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We have begun to consider together, the Gospel according to John - last week we focussed our attention on John 1:1-3, and for the benefit of those not here last week, a quick review will be in order.
Firstly, considered the eternity of the Logos, or the Word. The Lord Jesus Christ, whom we identified as the Word, was no created Being. He has always been out there, He is Eternal - never has there been a time when He was not.
Now, this begged the question, is there then more than one God? And what we discovered to be the plain meaning of Scripture in our passage, was that the Word was clearly distinct from God. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word, is distinguishable from God the Father; YET, they are both God in a unified sense, not being two gods, or the same manifestation of the one God. Rather, the Word and the Father are two distinct Persons in one United God, or Godhead.
But that was not all our text revealed, for it also stated that the Word was in fact the Creator, and that therefore, the Genesis account can rightly be ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ, for all things without exception, were made by Him.
So much then for the review - for a more detailed and explained approach, feel free to get a copy of the tape.
Having discovered that the Originator of the world, of all creation, of all physical life was the Lord Jesus Christ, our focus this morning will turn to the spiritual.
' In the beginning God ... ', and so opens the OT account of the creation of the world. This Gospel opens in a similar manner, and again the focus is on creation - but this time spiritual.
Where does spiritual life originate? How is it that a man, woman, or child, is found to be a Christian? Who is the source of such spiritual life?
And these questions are of vital importance, especially because they go past the realm of the mere intellectual curiosity ... these questions involve matters of the heart, of real experience, of eternity.
Is the source of spiritual life human? A decision by a human being to now pick Jesus as his Saviour, as the better alternative - or is the source of spiritual life to be found outside of ourselves?
John's purpose is to bring people to the place where they will experience this spiritual life - of course, his purpose is more involved than that, but none-the-less, this is the destination to which he is leading.
' In the beginning ... ', and by this phrase it is John's purpose to go beyond a consideration of the origins of God, and of the world. Yes, he has begun with that, but only to move on to the origins of spiritual life.
Where did your spiritual life begin, assuming you have been delivered from being ' dead in trespasses and sins', as Paul describes the life of those who aren't Christians.
Or, if you aren't a Christian - where is this source of spiritual life, which I must have if I am to enjoy a most blessed eternity, to be found?
Well, we want to consider 3 points arising out of this passage in order to arrive at a conclusion:
- The Word's Divine Life,
- The Light of Men, and
- Darkness Rejects the Light.
1.The Word's Divine Life
As we have already stated the Word is God - distinct yes, but none-the-less God.
In this text we have now come to, ' In Him was life '. And you say, ' well yes, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is not dead - He is alive '.
I want you to think about that for a moment - what does John mean here by, ' In Him was life ' - are you thinking in terms familiar to us ... physical life - well that just doesn't apply to God, ' God is Spirit ' - so what is this life then?
As God is - so is the Word. We have already seen that. This life belongs to the spiritual realm. Yes, God is the source of all life as we know it, but this life goes beyond the physical realm, and is in fact the Source of the physical life that we know.
What this life is, is something which is extremely difficult to explain - it is that which we have been considering together on Wednesday nights, before our brief recess from that, on the Confession of Faith. It is the Self-existing life of God, and all that that term means. It includes the idea that He is Self-existing, Independent, and Self-originating.
Thinking on those words, we can easily stumble into thinking that God started off somewhere, or that He doesn't interact with His creation - but if we use the terms in the way they are used in theology they can be helpful. They have been brought forward in an attempt to explain the unexplainable - the incomprehensible.
God has life in Himself, He has no origins or beginning, He needs nothing from anything or anyone at all ... He is life. ' For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself (Jn 5:26) '.
And if we can really understand anything of that, it means that He doesn't NEED us for anything. We don't have to bring Him food, or sacrifices, or converts, or good works for Him to get by - He doesn't need any of that! Everything He needs to exist, to have life, exists in Himself.
Now that should change how you may have come to think about God - for today, too many think that God needs them - that somehow if they didn't do what they do for God, or for Jesus - well He just couldn't cope with the workload, I mean He needs our help! HE DOESN'T NEED ANYTHING FROM YOU TO GET BY - HE HAS IT ALL IN HIMSELF!
And what does life for God include - it includes all that He is, the fullness of God's Being, His glorious and transcendent attributes - his holiness, truth, love, omnipotence, omniscience, sovereignty, wisdom, knowledge, etc - so where does He need you to help Him out - HE DOESN'T!
So you see, the text is really saying a number of things ... it is saying what we have already learnt, that the Word is God in every way - very God of very God, that all that God is, the Word is; and therefore, all these things are true of Him - He has life in Himself. And because He has life in Himself, ' In the beginning ... ' He was able to make everything in the physical realm. He is the only one, the only thing that's out there, that can make physical life exist - God alone.
What else has life in itself? What else is able to cause life to come into existence? He alone is Self-existing life!
And this brings us to our second point for this morning;
2. The Light of Men
Having discovered what the text means by, ' In Him was life ', we now want to work out what it means by, 'and the life was the light of men '.
