The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it!
With today’s blog we will be two thirds through our series on life, light and love, a three-week series here at Backyard Conversations exploring three great foundational Kingdom themes of the Scriptures. Together they form a three-legged stool summarizing the essential characteristics of the Kingdom: Life, Light and Love.
I want to remind you that you can also find some challenging thoughts on our podcast environment called Kingdom Offerings, also found on our homepage. These, along with our Kingdom parable page “The Kingdom of God is like . . .”can both be found at 100foldministies.org.
OK, Back to our topic:
The big idea here is that if someone asked you what ‘church’ and Christians in general are all about, you could say quickly;“We are about a lot of things but mostly we are about the person, work and teachings of Jesus Christ. And Jesus uses the words life, light and love a great deal to describe what his purposes were on earth.” If we understand what he meant by these three powerful words we could go a long way toward understanding God and His Kingdom Gospel!
The trouble is that we have found that these words – life, light and love – mean different things in our work a day world about living “the good life” than what Jesus meant when He used them. For instance, if what we have in mind is sitting on a beach sipping cold drinks and looking forward to going out on the town later looking for action – whatever that means – and then say to ourselves, “This is the life” – that is very different than when Jesus says, “I am the life and I have come to give you my kind of abundant life!” Two hugely different ideas of what constitutes life! And just to be clear, I’m not a robot that hates pleasure! It is just that pleasure merely for pleasure’s sake eventually becomes routine and boring and empty of value.
The same can be said of love. This term as used in the Bible is often misunderstood today. We will see in our next blog that “love,” as Christ used the word might often be spelled –
S A C R I F I C E.
Sacrificial love, is the mark of the Christian because it is the mark of Christ. For most of us when we think about love, we are thinking about pizza, not sacrifice!
When Life, Light and Love are understood as Kingdom words, they not only describe Jesus, but also describe our lives as we strive to live into His Kingdom purposes. As we set our minds to – as the scripture says – abide in Christ. You see, these three Kingdom words, understood rightly, represent sound doctrine that point to the authentic Christ. Today, we will spend our time together looking at the second of our great themes – “Light.”
You may remember that early in the public ministry of Jesus there was another teacher who lived in the wilderness near the Jordan river east of Jerusalem and he was becoming famous for proclaiming the need for repentance and baptizing as a sign of God’s forgiveness. He was called John the Baptizer. It gets confusing but another John – the disciple of Jesus – spoke of both John the Baptizer and Jesus with some interesting words . . .
As I noted, the Kingdom understanding of Light is a big deal! I want to focus on three different ways you might spell L I G H T . . .
In the Kingdom, Light can be spelled:
R E V E A L
H O P E
T R U T H
Let’s start with reveal. First, of course, light reveals beauty. When the world is as it should be, light shows us the wonderous gifts that God has bestowed on our world. Because, as you know, “all good and perfect gifts come from the “Father of Lights” (James 1:17).
CS Lewis knew this too; “Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.” — CS Lewis, in Letters to Malcomb: Chiefly on Prayer
I have found in my growing older that without bright light it is difficult to see the details of a painting or even in the reading of a book. I need light – good light – to make it through the day. And God is that revealing ‘Good Light.’
But when the world is not as it should be, light will also reveal that which is defiled and conflicted and unrighteous. Light exposes evil. Things that rely on darkness for protection and cover hate the light. Have any of you lived where there are cockroaches? Turn on the light and these nasty creatures head for the darkness. If it is your practice to live in the darkness, you won’t even want to see the light. It will hurt your eyes! Just ask the Pharisees, they hated Jesus’ light!
If you are a person of ‘darkness’ – that is if you are a person of this world and have not yet embraced the light – the truth of Jesus Christ, you will not be able to see Him rightly. You will see Him through a cloudy or distorted lens. John, the beloved disciple, put it this way . . .
Here we see these central themes of life and light dovetailing. The themes of life must be accompanied with the light of God to reveal that love.
But we’re not done, not only does it reveal, but it also brings hope! This is huge. Light brings hope! Again, this is how John puts it . . .
Have you ever experienced an attack of Satan in the middle of the night? There is a terrible sense of dread and the reminders of the Evil One of all the sins of your life. You can’t think straight, and the threatening circumstance of the next day seems overwhelming. In the darkness, it feels like there is no way out and that devastation awaits you. You feel lost and alone and defeated. Hopeless. The Liar tells you that you are a failure and that you are a poor Christian. You toss and turn. You get up and try to read only to hear the voice of temptation and despair. And time passes and then . . .
