Illuminate

1 John • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago • Presented 7 years ago • 28:48

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Like his gospel, John begins with a declaration that Jesus is the light of the world. What does it look like for the church today to be a light shining into a dark world?

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Moonlight

I’m sure we all know what it is like to see a big bright full moon. Especially if we are somewhere outside of the city where there are not streetlights, the moon can seem so bright sometimes that it lights up everything around us. Of course, it is never as bright as sunlight, but sometimes moonlight can seem pretty bright. Except for one thing—and this is a technical distinction, but it is still true. There is no such thing as moonlight. That’s because the moon is not luminous—meaning, it is not capable of producing any light. The moon is made from dirt. It’s a ball of rock and dust. Dirt cannot make light.

So, the light that you see when you look up on a clear night with a full moon is not moonlight at all. It is actually sunlight. The sun’s light hits the moon and reflects back to fill the night sky. The light of the sun is what shines from the moon. The sun is luminous—it creates light. The moon, however, is illuminated—it reflects light that comes from the sun.

And this is why we have different moon phases—a crescent, and a half moon, and full moon, and so on. It is because our perspective here from earth only allows us to see different angles of the sun’s light reflected off the moon. So, we might actually say that there is always a full moon. When you see a crescent moon in the sky, it is not that three quarters of the moon is somehow missing. Rather, it is that the sun’s light is only shining on a portion of the moon’s surface, and the other portion of the moon’s surface is left in the dark, so you cannot see it.

You can only see the part that is in the light. The part that is in the dark is not visible. Light allows us to see things that otherwise we would not be able to see. As we continue today through the letter of 1 John, we see the theme of light become important for what John is writing to the church.

1 John 1:5–2:2 NIV

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 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 sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Context — two sections to 1 John

Let me set up some context around this letter to help us map out where we are going. Last week Pastor Dylan encouraged all of us to take time over the past week and read through the entire letter of 1 John in one sitting. It’s five short chapters. It takes about 20-30 minutes. That’s certainly a realistic goal for us. And the challenge is to do this more than once. So, if you took time to read the letter last week, find a half-hour again this week to read it again. If you did not take the time last week to read it, start this week—I’m sure you can find a half-hour.

To help you out as you go, let me point to the two major sections of the letter. The key phrase first shows up in verse five that we just read. “This is the message.” It shows up again in the middle of chapter three. Those mark out the two major sections of the letter. So, what does John say about the message in verse five.

This is the message: God is light

God is light. This is the theme that will carry all the way into the middle of chapter three until John announces the second section of his letter. But for now, we are going to park for a while on the image of light—that God is light.

This is not new material for John. If you have ever read the gospel of John, maybe you recall that John uses similar language to describe the coming of Christ into the world.

John 1:4–5 NIV

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And it is in John’s gospel that he records Jesus as saying that he is the light of the world. So, it is not any big new surprise that John would write this letter and dive right into an entire section under the heading: God is light. So, let’s unpack this and start to figure out what John means when he says that God is light.

If you have a Bible open and are looking at 1 John, the verses we read today are structured as a series of six conditional statements. There are six if…then clauses. ‘If’ this, ‘then’ that. They are all meant to help describe John’s message that God is light. Three of the statements are positive. And three of the statements are negative. Let’s break it down.

Six if…then conditional statements

Verse six is a negative statement.

1 John 1:6 NIV

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

Verse seven is a positive statement.

1 John 1:7 NIV

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 sin.

Verse eight follows with another negative statement.

1 John 1:8 NIV

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

And then verse nine again returns to a positive statement.

1 John 1:9 NIV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

You see the pattern by now. Verse ten is again negative.

1 John 1:10 NIV

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

And then see how the first two verses of chapter two balance out with the final positive statement.

1 John 2:1–2 NIV

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

So, what is John up to with these six statements about light and darkness? Again, some context around John’s letter might be helpful. The original recipients of this letter were first century Christians who were receiving some conflicting teachings about Jesus. John is writing to sort out the issues and point them away from lies and back towards the truth.

See the light

It is very important to John that his readers see and know the truth about Jesus. So, he uses the image of light to convey truth. By saying that God is light, he is declaring that when we have the light of Jesus we can see the truth clearly. Conversely, those who live in lies are stumbling in darkness.

Mission statement — see Jesus | know Jesus

Recall that the mission statement of this church has four parts. The first two parts of our mission are about seeing Jesus and knowing Jesus. This is exactly what John is talking about here. He wants the church to see Jesus and know Jesus.

The problem for some of those who were a part of the early church is that they had the wrong idea of who Jesus really is. And that’s a problem that is not so unique to the church of that time. We can certainly struggle yet today to see Jesus and know Jesus for who he really is.

mixing wrong beliefs — Gnosticism | humanism

For the people of the apostle John’s time, the tendency was to mix Christianity with other beliefs that were popular at the time. Specifically, it was a belief called Gnosticism. The Gnostics taught that everything spiritual was good and wholesome, while everything physical or material was bad. So, the Gnostics did not care about the way they lived, because they thought the physical world did not matter—so if they lived in sinful ways, it did not matter. This is why John is so insistent to proclaim the truth that sin is real, and it does matter, and that Jesus is the only light.

