“The glorious Creator of the universe has regenerated them, He has caused them to be made alive after they were dead, men and women walking for His glory and their good, and has called them to be His ambassadors to shine the light of Christ everywhere they go, and yet we tend to shy away and hide this incredible miracle God has done to us. We are literally walking miracles, having experienced the greatest miracle we could ever imagine, and sometimes we are tempted to keep that reality to ourselves.”
(Jordan Standridge – The Cripplegate) “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” Matthew 5:14-15
On April 8, 1983, the Statue of Liberty vanished. David Copperfield, the renowned illusionist, put people on a stage facing the famous statue. The lights went out, a curtain was closed, and after a pause of a couple of minutes, the curtain was opened, the lights turned on, and the 20 shocked people on stage could no longer see the Statue of Liberty. Then, David Copperfield had the curtain closed once again and after another couple minutes, he made opened the curtains once again and made the Statue of Liberty reappear to the delight of all present.
There are different theories that run around about how David Copperfield pulled it off, with a very slowly moving stage being the best one that I’ve found, but one thing I think we can all agree on is the fact that the Statue of Liberty didn’t move one muscle throughout the whole ordeal. She was always there. In other words, even the great David Copperfield cannot hide a huge object.
As we saw last week, Jesus declared to the disciples that they were the light of the world. And every disciple of Christ who believes the Gospel, at the moment of regeneration, begins reflecting the light of Christ onto the world around them. Just as it was with salt, so it is with light. And just as in the role of salt, there is a risk. As you shine the light of Christ onto the circle God has sovereignly placed you in, you will be tempted to run and hide.