Be Light

Good morning. Everybody greet your neighbor again. Make sure they’re awake. Look at that neighbor again and call him a stranger. We are going a little further from what pastor Gail preached last week. If you weren’t here or didn’t catch it online, I’d encourage you to go back and hear that. I’m going to follow on, on one part of what she talked about last week.
We’ve chosen as a theme, ‘Be light’. We cannot be ‘The light’ because ‘The light’ is Jesus. But we reflect that light to the people around us. And part of that reflection, literally means that we’re different than the environment around us. Light is more and more significant, when things are more and more dark, right? Light cannot be like it’s surrounding, it’s literally an impossibility. And we’re talking about seeing that reflection formed in us. And to do that, we have to realize we are, as pastor Gail preached last week, aliens, foreigners in this world, strangers. And that reflection is given to us. People think we’re strange. Sometimes they think we’re aliens not from another place but aliens from ‘another place’.
And so, as I was reflecting on this a little bit, and went back to 1 Peter 1:3-12, let me read a little Scripture with you, and I want you to hear these words now, because they will carry us through the morning, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.”
I would like you to highlight 4 & 5 “We are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the final salvation”. Pretty elegant words from a fisherman. Basically, he was saying, ‘The prophets told you stuff was going to come, that in that, the Messiah would eventually come, that there would lots of trials and suffering for Him, and that in fact they were going to come for you, but that in that, through that, you had a hope of salvation, that was going to carry you all the way through it, until the final salvation was revealed to you, and now you get to live in the glory of the Christ who saved you’.
Now I want to read to you something that I read from a devotion this week, ‘Given the cultural moment we find ourselves in, every Christian and every Church, must re-read 1 Peter’. And then he said, ‘read alongside it, the Old Testament book of Daniel, because our culture is increasingly moving away from traditional Christian values, and we are increasingly the minority, or the odd ones out.’ (The ones who don’t belong). I had one little difference in my mind when I read this, I didn’t like the term he used, ‘Traditional Christian values’, because that essentially recognizes that people in the world today, they look at it as traditional ways of living. And I prefer the words, ‘Biblical values’, because we don’t live by a tradition that was handed down for 2000 years, but we live by the words of a living book, that was given to us by a living God, for the purpose that we might properly live. And I don’t want to be thought of as a traditionalist. I want to be thought of as a Biblicist, someone who is Biblical.
I’m going to challenge us on one of the songs that we sang so well today. We sang over and over, ‘I’ll stand, with my arms high and my heart abandoned in all the One who gave it all. I’ll stand completely surrendered’, we sang. ‘Because all I have is Yours’. Oh, those are nice words. I sometimes tease pastor Gail, ‘I don’t want to sing some of these songs, because they make me lie’. I might mean it in the moment, because I feel the warmth of the song or the energy of the moment, but am I really ‘abandoned to stand with, and for God in all, because all I have is really His? And that has two meanings, ‘Everything that I have is His, and the only thing I have is His’. Really, He is all that I’ve got. Because at the end of this, either the day He comes, or the day I lay down and close my eyes for the last time, there’s only one thing I’m going to have – eternal life – God forever.
Now, we all know that to most modern people, the Christian Gospel, is seen as outdated, irrelevant, more than that, it’s seen as dangerous and harmful. There are things that I believe, as a Biblical person, that stand in contrast to the values of the world today, and they’re not just OK about the way I feel about it, I know people going to prison today, because they teach or preach Biblical values. And I got to thinking about this, ‘How comfortable am I being a person, who is thought of, not only as strange, but as dangerous.’ How do I deal with that information? And I see Christians today responding in much of two ways, Here’s a good big English word this morning, ‘capitulant’. What does it mean to capitulate? In a sense it means to surrender, but really it is a particular word, it means you don’t really give up on something, but you just move away from it. To surrender, means to give up, but this word, ’to capitulate’, means, ‘I’m really still holding this, but I’m willing to not make anything of it.’ In a sense – let it hide where it’s at. The other way people respond, I think as I see, is that they retreat.
