Becoming Like Jesus

By Pastor Samuel Chess

Grace Emmanuel Church

Port St. Lucie, Florida

 

 There Be Light!

 

Introduction: I’m going in a direction this morning that I had no intention of going in…I was filled with the truth of last weeks sermon and as I mused I saw something that startled me…something in last weeks scripture that we simply passed over….something worth pausing and looking at…. Last week we compared two passages of Scripture:

(Genesis 1:1-4) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (NIV)

 

(John 1:1-10) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Through this and several other passage we discovered:

1) The WORD of John 1: Jesus is the “God said” of Genesis 1! The WORD isn’t just a set of sentences from God that carry some meaning, the WORD itself is throbbing with life, The Word Jesus is life! He is the source of all life! The WORD of God carries inside itself such power that it has the ability to create life where there was nothing before. When God said… John says that those words were literally the very power and presence of Jesus himself.

2) (Colossians 1:15-16) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created (Agent of Creation): things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Goal of Creation) 17) He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Sustainer of Creation)

3) We reveled in the fact that this creator of all matter... Every molecule in the universe had some of himself in it and his ongoing presence was the very glue that kept every electron spinning around its nucleus…. but he knew the only way to redeem mankind was to empty out all of himself, all of the power of being that he had invested in the whole universe, after emptying, and emptying, and empting, and emptying finally with nothing of himself left, crawled into a single human cell and begin the journey of splitting cells until he was a human baby and finally as a man who would then carry all the distortions of his creation, all the mangling of his perfection that he had invested, all the misuse of his sustaining power and pay the price for all the wrongs as if they were his own….

But in the process of showing you those passages I moved quickly over parts of both that didn’t seem to apply to last weeks message…when I went back and looked at them I said to myself…self we have here a mystery, maybe it’s even a conundrum….

I. The Unexplainable Actions of the Creating WORD

Let me read Genesis 1 again and look for anything in here that doesn’t make perfect sense or that in some strange way correlates to the passage in John 1..

(Genesis 1:1-4) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (NIV)

Now we know that the WORD, created nothing by chance, every molecule is crafted with the most astounding precision, every part of the universe was fit together with perfect harmony….so how do explain that the first words out of Jesus mouth at creation were the words: Let there be light?

Why not “let there be water” or “up with dry ground”

How do you explain that God created light on day one when there was nothing else on earth to benefit from that light, there were no living beings to benefit from the light, no plants to use it’s energy, there was no land mass or bodies of water, there was nothing except: “an earth.. formless and empty, with darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light" … Something is going on there my friends.. something is being implied that’s deeper than we normally think.

The light created on day one was not for the benefit of the earth, there wasn’t yet an earth as we know it!

The light on day one was designed to dispel the darkness! Period….

Brings up a lot of questions:

1) Why does the creation account begin with a formless, void earth, would God have created it that way?

2) Why was the earth covered in darkness when darkness in the Bible is always a symbol of evil and God himself is light?

3) When did this whole war in heaven between God and satan take place and satan and a third of the angels land on the earth…was it before day one of creation and did that have something to do with the dark formless earth with the Holy Spirit hovering over the void?

Answer……I don’t know……

The mystery deepens when we discover that it is day four of creation before this happens:

(Genesis 1:16-18) God made two great lights-- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. (NIV)

Whatever the light was that erased the darkness over the formless earth it didn’t come from any light source we know of today because they weren’t even created yet.

The light that filled the earth when the WORD said “let there be light” came from the very creating and sustaining power of Jesus himself. As he spoke out of him came the energy that brought life giving light where there had only been chaotic darkness before!

From the moment God challenges the darkness with his creation of light in Gen 1 to his explanation in Revelation 21 and 22 that in the new Jerusalem…

(Revelation 21:22-23) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. (NIV)

(Revelation 22:5) There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (NIV)

….God is building an analogy that affects every fiber of your life. My reaction this week was to go to the Bible and find out how this theme unfolds in the Bible and I picked out 3 dozen passages that I thought would be particularly interesting….let’s explore a bit here and see what we find.

