Broken Jars, Blazing Light

Okay, I'm going to read a passage we all know by heart, and hear many times, and repeat many times. But, just to refresh ourselves, this will be kind of the theme of what I'd like to share today. Matthew chapter 5, verse 13 and following.

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.

Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. I had a lot of response and reaction to last week's sermon.

On the one hand, I remember Billy Waddell's prayer, in which she was expressing that she felt it was crystal clear. There was no question in her mind. There were others who were not quite so clear as to what to do with it, and weren't sure.

And I'd like to just share a letter I got this week, leaving the names out. Dear Dick, so-and-so and I were discussing Sunday's message on the way home. She spoke of someone speaking to her afterwards, saying, I don't know what to do with what I heard.

Both so-and-so and I had the same thought, independently, of what does it mean? Or how do we break the cup and let the light shine? For myself, I thought back to the message on the sword of the Spirit, breaking our chains and being part of this, as being part of this. Anyway, she said, let's ask Dick if the Lord would lead him to continue on this subject. So, I take it even that letter helped to confirm to me that I should really go on with that.

But in fairness to those who were not with us last week, and also probably kind of recapitulate what the message was, in essence. I started off by saying that when Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered, and I tell you, you are Peter, the rock.

And on this rock, this confession you made, I will build my church, and the gates of death shall not prevail against it. Jesus was describing the church as an army, as something which is aggressive. Here are the gates of death, and they are being battered away and rammed through by the church.

So that it's not something kind of passive and respectable, but it's something very, very aggressive. It's an army that goes into the region of the dead and sets those captives free. And with great joy brings these people to the banquet table of God.

And from its earliest days, that has been what the church really is. But it's also true to say that from its earliest days, there has been at work, right inside the church, what the early believers called the Antichrist. A spirit that will one day take human form and become the evil counterpart of the Messiah, of the Christ.

And this spirit of the Antichrist has been at work and is at work today, all over the place. And the work of the Antichrist is primarily to neutralize this army. To paralyze it so that instead of being this aggressive army going in there and setting the captives free and breaking their chains, it becomes another institution in downtown Babylon.

It becomes a thing that's really wrapped up in itself, concerned about its survival and perhaps sometimes its expansion. And when the Antichrist works within the framework of a congregation, and the Antichrist works in the framework of every congregation, he attempts to do the same thing. So that instead of the congregation having a fired-up vision of its mission to the world out there, it becomes absorbed with itself, its own needs.

Are our needs really being met? And the more we concern ourselves with our own needs, the more needs we have, the more problems we have, and pretty soon we're wrapped up, we're all structured around taking care of ourselves. And the gates of death remain unchallenged, and the captives remain in chains. Very early in the life of the Church, we see in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, there were seven churches which started out as vital armies invading the territory of death and setting the captives free.

But in a very short time, five of those seven armies were busy getting comfortable, concerned with their own well-being and safety. And so the Lord, through the Spirit, speaks to them and warns them, this is not a spiritual daycare center. This is a war zone.

There is a battle going on. And you either conquer or you will be conquered. And so at the end of every one of those seven letters to the churches, he who conquers will have a right to the tree of life.

He who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. He who conquers will eat of the hidden manna. Now, the same Spirit that spoke to those churches in Revelation 2 and 3 has been speaking to this congregation particularly since the first of the year, ever since the message coming from the Spirit has been, arise, shine, for your light has come, speaking to us, dealing with us, shaking us, sifting us, and stirring us, and wonderfully blessing us over the issue, over the question, the same question he was dealing with back there, are you going to be my church? Are you going to go out there and break through the gates of death and set those captives free? Are you going to bring them into my kingdom by means of my gospel? And we've been saying, yes, Lord.

And then he says, good. You will be my church, and you will set the captives free, and you will manifest my kingdom with a power and a victory and a fruitfulness such as you have never seen, but you're not quite ready. And then the Lord reaches out his hand and shakes us.

And we say, Lord, what's going on? We just lost five members. He reaches out his hand and he shakes us harder. Lord, we just lost ten more.

There won't be anybody left around here pretty soon. Then we looked at Judges chapter 7, the story of Gideon and his army. You remember how it was? Israel had really turned away from God and had begun to worship idols and do all kinds of things that were not part of their calling as sons and daughters of his kingdom.

And so the Lord allowed the Midianite armies and the Amalekite armies to come in and just take over. If you had a little bowl of wheat someplace, they'd grab that and run with it. They would steal children.

They would take your wife right out of your house and go on. Everybody in Israel was really just torn up and frustrated and frightened, and there was not a thing they could do. God raised Gideon to be their deliverer.

Gideon got an army together of 32,000 Israelites. But those 32,000 Israelites were nothing compared with this giant sea of soldiers down there in the valley, camped in the valley at the very foot of the Hill of Morah, which was the place where Abraham had first been told, this land belongs to you and your children. And he has these 32,000, and God says to Gideon, you've got too many in your army.

