There Will Not Always Be Darkness...

I want to meditate with you on two passages of Scripture that speak to us about that very special God who manifested Himself through Jesus Christ in the Christmas account, that night when the shepherds experienced the visitation of the very power of God, which illuminated that dark night just as Christ has also illuminated our own darkness, lighting up our own lives.

In Isaiah chapter 9, beginning with verse 1, there is a prophecy that was written or proclaimed 700 years—just imagine!—700 years before the Coming of Jesus Christ. God inspired the prophet Isaiah to speak words about the Messiah who was to come and what His Reign would be like, what His Ministry would be like, what His character and His personality would be like. And then we will see that what Isaiah prophesied is fulfilled on the night when the shepherds are visited by that angel who announces that a Savior has been born, whose name is Christ Jesus.

Then Isaiah 9 says: “There will not always be darkness.” Fix that Word in your minds: “There will not always be darkness for her who is now in anguish, as in the former time when affliction came upon the land of Zebulun”—I am going to skip ahead—“and the land of Naphtali, but in the end He will fill with glory”—an important word—“the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles.” Remember, this is a Messianic prophecy about Jesus, who would be born 700 years later.

It says here: “The people who walked in darkness saw a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, light shone.” And speaking to God, it adds: “You multiplied the nation; You increased its joy. They will rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvesttime, as they exult when dividing the spoil.” Here we first see glory—the way of the sea is filled with glory—and there is joy among the nations and the peoples.

It says: “For You broke his heavy yoke, the rod upon his shoulder, and the scepter of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.” A deliverance from oppression takes place with the Coming of the Son of God. It says: “For every boot worn by the warrior in the tumult of battle, and every garment rolled in blood, will be burned, fuel for the fire.” There is an abolition of war, violence, and the bloodshed of men killing one another in the heat of battle. All evidence of war is eliminated; the garments filled with the blood of battle are burned, and all these things that remind us of war are eliminated with the Coming of that wonderful being who is the Messiah.

Then, Isaiah says, what is the reason for all that glory, that joy, that deliverance from oppression, that light which floods the world, that elimination and annulment of death, war, and violence, and the establishment of peace? It is this: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace”—another element already announced: peace—“there will be no limit, upon the throne of David and over His Kingdom, to order it and establish it with justice and judgment, from now on and forever. The zeal of Jehovah of Hosts will do this.” Glory to the Name of the Lord! What a beautiful prophecy, a Messianic text.

Now let us go 700 years later, to Luke chapter 3: a pitch-dark night filled with darkness. Imagine a field in the Middle East: there is no streetlight around to illuminate the darkness of the night. It is a very, very dark night, and a group of shepherds are dozing with their sheep in some field of Galilee, perhaps. And look at what happens, verse 8: “There were shepherds in the same region, keeping watch and guarding their flock during the watches of the night”—darkness. “And behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord”—that glory which Isaiah had prophesied—“shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. But the angel said to them: Do not fear, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy”—gladness, joy.

“Joy that will be for all the people,” it says—I add that—“that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: you will find the child wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill toward men.” May the Lord bless His Holy Word.

How beautiful! If you examine those two passages, one from 700 years before Christ and the other from the very fulfillment of the prophecy, we see the unity of the Word of God. We see that consistent God who fulfills what He says, a God who acts intentionally in everything He does, a God who is the same yesterday, today, and throughout the ages, a God who teaches us the unity of His purposes and His Scripture. For these two texts contain the same elements in two different contexts, and they teach us something about the Christmas account—about the character of God.

When God devised all the details of the Christmas account—from the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary and her virginity, to Elizabeth and her husband, who also conceive John the Baptist, who will have the spirit of Elijah and will go ahead, opening the way for the Lord—we think of the wise men who come from the distant East, following a star that tells them a wonderful being has been born who will change the meaning of all history, of the cosmos itself.

When we think about the account we see here—all these elements of the announcement, the birth of Jesus in a manger, all these things—each one has a meaning. Each one tells us about the character of the Messiah, tells us about the character of God, tells us something about why Christ came into the world, and tells us something about what He came to accomplish through His Ministry. We cannot underestimate a single detail of the Christmas account, because God conceived and fashioned it all to show us something about His character and His purpose for humanity.

And as I look at these two accounts, if I place a filter over them, different elements will stand out depending on the filter one uses. The filter I want to place over those accounts this morning is this: that we may see how these two passages show us certain elements, certain qualities, of Jesus’ Ministry and of God’s own character toward us.

