S.O.T.M. The Light of the World [Matthew 5:14-16]

We come again to a very important and astounding passage of scripture, we will spend this week and next week looking at this amazing passage and it’s profound implications in regards to the Christian life. I tried to fit everything I wanted to say in one message but I couldn’t do it so, today we’ll focus mainly on the initial statement of Jesus in verse 14, “you are the light of the world,” and next week we’ll spend time looking at more practical aspects of this text and the examples of light in the city on a hill and a lamp in the house.

As we look at this passage and analyze what it means we need to keep in mind first the emphatic is emphasized, the “you” is emphatic i.e. the danger is always that we read a statement like this and think about someone else, the first Christians, or Christian people in general…but it is ourselves to whom it refers if we truly claim to be Christian. So there should be much self-examination as we unpack this full passage.

Stand for the reading of the word of God [Matthew 5:14-16]

A sad story was written years ago about a farm family in western Kansas. Their young son had wondered off into the wheat field near by and wheat fields in Kansas are very large. The mother and father began desperately to search for the little boy who was too small to see over the tall wheat and find his way home. As they frantically searched for hours the neighbors heard what was happening and began to search as well. As night began to fall they had no luck finding the boy, so they searched on into the night.

As morning dawned and no sign of the boy yet, a large group had amassed from town and all the people then joined hands and began to comb the vast wheat field, hand in hand. After some time they found the lad, but he had not made it through the night, the cold of night was to much for the young boy. As the family bitterly wept over their child one of the towns people said, “if only we had joined hands sooner.” What a heart breaking story.

Jesus said, as He looked out over the fields, “The field is white unto harvest, but the laborers are few.” You know, I really believe there’s a world of lost men, women, boys and girls, way out in the field of the world, and they can’t find home, they can’t find the Father’s house, they can’t see above the wheat of the world, and they’re perishing in the night of sin; and when the cold morning dawns, it’ll be too late. And the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe right here in Matthew 5:13-16, is saying to us, “Join hands. Join hands. Be salt and light. Sweep through the field of the world to find all of those who are desperately in need of your influence and your message of hope in the gospel.”

And I don’t think one or two can do it. I don’t even think a handful can do it. I think the whole church has to join hands and be collective salt. Salt is useless as far as one grain is concerned, and light is a combination of fluorescence. We’ve got to take hands and sweep through the world; and that’s the message that Jesus is giving us right here. We are salt and we are light to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and this is the vital message contained in our Lord’s words. He has followed up the Beatitudes.

In the Beatitudes, He says, “Here’s the character I expect you to have, and if you have this kind of character, then you’re a child of My kingdom. And if you have this character, and you are a child of My kingdom, here’s your job: sweep through the world as salt and light, and make a difference.” Jesus is calling on us, as we saw in our last study, to influence the world for His glory, to find the lost before it’s too late.

I think it’s real easy as a church, as New Florence Baptist Church, to just enjoy each other, to gather together and worship, which is what we are supposed to do, to study God’s word together, to pray for one another, to disciple and care and interact with each other…and those things are good and what we should be doing as believers. But if we’re not careful that’s all we’ll do and we can easily forget that there is a lost world out there filled with people who need us to be salt and light so they might know salvation in Jesus Christ. It’s no small task at all but it is our task as followers of Jesus.

Keep in mind, the last beatitude is transitional, blessed are the persecuted…transitions into being salt and light in the world. i.e. what our Lord is telling us is as we as Christians display the characteristics of what it is to be Christian, the beatitudes, that will be met with resistance and persecution, but when the world presses in on us and things get tough that doesn’t mean we back down…no we continue on being salt and light in the world. Now we have not seen much persecution in the American church, but I think with current events that have happened, it’s pretty evident it could come very quickly and the question we face is…are we ready to be salt and light in a hostile environment?

This morning I want to ask basically the same questions we asked last week about salt, then next week we’ll tie it all together and look at practical aspects of both. The first question is...

What does this text tell us about the world?

It’s implied then that if we are the light of the world then the world is in a state of darkness. This is always one of the first statements the Christian gospel makes. The world resides in a dark state due to sin and the fall of man. People are always talking about enlightenment in regards to increased knowledge, I just saw an interview where a NBA basketball player was talking about being enlightened by increased knowledge. In the 18th century there was a movement named the ‘Enlightenment’ that movement was an attack upon the authority of the bible and placed man’s philosophy and human thought in a position of authority over divine revelation and God’s declaration to man. And that movement still continues to this very day.

The reason I bring this up is this kind of movement, placing man’s thought over God’s authority, is nothing new but it is always referred to as a sort of enlightenment. Knowledge is that which brings light and in many respects it does. And it is true that new knowledge has shed more light on many things in our world, the technological advances of our day are astounding to say the least. We live in a day of mass amounts of knowledge at your finger tips, medical advancements that are remarkable, and world wide information available almost instantaneously. But... are we better off as people because of this?

The scriptures are very clear, while knowledge [enlightenment] increases the world still remains in a state of gross darkness. And the moment you begin to take a serious look at things you can easily prove that is the simple truth. The tragedy of our century has been that we have concentrated solely upon one aspect of knowledge.

