Incarnate: Jesus - The Light of Life - Dec 15, 2024 (Myles Holmes)

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

So good to be together this morning.

My name is Pastor Miles, and so excited to open up God's Word with you.

And if you have a Bible, you can open it up to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

We're going to be in verses 4 to 9 this morning.

If you don't have a Bible, the ushers are making their way down the aisle right now.

And you can just raise your hand in the air and they will make their way to you.

I see there's one usher, and so he's going to be a busy man, but he will make his way to you and you can flag him down there.

By way of announcement, I just want to direct your attention to a push that we're putting on year-end giving.

Typically in the life of our church, we'll do a special offering, and every once in a while we decide to uh provide that as an opportunity to give to various different causes.

Uh, but we find ourselves this year in a deficit of about$35,000.

And so we just want to uh direct your attention to that and would ask that you would just consider at the end of the year how you might give both sacrificially and as an act of worship in order that we can make up that that deficit.

Hopefully you have your Bibles open up to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

If you'd stand with me as we read God's word.

Here's what the word of God says.

In him was life.

And the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

Let's turn to the Lord in prayer.

Father, we bow before you.

And God, we thank you that you have shown us your love for us already this morning by speaking to us, by giving us your word, by revealing to us all that we need to know about life.

And God, this morning we're especially thankful to know that life is found in Jesus Christ.

That what we celebrate at Christmas has a deep significance for us.

Beyond the traditions that we celebrate, beyond the holiday season, there's a deep and eternal significance for us in understanding the gift that you have given us in Jesus Christ, and understanding this light that came into the world 2,000 years ago in the form of a baby whose name was Jesus Christ.

God, we pray that you would extend your love to us, continue to do so by pressing that truth so deep into our hearts that we would recognize its significance in a more real way.

And Lord, that our hearts might be elevated in worship and wonder and awe of what you have done for us in sending the light of the world, Jesus Christ Himself, into this dark, dark place.

God, we thank you.

We pray you'd bless our time.

We pray for your Holy Spirit.

Work in our midst, Lord.

We need you.

We pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.

Amen.

You can take a seat.

I wonder if you can imagine for a moment what life would be like without light.

Most of us have experienced that in little glimpses in our life.

Maybe this morning you woke up and like me in pitch utter darkness, pitch black.

And it doesn't matter how familiar the room is, when you wake up and fumble through that room trying to make your way desperately to the bathroom, it's hard.

Life without light feels impossible.

The crew of Ernest Shackleton, you may know this famous explorer, you may not.

There's an amazing book, hard to put down, called Endurance, about Ernest Shackleton's trip to the Antarctic.

Became famous, his ship was shipwrecked in the Antarctic in the ice, and took two years for him to get his crew back to safety, but not a single person died in that time.

However, they faced some of the harshest environments on Earth.

And throughout the two years that they would be there, in both of those years, there would be an extended period of time where the sun never rose.

Now, of all of the hardships that they would face, the lack of food, the constantly wet clothing, the piercing cold, one biographer of Shackleton wrote this that the darkness was the worst enemy.

It was a return to the ice age.

The utter and complete loss of light, warmth, and life.

Life without darkness is profoundly difficult, if not life without light is profoundly difficult, if not impossible.

And it's to this both physical but also spiritual darkness that we experience that John speaks to this morning.

It's this understanding of this spiritual darkness we experience, this disorientation, this hopelessness that John speaks to profoundly.

He says in verse 4, in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John makes this profound, life-altering claim about Jesus that in a world that is not only physically dark, but spiritually dark, Jesus is the light.

Now you may think of this purely as a religious metaphor, but I want you to understand that this historical claim that Jesus, that John wrote 2,000 years ago actually has a profound claim on your life even this morning.

Even if you think that this is just some sort of religious symbol that comes along with, you know, Christmas, we put up the lights on the house, and how nice is that.

What John is saying here actually is something that you have to wrestle with because it puts this profound claim on your life.

The claim is twofold.

It gets to the very heart of our foundation and existence.

And the first claim is this that you and I live in darkness.

You and I live in darkness.

Now, I don't know how much you know arguing I need to do right now to convince you that that is true.

And I'm kind of working off the feeling that I don't need to do a lot.

That when I say that you and I live in a dark, dark world, immediately into your mind come all of these evidences that prove to you that that is true.

I mean, it doesn't matter what worldview you're walking in with this morning, we can all agree this world is an incredibly dark place.

Certainly there are things about life that are good.

And especially at this season, I mean, we I mean I love sell I love Christmas, you know, I love the Christmas movies, I love the, especially the Christmas dinner, the gifts, the family, I love it all.

And there are some incredibly light moments where life just feels right, and yet often in Christmas it's just contrasted all the more the darkness of the people who maybe are no longer at the table.

The health that's no longer the same as it was last year.

Even the times of joy that we often experience are fleeting.

It doesn't take long before that light that we experience, even in the Christmas season, is broken with darkness.

Evil rages on, wars, natural disasters, political strife.

