Episode 256: Celebrate the Light

Man, the 1980s was a wild time with some terrible, terrible movies and so

hopefully you were spared from most of them. I, however, was not spared from a lot

of them. I was able to see a lot of those terrible 80s movies even as a five, six

year old. I was able to watch Predator and Alien and my dad kind of liked some

intense movies and he just kind of shared them with me and hopefully you

were spared from this one. I wasn't though. The 1980s classic The Blob. The

Blob. Anybody seen The Blob? Alright, whoa, a couple people. Oh wow, I'm shocked

because not a lot of people saw it. If you've never seen it, please do not go

look it up. Do not go see that movie The Blob because I was, you know, I was fine

until I saw it. None of the other movies got to me but then The Blob changed me.

It changed me to my core, alright. I used to sleep like a normal human being but

after The Blob, I could not. I had to sleep under seven or eight blankets

because I was terrified and one of the things that changed is that I had to

have so many nightlights in my bedroom. If there was a place to plug in a

nightlight, a nightlight had to be there so that when you turned out the lights

in my room for me to go to sleep, it was like just as bright. Like you could read

a book in the middle of my room with the lights out because the nightlights, there

were like 13 of them or something and so because to me, The Blob lived in the

darkness. If it was dark, that's where The Blob could be but with the lights on,

it made all the difference. Look at what Isaiah 9 says on the screen. It says, "The

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

of deep darkness, a light has dawned." Those words, deep darkness, the way Isaiah

wrote it, it's kind of a term he coined and it just means that this land of just

the death's shadow. That we are people walking in death's shadow, a place of

deep, deep darkness all around us but then he goes on and says this, "This light

has come for unto us a child is born. To us a son is given and he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." This

was written about 600 years before the birth of Jesus but everybody who was in

darkness at that time started looking and searching and waiting. When is the

light gonna come? When is this one gonna come into our world, into our lives,

that's gonna shine this light? They were eagerly looking and waiting and then

look at verse 4 of our text, John 1 verse 4. John writes about him. He says, "In him

John 1:4

was life and that life was the light of men." The light of men. We need light. We're

all looking for light. We're looking for what's most beautiful in life. We're all

on this search to be more enlightened, to figure out better ways to do life. We're

all in search of the good life. You know that feeling when you're in the dark

about something and then someone kind of flips the lights on and you see it in a

new way or you see something you never saw before and you're like, "Oh man, I

didn't know. I didn't know life could be better. I didn't know this it could be

this good." Like for me it was it was washing my legs. Like I just didn't know.

I grew up in the Midwest and so I never, us Midwestern boys, we didn't wash our

legs. We just let the soap take care of it on the way down. That's just a

Midwestern guy thing. Like ask anybody that grew up in the Midwest. And so then

I got married and my wife one day was like, "Hey man, did you wash your legs?"

And I was like, "Why would I do that? The soap took care of it, you know, on the way."

And she was just like, "No!" She instantly regretted marrying me. She's like, "What?

What do you mean? You don't wash your legs?" And I was like, "No." So it's a 32 year

old man. The switch, the light switch flipped on and I realized I should wash

my legs. You know, it's been great. It's been a wonderful experience for me.

But you know that feeling when the light comes on. We need the light. Why? Because

look at verse 5. The light shines in the darkness and yet the darkness does not

overcome it. That's why we need the light. Because there's darkness. If there were

no darkness, we wouldn't need a light to shine. But there is darkness. Powerful

darkness in this world and powerful darkness in our lives. That's part of the

message of Christmas. It's not one that we like to focus on a lot, but part of

the message of Christmas is that there is darkness in this world. Christmas

means that the monster exists. That there's a dragon. A darkness that spread

and infected everything and a darkness that must be dealt with. If there's no

darkness, there's no need for a light.