Now that we know what the life is, what is the light?
When a person walks into a room in the middle of the night, and he hasn't turned on a light, what happens? He crashes into this, and bumps into that. It’s all confusion and stumbling within the darkness when it comes to moving around that particular room.
Now imagine someone hears all this, wants to do something about this poor fella's predicament, comes along, and turns on the light - well apart from the damaged furniture and flesh, the confused and stumbling person who was in darkness, see's the light, and is able to move on in an unhindered manner.
Now, lets use that illustration to explain the text before us, to explain what happens in the spiritual realm.
The stumbling person in the darkness is the non-Christian, who is described as dwelling in darkness, or even as darkness in Scripture, ' For you were once darkness '. It can be said that your lights are off, you haven't got a clue, because you can't see.
The same situation is described elsewhere as, ' being dead in trespasses and sins ', as being blind, etc. all this points to a total inability of the one in darkness from being able to do anything about his/her situation.
Your stumbling around, you can't find the light, you can't turn it on - you don't even know if there is a light. The same situation described elsewhere in the Gospel of John says, ' Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3,5) '.
That's what being in darkness is - you’re in the dark about spiritual issues, about spiritual living, about spiritual life. So you need someone to come along and to turn on your lights - to give you eyes to see, to give you life that you may live - you can't do this yourself.
Think about being ' dead in trespasses and sins ', what can a dead person do to bring life to himself? Nothing. What can a blind person do to bring sight to himself? Nothing. What can a person do about being in the dark? Nothing!!! You need someone to turn on the lights.
' and the life was the light of men ', ' I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (Jn 8:12) '.
So do you see what the text is saying? The life of God in Christ, to which we owe our physical existence is also the Source of men's spiritual light - as far as spiritual things are concerned, as far as the eternal life that John wants people to enjoy, as stated in his purpose, the Source of all spiritual life is the Word.
What is light? It is that which is represented elsewhere as spiritual life. Where does it come from? It comes from the Word, from God, nowhere else.
The application is surely clear - all other methods that are held up as the means of arriving at spiritual life, as the means whereby one moves from darkness to light, from blindness to sight - are all useless!
Whether it e some modern/old religious experience or ritual, whether it be some cult, sect, religion, or churchy stuff - it can't help you, just deceive you, delude you. The Source of all spiritual light is the Word - He must do the turning on!
Well, what about: -
Baptism - No!
Lord's Supper - No!
Confession and Penance - No!
Doing good Things - No!
Going to Church - No!
No! Nothing else - the Word, He is the Source of Light - it has nothing to do with men at all!
So obviously if you want some light, if you want your lights turned on, go to the Word.
Our third point then;
(3) Darkness Rejects the Light
All those who have no spiritual life, who are not Christians, are in darkness. They have no understanding of spiritual things, ' But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14)'.
If you’re not a Christian today, you won't have a clue as to the real significance of what we are talking about here. You won't hear of the truth of Jesus Christ, and you cannot possibly understand them for you are in darkness. The light is off.
But even in the midst of such a world of sinners, who do not understand, who are in darkness, the very light they need is there, if only they could see it - but they can't, such is their darkness.
In the midst of a world caught up with its own concerns - with accumulating as much as is possible, with greed, with its own set of supposed values - the light continues to shine in the domain of men. Right from OT times, with that first prophecy in the garden of the coming one who would save men from their sins, the light has been shining, right through to even our own day.
' And the light shineth in darkness, ' - that's a present reality, it still shines - even here this morning the light shines. Even in your dark domain of sin and confusion and lost ness, the light shines - can you not see it? It's there, shining...
... it hasn't yet been turned off, ' for now is the day of salvation. ' - yet the time is coming when it will no longer be shining in the domain of the ungodly, for their's will be eternal darkness and banishment from the presence of all life and light. But that day is not yet, behold the light still shines.
But if its shining, why is it that very few are influenced by its light? ' And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved (John 3:19,20).'
Is God to blame because few have come to the light? Not at all - for the light shines, all the truth about Christ and the live he offers continues to go out. Men would rather perish in their sins then go to the one whom alone can help them.
He says to men,'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (Jn 14:6)' - every sermon faithfully preached, every Bible Study correctly taught, all point to Christ as the Giver of spiritual life.
READ JOHN 1: 11-13
He has come to His own and they rejected Him - what about you this morning, will you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, the Life, who alone can give you spiritual life - true light? This Word says that if you believe in His Name, that Name which alone can give life, He will give you the right to be called children of God.
You can walk right on out of all that darkness right now, by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as the provider of life for you, as the Saviour from your sin.
Toward the start of this message I said we can do nothing in order to deliver ourselves from this darkness, and it is true - nothing has changed. To believe is to know that you have the life and light of God within you, it is to know that God Himself has given you new life, a new beginning, a new birth. Faith is the gift of God.
I can do no more this morning then to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ, 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit (John 3:8) ' Amen
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10/10/2006
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