Our knowledge has been a knowledge of things, mechanical things, scientific things, a knowledge of life in a more or less purely biological or mechanical sense. But our knowledge of the real factors that make life life, has not increased at all. That is why the world is in such a predicament today. For, as has often been pointed out, in spite of our having discovered all this great and new knowledge, we have failed to discover the most important thing of all, namely, what to do with our knowledge.

There certainly is nothing wrong with increased knowledge, but the problem is we do not have a sufficient knowledge of ourselves as sinful people to be able to know what to do with this vast power and knowledge. This is evident in the debate over abortion, with all our medical and technological advancements we have machines that can measure a babies heart beat as early as 5 weeks yet people still argue that it’s not a human life only a fetus. We know that without a heart beat there is no life so how can someone say that a heart beat is not a life?

That is the great tragedy of our day right? Our knowledge has been mechanical and scientific in that pure sense. But when you come back to the great basic and fundamental problems of life and living, of being and existence, is it not obvious that our Lord’s statement is still true, that the world is in a state of terrible darkness?

Think of it in the realm of personal life and conduct and behaviour. There are many men with great knowledge in many departments of thought who are just tragic failures in their own personal lives and conduct. Look at it in the realm of relationships between person and person. At the very time when we have been boasting of our enlightenment and knowledge and understanding, there is this tragic breakdown in personal relationships. It is one of the major moral and social problems of society. Isn’t that on display in our world right now as I speak?

You have riots, looting, injustices of all kinds, you have people ridiculing one another at an alarming rate, hate, and division among people are at a boiling over state, yet we live in an age of almost unlimited knowledge…so what’s the problem? The world is in darkness friends…but you see the natural man doesn’t see it, why because he is in a state of darkness himself, he, as Jesus put it, he loves the darkness rather than light. But you see the darkness of the world becomes more evident as light shines in it. So then...

What does this text tell us about the Christian in this dark world?

The Christian is the only true light in a dark world. The ‘you’ is emphatic meaning you and only you…just as you are the only salt in the world the Christian is the only light in a dark world. Jesus’ words are saying in effect that the Christian is the only one who can give any real helpful advice, knowledge, and instruction in a fallen dark world. This is not a boastful claim, it’s only a reality as Jesus has shone light upon us and in us. Great thinkers in the world who were not Christian have thought that with their increased knowledge they would be able to apply that knowledge and find solutions to all of man’s problems.

But as we can see in a day of increased knowledge man is still bad and sinful. As one great philosopher wrote many years ago, “I have spent a life time analyzing the problem with man and the problems in the world, and my analysis, while I believe is good, does no good helping the situation or answering what the ultimate source of the trouble with man.” You see what that philosopher didn’t understand was man is sinful by nature and no amount of knowledge will change that basic fact…man needs saving. You see the Christian knows and understands more about life than anyone in the world…even the greatest minds. Because a Christian knows what a man is by nature.

This is not a boastful statement, though the life that has not been changed by Christ will view it as boastful. The apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians puts it quite explicitly when he says, ‘the world by wisdom knew not God,’ and therefore ‘it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe’. This thing that appears to be utterly ridiculous to the world is the pure wisdom of God. So how is this true of the us?

The best way to understand it, I think, is this. The Lord who said, ‘You are the light of the world,’ also said, ‘I am the light of the world.’ These two statements must always be taken together, since the Christian is only ‘the light of the world’ because of his relationship to Him who is Himself ‘the light of the world’ Jesus. Our Lord’s claim was that He had come to bring light. His promise is that ‘he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’.

Here, however, He also says, ‘ye are the light of the world.’ It comes to this, He and He alone gives us this vital light with respect to life. But He does not stop at that; He also makes us ‘light’. You remember how the apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 5, where he says, ‘For you were darkness, but now are you light in the Lord’. So not only have we received light from the Lord, we have been made light by the Lord; we become transmitters of our Lord’s light.

In other words, it is this extraordinary teaching of the mystical union between the believer and his Lord. Christs’ nature enters into us so that we become, in a sense, what He Himself is. It is essential that we bear in mind both aspects of this matter. As those who believe the gospel we have received light and knowledge and instruction. But, in addition, it has become part of us. It has become our life, so that we thus become reflectors of it.

The remarkable thing which we are reminded here is our intimate relationship with Him. The Christian is a man who has received and has become a partaker of the divine nature. The light that is Christ Himself, the light that is ultimately God, is the light that is in the Christian. ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.’ ‘I am the light of the world.’ ‘Ye are the light of the world.’ The way to understand this is to grasp our Lord’s teaching concerning the Holy Spirit in John 14–16 where He says, in effect, ‘The result of the Holy Spirit coming will be this: My Father and I will take up Our abode in you; We will be in you and you will be in Us.’ God, who is ‘the Father of lights’, is the light that is in us; He is in us, and we are in Him, and thus it can be said of the Christian, ‘You are the light of the world.’

