At The Gate, Luke 16:19-31
Introduction
Isn’t light self-revealing? Do we need to stand out in the street and shout to those who pass by, "That’s the sun," as we point to it in all its brightness? The sun is self-revealing in the same sense that Jesus Christ was and is the Light of the world. The fact that John the Baptist came to give his witness about the Light did not in any way steal from it the power to reveal itself. The necessity for the human testimony of the Baptist is a clear indication of the complete depravity of man, his inability to comprehend that which is spiritual. His mind and heart have been so darkened by sin that, seeing the Light, he does not recognize it as the Light. We must also remember what men and women actually saw down here on earth was a human Jesus. Their darkened vision could not see anything superhuman in Him. It was necessary for someone like John the Baptist to tell them that this One who walked with them and who ate with them was the Light.
Transition
The Congregational Preacher, D. L. Moody, wrote, “It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it. We are told to let our light shine, and if it does we won’t need to tell anybody it does. The light will be its own witness. Lighthouses don’t ring bells and fire cannon to call attention to their shining – they just shine.”
This morning, we will talk about what it means, what the Scriptures say, with regard to allowing the light of the love of Christ to shine in our lives. Why would I use the word “allowing” with regard to the activity of God? I do so for this reason: Though God is sovereign over His creation, though God is active in the lives of believers, for His activity to be complete, we must be participants in it.
Exposition
These are His hands and these are His feet. If we are desirous of telling others about our faith, we desire a good thing. In Acts 1:8 the words of Jesus are recorded: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (ESV)
A witness, who testifies in a courtroom, testifies to what he has seen. A witness for Christ likewise shines forth the light which has flooded his soul!
As children of God we necessarily shine, so long as we do not smother that shining light. So important, in fact, is this teaching that it is recorded in the Gospels of Mathew and Luke, where it is recorded twice as Jesus expresses in two different but similar ways: (Matthew 5:15 ESV) “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Luke 8:16 ESV) “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.” (Luke 11:33 ESV) "No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.”
The idea of allowing our light to shine in this world; that is, the notion of our allowing the light of Christ in us to shine forth into the darkness of this world, constitutes a major New Testament theme. This is not merely the stuff of children’s songs; “This Little Light O’ Mine.”
This is a core aspect to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. This is the central motif of a biblical New Testament oriented Christian life. Christianity is not the sum total of its doctrines, its creeds, or its rules and regulations. Christianity is the life-long experience and process of following after Jesus, participating in the beauty of the grace which radiates from Him and not only basking in that reality, but passing it on, sharing it with others.
Love only becomes genuine when it has an object of adoration. In other words, love is not really love, as they say, until it is shared or given away. If I have the love of Christ within me, if I have come to faith in Jesus Christ and been transformed into something new, as the Scriptures teach, then that newness, that new life, to be proven valid, must express itself.
A word in any language is meaningless unless it is spoken to another to convey meaning. A person can fluent in 50 or more languages of men but if they are mute, if they never open their mouth to speak, that knowledge, that possession of communication ability is as useless as it is meaningless.
So it is with us, we have the love of Christ residing within, we are vessels of the light of Jesus Christ, but that for that light to be made valid, to be useful, to have application and full meaning, we must not put a bushel, a basket, a cover over that light, but allow it to shine forth.
What I am saying to you is this: if your trust for salvation is in Jesus Christ, you are a child of God, and you are already filled with the light of Christ. If, however, you are dissatisfied with the level to which that light shines, you do not need the light reignited, we must all only remove that which covers the light.
(1) The light of Christ in us is often covered by pride; we are too full of pride to allow humility to inspire us toward compassion. Recall the words of James where he writes, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:4-6 ESV)
(2) The light of Christ is often covered by our obsession with the immediate things of life; our pressing material needs drive us away from letting the light of the love of Christ shine because we are too busy, too full of worry, to concerned about this life to allow the time and energy needed to shine forth the light of Christ.
Luke 12:23-28: “… Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!” (ESV)
In today’s text we see that the rich man was rejected, separated from God buy a great gulf, not because of his wealth; but because of his love of wealth. He loved his money and riches more than he loved God and this was evident by his treatment, his neglect of the poor man who sat at the gate of his great house.
Each day the rich man walked past the gate of his great house wearing fine clothing, the text says that he was clothed in fine linens from Neman Markus, Sax 5th Avenue, and Marshal Field’s. (Fine purple linen) He looked stunning!
The text also says that he ate from the best restaurants in town. Every night his personal chef cooked him a feast and if the chef was ill his meal was catered from the Uptown Grill. (Fine foods) The rich man had everything that his heart could desire but he lacked one thing which God desired to give him; compassion.
Compassion is the fruit of humility. Any heart which is filled more with pride than with the love of God will neither find humility nor genuine compassion. This is unavoidably true because compassion is not merely the compulsory obligatory dropping of a couple of bucks into a Salvation Army can at Christmas. Nor is compassion the occasional sigh filled, bothered, “yes” given when one is asked to donate $12.oo to a local fundraiser.
Compassion is the fruit of humility which flourishes like an immense and fruitful garden, in the heart which is filled with the love of Christ. Compassion says, “Your problems are my problems!” Compassion says, “Your pain-filled condition grieves my heart just as grieves the heart of Almighty God because I am His ambassador in this world, my hands are His hands, my feet are His feet! In my embrace is found His embrace! In my heart is a home for His love; His light!”
Compassion’s companion is faith-filled action, not trite meaningless quickly forgotten fading fleeting sentiments of half-hearted sympathy.
Conclusion
Not once, not twice, not once in a while, not tomorrow, not next week; every day, every hour, in this moment and now in this moment, if we are to abound in the joy of Christ, the love of God, and the dynamic power – the “dynamos” – of the Holy Spirit in us, then we must uncover the lamp and allow the light which already resides within us to shine forth.
Saint Augustine of Hippo once wrote that “Light, even though it passes through pollution, is not polluted.” The Light of Christ is the power of God to penetrate the ugliness of the world and to bring about real and lasting change in the lives of people! The ultimate expression of the power of God is that most difficult and immediate work which is wrought in the hearts of men; transformed from within, cleansed continually of selfishness and sin; in infused by the love of Christ!
Take off the cover of the lamp of the light of Christ. Radiate His beauty! Amen.
