Artistic Reflections on Radiant Discipleship

0:01 But if Jesus is the light, we should be a light as well. Look at what Jesus goes on to say in Matthew, chapter 5, beginning in verse 14. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house In the same way. Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYCcom.

0:41 That's CityLightNYCcom. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you. Do you know that there are some painters who are masters of light and there are some painters who are masters of darkness? Doesn't that sound ominous? But I'm not talking about, like Darth Vader, luke Skywalker kind of light and dark. Okay, there are some different implications, not just the moral symbolism, and I'm not even talking simply about the issue of technique either.

1:28 In the 19th century French Impressionists, for example, that were masters of light. They were interested in the optical effects that they found with paint, finding methods to make paint on canvas resonate and resemble what light does in real life. But for them to capture light on canvas was just. It wasn't a means to an end by itself, it wasn't the process only, but in a more realistic depiction of the world, is what they set out for. When painters in early centuries showed a special interest in light, it was often just as much for the symbolism of light as it was for its physical properties. Oftentimes what we would see is light shining through darkness.

2:10 Right, you ever see a painting like that and you see this shaft of light cutting through the darkness. That's what I love about this building and I think it's appropriate. We're meeting in here today. Normally the area we meet we don't have windows. We've got these beautiful stained glass windows and the light can come through and it turns different colors at different times of the day and different periods during the year. I was joking before the first service with a couple of people in the back and I said you know what's kind of interesting when we meet here on Friday nights, I feel like it's kind of the lights pop a little bit more and I don't know why the lights aren't really shining. And they looked at me and they said because it's daytime and the sun is shining through the windows. James said oh, muah muah. You see, sometimes when it's cold, oxygen doesn't go all the way to the top.

2:52 You hear what I'm saying? But light has some powerful implications and we see that lightness shining through the dark. Darkness usually is symbolizing ignorance and we see light typically symbolizing truth, goodness. I find it interesting. Throughout history we find a representation of light being truth and life right. And then Jesus comes on the scene and he says this in John 8.12,. Jesus spoke to all the people once more and said I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. Jesus calls himself the light of the world, and the light that leads to life no less.

3:35 Today we have the privilege of celebrating our first service of the new year. We made it to 2024. Some of you didn't think we were going to make it, but we did. Happy new year. Are you glad to have 2023 in the rearview mirror? I'm kind of glad to say goodbye to that thing. I don't want to live in the past. Like Paul said, I press on to what is ahead. So, happy new year. 2024 is ahead of us. So what does it have? More opportunity. That's what I'm excited about. So I thought it would be appropriate, on this first Sunday of the new year, to really talk about what city light is all about. What does it mean to be a part of city light and what does 2024 look like around this place? If you've been around here for maybe five minutes or longer, you know that at city light, we are passionate about making fully devoted followers of Christ.

4:21 Right, that's really our mission. We want to invest God's word into your heart and see a transformation, his Spirit living through you and you in turn being a fully devoted follower of Jesus. But what does that really mean To say a disciple, fully devoted follower, really means disciple. You sum it up, really, with that one word. So I like to go to the dictionary and say, well, what is that one word? We like to just throw words around like they mean nothing and we let culture change the meaning of words and we just go with it. But what does the word really mean? So Webster's dictionary defines a disciple as a personal follower of Jesus during his life, especially one of the 12 apostles, or a follower or a student of a teacher, leader or a philosopher. So Jesus asked us to make disciples right.

5:02 Disciple is a follower of Jesus. But where do we get that idea that we should be focusing on making more disciples? I just gave you the answers. Anybody know Jesus. Jesus told us to make more disciples right. So I'm not making it up, no one else making it up. Jesus made it up. He told us himself before he went back to heaven. After his resurrection, he gave us his marching orders and this is what he said in Matthew 28, beginning in verse 18,. Jesus came and told his disciples I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and, be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

5:42 So his last command to his followers, jesus tells us to go and make disciples, make more disciples of Jesus. That part seems pretty clear. Right, everybody with me. What are we supposed to do? Make disciples. He tells us go and make disciples. So that part is clear. So if you're in agreement with me, you're in good company. But what doesn't he tell us how to go and make disciples. I think that's kind of interesting, right? He tells us to go do something. That's like the last command, it's like very important, because it's the last thing he said. It's like your parting words are big, right, you always say what do people say on their deathbed? Usually? That's kind of important. They told you where the combination was to the safe, so you can get all the money. What is the last thing he said? Go and make disciples.

