We Are the Light of the World
Tom Shrader explores how Christians are called to be the light of the world, reflecting Christ's light like the moon reflects the sun. Drawing from Matthew 5:14-16 and Romans 12:1-2, he emphasizes that believers must present themselves as living sacrifices and avoid conforming to worldly values including the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and boastful pride of life. This transformed living serves to glorify God, provide evidence of genuine faith, demonstrate obedience, and create opportunities for Gospel witness.
“You and I reflect the light of the world, Jesus - when He says you're the light of the world, He's saying with me gone, you're my hands, you're my feet, you're the visible manifestation of me in this world.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Light of the World
Recorded: December 07, 2000
Duration: 42 min
Themes: light, witness, worldliness, transformation, sacrifice, obedience, holiness, evangelism, new believer, struggling with worldliness, seeking purpose, wanting to witness, parent teaching children, young adult, feeling ordinary, needing transformation
Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16, John 8, John 9, Romans 12:1-2, 1 John 2:15-16, Genesis 3:1-6, 1 Corinthians 1:18, Ephesians 4, Colossians 1:10, Colossians 2:6, Colossians 4:2-5, Romans 1:16
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, incarnation, living sacrifice, gospel witness, spiritual transformation, biblical obedience, christian testimony
Full Transcript
In fact, I wasn't even sure that I would tape today. I decided I would tape, and then at the end of the day we'll figure out whether we'll ever distribute it or not. I've got three weeks here before Christmas. I don't have a series, and I had together what I thought I wanted to say, and then I lost that file, so I'm innovating, perhaps.
Tuesday, I was invited to speak down at ASU to a group of faculty and staff, and I had some thoughts together for them. But when we were there, part of what they were doing in this group that meets monthly, is they started singing some Christmas carols. True to form they distributed words, and last Sunday at church was the first Sunday that we sang Christmas carols. There's something about Christmas carols to me that when I hear them, they're one of those things that immediately launch me into a time capsule in reverse. They launch me back to when I was a kid. They launch me back to a whole flood of emotions for me that come with the Christmas carols.
Then I dribble forward, and I remember the first year, it was 1980, the first Christmas that I was a Christian. I remember singing these carols for the first time as a Christian, and the words were absolutely the same words that we had sung for years, but all of a sudden I saw what they really meant.
The Deeper Meaning of Christmas Carols
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was one of the songs that we sang the other day. Let me just read you sections of that carol: "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled." See, as a Christian, I understand now what they mean. God and sinner reconciled through the birth of Christ, and not just the birth of Christ, but the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ.
Here's another verse: "Mild He laid His glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth"—to be born again. In these carols, what you see frequently through all of them, and it only makes sense because it's the whole idea of Christmas, what you see frequently through all of them is the idea of the incarnation. God takes the form of man, retains deity, comes to this earth, and lives. That really is what Christmas sets us up for.
Christmas in and of itself, if we just isolate it, stays focused on the birth of Christ. At least in the areas I'm in, I try to never let anybody separate Christmas from Easter. I think they have to come together as a package: the birth of Christ, the death of Christ.
Jesus: The Light of the World
As Jesus walks this earth, at one point in John chapter 8, and then again in John chapter 9, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." You've heard that, you know that. It's part of the "I am's" that we see in the gospel of John: I'm the light of the world, I'm the bread of life, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. There's a series of them. But Jesus says, "I am the light of the world."
But in His teaching in the Beatitudes, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is speaking. We know it as the Sermon on the Mount. As Jesus ends the Beatitudes section of that, here's what He said: "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It's good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men."
Matthew chapter 5 verse 14, He says, "You are the light of the world." Now in John chapter 8 He says "I am the light of the world," in Matthew 5 He says "you are the light of the world." When Jesus walked on this earth, He was the light, but now you and I are the light.
Understanding Our Role as Light
Bear with me here, because this gets a little tricky, I want you to see this. Jesus is the light of the world, much like, and when we speak of that light, much like the S-U-N, not S-O-N. We know He's the Son of God, but S-U-N, He's the sun, He's the source of light. You and I are light, much like, if you will, a moon. Sounds a little new agey, but what we're saying is a moon does not have a light source in and of itself. A moon reflects light. You and I reflect the light of the world, Jesus.
