Our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed
in union, in communion, in speaking and being in face-to-face with
his Father. He was in the same, it says in
verse 2, in the beginning with God. He is the creator of all
things. He is the Creator of all things
and He has the rights of Creator over all things. But verse 4
is delightful, isn't it? In Him is life. In Him was life. It was there always with Him.
We have life because of His life. In fact, His life is the life
of believers in every possible way you can regard. And the life
was the light of men. And the verse we're looking at
today is, the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not. It's a picture of the depths
of the fall, the depths of man in his depravity, but also a
glorious picture of our Lord Jesus Christ coming as a light,
coming as the light of the world, coming and shining. And may God
help us to see in His light, because in His light we see light,
Psalm 36 says. What I want to do this morning,
rather than do an exposition of what the darkness is and the
light shining, I wanted us to do a very quick sort of potted
journey through John's Gospel, and we won't be touching on all
of it, but I want us to get some understanding of what the darkness
is and the darkness seen in terms of the light. See, it's an immoral
darkness. It's much deeper than ignorance.
it's a moral darkness that pervades this world. And of course, the
Lord Jesus Christ came, as I need to remind you, to the most zealously
religious group of Jews that there had ever been. They were the first of all the
Jews in all of where Paul could say, before
the law I was born. the law of God was just extraordinary. But this particular group of
people that the Lord Jesus Christ came to were the most religious.
They were the ones that were the greatest students of the
scriptures. They knew the scriptures better than others. They were
the ones that would have proclaimed the sovereignty of God. They
would have proclaimed a particular redemption of the Christ. They
had no notion in their thinking that God would ever fail. They
had no notion in their thinking that the Christ might try to
do something and fail. That's Western thinking, Greek
thinking. It came in much later. The Jews
would never have countenanced the thought of a Christ who might
love everyone and fail in his love, might die for everyone
and fail in his love, might wish to save everyone and fail in
his wishes. That was never entered the thinking of these people.
They were orthodox. They were moral in the ways that
people would be astounded today. And yet it's this world, it's
that world. We often think when we think
of depravity, we think of the depravity of man and his wickedness
in this day and age. And so much of the depth of that
wickedness is hidden and it's easy to talk about it in terms
that are just horrifying. Under the cover, in a sense,
of the darkness of COVID, they introduced an abortion bill in
Victoria just last year. One of the amendments to the
abortion bill is when the baby is born alive, being aborted,
and the doctors wanted to be able to give it some painkillers,
some anaesthesia to take away the pain while they chopped it
up as it was coming out of the womb, and the government in Victoria
wouldn't allow that amendment to their legislation. Because
what would it be? It would be an acknowledgment
that that is a living human being. And the point is, of course,
that the darkness is really deep. And the problem of talking about
that sort of darkness is that you would immediately say, well,
I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't be a participant in that. And
you don't realise that in our denial of our joining with the
depravity of this world, we're actually exhibiting a depravity
which is far darker, and that's the depravity of this world that
the Lord Jesus Christ came into, and the depravity of this world
that John the Baptist came into. I'm not for one minute countenancing
the evils that go on in this world. They are horrific and
they should be repulsive to all humanity. But there is the darkness
that John's talking about, the darkness that the Bible's talking
about, is a darkness that goes much deeper and is not revealed. It is not revealed until light
from heaven comes. The religion of today as the
religion of the days of the Jews can look extraordinarily polished
and extraordinarily successful until people are confronted with
the character of God. The fall came with a denial of
the character of God. and says we can all get along
together. We all talk about Jesus, we all
talk about God, we all talk about the Bible. When people are confronted
with the reality of the character of God, which is what happens
when the Lord Jesus Christ's light shines, then the enmity
of religious people is revealed. That was the darkness into which
our Lord Jesus Christ sent his messenger John. So I just want
to very briefly touch, as we go through John's Gospel, this
light shineth in the darkness. And I think it's just a glorious
description of the Gospel. In the midst of the darkness
of depravity, in the midst of the darkness of religion, And where the light shines, it
dispels the darkness. The darkness comprehends it not. Before we move any further, one
of the things we have to understand is that spiritual things are
only ever understood through spiritual eyes. The darkness
understands it not. darkness comprehends it not. We have a simple and glorious
task, and that is to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ in all
of his glory and allow for him to do what he does, which is
to shine in the hearts of his people, revealing the glory of
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the first place I
wanted to go to, just in a brief description of this darkness,
it says in verse 23 of chapter 1, that John says that he's a voice
crying in the wilderness. This was a land that was flowing
with milk and honey. This was a land that had the
most extraordinary religion, and John, led by the Holy Spirit,
describes it as a wilderness. without the voice of God, without
hearing the very words of God. John is typified as being like
Elijah. In Elijah's day there was a drought.
