Light and Life…

York Moore spoke from John 3. In the third morning plenary.

God’s light invades life, gives life.  The light pierces the darkness and into that darkness brings life.

The start of all things – God’s speaks light and so life comes.

The end of all things – God’s light will shine into the darkness: the Son of God will come to shed light into all of creation to judge and to save.

In Christ Himself – eternal life is brought only through the light of Christ.  Jesus shines as light in the darkness – incomprehensible, undefeatable light.

The light of Christ splits the world into two – introducing a new way, other than the lost darkness of sin.  There is no other way – no human devised or demonically inspired system offers anything but darkness.

In a light invaded world we see every tribe, tongue and nation transformed into His People. We are saved into His People and not simply from His condemnation.  Jesus is personally and globally relevant.

The gospel IS the message of God’s power which saves us from the hell to come.  We have at times lost the urgency of this message of eternal salvation in the business of providing relief to the poor and the lowly.  The death of Jesus SAVES us from God’s wrath at our sin.  It saves the poor and the rich.  It saves us from the wickedness and evil of the human heart and the goodness of God’s holiness. 

The gospel brings light into the reality of the filth of people’s wickedness.  And as life invades through the light of the gospel the power of the resurrection destroys the very heart of injustice and wickedness and enlivens the Enlivened to fight the filth, to invert injustice and to upright the wrongs of the behaviours of the people who walk in darkness.

All history revolves around Jesus – God calls people to come to Jesus, confess him as Lord, to know His Love, to come to know Christ as Lord and God, to know the gift of eternal life from the eternally Living One.

The call for those who do not know Christ (here at Urbana) is to know Him through an act of submission and acknowledgement.  In this darkened auditorium the opportunity is not to move forward to the stage but to respond in breaking open and raise a glowstick before being invited to go to a room where they will receive a Bible, have a conversation with a member of InterVarsity staff and be prayed for and encouraged in their new found relationship with Jesus.

Lights spread across the auditorium as men and women turn their hearts to Christ. Students respond in an applause of support. Hundreds step from darkness into light – from condemnation to reconciliation, from death to life, from loss to gain: from themselves to Jesus Christ and His glorious Kingdom of Light and Life. The visual prompt of darkness in light is a powerful illustration.  This is holy ground: lives are transformed by the obedience of faith.

No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven - the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

John 3:12-15