14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Introduction:
I remember listening to a sermon illustration given by the powerful proclaimer, Rev. Dr. A. W. Mays of Austin, Texas.
He told us of an incident that took place in his hometown of Austin concerning a streetlight. In Austin there was a high crime area, and the residents of the community petitioned the city of Austin to put up streetlights in this crime area. Dr. Mays stated that once the lights were up crime subsided for a while. But someone took a rock or something and knocked out the streetlights and crime in that area resumed.
This took place over and over again until the city just gave up and left that particular area unlit to the chagrin of the petitioners and other residents of that community. His illustration obviously was the fact that world hates light. Because light has the tendency of exposing what is done in the dark, once the light comes—darkness has to immediately leave the room. Jesus says here in the text, that we, those of us who love Him, are the light of the world.
This is the Lord’s description of the Christian’s life and influence upon the world. And yet another compliment to us from Jesus Christ, He said were the salt of the earth and now He says we are also the light of the world. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks of the importance of light. How important is light? Very! In fact, God Himself is Light, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” –1 John 1: 5. And Jesus is Light, ““Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Now we are the light world, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” –John 9: 5, physically Jesus is no longer in the world but His Light is now in us. We are commissioned to move about in the world and then let light shine, the light have is a reflective light. The light we have through Jesus Christ is to be shone to an unclear, stumbling, falling, unseeing, and unaware world.
1.) We Are The Light Of The World Because Of Our Character
As Christians it is important that we endeavor to develop the kind of character befitting the salt of the earth, of which I spoke to you about last week. The attitude of our spirit is what our character is built upon and if it is united with Jesus Christ it will indeed reflect Him. Character reveals who you are, when you apply for a job now days you are given an “Assessment Test” they will tell that there are no wrong or right answers to this particular test.
Well, if there are no wrong or right answers to this particular test then why give it in the first place? What in the world are they looking for? They want to see what kind of character do you have. If you were an employer (and maybe you are) wouldn’t you want to know if the person you hire is trustworthy or not? Any good hiring manager will tell you that if an employee eventually does something crooked or unethical the big bosses first question would be, “Who hired him or her?” And so they have to make sure they are not hiring another Charles Mansons or Jeffrey Dahmers. Our character reveals what is in our heart. Jesus said, "...unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” –Matthew 5: 20.
The Scribes and the Pharisees had some righteousness, but they just didn’t have enough. They were strict religionists; in fact they were too strict and their character revealed their self-importance and self-righteousness. Eventhough you cannot physically hear the character of someone it is still the loudest sound in the room. The Scribes and the Pharisees always gave a good show—if you were looking for entertainment they were the ones to see. But they lacked one very important spiritual ingredient if you will, and that is loving God so much until they were willing to deny themselves and seek the righteousness that can only be found through Jesus Christ, it was their poor character that got in their way.
They enjoyed who they were; they felt no need for change. However, the mark of a true Christian is the desire to be changed. Regenerated hearts want to be fully indwelt by the Holy Spirit and transformed to the point where they loathe their former ways and long earnestly to be like Christ and develop the character of Christ in order to let their light so shine before the entire world.
2.) We Are The Light Of The World Because Of Our Unavoidable Witness
We are the light of the world because we can’t be avoided; the world can’t help but see us. We are “Like a city upon a hill” which means that are a pure example for the world to follow. They automatically know that we are the witnesses to God’s goodness, His grace and His mercy. They know this, just by looking at us. A city on the hill cannot be hidden, it cannot go unnoticed, you cannot help but see it—it’s right there!
Jesus says were like a candle too, you see those days—the days before Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity, candles were placed on lamp stands. The candle being held securely by the lamp stand gave light to the entire house. And so we, the light of the world—the lamp stand or the lamp is the Word of God, which holds the candle, which is you and I; all together we just light up the world that someone may see God in all His splendor and in all His glory. That’s right, the Word of God holds us up and then we shine.
We are witnesses, in fact Paul said this to the Church of Ephesus, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We have work to do as His witnesses’ we need to always realize we are a witness for Jesus… people look at us and judge God by our actions when we say we are Christians, we became witnesses when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Paul told Timothy in a letter to him, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” The church I attend regularly goes out to witness to the community and I am sure yours does too. In doing so we are the light of the world through our witnessing of God’s greatness.
3.) We Are The Light Of The World Because Of Our Purpose
For as long as I have lived, I haven’t seen it fail yet. Whenever there is darkness—light always able to remove it. No matter how absolute the darkness, the tiniest light cannot be overcome. A single light in the darkness really makes a difference. What then is the function and purpose of light? It is to shine in the darkness, and for sure light and darkness just does not mix.
In Acts 9: 3, Paul (then Saul) witnessed a Light, and prior to witnessing this Light he was, “…breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord…” which means he was in total darkness, not physically—but spiritually he was in total darkness. Anytime your sole intent is to slaughter, utterly destroy the children of God it is total darkness to the extreme. In fact, it falls right in line with Satan’s intentions in regards to God’s children.
As he was on his way to destroy God’s children, a Light appeared all of a sudden and out nowhere. It was a supernatural Light from heaven—in fact, this Light was the very presence of God. Paul was confronted and converted he heard the voice of Jesus asking, “Why are persecuting Me?” Allow me to cut across the field and tell you that Paul was fully converted, and given his purpose, “…Arise, and go to a street called Straight…” he met with Ananias and God gave Ananias instructions concerning Paul, “…he is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name…” it took a Light to shine Paul in order to turn Him around.
Conclusion
This same Light is in us, in order to turn someone around who is headed in the wrong direction. Paul saw light, and turned from his wicked ways, he became one of the greatest preachers in the history of mankind—all because he saw the Light. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” In other words, you have Him now, He is your Light in a dark world, in fact, now you and I have taken on His name not just Christians (and we are Christians) but we are the light of the world.
We like Paul, have saw the Light and have received our instruction. No longer are we to have anything to do with darkness accept to go in and pull them out—because God is glorified when we get out into darkness and then let our light shine in order for some man, woman, boy, or girl to see their way through. Light, really has but one purpose to shine before men, you can’t see Light unless Light is placed before men (mankind). Let’s do right now, let’s shine our Light before men today. Because we are the light of the world. Amen.
