Every New Day Begins in the Dark

In light of Jesus, how do we read John?

Like the other three gospel evangelists, John is less concerned with retelling what Jesus did, and more concerned with telling us what God has done through Christ our lord.

In other words, it’s not just a story, it’s THE STORY of who we are and who God is!

Through Christ Jesus, God has conquered the final enemy of death and established his Kingdom in the earth. <That’s the gospel>

READ:

John 1:1–5 CSB

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

John 4:25–26 CSB

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

John’s opening is an echo of Genesis 1 “In the beginning...”

My spiritual fathers used to remind me, “Every new day begins in the dark!”

For the Hebrew people, the new day begins at sundown.

So, the first 12 hours of every “new day” are spent in the dark!

We don’t like the dark…it’s uncertain, it’s disorienting, and it strips us of our power to control.

Have you ever had to get up to pee in the middle of the night? Let me re-phrase, “Anybody over 40?!”

When you wake up in the pitch black dark its disorienting…you’ve slept in that room hundreds of times but you’re not sure exactly where everything is…[hit your toe on the bed post?? #$@&*!!]

That’s how it is with Jesus…we often need to unlearn what we thought we knew in order to recognize what it is he is doing in this season!

IT’S DISORIENTING!

A mentor of mine: “I would trade everything I know today for everything I don’t know.”

it’s harder to unlearn because we don’t like to let go of control!

Lent is about the path that leads to Jesus…that path is not straight and predictable…the season of Lent reminds, often times, that path goes through the dark.

John the Baptist came baptizing in the dark waters of the Jordan, not only as a sign of cleansing, but also as a picture of the way to be made clean: through the dark (uncertain) waters

John 3:1–2 (CSB)

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

Nicodemus

There are some things in your life that you have to let go of, if you are going to meet the resurrected Christ!

Why are we hiding?

Principle: Sometimes we’re not ready to hear the truth that will set us free.

Addiction can be that way for example

But also RELIGION can be that way!

We hide behind our hurts, or past, or success, or religion to keep from revealing the truth about what’s going on in here (heart).

READ:

John 4:7–10 CSB

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

John 4:16–19 CSB

“Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet.

What she said was technically true, but it wasn’t the whole truth…she was still hiding.

Ever try to get the whole truth from a pre-teen child???

Jen tells the story of pouring her mom’s perfume all over her when she was a little girl then claiming that she wasn’t playing in her mom’s makeup drawer!

What place in your life are you hiding behind “partial truth”?

Genesis 3:8–13 (CSB)

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

We hide behind our religion.

We hide behind our success.

We hide behind our past and failures.

We hide behind our agendas.

*We’re unwillling to do the hard work of everyday obedience…we prefer a quick fix (what I sometimes call “spiritual magic”)

John came baptizing because it’s only when we enter the dark waters of our own dying that we can stop hiding our sins and fears and finally be set free!

The waters of baptism are about cleansing us from the fear that has kept of hiding from Jesus…hiding that keeps us from seeing the gift of living water he is offering us now!

John’s Transfiguration

There is a story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke that is not in John. It’s called the Transfiguration: The disciples are praying with Jesus and they see Jesus, Moses, and Elijah talking on the top of the mountain. The glory of Jesus lit up the night and surrounded the disciples.

[I know some of you are so holy you glow in the dark too!]

Transfiguration means to be transformed in appearance, not from an outside source, but from the inside out…the glory of the lord shone through Jesus to reveal his true nature.

In the other gospels, Peter wanted to setup houses for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah…but I think John is showing us the better way to get in on Transfiguration…

The Path of Transfiguration

I’m not God, I need Jesus to save me.

One of the first requirements in the twelve steps is recognizing “a power greater than myself is the only way back to sanity.”

I am powerless without Jesus.

I don’t need “spiritual magic”. Faith requires obedience.

Elijah was the great miracle prophet in Israel.

The truth is, most things in our life don’t change in a prayer line...

The greatest transformation in life comes from “a long walk of obedience in the same direction.”

I can’t perform my way out of this mess.

Moses was the great prophet of God’s law.

If we’re not careful, we will try to do all the right things and believe that somehow will make me different....but it doesn’t

Being good can’t save me, I need a saviour.

Following Jesus will change my life forever.

Isaiah was the suffering servant who pointed the way to Jesus.

In the Kingdom we don’t grow UP, we grow DOWN (Eric on Sunday)

I’ve been watching the Disney series The Mandalorian. “This is the Way”