Please read John 1:6-9
Immediately after John declared who Jesus was, the story shifted to the coming of a man. This was not just any man. This was a man sent from God. God named this man John.
This verse refers to Malachi 3:1 in which God declared that he would send his messenger to prepare the way before him. The word used for messenger refers to a messenger who is a priest or prophet. Malachi 3:1 then stated that the Lord the people were seeking - the Messiah - would suddenly come to his temple. This Lord would be the Lord of the covenant promise, the Messiah.
John was sent as a witness to testify of the existence of the light whose credentials are already established in verses 1-5. The witness came so that people might through John’s witness believe in God and the promised Messiah. It was not intended that people believe in John. He had not come to establish a new religion. He came to lead people to belief in what God had planned. To emphasise this, the passage states that John was not the light. Instead he had come to witness to the existence of the light. The light was the true light. The true light gives light to every single person on this earth. This true and wonderful light was coming into the world. The words “was coming” were used because Jesus was already on the earth. He and John were only about six months apart in age. By the time John was old enough to commence his ministry, Jesus was already in the world serving his time as a carpenter until God called him into his ministry. The Amplified Bible says the light would illume every person. This is a reference to Isaiah 49:6, which refers to it being not enough to restore the faithful of the house of Jacob to its rightful place. God will also make His servant a light to the Gentiles so that salvation may be brought to the ends of the earth.
Just as John was called to witness of Jesus, our Messiah, so we are called to witness of Jesus. We do this by following Jesus example. We love others and speak when appropriate with authority about God’s message. We gain that authority by the time we spend reading and contemplating God’s word and the time we spend in prayer with God. We become by our lives of love and obedience and open hope in the salvation Jesus won for us, witnesses of Jesus. And when we fail to do that we acknowledge our sin. Christians are not perfect. We make as many mistakes as those who are not saved. What should set us apart is our willingness to openly admit when we fail and acknowledge our need to change. We need to become mirrors of God’s love and the salvation we have in Jesus Christ.

Today I am starting a series on the Gospel of John. The first part I am going to look at is John 1:1-5. I have included the Revised English Bible version here because it speaks so powerfully.
John 1:1-5 “In the beginning the Word already was. The Word was in God’s presence, and what God was, the Word was. He was with God at the beginning, and through him all things came to be; without him no created thing came into being. In him was life, and that life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never mastered it.”
One of the first things that strikes me when I read these verses is how much like Genesis 1 it is.
Here in John 1, we are told
• The Word is not God, but was in God’s presence
• The Word and God are one.
• The Word was with God in the beginning
• All things came to be through the Word.
• Nothing would have been created without the Word
• The Word contained life
• Life is the light of mankind
• The light shines in the darkness
• The darkness has never understood or mastered the light.
John emphasises that the Word already existed in the beginning, just as God already existed. He then tries to explain the concept of the relationship the Word has to God. Years ago, I remember a mentor trying to explain to me the concept of the Holy Trinity. The idea of one being who is three is so hard for us with our human minds to grasp. I don’t think we will truly understand that until we get to heaven.
John also talked of the Word as being the source of life, which he also describes as the light of mankind. He spoke of the light shining in the darkness. I once heard a minister speak of the impact of the tiniest light in darkness. That tiniest light immediately dispels the darkness. It might not remove it completely, but is not dark anymore if there is a light. Of course the light can also refer to spiritual enlightenment. In that concept we can maybe understand the reference to the darkness never understanding the light better. I am also reminded of the reports people make of near death experiences where they describe going towards a light. Maybe there is a dimension to these verses that we will not understand until we die.