living your faith in jos

8/8/2019 Living Your Faith in Jos

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Living Your Faith In Jos

Rev. Danny McCain

August 15, 2010


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LIVINGYOURFAITH IN JOS1by Dan ny M cCain

Introduction

The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your

people and your fathers household and go to the land I

will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I

will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will

be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and

whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you. (Genesis 12:13).

had a lecturer in seminary once who compared the Bible to a big

drama.2 Would you like see a drama on the Bible? It would be a very

long event.Dramas are usually divided into different parts. Today when we go to

a drama, we are often given a program that has a paragraph or two that

you need to read to help you understand what is going on when the

curtain opens on Act 1, Scene 1. However, in ancient dramas, and even in

some more modern dramas I have seen, sometimes someone will come

out on the stage and read a brief statement giving you the information

you need in order to appreciate what is happening when the drama

opens.

If the Bible were a drama, my lecturer said, Genesis chapters 111

would be the prologue. The real drama has not yet begun. The author of

1 Preached at Hillcrest Chapel, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria on 15 August 2010 by

Professor Danny McCain. The theme for the Hillcrest School for the 20102011 academic

year is: Live (your faith); Love (the Lord); Serve (Others). This sermon was preached on

the second Sunday of the school year and focused on the first third of the theme Live

your faith.

2 The lecturer was Mr. James Buck Hatch. The course was Progress of Redemption.The institution was Columbia Graduate School of Bible and Missions (now Columbia

International University), Columbia, South Carolina, USA. The year was 1974.

I


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2 Living Your Faith in Jos

the drama is just giving you the background information you need to

help you understand what is going on when the drama really begins. The

prologue tells us a number of important things:

God created all things. The world fell into sin and strayed from God. God had already punished the world once because of its sinfulness.

However, that punishment did not bring man permanently back to

God.

Thus, God decided to try something else. The new method God used is

what is found in the drama.

Dramas are usually divided into two partsacts and scenes. If theBible is a drama, then Act I, Scene 1 opens in Genesis 12:1.

Before we go to that passage, let me explain one other important piece

of information that will be necessary to understand Gods drama. There

are two principles that God uses when he does work on this earth.

Whenever God works on this earth, he always does so through humanbeings.

For reasons we do not fully understand, God has chosen to do his

work on this earth through human beings. This is illustrated even before

the fall of man. God gave Adam and Eve specific responsibilities. They

were to rule over the earth (Genesis 1:26), fill and subdue it (1:29),

and to work it and take care of it (2:15). God is all powerful and really

does not need human beings to do his work. However, for reasons

beyond our understanding, he has limited the work he does on this earth

to that which is done through human beings.

God became weary of the sin on the earth in the days of Noah and

decided to change things. How did he do it? He required an old man to

work for 120 years to build a boat and round up all those animals in

order to preserve a remnant of the animals and people on this earth. If I

were God and had all the power that he had, I could have punished the

earth and saved a remnant of the people much more quickly and easily.

However, God has limited himself, to some extent, to doing his work on

this earth through human beings.


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Living your Faith in Jos 3

Therefore, we can assume that even though God is the one who is

ultimately responsible for the actions in this drama, he is going to do his

work through human beings.

Whenever God works on this earth, he always do so the hard way, theslow way, the difficult way, the progressive way, the opposite way fromhow we do things.

If I had all the power that God had and I wanted to destroy the earth

and start over, I could have done it much more quickly than God did it. I

am an American. I believe in the most efficient use of time and resources.

However, it seems obvious to me that God is not an American. He does

not do things the way I would do them. He does not seem to worry as

much about the efficiency of time and resources. God almost seems to

enjoy putting obstacles in the way of his people who are trying to do his

work. He apparently enjoys watching change take place by overcoming

pain and suffering and other difficulties. There are many examples. Let

me only mention two:

When God wanted to preserve Abrahams descendants fromdestruction by a famine, he went to a lot of trouble to get Joseph to

Egypt and then kept those people down there for 400 years.

When God wanted to prepare Samuel to be a special prophet forIsrael, he selected a barren woman to be his mother.

Have you ever noticed when God wanted to prepare a special person to

do a special ministry, he selected that persons mother to be an old lady

or a barren lady or, in the case of Jesus, a virgin? Those who did Gods

work in the Bible had to pass through many difficulties in life. Whether

we like it or not, this is the way God does his work upon this earth.

