Transformed by the Light
Notes
Transcript
When I was a kid I was very scared of the dark. I didn’t sleep with a night light or the lights on because there was a light in the hallway. I always had a flashlight handy just in case.
I spent a lot of my time at our neighbors, they lived about 3/4 of a mile from us. I’d ride my bike to their house and hang out there.
I remember when I was about our Ben’s age. The older kids in our small community talked about some Bob Cats that had been spotted in the area. They had me scared that I was going to get attacked.
We had several bears that roamed our area.
To get to our neighbors you road out the long driveway for the fours houses that the company owned. You then went up a township road to their house. The driveway and township road ran parallel to the state road. I wasn’t allowed to ride on that road.
There has a big pine tree that grew next to the long driveway. It had a branch that hung out over the driveway. I remember thinking that the branch would be the perfect spot for a bear or a bobcat to hangout just waiting for someone to come under it and then attack.
Those older boys had me so scared of being attacked that if it was getting dark that I was petrified to ride under that tree branch. I remember pedaling my bike as fast as I could so that I could get past that tree safely. I couldn’t avoid the tree, I just had to pedal as fast as I could. I think that went on as long as we lived there.
The house we lived in had a basement. We didn’t have a light switch, you had to pull a string to turn on the light that was the closest to the bottom of the steps. The problem with the string was that you had to go half-way down the steps to get to the string.
Did I tell you that I was afraid of the dark?
I hated when I would be sent to the basement to get some canned goods for my mom especially if it was dark outside. If it was dark outside that meant it was really dark in the basement.
If I was in the basement and coming back upstairs, I would quickly turn the light off and run up the stairs and shut the door knowing that all the creatures of darkness would be shut down in the basement.
It was really rough if my brother knew I was down there and held the door shut so I couldn’t get upstairs.
To be in darkness can be a very scary thing. If you’ve ever been here at night and were the last one to leave you know how dark it is to go out onto the carport, you can’t see anything until you get into the parking lot and back into the light.
Of all the senses that we have I think losing my eye sight would be the hardest one to lose. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through life blind. But that is what it is like for a person before they come to saving faith in Jesus. They are living in darkness. Jesus came to change that situation. Zachariah at the birth of his son John spoke these words:
76 You, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. 77 You will tell his people how to be saved through the forgiveness of their sins. 78 Because of our God’s deep compassion, the dawn from heaven will break upon us, 79 to give light to those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide us on the path of peace.”
This passage is in reference to Jesus. The thing about this darkness that Zachariah spoke about is that we didn’t even realize that we were living in darkness. Prior to coming to faith in Jesus we didn’t realize we were living in darkness because darkness is all we have ever known. For us it was normal.
I may get myself in trouble for saying this, but if all we talk about is the sin the world and don’t show and talk about God’s love we’re never going to win someone to Christ. It’s easy to talk about the sin in someone’s life out there in the world but we need to stop and realize that is all they know. They live in darkness to the spiritual reality of God. I think we’ll have better success if we follow the example of Jesus and seek to build a relationship with people so that we can point them to God. We can let the Holy Spirit convict them of sin, it’s not our job to do the convicting.
Jesus is the light, He said in John 8 verse 12
12 Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
We’re talking about spiritual darkness, not physical darkness here.
That life that Jesus spoke about is eternal life, its life in the Kingdom of God. It’s for today, not sometime in the future as the saying I heard down south says “pie in the sky when we die bye and by.” Jesus said
10 The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.
When Jesus came to earth, He came on a rescue mission, to save us, to redeem us from sin and darkness. Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians:
13 He rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. 14 He set us free through the Son and forgave our sins.
I think maybe that John might have had in mind Paul’s words when he wrote this short letter that we’ll be looking at the next few weeks. John in chapter 5 of this letter wrote:
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life.
To walk in this light we need to have that assurance that we have eternal life. I’ve heard many Christians say to me that they hope they’ll make it to heaven when the die. What I think they are telling me is that they are not sure that they are truly saved. That’s not a good way to live because we’re always doubting our faith. That doubt doesn’t come from God, it comes from Satan. Hear again what John wrote:
13 I’ve written this letter to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you will be assured and know without a doubt that you have eternal life.
We can know that we have eternal life, we don’t just hope, we can know and that is the purpose of John’s letter.
