Luke 11:33-36  "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.  34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.  35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.  36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you."

This morning we are going to obey verse 35.  “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.”  Our theme this year is, “Lord, I want to See.”  In order to see our eyes must be full of light.  But what does that mean?  What is Jesus talking about?  What is all this darkness and light and seeing and hidden stuff really talking about?  How do I know that I am full of light and not full of darkness?  I don’t want to be full of darkness?  Do you?  This sounds serious.  Lord, I want to see the light you want me to see.  I don’t want to be full of darkness.  Show me the light.

This section about light/darkness falls in the middle of chapter 11.  And the clues to what he is talking about are all around it.  I want us to work sideways back through the chapter and hopefully we can understand what Jesus is talking about and discover if we are full of light or full of darkness.

The paragraph right before this one in chapter 11 assumes you know two Old Testament stories.  You probably do know them.  But, let’s go back and review them so we can see the connection between them and the light/darkness thing.

The first story is about the prophet Jonah, one of the more interesting prophets in the book. Jonah is told to go to the great city of… Nineveh.  But the Ninevites were the bad guys.  They were the enemy.  Nineveh was the capital city of the… Assyrians, one of the most brutal and plan old mean people in the Bible.  Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because he knew his God was a loving God and if they repented he would forgive them and Jonah didn’t want them to be forgiven. He wanted them to be…nuked.  So, he put on a disguise and sneaked onto boat going to… Tarshish, which is in the opposite direction. 

Although Jonah knew the love of God he didn’t know the power of God.  A storm threatened the boat and finally he told the sailors to throw him overboard. It was his fault. He is expecting to die.  But instead he was saved by a… big fish.  Where he stayed for three nasty days and three gross nights and after contemplating the power of God, he was vomited back onto the shore and once again sent to Nineveh.  Where he preached a short but powerful sermon, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be… destroyed.”  And much to Jonah’s distress the Ninevites…repented and were saved.  

Now you are ready for a couple of verses that will help us understand our light/darkness passage. 

Luke 11:29-30  As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.  For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.

Jonah, although he was trying to run from God because he hated the Ninevites, in reality became a miraculous sign to them.  Jonah spend three days and three nights in the big fish, just like Jesus spent three days and three nights in the tomb.  Okay, this is significant.  Jonah is a sign.  Jesus is a sign.  Jonah comes back from the dead.  Jesus comes back from the dead.  So, part of the light thing has to do with the sign of the resurrection.  It proved who Jesus is.  

But there is another OT story you need to know.  Let’s just go read it.

1 Kings 10:1-9 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.  2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan-- with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones-- she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind.  3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.  4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built,  5 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.  6 She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true.  7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard.  8 How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!  9 Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness."

This powerful Queen from the south comes to find out if all that she has heard about Solomon was true.  She, upon seeing and talking to Solomon, believes and praises God. Now back to Luke.

Luke 11:31  The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

The Queen will rise – as in the resurrection – and judge the people of Jesus’ time because they did not see that Jesus was wiser than Solomon.  They were full of darkness so they could not see the wisdom of Jesus.

Luke 11:32   The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. 

The Ninevites will rise in judgment because they repented even though Jonah didn’t want them to.  And Jesus who was a more powerful preacher than Jonah and who desperately loved them preached to them but they reject him because they were full of darkness. 

These people were in the presence of Jesus.  They listened to his wisdom.  They felt his compassion.  They witnessed his powerful miracles.  But many of them were too blind to see what stood right in front of them.  The darkness of their souls blinded them to the reality of the light which stood before them.  What could make a person so blind as to be in the presence of the light and not see it?  What could be so wrong with a heart that it could not be opened by the one who created the universe?  What is it that could damage a person’s soul so deeply that Jesus couldn’t touch it?  What kind of shell is this that is so hard Jesus could not find a crack in it to get through? This is a scary thing!  Could that happen to us? What could be wrong with us that we are full of darkness?  Well, that doesn’t answer our questions.  It only makes it scarier.  Let’s keep working our way outward from our passage to discover our answers.

Luke 11:37-38  When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table.  But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.

Let’s stop there.  I eat quite a few meals without washing, no biggy.  But this was a biggy to the Pharisees and it is a clue as to why they had become so blind.  Jesus, I think on purpose, didn’t wash his hands before lunch to make this point.  I think Jesus is a bit irritated that they were so blind. 

Luke 11:39-49  Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.  40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?  41 But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.  42 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.  43 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.  44 "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."  45 One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."  46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.  47 "Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them.  48 So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.  49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' 
You may be able to read this with Jesus crying, but it is as scathing a rebuke as you will ever read.  Jesus is attempting to break through their shell to allow a little light to enter their darkened souls.  The Pharisees’ religion had become external.  Everything that was important to them was on the outside. The cup being clean was more important than the contents being pure.  They were clean on the outside but dead on the inside.  They loved the praise for what people could see on the outside but inside they were rotten.  They were beautiful gravestones marking decaying bones.  The shell they had built around themselves was beautiful and it killed them. 

And now we are getting to the point of the light/darkness thing.  Religion can become external.  Religion can become a wall.  Wow, that is a metaphor you may not enjoy.  With each religious “thing” we do we may be building a wall around our soul. 
®Going to church is a brick in the wall – I am good because I go to church.
®Every communion is a brick showing how holy we are
®Every song we sing shows our righteousness
®Every prayer we say out loud demonstrates our prowess in things godly
®Every class we teach is righteousness
®Look I am giving. I am good
®Every sermon I preach becomes a brick in the wall
®Look at me I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I would never cheat on my wife,
®I take my kids to church, I even wear nice clothes.
®I do all the right things = Therefore I am good.

But all the religious things we do may become a wall without windows; a dungeon without bars; a tomb of darkness where our souls decay. There are no windows on tombs. Our external religion may prevent the light.  Our religion can become the wall that actually keeps the light of Jesus out. 

Let’s expand it one more time so that we can fully get the point.

Luke 11:14-16  Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.  15 But some of them said, "By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons."  16 Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. 

Their walls had become so light-proof that they even accused Jesus of being from Satan.  They had become so spiritually dead that they could not see real light at all, even as he stood in front of them.  After answering their accusations he paints another horrifying metaphor.

Luke 11:24-26 "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.'  25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.  26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first." 

You cannot live empty.  Your religion cannot be based on “don’ts.” I don’t do anything bad.  I don’t miss church.  I don’t chew or hang with those who do. That is trying to live with external emptiness.  When we drive out the evil spirit of observable sin and don’t fill our house with the light of Jesus we get back seven spirits named… Arrogance, Pride, Prejudice, Hatefulness, Intolerance, Spitefulness, and Hypocrisy.  And our final condition is worse.  Wow, that is scary!

“So, bottom line it Tim.”

Religion is inside out.  It has nothing to do with the praise of men.  When we are more concerned with what people think about our religion than we are with the reality of our religion then we become dark.  Religion is allowing the light of Jesus to penetrate down to the heart. It is really hearing the word of God on the inside and then from the heart there is obedience.  The light comes in and then the light goes out. Our religion cannot be based upon externals. External based religion builds a wall around the soul which keeps the light of Jesus from touching our hearts.  But when the light of Jesus flows from the inside out we are full of his light. 

I guess that leaves you with a question to ponder about your own heart.  Is there light there following out our darkness walled in by religion? I want you to pray while you sing the words to “Here We Are to Worship.”

Light of the world,
You stepped down into darkness,
Opened my eyes, let me see,
Beauty that made this heart adore You,
Hope of a life spent with You.

Here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down.
Here I am to say that You’re my God.
You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me.

Religion must be inside out.