Pentecost Sunday Service – The light of the world
We remember the Holy Spirit coming down over the disciples in Jerusalem. Jesus said, wait until you receive power from on high. Their lives changed totally. That also happens when the Holy Spirit works in our lives.
Is the Holy Spirit in your life? We look at the work God started here amongst the Zulus, what a privilege that we may be a part of it. We remember how Rev Stegen shared how he had considered himself as a white man preaching to the Zulu people and how God then dealt with him, convicting him of his sin, and how his attitude changed completely. In the same way God was dealing with the rest of the whole congregation, who then also repented and became new creatures.
Does God work in your life? I experienced something recently where I said, oh God, thank you for what you are doing. He wants to change this country to be the best in the world. Not just a good country, but the best. Don’t we all desire to live in such a country?
God has called us to be a light. He wants us to show the world how Christians should live. But before we can be such a light, He needs to work in us, not the next person, but in us personally. If that is our attitude, there is hope for tomorrow. If you can say with an honest heart, God, work in my life, change me please – you will see what He can do.
John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Matthew 5:14 & 16 14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
People see good work, that touches them, and then they say, glory to God in heaven. Rev Stegen grasped that mystery. In the past I often thought, there are so many billionaires, if they would just give us their spare change we would have enough to run the Mission. But God says, no, no, no – you have two hands, 10 fingers. Then I understood, God wants us to work and He can bless that.
Christ says, I am that light. We can see well when it is light, and because of that, we can see danger and avoid it. The light of Jesus warns us of spiritual dangers so that we can avoid them.
Light gives off warmth. In homes and in greenhouses we have light to see and give warmth. The closer we get to the Light, the more warmth and love we feel. Christ says, in Me there is only light, no darkness, no confusion, because I lead you into the truth. The Holy Spirit came to do this, to lead us into all the truth, that is why He is so important.
Our forefathers in Germany used to worship their ancestors. They also had their gods, Thor and Waldo who demanded human sacrifices and when they sacrificed they drank much alcohol till they were stone drunk. In about 1000 AD a preacher came from England. He preached to the Germans, bringing the light of the Gospel into that darkness. Initially it was very hard, but finally they did accept his message and they repented. Then they built a church where they had sacrificed to their gods before. The gospel spread quickly and the whole nation was changed.
Light brings life. Without the sun the whole earth would be dead. Recently the manager of the peppers pack house asked me to pray because we had a shortage of peppers. I asked the reason for that and she explained that we had had a lot of rain two months ago, so there had been little sun. We could do nothing about that because the sun is the key to life.
Jesus is the light of life. Brethren, read your Bible, this light will fill your being and others will see it. Where there is light there is hope for the future. It is so important that we have a relationship with Christ. It won’t work if you just ramble off a short prayer in the morning and go into the day. Your school should change because of you as you bring light and so people should be happy to see you, as they learn from you, to grow like you.
Much blood is spilled through murder here in our country. Let us learn from the story of Cain and Abel. Abel’s blood called out to heaven and Cain was punished for killing him. Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin also reached heaven and it resulted in destruction, let us not forget that whatever we do as a nation, it will reach heaven.
When the light comes, it chases away darkness. It exposes things that are wrong in your life. You should be thankful when you are convicted of sin. It shows that God is working. You can fall on your knees and thank Him for working and repent of that sin and beg to be changed.
I want to tell you a story of a young man. His father helped him to look for a job which he found in a bank. His father gave him this advice: ‘My son, always do your best, be obedient, helpful and respectful’. David’s mother had given him a plaque to hang on his wall which had these words: ‘Thou God, seest me’. He started to work at the bank. They quickly noticed something good in this young man and in a short time he was promoted several times. The day came when he was given the key to the safe. After a while a friend came to him and told him about an investment he could make by just “borrowing” 10 000 dollars, making much money and then to replace the money secretly. David responded: ‘No, I cannot do it, I didn’t grow up like that. I was raised by godly parents’.
One night the devil tempted David. The worst temptations often come at night, there where Christ can speak to you in His grace, the devil can too. He thought, if I just borrow the money for a while, then it can increase and I’ll replace it again.
How many people have done that, taking some money from their own mother or grandmother, promising themselves that they will pay it back, but have never done so.
David considered the pros and cons and eventually decided to do it. He went into the safe and looked at all the money. He reached out and counted out the amount of 10 000 dollars. As he stood there holding the money in his hands, he was reminded of:’Thou God, seest me’. He instantly realised that he was making a grave mistake. He replaced the money where he had taken it and then heavenly light shone in his heart. He went on his knees and prayed, he wept calling out, oh Lord, forgive me for this great sin; forgive me, rescue me from ever again being tempted to take this money.
