Walking in the Light

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. Good to see everyone, as always, and happy to be able to have you here today. I wanted to start off the sermon today focusing on a statement that Jesus made in Luke 11. We will focus on that and then try to go from there to try to cover the topic that I think he is pointing out to us.

Because here in Luke 11, verse 34, he makes a statement that I have puzzled over a little bit. I've tried to figure out what does it mean. I've tried to understand what he was teaching. I don't know that I fully know everything about what it says, but I think it is important for us to read what it says and be able to think about it at this time of year, here at the mid part of the winter time.

As we're looking toward, as we mentioned earlier, the spring holy days in a couple of months. It's important for us to focus on the things that Jesus had to say. Here in chapter 11 of Luke, in verse 34, he says, Your eye is the lamp or the light of your body. Your eye is the lamp of your body. Now, like I said, I've thought about that before, and I've thought about, well, does that mean my eyes need to be bright? Does that mean, what is that meaning? What is he trying to explain? And I know, you know, I try to think about this, and it goes on to say, if your eye is good, I think that New King James says, if your eye is good.

Or other translations say, if your eye is healthy, or if your eye is single, being focused. And of course, that would have to do with vision, if it was focused as opposed to being unfocused or unclear. I think some of you may have been bothered by cataracts at some times, and that causes your vision to be unclear, to be unfocused, to be foggy.

And yet, what he follows this up by saying is, if your eye is good, then your whole body is full of light. But, if it is not good, if it is evil, or if it is bad, or unhealthy. Again, those are all different translations that I've read here, just trying to study that verse. It says, if it is unhealthy, if it is evil or bad, your body is full of darkness. And so, it would seem like that's an important concept of some type, to be able to think about or to consider.

And primarily, what I want to focus on is in verse 35, because in this verse, he directly says, therefore, consider or take heed. Take heed, whether the light in you is not darkness. And so, he essentially says, be sure that your eye is good. Be sure that your eye is not evil and walking in darkness, but be sure that your eye is good and healthy and focused and full of light, allowing your life and your body to be full of light.

And in thinking about this, I think what I understood from it, in just thinking about my eyes, and I'm pretty simple, I have trouble figuring out a lot of things, but it's pretty easy. If all of us just close our eyes, my eyes are closed and I can't see who is exiting in the back, so I don't know whether you're here or not.

But see, with my eyes closed, I'm in darkness. I don't see anything. Now, I know I can see, but I don't see anything. I'm just in darkness. But whenever I open my eyes, and you can open your eyes again, the light comes in. The light comes into the pupil and all of the other, I'm not able to describe, all of the interaction of a marvelously wonderful, marvelous creation that God has made for us to have an eye that would be able to take in the surroundings, be able to see the light, be able to fill our life with a whole lot of things, that otherwise we would really be pretty much shut out if we didn't have eyes.

And so, at least I can understand that the eye, as Jesus said, is the lamp or light of the body. I can understand that the eye certainly is the entry point for light into the body. And we often learn by reading. We often learn if it's very difficult to read. If you are not able to see, you've got to use Braille or some other type of hearing, maybe be able to have things read to you, where it makes it much harder to read. And yet, we often, we probably take for granted completely, that we can just look down and read what it says in a book, whether it's the Bible or any other book. We don't realize how much of a wonderful benefit it is for us to be able to have the sight, to have the vision, to be able to have the eyes that we have.

