That there will not always be darkness...

I want to meditate with you on two passages of Scripture that tell us about that very special God who manifested himself through Jesus Christ in the Christmas story, that night when the shepherds experienced the visitation of the same power of God that illuminated that dark night. just as Christ has illuminated our own darkness for us, also illuminating our own life.

In Isaiah chapter 9 beginning with chapter 1, a prophecy was written or declared 700 years, imagine! 700 years before the Coming of Jesus Christ, God inspired the prophet Isaiah to utter words about the Messiah who was to come and how His Reign was going to be, how His Ministry was going to be, how His character was going to be, His personality, and then let's go. to see that what Isaiah prophesied is fulfilled on the night that the shepherds are visited by that angel who announces that a Savior has been born whose name is Christ Jesus.

Then Isaiah 9 says: "That there will not always be darkness" put that Word in mind "That there will not always be darkness for those who are now in anguish such as the affliction that came to the land of Zabulon in time" I am going to jump "and the land of Naphtali, because at last it will fill with glory" an important word "the path of the sea on that side of the Jordan in Galilele of the Gentiles" remember this is a messianic prophecy about Jesus who would be born 700 years later.

It says here: "The people who walked in darkness saw great light, those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, light shone on them" and he adds speaking to God, he says: "You multiplied the people, you increased joy, they will rejoice before You how they rejoice in the harvest, how they rejoice when they distribute the spoils." Here we first see glory, the road to the sea is filled with glory, there is joy on the part of the nations and peoples.

It says: "Because You broke his heavy yoke and the rod from his shoulder and the scepter of his oppressor as in the day of Midian" there is a liberation from oppression that is given with the Coming of the Son of God. It says: "Because all footwear that the warrior wears in the tumult of battle and all cloaks covered in blood will be burned, fuel for the fire." There is an abolition of war, of violence, of the bleeding of men who kill themselves in the heat of war and all the evidence of war is eliminated, the cloaks full of blood from the battle are burned and all these things that they remind us of the war are eliminated with the Coming of that wonderful being that is the Messiah.

So: what is Isaiah saying, what is all this glory, this joy, this liberation from oppression, this light that floods the world, this elimination and annulment of death, of war, of violence and peacemaking? to this: "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us, and the principality on His shoulder and His name will be called: Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The expansion of His empire and peace " Another element that has already been announced, peace "will not have limits on the throne of David and on His Kingdom, establishing it and confirming it in justice and judgment from now on and forever, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this." Glory to the Name of the Lord, what a beautiful prophecy, a messianic text.

Now let's go 700 years later to Lucas chapter 3: a closed night, full of darkness, imagine a field in the Middle East: there is no light stick out there illuminating the darkness of the night, it is a well, well closed night and a group of shepherds sleeping with their sheep in some field of Galilee perhaps and look what happens, verse 8: "There were shepherds in the same region who watched and kept watch over their flock by night, darkness. And behold, a angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord" that glory that Isaiah had prophesied "surrounded them with brightness and they were greatly afraid, but the angel said to them: do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy" joy, joy.

"Joy that will be for all the people," he says, I add that "that will be for all the people, for a Savior has been born to you today in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord. This will serve as a sign for you: you will find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will toward men." Bless the Lord His Holy Word.

How beautiful, if you examine these two passages, one 700 years before Christ, the other in the very fulfillment of the prophecy, we see the unity of the Word of God, we see that coherent God who fulfills it when he says something, a God who has intentionality in everything he does, a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, a God who teaches us the unity of His purposes and His Scripture. Because these two texts contain the same elements in two different contexts and they teach us something about the Christmas story and that is about the character of God.

When God managed to elaborate all the details of the Christmas story, from the announcement to Mary by the angel Gabriel, her virginity, Elizabeth and her husband also conceiving John the Baptist who will have the spirit of Elijah and who will be going forward Opening the way for the Lord, we think of the wizards who come from the Far East following a star that tells them that a marvelous being has been born who will change the meaning of all history, of the cosmos itself.

When we think about this account here that we see, all these elements of the annunciation, the birth in a manger of Jesus, all these things, each one of them has a meaning. Each of them tells us about the character of the Messiah, tells us about the character of God, tells us something about why Christ came into the world, tells us something about what He came to accomplish through His Ministry; We cannot underestimate a single detail of the Christmas story because all of God conceived and elaborated it to show us something about His character and His purpose for humanity.