When I give the Midianites into your hand, you'll all think you did it yourselves. So cut down your army. Tell anybody who's afraid and trembling they can go home.

So Gideon says, okay, anybody who's scared, you can leave. 22,000, pick up and go. 10,000 are left.

The Lord says to Gideon, your army's still too big. You've got to cut it down some more. Take them all down to the spring and have them drink and watch them.

Now, the ones who get down on their knees and really get comfortable and slurp up the water and have a good time, you put them on one side. The other ones who are afraid even to kneel down, don't take the time. They just lap up the water in their hands like animals.

You put them on the other side. 9,700 got comfortable. They can go too.

You've got 300 left in this army that was once 32,000. And then the Lord says, with these 300, you're going to conquer the Midianites. You're going to drive the Midianites and the Amalekites out of Israel.

Well, Gideon is the one, remember, who put out the fleece, and he's always worried and nervous. So to give him a little bit more reassurance, the Lord says, tonight you're going to do it, but before you do it, go down in the dark to the outskirts of the camp of the Midianites and listen to what's going on. We'll pick up the story.

Judges 7, verse 13. He takes his servant Kura and goes down and listens. When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade.

He said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so the tent lay flat. And his comrade answered, This is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the man of Israel. Into his hand God has given Midian and all the host.

When Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, Look at me and do likewise.

When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. They came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch.

When they had just set the watch, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

And they stood every man in his place round about the camp. And all the army ran and they cried out, Now, if we are agreed that we here in this congregation are to be an army for the Lord to set the captives free, not a club for nice people, not a middle class culture center, not an institution, but an army that reaches through and breaks into those gates of death and sets the captives free, if we are agreed that our location, this place where we worship together, half of us come from probably nearby and the other half come from all over the place, but if this place where we worship is, that we look upon this not as a detriment, not as something holding us back, but really an opportunity, that we're parked right at the very gates of death, we're surrounded by the most rich mission field in the whole metropolitan area, many, many nations around us. If we see that and rejoice in that, then we can also rejoice in the things which God has been doing among us, the shaking and the sifting that's been going on.

What's happening here is that he's shaking down the army and he's making it ready. What we need to do now is pull together and conquer. And we will conquer if we will do three things.

First, if we will pull together around our call, which is arise, for the Lord has given the host of many and into your hands. Go out there and free those captives. Secondly, we will conquer if we blow our compass together, have a unified sound, have a message that is without shame and that is not uncertain, that is clear and definite and unified.

Preach the gospel. Thirdly, we will conquer if we break our jars and let the light... This third point would seem to be the one that was giving some people at least a little trouble. They felt that it wasn't clear, as clear as it might be.

And so we'll go on with that today, thinking of this third thing, the idea of breaking the jars, letting the light shine out. The Midianites were down in the valley and they were quite confident they were absolutely in control. But up here we have Gideon and his 300.

They have a jar. Each man has a jar and a torch inside it and a trumpet. And the jar remains intact until the right moment.

Then suddenly all the jars break, the light shines out and it absolutely rubs the Midianite harness. You could say that we all here, each of us here, has a jar surrounding our torch. Pretty sure.

And all of them have pieces. And the jar is our self. Our brittle, unbending self.

Our preoccupation with our self. Our desire to have everything our way. To be absolutely in control, as much as we can, of our own destiny and our own life.

And not to be, above all things, inconvenienced. I'll serve God as long as He fits into my schedule. That's our jar.

See now, inside the jar we have a torch. God has given us His Spirit. But what effect will the Spirit that God has given us have on the world out there as long... All that happens, as long as the jar covers the torch, is that you get a bunch of smoke.

That's all. There will not be light that anybody can see out there until the jars break. And that involves pain, disruption, and all kinds of other things that make us nervous.

But there is no other way. If we're going to win the battle, and we're going to conquer, the jars will have to break. Now to break the jars before God means repentance.

To break the jars before each other, as they did in Gideon's army, means that we walk in the light. We don't hide from each other. We say what's on our hearts.

And to break the jars before the Midianite army, before the world, means that we engage in a corporate ministry, a service together to the world out there. We do whatever we have to do, even at whatever cost, inconvenience, money-wise, whatever, in order that they can see and hear and know that Jesus is Lord. So we start with the first thing.

It begins always by breaking our jars before God. Every fellowship of believers anywhere on this earth that is in fact doing the job, getting out there and setting those captives free and manifesting God to the world, every fellowship that's doing those things begins and continues with repentance before God. Instead of complaining and blaming and criticizing and judging, which we're all experts at, nobody has to learn it, we never had to read a book to do it, it comes naturally to us.

