Shining as Lights in the Night - 260105

SPEAKER A Hello, I'm Mike Browning. Welcome to Let God Speak. Jesus calls his followers to be the light of the world. Question is, how do you do that? What does it mean? Being a light in our dark world is the subject of our study. Now, on our panel today, folks, we have Corinne Knopper and we have Rod Butler. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your input, and we'd like to invite everyone to join us in prayer before we open the scripture. Please, Father in heaven, we just thank you so much that you have given us a tremendous amount of hope in our lives in these trying times in history. And today, as we share together about being the light of the world, I pray that you'll guide us through your spirit. Please, Lord, in Jesus name. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Amen. Now, folks, I'm going to start by looking at Matthew, chapter 5 and verse 14. Matthew, chapter 5 and verse 14. And this is interesting. This is what it says. Jesus is talking, and he says, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Now he's talking to his people. You are the light of the world. Corinne, I thought that Jesus was the light of the world. SPEAKER C Oh, yes. I want to go a step further, please, Pastor. And down to verse 16. Let your light so shine before men. And he's asking us to let our light shine before men. SPEAKER A Pretty amazing, isn't it? SPEAKER C Yes, absolutely. And then when you go over to John chapter 14 and verse 6, Jesus said to him, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. And now if I know life is the word there. But if we don't have the light, we're not going to be able to have life in Jesus. SPEAKER A That's true. SPEAKER C And Jesus wants so much to shine his light through each of us as his followers. SPEAKER A Yeah. And that's the thing, isn't it? He is the source of the light, but he wants to shine through us. SPEAKER C Oh, yes. SPEAKER A Which is an enormous privilege when you think about that. That's really incredible. Look, Rod, what do you think of Philippians chapter two and verse 15, Philippians being our major study again today. Philippians chapter two. I'm going to read verse 15. And this is what it says. That you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Interesting. Among whom you shine as lights in the world. Lights in a crooked world, Rod. That's what it's talking about here. SPEAKER B Yeah. And look, the world is becoming more and more crooked. SPEAKER A It is, certainly. SPEAKER B And in fact, you know, when you Think back. Once upon a time, sin was like, hidden and put aside and out of sight. But these days, sin's everywhere. It's in your face. And if you go to even address immorality or wrongdoing, you can be accused of having hate speech or being unloving or intolerant. So the world is crooked and perverse, and it's actually tolerating and accepting bad behavior and immoral behavior. SPEAKER A It is. SPEAKER B And when you think about the other bit, you just read there, shine as a light in the world. I like the metaphor of the candle. It's in a bright room. You hardly notice the light. But as the sun goes down and it gets darker, that little light becomes a really bright light. And that's what it's saying here about us. As the world gets more and more wicked, we are to be more and more shining. SPEAKER A Okay. And it does show up more. Yeah, no, that's really good. Thank you for that. Okay. So in practical terms, grim, what does it mean to shine in the way we've been describing here? SPEAKER C Well, when we've been looking last quarter about Joshua, Israel was supposed to be the shining light for the people that they came in contact with. And we know that Rahab saw that. And when we go back in the Bible, we can look at that and to find a bit more about it in Deuteronomy, chapter 4, verse 6, and we'll see what it says there. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. Wise people. SPEAKER A Yeah. SPEAKER C Their lives, their culture, their economy. They were telling about the story of God's mercy. SPEAKER A They were. SPEAKER C And his justice. SPEAKER A Yeah. SPEAKER C And people, like I said, Rahab, they took notice. And they saw that in God's people right back then. SPEAKER A Correct. Talk about being a light. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A They were a light to the Gentiles. SPEAKER C A very big light. SPEAKER A Notice that verse seven, the next verse says, what great nation is there that has God so near to it? Don't you love that? SPEAKER C Oh, yes. SPEAKER A As the Lord our God is near to us, for whatever reason we may call upon him. I just think that's so beautiful. And that is what they were to demonstrate to the world? SPEAKER C Very much. SPEAKER A Yeah. So it's a very powerful thing when you think about it, because this is. We've got a similar challenge. Believers today have a similar challenge. It's a daunting task to touch the world like that, isn't it? You think about it, folks. And the question is, Rod, I, are. SPEAKER B We up to the task in our own strength? No. But if I just would like to read verse 13. That's Philippians 2, verse 13. It says, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work on behalf of his good pleasure. So are we up to it in our own strength? No. