Guest Preacher – Gary Haddon

June 2024 Rev Gary Haddon joined us and opened God’s word with us in 1 John 1 & 2.

Gary is the assistant to the Bishops of Western Sydney & South Western Regions

Click here to watch Gary’s first sermon

God is Light: Walking in Truth and Love

Opening

Good morning, everyone.

For those who were here last week, or if you weren’t, my name is Gary. It’s great to be here again with you today. If you were here last week and don’t recognize me, I’ve had a haircut.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather in your name and to open your word together. We pray that by your Spirit, you would be teaching us what we need to learn today. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

“God is Love” to “God is Light”

I remember when I was a kid, I won a prize at Sunday school. My grandmother was my Sunday school teacher, so maybe that’s why I won.

These little stickers with lovely little sayings on them—picture tiny little paper stickers that you have to lick and stick on. It’s from the 70s, so they had all these psychedelic colors and swirls all over them.

But what I want you to do this morning is to finish off one of those sayings that was on one of these stickers. It should be very easy:

“God is…”

“God is Love”

Everybody knows that, don’t we? “God is love.” I had a nice little sticker with that on it. I stuck them on my suitcase or on my, uh, what do you call it? School bag, my little school bag.

Who’s never heard that saying? No hands? Exactly. We’ve all heard that saying.

Well, today I want us to change that a little bit. I want us to start spreading a different saying:

“God is light.”

Why do I want us to change that? Well, I mean, it’s true that God is love, but it’s become almost a cliché, hasn’t it? It’s something that falls off the tongue, and we don’t even think about what it means.

Or worse, we then define God by what we think love is. We limit God to what we assume love looks like without thinking more deeply about it. And I want to discourage that.

So, if we say “God is light,” it means we stop and think:

• Why?
• What does “God is light” mean?

Scriptural Basis: 1 John 1:5

Now, I’m not just making this up because I think we need to change a way of thinking. It’s not my own idea.

1 John 1:5 says:

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

Now, if you were here last week, we saw that this letter from the Apostle John was concerned with reminding his readers that Jesus is the Word of life and that the job of the Apostles included passing on what Jesus had taught them by his words and by his life.

And today, this is kind of like the summary of the message that they were to proclaim:

“God is light.”

And I think we’re meant to be a little bit stunned because this is a bit unexpected:

“God is light.”

We’re supposed to think:

• Well, why?
• What’s the significance of light?

Light in Creation and Science

Now, if we were to read all of the Bible, we’d see that, oh, God’s word is just chock-full of references to light. Right at the beginning, in Genesis, it was the first thing in creation. Right at the end of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, it’s the description of the Kingdom of Heaven. God is the source of light for this new creation. And it’s all the way through the Bible.

Now, even if we’re sitting in our classrooms at school, in science, I remember in year seven science being taught that every living thing needs light to survive. Every living thing needs light to grow. The whole world is sustained by light.

But I want to suggest that’s not just true in a physical sense but in a total sense, in a spiritual sense as well. Jesus declared that he was the light of the world. Jesus declared he was the one who brings and sustains life.

Light as Revelation, Purity, and Source of Life

God is light, the Source of Life, the sustainer of life.

But you know, these days we also use “light” to describe the change when we understand the truth about something:

• “I’ve seen the light.”
• “Ah, you’ve shed some light on that subject for me.”
• Or even in cartoons like this, when someone gets a bright idea: “Aha! I understand.”

Where do you think we get the ways of using the word “light” from? It’s from the Bible!

Because light can be, or is used in the Bible, to refer to the revelation of Truth. When someone understands the truth about Jesus, light is also used in the Bible to refer to a moral purity or a righteousness.

Light is also used to refer to the source of all life. In fact, in 1 John, we see all of these things in the way he’s using the word “light.”

So, in verse 5, when John says, “God is light,” he’s saying a number of things:

• That God is the Creator and the sustainer of all life.
• But more importantly, he’s also saying that God is the measure of Truth. If you’re in the light, you’re in the truth.
• And God is the measure of righteousness.

Walking in Darkness vs. Walking in Light

See, it’s possible that the people that John was writing to were listening to some false teaching, false teaching that was leading them away from Jesus, that was leading them away from following God and the way he says is the right way to live.

Look at verses 6 and 7:

“If we claim we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son purifies us from all sin.”¹

Talking about the difference between walking in the light and walking in darkness is being described here as the difference between being in relationship with God through trusting in Jesus or turning your back on God and walking away from him.

The difference between following God’s Commandments or just ignoring them. The difference between accepting the truth or listening to false teaching.

There is this huge contrast between light and dark, showing a huge contrast between truth and lies, between walking in the light and walking in darkness.

The Cave Analogy

Have you ever been to Jenolan Caves? Who’s been to Jenolan Caves? Yeah, I used to go years ago. I haven’t been for a while, but I like the part where they take you on a tour through any of the caves. But there’s a part where the guide gathers you all together and then turns off all the lights.

