Children of Light

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 22nd of March, 2026.  If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the night, maybe to get a drink of water or sneak a bite out of the fridge, or more likely, to use the bathroom?  And you didn’t turn on a light because you didn’t want to wake your spouse and after all, you know your house and could walk around blindfolded, right?  But then you stub your toe or hit your shin on something, or a door jam suddenly jumps out and smacks you in the face.  While none of you may have experienced this, I sure have.  If we’d only turned on a light, we could have seen that Lego block, or the dog’s tail, before we stepped on it, barefooted.

To put it simply, light lights our way.  Light makes our path clearer to follow, illuminates any little snags and stumbling blocks that might trip us up.  Light is good.  But not everyone loves the light.  They’d rather do their work in darkness so no one can see what they’re up to.  Our bible talks about folks like that.  In fact, our bible has many passages centered on light and darkness.  Jesus is the one who discussed what I just said about the folks who love the darkness.  And the Gospel writers, especially John, talk about walking in the light and the many benefits the light brings us.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Apostle Paul also wrote about the light in his letters.  One in particular, Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, encourages us to be more Christ-like and to walk in the light.  Please listen and follow along to what Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians from chapter 4, verses 31 and 32, then on to chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 and 8 through 14, and I’ll be reading from the Revised Standard Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

4:31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

8 for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; 13 but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. 14 Therefore it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,

and Christ shall give you light.”

--Ephesians 4:31-32; 5:1-2,8-14 (RSV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, You sent Your Son Jesus to shine the light of truth, to guide us out of the darkness caused by our disobedience.  Thank You for caring so much about Your fallen creation that You would grant us Your mercy and grace.  Father, we admit that we are not as obedient to Your word as we could be, as we should be.  Sometimes we fail in even the simplest command, to love one another.  Too often we let fear or pride get in our way.  Please forgive us, those times, Father.  Please help us be more righteous and obedient in our daily walk.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand our message today.  This we humbly pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Some now unknown wag once noted that, “Some people change their ways when they see the light, others only when they feel the heat.”  I would add that some people don't change their ways no matter what happens.

Have you ever watched as someone grabbed something that was really hot, even after you warned them that it was really hot?  That just seems to be human nature.  It’s not so much that we don’t believe the warning, it’s just that we have to see for ourselves.  The hot tub water is too hot, you say?  I’ll just step right in to see for myself.  So it’s no surprise that some people ignore the light until they feel the heat.

There’s one thing I’d like to point out in chapter 5 verse 8 that I think we ought to note.  Paul says that once, we were darkness.  He didn’t say that we were in darkness, but that we were darkness.  That means we were part of the problem, part of the darkness hiding the truth.

Paul goes on to say that now we are light.  Again, not that now we are in the light, but that we are light.  The light shines into the darkness, revealing the truth, showing the lost the way to salvation.  The light is the solution.  We need to look deep within and ask ourselves if we are truly acting as the light in our daily life.

Paul encourages us to be kind to one another, to be tenderhearted and forgiving, remembering that God, in Christ Jesus, forgave us.  For that reason we should imitate God as His children, the way children like to imitate their parents.  And we should walk in love, just as Jesus loves us.  Walk in love, and walk in the light, avoiding the darkness, for now we are the light.  Some people will only know Jesus through us, through what we share with them, what we show them.  They will only see the light if it shines from us.

Paul closes this passage with words of encouragement from the great prophet Isaiah.  Awake and rise from the dead, from the death of sin, and our Christ will give us light.  When we repent of our sin and turn to Jesus, He lights our way to righteousness.

You’ve likely heard the expression, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”  Some folks attribute that to the bible, but it only alludes to a passage in Jeremiah where the prophet speaks of foolish people who have eyes but do not see and have ears but do not hear.  That doesn’t mean that the saying isn’t true, though.  Too many people simply refuse to believe the truth.  For some, it’s a matter of emotion versus reality – how they feel things are rather than how things truly are.  I remember once hearing someone say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts.”

Jesus is known to have given sight to the blind, but His intent was to show people the truth, even those who refused to see it.  Listen to one passage that the Apostle John saved for us, where Jesus performed a healing act and taught a lesson at the same time.  This comes from John’s Gospel account, chapter 9 verses 1 through 7 and verse 39…

1 As Jesus passed by, He saw a man blind from his birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him,  “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  3 Jesus answered,  “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. 4 We must work the works of Him who sent Me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  6 As He said this, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, 7 saying to him,  “Go, wash in the pool of Silo’am”  (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

39 Jesus said,  “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

--John 9:1-7,39 (RSV)

Jesus says we must work the works of God while it is still day, or in other words, while we are still in the light.  And He warns that night comes, darkness is coming, when we can’t work.  Is this perhaps foretelling the end of the age and the Great Tribulation?

But then He delivers a somewhat confusing message: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”  Now a little later on in this account, John recorded Jesus saying, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”  (John 12:47c (RSV))  So I looked at how a couple other versions translated this verse and found this from the New Life Version:  “I came into this world to say what is right from wrong. I came so those who do not see might see, and those who do see might be made blind.”

So yes, to judge the world could indeed be to say what is right from wrong.  That is something Jesus did often, especially when confronted by the Pharisees.  And when He says so that those who do not see may see, He is talking about spiritual sight, about helping us see spiritual truth.  The flip side of that is to blind those who only think they know what God wants, like the Jewish leaders of that age, so that maybe He can then open their eyes to the truth.  He put this into practice, though only after His resurrection and ascension, when He physically blinded the young Pharisee named Saul on the road to Damascus, just so He could open his eyes to the truth.

I bet somewhere along the line you heard someone say, “Walk a mile in my shoes”, or words to that effect.  The phrase, "Walk a mile in his moccasins", is actually from a poem written by Mary T. Lathrap in 1895.  The gist is, you can’t really understand someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes, gone through what they’ve been through, what they're going through.

We could not walk even a handful of steps in Jesus' sandals, but we have to try.  We are called to love as He loved, give as He gave, live as He lived.  Jesus is the Light, and He calls us to be the light, to show others the way.  Let us walk in the light, and share that light with others so that maybe they can see their way out of the darkness… while it is still day.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave His all for us.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for sending Your Light to cast out the darkness of sin and despair.  Thank You for providing us a way to salvation by belief in and acceptance of Your Son as Your Christ, our Redeemer.  And thank You for the mercy and grace You show us.  There is so much we can thank You for.  But Father, we know that too often we fail to obey Your commands, or even to follow the guidance of Your Holy Spirit within us.  Our pride, and sometimes our fear, gets the better of us and we react badly to whatever situation we find ourselves in.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  And forgive us when we forget that You love all of Your creation, not just the believers.  Forgive us when we hesitate to shine our light so that others might see their way to righteousness.  And please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and Jesus’ sacrifice.  

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your word, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You are our light.  You gave sight to us when we were blind, lost in the darkness, dead in our sin.  But Lord, we don’t always share Your light with others.  We struggle to reach out to people we don’t know all that well, hesitating to even approach them out of fear of how they might react.  Please forgive us our weaknesses and failures, Lord.  Please strengthen us to carry out the mission You gave us.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Help us, guide us in our attempts to bring the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.