Matthew 5:10-16 – Let your light shine

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This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

So the reading this morning is taken from Matthew chapter 5. We're going to start reading at around verse 10 and it starts on page 968 in the church Bibles.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, 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. You are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt loses its saltiness, how could it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built 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 others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much Steve.

Do make sure you've got a Bible open. You should also, if you're one of our younger members of the church family, have a bucket that will contain all sorts of things that will help you as we go through our time together this morning. If you are one of our younger members and can't see so well, why not grab a grown up and just bring them or come and sit in the middle aisle here so you can see a bit better if you'd like to. No pressure, but I know some of your grown ups would very much enjoy bringing you if you would like to come and just take a seat up here, you'll be able to see a lot better. One of the things that you will be able to see is my model of a Christian and I'm going to show that to you in just a moment.

Let me just pray as we come to God's word this morning.

Father God, thank you so much for your word, the Bible. Thank you for the ways in which it speaks to us and challenges us. Help us to be those who don't just see what you have to say and then leave here. But those who live it out, I pray for, I ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Fantastic. Well, I bought my wonderful and epic model of what a Christian is. So I'm just going to plug it in.

Here you go. I wonder if you recognise my Christian here. Now some of you are thinking, what on earth? Why have you got a Bunch of lights up at the front that are shining out. My hope is that if you can't see these lights directly, that you can at least see the effects of them.

Maybe the reflection on the ceiling or the lights around, or the glow in other people's faces as they look here at these lights. This here is a Christian and. And in fact, I know that this is a Christian because Jesus says, look there, number 14 with me. You are the light of the world. Christians are meant to be shiny.

We're meant to shine with the good news of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus. We're meant to shine that out so that the world might see it a bit. Like sometimes you might be in the Peak District at night and you look across and there's this glow that's coming from Sheffield. Why? Because it's a city with loads of light and it shines and it's shiny.

That's what Christians are meant to.

I'm sorry, that is just too bright. It's too bright. It's Sunday morning. You're forcing me to put on my summer shades. You're forcing me to wear what I was wearing during the summer.

You change it. Oh, no, it's just too bright. Take it away. Take it away, Rob. It's meant to be bright.

We are the light of the world. Shining like a city. Yes or no? But it's really challenging me at the moment. I feel like it's really, really making me choose some awkward, fashionable choices in life.

I mean, it is questionable fashion, but we're to shine out. It's got to be bright if it's going to shine out, right? But it's too bright. It's too bright. It just makes me want to.

Yeah. No, no, no. Take it away. Take it away, Rob. Cover it up.

I can't take it away because if I took it away, it would be a pretty rubbish talk illustration. We're meant to be shining light. Although, actually, maybe you could help me with this a little bit. You see, when we shine out the light, some really interesting things happen in our Bible passage today. You'll notice that when Steve was reading, he started with something that Jesus said.

He said, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. I talk about Christians being shiny. Another way that they're shiny is God's rightness shining out. And this week is the Suffering Church Action and Awareness Week. Because our world sometimes doesn't like the light.

Now, Rob's playing a bit of a part here. I know that he actually does really like the light. Don't worry, we haven't employed the wrong person, but he'll help us here. You see, sometimes when the church is shining out, the response of the world around us can actually be hostile. It might even be violent.

You know, in some parts of the world, people who claim to know Jesus and let their light shine out can sometimes be hurt. Do you know one of our mission partners, David Coreto, when he came to know Jesus, he had to run for his life because people wanted to take his life away. Because he knew and loved Jesus. A hundred years ago this building was built and people gave lots of money and time to building this building. Do you know, only on Friday I was sat with somebody who had spent a long time building their church building and raising money.

And do you know what happened? The day after it was opened, people from the village came and they burnt it down. That kind of thing doesn't happen very often in England, but it's happening all the time around the world. Sometimes when Christians are shiny, the world reacts negatively and we need to be aware of that. That doesn't happen very often in England, but something that does perhaps act often happen a bit more to us is that sometimes when the world is shiny, when we are shiny, people around us might not understand.

