Isaiah 9:2,6 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Today we are kicking off a series focused on the Most Wonderful Time of the Year- Christmas time. In our house we have a sign that reads, “May the peace of Christmas fill your hearts and homes all year long.” As followers of Christ, that should absolutely be the case. We know that, long after the decorations are taken down and the gifts have been opened and we’ve eaten more food than any person really should, the light of Christ remains. Jesus can’t be contained to just a holiday or even a season. He’s so much more than all of our traditions and fanfare.
That being said, I still love the Christmas season because it brings a time of reflection and pause. It brings the focus back to what’s really important and causes hearts to open up to the message of the Gospel and the hope and light that the Gospel alone brings. Songs proclaiming the birth of our Savior can be heard at schools, community events and on almost every radio station. Sprinkled among the grandiose light displays, a manger scene is not considered out of the ordinary. And at the top of every manger you will almost always find a star, to represent the star that the three wise men followed to find Jesus. Even in the commercialism of the United States and other parts of the world, the light of Jesus still shines through Christmas.
Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing “Christmas Is …” and the title of today’s message is, “Christmas is Light”.
Often, we take the Christmas story for granted. We have heard it so many times that we can fail to understand how truly amazing it is. Prophecy given through Isaiah almost 800 years prior to his birth, foretold the coming of Christ. Through the years of darkness for the people of Israel that followed, God’s plan to bring the Light of Christ into the world was taking shape. That Light that appeared in the form of a baby over 2000 years ago, still offers comfort, power, eternal life and peace to you and me today.
Waiting in the Dark
In order to truly appreciate the sovereignty of God reflected in the birth of Jesus, I want to give you a glimpse into the world that Jesus was born into.
Prior to Jesus’ birth, there were, what many refer to as “400 Years of Silence”. After the prophet Malachi until John the Baptist appeared in Matthew, there was a time span of 400 years with no prophets and no new revelation or words from God to the people of Israel.
If any of you have ever experienced a time of waiting to hear from God, you may have a glimpse of just how dark it felt for the nation of Israel, by the time Christ arrived in the world.
Leading up to the Book of Malachi, the Assyrians and Babylonians emptied the land and carried the Israelites into exile. The Persians then allowed a remnant to return. After the Persians were defeated by Alexander, the Greeks invaded Palestine. They brought their culture and language. The effect of the Greeks on the nation of Israel was long lasting, so much so, that the New Testament was written in Greek. Greek influence created a moral and spiritual crisis for the Jewish people. After Alexander’s rule ended, the Jewish people were ruled by Ptolemies from Egypt and then a harsh ruler, Antiochus under the King of Syria, took over. He forced the Jewish people into slavery, banned practicing of Jewish faith and forced pagan religion and set up an altar to Zeus in the temple courts. When this occurred, some of the Jewish people rebelled and eventually defeated the Syrian army, destroyed the statue of Zeus and rededicated the Jewish Temple. (side note, The dates of Hanukkah and Christmas are somewhat associated with 25 Kislev-the month about the same as December b/c of the rededication of the temple and the early church chose 12/25 to take away the birthday of Greek god Zeus/Roman god Jupiter.) After the Rebellion, the Jewish people experienced a brief time of self-rule, until division among them led to a civil war between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. A Roman general, Pompey arrived and helped the Pharisees defeat the Sadducees in Jerusalem. Then, Rome helped itself to land of Israel, incorporating it into the Roman Empire. As we know, Jesus was born at the time when Caesar Augustus issued the decree for a census.
These were dark times for Israel. Have any of you experience something similar? You were certain you heard a promise from God, but weeks, months or maybe even years go by and it’s still unfulfilled. And not only that, but while you’re waiting you feel like all of hell is against you? But God has a plan had a plan for Israel. He had promised them an Anointed One would come.
However, what they did while they waited before Christ appeared, revealed a lot about who they were and prepared them for his coming.
What are you doing while you wait?
