Our scripture reading this morning comes from the Gospel of John, chapter one, verses one through 13. You can find our text on page 886 of the Pew Bible in the seat rack in front of you. The Gospel of John, beginning in chapter one, verse one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now let me invite you to turn over to 1 John 2. Our sermon text for this morning is 1 John 2, starting in verse 7 through verse 11. Hear now God's word. Beloved, I am writing to you, writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says that he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. The grass withers and the flower falls. The word of our God endures forever to the praise of his glorious grace. Let's pray. Father, may you shine the light of the world upon our darkened hearts. Amen. It is December 15th, meaning that we are officially in the thick of the Christmas season. The poinsettias are out on the stage and on the platform. The Christmas ties are out. You all look great. in your reds, in your greens. And thus far, I have already been to three separate church gatherings where Christmas carols were sung. All we now just need is for some of this snow to stick around until December 25th for a white Christmas. And some of you are laughing, saying, ha, you just watch out, it's coming. As we think about this season, there are two words that are often paired together. And those two words are the words Christmas and family. For most of us, Christmas is absolutely inseparable from family because most of our Christmas festivities and most of our traditions will include family in one way or another. Some of you are already very active in sending out pictures of your families to people and receiving cards from other people with pictures of their families. Even the Christmas program that we're gonna have in a few hours, these types of programs usually attract all sorts of family members from grandparents to aunts and uncles. On Christmas day, we give gifts too and receive presents from people within our families. And then we usually end with some sort of Christmas dinner. and then hence go forth all of the various traditions that our families have developed at Christmas over the years. As I've gotten older, I have noticed that gathering with your family year after year for Christmas can reveal to you a lot of things about yourself and your family at Christmas. Maybe some of you have this experience of growing up, moving out, and spending time with other families either at work or at school, and then you come back at Christmas, and then you just ask yourself, because it hits you, why is my family so loud? Or for others of you, coming back together with your family, even if you're a married adult with a spouse and kids and a full-time job, coming back home is just that little reminder that you really have yet to graduate from the kids' table. As someone who's moved around a good bit since leaving home, I actually can go a long time without seeing my dad on occasion. But then when I go home and then I see my dad randomly singing and making very bad jokes, I have to ask myself, why am I so much like my dad? Or on the flip side, why is my wife so much like her mom? Now I don't know how the Apostle John celebrated Christmas. nor much about his relationship with his other family members. But I do not think that it would have surprised John at all to see that Christmas and family go together. This morning we return once again to the letter of 1 John. And this morning we see God's hand in guiding our study because I was not actually planning on originally preaching a Christmas sermon this morning. But then as I began to study our text, I quickly discovered that our text seeks to apply the reality of Christmas to our relationships with other believers within the church. In 1 John, we have already seen the apostle John argue that God is light and that in God there is no darkness at all. And yet in our text, we look down at verse 8 of chapter 2, you see John mention about how the light of the world is shining right now. A light that entered this world 2,000 years ago, having been born of a young woman in a little town of Bethlehem. I think the main point of our text this morning is simple. In our text, I think John wants to show us how Christmas transforms our relationships with our spiritual family, our brothers and sisters within the church. Because, if you think about it, when Jesus entered the world, a light began to shine that gave new depth new meaning and new beauty to a very old commandment in the Bible, a commandment to love one another. And so this morning, in the same way that spending time with your earthly family can reveal important truths to us, John wants to show us that how we spend our time with our spiritual family can also be quite as revealing. For in our text, John makes the point that how you interact and how you relate with your brothers and sisters within the church can serve as a spiritual test for whether or not you are walking in the darkness or whether or not you are walking in the light. This morning, we're gonna consider our text in two main points. Our first point this morning, as you should see in your handout, is the light of the world. And then our second point this morning will be children of the light. So first we will see the light of the world. As we approach our text this morning, I wanna begin by reminding us about some of the context of this letter, this first letter from John. Because as we go deeper into this letter, it is going to become more clear that John is writing to address a church that is facing many difficulties. And here is one of the main difficulties that this church is facing. This church is facing challenges from ex-church members. We see in 1 John that there is a group of people who used to be members of this church but have since left and now are causing all sorts of problems and headaches for the church and its leadership. If you look down at 1 John 2.19, John hints to this fact if you look at it by saying that they went out from us. A quick comment to the fact that there used to be people who were part of