The Way of Light - Christmas

Oh, it is a good, and it is a blessed thing to be here indeed.

And so my intent this morning is to attempt to keep things relatively

tight and succinct for the sake of you parents with children.

but we all know they are famous.

Last words said by day, all quite regularly, a moments like this.

But anyway, we will attempt none.

So this morning we are continuing our subseries, the Way of Light,

which is a part of our bigger series, which is uncovering the way of Jesus.

And you know, what's exciting about this morning, other than we get

to talk about Jesus and Christmas, which is quite wonderful, is that

I get to speak all by myself.

It's like a little Christmas gift just for me.

Like if you, if you head to your guest here this morning, you're

wondering what is she talking about throughout this uncovering the way

of Jesus series, which we have been in for about a million weeks now.

We have been doing a more conversational format, which many of you, according

to the feedback we received, had deeply appreciated the conversational style.

Our, however, turned out to not be so good at sharing and, I prefer to

do things on my own, but that's, I'm a work in progress with the Lord.

on that one.

So let us begin by diving into our passage of scripture for this

morning, which is found in the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

So John, one verses one to 14.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God.

And the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him, all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made.

That has been made in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

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

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might

believe he himself was not the light.

He came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him,

the world did not recognize him.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him yet.

To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave

the right to become children of God.

Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a

husband's will, but born of God.

The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from

the Father full of grace and truth.

And now John eight, verse 12.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Amen.

All right, so.

As many of you're aware for this past week or so, uh, Adam and I and our

wonderful family have been down in Bustleton on our annual pilgrimage down

to the Baptist campsite there, which we do around this time every year.

And there was one particular evening as we were down there.

It was a Sunday evening, last Sunday evening, and we found ourselves standing

on the beach at this particular sunset.

In a posture of awe and wonder of what was happening in the sky around us.

It was truly, truly beautiful.

And I have some photos here so that you can feel like

you were there as part of it.

And photos don't really do it justice, capture it, but we watched the sky light

up in the most amazing and phenomenal.

Of ways, and it looks like that might be the sun there falling

down the horizon, but it's not.

The sun is actually behind us in that photo and for some reason

the sky is lighting up like this and the next photo here.

And we watched the storm come along the horizon and we watched the sun

as it descended, just light up these storm clouds in the most amazing way.

And then the next photo here, we watched lightning light.

Up the sky around us.

It was truly a wonderful awe inspiring evening as we beheld the

marvel and the wonder of the light.

But that same day that we found ourselves standing on this beach

marveling at the light, was the same day that our country was reeling from a

manifestation of darkness so horrendous that it truly defies understanding.

And yet even in the darkness that descended on Bondi, on that same

day that we were beholding the light on the beach, did we not also

witness light piercing that darkness?

In Ephesians four, the apostle Paul writes to the church that they ought

to live as children of light, and that the fruit of light consists in

all that is good and right and true.

And as those terrible events unfolded in Bondi last week, what did we see?

We saw people putting themselves in the path of darkness to save others.

And was that not moment of light in the darkest of darkness, people behaving in

ways that are so good and bright and true.

Light piercing the darkness, light being reflected in these darkest of moments.

And that has been our theme this month, the Way of light.

And so now we turn to John's first chapter, which is about

Jesus coming into the world.

And this is essentially John's way of explaining the meaning of Christmas,

which yes is a little different from the more traditional take that we find

in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

No manger account for John.

There's just a whole lot of light going on.

I don't know if you notice that 'cause amongst this rich passage,

which we read at the beginning, one theme indeed very clearly stands out.

The word light appears seven times, and that's no accident.

Light and darkness is central to how John tells the story of Jesus

and how humanity has celebrated Christmas throughout history.

From candles to glowing trees from this passage.

From first chapter of John's Gospel, I want us this morning

to consider three questions.

These three questions.

What does God want?

What do we need and what have we been created to be and to do?

And I guess if I could give you a gift this Christmas, it was that you.

