From Darkness to Light
Sermon Summary
Pastor Jason Ramos brought a message rooted in Ephesians 5:8 and the healing of a blind man in Mark 8, showing that in Christ we are not merely rescued from darkness but transferred into an entirely new kingdom (Colossians 1:13). Using the blind man's two-stage healing and his own testimony of freedom from addiction, Pastor Jason called us to stop tolerating the fruitless deeds of darkness and to repent and turn toward Jesus, like a GPS rerouting, away from the old voices that shaped our blindness and toward the light we are now called to be.
Key Scriptures
“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't even go into the village." - Mark 8:22-26 (NIV)
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” - Ephesians 5:8 (NIV)
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” - Colossians 1:13 (NASB1995)
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” - 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NIV)
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” - Romans 12:9 (NIV)
For Your Group
Instructions for Groups: Choose a few of these questions from the various categories to go deeper in the sermon and put the truths of Scripture into practice. You don't need to answer every question. Select the ones that will best help your group engage with God's Word and apply it to your lives.
Scripture Study and Deeper Understanding
1. In Mark 8:22-26, Jesus healed the blind man in two stages; the man first saw people like "trees walking" before his sight was fully restored. What stands out to you about the way Jesus chose to heal him?
2. Jesus told the healed man, "Don't even go into the village." Given that the man was blind his entire time in that village, this meant that everything he knew about the world, his identity and how things worked came through what he heard there. What does that detail reveal about the relationship between our environment, the voices we listen to and our ability to stay in the freedom Jesus gives?
3. Ephesians 5:8 does not say we were "in the darkness" but that we "were darkness." And it does not say we are "in the light", it says we "are light in the Lord." How does this identity language shift the way we understand sin and holiness? How does it connect to Colossians 1:13 that we have been "transferred" from one kingdom to another?
Encouragement, Challenge and Personal Testimony
4. Pastor Jason shared how his wife Monica encountered college students praying for her in a grocery store, an act of faith and obedience that eventually led to her freedom. Decades later, they got to experience their granddaughters praying over college students in the same ministry. What does this story reveal about how God's mercy works across generations and how has God's faithfulness shown up in unexpected ways in your own story?
5. Pastor Jason named specific things that can function as "fruitless deeds of darkness" like gossip, bitterness, uncontrolled anger, pornography, addiction, and isolation. He said that we must learn not just to stop them, but to hate them. What makes it difficult to genuinely hate the things that are harming us? What does it look like to move from tolerating something dark in your life to truly turning from it?
6. The image of a GPS rerouting is a picture of repentance; it doesn’t shame you for missing the turn, but it persistently calls you back to the right road that will lead you to the best destination. Where in your life have you experienced the Holy Spirit as that rerouting voice? What helped you exit from a wrong turn that was leading you down the wrong path?
Putting It Into Practice
7. One way to put into practice going from darkness to light is to be baptized. If you haven’t been baptized, would you pause to consider taking this next step of obedience? If you’d like to be baptized, we invite you to sign up for our Baptism Bash on May 3. You can sign up here!
8. Romans 12:9 says, "Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." Pastor Jason challenged us that sin is not passive and it seeks to dominate. Prayerfully consider: is there a specific area of darkness (a habit, a relationship, a thought pattern, a form of isolation) that you sense the Holy Spirit calling you to decisively turn from? What would a concrete next step of repentance look like for you?
Prayer
9. Listening to the Holy Spirit We're going to take a focused moment to listen to the Holy Spirit and what He wants to speak to us personally based on our time in Scripture and discussion tonight. Let's sit in silence for 60 seconds and ask the Spirit to speak to each one of us.
[After the minute of silence]
What do you sense the Holy Spirit highlighting or speaking to you as we prayed?
10. Prayer Requests from Tonight's Study What prayer requests come up for you based on our Scripture study and discussion tonight? How can we pray for you as you seek to apply what God has shown you?