6:22 But he didn't tell us how. I think it's kind of interesting and I think one of the reasons is because Jesus knew that our communication was gonna change throughout the centuries, right the way the world relates as it evolves in our culture. He knew that we needed to stay relevant and current with the culture in which we're ministering to. Just like he did. He came on the scene and he upset everything. He talked in a relevant way. He talked in parables and stories. And the rabbis and the other priests? They weren't talking that way. They were going very old school, very levitical, and they were talking like, oh, he's talking in old days. But no, jesus came on the scene. He's telling stories, he's sarcastic, he's telling jokes and they're like what is this? I think Jesus wanted us to continue to grow in our communication style.

7:03 That's why I'm preaching out of the NLT version today and not the King James version. Some of you said, james, I like the King James version. It's closer to God. No, it's not. It was closer to King James. Okay, in the year 1611, he decided he was gonna put a Bible together and where the us were, v's and now's were those, don't worry about it. But Pastor Bo uses the new King James. We look for relevant translations because our communication is important If we wanna reach a culture that has no idea what this stuff is all about. If we come on talking all this flowery 16th century stuff, they're gonna say what is wrong with you? So we just talk normal, we talk relevant. I think another thing that's important God knew that we needed to actually work together to find a solution.

7:47 Now one of us has the full picture, right? We each have a piece of the puzzle and when we come together, we contribute our pieces and then the more we work together, the puzzle picture starts to get clear. Anybody ever put a puzzle together? I got a puzzle for Christmas. I hate puzzles. My wife loves puzzles, so we sit down and we do puzzles and I give up early and she sits there and she finishes the puzzle and I say look at what we did. We come together with our own experiences and we make it clearer together. So let's figure this out together, right? We have so many different kinds of churches in New York and throughout the world. It's because they've all come together and they're trying to figure out their why, right?

8:27 So here's the question I wanna ask today and I wanna help us answer what has city light landed on in terms of our why, our how? How are we actually going to make disciples? So what we found is that we're better together. So we're better together. We're stronger together. Right, the picture becomes clearer when we contribute together. So the first thing that I wanna share with you that I think is gonna be helpful is that we actually have the privilege of doing life together with God. Okay, we can't separate him from the equation. If we do it in our own power, are we gonna succeed? No, that's it. You can talk back. No, you're not gonna succeed. So the first thing if you're taking notes and I hope you do, because the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory and you're gonna forget 90% of what I said by the time you get home and eat lunch, that's sad, because I worked hard on this, but that's okay, it's part of what we do.

9:17 But if you write it down or put some notes in your phone, maybe this will stick with you later in the year. You think what is my purpose in life? Why are we making disciples? Why do I even go to city light church? You pull this out and you say oh, I remember Because we have the privilege of doing life together with God. It has to do with our relationship with God. Christ living through us allows us to love the people in our lives in ways that we don't have the power to love them. It helps us to be patient with people in our lives that is really hard to be patient with. We in the church world call them extra grace required people, egrs. Okay, if you don't know what that means, you're probably one. That's all I'm trying to say. We have people that are not like you and they get on your nerves, but we gotta love them anyway. Right Through Christ's spirit and his power, we have the ability to show patience and compassion, with Christ living through us.

9:58 Paul tells us in Galatians 5, beginning in verse 22,. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There's no laws against these things. Doing life together with God not only allows us to experience all the benefits that I just listed, but it shows them to the people in our lives. Apart from God, we can't hit the mark in any of those areas. No matter how good you think you are and some of us we do. We walk around like hmm, I got this. Anybody watch the Office. That's a funny show right there. Right, there's an episode in later seasons where Dwight and Jim are at a sales conference together and Jim is trying to get Dwight to like help him.

