The Light Has Come! | Rev. Vicki Harrison

No worries. I just wanted to mention, if you have this blue sheet of paper,

not only is it our order, but on the back, we have some sermon notes.

And I know you have these most weeks, but I just want to remind you that these are here.

And we've changed the format. It used to be kind of fill in the blanks.

Now we have questions because we want you to really think. I'm sorry.

It's good for you to think. It's good for me. So I just want to point this out.

And then there's room if you want to jot down anything else that you feel like God is revealing to you.

Our scripture for today, the beginning of our Advent series,

comes from the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 9:2–7

Chapter 9, verses 2 through 7. If you have your Bible, I'll give you a moment

to open up to Isaiah. It's kind of right in the middle of the Bible.

In the Old Testament. Otherwise, you can follow along on the screen.

And I'm reading from the New International Version.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the

land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy.

They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice

when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens

them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be

destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be

on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding

it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we are so thankful to be in this place on this beautiful morning.

We thank you for your church.

We thank you for your presence here with us.

And Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit that we'll just be moving in this place,

moving around this campus in a powerful way.

God, we don't wanna leave here the same way we walked in.

God, we pray for changed hearts and changed lives. And I pray that you guide my words.

This is not about me at all or any of us. It's all about you.

So I pray that each person walks away with what you want them to know.

And we pray this in the mighty, powerful name of Jesus the Christ and all God's people say, amen.

Okay. So when I was a little girl, I was scared of the dark.

Anybody else scared of the dark when they were young? Okay. So I knew I was in good company.

I can remember when I was like five and six, having to have my closet door closed.

Because if you're laying in bed in the dark, the clothes hanging on hangers,

they actually look a bit like monsters that are going to come out and grab you.

I needed someone to check under my bed just to make sure that there was nothing hiding under there.

And I can remember, I was probably five. And it's so funny, the things that

you remember so vividly.

I can remember going through this time period where I was positive that once

the lights turned off in my room, that there was someone looking in my bedroom window.

I mean, I was so positive and I would often then try to take solace in my parents'

bedroom and they didn't appreciate that very much.

And even as I got older, it wasn't like I just loved the darkness. I didn't.

It always made me feel uneasy. And I went through years and years where I would

force myself to wake up and run in the dark.

And even though I live in a pretty safe area, there's something about running

in the dark that makes you constantly look over your shoulder.

And I would carry pepper spray or I would carry this horrible noise maker that

sometimes went off at the wrong time. You can ask Richard about that.

He actually tried to flush it down the toilet one day because we could not make it stop.

Um, and, um, I, there would be parts of nature's way.

I live in Bloomingdale that I would avoid because it was wooded.

And I just felt so scared running by those wooded areas in the dark.

Now, in the daylight, it was fine.

Those areas were beautiful, but there's something that sometimes makes us feel

very uneasy when we're in darkness, when we're running in darkness or walking in darkness.

And of course, I'm talking about physical darkness, but we experience darkness

as humans in so many different ways, do we not?

So the scripture we read from the book of Isaiah speaks about people walking in darkness.

And this was a different kind of darkness. This was a darkness that was symbolized

by oppression and hopelessness.

And the people of Isaiah's time had gotten really used to walking in darkness.

It had become like a lifestyle to them. They didn't know any other way of doing life.

And for them, it just wasn't the absence of daylight.

Scripture calls it a deep darkness, a deep darkness.

And that phrase comes from a Hebrew phrase, shadow of death.

Now, most of you have probably heard that before because that same Hebrew phrase

is found throughout the Psalms.

Think about Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

And that kind of deep darkness was often associated with things like mines and

prisons and even the underworld.

So scripture says they were walking in this deep darkness.

Now, why were they walking in this deep darkness? What was going on in the world at the time?

So I know we have a group of people who are still walking with me through the Bible, right?

So starting in Easter, this past Easter, as a church, we have a reading plan

where our goal is to read the Bible in a year.

And we started out with a whole lot of people.

That number is getting smaller, but that's okay.

