John 1:4-5
John wrote his biography of Jesus so that we will believe that Jesus is the Christ (savior), and that by believing we will have life (John 20:31). This is God’s appeal to us: believe and live. It is a message that saves those who have not yet put their trust in Jesus and sustains those who have.
Last week we read why we should believe in Jesus. This week we will read what we gain when we believe in Jesus.
When one believes in Jesus, he gains life and light. These are not clichéd niceties. This is what we crave when we’re enslaved to our desires and emotions. This is what we crave when we’re isolated from everyone with our secrets and shame. Let’s pray that God would allow us to believe more deeply so that we might experience life and light more deeply.
Before reading the rest of this sermon, pause and pray for God to open your eyes to the death and darkness in your life. Ask him to awaken desperate desire for the life and light Jesus offers and to help you believe in such a way as to receive these blessings.
The Point: In Jesus there is life and light. Apart from Jesus there is death and darkness.
Life
Verse 4 says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
There is life located in Jesus. This life is light-like in reference to mankind. This is poetic. But what does it mean? How does one access this life? What is this life?
The Bible teaches that those who do not entrust their lives to Jesus are spiritually dead and do not know life. This is a serious thing.
Ephesians 2:1-3 paints a portrait of people apart from life in Jesus: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in 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—among 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.”
The portrait of humanity apart from Jesus is incredibly bleak. As Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “You cannot slander human nature. It is worse than words can paint it.”
Apart from real-life practical trust in Jesus, we wade through life up to our knees in sin, like thick fallen leaves. We float passively along with the current of culture straight to hell. Our fleshly passions and bodily desires rule our lives (think sexual immorality, lust, worshipping other things above God, dark curiosities into the occult and witchcraft, hatred, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry, division, envy and drunkenness (Galatians 5:19-21)).
Perhaps you’ve noticed pop culture’s fascination with zombies lately. Zombie are animated corpses. There were over a dozen zombie movies released in the last two years. Brad Pitt has one coming out soon. There’s a hugely popular show called The Walking Dead. This is a cultural phenomenon. Did you know about “Zombie Walks”? They’re like flash mobs, but instead of singing, people costumed like zombies walking like zombies. One of these events in Mexico City had 10,000 zombies.
I wonder if we love zombies so much because we relate to them. An expert on the zombie phenomenon said in an interview recently with the BBC, “This is what zombies represent. It’s the fear that you as an individual are not a person but just one of a shambling, faceless crowd, no different from those around you. Of course, the real horror is that for most people this is true.”
No matter how clean and neat we make ourselves appear, apart from Christ we are the walking dead; just like everyone else, we shuffle along, zombie-like in our blind obedience to or innate desires. The Bible says that this isn’t living. This is living death.
The birth we celebrate at Christmas isn’t about quaint sentimentality, it’s about God reaching deep into the grave into which we were born and pulling those who believe up into life. There is no life down there. And we cannot climb out on our own. The good news of Christmas is that in Jesus is life and it is marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
How does one access this life in Jesus? I went through the entire book and put parentheses around each time life or death was mentioned. This is a book saturated with references to life. Since our goal isn’t a study of the whole book this morning, I’ll give you biggest theme (I had six that stood out. It is a highly nuanced idea.): Belief is the key to accessing this life.
It is vital that you remember, when you hear the word ‘believe’, think ‘entrust’. John does not want you only to accept facts about Jesus. He wants you to accept facts about Jesus and entrust yourself into his care and authority. Even the demons believe.
Here are three representative passages of the many that indicate this truth:
3:15-16, 18 says, “…whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life… Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
5:24-25 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
7:38 says, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living waters’.”
There are many others (1:12; 3:36; 6:36; 6:40; 6:47; 6:64; 7:37-38 to mention a few).
If you have been living death rather than living life, I entreat you: Believe! And live. Ask God right now to make this miracle happen in you.
This life Jesus offers is accessed by belief and characterized by light.
Light
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
It is connected to the life that is in Jesus. It shines in the darkness. It overcomes the darkness. But what is this light? How does it work? Once again, though beautiful, it’s not immediately very clear. And once again, a search through the rest of John will help. And once again, there is much to be said about light and darkness as it corresponds with life and death; but we will limit ourselves, this time to two ideas:
- It involves seeing.
- It involved being seen.
When one believes in Jesus, he passes from death to life. And this experience involves seeing in a new way.
3:3 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
9:35-41 says, Jesus said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see…”
12:44-46 says, “And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”
Passages like this along with the constant (almost subliminal references to ‘seeing’) indicate that one of the most important features of the life that is in Jesus is seeing the Kingdom of God, Jesus, the Father—ultimate reality for the first time. As C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
If you don’t feel like you see in this way, go to Jesus, pray right now: Help me to believe and see.
But this light involves more than seeing. It involves also being seen.
3:19-21 says, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.”
The life that is in Jesus enlightens our eyes and exposes our lives. It heals the blind and uncovers the hiding. The walking death I described earlier is one of disorientation and isolation. The life Jesus offers is one of clarity and transparency.
The tragedy of Christmas is that many people will adorn their homes with beautiful lights, while remaining shrouded in darkness; blind to the realities of God and isolated in shame and guilt. Perhaps this is one reason why Halloween is gaining on Christmas as America’s favorite holiday. It’s a holiday that celebrates darkness and disguise. Christmas, however, celebrates the light that both enlightens and reveals us.
You cannot come to Jesus while remaining in darkness of sin and shame and secrecy.
If you’re hiding in the darkness, living with unconfessed sin, unresolved shame, vague guilt—hiding from God and others. I invite you to come into the light. Pray right now for God to enable you to believe in Jesus in such a way that you can come clean before him and others.
Conclusion
Light and life.
John wrote his biography of Jesus so that we will believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing we will have life. This is God’s appeal to us this morning: believe and live.
This Christmas, believe in Jesus, and live, and see, and be seen.
Discussion Starters
- Take some time to catch up with everyone.
- Work together to find three other references to “life” in the book of John. How do they help us understand what John meant in verse 4?
- Read Ephesians 2:1-3 together. In what ways do you see this deadness in our culture?
- What is one new thing you learned from these verses?
- How can we incorporate these truths about Jesus into our Christmas celebration this year?
- How would you explain this passage to someone who had never heard it before?
- Take some time to pray together.
