Christmas Light and Life
FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS THE LORD HAS BLESSED ME with the privilege of teaching the gospel of John, usually a different chapter every seminary year. The final week of the first trimester of each school year, just before Christmas vacation, I preach to the students a special message from John intended to emphasize two of the most important and foundational words of the gospel: “Light” and “Life.” The revelational words Light and life, of course, are not confined either in usage or importance to John, but their prominence in the fourth gospel cannot be dismissed. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate the message as an outstanding Christmas message. Here it is for you to decide for yourselves: “Christmas Light and Live”…
JOHN’S EMPHASIS ON LIGHT AND LIFE HAVE AN O.T. FOUNDATION…
700 YEARS BEFORE JESUS WAS BORN, THE PROPHET ISAIAH spoke of a coming Deliverer, the Messiah, who would bring about unprecedented change in the world
KJV Isaiah 9:2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
THE GOSPEL WRITER MATTHEW, 700 YEARS AFTER ISAIAH, QUOTED this very verse as he spoke about Jesus…
NAS Matthew 4:15-16 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles– 16 “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, And to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, Upon them a light dawned.”
“ONE OF THE MESSIAH’S WORKS WAS TO BRING LIGHT into darkness, for He would be a light to both Jews and Gentiles.” – Bible Knowledge Commentary… Although I have not been able to verify this statement, I have read that the ancient rabbis used “Light” as a name for the Messiah. (cf. Morris, p. 389)…
“LIGHT IS NOT A NATURAL HUMAN POSSESSION. It comes only from Christ. And it is not a separable entity that may be possessed in itself. It is not an objective revelation that people may receive and hug to themselves. Jesus is the light. To have the light is to have Jesus. There is no light apart from a right relationship to Him.” – Morris
THINK OF GOD’S FIRST WORDS as recorded in Scripture:
NAS Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light“; and there was light.
“LIGHT” AND “LIFE” ARE DIRECTLY TIED TO BELIEVING IN JESUS, and consequently are major features of John’s Gospel… Consider John’s Purpose Statement…
NAS John 20:30 Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
AND THESE KEY PASSAGES…
GNT John 14:6 λέγει αὐτῷ [ὁ] Ἰησοῦς, Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή· οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ δι᾽ ἐμοῦ.
“’ETERNAL LIFE’ IS THE SUBJECT OF CONVERSATION IN JESUS’ INTERCHANGE with Nicodemus in the third chapter of John.” – Kostenberger…
NAS John 3:14-19 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
AND NOW LISTEN TO VV. 19-21 AS THE FOCUS SHIFTS FROM LIFE TO LIGHT…
NAS John 3:19-21 19 “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
AND JOHN’S LAST WORDS IN CHAPTER 3…
NAS John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
LIGHT AND LIFE ARE DIRECTLY TIED TO BELIEVING IN JESUS…
NAS John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
“HE WHO BELIEVES IN JESUS HAS ETERNAL LIFE” COULD ALSO BE READ, “He who believes in Jesus has eternal light…
“ALL TOLD, ‘LIFE’ IS THE SUBJECT IN VIRTUALLY EVERY CHAPTER in the first half of John’s Gospel. The references in the second half of the gospel thin out somewhat, but ‘life’ features significantly in Jesus’ dramatic pronouncement in 14:6, as we have seen, and in chapter 17, Christ’s high priestly prayer.” – Kostenberger/TAR…
NAS John 17:1-3 These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, 2 even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.
ALSO, THESE KEY VERSES IN THE N.T.…
NAS 2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
NAS 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
AND FROM JOHN IN 1 JOHN…
NAS 1 John 1:4-7 And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. 5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
THROUGHOUT THE PROLOGUE AND THE ENTIRE GOSPEL, John consistently – if not always – refers directly or indirectly to O.T. passages and images. Two of the most prominent images taken from the O.T. are “light” and “life.” The O.T. concepts of “light” and “life” are intimately related to one another in John’s Gospel, and by extension the entire Bible. This brief study underscores this fact, which is crucial to an accurate exegetical perspective of John.
THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF LIFE AND LIGHT ARE perhaps most pronounced in the John’s introduction. Listen to vv. 4-9 of chapter one…
NAS John 1:4-9 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. 9 There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
“BOTH TERMS ATTEST TO THE INCOMPARABLE BLESSING RESULTING FROM Jesus’ coming into the world 2,000 years ago: new, eternal life made available through His substitutionary death to ‘everyone who believes,’ issuing in believers crossing over from death into life and from darkness into light.” – Kostenberger
NAS John 12:46 “I have come as light into the world, that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness.
“BEING ‘LIFE’ PUTS JESUS ON PAR WITH GOD, who alone is the Life-giver. And being the ‘light’ has both messianic overtones and sets Jesus against the dark moral backdrop of a reprobate, rebellious world that has rejected God’s rule and His law and therefore will also reject His Messiah.”– Kostenberger
LIGHT IS UNIQUE… Consider for example that light, in a sense, bears witness to itself, though every other object in the world requires light in order to bear witness to itself. Light always illuminates; is never illuminated…
SCIENTIFICALLY, LIGHT, OR WHAT WE WOULD CALL VISIBLE LIGHT, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the human eye (about 400–700 nm). In a scientific context, the word light is sometimes used to refer to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Light is composed of an elementary particle called a photon. Three primary properties of light are: (1) Intensity, or brightness; (2) Frequency or wavelength and; (3) Polarization or direction of the wave oscillation. Light can exhibit properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as wave-particle duality. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics…
LIGHT IS ENERGY, luminous energy or radiant energy… And in great part life is energy…
THE SPEED OF LIGHT (186,282 miles per second) is, according to Einstein, the maximum speed in the universe. That seems to perfectly fit God, doesn’t it? Consider that the physical property most closely identified with God is light, and that light is the most fascinating and most powerful “thing” in the world…
ANTINOMY… 1 : a contradiction between two apparently equally valid principles or between inferences correctly drawn from such principles 2 : a fundamental and apparently unresolvable conflict or contradiction *antinomies of beauty and evil, freedom and slavery — Stephen Holden. Light is the best physical example of antinomy: it is scientifically acknowledged as being both a wavelength (non-material) and a particle (material). Scientifically this cannot be; it must be one or the other. Yet it is both. Jesus Christ is the ultimate spiritual example, as He is both man and God.
THE WORD “LIGHT” IN GREEK IS φωτίζω … We get our English words photo, photograph, and photon from this Greek word…
OBVIOUSLY – BUT IT IS NEVER WISE TO OVERLOOK OR DENIGRATE the obvious, I think you’ll agree – light removes darkness… Light makes things visible. Light reveals danger. Consider when you turn the light on in a dark room or a dark stairwell how helpful and comforting light is. Consider how a street light can aid your travel…. Consider how the Bible lights your path in this world…
KJV Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
AND DO YOU KNOW THAT – SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING – YOU ARE LIGHT? Christians are God’s reflected light. We are in this way like the moon. The moon doesn’t have its own light. The sun is the source of light that the moon reflects. Light is not a natural human possession; we have no light of our own. Our light comes only from Christ. God is the source of light and we are to reflect that light to others…
NAS 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
WITH ALL THIS SAID, FULLY LISTEN TO JESUS’ OWN WORDS IN JOHN 8:12…
NKJ John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
THE WORLD TODAY, AS IT WAS IN ANCIENT TIMES, IS IN DARKNESS without the Light; Jesus Christ is the Light. He is the Light of the world…
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST BROUGHT A SPECIAL LIGHT INTO THE WORLD…
“O SOUL, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free! Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.”
NAS John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
LIKE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS, OUR LIVES IN CHRIST are to reflect the mind and will of God… We are to walk as children of light…
NAS Ephesians 5:8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light
THAT, I THINK, WOULD MAKE A GREAT SUBJECT FOR NEXT WEEK and the focus onbeginning the New Year: “Walking in Light”…
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
