Being Light of the World — Zac Poonen

I mean this, it's always a joy and a privilege to speak here at Abundant Life. As you heard, I've been through four pastors here, they've all been happy to have me, despite some of the strong things I've said.

I'm personally very thankful that I came to know Jesus when I was 19 and a half. This month, I celebrate 60 years as a born-again Christian. And in these 60 years, I'll tell you one thing. I've studied this book, the Bible, and I've found it has helped me in every single situation in my life in 60 years.

There's never been a situation for which there is no answer in Scripture. There's always an answer. I was in the military in the Indian Navy as an officer for a number of years, that's when the Lord called me out to serve Him.

And even there, in the military, I found God's Word guided me in the different situations. It gave me the courage to stand up for what was right and to refuse to do what was wrong. The other thing I learned through these years was it's not just the Word of God.

God has given us today the Holy Spirit. That's the other thing I discovered. If you only have the Word of God and you don't have the Holy Spirit, you can become a legalist, you can become a Pharisee, one who judges others according to your understanding of some Scripture.

But when the Holy Spirit comes in, it brings the light of God into you. And I want to read this verse to you in Matthew 5, verse 14. You are the light of the world. Now if somebody were to ask you, who is the light of the world, you'd say Jesus.

I'd say no, you. Who's the light of the world? Me. Is that arrogant? I'm almost certain that most Christians haven't taken this verse seriously, this simple verse. You are the light of the world. Think of that and saying that to yourself.

I am the light of this world in which I'm living. I tell you, it'll change your attitude to Christianity when you begin to think of that. And why is that? Isn't Jesus the light of the world? Let me show you what Jesus himself said in John chapter 9, verse 5.

Christ’s Light and the Christian’s Responsibility

In John 9, verse 5, Jesus said, listen carefully, while I am in the world, I'm the light of the world. And later on in John 17, just in case we think that Jesus is still here, he's in heaven actually, is the third person of the Trinity that's here now.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit. He's the third person of the Trinity here. But Jesus is in heaven. He hasn't returned yet. He said in John 17 to his father, father, now I'm leaving the world and I'm coming to you.

So he said, as long as I'm in the world, those 33 and a half years, he was the light of the world. What about now? Matthew 5, 14, you are the light of the world. Now once you take these words seriously, we see what an awesome responsibility it is for us to be the light of the world.

It's a tremendous responsibility. And anyone who calls himself a Christian must take that seriously. And I want to tell you the name of Jesus is dishonored in every country because of Christians. Not because of non-Christians, no.

When you got married, your wife got your name. My wife became Mrs. Poonen and your wife became Mrs. whoever you are. She could not ruin your name until she married you. It's only after she married you and took your name that she could dishonor you and bring a bad reputation to your name.

Not before. Think of all the people in the world who are non-Christians who are not married to Christ. They cannot bring dishonor to the name of Christ. They're not married to him. But we who are Christians say we are married to Christ.

And it's by our conduct and our behavior that we bring dishonor to the Lord's name. It doesn't matter whether people see it or not. People don't have to see it. The Bible says that Satan is the accuser of believers.

He's not called the accuser of the world. I don't have time to show you those verses. You should read Revelation chapter 12 sometime. He's called the deceiver of the whole world. But the accuser of believers.

He has no interest in accusing the unbelievers because they're already in his lap. Why does he worry about them? But whenever a person calls himself a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, and he does something wrong, the devil, it says he accuses them to God.

God, do you see that person over there? He claims to be your child. He's watching pornography. What do you think of that? Nobody else may be watching you, but the devil certainly is. And he's watching you in order to accuse you.

God, you say that person is the light of the world? You see the way that woman yells at her husband? That person is supposed to be the light of the world? I tell you, God can't say anything. That's what I often think of.

Job, the Fear of God, and Overcoming Sin

I remember years ago when I was a very young Christian and I started reading the Bible. I read about Job. You've read the book of Job. Once the Lord asked Satan in that book in the first chapter, where are you coming from?