That wasn’t the end of the story. The next day, first thing in the morning, he went to the president of the bank. “Sir, I need to speak to you”, he said. Then he told him everything he had done. He didn’t keep quiet about it, he could have, because nobody knew about it, but no, the Light had come and David couldn’t run from it.
Listen to what he said:” Sir, I think I should quit my job here. I am not trustworthy.” Think of that. Losing his job was better than keeping quiet about the darkness in him. The president of the bank studied David and said,”I would like you to stay. God has kept you from giving in to temptation. He will keep you safe in the future. If you do your job well, I myself will not tell anyone what you wanted to do.” Tears streamed down David’s face. He wasn’t worthy of this. Something had grasped hold of him which could have taken him into a different direction, going astray. Remember David.
If we find money lying around which has dropped by accident, do we say that this is my lucky day, or that God loves me, yet most probably someone is weeping about the money they lost. We need the Light of God to enlighten us to do the right thing.
The measure of God’s grace that is given you, depends on the extent you yield to Him. If you are obedient to Christ speaking to you, He will give you even more grace. And a new power within you will be visible to others.
Hidden sin robs you of that grace. Why do we hide sin? Why do we keep quiet when something is wrong? The Bible says, if I see my brother sin and I keep quiet, I am guilty of the same sin. But we are so afraid, fearful that they will kill me, they may poison me. Rather fear God.
Luke 11:35 Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.
Matthew 6:23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Oh the tragedy of finding yourself in a situation where you think you have life, something good, but inside it is rotten, the Bible warns about it. Watch out, be careful. That is why we say, if there is sin in your life and you nurture it, live with it, how great is that darkness within you.
How do I then find out what I am like? Through my eyes. My eyes will tell me what is inside. The way I look at things will control what I say regarding my perspective and understanding of a situation. If my eyes are bad, I will react in a bad way toward someone else. Sin and worldly pleasures cloud these eyes.
Satan is always busy pulling our eyes to see what others are doing wrong, and that controls our lives. When pride and jealousy rule our hearts that is how we will see things. We look down on people. Because of that we even go so far as to say that we rather switch off the radio or live stream if a certain preacher preaches because you dislike the way they say things. The reason we can do such a thing is because there is sin in our lives, maybe it is pornography which takes you down a very dangerous path.
But if you are filled with the love of the Lord Jesus imagine what your life would be like. You will always think the best of others, you want to help them, encourage them. Real love is when a brother does something which is wrong and you can help him in a humble way to get him back onto the right way. Oh, there is so much hatred today. Yet the love of God covers a multitude of wrong things. If only we could approach our brethren in love and compassion, what a difference that would make, and we will get a crown in heaven one day for doing that. I learnt that a long time ago, if you help someone who is suffering or in need, you find you are helping yourself.
At Pentecost, God sent His Spirit to illuminate our way. Maybe when He comes to you will see things differently to the way you used to see things. When He comes your life will change. I remember back at home. We were always fighting, giving my parents a hard time, they didn’t know what to do with us anymore, so they sent us here to the mission. We were here one day and our lives changed. that light took the scales from our eyes.
When that light comes, you see your own sins, not your neighbour’s, and amazingly, God is working in his life too. It is a divine mystery.
There was once a missionary in India whose work was blessed. After some time, it didn’t go well with him any more. Another missionary noticed that something was wrong and he started seeing mistakes and found fault with his brother in Christ, until God came with His light and prompted him to pray for this missionary. He did that and it did not take long and he heard that God had intervened, the first missionary’s life changed and he had started preaching again. The missionary learned a valuable lesson, if you see mistakes in someone’s life, you should pray for them.
Christ says, I am the light of the world, and then, you are the light. You can only be a light if you reflect Christ’s light in you. That happens if you are pure, then a holy reflection of Christ will be visible.
S Khumalo
Jesus said, He Himself is the light.
We know that the moon receives its light from the sun. If we see the moon shining brightly, it is because it reflects the light of the sun.
If we accept Christ who is the light, we will be light to those around us, and to the whole world. A light on a hill cannot be hidden. Nobody lights a lamp and then covers it, no, it is a put on a table so that it can bring light to everyone in the room.
Thus may your light shine before people so that glory can be brought to the Son of God. May God have mercy on us, may it not be dark on earth while we are here.