II. The Corresponding Actions of the Word made Flesh

(John 1:1-10) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

This idea of the light coming did not jump into the picture all of a sudden in the New Testament…

A) God’s Object Lessons

Throughout the Old Testament God begins to paint this picture in human minds of light as a symbol of himself and goodness and darkness as a symbol of satan and evil.

1) When God begins to make his presence known to Israel notice how he does it:

a) When God calls Moses to lead Israel how does he present himself? rumbling, shaking ground?…ear splitting shriek? Nooo…a burning bush!

b) When God brought destruction on Egypt he sent a plague of darkness..did you notice what was going on in the Israelite section of the country?

(Exodus 10:22-23) So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

c) When God led Israel through the wilderness at night, what form did his guiding presence take? Pillar of Fire

Are these all just a bunch a coincidences????

d) When God’s presence filled the temple what did the Israelites see? The glory, the “shecan” the shekinah of God’s glory.

e) When Gabriel makes the announcement of Jesus birth to Mary what is it that gets her attention? Light! And what spooked the shepherds?

(Luke 2:9) An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. (NIV)

f) When Saul is called by God on the road to Damascus what knocked him off his Harley.

(Acts 9:3) … As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. (NIV)

B) Application: I really don’t have to explain to anybody the application of this obvious truth. This whole idea of light and darkness is kind of built-into the consciousness of all of humanity. Perhaps its conditioning but if so the conditioning has come from the creator of the universe. Night/ darkness is the time when our irrational fears run rampant. (Shut out all lights… make room pitch dark) Those who enjoy the darkness we call “creatures of the night“. Darkness and increased sinfulness seem to go hand in hand. The bent toward evil in humanity is called their dark side. (Turn on lights) When truth breaks through we say we have seen the light.

When sin takes root in our lives we have this sense of blackness that grips our hearts and we long for something that will bring light to our darkened hearts. The sinner chained in his sin will turn to many things/ anything to relieve the blackness on the inside. That sense of darkness is what has griped humanity since Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. It’s what Israel was consumed with when they rejected God covenant with them and turned to worshipping idols. It’s why they were so drawn to the Shekinah of God…because the very presence of God promised to bring light into their dark world.

That inner darkness was the reason the Israelites were so anxiously waiting for a Messiah to come. Here’s what they had been promised by the prophets hundreds of years before:

(Isaiah 60:1-3) "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (NIV)

(Isaiah 58:8) Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. (NIV)

 

III. The WORD brings LIGHT to every part of Life

It’s very important that you draw a link in your mind between the creative WORD of Jesus in Genesis when he brought light into a chaotic void on the eve of the rest of creation and the light of his presence that brings light to the world inhabitants later on…

When Moses looked on the burning bush and it changed his life what energy actually was actually radiating out of the bush? I’m going to suggest that the fire of calling and the voice that came out of the bush was none other than the light creating WORD of Genesis 1: the pre-incarnate Christ who would one day show up in person as the light of the world!

When the Israelites followed the pillar of fire to ward off the darkness and give them direction in the night what/ who were they actually following?________

When the Apostle Paul is knocked off his Harley and he asked who he is speaking to, the voice that answers is the voice of the risen and ascended Christ. Understand that the blinding light that drove him to the ground was the presence of Christ as well.

A) The Light Bringer

Here’s the point: Jesus very clearly paints himself as the light bringer when he comes into this world. He says that just as he, through the power of his WORD brought light into the chaos of the early earth, now he is on that earth to bring light into the chaos of the sin darkened mind.

(John 9:4-5) As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." - Jesus

(John 12:46) I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. - The WORD

Look at this from the Apostle Paul…I love the wording:

(2 Corinthians 4:6) For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (NIV)

(John 12:35-36) Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them. - The Creator

B) Light Accepters verses Light Rejectors

When Jesus arrives and declares himself to be the light bringer he adds something to the mix that wasn’t there before… When the Israelites were following the pillar of fire (Jesus) in the Old Testament everyone had the advantage of seeing and following the light. In the New Testament Jesus says: I am again providing the light for you to walk in again. This time some of you will see the light and walk in it and some of you will see the light and reject it. Each will have very different outcomes!

(John 3:19-21) This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (NIV)

(Luke 11:34-36) Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you." (NIV)

Conclusion:

(1 John 1:5-7) This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (NIV)