CHRISTMAS LIGHT
You may be wondering, "why is he doing a Christmas sermon after Christmas"? Well, if Lights on the Lake can still be going after Christmas then why not have a Christmas sermon after Christmas? Many people enjoy keeping their Christmas lights on until New Year's Day. As you can see, we follow that tradition here at Cornerstone since our lights are still a glow after Christmas. So it seems appropriate that the after Christmas sermon would be about light. However, as pretty as Christmas lights are, they are no match for the Christmas light.
1) The differences between Christmas lights and the Christmas light.
First, there are some similarities between the two. They both draw attention. Lights on the Lake draws a pretty decent crowd during the holidays. And who doesn't enjoy a car ride to see how people have decorated their property? From the smallest display to the grandest, it all draws our attention. The light of Christ draws attention too. Even though some of it is negative attention, there's no escaping it. The light of Christ gets noticed.
Another similarity is that both bring enjoyment. Seeing the lighted Christmas tree in our living room brings feelings of happiness and warmth. It brings pleasure to see a well-done tree or light display. It's one of the things we look forward to during the holiday time. The light of Christ is no different. It brings joy and pleasure. When the light of Christ fills us up it brings a smile to our face and it warms our hearts.
And both lights illuminate. They both shine, they both pierce the darkness. However, none of the similarities are equal in their ability-Christmas lights will always fall short of being able to do what the light of Christ does. Even if your house looks like Clark Griswold's it still can't come close to the luminescence that comes from the light of Christ.
And there are some things the Christmas lights just cannot do that the light of Christ can. Christmas lights last only for a season. The Christmas lights typically go off and come down around the beginning of the new year. But the light of Christ burns bright all year long through his people shining that bright light.
Christmas lights fade but the light of Christ stays strong. Explain how after having a set of blue lights for a number of years and then buying a new strand how much different they look. After time the color fades. But the light of Christ within us shouldn't fade; in fact, it should increase.
2nd Cor. 3:16-18, "But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
We who have been born again now have the ability, since we have the Spirit of Christ living in us, to be able to not only reflect the Lord's glory but to have it increase. The more we grow in Christ the brighter the light is reflected from us. The more we grow the more it shows.
Christmas lights are temporary but the light of Christ is eternal. Christmas lights are only for a season but the light of Christ is ever-present. Christmas lights break and go out and need to be replaced but the light of Christ is indestructible. Christmas lights are created; they're man made. But the light of Christ is not something that was made it has always been. It was there from the beginning.
John 1:1-5, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."
The light has existed forever but it wasn't seen as up close and personal until Jesus came into the world. Jesus is the light of the world, he is the light of mankind. He came to shine that pure light into the world, into men's hearts so they would come out of the darkness and into that wonderful, eternal light.
Christmas lights are artificial but the light of Christ is real. There is real light and then there's artificial light. The sun would be a real light, lightning would be a real light because they're not man made. Anything man made is considered an artificial light source. Spiritually speaking, this works too. John 1:9 and 1st John 2:8 calls Jesus the true light. If Jesus is the true light then there must be a false light. That is Satan. There is no light in him but he and his workers can present themselves as such.
2nd Cor. 11:13-15, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve."
Satan is pretty tricky. He can make things look like they are right and true. He can appear as if he is the bringer of light. He can present himself in a certain way that draws us in and appeals to us. He makes things look like they are beneficial and good but they are only an appearance of things. He presents a false light.
The light of Satan is an artificial light but the light of Jesus is the real thing. If we know what to look for we can expose Satan's false light; it will reveal itself for what it is if we hold it up to the light of God's word like Jesus did in Matthew 4 when he was tempted by Satan in the desert.
2) Walking in darkness.
Jesus said of himself in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in darkness." Until we come to Christ we are walking in darkness-spiritually speaking. We know what it's like to literally walk in the darkness. It can be scary. If you're walking in a bad neighborhood at night you can be quite nervous.
