Resurrection Lutheran Church - Sermon Update

3rd Sunday in Lent, 3/23/14
Ephesians 5:8-14


Let the Son Shine!
I. His saving light enlightened you.
II. His saving light guides you.


Once again this past Thursday I saw another national TV news segment on what a terrible winter it’s been. It featured news clip after news clip showing snow and ice and traffic accidents and snowplows and people shoveling snow. To be honest, what I saw made me feel glad that I live here. It could have been much worse.

But it’s been bad enough. More than one of you has told me this seems like the winter that’s never going to end. I share that sentiment. The fact is that it ranks #3 in our area for total snowfall amount. That’s a near-record in which we don’t take any pleasure. I don’t know of anyone who is sad that the snow is all gone.

But did you get a chance to take a close look at your flower beds recently? As brutal as the weather has been, already there are signs of plant life. The daffodils in one of my flower beds have pushed their way up through the cold soil to catch as much sunlight as they can. That means it won’t be long before they’re in full bloom. And that’s the way it should be. As of last Thursday spring has sprung. The days are getting longer and it won’t be long before warm weather is here to stay. And we’ll grab the opportunities to enjoy the sunlight.

That makes this an appropriate time of year to consider the blessings we have from another type of light—spiritual light. Today’s worship theme points out the vast difference between spiritual darkness and spiritual light. One of our God’s purposes in sharing these truths with us is so that we appreciate the spiritual light that he has granted us and determine to spend more time in it.

So let’s do just that for the next few minutes. Let’s spend time appreciating and enjoying the fact that we live in spiritual light. Let the Son shine! May God’s saving light shine more brightly in us as we bask in it today.

Part I.

Do you spend much time dwelling on your past? I think all of us would agree that we think about it from time to time. And in general, there are three approaches towards what we recall and which approach we take depends on the nature of what we recall.

If our recollection of the past includes mistakes we’ve made, poor choices, unpleasant experiences, unsuccessful attempts, we try to forget them. It’s true that you can learn from your past, but you can’t do anything about it. It’s in the past. That time is gone. You don’t get a chance do re-do what’s done, so you try to forget it.

But if your recollection of the past is filled with fond memories, time spent with loved ones, successes that were the result of unusual effort on your part, and happy thoughts, then your reaction is to determine to think about such things more often and be grateful that you experienced them.

And then there’s the third approach—recalling how bad things were and how good they are now.

Paul urges us to try that third approach this morning regarding our spiritual lives. He writes, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Recall what you were. But that might not be so easy for most of us. We’ve been Christians so long that we can’t recall ever being in spiritual darkness. If that’s your situation, thank God for it.

But it doesn’t mean that Paul words aren’t true about you. We were once darkness. There was a time when we were without saving faith in Jesus and without knowledge of all that the only true God has done for us. It may have only been for a few weeks or a couple months, but it’s true—we were darkness. There was no spiritual light in us.

And that meant—no matter how sweet and cute and lovable we looked—we were members of Satan’s kingdom, not God’s kingdom. We were just as much of an unbeliever as some of history’s most notorious unbelievers. There are no degrees of unbelief. To be sure, we may not have acted in gross unbelief, as some of history’s notorious unbelievers have. But we were still under Satan’s power, not God’s.

For some of us, we may even be able to recall living under Satan’s deadly lie—that lie being we’ll do what we can to please God and hope for the best. Surely a loving God won’t condemn us if we try to please him.

That’s not a pretty past for any of us, but we need to recall it. Unless we recall our natural spiritual darkness, we won’t appreciate what our God has done for us. We might even want to take the credit—at least some of it—for what we are now.

Again, Paul writes, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” You are light in the Lord. One of the finest responses to that good news is, “Rejoice!” God has accomplished his highest goal and purpose in your life. He has brought you into his saving light. By his grace he has brought you to know and believe in Jesus as your Savior from sin. In the final analysis, that’s the only thing—the only thing—that matters. No matter what else you accomplish in life or fail to accomplish, you have already attained what your God wants for you more than anything else—to be a member of his eternal kingdom by faith in Jesus. That’s the light of his Son.

Let the Son shine! His saving light has enlightened you!

Living in the world that we do, it would not be difficult for any of us to sink into self-imposed gloom. Consider the unspeakable things that are done to children in our world. Here’s another: It’s becoming apparent that a jet full of innocent and unaware passengers was deliberately diverted and destroyed without any concern for hundreds of lives. Such things fill us with gloom. And then there are the little “explosions” in our lives that do the same. We get the dreaded news from our doctor. Or, in spite of our doctor’s best efforts to help us, we stagger in pain from day to day. We keep our noses clean and do the best we can, but it still doesn’t work out. We thought we had done what our superior, our coach, our teacher expected, but we were wrong. We didn’t measure up. It would be easy to sink into self-imposed gloom. Unless you let the Son shine! As Luther’s great Reformation hymn declares, “Let everything be gone. The devil and our world still haven’t won. The kingdom’s ours forever.” Your God who loves you eternally has caused his saving light to shine in your heart. He has accomplished his highest purpose for you. Eternal bliss and glory await you. And with that confidence, we can face the problems of today and the disappointments of tomorrow. Let the Son shine!

II.

TMI. That acronym has been a part of our regular vocabulary for a decade or so. TMI—too much information. We often use TMI when someone is telling us something personal about themselves. That’s a little more than we wanted to know.

It’s occurred to me that TMI also applies to what we hear in general from our world. I don’t want to hear the gory details. I don’t need to know the despicable charges being brought against him. I’m tired of hearing the kinds of things famous people in our world have done. It’s disgusting!

I think the Apostle Paul would agree with us. He states something similar in these words, “It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.” Mention them?!? Our world produces reality TV shows out about them. So how should a Christian respond?

Let the Son shine. Paul writes further, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” This isn’t entertainment, it’s trash. This isn’t simply a different choice; it’s sin. This isn’t what’s right for you; it’s what God forbids. And because these are actually deeds of darkness, they’re fruitless. They’re under God’s curse, not his blessing.

And then use that Son shine to produce the fruits of faith. Paul lists three. He writes, “Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.)” The first is goodness. In this sense, a person is good when what he is and does is admirable and beneficial according to God’s definitions of admirable and beneficial. A person is righteous in this sense when his attitude and conduct are according to God’s standards. Finally a person is truthful when what he says is in agreement with what is in his heart and what he does is in agreement with what he says. Think about it. Isn’t it refreshing when those are the kinds of people you’re dealing with? Be one of those people! That’s who you are by God’s power.

Let the Son shine! His saving light guides you.

It’s been stated countless times, “Just follow your heart.” I know those words can be understood in a God-pleasing way, but that’s not often the case. People easily justify saying or doing what is clearly against God’s will when they follow their heart. That’s because our hearts are sinful by nature and they remain sinful. Instead of following your heart, let the Son shine! Your Savior has given you saving faith in him. He sustains that faith through his word. Let the light of God’s word guide what you think, feel, say and do. Share that light with others and help guide them. Point out in a loving way what’s darkness in their lives and offer them the light of God’s forgiveness in Christ. In short, let the Son shine in every aspect of your life. Bask in it! Amen.