A Light Has Dawned

SLIDE 1 I’m sure it’s not news to you that Christmas has become commercialized. In fact, it’s so commercialized it’s barely recognizable from when I was a child much less from what it started out to be. The real problem though is that the more commercialized it becomes the more secular it becomes. The birth of Jesus is being removed from the celebration so much so that there are a growing number of people who don’t even know the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

SLIDE 2 With that in mind I will be preaching a series of sermons this month I’ve title Christmas Revealed. This morning’s message is from Isaiah 9 and is titled “A Light Has Dawned.” What is the real meaning of Christmas?

One of my memories from growing up was driving to Atlanta for the lighting of the Christmas tree Thanksgiving evening at the Rich’s building (now Macy’s). SLIDE 3 The tree was on top of the walkway between the store’s two buildings. The walkway had four floors with a church choir on each floor on each side of the walkway. Festivities would start with choir on the lowest floor singing a song. Then the choir on the next floor would sing well known religious Christmas carols as they moved to the top. Then all the choirs would sing just before they lit the huge tree on top. SLIDE 4 Thousands of people would line the street on either side of the walkway. My family with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins would attend the lighting of the tree most years.

One of the great traditions of Christmas is the lights. SLIDE 5 Golf Course Acres will have a night when they put out luminaries and people will wait in long lines to slowly drive through the neighborhood to go see the lights. SLIDE 6 The Bristol Speedway is open every evening for people to come and see the lights. SLIDE 7 I remember my mother pointing out particularly big Christmas light displays when I was growing up to make sure my brother and I didn’t miss them. What would Christmas be without all the lights?

Where does the tradition of lights at Christmas come from? It comes from the Bible and specifically from Isaiah 9. Turn with me to Isaiah. SLIDE 8 It’s helpful to remember that Isaiah was written several hundred years before the birth of Jesus. While the book isn’t about Jesus, it has nineteen prophecies about Jesus that talk about his birth, his life, and his death. In chapter 9 we find one about his birth.

1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan – 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)

What do we learn from this passage about the birth of Jesus? Isaiah says that those who have been walking in darkness have seen a light. What’s the light? It’s not that they were walking around in the dark and God shined a great big flashlight on them. Light is used figuratively to represent their condition socially, intellectually, and spiritually.

Isaiah says that in the past God had humbled the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. Where were these lands? First, where was Jesus born? He was born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is about six miles south of Jerusalem. When the Promised Land was divided up that land was given to the tribe of Judah. Judah was fourth son of Jacob. Where did Jesus grow up? He grew up in Nazareth. Nazareth is located about a dozen miles west of the Sea of Galilee. Guess who that land was given to. It was given to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali – the tenth and sixth sons of Jacob. Isaiah says the people living in the land of these two tribes had been humbled. The land was unimportant. People from there had a reputation for being uneducated and backwoods. They had been humbled. In the gospel of John Nathanael asked if anything good could come from there. To this land, a land of darkness and where Jesus spent the majority of his ministry a light has dawned.

To get a picture of the darkness we just have to look back a couple of verses in chapter 8.

21 Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. 22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. (Isaiah 8:21-22)

Isaiah says the people are distressed and hungry. As they roam the land looking for relief they don’t find any. Rather than looking to God for help they curse him and instead look to the earth. In other words, they look for answers to their problems in themselves and the people around them. And what do they find there? They only find more distress, darkness, fear, and gloom.

While the prophecies of Isaiah were written almost three thousand years ago, they describe a condition that is present still today. People will look everywhere for help so that they don’t have to go to God.

People will look to education for relief from the problems we face. If only we could give people more and better education we wouldn’t have so many problems. I am all for education. I have several relatives that teach or have taught. I have multiple degrees. But the answer to our problems will not be found in education. At the end of the 1800s people were beginning to think they were growing so smart that they didn’t need God anymore. Scientific advancements were growing at such a rate that they just knew they’d be able to solve the world’s problems. And then World War I started and all those dreams were dashed to pieces. No amount of education will be able to solve all the problems we face.

Others have looked to economic systems. The thought is if we could just guarantee everyone a job and a minimum livable wage that would take care of so many of our problems. Proposed economic systems go from unregulated capitalism to communism on the other and every mixture of the two in between. Yet economic systems have never been an answer. None has worked to solve the world of its problems.

