We Are It: Be the Light of Christ

Devotional

Day 1: The Prayer Before Departure

Jesus stood with eyes lifted, His final words before arrest hanging in the night air. “Father, the hour has come.” He prayed not for escape but for glory – the raw, cruciform glory of love poured out. His disciples stood in shadow, unaware they’d soon scatter. Yet Jesus declared His work complete: “I have given them your words.” [36:27]

This prayer anchors history. Jesus didn’t beg for a different story but embraced His role as bridge between heaven’s glory and earth’s grit. He entrusted flawed followers with divine truth, knowing the Spirit would awaken their courage.

You hold words meant to heal this broken hour. What task feels too small or too shattered to be “God’s work”? Write it down, then write Christ’s words over it: “I have finished what you gave me to do.” Where might your ordinary obedience become part of His completed work?

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.”
(John 17:6, NIV)

Prayer: Thank Jesus for entrusting you with His words. Ask Him to show you one task He’s given you to finish.
Challenge: Write “I have finished the work you gave me” on a sticky note. Place it where you’ll see it hourly.

Day 2: Staring at Empty Sky

The disciples’ necks ached from gazing upward. Two angels broke their trance: “Why stand here looking at the sky?” Moments earlier, Jesus had handed them the baton – “You’ll be my witnesses.” Now they stood frozen, clutching divine purpose like a hot coal. [43:05]

Heaven isn’t a distraction from earth’s work – it’s the source of its meaning. The angels’ question still prods us: Why fixate on distant clouds when neighbors hunger, wars rage, and the lonely sit unwelcomed?

You’ve been handed the baton. List three “upward stares” in your life – spiritual escapes masquerading as piety. Then list three “earthly tasks” within reach. Which list holds your real obedience?

“They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky?’”
(Acts 1:10-11, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one way you’ve used “spiritual” activities to avoid messy service. Ask for Galilean courage.
Challenge: Move a household item (clock, plant) lower on the wall – let it remind you to engage what’s at eye level.

Day 3: Candle Tilted, Light Unhidden

A Caribbean church’s Paschal candle leaned precariously, its flame snuffed by wind. The priest relit it twice before shrugging – but the real light flickered in a green-clad girl. While adults fussed over wax, she roamed aisles radiating joy, her sparkly clips catching sunlight. [41:35]

God’s light often burns where we least expect – in children, strangers, even those we’ve written off as “tilted candles.” When we obsess over institutional perfection, the Spirit whispers: “The kingdom belongs to such as these.”

Who’s your “sparkly clip” person – someone whose unpolished joy reflects Christ? How might your critique of “leaning candles” blind you to their flame?

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”
(Matthew 5:14, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God to forgive your critical spirit toward imperfect churches. Thank Him for unexpected Christ-light bearers.
Challenge: Text one person whose simple faith encourages you: “I see Christ’s light in you because…”

Day 4: Baptismal Waters and Bells

River’s head dripped as the candle passed from tilted Paschal wick to tiny fist. Bells rang – not by altar guild members, but by children who’d watched water become promise. “Be the light,” we chanted, knowing this boy would both stumble and shine. [49:53]

Baptism isn’t a finish line but a starting block. River joins the relay of saints who’ve carried Christ’s light through plague, persecution, and personal failure. His spark matters – but so does yours.

When did you last recall your baptism? Dig out photos or ask your baptism story. How does your “light” differ today from when you first received it?

“Receive the light of Christ. Be the light of Christ.”
(Lutheran Baptismal Rite)

Prayer: Light a candle. Thank God for your baptismal day. Ask Him to rekindle your light where it’s dimmed.
Challenge: Place a bell by your sink. Ring it each time you wash hands – remember your baptismal call.

Day 5: Spirit’s Wind, Our Yes

The Caribbean breeze that highlighted the sparkly girl also blew out the crooked candle. Wind – the ancient symbol of Spirit – still redirects our gaze. Jesus promised this Helper would come, not to fix our candles but to make us flames. [48:23]

We’re not left as orphaned torchbearers. The same breath that hovered over creation’s waters now fuels our faltering witness. Our task isn’t to generate light but to yield to the Wind’s direction.

