From the beginning of time, God wanted light to exist. He said, “…let there be light” and the Bible says, “…and there was light”.
In Gen. 1:3, the Lord is talking about the light of the sun that separates the days from the nights. But this is not the only place in the Bible where the Lord expressed a desire for light.
In Matthew 5, the Lord said, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 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. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
WHAT IS THE LORD SAYING IN THESE VERSES? He is saying to Christians what he said at Creation, that is, “Let there be light”. We live in a dark, sinful world and God has placed us here to let our light for Him shine.
Illus: As children, we were taught to hold our finger up in the air and sing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine; this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."
But in all actuality, this little light is not mine! We are neither the light nor its source, we are a reflection of the Light.
Eph. 5:8 “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.”
Paul reminds these Christians that once the Lord saved them, He who said once said, “I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”, now says to Christians, “YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.” Paul tells these Ephesian Christians that they are not to walk in darkness, but to WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT.
When the Lord said we are the “Light of the world”, what did He mean? He certainly had something in mind when He said we are “THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD” and we are to WALK IN THAT LIGHT.
For example, He probably had in mind that -
I. LIGHT DRIVES AWAY DARKNESS
Illus: You can walk into a building that is so dark that you can put your hand in front of your face and you can not see it. But you can take a flash light out of your pocket and turn it on, and the darkness in that room will flee. That one little light may not fill the room with light, but it will make it’s presence known in a very powerful way.
• One Christian who walks in the light in a sinful home will make a difference
• One Christian student who walks in the light in a sinful public school will make a difference
• One Christian employee who walks in the light on a sinful job site will make a difference
• One Christian in a church who walks in the light will make a difference
But listen, can you imagine what a difference it would make if ten or twelve were walking in the light in these places?
Illus: Robert Bellah, a sociologist who teaches at the University of California at Berkeley, is very interested in the influence of religion on the community.
In an interview in Psychology Today, he said, "We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a new vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a culture may be changed when 2 percent of its people have a new vision."
Many more than 2 percent of the people in our country are Christians.
• Why aren't we having more effect?
• Why aren't we having more influence?
I pray that God will call you to permeate this non-Christian society for Christ, to take your stand there uncompromisingly with the value system and moral standards of Jesus. Light will drive back darkness every time.
Some have the idea that the church is on the defense. Peter had proclaimed that Christ was the Son of God, and in Matthew 16:18, the Lord said, “…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
God never meant for the church to be a little group of frightened people hiding in the corner. We are not on the defense, we are on the offense, and the Lord says as the army of God marches forward, the GATES OF HELL WILL NOT STOP HIS CHURCH.
God’s Word says in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Illus: Have you ever watched a Trapeze show? If you have, I am sure that as you watched, it was breathtaking. In most cases there is a net to catch them if they fall. But still, we can not help but watch them and gasp at their near misses.
We Christians are a great deal like those who perform on the high wire. The world in which we live is watching us to see how we perform before them.
They will not read their Bible to see what the Christian life is all about, but we are written epistles read and known of all men. They see:
• How well the husbands treat their wives
• They see how well they perform on their jobs
• They see how they live in their neighborhood
• They see how they perform in the class room
They watch when we fall, to see if we just lay there or if we get up by the grace of God and continue to serve the Lord.
God’s Word says to all Christians, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
We are “The light of the world.” EVERY TIME LIGHT SHINES, IT DRIVES BACK DARKNESS.
The reason we see so much sin today is because CHRISTIANS ARE HIDING THEIR LIGHT UNDER A BUSHEL BASKET.
Look at Matthew 5:14-15, we read, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 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.”
We Christians are the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, and the Lord wants us to LET OUR LIGHT SHINE.
• Go to work tomorrow Christians and do not be ashamed to talk about God
• Go to school tomorrow Christian students and do not be ashamed to tell your friends that you went to church today
• Go to the business world tomorrow Christians and testify of the goodness of God
Do not do it because you are trying to look spiritual, do it because you are the light of the world. We are to walk in the light and let our light for the Lord shine wherever we are.
Illus: One Christian got a job at a factory where many people were living very wicked lives. He tried to let his light for the Lord shine, but the people were so wicked that they made fun of him, and eventually he got discouraged with the job and quit. Another Christian man went to work at the same factory and worked there for years. When the first Christian man was talking to him about how wicked the people were on this job, he said, “As a Christian, I have to admire you because you are able to stand for the Lord in such an environment. How do you do it?” The man said, “Oh, it’s no problem! I just never let anyone know that I am a Christian, and I go along with them and I do not have any problems!”
This is exactly what many folks are doing as Christians. You would never know that they are Christians by the life they are living.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells how he went to visit some folks, and when he arrived at their home they were not there. When he was backing out of the drive way, his car got stuck. Some neighbors saw his predicament and they came over to assist him. But they wasted no time letting foul language come out of their mouths. Dr. Belger said, “Do you think the Lord is pleased with you using language like that?” Immediately the fellow quit cursing and started talking about how much he loved the Lord.
