They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22.4-5, NASB
Every good story has a beginning, a middle and an end
The Bible begins and ends with light
But a lot of what comes in between is darkness
Where does the darkness come from? That’s a very good question.
But sometimes you’ll discover the answer if you just look in a mirror
The darkest moment in the Bible is on the night of the Last Supper
It’s when Judas leaves the side of Jesus, and goes out into the darkness to betray him
Judas went out. And it was night. (John 13.30)
The real darkness isn’t the darkness of the night, it’s the darkness in Judas’s heart
At that moment we should remember the words from John’s prologue
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overwhelm it (John 1.5)
Fear of the darkness seems to be instinctive; even young children fear the dark
It’s not a fear of darkness itself; it’s the fear of what may be hiding in the shadows
The Bible begins and ends with light, as I’ve pointed out already
The Bible begins with the Book of Genesis, and Genesis begins with the creation of light
The Bible ends with the Book of Revelation, and Revelation ends with the vision of a city of light – the new Jerusalem
God creates by bringing order out of chaos and darkness
The separation of light and darkness symbolises the order God is bringing
God gives the command, Let there be light, and he declares that the light is good
God defines the daytime as the time of light, and night as the time of darkness
It’s not a moral judgement
The light is good, it pleases God, because he created it
Darkness is not evil – it is only the absence of light
Darkness only becomes something to fear when human beings use it to hide their sin
When humanity sins, we turn our backs on the light
Disorder returns and the darkness creeps back
The final vision of the Book of Revelation is a perfect city where there is no darkness:
They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.
The light in the city is the presence of God
The light doesn’t come from something God has created, like the sun, as it does in this present world
It comes from God himself
There’s also a light that shines within the people God has chosen to live in the city
It’s the light of divine wisdom – the Lord God will illumine them
Wisdom is a spiritual gift given to believers, that enables us to discern the will of God
[God] gives the wise their wisdom
And knowledge to those who know.
He reveals deep and hidden things,
Knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him. (Dan 2.21-22)
They’re not just clever – they are wise in the same way that God is wise
In this city, no one needs a physical light to know which way to walk
They don’t need any external help to know who they are, how to live or what to believe
To repeat what I said at the start, the Bible begins and ends in light
In between there’s a lot of darkness
But we don’t have to wait till we die to see this amazing light
We don’t have to wait till after we die to walk the streets of the heavenly city — it’s where we’re living now, even if we don’t quite see it yet
Jesus has already come for us – Jesus who said, I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life. (John 8.12)
Jesus is the light of this world, not just the world to come
If we’re still in darkness, maybe it’s because we don’t really believe that
The risen Jesus is not real enough to us; we don’t have enough faith
Sometimes maybe we create our own darkness
Because we refuse to let in the light – we keep our eyes shut
If light is wisdom, darkness is pride and folly
We are appointed as a royal priesthood to serve in God’s temple of light and wisdom
But sometimes, by our own decision, we serve in our own temple, which is a temple of pride and folly
Where do we see pride and folly in ourselves?
I think most of all, in the habit of grumbling
We’re not the first or the only ones to do it
The Israelites grumble their way through the whole Book of Exodus
Often at those moments when God has done something especially amazing for them
Grumbling is corrosive, it’s hateful
I always feel worse when I grumble – grumbling produces a darkness in us
Grumbling is divisive, it destroys community
When we’re complaining about someTHING, we’re inevitably complaining about someONE
It seems to me, listening to the news, and even just talking to other people, there’s been a fresh outbreak of grumbling since the lockdown restrictions were easer
A bit like the Israelites after Moses brought them out of Egypt, we’re looking round and complaining – complaining above all about other people:
— People in the street, people in the shops, people in the parks
— People younger or older than us, people in some way different from us
— People writing in the papers, or speaking on TV, or on social media
— People making decisions, people in authority
Certain assumptions come through whenever we’re complaining
The assumption that we know better, that we are entitled to more than we’re getting, that we are better than whoever we’re complaining about
That way of thinking has no place in the heavenly city, the city of light
It shows that we lack wisdom; it reveals our own inner darkness
Grumbling doesn’t make the darkness go away – it only intensifies the darkness
That’s why Paul talks so much about community, and gives so many warnings against those sins that undermine community: jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance (2Co 12.20)
These are all forms of grumbling, and signs of spiritual darkness
The more people indulge in these behaviours, the darker things get for everyone
I always think people who put those fish stickers on their cars are very brave
They must know, from that moment onwards, people will judge every Christian by the way they drive that car – that’s accountability
You can’t afford to be bad-tempered, or aggressive, or inconsiderate, when you’ve got that sticker on your car
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. (2Co 4.6)
Paul is clearly looking back to the Transfiguration here, a vision of the exalted Christ before his death that was shared by only his three closest disciples
But things are different in the post-resurrection world, and everyone who looks at us, listens to us, or watches what we do should see that light
Everyone who looks us in the eye and sees the expression on our face should see that light
There’s a spirit of divine light and wisdom that lives in us, by the grace of God – let’s not deny it by our own earthly selfishness
heatonsaints 