And Satan said, oh, I'm just roaming around the world. And what is he looking for, roaming around the world? He's looking, he's not looking at those who are already his children, the unbelievers. He's looking at those who claim in those days, saying, I know God.

This is even before Abraham. There was no revelation of Jehovah. I know God. And Satan could accuse them. But then the Lord told Satan, yeah, that's all true. But have you seen my servant Job? He pointed out to one man.

God Almighty pointed out one man on the earth, not because he was perfect. And you read the book of Job, you see he was not perfect. But he said, there's a man who fears God, turns away from evil. He was a married man and he made a covenant with his wives that he would not lust after a woman.

This is way before Matthew chapter five was written, way before Jesus came to earth. How in the world did Job, who lived before Abraham, know that he should not lust with his eyes after a woman who was not his wife?

Because he feared God. The fear of God, there was no Bible in his time. But the fear of God can teach us everything written in the Bible. If you fear God, that means if you reverence him and the devil's mouth will be shut.

Now, when a Christian sins and goes into darkness, it's God's mouth that is shut when the devil accuses that person. But if I overcome sin by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that God can say to the devil, have you seen my servant so and so over there?

When I read that about Job, I said, Lord, I was only about 20 years old when I was working on a naval ship in India. And I said, Lord, can you say that about me? I want you to be able to say that about me.

A lot of things wrong in my life, but I want you to give me grace to overcome them so that I can be one through whom you can shut the mouth of the devil. Does that challenge you? That your life must be such that God can be able to point you out and say, there's a person, Satan, you can accuse all the others, but what about him?

What about her? You can go to all those other Christian homes and see how they behave, but have you gone to this home? My wife and I have been married now for 51 years. I want her to just stand up so that you can look at her pretty face.

She's just as pretty to me. She was 51 years ago and she travels with me because she's my prayer warrior. You see, the mouth cannot speak if the heart does not pump the lifeblood to it. And that's what she does.

So what I want to say is, together, our longing has been that our home must be a testimony for Christ. Our home must be a light in a dark area. You know, the world is full of darkness. Every home is full of darkness.

There's hatred, bitterness, strife, divorce, and all types of other evils. That's darkness. In the midst of that, the Lord says, you are the light of the world. See, first of all, we've got to take that responsibility seriously and look back over our life and say, Lord, I brought so much dishonor to your name by the way I've lived.

It's not a question of how we live before others. We all behave properly when we are before others because we are interested in our testimony before men. I want to ask you a question that I asked myself, which I decided to change something in my life.

I said, more important than my testimony before men, I want a testimony before Satan. That sounds strange, but I'll tell you why I say that. Because Satan knows a lot more about my life than you do or anybody else does.

Satan knows about my thought life, which even my wife doesn't know. He knows the things I'm doing in secret, which my wife doesn't know, and I want a testimony before him that there's nothing he can point out in me that he can point to the devil and accuse me.

At any time in my life, Satan knows how I handle my money. Your wife probably doesn't know how you handle your money or the unrighteous things you do in the office. But Satan knows it all, and I want to be one who stops the mouth of Satan, and I want to challenge you, my brothers and sisters, to do that.

Pentecost, Conversion, and the Call to Confess Sin

You are the light of the world. Jesus was the light of the world when he was here on earth. He went up to heaven and he sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost like a fire, and those days fire was the way they got light.

So the Holy Spirit came into those 120 on the day of Pentecost to make them a flame as a light of the world. And that's one of the things I discovered when I became a Christian at the age of 19. The first thing I knew is the blood of Jesus Christ had cleansed me and I was forgiven.

I had asked Christ because I was born in a God-fearing Christian family. My father was born again before I was even born. So I was sent to a good Sunday school, and like those born in Christian families, numerous times I had asked Christ to come into my heart.