Maybe you've been feeling that lately. You've been feeling how dark this world

really is or you've been feeling how dark you yourself really are. Man, the

darkness can feel overwhelming. It can consume our lives. But John's writing

here to say, man, the light has come. The light that shines in the darkness and

the darkness, powerful as it may feel, the darkness in this world and in our lives

cannot overcome the light that has appeared. The light that's come, it drives

out the darkness. And John says in verse 4, it's in him. In him. It's the him he's

been talking about in verses 1 through 3. The Word made flesh. God, our Creator, who

took on flesh when he was born into this world to live just like us. It's Jesus.

Jesus is this life that is the light that we're looking for. This light

that drives out the darkness in this world and in our own lives. And so John,

man, he wants us to know this good news that the light has come because he knows

we have a problem. And it's not just the problem that we're in darkness. I mean,

technically, it's not a problem anymore. The light has come. The light has driven

out the darkness, is driving out the darkness. That's not really our problem

anymore. Our problem is that the light we long for, the thing you and I are

searching most for in life, the light, we're looking for it in the wrong places.

We consistently look for the light in the wrong places. Like look at verse 6.

John says, "There was 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. The true light that gives light to

everyone was coming into the world." You see, John, the writer of this gospel, is

writing about another guy named John. We typically call him John the Baptist. He

was a preacher who came before Jesus and God used John the Baptist to prepare

everyone for Jesus. John the Baptist was out in the wilderness telling everybody

that Jesus was coming and they needed to get ready. He was pointing everyone to

the light, but he was this really impressive preacher. He was kind of this

wild dude. And so people were coming out of the towns, out of the cities. They were

coming into the wilderness to see John. And a lot of people became fixated on

John. And a lot of people hitched their wagons to John's train,

thinking that maybe he was the light they're looking for. And John, the author,

the writer here, wants to make it clear. John is not the light. We are constantly

trying to hitch our wagons onto trains that we think are

gonna satisfy us. We're constantly trying to grab onto things that we

think are gonna give us the light that we're looking for in life, whether it's

relationships or things we can acquire. We're constantly looking for light in

all the wrong places. John's writing to say, "Man, I know that John the Baptist was

impressive, but he wasn't the light. He was just pointing you to the true light."

Here's what that means, guys. Other people, other things in this world, they are not

the light that we are looking for or longing for. What do you feel like would

make you most happy? Like if you just got your hands on it. If you got this thing

in life, it would make you as happy as you could possibly be. The thing that

your heart longs for right now, what is that thing? It changes for us in

different seasons, right? We don't have to look much further than Christmas to see

that. Like when I was five, that thing was a bat cave. Like I wanted the Batman's

Batcave. Like I wanted that. I was like, "If I can get this, then life will be good

for the rest of my life." And then by six years old, it was a pogo stick, you know?

Fast forward to 16, it was a Mustang convertible. Like it just kept kind of, it

just changes for us. If I can just get this thing, then life will be good. But so

long as I don't have it, life stinks or it's not completely fulfilled yet. How

would you finish the sentence? "I'd be totally content and happy if I just had

blank." That's likely where you're hoping to get your light from. But the best that

anyone or anything else in this world can do is point us to the true light,

like John did. If we're hoping that another person or something we can

acquire can be the light for us, that thing or that person will let us down. It

will leave us in the dark. But John, he was pointing to the true light. The one

who won't let us down. The one who won't leave us in darkness. We could try to

grab onto relationships or money or figure out how to retire early. It will

fail you. But there is a light out there that won't. And so what exactly do we

have to celebrate about the coming of the light, the coming of Jesus into the

world? What exactly do we have to celebrate this Christmas? Well number one,

we can celebrate that God has shined his light. God has done it. God promised that

he'd send light into the world and God did it. He has shined his light on us. In

the Bible, God's light is connected to his presence. And so when God himself

came into this world to be present with us, it was God shining his light as

powerfully as possible. God really, really wants to be with you. With us. That's the

