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Northwest Community Evangelical Free Church So, for me, one DARK night at a Texas State Park provided
plenty of adventure.
(December 13, 2009)
Dave Smith
Darkness can make us uncomfortable. It puts us off our game.
Trails negotiated easily in the daytime pose completely different challenges
Sermon manuscript
in the dark.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Darkness can be scary. Our imaginations go wild in the dark. “Are
you sure there are no bears at Lost Maples?” and “What was that noise?”
and “Hey, who touched me?”
Light Wins Every Time
(Jesus - the LIGHT of the World) Darkness hides the reality of the situation. We hike along in the
dark and miss the tree root along the path, don’t see the branch until it’s too
late, and miss the cut-off to the trail we’ve taken a hundred times.1
Introduction: Hikers that go “bump” in the night…
While I thoroughly enjoyed my night hike, it was a novelty. I’ll
My family has been hiking and camping at Lost Maples State take the daytime over night. I prefer light to darkness.
Natural Area in the Hill Country for twenty five years. I love the park and
have hiked the trails dozens of times. From the beginning, God has made clear that He has a preference
for light over darkness. I mean from the VERY beginning.
Well, about three or four years ago, my sons Ben and Zach and I
hiked those familiar trails and found high adventure. How could I find The Dark Side
adventure on trails that are so familiar?
At the Beginning - Dark (Gen. 1)
We hiked them at night.
[Genesis 1:1] In the beginning God created the heavens and the
We had arrived at our campsite, cooked dinner, and were still wide earth. [2] The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the
awake, with not much to do. It was still early (even for me), and one of us surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of
made the suggestion, “Hey, let’s go hiking!” the waters.
It was completely dark when we left camp. Deep cloud cover was Before the beginning - THAT thought’ll give you a brain cramp! -
in place so there was no starlight and no moonlight. It was very dark. We NOTHING existed.
didn’t take flashlights.
No people. No animals. No earth. Nothing. Everything was a
What a rush! formless void. The non-existent universe was empty. And it was dark.
Completely dark.
Trails that I almost know by heart were strange and unfamiliar. We
tried to remember where trail crossings were located and which way to go 1
when we reached them. We tried to be careful, but there were a few near We’ve watched movies that take advantage of the power of darkness to heighten
falls. Our ears were tuned to every nighttime sound and every rustle in the suspense and to put us on edge - from Audrey Hepburn in “Wait Until Dark” to the
more recent “The Blair Witch Project” and more. Given a preference, we’ll take
brush. light.
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If I were to ask you to picture the scene that existed before Genesis Hail destroyed the Egyptian crops.
1:1, I would be asking you to perform the impossible! That is because What the hail didn’t get was devoured by an infestation of locusts.
nothing existed prior to Genesis 1:1 and you can’t imagine nothing (no, that
is not bad grammar)! The plagues had come with increasing severity inflicting greater
and greater damage on Egypt’s morale, economy, health, and religion. Of
There was nothing material - no air, no gravity, nothing either course, the point of the plagues was to force Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.
living or inanimate. And, into this vacuum, God uttered the first creative But Pharaoh stubbornly refused!
words.
The first eight plagues passed and all of them were terrible. But it is
[Genesis 1:3] Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was the ninth, the next to the last plague, that holds interest for us today.
light.
The ninth plague was the plague of thick darkness. God determined
The very first creative act of God was to conceive and generate that for a nation to be enveloped in thick darkness was about as bad a
light. situation as could be imagined.
God judged the creation of light to be a good thing. He separated But, while the Egyptians were living in pitch black darkness,
the light from the darkness and set the stage for a daily battle between light [Exodus 10:23]…all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.”
and dark that continues to this day.
God made a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites,
Late every afternoon and continuing into the evening, dark and between light and dark. He blessed the Israelites with light while He
overpowers the light and rules the night. Every morning, light emerges plagued the Egyptians with dark.
victorious and rules the day.
And God wasn’t finished blessing Israel with light.
In other ways God has shown His preference for light over
darkness. For instance, darkness was one of the judgments of God against Stumbling in the Dark (Exodus 13-14)
the Egyptians when Egypt held Israel captive as slaves.
Protection (Exodus 13-14)
The Curse of Darkness (Ex. 10)
After the Jews left Egypt, God protected His people with a barrier
After four hundred years of slavery, God purposed that His people, against the Egyptians who pursued them all the way to the Red Sea. But the
the nation of Israel, should leave Egypt. protection wasn’t a barbed-wire fence or a great army of angels. He
protected them with a pillar of light in the form of a fire.
He commissioned His servant Moses to go to the Egyptian Pharaoh
to tell him, “Let My people go!” Those words were met with Pharaoh’s, [Exodus 13:21] The Lord was going before them in a pillar of
“No way!” (rough translation) - so God sent ten plagues on Egypt. cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to
give them light, that they might travel by day and by night…[14:20] So it
The Nile River was turned to blood. came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was
Frogs overran the land. the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one
Gnats spread and insects swarmed throughout Egypt. (Egypt) did not come near the other all night (Israel).
