John 1:1-13 (NASB)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. 5 And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.
6 A man came, one sent from God, and his name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
9 This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.
Tonight is Christmas Eve. After this message, we are going to hold candles and sing Silent Night. When we do that, I would like to encourage you to not only picture the night of Jesus’ birth and how Jesus is the Light who shines in the darkness, but picture, too, the moment of all creation. Genesis 1:1-5 begins the Bible by saying, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness He called ‘night.’ And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”
God begins His word with the moment of creation, and I think it’s beautiful how John 1 echoes that same beginning. John 1:1&2 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”
That tells us that Jesus has always existed, for Jesus is the Word who became flesh, as John 1:14 says. Not only has He always existed, but He is the architect of our world. As verse 3 states, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.” In Ava Bijou’s beautiful Christmas hymn she wrote, my favorite line is “Come swiftly, oh builder, oh come and bridge the way” for I love the accuracy of that title for Jesus. For Jesus is the architect, the builder, the creator of every single thing. The Word says, “not even one thing” came into being apart from Him. That is astonishing, isn’t it?
That is why verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.” In this one verse, there is so much to unpack. John is summarizing so succinctly so much of what Jesus says about Himself. Jesus says in John 9:5b, “I am the Light of the world.” And He says in Matthew 16:25, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
It is in Jesus, who is the Light of the world, that we find our life. For as Paul said, in Acts 17:28, “in Him we live and move and have our being.”
In the beginning of the time, Jesus brought the world to life, not figuratively, but literally. When Jesus was born on earth, He brought the Word to life, not figuratively, but literally. And by doing that, He brought us life. The same God who spoke the world into existence now inserted Himself into His creation. And this changed everything.
My family and I went to a live Nativity at a local church last weekend. Rather than only depicting the manger scene, this church had multiple stations where people recited different gospel stories in monologue form. They started with Jesus’ birth and ended with Mary and Martha recounting the raising of Lazarus. They even had a last station, without any actors, that had the cross and empty tomb. I was so impressed with their production, for they clearly understood that we can’t separate out Jesus’ birth from the rest of His ministry and purpose on earth. When we talk about Jesus’ birth, we also have to mention why He came to earth, for His birth changed everything.
As much as Jesus’ birth impacted our whole world, there were so many people who simply ignored His arrival. Verse 5 tells us, “And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.” Even though at Jesus’ birth it was like a great light was suddenly switched on, and all the people who were in the dark now had a light to see by. And even though it was just as Isaiah 9:2 said, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” They ignored Him, for they didn’t understand it.
People today still ignore Him, because they still don’t understand. Even though this light is still shining, even some 2022 years later. As verse 9 tells us, “This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person.” Jesus came into the world to enlighten us. He came into the world to help us understand God.
Jesus brought the Light so we could see God, but the world didn’t recognize Him. Verses 10 and 11 tell us, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him.”
His own people, the Jewish leaders and people who were waiting for the Messiah to come, they didn’t accept Him as the awaited Messiah. They rejected Him, just as Isaiah also foretold. Isaiah 53:3 (ESV) says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
I wonder, did they reject Him because they had been so long in darkness? Have you ever been in a dark room and then a bright light is suddenly turned on? It’s hard to see at first and the light hurts our eyes. If the light is very bright, we might want to cover our eyes, or as Isaiah said, ‘hide’ our faces.
But not everyone turned away from Jesus, for as verse 12 and 13 say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.”
All who would be born of God would become children of God. As John 3:3 says, “Jesus responded and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
We must be born again by receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In order to become children of God, we must receive this Light that was given to us and we must not hide our face from Him or reject Him.
Romans 10: 13 says “for ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” But as verse 14 adds, “How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?”
John 1:6-8 tells us how people are to hear this message so that they can believe. It says, “A man came, one sent from God, and his name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.”
We are to be like John. We are to be a witness and testify about the Light. So that all people might believe in Jesus, too. This is our job, our task here on earth. We are to reflect this Light to the world.
This Christmas Eve might seem like a conclusion. It might seem like we’ve come to the end of this journey of waiting for Christmas and now it’s here and it’s about to be over. I would like to challenge all of us to see it differently. What if this is the beginning? Jesus has come as the Light of the world. Now let’s share this Light with the world. The Savior was born, and we have received Him. That is not the end, that is the start! Now our job is to bring other people to this Christ Child, so they, too, can become children of God.
Sing: Silent Night
Pray: Jesus, Light of the world, we praise You and thank You for coming to earth. We kneel before You this night, full of wonder and awe at how You gave so much to be with us. We pray that You would, by Your Holy Spirit, fill us with so much peace, hope, joy and love that it overflows to everyone that we meet. Help us to share Your light with this world that so desperately needs to see. We echo tonight what the angels said to the shepherds over 2000 years ago:
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among people with whom He is pleased.”
Lord, we pray that You would be glorified this Holy Christmas Eve, and Your peace would fill our world. We love You and praise You and in Your name we pray, amen.
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