As Christians, we often retreat into our own little worlds, because it’s easy and comfortable there. It’s easy for my faith to shine among people who are all of faith, but when the push starts to come, when the society around us starts to see us as strange or even dangerous, we can retreat into our own worlds, and not engage in anything in society. So, we make Christian music, so that we don’t have to listen to other music, we write Christian books so that we aren’t reading other books, we’re creating Christian movies, so that we can ignore other movies, and in some sense, we are creating our little clubs, so that we aren’t in their clubs. And none of those things are bad, I like Christian music, we sang a bunch of it this morning, I read Christian books, I watch sometimes Christian movies. But I also have to realize that I don’t live in an isolated world. And if I’m only retreating or capitulating, then I can’t engage darkness with light.
So, the question then becomes, ‘How do we live in the culture, without having to separate ourselves, or hide ourselves or just give up on our Biblical values to let life continue on, when throughout the pages of Scripture, we’re continually told to stand. We stand differently, we stand in love and not in hate, we stand in hope and not in fear, we share out of grace and not out of hatred, but we must continue to engage people, family, society, job, because we are resident aliens.
One thing that Peter points out, read the whole of 1 Peter, this is what it’s about. It’s teaching us how to live as strangers, and a lot of that rotates around a word that we don’t like to use in Church. Peter says that a lot of that revolves around suffering. That’s the reason the writer whom I read right at the beginning, he said read 1 Peter and Daniel. Why Daniel? Because Daniel had to learn to live in a world, that was totally against his values, he was being forced to take on their values, and he had to learn, this is important, listen, he had to learn to embrace what did not violate his relationship with God, because, there not everything was bad or evil, he had to learn to live with the people that he was with, but he had to do it without violating any of his relationship with God.
And a lot of times it just comes down to this, do we challenge ourselves enough, about what our Biblical values are, and how we may be showing them, or how we may be hiding and retreating. I’m not talking about starting arguments and fights and always preaching at people. That’s not what we’re saying. But when you’re at the table, and the conversation turns in a way that really violates, do you just capitulate? Do you retreat? Or do you gracefully remove yourself, get away from that which is in violation? Maybe if the opportunity is there, challenge the moment, if you can do it gracefully, and out of love, and respect, because these are also our values.
But how much are we hiding on the ongoings of every day. Daniel did not retreat; he did not capitulate. Instead, he served. And he was willing to suffer. Peter calls that, ‘Following in the footsteps of Jesus.’ Think of who these people were that Peter was writing to. He was writing mostly to people in what’s today Turkey. Galatia. It seems like they were probably mostly gentiles. They were young in their faith, we know that. They were confused as to how to respond to their pagan neighbors, whose lifestyles were so different, and it seems they were scared of standing up for their faith. See, their new-found faith did something. In many ways it cut their ties with the people that were bound to them. This might sound familiar to some of you. They were being cut off from their families. Separated out from their neighbors. Being pushed away because of the faith that they had taken on. They were being tested and they were suffering. It seems like they were in danger of losing their way. So, they needed the encouragement of Peter to stand firm, in the grace of God.
I love how Peter ends the book. He writes, “With the help of Silas, who I regard as a faithful brother…” I love the fact that from the very beginning of Church they started using the language of family, brother, sister. I grew up in a church where that’s what we called each other. You walked in and said, ‘Hello sister Cecilia’, ‘Hello brother George’. Today it seems weird when I go to some of those churches. Every time, ‘Oh sister Sarah was there last night, it just doesn’t ring the same to me anymore, but it came out of something important, Paul calls Silas, his faithful brother. Maybe because some of his own family didn’t like him so much anymore. Says, “I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.”
I think we can realize, that in this environment, where we are increasingly disliked, increasingly dismissed, in time, maybe increasingly persecuted, when we’re losing things that are important to us, when it feels like we’re constantly losing ground, it’s becoming increasingly difficult, just to be who we are. This doesn’t sound much like good news this morning, does it?
But can I tell you a couple of my secrets? I sometimes think, I hope I don’t have to live long enough to have to deal with certain things. This group over here right now, there’s a few around, you guys are going to face things we never did. And if your values are in the Bible, it’s going to be harder than for us. Except that the grace of God, will sit stronger on you, and you’ll be more powerful in faith, because that’s how Peter started this, “By this grace…” So, then I have to bring my mind back into subjection, and remind myself of this, Anton. I am not going to face anything that the grace of God cannot take me through.