The Egyptian cattle died.
Sore boils broke out all over the Egyptians.
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Light protected God’s people from the enemies who would have Sure, it was past 10:00 in the evening. But John’s point here is
destroyed them. that it was dark in Judas’ soul. He had no light in his soul.
Guidance (Psalm 78:14) Darkness is to be avoided. Darkness causes us to stumble. Darkness
confuses and hides reality.
And the pillar stayed with Israel even after they crossed the dry
Red Sea. That pillar led them throughout their forty years of wilderness Flee from darkness. Flee into the light!
wanderings.
Light is altogether good. God Himself, for instance, is described as
[Psalm 78:14] Then He led them with the cloud by day dwelling in the light.
And all the night with a light of fire.
A Step into the Light
So…
light in their dwellings freed the Israelites for movement during the God - The LIGHT3
days of the plagues on Egypt;
light protected them from Egypt’s attacks; and, God’s majesty is like light!
light guided them throughout their long journeys.
In 1 Timothy 6:16 Paul tells us that God “alone possesses
In the physical, material world, light is to be preferred to dark. immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen
or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
But “light” and “dark” are sometimes used in the Bible to portray
moral good (light) and evil (darkness).2 Imagine that most brilliant light show you’ve ever seen. The Trans-
Siberian Orchestra’s light show is spectacular and so are the light shows
We find this symbolic use of light and darkness in many, many that rock bands put together at concerts.
places. But consider what John says when he describes Judas Iscariot’s
departure from the table after he and the other disciples had eaten the Compared to the LIGHT in which God dwells, those light shows
Passover meal with Jesus on the night before He died. are a pocket-sized LED flashlight!
Dark - Literal AND Symbolic Then, when the Bible stresses God’s leading in our lives or His
intervention in our lives, His actions are often expressed in terms of light.
[John 13:27] After the morsel, Satan then entered into [Judas].
Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” [28] Now no one
of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to
him. [29] For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box,
that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we have need of for the
feast”; or else, that he should give something to the poor. [30] So after
receiving the morsel he went out immediately; AND IT WAS NIGHT. 3
Besides attributing the characteristics of light to God, the written Word of God is
described in the same terms. Consider these verses from the Psalms. “The precepts
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We have sayings of our own that highlight (there’s one) and illustrate (there’s of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are
another) this figurative use of light. “Let’s see if this book won’t shed some light on radiant, giving light to the eyes.” (Psalm 19:8) and “Your word is a lamp to my
that problem...” and “I see the light!” and “It just dawned on me...” feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
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God’s direction is like a lamp And, of course, you and I, as Christ-followers, are called lights in
the New Testament.
Once, King David sang a song of praise to God for having led him
throughout His whole life - Christians - lights in a dark world
[2 Samuel 22:29] For You are my lamp, O Lord;
And the Lord illumines my darkness. When Jesus wanted to describe the effects of His own followers in
the world, He said in the Sermon on the Mount, [Matthew 5:14a] You are
Just as God literally led Israel through the wilderness for forty the light of the world.
years with a pillar of firelight, so He leads His people into His ways
through the light of His Word. We are to be beacons, directing our friends and family to God and
His ways. We are to lead lives that are pure - no darkness of sin allowed.
And when God’s holiness is in view, the writers of the Bible resort
to the vocabulary of light. Summary: Yep, light is a wonderful gift. It dispels darkness, it leads and
guides, it protects and keeps us safe. And, throughout the Bible, light and
God’s moral nature is laser pure darkness are portrayed as moral opposites.
Toward the end of his life, the old apostle John wrote, [1 John 1:5] God is light, while Satan and his works are continually referred to
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that in terms of darkness.
God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. The Bible is the light that keeps us from stumbling in the darkness
of sin.
And, of course, the thought here is that God is holy. He is morally Believers are lights, sent to shine God’s glory to those who dwell in
pure. Darkness would implicate God in sin. There is none of that in Him. darkness.
He is light, all light, nothing but light.
Light is one of the most frequently used metaphors for God’s way,
So, God is Light. AND, God’s people are lights! In both the Old for God’s truth, and for the life that God gives in the Bible.
and New Testaments God identifies His people as lights in a dark world.
BUT - and this is huge - we are not naturally drawn to the light.
God’s People - The “lights” You and I may like to think of ourselves as moths who are attracted to the
holiness of God’s light, who love the light. But the Bible says that our
Israel - a light to the nations inclinations lie elsewhere.
