SERMON: Christmas Light (Isaiah 9:2)

 

Christmas Light (Isaiah 9:2)

Series:               Christmas Messages                        Text:                 Isaiah 9:2

By:                    Shaun Marksbury                         Date:                December 24, 2023

Venue:              Living Water Baptist Church            Occasion:          PM Service

 

I.              Introduction

We’ve heard readings about our Savior this evening and enjoyed music together.  We’re in a season of joy and celebration.  One of the visuals which continues to arise from our readings, marked in our decorations, is that of light.

What is the significance of Christmas light?  We continue to see this metaphor in places like Isaiah 9:2, and it obviously points to Christ.  Yet, in what way does it illuminate the Christmas celebrations?  What is the significance of the Christmas light?

II.           The “Light” in Scripture Signifies God’s Presence

Isaiah already used the image of light in Isaiah 2:5.  There, we read, “Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”  The Reformation Study Bible notes there that this light signifies “God’s blessings, presence, and revelation.”  Of course, God’s grace on His people results in blessings in Him.  Yet, this is a direct result of the presence of God.  Even though God is omnipresent, there are restrictions to how one experienced His presence.

Consider where His presence was known.  God is everywhere, but often He restricted interactions with Him in places like the Garden of Eden and within the Temple of the Lord.  We are right to recognize God as omnipresent, but He has revealed particular means for experiencing His presence.

Often, though, God uses the image of light to reveal His presence.  Let’s consider the first moment in the creation narrative.  In Genesis 1:1–5, we read that God separates light from darkness.  Yet, as we continue reading in Genesis 1, this is before He created the sun, moon, and stars.  This primordial light emanated forth nonetheless.  What was it? 

Remember the shining cloud that led Israel out of Egypt to Sinai!  We’re about to read that in our Sunday morning Bible readings, where God made His presence known.  In fact, so intense is the radiance of this glory that, when Moses came from the presence of the Lord, his face shone (Exod. 34:29).  Later, as the children of Israel carried out their instructions and finished the tabernacle, the text says, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Exod. 40:34).  This light was a sign of God’s revelation and presence.

When Solomon dedicated the temple (1 Kings 8:10–11), God made Himself known there.  We read: “It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.”  The weight of God’s presence was so great that it forced all others out, but this was a verification that God was at work in that place.

The unfortunate reality is that, despite the Lord making Himself known, the people and their priests fell into idolatry.  Some of the idols were even kept in the temple!  Due to the continued idolatry there, God made His displeasure known as the revealed presence of the Lord departed from the temple.  This is recorded in Ezekiel 9:3, which says, “Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple.”  Chapters 9–11 describe this sad departure, and the children of Israel in exile would know that even the presence of God was absent Jerusalem.

After the Babylonian captivity, the Lord allowed the children of Israel to return.  Though God allowed Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple after the exile, God’s glory didn’t return!  The elders among them wept when they didn’t see it.  It wasn’t visible for a few hundred years.  Of course, that didn’t mean God wasn’t there — He’s everywhere.  Yet, He chose not to manifest His glory for some time.

It wouldn’t be until that Christmas evening that the glory would reappear.  As the shepherds tended their flocks, we read, “And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened” (Luke 2:9).

III.        The “Light” is the Messiah

The Isaiah verses in context speak of the coming Messiah.  Another is Isaiah 60:1 — “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.”  These verses all demonstrate the coming of the Messiah will illuminate His people.

We need the light of the Messiah because we dwell in spiritual darkness.  Our sins have separated us from God, and we need the light to show us the way.  This is exactly how John opens.  John 1 says,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.  He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In the case of the transfiguration, this is a literal radiance.  I doubt John and the others would ever forget what Jesus looked like, glorified as He was.  Yet, the bigger point is to consider the way the Light dispels the darkness of our souls and sin.

Peter addresses this when he talks about the glory of the Transfiguration.  Instead of harping on being there, he says we have a more sure word in prophecy (in Scripture), “to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts” (2 Pet. 1:19).  He wants to point his readers to the printed word, not himself.

It’s the word which can illuminate our path.  Paul further illuminates this truth in 2 Corinthians 4:3–6.  There, he writes,

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.   For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Paul highlights how the gospel reveals the glory of Christ, dispelling the veils that blind unbelievers.

Jesus came and tabernacled among us.  He reveals God to us, took on sin, and died for us.  He is the Light to all men.  Through Christ, God’s revelation, presence, and blessings are made available to us.

IV.        Conclusion

May the message of the gospel resound this Christmas.  May it fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”  Let us embrace the light of God’s presence found in Jesus Christ.