Light Enters the Darkness

AI Transcript

John chapter 1.

Many of us in this room know what it's like to feel abandoned. Maybe from a parent, a sibling, a friend, even a spouse. This world is filled with darkness. Many people in this room know from experience what a dark night of the soul is like. Maybe you're in a season right now where you even feel abandoned by God.

You can relate to the psalmist who says, darkness is my only companion. Or maybe as we inch closer to Christmas, you know the sadness that awaits just four days away. In a room this size, Christmas will bring up just about every emotion possible. Many of us know that there's moments in life where it feels like the lights just go out.

And yet no one comes back to turn those lights back on. Well, that's actually how some of the brightest minds in history made sense of God. Yes, he's the creator, but after building the house, namely this universe, God never moved in himself. God made the world, but he keeps his distance. This is also known as classical deism. Like a divine

clockmaker who winds up the universe and then takes a step back. Or a deadbeat dad who has a kid because that's fun, but then pieces out because that's hard. This understanding of God, the God who abandons, who creates the world but then does not intervene is actually a product of the enlightenment. Human reason, they say, not scripture, human reason is how we can know God.

And God, they say, is impersonal and detached. This is how many of our founding fathers understood who God to be. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine. For instance, Thomas Jefferson famously took scissors to his New Testament, cutting out every miracle. No spiritual world, no healing, no...

resurrection, no shepherds hearing angels, no manger, and certainly no incarnation. Just a God who creates a world and bounces. Now I'd imagine most of us in here don't hold this view of God. I mean, I know at least our members affirm in our minds the statement of faith, namely Christian orthodoxy. Yet what about our hearts?

and in here feel like God can be distant. Maybe you never say that out loud. You desire to please Him and to believe the right things about Him, but experiencing Him as light in your darkness, as the God who loves you, yeah, that sounds too good to be true. Well, this morning, my hope is not merely to help you understand that God is not far off.

That classical deism is heresy, but I aim to convince you that God loves you. And he's shown it by drawing near, closer than your wildest dreams. And his nearness can be experienced by you today. So with that being said, if you're not already there, open your Bibles to John chapter one. John chapter one.

We continue our Advent theme, light in the darkness through the eyes of the apostle John. So John chapter one, we'll pick it up in verse nine this morning. John one nine.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. That's our passage this morning. It's a lot easier than a whole chapter from Revelation. So praise God for Advent. But last week, Mark helped us to see that the light God always had helped us to see that He's the light. And then like the Creed says, He's God from God. He's light.

from light, He's the eternal begotten Son. This morning, we're going to look at this everlasting light entering our darkness. At our last theology on the ground, asked Laney Mayer if she had to sum up a theology of Christmas in one sentence of hope for our church and for our city. What?

would she say, and like the scholar that Laney is, she's not trying to reinvent a theology of Christmas, so she just quoted C.S. Lewis, who like Laney was just paraphrasing Athanasius before him, and here's her answer to that question. The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. This is at the heart of my

passage this morning. This is at the heart of Christmas friends. The Son of God or the true light like Mark showed us last week became a man to enable us men and women boys and girls to become sons and daughters of God. Look at verse 9 again. The true light that gives light

to everyone was coming into the world. At one point in human history, Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Eden literally means the paradise of God. God and human beings dwelling with one another in fellowship, in harmony, shalom. This is paradise or the city of God.

But Eden didn't cover the whole world. don't know for sure, but many scholars place Eden in modern-day Iraq, ancient Mesopotamia. Adam and Eve's mandate, expand Eden to the ends of the earth. Adam was a priest king called to serve and to protect this first temple where God dwelt. They were told, fill the earth and subdue it.

