Missional: His Light / Our Darkness

^{John 1:4-18 (ESV)}

⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through Him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. ¹¹He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. ¹²But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵(John bore witness about Him, and cried out, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.'") ¹⁶And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.

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Isn't it funny how we shelter either ourselves, our children or those we love from the world? Yet this is based on the fact that we think that some people are innocent, and once exposed to the sins of the world that they will THEN become marred or perverted. The Bible teaches that we are darkness - every last one of us - from the youngest of children to the oldest of elders. We are wretched, filthy, rebellious, and utterly depraved beyond human recognition. Our best, the Bible says, is as filthy rags. As gross as it may be, Isaiah 64:6, literally says our righteousness is like a polluted garment that women use during their menstrual periods. Even when we were born, we were filthy. Jesus is the light. He is the only light. Without Jesus, there is nothing but darkness.

We Are Darkness. Not just the world, not just the world system, not just the porn industry, not just the drunkenness of the men, not just the homosexual movement, but our own selves killed God on the cross by our sin. Darkness.

Jesus as our Savior and missional example left heaven and came to dwell among darkness as Light without sin. He is alone in this. We are all naturally opposed. BUT He is God.

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LIGHT vs DARKNESS

I am preaching through the gospel of John on Wednesday nights at our youth Bible study called "The Realm" (http://realmministry.ning.com) at Meadow Brook. This text (John 1:4-18) was and is powerful. Here are a few insights on this battle between us and God.

1) Darkness is our condition because of sin. In the fall of man, darkness overtook everything in creation. We are image bearers of God, but that image has been marred and we have a sin nature that enslaves us into total depravity (which is not just a reformed teaching but a biblical teaching) - meaning we are dark, and we can't make ourselves Light.

2) Darkness is our world. The world is corrupt and under the influence of the darkness of Satan. Besides the nation of Israel, no people group (ethnically) is specifically God's people. So America itself is not God's people and nation that He is dependent on. Some religious people believe America is the new Israel- specifically blessed and chosen by God to be His people. Not true. Only believing Gentiles and believing Jews are the holy and chosen generation described in 1st Peter. So don't marvel that America has turned from being a "Christian" nation. This is a dark world. America is not the Light. Jesus is.

3)Darkness is in us. Everyone is the same apart from Christ. Sinful. We are all equally sinful and wretched. The same darkness in the world is in our hearts as humans.

4)Darkness existed in Jesus' day and prior. Our world has not developed new evil that Jesus and His disciples never faced. There was every form of evil back then - rape, adultery, murder, hate, lying, strife, homosexuality, etc...

5)Darkness presently exists in churches. There are lost people in church, and there are Christians giving provision to the flesh daily in the church. We are imperfect people walking and living in darkness.

6)Darkness is loved by some churches. Liberal churches are accepting darkness as normal and not preaching the full counsel of God AND over-fundamental churches have a hatred for their communities so they "evangelize" themselves and have Christians get saved over and over again in revival and call them "new converts." If that church ceased to exist, the community wouldn't know or care.

7)Darkness is attractive. People flock to darkness cause of its immediate gratification of desires. Darkness will always be popular in a dark world with a dark human condition.

8)Darkness = blindness. Lost people don't understand Jesus. They understand sin. Their sin blinds them of the truth of the gospel. Some church members can't figure out why they have no desire or reason to read God's Word, pray, share faith, or be missional. They don't light up when thinking about Jesus and they don't understand why. Blindness in the darkness explains this.

9)Darkness is comfortable. If you stay in pitch black dark long enough, your eyes get used to it though you are blind. If after a while you shine a mag-light into your eyes, it will sting and be very uncomfortable and you will shut your eyes to get back to the darkness you know and love too well. Darkness is comfortable to our sinful lives.

10)Darkness hates light. Light is uncomfortable to darkness, and darkness can't exist in Light. (pure Science) Darkness is imposed upon by Light. The world hates Jesus and in return will hate us if we love Jesus. Darkness murdered the Light on a cross because it hated Him so much. (vs 10-11)

11)Light exposes darkness. Jesus exposes sin. Jesus exposes all sin. Everyone who has ever existed is vulnerable to Jesus as the Light of the world. Darkness cannot hide from Christ. (vs 5)

12)Light changes darkness. Jesus provides reconciliation for darkness. His death He died for all so that all would be without excuse. Jesus changes people from dark to Light by His divine power. (vs 9, 12; 1 John 2:2)

