The Light Has Dawned

Well, looks like we’re getting real close to full-blown winter, doesn’t it? Last I checked, I think the low tonight is supposed to be something like 22 degrees. and every day it gets dark just a little bit earlier and the sun comes up just a little bit later.

And I know at least some of you hate the darkness. I know my wife hates the darkness. Every November at time change, she’s like, “Ugh, it gets dark so EARLY!” Everybody thinks we could fix it if we just keep daylight time all year, but then it would just be, “Ugh, it STAYS dark so LATE!”

It’s just the way it is. It’s dark. Like the meme I saw a couple of weeks ago, “Every night at midnight I look at my watch and it’s seven o’clock.”

It’s dark.

But it’s not just physically dark out there. It’s also spiritually dark, isn’t it? We know it, we see it. We see the evil and tragedy. We understand the darkness, the brokenness of this world. All you need to do is just turn on the news to see the evidence, case after twisted case, the fruit of our spiritual darkness.

But it’s not just the darkness out there that we understand. We also understand the darkness in here, the darkness that’s personal, the brokenness that we experience firsthand—the cancer diagnosis, the struggle with addiction, the fear, the worry, the depression. We get that kind of darkness as well, this darkness that happens to us.

And it’s not just the darkness out there in the news, and it’s not just the darkness that happens to us that we understand. No, we also understand, at least I hope we do, even if our circumstances aren’t dark, there is still darkness within us.

You know that, right? You know that, while there may be people whose behavior is worse than ours, there are plenty of people whose behavior is better than ours, and you know that there is a God who is infinitely better than us, because He is perfect, and, by the way, He is the standard. You know that, right?

Oswald Chambers put it this way:

Darkness is my point of view, my right to myself; light is God’s point of view.

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

No, friend, there is nothing good about any of us, and for us to really understand the significance of Christmas, for us to really appreciate the Light of Christmas, we have to get that.

Because, even in the darkness, there is Light. And to live our lives without understanding our brokenness, well, we might as well live our lives with our eyes cast up to Heaven saying, “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m good here on my own.”

To see the light, to appreciate the light for what it is, we have to wrap our heads around the darkness.

If you have your Bibles, let me invite you to turn with me to the Old Testament book of Isaiah, Isaiah 9:1-7 to be specific. You know that already of course, because we just read it together. But we’re looking at this passage today, because, if anybody understood darkness, it was Isaiah. Isaiah lived in a time of incredible spiritual darkness, incredible brokenness and immorality. If you look back at the chapter before the one we just read together, Isaiah 8, you see this. You see a nation given to the occult, led by an immoral king who sacrificed his son to false gods.

Isaiah 8:21-22 tells us what inevitably happens when a nation, a people, are given over to this kind of depravity.

Isaiah 8:21–22 NASB 2020

They will pass through the land dejected and hungry, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will become enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.

Boy, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Darkness comes our way, hunger, trial, despair comes our way, and instead of looking inward to see how WE need to change, we look around and shake our fists at authority, and then we look up to shake our fists at God. You know anybody like that? Somebody who just keeps spiraling downward blaming everybody but themselves? “It’s my boss’s fault! It’s my parents’ fault! It’s the church’s fault! It’s God’s fault!”

Of course you do. And it’s easy to point fingers. It’s easy to look around and complain, to roll our eyes, surrendering to the notion that darkness is just the way it is. “This is just the way it’s going to be, and there’s not anything anybody can do about it.”

But that’s not the approach that Isaiah takes. Isaiah doesn’t stop at the brokenness of chapter 8. No, instead, Isaiah looks 700 years into the future and sees something that nobody, absolutely nobody could have imagined in that moment. Isaiah 9:1-2

Isaiah 9:1–2 (NASB 2020)

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

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

Isaiah saw what John would quote Jesus as saying 750 years later in John 8:12

John 8:12 NASB 2020

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

700 years before Jesus was born, during what was one of the darkest times in the history of God’s people, Isaiah saw light. Instead of the despair that was so common in this struggling nation, Isaiah thanks God in v. 3, saying…

Isaiah 9:3 NASB 2020

You will multiply the nation, You will increase their joy; They will rejoice in Your presence As with the joy of harvest, As people rejoice when they divide the spoils.

Instead of slavery, as hundreds of thousands of his countrymen are taken as prisoners of war by invading enemy armies, Isaiah describes a day when, in verse 4…

Isaiah 9:4 NASB 2020

For You will break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.

