Sermon Cloud

We honor mothers on Mother’s Day (and hopefully all the time!) because they are, in earthly terms, the source of our life. Whether through childbirth, adoption, or care in our youth—our mother’s gave us life. Where we came from plays an important part of who we are. Our mothers shaped us. To understand ourselves, it is often important to look back on where we came from.

So it is with understanding Jesus—we must understand his origins. That is why John begins his Gospel with these 18 verses, often called “The Prologue.” If the Gospel is a building, then the Prologue is the foyer through which we enter.

However, John is not content merely to trace Jesus back to Mary, Joseph, and a stable in Bethlehem . John reaches back into eternity—to the “final and deepest origins” of the Gospel. If I were to ask you, “When and where did the Gospel begin?” the correct answer would not be “about 2000 years ago in Bethlehem .” The correct answer is “The Gospel began in eternity past.”

Jesus historical life must be seen against the backdrop of his eternal existence as and with God. The fact that “the Word” already existed “in the beginning” tells us that Jesus’ existence stretches back before Genesis. To know who Jesus is, says John, we must go back to beyond Genesis.

The Word

John begins by describing Jesus as “the Word.” In the Old Testament, God’s word was essential in Creation, in Redemption, and in Revelation.

The Word and Creation

In the context of “in the beginning,” we cannot help but think of how God created all things. In Psalm 33:6, we read, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” In Genesis 1, we read no fewer than seven times, “And God said…” and what he spoke came to be.

1) Creation - Jesus Christ the Word is the Eternal, Uncreated Creator God.

The Word is Eternal

The Word “was” “in the beginning,” a reference back to Genesis 1.

John wants us to see that something as significant as the creation of the heavens and the earth is about to be described

Is this how you view the arrival of Jesus Christ? Do you see it as something as essential to the world as the Creation?

This phrase communicates that Jesus is eternal—he had no beginning. The Word was in the beginning (and not after creation).

The Word was Distinct from God and yet was God.

John writes that the Word was “with God.” This reveals that the Word is distinct from God, yet in relation with him. It describes a “person with a person.”

John also writes that the Word “was God.” While distinct from God, the Word was fully God.

In these two phrases are a foundation for the Trinity. The Word is God, possessing full divinity, yet he does not make up the Godhead. While the Word is God, it can be said that the Word is with God. Surely, this is a mystery. Yet, we confess that the Scriptures teach that there is one God, who exists in Three Persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is fully God.

The Word was the Uncreated Creator

John tells us that the Word was not made, but made all things.

The Word is not created. John states this twice. First, positively - “All things were made through him.” Then, negatively – “Without him was not any thing made that was made.” If any thing was made, it was made through the Word. Thus, the Word was never made, because then he would have created himself.

The Word is the agent of creation. The Word is the agent through which God created all things. This is affirmed multiple times in the New Testament as true of Jesus Christ ( Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:2; Rev 3:14). So, if you exist this morning, you exist because Jesus Christ created you.

2) Redemption – Jesus Christ the Word is the Life-Giver

In the Old Testament, God’s Word was essential in redemption—it brought deliverance to God’s people and destruction to his enemies. (Isa 30:12-14;55:10-13; Ps 29:3-9;107:19-20;119:41-42; Amos 3:1)

• Deliverance came to those who trusted in the word of the Lord.
  • Psalm 107:19-20 He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.
  • Psalm 119:41-42 …I trust in your word.
• Destruction came to those who despised the word of the Lord, often by the word of the Lord.
  • Amos 3:1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you…

Life and Death (from the Garden of Eden on) is always a matter of one’s relationship to the Word of God.

Verses 4-5 - Jesus Christ the Word is the Possessor and Giver of Life

“In him was life and the life was the light of men.” Life and light are terms that are rooted in the Old Testament. The very first act of creation was God speaking light into existence. Life is created only after light exists. Light makes life possible.

In him was life. “In the beginning,” life was in the Word. Life originates from him. He is the possessor and giver of life.

Jesus, the Word, claims that the Father has given him life in himself. And as a result, he has the authority to take and to give life to men. Later the in the Gospel, Jesus says:

John 5:26-29 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

The Word who has life in himself will be the one who executes judgment, raising those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. The Word who has life in himself will be the one who will give deliverance, raising those who have done good to the resurrection of life.

Life and death are determined by one’s relation to the Word. Life does not exist apart from the Word. So, it is crucial to ask yourself this morning about your own relationship to the Word.

“The lights shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

On this note, in this verse, John nudges us from the realm of the physical, to the realm of the spiritual. Light and darkness are terms that will be used in the Gospel to denote good and evil. (John 12:35-36, 46)

John 3:19-20 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Hating the light is a quality of those who do evil. Those who are “in darkness” are those who are spiritually ignorant, blind, fallen, sinful and under the dominion of Satan.

If darkness equals death, light equals life. “The life was the light of men.” Walking in the light is therefore walking in righteousness. Those who are “in the light”—the sons of light—are those who know the truth and make moral decisions according to God’s revealed will.

