Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
Christmas is really a celebration of God's intervention in human history. To a world lost in darkness, the Bible tells of a great light, a light personified in the person of Jesus. One aspect of this light is our redemption, only possible because Jesus lived and died as a sacrifice for our sins.
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today you begin a series you've called The Light Has Come. Tell us about it. Dave, I'm glad to tell you about it, and I have to say that in my mind I have a very recent memory. I was in Berlin, Germany.
I was in Berlin University. And as you go up the stairs, there's a quotation there from Karl Marx that says, until now, philosophers have discussed how to interpret the world. The point, however, is to change it. Well, change it, he did. He brought darkness upon much of the world.
As a matter of fact, he still rules a good part of the world from his grave. And when I left there, I said to all those who were watching, wouldn't it be different if instead of that quotation, we had the quotation from Jesus, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. You know, when I think of that metaphor called light, it has so many different aspects. That's why there's a whole series of messages that we're going to be talking about and discussing, because what we need to understand is there's spiritual, moral, and personal darkness that Jesus alone is able to dispel.
So let's listen carefully. You know, sometimes it's so tempting to get involved in the details of something that we miss the big picture. This can even happen at Christmas time. We can be so fascinated by the wise men and the shepherds and the manger and even the baby Jesus that we can somehow forget what the real Christmas is all about. Let's remember that Christmas is nothing more, nothing less than the intervention of God. Have you ever participated in an intervention?
That's what we do when we find that there are people who may struggle with insanity or addictions, and they need to understand the extent of their problem, and they need to be delivered, and they need help. Christmas is the coming of God to this planet to give us the help we need. You know, in the Bible, the word light is frequently used, and this is the beginning of a series of four messages titled The Light Has Come. To the scientist, light means energy. To the person who is walking in moral uncleanness, light means purity. To the philosopher, light means knowledge and understanding, and Jesus really turns out to be all of those things as the light of the world.
What we'd like to do is to look very briefly at the world in which Jesus came and then see this explosion of revelation that we celebrate at Christmas. First of all, the world in which Jesus came was spiritually dark. It was dark because of paganism. The mystery religions, they promised a form of redemption, but it was really self-help, and self-help doesn't do what is necessary for those who are sinners like we all are.
And so there was that. In Judaism, there was really no joy. There was not a whole lot of help because religion was really the keeping of the rules. So spiritually, things were dark. Morally, the world was dark. Philosophically, it was dark. You know, when John wrote his book, he was speaking to both the Greeks and to the Jewish community because there was now this clash of cultures, and Plato had a great deal of influence in the early centuries of the church. If you're Greek, I want you to listen carefully to what I have to say. I believe that Plato and Aristotle were two of the most brilliant men that God ever created.
Can you imagine writing these thick philosophical books that are so interesting and so encompassing that PhD students today still do their dissertations on Plato and Aristotle? Amazing. But they were not able to give the hope that mankind sought not because they weren't brilliant, but no human being, by using natural reason, has the building blocks upon which to construct a system that makes sense out of it all and to give this world the hope that all of us seek. There's a man who bought a special puzzle for his daughter. It was very special because no matter how you put the pieces, they never came out right. He said he bought the puzzle so that his daughter would know how the world works.
Nothing ever comes out right. Well, God is going to enter into the world, and I want you to take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, every Bible opened.
If you didn't bring yours, there will be one there in the seat in front of you, and I think it's about page 886. We'd have to look at this text together. This is one of the most profound passages in all of scripture. It is profound, and yet all of the words that are used are simple words.
Amazing indeed. John begins now by introducing Jesus Christ to us as the creator, as the creator. When he was sitting down and wondering how he was going to pen this, I'm sure he probably spent a moment or two saying to himself, how can I describe Jesus? And he came across in his thinking that he would use the word logos, the Greek word logos, because this word would have meaning to the Greeks. To the Greeks, logos was wisdom and knowledge. To those who were Jewish in their thinking, the whole Old Testament has within it the emphasis on the word of God, the word word.
