This series is called “Be the Light to Your Family.”
Your family can be the one you share your blood and gene pool with. Some of have gene pools too shallow to swim in like mine, so family includes adoption. Some of our adoptions are formal and go through the court systems. Some of our adoptions are not formal, but we choose to add people to our family through marriage and just because someone needs to be adopted. Family can be a work family. Teachers have other teachers as their family, but they also have those precious souls sitting in desks who are part of their work family. My work family is scattered in south Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Then there’s a church family, and each church is different because they meet a need in being different. So there are many kinds of “families.”
And I’m here to tell you, God don’t need you to be the light to your family. Now some of you may think, well that’s a short lesson, but we aren’t over. Let me explain.
When we study a word in the Bible, one of the first things I do is to look for the first place it is mentioned in the Bible. The word light is first mentioned in Genesis 1. Read verses 1 and 2 and see if you observe what I did.
Who is mentioned verse 2? The Spirit of God. This is important so remember this.
What is the Spirit doing? Where is he? Hovering OVER. This is important so remember.
What is the first thing God ever says? Let there be light. Light has to be extremely important. AND it’s singular – LIGHT, not LIGHTS
What happened as a result of God speaking? There was light.
God saw the light was _______. Good.
Did God have to create darkness?
Was the darkness good?
And yet God identified the darkness and gave it a name – Night.
Did God create anything to make or sustain the light in these verses for the first day?
How was there light then?
When did God create the sun, moon and stars?
Genesis 1:14-19
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
“and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Vs 14 – Let there be LIGHTS. Lights are plural, so we know that God is creating things to emit light we will see and identify, and God gives His reasoning behind creating these lights because as we saw in verse 1 there was light without these things, right?
What is the purpose for these created lights? They were for signs and seasons and for days and years. The purpose of the sun, moon and stars is NOT to give off light. God doesn’t need them to give off light.
CHANGING LANES FOR A MOMENT, but I promise it’ll all make sense…
The first time we see the word star mentioned in the New Testament is Matthew 2:1-2
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
I don’t know if you read the blogs during Christmas, but I talked about the star. The star did NOT show up in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. Scripture shows the star showed up in the East. The angels arrived for the shepherds. The star showed up for the magi in the East.
It was a special kind of star. It moved when they followed, and they followed it to Bethlehem. It is estimated Jesus was around 2 when the magi arrived.
If they were following a star, when did they have to travel? Night. Night was the only time they could travel. They were traveling in the dark after the light.
Now magi loved studying the stars, but because we live in a sinful, fallen world, they used the stars, moon and sun for things that did not glorify God like fortune telling and astrology.
Who created the magi?
Who created the magi with a love, desire for studying the moon, stars and sun?
The star was for the Gentiles. It was the first time Gentiles were told of Christ’s birth.
Now, let’s go back to Genesis 1:14-19. From the beginning of time, God knew He was going to create the magi with a desire for learning, a love of the stars, moon and sun, and God knew He was going to reach them through a star. Did anyone tell them about the Light of the World being born? No. God did through a star.
So, does God need us to be the light for our families? No. I’m pretty sure He can find multiple ways of reaching them.
GOD DON’T NEED YOU TO SPEAK FOR HIM EITHER:
You might say, well He needs us to speak to them and tell them about Jesus’ love.
Anyone ever hear the story of Balak and Balaam?
Numbers 22 – 24. It is one of the funniest stories in the Bible. If you’ve never read and studied it, you really should. And when you read the story, put yourself as an observer or one of Balaam’s men who would have walked behind him. Hilarious!
In this story the angel of the Lord speaks through a donkey. This donkey speaks more truthfully and eloquently than most preachers and teacher because he only spoke what the angel of the Lord gave him to speak. Otherwise, he could not have spoken at all.
So why are we studying how to be the light to our families? Because Jesus said, “You are the light…” Matthew 5:14. So what does that even really mean? I’m so glad you asked. I invite you to come to Bible study next Thursday at 6:30 pm. Please send us a message if you are interested, and we will provide you with the address. I’m so excited. I hope you come.