Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Word

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Light in the darkness is one of the ways that throughout history, Christmas has been celebrated. Lighting candles, and lights on trees, and lights at night. What is that all about? In John 1, John talks about Jesus coming into the world. It’s his way of talking about the meaning of Christmas. And in this very famous passage, the word “light” shows up seven times. Let’s look at how this tells us that 1) human beings need light, 2) there is a light, and 3) how we can connect to it and receive it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 27, 2016. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: Advent. Scripture: John 1:1-11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Today, Tim Keller is looking at a passage from the opening chapter of the Gospel of John. John begins his account of Christ's birth not with shepherds or angels, but with the mystery of the word becoming flesh. God himself entering the world as a person in Jesus Christ. Join us as Tim Keller explores the meaning of Jesus' birth. tonight's scripture comes from the book of john chapter one verses one through eleven in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was with god in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind

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 testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

This is the word of Lord. Well, we're going to be doing for the weeks of Advent, which are the four weeks going up to Christmas, is taking a look at the first chapter of John. We've been in John chapter 13 to 17. We're looking at the first chapter because John chapter one is about Jesus coming into the world. It's basically John's way of talking about the meaning. of Christmas. And even though there's many things that can be said about this very, very famous

passage, seven times the word light shows up here. There's seven, see where I circled it? Can you see that? Seven times the word light. And though there'll be other themes in here, I think we need to ask ourselves, what is this telling us about light? Also, you all know that light in the darkness is really one of the ways that throughout history Christmas has been celebrated. It's one of the symbols is lighting candles and lights on trees

and lights at night. What is that all about? Let's just take a look at how simply these first 11 verses of the Gospel of John tell us that we need light, human beings need a light, that there is a light, and then how we can connect to it, how we can receive it. We need light, there is a light and how we can receive it now first of all the need for light is especially seen in verses four and five in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it now see here in verse four obviously there's light and there's lights and here's lights and you see the lights but there is something that down in verse 9 is called the true light that everyone needs and in verse 4 is

the light of mankind which means there's a there's a kind of light that we all need but we're also told in these verses that our relationship with that true light is how do you say it it's very fraught because obviously as we're going to get in a minute down to verse 9 and 10 it talks about when the true light came into the world it was rejected but here in verse five it says that in a sense the true light came into a dark world and it says the darkness has not overcome it now actually if you've read this passage in more than one translation you know that that the translators often come up with a fairly different takes on how to translate that word sometimes it says the darkness has not comprehended it. I think one of the older translations says, the light

shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. And sometimes the word here is overcome. Now you say, well, that's pretty different. Well, yes and no. It's a single Greek word, but it's a word with, you might say, planned ambiguity in it. It's really like our English word master. Now, think about what it means to master something. Sometimes to master something means to extinguish it, to fight with it and extinguish it. So you master your fears means you're trying to get rid of them. You master your fears. You're really trying to just, you know, you're trying to fight them, control them, and extinguish them. But if you master a subject, you're not trying to, you're trying to understand it to say, I mastered that subject. I got it. I understood it.

So which is it? Well, this word means both of those things. And it's probably deliberately ambiguous, us which means john is trying to say that there's a true light that human beings need but we not only are hostile to it but we're clueless about it we're not only hostile to it we're clueless about it and so what it's actually saying is the world is a dark place and we do not know how to enlighten ourselves now let's go a little further with this idea of light when the bible talks about light and darkness what is that symbolism well it's really not that hard it's it's what it you'd think it means first of all to be dark sometimes means evil and suffering darkness means evil and suffering uh we talk about the dark times in our lives or we're in a dark place in

our lives and evil and suffering can be have many many many forms you know when jesus was born uh if you go to the book of matthew it tells us that uh herod found out that that was someone born who was supposed to be the prophesied future king. Herod decided to kill all the children in the village of Bethlehem to make sure there was no future claimant to the throne. Mary and Joseph got away, but had to go to Egypt. And so you have refugees, and you've got violence, and you've got injustice, and you've got war and grief and sorrow and broken families.

bereavement and you know just like now it the world's a dark place the world continues to have all those things so so when we talk about darkness it can mean it the world is filled with evil and suffering but darkness can also mean ignorance uh you know if if i'm in a dark room i don't know what's in the room and i'm stumbling and i'm falling because i'm in the dark meaning to be in the dark can mean evil and suffering the only the dark mean i you know i can't see reality And again, what this means is to say the world is a dark place is to say the world is filled with evil and suffering and we don't have the ability or the knowledge to know how to solve it.