One more thing before we look at the effect of light… Christian you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. Why does our Lord put it this way or in this order? This is an important point, salt is a subtle influencer i.e. you don’t see it when it’s rubbed into the meat but it’s influence is obvious…light is not subtle it stands out and contrasts the darkness. The scriptures always deal with what a Christian is before he begins to speak right.

So the first effect of the Christian is his life subtly influences the life of those around him, like salt, by the way he conducts himself, controls himself, and carries himself. But it doesn’t stop there, there must be a gospel witness proclaimed as well. The light speaks of proclaiming that gospel message as well. Don’t every think that I’ll just live a good life and that will be enough…your life must first be lived for God but you must also have a gospel witness in words…share the gospel with people. Both are essential friends.

But the order is important as well, there are too many people who will boldly speak in an enlightened manner yet their lives do not avail what they preach. Let us never forget the Lord put we are salt first before we can be light. We are something before we can say anything. But because we are something we do say something. So then...

What is the effect of light?

Light exposes darkness and the things that belong to darkness. Imagine a room in darkness, and then suddenly the light is switched on. Or think of the headlights of a car coming along a dark country road. As the Scripture puts it, ‘Whatsoever doth make manifest is light’. There is a sense in which we are not truly aware of darkness until the light appears, and this is something that is fundamental. Speaking of the coming of the Lord into this world, Matthew says, ‘The people which sat in darkness saw great light’. The coming of Christ and the gospel is so fundamental that it can be put in that way; and the first effect of His coming into the world is that He has exposed the darkness of the life of the world. The worst things that happen always happen under the cover of darkness, why? because light exposes that which belongs to darkness.

That, of course, was really the ultimate cause of the antagonism of the Pharisees and the scribes to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Here were these men, who were teachers of the law, these men who were experts, in a sense, on the religious life. Why did they so hate and persecute Him? The only adequate explanation is His utter purity, His utter holiness. Without His saying a word against them at the beginning—for He did not denounce them until the end—His purity made them see themselves as they really were, and they hated Him for it. Thus they persecuted Him, and finally crucified Him, just because He was ‘the light of the world’. It revealed and manifested the hidden things of darkness that were within them

Light not only exposes darkness it also explains the cause of the darkness. The sole cause of all the troubles in the world at this very moment from personal problems, to national problems, to international problems is nothing but man’s estrangement from God. Man has been so made by God that he cannot truly live unless he is in the right relationship to God. He was made like that. He was made by God; he was made for God. And God has put certain rules in his nature and being and existence, and unless he conforms to them he is bound to go wrong. That is the whole cause of the trouble. Every difficulty in the world today can be traced back, in the last analysis, to sin, selfishness, and self-seeking

All of the quarrels, disputes, misunderstandings, envy, jealousy, malice, all of these can be traced back to the fall and as John 3:19 says, ‘ This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’ ‘This is the condemnation’ and nothing else. The trouble with man is not his intellect, it’s his nature. We have a sin problem. Friends and everything we see going on in our world now is a result of this problem. And no one but the Christian has the explanation of this. Man needs to know that in spite of his wide knowledge he is still a creature controlled by his passions and lusts.

But thanks be to God we don’t stop there. Light not only exposes darkness; it provides the only way out of the darkness. This is where every Christian should be jumping to the task. The problem of man is the problem of a fallen, sinful, polluted nature. Can nothing be done about it? We have tried knowledge, we have tried education, we have tried political policies, we have tried international conferences, we have tried them all but nothing avails. Is there no hope? Yes, there is abundant and everlasting hope: ‘You must be born again’. What man needs is not more enlightenment; he needs a new nature that will love the light and hate the darkness—the exact opposite of his old nature, loving the darkness and hating the light.

Man needs to be taken hold of, and he needs to get back to God. It is not enough just to tell him that, because, if we do, we are leaving him in a still greater state of hopelessness. He will never find his way to God, try as he may. But the Christian is here to tell him that there is a way to God, a very simple one. It is to know one Person called Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God and He came from heaven to earth to ‘seek and to save that which was lost’. He came to illumine the darkness, to expose the cause of the darkness, and to make a new and living way out of it all back to God and to heaven.

He does not merely give us new teaching or a new understanding of the problem; He does not merely procure pardon for our past sins; He makes us new men with new desires, new aspirations, a new outlook and a new orientation. But above all He gives us that new life, the life that loves the light and hates the darkness, instead of loving the darkness and hating the light.

You and I are living in the midst of men and women who are in a state of gross darkness. They will never have any light anywhere in this world except from you and from me and the gospel we believe and teach. They are watching us. Do they see something different about us? Are our lives a silent rebuke to them? Do we so live as to lead them to come and ask us, ‘Why do you always look so peaceful? How is it you are so balanced? How can you stand up to things as you do? Why is it you are not dependent upon things and pleasures as we are? What is this thing that you have got?’ If they do we can then tell them that wondrous, amazing, but tragically neglected news, that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’, and to give men a new nature and a new life and to make them children of God. Christian people alone are the light of the world today. Let us live and function as children of the light.

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