November 12 Sermon: That They May See the Light
Exploring Luke 11:33-36 we consider three key aspects of Christ’s teaching using the imagery of light: the power, preservation, and plentiful nature of light. The Lord Jesus calls his people to let reflect his light as they serve him in a dark world.
Consider these questions as you listen to this week's message:
1. How does the imagery of light convey the power and significance of the message of Jesus in the passage?
2. In what ways does Pastor Mark emphasize the idea that the light received from Jesus is not meant to be kept to oneself but should be shared with others?
3. How does the concept of light play a role in preserving and guiding individuals in their faith, and what practical implications does it have for believers in their daily lives?
Transcript:
Throughout Scripture, we often get some very powerful imagery for us to understand the work of God. In our lives we have this idea that it is light, and this is really helpful imagery because you and I know the power of light. We understand this one at some point in our lives. I'm sure that when you were younger you were afraid of the dark. This is just a natural thing in us that light is powerful. Light illumines. There's safety in light and when we've seen this imagery, as we've been in Scripture together before, I've mentioned things like the way we try to turn on the light. Even when we know the power is out, we desire light. Even when we know it's not there, we expect light. Even when our brains tell us it isn't working, we habitually go and try and illumine the room. I've also talked about times where I've struggled when I don't have light. I've shared with you that I have had times where I thought I was smart. I didn't need to turn on the lights in this room as I was walking through here early in the morning to head to my study and the monitors were in my way and I stubbed my toe. We know this. We often make mistakes when we don't have the light. Lighting is for us safety. It tells us where we can go, and light also provides for us a beacon for us to follow when we don't know where to go.
For my profession of faith class, I moved the TV, or one of the TVs that was in the north room below us, into the south room below us last week. Well, I moved it into the corner because there was a power outlet there. It was a good spot to not only plug it in, but it was a good viewing angle for the students. Well, as I was coming over early on Monday morning, I realized that I had not put my keys in my pocket and so I needed to come in this door, because I don't need a key to get in this door. There's a number pad I can punch in the code. So as I was going down the stairs in the dark, believe it or not, my brain kicked in and I actually remembered that I had put the TV there in front of the door. So I said to myself I need to be careful that I don't run into the TV. So as I opened the door, I opened it and I realized I wouldn't have ran into it anyway. So the bad news for you is you don't have another story about how I took a blow to the head. I've taken enough of those. We all know that. That's not what this story is about.
The story is about the fact that there was barely any light coming in barely any, but there was enough to show me the outline so that I could easily avoid the TV, walk through and come up to my study. All there was. I think it was like probably 4.45 or 5 in the morning. There was no light coming. Even with daylight savings time giving us a little more morning light, there was no light coming for a long time, but there was enough coming from the security light on the quarter of the building, refracting through those windows, that it gave an outline that I could see. It didn't take much light. It only took a little bit for me to be able to have a beacon and I realized, as I was thinking about this passage later on that day, how even just a little bit of light is all we need. It can guide our way.
As I said, that light coming in was not substantial, but light, even in small doses, is powerful and we understand this well because each of us has been in darkness and we have found guidance. We have found comfort from even the weakest sources of light to find our way to where we needed to be. So, as we come to these four verses, this morning we're going to be focusing on three different elements that are at work in this passage, and this morning we're going to be operating with three easy-to-remember words that start with the letter P as our guide. So, as we look at our points here today, the first thing that we want to remember is that light is powerful. Light is powerful. It shines brightly. It's not clouded or blocked. This light that we have from Jesus is powerful and we want that light to shine. We want it to shine out in purity to the world that they might see it. Secondly, the light preserves. We have been given the light of the Lord Jesus by grace, through faith, and we're called to live in a holy manner. The light of Jesus comes to us and it builds us up and it preserves us in this faith that we have been given. And finally, we see that the light is plentiful. The light isn't just intended for us. The light does not remain in us. Instead, we are to let this light shine out into God's world and we reflect the light that Christ has given us to those around us. And so we land here in verse 33 and we see the power and the intensity of the light that Jesus is talking about here.
Now, as I mentioned, we understand this imagery of light so very well. I talked about only a little bit of light being necessary to guide me around an obstacle, and that light was filtered to me through an indirect angle and the nature of those windows in the church basement right there cloudy windows. Those windows are designed so that people can't see in and watch what we're doing down there, and I also find it very helpful that when it's light outside, that my catechism students can't be distracted by what's outside. That's the purpose of cloudy windows. We see those all over the place that there's a reason to distort the light. They're designed that way all the time. They refract the light for the purpose of softening it. Now the image we get of light here in this verse is the exact opposite of that. We don't want the light softened, we don't want the light to be refracted. When you're in darkness and you light a lamp, you don't limit that light, you hold it up. As Jesus says, you want to illumine the entire room.