It’s incredible. You cannot see the hand in front of your face in the dark. And you can do all sorts of things that you wouldn’t dare to do in the light because, well, you’re in the dark. Nobody would know it was you.

See, in complete darkness, we’re blind. We cannot see. But when the lights come back on, everything’s still there, and it’s all able to be seen by everyone.

But if we were to walk around the caves in complete darkness, we would stumble about. It wouldn’t be too long before we hurt ourselves. Eventually, we would die.

See, there is no future in walking in the darkness.

I’m told that, back in the day, some prisoners who were causing trouble used to be put into a completely dark cell. And it, it just changed them. It squashed their spirits. It took away their hope.

You see, whatever way you look at it, physically, symbolically, light is needed to sustain life. And God is life. God is light.

Addressing Misconceptions

But even this metaphor, “God is light,” isn’t used by John in his letter just so, like, people like me can argue for amendments to clichés. He’s actually trying to get a point across.

And I think he, he seems to be answering a couple of wrong ideas. He wants his readers to check out what it is they are being taught, what it is they’re listening to.

Well, firstly, in verse 6, there appears to be the attitude that sin doesn’t matter. They appear to be, looks like there were people who were claiming that, “Yeah, I’m in a relationship with God,” when their lifestyle or their walk was just full of sin, and they didn’t care.

It’s like they were saying, “Sin doesn’t matter. Sin doesn’t affect my walk with God.”

Well, John’s saying that’s a lie. Sin does matter. You know, sin is what separates us from God.

Certainly, let me continue where we left off:

Now, we’re not told exactly what it is that they were doing that was walking in darkness, but one basic thing that basically sin is is ignoring God.

See, we can sit here and think, “Hey, we don’t do anything bad. This message doesn’t have anything to do with me.” But the truth is, yes, it does.

People that John is writing to may have had the same thoughts because in verse 8, we read that if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth’s not in us. And he pushes the point in verse 10:

“If we claim we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar, and his word has no place in our lives.”

That’s some pretty strong words, isn’t it? But John doesn’t offer any apology or any excuse. And so, don’t think that we as churchgoing, Bible-believing Christians, we’re immune to this. No.

See, our society pushes us to deny the reality of sin. The air we breathe pushes us to ignore Jesus, ignore God, and deny the reality of sin. We don’t like to call things out as sin. We even change the way we speak.

• Adultery is called an “affair.”
• Stealing pens or other little items from work, “Oh, that’s fine.”
• Selfishness, “No, I’m just standing up for my rights.”

I mean, why is lying, gossiping, all these other things just so common, even amongst Christians?

I think we need to be truthful. Let’s recognize sin and call it what it is because sin matters. None of us are totally pure. None of our lives, even, could stand up to close scrutiny.

The Slide Projector Analogy

Does anyone remember before these new ones, these old slide projectors, where you used to take photos on slides and put them on the wall? Anybody remember those? Yes, we used to have one at our house. It was great, but we didn’t have a special screen. We would just use our wall.

The walls in our house, they appeared nice and clean and smooth, but when you put the light from the projector on them, it’s amazing how different the reality is, isn’t it? See, under this direct light, all the little imperfections, they stand out. All the scratches and paint chips and stains and marks from where I put my foot on the wall when I was lying on the lounge. Yeah, I copped it for that.

But anyway, under the light, every tiniest of blemish is laid bare.

God is Light: Recognizing Our Need for Jesus

God is light. To walk with him means we should expect to notice our imperfections. We should notice our sin.

And that’s exactly why Jesus came. Jesus said himself, he said he came into the world to save sinners, not for those people who think they don’t need him. He says, “Doctors are for the sick, not the healthy.”

Like we say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If we don’t think we need Jesus, then, as verse 10 says, he has no place in our lives because we don’t want him because we don’t think we need him.

But God is light. With no light in our lives, we have no hope. We have no future.

The great thing about this part of God’s word that we’re looking at is that the best is yet to come. John doesn’t leave us, well, his original readers and us, feeling like failures, feeling like we have no hope, for us, a bunch of miserable sinners. No.

Verses 7 and 8, and the first two verses of chapter 2, proclaim the essence of the Gospel:

• That Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, purifies believers before God.
• Washes us clean.

If you accept God’s gift for you, Jesus removes your sin, and you can stand before God as a completely perfect, a white wall under his light, be accepted and loved by him.

See, Jesus, who lived a perfect life, he takes upon himself our imperfections, our impurities, our sin, and the penalty for our sin. In his death, he died in our place to pay the penalty that our sin deserves.

That’s why verse 2 of chapter 2 can say that:

“Jesus Christ, the righteous one, is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

More than that, from verse 9 of chapter 1, the good news is that God’s nature is to be faithful. God is just. He’s not merely kind, merciful, or just loving, but he is perfectly just. He’s always the same.

