Shine as a Light in a Dark World

Mark 4:21-25
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, February 23, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Broderick

In our passage this morning, Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is speaking to His church:  We must shine as light.  The world we live in is dark, deluded, and damned.  It needs this gospel light.  And we have been given the light of the gospel.  In fact, we have been made light by the gospel.   We therefore must shine that bright light as far and as wide as we are able.

We may be tempted to hide the light, for the darkness hates the light as do those who are living in darkness.  We may think that it is prudent, it is easier, it is safer not to share the gospel light.  When you shine the light of the gospel into the dark, you stand out as a target.  We may be tempted to hide the light under a bowl or under a bed.  We may be tempted to become insular.  We may be tempted to shine that light only inward to the church and not outward to the world.  But we must resist these temptations.  Our purpose as obedient servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to do His will, and He has told us what that is:  To go into all the world, to make disciples of all nations by sharing the gospel light, and to teach them to obey the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ and then to go and share it with others.

Jesus gives a dire warning to those who will not obey this command to shine the light.  He says, “Consider carefully what you hear.”  In other words, “Listen up.”  He says, “Whoever refuses to share this word, this light, will be punished.  Indeed, even what he has will be taken from him.”  So let us examine our text this morning.

The World Is in Darkness

First, the world is in darkness.  Contrary to popular belief, the world is not good and getting better.  It is bad and getting worse.  That does not mean that everything is as bad as it could be, or that every particular thing degrades or gets worse over time.  In fact, people are materially better off in our time than at any other point in human history.  In 1820, more than 80 percent of humanity lived in what is called extreme poverty: basically struggling to get food every day.  Today, that number is about 10 percent.  That is a massive reduction in the material struggles of people in a comparatively short period of time—only two hundred years.  Or look at our technological advancements.  Man has been to space, walked on the moon, and put supercomputers in just about every pocket.  We have seen astounding medical advancements.  We have eradicated once-devastating plagues, we have performed intricate surgeries, and so on.  But man, whatever his abilities by common grace, whatever his advancements, is still man.  He still murders, rapes, steals, lies, cheats, hates, and destroys.

Even when the unsaved man wants to do something good, evil is right there with him.  All his righteous acts, all his good deeds, are not good at all; but they are merely filthy rags (Isa. 64:6).  The Bible tells us that in the world, no one is righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:10).  As God alone is able to see fully, man is shot through with sin.  Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil all the time (Gen. 6:5).  Modern man may be richer.  He may be a little bit cleaner.  He may smell a little bit nicer.  But he is still rotten to the core.  He is a whitewashed tomb.  The shorthand term for this is total depravity.

The Bible tells us plainly in John 3:19 that men love the darkness because their deeds are evil.  Colossians 1:13 says the people of this world, unbelievers, those who reject the gospel, live in the dominion of darkness, the kingdom of darkness.  Proverbs 4:19 says that the way of wicked is deep darkness, and Matthew 8:12 tells us that unless God moves, unless God saves them, they will be thrown out into eternal darkness, into hell itself.  Yes, the world is in terrible darkness.

But Jesus is the light of the world.  The world and its people are darkened and in darkness, but that is not the end of the story.  Jesus said in John 9:5, “I am the light of the world.”  He says the same thing in John 8:12.  And John 3:19 and John 12:46 say that He came as light into the world.  In fact, He is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.  He is pure light, pure good, perfect in holiness and sinless.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, plunged the world into the darkness of sin by listening to the devil, by obeying the devil, and by defying the word of God.  We were burdened by their original sin, and we also added to this plague by sinning every day.  Ephesians 4:18 tells us that we were darkened in our understanding because of our sin and the hardness of heart.  So we deadened our consciences and gave ourselves over to sin more and more and more.  It says we indulged in every form of impurity with a continual lust for more.  As there was no darkness in Jesus, there was no light in us.  We were described in Psalm 107:10 as in darkness and deep gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains because we had rebelled against the words of God.  There was no light in us, no good in us, and no light in the world.  We could not create that light.  We could not generate that light ourselves.  Our darkness could not make any light.  No, we needed something else.  We needed another.  We needed the light.  We needed the God-man to come, the light to shine in the darkness.  We groped about in darkness with no light.  We staggered about as God’s enemies.  We were hopeless and dead and in pitch darkness.  But then, when we were in pitch darkness, the light of Christ shone brightly upon us, piercing the darkness and showing us the way to be saved.

