Christmas Week 3
** Video picks up around 3:00 **
Merry Christmas! What a great morning we’ve had together. I love what the Lord is doing here, the community that he’s building, the depth of relationships, the care for one another. It’s a beautiful picture of Christian community.
Has anyone ever been somewhere that is pitch black? Like, the complete absence of light. A few years back we went to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, and at one point the tour guide told everyone to shut off cell phones. She then proceeded to turn off the lights in the cave, and told us to put our hand right in front of our face. Even millimeters away, I couldn’t see anything. But, one small tiny spec of light would have allowed me to make out even a faint shadow. We get this experience everytime we walk out of the movie theater on a sunny day. We’ve all done it. You exit the theater and shield your eyes, squinting. Why? Because when we grow accustomed to the darkness, when light bursts through it’s overwhelming, it’s intense, it’s blinding.
This is what happened 2,000 years ago…
The metaphor of darkness is used all throughout Scripture to refer to the spiritual state of humanity apart from God:
Acts 26:18 - “To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God…”
Ephesians 5:8 - “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”
Colossians 1:13 - “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”
It doesn’t take much to realize that our world is still plagued by darkness:
Global conflicts rage. The mental health epidemic continues to get worse. Culture is warring against morality. Just last week, another school shooting in Wisconsin. Young people making millions online in debauchery. Confusion about identity and gender. A fight to protect the sanctity of human life. Guys, this world is broken. Oftentimes the darkness feels heavy. The only thing that can overcome darkness is light.
With this in mind, listen to John 1:1-18.
Read John 1:1-18
Contrast Light and Darkness
In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God. The Word became flesh. The Word is Jesus. In Him was life, and that life was LIGHT. Jesus, in His essence, is light. The true light, which gives life to everyone, was coming into the world. Jesus claimed this for Himself in John 8 when He said “I am the light of the world!” And we see a direct correlation between light and life. In fact, they are synonymous with one another. This is hugely important for us.
What we need to understand is the massive difference between light and darkness. If light and life are one, this would mean that darkness and death are one. And remember, we are talking about a spiritual life and a spiritual death. We could say, then, that what we are talking about this morning is a matter of life and death. The incarnation, God becoming man, what we celebrate during this Christmas season, is a matter of life and death. If you are here this morning and you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, please don’t miss this.
The World Rejects Light
The world was so covered in darkness that it did not recognize its Creator when He appeared. It was so covered in darkness that it had become blind to the truth. Not only did they not recognize Him, but they rejected Him.
He came to His own people, and they rejected Him. We see this in the gospels, that Jesus returned to Nazareth, and His family and friends refused to accept Him as the Messiah. So much so that they forced Him out onto the edge of a cliff to throw Him to His death. The light had come, but they refused to acknowledge it. It wasn’t only His friends and family that rejected Him.
The religious leaders, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, the ones who had been teaching prophecy about the Messiah. The ones who had been hoping for the day of His return. The ones who saw the miracles that He performed first-hand. They were blinded by greed and power, and refused to see Jesus for who He truly was. Maybe you are here this morning and you have rejected Him as well.
This is what sin does. Sin is anything we do against the character and nature of God. Sin separates us from God. Sin creates a chasm that we are unable to overcome. Ultimately, sin leads to death. In Romans we see that “all have sinned, and that the wages of our sin,” the payment of our sin, what we deserve because of our sin “is death.” Sin leads to destruction. Sin causes us to remain in darkness. And this is the sad state of the world we live in today. Millions of people will celebrate Christmas as a time to be with family, to give gifts and to rest from work and school, and those are great things. In fact, they might even mention the birth of Jesus as the “reason for the season.” But so many will still miss the true nature of Christ. Christmas will come and go, and their eyes will remain blind to who He truly is. And this is the sad reality for so many.
Even so, there is hope. There is hope because John tells us in verse 5 that the darkness has not overcome the light.
Light Cannot Be Overcome
The darkness would try! Satan wanted nothing more than to ruin Jesus. He tempted Jesus in the wilderness to take control of His own life, usurping the authority of God. He entered into Judas and caused the greatest betrayal in history. Satan was rejoicing as Jesus was arrested, and beaten, and mocked, and killed on the cross. It reminds me of the portrayal by C.S. Lewis in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when the White Witch and her beasts are gathered around the stone table, rejoicing as if they’d won:
“And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of my hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die.”
Surely Satan believed he had won! But just as the light of life burst forth into this world in a cave stable, 3 days after HIs crucifixion the light of life would burst forth from His tomb. God would breathe life back into His lungs, and the moment that Jesus took the first breath in that tomb, sin and death were defeated forever.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 - “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The resurrection claims victory over death! Victory over sin! And this is where there is good news for us! This is where we find hope. Our sin leaves us wanting, a great chasm between us and God. We cannot do anything to overcome it. We needed someone to step in to provide a way. This is what Jesus did on the cross!
Belief Leads to Life
“Yet,” John says. Many have rejected the true light. Many have rejected Jesus, “Yet.” There are others who received Him. There are others who believed that He was who He said He was, who believed His message of repentance and salvation. They believed in His name, the name of Jesus.
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
There is power in the name of Jesus. And for those who believe in that name, God has given the right, the privilege to become His children. No longer will we wander in darkness, stumbling through life trying to find something to hold onto. No longer are we lost, but we are found, and adopted into God’s family. We are given His name, His righteousness, His inheritance. We are given His Spirit, His blessings and His freedom.
How specifically does this happen? Scripture tells us that we need simply to believe in the name of Jesus and confess Him as Lord. Believe in our heart that His death on the cross is sufficient for salvation, and that His resurrection was a real event that opened the door to eternal life.
And the amazing thing about Christmas, is that all of this started with a newborn baby. All of the glory and deity wrapped up in swaddling cloths and sleeping in a farm animal’s feeding troth. All the power to save humanity born into a cave stable.
And we find great hope and joy in this moment because we know how the story unfolds. We know that this baby will grow to be the Savior of the world. He will walk into Jerusalem to give up His life so that we might have life. He rose again and ascended into heaven, taking a seat at the right hand of His Father. And we know that He will come again. And for the final time, light will burst into the darkness of this world, but not as a baby. This time, He will come back as a Warrior King.
And it all started one dark night in Bethlehem, in the silence of a stable.
