Jesus is the light of life, and that light is not an idea you master in a classroom but a Person you come to know. In this fourth message of the Jesus series, Dr. William P. Hohman stays in the opening verses of John’s Gospel and shows why the light that shines in the darkness cannot be understood by human reason, seized or stopped. He moves from the garden where soldiers fell back at the words “I am He” to the tribe of Judah, camped toward the sunrise as the children of light. This message picks up from Jesus #3.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for walking in the light this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This is the fourth message in a Bible study devoted to Jesus alone. The series opened with an introduction to Jesus and then turned to the first eighteen verses of John’s Gospel, where it remains. Pastor Hohman explains that the other three Gospels give a largely historical account, while John writes out of a personal relationship with Jesus, which is why he finds it so powerful to read alongside Isaiah.
The sermon runs about an hour and ends in prayer. Its thread is simple: every gift, insight and right direction a believer needs flows from knowing Jesus Himself, and knowing Him comes by revelation that only God can give.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Series | Jesus (part 4 of 6) |
| Main text | John 1:1–5 |
| Key theme | Jesus as the light of life who gives revelation, direction and cleansing |
| Length | About 63 minutes, ending in prayer |
Knowing Jesus by Revelation, Not Head Knowledge
Pastor Hohman begins with why John wrote. By the time John put pen to paper, the truth about who Jesus is was being skewed. Teachers were claiming special revelations and saying God would never come in a body because the flesh would stain Him. Paul had already warned that anyone preaching another Christ should be accursed. So John opens his first letter with an eyewitness claim: what we have seen, looked upon and handled with our hands of the Word of life (1 John 1:1–4).
From there he makes a point that runs through the whole message. Nobody on earth can believe in Jesus from head knowledge alone and be changed by it. Eternal life does not come by figuring something out, as if God were a school subject you could become proficient in. It takes a revelation from God to know who God really is, and the church is built on that revelation, not on attendance.
He explains the Greek word logos as he understands it: spoken words between two people, and also the deep, inward thoughts of the heart. In sending His Son as the Word, the Father was expressing His heart, His thoughts and His desires toward people. Israel was given that task first, but turned the law into a list of achievements and lost the relationship.
Pastor Hohman lists his own accomplishments, four degrees, radio and television stations, buildings, colleges and churches, and then sets them aside the way Paul did. Paul counted everything as loss for the excellence of knowing Christ (Philippians 3:7–8). The goal is not to point to what you have done, but to show people what Jesus has done in you.
The Word Who Came Without Weapons
The message then reads John 1:1–5. The Word was with God and was God, and all things were made through Him. Jesus is not a created being. People can rearrange what already exists, he says, but they cannot create anything. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God (Hebrews 11:3), and His hand is in everything that was made.
He returns to John 5:39, where Jesus told the religious leaders that they searched the Scriptures thinking they would find eternal life there, when the Scriptures were meant to point to Him. Many Christians get stuck in the same place. They look for faith for healing or provision instead of faith in Jesus, the One who heals and provides. Everything else He does is a byproduct of who He is.
To show what that means, he reads John 18:1–6. Judas led a detachment of troops and officers into the garden with lanterns, torches and weapons. Jesus walked out to meet His enemies with no weapon at all and asked whom they were seeking. When He answered, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. The Word that created everything, personified, simply spoke.
The application is personal. There are people for you and against you in this world, and you do not always know which is which. When your faith is in Jesus rather than in an outcome, He is the One who deals with them. The word of God is living, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), and that is where confidence belongs.
The Light of Life That Darkness Cannot Stop
The heart of the sermon is John 1:4–5: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Pastor Hohman explains that the Greek word behind “comprehend” means that darkness cannot understand the light by human reason, cannot seize it or take hold of it, and cannot stop it.
Because the light cannot be stopped, it reveals everything. Jesus taught that nothing hidden will stay hidden and nothing secret will stay unknown. Pastor Hohman draws a plain warning from this: living a life of hidden things is a problem, because people who live in darkness reap darkness and people who live in light reap light.