It's still been a really valuable experience. And so right now,

those who are reading through the book, the Bible in a year,

and by the way, you can rejoin us if you've dropped out or if you never started, that's okay.

We have Bible reading plans in the lobby.

We would love to give you. You can hop in at any time.

Right now we're pushing our way through the book of Isaiah.

How many of you are pushing through the book of Isaiah with me? Okay, we have a few.

And I say pushing through because Isaiah is not an easy book.

It is a really thick book of prophecy.

And some of it makes sense. And some of it doesn't make any sense.

And you really have to dig in and work to interpret it. But there's so much substance.

There's so much substance in Isaiah. Now, who was Isaiah?

He was a prophet who lived in the 8th century B.C.

So that would be like the 700s B.C..

A long, long, long time ago. And prophets were people that God chose to receive

God's message and then share it with the people.

So they were basically God's mouthpiece.

And they typically weren't well received. And sometimes they were kind of weird. But that was okay.

These were faithful men of God.

And that was Isaiah. He was a faithful man of God. And he prophesied to both

the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah.

So essentially, when these prophets brought a message, it was almost always a message of warning.

It was usually something like, you better do this or else this is going to happen, right?

I mean, and for the most part, that was their message. Get your act together.

And it's interesting that Isaiah actually lived through the conquest of the northern kingdom.

So he was part of bringing this message from God, like, get your act together,

guys. They did not get their act together.

They continued in this rampant idolatry. They oppressed the poor.

And they generally just indulged in anything they wanted to indulge in.

And eventually God lifts his hand of protection and he allows the Assyrian empire

to come in and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel.

And basically they decimated the land and the people.

So now we have the people of Judah in the southern kingdom, and that's where Jerusalem is.

And they have the Assyrians eyeing them, right? We just conquered Israel.

Now we're watching you, Judah. We are watching you. and things are really scary.

I mean there is this constant threat then of being attacked by this really powerful

brutal army and the Assyrians were known for their brutality.

So when they conquered a nation they would come in, they would kill a lot of

people and then they would take a lot of people prisoner and they treated their

prisoners with a level of brutality that it's hard for me to put into words.

The people were scattered.

It was ugly. So I want you to just picture the people of Judah.

They know that the Assyrians are watching them.

They know that the Assyrians want to conquer them.

And so they're living in this, they're walking in this deep darkness of fear

and uncertainty, and it absolutely consumes them.

And the prophet Isaiah is speaking to them saying, you don't need to worry.

Just walk closely with the Lord. Follow God. God's going to protect you.

But they really just didn't take those words to heart.

They were just consumed with fear, consumed with darkness. Maybe you've been there.

So it's in the midst of this deep darkness that Isaiah makes this prophecy that

I read earlier, that those words that we're so familiar with from Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

And it's not a warning. It's actually a message of hope.

And these are words that we often read during Advent.

We sing them in Handel's Messiah, you know, for unto us a child is born.

I'm not going to keep going, but you get it. You've heard these before.

And they speak to us. We might not even understand the context,

but they speak to us in a really deep way.

So Isaiah is saying that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light

and God is going to send a light into the darkness and this light will bring great joy.

Is there a way we could go back to that Isaiah passage?

Let's see if we can get it back on the screen.

Isaiah 9. so here we go the people walking in darkness have seen a great light

on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned you have enlarged

the nation and increased their joy.

And let's, can we scroll to the next screen? I want to show you something.

And then they start, they, it says this for as in the day of Midian's defeat

and what they're talking about there,

um, you have to go back to the book of judges and he's referring to Gideon,

who was a very unlikely warrior.

God chose Gideon to save the people of Israel.

And, um, Gideon was a wimp and he chose Gideon.

And the Midianites were like really not unlike the Assyrians,

very powerful, very brutal, and they were scared of them.

And so Gideon was very much an unlikely hero.

And so that's what they're referring to if we go back in the day of Midian's defeat.

And so what Isaiah is saying here is just as Gideon was an unlikely hero and

he brought victory to his people, now I've chosen an unlikely source of victory, of light.

And that unlikely source of light is going to be a child.

