The Lasting Light of Christ

Introduction

Introduce self

Comments about previous pastor and condolences to the people.

Thankful for heaven.

Acknowledgement of men stepping up to leadership during this season.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–4 KJV 1900

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Character- A hurting church

Your church family is in a season of mouring, a season of weeping, and a season of healing right now. And that’s ok.

These seasons take time in each of our lives.

Most of us want them to go quick or we try to find a fast way through them but the reality of it is, we don’t get to be efficient in our healing, but we can be effective whiel we heal.

Problem- Grieving, hurting, unsure of how the next season of church will play out

Being effective while healing isn’t about being able to be who you were before the traumatic event took place. It is about allowing yourself and those around you the space to seek the one who heals.

I’m 37 and have been helping out with a youth group down in Cheshire the last month or so. One night a few weeks ago now I was playing basketball with some of them. Now, I’m not the youth guy that just sits back and let’s them win. Especially becuase there are a few of them I was playing with and against that were pretty good.

So here I am, Ding up a guy and the next thing I know, I’m rolling on the ground with a pain in my hamstring. Apparently, /i should stretch before I play basketball…who knew.

I finally get up and hobble around. It was a sharp pain that I wanted to go away becuas I had to go teach 20-30 teens in moment and I was having trouble conentrating…the pain didn’t go away. I taught the teens anyway.

I started going to the gym again a few months ago and go regularly. The pain I had messed up my workout routine so I couldn’t work my legs out. I wanted the pain to go away…it didn’t.

The next week i was at the church and the kids wanted me to play ball with them…The pain was still there…I wanted the pain to go away…but it didn’t.

Then, 1.5-2 weeks later…I realized something with i was walking around my house…my leg didn’t hurt anymore. I wasn’t limping, I wasn’t feeling that sharp pain…The pain had finally went away…but I had to give it time.

Now I know that wasn’t some profound illustration or even from the bible but I do hope you will give yourself and your church family some time to heal. Because one day, the tears will turn to laughter as you refelct on the good times and not just the darkness of the moment.

What happens if you need to heal though and you don’t give yourself time?

What if you try to rush it?

Agitated-Fear driven decisions, loss of focus on the main thing, anxiety

If I had gotten back up that night I was hurt and tried to play basketball…do you think I woudl have been ok or would I have furhter injured myself?

If I had tried to work out my hamstring with the same weight I was lifting before I go tinjured,. I would have injured.

If I had tried to ignore the severity of the injury…even though in my case it was just a pulled muscle…I would have ended up extending my pain and potentially causing greater damage in the long run.

And you would say that makes sense because the muscle needs to heal. Your hearts need to heal. your souls need to heal and be restored.

And if you try to rush yourselves or oyur church family through that healing process, your going to end up making fear driven decisions, you’ll lose your focus on the main thing your pastor kept as the main thing and that is the person of Jesus Christ,

And that’s why, as I spend this week and next withy ou, I want to start you on a journey with Jesus. If I come back, I’ll just keep on this series if that’s alright with you.

I know when I’ve had my life turned upside down, it is keeping my focus on who Jesus is, what Jesus has done, and my relationship with Him has helped me go through the difficulty or trial.

Solution-Slow down, wait on the Lord, know Him more.

Today we are going to be in the gospel of John Chapter 1 verses 1-5.

AS you turn there let me tell you, As I preach today I hope you will know God is with you and His Spirit is within you if you have trusted Him as your savior. He said He woudl never leave you nore forsake you. and He never does.

We on the other hand, we try to get out in front of Him. We try to go further faster. We try to take care of everything on our own.

New england is especially known for it’s fast paced lifestyle but what we find in scripture is that we don’t determine the pace of our life, the Lord does.

Often the thing we need to do is slow down. Slow down and spend time with Him. Spend time intentinoally looking for Him in our lives.

I belive today you will see through Johns writing as inspired by the holy Spirit that the God we serve and the Savior He gave us is where we need to turn our attention in times of darkness.

Guide-John

Let me introduce you to the man and the book that will guide us on this journey with JEsus.

This gospel was written by the Apostle John. He is the son of Zebedee and identified in this book as the disciple jesus loved. His gospel is different than the other three (Matthew, mark, luke, synoptic). His writing helps us understnad Jesus as the Son of God in a personal way.

He wrote this gospel to both jews and gentiles as evidenced by the language he uses in his writing and the purpose of this gospel is clearly stated in

John 20:31 KJV 1900

31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

To the unbeleiver John wrote for them to believe. For the believer, he wrote for you to know you have life, and abundant life as Jesus says in other parts of the bible, through his name.

Journey-John 1:1-5

And where does he start his gospel to deliver this message of salvation and hope? He doesn’t start with Jesus’ pedigree as other gospels do. He doesn’t even start at His sacrifice on the cross, the source of our salvation.

