The people who walked in darkness saw a great light

Let's go to the word of the Lord in the Gospel according to Isaiah, and I say the Gospel according to Isaiah because the book of Isaiah is an extremely messianic and evangelistic book, it is a book that hundreds of years before Jesus was born was already prophesying the coming of Christ to the world. So we can say that it is definitely one more Gospel, one of the five Gospels we could almost say. And there in the book of Isaiah, Chapter 9, we go the first verses. My brother and colleague Gregory is going to translate, starting with the first few verses, and notice here as I read the theme of darkness, darkness on the one hand and light and glory on the other. And that's the message of Christmas. The darkness is invaded by the light of God.

“…But there will not always be darkness for those who are now in anguish, such as the affliction that came to them in the time that they lightly touched the land of Zabulon and the land of Naphtali the first time, for in the end the path will be filled with glory from the sea on that side of the Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles... ─ and here comes one of the most important parts of this passage ─ … The people who walked in darkness saw great light…”

Actually there is all Christmas contained because in the theme of the people you can put your country, you can put your society, we can put different periods of history, different nations throughout history. That humanity oppressed by darkness, when Christ came into the world saw an explosion of light. Says:

“…those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, light shined on them. You multiplied the people, you increased the joy, they will rejoice before you as they rejoice in the harvest, as they rejoice when they distribute spoils. For you have broken his heavy yoke, and the rod from his shoulder, and the scepter of his oppressor as on the day of Midian. Because all footwear that the warrior wears in the tumult of battle and all cloaks covered in blood will be burned, fodder for the fire..."

Notice all these expressions of victory, of light, of blessing, of joy, of life. And the question is what makes all that blessing possible? What is it that gives rise to that hope of such a radical change in the condition of the people to whom this passage refers? What is the origin of the triumph of light over darkness, of life over death? Verse 6 gives us the answer.

"... Because a child...", one wonders, one is surprised when one reads after all that a child, because a child is born to us, where does that come from? The origin of that great and glorious transformation is a child.

"...Because a child is born to us, a son is given to us and the principality on his shoulder and his name will be called admirable, counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, prince of peace..."

It kind of starts to change a bit, right? that humble, tiny, helpless, powerless child. Because here we are told that his name will be called, that is, his nature will be recognized as the following: admirable, counselor, strong God, eternal Father, prince of peace.

We see here that this minimal child contains within himself the same deity and an almost indescribable power. And isn't that the mystery of the incarnation? That God emptied himself, emptied himself of his infinity and entered into the smallest container of a baby and perhaps a fetus, a small cell that became the Son of man, the Son of God.

And in him existed those two natures, incomprehensibly contrary to each other, but was united in a single being. The smallness and frailty of a child and the infinite power and wisdom of God himself. That is the mystery of Christmas, and it is the mystery that we celebrate every time we say, Christ has come into the world.

"... The expansion of his empire and peace will have no limit on the throne of David and on his kingdom, arranging and confirming it in judgment and justice from now on and forever..."

What is it that makes all this possible now in another way? Where does the child come from, where does the transformation come from? Where does the hope of glory, redemption and life come from?

“…The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this…”

Brothers, that is what Christmas tells us, it is that the love of God, the zeal of God for his creation has made the miracle of Christmas possible. This is one of the clearest passages that one could ever imagine, that validates the messianic character of Jesus.

We who speak of the deity of Christ, of his coming into the world, who see the Gospels speak of a child born of a woman, can understand, going back to Isaiah, how this passage applies perfectly to what was to happen hundreds of years later.

How is it possible that hundreds of years later someone wrote these things so clearly and then we will see these things happen hundreds of years later. And we know that historically they are true because there are so many things that support it, we don't have time to describe all the things that confirm that what happened at Christmas is history and not just a myth.

In this text we are told that the coming of this mysterious being will free Israel from its historical suffering and from the pressure it has historically suffered. If that is the first level of this passage, it is a passage that speaks to Israel, it tells them your oppressions, your sufferings under the boot of your conquerors, there will come a day when all that will end and a time of peace will come. and of victory.

But, we also understand that this application is not only for Israel but it is for us and for all humanity throughout all of history.

It is a prophecy of universal application, for all who want to enter into its effect. And it is a promise and a description of our reality as well that we know Jesus now, and that he has come to dwell and live in our lives as well.

The predominant element that we see in this passage is the element of light. In verse 1 it also says that the glory of the Lord will also appear.

