For the last several weeks we have been studying what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. This is the first recorded sermon in the ministry of Jesus Christ. That’s significant in and of itself. That God incarnate, the Word made flesh, delivers the message of God to the world. And we have this message before us today. How essential it is that we should learn from it what God has to say to us.
What we have learned so far is that God has provided a way for men and women of the world to become citizens of the kingdom of heaven. And we have learned that this is a supernatural process of being born again as children of God. We are not naturally so. Jesus actually said in another place that we are by nature children of our father the devil. But through Christ it is possible to be born again spiritually, so that we are spiritually children of God and thereby citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
And in the first 12 verses of this chapter, Jesus gives us eight characteristics of Christians, who are the children of God, citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We call these the Beatitudes. Each of them starts with the word “blessed.” That speaks of the blessing of God on those who manifest these characteristics of their new life in Christ. These Beatitudes describe the life of a Christian, what type of person he or she is.
Then, Jesus moves from what we are to what we shall be. He gives us a couple of characteristics of what effect the Christian has on the world. We learned last week that the Christian is like salt in the world. He has the effect of impeding the corruption that is in the world. We learned that salt may be correlated to righteousness. And Jesus said that our righteousness serves to impede the corruption which is at work in the world though sin. And Jesus issued a warning that if the salt loses it’s saltiness, then it is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. In other words, if the Christian ceases to practice righteousness, ceases to preach righteousness, then he no longer serves the purpose for which God has us here. And in the case of churches that have abandoned the truth and no longer preach against sin, they have succumbed to being trampled underfoot by ungodly men.
Now in today’s passage we are looking at, Jesus continues to speak of the effect of the Christian on the world he lives in. In addition to being salt in the world, Jesus now says to the disciples, “you are the light of the world.” This is a tremendous statement and it deserves careful analysis.
The first thing we should note, by way of implication, is that the world is in darkness. The Bible speaks repeatedly about the fact that the world lives in darkness. Darkness is related in a manner of speaking to ignorance, or a lack of comprehension. It is related to spiritual blindness. Colossians 1 speaks of the fact that the world is under the dominion of darkness. That is speaking of the kingdom of Satan. Jesus said in the book of John that the devil is the ruler of this world. His is the dominion, or kingdom of darkness. He wants to keep the world in ignorance, to keep the world blind and unseeing so that they do not come to the truth.
Jesus in speaking to the apostle Paul about what his ministry was to be said in Acts 26:18 that he was sending him “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” Notice there that Jesus equates the darkness as the dominion of Satan. Paul at that point had been blinded by the intense light on the Damascus road in order that God might emphasize the spiritual blindness and darkness that Paul was a part of before his conversion.
And by the way, hell is characterized in the Bible as darkness. In one place it’s called the outer darkness, in another black darkness, in another place, pits of darkness. Darkness is the primary description of the domain of Satan, and the condition of the world, and it is the characteristic of hell which is reserved for those condemned to spend eternity without God.
However, in a startling contrast, those who have been born again by faith in Jesus Christ are described here by Christ as being the light of the world which is in darkness. This is amazing, that God has made us to be light in the world. The entire world dwells in darkness, and yet God has chosen us, to be lights in the world.
Now the logical question that follows this must be what is meant by light? Well, I think that intuitively we should know the answer. Light has for many centuries been equated with knowledge. We had in the eighteenth century for instance, the age of enlightenment. Great discoveries in science and mathematics and geography, as well as advancements in philosophy and the arts were characteristic of this age of a great increase in knowledge. So we have throughout history a correlation of knowledge with light.
And that has continued down through the ages. Even in our day, we have a saying of “a light bulb went off” to describe an “a ha” moment, or a moment of discovery, or some new knowledge. And certainly we live today in an age of what is considered enlightened. We hear that phrase bandied about. And certainly modern man has made tremendous advancements in knowledge, but they are mostly scientific, or mechanical, or technical in nature. And yet with all the knowledge that society boasts of today, there are still fundamental evils in the world that never seem to be affected. In fact, it would seem that we are experiencing a breakdown in society. Crime, poverty, homelessness, addiction, broken homes, wars, murders, anarchy, and political unrest are endemic to the age we live in. It would seem clear that in spite of our advancements in knowledge, the world is still in a state of utter darkness.
The true knowledge that enlightens the world is the knowledge of the truth of God. It is what Solomon calls wisdom. Jesus spoke the truth of God, and in Him, and through Him, we are enlightened not just in our minds, but in our hearts. It is the knowledge that leads to salvation. Two thousand years ago, God appeared in the form of a man, and His words were the truth of life that brought light to a world in darkness. Matthew 4:16 says, "THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
John said of Jesus in John chapter one, “He was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.” And yet, though the Jews saw the light, for the most part they did not accept it. John says in vs 5, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John goes on to say that Jesus came unto His own people, but they did not receive Him.
