The sermon 'Life and Light' by Jason Dohm explores John 1:1-5, emphasizing Jesus Christ as both the source of life and light. The text establishes Jesus as eternal, distinct, yet one with God, and the agent of creation. The sermon draws parallels between the Gospel of John and Genesis 1, presenting the incarnation of Jesus as monumental as the creation itself. It highlights Jesus' exclusive claim as the source of spiritual life and light, beyond just physical realms, stressing the need for spiritual rebirth. The light of Jesus shines into the darkness of spiritual ignorance and moral filth, offering true understanding and purity. The sermon warns against seeking life and light from worldly sources and underscores the profound changes post-Genesis 3, which necessitate salvation through Jesus. The darkness in human hearts resists spiritual truth, emphasizing the need for a transformative, spiritual rebirth.

So in Texas John 1 verses 4 & 5 for continuity we will start in verse 1. Let's follow along. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." Well, we pray that you'll bless Mr. Domsie comes to preach your word Lord that you'll open our hearts to receive put your words into his mouth and let us hear the message that you wish for us today. The title of the sermon this Morning is simply life and light. This text introduces the Lord Jesus Christ to us as life and light to His people.

So it's a wonderful, beautiful text that should make you happy if you're in the Lord. I hope there will be an increase in happiness among us today. It really is just an introduction to Jesus as life and Jesus as light. As I looked across a big study file, having completed the sermon, I had this sense of how I am just scratching the surface. But that's okay because this is really intended just to be an introduction of the topic within the Gospel of John.

Much of this gospel is given to the topic of Jesus as life and the topic of Jesus as light. And this will be unfolded through the next 21 chapters, particularly chapter 3 and chapter 5. We're going to be all back into this. I don't need to pre-preach those chapters. I'm just going to introduce it to you because John is introducing it to us.

Let me review quickly where we are by reminding you of the structure of verses 1 through 5. In verses 1 and 2, it's before the foundations of the world. 1 and 2 are before anything has been made. There is no world. It's the beginning, But there are two already there.

The Word is there with God. He is distinct from God and yet He is God. He is one with God. So you have Jesus Christ set forth as eternal and as God, but yet as a distinct person within the Godhead. So we are already in over our head in verses 1 and 2 and things we struggle mightily to understand.

In verse 3, there is then creation. So 1 and 2 are before the foundation of the world. Verse 3 is creation. And John sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the agent of creation. Not as a child who is sent forth to do his chores, but as one who is appointed an honor to do something in order to take a place of preeminence.

That is Jesus' role in creation. The Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit appointed the Son the place of honor to be the agent of creation. So, He is exalted in creation. And now in verses 4 and 5, John gives us the context of the incarnation. Jesus Christ was sent to bring life and light into death and darkness.

That's what this is about. John has taken great pains in verses 1 and 2 and 3 to fix Genesis 1 Jesus in our minds before He gives us Matthew 1 Jesus. Genesis 1 Jesus is the eternal Almighty Creator God. And John wants you to know that He is that before He gives you a human genealogy. Know that Jesus Christ was with God and He was God and He was the agent of all things that have ever been made.

Now we can talk about Jesus as a man. And so he's transitioning us in verses 4 and 5 into the word becoming flesh. Those are the exact words he'll use in verse 14. And so he's bringing us into the concept of the incarnation. Jesus, God taking on flesh and being among us.

As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Our God, we are in desperate need of life. True spiritual life. We are in desperate need of light. True spiritual understanding.

And now as we come to these verses, I pray that you would make us so thirsty that we would come and drink the waters. We would come to the waters and drink. I thank you that you bid us to come to drink and to satisfy ourselves in these waters of life. May it be so among us in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'd like to begin with verse 4. Just look at verse 4. Hopefully you're memorizing the sermon text as we go along. That's the easiest way to memorize 1-14. We're going so slowly through these verses that if you Just memorize the sermon text every week, you're right on track.

Verse 4 is this, in Him, in the Word, in the Lord Jesus Christ was life, and the life was the light of men. In verse 4 we have the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of life and light. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's source. The Lord Jesus Christ is The, all caps, the source of life and light. First I want to notice what John is doing.

John, our Gospel writer, is mirroring Genesis 1. He's done that from the very beginning, but he is continuing to mirror Genesis 1. Genesis 1 begins in the beginning. John 1 begins in the beginning. Then Genesis 1 gives the creation account.

And John 1 gives Jesus as the creator of all things. Without Him nothing was made that was made. In Genesis 1 a voice comes out of nowhere to say, let there be light, and there was light. In John 1, Jesus shines into the darkness. You see, he is hugging right along with Genesis 1.

