Waiting for Light

Intro

I remember once when I was in England an experience I had with light and dark. We where based out of a town just outside of London called Welwyn Garden City and would travel around from there being billeted out to different people along the way. I remember arriving in another town somewhere which I can not remember the name of anymore. After getting rocks thrown at us by some bored kids we started to set up in church hall for a youth event we where going to run later that evening. We where putting some stuff from the church in an old storage room they had that was really dark. I remember walking from the light to the hallway to the dark of the storage room and seeing something move and owe did I jump. It did scare me and I was about to hightail it out of there till I realized that the light from the hallway had cast a bit of a shadow of me on one of the walls and I was jumping at my own shadow.

The light is a powerful thing, it illuminates the darkness, and as we know not many people like living in Darkness. The light and the darkness, it is one of the main metaphors we see regarding the prophecies of the messiah

The prophecy addresses the fact that people look on the earth and see only distress and fearful gloom, and they know they will be thrust into utter darkness. But a time is coming when the people walking in darkness will see a great light, and on those living in the land of deep darkness a light will dawn. Light does several things: it shows reality (and therefore guides); it energizes (gives energy in place of lethargy); and it dispels darkness (light and darkness cannot coexist). We’ll also look at what Jesus says in John 9:5: “I am the light of the world.” What were people waiting for in the Old Testament? They were waiting for someone to speak into the darkness and gloom and replace it with light.

Today we will be looking at something else we are to be waiting for this Christmas season, we are to be waiting for the light of the world.

HBI - Jesus is the light of the world that overcomes the darkness and in Him alone is eternal life. John 1:4-5

John 1:4–5 CSB

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

The Word and the Light- John 1:1-5; 14

This is a huge passage, in the sense that the significance of what is being said here is huge. John is going right back to the beginning of time to set the stage for the divinity of the messiah. with all this talk of the light and the darkness you have to understand a little bit about the time that Jesus was born, why this made so much sense to them.

You see the people of Israel where used to hearing from God through the prophets throughout their history. They always had someone in their midst who talked with God and told them what they should do and not do, where they should go and not go. Suddenly after the prophet Malachi heard from God, suddenly God was silent and no longer spoke through the prophets.

They had the promise of the messiah, the had the words of the prophets probably written down on scrolls but God was silent. this darkness lasted for over 400 years as they waited to hear from God, as they waited for the prophesied messiah. Things got worse and worse for them. But the promise of the light that was going to come and pierce the darkness was something they looked forward to. The light being the messiah and the darkness being the rule of Rome.

So we look to John that starts out His gospel by reminding the readers that the coming of Jesus was the coming of the light, but yet so much more. John 1:1

John 1:1 (CSB)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In the beginning was the word, what does this even mean. for one this references way back to the beginning of time. John is starting right from the beginning when all there was, was darkness. Gen 1:1

Genesis 1:1 (CSB)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

We are introduced to the word which was with God in the beginning and jointly created the world with God. From timeless eternity God and the word have existed together and yert they are one. We have here a good example of what the trinity looks like but we will not so much focus on that. The word used here for “word” is logos which is the spoken word of God. What this is telling us is that Jesus has universal significance. That Jesus spoke with the authority of God for He was God and has always been. John 1:2 The words of Jesus, all that He spoke and taught where the words of God and has ultimate authority. The significance of this is that the word, Jesus, was the light of God that came to dispel the darkness.

John 1:2 (CSB)

He was with God in the beginning.

We see this echoed again in one of the I AM statements that we see Jesus make when He tells people that “Before Abraham was I AM. That is Jesus claiming to be the self existent one, That He always has and always will be, He is claiming to Be God and eternal.

all things where created through Christ, He has priority over creation, he is greater than all as we read in the book of Hebrews. He is the one true God and the savior of all. What He says will come to pass and He will forever reign. So we have set the stage that there was the word, which indicates God’s communication with us. And we know that all God’s words are true and will always come to pass. God’s personal communication with us, the word was with God and was God from the beginning of time.

