Filled with Light

Reading from Luke chapter 11 verse 34, 35 and 36. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light.

But when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful, lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

We all here know what it's like to spend a great deal of our time in circumstances in which we're surrounded by darkness. Sometimes it's trouble. You're in a room full of people who just can't seem to get along.

Sometimes it's danger. The engine falls off the 727 or the wheel rolls off the semi-truck on I-75 just a couple hundred feet ahead of you. And sometimes it's temptation.

Your very best friend is urging you to make some slight compromise with evil. In these situations, when our inner life is filled with God, with light, then we have something to offer the darkness around us. Then we not only are prevented from being flooded and inundated with evil, but we have something positive to give to the darkness around us.

On the other hand, when we are empty inside, when it's a vacuum in here, then our eye becomes the door through which all this evil around us flows right in. And the darkness inside us increases, doubles, triples, multiplies. I'd like to read from, as an example, from Mark 435.

On that day when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them just as he was in the boat, and other boats were with him. And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care if we perish? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

He said to them, Why are you afraid? Have you no faith? And they were filled with awe and said to one another, Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? The disciples looked out and saw the storm, heard the wind coming by their ears. And because there was in them a vacuum, there was no life. Their eye became the door by which the evil of the storm came right inside, and now we have a storm not only on the outside, but within as well.

And they're panicking. Lord, save us, we perish, doesn't it matter to you if we're perishing? To add insult to injury, Jesus is asleep on a cushion in the back of a boat. You know, he's comfortable.

He doesn't even worry about things like this. He's living a soft life. He awakens, sees the storm, remains unperturbed, and says, Peace be still.

And the waves become like glass. Because there is in Jesus, in his body, in him, something greater than the storm. What is it? When you look at Jesus in the flesh, you see a man whose skin is dark.

It's been darkened by the sun. It's been darkened by lines of suffering that began to press down on him from the moment of his baptism and weighed down in a way that you and I can't begin to imagine all the way through to the cross. But inside this man was a light that absolutely was incomprehensible to the natural mind or eye.

And when Jesus said, Peace be still, the light that was in him moved out over that storm and took control. In him was life, and that life was the light of man. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus stopped. The woman with the issue of blood reached through the crowd and finally got hold of the hem of his garment. Jesus stopped.

Who touched me? What do you mean, who touched you, say the disciples? Everybody's pressing against you. How can you say who touched you? Power went forth from me. In other words, the light that was in him began to move out towards somebody, and he knew it.

And it was this healing light in him that brought healing to this woman. Every time Jesus opened his mouth to speak, every time he stretched forth his hand to heal, the light that was blazing inside him moved out and manifested the kingdom of God. Where did he get this light? Let's put aside this idea that Jesus was something different.

Jesus is God the Son, but he has divested himself, when he's here in flesh and blood, of all his divine prerogatives. And when he is conceived and when he is born, he's just as human as any other baby that was ever born. But at his baptism, at the age of 30, when he came up out of the waters of the Jordan, we are told the Spirit of God descended upon him.

And when the Holy Spirit came on Jesus, he was then filled with light. That was the easy part that came as a gift from the Father. But immediately now comes the hard part.

The Spirit drives him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And from here on through to the cross, Jesus is responsible to keep that light burning brightly inside. And he does this by means of what he calls a sound eye.

An eye, first of all, that delights above all things in his Father, always looks to the Father. An eye, secondly, that looks over men and women and always sees them with forbearance. An eye, thirdly, which penetrates the realm of flesh and blood to where the real enemy and the real danger lie.

And finally, an eye which is generous, which takes and gives for alms such things as are within and spends itself and gives itself until on the cross there's nothing left. Now this light which was in Jesus, calmed the storm, healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry, brought life by even the spoken word, is meant to burn inside the life of every follower of his. And again, the receiving of this light is the easy part.

It comes to us as a gift. On the day of Pentecost, Peter at the end of his sermon when they say, what shall we do, says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's a gift.

It's received by faith. Jesus teaches us in the same chapter of Luke 11, if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Just ask. Should there be anybody here who has never tasted this or who tasted it once upon a time and seemed to drift away from it, there's no reason why any of us here should leave without being refreshed and renewed in the life and power of the Holy Spirit today and to be filled with the Spirit.

But that's the easy part. Here comes the hard part. A possible part, but it's a challenge.

The part by which you and I have to maintain that light, it's up to us to keep it bright. And we keep it bright the same way Jesus does. From Luke chapter 11 again, your eye is the lamp of your body.

If your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light. But when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness.

If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. If your eye is sound. So what's a sound eye? A sound eye is four things.

A sound eye is first of all an eye that delights in God above all things. A sound eye is an eye that is forbearing toward people, all people. A sound eye is an eye that penetrates beyond the realm of flesh and blood to where the real enemy and the real danger are.

A sound eye gives for arms such things as are within, is generous, keeps pouring itself out. First of all, a sound eye is an eye that delights in God. Philippians 4.4. Rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the cynics. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

As my delight is in God, and in his word, and as he speaks to me, I receive light. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the same? What was the joy that was set before Jesus? The Father. The Father was his joy.

Now Jesus is our joy and the Father is our joy. We get up in the morning and we look to him. We fix our hearts on him.

We constantly adore him and worship him and praise him and love him. And as we do this, we're filled with light. But the temptation for all of us is to deviate.

Over here is mammon. Money and the things that money can buy. Or gusto.

Get all the gusto you can. You're only going to go around once. Get it now.

