Iliff and Saltillo UM Churches
April 27, 2003
“Turn Headlights On: Traveling in the Light”
I John 1:1-2:2
INTRODUCTION: Throughout the weeks of Lent leading up to Easter we examined our lives through a series of familiar road signs. Today is the last of our series entitled, “Turn Headlights On: Traveling in the Light.” In today’s scripture John talks about walking in the light of the gospel.
When this letter was written, Christianity had been around for a generation. There had been a lot of persecution but they had survived it. The main problem confronting the church now was the declining commitment of many believers who were starting to conform to the world’s standards rather than to God’s standards. False teachers were coming in trying to pull believers away from the true light of the gospel that Jesus taught. John was trying to put these believers back on track by showing them the difference between light and darkness. Who were the false teachers and what were they teaching that was so wrong?
One group was the Gnostics who believed that they didn’t NEED Jesus to forgive their sins. The believed that they were sinless. They didn’t believe that Jesus had come in the flesh as a real person. They didn’t believe that he was the Messiah. They felt they didn’t need Jesus because they had SPECIAL knowledge or SPECIAL revelation. A group in John’s church taught that Jesus did not really die. The false teachers said that people had no tendency toward sin and were incapable of sinning. They wanted to be Christians but they had no need to confess and repent. Some of the people in the Corinthian community said that sin had nothing to do with the spirit but just with the body and that as a result moral principles no longer applied to them. Because the Gnostics said that Christians didn’t have any sin, they DENIED SIN totally. However, they were still LIVING a sinful life.
John is responding to this kind of teaching in I John 1. He’s saying, “Whoa, wait a minute. No one can claim to be a Christian and still live a sinful life.” He let the believers know that sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. It is like light and darkness--they do not mix. If they wanted a relationship with God they needed to put aside their sinful ways of living and start traveling in the light. We need to do this as well.
STORY: An atheist who spent a few days with a good Christian said: "If I stay here much longer I shall become a Christian in spite of myself. The Christian had used no word of controversy or even of solicitation. It was the quiet, convincing argument of a holy life that led to the remark. --Topical Illustrations
This scripture applies to us today as much as it did to them. What can we get out of today’s scripture?
1. A Solid Foundation: John wanted to establish the fact that Jesus was the true light who came to earth--to live in the flesh--that he was fully human and fully God. He points this out early in the chapter--God is light--Jesus is the Son of God. He points to John 1:1, “In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God and He was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he did not make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.” (NLT)
He is pointing the believer back as far as Genesis 1:1 when he says, “That which was from the beginning” or “In the beginning God...”
He refutes the believe of the false teachers when he shows clearly Jesus with the Father and his entrance into time as a human being. They needed this solid foundation on which to fix their belief. John had seen with his eyes Jesus when he was on earth--some of these later believers hadn’t. Today we haven’t either. John said, “I proclaim to you what I have SEEN and HEARD.” He is saying I want you to be as certain of your belief as I am. I want you to know that Jesus existed long before he came to earth in the flesh--that he did come to earth for a specific purpose--to save us from sin. That he died on the cross and was raised from the dead.
We know that many people today believe that Jesus was a good person or a great teacher, but they deny that He is God--that He is able to forgive us our sins. We need this truth. You might say, “How can I believe this when I didn’t see it with my own eyes?” Thomas, the doubter, said, “unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were...I will not believe it.” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
We must accept many things by FAITH. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
2. Traveling in the Light: Having re-established this foundation of belief, John goes on to talk about traveling in the light. How do you know you are walking in the light in the way that pleases God? How do you know that you are a Christian?
In verse 6, John says, “if we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”
The Message Bible says, if we claim to be a Christian “and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth--we’re not living what we claim.”
ILLUSTRATION: Instead of trusting Christ, some people insist on using human wisdom alone for answers to eternal questions. The tragedy of this situation was illustrated in a humorous skit performed by Karl Vallentin, a Munich comedian. Walking on a stage where everything was dark except for a small area under a street lamp, he began to look for something on the ground. He told the policeman who came on the scene that he was trying to find a key, whereupon the two continued the search. Finally the officer asked, "Are you sure you lost it here?" "Oh, no," said Vallentin as he pointed to a corner, "It was over there, but here is where the light is!"
