A Light Shines in the Darkness

Endeavor to worship Jesus Christ.

And it's a pleasure to do that with you all this morning here in Mason.

So I'm so glad you're here.

My name is Casey.

I'm one of the elders here at Missio Day North, and I'm the pastor of Spiritual Formation.

If I haven't met you, I would love to do that.

I'll be around afterward back by the welcome table.

I'd love to shake your hand and get to know you a little bit.

So please come up, introduce yourself.

Here at Missio, one of our core identities is that we want to be a city-focused church.

We say that we exist to establish and multiply gospel-centered, city-focused church communities.

Last week we spent some time together praying that the Lord would help us to be a gospel-centered people, that all that we do would revolve around the finished work of Jesus Christ to save sinners.

And so this week, I would like to take just a couple of brief moments for us to pray together that the Lord would then help us to be a city-focused church.

Here's what we mean by that.

We want to be a church that humbly learns from the culture around us, the culture in which God has placed us in.

And then we want to be a congregation.

We want to be a people who then generously gives back to that culture in ways that are saturated with the love of Jesus as we care for people, as we engage with the needs of our community, listening to those needs, and then engaging with them, and then ultimately sharing with them the good news that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save us.

And so this morning, let's take just a couple of moments.

I'll lead us in a word of prayer while I'm praying.

If you would like to join with me in praying, please feel free to do that.

But let's pray.

Father, you are good to us in innumerable, immeasurable ways.

Many of those ways are in seen in the culture around us, these common graces, we could call them.

And so, Father, we want to be a people who humbly lives among the culture that you've placed us in and listens and pays attention to the people around us, to the needs around us.

And then through the lens of the gospel, out of a heart that has been bought by Jesus and freed from sin, we then want to be a people who gives back to this culture the love of Jesus in extravagant ways.

Ultimately, Father, culminating in telling them that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners.

And that if they would trust in him alone, they could be saved.

Father, help us to listen humbly and to give generously.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen and amen.

Thank you for praying with me.

This morning we'll be in John, the Gospel of John.

It's in the New Testament.

We'll start in chapter one.

John chapter one, we're going to read verses one through five together.

We're beginning this Advent season.

Advent is simply a word that means coming.

And so historically, uh the celebration of Advent has particularly been two things.

First, it's been the celebration of the first coming of Jesus Christ to a small little transient town called Bethlehem.

And then it's been a joyful anticipation of the day when Jesus Christ will come again.

He will return to consummate his kingdom.

That is to set all things right again.

And so as we launch into that, we're going to begin in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

This is where we're going to spend the next four weeks together.

And so when you find your place, if you're able and if you're willing, would you mind standing with me as we read God's Word?

This is John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.

John 1:1–5

Hear the word of the Lord.

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 were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Pray with me once more.

Father, may you illumine our hearts and stir in us by your Spirit eyes that can see clearly the beauty of Jesus and the gospel.

Have your way this morning.

Work in us and through us.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen and amen.

You can be seated.

Thank you.

Four hundred years of silence.

There had not been a prophet among them bringing them the words of God for over four hundred years.

The people who were awaiting their Messiah, waiting for the one who was promised to deliver them from the darkness of this world, they themselves are now entrenched in both darkness and silence.

They cried out like the psalmist in Psalm 74 as he writes, We do not see your signs.

And they cry out to God, How long, O God, why do you hold back your hand from us?

Silence and darkness is the context in which we find ourselves in this text this morning.

A dark world, a waiting people, and seemingly a silent God.

And then all of a sudden, light.

And unlike Mark in his gospel account, who begins at the baptism of Jesus, or Luke, who begins at Jesus' birth, or even Matthew's account, where he goes all the way back to Abraham in the genealogy of Jesus, John takes us back to the very beginning of all things.

In fact, he takes us back even before the beginning, helping us to understand both the intensity of the darkness in this world and the divine power of the light of Jesus Christ to defeat that darkness.

So as we set off into John chapter 1 for this Advent season, we're going to start where John starts at the very beginning.

John 1 · chapter mention

And as John takes us back to the beginning, back even before the creation of the world, and then sets the scene for us, we see this overarching theme, and it's this.

This is our summary this morning.

If you get nothing else, I hope you remember this.

Joy has dawned because the light of Christ has shone into a dark world.

Joy has dawned because the light of Christ has shone into a dark world.

We're going to see really four main things.

Number one, these are kind of going to be in subsequent order as we work our way through the text.

So follow with me and we'll kind of circle around and bring it all together.

The first, the word is the eternal God.