10:39 And so he tells him there's bedbugs in their hotel, right, and he says, jim, what about these bedbugs? He said, oh, it was smug. How smug is that good? And so every time I think of smugness, thinking I got it all together, I picture Jim saying that bed bugs, and that's when we walk around like, but we gotta be real, don't look at this way. Look at this way. With God, we need a lot of help. So we need His power to help us to do things right. Apart from Him, we can't get it done. Doing life together with God means reading His Word. He gave us His Bible right. What's in His Bible? It's a love letter. It shows us His heart, shows us His character. That's an incredible book. Do you own one? Everybody have a Bible. We'll give you one. If you don't have one, we make sure in 2024 you got a Bible.

11:20 You got the U version app. You can download it on your phone. The Bible don't discount God's Word. He communicates through His Word to us. It means spending time in prayer. That's simply talking to God, having conversation. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. Don't stop praying. Pray with Him. What does prayer actually do? Some of us have relegated that to like meal times or maybe bedtime. Or maybe when things get really bad in life, we're like God help. Or maybe if someone from church is looking, you're at a restaurant, you're about to eat and you see someone in the city like, oh heavenly Father, thank you for this room, amen, you weren't just gonna eat right there without saying thanks. Or if you're really spiritual, 21 days of prayer you're on Zoom every night at 7 pm. I appreciate some of you doing it, but it's even more than that.

12:04 Prayer is connecting and communing with God. He wants a relationship with you and a relationship requires what Communication. You ever had a relationship with someone you didn't talk to? That would be stupid. That's not a relationship. And it's even more than just like, hey, how's it going? Oh, good, happy New Year, you have a good year two months. Yeah, it's cold outside. Yeah, it's real cold, getting wet out there. That's not a relationship. That's small talk, that's superficial. He wants to know that. You know he's there. Talk to God. The relationship with Him, doing life together with God, also means worshiping God with other Christ followers, just like what we're doing today in this place.

12:47 Hebrews 10, verse 25, says and let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, ooh, do you know some people that didn't come today? Give them some grief and say Hebrew 10,. Cj said today you neglected Ooh, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return draws near. He tells us to worship Him together in His house, to encourage each other to do it. That's the next thing that we found as city light too is we have the joy of doing life together. So again, if you take a note that first one is the privilege of doing life together with God, the second is we have the joy of doing life together with each other, and that is a privilege. Some of you say what about those extra grace requires?

13:27 It doesn't sound like a privilege, james, I know, but it is a privilege Nonetheless. That means getting in each other's business up in your grill, the good, the bad and the ugly. Because here's the thing the joys of life, they're just not as sweet if you don't have someone to share them with. Right, my wife is out of town right now because our daughter went back to the school down in Alabama. So they drove down. I drove up with them and this time they gave me a hard time on the road trip. I don't know why this, but I'm always trying to beat the clock and they're like dad, you do not stop enough. I'm like why we have gas and I know where I'm going. They're like well, I want to stop and take a picture here and let's stop at this gas station here. They're like why? And so they said I'm not very fun to go on a road trip with. So, fyi, if you want to go to a road trip, call Pastor Moe, do not call me.

14:10 I just want to get there. I like the destination, not the journey. So they went down together. My wife's flying back tomorrow, and so I find myself so often I'm like hey, I got. Oh, oh, you had this, oh, it's lonely, because the joys of life are not as sweet when you don't have someone to share them with. So then I call her at face time hey, I had something I want to tell you, but I forgot. Just come home and the sad times, the burdens of life, they're almost unbearable if you don't have someone to share them with. Right, we need people in our lives. Some of the hardest times of my life have turned into the greatest God-sized miracles and blessings because of the people God put in my life through my life group. Can I hear an amen for life groups?

14:52 You guys in life groups? We're not just a church that has life groups, we're a church of life groups. It's the core and essence of what we are. That's what makes this large group turn into a community. This is not a community. Life doesn't happen in rows. It happens in circles. You are staring at me, but in a life group you're staring at each other. You're talking, you're praying for each other. You're the first one there when somebody's sick, you're bringing them chicken noodle soup. You visit when they're in the hospital. They're the ones that help me move. They're the ones that really love you enough to get in the trenches and do life with you. If you're missing out on that, you're missing out on that Because there's more than just this hour on Sunday. Look at what the Bible says about us doing life together.