Brethren, that is the clearest thing about the coming of Jesus, is that that coming of the messiah is associated with glory and with light. That glory, that light is in terrible contrast to the condition of mankind before the coming of Christ, which is a condition of darkness, death, sorrow, and poverty.

It tells us that the people who walked in darkness saw great light, the people who walked in the valley of the shadow of death now light shone on them.

Brothers, that was the condition and is the condition not only of Israel, but of all humanity before Christ becomes real, it is a reality of darkness, death, oppression, despair.

If we see for example, in Colossians, Chapter 1, verse 9.

What that passage says is that the Lord has freed us from darkness and brought us to light.

And First Peter, Chapter 2, verse 9 says that the Lord has brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So what we see, brothers, is this, the man, the woman, the creation without Christ is under oppression of darkness of death. But when Christ enters that reality, that reality is momentarily illuminated and redeemed and turned into light, into hope, into life.

Without Christ, the human being is in darkness, no matter how sophisticated, how advanced, how enlightened he seems. Without Christ we are under the rule of a kingdom of darkness and death, of violence and despair. What we are talking about to be even more direct, is the domain, the environment of the reign of darkness that is Satan himself. The natural state of humanity, of the universe, apart from Christ is one of darkness under the influence of the enemy, Satan himself. Hence we see the difference between the conception of the state of the human condition between rationalists and Christians.

The rational man says that man is essentially good but he is corrupted by his experiences in the world, by bad governments, by bad situations and that is why he has been corrupted with problems. And the rationalist mentality believes that the human being is advancing thanks to his own intelligence, his own advances in technology and the society that we are improving little by little.

But the Christian perspective is different. He believes that the natural state of the human being, apart from God, apart from Christ, is one of darkness, death, sin and not good. and the reason for all this is that human sin has ceded to the prince of this world, to Satan, certain rights to make us, to cause problems for humanity because of our own sin that has opened the door to that.

So apart from Christ, the natural movement of the human being is not for good, for up, it is for down, it is more and more corruption. But thank God, the good news of the Gospel is that Christ has come into the world to interrupt this process that is going down, of deterioration, to raise humanity and to begin a new process of life and hope.

And that is what the Christmas message tells us, that is what Isaiah tells us. In First Jun 3:8 we are told,

“…for this the Son of God appeared, to undo the works of the devil…”

So we can then understand what Isaiah says, the people who walked in darkness saw great light. Those who walked in the shadow of death, light shined on them. Because? Because God has sent Christ into the world and that changes our natural situation.

Luke 2 verses 8 to 11 and I'm going to be wiser, I'm not even going to look for it, you read it and I'm going to translate it, just in case. It is the story of the shepherds, the story of the coming of Jesus. Listen and see how in a graphic way, in a specific circumstance what Isaiah predicts is given in the lives of these shepherds.

Look here how all the elements that Isaiah describes come true in this Christmas scene. Shepherds in the middle of the pitch black pitch black Palestinian scene. And these shepherds are people rejected by respectable people, by the religious, because they are impure, they take care of animals and they are not people that God would normally deal with, in a sense, as religion understood it at that time.

And on that night, in the middle of that dark night, the night of Isaiah, the people who walked in darkness, who were covered by the shadows of death, say they saw a great light. Those men living a monotonous life, of ignorance, without hope, at the moment they receive news that is literally accompanied by a great explosion of light and glory, as the narrative of Isaiah says.

And news comes that is said to be a great blessing for all humanity. And what is the news? What is the origin of that great hope? He says, because a child is born to you.

What convinces me the most about this is that it says, because a child is born to you. It was born to you. And here also in the pastoral narrative the same thing is said, that this child has been born to you too. and there we see the basis of hope, it is that a child is born but not only in a generic form, but it is born to you, it is born for you.

And at the moment it says that there was an explosion of glory and the angels of God began to sing and celebrate the birth of this precious child. The life of those shepherds was never the same again, like our life after Christ is born in our hearts, it is the same again.

And the reason why that is not possible is because it is God himself who is being born in our hearts. the nature of that child is that he is admirable, he is a counselor, a strong God, an eternal Father, he is a Prince of peace.

When Christ enters your heart and mine he enters to change all things. Things will never be the same again.

