Seeing In The Dark // Merry Christmas!

In this Christmas reflection, we delve into the profound mystery of God incarnate, Jesus, who came to bring light and hope into our darkest moments. The Christmas story, set in the darkness of night, symbolizes Jesus' mission to bring light into our lives. The prophet Isaiah foretold this great light, emphasizing that Jesus entered our darkness to bring justice and righteousness. Darkness often holds hidden gifts, and it is in our darkest times that we become most attuned to the light of Jesus. He meets us in our pain, suffering, and struggles, offering comfort and the promise of eternal life. Revelation paints a picture of ultimate peace in God's presence, where Jesus, the bright and morning star, brings wholeness even in our darkest times. This Christmas, let us invite Jesus into our darkest places and embrace His light, allowing Him to illuminate our lives and bring us hope and peace.


This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is the old Colorado and Jesus abiding in its presence, growing in its family and living on its mission to transform the world with all inspiring love. Visit us online at the lookout.

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Well, good morning, everybody. Merry almost Christmas. We're almost there. Um, it's good to be with you guys this morning. And again, if this is your first time here at The Lookout, we are so thankful that you would come and spend our Christmas service with us this morning because we are here to worship Jesus, Emmanuel, our God. He's with us, right? That's what we're doing. And I hope that you feel that. I hope that this morning, my prayer is that every one of us would be able to reconnect with the miracle, the profound mystery of God incarnate, God and flesh come to us. Amen. We're gonna start off this morning reading a passage familiar to all of us as we jump in. I just want to invite you to read the word with me. This is from Luke chapter two, starting in verse eight. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy 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 for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. Together, can we just say it together? Glory to God on the highest. Come on, one all at once. Glory to God in the highest. Let's do it one more time until you feel it. Ready? Glory to God in the highest. Come on. That's what the angels wanted to sing. So last night, 2.20 in the morning, was what we know as the winter solstice, all right? Which is in North America was the shortest and darkest day of the year, all right? And uh it's not quite the same way in Australia. They're not celebrating Christmas the same way, but in North America, it was the darkest day of the year, which means two things that from here on out, each day gets a little bit brighter. Okay, and it also means that summer is coming. Come on. I knew I knew that was gonna get you going. Summer's going. Only a couple booze. All right, I think the the cheers outweigh the booze. That's good. And uh, but we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in a time in our calendar when it's physically the darkest time of the year, right? And it makes sense because so much of the Christmas story happens at night, even in the story. It all happens in the night, it happens in the dark, it happens when there's fear, when there's confusion, it happens in a time where you can't see super well. And it's in this moment that Jesus came. This is why this time of year we love lighting candles. This is why we decorate our homes with Christmas lights. And I think one of my most memorable stories as a kid was one of those Christmas mishaps, right? It wasn't a nostalgic moment, it was just a hilarious moment that had to do with Christmas decoration. See, it back in Indiana, um, the way our home worked is we had a driveway that kind of came out all the way back, you know, on the side of our house. And so one afternoon my dad was stringing Christmas lights and on all the bushes, right? Meticulously stretching them out, strand after strand, all connected to each other. Brilliant layout. And uh and then we had to go run some errands that afternoon. And so uh we the way it works, you have to kind of back your car out of the driveway, and so so we're there's no backup cameras at that point in time, so you actually have to look backwards. He's backing up, looking down the driveway. What he doesn't know is that his side view mirror scrapes the bush. And he pulls all the way out to the street, and then all at once we look forward and we see 50 yards of Christmas lights that have been taken from the bushes all the way out to the street. All still connected, all the hard work, right? So, as you can imagine, it's hard to keep your peace in that kind of scenario. He did what any of us would do in that moment. You go out, you put all of the lights into one ball, and you heave it back up at the house. And then you get in the car and you go do what you're supposed to do, all right? So, for at least that one night, at least that one night, what may have looked like a clump of Christmas lights, at least for that one night, became the star of Bethlehem, like just right in front of our house for the whole neighborhood. It's beautiful. It brought so much hope. That that cluster of Christmas lights. We love lights, and we love lights, especially in the dark, and the Christmas story only makes sense. The incarnation of Jesus only makes sense in the contrast of light and dark. And this is what the scripture said was going to happen. This is what the prophet said was going to happen long before Jesus would enter the scene. Isaiah, we've already read this passage a couple times this morning, and we'll read it again. Isaiah chapter 9, he's foretelling, he sees a picture of the future. We're not there yet, but I see something coming. And Isaiah pens these words in Isaiah chapter 9. He says, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. And those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone. And then we go down to verse 6, and we read the familiar passage: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase, his government, and of peace there will be no end, and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it, to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. Why? Because