Being a light in the world today
Luke 11:33-36
Good Morning Everyone - it is really Good to see you and we are glad that you are!
Prayer- (being a light)
The Psalmist tells us;
The word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path… the light of God keeps us in a right relationship with Jesus.
A Lighthouse lit up out in stormy seas is guidance to keep ships from crashing unto the rocks.
Jesus tells us we need to be the light and we need people who are walking in the light of Jesus to help us navigate through life challenges. (Repeat)
The scripture this morning helps us see we need to be the light and how careful we need to be to make sure that we are walking in the light of Jesus.
Please turn to Luke 12:33-36 for the reading of God’s Word-
The point Jesus is making here is ...What does a light do?
It guides you down a path, right? It helps you to see.
So if the lamp of your body is your eye, then it's the type of eye you have that will determine how you walk, how you see things. Through what lens you are looking!
If you have a good and pure eye, things will appear good. Bad eye that desires to do evil, things will appear bad.
This isn't New Age stuff – positive thinking alone does not make it true –
Jesus is going to the heart of the issue and telling us that it's what we allow into our lives through our eyes and ears and into our hearts determines how we see the world and will determine what we do in our spiritual walk.
Illustration-
One day a man was walking through a beautiful church building with his 4-year-old son. As they walked, the young boy looked around. He stopped and was curious about the stained-glass windows that looked so beautiful with their bright colors. As he looked at the windows, he asked: “Who are all the people in the windows, daddy?” “They are saints,” said the father. “What are saints, daddy?” the kid asked. The father was stuck. How was he going to explain who saints were to a four-year-old boy? As the boy was still looking up at the windows and the father was still wondering how he would explain who saints are, the young boy shouted: “I know who saints are, daddy. They are the people that the light shines through.”
Who are the people in your life through whom the light of God has shined?
Who are the saints that have touched your life with the incredible love of Christ?
Maybe they are still alive.
Maybe they are members of this congregation.
Proverb 4:23
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
What we allow in is what's going to come out.
Christian who's spending their time filling your mind with what this world is telling you is right…it will influence how you think.
And what Jesus tells you and I is that it's what's going into our heart and mind through our eyes and ears makes us who we are.
If what's going in is good, the whole body will be good.
If what's going in is bad – it will affect how you think and act
Please don't think that you're not affected by what you see and hear, it affects you.
So as a Christian then, you're commanded to have nothing to do with things that are sinful (Phil. 4:8). (2) You're told to depart from iniquity (2 Tim. 2:19).
The first part of the text is that we are to be the light of the world, to know the Lord and be a witness of His great love for others and the second part (Luke 11:37-53) here is what is called the six woes! We will not have time to cover them all this morning!
Jesus was invited by a Pharisee to sit and dine at his table for a meal and the Pharisee corrected Jesus for not washing his hands. (Luke 11:3)
Can you imagine telling Jesus that he forgot to wash his hands and that is what the religious do here.
Though this man was not converted, Jesus did not refuse to recline at table with him.
Jesus accepted the hospitality of the Pharisee
Jesus did not fail to use the opportunity to speak out against the experts in the law.
The Pharisee “marveled” that Jesus had not first washed before coming to the table (LUKE 11:38). This was not so much a point of hygiene, as it might be in our society: but Jesus’ response in the following verse rather suggests that the attitude of the man was that it was somehow ‘unholy’ not to wash.
If outward cleanliness is an issue then it seems somewhat inhospitable to receive a visitor to our table without first advising them where the appropriate facilities are located!
It is like telling a weary traveler with dirty feet to not track dirt in the house but not have anyone at the door to wash his feet.
So many people are willing to tell others what they should do and not do it themselves.
Also if you are going to tell someone what is wrong then we ought to tell them how to do it correctly.
Jesus pointed out how ridiculous it was to have a religion that was only interested in external things. “Now then you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.”(LUKE 11:39).
Jesus did not hesitate to rebuke hypocrisy.
What is Jesus telling those religious Pharisees of the law? He is saying you have it backwards.