15:32 They like to call it one another. Okay. That one word alone highlights the significance of doing life together Outdo one another in showing honor. It says in Romans 12, 10,. Live in harmony with one another Romans 12, 16,. Admonish one another. Romans 15, 14, wait for one another First. Corinthians 11, 33, have the same care for one another First. Corinthians 12, 25, be servants of one another. Galatians 5, 13,. Bear one another's burdens. Galatians 6, 2, comfort one another First. Thessalonians 5, 11, build one another up First. Thessalonians 5, 11, be at peace with one another First. Thessalonians 5, 13,. Do good with one another First. Thessalonians 5, 15, put up with one another in love.

16:14 Ephesians 4, 12, be kind and compassionate to one another. Ephesians 4, 32, submit to one another. Ephesians 5, 21,. Give one another and forgive. Corinthians 13,. Confess your sins to one another. James 5, 16, pray for one another. James 5, 16, love one another from the heart. 1 Peter 1, 22,. Be hospitable to one another. 1 Peter 4, 9, meet one another with humility. 1 Peter 5, 5,. That's a lot of one another's. When Jesus says something over and over and over, what does he mean? Pay attention. When he tells you something over and over, just like when I tell my kids, if I just say, hey, go clean your room. No, go clean your room, I'm serious, clean your room. It's a meat business.

16:54 When you say it more than once, jesus tells us over and over one another, bear one another's burdens, take care of one another, lift each other up, exhort each other. Why? Why does he say it? Cause he wants us to do life in community. As I read through that list, one thing is very evident to me you could not possibly do any of those things without doing life in proximity with other people. Can you bear each other's burdens all by yourself? No, you cannot. How can you bear someone's burdens unless you know what those burdens are? And then you have to be willing to bear them, to help them, to carry them. How are you gonna put up with each other unless you're close enough to somebody to actually get on their nerves, right, right, how are you gonna forgive somebody unless you're doing life together and you're close enough to actually hurt people's feelings or let each other down?

17:48 How are you gonna learn to submit to others unless you struggle with their differences? In other words, if we are to connect with our lives with each other, it's gonna demand that we do more than our culture tells us is acceptable. It tells us to go to our apartment buildings, close the door, bolt it, lock it down and then get on your phone. But we gotta break down the barriers. We have to do different things that people aren't normally doing to reach people that aren't being reached already. You gotta do different things. We have to be willing to do hard things, counter-cultural things, if we're gonna reach people that no one else is reaching.

18:31 Author Suzy Kaceman writes "'Always surround yourself with friends "'that have plenty of light in them? "'that ways, you'll always have candles around "'when the days get dark'". Don't try and do this thing alone. You're only as lonely as you've chosen to be, because we have the privilege of doing life together. The third thing that we found is that when we come together, we actually have the tools to get our own life together. And can I get an amen that you're a hot mess and you need help? Not as many of you getting excited about that one. I get it. I get it, but I know I'm a hot mess and I need help. So I am confident that you need some help as well, because we're all in the same boat. We're all sinners in desperate need of a savior. So we have the privilege of doing life together with God.

19:11 We have the joy of doing life together with each other, and then, when we come together, we get the tools to get our own life together, because we need some help and apart from God, we can do nothing, apart from each other. It's gonna be harder and we need to come together. So the third thing is we get the tools to do everything we can to get our life together. We have God's instruction manual, right. We got the Bible. We study that together. But we offer other things like life groups. We have healing rooms, we have growth track, we have 21 days of prayer and fasting, and the list goes on and on of the tools and the resources we have. As a church, we wanna provide you resources to make sure that you're better parents, better spouses, better employees, better citizens, better neighbors, better commuters on the train, better followers of Jesus, because that's the goal, right, we want to be better followers of Jesus, more like Jesus.

20:05 Remember, jesus calls himself the light of the world, so if we're his followers and disciples, we need to be lights as well. Right, that's what we are. That's what Christian means. It's a little Christ. We're his disciple. In the Old Testament, a disciple really was someone that followed their rabbi, their teacher, so closely that the dust they kicked up from their sandals would cover you, and you would be covered with their dust and you would not really have your distinguishable characteristics anymore. You would be so close to the master, even when they sat down in the outhouse. You would be so close in case they had an epiphany. You could write it down and you could commit that to memory. You were always there. That's gross, but if Jesus is the light, we should be a light as well.