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, the Holy Spirit will change us, change our hearts, and we can reflect God's love, God's grace to those around us, and we can become that light. In fact, going back to Israel, they were to be like that and all the nations would be attracted to them like a moth to the light. SPEAKER A Yeah, that was a fantastic picture that God has given us there. I'm still in chapter 2 of Philippians. In verse 12, it says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, writes Paul, but now much more in my absence. Working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's an interesting one, isn't it? Work out your own salvation. Corinne, what's he saying to us here? SPEAKER C Oh, salvation. You can't do it with your own works. It's not something that we can do that way. It's our shining light of Jesus who can help save us. And I think Paul can make this very clear to us in Romans. So I'm going to turn there and yes, I have got that marked for us. Romans, chapter 3, verses 23 and 24. And it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus Christ. Jesus saves us. And he goes on a bit further in chapter five, just across the page here, and he goes and tells us in verse 8, very similar wording, saying, but God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So Jesus died to save. Even if it was just me, that that's what he died for. SPEAKER A And the cost to him was enormous, makes that clear. It says much more than having been justified by his blood. Yes, his shed blood, his death, that was the source of our justification. SPEAKER C I know. And now he's given us a role to fulfill and to do as much as we can with his precious gift to us. SPEAKER A Okay, thank you for that. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A Still in chapter two, verse 12, by the way, Rod, I did read the whole verse. I'm going to just focus on the last couple of lines where it says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. How does that work with what we've just been talking about. SPEAKER B Well, fear and trembling. I mean, God has done all the saving, but at the same time, the fear and trembling we have is that we have to not let self take over the driver's seat. We've got to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and we've got to be distrustful of self and trusting in God. Because the fear and trembling is really, am I trying to run my own race or am I letting God lead my life? And if we left to ourselves, we want to run our own race. SPEAKER A We do. And the other side of it is too. Don't take God too casually. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A I think that's another thing that he's trying to say here. SPEAKER B Now, just on that, Mike, I've got a quote here from C.S. lewis which touches on that point. I'd just like to read. It says here the first half is work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, which looks as if everything depended on us and our good actions. But the second half goes for it is God who worketh in you, which looks as if God did everything and we nothing. All of which is to say the salvation experience is a package that involves us. SPEAKER A Yeah. Okay. That's really good. Thank you for that and for sharing that. All right, I'm moving on. Still on this thought of being a light to all. Yes. What were you going to say, Corinne? SPEAKER C What am I going to say for this? SPEAKER A I thought that you were bursting with something to share with me. SPEAKER C Oh, no, not just yet. SPEAKER A Look, let me ask you this. What especially does Paul identify as a vital feature of the church, the people of God being a light to the world? SPEAKER C Well, I think the Bible can give us a good answer on that in Philippians 2, verse 14, and I'm going to read that. And it says, do all things without complaining and disputing. If we don't have complaining and disputing, we're not going to have divisions in our church. And I think that is vital so we can have the unity that God wants us to have. And that unity is really going to be the light shining to the world because we will have true love and care for everybody that we come in contact with, even in the prickly moments. And I think that is the most powerful message in the prickly, tough moments. SPEAKER A Because there are going to be disagreements. That's an experience, isn't it? We see things differently and there's nothing wrong with that. But it's the way we present it, isn't it? In a united, loving