namely expand this sacred place Eden outward. And so Adam and Eve were in a sense called to push back darkness literally and usher in light. now darkness in those days were not evil, just non order, unformed, uncultivated space. All the earth was not yet filled with

the knowledge and glory of God. And so Adam and Eve, even before sin entered the world, were on mission. Well, you know the story. Our great-great-great-great-great grandparents, Adam and Eve, they failed. They faced a potential threat. The ancient serpent, Satan. And instead of protecting God's place and expanding Eden to the ends of the earth, being God's priest and king,

wasn't enough for Adam. He wanted to be God. And in doing so, well, look around. Darkness now rains. This is the fall. This is the world we live in. It's broken. And if we're honest, so are we. So when we see that phrase in verse nine of John one,

coming into the world, don't read your Bibles too quickly. The world is this place, east of Eden, where darkness seems to reign, where we experience abandonment and betrayal, where we get hit with things like miscarriages, cancer, the death of the loved one.

where relationships get strained, church hurt happens, jobs get lost and dreams die. So again, don't read your Bibles too quickly. The true light, the Son of God, the one who gives light to everyone was coming to this place, coming into the world. Now when any Jew thinks about that word light, one of the things that comes to mind is

Menorah.

The menorah that was always lit. And in the temple that light symbolized God dwelling with his people. Light in the darkness. As we gather today, Jews across the world are celebrating Hanukkah. Jesus, we are told from John's gospel, celebrated Hanukkah. The festival of light. And praise God for Hanukkah. But Jesus didn't just celebrate Hanukkah, he fulfilled.

The oil that lasted for eight days, the Hanukkah miracle after the Maccabean revolt in the silent years, the time between the Old and New Testaments. The time when the entire Jewish nation were saved from the annihilation of their faith. As the Jewish temple was rededicated to Yahweh, the light from the menorah represented God dwelling with his people. So, happy Hanukkah.

light in the darkness. Well, the light from the menorah friends was simply a shadow, a foretaste. Here's how the prophet Isaiah predicted this light's fulfillment 700 years before Christmas. We'll have the slide on the screen. Oh, not that one.

Maybe I don't have this one. Isaiah nine to the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness. A light has dawned. The words of prophet Isaiah. Let me read it again. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness. A light has dawned. The true light that gives light to everyone came.

into the world. Light enters the darkness. This is Christmas, And this is very different picture of God from classical deism. I will say...

The deists do understand God's transcendence to a certain degree. Many in the modern church don't understand that God is utterly other. He's not like us. He's not sad. He's not needy. He's not lonely.

He's not part of creation. So, so he's not limited by it. He's, he's sovereign over it. He's God. But, but where classical deism goes wrong is they don't understand God is also imminent. God's transcendence and his. Imminence. He doesn't create the world, wind it up like a clock and take a step back. No, rather he actively sustains all things.

His sovereign providence governs every detail to the counsel of his will. He's personally engaged with his people. He's numbered all the hairs on your head. And then he does the unimaginable. He enters creation himself. Like Laney brought up.

in our theology on the ground. you can listen to all those podcasts. You go back to the redemption Institute one right there. Wherever you find your podcasts, just type in redemption Institute. We should have a slide up there. but, but when we, have a God who, who is utterly other transcendent, holy, holy, holy, and a God who is also imminent near this has the potential to evoke worship like nothing.

else the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world John says the apostle Paul speaking of the same truth as John says it a little bit differently it will be up on the screen Philippians Christ Jesus who being in the very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage rather he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

This transcendent God, this second person of the Trinity God, the Son of God, the one who is from everlasting to everlasting, the radiance of the Father's glory, the exact imprint of His nature, the Son who needs nothing, who is dependent on no one, who possesses life in Himself, who is unchangeable, impassable, infinite, eternal.

and immortal, the one who is himself every perfect attribute, perfect wisdom, power, holiness, love, the one who is all sufficient, the one who spoke the world into existence, who upholds galaxies by the power of his word, who governs all things with effortless sovereignty from whom all creation was made and from

whom all creation holds together. The one who is the author of time. Think about that. Yet is not bound by time. The maker of matter yet not contained by space. The giver of life yet untouched by death. And this friends is the one, the true light who became flesh. Became a human.

being who humbled himself or as the ESV translates more literal here, emptied himself. Yet he did not set aside his godness in the incarnation. This emptying is more like subtraction by addition. The person of Christ adds another nature. He becomes

the Son of God incarnate, not out of deficiency, not out of need, not because he's lonely or lacking, but out of sheer overflowing and abundant love for you, for me. The eternal Son, the one who cannot die, took to himself a nature that can. The immutable entered a world of change, the infinite.

took on finitude. The Lord of glory took up dirt. The one who commands angels was laid in a manger. The one who sustains all things, including Mary, was sustained by this poor teenage mom. Redemption Parker, when we understand who God is, the incarnation should rock us to our core, knock us on our knees.

