Baby Dedication and Sermon, July 29, 2007: Can the Light Be Seen in You?

Here we have a 98-year-old brother, and now it is our turn to present two practically newborn babies, so that is also a great blessing, because we can be at both ends of life, at the beginning and also already in the golden and silver years, as the Word says. We also know that the Lord is faithful in carrying us through all those phases and stages of life.

And this morning we are doing something exceptional, because we normally hold baby presentations at the 12 o’clock service. And while we are at it, we encourage the brothers and sisters who wish to present their babies, or who know people who wish to present theirs, always to remember that, for scheduling reasons and all of that, it is much better to do it at 12, so that we can have more time in the morning for discipleship and all these things.

But in any case, today is very special because we have two of our pastors who have had their babies in these past few months, and we have the privilege of presenting them. So I would like to ask them and their wives to come up here: Gregory and Omar, Aidimaris and Kenny. Are they here? Come up here. Let’s just come forward, guys. Give our pastors a round of applause as a blessing....

We have not only the proud parents but also proud grandmothers as well, and it is a real joy, a real blessing, to have them here too.

It is a great blessing to have you here..... So this is a family affair this morning, as we also recognize that our pastors have their own normal family lives that they live, and God has given them this privilege. Here we have this precious baby, Noah Jonathan, Noé Jonatán, and over here we also have Lucas, another precious baby, so beautiful. And, brothers and sisters, this morning I was thinking about how to do justice to the fact that two of our pastors are celebrating their....

Are you getting this? Are you getting the translation? Okay, good, good; if not, I’ll be happy to translate that directly.

But it is something so special. And the Lord reminded me of two elements that we recall through Scripture every time we present a baby. One of them is what the Word says: God ordained that the firstborn who opened the womb, who began or opened the womb—he said, “Those will belong to me.” There is something special about the firstborn, and here we have two firstborn babies who have already begun this process of our brothers and sisters having a larger family. Therefore, the Lord has something very special concerning the firstborn, those who open the womb, those who begin that process of motherhood and fatherhood, and I do not believe that this has changed with the new covenant.

So both Lucas and Noah are part of a very special, highly chosen lineage, because God has something very important, very interesting, concerning those who open the womb. But God also reminded me about the vessels and utensils of the sanctuary: when God made his temple and placed there the various utensils that would be used in all the sacred rituals of the temple, he said that those utensils also had to be consecrated and sanctified solely for him. And the first concept, or the first image, of the firstborn applies very specifically to Noah and Lucas, but the second concept, that of utensils and vessels consecrated to the Lord, I believe applies to every baby and every Christian. We are set apart, sanctified and consecrated for the Lord’s exclusive service.

And that is why I believe we can extend the presentation to boys and girls, to firstborn children and also to second, third and fourth children, and so on—to every baby in a family—because we are chosen vessels, and in fact we are going to talk a little about that this morning. Therefore, when we present babies before the Lord, what we are doing is sanctifying them, setting them apart for the Lord’s use at their young age. We are saying, “You are set apart and separated for something very special, something exclusive.” In a sense, every life that enters the ways of the Lord is special, chosen by God, and when we present babies, that is what we do: we recognize their status as those who have been set apart. As the people of God, who belong to God’s covenant, we also bring our children into that covenant, and we bless them and set them apart for the Lord’s use. So that is the symbolism we are working out and rehearsing here in this place this morning.

I believe my brothers, being pastors after all, have a word they want to share about this moment. After all, what pastor have you ever seen who does not like to speak from time to time? So we are going to let Omar speak, and I think Lucas is looking at the microphone as though he already wants to be a pastor or something like that. Well, we will let his father lead this moment.

Well, brothers and sisters, today I stand here more as a father, not so much as a pastor, with my wife and now my son here beside me. And I only want to share a few words with Lucas. I know that perhaps he does not understand right now, but I say it here before all of you. And, Lucas, in Scripture, Psalm 127, verse 4, says:

“...children are like arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior...”

And today, before God and before you, I commit myself to trying to be that mighty man you need, so that I may launch you like an arrow into the future and you may accomplish greater things than your father has accomplished. May you always keep your heart focused on God, and may God direct every one of your steps, Lucas.

Amen. Amen. And I believe our brother Gregory also has something to share.

Amen. We are very grateful to God. His name is Noah Jonathan, Noé Jonatán. The name Noah means “rest” after storms, and Jonathan means “gift from God.” And he is a gift from God to our lives. So I want to read this passage that one of you left on my voicemail the day Noah Jonathan was born.

It says, “...Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is the Lord, for he will be like a tree planted by the waters, which sends out its roots by the stream. It will not see when the heat comes, but its leaf will remain green; in the year of drought it will not grow weary, nor will it cease to bear fruit....”

