I. Introduction

A. Illustration – Ronald W. Nikkel wrote, Charles Colson and several other Christian leaders once met with President Borja of Ecuador to discuss Prison Fellowship International's ministry in Ecuadorian penitentiaries. They had no sooner been seated in luxurious leather chairs when the President interrupted the conversation with the story of his own imprisonment years before being elected to the presidency. He had been involved in the struggle for democracy in Ecuador. The military cracked down, and he was arrested. Without trial, they threw him into a cold dungeon with no light and no window. For three days he endured the solitary fear and darkness that can drive a person mad. Just when the situation seemed unbearable, the huge steel door opened, and someone crept into the darkness. Borja heard the person working on something in the opposite corner. Then the figure crept out, closed the door, and disappeared. Minutes later the room suddenly blazed with light. Someone, perhaps taking his life into his hands, had connected electricity to the broken light fixture. "From that moment," explained President Borja, "my imprisonment had meaning because at least I could see." Even more important than the light we see with our eyes is the light that Christ brings to our hearts, giving our lives the understanding and meaning only he can give (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

B. Context – That’s exactly what the passage we’re looking at today is talking about. The people of Israel had gone over four hundred years without a fresh word from God. Sure, they had the Scriptures we now call the Old Testament. But there were no prophets of God to proclaim afresh and anew His truth and His presence with them. It had to be kind of like driving blind. Let’s look a little closer, so we can find out how we can celebrate and share the light of Christ with our world. Today I’ll be reading from The Message translation.

I. The Light Wins!

A. In Isaiah 9:1, God speaks about the past history of the inheritances of Zebulun and Naphtali. (NEW SLIDE) But there’ll be no darkness for those who were in trouble. Earlier he did bring the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali into disrepute, (NEW SLIDE) but the time is coming when he’ll make that whole area glorious – the road along the Sea, the country past the Jordan, international Galilee. (NEW SLIDE) Look at this map. These two areas right by the Sea of Galilee are the focus of what Isaiah is writing about. And right on the edge of Zebulun is Nazareth, the future home of Mary and Joseph, the place where Jesus would be brought up. And along the coast of the Sea of Galilee in the region of Naphtali is Capernaum, the town Jesus would call home during His ministry. The two tribes had been exiled with the rest of Israel in 722 BC. Their land had been inhabited by anyone the Assyrians chose to move in. Finally, after the returned exiles had reproduced enough to start to fill that land again, the reputation improved somewhat. But in the time of Jesus it was still a bastion of Roman strength. But God chose the inheritance of those two lowly regarded tribes to shine His glory – the light of His Son. What truth can we apply from this verse? (NEW SLIDE) The truth is that God can use us to shine His light, no matter how dark our past has been. And that’s a very liberating truth. Think about it for a minute – we all know all the dark times of our pasts when we weren’t at our best. We tend to believe that these sins and mistakes make us unfit for God’s use and unable to shine His glory. (NEW SLIDE) We tend to rely on works righteousness – the belief that what we do makes us worthy in God’s sight – and forget that His grace covers over that dark past when we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But just as God used that downtrodden, lowly regarded land of Zebulun and Naphtali to shine His light, He can use us.

B. Verses two and three - (NEW SLIDE) The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those living in the land of deep shadows – light! Sunbursts of light! (NEW SLIDE) 3 You repopulated the nation, you expanded its joy. Oh, they’re so glad in your presence! Festival joy! The joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings. Have you ever been camping out in the woods, no light around, and you hear a strange noise? What’s the first thing you do? Reach for the flashlight. And of course it’s never where you left it, so you scramble and dig around until you find it. When you finally have that flashlight turned on and look around and see that everything’s okay, what a relief it is! But if the bushes are moving and you can’t find the cause, you build up the fire and sit by its light waiting for the dawn. And what a relief that dawn is! When I was in Boy Scouts, we took a canoeing trip into the wilderness of British Columbia. Normal practice for wilderness camping is that you hang your backpack or food sack up high enough and far enough from the trunk of the tree that a bear can’t get it. But there weren’t enough suitable trees for a group our size, so we took turns on bear watch. Two at a time, we sit at the campfire, keeping it going so that the bears would stay away. Dawn was a welcome sight! Now imagine how much worse it was for the Israelites – a four hundred year spiritual darkness. And when the light comes, it’s time to celebrate. Maybe that’s why the crowds in that area were much more receptive to Jesus’ teaching and His miracles. What’s the truth for us? (NEW SLIDE) The truth is that no matter how dark our circumstances, the Light has come and will shatter the darkness if we let it. When we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we have more cause than anyone else does to celebrate this time of year because the Light has transformed our lives! (NEW SLIDE) The Light has broken the darkness in our hearts and lives, and when we awaken to that fact we will celebrate the coming of the Light even as the Jews did. Praise God for His Light!