What “holy breeze” have you ignored – a nudge to call, serve, or rest? How would today change if you stopped shielding your flame and let the Spirit blow?

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
(John 3:8, NIV)

Prayer: Open your hands palms up. Ask the Spirit to redirect your plans and energize your obedience.
Challenge: Step outside for 5 minutes. Let actual wind remind you of the Spirit’s presence. Journal what arises.

Sermon Summary

John’s Gospel sets Jesus praying for glory that does not loop inward but returns to the Father and spills out as life for those the Father has given him. The prayer names eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God sent, and it asks for protection and oneness for those who will remain “in the world” while Jesus returns to the Father. The text presses the church into a calling Jesus already finished and handed over, so that the Son is “glorified in them” as they carry his name, his words, and his way.

Acts then pictures the disciples stuck, eyes tilted skyward after the Ascension, until messengers prod them with a kindly sting: why stand looking up. That jab turns into a passing of the baton. The commission is plain. Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. You’re it. The call does not deny grief or confusion. It redirects attention to the place the Spirit is already working.

A tilted Paschal candle and an extinguished flame threatened to become a sad metaphor for a sagging church, until a breeze pointed attention to a little girl in a bright green dress, clips sparkling like embers, walking the aisle and lighting faces with joy. The image reframes presence. While many look up at a crooked, wind-battered symbol, the Spirit whispers, look here, right next to you. The Christ light keeps showing up in the aisle.

Between Ascension and Pentecost, Jesus’ prayer presses the church to receive the baton without bravado. The path forward moves in three simple turns. First, look within. The Spirit’s voice tells the baptized, you’ve got this, not by swagger but by gift. Second, look around. The body of Christ is not solitary. Companions, “call a friend” grace, and shared burdens are provision, not Plan B. Third, trust the Advocate. Help, comfort, and courage are not abstractions; the Spirit has the church’s back. Trust her.

Baptism makes this concrete. River is claimed, sealed, and sent, candle lit from a slightly tilted Paschal candle with the charge, receive the light of Christ, be the light of Christ. That small flame says enough for the road ahead. The church’s race is a relay, not a sprint, and the finish line prayer of Jesus becomes the hope of every servant: Father, I have completed the work you gave me to do. Christ is no longer in the world, but his body is. You’re it, and the Spirit supplies enough, including one another.

Key Takeaways

1. Stop looking up. Carry the baton. The Ascension does not excuse paralysis. The angels’ nudge exposes a habit of waiting for heaven to do what earth has been anointed to do. The commission hands real responsibility to ordinary disciples, and glory starts traveling through obedient feet. The church’s gaze belongs on the path, not the clouds. [43:42]
2. Look within: vocation already gifted. Jesus’ prayer lands on those who already carry his words and name, which means calling is not an empty cup. The Spirit’s whisper sounds like permission to begin, not a demand to prove. Courage comes as trust in the Giver more than confidence in personal capacity. The work is given, and so are the means. [47:23]
3. Look around: Christ is near. Provision often stands in the aisle while attention drifts to symbols that feel off-kilter. Companions, small joys, and shared hands are not distractions from holy work; they are how holy work gets done. The body of Christ is God’s strategy for a world too heavy to lift alone. Grace travels in community. [47:51]
4. Trust the Spirit’s tender advocacy. Helper, Comforter, Advocate is not a title on paper but a presence with a posture. Protection and unity do not arise from tight control but from yielded dependence on the One who indwells and guides. Trust her, and notice how help arrives right on time, fitted to the task. [48:39]
5. Baptism lights a lifelong race. To receive and be the light is to live sealed, sent, and sustained. The font anchors identity, but the candle points forward into vocation for the life of the world. The relay keeps growing, one newly baptized servant at a time, each carrying a flame strong enough for the next stretch. [49:41]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[18:40] - Announcements and community life
[25:07] - Grace and Collect of the Day
[35:49] - Gospel reading: John 17
[38:23] - Gratitude for helpers and travel story
[39:54] - The tilted Paschal candle
[41:35] - Christ light in the aisle
[42:07] - Ascension and the angels’ question
[43:42] - You’re it: the baton passes
[47:23] - Three invitations for vocation
[49:41] - Receive and be the light
[54:56] - Baptism of River
[72:01] - Eucharist: Thanksgiving and Table
[85:16] - Blessing and Sending

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
John 17:1-11 (ESV)
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.”