He also warns against two religious distortions. One tries to make God like us, comfortable with whatever we prefer. The other tries to make us gods. The right posture is to say, “Lord, what You want, that’s what I want,” because His path is a path of light. On that path come understanding and the gifts of the Spirit, such as discerning of spirits, words of wisdom and words of knowledge.
Pastor Hohman says that for most of his life he has not wanted merely to know the God who wrote a book. He wants to know the God who created the sun, moon and stars and set them in orbit, the God who made his hands, feet, heart and soul and knows exactly how he works. That kind of awe, he says, is where relationship with the light of life begins, and losing it is how believers leave their first love.
Judah and the Children of Light
Next, Pastor Hohman turns to the camp of Israel in the wilderness. He describes a picture in his office, a gift from a Jewish man who was born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit at one of his tent meetings. It shows the tribes arranged around the tabernacle in the shape of a cross. Judah was placed on the east side, toward the rising of the sun (Numbers 2:3), and he teaches that Judah was known as the children of light.
Numbers 2:9 records that all who were numbered in the forces with Judah were 186,400, and that these would break camp first. Pastor Hohman notes that 186,400 is the figure he gives for the speed of light in miles per second. He sees the number as one more way the Scriptures point to Jesus: David came from Judah, and from David’s line came Jesus, who said He is the light of the world (John 8:12).
To show how big God is, he mentions the Voyager probe launched in 1977, traveling about 38,000 miles an hour and only now approaching one light day from Earth, while the neighboring Andromeda galaxy is about 2.5 million light years away. The God who arranged the camp of Judah four thousand years ago is the God who made all of that.
He adds a contrast from Helen Keller, who said that looking straight into the sun leaves you unable to see. Staring at the lights of this world blinds us in the same way. Jesus is different. His radiance does not blind; it lets who we were created to be come out, like a flower opening in the presence of the sun.
What the Light Does for You
Pastor Hohman then shows what the light of life produces in a believer’s daily life. He has the church read the verses aloud together, and each one names a different benefit. The table below follows his teaching.
| Passage | What the light does | How Pastor Hohman applies it |
|---|---|---|
| Psalm 119:105 | Gives direction | When three or four choices and many voices compete, go where the light shows the way |
| Psalm 119:130 | Gives understanding | Insight for the kingdom and for the field you work in |
| Psalm 18:28 | Removes fear | The worries that keep you up at night are the darkness He enlightens |
| 1 John 1:7 | Cleanses | Walking in the light brings fellowship and the cleansing blood of Jesus |
Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Pastor Hohman’s rule is simple: where the light shows the way, he goes; where it does not, he does not. Psalm 119:130 adds that the entrance of His words gives light and understanding to the simple, both in the ways of God’s kingdom and in the ways of the world.
Psalm 18:28 says, “For You will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.” He applies it to the inner worries that steal concentration and sleep. Jesus is not only the Word of God; He is the light that wants to take those concerns away.
He shares a story from a New York radio talk show he joined on the afternoon the Twin Towers were attacked. A caller he remembers as Gloria was high in one tower when the plane struck. Lost in smoke, she heard the Lord tell her to run, then, as she reached the street, to run to the light. She barely saw it, just a small glow, but she ran toward it. That, he says, is the key: run to the light.
Outer Darkness and the Lamb Who Is the Light
Pastor Hohman challenges the common picture of hell as a bright place where people can see their friends. In Mark 9:43–48, Jesus says again and again that the fire is never quenched, so hell is a fire. Yet in Matthew 8:11–12, He says the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness, with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
How can there be fire and no light? Because Jesus is not there. 1 John 1:5 declares that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Hell is people separated from light, from God, from all His goodness, love, holiness and purity. Pastor Hohman adds that the “sons of the kingdom” picture people who claim a relationship with Jesus through their parents or church attendance rather than true intimacy with Him.
Heaven is the opposite. In Revelation 21:22–24, John saw no temple in the New Jerusalem, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or moon, because the glory of God illuminated it and the Lamb is its light. The nations walk in that light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.
