Jesus is the Light of the World
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Christmas Day – December 25^th, 2003

Dear children of the heavenly Light,

Many pictures and illustrations are used in the bible to describe what God has done for us as sinners, namely God's plan of salvation. The bible uses such pictures as a new life, or how he turned us around. But one of the most used pictures to talk about God and what he has done for us is the contrast of Light and darkness. We all know what light and darkness are. Just imagine that you couldn't see anything. Maybe we had a blackout, or we were in a dark cave with no lights, or maybe we had lost our sight. Think of a place where it is always dark. You can't even see your hand in front of your face. How would you move around? How would you know where you are going, or what direction to go? Let's face it if we lived in total darkness, we wouldn't be able to do very much. But what if we had a giant flood light to light our way? Things would be much better. We wouldn't have to worry about darkness anymore.

That is why our text this morning can help us to better understand what God has done for us. Jesus is the light that we need. Today as we look at these wonderful words of the writer John we want to take a closer look at the fact that Jesus is the Light of the World. The reason we want to take a closer look is because Jesus is 1. Necessary. 2. Powerful. 3. Eternal life. Jesus is very special to us, and our text this morning will point this out to all of us.

The words we have chosen to use as our text this morning is a section of scripture which is unparalleled in its content and grace. These words from John in a simple yet profound way describe who Christ was and what he accomplished for us as sinners. We have just celebrated Christmas Eve and witnessed the birth of our Savior, but many people don't see this Baby as the true Son of God. It is when people don't believe that Jesus was true God that we can refer them to these great words of John 1. These are probably the best words of the Bible to defend the deity and power of our Savior. It is out of this section that we find the words we will focus in on this morning. We will take on little portion out of this great section of scripture, and concentrate our full attention on them.

Jesus the life that bring light. This theme was taken right out of the verses of our text. In v. 4 John writes "In him was life, and that was the light of men." We can see John using these key words of life and light to show us Jesus. It is the words that follow that gives us the first part of our sermon. It tells us that, "The light shines in the darkness." What is this darkness? We need to start with these very basic concepts to be able to understand the whole picture of God's plan of salvation. When we have finished describing what this darkness is, we will know why Jesus the Light is very necessary for us as sinners. We can't go truly understand Jesus' greatness, unless we know what this darkness is. Before we asked what would it be like to walk around in total darkness. We all decided this wouldn't be very easy, but we were walking in this total darkness. This darkness is the darkness that we live in when our Lord and Savior isn't in our life.

When Adam and Eve were put on this earth, God said that everything was good. But that goodness didn't last long because of the sin of Adam and Eve. But their sin went a lot further than bringing sin to them alone. Their sin is passed on from generation to generation. This is called inherited sin or original sin. We all inherit this sin from our parents. It is with us from our origin or from our birth. There is no way that we can escape this sin.

This is why we all started out living in darkness. Every person that has ever lived has lived in this spiritual darkness. And the reason that this picture of darkness is very fitting is because that is exactly what sin has done to us. Sin blinds us from the saving truths which God has done to us. Sin clouds our thoughts and actions just as if we were in total darkness. When we think of this darkness or sins we want to realize exactly how severe this darkness is. This darkness is just a partial darkness. This darkness fills our total being. Every part of us is evil and full of sin. We aren't basically good with a trace of evil. We are born full of sin. When we realize that this is where we are without Jesus in our life, then and then alone can we see clearly why Jesus is very necessary for us and all people. There is no way that man can find the light on his own. There is no way that man can get rid of this darkness on his own. We are lost on our own. This idea has to be realized first that we are all sinners.

We have just seen how powerful sin is. The darkness of sin holds all people who are without their Lord and Savior. If the darkness is this powerful, we know that we need a light that is more powerful than this darkness. Jesus the Life and light is very powerful. We know that he is powerful because our text tells us that he true God. It tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." There is no mistaking these words. Jesus is true God. He has the power which only God could have. He had the power to create this earth and all things in it. It tells us, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." What better person to deliver us from sin and darkness and give us life, a Savior who is the Son of God. Jesus is a Savior who is able to conquer sin and the devil

And this is exactly what our Savior did. At Christmas we see the Savior coming down to this earth for us. He came down to this earth to deliver us from the darkness of sin. He came to be our life and light. He came full of grace and truth. In order to break sin, Jesus lived perfectly on this earth for us and died on the cross to wipe away our sins. Thank goodness that Jesus wasn't just a man, but that he has the power as true God to conquer sin for us. Only as true man and true God could our perfect Savior accomplish this for us. He alone had this power. No human being can come close to this power. No human being can come close to saving himself from this darkness. All this has been accomplished by our powerful and loving Savior. His death was for all people. He wiped away the sins of all people.

This leads us into our last section. Jesus the life that brings light came into this world to give his saving light to all people. This saving light means eternal life for all who believe on his name. V. 12 says, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the light to become children of God." Through faith we have been led out of the darkness to see this wonderful light which is eternity in heaven. With the Holy Spirit working in our hearts we have been able to see the work which Jesus has done for us. Through faith we have been changed to a life for Christ. A life full of the light. As one of God's children we have all the rights which go along with being one of his children. The greatest thing being eternal life in heaven.

This is God's free gift to us. This is God's grace abounding forth. This light is nothing we can come to on our own. This is why we thank God for all that he has done for. Thanks that he has led out of darkness into this wonderful light. Remember what that darkness was and what it meant for us. Darkness meant eternal destruction in hell. But the light of Jesus has shone around us like a bright light. Jesus is the bright floodlight that brightens our path. It is through Jesus that we can see God's grace. And God's grace will never run out. He is always there for us. God has promised us this. Do not turn our backs on Christ but take this light out into the world. With God as our light to light our paths we can never fall way or stray

Instead we will want to live for God. We will want our light to shine forth into the world. Even though Jesus is powerful, not all people come to see this light. In fact our text tells us that "the darkness has not understood it." Our text tells many people that have rejected this light. Many have rejected the saving truth. As we go out into the world and tell others about Jesus the light and life of the world, many will reject our words. They may laugh at us or make fun of us, or they may even get angry with us. But do not let this discourage us from telling others. This should give us all the more reason to go out. God's light is powerful, and it will work in the hearts of many. That is why we can never stop telling others. We want all to have the same joy we have. The joy of eternal life.

Our life is a life dedicated to God for all that he has done for us. Today we have focused in on the picture of darkness and light. We never want to forget the darkness that God has called us out of, the darkness of eternity in hell. We always want to remember that as we look at the Savior and the work he did for us, that is what gives us the light of salvation. How can we ever thank God enough for this gift of salvation? We can't, but may we seek to serve him in thanks all the days of our lives. Jesus is our life and our light. Let the words from John Chapter 1 ring out in our ears, and let these words sound forth from our lips to all the nations. Jesus is truly the life and light of this sinful world. Amen.