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2008-11-30 (am) John 1:1-5 The Light
The ninth plague that God struck the Egyptians with was darkness.
There’s a bit of irony with that particular plague.
The Egyptians were pantheists, they worshipped many gods.
But they had a chief god, Ra, the sun god, or the god of light.
When God covered all Egypt with darkness, He proved who truly is the god of light.
He proved that the Egyptian sun god, Ra, was unable to penetrate the darkness that covered over all Egypt.
Well all of Egypt except where the Israelites were.
The Israelites still had light.
In fact, he proved that there is no such thing as Ra.
The Egyptians thought they were worshipping the light, they worshipped the god of the sun, which they could see.
The Israelites worshipped the true light, the light you cannot see, the light that made the sun and moon and stars.
They worshipped the creator, not the creation.
We who have come to Christ are in the light.
We’ve seen the light.
We are no longer stumbling around in the darkness.
The darkness that covered Egypt was thick.
It was cloying.
There was no escaping it.
A candle couldn’t penetrate it.
The sun couldn’t penetrate it.
It was a darkness that could be felt.
No one could see anything.
Some of you have been in the Cadomin Caves.
You’re so far underground, that you turn off all the lights, you can’t even see your hand in front of your face.
It’s like you’re nowhere, just suspended in space.
You can’t even see the ground you’re standing on!
There’s no point of reference.
Without the light, you’d stumble around, get lost, get hurt and probably die.
But the Bible tells us that the darkness that covered Egypt was far worse.
People couldn’t see anything, they couldn’t do anything, and they couldn’t even leave their homes.
The darkness that covered Egypt is like the darkness that covers the hearts, souls and minds of people who do not know Christ.
Spiritually, they’re in darkness.
They cannot see.
The most interesting thing about online blogging is that those who think of themselves as scientifically rationalistic claim to be most knowledgeable, most illuminated.
They believe that they can see things so clearly.
They say, “it’s as plain as the nose on your face.”
But in the same breath, they completely ignore the spiritual.
They refuse to look beyond their faces.
In looking at only what they can see with their eyes, they’re completely ignoring what can’t be seen with the eye, but which our hearts knows exists.
They’re ignoring the spiritual.
Now, there are many others out there, actually numerically, the number of true atheists is very low.
Most people are agnostic, they believe there’s a god or a higher power, but they claim that that god is unknowable.
Sounds like a pretty lame god to me, if he’s unable to communicate with humans, who happen to be pretty good at communicating.
Then there are people who are actively seeking spirituality.
There’s Oprah’s spirituality, Muslim spirituality, Hindu, Jehovah’s Witnesses, you name it.
They want spirituality on their terms.
They want to define their object of worship.
They want to work their spirituality into their schedule.
They want to do it to feel good about themselves.
Or they want a defined set of rules and regulations, so that they don’t have to think at all, they just go through the motions and they get satisfaction from that.
They’re religious.
But Christianity is vastly different.
It is a relationship.
And that relationship starts with light.
What a difference!
God comes to us with the truth.
In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
The Word is Jesus.
He is eternal.
He is from before the beginning.
He is in fellowship with God.
He is God.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, in perfect harmony, in perfect love, in perfect unity.
Through Christ, God, created all things.
Christ comes to us and tells us the truth.
He shines the light of truth into the darkest regions of our hearts.
He says, “I made you.
I know you.
I love you.
I want to be in relationship with you.
I promise love to you.
I promise true joy for you.
You cannot find anyone else like me.
Come to me; put your faith in me.
Trust in me.
I am who I say I am.
I am truth.
I am light.
Move out from the darkness and see, really see.”
Now, when we come face to face with the Light of Christ, it is at first very painful.
We all know what it is like to be in a dark room, or a dark movie theatre, and you step into a brightly lit room.
It takes a little time for your eyes to adjust, to get used to the light.
You squint, and eventually, your eyes get used to the light.
The same thing happens spiritually.
Only, it is not as though we walk from the darkness into the light, instead, Jesus Christ, the light, comes to us.
He shines his light all around.
And it is bright; it is painful, for it shows everything.
How many of us would like to have all the images of all our sins displayed on the projector screen.
Instead of the words of songs, we’d see images of our thoughts, our words, and our deeds.
Up there, in plain view for all to see.
I know I wouldn’t want that.
But really, what do I have to hide that you don’t also have, but maybe in a slightly different way?
We all confess and know that there is no one perfect apart from Christ, so really, we aren’t fooling anyone.
We have our masks on, but we all know that deep down, we’re no better than anyone else, in fact, we’re much worse.
But Christ comes to us, shines His exceedingly bright light all around us, illuminating every deep and dark corner, even the most nasty bits, and then says to us: “There’s nothing new or shocking here.
The fruit of all this sin is death.
But I love you.
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