Sweet Fellowship with the God of Light
1 John 1:5-7
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes, Pastor
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Greeley, Colorado
August 29, 2021
1 John 1:5-7: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Recently during Favorite Hymn Sunday someone suggested that we sing “Leaning of the Everlasting Arms.” This hymn reminds me of “Lean on Me,” a song by Bill Withers and one that we sang in our youth camps.
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow
Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on
Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill
Those of your needs that you won't let show
You just call on me brother when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on
You just call on me brother
When you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me
Call me
If you need a friend
(Call me)
When we sang Lean on Me we were asked for find a partner, cross our arms and lean on each other’s back.
Similarly, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” is a song about leaning on each other for support – and we should be able to lean on each other. But I was surprised when I finally paid attention to the words. It was talking about leaning on the arms of God. The first verse says: “What a fellowship; what a joy divine; leaning on the everlasting arms.” That’s referring to fellowship with God. The chorus says: “Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.”
Elisha Hoffman was a Presbyterian preacher and he wrote that song a few years after the civil war. He got his inspiration from Deuteronomy 33:27 which says: “The eternal God is our refuge; and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
Did you pay attention to those words you sang? “What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessedness with my Lord so near! Leaning on the everlasting arms.”
This song is talking about the amazing honor that we have the ability to enjoy sweet fellowship with our Creator. That’s exactly what John was writing about in 1 John 1:5-7: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
I mentioned previously that 1 John is a letter to the First Century Christians who were struggling to understand the basic beliefs of Christianity. We have all sixty-six books of the Bible to help us know what to believe and how to behave. Put yourselves in their sandals for a moment. A few of them were Jewish Christians, and they had a basic understanding of the Old Testament. But by the time this letter was written the vast majority of Christians were Gentiles and they had never heard of Moses and Abraham. They didn’t have the rest of the New Testament like we have. So, the old Apostle focused on the basic truths about Christianity. For instance, in these three verses, we learn that we can have fellowship with God and that fellowship can be broken. And we learn three things about the nature of God: God is light, God is holy, and God is forgiving. Today we’ll focus on God is light.
1. GOD IS LIGHT: This provides the basis of our fellowship. John reminded the readers of one of the basic teachings that he had heard from the lips of Jesus. In verse five he wrote: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light…”
The fact that we can enjoy fellowship with God is not based on who we are, but on who God is. He is light. The Bible doesn’t say God HAS a light or that God is LIKE a light, but that God IS light. So what does it mean to understand that God is light? It involves at least two powerful truths about God.
(1) Physically, light refers to God’s glory. Before the Universe was created there was only darkness and chaos. But God, who is light, introduced Himself into the darkness and said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. Then throughout the Old Testament, when God revealed Himself, it often involved light. The Jewish priests had a special word when the glory of God would fill the tabernacle or the temple.
They called it the Shekinah glory of God. It was a word to describe the brilliant, flashing, radiating presence of God. When God called Moses, He used a burning, glowing bush. When God spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai there were flashes of lightning that engulfed the mountaintop in fire. And today, scholars believe they have found the real Mt. Sinai in Saudi Arabia and the top of the mountain is still charred black.
Later, we the Jews built the tabernacle and made the sacrifice, the Bible says that fire fell from heaven and filled the Holy of Holies. And for forty years, God led the Israelites with a pillar of fire at night.
And think about the morning Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Shepherds were out in the fields and angels appeared to them. The Bible says that the glory of the Lord shone around them. God’s presence turned midnight into midday! God is light.
So, that’s why Jesus could claim, “I am the light of the world.” Light is an amazing thing that’s hard to understand. I’m not surprised that God chose light to express himself.
When Albert Einstein was looking for a constant upon which to base his theory of relativity, he chose the speed of light. Light travels at 186,234 miles per second. If I could fire a pistol and the bullet traveled at the speed of light and hugged the curvature of the earth, it would penetrate my body six times in a second.
Just as there is something mysterious about light, God has chosen that image to help us understand His majesty and power. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6:15-16: “God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal power. Amen.” In the pure essence of His majesty, God is unapproachable – it would be like trying to fly into the sun. But through Jesus, He has invited us to experience fellowship with Him.
(2) Morally, light refers to God’s goodness. In the Bible darkness represents evil and light represents goodness. Satan is called the Prince of Darkness. Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness. Jesus said that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
There was a supernatural light at the birth of Jesus and there was a supernatural darkness at the death of Jesus. A few weeks ago we spoke about the Magi who followed a start to seek the King of the Jews. This wasn’t a real star or an alignment of planets because the Bible says that the light moved and stopped over the house where Jesus was. That was a supernatural expression of the presence of Holy God.
Fast forward thirty-three years. When Jesus was on the cross, He literally became sin for us. And in that moment, He experienced a sense of alienation from His Father. He said, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” And the Bible says darkness covered the land from noon until three o’clock. This wasn’t an eclipse or a storm.
You see, A Holy God can’t look upon sin. The Bible says in Habakkuk 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” So when Jesus bore my sin and your sin, God couldn’t look on His son, so the light went out. But thank God, once Jesus had paid the price for our sin, the darkness lifted and Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”
Psalm 36:9 says, “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” Both Solomon and John make the point of full purity and knowledge in God revealed in Christ, received by believers and reflected in their thoughts and walk.
God is indeed light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. By virtue of our fallen condition we are in a state of darkness and are thereby alienated from the life of God. But in Christ we are reconciled to God and are in fellowship with the light.