The world is filled with evil and suffering and we don't have the ability or knowledge to know how to solve it. Now, this is the very first, you might say, clue to what the Bible says the meaning of Christmas, the meaning of Jesus coming in the world is. And that is, this world is a dark place, place and if there is going to be any light it has to come from outside the human race Matthew quotes Isaiah it's a very famous passage Isaiah chapter 9 you know partly because it

got into Handel's Messiah but Isaiah 9 says the people living in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawn and that's Matthew's way of talking about Jesus came into the world means that we're in darkness and light has come into the world from outside the human race. Now, I want you to know what I'm about to tell you, I mean, pardon me,

what I just told you, which is one of the messages of Christmas, the world's a dark place, filled with evil and suffering, we do not have the ability or knowledge to know how to solve it ourselves. If there is light or help, it's going to have to come from outside the human race. Everything in our culture

is conditioning us to not believe that. everything in our culture is against that and this is a problem because christmas is not going away it is a commercial bonanza they will never be able to get rid of christmas ever uh and at least not in the foreseeable thousand years and therefore what are we going to do when the message of christmas is is the very opposite of what the culture tells us and the answer is is the culture is going to constantly try to re-engineer christmas so A couple years ago, I found this ad in the New York Times. It was a Christmas ad.

It was a commercial ad. Somebody was selling a product. It was a company. But this is what they said. Quote, the meaning of Christmas is that love will triumph and that we will be able to put together a world of unity and peace. Okay. So this ad says, the meaning of Christmas is that if we all pull together, we can do it, we can create a world of unity and peace. Which is, by the way, the exact opposite of the message of Christmas.

because see the message of christmas is not from them a light has come it's upon them a light has dawn it comes from outside of us we we can't possibly generate that kind of light we do not we do not know how to solve our own problems or evil and stuff we just can't it's the opposite of the message so and yet pardon me that's what the message of christmas but the culture is going to be constantly trying to re-engineer it but it won't work vachlav hovel who was the first president of the Czech Republic and he had been both he lived under socialism

and he lived under free market capitalism and you know what he said? Neither of these things are going to solve the greatest human problems. In fact he said technology and science they can tell you what you can do and they can tell you how to do it efficiently but they can never tell you whether you should do it or not

and therefore he said that neither technology nor the state, government, nor the market will ever be able to save us from nuclear conflict or environmental degradation or ethnic violence. And he says, quote, pursuit of the good life will not help humanity save itself, nor is democracy alone enough. A turning to and seeking of God is needed. The human race constantly forgets that he is not God. And that's the message of Christmas.

So this world is a dark place, that's point one. But point two, the other thing we're told here is that there is a light. Yes, it's outside the human race, but there is a light. The light we need exists. Well, where is it? Well, now let's look at verses 1, 2, and 3. And by the way, in verse 14, which we didn't read, we're going to get there in the coming weeks, it says that the Word of God is Jesus.

Now, I'll get back to this term word later. But right now, you can just put the word Jesus in there because later on in the very chapter it tells us the word of God is another name for Jesus. So let's read this, and here's what verse one says. In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. All right, let's stop right there. That might be familiar to you.

You've heard it before, but let me show you how absolutely startling it is when the two truths that are being given to you in this sentence are put next to each other. First of all, it tells us Jesus is God. It doesn't say Jesus is a God. There's no article. In the Greek, you know, the original Greek, there's no article. It doesn't say Jesus Christ was a God. It says Jesus Christ was God. If it said Jesus was a God, then there'd be more than one God, right? The Bible's not saying that. It's saying that, you know God? The one God, Jesus is that one God. But then, right next to it, it says, Jesus is God, and Jesus is with God. Now, the word with means to have a relationship.

You go to the bottom of, well, actually, you go later on in the Gospels, I guess it's in Mark, where it says that when Jesus chose 12 disciples, it says he chose them to be with him. and to be with means to be to live with him to be his intimates to be in a love relationship with him to be in a relationship of the closest communication and love so to be with someone that's a term that in the bible means to be in a relationship with him so here's what it's saying there's only one god and jesus is god and yet jesus is in a love relationship with god Jesus is God and Jesus in a love relationship with God. And even though the Holy Spirit's not mentioned here,

even though the Holy Spirit is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, here's what we got. There's only one God, not three gods, there's only one God. But within that one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, know and love each other. There's one God, but inside that one God, there's three persons who, from all eternity. Look, notice what it says.