Why? Because you know that certain people come out at night and certain things are more prominent at night. Not that nothing bad happens during the day but we well know that the nighttime is the most dangerous time of day.
Plus, at night we don't see as well. It's much easier to hide in the darkness and therefore, we who are walking can't see those who are lying in wait. But even if someone wasn't waiting to attack us we are still vulnerable to bumping into things and tripping over things. [story of being at church camp running and catching a clothesline in the forehead.]
Walking, or in my case-running, in the dark can be dangerous. But what is it like to spiritually walk in darkness? It is walking in blindness. 2nd Cor. 4:4 says that Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. We're in the dark but we don't realize it. So when the light of Christ comes we don't recognize it for what it is.
This verse obviously doesn't mean we are hopeless, otherwise no one would come to Christ. It explains the unfortunate reality. When we are walking in spiritual darkness we are don't see the truth; we are unable to see the reality of things from their spiritual perspective. And therefore, we are vulnerable to spiritual attack.
The light is a foreign substance-it's not normal to us. When all we've known is darkness we don't realize the severity of it. John 1:5-but the darkness has not understood it. We don't realize the severity of darkness until the light of Christ exposes it. But, even when the contrast becomes more real we can still avoid the light because we know what the light will do if we dare venture into it.
A woman from Afghanistan once explained to a foreign correspondent the reason some Afghan women still wear burqas-the full body coverings once mandated by the Taliban-even though they don't like them and are no longer forced to wear them. She said, "We have lived in darkness for so long we are now afraid of the light." They were so used to living in darkness that the light scares them.
That's how many people live spiritually. They have lived in the darkness so long they are afraid of the light. Spiritually speaking, that is the reality for us. It's ironic. In the physical world people are typically afraid of the dark but in the spiritual world many people are afraid of the light.
John 3:19-20, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."
Again, Satan blinds our eyes so that we make the darkness something to love and the light something to hate. So, we cherish the darkness because we can do our evil deeds under the cover of it. Job highlighted this reality.
Job 24:13-17, “There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths. When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up and kills the poor and needy; in the night he steals forth like a thief. The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he keeps his face concealed. In the dark, men break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light. For all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness."
This is the sad reality. But we were once like this. We came alive at night. Whether or not we were breaking the law we were still doing our deeds under the cover of darkness. The party started late and ended in the wee hours. And then sometimes we were sneaky; trying to hide what we were doing. And the darkness was a good cover for that too.
Although people try to hide their deeds, nothing is hidden from God. Heb. 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Whether or not we actually get caught, God already knows. We might think we're getting away with something but we don't realize that God sees all and we are really getting away with nothing. Our hidden sins will find us out and we will have to pay the price for them. And we'll have to answer to God.
3) Seeing the light.
Ecc. 2:13, "I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness." We might look at that and think, 'well, duh; of course wisdom is better than folly and light better than darkness'. Okay, then, so why did we stay in the darkness so long?
Not too many of us thought ourselves to be fools when we were in the darkness. Quite the opposite; we were the smart ones-the ones who were living for Christ were the fools. We were having fun; we were enjoying ourselves. The foolish ones were going to church on Sunday while we got to sleep in (or sleep it off, whichever the case was).
So if what Solomon said in Ecc. is so obvious to us now, what was the problem; how could we have been so foolish? One reason is we were deceived into thinking the opposite was true. Isa. 5:20-22, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks."
Here Isaiah presents a series of "woes". This is what we do when we were part of the darkness-we were calling evil good and good evil. We embraced what was bad and rejected what was right. We boasted about being the ones who could drink everyone else under the table. We wore the badge of party animal with pride.
This is backwards; this is darkness mentality. But fortunately, we came to where we saw the light. We found Jesus, who said, those who follow me will never walk in darkness. We came to realize the foolishness of our dark way of living.
Rom. 6:17-22, "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."