Acts 1:6-11 (ESV)
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Observation Questions

In John 17:3, Jesus defines eternal life as “knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ.” What does this imply about the nature of eternal life?
The angels in Acts 1:11 ask the disciples, “Why do you stand looking into heaven?” What does their question reveal about the disciples’ posture after Jesus’ ascension? [43:42]
The sermon describes a tilted Paschal candle and a child lighting up the aisle. How does this story contrast “looking up” versus “looking here”? [41:35]

Interpretation Questions

Jesus prays, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world” (John 17:11). How does this statement shape the church’s purpose and identity?
The angels’ question in Acts 1:11 (“Why do you stand looking up?”) redirects the disciples’ focus. What might happen if the church today fixates on “looking up” instead of engaging the world? [43:42]
The sermon emphasizes that “calling is not an empty cup” but a gift already given. How does Jesus’ prayer in John 17:6-8 (“I have given them your words”) support this idea?

Application Questions

The sermon urges, “Look within: vocation already gifted.” What is one practical way you can step into a responsibility or gift you’ve hesitated to embrace, trusting the Spirit’s provision? [47:23]
“Look around: Christ is near.” Who in your daily life (e.g., a friend, coworker, or family member) might be the “Christ light” you’ve overlooked while focusing on bigger concerns? How can you acknowledge or support them this week? [47:51]
The sermon says, “Trust the Advocate, not abstractions.” When have you experienced the Holy Spirit’s tangible help or comfort in a challenge? How might this memory encourage you to lean on the Spirit in a current struggle? [48:39]
Baptism is described as lighting a “lifelong race.” How does your baptismal identity as “sealed, sent, and sustained” shape your choices or priorities today? [49:41]
The disciples were told, “You’re it.” What is one area in your community or relationships where you’ve been waiting for someone else to act, but God might be saying, “You’re it”?

Sermon Clips

63s

“But after Jesus ascended, his disciples were frozen looking up, looking for Jesus who wasn't there anymore. Two angel figures appeared, and we know angels always bring a message. They said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? Calling them men of Galilee was a kind of playful insult because Galileans were not known for being highly literate or sophisticated. So it was like saying, come on, bozos. Don't just stand there looking up. Jesus will come. That'll happen. But for now, the baton is in your hands. You're it. You're it.”

47s

“Maybe the disciples wondered and maybe we wonder, did God really think through this plan, making us the light, making us the body of Christ? And the answer to that question would be, maybe God did overestimate us. Except Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit to equip and empower us altogether to be the light of Christ, to be Christ's witnesses in the world.”

35s

“In today's gospel, Jesus prays to the father saying, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. Protect them so that they may be one as you and I are one. Jesus is no longer in the world, but we are, and we are God's plan for continuing Christ's presence in the world. Let that settle in. We're it.”

40s

“Every time we celebrate holy baptism, we remember that individually and together, we are the light of Christ. We are holding the baton and are called to run with perseverance and grace and faith, the leg of the race that is given to us, that is set before us. We give thanks that God has chosen another person to join our mission, River, to share our calling, to be the light of Christ and the body of Christ.”

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We Are It: Be the Light of Christ

Devotional

Day 1: The Prayer Before Departure

Day 2: Staring at Empty Sky

Day 3: Candle Tilted, Light Unhidden

Day 4: Baptismal Waters and Bells

Day 5: Spirit’s Wind, Our Yes

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

We Are It: Be the Light of Christ

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