I want to read that in English. It said: “....Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. You, Noah Jonathan, will be like a tree planted by the water; you will send out your roots by a stream. You will not fear when the heat comes; your leaves will always be green. You will have no worries in the year of drought, and you will never fail to bear fruit...” In the name of Jesus.

And now, Father, we consecrate these lives to you.... We consecrate these lives to you, Father. We acknowledge that they belong to you.... We acknowledge that they belong to you, Lord, and that they are privileged children because they are born into families that know you.

They are privileged human beings because they are born into families that acknowledge you and know your name.

And so, Father, we set them apart for you in the name of Jesus. We separate them for you, Father, and we sanctify them.... We sanctify them, Lord, in the name of Jesus, so that they may be men filled with the Holy Spirit, men who love your Word... that they might be men who will be filled with your Holy Spirit, who will love your Word and be founded on your Word, Father; and may they grow up in homes that celebrate the name of Christ.... May they grow up in homes that celebrate the name of Christ Jesus, homes that exemplify the finest values of the Kingdom of God.... homes that will exemplify the finest values and attributes of the Kingdom of God. And, Father, may they receive from their parents the example of lives that are lived best when serving you and being completely dedicated to you.

Father, may they learn through their parents and their homes that the best way to live life is by serving you and consecrating themselves completely to you. We bless them; we declare over them the shadow of the Holy Spirit...

We declare the shadow of the Almighty over them.... your protection and care from every attack of the enemy. And, Father, we clear the path before them and proclaim a journey filled with good experiences.

We declare ahead of them, Father, a journey full of wonderful, uplifting, edifying experiences that will lead them to become that full, full manifestation of the glory of Christ here on earth.

May they be a powerful and complete manifestation of the glory of Christ through human beings here on earth. Bless their parents, and may they serve you with joy, Lord.

May the parents always serve you with joy, Father, tasting the sweetness of the land as they serve you, Father, as you have promised in your Word. We bless them now in the name of Jesus.

We worship in the name of Jesus, and the people of God say, “Amen.” Glory to God. Amen. Amen.

Amen, glory to the Lord. How wonderful, how wonderful.

Well, brothers and sisters, let us turn to the Word of God in a different way, and we are going to speak a little about these very themes of consecration, service to the Lord, sanctification for God, and being a people set apart for God, through a passage that God has placed on my heart this morning. I invite you to turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 5. There in verse 14, the Lord Jesus Christ says in his own words:

“...You are the light of the world”—let me repeat that—“you are the light of the world.....” I am going to say it personally.... You are, I am, the light of the world... you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor is a light lit and then placed under a bushel basket—that is, beneath a container that covers it and hides it—but it is placed on a lampstand so that it gives light to everyone in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.....” Let your light so shine; let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. May the Lord bless his holy Word.

It is a call, brothers and sisters, a challenge to us that comes from the very mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the light of the world. It is, to a certain extent, a scandalous and challenging declaration, because the Lord has said that he is the light of the world, and yet in this passage he says that we are the light of the world. And if he had not said it, it would have seemed scandalous, but the Lord is saying that we—who are we? Believers, followers of Jesus Christ, disciples of Jesus; that is whom he means, for he is speaking to believers in him—we are the light of the world. And that constitutes a great challenge; it has consequences. That statement by the Lord has consequences that he develops in this passage.

Let us try to organize this systematically here. First of all, Jesus is the light of the world; he himself spoke in those terms. Let us turn, for example, to the Gospel according to John, where there are many passages that speak about this theme of light, of Jesus Christ as the light.

In John, chapter 1, verse 9, we are told: “...That true light, which gives light to every man, was coming into this world”—that is Jesus Christ—“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, but the world did not know him, the true light....”

John, chapter 8, verse 12, likewise says: “...Once again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world’....”—one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture, where Jesus speaks clearly, without ambiguity, about what he is and who he is. Many liberal Bible commentators have said that Jesus never claimed divinity or claimed to be a being—let us say, extraterrestrial, in the sense of being from outside this world—and that it was his followers, after he died and generations later, who assigned to him those attributes of divinity or of an absolutely other, exceptional nature with respect to the human race; that he never attributed those things to himself. And even these people who say that use the Gospels of Jesus Christ, the four Gospels, as the source of their knowledge of Jesus.

We cannot choose one thing and set the other aside. Right here, the Lord says in his own words, “I am the light of the world...”

Brother, if you say something like that, it is because you know very well who you are. I believe that no natural, biologically human man could say anything so tremendously all-encompassing as that.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life....”