manner. SPEAKER C That is it. Yes. SPEAKER A Yeah. There's no excuse for doing the different ways. SPEAKER C How would Jesus deal with it? How would Jesus deal with it? With gentleness, with love, with kindness, and no bad words or harsh feeling. SPEAKER A I like that. That's exactly what he did. Okay, so, Rod, question again. Is that kind of unity under pressure easy to do? SPEAKER B No, not at all. In fact, I think God allows sometimes these pressure crises because we can get a look at our own self because the true self is coming out. And if we react harshly or negatively or angrily, we can sort of say, well, the Holy Spirit's got a lot more work to do on my character, so it's not easy. And we have to work on it, that's for sure. And we have to ask the Holy Spirit to continually change us so we can reflect that. The other thing too, regarding unity, we've got to think about putting the other person, putting them first, listening to their point of view, listening, not reacting. Because people will judge not only us, but also our belief by how we respond in a crisis. SPEAKER A Thanks for that. I appreciate that. Now, we live in a world that's very, very focused politically at the the moment. Would that be fair to say? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A And I'm wondering whether this is a good subject for Christians to involve themselves in debating together. What do you think? SPEAKER C Oh, I think so too, because Paul does talk about this and because Paul is talking about these sorts of things, we can go and read it. And I'm going to look at still in Philippians chapter 2, but I'm going to go to verse 17 and see what he says there for this. No, sorry, we won't do that. We're going to focus on Jesus first. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER C Because if we don't focus on Jesus, that's a big problem. We don't want Caesar involved. No, we don't, because who are our politicians? They're like Caesar, aren't they? They are telling us what to do and we don't want that. We want to listen to what Jesus says. SPEAKER A So we need to not be involved. Involved in the political discussion. I think that's what we're saying. SPEAKER B I believe that's because you all have different opinions. SPEAKER A Yes, we're all going to have different opinions. SPEAKER C We will. SPEAKER A Arguing over this is my point on the whole matter. SPEAKER C That's it. Yes. SPEAKER A So let's have a look at verse 15 then. What do you think here of the description of God's people, Rod, in chapter two, still in verse 15, that you may become blameless, harmless. This is an interesting description along the lines of what we've just been Saying children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. So what do you think of that, Rob? That description. SPEAKER B We are to live our life obeying the law, pay our taxes, be honest in business, dealing. SPEAKER A Honest and blameless, as it just says, honest and blameless. SPEAKER B If we say we're going to do something, do it. If we make a promise, carry it out, we're to be upright and we're to have a position where people can't sort of say, oh, he's deceptive or she's deceptive. We're to be people that can be trustworthy and viewed as honest. And again, that will reflect on our belief system. People sort of, we are to represent Christ, the King of heaven, and that's what we have to do. And it's not easy to do that. But again, the Holy Spirit's important for. SPEAKER A Us to shining as lights in the world. It's so important that we do that. To me, keeping our word is very, very important. We say we're going to do something, we do it regardless. SPEAKER B And just one other thing too. It says they're harmless. To be harmless, you're to be innocent. And as it says, we're to create no harm. So we shouldn't be out there to be stirring up trouble or we're to be harmless. We're to be good citizens. It doesn't mean we just accept anything, but we have to make sure we don't cause harm. SPEAKER A Okay, There's a gentleness thought there which I like. Corinthian, Philippians 2, verse 17. Now, moving on to a different thought from Paul here. He says, yes, and if I'm being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you. With you. All right, this is really interesting. So what is he saying? SPEAKER C What is he saying? SPEAKER A What is he saying to us here? SPEAKER C The drink offering, where was the first one of these put in the Bible? I'm going to go a long way back in the Bible, and it's going to be right in the very first book of the Bible, which is Genesis. And in Genesis, chapter 35, verse 14, we'll get a little glimpse, a little bit more to help us here. So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, a pillar of stone. And he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. So this drink offering, it's a very sacrificial gift, an offering to God. And I think Paul must have read this too, because we see it in his life that he was like that. He was sacrificing so much and still willing to even go to prison for that. SPEAKER A While he was in prison. SPEAKER C Yes, while he was in prison, just as Jesus did in sacrificing his life. SPEAKER A The symbol of being poured out is actually a very good one. SPEAKER C Yes, yes. SPEAKER A It becomes very clear. SPEAKER C Jesus poured out, didn't it? SPEAKER A There's a strong symbolism here in this rod, don't you think? SPEAKER B There is this pouring out, and we have an example in the Bible of this. And I'd just like to turn to mark 14. 