Intro:
There is a popular Christmas song entitled Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. In that song, the writer tells us not to go out in the storm since they have no place to go so he suggested everyone to stay at home and let the weather takes place. But today, it’s the opposite. We have a chant that every Christians should know whether the world outside is too dark, cold and lonely, we need to fill this world with the light that comes from Jesus as the true souce of light of this world.
Last week we have heard our pastor preached about being salt and light of a Christian and what are the effects of these attributes to the world. Today as we continue to expound the meaning of being light of this world, we are here to know our responsibilities of being light to this dimmed world.
Matthew 5:14-16 is our monthly text that our church is now using for the whole month of October primarily for the reason of reminding us that we have our function and purpose to us, to our family, to our nation and to the whole world. From these verses, Jesus was able to give us our purpose so that as long as we live as follower of Christ we are called to SHINE.
1. We are called to Spread it in the world. – v14a “You are the light of this world”
Jesus is the true souce of light when He mentioned in John 8:12 “ "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The light that we need to spread and reflect to this dimming world is coming from Christ. He said that we will have the light of life. How can we have that life? By reflecting what is in Jesus by following Him.
A. We Christians must spread this light of ours to others by our testimony.
Illustration:
Ephesians 5:8 says “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light”. We are called to live this calling to this dying world.
Philippians 2:15 “so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky”
B. We need to spread it through our trials
Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
Illustration about the moon. The moon can only be seen once everything turns to be dark. The beauty of the radiance of the moon can be appreciated once it is full moon when you can only see its reflection from the sun. Same with us as Christian, whom shall we fear when we know we can reflect more God’s light to people.
C. Spread it through our talk
Psalm 119:130 “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
1 John 1:5-6 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”
As Christians, our light should be telling us the truth. Illustration on LED bulbs that the claim 50,000 hrs is not true as a whole package. The first one to breakdown is the electronic part of the bulb which is LED driver. Application: As Christians, we should don’t lose that drive to keep on burning with God through our talk.
2. We are called not to Hide – v14b, 15a “A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.”
So when Jesus told His disciples and now that we are told to be the same, He meant that this light should not be hidden. This light should be burning and not to be covered, it should be seen by others.
As Christians, our lives become a public figure ready for others to see and not to be privy on it. When we became the children of God, our lives began to be an open book ready to be read by others. Hiding our true identity is hated by God. Even in the Parable of the Talents, the 3rd person was satisfied to hide his talent and that is the cause of God’s wrath on him. Even in the Parable of the 10 virgins, Jesus wanted to say that our lights should be burning until He comes!
Illustration:
Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb in 1879. Twenty-two years later, in 1901, one of the newfangled gadgets was hung and turned on in the Livermore, Calif., Fire Department. It’s still there, and still on. The old bulb has almost never been turned off in 109 years.
By today’s standards it should have burned out 852 times by now. The bulb, hand-blown, with a thick carbon filament, was made, it is said, by the Shelby Electric Company, which did not become one of the giants of the nation, for an obvious reason. The Shelby Company made light bulbs to last, and nobody ever reordered.
The bulb is accorded an awesome respect by Fire Captain Kirby Slate and his men. In a time of planted and planned obsolescence, when gadgets are forever falling apart or burning out or breaking up, it’s reassuring to watch a dusty 109-year-old light bulb shine on and on and on.
What an assurance we have that our lights will be burning whenever we are with Jesus
Jesus used the analogy of using a town built on a hill because this is where Jesus wanted to see His children to be seen by others. Jesus wanted our lives not only to be seen by some of our families but rather by all our relatives, friends, communities and if possible the whole nation.
This is the reason why Bro. Eddie ran for public office, to waken up all our sleeping principles to join this dying world not to destroy the power of darkness through activist principles but to spread his reflected light to this corrupted nation.
Ephesians 5:14 “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
He may not won the election but he won the hearts of others to run for public office and they are now there ready to shine their lights for this nation.
3. We are called to Illuminate - v15b “Instead they put it on a stand, and gives light to everyone in the house.”
Another term for light up is to illuminate. This is where the unit of measurement of light intensity which is lumen came from. The more lumens the more the light intesity is being shone to an object. Now we know that we are not the true source of light but we are the product of God’s light being shone to us so that we are called to illuminate for others.
Ephesians 5:13 says “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.”
We need to be exposed to God’s light and not to be hidden so we can be used by God for others. So how God can do this to His children?
He set us up.
God has a grand plan for His children and He will first set up each one of us for that perfect position according to His perfect plan for us. Have you wondered why God choose to let you know Him first before others in your family? Simply because you are set up in that position as a guide to your family as their light.
After Bro. Eddie ran for office in 2004, 2010 and 2013 for different public office, this is only a set up for those whom God will use as light to this government. I remember when Cindy Jacobs prophesied in 2010 that God will raise up a man in the south of Philippines particularly in Mindanao to be the next President of the Philippines and we just wonder that could it be someone from God’s people in Mindanao? But we were all surprised to see how Pres. Duterte rise up from darkness to light in order to lead this nation to its rightful position. Bro. Eddie was used to set up the light only.
He set us up to illuminate.
The highlight of God’s plan is for everyone of us to give light and to illuminate it for others with high intensity. The challenge now is how the set up light could give light to be shone to others. What could others see in us that would reflect to these people?