In other words, not only does he have light in himself, but those who follow him will also have that light. Just as a celestial body reflects the light of the sun, which has light in itself, so too will we have light—and not just any light, but the light of life, which is eternal life. So the Lord says, “I am the light, and those who follow me will not walk in darkness.”

John, chapter 12, verse 46, says: “....I, the light, have come into the world....”

How interesting this idea of the preexistence of Jesus Christ is here. “I have come....” It is as though he landed from another realm; he, who is the light, has come into the world, has arrived in the world.

“....so that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness...”

Something interesting also begins to take shape there, and that is that, since Jesus is the light and he has come into the world, those who cling to him, those who receive him, those who are in him, can no longer possibly walk in darkness, because his light also shines on them. We can no longer remain in darkness.

And Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, also says something similar in verse 6, or implies it. It says: “..... because God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, is the one who shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ....”

God shone in our hearts in the same way that the light shone when God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light in the midst of the darkness. In the same way, light shines in those who have Jesus in their hearts, because he is the light.

So we clearly see this idea that links Jesus with the light. Now, another interesting thing is that the Word says that the world that does not know Christ is in darkness. There is an inherent conflict between Christ and those who are in Christ, on the one hand, and those who are not in Jesus, on the other.

For example, look at Second Corinthians, Chapter 6, verses 14 and 15. Here believers in Christ are told: “.... Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.....” —there it is establishing an opposition, a radical separation between believers and those who are unbelievers, those who do not know, those who do not receive Jesus, those who refuse to acknowledge the lordship and deity of Jesus.

“.... for what fellowship does righteousness have with unrighteousness, and what communion does light have with darkness...”

In other words, those who are in Christ, who is light, are in the light; those who do not have Christ are in darkness. And we believers—not out of pride or because we think we are better than anyone else—cannot intertwine our lives with theirs; our intimate fellowship cannot be with those who have different values, those who do not have that intimacy with Christ Jesus. We cannot be unequally yoked together; that is what it means.

Some have interpreted this as referring to marriage, meaning that a believer should not marry an unbeliever, but it goes much deeper than that. There must be no intimacy of values, no sharing them with those who do not believe in Jesus, because we are light and they are darkness.

Now, one must say that with extreme humility, because we know that it is only through Christ that we can lay claim to that light, not through our good works, because we do not have any. Amen.

It says, “... what accord does Christ have with Belial—with demons—or what part does the believer have with the unbeliever...”

Now, here it is important always to point something out, and that is that we need to have contact with unbelievers so that we can bring them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, isn’t that right? We cannot live as though on an isolated island: don’t touch me, don’t talk to me.

Paul says that if that were the case, we would have to leave this world; we would have to take a spaceship and go off to Mars or Jupiter or somewhere like that. We are in the world, and we have to be loving, affectionate, friendly, humble, appealing, pleasant people toward others, inviting them into our homes and going to their homes. But there must always be an inner spiritual separation in our hearts, because we know that the idea is for them to come and enter that realm of light where we are. Amen. But we are a separated people; there is no communion, because the values of the world are inherently opposed to the values of the light.

Now, we do business and interact with the world as Christ did. Christ went to the feasts of unbelievers; Christ met with unbelievers. In fact, they attacked him relentlessly because he was with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners, and those self-righteous, Pharisaical people were upset with Jesus because he was supposed to be like them, always having that sense of superiority: no, we do not want to rub shoulders with them. No, that is not the idea. The believer’s separation is a separation of the inner being; it is a modesty, a spiritual virginity that the believer has in his heart because he belongs to a nation different from that of the world. He has the light, he has the knowledge, he has the wisdom, he has the truth of God, and he deals with those who are in darkness to see if he can bring them out and bring them into that realm of light as well. The believer is a seller of something absolutely extraordinary: the truth of God, the salvation of the soul, eternity for the human being. And the world is in darkness.

Look at another passage in First Peter 2, verse 9. It says there: “.... but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired by God....” —you see, all these are images of something special, set apart, unique, separate— “....so that you may proclaim the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light...”

In other words, when we were without Christ, we were without God and without hope, far from God’s promises, far from God’s privileges, far from the Covenant God has made with his people. We were in darkness, but when we accepted Jesus, the light came into our hearts, into our lives, and it illuminated us, and Christ brings us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Darkness is the world that does not know God.

It is not that Christ does it physically, taking us out. No, we are taken out in the sense that it is as though our record were removed from the wrong place. The divine administrator of every life goes to a filing cabinet where all the human records of the people who are lost and condemned to eternal perdition are kept, and he goes there, and when a person receives Christ, that person’s life file, his record, is automatically taken out of that filing cabinet and transferred to the filing cabinet of light and eternal life. We are administratively removed, in the spiritual realm, from the dominion, power, and government of darkness, and we are placed under his marvelous light. Glory to the Lord.