And I see these two stories, if I put a filter on these two stories, depending on the filter that one puts, they will highlight different elements. The filter that I want to put on those stories this morning is: that we see how these two passages show us certain elements, certain qualities of the Ministry of Jesus and of the character of God himself towards us.

And I see five things that this story shows us: I see the glorious God who is manifested through Jesus Christ, glory, the glorious God. Number two: the God of peace who manifests himself through the Person of Jesus. Thirdly: the God of joy and celebration that is manifested through the Person of Jesus, fourthly I see the universal God, for all humanity also through the Person of Jesus Christ and finally the personal God for each one of us that is also manifested through the Person of Jesus and how each of these things we can appropriate for ourselves, for our own life; They have meaning for you and me.

Let's look first at that glorious God. Isaiah says that one of the names of that child to be born is admirable. The word in the original Greek is pele, which refers to something, it can be: admirable, wonderful, amazing, worthy of praise, all these concepts are contained in this wonderful character who is the Son of God, there is glory that is associated with Him.

The passage from Luke tells us that the glory of God invaded the place where the shepherds were, it says that: "The glory of God shone around them." What is that glory? that is the Shekinah glory of which the Old Testament speaks, wherever God manifests himself with great power and great reality that glory accompanies. The Bible says that when Moses was there on the mountain for 40 days, he intimately participated in the Person of God, receiving the tablets of the commandments and other communications.

Moses is there on the mountain and returns, what does the Bible say? It says that: "The glory of God had saturated his face" and his face was so terrible when he came down from the mountain that he appeared before the crowd that the people said: no, they were scared and he had to cover his face with a cloak because the glory of God was so great, so powerful.

So when Christ is born that same glory is manifested, why? because that same glory belongs to Him, He is a glorious God and God makes that glory shine because He wants all of humanity to remember that that little baby who is born anonymously in a manger and who does not even find a hotel where he can stay to be born is the The very Son of God, the substance of God that is present there and God wants us to remember that, that Jesus Christ is glorious, it is admirable, His character is marvelous.

John 1 chapter 14 reminds us about that by talking about Jesus. Verse 9 says: "That true light that enlightens every man was coming into this world." And then in verse 14 he says: "And that Word" he says referring to Jesus "was made flesh and dwelt among us" and John says: "And we beheld His glory, Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. "

That is the Christ that we adore this afternoon, brothers, that is the Christ that we continually announce, He is truly admirable. The power of Christ wants to stand out through this glory that accompanies the shepherds. And that power comes to strip principalities and powers, that glory of Christ comes to break the power of darkness and bring light to humanity, bring hope to humanity.

We have to remember brothers that we are participants in the glory of Christ Jesus. When we celebrate Christmas, when we live in what Christ has made possible, we are living in the power of the resurrection, we are living in the Power of the deity of Jesus Christ; when we walk in the Gospel we have to remember that all the Glory of God goes with each one of us too, that we can live victorious lives, that the devil no longer has power over us because God is in the world, he is in our hearts It is in our lives. We can live confident lives.

I don't know about you but I serve a powerful Christ, I serve a glorious Christ, a Christ of power, a victorious Christ, a Christ who broke the veil that separated humanity from God; we have free access to the Father, hallelujah. That glory of God that made that stone that covered the entrance to the tomb roll away and that glory shine and Christ emerge undefeated, risen from the dead, that is the glory in which we live and in which we move, in which we inhabit and God wanted to remember that in the birth of His Son and that is why He accompanies the birth of His Son with light.

Christmas trees, gifts and Christmas things have lights, Christmas is a symbol of light, pretty colors and I think that's part of that idea, right? that where Christ is there can be no darkness. The people who lived in darkness saw great light, light shone on them, humanity was never the same again after Christ came to shine on the world, the works of the devil were destroyed.

John in his first Epistle says that: "For this the Son of God manifested himself to undo the works of the devil" the only one who can break the work of the devil in the world is Christ Jesus with His Glory, with His Power, with His character admirable, amen? reminds us of the perfection that is in Jesus. His character is like no other character, the Son of God is admirable, he deserves all praise, he deserves all glory, he deserves all honor, he deserves all adoration. He was without sin, he was perfectly whole, he died for us, a perfect man so that we would not have to pay the price for our sins, He paid it; He did not have to do it because His character was and is admirable, perfect, glorious and that is the Christ that we serve.

Let us not apologize for that Christ that we serve, let us always be proud in the healthy sense of the word that we serve a glorious Christ, a Christ of power, a Christ of great victory; Glory to the Name of the Lord.