Once we have come to Christ, how are we living? Do you ever feel you are in the dark? How do you know you are living a life that pleases God?
John gives us some tests to see where we actually are in our walk. He says, “if you claim to be a Christian are you keeping his commandments?” If we say, “I know him well, but we don’t keep his commandments we are not passing this first test.” We might say, “Oh, yes, I love the Lord,” but I continue to do the same old things and live the same old lifestyle as I did before I even became a Christ. If so, you are not traveling in His light. Sin is not our friend. It is our enemy. It removes believers from the light. It prevents fellowship with God. It destroys fellowship with others.
Someone once said, “Confessing your sins is no substitute for forsaking them.”
Ephesians 5:8 says, ‘for you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” We must travel in His light on a consistent, daily basis. We need to get rid of our sinning lifestyle because sin is incompatible with traveling in God’s light. We must desire to live up to his commandments. If we walk in his light on a consistent basis, then it becomes integrated into our daily lives. It is not just on Sunday morning. We can share our faith at any time or any place. It just becomes second nature to us. Sometimes we want to know everything that is ahead of us in our future. We don’t need to know that because it is unfolded to us as we walk in His light daily.
STORY:A boy was walking with his father along a lonely road at night carrying a lantern. He told his father he was afraid because the lantern showed such a little way ahead. The Father answered, "That is so, but if you walk straight on you will find that the light will reach to the end of the journey." God often gives us light for only a little way ahead, but He always gives at least that, and so He always gives us light enough for the whole journey. --Christian Endeavor World
Another test that John comes up with is, “Do you have fellowship with one another?” Verse 9 says that “anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.”
How do you feel about the consistency of your own life? How are you doing in your travels? In what areas do you need improvement?
3. What to Do About the Sin Question: Many people will say, “when I sin I don’t turn to the Lord very quickly. I stew over it for a long time. I feel guilty. I feel that the Lord as well as people turn against me.” Sometimes when people fall into sin they just quit coming to church--they stay away from the light.” That’s what the devil wants us to do. John tells us in this chapter what to do about the sin problem.
What if you sin along the way? John says we have an ADVOCATE or someone who speaks in our defense. He is our defense attorney.
We don’t deny our sin. We confess it. Walking in the light is demonstrated not by the denial of sin but by confessing it and abandoning it.
STORY: When missionaries first came to Labrador, they found no word for forgiveness in the Eskimo language. So they had to make one which meant, "not being able to think about it anymore."
“If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). He doesn’t “think about it anymore.” He keeps on cleansing us from sin, keeps on forgiving us, restoring us, and putting us back into fellowship with him. He puts us back on the road, traveling in the light.
STORY: There was a man in England who was troubled with guilt. He was resting behind a hedge and soon heard two girls talking. They were discussing a sermon they heard. One of the girls said, "I heard him preach once, and I shall never forget one thing that he said. It gave me a big lift." The other girl asked what the preacher said, and the girl replied, "The world will always say, You made your bed and you must lie in it’; but One greater than the world has said, "Take up thy bed and walk. Thy sins are forgiven.’" The despairing man on the other side of the hedge heard that good report, the discouragement lifted, and he went on his way rejoicing. Gary Bowell p. 183, 184
Don’t hesitate to turn to the Lord immediately. We don’t have to stumble around in win and darkness anymore. To “walk” in darkness is the same as LIVING in darkness and allowing sin to DEFINE our lives.
CONCLUSION: David prayed, “You are my lamp, O Lord, turn my darkness into light” (II Samuel 22:29).
Let this be our prayer as well for we are meant to travel in the light. Turn Headlights On: Travel in His Light. That’s His desire for us and Jesus made it possible for us to do just that and to live an overcoming life.
