Commands of Christ-26a

Walk in the Light, Believe in the Light

Open:

Now that you are an adult , are you afraid of the dark?

I think we should be.

Job 24:13–17 (The Message) “Then there are those who avoid light at all costs, who scorn the light-filled path. 14 When the sun goes down, the murderer gets up— kills the poor and robs the defenseless. 15 Sexual predators can’t wait for nightfall, thinking, ‘No one can see us now.’ 16 Burglars do their work at night, but keep well out of sight through the day. They want nothing to do with light. 17 Deep darkness is morning for that bunch; they make the terrors of darkness their companions in crime.

Not just physical darkness, but spiritual, moral, intellectual darkness.

Jesus explains: John 3:19–21 (NASB95) “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

Luke 22:50–53 (NASB95) And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? 53 “While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.”

What “monsters” are in the dark that should concern us and make us watchful?

The devil

The devil’s followers - who torture, murder, pillage and destroy.

It would be easy to be terrified by the darkness all around us.

But we can pray and I believe we will experience a Goshen illumination.

In their book, Rebuilding the altar: a bold call for a fresh encounter with god, Pat & Karen Schatzline write:

We are living in one of the darkest times in history, and we know from history that when the world grows the darkest, God’s children must become the light. How can we accomplish this? It must start in our personal lives and in our homes and spread to our houses of worship.

The altar must once again be the place where we meet the Lord. The most significant parts of our lives must start and end at the altar. It is at the altar that true change takes place. I am reminded of what one of our heroes of the faith, Leonard Ravenhill, once said:

“The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make him holy, then put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.”

…

The atmosphere should shift when we walk into a room because when we enter, the Spirit of God comes in with us. We are atmosphere-changers, called to be light in the darkness.

The Command

As we launch into this study, there is no doubt in my mind that I will always make it harder (deeper?) than it has to be.

It is no different with this lesson.

So, before we launch out into the deep (or the weeds), let me state the command of Jesus that we are studying (so we can be obedient to it)up front:

John 12:35–46 (NASB95) So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 36 “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. 37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” 39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” 41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. 42 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. 44 And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. 46 “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

Walk while you have the Light,

“Walk” is in Greek Present Imperative

The NT (Greek) present imperative ~! commands ongoing action, i.e. a regular, long-term way of doing something as an ongoing lifestyle.  The process-action must happen again-and-again over multiple situations or repeatedly (progressively) in the same scenario.

conveys: Go on doing this; it must happen habitually, continuously, progressively as a modus operandi (way of life).

Believe in the Light

“Believe” is in same tense “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

Ellicot: that the believer should become like unto Him in whom he believed. Those who believed in the light should receive light, and become themselves centres whence light should radiate to others and illumine their own paths.

We must commit to trusting in Jesus as the Light so we will not be enveloped by the darkness

But what does it mean to do as Jesus commanded: to walk in the Light?

We will look at that phrase in 1 John 1

Where are we going?

As we begin this study let’s try to understand what it means to walk in light.

Matthew 4:12–17

Isaiah 9:1–2 Isaiah 60:1–3

Matthew 5:11–16 … 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

What do you think the terms "light" and "darkness" represent?

White Board:

Sproul, R. C. (2005). The Unexpected Jesus: The Truth Behind His Biblical Names (pp. 64–65). Christian Focus Publications.

The function of light

A few years ago I was occupied pursuing a layman’s understanding of astrophysics and astronomy. The more I read of contemporary scientific investigations into the nature and behavioural patterns of light, the more I had the sense of approaching something on the edge of the mystical. Light is an incredible thing.

What colour is a lemon? You may reply, A lemon is yellow. No, it isn’t. A lemon is black. Colour is a secondary quality which is not inherent in substances. Why does a lemon look yellow to us? Because of its chemical make-up. The light that travels towards the lemon is carrying within itself all the rich and intense hues and colours of the spectrum, as seen in the rainbow. When the light hits the lemon, many of the colours that are inherent in light are absorbed by the lemon. The lemon divides and refracts the light coming to it, and gives us yellow, one of the colours of the rainbow.

