Me and My Shadow

Introduction

There are certain Bible events or stories that just pull us in, don’t they? Maybe they’re so uniquely interesting that we wish that we could have been there and witnessed those things firsthand. We talked about one of those earlier this morning in the ascension of Christ. Who among us wouldn’t have loved to have witnessed that event as Jesus was speaking and just began to be lifted from this earth and pass through the clouds to be exalted back to his Father? Or maybe there’s stories that are just uniquely compelling that we want to know more. What was that all about? Why did that event or that statement be made? One of those events is found in Acts chapter five. And I’d like to use that as our text this morning.

After the death of Ananias and Sapphira, we’re told of the mighty works that the apostles did that produced faith.

Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. And the believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by fall on some of them. And also the multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits. And they were healed.

Especially that statement that we have highlighted there that at least the shadow of Peter passing by fall on some of them. Are you like me and you want to know more about that? Did Peter’s shadow just the touch of his shadow upon these afflicted people? Did it affect a miracle? Were they healed by just his shadow alone? I think the text maybe indicates that that was not just the feeling that they had, but it actually happened. Verse 12 there said that through the apostles many signs and wonders were being done. Verse 16 concludes this story by saying, They, by the apostles’ hands, they were healed. As interesting as this miracle is, it’s not without some kind of precedent. Jesus could heal someone if they just touched the hem of his garment.

Later, Luke will tell us about Paul that aprons and handkerchiefs could be sent that had touched Paul, and if someone would come in contact with those pieces of garments, that they too could be healed. And so I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that there wasn’t a miracle. That just Peter’s shadow touching these people could heal them of their afflictions. You know, there’s a few things that we see in this story, brief as it is, but intriguing as it is. First of all, Peter cast a shadow, didn’t he? Can you imagine that those events of how this must have transpired of these sick people or the family members and friends of these sick people? Was someone sent out as a scout to find out when Peter was leaving and which way he was going that day?

Or did Peter always take the same route and they knew where he would be coming by, but maybe not what time of day he would be coming by. And depending upon the time of day would depend on which side of the street you needed to be on, wouldn’t it? Where the shadow the sun was and the shadow was being cast, and so maybe someone would say, Peter is coming, and they would look up in the sky and look at their shadow and make sure, okay, we’re at the right side of the street, or we need to scoot you a little closer to the street so that Peter’s shadow can touch you as you come by. And so one thing we know from this story is Peter that he cast a shadow.

Another thing that is evident in this story in Acts chapter 5 is that people were blessed by his shadow. That they received such a tremendous blessing just being touched by the shadow of Peter on this occasion. And then lastly, I can imagine, don’t you, that much like Jesus when the hem of his garment was touched, that Peter maybe had no idea who was touched by his shadow. How many people had been blessed and maybe even healed by Peter just passing by and touching them in his shadow.

Let’s think about this morning, our shadows. We all cast the shadow. People are going to be touched by our shadows. And as we’re going to see, many times we may have no idea who our shadow may touch. Now we do not possess the miraculous power as Peter did to be able to heal someone by our shadow. But the scriptures give us confidence that we can bless people by our shadow, by our influence, by being the type of people that God would have us to be, that people can be blessed by being touched by our shadow. That’s an humbling thought, isn’t it? That the tremendous power that the influence that we might have for good, hopefully, but sometimes unfortunately for bad, that people can be affected by the things that we do and by the shadow that we cast.

1. Like Peter, We All Cast a Shadow

So let’s think about our shadows this morning. Like Peter, we all cast the shadow. And sometimes a very long shadow. It would be frightening to know in reality how many people see us each day, hear us each day, and are affected either positively or negatively by what they see and hear. We would be absolutely mortified, wouldn’t we, if we knew just how much power we wield from the least of us to the greatest of us by our shadows, by our influence. We all cast the shadow. Jesus established that point. Remember in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus talked about, he didn’t talk about shadows, but he talked about light. Turn over to Matthew chapter 5. When our Lord talked about this same concept of the influence that we might have upon others.

When he said in these familiar words, Matthew chapter 5, verse 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Have you ever noticed that Jesus didn’t say, be a light? He said, You are a light. And so be a good one.

The city that is set upon a hill cannot be hidden. It’s going to be seen. And so he’s saying, you are a light. In other words, people are seeing you. People are influenced by what you do and say. And so his admonition was not go out and be a light, but to go out and be a good light. Verse 16 again, let your light so shine. He doesn’t say, let your light shine. Let your light so shine that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Jesus is saying, you’re putting off a light. You’re casting a shadow, to use our analogy. And so make it a good one. You are salt. But there’s two types of salt. There’s the worthless salt and there’s the good salt.