As Genesis 1 develops, so John 1 develops. Here is the unspoken implication of that. The coming of Jesus into the world is as monumental as the making of the world itself. Just think about that for a minute. John is communicating this without ever saying, here's what I'm doing, by the fact that he develops John 1 as Genesis 1 develops, side by side in a parallel fashion with John 1, he is saying that the incarnation, God becoming flesh, is as earth-shaking as the making of the worlds themselves.

And John has to be speaking about more than physical life and light here, doesn't he? It definitely, physical life and light are included. We just came from verse 3 where all things were made through Him. So I'm fine to consider that physical life and light is all wrapped up in what is said. It would be totally inadequate to say it ends there.

It may start there, but it doesn't end there. John is speaking about more than physical life and light. This is fundamentally about spiritual realities. Verses four and five are before anything else about spiritual realities. Yes, as the one who made all things, Jesus as God is the source of physical life and physical light.

But this statement, in him was life and the life was the light of men is primarily an exclusive claim that Jesus is the source of all spiritual life and life. So an exclusive claim. Jesus is not a source of spiritual life. Jesus is the source of spiritual life. Jesus is not a source of spiritual light.

Jesus is the source of spiritual light. So in John chapter 6 verse 67, when the crowds who have been swelling through the early chapters of John, that they start now to melt away at the end of John chapter 6. Why? Because Jesus has begun to say the hard sayings like, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no part in me. And the crowd say, we didn't sign up for this.

They begin to melt away. And Jesus says to His disciples, do you also want to go away? And Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. The implication is, if we go away from you, we will not be able to have access in any way to the words of eternal life.

He is the source of life and light. Of course, what Peter is saying there, you have the words of eternal life that speak of both life and light. You have the truth that brings us into spiritual life. And in John chapter 14 verse 6, Jesus will say it very concisely and very explicitly, I am the way, the truth, the life. Not a source, the source, the way, the truth, and the life.

Of course, when Jesus says that, He is speaking both to life and light, just as we have in this text here. The beginning of John, The beginning of the Gospel of John is the beginning of the exclusive claims about Jesus and of Jesus. In other words, all throughout the Gospel, the Gospel writer, the Apostle John, is going to be making exclusive claims about Jesus. That Jesus can be these things, and no one but Jesus can be these things. And Jesus also is going to be making claims of Himself that can only be true about Him and can't be true of any others.

The reformers reclaimed, and in many cases bled and died for, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and we have it here in John chapter 1. And We should cling to that doctrine with all of our might because the truth of Scripture isn't anywhere else about salvation. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. He makes claims that no one else can satisfy. Friends, if you're going to be spiritually alive, that must come from the Lord Jesus Christ.

You cannot be spiritually alive without Jesus. If you are ever going to have spiritual light that must come from Jesus Christ, there is no source of any true spiritual light outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning I just want to say, go to Him! Friends, go to the Lord Jesus Christ for life and light. You can't get it anywhere else.

Many people have been chasing a fool's errand all their lives, looking for life somewhere besides Jesus. You'll never find it. Go to Jesus. Some people have been on a fool's errand, chasing light, true spiritual understanding in other places other than the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll Never find it in those places.

Go to Jesus. It is only found in Jesus. If you have never gone to Jesus for life and light, go to Him today for it. Don't let another day go by. Don't let another hour Go by.

Outside of Jesus is only death and darkness. The world is always dangling the shiny objects. Getting you to think there's life and light there. There's only death and darkness there. Go to Christ.

Run to Christ. If you have gone to Jesus for life and light, go back for more. Have you experienced all the life that there is? The Bible says that He came to give us life and life abundantly. Do you feel like you've drunk enough of those waters?

Not me. I want more of those waters. Do you feel like you have enough light? Do you know it all? Do you have all the true spiritual understanding that you need?

We know that we don't. Go back to Him for more of life and light. The beginning of verse 5, and the light shines in the darkness. Of course, the light is the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. So here in the first part of verse 5, we have that Jesus is the light that shines into darkness.

If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's shines. Jesus is the light that shines into darkness. Let's start by thinking about what John, our Gospel writer, is trying to communicate when he uses the terms light and darkness. In Scripture, when the term light is used figuratively, we're talking about a figurative use of this. This is not talking about a flashlight light.

This is speaking figuratively of Jesus as light. When the scripture uses the term light figuratively, it means either understanding or purity. True understanding or purity, righteousness. And these things are closely related. In other words, it can mean one thing or the other, but they're not unrelated things.

