Why Was Jesus Born? Part II
INTRODUCTION – Last week, we found that Jesus, God the Son, was born to save us from our sins. This week, we will see that Jesus came to shine His light into our dark world. We enjoy lights at Christmas. Short days and long nights combine for a great time for lights, for the Light of the World.
- WE TRAVEL IN DARKNESS Luke 1:78, 79 – These references to Jesus include quotations from the Old Testament (see Malachi 4:2 and Isaiah 9:2). We live (“sit”) in spiritual darkness, “in the shadow of death,” “for the wages of sin is death,” as we read in Romans 6:23a. Around us is ample, rampant evil. Unfortunately, we carry our own darkness (think Pigpen’s dust cloud or Eeyore’s personal dark cloud). Total physical darkness is disorienting and precludes effective movement. When my wife and I were coaching, we had our athletes do single-leg squats, an excellent exercise. To make this exercise more challenging, we had the athletes close their eyes to help develop better proprioception, the ability to respond to stimuli. Spiritual proprioception requires an external stimulus,specifically an external light source – the Light.
- WE TRAVEL IN DARKNESS SAFELY IF WE HAVE LIGHT Matthew 2:1, 2, 9, 10 – Here we have a specific example of the promise of Luke 1:78, 79. God draws us to Himself in many ways. The wisemen were scholars of the skies and were familiar with Numbers 24:17, which promised a star and a king; God spoke to them in the skies. To me, the overwhelming logic of God’s Word is a primary light. Many are swept into the arms of God because of the light of His emotional love. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were commercial fishermen who saw the light when Jesus in Matthew 4:19 said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” God illuminates us so that we can see the Savior, Jesus Christ. The wisemen, students of the stars, arrived safely to see Jesus, “not a moment too soon,” as the poet T.S. Eliot wrote. They also departed safely, with a greater light, with the Light.
- WE TRAVEL IN DARKNESS SAFELY IF WE HAVE LIGHT – THE LIGHT THAT DESCENDED INTO OUR DARKNESS John 8:12 – Jesus, the Light of the World, offers life, everlasting life, rather than “the shadow of death” (as we read earlier in Luke 1:79). This absolute “I am” statement of Jesus reminds us that He is fully God, that He is the Creator who said in Genesis 1:3, “Let there be light – and there was light.” the Incarnation of Jesus was and is a revelation of His eternal, unchanging character of light.
CONCLUSION – John 12:46 is clear: if we “believe” in Jesus as Savior, we travel out of deathly darkness into a living light. Earlier, I quoted part of Romans 6:23, but we must consider the whole verse: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” May each one of us be certain that we have traveled safely from the first part of this verse to the second part. Then, as we see in John 12:36, we become “the children of light,” beginning to reflect the nature of Jesus, knowing that one day this transformation of our darkness into light will be completed by Jesus Himself as we come into His presence. Truly Jesus was born to shine His light into our dark world.