I have had occasions when I would awaken in the middle of the night having had a bad dream or unsettled sleep. In these moments the darkness momentarily overwhelms me. I’d climb out of bed and fumble in the darkness for a light switch so I can come out of my disturbing slumber. Of course, the bright light is so blinding that I can’t handle the quick shift in reality! So I turn the light off! I want the light to rid myself of the darkness but I can’t handle the light because I am accustomed to the dark! What a dilemma!
You will have had your own experiences of being in the dark, wanting light. Do you remember August 14, 2003? (SLIDE) It was the night the lights went out in Ontario and the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. It affected 10 million of us in Ontario alone, marking the largest black-out in Northern American history. None of us who experienced that will forget how we longed for the lights to come back on. When you’re accustomed to being in the light, you don’t like the dark.
When the Light (with a capital L) overpowers the Dark (with a capital D), it is an awesome experience! It is powerful when God blazes into life’s experiences. Light brings power for living but it also exposes the Dark deeds and shameful practices that we have become accustomed too. What a dilemma! The benefits of the Light however, are worth the trouble of dealing with exposed Darkness.
Many cannot handle the exposure. The Light becomes so intrusive and uncomfortable that they hate it, despise it and, like the religious leaders of our Bible reading they rush to turn it off and shut it down.
We each have choices to make today. We want either the Light on or off. We’re going to explore what those options will mean for us.
I. The Intensity of The Light (Jesus) SLIDE
INTENSITY is a basic property of natural light and refers to the BRIGHTNESS of light. For example, we all understand the difference between the brightness of a 40 watt bulb and a 100 watt bulb. Then if you replace a standard 40 watt bulb in your lamp with the newer 40 watt fluorescent bulb you will know that it is considerable brighter or is a more intense bulb.
Jesus, The Light of the world, doesn’t ever gloss things over. When he enters the room or comes to live in your life, he confronts corruption in its ugliest form but he also provides pardon and ignites change. He doesn’t expose our sin to condemn us; he exposes our sin to save us! This is that reality of John 8:1-11 (Read/capsualize)
* Legalistic response to human corruption
* An opportunity to corner Jesus so he would condemn himself with his answer
From a legal standpoint the leaders were right and the sentence of death by stoning, according to the law, was just. The problem however with adopting a legal standpoint is how that position affected the would-be judges. There are several possible reasons why Jesus wrote in the ground as the leaders pushed him to deal with the situation before him. The most powerful suggestion as to what and why Jesus was writing in the sand comes from William Barclay. He offers that Jesus was writing in the dust the sins of the very men who were accusing the woman." To go on, "Jesus was saying, ’Yes, you may stone her but only if you never wanted to do the same thing yourselves." Jesus was not only confronting the woman with the wickedness of her adultery but he was exposing the hidden desires of the human heart to want to commit acts of sin.
Barclay suggests that Jesus was not taking the woman’s sin lightly but he was deferring her sentence, as if to be saying to her, "I am not going to pass a final judgment now; go and prove that you can do better. At the end of the day we will see how you have lived."
The intensity of Christ in the room exposes, not to judge but to heal. Too many today are anxious to pass judgment. Too many demand a standard of behaviour that they cannot subscribe to themselves. The church is a place for the wounded; it is a place for the sinful; it is a place for people who have chosen the wrong side of the tracks; it is a place for people who have mucked things up badly. When the church ceases to be that kind of place we are nothing more than a legal society that likes to throw rocks.
Jesus’ statement "I am the light of the world" serves to make us painfully aware of sin. The Light invites us to come out of our disturbing, sinful slumber. The intensity of Christ in our lives leads us to deal with our own sins, to face the ugly reality of our own corruption. He brings us to realise that we are no better than another; that "We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Accepting the invitation however can be an overwhelming experience as we try to deal with the quick shift in reality! But don’t turn the light off! If you do, you’ll go back to sleep with sin. Face the Light and allow him to deal with the Dark.
In addition to The Intensity of the Light (Jesus) we have
II. The Illumination of The Light
Night driving with pouring rain is difficult driving. The water can create slippery surfaces and oncoming traffic lights are reflected off the water with blinding effects. If you remove the image of oncoming traffic and place yourself on a deserted road with heavy rain, the experience becomes very lonely and desolate. You hope you don’t get a flat in this isolated place. On such drives, I appreciate turning that bend or breaking over the crest of that hill and in the distance I can see a soft glow of distant light shatter the darkness. I know there is a community of lights and life before me and it is a most welcome sight and warming experience.
* John 8:12...
These words were spoken in the busy-ness of the temple courts on the eve of the "Festival of Tabernacles". The Ceremony called "The Illumination of the Temple" was taking place in the Court of Women which involved lighting four candelabras which cast light that could be seen miles away. It was said that every courtyard of Jerusalem was lit up. This festival would continue through the night with celebration and worship and by morning the candelabras would be extinguished and give way to the morning light. When Jesus spoke these words, he used that event to draw attention to another reality. He is The Light that is never extinguished. His presence would be far reaching; past cultures; beyond generations; unrestricted to time and space; encompassing everything, everywhere for all time! Declaring "will never" speaks of constancy or continuing influence. There is a condition attached however. He promises this to the one who "follows me". To follow him is to follow Jesus as a student follows and understands their professor’s teaching or a servant follows and serves their master.