And yet, even closer to home, we are so often surrounded by brokenness.

And, you know, even this past week, Amber and I were reflecting on some friends that we had grown up with, and we just started listing friends and came to this realization of like not many people have a family that has made it through this dark, sinful, hard world without being broken in some incredibly devastating way.

So that it's actually like a little rare to hear a family that has like stayed sheltered from the destruction of the darkness in our world.

And it's incredibly sad whether it's divorce or marital turmoil or fractured relationships with children, the darkness is everywhere you look.

Now, this is John's first claim on our life that you and I live in this physical darkness, yes, but this spiritual darkness, especially yes, and I wonder where you stand on that.

And I'm assuming here this morning that we are in agreement that something is wrong with this world, that things are not right.

And we long for things to be made right.

Well, John makes a second claim, and I think this claim is especially more significant and harder to grapple with, and that claim is this that there is one true light.

Look at verse 9.

He says, the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

In other words, the reality of Christmas, whether you are a Christian and celebrate it or not, the reality of Christmas makes this profound claim over your life beyond the fact that you, you know, have to listen to the Felice Navidad for the 4,000th time walking through the mall.

Christmas affects you because it makes this claim that there is one true light, and if you want to walk in the light, then you must know that light, and that light is Jesus Christ and relationship with him.

Now, listen, if if you aren't a believer in here, if you're not a Christian, if your worldview is not Christian, I want you to understand that unless, like right now, you are incredibly offended, if you're incredibly offended, you've understood what the Christian worldview is saying right.

It's saying there's no other way.

It's saying you will experience this darkness.

So long as you do not know Jesus Christ, you will live in this darkness.

He is the one true light, he is the one light that can shine in the darkness of the world.

Jesus is the light.

And yet, even as I say this, you know, being convicted of the Christian worldview myself, I understand that at times in this dark, dark world, it is a hard truth to grasp, that Jesus is the only light that can shine in the darkness, and it is even a harder truth to apply.

So that I'm compelled to ask myself, and I would ask you this morning, this question: do you truly believe that the cure to the darkness that we just spoke about, that you know, I'm assuming we all agree on, do you truly believe that the cure to the darkness is Jesus Christ himself?

You know, I look at my life even over the last week, and I cannot help to notice that day after day, it is a battle to set my mind and to set my heart on that.

And constantly I'm reaching for these other things, supposing that maybe they'll be able to combat the darkness that I that I feel in my life.

And so you and I, you know, Christian or not, you and I are constantly chasing these sources of light, so to speak, to combat the darkness that we all know is pervasive in our life.

And so you and I will chase things like success, thinking that achievements or or recognition can illuminate the darkness and overcome the darkness of our life.

We'll look to relationships, to people, to spouses, to friends, to children, to bosses, to fill the void of the emptiness that we often feel, the hopelessness that we endure.

Or we pursue comfort and possessions, entertainment and fleeting pleasures to distract ourselves from the darkness of our, even at times our own thoughts.

I mean, I recognize that even in my own life, good things, good things, devotion to Christ, spiritual discipline, acts of service, these can even become substitutes for Christ when we place our hope in them instead of Jesus.

I mean, if you think that Bible reading is the thing that will deliver you, you've substituted even a good thing for what is the truest light in Jesus Christ.

And so you and I are in this profound problem where even if we believe that Jesus is the light, we still need to wrestle with it because the reality is if we're honest with ourselves, like if the Holy Spirit can give us a spirit of honor of intellectual and spiritual honesty in this moment, we look back on our life and we're constantly reaching for these sort these sources.

Oh, maybe if I just improve my physical health, oh, maybe if I just get a better job, oh, maybe if my wife was just different, or maybe if this and that and this, and we just think we can overcome the darkness with all these different ways, and it takes a real honesty to step back and say this what's actually gonna solve the problem?

You see, these lights are faint, they are fleeting, and they cannot dispel the darkness.

And here's the voice of John speaking relevantly into your life and my life right now, to say that what we celebrate at Christmas has a profound influence on you because it is the coming of the true light that can dispel the darkness.

And so listen with me, listen, listen with me.

Do you want the darkness to be overcome?

In the depths of your heart, the things that are not right in your life, the despair you feel at times, the hopelessness you endure at times, the anxiety that grips your life at times, the anger that is destructive to all the people around you, these elements of darkness, do you long for the light to shine in them?

Well, if we do, John has four claims to make about this light and the impact it makes on our life.

The first claim is this that the light brings life.

The light brings life.

Look at what John says in verse 4.

You can look at me at your at your Bible with me, and in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Now, remember that John has spent the first three verses here telling us that Jesus is the Word of God.

John takes us back to the creation of the world in Genesis 1, where it says in the beginning, and John reminds us that it is Jesus who, as the Word, had the creative power to bring the world into existence.

Now, in verse 4, John adds two profound symbols to his explanation of who exactly Jesus is, and those symbols are not just poetic ideas or claims or you know, ideas or symbols, they are significant claims about who Jesus is and what he offers you this morning in life.