This is illustrated in two parables Jesus told.

He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like amustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though

it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the

largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of

the air come and perch in its branches (Matthew 13:3132).


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He told them still another parable: The kingdom of heaven is likeyeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour

until it worked all through the dough (13:33).

These two parables illustrate the way God changes things on this earth.

He does things the hard way, the slow way, the difficult way, the way that

is different than the way we do things. If you do not understand these

two principles, you will not be able to fully appreciate the drama in the

Bible and, in fact, you will be confused about doing the Lords work.

We will now move on to look at a few details related to the drama.

Act I: The PromiseIn the prologue, we had already learned a bit about Abram whom we

know better by his latter name, Abraham. We learn that he was from Ur

of Chaldees and that he was a wealthy man who owned many cattle and

servants. As the curtain opens on Act I, Scene 1, we see Abraham

standing around watching his cattle. All of a sudden God speaks to him.

We are not told how God spoke to him. We know that some time later,

God spoke to him through to him by coming to visit him and eating a

meal from him. Also we know that hundreds of years later, God spoke

through Moses through a burning bush. For the sake of our drama, we

just hear the voice of God speaking to Abraham from offstage with

Abraham in the middle of the stage. God says,

Leave your country, your people and your fathers

household and go to the land I will show you. I will make

you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will makeyour name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless

those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will

curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through

you (Genesis 12:13).

No doubt Abraham was very surprised. He had been very comfortable in

his home. He was now an old man and changes do not come easy for an

old man.

God made two general promises to Abram in this statement. God promised that he would make a great nation out of Abram.


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God also promised that he would make him a blessing to all thepeoples on the earth.

When God finishes his speech, the curtain closed. Act I, Scene 1 was over.

This scene provides the foundation for everything else that will take

place in this drama.

The Follow-Up Scenes

The curtain opens on Act I, Scene 2. Abraham is trying to figure out how

he can make his servant his heir but God says, No, he will not be the

one. In Act I, Scene 3 Sarah, who is an old woman beyond thechildbearing age, suggests that Abraham try to produce an heir through

her servant. Abraham tried it but God says, No, that will not be the

heir. Act I, Scene 4 opens and here is this old woman, Sarah, holding

her newborn baby with Father Abraham proudly looking over her

shoulder. We do not have time to go through all the scenes so I will go

straight to the point and see how well God fulfilled the promise he made

to Abraham.

Before we can know when God has made a great nation out ofAbraham, we must identify the characteristics of a nation. A nation must

have at least these four characteristics.

Land People Laws Leader

How well did God do in fulfilling his promise to Abraham to build a great

nation?

When Abraham died, was there a nation yet? No. When we get to the end of the book of Genesis, some 200 years

later, was there a nation yet? No, there were only about 70 people

and they were already in Egypt, away from the land God had

promised to give Abraham.

When we get to the end of the Pentateuch, 400 years later, wasthere a nation? No, there were many people with good laws butthey had not yet occupied their land.


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We come to the book of Joshua and God helps Joshua to lead the people

in conquering the land. Finally they are in the land. Are they a nation

yet? No, not really. The reason we know that they are not a nation is the

book of Judges. If you read the book of Judges carefully, you will see that

the land is filled with chaos and confusion. There is not really a nation in

the land. There is a loose-knit federation of tribes who have tribal and

regional leaders. This condition goes on for 400 years.

It has now been at least a thousand years since God made the promise

to Abraham to build a great nation out of him and that promise has still

not been fulfilled. Fortunately, God raises up a prophet name Samuel.

And when that happens something new has arrived. For the first time in400 years, there is now a national leader. However, Samuel is not the

political leader who is going to bring the nation together. He does

identify and anoint that leader, though: King Saul. When Samuel anoints

King Saul and he takes over the leadership of the nation, we have an

actual nation for the first time in 1000 years.

Has God now fulfilled his promise to Abraham to make a great nation

out of him? Yes, but there is still a bit of unfinished business. God had

not just promised to make out of Abraham a nation, he had promised to

make a great nation. It was not until David and his son, Solomon,

became the kings over Israel that the nation of Israel could be called a

great nation. God had fulfilled his promise to build a great nation out of

the descendants of Abraham. When the curtain closes on the reign of

King Solomon, that concludes Act I of our Biblical drama. This is

basically the first half of what we now call the Old Testament.