He sent forth his word, and he healed them. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and the host of them by the breath of his mouth. And so he uses the word logos, which is the word word. And beginning, therefore, he says, in the beginning was the word. In the beginning, before there was anything, there was the word, the logos. And the word was with God, and the word was God. What a beautiful way to describe the two members of the Trinity. You'll notice that the word was with God, and the word was God.
Only one way to understand that, and that is to realize that John is teaching us about the companionship between the Father and the Son from all eternity. And he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
Amazing. God the Father is the creator, but the agency that he used was the Son. And so that's why the Son of God, Jesus, is spoken of as the creator. And all things were made by him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. We're reminded of Colossians chapter 1, where it says, all things were created, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.
That's a phrase that you ought to be in your mind frequently. For him and by him, all things were created. Do you realize what John is saying here in these opening words of this great revelation of the book of John? What John is saying is, I'm going to introduce you to your creator.
What follows in the rest of the book is me trying to explain to you the creator who came to earth there in Bethlehem and was born of a virgin. So John tells us, first of all, that Jesus, the word, is the creator. But then Jesus also is the revealer, and here we get to the concept of light. John loves the light-darkness motif and uses it here throughout his gospel and also in the letters of John, 1, 2, and 3 John. He speaks of Jesus being the light. In him was life, verse 4, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
We have to pause there for a moment. He is saying that Jesus is the light and the darkness has not been able to extinguish it. You know, the word that he uses here that is translated in my Bible as overcome, it's a very interesting word. It can mean to arrest, to capture, to overtake, or as indicated here, to overcome. Can mean all those things, and in this context, it means all those things. There are two basic interpretations. Let's just use the word grasp, all right?
I think that that's a pretty good translation of the word. So the scripture says that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot grasp it or comprehend it. Isn't that true? I mean, you find today that there are people who fight against the light. They choose to try to extinguish the light. Eventually, the darkness even crucified Jesus to get rid of the light. But although they crucified him, they could not destroy him. And so the light still shines.
And in this series, I'm sure I'm going to be talking about various ways in which people have tried to extinguish the light. So on the one hand, they can't grasp it. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot do it naturally because they are spiritually understood. What that means is this, that if you're listening to this message and your heart is closed and your mind has been made up and you have no interest in allowing the light to shine within you, that would be one way in which you can try to extinguish it.
But the light still shines in the darkness. So on the one hand, you can't grasp it. You don't understand it.
It doesn't even make sense to you. But then there's another way to understand the word, and that is to think of it in terms of hostile intent. Did you know that it's the same word that is used in Mark chapter 9, verse 18, where it says the spirit, an evil spirit, seizes the child and throws him on the floor and there's foaming at the mouth? It's speaking about a demonic spirit. So the idea is that Satan wants to take the word and wants to extinguish it but can't. He seizes it or tries to control it, but he can't. It's amazing that the Bible says that demonic spirits, Satan actually has the power to take ideas out of the human mind.
That really is true. Remember the parable in which Jesus said that a sower went forth to sow and some of the seed just fell on shallow ground and the birds of the air came and devoured it. And later Jesus explained that these birds actually are the wicked one. So what Satan tries to do is he tries to seize the word of God but the darkness cannot overcome it. The smallest candle in a dark cave still gives it light. So John says that there's going to be opposition to Jesus but he is the revealer and I'm going to continue on now and skip to the theme of light in verse 9. The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. I need to pause there and say that Jesus is the true light. Now there are false cults who claim to have the light. Krishna claimed to have the light. Baha'u'llah claims to have the light.
And what you find in pagan religions is this idea of enlightenment. But the Bible even says that false prophets really have light as well. And that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. You think of all those who don't believe in Jesus who have a near-death experience and in the process they experience light. It's false light.
It's the light that has been transformed and it is light that actually is satanic. But Jesus is the true light because he alone has the credentials to be the light of the world. And then what he says is he's the true light which enlightens everyone who is coming into the world.
The best way I think to interpret that is this. That when Jesus came into the world there was a prior light that existed in all people and it is the light of conscience. And it's a flickering light. But if human beings have the desire to be able to follow that light, if they do that God is obligated to give them more light.
