Walk in Light
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsChristians are to live as children of light in a dark world.
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading: Psalm 78:1-7
Primary Sermon resources:
Cole, S. J. (2017). In Ephesians, Galaxie Software.
Merida, T. (2014) Exalting Jesus in Ephesians, Holman Reference.
POSB, Galatians – Colossians, Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996).
Walk in Light
Ephesians 5:8-14
How do we know we have been born again? The greatest evidence we are born again is we are living a new life. There has been a change in the way we think, what we believe, and how we behave.
We have become distinctly aware of God and distinctly aware of sin. Our attitude toward things that are dark and sinful has changed, and now we want to be different. We have come to realize our desperate need for forgiveness and grace.
This is what Paul describes as walking in light. Walking is a metaphor he uses to describe the way we live. And light is one of the great metaphors of the bible to describe Jesus. For example, He is the light of the world. He is a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
So, when we talk about walking in light what we are saying is, the life of Jesus should be manifested through us in a way that is visible for the world to see. If the light of Christ is shining from our lives, we know we have been born again.
The question becomes, how do we live as children of light in a world full of darkness? Historically Christians have gone to two extremes, and they are both bad.
Some Christians try to relate to lost people so much, they become just like them. They dodge biblical standards of holiness and morality and become as sinful as the people they are trying to help.
Other Christians over-emphasize the need to be separate from the world and they isolate themselves to the point they can’t help anyone, and they can never reach lost people for Christ, because they don’t want to be around them. So, we need a biblical balance.
We need to be able to have an influence over people in the world, and yet not be influenced by their sin. That’s what Paul teaches us in our passage this morning. He teaches us Christians are to be children of light in a world of darkness. (Read Eph. 5:8-14)
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.” (Pray)
In our passage this morning Paul is once again teaching us practical application for the Christian life.
The book of Ephesians is broken down into two parts. Chapters 1-3 teach us Christian doctrine. Paul tells us who God is and who we are in Christ. Chapters 4-6 teach us how we apply that to our life. How we are supposed to live as Christians in a fallen world.
Paul wants to be clear that we are to be separated from darkness. But he never tells us to avoid it. Paul knew that was impossible. The Christians he was writing to live in one of the most morally corrupt cities of the time.
Ephesus was where the great temple of Artemis was. It was one of the seven wonders of the world. It was a massive temple, full of all kinds of impurity and immorality. They practiced cult prostitution as a form of worship there.
And what Paul is teaching them and us today, is that we are supposed to be different. We are supposed to be people who have an influence over the sinner and not the other way around. What we learn from this passage is Christians are to be children of light in a world of darkness.
The first thing I want you to see in this passage is if you are walking in light, you are a new person. You have a new nature in Christ, Vs. 8. “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord.”
I want you to notice, Paul doesn’t say we were formerly in darkness. But he says, we were darkness. Darkness is what we used to be, it was the very nature of our being, but now we are the light of the Lord.
You see being children of light means something has changed inside of us. We have a new nature and by the power of God we have been born again.
A few years ago, Tammy and I went down to the Mammoth cave in Kentucky, and as we were walking through the cave, our guide turned off the lights for just a couple seconds, but it seemed like an eternity, because you couldn’t see anything. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It was like being totally blind.
Well, Paul says, that is who we were spiritually before we knew Christ. We were totally blind, unable to see the glory of God. We had no understanding of our need for a Savior. We thought we could be good enough to go to heaven.
We thought we could be good enough to be accepted by God. So, we lived in sin. We lived for our own pleasure. We tried to avoid thinking about things like death and eternity.
But when God saved us, He opened our eyes so we could see. It was like the guide in the cave turning on the lights again. Paul compares the spiritual awakening to what God did when He created the world. 2 Cor. 4:6 says, “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
In other words, God has recreated us and given us a new nature through the cross of Jesus Christ. I love that old hymn by John Newton, “Amazing Grace,” because it describes this new nature. He says, I once was lost but now I’m found. I once was blind but now I see.
For some of us we can’t pinpoint the exact moment this took place in our life, but we know that it has, because our heart has been changed.
Notice the end of Vs. 8. Paul says, “Now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light.” You see, just because we are children of light and we have this new nature, doesn’t guarantee we will live that way. So, Paul tells us to be what you are. You are now children of light, so live that way. Then he goes on to describe 4 ways we walk in the light.
1. Paul says walking in light means we will be good. Vs. 9 says, “The fruit of light consists in all goodness, and righteousness,and truth.” Goodness is an attribute of God. It’s the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our life pushing us toward moral excellence as He sanctity’s us.
It really means that our behavior is centered on what’s best for others and not on ourselves. But because goodness is a fruit of the Spirit it takes a lifetime to develop. We should all be growing in goodness.
2. Paul says walking in light means we will be righteous. To be righteous means to be right. It means to be straight forward; in the way we act and think. It has to do with conforming to the standards of the Word of God.
There are people who think they can act righteous and not be righteous, and that’s just what we call self-righteousness.
In other words, they think they can be good enough for God by the things they do, and we need to understand that God doesn’t accept us and love us because we are good people, but because we put our faith in Jesus Christ.
That is exactly the problem Jesus had with the Pharisees. The Pharisees knew the law of God and they lived by the Law of God. No one lived by a higher standard than the Pharisees.
But they did it because they thought their behavior would get them to heaven, and they completely missed the point. They rejected Jesus, and their self-righteousness was rejected by God.
That is what Jesus teaches us in Matt. 5:20, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” The only way our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees is when it is the righteousness of Christ, and not ourselves.
3. Paul says, walking in light means we will be people of truth. In this context truth is not just something we know, but it is something we do. We are to be people of our word. People who do what they say and don’t have anything to hide, because we walk in light.