I don't know, probably a hundred times. And I never knew, was it right or not? Has he come? No feeling, nothing, no sensation. And I would ask him again, and I'd ask him again. And I remember one day, 60 years ago, that's why I date July 1959, I was in a naval base in India, and I was in my room and reading my Bible and I came to John 6, 37.

And I read there, Jesus saying, John 6, 37, the one who comes to me, I will never cast out. And I said, Lord, I've come to you so many times. And he said, I never cast you out. I said, wow, I'm going to believe that today.

And that day, I dropped an anchor in my life, to use a naval expression, and my ship has never drifted. It's not that I never made a mistake. I made lots of mistakes, lots of blunders. But I knew that I could get up and ask God to forgive me.

I saw sin like a thorn that got into my foot through my carelessness. I was not going to wait to pull out a thorn. How long do you wait to pull out a thorn that got into your foot? Not even one second.

As soon as you're aware of it, you want to put it out because it's so inconvenient. I want to encourage every one of you, whenever you fall into sin, and that can happen to any of us, think of it like a thorn that got into your foot.

Pull it out. Don't wait. Tell the Lord immediately, Lord, I slipped up. He's merciful. There's mercy with him. But he can't help you if you don't confess it. If you put the blame on somebody else, it's going to be a different story.

Let me tell you the story of someone who put the blame on someone else. God comes to Adam in the Garden of Eden. He asks him a very simple question. It's a yes or no question. Did you eat from that tree?

He doesn't say yes. He doesn't say no. He says, the problem, Lord, is with my wife. Is that a familiar sort of refrain? That man pointing the finger at his wife, she is the cause of all the problem. She's the one who gave me this fruit.

And God, don't forget, you're the one who gave her to me. So part of the blame. I'm not exaggerating. You read Genesis 3. That's exactly what Adam did. Refused to take the blame, put the blame on somebody else, put it on God.

And God said, get out of paradise. Now, I'll tell you another story of a man who did things much worse than Adam. This was a thief who hung on the right side of Jesus on the cross. In the beginning, he was complaining and criticizing, just like the other thief on the other side.

But somehow, when he saw Jesus saying, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. He got convicted. And he saw love coming out from this person who they were treating so badly. And he felt guilty about his sin.

And he turned around and said to the Lord, let me paraphrase his words, I'm guilty, Lord. I deserve being crucified. It's not 20 years in prison that I deserve. I deserve something worse than that. I'm the worst of the lot.

I deserve to be crucified because I'm wrong and I've done so much evil. And I don't blame my parents for bringing me up badly. It's me. I don't blame the bad company I got as teenagers that made me bad.

It's me. It's 100 me. It's not the police who caught me or the judge who condemned me. It's me, Lord. And the Lord says, really? You really mean to say you're the one to blame completely for all your sin?

Yes, Lord. Well, you deserve to be in paradise. Come with me to paradise. You see the contrast there? Adam, who refused to take the blame for his sin, being kicked out of paradise. And this man who was much worse than Adam, who just took the blame completely without blaming anybody else.

The Lord said, you're going to walk with me today. The Lord, he said, Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Oh, the Lord said, that's going to be 2000 years. You're not going to wait that long.

You're going to walk with me today in paradise. What did he have that many of us don't have? The willingness to take the blame 100 for our fault and our sin. Many people say, I want to go and sit at the foot of the cross of Jesus.

I say, hang on. Go and sit at the foot of the cross of this thief first and learn something from him before you go to the foot of the cross of Jesus. Learn that if you take the blame, you can walk with paradise spiritually right now on this earth.

That's the first thing. Immediately pull out that thorn. Immediately confess your sin. And if you hurt somebody else, confess to that person too. Certainly, Jesus once said in Matthew chapter five, that if when you bring your offering to the altar and there you remember that you've hurt your brother by something you said to him, he was talking about anger in the previous verses.

And you hurt him with your angry words. You hurt your husband or your wife or somebody else. And then you come and pray. And maybe you pray in other tongues. Oh, wow. God says, I'm not even going to listen to you.

