A Light For Those Who Sit In Darkness
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INTRO ADVENT
Welcome
Advent is a time of anticipation at the “coming of Jesus”
(1) Both in our remembrance of Jesus coming to earth in human form at Nazareth... and also (2) in his second coming. (We look to a day when Christ will return)
And so Advent is a celebratory anticipation and remembrance.
And it’s radically significant, this incarnation… literally meaning “in flesh”
Tim Keller writes in Hidden Christmas, “He is the Mighty God. He is the Everlasting Father, which means he is the Creator, and yet he is born. There’s nothing like this claim in any of the other major religions. He is a human being.”
This idea that God, who made everything — who created all the universe with his words… comes to take on human flesh and dwells amongst his creation.
It’s a radical reality and it’s significant.
And Christmas is the time we remember and celebrate that reality.
because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
“Those Who Sit in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death” (vs. 79b)
The Bible doesn’t shy away from pain and sorrow.
It’s honest about the situation of the world… the brokenness, the pain, the misery so many face.
There is NO illusion that everything is fine.
Because the world isn’t fine.
People are innocently murdered.
Rarely can people get along, even those who say they love one another.
The last couple years… death, racial tension, bickering, mistrust, violence… on and on…
not much was different at the time this scripture passage was written.
And yet, this is one of the themes that the Christmas season reminds us of! That we are in need. That we are broken. That we are in darkness.
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
So we hang up lights on our homes, on Christmas trees, on buildings… it’s a holiday filled with lights.
Keller writes, “the world is a dark place, and we will never find our way or see reality unless Jesus is our Light… (many) are “looking toward the earth” and to human resources to fix the world… if we look only to the earth and human resources, the darkness only gets worse.”
The lights then act as a symbol of a greater reality…
the savior coming to bring light and peace to his people
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Scripture is filled with these tensions...
Light and darkness
Good and evil
Right and wrong
Christmas is about a light shining through the darkness of the world!
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
Good News vs. Good Advice
This idea of redemption and salvation are not new… as a matter of fact, God made promises to his people long before this passage in Luke.
This passage makes reference to those previous promises… to the promises God made to Abraham and Abraham’s family many many years prior
And this theme has continued on throughout the Old Testament and is now being realized in the New Testament… God is fulfilling what he promised!
God did not forget what he promised. God is accomplishing what he promised.
Really highlights the difference between good news and good advice…
Tim Keller writes, “Advice urges you to make something happen. News urges you to recognize something that has already happened and to respond to it… Advice says it is all up to you to act. News says someone else has acted… These Gospel narratives are telling you not what you should do but what God has done… You don’t save yourself. God has come to save you.”
This often gets confused and becomes a controversial point of contention in Christianity… what do we do and what does God do?
But at the end of the day, Christianity teaches about good NEWS! The Bible is not an self-help guide book…
We don’t hike our way up to the throne room of God through any work of our own.
The reality is, we are in desperate shape… and it’s actually those who can admit their neediness and humble themselves that find favor with God a thing to be grasped.
“I remember roughly 6 and half years ago, a month after my first-born daughter, Stella was born, I went on a trip to England with some of the other pastors at the church… we were going over to see other church planters and support them
It was a great time and very encouraging.
And I remember coming home, coming up to my bedroom to unpack my bag and noticing that our carpeted floor was now bare wood.
And I was like, “Amber, you took the carpet up?!” She responded, “well actually the ceiling caved in on our bedroom because there was a leak in the roof...”
I am noticeably shocked at this point
She didn’t tell me. Rather, she called my dad. He contacted a couple guys and they fixed the roof, replaced the ceiling of our bedroom, removed the carpet, and cleaned the floor. IT LOOKED GREAT!
I came back home and received good news, not good advice. The fix was done despite me… it was a gift of grace!
I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t earn it.
I wouldn’t have known how to fix the ceiling or what to do… if Amber would have told me while I was gone, I would have been stressing the whole time.
I didn’t get advice… instructions on how to do it myself… it was done FOR ME, despite me!
It was a gift of grace!
This is what is happening with the INCARNATION. This is what Christmas is all about!
It’s good news!