John opens this letter telling what he knows. John was a witness to Jesus ministry. John was with Jesus even as Jesus was hanging on the cross. What John is doing is testifying to what he knows in order to point us his readers to Jesus. He says there in verses 3 & 4:
3 What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy can be complete.
I know a lot of Christians who have told me that they couldn’t witness to someone to win them to Christ. I think the reason is that we get it all wrong. I think and I know that I was guilty of this in the past was that our goal in witnessing was to really preach to someone and get them saved, to make a decision.
When Jesus told the disciples that they would be his witnesses I don’t think that is what He had in mind. I believe what Jesus had in mind is telling others about Jesus and what He has done in your life and mine. When you witness you tell what you know, tell your story about what Jesus has done for you. That is what John is writing about.
To walk in the light means that we walk with God. John paints us a picture of the difference between God and man. John writes in verse 5:
5 This is the message that we have heard from him and announce to you: “God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.”
Light symbolizes the purity and holiness of God. Light shows us the truth about ourselves. In God there is no darkness because His essential nature is holiness, love, light and truth. There is no room in God for darkness because darkness stands in stark contrast to light. The light of God reveals our sin and the darkness that we lived in.
To walk in the light, to walk with God we have to be honest with ourselves. To walk with God means that we walk in the light and the truth. Truth comes from God. We read in John’s Gospel:
14 The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified about him, crying out, “This is the one of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than me because he existed before me.’ ” 16 From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace; 17 as the Law was given through Moses, so grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ.
The opposite of truth is falsehood and it was given birth in man back in the Garden of Eden when Satan tempted Adam and Eve. Falsehood and darkness entered into mankind with that first sin.
John was dealing with a problem that is still common today. There were people who were claiming to walk in fellowship with God, maybe even bragged about their relationship with God yet they continued to sin. John’s not talking about someone who gives into temptation and sins, rather he’s talking about someone who continues to sin and doesn’t change.
When we leave the darkness when we come to faith in Jesus Christ there is a major change that occurs in our lives. Jesus was speaking to the Jews who were following him and he told them
31 Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The truth sets us free from sin and from darkness. The Jews questioned Jesus reminding him that they were descendants of Abraham, they were slaves, they were free, but Jesus tells them:
Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John writes in verse 6
6 If we claim, “We have fellowship with him,” and live in the darkness, we are lying and do not act truthfully.
John is talking about people who make sin the normal practice of their lives. They talk about their faith in God yet they live like God has made no difference in their lives. They are living a falsehood, they are still living in darkness. John says that they are lying. John is saying that these individuals need to be honest with themselves. They need to move from the darkness into the light.
I was talking to a group of guys on Friday about this issues of saying one thing and doing something else. Everyone one of them said that it was important to be a man of integrity so that people would believe what they say by how they live their lives.
Throughout the history of the Church there have been those that have lived like these ones that John describes. There are those who believe that we sin everyday “in word, thought and deed” so it doesn’t matter how we live our life. Once we claim to be saved that it doesn’t matter what we do because we’re good to go. The Apostle Paul refuted that idea in his letter to the Romans. He wrote:
1 So what are we going to say? Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply? 2 Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it? 3 Or don’t you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life.
We die to that old life, we come out of the darkness to “live a new life” Paul tells us. That is a dramatic change in our lives. If we continue to sin and I’m not talking about an occasional failure, but living like we did before we made that step of faith then we are not walking in fellowship with God.
I came across a great story that illustrates the transformational work that God wants to do in our lives
The resident bishop at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, who was known to be a great evangelist, reaching out to cynics, unbelievers and scoffers, told the following story. It seems that years ago there was a young man who would daily stand outside the cathedral and shout terrible words and derogatory slogans against God, the church, and anyone who entered the cathedral. He would call these people fools and all sorts of other names. People tried to ignore the man, but it was rather difficult.
One day the rector of the cathedral went outside to confront the man. The young man ranted and raved against everything the priest told him. Finally the priest addressed the young man. “Look,” he said, “let’s get this over with once and for all. I am going to dare you to do something and I bet you cannot do it.” “Of course,” the young man, gruffly responded, “I can do anything you propose.” “Fine,” said the priest. “All that I ask is that you come with me into the church and follow me into the sanctuary. I want you to stare at the figure of Christ and I want you to scream at the top of your lungs, as loudly as you can, ‘Christ died on the cross for me and I don’t care a bit.’” So the young man entered the sanctuary and screamed as loud as he could, while looking at the figure of the cross, “Christ died on the cross for me and I don’t care a bit.” The priest said, “Very good. Now do it again.” And again the man screamed, “Christ died on the cross for me and I don’t care a bit.” “You’re almost done now, said the priest. One more time.”