Our actions in dark times say a lot about what we have faith in.
We can profess to be believers and children of God, but it’s through our actions that we reveal where our faith is.
Do we start to grasp for anything that looks like an answer?
Do you find yourself considering texting that person that you haven’t talked to in a while, but you know will be on “your side”. Or maybe turning to an old habit that you let go a longtime ago, because it’s an easy “fix”?
Carry Underwood has a song called “Smoke Break”
When you never taking nothing and doing nothing but giving
It's hard to be a good wife and a good mom and a good Christian
She said, I don't drink
But sometimes I need a stiff drink
Sipping from a high, full glass
Let the world fade away
She said, I don't smoke
But sometimes I need a long drag
Yeah, I know it might sound bad
But sometimes I need a smoke break
What you take hold of in the dark times, says a lot about what really has a hold on you.
Before Jesus’ birth, many Jews began to embrace the Greek culture. They began to talk, act and believe like the Greeks. It seemed that they had forgotten the promise.
Others began to take matters into their own hands, attempting to preserve the Jewish faith by heaping more and more rules onto people in order for them to be deemed worthy of God.
Don’t we do the same thing today? When we feel like we are losing control, in the church, in our marriage, with our kids, at our jobs, we tighten everything down. We assert our authority in our own power and we end up making it worse. It’s because trying to find our own way out without any sense of where we should go rarely gets us to the right destination.
Every year it seems that there is a news story about someone who got off route in a blizzard and was stranded. Highway departments issue many advisories to educate drivers. If you get stranded, don’t leave your vehicle. Try to conserve gas and energy and wait for someone to find you. The stories that typically end with loss of life are when the stranded motorist attempts to make their way through blinding conditions to find help. They often get lost, disoriented and die from exposure. Physical, emotional, mental and spiritual darkness can make us go into panic mode. We forget what we know and we start to allow the fear of the circumstances to direct us, instead of the promises of God.
The best reaction in darkness is to stand our ground and look for the Light and when you don’t know what to do, just keeping doing what you know is right.
What is God doing?
In the midst of dark times, God’s silence does not signify his absence.
Approximately 500 years before the birth of Christ, the angel, Gabriel revealed this prophecy to Daniel 9:24-27 24 “A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One-comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times.
God warned the people of Israel that hard times were coming. He shared this, so they wouldn’t be alarmed or overcome by the darkness. The 400 years between the Old and New Testaments wasn’t a setback, it was a set up for the Light of Christ to take center stage!
Galatians 4:4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.
God was just allowing everything to unfold for Jesus to be born at the right time.
God’s Right time rarely looks like our Right time would look like.
If I was a Jewish person, I would have thought the right time was before other nations had a chance to influence the children of God. Before the temple had been desecrated, before the nation was mistreated and divided. The right time, in my eyes, happens right before things go bad! But if we’re honest, we have to admit that when things are easy, we stop looking to God and we start looking to ourselves for answers.
If we look closely at the book of Malachi, we see that prior to the period of darkness, the Jewish people were taking a casual approach to God. The temple had been rebuilt and everything was back to a sense of ease. The priests had left God’s paths, the men were mistreating their wives, and they were cheating God. The lack of opposition and increased easiness of life caused them to get their focus off of God.
Denzel Washington gave a speech to the NAACP this year and in that speech he said that “Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship is.”
We don’t like hardship, but God uses hardships to point us back to Him.
Have you ever wondered where the stars go during the days? They don’t go anywhere. But, because the sun is about 10 billion times brighter than the brightest star, we don’t see them. Just as stars shine bright in the night sky, in the midst of darkness in our world, the light of Christ is more obvious and contrasting, the darker the world becomes.
At the time of Jesus’ birth, Jews were worn down by the rule of so many nations, who were trying to eradicate their identity. They were anticipating the Messiah, and were hungry for His coming. In addition to this, Greek influence on culture, had created a more common language throughout the empire, making it easier to communicate the gospel and Romans had unified much of the world, making travel safer, allowing Christians to spread the gospel.
