Broken Jars ... Blazing Light

“You are the salt of the earth; but if 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 under foot 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—some heard very clearly what the Lord wanted them to do with what they heard, and others were not so clear, and so I want to read a letter I received this week, of course, leaving the names out:

Dear Dick,

So-and-so were discussing the message on our way home today and 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, “What does it mean? How do we break the jar and let the light shine?” For myself, I thought back to the message on the sword of the Spirit breaking our chains as being part of this. She said, “Let’s ask Dick if the Lord would lead him to continue on this subject.”

I take it that the letter really confirmed to me that I should go one and share, but in fairness to all those who were not with us last week and as a refresher to all of us, to recapitulate what the message was in essence, I started by Peter saying:

Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered, “You are Peter the rock and on this Rock I will build my church and the gates of death will not prevail against it.”

Jesus was describing the church as an army, as something which is aggressive, battering the gates of death and ramming through them. So it’s not something passive and respectable, but something very aggressive. It’s an army that goes into the region of the dead and sets 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 is 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, 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, at times, its expansion.

And when the antichrist works within the framework of a congregation, and the antichrist does work within the framework of every congregation, he attempts to do the same thing. So 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 problems we have, and the next thing you know 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, as we see in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, there were seven churches which started out as vital armies invading the enemy 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 wellbeing 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 we read:

He who conquers will have the right to eat of 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, who speaks to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, has also been speaking to this church, particularly since the first of the year, ever since the message 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

with the same question he was 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 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 victory and fruitfulness such as you have never seen. But you’re not quite ready.” And then the Lord reaches out his hand and he shakes us.

And we say, “Lord, what’s going on? We just lost five members!”

He says, “Relax, I know what I’m doing.” And he reaches out his hand and shakes us again.

“Lord, we just lost ten more. There won’t be anyone left around here pretty soon.”

And he says, “I know what I’m doing. Trust me. I’m getting you ready. I’m sifting “

Then we looked at Judges 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 a part of their calling to be sons and daughters of his kingdom. And so, the Lord allowed the Midianite and the Amalekite armies to come and just take over—if you had a little bowl of wheat, they’d grab it and run with it; if you had a wife, they’d come to your house and steal her, run off with her, and you’d never see her again. Everybody in Israel was torn up, 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 thirty-two thousand Israelites. But those thirty-two thousand Israelites were nothing compared to that giant sea of soldiers down there in the valley, camped at the very foot of the Mount of Horeb, which was the place where Abram was first told, “This is the land belongs to you and your children.”

Gideon has these thirty-two thousand and God says to him, “You’ve got too many in your army: when I give the Midianites into your hands, you’ll all think you did it yourselves so cut down your army. Tell anyone who is afraid and trembling they can go home.” So Gideon says, “Any who are scared can go home.” Twenty-two thousand pick up and go home.

The Lord says to Gideon, “Your army is 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. The ones who get down on their knees and really get comfortable and slurp up the water, put them on one side. The other ones who are afraid even to kneel down, won’t take the time, they just lap up the water with their hands like animals, put them on the other side.” Ninety-seven hundred got comfortable so they can go too. Now there’s three hundred left in the army that was once thirty-two thousand.

And then the Lord says, “With these three hundred, you are going to conquer the Midianites. You will drive the Midianites and the Amalekites out of Israel.”

Gideon, as you remember, is the one who put out the fleece, and he’s always worried and nervous, so to give him a little bit more assurance, he says, “Tonight you are going to do it, but before you do, go down in the dark to the outskirts of the camp of the Midianites and listen to what’s going on.” So he went down with his servant Purah.

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

When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped [he worshiped the Lord]; 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 three hundred 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 my trumpet, I n all who are with me, then blow the trumpets on every side of all the camp, and shout, “For the Lord and for Gideon.”

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him 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 there 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!” They stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the army ran; they cried out and fled.

If we are agreed that we, here in this congregation, are to be an army of 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 through 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 nearby and the other half from all over the place—but if we look at this location, not as a detriment, not as something holding us back, but really as an opportunity, a blessing—that we are parked right next to the gates of death; we are surrounded by a whole mission field, a metropolitan area with many, many nations right here, near us...

If we see these things, then we can rejoice in what God has been doing among us—the shaking and the shifting that’s been going on.

What’s happening here is that he has been shaking down the army, and he’s making it ready so we can conquer.

What we need to do now is pull together and conquer.

We will conquer if we do three things:

First, we will conquer if we pull together around our call, which is: “Arise; for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.”

Go out there and free those captives!

Secondly, we will conquer if we blow our trumpets together:

Have a unified sound. Have a message that is without shame. That is not uncertain.

That is clear, definite, and unified.

Preach the gospel....Go make disciples...Manifest the kingdom of God with our lives!

Thirdly, we will conquer if we break our jars and let the light shine out together.

It was this third point that was getting some people, at least, a little troubled—that it wasn’t as clear as it might be—and so, we’ll go on with that today...thinking about the breaking of the jars and letting the light shine out...

The Midianites were down in the valley, and they were quite confident that they were absolutely in control, but up on the Mount, we have Gideon and his three hundred, and each man has a jar with a torch inside of it and a trumpet. The jars remain intact until just the right moment, and then suddenly, all the jars break and the light shines out and it absolutely rouses (?) the Midianite armies.

