By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg
Focal Passage: John 1:1-5, 9-14
Have you ever thought about what life would be like if you never married the person of your dreams or if you never had your children or grandchildren? At times when we think about things such as this, we wonder what life would be like! Now let me ask you this, think about your life before you accepted Christ as your Savior. Life was much different then! Today if you have asked Christ to be your Savior, your future is much brighter. When we look at this week’s lesson we see why God sent His Son to be born of a virgin, wrapped in rags and laid in a manger.
We live in a world that does not allow Christ’s light to shine. We live in a world that often downplays who God is! We have seen in recent days, the things that once were never thought of because they were against God’s Word, now have become common practice. We have seen such a change in our culture that some can wonder if the church is the lighthouse to the world that we have been called to be. Read John 1:5 carefully. In that verse alone we see that the darkness is the world in which we live. We live in a dark and corrupted world, and because we live in such a place as this God sent His Son to save us!!
How would we ever understand the light? That is a question that we must ponder briefly! For us to understand something that complex, makes us realize that God in His ultimate wisdom saw a great need and because of His love for us sent His Son to us. The Bible tells us that Christ is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and it tells us that in the middle He has designed us to be the light to the world.
In order for the church to share the light of Christ, the church must do the following: (1) We must accept God’s gift of salvation first and foremost! (2) We must be willing to get outside the walls of our church building and share the light. So many churches have a mentality that the world should come to us, but that is not the case. There are people who would come and worship with us if we would simply ask them. (3) We must understand that just because someone does not look like, act, or have the same background as we do, does not mean we should not share Christ’s love with them. I will never understand why a person would not want to share the gospel of Christ with someone just because they are different from us! (4) Finally we also must understand that when or if someone initially tells us no or they tell us that they’re not interested at this time, we must not give up. I was able to come and know Christ as my Savior because someone was willing to not stop trying to share the gospel with my family!