God withdrew Elijah from those people for three and a half years.
It meant that that nation didn't hear a word from God for three
and a half years. The physical drought that they
suffered was just a picture of the spiritual drought that they
were under. It's the wilderness That's why I love Psalm of Solomon
in Psalm of Solomon 8. The bride, the beloved, is coming
up out of the wilderness. And how does she come out of
the wilderness? She's leaning on the beloved. You'll only come
out of the wilderness when you're leaning. And if you're leaning,
you can't walk in your own strength and you're hanging on to him
when you come up out of the wilderness. You read the rest of that glorious
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and his church and you'll see
again and again, this light shines in darkness over and over again
It's just a picture throughout the scriptures, isn't it? You
think of the times of darkness and how the light shone, the
darkness of depravity of man, the darkness of man and his religion.
Turn over the page to chapter 3. The Lord Jesus Christ makes a
simple declaration. Go back to verse 25 of chapter
two. He needed, verse 24, but Jesus
did not commit himself under them because he knew all men
and he needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what
was in man. He was the only person that ever
knew what was in man. You don't even know what's in yourself.
and you're very poor. You're very poor at assessing
what's in other people. I promise you, you are. Anyway,
but I love what it goes on to say. There was a man, the chapter
division's not helpful in this place. There was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. The same came
to Jesus by night. out of the darkness and he'd
come into the light of the world, he'd come into the presence of
the light of the world. And we find that as Nicodemus' story
goes on in John's Gospel in John chapter 10, he's the one person
that stands up in that Sanhedrin and says that you guys are breaking
every single law that you have. In condemning the Lord Jesus
Christ, you must break every moral, every legal rule that
you have. And he was after the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who's there in the light, honoring the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ at Nicodemus. But he came out, he came by night,
he came by night. And then we have this glorious
conversation and these words that are the Lord Jesus and John's. But he speaks of the condemnation,
you go over to verse 19, this is the condemnation. It's interesting,
that word is used, judgment, When people meet the Lord Jesus
Christ there is a crisis. This is the condemnation, verse
19, that light has come into the world and men loved the darkness
rather than the light. So their attachment to the darkness
is much more than just ignorance. according to God, they loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. Just think of Adam and Eve and
just think of yourself. Just think of yourself when you've
done something horrible. You try and find a place to hide
as quickly as you possibly can. But verse 21, but he that doeth
truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest. His
deeds are manifest, that they are wrought in God. And that
word wrought is the word that we use for wrought iron. It means
to be made under enormous pressure and strain. Men love the darkness. You might recall that in Genesis
Chapter 1 there was a separation of light. It brings a separation. It's a separation of the light
from the darkness. In one of my favorite stories,
I can't skip over my Samaritan woman at the well. I love this
story. I'm so looking forward to getting
there to talk about it. But what happened there? The
light came into that dark Samaritan village in all of their ignorance,
in all of their superstition, but it came to her. She had five
husbands. She was living in adultery with
another one. And the light came. And I love what it says in verse
10 of John 4. Just look there with me. Jesus
said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that
saith unto thee, give me to drink, you wouldst have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. If you knew, if
you knew, in the darkness you know, if you know him, you'd
ask. At the end of John chapter 4
there is a nobleman whose son was healed at a distance. And
he was healed one day and then he didn't know about that healing
until the next day. All through that night, all through
that darkness, he didn't know whether the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ were true. And then he gets to see his son
and it's all wonderful. Light has come. John chapter 5, verse 24 and
26. Truly, truly, verily, verily,
I say unto you, that he that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. It is a possession of them,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead, what darkness
that is, when the dead, the dead in trespasses and sins, shall
hear The voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. When this light comes as a word
from God, they shall live. They shall live. A word sent from God dispels
the darkness. A word sent from God creates
belief. But over to verse 39, and we'll
get another picture of the darkness, won't we? In chapter five, verse
39. You search the scriptures, for
in them you think you have eternal life. They thought they had eternal
life because of their righteous activities. They thought they
had eternal life because of all their sound biblical knowledge.