13)Darkness doesn't choose Light. Darkness hates Light so why would it choose Light? Christians don't make themselves Christians. That's why salvation in not a plan, it is a man. It is isn't a prayer, it is a man. It isn't a feeling or experience, it is a man. If YOU do something to save yourself, then that is salvation by works which isn't salvation at all. This explains people's struggles with security. It is bad theology to teach people it is about what they did or how much they meant a certain prayer in the past that secures their salvation. The promises of God are in the very text we are looking at. The man is Jesus and Jesus is the Light that changes darkness by His will and power. (vs 13)

14)The Light is true and saves by grace. If you have been changed by the Light of Jesus, that is grace. That is undeserved favor. Darkness deserves hell. We deserve hell. Some ask, "How could a good God not impart grace on everyone and send people to a burning hell?" The better question is, "How could a good God ever let anyone as dark and sinful as we are into His holy heaven?" Jesus is the truth. Truth is exclusive. Jesus is the only truth when it comes to salvation. Truth is singular. So... Jesus is true whether we believe it or not. Just because I believe in Jesus doesn't make it true. This is refreshing cause the Light reveals salvation and truth by grace. (vs 14, 17)

15)Light already has victory over darkness. Even though this world is presently dark, we are still fighting from victory and not for victory. Jesus' death, burial and resurrection put sin to death, death to death, and hell to death. The Light of Jesus, in victory, allows us to live and strive for holiness. This victory means we no longer have to be enslaved by sin, but we can yield to His righteousness and live holy. We don't have a license to sin, we have freedom to live in Christ's righteousness.

16)Light won't annihilate darkness until Jesus' return and we are fully glorified. Darkness will exist in this lifetime, and it will always be prevalent. We will still battle flesh and sin, and we will not be able to escape a rotten world no matter what we do to shelter ourselves or others. When Jesus returns, it is on like donkey-kong, and sin and darkness are in trouble. Read Revelation for more on that.

17)Being Light among Light does not advance the Kingdom, it is not missional, it is not what Jesus did, and it is impossible. This is the over-fundamental problem. Christians in their holy huddles trying to escape culture and community does not in any way advance the Kingdom. Jesus came as Light in darkness as a missionary to save the lost by dying for the filthy. Plus, as stated earlier, their is darkness in us and the church anyways so there is no way to ultimately purge out sin until Jesus wipes it away completely. This doesn't mean we just accept sin (especially in our churches) but we must realize that we are bad people saved by Jesus so that we can testify to other bad people about Him that they might be saved.

18)Being dark in darkness does no good. This is the liberal problem. When we compromise and become just like the culture and its desires, we are in sin not loving Jesus. If we are saved by the Light of Jesus, we will shine in the darkness, not blend into the darkness. This is sadly a popular church view - that we become like the world so they world feels accepted by Jesus. Not Good. Being dark in darkness is ultimately the easier route. It is the path of least resistance, so many will follow. BUT Jesus is Light!

19)Being Light in Darkness is being missional. This is a massive part of sanctification. Living in sinful culture, staring face to face at sin, denying yourself, resisting temptation, portraying Jesus, and showing His power. When you do this, you mature in the faith. If you give in to sin and justify your sin, you are just dark in darkness living a false gospel. BUT those that put on the full armor of God and stand strong in the darkness, soaked in the living Word of God, protected by unceasing prayer, and filled with the knowledge of Christ become Light to a dark world. This is missional living.

You are Light SENT into the darkness. We shelter ourselves from aspects of culture like movies, music, facebook, myspace, public schools, tv, internet, and concerts declaring them to be irredeemable when God has called us to live as Lights in darkness. We need to use these things for the glory of God. We need to be Lights ..... in Hollywood so that movies and tv can be redeemed, in the music industry so music can be redeemed, in technology so it can be redeemed and used for godly purposes, on the internet- instead of porn lets put Christian blogs and preaching up, on facebook and myspace where predators and adulterers are - lets use it to spread what God is doing in our lives; in public schools - be missionaries; in concerts- lets infiltrate the secular to bring the message of Christ redeeming the music of the culture. We don't run away from these things, we use them as missional tools to reach people for Christ.

To run away from culture is to be fine letting people go to hell as long as you appear clean. To be missional in culture is to do whatever you can, short of sin and spiritual compromise, to reach the lost. It is to be the Light in darkness.

(for more: I will blog on Missional: Culture Changers in the near future)

-Ben Williams