Now, it was all promised, it was all prophesied beforehand.  Hundreds of years before, Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 42, “[I] will make you . . . a light for the Gentiles [we are the Gentiles], to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (Isa. 42:6–7).  That is what Jesus did.  Immediately before Jesus came, God sent John and He gave him a mission to testify concerning the light that was about to come into the world (John 1:7).  John told the people that the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world (John 1:9).  This Jesus is no mere man.  He is very God.  He was with God from the beginning, and yet He became man.  He lowered Himself to become a man to come into the dark world and to shine as light.

He shined the light of the gospel.  He shined the light of salvation, the light of regeneration, the light of the hope of the glory of God, the light that shows us how condemned sinners can be saved to eternal life.  And He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and to dwell in us and to govern us so that we can live as children of the light.  We were darkness, we were stuck in darkness, and we had no way out.  But Jesus came.  He came to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace.  Praise God for Jesus Christ, the light of the world!

Jesus Shines the Light into Us

This Jesus, the light of life, is no ordinary light.  Ordinary light shines into the darkness and shows what is there, but it does not fundamentally change what is there.  If Jesus were light in this ordinary way, He would have merely revealed us to be a bunch of dead, doomed, and disgraced sinners.

But Jesus is no ordinary light.  He is a powerful light.  He is a life-giving light.  He is an animating light.  He does not merely shine on us, but He also shines into us.  Second Corinthians 4:6 tells us, “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.”  This is a different kind of light.

This light of Christ is powerful and effective.  It shines into our very being.  It shines into the very being of dead sinners and gives them a new heart and a new spirit.  It makes them alive, born again, saved, regenerated.  Before, we were dead in our transgressions and sins, and we were blinded by our own sinfulness and by the devil, the prince of this world (2 Cor. 4:4).  But when we were in that condition, His regenerative light enabled our eyes to see, our minds to understand, and our hearts to respond in faith.

This light of life is available to all.  It shines out to all.  But not all will receive it.  Unregenerate and unelect men do evil and hate the light.  They will oppose the light.  They will flee from the light.  They will slander the light.  They will cover their eyes and suppress the truth by their wickedness, as we are told in John 3:20 and Romans 1.  They will remain condemned because they refuse to put their faith in Christ, the light and the life.  Some, and in fact most, will reject this light of the gospel.  But a few will believe.  He will shine the light into those he chose and effectively called and make them alive and bring them to be with Him forever.  Hallelujah! Jesus Christ the light of the world.

We Are the Light of the World

Jesus said that we are the light of the world.  He said so more explicitly in the parallel passage of Matthew 5:14.  We are somewhat confused by this at first.  The Bible says that Jesus is the light of the world, but now He is saying that we are the light of the world.  Moreover, we read in John 1:8 that John the Baptist was not the light of the world, but in John 5:35 Jesus says John was a lamp that burned and gave light.  What is the answer to this apparent paradox, to this apparent conflict?  The answer is, Jesus makes us light.  His powerful light shining in us continues to burn brightly in us until it shines out to the rest of the world.  So He shines the light into us, and we shine it out to the rest of the world.  Ephesians 5:8 says, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”  You see, He made us light.

He is the light, but He shone into us and made us His lesser lights, reflective lights, who beam the gospel light of Christ throughout the dark world just as the moon reflects the light of the sun through the black of night.  As it says in Acts 13:47, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”  We were utter darkness, but God turned us into a light to shine on others.  He shines His powerful light into us, makes us light, and directs that light out to the rest of the world that they may be saved and He may be glorified.

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This is the core message of our text this morning.  We must shine out to the world the light that Christ has shined into us.  Jesus told us so in the Great Commission.  He said, essentially, “Go out into all the world and shine the light of the gospel.”  Paul tells us the same thing in Philippians 2:15.  He says we must “shine as stars in the universe as [we] hold out the word of life.”  As lights made light by the light of Christ, we have no alternative but to shine.  In other words, we must shine.  Jesus commands us to shine.  That is sufficient reason enough to do it.  Jesus commands us to shine His light to the world.  We just heard that in Philippians 2:15:  “Shine as stars in the universe.”  That is an imperative.  That is a command.  That is a directive that we must follow.

The same idea is here in our text this morning:  “Do not put the lamp under a bowl or under the bed to block out the light.”  That would be a waste of the light.  “No, put it high on a stand and let it shine out to the world around you.”  That is what the text says, and that is what the parallel passage in Luke 8 also tells us.  Put the light on a stand so that all who come in can see the light.