The nation of Israel was to be light to the nations that surrounded Listen to the words of John 3:19, “This is the judgment, that the
her. The thought was that she was to model purity of life and that she was Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than
to be an evangelistic force. As Isaiah says, the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
[Isaiah 42:6] I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness, History shows us to be a race of spiritual ostriches, burying our
I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, heads in the sand, refusing to look to the light.
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations So, we find ourselves in a terrible predicament.
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We have abandoned the well-lit highway of God’s truth, and have At the season of Christ’s birth, God performed that part of the
struck out on unlit paths of our own making through the dark where creation work again.
dangers of every kind lie in wait.
In the East, wise men saw a LIGHT appear in the sky. And these
If we continue living in the darkness of God’s absence, we will Magi made their way to Jerusalem to find the King whose birth was
inevitably stumble and fall. announced by the star’s arrival.5
For that reason, we must be “enlightened.” A light must be put in Catch this. In the Old Testament, God used a pillar of firelight to
our path or we are doomed. A beacon must shine so brightly that we can’t lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. At the time of Jesus’ arrival, wise
miss it. Light must interrupt us and intercept us! men were led by the light to the Promised One.
Well, two thousand years ago, God’s Light shone in an “up close Jesus’ birth was announced by light. And light played a prominent
and personal” sort of way. And the light that He shone our way was role in His life and teachings.
absolutely compelling!
His majesty unveiled in terms of light
Light - “Up Close and Personal”!
Once, during the latter part of His three year ministry, and for the
Jesus - The Light of the World! only time in His earthly experience, Jesus’ deity was revealed in a very
unambiguous and spectacular way. The event is recorded in Matthew,
His coming announced in terms of light chapter 17.
The prophet Isaiah had a lot to say about a coming Jewish King Jesus had gone up to a high mountain with three of His disciples
who would also be a Suffering Servant. He is referred to as the Messiah. (Peter, James, and John). There, the disciples saw Jesus as the central figure
Isaiah described the Messiah’s arrival with these words: in a dazzling light show.
[Isaiah 9:2] The people who walk in darkness [Matthew 17:2] And He was transfigured before them; and His
Will see a great light; face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.4 We usually refer to this event as “The Transfiguration” - as if at
this event Jesus became something other than what He was.
Fascinating. Jesus’ arrival was foretold in terms of a breakthrough
of light. And hundreds of years after that prophecy a light actually Actually, there on top of that mountain is the only time in the
materialized. Gospels when we get to see Jesus for who He TRULY is, clothed in
unapproachable light!
A few minutes ago I mentioned what you already know - that God
spoke and flung the stars into existence at the beginning of the universe. Just as importantly, when the Lord spoke about Himself, He often
couched His self-descriptions in terms of light.
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This was also the verse used to describe the initial impact of Jesus’ ministry,
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“The people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those who were sitting in Perhaps the prophecy of Isaiah 9:2 was partially fulfilled with the light dawning
the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.” (Matthew 4:16) on these Gentiles.
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He self-described in terms of light Jesus - The Light of Heaven!
Once, He was speaking to Jewish rulers who were rejecting Him. [Rev. 21:23] And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon
He inextricably identified Himself with light. to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the
Lamb. [24] The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth
[John 8:12]…“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will bring their glory into it.
will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
The world of Heaven is the land of light. Light is the environment
Jesus claimed (and He still claims today) to be the lighthouse that of salvation, purity, and safety. And Heaven is full of light because it is
will reliably direct every wayward soul safely home through the darkness filled with Jesus, who is the Light!
of this world. The storm is raging out there and the darkness hides the rocks
that would destroy the ship of our lives. He was the light of the world while He was on earth. In eternity, He
will illumine Heaven itself by His very presence.
Jesus says, “Look to the light that I provide. Follow my searchlight
beam, and I will bring you home to God. I am the light you have needed And today, He offers to enlighten us. He offers to be the Light of
and longed for all your life.” our lives.
Later in His ministry, He was with a man who had been born blind. Conclusion:
As Jesus prepared to give the man sight, He spoke these powerful words:
[John 9:5] While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. JUST AS Isaiah could say, “The Lord is my light and my
salvation!” anyone today can place their trust in Jesus - the light of the
Which was as if to say, world - and experience the joy of eternal salvation.
“Light is what I am. Shine is what I do.” To live without Jesus is to live in the land of alienation from God.
It is to live blind, spiritually. It is to face the prospect of a very dark eternity
What He did there in giving a man who had never seen the gift of after this life is over.
sight is what He came to do.
Open our eyes to the fact of God. I moved from darkness into light on the day that I turned to the
Let us see our need for Him. Lord Jesus Christ. When I placed my trust in Jesus, God said, “Let there be
Light the path to see His ways. light in Dave Smith’s heart!” - and He shined Christ’s light into my life.
Protect us from moral darkness.