They're closely related things. When a person has truly received the light, When a person has truly received light, when a person has truly received true spiritual understanding, then they walk in light. It has an effect on their life, a purifying effect on their life, so there is more purity. The more true spiritual understanding you have, it is displayed in your life by an increase in purity, an increase in true righteousness. And in scripture, when darkness is used figuratively, it means the polar opposite of those two things.

In other words, if light figuratively means true spiritual understanding or purity and righteousness, then darkness means ignorance, spiritual ignorance. Not you're dumb, your brain doesn't function, but you can't truly understand spiritual realities. Darkness is spiritual ignorance or Moral Filthiness, Unrighteousness, and of course again these things are closely related. They are not disconnected things. A person in a state of spiritual ignorance, you see that in their life in moral filthiness and unrighteousness.

Even though they may be acceptable in their neighbors. What's in their heart is moral filthiness and unrighteousness. So I want to caution us that there is a way to look externally okay to your neighbor even though the reality of your state is a state of moral filthiness and unrighteousness. Don't think you can't sit in a church pew week after week and not be in this state. No, heavens no.

Think about the Pharisees and how religious they were and how careful they were about their righteous lives. But when Jesus looks at them, he says, you're like a coffin, so beautifully whitewashed on the outside, but inside you're like dead men's bones. So here are two examples of light and darkness and their figurative usages. And these are representative, meaning by representative that we could go to a hundred different places that would cast these things the same way. The first is Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7.

Listen to Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7. This is God the Father speaking to His Son as the Redeemer. I the Lord have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. This is light used figuratively as true spiritual understanding.

God the Father says He'll give God the Son as a light to the Gentiles and then the next words are to open blind eyes. And then he speaks of one in a prison cell, someone sitting in darkness from the prison house. This is light as true spiritual understanding. When it says that Jesus as light shines into darkness, it is Jesus as the ultimate self-expression of God bringing true spiritual understanding into darkness. Darkness.

Or consider 1 John 1 verse 5. Of course this is the same author, but this is just the first letter of John, not the Gospel of John. 1 John 1.5, God is light and in him is no darkness at all. This is light used figuratively as purity, as righteousness. And in 1 John 1.5, God is set forth as one who is utterly pure.

No mixture at all. He is utterly righteous. There's no darkness. There's no moral filthiness in him at all. He is completely pure and righteous.

Both of these closely related meanings are meant here. Light as both understanding and purity, darkness as both ignorance and moral filth. Our study of the rest of John will prove that that's exactly what the writer of John means in these verses. Light as understanding, true spiritual understanding and purity, righteousness and darkness as spiritual ignorance and moral filth or unrighteousness. If you take that as true, and I think I'm on pretty solid ground here, Jesus is true spiritual understanding and purity that penetrates, invades, shines into this world of ignorance and moral filth.

I'm going to say that again because I think that's what verses 4 and 5 mean. Jesus as the ultimate self-disclosure of God, the Word, is true spiritual understanding and purity, righteousness that penetrates and invades and shines into this world of spiritual ignorance and moral filth. This is truly the land of the curse, isn't it? When you think about darkness as the world of spiritual ignorance and moral filth, this is the land of the curse, the land of Genesis 3, where sin comes into the world, and with sin comes suffering and sickness and death and our nature isn't the same. You have to understand that.

After sin enters the world in Genesis 3, the nature of anyone in our race who will ever be born again has been forever changed so that now our inclinations are towards things that are morally filthy. And we are the farthest thing away from true spiritual understanding. We are spiritually ignorant, and some of that is willful ignorance, meaning we love darkness. We not only live in darkness, but we love darkness. That's John 3.

I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll come there. Turn to Matthew chapter 4. Jesus is set forth as an invading presence into darkness. Jesus as true spiritual understanding and purity, righteousness is now invading a land of spiritual ignorance and moral filth.

In Matthew chapter 4, Matthew, our Gospel writer quotes Isaiah 9, 1 and 2. But I'm going to begin reading in verse 12 and then I'll read through this quotation of Isaiah 9, 1 and 2. So follow along as I start Matthew 4, verse 12. Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, this is John the Baptist, he departed to Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali.

That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned. This is what John is speaking of in our text. Think of these devastating phrases.

Sat in darkness. Sat in the region and shadow of death. God through Isaiah is describing this as the world after Genesis 3. And what are the people doing in God's world after Genesis 3, after sin and death and suffering and sickness and an inclination of our hearts towards things that are morally filthy, even though they might be outwardly okay with the rest of us. What is the condition?