story of the whole Bible. In the beginning, it says that God walked with

Adam and Eve. He wanted to be near them. And God didn't run away and hide from

them. They ran and hid from God. And when they did, God came to find them. And he

promised to fix the problem of our rebellion so that he could be with us

again. The whole Old Testament shows us how badly God wants to be with us. He

told his people to build this giant tent in their

wandering so that his presence could live in that tent. And then once

they settled in their land, God told him to build this structure, this temple, this

building for his presence to be with his people. And then here in the opening

pages of the New Testament, the Word made flesh. God come to dwell among us. God

really wants to be with you. Jesus shows us that. You ever thought about that amazing

truth? That the God of the universe, the God of unbelievable glory, the God that

angels worship can't even be in his presence because he's so

glorious? That God wants to be with you, present in your life? And then we can

celebrate because the coming of Jesus brings God's presence to every part of

our lives, every moment of our lives. We can celebrate because God has shined his

light. He wants to be with you and he is with you. But we can also celebrate that

God is the light. God himself is the light. You know in the early pages of the

Bible in Genesis when we read about the creation story, you ever notice that light

existed? God said, "Let there be light," and then later on he created the sun. How is it

that light could exist before the sun was created? Because what we read all

over is that the actual, that what emanates from God himself, his glory, his

majesty, the sum of all of his goodness, it's just light. He himself is light. And

here's why that's good news. It's good news because we know where we can find

the light we're looking for. We know where we can find supreme truth and

beauty and that's such great news because the message we get over and over

again in life is that we've got to go find light. Usually we're told we've got

to dig deeper in ourselves, right? Find yourself, be true to yourself. Elsa cried

out, "Show yourself," right? The problem is this. The deeper we actually dig into

ourselves and into this world, the more we realize that there's actually

darkness down there. There's darkness there. We realize that we actually need a

light that comes from outside of ourselves and outside of this world. We

need a light from the outside to get in. You see, God doesn't tell us to go find

truth and beauty and light within ourselves. He tells us he'll provide it

for us, which means this. We can be lacking and still have God's light shine

on us. We can be sinful and still have God's light shine on us. We can be

unworthy and still God's light shines on us. He has shined his light. He is the

light and when he shines his light on you, when you experience all that you're

looking for in Jesus, it gives you another reason to celebrate. This is the

greatest one. God brings you into his light. God brings us into his light. Look

at verse 12. Here's what that means. It says, "But to all who did receive him," who

received the light, "he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who

believe in his name, who were born not of natural descent, nor of the will of the

flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." See what this is saying is that, man, if

you see that Jesus is God's light, if you see and believe that he's all that

you've ever been looking for, if you, the words John uses here, if you receive him,

then he has brought you into the light of Jesus, into the light he offers, and

that means you are God's family now. When God brings you into the light, he brings

you into his family. Look at what it says there. You have the right to be a child

of God. You have the right. It is right for you to be a child of God. This is the

idea of adoption. It's the biggest reason we can celebrate the coming of the light.

I mean, it's great that Jesus came to forgive us of our sins and so that we

can no longer be guilty and have shame. That's great. Praise God for that. But if

that's all he came to do, then this is all about just a courtroom scene where

God, Jesus, takes our sins, takes them on himself, says, "Paid for, innocent," and then

we were escorted out of the courtroom into life to live on our own and figure

out what to do next. But this paints a different picture, a more fully beautiful

picture. It's not just that Jesus came to rescue us from our sins and from our

guilt and our shame. Praise God for that. But it's more. He came to invite us into

his family, to adopt us. We have the rights to be God's children, the rights,

the privileges, the inheritance of being God's child. When God brings you into his

light, you start to realize this. God isn't your supervisor or your boss. He is

your father. And a father's relationship with his kids isn't based on performance.

