Mat 5:14-16, Give Them the Power that Made Darkness Into Light.

Sunday May 19, 2024

Mat 5:14-16.

Idea: Light shining that overcomes darkness have been the purpose of God for mankind from the beginning.

Creation: Gen 1; 2:3.

Not scientific: no chemistry, biology, geography, geology, physics, astronomy. (There are light and fruit trees before the sun is made.) 

The message: God’s relation to man and the world. 

There is redemption, unity, love, beauty, wisdom, fruitfulness, faithfulness, covenant. 

First audience of the creation account: Israel as God creates their nation.

They are not established like any other nation. A sovereign creation of God. 

Not worthy. Not chosen for any human merit or significance. (Deu 7:7-8).

God speaks His Law. Why is speaking significant? 

Why give them the creation account in the manner that it is? 

In the beginning … 

Formless, void, dark, abyss (ominous, uncomfortable, mysterious). 

Emphasis is on God’s word creating - God said. 

Formless and void (chaos) - order, land with fruit trees. 

Darkness - light.

Abyss - life, beauty, sabbath (shalom with God).

Man is chief in creation – the light of God, life of God, is for people (not animals or trees). 

Blessing (animals [thriving], man [more than existing], sabbath [more than doing nothing]). Blessed – beyond normal function.

Curse - barrier or ban. 

To the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

After the fall - to the garden; holy and profane things; tabernacle only entered with blood [end of Exodus – Leviticus]. 

Result - God intervenes with good through word [Law] and promises. Evil results from rejection of God and embracing sin (Cain and onward). Evil dominates. 

Solution: Would it be unlike Gen 1? 

Darkness made light by the Word of God? 

Would man have to somehow find his own way to the light (if he chose to)?

Law: First words, first commandment (Exo 20:1-3). 

The sin of finding your own way.

Defining sin: the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. 

Sin is individual thoughts, words, deeds, but this is it fundamentally. 

This is why we fail to change our behavior when we try very hard to. We’re not getting to the root of the problem. 

Result is cosmic significance apart from God. 

Idol - establishing self by making something else other than your relationship with God as your central significance, purpose, and happiness. 

Romance, work, career, family, children, politics, distraction, etc. 

Sets the stage for continual disappointment. No one and nothing can support your identity, worth, and value.

The sense of worth will desert you in a moment. 

When it is threatened you become neurotic and anxious. 

This is the darkness we are shining our light into. Not this kind of sin or that kind, but all over, people who have set their worth, identity, and significance somewhere in the cosmos and have not set it in God through Christ. 

Let there be light … now you are the gentle invader of the darkness. 

The message of light is always grace, but it is not just words.

Mat 5:14-16, It’s good works. God wants them to see His life in us – those saved from darkness by grace. 

The cross of Christ. The resurrection of Christ. Both having done their work in you and now you show it to them, idol worshippers living disillusioned lives in the darkness.

Death to the old life (darkness). New birth to the life of light. 

And yes, you, the light, are still a sinner. Righteous but not proud. Humble but not a pushover. Confident but not seeking affirmation in anyone. All of your light comes from the One who speaks and things leap into being.

Helping someone in need always costs.

Luk 14:25-35.

You are not disillusioned or bitter though all the bad that happens to them happens to you. 

This is why the Christian life cannot be a life of no trouble. If we had no trouble, our message would lack credibility. 

As God spoke and there was light, now you speak His word and shine the light into their darkness. 

God’s word is the power of creation, not your intellect. Christ died for them, not your intelligence or your religious systems. Give them the power that made darkness into light.