Lighting up a Dark World

Once upon a time there was a baby eagle that fell out of his nest. Since he was too young to know how to fly, that little bird started walking. He walked a long way, out of the mountains and down onto the plain. One day, he came upon a chicken farm. Since he was very hungry, he asked the chickens if he could stay there. The chickens took him in and fed him and made him feel at home.

He grew up there in the chicken yard. Although he looked different from the other birds, that little eagle learned how to walk like a chicken and squawk like a chicken and do all the other things that chickens do.

One day, he was waddling around the chicken yard pecking at seeds on the ground when something caught his eye up above. He looked up into the sky and saw a beautiful eagle soaring on the thermals high above. The little eagle thought to himself “Oh, how I’d love to be able to do that!”

As that mighty eagle soared over the chicken farm, he looked down from his lofty height and spotted that young eagle down below. So he swooped down and landed on a fence post beside the chicken yard. “What are you doing here?” he asked the little eagle.

“Well sir, I’m just minding my own business here in the chicken yard where I’ve always been.” the young eagle replied.

The great eagle eyed him up and down and said “Spread your wings, boy. You do just what I do. Follow me.” Then he flapped his mighty wings and took off. The young eagle started flapping his wings, and he too lifted off. “Wow, this is fun!” he cried.

The big eagle said “Son, you’ve been living among those chickens so long that you were beginning to believe that you’re something you’re not. But if you follow me, you’ll find out what you really are.”

“But I’m scared.” the little eagle said. “I won’t know what to do outside of the chicken coop.”

“Just follow me and you’ll learn.” the big eagle replied.

So the little eagle began to soar and fly. He loved it. But the chickens down in the chicken yard called up to him and said “Hey buddy, get back down here before you get killed. You don’t belong up there, you belong down here with us.”

“No I don’t,” said the little eagle. “I used to belong there, but I don’t anymore. Now I’m doing what I was created to do. Now I know what I am. I’m an eagle, I’m not a chicken. I don’t belong with you guys anymore.”

Many Christians have the same problem as that little eagle. They just haven’t figured out who they are as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, so they’re living an inferior existence. Spiritually speaking, they’re grounded when they really should be flying.

In Matthew ch. 5, Jesus tells us who we are. In verse 13, he says “You are the salt of the earth” and we learned something about what that means last week. In verses 14-16, he says “you are the light of the world” and today we want to find out what he means by that. We want to find out who we are.

In order to do that, we need to understand something about light.

1. Light shows things as they really are. The other day, I had to do some work on some wiring in our basement. It was tucked up above the heating ducts in a very dark place. I tried at first to make connections but I couldn’t see enough to do much more than fumble around. I even scraped the back of my hand on a nail that I didn’t know was sticking out. Then I got a flashlight and shone it in there, and it revealed exactly what I had to do. Pretty soon the job was done. Light shows things as they really are.

Over in the Persian Gulf, we’ve seen many pictures that were taken at night. They have an unearthly greenish tinge. They were taken through an instrument called a star-scope. What this piece of equipment does is take the available light from the moon and the stars and amplify it. By using that available light, as little as it is, we are able to see things as they really are.

Scientists are making tremendous discoveries on the ocean floor using deep sea submersibles. New materials and new construction techniques enable these vessels to plunge down into the depths of the ocean where the water pressure is several tons per square inch. Way down there, the sun never shines. There is absolutely no light, so these vessels have to bring their light with them. Using powerful floodlights and strobes, they light up that strange dark world and reveal creatures and plants that have never been seen by man before. Light shows things as they really are.

Light has a revealing quality about it. It chases the confusion that comes with darkness and it clarifies the unknown. And Jesus says that that is precisely what a Christian does in the world.

Spiritually speaking, the world is a dark place. There is no light. There is no way for man to find out spiritual truth on his own, because he is blind. He needs light that only God can give him to see things as they really are.

Jesus, when he came into the world, said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Now here, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says to his disciples “You are the light of the world.”

You know what that means? It means that if you are following Jesus, you are going to have the same illuminating effect on people’s lives that Jesus had when he was here. You are going to light up spiritual truth for the people around you so that they can see it and understand it. Because if you are following Jesus, you now have the light of life shining in you. You are going to be like a spiritual flashlight for the people around you.

So if you get serious about following Jesus, don’t be surprised if people start asking you questions about spiritual things. Because of the way you are living, they’re starting to see spiritual truth that they never saw before.

2. Light always conquers darkness. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that explorers were opening up a newly discovered cavern near Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico. This new system of caves is more than fifty miles long. Small passageways lead into huge rooms and underground amphitheaters.

Now because that whole cave system is underground, there is absolutely no light in it at all. It is utterly and completely dark. You can stand in one of those great subterranean chambers and almost feel the uncanny darkness pressing in on you. You have your eyes wide open, but you cannot see your hand in front of your face. The darkness is almost like an oppressive physical force.

But if you were standing there in the dark and you took out a little safety match and lit it, all that darkness would instantly flee away. That tiny flickering light, so small, so seemingly feeble, would defeat a whole gigantic underground chamber full of darkness. That’s how powerful light is. Even a tiny bit of it will conquer massive amounts of darkness. The darkness can’t put it out. The darkness can’t overpower it. The darkness can only flee away from it.

