Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

William Sangster, the great British preacher, tells of one of the strangest taxes ever imposed.

He asked his father one day why so many of the homes in London had blocked up windows.

His father explained that back in 1695 every house that had more the 6 windows was taxed for the extra ones.

Many people blocked up those extra windows to avoid the tax.

Imagine that, the government put a tax on sunshine, and by so doing they shut out the quantity of light in many homes.

Man does some strange things with God's gift of light.

John tells us that the life of Jesus was the light of men.

He was the true light that enlightens every man, yet when he came into the world men loved darkness rather than light, and so though he came unto his own, his own received him not, but they shut out the light.

Man in his folly resists the light and rejects it, but John says the light goes on shining in the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out.

The sun does not cease to shine because of the dark clouds that cover it, and Jesus does not stop being the light of the world because of the dark valley of man's fallen nature that covers the world with a blanket of blackness that blocks men from seeing the glory of the Gospel.

Jesus has a plan to penetrate this world's night of ignorance with the light of knowledge.

The plan is very simple.

It is to advertise.

Every Christian is to be a living commercial for the Producer of the program of life.

Most everybody watches TV, but absolutely everybody watches the program of life, and this is where the Christian has a chance to shine and be advertising for the Sponsor of history.

The church is the biggest business in the world, and long before Coke and Pepsi, and hamburger businesses ever dreamed of going into all the world, Jesus made his church international.

Go into all the world Jesus told His disciples.

There is no exception.

The Gospel is to be taken to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Christianity is to be universal, and like any big enterprise Jesus knew there had to be a program with advertising of the product.

That is why Jesus said to His disciples, and says to all of us we have joined His company of the committed: "You are the light of the world."

If men are to come to God out of the world of darkness, they have to see the light.

They have to have before them the evidence that the Gospel is real and valid.

They need to see lives that have been touched by Christ, and now radiate the love which He expressed in, coming into the world, caring for the world, and being crucified for the sins of the world.

Jesus saw the power of video long before TV was even a dream.

He knew the best advertising was not just audio; just the preaching of the good news.

He knew men would want to see the Gospel in motion.

Jesus, therefore, launches His world wide campaign by making every believer an advertisement for His kingdom.

Your life is to be an audio-visual appeal to the world so that by the power of sound and sight men in darkness might see the light, and turn to God with a spirit of praise.

Without radio, TV, computers, satellites, or any other modern technology, Jesus launched the first truly world wide advertising campaign to bring light to all who are in darkness.

The goal of Jesus is the same goal that all of your large businesses have today in their advertising plans.

The whole idea of a commercial is to portray people enjoying the values and benefits of a product so that others desire is to experience those benefits for themselves.

I see a miserable sufferer of sinus congestion who is smiling and breathing freely after taking a certain product.

Naturally, I want in on that experience as a sinus sufferer, and so I go to get the product, and when it works for me, I praise the maker of this product, and bear testimony to others of what it can do for them.

This is the power of advertising, for it enlightens and spreads the word.

Jesus says we are commercials for God.

Men see the goodness of our lives, and the benefits of the Christian life, and our good deeds, and they are impressed with the Gospel, and desire to be in on it.

What a challenge for every Christian to recognize that they are a key part of the world's most universal business.

You and I are into advertising for the Universal Power Company, better known as the kingdom of God.

To better understand our job we want to focus on two aspects of light that can enlighten us as lights of the world.

A salesman, or actor, or anyone dealing with a product will do a better job if they are sold on the product, and are convinced of the value of it.

Let us, therefore, focus on-

I. THE NEED FOR LIGHT.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe was the last of the so-called "Universal men.''He was knowledgeable in every major area of human learning.

When he laid dying in 1832 he suddenly sat up in bed and cried out, "Light, light, more light!"

Then he fell back dead.

His last words were a cry for more light.

He was one of the most learned of men, yet he longed for more light.

The cliche is true that the more you know the more you realize how little you know.

All geniuses know that their knowledge is a puddle, and their ignorance is a Pacific.

All men who really know cry out for more light.

There is a desperate need for answers in a world plagued with problems.

Jesus is saying to his followers that they help meet this need for light.

Be part of the answer, and not part of the problem.

The world has enough problems, so don't add to them.

Reveal instead that there is an answer in Christ who is the source of all light.

You reveal this by your own luminous life.

That is, by a life that shines and radiates a love for people.

The luminous life is the life that advertises the love and goodness of God.

It is easy to say, God is love, but people must see it to believe it.

Does God care?

Does anybody care about all of the desperate needs of this world?

These are the questions that come to every mind at sometime or another.

The Christian is to be the evidence that the answer is yes, God does care, and He has provided a way to show it.

The question all of us need to ask ourselves is, are we convincing evidence to the world that God cares?

Are we good advertising, or are we so poor that we add to the darkness?

Jesus says the Christian who is a good ad is the Christian whose life benefits others through good deeds.

In other words, the world is not impressed with a Christian vocabulary as much as with their visual display of love and caring.

It is so easy to learn to talk of love, but not show it.

We can do it in relation to our family and to the world.

We see so many commercials where a celebrity says a product is great, but in the back of our minds we wonder, do they really use it themselves, or do they just say these nice things for a fee?

We are skeptical and rightly so.

The world looks to the Christian life with the same skepticism.

The Christian faith sounds pretty good, but do these people just say all this good stuff to please their Sponsor, who is God; in hopes of a reward, or do they really mean it, and live by the love they so eloquently speak of?

Jesus says the world has the right to expect the Christian to reveal the depths of his commitment by good deeds.

It is doing good that penetrates the skeptical darkness of the world.

As with Sarah Lee, nobody doesn't like doing good.

I have read of Mafia leaders who use money they steal from others to do good.

Everybody can appreciate good deeds.

They may not understand theology, but they can see the difference between doing good deeds and doing harmful deeds.

Even the non-Christian wants to see his children be good and not bad.

Everybody can be reached by the message of good deeds.

That is a frequency all men can pick up, and that is why the Christian must operate on that frequency if they expect to reach the world.

The world is not tuned in to which Bible translation is best; which denomination has the best missionary program; or which Christian college is the best.

The world can only judge the value of Christian life by what they see, and if they do not see good deeds, they do not see anything for their needs.

Good works do not save the person who does them, but they are a vital part of saving the world, for they attract the world to Christ who alone can save them by faith.

They will seldom come to Christ, however, if they never see the light in Christians.

Advertising a car does not get people to travel, but it gets them to buy the car in which they can travel.

Advertising a cough medicine does not stop anybody from coughing, but it gets them to buy the cough medicine that can stop coughing.

So advertising of the Gospel does not save anybody, but it brings people to Christ where they can be saved.

Good deeds are, therefore, a vital part of God's plan to save the world.

Seeing is believing to the world, and so Jesus says to let your light shine so the world can see.

You cannot convey the beauty of a flower show over the radio, because beauty is not verbal, it is visual.

So you cannot convey the love and goodness of God by the verbal means only.

There must be a visible demonstration that men can see.

The world cannot grasp the reality of the unseen realm of the spirit.

But they have the capacity to see tangible works of good.

Not all Christians can speak effectively, but all Christians can be loving, kind, and do good deeds.

Has someone seen Christ in you today?