the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. How many of you are thankful for the zeal of the Lord of hosts today? It's because of his zeal, his passion for his own glory that he did this, that he came, that he entered into darkness. And the promise here, and this is for all of us just to know and just to be reminded of the promise here is that the day was coming when the Messiah would be given to us as a child, and he would come to bring Usher in a new world order, and he had a different kind of rulership, a different kind of kingship and dominion. And uh and he would come and undo the works of darkness, he would come and undo the injustice that was happening in the land. But the key to remember here is that he did not come when it was the brightest, he came into the darkness, into the shadows of the human condition, into our sin, and to our wrongdoing. He didn't wait for the world to get brighter. You see, you need to know about God, about Jesus, that he is familiar with the darkness and he is not afraid of the dark. He is not afraid of the dark. And actually, the dark has a gift for us. There is a gift hidden in the darkness. And it's when things are dark in our lives, oftentimes that's when our eyes are most attuned to the light. It's in the darkness that we learn to see things we would otherwise overlook, which is why Jesus always does his best work in the dark. He comes into the dark. And you see, every day, the reason that's important is every day you and I are competing with noise, with the flashes, with the light shows, with everybody and everything, seeking our attention. And it often causes us to miss the miracles and that the light that is right in front of us. Which is why, if you go out outside, you may not know this, but all the stars are shining right now. If you go outside, yes, at 11 a.m., the stars are shining, but you just can't see them. Why? Because they're obscured by the light of the sun. But they don't come out at night, they just appear at night. You don't see stars until it's time for night. It's the same thing. Uh, we have a pretty, pretty amazing little Christmas show at our house right now, like in our front lawn. Like it's it's an entire woodland creature scene. It's amazing. Thank you to my wife. I'm not much of a help with this, but uh thank you to my wife. We have a whole scene, and at night it looks really good. At night, we have cars that stop in front of our house and kids that come and stare at our lawn and watch it, all right? But I guarantee you that is not happening during the day. Okay? There's nobody sitting in front of our house right now, parked in a car, looking at our house. And if there is, somebody call the cops, all right? Or you should try it this afternoon, just go park in front of a house and just kind of stare at it and just see what happens. It's just it doesn't make sense. Why? Because light only becomes beautiful in the context of the darkness, and and God often hides his best treasures for us in the darkness. And Isaiah, he would actually pen these words later on. It's almost the opposite, seemingly opposite of what he's saying. Isaiah 45, 3, he says, this this is he's writing from the perspective of Jesus. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know the I, the Lord who call who call you by your name am the God of Israel. You guys catch that. I will give you the treasures of darkness, the hidden riches of secret places. So for us, we have to work particularly hard this time of year, and we do every year to kind of wade through the cliches and wade through all the, you know, the flashes and the and the things that we are so familiar with so that we can see the light. Where is the light of God piercing into our lives? Is the solution here that we need more darkness in order to see light? No, that's not the point here. The point isn't that we should get more darkness into our lives. There's need I need I need I remind you, there's plenty of darkness without us having to create more darkness. But the good the good news is this, Jesus can best be seen. Here's the good news of the gospel. Jesus can best be seen in the areas of our life that feel the darkest the darkest, the areas of our life we'd rather avoid, the areas where we struggle to admit the places of pain and suffering. We always think he's trying to get us out of those places, but indeed he is trying to meet us within those places. And we all have dark spots. And Jesus, I believe, I just want you to hear this today. Jesus wants to meet you. He wants to meet us. This is the beauty of the incarnation to meet you right where that feels the darkest. So over the last few weeks, it's been some dark moments even for myself walking through with other families because I'm connected here at the church. Journeyed with some families through sickness, through death, through loss. And over the last several weeks, the last couple of months, I prayed some pretty bold prayers and joined my prayers with others, saying, God, would you come and do a miracle here? And in some of those prayers, we we didn't get the outcomes that we were wanting in that moment. And yes, uh, over the last several weeks there has been weeping, there's been some sadness and some anger. And sometimes, often death, it just feels like an injustice. It feels because we know in our core that we weren't made for that. And it begs a question. When you walk through some moments like that, it begs these questions, Jesus, where are you? Did I miss something? Where is where's the hope here? If you are light, where's the light here? You guys ever ask those questions? We all ask those questions in our own way. Where's the light here? But I found like even walking with friends and other families through some of the darkest moments over the last several weeks, and as I've entered into that with them, I just want to remind us the light is that when we come to the end of ourselves, we find that he is still there with us. The light is seeing that death is not a dead end. The light is seeing that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, and because of that, death is never final. Death is only a doorway into the fullness of his presence. The light is when when we are sad, we have access to the comforter. And he comforts us with his Holy Spirit, and he showers us with peace that has no end. It actually transcends understanding, right? The