The Word in His Power
John 1:3-5
Download Complete Sermon Notes …
I managed to get through the first two verses of John chapter 1 last week. I want to speed up considerably this morning and attempt to cover the next three verses. In the prologue to the Gospel of John, the apostle is setting forth a summary of who Jesus really is. Last week we looked at who Jesus is in His Person. He is the Word who was in the beginning, was with God and was God. He is the Word who reveals to us not only the thoughts and wisdom of God but even more He reveals God Himself.
So we saw that as the Word, Jesus was and is eternally God. He was equally with God, and He was God in His essence. That is who Jesus is in His Person. He is eternally, equally, essentially God. Now today as we come to verses 3-5 John will give us support for that truth and its importance for us as people.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Today we will see that the Word in His power is the creator and source of all life and light.
A. His Power of Creation (1:3)
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
Here is the confirmation that Jesus, the Word, is God. John makes the bold statement that the Word is the creator. He says, “All things were made through Him.” John Phillips says that the word for “all things” refers to all things individually, all things separately. It is a reference to the infinite detail of creation. Jesus made it all. That means everything that exists came into being through Him. Everything that exists, He made. It all came from Him. He is the creator.
If He made all things, then He Himself could not have been made. As we understood from verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word.” Unlike creation, Jesus didn’t come from anyone, or anything. Instead, everything came from Him. If He made all things then He is God because the Bible is clear that God made all things.
Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Isaiah 42:5, “Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it:”
Isaiah 44:24, “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself,”
Isaiah 45:18, “For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens,
Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.”
Jer 10:12 “He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.”
Jer. 32:17 “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You,”
Psalms 33:6,9 6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. … 9 For He spoke, and it was [done]; He commanded, and it stood fast.
John 1:3 is telling us that the Word, which we know to be Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He is responsible for everything that exists. This is not the only place in the Scriptures that we find this teaching. Look down a little bit further in the chapter and read John 1:10. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” Then Paul confirms this teaching in Colossians 1:16-17 when he writes about Jesus saying, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Notice the prepositions that he used there, by Him, through Him, for Him and in Him.
Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking has said, “The eventual goal of science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe.” Hawking’s naturalism provides no answer, of course. The Bible, on the other hand, does provide the unifying element of the universe. From the biblical perspective the unifying explanation of the universe is a person, the λόγος, the Son of God, who became man and walked the earth as Jesus Christ. This is the one who created the universe, who sustains the universe, and for whom the universe exists (MacLeod, The Eternality and Deity of the Word- John 1:1-2).
Again in 1 Corinthians 8:6 Paul says, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” Notice in this verse that all things are of the Father and through the Son. God the Father created all things through God the Son.
Hebrews 1:1-2 says it this way,
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by [His] Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
The Bible teaches that all three members of the Trinity were involved in creation. God the Father created everything, but He did it through Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:1-3). Also, in Genesis 1 we see the Spirit of God participating in creation (Gen. 1:2). God’s statement (Gen. 1:26), “Let Us make man in Our image” implies the involvement of the trinity in the creation of human beings.
Jesus is the Word by which God created the worlds, “All things were made through Him.” And as if that wasn’t a strong enough statement John adds at the end of verse 3, “and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
Not one thing exists that Jesus Christ, the Word, didn’t make. That certainly has to mean that Christ Himself was not made. He did not come into existence in a point of time. The Creator of everything that exists must necessarily be uncreated. If He’s not a part of the creation, then He’s uncreated. Only the eternal God is uncreated. This reinforces John’s statement that the Word is God.
The Psalmist shows us how to apply John 1:3 declaring, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills–From whence comes my help? 2 My help [comes] from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” (Ps 121:1-2) Since Jesus is my Creator, He is my Help. Therefore I will choose to lift my eyes to Him. He is able to help because all things were made through Him! If He can create everything then surely He can give help in my distress. Nothing is too difficult for Him!
So we see His power in relation to the creation.
Then secondly we see His power in relation to His communication.
B. His Power of Communication (1:4-5)
- He is the Life.
The fact that the Word is the creator leads to another obvious conclusion—stated at the beginning of verse 4, “In Him was life.” He didn’t get life from someone; nobody gave Him life. In Him was life. William MacDonald wrote that this does not simply mean that He possessed life, but that He was and is [and has always been] the Source of life (Believer’s Bible Commentary). Was is in the imperfect tense which speaks of continuous action in the past. The Word was continually life! This means that “from all eternity and throughout the entire old dispensation, life resided in the Word.” (Leon Morris).
All life in creation and in re-creation comes from Him. He was life and the source of life. And we will see from the Gospel that this life is not only physical life but also spiritual life, as the verse goes on to say, “and the life was the light of men.”
