From Darkness to Light

In the 200s BC, construction began on the lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the 7 ancient wonders of the World. Alexandria was one of, if not the, largest cities in the world at this time and was located on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea - making it a very popular and prosperous port city. The city was thriving under the rule of Ptolemy 1 and undergoing massive building projects, however ships from the sea were having difficulty getting into the port due to the amount of ships that traveled to and from Alexandria. Because of this, and to show off his power, Ptolemy decided to build a massive lighthouse that would aid sailors in getting to the port from the sea. Whenever we think of a lighthouse today, we often think of a concrete building that is 50-60 feet tall with a light that circles around at the top. The lighthouse of Alexandria was between 430 and 480 feet tall and was visible for thousands and thousands of feet into the Mediterranean! At the top of this lighthouse was a fire out of burning oil that is thought to have been reflected by a bronze mirror to help the light project even further over the sea. In a time where sailing was often seen as dangerous, this lighthouse was extremely helpful because the light from the top could be seen for miles. The darkness over the Mediterranean was pierced by this light and sailors were able to direct their ships to safety because of it.

We know the power that light has over darkness. Even a small candle or flashlight can light up an entire room! A tiny star, millions of light years away from our planet can light up our night sky. Light has power over darkness, even whenever the darkness can seem overwhelming. Just as light and darkness are contrasted in our world, good and evil are contrasted as well. In Scripture, we see the metaphor of light and darkness representing good and evil time and time again. We see these ideas especially in Matthew’s and John’s Gospel accounts. With that said, Paul uses this idea as well in his letters to demonstrate that there are works of darkness and fruit of light. What we will look at this morning in is that the theme of Imitating God continues as Paul calls Christians to not only walk in love but to also walk in light and wisdom. Our task, as individuals and as a church, is to figure out how exactly we can walk in the light. Let’s see what Paul says:

Ephesians 5:3–17 NASB95

3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” 15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Worship God, not Idols (3-6)

As Paul does in several different places in Scripture, the very first sin that he mentions in this list starting in verse 3 is “immorality” or “sexual immorality”. Whenever you look around in our world today, you see how much we have advanced over the last few generations. We have skyscrapers stretching thousands of feet into the sky, we have planes transporting millions of people on a daily basis around the globe and we have a digital “cloud” that holds seemingly more information than we can comprehend! While these things are absolutely true and we have reaped the benefits of these technological advances, we still struggle with the same sin issues that the 1st century world faced. The first two things Paul says is immorality and impurity. These traits are things that the church and world certainly struggles with today as well.

Impurity can often be thought of regarding a type of filth that contaminates a substance. We think of impurities in our blood or water in the 21st century, in Scripture impurity can mean any type of sin. As we know, sin is what separates us from God. Sin is a stain that we cannot wash out with the strongest of detergents or bleach. As tells us, we are to be a holy people because God is holy. Impurity is different from immorality, but they both separate us from God at the end of the day and must not be normative in the life of a Believer!

Immorality in this text comes from the Greek word “pornei”. Many people will try to justify their actions with a whole list of reasons, but Paul tells us that there should not even be a hint of immorality in a believer’s life! As Paul will tell us later in this text, we were once darkness but we are now light. We must resist the temptation to remain in this type of sin. We must also understand that renaming sin is very popular in our culture as well. It’s not a sin, they’re “engaged” or it’s not that bad, they only got to 3rd base. We rename sin in order to justify it, but sin is still sin and Paul says that these things should not even be names among us!

Some frightening statistics for us this morning, the average age that a person is introduced to pornographic images is 11 years old. Our culture might claim to be so much further advanced than the 1st century world, but we are still struggling with this problem! You might say that we are even worse than they were, but I would simply say that it is so much more readily accessible now than back then. It’s on television, it’s accessible in a couple clicks on a cell phone and its something that people glorify in school. This is a very timely message for our nation and for our teenagers as well. Your life is an overflow of your heart. Struggling with impurity or immorality is a heart problem. As a child of God, you have been freed from this bondage! There is no reason for these sins to be named among us according to Paul. There is hope! We must be faithful to the Word and to our God to be holy as He is holy. We will fall short and as a church we should be a people of restoration rather than punishment. With that said, with any sin there must be repentance before there can be restoration. We, as a church and as individuals, must be a people who confess our sin, repent from it and call others to do the same! There is no one too far gone for the Gospel and grace of Jesus Christ. We must remember that daily.

The next sin we see in verse 3 is greed, but it could also be known as a “craving”. How many of you in here like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice cream? I’ll be completely honest and tell you all that it does not matter how much food i’ve eaten at a meal, I always have room for some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! I crave this ice cream a lot of the time and I’ll make a trip to the store just to get some if Lindsey and I run out. I love this ice cream. Replace ice cream with that one sin that we have that we keep on running back to, time and time again. That one sin that we have that we refuse to fully give over to God. The sin that we have that turns into an idol of sorts. As we see in the example of the Rich Young Ruler in , greed or craving things is a matter of the heart. It is about desiring something more than we desire God. Of course none of us will openly admit that we are greedy or covetous, but it will sneak up on us. As John Piper says, it is the craving that ought to be conquered by a new and more powerful affection - aren’t you thankful that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is more powerful than any earthly option out there? We must be mindful to replace our cravings with Jesus Christ.