But as I thought about this, and as we have mentioned, we're only nine weeks or so away from the time of the Passover and the time of the Days of Unleavened Bread. And of course, usually, as we approach that time, what are we thinking about? Well, we're preparing, we're getting ready. We want to be looking at warnings that are in the Bible. We want, and actually, I think our focus should be, we want to grow in our understanding. And grow in our appreciation of Jesus' life, of His statements, of His words, what we're reading now, what He said, but then also, of course, His sacrifice, the willingness to be able to be unconditionally giving. Because that's what He was, whenever He sacrificed or allowed Himself to be the Lamb of God. Allowed Himself to go through the events that led up to ultimately His death. And so, I think it is good for us, then, to focus on the statements that Jesus made. And, of course, one of those statements, and we have discussed this with our seminars, and we know that Jesus came, in a sense, to proclaim or to announce the Kingdom of God. He came to acknowledge that He was the King of the Kingdom of God, and that we can be a part, as Mr. Brandon was going over, we can be a part of that Kingdom. We are working toward that. We are growing toward that. We yearn for the time when the Kingdom of God can come to the earth, we pray Thy Kingdom come. And yet, until it does, we're still awaiting the Kingdom. And that was a pronouncement that Jesus made. But He also described Himself in a number of ways. And we've talked about some of these ways that He described Himself in order to help us understand Him more fully, to be able to appreciate Him more fully. And one of those is simply His proclamation that I am the light of the world. See, our eyes are to be taking in the light. Our eyes are to be, if we have healthy eyes and good eyes, are going to be filling our whole body with light. And Jesus says that He is the light of the world. And I want to focus on that a little bit here in the beginning of this sermon, and then point out two or three things that tie together with that. Because that's what He tells us that we are to focus on, as we learn about Him, as we learn about His way of life, as we apply that, and as we benefit from what the Word of God tells us. So let's go to John 9. Actually, you find a lot of this information that Jesus mentions, not solely in John, not solely even in the Gospel or the Epistles of John, because you also find it in other places. And you have a contrast between light and dark in numerous places, or darkness and light in numerous places here in the New Testament. But here in John 9, I'd like to begin with the statement that Jesus made. And as you can probably see from the subtitle there in more than likely your Bible, mine's broken up that way. I like that. That seems to help me to be able to see different sections and kind of what they're about. But this particular section in the beginning of John 9 is about a man who is blind. A man who, at this point, lives in darkness. This was a man who was born blind.

He was born blind for that purpose of showing the power and the glory of God. To be able to show, as Jesus was going to do, he can give him sight. He can open his eyes. He can give him the vision that is needed. And of course, it was going to be a big controversy because people would condemn the fact that Jesus was even doing this.

Which is completely bizarre to me. That's remarkable how anyone could be offended over the fact that Jesus has given someone who has not seen since they were born their sight. That he had given them vision. He had given them, he had opened to them light instead of being simply in darkness.

I'm not going to read this whole chapter. I've got way too many of these to look at. You could study this if you wish. It certainly is a beautiful example of Christ's mercy and the power of God. But in verse 4, he said, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, because as night is coming, then no one can work.

This was toward the time, or at least during the time of his ministry, he realized that he had been on the earth for 30 years. He would have a relatively short 3-3.5 year ministry, and then he would be gone. This is very clearly stated here in the book of John, how he kept telling his disciples what was going to happen. Though they were going to live into the decades following Jesus' death, he wanted them to know I'm going to be gone. And of course, he said, I'll come back, but I'm going to be gone, and you're going to be scattered. And of course, he was concerned about them, but he said, while we have the daytime, I'm going to work the works of him who sent me. And the night is coming, and then no one can work. But he said in verse 5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. This is just one of the places, and of course he's making this pronouncement, this statement, in the setting of talking to a man who is blind, who certainly needs light, needs to see, he sure would love to see. And of course, as you read through the entirety of the chapter, and of course the Pharisees complaining about it, and the man actually growing to understand... Well, I didn't know who Jesus was, but I certainly do know what he did, and I clearly am willing to believe in.

I'm willing to believe what he says. That's what you find throughout the chapter of John 9. But I want to focus simply on that statement, that as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. I'm able to give sight. I'm able to give a lot of other things, which he's also going to explain. But he wanted them to benefit from the fact that to recognize him as the one who could fill their lives with light from God. If we back up to chapter 12, and just go further to chapter 12, you see Jesus in a sense mentioning the same thing.

Here in chapter 12, in this particular case, he was talking about his life and work at that time. He was offering direction to his disciples. He was telling them. Again, I'm here for a short time. I have a very specific mission. I have been sent from the Father. I'm going to return to the Father. But he said in verse 35, he said to them, the light is with you for a little longer. Of course, he tried to tell them this over and over again. He tried to help them realize, I'm not always going to be here. I'm going to leave. I'm going to return to my Father.

You're going to be left alone. But he says, the light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in darkness, then you don't know where you're going. And of course, they could clearly understand that. I can understand that. I've blundered around in the night, in my house mostly, running to stuff.

You can't tell where you're going. I don't know what it is, but I've got some kind of an injury on both shins. I don't know how in the world what I ran into, but I'm sure that I ran into it when I was walking around with the lights turned off, getting ready for bed. I'm just pretty sure that was the case.