First, John tells us that Jesus is the life.

And in the context of talking about creation, you understand exactly what this means.

What John is claiming is that Jesus was the word who brought about all life.

And so the Bible says that in the first six days of creation, God spoke this world into existence.

It was an action that was unlike you and I have ever experienced in our lives because he brought into existence all of creation out of nothing.

And Jesus is the life who brings that creation about.

In other words, the claim that John is making here is that you and I are here today because of the creative power of Jesus Christ.

He is the life.

Every time your heart beats, it is because of the Lordship of Jesus Christ who has divinely said, let it be so.

Every breath that you draw, even this morning, is a breath that has been accomplished because of the creative, sustaining power of Jesus Christ, who is the life.

Second symbol here is that of light.

And light was at the core of creation, so that two days, in fact, are taken up with light.

In the first day, it is Jesus, or it is God who says, Let there be light, and light explodes from his mouth into the world.

And then in the fourth day, the entire rhythm of light is established in the world, and the separation of light and darkness, and the rising of the sun and the moon.

Now you understand that in a physical sense, light is fundamental to life.

I mean, in the winter, as a Canadian, are you not so thankful for light?

It is so cold in the mornings.

Have you been out in the darkness in the morning?

Like it is so cold.

But the sun comes up and it brings a little bit of warmth.

Like if we can just hold on to this for a little bit, we're gonna make it through, people, okay?

We're gonna make it through.

If I just keep telling myself that it'll come true, right?

We're gonna make it through this cold, cold winter.

We understand it in the summer too.

I mean, it's it is the light who gives life to plants.

And so John wants us to understand that Jesus is as essential to our lives as the light is to the creation.

Now, this claim is true physically.

It is true physically that Jesus created you, that he gave you life, that he physically gives light.

But John is going so much deeper here to help us understand that not only the physical significance of who Jesus is, but the spiritual significance.

So that you understand that just as light, the light that Jesus created is essential to the working of the planet, so the relationship with Jesus that you were created to be in is essential to the living of a good life.

So all throughout the Gospel then, Jesus will come back to this.

You know, and this is what I love about the Gospel of John, is that it's really circular.

It keeps coming back to the same themes, which as a preacher is great.

We're gonna preach this sermon again in like you know, seven weeks, we're gonna be talking about Jesus as a life again, and yet don't we need to hear it so often?

So that John says in chapter 6, verse 35, I am the bread of life.

I'm the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

I mean, you get what Jesus is saying there.

I love bread.

In fact, the deepest sufferers in our church are those who have like the gluten intolerances.

Like, I cannot imagine.

Pray for those people.

There's like there's nothing like bread.

They're like, okay, please stop.

You're making the suffering worse.

So I'll stop there.

But you get exactly what Jesus is saying.

Well, John 10, 10, he declares this I have come that they may have life.

And not only have life, Jesus says, that they may have it to the full.

Now, this stands in stark contrast to how we often feel about Christianity, doesn't it?

I mean, I once heard a pastor go on this long rant about how, man, it would be so much fun to sin.

Like sin is fun, and I I get what he was trying to get at there, but it but it kind of played with this notion that we often have in Christianity that like we're missing out, this you know, FOMO, fear of missing out that we think we experience in Christianity because of God's rules.

Christianity feels like if we're honest, again, each of us can admit that at times it it feels like that Christianity is stifling rather than freeing.

And it's not like if we're talking purely about emotions, if we're talking purely about feelings, the the experience of every Christian, if you are honest, is that there are times that you you know what's right to do, but you don't feel like it's the best thing to do.

Can we just be honest?

I mean, listen, I grew up in a church where it was like we always pretended like we always we always felt like everything God said was the right thing to do, you know, and so we put on a mask.

And it's easy to fake that for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning, but the reality is that that even though we know what is right, We the the feelings that it is not the best thing for us are often so strong we cannot help but to pursue them.

I mean, we know this, don't we?

There is a difference between what is truly good for me and what I feel to be good for me.

And by way of illustration, let me just publicly absolutely humiliate myself for a moment, just to, you know, I am your servant to get across this truth that sometimes there's a great difference between what we feel to be right and what we know to be right.

Last night, um, you know, it's Christmas season, and so our house is being filled with all of these treats, and as they're being filled, you know, this the freezer is being filled with even more treats.

And so our freezer is just chalk full of cake right now that's just like perfectly sliced into portions, and you can just reach your hand into that freezer, and the glory of the freezer light shines up in your face, and you can take a piece of, you know, there's multiple cakes in there right now.

I don't know where they came from, but they're in there.

And you can take, you know, while your wife is shopping at Walmart, you can take a piece of chocolate cake and unravel it from its wax paper, and you just eat it frozen and clean up the evidence that got spilt on the blanket on the couch after, and you can even, believe it or not, you know, I had a friend who do that did this.

I'm not talking about myself.

You can even go back for a second piece.

