“Kingdom of God: Christ, The Great Light of Humanity”

Our text tonight is taken from a number of Scriptures.

We go, first, to Isa 9:2.

In describing the birth and kingdom of Christ that was to come, Isaiah - in this prophecy wrote - ‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.’

And, as the fulfillment of that prophecy, of Jesus it was said, in Mt 4:16-17, ‘The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

From that time Jesus began to preach, and say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’    

And, then, of course, in Jn 8:12, this is confirmed when Jesus said, ‘I am the Light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.’

I would like to spend these next few moments concentrating on the ‘great light’ of the truth of Christ.

Isaiah prophesied of its coming. Matthew confirmed it to be in Jesus and the start of His preaching the kingdom of God.

And Jesus declared Himself to be that ‘Light’. Why?

It is that Light that lights the way to the Kingdom of God.

But - what does that all really mean?

I wish it were a simple question to answer. 

However - if we were to try to fully solve and satisfy it, I daresay it would take all of time and eternity to respond.

But - as feeble as this attempt may be, we will at least look at a small part of it as best as we can, just to see something of the power that is in Jesus as the ‘great light’ that had come.

I pray we will be able to see that there is much wrapped up in both Isaiah’s statement and what Jesus said of Himself as we spend a few weeks on this topic.

And, by this, perhaps we may be able to understand the present Church in its embodiment of that conception.

And how far short it falls from showing how the faith of Christ must become the ‘all and all’ of each individual soul, of the church, and of the world.

So let us start with the question: ‘What best can illustrate the magnitude of these statements of great light?’ 
  
Probably, the only thing is an illustration taken from nature itself - that is, the example of the effect of the majestic light of the sun upon the earth.

Its light is altogether too great, too potent for science to explain fully. Much about it still comes under the heading of an ‘educated guess’ only.

We know it is the power and the process with which light and life is given to the earth.

In its simplicity, in the night hours, the world is in blackness and sluggishness, but when the sun rises in the morning, the darkness leaves.

It is the great light of the sun that quickens the sleeping world and summons everything in it to continue on with the light and life it gives.

The birds of the air start their new day. The plants of the fields bend toward the sun for the process of growth to go on.

And we could go on and on speaking of the effect of sunlight on all of nature. 

It pours its strength into all of the essential processes upon which light shines. 

And, day after day, we see its effects as it moves on in giving its light and life.

Now - apply that crude illustration to Christ and the world, and see how His relationship with humanity is unfolded in His words: ‘I am the light of the world: I am the light of life.’

As the sun is to the earth, so Christ is unspeakably great and glorious in Himself in how humanity is affected. 

From the beginning, He was ‘the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’

He came directly from the Kingdom of God and He is the ‘Kingdom’, so who better could be the great light of the kingdom?

Thus, when He was made flesh, He came with the ‘glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’

And when He came from that divine ‘glory’, He came as the Son of Man, and physically became bound up with humanity.

As one, the divine life was linked with the human life and the light that came from that link became the “Light and Life of the world.’

Full of grace and truth, He actually was the real illumination of what humanity truly is in the kingdom of God. 

He came as the revelation and the actual fulfillment of the capabilities men should have and be by nature. Notice - I said ‘should’ have and be.

For - it is only His light and life that conducts man in his journey upon the earth into His kingdom.

He makes the worthless become full of worth, the insignificant become full of meaning when He sheds His light upon a man’s life.

In other words, His light brings a soul into the very highest life, into the completion of man made capable to express the presence of the divine life resident within.

Do you think that is a small thing to be lightly thrown away or shrugged off?

If you do, please listen carefully! 

All - everything that is part and parcel of creation - everything is waiting, travailing and groaning for the moment when this glorious light of man’s completion is revealed throughout the world. (Rom 8)

The whole created universe groans in all of its parts as if in the pains of childbirth.

Why? because it is eagerly looking for the time when the glory of God’s own is revealed.

And - His great light - the great light of Christ - is nothing less than claiming them back into the kingdom of God.

Does that sound like a small thing?

Look again at David’s life. Is this not what God did, according to David’s testimony in Ps 18 as we have seen - God claiming David for His kingdom?

Was it not a declaration that whatever David did in his true human nature was being divinely done, so long as David did not distort it, so long as he did not pervert it.

God backed him up with the divine ‘behind-the-scenes’ actions and gave him the light to ‘see’ that. 

And what did it do for David?

It made him stronger and more eager and able to ‘see’ that the calling to the divine way of things was for his own completion - to bring him ‘into the freedom which belongs to the glory of the children of God.’

Go back to Ps 18 and see what he said about it. 