It's those sitting in darkness. Why are they sitting? Well, because they got tired of groping. There's no light. What do you do when there's no light?

What's left to do but Just sit down in a condition of death and wait for it to become official. This is really the view of life in a world where corruption has come in and affected every part of every man and woman and child. It's just sitting in this condition of death waiting for the official death that you deserve to overtake you. This is truly the land of the curse, isn't it? And John says Jesus shines into that.

Jesus dawns into a world where people are just sitting in darkness. They're sitting in the region and the shadow of death. And notice the verb tense. The verb tense has changed. It has shifted.

It's not shined past tense. It shines present tense. John, writing after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, uses Jesus shining into darkness in the present tense. In other words, the death of Jesus on the cross did not stop the shining of true spiritual understanding and purity into this world of the curse. But His resurrection and the sending of His Holy Spirit secured the perpetual shining of Jesus into darkness.

So far from being ended by the cross, it is secured as a perpetual Shining in the present tense by his resurrection and the sending of his spirit. John obviously wrote this after the death of Jesus and he says, Jesus shines. And he says, Jesus shines. Some of you are imprisoned to spiritual ignorance and moral filth. Some of you are sitting in darkness.

Some of you are sitting in darkness. Some of you are sitting in the region in the shadow of death. And John the Gospel writer says, Go to Him. Go to Him. He shines.

He shines with true spiritual understanding. He shines with true purity and righteousness and external righteousness that can shine on you. Go to Him. Today He is shining and offering Himself as a ransom to sinners. Verse 5b, The second part of verse 5.

And the darkness did not comprehend it. The darkness does not comprehend the light. If you are filling in blanks on the handout, it is comprehend. The darkness does not comprehend the light. I should point out a translational variation here.

The word comprehend, the darkness did not comprehend it. That word that's been rendered comprehend literally means to lay hold of, so as to make one's own, to seize upon, to take possession of. And this has a literal sense. It can mean a literal taking hold of. And because of that, the NASB, even though it renders it comprehend just like the New King James it has a note that says or overpower and the ESV and the NIV actually just outright render that word this way, overcome.

The darkness did not overcome it. The darkness did not overcome the light. So it has a literal sense, which would have you translating it, overcome. The darkness did not overcome the light, but it has a figurative sense To to lay hold of like like to understand and to comprehend it Which is rendered differently which is rendered comprehend And the New King James and the King James and the NASB would render it that way. I actually like our translation because of the immediate context.

The immediate context being verse 10. Look at verse 10. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. So I take verse 10 as an explanation of our verse and say because of that immediate context I like the rendering comprehend. Just be aware that others have rendered it differently for good reasons, and both of those things are true.

The darkness did not overpower or overcome the light, the Lord Jesus Christ, nor did the darkness understand or comprehend it. So the worst you can do is teach a Bible truth from the wrong text. That's not too bad. Up until this point in the text, you would think that The shining of Jesus into this cursed world of darkness solves every problem. We need life.

Jesus brings life. We need light. Jesus brings light. After all, anyone sitting in the region and the shadow of death would welcome the light dawning." To put it in the words of Matthew chapter 4. But John says, not so fast.

The fact that the light, the Lord Jesus Christ, shines into the world bringing life and light does not solve every problem. It is good news that the light shines in the darkness, but John wants us to know that there is another matter to consider here. There is a darkness in the human heart, not external, internal. A darkness in the human heart that maybe is best described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. I quote this all the time.

I bet I've quoted this every month in a sermon for the last six years. I wouldn't doubt it at all. But it's because it's so foundational to the way that you see yourself and to the way you see Why things are what they are in the world that I just feel the need to keep quoting it and keep quoting it So please memorize it 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14, but the natural man Man in his natural condition Man as he's born this is not gender specific obviously, this is men, women and children, man in his natural condition does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. So you have the things of the Spirit of God. So you have the things of the Spirit of God, but they are not received by a person in his or her natural condition.

For they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, Because they are spiritually discerned. This is the darkness that the light is shining into. An internal darkness that when the Spirit of God comes with true spiritual understanding and truth, there is active resistance and rejection. This is the nature of that darkness.

Active resistance, active rejection, willful blindness. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to Him. Truth comes to the natural man and he or she says that's foolish. They can't know them because they are spiritually discerned.

And spiritual dead men don't discern these things. We must have so much more than an intellectual transformation. You must be born again. Which is a very different thing than simply embracing a new perspective. Don't you see this is completely different than embracing a new perspective?