And so, you know, I did that last night, and in the moment, let me tell you, that felt like the right thing to do.

Has anyone ever been there with me?

You know, like that feels so right.

But when I woke up this morning and my gut just felt like a garbage heap, I knew it was the wrong thing.

And so there's a great difference between what we often feel to be right.

Like we can admit, what we feel to be right isn't actually often the actual right thing.

That part of this brokenness, this darkness that we experience in the world is that our feelings don't often align with even our conviction.

And here, God wants you to understand this that Jesus came so that you could have life in him, so that if you live in relationship with him, and especially in obedience to him as the word of God, the word that reigns supreme over your life, the word that you listen to, even when things don't feel right, Jesus came so that you could experience life and life to the fullest.

And just because you don't feel like that's always the case, does not mean that it is not true.

And the Christian is the one who stands and says, It doesn't matter what I feel, what Jesus says will be my Lord, it will be my guide, the word will be a lamp unto my feet.

So listen, Jesus makes this profound problem, this profound claim on your life that you will always live in the darkness.

Though you can experience little glimpses of light, you will always remain in the darkness so long as Jesus is not the Lord of your life.

He came to bring life and life to the fullest.

Now you say, What is what is life?

What is life?

And and I think there's an easy way to explain what life is.

Life is that feeling you have that things are just right and okay in the world.

We know the destruction.

We know that the destruction that darkness brings, and even though we might not know how to redeem it, how to fix it, we certainly know when things feel right.

And even sometimes, you know, the reason why idolatry and sin is it has such a powerful grip on us is because you actually do experience a temporary fleeting life from it.

You know, let me give you an example I think we can all relate with.

If you are pursuing your cottage as the ultimate happiness of your life, there will be undeniable moments of happiness at that cottage, you know, where you're sitting on the back deck and the sun is shining, and there's an ice cold root beer in your hands, and it's just bliss.

You know, and that moment right there where everything feels right, the darkness has dissipated, that is the life that Jesus is talking about.

And what's significant here is that Jesus came to say that he came to bring life, and the life that Jesus brings is eternal life.

You know, so many times throughout John he uses this illustration.

We just read one of the bread of life to say, hey, listen, there's something you experience regularly.

You eat bread, but it's like, man, you're just hungry again in two hours.

And I'm the bread of life.

And he does it with water too.

He says, hey, listen, I'm living water.

You drink of me, you'll never thirst again.

I'm coming to solve your satisfaction problem.

You have this problem that you're like a you're like a jar with holes in it, and you try to satisfy yourself, but you can't hold on to it.

It's like gripping on to sand.

Listen, I am the life.

Jesus came to bring life.

Second thing I want you to see here is this that the light, the light overcomes the darkness.

It is the light that is overcoming the darkness.

Simple outline here, but it's so biblically true and profoundly applicational to us.

The light overcomes the darkness.

What John wants us to understand is that the darkness we experience has one solution, and the solution is Christ.

Here's the issue.

You and I are obsessed with all of these other temporary light sources, so that when Jesus calls us to his light, we will not listen.

This is what Jesus is gonna get at in John 3.

Look at John 3, flip over with me to John 3, verse 19.

John 3:19

Again, you know, when we get to John 3, I'm gonna say, hey, flip over to John 1, because you know, it's a great thing about John.

John 3 19, and this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world.

And listen, remember, remember John 1 9, the light shines on all men.

All men have the light of Jesus shining on them.

And so John says here, this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light.

See, the issue is that the light shines, but we don't want Jesus.

We do not believe in the depth of our heart.

I'm talking believer or unbeliever here.

We do not believe, so long as we're in this broken world, that Jesus really is the light, that he really can fix things, that he really is going to redeem the brokenness and darkness and despair and hopelessness and anxiety and anger you experience in your life.

See, we know the darkness.

We know that things aren't right.

We know that we do not often feel right.

And so we keep pursuing the things that will give us this temporary feeling.

Whether it's relationships or materials or possessions or whatever it is, we keep looking for endless satisfaction.

And even when Jesus so clearly speaks to us like this morning, like he's doing for us this morning, you understand that if you're here, it's like this this should be like God speaking to you from his word, like a it's a baseball bat to a head.

It's so clear.

Stop chasing after the things you're chasing and understand that Jesus is the one who came to fulfill your deepest desires.

But even still, the the wrestling match that we will have is like it can't be true.

It cannot be true.

And so we keep searching.

There's Augustine who famously said, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.

And that restlessness, what John says, and we we love the darkness because we keep thinking our restlessness will be solved by the things of the earth.

You see, the failure of Adam and Eve in the garden, it was a turning away from the light of relationship with God to the lesser light of things.

But what they discovered is that the the light of lesser things, the light of that fruit, could not do anything for them permanently.

It could, it could temporarily satisfy.

It says Eve looked at the fruit and she desired it and she longed for it.

And there's this sense of understanding that yes, sin is sweet for a moment, but the writer of Hebrews says it is a fleeting pleasure.

