GOD MADE HIS LIGHT SHINE IN OUR HEARTS
February 26, 2006 - Transfiguration - 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
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Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Who is afraid of the dark? The fear of the dark is not unknown to any of us, is it? We may not think we are scared of the dark; but when the lights are not on, how dangerous it can be if we get up in the middle of the night and stumble and fall and hurt ourselves. Outside in the dark, if a noise suddenly erupts from that darkness, we are frightened. Today, we are going to realize and study the fact that, by God’s grace and by his mercy, we no longer sit in the darkness. Rather, God has restored unto us the light of the knowledge of salvation. He has given us what we truly need.
It can be hard to fully understand while we are in the light to understand that darkness, which enfolds around us is very dangerous. As we sit in today’s morning light of the blessing of another day that God provides for us, it can be a little hard to understand the darkness. But we will let God’s word speak to us about this. Once again our loving Lord reminds us this morning as his word tells us, we are freely saved by God’s grace. In Matthew: "The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned" (Matthew 4:16). This verse describes believers, whether they are Christians gathered here or someplace else around the world. We live in this land of the shadow of death, but as believers a great light has dawned. But again, as we are going to see and remind ourselves and as Paul emphasizes, we don’t shine that light by our own efforts. We don’t come to God’s great light by our labors or worthiness. But instead, as Paul says:
GOD MADE HIS LIGHT SHINE IN OUR HEARTS.
Why does God have to do this miracle?
I. The god of this age brings darkness.
II. The true God overcomes all darkness.
I. THE GOD OF THIS AGE BRINGS DARKNESS
Today, we finish up our sermon texts from Corinthians. As we review these letters we see that Paul wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians because they were a troubled congregation. The believers struggled with sexual immorality and false preachers and other problems. Paul then wrote the second letter to follow up on that first letter. As we look at Paul and his ministry, we see he had a troubled ministry. By God’s miracle of grace Paul became a Christian when God made his light shine in Paul’s heart. Then his life changed so much that Paul gave up everything. When he gave up everything, he didn’t realize from time to time he almost would give up his life suffering for the sake of the Gospel.
But what does he say? Our text begins: "Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart." Paul never gave up. The original word says, "We do not give in to evil or we do not lose courage." Paul did not lose courage or give in to evil or lose heart, because he realized that previously in his life he was in darkness that the god of the age had blinded him. Thankfully, by God’s great mercy, he was brought into God’s light. Paul realized the difference, and his message was a simple message--Christ lived, died and rose again. He says: "Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God."
Over and over again, the people were told Christ lived and died and rose again. As we have learned, Paul had to repeat this message over and over again. This was the first generation to hear about the resurrection of Jesus, the Savior of the world. We are also reminded that these Corinthians lived in a society where they learned by listening. They didn’t have books, various translations of the Bible to study, but they went to the temple. Someone would read to them, and they would listen. This meant it was important to hear the same message over and over. The resurrection of Jesus was a good message to hear, because the god of their age also blinded the mind of unbelievers.
What does Paul write? In verse 5 of our text Paul always reminded the believers that it wasn’t him who saved them. It wasn’t even, in a sense, his preaching but the preaching of God’s word. "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake." Again, getting back to the point that Jesus, the foundation of the early Christian church (and our Christian church today), lived, died and rose again was the only message that truly mattered.
Very simply in the first part of our sermon we hear Paul’s words ringing in our ears. Paul writes, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." How could that be possible in the time of Paul when they didn’t have newspapers, magazines, and an abundant amount of books, TV or Internet? How could they be distracted from that pure simple message of the gospel? Paul said it was the god of this age that blinded their minds. Corinth had their temple to the goddess of beauty were the pagan priests served. There were also the prostitutes around the temple, enough to employ a thousand people, temple prostitutes. That was their religion. Sex was part of their worship of the god of their age. The god of their age blinded their minds so they could not see.
