You've Been Lit
Transcript
Shelby Abbott [00:00:00]: Welcome to the Connecting Podcast with Paul Tripp. My name is Shelby Abbott and this podcast exists to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life, right here, right now. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this podcast?
Paul Tripp [00:00:15]: Well, you know, everybody that knows this will agree with this the minute I say this, that life in a fallen world is hard. This world does not function the way God originally intended and you will face the unexpected, the unwanted. You may be mocked or misunderstood for your faith.
Paul [00:00:42]: Your faith surely won't be reinforced by the surrounding culture and so, what does it look like to live a vibrant, hopeful, joyful, productive Christian life in this insane world? And we're now in the place of The Sermon on the Mount that's more proactive, where we're being called to be part of God's work of redemption on earth.
Paul [00:01:13]: I'm going to keep saying this. It's the Bible's total involvement paradigm. All of God's people, all of the time are called to ministry. We need to get rid of that division that some people are called to ministry. The rest of us can happily be passive and just put a little money in the plate and wipe our brow and say, "Whew, ministry's hard. I'm glad I don't have to do it." So why don't you read 14-16? That's the next part of this proactive picture.
Shelby [00:01:44]: Yes, from The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.
14You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Shelby [00:02:07]: So we started with character in The Beatitudes and now we're talking about what that looks like practically on a day-to-day basis.
Paul [00:02:14]: In real-life commitment to ministry. Living with a ministry mentality, looking for ministry opportunities, and these passages are defining what that ministry is meant to look like. We looked at salt, which is about a corrupt world and not allowing yourself to be corrupted, but being a retardant to corruption wherever God puts you.
Paul [00:02:40]: Now, this episode, I would entitle "You've Been Lit," and when Jesus says you are the light of the world, this is one of the most amazing names given to believers in all of the New Testament, and I'm going to explain to you why.
Paul [00:03:00]: Let me read [for] you from [John 1].
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light [Jesus] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. 12But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Shelby [00:04:03]: That's John 1.
Paul [00:04:04]: John 1:1-13.
Shelby [00:04:06]: Yes, beautiful.
Paul [00:04:10]: What's so amazing about the name we're given and, therefore, the calling and position is Jesus actually gives us His name. He is the light, and then He turns to his disciples (this must have blown their minds) and said, "You are the light of the world."
Paul [00:04:39]: I'd be sitting there thinking, "I thought you were the light of the world. What are you talking about? I'm the light of the world." Well, if you're God's children, you've been lit. What that means is you now carry with you... any good you have in you is the character of Christ.
Paul [00:05:05]: God incarnated Himself in the Man, Christ Jesus. Jesus, now, incarnates Himself in His born-again children. Wow! Wow! Wow! Now, again, notice the language. It's not, "Oh, it'd be great if you would be the light of the world."
Paul [00:05:30]: This is not a "could-be" statement. This is an "is". You are the light of the world. What does that mean? Well, again, you got to understand the metaphor, the word picture. The Bible, all over the place, talks about the darkness of sin, talks about this dark world that we live in, and it even says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
Paul [00:06:09]: So that's why your phone is dangerous. That's why streaming services are dangerous, because they're actually produced by people. I don't mean these people are monsters, but because they're not believers, they love darkness rather than light. I mean, you know this is true. Very often, most often, if there's a pastor in a movie or a show, he's a buffoon.
Shelby [00:06:39]: Yes, an idiot, or he's an extreme fundamentalist.
Paul [00:06:43]: Yes, or you know, out of it or a hypocrite. But you can have a person who's living in a lifestyle that the Bible does not encourage, rather prohibits, and they become the hero of the story because people love darkness rather than light. And so, what darkness needs is light.
Paul [00:07:12]: When you go into a dark room, what's the very first thing you do? You don't sit down. You don't pick up something to read. You turn on the light. Darkness requires light. That's our position: that we bring light into the world. Now, it's very easy to hear that and think that means truth. We're just supposed to go out there and be a bunch of truth-tellers.
Shelby [00:07:47]: Which is what many Christian YouTube channels are dedicated to.
Paul [00:07:51]: Yes, and that's not untrue because part of the darkness of our world is the darkness of humanistic philosophy and pleasure and materialism-oriented that's preached at us all the time, and we want to counteract that with the truth, but this is profoundly more than that.
Paul [00:08:15]: To rush out of your little house and to pass out tracts for twenty minutes and rush back to the sanctity of your house is not what this passage is talking about. To do street preaching once a month is not what this passage is talking about.
Paul [00:08:36]: I'm not saying those things are not good. I wrote a little tract called "Unsatisfied" that Luella carries in her purse and she is just a miracle in the easy way she finds to give that to somebody. I mean, it just comes naturally out of conversation.
Paul [00:08:56]: I love that, but that stuff needs to be in the context of something bigger and larger, deeper, more profound, more sacrificial, and it's at the end of the passage. You read the very end of the passage.
Shelby [00:09:19]: From John 1?
Paul [00:09:19]: Let your light so shine before men, must be verse 16.
Shelby [00:09:26]: Yes, [Matthew 5:]16.
16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Paul [00:09:35]: Read it again more slowly.
Shelby [00:09:38]: 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Paul [00:09:51]: Okay, again, we got to go back to contact. Let your light so shine before men. If light isn't in contact with darkness, it doesn't do anything, so that light is meant to be shining where it's needed. Where is it needed? Where there's darkness. So that's the first part of this. Again, we're called to be in the world. We're called to have contact with darkness. This separatist Christianity is just not biblical.