When He says "you are the light of the world," He's saying with me gone, you're my hands, you're my feet, you're the visible manifestation of me in this world. You as individuals, us as a church, us as the body of Christ.
Now, listen to what He says: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in 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."
Being the Visible Manifestation of an Invisible God
What I want to talk about today is exactly this idea: you and I as the light of the world. You and I as becoming a visible manifestation of an invisible God. We know God demonstrates His power through His creation and His divine nature through His creation, but God didn't just start this world and then walk away. God continues to work in this world and He does it, one of the ways He does it, almost primarily I was going to say, is through His people.
So in our life, there has to be, with our life, a subsequent life change. Romans chapter 12, and I just encourage you to make notes of these today and spend some time on them yourself. Paul said this: "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."
He says, "Here's what I want you to do." He said, "Therefore, I'm urging you, I beseech you"—the idea of that word in the Greek is to come alongside, I'm coming
I urge you therefore. It's a pattern that as you study, you see often in the writings of the apostle Paul. You see it in the book of Ephesians, Galatians, you see it in Philippians, Colossians, you see it in the book of Romans. There's the opening section, in this case 11 chapters of doctrine, and then there's a therefore that becomes the practical manifestation of that. So he said, "I'm urging you therefore by the mercies of God."
So here's what he said to those people in a quick overview of Romans chapter 1-11. He said, "I manifested my glory, I demonstrated my power, all are lost, there's a struggle in life, but you have the power to conquer sin, to overcome death, and to live a life that makes a difference if you come to Christ in repentance and faith." Now because you've come by God's mercy, therefore I want you to present your bodies.
Present Your Bodies as a Living Sacrifice
Probably no one in this room has been mentioned in Sports Illustrated. I have, and for a variety of things probably, but on one specific instance, years ago during the Larry Smith years down at the University of Arizona, I was working with some of the team guys in the sense that I had done a chapel and met some of them. I was doing a chapel up here for the ASU game, and Sports Illustrated was writing a column on the U of A prep for the ASU game. In this column they said that on Saturday game day, there was a guy who spoke in chapel who said, as he demonstrated a point, "give your bod to God." That's back when I was younger and hip. That was my contribution.
What I was quoting here, and I'm not sure that I said that phrase, although I must have, I doubt he made it up, is this: "present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice." What God said is, present your life, and it's because all this grace of God is true, because all this doctrine is true, now you present your body as a living sacrifice. Now somebody's pointed out, as you well know, the problem with a living sacrifice is they tend to want to crawl off that altar.
You present your body as a living sacrifice, and the picture here is, I don't come in and say, "God I present my wallet," or "I present my business," or "I present my family," or "God I present my time at church." I present me, which is a picture of everything that I am. And he says, it is an act by your spiritual worship. One of the translations says, it's a reasonable service. The word literally means, it's the only logical thing to do.
Think it through with me now. If Jesus Christ died on the cross for His people, if by God's grace and mercy He's brought you to a point where you recognize this, if you're now His child, then the only logical thing to do is to begin to live that way.
Looking Like Our Father
We used to use the illustration. It doesn't work as much anymore. But when the girls were small, I could bring ten kids in here and line them up, and I could say to you, "pick out Sarah." And you wouldn't even struggle. You'd go, "that's that one right there with the round face and the little freckles and the little glasses. That's Sarah right there." And I would say to you, "how do you know that's Sarah?" And you would say the obvious. She looks like you.
What Paul's saying here, in its real simplest form, is that as children of God, we ought to start to look like our Father. There ought to be a sense in which people look at us and they go, "he's got to be one of those Christians." "She's got to belong to God because she's starting to look like Him." By that they mean she's starting to act like Him, starting to see the world as God sees the world.
And that's Romans chapter 12 verse 2. He says, "don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." One of the translations, I think it's Phillips, says, "don't let the world squeeze you into its mold." Don't be conformed.
Don't Let the World Squeeze You Into Its Mold
The idea here, and Paul's speaking of what apparently is a problem that's developed in these Romans, is that they're starting to look like the world. He's writing this and the language is structured in such a way that it implies that there's already a problem that's developing in these Romans. Well, the application to us is very clear. Don't you start to act like the world. Don't you start to look like the world. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.