A child. And he will be chosen by God.

And this child, the government will be on his shoulders.

And he's going to be the king of Israel. But he's going to be more than just a great leader.

He's going to have many different titles like Wonderful Counselor,

mighty God everlasting father prince of peace.

Um he will be the promised messiah the one who will ultimately save the people

from their darkness and sit on the throne of David forever and ever and ever

so who is this child this light,

who is this child that we're talking about well we get part of the answer in

John chapter one verses one through five. So look at the screen.

Again, this is scripture that many of you are familiar with.

In the beginning was the word. Let's say this together.

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

Okay, let's stop there. So that term word is Greek. In Greek, it's logos.

And to the Greeks that that word meant like the essence of the universe.

And to the Jews, it met God himself. And so when John is writing this,

he's using that term word to refer to who? Jesus.

Jesus, who is the essence of the universe, who is God himself.

So 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 what?

Light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it.

And if that isn't enough, Jesus makes things really, really clear for us.

In John 8, 12, when he says this, I am the light of the world.

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

So who is the light? I know you saw where this was going. 700 years. Y'all, this is amazing.

700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah is, is prophesying that the child is going to come.

700 years.

Isaiah is saying that for unto us, a child is born.

This light is going to be sent from God and he's going to break through the darkness of this world.

And so throughout the Bible, there are references to God as light,

and I'm not going to go through them.

You can look those up yourself. Just Google.

I promise you'll get more information than you want. But often,

so we refer to God as light, and you see where God's truth shines brightly.

It's referred to as light. So light and truth are often used interchangeably

throughout the biblical narrative.

And Jesus is God, right? Jesus is God.

This little baby that Isaiah is speaking of is Emmanuel, God with us.

And of course, that's the story of Christmas, right? God coming to earth to

become one of us, to demonstrate the full extent of God's love for us.

And Jesus, as God, has the power to break through darkness.

Jesus himself was born into a world of deep darkness.

He was born into a world of imperial violence, not too different from the world

in which Isaiah is living and prophesying.

So I want you to think about the Christmas story.

You know, we read about Mary and Joseph heading to Bethlehem because of this census in Luke.

I mean, the whole reason they were going to Bethlehem was to ensure Roman power, right?

They wanted to count everybody so they could tax everybody, so they knew who

was in their kingdom. them.

And then in Matthew chapter 2,

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

we have the King Herod, who after he hears of Jesus's birth,

he decides he's going to order the murder of all the baby boys in Bethlehem.

I mean, this was a time of deep darkness.

The Roman government maintained peace through violence and oppression.

And so it made sense that the Jews were seeking a warrior king who would free

them from this Roman oppression, who would start a Jewish state once again.

And of course, that's not what Jesus did.

The disciples followed Jesus, not understanding how he was going to save them.

Remember, they still, to the very end, were confused.

When are you going to set up your kingdom?

But this child that Isaiah speaks of comes to show the world a different way of life.

He comes to to put things right

to make the world the way God always

intended his world to be he teaches he speaks truth he heals he feeds he gives

hope and then he voluntarily gives his life on a Roman cross and God raises him three days later.

And in doing so he defeats death he

crushes satan under his feet and

he gives us the opportunity to be forgiven of our sin and experience new life

and so if we put our faith in him we have this amazing gift of salvation and

we don't have to walk in darkness we can walk in light his light,

right here, right now, if we so choose, right?

But some of you might be thinking, but Pastor Vicki, I don't feel like I'm walking in light.

I know Jesus and yet things feel dark.

The world still feels dark and the truth is.

It kind of is. our world

is still battling with a deep darkness

that same deep darkness that

isaiah spoke about i mean all you have to do is look at your news feed right

war in the middle east lots of loss of life bloodshed the ukraine still an issue

there's starvation and civil war in south sudan,

In our own community, we struggle with things like addiction,

human trafficking, right here in our community, people who are lost,

people who were displaced by the hurricanes, and we're still dealing with that.

And I know that many of us, I look around, and I know many of your stories,

many of us are still, have faced seasons of deep darkness in the not too distant past.