So we see in Christ a glorious God. Second, we see a God of peace in Jesus. When the shepherds realize that the glory of God has invaded the night and that there are angels around, what do they do? They act like good people from the Old Testament because Christ has not yet manifested himself, right? What happened in the Old Testament when God was gloriously manifested? everyone got under a bed or a chair because the glory of God was in manifestation, there was fear that God would destroy by His Power and His brilliance, I think it was Ezekiel who when he saw the glory of the Lord almost wanted to die because the glory of God is threatening.

Every time in the Old Testament people saw the glory of God they had great fear and great terror, but here the angel tells them: do not fear, do not fear, it is a new era in the history of humanity, a God who, although terrible , Almighty, looming in His great power now says: you know what? Don't send yourself to flee. I'm not upset with you, I'm not going to destroy you. Now through My Son you can have perfect communion with Me, you can confidently approach the Throne of Grace; it is not the Throne of Judgment but it is the Throne of Grace.

The Person of Jesus is accompanied by brothers of overtones of peace, reconciliation, rest. What is the name of Jesus Christ in one of the? the prince of peace I always see Jesus identifying himself with peace: "Peace I leave you, My peace I give you." I don't give it to you as the world gives it, don't let your heart be troubled, right?

In Romans chapter 15 verse 33 the apostle Paul says: "And the God of peace be with you all." Right there in Romans 16 verse 20 it says: "And the God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet" glory to the Name of the Lord.

Christ Jesus is identified with that peace that we can have and brothers, we know that in the world there are problems, there are difficulties, perhaps this Christmas you do not have everything you need, perhaps all the desires of your heart have not been fulfilled , perhaps all the requests that you have have not been answered, perhaps you feel a little lonely, perhaps you feel a little anxious about what is to come in the coming year, you would like to have your family here with you but you do not you have, perhaps you are looking for a way to normalize your legal situation and many other things; maybe there are shades of pain, suffering, uncertainty in your life but you know what? that despite all that you can have peace in your heart through Christ Jesus?

You can take your burdens and cast them at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you feel afflicted, anxious, you know what? Instead of militantly wading through that mud of sadness and anxiety, tell the Lord: Father, I surrender my burdens to You, I place my burdens on You. If you have to cry, cry, if you have to shed tears before God, do it, cry out to the Lord and He will answer you; Tell your soul as David said: "Why are you downhearted, O my soul, and are you troubled within me? Wait on God because I still have to praise Him, my salvation and my God."

And even if you feel that tribulations are coming around you, say: even though an army encamps around me, my heart will not fear because You will be with me, as David says: "Your rod and your staff will give me breath" hallelujah.

We have to gain access, go where we have to go. When tribulations come into your life you can do one of two things: either you can focus solely on the tribulation and let yourself be mesmerized by the problem that is raging around you or you can force your eyes away from the storm and onto Christ Jesus and then confess that He is faithful and say like Job, right?: "Because I know that my Redeemer lives and that one day I will see him." Hallelujah.

Do not lose hope because Christ has come to give you peace, right? The Lord says so himself, right? Let us take His yoke upon us and we will find rest for our souls. If you are troubled, remember that Christ communicates to you a peace that the world cannot give you, it is a peace that is given as the world cannot give it. We are heirs of the peace that Christ brings to our lives and the Lord remembers us, right? do not worry, do not kill yourselves, do not suffer more than necessary, learn to rest in Me, cast your burdens on Me and hope that I have never disappointed those who trust in My Person.

Then we see the glorious God, the God of peace. A third thing that I see in these passages is the God of joy, we have a right to rejoice in Christ Jesus. In verse 3 of chapter 9 of Isaiah he says: "You have multiplied the people, you have increased their joy. They will rejoice before You as they rejoice in the harvest, as they rejoice when they distribute the spoil." He's using an image here, in the Middle East when harvest time came around and there had been a good harvest, people would gather to celebrate the harvest of barley, wheat, olive oil, wine, whatever; the harvest grapes celebrated because there was life, there was hope, there was food, right?

And this of multiplying the people also, when a town grows and there are new additions to the community, then there is joy and then Isaiah says: it is the same with the birth of the Son of God, there is joy, there is joy and the angels make the same echo . When this angel arrives to announce the birth of Jesus, he says: "Do not be afraid because here I am giving you news of great joy that will be for all the people" there is joy, there is peace and there is joy. That joy comes from knowing that we no longer have a death sentence hanging over us.

