:16-17, paraphrased). That sheds a new light on the darkness of human suffering.
Do you really want your living to be empowered? Do you really want Jesus Christ, who is the light, to bring you to the light that shines, in the midst of your suffering? It just might cause you to do something you never would have thought of before. You just might find yourself being a light person, spreading the light, sharing the light, giving away the light in the darkness of suffering. That’s part of what it means to become a child of God.
Let me conclude with this little story. I’ve used it before, so bear with me. If you’ve never heard it, then I pray it will speak to you this Sunday of Advent.
A wealthy man enjoyed taking his son on business trips. Often on these trips, the man would purchase various works of art – sometimes Renaissance, other times Impressionism, still others were Classics. He filled his home with these paintings.
The boy grew to manhood and when war broke out, he went to serve his country. In just a few months, the man received word his son had died in battle, trying to save the lives of some of his friends. When the next Christmas came, the man found it difficult to get through the season. The suffering he had experienced was too much. But on Christmas morning, a young soldier came to his door and presented him with a portrait of his son. The young soldier was among those whose lives had been saved. The father placed the portrait over his fireplace. He would often sit in front of it and think of his son.
Several years later, the man died. His lawyer carried out his will. The instructions were that the home and everything in it was to be sold at auction. The first thing to be sold was the portrait of the man’s son. When the auctioneer called out, “Do I hear a bid?” no one seemed to want the portrait. To move things along, a man in the back said, “Ten dollars.” The auctioneer said, “Going, going, gone. Sold for ten dollars. The auction is over.”
There was an outcry as people exclaimed, “What! What do you mean ‘The auction is over’?” The auctioneer explained, “The terms of the will are very clear: Whoever receives the son, receives everything.”
The Bible tells us that, “He who did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not also give us all things with Him” (Romans 8:32)? If you will receive the grace of this most indescribable gift of Christmas, then you will have it all, for you will have the light of life. You will enter into a relationship with the One who said, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).