Lighting Up the Darkness; Becoming a City on a Hill

Cultivating Missional Living

Lighting Up the Darkness; Becoming a City on a Hill

Matthew 5:14-16

Lighting Up The Darkness

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

It takes a community to reach a community. Communities of faith, sustained by a collective vision for reaching their culture, are a vital means to the Gospel going into the entire world. As we have, I pray, learned in previous sermons, God doesn’t have a mission for His church. He has a church for His mission. Hear me, our relationship with each other is the measure the world uses to judge whether our message is true….Christian community is the ultimate defense. So, the best proof of the Gospel of the kingdom of God, is a people who are living out that Gospel.

The first Christians embraced their new birth from the perspective of being born into a new family. Jesus interlaced the idea of family into His crafting of the early community of Christ followers. In fact on one occasion things were getting somewhat dicey for Him, Jesus’ mother and brothers came to intervene and bring Him home. When they arrived outside the house He was in, someone told Jesus they were calling for Him. In response he pointed to His disciples and said “Here are my mother and my brothers.” Matt. 12:47-49. …Early Christians understood they had passed from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, and that…they were not bringing their old life into His. That life was dead. They were not bringing their old sense of cultural entitlement into this new life. Those rights had passed away. This was a new society, a new culture, and a new community. To be in this new family meant you were no longer an individual but a member.

These believers did not have to think up ways to attract people to join them, the faithful community of believers was attractive enough.

In the New Testament, repentance means renouncing our old self-centered life and adopting the new lifestyle of love (Agape) demonstrated by Jesus. This same community, which exists, by grace through faith, is also the community of witness….it has the character of a movement always remaining in and for the world. Jesus described it as “a city set on a hill,” whose light beckons and guides the weary and lost traveler to the security and fellowship of a civilized society. In this city there was safety from the bandits who took advantage of the darkness to rob and kill. In a friendly city foreigners could find protection and hospitality. So, Jesus used the city as a symbol of the saving community, whose light shines in the gathering darkness, inviting the traveler to find salvation.

God created the family to care for one another. A functional family will not allow suffering to take place without breaking out all means to relieve and heal it. But today, most of our families, including our spiritual families are dysfunctional. In the weeks and years to come, we are going to see in the book of Acts, Christians who were ‘one another’ people, they called each other brother and sister because they considered one another to be family. The early Christians’ love for one another was a huge part of the collective light that was emitted throughout their cities and neighborhoods, causing Christianity to flourish.

Missional Habits

Getting into a rhythm is extremely important for missional communities. Committing to a common set of habits is one of the best ways to get started and to persist in mission. It is a way for each member to live out the apostolic commandment in Heb. 10:24 to “to stir up one another to love and good works”

As we read already in the most famous sermon ever preached, The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His followers:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

Back in the second sermon in this series I used an acrostic for the word Bless, to help us bless people in our community. Today I want to close this first half of this series with another. An acrostic for the word light, to help you develop a set of habits and practices for our community.

L-isten to the Holy Spirit

Commit to at least one hour per week of listening and prompting of the Holy Spirit. Some may choose to take a prayer walk or carve out a time of solitude and listening to God for an hour once a week. Others may break up the hour into daily segments of maybe ten minutes per day. The point is to have a specific time of just listening in silence, not speaking or asking for anything just letting the Lord speak to you. (We will certainly talk more about this as we break down Luke 10:1-12 the next few weeks.)

I-nvite others to share a meal.

Share meals each week with others. Think both in terms of people who are part of our faith community and who are not yet. Don’t just spend this valuable time with people you know to already be followers of Christ. The idea is that around the table, good things happen.

G-ive a blessing.

Seek to do several acts of blessing a week. Again this can be within our community of faith, but make an emphasis to bless those outside our community. This might be a gift, a card, a help in some way. The idea is to be a blessing.

H-ear from the Gospel.

Commit to read from the Gospels every week in order to specifically learn more about Jesus, His ways, and His means. The Gospels are always included in the weekly routine in order to constantly stay Jesus’ focused and Jesus centered. It is vital to read from other books of the Bible as part of our spiritual formation while including Gospel reading as part of our regular habits.

T-ake inventory of the day

Why, because when we do, it is a consistent reminder that we are God’s sent people. As a community we want to stay mindful of opportunities to engage in mission on our day to day journey. To do this, maybe keep a journal of how you worked with Jesus during the day. Ask yourself how you responded to his promptings. Reflect on whether there were any missed opportunities or instances when you resisted Jesus during the day.

The Lord is the Creator and He lives in each of us. So, there is no lack of creativity in any of us. We should actually ooze with imagination and ideas for missional living as believers and the community of faith. A sanctified imagination is a powerful missional tool because the fundamental job of the imagination in life is to produce out of the society we have to live in a vision of the society we want to live in. If…we can just keep ourselves awake to the fact that we are God’s good news people, life takes on renewed significance every single day. Much of what we call mundane and routine can spark to life if we will allow our imaginations to come alive in a missional orientation.