I'm going to ask that the musicians and the singers come through immediately but I just want to say this, brothers, still in a sense there are large segments of humanity that live in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Even in this nation, after knowing the light of Christ, we see that, as Meche said at the beginning, this nation is wanting, in a sense, it is gravitating backwards, it is wanting to return to darkness, to return to oppression, to return to domination from the demonic powers that want to destroy our lives.

And there are still entire nations that are utterly plunged into darkness, death and hopelessness. I think of North Korea, for which I ask you to pray in this year and in future years because North Korea is a country that is as described by Isaiah, it would seem completely covered by darkness, ignorant of Christ, oppressed by dictators. that they pass the command as if they were the owners, from father to son, as if they were the owners of millions of intelligent, brilliant human beings, capable of even having atomic reactors and inventing scientifically incredible things, but oppressed and others are the owners of them .

And a nation like that, with its great scientific inventions, with its great culture, its beautiful culture, its beautiful people, and a nation like that, so scientific, so accomplished in so many ways but still under the oppression of darkness and even space, the satellites Come, there is light in the south of Korea and in China and in the north of Korea, you can see all the darkness from the satellites. You can take photos, darkness in North Korea.

And Christ wants to enter into those realities. Christ wants to change those nations. And Christ wants to invade Roxbury and Boston's South End with all their culture too. Christ wants to invade, wants to be born. The light of God, the light of Christ wants to enter those streets and those apartments, some of them very luxurious, but oppressed by the devil and by death.

And God wants us to remember every day that Christ has to stay within us. We have to continually invite him to stay within us, we have to affirm our faith over and over again and remember that we are children of light, and not of darkness.

If Christ is in our life the light has to rule. And if Christ has not yet been born in your heart, today is a day for you to tell him, Lord, come into my life and invade my spirit, invade my life and fill it with light, hope and salvation.

I want us all to lower our heads for a little while. I want us to take a moment right now to reaffirm in our hearts the life of Christ, the light of Christ, the transforming power of Jesus in our lives and that we say to Christ, if we already know him, Lord, thank you for your experience within from my.

If you have Christ in your heart right now your life is no longer the same, because even if you are struggling, perhaps here at this time there are people who are struggling with an illness, with difficult financial situations, family difficulties, we are in the world and still not everything is completely light. But I want to tell you one thing, it is that the direction of your life has changed radically. You are no longer going towards darkness or towards death, you are going towards growing light, greater and greater light. Every day you become a more enlightened being, more powerful, more full of light and one day that light will completely penetrate you and you will be a being totally made of light. And as you fight here the Lord is with you, the Lord has changed the inevitability of darkness. Christ reigns in your heart.

But I also want to say that if you know Jesus, if you have not yet given your life to the Lord, you can invite him to be born within you and make Christmas real in your life. So if you haven't, let's just for a moment, open those doors of your life story and tell you, Christ can be born, the Christmas story, Isaiah's prophecies can come true in your life too just receiving Jesus in your heart as Lord and savior.

Invite Christ right now to enter your heart, your life and become Lord, the savior of your life. If you want to raise your hand and do it or if you want to just do it there in your heart, but it's good to give public testimony of what God has done in your life. I invite you to raise your hand and say, Lord, I invite you into my heart. I invite you into my life.

If you have not done it before, if you have done it before you are covered. Hands going up. We bless your lives. If someone else wants to do it, I speak in Spanish now, someone else, if they want to do it. Amen, this brother here to my left as well. God bless you my brother. Someone else?

We bless those lives. Stand up for a minute, brother. I bless you in the name of Jesus. Let's all stand up with them. Let's extend our hands to one of them. We bless you, Lord, we thank you. We thank you, we adore you.

We also raise our hands, Lord, and we tell you to reign in our hearts and fill us with light and life and that the life of Christ, that the mission of Christ that changes lives, changes hearts, changes natures, changes destinies a reality in the life of my brothers and sisters this afternoon, Lord. We love you, we adore you, we bless you, we thank you, Jesus, and we exalt your name, Lord. We exalt your name.

Thank you Lord Jesus. In your name, amen and amen.

You know what, brothers? Before… I have been fighting because I know we have a program here, but there is a Christmas hymn that says, you left your throne and crown for me. I would like to, there is a hymn that I don't know if it's there, but even if it's a verse we're going to sing it.

Coming to Bethlehem to be born, come to my heart, oh, Christ, come, for in it there is room for you.

I want us to confess this. Amen, that he left his throne and came for us to reign in our lives.