The Birth of Jesus

(Sproul says:) I wandered away from the church and went over to an old stone wall. It was a bright sunny day and, from the vantage point of the wall, I could look out over the seemingly unending plain called the Fields of Bethlehem. It was on those plains that the shepherds tended the flocks.

As I sat there, I began to let my imagination roam freely. I thought, ‘Imagine what it was like that night when, like hundreds of nights before, the shepherds were performing the tedious task of night sentries. With absolutely no warning, the sky suddenly became brighter than noon.’

… I thought, ‘What would happen to my heart if I were sitting out there in the darkness and all of a sudden the glory of God shone around about me and I was face to face with an angel?’ I would be terrified.

… in the incarnation, for the most part, the refulgent, dazzling glory of the being of God was concealed, hidden behind the veil of Jesus’ humanity. And as we have seen already, this is something that Jesus did willingly. He downplayed his glory and his dignity by taking upon himself the outward display of servanthood. In theology this is described as the humiliation of Jesus. He concealed his glory, and so the normal portrait of Jesus in the Bible is one of humility and of hiddenness.

But there were moments when it seemed as though the veil of his humanity could not conceal the glory, and it burst out.

The Transfiguration of Jesus

There Jesus was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his garments became as white as light. Whatever colour had been in the garments of Jesus vanished. Now there was the purity of the manifestation of light. No refraction; no absorption. Pure, unvarnished light. His face began to glow, radiating a light of its own, as intense as the light of the sun itself, such that no human being could gaze upon it without destroying his own eyes. This description defies human comprehension and it is simply called the Transfiguration.

In that rare moment of Transfiguration, God gave these three disciples the ability to see into another dimension. It wasn’t an hallucination of glory, rather they were able to see the reality that had been concealed until then. They saw the unveiled glory of Christ.

Is it any wonder that when John wrote his Gospel years later, he began by saying that the Word of God was the light of men (John 1:4, 5). At the close of the prologue, he says, ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14).

Jesus doesn’t merely reflect the glory of God; he is the Glory of God.

Sproul, R. C. (2005). The Unexpected Jesus: The Truth Behind His Biblical Names (p. 66). Christian Focus Publications.

Light Darkness

Jesus Evil (The devil)

Bringing/giving glory to God Reproaching God

John Piper says: We love to look at glory. We were made to enjoy seeing it.

God’s glory is the radiance of his manifold perfections. Those are poor words for the richest reality of all. But though words are inadequate, we must try. God’s glory is the outshining of the infinite value of all that God is. It is his moral beauty. It is visible to the physical eye only as the glorious created world points to its invisible but more glorious Maker

Salvation Sin

Grace Judgment

John 3:16–21 (NASB95) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

Guidance Confusion

Knowledge Ignorance

Holy Spirit manifestations Woks of the flesh

Love Hate

Forgiveness Unforgiveness

Compassion Indifference, heartlessness

John Piper says: So what does it mean then that we are the light of the world? How do good deeds grow from who we are in such a way that they make God look glorious?

Here it would be wise to stay close to the context of Jesus’ words. He has just spoken the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who suffer for righteousness’ sake (Matt. 5:3–10).

Here is a kind of identity that is very unusual in the world. It is like savory salt when things are tasteless and flat, and it is like hope-filled light when people are stumbling around in the dark.

But the closest beatitude to the demand to let your light shine for the glory of God is that you are blessed when you are reviled. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11–12).

Immediately following this demand to rejoice in persecution comes the statement: “You are the salt of the earth.… You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13–14). Therefore, I conclude that what is most salty and bright in this insipid and dark world is the almost incomprehensible joy of Jesus’ followers in the midst of persecution and the hardships of life.

In what way is God similar to light?

1 John 1:5; 1 Timothy 6:12–16 … dwells in unapproachable light, …

James 1:17 … the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

In what ways do we "walk in darkness"?

Tom Blackaby: Walking in darkness always happens when we strike out on our own with little or no consideration for what God’s Spirit may be telling us.

