Jesus Christ is the eternal expression of God that is the source of life and light for humanity....

This week, we have been looking at the opening section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. Wednesday, we discovered that as Johns referred to the word, he is referring to a male Divine Being who has always existed, for all eternity, in a close, personal relationship with God. Today, we will see John shift from revealing the nature of who the Word is to what the Word has done in history in verse 3. Let’s look at it together:

 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Now when John says that all things came into being through Him, this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means that all things came into existence through Him. Notice that John does not say that all things came into being by the Word. Instead John states that all things came into being through the Word. And to hammer his point home, John tells us that apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. So without the Word, nothing would exist that exists today.

John here is revealing for us the reality that the Word functions as the hands of creation. All of creation was brought into existence through His activity throughout all of history. Here is an illustration to help us wrap our minds around what John is saying here. Let’s say Rachel and I are at home. I’m watching a football game and during the course of the game I became hungry. Rachel is in the kitchen, so I asked her if she would make me a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Rachel then asked me some questions about how I wanted my sandwich, and then went to work making the sandwich. When she was finished, she brought me a delicious peanut butter and banana sandwich, which I quickly devoured.

Now let me ask you a question: who created the sandwich? Did Rachel create the sandwich or did I create the sandwich? Would Rachel have created the sandwich if I had not asked her to? We both had a role in creating the sandwich. I spoke the sandwich into existence; Rachel was the hands of creation who made the sandwich.

In a similar way, the Word was the hands of creation; God spoke to universe into existence and the Word was the hands of that creation. But not only was the Word the hands of creation that brought all things into existence. John reveals another aspect of the Word’s activity in history in verse 4:

 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

Here we see John explain to the readers of his letter that in the Word was life. So, through the Word as the hands of creation, comes physical life and the Word, by His very nature, is life. John then unpacks the significance of the Word being by nature life by stating that the life was the light of men. But what does that mean? Throughout his letter, John repeatedly uses imagery as a means by which to communicate truth that otherwise would be much more difficult for us to wrap our minds around. As we will see in the next verse, light here is used by John to make a stark contrast to darkness.

John’s point here is that the Word is life and that life functions as a light that resides with the Divine. So the Word, in His very being and nature, is life and light that helps us see that there is a Creator who is light and life and there is creation that was covered in darkness. The eternal, self existing life of the Word was given out at creation so that it became the light of men to point people to God. Thus, the eternal life of the Word is the source of life and a light for all of humanity. John then reveals the impact that the Word as life and light had upon all of the creation in verse 5:

 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Now to fully understand what John is communicating here we first need to understand how light and darkness relate to one another. You see, light and darkness are in constant opposition with one another. Darkness, by very definition, is the absence of light. The reason why there is total darkness is due to the fact that there is no light. So when light shows up, it opposes darkness and it dispels darkness. So when John says that the light shines in the darkness, he is explaining that the Word as light produces light into the darkness in an attempt to occupy that darkness.

Now when John refers to darkness here, this darkness is the evil environment of selfishness, sin, and rebellion that opposes God and God’s kingdom. This darkness entered into the creation as the result of the selfishness and rebellion of humanity, who chose to love themselves over God and reject the relationship with God that they were created for. And it is this selfishness and rebellion that darkens the mind and spirit against God and God’s kingdom in a way that results in us doing things that hurt God and others, which the Bible calls sin.

John then explains that the Word shines and produces light to occupy the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. What is so interesting is that the word comprehend, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to make something one’s own by grasping so as to attain. This word conveys the sense of overcoming something that is in the way. John’s point here is that just as through the Word light was created that overcame darkness during the creation of the universe, through the Word we have the light that produces redemption, or rescue from selfishness and rebellion.

The Word has always produced light; the Word has always been shining, from all eternity to all eternity. And while the darkness of the evil environment of selfishness, sin, and rebellion that opposes God and God’s kingdom opposes the Word as life and light, the darkness was unable to overcome the Word.

Now you might be thinking “Well Dave that is all fine and great, but who exactly is this Word? I get that the Word is a male Divine Being who has always existed, for all eternity, in a close, personal relationship with God. I get that the Word is, in His very being and nature, life and light that helps us see that there is a Creator who is light and life. But who is this Word”? Others of you are frustrated because I did not simply say who the Word is at the beginning of the sermon because you already know the answer because you went to Sunday school.

Here is the reason that I have not told you who the Word was: the reason I did not tell you who the Word was is because the readers of this letter, at this point in the letter, would not have known who the Word was. And this morning, I wanted you to feel the weight of what the readers of this letter felt some 2,000 years ago, as they lived in a culture that seemed to be covered by a darkening cloud of stress, frustration, and anxiety. A few verses later, John clearly reveals who the Word was.

And it is in this section of this letter that we see God reveal for us the timeless truth about the person who would be involved in an event from history that radically changed the course of human history. And that timeless truth is this:  Jesus Christ is the eternal expression of God that is the source of life and light for humanity. You see, as the Word, Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate disclosure of Himself. Jesus Christ, as the second member of the Trinity, is the eternal Divine Being who has always existed in a close, personal relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. As the Word, Jesus Christ is the hands of creation through whom all creation came into existence.

And as the Word, Jesus Christ is the source of life and a light for all of humanity. While the evil and destructive power of selfishness and rebellion attempted to overcome and defeat the light, as the Word, Jesus Christ has prevailed over selfishness, sin, rebellion, and death. Now a natural question that arises at this point is “Well Dave, how do we know that Jesus has overcome, because the world still seems to be a dark place? How do we know that Jesus is the eternal expression of God that is the source of life and light for humanity?

Next week, we will see John provide the evidence to back his claims regarding Jesus. In the meantime, as we wrestle with that growing darkness that threatens to surround us and overwhelm us as we attempt to hit the fast forward button toward Christmas, may we lean into the reality that Jesus is the eternal expression of God that is the source of life and light for humanity.