“Kingdom of God: Christ, The Great Light of the World”

Isa 9:2: - ‘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.’

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.’    

Jn 8:12: 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.’

Tonight, once again, we will spend these next few moments concentrating on the ‘great light’ Christ is.

The start of Jesus’ preaching marked the turning point in God’s prophesied salvation plan.

It was the link to the Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah Who was the ‘great light’ - the supreme and final revelation of God - arising in the land of the shadow of death. 

So, let us begin with this great revelation as it is contained in Isaiah’s passage of Isa 9:2-6.

In it, the prophet spoke of people who ‘walked’, or the ‘walking ones’, indicating a certain course of life they had taken, since life is considered a journey.

What course were they on?

Isaiah said it was one ‘in the darkness’, ‘darkness’ being a poetical word meaning ‘deep shadow’ or ‘intense darkness’.

So, the general condition of the people is shown as one of deep darkness that came from the state of sin and misery in which life was carried on. 

The darkness was a shadow of death that was deep, lifeless, barren, unfruitful.

The condition of that darkness could only be dispelled by something that is its very opposite: namely, light.

Only ‘Light’ could dispel such deep darkness and bring life and immortality to light.

And how was this condition to be changed?

In its place, Isaiah was shown its replacement: he saw the promise of God to send His Gift of His Light.

Great light would dawn upon the land that would completely reverse the condition of those sitting in darkness.

In place of the darkness of ignorance, there would be the light of spiritual knowledge.

In place of the darkness of sin, there would be the light of His salvation.

Christ would be the great light of spiritual and material redemption, the Sun of Righteousness, that would rise ‘with healing in its wings.’ 

It was through the prophet, Malachi, God said: ‘But to you who fear My name, the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in its wings...’. (Mal 4:2)

As the rays of the sun spread light and warmth over all the earth for growth and maturity of the plant and animal world, so would the ‘Sun of righteousness’ bring healing of all hurts and wounds which the power of the darkness inflicts. 

And that Light appeared, and when He came, it was Luke who contrasted it with ‘men who walk in darkness.’

Lu 1:78-79: ‘...Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us; 

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’  

And when that Light came, God’s promise of the increase of His people through the inclusion of the Gentiles came about.

And with the enlarging of the nation, there came an increase in joy. (back to Isa 9)

‘For’, Isaiah wrote, ‘the yoke of his burden and the rod of his shoulder, and the staff of the one oppressing him thou hast broken, as in the day of Midian.’ (v 4)

God was promising this mighty deliverance for the people who were under the heavy burden of sin and corruption, of straying from Him, and subjecting themselves to the evil consequences of such disunion.

So mighty and so great would be the victory that Isaiah compared it to the victory Gideon had over the Midianites.

You know the story as it is told in Judges 7.

Human strength in that day had been fruitless and useless.

Gideon had to concede that this was the Lord’s battle. It was going to be won only by His power and might.

So, this present victory over the darkness of sin and the shadow of death, in Isa 9, was compared to Gideon’s victory. 

It was going to be won against a foe over whom human hands could have no power, and it was going to be won by God alone.

It was a spiritual battle, won because a Child would be born, (v 9) and the victory consisted in the deliverance of God’s people through Him alone.

God knew what a burdensome yoke sin is.

It subjects man to a slavery in which, like the beasts of toil, he is under a taskmaster that beats him.

‘The act of delivering man from sin is a mighty victory, so mighty in fact, that man could never have won it any more than Gideon, unaided, could have conquered the Midianites.

There is only One Who can set man free from the yoke in which he has been bound, and that One is God in Jesus Christ.’

This is why a man is spiritually destitute when his center of life is not the Light Christ is.

For it is only the Light Christ is that delivers a man and frees him from sin’s hold over him. Until then, the Lord’s conversion alludes the man.

It was George Whitefield who spoke of an encounter he had with an inebriated man one day.

The man asked the preacher point-blank: ‘Don’t you know me?’

‘No’, Whitefield answered.

‘Why - you are the man who converted me ten years ago.’

To which Whitefield answered: ‘It is no wonder, then. You look like one of my converts. If the Lord had converted you, you would be a sober man by now!’

‘If the Lord had converted you, you would be a different man by now.’

For - you see - it is that lack of seeing the ‘great Light’ Christ is, in failing to appropriate His power and Life operating within, that betrays a man’s knowledge of Christ.

And a lack of a man’s knowledge of Christ betrays a lack of commitment to Him. 

And, as true as it is with the individual, so it is with the religious community - and, here, I digress a bit.

It is very possible - yes, sad to say - that the Light Christ is can be diluted in the very midst of a religious community.

A survey, once taken some time ago, disclosed that [and I quote] ‘even if religion is an important force in our lives, it is not the center of our lives.

It does not take the fundamental and chief place in our lives. Our interest in it may be high but our commitment is low.’ [Unquote]

The love of many waxes cold all too easily for it is too conformed to this present world in many, many subtle ways. 
   
‘Many’, as George Whitefield wrote, ‘rest in head-knowledge, are close pharisees, and have only a name to live.