I believe that the joy of the Christian comes because one day we are condemned to death and Christ came into the world and freed us from death and gave us eternal life. And I believe that we have to always remember that every day of our lives. The Bible says that: "When we were dead in trespasses and sins Christ died for us." Imagine a person who is sentenced to death, is waiting for his sentence, there is a day when he knows that they are going to cut off his head or they are going to simply put him in an electric chair or whatever, and a notification arrives a few days before that says : did you know? We found out that you are not guilty. We found out that all charges against you are dropped and you can go free, how will that person feel, won't they feel joyful?

Brothers we can say the same, when we were dead in crimes and sins Christ died for us. I think what happens is that many of us are sometimes not so aware of what Christ has released for us. When you feel tempted to get depressed say to yourself: wow I was sentenced to death and Christ set me free, Christ gave me eternal life and then rejoice in the Lord. I believe that of all the people in the world, those who have the most reason to be joyful are the children of God, those redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian has to have joy and joy has to be cultivated, it has to be cultivated, joy sometimes doesn't come naturally, you know? If you are waiting for them to come around and give you a spoonful of joy many times it is not going to come, you have to start rehearsing joy and start revving up the joy engines by declaring what Christ has done in your life, blessing the Name of the Lord, remembering the blessings of God, reading the Word of the Lord, getting together with people who have also known Christ and then you will see that joy springs from your heart, springs from your bowels because the Spirit of the Lord is revive within you and joy comes; knowing that our eternal destiny is resolved because Christ has come into the world.

Paul understood this. One wonders how Paul was put in a prison where there was no air conditioning, there was no color television, there were no cooking classes like there are today in prisons in this country, how could Paul say in Philippians that the epistle has been called of joy, written in a Roman dungeon with uncertainty as to whether he would come out alive or not and Paul says: "Rejoice, again I say: rejoice" hallelujah because Paul knew who he had believed in, Paul knew what awaited him; Pablo had been up there and had seen extraordinarily beautiful things.

If we could see what Paul saw, I believe that we would not be right for a single moment of sadness here in the world, we would be joyful. Try that in your life, declare God's blessings. Remember that you are a child of God and therefore have the right to live a life of joy.

The Lord Jesus Christ said: "Peace I leave you, My peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives it" and he also said: "I have come so that they may have life, so that they may have it in abundance" and he also added "Whoever believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow from within." There are reasons to be. If there is peace there is also joy, there is celebration because Christ is within us. So let's remember that sadness can come but only for a moment, we have to banish it and let the joy of the Lord invade our hearts.

So we have a glorious God, a God of peace, a God of joy. The fourth thing we have in this passage is a universal God. One God for all nations, one God for all times, one God for all races; a God who abolished the distinctions that divided men.

The prophet Isaiah says in verse 7 that: "The expansion of the empire of the Messiah and His peace will have no limit" expansion is not in the sense that it is late, but expansion in the sense of expansion, the great, the expansive, the wide and welcoming and encompassing. The comprehensiveness of Christ's empire and His peace have no limit.

The Lord, His Ministry and His Redemptive Work reach Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, Australia, India, all the nations of the world, Christ came to liberate all humanity. If someone is lost it is because of their bad head, if someone is lost it is because they have rejected Jesus Christ because Christ came to look for everything that had been lost. And the Lord broke down the barriers between man and woman, between slaves and free, between rich and poor.

This morning we had an even more comprehensive celebration than the one we have had here. How glorious what we have had here this morning, but a small group of Korean brothers have come to the Congregation to visit us and want to stay with us and they have said: Pastor, there is something here that we like about this Congregation, since we arrived we have felt something special and these people want to bring other Korean brothers and make a community here within us from Korea and they adored the Lord in Korean this morning.

I say: wow how glorious, how good the Lord is, right? that every day our Congregation becomes more and more diverse, more and more universal that reflects the diversity of this city and I ask the Lord to continue doing this until we don't fit here, anyone who wants to come and make a family with us glory Mr. Let this be filled with different races, different languages, we'll see where we put them but glory to God that they want to come and be part of our family.

Because I ask the Lord: Lord, make this Church a reflection of what the Kingdom of God is where different nationalities, different socio-economic levels, people who are homeless: the homeless and people who live in mansions can all be find here under a single banner: the banner of Christ Jesus who came to break all the barriers of humanity and who teaches us to love one another because Christ has established equality among all of us.

Here there are no superior and inferior people, here we are all one in Christ Jesus and every day we are going to reflect more and more to this city the universal character of the Gospel, when people look through those windows or come and visit us they will be surprised at the great diversity that there will be in this Church because Christ Jesus, the universal Christ, the Christ who has come to liberate all nations and to establish a reign of harmony in humanity becomes real here first in our lives; we have to be people of harmony and people who respect and love each other in their diversity.