But I don't remember running into something that would have caused me, and why it hadn't gone away yet. I don't know, but small little cuts or something. You don't even know where you get that kind of thing when you blunder around in the dark. So he says in verse 36, while you have the light. And so he was saying, well, I'm here.

You are interacting with the Son of God. You are interacting with the light of the world. You are receiving information. You are benefiting from the example. You are watching the mind of God. They couldn't comprehend that. I doubt that we would really comprehend fully what that would be, to simply walk the streets and to walk the hills and the shores with Jesus. It would be hard to fully comprehend who this was. And yet he says, while you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become the children of light.

And so here he starts leading into not only the fact that he is the light of the world, and that, as long as he's here, I'm the light of the world. But as you understand me to be the light of the world, you clearly need to believe who I am. That's in essence kind of how all of our connection to God begins. We come to believe and have faith in who Jesus Christ is. And he's the one who reveals the Father. The Father draws us to Jesus, but then Jesus reveals to us the need for belief and faith.

And that's what he's pointing out here in verse 36. Let's back up a few pages to chapter 8, because here we find Jesus, in a sense, also talking about the same thing, talking about the same issue of him being the light of the world. But here he's talking to people who were clearly in darkness, clearly opposed to him. He's talking to the Pharisees.

The Pharisees who have just been condemning a woman that they've brought to him, and I wanted to point out to him how horrible she was. And yet Jesus didn't condemn her, as we know. And yet in verse 12, again Jesus spoke to them and said, I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the world, and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. But we'll have the light of life. We'll have the light that will lead to eternal life. And so here, not only does he point out that we need to have belief in the light and faith in the light, but we are to follow the light, again talking of himself.

And he points out that that will lead to the light of life. That will lead to the light of eternal life. Because this is actually what John reveals even earlier than this in this book, which we'll go to now here in John chapter 1. See, he led them through a kind of a progression of understanding of coming to believe in him, coming to follow him, coming to, in a sense, embrace him.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, as it says here in verse 12, but will have the light of life. And what he was referring to is what John writes about here in John chapter 1. John chapter 1, you see John actually starting a discussion. As he began the writing of his gospel, which was, of course, a unique gospel, quite different than any of the other three.

The other three kind of followed the sequence of events pretty similarly. Some have some things, some have others. There's a harmony to them. John is pretty much different. And yet John reveals a lot of things that I know that Jesus had to convey to him. He had to give him an understanding or a perception.

At least he's the one who wrote them down. And yet the others maybe didn't have some of that, although it does seem that John seemed to have, or Jesus seemed to have, a special connection to John. A special love for him because he's called the apostle that Jesus loved. And again, not that he didn't love the rest. But he certainly had a certain affinity for John. And yet here in John 1, it says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

And so he starts off completely differently in his explanation of who Jesus was. And of course in verse 14 it says, that Word became flesh and dwelled among us. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. And so this is the individual that John is revealing or talking about. And yet what we find in verse 4, since this Word was with the Father and He has been with the Father for all eternity in the past, and He will be with the Father for all eternity in the future, it says in verse 4, in Him, talking about the Word, in Him was life.

In Him was eternal life. He had eternal life to give. And the life was the light of all people. And John says in verse 5, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. See, the light, the power, the strength, the might of Jesus Christ is able to transform us as, in many ways, very weak, very limited human beings into the children of God.

As we covered in the sermonette, we went over a lot of different verses that talk about God's purpose for man. And yet a part of that purpose was for men to come to identify with and to believe and to follow and to pursue being full of light. That's what Jesus said He is. He goes on, of course, in verse 5, the light shines in the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it, it did not overcome it. See, as dark as this world is and as dismal as Satan's system is, which is what we have in this world and have had for 6,000 years, a dark society.

And yet the light did come 2,000 years ago, it came into the world, it interacted with human beings, told them to come to believe in Me, come to follow Me, and of course, as we've embraced that, as we embrace that, then we want to enjoy the light. We want to enjoy living in the light. We want our eye to be good so that our body can be full of light.

He goes on in verse 6 and is talking about John the Baptist. He says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. This was John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, born of Elizabeth. And it says, John came as a witness to testify to what? To testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

And so here we find that John understood who it was that he was to be introducing, who it was he was laying the groundwork for, who it was that he was presenting as being far greater than I am.