You could say that each of us here has a jar surrounding our torch—pretty jars, really nice jars—some of them look really good and all of them look half-decent.

And this 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, 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, and inside our jar we have a torch—God has given us his Spirit. But what effect with the gift of God’s Spirit have on the world out there as long as it’s covered with our jar?

All that happens as long as the jar covers the torch is you get a bunch of smoke.

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 are going to win—going to conquer—the jars will have to break.

Now to break the jars before God means repentance.

And 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 including inconvenience, money wise, whatever it takes in order that they can see, 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 its job, getting out there and setting those captives free and manifesting the kingdom of God to the world—

every fellowship 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, no one ever had to read a book to learn how to do those things, it comes naturally to us—we break our jars, and fall on our faces before God and 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. ”

Somehow the jar has to break before God. God help us to break our jars, first 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—mine—my sin, my guilt, my attitude.

“Lord God, it’s me.”

May God help us to break our jars before him today.

The second thing we need to do is break our jars before each other.

We find that hard to do too, which means to walk in the light.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness [keep our torch hidden in our 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. 1 John 1:5-9

It involves breaking out jars so people can see how we really feel, we’re coming out from behind our masks and we’re confessing, letting it be known.

As long as our jar is intact it looks pretty nice, but you don’t see any light. When the jar breaks, it looks terrible—it’s all in pieces down there, and we’re embarrassed and ashamed, but at least the light can be seen. And the light cannot be seen as long as the jar is intact—it has to break. And that involves pain.

It’s hard for me to do. It’s hard for you to do. It’s hard for me to tell you what I’m really thinking—what I really feel. But I have to do that. And you have to do that.

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. I need to tell you that, and I need to listen to you tell me that.

“Speak to one another”, we are told in Scripture. “Exhort one another.” “Encourage one another.” Even: “Rebuke one another.”

Speak ... communicate ... talk.

To do that involves the breaking of a jar: I’ve got to break my jar so you can really see what’s inside of me.

And you have to break your jar too.

We’ve got to break our jars.

No fellowship of believers can function as the army of Gideon until they in fact do this... break their jars before each other, and begin to walk in the light before each other, and become, in fact, brothers and sisters, opening their hearts to each other.

And if to do that, we need to break down into smaller groups, let’s do that. There are some now. And I believe it’s not about engineering a structure here. If the Spirit is guiding us, he will help the structure to form.

We have plenty leadership here to open a Bible study or a group so people can talk. If that’s what we need to do, let’s get into one. And if it gets too big, we’ll split in two. But let’s do it. Open your home, have some people over.

Or if it means that before this service is over, or when it is, I have to go over and shake someone’s had, and say, “I’m sorry”, then let’s do it.

If it means writing somebody a letter, or if it means picking up the phone, let’s start communicating.

If there is anybody that I’m talking unkindly, impatiently, or uncharitably about then 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.

Le’s break our jars. This won’t be easy for us. We’re not accustomed to this. We like our jars. We’re really good at keeping our jars together. As soon as they start cracking, we (?) back. That’s why the 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... we serve. That’s what we’re here for.

Let your light so shine before man 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 they’re going to see is the light.

Surely, that’s our purpose. We are here to break through the gates of death and set the captives free.

We are here to touch people with the life of God.

What other reason do exist for but for that?

We are not here to make ourselves feel better.

Really, we are here to make the world feel the impact of Jesus.

... So that Detroit can feel the impact of Jesus, particularly through the things we are doing, and others like us, our brothers and sisters in other places.

... So they can feel his impact, and to do that, we have to break our jars.

Most people know that Grace Winters passed away and she was with us for many years, and right now, Grace’s body is on its way to Pennsylvania for burial. I was remembering, and this is kind of helpful, in the early 70’s we had an influx of people from the streets, a lot of hippie types coming in with bare feet sitting on the floor, and Grace had a terrible problem with that. There were a couple of brothers and sisters living up in the gym and she was sure there was some kind of hanky-panky going on there. But the thing about Grace was that Grace broke her jar. Grace didn’t just gripe about it. Grace went to these people and got to know them. She didn’t walk away, she walked right toward them.

“My name is Grace Winters. Why don’t you come over to my house for dinner?” And she made a real effort to get to know these people. And she 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 before the world. She felt that they needed something. And then, when she got to know them, she had a different feeling.

But at least Grace broke her jar.

And that’s what we need to do: there’s a grouchy man across the street from where you live or across the hall in the apartment. No one talks to him because he bites your head off every time you try to talk to him. Break your jar and go talk to that man.

And there’s a lady living down the way which nobody like because all she does is complain. Break your jar and get to know her.

There are people in every place where we live, and in the places where we work, who are ripe for the kingdom of God, but we will not be able to reach them until we break our jars. We’ve got to break our jars and get there.

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.

Let’s break our jars before God and repent – there is not one of us who does not have something to repent of – we have to repent first of all.

Then before we leave here today, let us break our jars before each other and take some step to reach out to somebody, and walk in the light with that person.

And then today let’s also determine that we’re going to break our jars before the world. We’re going to approach people instead of standing off from them – break our jars and get to know them.... write them a letter, go call them on the phone ... do something .

As we break our jars, the light will shine and we will conquer.

We will conquer.