Jesus Himself emphasized again and again in HIs ministry that He was the true light which has come into the world. He is the manifestation of the truth, the way to God, and the source of the life of God. Thus Jesus said in John 8:12, ““I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
Even more specifically, Jesus is, according to John 1, the Word, the Word made flesh, the Word which was in the beginning with God, and the Word of God was light. John said “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” Psalm 139 says, “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” So the knowledge that is the light of life is revealed in the word of God, who was made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and whose word still shines for us today in the scriptures.
Now in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking primarily to His disciples. His followers. And I just want to emphasize this morning that to be a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ is to have received the life of God. To be a follower is to be born again. To be a follower is to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. The Christian life is not a static experience. Nor is it a once and done experience. It is a life continually following Jesus Christ and walking in HIs footsteps. It is a life in which Christ lives in us. It is walking in the light. I think far to many Christians claim an experience grounded in some sort of emotional episode in the past, and then ever since they are just resting on their laurels. They fail to walk in the light.
Look again John 8:12, ““I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” Notice that Jesus correlates His light with those who follow Him. First of all, He says that those who follow Him will no longer walk in darkness, and then secondly, that they will have the Light of life in themselves. Now that statement should help us to understand what Jesus is saying here in the text we are looking at today. Jesus says in it that you are the light of the world. And so we see how it is possible for us to be light. We are made light as we walk in HIs light. As we by faith in Jesus follow Him, we are so illuminated by HIs light so that the light of truth shines out of us to the world.
So not only has the Christian received light, we have been made light, and we have become transmitters, or reflectors of light. I think it can be compared with the sun and the moon. The moon has no light in itself. It is the reflection of light from the sun. And yet, even so, it still reflects a lot of light in the darkness of the night. And as we become children of God, being born again through the truth of the gospel, we reflect the light of Christ to the world. It’s what Peter refers to in his second epistle as having been made “partakers of HIs divine nature.” The light that is in Christ, is the light that is in the Christian. That is the way that we become the light of the world. Paul said in Eph. 5:8 “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.”
It’s interesting to notice that in the order of Christ’s sermon, we are first made salt and then we are described as light. It’s important that we are first made righteous, and then act righteously, before we start speaking the truth. If we are speaking enlightenment, but we are living in darkness, or at least are not living in accord with the claims of our faith, then our words will not accomplish much. We must be something before we begin to act like something. And so we must be salt, and then light.
Now how then is the Christian to show forth the light to the world? What is the effect of this light which we have in ourselves? First of all, the light exposes darkness. It reveals the things which are hidden. One of my favorite things is to go surfing very early in the morning before the sunrises. And usually it’s still very dark when I suit up and walk down to the beach. I can’t see the waves, or the rock jetty or practically anything around me. But when the sun starts to come up, and light begins to dawn, the details of the darkened beach became apparent. Things that you hadn’t been able to see around you, then are clearly seen.
Ephesians 5:13 says, “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” There is a sense that we are not truly aware of life until the light appears. We are spiritually blind until by the grace of God He illuminates our hearts so that we might see the truth. As Matthew said, “the people that sat in darkness saw a great light.” The effect of Christ’s coming was to expose the darkness of the world. And if you are a child of God, a partaker of His divine nature, then you will reveal the darkness around you as well. The world is divided by the children of darkness and the children of light. And so the Christian exposes the darkness that is in the world.
That’s the way the Christian is the light of the world. He life is such that his faith and his character and his actions are in stark contrast to those of the world around hIm. He lives in such a way as to cause people to start to wonder and question what it is about him that is so different. If he is truly light, then he lives in such a way as to make people aware of their own darkness. The influence that a Christian has is to show that certain things belong to the darkness. They love the darkness and they cannot stand the light. John 3:19 says, ”This is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
So not only does the light reveal the darkness, but it explains the cause of the darkness. The trouble with the world is not a lack of education, but being separated from God who is light. The sin of the world has caused it to be estranged from God. But the Christian has the light of God within him, and they can shine that light on the world. The Christian can explain that man was made by God and made for God, and without God he cannot truly live. In fact, without God he is condemned to die and be eternally estranged from God, consigned to the utter darkness of hell. That is the condemnation that John speaks of. And the light which reveals that and explains that is the Christian. As a lighthouse on the coast warns ships of the dangers of the shoals, so the Christian must warn the world according to the truth which God has revealed. He must explain God and how we can come to know Him and be united with Him. That is the purpose for which Christ has given us light and life here on this earth.