Act II

Act II, Scene 1 opens with King Rehoboam sitting on the throne of

Solomon. He had called the elders to ask their advice about how to rule

the nation. We know the rest of the story. Rehoboam was not very wise

and because of his poor decisions the great nation started deteriorating. I

will not take time to go through the details but will simply say ACT II in

the great drama is the gradual disintegration of the nation God hasworked so hard to make.


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Intermission

Very often a drama will have an intermission. This is the time that the

audience can get up and stretch their limbs and the actors can get a little

break. The intermission in Gods drama is 400 years long. It is after the

intermission that the curtain opens on Act III, Scene 1.

Additional Details about the Kingdom

What was God doing during the first two acts of Gods great drama? I

will not take time to attempt to answer that question at this time.However, I will make this point: The nation of Israel was the instrument

through which God was working on this earth. My lecturer in seminary

called Israel Gods channel of operation. Whatever God was doing on

this earth, he was doing through the nation of Israel.

So when we come to the intermission period, has God fulfilled his

promise to Abraham? No, God has only fulfilled part of it. Was the

nation of Israel a blessing to the nations of the world? No, they were a

big problem to them. David expanded the kingdom and forced the

surrounding nations to pay tribute. The nations did not like that very

much. Solomon expanded the kingdom even more and caused even more

trouble for the nations surrounding Israel. This is illustrated in Psalm 2,

which is a song that was sung whenever a new king was crowned in

Jerusalem. The song writer captured the attitude of foreign kings

whenever they would hear about a new king being crowned in Israel.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of

the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the

LORD and against his Anointed One. Let us break their chains, they

say , and throw off their fetters.

During this long kingdom period, the people of Israel became

concerned that this nation God had promised to create was in danger of

collapsing. In addition it was obvious that God had not fulfilled his

promise to make them a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. The

Israelites assumed God was going to fulfill that promise through makingthe nation of Israel even greater than it had been in the days of David


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and Solomon. And there gradually arose within Israel a conviction that

some day God was going to send a great leader who would deliver them

from the bondage of their oppressors and usher them into a golden age

that could insure their own future and be a blessing to all the nations of

the world.

This conviction was encouraged by various statements from the

prophets predicting that a great king was going to come. They called him

the Messiah or the anointed one. Now all kings were anointed with oil,

so all kings were messiahs. However, this one who was coming was going

to be the Messiah. Note these verses:

The Lord said to David: Your house and your kingdom willendure forever before me; your throne will be established forever

(2 Samuel 7:16). Subsequent generations of Jews understood this

verse to mean that Davids throne was going to last forever.

The psalmist wrote: The LORD says to my Lord: Sit at my righthand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The

LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in

the midst of your enemies. (Psalm 110:12).

The prophet Isaiah later declared: For to us a child is born, to us ason is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he

will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting

Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and

peace there will be no end. He will reign on Davids throne and

over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and

righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD

Almighty will accomplish this. (9:67).

Isaiah also wrote: A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will

rest on himthe Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit

of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of

the LORDand he will delight in the fear of the LORD (11:13).

Isaiah, near the end of his book, wrote: The Spirit of theSovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to

preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up thebrokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release


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from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the

LORDs favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all

who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zionto bestow

on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness

instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit

of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of

the LORD for the display of his splendor (Isaiah 61:13).

Ezekiel, near the end of the Old Testament period, wrote:Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I

myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak

sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will

save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge

between one sheep and another. I will place over them one

shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend

them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my

servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have

spoken (34:2024).

As the nation descended toward chaos and anarchy, the Jewish people became more and more eager for this king to come and solve their

problems. This became especially true when Israel was captured and

came under the domination of a series of world powers, starting with the

Assyrians, and then the Babylonians and Chaldeans. About 300 years

before the coming of Christ, Israel was overrun by the Greeks and, in 66

BC, the Romans occupied the land of Israel. That was the condition at

the time of Christ. This spirit of anticipationfor a mighty deliverer who

would deliver them and once again establish Israel as the dominant

power around the worldwas very real when the curtain opened on ACT

III, Scene 1.

