Walk in the Light of Jesus

OPENING LINE - Sometimes as a preacher, you have an idea of what you would like to preach on, but the LORD has a different plan for you and the congregation.

That is what has happened this week to me.

You see, for quite some time now, I have been studying the seven “I am” statements of Jesus in the book of John.

In fact, I have preached two sermons on these sayings already.

The first was actually an expansion of the “I am” in which Jesus revealed to the Samaritan Woman at the well that He was in fact the Christ that was to come.

The second sermon was on John 6:35 “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

What I had really wanted to preach on today was John 8:12 “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.””

But as I was prepping for a sermon on that passage, I was drawn time and again by the Holy Spirit to today’s passage.

1 John 1:1–9 NKJV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 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. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Prayer

TRANSITION IN—For most of my life, I have heard the old phrase “Nothing good ever happens after midnight.”

If you stop and think about this, it really is true.

I mean, just think about it practically, what kinds of establishments are open after midnight?

Bars

Night clubs

So-called “Gentlemen’s Clubs”

Has anyone ever, even once, ever come out of one of these types of estblishements in the darkest part of the night and made a really Good decision?

I know in my BC days, I never once made what I would now consider to be a good decision after midnight.

Well it turns out that the Bible has a lot to say about DARKNESS and its association with evil and sin and satan.

I. DARKNESS REPRESENTS SIN AND SEPARATION FROM GOD.

Time and time again, the Bible uses darkness as of metaphor for sin and evil and spiritual separation from God,

You see sin blinds people to God's presence, fosters hidden wrongdoing, and represents a preference for moral obscurity over exposure to truth.

2 Peter 2:4 “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;”

Jude 6 “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;”

John 3:19–20 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

And finally Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Don't we see this all of the time in modern society?

Is it any wonder that prostitutes are called ladies of the night or that the things that go on on the Internet are often called the dark we?

One of the largest pornography sites that I shall not name received over 3 billion visits from U.S. users in January 2024, alone!

This equates to roughly 100 million daily visits to this site just from the U.S.

Even the chrome web browser has a function called incognito so that people can hide their sins online under the cover of darkness.

You see in general most people don't just come out right in the light and commit their sins for everyone to see.

Instead, burglaries are performed at night so no one sees them coming.

John's pick up prostitutes at night so that no one will recognize who they are.

Adulterers use apps like Snapchat so that the chat disappears, lest their sins be exposed.

Heck even bank robbers don black ski masks to hide their eidentity.

I could go on and on and on, but you understand my point.

Our natural inclination is to hide our sins in darkness.

Why because we know that our actions are evil.

We know that we should be following God.

The book of Romans teaches us that we know the truth about God from his creation, but we suppress the truth in unrighteousness and choose to live lives of sin.

The Bible speaks to this in John 3:19–21 “… men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ...””

What is so disturbing is that as of late these incredibly sinful behaviors of the world seem to be coming more into mainstream, more into the light.

You see, the Bible teaches that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

And who could deny that folks who are trying to pit one skin color against another, or who are donning keffiyehs shouting for the genocide of the Jewish people, or who are attacking and murdering our law enforcement officers THINK that they are on the side of good?

After all, they have been deceived by the great deceiver who has disguised himself as that angel of light and convinved millions to abandon everything the pages of Scripture tells us is true and exchange truth for darkness.

You see the average person if Satan were to just come out and say outright listen I am the king of the underworld and what I really wanna do is to pull you down with me, where there will be weeping and mashing of teeth forever, and where you will never abide in the presence of God; Most people would understand that that is not something that they wanted to undertake.

Instead, he disguises himself as light so that he can trick you into coming into the darkness with him.

But as I mentioned, it seems like an America today those things which once were held in private and in darkness have now come into the main stream into the light of day.

But it doesn't make them any less dark.

Men who think they are women women who think they are men.

Even our physicians have fallen pray to it, castrating young children, and lopping off perfectly healthy body parts in an effort to try to make someone feel like they're in the right body.

You see I used to live in the area near Seattle and I saw more debauchery in that area than I ever thought was possible.

Acts being performed in so-called pride Parades.

It's bad enough that pride is a sin in and of itself, but I promise you that some of the things that go on in those parades are far more heinous than most of us can ever imagine goes on in the darkness.

For those of us who read the Bible, we see that we are rapidly plummeting toward the end times.

And as we do, the lawlessness just continues to grow and grow and grow.

It is as if the words of Revelation 9:2 have already started coming true where it says that “And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.”

Revelation 16:10 “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.”

You see this day in and day out.