Worst of all, the people in the church, God’s chosen, were blinded. Paul says in verse 3: "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing." Veiled means "covered up." At home look at today’s Second Lesson (1 Corinthians 3:12-4:2). At the end of chapter 3 Paul speaks about the fact to this day Jewish people had their hearts veiled or covered. They look to the Law of Moses and forget to look to Christ, and they are perishing. The god of this age, the god of good works and false teaching had blinded them. There were not as many distractions in Paul’s time as today. The Corinthian Christians were to be the first generation to depart from the worship of false gods to worship the true God. The god of that age blinded them.
We, today, can’t even count on one hand the false gods that are around us. The god of this age is of course is Satan. Satan uses all the tools at his disposal in our lifetime to distract us. Paul says how this happens. There are some who even distort the message of God, who use deception. Then the god of this age distracts us. What do we worship in this life? Do we worship our family, our prized possessions, our work, our free time, or maybe we worship ourselves. Even society today, those who have no connection with the church, recognizes and confesses that our nation as a whole, is very selfish, self-centered, self-promoting and self-seeking. The god of this age blinds our minds. We, too, can easily fall into the trap of looking out for number one. We, too, fall into the trap of the advertising age that says, "If you have your health, you have everything." When we are healthy, we feel better; and we think we are on top of the world. The advertising age also says, "Get more stuff and you will be happier." Earthly possessions do not bring us what we need. It leads to more darkness and more disappointment. Paul describes this in Ephesians: "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts" (Ephesians 4:18). How many today look at Sunday as their day. They stay up late on Saturday night so Sunday is their day. They are darkened in their understanding and their hearts are hardened. Sometimes we may even feel we don’t have to go to church, that it is not that important.
Our day and age of mass communication fills the airwaves with TV preachers and evangelists who distort the word of God. As you watch and listen closely, you will hear those who promote themselves and say, "Buy my book or in my experience or I have learned or I think." When you hear those "I" words, be careful. They are not Jesus’ words. They are not preaching Christ crucified. They are preaching their importance. How sad it is that the god of this age brings darkness to so many.
Is it all that important for a group of well-known preachers and TV evangelists who get together and say,
"We demand that the government do something about global warming"? That casts a veil or covering all Christianity. Our mission is the simple: proclaim the word of God. Paul says to preach the truth. So we become wrapped up in the things of this world, and people are misled. They get behind the bandwagon of preaching against global warming and end up warming their souls forever. Peter describes this darkness: "They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him" (2 Peter 2:19). The god of this age easily blinds the minds of unbelievers. Satan can sometimes also give us cataracts, clouding our view of eternity and even bring us darkness.
But again, what happens? We are not lost forever. We are not going to be forever scared of the dark, because we don’t sit in the dark anymore. We sit in the light, just as the sun has risen and we enjoy the brightness of another day and the glow of God’s gospel in God’s house. Purely by God’s grace, he made his light shine in our hearts and God dispels that darkness. The difference there are many around who still grope about in the darkness of the ways of this world and are in the grasp of Satan and the despair of death itself because of their fear of what might happen after death. We have been shown the difference. Paul says: "You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled" (1 Thessalonians 5:5,6). We are to keep watching, because the days and times are evil. Christ is coming soon. Keep letting that light shine.
God made His light shine in our hearts, because there is darkness in this world. Our text also explains, that the Lord, the only true God overcomes all darkness. Again, Paul’s message over and over is that the true God is Christ, the very Son of God. Christ Jesus is not just the son of Mary and Joseph, not just the carpenter from Nazareth. Jesus is not just the one who people thought was a criminal and nailed on the cross and was put to death. Christ Jesus is the true God who overcomes all darkness.
II. THE TRUE GOD OVERCOMES ALL DARKNESS
Verse 5: "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake." Paul gave up everything to serve Christ, because Jesus was Lord, true God. Paul was not a fanatic, but someone who had lived in the darkness and once in the light didn’t like the darkness. Paul realized that as others who still sat in the darkness, they needed to see that light. They needed to come to the light of the true God, the Christ the Savior.