The allusions to Genesis 1 are unavoidable here. In Genesis God creates light and life. Here the Word is life and light. John wants us to see that he is writing about a new creation that centers in the eternal Word, Jesus Christ the Son of God. As creator of all things, the Word is life and the source of life.
But John is certainly wanting us to see more than just physical life here. The word here includes both physical and spiritual life. When we were born, we received physical life. When we are born again, we receive spiritual life. Both come from Him. (Believer’s Bible Commentary).
John frequently associates life with Jesus…
John 5:21, 24, 26 “ 21 “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to [them], even so the Son gives life to whom He will. … 24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life… 26 “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,”
John 11:25, 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
John 14:6, 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
In his first epistle John writes – (1John 5:11-12) 11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Jesus is the life. He alone gives life, eternal life, true spiritual life, life with God. It cannot be found anywhere else or in anyone else. In Him was life. And it still is.
- He is the Light.
But not only is He life, but He is also light. Verse 4 continues, “and the life was the light of men.” Light and life are linked in this same way in John 8:12, in which Jesus says: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” The connection between light and life is also clearly made in the Old Testament. Psalm 36:9 says: “For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.”
John goes on to write in verse 9 “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” In his first epistle John writes that “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all l.” (1 John 1:5).
Verse 5 continues the thought here and shows us the result of His life and light, “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Darkness here is not just physical darkness but it is a spiritual darkness. Jesus says in John 3:19 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And again in John 12:46 “I have come [as] a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” To be in spiritual darkness is to be in sin, to be under the power of the prince of darkness, to be spiritually blind.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, 6,
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. … 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Jesus commissioned the apostle Paul to preach the Gospel saying, “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (Acts 26:18).
All people without Christ are in spiritual darkness. They are blind to the truth and cannot and will not come to the light. Only a supernatural work of God through Jesus Christ can open blind eyes and bring light into dark souls. So verse 5 continues, “and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
The word translated “comprehend” can have two meanings, much like our word “grasp.” It can mean to comprehend or grasp mentally, or it can mean to take hold of something or overcome it.
The darkness did not comprehend the light. In 1:10b, those in the world “did not know Him.” In 1:11b, even His own people “did not receive Him.” Jesus points out (3:19-20) that those in the darkness love the darkness and hate the Light because their deeds are evil. Thus they didn’t “comprehend” Jesus.
But the other meaning is also true. When you go into a pitch-dark, isolated place and light just one candle, the light will overpower the darkness. The life of God, the eternal one, the eternal life—Jesus—comes into the world as light and He lights the world and He’s continuing to light the world. And notice this, the darkness can’t overpower it. They crucified Him, but He arose and conquered the darkness. His salvation conquers the spiritual darkness in every heart that trusts in Him.
Throughout the Gospel of John, you will see both attitudes revealed: people will not understand what the Lord is saying and doing and, as a result, they will oppose Him. But even when the world does not comprehend the light, the world does not overcome the light. Lost people cannot understand the light and they don’t want to. It is a willful ignorance. It is a sinful ignorance.
- Some try to overcome the light by ignoring it. They fill their lives with noise in order to drown out the quiet voice of the conscience.
- Some try to overcome the light by challenging its authority. They deny miracles and they deny the divine inspiration of the scriptures.
- Some try to overcome the light by silencing Christians. Laws are passed to prevent Christians from speaking against sexual perversion.
- Some try to overcome the light by forbidding conversions. In some Muslim countries, Muslims who convert to Christianity are executed.
- Some try to overcome the light by discriminating against Christians. In some cultures believers are shunned by employers and threatened by their families.
- Some try to overcome the light by banning Christian literature. Bibles are forbidden in many countries.
- Some try to overcome the light by killing Christians. More Christians were martyred during the twentieth century than in all the other centuries combined.
But even though most of the world even today does not believe, has not come to the light, the light is not extinguished. The darkness does not overcome it. The light is triumphant!
The practical point is this: the light cannot be overcome by the darkness because
- the light is alive—it’s the light of life; and
- through this life—this living Word—all things were made; and
- this living Word IS God.
So be of good cheer. Christ has overcome the world of darkness (John 16:33). “Believe in the light that you may become sons of the light” (John 12:36). Take the offensive this season. Raid the darkness. It cannot overcome the children of light.
This opening of the gospel of John is such a powerful statement of the person of Christ and His impact on the world. Jesus Christ is the eternal Word, the Creator of everything, and He reveals the life and light of God to this dark world. The darkness cannot extinguish the Light, and the Light is still shining in the world. It is available to any who will listen, who will hear, and who will receive Jesus Christ as Lord and God.
