Walking in the Light — K.P. Yohannan

The Glory of Christ and Spiritual Blindness

So, what is our theme for our study today? Walking in the light. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, Paul said, some people's eyes are blocked, they are blinded so that they will not see the glory of Christ that is on his face.

It is like the sun is shining bright in the morning time or noon and you close your eyes and you put a blindfold and you can't see one thing. So Paul says Satan has blinded the eyes of some people so they will not see the glory that is on the face of Jesus.

It is like parents, they lock a room door with 2 or 3 locks and inside, unbelievable amount of attractive toys, writing pens or whatever the children want, but the problem is that they stand outside, the door is locked, they cannot walk in and they don't see it, it is all inside.

So, it is a sad thing. And so one of the things that should cause these people, I think, should say, you know, it is like several times demon possessed people, I asked the question when I was praying for them, do you want to be free in the time of that few seconds of sanity they have?

And the answer always was yes. And so this individual should be praying, Lord, honestly, honestly, I don't fully understand Christ. Please, whatever is hindering, remove from my eyes that I may see him.

That could be a prayer and God answers prayer. When, think about this other sentence, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Now, as far as our mind, if you don't ask questions, we just say mind, but as far as it is concerned, you think the details, you are processing information, you go to buy a sari or buy a cloth or a pen, you are thinking, you are looking at it, you are studying it and you are looking at the name, where it is made.

You see, all those details go into, buy a vehicle, that is true. And let this mind be in you and Christ obviously had two minds. One was he had the mind of God as a man, he walked on earth as God, also as a man, he walked on earth as a man and he had to make choices.

It was not a make-believe, fooling people, God walking on earth and pretending to be a man. No, he was fully a man. So we are the children of Adam. So when he says, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, that means there is a choice we make.

Also it is evident, there is a choice, there is a choice. Even the voice that you hear from the innermost core of your conscience says no. But your flesh and the externals cry out, it is the best opportunity to grab it.

But the choice now you must make is a feigned, hardly can hear, the spirit whispers don't. But the attraction, the immediate benefit of saying yes to that is so loud and so many around you saying do that.

And then you say no based on although the feigned hardly can hear the voice is there. Process this. And then look at this statement. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. I mean we read that. As long as I am here in this world, I am the light of the world.

Christ as the Life and Light of Humanity

What does that mean? You think he turned into sun and moon? So we just say I am the light of the world. So what? Was he a flashlight or sun or moon or street light? What does that mean? Of course we read another statement.

In him was life and that life was, anybody remember? The light of men. That's what we read about Jesus in the gospel. So here you have light and life. So in him was life and the life was the light of men.

By the way, just give a little help. That life you talk about, the word is soe. That means it's uncreated, untouched. It is of a different world. It is God's life without tainted with sin. And in him was the pure life, unfailed like Adam.

And his very life became the light of men. What is light for? To figure out which way we are going to go and what we are going to do and what we are going to see and all these things. So his life becomes the light of men.

What does that mean now? Think about it. Okay, all of you are making decisions about a thousand things. Logic is very powerful such as 2 plus 2 is 4, 8 plus 8 is 16, right? 20 plus 20 is 40. And of course there are variations when you get more complex situations.

But generally speaking, logic remains stable. But then, here is the problem. You are dealing with something so absolutely rational, perfect, reasonable, scientifically proven to be the right thing to do.

But somehow when you pray saying, God, what do you want me to do? All of a sudden, there is a conflict within you that looks like that is not what you are supposed to do. And then you are stuck. So why?

Because the choice you make will have far-reaching consequence and I do not know about the future, you don't know about it, but he knows where that road is going to lead. So you see, it becomes quite complicated when you try to figure out how do you listen to it?

What do you do with that? Then you have the statement in the Old Testament that says, your word is a lamp unto my path. The written word of God, the unadulterated, the pure word of God, the 66 books you have in your Bible, it is light.

So what is light for? For us to live by, make choices. Your word is a light. In your light I see where I need to go. So here you have the word which says it is a light unto my path. But then you also have in the Gospel of John, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

You remember John 1, verse 14. The word became flesh and he tabernacled, he lived among us. That's what the life of Jesus is described in John 1, verse 14. Then for the coming of Jesus it is said, those who sat in darkness saw light.