And is that not true?

How long does the promotion please for?

How long does the new car satisfy for?

It's fleeting.

We've experienced this in our own life.

The reason we pursue the light that is not God, even though it never truly satisfies us, is because it does a little bit.

Like, can't we be honest?

Like I can be honest right now to say, you know, if you're new here, you don't know this, but many of you do because it's an illustration almost every Sunday.

But I drive a 2004 Toyota Corolla, you know, and I love it.

You know, I don't I don't ever complain about it.

From the pulp from the pulpit, I don't ever complain about it.

But I gotta tell you, like, you know, if 2024, you know, Mercedes was out there and I was driving.

I I mean I'm just gonna be honest with you, there would be a great sense of joy on the way home and probably a speeding ticket as well, you know.

And let's just be honest, that the idols that we pursue that do don't they don't they give a sense of pleasure?

And listen, if you're here and you're not a believer right now, I'm hoping that there's like this alarm going off in your head of like, yeah, they do.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, they do.

Maybe, maybe I'm actually being duped here.

Maybe I'm actually caught up in a in a lie that this thing can provide endless, that this thing someday will actually provide me the satisfaction I'm looking for.

And I'm hoping what you're experiencing right now is this sense of like Jesus makes this claim that he can.

We've experienced this in our life, haven't we?

Like these things, they only shine temporarily.

We have a toy in our house, it's a flashlight, and it's like it doesn't have a battery.

So you gotta crank it to get the light going.

But it's like, you know, you would think that it would, you know, could store up some energy, but it can't.

If you're not like it's a workout, you're sweating to get this light to like to work, and it will produce light for you so long as you're pumping it, but you will never have rest.

You will be pumping it for your entire life if you want that light to shine.

And I want you to see here that the difference between the life Jesus offers and the life we pursue apart from him is that the light of Jesus shines eternally.

You don't need to pump, you don't need to strive, you don't need to scramble to keep it going.

Jesus is self-sustaining, he is unending, and offers life that never fades.

And Christians, we need to hear this as well because when Jesus says that he's living water, he does not mean that he's a source that you need to keep going back to again and again and again and again and again.

Now, of course, we do that in worship, but what Jesus is saying is that when you give your life to him and you bow in submission to his lordship and you believe that he's the only one that can save you from the darkness, what you find is that you have drank from the source of which you will never thirst again.

And he is going to do the work to bring you to redemption so that even though you may not feel it now, there is a day coming where you will never thirst again.

In heaven, there will be no thought of being unsatisfied.

You will always be eternally satisfied.

This is the eternal life that Jesus came to bring.

And John is telling us here that the life and light found in Jesus are the only things that can truly sustain us.

Everything else is temporary.

They may shine for a moment, but ultimately they leave us empty.

Only Jesus, only Jesus, the true light, brings life that lasts forever.

Now, listen, I want to be honest here because, you know, as a Christian, there will be times where you feel incredibly empty.

Like, listen, this world, let's just be honest for a moment.

It really sucks.

The brokenness that you have to live with, it's it's incredibly hard to endure.

I mean, there are people around you who are incredibly wicked and they are prospering.

And can we just be honest?

That that really sucks.

And there are health concerns that many of you have that will never change for the rest of your life, and and that is incredibly hard.

And there are plans that many of us have for our life and how things will go that are derailed by the darkness of this world, and that is incredibly hard.

But I want you to understand exactly what Jesus is saying.

What Jesus is saying is this that he will deliver a life of satisfaction and fulfillment now.

You will be more happy with Jesus now than you ever could be apart from him.

But the ultimate deliverance is coming when he returns and he restores all things to himself.

I love what uh Mark read in Isaiah chapter 11.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and the little child shall lead them.

I mean, I love verse 8.

Listen, you put your hope in politics, there's no politician who's promising this to you, okay?

Are you ready for this?

The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra.

Where is the politician who's promising that?

They can't.

Jesus is bringing redemption, Jesus is bringing salvation, Jesus is the light shining in the darkness of the world.

So listen, it's not here yet.

So, Christian, are you empty?

Are you hopeless?

Are you depressed?

Are you in despair?

Are things not right?

Don't let that build up a frustration with God, let it build up a longing that there is a time coming that because of Jesus Christ, things will be made right.

Listen, every tear Jesus says will be wiped from your eye.

Every tear.

That we would long for what Jesus is bringing.

Listen, you know this about me.

If you know me at all, I I hate being hungry.

I can't stand it, you know.

I love food.

And I I'm I probably should stop saying that because I people, you know, I'll introduce myself to them.

Maybe they've been here a few times and they say, hey, listen, I know you love food.

And I'm like, this is not what I want to be primarily known for.

I hate being hungry, but you know, I can definitely withstand being hungry when I know that Christmas dinner is coming.

And Christian, do you know that something is coming so much sweeter than you've ever experienced before?

And it can help you live in the darkness.

Here's the third thing I want you to see.

The third claim that John makes about this light.