What tempts you to wander in the darkness rather than walk in the light?

The evil in me hates the light and wants to fulfil the desires of the flesh (evil).

It wants to “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”

Hebrews 11:24–25 (NASB95) By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

Crucifying the flesh, dying to self, dragging it to the purifying Light is really hard.

What does it mean for us to "walk in the light"?

Paul testifies before Agrippa of his calling by Jesus in:

Acts 26:15–18 (NASB95) “And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 ‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

1 Peter 2:9–10 (NASB95) But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, to walk in a greater knowledge of, obedience to and experience of Jesus.

Tom Blackaby: Walking in the light is to walk in the presence of the Lord, doing what He has prepared in advance for us to do, so that when we see Him face-to-face He will turn to us and say, “Well done, good and faithful slave!” (Matt. 25:23).

What example has Jesus set for us to follow? How?

Tom Blackaby: Each of us is allotted a certain amount of time here on this earth. Our days are numbered, and not using our time wisely is foolishness and poor stewardship of a tremendous gift. How we use our days shows how grateful we are to the Giver of life. Christ’s days were also numbered on the earth, yet He was able to accomplish everything His Father had set before Him to accomplish. He could say upon the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), knowing He had completed every last prophecy, every expectation, and every deed He had been sent from heaven to do.

Do you feel you are walking in the dark, the light or in some shadowland right now? Why?

Shadowlands is the title of a book and the movie made from the book, about C. S. Lewis‘ marriage. In the movie, C.S. Lewis mentions the word “shadowlands”: he explains that it was the title of a story he wrote. “Shadowlands” referred to a place in shadow – the sun shone somewhere else, but not here.

I don’t feel I am walking in the fulness of the Light of God. Can I on this side of eternity. It seems others may be more successful than me.

Explore It (In John 12:34-35)

Read: John 12:20-36 esp.35-36

In what way was Jesus’ audience running out of time? (12:35)

Read verse: John 12:35 (NASB95) So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

Jesus’ audience is about to loose the physical presence of Jesus — He will no longer be physically present with them.

They are being forced into a transition from walking according to the physical to walking according to the spiritual.

What did Jesus tell the crowd to do? (12:36)

Read again: John 12:36 (NASB95) “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.

Explore It (In Ephesians 5:6-16)

Ephesians 5:6–16 (NASB95) Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” 15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

According to this passage, how does life in darkness contrast with life in the light? (5:9-20)

Darkness: foolishness, unaware of time and eternity, unaware (unconcerned) about God’s will, drunkenness, dissipation,

Light: opposite of above, the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, thankfulness, encouraging others

According to this passage, what characterizes the lives of those who are “children of light?”

Aside from “not participat[ing] in the unfruitful deeds of darkness” what else are we supposed to do about them?

Expose them - uh-oh! This is NOT what we want to do because …

What does this accomplish?

A warning to others

Help others to avoid the traps

Explore It (In 1 John 1 & 2)

1 John 1:5–7 (NASB 2020) This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 2:7-11 (NASB) 7  Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8  On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. 9  The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10  The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11  But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

What message did the writer hear and declare? (1:5)

God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all

What inconsistency did John address? (1:6)

What we say vs. how we live

What results from "walking in the light"? (1:7)

Fellowship with …

Cleansing of sin

What did John say he was giving to his readers? (2:7-8)

A new commandment because the darkness is passing away and the TRUE light is already shining

Dark Ages

How are claiming to be a Christian and loving one’s fellow Christians related? (2:9-11)

Get It

After studying all these passages, how can we "walk in the light"?

How important is fellowship with other believers to you? In relationship with “walking in the light?”

How can we get to know God better?

What does the way in which we treat other believers reveal about us?

What confidence does Jesus’ atoning death give to us?

What confidence should our relationship with the Father give us?

What area of your life do you need to examine in order to see your sins more clearly?

How do you need to change the way you relate to fellow believers in order to develop a deeper relationship with God (to walk in the light)?

Apply It

What steps will you take this week to walk in the light?

Adult Questions for LESSONMaker.