Darkness Did Not Overcome
the Light!
Sermon for December 25, 2005
1. Good Morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen!
Wow! It’s Sunday and it’s Christmas day! This last Thursday you may have received an email from me noting that on Friday December 9 the New York Times paper ran this headline,
“When Christmas Falls on Sunday,
Mega-churches Take the Day Off”
And I responded to this with the words: “Well we’re certainly not a mega-church and we’re not taking this day of all days off!
I also noted that the New Testament scholar Ben Witherington had a few things to say to the mega-churches that have canceled services on Sunday December 25. He wrote:
Our culture doesn’t need any encouragement to be more self-centered and narcissistic or to stay at home on Sunday. It’s already that way. Christmas above all else should be a day when we come together as the body of Christ to worship and adore the Lord Jesus. Christmas should be the day above all days where we don't stay home and open all those things we bought for ourselves INSTEAD of going to church. Christmas should be the day when we forget about ourselves for a few hours and go and honor the birthday of the great King, our Savior.
What I didn’t include in the email was the rest of the quote from Ben Witherington. I will read the rest of the quote to you now but I want to add here that this could also be said of not only the mega-churches but to some extend to many Christians in the western world. Ben Witherington wrote:
It’s time for them to realize that they have simply capitulated to the larger culture's agenda on issue after issue, in this case in supporting the worship of the idol called family in place of the worship of Jesus. The church doesn’t exist to serve the world, but rather to save the world. The church doesn’t exist to serve the physical family but rather to redeem it and make clear that if it is a Christian family it has a larger and more primary obligation to the family of faith and to its Lord. Christmas is one of two days in the year when we should especially make that clear to our culture and our country.
Ouch! Professor Witherington doesn’t pull too many punches does he?
Well it’s Christmas Day so where am I going with all of this? It’s not about “bashing” the mega-churches. We must thank God in many ways for them – they draw so so many people to our Lord but in this and a few other instances they and certainly smaller churches are all too often cowering to the demands of the culture.
And this brings me to the point of this reflection –
“The light of the church and its members will shine in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome them!”
This is a paraphrase of verse 5 of the first chapter of the Gospel of John which we heard read just a few minutes ago.
Can you see where I’m going with this? We must not compromise with our culture but rather inform and transform it. We must lead our culture to the source of all life and ultimate freedom – this is what Christmas is really all about – It’s about discovering anew our living and ever present Emmanuel – God with us!
Can you see what our Lord is telling us on this most important day? He’s telling us that we must join Him in His rescue mission to earth not by compromising with the culture but by transforming it by HIS love.
3. If you have your Bibles please turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter 1: Now I’m not going to use the NIV translation because it’s translation of verse 5 is a poor one. This time I’m going to use the New Revised Standard Version:
John 1:1-5 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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
9 - 14 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
Now let’s focus in on verse 5 for a moment:
The NIV translation – the New International Version of the Bible translates it with:
5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
But as we heard the NRSV translates it:
5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The clear consensus though of leading Biblical scholars is that the better translation of verse 5b is that “The darkness did not overcome it,” While the underlying verb “katelaben” can be translated both ways, John uses it elsewhere only in the sense of “overtake” or “overcome” (John 6:17; [8:34]; 12:35). So the clear sense of this verse is that “The darkness did not overcome it – the light!”
Now it’s also important to understand that the verb “Katalaben” – “did not overtake” is in the aorest tense. The aorest tense describes “an undefined action that occurred in the past. It’s a completed action – not needing additional work!” It’s a done deal – the darkness will never ever overcome the light!
To quote our Lord “It is finished!” It’s a done deal!
Darkness has been overcome once and for all by God’s light. It will never ever be able to overtake or overcome the light because of the victory on the Cross which began in a stable in Bethlehem on that first Christmas day.
Jesus was born to accomplish this one thing - to roll back the darkness by His Light and in doing this He redeemed all who follow in His light!
Listen once again to those almost poetic words from the first chapter of John – this is who we worship – this is who was born on that first Christmas day. Listen to who Jesus really is. I’m going to read the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible:
John 1:1-5 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. Now who IS “The Word?” Yes, Jesus. So we can read that verse this way:
“In the beginning was Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ was with God and Jesus Christ was God. 2 Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God the Father.” Reading on now verse 3:
3 All things came into being through Jesus Christ, and without Jesus Christ not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in Jesus Christ was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light of Jesus Christ shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not – and WILL never - overcome it. Now let’s read on verses 9 through 14:
John 1:9-14 The true light – Jesus Christ, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. Did you hear that – the world did now know Him! The world not only did not know Him but did not want to know Him! The world likes shadows and darkness. Reading on: 11 Jesus Christ came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. The Jewish religious leaders rejected Him. Reading on – verse 12
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. Now listen carefully to this concluding verse – verse 14:
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Let me say repeat the verse once again but this time from the Message translation by Eugene Peterson:
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The light of Jesus Christ shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not – and WILL NOT, indeed will never - overcome it! (John 1:5)
We hear echoes of this in the Gospel of Matthew:
Matt. 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
4. This is it! This is what God wants to say to us this morning:
“Jesus Christ came into this world 2,000 years ago and the darkness did not overcome His light.
Ever since the darkness has tried to overcome His light but has and will always fail!
Darkness will never overcome His light!”
Can you hear it? God wants to give us His Christmas Cheer this morning! He wants to encourage us!
Our heavenly Father is saying to us this blessed Christmas morning – All is well! The darkness can only threaten – it’s can’t win! It will never overcome the Good News that God loves us so much that He gave us His Only Begotten Son for us and that all who believe in Him will ultimately live HAPPILY EVER EVER EVER EVER AFTER – AMEN AND AMEN!
This is God’s message to us on this blessed Christmas day: Whatever you and I are facing that threatens and appears dark and looming cannot overcome God’s light and life! Christ defeated the final enemy – death!
St. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthian church:
1Cor. 15:54 And after this perishable nature has put on imperishability and this mortal nature has put on immortality, then will the words of scripture come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?
Christ has come and overcome all darkness for ever and ever! The spirit of His Advent goes on and on into eternity – light will always and ever overcome darkness. Lift overcomes death! The good wins out over the evil in the end.
God wants to encourage you and me this blessed Christmas morning to keep the faith – to trust in Him and His power to overcome all of the darkness in our lives and in this world – Amen and Amen!
Let’s Pray . . .