And I see five things this account shows us: I see the glorious God manifested through Jesus Christ—glory, the glorious God. Number two: the God of peace manifested through the Person of Jesus. Third: the God of joy and celebration manifested through the Person of Jesus. Fourth, I see the universal God, for all humanity, also manifested through the Person of Jesus Christ. And finally, the personal God for each one of us, likewise manifested through the Person of Jesus, and how we can appropriate each of these things for ourselves, for our own lives; they have meaning for you and for me.

Let us first look at that glorious God. Isaiah says that one of the names of that child who is to be born is Wonderful. The word in the original Greek is pele, which can refer to something admirable, wonderful, astonishing, worthy of praise. All those concepts are contained in this wonderful person who is the Son of God; glory is associated with Him.

The passage in Luke tells us that the glory of God invaded the place where the shepherds were. It says: “The glory of God shone around them.” What is that glory? It is the Shekinah glory spoken of in the Old Testament; wherever God manifests Himself with great power and great reality, that glory accompanies Him. The Bible says that when Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days, intimately communing with the Person of God, receiving the tablets of the commandments and other communications.

Moses is up there on the mountain and returns. What does the Bible say? It says: “The glory of God had saturated his face,” and his face was so overwhelming when he came down from the mountain and appeared before the multitude that the people said, “No!” They were frightened, and he had to cover his face with a veil because the glory of God was so great, so powerful.

Then, when Christ is born, that same glory is manifested. Why? Because that same glory belongs to Him. He is the glorious God, and God causes that glory to shine because He wants all humanity to remember that the little baby born anonymously in a manger, who cannot even find a hotel where He can stay and be born, is the very Son of God, the substance of God present there. And God wants us to remember that Jesus Christ is glorious, that He is wonderful, that His character is marvelous.

John 1, chapter 14, reminds us of that when speaking about Jesus. Verse 9 says: “That true light which gives light to every man was coming into this world.” And then in verse 14 it says: “And that Word”—it says, referring to Jesus—“was made flesh and dwelt among us.” And John says: “And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

That is the Christ we worship this afternoon, brothers and sisters; that is the Christ we continually proclaim. He truly is wonderful. The power of Christ is meant to stand out through this glory that accompanies the shepherds. And that power comes to disarm principalities and powers; that glory of Christ comes to break the power of darkness and bring light to humanity, to bring hope to humanity.

We must remember, brothers and sisters, that we share in the glory of Christ Jesus. When we celebrate Christmas, when we live in what Christ has made possible, we are living in the power of the resurrection; we are living in the Power of the deity of Jesus Christ. When we walk in the Gospel, we must remember that all the Glory of God also goes with each one of us, that we can live victorious lives, that the devil no longer has power over us because God is in the world, in our hearts, and in our lives. We can live confident lives.

I do not know about you, but I serve a powerful Christ. I serve a glorious Christ, a Christ of power, a victorious Christ, a Christ who tore the veil that separated humanity from God. We have free access to the Father, hallelujah! That glory of God which caused the stone covering the entrance to the tomb to be rolled away, that glory which shone as Christ emerged undefeated, risen from the dead—that is the glory in which we live, in which we move, and in which we dwell. And God wanted to remind us of that at the birth of His Son, and that is why He accompanies the birth of His Son with light.

Christmas trees, gifts, and Christmas decorations have lights. Christmas is a symbol of light and beautiful colors, and I believe that is part of the idea, isn’t it? Where Christ is, there can be no darkness. The people who dwelt in darkness saw a great light; light shone upon them. Humanity was never the same after Christ came to shine upon the world; the works of the devil were destroyed.

John says in his first Epistle: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested: to undo the works of the devil.” The only one who can destroy the devil’s work in the world is Christ Jesus, with His Glory, with His Power, with His wonderful character. Amen? It reminds us of the perfection found in Jesus. His character is unlike any other character. The Son of God is wonderful; He deserves all praise, all glory, all honor, and all worship. He was without sin; He was perfectly upright. He died for us, a perfect man, so that we would not have to pay the price for our sins; He paid it. He did not have to do it, because His character was and is wonderful, perfect, glorious—and that is the Christ we serve.

Let us not apologize for the Christ we serve. Let us always take pride—in the healthy sense of the word—in serving a glorious Christ, a Christ of power, a Christ of great victory. Glory to the Name of the Lord!

So, then, in Christ we see a glorious God. Second, in Jesus we see a God of peace. When the shepherds realize that the glory of God has invaded the night and that there are angels all around, what do they do? They act like good Old Testament people, because Christ has not yet manifested Himself, right? What happened in the Old Testament when God manifested Himself gloriously? Everyone hid under a bed or a chair because the glory of God was being manifested. They were afraid that God would destroy them with His Power and His radiance. I believe it was Ezekiel who, when he saw the glory of the Lord, almost wanted to die because the glory of God is threatening.