2. Our Shadows Can Bless Others

And so Jesus is not saying be salt. He’s saying be good salt. He’s not saying be light, be a good light. Be a good influence upon others. And so Jesus tells us that we all have an influence. We all cast a light. We all cast a shadow. And so let’s give thoughts to that shadow and make sure that it’s a good one. Peter understood the influence of that shadow. You remember these words in 1 Peter chapter 3? That our shadows are so powerful that they can, like Peter’s shadow, bless others. And we said that our shadow today, no one’s going to be healed miraculously by being touched by our shadow. Don’t think that diminishes your shadow as being less powerful than Peter’s. Because your shadow can do something more powerful than even healing someone of their physical ailments.

Look in 1 Peter 3, verse 1. Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that if even some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. This same Peter is saying, wives, you can cause a soul to be saved by your shadow. That when they see your good conduct and the reverent way in which you conduct yourself, that though they may not at this time being responding positively to the teaching, your shadow can save a soul. And who of us here has not been touched in such a way? Maybe you were led to Christ in that way by a spouse, by your wife, and on this day we certainly remember mothers who cast the shadow of great and tremendous influence upon us.

And maybe made us to a great extent what we are today. You remember, we won’t turn over there, but you’ll remember the familiar text in the book of Hebrews, chapters 10, chapter 10, verses 24 and 25, when he talks about assembling and not forsaking the assembling. Why? He says, so that you might consider one another to stir one another up into love and good works. What is he saying? He’s saying you need to be together so close that your shadows will touch one another, and that you can be positively affected by being together. And that’s an important issue to consider that though we live in such a tremendous digital world that we can reach out and talk to people miles away in so many ways of communicating and connecting with people that there is never going to be a substitute for being in close proximity to someone so that our shadow might touch them and we might be touched by their shadow.

3. We May Have No Idea Who Our Shadow Touches

We all cast a shadow. And like Peter, we need to recognize that we may have no idea who may be touched by our shadow. Look with me in the book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1. Paul will talk to the Thessalonian church about their shadow, their far-reaching shadow.

Let’s start in verse 6. Paul says to this group of Christians, and you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy with the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. Do you see what Paul is saying of this church? Everybody in Macedonia and Achaia know about your faith. And Paul, who had traveled everywhere, says, not just there, not just limited to the regions of Macedonia and Achaia, but everywhere. People know about you and your faith.

Now just imagine with me. This was a letter written to the church at Thessalonica. There would have been an assembly much like this, maybe on the Lord’s Day, when for the first time this letter was read to this group of Christians. Can you imagine the person reading this letter for the first time and telling those Christians, everybody knows about you? Macedonia and Achaia, everybody knows your faith. Not only there, throughout the world, people know who you are and what you stand for. Do you imagine their response would be, yeah, we knew that. That’s kind of what we were going for. We knew we were a big deal. Thanks for ready. I don’t see that being the condition at all. I imagine they were shocked by that.

What? Really? Us. Maybe I get Macedonia, people in Macedonia in it, but even neighboring Achaia, they knew about us. And did Paul really mean everywhere? Little old us. I imagine that’s closer to the reality that they had no idea how far their shadow had spread. Again, we won’t turn over to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, but it speaks of Abel and of his faith. That he being dead yet speaks. You think Abel knew his shadow would last centuries? And it would speak far beyond his death? No. He had no idea. We have no idea of the power of our influence and upon whom our shadow might be cast. I want to tell you a story that happened to us several years ago when we were living in the Birmingham area.

One of our members there at Penson and a good friend of ours actually played baseball for the Atlanta Braves. The best part about knowing somebody that plays baseball for the Atlanta Braves is they get you free tickets. And so we would take advantage of that very often. We’d go over to Atlanta and watch a baseball game. And many times we would go with either him or his wife or both of them and go out to eat and then go to the ballpark and watch the ball game. One evening we were doing that. We were in a restaurant in Atlanta, Deedra and I. And across the restaurant we saw what we thought was a familiar face. And I asked Deedra, I said, don’t we know that guy over there?

Is that James? Didn’t we go to Florida College with him? And she said, that kind of looks like him. So I just got up and I walked over there and I said, Is your name James? And he said, Ken. We hadn’t seen each other since college. And so we stood there and talked a little bit, and I asked him, I said, What are you doing in Atlanta? He said, Well, I live here now. My job took me here, and I told him what we were doing, that we were in the Birmingham area, that I was preaching. It was so good to see him. And we just kind of visited a little while, caught up for a little bit. And I said, Well, man, it’s been good to see you.

I hope to see you again sometime. Went back down, went back, sat down, ate her meal, went on our way, thought nothing more about it. About two weeks later, received a card from James. He had done a little research, found out the address of the church building, and had sent me a card. And in that card, he said, Ken, I want you to know that when you approached me that day in the restaurant, I had been away from the Lord for years. But he said, Since our conversation, I wanted you to know that I’ve made things right. I made a confession, and last Sunday I went forward, and I’m going to try to be faithful. I showed that card to Deedra, and she said, What did you say to him?

