All of us has a default hatred in darkness!!!! We don’t like being in the dark!!!! We don’t want to be in the dark!!! We get annoyed when we are put in a dark place! No one wants to be in dark! Yet, this is the dilemma of the world! This is the dilemma of human nature. We are in darkness!
With the wars in Europe and other parts of the world, we know that we live in a dark world. With floods, calamities, and natural disasters in various places, we know that we live in dark world. With soaring interest rates and taxes in many places to try and recover from the effect of COVID-19, we know that we are living in dark times. We are not insensitive to those families who are doing it very tough whether be it loss of loved ones due to carelessness of others, we sympathize in their dark times.
John 8:12, Jesus … said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” The light that He is alluding here is much more than literal but spiritual.
IF CHRIST IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, then a world without CHRIST IS DARKNESS.
Darkness in the Bible:
• A symbol of evil
• A symbol of sin – spiritual blindness
(SLIDE 4, then back to 3) - 2 COR 4:4-6 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
• A symbol of ignorance - Ignorance about God’s will – Saul/Paul thought that he is doing God a favour in his attempt to kill Christ’ followers when he was still ignorant of Jesus
Acts 26:15-18 15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
• Judgement (John 3:19) 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
• Distress and anxiety, disaster, confusion, depression, and destruction, feeling of worthlessness
(Job 3:4-6) Let that day be turned to darkness.
Let it be lost even to God on high,
and let no light shine on it.
5 Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own.
Let a black cloud overshadow it,
and let the darkness terrify it.
6 Let that night be blotted off the calendar,
never again to be counted among the days of the year,
never again to appear among the months.
• Feeling that God had abandoned him (Lamentations 3:1-2) When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and deported much of its population to, those who were left behind in Jerusalem expressed their lament to God. In Lam 3:1-2, we read these people of faith expressed their disbelief. They struggled to understand how God could have allowed the once great city of Jerusalem they love to be devastated and shattered by their enemies. They thought that God had abandoned them and what happened to them was a punishment of an angry God!
[a]I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the LORD’s wrath.
2 He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
Some of you can identify with these things. The truth is you don’t have to stay in darkness because God promised a very clear path out of it. BECAUSE IF THE BIBLE TALKS ABOUT DARKNESS, IT ALSO TALKS ABOUT THE LIGHT
Matthew 4:16; ) - The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.
What is light? Illumination that makes sight possible.
To someone who is lost in an unfamiliar territory in darkness, to see a light even the tiniest is a glimmer of hope -
THE POWER OF THE SWITCH – to some, the issue is not the light but our willingness/eagerness to turn the switch on!
Example: Marie and Walter gifted us a 3-day tour in Canada 🇨🇦 Kingston-Ottawa-Montreal-Old Quebec-1000 Islands
The schedule is packed and the travel time between these places range between 2 to 3.5 hours. The tour guide followed itineraries that goes from 6 am to 6 pm that by the time we get to our hotel, it’s bedtime. So, for 2 separate nights after a long day journey, they give us keys to our rooms. We were rushing to our rooms to get refreshed and rest. But then you are confronted by a pitch-dark room. And so, you are groping in this dark pitch room with one thing in mind - where is the light switch in this room!
You see, darkness is no good even in the most elaborate elegant, exquisite room. You must turn the lights on. When the Hotel staff hands you the key to your room, they assume that you’ll light the room for yourself because there is light in the room to help you see everything! You must turn the light bulb! As soon as we lighted the room, automatically, we knew what to do, where things are, where to put things, etc.
Light in the Bible: - Light has always been for Israel a symbol of God’s glory, an image of his perfect law and a picture of his guidance.
• Created by God (Gen. 1:3)
• A symbol of God
• Pillar of cloud/fire (Exodus 13:21)
• God is light (1 John 1:5, NLT)
• God is Everlasting light
19 “No longer will you need the sun to shine by day,
nor the moon to give its light by night,
for the Lord your God will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun will never set;
your moon will not go down.
For the Lord will be your everlasting light.
Your days of mourning will come to an end. (Isaiah 60:19-20, NLT)
• Symbolizes the blessings of the Lord –
“He floods the darkness with light; He brings light to the deepest gloom (Job 12:22, NLT)
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord. (Psalm 89:15)
• Symbol of holiness - John 1:5 This is the message we heard from Jesus[a] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
• Concept of salvation
“The Lord is my light and salvation – whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
LIGHT IN RELATION/REFERENCE TO JESUS
As the light of the world, Christ claimed to be God, for God is light (1 John 1:5).
• Light of the world you stepped down into darkness - opened my eyes let me see
V23 you are from below; I am from above. You are of this 🌍; I am not of this world
Jesus said to them: v24) I told you that would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.
