Your Light Has Come
John 1: 1-14
Christmas Day
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for Christmas Day is John 1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the beginning, do you remember what God made first? We can find out by looking to the Word of God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:1-2). Then God said, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3). There is no life without light. So for God to transform this dark void into a world teeming with life, the first thing necessary was light.
And not just for the world in general but also for us specifically. Just as in the beginning the world was in darkness, so also we are born in darkness. I am referring to spiritual darkness. We are not born knowing God or able to love Him. We are not born with the ability to obey Him or serve Him or even properly to search for Him. We are born in darkness. We are born alienated from God, separated from Him by our sins. And this darkness into which we are born is total darkness. Because of our sinful condition it is impossible for us to make our way to God and gain His favor – unless the Light shines on us.
That is why we celebrate Christmas. It is a celebration that the Light has come into the world. The Light of the world has come, and He has come to us. The Son of God become one of us, born of the Virgin Mary, and this little baby Jesus born on Christmas Day is the light of the world. But what does it mean? How does the Light shine on us? What happens when the Light shines? The answer to these questions comes in our text when the apostle John declares, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Light came when the eternal Son of God became flesh. The little baby in the arms of Mary is God the Son. He is God of God and Light of light. But the text says more. He didn’t come just to be born, John says, he came to live among us, as one of us. And the text says more still. Jesus has come in the flesh to reveal His glory. What is that glory? John tells us. He is full of grace and truth. This is the glory that John and the other disciples have seen. Jesus is full of grace and truth.
He is full of truth. Have you ever been lied to? Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Have you ever been misled by a salesman? Have you ever been deceived by a friend or a colleague? Jesus is the truth. Even before His birth, misunderstandings are being cleared up. An angel appears to Mary and tells her she will have a child. She wonders how this will be since she is a virgin. The angel answers her and tells her the truth. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you…therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Again an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and informs him that the child of Mary has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. There is no confusion about the conception and birth of this child. Joseph must know the truth.
No one in the Scriptures is ever lied to about the child. The shepherds are told the truth about the child they were told to see. He is the Savior of the world. He is the Lord. Herod is told the truth by the Wise Men about the child they are going to see. He is the King of the Jews. Simeon speaks the truth about the child in his arms; He is the Savior and the glory of Israel. When the Light appears, falsehood and deception are exposed, and the truth is revealed.
During our Lord’s ministry He used the word “truly” several times. Like when He says, “Truly, I say to you…” He uses that expression eight times in the Gospel of Luke, fourteen times in the Gospel of Mark, and twenty-seven times in the Gospel of Matthew. And in the Gospel of John Jesus doubles the “truly”. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you.” This double “truly” He speaks twenty-four time sin the Gospel of John.
Jesus wants you to know that He speaks the truth. He is the truth. When the Light of the world comes into the world, everything is revealed for what it truly is. Sin is exposed. False teaching and false prophets are exposed. False religions and ideologies are revealed for what they are. And the truth is revealed. The truth that saves. And what is that truth that saves? What does our reading say? “We have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The truth that saves us is the message of grace. The one who lies in the manger is our Savior because He brings grace. This baby whose birth we celebrate today is born to save, to bring forgiveness for all sin, to wash away guilt, to cover the shame and embarrassment of wrongdoing, and to bestow holiness on all who believe in Him.
This message we can’t forget as we celebrate Christmas. We do not just celebrate the birth of Jesus, but we also celebrate what He came to do. He came to be our substitute. He came to be what we were supposed to be but were not. He came to do what we were supposed to do and did not. He kept God’s Law perfectly for us. And He also came to suffer what we should have suffered. His suffering and death have atoned for all that was wrong about us. And through faith in Him, we now stand righteous and innocent in the eyes of the Father.
So celebrate today the birth of this child, but also celebrate His life and His death, and His resurrection. Celebrate both who He is and what He came to do. For then you will celebrate the birth of the one who is full of both truth and grace, and you will celebrate your own salvation and your own everlasting crown. Yes, the Son of God came in the flesh to dwell among us. For He is the light of the world born this Christmas Day. Amen.