Saturday, December 17, 2011

This Little Light of Mine I Am Going To Let It Shine

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, I AM GOING TO LET IT SHINE,
AND NOT HIDE
THE CANDLE UNDER A BUSHEL
The Light is Jesus the Son of God
Charles e Whisnant, Pastor-Teacher/Apprentice
Matthew 5:14-17; Mark 4:21-26: Luke 8:16-19;
Selected Verses
John 1:4-9 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
John 3:19-21 And this is the (verdict) condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
· This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. All those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God
John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
· Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
· The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 
2 Corinthians 4:6 6For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So we have in those handful of verses uses of each of the three biblical metaphors for light applied directly to Jesus.
· Jesus’ light is virtuous or good.
· Jesus’ light gives vitality or life.
· Jesus’ light is the source of vision or knowledge.
But Jesus and the New Testament writers who follow him don’t stop there. The God-light which is Jesus is also to be the light within God’s people.
In fact, this idea of God’s people bearing the light of virtue and vitality and vision has biblical past history in the Old Testament. Perhaps you remember what happened when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai?
Exodus 34:29-30 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn't know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, saw his radiant face, and held back, afraid to get close to him...and he passed on the commands, everything that God had told him on Mount Sinai.
In Isaiah, God plainly communicates His intention that His light would illuminate Israel so that their light would brighten, so to speak, the whole world.
Isaiah 60: 1-3 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. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.\
Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus picks up on this prophetic vision and announces to those listening to His teaching (read below)
Paul’s epistles regularly draw on the metaphor of light, placing it right at the center of the Christian message.

Colossians 1:12-13 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us qualified to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
· In this passage, Paul brings together this light metaphor with Jesus’ most consistent gospel language, that of the kingdom of God, which Paul can call the Kingdom of light and the Kingdom of the Son. The light metaphor is so closely linked to the core of Christian teaching that I’d go so far as to say that if you really understand it, you really understand the gospel.
 
· Ephesians 5:8-13 8For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 13But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
This is one of my favorite passages using this figure of speech. Paul describes salvation as the transformation from darkness to light. He doesn’t say “you were in the darkness” but “you were darkness and now you are light.”
Then he calls for Christians to live as Children of the light – which he describes as living virtuously (light as goodness.) The fruit of the light is synonymous here with the fruit of the spirit. And then—and this is my favorite part—he turns the metaphor from light as virtue to light as vision, when he talks about how light makes everything visible, namely the action and character of people. He adds a final thought – everything that is illuminated becomes a light. In other words, anyone who is in the light of God, becomes a light to others.
 


1 John 1:7
7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
·
To John, walking in the light has direct implications for our relations with other people. It is not just having our sins forgiven but being made holy, being “purified of all sin.” We don’t just have the light shine on us once, we walk in the light. Walking in the light is holy living and the hallmark of holy living is love. So it is no surprise when a couple of verses later he writes:
 

1 John 2:9-10 9He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 10He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
· The idea that God’s people are intended not just to be receivers of light but sources of light for the world.
· I want us to pause for just a moment and think about what all this means for us.
· Sometimes Christianity is understood to be little more than an arrangement whereby if we believe the right doctrine, we get to go to heaven when we die. But we must compare this idea to what we have just read.

The Christian life, is the life lived in the light of God.
· Followers of Moses and Jesus and Paul are those who live in the kingdom of light, who heed the command to live as children of the light. They are those who walk in the light to let their light shine before others. These are the straightforward biblical commands:
Walk in the light.
Live as children of the light.
Let your light shine before others

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