So what was the light? These people didn't have any torch and flashlight and no way to figure out what to do. No, it was much more than that. It is talking about the lostness, the darkness, the hopelessness and don't know what to do.

All of a sudden they are able to figure out the way to go and what God intended for man to be. C .S. Lewis said something quite strange and interesting, quite interesting. That is, he said we can either look at the beam of the light or we can see through the light.

Now our theme remains, we are called to walk in the light. So the question again comes back, what does that mean? What does that mean? We just say that what does that mean? So looking at all this, there are lots of other words I can tell you.

For example, 1 John 2, verse 6 says, our call as people of God, we are supposed to live today and walk as Jesus actually lived on earth. And we give up a lot of reading of the Bible by saying, no, I don't understand that.

Walking in the Light as a Shared Life with Christ

So trying to find out the meaning of walking in the light and how to make it practical. Let me now take you through the history just briefly about it. When Jesus said, he is the light of the world, I understand.

But when he said, you are the light of the world, how do we figure that out? See, this is where we need to understand, Christian life or following the Lord is not memorizing Bible verses and say, okay, that is a guideline.

Okay, flash, press the light, okay, then I will do that. Okay, should I forgive him or no? No. Okay, what about this money I will do? No. It is not like that. It is a totality of being immersed and embraced by God that we are infused with his very life and then there is no dichotomy, no segregation, but basically it is one life.

So he says, as the father sent me, so sent are you. So our life is not separated from him, but part of him. But in the first century, the early fathers, they knew very well. If you read the writings and all that, you will understand.

Christology, Creeds, and the Struggle Against Heresy

But the church began to phase from the very beginning for about 1500 years, I would say. If you read anything about church history, you will find the enormous struggle, the continuous strive and fight of all the heresies.

Now we just read the creed of the church, right? I honestly don't think hardly anyone properly understands how significant that is. The several creeds that actually was developed by the church fathers became the most important element in terms of the church's understanding of who Christ is.

Oh, by the way, listen very carefully. All the heresies, all the controversies, all the fight, all the false doctrines, all the debate, starting from AD 30, throughout AD 1500, now and then happened to be only on one subject.

Not two, not two. Only on one subject, that was about Christ. Christ, Christology. That is, is Christ God? How can he be? He was a man, how can that be? Did he have two minds or one mind? If he had two minds, how can he be?

And then go on. There are heresies by, I mean, so many of them. I don't have time to go through all that. But what was happening, Lucifer and all the billions of demons were trying to take something that is so precious and twist it such a way that Christ will be placed to the side and they will become more and more able to explain.

Reformation, Rationalism, and Religious Syncretism

So the Enlightenment era or the time of, the age of reason that happened in 1700 or so didn't happen just then. It was a continuous slow sowing of the seed of independence of man's mind. But let me move very fast because of time.

Then, 1500 to 1900, what happened was the time of reformation and the results of that. That was Martin Luther and his people, they really, really, really, honestly, they wanted to recover, discover, go back, get back the early church fathers' understanding of Christ and who he is.

No doctrines. If you really want to know what they were after, they were trying to find out who is this Christ, how do we relate to him. That was the agony. But unfortunately soon things began to go astray after the reformation.

From 1900 to 2000, the whole thing, the church history began to get meddled up. That is we call dysfunctional church. All of a sudden began to surface everywhere. And forgive me for saying that, but there's no other way to say it.

The charismatic movement kind of became one of the more demonstrative factors of the confusion that took place. What is Christ? Who is Christ? Christ became a means to achieve blessings and get things for themselves.

He was not someone that actually he is the one we get lost in. And it's more of a crisis. You may want to study these things and it will be good. And comes to AD 2000, the post-modern revolution. The new age philosophy.

Now one of the biggest crisis, I hope I'm not wasting my time on this, but the biggest crisis taking place in Europe, in America and everywhere and then they're exporting some other stuff here, what is going on.