Every time people saw the glory of God in the Old Testament, they felt great fear and great terror. But here the angel tells them: “Do not fear, do not fear.” It is a new era in the history of humanity. A God who, although He is fearsome, Almighty, and threatening in His great power, now says: “You know what? Do not run away. I am not angry with you. I am not going to destroy you. Now, through My Son, you can have perfect communion with Me; you can boldly approach the Throne of Grace. It is not the Throne of Judgment, but the Throne of Grace.”

The Person of Jesus is accompanied, brothers and sisters, by overtones of peace, reconciliation, and rest. What is Jesus Christ called in one of the...? the Prince of Peace. I always see Jesus identifying Himself with peace: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you.” I do not give it to you as the world gives; let not your heart be troubled, right?

In Romans chapter 15, verse 33, the apostle Paul says: “And the God of peace be with you all.” Right there in Romans 16, verse 20, it says: “And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Glory to the Name of the Lord.

Christ Jesus is identified with that peace which we can have, and brothers and sisters, we know that in the world there are problems, there are difficulties. Perhaps this Christmas you do not have everything you need; perhaps not all the longings of your heart have been fulfilled; perhaps not all your petitions have been answered; perhaps you feel a little lonely; perhaps you feel a little anxious about what is going to happen in the coming year; you would like to have your family here with you, but you do not; perhaps you are looking for a way to regularize your legal status, and so many other things. Perhaps there are tinges of pain, suffering, and uncertainty in your life, but do you know what? That despite all of that, you can have peace in your heart through Christ Jesus.

You can take your burdens and cast them at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you feel distressed and anxious, do you know what? Instead of doggedly splashing about in that mud of sadness and anxiety, say to the Lord: Father, I surrender my burdens to You; I place my burdens upon You. If you have to cry, cry; if you have to pour yourself out in tears before God, do it. Cry out to the Lord and He will answer you. Say to your soul as David did: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you troubled within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

And even if you feel tribulations coming all around you, say: Though an army encamp around me, my heart will not fear, because You will be with me. As David says: “Your rod and Your staff will comfort me.” Hallelujah.

We must avail ourselves of that access and go where we need to go. When tribulations come into your life, you can do one of two things: either you can focus solely on the tribulation and allow yourself to be hypnotized by the problem roaring around you, or you can force your eyes to turn away from the storm and fix them upon Christ Jesus, and then confess that He is faithful and say, as Job did, right?: “For I know that my Redeemer lives and that one day I will see Him.” Hallelujah.

Do not lose hope, because Christ has come to give you peace, right? The Lord Himself says it this way, right?: that we should take His yoke upon us and we will find rest for our souls. If you are troubled, remember that Christ imparts to you a peace that the world cannot give you; it is a peace given in a way the world cannot give. We are heirs of the peace that Christ brings into our lives, and the Lord reminds us, right?: Do not worry, do not wear yourselves out, do not suffer more than you should; learn to rest in Me, cast your burdens upon Me, and trust that I have never disappointed those who place their trust in My Person.

So we see the glorious God, the God of peace. A third thing I see in these passages is the God of joy; we have the right to rejoice in Christ Jesus. In verse 3 of chapter 9 of Isaiah, it says: “You have multiplied the nation; You have increased its joy. They will rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as they exult when dividing the spoils.” He is using an image here. In the Middle East, when harvest time came and there had been a good harvest, the people would gather to celebrate the harvest of barley, wheat, olive oil, wine, or whatever it might be; they celebrated the grapes of the harvest because there was life, there was hope, there was food, right?

And this multiplication of the people as well: when a people grows and there are new additions to the community, there is joy. And so Isaiah says: that is how it is with the birth of the Son of God; there is gladness, there is joy, and the angels echo the same thing. When this angel arrives to announce the birth of Jesus, he says: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” There is joy, there is peace, and there is joy. That joy comes from knowing that we no longer have a sentence of death hanging over us.

I believe that the Christian’s joy comes from the fact that one day we were condemned to death and Christ came into the world and set us free from death and gave us eternal life. And I believe that we must always remember that, every day of our lives. The Bible says that: “When we were dead in trespasses and sins, Christ died for us.” Imagine a person who is condemned to death and awaiting his sentence. There is a day when he knows that they are going to cut off his head, or simply put him in an electric chair, or whatever it may be, and a few days beforehand a notice arrives saying: Do you know what? We discovered that you are not guilty. We discovered that all the charges against you have been dismissed, and you are free to go. How will that person feel? Will he not feel joyful?

