Candlelight Service 12/18/22

December 18, 2022

Light has fascinating properties. The visible light is only a sliver of the Electromagnetic Spectrum (radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma rays).

Yet it plays such an important and necessary part in our lives. We pattern our lives for the most part after light and its opposite darkness. We work during the day and sleep during the night. Both are important.

The candle: has been used for 5000 years; before that it was a lamp made of hardened clay. Olive oil or other oil from animal fat was the source of fuel. These were indispensible for life in antiquity.

God actually created both light and darkness.

Isaiah 45:7 The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

At the initial creation of the earth

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Darkness was 1st created and then light. Physical light and darkness quickly became spiritual symbols. Darkness came to picture sin, unrighteousness, death, estrangement from God. There is a natural fear of the dark…b/c we’re afraid of being alone, isolated.

Light symbolizes life, righteousness, purity, fellowship with God.

The natural man lives in the realm of darkness. He is a son of the kingdom of darkness whose end if they remain in that condition

Matthew 8:12 but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Satan’s kingdom is the domain of darkness, impelling men to do deeds of darkness.

John 3:19-20 "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. 20"For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

God has a remedy for the spiritual darkness

Isaiah 9:2 The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.

Consequently one of Satan’s chief objects is to keep men in the dark.

2 Corinthians 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The LJC was sent into the world to call His people out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pt 2:9)

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Ephesians 5:8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

The true celebration of Xmas is to acknowledge that JC the true light has come into the world. To come to the light then would be to accept who He is and put your faith or trust in His provision for eternal life.

That brings an immediate transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life.

Colossians 1:12-14 the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

To reject Christ is to remain in darkness which thru judgment, He will bring to light all the secret thoughts of the heart and cast every unbeliever into the outer darkness, separated from God forever.

God invites you to come to the light, come to Christ…for in His light we will see life.

We will light our candles and sing together “Silent Night”