Remember these are only notes, so please don’t expect good grammar, good sentence structure and correct spelling! (Remember too that British spelling is not the same as American spelling.)

You are the light of the world.

Rom 1 and society.

•           Do not need God.

•           Immoral behaviour - (and break up of family)

•           Perverted behaviour.

•           Violence.

 

Salt - stopping the rot.

Light - illuming the darkness.

 

·         God needs our light where the world is the darkest. 

 

·         The blacker the night, the greater the need for a light bulb.

 

·         If the bulb does not shine, it's not because of the darkness. 

·         Darkness cannot put out a light. 

 

·         If the darkness increases until it is black as a cave, it is still not dark enough to extinguish a light. 

 

·         No one has yet smothered a light by increasing the darkness. 

 

·         Darkness gets darker because the light fails. 

 

·         When we fail to reflect Christ's light, we let the darkness win.

==========================

Light in General.

·         Because of light, man can see the world around him in all its brilliance, colours and details.

 

·         Without light no matter how good your eyes, you could see nothing.

 

·         But without eyes, no matter how good the light, no vision.

 

 

Matthew 6:22 says,

"the lamp of the body (i.e., the instrument of light)  is the eye."

 

Likewise, our Lord said in Matthew 6:22-23,

"if your eye is clear (healthy, single), your whole body will be full of light (sight, vision, ), but if your eye is bad (sick, unhealthy), your whole body will be full of darkness (no vision, no sight)." 

`The Eyes of the blind will be opened.'

The wonders of the eye.

One example:

Retina

·         It contains millions of lightsensitive cells. 

·         The retina has two types of lightsensitive cells

·         rods and cones.

·         Nerve fibres attached to the rods and cones join at the centre of the retina and form the optic nerve. 

·         This nerve consists of about a million fibres. 

It serves as a flexible cable that connects the eyeball to the brain. 

 

Amazingly complex.

·         But each component is itself wonderfully complex and so on and so on.

 

The eye was created by God - obvious.

 

The Source of Light

Genesis 1:3, "Then God said, "let there be light; and there was light."

 

Light is the basis of everything.

All matter, energy, space, time comes from light and our life depends on it.

 

Speed of light - 186,000 miles per second.

 

1 1/2 seconds to get to the moon.

            10 minutes to get to the sun.

 

Yet if you were a beam of light take no time to reach your destination.

 

Everywhere at once.

            light is faster than time.

So:

God is light: he sees everywhere at once.

Past and future.

`before a word is on my mouth you know it altogether'.

--------------

 

More characteristics of light:

1.         Brings forth the beauty and glory of things - dawn, green fields, flowers.

            until the light shines that beauty is hidden.

 

2.         Gentle.

            it shines on a rose without disturbing it at all.

 

3.         Yet powerful. Laser beam - a form of light -  can cut steel.

 

God calls us to reflect HIS moral character -  like a mirror reflects light.

 

Christ is the light of the world.

·         The life of Jesus is the model of the very character of God and we were created to be like Him.

 

·         To live a life pleasing to God we need - not so  much rules and instructions - but Christ.

 

·         We need to know His life, sufferings and resurrection from the Bible AND we need Him in our hearts to give us His life in us.

·         Beatitudes

 

A Warning:

Luke 11:35 "Then watch out that the light in you may not be darkness.

 

Two meanings:

1.         The light shines in all of us.

            Let us not close in ourselves.

OR

2.         a warning of the distortion of religion.

Some people can use religion as an excuse to do terribly evil things.

So: Luke 11:35 "Then watch out that the light in you may not be darkness.

 

The Lord used these two figures from life:

1.         a city set on a hill, and

2.         putting a lamp under a bowl.

 

The First Illustration

"A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" (vs. 14b).

Holy Land villages were built on the tops of the hills . . .

When night came, the light in the houses on the hill could not be hidden.

From a great distance, one knew the location of the next village because of the light from that hilltop".

In other words, the cities became a beacon for travellers who could literally travel from city to city by the light of those cities.

 

What does this say to us?

                                    Show the way.

 

The Second Illustration:

Man's typical use of a lamp (vs. 15).

 

Our body is likened by Paul to an earthen vessel, the lamp made of earth or clay (Gen. 2:7; 2 Cor. 4:67).

 

Gen 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (NIV)

2 Cor 4:6-7 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," 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. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. (NIV)

 

Our preoccupation with the cares of the body can hide the light.

           

This naturally brings us to our next verse, the command or exhortation of verse 16.

"Let your light shine"

 

1. It means, permit your light to shine.

Don't do anything that will cover it up or snuff it out.

Like the moon which can eclipse the sun and bring darkness over the earth, so we can allow conditions to exist which eclipse God's light

2. Let it shine: Natural for us.

            Not ostentatious in religion.

------------------------

 

"In such a way"  "That they may see your good works"

 

Good Works

Kala  "beautiful, helpful, honest, useful, and well adapted to its purpose or end."

 

Ergon means "work, task, employment"

 

So "works" can either refer to our work, employment,

or to our Christian deeds good, Christian love, help, and ministry.

 

The point is that our works are to be done in such a way that they attract and point men to Christ as the source and energy for our lives.

 

 "and glorify your Father ..  "