Jesus the Light of Men.

As a deer pants for water so my soul pants for you oh God my Father.

” My aim in creating you and every person on this earth is to have fellows who long to be with me – with the same desire as that deer – who pants for water after running through the mountains, now totally exhausted. That is why I have created you all so that you will seek me and my promise, ever faithful and ever true, is that I will be found of you. That is why I came, Immanuel to be God with you to open the way for intimate communication which would be fulfilling to you and would fulfil my desire for a people who want to worship me and place me first in their lives. To you all then I promise the closest of fellowship, always ready to hear you and to respond, always ready to cover you with my grace. So – yes – here I am with you this morning as I have promised.”

We continue then with John’s introduction. He starts, as we saw last time with a description of the One about whom the whole book is going to be about. Firstly, he describes Him as the “Word”, foundational to God, the Father’s communication with His creation and each one of us. Today we see that the next step as we look back at God’s creation process was to give life to it. From the very beginning, His creation was to be alive, dynamic, developing, growing, interacting. God describes this life as giving light to His creation. Gen 1:3

In the presence of light there is always the possibility of darkness. Darkness where the light does not reach. God has used darkness in this world creatively. Every day ends with a period of darkness called night, when life on earth comes to rest and restore. This period is essential for the proper functioning of God’s creation. However, even when it is dark His creation is dynamically active in many ways.

Then in Genesis we are introduced to a new dimension. Adam’s revolt against the rule of God in his life. This revolt placed a barrier between man and God and we see that barrier is often called darkness. So, we see in Isaiah 9:2 the promise of God through Isaiah was that He would send someone to “The people walking in darkness”. This One would be “a Great light“. He would be called ” Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Back to John who then, identifies this One whom he is introducing as that Light who would bring two things to the people. He would bring life. That is, he would bring a new sort of life, because everyone without that light is, “dead in their trespasses and sins” (Ephes 2:1). To do that He would as the light, remove the darkness of sin which is the barrier between us and Him.

This metaphor of light is most powerful. No life is possible without light. So, in reality we only live because there is light, but much more we can only have true life once we have experienced the illumination of God’s supernatural light in our lives. Yet sin still lurks. As darkness spoils the light and hides much, sin has that effect on our lives preventing true life and true fellowship. Yet this Light who comes will remove that darkness. Without the light of this One whom John is describing we would still be in darkness and separated from God.

The next step is most amazing: v5b “the darkness did not understand this light“. And one step further we see in v 11 that though He specifically came first to His own people, they would not receive Him. It is amazing to think that this huge, unsurpassed gift should have been rejected by the very people He came to give life to. Then comes the frightening part, it is only those who accept Him that will benefit from His presence as the Light.

In fact, this life which He has brought, if it is received will qualify the receiver to be called a “child of God” v 12. Then note in v 13 that this adoption into God’s family is not something which is just sort of passed down. To benefit fully from this promise, the one who receives God needs to be reborn. A birth described as from God. Only that one will qualify to be called a child of God.

To summarize then, the reader doesn’t just have to know about this Person John is writing about to benefit from His coming into the world. The One described as “The Word” and “The Light“. The reader needs to respond to this message by receiving this One. Note there is nothing the reader needs to do to qualify, he/she simply needs to receive this One.

Lots to chew on. See you next week again.