Now it says, “....so that you may proclaim the virtues of him who called you....”

In other words, there is also a call there to proclaim, and we are going to talk a little about that in a moment as well. Then there is another passage that I do not have here at hand, but I know it. It says, “.....if our Gospel is hidden, it is hidden among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age blinded their minds so that the light of the Gospel would not shine upon them....”

In other words, there are many people in the world—businessmen, educators, artists, highly developed philosophers, first-rate intellectuals, many of them people of great philanthropy and good intentions—but they are blinded by the devil, and they are so content with their worldly philosophy and their secular systems that they do not acknowledge Jesus Christ. The devil has blinded their understanding so that they will not recognize the excellence of the Gospel and be saved. But we have received the privilege of God removing the blindfold from our eyes, and we have been able to see the light and radiance of Christ Jesus.

So we see: Christ is the light; we receive the benefit of his light, and we ourselves live in the light. The world, without Christ, is in darkness, and there is an antinomy, there is a separation, there is an inherent conflict between us and the world; there is an opposition between light and darkness. That is very important because, brothers and sisters, I believe that many times we as Christians in the twenty-first century have lost this idea—not only of the believer’s separation, that we are a separated, set-apart, different people, but also that there is conflict. There is conflict between what we represent and what Christ represents, on the one hand, and what the world represents, on the other.

Look, for example, at John 3:19. It says: “.... and this is the condemnation, that the light came into the world—that is, Jesus—and men loved darkness more than light because their deeds were evil.....”

Christ cannot be pleasing; the truth of Christ, the light that Christ represents, cannot be received by those who are immersed in the world’s system and its values, because there is an inherent, profound, systemic conflict between those two essences, those two worlds, those two realms of existence. And when the person who is steeped and immersed in the world receives and hears the word of the Gospel, it jars him, causes displeasure, causes conflict and rejection, because the essence within him, the energy within him or her, clashes with the energy in that believer and with what the light of Christ represents.

That is why, when many people arrive at a church, for example, where the presence of God is and the values of the Gospel are firmly established, the person who generally comes hardened by the world, the values of the world, and the sensibilities of the world feels rejection, distaste, and displeasure, because the essence that person is hearing and experiencing is different from what is inside. Only as the person gradually, little by little, becomes sensitive and warms to the value of the Gospel, and as the person’s mind is transformed little by little and renewed, does the person begin to like what he or she is seeing, hearing, experiencing, and receiving, because what is inside also begins to conform to what is outside. Do you understand?

So there is a conflict there. That is why, when Christ came into the world with a different, scandalous truth, people rejected him, including the religious people, because the fact that you are immersed in religion does not mean that you have the truth of Christ, you know? Many people immerse themselves in religion, but at the expense of Jesus Christ, and there are many people, like the Pharisees, who have the whole apparatus of religiosity but do not have the essence of the truth of Christ. So they feel that same rejection as well.

There is a conflict.

And that is why, when Christ came into the world, even the religious people... religiosity is part of the world; it is not outside the world. It is simply a psychological game people play to deceive themselves, but in reality they are immersed in the world. False religion is a subtle, psychological manifestation of the values of the world, but with a veneer, with a layer of religiosity. Do you understand? And so, when the truth of Christ—a caustic, corrosive truth that gets to the point, to the jugular—touches someone, whether religious or worldly, that person rejects it because his inner sensibilities reject what God represents.

Then it says, “.... for everyone who does evil hates the light...” —John 3:19— “......and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved; but he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be made manifest that his deeds are done in God.”

You remember what happened to Adam and Eve. After they sinned, God came to have intimate fellowship with them. What happened? They hid; they fled, because the light of God now made them feel bad; there was now an element of darkness within them. Now, when you are right with God and your soul is washed by the truth of Christ, you say to him, ‘Holy Spirit, come, take me, consume me, absorb me, baptize me, saturate me....’ because you know that there is intimacy with him, there is an affinity between the values of the Spirit and you, because the Spirit is within you. But the person who is outside of God does not want that.

So we see this: we who are in the world are going to have conflicts. If Christ had conflict with the world, how could we not have it? The church has to get used to the idea that when it preaches a true and pure Gospel, it will have conflict with the world.