ACT III

We have already demonstrated that Gods promise to make the

descendants of Abraham a blessing to all the peoples of the earth had not yet been fulfilled up to the close of the Old Testament. In fact, as I


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suggested earlier, Israel was a thorn in the side for those nations

surrounding Israel. Few people around the world, then or now, have

viewed Israel as a blessing. In fact, even today, there is hatred and

prejudice against the Jewish race in many parts of the world. So, if the

nation of Israel did not fulfill Gods promise to be a blessing to all the

peoples of the world, when was the promise fulfilled? That is what Act III

is all about.

The DramaAct III, Scene 1 opens with an elderly priest ministering in the temple.

Suddenly an angel appears to him and tells him he is going to have a son.

This son is going to provide an important introduction to the king who

will follow. In the next scene, an angel appears to a young lady and tells

her that she is going to have a son, even though she had never known a

man. We will not have time to go through all the scenes of this dramatic

Act III. However, I think that you can see that this act is going to be an

exciting continuation of the drama. It is going to pick up the themes of

this Messiah that everyone was looking forward to and also address the

promise God made to make Abraham a blessing to all the peoples of the

earth.

The Ministry of JesusWe all know Jesus was that Messiahthe promised one. However, we

also now know what the Jews did not understand at that time. The

kingdom Jesus came to establish was going to be different from what

most of the Jews had anticipated. Therefore, the king was going to be

different also. We will not spend any time on the birth and childhood of

this king but go directly to the time he began his public ministry. We do

not fully understand all the details about the incarnation, to what extent

the divine privileges of Jesus were suspended to allow Jesus to be truly

man. However, we believe Jesus was fully human and, as a man, he had a

growing conviction that he was that promised one and that he would

help fulfill Gods promise to be blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

John the Baptist came and prepared the way for Jesus. This was the

signal for Jesus to begin his public ministry. Jesus fully understood that


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he had been sent to this earth to usher in a new kingdom. He also

understood that the nature of that kingdom was going to be different

from what most people anticipated. Therefore, he knew he would have to

be very wise and deliberate in preparing the people to really understand

the ministry that he came to do. One of first things Jesus did was to

select the men whom he would train and who would ultimately have the

responsibility to develop the kingdom Jesus had come to institute. Jesus

selected his disciples and started slowly training them. The next thing he

did was to start preaching and teaching about the kingdom he had come

to introduce.

For example, immediately after the temptation of Jesus, we read these

words: From that time on Jesus began to preach, Repent, for the

kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 4:17). The first words we hear

Jesus preaching concern the kingdom that was about to be introduced.

We must remember that, because the kind of kingdom Jesus was

introducing was much different from what the Jews were anticipating, he

had to introduce this kingdom slowly and carefully. He could not just

invite the media and immediately describe the radically different nature

of this kingdom in his first public address. He could not even share thatinformation with his disciples. He had to slowly prepare them to receive

this information.

Besides preaching, Jesus began performing miracles. In Mark 1, where

Jesus is introduced as beginning his preaching ministry, he went into the

synagogue and preached. We then read this:

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James

and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simons

mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told

Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and

helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on

them (Mark 1:2931).

Why did Jesus perform miracles? The primary reason was to establish

his authority. If he could heal sick people and raise the dead and calm

storms and walk on the water, then he must have access to some kind of

supernatural power.

If the chaplain went out and gathered up four or five blind people and

four or five people who had been crippled by polio and brought them to


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this service this morning, and if I were able to instantaneously heal them,

you would take better notes on my sermons in the future. The fact that I

had the ability to perform supernatural miracles would give me greater

authority than someone who could not do those things.

So Jesus went about his first year or so of ministry preaching a bit and

healing people and teaching and training his disciples.

Sermon on the MountAbout a year or so after Jesus began his public ministry, Jesus finally

decided it was time to have a major teaching session in which he would

outline, at least in seed form, some of the details about the new kingdom

he came to introduce.