He starts where you woudl expect anyone to start, the beginning. Not jhust chapter 1 of John but he goes ALLL the way back to Genesis. This all encompossing prologue of John 1 helps us to know Jesus deeply and not just at the surface. I have 3 points I want to make from these verses today that I hope will either introduce you to, reintroduce you to, or just be a reminder of our Savior.

1. Jesus is eternal

John 1:1–2 KJV 1900

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.

Exegete:

As with other parts of the gospel this introduction is unique to John. He points back to the beginning of time and creation. His use of this mirroring literary device reflects the great impact of creation onto the time when Jesus came to this world. Paul wrote in Corinthians how the first Adam came from Dust but the second Adam, Jesus, is the Lord from Heaven.

John writing about Jesus’ life has to begin with establishing Him as eternal God. When we go back to the begniing in Genesis we read

Genesis 1:26 KJV 1900

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Let us, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. John is begining his letter without a shadow of a doubt about who Jesus is.

But then, he takes it a step further. He does say “In the beginning was Jesus and Jesus was with God and Jesus was God” That woudl ahve been just as true as what whe did write though, right?

The Holy Spirit inspires John to write..the Word. The Logos.

John’s usage of the word logos is a throwback to the Old Testament again for the power the Jews saw in the Word of God, enough to bring about the creation of the Uiverse. It also appeals to the Greeks of the day becuase in the popular Greek Philosophical world of the time the term Logos was used to describe rational principle that governs the universe – an impersonal cosmic reason. Later when he speaks about the word becoming flesh, it takes that impersonal deity to one who is personal to us and our suffering.

Notice as well that Jesus was not created by God. He was with God before creation. He is eternal.

Illustration:

He was there before the spirit of god moved across the depths. He was there in the darkenss. He was there when the fiirst light of the universe shined bright. HE was there when Satan tricked Eve in the Garden. He was there when they were drove out. He was there when the flood happened. He was there when the nation of Israel was divided. He was there when they were taken to Babylon. He was there during the intertestamental period when no one was hearing from God. And He was there on the cross, to give His life for us. He will be there with us in Heaven one day.

Just like he was there from the beginning through all of those situations, he is with you now.

How many of you have kids? when your kids were gorwing up did you ever take them to a theme park or even just a park around town?

Do you rememebr what it was liek with the first child going to the park for the first time? Maybe you were those parents that rubbed hand sanitzier on every surface at the park. or maybe you had the kid on a leash and if that’s you, that’s ok but please know, I laugh every time I see those things. Not because I think your a bad parent or treating them like a dog…but becuase the idea of them starting to run and you yanking them back amuses me.

ANyways, when they were little you kept this close to you. THey wanted to be clsoe to you. They didn’t want ot get way, they were safe with you. Then as they got older, they got a little more brave. They woudl venture off to the park and play with kids they never met. You might actually forget the hand sanitier one time and they had to wash their hands when they got home.

But no matter how far they wandered from you, you kept an eye on them. You knew where they were.

Anmd even more importantly, they knew you were there.

Have you ever been in a situation like that and for whatever reason you move benches or walk around and you see your kid start looking for you? For whatever reason they wanted to look and see that you were still there for them and you were gone.

What do they normally do then? They begin looking arund, they slow down and stop running. They might not be playing with the kids any more. They might stop jumping from the monkey bars and being crazy. Why? Becuase what keeps them safe isn’t around, or they can’t see it.

When we get into traumatic moments of life, we find ourselves like that kid at the park. We are looking around for what keeps us safe. We pause and assess what’s going on. We look for God and sometimes feel that he isn’t near. We think we have been abandoned.

Can I tell you, God doesn’t move benches. He doesn’t get up and walk around. He is in the exact same place everytime. You may have just lost track of him becuase of being so busy wiht life, and playing with friends, you were looking in the wrong place.

Apply:

God has been and always will be found in and through His Word. The written word and the living word. You have to pause what’s been going on, you have to take a step back for a moment and go find Him. HE is there, he always will be. He doesn’t leave or forsake you but we often find ourselves further from Him than we should be. Then, when life throws that curveball at us, we get the privelagge to go back to Him.

EBC He is with you today. He will be with you going forward, seek Him daily and you will find Him.

You found Him at the start of your journey with Him. When you first put your faith in Him. do you recall what that was like? The comfort and peace you felt? That’s becuase for the first time you had tasted of the living water that is jesus Christ.

2. Jesus is the Source of Life

John 1:3–4 KJV 1900

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Exegete:

Again John highlights Jesus’ presence at creation and ensuring we know that there is notihgn that has life, that doesn’t give their gratituude for breath to Jesus.

Then he goes a step furhter in verse 4 where he says that the life is the light of men.

Just a the universe was dark until God spoke light into existence, the outlook for mankind was dark until Jesus came into this world. Yes, God had a plan from the beginning to have him slain for us. Yes, we were never without a savior. However, from our perspective we can often believe that the the darkness of sin and diffficulty can overpower us leaving us without hope.

