Christmas Light in the Darkness John 1:1-14

 

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Father, and our Lord Jesus, who was born to bring light into this dark world.

 

We’re going to talk about Christmas Light in the Darkness, based on our Gospel, especially verse 5, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

Christmas is such a beautiful season. One of the beautiful things about Christmas is the Christmas lights. 

 

In this season of the year when it gets dark so early, it’s uplifting to the soul to see all the Christmas lights decorating the homes and yards and streets  and buildings and trees. 

 

When our daughters were little, there was a home on some property on Susan Lake Road in Chanhassen, and there were all kinds of Christmas decorations, and a building with Santa’s workshop, and a Christmas Ferris Wheel and lots more. People would get out and walk around and look at all the lights.

 

Does anyone know the place I’m talking about? 

 

How about the Christmas lights at the Arboretum? Has anyone been there and seen them? 

 

Lights and Christmas go together. As we said, the lights cheer us up at Christmastime when the dark and the night come early.

 

Very early on, the dark came into the world when humanity fell into sin. But God restored the light right away when He confronted Adam and Eve about their bringing sin and evil into the world. 

 

He gave them a promise, that first Christmas verse, Genesis 3:15. 

He told Adam and Eve that their descendant, the Messiah, would someday crush the devil who had led them away from the light and into the darkness.

 

That was the first promise of Christmas, the first prophecy of the Messiah, that God would send His Son to bring life, light and love back to the world.

 

John says, In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 

 

Every Christmas, we light the white candle in the middle of the Advent wreath, the Christ candle.

 

We don’t light it before Christmas, because we’re waiting for the celebration of when the Light from Heaven came to earth in a most humble way, a baby born in a stable, or it may have been a cave, where the animals were sometimes kept. 

 

Either way, in the darkness Christ was born and the true and lasting light had come to earth. As Jesus later said, “I am the light of the world.”

 

In the hills nearby, shepherds were watching over their sheep at night, in the dark, when a messenger from Heaven lit up the night, telling them the Savior had been born in the town below, and they would find him lying in a manger.

 

Suddenly, a choir of angels lit up the sky, startling the shepherds, and probably scaring the sheep, all the angels singing and shouting praise to God: Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will toward men.

 

Meanwhile in Bethlehem, in the dark, a baby was laid to rest in a manger. The baby had no halo glowing, as artists have sometimes portrayed the Christ Child. 

 

But there was a light about Him, a light that glowed within Him, so to speak, in His heart and soul. 

Unlike fallen humanity, in Him, He who had not given into sin, there was no darkness at all. 

 

He was conceived and born with no sin or darkness within, and He grew into a man with no sin OR no darkness. 

 

1 John 1:5 says, in Him there is no darkness at all.  

 

Jesus was a sort of walking candle in the world. Jesus is the Christ candle in the flesh, if you will.

 

John calls Him the Word made flesh, the light of God in human form, flesh and blood. 

 

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 

 

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

Elton John, I believe it was, wrote a song about Princess Diana called, “Candle in the Wind”.

 

Jesus was the Light no wind or chaos in the world, nothing nor anyone, could extinguish.

 

His enemies crucified Him, hoping in that way to extinguish the light from heaven, but in the darkness of the tomb, on the third day, in the most brilliant of light, He rose, and ascended into brilliant glory.

 

And now, He lights up Heaven. 

 

John tells us in Revelation 21:23, And the city (of Heaven) has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb (Jesus). 

Even before He was born, the Son of God was the light of Heaven. He brought Heaven’s light and love to earth in Himself on Christmas Day.

 

The greatest light of all came into our world on that holy day. No power of evil has been able to overcome it, or even diminish it. 

 

The devil and the world did their worst to stamp out the light from Heaven.

But their worst wasn’t nearly enough to corrupt Christ -- nothing was. 

 

No temptation, nor any of the powers of evil could turn His love away from His Father, and away from the world He made; nothing could turn Him away from you, and me, all of us.

 

Jesus is the light that overcomes the darkest of powers and the greatest of evil in this world, and the world beyond.

 

The great lights in the sky, the sun and the stars will someday burn out. But the light of Christ will shine forever. 

 

His love is the light that lights up our lives, now and in eternity.

 

This is the infinite, all-powerful, all-loving eternal Light, contained in a little baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

 

And this is why we light the candles, and the Christ candle, and decorate the tree with lights, and our homes and yards and more, all to light up our world.

 

As nice as the Christmas lights are, they’re not really what brightens our world.

 

It’s not electricity that lights up our lives, its water, with the Word, holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit in us, the love of God and faith in Christ that’s born in us – that’s what takes us out of the darkness, and into, as 1 Peter 2:9 says, 

His marvelous light!

What an amazing light came to us on that first Christmas day, and in a most amazing, unexpected way, in a little child. 

 

Let us walk in that bright light every day, and rest in it every night. 

 

Let us be God’s candles in the world. 

 

As Jesus is the living Christ candle, so let us be those candles on the wreath that surround the Christ candle.

 

Let us be living candles, candles in the flesh, bright candles shining the light of God’s love in this sometimes dark world… 

 

Shining the light of His Word and truth in this sometimes misguided world…

 

Shining the light of Gospel joy in this sometimes sad and lonely world…

 

And shining the light of the life that lasts forever in this fading, dying world.

 

We’ve been blessed with the most brilliant light of all, the one and only light that forgives and saves and glorifies us, the light of Christ for us to rejoice and abide in, both now and in eternity. 

 

Let us shine with this amazing light in the day and in the night. 

 

And as we do, the peace of God, His Christmas peace and goodwill toward all, will shine in us, and will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Savior, whose birth we celebrate with heavenly joy and light. Amen.