Brothers and sisters, we can say the same thing: when we were dead in trespasses and sins, Christ died for us. I believe what happens is that many of us are sometimes not fully aware of what Christ has freed us from. When you feel tempted to become depressed, say to yourself: Wow, I was condemned to death and Christ set me free; Christ gave me eternal life—and then rejoice in the Lord. I believe that, of all the people in the world, those of us who have the greatest reason to be joyful are the children of God, those redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian must have joy, and joy has to be cultivated; it has to be cultivated. Joy does not always come naturally, you know? If you are waiting for someone to come along and give you a spoonful of joy, many times it will not come. You have to begin practicing joy and begin warming up the engines of joy by declaring what Christ has done in your life, blessing the Name of the Lord, remembering God’s blessings, reading the Word of the Lord, gathering with people who have also known Christ, and then you will see that joy spring from your heart, spring from deep within you, because the Spirit of the Lord is stirred up within you and joy comes—the knowledge that our eternal destiny is settled because Christ has come into the world.

Paul understood this. One wonders how Paul, shut inside a prison where there was no air conditioning, no color television, no cooking classes like there are nowadays in the prisons of this country—how could Paul say in Philippians, which has been called the epistle of joy, written in a Roman dungeon amid uncertainty about whether or not he would get out alive, and Paul says: “Rejoice; again I say: rejoice.” Hallelujah, because Paul knew in whom he had believed; Paul knew what awaited him. Paul had been up there and had seen extraordinarily beautiful things.

If we could see what Paul saw, I believe we would not have a reason for even one moment of sadness here in the world; we would be joyful. Practice that in your life: declare the blessings of God. Remember that you are a child of God and therefore have the right to live a life of joy.

The Lord Jesus Christ said: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives,” and He also said: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly,” and He also added: “He who believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow from within him.” There are reasons to be joyful. If there is peace, there is also joy; there is celebration because Christ is within us. So let us remember that sadness may come, but only for a moment; we must banish it and let the joy of the Lord invade our hearts.

So we have a glorious God, a God of peace, a God of joy. The fourth thing we have in this passage is a universal God: a God for all nations, a God for all times, a God for all races; a God who abolished the distinctions that divided men.

The prophet Isaiah says in verse 7 that: “The extent of the Messiah’s dominion and His peace will have no limit.” “Extent” does not mean that He arrives late, but “extent” in the sense of expanded—the great, the expansive, the broad, welcoming, and all-encompassing. The all-encompassing reach of Christ’s dominion and His peace has no limit.

The Lord, His Ministry, and His redemptive Work reach Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, Australia, India, all the nations of the world. Christ came to set all humanity free. If anyone is lost, it is because of his own foolishness; if anyone is lost, it is because he has rejected Jesus Christ, because Christ came to seek everything that had been lost. And the Lord broke down the barriers between man and woman, between slaves and free people, between poor and rich.

This morning we had an even more inclusive celebration than the one we have had here. How glorious what we have experienced here this morning! But a small group of Korean brothers and sisters came to visit us at the Congregation, and they want to stay with us, and they told us: Pastor, there is something here that we like about this Congregation; ever since we arrived, we have felt something special. And these people want to bring other Korean brothers and sisters and form a Korean community here among us, and they worshiped the Lord in Korean this morning.

I say: Wow, how glorious! How good the Lord is, right? Every day our Congregation is becoming more and more diverse, more and more universal, reflecting the diversity of this city, and I ask the Lord to continue doing this until there is no room left for us here. Anyone who wants to come and become part of our family—glory to the Lord. Let this place be filled with different races and different languages. We will figure out where to put them, but glory to God that they want to come and become part of our family.

Because I ask the Lord: Lord, make this Church a reflection of what the Kingdom of God is, where different nationalities, different socioeconomic levels, people who have no home—the homeless—and people who live in mansions can all come together here under one banner: the banner of Christ Jesus, who came to break down all the barriers of humanity and who teaches us to love one another, because Christ has established equality among us all.

Here there are no superior and inferior people; here we are all one in Christ Jesus. And each day we will reflect more and more to this city the universal character of the Gospel, so that when people look through those windows or come and visit us, they will be amazed at the great diversity there will be in this Church, because Christ Jesus—the universal Christ, the Christ who has come to set all nations free and to establish a reign of harmony among humanity—must first become real here in our lives. We must be people of harmony and people who respect and love one another in their diversity.