It's based on his love. You see, if you're in God's light, he loves you as his own

child. Not because you've impressed him, not because you've cleaned your life up

enough, not because you serve him or give sacrificially to him. He loves you because

he loves you. Which means this, you can't lose his love. If your good works didn't

get you into the family, then your failures can't get you kicked out of the

family. God loves you because he loves you, because he's a father who's brought

you into the family. We can celebrate because God has brought us into his

light and that means we are his kids. And now guys, those are amazing reasons to

celebrate. Honestly, they just are. They're amazing reasons to come around your

Christmas tree and to look at your presents and say, "Ah, that's a toy that's

gonna break in six months and this is something that's not gonna fit here in

about two weeks." You know? But to instead come around the tree and said, "Man, God

has shined his light and God is the light and God's brought me into the

light." That is reason to celebrate. And so here's what's gonna happen, okay? We're

all gonna make a choice right now. All of us. Every person here. We're all gonna

make a choice about how to respond to this news. You are, you will make a choice

right there in your seat. Here's the options. Number one, some of you might

choose to reject the light. To reject it. Look at verse 10. It says, "He was in the world

and the world was created through him and yet the world did not recognize him.

He came to his own and his own people did not receive him." You see, when Jesus

came there were many, many people who didn't receive him. Many people who

rejected him. And there may be some here today who respond to Jesus in that way.

It may be that God has thrown the lights on for you in the past or maybe even

this morning. He's kind of thrown the lights on and you're like, "Oh wait, Jesus

was God and Jesus came to do this? Jesus came to bring me into his family?" Like

maybe that's new light for you. God kind of turned the lights on and you're like,

"Oh man, I didn't know it was quite this good." Maybe God's thrown the lights on

for you many times in the past but each time and maybe even now you're tempted

to say, "No, but I don't want it. I'd rather keep living life my own way.

Hoping that my money gives me light and that my relationships give me light and

that other things I can grab will give me light." Many people rejected Jesus in

his day. Many people will reject Jesus now. So that is one option. The

other way we might respond is to ignore the light. Do you see in verse 11 where it

says that Jesus came to his own? To his own people. Do you know who that is?

His own people were the people who believed in God. The people who

believed the promise that God would rescue them. These were the churchgoers,

the hopeful ones. The ones since Isaiah wrote 600 years ago that the light would

shine into the deep darkness. That the wonderful counselor, mighty God,

everlasting Father would come. They'd been searching, looking, hoping, waiting.

His own people. Jesus came. You think these are the people who would receive

him the quickest but he came to his own and his own people didn't receive him.

See here's what that means guys. It's possible to be around Jesus and still

miss Jesus. If you're here today and you're a Christian it's possible to

really miss Jesus this holiday season or to miss what Jesus is doing in your life

because you've been looking for your light still in other places. See when God

flips the light on for you, we come out of darkness and into light but

we've got to realize that part of our default, part of our nature is to still

live and act like we're in the dark. To still try to grab onto light and life

with so many other things and think that they'll give us what we know only Jesus

can give us. Maybe that's been you. Maybe you've been ignoring Jesus. You have him.

He's been a part of your life. You trusted him but man you've been grunting

after so many other things. You've just been ignoring the light that you have.

So listen, those are two options and man if you're in one of those camps, if

you're like yeah I'm rejecting the light or yeah I'm ignoring the light, listen

the dragon was there. The darkness was there right at the birth of Jesus.

Revelation 12 tells us about it when it writes about the birth that Jesus, look

what it says, "And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give

birth so that when she did give birth it might devour her child." You don't

hear that story a lot at Christmas. You don't see that in many nativity scenes

that at the birth of Jesus there was a dragon there but the darkness was there.

A couple years ago someone in our church put up a little nativity scene, Jesus, you

know all the things, but then got a giant huge inflatable dragon to put over it

and I was just like yeah that's Christmas! The darkness was there ready

to devour that child. And listen if you're in the space right now where

you're rejecting or ignoring Jesus here's what that means, that the darkness

is right there. The darkness is right there wanting to devour this light,

wanting to devour the message from you receiving it and responding to it. Here's

the thing, here's what we read in John 1, the darkness can't overcome it. The

darkness in this world is trying to snuff it out but it can try but it won't.