Because Jesus had already been with his disciples for a number of

months, he had taught his disciples a lot of kingdom truths. They still did

not understand the big picture, though. The Sermon on the Mount still

does not give all the details about the kingdom but it does greatly

advance Jesus teaching about the kingdom. This might be considered

something like Jesus inaugural lecture. It was his position paper on the

kingdom at that stage of its development. Jesus was near the height of

his popularity so it was the time that he chose to start explaining to the

multitudes and, even more importantly, to his disciples the truth that the

kingdom he was introducing was going to be different from what they

anticipated.

We must remember the context. All the disciples and all the people

who heard Jesus speak that day would have understood the Messiah to

be a king who would throw off the yoke of the Romans and establishIsrael as a world wide power. Therefore, the kingdom they were looking

forward to was an earthly kingdom that would be much like the kingdom

of their greatest king, David.

This sermon was revolutionary. We must remember that we have the

advantage of hindsight. We now know how Jesus and the disciples

developed the kingdom after this point. However, the disciples and other

people were hearing many of these teachings for the first time,

particularly those teachings about the kingdom.


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I will now look briefly at the early part of this sermon of Jesus to try to

understand the nature of the kingdom he came to create. First, however,

let me say a word or two about nations in general. Every strong nation is

characterized by certain things. What are the characteristics of a strong

nation?

Well established boundaries. The nation has boundaries thatare recognized and acceptable to the international community.

Strong economy. Every strong nation has full employment forits people.

Excellent infrastructure . Nations that are considered to besuccessful nations have a good road system, a good communication

system, a good health system, a good educational system and a

good sanitary system.

Just legal and secur ity system . Successful nations have a goodpolice force that keeps crime under control and a good legal system

that provides fair trials for lawbreakers and punishes them

accordingly.

Strong defense system . All successful nations have a strongmilitary that protects their interest and keeps other nations orother people from taking advantage of them or abusing them.

That is obviously the kind of kingdom the Jews in Jesus day were

anticipating. However, when Jesus introduced the kingdom that he came

to develop, it looked totally different from what they were anticipating.

It had no geographical boundaries. It was not tied to any successful economy. In fact, people could be

poor and still be a part of this kingdom.

It had no structures at all, at least in the first instanceno roads,no health facilities, not even any buildings.

It had no defense system. In fact, the kingdom would be largelypassive even in defending itself.

Therefore, what Jesus was taught was truly revolutionary as far as what

the Jews anticipated.


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Characteristics of the KingdomJesus begins this speech by giving a series of blessings which we call

beatitudes. In other words, Jesus tells us the kind of people who aregoing to be blessed in his kingdom. These are much different than the

people who are recognized and considered blessed in a normal kingdom.

Here are the characteristics of those who are going to be blessedor

happy or especially recognizedin the kingdom Jesus came to introduce.

HumbleBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

(Matthew 5:3). The phrase poor in spirit is the opposite of pride and

thus has to do with humility. Ordinarily the successful people in any

kingdom are not poor in spirit. Politicians get elected by saying vote

for me because I am better than my opponent, but Jesus said his

kingdom would be made up of those who promote others over

themselves (Romans 12:10).

RepentantBlessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew

5:4). Many people interpret Jesus statement about mourning as

referring to those who mourn because of their sin. This is perhaps a

figurative way of describing repentance. We do not normally think of a

successful nation as being filled with a people who are grieving. We

would think that a successful nation is one filled with laughter,

happiness and rejoicing. However, Jesus said that there is something

about his kingdom that will cause people to mourn.

Submissive to AuthorityBlessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (5:5). The word

meek is similar to the concept of humility. However, it has a particular

nuance of being submissive to authority. For example, this word was

used in Classical Greek to describe animals that had been domesticated.

They had learned to submit to the authority of their masters. The people

in Jesus kingdom are people who gladly submit to authority.


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RighteousBlessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they

will be filled (5:6). The word righteousness in this case is not a

theological concept but a word that describe right living. The nation

Jesus came to introduce was to be a nation that would be characterized

by right living.

The people in the kingdom would all do the right thing. The leaders in the kingdom would also all do the right thing. There would be no bribery and no corruption and no

misappropriation of funds.

This was to be a nation of righteousness.

MercifulBlessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy (5:7). The

kingdom Jesus came to introduce was a kingdom characterized by mercy

and compassion. The people in this kingdom were to be concerned about

the sick and weak in society. This nation would not just focus on material

things like roads and buildings and other infrastructure, but would be

concerned about the welfare of human beings.

PureBlessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (5:8). One of the

major characteristics of this kingdom is purity.

The people have pure minds. The people speak with pure language. The people live lives that are pure and holy.

Within every nation there are people who are both pure and impure

good and bad. However, in this kingdom that Jesus came to introduce,

the citizens were going to be people characterized by moral purity.

PeacefulBlessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (5:9).

The Old Testament nation of Israel was not a very peaceful nation. It was

constantly warding off attacks of surrounding nations or attacking them


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in an attempt to expand its own boundaries. However, the kingdom

Jesus came to introduce is a kingdom of peace.

It starts with peace with God. It extends to peace in the heart. It involves peace with fellow believers. It even includes peace with non-Christians. It seeks to re-establish peace whenever the peace is broken.

Somewhere near the heart of Jesus kingdom is the concept of peace.

PersecutedBlessed are those who are persecuted because ofrighteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you

and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of

me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in

heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets

who were before you (5:1012)

Because this it is going to be superimposed on other nations, not

everyone in those nations is going to appreciate this kingdom Jesus came

to introduce. There will be opposition and even persecution. When

Christianity is the majority religion in any nation, there is not much

persecution. However, when Christianity is a minority, the majority

sometimes makes life miserable for those in Jesus kingdom. Even

though we do not like it, we must understand that persecution is a

normal part of this kingdom that Jesus came to set up.

Means of Spreading the KingdomJesus gives two metaphors to explain how Jesus was going to spread his

kingdom.

You are the salt of the earth.The complete statement reads: You are the salt of the earth. But if the

salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer

good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men

(Matthew 5:13). Salt does many things:


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Salt helps to preserve food. Salt also helps to give flavor to food. Salt helps to provide cleansing and sterilize things.

We believe one of the important ways God uses his people today is

simply to put them in the midst of other people and just allow them to

give flavor and cleanse and preserve. This is a simple strategy that is

explained even more clearly in Jesus next illustration.

You are the light of the world.Jesus expands this truth a bit with the light metaphor:

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 the same way, let your light

shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and

praise your Father in heaven (5:1416).

It only takes a little bit of light to drive out the greatest darkness. We

cannot fight darkness with darkness. A little bit of light drives out a

whole lot of darkness.

Specific Application to Living Today

The question that we now raise is: what does all this mean? If we are to

be the salt and light of the world, how should we then live?3

In Jesus kingdom, we should live by making sure we reflect the light ofJesus.Jesus said I am the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5). Certainly Jesus

showed the light of righteousness on this world. He did many things to

expose darkness.

3 In the following statements, I do not have time or space to explain all of the things Ido not mean. Obviously, some of these statements would be balanced up with other

statements if there were time and space to do so.


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He drove money changers from the temple, exposing their corruptpractices.

He condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, showing thatoutwardly they were pious but inwardly it was like they were full of

dead mens bones.

He corrected James and John and Peter whenever they madefoolish mistakes.

The focus of Jesus teaching was that he was the light that had come into

this world to drive out darkness. John 8:12 says: When Jesus spoke

again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows

me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. There aremany similar teachings.

However, Jesus made a startling statement in the Sermon on the

Mount. He said, You are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). Jesus

expanded that illustration a bit more:

You are the l i gh t of the world. A city on a hill cannot be

hidden. Neither do people light a l a m p and put it under

a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light

to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your l i gh t

shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and

praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:1416; see also

Luke 11:3336).

This theme is picked up again by the apostles.

2 Corinthians 4:6: For God, who said, Let l i gh t shine out ofdarkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of

the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 6:14: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or

what fellowship can l i gh t have with darkness?

Ephesians 5:8, 14a: For you were once darkness, but now you arel i gh t in the Lord. Live as children of light . . . But everything

exposed by the l i gh t becomes visible, for it is l i gh t that makes

everything visible.

1 Thessalonians 5:5: You are all sons of the l i gh t and sons of theday. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.


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1 John 2:910: Anyone who claims to be in the l i gh t but hateshis brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives

in the l i gh t , and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

John the Baptist provides us some insight into this figure of speech.

When John is introduced in John 1:69: we are told:

There came a man who was sent from God; his name

was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning

that light, so that through him all men might believe. He

himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to

the light. The true light that gives light to every man was

coming into the world.