And finally, the last quality, right? God of glory, God of peace, God of joy, universal God—what we have is a personal God. Christ, the Son of God, God Himself, is a God who covers all nations; He is vast in His reach, but He is also personal, individual, concrete. Christ has been born in your heart, in my heart, in your home, in my home; He has been born in your bedroom, in my bedroom. He was not born in a generic way—in heaven, in the cosmos. He was born in my home, in my family, in my nation, in my Church, in my neighborhood. That is why the birth of Jesus is made so personal in these two accounts.

Isaiah puts it this way: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Notice that one could be amazed, right there in Isaiah, simply by this personal character of Jesus, because there it is saying, right?, that this child—Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, with such incredibly marvelous attributes—it does not say: for a child is born, a son is given to humanity. It says: unto us, to us. It is as though God brought a gift and brought it to us. It makes me think of the beauty, the joy, that a child brings when born into a household.

How much joy a child brings to a family, isn’t that so? All the uncles and aunts and cousins, and obviously the parents and grandparents, celebrate the birth of a baby who brings the promise of life into a family. Isaiah says: “A son has been born to us.” A child has been given by God to us, to you and to me as well. Christ is wonderfully born in your heart, in my heart—even more than that, right?

But notice that the astonishing personalization of the birth of the Messiah is repeated 700 years later in the account of the shepherds, because in verse 11, after the angel says that: “There is good news of great joy that will be for all the people”—universal—it says that: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Do you see how real God is and how meticulous He is about the smallest details?

Unto us a Son is born, unto us a Son is given, and then here it says that: “Unto you is born this day.” That insistence on God’s part that Christ has also been born in our hearts, in our lives, in our homes—that personal Christ goes with you every day of your life. How good it is to know that I have a Christ who is not too busy to take care of me. He has enough gas in His tank to take care of millions of people and also of me, as that beautiful hymn says: “If He cares for the birds, He will care for me as well.”

If He cares for a nation, He cares for me. If He can concern Himself with the order of the universe and the orbits of the galaxies and with keeping the planets from crashing into one another, He can also take care of the microcosm that is you—your life, your smallest concerns. Never hesitate to ask the Lord for something because it seems too insignificant, because He cares for you. Christ was born for you and for me; Christ was born to you and was born to me, and through the miracle of salvation He can be born within your heart as well.

That is why one of the hymns says, “Come into my heart, O Christ, come,” right? “Come into my heart, for there is room in it for You.” In other words, is there room for Christ in your life? Have you opened your heart so that Christ can be born within you? Because, after all, that is what He desires most. He is not interested in being born in some generic, cosmic way; He is interested in being born in your life, in your heart, today, and in Christmas having true meaning because Christ has been born in your life.

Once again, the world wants to have Christmas without Christ—what utter madness. If you want to have Christmas today, you need Christ in your heart. Let us bow our heads for a moment. I want two things. First, there in your heart, tell Christ: Lord, thank You for being born in my life and for filling my heart with light, joy, peace, glory, hope, and reconciliation. Give thanks to Jesus for that this morning; just thank the Lord for His marvelous birth in your life and your heart this morning. I am so privileged. I have the great privilege of having Christ living within me.

Now, if you have not yet received Christ into your heart, why not do it today? Why not invite Christ to come into your heart before you leave this place? Tell Him: Come into my heart, O Christ, come, for there is room in it for You. There was no room at the manger, but today I want You to enter my heart and make Your home there. Be born within my manger; be born within my space, Lord Jesus. I want You to take control of my life, and I want to celebrate this Christmas with the assurance that I have You as my Savior and my Lord, and that You have brought peace, joy, and hope into my life.

Is there anyone who has not done so before and would like to invite Christ into their heart? I would like to pray for you. Is there anyone? Raise your hand wherever you are. If you have not done so yet, I would love to celebrate this Christmas with you. Think about it for a moment. The Lord Jesus Christ says: I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My Voice and opens the door, I will come in to him. The Lord wants to enter your life; the Lord wants to be born within you. If He has not yet been born within you, why not leave this afternoon certain that you have Him in your heart? Raise your hand. Is there anyone who has not done so before and wants to do it now? We want to pray for you.

Let us sing—I do not know whether that hymn is available, even if it is only the chorus. As we sing that chorus, if anyone would like to come forward here and have someone accompany you—perhaps a friend, or someone who brought you—or you can speak with someone there who is wrestling with this, if there is room, come this way, and we will pray for you while we sing a couple of verses of this hymn, all right?