it says through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made which means the son jesus christ was not created everything that ever had whatever anything that was ever made was made through him which means that the father the son the holy spirit have all from the beginning endlessly known and love each other only christianity then says that at the very heart of god Only Christianity says this. The very heart of God is a dynamic love relationship. From all eternity, in the very being of God,

there have been three persons who know each other and love each other and glorify each other and adore each other, and they have been loving and communicating with each other from all eternity. Inside God, there is an exploding, dynamic, infinitely powerful set of relationships. And therefore, the meaning of life, is relationship and love. See, if there was one God who only had one personality,

one person, and then that person, that God created other beings, then love comes in later, right? There's power, and then there's love. Isn't that right? If there was one God who only had one person, it was only one personality,

one guy with one person, and that person created other beings, then you can't have love until you have other beings, right? Other persons. so first god is powerful and then later on comes in love but if you have a triune god if you have a god who is the father son and holy spirit from all eternity then love is first love is the most important thing and relationships are the most important thing and communication is the

most important thing but let me go a little further here i think that this part of the bible is actually trying to get you it's it's really trying to just astonish us with the fact that at the when the bible says god is love you and i probably tend to think okay that means god is somehow loving no no no god is much more literally that i mean god from all eternity before he created the world before he did anything else was already love and dynamic love interpersonal love friendship and in verse 18 we didn't get to that either but in verse 18 some of you? No, because it's such a, you've heard it before. It's so famous this passage. It says, from all eternity, the son was in the bosom of the father. In the bosom of the father.

I think that that's John's, by using that, that language, I think John is deliberately trying to get you to use your imagination for a minute. So will you come with me? As 2025 comes to a close, it should come as no surprise that we have great hope for for the year ahead. Because of what God is doing to bring people to faith and to renew Christians through the gospel teaching and resources you help us provide on our podcast, YouTube channel, radio broadcast, quarterly journal, and website, and soon through our translation project. We're grateful that so many of you are partnering with us to spread the message of Christ's love. Thank you. God continues to provide opportunities for us to expand the ways we share the gospel.

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And please pray that we would steward your gifts well and that through the ministry of gospel and life, many new people will find the hope and joy of knowing Christ as Savior. Thank you for partnering with us to share the love of Christ with a world that needs him because the gospel truly changes everything. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's message. How many people are there in the world right now that if you were laying on a sofa, you know, without even asking permission,

could walk right over to you and lay down right alongside of you and lay right up against you, and that would be fine. How many people are there like that? Not many, right? And the ones that can do that are in the most, intimate relationship possible right so i think this is what we're being asked if you want to understand who god is and what god is like then you have to start to imagine the time in your life when you felt the

most loved now multiply that by a trillion trillion trillion imagine the time in your life when you felt the most understood the most appreciated the most adored the most secure the most significant and remember the joy of that okay and it's impossible almost to hold on to that because we're so you know we're we're we're selfish beings and so even if you're in a good marriage those kinds of times come and go even if you're in one of the best marriages those times go only come and go because we we tend to be selfish and we tend to want to not give to each other but we want to receive you know and we fight and therefore those times in which we have been the most blissful the most love the most joyful the most adored those those times they're fleeting right and they're

partial right now imagine three persons who are perfect persons who always love and glorify the people they love who never are saying you got to serve me but they're always serving each other and that they're giving themselves to each other exhaustively and completely from all eternity so you have to take the few moments in your life that you've experienced some of that multiplied by a trillion trillion trillion trillion and that is God

God is infinitely happy God is infinitely loving God is experiencing love and joy the Father and Son the Holy Spirit are just pouring joy and love and glory into each other's souls endlessly. They're bathed in the joy of each other. They're bathed in the love of each other. They are therefore infinitely happy, infinitely joyful, infinitely loving. And you know, why would God

have created other beings? To share in it. Why would God create beings that are in God's image so that we can do it with each other and with God? To share in all that. Now you say, what is all that got to do with the theme? Everything. here's what I'm trying to show you. First John 1.5, now this is John wrote three letters, as well as the book of John. First John 1.5 says, this is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. Well, what is the light? That's kind of abstract. What is the light? This is the light. You know why this is the light? This infinite love, this

pulsating love. This isn't just kind of a general sentiment. We're talking about real live, communication this is the light when it says God is light that's kind of an abstraction what is the light we need this is what we need why because let's look at our darkness every single bit of evil and suffering in this world the darkness of this world what is it at bottom

it's always a lack of love it's a loss of love what is war what is racism what is injustice what is crime what is violence what is divorce what is a broken family what is bereavement what is what is grief what is sorrow what is it it's always the loss of love it's always the lack of love always that's that's our darkness and why do we have problem why can't we generate our own light because we're selfish because there's something about our heart that says me first you know here's

the great irony about the human nature we want love we want love more than anything else that's what that's what makes our life meaningful we know that Yeah. Nobody, you know, I'd like to, this is true. I'd like to say it. You know, I've watched people die. I've seen people at the end. None of them ever say, I wish I'd spent more time at the office. None of them say I wish I'd made more money. They all said, I wish I spent more time with the people I love. I wish I'd worked on relationships. That's the meaning of life. And yet, at the same time, we've got something in us that says, me first. You serve me. That's the end of love. Love is you first. I will serve you. And God's got that. God's got that infinitely. And because God is therefore infinitely unselfish and loving, he's infinitely happy.