And I said, I have no idea. I didn’t know that he had been away from the Lord, and so I didn’t say anything necessarily compelling about him coming back and being faithful and being restored. I didn’t know any of it. We just talked about college days and where he had been and what I was doing. I had no idea. You have no idea of two things. You have no idea of the people that you come in contact on a daily basis, you have no idea what they’re going through in their lives. And you have no idea how you may affect their lives in hopefully a positive way. That like Peter walking down that street, didn’t know who his shadow touched.

4. Sometimes a Good Shadow, Sometimes a Bad Shadow

Sadly, when it comes to our shadows, there’s another fact that we must consider, and that is that sometimes we may cast a good shadow. But sometimes it may be a bad shadow. We talked about Peter’s shadow. Let’s think about the shadow of his influence. Sometimes Peter cast a good shadow, didn’t he? I think about the events in Acts chapter 10 and 11, the conversion of Cornelius. And after the conversion of Cornelius, Peter, because of the big shadow that he cast, was perfectly handpicked to be the one to preach the first gospel sermon to the Gentiles, to lead the first Gentiles to Christ, because he could cast such a shadow upon his Jewish brethren. And he did. It says in Acts chapter 11 that when he came back, and those Jewish Christians were questioning this, and they were troubled and disturbed by it.

But when Peter says, here’s what happened by the Lord, it says, after Peter spoke, they shut up and said, This is the Lord’s will. What a shadow he cast on that day. But what about years later? When Paul had to confront him to his face, because he was now casting a bad shadow. You remember in Galatians chapter 2 what Paul says of this same man who cast such a good shadow in leading these Gentiles to Christ and causing the Jews to accept Gentiles who are now in Christ. Look how his shadow has changed. Galatians 2, verse 11. Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. You see, Paul wasn’t just concerned with the actions of Peter, though by themselves were wrong. Paul was so disturbed because of the shadow that Peter was casting. The rest of the Jews and even Barnabas had been touched by his shadow and were now following that hypocritical path with him. And so Peter cast a good shadow. But he could also pass a bad one. Jesus warned us of that, didn’t he? He said, offenses will come, but woe to you by whom those offenses do come. And if any of you cause one of these little ones who would follow me to stumble, it would be better if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were cast.

In other words, Jesus was saying, don’t cast a bad shadow. Because it might cost someone their soul. And therefore you yours. But the Bible also tells us we can cast a good shadow. Look in Philippians chapter 2. Sometimes we decry, and rightly so, that we live in such a wicked society and ungodless world. But there’s a blessing that can be found in that, an opportunity that can be found for us. And Paul highlights that in Philippians chapter 2. Look what he says in verse 15. That you, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. The darker this world gets, the brighter our light can shine so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

You can cast a good shadow. But if we’re not careful, we’ll cast a bad one.

Conclusion

Let’s all give thought to our shadows. Let’s do two things this day. First of all, I want you to think about the shadows that have touched you.

Thank him for all the wonderful good shadows that have touched you, that influenced you for the good.

I think of Bible class teachers that I had that taught me. That made me memorize those scriptures. That taught me respect for the Word of God and for God Himself. I think of Bible class teachers that scolded me and corrected me when I needed it. I think of other Christians who supported me and applauded me and encouraged me to do what was right. I think of gospel preachers who took me under their wing and encouraged me and made sure that I was walking the right path and teaching the right message and showed real concern in me and my preaching. I think about those shadows that touched me. And I’d be cold hearted if on this Mother’s Day if I didn’t think about my parents, my mother, and the wonderful shadow they cast.

And like Abel, though being dead, they still speak. Their shadow is still influencing me today. And so thank God for the shadows in your life. But then secondly, give thought, real thought about your shadow. That as you’re walking down the street every day of your life, that you’re casting a shadow. Sometimes a long one. And you may have no idea who’s being touched by that shadow. Be a blessing to someone today. Be a good shadow. And strive with everything that is within you to withrain from sin, from ugliness, bitterness, so that you never cast a bad shadow.

Are you a Christian this morning? If you’re not, I want you to look around you at this audience and all the shadows that are encouraging you to become a child of God this morning. I know it’s awkward and maybe intimidating to step out into the aisle and walk forward in front of a group of people and then to make a public confession and to be seen by everyone to be immersed into a watery baptism. But I want you to know that this room is full of shadows that would do nothing but love you and support you and applaud you for your faith. Maybe you’ve become a Christian in the past, but you’re kind of ashamed to think of the shadows that you’ve been casting recently. And maybe you know that you need to do better.

And maybe you need to pray to God this morning that he forgive you of those bad shadows and give you opportunity and light to cast better shadows. But maybe you need the prayers. Maybe you need to make a confession of that sin to these good brethren here this morning. If if we can help you in any spiritual way, let it be known right now as together we stand and as we sing.