Look at verses one and two.

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

He was in the beginning with God.

Here in verses one and two, we find one of the most dense and crucial statements in perhaps all of Scripture.

John makes three affirmations and then solidifies his claim in verse two by reiterating and summarizing those three affirmations.

He starts by saying this: In the beginning was the word.

This word, according to one theologian, is God expressing himself.

And John doesn't say that in the beginning was a word, but the word.

No, John is giving us a name.

He's telling us of a person.

And this person is called the Word.

And in verse 14 of John chapter 1, which we'll get to later in the Advent season, we find out that John is telling us, he defines who he's talking about.

John 1 · chapter mention

He's telling us of the person of Jesus.

John tells us that Jesus is the Word, who is in the beginning.

And it's interesting the way that John phrases this when he writes it.

In the beginning was the Word.

In essence, what he's writing is that at the time of the beginning, before anything else began to be, the Word or Jesus was.

Or it could be translated, before anything was created, the Word was.

And by the use of this specific language, we know that John isn't saying that Jesus came into existence at this time or that he was created prior to the other creation.

No, John is making very clear with very specific language that before any creation took place, before anything was brought into order, Jesus fully was.

He didn't simply predate the other creation, but he was completely himself eternally, before any creation ever occurred.

And then John continues with this second affirmation.

He says, And the Word was God.

Or I'm sorry, the Word was with God.

So in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, which he goes on to reiterate again in verse number two.

So not only do we see that Jesus fully existed before all of creation, that he was, that he eternally existed, but by this we also see two things.

First, that Jesus was distinct in person from the Father.

John doesn't write that the Word was in the beginning and he was God, and that's it.

No, he also affirms there to be a distinction in persons between God the Father and Jesus the Word.

But second, we also see that they were in union with one another.

Both God the Father and Jesus the Word in union together.

This wasn't simply to be in the same vicinity as each other.

This wasn't just John saying Jesus and God were hanging out.

No, it was a statement of unity between these two distinct persons.

The word was with God in unity and distinction.

Then at the end of verse one, John gives this affirmation.

He says, And the word was God.

This singular statement is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world.

Christianity doesn't simply claim that there is a God, but that this one God exists eternally in three distinct and yet co-equal and co-eternal persons the Father, the Word, or the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Our confession of faith, the second London Baptist Confession of Faith, if you'd like to read more on this, states it like this.

In this divine and infinite being, there are three subsistences or three persons, the Father, the Word or Son, and the Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided.

Now, I get that you're thinking, why in the world are we talking about this right now?

What does all of these, what do all of these big words and grand concepts and deep theological uh uh uh terms have to do with Advent?

I get it.

Here's the answer.

If Jesus is not God, then nothing about his birth, his death, or his resurrection matters.

If Jesus is not God, then it has no effect on your salvation or the salvation of the world.

And therefore, it is crucial for us to understand as we launch into this joyful season of celebrating the coming of Jesus, that we understand that who we're celebrating is God coming to put on flesh.

God the Son being sent out by God the Father, empowered by God the Holy Spirit, to redeem his world.

Jesus, the word, is the eternal God.

Second, God created all things.

Verse number three.

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

God the Father, according to his divine plan, spoke.

And God the Word, who is Jesus, then created all things by his power.

The heavens and the earth, the fish and the birds and the animals on the earth, all of this made, created by him.

And John even goes so far to say that without him was not anything made that was made.

That's a pretty all-encompassing statement.

Nothing that has ever been made was made apart from Jesus.

If you draw, if you think about this in your mind, or I don't care if you want to do it on a piece of paper, if you draw two circles, and in one of those circles, you put everything that is created.

Everything.

And then in the other circle, you put the things that were not created, according to the scriptures here.

If we do that, over in this circle is everything that has been made.

Everything.

Everything that has been made.

Over here you have everything that has not been made.

And then in our text, John says, everything that was made was made by Jesus.

And nothing was made apart from Jesus.

These words are emphatic absolutes.

Everything.

Nothing.

And so if over here we have everything that was ever created, we have over here things that weren't created, where should Jesus go in this equation?

Not created.

He's eternal.

He's God.

But as the eternal God, he created all things.

Nothing was made without him.

And so Jesus created all these things.

And Genesis tells us that he created these good.

He looked out over everything that he had made and he declared them to be good.

What a beautiful thing.

Think about God looking out over all of his creation.

After six days of speaking things into existence.

And he looked out and he said, Yeah, that's that's good.

But then creation was distorted by darkness.