The main raised his fist, kept looking at the statue, but the words would not come out. He just could not look at the face of Christ and say the words any more. Then, the bishop, to the surprise of all said, “I was that young man. That defiant young man was me. I thought that I didn’t need God, but found that I did.”
John gives us the promise there in verse 7 when he writes:
7 But if we live in the light in the same way as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.
What an awesome promise that is. The blood of Jesus purifies or cleanses us from all sin. God doesn’t leave us where we were in darkness. By the blood of Jesus we are purified. One writer wrote:
the capacity to sin, and even the temptation to sin, are not really the issue in the Christian life. What is at issue are our choices. While we can feel the old passions stirring, we also have a new appreciation for godliness. We want to be like Jesus! Now two sets of desires war within us, and we have been given the freedom to choose. We can walk in the light and live in the radiance shed by the Living Word. Or we can turn our backs and chase off into the darkness after the illusive pleasures of sin. The choices we make, not the temptations we experience, are what move us into darkness or into light.[1]
We all face choices, it’s what we do with those choice that matter. Look back at verses 3 & 4, John wrote:
3 What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy can be complete.
To have that fellowship that John is describing means that we have to make to choice to walk in the light. To walk in the light means that we have to leave the darkness. It is through the daily choice to take up our cross and following Jesus that the Holy Spirit works to transform us. It’s a choice.
I could choose to be an angry selfish person who uses people and claim to be a Christian. I could give to the church and volunteer my time to the church but at home and work I cheat and lie and abuse people. John tells me that I’m living a lie. I’ve made a choice, but it’s a choice to continue to sin and live in darkness. If I make that type of choice I’m not really in fellowship with God.
John takes it even further and writes:
8 If we claim, “We don’t have any sin,” we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
We’re all sinners, that doesn’t mean that we have to continue to live in sin, we have the choice. We again have to be honest with ourselves. John reminds us though of a beautiful promise. In verse 9 John writes:
9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong.
If we’re walking in the light and if we’re being truthful with ourselves we will when confronted with sin we will confess it. If we’re walking in the light, if we’re walking towards God then we’ll be aware of when the Holy Spirit points out sin in our lives and our first response to that sin will be to confess it to God. We cannot live in fellowship with God if we live a lie: to walk in the light means we must face and deal with the reality of our sin.[2]
We can’t hide from God and we certainly can’t hide our sin from God. What did Adam and Eve do when they heard God walking in the Garden after they had first sinned? They hid from God, or rather they tried to hide from God. When we’re confronted with sin we don’t try to hide, we take it to God and confess it to Him.
In that confessing we find forgiveness. When Jesus spoke about setting us free I picture his forgiveness for my sins. There is something freeing when we confess our sins and God forgives us. “The basis of our fellowship with God is not our sinlessness, but His forgiveness.[3]”
Not only does God forgive us, but He purifies “us from all unrighteousness.” The Holy Spirit will deal with the motives and reasons behind why we chose to sin. If we confess our anger or our selfish behavior the Holy Spirit will deal with the reason for the anger or selfishness. That is the work of transformation, of sanctifying us.
There is one last promise that John writes about:
1 My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you don’t sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He is God’s way of dealing with our sins, not only ours but the sins of the whole world.
John writes “if anybody does sin.” That means to me that we have a choice. We have a choice to sin, if we do sin there is hope for us and that is because of Jesus.
How completely sufficient is the blood of Jesus Christ! Enough for the whole world, it surely is enough for you and me. Let us then go on boldly, with full confidence in Him, and walk in the light. We are moving toward holiness. But on the journey, we do not need to hide our sins. We need to acknowledge them, and receive not only forgiveness but the purifying power of our God.[4]
[1] Richards, Larry, and Lawrence O. Richards. The Teacher’s Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1987. Print.
[2] Richards, Larry, and Lawrence O. Richards. The Teacher’s Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1987. Print.
[3] Richards, Larry, and Lawrence O. Richards. The Teacher’s Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1987. Print.
[4] Richards, Larry, and Lawrence O. Richards. The Teacher’s Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1987. Print.