Sermon Central
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G Vs. E And We Series
Contributed by Troy Borst on Jan 21, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: In John 1:4-5, the Apostle John is speaking about the tension and struggle and conflict of light and life verses darkness and death. We must choose what side we are on and there is no middle ground.
G VS. E AND WE
#John1
OPENING ILLUSTRATION… Samurai Jack (p) en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samurai_Jack
Samurai Jack is an American animated action-fantasy science-fiction television series created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network from 2001 until 2004. This is one of my favorite shows. If you talk to Kelly, the story she will tell you about me taping over our wedding with an episode of Samurai Jack is exaggerated and only partly true.
The series tells the story of a heroic samurai's adventures in a distant, dystopian future ruled by the shape-shifting Aku, who is the demonic personification of pure evil and darkness.
Aku is the narrator at the beginning of the show and says: “Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shapeshifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past and undo the future that is Aku!”
The show has action. The show has great storytelling. It is animated, but I don’t mind that. The entire show is a whole story of good vs. evil. The whole show is a whole story about light vs. darkness. Good vs. evil is told in each story and every episode. I like that. I like in the show as well that the good guys remain the good guys and the bad guys remain the bad guys. The show presents the idea that the virtuous Samurai Jack will overcome the evil Aku because he is good, virtuous, and loves his neighbor and only by staying good will he win. Seriously, that is the whole point of the show.
Today we are going to look at a few verses in John 1 that also introduces us to this idea of good vs. evil. The verses are not complicated, but do have a flavor of poetry and symbolism to them. I say poetry and symbolism because light is a symbol of life. Light and life are words associated with Jesus. The opposite of light is shared as darkness. So we get this idea in John 1:4-5 that the Apostle John is speaking about the tension and struggle and conflict of light and life verses darkness and death.
READ John 1:4-5
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
GOOD VS. EVIL tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackAndWhiteMorality?from=Main.GoodVsEvil
Good versus evil is a theme that is told over and over in books, music, movies, TV shows, and even in the Bible. It is white hat versus black hat. It is the story of the shining knight of light and destiny with a flowing cape versus the dark mustache-twirling, force of pure malevolence. It is the Republic, The Alliance, The Federation, or the Fellowship of the Ring fighting for freedom and happiness, helping the helpless, and running soup kitchens, versus the Evil Empire of oppression and tyranny run by The Legion of Doom, greedy corporate scumbags, and an Evil Overlord Sorcerer with deadly sidekicks.
In these stories, the villains never have a sympathetic motivation for their actions, but their intentions are entirely for the sake of evil and may involve taking over or destroying the world. Likewise, the forces of good never have any evil, ulterior motives for their deeds, as they do good because it's The Right Thing To Do. In these stories, at least the ones I tend to like, all the major choices that the heroes are faced with are either right or wrong. In these stories, the good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad. If there are any morally ambiguous or grey characters around they will eventually shift firmly to one side or the other.
When I think of TV shows and movies when I was a kid:
* On GI Joe… the GI Joes were always good fighting for freedom and Cobra was always bad.
* On Transformers… the Autobots were always good and the Decepticons were always destructive and bad.
* In Star Wars… there was the light side with the Jedi and the dark side with the Sith.
These were before my time but still true:
* Dick Tracy is the law abiding cop that always wins the day against all the law breaking gangsters.
* In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs it is Snow White against the evil Queen.
* The Mission Impossible Team from the 1960s was the good guys carrying out missions against the bad guys.
* Perry Mason was always good and always won the day against crime and the mystery of the week.