The Prophets in the Old Testament spoke of the Messiah’s coming as light…

• ... entering into the darkness,

Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

• …redeeming those from all nations who dwell in darkness (cf Isa 49:6)

Isaiah 42:6-7 [The Lord to his chosen servant] – I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

Isaiah 60:1-5 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you…

• …and conquering the darkness. (cf Malachi 4:1-3)

Numbers 24:17-19 …a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab…

So, when John speaks of the light shining in the darkness, he speaks of a conflict in which the darkness wants to overcome the light.

The Word will be crucified and buried. It will seem that the Light has be extinguished, slain by the darkness. Yet, on the third day, the Light would rise from the dead and shine gloriously. His death on the cross would be a death for the sins of those who dwelt in the darkness. His resurrection would secure their resurrection. The apparent defeat of the Light would actually work to be the defeat of the darkness.

John speaks in the present tense to indicate not simply what was but what is true, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

We should therefore see the Word as not only the light of Creation, but the victorious light of Redemption. Life—both physical and spiritual—comes through the Word.

The Witness Given That All Might Believe

As the Eternal Word and the Life-possessing Light came into the world, he was preceded in history by a witness.

A man was “sent from God.” He was a prophet, a spokesmen for God. He was, we are told, “sent from God”—thus placing him in the same category as Moses and the prophets. So, his witness ought to be received as urgently as their’s should have been.

His “name was John.” This is John the Baptist. John the Evangelist needs not label John the Baptist because no other John is named in the Gospel besides the Baptist.

John the Baptist was not the light. Rather, he was sent by God to bear witness about the light. He came to speak the truth about who the light was. John the Evangelist presents John the Baptist as the first of several witnesses. John sees witnesses as crucial to establishing the truth about who Jesus Christ is. In the course of the Gospel these witnesses will be: Jesus and his signs and works, Moses and the Scripture, the disciples, the Father, the Spirit and John the author of the Gospel.

John’s desired outcome of his witnessing about the light is that “all might believe through him.” John came to bear witness to the light, so that through his witness all might believe.

Believe

The word “believe” occurs over 100 times in the Gospel of John, which is almost triple the number of occurrences as the other three Gospels combined. So, it is a major theme in John.

In fact, John will say at the close of his Gospel (John 20:31) that the reason he has written “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John wants us to believe in Jesus as God’s Messiah and, as a result, to have life.

Verses 9-11 – The Light That Reveals

“The true light…was coming into the world.” John speaks subtly of the Word’s incarnation. The Word who created all things was coming into creation. This is what the Gospel of John will unfold—the Creators entrance into Creation.

“World” does not simply indicate the earth and its people or to time and space. “World” is never used in John’s Gospel in a positive way, and only a few times in a neutral ways. “World” is used in a negative way, to refer sinful humanity in rebellion against its creator. (Thus, when we are told that “God so loved the world,” it is not a comment on the worth of the world, but on the quality of God’s love.)

We saw earlier that the Old Testament spoke of the Messiah’s entrance into the world was spoken of as light entering the darkness. For John, the “world” is the realm of darkness. And, Jesus is the “true light.” That is, he is light that was spoken of by the prophets. This urges us to pay attention to Jesus with escalated urgency. As the fulfillment of the prophets, Jesus is the end-times revelation of God.

The true light “enlightens everyone.” At first glance, this could be taken as a statement of universal salvation, taking “enlightened” to mean “filled with light” or “brought into the realm of the light.” Others have taken this to mean that Jesus brings light (salvation) to all men—both Jew and Gentile.

I think that a different interpretation is better, given what follows. The word translated here “enlighten” can mean “give light to,” “shed light upon,” or “reveal.” What John is saying is that Jesus “brings to light” the true nature of every man. John is not speaking of internal, spiritual illumination, but of objective illumination.

Jesus shines—and the truth about every man is revealed. Jesus shines and divides the race of man into two categories. There are two—and only two—responses to the light. We read in John 3:19-21:

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

There are those who love the darkness and hate the light because their deeds are evil and wicked. These hate and flee from the light so that their wickedness will not be exposed.

Then, there are those who come to the light—they do what is true and it is shown that God has worked in them.

Which group you are in is revealed by how you respond to the Light. As you teach about and speak about Jesus Christ, expect to see this division become clear. This will happen on the mission field, at work, at school, in our families, and even in our churches—as the Gospel is preached and Jesus is proclaimed, it becomes clear who loves him and who does not. Cut out the jokes, the stories, the fluff. Simply give people Jesus as he comes to us in the Scripture and watch what happens. Two groups will certainly emerge.

Jesus will tell us that his sheep hear his voice and they follow him. Those who do not listen to his voice fail to hear because they are not sheep.

The World and the Jews

John now describes how the Light is received—or rather, how the Light is rejected by both the world and Israel. This will play out in the Gospel as the crowds that claim to believe in Jesus will deny him and dwindle down to a precious few true believers.

First, John says that “he was in the world, and the world was made through him.” The picture that is painted is that of the Creator entering into his creation.

There is something wrong when a child rejects his mother. You ought to love and honor the one who gave you life. Therefore, we would expect the world to receive with joy the one who created it. Instead, we see the opposite. He created the world, yet the world did not know him.

