Out of Darkness: Light

INTRODUCTION

When people think about Christmas it’s not uncommon for them to think about light. Christmas lights. Candle light. Car lights. Store lights.

What’s a little bit “uncomfortable” to think about during Christmas time is DARKNESS.

Darkness is the absence of light. Darkness is what a space is characterized by BEFORE the light enters into it.

In that way, Advent is about darkness.

That’s a provocative statement but let me unpack it a little bit.

Advent is a season of “waiting.”

We’re waiting for the arrival of someone who will put an end to our darkness just as those first century Christian were waiting for God’s Messiah to come and put an end to their darkness.

Advent is about longing.

For those first century believers waiting on the Messiah there was a great longing in their heart for God to make good on his promise and bring an end to their suffering.

We’ve all felt the longing and waiting of being in a pitch black room waiting for someone to turn on the light. The darkness is unsettling and uncomfortable. Your living in that tension of the already and the not yet.

Acknowledge The Uncomfortable

I know we don’t WANT to think about Darkness during Christmas Eve but to appreciate the light you’ve got to understand that there is a darkness that preceded it.

We don’t want to face and understand the brokenness in our world but we have to if we want to share the light of Christ and the hope that we have in him.

That’s the whole point of our Christmas Eve Candle Light service. The Christ candle gives a light that lights up each individual candle in this room filling the entire room with light!

Christmas is about looking the darkness of this world straight in the eye and penetrating that darkness with the light of Christ.

It’s about bringing the Word of Christ and the Hope of the Gospel to bear on the darkness that persists in our world today.

Advent bids us take a fearless inventory of the darkness: the darkness without and the darkness within.”

The world desperately needs somebody to expose the fact that there is indeed a great darkness. And until we acknowledge that darkness, there can be no discovery of the light.

To do that this evening we’re going to read from John 3:16-21

John 3:16–21 (CSB)

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Malaise of Imminence

Charles Taylor is a Roman Catholic sociologist. He wrote a book called “A Secular Age” in which he talks about a concept called “the Malaise of Immanence.”

I’m sure the vast majority of us have never heard that term once in our life so if you get nothing else from our Christmas Eve service at least I can teach you this one thing.

Immanence (the idea of something being inherent or contained within a thing) is different from imminence (happen at any moment.)

What Taylor means by immanence in relation to secularism is that our culture operates under the assumption that this world is self-contained - nothing outside of it. Materialism and nature is all there is was or ever will be.

According to our culture, there may be a yearning for God and transcendence but there really is not such thing.

Taylor suggests that this creates a “spiritual and sociological malaise” in society that manifests itself in a variety of ways.

Christmas & MOI

Christmas is one such example.

Our culture has boiled down Christmas to snowmen, shopping malls, candy candy canes and Santa Clause.

There’s all this excitement leading up to Christmas day and then BOOM the day comes… presents are opened… and a malaise sets in.

Is this really all there is? All of that… just for this this? Isn’t there something more?

Do you see? It’s the malaise of immanence; a unique feature of our secular age.

God has placed eternity in our hearts … a deep insatiable longing that only HE can fill. But instead of finding and enjoying God we’ve rejected him, walked into the darkness and try and satisfy those longings else where.

It’s why people DOOM SCROLL on social media for endless hours. Comparing, judging, envying and more. What are they thinking about? They’re thinking about the Malaise of Immanence.

My experiences and my desires seem to be pointing to some more… something deeper… something REAL when everything else leaves me feeling empty and incomplete.

Nicodemus and Malaise

A similar - but different - dynamic is animating Nicodemus as he comes to discuss the issues of God, light and darkness with none other than Jesus of Nazareth in John 3.

Most people, of course, have John 3:16 memorized but it’s important we not forget the original context.

Nicodemus is the one who has come to Jesus, late at night, because he’s experiencing a discontentment with the traditions of Judaism and the Pharisaical traditions and he’s sensing in Jesus something better. He’s being drawn to the light.

Yet Nicodemus isn’t so sure of that light that he’s willing to jump in head first. He calls a secrete meeting, at night - so nobody can see him talking with Jesus.

In their conversation Jesus essentially tells Nicodemus that everything he thinks he knows about God and true living and salvation is basically wrong.

This would’ve been a wrecking ball through his spiritual categories for faith in God and righteousness.

He tells Nicodemus in John 3:3 “3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

And Nicodemus just doesn’t even have a category for it. “What do you mean? I can’t go back into my mother’s womb.”

Jesus replies, “You’re a teacher or teachers and you don’t even understand this basic spiritual truth.” (John 3:10)

Fly On The Wall

Just imagine for a moment that you were a fly on the wall while they were having this conversation.

Jesus - the miracle working Messiah who had upset the traditional religious system of the day - and Nicodemus - the great teacher of Israel who was a symbol of the religious status quo.

The topic of their conversation is the spiritual malaise and darkness that had taken root in their culture and what God intends to do about.

Would you not be interested in that conversation? It is into THAT conversation that Jesus tells Nicodemus

John 3:19–21 (CSB)

19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

How Darkness Works

This is a fascinating insight from Jesus. An insight on the nature of light and darkness.