Maybe Gnosticism is not a big deal anymore today. But we do still live in times when other beliefs mix with Christianity. Our culture embraces humanism. It is the belief that we are each our own gods, that we each hold our own authority, we each hold our own sovereignty; that we can each make up our own rules, we can define our own morality, we can control our own world. The end goal of life is to live for yourself. And this has made its way into the church; let’s not kid ourselves about that.

There are those who bounce from one church to the next looking for their own exaltation. I need messages or music or surroundings that fit my own preferences or my own rules. I need something that helps me to feel better about myself, or be inspired to improve myself, or helps me to be a better person…ME, ME, ME! I have become the god of this temple because somehow it has turned around to be just about me. That’s humanism. And it’s very subtle in our churches when it is so very prevalent everywhere else in our world. It is a belief system that is so common in our American world, we hardly notice it creeping into our Christian faith.

John awakens us again to the light. He reminds us that we are not the lights. God is light. Our worship is directed for one purpose, to glorify God alone. John reminds us just as he reminded his original readers that only God is light. When we pursue a religion or a worldview or some kind of meaning or purpose in life that starts looking more at ourselves than to Jesus, then we miss the true light, and we are left stumbling about in the darkness.

Walk in the light

But John does not just let it go as well enough to see the light and to know the light. He goes a step further and says we need to respond by walking in the light. It is not enough just to recognize Jesus. It is not enough just to acknowledge Jesus. Our lives must also take direction and shape around this light of Jesus. The Bible often uses the image of walking to describe a life that lives in motion with the direction of God. The Old Testament describes the patriarchs of faith not just in terms of what they believed. It is not just that they believed in God. The Bible says their faith was genuine in that they walked with God. So, the light of God—the truth of God—shows up and makes a difference in how we live.

Mission statement — serve Jesus | share Jesus

The first two parts of our mission statement are about seeing Jesus and knowing Jesus—I’ve already talked about that. The last two parts of our mission statement are to serve Jesus and to share Jesus. These are both parts of the mission that require taking some kind of action. These are parts of the church’s mission that require some walking with God. It requires us to DO something with the truth that we see and know in Jesus. And this is literally what John is saying as well. In verse six John says that if we walk in darkness we lie and do not live out the truth. The Greek word that the NIV translates as ‘live out’ is literally DO. If we walk in darkness, we lie and do not DO truth.

The light of God—the truth of Jesus—is not just something that we see, and it is not just something that we know. Truth is something that we DO. This is what John is highlighting for his readers that is so important for us to see today as well. The first century Gnostics of John’s day thought that truth was only some kind of spiritual intellectual enlightenment. They thought that accepting the truth was something to be received, not something they needed to live within.

How do we do this? How do we live within the truth of Jesus? Or as John puts it, how do we walk in the light? Here too John gives us some practical tools to help the church understand what it means to walk in the light. In the few verses that we are looking at today he begins with just two examples. These are two ways of understanding how we live in the light.

Walking in the light — fellowship with one another

The first way we walk in the light of Jesus is through fellowship. Look again at verses six and seven.

1 John 1:6–7 (NIV)

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.

John says the first indicator of truly walking in the light of God’s truth is seen in our fellowship with one another. First century Gnosticism was an elite private club. John says to those who hold high standards for entrance—who seek to keep others out who are not exactly like themselves—your so-called fellowship is actually darkness. Jesus, however, demonstrated a fellowship that was built upon his unconditional grace and love for all people. Jesus extends his fellowship to all who are in need. It is not exclusive. It is not elitist. The way in which we extend our fellowship to one another is the first indicator that John uses to mark whether or not we live in the light of God’s truth.

Walking in the light — confession of sin

And the second indicator John gives for living in the light of God’s truth is confession of sin. John says that if we claim to be without sin, we live in darkness. But in verse nine he says that if we confess our sins, God will forgive. Confession is an acknowledgement of our own shortcomings and wrongdoings. Confession is living in such a way that we declare our dependency upon God’s grace in our lives. Confession puts us in a position where we cannot hold ourselves up any higher than anyone else based upon our moral character or ethical behavior. Confession says we need Jesus every single day just as much as everyone else. That’s living in the light of God’s truth.

If there are two takeaways from these few verses that we have from John today, that is it. Fellowship with one another that extends grace to all people. And confession of sin that acknowledges our need for God’s grace every single day.

illuminating the light of Jesus

The Bible tells the story in Genesis of God creating Adam—the first human being. Genesis says that Adam was made from the dust of the ground. Dirt. Dirt is not luminous. Dirt cannot create light. Dirt cannot be a source of light. Just like the moon cannot create any light on its own because it is only a ball of dirt, we cannot create light either, dirt that we are.

But even though the moon is not luminous, it can illuminate the light of the sun. even though it is just dirt, it can reflect the sun’s light for all to see. It is just a matter of position. The moon has to be moving in just the right place in order to be illuminated by the sun’s light. And when you see that bright full moon in the night sky, it shines through the darkness.

We’re no different. Even though we cannot create our own light in this world—try as we might. At the end of the day we are little more than dust, just like the moon. The true source of light comes from the son. Not S-U-N, but S-O-N. Jesus. And just like the moon can be illuminated by the sun, we too can be illuminated by the son. That too is simply a matter of moving in just the right place for that the light of Jesus is constantly shining upon us—walking with Jesus, walking in the light. And when we do that, people who see the light will know. It is not our light they see, it is the light of Jesus shining into a dark world.

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