I was saved from the darkness of sin because I placed my trust in
The Bible says that Jesus shined while He walked the earth for 33 Jesus, the Light.
years and that He has continued to shine for the last 2,000 years in the
hearts of those who follow Him. Have you come to the light of Jesus? Have you placed your trust in
Him?
We read in the book of Revelation that He will continue to shine
throughout eternity. He is declared to be the Light even in Heaven. If not, your only hope for LIFE is to come to the LIGHT. Come to
Jesus and receive His love and grace and forgiveness.
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And, JUST AS the pillar of fire protected and guided the Israelites ***Charlie, here is as far as I’ve gotten, and we’ve got to get moving to
in the Old Testament, so Jesus’ light lights our path. Abilene. If you wanted to create a slide for the remainder of the message,
I’m going to develop, briefly, the idea that we need to invite Jesus’ light to
I’ve got to admit that I had a blast walking the trails of Lost Maples search our lives, to expose any darkness there so that we can move toward
in the dark. Try it some time! The only real danger is a trip and a fall, a cut repentance.
or a bruise. It’ll make you appreciate daytime!
I’ll hope to get a finished manuscript together for Sunday morning, but
But I can’t imagine trying to navigate LIFE without the light of we’ll see…
Jesus. It’s way too dangerous.
The notes for this section follow:
His light shows us the paths God has cut through the wilderness of those first century Jews, so today, He methodically, ruthlessly, with the
a very treacherous world. His light protects us from the sheer drop-offs of patient determination of a surgeon going after a cancer, exposes the sin in
sin. Without His light we become hopelessly lost, like sheep without a our own lives, shining His light so that we can see ourselves truly, and
shepherd. move toward Him in the beauty of holiness and purity.
Today, you may be at the point of recognizing that you have So, are you inviting Jesus’ light to do its searching work in your
strayed away from the path, that you have chosen a detour into the dark. heart? Are you inviting Him to cleanse your life of darkness?
If that is where you are, I’ll borrow a phrase from Dr. Phil, “So, And, there is the blindness that results from pride or self-deceit or
how’s that working for you?” Are you finding fulfillment in that detour? Is sin. For all of us, there is the need to regularly invite the searching scrutiny
there real freedom in the dark? Have you found joy in traveling a path away of His light.
from the light?
He will graciously allow us to see the areas of our lives that need
I doubt it. Every time I have ever strayed from God’s light, I have attention if we are to mature and grow into conformity to the character of
regretted it. It’s just not a great move to move away from the light Jesus Christ.
shines.
Jesus came to shed His light in dark places - and shedding light
And if you have strayed off the trail, have forsaken the Bible’s where there has been none can sometimes be an unnerving experience!
light, have been hiding in dark places, God invites you back into the light.
Sometimes it is dangerous to turn on a light in a dark room. You
But here’s the GREAT NEWS:You can come back. You can turn might not like what you see. Turn on the light in a kitchen where the food
your back on the darkness and find the warmth of Jesus’ Light. Forgiveness has not been properly stored and you might hear the sound of scurrying
and cleansing and restoration and a fresh start are yours for the asking. And little feet on the counter tops!
it can all start today. Right now.
Turning on the light in your child’s bedroom - even after you have
And finally, JUST AS the Lord exposed the sinfulness and told her/him to clean up - can sometimes be disheartening!
uncleanness in the lives of people in the first century, He is willing to do
the same today, for anyone who asks Him to. Jesus Christ came into the world to shed light on the darkness of
our lives, that we might be transformed into the kinds of people who reflect
------------------------- His holiness.
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And when His holy light shines on our lives, there is the
momentary desire to flip the switch and turn on the darkness again. The
light hurts and burns and exposes.
BUT, because we have felt the warmth of His love, we don’t want
to welcome darkness again and pretend the messiness doesn’t exist.
No, instead, we keep the light on, allow Him to expose the dirt, the
trash, the ugliness. Only with the light on, can the mess be cleaned up.
So, are you inviting Jesus’ light to do its searching work in your heart? Are
you inviting Him to cleanse your life of darkness?
Jesus’ light shines and illumines a cold, dark world. His entrance
into a life is like a warm fire we might light in a cabin in the woods on a
cold winter’s night.
That fire is the source of light, and it also lights the cabin and
reveals the inside details of the cabin.
In the same way, Jesus’ light warms our hearts with the realization
that He is love as He reveals to us who we really are.
And, as we invite the searching scrutiny of His light, He illumines
the insides of our hearts in such a way that we begin to have an idea about
how to cooperate with Him in cleaning up the place.
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Charlie, here is how I’m planning to end the message:
Now, what does all of this discussion about LIGHT have to do with
Christmas? Just this: THE BABY BORN IN BETHLEHEM WAS THE
LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
Jesus shines! That’s what light does. So, allow His light to shine on
you this Christmas season and on THIS DAY.
“[2 Corinthians 4:6] For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of
darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.