LIGHT OF THE WORLD
LIGHT OF THE WORLD PODCAST NOTES
2 Corinthians 6:17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.” This was our motto in the Jesus’ Movement, and having been saved in the Jesus’ Movement I saw the effect this had on the church firsthand.
In the Jesus Movement, there was so much focus on the rapture. Prophetic conferences in the Jesus movement wouldn’t teach you to prophesy, but it was about charts on when Jesus would return. You were identified as either “pre-trib,” meaning you believed Jesus would return before the 7 year tribulation; “mid-trib,” meaning the rapture would happen in the middle of the tribulation; or “post-trib,” meaning the rapture would happen after the 7 year tribulation. Much of our lives in the Jesus Movement were caught up in these things.
The Jesus Movement was known for loving people well, but there was also a lot of fear. The information age was blossoming at the same time as the Jesus Movement. The rapture theology affected everyday decisions people made--whether or not to have kids, go to college, etc--because how you think about the end has everything to do with what you do in the middle.
The mindset around the rapture and the idea of coming out of culture and being separate was the reigning mindset of our day. You can see how this affected our impact on culture. We were intentionally removed from culture, so our goal was to get people saved but to stay out of culture.
Christians were actually looking forward to destruction, because we saw it as a sign of Jesus returning. The world did get darker as we built a theology around our lack of connection to the world. But Jesus gave us a clear mandate for the church:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven,” Matthew 5:14-16 .
I had been taught that the church would get brighter and brighter as the world got darker and darker. But this verse specifically is saying that we are not to put the light under a basket, but on a stand to give light to everything around it. We are called to transform cities and nations!
These are the key practices of an apostolic church:
- We must ditch the victim mentality and start thinking like royalty, whose Father is God, the God of everything.
- We have to seek “we” and not “me” as we have been given leadership and responsibility of a city and nation.
- Because we are leading a city and not just pastoring a church, we don’t have the privilege of thinking like leaders who lead a pastorate. We are training up people who transform culture by invitation.
Scripture:
2 Corinthians 6:17, Matthew 6:9-10, Matthew 5:14-16, Matthew 28:18-20, Genesis 15:5, Genesis 17:5, Isaiah 61:1-4, Daniel 7:9-27, John 17:21