However, a little later, we read these amazing words in John 5:35 (KJV):

He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to

rejoice in his light. The NIV translates this: John was a lamp that

burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. Yes,

Jesus is the ultimate light. However, the flame of Jesus burning and

shining lights us and we begin shining that light as well.

This metaphor is at least partially explained in 2 Corinthians 4:6: For

God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine inour hearts to give us the light of the know ledge of the glory of God in

the face of Christ. The light in this context is knowledge. Jesus said, I

am the truth. When we are sharing with people the truth Jesus taught

and lived, we are passing on the light. What does all of this mean?

It means that our lives should be a burning shining light in thedark places God places us just as Jesus was a burning shining light.

It means that we should speak the truth when others are speakingerror.

It means that we should refuse to participate in the deeds ofdarkness when others are doing this around us.

It means that we should be following the example of Jesus in allthings.

What do Christians do?

Where there is corruption, we provide the light of honesty.Where there is cheating, we provide the light of truth. Where there is immorality and adultery, we provide the light of

moral purity.


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Where there is materialism, we provide the light of selflessness. Where these is retaliation and bitterness, we provide the light of

forgiveness and non-retaliation.

Where there is violence, we help to provide the light of peace.In the kingdom of Israel, the nation had to provide judges, soldiers and

weapons to assure that the characteristics of their kingdom would be

upheld. That is not necessary, however, in Jesus kingdom. All you need

to do is to shine in the darkness. You do not even have to talk too much.

Just do the right thing and the light you give out will do the rest.

When other students are cheating and you refuse to cheat, yourlight is shining. And in the future, if someone wants to cheat, they

will be afraid and ashamed to do so when you are around.

When other people are telling their dirty jokes and using vulgarlanguage, just show up with your light and they will stop.

The main thing you need to do today is just livejust live your Christian

light and let your light shine. However, when you put that light under a

basket because you are afraid or embarrassed or for some other reason,

darkness is going to continue to grow. Therefore, let your line shine.

In Jesus kingdom, we should not seek to live where there is a greatconcentration of light.The new kind of kingdom Jesus came to introduce was not the kind of

kingdom where he would gather up all his people and place them in one

place. This is what God did in the Old Testament. All people who really

knew the heart of God and knew how to live for and worship God were

concentrated in Israel. Therefore, there was a lot of light in the small

geographical area of Palestine while the rest of the world was in almost

total darkness.

Jesus decided that this was not the way he was going to design his

kingdom. Jesus kingdom was going to be made up of thousands of

pockets of light scattered all over the world. It is unfortunate that some

Christians have gone back to the Old Testament pattern and attempted

to build a segregated Christian nation.

I have frequently said to church leaders in Africa: I hope you do not

make the same mistakes that we Christians have made in the US. What


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have we done? We do not like the darkness so we have been leaving the

darkness and congregating together. We have built our little Christian

communities. As a Christian in America now, you almost never have to

confront the real world.

You go to church on Sunday morning and evening and Wednesdayprayer service.

You can go to a Christian pre-school where you will be taughtabout Jesus.

You can then go to a Christian primary and secondary school.You can then go to a Christian university where you will be taught

the truth from a Christian point of view.

You get out of the Christian university with a degree incommunication and then go to work for a Christian radio station so

you are in a Christian environment all the time.

You can even go to Christian restaurants and Christian night clubs. When you get financially strong enough to take a cruise on a ship to

Alaska, you can go on a Christian cruise where all your fellow travelers

are Christians. In this way, you seldom have to interact with the real

world.Obviously I dont intend to criticize Christians creating schools.

Christian schools can be strategic nurseries for young and weak

Christians and can help prepare our young people to go into the

darkness. In fact, I myself am a product of the Christian day school

movement in the US and I am most grateful for those godly teachers who

taught from a Christian world view in the Christian secondary school I

attended. However, I am concerned about taking all of the godly school

teachers and other professionals out of the public institutions and

putting them into places where there is already plenty of light.

Concentrating the light is not what God has called us to do. He has

called us to live in the midst of the darkness. Vance Havner once said,

Salt never did any good in the salt shaker. If we have a thousand lights

shining brightly in a room, what will be the good of a person bringing a

flashlight to shine in that place? It will just be wasted energy.