It was the right time and Jesus was about to show up!
When the Light Breaks Through
Matthew 2:2-10 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel’ Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them, “God to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!” After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!
When the darkness seemed unending, a light, THE Light broke on the Horizon. A star shown in the sky that led to the Savior, not just of the Jewish people, but of the World and the world took notice.
The wise men were not followers of the law. They were likely Persian astrologers who noticed something supernatural in the heavens and understood what it meant! King Herod noticed and his response was one of fear for his throne.
In the midst of cultural darkness, God sent his Son to a physically dark place, in a dirty stable to enter the world.
Many comparisons can be made between the light of Christ and physical light.
Light can cause us to recoil, if we aren’t ready for it and it reveals hidden things, but it’s also attracts.
Have you ever been sleeping in a dark room and had someone abruptly turn on the light? How did you react? Squint, pull the cover over your head, yell, “Shut the light off!”?
Light is invasive and if you aren’t ready for it you avoid it. Jon pointed out to me, in our conversation, darkness is really only good for sleeping or hiding. If you aren’t ready to wake up or to be found, you are going to continue to avoid the light.
John 3:19-20 God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.
That scripture is a thermometer to reveal where you are, spiritually. If you’re a believer, actively sharing your faith, then it is an explanation of why you may be experiencing rejection.
If you reflect Christ in the darkness, don’t be surprised when those who are in darkness recoil when you are around them.
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.
Light attracts!
Does anyone like to drive around and look at Christmas lights? I love it. Sometimes we will go over to East Peoria to see the Festival of Lights and you can catch a glimpse of them when you come over the bridge, miles before you are actually there. They just shine above the city.
In the same way, as much as our culture continues to try to bury the Gospel, the Gospel will continue to shine through.
John 1:4-5 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
I have to admit that when I read that verse in the past, I always assumed that the darkness could never extinguish the light because the light, God’s light, is too powerful. And that’s true, but there’s something that just as effective in Christ’s ability to overcome darkness and that is His Attractiveness.
Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Wonderful Counselor. We can trust Christ to listen to our problems and guides us in the right direction.
Mighty God. Christ has power, force, strength and influence to fight battles and changes things that only he can do.
Everlasting Father. Because he is like a father, he loves and cares for his people. Because he owns eternity, he can give us eternal life.
Prince of Peace. The One who is the leader of peace and offers it to others.
Throughout His life, Christ healed the sick, defended the oppressed and spoke truth and love everywhere he went. Ultimately, at the right time, He sacrificed His life for all of humanity, preparing the way for his Light to reside in each of us.
Christ attracted people while he walked this earth and he continues to attract people today. Like the morning after a night filled with bad dreams, when we awake to the Light that Christ brings to our hearts, we are renewed.
True hope is found in Him alone. Matthew 12:20 And his name will be the hope of all the world.
He is the giver of eternal life. Acts 4:12 NLT There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
I know amidst the culture we live in, where darkness seems to be closing in, we may be tempted to keep our faith to ourselves. Maybe out of fear of rejection or discouragement that we are only 1 person and can’t make a difference. But nothing can be further from the truth.
Matthew 5:14-16 NLT 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.
The Light that came into the world through the birth of Jesus, has been birthed in the heart of every believer. And He still offers comfort, power, eternal life and peace to you and me today.
If you are in this room today and have never fully understood who Jesus is or why He came, I pray that He has spoken to you today. He came to show you love in a way you have never known before. He offers peace and hope to each every person who will accept Him as their Savior.
Will you allow the light of Christ to penetrate your heart, to push through the darkness, even in the hidden places that you have kept covered? If so, I am going to say a prayer for you today.
Maybe, you have grown casual toward the things of God and have lost the wonder you once had for Christ. Or perhaps, you find it hard to be that city on a hill and God is speaking to you today. If you want him to restore that passion and light to you once again, I would like to pray for you, too.