And in the end the last quality, right? God of glory, God of peace, God of joy, universal God, what we have is a personal God. Christ, Son of God, God Himself is a God that covers all nations, He is vast in His scope but He is also personal, individual, concrete; Christ was born in your heart, in my heart, in your house, in my house, he was born in your bedroom, in my bedroom, he was not born in a generic way: in heaven, in the cosmos. He was born in my home, in my family, in my nation, in my Church, in my neighborhood, that is why the birth of Jesus is so personalized in these two stories.

Isaiah puts it this way: "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us." Note that one could be surprised only there in Isaiah of that personal character of Jesus because there he is saying, right? that admirable child, counselor, strong God, eternal Father, Prince of peace with incredibly wonderful attributes, does not say: because a child is born, a son is given to humanity, he says: us, to us. It's like God brought a gift and he brought it to us, it makes me think of the beauty, the joy that a child brings when he is born in a home.

How much joy a child brings to a family, right? all the uncles and cousins and obviously the parents and grandparents celebrate the birth of a baby that brings promise of life in a family. Isaiah says: "A son has been born to us" a child has been given by God to us, to you and to me too, Christ is wonderfully born in your heart, in my heart, even more so, right?

But note that the surprising thing about this personalization of the birth of the Messiah is repeated 700 years later in the story of the shepherds because in verse 11 after the angel says that: "There is news of great joy that will be for all the people" universal, says that: "Today in the city of David a Savior has been born for you, who is Christ the Lord." See how God is so real and so finicky in the little details?

A son is born to us, a son is given to us and then here it says that: "Today you have been born" that insistence on God's part that Christ has also been born in our hearts, in our lives, our homes, that personal Christ goes with you all the days of your life How good it is to know that I have a Christ who is not too busy to take care of me, He has enough gas in His tank to take care of millions of people and also me, as that beautiful hymn says: "If He cares for the birds He'll take care of me too."

If he takes care of a nation, he takes care of me. If He can worry about the coherence of the universe and the orbit of galaxies and planets that do not crash into each other, He can also take care of the microcosm that is you, your life, smaller concerns. Never hesitate to ask the Lord for something because it seems so small because He cares about you. Christ was born for you and me, Christ was born to you and to me and through the miracle of salvation He can be born inside your heart too.

That's why one of the hymns says: "Come into my heart oh Christ come" right? "Come to my heart because in it there is room for you." That is: is there a place for Christ in your life? Have you opened your heart so that Christ can be born within you? because after all that is what He most desires, He is not interested in being born in a cosmic generic form, He is interested in being born in your life, in your heart today and that Christmas has true meaning because Christ has been born in your life.

The world wants, again, to have Christmas but without Christ, what a great madness. If you want to have Christmas today you need Christ in your heart. We are going to lower our heads for a moment, I want two things, first: that there in your heart you say to Christ: Lord, thank you for being born into my life and for having filled my heart with light, joy, peace, glory, hope, reconciliation, thank Jesus for that this morning; just thank the Lord for His marvelous birth in your life and your heart this morning, I'm so privileged. I have the great privilege of having Christ living within me.

Now if you have not yet received Christ in your heart, why not do it today, why not before leaving this place invite Christ to come into your heart? Tell him: come into my heart oh Christ, come because in it there is room for You. There was no in the manger but today I want you to enter my heart and shelter yourself there, my manger is born inside, Lord Jesus is born inside my space; I want You to take control of my life and I want to celebrate this Christmas with the assurance that I have You as my Savior, my Lord and that You have brought peace and joy and hope to my life.

Will there be someone who has not done it before and who wants to invite Christ into their heart? I would like to pray for you, will there be someone? raise your hand wherever you are, if you haven't already I would love to celebrate with you this Christmas. Think about it for a moment, the Lord Jesus Christ says: I am at the door, I knock, if anyone hears My Voice and opens the door I will enter him, the Lord wants to enter your life, the Lord wants to be born within you; If he hasn't been born yet, why don't you leave this afternoon, sure that you have him in your heart? Raise your hand, is there someone who hasn't done it before and wants to do it now? we want to pray for you.

We're going to sing I don't know if that hymn is even in the chorus, while we sing that chorus if someone wants to come forward here and join them, maybe a friend or someone brought you or you can talk to someone there who is debating, come if there's space over here and we will pray for you while we sing a couple of verses of this hymn, right?