You would be haunted and hounded by these three questions that you wouldn't

just consider them for these moments that we have together, but through our

Christmas, you would actually be haunted by these three questions because to

wrestle with these three questions and pursue true answers to them is to lead

you to a truly wonderful place, a truly transformative place, because I think

if we come to an understanding of how this passage in John's gospel answers

these really important questions.

What we end up doing is we end up beholding the light and that light

ends up transforming us, and then we become transformed into people

who are able to share and shine the light of Christ in a way that

overcomes the darkness in our world.

So let us wrestle with this first question together.

What does God want?

What does this passage reveal about the heart of God?

The intent of God, the themes of darkness and light.

They are present throughout scripture.

The theme of light entering into and overcoming darkness is everywhere.

Throughout the whole testimony of the word of God present from the

very first page into the very last.

And so when John writes in the beginning here, at the beginning of

his gospel, he's doing a shout out.

To Genesis chapter one, verses one to three.

In the beginning it says right to the very first page of our Bibles, God

creates the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth is formless and void.

It tells us darkness is over the surface of the deep.

The spirit of God is hovering over the waters and God says, let there be light.

And there was.

Then at the very end of the Bible, likely the very same.

John who's writing John's Gospel here in Revelations 21 and two, he

writes God's dwelling place in the fullness, in the fullness of time.

Our reality will be that God's dwelling place is now among his people.

He will dwell with them, they will be his people, and God Himself

will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death, mourning, crying pain.

The old order will have passed away.

No longer will there be any curse.

The curse of death, they will no longer need the light of a

lamp or the light of the sun.

For the Lord God will give them light.

From these words of scripture, what do you notice?

What do you hear?

What idea?

What truth?

What promise?

What hope?

What do these words that we read from John's gospel, what do they reveal

about the heart and the nature and the intent of God for the world?

What can we understand from these passages about what God.

Once does he wanna punish?

Is he angry and vengeful?

Because that is often the perception of God.

They're not just the world has but so many who were called themselves a

part of the body of Christ as well.

Does he wanna pun punish?

Is he angry?

Is he vengeful?

Is that who He is?

What we see, what I think we see is a God who breaks through darkness.

Not just to bring light to those who were lost and trapped in darkness,

but to come as the very light himself.

And if we work to see through all the light pollution that fills

our modern Christmas season, as we turn down all the manufactured

light and allow the true light of Christmas to shine, what do we see?

What can we know?

What can we be assured of?

We can know this.

God wants to be with us.

God wants to be with us.

What a thing that is the creator of all the cosmos.

I heard something the other day.

I should have fact checked it so someone can fact check this for me.

But I heard someone say that within the universe there are more planets

than seconds that have been existed since the beginning of humanity.

Okay.

Get your heads around that.

Right.

And we like to think of ourselves as the center of the universe.

Wow.

Just wow.

And this God who created all this, this vast, expansive, beautiful,

wondrous universe that we've barely scratched the surface of understanding,

wants to come and dwell with us.

That is the meaning of Christmas.

What a thing that is indeed.

What a truth to behold.

God wants to be with us, dwell with us.

He wants us to have the light to dwell with him, to have the light

of life, to never walk in darkness.

What a gift.

Best Christmas present ever.

Really don't you think?

Mm. So what does God want?

He wants to dwell with his people.

Next question, what do we need?

Verses four and five say, in him was life, and that life

was the light of all mankind.

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

If you're in a dark place today, my friends, would you take hope

from this truth, no matter your darkness, no matter the pain, no

matter the loss, the loneliness, whatever your darkness might be, the

light of Christ is able to overcome.

May the light of Christ pierce your darkness this Christmas season as you

behold the truth of the Christmas story.

So the prophet Isaiah, he famously wrote, 700 years before the birth

of Jesus, the people living in darkness have seen a great light.

That light is Jesus Christ, the divine light entering human

history to bring salvation.

So Christmas is God shining his light on those living in deep darkness.

So if you are in deep darkness.

The light of Christ is there for you waiting to enter into that darkness.

The time of Jesus' arrival was in a time of incredible deep

darkness for the people of God.

We think we are living in a whole lot of darkness.

