Bringing the Word of God at The King's Church
Talk by Julie Hawkins
"Seeing The Light"
John 9:5
Imagine yourself at home in the evening when suddenly there is a power failure and you are plunged into darkness. You realise you must find light, so you stumble around looking for matches, torches, anything that will give you light. You move around knocking against furniture, tripping over cats or mats fumbling around until you find that magical source of light - the match!
Then another period of stumbling around with that precious match until you find - the candle. And as small as it is, that candle gives you enough light to enable you to move around without hurting yourself. But that's nothing compared with when the power suddenly comes back on and the room is flooded with beautiful electric light.
There is a saying that people often use when they speak of Christians "he's seen the light" usually they say it in a mocking or derogatory manner. But do you know, that is exactly how it is. Believers in Jesus are people who have "seen the light".
Before I "saw the light" I was, although I didn't know it at the time, walking in darkness. I would have scoffed at anyone who would try to tell me that, probably like some of you here this morning. But as I look back now, I know I was truly walking in darkness. And just like the example of the dark room, I was continually bumping into things that hurt me. There were the relationships that promised so much and
resulted in so little. There was a professional classical singing career which should have totally satisfied, but somehow didn't. There was the holding of grudges and unforgiveness which I could never get over, there was the longing for a love which I somehow never quite found.
That's how it was until the light was suddenly switched on. That happened through my brother who had "seen the light" when he was 18. I thought he was mad, utterly crazy, in fact I was a bit embarrassed by him especially when he talked about Jesus or sat there reading his Bible.
But I had gone to spend the weekend with him and his wife, and just spending time with them I knew that there was something different about them. I asked my brother what it was and he said "Julie, we have peace with God and I'm afraid you don't". I asked him how you got peace with God. He told me about Jesus. I didn't understand much about what he was saying, but as he talked with me the match was lit. Small - but a beginning.
That night I thought deeply about the things David had talked about. I realised that when he spoke of Jesus, it was as if he was speaking of someone he knew. Now my brother has a PhD in Fluid Hydraulics and is a very learned and intelligent man, but I realised he really believed this stuff.
Could it be possible that what he had told me was true, that some 2000 years ago God had actually come to this earth as Jesus, had lived the life He wanted me to live, taken all the darkness in me, which the Bible calls sin, and dealt with it through His sacrificial death. Could it be possible that God would put His very own Spirit within me to give me the power and direction to live life as He wanted me to.
It took a lot of believing, but my brother is the kind of person you can really trust, and I thought - well if he can believe it why shouldn't I? So that night, having thought all this through, I decided to put my life into the hands of Jesus. I didn't realise it but God had started switching on the light inside me. Only God can.
I woke up the next morning and I was in the light! I was changed, I didn't have the desire to mock my brother, I wanted to know more about Jesus and wonder of wonders, I was understanding the parts of the Bible that David was sharing with me. The day before I was blind to this and now I could see, the light was truly switched on. Just as a room looks totally different when it is flooded with light so the world around me was different, I was different.
I started reading the Bible and I began to learn more about Jesus. I read stories about ordinary people just like you and me and how Jesus dealt with them. There was the story of a little girl who died and the distraught father asked Jesus to come, which he did. Jesus took the little girl by the hand and gently raised her from the dead and gave her back to her parents. Only God can do that.
I read of a man who was paralysed and Jesus completely healed him and told him that his sins were forgiven. Only God can do that.
I read of a man who was blind from birth who Jesus touched and gave sight to. Only God can do that.
I read of the way he would meet with ordinary people and completely change their lives. He's still doing that today. And as I read I knew that this was the God I wanted to entrust my life to and follow.
In the Bible (John 12 : 46) "Jesus said - If you trust Me, you are trusting God. For when you see Me, you are seeing the One who sent Me, I have come as a Light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in Me will no longer wander in the darkness" and I suddenly understood Jesus is the One who gets rid of the darkness and gives you light to understand spiritual things.
Here's another verse from the Bible (John 8 : 12) - Jesus said to the people " I am the light of the world, so if you follow Me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, for living light will flood your path."
That's great - light flooding your path, so that you know where you're going, you have direction and you can see the things that will trip you up. The only thing is that light shows up everything. In a dark room you can't see dirt or dust, but put the light on and you can. It's the same with receiving God's light - suddenly all the darkness inside you is shown up for what it is. You can't ignore it any longer. I tell you I didn't like what I saw in myself when God's light shone in me. Anger, hatred, unforgiveness, grudges, we all have some of it don't we?
The difference now for me was that I wanted rid of it, couldn't bear the darkness any more. That's when the light went from match to candle to all round light and what Jesus did when He died on the Cross suddenly became clear to me. All the darkness in me - the Bible calls it sin - had been put onto Him, He had taken it, He'd taken the punishment for it and He had given me God's forgiveness. peace with God. Just as my brother had told me.
I tell you, to know yourself forgiven by God, is truly living in light. To know peace with God is true life. That's really what the people who have been baptised this morning have discovered.
For me, God didn't just switch on the light, He plugged me
into His power as well! Power to forgive the unforgiveable, power to deal with anger and let go of grudges, power to make wise choices. And I found that elusive real love that I had been searching for all my life.
When you have this new life you want everyone to have it, because you realise that it's life as God always intended it to be. If you don't have it, my words won't be enough to persuade you, all I can do is light the match. You need to ask God to end the power cut and switch on the light, connect you to His power so that you can see for yourself. I am going to pray now that God will indeed switch on the light for all those who want Him to. I'm going to ask everyone here to close their eyes, but if you want God to switch on the light for you so that you may understand how you can have peace with Him, I would like you to show me, either just look at me or wave a hand, anything just to let me know. -PRAY-
If anyone would like to talk to me about what I've said, please come and do so.
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1