And as I was contemplating this, I thought about how spoiled we really are by modern lighting. We literally walk into any room, we flip on a switch and we might make this statement oh, that's too bright. You know, prior to the advent of electric lights, did anybody ever really have to think about that? Did anybody ever really like, oh, we need to turn that down? No, I'm sure there were instances, but generally speaking, we are spoiled by how plentiful light is. We might not only, you know complain that it's too bright. We have a dimmer, we might move it around because it's putting reflections on the TV and we can't see it very well. We are spoiled with electrical light and, as I believe that I've mentioned in the past, prior to the advent of electric lights you probably wouldn't have wanted to cover the light just because light wasn't necessarily cheap.
You needed oil to light your lamp and you couldn't just run to lamps our us and get more oil for your lamp. You weren't going to waste it by covering it up and you would have done what Jesus said in this passage you would have put the light on a stand in the center of the room. You would have made sure that that light permeated the entire area, and you most assuredly wouldn't have lit the lamp and then put something over the top of it. Why even light it then? Because you know fuel could be expensive, not easy to get, as I mentioned before. You would have cherished the light because outside there was darkness, and I think this is a good thought for us as we think about this passage.
Do we cherish the light that we have in the Lord Jesus? We know of its power, we know of its purity. You and I have sang this little light of mine so many times since we were young children. We know that the light of Jesus has brought to our lives. We know this, but I think we can easily forget the darkness of the world and how wonderful it is to be in the light.
Now we're just a week removed from the time change, and I'm guessing it has been a conversation piece for you this whole week, the last seven days. You probably had multiple conversations with people about how it's getting darker earlier, or how it's getting bright, uh, bright, uh earlier as well, and so this time of year can provide us with a true understanding of the blessing of lights. Right, because imagine if we had to be in darkness, absolute darkness, from 5 pm to 7 am. Now I'd rather not think about that, yet when we understand what Jesus is saying here, those that are without Christ live in darkness. They don't have the light of salvation, the illumination of His Word, in their lives, and they don't have the glow that comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit. They are in darkness. The darkness outside of Christ is not from 5 in the evening until 7 in the morning, as bad as that would be, to have darkness for that long with no light. It's more than that. It is absolute darkness, and that's the darkness that you and I have been brought out of.
In Christ, we can see the power that this light is and why we need to make sure that we let it shine in a dark world, we understand that we need this light and as we continue to look at the words of Jesus today, we see that this light that we are called to let shine is not only powerful but it preserves. So we see here, in verses 34 and 35, jesus stating that our eyes are the lamp of the body, and I guess this is another one of those passages that I have always read through far too quickly and not really taken much time to consider. Because, isn't this true? The eye is the lamp of the body. I mean, jesus is saying here this is the means by which light comes to us. I don't know how you view vision, but I see my vision is going out from me. That's how my mind works.
But in actuality what is happening? It is a lamp to us. Light is coming into our bodies. Our eyes illumine the world for us. They illumine our bodies. Light comes in through our eyes and it causes us to perceive, to understand and to live in the world around us.
And if you have healthy eyes, you see things correctly and you're able to interact with everything that is around you. Well. But if eyes aren't healthy, what happens? Things become distorted. You know, if I take my glasses off, I can get by, but I can't even recognize my family. When it's distorted, you can get by, but you can't see things clearly. I know for sure you would not want me behind the wheel of a car Because things are so distorted. Like I said, you can get by, but you don't excel, because your entire world becomes distorted by how that light has changed. And that's just me talking about my nearsightedness, my astigmatism and my age. There's so much more that can go wrong with our vision that will distort the light that comes into our bodies. As Jesus says here, when it's bad, your body is full of darkness. Now I've just spoken about impaired or distorted vision, but Jesus takes it further as he speaks about blindness, and I'm guessing.
As children we all experimented with what it's like to be blind. Right, we would close our eyes and then try to navigate the world around us. We wanted to know what this was like. It was very educational for us. On the blessing of sight, we realized, hey, it's good to be able to see. But there's some things about this little educational experiment that we have to think about, about how that doesn't really show us the extent of what it's truly like to be blind. First, you and I never attempted this as children anywhere where anything truly bad could happen to us. I think we all did this little experiment, but I doubt there's any of us here who did it by a cliff or a freeway. I mean, I don't have to take a poll, I'm pretty sure none of us did. We're not going to do that.
Secondly, you also discover that you were blessed to actually close your eyes. When you did this experiment and you sort of subconsciously learned that your subconscious takes note of everything that's around you. When you tried this experiment, your brain took note of where everything was. So as you were trying to navigate around the room, you sort of expected to run into things. You knew how the world looked. You took note of stuff that might get in your way and then you walked around in the darkness and you know that you cheated. You sort of blinked your eyes a little bit at least, if nothing else for the outlines. You knew that you could open your eyes again. You blinked or you even opened your eyes fully to cheat, just to get a glimpse of what's around you. Because you know that you truly do have vision. You do know how to see the world around you.