It says, he came to testify to the light. And yet in verse 9 he points out, what kind of light is this? Well, in verse 9 it says, the true light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. This is what John's introduction was. And of course, a little later in verse 36, you're going to say, behold, here, the Lamb of God. This is who I want you to focus on. And yet, what it says in verse 9, and talking about how it is that Jesus is the light of the world, and how it is that through him we have life, and we can have eternal life through forgiveness, but also through his help, through his comfort, through his power, through him lifting us up, through him embracing us, and understanding that he is the true light. See, he described himself, and we've talked about this as being the bread of life. And we want to feed on the bread of life. But in that same section in chapter 6 of John, he says, I'm the true bread of life. And here he not only says, I'm the light, I am the true light. The light that cannot be overcome, the light that does not have any power or force that can diminish it. And of course, that's why we want to be filled with that light. So the three things that I want to mention, we've covered these verses that I think explain to us how it is that Jesus said he was the light of the world, how it is that he wanted us to believe that and to follow him and to embrace him so that we can have eternal life. But the first thing that I want to mention about this is he also tells us, and of course, the Word of God tells us, that we want to walk in the light. See, that's, again, not something that's unknown to you. You do that every day. At least you should be, and I should be, walking in the light.

If we go back to 1 John 1, it actually describes a Christian life. It describes what it is to be a Christian. It describes what it is to be an individual, a human being, who has the hope of eternal life, the hope of being in the family of God, an individual who is addressing how they walk. They are considering, am I walking in the light or am I walking in the darkness? Am I putting aside the works of darkness? And am I focusing on the light?

But here in 1 John 1, you see John describing a way of life. I want to point out one particular thing about this, because walking in the light is pretty obvious. That's what we're expected to do. But one of the primary things that is extremely important is listed here in the latter part of this. In verse 5 it says, this is a message that we have from Him and that we proclaim to you that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

And so, clearly, we see where we need to go. Where's the source? Who's the source? Well, that's God. And that would be His Son, Jesus Christ, as He's going to point out. If we say that we have, in verse 6, fellowship with Him, with God, and if we say we have fellowship with Him while we're walking in darkness, then we lie and we do not the truth.

To here He's going to point out something very clear about individuals who are true Christians and who are walking in the true light. It says if you say that that's what you're doing, if you have fellowship with Him, and yet you're walking in darkness, then we're lying. But, in verse 7, it says if we walk in the light, and that's why I entitled this section, Walking in the Light, if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we're looking to Him, we're asking Him to guide us, we're asking Him to teach us, we're asking Him to empower us, we're asking Him to help us overcome.

If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, we have fellowship with Him, we have fellowship with the Father, we have fellowship even among ourselves in peace, in security, in encouragement. See, we all know that we're flawed. Every one of us are flawed. I certainly know that I'm flawed. I'm going to guess that you're flawed in some way.

And yet, what this tells us, if we really are identifying with the true light, is that we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin. We're able to walk, not without sin, not never needing any help.

We're able to walk, realizing that as we walk in the light, our sins can be forgiven. Our sins can be washed away and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. In verse 8, He says, if we say that we have no sin, then we're deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We've got to be able to admit that. And sometimes that is not something we want to admit. Sometimes that's something that we almost go to many lengths to cover up. And yet, what He goes ahead to say is, in verse 9, if we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so, He goes on in emphasizing this. He says, if we say that we have not sinned, then we make Him a liar. And again, His Word is not in us. And so, we want to certainly agree with God, but He points out here that walking in the light is pursuing a way of life. Pursuing the true light. Pursuing a life with God and with Jesus Christ that is enabled through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's how we're able to do that. And yet, it clearly is acknowledging our need for forgiveness of our sins.

And actually, I will propose to you that that's even a very, very important identifier. It's a very important identifier because, even as He describes here, if we're not acknowledging our sins, then we are kind of missing the point. We want to be able to recognize. We want to be able to acknowledge our sins. And see, that is clearly a...what can you say? It's clearly an issue that the world does not want to address.

People don't want to...they don't want to talk about sin. They don't want to try to identify sin. What would it be? What would be sinful? They don't want to do that. They certainly don't want to admit, I am sinful. And clearly, if you listen to the news, there's a lot of deception. There's a lot of lying. It's hard to tell what report is true and what is not.

