The Fellowship of the Light (3)

Series 1: God Is Light Message 2: The Fellowship of the Light Text:

Vision Statement: God Is Light Purpose Statement: Learn and live in fellowship with God as Light.

Quick Review of Message 1:

Purpose statement equation: Truth of Christ + Light of Christ = Joy of Christ

Joy comes from an "active" relationship with Christ is the present tense. Inactivity brings about complacency, boredom, and cynicism. To be active is to make manifest, validate and declare the joy of the Light in our lives.

Introduction to "Fellowship of the Light"

From the joy of the light we move into the fellowship of the light. If we were to play the game of word association and I said "fellowship." What is the first thing you would think of? Well for some of us as Baptist we might say, "dinner." You know ... a fellowship dinner.

Ahh ... a good fellowship meal is inviting! The nice thing about a fellowship dinner is there are all sorts of good things to choose from ... fried chicken, pot roast, casseroles, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, spinach, corn, green beans, roles, and desserts galore! The great thing about a fellowship dinner is you can "pick-and-choose" what you want to eat and not eat.

This "pick-and-choose" manner in which we go about at fellowship dinners seems to have made itself into our fellowship with God. We have the tendency to "pick-and-choose" what we want from God and His Word and leave the rest of it alone. But is that the true fellowship God desires with you and I as His children?

Retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong is a man with a mission. He is out to save Christianity from fundamentalists. According to Bishop Spong, the gospel of Christ is found in three words: love, life and being. This gospel can be reduced to the idea that tolerance is the only absolute because humanity itself is divine, without need of redemption, or even much instruction.

Even though the Bible is scientific and locked into the culture of the tribal primitives who wrote it, Spong is sure that the real truth of the Bible is that Christ called us to "be all that one can be." Spong is very dogmatic about his view of truth. And his view is very popular today. It is a gospel that tells us to be spiritual without "religion." In other words, we are free to pick and choose spiritual ideas from a smorgasbord of "religious" sources. In Bishop Spong's view, acting morally is tied to an all-inclusive, totally tolerant Christianity that rejects the notion of sin and atonement.

Source: Probe Ministries: Rescuing the Gospel from Bishop Spong

We need to know the falsehoods and the truth concerning our fellowship with God. Fellowship literally means to share things in common. Where people deny the basic beliefs and truths about God there is no fellowship with either God or Christians.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

We can liken John's words to the drawing of two circles.

· Circle of Light: The first circle contains, truth, love, righteousness, eternal life, hope, purity, and confidence. This is God's circle of light and His children are to walk within it and the things of God.

· Circle of Darkness: The second circle contains, falsehood, hatred, impurity, fear, sinfulness. This is the world's circle of darkness. It consists of all that God is not.

These two circles share nothing in common. They do not over lap in any way ... for God is light and in Him is no darkness ... therefore God has no fellowship with the darkness. We need to understand that one or the other circles will influence us in the way we live. We will either live with and for God or against and not in fellowship with Him.

John the Elder writes to encourage a fresh recognition and realization of the fellowship ... so that we, as God's children, might have a restoration of fellowship with the Father in the light of His circle of influence.

1. Fellowship In the Recognition of the Light

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1a. Recognition of the Darkness (6)

Falsehood of Fellowship: We can fellowship with God and walk in darkness.

· Darkness is characterized by disobedience and a lack of relationship with God.

· Darkness is anything and everything that is hostile (enmity) and opposes itself against God.

· Darkness is a disregard for and defiance of God's self-revelation as light.

· Darkness is to live a life of sin.

The person who walks ... influenced living ... in darkness lives his or her life without thought to God and His Word. When walking in darkness our fellowship with God is broken, but repairable. I want to make clear that John is not making a case here for the loss of salvation. He is speaking to our fellowship and makes it clear that sin (walking in darkness) breaks fellowship with God.

John is explicit to state that those who walk opposite of God as LIght are not practicing (living) in the influence of the truth.

1b. Recognition of the Light (7)

Truth of Fellowship: We can only fellowship with God in the light.

Man's fellowship begins with "overlooking" sin whereas fellowship with God begins with looking at our sin and walking in the light of the forgiveness of our sins.

· Walk in the Light ... means to live by, be shaped by the standard of God's Light. That means actions, decisions, thoughts and beliefs are to be conformed to God's standard, Jesus Christ.

· Walk in the Light ... means to live guided by the Word.

· Walk in the LIght ... means to be committed to God and His purpose.

· Walk in the Light ... means to recognize what is false and impure in us and in the world.

The great French leader Napoleon said that laws were made for ordinary people, but were never meant for the like of him. To walk in the light of God's fellowship says we cannot think sin doesn't matter. To think such is "dark thinking!"

Our walk with God (in the light) must not become a "Discussion Circle Christianity" where we merely look on Christianity as a series of problems to be solved and the Bible a book to be taught and lectured.

Fellowship with God is to walk in the light of following the Savior and adhering our lives to His Word the Bible.