Revelation 22:5 adds that there is no night there, for the Lord God gives them light, and they reign forever. Pastor Hohman connects this to Adam’s mandate: the only way to rule properly over the works of God’s hands is to have His light. He then reads 1 John 1:5–10. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
Walking in the Light of Life This Week
Pastor Hohman closes by declaring that the eyes of understanding of those listening will be enlightened, so that they begin to see truth and revelation in Scripture they may have read many times before. Here are the practical steps drawn from this message on the light of life:
- Open your Bible every morning. He urges everyone to read the Word daily, because it brings light for both natural and kingdom matters.
- Look for Jesus, not just answers. Read the Scriptures to see Him, as John 5:39 teaches, rather than to find a formula.
- Bring your worries into the light. Name the concerns that keep you awake and ask the Lord to enlighten that darkness.
- Follow the lit path. When several choices compete, wait for the direction His Word gives before you move.
- Keep nothing hidden. Confess sin quickly; He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse, and walking in the light restores fellowship.
- Use His name with expectation. He tells the church to expect big things again, because it is the name of Jesus that heals, delivers and sets free.
His final question is one worth carrying through the week: do you bring the bigness of a problem to God, or the bigness of God to your problem?
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 A Bible study on Jesus alone
- 2:09 Why John wrote: correcting a skewed picture of Jesus
- 3:13 That which we have seen and handled: John 1:1–5
- 4:19 Jesus is the Creator, not a created being
- 6:33 Revelation, not head knowledge
- 9:43 The two meanings of logos
- 11:50 Counting it all loss for Christ
- 16:07 Jesus walks out to meet His enemies: John 18
- 18:19 “I am He” and the soldiers fall back
- 22:32 The light shines in the darkness
- 23:32 People in darkness reap darkness
- 25:37 Judah camped east: the children of light
- 26:42 186,400 men of Judah: Numbers 2:9
- 27:42 Voyager, Andromeda and the size of God
- 35:11 Helen Keller and looking into the sun
- 36:14 A lamp to my feet: Psalm 119:105
- 40:21 The entrance of Your words gives light
- 41:24 The Lord will enlighten my darkness
- 42:30 Gloria and the voice that said run to the light
- 45:41 Why hell is fire without light: Mark 9 and Matthew 8
- 49:51 God is light: 1 John 1:5
- 52:00 The Lamb is its light: Revelation 21–22
- 55:10 Walking in the light: 1 John 1:5–10
- 58:20 Prophetic prayer for enlightened eyes
Jesus Series
This message is part of a six-part teaching on who Jesus really is. Start at the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:
- First message: Jesus #1
- Previous: Jesus #3
- You are here: Jesus #4 The Light of Life
- Next: Jesus #5 Light of Life (Part 2)
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Pastor Hohman say faith for healing is the wrong focus?
He is not against healing. In the prayer at the end he thanks Jesus that He heals the sick, cleanses lepers and raises the dead. His point is about where faith rests. Many believers search for faith for a thing, the way the religious leaders searched the Scriptures for life, instead of trusting the One who does it. He says he does not need faith for healing; he needs faith in Jesus Christ, and healing follows His name.
Is head knowledge of the Bible worthless?
No. He tells everyone to open their Bible every morning and get Scripture into their lives. What he rejects is the idea that studying God like a school subject can change you on its own. The religious leaders had the Scriptures memorized and still did not know Jesus. Knowledge becomes life when God gives revelation of who Jesus is, and that revelation grows through intimate fellowship with Him.
What does Pastor Hohman mean by the “baby symphony”?
It is his picture of immature Christianity that is always focused on me, my needs and my things. He links it to Paul putting away childish things. The fivefold ministry exists to equip believers for the work of the ministry, and that work, he says, is not just getting every need met. It is finding the One who meets all your needs and growing in awe and intimacy with Him.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- John 1:1–5 — the Word, life and light
- John 18:1–6 — “I am He” in the garden
- Numbers 2:3 and Numbers 2:9 — Judah camped toward the sunrise
- Psalm 119:105 and Psalm 119:130 — light for the path
- Psalm 18:28 — the Lord enlightens my darkness
- Matthew 8:11–12 — outer darkness
- 1 John 1:5–10 — God is light; walking in the light
- Revelation 21:22–24 — the Lamb is its light
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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