And we don't have that. And so we're in darkness and we need that light. And by the way, before going on to say, well, how do we get it? Let's keep in mind how different the Christian view of the world is the Christian view of the universe is because we believe that in the beginning was an interpersonal God who the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, loving each other from all eternity. You know how different that is from ancient paganism and modern secularism?

Ancient paganism says, here's how the world came about. There were these multiple power centers called gods. There was all these different gods and they fought with each other and that's how the earth got created and that's how this and that happened. the words ancient paganism believed the world at its heart was multiple power centers struggling against each other power struggle modern secularism doesn't believe in gods no but it believes in an impersonal universe impersonal and it believes that the world got here through violent forces and that human beings evolve through survival of the fittest nature red and tooth and claw

the strong eating the weak so ancient paganism and modern secularism say the essence of the world is power and struggle and christianity says in the beginning there was withness in the beginning there was withness in the beginning there was love infinite love endless love powerful love and that love is the light we need okay thirdly then how do we get it how does it happen now obviously this is the beginning of the book of john the rest of the book of john is all about that and so we have to kind of look ahead but there's a hint even in here and it's down here at the end the true light this is verse 9 10 11 the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the

world he was in the world and though the world was made through him the world did not recognize him he came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him now what this is saying is pretty simple and that is that Jesus Christ came into the world to be rejected. He knew he would be rejected. But the ultimate rejection was, they didn't, it was says his own did not receive him, more than that, his own killed him. He came to us.

He was, we are his own. Why are we his own? He created us. Verse one and two, he created us. If you make something in your, you know, if you make something, it's yours. He made us. And not only are we his own, but of course he's our true light.

We need him, but he was rejected and he was put to death. Why? Well, because this is the darkness in our hearts. We want love, and yet at the same time we're afraid of anybody coming in and saying, you have to serve me. No, no, I don't want to serve anybody. My heart says, I want to be in charge. And so what Jesus Christ had to do was he had to overcome the barrier between ourselves and

God. The Bible says there's a barrier between us and God. And what did he do? He went to the cross and on the cross. Two things happened. Darkness came down. Remember that? It was the middle of the day. It was the middle of the day. But Matthew 2745 says that in the middle of the day, it became completely dark. Darkness came down. Why? The light of the world descended into darkness. but that was only symbolic. At the same time, he cried out, one verse later, it says, darkness came down, verse 45, Matthew 27, 45, and Matthew 2746 says,

and he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, we've been making a connection here between light and love, darkness and selfishness. And so let's just make the connection here. What was happening to Jesus on the cross? outwardly darkness came down inwardly darkness was coming down what was it it was the loss of love

jesus christ went to the cross to take our to take the penalty our sins deserve well what is the penalty for selfishness see selfishness is his own punishment selfishness is the loss of love you know if you're in a marriage and both of you're being selfish you know nobody has to come along and find you it's like stop being selfish i you know that's a thousand dollars a day you know you're losing love you know you're pulling away from each other it's awful i mean it's it's it's true in friendships it's true in families it's true everywhere and so what is the punishment that selfishness deserves it's the punishment that selfishness always gets the loss of love oh my goodness but what jesus was experiencing see the reason why jesus agony atoned for the sins of the whole world

why he took the punishment for everybody was this. Counselors will tell you and psychologists will tell you, but you don't need them to tell you, because you know this intuitively anyway, is that there is no greater pain, and there's no greater psychological pain and trauma than the loss of a spouse through death or divorce. The loss of love.