Shelby [00:10:34]: Right, and like you mentioned, the tract thing, passing out stuff, going and doing evangelism; and like the organization I work for, we're known for that as evangelism and we should be doing that, but this is talking not necessarily about the things that you do. This is talking about who you are. You are the light of the world. You're not passing out the light to other people. I mean, that is a part of what it means to be a believer, but this is talking about identity here.
Paul [00:11:02]: So I'm going to give you an example of that. There's a man by the name of Ben Sasse. Ben Sasse became a senator and committed, dear sweet Christian man, left that to become the president of University of Florida. I love the fact that a man of that commitment to Jesus would take that position to, somehow, influence the education of the next generation.
Paul [00:11:41]: Ben is now dying from cancer, and he has had this glowing gospel witness, not just to believers, but the world is paying attention and being exposed to "how do you suffer with such joy." Why does he have that platform? Because for years, he gave himself to live in contact with the world.
Paul [00:12:08]: He became known, became known as a senator, he became known as a university president, and now his light is shining; it was already shining brightly. Now, the brightness of the gospel is seen even more clearly. I love that. I love that Ben didn't become a pastor. The platform, I mean...
Shelby [00:12:30]: Say that again, say that again.
Paul [00:12:32]: I've been a pastor and I love pastors, but...
Shelby [00:12:34]: Yes, I know exactly what you mean.
Paul [00:12:36]: It's so beautiful, and I pull up X, and I'll find somebody interviewing him, somebody who is just from a normal news service, and I'm in tears at the light that is shining through this man who is suffering so.
Shelby [00:12:56]: Yes, and sometimes, you could see it on his face. He was having a process of chemotherapy, I guess, and his face was kind of almost like mauled. It looked like it was diseased with like red and white stuff all over his face, and he's just talking about how the gospel has transformed him and how God is good in the midst of suffering, and how there's a plan. I think the phrase was, "There's no maverick molecules in the universe. Everything is ordered under the control of God." Beautiful platform that he's got.
Paul [00:13:31]: So that's the first thing. That's the contact thing. Second thing is so that men may see your good works. This passage is talking about living the light in front of darkness. It's your manner of life that ends up giving you opportunities.
Paul [00:13:54]: Peter talks about someone coming to you and asking about the hope that is within you. That means somebody's seen something in you that's attractive, that's different, that shines and so, I'm aware (Luella and I talk about this all the time) that we are living before a watching world and am I shining as the light that I am or is my light being dimmed or hidden? Am I progressively becoming part of the darkness?
Shelby [00:14:36]: Yes, God puts you in specific places not to become like those places, but to transform those places and that can be incredibly difficult. With my neighbors, in particular, those are kind of like my mission field right now because I'm surrounded by non-believers and just two days ago, I was talking about this discipleship program I was doing with my daughter and I felt this twinge of embarrassment as I was talking about it with my non-believing neighbors.
Shelby [00:15:04]: But then, the Spirit reminded me, "This is what you're supposed to be talking about. Talk about something different. As they have kids, you have kids. You're doing life differently than them." I was trying to let my light shine, but there will always, I think, be that twinge of I'm a little bit embarrassed about that, at least with me.
Paul [00:15:21]: And see, what happens is when you have those opportunities to, now, actually speak the gospel, they are ten times more powerful if they've come in the context of them watching you that you're loving and you're kind and you care about others and you serve and you give and you make ethical, moral choices; and that's what he's talking about here, that it's just not this voice that comes out of nowhere, but there's a your life context, so he says you should be like a city on a hill.
Paul [00:16:08]: We've all had those experiences of driving through the mountains and seeing the lights twinkling. You can't miss them and our living should be so lit that you can't miss it, that you're then given opportunities because, wow, you've been noticed.
Shelby [00:16:34]: Yes, you're piercing the darkness.
Paul [00:16:36]: Now, I want to say this. This is not arrogant, pharisaical pride in your righteousness where you're, you know, like, "Look at me."
Shelby [00:16:47]: "I would never do that," yes.
Paul [00:16:49]: This is a humble follower of Christ praying that the way that you live would be light in darkness. Second thing he says, Jesus pushing His own word picture here, don't put your light under a basket. I mean, it's like me buying a couple of beautiful lamps for my living room and turning them on, and then putting a heavy blanket over both of them. Luella would look at me and say, "Are you nuts? What are you doing? Why have a lamp and you've covered it up?"
Shelby [00:17:40]: Yes, which is basically what he's saying here. It would have been like, "Well, that's ridiculous to do that."
Paul [00:17:45]: There is pressure if you're with a bunch of unbelievers to do what they do, to say what they say, to laugh at what they laugh at. We all know those pressures and I love the ridiculousness of the metaphor here. If you've been lit by the power of God's grace and you're positioned to be that light in darkness, it makes no sense whatsoever to cover up that light.
Paul [00:18:26]: Now again, I wish I could say that I'm always a city on the hill, but I'm not and for that, I need forgiving and empowering grace; and that grace is ours in Christ Jesus. I want to get the capstone of this because this is really important to understand what this ministry proactivity is about yes so that people would see that light and give glory to the Father who is in heaven.
Paul [00:19:04]: It's not so you get praise. It's so that God gets praise and listen, if a person who has been darkened by sin is now glorifying God, grace has met them. They've been transformed. That's really exciting. Jesus is actually holding out the possibility that lives can be changed through the way that we live. That is exciting.
Shelby [00:19:32]: Yes, some people say, "Through me?" Yes, through you.
Paul [00:19:35]: Yes, yes, amen.
