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The heart of this passage is the statment "God is light"
What do we know about light?
What is it?
Energy pulses. Waves or
particles? Different frequencies mean different colours. White light is
a mix of all the colours of the rainbow.
Primary colours for painting are red, yellow
and blue, but for lighting we mix red green and blue.
Light travels at extraordinary speed. 186,000 miles per second. Sunlight takes 8 minutes to
arrive. So, on earth,
a flash of light is more or less instantaneous. Which means
fibre optic communications are instant. You hear/ see live as it
happens.
So what do we learn about God
from this?
He is beyond our understanding. It is a common assumption that God can be explained.
As if we believe our human minds are capable of understanding the creator. Many
atheists make this mistake. If God cannot be rationalised, he can’t be real.
But it is a sour world if we take that view. You can’t love something or
someone. Well try and rationalise what you mean when you say “
I love you”, or “I love bird watching.” “ I
love watching 22 men chasing a pigs bladder round a field with the object of
getting it between 2 posts”
But Christians can fall into
the same trap by trying to explain the trinity. Muslims find our explanation
pretty daft, mainly because it implies that there is more than one God. Most of the time they are right. But that does not stop God
being Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The fact we don’t understand God is actually
sensible. He, like light, is far beyond our capacity to understand, even with
all our brains working together.
He is here, there and everywhere all at the
same time. That is one of the impossibles in our thinking. The idea that while watching
over us, God has complete knowledge of the other 6 billion people in the world ( of which maybe 2 billion are Christians) is entirely
beyond our ability to grasp. Keeping track of the family gets complicated,
doesn’t it as the grandchildren come along and for some of you great grandchildren. I have a friend who some years ago greeted me
with I have a new great grandson, but couldn’t remember which grandchild had
had the newcomer. The child’s name was on the photograph and his time of birth
and date but not his family tree!
God is not like us, he knows
each and everyone of us. He is in South Ruislip and Papua
New Guinea; Eastcote and Albania; The Manor and Uganda. China
and Ruislip Gardens.
He can handle prayer not like in the film ‘Bruce
Almighty’ where they are coming too fast to be answered, so Bruce set up an
automatic ‘Yes’ to all requests with chaotic results. God has time and
understanding for each one of us.
God is light and so it is not
surprising that everything begins with light. In creation God said Let there be light and there was light. That is the kickstart of creation. Without light all of creation dies.
God is light, says John and
in him there is no darkness at all. That goes a big step forward. John
lived in the Mediterranean area so there was not a lot of difference between winter
and summer as far as daylight was concerned. But he had no fluorescent lighting , no electric light at all. Once the sun went down,
it got dark and you went to bed, unless you could afford a large number of oil
lamps. So he is talking about God in terms of permanent day. No shadows, no scary places where unknown
things could be hiding.
God has no bad bits. There are no secret stories that might come out to
shock us. There are no shadows. This is Good News! Our brave new world is full
of people who look good but turn out to be evil. Whether they be priests,
celebrities or politicians we are constantly disappointed with their failings.
But God has no dark patches. That may be difficult to see when we see all the
trouble in the world and wonder why God does not intervene more, but we need to
hang on to the revelation that he is light without dark.
Some religions think that good and evil have
to live together but our good news is God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. In the garden of Eden, God banned
humanity from the knowledge of good and evil, he wanted us to only know good.
Humanity fell because Eve and then Adam were persuaded to choose to know both.
And sin entered the world. And sin brought death. And that is what our bible
passage is about.
So let's read it. To remind
you of last week, I will start at the beginning which is always a good place to
start!
Read 1John 1:1-2:2 page 1225
Our subject this morning is
confidence in forgiveness. Last week we considered the first 4 verses where we
were encouraged to have confidence in our relationship with God. Confidence through fellowship with God and each other.
But there are hazards are
to do with misplaced confidence. In this paragraph, we
are have three hazards here. One is sin doesn’t affect my relationship
with God. The second is to claim to be without sin. The third is that God is against us because
of our sin. On each occasion we have a confidence revealed.