That's just nonsense. I'm not going to listen to you. Go and settle that with that other person, Jesus said. Then come and bring your offering. There's darkness in your life. And that darkness has to be removed.

Creation, New Birth, and Spiritual Transformation

You know, the Bible begins with these words in Genesis chapter one. It's interesting that God put that right at the beginning of Scripture. And let me paraphrase those words in relation to our own lives.

The first four verses of Scripture have got a tremendous message. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Okay, apply that to our life. In the beginning, God created man. But something happened between verse one and two.

It's not mentioned here. It's mentioned later. The highest of the angels, Lucifer, rebelled against God and became the devil. And just like the earth got corrupted when Adam sinned, when that angel sinned, the whole earth got corrupted and it became dark.

The heavens and the earth were not created in six days. They were created in a moment. Genesis one, verse one. It's a different word used in the rest of the chapter. The Lord remade that corrupted the earth.

But what happened to that perfect heaven and earth that God created in a moment with a single word as we read in Hebrews 11? When sin came, it became dark. Let me describe what it says here in the next verse.

It's a picture of what happened to us when sin came into our life. Formless, empty, dark. The image of God was gone in Adam. He became empty. He became dark. And that's how we were all born into the world.

That's Genesis one, verse two. But God loved man so much. It says in verse two, the Holy Spirit began to move over the surface of that earth. Just like the Holy Spirit began to move over us to bring us to repentance and salvation.

It's all there in the second verse of the Bible. And the Holy Spirit begins to move. And the first thing God says is, verse three, let there be light. That is Jesus, the light of the world. God sends that light into us so that we can become the light of the world.

That is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then the next thing is not only the gift of the Holy Spirit, the word of God. God said, when God said, let there be light, immediately the light came. And what we read in the remaining part of that chapter is every day God said something.

And because the earth cooperated, something happened. When God said, let the trees come up from the ground, the trees came up. Let the fish come in the waters and the fish came to the waters. See, whenever any created object responds to the word of God, something supernatural happens.

That's the message you get from the first chapter of the Bible. One, God speaks every day. You may not hear him, but he's speaking seven days of the week. He spoke on the first day, something happened.

He spoke on the second day, something happened. And this is all after the first time when the Holy Spirit came upon the earth and changed that dark earth, filled it with light. This is a picture of being born again in Genesis 1, verse 3.

Christ comes in and light comes in. And what is God's purpose for us from that day onwards? That every day, little by little, he changes us, changes us, changes us. God could have done everything in one day.

He could have made the whales and the fish and the animals and Adam and the trees and everything come in a moment, but he didn't do it. He did it little by little. In six days, he remade that corrupted earth to teach us a lesson that God doesn't change us overnight.

He's going to change us day by day if you permit him. Because the earth had to submit. The only difference between the earth and us is we got a free will. When God says, I want to do something in you, you can turn around and say, no, I'm not going to cooperate.

Then nothing will happen. If the Lord said, let the earth yield vegetation and fruit trees come up from the earth and then said, no, there'll be no trees. But the earth didn't have a will of its own to defy God.

We have that. And when God wants to bring fruit in our life, we can defy it and no fruit will come and we remain barren. That's quite a lesson we can learn from the first chapter of the Bible. And then God works and works and works.

And what is the final end? You know, God made man in his own image. The final end God has for us is to make us totally like Jesus Christ. And then the seventh day, God rested. And that's a picture of eternity.

So you've got the whole message of salvation all the way to eternity in Genesis chapter one. Where does it begin? With light. So very important. And that's why in our life too, in the Old Testament, there was only one light they had.

And that is Psalm 119 and verse 105, where it says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Those who wanted light in the Old Testament would read God's word and get light for their feet, which is their daily walk and for their path for their whole life.

But then Jesus came and there it says, notice this difference. In the Old Testament, it was the word of God. The written word of God was the light. But when Jesus came, it says in John 1 verse 4, in him was life and that life was the light.

