Resolving to be in the Right Position...

This week, we have been looking at how we tend to make New Year’s Resolutions because we view the New Year as an opportunity to make a fresh start, to hit the restart button so to speak. We view the New Year as a time to restart how we are living our lives.

Yesterday, we saw Jesus paint a word picture that His followers were to be the light of the world. Jesus point is that, as the light of the world, followers of Jesus are to reveal and reflect Jesus and help provide the guidance and direction necessary for people to be able to navigate life here on earth.

After providing this word picture what the world should see when they encounter His followers, Jesus continued by providing two additional images to challenge the crowds listening. Let’s look at these images together:

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Jesus begins His challenge to those listening with two additional word pictures. First, Jesus reminds the crowds listening of a timeless reality that they were all too familiar of: a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. A city that is located in an elevated location can be seen from miles away. In Jesus day, this would especially be the case after the sun set. In the pitch black darkness of the desert of Israel, the light of an elevated city would be seen for miles and miles.

Jesus then provides a second word picture, this time of a lamp that would be used to provide light in a home. Jesus explains that a person does not take the time to light a lamp and then place that lamp under a basket. That would make absolutely no sense. It would make absolutely no sense to place a lamp under a basket because then the lamp would not be functioning as it was designed. The lamp would not be fulfilling the purpose that it was created to fulfill.

Instead, Jesus reminds the crowds that a person would take the lamp and place it on a lampstand, which would place the lamp in an elevated position so that the light of the lamp would provide the maximum coverage possible in the house. For the light to fulfill its purpose to reveal, display, and to provide the opportunity for those in the house to navigate an otherwise dark environment, the light needed to be in the right position.

After painting these two word pictures, Jesus makes His challenge to the crowds who were listening unmistakably clear in Matthew 5:16:

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven".

Just like a city on a hill; just like a lamp that is placed on a lampstand, as Jesus followers we are to live our day to day lives in a way that reveals and reflects Christ to those around us. But Jesus does not simply tell the crowds to reveal and reflect Christ: Jesus also tells the crowds how they will reveal and reflect Christ.

Jesus explains that we will reveal and reflect Christ when we live our lives in such a way that the world around us may see our good works and glorify God who is in Heaven. Jesus here is calling the crowds listening, and us here today, to reveal and reflect Christ by how we love and serve the world around us. Jesus calls His followers to engage the world by loving and serving those who God has placed around us.

Did you know that the church is the only organization in the world that does not exist for the sake of its members? The church has been divinely designed to be the vehicle that God uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the world. And God places the local church in distinctive environments to be distinctively different. God has placed the church in the world to be a city within a city that loves and serves those around us.

And when we love and serve others in a way that reveals and reflects Christ, the result is that we glorify God in Heaven. When Christians live life together in community with a focus on engaging those in this city in a way that reveals and reflects Christ by loving and serving those in the city, we will be the vehicle that God uses to advance His kingdom mission and bring Him glory.

Now you might be wondering “well that’s great Dave, but how do I reach that goal and how do I get to a place in my life where I am following Jesus is a way that reveals and reflects Christ”? We will look at these questions tomorrow...