Post Tenebras Lux
Notes
Transcript
After darkness, light
After darkness, light
Paul David Tripp wrote a little devotional book called “Everyday Gospel.”
In it, he used that Latin phrase - Post Tenebras Lux - after darkness, light.
That was the rallying cry of the Protestant reformers from the 16th century.
I didn’t look it up, but I suspect they took the idea from Isaiah.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
That struck me for a number of reasons.
First of all, when you use a Latin phrase, you sound real smart, you know
And I need all the help I can get in that department.
But darkness is something we are all intimately related to.
Whether it is just straight up the fear of the dark
Or whether it is the darkness of facing someone’s mortality
Or facing your own
Or maybe it’s a darkness you carry in your own soul.
Darkness is not our friend.
Our eyes are not cat eyes.
Cats are able to drive us crazy wandering around in the dark and ending up on our heads as we sleep.
We need light or we can’t see.
Darkness is not our friend.
400 years before Jesus was born, God went dark.
From about 2,400 B.C. to 400 B.C., God would regularly send a prophet to remind people of who God was
But in 400 B.C., a prophet named Malachi wrote down what the Lord had said to him.
He finished with this sentence, Malachi 4:6
And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
And with that, the Lord stopped talking.
Who is this “he” who will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers?
This “he” who will restore creation order
That will put everything back the way it is supposed to be
Malachi didn’t say.
He simply said, “And he...”
Then nothing more for 400 years.
God went dark.
But then one dark night, Mary had her baby.
All of us boomers really like the way the King James translates the story
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
You all know the story, Linus read it to Charlie Brown in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
There were shepherds out in the field - because it wasn’t Christmas.
It wasn’t a holiday - It was just another day.
But angels appeared out of the darkness and they lit up the sky.
And they told these common, everyday sheepherders that God had sent them a present.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luke tells us they came with haste and found the baby - but think about that.
When Jesus was born, Bethlehem was a small town.
Yes, it would have had lots of tourists coming in to register for the tax
But there were only between 300 - 1000 locals.
And Bethlehem in territory was only about the size of 60 football fields side by side and end to end.
When that baby was born in that little town, well, can you keep a secret in Gray?
That’s every small town that’s ever been - even 2,024 years ago.
The shepherds would have gone to their friends and asked about a baby being born.
And they kept asking until they got their answer.
And they told people what they had seen
When they got to Jesus and Mary and Joseph, I suspect they had folks tagging along.
The picture they saw was exactly as the angel had told them.
Once again, God had done exactly what he promised to do.
After I suspect, after staying too long and waking the baby and every animal nearby up
The shepherds and their friends left and went back to what they were doing.
They had a good story to tell, but nothing had changed.
But the story keeps going.
Because in the dark night, a star appeared.
I know you know that - but have you ever thought it through.
If you’ve ever camped out or watched the science channel
You know the rotation of the earth makes it appear that the stars move at night, right?
The stars aren’t moving - the earth is moving.
This star moved.
After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
This star, shining brighter than the others in the dark, night sky, moved.
No other star acted like this star.
It led these wise men to the place Mary and Joseph were living
They are out of the manger now - Matthew says the wise men went into the house.
To see this kid - this King who is somewhere south of two years old at this point.
The story goes on and on, for about 31 more years
And for 30 of those years, Jesus was just another man.
Following in Joseph’s footsteps
Learning to build things with wood and rock.
Sweating, working, just like everyone else.
Until one day, we have to assume, He had Mary sit down
And He told her He had to get busy.
Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 53.
While you are looking it up, let me speak to the children for a moment.
Children, look up here.
I want you to have a wonderful Christmas.
I hope it is a better day than you can imagine.
But I want to ask you to do one thing for me.
When you get up on Christmas morning, before you do anything
Would you please say a very simple prayer?
“Thank you Jesus for Christmas.”
That’s all.
You can say more if you want, but at least say that much.
Because without Jesus, Christmas day would be just another school day.
You are listening for three words on your worship guide: Jesus, Lord and God.
When I was youngster learning to write papers long before college, we were taught that a good paper answered some basic questions.
Do you remember them?
Who, what, when, where, why and how - remember?
We’ve got the who.
We’ve got the what.
We’ve got the when, where and how.
We don’t have the why.
And do you know what’s odd.
The Lord told us 700 years before Jesus came, the why.
In Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53:1 “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
If you go back to chapter 52, you’d hear Isaiah say this: Isaiah 52:10 “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
OK, listen.
When I had my first office gig where I had to wear a suit to work, I bought a book called, “Dress for Success,” by John T. Molloy
And one of the things Mr. Molloy coached us to do was,
Anytime the suit coat comes off, the sleeves get rolled up.
Why?
Because it gives the illusion that you are working, whether you are or not.
You’ve heard someone say, “OK, roll up your sleeves, it’s time to get to work.”
Isaiah said the same thing about the Lord only with different words.
The Lord bared His arm
He rolled up His sleeves
But in verse 1, Isaiah asks a question.
Who has seen it?
Who has seen the work the Lord has done?
Who did the Lord - listen - who did the Lord allow to see what He’s doing?
If you are a Christ follower, Isaiah is expecting you to say, “me.”
I’ve seen it.
Isaiah 53 is my song.
