Sermon Tone Analysis
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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.
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.
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