If we walk in the light ..
we have fellowship…,
If we confess our sin he is faithful and just…
If we sin we have an
advocate…
You see what God wants to do
this morning is give you a firm foundation for your relationship with him. Not
based on cover-ups and shadows but on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the
cross. John remember last week was a witness to these things he saw Jesus
crucified, he was at the empty tomb on Sunday morning and he met Jesus that
evening in the upper room and touched him. John’s testimony is that the good
news we proclaim is true, real, actually happened. We need to grasp the
significance of it and live in the light of it.
Sin does matter.
Sin does not affect my
relationship with God.
One of the worst aspects of
religion is when we start thinking that our actions don’t really affect our
relationship with God.what I mean is we do religion
on Sunday morning but live untransformed lives the rest of the time. Here John says if we say we have fellowship
with God and we walk in the dark, we are dishonest! God
is light and in him is no darkness at all. So you can’t walk in the light and
carry your bit of the dark behind your back, pretending it does not matter. It
does. Sin separates us from God. Even as Christians sin spoils our relationship
with God. That seems like bad news and hardly confidence building! But we must
not fall into the trap of a false confidence.
That is quite a shock because
we are all sinners, saved by grace and we, unfortunately, sin quite often. I
don’t think God is saying to us that once we are saved, if we sin, then the
deal is off! I think God is saying, stop conning
yourself that you are OK sinning because we are fallen humanity. If God is
light and has no darkness, then we can’t pretend we are walking with him,
having friendship with him, while wilfully sinning. We still need to address
the sin in our lives.
The antidote is not to beat
ourselves up with guilt 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.
First step is
to walk in the light, to live
such lives that please our Heavenly Father, to ever seek to listen to God.
Second step is
to get our relationships with everybody else sorted, where we can. That means apologising
, listening, often forgiving others for their offences! In simple terms
we don’t do nothing, we are meant to take steps to
undo the wrongs we have done.
Step three is
to understand that your relationship with God is not based on your performance
but on the precious blood of Jesus
which purifies us from all sin, even sin we do after becoming a Christian. You
walk in the light , not by being an up-tight
self-righteous person but by being a forgiven person. Our confidence then is
not based on a cover-up but on the basis of that sin being atoned for by the
death of Jesus here described graphically as his blood poured out for you.
This comes back to God is
light. Jesus is
the one of whom it is said in
2Corinthians 5:21 God made him who
had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God.
Your sin is placed on Him and
he is crucified for it on the cross. His righteousness is placed on you so you
have a relationship with God, not based on what you have done but on what Jesus
has done and is doing and will do. Sin does matter and God has entered our
world in Jesus and purified us. So rather than pretend it does not matter, we
recognise that Jesus is the sin-cleaner. That does mean step two is still
important. We have to be in honest relationship with God and that automatically
spills over into our relationships with each other. If we pretend we don’t upset
each other, sin against each other, we at best have strained relationships,
built on mistrust and manipulation. If we recognise we sin against each other
there is room for apology, for forgiveness and relationship building.
If you want a large-scale demonstration
of that you have to look at the end of WW2. In the wisdom of the errors of the
treaty of Versailles, the Allies, instead of punishing the Germans and the
Japanese, set about rebuilding them, investing in them. As a result they are
full members of the family of nations, we are linked
in the treaty of Rome and in many other ways. The alternative would have been
the depression of the 1930s all over again. You end a war not with a truce but
and peace treaty a mechanism by which you can live more happily together.
And that is what needs to
happen in our individual relationships. They need to reflect the light of God
in cleansing for sin and forgiveness.
Let's look at the second
issue.
The second
error is denial. That is where we con
ourselves into believing that we didn’t actually sin so we don’t need
forgiveness. We line up all sorts of excuses, blame anyone around and even the
circumstances to justify our actions. While we do that, we cannot re-build our
relationship with God and anybody else. In fact we make God out to be the liar!
so don’ t go
down that path. The antidote to denial is to confess. And if we confess our
sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. That is the best
news! God is light and without dark spots. You can trust his word! He is faithful
and true. He will be just or righteous, your sin has
been removed by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, if you have received his
gift of salvation.