And certainly throughout history we've had those kinds of incidents that have been reported. So everybody has within them the light of Christ if you think in terms of the conscience. And so what he's saying is that Jesus Christ is creator. Jesus Christ is also the revealer. But now I'm going to skip to verse 14. Verse 14 of John chapter 1 is the most explosive verse in all the Bible. If you ask people, well what verse of scripture is the most common?
Everyone would say John 3 16. As a matter of fact have you seen those sporting events where people have a big piece of cardboard and they write on it John 3 16. And I've often thought to myself what in the world does that mean to the average person who is not acquainted with the Bible. They must surely think to themselves that this person has some kind of a hidden foolish message which doesn't relate to them. Now the Christians who do it I'm sure that they mean well but to the common person. John 3 16 doesn't mean a whole lot just without the verse. The reference simply does not connect. But all of us would say that that's the most common verse in all the Bible for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.
It's the most common. But this verse shattered the religious world. The word became flesh. Let's think about why this particular word was so powerful and why the average person living in John's day could have never accepted this.
Let's talk about the Jewish community. I checked with my good friend Michael Radellnik about this and asked him whether or not the Jews were expecting a divine Messiah. Now a divine Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 9. But after the Jews came back from captivity they interpreted that phrase and those teachings differently. And they could not accept a divine Messiah. That's why throughout the rest of the book of John whenever Jesus claimed to be God the people were taking up stones to stone him because they said you cannot be a man and claim to be God. So for them the idea that the word became flesh was unthinkable. It was idolatrous. But let's think of the Greeks.
You remember back to the days when you studied philosophy? Plato taught that there was a sharp distinction between matter and spirit. Spirit was the soul.
Spirit had certain knowledge. Two plus two is equal to four. Two plus two is always equal to four.
There's nothing as certain as the fact that two plus two is equal to four. That in Plato's mind generally speaking was what he called a form which was certain but it existed in the soul as for matter it was always corrupt and imperfect. So a Greek reading John 1 14 would read this way in the beginning was the word. The word became flesh. The word became imperfect because the word took on humanity because it took on a human form and a human body. As a matter of fact in the Christian church there was a great heresy that arose and the heresy was that Jesus Christ was only a phantom. They said that when he walked he left no footprint because he really did not exist as a human being.
He couldn't without being imperfect. So you can see here that when John says the word became flesh he was saying something that was difficult to grasp but thankfully it is true. Now notice the rest of the verse. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. The word became flesh. The Greek word for dwelt among us is the word tabernacle. Jesus came and he tabernacled among us. Now in the Jewish mind they would immediately think of Exodus chapter 33.
There in Exodus chapter 33 the tent of meeting the tabernacle was established and Moses would go in and the glory of God would appear. And now in the book of John what you're going to see is a replacement motif. Jesus is going to replace all of the Old Testament sacrifices, all of the Old Testament rituals of worship. When you look in chapter 32 of John's gospel you'll notice that Jesus claims now to be the temple.
Destroy this temple and he's referring to himself. I want you to think along with me about all of the changes that Jesus brought because he is the true temple. Think for example of the fact that now Jesus is the place of worship. You no longer go into a temple. You no longer go into the tabernacle to worship Jesus as the high priest did. Rather Jesus now is the point of worship. When we come to the Father through Jesus we have full extended access into the presence of God and the worship of God. So he becomes the place of worship. He becomes the fulfillment of the law. And that of course is the reason that Jesus Christ came. Just imagine thanks to him we have direct access to the Father.
And as the saying goes at Christmas time we always have to remember the reason for the season. I have to tell you that I'm genuinely excited about a volume that we are making available to you. It's a resource that is going to bless you 365 days of the new year. As I've been spending some time looking through it I can't help but notice that if you were to take out 10 minutes a day and read this book with all of its evidence and all of its pictures regarding the issue of creation what an education that would be.
Well I have to hurry here and give you some contact info. Here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 for a gift of any amount it can be yours. And of course as we're thinking about the beginning of the new year which is just around the corner I hope you take out time right now go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book is Without Excuse, 365 Photographs and Explanation of the Wonder of God's Creation.
It's a book that shows that nature reflects the wisdom and the grace of God. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's road map for your race of life. Next time we continue our look at how the light redeems us, taken from John chapter 1. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
