Light Gives Life: Choosing Christ and Seeing Clearly

Introduction

A very simple theme, preached on December 14, 2025 at an evangelism service at Porte Ouverte Chrétienne: light gives life. Samuel Peterschmitt starts from a scientific observation (without light, no life on earth), to arrive at this spiritual truth: what is true in the natural realm is also true in the spiritual realm. Christ, the light of the world, came to give eternal life to those who receive him. This evangelistic message invites you to make your choice while there is still time.

Message Outline

1. Light gives life (natural dimension)

• Photosynthesis: 80 to 90% of biomass depends directly on light. Without it, no food chain.
• Light regulates biological time, sleep, hormones, mood. In Nordic countries, light therapy is practiced.
• Without sunlight, the earth would be at -240°C: no liquid ocean, no stable atmosphere, no life possible.
• What is true in the natural world is true in the spiritual world.

2. Heavenly light: an eternal light that has a source

• Natural light has a beginning (Genesis 1); heavenly light does not.
• John 1: "In the beginning was the Word… in him was life, and that life was the light of men."
• The date of Christmas matters little: the light of Christ has never diminished and shines at the highest degree of his glory.
• Natural light has the sun as its source; divine light has as its source the Word made flesh, Jesus.

3. Light opens the eyes to the spiritual world

• The invisible world is real, even if you don't see it, like the Covid virus or the sea beneath the surface.
• Samuel's testimony about his son Benjamin, hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, and the sudden deliverance linked to a word he heard: "Satan, it's over, you don't touch them anymore."
• Before Christ, no demonic manifestation in the Old Testament; at his coming, demons manifest themselves.
• Acts 26: Paul is sent to "open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God."

4. The separation of darkness and light

• From Genesis on, God saw that the light was good and separated the light from the darkness. He never said the darkness was good.
• The whole Bible speaks of separation: sheep and goats, tares and wheat, wise virgins and foolish virgins.
• The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16): the rich man is not condemned because he was rich, but because he did not believe the Word he had heard.
• Deuteronomy 30: "I have set before you life and death… choose life." No one can make this choice in your place.

Key Takeaways

• Light gives life, physically and spiritually. Without light, no life survives, neither in nature, nor in the soul.
• Heavenly light has neither beginning nor end. It became incarnate in Jesus, the Word made flesh, who came to dwell among us full of grace and truth.
• The spiritual world exists, whether you believe in it or not, and it influences you. Christ came to open your eyes and turn you from darkness to his light.
• True blessing is not apparent success: it is that God approves of your life, whether it resembles that of the rich man or that of Lazarus.
• Eternal life does not begin at your death, it begins now, as soon as you receive Christ. Your death will only be a moving day.

Personal Application

1. Do you recognize that your life needs a light that comes from above, and not just a little human help or a little morality?
2. Are you walking today in the light of Christ, or in a blurry zone where you have never truly decided?
3. When you look at your life, do you take the reality of the invisible world seriously, or do you act as if it doesn't exist?
4. Does your vision of blessing align with God's (that his Word approves of your life), or with the world's, that everything goes well for you?
5. If you left today, do you know clearly where you would go? Can you say, like Samuel, "I know I am going to die, but I know where I am going"?

Verses Cited

• Genesis 1:1-4 · "Let there be light"
• John 1:1-14 · "In the beginning was the Word"
• John 8:12 · "I am the light of the world"
• Acts 26:17-18 · Paul's call to the Gentiles
• Luke 16:19-31 · The rich man and Lazarus
• Deuteronomy 30:19 · "Choose life"
• Revelation 21:5-8 · The spring of the water of life and the second death
• John 3:16 · "For God so loved the world"

Frequently Asked Questions

Why say that light gives life on the spiritual level?

Because what is true in the natural world is true in the spiritual world. Physical light governs all life on earth: without it, no photosynthesis, no warmth, no biological clock. In the same way, Jesus, who is the light of the world, is the one who gives eternal life to those who receive him. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men" (John 1:4).

Does the spiritual world really exist?

Yes. The fact that we don't see it with the naked eye doesn't mean it doesn't exist, the Covid virus wasn't visible either, and it upended the entire planet. Amanda, who testified that morning, had experienced this invisible world even before knowing Jesus. Christ came to open our eyes and turn us, as Paul says in Acts 26, "from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God."

Is the rich man condemned because he was rich?

No. The rich man and Lazarus were both Jews, they both had Moses and the prophets. The difference is that the rich man did not believe the Word he had heard. He spent his life living outside the will of God, as if the coming judgment did not exist. When you are unbelieving, you expose yourself to what you did not believe. It is not wealth that condemns, it is unbelief.