2018 12/24 A Light Has Dawned Christmas Eve

A Light Has Dawned (Mt 4:16) December 24, 2018 Intro – Whether you celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday or Xn, there are many similarities. In both cases music takes center stage making lasting memories – whether it is the uplifting message of “Joy to the World” or “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas”, music abounds. In both cases, it is promoted as a time for family, for giving, for seeking peace on earth. And in both cases, lights proliferate. More and more every year, an electric company bonanza! The lights are wonderful as a representation of the basic meaning of Christmas as the birth of a Savior for mankind. Matt says of Jesus in Mt 4:16: “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” He saw the arrival of Jesus on planet earth as shining a light of hope in a dark place. Jn 1:9 picks up the same theme: “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” That’s a heavy load to lay on one baby – the onus of providing spiritual light in a place where darkness, confusion and chaos reigns. Yet that defines Jesus’ mission in many ways. I. Light Gives Us Life No light; no life. Without photosynthesis, no oxygen and no food. But just as physical light sustains physical life, so the light which has dawned gives us something infinitely greater – spiritual life, real life. It’s not automatic. We all die one day – can’t avoid that. One prominent mag asked a group of rich people what they’d pay for eternal life. Average price -- $1,000,000. I think they undervalued it a little, but the point is, they knew they didn’t have it. But Jesus said that’s why He came – not to appeal to our better natures for a week or two each year – but to change us inside and give us new life. He said: Jn 3:13-16: “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15) that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” In OT times, poisonous snakes infested Israel’s wilderness camp. People were getting bitten and dying by the droves. So God instructed Moses to make a brass serpent and put it on a pole high above the camp where everyone could see it. Anyone who looked up to that serpent was healed. Saved by faith! So, Jesus is saying, “That’s a picture of what I came for. Mankind is lost in sin, bitten by the serpent of selfishness, dead to God. Life comes at a price. Physical existence demos that! Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, there’s no life. So I will die for you. I will be lifted up on a cross. I’ll die to pay your penalty. I came to give eternal life to all who believe in me.” A few years ago, Time mag wrote of a young man shot down during the Vietnam War. He was MIA, and did not come back when the war ended in 1973. But he had a brother who sold all he had to finance a journey into the Vietnam jungles. In that family-oriented culture, he was allowed to pass anywhere he wanted to go, so respected that even enemy soldiers called him simply – “The Brother.” Tragically, he never found his brother. But we have a greater older brother – one who came from heaven to seek and to save us when we were lost. He is the light who gave His all to give life to anyone who asks. In Him, life-giving light dawned on a dark and lost world. II. Light Shows us Truth When you go into a dark room, what is the first thing you do? You flip on the lights, right? Or, you turn on your phone. Why? To see where you’re going. To keep from stumbling. Light show you the truth about that room. That simple illustration tells us two things. First – in a world that denies absolute truth, it shows there is absolute truth. The fact that you believe there is a clear path through that room will not keep you from stumbling if someone left their toy truck lying on the floor, right? Truth is truth whether you perceive it or not. Second, that illustration shows us we need light to show us truth. Light reveals the otherwise unknowable. Light shows the way. And that’s just why Jesus came – to show us truth we otherwise could not know. Jesus told Pilate this: Jn 18:37b: “For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate scoffed at that: “What is truth?” A postmodern ahead of his time. But I assure you, he is not scoffing tonight. Jesus is the light revealing truth we could not otherwise know. He said Mt 24:35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will pass away.” Take a look around you. This lovely, new building, the gifts under the tree, the cars outside, our hard-earned houses – all going to pass away. Much that seems permanent won’t even last our lifetime. It will all pass away including the very world we live in. What will survive? – you – the real you – and the words of Jesus. That’s it. The rest is consigned to the cosmic dust bin sooner or later. So, perhaps we should heed the light of Jesus’ words, the core of which is this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.” It’s a personal issue. Whoever believes. That’s who has eternal life. You can’t be born into it; earn it; or pay for it. But what we can’t do for ourselves, He’s already done. He’s died that we might live; He was condemned that we might be forgiven. It is merely for us to accept the gift. So why do so many reject that truth? Paul answers II Cor 4:3-4: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4) In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Blindness is a terrible thing, isn’t it? Harold Krents in To Race the Wind says of his baby book: “The first several pages contain the usual: my birth weight, the date of my arrival home, the day I got my first tooth.  Then comes the page headed, May 23, 1945.  I was eight months old and because of mounting suspicions, my parents had taken me to see an eye specialist in Boston.  The entry reads: “We have just returned from Boston with Harold.  My baby is blind.’ All of the remaining pages are blank.” Blindness is an awful condition. But if physical blindness is awful, spiritual blindness is a way worse bc the stakes are so much higher. So if you are rejecting the truth of Christ tonight, this would be a good time to plead with God to remove the blinders – to show you the truth of Rom 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Don’t stumble over the wages of sin. In Christ the light has dawned. Ask God to let it penetrate the darkness in our heart, and He will answer. He’ll show you truth soon as you’re willing. III. Light Warms Us There’s nothing better than to come in on a cold day and warm yourself by the fire. Nothing better than to go out and sit in the sun for a few minutes on the first warm day of Spring, right? Light warms us and it feels good. Jesus came not just to save but to warm us. Jn 15:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” “I didn’t just come to save you; I came to enable you to flourish – to warm in the heat of my love.” He prays: Jn 17:26b: “that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Staggering truth. “I want them to experience You – just like I do. I want the amazing love you show me to be theirs too.” That’s Jesus’ legacy to us. It reminds me of Annie Dillard who said about coming to faith in Christ: "I'd been my whole life a bell, but I never knew it until I was lifted up and rung." When she found her identity in Christ, she found her true self, and that can be true of you tonight as well. The light has dawned; but has it dawned in you? Conc – David Powlison is a biblical counselor who tells how the light dawned for him: “I was a most unlikely candidate for Christian faith. I was taken with the passions of the 60s and 70s: existentialism, Hindu mysticism, psychodynamic psychologies, literature, aesthetic experiences, personal pleasures, radical politics, finding Truth by an inward-looking journey, calling the shots about the meaning of life, changing the world, hating hypocrisy. Of course, I hated Christianity. Becoming a believer was not at the bottom of the possible options list; it was at the top of the "No way!" list. But God arrested me with the love of Christ. My epitaph is obvious: "The God who said, ’Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shown into our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (II Cor 4:6). He turned on the Light of the world in a benighted heart.” He did it for David; He’ll do it for you. Look away from the baby in the manger for a few moments tonight; to see the Savior on the cross. Be arrested by the love of Christ as He takes your place there, and let His light shine in. Let’s pray.