There are several ways that we can shine the light.  I am going to give you four of them.  Here is how you can shine the light.

1. Preach the Gospel

First and foremost, we must preach the gospel, the word of God.  As Psalm 119:105 tells us, “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.”  The same idea is found in Psalm 119:130.  It says, “The unfolding of Your word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”  We are to unfold the word.  We are to shine the lamp of the word of God.  The preaching of the word is the first and perhaps the most important mark of the church. (GTB)  It should go without saying that the church is here to shine the light of the word of God.  That is the church’s duty.  That is the church’s obligation: to shine the light.  That is what we are here to do.

But we can no longer take for granted that churches will preach the word or even try to preach the word.  In fact, most churches now preach something else.  We have churches that preach human philosophies and ideas.  They preach a false and unholy God who loves and forgives us no matter what we do, who loves and forgives us even though we keep our sin, even though we refuse to repent, even though we refuse to live a holy life.  This is unholy and unjust gospel that they preach.  Some churches go into the other ditch and preach legalism and sacramentalism.  Other churches preach so-called social justice.

They have lost the gospel in the noise of all these other pursuits.  In trying to do many things, some of which are even good, in trying to go out and help people in various social programs—in all of this trying to do other things, they have abandoned the primary mission to shine the light.  The church is not primarily here to improve living conditions in this world.  It is not primarily here to relieve the poor or to make the world a better place.  That is not the charge to the church.  It is not the charge to individual Christians.  No, we are here to shine the bright light of the gospel, the word of truth, and to turn sinners from death to life.  In abandoning or deprioritizing its primary mission, the modern church has hidden the light under the bushel of political correctness, inclusiveness, pop psychology, or “how to live your best life now.”  That is how you hide the gospel light under a bushel.

Instead, we are to shine the light of the gospel truth.  We are to tell all we meet that they are sinners deserving of eternal hell, but that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to live a perfect life, to die in our place, and to suffer the wrath that was due us.  We are to tell them that He put all His righteousness on us and freed us from sin’s power and punishment, to live a holy life of joyful obedience to God.  This is the bright light that the church must shine through the preaching of the gospel.

2. Live in Obedience to God’s Word

The second way we must shine the light is to live lives of obedience to God’s word.  This is God’s command.  He tells us in Ephesians 5 that we were once darkness but now we are light in the Lord, and then He commands us to live as children of the light.  Then He spends the rest of that chapter telling us how to do so, how to produce the fruit of the light:  goodness, righteousness, and truth.  If we have been made light, we must live in the light.  We must live as God wants us to live.  He tells us in Ephesians 5:10 that we must have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.  So if you want to be light, if you want to shine as light, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, that is, sin.  Instead, you must understand and do the will of God.  The rest of that chapter tells us in very practical terms how we can shine as light, how we can live as children of the light.

First, we must be being filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18).  We cannot shine the light out into the whole world unless we are filled with the light of the Holy Spirit.  He tells us to walk in practical righteousness, and He tells us how to do it.  “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord in everything.”   Shine.  “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church sacrificially and lead her in righteousness.”  That is how you shine as a husband.  “Children, obey your parents in the Lord and honor them.”  Shine as lights by doing so.  “Employees, obey your masters, your bosses, as you would obey Christ,” and “Masters, bosses, treat your subordinates well.”  That is how you shine as light.  It is very simple.  Shine the light of Christ by obeying Him and doing what is right.  It is simple.  It is not very easy, but it is simple.

Philippians 2 tells us to shine as stars in the universe and then spends the rest of that chapter telling us how to do so.  Verse 14:  “Do everything without complaining or arguing.”  Do you want to shine as light in the world?  Do you want to stand out?  Do things without complaining or arguing.  Verse 15 tells us to be blameless and pure.  In other words, to live in personal holiness.  If you want to shine as light, if you want to contrast yourself with this world, live a pure life for God, live a holy life.  You will stand out.  You will shine.  That chapter also tells us to hold out the word of life.  That is speaking about personal evangelism, explaining the gospel to people.  Shine as light.

The same message is in 1 John.  It tells us to walk in the light and then it tells us how to walk in the light.  Confess your sins (1 John 1:9).  Have nothing to do with darkness (1 John 1:6).  Speak the truth, not lies (1 John 1:6).  The whole world is full of lies.  If you speak the truth, you are shining as light just by speaking the truth.  Obey God (1 John 2:4).  Walk as Jesus did in your daily life (1 John 2:6).  Love your brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 2:10).  Second Corinthians 6:14 says to have no fellowship with darkness, with sin.  That is how you can shine as the light.

