Let your light Shine.
Recently I decided that I was going to look at the Gospels and ask myself three questions. Who did Jesus evangelise to? How did he do it? Finally what instructions did he pass on to us on the subject? I want the answers to these three questions so that I can improve the effectiveness of my own personal witness.
I know that many of you want to see this church grow. I want to see the same because with every new convert, we see one less person going to hell. Even if the leaders, or any of the ministers work night and day, the growth of the church will be very limited unless we are all effective in our responsibilities. I therefore want to look at what lessons we can learn from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount contained in Matthew chapters 5-7.
**Started where the people were at.**
How did Jesus start to witness to the people? The first thing we find is that he taught the people where they were. There was a crowd around him, and so he simply goes up the mountain side and starts to teach them. Very few of the converts Jesus made were ever made inside a synagogue. He made converts at the side of the road where people begged, at the lakeside where fishermen worked, at the well where the women came to draw water. In fact there isn’t any specific place where Jesus ministered, it was anywhere where there were people who had needs.
Don’t think for a moment that you have to be in church, performing a church organised activity in order to win disciples. Simply open up your eyes to the needs around you, whatever you are doing, and you will have opportunities to witness. It could be at work, it could be at home, and it could be at a sports hall.
I don’t just mean that we need to minister where people are in a physical sense only, I also mean in a spiritual sense. What topics did Jesus start with when he taught the people in the sermon? He starts with the law and then explains it further. Why was that? It was because that is where the people were at. Jesus is talking to Jews. They knew that laws of Moses, and so this is His starting point. He takes what they already know, and then leads them from there.
I am sure that this is a lesson for us as well. In order to lead somebody you need to know where they are. If we want to witness to somebody we need to find out where they are spiritually. What do they know about the Bible, what do they believe about God? The best way to do that is just to ask, that’s what Jesus did. He said to Peter, ‘Who do you say I am.’ Ask people and be willing to listen.
The last person I led to Christ was in July. It was a woman who had been a Christian but had backslid after a church split. She talked to me for an hour after which she asked if I could pray with her because she realised that she needed to straighten out her life with Christ. The truth is I hardly said a word.
I want to challenge you this week to ask somebody what they believe about God, and just listen to them. Don’t interrupt them, just listen to have they say. Next time that you witness to them at least you will know where to start.
**Our deeds should be a light.**
In this sermon Jesus states that his followers should be the light of the world.
Matthew 5:16
16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Yet in the same sermon Jesus also says these same words:
Matthew 6:1
1"Be careful not to do your ’acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
These two verses at first seem to contradict each other, does Jesus want our deeds to be seen by people or not?
This question can be answered when you look at both verses in context. When Jesus states, let you light shine before men, He then goes on to teach about adultery, murder, taking oaths, and how we should treat our enemies. Jesus commands, that not only should we not commit murder, which is all the law of Moses commanded, but also that we shouldn’t even hold a grudge. He says not only should we not commit adultery, but we shouldn’t even entertain lustful thoughts. The law of Moses had said that they should love their neighbours, and the people had interpreted that to mean that it was o.k. to hate their enemies. But Jesus tells them to love and pray for those that persecute them.
In chapter 6 however, when Jesus says don’t let your deeds been seen by men, he is warning against about, giving, praying and fasting specifically so that people can see them.
It is clear therefore when Jesus is talking about our lights shining before men he is talking about our characters reflecting that of Christ. If our character is truly generous, then we will want to give automatically whenever we can help. People will see that character in us even if we mostly give in secret. If we have characters that are overflowing with love, self control and faithfulness then people will see that in us.
For many years I always concentrated on how I could be a witness to others by what I did. At work, leisure or when I was at home. I used always analyse everything that I was about to do and try and guess how people would perceive it. The trouble is that often I neglected my character. I wasn’t doing things because that is what Jesus would do, I was doing then because of how they looked to other people. I had got things the wrong way around.
John 5:19
"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
I want to ask the question, what was Jesus trying to demonstrate when he took the bread and the fish and fed the five thousand?
You might be able to think of many answers to that question. He was demonstrating that God is able to supply all our needs. Maybe Jesus was performing the miracle as a symbol to show just as God provided manna for the Israelites in the wilderness, Jesus is also God. Maybe Jesus was showing how he is the bread of life and how his broken body would eventually touch the lives of many people. Maybe he was trying to teach the disciples a lesson in faith.
All of these would be legitimate answers as to what the miracle said about Jesus, but I don’t think that any of them describe why Jesus performed the miracle? I believe that Jesus performed this miracle, because there were thousands of hungry people who needed feeding. It says in Matthew that the moment Jesus first saw the crowd he had compassion on them. Jesus performed this miracle because it was part of his character to show compassion and kindness. The things that the miracle symbolised are the result of Jesus’ character, they are not the reason as to why Jesus performed the miracle in the first place.
If we have a Christ like character then people will see the through our actions without us having to worry about what kind of example we are setting. Jesus tried to perform a lot of his miracles in secret, but people couldn’t help spread the word about him.
How do we develop Christ like characters? Jesus demonstrates this in the fact that even though He was God in the flesh, he still spent many hours alone seeking praying and seeking fellowship with His Father. The more we do that, the more our characters will become like Christ. The more our characters reflect Christ, the less time we have to worry about what kind of example our actions demonstrate.
If we want to win those around us for Christ, I want to encourage us all to spend less time worrying about our actions, and spend more time each day seeking a Christ like character.
**We should speak with authority.**
When Jesus had finished his sermon, it says that people recognised that Jesus spoke with authority.
Matthew 7:28&29
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Why was that? What did Jesus say that was different? Jesus doesn’t appear to perform any miracles to go along with this sermon. There doesn’t appear to have been a sign from heaven, like when he was baptised and the dove landed on Him. What then was different between Jesus and the Pharisees, the religious leaders that the people were used to listening to.
I believe it was because Jesus lived every word of what He spoke. He spoke with a passion. He tried to set people free with what he spoke, not just to hold them captive.
I have preached many sermons. They have all been true because they were all based on scripture. But there were some sermons that really made a difference in people’s lives. There were some sermons were people would say, that was different. That has made a difference to my life. These were the sermons where I had lived through every word that I had spoke. These were the sermons where I carried a real passion because they had been a revelation in my own life.
I have discovered that people in this world don’t respond to arguments any more. They are too used to people trying to persuade them to vote for one party over another one, or advertisers telling them to buy one product another. To many people today truth is relative. They want to see something that changes lives, not just here about it.
When people see that you are different, that is when you can speak with authority into their lives. You can speak with real power and authority about things such as the love of Jesus, when you really experience it for yourselves. People are willing to listen to you experiences way before they are willing to listen to your theology. Your theology may be true, but they will want to see it first.
Conclusion.
This is my last Sunday here before the New Year. I believe that this year can be a real time of growth for this church. However God grows a church by using the people within the church. We will not see growth unless we all commit to it.
I want to present each of us with three challenges this morning.
Firstly, ask those around you who don’t come to church what they believe about God. Find out where they are at. It may lead to an opportunity to witness then and there. But even if it doesn’t at least you will know where they are at and where to start from.
Secondly, I want to ask every one of us to really evaluate our daily devotional time with God. Do we spend long enough with God each day for Him to really change our character?
Thirdly, can we speak with authority. When we step out in faith, and start to put the Bible into action in our daily lives, at work, at home, when we are out, because only then we can speak with authority. Do we do that?
Each day there are people in this city and this region who are dying and going to hell. We can do something about it.
