SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). Light must shine (vs 33)
(2). Light must illuminate (vs 34a)
(3). Light must not grow dim (vs 35-36)
(4). Light must be our goal (vs 36)
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
• The brightest star ever found in the universe goes by the catchy name R136a1.
• It is 165,000 light years away from planet Earth.
• It is big, I mean big!
• It is more than 300,000 times bigger than Earth
• It would take 300 of our Sun to equal the mass of this star.
• This star is not just twice as bright as our sun,
• It’s not just 10 times brighter,
• It’s not a hundred times brighter,
• It’s not a thousand times brighter,
• And it’s not even a million times brighter.
• R136a1 is a full ten million times brighter than our sun!
• I don’t know about you, but my retinas hurt just thinking about it.
• TRANSITION: This is the third of three illustrations.
• It can stand alone but it is part of a triplet.
(ILLUSTRATION #1). JONAH (VS 29-30 & 32)
• The religious leaders kept on asking Jesus for a sign to prove that he was the Messiah.
• The only sign Jesus promised them was ‘The sign of Jonah’.
• That is death & resurrection!
(ILLUSTRATION #2). SOLOMON (VS 31).
• The emphasis in this illustration is on the wisdom of the king.
• The Queen of Sheba (1 Kings chapter 10,
• Made a long and uncomfortable journey to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
• Yet these Jewish hearers have someone even wiser in their midst,
• And unlike the Queen of Sheba, they did not have to travel anywhere,
• God has travelled to them in the person of Jesus Christ.
The important thing in these two illustrations is that they involve Gentiles:
• The word Gentile means, ‘of the nations.’
• The term Gentile doesn’t really describe who someone is, but rather who they are not
• It refers to anyone who is not Jewish.
• Jonah preached in Nineveh and the Gentile Ninevites believed.
• Solomon spoke to a Gentile Queen, and she marvelled and received his words gladly.
• So, Jesus said to his Jewish listeners,
• That at the judgement day these Gentiles will testify against you Jews.
• Because you have many, many privileges but you still refuse to believe!
• TRANSITION: We could say,
• These Gentiles were spiritually enlightened,
• While the Jewish people & leaders were in spiritual darkness.
(ILLUSTRATION #3). LIGHT (VS 33-36).
• This third illustration is not from history but from daily life.
• It is an illustration that Jesus has used before in his teaching.
• And he uses it here with a slightly different application.
(1). Light must shine (vs 33)
“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
Ill:
• An old Yorkshire man,
• Was lying in his bed, he was dying,
• In a weak voice he said, “Is my wife here?”
• She replied, “Yes, I am here”
• He then said, “Are my children here?”
• They replied, “Yes father we are here”
• He then said, “Are my grandchildren children here?”
• They replied, “Yes granddad we are here”
• Punchline:
• He then said, “Then why is the light in the kitchen still on!”
• (in the UK Yorkshire people are said to be mean with their money etc).
Ill:
• One of the classic Dad lines that I still use often to my kids and my wife is,
• “What do you think this is Blackpool illuminations?”
• Lights on all through the house and no-one in any of the rooms!
• The point being why would you leave a light on in an unoccupied room?
• And even worse, why would you leave a light on in an empty garage or tool-shed?
• The woodlice or the mouse or the rat do not need it!
• TRANSITION: At the time of Jesus,
• Why would anyone go to the trouble of lighting a light.
• (remember no electricity, so no switch to flick).
• Then hiding that light under a bowl! That’s crazy!
• Jesus is of course teaching with humour,
• He is describing an ironic situation.
• No one in ancient Israel would intentionally do this with a real lamp in a real house,
• Yet, spiritually speaking, we all do this, all the time!
• This illustration spans across time in its relevance and application.
(2). Light must illuminate (vs 34a)
“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light.”
ill:
• A friend of mine popped down to the town centre to have his eyes tested,
• He didn’t think he needed them.
• But his wife kept telling him he did.
• He marched into the shop, went up to the counter and said,
• “My wife thinks I need to go to ‘Specsavers’ and so here I am!”
• The assistant behind the counter said,
• “’Specsavers’ is next door we are ‘Vision Express!’”
• TRANSITION: We live in a time where we can help to improve our sight,
• We have spectacles. We have contact lenses.
• We can even have laser surgery that can remove cataracts from our eyes.
• Loss of sight in the United Kingdom,
• Isn’t the same problem today as it was 2,000 years ago in the Near east.
Ill:
• In the gospels, we have a number of recorded cases of Jesus healing blind men,
• Normally men who were blind from birth, those who had never been able to see.
• Blind people in that time and in that society were totally without resources.
• Any disability was seen as a punishment from God.
• (It carried a heavy stigma, remember John chapter 9 “Who sinned, him or his parents”).
• Because of their condition the blind person could only survive by begging,
• They were outcasts of society.
• They lived in a manual society; people were carpenters or farmers or ironworkers.
• Eyesight was essential for these jobs.
• And the only jobs available that didn’t require manual labour required an education.
• That meant reading and writing as an essential!