Shine as the light by walking in the light; by living a holy life.  If you live differently, if you live as light, people will see you and say, “That person is different.”  When they notice your difference or comment upon your difference, you can testify and bear witness, “It is Jesus Christ who made me different.”  Your light will stand out all the more against the blackness of our age, and it will cause some people, elect people, to look at the light and to seek out the light.  That is what He means in Acts 13:47:  “I have made you a light for the Gentiles.”  Shine as light by being different.  Be the shining city on the hill (Matt. 5:14).  Shine out so that people may see it, may notice it, may ask about it, and for those whom God has chosen, may enter and be saved.

3. Love One Another

A third way to shine the light of Christ is to love one another.  First John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”  Light promotes fellowship, and fellowship shines the light of Christ out to the world.  First John 2:10 says, “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light.”  That is how he shines the light: by loving his brother.  Jesus said this more explicitly in John 13:34–35:  “A new command I give you:  Love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.”  In other words, we could say, “By this you will shine the light of Christ into the world.”  Your sacrificial love for your brothers and sisters shines the light of the love of Christ to this dark world.  We love because He first loved us.  We shine because He first shone in us.

The world does not love.  People lie, they steal, they rape, they murder, they hate, they slander, and they despise.  There can be no real love in the world because they do not have God.  All real love must proceed from God.  There is not even much superficial love in the world, at least outside of the movies.  People pledge their undying love and fidelity in marriage only to divorce a few years later because they “fell out of love.”  People abandon their children or even murder them in the womb in abortions so that they can fulfill their own desires and dreams.  People dump their parents in some care home because it is too great a burden or inconvenience for them to take care of them.  It does not mean it is always wrong to use a care home, but people are quick to do it because they do not want the burden.

But as God’s people, we are different.  We love our brothers and sisters sacrificially, pouring out the love of Christ that He poured into us.  We are inconvenienced, we are burdened, and we are put out for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ, the family of God.  And we do it all with joy for Jesus’ sake.  This love for each other, this love shown in practical ways to the family of God, is a powerful light.  Christ our Lord tells us that is how all men will know that we are His disciples.  We have also experienced it personally in this church.  How many GVCC weddings have we been to where a colleague or a relative has expressed disbelief at the dozens of people running around and serving and cleaning and cooking and so on for free, or next to free?  Sometimes they cannot believe it when you explain it to them:  “No, these are all just people that we go to church with.  These are our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  This is not some catering group we hired.”  How often have we seen nurses at the hospital or nursing home who are surprised by the amount of visitors and by the love shown to those people who are sick or infirm?  This should inspire each one of us to love all the more, not only to obey God who tells us to love our brothers and sisters, not only to repay the countless acts of love we have experienced and received from others, but also to shine the light of Christ into the dark and loveless world.  Think about that:  Every time you serve a brother or sister in the Lord, you are shining the light of Christ.  We should do it more and more.

4. Share the Gospel

The fourth and most important way for us to shine the light of Christ is in personal evangelism; that is, in the sharing of our testimony about Jesus Christ with our friends, with our neighbors, with our colleagues, with our acquaintances, and even with strangers.  This is the most important way to shine the light.  Yes, the preaching of the word is critical.  We do it here multiple times a week.  The preaching of the word is critical, but I would wager that there are many more conversions begun in people’s living rooms or around the dining table than are begun in the church pew.

Think about your own experience.  Did you suddenly have some desire to come to a church where the word is preached?  Did you suddenly wander down the road into the place that preached the word?  Maybe, but probably not.  More likely, you had a friend or a neighbor or someone from work who spoke to you about Christ, who testified to Christ, and who then brought you to church for further instruction and understanding.  But that light was probably not first shined on you in the church.  It was probably first shined on you by someone else.

So remember how you were brought to Christ, and then bring others.  Speak to others about Christ.  Build relationship with others to lay that foundation to shine the gospel light.  Invite them to hear the word preached.  The Holy Spirit works especially in the preaching of the word.  But first, shine the light yourself and lay that foundation of relationship.  Bear witness to the powerful, life-giving light of Christ by your faithful obedience to God’s word, by your faithful obedience to God’s will, and by your love for the family of God.

