Bible Talks - Traditional Church (Sunday 8am)
Series: Christmas
Jesus - The Light Of The World
Sunday, 22 December 2002
Well, it's Christmas again. The season in which we remember that out of his love, God the Father sent his Son into the world. Jesus, the Son of God, became man for the express purpose of freeing fallen, fallible, sinful humans from the darkness of sin. This same Jesus who suffered and died for the sins of every person, was raised up to heaven, and now sits in glory at the right hand of God the Father.
Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has opened the way for us to come into God's presence. The stain of sin, the wound of separation, and the eternal isolation of death have been overcome through Jesus Christ on the cross. This was the reason for his birth that we remember at this time each year. Jesus was the first to be raised from death to eternal life and the scriptures assures us that through faith in him he will not be the last.
At his birth the angels rejoiced at the coming of the Lord. They knew that this was than the birth of a Saviour and that they were witnessing the establishment of God�s kingdom on earth.
The world to which Jesus came was a world lost in darkness. Darkness prevailed in personal and social ethics as entire groups of people such as slaves and women were either ignored or treated at best as second-class objects. The killing of deformed or unwanted infants was acceptable practice. Racial differences were magnified.
Religious darkness prevailed as pagan Gods were worshipped often with licentious and ribald practices. Even the Jewish religion had been corrupted by the heavy burdens of centuries of traditions, and righteousness was defined as outward observance of religious rules and ceremonies.
One of the great themes of John�s gospel is that of the battle between light and darkness. John describes how Jesus is the light of the world, the light of our lives. In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it as we read in that passage from the introduction of John's gospel.
We understand what light means when we think of darkness, and darkness when we think of light. In the Gospel of John, darkness stands for evil. When Jesus Christ, the Word of God, moved against the darkness, judgment took place. Jesus Christ's ministry in the world was to bring light into all the dark and shadowed places of people's lives. Jesus exposed the evil and drove it out. As the Word of God, he brought the knowledge of God to us.
When he met people, they came to know what God was like and what God desired. What Jesus did was God in action. Sin and wrong were judged, because of Jesus, men and women gained power over evil; the� evil in themselves and the evil around them. The life, � the divine energy � in Jesus Christ was the light that shines in the darkness.
It is the nature of light to shine. The light of which John speaks has
always been shown. Always it has been piercing darkness. However, darkness has always opposed the light. The struggle has been unceasing. Jesus' life and death did not there and then destroy evil but it passed judgment on evil and evil doers and opened the way forward through forgiveness and grace as people have faith in Jesus.
Our world today is indeed still a dark world. We have made many improvements in the quality of life since the time of Jesus. We can travel faster and further, communicate quicker, build taller buildings, and manufacture more items than people living in the time of Jesus.
Yet darkness rules in many area of private and public life, and for all of our progress in technology, the darkness is as great and perhaps even greater than it was in the times of Jesus.
We still assign groups of people to inferior places because of their skin colour, sex, or place of birth. We are afraid to walk the streets of many towns and cities after dark, and crime now reaches its tentacles into formerly safe rural areas. We're gearing up for a state election and yet again one of the election issues will be law and order.
We bow down before the gods of drug dependency and compulsive gambling and we're constantly reminded of corporate greed.
People cheat in just about every area of life, from income tax to
marriage. There is a general permissiveness that blurs the distinctions between right and wrong. To many right is what you can get away with.
Above all this on the local scene there looms the fragile nature of international peace, the fear of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. There are constant outbreaks of all sorts of conflicts, terror and war and all the old ones never seem to go away.
We are increasingly concerned with the breakdown of the family structure of society. How many of us don't know someone who is divorced, or living in a relationship without the blessing of marriage. We all know children whose parents have separated. The modern news and entertainment media seem to celebrate sexual promiscuity as the desirable norm.
As Christian believers today as we strive to spread the good news that in Jesus the darkness is dispelled because he is the light of life, we are ridiculed, marginalized and ignored.
Yet we know that only Jesus has the words of eternal life. We know that Jesus is the true light shining into our dark world. We know that the only peace that lasts is the peace of the Prince of Peace. We can either live in the light of Christ, showing that light in our world, standing out in our community or we can give into the surrounding darkness that deadens souls and retreat into our religious ghetto.
In the sermon on the Mount, in Ch 5 of Matthew's gospel, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to every one in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that men may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven."
By trusting in Jesus we have the greatest Christmas gift of all to give; Not a gift that lasts just for a season and has gone away by the twelfth day of Christmas, but a gift that lasts for all eternity. As we trust in Jesus and share his light with our world, our country, our state, our city, our community, our street, our home we can bring the light, the light, the hope of the gospel.
Many people decorate the outside of their homes with festoons of Christmas lights at this time of the year. I find myself hard put to understand why they do it and in a few weeks they pack them all away until next year. But we can decorate our lives with the true light of Christ that lasts all year round and can bring real joy, real peace, real life into the lives of those around us.
Let us pray.