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liberty bible church 1~/13~/08 a.M.
By Tom Zobrist
“Overcoming the fear of the dark”
John 3:18-21
introduction
Illus. of the challenge of keeping groomsmen under control just before the wedding ceremony begins.
I.e.
Ben sprinting in the back halls of the church.
Turning out the lights can calm things down.
Once, one of the groomsmen said, “Oh, the lights are out!!!” I asked if he was afraid of the dark.
He said, “It’s not the dark that bothers me.
It’s what’s in the dark that bothers me.”
Fear is sometimes a good thing.
It protects us from doing things that are foolish to ourselves and others around us.
But, sometimes fear can become irrational and paralyzing and can grip the heart of even the best Christians.
Overcoming fear of anything is not easy for us to do.
There is a whole list of phobias that the psychological world diagnoses and treats as if their roots were physical.
But, fear is much more than that.
Fear is something that Biblical characters had to deal with and so God’s Word addresses fear, in many passages of Scripture.
How can we overcome not only the fear of the dark, but any fear that would keep us from fulfilling God’s will in our lives?
OPEN to passage.
*Prop.
*In this passage, we see how to overcome the darkness.
Open in PRAYER.
PREVIEW the passage.
Once again, Jesus is in the midst of a personal encounter with one of the top religious leaders in the nation.
Jesus has explained what it means to be born again and how one can experience such a birth.
READ 1-17 to get the context.
Now, Jesus concludes this narrative by showing us how to overcome the darkness and the fears that accompany it.
First, if you want to overcome the darkness, you must…
i.
love the light vs. 18-19
Illus. of they say that 10 minutes of exposure of our face or arms will give us enough vitamin D to keep us healthy.
Yet many suffer from a lack of vitamin D in the winter because they fail to get out in the proper light enough.
The same is true is the spiritual realm.
Many lack proper spiritual nourishment because they fail to be exposed to the proper light.
What is the light we are to be exposed to and why is it so important?
a.
The light protects us from COndemnation
V 18a 1.
“Believing” in the finished work of Christ is the only way to escape the condemnation that awaits all sinners.
Cf. v 16-17 The world was already condemned when Jesus came into it.
V 18b 2.
The only way to not go to Heaven is to not believe in Jesus for your salvation.
To believe once again means to trust in.
All who don’t trust in Jesus are self-condemned.
It doesn’t matter how they live.
They can be a good person, a sincere person, a loving person; but, without believing in Jesus, they are condemned already.
There is no need to judge them.
They are like the Israelites in the illustration from Numbers 21:4-9.
If they failed to trust in Moses’ staff with the serpent around it, they would die.
3.
One who believes in Jesus is under no condemnation.
Cf.
Rom.
8:1 They are identified as those who do not walk according to the flesh.
Those who walk in the flesh are suspect as being condemned as rejecters of Jesus.
Cf.
John 5:24 The light protects us from condemnation.
b. the light protects us from the darkness
The light and darkness refers to spiritual light and darkness, but you’ll see at the end how this can protect us from the fear physical darkness as well.
V 19a 1.
In other words, this is how we can tell if someone is condemned.
V 19b 2.
Darkness is not loved for darkness’ sake, it is loved because of what it does.
It hides their evil deeds.
“evil” means wicked.
Works of sin that violate God’s holy standards.
3.
Cf.
John 1:4-5; 12:46 Jesus is the light of the world.
When a sinner is exposed to His light, through the Word, they can respond in repentance and belief or they can reject the light and continue to live in spiritual darkness.
To live in spiritual darkness is to not understand sin.
Illus. of our world living in spiritual darkness today.
We will have an example of that tonight.
The fact that some men love evil deeds with no conviction is self-condemning.
4.
For believers the light shed by Jesus and His Word is what protects us form evil deeds.
The light warns of dangers, exposes evil deeds and evil doers, and shows us the path of escape.
Cf. 1 Cor.
10:13 That’s why the world hates the light.
*Trans.*
For believers, the best protection form darkness and the fear of darkness is to LOVE THE LIGHT.
But, loving the light is just the start.
Next, we have to…
ii.
come to the light vs. 20-21
Illus. of “Light to Light” It’s not enough to know about the light or say we believe in the light.
We have to come to the light for the light to really help us overcome.
a. are you a light hater?
V 20a 1.
People that live in sin don’t like to be confronted with that sin.
They don’t like to see me on their doorstep because I represent the light.
I’m not perfect, but I represent the perfect one.
Their lives condemn them for hating the light.
“evil” here is different from verse 19.
It means worthless.
They’re not necessarily bad people, they just are not involved in anything of eternal significance.
V 20b 2.
They don’t come to the light.
Illus. of why people that are living in sin avoid churches that preach the Truth.
They don’t want to be exposed to the light and have their evil deeds revealed.
Like cock roaches, they scatter when the light is comes on.
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