Waiting For The Light

I am not sure who hear is into kid movies (but if you have not seen a kids movie in awhile just bear with me for 2 minutes)

Because one thing that a lot of kid movies have is something called Easter eggs, not literal Easter eggs, but they are different things hidden in the background of different movies that give a hint to either a future movie or a movie that has already happened.

Just to give an example in Toy Story there is a bugs life calander in the background

In the movie Finding Dory you can see Riley looking in the tank who is the main character in Inside Out

In Brave at one point you can see Sully from Monsters Inc.

In the movie Coco there is a poster for the Incredibles

In the movie cars there is also a sign for the Incredibles.

And so a lot of people believe these Easter Eggs connect all these different movies and give the big connection to the things happening.

And really we are in the second week of this new series called “Unto Us:” and in a sense this series is looking at some of the Easter Eggs that are in the Bible.

And really these are Easter Eggs that tell us about Jesus coming into the world as a baby.

And so my hope for us is as we go through these different passages where they were longing for a savior that we will have the same anticipation in our hearts.

And so today we will be in Isaiah 9:1-7 and we will splitting the paassage into two sections. and we are going to be starting in the first 5 verses. It says this:

Isaiah 9 (NIV)

9  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.

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.

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.

So it starts in verse 1 and at first glance it just mentions a few areas. Zebulun, Naphtali, Galilee.

And these were areas that the Jews never really viewed as super significant.

I mean they were mostly gentile areas and they were thought to be more on the outskirts for a lot of Jews.

Its kind of like when the Bible says what good could come fro Nazareth,

I mean this would be like Galien (do any of you grow up in Gallien), we do not have a ton of issues with Galien, but its defentitly a smaller area then Buchanan right?

I mean in five years that I have lived in Buchanan I have been to Galien once.

But the person at this time would have went what are you talking about because Isaiah list these no where areas, but then he says there will be no gloom and actually these areas will become glorious!

And can I just point out that this really shows the Kigdom dynamic here.

Because I think sometimes when we think of the kingdom of God we get this picture where today if it was a plant it would be dying.

I mean the world feels far from God, No one is really interested in Him anymore, In a lot of areas church attendance is shrinking, It is gloomy!

But heres the thing, because the picture that Isaiah is painting is the complete oppisite.

Because 700 years before Jesus is born He says the kingdom of God is about to expand like crazy.

Infact a verse I love and you have probably heard this before but Matthew 16:18-19 It says:

Matthew 16:18–19 (NIV)

… on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…

So God is saying when God is at work the gates of hell cannot overcome.

gates do not move. Last time I checked if you have a fence in your yard its not creeping up (maybe get fence from backyard?)

But the kingdom of heaven is pushing back the gates of hell, because it is growing

And thats why Isaiah is saying look the gloomy world we live in is being made glorious, because God’s kingdom is coming.

And not just that but did you see the verses that follow? Because it says the people walking in darkness have seen a light, the people living in a land of darkness (meaning they are established there) , the light has dawned.

I dont know about you guys but I hate when the days become short and it gets dark at like 3PM.

I have no idea how the people in Alaska do it, because a lot of you know this but they have a stretch og 67 days where the sun does not rise and it is just dark and cold.

And in Alaska they have a big festival the very first time the sun comes up because it is such a huge deal to have light again.

But its because we are a people that love the light.

And the beaautiful thing about the light is it shows us where things truly are.

I mean I feel like the poor people of Alaska when they get out of their 67 days of darkness probably go wow there is trash in my yard that i havent seen because it wsas dark

Here is where I dropped my keys outside. I thought they were gone for good.

Oh look a tree fell on the back of my house, I should probably take care of that.

Because the light gives us hope, but it also changes us, because it allows us to see these burdens these things that have been lingering, that may have been causing harm (and push us further from God) and but now instead of just pretending they are not there, we can go wow, its time to clean this up.

Because the truth is we are a people of the light, and that light comepletly changes us.

And you will notice (in verse 3) because it says this light leads to Joy.

And the people at this time would have went “what in he world are you talking about?”

Because if you were here last week the world when this was written was terrible and you can picture the people listening to Isaiah and going Joy? Are you kidding me? Joy in this situation? We are far from God and about to get demolished in a war.

But lets look at the rest of this passage because sop far this passage has told us a lot of practical things that have happened or are happening but the last two verses tell us the “why”

Isaiah 9:6-7. It says:

Isaiah 9:6–7 (NIV)

6 For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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.

So the first part of verse 6 should not be a huge suprise, for us but for people back then it would be, because He is telling of Jesus coming 700 years before it happens.

And He is saying this is the person who is about to change everything, and bring light to the gloomy areas.

And the craziest part is before anything He tells us that He is a human like everyone else.

you know sometimes we are really good at focusing on Jesus as God that we miss that He is fully God but He is also fully man.

meaning He lived everything we lived.

He knew what it was like to be rejected, He probably had paper cuts, He got sick, he understood what gossip was because He was the subject. He even knew what death was like.

And this is a big deal, because God could have said I am not doing that! But He did because He wanted to enter into our lives, (the good, the bad and the ugly)

I mean I remember when Arika gave birth to Liam, she had a terrible birth. I mean the midwife said it was one of the hardest deliveries that she had done in her entire career.

And they give you tylonol afterwards which is fine, but I remember we had two nurses

And it was time for Arika to have more tylonol and the nurse goes “you realize the pain your feeling is normal don’t you?!” It will go away, and basically said stop being dramatic.

But then we had another nurse that was there for the birth and she went that was a terrible birth, I had a bad one to lets make you as comfortable as possible so you can recover.

Both nurses got us Tylenol, but one had not gone through it and she understood the extent of the pain.

You know its really nice that we have a God who was fully man and understands the extent of our pain.

And not just that but it continues to tell of Gods soverignty, because we are told the goverment will be on His shoulders.

And this is actually painting a picture of when Jesus comes again.

Because in Biblical times when someone became king they would place a robe on his shoulders and it was meant to represent the weight of ruling the people. and it was all on the kings shoulders.

However if you know history every king eventually falls, whether from being taken over or dying.

Not just that but every king had flaws and messups that were tied to their reign

But here we see a picture of a king whos rule has no end, who has no flaws, and who bears the burden of the world on his shoulders.

And not just that, but we see Him do it through bearing our sins on the cross, in a way that no king had ever done.

And lets look at this last section because I dont know how to chatagorize this but if I had to Isaiah closes out this section (that we read) by just talking about the beauty of God.

Because He is called wonderful counselor- He gives the best counsel or guidance or it could also be translated as He is the wonderful resolver,

Meaning He is redeeming the world

He called Mighty God, meaning He is in control

Everlasting father, His kingdom will have no end

Prince of peace. War is such an awful thing and God is going when the kingdom of heaven is established there will be no wars but there will be peace.

And not just that but He is justice and rightouse.

No more corruption,

And I guess as we close today normally I try to have some sort of practical response for us, but I think today there is something beautiful about where we are today.

Because we are really just looking at a beauty of God and what He has done.

And sometimes I think it is easy to look at our lives and things feel dark. They feel gloomy, but the beautiful thing is that we can be in the darkest place.

In fact the passage starts with saying there are people who live in a land of deep darkness,

Which if you live somewhere thats your life. Thats what you know.

But this passage is saying even if you live in the deep darkness, there is a light that you can see.

This morning as we close what would it look like to run to the light.

Because I imagine that when we run to the light it, changes everything.

Will you pray with me?