3. This is the story of Jesus having the oil poured on him, the oil of Spikenard. And I'll read from verse three of Mark 14. And it says, and being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the Leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. And she broke the flask and poured it on his head. Now, if I just go down to verse eight to finish off, then I'll make a comment. She has done what Jesus said. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. So here's a lady, she's poured out this bottle. And it's worth making a comment about this bottle. While this was spikenard. Spikenard is the oil of a root of a plant that can only come from the Himalayas. It's extremely rare. About less than 1% of oil comes out of the root of the plant. So getting it out of the root is very, very difficult. It's very expensive. And the amount you poured on Jesus was equivalent to a year's wages. Because the roman soldiers paid one denarius a day. There was 300 denarii. This story is in all four gospels. So it's an important story. SPEAKER A It's a huge amount. SPEAKER B So, you know, in today's money, she's like poured, I don't know, 40 to 60 thousand dollars on Jesus. That's how much she's poured herself out, how much he meant to her for what he had done for her. SPEAKER A Hugely symbolic, isn't it, of her love and appreciation for what Jesus has done for her. SPEAKER B He gave her salvation and that was everything to her. And so the money, nothing was too good for Jesus. SPEAKER A Yeah, I love that. There's something in that for all of us. So Paul, going back to Paul, who see himself as being poured out in this manner, he had a real living. SPEAKER C Faith, didn't he, this man oh he really did. He, he was devoting his whole life to serving God and saving people wherever he was going. And even in prison itself, he was still preaching the love of Jesus and getting letters out to people. SPEAKER A This is right. SPEAKER C His whole life was a sacrifice. SPEAKER A It was. And he wasn't the only one devoting his life to following Jesus. SPEAKER B He wasn't. In fact again if you go to the book of Acts, I've just picked up Acts chapter 5 and verse 42 and daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease from teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. And the key phrase here is they did not cease. So these followers who didn't stop at anything to preach and to pour out their love and the message to others their entire life was 100% for Christ. Nothing was complete committed, no self ambition here, totally for Christ. They gave up the will, their will, their why, for God's way. And that's, that's true dedication. SPEAKER A That's tremendous. And Jesus did. Sorry, not Jesus, Paul. Paul actually mentioned a number of people. He goes on to mention them here in the book of Philippians. Specifically who does he mention Corinne talking about? SPEAKER C It's written in Philippians chapter two, our chapter we're looking at in verses 19 and 20. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly. That I also may be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like minded who will sincerely care for your state. So he's saying that Timothy is like minded, just like Paul was. And he was committed just as Paul was. SPEAKER A 100% commitment. SPEAKER C Yes, following. Yeah, following Jesus, caring for his people, Jesus people and especially the Philippian followers and the believers there. Yes. SPEAKER A And Rod, we have some interesting insights here into Paul's meaning about personal dedication and sacrifice. I'm going to read Philippians 2:21 here which says all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. There's a highlighting a problem here, isn't it? SPEAKER B He is again he's referring to people who are again looking after themselves, looking after number one. They don't have regard for the things of God. It's all about me, me, me. And that's who Paul's referring to there. SPEAKER A Okay look, thank you for that. And then still that was verse 21. Moving on to verse 22 here now. But you know his proven character that as a son with his father, he served me in the gospel. Now he's talking about Timothy here. Timothy has a proven character. What is he saying to us? SPEAKER C Oh yes, he is very proven. He was obviously tested by