What does that mean? It means
that you can walk in the light! And purified, cleansed and forgiven person has
lost the shadows and you find that you can be with the God of light without
dark spots! Our confidence then is not
based on a cover-up but a confession. Not based on a fudge but forgiveness.
There is more: He will
cleanse from unrighteousness. That means when you fail him again, there will be
cleansing and forgiveness if you ask for it.
The third issue is restoring the
broken relationship.
2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you
will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the
Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning
sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the
whole world.
God says to you and me this morning, don’t sin!
John uses the language of an
old man, ‘my dear children’, his desire in this letter
for the church and us as individuals is that we don’t sin! Seems simple really
but we are human and the tempter is constantly seeking to disrupt your peace in
Jesus.
The third confidence is that
if we do sin, we have an advocate, even Jesus. This
is amazing! Look you got angry this morning, so Satan is whispering in your
ear, you’ve blown it. Give up on peace, rack yourself
in guilt and failure. Our message this morning is ‘Look up and listen!’ You
have an advocate in heaven!
I better understood this when
I was called to give evidence in a civil case of failure to educate. I was due
in court the next day, but a friend of Ian Miller, was
in the High Court and he successfully pleaded our case and the judge ruled
there was no case to answer. So I never had my day in court because my advocate
did a proper job on my behalf.
The court of
heaven.
So it is with heaven. I am on
my way but I have not got there yet, I’m still on earth, if you hadn’t noticed!
But my case has been brought up in the court of heaven. I might have tried to
play it down, say it was not that big a sin. Or I might of
denied that I did it or blamed someone else. But Jesus pleads my cause. He does
not excuse my sin, he does not deny my sin. He opens
his hands and says “I died for this one, the punishment for his sin I have
received. I have paid the price for this. I am the atonement sacrifice. I have
resolved the conflict between God and man on the cross,
I have transferred my righteousness to him.” And just in case there is any
doubt in your heart that you are not forgiven, remember this God loves Jesus
beyond all love. God will give him anything he asks. God’s response to Jesus is
to Say. “I know you died for him. I no longer remember the sin you mention. ”
God is light, there is no place for sin in his presence, so when Jesus pleads
on your behalf the sin is removed, vanished.
That is not to say there are
steps you may need to take in restitution, and restoring human relationships
but before God you can have that joy and peace of knowing that there is nothing
that spoils your relationship with God. You are forgiven
The need to
receive forgiveness.
Notice the add on phrase
and not only for ours but also for the sins
of the whole world.
There is a lot of sin in the world.
The news is full of it. Violence, hatred, broken marriages, theft, murder,
adultery, lies, envy, lack of respect for others, lack of honouring God,
idolatry, blasphemy and the worship of the false Gods of this world. God’s
heart is breaking for his creation. He has revealed himself as a God who longs
to heal and rebuild relationships. Jesus longs to plead the case for all 6plus
billion in the world. His death covers everyone. But it has to be received by
faith. It is not that there is no solution to the world’s problems,
it is that man is still rejecting the Saviour.
Summary
Our confidence lies in the very
nature of God himself. He is light and in him is no darkness at all. Our
relationship with him is built on honesty and integrity. Pretending sin does
not affect our relationship is false. Walking in the light, living according to
his revelation, leads us to the joy of cleansed lives, changed lives. Pleading
our innocence does not work either. The solution to sin is confession. Our
confidence is built on the promise of forgiveness from a faithful and just God
who wipes away sins and is eager to renew his relationship with him. We are
called to give up on sin. Our confidence is increased by the security that if
we sin Jesus stands and pleads our case. His righteousness, not our sinfulness,
his death on the cross atoning for sin wins the argument. Walk tall this morning,not because you are without
sin but because Jesus has swopped places with you. He took your sin, so that
you can walk in the light as he is in the light. This is something to get
excited about. If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus, you are forgiven!