John 1:
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 were made through Him; and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to his own, and His own did not receive 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 man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
This passage of Scripture sets out basic truth concerning 3 matters of extreme importance for all mankind. Last week, we looked at what John says here about the character of Jesus Christ, the first of these essential truths. We learned that Jesus Christ is a distinct Person, that He is Himself God, that He is the expression or Revelation of God, that He is eternal, and that He is The Creator. This Jesus Christ is also, according to our passage, the very life and light of all His creation; without Him as Creator there could be no natural life, without Him as Revelation there can be no spiritual life. Just as light is necessary in our physical world, the light of Jesus Christ is necessary in our spiritual life. In fact, the Apostle Paul, in a passage of praise to Christ, teaches us that He is the force that holds the creation together:
15 Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation;
16 because by Him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities: all things have been created by Him and for Him.
17 And *He* is before all, and all things subsist together by Him.
Colossians 1:15-17 (Darby)
The second major doctrine introduced to us in these opening verses of Johns Gospel first appears in verse 5:
And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:5
Following this astounding statement, we are told that John the Baptist came as a witness of this Light, in order that all through him might believe, (verse 7). We then see that this true LightJesus Christ gives light to every man coming into the world, (verse 9). Finally, the rejection of the Light is spoken of plainly in verses 10 and 11:
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to his own, and His own did not receive him.
John 1:10, 11
In these few statements, John is at once explaining the need for His Gospel and the necessity of a life changing belief in the person and work of Christ. Johns account of the character and works of Jesus Christ is necessary because, even though Jesus was known by many, few understood that He was God among men. And a personal belief in Christ is necessary, lest we individually continue in the darkness and rejection of Jesus Christ demonstrated by the multitudes among whom He lived. The challenge to us today is to understand what the Holy Spirit would teach us about mankind in general and ourselves in particular in this passageto see the contrast between the light of Jesus Christ and the darkness of the world.
In order to understand Johns message, lets examine the meaning of darkness.
The opening passage of Johns Gospel closely parallels the account of creation given in Genesis 1. Each account begins with God and the relationship among the Father, Son, and Spirit. (Genesis plainly teaches a plurality of personality in God by the use of the plural Hebrew Elohim (literally Gods) and by referring to the involvement of the Spirit of God in creation.) Each account establishes that everything that is, exists because of the creative action of God. Each account then shows that, apart from the work of God, only darkness is found in the earth.
Many of the first readers of Johns Gospel undoubtedly were the Jews living in and around Jerusalem. Those who faithfully attended synagogue and learned the Hebrew Scriptures would certainly recognize the language used by John. The Old Testament Scriptures have much to say about darkness as the spiritual condition of those who do not know God or who have turned from God. For example, Psalm 107 speaks of the tendency of God's people to forget God and pursue their own ends. Yet, whenever His people call upon Him in truth, God has promised to deliver them. Their testimony can always be:
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
Psalms 107:14
Especially meaningful to faithful Jews is Deuteronomy 29, where Moses gives in great detail Gods promises of blessing to those who follow Him, and the corresponding curses to those who forget Him. One of the curses promised if the people turned from God was this:
And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee].
Deuteronomy 28:29
When God sent the prophets to call the people back to repentance, they often spoke of the darkness of those who had excluded God from their lives, and promised that Gods Light would disperse that darkness and bring backslidden men and nations into right relationship with their God. Jeremiah warned:
Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and] make it] gross darkness.
Jeremiah 13:16
One of the best known prophecies among Israel is this:
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Isaiah 60:1, 2
These words by Isaiah predicted a day when all Israel would bask in the light of the Messiah, when the people of God would be a radiant beacon to all peoples as they experienced the power and presence of God among them. But John, an Israelite who knew these prophecies well, said:
And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:5
The awful condition of man is that he is in spiritual darkness. This darkness is made all the darker by the truth that the Light shines. It is made all the worse by the fact that, for hundreds and thousands of years, God had foretold the coming of the Light, had given signs by which His Light might be known and prophecies telling when and where the Light would appear. But men, even men who talked of the Light and waited for the Light and prayed daily for the Light, failed to comprehend the Light when He appeared. Even today, multitudes of people in places around the world pray for the coming of the Light of Israel, failing to realize that the Light has come, that the Light continues to shine. And if those who waited for the Light failed to comprehend the Light, what about those who never even anticipated the Light?
The Scripture teaches that all men are spiritually blind; that left to our own resources and abilities, we can never know God. We simply do not have the necessary senses or perceptual equipment to recognize spiritual realities. This lack of perception is not just a passive failure to see, but a spiritual blindness that makes it impossible to see. Paul attributes this blindness to the work of Satan, saying:
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2 Corinthians 4:3, 4
This is why Paul can say:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them], because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14
When Isaiah was commissioned a prophet to Israel, God gave him a vision of the heavenly glory, then sent him to give Gods message to the people. But, God warned Isaiah that the people would neither hear nor see the message of God:
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Isaiah 6:9, 10
This is why Jesus miracles and teachings were neither accepted nor understood by the multitudes who saw and heard Him. When His disciples asked Jesus why the people were not responding to Jesus message, He explained that spiritual understanding transcends natural abilityspiritual understanding must be given by God:
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Matthew 13:11
On another occasion, Jesus appeared exasperated at the spiritual blindness of the so-called spiritual leaders of Israel, but then He explained this phenomenon by referring to Isaiah's experience:
35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. 37. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: 38 That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their] eyes, nor understand with their] heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.