Others look to the government. Some believe if we just had a bigger government that had more control the government could take care of the problems we face. Isn’t that what the Israelites were doing when they asked for a king? God was leading them, but they wanted a king, a bureaucracy. I remember a group back in the

70s and 80s called the Moral Majority. It worked at getting Christians elected to state and national offices. While there’s nothing wrong with Christians running for office, from my perspective they seemed to be putting more hope in government officials than on God. Even if every public official was a Christian, no government would be able to solve the world’s problems.

Isaiah says the people looked to things of the world for help all they found was more distress, more darkness, more fear, and more gloom. However, Isaiah starts chapter 9 with the word “nevertheless.” Despite the fact that they’ve turned their backs on God there is hope. A light has dawned. Better days are coming.

3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. (Isaiah 9:3)

Isaiah says that because of the light that has dawned there will be no more gloom or distress. Instead there will be joy and rejoicing.

4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. (Isaiah 9:4-5)

Isaiah says there will finally be peace instead of war. There will be no need for army boots or uniforms so they’ll be burned.

But who or what will bring these better days? What is the light?

6a For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. (Isaiah 9:6a)

A child? A child is going to bring light to those in darkness? A child is going to bring rejoicing to the joyless? A child will bring peace to those at war? What can a child do? A child can’t take care of its own problems. But Isaiah insists that this child isn’t like any other child. Listen to the names Isaiah gives this child. SLIDE 9

6b And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6b)

Wonderful Counselor: Wonderful also means awe inspiring. This child will leave people speechless. His counsel – his advice – will be wise. People will marvel when they hear it.

Mighty God: Isiah equates this child with God in his strength, power, and ability.

Everlasting Father: The child is eternal – from the very beginning and to very end and the child is the source of all that is.

SLIDE 10 Prince of Peace: the child will bring peace like the world has never known it.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:7)

David was the standard all kings were compared to. This child that will bring light will sit on David’s throne and rule over David’s kingdom. He will be everything we look for in a king. And it will all happen because this is what God wants to happen.

Of course we know who this child is. The child is Jesus. The lights we use at Christmas represent the light of Jesus.

I always pay attention when someone talks about the meaning of Christmas. Whether it’s in a song or a movie or I just overhear people talking about it. I want to know what they think is the real meaning. Most of the time, they get it wrong.

People talk about the meaning of Christmas being family. While Christmas is a great time for families to come together, Christmas is not about families.

If you watch Hallmark during the month of December you would think Christmas is about love and romance. I read they are showing thirty-four Christmas romance movies this year. But that’s not the meaning of Christmas either.

Several years ago someone wrote:

The meaning of Christmas is that love will triumph and that we will be able to put together a world of unity and peace.

In others words the light we need is within us. All we have to do is work real hard and we will be able to dispel the darkness. We can overcome poverty, injustice, violence, and evil. If we just work together we can create “a world of unity and peace.” We look to ourselves to provide the light. But when doing so we make a pretty big assumption.

When we think that we can solve all our own problems we are assuming that we are smarter than we really are and that we’re able to do more than we really can. We assume we know better than God does what we really need and when we need it. So if God doesn’t provide what we need when we need it then of course the problem is with God. Perhaps God doesn’t know enough or care enough or maybe he just isn’t able, but we are. If we just work hard enough we can do it.

However, Christmas says the very opposite. Christmas says there’s nothing we can do anything to make this world the perfect place we long for. Christmas says we need help. And Isaiah says that help is found in baby – a child that would be born and bring light to the world.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. (Isaiah 9:6a)

Christmas is not about lights, but it’s about this child that was born that brings light – that is light. So this Christmas as you drive around town and see the lights of Christmas remember that Jesus is the light of the world and that he came to bring hope, joy, and peace that the world could not bring itself.

This child – this light that flashes upon you with all its new life, truth, and beauty – comes as a gift, a gift that must be received.

Some gifts are hard to receive because to do so you must admit you have a need. Maybe you are days away from bankruptcy. You know you cannot do anything about it. Then someone comes, knowing of your problem, and offers to give you the money you need. To receive it you must admit your need.

There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depths more than the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do. Christmas means that we are lost in darkness unable to save ourselves. Then Jesus Christ comes and does the impossible – he saves us by his death.

To accept the true Christmas gift you have to admit you are a sinner. You have to see that you must be saved by grace. You need to give up control of your life. You have to admit your need.