And when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
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March 20, 2008:Traditions | Just a few more weary days and then... I'll fly away... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. |
| December 29, 2007:New Year's 2008 | ||
| November 3, 2007:How To Be Successful in Christian Ministry | ||
| October 23, 2007:Salmon |
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| He Came to Bring Light! William H. Haller |
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As we move into this Christmas season, we look at what Christ did when He was born of the virgin Mary. And what was that great thing you ask? He brought light into a dark world! This lesson challenges Christians everywhere to not let that light grow dim in this Christmas season.
Just as in the last two weeks, I have some issues with the quarterly. Since these issues appear in the Student Quarterly, I want to be sure to talk briefly about them.
Once again, the authorship of the books is called to question. The fact that they are named the 1st through 3rd epistles of John doesn't carry much weight, it seems. Dake notes that the authorship of the epistles by John is an unbroken tradition in the church. Why make waves now? The one argument they push is not an issue at all if you think about it. They refer that in one spot (John 14:26) the Holy Spirit is spoken of as our parakletos (Helper or Advocate) while 1 John 2:1, Jesus is called the same thing. There is no confusion here. The Holy Spirit is indeed our Helper, Comforter, and Advocate on Earth. Jesus is our Helper, Comforter, and Advocate in heaven. There is no discontinuity of thought here.
Touching on creation, I must also take exception and give a brief counter summary to what the quarterly gave out. God created the heavens and the Earth, all in Genesis 1:1. This was quite literally, in the beginning. Specifically how many billions of years ago that was, God only knows. This included the Sun and the Moon.
Satan ruled this planet. Satan rebelled against God's rule and tried to usurp His authority. He lost. His planet was flooded and his kingdoms destroyed (2 Pet 3:5-7). This is the state described in Gen 1:2 where the Earth is described as now tohu va bohu - waste and empty. Darkness is upon the face of the planet due to God's judgment. How exactly this happened is not recorded. When God says, Let there be light, He is not creating light. He is removing the darkness that came about because of Satan's rebellion.
The Hebrew words used throughout the first chapter of Genesis are instructive, and are indeed translated differently in the English. One, bara, means to bring into being and is used in 1:1 and in six other spots in the first two chapters of Genesis, all having to do with the original creation of things (the heavens, sea creatures, man, et cetera). The other word, asah, is translated as made or make, and signifies a reconstructive act or making something out of already existing material. In the case of the Sun and Moon, God simply restores them to their rightful place in regulating the seasons, night and day, as they had been doing for who knows how long when the planet was under Satan's care. Compare with Jeremiah 4:23-26.
The correct application of these verses from Genesis, gives just as much illumination on 1 John 1 as any other, but they make much more sense as you look at the darkness as judgment, and light as a normal condition. Other examples of darkness for judgment occur when Moses stretches His hand toward heaven at God's command and God creates a darkness so total it can be felt (Exodus 10:21), it includes darkening the sun and making the moon red before the second advent (Joel 2:31 and Rev. 6:12), the fourth trumpet judgment when 1/3 of the day and night shall be darkness, and finally darkness on the Antichrist's kingdom (Rev. 16:10).
But this lesson deals about more than the physical light and darkness in the world that is under God's direction and control. Let's read the scriptures from 1 John 1:1 through 2:6 to start the day.
This message was given that our joy may be full (1 John 1:4). I'll get back to that later.
This chapter starts out with conditions of Christian fellowship, and gives an example of light and darkness. John points out clearly that God is light. He has no darkness at all - He is solely light. The message that John is passing on is that if we are to have fellowship with God, we cannot have darkness in us. We must walk in the light even as Christ is in the light. If we do that we have fellowship with Christ and with each other.
If you will remember back in Isa 9:1-2, it was prophesied that the land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim by the sea, and specifically the Galilee region of the Gentiles that were in darkness would see a great light. When quoted in Matthew 4:13-16, the light mentioned is phos, not derived from another source, but true absolute light - the opposite of all darkness. It is used of God and Christ. This prophecy was fulfilled when Christ left Nazareth and came to dwell in Capernaum.
The sermon on the mount also refers to the symbolism of light and darkness. In the passages of Matthew 5:13-15, we read that Christians are to be the light of the world. We are not to just be lights, lighting a small region. We are to be as lights put on a candlestick to give light to all our surroundings. We are instructed by Christ to let our light shine before other men, letting them see our good works to bring glory to God in heaven.
In the readings from 1 John that we just read, we are warned to not walk in darkness while claiming to be in the light. We are to walk in the light. The quarterly writer talks about the difference in light and darkness today versus the time that this was written in. There, candlelight was not even universal and was expensive to boot. Of course, electric light is a very recent invention. When the light from the sun was gone on a given day, it was truly dark. You might have some starlight if the night was clear. You might get some light reflected from the Moon depending on its phase. But, in general it was dark. Light banished the darkness.