Now I said earlier that we live in a spiritually dark world. The world is under the influence of the power of darkness. The power of that evil sometimes seems overwhelming. When you read about the atrocities that were committed in Kuwait, you realize just how dark it can be. But we must never forget that in the presence of light, darkness must flee. If we are following Jesus Christ, Jesus said our lives are light. We will have the same impact on evil as a lighted match has on a roomful of darkness.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote a book called “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch”. The book is about life in the gulag, the Soviet system of prison camps for dissidents and political prisoners. Ivan comes in contact with a prisoner who is a Christian. In spite of the hopelessness of their surroundings and the brutal treatment the prisoners are receiving from the guards, this Christian has a peace about him that Ivan finds very appealing. That man’s life was a light in a very dark place.

The story is told of a man who came home from Europe with some souvenirs for his children. One of them was a toy that was supposed to shine at night. He gave it to his son and the boy eagerly awaited the onset of darkness so that he could try it out. That night, he took the toy out of its box in his darkened room, and to his disappointment, it didn’t shine at all. He told his father about it. His Dad took the toy in his hands and examined it. He noticed that on its underside, it had an inscription in German. Not knowing German, the man took it into work for one of his colleagues to translate for him. Here is what it said: “If you want me to shine at night, you must keep me in the sunshine all day.”

As Christians, we can only shine spiritually at night if we’ve been in the sunshine during the day. Don’t expect to have any impact at all in our dark world if you haven’t been spending time in the Word of God. That’s where you bathe your life in the light of God’s truth so that you can really shine when it gets dark all around you. And when the night is darkest, the light shines brightest.

I talk to many Christians who are having problems. They’re down in the dumps, they’re depressed, they’re frustrated. Their lives just aren’t shining very brightly for Jesus. First thing I ask them is “Have you been spending time in the Word?” The answer I usually get is a sheepish “No, I guess I haven’t. I really haven’t been as faithful in that area as I should have been.” That’s the root of the problem! It doesn’t take hours of counseling with a trained psychologist to learn that most of the problems faced by most Christians would clear up if they just spent more time consistently in the sunlight of the Word of God.

There is an interesting chemical element called selenium. Selenium is normally a non-conductor. Electricity will not flow through selenium except in one case - when light strikes it. Selenium is a photosensitive element. When light shines on selenium, it turns it into an electrical conductor; a channel of electricity. The more light that is shining on it, the better selenium will conduct electricity. Christians are like selenium. We can’t be channels of the good news unless the light of God’s word is shining on us. The more we are in the light, the better we’ll conduct God’s love to other people.

Light always conquers darkness, but you won’t have much light in your life unless you’ve been hanging around with the Son.

3. Light isn’t meant to be hidden. Jesus said “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 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.”

In ancient Palestine, the cities were built on hills. Archaeologists call these hills “tells”. The people would use the debris and the rubble from previous buildings to build new ones, and gradually, over hundreds of years, the cities would just rise up onto these accumulated hills of debris.

The houses were built with limestone. It is common in Palestine. It is very white in color and is quite reflective. In the daytime, the bright sun would reflect off the dazzling white limestone, and at night the moonlight would do the same. Either way, during the day or night, you could see the city, up on its hill, from a long way off. It was a landmark. It was a beacon to the traveller.

In the houses, the people would use lamps that were made of pottery. They were little shallow dishes, pinched in at one end to hold a wick in place, and with a handle at the other end. They usually put olive oil in the dish as fuel, and used a wick made of flax. Now to light one of these lamps took some doing. The usual way that they kindled a flame was to use a fire drill. (describe)

The point is that you wouldn’t go to all this trouble to light a lamp only to hide it under a basket or a bowl. The lamp was the only source of light in your house at night. After you lit it, you’d put it up on a special stand in your house to give light to everything. That lamp was doing what it was meant to do.

But there are Christians who, in spite of the fact that Jesus says we are the light of the world, go around with their lamp under a bowl. They’re afraid to show the light; they’re afraid to admit to people that they are Christians. They want to be secret disciples.

But Christianity is something that is meant to be seen. Someone has well said “There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.” If you are following Jesus Christ, that should be perfectly visible to everyone who knows you, because that light is not meant to be hidden.

We need to be what we are. We live in a spiritually dark world that desperately needs light. Man thinks that great learning and knowledge will be the source of light that will lead him out of darkness. But that is not so. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was one of the most brilliant men who ever lived. He was a poet, a scholar, a philosopher, a novelist, and a playwright - one of the giants of German literature who, in his writings, tried to discover the meaning of life. Goethe was also a scientist who made advances in botany and the comparative anatomy of the human body. He had a giant intellect. His IQ was estimated to be 250 - the highest possible to measure.

Yet as Goethe lay on his deathbed, this intellectual genius, one of the most brilliant men who ever lived, his last words were “More light!”

Without trying to demean a man like Goethe, let me say that a simple ordinary Christian who knows Jesus Christ knows more about life than the greatest scientist or philosopher or artist who ever lived. Because Jesus has given us the light that Goethe was looking for. So let’s let it shine!

Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So now you are the light of the world.”