This is a picture of experiencing dark times, difficult times but in the experience we have the soft glow of Jesus presence and comfort to support us and keep us connected and centered in him.
I saw a business card that carried the phrase "Get a Life" with the word "NEW" accented between "a" and "Life" so that it read, "Get a NEW Life". In the darkness of our lives Jesus breaks through on the horizon of our lonely, desolate road and promises that if we choose to follow him we will never again walk in darkness!
There is no darkness where Jesus is! His presence not only illuminates our hearts so that God says of us in Ephesians 5:8 "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light" he also tells us "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14)! Every step we take in the Light casts its glow into the darkness so that we are never in darkness and we bring the Light to others in darkness just by the Light’s presence in us!
In addition to The Intensity of the Light (Jesus) and The Illumination of the Light we have
III. The Eclipse of the Light (SON-Jesus)
We would all understand a solar eclipse as that event when the moon passes between the sun and the earth and in doing so, obsures, if not completely blacks out, the sun’s light. The next total solar eclipse is projected for August 1, 2008. When the eclipse takes place, if you can remember it at all, you’ll likely remember an eerie feeling of strange darkness but yet there’s still light. It has to be experienced to fully understand what it’s like.
As The Light, Jesus the SON, was eclipsed by the religious community. They were completely blind to who he was and they worked very hard to make sure others wouldn’t become interested either. These religious people were often very successful in coming between God and his people whom he loved. Several examples of Jesus being eclipsed by the religious community are found in John 8:13-20:
* "Your testimony is not valid" (v13)
* "You have no idea" Jesus says "where I come from or where I am going" (v14)
* "Where is your father?" (v19)
* "You do not know me or my father" (v19)
These were the people who fumbled in the Darkness meaning their deeds were evil and their hearts closed to God and when The Light was "turned on" they couldn’t deal with shock effect of having lived in Darkness and now being exposed by The Light. They desperately wanted things to remain the way they’ve always been, with The Light "off". It was comfortable, familiar and safe. They weren’t interested in being able to see and were not prepared to take the risk of entertaining the possibility that Jesus is Messiah because it would upset the balance of what they understood to be truth.
The intensity of the Light can lead any number of us to allow Jesus to be eclipsed from our lives. One powerful story of such an experience is told by Ray Ellis, pastor of Willow Value Free Methodist Church, California.
A long time friend and associate of Billy Graham was Chuck Templeton. He worked with Billy Graham in Youth for Christ in their early days of ministry. Chuck Templeton helped organize Youth for Christ in Canada.
But over time Chuck Templeton became an Agnostic and renounced his faith in Christ. He left the ministry and managed two of Canada’s leading newspapers.
Lee Strobel, now teaching pastor at the Saddleback Church in Southern California, was an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He had received his attorney’s degree and was a committed Agnostic. Through his wife influence and the Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area Lee Strobel came to a personal faith in Christ. He has written two outstanding books (personal note: more since this story), A Case for Christ and A Case for Faith. Lee Strobel read one of Chuck Templeton’s latest books, "Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith." He decided to fly to Toronto to meet Chuck Templeton, now 83 years old, and interview him. In their interview Chuck Templeton vigorously defended his agnostic rejection of a God who claimed to love, yet allowed suffering across the world to go unchecked.
Then toward the end of their time together, Strobel asked Templeton point-blank how he felt about Jesus.
Instantly, Templeton softened. He said, "In my view He is the most important human being who has ever existed." Then his voice began to crack, he haltingly said, "I miss Him!" Then Templeton’s eyes filled with tears and he wept with his shoulders shaking.
What a contrast of two friends, Billy Graham and Chuck Templeton. Once worked together for the Lord and then went their separate journeys. Billy Graham said that Jesus was his most prized possession, while Chuck Templeton weeps for having left Him long ago.¡¨
How sad and heart-breaking it is that Templeton turned away from God because the suffering in the world and God’s apparent silence acted as a barrier between him and God so that it eclipsed Jesus and his life-experience was dark and miserable.
WRAP
Is Jesus’ presence in your life exposing things that you know need to be addressed? Are you willing to face the intensity of his presence?
Are you facing things today that make Jesus feel very far away and you are desperate for help? He is right beside you and wants at this very moment to give you assurance that he is with you. He wants to illuminate this moment of darkness with his presence.
Are you dreadfully far away from Jesus and feel okay with that? Have you allowed your comfortable, personally focused desires to act as an eclipse between you and God? The Light may not be out per se, but you know it is really dim; there’s a darkness around you that doesn’t fit and you know doesn’t belong. Are you there? Is Jesus obscured or completely blacked out of your life? Do you, like Templeton, miss him?
All it takes in any reality is to open yourself to say "I want things to be different. I know things need to be different. I know what’s wrong, what doesn’t belong and I invite you Jesus, to come and change me. I want you back."
Jesus’ love is so deep for you that he longs to blaze through to you. Only you can open the channels to allow that to happen.