Peter said it this way, “You are protected,” and you’re not just protected by some ethereal thing, you’re protected by the grace and power of God. And so, the whole point of Peter’s message, the whole point of my message, isn’t to scare us into thinking what tomorrow might be like, it’s to remind us, that no matter what it does look like, we will stand. That every battle that we’ll have to face, God has already prepared the way, He has already formed the answer, His protection is already in place. Well, what if my family quits on me? He will keep you. What if my boss fires me? God will supply. What if the government comes to put me in prison? I’ll sing a song and make some converts. I’ll turn convicts into converts. I don’t want any of that. I don’t want more pressure in life than I have now. And thank God I have far less than a lot people.
I my flesh I am weak. When I think about those things it bothers me. But then I’m reminded, “Greater is He that is in me, than he who is in the world”. But also, greater than He is in me now, than He will be then. Greater is He that is in me! So, I look at our generation, or another generation, you know why we’re all safe, because He chose for our time. Before you were in your mother’s womb, He knew your day and He knew the days you would have. And He ordained for you, so that you could be the best possible you, so that you could bring the best possible result, into all of the situations around you, He said, “You will be light, you’ll be like a city set on a hill that cannot be hid.” He said, “You’ll be an overcomer.” That means that you’ll get over it, and I think that means over and over and over. I’m an over-over-overcomer. And when the next thing comes, or that same things comes back around, I will overcome it again. That’s who we are.
I’m just looking at you because, I don’t want this to feel like empty words. I don’t know all of your lives, I don’t know every pressure you face, I don’t know every resource that you have or don’t have, I don’t know if you are surrounded by many or seem to be alone, I don’t know what tools you have and don’t, I don’t know what support you get or don’t. And when I look at people and I know that’s the fact, George it’s hard for me to look at a man, and say the words, ‘You can stand in all of it, you can stand on Christ in all of it and in everything, in every situation. You can stand. Those are hard words. They are hard words when people have loved ones in the hospital. They are hard words when the bank account is empty. They are hard words when a husband has left a wife, or a wife has left a husband. They’re hard words when friends make fun of you. They are hard words in so many of your lives’ situations. And yet, the Bible wants those words to ring truer than ever.
Do not back up on your families. Do not try to hide in your circumstances. Do not try to retreat and pretend to be something that you’re not. Don’t excuse things that you know are wrong and make reasons for it. Again, all of these things can be done in grace. With mercy and with love. Mercy triumphs over judgement. But who you are in Christ is non-negotiable. We don’t negotiate with every thing around us, but we pray. And we believe and we stand. And we keep doing it, until it changes. Until the things around me have to bow down to this. Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. And where I am, the Kingdom is. Where you walk, the Kingdom is. Be the Light of the Kingdom. He’s The Light, you be light. But stand.
I hope that it’s an encouraging word for you today. Because it begins and ends with this. Because of Him, in Him, through Him, until He comes again, you can stand. You are protected. You are embraced by God, and you’re kept in Him.
Is that a good word? I’m reading the faces. I’m going to end this with a prayer. And I hope you’ll receive this prayer into your life this morning.
Lord, I know that today, we have so much around us that does not reflect You. We are challenged on every side. But Lord, I want to pray these seven things, over every believer in this room and as I pray, I’ll tell you I’m taking these things from the book of 1 Peter. If you read it, you’ll hear about these things.

Lord, I pray for each person that they have a living hope. As we sang earlier, Your Spirit alive in me. I pray that that hope would overcome everything else, and that it would reflect the light of Christ.
I pray Lord, that we are people who are holy, because You are holy. That Lord we would not negotiate Biblical values, but that we would stand in what we know is right and wrong.
I pray also Lord, that we would be a Kingdom of Priests. That we would stand in worship before You. And that we would deliver the Word of God and the power of God to the people around us.
From Chapter 3, I pray that we would have no fear. But we know who You are, and we face every fear with confidence. And Lord, I pray that we would be a people who are capable of facing hostility, hostile environments. That Lord we know that we do not have to create the problem, but when the problem is created for us, we can face it in strength.
I pray fifth Lord, that every single one of us would have a substantial witness. That people would literally look at us and say, ‘I know something different about you. I may not know what it is, but I love it.’
Number six, Lord, I pray - it’s a hard word - I pray Lord, that we would learn how to suffer well. Because suffering is a part of life, suffering is a part of our witness, and suffering You said, makes us like Jesus.
And finally, Lord, number seven, like Daniel, I pray that You would teach us how to serve, in a world that does not like us. But that we would be empowered to do this. And to do it well. Because You’re living in us.

I pray all of these words, knowing that You already said, “Go, I am with you, even to the very end of the age.” In Jesus’ name. Amen.