Radiate Series

RADIATE

MATTHEW 5: 1-16

OCTOBER 7, 2001 BRIGHTEST DAY/RALLY DAY

INTRODUCTION: Is this normal? This is a statement by Max Lucado after the event of September 11, 2001. Also read “The letter from Hell.”

TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our text for this day speaks to us of being different. It calls us to be God’s People in this present world! It calls us to stick out, to make a statement, to live with reckless abandon. It calls us to rebuke the status quo, to be abnormal and to define our lives, not be the standard of the culture in which we are immersed, but to hold to a Higher Standard, that which will please our Father in Heaven. Jesus says we are people that must Radiate his light in a dark word.

THESIS SENTENCE: Jesus calls us to be visible in a world of darkness.

HOW IS IT THAT WE RADIATE?

I. IN JESUS WE SEE THE LIGHT REVEALED

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world (John 3:19),”

A. God created light!

“In the beginning... And God said, ‘let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness (Genesis 1: 1-3).”

1. “God called the light ‘day (Genesis 1:5),’” and light entered creation.

2. God then is the creator of light!

3. But in creating light, He was not done.

B. Jesus created Light and was the LIGHT!

1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world (John 1:1-9).”

2. John goes on to tell us that God loved us so much that He sent HIS Son, and His Son is the light that has shown into the darkness.

3. “This is the verdict: light has come into the world (John 3:19)!”

4. Jesus will later testify, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).”

5. The Apostle Paul combines the two understanding of the origination of light and Jesus being the light. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).”

6. LIGHT HAS COME INTO THE WORLD AND IT IS THROUGH CHRIST JESUS THE LORD THAT WE SEE THE LIGHT REVEALED!

BUT,

II. IN MANKIND WE HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT REJECTED

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness in stead of light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19)”

A. Mankind/WE love(s) darkness.

1. Though the verdict is that light has come into the world, we continue to read, “But men loved darkness in stead of light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).”

2. Jesus states, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed (Verse 20).”

3. Back in chapter 1 of the Gospel of John we read, “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him (Verse 11).”

4. We would rather live in the dark than in the brightness of day. We have a hunger for the dark and the dark things of life and at its root is the sin nature.

B. God does not associate with darkness!

“God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all (I John 1:5).”

1. We have a problem here. God cannot tolerate darkness, nor is there any darkness in Him, and yet we love darkness.

2. Paul tells Timothy, this is the way it is, “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honor and might forever. Amen (I Timothy 6: 15-16).”

3. Paul tells the church at Corinth, “What fellowship can light have with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14)?

4. John clarifies the message, “If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth (I John 1: 6).”