1/5/25 Isaiah 60:1-6 “The Great Light Inside!”

04 Jan 1/5/25 Isaiah 60:1-6 “The Great Light Inside!”

1/5/25    Isaiah 60:1-6       “The Great Light Inside!”

I hope you have all your New Year’s resolutions taken care of and that you haven’t broken any yet.  I also hope you have started a Daniel fast or something similar or will very shortly.  It is a very good way to get in or stay in touch with Jesus.  I would guess that many of us have already given up on losing weight but please don’t give up hope.  This is also the time of the year when the number of people applying for memberships at gyms is at the highest.  So here is a compromise.  Do the Daniel fast for spiritual cleansing and join the gym of your choice for physical reasons.  This message has been brought to you by gym owners of America.  Anyway, there are lots of new beginnings this time of year.  Whatever you’re trying that is new, stick with it until it becomes a habit.  Today is the last day of our Christmas season and tomorrow we begin Epiphany.  Basically epiphany means the revealing of something.  Epiphany in the church is the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ or the revealing of His light.  Now you may think that a reading from Isaiah is a little strange for Epiphany, but it is not.  As a matter of fact it is spot on.  Let’s see how this will affect us.

I don’t know about you folks, but I think that we have been having a rather warm winter thus far and we are only starting in January, so I think that it can only get colder.  Usually, however, when it is really cold (as it has been known to do in this area,) we do get some sunshine.  It’s cold but at least the sun is out.  This can’t be said of some places in the world.  I’m thinking of Barrow, Alaska.  When the sun sets in Barrow on Nov. 18, it won’t rise again until around Jan. 24.  That is over two months where there is no sun and it is cold.  I would say that if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder where you may get depressed due to a lack of sunshine, this is not the place for you to live.  On Jan. 24, the day the sun comes back to Barrow, Alaska they have a huge celebration.  The light is back on.  I can’t imagine living that long without the sun.

Just as a little sidebar, I read this recently that we usually worship in the morning because in olden times, it was thought that the dark of night was evil.  Therefore, when day break came, they would celebrate with prayer.  The article didn’t say this but I think that this carries over to our modern service times which are usually in the morning.

In the ancient times, people were afraid of the dark and I think this went on for centuries and it is still with us today to a certain extent.  In old times, there was no real defense against predator animals of the night.  Or you could walk off a cliff and not see it.  There was also the problem of bandits at night.  There were lots of practical reasons why you didn’t do things at night.  Then, add to that, all the superstitions and various religions that fed upon this fear of the dark.  Cultures would basically do nothing after sunset, for the most part.

Since the invention of the electric lights, we have changed a little.  Today we don’t think anything of going out to a concert after dark or dinners or other gatherings.  If we had to do things during the daylight hours only, we would have no high school sports or extra-curricular school activities.  So we are much braver today.

Or are we?  During this cold weather, would you rather have car trouble in the day time or at night?  Would you rather go for a nice stroll in the woods when you can see in the daylight or when you can’t see in the dark of night?  If you were in a big city, would you rather go for a walk in the daytime or at night?  I don’t think we are nearly as brave as we think we are.  I would go even further and say that I think we are more scared today than we have ever been.  We see ads about; how safe is your home, how safe is your car, how safe are our borders.  I’m sick and tired of all this talk about being safe when mostly they only want to sell us something.

So we are afraid of the dark but fear not for the light has come.  The light has come.   I want to tell you today that the dark side doesn’t have a chance against the light.  There is no such thing as an apparatus the puts out darkness.  The light always wins.  Jesus Christ is the light.  He always wins.

I don’t think that there is a day that goes by where we don’t see Jesus winning battles in this deeply darkened world where we live.  I create controversy by telling people that what the Bible says is always true and it’s against what our broken society tells us.  This is just the beginning as I think more and more people will start quoting the Bible because it is always right.  There is so much sin that is happening in our world that we need the light of the Gospel and Jesus Christ.  I also think we are at the beginning of a new dawning; a new world where we are not ashamed of the Gospel but rather proud of it because it shows us the right way of living.  The darkness will run and hide.  But it cannot hide because the light will permeate all places.  As I said, Jesus has won the war when He arose from the dead.  You will never go wrong standing on the Bible and its principles.

I live in the hope that this will happen in my life time.  My hope is for the return of the principles of Jesus in our world.  I would like to tell you that this is not wishful thinking.  The difference between wishing and hoping need to be very clear in our minds.  When you wish for something, you are using the principles of this world.  If you wish for the principles of Jesus to return to this world, then you are in effect saying that you are relying on the churches, government and human people to get this done.  This will not happen when we have to rely on ourselves.

Wishing always relies on our human shortcomings.  Hope has nothing to do with us.  When you live in hope, then you are living in Jesus Christ.  Jesus will take care of this mess.  However, I have the hope that He will do it on His timetable and His way.  This hope for me is a certainty not a wish.  It will happen because it is in line with what the Scriptures say.  Now I’m like everyone else in my language as I use the term wish when I shouldn’t.  I just wanted everyone to be aware that hope always comes from Jesus.  For those who don’t know Jesus, they have no hope, only wishes.  When you think about this, it is sad.  This is just another reason to be telling people about Jesus all the time.