See, something changed now. The light has switched from the written Bible to a person because that written word, verse 1 and 2 and 14 became flesh. The word in the Old Testament, the word of God became flesh in Jesus Christ and he was the word of God.

Everything that God wanted was there in him. Everything God commanded was there in him. The word became flesh and he was the light. It's very important to understand this. Today, it is not just the written word that is the light.

That's old covenant. In the new covenant, it is the life of Jesus that is the light. If you have a plenty of knowledge of scripture in your head, that's good enough for an Old Testament person, but not for a New Testament Christian.

You will end up as a Pharisee, a legalist judging everybody else if you only know the word. You need the life of Jesus. In him was life and that life was the light of men. So how am I going to be the light of the world?

Just by studying the scripture? No, the scripture must lead me to Christ and to the Holy Spirit. Why is it that the devil has brought so much confusion in the world today concerning the doctrine of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts, and Daily Filling

I don't think there's any doctrine in scripture, not even water baptism or anything which is as controversial as the doctrine of being filled with the Holy Spirit. And in 60 years of being a Christian, I've seen all the different denominations.

I've been to all of them and I've seen some of these extreme positions. On one hand, you have a whole lot of people who they say the Holy Spirit makes them do all types of funny things, roll on the ground and bark like a dog and kick and laugh and all types of things.

I say that can't be wrong. I say that can't be right. That has to be wrong because God has given us an example of the perfect spirit-filled person in Jesus Christ. And when I look at the life of Jesus, I see what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I never see him lying on the ground and kicking his legs or barking or doing any stupid thing like that. No. There are people who say, I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, I touch you, you fall on the ground.

I say no. When Jesus touched people, He lifted them up. That is the fullness of the Spirit. And if you touch people and push them down, that's the opposite of what Jesus did. And there's a word in the Bible for it.

Anti-Christ. It is the spirit of the Antichrist. Others may be afraid to mention that. I say it openly because I know what my Savior did. He never pushed a single person down, either spiritually or physically.

He always came to lift people up. Remember this. There are all these extreme teachings on the Holy Spirit. Everybody's got to speak in tongues and all they babble a few syllables and call it tongues. That's not true.

It's a deception. Let me say, I'm not against the gift of tongues. I've spoken in tongues for 45 years. It's a private love language between me and Jesus Christ, but it is a language. It's a language exactly like Russian or Chinese or Malayalam or Tamil or any other language that I speak.

It's a language, not babbling a few words, but it's for private prayer to God. But this extreme teaching which is going on today is one extreme. Then you have the other extreme of people who have reacted against this and said, we don't want all that.

No, no, no, no. It's just we've received Christ and that's it. Well, look at the powerlessness in their life. I remember when I started preaching 56 years ago and I said, Lord, the Bible says, earnestly desire to prophesy, which is to preach God's word.

And I began to seek God 56 years ago to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I said, Lord, I've studied the word. That's not enough. I cannot be the light if I don't have the oil to light the flame. In the olden days, light was through a lamp which was lit with oil burning.

I said, I need that oil. I need that oil in the vessel like the wise virgins. I need an extra oil in the flask. Otherwise, my light will burn out. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And I discovered that the fullness of the Spirit is not a once for all experience.

You can have an experience, but we need to be continuously filled. It's no use saying you filled your gas tank 20 years ago. So what? Your car is stuck today because it's not filled today. And that's how it is with a lot of people who say 20 years ago, I got filled with the Spirit.

It doesn't mean a thing, brother. I've had experiences like that through also. But I believe in being filled with the Spirit every day. Even before I got up to speak today, I say, Lord, I am. This is what I always say when I get up to speak.

I say, Lord, I'm like a helpless branch in a tree. I cannot produce a single fruit with all my years of experience in preaching or all my knowledge of God's word, zero. If I won't produce fruit, if I'm not in the tree, and if the sap from the tree does not flow into me right now, I'm going to be dry as a bone.