I think it's the Living Bible that says, "don't copy the behavior of the world." Now when we hear this, we think almost instinctively of First John chapter 2: "Don't love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father's not in him."
When we use the word world, we use it one of three ways generally. Either to speak of the planet. Is that what he's saying here, don't love the planet? Well no, that doesn't work. Mankind, don't love mankind? Well we know that's not it. The third way it's used is to speak of an age or a belief system or of values. That's exactly what he's saying here.
A Love That God Hates
Don't love the values. Don't love the philosophy. Don't love the thinking of this world. "If anyone loves the world," he says, "if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father's not in him." This is interesting and I don't think it, I'd love to think it was clever. I don't know that it is. But here's what he's saying. John is saying there is a love that God hates. God hates if you love this world.
So important for us to grasp this. God's got no problem with you being sensitive to the environment and the planet. God's got no problem with you loving people. In fact, God says, "here's what I want you to do positively. I want you to love God, love me, love my word, love people, but I want you to hate this world's system."
Now he comes back and here's what he said. If you love the world system, then you don't love God. Now you got to apply that in your own life. Verse 16, First John chapter 2: "For all the things that is in..."
The world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the boastful pride of life is not from God, but it's from this world. What he's talking about there, in many ways, is just evil. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life.
Genesis 3: The Most Important Chapter
I want you to take a look at this with me. I once did a talk called the most important chapter in the Bible. I don't know that that's true. I don't know that you could say that. But Genesis chapter 3, I think, if you understand Genesis chapter 3, it unlocks so many things for you. Because Genesis chapter 3 explains why there's suffering, why babies die, why marriages break up, why deals don't go through, why you get sick, why there's pain, why there's agony. Genesis chapter 3 helps you understand a lot of stuff.
Genesis chapter 2 ends with Adam and Eve in the garden. They're naked and they're having a good time. Genesis chapter 4 begins with Cain and Abel and strife and anger and murder. If you rip out Genesis 3, you've got to go, what in the world happened? What in the world took place? Genesis 3 is the answer to all of that.
Satan's Strategy Revealed
Well, it begins with Satan. Let me just read to you Genesis chapter 3 verse 1: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, indeed as God said, you should not eat from any tree of the garden." And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you should not eat it or touch it lest you die."
I remember the first time I heard this, I thought, jeepers, here's this tree and God says don't eat from it. And I'm thinking, there's a real test. But it's not a tree in the middle of a desert. It's a tree in the middle of paradise. The middle of this lush orchard and vegetation. He said, you can eat all over. This isn't about diet. You can eat all over, but don't eat from that one tree.
Now Satan comes along and says, "Gee, did God really say that?" Here's what he says, verse 4: "And the serpent said to the woman, you surely shall not die." Satan comes dead against what God has said. And he says, "Here's the deal. God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God and you'll know good and evil."
Satan comes along and says, "God's just—I don't understand why God doesn't want you to do that. Boy, that doesn't make sense to me. I think God's probably a little jealous. That's what it is. I mean, if God really loved you, would He say, don't do something like that?"
The Three-Fold Temptation Pattern
Verse 6: "When the woman saw"—and I have not been through Genesis 3 for a long time, so I'm shooting a little loose here, but I remember when I studied it, I wondered if there was a time gap between Satan saying this and the woman reacting. I remember one of the great questions we had was, how long do you think it was between the time man was created and man fell? Those are great questions to ponder. My sense is, not a lot, but I don't know.
Now the woman's there. There's the fruit, the word is planted in her mind, and it said, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took its fruit and she ate it."
Listen. When the woman saw the tree was good—lust of the flesh, would taste good, feel good. Saw that it was a delight to the eyes—lust of the eyes. Saw that the tree was desirable to make her wise—boastful pride of life. She took and she ate it.
Satan's Unchanging Playbook
You take a football team, and you put them in a huddle, and you come up to the line of scrimmage, the other side doesn't know the play you're going to run, that's to your advantage. I was never much of a football player, but during my high school time, I quarterbacked the second team. The problem with that is that all week long, the first team beat the snot out of you.
