Rev. Dr. M. Taylor Bach John 8:12-20

“I AM the Light of the World. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” These are the words of Jesus Christ and they are especially relevant for this time of year. This morning I want to thank all the choirs for your wonderful presentation. The work that you have done for this program is just amazing and you shine light in our lives. The light of Christ is a light that illumines lots of different things. Theologians say that it is the light that tells us who we are. It is the light that can tell us why we are here. It is the light that can tell us what we will do or what we should do. So who are we? According to this light as it shines on our life, we are the sons and daughters of God in a special way. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are reservoirs of God. He lives in and through us. Why are we here? We are here to give glory to God as our choirs just did. That glory shines so that it can be seen by others. And what do we do? The light of God is capable of exposing our sin. It is capable of motivating us. It is capable of rendering us powerful. It can change hearts. It can change minds. It can change attitudes. It can bring about health out of sickness. There are all kinds of things that this Light can do as it illuminates us. Each of us will have a growing edge, a part of us wherein we need to work on ourselves and where we need to have self-examination. It will show us where we need to repent.

Yesterday, we had something happen that Christ's light illumined for me. It tells me that we need to be protective. It tells me especially that I need to be more protective. A person attending a sporting event across the street was asked to move his car. He came over and cussed out my wife. Can you imagine that? See how those Christians love one another?!!! I didn't handle it well. I moved my car so the guy would move his car and leave as I had blocked him in. But what it brought forth in my mind is my personal need to be protective, more protective of my wife, more protective of the church, more protective of the faith. The light of Christ shines on our individual flaws and faults and it makes us aware of how we step up or how we don't step up and what we need to improve. I call that our cutting edge. How does the light of Christ shine on you? What is your cutting edge? How do you need to improve?

There is an example in the Bible of Peter. Peter in a sense is a prototype for Scrooge in the Dickens's play. Remember the Charles Dickens's play, A Christmas Carol? Scrooge as you recall was a miserly man and he was punishing to Little Tim. He was cruel. He went to sleep one night and had a dream. That dream reviewed his life and in a matter of speaking, showed the light of Christ upon it. He woke up a changed man, making Christmas wonderful. Peter had a similar experience. Peter was also miserly in the fact that he wouldn't share the Gospel with the Gentiles. He was opposed to going outside of the Jewish community. As Peter was confronted by the apostles, he stood steadfast in his belief that the Gospel was just for the Jews and shouldn't be shared. Then he went to sleep one night and as he slept, something happened. He had a dream. In that dream, a sheet came down from above and was held by its four corners. On it were animals. The animals on the sheet represented all the forbidden animals that the Jews were not to eat. Then something interesting happened. The voice of God said, “You may eat these.” When he woke up, he knew that he had to have a radical change of heart and mind. He could no longer be miserly with the faith and had to share it with others&even the Gentiles.

Jan and I have been here now going into our eighth year. We are quite happy with the development of the faith in our church. We know that we still have a way to go. But we are happy with the personal development of each of you. When we came, there was enmity in the ranks, conflict. We see no sign of that now. And we see how much you have grown to love one another. That has just thrilled our souls. There is always room for improvement but it thrills our souls to see how much we love one another.

As we go into this new year, something more has to happen. We now have to go outside of our walls. My wife wrote a letter that is used as an insert in the bulletin this morning. It has been in the bulletin for several weeks, talking about us starting a new Bible Study. The whole purpose of this Bible Study is equipping us to go out into the world. So we want to encourage as many of you as possible to attend this Bible Study. It will be held after the services twice a month and it will be accompanied by a pizza lunch. It will be a manner of equipping you in your faith so you can leave these walls and spread the Good News! The Good News that the light of Christ shines. It shines to illumine what we need to change in ourselves and therefore equips us to go out into the world and bring God's Good News to other people. The textbook and video we will be using is Contagious Christians by Bill Hybels. It is a book based upon the Great Commission found in the Bible, Matthew 28:18-20.

Jesus said, “I AM the light of the world.” He also said, “You are the light of the world.” We are the light in the world to the degree that He shines through us. Isn't that a bright idea? Go and be light!