So light not only exposes the darkness, it shows and provides the way out of darkness. Through sharing the word of God we can be a lamp to their feet and a light to their path, that they might follow Christ unto salvation. The Christian’s purpose is to show the way to God by being a light in the world.
Paul wrote to the Philippians in chapter 2, and by extension speaks to all Christians, that “you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life…” That is our purpose, to be light, in whom is no darkness.
And so Jesus speaks to that purpose we are to have, by saying, “a city sat on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to all the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
What Jesus is indicating here is that first of all, we are designed to be lights in the world. Just as salt is meant to be salty, so lights are meant to illuminate. Though that should be obvious to all, yet I wonder if we are not rebuked by this thought. How prone are we to be consumed with the business of living and disregard our greater commission to be light in the world? Jesus said a lamp is lit to give light to all in the house. That is it’s purpose.
So if we are not acting like light, then are we not living according to our design? It is ridiculous for a person to live in a way that we are not designed to live, to go against nature. And in the same way, it’s ridiculous to live in opposition to our spiritual nature. We are made lights in the world. Jesus illustrates that ridiculousness by saying imagine a person lighting a lamp and then putting it under a bushel, or a basket. What could be the purpose of that? It makes no sense. And neither does it make sense for a Christian to deny his purpose. When we do so, then we really become as useless as the salt that has lost it’s savor. It’s worth nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. And so also the Christian who has extinguished his light or let his light go out.
Jesus spoke of churches which no longer shined the light. In Revelation 2, Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, “But I have [this] against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent.”
It is possible, I suppose, for a Christian to be merely a Christian in name, and not in deed. They appear to be Christians, but they are not functioning as Christians. They are salt without saltiness, or a lamp without light. Such a person is to be pitied. Because he cannot be happy in the world, though he may be seeking it, and he cannot be happy in his Christianity, because he cannot know the fullness that brings joy and peace and contentment.
That fullness I speak of is the continual filling of the Holy Spirit, which might be thought of as the oil in the lamp. First of all, we need to be filled with oil of the Spirit, which is the life of the Spirit. That is what it means to be born again. It’s to be given a new nature. A lamp cannot be a light without oil which has to be supplied from outside itself. You cannot be a light unless you have first been filled.
But then there is a need for a continual filling that goes on in the life of a Christian. It is something we have to have continuously renewed. We have to live in continuous dependence upon Christ, in continual repentance of sin that breaks fellowship with Him, and it’s only in that relationship can we be light in the world. We must continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness as Jesus said of us in the Beatitudes, that we might be continually filled as we continue to follow Him.
You might stretch the analogy of the lamp even further and say that you need to keep your wick trimmed. For a lamp to burn brightly, it must have a wick, and the wick must be trimmed. That speaks of a continual reminder of who I am by the grace of God, and what God intends me to be in the world. It s’s a daily walk with Christ in HIs word, by prayer and supplication, to be in a right communication with the Lord every day. It’s a daily occurrence, this time with the Lord, that trims my wick and makes me more effective in giving light to the world.
The last admonition that Christ gives us is to be light in the world, but to do so in the right way. “Let your light so shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” The point here is very simple. A vital element of our light is that we do good works. And these good works are going to be seen of men. However, the principle Jesus teaches here is that we do these good works not for our own glory or credit, but so that men might glorify God.
We do good works, whatever they are, to bring others to God. Our good works are to reveal the truth of God that leads to salvation. The primary good work then that we are to do is to shine the light of truth into men’s hearts. To tell the good news, the gospel, that they might come to a saving knowledge of the truth.
What Jesus is warning against is doing your good works for selfish purposes. We see that all the time in the realm of the world. Some rich person wants to improve his legacy, and so he donates a lot of money to some charity. But then he wants to make sure that everyone knows about it. His concern is not so much for the charity as it is for his legacy. And so he sends out press releases and holds a press conference to announce what he has done.
We see that in the world, but unfortunately, the same temptation exists in the church. We can often do our good works to be seen of men. Jesus later on in this sermon will explain how to tithe, how to fast, and how to pray. And the principle that He teaches is that you do your work in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. The effect of the work that you do is still seen by the world, but it’s done in such a way that your Father gets the credit. And then the Father who sees the secrets of men’s hearts, will reward you.
Finally then, we should consider the whole of this teaching of Christ, that if we are born of Him, then we should be like Him. As He was light in the world, so we are to be light in the world. The watching world will see our good works, will hear our gospel message, will see the light of truth illuminate from us, and will be drawn to Christ and give God the glory. That is the purpose we have as children of God, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. May God give us the grace to be all that He has designed us to be, the light of the world.
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