But they, but they are they which test you. and didn't know the Christ of
the Scriptures. And if you don't know the Christ
of the Scriptures, the Bible is a sealed book to you. It's a meaningless book. It's
a book about Christ. It testifies of Him. It testifies
of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory which
should follow. Anything that diminishes the
glory and the sovereignty and the majesty of the Lord Jesus
Christ or darkness. He says, in verse 40, he says,
you will not come to me. You will not come to me that
you might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but you know, but I know you, you have not the love of God
in you. I come in my father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honour one from another and seek not the honour that cometh from
God only? The light must shine. The light
must shine in that darkness. In chapter 6, of course, the
Lord Jesus Christ performs that remarkable miracle of several
remarkable miracles. One is obviously feeding that
enormous crowd of people. And see, in their darkness they
saw the bread, but not the giver of life. They didn't see the
Lord of life and light. And the Lord Jesus Christ that
night came across them on that sea. That darkness was upon the
face of the deep, and the Lord Jesus Christ walks across the
darkness on the face of the deep of Galilee, and he walks to his
own. And the sea is calmed, and immediately
they get to the other side. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
meets that crowd again, do, as the Lord said to Nicodemus, flesh
gives birth to flesh. Fleshly thoughts just give birth
to flesh. Spiritual life gives birth to
spiritual life. These people, this crowd of people, to them. He described he and
his father as a sovereign God. He described what it is to have
eternal life. He described himself as a successful
redeeming Savior and they went away. They went away. That vast
crowd went away and he said to his disciples, well you can go
away as well. Where do you go when you go from
the light? You go to darkness. And if you
turn from light, it doesn't matter which way you can go, you go
360 degrees, you can turn in any direction from light and
you walk into darkness. It might be religious darkness,
it might be immoral darkness, it might be worldly darkness,
it might be self-satisfied darkness. It doesn't matter what the darkness,
if you turn from the light, all you have, all you have before
you is darkness. Did the Lord go chasing after
them? There you go chasing after them. He said to his disciples, you
can go as well. If you want to go, if you can
go, go. If you can leave the light, go.
If you can leave the light, you will leave the light. And you'll
have plenty of inducement and plenty of enticement and millions
of people go with you if you can leave the light. And what
does Paul Peter say? Where did this come from? This
came as the light came to him, didn't it? Will you go away also?
Verse 68, Simon Peter answered him and said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And when a similar testimony
is made in Matthew 11, he says, you didn't get this from your delight of the people of God. The character of God is the delight
of the children of God. Our eternal salvation, brothers
and sisters in Christ, is utterly and completely determined on
the fact that our God is faithful and true and His character, He
is faithful to His character and He's faithful to His promises.
All of our eternal life hangs for the sins of his people, he
cannot possibly punish me. God would be immoral to punish
sins twice. And yet this world wants to say
that the Lord Jesus Christ died for the sins of all people. Did
he die for the sins that came? What about the people who died
in the flood? They were in hell for thousands of years before
he came. They want to say that he died for Judas in exactly
the same way he died for Peter. You see, the character of our
God, and his faithfulness, and his sovereignty, and his omnipotence,
and his omniscience, and his justice, and his love, and his
grace, and his mercy, they all like that he's shown the character
of God. And that's what he does through
John's gospel, doesn't he? He just keeps revealing who he
is. This is who I am. This is who I am. And if the
crowds wanna go away, let them go away. God's children can't go away. Chapter 7, we have the unbelief
of his family. Mercifully, after the resurrection,
we have the glorious story of them not only believing but becoming
pillars in that church. They knew him so well and didn't
believe. the natural light to shine. In
John chapter 8 we looked at the woman at the well, the woman
caught in adultery. She was caught in the dark, wasn't
she? And she was brought by these religious legalists there before
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the light shineth in the
darkness, and he says, neither do I condemn thee. And the only
possible way he could have said that is because there was absolutely
nothing in her worthy of condemnation. and the lamb was slain before
the foundation of the world. He draws her to himself out of
the darkness of her wickedness and out of the captivity of these
religious people and all they wanted to do was draw her into
his light to have her put to death. And the Lord steps in
and light shines in the midst of darkness. He goes on to say,
doesn't he, in verse 12 of John 8, he says, I am the
light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Have the light