And then it's a report about all kinds of sin, although it's never identified as sin. It's just identified as actions of people. And yet, for Christians, we need to be able to acknowledge our sins. We need to be, whenever Jesus said, we should ask God to forgive us so that we can be forgiving to others, that's not just a momentary mention. That is a critical component to truly being Christian, to be willing to acknowledge our sins. Let's look at John chapter 3, because this actually is highlighted even more in John chapter 3.

We're going to walk in the light as a way of life, and we're going to be acknowledging our sins. We're going to be confessing our sins. We're going to be actually even coming to see the benefit and value of confessing our sins. And yet, in a sense, that's almost counterintuitive to our human nature, because it's revealing that I'm wrong. It's revealing something bad about me. And it may just be something that you know, and it may be that somebody else knows, and it may be a lot of people know, but clearly God knows. And so, who are we kidding?

We're not to do that. Here in John chapter 3, on the latter part of it, a very familiar section in verse 16 and 17 and 18, about the love that God has for us and how that he sent Christ to the earth so that we could have eternal life. But the section that I want to focus on is down in verse 19, because he says this is the judgment, that the light is coming to the world. And so he's been describing what Jesus was sent to do and how he was sent from the Father, and he wasn't sent to condemn.

He was actually sent to save. He was sent to be the Redeemer. He was sent to be the Savior of all of mankind. It happens to be he's working with some today. He's going to work with all eventually. But see, what it says is that the light has come into the world, and yet people have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. See, what is this telling us about walking in the light? Well, we read in 1 John, as we walk in the light, as we walk to follow Jesus Christ, well, then we're going to learn to be acknowledging and confessing our sins.

And yet what it says here in verse 19 is that the light comes into the world, and people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

And in verse 20, for all who do evil hate the light, and they don't come to the light so that their deeds would not be exposed. See, here he's actually giving an explanation of some of the inner workings of human nature. And of course, many, many people, when Jesus came to the earth, did not receive him. They did not acknowledge him as the Son of God. They didn't recognize him. He was the Messiah. He was the one who had been predicted to come. And of course, they didn't do that for many reasons. For the most part, most of those people were not being drawn to him by the Father. We can appreciate that. And yet, otherwise, you know, you had a lot of people there who were embroiled in a dark world, even though they didn't know it. And they really didn't want to have anything to do with the light. They didn't want to know anything about the light. They certainly didn't want their evil deeds exposed by the light. And so, they didn't want to come to the light because, you know, it would require that I either have to admit that I'm wrong, or I'd have to ignore, you know, what the light exposed.

And see, I think this is important for us, brethren, because it goes into an area of understanding of a willingness and a tenderness on our part. A sensitivity, I guess, is a better description. A sensitivity of sin in our lives.

A sensitivity, a willingness to seek. See, clearly, those in the darkness who hate the light and who refuse to come to the light because they're going to be exposed. You know, something hasn't flipped in their mind where they realize, well, in order to really walk in the light, I'm going to have to confess I'm wrong.

I'm going to have to acknowledge the errors that I am embroiled in sometimes.

And I know that in many ways, and I hope most of us feel, that we're making progress in overcoming sin, and maybe directly things that we see or know that are wrong and that we avoid. And yet, the thoughts and the intents of our heart, that's a little more deep topic. That's a far greater area of discovery.

And I clearly know, I've seen some things, even about me in the last few days, that I just...

They're despicable, mostly dealing with my thoughts or my inability to do the right thing at the right time and to express the love of God, which I desire, I want to do that.

But sometimes I find, I kind of fall into verse 20, I don't want to be exposed, or I don't want to admit that, yeah, that was wrong.

And yet, a part of walking in the light is a willingness to seek correction.

In verse 21, those who do what is true come to the light.

And so it's not enough to just know who the light is, to know who the true light is, to believe and have faith in Him or follow Him.

We want to come to Him to be exposed, to be shown.

What can we do to draw closer to God and to have our minds filled with the light of life and be able to actually do, as it says in verse 20, those who do what is true come to the light so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God, that God has been working in their lives, that He is causing them to have a sensitivity, a tenderness toward their actions, toward others, toward their desire to show that they represent the true light.

That's what we're to do. The second thing I want to point out is pretty obvious that I'm sure all of you have already wondered, why have I not read this yet?

