Advent 2019 (Pt. 2)
Text: Isaiah 9:2-7
Well, this is the second Sunday of Advent, and again I’m going to have you all open your Bibles to Isaiah 9:2-7, and we’re going to read this passage that we read last week… And as you’re turning there, let me just remind you that last time we talked about how the world is in darkness because of sin. And I said to you all that our only hope is Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. He is the only One who can drive out the darkness that’s in the world, and the darkness that’s in the heart of sinful man. So let’s look at Isaiah together, (READ Isaiah 9:2-7).
Now hold your place there in Isiah, and turn to John 8:12 (READ).
So what does the Bible mean when it says that the people have seen a great light, and on them a light has shone? What did Jesus mean when He said He is the Light of the world, and whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness? Well let’s just think about the nature and purpose of light for a second… In just the natural world, light brings life. Think about it… if planet earth had no sun, there would be no life here. Every living thing on this planet depends on the sun’s light… so light brings life. In-fact; that’s what John tells us in his Gospel account. In John 1:3-4 he says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” And of course John is speaking about Jesus here. He’s saying that Jesus is the same God who created all things – all things were made by Him, and for Him. And in Him is light, which brings life to all that it shines on. So that’s saying that Jesus Christ, the same God who created all things, also brings light into darkness… in-fact; He is the light that shines into the darkness. And with that light, comes life.
Turn with me over to 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 and let me show you how the Apostle Paul puts it (READ 2 Cor. 4:3-6).
So you notice Paul starts off by saying “If the Gospel is veiled, it’s veiled to those who are perishing…” In other words, those who are dead… spiritually dead people don’t have the light of the Gospel… remember; we talked about this last week, how the world is walking around in darkness, unable, and unwilling to find their way out of that darkness. But… (verse 6), The same God who said “Let there be light”, or “Let light shine out of darkness” has now “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The only way to get out of the darkness… and to get the darkness out of us – is to have the light of Jesus Christ shine in our hearts, so that we can come to the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! And if you don’t have that light, then you won’t have life, and you’ll never find your way out of the darkness on your own…
That’s why Jesus says, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.”
And that brings us to another purpose of light… it reveals things, and there’s at least two ways it does that. It can show us what we can’t see, and it can show us what we don’t want to see. You know… there’s a strange phenomenon that takes place at our house. Every so often, the TV remote goes missing. And you know… now that I think about it, that hasn’t happened once since our girls have been off to college… but that’s beside the point. When it would go missing, one place that I’d often look for it would be under either our couch or one of our chairs. But the thing is, you can’t see under them very well unless you have a light. And so I’d get a flashlight, and shine it under the couch or chairs, and sure enough, there would be the remote… I couldn’t see it without the light. But at the same time, when I shine the light under the couch, I sometimes see things I didn’t want to see… things like dust bunnies, or lent, or candy wrappers that didn’t make it to the trash, and sometimes even the occasional spider. So light reveals things that are hidden… things that are hidden from us, because of the darkness that’s all around us, and things that are hidden BY US because of the darkness in man’s soul.
Turn with me to John 3:19-21 (READ).
So a lot of times, people don’t like the light of Christ… the light of God’s Word… the light of the Gospel… they don’t like it pointed at them because it exposes them. It convicts them, and it forces us to deal with things in ourselves. And if we’re being honest, it can sometimes show things that we don’t want to see about ourselves… and things we don’t want the world to see in us. We tend to wear masks… “Oh look how spiritual I am.” “Look how put together I am.” “Look how righteous I am.”… No… you’re not. None of us are. We all need that light to shine in our hearts, to shine in the corners and cracks, and crevasses to drive out the darkness that hangs on in there.
The Apostle Paul addresses this in Romans 7:15-25… I’ll just paraphrase it for you.
He says there are times in his life when he does what he doesn’t want to do… and there are times when he doesn’t do what he knows he should do… in other words, he gives in to temptation and sins. And he basically says that his old sin nature is still hanging on… he says, that he delights in the Law of God in his inner being – that’s his new Christ-like nature, which every Christian is given when we’re born again, but in his members (that’s his old sin nature) there’s another law waging war against this new nature. And he goes on and says that the battle is in the mind… Which “Law” will he obey? Which nature will he follow? Church; this is the battle every Christian faces. John says if you say you have no sin, you’re a liar and the truth is not in you… So we face this battle… and the Bible tells us we’re to fight it daily. Not just on Sunday. That’s why the Bible says things like “Crucify your flesh” – that’s your old sin nature. It says that we are supposed to “die daily”. EVERY DAY we’re to put that old sin nature to death… and we do that with the light of God’s Word. The light of the Gospel. We renew our minds through the reading and hearing of God’s Word.