It is amazing to see people…
• Who can change from cursing one moment, to talking about God the next
• Who can change from telling dirty jokes one moment, to talking about the Bible the next
• Who can change from hugging and kissing someone one moment, to literally trying to destroy them the next
We are to let our light shine seven days a week. We are to let our light for the Lord shine because LIGHT WILL DRIVE AWAY DARKNESS! But light will do something else -
II. LIGHT WILL DRIVE AWAY SIN
Illus: You do not need to raise your hands, but I want to ask you a question. Have you ever walked into a dark room and turned on the lights and cockroaches were all over the floor? If you have, you know that as soon as you turned on the light, every cockroach headed for cover.
WHY DID THEY DO THAT? Because they knew they did not belong there, and they knew the light exposed them so they headed for darkness.
Illus: There was a time in this country when homosexuals were in the closet. Up until a few years ago, most of us had never knowingly met a homosexual. If they were a homosexual, they kept it a secret because they were too ashamed to let people know. But now they walk the streets hugging and kissing, and it is enough to make a maggot throw up.
WHY HAVE THEY COME OUT OF THE CLOSET? It is because God’s people have let their light go out, and now that crowd feels comfortable in the darkness of sin in our society.
• Sin is so prevalent in America that you now have Hollywood stars like Rosie O’Donnell, telling people on national television that she is a pervert and proud of it.
• Sin is so prevalent today in America, that on Fox television, the program “The Factor” stated that it is believed that as many as 50% of the American Catholic priests are homosexuals.
Sin is on a rampage in this country today! The Lord said, “Ye are the light of the world” … Are you?
It is difficult today to find people who love the Lord. It is not difficult to find people who SAY they love the Lord, but it is difficult to find people who REALLY love the Lord.
Illus: Larry Link, in his book called, “Between us Fathers”, tells the story of how he and his wife (Lavon) and their little girl (Katy) were sitting in church one Sunday, and she nudged her Mom as she often did and gave her a note which said, “Dear Mom, which of these men do you like best, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise or Jesus?”
Larry and his wife thought it was cute to start with, but the more they thought about it, the more concerned they became.
Are we living in a world today that compares the Lord Jesus to Robert Redford or Tom Cruise? I am afraid we are! This world has a desperate need for Christians to let their light shine for the Lord.
The lost world walks in darkness, but we Christians are walking in the light.
Illus: John Stott said, “I've recently come back from India where I heard of a little Hindu girl brought up in a strict Hindu family, who had come across Christians. Somebody asked her one day what she thought a Christian was. She thought for a few moments and replied, ‘Well as far as I can see, a Christian is somebody who is different from everybody else.’ Would that it was true.” (John Stott, "Christians: Salt and Light," Preaching Today, Tape No. 109.)
WHY IS SIN ON A RAMPAGE IN THIS COUNTRY? Because many of the churches across this land are no longer interested in the preaching of God’s Word, and they have allowed the light of the gospel to go out.
If we are going to see revival in this country, we are going to have to get back to BIBLE PREACHING, back to BIBLE LIVING, and back to WALKING IN THE LIGHT.
Illus: Those who have studied history know this, that is why the newly baptized in the church for the first several centuries were spoken of as "the enlightened ones."
The light of Christ not only illuminated their lives to give them a choice, but also empowered them to live new lives of enlightenment.
The thing that we hear today in the society in which we live, is that we must be TOLERANT! Listen, no where in the Word of God can you find where the Bible teaches that we are to be tolerant toward the things this Bible calls sin.
WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, we must NOT ALLOW OUR LIGHT GO OUT!
To the extent that light does shine IN and FROM your life and mine, it is only because it is a gift of the one who in today's gospel lesson says of Himself, "I am the light of the world."
Conclusion:
Illus: A tourist tells of his visit to Egypt. He said, “On my first trip to Egypt, visiting an ancient and remote tomb with no electricity available, the attendant stood at the doorway into the darkened vault with a large mirror, by which he reflected the light of the sun into that cavern's obscurity. And as he did, the den of darkness was illumined so that we might see the beauty painted on its walls. You and I are to be such mirrors in life as we move through those places where the unfruitful work of darkness is still master, still has people entombed. We are to let our light shine, not so much that other's may see the darkness in which they are living, but rather that the darkness itself will be driven away so they may see the beauty of life being obscured by their darkness.”
This is precisely what Paul was telling the Ephesians. They were to purposely become mirrors of God so those in darkness could see the beauty of God.
Illus: The sunflower, as one of you reminded me not long ago, turns toward the sun and quite literally tracks its 180 degree path through the day. As the sun rises in the east, the head of the sunflower turns east. As the sun travels to its transit, the sunflower's head moves until at noon it looks up, directly at the sun. At the end of the day, its face is to the west, almost drooping as the sun slips beneath the horizon. The Christian life is lived most effectively and powerfully as, like that sunflower, you and I keep our faces turned to the Son who came to be the light of the world.
As you and I keep our lives focused on Jesus Christ, we live as children of the light. His light not only clothes and enlightens us, but it is also reflected off us into the lives of those around us. Our task as children of light is not to be light, transforming places enslaved to the power of darkness. For we are not the light. Our task as children of light is to reflect the light of Christ into those dark places where people have been lulled to sleep, so that with us, they too may rise from the dead and find Christ shining on them.
Christians, there is something you need to hear. The Lord said, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 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. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Are you different? If you are walking in the darkness of this sinful world, you are not. It is only as you walk in the light as He is in the light, that you are different.
“YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD” … ARE YOU?
I. LIGHT DRIVES AWAY DARKNESS
II. LIGHT DRIVES AWAY SIN