What is the darkest place you've ever been in? For me, it was deep in a cave (oriented for tourists - I'm not a spelunker). At the lowest point in the cave that the tour went, the tour guide turned off the electric lights and his reserve light on his helmet. Even though it was the middle of the afternoon outside, deep in the cave was total darkness. Yet just one light from his helmet banished a great deal of the darkness. It rolled it back. In this sense we really need to be about the Father's business in spreading the light and rolling the darkness back, first in our own lives, and then in the world around us. We need to roll it back in our own lives first, so we won't be in a position of seeking a dust speck in another person's eye while ignoring the beam that is in our own eye (Mat. 7:1-5). There's enough of that to go around already in the church today.
If you have had troubles battling darkness in your life, you know that your joy is not full when there is darkness present. If you are trying to be a child of the King, then you are abjectly unhappy when you are dimmed by darkness. The only way to have joy in your life is to put the darkness away and let God fill you with light. Darkness and light cannot comingle. The good thing is that God has set things up in such a way that light will banish darkness by its nature if it will only let itself be seen.
Too often we try to have just a touch of darkness at times of our own choosing in order to - fill in the blank here - break up the monotony, add some spice and zest to our lives, fulfill our base desires and not love our fellow man as we ought to love, or a host of other reasons. Whenever we are living in darkness, we are hurting our testimony. We play with darkness at our peril. If there was just one point I would like to hit home on today, it is that one point. Satan is out to destroy us and our testimony - such as it may be. Christianity has been beaten up of late with high profile cases of Christian's mistakes being brought to light. Just because we aren't high profile, doesn't mean Satan wouldn't be just as happy bring our mistakes to light, whatever they might be.
So I hope we all admit that we do occasionally have sin we have to deal with our lives. I hope that we don't deceive ourselves on that ground. The truth does need to be in us as noted in verse 8.
It is true that Christ died to save the world from sin. 1 John 2:1-2 remind us of this from this section of scripture. He would like every single person to accept Him as their Savior and to start living as a Christian should live. Just because we have made that decision doesn't mean we will be perfect from that day forward. I wish it did, but the sin nature we are born with still plagues us. That was an advantage that Christ had. He wasn't born with that sin nature. He could have still chosen to sin, just as Adam and Eve did. But He did not do so.
God is merciful and will continue to forgive our sin if we ask Him to. I do not know the limits of His grace and mercy. I hope He has lots and lots. There is a scripture (Heb. 10:26) that says that if we continue to willfully sin (also translated in other spots as willingly) after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for our sins. Many interpret this to mean that since there is no other means for redemption other than the blood of Christ, that if we reject that salvation we have no other recourse. While this is consistent with the rest of scripture, this verse may also mean just what it says.
Both God and our own soul have limits. Our soul is not built to bounce back and forth like a pendulum. We risk going so far we lose sight of the return path when we dabble with darkness. If God does have limits, then it is my prayer that we stop testing His limits and thus be safe in either case. We must hold to verse 9 from the scripture today, confess our sins to Him and believe that He has forgiven us. It is dangerous to be like the rich barn builder that God said was a fool because his soul was going to be required of him that night, and all his plans would be for nothing. None of us know when we will take our last breath. It is much better to not be letting darkness reign in our lives if that last breath comes unexpectedly.
Unfortunately, many churches today are big on easy salvation and not too big on repentance which is supposed to go hand in hand with salvation and the Lordship of Christ in our lives. There are denominations where you rarely hear an altar call. Ours tends more toward that, to our shame. I do realize that our particular body may not be representative of our denomination, since it is largely made up of older folks who have been here a very long time. Giving an altar call each week to such a body may not be productive. But an altar call should still be done when needed. The music reflects the focus of the church. In the denomination I grew up in, most songs were about salvation, the blood of the Lamb, grace, mercy, et cetera. Here, these types of songs are rarely heard. Yet this message is the light we are to be spreading!
At what point, if we never preach of sin and our sinful state, do we present a face to the world that is warned of in verse 1:10 - making it look like we never sinned? Please bear in mind that I know nobody here believes that - I am only asking about the perception that someone who has attended our services for several years would have based on what is actually preached from the pulpit and talked about in Sunday School? What balance is healthy?
The Lordship that I spoke of a few minutes ago comes to bear as noted in 1 John 2:3-5. Here John challenges the believers that the way they know that they know Christ is that they and us by extension are doing his commandments. If we don't keep His commandments we are lying about our relationship with Christ. We know that we are in Christ and letting the love of God be perfected in us when we are keeping His word. The ultimate in abiding in Him is to walk as He walked.
Let us all live our lives for this Christmas season and for the year to come, walking in light. Christ came to bring light in the darkness and challenged us to do likewise. Let us banish the darkness from our own lives that we can be an example for others.