The light requires a witness.

Now, in verses 6 to 8, we're introduced here to John the Baptist, and here John is introducing something significant that we need to understand about this light, that so long as we are on this earth, God his intention is to use a witness for the light.

Now, this is strong language.

You know, I even as I wrote this point, I thought about the strength of it, because on one sense, God is self-sufficient and he does not need you.

Listen, when it comes to being a witness for Jesus Christ, God didn't need John the Baptist.

He could have written it in the sky, he could have used the clouds, he could have used anything.

But here we have John saying this, that John the Baptist was sent by God to give witness.

He came as a witness to bear witness that all might not believe, so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

What God is making clear here is that his intention is to send witnesses to speak with a sort of heavenly authority sent by God to bear witness about the light.

See, God's intention is not just that the world have a knowledge that God is light.

God's intention is that the world has a witness, not only a witness, but witnesses who speak of the person of Jesus Christ, but more importantly, show the transformation that the light has made on the darkness of their lives.

So we come to understand then throughout the Gospels, all the Gospels, that John the Baptist's role is vital.

In fact, Jesus is one of the ones who John the Baptist is one of the ones who Jesus loves the most because of his role in testifying to the identity of Jesus as the Savior.

He comes to prepare the people to receive Christ as the Messiah.

And I want you to understand that the call is the same for you and I.

The natural outcome of experiencing those first two points that we talked about, that Jesus is the light of life and that he comes to overcome the darkness.

When we experience that, the natural outcome is that we want to be a witness to it.

Isn't that true about anything you've experienced that has changed your life or that you think is incredibly sweet?

I mean, we kind of make fun, you know, there's all these memes we share all over the internet about CrossFitters and vegans, right?

Why?

Because they always talk about it.

In fact, I I did CrossFit for 10 years.

I never talk about it.

It's ironic because I'm talking about it now, but you get the illustration here.

Because I like that was like that was like the thing.

It's like, yo, if you do CrossFit, you talk about it, and you tell everyone else they're working out wrong, and you know.

It gets to the heart of this is that we talk about the things that have changed.

Like we can't help to do it.

And listen, this is this is where conviction has settled in for me this week, and it needs to settle in for you right now, so that we can painfully endure this together.

Is that the reason John the Baptist was a witness was because he loved Jesus.

He would later say he was not un, he was not worthy to tie untie the sandals of Jesus.

Jesus was exalted in his heart.

And this is the reality that you and I must face.

That the reason that we so often fail at evangelism is because the at the in the core of our heart, Jesus is not our first love.

Listen, I get the fear of rejection.

I get that it's hard.

But at the core of why we don't evangelize is often that our own lives have not experienced the clarity that Jesus brings, the change that he brings, and the growth that he has brought us.

And when those things happen, when Jesus is that to us, then our lives they overflow with this desire.

And so think for a moment about the woman at the well.

I mean, when the woman at the well is told that Jesus is living water that will satisfy, immediately she goes from that well.

And she was there for a purpose, but she just leaves and she starts telling everyone come and see, come and see.

You gotta see this person who told me all that I had ever done wrong.

You gotta see this person who had the power to give me living water.

And listen, that's what happens in your life and my life when Jesus makes this change.

What's the practical application here?

Listen, so pr so practical, take an invite, take a picture of it, send it to a friend, a family member, a neighbor.

It's as simple as this.

Come and see.

Hey, listen, you know, I want you to know that what we celebrate as Christians at Christmas has really changed my life, and I would love for you to hear about that too.

Would you come to our Christmas Eve service?

Lastly, I want you to see this that the light is the world's only hope.

Let me ask you something.

You know, the foundation of a sermon has been that I don't need to convince you about the world's darkness.

The only thing that, you know, we need to be convinced of is that Jesus is the light.

But can I ask you something?

Like, what honestly is the solution to the darkness?

What is it?

This is something that any worldview needs to wrestle with.

And the prevailing worldview of our day and age is materialism.

So you know what happens?

Like, if you listen to any leading podcast right now, they will tell you that the way to combat the darkness in your life is to make sure that you get outside as soon as the sun comes up and get daylight in your eyes.

And make sure that you're getting enough sleep and make sure that your diet is okay.

The world of materialism understands the darkness and the savior is physical optimization.

I'm telling you, listen to any of the top podcasts right now, and that is what you will hear.

Why?

Because our our our society is going to this in droves, believing that if we just get enough vitamin D and sunlight in our eyes, then everything will be okay.

And listen, I'm not denying that.

I think there's incredible, I'm sure there is incredible physical.

Benefits to doing that, I just want you to understand that it is not the true light.

It is only a light that will bring temporary satisfaction.

And so my question to you is this for the materialist, physical optimization is the savior.

What is it for you?

What's going to solve the darkness?

John in verse 9 says something important.

The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

You know, the claim of Christianity is honestly very offensive.