Now, to me, the most important thing in this passage here is that call that, since we are light in the world, we cannot hide the light; on the contrary, we must be aggressive in displaying the light we have within us. That is the most demanding, most challenging, and, in a sense, most unpleasant call, I might say, for every believer. Because how wonderful it would be if we could simply say, ‘Okay, I already have the light, glory to God, they stamped my passport, and I am going to heaven, shoes and all, when I die. I do not have to worry about anything else; I will simply do what I can here, and everyone else can fend for themselves. That is their problem; I already have my passport stamped, right?’ It is not like that.

What the Word says time and again is: ‘Now that you have been visited by the light of God in your heart, now that you have the truth of God in your life, now that you have light within you through Jesus Christ, you are under an absolute obligation to share that light with others. You have to be in a visible position where others can see the light that is in you through Jesus Christ. So you are called to be a light in the world; that is what the word of the Lord says.

That is why we are a chosen people, “....a holy nation, a people chosen by God so that we may proclaim the truths of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light....”

You now exist to draw other unfortunate people, as you once were, to the knowledge of the light of Jesus Christ. That is why the Lord says, you are the light of the world; “....a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.....”

In other words, cities in the ancient world were placed in high locations. You can see many cities in the world that are on mountains, in high places, whether to be protected from the ravages of the wind, the sea, or whatever it might be, or to be able to see farther around them, or to protect themselves from enemies who came to attack or take possession of them; and that city could be seen, like Jerusalem.

You can see Jerusalem from very far away; those who have been able to go to Jerusalem, to Israel, know this. Israel is on a hill, and you can come from the airport and, from far away, you can see Jesus Christ there in the distance. When pilgrims came to Jerusalem from different countries around the world, they could see it. There are psalms called Psalms of Ascents, which were psalms the pilgrims would sing as they went up, when they came from different parts of the world to visit the city of Jerusalem. And the Lord took that image and said, “...a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden; rather, everyone will see it.” And we are like a city on a hill; the church of Jesus Christ is like a city on a hill, shining its light, and at night you can see that city.

I remember, many years ago—more than I care to remember—when I went to Acapulco, Mexico. I studied in Mexico for a few months when I was in high school. I remember that, at the end of my time there in Mexico, the young people I was with and I took a trip to Acapulco, and we traveled all night. At night, in the distance, we could see the beautiful lights of the city of Acapulco. And that brought joy and anticipation to our hearts.

And I believe that the church of Jesus Christ must be like a city set on a hill, so that pilgrims who walk in darkness can see that city and find their bearings through the lights that shine from it, and make their way to a safe place and find refuge there for their lives and their souls. The church of Jesus Christ must be a light; it must be different from the world, because if the light becomes darkness, then pilgrims cannot find their way toward it.

Before that passage about the light, the Lord spoke about salt and said the same thing: ‘You are of the earth, and if salt loses its flavor, then what good is it...?’

The church of Jesus Christ, every believer, a Christian family, is like a city set on a hill; it cannot be hidden. You cannot hide who you are. I believe that the church of Jesus Christ in the twenty-first century must come to a time of crisis, a moment of definition, when we decide what we are, what I am. There are too many undercover Christians in the twenty-first century, and we must take our light and place it where it can shine.

The Lord Jesus Christ also says, “...you do not take a light and put it under the bed...”

You see the word bushel here. How many of you know what the word bushel means? Raise your hand. Who can tell me the definition of the word bushel? Ah... brother, what is a bushel? Glory to God. Amen. It took a Franciscan priest to remind us of that. Thank you, brother. It is like a vessel. A bushel is a measure of grain and thus, by extension, also the vessel, a bowl, a container.

So you do not take a candle, for example, and place a plastic container over it to cover it; you put it up high. Where are the lights here? Look at them; where are they? They are above us, so they can shine. The place for light is where it is visible, where it can exert its influence. Therefore, we cannot hide our light; we cannot say, ‘I am a Christian,’ and then conceal ourselves. We are robbing the world of the privilege of knowing what we have.

Now, how can we hide the light? How can someone do what it says here and put the light of Christ under a bushel instead of placing it on the lampstand? There are many ways. I have noted three or four, and I want to share them with you.

Number one, the most obvious: we can hide our light by not bearing witness out of fear or shame. In the twenty-first century, the devil has managed to shroud the pure, biblical, orthodox, historic Gospel in an air of ignorance, fanaticism, and unattractiveness, so that there are many people who, when you speak to them about the Gospel, about being evangelical, about receiving Christ, about living for Jesus, about living a life pleasing to God and in accordance with the Word, and about living the life that we as believers are trying to live here, immediately say, ‘Oh, that is not for me. That is for fanatics, for the poor, for the ignorant.’ And we have allowed ourselves to be influenced by that, and many of us do not want anyone to know that we are Christians, yes or no? We are undercover Christians. We are secret agents of the Kingdom of God. Every once in a while, when we can, we take out and show our Christian ID card, and then we hide it again. We have allowed the world to intimidate us, and we do not bear witness. At our factory, no one knows that we are Christians.