20:47 Look at what Jesus goes on to say in Matthew, chapter five, beginning in verse 14. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house In the same way. Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. I'm gonna ask the worship team to come back up that passage. He calls us the light of the world, right? So what's our job? It's to shine for Jesus. Are you? We're supposed to be a bunch of little fireflies for Jesus? That's what comes to my mind. You ever seen a firefly? We have a bunch up here.

21:28 I grew up in New Mexico and then I lived in South Florida there were no fireflies. Out in the desert we have road runners and mosquitoes, but we didn't have fireflies. So I had never seen a real firefly. I grew up going to Disneyland and I'd go to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and I'd see the fake ones. You go in the little boat and it's going through the bayou and there's these little fireflies. It's just a little light hanging on a wire. But it was cool. I was 38 years old before I saw my very first real firefly. I was so deprived, but 38 years old, I went for a little visit to Wichita Kansas. Why, I do not know, but I went to Wichita Kansas. You ever been to Wichita Kansas? You don't have to. It's fine. I'm telling you all that there is to know about it.

22:09 There's fireflies and I was sitting there and out of the corner of my eye I see this little flicker of light. What in the world is that? I look again and I say every time I would turn to where I think it was. Then it wasn't there. I think I'm losing my mind. I need to get a CAT scan or I need I got some kind of optical issue. I'm having a stroke. I don't know what's happening. Why do I see these flickers of light? And then I looked and I actually finally saw it. And then I was mesmerized. I couldn't turn away. I'm just staring at these dozens of little fireflies lighting up the night sky. I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. So I thought I got to learn more about these fireflies. I mean, I know what flies dragonflies, houseflies. I just thought of a Dumbo joke. Yeah, you ever see a housefly?

22:50 No, but I thought what is this thing that lights up? A little tail illuminating. So did you know that a firefly can actually light up at every stage of its life? Even as an egg? It can create the chemical reaction to actually illuminate as an egg. That's crazy. And the larva on the adult stage as well, they light up. Another thing that I think is completely interesting and fascinating is they're the most efficient things that you're probably ever going to find a firefly Like. As an example, take an incandescent light 90% of its energy is expended as heat, only 10% is light. A firefly, in contrast, 100% of its energy is emitted as light.

23:34 So I'm thinking a firefly is a pretty cool little creation that God made. We're supposed to be the fireflies of the human race. I think for Christianity we're supposed to be shining up the sky, lighting it up for Jesus. As Christ followers, we're the human population firefly. Ephesians 5, 8 says for once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light. So, like the firefly, in every stage of your Christian life you should be shining up everywhere, lighting it up from your infancy to your eternal promotion. When you go to be with Jesus in eternity, we're to light it up, illuminate the world for Christ, with Christ in us, showing the world his goodness and his love.

24:23 So the next time you're sitting around scrolling through Instagram and TikTok and you're like, hmm, why am I even here? What is the meaning of life? What am I even going to do in 2024? Your purpose for life is to be a firefly for Jesus. That's it. All your problems are solved. For the year I was just thinking between services, it might be a good marketing campaign. I got my sweatshirts as faith. I remember the old sweat pants. I wasn't allowed to look at them but they said like juicy across the rear. Maybe we get some that say like shine, city light, boom, shine for Jesus, light it up, but we're going to make disciples for Jesus in 2024, aren't we?

25:16 We're going to give it everything. We are everything we hope to be because we have the privilege of doing life together with God. We have the joy of doing life together in Christian community with each other, and when we come together we're better because we get the tools to get our own life together. So we're going to make disciples, we're going to shine bright for Jesus, and 2024 is going to be the best year yet. You agree? In Jesus' name, heavenly Father, thank you for loving us, thank you for giving us another year to show your love in a dark, dark place, just as I mentioned with the paintings that we kind of can admire and take inspiration from. New York is a dark place. There are so many dark forces pressing against us, but you've called us to be lights in this dark place and we're going to push back the darkness and we're going to shine so brightly that people aren't going to help but have to know why.

26:02 We're shining so bright for you and then, like you told us, to always be ready to give an account for the reason we have hope and faith and we're going to bring more people to you. We're going to create more disciples, because that's what you asked us to do. Thank you that we get to do it together. We do it in your name, amen, amen. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik and City Light Church, visit us at CityLightNYCcom. That's CityLightNYCcom. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace.

26:49 Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.