*Title:* Let Your Light Shine — Pastor Kyle Baldwin, March 28, 2026

In Rome, along the Via Sacra, stands the Arch of Titus. Its reliefs show the spoils of Jerusalem’s fall being carried in triumph in AD 71 — including the golden menorah from the temple. After that depiction, the menorah disappears from history, never to be seen again. In this sermon, Pastor Kyle Baldwin begins there, with a physical, tangible reminder of God’s presence, gone forever — and asks the question that drives the whole message: as spiritual Israel, inheritors of the great truths of salvation, do we still possess the light that lights every person? Or have we, too, lost it?

The answer unfolds in a single picture. Jesus is the true light of the world — “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4–5) — and in the menorah, the central branch is Jesus, with six branches receiving light from Him. That is why it is no contradiction for Jesus to say both “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12) and “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Like the moon, which shines only by reflecting the sun, we shine only by reflecting Jesus. Moses proved it on Sinai: after forty days in God’s presence, he came down not realizing his own face shone (Exodus 34:29–30). Time spent beholding the Lord changes us, often without our noticing the impact on others — and Paul tells us how it works: “beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, [we] are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

But beholding is only half the picture. James warns that a hearer who looks into the mirror of God’s perfect law of liberty and walks away forgetting what he saw has not been changed at all; the doer is the one who is blessed (James 1:23–25). And Pastor Baldwin presses the diagnosis home: perhaps the reason we have not shared the light is that we have not received it ourselves — a veil still covering hearts that sit in church but never look at the Source. The closing appeal is simple and urgent: very soon God’s glory will encircle the earth (Revelation 18:1), not through some celestial display, but because His people reflect Jesus so clearly that family, co-workers, and friends will know they have been with Him. The challenge is not new and it is not complicated — simply allow the light you have received to shine through you, today, to the people in your life.

*Key texts:* Matthew 5:14–16; John 1:4–5; John 8:12; Exodus 34:29–30; 2 Corinthians 3:17–18; James 1:23–25; 2 Corinthians 4:3–6; Revelation 18:1; Psalm 119:105

*Watch:* https://youtu.be/3mYXglpv7sQ · *Listen:* https://cloud-1de12d.becdn.net/media/original/3e516b7aab0fba41e8ad01833913bfb5.mp3