C. It gets even better. Verses four and five - >The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants – all their whips and cudgels and curses – is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideon’s old victory over Midian. (NEW SLIDE) The boots of all those invading troops, along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood, will be piled up in a heap and burned, a fire that will burn for days! Now this sounds kind of gross to us, but in a day and age when invaders often wiped out entire populations and cultures, deliverance from brutal oppression was a sign that God is on the job and that His Light has come. Especially considering that oppressors, abusers, and tyrants tend to leave a lasting legacy of broken and hurting people. How does this apply to us? Many of us have been abused or cruelly mistreated at some point in our lives, and we’ve survived so far. (NEW SLIDE) But what we fail to realize is that the Light came to heal the damage caused to us by the abusers, oppressors, and tyrants of our past, present and future. Satan’s goal is to get us so focused on the pain that we forget the healing. To get us so focused on getting even that we forget to forgive. To get us so focused on the hatred that we forget God’s love. To get us to forget that the Light will heal the damage and use the pain to help others who’ve gone through the same thing. (NEW SLIDE) The Light heals not for our comfort, but so that we can comfort others. The pain we feel can be used by God to bring healing to others. When we fully realize that evil cannot wipe out the core of who we are, then we will be freed to be healed by the Light and to be used as agents of healing. The Light is our healing!

D. Verses six and seven – (NEW SLIDE) 6 For a child has been born – for us! The gift of a son – for us! He’ll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. (NEW SLIDE) 7 His ruling authority will grow, and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He’ll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. (NEW SLIDE) He’ll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going with fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this. Think about it: the Light of the world coming to earth as a baby. Why? For us. A gift for us. Why? To run the show. Think back with me to the book of Genesis. Adam handed the keys to the earth when he gave Satan authority over himself. God gave dominion over the earth to Adam, and when he chose to believe Satan’s lies over God’s truth, Adam handed that dominion over to Satan. And what does Isaiah write about the Light? He’ll take over the running of the world. Dominion back in the hands of the One who created the earth. The names listed all refer to that truth. Amazing Counselor – the One who gives wisdom and who is the closest Friend the world has ever seen – who takes emotional dominion. Strong God – the One who reveals His power in daily life – who takes dominion to rule. Eternal Father – the One who is God, who is and will always be, who nurtures and teaches us – who takes dominion to nurture for all eternity. Prince of Wholeness – the One who heals soul and spirit, who transforms the core of who we are – who takes dominion over spiritual disease and death. The dominion of the Light will continue to grow in our world until it is complete when He comes again. Then all who have a personal relationship with the Light will be with Him for all eternity. How does this apply to us? A couple of ways. (NEW SLIDE) First, since there are no limits to the wholeness the Light came to bring, He can and will heal all of our spiritual sickness. Period. We talked about His healing a minute ago, but the truth bears repeating. He can and will heal all of those deep and devastating wounds if we will let Him. (NEW SLIDE) Second, since the Light rules over every aspect of life, we can trust Him to take care of us according to His wisdom and plan. Now I’ve mentioned before that one of my primary struggles isn’t that I don’t trust God to do His will – it’s that I don’t trust that His will is going to line up with my will. And whenever I give up that struggle, He is freed to work powerfully in my heart and life. The same is true for all of us. (NEW SLIDE) Faith and trust are decisions we make. Let’s decide to trust the Light with ourselves and our futures.

E. William G. Carter, in his book Praying for the Whole World, writes, A friend named Tom tells about a night when he was a teenager. He and his friends were walking around the neighborhood. It was a warm night and very dark. Suddenly one of them saw a police car and shouted. They hadn’t done anything wrong, but they didn’t want to be seen, either. So they began to run. The police car saw them and watched them turn down an alley. Tom tripped and knocked over some trashcans. The police officers got out the car and began to go after them. One of the officers turned on a searchlight. Tom looked around for his friends, but didn’t see them. All he saw was that burning, searing searchlight, looking for him. Tom jumped behind those trashcans, only to find his friends huddled there. With frantic energy they tried to hide, pulling trash over their heads and hoping to blend in. The spotlight fell on Tom. “Come out where we can see you,” said the voice behind the light. Tom stood up where he was, covered in garbage. “What are you doing?” said the voice. Tom stammered, “Nothing.” The voice said, “I can’t hear you. What are you doing?” Tom said, “Officer, I wasn’t doing anything wrong; I saw the light, I ran, I knocked over these garbage cans. I’m sorry about the disturbance.” The searchlight was beaming into his eyes, blinding him. He stood there in the light with nowhere to hide. Then the voice said, “I think I recognize you. Don’t you live around the corner?” “Yes,” he stammered. His heart was racing, and he thought to himself, “My life is ruined. If I don’t get arrested for disturbing the peace, something worse will happen: this officer is going to tell my parents.” But then the voice behind the light said something unexpected. “Son, I’m not here to punish you; I’m here to protect you.” As he stood before that searchlight, Tom says he caught a glimpse of what it means to stand before Jesus, who is the Light of the World. There he was, fully exposed yet completely protected. He was fully revealed, yet free from unnecessary punishment. He stood hip-deep in garbage, yet cleaner than he had ever felt, somehow cleansed by a light that cast no shadow. In that moment, he saw something of what it means to stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, who is full of truth and full of grace (as cited on eSermons.com). May all of us choose to let Him use us to shine the Light, shatter our spiritual darkness, heal us, use us to heal others, and trust the Light with ourselves and our futures.

III. Conclusion

A. Please bow your heads and close your eyes out of respect for each other’s privacy. Let’s just spend a few moments basking in the Light and allowing Him to speak to our hearts. (PLAY HANDEL’S MESSIAH CD, TRACK 5)

B. What has He been speaking to your heart? Make the choice this morning to surrender to the Light in any areas He is calling you to surrender, so that all of us can celebrate and share the Light. Let’s pray.