What's wrong with us will not be cured by a little info about Jesus. Did you get that? What is wrong with you will not be cured. It's so deeply ingrained. It's about spiritual deadness.

It's so deeply ingrained that it will not be cured by even truth. It will not be cured even by truth. Something else more fundamental has to happen than just giving you good info about Jesus. The darkness does not comprehend it. A little religion will not save you.

A little morality will not save you. Turning over a new leaf will not save you. Not even a little gospel truth will save you. You must be born again. You must come out of darkness into life.

You must come out of death and be given life. John says it so plainly here in 1 John 5 verse 12. Again, this is his first letter, 1 John chapter 5 verse 12. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life, period.

It doesn't get any more simple than that. If you have Jesus Christ, not a little religion, not a little morality, not turning over a new leaf, not even gospel truth, you have to have the Son Himself, the person of Jesus Christ. Not just an intellectual apprehension of a few facts about Jesus. You have to have the Son to have life. If you have Him, you have life.

If you don't have Him, you don't have life. Salvation is by grace alone. It is a gift. By faith alone. Faith is not just intellectual apprehension.

It is a transfer of trust. You lay hold of Jesus' work on the cross by forsaking the trust in anything else and trusting His work and only His work. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, He is the only source of spiritual life and light. Applications. Applications.

Applications. Number one, check your sources. This is what a good journalist would do, check your sources. Make sure that your sources are trustworthy. John, the Gospel writer, puts forth Jesus as the only source of spiritual life and light.

If you're going for life and light anywhere else, you have to get rid of that source and go to Jesus for it. Are you going to the things, the shiny objects that the world is dangling as life? Are you going to those things for life? What satisfies you? This really answers the question.

What satisfies you? Is it the shiny things that the world is dangling? Life, life over here, look at the life. You go for those things, you get darkness and death. Not life and light.

Relationships? You so invested in a human relationship or human relationships, I'm there for life, In the end, this is darkness and death there. Where do you go for life? Christ is the only source of true spiritual life. Where are you going for light?

Are you believing lies because you are going to the wrong source for true spiritual understanding? How many sources out there are saying, get your true spiritual understanding here that are not Christ in His words. We can make such a long list, we can fill up a page like that. Light here, Light here, neutral sources. Where the Bible says, if they don't speak according to this word, there is no light in them.

That's what the Bible says. Check your sources. What are you going to for life? What are you going to for light? You're being defrauded and stolen from if you go.

You're being deceived and robbed blind, literally, if you are going to places other than the Lord Jesus Christ for life. Number two, Don't ever forget how profound the changes were in Genesis 3. Grab a hold of the truth of Genesis 3 and never let it go. You will never understand yourself and the self-deception that is bound up in your heart, you will be victimized by yourself. You will victimize yourself if you don't lay hold of the truth of how profound Genesis 3 and what happened there is.

The coming of sin and the changing of our inclinations away from things that are good. You will not understand yourself and you will not understand the world. You'll think that nice guys are good guys if you don't understand Genesis 3. Nice guys aren't good guys. Nice guys have every thought and inclination of their heart only evil continually.

And those are the nice guys out there in the unregenerate world. You will not understand what's happening around you unless you understand Genesis 3 and how profound darkness is. It is true spiritual ignorance. It is an inclination towards spiritual filth and hiding. And hiding.

And you can't understand the desperate need for the Lord Jesus Christ until you understand what happened in Genesis 3. You'll wonder why so much was required to save man. But when you wrap your arms around Genesis 3, and the inclining of every human nature away from God, and towards self-love and self-idolatry, wanting to be God, then you understand how deep the waters that we're in are, how over the head we actually are, how the coming of Jesus Christ is so necessary that we could be saved. Let's pray. God, thank you.

Thank you for conspiring for our good. That you, the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, have decided to send the sun to shine into darkness. We praise you that the verb tense is present. Today Jesus shines into the world of the curse where spiritual ignorance and unrighteousness Spiritual ignorance and unrighteousness seems to be ruling and reigning, and yet here invades Jesus Christ as your perfect self-revelation to give true spiritual understanding as a gift to give life. Spiritual life.

God, I pray that You would do this over and over and over again in our midst. I thank You that we can see that You have done it many times over. You have called people who sat in darkness, people who sat in the shadow of death. You have called them out of darkness into your wonderful light. We praise you for your goodness to us in sending Jesus to take on human flesh, live a perfectly undefiled life so that you might be an acceptable sacrifice.

Take our place we praise you in Jesus name amen