this church but have since disfellowshipped. And these people who used to be part of the church have started their own rival community. And as we keep going in 1 John, we're going to see that this church split began as division over false doctrine. In 1 John 2.22, if you put your eyes on it real quick, we see that these former members at some point in the past were beginning to argue that Jesus was not the Christ and that Jesus was not the Son of God. And so it's important to see, and commentators help us here, that in our text, John actually has this group of ex-church members in mind. when he's writing our text this morning. And he can show us this point in two ways. Let me show you how he does this. First, as we'll see later in our sermon, John shows us that one of the clear signs of bad doctrine is that bad doctrine usually always, most always results in bad living. Throughout our passage this morning, 1 John 2, 7 through 11, you see John make frequent reference to a commandment. If you scan your eyes over verses seven and eight, John talks about no new commandment, an old commandment, and a new commandment again. Now John does not come out and say it, but the commandment that he has in mind, is a command that John heard from Jesus many decades before on the night of Jesus' betrayal. That's recorded for us in John 13, 34 through 35. On that night, John heard Jesus say, a new commandment I have given to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And if we look down at verses nine and 11 of our text in chapter two of 1 John, we see John addressing these people who are not obeying this command to love their brothers. But it's important to see, if we're going to interpret our text correctly, verses nine through 11, where he talks about those who say they're in the light, but are in darkness. Here, John is not actually addressing the members of the church. He's actually addressing these ex-church members. For John, it's not the church, but these ex-church members who are revealing their faulty doctrine through a lack of love. And we know that this is true because of what John writes in verse eight. Look down at verse eight with me. He says, at the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you. And in this passage, we see that this commandment to love one another, John's saying that it's true in you believers. In this church, you are manifesting this command to love one another. It's almost as if John is saying that your relationships in this church are manifesting a love for one another that Jesus commanded long ago. And as a quick side comment, let me just say that I am so thankful for Cornerstone because it is true that you can see the work of God within our midst because of the love that is evident among the body of believers here. And so if you look down at verses nine through 11, these verses are targeting a group of people that apparently are claiming to be in the light, which is a way to say they're saying we're the true and real faithful followers of God, but they're living lives that are defined by hate and a lack of love for others. So that's one way that this group of ex-church members are on John's mind. But also within our text, we see John indirectly addressing them because he's having to clarify that his teaching and his writings are reflecting the same truths that were taught by Jesus and the apostles. In verses seven through eight, We see John making this strange argument where he's flopping back and forth between whether or not his argument is old or it is new. If you look down at verse seven, John says that his commandment is not new, but it's old. And later he'll repeat, it's an old commandment. But then starting in verse eight, he goes back and says, actually there's a way in which it is new. In our text, John is not giving us evidence that he is having something of a memory problem. Rather, he's making two distinct and important arguments. First, in verse seven, if you look at it, John is making the point that his teaching is nothing new to his readers. What's most likely happening is that these ex-members are criticizing John by saying that John is making up his own new teaching, which is why they should follow their teaching. And so these ex-members are charging John with making his own inventions about doctrine, that he's just making it up. And so in verse seven, John makes the argument that he has not changed his tune. He is, verse seven, writing no new commandment, but an old commandment that you've heard from the beginning. John's making the point that he is preaching the same message about the same gospel with the same commandments that he received from Jesus. and that he has been sharing this same truth with his readers ever since the first time that they believed in Jesus. If you look down to verse 7 at the end of the first verse, he talks about this old command that they had from the beginning. The from the beginning here is not referring to from the beginning such as Genesis 1 or John 1, about the beginning of time. Rather, this from the beginning is talking about when these readers first became Christians. In other words, verse seven is almost as if John is writing, my children, I have been teaching you the same things and the same commandments. from the first time you heard me all the way until now. So that's the point that John is making in verse seven when he talks about his commandment being old. But if you know anything about John, you also know that John loves to play with words and he sometimes writes with double meanings. And in verse eight, John makes the point that there actually is a way in which his commandment is new. Friends, John knows that the commandment to love one another is an old commandment. If John's writing this letter in the final decades of the first century, then John himself has very old memories. of when Jesus first gave the disciples this new commandment to love one another. Many years before in that uproom discourse. But then even going further back, John knows that when Jesus gave that commandment, he was not saying anything necessarily new in telling his disciples to love one