And so light protects us because we can understand how clear it makes things. It comes into our minds and shows us where to go and what to avoid and what is good for us, and it also shows us things that can bring us harm. And Jesus tells us here that it's good to have a healthy eye, and he isn't telling us to be careful because if we go blind we might stub our toe or step into traffic. He is, of course, speaking of our spiritual condition here, something far more important. Do you and I allow His light to come in? Do we allow His light to permeate us? It is the protecting light. The light of His truth shows us and tells us what is good. The beacon of His Word guides us. It is the lamp unto our feet. It is the light unto our path. His law shines for us and guides us in paths of righteousness in a dark world.
And so the practical question for you and I today is how are my eyes? Is what I'm consuming bringing healthy light into my body? Is what I'm looking at protecting my heart and my mind? Is the light of the Lord Jesus permeating me and protecting me from the attacks of the evil one, or are my eyes sick? Are the things that I see distorting the light? Am I heeding the words of Jesus and being careful? Less the light in me be darkness.
We need to be deliberate to be in the light, because it protects us from the darkness of the world, and you and I have received the gift of salvation in the Lord Jesus. We were in darkness, and by His grace he brought us into the light. This is the deliverance from the darkness that sin had mired us in. Jesus took on the wrath of God to rescue us from sin, death and hell. Why would we want to move back to that darkness when we have light and splendor in His grace? So as we move to close up this passage, we see that this isn't just about the light that we have brought into but, like verse 33 alluded to, we need to let this light shine, because this light is plentiful, it's powerful, it protects and it is plentiful. It isn't just for us. So as we think about the plentiful nature of this light, it's important that we think about all that Jesus is saying about light.
The light that we have is not something that comes up from within us. The spark isn't something that comes from me. It's not there just waiting to burst out. It isn't a secret knowledge that we came to on our own, because in our sin we are in darkness. There is not light within us on our own, as we just saw. The light comes from outside of us. It transforms us. It dispels the darkness from within us. We are not the light, we reflect the light. And think about the difference Just a little bit of reflection makes for light.
You reflect light back into a room and it makes it brighter. And you and I are called to shine the light back out into the world. This is what Jesus says here. Having received His mercy and grace, we take His powerful and His protective light into the world with us. We see here, as Jesus says, that this is our body and it is full of light. Then it is to be a lamp that gives light to the world. We are to be a light that reflects out to the darkness of our world, and the message of the Gospel is to go out into a dark world. And it's you and I, who have received this light, who are to spread it.
We reflect Jesus, and this is a difficult thing for us to do, because we know the darkness that's within us that continually struggles against the light. We're humbled by our struggles and we think that we're not able to spread the light because we don't have it all figured out or we don't have all the answers. We know the power, we know the purity of the light of Christ, but we feel as though, because we don't perfectly reflect that light, that we should just keep it contained within us. In doing so, we go against what Jesus said earlier in this passage, and we hide the light when we don't feel as though we can reflect it. We're covering it, just as he said we're not to do.
But, as I just mentioned, it isn't our light in the first place. It is the light of Christ, and while we may not perfectly reflect the perfection of His light, we are still called to let it shine. Why? Because we have in fact been made holy by the work of the Lord Jesus in us. When we shine the light, we aren't boasting in what we've done or bragging about our righteousness. We're boasting in the Lord. We're saying that this isn't our light, but this is the light that we trust in.
And while there's a constant struggle of the flesh within us, we do know that we have no dark part within us before God, because when he looks at us, he sees the perfect righteousness that we have been given in Jesus, and it's because of this perfect gift that we can shine the plentiful light of Jesus. His grace is enough to bring light to my darkness, and it is enough for others to receive light in the midst of darkness as well. We shine the light of Christ, and so, even amidst our struggles, we can say that the light of the Gospel and the radiance of His Word is at work within us and we trust that sanctifying work to be effective and that he will accomplish His good work in us through His Word and through the Holy Spirit. So as we close up, we remember the power of the light that we are to show out in a dark world. We remember the protection the light of Christ gives us to navigate in this dark world and how it guides us away from darkness. And we also remember that that light is plentiful.
We are called to take that light of Christ and reflect it out into the world because all need to hear of this saving work of Jesus. And we are blessed this morning to not only have the light of the Word to fill us, but today we also get to taste and see that the Lord is good. And we are filled not only with the light of His Word, but we are filled as we receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And in receiving this gift we are reminded that we are nourished by God, that he comes to us in His grace, he forgives our sins, he gives us this righteousness of Christ and as His covenant people. We are called to take His light out into the world, and so may the Holy Spirit be at work in us today and in the coming week.
May you and I daily be blessed with growth and holiness, and may we see opportunities to reflect the light of Jesus in a dark world. That His light might shine to the praise of His glory. Amen, let us pray Almighty and everlasting God. We praise and thank you for the gift of your Word. We thank you that we have been illumined to it by your Holy Spirit, and we pray that it will be at work in us that we might reflect the light of Christ into a dark world, that the Word might be heard and others would come to hear and believe the good news of salvation. Through Him, may we be a beacon for the truth of the gospel. That all glory, honor and praise might come to Him alone. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.