of life as a possession of this darkness of these Jews. What darkness there is in the
heart of religious people, it's extraordinary, isn't it? He says
in verse 31 of John chapter eight, goes on to describe who he is
and by the end of John chapter 8 they're picking up stones to
stone him. They have an extraordinary ignorance. They followed him until he reveals
himself as who he is. And what ignorance they have,
what darkness. He says to them in verse 32 of
John 8, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. And they answered him, we be Abraham's seed, and we've
never been in bondage to any man. Dear, oh dear, what have
they forgotten? They were in bondage for 400
years in Egypt. They'd just come back a few hundred
years before from being in bondage to Babylon. And now they're in
bondage to Rome. And they say, we've never been
in bondage to anyone. blindness and he says in verse
42 to these people if God were your father you would love me
that's the most extreme were your father you love the
Lord Jesus Christ. John's gospel as you might recall
finishes with the Lord on that beach beside Galilee with his
disciples around him and he takes Peter and John away, takes Peter
away and John follows. And see what's he say to Peter? He doesn't say do you now palace where you denied me and
cursed and swore so you could show to everyone that you didn't
belong to them. You going to be better? He just
says those glorious words they come as an accusation but they
also come as a comfort to the people of God don't they? Do
you love me? Do you love me? And Peter knows you know all things. You know
that I love you. Where did that love come from?
That light was shone. If God were your father, back
to John 8 42, if God were your father you would love me. God
were your father. you would love me. For I proceeded
forth and came from God, neither I came of myself, but he sent
me. Why do you not understand my speech? Why don't you comprehend
this darkness? Because you cannot hear my word. There is in the scriptures both
the total depravity of man You cannot, you cannot come,
John 5 says. God be a part of you, love me.
John 9 is that famous chapter, we don't have to spend much time
in it, but it's the healing of the blind man just after these
discussions. The light of the world. The light
of the world gives sight of himself to the blind. That blind man
was in the dark and in ignorance, but he says of that extraordinary chapter.
He worshipped him. He worshipped him. The light
shines in the darkness to open the blind eyes. And that was
a messianic promise. Norm read about it earlier in
Isaiah 42, five times in the book of Isaiah. It's declared
that only Messiah ever opens the eyes of those who are born
blind. And this man rebuked the religious
leaders in Jerusalem, these learned scholars. He says in verse 30,
what I hear in is a marvelous thing that you know not from
whence he is, and yet he has opened mine eyes. And now we
know that God here is not sinners, but if he, any man, be a worshiper
of God, and doeth he will, him he heareth. Since the world began,
was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was
born blind? It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone being the light of the world and shining. Elijah,
Moses, none of the prophets ever opened the eyes of the blind.
It was a messianic miracle. And it pictured the new birth,
that light that shines, that light that shines. in the hearts
of God's people. But this light, as we saw in
Genesis 1, is a light that is separated from the darkness.
It reveals the darkness and it separates the people from that
darkness. You read down in John 9, verse 39, and Jesus said, For
judgment I have come into this world, that thou claimed to see by the light of
their own wisdom and their own knowledge and their own experience
and their own righteousness, that they which see might not
see, which means not see him, and that they which see might
be made blind. There is They are blind about Christ,
they're blind about sin, they're blind about themselves, blind
to who He is. You cannot hear my word. Again and again, it goes on to
say, cause of him. In verse 19 it says, and there
was a division. There was a division again among
the Jews for these sayings. The Lord Jesus Christ, when the
light comes, he separates the light from the dark and there
is a division. And what a sad, sad thing in
verse 40 of chapter 10, after these glorious statements, he
went away. the light of the world left them
in their darkness. Of course, John 11 is that glorious
picture of two sorts of darkness, aren't there? There is obviously
the darkness of death and the darkness of Lazarus, but there
is for those two women that Jesus loved so much, there is the darkness
of feeling the absence of the Lord Jesus Christ that is a long
way from you. And it appears that he cannot
come, and it appears that he cannot help. And you are left,
it appears, on your own. and sisters isn't it? Darkness,
love and companionship, hidden as it were and yet he loved them
and yet he loved them and he came as light and he says if
you believe you'll see the glory of God and he spoke those glorious
words Lazarus come forth in grave clothes, it's a great
picture of the darkness and the captivity of men. He comes into
that darkness and he just speaks a word. And he says, Lucy, you
let him go, let him be free. John 12, he says, you walk in
the light. Verse 35 and 36, you walk in
the light. Walk in the light, while you