There is one true light, and it boldly declares that the gods of materialism, that the gods of Hinduism, that the gods of Eastern philosophy, that the gods of all these other religions are only temporary lights, that they cannot satisfy, that there is one true light that can shine in the darkness and redeem us from the darkness and make all that is wrong in our life right.

And the claim of John 9 is incredibly profound that listen, this light is shining on you no matter what.

You don't have a choice.

You understand that?

It's the light that gives light to everyone.

To everyone.

This light is shining on you, saying that there is only one way to find the life that you are looking for, and it is in Jesus Christ.

This message is going out to all.

And you say, listen, how's it going out to all?

And I'm saying this, you're here right now, hearing it.

God's love for you is that He has you in this place right now, and for this moment is trying to drill this truth so long as you will allow it to happen, so long as the soil of your heart is tilled to receive the seed of the word of his truth, he is driving this truth into you that he can make, he is the one who can make things right.

The light shines no matter what.

The question is, what will you do with it?

This is the question of John 3.

The light shines on all men.

The question is, will you love the darkness or will you love the light?

Today, listen, today can be the day of salvation for you, where you turn from your sin and say, I have been, I have been chasing these fleeting pleasures my whole life, and I don't know how it's gonna be possible.

I don't know what tomorrow's gonna look like, but I know that this is the word of God, and God has said Jesus is the light.

So today, right now, I'm gonna say this: Jesus is the Lord.

He is the only light, he is the only hope.

The believer needs to be reminded of this as well.

What are you turning to?

What are the things that in your darkest moments you reach for as a savior?

What is the thing that you think, man, if I just did that even this week, if I could accomplish this, if I could do this, uh things would be right?

I cannot describe to you how much I needed to hear this message this week.

I'm incredibly prone to reach for different saviors, and I even found myself this week just thinking about productivity and thinking, man, if I could just, you know, organize my schedule, my day like this, then maybe, you know, maybe the darkness would go away.

And I just caught myself even preparing organizing my schedule so I could prepare this message, thinking, like, man, it will not work.

An optimized schedule for productivity cannot be the light that dissipates the darkness.

There is one true light, it is Jesus Christ.

Will you believe it?

As we turn to baptisms, I can't think of a more practical way to apply this message.

As these believers walk into the waters of baptism, they are a witness to the light of Jesus that is in their life.

And they are doing everything that we have just talked about.

They are proclaiming that Jesus is the light of their life, that Jesus has overcome the darkness by speaking into the darkness of their heart, saying, Let there be light so that they can see the glory of Jesus Christ.

And that they have answered Christ's call to walk in obedience as an invitation.

Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward reality.

It is a proclamation of what has happened in their heart by placing their faith in Jesus Christ.

And it's something that we love to celebrate as a church.

It's something we do together as a church.

As a church, I want you to understand that the elders have come alongside each of these people and heard their testimony, and as much as we can, alongside the help of the Holy Spirit, validated that what they have experienced is true, genuine salvation.

And so as a church, we are affirming that together with them, saying, yes, God has done a work here, but we are not only affirming that, we are celebrating that together.

And so we love baptisms here at the church, and we have a little tradition here that when someone gets baptized and they come out of the water, we go crazy, we celebrate, we cheer, we you know, scream.

So this is some people, you know, if if people love to be a little looser in the service, they love baptism because you can do whatever you want.

You can dance in the aisle, you know, we want to celebrate, whatever that means for you.

Double fist pump in the air, we celebrate these baptisms.

This morning we have three of them, and I want to invite Georgia up to come in come and share her testimony.

Okay, hi everyone.

My name is Georgia, and this is my testimony.

Um I grew up in a Christian home.

My parents took me to church every Sunday.

I went to Sunday school consistently throughout my childhood.

Um, I was baptized as a baby, and my mom would say that I was saved at four years old.

Um I attended a Christian overnight camp for eight summers and was surrounded by Christian friends and family throughout my whole life.

Um I always knew who Jesus was, and I knew about his redeeming work on the cross, but my own relationship with him was lacking in some ways.

Towards the end of high school, when the influences of my peers began to fade away, I started to take my faith more seriously.

I started attending church every Sunday and joined a girl's Bible study that really motivated me to study the word that I already spent a lot more time before.

Although I can't think about a specific time or reason why this change happened, I know it was the work of the Holy Spirit drawing me closer to him.

I feel that God was tripping away at the hardness of my heart throughout the course of my life, and of course he continues to do so.

I see this as a testament of how patient and loving God is, despite not having all this with him the rest of my life.

I'm choosing to be baptized today, but to proclaim the gospel and my faith in Christ as he continues to work in me.

Amen.

You gotta give me a moment here.

I forgot to tell.

I mean, I we don't usually do this after the sermon, and I'm not prepared here to I don't want to walk around with wet sleeves after, so just awkward silence here while I take this off.

And okay, you can take a seat, Georgia.

Thank you for sharing your testimony and the work that God has done in your life.

And I think it's such an affirmation of what we're all after this morning that that light that Jesus has shone in your heart would shine in our life, shine in our lives and overcome the darkness of our life, that we would uh believe in him as the Lord.