But my gosh, nothing compared to what the people of God were enduring at

the time of Jesus' birth, living as exiles in their own land, under Roman

occupation, waiting for God, having waited decades for God's redemption

and rescue burdened most of them, to a subsistence kind of living under

this brutal three-pronged tax system.

They're being taxed by the Romans.

They're being taxed Jewish temple taxes.

And they've got Herod's taxes as well.

So most of them are just, most of their incomes go into taxes.

They're ruled by a violent and deeply compromised King, king Herod, who

would go on to command the slaughter not long after the birth of Jesus,

of all these baby boys under the age of two, because so neurotic was he so

fearful and afraid of losing his power.

This is dark times, isn't it?

This is very, very, very dark, and in the midst of all of this darkness, the

people of God themselves trying to find their way in the dark, they are so divided

over how to stay faithful to Yahweh.

You've got the Pharisees believing that the way is through strict

Torah obedience, follow the law, be obedience and law, make more rules.

So many rules, so much law.

That'll be the way, Sadducees the way is through cooperation with Rome, cozying up

to power so that we can keep our power.

The Enes the way is through withdrawing, retreating from society

and just waiting for God to show up.

And then the zealots opposite The way is through violent resistance and revolt,

not so different to how we find the church responding in our day and age.

Hey, to the darkness around us.

Some leaning into law and legalism.

Well, we just gotta get in positions of power.

And others are like, we just gotta head for the hills and disconnect separate.

And others, like we just fight.

Fight the man.

Fight the power, right?

These are not new things.

These are false lights though.

False ways of staying faithful to God.

They won't heal, they won't deliver, they won't save, they won't push back.

The darkness, actually, all of them end up aligning with the darkness

with the best of intentions.

So what John tells us is the light that we need, the light that

the world needs, that it exists.

And then scripture tells us who this light is.

We need a light that is beyond ourselves to save ourselves.

One of the biggest lies of humanity is that we can save ourselves if

we just become enlightened enough.

If we just have enough human ingenuity and wisdom, we can save ourselves.

We can move society forward to a unified, peaceful existence.

The testimony of history would say otherwise, though.

We do not have the light within us that is needed to cast out the darkness

that is around us and also within us.

It must come from beyond us.

The light we need must come from beyond us.

And verse nine says, the true light that gives light to everyone

was coming into the world.

We need light.

We need a true light beyond ourselves because we are trapped

in darkness and not just around us.

This darkness is within us as well.

You know what?

And we're also led into darkness by counterfeit lights.

So we need the true light.

I like how John says that the true light, what is the implication of that?

There is false light.

There is much false light.

What does our false light here in our city do?

You don't notice it until you get out in the country.

Right?

It blocks the true light of the stars at night, doesn't it?

We can't see because there is so much manmade generated light.

We can't see the true light that exists above us.

That false light can block out the true light if we're not aware.

Even this says, scripture says Satan, what appears as what?

An angel of light, we think Satan's gonna be this, ah, you

know, the red with the tail.

The pitchfork looking clearly very evil and obvious, but no.

He appears as an angel of light, a counterfeit, subtle, subtle

counterfeit, and we're like moths.

We are so drawn to the light right that we are, makes us vulnerable to falling

prey to the false light around us.

Like bugs getting drawn to a bug Zapper, right?

Bug lures the bugs to the light.

Doesn't come to the light.

The light is good.

And then what happens?

And this is what Satan and evil does in the world all the time.

They're operating in obvious evil ways all the time, but off operating

ways that often look really good.

And then we get drawn to the light and the, and to our doom and to our death,

to our destruction, to our enslavement.

So with the true, we need the true light to liberate us, to bring us home.

So what does all this mean?

'cause it can all sound a little bit abstract and I guess I get that

verses one to three, declare in the beginning was the word, and the word

was with God, and the word was God.

So later in verse 14, John identifies this word as Jesus himself.

And this means Jesus is both God himself and in relationship with God.

So this is a revealing of the Trinity here, right?

One God, three persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit.

And while John doesn't specifically mention the Holy Spirit in this passage,

if we go back to his shout out to the beginning of Genesis, what do we see?