Fools! “Did not He that made the outside make the inside also?’ (LUKE 11:40)
Our lives consist in more than just our bodies: we have a heart, and a soul.
“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart’ (1 Samuel 16:7). So we are told, ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life’ Proverbs 4:23
(1)THEY WERE SO WORRIED ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THOUGHT AND NOT WHAT GOD THOUGHT!
Wash their hands but their heart was unclean and far from God.
Illustration-
We all know people who when the boss is present appear to be the best workers and the most loyal worker. They get the boss coffee, they are quick to do the extras and appear to be out front as a leader who wants to make a difference. When the boss is not around, they are the one’s who are always on break, leave the work for someone else, they are the ones who don’t finish their work. They are the ones around the water cooler telling people how they are overworked and underpaid and until they get what they are suppose too, they will just pick up a paycheck and do only what they have too.
Most cases the boss knows those people- certainly the Lord knows those kind of people and how they appear to be clean on the outside but the inside is far from the Lord.
“But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and behold, all things are clean unto you” (LUKE 11:41).
First offer up to God what is inside, the inner man.
Thereafter all that you offer outwardly, flowing from a heart that is right with God, will be accepted by God (Romans 12:1).
The second woe is found in (42) “You give a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.”
What is Jesus saying to them? Tithing is an important thing- “bring your tithes into the storehouse of God” but what about justice and the love of God?
Why are you doing the things that you do? Again the washing of the hands as an example- you wash your hands but you have no love of God… the contrast between the sawdust in your brothers eye and the plank that is in your eye. They were scrupulous about the law, but the gulf between their practice and genuine obedience was ridiculously wide apart.
The third woe is this- (43) “you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the market place.”
Illustration-
Put a preachers name on the marquee out front and a few will come, put some big celebrity on the marquee and the place or event would be packed-
Forget about their moral values, forget that the only thing they want from you is for you to buy or go see them at a great and blowout price that most cannot afford.
Forget the lifestyle that says we have and you do not.
Gala shows once a year on television that highlight the gulf between the average person and them…buy my products…give me free things while the average person pays full price!
Ever watch undercover boss? When it first came out, you saw people surprised that they were on the show and surprised that they were given special gifts for what they do- now it seems like once they figure out they are on the show, they are wondering what free stuff there going to get and I have seen some that appeared disappointed because I think they thought they should get more!
Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, the law givers but not the law keepers, in today’s language, he is talking to the world about a better way to live, not only polishing the outside but allowing Jesus to clean us from the inside and they did not get it!
(45) “One of the experts in the law answered him, teacher, when you say these things you insult us.”
Haha…isn’t that like the world- Jesus I am offended by the things that you are saying to me!
I did not say it…the word of the living God said it and he said it to those who were pretending to be in a relationship with the Lord and they were not.
You lawyers and scribes, Pharisees are offended that Jesus would challenged you… you perceived it as criticism. Your answer to him was should we not observe the Torah?
Answer- Don’t observe it … live it out. Don’t tell others about it and then heap on a lot of other things and put a burden on them that they cannot carry and you have no intentions of helping them carry.
As we finish up,
Go back to verse 35- Jesus speaking! That’s important-
“See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 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 it light on you.”
Physical eyesight is a common metaphor for spiritual insight in scripture.
The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom have been given to you as believers-
Make sure you don’t have good physical eyes filled with darkness.
Rejection of spiritual truth can plunge the soul into darkness and imprison us to spiritual insight.
We live after Covid-19- we wash our hands, we sanitize more than we have ever done before.
We make sure the germs are not on our hands… let’s be sure our hearts, mind, and soul are pure in the eyes of the Lord.
Illustration-
Many years ago when my daughter Traci was small- she has a family and two of my grandchildren now that’s how long ago…she was getting ready to go to school and jumped into my lap and I said have a great day at school! She pushed my head away and said coffee breath! At first I laughed and then I cried as she left. A bit of truth was shared by my little girl. Something smells! I want you but I don’t want that.
Sometimes God brings people into our lives to tell us something smells in our life.
Amen/prayer-