That's how I serve the Lord every single day. And I find God never lets me down. He always lets the sap flow. But you've got to recognize that helpless dependence. God will fill every one of you with the Holy Spirit if you're honest.

Walking in the Light and Keeping Short Accounts with God

First of all, if you're honest about your sin. Let me read to you in 1 John 1 and verse 7, how the blood of Jesus can cleanse us. We all know the well-known verse, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

But it's only half a verse. That's the tragedy that people remember half a verse. Read the full verse. Let us walk in the light as he's in the light. When we do that, we have fellowship with one another.

And then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. There's a condition to the blood of Jesus cleansing you from sin, walking in the light. And that walking in the light means just being honest. Don't try to cover something in the darkness.

Come out into the open and say, Lord, I did that like the thief on the cross. It's me, Lord. It's not my parents. It's not my wife. It's not my husband. It's me. I am the cause of the problem. I did that.

I provoked that person to say that thing or to do that thing. Lord, my sin. I don't have to confess somebody else's sin. No, I have to confess my own sin. That's the meaning of walking in the light. It's the easiest thing in the world is to come into the light.

Do you know a prostitute can come into the light? Say, Lord, I'm a prostitute. Forgive me. She's forgiven. You don't have to reach some great height of spirituality before you come into the light. The lowest level sinner can be honest and say, I'm a sinner.

Or in a particular situation where you sin, Lord, that's me. There's a saying that we have to keep short accounts with God. That means as soon as I confess something, I settle it immediately. Lord, and it's so easy.

Lord, I did that. I'm sorry. I remember I had a great problem with anger and discouragement and all. And I was born again. I was born again, really. Christ had come into my heart. But I'd get angry, upset.

We all do because we love ourselves. And frequently discouraged, condemning myself. But I knew that the Bible said that I have to get rid of all anger. It says in Ephesians 4, 31, 32, put away all anger.

And I worked on it. And I said, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit till a day can come in my life. When I have put away all anger. Where I can live at home with my wife 365 days of the year. Without ever, ever losing my temper.

All 366 days in a leap year. And I tell you, the Lord brought me there. Do you believe? I say that for your encouragement. I could never have produced that fruit if I was apart from the tree. I stuck to the vine.

And he's produced the fruit. Which branch can take credit? I produced those lovely apples. No, it's the tree that produced it. But the apples come on the branch. And so it's the Holy Spirit that will produce that life in you.

And I want to say to every one of you who's defeated by some sin. Is it anger? Is it pornography? Is it adultery perhaps? Much worse than anything. Is it the temptation to divorce your husband or wife?

Which God forbids. There is no sin that Jesus cannot help you to overcome. It's all darkness. Let the Holy Spirit come and he can make you the light of the world. You must have faith for it. You must open your heart to it.

God can do nothing for you if you're not honest. And if you don't open up every area of your life. The Lord takes us permission. Can I come into that area of your life? Can I come and sit with you when you watch television?

And tell you to turn off that channel? Because that's not something that Jesus would look at. Are you willing for it? Or you say, no, no, no, Lord. There are some areas of my life. Please don't come and disturb me there.

Well, that area will remain dark. I think of a Christian's life like a house with about 10 rooms. One room is called the guilt room. And we all want the light of God to come into that room. Oh, Lord, come in and cleanse away my guilt.

One room is lit up. But there are other rooms in the house. You want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, right? And the Lord knocks at the other door. Can I come into your television room? And tell you to turn off everything that I will not watch.

If you say, no, Lord, please. There's some programs I really enjoy watching. He will not come in. He's a gentleman. He's okay. You stay there. That room will remain dark. You can sit in the darkness and watch as much television as you like.

But don't ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. And he comes to another room. Can I see all the books you're reading? Can I check up on that and tell you to give up some of those magazines that you get?

And some of those articles that you read that are not fit for a Christian to read? Well, it's your choice. He won't force you. If you say, no, Lord, I need to read something. You need some few things exciting now and then.