They say, really, I don't know if you've ever had this. Maybe your friends have invited you to have a play date or hang out on a Sunday morning and you've said, you know what, I'm sorry, but I'm at church on Sunday mornings. And they've said, really? Why would you do that? Maybe you've been working and the pressure is really hard at work and the temptation is to work through the weekend.

And you've said, do you know what? I am going to hold one day a week where I don't work. And your colleagues say, really, I don't understand. And maybe I don't approve of your life choices. Maybe you receive some inheritance from a grandparent and you give some of it away and you think, that's a bit awkward.

In my family, people think, really, you're going to do that? You're going to live a shiny life that shines the good news of Jesus. We're not sure about that. Grown ups. Even this week in Parliament, I've lost my, lost my other piece of paper.

Even this week in Parliament we have got the Assisted Dying Bill being talked about in the media and around the place. What is the response of MPs and commentators when people of faith stand up and say, my faith influences this decision? Here's one mp. The MP for Northwest Hampshire, Kit Malthouse, speaking in the Telegraph. He says religious MPs must stop imposing morality on the assisted dying debate.

They say, honestly, the idea of life and death, that's not somewhere you should bring immorality. Thank you very much. It's this view. It looks and says, really, you believe that? But maybe, maybe, maybe there's one more thing that people might do.

Sometimes when we live a shiny life, people might do this. I wonder if ever people have laughed at you because of what you believe. I remember talking in a group of my friends at school and one of my friends was probably a bit more shiny than me. He was called Flanders. He's a guy in the Simpsons who's very Christian, and he had that nickname because he was Christian.

And I remember somebody once saying to him, oh, it's great, you know, that you're sorted because you found a book with all the answers from 2000 years ago. Aren't you great laughing at him. And others were laughing too. I wonder if you've ever felt ridiculed because of shining your light. Do you know what Jesus says?

If you have, if you have, then be encouraged. Look at what he says. Rejoice and be glad, because greatest your reward in heaven. This is number 12. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who are before you.

In other words, if you're shiny like this, if you're getting some of these reactions, you can be encouraged. Because all the way through history, this has been the way that people have responded when people have held the good news of Jesus out. Now, I'm not telling you to go and be annoying on purpose. I'm not telling you to go and be silly or antagonistic. I'm not saying that at all.

But I am saying if you're genuinely shining out the gospel of Jesus and you receive criticism for it, then it's probably an indication that you're shining the good news of Jesus. So be encouraged. But what about when that gets really hard? We're going to think about that in just a few moments. But as we do so, we're going to think about that by singing a song about what shining the good news of Jesus cost Jesus himself.

So let's stand and sing when I survey the wondrous cross. Well, why, if you're under about the age of 10, is this not a great use of the light? Why not?

Can't see it. I heard over there. Go on, Sam.

Brilliant. I'm using a battery to make the light work. Yeah, give him a round of applause. And then I'm covering it up so it's not letting people be able to see. It's a pretty rubbish use of a light, isn't it?

It's using up energy. It's not shining out. Me putting a bowl over a light is a really silly thing to do. Okay, now some of us are sitting here thinking, this is so simple. Why on earth am I being told that I shouldn't turn a light on and waste the energy by putting a bowl under it?

Well, let me come round and we'll think about that for a moment. So why on earth does Jesus say, don't go lighting a light and putting a bowl over it? He's not just. He does care about the environment, but he's not just thinking about the environment here. He's not just thinking.

That is a waste of resources, although it is. There's something more. You see, Jesus says this because if you're anything like me, then your temptation is to think. If being shiny brings some of this reaction, then what I might want to do is just be a little bit less shiny. I might just want to take a few little bowls and just pop them on top of some of these lights.