This is REAL TALK from Jesus. He’s dropping some truth bomb here with Nicodemus.

It’s kinda like when a Dr. tells you some devastating but necessary news about your health condition. It’d be easier if he just lied and told you to drink some greens and protein but instead he drops the hammer and tells you it’s surgery or death.

That’s what Jesus is going in this moment.

These are HARD words. But they are also LOVING words. They’re coming from Jesus to Nicodemus not as self-righteous criticisms to condemn but as needed critiques to liberate and revive.

That same Jesus speaks a similar word about our human condition tonight.

Tough But Needed Words

He’s telling us that we live in moral darkness. And that we prefer living in that moral darkness because to do otherwise would be to expose our moral darkness and we can’t stand the thought of that.

It’s a depressing reality that instead of walking towards the light to receive healing and salvation we walk further and further away from the light becoming hardened in our rebellion and more blind to our spiritual condition by the day.

I know that may sound insulting and make you angry inside but it’s not my insight it’s the insight of Jesus Christ.

Our default mode - the default mode of those who have not been made new by the Holy Spirit - is to reject the light and go further and further into darkness because coming to the light is too painful a burden to bear.

Thinking back in my own life there were seasons - even as a Christian - when I preferred walking in the darkness than I did standing in the light because walking in the light seems like too painful a burden to bear.

There’s a phrase that get’s thrown around “we’re all children of God” but it’s false. We’re not. We’re all God’s creation but we’re not all God’s children.

Outside of some divine intervention we are malfunctioning human beings who are wandering in darkness too ignorant and prideful to come back to the light that can heal us.

Not a ___ Problem

The truth is, only the light of Christ can heal us.

It’s not a self-esteem problem.

(as helpful as a therapist can be they can’t drive out the darkness)

It’s not a social justice problem.

(taking money from rich people to give to poor people isn’t going to solve the problem of darkness.)

It’s not a political problem.

(You can elect whatever human leader you want to elect it’s not going to reverse this human tendency we all have to walk around in the darkness).

It’s not a systemic problem.

(You can tear this system down and replace it with an entirely new system or different system. Guess what? If it’s filled with humans it’s going right back to the same place eventually.)

It’s not a problem of personal liberty.

(It wouldn’t matter if you took away all individual restrictions and gave everybody complete freedom. There would still be people who walk deeper and deeper into the darkness because we have an allergy to the light)

A Fatal Wound

We have a fatal wound in our lives and in our world - it’s called SIN.

We are dead in sin.

Ignorant of the truth.

Blinded by Satan.

Alienated from God.

Disobedient to his will.

Hostile to his commands.

Unloving towards Him.

Ungrateful for His Mercy.

Enemies in our Rebellion.

Children of His Wrath.

Slaves to our sin.

Lovers of ourselves.

We have wounds we cannot heal.

We have a shame we cannot remove.

We have guilt we cannot forgive.

We have an enemy we cannot defeat.

I love this Tim Keller quote: “When the Bible talks about sin it is not just referring to the bad things we do. It’s not just lying or lust or whatever the case may be. It is ignoring God in the world he has made; it’s rebelling against him by living without reference to him. It’s saying, “I will decide how I live my life.” and Jesus says “that’s our main problem.”

All idolatry is rooted in a refusal to acknowledge God is God and we owe everything to him.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world but people rejected the light because their deeds were evil.

You might protest, “No! I’m good...” Well follow that thread to the bottom of your heart and see if you don’t find a protest in there that says “God you have no right whatsoever to tell me what to do.”

We’ll never experience the full gift of Christmas unless we are willing to let Jesus set us down in chair - look us in the eye - and say You Need A Savior. Things are NOT GOOD.

How Light Comes

But if we’ll let him say those words he gives us another word as well. A savior has COME.

In Jesus Christ light and love have come.

John 3:16 (CSB)

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:17 (CSB)

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Here’s the difference between Jesus and every other attempt to overcome the darkness in our lives.

God’s solution is salvation by grace through faith. Every other alternative has us and our striving at the center.

You’ll never be able to save yourself. Only Jesus Christ can save you.

All you have to do is believe. Whosoever believes. Whoever believes in this man. This story.

That is such good news for a tired and weary world trying to fix the world through human solutions when it was human sin that created all the problems in the first place.

Jesus is the light of the world. He’s the light.

John 8:12 (CSB)

12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

Acknowledge the Darkness. Receive the Light

Can you imagine that? No more striving, no more trying, no more bouncing from one thing to another. No more walking around in the darkness groping for light.

The light of heaven has come down if you’ll just turn and walk towards the light.

He did come to rub your face in your sin and brokenness. He came as a savior to grab your hand and pull you out from the pit.

Free you from your slavery to sin and self. He died on the cross to pay your sin debt and give you his perfect righteousness.

Happy Holidays are not enough. We need a Merry Christmas. Unto us a savior is born. Joy to the World because the soul can now feel it’s worth and have healing as far as the curse is found.

We need a savior. We have one. Jesus is his name.