have the light, upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth
not where he goes." That's an extraordinary description, isn't
it, of the people who are walking in darkness. They have no idea
what lies around them. They have no idea what lies before
them. They are stumbling in the darkness. And then there is another repetition
of this judicial darkness at the end of chapter 12 in verse
14. He has blinded their eyes. This
is a reference to Isaiah chapter 6. He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart, as they should not see where their
eyes nor understand where their heart and beef are converted,
and high should heal them. There is a judicial blindness. of hearts. We come to the Last Supper, and
we will spend some delightful times looking at this, and the
Lord Jesus Christ took his people into that room where there was
light, and he was light, and he washed their feet, and they
had the Last Supper. And Judas leaves. He left the light, verse 30,
and John just paints the most extraordinary point Then he, having received a sop,
went immediately out, and it was night. He went into the darkness. And who did he go to meet in
the darkness? If you go out from the light
into the darkness, you will always have companions. He went out
to meet those people that the Lord Jesus has called in John
8, the children of the devil. He went out. And in the light,
now there is a sense of almost freedom and joy in the room for
the Lord Jesus. And he speaks in the midst of
what was to be a dark time in their lives and a dark time for
him. He speaks great words of comfort, he says to them in John
14, 21. He says, He says, you are clean, verse
three of chapter 15. You're clean because of a word
I have spoken to you. The word of God speaks a word
of comfort to his people. You're clean, you are clean. And he prays, as we looked at
earlier in chapter 17, he prays that glorious prayer in the midst
of all of this darkness. The darkness in the hearts of
those disciples, the darkness that was going to enter them,
he goes in chapter 18 into that garden in that night where the
darkness of sin overcame him and he was bowed down as it were
with the weight of the sins of all his people upon him. heart burst through his veins. What a sight he must have been.
John saw the light on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw the
Lord Jesus Christ in his deity revealed. John saw him in remarkable
ways that none others did and he saw him here in the garden.
What a sight the Lord Jesus Christ must have been when he came could they stay awake? He must
go and fight the battle alone. John was there in the judgment
hall. John was there. John was there
when these men, these religious men with Judas, come with their
man-made lights to arrest the light of the world. John was
there and saw it. their friend and their son, their
Savior and their God on Calvary's tree. They were there in the darkness,
brothers and sisters. For those three hours of darkness
they were there. What darkness They were there in the darkness. No wonder John talks about dark
and light so much. John was there, John was there
at the tomb. When the light shineth, the light
shineth in the darkness. That light that brings life and
light. Mary went there in the dark,
she went there She rushed back to get the others.
What did they see? The light of the world risen.
The apostles hid themselves in rooms in the dark, didn't they?
And the light penetrated the dark. The light shineth in the
darkness. The light shineth in the darkness. The light shines to reveal the
Lord Jesus Christ. The light shines to show us that
it is finished. The light shines to show us the
glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sins of
all of God's people are gone forever. people because all that sin was
laid on his son and his son put it away forever. And the glorious
resurrection brings light, brings light, a light of salvation,
a light of the fact that now according to his promise, that light is not only shown
to us, that light not only penetrates the darkness, of our unbelief. The light is in us. Father I will. Let's finish the
John 17 24. Father, I will that they also
whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world, O righteous Father. The
world has not known Thee. The darkness of the world can't
know Him. But I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou
hast sent me. And I have declared unto them
Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith May the light of these glorious
truths light our darkness, and light our paths, and light our
way into fellowship with Him again and again as we walk through
this wilderness world. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you that light shineth in the darkness. And we do thank
you, Heavenly Father, that even though the darkness comprehended
it not, be brought into that light and they'll see the glory
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll see your
glory in your Son crucified, Heavenly Father, and your glory
in your Son bearing the sins of all of his people. The glory,
Heavenly Father, of your children being brought into the light
of knowing and for them, and what it cost that
we might revere and love your dear and precious Son. Bless
your words to our hearts, Heavenly Father, and in the darkness that
we meet with again and again, may we be reminded that the light
shineth, the light shineth. We pray in Jesus' name and for
His glory, our Father, come in.