Unto Us - A Light Has Shined

Special Advent sermon series at The River church: "Unto Us - Christ Has Come"

Series Text: Isaiah 9:1-7 (NKJV)

November 27: Unto Us - A Light Has Shined (Salvation to all through Jesus)

December 4: Unto Us -A Child is Born (Incarnation of Jesus)

December 11: Unto Us - A Son is Given (Crucifixion of Jesus)

December 18: Unto Us - A King is Anointed (Resurrection of Jesus)

This week's focus text: Verse 2

The people who walked in darkness 

Have seen a great light; 

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, 

Upon them a light has shined.

It all started with a man named Jacob. No...

It all started with a man named Abram. No, wait...

It all started with a man named Adam. No. Dang, that's not it either...

It all started with God. Ah, yes... that's it! "In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth... And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:1-2). 

But wait. There was someone else present in creation too... right?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:1-5).

Okay, now I get it... in the beginning was the Godhead, i.e., the Father, Son, and Spirit. All things were made by Him, through Him, and in Him.

And humanity was God's special creation... the crowning achievement, in that He (representing all humans) was made in God's own image. Man is uniquely creative. Of all creatures, only man contemplate the existence of God, ponders his place in the universe, and wonders about the afterlife. And only man worships deities. Indeed, man is special. But thanks to the sin of Adam (and Eve)... man is also cursed. As a result, he has been kicked out of the garden, left to wander and stumble in the darkness... hopelessly lost and confused.

But God had a plan to deal with the curse of humanity (and all of creation). Admittedly, it took awhile to unfold (and is still unfolding). But nevertheless, it is a beautiful and worthwhile story. In fact, it is the most powerful and true story ever told... anywhere.

After the fiasco with Adam - and a reshuffling of the deck with Noah - God raised up a man named Abram to be a mighty nation. He promised Abram (later changed to Abraham) that his descendants would be as numerous as sands on the seashore. And the nation that would be formed by God through Abraham would be a light to the Gentiles. This new nation would be blessed by God, and they would exist to be a blessing to the whole world. In other words, God would reveal Himself to every person on earth through His chosen people, letting His special creatures know He loves them and wants to forgive them of their sins and re-connect them to their original purpose and divine design. 

God wanted Abraham's descendants to share the good news of salvation to the other nations of the world. And sure enough... God blessed Abraham, making him the father of the great nation of Israel. Actually, it was Abraham's grandson, Jacob, who had twelve sons (through four different women), that became the infamous 12 tribes of Israel. And it wasn't until the time of King David many, many centuries later that the nation truly became great in size, strength, and international influence.

However, there was only one problem with God's plan to use Israel to be a light to the other nations (Gentiles). They didn't quite understand the fine print on God's covenant with their ancient patriarch, Abraham. You see, God wanted to bless Israel so that they would be a blessing to the other nations... but ultimately they decided they wanted to keep it for themselves. So they sort of conveniently forgot about the part about being a blessing. After all, they were God's "chosen people", so why waste the message of God's salvation on non-Israelites?

I know the Old Testament is more complicated than that, but hey, I'm giving the cliff notes here! Anyway... rather than sharing the goodness of God with foreigners, Israel hoarded the good news for just their own nation... and ended up worshiping all kinds of false gods along the way. Yahweh Himself actually lived among them and spoke through His prophets, but nevertheless, the Israelites missed the truth of His holy Word through their disobedience. (Hmmmm... good thing we're not like that today, huh?)

Anyway, here's the mysterious and surprising aspect to this story: None of this took God by surprise. Nothing about the roller-coaster, weak-willed faith of the Israelite people shocked the Lord of all creation. Disappointed? Perhaps... but not surprised whatsoever. He knew they would fail... and He knew that in the fullness of time, He would need to step in and do what we couldn't do for ourselves. How else could we know the depth of man's failure if not for Israel's example?

Anyway, God knew that eventually He would need to send His Son to be the sacrificial Lamb... to bring salvation to everyone... to reverse the curse of sin... to rescue the oppressed... to pardon the guilty... to purchase our freedom... to reveal the Truth of God's unending love... to be the Light of the World... to shine in the darkness so once and for all we could know the Way and the Truth to everlasting Life. 

God sent His precious Son to complete the plot line of the story that began o so many years before when everything went wrong with Adam in the Garden. That was a horrible day - when humanity was forced to leave the sanctuary of fellowship with God and trudge along in a dark and dangerous world. 

God knew His Son would be born Jesus of Nazareth before the foundation of the world... but perhaps He waited until we were ready to accept the fullness of Truth before executing His plan. Maybe He waited until we'd experienced a few centuries of failure in trying to save ourselves... and cried out for deliverance.

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."   Galatians 4:4-5

I've heard it put this way before: God sent the Son of God to our world to become the Son of Man, so that sons of men could become sons of God.

Hmmmm... aren't you glad Jesus is the Light of the World?