Tim Keller, one of the most respected pastors in the United States, preached a sermon series through the 7 deadly sins and his wife told him in advance that his message on “greed” would be the one in which attendance would be the lowest. Sure enough, his wife was correct! Greed is something that our culture lives out on a daily basis. If you want something, work hard and go get it because you deserve it! To not be greedy is to go against our culture! We must fight hard against this idol. As Christians, we know that money will never satisfy us. It is empty and will always leave us wanting more! For those of you who have seen “The Greatest Showman” there is a song called “Never Enough” that has some powerful lyrics, “Towers of gold are still too little. These hands could hold the world but it'll. Never be enough” In the eyes of our world, this is true. You can have the world in your hand and it will never fill that God-sized hole in your heart. As the hymn puts it, you can have the world, just give me Jesus!

The next sin we see is corrupt speech. This is one that hits a little closer to home for many of us. It can be easier for us to fight against outward actions and lusting after the desires of the world and money, however fighting against corrupt speech is fighting against our thoughts and what we say behind closed doors. This is certainly relevant for the church as many people have been hurt deeply by gossip and the “clicks” within the church! This cannot be the case for Christians! We cannot be self-centered in the way we act or the way we talk. We are to be a people who, as Paul writes in verse 4, give thanks! Whenever our heart is overflowing with joy, thanksgiving will be the natural response from our mouths. As Snodgrass puts it, “Thanksgiving is an antidote for sin, for it is difficult (it not impossible) to both give thanks and sin at the same time.” We must be filled with the Holy Spirit and give thanks to God for what we have rather than idolizing the things of our world or speaking poorly to someone around us.

Finally, Paul gives us a warning at the end of this section in verses 5-6 by saying whoever continues in this type of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. You might be thinking, how can this be the case because I struggle with these sins each and every day? Am I really saved? Kent Hughes has a good way of looking at this passage, “Do Christians fall into these sins? Of course! But true Christians will not persist in them, for persistence in immorality is a graceless state.” This is our warning, church! We will always sin, but do we live in sin or do we repent of it and confess it before the Father and strive to live a Christlike life? Do we try to imitate God in the way we live our life or do we make church a legalistic thing to make ourselves look good? If that is all that church is, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God. We are to pursue the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of God rather than the desires of this world. As Jesus said in , what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

The good news for followers of Jesus Christ is that we experience a sliver of the Kingdom of God today in our lives through the Holy Spirit. Because of this, we should not be deceived by empty words. We know that there is coming a day where unrepentant sinners will receive judgment and justice, however we know that God’s Word and way is far more satisfying than impurity and greed. Because of this, we must be a thankful people and worship the King in spirit and truth because He is worthy. Don’t water down the gospel and continue living in these sins, flee from them and turn to Christ completely!

Let your Light shine (7-10)

Paul transitions in verses 7-10 to talk about how we are supposed to let our light shine! Jesus Himself calls for believers to let their light shine in

Matthew 5:16 NASB95

16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

This is something that is vitally important. It is important for us to have light in the darkness so that we are safe. It is important to have people in our lives watching out for us so that we avoid danger. It is vitally important for the church, the bride of Christ, to let her light shine and be a beacon of hope in a dark, cold world. The light that shines, though, glorifies God, not us. We must keep that in mind.

In verse 7, Paul says that we should not join the darkness. This seems pretty straightforward, does it not? You are either light or dark, you cannot be both. As Christ said,

Matthew 5:13 NASB95

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

Matthew 5:13–15 NASB95

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

We are to be salt. What good is salt if it is tasteless? It is useless! Paul calls the Corinthian church to not even be mismatched with unbelievers. You never mistake the sun for the moon. You never mistake day for night. Therefore, you must not mistake the light with the darkness. You are to be salt and to be light to those around you, even to those who do not know Jesus Christ! However, you must be careful not to join them. We must be careful to not allow people around us to cover our light. Again, we are to flee from unrighteousness. We must not share in the desires of the world, we must live as a new creation and we must be sure that we do not partake in some of the things that non-Christians do. We must be in the world, but not of it.

Verse 8 shows us that we must live as a new creation. Paul tells his audience that they were once darkness. This hurts. Paul doesn’t say that you were kind of bad or a little sick, but he says that you were once darkness. Praise God that the verse continues with one of the strongest explanations of Christian conversion, though, as Paul continues to say that we are now Light in the Lord. This is it, church. You were dead in your sins and lost in utter darkness until God came and rescued you from that dominion and transferred you to the kingdom of light. You can debate about the process by which this occurs and the amount of choice and responsibility that you play, but you cannot change the fact that you were once dead in your sins before Christ Jesus made you alive! Aren’t you thankful today for what Jesus has done for you? Notice what Paul says about who we now are, though. He does not say that we are light by ourselves but rather that we are light in the Lord. He is light, because we are in Him (as we saw in ) we are light as well! Because of this, we are to walk as children of Light.

