Ephesians 5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
I think we take light for granted. We have a superabundance of light. Streetlights. Spotlights. Headlights. Christmas lights. Neon lights. Floodlights. Flashlights. Smartphone lights. We flip a switch and voila, light. Easy access. Altho...have you ever been stuck in the dark?
What was it that signaled the birth of the King of the Jews to the wise men from the East? Light. What did Simeon say about Jesus when His parents presented Him as an infant in the temple? “A Light of revelation to the nations…”
Re the coming of Jesus, Matthew quotes Isaiah: Matthew 4:16 “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
These people were sitting in darkness, in the land and shadow of death. What we learn here is: Darkness = land of the dying (death being the absence of life); Light = Life. Dawn then, the coming of light, is the onset of life. Often in Scripture, when God shows up, there is Light…
John 1:4-5,9 In Him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
John 3:19-21
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
Matthew 6:22-23 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"
How are our eyes this morning? What’s in my heart? Last week Paul talked about beloved children of God and sons/daughters of disobedience. Two drastically different kinds of people, two opposite strands of DNA, with two radically different outcomes. Love, and wrath. This week we have darkness and light. Darkness and light. Also polar opposites. Paul doesn’t elaborate here on what darkness looks like (did so last week). But these are all the things which comprise me-first living. Pursuing what I want. Life/living apart from God. But the light - the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, truth AND a heart that is trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
But let’s keep in mind - darkness is not a thing. It is the absence of light. The absence of the positive. And this used to be you. Us. We were sons (and daughters) of disobedience. We were darkness. At one point, that church, that assembly of luminaries in Ephesus, didn’t even exist. Not a single beam of light in that area. Darkness is the absence of light. But now in the Lord we ARE light. Because Christ, THE Christ, Jesus, shone on you. God creates and sends light for a reason. There is a purpose behind it. God is Light, and He created the light. And now we are light in the Lord. What does this mean?
Acts 26:17-18 “…I am sending you to the Gentiles, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’
Luke 11:33-35 “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness."
You WERE darkness. In other words, nothing to look at. Nothing good to see. There was no life in you, nor was it shining out from you. That skyline, that hilltop was pitch black. In fact, that lifestyle you were living - the outcome of that is wrath. Death. The dark destination of the dying. God’s wrath is poured out on the sons of disobedience, because of their unfruitful deeds of darkness. But now you - you all - ARE light. Walk as children, offspring of Light. Little lights. Beacons. Cuz you’re not merely IN the Light. You all, you ARE light. We don’t just have the light - we ARE the light…
But, don’t participate or partake with them, those sons of disobedience. These words represent a deep level of sharing. Paul isn’t saying don’t love the sons of disobedience. But he’s saying, you all are different. Don’t be sharing in what they are doing, in their deeds of me-first darkness. You’ve been called out, called out of that. And now, you are “de Light”.
Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.”
The Lord indeed has glorious plans for His people…! [Is 59-61]
We are the light of the world…! Light can be used in two ways. Usually we think of light as something we turn on or use so that we can go in any of the nuanced ways and places and directions we want to go. But there is a more absolute sense, in which we are surrounded by darkness, and we desperately want to find our way out. We are lost in a vast wilderness of night, it is pitch black - no stars or moon, not even a new moon, we are wandering aimlessly, bumping and stumbling around, hurting ourselves and those around us, dangers everywhere - thieves, cliffs, gorges of eternal peril - and then we see it, there on the horizon, a lighthouse, city on a hill. A beacon of light, out there for all to see, shining the light of Christ to guide those who are lost and adrift in dark land of the dying to the Lord. That is God’s people. The church. So that they will SEE your good works, the fruit of the Light in your life and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. The illumination of our assembled lives points people to Jesus.
The fruit of light. The fruit of light. You will know them by their fruit, Jesus says. And IF we have His light in our hearts, if we ARE in fact Light, there will be some by-products of that, some inevitable outcomes which one could expect to emerge, expect to be true of us, both individually and collectively - things which are as divine in origin and effect as is the Light itself. Paul lists them here (or at least three prominent ones) - ALL goodness, righteousness, and truth. All fruit, all of it, all the time, 100 percent divine, divinely sourced.