light is when when our fragile world unravels. The light is that there, when our fragile world unravels, there is one who came and will come again, and he will make all things new. That is the light. And the thing is, we can say these things and we know those things, and you've probably heard those things, but you know when you feel those things, when things are dark, and you need to know I need something to stand on that isn't just a sentimental greeting. I need truth and reality of a God, the living hope, who has come and he will come again and he will reign forevermore, and there will be no end to his kingdom and his government and his throne, and all will be well when we come into his presence. This is the beauty. This is the beauty that holds us up, which means that when we do experience grief and sadness, it's not wrong or bad, it's actually holy to experience grief and sadness because grief reminds us that life is actually valuable and it's valuable to God, and sadness reminds us that things are not always intended to be like this. And there will come a day when this will change. So our emotions anchor us into a larger story that our Savior will return, and He is the bright, and He is the bright and morning star. Revelations 22. All over the book of Revelation, John has a picture of what it's gonna be like in the presence of God. And Revelation 22, Jesus says to the churches, he said, I Jesus sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and morning star. He is the one that brings peace. And if you guys have been around the last several weeks, we've been doing kind of a deep dive into peace. I believe that Jesus wants us to understand how peace works in our life and to embody peace, to be people of peace. And that's why the book of Revelation just paints a picture of what it's going to be like around the throne of God. You know, around the throne of God, there's a sea. It's called, John John wrote about it, it's the sea of glass. Um and it's it's the ultimate picture of calmness and stillness in his presence. And I grew up in Indiana waterskiing, and one of the best times to water ski, if you've ever waterskied, it's very early in the morning when there's no wind and you look out on the lake, and what does it look like? It looks like glass, it's completely still. There's nothing troubling the waters. And the reason that image was so important is because there was this other image in the scriptures and like the Middle Eastern ancient imagery of this monster called Leviathan, who is this water dragon, and would come and just stir up the waters and stir up the waters and cause havoc and chaos everywhere. Leviathan went, it was twisting and turning and causing uh commotion, but not so in heaven, not so around the throne of God, because there is a sea of glass and there is brightness and the things that trouble us on this side of earth, when we come into his presence, everything finds its proper order, everything is complete, everything is made whole. Who wants that? Who wants to experience the sea of glass in heaven? Who wants to go water skiing on the sea of glass in heaven? Amen, dude. Come on, a little wakeboard out there. Let's go. Sea of glass. And shalom is waiting for us. And this is God's design for us today, and this is why he came as the Prince of Peace. It was to bring wholeness, completeness, well-being, and harmony. Well, here's here's what it says in another part of Revelation chapter 22. This is a picture of where we're going and what Jesus has made possible. And we're ending with this, okay? And so we're gonna, in just a moment, we're gonna light our candles and we're gonna sing together as we remember the light of all lights. Here's what it says, Revelation 22. And they shall live with his face in view, and that they belong to him will show on their faces. Darkness will be, will no longer be. They will have no need of lamps or sunlight, because God the Lord will be radiant in their midst, and they will reign through the ages of ages. Let me read it one more time. I just want you to imagine this. And they shall live with his face in view, and they and that they belong to him will show on their faces. Darkness will no longer be, they will have no need of lamps or sunlight, because God the Lord will be radiant in their midst, and they will reign through the ages of ages. Come on. Come on. So today, though, as we come and see the presence of God, as we remind ourselves of the story, of what it means to see the light of all lights, it all makes sense again in the context of the places where Jesus wants to meet us. And the places that Jesus wants to meet us are often what we would call the darkest places of our lives. And it's not wrong to admit, it's reality that we can confess that. I just want to speak over you this morning. Whatever you came in here with. You came under the grip of either pain or maybe addiction. You came after a year of loss. He is he shines brightest in the darkest places. And if you'll let him, if you'll invite him this morning, he wants to illuminate the place, to journey with you, to enter into it with you, to show you that he is there, he has not gone anywhere. And he will outlast even the darkest of darkness. He will outlast it. His death is not final, pain is not final, sadness is not final. It's part of what we're given in this life. But even there, Jesus is not afraid to go into the dark. Amen. So let's stand together. And across the room, you're gonna be receiving a flame for your candle. And we're gonna turn down the lights as we feel the darkness around us. Let's just be filled with joy that God has given himself to us fully. We are not alone, and his light is within us. So, Jesus, this morning as we celebrate your coming, we bless you, we thank you, Lord, for the day which we will be around your throne with you, celebrating who you are and that you've made all things new. And this morning, Lord God, we remind we remind ourselves of what you came into, that you were not afraid of our darkness back then, and you're not afraid of it today. We receive the gift of your presence today. We receive the gift of your presence. Let your presence rest on us. We say, Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit come. Do what you do. We bless you, Jesus. God incarnate, God come in the flesh, light of all lights. We love you in this place.