Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : January 16, 2005
What Do You See in Christ's Light?
Epiphany 2
"My life's a failure. Nothing ever goes right. I just got dumped. My car broke down. I hate my job. And now winter is here to stay. What next! One day it's a killer tsunami; the next it's an avalanche or flooding or mudslides. Maybe the next disaster will get me. And those are only the things I can see. I read in the Bible that the devil's out to get me, that I'm a miserable sinner, and that the world is going to get worse and worse until the end of the world comes. How much worse can it get?"
Have you ever had days like that? I wanted to relay the worst day ever that someone's had, so I searched on the Internet for "worst day ever." The good thing is that it took only 0.9 seconds to retrieve some people's "worst days ever"; the bad thing is that there were 9 million sited to look through. Apparently we're not the only ones on the planet who have bad days, and apparently people aren't afraid to share their bad experiences. Have you ever wanted to crawl inside some dark cave somewhere and never come out? That's basically what depression is -- it's not wanting to deal with life. If you've ever been in a cave with no light, you know how dark it can be. In a cave with no light whatsoever, you wouldn't be able to see your hand in front of your face. But if you strike a match, suddenly everything is drawn to that light, and suddenly you can see. In fact, that small flame is blinding. If you strike a match in a lighted room or outside on a sunny day, it won't make much difference at all. The light of Jesus is no different. If you think you have enough light to see by already in this world, you won't need Jesus, just like you won't need a match on a sunny day. But reality is different -- whether we are having the worst day or week of our lives or whether we are on cloud nine, whether it's the dead, doldrums of winter or a warm summer day, we need the light of Jesus to shine in our lives. And when Jesus' light shines in your life, what will you see? That's what the Apostle Paul wants you to find out this morning. What do you see in Christ's light?
The first thing you see is how all the things that have happened to you in the past show that God is faithful. Paul says in verse 9, "God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." Now that would have been the last thing the Christians in Corinth would have expected from Paul. Why? The answer lies in the influence that the city of Corinth itself had on many of them. The city of Corinth was a major seaport on the Mediterranean Sea, and with that came all the problems of a major commercial city: corruption, violence, ungodly living. We might think of it as something like a Miami or San Francisco or New York. That atmosphere affected the Christian church there. They knew the gospel message, but their actions showed indifference to that message. There was quarreling, misuse of God's gifts, instances of people getting drunk at the Lord's Supper and even members of the congregation committing immoral acts that would disgust pagans -- like incest.
Was Paul covering up or ignoring the sins of the Christians at Corinth by preaching grace to them? No; in fact, Paul knew that if there were people that needed to hear about God's love, it was the people of Corinth. Paul addressed their spiritual indifference and weakness of faith later in the letter, but first he made sure they knew the reason why they should live as Christians -- because God had called them to faith in Jesus. As much as they had sinned against their God, God had always remained faithful to them.
If we raise the torch of God's faithfulness in our past lives, what would we see? It reminds me of one of my favorite movies -- Raiders of the Lost Ark. Maybe some of you remember when Indiana Jones had supposedly found the ark, but the floor of the place where he found it looked like it was moving. When he lit a torch to see better, he found out that the whole floor was covered with snakes. So if we lit the torch of God's faithfulness on our past, what would we see? We would see many of the same sins that plagued the Christians in Corinth -- greed, anger, jealousy, drunkenness, immorality -- we basically see how we were indifferent to everything except serving our own sinful desires. But as we raise the light of Christ higher, we see how God's faithfulness showed itself in the past as well. The light of Christ shines on a horrible instrument of torture -- the cross -- and it also falls on an empty tomb. These show to us and the world that God accepted Jesus' sacrifice in our place, and that because of Christ we will also rise from the dead to eternal life because Jesus paid for our sins. And then God was the one who reached out to us and called us by his Holy Spirit to believe in Jesus. He gave us eternal life instead of the certain death that awaited us because of our sins.
But God's faithfulness in Christ doesn't only shine on our past lives; it also shines on our present lives, giving us more reasons to live as Christians. Paul says, "I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way." God enriches you with spiritual gifts. Whenever I think of that word "enrich," I always think of a loaf of bread or a box of cereal. They don't have much nutrition to offer just by themselves, but they are often "enriched with 10 essential vitamins and minerals."
We are no different. In-and-of-ourselves, we had nothing in us that we could offer God, and even now in-and-of-ourselves we have nothing to offer God. But God has blessed us with spiritual gifts to serve him. That's why Paul can encourage us as Christians now to live for Christ as he encouraged the Christians of his day: "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." (Ephesians 4:1-2) "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed." (Ephesians 5:3) God doesn't want any of those things in our lives. When he looks in our lives he doesn't want to see any "obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving." (Ephesians 5:4) And this is why he can say, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light." (Ephesians 5:8) When we look right now into the darkest corners of our lives, God doesn't want to see any sin at all -- he wants us to be holy and live holy lives. We, of course, know that when the light of the holy God shines in our lives, he will see all kinds of dirt -- it would be the ultimate white glove test -- sins of not liking others in this corner, sins of cutting others down instead of building them up under the couch, sins of not telling others about Jesus lurking on a dusty doorframe. But we can always shine the light on the cross and open tomb. That is our motivation, that is our strength to live as we were always meant to live -- as children of God, and as children of light.
But what happens if the torch starts to flutter and go out before we reach heaven? What happens if our sins start to overwhelm us? Could the torch we carry every go out? That's why it's important to see that the light which has purified us by calling us to faith and even now enriches us is the light of God's faithfulness. That means that as we look into an uncertain future, we don't have to fear. Do you think that God would leave us now after he's taken so much time and effort to save us? Now, if we getting to heaven and remaining in the faith depended on us, we'd be goners for sure. But we're not carrying the torch or our goodness, the torch of our self-reliance, the torch or our best efforts -- we are carrying the torch of God's faithfulness that shines with the light of Jesus, the Light of the world.
That's why Paul can say the amazing thing he does in verse 8: "God will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yes, when we look at all the natural disasters that have been happening lately, they are warnings to the world that the end is near and that they need to have their hearts right with God and without any sin in order to stand before him on the day Jesus comes in all his glory. But those natural disasters also remind us that Jesus is coming -- not to condemn us but to give us the final goal of our faith: heaven, because "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) And again, this is how we know for sure that our future with only bring eternal life: "God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." God is faithful. That settles it. God promises to keep the light of his faithfulness in Christ lit. It's like one of those trick candles that stays lit even after someone tries to blow it out. Satan doesn't have the power to put that light out. The world has no power to douse that eternal flame. God himself has promised us that he will never let the light grow dim, so even God can't put it out because he'd be breaking his promise, which of course God can't do. And we definitely can't put it out. But we can walk away from it. Do you see why staying connected to Jesus is so important in our lives? If we cut ourselves off from Jesus by not getting into his Word in our daily lives or by skipping church or Bible class, then we are walking away from the faithful God and the strength and assurance he wants to give us in our everyday lives.
Does life get you down? Do you want to crawl into some dark cave and let the world go by? Jesus has brought his light into your life. He called you to faith; he enriches you through faith; he will keep you strong in faith until he takes you home to heaven. There's no better reason to live everyday in the Light of Jesus. Amen.