Paul said, 'what benefit did you reap from the things you are now ashamed of'. While we were walking in darkness we weren't ashamed. We didn't realize those things resulted in death. But now, after having come to Christ, we see the contrast and we realize the folly of the things we once did. As a result, we now offer ourselves to do the things that are pure and holy. We shine the light.
4) Shining the light.
When Paul was recounting his conversion to King Agrippa, he said in Acts 26:12-18, "On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.
We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.
I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’"
Paul, who was then Saul, a man walking in darkness, opposed to the light of Christ, encountered the risen Christ. He was knocked to the ground (but not from a clothesline) and saw the light. Now, he was commissioned to open the eyes of others the way his eyes had been opened.
God's mission for Paul was to preach the good news to spiritually open people's eyes so that they would no longer be blind-so they would no longer be deceived-so they would be able to see clearly who Jesus is and what he came to do for them.
That's what we who have seen the light are doing as we go out and share the message of salvation through Christ. That's what we're doing when we share our story of how we were blind but now we see. And because we now see, we have a responsibility to those who are in the darkness like we were.
Matt. 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
Jesus is telling us to not hide the light that exists in us. It is unloving to prevent others from being exposed to the light as we were. Do we want others to come out of the darkness? Do we want others to see the light? Then we need to get busy sharing the gospel and performing the deeds that are consistent with children of the light.
Eph. 5:8-14, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
We are spiritually telling people to wake up. We are telling them to rise from the dead and walk out of the darkness. We're exposing the darkness for what it is. We passionately share what Christ has done for us. And we rejoice with those who are willing to listen to us.
Cave Dwellers, by Max Lucado. "There was once a tribe of people in a dark, cold cave. The cave dwellers would huddle together and cry against the chill. Loud and long they wailed. The sounds were mournful but the people didn't realize it because it was all they knew. The spirit in the cave was death but they didn't realize it because it was all they knew.
But then one day a different voice was heard. "I hear your cries", it announced. "I have felt your chill and seen your darkness and have come to help." The cave people grew quiet. It was all strange to them. "How can we know you can help us?" "Trust me", he answered, "I have what you need." The cave people peered through the darkness at the figure of the stranger. He was stacking something. "What are you doing?" the concerned voice rang out. The stranger didn't respond. "What are you making?" another shouted nervously.
The visitor stood and turned toward the voices. "Here is what you need." Then he lit the wood at his feet. Flames erupted and light filled the cavern. The people shrieked and turned away in fear. "Put it out! It hurts to see it!" They cried. "Don't worry, the pain is only temporary. Step closer, you'll see." "Not me," shouted one. "Me neither," another agreed. "Only a fool would expose himself to that." The stranger stood next to the fire. "You would prefer the darkness? You prefer the cold? Don't consult your fears. Take a step of faith." For a long time no one spoke. The people hovered in groups covering their eyes.
"It's warm here," the fire builder invited. "He's right," someone said as they removed themselves from the shadows. The stranger turned to see a young lady take the risk by slowly steeping toward the fire. "I can open my eyes now," she said. "I can see," she said excitedly. "Come closer," the fire builder coaxed. She stepped into the ring of light. "It's so warm," she said as she extended her arms out in front of her.
"Be quiet, woman!" cried one of the dwellers. "Dare you lead us into your folly. Leave us! Go away and take that fire with you." Some others expressed their agreement. "Why won't they come," she asked the stranger. "They choose the chill. Although it's cold; it's all they know. They would rather be cold than change." "And live in the dark," she questioned. "Yes, and live in the dark," the stranger answered sadly.
The now warm woman stood in silence. She peered into the dark and then back at the man. "Will you leave the fire?" he asked. She paused before answering, "No; I can't bear the cold. But nor can I bear the thought of my people staying in darkness." "You don't have to," he said as he reached into the fire and removed a burning stick. "Carry this to your people. Tell them the light is here for anyone who desires it. Show them its warmth and brightness." She took the small flame and stepped into the darkness."