We see the spirit hovering over the waters at this time of creation.

And so we have this reference to the Trinity here that before all things

that we know existed, there was.

God who existed in this perfect relationship of self-giving love, perfect

relationship, communication, love that.

Love is the light of the world.

That love is the light of the world.

Love is the light of the world, the love that exists within the Trinity that Jesus

came to show, to testify to, and to lead us into that is the light that we need.

Every form of darkness, ultimately, every war, every crime, every

injustice, every grief ultimately stems from a loss of love.

The light we seek is the restoration of that love through relationship with

God, only through relationship with God.

Christianity is relationship.

We mess it up all the time, and we think it's about rules.

Jesus saves us not to give us a bunch of rules.

To bring us home into relationship, into the heart of the Trinity,

into the life and the love of the relationship of the Trinity.

What do we need?

We need the true light of the love of God.

Hey.

This is what the world needs.

Finally, what have we been created to be and to do in light of all

of this, pardon the pun, what have we been created to be and to do.

Verse nine to 14, it says, the true light that gives light to

everyone's coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him,

the world didn't recognize him.

So far have people fallen that they do not even recognize the one who created them.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him yet.

To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name.

He gave the right to become children of God, children of light.

Jesus entered the world knowing that he would be rejected, misunderstood,

opposed, and ultimately crucified.

He stepped willingly into the deepest darkness for our sake.

He stepped willingly into the path of darkness.

The darkness that was coming for you and for I. He stepped into that path for us.

Through his death and resurrection, our sins are forgiven and we are

filled not just with relief, but with God's own love and that changes us.

We are transformed from people who merely need love into

people who can give it freely.

You are his reason for coming, and it's not because you're delightful.

You know, I said like, like we are, we are like moths drawn to the light, right?

God's not like that.

So we often think I've gotta make myself shiny enough.

For God to wanna draw near to me.

And maybe you've seen the movie Moana and the other weird crab thing.

'cause I'm shiny.

You know that anyone know that song Anyway, so this crab makes himself

all shiny to attract the fish, right?

And we think we've gotta be all shiny with our good deeds to attract God.

God's actually not like us in that respect.

God's actually drawn to darkness.

It is our darkness that draws out his love and his compassion.

We think it's our good behavior.

We are not good behaved people.

No, we're not.

And I know some of you think you're pretty great and all, but compared to

a holy, perfectly loving God, you are so corrupt and you are so selfish,

and you are so bent in on yourself and you are so full of so much darkness.

You're so glad you're going to church, right?

But God is drawn to you in that place of lostness and darkness, and he

wants to give you his light because that's what love does, doesn't it.

Love steps into darkness and says, here, let me share my light with you.

Let me give you my light that you may come home.

And Jesus doesn't only come to be our light.

He comes to make us.

Light.

He comes to lift the crushing weight of shame and guilt and condemnation.

He comes to exchange our heavy burdens for his light, yoke of grace and truth.

He comes not just to forgive, but to remake us in his very image.

Paul writes in Ephesians five, for you were once darkness, but

now you are light in the Lord.

Get that.

You didn't just do dark things, you were darkness.

But now you're light live.

Then as children of light, for everything exposed by the light becomes visible.

What grace, what radically good news.

Your darkness isn't just overcome.

It's transferred into light.

When you allow it to be exposed and brought into the light, because

everything exposed by the light becomes visible, and everything

that is illuminated becomes a light.

Notice that language we're not merely in darkness.

We were it, but now in the Lord, we are light.

And this is how God transformed the world, not by flooding it with

abstract truth, but by forming a people who reflect his light.

And here is the grace of it.

We aren't asked to generate this light ourselves.

What do we do?

We bring our darkness into his light and it is transformed.

And of course we resist this because as beautiful as light is,

light brings judgment, doesn't it?

Because light reveals what is hidden and our shame tells us to stay hidden.

So, oh, don't let those parts be seen.

Don't bring them out.

But the only way that we can really shine brightly in this world is to bring it

all before him, and we are safe to do so.