Just make it a little bit less bright as I go along. I put my bowls over my life. What might this look like? It might be that there you are, and you are at school tomorrow and somebody asks you about your weekend and you think, I'm going to tell them all about Saturday and I'm going to tell them all about what I did on Sunday afternoon and I'm just not going to say anything about church on Sunday morning. Or it might be that, you know, that for some of your friends who believe in other gods, that to say Jesus is the only way to God, they would be quite offended by that.

And so when somebody asks you your opinion, you just skirt around the edge of that discussion.

Or it might be that although you say, I want to praise you, Jesus with every breath, when all your friends are doing something different, it's so easy just to go along with it. The office gossip, I'll just carry on with that. The game at school, that's just become a bit mean to that person. Oh, it's okay. I'll just go along with that.

And what am I doing? I'm taking a little bowl and I'm just covering up some of the good news about Jesus that I should be shining out.

Just think for a second, what would it have looked like if Jesus, who John 1 calls the light of the world, hid his light Under a bowl there were the Pharisees. And he sees them turning following God into a set of rules. And he says, well, you do you. I'm not going to impose my beliefs on you. Why don't you just go along with it?

Or there he is and he's speaking about sin and he says, well, of course, in my opinion, sin is a difficult or bad thing. But, you know, you do you. I'm not going to speak up. I'm not going to shine the good news of God out. What happens, he doesn't get persecuted, he doesn't get beaten up, he doesn't get people laughing at him and sneering at him.

No, what happens is he doesn't go to the cross. And so we end up with a Christianity without a Saviour. If Jesus does this, some of you, earlier on, when I was doing the bowl thing, you're like, that's so silly. Why on earth would I ever light a lamp and put a bowl under it? Don't be silly, Jesus.

But is that exactly what you're doing with your Christian life?

Could it be that if these things come from shining for Jesus, might it be that if we're not experiencing any of these things and we've not experienced any of this for a long time, might it be that there are areas where we're covering up our light under a bushel, under a bowl?

Might it be that actually if this is the good news of Jesus, that we're to shine out, if, as he says, that we should let our light shine in order that people would see our good deeds and bring glory to God, might it be that one of the reasons that we're not seeing people bringing glory to God, we're not seeing people coming to know him, is because actually we're busy covering up the good news of Jesus in our life? Now, there might be other reasons. Sometimes people, there's hard ground. Sometimes we go through seasons where this isn't the case. But if it is that this comes from shining the light of Jesus, then if we're not experiencing it, I guess there's probably three things that could be happening.

Either we live in a culture that for the first time in all of history, including the Old Testament with the prophets speaking God's word doesn't result in these things. Did for Jesus, did for the prophets. Maybe today our culture is so perfectly heaven like that. That's not the case. I don't think that is the case.

Maybe we're just better at it than Jesus. You know, like Jesus, he just rubbed people up the wrong way, he could have done with a bit more grace. I doubt that's the case. Or maybe when Jesus said, no servant is greater than his masters, if they persecute me, they will persecute you. Maybe he meant it.

Maybe if I'm not experiencing some of these things, not because I'm being an idiot or I'm being aggressive or I'm being. But if I'm not receiving some of these things because of the way that I'm living for Jesus, it's a helpful trigger for me to think back. Am I avoiding conversations? Am I avoiding living for Jesus in some way? Am I changing my behaviour so I'm not shining out the good news of Jesus?

I found this passage incredibly, incredibly humbling. But you know, the amazing thing is that I have a God who was beaten up. A God who people didn't understand. A God who was laughed at because he took my place. So even when I'm busy covering up what he's done in my life, he can offer me forgiveness and acceptance.

Going to lead us in a prayer. And then I'm going to hand over to the Marston family who are going to lead us in further prayers. Heavenly Father, I'm sorry for the ways in which I don't shine your good news out. Your word says we're the light of the world. And yet so often I'm more concerned with hiding that myself than letting others know.

I'm sorry for ways in which I live that cover up that light. I'm sorry for times in which I'm a coward and cover up that light. Thank you for forgiving us in Jesus. Amen.