What would happen is, every once in a while, we would run a play successfully. At the completion of this play, you would hear the coach say, "Run it again." Well, there was a problem with that. The element of surprise was gone. So for me, it wasn't particularly hard, because I could take the snap and come back, and I had to hand it off, and the running back would go. Obviously, this time, there'd be three guys right in that hole, because everybody on the field knew exactly what we were going to do. And he'd say, "Run it again." I'd look at that halfback and go, "Oh." Because it's going to be a long day for him.
The object is—in baseball, when you see that guy, and he's doing all these things, and they're trying to steal the sign, or a runner on second, you got the catcher down, he's flashing sign, and the runner on second's trying to steal the sign. The idea is, if I can steal the sign, I know the pitch is coming, I've got a huge advantage.
Well, I'm going to give you a huge advantage today. Satan is going to come at you, and I can already tell you what he's going to attack you with. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life. That's it. You got His playbook. He's so confident, because he started with Eve, he's so confident that in the desert, that's exactly what he did when he came to Jesus. He tempted with the lust of the flesh, eat this bread. Lust of the eyes, look at all this will be yours, jump off this, and we'll worship you. Boastful pride of life. The things in this world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, they're not from the Father.
Father, they're from the world. And the world's passing away, and also its lust. The effort again and again is for you and I to understand the things of God versus the things of the world.
The Word of the Cross Sounds Foolish
We in church are studying 1 Corinthians right now. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, Paul writes this: "For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolish, but to us who are being saved it's the power of God." Paul says he's going to give you something that identifies everybody in the world. You're either perishing or you're saved. He's talking about the word of the cross, which includes all of God's redemptive story, but especially the crucifixion. He says that's foolishness to those who are perishing, to those that aren't Christians.
You need to understand that. One of the things I think are great things about Christmas is, if you're sensitive to it, you have endless opportunities to share your faith. I'm driving down the street the other night, going home, it's like 10:30, and I got on KEZ because they're playing Christmas music. "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is out there, and you're singing "God and Sinner Reconciled." They come right after with one of my favorite songs, "Mary Did You Know." And right after that with "Breath of Heaven." I mean, you just got endless great songs about the gospel message. The guys at KEZ probably don't even have a clue what this is saying, most of them. You see it all around you.
But be warned as you share your faith—this sounds pretty silly. It sounds, a New American Standard word foolish, the word means literally silly. It sounds stupid, really. Put yourself, because some of you have been Christians so long, you forget a little bit about what it was like when you weren't a Christian.
Remembering How the Gospel Sounds to Unbelievers
I remember the first time a guy sat down and shared the gospel with me. I thought this guy was nuts. I mean, listen, just listen to the facts. Here are the facts. There's a God, and this God, there's only one of them, but He actually has three personalities, three persons. One of those persons came to earth and was born. It wasn't beam me down, or Mork from Ork. He came in the flesh as a baby, but in a little unconventional way because it was a virgin birth. It wasn't just a regular birth.
He was God, and yet man at the same time. Yet as a God, He grew, and yet He knew, and yet He lived a perfect life, and then they killed Him. When they killed Him, something took place there, that when He died, He died for the sin of people who would live 2,000 years later. Then they buried Him. That's what they do with dead people. Then He rose from the dead, and then He made Himself visible to different people. One day He was talking to His disciples, and He just took off for heaven, just like the space shuttle.
Really? I mean, that's an interesting theory. I gotta tell you something. Doesn't that sound pretty stupid? Doesn't that sound pretty foolish? I think it does. If you're lost and somebody comes to you, that doesn't make any sense.
Religion Makes Sense, Christianity Doesn't
What makes sense, by the way it's true though, what makes sense is religion. Religion always makes sense because religion's made and created and invented by man. So man always creates something that makes sense to him. Here's how you know and see a contrast between religion and Orthodox Christianity. Religion always magnifies man. Christianity always magnifies God. Religion always minifies God. Christianity always minifies man. Always.