The light is more powerful. God will keep pursuing you so that those who are

rejecting or ignoring Jesus can respond the third way. We can choose to celebrate

the light. You can choose to celebrate the light because look at what verse 12

says, "To all who did receive him." To all. This message, this good news that the

light has come, it's for all, not excluding you. This message is for all of

us, for everyone to come into the light and later in verse 12 it says this, "To

those who believe in his name there is reason to celebrate." So what does it

mean to receive him, to believe him? How do you get in on celebrating the light?

Well here's the reality, if Jesus really is the light of life like the Bible says

he is, like 1st John says he is, then we cannot simply like him. You cannot

like Jesus. But I think that's where a lot of people are at. Maybe that's where

you're at. You've come to a place where you're cool with Jesus, you like Jesus,

you think you can learn some good things from him, he's a good example about how

to live life sometimes, he's inspiring, he's loving, and so you can get behind

liking him. Maybe that's where you're at. You like Jesus. I was a teacher once at a

school and I was a Bible teacher and I taught this course called Christian

Ethics. So it was a deep dive into seeing how the Bible says we should live as

Christians. And so I wanted students who were serious and so I made them apply to

take this class and so I rejected a few. And there was this one gal that I

rejected I was like, "Nah, I don't think it's right." And so she actually like

responded, said, "Oh, no, can I like challenge your rejection?" I was like, "Sure,

let's meet up." And she was like, "Okay, like I really want to take this class." And I

was like, "Yeah, but man and your stuff and the things that you wrote, like you

made it clear that like you're not a Christian, you don't believe in Jesus at

all, right?" She's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not into this. I don't believe

that Jesus is God. I don't worship him. No, no, no." I'm like, "So, I'm just, why do

you want to take this class?" And she was like, "Oh, because I believe that the

things that he says are great. Like if I actually followed his teachings, if I

lived my life by his teachings, I think my life would be way better than if I

didn't. My life would be way better. I think I'd have just a better life. I'd be

a better member of the community, better member of society. I would have a better

life if I just follow the teachings and example of Jesus, but I'm not gonna

worship him as God." And I was like, "Oh, so you like Jesus?" She's like, "Yeah, I like him.

I'm just not gonna worship him." And listen, as much as I appreciated her honesty

then and still appreciate it now, that is the only position that makes zero sense.

It makes zero sense. It didn't exist in Jesus's day. In Jesus's day, there were

groups of people. There was a group of people that hated and rejected him and

wanted to kill him. There was a group of people who were terrified of him and ran

from him and tried to ignore him, but there was another group of people who

bowed down their lives and worshipped him as Lord and King. There wasn't anybody

who just liked him. There were some people who came for a while and kind of

liked him, but eventually Jesus drove those people away because they're like,

"Oh yeah, wait. No, never mind." That's the only position that doesn't work, and it

still doesn't. So how do you get in on the celebration? It's not by liking Jesus.

It's by going all in, fully giving your life to Jesus, by bowing down your life

and saying, "I believe that Jesus is the light of God. Jesus is everything my soul

longs for, and I am trusting him with my entire life and getting up every single

day and worshipping him as Lord and King." That's how you get in on the celebration.

Go all in with Jesus, and when you do, part of the celebration is telling

others. Like a member of a group who's lost in a cave, when you find that crack

of light in the rocks, you scream to all of them to come because you found hope

and life. Part of getting in on the celebration of being in the light of

Jesus is bringing others into the light. How are you going to shine that light to

others this holiday season? How are you, like John the Baptist, going to point others

to the light that God has shined in your life? Because God has shined his light.

God is the light, and he's invited you into the light. So how are you going to

respond? Reject him, ignore him, or celebrate the light? Let's pray together.