another. In a sense, as we read earlier in Matthew 22, Jesus knows that he's merely just repeating the second greatest commandment, a commandment found all the way back in Leviticus 19.18, to love your neighbor as yourself. So why does John say in our text that this commandment is new? He tells us at the end of verse eight, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Friends, in other words, the command to love one another is new because of Christmas. As we've seen in 1 John from previous sermons, friends, the categories of light and darkness do not only refer to physical categories, such as where the earth sits in relation to the sun, Rather, John labors to show us that light and darkness are also moral categories. And as we've seen previously in 1 John, light refers to God's moral goodness, and then also his open and his transparent relationships, the ones within the Trinity between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but also with us. We also see in 1 John that darkness refers to sin, depravity, and lives that are lived in secret and in the dark. And earlier in our service, we heard from the Gospel of John, chapter one, where John describes Jesus as the light of the world. 1 John 1.9 again, John writes, the true light who's Jesus, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. We read earlier in John chapter one, a reference to Christmas, when God became man. And in our text today, the apostle John can look back and see a true light that has been shining ever since the light of the world was born of Mary. Friends, one of the main reasons why Christmas is so important for Christians is because the birth of Jesus begins the transformation of the moral climate of the entire universe. Friends, in the arrival of the Savior at Christmas, and then what comes from that in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Friends, Jesus as the light of the world accomplishes absolutely everything that's necessary to overcome the darkness. And friends, Jesus in his life and death does everything necessary to eradicate sin and misery within the world forever, as far as the curse is found, as we often sing at Christmas. As we think about application for a moment, I think that all of us are familiar with this command, as we said earlier, to love one another. But in our text, the Apostle John wants to help us understand how the coming of Jesus deepens this command and expounds it in two profound ways. First, in our text, John shows us that Jesus transforms the command to love one another by shining his light upon this command and helping us see the sin and darkness within our own hearts. Friends, if you think about it, God's people in both the Old and the New Testament received this command to love one another. But the New Testament saints received this command to love one another, and then were also exposed to the light of the world in Jesus, a light that shines and searches the sin that remains within our own hearts. Friends, if you look at the ministry of Jesus, it was impossible for people to get close to him without having their sin exposed. Just think for a moment about people such as the woman at the well, or Zacchaeus, or the Pharisees. I mean, even at one point in Luke chapter five, Simon Peter is just minding his own business fishing while Jesus is preaching. And then when Jesus makes a simple command for him to change up to change up his fishing style, a professional fisherman being told by this lay preacher what to do. Peter falls to his knees and cries, depart from me. Why? For I am a sinful man, oh Lord. I think the difference between the command to love one another in the Old Testament and New Testament can be seen in a familiar parenting story. Imagine that it is bedtime at home and you tuck your kids into bed at night. You say goodnight and you turn off the lights. But then as you walk by their room later in the evening, you hear the faint sound of giggling coming from their room. Now the first time you may open the door and you speak the words into the room, go to sleep. But in the first time, you actually don't see what's going on. But the second time you hear giggling, you go in, you turn the lights on, and you see three children who are caught in the middle of a tickle fight and hoping that you don't know about it. The first time your children heard the command, but then the second time they heard the command and were exposed to the light. And because they were now in the light, they had to take more seriously whether or not they were gonna obey the command to go to bed. Friends, when people encounter Jesus in the Gospels and in God's word today, they both hear God's commands and they're both exposed to Jesus's piercing light. And many times when people encounter Jesus, he exposes things that are happening that are much more sinful and sinister than late night after bed mischief. And because they're exposed, they need to take more seriously whether or not they're gonna obey Jesus's commandments. But as we think about our text, not only are people exposed in a broad way, and we know that's true, think for a second about how Jesus exposes the command to love. I think on most days, I bet that you and I think we're doing quite a fine job at loving one another. Maybe this week, as you were going to the grocery store, you let that car nicely merge in front of you. You got to the grocery store and you didn't take your last favorite carton of ice cream. And you even said thank you to the young cashier who was trying to double charge some of your groceries. I bet compared to most people, you and I think that we're often doing quite a fine job of loving our neighbors. But what about when we compare our lives with Jesus? Friends, Jesus is not only the spotlight that shines upon the command to love one another, but he is also the perfect model and the standard for how you and I as Christians should love one another. John 13, 34, a new command I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. Friends, as we think about it, how exactly has Jesus called us to love one another? John 15, 13. Greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. Friends, according to the Bible, love is not ultimately a feeling or a connection or just an emotion. If you want a very basic definition of love, to love someone is to take the posture of being fully committed to someone else's good and flourishing, even at the cost of ourselves. even if it means our own life. In simplest terms, to love is to communicate, I am for you, for your flourishing, for your good, no matter what. And friends, as we just sung, that is exactly what Jesus just did for us. Friends, the Son of God was under no obligation to leave the glories of heaven for the humble life of a son born of a teenage mother and to be placed in a feeding trough for animals. Friends, nothing drove Jesus to think about it, ridicule, abandonment, mistreatment, suffering, and death, but love, love for you. Love for me. Love for us. Friends, love that none of us here would perish, but have eternal life. Christian, how does your love for others compare with Jesus's love for you? When you hear this commandment, and friend, you allow the light of the world to shine upon your heart, what do you see? Where is a lack of love exposed in your life? Friends, this Christmas, don't block out the light of the world from shining into your heart. If the light of Christ and the love of Christ, friend, is exposing sin in your lives, ways that you fail to love your neighbor as yourself, Friends, do not run and hide. Friends, do not remain in the darkness. Friends, but go to the cross, confess your sins, and find the forgiveness available through Christ to all who believe. And experience once again the ministry, the cleansing ministry of the Holy Spirit upon your heart. Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I wonder what you think about the love of Jesus. Many people in the world today, if you're honest, they can justify a selfish and loveless attitude because of the ways that they have been mistreated by others. I bet that if you are not a Christian, you could point out a lot of people who have wronged you. And that it can give you a lot of comfort as you think about the ways that you are not loving to others. But here's the problem. If that's you and you're not a Christian, what do you do with Jesus? What do you do with a man who would lay down his life, not just for his friends, but for his enemies? Now you could say that Jesus is just crazy. But friends, the Bible says that Jesus laid down his life for people just like you. So friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, how do you respond to the love of Jesus? Jesus died so that people just like you, as we sang earlier in our service, so that people like you can be reconciled with God. Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, and you wanna learn more about this Jesus, there are many people here who would love to talk to you after the service. That's our first point, the light of the world. Our second point this morning is children of the light. If we look at the Bible, we will see over and over again a very simple logic concerning our response to the gospel. According to scripture, it is impossible for people who have been truly born again for people who look at Jesus and see the cross and see God's love put on full display. It's impossible for those people to not be moved if they're truly Christians and then to follow Jesus and his example. If God is light and Christ is the light that shines in the world, then friends, you and I show that we are children of the light by our love for one another. And Jesus makes this point in John 13, 35, as he read earlier. According to Jesus, one of the primary ways in which the world is supposed to look at us and say, yep, those guys must be Christians, is through our love for one another. John 13, 35, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And friends, that's exactly why it is so humbling and so exposing when we struggle to love our brothers and sisters within the body of Christ. In verses nine through 11, John teaches us a simple illustration for how we can grow in spiritual discernment. And he argues that if we want to grow in spiritual discernment, that we can grow by making simple observations about how people live. And this point in verses nine through 11 is pretty self-explanatory. If someone claims to be a Christian, yet is living a life defined by hate, and a lack of love for others. According to John, we should conclude that in some way or another, they are still in darkness. And yet on the other hand, if someone is living a life defined by love for their fellow church members, then we can safely conclude that they are actually in the light. In this way, John is continuing a theme of this letter. John writes this letter so that we as Christians can know that we are in the light, that we are walking with God. In one way, this entire letter is taking the issue of assurance from different perspectives. And in verses nine through 11, John presents us with a social test of our salvation. According to the apostle John, One of the main ways that you and I can be assured of our salvation, or in the words of verse 10, have no cause of stumbling, is that we love one another. Let me draw your attention to two details that help us to understand this challenge to live as children of the light. First, in verse nine, What the apostle John does is that he confronts a sort of Christianity that exists only in word but not in action. He writes, verse nine, whoever says, important, whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. I think that John's words expose a weakness within the church today. Because I think that it is very easy, and we could say it's very easy for someone to do all the right Christian things in public. To put on the suit, even the Christmas clothes, come to church, say you're a Christian, play the church game, but then when they go home and they shut the door, they're an entirely different person in private. Remember, to be in the light is a metaphor for having a relationship with God. And if John heard someone say that they are walking in the light, he would respond like this. And if you are in the light, are you also walking in love? According to the apostle John, merely saying the words, I am in the light, is not enough. Saying you are in an active relationship, in a vibrant relationship with God, friends, is worth little to John if your life is not defined by love for others. Friends, God is love. And those who truly love God cannot help but love others. So I think the Apostle John would be suspicious of someone who claims to be a Christian and even convictingly can spend a lot of time reading theology and have a lot of good books and know the ins and outs of biblical theology. And yet when push comes to shove, their life is not defined by love and concern for others. John's point here is summarized in a verse that we're gonna study in a few months. 