…In my case, I could NOT refuse the gift. The ceiling was completely re-done, the roof was patched up, the floor was cleaned up and ready to go… IT WAS DONE!!!
Like this illustration I am describing, “Jesus comes whether humanity likes it or not… And Jesus takes on our frail experience… Jesus lives a sinless life we could never do… Jesus took our suffering on his shoulders… Jesus went to the cross to pay our sin debt… and Jesus resurrected the third day. He did all this despite us!”
Jesus came into the world as fully- God and fully-man, not because we had finally earned it… If you have read the Old Testament, you will notice, we simply proved that we would never earn it.
Jesus came because he promised us he would.
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
Jesus came in the flesh because he would not go back on what he promised even if we did!
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
“He has Visited and Redeemed His People” (vs. 68b)
And this is where I want to end today… we’re moving backwards in the text… but this passage really does start with end in mind!
Jesus came into the world to fulfill his promise to SAVE HIS PEOPLE!
Jesus did NOT come to give us good advice
Jesus did NOT come to help us help ourselves
Jesus did NOT come to model a way that we should then imitate to make our own way
JESUS DID EVERYTHING THAT WAS REQUIRED FOR US TO BE MADE RIGHT BEFORE A GOOD AND HOLY GOD THAT LOVES HIS CREATION!
In Jesus’ birth, the promises made to Abraham and Moses are being fulfilled…
And here’s the problem we face with this... We don’t trust most of the promises made to us…
Many of the promises made to us by people we love have been broken.
Frankly, we have broken some of the promises we have made.
The good news here is that God does not break his promises!
God does what he says he will do!
Reflecting on this passage reminded me of the dark season I was in in 2018 and 2019…
I found myself in a place where I didn’t know what to do… I was overextended, tired, doubting my faith, angry, losing hope… and all the while I was a pastor!
Looking back, I don’t know who that guy was… I was in such a weird, disorienting place… dealing with anxiety and depression and feeling hopeless. My thoughts were dark, I felt stuck and alone.
The past two years, I will often go back and read my journal from that time… and it is sad and scary.
I didn’t want to read the Bible, I didn’t want to pray… I was in this wrestle where the IDEAS about my faith and God were coming face-to-face with the REALITY of my brokenness and the brokenness of the world around me.
Many off us have ideas and intellectual beliefs about God
But what I learned through this season is that God didn’t want me to just have ideas… he wanted me to know and be known by him… he wanted relationship.
So in this doubt and angry place I would find myself in the Psalms and in the Gospels… And I would just weep.
Because no matter how much I would question the ideas of the Christian faith during this time, I couldn’t get away from Jesus and the heart of God and how he loves us!
Looking back now, it is beautiful how Christ held onto me in that season and patiently walked with me through my weakness.
Jesus was incarnational with me during that season!
He came to where I was… He was and is with me.
He didn’t expect me to fix myself...
As a matter of fact, I realized I had to go through that pain in order learn what it was to actually have a relational faith with Him!
I believe he is with you too!
God’s desire is to have the same kind of incarnational relationship with you… to be with… to be near… not just ideas and right-wrong beliefs… but a love relationship.
It’s interesting how so much of our faith can be about arguing ideas if we’re not aware … but God didn’t just give us ideas
What we celebrate in Advent is a God who draws near!
What we celebrate in Advent is a God who willingly stripped himself of aspects of his divine nature, he emptied himself to take on the form of a servant… to identify with you and with me… with the orphan and the widow… with the marginalized and destitute.
What we celebrate in Advent is a God who comes to us, where we are… because he loves us!
SUMMARY:
The Bible is honest about our situation. The world is a dark place. We can find ourselves in darkness.
But Christmas is about God’s GOOD NEWS to us! That God has fulfilled his promise!
That God has visited and redeemed his people!
Maybe you find yourself in a dark place… maybe you keep trying to find satisfaction in things that bring you shame and guilt…
Maybe you struggle with belief
Maybe this Christian walk has become confusing and tiring for you
REMEMBER friend —> The GOOD NEWS of God is that God draws near to the weak. God draws near to the humble. God comes to us where we are… because he loves us.
My prayer this morning is that you would be reminded of God’s love for you!
And that your Christianity would become more than about just ideas, but of faith and love!