Paul is a good example of a shining light. Wherever Paul went, he let

his light shine.


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He went to the market and worked. While working, his light wasshining there.

He went to a very dark jail on a few occasions. While he was there,he and Silas were allowing their light to shine in that dark place. In

Philippi, he let his light shine so brightly that the jailor was

converted. In Rome, he let his light shine so brightly that

Onesimus was converted and many other beams of light shown

from that dark place.

Paul was later on a ship driven before the wind and lost on thedark and very dangerous sea. Paul was a light in that difficult

situation. He was able to assure the people on board that theywould all be spared.

What is the point? The point is that we should not make the mistake of

just congregating ourselves together and creating little Christian

communities. God is calling us to be light in this dark world. This leads

to another important point.

In Jesus kingdom, we should seek to live in the darkest possible placesso we can have the maximum impact.

When we first come to Christ, we are so happy with the light and the

truth that we just want to soak ourselves in that place and stay there the

rest of our lives. That is natural and is good at times. We do need to come

together and draw strength from the light each of us possesses. In fact,

Hebrews 10:25 says, Let us not give up meeting together, as some are

in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one anotherand all the

more as you see the Day approaching. We need that regular

communion, fellowship and joint worship; they rekindle us and enable

us to shine in the dark places. However, sharing our light with one

another is not our whole life. We must go out into the darkness if we are

really going to let our lights shine.

After Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector, to be his disciple, he

accepted an invitation to go to his home for a meal. As might be

expected, there were other tax collectors present at the meal and other

people the Pharisees considered to be sinners. This sparked a bitter

reaction among Jesus critics.


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When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples,

Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and

sinners? On hearing this, Jesus said, I t i s no t t he

h e a l th y w h o n e e d a d o ct o r , b u t t h e sic k . But go

and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

For I h a v e n o t c o m e t o ca l l t h e r i g h t e o u s , b u t

s i n n e r s (Matthew 9:1113).

How can you call the sinners to repentance if you are not out there in the

darkness where they are? It is true that the world is filled with much

darkness.

There is darkness in the public educational system. There is darkness and corruption in the public health system. There is darkness and evil in the mainstream media. They like to

promote abortion and homosexual marriage and other things that

Christians oppose.

There is a huge concentration of darkness in the political arena.However, does that mean we should stay away from those

institutions? Does the darkness in those institutions have the power to

overpower light of the gospel in us? No, light is stronger than darkness.Note these scriptures:

2 Corinthians 4:6: For God, who said, Let light shine out ofdarkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of

the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Ephesians 5:811: For you were once darkness, but now you arelight in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light

consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out

what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds

of darkness, but rather expose them.

When the army trains soldiers, they do not train them to stay back in a

safe environment so they can be protected. They train soldiers to go into

dangerous places because that is where they can do the most good. God

is calling us to go into the darkness and prepare our children to go into

the darkness. Will we do it?


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Conclusion

I have two appeals I want to make. First I appeal to the students in this

school who are here. My appeal to the students is this: I challenge you to

pick out one of the darkest places in the world. Go and study that

discipline or profession. Learn that discipline or profession better than

anyone else and then go there and let your light shine in that place.

Second I appeal to the faculty and staff of this institution. My appeal

to you is that you recognize that your responsibility is to prepare these

students for dark places. Hillcrest is a place of concentrated light. The

only way that we can justify such a concentration of light is that this isthe time and place that we are preparing our students to face the

darkness. Our students need this light right now. In fact, they need all

the light they can get at this time in their lives. However, these students

are being prepared to go into the darkness. I trust that you will see that

preparing students to be shining lights in dark places is your ultimate

objective. You are educators. You will figure out how to do that. Dont be

too easy on these students. Dont allow them to become too soft or too

used to the light. They need to be tough so that they will be able to stand

firmly in times of darkness.

Please remember that God has not called us to be a kingdom with our

own boundaries that will segregate us from the world like the Old

Testament nation of Israel had. God has called us to go live in all the

nations of the world and among those people where the darkness is the

greatest. Therefore, let us be deliberate in our attempts to be a light in

this world.

Here is Peters comment which is an appropriate conclusion to this

sermon: Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they

accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify

God on the day he visits us (1 Peter 2:12).

living your faith in jos

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