1 John 3, 18. Little children, let us not love in word and talk, but in deed and in truth. Not just word, but in how we relate to one another. But second, in our passage, John challenges us in verses nine through 11 by pointing us to the role of the local church in our discipleship and assurance. As I said in my introduction, Spending a lot of time with your family can certainly reveal a lot of things about yourself and your family. And this not only applies to eventful family gatherings that you may have in a few weeks, but it also applies to our regular life within the body of Christ. For who does John say is the one in darkness? In verses 9 and 11. If you look down, he says, the one who hates his who? his brother, and by extension, his brother or sister within the church. Friends, as we think about the good news of Christmas, the news of Christmas is not written on a Christmas card addressed personally to you. Friends, the message of Christmas is a public proclamation that God sent his son to save his people. Meaning that when God saves you, he also places you within a family. A group of people whom God calls you to love. This will not be breaking news to anyone. But if you've ever noticed, the people in the church can sometimes be a little hard to love, can't they? Friends, Christians can be opinionated. You and I can be stubborn. And you and I struggle with that little thing called sin. that's gonna be with us until God calls us home. And yet, God loves his church, his messy, his sinful, already not yet spiritual family. And God demonstrated his love and commitment to his family in sending his son to the cross for them. If we look at our text, I think the Apostle John puts his finger on a danger that confronts every person in the room today. Because simply put, it is way too easy for us to excuse our lack of love for others. And here's how we often do it. We look out at the church and we tell ourselves, you know, I get along with most of the people here. I'm on great terms with all of them. And then there's that one person. who just rubs you a little the wrong way. Or that one person you got into a fight with several years ago. And we justified the coldness in our hearts towards them by telling ourselves, well, they are just so fill in the blank. And in doing so, we give ourselves an excuse from loving them. Friends, according to the Apostle John, that exact moment that you and I excuse ourselves from loving others, even if it's one person. We excuse ourself from being patient with them. We excuse ourself from being kind to them, for bearing with their weaknesses. Friends, that exact moment is when we reveal to ourselves, to the church, and to God, that there's just a little more darkness in our hearts. Friends, if I am describing you, let me ask you a question. Is it possible that the people that you have a hard time loving in this church are here for a reason? Is it possible that God wants to help you grow in your love for others by putting those people you have a hard time loving in this church? Friends, our passage contains some hard truths for us, doesn't it? Well, I think if we take a step back for a moment as we come to a close, and we look at this passage as a whole, I think that the Apostle John is challenging us in our love for others, out of love for us. Friends, he's not trying to just beat us up and cause us to question our salvation. Rather, John wants to show us And he loves us in showing us that a lack of love towards other people within the church is incompatible and inconsistent with our love for God. And so John wants to keep us from being stagnant in our growth as Christians. And he wants to push us to keep going forward. And friends, John does not want us to be those, like in verse 11, who are now walking in darkness and do not know where they're going because the light has blinded our eyes. Friends, John knows that Jesus stands ready to forgive all of our sins and to forgive the sins of anyone that comes to Jesus in repentance and faith. And so he has no problem shining the light of the world upon the hearts of those who claim to be children of the light. So this Christmas, as we gather with our earthly families, and as we gather with our spiritual families. Friends, what is God revealing to you about yourself, about your heart, about your life? Are you obeying this old new commandment? Are you walking in love as Christ has loved you? May this be a season where as we gather as God's people, and celebrate the birth of our Savior. That our time together will reveal to everyone that God is at work in our midst. As we demonstrate to God and the world a genuine, God-glorifying, Christ-exalting love for one another. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this message. that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Father, if we're honest with ourselves, there are many ways in which we still fail to implement that in our lives. One of the main ways that it shows up is in our struggles with loving the people that you love and that you've placed around us. Father, I pray that you would do what your word does, that you would apply your word to our hearts, remove that which is not pleasing to you, that we may be renewed and restored to walk in a right relationship with you and show that we truly are children of the light. We pray for this in Christ's name, amen.