Matthew 5 is actually transferring, in a sense, some of the information that Jesus said applied to Him, where He said, I'm the light of the world. And of course He always will be, and He still is the true light.

But in verse 14 of Matthew 5, it says, you, those who would become believers in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, He gave this instruction to those who would become His disciples. He said, you're to be the light of the world.

And He said, a city built on a hill cannot be hid.

And so since you are to be the light of the world, we'll then shine forth. Be visible. Sometimes we'd rather be kind of invisible. Sometimes we're rather obscure.

And I know, trying to function in this world, many times it seems wiser to kind of stay out of the traffic.

And yet, in essence, He says to us, as the light of the world, verse 15, no one puts lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket, but they put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

See, that's what He tells us as individuals who walk in the light and who are willing to acknowledge our sins, and who are willing even to come to the light and ask to be exposed so that I can repent, so that I can change.

And yet here, He says, verse 16, in the same way, let your light shine before others, so that you may, they may see your good works and they may glorify your Father in Heaven.

See, our good works, our desire to honor God, our desire to live according to the way of life that God gives us or tells us, you know, that should be an example to others. They may not like it, they may not think that's much of a right example.

And we might have to admit, well, maybe I didn't represent it very well as well.

But then in other cases, you know, we may have represented it as well as we possibly could, and they just don't want to receive it.

Even as we read there in John chapter 3, and Ephesians 5, in this section about shining forth, being visible in this world.

That's the second thing I wanted to mention.

We're told that we are to be the light of the world, and that we are to shine forth.

Here in Ephesians chapter 5, actually you find not only this written about by John, but in other of the Gospels, as we've read and hear in Paul's writings in numerous places, but here in Ephesians 5, he says in verse 8, of course he's giving a contrast between how they had lived and how I want you to live walking in the light.

This is what Paul was also going to encourage Christians to do.

And he says in verse 8, once you were in darkness, you were in the dark.

At some point in time in your past, you could clearly say, I was lost. I was in the dark. I was stumbling around in the dark.

And yet thankfully God opened a door. He opened our mind to where we could see, and we opened our ears where we could hear the glorious Gospel of the Kingdom of God and of the true light, Jesus Christ.

So he says, at one time you were darkness, but now in the Lord, you are light.

And so he tells us, this is what we have available. This is what we are able to enjoy.

Live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Try to find out what's pleasing to the Lord. See, that's what we're wanting to learn and then embrace and then live by.

In verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Here he tells us that, and as we clearly know, we're to repent of our sins, we're to put sin out of our life.

Those are all things connected with the Holy Days that we celebrate every year.

But here he says, in an example, in an illustration, you were in the dark and you've been brought into the light.

Pursue that light. Draw close to that light. Shine forth as the light of the world, because I'm telling you, I'm gone and you are now in the world and I want you to shine forth.

And the last thing, the third thing I want to mention, is that if we're going to do what he just told us to do, where's the light come from?

Well, it comes from Jesus Christ. It comes from the Spirit of God. It comes from Christ living in us, and so we need to reflect the light of Christ.

That's where it's going to come from. If it is extending out from us, it's got to come from somewhere, and it's going to come from reflecting what we see Jesus said, what we see he did.

What we see, how he responded and how he reacted and how he appreciated the people that he grew close to, because he really had.

He actually had the love for even those who were going to betray him. He had love and had great love for those who were going to betray him.

He knew the disciples were going to betray him, and he still loved them endlessly.

Yet he had love for those who were not only betraying, but who were persecuting and who were ultimately going to crucify him.

Even to say, that, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. They don't know the real magnitude of the plan here.

They are completely in the dark, and they are crucifying the true light.

But we want to reflect the light of Christ.

Here in 1 John 2, we read some in chapter 1 earlier, but in 1 John 2, John continues this discussion.

1 John 2, verse 7, he says, I'm writing you not a new commandment, but one of old that you've had from the beginning, that your old commandment is the word that you have heard, yet I'm writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

See, here he was telling the Christians that he wrote to, you have a communion and a fellowship with the Father because of the light. You have a fellowship with the Father and Jesus Christ because you are willing to acknowledge your sins and confess those sins and have them covered by the blood of Jesus.

And yet you are then to live, as it says here in verse 8, I'm writing this command, that is true in him and you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is shining.