There is the dawn of a new day. Light pours through the morning east facing window. And you say to yourself, “What was last night about?!?” Now in the light of day you think to yourself, “Life is hard, but I can push through this with the help of my friends and my church family and the abiding peace of the Holy Spirit. I don’t have to be afraid.” The light of dawn alone brings hope. What do we read? “The mercies of the Lord are new every morning!” And light of Scripture reminds us that we are safe in Christ. And this is a good segue to our last point for today. There is revealed beauty, there is hope, and there is the light of truth.
The theme of light as a metaphor for truth is a constant presence in Scripture. Remember the famous passage from Psalm 105?
In the context of this Psalm passage, light and truth are basically synonymous. The Hebrews had a way of “doubling-up” or “doubling-over” a word, or a term or phrase, so that one would emphasize the other, despite both meaning essentially the same thing. This method hits a concept from two slightly different angles so that it becomes more emphatic. Light illustrates, emphasizes, and expands the abstract idea of truth. Again, John helps us out;
To have life, real abundant life, we must walk in the light of truth.Our words for today – Revelation, hope and truth – help us frame the Kingdom word Light. But the good news is not quite over. We are told of one more wonderful truth – that we too are the light of the world! Jesus tells us;
This means you too will reveal what is in the darkness. You will confront evil and falsehoods. You will stop gossip in its track with a strong, kind word. You will not participate in shady things. Things that are cloaked in darkness. You would rather turn on the light and get it out in the open.
It has occurred to me recently that perhaps God was giving us a revelation of himself and of spiritual truths by giving us the light of our sun and then again, the light of the moon in the darkness. There is darkness, we cannot avoid it. It comes around every 12 hours. But there is light in this darkness. “And the darkness has not overcome the light!”
Jesus is the Light of the world. If you follow him now, you will have him as your light moment by moment. True, he will reveal your sins, which is a precious gift — like the fortunate early diagnosis of a deadly cancer. But even more, he will reveal all that is beautiful. He will be the light in which you see God — the light in which you see the history of redemption and the work of salvation.
In our next Backyard Conversation blog, to wrap up this short series we will take on the idea of Kingdom Love. Sounds easy enough! See you back here at 100foldministries.org.
This is Dave Scherrer. Take care!
I want to remind you that you can also find some challenging thoughts on our podcast environment called Kingdom Offerings, also found on our homepage. These, along with our Kingdom parable page “The Kingdom of God is like . . .”can both be found at 100foldministies.org.
OK, Back to our topic:
The big idea here is that if someone asked you what ‘church’ and Christians in general are all about, you could say quickly;“We are about a lot of things but mostly we are about the person, work and teachings of Jesus Christ. And Jesus uses the words life, light and love a great deal to describe what his purposes were on earth.” If we understand what he meant by these three powerful words we could go a long way toward understanding God and His Kingdom Gospel!
The trouble is that we have found that these words – life, light and love – mean different things in our work a day world about living “the good life” than what Jesus meant when He used them. For instance, if what we have in mind is sitting on a beach sipping cold drinks and looking forward to going out on the town later looking for action – whatever that means – and then say to ourselves, “This is the life” – that is very different than when Jesus says, “I am the life and I have come to give you my kind of abundant life!” Two hugely different ideas of what constitutes life! And just to be clear, I’m not a robot that hates pleasure! It is just that pleasure merely for pleasure’s sake eventually becomes routine and boring and empty of value.
The same can be said of love. This term as used in the Bible is often misunderstood today. We will see in our next blog that “love,” as Christ used the word might often be spelled –
S A C R I F I C E.
Sacrificial love, is the mark of the Christian because it is the mark of Christ. For most of us when we think about love, we are thinking about pizza, not sacrifice!
When Life, Light and Love are understood as Kingdom words, they not only describe Jesus, but also describe our lives as we strive to live into His Kingdom purposes. As we set our minds to – as the scripture says – abide in Christ. You see, these three Kingdom words, understood rightly, represent sound doctrine that point to the authentic Christ. Today, we will spend our time together looking at the second of our great themes – “Light.”
You may remember that early in the public ministry of Jesus there was another teacher who lived in the wilderness near the Jordan river east of Jerusalem and he was becoming famous for proclaiming the need for repentance and baptizing as a sign of God’s forgiveness. He was called John the Baptizer. It gets confusing but another John – the disciple of Jesus – spoke of both John the Baptizer and Jesus with some interesting words . . .
-
John 1:7-9
“This man (John the Baptizer) came as a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all (people) through him (Jesus) might believe. He (John) was not that Light but was sent to bear witness of that Light (Jesus). That (Jesus) was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.”