It must needs be so, when the power of Godliness is dwindled away, where the form only of religion is become fashionable amongst people.

I am persuaded [that] the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ.

The reason why congregations have been so dead is because they had dead men preaching to them.

How can dead men beget living children?’,  Whitefield went on to ask.

On the night of the last supper, to those who were His closest friends and confidants, Jesus said: ‘This is My blood of the new covenant  which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’

We overlook, often, the impact of the words ‘new covenant’ in Jesus’ statement.

Marshall and Manuel wrote of that phrase: ‘[New] Covenant ...speaks of commitment to Christ and to one another which is deeper and more demanding than most of us are willing to make.

And - as a consequence, most of we modern American Christians are of little use to God in the building of His kingdom.

For the building of that kingdom...requires total commitment.’

Are we convicted enough to see that our own commitment to the church community where God has placed us does not always measure up to the covenant aspect of Who and What Christ is?

Or - is that too hard of a question for any depth of probing?  

How great that Light could always be if, each body of believers, chosen by God, joined together by His Spirit for a specific purpose, would be - not just ‘a city on a hill’ - but a genuine, virtual citadel of Light to lead on into God’s Kingdom in Christ! 

Can we, perhaps, understand better the present Church in its embodiment of that conception.

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

But - coming back to the main point now - how did Jesus give a practical demonstration of being the ‘Great Light’ He is?

Let us look at Jn 8 together - John, chapter 8.

Just before Jesus announced His personification of being the ‘Light’ of the world and the ‘Light of life’, in Jn 8:12, He is seen in the temple area.

People had gathered around Him to hear Him speak. And 
as He was teaching, He was interrupted by the religious rulers who cruelly cast a woman taken in adultery before Him.

With the same brutal insensitivity, they told her story by saying she had been ‘taken in the very act’, as though she was the only guilty party here.  

Of course, they had an ulterior motive which is explained in verse 6 of that same chapter.

Their intention was to compare the Mosaic law of Deut 22:22-24 that decreed stoning in such a case against what Jesus’ opinion was and thereby trap Him.

But, what follows is a majestic beauty of this entire plan of God’s Light to the world.

Jesus said neither ‘yea’ nor ‘nay’ to the accusations they cast toward this woman and her sinful course of life.

Oh no! He was silent. And as He tarried so majestically before the accusers, He stooped down and wrote in the sand, to show that His attention was not where theirs was in this matter.

And, at long last, after they hounded Him for an answer, He ‘...lifted Himself up, and said unto them, ‘He that is without sin among you’, or, more to the point, ‘whosoever is sinless, let him cast the first stone.’

‘Whoever among you is sinless, let him cast the first stone!’

‘And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.’ (vs 7-8)

And, of course, who among them, or who among us, is sinless?

He did not discuss the law of Moses with them. 

No - He was appointing those who could legitimately be her  executioners! 

And how many of them were there?

None! So they were put out of the ‘stone-throwing business’, - hopefully, for the rest of their lives!

Then Jesus stooped down and wrote some more and this time, when He looked up, all the ‘would-be’ executioners had left.

They had all felt the weight of being convicted by their own conscience upon them! (vs 9)

And Jesus was left alone with the woman.

Think of it: here was the Incarnate Purity of ‘Great Light’, the ‘Sun of Righteousness with healing in its wings’  confronting this convicted impurity of darkness!

He was the only One Who, in the pureness of His own great Light, could cast a stone at her defiling darkness.

Yet, in infinite tenderness, He called her ‘Woman’. Light dawns at this point.

This Man is standing in her behalf!

He is interested in saving her - not exploiting her, in forgiving her - not condemning her.

This was new ‘great Light’ for her!

He did not call her a ‘harlot’. He did not call her a ‘prostitute’.

He did not pronounce any sentence upon her.

He simply called her ‘Woman’, giving her the status of the person, the human being, she was.

She saw the Word of Light and heard the Word of Life that cleared her of condemnation!

And - in her helplessness, she was being enfolded in His protecting love! 

She stood on Him - on His righteous ground - for the first time in her life when He pronounced the verdict: ‘Go and sin no more.’

In a commitment to the new Light she had in Him, He would support her in the new course of Life that lay ahead.

That is, ‘I am the Light of your new Life’ and, since unconditional forgiveness demands a break with sin, ‘Go now and leave your sin behind you.’

You see - it was not the gift of forgiveness and non- condemnation that was the answer to her need.

It was the Giver, the Light Himself, Who she needed in order to live life as it is meant to be lived! 

Holiness triumphed, grace flowed forth, and the righteousness of God was revealed in the great light of Jesus Christ. 

And thus Jesus went on to say: ‘I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life.’ (v 12 of Jn 8)

Let me close tonight with this one more verse found in 1 Pet 1:19 that you may want to take with you for this week.

It says: ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts...’.

Lord willing, we will go on with this topic the next time. 

Let me encourage each one of us to lock these things in our hearts and let them become Light and Life to us this week.

May the Lord bless us as we do this. 

For our closing prayer tonight, could we prayerfully sing together the song: ‘Light of the world, You came down into darkness’?

(After the song) Amen.