The truth is we can be overcome by the darkness of this world.

However

John 16:33 KJV 1900

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

The light and life Jesus brings to this world and to our lives can never be extinguished.

When John writes about the light in His gospel it is often in reference to God’s truth and holiness. It is God’s truth that is the light for us in this world. It His Word, written and made flessh

John uses the a contrasting approach throughout his gospels comparing light and darkness, life and death, truth and lies to help us better understand exactly what is going on.

Some important things to note is that one does not exist without the other, at least for now.

You see, when there is light…there is a shadow somewhere or the light fades and there is darkness.

Life and death take place at hospitals all the time.

Without truth there could be no lies.

Just because there are trials and tribulations or darkness around you doesn’t mean the light isn’t there. It’s often that you get so focused on the darkness, you miss seeing the light.

Illustrate:

Have you experienced something traumatic before?

What’s interesting about that question is the definition of traumtic is different based on your life experience. For some, the mos ttaumtic thing someone has experienced is a hair in their soup at a restaraunt…so you know…that makes it a 10/10 and they jsut dont’ know how they will recover.

For others, you have faced much more difficult circumstances.

When we face a traumatic situation it’s not uncommon to enter figth, flight, or freeze. Psychologists call this a Acute Stress reaction or cognitive freeze. And that happens in the moment. We may say it’s the initial shock. Then, we can enter what has been deemed “Adjustment disorder” and that can involve anxiety or depression as well.

These are the terms used to describe what happens when you are focused on the darkness so much you can’t see the light.

to break this cycle I want to introduce you to a term from the military. It’s called the OODA Loop.

Observe, orient, decide, act. It’s an acronym to teach military members how to quickly respond to situations in combat. However, it has great implications on us as followers of Jesus facing the trials and tribulations of this world.

What it means is when we recieve news of something awful or enter into a situation that could be traumtic or send us into shock, we need to pause, breathe, observe what’s going on around us and inside us, orient ourselves to truth, decide how we will respond to the situation based on the truth, and then act.

Observing what taks place around you doesn’t mean dismissing what is going on, diminishing the pain you feel, or burying the emotions so you can keep moving forward. It means acknowledging what has happened and how your responding to it. This is the part we often fail at and it’s the most crucial.

Without doing these, we cannot move frorward with the others.

Have you ever heard of a newtonian liquid? It’s a liquid that if you move around on you can stay on top of it but once you stop moving you sink.

DUDE PERFECT VIDEO

This is what we look like when we try to keep moving and not sit in what’s happened…we are afraid to sink…we are afriad to be sad, afraid to be afraid…

But until we allow ourselves to be weak…we won’t see Christ’s strength

2 Cornithians 12:9-10

King James Version Chapter 12

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong

Apply:

Observe…Orient yourself to the truth of God’s Word…Who is God? What has he done in the past? Why wouldn’t he do it now?

Decide to live in the light of His truth and act according to His Word.

3. Jesus has overcome the world

John 1:5 KJV 1900

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Exegete:

This last verse we see today explains the victory we have in Christ through the darkness of the world. The light and life of Christ can not be defeated by the darkness of sin, anxiety, depression, or trauma. Victory is attainable.

John says from the outset, we have victory and you don’t want to miss this.

Jesus echos this sentiment

John 8:12 KJV 1900

12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

The word comprehend here can be understood as overcome. So it’ snot that the darkness doesn’t just misundersdt and the light, it’s that it can never overcome the light, if there is light present there always be a space where darkness cannot exist.

Illustrate:

I watched a show with my kids for a while called avatar the last air bender. There are some humurous scenes in the show and one of them was when the group that was traveling together is inside of a dark cave.

When they are in the cave they have these torches and this group of traveling musicians they met, who were very free spirited and air headed, had 5 torches that said “lasts 2 hours”

With great confidence he then lights them all and says “Weve got 10 hours of light!” To which the more up tight and serious member of the avatar group grabs them and stomps them out and tells him thats not how that works.

Bu you shoudl have seen hisf ace when he lit them. He lit up all smiles knowing they were good becuase the light would last.

He had confidence in the source of his light.

Do you have confidence in yours?

What is the source of your light?

Apply:

If your here today and you don’t know Jesus as your savior then the source of your light is yourself, this world, and or something less than God. and all things less than God are imperfect, uncertain, and have the capacity to fail you.

However, if you want to go through life and the darkness that will come along, then I implore you to choose to put your faith in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection to pay for your sins and experience Jesus as your savior.

If you have done that, then choose to trust Him. Don’t trust your situation, it may be bad. Don’t trust your situation even when it’s good. Trust the one who said he cannot lie and he cannot change.

Resolution: Trust Jesus

Impact: Neg- Positive-