4. We are called to be Nice – v16a “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds”
In this verse we can see the first reason why God put us light of this world, in order to be nice and not to be nuisance. The light given to us has the reason for us to show our good deeds before men and not to be nuisance. Another Christmas song says “gonna find out who’s naughty or nice”. Are we nice or naughty or nuisance to others?
Our Christianity must bring positive atmosphere instead of negative environment to people. Sometimes we are not aware what kind of light we bring to people. Our light should be radiant enough for others to see.
Illustration:
I don’t know about you but every in every wedding i’ve ever been to, the bride has been radiant!
A woman and her young daughter were attending the wedding of a relative. This was the first time the little girl had ever seen a wedding ceremony. She was in awe by the pomp and beauty of everything; the music, the formal atmosphere, the decorations, the bride and groom and their attendants in fine gowns and tuxes. At one point during the ceremony the little girl leaned over to her mother and whispered: “Mommy, mommy?” “What dear,” her mother replied. "Why is the bride dressed in white?" The mother thought about that for moment and struggled to come up with a simple explanation her daughter would understand. Finally, she smiled and said to her daughter, "The bride wears white, because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life.” The little girl thought about it for a minute and said, "So why’s the groom wearing black?"
It doesn’t mean that when the groom wears black it means sadness, but it’s about color combination. That in a wedding there should be some contrast or a theme to be followed. But when you applied this to our lives, this theme that you have now in your life, God is the one who decides and whatever the color you may be wearing make sure the lights is still radiant and not unhealthy.
Luke 11:34-35 says “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.
We must bring good quality of light not just the instensity of it. Illustration on headlamp cleaning of Ptr. Jeric..
In the Bible there 2 kinds of meaning for the word “good”. In Greek the word “agathos” means “good quality” but the other term “khalos” means “attractive or beautiful or looking good”. Here on this verse, when Jesus said “that they may see your good deeds” He simply means that your light should be attractive, having an atmosphere of beauty or good looking light.
If you look at our lightings here inside the church you will say it’s very nice when all flourescent lights are all lighted up. But when all our PARLEDs are lighted up it becomes beautiful, attractive, why? Because it has different colors. Sometimes God allows us to go through different stages of life and it adds beauty to us don’t we? Sometimes we sing “bluer than blue, sadder than sad, youre the only life this empty room would ever had” “and I see your true color shines on you so don’t afraid to let it show” But Debbie Boone says “cause You light up my life, you gave me hope to carry on, you light up my days and filled my life with songs.”
Colored light attracts people and we are lighted up to give colors to our life. And it is Jesus who causes us to give light as colorful as we can because we attract the light coming from Him.
5. We are called to Exalt the Father – v16b “and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Another purpose of light in us aside from attracting people to see us is that once they see this light they will glorify the Father. It is God who caused us to illuminate for others to be seen however this light must also goes to the origin of that light which is God. These people will see us not to glorify us but to exalt the Father in heaven.
It is the glory of the Father that has risen in us that’s what is it says in Isaiah 60:1-2 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”
It is not our glory that they seen in us but it’s God’s so whenever these men see in us the good deeds we reflect it to see God’s glory in us. It causes us to be what 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
Church, we are called to be a chosen child of God, royal priest to glorify the Father, a holy people, God’s special possession so that they may praise the Father who called us out from darkness to His wonderful light.
Illustration:
A pastor told a story of a man in his congregation who had lost literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. He owed everybody. One day the pastor asked him, "How in the world are you even surviving? How can you smile? How can you be enthusiastic about Jesus and about life when you are just going through all kinds of problems?
He said, "Next time you come to my house, I will show you how."
The pastor said that he was curious, so not long after that he went to his house. He said, "I told you I would show you the thing that gives me strength." They went into his den and there was a painting. It was a simple painting of a Bible experience we call "Daniel in the Lion's Den." It was a beautiful painting. There was Daniel standing there among ferocious looking lions. These were not sleeping, slumbering lions. These were lions whose teeth were bared and whose claws were exposed. You could tell that they were threatening to hurt Daniel! There was a shaft of light that seemed to be falling down from the roof of that cave in which Daniel and those lions were being kept. The man said to his pastor, "Look at Daniel's eyes!" the pastor looked closely at the eyes of Daniel and Daniel was looking up at the light.
The man said to him, "The thing that gives me strength in the midst of my troubles is this. Daniel is not looking at the lions. He is looking at the light!" So when you get surrounded with a lot of adversity; when you get surrounded by a lot of problems, don't focus on the lions focus on the light! Focus on the light that will give glory, honor and praise to God!
Conclusion:
What are the puposes of God when He called us out from darkness?
1. To Spread light in the world
2. He called us not to Hide
3. To Illuminate others
4. We are called to be Nice
5. To Exalt the Father
We are all called to SHINE!
Psalm 33:1 “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
The good deeds that people will see in us cause them to praise God. These good deeds is none other than the righteousness of God or God’s glory who rises up to us. This light that comes from God will come back to Him in the form of praise by the righteous one. That is why in Psalm 33:1 “it is fitting for the upright to praise Him. Meaning praise looks good “khalos” attractive to God and attractive to men.
Let us praise God through the light that comes from Him that cause us to look good in singing praise to Him!