Paul writes, "We do not use deception nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God." We get back to the point that Christ lived, died and rose again. We heard that beautiful gospel message many times. Paul’s readers and congregations that he was serving heard that message time and again. That message never grows old. That message may be hidden sometimes in different places. For us and as Paul wants us to remember, Jesus is the truth, the way and the life. Paul says, by setting forth the truth plainly we simply proclaim the word of God. Even though it is simple, it is powerful. Paul writes: "For God, who said, ’Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts." The very God who created the heavens and the earth, said, "Let there be light." The only true God also said, "Let there be darkness. Let there be the sun. Let there be the moon. Let there be the animals. Paul says that all-powerful God with his powerful word also miraculously made his light shine in our hearts to overcome all darkness.
Our text continues: "He 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." Most of the Corinthians were not in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. It was a long journey. They did not get to see the face of Christ. Paul heard the voice of Christ. Paul saw the glory of God in the face (voice) of Christ.
We have seen artists’ renditions of the face of Christ. We are making that journey from one church season into another, from Epiphany to Transfiguration. Epiphany is the season of the study of the glory of Christ and this Wednesday, Lent begins and we study the humanity of Christ. We can easily picture that face of Christ with the blood running down because of the thorns jammed onto his head as a crown. Jesus did this all for our sake. The self-sacrificing act of Jesus is the light of the Gospel. Christ’s word is the light that chases away all darkness. Christ’s love is the light that is our joy and our faith. In the letter of John: "We write this to make your joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:4,5).
The god of this age, Satan, the father of all lies, uses darkness and appeals to our sinful nature to bring darkness and sometimes to blind people from seeing the image of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But God made his light shine in our hearts. Jesus in the Gospel of John says: "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ’I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’" (John 8:12). Jesus is talking about eternal life. It may seem strange to us that there are people who walk around in the light of this life, which is really the darkness not knowing what is beyond this life. There are some in our enlightened society who do not have a grasp of eternity.
Sadly, there are many who do not know if they are going to make it to heaven. These people still sit in darkness. We have only begun to understand a little bit more about God’s grace -- he treats us better than we deserve. This is God’s mercy. Every one of us here deserves to sit in the darkness and to be eternally punished in the fires of hell. But we are not. By God’s grace, he made his light shine in our hearts. We look around and see how the world makes it seem that Christianity is becoming almost extinguished, that the light is going out. But our God makes the promises that his word will be preached to the ends of the earth before the end comes. God promises that not even the gates of hell shall overcome his church. Knowing all of that our Lord reminds us as lights in this world, we need to shine brightly, don’t we? Jesus used many parables in the gospels for this light, darkness comparison. A few parables remind us: a light on a hill cannot be hidden; a candle that is lit is not put under a bushel. In Daniel 12:3, a great verse to memorize (the reference easy to remember - Daniel 1,2,3 = Daniel 12:3): "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:3). Christians are the lights in this world.
We are the lights because God made his light shine in our hearts. We are the light, because before we were born God knew us and assigned to each one of us our purpose in this life -- to be lights in this world. The god of this age brings darkness. The next step from darkness is blindness for some. Some have their eyes in darkness and their hearts become blinded. The god of this age does that. Our God who created the heavens and the earth overcomes all darkness, the darkness of this age. Our loving Lord even overcomes the darkness of sin that is in our hearts. Christ Jesus also overcomes the darkness of sin that sometimes we reveal in our lives. The true God, our true God does it all, without any merit or worthiness on our part.
Isaiah, like Paul, was a prophet who was mistreated and not liked by the people because he had to preach the law of God’s judgment, the simple message of the word of God. This simple message of the word of God is the law that shows our sin and the darkness of evil. God’s law judges the darkness of sin we think about or say or do. It is only God’s gospel that dispels all darkness and brings to us to the light of the knowledge of salvation, of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Isaiah also encourages us today because this world is getting darker: "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" (Isaiah 60:1,2). These words were written more than two thousand of years ago. Darkness covered the earth then. It hasn’t gotten any brighter. God graciously makes his light shine in our hearts so that we might be the bright, shining lights of Christ in this land of thick darkness. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
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TRANSFIGURATION Readings: 2 KINGS 2:1-12; 1 CORINTHIANS 3:12-4:2; MARK 9:2-9