Jesus creates all things, he declares them good, and then in Genesis chapter three, God tells Adam and Eve that they have all of this good creation to live in and to rule over and to manage and to declare God's glory as his image bearers.

But he gives them one instruction.

He says, if you eat of that tree, you will surely die.

God looks out over his good creation, tells his image bearers, you have free reign over all of it.

But don't touch this tree.

For your good and for your joy, do not touch this tree, or you will die.

But after being tempted by the evil one, Adam and Eve disobeyed.

They ate of the tree.

And the consequence for that, as God has told them, was death.

But the consequence was not only on Adam and Eve.

See, all people who came after them, and all of God's creation that he had just declared good because of this rebellion, because Adam and Eve decided to satisfy their own needs rather than believing and trusting in the God who had made them.

All of creation was cursed.

And so what God had just looked out and declared good, he now looks out and declares cursed.

All men and women, children, all beasts, all land, all water, all air, all emotions, all actions, all cares, all loves, all joys, all of it cursed by sin.

And in the creation account, we see God speak over the darkness, let there be light, and there was light.

But now, through the curse of sin, darkness has fell over all of God's creation once again.

And this spiritual darkness brought death to everything.

We suffer and we become sick, we grow old, we feel loss, we rebel, we abuse God's good gifts, we distort the things that we were given, that were given to us by God for us to enjoy, for us to care for and to watch over, and yet we distort them.

We abuse relationships, we abuse sex, we abuse alcohol, we distort our gifts for our own glory, trying to make ourselves to be God.

We manipulate people, we manipulate facts and circumstances to feed our own desires, or we could sum it up like this we are in darkness.

The good creation that Jesus made in the beginning for our enjoyment and for his glory, we now distort and mangle and abuse for our own glory.

And the sin within us is so strong, it's so pervasive.

That a little later in John chapter 3, we read that we're not just in darkness, but we love darkness.

John 3 · chapter mention

We prefer it.

It's where we gratify ourselves, it's where we serve our Own needs.

It's where we push others down.

It's where we can hide and feel like we're not being found out.

All of creation, even our own hearts, friends, are distorted by the darkness of sin and evil by the curse in this world.

But here is the good news of Advent.

Light shines in the darkness.

In him was life, John writes in verse 4.

And the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

This is the good news of the coming of the eternal God in the flesh.

Jesus is not only the eternal word, but he is also the light of life that has shone into the darkness of this world, into the deep dark crevices of our own hearts.

A little later in his account, John writes in chapter 8, verse 12, he says, I am the light of the world.

And whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

And again, in chapter 12, verse 46, I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

Though all creation finds itself under the curse of sin, Jesus Christ has brought the illuminating light of God into the world by putting on flesh, by coming as a baby in that small town in Bethlehem.

He has not left us in the dark.

See, through Jesus, he has kept his promise to send a seed of the woman to crush the evil one and to win his people back.

In the beginning, God creates, he speaks, light breaks into the darkness.

He declares it good.

Adam rebels.

He disobeys God and darkness comes back into the world.

It creeps over and under and into everything.

We make our way up through history, up through the kings, up through the prophets.

We get to this period of silence in the people who are soaked in their darkness, waiting for the promised one to come, and they have heard nothing.

No word, no prophet.

How long, O Lord, will you not raise your hand?

And God speaks.

And rather than in a word creating light, the word robes himself in human flesh.

Becoming like us, becoming the light.

Becoming the very word that these people were longing for.

There has been nothing but darkness and silence, and Jesus comes as both the light and the word.

He has not left us in the dark.

Matthew Henry, he was a 17th-century Welsh pastor and theologian.

He wrote this.

He says, light is self-evidencing and will make it self-known.

The eternal word as God shines in the darkness of our natural consciences.

And though men by the fall are become darkness, yet that which may be known of God is this light shining in that darkness.

When we think of Jesus Christ coming to this earth as a baby, we must move beyond the gazing, starry-eyed scene of the nativity, and we must see that God is waging war against the darkness.

Because he has not left us to be defeated.

He has not left us to ourselves.

This is God stepping into the darkness of sin and evil and death and shining a light on it that cannot be stopped.

And as John wrote in chapter 12, whoever will believe in this light, that is, whoever will trust in Jesus Christ alone will not remain in the darkness, but will be brought into the light.

And friends, this is good news, both on a personal level, as God is making us new by faith, when we come to Jesus the light, turning away from our sin and our attempts to self gratify and self-justify, trying to save ourselves, when we step away from that and we turn from that and fall at the feet of Jesus alone.

John says that we will not remain in darkness, but will be in the light through the work of Jesus Christ applied to us by the Holy Spirit.