See, that light is shining in us. That light needs to be shining in us. And he goes on to describe how to do that. Whoever, in verse 9, says that I'm in the light.

But who hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.

And so here we have to analyze, well, I want to identify with the light. I want to connect with the light. And yet I want to do what it says here. I want to have love for one another.

I want to have love for my brethren. I want to have love for my husband and my wife and my children and the others that I interact with, even those who ultimately are my neighbors. I want to have the love of God for others.

He says, whoever says I'm in the light in verse 9, while hating a brother or sister is still in darkness. Whoever loves, in verse 10, a brother or sister lives in the light. And so here he makes it pretty directly straightforward. As far as what it is, he requires us to do. And in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.

There's never a reason not to do what he's pointing out here. Living in the light, loving other people.

In Romans 13, one of the latter things that Paul included in the book of Romans, was giving instruction to Christians there in Rome. And of course, they had a setting that was in many ways somewhat unique, because it was the center of an empire that was clearly corrupt and in deep darkness.

And those Christians, many of them, lived under threat of death. They had all kinds of difficulty laboring. They'll know that we find ourselves in those same settings, yet we may eventually. And yet Paul said in Romans 13, in Romans 13, this is again, as I said, in the latter part of the book of Romans, and he's writing about living a new life in Christ. Living in the light that Jesus Christ is, and shining forth with that, actually reflecting the light that Jesus can put in us. Again, we've got to ask for it. We've got to request it. We've got to see that it's a need. We've got to ask that He would live in us in that way. And of course, in verse 8, he says, Oh, no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. See, he even enumerates a number of the Ten Commandments and says, Love your neighbor as yourself. In verse 9, but in verse 11, then, he concludes kind of with an appeal.

And that's part of what I want to do today. He says, Besides this, you know what time it is and how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. We had an article in The Good News the other day about waking up, an alarm, not turning off the alarm, going back to sleep, awake from sleep. He says, Besides this, know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep for salvation, is nearer to us now than when we became believers. Whenever you read that, that always is going to be the case. Because you're always closer to the end of your life or you're closer to the return of Jesus. You're closer to the fulfillment of what God has said will occur in our lives. And so he says, Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers. The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. He says, I want you to do requests to put on the armor of light, to have the true light reflecting in you from your heart, from your mind, from your outlook, from your interaction with others.

He says in verse 13, let us live honorably in the day, not in reveling in drunkenness and not in debauchery and licentiousness and not in quarreling and jealousy. He says these are areas of darkness that can damage our light. We want to put those aside, determine how to put those aside.

Some of those may be more difficult than others. But certainly quarreling and jealousy, that's pretty easy to stir up. That has to be sought out and then, in a sense, kind of put aside because there's no room for that in the Church of God. He says, let us live honorably as in the day, and not in reveling in drunkenness or in debauchery or licentiousness or in quarreling and jealousy, but instead, instead, in verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. He says again, put on the armor of light, put on Jesus Christ, reflect the light that is the true light. And so we're told, in thinking about how it is, as Jesus said, the eye is the light or lamp of our body, and if our eye is good, then our whole body is going to be full of light. And clearly, that's what we want to do. But He explains more fully that we need to walk in that light of readiness and willingness and even a desire to acknowledge our sins, to shine as a light in the world, and to reflect the light that would come from Jesus Christ as we put on Christ or as we put on the armor of light. So that's an area to examine, an area to think about as we follow what Jesus said here in Luke 11. See, He said in Luke 11, maybe we can go back there and conclude. In Luke 11 verse 33, He says, "...no one after lighting a lamp puts it in the cellar, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light." See, that's what we've discussed here. I was reading out of Matthew. It says, "...your eye is the lamp of your body. If your body is good or healthy, your whole body is full of light. But if it's not healthy, if it's evil or bad, then your body is full of darkness. Therefore, consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as light or as full of light as when the lamp gives you light from its rays." See, now, whether I fully understand everything about what Jesus is teaching or saying, I'm not going to say I do. But I certainly do know that He reveals Himself to be the true light, the one who is able to be reflected in our lives as we learn to love one another, as we follow and honor His law, as we are guided by the way of life, that He tells us to live, and that in so doing, then we can be truly the type of lights to the world that He wants us to be. So, with two months before we get to the time of the Spring Holy Days, I hope that this can maybe begin to lead us into a consideration of just how well the light of life is being reflected from me.