This four-week series outline includes free graphics for projection and printed materials (see downloadable file below). The title and imagery could easily be used for a longer or shorter series based on your scriptures of choice, but the outline below should help jumpstart your sermon-planning.

Light: Reflecting the Source

This series is all about the nature of God and what it means for us to be the image of God in the world. Ideal as an introduction to Christian belief and Christian living, the emphasis on incarnation and discipleship is of perennial importance and can go as deep theologically as suits your particular context and style.

Week 1: Let There Be Light
Using Genesis 1, introduce the series and significance of the “light” metaphor, recurring throughout scripture. When there was nothing but chaotic darkness, God created light and separated it from the darkness. Emphasize the awesome power of God as the creator, the source of life and all that is good.

(Song suggestions: God of Wonders, How Great Thou Art.)

Week 2: I Am the Light
Use John 1:1-18 (“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light . . . [John] came as a witness to testify concerning the light. . .”) and/or John 8:12-30 (“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”) Focus on the identity and purpose of Jesus. Jesus brought God’s light close for us all to see and know.

(Song suggestions: Here I Am to Worship, Marvelous Light, Christ Is the World’s Light.)

Week 3: You Are the Light
In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus tells the crowds that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Like candles illuminating the darkness, those who have been “lit” by the light of Christ should carry that light out into the world by following his example. The New Interpreter’s Bible commentary on Matthew emphasizes, “They have been lit not for their own sakes, but for the sake of the world. . . . As Jesus' deeds point not to his own glory but to the glory of God, so the purpose of the disciples' engaging in their acts of righteousness/justice before the world is not for their own sake but to glorify God.”

(Song suggestions: Blessed Assurance, If We Are the Body, This Little Light of Mine.)

Week 4: Living in the Light
Close out the series with a call to discipleship using Ephesians 5:8-15 (“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light.”) Light is not an end unto itself, but serves to make visible what is true and real. In response to God’s grace and our relationship with Christ, we are to live in an honorable, upright way that needs no darkness in which to hide.

(Song suggestions: Take My Life, Greater Things, I Want to Walk As a Child of the Light)

Graphics

The downloadable graphics package below includes the following:

• Cover graphic for projection or landscape printing.
• Cover graphic for bulletin or other portrait printing.
• Background slide for songs or scripture projection.
• Raw images in portrait and landscape for your use.

These images are offered free of charge for church use. Any other use or distribution is unauthorized. © 2012 Ministry Matters