This is good news on a personal level.

But this is also good news on a cosmic level.

See, through the light of life, God the Son coming to this earth in the flesh, he is restoring all his creation little by little back to its good state.

When he created all things in the beginning, he declared all his creation to be good.

And through the light of Jesus Christ shining into this dark world, there will come a day, once again, when we will be able to look out over all of God's creation and not see it mangled and marred and abused, but see it to be good.

And friends, the darkness will not stop the light of Christ from going out.

His kingdom will continue throughout all the world as Jesus continues to save his people and to take back all that has been stolen by the enemy.

See, this is good news personally.

Because what it means for the kingdom of God to come into the world is that Jesus is making us right again.

He is defeating the effects of the curse.

And it's good news on a cosmic level because Jesus coming into this world means that all of his creation will one day be restored to its purpose of glorifying God for our joy and for our good, not for our abuse and our consumption to glorify and gratify ourselves for the glory of God.

And brothers and sisters, one day Jesus will return again.

And at that time, both individually and cosmically, all things will be made right again.

So as we look forward to that day, here are a couple of practices that we can walk in as we understand the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem and look forward to the coming of Jesus again.

A couple of things first.

Let the light of Christ shine into the dark places of your heart.

Here's what I mean.

Don't hide in the dark.

See, we think that hiding makes it all right.

That if nobody else can see it, then nothing is, no one's being hurt, nothing's being done.

But Jesus shining into the darkness tells us that freedom lies in stepping out of the dark.

So don't hide.

Confess.

Bring it into the light and be forgiven.

And second, as the light of Christ is shown on us as Christians, now we are called to be the light of Christ to our neighbors and to the world around us.

Jesus, who is God in the flesh, came as the light, bringing us from darkness to light, and then sending us out, saying, You now are the light of the world.

And so we shine.

We shine to our neighbors, we shine to the nations.

We have brothers and sisters right now in Turkey and in Paris and in Kosovo, all shining the light of Jesus Christ.

So a couple of things.

Invite a new neighbor into your home during Advent.

This is an incredible season and a really easy season to bring a new neighbor into your house.

Invite them over for a delicious meal, for a drink.

Talk to them about Jesus.

This world is a dark place.

And our neighbors need the light of Christ.

Second, serve someone who is in need just as Christ humbled himself to serve us.

Look around.

We want to be a city-focused people who looks at the culture around us, learns from it, and then gives back to the love of Christ and sharing the gospel of Christ.

Let's use this Advent season as a way of looking around us, seeing a need, and then stepping into that need just like Jesus did for us.

As we go out, celebrate with me that joy has dawned because the light of Christ has shown into a dark world.

Father, thank you that though we loved our darkness.

Father, as we tend to abuse your creation, you have made this creation for our good and for our joy that we may glorify you.

And through your Son's coming, and when he comes again, all of this will be restored.

So Father, help us to not hide in the darkness where we think uh all is covered, but help us step into true freedom, which is in the light of Christ.

Exposed, being laid bare before grace, and trusting by faith that in Him alone we can be forgiven of our sins and can be made right with God and come into the kingdom, be sons and daughters with all of their benefits.

Father, help us then to engage our neighbors and the nations with the light of Christ as you sent us out on mission, bearing this light to the world around us.

We pray all of this in Christ's name.

Amen and amen.

This morning we believe that uh the rhythm in the scriptures and in our lives is uh the proclamation of truth uh and then a response to it.

Truth demands response, right?

And so we like to provide space for us to respond to the word of God.

We believe that hearing God's word provokes us, it leads us to a response.

And so this morning, here are at least uh three ways that we can respond.

First, through prayer.

If you uh if the spirit has stirred in your heart this morning through the reading of the word and the preaching of the word, uh, and you would like someone to pray with you specifically about that, uh, I will be uh in the back by the welcome booth right after this.

I'll step down and I'll walk back there.

And I would love to pray with you.

Um if you uh are struggling, if you are um feeling that you would rather hide in the dark than step out into the light, but the Lord is stirring you.

I would love to pray with you and help you walk through that.

If you are feeling the ramifications of the darkness in this world, but you would like to ask that the Holy Spirit would push back that darkness in your life, I would love to pray with you about that.

Or you can simply pray uh with your family or by yourself in your seat.

You can also fill out a connect card if you would like for us to continue with you in prayer.

The second way is by uh giving.

Giving is a worshipful and a sacrificial response to God as He has generously sacrificed for us, we then respond in generosity.