John 12:35-41
This spiritual blindness, this inability to see and comprehend, is the condition of all men apart from a saving work of Jesus Christ in the heart and life. Spiritual truth cannot be understood; light cannot be seen; the riches of Gods Word, the glory of Jesus Christ, reality of a life-giving, character changing relationship with God that is only possible through Jesus Christ is all rhetoric and gibberish. Paul says it this way:
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
So what is the condition of mankind? Utter, total, uncomprehending spiritual darkness.
Each successive statement in our text only magnifies the nature and extent of this darkness. The initial statement in verse 5 is that, though the Light shines (notice that the Light has always and will continue to shine), the darkness did not comprehend it. This is followed by the statement that God sent a witnessa verbal reinforcement of the visual revelation for the express purpose of bringing men to believe in Jesus Christ:
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
John 1:6-8
But not only did men reject the Light, they despised and killed His witness. Consistent with the treatment routinely given to the Lords prophets throughout Israels history, John the Baptist was jailed and finally martyred for his faithful delivery of his prophetic message.
Notice, too, that this Light was not given randomly, sporadically, or only vaguely and generally, but was given expressly to every person:
9 That was the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.
This Light was not far removed and inaccessible to mankind, a mere beam at the end of some indistinguishable tunnel. This Light was near at hand, readily accessible. He did not require that men come to Him through meritorious works or painful acts of penance. He came to us, into our world, and required only that we acknowledge Him. And our refusal and failure to own Him as the True Light is only made more despicable by the fact that He created us and this world, that He is our Creator and rightful Lord and Master. Yet mankind does not acknowledge Him. John writes:
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
John 1:10
Finally, John sadly shows the extent of this darkness, and the consummate humiliation heaped on Jesus Christ when he writes:
He came to his own, and His own did not receive him.
John 1:11
Not only was the Light, Jesus Christ, rejected by mankind throughout the world; He was rejected even by His own people. Even the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob rejected the One promised to Abraham. The seed of King David denied the One promised to occupy his throne forever. The sons and daughters of those very prophets and priests who prophesied the coming Messiah, could not, would not, did not give honor to Him Who proclaimed among His own people, I AM.
John shows us the nature and extent of our darkness by showing us the grace and intensity of the Light. Jesus Christ, the Light Who was with God, yet came to men; the Light Who created the world, yet came into the world; the Light Who created all men and shines individually upon all men, the Light Who arose from and among those to whom and through whom the Lord had promised a great Light.
How deep is our darkness, our inability and unwillingness to know and comprehend the Light? Deep enough that we not only reject a Light in some distant place in the presence of God, but deep enough to reject the Light Who invaded our world, Who shined among us, Who declared Himself our Life and Light, Who performed countless evidences of His divinity, Who was witnessed by prophets before and apostles after, and Who still makes claims upon us today as God come in the flesh, as the Way to God, the Truth of God, and the eternal Life of all who know Him. How deep is our darkness? Left to ourselves, the darkness of mankind is absolute and inescapable, a sure hindrance to any genuine relationship with God, a complete inability to know God, and Jesus Christ, Whom He] has sent, (John 17:3). The prospects of men in this darkness are grim indeed, for
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Ac 4:12
To reject Him Who is the Light of the world is to live this life in darkness, and eternity in what Jesus called outer darkness. (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30)
Is there hope for mankind? Can any escape the darkness and despair of those who cannot comprehend the Light? Must we each continue without hope, never to know the joy of Life, the radiance of Light, a relationship with our God, the glory of our Creator?
Yes! There is hope! But not hope in our abilities; we have none! Not hope in our comprehension as natural men, we cannot perceive spiritual truth. Not hope in our lineage, His own people rejected Him!
John introduces us to this hope for mankind in verse 12. Though he has carefully led us to understand our hopelessness and darkness, he writes the one word that gives a glimpse of something better, of a means of changing our condition and brightening our destiny. At the very depth of our gloom, John says, But... Can you see the hope; sense the relief? John tells us, But as many as received Him...
Johns message about mans darkness is necessary that we might understand the message to follow the message of hope in Jesus Christ; Gods truth about the nature and extent of salvation. Before we can rejoice in the work of Christ in our behalf, we must first recognize our need of Christ and the necessity of His work of redemption; we must recognize our darkness and despair, that we might be driven to Jesus Christ as our Light and only hope.
There are two kinds of people here today: those who have recognized the reality of spiritual darkness and turned to Jesus Christ as their Light; and those who grope along in darkness, refusing to acknowledge their need and failing to recognize Jesus Christ as the Light. There are those who know Him, who have received Him, who have the confidence that He is everything they need, all they ever longed for, the essence of their life and the Light driving out the darkness within them and around them. And there are those who blunder from false solution to counterfeit religion to vain hope; never confident, always doubtful, all the while refusing to admit their confusion and denying their personal darkness and in so doing, rejecting the source of confidence, of order, of Truth and Life and Light.
Those who have received Him, those who know Him as Life and Light, can praise Him and rejoice in all that He is and has done toward us. We truly know that We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19 ) But if you don't know Him, if you are still in your darkness, if you have yet to see the Light of Jesus Christ, I urge you to admit your condition, confess your darkness, to acknowledge your own inability to know or please God, and to believe on Jesus Christ,
Who hath saved us, and called us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
2 Timothy 1:9
Michael Parham 08/07/94