Instead of almost constant war, Isaiah sees the end of war in verse 5:

Isaiah 9:5 NASB 2020

For every boot of the marching warrior in the roar of battle, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

Right in the middle of these pronouncements of God's wrath, Isaiah describes this advance message of hope. Light will come into their darkness. Their fear, their slavery, their guilt will be taken away. And complete victory over every enemy will come for people who deserved the worst from a perfectly holy God.

Isaiah was able to look ahead to the dawning of light.

If you’ve ever been lost in the dark, you know what a relief it can be when you see a light up ahead. It may be 3 miles away across a valley, but as long as you can see it, there’s comfort there, isn’t there? As long as it’s there, it’s providing a frame of reference, a promise that there’s something out there—that this darkness isn’t all there is.

For Isaiah, Jesus—the Messiah—was that promise. It’s dark now, really dark. But, because of Jesus, there’s light up ahead. Again, you may be in a really dark place today. And I would venture to say that, even if you don’t perceive yourself to be in a dark place, there’s still a good chance you are.

I wonder, do you have this light? Because, you see, for us, today, we’re on the other side of Christmas. What Isaiah saw 700 years into the future, we received it 2000 years in the past. We have the Light, if you are a follower of Jesus, you have the light, and the wonderful news of Christmas is that, if you don’t have that Light, you can have it today!

That’s why we do the things we do at Christmas. That’s why people started lighting candles and putting out lights during this time of year—it was to symbolize, to announce, to celebrate that the Light has come!

The Light of Jesus.

But maybe you’re not convinced. If not, listen, I get it. Again, the darkness is heavy here, and it’s hard to see the light ahead when our focus is on the darkness around us. But maybe the reason you’re not convinced is because you don’t completely understand what it is to have this Light, what it is to know this Light, what it is to know Jesus.

If that’s you, you’re in luck, because Isaiah helps us here as well. He doesn’t leave us with some vague impression that something good is going to happen. No, he tells us exactly what was going to happen—exactly what has happened so that we could know and experience the Light of God! Verse 6:

Isaiah 9:6–7 NASB 2020

For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.

Alright, so let’s break this down a little bit. What did Isaiah mean when he said that “the people who walk in darkness will see a great light?” and what would it mean for you to discover this Light today?

First, it means that…

You can discover wonderful counsel.

What that literally means is that the coming Messiah will be a "wonder of a counselor." And that means that in Jesus, the Messiah, you can have a counselor that is marvelous, that’s extraordinary, that performs way beyond what’s normal.

Think about who you trust more than anyone. Who do you go to when you just need to talk something out? I’m blessed to have a lot of people like that in my life—Jennifer, of course, is at the top of that list, but also my parents, my grandparents. I have a number of friends that I can lean on in that way. Many of you are here.

But, as much as I love you all, and as much as I’m grateful for you, none of your counsel compares remotely to the counsel I receive from Him. I have a lot of good counselors in my life, a lot of excellent counselors, but He is a Wonderful Counselor.

You ever gotten bad advice? There’s a lot of that our there, isn’t there? Surround yourself with miserable people, and they’ll do their best to get you to join them in their misery. It’s bad counsel that’s led many, many people to places where they really didn’t want to go. When you step back and look at it, it’s easy to see how so much of the “wisdom” out there is nothing more than people fumbling around in the darkness.

But, again, in Jesus, we have Light, because Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor. Romans 11:34 reminds us that His judgments and ways are WAY beyond what we can understand:

Romans 11:34 NASB 2020

For Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?

And yet, this Counselor has opened Himself to us. He’s made His wisdom available to us. Here in His Word, He has revealed Himself to us, and, if we’ll give ourselves to Him, He’ll give us His Holy Spirit to lead us, to show us the way that is right. He is our Light in the darkness, because He is a Wonderful Counselor.

That’s what it means to have the Light. It means that you can unlimited access to a Wonderful Counselor. That’s not all, though. It also means that…

You can belong to a Mighty God

A “strong, heroic God.”

“A Child is born to us,” Isaiah says. But this isn’t just any child. This isn’t just some kid. This child is God's Son, the Word of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, a child who possesses all the power of God.

So it’s not just that Jesus gives counsel beyond any counsel we can know here on earth. It also means that He has power to carry out whatever it is that He leads you to do!

