Life Ministries

 “Eight Ways To Grow In Assurance” 
 “Walking In The Light”
 Ephesians 5:8-14 and 1 John 1:5-7

    What I want us to look at today is the subject of “light”.

    The writings of the Apostle John - are the last four books of the Bible; plus his Gospel.  John sums up his gospel in John 20:31 with the words; “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”. The Book of Revelation has its purpose in the very first verse; “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place”…Revelation is a book concerned with the “end times” the “last days”…things of the future.  And then, there is 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd John, where he writes in 5:13 - “I write these things to you who believe” - that is Christians - “so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life”…That’s assurance… That we may KNOW!
    In this letter of 1^st. John, I find at least 8 ways that we can “know” or have the assurance of eternal life. The assurance that “in and through Christ” we have and are walking in “fellowship with God” and can be at peace, knowing that our name is in the Lamb’s book, and heaven is our home!
    First of all it’s important to know that John is not just giving his opinion here as to how we ought to live and grow, for he says in the very first verse; and watch the progression here…“That which we have “heard”, that which we have “seen”, ( or we could say that which we have “read” or “looked at” or “studied” ) “and our hands have touched” (personal experience)….“This is what we proclaim to you!” You see, John was there! He heard Jesus, he saw Jesus, and he touched Jesus! He tells us of his experience by summing it up in the words - “God is light!”
    John pulls no punches in this letter. For one, he uses the verb tense of the word “walk” which means to “keep on walking”…it is an action… if we keep on walking, we have continual fellowship.  I cannot stand in one place and say I am walking…It involves forward movement or progress. Walking is however harder than talking about walking. I can sit in an easy chair and talk about walking. I can even talk the language of walking, but until I actually walk, it has little value. John uses the same reasoning here, If we say we have fellowship with Him, but are not walking in the light, we lie!  In other words, if we claim to be a Christian, but there is no sign of motion or movement or growth, John says we lie.
    Do you know that even the greatest scientists are baffled by the mystery of light? They can study it and explain the effects of it, but they still don’t understand what light is! Humm…John simply says; “God is light” and he is just as mysterious in the spiritual sense as light is in the natural to scientists.
    An October 2001 edition of the National Geographic had an amazing article on the “Power of Light.” This is what the introduction said; “Light reveals the world to us. Body and soul crave it. Light sets our biological clock. It triggers in our brains to the sensations of color. It feeds us by supplying the energy needed for growth. Light inspires us with special effects like rainbows, sunrises and sunsets. It gives us life-changing tools, from light bulbs - to lasers - to fiber optics. Scientists don’t fully understand what light is or what the limitless possibilities are…They just know that it will illuminate our future!”
    Let me take just a moment to compare that with knowing God;  It says in John 8:12 - “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!” You see, knowing God, who is light, reveals to us the world as it really is.
    Light is essential to our lives. When you don’t have light, or you are without light for an extended period of time, sadness and depression set in and growth is stifled!  *God, who is light, triggers the sensation of color in our brains and we are able to see the beauty of all that he has created for our enjoyment! 
    *God who is light has given us many tools to show us the unlimited power of light!  Listen to this; Fiber optic cables, when pulsated with infrared light can transmit ten million phone conversations at one time! Now, if one fiber optic cable of light can do that, how is it that God can hear the prayers of millions of people at the same time? Because God is light!  Lasers are available for everything from surgery to stopping missiles from space! …and…God Is Light!     
    *Finally, the article says that scientists know that light will illuminate our future!  John knows, and you and I know that when you come into God’s light, he illuminates our future! This is worth getting excited over!
    John talks about “walking in the light.” Light enables us to work; it produces growth; it reveals beauty and provides safety; light represents what is good, pure, holy, and true. Is it any wonder why Jesus tells us to “let our light shine?”  Light also exposes… In the dark, good and evil look alike…It’s hard to distinguish something in the dark…In the light they can be distinguished! You can tell the difference.   If you want to know where you are going, WALK IN THE LIGHT! Says Jesus…that’s Assurance.
    Let me address one more thing in closing; What happens when I sin after I am a Christian?  Do I all of a sudden stop being a Christian? Do I have to start all over again? John’s answer in verse 7 is “No”… “But, if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”…NOW, watch this…”and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
    Notice the little two letter word “IF” in those two scriptures; “IF we walk in the light” and “IF we confess our sins”…. We have a responsibility in this process, and IF we do our part, He will do his! Let’s me use the example of the child learning to walk;  “Oops, he fell…Do we condemn the child? No, we know that as long as the child keeps trying and practicing, it will eventually learn to walk. And, as the child continues to grow, he will even learn to run and jump and climb. Have you ever watched a child learning to walk?  When they are learning to walk, what do they do with their arms?…(Hold them high) 
        The new twenty dollar bills are out. How many have had a good look at them?  Just a few days after they came out  there were counterfeits on the street.  It is interesting that a new twenty dollar bill has all kinds of anti-counterfeiting things on it. They’ve got colors. The number “twenty” is in a kind of a gold paint. They’ve got a blue eagle on it and if you hold it up to the light you can see another picture of Andrew Jackson – kind of a watermark. Of course, there’s always the plastic strip that’s embedded up in the corner or the whole width of the bill, and a color copier can’t see that. So, if you have a twenty dollar bill you have a lot of ways to tell whether it’s real. You can hold it up to light and if it’s been copied, then you’ll see all kinds of things missing… Let me repeat that again, in case you were sleeping; “You can hold it up to the light and see if it is a counterfeit, because you will see a lot of things missing”…
    Walking in the light gives us assurance…