Maybe you remember the darkness of depression.

Waking up each day and feeling like a dark cloud had like settled on you.

And you could turn on every light in the house and still everything felt dark.

Maybe you remember the darkness of uncertainty when life just felt like too much.

When bills could not get paid and the job interviews were not working out and

you were totally unsure what tomorrow held.

And that was a dark time.

Or maybe you recall the darkness of a relationship ending the pain where when

he said it was over or she said this is just too much I don't want to mess with

this anymore and you felt empty,

and you felt unlovable and you felt guilty and it was dark dark.

Maybe it was the darkness of loss, that sense of being overcome by waves of

grief, thinking that that darkness may actually consume you.

You weren't sure that the light would ever show up again.

Maybe it was the darkness of sickness, of chronic pain, of abuse,

of watching a child suffer, of loneliness, of being hurt by the church,

of friends turning their back on you, of doubting God.

Most of us remember a season of darkness. I know I do.

And some of you might be thinking, well, I don't need to remember it.

I'm going through it right now.

I'm walking through darkness right now. It isn't some far off war in the Middle

East. it's in my home. It's in my heart.

You know that Jesus came to be light in the darkness.

You are longing for that light. You are praying for that light,

but it doesn't seem to be coming.

And to hear Jesus say that whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,

well, that doesn't make very much sense.

After all, you did not choose this darkness, right? You didn't choose the darkness.

So what are we to make of all of this?

I, you know, there's some sermons where you sit down and God gives you the words

and you just type away and it's easy.

And then there are other messages where God does not give you the words.

And it's hard because you don't quite know what to say.

And I have to say this was one of those messages.

It hasn't come easy to me this week because I can't deny the reality of sin and darkness.

Sin and darkness in our world, sin and darkness in our lives.

And yet I trust in the truth of Jesus as light.

I trust in that truth that Jesus as light, his salvation, his presence,

his hope, his love and I've

experienced both I've experienced both darkness and light in

powerful ways and so I kept thinking about how

we live in this in-between time I've talked about this before we live in this

in-between time on the cross and through the resurrection sin and death were

defeated we know we know that we know that we know that we can have new life in Jesus Christ amen,

We are not the same people before we knew Jesus.

Jesus' light has come and shined within us.

We have the Holy Spirit within our physical body transforming us from the inside out.

Life is different.

And yet, we still live in this broken world. We do.

Sin and temptation are real. trouble

is real i mean jesus himself told us right john 16 33 in this world you will

have what trouble and i i don't know why we tend to think that just because

we're believers that things should go our way,

But I mean, I hear this a lot. You know, I love God. I don't know why he's doing this to me.

But yet Jesus says, in this world, you will have trouble. It's a promise, really.

You're going to have trouble. But you can't forget the rest of the scripture, right?

But take heart, for I have overcome the world. Let's say that.

For I have overcome the world.

Jesus has overcome the world. Yes, darkness is real, but so is light.

And light drives out darkness.

Every single time, light drives out darkness.

I was thinking about how, I know all you scientists are going to think this

is such a simplistic analogy, and I apologize ahead of time. I am not a scientist.

But okay, in our world, the biggest source of light is what?

The sun. A plus. Okay. So in Florida, we get quite a bit of sun.

But every single day in the evening, now quite early, around 5.30, what happens?

The sun goes down and it gets dark.

And yet, just because darkness is present at night, it doesn't mean the sun isn't real, right?

It doesn't mean the sun isn't still in existence the sun is actually still present

in fact we look up in the night sky and we see the moon and it offers a little

bit of light but the the light on the moon is actually just a reflection of the Sun's light,

So what's my point? That's what my husband would say. What is your point?

I don't know where he is.

Just because darkness is present doesn't mean that Jesus isn't.

So there have been seasons of darkness in my own life in which I felt like I

was walking around in a dark fog.

I would get through the day, but just barely.

Everything was hard.

And anxiety was my closest companion.

And then in the midst of that darkness, I would get glimpses of light.

Maybe it was a person that God sent my way to really listen to me.