Why? Because it's a very, very deep kind of love. It's the most intimate kind of relationship, and to lose it one way or the other is awful. Oh my goodness, but don't forget, even if you've been married for 60 years, even if you had a great marriage, two human beings can only love each other so much, but the father and the son have loved each other from all eternity and perfectly. Can you imagine? If you know how agonizing is to lose love right now in our infinite kind of limited way, what must it have been like? Think of the agony. Think of the hell that Jesus experienced on the cross. The agony and pain

he experienced on the cross, that loss of love was greater than, was so, as greater than anything you and I have ever experienced as a nuclear warhead is greater than the pop of a rubber band. And he died for our sins. And the reason why that is the key to connect into the light is this. Number one, objectively, our sins are forgiven. So when I say, Father, forgive me because of what Jesus did, God can forgive my sins and now come into my life and begin to start to fill me with his love so that I begin to be somebody who actually can start to love other people and you can become someone who can love other people. It's a matter of money. Listen, it's very, very, very hard to be really generous to people when you can't pay your own light bill. Okay? But if you have a lot

of money, then it's easier to be generous. A lot of people aren't generous with it, but it's at least possible. And the same thing with love. it's very hard to love other people and not be selfish when your own insides are so needy when you don't feel very lovable yourself but when god's love starts to pour in through the cross when you see that jesus christ lost infinite love out of love for you that begins to melt your heart and that begins to fill you up and you become rich in love so you start to be able to give other people love without always doing it in a kind of selfish way or a manipulative way but so that's what Jesus has to do but here's what you have to do here's what you have to do

you have to make him your reason for life now what do I mean by that what I'm about to tell you in the next two minutes could have been the whole sermon but I like to go back to the very beginning where it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God why is Jesus Christ called the word it's the Greek word logos and from which we get our word logic and also reason, right? Logic or reason. And actually, when John says Jesus Christ was the logos, he is deliberately connecting to a major cultural debate

that was going on at that time. Because the Greek philosophers believe that there was a logos behind the universe. There was a reason behind the universe. to understand what they meant, think of this. You do not know how to use, let's just say, an appliance, unless you know the reason it was made. For example, if I take my watch and I try to hammer a nail with it,

I'm going to ruin the watch. You know why? Because I'm not aligning with the reason the logos of the watch. The logos of the watch is the reason it was made. What was it made for? It was made to tell time not to hammer nails. Right? And therefore, unless I align myself with the logos of the watch, the watch will not work.

If you take a space heater and you try to cook on it, you might burn down your apartment. You know why? Because it's not, the logos of the space heater is not to be cooked, you know, to be cooked upon. It's to heat your space. And if you're not aligning yourself with the logos of the space heater, you know, you're in danger well the greek philosopher says well what if there's a logos to human life what if there's a logos to the world what if there's a logos behind the universe and if we aligned with that in other words what if there was a purpose for human life and if we aligned with that

then our lives would go well so they argued about it and they thought the logos was a proposition a way of living and this person said well the logo there were these various schools of thought and some philosopher says, well, I think it's this. This is the logos. And other philosophers thought this is the logos. And some philosophers thought there is no logos. But they all said you get to it through philosophical contemplation, through philosophical reasoning and thinking you can discern the reason

the human beings were supposed to live, and then you align yourself with it. And along comes John. And he blows it all up, the gospel of John. And he brought an idea in that was revolutionary in the history of human thought. and he says yes there is a logos yes the universe does have meaning yes there actually is a reason for life there is something you were created for but that logos that reason is not an abstract proposition it's a person that you know and love it's jesus christ and he's come into this world and you can know and love him you know how revolutionary that was if jesus is the reason for life

that's what it means when it says in the beginning was the logos if jesus you Jesus is the reason for life. Then I don't have to be a philosopher to discern it. Anybody can have a relationship with him. And it means that the meaning of life is not so much knowledge and contemplation and philosophical knowledge. It's love.

And, therefore, let me ask you a question. Is Jesus the reason for your life? Is Jesus the reason you get up in the morning? Is it the reason you get out of bed? I'm not asking, do you believe in Jesus? do you pray to Jesus? Do you hope that Jesus will help you? I mean, is he your very reason for life? Is he the whole reason you're living? He was yours. Will you think about that? Jesus was perfectly happy in heaven. That was the point two here of the sermon. He was doing fine. He didn't need the trip. He was just

fine. Why did he come? Why did he go through all that? What was the very reason for his human life? It was you and me. His very reason for life was you. you and me now you go make him your reason for life it's only fair and when you make him your reason for life the very the very reason that you live your life day to day he'll fill you with love and you'll become part of the solution that this dark world needs instead of part of the problem let us pray our father we thank you that there is a light that light It's a dynamic love and joy that you are capable of and you make us capable of. We thank you that your son was willing to lose all that, to lose all that joy, to lose all that love in order to bring us into it.

And therefore, oh, we need light, but there is a light. And we pray that you would fill us with your light and your love. And make us like your son. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the Gospel Center teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner.

Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelonlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelandlife.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.