All Goodness. If we are de Light you will find in us all kinds of things which are good, good traits, good words, good deeds. Divine things - like God Himself. He is the Supreme Good - He is consummately breathtakingly good and manifests this goodness in all that He does. He works ALL things together for good - even something an adversary might intend for evil He will work for good. Good typically contrasts with evil. It's not so much about conforming to an absolute b&w standard per se (right vs wrong) but rather more about that which is welcome and pleasing, something which somehow helps or meets the need of another. And that’s really the thing, isn’t it? Goodness is all about the experience of others - this is walking in love. And so, Light brings goodness to others. Light provides warmth. Light helps others (and us) to see, and actually brings out the color which would be otherwise hidden. Light turns an otherwise dull marginal existence into something extraordinary and abundant and beautiful. Truly divine. What are some ways we are bringing goodness to others? How are we doing as a church?
Righteousness on the other hand tends to be more about how I conform to a moral standard. I am right (morally) - I think right, I do what is right, all in conformity to the Divine - what God is like and what He wants. Thus if you and I are Light in Christ we can expect to see all kinds of traits and words and deeds which are right in God’s eyes, which are in fact like Him, God-like (godly/divine). Justice. Honesty. Integrity. Obedience and submission. Faithfulness. Self-control. It complements the goodness. But we aren’t cutting corners or taking convenient moral short-cuts. No compromise or moral expediency. No immorality or impurity or greed of any kind. And all this, not in some harsh antiseptic lemon-sucking stuffiness with all the joy siphoned off. It is complemented with all goodness. All goodness is front and center. A delicate and difficult balance to maintain, yes, but fruit is not something forced - it is produced effortlessly as the branch simply draws on the resources of the Vine. The Di-Vine naturally produces His fruit through the ones who are vitally connected to Him.
-Third, Light also reveals Truth. It shows off reality, what things look like, how they really are. Hard to hide in the light, right? So, all truth. Absence of falsehood - no hint of it. No deception or empty words. No lies, duplicity, pretense, cheating. Just honest truth, which of course is a sort of sad redundancy since there is really no other kind of truth, is there? Yet the way of the world is contrary, is it not? The world is full of shady charlatans, those who double-deal and deceive in order to squeeze out a little bit more whatever for yours-truly. Hiding the warts and wrinkles. Hiding my sin. Hiding the truth. Suppressing the truth. Holding down the truth. No true north. But now we are de light. Children of Light illuminate the world around them with the Truth. Keeping it real. Authentic. No shadowy hiding or spinning of the truth. No show. No need to hide our messiness (and of course Jesus is THE Quicker Picker Upper, cleaning up ALL our messiness). All truth means ultimately making it about Jesus, pointing people to Jesus, Who IS the Truth and Who now reproduces His life and light in and through those who are truly His for a lost world adrift in darkness. Truth AND love. Truth AND righteousness AND goodness. Truth ultimately points people to Jesus. He leads us out of darkness. He is the True North, and that’s the gospel truth.
Then lastly, we are trying to learn what is pleasing the Lord. This is a heart which is dialed in, tuned to this idea of pleasing the Lord. What pleases the Lord? What is His “love language”?
John 8:29 “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
2Corinthians 5:9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
What are the things which please our Father’s heart? When we deLight in the Divine. When we surrender. When we put Him first. Mt 6.33 - seek first what? His kingdom, His righteousness - i.e. Him. First in our heart. First in our home, in our family. First in our finances. First in our day and all our days. Firstfruits - we give Him the first and the best. Delight looks like giving the Lord our first and our best. A pleasing sacrifice, a fragrant aroma. THIS pleases the Lord. What do You want, Lord? Not what I want but what You want, Lord. When we make it all about Jesus. When the church comes together as one, walking in love to make it all about Jesus, to point our neighbors and the nations to Him. Speaking the truth in love - we are to be helping each other, encouraging one another in to grow in these areas of goodness and righteousness and truth. We grow together - and the fruit of this Light draws people to Jesus. That’s the thing about light. In the struggle of light vs darkness, which one wins? Which prevails? Light. That’s the hope of the Good News, the hope we have in Jesus - our Savior, our Coming King.
But it begins with each of us turning our hearts to Jesus. We have all sinned. Sitting in spiritual darkness. We have all blown it. We all grow up as sons and daughters of disobedience. And we are separated from God because of this. Objects of wrath. The penalty for sin is death. Eternal separation from God. Outer darkness forever. And that leads us to the good news which we really highlight in this season (of Christmas). The birth of Jesus. The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light - and His name is Jesus. This One Who came down from heaven to pay our spiritual death penalty so that He could take back to heaven all who trust in Him. Have you trusted in Jesus yet? Not in the baby per se. Not in all the trappings of the celebration of His birth, wonderful as it was. This baby was born to die. The manger finds its meaning in the Cross and the Empty Tomb. We trust in our crucified and risen Savior...
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