Other people have much more fun than I do. Why do I always have to have the dirty end of the thing? Why can't I have any fun? Etc. When my eye drifts away from the Father and gets fixed on these things, I am putting my eye on a thing that is now pretending to be God to me.

It's an idol. And behind that idol is evil. And my eye becomes the doorway for darkness.

And I'm filled with it. And the eye has to be single. It can't have both.

It's either this or this. You can't serve God in mammon. If I'm going to fix my eye on God, it has to be on God alone.

Rejoice in the Lord. Always. And again I will say rejoice.

Secondly, a sound eye is an eye that looks upon people with forbearance. Let your forbearance be known to all men. All people.

You're going to a backyard barbecue or a family reunion. Here comes cousin Jack. Cousin Jack.

Every time he shows up he's after my money. He wants a loan. $5, $100, $75.

Oh man. And over here is Aunt Matilda. I never saw anybody eat like Aunt Matilda.

All the time she's eating. And Mary. Cousin Mary.

There she is. She's got somebody else. She's banging their ear, telling them all her problems.

And as I look at people this way, I am looking at them with a negative, cynical, unsound eye. And I'm filling myself with darkness. I'm doing them harm.

I'm doing myself much more harm. Now I can go to that same family reunion or backyard barbecue and see these same people in a totally different light. Here comes cousin Jack.

So I brace myself and I turn to the Lord. Lord God help me to see my cousin with your eyes. And instead of holding back I move toward him.

And I come with a different attitude. And maybe this time instead of alone he comes as a gift. To care about him.

Aunt Matilda over here sitting on that bench. I see her quite differently now. This woman, Aunt Matilda, is the one who does more for people than anybody I know.

She's always cooking something for somebody. Taking care of somebody's children. Helping them clean their house.

Writing letters. Listening to their problems. She's just a comfort and a joy.

Now I see it differently. And my cousin Mary, I haven't even talked to her for five years. I just stand back and judge her.

Now I go over to the table and I get into the conversation. And as I do that and come at this in a different way, I'm filled with light. Let all people know your forbearance.

Many, many of us who have all kinds of insights spiritually are absolutely destroying everything we've got because we're cynical. About this one and that one and this one and that one. It becomes almost like second nature to us.

The phone rings. Who's it going to be now? The doorbell. You answer it.

I can't handle anymore. God give us a forbearing eye. A sound eye is an eye that penetrates beyond the realm of flesh and blood to see where the real battle is, the real danger and the real enemy.

No doubt there's every one of us here. Every one of us here can think of at least one person who over the last five years has really done something terrible to us. They let us down.

They did it maybe maliciously. Maybe they didn't do it maliciously. But they did it.

And we'll not forget it. What they did to us. What they said about us.

How they treat us. All we have to do is see them or hear their name. And the adrenaline begins to flow.

That's my enemy. I may not use those words, but that's the way I'm thinking. And because this is the way I relate to this person, I fill myself with darkness.

But now with a sound eye, I see this person. I look at them and I penetrate through that and I see beyond them the enemy who is Satan himself, who not only exploits them but also me. And I see where the battlefield really is.

And I begin to realize that much of my confusion and much of my anger and anxiety and trouble and sweat has been expended in the wrong battle. Now with the light shining over that battlefield, I see the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. And I know what I'm doing.

And I'm filled with light. Finally, a sound eye is an eye that's generous. Interesting, this passage about the sound eye is followed by another passage which is directly related to it.

It goes like this. Closing out the passage we've read a couple times already. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

Reading right on. While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and sat at a table.

And the Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but the inside is full of extortion and wickedness. You fools.

Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, all things are clean for you. You have light. Take the light that is within you and start giving it out.

How do you do that? Matthew 25. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, come, O blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. You gave for alms such things as are within. And don't tell me this applies to people who are going to be left after the rapture or whatever.

This applies, this is why Jesus gave it to us, to us. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. You gave for alms such things as are within.

You looked with a generous eye upon me and acted. And the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see these hungry and feed thee or thirsty and give thee drink? When did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee or naked and clothe thee? When did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee? And the king will answer, truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. A generous eye.

Jesus looked out over the multitudes and had compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He looked down over Jerusalem and wept for that city. He poured himself out, gave himself, spent himself all the way up to Calvary.

Now in our world the name of the game is get. Acquire. Accumulate.

Hold. Take. Take everything you can from Uncle Sam.

Take all you have coming to you and more if you can from the insurance company. Take from General Motors. Take from whoever.

And the successful people in the world today are the ones who can take faster than the other guy can take. But in the kingdom of God it's the opposite. In the kingdom of God it's give.

Give. So hard. How can I give when they're all taken? Jesus says that's their problem.

You give. And as you give from what's within you, as you take what you have, you know, whether it's money, things, time, energy, strength, a listening ear, whatever it is, the light that is in you increases and flows out. And so today as we gather together to worship Jesus, gathering in his name to praise him, to feed on his body and drink his blood and be replenished by his life, we are receiving light into ourselves.

That's the easy part. Then comes the hard part. To keep the light and to give it forth.

And we will keep that light and we will shine only if we walk out of here, and even before we walk out of here, deal with each other with a sound eye. An eye that delights first of all in God. An eye that is forbearing toward all.

An eye that penetrates the realm of flesh and blood and sees the kingdom of the enemy for what it is. An eye that gives for alms such things as are within. An eye that is generous.

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light. But when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness.

Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.