"Light" October 28, 2018

Overview

Light: The Church's Calling in a Darkened World

Scripture sets before us a sustained contrast between light and darkness. Light signals truth—"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" Psalm 119:105—while darkness signals falsehood Romans 2:19. Light pictures holiness Romans 13:12, and darkness pictures sin and Satan's dominion (Proverbs 4:19; Colossians 1:13). Against that backdrop, Jesus declares Himself "the light of the world" John 8:12—and then says something astonishing to His followers: "You are the light of the world" Matthew 5:14.

We do not generate this light; we reflect it. As the moon reflects the sun, the baptized reflect Christ. Through the waters of baptism and the gift of faith, the Holy Spirit takes residence in us, and the light of Christ shines through us. That light cannot remain hidden any more than a city set on a hill or a lamp placed under a basket. The temptation, however, is real. When darkness presses in—the darkness of sin, falsehood, and unbelief—we can respond like Lucy in the Peanuts strip, simply shouting at the darkness, or we can retreat into a holy huddle, cocooning ourselves behind church walls. But "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" John 1:5. At the cross and empty tomb, Jesus has already won the decisive victory. We have nothing to fear from the dark.

On this Reformation theme, remember Luther in his later years. Weary of the fight, he wished to withdraw—but he never did, because he understood his calling. Most of us will not appear in history books, but every Christian has a vocation. Luther insisted that we live out this calling in the ordinary stuff of life: at the family table, over lunch with a coworker, in conversation with a neighbor. The light shines wherever God has placed us.

Jesus draws the application Himself: "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven" Matthew 5:16. These good works are not currency to purchase God's favor—Christ has already clothed us in His righteousness. They are the natural overflow of faith: speaking of Jesus and loving in His name, bearing witness in word and deed. So do not curse the darkness, and do not retreat from it. Be who you already are in Christ. Be light.

Transcript

Would you open your Bible, please, with me, to the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. 0s

We are in a four-week study that I have entitled the Mission. 7s

Leveraging off of our study in the Book of Acts, it gets at what it is that we as a church are to be about. 13s

Who are we to be? And what is it that we are to do? 22s

Last week, in the first of these messages, we took a look at the Crocs. 28s

Remember Crocs is a Latin word. We get crucial. We get cross from it. 34s

And the Crocs of the Matter at the end of the day, what really matters is the proclamation of Christ 41s

crucified and risen. 49s

Aldering these four weeks, we have this same hymn before the sermon that's going to occur in my hope. 53s

Is that after maybe this week or perhaps next week, this tune is going to be in your mind. 61s

And the words will be in your mind of this refrain. And you'll find yourself humming and thinking and perhaps singing this hymn. 67s

Listen to the verse that was sung today. 76s

A candle is consumed by the passion of the flame. 83s

Spilling light, unsparingly, throughout a darkened room. 90s

Let us burn to know him deeper than our service, flaming bright, 96s

will radiate his passions and blaze with holy light. Last week, Crocs, this week, 104s

light, light. 123s

The contrast between light and darkness is a common and a prevalent theme in holy scripture. 127s

For example, light is used to refer to truth Psalm 119 says, 137s

your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. The contrast then of light communicating 144s

truth is darkness communicating falsehood. We hear in Romans the second chapter. 155s

And if you are sure that you are a guide of the blind, a light to those in darkness, 166s

you then that teach others will you not teach yourself. The contrast then between light and darkness, 173s

between truth and falsehood. Well, the contrast continues. Light is used to communicate 182s

holiness. Scripture tells us in Romans 13. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on 189s

the armor of light. So you have got light communicating holiness. And then the contrast we see 200s

in Scripture of darkness communicating sin. We read in Proverbs 4 chapter, the way of the wicked 210s

is like deep darkness or the darkness of Satan's kingdom, Colossians 1 chapter. 222s

Jesus has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. 232s

So you have this important contrast in Scripture. It is common, it is prevalent, it is the contrast 244s

between light and darkness. Well, that is the backdrop. Look at Jesus' words in verse 14 of chapter 5. 251s

Jesus says, you are the light of the world. You are the light of the world. In John 8, 266s

Scripture says, and Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. 281s

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. 286s

Jesus is the light and we are to follow the light of the world as God claims us in the waters of 298s

baptism, giving us the gift of faith. The Holy Spirit takes residence in us. We are then the 306s

light of the world. To put it this way, Jesus is the Son and we are the moon that reflects the light 315s

of the Son. Jesus says, you are the light of the world. And that light is to shine 328s

forth. Take a look at verse 14, the second part. A city built on a hill cannot be hit. 345s

No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand. 358s

And it gives light to all in the house. A city built on a hill cannot be hit. 364s

No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand. And it gives 371s

light to all in the house. The light then that we bear, the light of Christ is that light 377s

that is to shine forth. Just as you can't hide a city, or you wouldn't do the ridiculous thing 387s

of light to lamp and then put it under a bushel basket to hide it. So also the church 395s

is to let the light shine forth. But what's the temptation? The temptation 403s

is to become consumed with darkness, consumed with the darkness, overwhelmed by the darkness. 421s