"God as light is always seeking to shine into the minds He has made in His own image." - Robert Law

To walk in the light is not to become "sinless" but will most definitely bring us to "sin less." Walking in the light brings to the forefront our sin and then allows God through the Son, Jesus Christ, to cleanse us from all the sins that separate us from God and man.

I do not want us to overlook the obvious that is sometimes hidden. John says not only will do we have fellowship with God ... but also with one another.

John being the "present tense" apostle writes to encourage us to "keep on walking" in the light that we might have continual fellowship with God and one another ... other Christians. Fellowship with God will always bring us closer to one another. We cannot have one without the other.

"Fellowship with God will always be characterized by walking in the light, doing the truth, living as God desires." - Marianne Meye Thompson

2. Fellowship In the Realization of the Light

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2a. Realization of the Deception of Sin (8)

Falsehood of Fellowship: We can reach a point of no sin in our lives.

"A growing problem in our society is that people have the burden of guilt without the sense of sin." - Adrian Rogers

We clearly see this thinking in the likes of a Bishop Spong who rejects the idea that man has sinned and is need of atonement. John states this is the greatest form of self deception that leads us astray from the right path God desires we walk upon.

John makes an absolute statement ... if we say we have no sin ... the truth is not in us. The truth might be all around us and near us ... we might even acknowledge the truth ... but when we deny our own sinfulness the truth of God's Word has not reached our hearts. To claim we have not sinned is to deny the need for Christ and His death.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Man wants to excuse his sin rather than admit and confess his sin. The recognition and realization of our sin ought to lead us to confess our sins.

2b. Realization of the Confession of Sin (9)

Truth of Fellowship: We cannot reach a point of sinlessness therefore we must confess our sin.

I want to be quick to say that this verse as wonderful and blessed as it is ... is not a cliché' or a quick fix that gives us a license to sin. It is easy to say we have sinned, but to confess our sin says our heart is broken over our sin. Confession of sin must never become a cold and calculated formula for the forgiveness of sin.

Confession of sin is ...

· Acknowledgment of sin.

· Acknowledgment of God is Light ( His standard and measurement of righteousness).

· Acknowledgment of dependence of God.

· Acknowledgment of turning to God with a desire to conform our lives to His character.

Confession is the measure given to man by God to bring us into counsel and conformity of His Word. When we confess (admit and agree) our sin we can be assured that God is faithful to do two things.

· Forgive us our sin and remove the guilt of sin ( .. cleansed from a guilty conscience)

· Cleanses us from the pollution brought on us by sin.

Confession comes from the truth in us and working on us. Confession is the way in which our sins are removed and whereby fellowship with God continues.

We can have no fellowship with God apart from the confession of our sins, and the forgiving and cleansing work of God in our lives.

3. Fellowship in the Restoration of the Light

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

3a. Restoration of the Counsel (10)

Falsehood of Fellowship: We can become righteous and sinless on our own.

Once a man approached the great evangelist D.L. Moody and stated that he had progressed in holiness to the point where he no longer sinned. Moody smiled and said, "Well, I'd like to ask your wife about that."

Once again the denial of sin makes God a liar and rejects the atoning and forgiving work of Christ.

The counsel of God's Word declares there is none righteous (). Without being covered in the righteousness of Christ man has no righteousness or right standing before God on his own. That is good counsel from the Word of God that is in us.

3b. Restoration of the Counselor (2:1-2)

Truth of Fellowship: We can only be righteous and forgiven through Jesus Christ.

I read this week ... "God never alters the robe of righteousness to fit the man, but the man to fit the robe."

Left to ourselves we would never get it right! We'd be walking around looking shabby all the time.

John gives us in this passage both the "preventive" theology of sin, as well as the "corrective" theology of sin. That is ... you do not have to sin (prevention), but if you do sin there is a remedy (corrective).

Too often we excuse our sin on the basis ... "I am going to sin, so therefore I might as well go ahead and sin." John wants us to know that we may not sin.

NLT He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.

· Christ is our Advocate: helper, supporter, defender ... one who lends His presence to His friends (sinners - )

"The tremendous thing about Jesus is that he has never lost his interest in, or his love for, men." - W. Barclay

· Christ is our Propitiation: to placate or pacify, to forgive ... through Christ God is satisfied with the price of atonement to forgive man his sins.

NLT For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. 24 Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. 25For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times. 26 And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.

The greatness of the work of Christ is that man's sin ... past and present ... are paid for and man's fellowship with God can be "restored" and "maintained." through Christ.

The whole picture here shows that God is not static (having not motion, fixed or stationary) in our lives, but "active" toward us ... as we are to be toward Him. And the blessing is ... we can we active with God through Christ!

Conclusion:

Fellowship with God is sweet and wonderful when we allow our lives to walk in the circle of His Light.

If we are to experience fellowship with God we must ...

· First, recognize our sin and realize that it is our sin that has broken our fellowship with God and man.

· Second, we must confess that sin to receive restoration of our fellowship with God and man.

Let us walk in the influence of God's circle of Light and let us fellowship with our heavenly Father and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Amen!