Second, John speaks of Jesus coming to the people of Israel. He came to his own. This phrase “one’s own” is a relational term. It will be used later to refer to someone’s “home”—the place where they belong, the family they belong with. By restating it as “his own people,” John makes clear that he is speaking of Israel—the covenant community to whom the Messiah belonged.

Israel, of all the people in the world, should have been the group to receive him with open arms. In a second ironic twist, John tells us that they did not receive him. Those given the promise the light ran from it when it appeared. They rejected the Messiah they were looking for. The Messiah found himself an unwelcome guest among his own people. They continue to act as they typically have in the Old Testament—stiff-necked and hard-hearted.

In the first twelve chapters of this Gospel, Jesus will perform seven signs specifically for Israel. These will climax with Israel’s prophesied rejection of the Messiah.

From then on, beginning in John 13:1, the term “his own” will no longer be used of Israel, but of his inner circle of followers who truly believe in him.

To Those Who Did Receive Him

The Light is rejected by the world and by Israel—by Gentile and by Jew. Nevertheless—as throughout the history of redemption—the Lord always preserves a believing remnant of his true people. There is a group that “believed in his name.”

“His name” is inseparable from his person. To believe in his name is to believe in him.

What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? To believe is to “yield allegiance,” “trust completely,” and “acknowledge his claims, confessing them with gratitude” (Carson). To believe is to fully accept Jesus as all that he reveals himself to be.

Those who believe in his name are given legitimate claim to the privilege of becoming a child of God. This is very significant in the storyline of Scripture. Those who live in the “world” are not God’s children, even though he created them. Israel—once called “the children of God” (Deut 14:1) and his “firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22)—have forfeited their status as children of God. They cannot claim a special status based on their descent from Abraham or Moses. Only those who believe in the Son have their status changed to “children of God” and thus receive the promised inheritance.

To Those Born of God

When you honor someone as your “mother” on Mother’s Day, is your status as her son the result of anything that you have done? No. You mother is your mother because she (A) gave birth to you, or (B) adopted you. You cannot claim the status of “child” or boast about it as a result of something that you have done.

John adds a final word to ensure that we understand that our status as “children of God” is not a result of something that we have done, but a result of what God has done.

You become God’s child through birth. John emphasizes in three ways that you do not enter God’s family through human initiative. He speaks three times of sexual relations.

You are not “children of God” by being born “of bloods.” This refers to the idea that the blood of human parents combine to form a new life.

You are not “children of God” by being born “of the will of the flesh.” It is not a result of human sexual desire.

You are not “children of God” by being born “of the will of man (a husband).” This refers to the initiative of the husband in marital relations.

John is emphasizing that spiritual birth is not the result of human initiative, but of the work of God. Here John introduces a tension that will run throughout the gospel—that of human responsibility and divine sovereignty. Humans are responsible for believing. Only those who believe in Jesus will have life and be “children of God.” Nevertheless, those who believe in him do so because they are already sheep, drawn and given by the Father to the Son, and born of God. Humans must respond, but their response has been preceded by the initiative of the Father.

A Word to Mourning Mothers

First of all, I want to speak to mothers. As a pastor, I am always aware that Mother’s Day can be a day of sorrow for many. Perhaps you are a mother who is grieving an “empty nest.” For one reason or another, your children are no longer have at home under your care. Or, perhaps Mother’s Day is a day of grief because of the children you want but do not have. Perhaps you are a married woman who has always wanted children, but have been unable to have any. Or, perhaps you desire marriage and children, but the Lord has not brought these to you yet.

I want to encourage you with verse 13. Children are a blessing and precious gift from the Lord. Family is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Nevertheless, when history is wrapped up, the Family and Kingdom of God will remain while our earthly families fade away. The Family of God is therefore supreme over the families of earth. And, under the New Covenant the Family of God is not increased through physical childbearing, but through the work of God. And, God works to give birth to his children through the witness of human beings, such as John the Baptist.

As important as being a physical mother is, being a spiritual mother is a greater task. Would you consider believing this? And, would you consider devoting the time you once gave to your children (or want to give to children) to the Titus 2 task of “teaching what is good and so training the young women” how to be godly? We have a great need of such spiritual mothers. You will never be honored with a “Spiritual Mother’s Day.” Hallmark will never create a card aimed at you. Nevertheless, you will be used by God to bring people into eternal life and the fruit of your “labor” will endure for eternity.

A Word to Us All

To all of us, I would say this: You are in one of two groups. You are dwelling in the darkness and headed for destruction. Or, you are walking in the light and a child of God, headed for eternal life. Which of these you are is indicated by your relationship to the Word, the Light, Jesus Christ.

How will you respond to him? Will you be like the world that does not know him? Will you be like the Israelites who did not receive him?

Or, will you know him, receive him, believe in his name? Will you believe that he is the Eternal God who created all things? Will you believe that he is the promised Messiah—the Light that entered the Darkness to free captives from their bondage to sin? Will you turn this morning to follow Jesus and have life?