All you have to do is turn on the news and you see how just utterly miserable these people who live in sin and darkness ar!

They are so bitter and angry that much of the time I even question myself as to whether or not they're demon possessed.

Members of antifa who wear nothing but black, of course, rage against anyone and everyone angry for just no reason, except for the sake of rage itself.

Blue haired college kids so angry and depressed and confused that all they can seem to do is scream, and cuss and hurl insults at anyone who even tries to have a civil discussion about a difference of opinion.

It breaks my heart to see people in this much pain.

But you see so often these folks have chosen to live in the darkness.

This is America in 2025.

You can't tell me that they don't understand.

That they don't know that there's a better way.

But they harden their hearts and their soul becomes darkened rejecting the light, letting the darkness overcomes.

I pity them.

The amazing thing about God is that he's given us a way out of the darkness and that leads me to my next point.

II. THE LIGHT OF CHRIST MUST ILLUMINATE YOUR PATH.

In contrast, God is shown throughout the entirety of Scripture as light.

Genesis 1:3 “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”

In Exodus 3 God made himself known to Moses by illuminating a Bush in fire that was not consumed by the fire.

Exodus 13:21–22 “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.”

Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? ...”

Psalm 18:28 “For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.”

Psalm 119:130 “The entrance of [God’s] words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.”

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

All of these speak to the glorious light of God.

Our passage today even says “God is light.”

Notice, it doesn’t way God is made of light, or is A light,

Rather, it is speaking of the very nature of God.

God is light in such a way that we cannot even imagine.

In the book of Revelation, it is written that there will be no need of sun nor moon to illumine because the radiant light of God is so much greater than either of these sources of light.

But what’s amazing is that God the Father and God the Son had so much more in store for the world.

Isaiah 49:6 “... I will also give You [The Messiah] as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ””

John 1:1–5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John goes on to say in this epistle that he was an eyewitness to the magisty of Christ which was from the beginning.

And he says in his Gospel:

John 8:12 “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.””

And again: John 9:5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.””

John 12:35–36 “Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

But we must not forget what Jesus also taught His disciples, and that is this: Matthew 5:14–16 ““You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

And that brings me to my final point:

III. WHEN WE WALK IN THE LIGHT OF JESUS WE ARE CLEANSED.

Our passage today teaches us THREE things about what will happen if we walk in the Light of Jesus Christ and confess our sins done in darkness.

We will have fellowship with one another.

First Thessalonians teaches us that when we have fellowship in Christ, we build one another up.

Certainly, we see This in our body of believers here.

We encourage one another.

We pray for one another.

We assist each other with our time and our talent and our resources.

As the book of Galatians puts it we bare one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

As first Corinthians put it, We act as a unified single body that has many members that all work together for the glory of God through Jesus Christ.

As the book of proverbs put it this fellowship helps iron sharpen iron.

And it is this fellowship, the fellowship of believers, that strengthens each other, teaches each other, disciples each other, and lifts each other up so that we can get through the struggles of the day.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Let us not forget that Jesus at his institution of the last supper taught us that his blood of the new covenant was poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

The book of second Chronicles teaches us that when people humble themselves and pray and seek God's face and turn from their wicked ways. Then he will hear us from heaven and forgive us our sins and heal our land.

Hebrews teaches us that God will not remember our lawless deeds anymore.

And the passage, that is probably the most sweet to me when it comes to God forgiving my sins is Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

He will cleanse us from our sins and unrighteousness.

Isaiah 1:18 ““Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”

And that as believers

Revelation 7:14 “… [our robes will be] washed … white in the blood of the Lamb.”

TRANSITION OUT—As interesting as this is, what does this mean for you and me today?

BOTTOM LINE—We must walk in the light of Jesus.

MAIN POINT—Walking in the light of Jesus is what cleanses us from our sins, washes us white as snow and leads to our eternal salvation with Him in heaven.

BUT HOW DO WE DO THAT—Walk in the light of Jesus by

Allowing yourself to be transformed by the Holy Spirit every day.

Study your Bible daily to gain the wisdom of God for your life.

Pray.

Pray like you’ve never prayed before.

Pray for the forgiveness of your sins.

Pray that God would move you to walk in the Light as He is in the Light.

Pray that He will cleanse you from the things you have done in the darkness.

And pray that you will never reject the Light of Christ again.

Come to church.

Fellowship with other believers.

That you may be sharpened with the Word of God.

That you may learn and be discipled.

That God may be glorified in your worship.

THE WHY—If you do not, you risk damning yourself to an eternity of the darkness of hell.

CLOSING PRAYER

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