When you look at the things of this world, and you look at philosophy, it always, at least on the surface, starts to make sense to you. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote this: "The whole drift toward modernism that has blighted the Church of God and has nearly destroyed its living gospel may be traced to an hour when man began to turn from revelation to philosophy." He doesn't mean the book of Revelation. He says there was a time when we were committed to the Word of God. When we turned away from that and to philosophy, all of a sudden Christianity is tainted.
All of a sudden we're talking about—here's what I heard. I heard a guy just today on Dr. Laura, the other day, a true story. I'm talking to a guy one day and he's saying, "I'm talking to my aunt or my grandmother." She said, "You know, the Bible says," and then she laid this quote out and he said, "You know, that doesn't sound right to me." She paused for a moment and she said to him, "You know what? That was Paul Harvey this morning." Well, all of a sudden we start quoting the Bible when we're actually quoting Paul Harvey.
The Limits of Human Knowledge and Wisdom
I was telling my brother a few months ago, I was hitting golf balls and all of a sudden I recognized the guy down next to me was Paul Harvey. He hit a shot and I said, "Good shot." He looked at me like I had eight eyes. I mean, it's like, "Gee, I think I've heard that before. And get away from me, you little punk," was kind of what he communicated to me. But here's the deal. We're quoting all of these people around us and we're holding them up and they fail to compete with the truth that God has for us.
Winston Churchill said this, because now what we're talking about is knowledge and truth, knowledge and wisdom. Churchill said this: "Certain it is that while men are gathering knowledge and power with ever increasing speed, their virtue and wisdom have not shown any notable improvement as the centuries have rolled. Under sufficient stress, starvation, tear, passion, even old intellectual frenzy. Modern man, we know so well, will do the most terrible deeds and His modern woman will back him up."
Vance Packer says it this way: "A person can be high in learning ability and memory and still remain a fool. The two do not add up either to brilliance
or wisdom in thinking. Until someone comes up with a pill for wisdom, we might better aspire to become more humane than a more brainy society. Here's what they're saying. We get all this human wisdom around us and it's foolishness. That's what Paul's saying. It's foolishness laid down to the wisdom of God. God's ways are higher than our ways. And when we look at this whole issue of salvation, we understand that salvation is from God.
So now, here's what we're saying. Try to tie it together here. Because, therefore, by the mercies of God, you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you immerse your mind. That your life action begins with a change of belief. That as your mind changes, your life changes. What we're talking about is the Gospel.
The Power of the Gospel in Our World
And I guess what I'm saying to you in this time of the year is what the Apostle writes for himself in Romans chapter 1, verse 16. He says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel for it's the power of salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew and to the Gentile. I'm saying to you, go out into this world. You're the light of this world. And as you live this light, what happens is you have the opportunity to share the Gospel. Share it boldly and understand that some are going to ridicule you because the message you preach is ridiculous to them. But it's true.
George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist. You know him. He introduced hundreds of uses for agricultural products like the peanut and the soybeans, sweet potatoes. Henry Ford once tried to hire him and he refused. Thomas Edison offered him a six-figure income. A lot of money in that day and age and he said no.
In 1921 he testified before a Senate subcommittee. Here's just a part of the testimony. A senator said to him, how can you learn all these things? And Carver responded, from an old book. The senator, what book? Carver, the Bible. The senator, does the Bible talk about peanuts? Carver said, no sir, but it tells me about the God who made the peanut and I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut and He did.
God's Wisdom Through Carver's Example
Carver talks in his own journals about a conversation that he had with God. Here's what Carver says, years ago I went to the laboratory and I said, dear God, please tell me what the universe was made for and God answered, you want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask for something more your size, little man. And then I asked, Please God, tell me what man was made for. And again, God replied, You're still asking too much. Cut down on the extent and improve on the intent.
So I said, Please God, will you tell me what you made the peanut for? That's better. But even that's infinite. What do you want to know about the peanut? God, can I make milk out of the peanut? What kind of milk do you want? Is it jersey milk or just plain boarding house milk? Jersey milk. Then Carver says, And then God taught me to take the peanut apart, to put it together again, and out of that process has come forth all these products.