4. Paul says, walking in light means living to please the Lord. Notice the phrase at the beginning of Vs. 10, “Trying to learn,” that phrase is translated by one Greek word, which means to prove.
It is the same word Paul used in Romans 12:2 when he said, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is.” In other words, when our minds are renewed by the Word of God, we prove what is pleasing to the Lord by the way we live our life.
What is important to understand is that we don’t determine what is pleasing to the lord by the way we feel, what the world says, or what other Christians think. We determine what is pleasing to the Lord by living according to the scriptures.
Living to please the Lord is the fundamental difference between a believer and an unbeliever. An unbeliever can be honest, good, and do the right thing, at least on the outside. But they are doing it for their own reasons. They’re doing it for themselves and what people think about them.
Only a believer will do these things because they want to please God. We do it because one day we want to hear Him say, “Job well done good and faithful servant.”
The next thing I want you to see in this passage is if you are walking in light, you have a new attitude toward sin. You are no longer living in sin, but you are living to expose it.
Vs. 11-12 say, “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.”
Paul is challenging us to make sure that our lives, expose sin for what it is; it is a disgrace to God. Jesus used the same word “exposed” (John 3:20) when He said, “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
What an incredible rebuke of people who live in sin. Jesus says to live in sin is to live in fear. A fear of being exposed by the truth. Paul says it’s a disgrace to even talk about it, that is because all sin is rebellion against God and needs to be cleaned up.
I’ll give you an example. We live in Michigan, and winter is coming, so there will be lots of snow. Our cars are going to get caked with salt and grime from the roads. After a few snowstorms it won’t matter because our cars will all look the same. So, it doesn’t really bother me much.
But then all of a sudden, there will be a warm sunny day. Everyone will wash their cars, and my truck will be a filthy mess surrounded by clean cars. It’s going to be exposed for just how dirty it is, and I’m not going to be able to rest until I go and wash my truck.
That’s the idea that Paul gives us here. Our lives should be so clean that it exposes sin in the life of unbelievers and makes them want to go get cleaned up.
What Paul is not saying is, our job is to go around, pointing our finger and telling everyone their a sinner. If you can have a conversation with someone about sin that’s terrific, but that begins with trust, building a relationship, and leading by example.
So, it’s important that we understand, as Christians, we need a balance in the way we deal with people and their sin. I will give you two examples.
1. We need to maintain a healthy separation from sin.
For example, if there is nothing different about the way we think, act, and behave then unbelievers, what is the message we are sending.
If you are comfortable with sin in your life or being in places around the sin of others, you may not be a Christian and you probably shouldn’t link the name of Jesus to your life.
But if you are walking in light then you know, you can no longer participate in that lifestyle. That’s what it means to be separated; It means not participating in it.
2. we need to maintain a healthy connection to sin. We don’t isolate ourselves from the world so that we can never be a witness.
That’s the mistake the Corinthian church made. In 1 Cor. 5:9-11, Paul commanded them not to associate with the immoral brother. So, they cut themselves off from the world. Meanwhile, they welcomed the immoral brother back into their church.
But, Paul was not telling them to cut themselves off from the world, but to cut off the immoral brother, and the reason he wanted him cut off, was so he would be convicted of his sin and repent. That is always the purpose for exposing sin. It’s to bring about restoration.
So, our goal in exposing sin is to correct it and establish a path to forgiveness and grace. It doesn’t mean we go around gossiping about people, the church has done enough of that. But what this means is we should love one another enough to tell each other the truth.
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness.” The word “confess” means to uncover or to expose. So, the only unforgivable sin is the sin that is covered up and not exposed. The idea is, we are supposed to help one another be honest with ourselves and God so we can be forgiven.
Jesus is the greatest example of being separated from sin and yet staying connected to the sinner. Jesus was known as a friend of sinners. But He didn’t hang out with them to have a good time.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to call them to repentance. He maintained a balance by not participating in their sin, but He also made them comfortable enough to hear what He had to say. We need to do the same.
The final thing I want to show you in this passage is, if you are walking in light, you have been restored, Vs. 13-14. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are now a reflection of the Light. You are a new person with a new attitude toward sin because you have been restored.
Notice Vs. 13, it says, “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
There is an old saying, “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Well, that’s the idea here. As long as sin is done in secret it thrives, but when it is dragged out into the light it dies. And if we will allow Christ to shine on us, He will disinfect us, and make us new.
The Christian life reminds me of the moon. The moon doesn’t produce its own light, it’s covered in darkness but when the reflection of the sun comes on it, we see the moonlight.
Well, the same thing is true in our lives. We are covered in darkness until the light of the Son of God shines on us and then we can live in the forgiveness and grace of God.
Notice the word “all,” at the beginning of vs. 13. Paul says, “all things become visible.” We need to expose all things to God so we can be set free. It’s important we understand there are no secrets with God.
That’s what David teaches us in Psalm 139:1-4. “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
So, we need to understand if we are not being honest with God, we are only deceiving ourselves. We need to remember it’s God’s desire to forgive us and set us free. So, it is in our best interests to expose our sin and confess it, so we can be healed.
Notice that Paul adds the reason for it all in Vs. 14, He says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” This is a loose quote from Isaiah 60:1 and may have been an early church hymn.
The idea is that we are spiritually dead and cannot truly be alive until we are walking in Christ. Jesus is source of life. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life and the life was the light of man.”
I am going to close today, but the point of this message is no one is perfect, we all make mistakes, and we all need forgiveness and grace.
But that only comes when we allow the Son to shine the glory of God into our lives. And Paul says, it is like waking up from a deep sleep or rising from the dead.
Christ forgives us and welcomes us into the family, and we become the children of God. And Paul says, that’s who you are now. We are the children of Light and we should live as the children of light.