all the trials that happened, and he proved to be 100% genuine in everything that he did. Yes. Never failed. SPEAKER A Okay, that was quite an assessment by Paul. Yes, and quite a compliment. Paul goes on actually to describe another of his companions, a faithful companion, Epaphroditus, otherwise known as Epaphras. And he mentions him in Philippians 2:25. And he says, yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier. But your messenger and the one who ministered to my needs. So Epaphroditus, what do we know about him, Rob? SPEAKER B Well, if you go through all the references, he appears in the book of Colossians as well, and he appears to have had ministry in different cities. In this particular reference, he was helping Paul. And of course, we get from what you just read, he considered him a brother, a fellow soldier, a messenger, one who ministered to his need. This was a worker, this was a disciple. This was a person who was fully dedicated to God and clearly was doing God's work. SPEAKER A Okay, okay, thank you for that. So he uses, he calls him Epaphroditus, that is your messenger there in verse 25. Corinne, what do we take from that? SPEAKER C The Philippian believers, they'd apparently sent him specifically to care for Paul in prison. And when you go and look at that in Philippians 4:18 and see what is said there. Indeed I have all and abound I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you. A sweet smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well, pleasing to God. So he was entrusted with all of this finance and so many things, the gifts for Paul. Yeah, he was very trusted and he proved to be. SPEAKER A Must have been. You could put money in a man's hand. SPEAKER C Oh, yes, you know, you trust them. He was very reliable. SPEAKER A Yeah, that was the kind of person he was. Clearly didn't work a 9 to 5 job. He was able to get up and go. SPEAKER C He did. SPEAKER A And it was quite a. Quite a big commitment that he made. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A Big commitment. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A Okay. Now with this letter to the Philippians that we're actually studying together, Paul is going to give this letter to Epaphroditus to take it back to the people in Philippi, which is rather interesting, isn't it? I'm going to read verse 29 and 30 here still, chapter two of Philippians, and this is what it says. He's now Jesus. Sorry, Paul is addressing the Philippian believers now and says, receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold Such men, the ones we've been talking about in esteem, high esteem because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me. So he was clearly this man had given everything he had. He really, he really, really had. What do you see as the main message here, Rod out of this particular story? SPEAKER B Well, when you read there in verse 28 where it says, sorry, verse 29, receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, Paul is sort of saying this is the kind of person that we need to respect because he's a worker who's giving all to God and because of, because of his sacrifice in the work and that sacrifice need support and to again give him the recognition that he needs because he's following the example of Jesus, caring for his people. SPEAKER A Yeah, you know, I think it's a lovely, it's a lovely picture of complete dedication to and the fact that people should be appreciated for what they do. And I think we all try to do that and should do indeed. Look, finally, Corinne, what is the main take home message we need to take home message here? What is the main take home message out of these insights that we have into Paul and his companions in terms of letting your light shine? SPEAKER C I think the big takeaway is that our challenge is to be a living sacrifice for Jesus just like these faithful men were. Be patient, be kind to each other, even if we're treated poorly. SPEAKER A It's being like, by the way, these men were given a very hard time. SPEAKER C Oh, weren't they ever? And it's been like Jesus to everybody that we meet, every person we meet. And my favorite old saying from when I was very young was a Christian equals Christlike. I can't call myself a Christian if I am not being Christlike. SPEAKER A That's a big challenge. You all right? Thank you. We've got to leave it there, folks. The life of Paul and his companions is a true inspiration. Their light shone brightly for Jesus and God is surely calling us to live our lives as a living sacrifice to him in the very same way. We have one life and it will soon be passed. Only what we do for Christ will last. Glad you joined us today on Let God Speak. All our past programs plus teachers helps are available on our website, 3abnaustralia.org au you can contact us by email. Join us again and God bless. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from you.