See the foolishness of God is beyond any wisdom of man. You need to understand, and I don't know where you go when this meeting's over. I don't know what office you go to or what industry you're involved in. Whether you just go back home and you're about the very hard work of being at home. I don't know. I know this. The greatest asset you have in the rest of your life is the revealed word of God. See, this is what you take to the marketplace.
Biblical Principles in the Workplace
I just don't really know. And there's benefit. There's benefit to read books on management and people give me a lot of that stuff and I read some of that and some of it's real good. But you know what I found? The stuff that's really good, it all flows out of these ideas right here. Tom Peters revolutionized customer service with the idea that it's important to serve the customer. Well, really, I kind of got that right out of here. Jesus said, I didn't come to be served but to serve.
See, these principles in your life are the greatest assets you have. If you're an employee, let me tell you what an employer is looking for. An honest person who will work hard, who's concerned about other people, who will put others first instead of themselves, who will do an honest day's work for an honest wage, who will show up on time. You know what that is? That's a Christian.
You're an employer. I'll tell you the greatest asset you have. It's this book. You know what employees want? They want to be recognized. They want to be loved. They want to be cared for. They want to be treated fairly and honestly.
Why Being Light Matters - Four Reasons
Now, let me tie this all together real quickly. You're the light of the world. Why is that important? Let me give you four things, and we've got, according to my clock, about six minutes for it.
Number one, when we're the light of the world, it glorifies God. That's what we heard in Matthew chapter five. Remember what He said? Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and they glorify the Father in heaven. So now people see you. They see you live a Christ-like life. They glorify God. They're drawn to Him.
They look at you and they say, there's something different about you. There's something unique about you. How often have you been in a setting and you can just see somebody, maybe hear them say a few words, or watch how they act, and you go, that guy's got to be a Christian. She's got to be a Christian. Look at the way she's handling that.
And so you can come along and say, you know what, it really isn't me. You know, I'm naturally not like this. My natural tendency is not to get mad, it's to get even. But God told me to forgive. And what you're seeing that you see as good, that's God in my life. You're the light of the world, and by being the light of the world, it glorifies God.
Here's the second thing, it gives evidence that you're truly His. In Ephesians 4, Paul said this, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
I entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. He said, I want you to walk and talk and act like the calling that God's placed in your life. And the calling that He speaks here is the calling to salvation.
There's debates that rage in theological circles. And I've got to tell you, I don't really get this debate. This debate goes along these lines. There's a side, a very strong side, that says all you've got to do is believe that Jesus is who He said He was, and He's your Savior, and you're in heaven. There's another side that says, yes, when I believe that He's who He said He was, indeed He becomes my Savior, but He also becomes my Lord. And so the debate boils down into its real simplest forms: does my life have to change in order for me to go to heaven? It seems to me the Scripture doesn't stutter. The Scripture says, obviously there'll be change in your life. He said, I want you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. You will walk this way.
The Foreign Language of Humility
Then He says this: do it with all humility. I presume this is true, but I came across this yesterday. In His footnote on this passage, MacArthur writes this: "Humility is a term not found in the Roman or Greek vocabularies of Paul's day. The Greek word was apparently created by Christians." And I read that and I thought, wow! In other words, we come along and we say, you're to be humble, and they say, that word's not even in our vocabulary.
The essence of Christ and who He was, where He says, you have the mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus, and it was a mind that was a serving mind, a humble mind—I bring that to the secular ideas and they say, we don't even think that way. I thought that was a great picture.
You go out into this world, while we have a word for humility, we don't have much of a definition for it. We go to a conference and the conference says, look out for number one, look out for you, you watch the bottom line, you better get some security around you, you better tighten this business down, you better get by the door so if somebody walks out with a product, you better get some cameras in here, you better tighten this baby up, you better get this thing secure, you better look out for yourself, you better cover your tail on this one. And Jesus comes along and says, you know what? You better just serve.
Let me say it again: We don't even have that word. I think that is so cool. That's not even in our vocabulary. What in the world are you talking about? I want you to see that's how foreign the Christian message is when it's lived out to the world. It doesn't make sense.
When Jesus says, you want to be first in My kingdom? What would we say? Well, you better get a degree, better work hard, better really grind, put in more time, climb up that ladder. Don't be afraid to nudge that guy off because you want to get to the top. Jesus says, if you want to get to the top in My kingdom, you do it by just going to the bottom and serve. See, when you begin to be the light of the world, you give evidence that you are truly His.