And the good thing about that is that that guarantees our forgiveness. The price has been paid by Jesus. It, it cannot be paid for twice. It’s paid by Jesus. And so, God’s immovable, uh, justice, his faithfulness, that guarantees our forgiveness through what Jesus has done for us.

Application: Accepting God’s Gift

So, I want each and every one of us here this morning to ask ourselves:

• Has this made a difference in my life?
• Have I really accepted that?
• Has this display of self-sacrificing love by God affected you to the very core of your being?
• Have you truly understood this and accepted God’s gift for you in Jesus?

When we understand that God, God is light, not only that walking in the light means we see all our imperfections, but that God is true to his promises to cleanse us.

But light, remember, is also about the truth. Walking in the light is also about following the truth and not being swayed by those who don’t teach the truth.

Verses 18 to 27 of chapter 2 that we had read for us there again, focusing on the difference between light and dark, but this time in terms of truth or lies, or as we could say, between truth and anti-truth.

These verses identify the reason why there are so many people not teaching the truth about God is because the time we are living in, he calls it the “last hour,” or in other parts, he puts it as the “last days.”

Basically, the time between when Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection and when he comes again.

And when he’s talking about this time, and this is the reason why there are so many liars trying to take us away from Jesus, is because, well, he uses a term that sounds a bit weird to us. Verse 18 says this:

“Dear children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come,¹ and this is how we know that it’s the last hour.”

Understanding the Antichrist

See, when we read the word “Antichrist,” it’s not a word we use very much, and we can get all sorts of confused ideas in our minds. But it’s rather simple. These people are anti-truth.

The truth that Jesus is the Christ, which is God’s promised King and savior. Anti-truth. How do we recognize these anti-truth people? Who is this Antichrist? Verse 22:

“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is the liar—who denies the Father and the Son.”

So, the Antichrist is anti-truth, the truth that Jesus is who he says he is. If you accept that Jesus is the one God sent to save his people, if you trust that he is all you need to be a part of God’s kingdom forever, then you know the truth.

And if you were here last week, like I said, if you know that truth, you already have all that you need for life, for forgiveness, for being accepted by God.

But the flip side here is that John is saying that if you deny that Jesus is God’s promised King and savior for his people, then you deny God himself. And so, if people are trying to get you to deny that Jesus is who he says he is, then they are leading you away from the truth.

If they are Antichrist, they are anti-truth. So, it’s as simple and straightforward as that. Yeah, anti-truth, that is that is the Antichrist.

Now, we need this warning. Like I said before, our world, the air we breathe, is trying to take us away from acknowledging that Jesus is who he says he is. And it’s the same for a couple of thousand years. There have been people not teaching the truth about Jesus. They still are now.

I’m not talking about complicated or nuanced doctrinal heresies. I’m not talking about slight differences in understanding God’s teaching on a particular topic. No, I’m talking about a very clear line in the sand between truth and lies.

Recognizing False Prophets

Where’s that line? It’s all about who Jesus is.

Here is the text with spell check and punctuation added:

“Where’s that line? It’s all about who Jesus is. If we went on to chapter 4:1-3, they say this:

‘Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.¹ This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.’

There is a clear line in the sand, and it’s about who you say Jesus is, about who he is and what he did. All the other things that we can argue about, they’re details that don’t affect if we have life or not.

It seems that there were people that were teaching not just that Jesus is not the Christ, but that he wasn’t really human. After all, another example of anti-truth, Antichrist. And we are warned about listening to people who want to lead us away from the truth about Jesus. It’s a pretty big warning for us.

But there’s also a great encouragement. The encouragement is that we can stand firm with the help of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 4:4-6 says this:

‘You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.’

Yes, there’s a warning about being led astray, but there’s also the promise that if we have God’s help to remain in the truth and not be led astray, to continue to trust Jesus and receive eternal life. We have this promise that God himself lives in us through his Holy Spirit, walks with us as we walk in the light, in the truth, and in love.

All of these things are part of what it means to understand that God is light.

Now, last week, I suggested this, this little letter, this letter of 1 John, was brought to you by the letter L in good Sesame Street fashion.

What ‘L’ word is this week? Light. Who can remember what the ‘L’ word from last week was? Hint: It’s the name of your church out the front.

Life. What other words do you think come up in the book of 1 John that begin with the letter L? We’ve got life, we’ve got light, we’ve got love, we’ve got lies as well. But let’s look at life and light and love. Words that begin with the letter L, but that are bound together when it comes to God.

God is light, and Jesus is the Word of Life.

My prayer is that we will all continue to rely on Jesus alone to remain in the light, in the truth of who Jesus is, and enjoy our fellowship with one another and with God now and into life forever with him.

Let’s pray.

Our gracious Lord, our loving Heavenly Father, who is the light, we thank you for your love that sent your Son, the Word of Life. We thank you that you have promised that by your Spirit, you will help us to walk in your light and to bring others into the light, so that we might bring glory to your Son, Jesus. In whose name we pray.

Amen.