The word brought life to all men who accept the word. This is not physical life that is being talked about but spiritual life. In the coming messiah, who is God and has been from the beginning, tieing the whole bible together till now, we have eternal life. We have life in the messiah. And here is what they were waiting for that the word, the messiah the one who is God and is coming to earth is light in the darkness. John 1:4-5

John 1:4–5 (CSB)

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

The light in the darkness I want to get into one more verse before I explain this a little bit, verse 14 tells us that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. John declaring what they all would have known is that Jesus was the Word, the one that was God and was with God came to dwell in our midst. Why is this important? it sets the stage to show that Jesus was the messiah, Jesus was God, was in the beginning with God and yet was separate and distinct from God. I know, mind blowing inst it.

establishing who Jesus is, and His divinity we see that Jesus The light in the darkness is the eternal life that is offered to all who believe. This is what we await for, what we are living for, wqhat we look for this Christmas season. The fact that Jesus is the light in the darkness of sin and death.

stuff is easy to hide in the darkness. When I wanted to hide something as a kid I would pick the deepest darkest hole I could find. I Once wanted to hide something as a kid at home. We had the entrance to the attic crawl space in our room so I reached into the dark, under the insulation and shoved it in there away from the light. What I have found over time, why the message of light and dark works so well is that It is easy to hide in the dark. Easy to hide the sin, all the things we are dealing with. Sin thrives in secrecy and darkness because it can remain hidden away from all to see.

And why people hate the light is because all their flaws, all their sin, all the things they try to hide are now exposed for God to see.

We can not hide anything in the light of the messiah. But the beauty of it is that we do not have to hide anymore because Jesus promises forgiveness, even as He exposes the darkness in us he says we can be forgiven.

This is what we get into next.

The message of the Light - John 1:6-13

First we read about John the Baptist, someone who came to testify about the coming of the light in the darkness but was not the light. This is important because people had been confused, was John the messiah? He made sure they knew He was not. John 1:10-11

John 1:10–11 (CSB)

He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

The creator of the world came to them in human form and the majority of them did not recognize Him, they did not receive him. And it is still the case now, people miss out on the coming of the light, and I think a lot of it is to do with the fact that they hate what the light of the messiah shows them. They hate their sins exposed. Because then what this means is they now have to make amends for all that they have done. once your sins are exposed and committed to God, then the next step is to seek reconciliation with those you may have wronged by what you have done. This is by no means a fun proscess. but the end result, knowing that your sins are in the past and forgiven by the messiah, so worth the pain.

But alas peoples attitudes remain that they do not want to deal with it, for fear that what they have done is so horrible that they can not be forgiven. I knew a guy like this, I kept trying to share the gospel with him and invite him to join me in church, but he said that he feared God would strike him with lightening if dared to enter a church. Or maybe it is because people do not think they have done anything wrong.

But why is it that we wait for the light? The other side to this is John 1:12

John 1:12 (CSB)

But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name,

That light of the messiah, if we allow it to penetrate our lives gives life eternal! It is a wonderful metaphor because light is one of the things that everything needs to survive. Without light we wither and die. But the light of the messiah offers eternal life and enables us to become children of God. This is what we wait for this advent season, this is what we remember that

The light of the Messiah is life eternal and enables all who come to Him to become children of God!

Did you get that? eternal life is what the light of the messiah offers us, that is what the message of Christmas is, looking forward to the again coming of the messiah the light shines and overcomes the darkness of Satan. John 1:13

John 1:13 (CSB)

who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

This continues that thought, those who believe in the name of Jesus, who allow the light of messiah to penetrate thier lives and give their lives to Him are then born not of this world but become a new creation. There decent is not natural of this world, they no longer live according to the flesh or at least seek not to live according to the flesh but live their lives according to God seeking to shine the light of eternal life to other people so they might be born again of God.

So What?

And since I have run out of time I will have to end there but to leave you with a few things. What are you waiting for? We are to be activley waiting for the messiah. We are to wait in the light of the messiah. The first thing that we remember is that

In the light of Jesus is life that the darkness of Satan will never overcome.

it is with reassurance and hope that we remember that the prince of darkness will never overcome the light of the messiah. Satan tries to steal away from the flock but we must stand firm, we must not be afraid knowing that our saviour has won, the end is written.

it may be hard now, knowing that we may be tempted and attacked by Satan and his minions. It is difficult knowing that Jesus has allowed this to happen for a short while. But our strength comes from the eternal one, the never changing one who which Satan will never overcome.

The light of Jesus enables us to be born again as children of God.

we are not of this world as His children, that is the heavenly calling that we have that even though we may die here, our eternal home is in heaven for all eternity. We are all children of God, for those that have called on His name and live according to His word.

John 1:16 “Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness,”

Grace upon grace is what we recievce. we do not deserve any of it but Jesus deals with us on the basis of His grace. If he dealt with us on the basis of truth and what we have done, none of us would survive. But through the grace of God which we do not deserve we become children of God.