• So, the blind only survived by begging,
TRANSITION: When Jesus said to these people (vs 34)
• That “the eye is the lamp of the body,”
• They would immediately see the link between the two!
• They knew that all the body’s activity is influenced by the eyes.
• Our eyes make it so the body can navigate its surroundings.
• They “give light” to the body.
• If your eyes are not healthy, then you have a big problem,
• Because healthy eyes help us to see not just our circumstances,
• But any obstacles in our path that we must manoeuvre around.
Ill:
• Colin is a blind man; he is probably attending my home Church this morning.
• Now, as he enters the door someone will guide him to an empty seat.
• Someone will fetch him his braille song books (projector is no good to him).
• Someone will explain or describe any video clip or photo used in the service.
• Someone will guide him at the end of the service to the refreshments,
• Someone will guide him where to stand during the tea & coffee,
• That way he can speak to people but not block an entrances tec.
• Now Colin is not helpless, he will go on train journeys all around the UK etc.
• But he is limited, especially in a room that often changes its layout,
• Or has children playing or running around etc.
• TRANSTIUON: Healthy eyes are able to see things as they are.
• When you have light and good eye-sight life is so much easier!
• And that’s what Jesus is getting at. When he says, “Your eye is the lamp of your body,”
• He’s giving us a picture: a picture of spiritual sight, and spiritual blindness,
• Which functions in much the same way as our physical eyes.
• The key truth from these verses is.
• Can you see spiritual things for what they are?
• Or are you spiritually short-sighted or even spiritually blind?
(3). Light Can Grow Dim (vs 35-36)
“See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
So, we can have two different types of spiritual “eyes.”
• We can have eyes that are healthy,
• We can have eyes that are unhealthy.
• Verse 35 will twist your brains if you give it the chance.
• “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.”
Question: When does light become darkness?
Answer: Depends who you ask!
• (a). If you ask a cosmologist this question,
• A cosmologist may well respond,
• “Light become darkness because darkness is not a thing, it is the absence of light.”
• There is no such “thing” as darkness.
• There is only lots of light or less light or no light - this last status we call darkness.
Ill:
• The cosmologist would explain, Light is a form of energy. It does exist.
• When the energy is low, the light will be dim,
• Not because (as the poet says) “darkness comes creeping in”
• But rather because, “light goes leaking out”
• Which doesn't make good poetry but is more scientifically correct.
• (b). If you ask the average person this question, “When does light become darkness? “
• The answer will probably be, “When it is turned off (or snuffed out) or obscured.”
Ill:
• Ever had that experience of sitting in a room,
• And the sun suddenly shines through the window,
• Everyone in the room looks towards the light,
• And to your embarrassment you see dirt and grime and muck on the windows.
• Those windows looked clean until the light tried to shine through them.
• But the light was restricted.
• And we know that if those windows were never cleaned,
• Over time the light in the room would get dimmer and dimmer and dimmer.
• TRANSITION:
• We can allow lots of things into our lives that block out the light.
• (a). The obvious one is sin; simple disobedience will cause us to walk in darkness.
• Like those windows often it is compromised over time that causes the lack of light,
• Rather than deliberate acts of waywardness.
• (b). Materialism, When Jesus used this illustration in Matthew chapter 6 verses 19-24,
• It was in the context of materialism.
• ill: if you place 2 coins over your eyes you blot out everything else! Become blind!
(4). Light Must be Our Goal (vs 36)
“Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
• This is the goal, brothers and sisters!
• This is the tantalizing possibility Jesus holds out to us in this verse.
• We don’t have to live with streaked windows.
• This is the goal is not part light, part dark.
• The goal is full light, no dark.
Ill:
When the new parents went with their baby to get him examined by the doctor.
The doctor told them, "You have a cute baby."
The father replied, "I bet you say that to all new parents."
The doctor responded “No, just to those whose babies really are good-looking."
The father then asked: "So what do you say to the others?"
The doctor said, "I say, “He looks just like you.”"
TRANSITION: We are to look like our heavenly Father!
Question: How does he look?
Answer: The apostle John in his first letter (chapter 1 verse 5) said, “God is light.”
Ill:
• First John was not the only biblical book to connect God with light.
• Throughout the Bible, we see the idea of light and darkness in relation to God.
• Normally, God and his ways are light,
• And they are contrasted with the world’s ways which are darkness.
• In your time read 1 John chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 5 and 1 Peter chapter 2.
• And you will get a fuller picture of what it means to, “Walk in the light.”
• And how we can shine brighter instead of growing dim.
Ill:
• Robert Louis Stevenson, author of books such as Treasure Island & Kidnapped.
• As a young he would look out his bedroom window.
• One evening was looking out front window of his house,
• And he saw a lamplighter coming down street, lighting old fashion gas street lamps.
• He called out to his nana,
• "Nana! Come quickly!
• There’s a man coming down the street punching holes in the darkness!"
• TRANSITION: In a world of darkness,
• Let us punch some holes into it!
YouTube Video:
https://youtu.be/pPrT963Wsrw
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=8s6R6iyhlnVOggJMEoSE24Ks61XcmvSA