It’s my heart cry.
It’s what I know and believe about Jesus.
Isaiah 53:2 “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”
Like a root out of nowhere - for 400 years no word from the Lord - and now, from out of no where.
But He wasn’t what we expected.
All of our leaders are millionaires and billionaires.
They tend to be relatively fit
And they are all charismatic - they are the kind of people everyone looks at when they walk into the room.
But not Jesus.
He was nothing special.
Walking in a crowd, you’d never notice him.
He’s the guy that when you are in a store and the door dings that someone just walked in
You look up and then look away.
He’s no threat.
He’s nothing special.
Just another guy.
Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
In fact, when Jesus taught, people deliberately rejected him.
Think of the rich young ruler.
Think of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Think of the people that mocked him as He hung on the cross.
He was a man of sorrows
That means He knows pain and suffering, in fact, the word grief means that He felt the pain Himself.
And that phrase - “…we esteemed him not.”
Yeah, that means we didn’t care.
That’s the killer phrase right there.
There are some in here today who aren’t Christ followers and you just don’t care.
It doesn’t mean anything to you and I get it, I really really do.
Because there was a time when I didn’t care either.
In fact, if every Christ follower in this room is honest
We can all say to our shame that there was a time we heard about Jesus
And we just didn’t care.
He was meaningless.
He story was meaningless.
Jesus meant noting to us.
Until one day we understood what He did.
Isaiah 53:4 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”
Our griefs
Our pains
He didn’t just feel His, He felt ours.
Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
Pierced for our transgressions - these are the things the Lord told us not to do that we do anyway that hurts the people around us.
Crushed for our iniquities - these are thing things the Lord told us not to do that we do anyway that hurts the Lord
That we do that deliberately and willfully disrespect God.
Jesus took the punishment for every time you callously hurt someone
And every time you thumbed your nose at God and did it anyway.
We deserved the wrath of God for that - He told us not to, we did it anyway.
Instead of us being punished, Jesus took it all
So we could have peace
So we could be healed.
But still, we didn’t care.
Isaiah 53:6–8 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?”
See where it says, “as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off...”
Considered means to speak enthusiastically.
Again, Isaiah is saying, while Jesus was boldly bearing God’s anger at the rebellion of His creation
Dying to break the curse of death for everyone who would believe.
While he was doing that - nobody cared.
Nobody spoke enthusiastically for Him - nobody spoke up for Him, nobody defended Him - nobody cared.
We didn’t care - for the longest - we didn’t care.
Isaiah 53:9 “And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”
No deceit in his mouth - every word Jesus spoke was truth.
Every. Last. Word.
Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper - this word prosper means succeed, the will of the Lord will succeed in his hand.”
And what is the will of the Lord?
Isaiah 53:11 “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”
Jesus will see His suffering make a difference.
No one cared - but after it was over.
After He came out of the tomb - after He appeared to 500 people - after He ascended into heaven
Look, look, look - “by his knowledge...”
Interesting choice of words here for Isaiah, he could have used several
But the root word of this “knowledge” is sweat.
By Jesus sweat, by His effort
By His determination
By His tenacity
By His guts
By His boldness
By His courage
By his sweat Jesus will make many to be accounted righteous - and He shall bear their iniquities.
Jesus’ blood, sweat and tears
Our brother Jesus’ single focused determination to see the plan through
Bought us out of darkness and into the light.
Listen to me.
For a few of you this will land hard
The word “righteous” means “innocent.”
By Jesus’ sweat, you, who have done so much you can’t forgive yourself for,
You who cling to Jesus
Who reach out to Him and want nothing more than for Him to touch you and say you are OK.
He did just that.
He declares you innocent.
When Jesus sees you, He sees His reward.
He sees the reward of the sweat and the blood He shed.
Isaiah 53:12 “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
There is a tragedy hidden in this last verse.
It’s the word many.
See, Peter says in a sermon he preached, “Acts 2:21
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
That’s what Jesus made possible.
He made it possible for people to call on His name.
Jesus, save me.
Jesus, make me new.
Jesus, if you will, make me innocent once again.
Many will.
But many is exclusive.
It excludes all of those who won’t.
But it includes all of those who will.
And those who have.
Like many of us.
If you are a Christ follower, Jesus gave you the greatest gift of all time.
Through pure grit and determination, He took all of the punishment for every sin you ever committed
Not just so you could be forgiven - not just so the shame and guilt would go away.
Oh no.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
He gave you life so that when He puts everything back together like it is supposed to be
Revelation 21:4–5 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
I like knowing that there will be a new place where everything has been made right.
I like knowing that there will be a place where every desire I have will be holy and honorable and good.
I like knowing that I’ve been made new.
Merry Christmas Brothers and Sisters.
That’s the greatest gift you will ever receive.
In just a moment, we’ll sing.
Brothers and sisters, take a moment to bask in the favor of the Lord.
You are rich and highly favored.
You are a child of the most powerful King.
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,
I like that.
And maybe for the first time today you realized that Jesus did all of this for you too.
And you didn’t care, but now you do.
If you want, you can come down during the song to talk me about Jesus.
Or grab someone near you - if someone invited you today, grab them.
We all want you to know Jesus.
There are no words to describe how good He really is.
And the more we know, the better it gets.
Let us pray.
