God is Light

Good morning, welcome to NHCC, please open your Bibles to 1 John 1.

Covenant Membership- Final thoughts.

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What is Advent?

Means Arrival, or Coming.

A season that focuses on waiting.

Consider the incarnation of Jesus. Notice the use of word, not merely the birth of Jesus, but the incarnation of the Son of God.

Why celebrate advent?

What are we doing in this sermon series?

Focusing on the theme of light.

Begin with God as light, move to the Son of God as light, move to followers of Jesus as light.

Read 1 John 1:5–7- “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Pray.

1. God is pure light.

What does it mean that God is light?

God’s presence throughout all of Scripture is seen as light.

Much to be said about God being described as light, but lets pick three comparisons for time’s sake.

Light reveals truth.

Light reveals what is really real.

Light shining on what is really there.

Used to get in trouble for getting in dad’s light. Now my kids do it to me.

Joseph Parker- “The more light there is, the more knowledge, the more truth, the larger, clearer recognition and realization, of things innermost and things most precious. What we want is more light.”

God exposes, or makes known, what is really real.

Psalm 18:28- “For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.”

God makes known the true nature of things, of our lives, of our hearts, of all existence.

Ponder those who do not yet know Jesus- how do they live? As though things that are true are untrue.

Light guides.

The entire purpose of a flashlight.

Waking up in the middle of the night.

Psalm 119:105- “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

When God communicates Himself to us, it becomes a guide for life.

Communicable attributes are meant to be our pursuit.

Love as God loves, Be holy as God is holy, forgive as you have been forgiven, seek justice as God defines justice.

Incarnation perhaps the very best example of the leading of God.

Light comforts.

Kids scared of the dark.

Light can bring peace where there was formerly turmoil.

Light brings us into the yard.

Difficult time of the year. “Every night around 10:30 PM I realize that it’s only 6:00 PM.”

Psalm 23:4- “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Consider these well known words- The valley of death- surrounded by death. Comforted by the presence and action of God.

What is the darkness that God is lacking?

Consider light and darkness.

Darkness is the absence of light.

Spiritual darkness then, is the absence of God’s presence.

Darkness, we could say, is all that opposes God.

We can speak of the perfection of God as one of His attributes.

We try to find imperfections but they aren’t there.

Try to attack the faithfulness of God, or the power of God, or the lovingkindness of God.

We see flaws in our own character, and so we try our best to minimize such kinks by creating them in God’s character.

Perfectly all of His attributes.

Speak of the goodness of God, we mean that He is always good. Speak of the justice of God, we mean that He is always just.

Light before love.

Interesting to consider the way that we most often find God described in the book of 1 John.

Before we can really know what love is, God must be light, He must reveal Himself.

Many desire God as love without God as light.

Christians must get this right in our head. We seek His character, His commands, His definitions. He is light

2. We are meant to live in God’s light.

Notice the language- If we walk in the light.

Two outcomes:

Fellowship.

1 John 1:7- “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 cleanses us from all sin.”

If living in the light, or in the very presence of God, restores right relationship in the context of the church, then the opposite is also true. Living in sin destroys this fellowship.

Passages that speak of unity- Romans 12, Ephesians 4. They speak of the way life is supposed to work.

Don’t lie to each other, forgive one another, show each other honor. Describing life in God’s presence because these passages describe the very life of God.

We have a desire for godly fellowship, to belong to a group of people who you genuinely care for and who genuinely care for you.

Do we desire it enough to live in the presence of God?

Forgiveness.

1 John 1:7- “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 cleanses us from all sin.”

Here, we find something fascinating. To live in God’s presence, to be in the light, prompts that we will always be reminded of our forgiveness, our cleansing from sin.

To live in God’s light, or presence, does not mean that we suddenly feel better about ourselves as people. Instead, it means that we feel better about God’s character and behavior in forgiving our sins.

We often think God just wants us to feel good about ourselves. God desires greater for us. When we feel good about the way we are, we become complacent.

When we see ourselves as forgiven by a good God, then we are pressed forward. We know ourselves as loved.

Living in light reminds us of our need for forgiveness, but also of our reality of being forgiven.

We live humbly in community. Forgiven people forgiving one another.

Goodness of God’s light.

Valerie laying in the light.

Her desire was to lay in the light spots on the floor rather than the dark spots on the floor. The light and warmth always felt good on her skin.

Joseph Parker- “God is not a frown; God is not a living and penetrating rebuke; God is light, God is love; His mercy endureth forever. The blackest sinner may stand before Him, and with bent head may cry, God be merciful to me!- a prayer to which he never said No, when it went up from a ruined heart.”

3. How does this prepare our hearts to celebrate the incarnation?

This morning, we highlight hope.

As we look forward to celebrating the incarnation, we ought to consider why it happened.

John 3:17- “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Charles Wesley- “Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.”

When we sing about the expected Jesus, we ask God’s light to break in through the darkness.

Come into our world, come into our church, come into my family, come into my life.

We are not meant to sing these words lightly, we are asking for the very light and salvation of God to make it’s way into every facet of life. We are asking for God’s salvation.

Our desire is that God would illuminate our lives and illuminate our world with His very presence.

We look backward and we look forward. The presence of God has come, but we will one day know it more fully. And so we sing that the long expected Jesus would come.

Please pray with me.

“As we celebrate the Advent season, Shining Lights will be sharing a bit of information each week regarding the closing hymn.  Each week, the hymn will correlate with the theme I’ve discussed.”