Now, you may shine the light on some people, and they may disappoint you.  They may reject the gospel out of hand.  Or they might seem interested and engaged for a while, only to turn away without any explanation.  Or they may even commit to Christ, only to fall away after a short period of time.  Or they may even walk with you in close fellowship for years, producing apparent fruit, only to trade away Christ for a bowl of lentils or thirty shekels of silver.  They may turn their back on you and they may even slander your name.  Some may do that, but some will not.  Some will see the light and be transformed by the light, and walk in the light, and shine as light themselves.  We do not know who will be who.  We do not know who will disappoint us and who will not.  That is up to God.  And we kid ourselves if we think that we can tell the good candidate for the gospel from the bad candidate.  I will make it easy for you.  They are all bad candidates.  It is a question of God’s election, not of human condition.  They are all dead.  Some may look deader than others, but they are all dead.  God may save the crazy demoniac who lives among the tombs and cuts himself and may pass over the Pharisee in his flowing robes or the rich man in his fine mansion.  Or He may save that rich man and that Pharisee and pass over the demoniac.

Remember what some of you were when you were saved.  It is God’s job to elect and it is God’s job to choose.  But it is our job to shine.  It is our job to proclaim the gospel universally and let God use that to call His elect effectually.  There is great freedom in acknowledging this limited capacity, that we cannot save anyone.  We cannot save anyone, but we can proclaim salvation to everyone through Jesus Christ.  So do not worry about, “Should I shine the light on this person or that person?” Shine the light! Shine the light freely to all, and let God worry about who is saved and who is not.

We must shine.  It is a command to shine.  I would be remiss if I did not warn you, believer, because that is what our text does.  Jesus concludes with a warning for those who refuse to shine, who refuse to shine the light of Christ even though they call themselves Christians.  He says in verse 24, “Consider carefully what you hear.”  These are not idle words.  These are the words of Jesus Christ.  This is very God speaking to us.  These are not idle words or optional suggestions.  It is not me telling you to shine the light.  It is Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  He is commanding us, “Shine the light.  Don’t hide it under a bushel.  Don’t hide it under the bed.”  It is His light, so He can tell us what to do with His light.  It is His light.  He gave it to us, and He tells us what to do with it.  Put it up high.  Shine it in every direction.  Go out into all the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything He has commanded us.  That is an order from Jesus Christ.

And He tells us that if we do this, though we are of limited capability, He will help us.  “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more” (v. 24).  Shine the light of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and He will pour out in abundance more grace, more power, more Holy Spirit, to help us do so.  We may have a dim little light, but the more we share it, the more He pours into us and causes that light to shine even brighter.

But if we do not share the light, verse 25 tells us that even what we have will be taken from us.  If we do not share the light of the gospel, if we refuse to shine that light high and bright, if we put it under a bowl, Jesus may come and take that light away.  He may remove the lampstand and the lamp that we are not using but that we are darkening.  If we do not share the gospel, indeed, we may not be born again.  Do not just let that statement pass by.  Think about it.  If we do not share Christ, maybe we do not have any real light in us to begin with.  If we are ashamed to shine the light, we may be imposters, we may be false brothers.

In this church, there is a lot of light that goes out from the pulpit every week.  There is a lot of light that goes out from our brothers and sisters in Christ every week.  But being surrounded by the light does not mean that you have the light in you.  So each of us should ask ourselves:  Do I have the light in me?  The surest way to tell is:  Do I shine that light out to everyone else?

I counsel you to take the lamp, to put it on the stand, and to shine it as far and wide as you can in all directions.  Doing so is not comfortable but it is edifying, it is faith-building, and it is for the glory of God and the good of those who hear you.  If you shine the light of the gospel in word and in deed, God will be pleased with you.  What else do you want?  He is pleased when you obey Him.  God will bless you exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or imagine when you obey Him by shining the light.  He will be pleased, and you will be happy—happy in Jesus, happy in knowing that whatever the results, you are doing the will of God by shining the light.  The converse is also true.  If you do not shine the light, God will not be pleased with you, you will not be blessed, and you cannot be happy.

So shine.  Shine the light of Christ in your homes.  Shine the light of Christ in your workplace.  Shine in your neighborhoods.  Shine by living a holy life of obedience to God.  Shine by loving your brothers and sisters in the family of God.  Shine by sharing the gospel with everyone you meet.  Let us shine, shine, shine until we go to shine eternally in the presence of God in glory forever.  Amen.