What Light Is And What Light Does Series

Nelson Mandela once said;

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us . . . And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”

What a powerful statement this is. See most Christians aren’t afraid of the dark but they ARE afraid of the light. We don’t want to stand out or be noticed but God made you to be noticed. By letting your light shine, you give permission to those around you to let their light shine.

Over the next few weeks I want to look at four things that I believe describe the believer as being the light of the world.

1. v14 The Believer’s character is light.

Christ said in John 8: 12"& in 9: 5 “I am the Light of the world" Jesus declared Himself to be The Light.

Here in verse 14 of Matthew 5, He says every believer is to be like Him by being the light of the world.

Again we see the word “Ye are "the light of the world" in the KJV.

And we remember from last week that this means “You ALL” or “all of you”

Every believer is to undergo a radical transformation. We are to become like Christ more and more.

And we are to reflect the light of Christ to a world lost in darkness.

2Cr 3:18 NIV - 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2Cr 4:6-7 NIV - 6 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 God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Look at verse 7 from the NLT

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. (When most people want store a great treasure, where do they keep it? In a bank vault or a safe… But Paul says that this great treasure that we have been given is stored in these fragile containers that we call our bodies. He goes on to say…) This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

The treasure, that is the light of Jesus Christ, is in this fragile body and this is all the proof needed to show the power, in me/you, comes from God and not from ourselves…

Light is and does several things.

1. Light is clear and pure. In other words light is clean, it’s right, it’s true.

We have a small diamond shaped window in our front door. During the winter months the sun shines through the glass in the evening. If you set back and look through the beam of light that comes through the glass you will see all sorts of dust swirling around. Is the light, coming through the glass dirty? No, the light is pure… it’s clean but it reveals the dust and dirt that can’t be seen by the naked eye…

Eph 5:8-9 NIV - 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light

9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)"

2. Light penetrates: It cuts through and eliminates darkness.

What happens when you turn the lights on in a dark room? The darkness goes away because the light penetrates and eliminates the darkness… When you receive Jesus Christ as Lord of your life He sends His Spirit to fill you and He is the Spirit of Light. When the Holy Spirit enters your life He illuminates the darkness that once filled you. He cuts through the darkness to reveal the dust and the dirt that needs to be eliminated from your life.

1Th 5:5 NIV - 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.