I think of the strip peanuts. Sometimes they make you laugh and other times they just kind 443s

of make you smile and think, this is one of the latter. It just kind of makes you smile and think. 451s

Lines is teaching Charlie Brown. He's teaching him the phrase, it is better to light a candle than 461s

the darkness. It's better to light a candle than the cursed darkness. And Lines has this candle here. 468s

But his light starts to walk away after telling Charlie Brown. It's better to light a candle than 477s

cursed the darkness. His light starts to walk away. He says, but there'll always be those that disagree 482s

with that. The next frame has Charlie Brown. And he's looking the opposite way. He's looking 489s

what Linus was referring to. And there is Lucy. Out in the absolute darkness, she stands outside. 497s

It is pitch black outside. And there is Lucy, full throttleed and full voice saying, 510s

you stupid darkness. You stupid darkness. So when we think about it, 519s

we can so often be like Lucy, right? We can curse the darkness because the darkness surrounds us. 537s

It's the darkness of sin. It's the darkness of Satan's kingdom. It's the darkness of falsehood. 550s

And as we behold the darkness, we can be tempted. We can be tempted as the body of Christ 560s

across the world to move into a hiding, to move into a holy huddle, to hide behind walls 569s

of the protective cocoon of the church, to bask in the light the light of the presence of 585s

Christ as we gather. But cocoon ourselves and say, that's stupid darkness. It's so dark. 594s

It's the church, can't be tempted to hide. I think of John the first chapter. 613s

Scripture says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. 627s

That word there is capitalized. It's just another way of saying Jesus. 635s

He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and without him, not one thing came into being. 639s

What has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of all people. The catchness. 651s

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome. The light shines in the darkness 662s

and the darkness did not overcome. The light of the world, Jesus Christ bearing upon him at the 685s

end of the world. Jesus dying in our place. Jesus paying the penalty we could never pay. 716s

The father receiving the sacrifice of the son. Jesus being raised out of the tomb, death being overcome. 723s

The light of the world and the darkness could not overcome. Jesus says, 733s

you are the light of the world. You and this reformation Sunday. I remember that of Luther's 748s

later years. Did you know in the later years of Luther, Luther wanted to withdraw? 769s

He wanted just to go away. He was tired. He was tired of fighting against the darkness. 779s

So he just wanted to go away withdraw. Enjoy some time of quiet. He realized that he could not 794s

do that. He couldn't do it because he realized the call that had been placed upon his life. 809s

The call to call a church to biblical truth. Whatever the cost. Even though in his later years, 817s

he came to the point where he said, you know, I've kind of had it with this. He never withdrew. 829s

He never withdrew from engagement with the darkness because you see he knew of the light of Christ that 837s

was held within him. Luther understood that all of us have co-links. Luther is one of those 853s

figures in history that looms large that happened to be the calling that God gave him. 865s

But for the most of us, right? For the most of us, our names are not going down in history books. 874s

People won't be reading about us one day and studying about us. They're not going to be writing books 883s

about us. From most of us, we just kind of come along in the line of faithful people that God 889s

raises up to understand their lives as calllings. And whether it is on a large scale or whether it 898s

is relatively small, maybe it's the neighborhood in the workplace and the relationships. 911s

It's not something that is in a large historical scale of a great figure of all history. 923s

No, for most of us, God gives us a unique calling and Luther understood that. Luther understood. 929s

In fact, it was one of the reasons why he didn't withdraw. He understood the calling that was on his 938s

life and it's the same calling that is on our lives. To be a faithful people that by the grace of 943s

God proclaim the light of the world, to be light amidst darkness. And Luther said, 952s

you do that in the ordinary stuff of life. You do it in the ordinary, you do it around the 960s

table as you meet with family. You do it over lunch with a work associate. You do it as you go and 967s

you talk and you minister to your neighbor. It's the ordinary stuff of life that Luther said, 978s

that's where we live out our calling, wherever God has placed us to be. 985s

Light. Light. Look with me, please. The very next verse of our text. Verse 16. 997s

Right after he says, you're the light of the world. Right after he says, 1012s

you know, a city isn't he? You don't put the light under a bushel basket. Notice what Jesus says. 1016s

In the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give 1023s

glory to your father in heaven. He's not good works to earn your way into the good graces of God. 1030s

That's absolutely impossible. Jesus Christ has died in our place. We've been cloaked in his righteous 1038s

garment. Now these are the good works that simply come from faith. What are they? It is the good 1046s

works of the proclamation of the light of the world verbally and also indeed. 1054s

Or we be light in the world by what we say and by what we do specifically 1064s

who we talk about Jesus Christ and how we love in his name to be light. 1074s

Candle is consumed by the passion of the flame. Spilling light on sparingly throughout a 1093s

darkened room. Let us burn to know him deeper than our service flaming bright. We'll radiate 1107s

his passions and blaze with holy light. Redeem of God. Don't curse the darkness. 1120s

Don't curse him. Do not be overwhelmed and move into retreat because of the darkness. 1141s

No. Be who you are. Be light. 1155s