The Light Has Come

December 1, 2024       John 1:1-5

 Introduction

“The Gospel of John has blessed the hearts of God’s people through the centuries. It has been called “God’s love letter to the world.” Luther wrote of it, “This is the unique, tender, genuine chief Gospel. …Should a tyrant succeed in destroying the Holy Scriptures and only a single copy of the Epistle to the Romans and the Gospel according to John escape him, Christianity would be saved.” Luther must have especially loved the Gospel because he preached on it for many years from the pulpit of the parish church of Wittenberg… It has probably been the means by which more persons have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord than any other single portion of Scripture.” J.M. Boice

God’s Rescue Plan for His Children was Sending Jesus to Earth

 Jesus is Pre-existent, Co-Existent, Self-Existent

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.””

 “in the beginning was the Word – Jesus is Pre-existent

When is the beginning? Before the creation of the world…just already existed!

 Jesus the Word is the "audible" and "visible" representation of the invisible God to the ears and eyes of finite man. 

 “the Word was with God” – Jesus is Co-existent

Jesus enjoyed eternal fellowship with God. The preposition with means communion with and movement towards the Father.

 “the Word was God” – Jesus is Self-existent

He always was God! This statement could not be much clearer! Jesus (the Word) was God in essence and character. He was God in every way, though he was a separate person from God the Father.

 “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” 1 Peter 1:20–21

1. Jesus is the Creator and Sustainer of the World

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

 “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through and for him.” Colossians 1:16

 THE ORIGINATOR: BY HIM, THE AGENT: THROUGH HIM, THE GOAL: FOR HIM

 ‘without him…” – without Jesus nothing would have been made!

 "Just as He was before all things, and therefore, eternal; so was He the Originator of all things, and therefore, omnipotent." A.W. Pink

 Jesus is the Life and 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.”

 Jesus is the Life-giver and Light Bearer!

 “The light shine in the darkness…” 

First, the light that Jesus brings puts chaos to flight. 

 Second, the light that Jesus brings is a revealing light. 

“The Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” John 3:19

 Third, the light that Jesus brings is a guiding light. 

 “…and the darkness has not overcome it”

The light cannot lose against the darkness. The darkness did not comprehend, apprehend, appropriate, grasp, master, extinguish or overcome the Light of Jesus!

1. Conclusion