I want to ask you, Georgia, have you made Jesus the Lord of your life?

Yes.

Are you trusting in him as the Savior of your life?

And it's my joy now to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I'm gonna invite Danny to I'm gonna invite Danny to come join us.

There, Danny is George's wife.

So if there's some sort of embrace here, I just want to let you know that before before it happens.

Danny is George's husband, sorry.

In this world, that can be a really confusing statement that I just said.

Hi everyone, my name is Danny, and this is my testimony.

I grew up in a Christian home, and my family took me to church quite regularly.

While I was attending church in my younger teenage years, I felt on top of the world, so to speak.

I was doing really well academically and in sports, and I was very popular at school.

I was surrounded by so many people that like me because of my contributions in the classroom and of course on the soccer field and on the basketball court.

Shout out to Mark.

This all changed when I was 13 years old as my health had significantly declined and people were no longer impressed by my athleticism.

It was at that age that I was diagnosed with ALL leukemia and had to undergo almost four years of intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

The people that had previously surrounded me were no longer present for the most part.

I felt quite isolated.

But it was in that period of time when I felt most fragile and weak that I felt God's unwavering love, no strings attached.

Not only did God save me from my sins through the perfect work of his son on the cross, in January of 2012 I was considered cancer free.

A constant reminder of God's goodness in my life.

Today I am proud to be surrounded in a different way than I was when I was younger, when the motivation was due to my worldly success.

Today I am surrounded by a body of believers who share a common goal to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and God's love towards me.

Today, in full obedience, I publicly profess my faith in Jesus Christ as a born-again believer and pray that he continues to transform me and use me for his glory.

It's warm.

It is warm, man.

Danny, it's a joy to hear of the deliverance God has brought you physically, but also spiritually, and to celebrate that alongside you.

I want to ask you: are you making the decision to make Jesus the Lord of your life?

Yes.

Have you made the decision to trust him as the Savior from your sin?

Yes.

That's my joy then to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This is my testimony.

Was born and raised as a Roman Catholic, RC for short.

Never bought into Christianity back then in most of my life.

Even though my lovely bride was and is a strong Christian.

I believed my eyes and heart were opened in 2014 at a conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Sunday morning non-denominational Christian service.

The power of the service was one thing, but the altar call brought hundreds of people to the Lord that morning.

It brought me to my feet, and I knew I wanted to know more.

This brought me to reading verses daily to this day.

Before all this, I lived and thought my way was the only way, and I survived.

I had not devoted my life fully.

I was changing over time, but not at breakneck speed.

Started to realize his way sounding better than my way.

My church life before 2014 and after the conference was not so great.

Then my lovely bride wanted me to attend church with her regularly.

We started attending different churches in the area.

Nothing was really grabbing us, let alone me.

Side note, in my head, golfing season was going to get in the way.

So much for that idea crossing my mind.

One Friday afternoon in August, we met up with our neighbors from down the road, Dan and Colleen.

They told us about redemption.

We came that Sunday and have never left.

They told us about redemption.

Miles and I had a couple of sit-downs where on the second sit-down, Miles made me realize that my sins are forgiven since Jesus died on the cross for us.

That was my light bulb.

The entire time I had thought that I was not worthy.

Since coming to redemption in August 2023, I have been impacted more than ever by listening more to the words that are being spoken and being more focused in the moment.

I now conclude with Paul Galatians 2 20.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Thank you, Gordon.

And I didn't ask you if I could share this before, so if I'm not allowed, then you'll have to forgive me after.

But the first Sunday that we met, just over a year ago, uh I remember talking to you in that front row and you saying to me that you didn't go to your last church because the services were too long.

And I thought, I don't think I'm gonna see him again next week.

And then just a few weeks ago, I I celebrated the transformation God has done in your life because you came and you said to me about a sermon that I had uh ended short, short, you know, you had said you should have just kept going, we were all captivated.

And I thought, that is a mature believer, church.

Hear that.

But I thought, more importantly, God has done such a significant work in your life that he has grown this hunger for the word, and to see that hunger is so inspiring, and we celebrate it alongside with you.

And I want to ask you this, Gord, have you made Jesus the Lord of your life?

Yes.

Do you trust in him as the Savior from your sins?

Definitely.

And it's my joy to baptize you now in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Let's turn to the Lord in prayer and thank him for what he's done.

Father, we bow before you, and God, we give you all the praise.

You have done a work of salvation in the lives of these believers.

Lord, you have called them from darkness to light.

You have spoken the darkness of their hearts, saying, Let there be light, shining the glory of Jesus Christ.

And God, it is a work of you.

Lord, we will read even next week that all who believed, you gave the right to become children of God.

God, we praise you for the work of life that you have done, for the life that you have given, the new life and transformation that you have given to these believers.

And God, you are doing the work in us.

So, Lord, we turn to you now in worship to thank you for the grace that you have shown us in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Could you stand and worship with me?