Mat 5:14-16, Illumination of the Problem and the Solution.

Class Outline:

Wednesday May 22, 2024

 

Idea: The light of the world shines on the problem and the solution for people, no matter what it costs.

 

Darkness of the world (ROM 1:18f.; 8:5, 20). 

 

False image and purpose. Good things become ultimate things.  

 

Example: Saul - defined himself as a great king rather than a servant of God (1SA 13:8-14). As David ascended, Saul’s self-image began to crumble and he acted out in violence (1SA 19:8-11).  

 

Light shines on the problem and reveals the solution (HEB 4:12). 

 

Lighting the problem: all false images will fail you (them); MAT 7:24 - what does it mean to act on those words?

 

We shine the light of Christ on the problem by our life and our words. 

 

Where they see cracks and flaws causing weakness in their our foundation (resultant pain, despair, disillusion) they see a strong foundation in us. 

 

We tell them why our foundation is strong - the Lord Jesus (1CO 3:11; ISA 28:16 quoted in 1PE 2:6, house of priests … to proclaim the excellencies of Him vs. 9).

 

We are light shining priests to the world (the people in our corner of it). We desire their wholeness, even if enemies, their shalom.  

 

We have all been slaves to that darkness, so we should compassionately understand them ([click in] DEU 5:15; EPH 2:2, 11; 5:8). 

 

Lighting the solution: Jesus Christ is the only answer (COL 1:9-14; TIT 3:3-8). 

 

No matter how you try, without Christ you will have another image as your foundation. Everything and everyone besides Christ are feeble and temporary (PSA 49:10-12).

 

We may be the planters or the waterers (1Co 1). Though we may not get a confession of faith, we never lose sight of the solution. 

 

We shine the light that Jesus suffers judicially (for us) and sympathetically (with us; HEB 4:14-16). 

 

No other religion has a God who suffers. Our God came to us as one of us, served us, and suffered in every way that we do, and more. 

 

Love is an exchange. If you are willing to lay down your life for them - it is love (divine love); MAT 25:31-40.

 

All life-changing love is a substitutional sacrifice. 

 

If people see the love of Christ in the gospel, they will begin leaving their own image and start to bow their knees to His image.

 

Shine this light: Jesus suffered for us judicially. Jesus suffered with us and identified Himself with the oppressed of the world and not their oppressors.  

 

All true love requires a reversal, and when the object is lost and weak and hopeless, the reversal puts you in the same sphere - Jesus made the ultimate reversal. 

 

He never identifies with the oppressors because no human being was ever to take that role (LUK 1:52). We don’t oppress but shine the truth of Christ and life.

 

You, the light of the world, by your good works perform this reversal and by the same manner of Jesus Christ, lift others out of their darkness (false images) and into the light - life with Christ.   

 

Our cost: We are willing to give what the Father wills; LUK 14:25-35; consider what this requires, i.e. do not think that this costs anything less than your whole life!

 

At times we will say, “Father, if there be another way …”