And that is the message of Christmas because God so loved the world

that he gave his one and only son because God's heart is to be with us.

Us not to stomp on us, not to judge us, not to condemn us, but to save

us and free us and liberate us, and bring us home to his very heart.

And so we are safe to bring the worst of ourselves into his light

and find healing and hope and transformation there and forgiveness.

Confess your sins one to another, that you would be healed and cleansed, made bright

and shiny by his light and his love.

The one who is light is also loved, so we are safe.

To come in to his presence.

And when we do, we find ourselves transformed by his light.

And Paul puts it this way in Philippians, then you will shine

among them like stars in the sky.

So live as children of light, live lives that are right and good and true.

Live lives of grace and peace and forgiveness, and kindness,

and generosity and compassion.

Be kind and compassionate towards one another.

Forgiving each other.

Have nothing to do with the.

Fruitless deeds of darkness.

If you're cynical this Christmas, get rid of it.

It's a dark place cynicism.

You might think you're so smart.

Look at me judging everything that's going on around with my cynical little posture.

And I say this because that's my default, right?

I mean, again, get full to thinking, oh, there is somehow light and being

intellectually superior, right?

And being able to see and perceive things and be cynical about them.

It's not.

It's lame.

All right?

And it doesn't.

Suit Christmas.

So put it away, have nothing to do with it.

Bring it into the light and go, why?

Why do I wanna be this way?

Because I'm not being a joy filled presence to those around.

So what deeds of darkness, perhaps if you slipped into what anxieties, what

fears, what worries, what complaints?

How are you being drawn in on yourself this Christmas?

To put yourself at the center, you put yourself at the center and

you will be sad, and you will be miserable, and you'll be cynical and

darkness will descend upon your heart.

What does light do?

Why do we have light in this world?

Because the sun sheds light, right?

These photons of light go out because that's what light does.

Light goes out, light moves forward, it moves out.

Darkness moves inward.

Light moves outward, be light.

This Christmas church family shine the light of Christ.

So imagine this, my friends.

Imagine this for a moment just to really, maybe this will capture your heart.

Imagine a dark room.

Imagine a dark room, and imagine that within this dark room

there is a mirror ball.

And imagine that there is a light that shines in the darkness

onto this mirror ball.

The mirror ball produces no light of its own, but when it receives the

light, something beautiful happens.

The light is multiplied, it is scattered, it is shared, and it

fills the room with wonder, and that is who the church is meant to be.

That is what happens when the people of God receive the

light of Christ and walk in it.

We don't generate the light, we receive it, and as we do, his beauty is

reflected into every corner of the world.

So come outta the darkness, my friends, come into the light, receive forgiveness.

Follow Jesus for He is the light of the world and he ever follows him.

Will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life and

will shine the light of life.

What have we been created to be and to do?

To shine and share the true light of Christ by allowing our own darkness

to be exposed and overcome by being people of compassion, kindness,

and forgiveness by being filled with the light and the love of God.

That as light is always reaching out.

So too, do our lives become giving, reaching, sharing outward and not inward?

Let us pray.

Church,

heavenly Father,

open our eyes to the wonder of Christmas.

To the fullness of the meaning of Christmas.

That Christmas is the reminder and it is the truth that

you have come to be with us.

That you have come not to shine the light, just to shine the light on

our darkness, but to be that very light yourself, your very presence

to dwell with us and then Lord, to transform us.

Into those who shine your light into this world.

And so, Lord, I pray right now, even as we pray and as we consider the beauty

of this light around us, that is just ultimately such a small, small, small

picture of the beauty of your light.

And yet still somehow beautifully, wonderfully captivating help to

stir our imaginations to how we can walk out those doors today.

And we can be like this light.

In the darkness that we can be like you not stepping away from the darkness that

we see, but stepping into it with love and with kindness and with compassion.

Lord, help us to shine like stars

then in what we do and that what we say through this Christmas

season and every day, we would be faithful witnesses to your life.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome.

Fill us Lord, with the joy of this truth, the peace of this

truth, the hope of this truth.

And fill us with your love we pray.

Amen.