What does this look like? Well it’s an imperative in the Greek text which means that this is a command. We are commanded to walk as children of Light. This means that we are to be a holy people and to be set apart from the rest of the world because through Christ Jesus we are a completely new creation.

Verse 9 calls us to do things that are good. What happens to your eyes if you stare at the sun for a long period of time? Serious, sometimes permanent, damage! What we know from biology is that the sun is extremely important for our survival. Without the sun we would freeze to death and have no food to eat - we desperately need it to survive, but it also represents a threat of danger. What happens to the church if we turn into a social club where people see Christians on Sunday mornings gathering and judging the world around them without producing acts of kindness and goodness? We are a blinding light that does nothing good but only causes harm to those around us! We are called in to imitate God. That requires action. That means loving your enemy as yourself. It means to produce fruit that is good, righteous and truthful. As Christians, you are not called to exist and “survive” for eternal glory but you have a responsibility now, today, to live a life that imitates God to the world around you. This should be a daily reminder to us in our world today, we should be a people who walk in light and do good works, live a righteous life and speak truthfully. That should be the testimony of the church today.

Verse 10 finalizes this thought by saying that displaying our light is pleasing to the Lord. Is it the job of the church to please everyone in our world? Is it possible to please everyone around us? Of course not! What we are supposed to do is to please God. You might be mocked by others for claiming to be a Christian, but we must remember that we are called to obey God. says that the whole world has an intellectual knowledge of who God is, there is no excuse for them. They can call us crazy for our faith, non-Christians can say that it is insane to believe a book that is over 2000 years old, however, deep down, Scripture says that they know that there is a creator and that they have seen His creation. Our prayer should be that we might be a people who reflect the love of Jesus Christ and our light might glorify our Father. In doing that, we pray that the lost around us might see that light and come to know our Savior as well.

Expose the Darkness (11-14)

With all of the crazy things that we have seen on the news lately and all of the terrifying and depressing things that we see in our society on a regular basis, Christians are responsible to expose the darkness around us. It is not enough to tell people that we are Christians and that we love Jesus Christ and let darkness and evil go on around us. I don’t know the correct response to stop these issues, but whenever injustice or oppression or murder comes, we must call it out for what it is. We must expose the darkness. Something must be done! Paul tells us in this section that our light exposes the sin of others in verse 11. When Paul uses the word “expose”, the Greek word has the meaning of “correcting” rather than simply illuminating. Whenever we think of expose, we think of someone ruining a secret or uncovering a plan. The Greek word is deeper than that. It is correcting someone in a loving manner. It means that we have relationships with people who are not Christians (whether it be family, friends, neighbors or co-workers!). It means that we are to live a holy life and confront darkness. How can we do this consistently? We allow our actions and words to be in step with how a Christian is supposed to live. We pray for Wisdom () and we pray for the fruits of the Spirit in order to know how to best expose the darkness around us. We must rely on the Holy Spirit in order to do this, though, because if we are after “vengence” or “justice” then we can quickly rely instead on our own instincts and end up fighting sin with sin.

Verse 12 tells us that we are not to participate in what is shameful/disgraceful. We are to live a life that is honorable both in public and in private - that is a hard thing to do, but it is something that Believers must do.

Verses 13 and 14 finalize this idea by showing us that light transforms the darkness. As J.B. Phillips put it, “It is even possible (after all, it happened to you!) for the light to turn the thing it shines upon into light also.” We are to bring the light of the Gospel everywhere we turn. Where there is abuse, betrayal, hurt and violence. We are to shine the light of the Gospel even to the “abusers” of the world. Verse 14 wraps up this passage by quoting 2 different passages from Isaiah ( and ) and talks about the transforming power of Jesus Christ. This is thought to have been an ancient baptismal hymn that Christians would know and sing whenever someone was baptized. Don’t you see the beautiful baptismal language in this verse? Awake, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you because you are a new creation. In this day and age, people were baptized much earlier than people are today. Example, if you accepted Jesus as your Lord in the 1st century, you probably got baptized later that day if not immediately. That is why this text says that Christ will shine upon you because this was a choice that was made very recently. In our world, though, people might accept Christ as their Lord and not get baptized for years. We believe that believers baptism is an act of obedience, however the waters of baptism will not save you - only a relationship with Christ can do that.

Conclusion

What is the big deal about being a people who let our light shine? We are to do this because we were once in utter darkness as well. We were lost. We should shine the light and truth of the Gospel into the world around us because we should desire others to come to see the light as well. Maybe that is through our testimony of what God has done in our life, maybe it is by helping someone out in a very difficult situation, maybe it is simply inviting someone to church or to our upcoming revival! Regardless of the situation, we should desire to be used to help someone in darkness come to know the light for themselves.

This requires effort. This requires intentionality. This requires getting outside of your comfort zone. Is it easy to tell someone that they are lost and desperately in need of saving? Maybe for you, but that is usually a very hard thing to do. Yet, it is exactly the call from Paul here. We are to let our light shine and expose the darkness. Let that be our call to action this week. Let’s pray

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