Someone was telling me the other day, ‘Pastor, I have been visiting...’—this was a professional person—‘...several offices around the city, and I am realizing how many Christians hold positions of authority in Boston.’ Listen, where are they, and what are they doing? Are they bearing witness? Are they being assertive?

There are so many people whom the devil has finally convinced that the Gospel belongs in the private sphere and that, while carrying out their official, professional, secular duties, they should not mix in matters of the Gospel. And I say that is a lie from the devil. That is a satanic scheme to muzzle the church and take away its light, so that the church takes its light and puts it under a bushel.

Now, there are sensitive and wise ways to make your faith known and let others become acquainted with it. And you will be surprised: there are more people out there eager to meet a Christian who carries the light than you imagine. There are many factory and hospital directors, many doctors and intellectuals, who are going through hell in their homes, with their marriages destroyed, their parenthood damaged, their health ruined, afraid of death, depressed, anxious, with lots of money and status but without the light. They are afraid of death and do not know what to do with life’s tragedies. And sometimes they will need a nanny or a dishwasher or the person who cleans their house to offer them the light of Jesus Christ in a sensitive and appealing way.

We cannot take away our light. If we are teachers, if we are social workers, if we are doctors, if we are university professors, we have all the more reason to let the world know that I am a Christian. You do not have to go around slapping people with a Bible to proclaim your faith, but you can say discreetly and with pride, in the good sense of the word, ‘Yes, I am a Christian. So what? What’s it to you!’ No. The idea is to announce it with a sense of pleasure and satisfaction: ‘I am a Christian, and if you would like to talk about my faith, I am very willing to do so.’

You can give someone a book; you can give someone a tract; you can share... You can say to someone who is in distress, ‘Look, I know that perhaps you... but may I bless you with a brief prayer? I am not going to beat you over the head with the Gospel, but let me bless your life.’ Many people will tell you, ‘Yes, of course.’ Tears will come to their eyes—do not be surprised—and there will be a conflict, a clash between darkness and light, and those people will be left with a lasting impression. There are many people to whom we need to proclaim the Word of God, but the devil has intimidated us into compartmentalizing our lives and living a schizophrenic life: in the morning we are doctors, teachers, social workers, and then for a little while on Sunday we are evangelicals. May the Lord rebuke the devil, as Yiye Ávila would say. Both things must be united into one.

We must proclaim the Gospel; we must be light to the darkness. We must be a city set on a hill. We can hide our light by not bearing witness out of fear or shame.

Another way we can hide our light is by living like the world, blending in with the world’s values, and that can manifest itself in excessive consumerism and materialism. There are many Christian people who live for their next visit to Filene’s; it is a consumerist version of drug addiction. Those people’s drug is injecting a new suit into their veins, or a pair of shoes, or whatever, right? It is that consumerism: buying new sneakers with the Nike sign or whatever; a Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt, or whatever it is called, or whatever, right? The world, its values, the sensuality of the world, manifested in the way we dress, the way we speak, the music we consume, the programs we watch on television, the entertainment we enjoy, the relationships we maintain, and the way we treat others. All these things are a way of living like the world, and then our light dies, because we also speak through our lives and not only through our words.

I believe it was Saint Francis of Assisi—I do not know whether it was he—who said, ‘Preach the Gospel, and when it is unavoidable, use words.’ Only when it is unavoidable, because we preach the Word with our lives, and if we adopt the world’s way of life, many people enter the Gospel but do not experience a transformation, a renewal of their understanding; they do not experience it. Their understanding continues to operate according to the values of the world, and so their light remains hidden because people do not see a clear message. We say one thing with our mouths, while our lives show something else.

You are the message, not merely your words. Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 5 through 13, speaks to us precisely about this need, and it says here:

“...Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, the unbelievers, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light... —verse 11— ...and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them...”

And it speaks there about a series of things; then it moves into a series of things that distinguish the person who is in the light. For example, it says in verse 18:

“...Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking among yourselves with psalms and spiritual hymns, always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, submitting to one another, etc....”

A whole pattern of conduct that comes as a consequence of being in the light. We can hide our light by living like the world.

A third way—I am making progress, believe it or not. A third way we can hide our light is by abandoning the distinctive features of the Gospel and conforming to the prevailing culture.

You know that the Gospel has certain distinctive features that are scandalous, that are confrontational, that clash with what we were just saying a little while ago. The essence of the Gospel is this scandalous aspect, skandalon, reflected by the cross of Christ, which scandalizes both the Jews, who are deeply concerned with matters of power, and the Greeks, who are concerned with matters of intellect. And the cross contradicts man’s expectations about God, what God should be like, and what should happen to God.