Obedience Produces Fruit
Here's the third thing. Now you become obedient. Colossians chapter 1 verse 10 and Colossians chapter 2 verse 6—and I don't have a ton of time, but both of them basically say this: You now begin to produce fruit and the fruit is a picture of the obedience in your life. Glorify the Father in heaven, you do it through your good works. I'm now obedient, so in my life, my life begins to change.
There's that little thing, those little bracelets, WWJD, what would Jesus—I always thought it was what would Jimmy do, Buffett, but it's what would Jesus do, what would Jesus do, and then we have this whole thing, what would Jesus do here. But where it all breaks down for me is this: So Jesus comes along and sees a blind man, here's what He would do, and He heals him. Well, that doesn't work for me. I can't do that. See, the question is, what would Jesus have you do? Now the implication is a fine one. Think about this: what's the Christ-like thing to do? That's the issue. And that becomes a driving force.
I had a guy the other day and he said, I'd like to meet with you and I want to tell you, I want to know what Jesus wants me to do. And I said, well, that's easy. And he said, well, don't you want to hear the problem? I said, not really. And he said, well, but how do you know? How can you tell me what to do if you don't know the problem? I said, it's real easy. God wants you to obey Him. That's what God wants. He wants you to obey Him.
And he said, well, no, no, it's deeper than that. He said, I'm trying to figure out where to go to work, where to live, and so on. And I said, well, God wants you to obey Him. And he said, well, God doesn't talk about it in here. And I said, perfect. Then do whatever you want to do. God doesn't have an opinion on it. Then why don't you do whatever you want to do? And I saved him and myself an hour.
Just go do whatever you want to do. This isn't that hard. You see how this works? It's not that hard. God wants one thing from you: your obedience. If He hasn't spoken to it, then you make sure your life is squared away and then you do what you want to do because He changes your wanter to conform to His ideas.
Becoming a Witness
Here's the last thing about this. When you live this way and you're the light of the world, you become a witness. That's hopefully how this begins to tie together. Colossians 4:2: "Devote yourself to prayer, keeping alert with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well that God may open to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ." Verse 5: "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity, let your speech always be seasoned with grace."
He says, make the most of every opportunity toward those who aren't Christians. Do you understand that you're to take this gospel message to the world, you're to proclaim it, you're to live it?
But if your life and your action does not match that speech, they're going to write you off as a hypocrite. I'm to be the light of the world because it glorifies the Father, it gives evidence that my life has changed, it demonstrates obedience, and it comes to this very point: it's the door that God uses frequently to open the hearts of other men and women in your sphere of influence.
The Christmas Connection
As you're thinking about this time at Christmas and the incarnation of Christ, God becoming flesh and dwelling among us, will you understand that He said "I'm the light of the world," but He says now "you're the light of the world"? There's a sense—and you obviously understand the difference here, because you are not God—but there's a sense in which you now are His hands and His feet, working your way through this culture and this society.
So don't be conformed to this world, don't love the things of this world, don't love the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. Don't be conformed but be transformed from that Greek word—we get the English word metamorphosis. Literally there's an outward change that represents the inward change that's taken place in your life.
What's Coming Next
Well what would stop you in that process? Next week we're going to talk about some of those things, we'll take a look at them. Then the last week right before Christmas, we're going to talk about how to know if you're really a Christian or not. Seems to me that's a very important issue for us, and it really does tie together our last seven or eight weeks that we've had together. So we'll take a look at it.
Father, help us see this, take this word and apply it to our hearts. Thanks for the men and women that are here today. It's that time of year where it's dark in the morning and nice and cold and that bed feels good, and thank You that for whatever reason in their life You brought them here today. God I pray it was a time that was beneficial to them and that You use to open eyes and hearts, to build into their life a mindset that says, "I'm different." I'm different not because there's something intrinsically valuable of me, but I'm different because the Creator God of the universe indwells me now through His Spirit, because I know His Son Jesus in a personal way. God that's my prayer. We pray it to You this morning in Jesus' name, Amen. See you next week.