March 1 2025

Saturday March 01

The Light of God’s Word

Luke 11:33-36

33 "No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light. 34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light."

After Jesus gave His lessons on prayer (vv. 1-13), He cast a demon out of a mute man, and even though the “multitudes marveled” (v. 14), the religious leaders accused Him of doing it “by Beelzebub” (v. 15), another way of saying, “by Satan”. They also “tested Him” and ask for a “sign from heaven (v. 16). Instead of giving them a sign, Jesus gave them a sermon. Jesus had been giving them “miracles” or “signs” over the past three years, and they still rejected Him. Signs are soon forgotten and only bred a craving for more!

Basically, Jesus said we don’t need a sign, we have the Book, and He gave them the stories of Jonah and Solomon. He is reminding them that the Gentile Ninevites repented at the message of Jonah, and the Gentile queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Then Jesus proclaimed, that “indeed a greater than Jonah or Solomon” is presently here (vv. 31-32). In other words, they didn’t need a sign, they needed to repent and believe that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Living Word was in their midst.

Jesus follows up with this proclamation with an illustration of the light of a candle on a lampstand that gives light to everyone who come into the room (vv. 33-36). You might remember that in the first recorded message that we have of Jesus in Matthew 5-7, He gave this same illustration. "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 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!” (Matthew 6:22-23).

When light comes into a room the darkness immediately is gone. Darkness never conquers the light. By its very nature, light “overcomes the darkness”. John 1:1-5 teaches us that God, the Word, and Jesus are indeed the Light of the world: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (overcome) it.”

In John 6:5, Jesus declared, “I Am the Light of the world”. God is declared to be Light in 1 John 1:5-7: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Light and darkness cannot co-exist! You either have one or the other. Jesus the Living Word is the Light on the Lampstand. He is the Light that gives us light and life! God has given us the Commandments and the Law like a switch to expose the darkness of our sin and souls. Proverbs 6:23 says; “For the commandment is a lamp, And the law a light; Reproofs of instruction are the way of life”. Psalm 119:130 tells us: “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.”

Religion without a relationship with Christ Jesus is a false light that only allows more darkness! The religious leaders refused to come to the Light of Christ because of their evil, deceitful hearts. Jesus said it this way in John 3:19-21, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

The psalmist reminds us in Psalm 11:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Today we have a choice, we can either walk in the Light or we can stumble around in the darkness! Proverbs 4:18-19: “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.”

May the Lord help us today to “walk in the Light” though His Word.

God bless!