And from that point onward, the Gospel is one scandalous assertion after another to the rational, intellectual mind that has not been redeemed by God. In terms of ethics, morality, justice, law, government, art, and excellence, all the assertions of the Christian evangelical system run contrary to the sensibilities of the world. Look at Hollywood today; look at the values of justice, ethics, and morality that man promotes today—completely contrary. And the tendency of the church in this age—and it has always been so—is to become acculturated, to accommodate itself so that supposedly the Gospel will not be so offensive and others can come to the Gospel.

You know what? That is another lie from the devil. Man needs a clear expression of what distinguishes the Gospel, and at first there is a clash of powers. If the church stands firm, the church prevails; but if the church retreats, bargains with the Gospel, and tries to soften it to make it more attractive to the world, the church loses its power. And that is what the liberal world, the liberal churches, are discovering: they are dying one after another because they believed that by removing the scandalous and confrontational aspects of the Gospel—for example, its insistence on miracles and the supernatural—they would make the Gospel more accessible and appealing to man. That is a lie. This is not a matter of human advertising techniques. This is a matter of God’s truth.

The Kingdom of Heaven advances violently, and the violent are the ones who take it by force. The Gospel has always advanced by prevailing over the world, and I believe that the church needs, in this age, in the twenty-first century, to reclaim and recover its instincts as an eagle and a lion so that it can reach the world. Because what we have today is a tame little kitten hiding in a corner, afraid of what man and humanity want from it. And the church has abandoned its power, and we too can do the same by becoming acculturated and trying to be like the world so that the world will accept us. And Christ said, “...if they did this and that to the tree itself, how could they not do it to the branches...?”

Do you think you are going to be better than Christ, who was rejected by the world? We cannot please the world; we never will. We must hold firmly to our position in the love of Christ—but firmly—and that is what will change the world. Let us not hide our light by trying to conform to the world.

And finally, we can hide our light by being carnal and failing to manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the beauty of the Gospel, the excellence of the Gospel. I believe that the church preaches by showing the world a Gospel that works, a Gospel of excellence, a Gospel that changes people, a Gospel that turns a devil into an angel, a Gospel that takes an alcoholic and turns him into a man in full possession of his faculties; that takes a violent and abusive husband and turns him into a man who loves his wife as Christ loved the church; that takes a foul-mouthed man whose speech is obscene and turns him into a man from whose mouth come beautiful and good words; that takes a woman who has no sense of self-worth, no self-esteem because life has destroyed it, and turns her into a warrior, a Deborah filled with the Holy Spirit; that takes a young person who is not doing well in school and, through the power of God and the mind of Christ entering his consciousness, turns him into a young person who earns good grades and respects his teachers.

Through that excellence of the Gospel, we also lift up the light of Christ before humanity; we show people that the Gospel works, that the Gospel changes, that the Gospel transforms, that there is hope in the Gospel, that God can take a fallen community such as the Latino community and turn it into a community filled with the power of God—fruitful, progressive, moving forward, conquering, and displaying the excellence of the Kingdom of God. That is something God has placed in my heart: a great passion for us to produce people in this age who exemplify the power of the Gospel.

We do not have to be afraid of having a good home, having a good job, having a good profession, writing books, or leading businesses and institutions, because wherever the Gospel and the light of God enter, all the wisdom of God and His power to make things work enter as well. Let no one tell me that he has Christ in his heart while he remains a slave to the evil and negativity of the world. It is impossible.

“...You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free...”

The Latino community and the Black community need to embrace the whole truth of God and show the world that Christ is the answer for the world. Not welfare programs, not government programs, not school programs, but the truth, the light of Christ in the world, the power of God through the Holy Spirit in us.

I tell the young people of this congregation, and the adults as well, those who speak English and those who do not speak English, those who have professional careers and those who do not: brother, you have the power of God within you, the same power that raised Christ from the dead. You can use that power, that fuel, to live a fruitful life, a life that displays the excellence of the Holy Spirit. It is not possible for us to say, ‘I am a child of God,’ and live like a beggar, like someone who is worth nothing. Even if it is a modest house, let it be orderly, clean, well-kept, and beautiful; even if it is a poor man’s meal, let that tortilla taste like the best tortilla anyone has ever eaten in his life.

Do you understand? Because it is the order of God, and we must bring it into our lives, our marriages, our fatherhood and motherhood, our schooling, our treatment of others, our ethics, and the way we live. We cannot hide the light of the Gospel; rather, we must display its excellence.