As I noted, the Kingdom understanding of Light is a big deal! I want to focus on three different ways you might spell L I G H T . . .
In the Kingdom, Light can be spelled:
R E V E A L
H O P E
T R U T H
Let’s start with reveal. First, of course, light reveals beauty. When the world is as it should be, light shows us the wonderous gifts that God has bestowed on our world. Because, as you know, “all good and perfect gifts come from the “Father of Lights” (James 1:17).
CS Lewis knew this too; “Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.” — CS Lewis, in Letters to Malcomb: Chiefly on Prayer
I have found in my growing older that without bright light it is difficult to see the details of a painting or even in the reading of a book. I need light – good light – to make it through the day. And God is that revealing ‘Good Light.’
-
1 Corinthians 4:5
“. . .the Lord comes and will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
But when the world is not as it should be, light will also reveal that which is defiled and conflicted and unrighteous. Light exposes evil. Things that rely on darkness for protection and cover hate the light. Have any of you lived where there are cockroaches? Turn on the light and these nasty creatures head for the darkness. If it is your practice to live in the darkness, you won’t even want to see the light. It will hurt your eyes! Just ask the Pharisees, they hated Jesus’ light!
If you are a person of ‘darkness’ – that is if you are a person of this world and have not yet embraced the light – the truth of Jesus Christ, you will not be able to see Him rightly. You will see Him through a cloudy or distorted lens. John, the beloved disciple, put it this way . . .
-
John 1:4-5
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Here we see these central themes of life and light dovetailing. The themes of life must be accompanied with the light of God to reveal that love.
But we’re not done, not only does it reveal, but it also brings hope! This is huge. Light brings hope! Again, this is how John puts it . . .
-
1 John 1:5-7
“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Have you ever experienced an attack of Satan in the middle of the night? There is a terrible sense of dread and the reminders of the Evil One of all the sins of your life. You can’t think straight, and the threatening circumstance of the next day seems overwhelming. In the darkness, it feels like there is no way out and that devastation awaits you. You feel lost and alone and defeated. Hopeless. The Liar tells you that you are a failure and that you are a poor Christian. You toss and turn. You get up and try to read only to hear the voice of temptation and despair. And time passes and then . . .
There is the dawn of a new day. Light pours through the morning east facing window. And you say to yourself, “What was last night about?!?” Now in the light of day you think to yourself, “Life is hard, but I can push through this with the help of my friends and my church family and the abiding peace of the Holy Spirit. I don’t have to be afraid.” The light of dawn alone brings hope. What do we read? “The mercies of the Lord are new every morning!” And light of Scripture reminds us that we are safe in Christ. And this is a good segue to our last point for today. There is revealed beauty, there is hope, and there is the light of truth.
The theme of light as a metaphor for truth is a constant presence in Scripture. Remember the famous passage from Psalm 105?
-
Psalm 119:105
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
In the context of this Psalm passage, light and truth are basically synonymous. The Hebrews had a way of “doubling-up” or “doubling-over” a word, or a term or phrase, so that one would emphasize the other, despite both meaning essentially the same thing. This method hits a concept from two slightly different angles so that it becomes more emphatic. Light illustrates, emphasizes, and expands the abstract idea of truth. Again, John helps us out;
-
John 8:30-31, 36
As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free . . . So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
To have life, real abundant life, we must walk in the light of truth.Our words for today – Revelation, hope and truth – help us frame the Kingdom word Light. But the good news is not quite over. We are told of one more wonderful truth – that we too are the light of the world! Jesus tells us;
-
Matthew 54:14-16
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
This means you too will reveal what is in the darkness. You will confront evil and falsehoods. You will stop gossip in its track with a strong, kind word. You will not participate in shady things. Things that are cloaked in darkness. You would rather turn on the light and get it out in the open.
It has occurred to me recently that perhaps God was giving us a revelation of himself and of spiritual truths by giving us the light of our sun and then again, the light of the moon in the darkness. There is darkness, we cannot avoid it. It comes around every 12 hours. But there is light in this darkness. “And the darkness has not overcome the light!”
-
John 8:12
Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Jesus is the Light of the world. If you follow him now, you will have him as your light moment by moment. True, he will reveal your sins, which is a precious gift — like the fortunate early diagnosis of a deadly cancer. But even more, he will reveal all that is beautiful. He will be the light in which you see God — the light in which you see the history of redemption and the work of salvation.
In our next Backyard Conversation blog, to wrap up this short series we will take on the idea of Kingdom Love. Sounds easy enough! See you back here at 100foldministries.org.
This is Dave Scherrer. Take care!