Matthew 5: 14
You are the Light of the World 

I. THINK ABOUT THIS METAPHOR OF LIGHT IN CONTRAST TO THE ONE OF LAST WEEK, SALT. 

1. Salt had the meaning of preserving, ennobling, enhancing human culture. It was leaving the world a better place than you found it. It was influencing the world in the name of Christ who is the Lord of all creation. But our thoughts today have to do with being light The idea of light is a much more familiar one than that of salt. The Lord used it of himself on more than one occasion and it is used to describe the Triune God and the holy Gospel. 

2. Often a sermonic point is made that since Jesus is the light of the world and we are the light of the world, we are lighted with his reflected light. A good idea. I think it should be expanded to observe that the other two metaphors -- the triune God's person as light and the blessed light of the holy Gospel are also the light that is reflected in us. After all, they are connected with one another and with the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the light of God's Triune Person and his truth and righteousness are reflected in us. 

I think of Paul's observation: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us." It is all reflected light to the praise and glory of God. We are like the moon that has no light of its own but shines very brilliantly with its reflection of the sun. Nevertheless it is a reflected light and thus a lesser light. It is not clear here whether Jesus on this occasion was thinking of sunlight or the artificial light of one of these little olive oil lamps that they used in the first century. I would be inclined to think that it was the latter because of a point I will later make. 

3. What is important is that every person in these rooms get a clear impression of the truth: "You are the light of the world!" Every person here who knows Jesus is a light in this sense. How much lighting did you do this past year, or over the summer or in this past week. How have you individually been a light? When you come to the end of your life will people describe you as having been a light? What sense might this be true? 

1. I will mention some significant ways that occur to me. In each case and each individual the light may vary in intensity and clarity but it is light nonetheless. 

2. One of the ways is, of course, telling the gospel to other people. I do not speak about this in detail because it deserves a sermon in itself -- or many sermons from time to time. Hopefully one of our preachers will bring one to us. And it is important. There are numerous ways we go about this. By leading a person to accept Christ is one. It is an experience of great joy to do so. We must remember that this is not just a matter of collecting votes for Jesus but of a person accepting Christ. -- Biblical faith includes the idea of repentance, trusting him as Savior and committing oneself to follow him as Lord. Often "the simple Gospel," as it is called is just too simple and is not the gospel at all. Often the supposed "decisions to accept Christ" at evangelistic meetings are as compelling as the decision to go out and get a drink at the water fountain in the foyer. 

Yet another way -- less dramatic, but often very productive -- is by explaining the way that people are saved. This might take the format of telling them how they might be saved, or of a statement of what we as informed Christians really believe -- the latter being less threatening and intimidating to a person who is religious but not regenerated. When someone asks you how your church differs from the Mormons or the downtown churches, or the side show they have seen on religious television or the recent "laughing revivals" it is a wonderful answer to give. We should pray for our congregation and for one another as individuals that the Holy Spirit will increase our gifts in this and also make us fruitful. Person after person confesses that this is a hard thing to do. Let us pray earnestly for one another in this. 

3. The second way we are lights to the world is in our corporate light-giving. It is interesting that the Lord uses "light" -- a singular object with a plural subject and verb. The Greek reads: "You all are the light of the world." (Unlike English there is a difference between the singular and plural pronoun.) It is true that there are instances of a construction in English and Greek where it means "you are each the light of the world" but the plural subject might also be significant and have a significant meaning that we should not miss. "You" -- you all -- are the light of the world." It is certainly true that we yield a corporate light. When I was a student in Jerusalem I once was told by someone who had attended a service in one of the huge, dimly- lit cathedrals in that city. 

I am not sure now if it is was a Christmas eve or Easter eve, or Pentecost service but all the congregation had candles and the light was taken from the altar and was passed from person to person and the building rapidly went from semi-darkness to the bright light of noonday. Perhaps the Lord was thinking of this sort of multiplication of light when he used one of these little lamps as an illustration and how bright their light would be if great numbers of them were lit at the same time. We are together the light of our world and one of the purposes of our banding together as a church is to bear this corporate light. One way we serve as light in this corporate sense is the ministry of our church. In our case we do this in missions as well as personal ministry of the local scene. Brandon, Chet, and especially George have been our missionaries just this summer. George has represented us on 4 continents and 5 countries in the past three years. Even closer to home our members are involved in various light-giving projects, and our church by its very existence and operation does this. 

It is very common that in the teaching or preaching of our church that people who have been doing the Christian thing for a short time or a long time all of a sudden grasp the saving truth in it all. They hear a word or understand a verse or latch on to a phrase. Many times people have told me about this in retrospect as they think about their Christian lives. Just a little word and the Holy Sprit uses it and they have the experience that Wesley had at Altersgate. Though he was an Anglican clergyman, as he heard a public reading of Luther's preface to the book of Romans he said, as he remembered it "I felt my heart strangely warmed." This corporate light-giving makes it an important matter who you are allied with, lest you be a part of giving a dimmed light or a false light. It makes a difference in your Christian life where you go to church and with whom you are in fellowship. But it also makes a difference in your light-giving. 

4. A third way we serve as light is with the quality of our lifestyles. In moral behavior, our commitment to the ten commandments, to marital fidelity, to raising our children in godliness and discipline and love has not only a salting effect (as I said last week) but it is an indirect light that points men to the true light of the gospel, and to Jesus who is the light of the world. There is an effect other than the personal benefit of your obeying God. It is a means of light bearing! 

5. Even in non-moral matters, our lifestyle is a light because it is presumably informed by our belief in the revelation of God in the Scriptures. We do our duty, we treat this world, as it is in truth, God's world; we live our lives as if we believe that there is a life of blessedness after death and an unseen kingdom of God, a brotherhood of all true believers, a standard of right and wrong, good and evil. Your attachment to quality cultural things instead of the crass, the ephemeral, the degraded, the ugly is a kind of light reflecting the fact that you know God who has created us in his own image and that our lives should demonstrate the fact. 

Admittedly, these are non-moral matters about which we cannot make rules for each other, but as personal guidelines they are included in Paul's admonition: Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there be any excellence, if there be anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And he might well have said "Let your lifestyle reflect these sorts of things." Surely he speaks of lifestyle -- the kind of lifestyle that indirectly reflects the light of God in his holy gospel. In this case, the light is not the gospel itself but a sliver of light that indirectly shines the pathway to the full light of the gospel and the Savior, the light of the world about which that gospel revolves. 

Perhaps it is a case of needing some more oil in your lamp or a wick-trimming or a new wick or a shield to protect it from the strong wind. I pray for you -- and for myself -- that the brightness of our light-bearing may increase to the very maximum as we live out our discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God who is the Light of the World.