Sermon Tone Analysis
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The PROCLAMATION of light.
(v.
14a)
We are called the light of the world due to the world’s CONDITION.
We are called the light of the world due to our new CLASSIFICATION.
It is the reality of the world’s darkness that makes Jesus’ pronouncement so thrilling.
“You [emphatic: you alone] are the light of the world [and no one else!].”
If we are truly believers, we are the light of the world!
To say such a thing about ourselves without divine precedent and sanction would be the height of arrogance.
But Jesus said it, and it is easily one of the most amazing statements to ever fall from Christ’s lips—especially realizing what we are like when left to ourselves.
It is a fact—we are light.
Jesus is the light; the world is in darkness; and believers are light.
If we are believers, we will shine somehow, some way.
We are called the light of the world due to God’s COMMITMENT to the salvation of people from all people groups.
The PLACEMENT of light.
(v.
14b – 15)
Light is not VIABLE if it is not VISIBLE
Our Lord dramatizes the function of light by giving two examples—a city perched on a hill and a light set in a home.
First, believers are to function like a city set on a hill.
Jesus says, “A city on a hill cannot be hidden” (v.
14b).
There is no way to obscure a city on the crest of a hill.
Cities on hills cannot be hidden.
Believers are like this.
They are visible.
There is no such thing as an invisible believer.
As Dr. Lloyd-Jones said, “If we find in ourselves a tendency to put the light under a bushel, we must begin to examine ourselves and make sure that it really is ‘light.’
”3
That is good, gracious advice!
Do we hide our light?
And if so, are we really light?
Christians are visible, and this visibility makes them like the beckoning lights of a city on a hill.
Inside there is light and what goes with it—warmth and safety.
In addition to being like a hilltop city, Christians are like an ancient household lamp.
Jesus goes on to say, “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house” (v.
15).
The point is unmistakable: The principal function of a household lamp, and of a believer, is to provide illumination to all around.
This simple metaphor tells us so much.
Light reveals things as they really are.
All of us have at some time walked into an unfamiliar room and have felt our way to the lamp and turned the light on, discovering a room far different from what we imagined.
Light also promotes life.
Even broken bones mend faster if we can soak up some sunlight.
Light is persistent.
It constantly assaults the surface of the earth and will penetrate the slightest crack.
The darkest place is not safe from it if the tiniest opening appears.
Light also awakens us.
Jesus, our Captain and Model, did all of these things and more by bringing spiritual light into the world.
He did not make the darkness darker—he simply made it felt.
His life was such that men and women were made to feel what they could not feel before—their sin, imperfection, and impurity.
Christ made possible a clearer distinction between good and evil.
He eliminated the option of thinking ourselves good by comparison with others.
He was and is the standard!
At the same time his perfectly beautiful life drew men and women to him.
We are lamps, and the Householder places us strategically.
“Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand.”
The light is placed strategically so it can shine to best advantage.
And God does the placing.
We are simply to shine where we are placed.
In fact, it is in the darker and less promising places that light has the greatest effect.
Consider Dr. Boris Kornfeldt who shared his faith with the diseased and sickly Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the Russian Gulag.
God calls us to shine where we are.
“Brighten the corner where you are.”
How beautiful this all is! God has made us visible like a city on a hill.
God has enabled us to illumine life like a lamp in a dark room.
God has placed us where he wants us to shine to best advantage.
Our presence is meant to reveal life, sin, and goodness as they are—to provide a light that draws others to it like a summer lamp.
How beautiful it is when this happens.
Some time ago a young man spent a week with my family.
He had lived across the street from us a number of years earlier.
He had been just a boy then but was a strapping 6’4” when he came to stay with us, visiting one of my sons.
During that time he committed his life to Christ because of the light he had seen over the years.
How wonderful it is when we see this occur.
The PURPOSE of light.
(v.
16)
It DISPELS darkness through illumination.
Men don’t know that they are living in darkness until they are exposed to the light.
They don’t call it darkness but their need for enlightenment.
This has been man’s quest for centuries.
As stated in previous sermons; enlightenment does not come through outward corrections such as education or environment.
Listen to Paul’s words in
We live in a world of darkness filled with because 2/3’s of our world, and this conservative estimate, have yet to come to the Light.
Men perpetuate darkness because they have dark hearts.
Man has head knowledge of what plaques him.
However, he lacks sufficient power to change.
Change is not wrought in our minds but in our hearts.
Man does not need more knowledge but a new heart that can obey what he knows.
It gives DIRECTION to the lost through ILLUSTRATION.
Being rescued from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light gives an illustrative hope and while illuminating a path of salvation.
Let me remind us all that people are not saved by our lives.
However, our lives can either bring clarity or confusion.
Is your life bringing clarity or confusion to the Gospel?
It DECLARES God’s glory through ILLICIT living.
Our light shines brightest and most clearly through illicit living.
Illicit not meaning illegal but a behavior that is unacceptable by prevailing social standards.
Our standard of living as declared by the Beatitudes is clearly unaccepted by today’s prevailing social standards.
It is this type of living that brings clarity to our message.
The POWER of light.
It gives SIGHT.
Scripture tells us that we where blinded to the gospel by Satan and our own deadness.
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