And so one of the ways that we do that is by giving in our tithes and offerings.

There's a couple of baskets here, um, and then uh some up here as well.

Uh, and so uh you can give this morning.

The main way that we respond here at Missio is through communion.

Communion is a response to true faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This bread that you'll see broken on the table.

It represents for us the body of Jesus broken as he suffered under the wrath of God for sinners.

This wine that's in the cup, it's in the uh in the cup and the bowl, this represents the blood of Jesus that was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins.

In this meal, we're remain we are reminded of the reality that Jesus, through his broken body and through his poured out blood, has conquered the darkness of this world.

He's brought light to all those who trust in him by faith alone.

And so if you believe this this morning, come and receive with us communion in a little while when we come to the table.

Jesus is present with us at the table, and he offers himself to us by faith.

If you've gathered with us this morning and you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, you have not turned from your sin and believe in Christ alone to save you, to bring you from darkness to light, then in these few moments we would simply ask that you would uh uh stay in your seat and not come to the table.

It's not because we think there's anything divine in the bread or the cup, but we believe that this is a meal for the people of God, for the family of God.

And so instead, we would encourage you to spend a couple of moments in prayer, asking that the Lord, by his grace, would show you first your condition apart from Jesus, that you need a savior, and that he would then show you beautifully that Jesus is that sufficient Savior, that if you would trust in him, you'd be forgiven of your sins and made right with God.

As we continue in our time of response, we want to join together in what is a corporate confession of sin.

If you recognize your shortcomings in remaining obedient to God's word, like I do, and would like to join with me in confessing that.

Would you read with me?

This will be on the screen, read with me the underlined portions.

Help us, O God, because we have too often chosen the darkness over your light.

Come, Lord Jesus, forgive us and restore us.

We choose our own path over your guiding truth.

Come, Lord Jesus, guide us and deliver us.

We are in great need of your gracious renewal.

Come, Lord Jesus, teach us and renew us.

Amen.

Band's gonna lead us as we continue in declaring the praises of God.

You can feel free to respond as you feel well.

All who hunger for Christ's righteousness and thirsts to live in obedience to Him.

Take and eat.

Remember and believe that the body of Christ is the bread of heaven given for the nourishment of our faith.

Take and drink.

Remember and believe that the blood of Christ is the cup of our salvation, given for the cleansing of our sins.

In this supper, God declares to us that our sins have been completely forgiven through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself finished on the cross once and for all.

In His resurrection, we are grafted into Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Your resurrection, we are filled with joy.

We invite you guys to go forward to the tables up here as you feel it's just kind of as a traffic channel where you guys have lights on the outside.

So when you have taken subject chairs to the side.

The place of meetings.

Three seven meets.

Three seven means for men.

Today we sing with all creation.

Praises of my father.

Oh praise.

Alléluia.

That's the subject.

Oh praise.

Oh praise.

Alléluia.

Alléluia.

Alléluia.

Alléluia.

Alléluia.

And praise.

This is our church.

By his blood.

And young and rejoice in his great love.

And all praise him.

Hallelujah.

Christ has defeated us.

Amen.

Our call to victory comes from.

John three sixteen says, For God so loved the world that he gave his son.

That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to be the devil.

But in order that the world might be saved for man.

Verse 2 is one of my favorite verses of the way it talks about the feet of the Jesus.

So it's we have to like put our minds and that place.

Today is the church that is our hope.

There's our father prayer that gives you hope and that brings light and joy to your day that sets your week up to go and proclaim the excellencies of God that calls you out of the heart.

We need that guilty.

It's a blessing to the road.

It's received by raising a hand.

It's like this You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do people light a lamp or put it under a basket, but on a sand.

And it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works.

Give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Amen?

Peace be with you.

Yeah, they're gonna they're gonna go back to my parents and we're gonna go down.

It's crazy.

Yeah, and the board is funny.

He's like he's like legit genius.

And so it's weird.

You shouldn't be able to talk to a seven-year-old about it.

That's funny.

Yeah, man.

Uh kids.

Yeah, yeah, we've got last week we had about 130 people all together, adulting kids.

This week we're about 110 with everybody together.

Um so uh yeah, so it's it's going well.

Yeah, awesome.

We love how you're gonna do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yeah, we'd love to have you guys.

We've we've so it's um with with like all you know, like marriage stuff and all that going on, I I didn't want to take away from any of that, but I'd love to sit down with you and just kind of talk through kind of where we're going, what our plan is, uh, and uh you know, I wouldn't be bashful, say, hey, I think you guys could really have to fit in here if you want to think about it.

So