We take captive of every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
So yes that light might shine on something that embarrasses us, it might convict us… it might expose some secret sin, but it’s a good thing when that happens! It’s good when God leads us to repent, and turn away from the sins that ensnare us, and trip us up. It’s good when God shines His light on us, because it helps us get rid of that darkness, and not walk in darkness. The Lord chastens those He loves. So if you’re not being chastened when you sin, you’re in big touble! And it’s not like God is out to get us… It’s not like He’s just waiting to expose our sin to the world. That’s not what’s going on there… it’s just – this is what LIGHT does. It can’t – NOT drive out darkness. I mean… we could say it’s just the nature of light to do that.
But also… light helps us to see more clearly. It helps us to see where we need to go, and the best path to take.
In Psalm 36:9 David says that it’s in God’s light that we are able to see light. Look at what he says, “For with You is the fountain of LIFE…” So there’s the life we’re talking about… and he goes on and says, “In Your light, do we see light.” In other words, it’s only by the light of Christ that we can see any truth. It’s only by the light of Christ, shining in our hearts and our minds, that we’re capable of understanding the truth. C.S. Lewis said it a lot better than I ever could. He was challenged by some of his fellow professors at Oxford University, and they basically attacked him for being a Christian, and accused him of being ridiculous for believing in a God that couldn’t be observed by science. Here’s what he said to them, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.” So just think about this with me for a second… In our world today; there’s a big push to stop and prevent bullying… Now granted, I think that a lot of what gets labeled as “bullying” isn’t actually bullying, it’s just part of growing up… but real bullying is NOT a good thing. It’s not good to physically, mentally, or emotionally dominate and abuse someone just because they are weaker than you, or because they are different than you are. But where do we get this idea that it’s wrong? We don’t get it from observing nature. Dogs, horses, deer, apes, lions, tigers, and bears… they all do that… the more dominant animal will attack and sometimes even kill the weaker or injured animals. Even if they are the same species.
So we don’t get this concept or idea from scientific observation. It comes from somewhere else. What about monogamy in relationships? I’m not saying that it always happens, but it’s an ideal, its a value that we strive for and that we uphold and believe in.
But we don’t get that from observing nature. There are very few animal species that are monogamous. In-fact; in most species, the dominate male attempts to dominate as many females as possible. So these values are not from scientific observation… they come from having a Biblical worldview. They come from the light of God’s Word. And it’s only in His light, that we are even able to see any light. So all basic human rights have no leg to stand on without a Biblical worldview, and without Biblical morality, and ethics. In-other-words, without the light of Christ, we’d all be in darkness. So when kids get saturated in darkness with lies that they evolved from some lower life-form it’s no wonder they shoot up schools, and sleep around, and get hooked on drugs, and commit suicide. It’s no wonder they get confused about gender, and abortion, and what’s right and wrong. And when you have generation after generation that has been lost in darkness, and saturated in darkness… and told that darkness is actually light, which is what ALL worldly education, and philosophy, and teaching is… just more darkness… It’s no wonder that they think it’s ok to murder babies. It’s no wonder that they think it’s ok for men to marry men, and women to marry women, and 8 year olds to get gender reassignment surgery. And when you have two or three generations who have become accustomed to the darkness, and confused in the darkness… they don’t like that light.
When MJ was working in Beaver, she would have to get up super early in the morning… like around 4:00 AM… and sometimes she would have to grab something out of our bedroom closet, and in order to do that, she’d flip the light on. Well the problem with that is, I would be sleeping, and I would be accustomed to the darkness in our room, and when that light turned on, I didn’t like it. Usually I’d grunt and growl, and huff and puff, and roll over. You can try this out for yourselves… if you have a teenager… just flip the light on in their room at 5:00 AM and see how well they take it. The thing is – Jesus is kind of like that – spiritually speaking. When He comes, He shines a light in the darkness.
Church; that’s what Christmas is – it’s God turning the Light on…
It’s God saying, “Wake up O sleeper.” It’s God saying, “Come out of the darkness.” When the angels appeared before the Shepherds that first Christmas morning and said, “For unto you is born on this day, in the City of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That was God saying, “This world is in darkness, and people are in darkness…” God was saying, “They need a Savior!” And it’s true; at first that Light might hurt your eyes… and it might expose some things that are hidden. But we all desperately need it. We need it to drive out the darkness in us – which is what we call salvation… and we continually need it every day to drive out the darkness that’s all around us – which is what we call sanctification. We need it to show us the right path to take, and to show us what is right, and true, and good.
CLOSING