Most people think that it is hard to tell people about Jesus but I disagree with that.  Here is what I mean.  I know this will be hard to visualize in January but just think for a moment that it is a nice warm summer evening.  There is a street light or yard light that is close and you can see all the different kinds of bugs flying around the light.  These flying creatures are attracted to the light.  Those old mosquito zappers used the same principle.  Things are attracted to light, not darkness.

It is the same way with humans.  When you live out your life in the light, then people will notice what you are doing.  I know that you have noticed this because it is hard not to notice.  More people notice Christians than any other people group of the world.  The trouble comes when humanness takes over and people become jealous of what you have.  Then they try to make things miserable.  But remember again who has won the war.  Jesus has won and Satan and all his followers lose.  I think this is especially important for young people to realize.  You may get tempted by the dark side but it is only because they see what you have and want to take it away from you.

So these people want to have what you have.  They want this same light revealed in their lives.  Then you have a choice.  You can either do nothing which most people do or you can tell them your story.  Your story is the most important tool for evangelism that you have.  If you tell my story or someone else’s story it will not have near the impact of your story.  Your story is personal.  It is warming.  It is the best story you have.  Tell it and tell it often.  Get used to saying it until it just comes out naturally.

What you will be doing is taking the light that Jesus has put inside of you and you will be shining it to everyone you know.  It is kind of like a flashlight in many places.  You are a ray of light.  If there are many of us together we become a spotlight.  Everyone wants to see what a spotlight is all about.  I think that we almost can’t help it but look to a spotlight.  Remember what Jesus tells us.  Where 2 or more are gathered, there I am also.  I try to tell you all the time that if you have Jesus, then what else do you need?

So far we have the ray of the light of Jesus in us and we are attracting all sorts of people.  Then as we gather in numbers, we become a spotlight where all people will notice us.  Well, Jesus isn’t done quite yet.  Isaiah tells us that nations will come to this beacon of light.  Kings and presidents and prime ministers will come to the light.  This passage is full of Jesus and Isaiah didn’t know it at the time he wrote it

And nations did come to know Jesus.  Let’s look at history for a moment.  Jesus started a movement.  After His death, Christianity spread like wild fire.  This doesn’t mean that it was accepted by everyone.  If you remember there was much persecution from the Romans and the Jews.  Everywhere the disciples went there was resistance.  Often times this took the form of physical torture.  We still see persecution today in Muslim countries.

Now let’s take a look at the Roman Empire for a minute.  They had been persecuting Christians for 2½ centuries.  It was a wonder that there were any Christians left but just the opposite happened.  They kept spreading and they were everywhere.  It got to the point where they were in every town regardless of size.  This caused the Emperor Constantine in about 300AD to declare that everyone in the Roman Empire to be a Christian.  There has been much speculation about how and why this happened.

Now I’m not going to go into all that because you all know how I feel about many of the Biblical scholars of today.  Many would be great if they would just believe in Jesus.  My theory is just that.  Jesus happened to Emperor Constantine.  The great light came upon him and he spread the Good News like an Emperor should.  The whole country became Christian.  Then Christianity really took off as that light became bigger and bigger.

This is going to happen in our world today also.  I don’t know when but it will.  All of these dark countries where there is massive persecution and slaughtering of Christians will come to an end.  They will pay for their bad deeds.  Our beacons will eventually cut through all their darkness.  We can see it in this country when people quote the Bible and not popular whims.  The Bible will win all the time in the long run.  Jesus is the light of the world and no one, no group or no nation will ever put it out.  That is a promise and that is a fact, Jack!

Isaiah goes on to tell of the rewards we will get for being a beacon and carrying this wonderful light to others.  This is all good but I’m running out of time today.  Let it be said that we will be blessed richly for following Jesus.  And all of this begins with one person seeing the light in you.  This all begins one person at a time.  It begins with the person in front of you.  Our job is not a job, it is a privilege.  It doesn’t matter if being a Christian makes you uncomfortable because this life is not about you.  It is about Jesus and He will help you every step of the way.  Who knows?  You just might make the biggest difference in the world to someone.  Oh, by the way, back in Barrow, Alaska the sun never sets from May 2 to Aug. 10.  It is always bright with sunlight.  It is the land of the midnight sun.  You too can be the land of the midnight son for someone and we would spell son with an ‘o.’

Kenneth Sauer gives an example of a woman who was once burdened with a deep conviction of sin.  She sat up night after night suffering from dejection and distress.  One night she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior and she became radiant.  On the way home that day, she stopped to do some shopping.  The clerk had known her for a long time said, “Why, you look as if someone had just lit a candle inside you!”  “That’s right,” she said.  “What I mean,” said the clerk, “is that you look as if you have just fallen in love!”  “I have!” exclaimed the woman.  “I have fallen in love with the One who loved me when I didn’t love Him—Jesus Christ!”  Think about that for a minute.

You can help others to achieve this wonderful state in life if you just let your light shine.  Show people the way this Epiphany.  Show people the way this new year.  It isn’t hard because most of you just have to be you.  You don’t have to change.  Just let Jesus shine out of you and we can all praise the Lord.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.