God shows his love for us in that true light enters into darkness. Talk about drawing near. And not just to see how we're doing down here, but that he comes to be our substitute, obedient to the point of death, death on a cross, our sin friends, not just the darkness out there, but the darkness in here makes us enemies.

of God. Penalty of our sin, death, separation from Him. But then the light dawns and at Calvary on Good Friday, the light seems to have gone out. Darkness thinks it wins the day. But the only way this true light could give light to anyone is to die for everyone. For God so loved the world.

that he gave his one and only son.

believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Don't read your Bible too quickly.

Jesus has drawn closer than you ever dreamed of in his nearness. His love can be experienced by you today. One of questions someone asked Laney in our Q &A time at Theology on the Ground after all the Santa Claus questions was this.

Now that Jesus is with the Father and not physically walking on earth, is he still a man as he sits at the right hand of the Father or is he only God? What a question. I love it. I mean it's crazy enough that God would empty himself, become a man.

Take the name Yeshua or or an English Jesus to live for us, to die for us, to descend to Hades for us, to be resurrected from the dead for us. But as he ascends to God's right hand, surely he's done with his human mission. He can give back the name Jesus and just go back to being plain old God, right? Wrong. Forever. Forever. The Son of God.

is the Son of God incarnate. The God man. the scandal of Christmas. Holly and I have been teaching with each other in kids ministry. So fun. Y'all's kids are amazing. And what a privilege it is to try to make disciples of the littlest of our image bearers. And Jesus says, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child,

We'll never enter it. Man, we are learning from your kids. But last week, the pastor got called out. Sweet little Norbrick looked up at me with conviction and said, why are you doing potty talk? And she was right. I was trying to explain the scandal of Christmas that the Son of God became a man. I was telling them that.

that as God, never sleeps, but as a man, Jesus was tired. He had to go to sleep. I was telling them that as God, he's never been hungry. Well, Jesus at times was starving. He had to eat. And then I emphasized, and I did emphasize, he even had to go potty. So Nora was right to see the scandal in this. Do you see the scandal of Christmas? Do you see the scandal of

the incarnation. You can experience the love of God today because the Son of God became a man for you. And I know at times it can feel that that God is distant but I hope that we can see from from this passage is this one verse in John's gospel that that is the farthest thing from the truth.

And God doesn't just draw near once in history. His nearness is what he offers us every day. Jesus's brother James says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And so be honest with God in prayer. Tell him what he already knows. Maybe it's God, I don't feel your presence, but I want to.

Or God, know you are love, but that's the last thing I feel right now. Or God, life is hard. Help me please draw near to God this Christmas. Church Father Irenaeus in the late 100s wrote this, the word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did through his transcendent love become what we are that he might bring us.

to be even what he is himself. No, we don't become God. Irenaeus was not saying that. Adam already tried that. But God becomes man so that one day we will receive a glorified body like his and we will reign with our God man for all of eternity. And we don't have to wait for that day to get started on this, fam.

church, imagine if we understood Christmas, if we understood light in the darkness. I think it'll I think it could do two things. So two things and I'm done. First, it would transform us. we understood Christmas, it would transform us again. C.S. Lewis in the same book, Mere Christianity says every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.

transformed into his image. Advent, like Mark said last week, is a time to look back on his first coming. And it's a time to look ahead at his second. But in the meantime, we wait. We wait. Together, we wait. With our eyes on the God man, we wait. And it's in the waiting that we become little Christ.

And in second, understanding light in the darkness ought to thrust us thrust us into mission. Our P.S. sons and daughters of God, we are now the light of the world.

That's literally what Jesus calls you.

the light of the world. So let's go light it up from our neighbors to the nations. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.