It doesn't happen much when you're a pastor.

Moments of peace that just seem to come out of nowhere.

Unexpected blessings, an afternoon of fun, a really good book,

a walk outside that brought relief to my soul,

a praise song that spoke to me in such a deep way, scripture that brought supernatural

comfort even if just for a little while.

It might have taken me some time it did took me some time to get perspective

and to realize that these were glimpses of light these were glimpses of the

presence of Jesus Christ in my life walking beside me,

reminding me that his light is stronger than the darkness.

Jesus is real. I want all of you, if you've kind of gotten a little sleepy, anybody?

It's okay. It doesn't hurt my feelings. Now is the time to pay attention.

Jesus is real. Amen. Jesus is present.

Jesus is there. And while darkness may occasionally rear its ugly head,

and it may rear its ugly head for an extended period of time,

we are not stuck there forever.

I'm not stuck there forever. I know there is something so much greater that will win out.

You know, as believers, we know that eventually Jesus will return and eliminate

darkness for good. Amen.

Once and for all, all things will be made right.

That's really what Advent's about. So that the word Advent, I was sharing this

with the staff earlier, that word Advent means arrival.

So we usually think of Advent as the first arrival, you know,

little baby Jesus coming and being born and being laid in a manger.

But it's also about the second arrival, when Jesus will return and make all

things right once again.

And darkness will be eliminated for good.

We know Satan's been defeated, but the forces of evil have not fully conceded.

When Jesus returns, they will.

And darkness will truly be over forever and ever. Amen.

But in the meantime, in this in-between time, what then?

And that's kind of where I've been just praying about this this week.

And I've kind of two big reflections. terms.

First is this whole issue of trust. It's always a big issue,

isn't it? This issue of trust.

As followers of Jesus, there are times where we have to simply trust that Jesus

is here, even when we don't feel his presence.

Trust that light is here, even when all we can see is darkness.

We trust that Jesus is Lord. Amen.

We trust that he is in control and that he is on the throne.

We trust that he loves us and he always wants what's best for us.

We trust that he will get us through whatever the trial is.

So that was my first reflection, this whole idea of trust.

And I want you to just think about where you are in trusting Jesus right now in your life.

I do think sometimes when we're going through these seasons of darkness,

we need other Christians to come alongside us.

Because I think sometimes we have to rest in their trust.

That's the beauty of the community, the body of Christ.

We need each other amen we need one another.

And the other reflection I had is just about making

a decision making a decision

that we are not going to dwell in the darkness how

many of us have spent time in our lives dwelling in darkness sitting in the

muck right so make a decision that we're not going to dwell in the darkness

that we're going to keep looking for those glimpses of Jesus's light.

Even when we don't feel it. Feelings are so fickle, y'all.

Feelings are deceptive. We can make an intentional decision to believe that

Jesus's light is bigger than any darkness we face.

I'm not saying this is easy okay this is really really hard and on our own we

might not be able to do this but through the power of the Holy Spirit in us

we can make a decision and.

To believe that Jesus' light is bigger than any darkness that we face.

We can choose that path where we know that darkness is present,

but we don't have to walk in it.

We are not defined by it. We are defined by Jesus and Jesus alone.

I'm not defined by my anxiety. You are not defined by your depression.

You are not defined by your divorce. You are not defined by your past.

You are not defined by bad choices you've made or by things that other people have done to you.

You are defined by Jesus.

And what does Jesus say about you? Man, he loves you. He died for you.

He wants you to have abundant life. He wants you to thrive.

You are chosen. You are adopted. You are a masterpiece.

Let's pray Lord Jesus we thank you that we don't have to walk we don't have

to in darkness we don't have to sit in the muck help each and every one of us

make a decision today to walk in your light,

to seek out your light as hard as life may be in the seasons of struggle,

in the seasons of hardship.

God, show us your glory. Show us your glory. You are almighty God.

We thank you, God, that you've shown us this whole different way of doing life.

May we always remember who and whose we are. We belong to you.

We belong to you, Lord Jesus. Amen.