The Light of Life :: John 1:4

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Before you can have life, you must have light. The two almost always go together. You don’t find life without light, although you may find life at the end of a life cycle. You don’t see great civilizations rising up inside unlit caverns. Nor do you find real faith and hope and love growing in spiritual darkness.

To have life of any kind, you must first have light. 

It is this basic fact that makes Christmas so important to all of us. For, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the light of the world began to shine in the darkness ... giving life to our souls. At the birth of Jesus Christ, the Light of the Gospel burst forth as God came into the world, reilluminating humanity, overcoming the darkness of death by giving us his life through his light. 

CHRISTMAS IS THE FESTIVAL OF THE LIGHT OF LIFE

I.    It begins with God ... In him was life and the life was the light of men. ... He is the Light of the World.

There is only one true light. This is as true in the spiritual realm as it is in the world of nature. There is only one God. And there is only one sun. The true light in the natural world is the sun. It alone gives the light and warmth that we need for life. No other light ... not candlelight, gaslight, incandescent light, or fluorescent light ... can take the sun’s place. They have only a few of the important, life-giving elements of the sun. 

They are only copies. The sun is “A” true light for life on earth. 

But God is The True Light. What the sun is to the natural world, God Himself is to our body and soul and all creation. Only when He is present in our inner being are we brought back to life. Apart from him we will die physically. 

The world thinks that there are substitutes, of course: lesser lights that often attract us and try to take His place ... brilliant people, breath-taking sights in nature, works of art ... they are lights of a sort. They are good. They brighten our lives to a certain extent, but they can never reach our souls with spiritual life. They are only imitations or, at best, distant reflections of the true Light, which is God. 

II.     At Christmas, God drove away our spiritual darkness 

At Christmas, God appeared in human flesh (v.14) born as a babe in Bethlehem. He is God. He is the Anointed One, the Christ, or the Χριστός to be more precise. I know that is just Greek to you. But He is the Light of the World. This light shines in the darkness even though the darkness doesn’t grasp it. 

Through this Light of the World, the Creator Himself (v.3) speaks to us, reveals himself to us and makes Himself known to us. That’s the idea Saint John wants to put across when he refers to Jesus as the Word, who was in the beginning, who was with God, who was God. Without him we are just in darkness and denial. 

The God whom we cannot see ... and whom, because of our sin, we cannot know, became like us so that we might see Him and know Him. We can’t and don’t understand God ... who remains a mystery to us all ... but we can understand a man. 

So God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. He expressed Himself to us in human terms. In Christ, God gives us a face to see and a voice to hear. In Christ Jesus, we can now see God and hear his voice without trembling. In him, we recognize life, because in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

So the light shines in darkness (v.5). 

He shines in our lives.

This is the kind of world we live in. This is the kind of world in which God appeared on that first Christmas ... a world of deep spiritual darkness, the blackest darkness. 

There is a strong and evil intelligence here that tries to close us off from God. It’s a living, active, penetrating kind of darkness. It not only surrounds us on the outside ... it even works within us, trying to squelch and smother the rays of divine light ... trying to silence the truth of who he is ... and why he has come to us.  

The world knew Him not .... His own people received Him not (vv.10,11). This is what made so many people in His day ignore Jesus and reject Him. The darkness has the same effect on us today. They say things like God couldn’t be and doesn’t care. They question the good of God because of the evil they brought into the world. 

Because of this darkness we can’t see God, we can’t hear God, we can’t find God. We don’t even know how to search for God. 

So Christ overcame the darkness ... bringing God to us. Through him ... The Light shines in darkness (v. 5). 

The world certainly tries to get it right, but they don’t see what their doing. They think Christ is only showing us a better way to live. The reduce him to one option among many, a cheerleader, a teddy bear, a friend. Yes, the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness doesn’t understand it. 

So God came from heaven to earth, from the light into the darkness, to struggle with our darkness and overcome it with His own power and glory. Christ came to us on Christmas to enlighten the world to the way and the truth and the life that only God could provide ... that only Christ could live for you, die for you, and rise from the dead for you. 

Are you beginning to see the light of the Gospel now?

Because of the birth of our Savior, we now see the first flickering of light and life, a light and life that grew stronger and more radiant until it burned with white-hot brilliance on the cross, where The Christ bore the full wrath of God’s fiery fury against sin. He then took the darkness of death to his grave, where it was buried forever. Finally, his light burst forth from the tomb, shining the light of resurrection into the world. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the decisive battle was fought and light has guaranteed life for all for all time. In him was life.

III.     In faith we get life from this light 

In this light we have eternal life. Christ gave people power to become children of God (v.12). Through their contact with Jesus Christ, through word and sacrament, people experienced a new life. They were born of God (v.13). 

Christ was born of human flesh so that we might be born of God. He was born physically so that he might die and show us that death has no more dominion over us. Christ rose from the dead to illumine our lives with the truth that we are united with him. When the light of Christ shines, God draws near to us and begins to merge our lives with His. When His Spirit enters our hearts, we enjoy life on an entirely new level, in a brand-new dimension. 

This will happen only as we receive Him in faith. 

To all who do receive him, to those who do have faith in his name, he has given to you the power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (v. 12).

Behold, in the light, reason and conceit are now dead and dark. They have been transformed into a new light. Christ has overcome death and given you life. When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy SPirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become hears according to the hope of eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Light has burst forth into your life; He has overcome your sin, he has washed you clean, he has truly given you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. 

In the saving name of Jesus.