Basically it's a mixture of all the religions. Syncretism. I mean all religions teach love one another. Everybody says be kind to others. Everybody says forgive. Does any religion teach go and kill someone?

We are all together one people. Don't fight with others. Let's have peace. Let's have harmony. And then all of a sudden the peace, unity and well-being and the horizontal survival, whatever way peaceful we can, religion began to contribute.

I can give you hundred gatherings in the last two years all over the world. Top religious leaders like Dalai Lama and the new age Hare Krishna movement and even Christian liberal thinkers gathering to discuss this.

Life and history, religion, education, policies, they all involve hundreds of things. But one thing remains unchanged, never will change. That is the story of God. And the story line is this. God Almighty no man can understand or comprehend who dwells in light that no man can approach.

Creation, the Fall, and God's Redemptive Plan

Out of his wisdom he stretched out his hands and created the universe seen and unseen. And he picked the earth and created man with free will for him to love him. Garden of Eden. And the first atom and they failed.

And God in his mystery and plan decided that he will reclaim and get back what he lost. But he could not violate his own rule and justice. So he decided he will come to this earth and be the sacrifice.

In Christ to die, buried and rose again. And reclaim what Adam lost by his humility and his death and his resurrection. This is the story of God. There's millions of religions out there, millions of holy books say the same things maybe.

But everything of God focus on single one point. That is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and Jesus. There's no one like him. You know the chorus that says there is something about that name. You know I tell people you may be Hindu, you may be Muslim, whatever.

You know we are all brothers. But would you pray for sick people? And pray to God but when you pray end the prayer saying in Jesus name. Because Jesus said the father will answer when you pray in my name.

Darkness, Suffering, and the Light of Eternity

And so let me conclude by saying walking in the light. Please don't be deceived. It is not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 things I do so I can have a better life. Or I can make a better decision. No. Have you thought about that?

Can darkness be light? And light be darkness? I read a massive amount of stuff about the science of light. And I got confused. That is the light we talk about it is a whole different world. The Lord is my shepherd.

I will want nothing. Few steps further he says though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil. So the calamity, the down times, the pain, the loss, factory burned down, reputation ruined.

What happened to the light which was the shepherd going before me and showing me which way to go. All of a sudden it turned into utter confusion and such chaos. I cannot even figure this out. That is the reason the Bible says even darkness will be light.

So when we are immersed, embraced by the divine what happens is the worst experience in our life becomes the brightest light in the light of eternity. Did you know in heaven there is no sun? He says in heaven there is no sun because there is no need of sun for he is the light.

Why? Heaven is heaven only because of Jesus. If there is no Jesus there is no heaven. And so when we see him what is going to happen? We shall be like him. So this is kind of mystery I don't understand of the merging of our being with Christ.

How it is I don't know. When we see him we shall be like him. Is it two entities or one entity? What is going to be? I have no way to process this. Jesus didn't say I will show you the way. He said I am the way.

Jesus didn't say I will show you light. He said I am the light. He didn't say I will show you the door you will walk through. He said I am the door. So there is a kind of veiled meaning of some entry point.

We are not outside. And it is a mystery. John gospel chapter 6 he said unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part in me. And I am the bread that comes down from heaven. Not like the bread Moses gave to his people.

This is life. So the bread and the wine impregnated, infused with the risen Christ the almighty. And he says as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world. But I am leaving. But I want to do something.

That is as you partake of my body and my blood it is nourishment that goes through your body and your blood cells. And the reason why I did what I did becomes meaningful for you to become more like me and understand and you become the supernatural individual that you don't recognize that you become the light.

Persevering in Exclusive Devotion to Jesus

So you may not understand everything I said but I do believe God has given you this opportunity to think and follow the rest of your life and I can assure you you will never, never regret if, listen close if every day you remind yourself a hundred times I do this for my Jesus.

I am for my Jesus. No other God beside him. He alone is God. Even if the whole world say all Gods are the same I say my Jesus is my only savior. I have no one else. I am his and he is mine. And I am not looking for blessings and healings and all these things.

Let there be wonderful but that is not what I am looking for. I hold on to him tightly as I can till the end. That is all we need to worry about. All the rest will be autosomatic.