“It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect’, he said in v 32.

‘Thou hast given me the shield of Thy salvation. Thy right hand hath holden me up.’ (v 35)

‘Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.’ (v 36)

‘Great deliverance giveth He to the king.’ (v 50)

He did not see his humanity apart from God - not at all!

He saw an enlargement! He saw the perfect way of life! He entered into ‘the liberty and splendor of God’s way.’

Many say today that following Christ is too restrictive!

No! Following Christ is Christ’s way of conducting us back to the only way life really is.

If only we could see that below the superficial currents that draw us away from righteousness and truth, there is also always the opposite tug and majestic pressure of the currents seeking to set us toward righteousness and truth as the better way. 

And all we are encouraged to do is to walk by faith inside those currents. 

We sometimes wonder why Christ ever came anyway - why should He suffer for mankind?

It makes no sense unless we first see that man was made for living in the kingdom of God - for being connected with the divine being in the form of his true humanity - in the liberty and splendor of God’s way.

When we see that it is possible for God to fill humanity with Himself, that humanity can be made capable of being filled with divine righteousness and truth, then we scarcely can conceive of His not doing things as He did!

There had to be an incarnation of His Son! He had to give Himself so that man could be called to the possibility of such a life through His redeeming work carried on within man.

And not only to be called to this possibility but also to be enlarged to receive this great truth!

It starts with the standard of character which is nothing more and nothing less than the completed human character in whom Christ’s great light has shone - and is showing.

The Christian has come to his true humanity - that’s all.

And that true humanity is far from being restrictive.

In actuality, it frees us to see how great a light Christ is to man’s soul.

There is in it the light of every darkness and the key to every riddle of life.

There is in it all the material and the potency of divine life which we know to be the rightful condition of the sons of God to live. 

It is the end of that everlasting struggle of the man-life to fulfill itself by striving to play God and even ‘be’ God.

Our problem is that we imagine a certain array of qualities to be true of a Christian, and, not only do we try to mimic those virtues in ourselves, but we play the Creator by laying them on others - unmercifully, I might add!

That, of course, makes them unreal and that is what makes the Christian character lose its dignity and its greatness.

But we need to see that the graces of the Christian are nothing but the virtues a man should be naturally having as it is in his true humanity.

They are just being shown in the face of Christ’s light and that gives them the dignity and greatness they are.

In other words, a Christian’s character fulfills itself in godliness, with ‘life that now is, and of that which is to come.’ (1 Tim 4:8)

It is not ‘staged’ virtue nor is it simulated. It just is! 
 
Let me read to you what Peter said of this in 2 Peter 1:2-4.

There he wrote: ‘Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue; 

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these we might be partakers (that’s the key word) partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.’

As soon as we understand this, then what a great, clear thing the light of salvation really is.

Its supreme one intention is health - true, lively, spiritual health!

It is not a transporting into some kind of strange region where ‘the winds blow other influences and the skies drop other dews’ - an otherworldly environment.

Nor is it an irresistible chaining of the spirit to some sublime, ethereal spell.

No - those things are of the netherworld. We unquestionably resist such evil !

But this is spiritual health - the cool, calm vigor of the normal human life: the making of the man into what he truly is under God’s creation.

It is the calling up out of the depths of his being and the filling with vitality of that self which he really is in his true humanity: this is the great light of Christ’s salvation power.  
 
It is of little wonder that Matthew started his gospel with the good news of the ‘great light’ who the people in darkness saw.

And, it is no wonder that he spoke of Jesus beginning to preach the kingdom of God at once.

The great truth of redemption, the great idea of salvation, is that the people who sat in darkness and in the region and shadow of death, are shown what truth is.

Light has ‘sprung up’ in the midst of the shadows of death and driven out the darkness!

And when that is driven out, then man is ‘saved’ and he is numbered among those who are called the children of God.

The day of our salvation has not yet come in its fullest sense until every voice brings us one message: Christ, the Light of the world, lives within and His Spirit is bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.

How every truth attains to its enlargement and reality is in this great truth.

The light of the sun pales in comparison to this ‘great light’ sent to the people living in the land of the shadow of death.

His light is what Christ does for it to kindle and call it forth into actual existence.

Do you see - at least to some degree -  what ‘great light’ Christ is to the world?

Do we see that it is the great, strong, divine Light of Christ, Whom we perfectly love, Whom we perfectly trust, Who is always drawing out in us our true nature.

Do we see, through everything we experience, how He keeps making us determined to be true to His great Light?

He is always compelling us to see through falsehood and to find the deepest truth, in revealing to us the divine secret of life. May this be always so in each one of us. Amen.
 
Let us pray.