• Christ is the true pillar of fire to His people: He gives light upon the world of sin. (1 John 1:5 NLT) 5 This is the message we heard from Jesus[a] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. He came to earth to bring life, be the pillar of cloud and fire to us.
Problem of vision impaired - problem of seeing even the most obvious; problem of seeing even things right before him - it’s a problem that he did not create, it’s a physiological problem that can or cannot be corrected by human means - glasses /
To some, the problem is not the presence or the absence of light, the problem is the proximal distance of a person to the object of sight -
Far sightedness- can see afar but not close proximity
Nearsightedness- can see in close proximity But not in distance
The problem for some people is not that the Light of Christ is ineffective, but it is in how close or how far they are from the Light! Some can be so close to Jesus physically and geographically like these people in John 8 and never ever see the light
• Adam and Eve in the garden - They were in the location where God. But their actions created a distance and a wall to God. It is not something that God did, it was something that they did that brought irreparable damage in the relationship. They could not see God by default because of who He is. His nature - He is holy!
• they did not want to see God at that moment because of shame, guilt, fear. They probably thought that God would punish them, so they hid.
• DON’T BE AFRAID TO COME NEAR TO JESUS
There’s one important truth about Jesus that I pray you’ll get hold of today. I want you to understand that “Jesus does not leave anyone the same way He finds them.” Today, God knows exactly where You are, and be sure that He’ll find you there. This is what Jesus did to this woman whom the religious leaders and the Pharisees brought to Jesus in front of the crowd. They brought her there to trap Jesus, to humiliate Jesus thinking that Jesus would shame himself with a wrong answer worthy of execution. In John 8:1-11, this woman was caught in adultery. They made this woman stand before everyone. Then they said to Jesus, “In the law of Moses, the command is to stone such woman. Now what do you say?” And then, showing less concerned about the accused and his accusers, he stooped down again and wrote to the ground. NO DRAMA – NO BIG DEAL! And they press and press Jesus to answer them. After a while, Jesus gave answered them with a bombshell reply and said, “let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Upon hearing Jesus’ answer, the group of “holier- than-thou” left one by one leaving Jesus alone with this woman. Look how they treated this woman? When they realized that this woman was of no use to their selfish, ill agenda, they just left her there with Jesus! Now Jesus got to sort her out because the woman stayed and stood there possibly waiting what would happen now! And Jesus turned to the woman and said, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (v11) “No one, sir,” she replied. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Now, if you stop reading just there, you’ll more likely to think that this woman got an okey to go home and continue to live in adultery; that Jesus is okey with this woman to continue leaving with someone whom she is not married. Well, Jesus, who is God, like the Father of all lights who said, “be holy for I am holy” gave this woman a life-altering command. It was a light-bulb moment for her. You know what light-bulb moment is! A light-bulb moment is an “aha- moment.” Jesus said to her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (MANY WOMEN IN THE BIBLE WHO LEFT THEIR OLD LIFE TO FOLLOW JESUS)! Stress this::: “Jesus does not leave anyone the same way He found them.” He will give you enough to go by so you can leave your life His way.
What God wants is that people will choose Jesus (the light); that people will move themselves from darkness to light by choice. CHOOSE LIGHT BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY WAY TO eliminate DARKNESS. (SLIDE 15 – photo of yesterday’s salvation)
LEAD US TO THE SWITCH - When Father God gave His Son as a ransom, a sacrifice for the sins of the world, yours and mine included, the Holy Spirit has been working to bring our attention to the switch - Jesus! He is the one that tells us —- leads us to the switch Jesus.
He does this in the form of conviction, (you feel the pinched), in the form of peace, acts that would bring you to Jesus! He must because if not, no one will see the light of Christ! It must be by the Holy Spirit for it is Him that draw us to the Saviour! Because the truth about Jesus is spiritual; they can only be discerned by and in the Spirit.
CONCLUSION:
• Those who believe in Jesus will not remain in darkness. WALK away from it! Coming to Christ for salvation results in a different kind of life.
1 John 1:-7 Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
• Those who are in Jesus are in the light. WALK in the light.
MATT. HENRY: Ver. 12. He that followeth Me. It is not enough to look at this light, and to gaze upon it; but we must follow it, believe in it, walk in it,—for it is a light to our feet, not our eyes only.
• Those who follow Jesus would have the light of life. KEEP the light shining bright for Jesus. Darkness speaks of death, ignorance, and sin; light speaks of life, knowledge, and holiness.
Ephesians 5:10-15 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,
To my brethren in CLG Sydney and CLG Manila, how is your walk with Jesus -
• are we walking in the light?
Jesus … said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