Instead of doing those things, suddenly, suddenly, we break our jars and we fall on our faces before God, and instead of blaming somebody else, we say, it's me, O Lord, me. Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. My sin, my attitude, my hardness of heart, my deceitfulness, my desire to make things go my way.

Before God. Somehow the jar has to break. God help us to break our jars first of all before him and confess to him our hardness of heart.

Revival begins with repentance. Revival continues with repentance. Revival spreads with repentance.

Revival is repentance. Not the other guy's repentance. My guilt, my attitude, Lord God, me.

Lord God. May God help us to break our jars before him. Second thing we need to do is break our jars before each other.

We find that hard to do too. Meaning to walk in the light. Reading from this passage again, very familiar to us.

1 John 1, verse 5. This is the message that we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, while we keep our torch covered with the jar, we lie and do not live according to the truth. But if we walk in the light, if we break the jar and let the light come out as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.

It involves breaking the jar so that people can see how we really feel so we start confessing. See, as long as our jar is intact it looks pretty nice. When the jar breaks, it looks terrible.

And the light cannot be seen as long as the jar is intact. And that involves pain. It's hard for me to do, it's hard for you to do, for me to tell you what I'm really thinking, how I really feel.

But I have to do that and you have to do that. I have to tell you. And all of us really have the same story to tell.

Basically, we have to each of us admit to each other that apart from the blood of Jesus and the spirit of God, we're all sick. We're all a mess. And we're all in need.

And we're all confused. Apart from him. So I need to tell you that and I also need to listen to you tell me that.

Speak to one another. Exhort one another. Encourage one another.

And even rebuke one another. To do that involves the breaking of the jar. I've got to break my jar so you can really see what's inside there.

And you've got to break your jar too. We've got to break our jar. No fellowship of believers can possibly function as the army of Gideon until they're ready to break, until they in fact do it.

Break their jars before each other. And begin to walk in the light with each other. And become in fact brothers and sisters.

Opening their hearts to each other. Now, to do that, we have to break down into smaller groups. Let's do that.

There are some now. And I believe that it's not a matter of engineering a structure. I believe the Spirit is guiding us and He'll help the structure to form.

We've got plenty of leadership here. To open a Bible study or a group where people can talk. If that's what we need to do, let's get into one of these things.

If it gets too big, split it in two. But let's do it. Open your home.

Have some people over. Whatever. Or to do this, it means that I have to walk up to somebody before the service is over today or after the service is over and go over and shake their hand or give them a hug or tell them I'm sorry.

Let's do it. If it means writing somebody a letter. If it means picking up the phone and speaking.

But let's start communicating. If there's anybody that I'm talking unkindly or impatiently or uncharitably about, it's time for me to break my jar and talk directly to that person. If I've got a problem, tell them.

Don't tell everybody else, tell them. Let's break our jars. This won't be easy for us.

We're not accustomed. We like our jars, especially us. We're really good at keeping our jars together.

As soon as they start cracking, we glue them back. That's why they sell so much glue in this neighborhood. Thirdly, to break our jars before the world means that we come together and we exercise a corporate ministry.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. They won't give glory to your jar. Your jar is gone.

All you will see is the light. Surely that's our purpose. We're here to break through the gates of death.

We're here to set the captives free. We're here to touch people with the life of God. That's what we're here for.

What other reason do we exist for but for that? We're not here to make ourselves feel better. Really, we're here to enable the world to feel the impact of Jesus so that Detroit can feel the impact of Jesus, particularly through the things that we're doing and others like us, other brothers and sisters in other places, so they can feel his impact. And to do that, we have to break our jars.

I was mentioning yesterday, probably most of the people know that Grace Leonard passed away, and she was with this church for many years. And right now, Grace's body is on its way to Pennsylvania for burial. But I can remember, and this is kind of helpful, in the early 70s, we started having an influx of people from the street, a lot of hippie types coming in, bare feet, sitting on the floor, all kinds of things.

And Grace had a terrible problem with that. And there were a couple, Ralph and some of the brothers and sisters who were living up in the gym for two weeks. And the thing about Grace was that Grace broke her jar.

I mean, Grace didn't just gripe about it. Grace went to these people and got to know them. You know, she didn't walk away.

She walked right toward them. My name is Grace Leonard, and began to love them. And then she discovered they were, in fact, believers.

But when she approached them, she wasn't breaking her jar to have unity with believers. She was breaking her jar to reach the world. She felt that they needed something, and then when she got to know them, she had it.

And that's what we need to do. You know, there's a grouchy man across the street from where nobody talks to him. You know, he bites your head off every time you talk to him.

Break your jar. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.

Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel. But understand, it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Today, let's break our jars before God. There's not one of us who doesn't have something to read. And then let's, today, before we leave here today, break our jars before each other and take some step to reach out to somebody and walk in the light with them.

Approach people instead of standing off from them. Write them a letter. Call them.

And we, as we break our jars, the light of the world.