That’s important. Some people are afraid to give everything to God, because they’re afraid of failure. They’ve been so deceived into thinking that they’ll never amount to anything that they won’t even ask God to save them. Listen, friend, that is a lie of evil one. Of course you don’t amount to anything. I don’t either. Of course you will fail. We all fail. But please hear this. It’s not about us. It’s not even about us and God. It’s just about God! Paul says in Philippians 1:6

Philippians 1:6 NASB 2020

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.

He doesn’t say, “He who began a good work in you will work with you to perfect it.” No, He just says that He’ll do it. He doesn’t need you! So, don’t worry about what might come down the road. Yes, you will be tempted. Yes, you will struggle, and maybe you’ll fail. But if you will give it all to Him today, if you will surrender yourself to Him today, He will finish what He started.

Why? Because He can. He is a Mighty God.

And if you’re a believer, you do well to remember this as well. Maybe there’s a stronghold that has you bound. Listen, in this pornographic world that we live in, I assure you that you’re not alone. Maybe there’s an addiction that has locked you in emotionally, physically. Maybe there’s a fear, an attitude of fear, that has kept you from doing what you know God wants you to do.

Please hear this. I don’t say this tritely. You serve a Savior who is bigger than all of these things! There is no stronghold that He can’t break! Theirs is no addiction that He can’t overpower! There is no fear that He can’t override, because He is a Mighty God! And if you know Him, dear brother, dear sister, He is Yours!!!

It’s what it means to belong to the Light. It means that you can have a Wonderful Counselor. It means that you can belong to a Mighty God, and third…

You can be loved by an Everlasting Father

This child, Isaiah says, will be a father in the best of ways—loving, self-sacrificing, always looking out for what’s best for me. Notice that I didn’t say, “Always looking out for what’s comfortable for me.” What’s comfortable for us isn’t always what’s best for us. I wouldn’t be a very good father if my daily goal was to ensure my children’s happiness over their healthiness, over their goodness.

In the same way, our Lord Jesus loves us, cares for us like a GOOD Father. Now, maybe that’s not the kind of father you had. I’m so thankful that the Lord saw fit to give me a good earthly father, but maybe your father wasn’t like mine.

And maybe you’ve spent your life chasing the approval, chasing the love, chasing the affection, the good, healthy affection that you should have received from your earthly father. You’ve spent your life in and out of relationship after relationship, but nothing sticks, because it doesn’t fill this void, this empty place inside you.

Dear friend, in Jesus, you can find that approval. In Jesus, you can find that affection. In Jesus, you can find that love that you’ve spent your life chasing, because Jesus is an everlasting Father. Even the best earthly father is just a reflection of the goodness of this Father. And, unlike our earthly fathers, this Father is not going anywhere. He will never leave, and He will never die. He’s everlasting.

That’s why we celebrate. That’s why we have Christmas. It’s because, in Jesus, we can be loved by an Everlasting Father. Because of Christmas, you can discover Wonderful Counsel, you can belong to a Mighty God, you can be loved by an Everlasting Father, and, fourth, it means…

You can rest in a Prince of Peace

He’ll be a prince, Isaiah says, a ruler, an authority, but He won’t be like any authority today. Verse 7 tells us that He will start something as a child will never stop growing, but He won’t do it with force. That’s not His game. He won’t blast His way in with nuclear weapons. No, this child, this Light will build His Kingdom by disarming His enemies and bringing peace.

People don’t understand this. Our Muslim neighbors don’t understand this. That’s why they’re so opposed to mission work. Many believe that Christian missionaries force people to become believers, or they bribe them, coerce them in some other way. They don’t understand the draw, the unseen power of this Prince of Peace.

But you do, if you know Him. You know the rest that can be found in Him. You know that you don’t have to strive and struggle and claw your way to some unreachable standard, because you know that, no matter how hard you strive and struggle and claw, you will never approach God’s standard. There’s no way you can earn peace with God.

But you also know that, because of Jesus, because of the Light of the world, you don’t have to. Jesus has done everything necessary for you to know God. He took the punishment that we deserved for our sin upon Himself. He went to the cross and died, but then, to prove that His death meant something, to prove that His death had the power to bring you life, after three days, He rose from the dead.

Isaiah saw Him coming. He saw the One who would be God's answer for sinners like you and me. He saw Jesus. But now He’s come, and that’s why we celebrate. That’s why we sing and bake cookies and play Christmas carols in the car. That’s why we exchange gifts, and, yes, that’s why we hang lights.

It’s to remind us that the Light has come. Jesus—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

I wonder, do you know Him?