Wherever you go, the Gospel goes with you; the light of the Gospel goes with you. When people look at you, they see—I do not know what they call them in other countries—do you know what a firefly is? Those little insects that shine at night, and you see them as they move through the darkness. A Christian is a spiritual firefly; call it whatever you like. When people see you walking through a world filled with darkness, they see a little light illuminating the darkness; they see a manifestation of divinity, the light and order of Christ in your life. And you have that light within you; you have the light of the world within you. You have Christ in your heart, and when people look at your outward appearance, they see a luminescence deep within you and say, ‘What is that light there, deep inside that person?’ That is the light of Christ in you, the light of the Gospel. You carry the values of the Gospel; do not hide that light. Do not let that light cease to shine.

We have a great commitment.... Half of my message was left out, but I am going to leave it there so as not to confuse matters too much. Glory to the Lord.

You are the light of the world; we are the light of the world. Brothers and sisters, within us we have the values of the Kingdom of God, the values of a redeemed humanity, a new system, a new and different society. In one sense, brothers and sisters, the Kingdom of Heaven has already come into our lives; we are already moving in the Kingdom of God with all its beauty, all its order, all its loveliness, and all its coherence. We already have it within us. What remains is for us to believe it, begin to live it, pay the price for it to become a reality in our lives, and become aware of it. Our minds must be renewed so that we may understand that God is already in us. God is already in you, young person. God is already in you, woman. God is already in you, elderly person. God is already in you, student. God is already in you, professional. God is already in you, homemaker. The light of Christ already shines through you wherever you go, and you are an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.

And God tells you, ‘Do not hide your light under a bushel.’ Do not rob the world of the privilege of knowing Jesus Christ, and do not rob yourself of the privilege of being a bearer of the light of the Gospel. Do not hide your light. Do not stop bearing witness because of fear, shame, or what the world has indoctrinated you to believe. Do not live like the world by adopting its values. Do not abandon the distinctive qualities of the Gospel, which clash with the world at first but prevail in the end. And finally, do not hide your light by living carnally, by living a life of mediocrity, by living a life that contradicts the beautiful values, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the character of Jesus, and the order of the Kingdom of God, because the world needs to see the Kingdom of God embodied in a community, in a marriage, in a life, in a profession. You are a bearer of the light of the Gospel.

Receive the challenge of the Holy Spirit this morning; that is, may the Lord give us a bold church, a church that knows its calling. Stand up and receive God’s call upon your life; receive the challenge of the Holy Spirit to be light in the darkness. Hallelujah! To be a city set on a hill, to be a light placed on a lampstand, to be a spiritual firefly, to be a bearer of the light.

In the name of Jesus, I declare that light over your life this morning; receive it now... Raise your hand in the name of Jesus; embrace the light of the Gospel, embrace Christ’s call for you to be light in the darkness. You are light. Tell yourself: I am light, I am light, I have the light of Christ. I am the light of the world because Christ dwells in my life, because the power of the Holy Spirit dwells in my life, dwells in my home, dwells in my children, dwells in my marriage, dwells in the Lion of Judah congregation, and will dwell in the wider community, because the world will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God through a church that will carry that knowledge to the nations.

In the name of Jesus, we cast off timidity, we cast off fear, and we ask forgiveness for hiding our light, and we ask: Lord, make us light. Make us light amid the darkness. Oh God, we want to be light; we want to be life. Send Your light into our lives, Lord. We want You to use us, Lord, as lights in the world. In the name of Christ, we ask You, Lord: fill us, fill us with Your light, Father, this morning.

We want Your name to be glorified through the light of the Gospel in us. Thank You, Lord. Thank You; we worship You, we bless You, Lord.

A chorus comes to mind that we can sing. It mixes the metaphors, but that is all right. We sang it this Friday during our time of prayer: ‘A river of life is flowing.’ God wants us to be light, but He also wants us to be a river flowing to the nations and bringing the knowledge of Christ to the nations.

Brothers and sisters, I believe—I persist in believing—that God has something special for humanity at this point in its history. I have not surrendered the world to the devil yet, and I will not do so until I die; I will always be waiting for a visitation of the glory of God among the nations. I believe that God still has the greatest revival in all of history prepared for this nation and for the world, and the church has within its power the possibility of making that a reality through the preaching of the Gospel.

If every Christian becomes active as a conqueror, a witness, a walking light, the world will be conquered. I do not know how that fits into my eschatology, but the fact is that I believe there is still much ground to be conquered through a people who are proud of the light of Christ in their hearts.

So let us declare that and anticipate it this morning. Glory to the Lord! Hallelujah! Give the Lord a round of applause this morning. Amen and amen.