Sunday School Christmas Service December 17, 2006

“What Does the Light of the World Bring Us?”

Philippians 4:4-7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Darkness is scary. Not just for little kids, but for adults too. If you are “in the dark” you don’t know what’s coming next and you are afraid. You feel vulnerable and things are beyond your control. You are confused; and since you can’t see around the corner, you easily slip into assuming the very worst case scenario is the truth. Being in the dark makes you jumpy, not assured. Being in the dark leaves you worried, not joyful. Being in the dark makes you abrasive to others, not gentle. You are so worried about what is going to happen to you that you are paralyzed and unable to help anyone. Darkness is scary.

But as scary as being in the dark is…being in the light is just as un-scary. When you are “in the light” or “in the know” you know what is around the corner. You’re not confused or afraid; you are no longer vulnerable to a bad surprise. Being in the know, you are able to march forward in confidence. You are assured, not jumpy; you are gentle, not worried. You are able to offer all kinds of help to others because your own needs are well taken care of.

Let’s take this light/darkness comparison to a spiritual level. Did you know that all of you started your life “in the dark” about God? You didn’t know much about Him at all, other than that you are pretty sure God is there and that He expects you to be good and that He will punish you if you aren’t. Deep down, you have that basic knowledge, but not much else. Will God punish me for my sins someday? Will I go to eternal hell? Will I make it into heaven? What happens after the inevitable happens and I die? We are in the dark – we have no idea. Thinking about God and heaven and hell only makes you realize just how in the dark you are. It only makes you jumpy and worried and afraid. And so you tell yourself, “Don’t think about that.” We all start our lives in the dark about God. We might even assume, “There’s no chance for me. If there is a heaven, I am probably not going there because I haven’t been good enough.”

Isn’t it an amazing act of love that God has not left us in the dark, groping around for the truth, guessing at what will happen next? God’s Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. On the pages of the Bible, God pulls back the curtain and reveals to us the light. He shares with us exactly who he is and exactly what he has done. He erases all confusion we might have about all things spiritual. He says, “There is a heaven and there is a hell. You are right when you feel guilty and that I will punish sin. I hate sin and will pour out all of my wrath upon it. I hate your sins; they make me angry. But here is what I have done – rather than just sending every single sinner into hell, I have provided a plan of rescue. I have decided to pour out my fierce wrath over your sin upon my very own Son and not upon you.” And by sending Jesus to be that substitute, God has completed his plan. Jesus died for our sins so that we could live forever.

Will God punish us for our sins? Will we go to heaven or hell? What happens to us after we die? We’re no longer in the dark – God’s promise is that anyone who leans upon Jesus as their Savior will go to heaven after dying on earth. Death is not scary anymore because we are no longer in the dark about what happens. In Jesus, death becomes nothing more than a doorway through which we walk to get into heaven.

It is wonderful to live in the light. It is amazing to know who God is and what he has done without trying to guess at it. It is soothing to know your eternal future; to know that you are guaranteed to go to heaven and guaranteed to never taste a drop of hell. If Jesus had never been born, we would still be in the dark. But he was born, and that is why we rejoice. Instead of peering into eternity and being in the dark, we can live our lives in confidence. Listen to Philippians 4:4-7 and hear a description of life in the light.

So what does the light of the world bring us?

• We can rejoice in the Lord always. Evil people in the world can take a lot of things away from us. They can steal our identities our credit cards and our wallets, they can rob our houses or apartments, they can hotwire our cars and take those, they can even kidnap our loved ones. But can they steal heaven? Can they change God’s promise? No way. The promises of God cannot be tainted by men. And so we rejoice in the Lord always. We might suffer temporary losses, but we will never suffer eternal loss. The light of the world causes us to rejoice in the Lord always.

• We can remain gentle no matter what comes our way. Let me explain to you something neat about the word translated as “gentleness.” It is a word that especially means, “one who has a high status, but is gentle in the face of maltreatment or persecution, even if the persecution comes from a person of lesser status.” Imagine a king being blamed for problems by a few belligerent citizens. Rather than using his power to zap them to smithereens, the king is gentle and lenient, even in the face of persecution. The king is calm; steadfast; not easily shaken. Because we have eternal life, that is how we can be too. We respond to pressure not with an explosion or with a blame game, but with gentleness and calm steadfastness.

• We have no need to be anxious about anything. There is no need to be rattled. There is no need to get all worked up. There are lots of things to think about, but nothing to worry about – because Jesus is the eternal Savior and that simply will not change.

• We can know this – that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds.

Life in the Light is awesome. Today we have had these four candles to symbolize different aspects of Jesus as the light. Each one, in a sense, made the room get a little bit brighter. But remember this: even though we have used candles to symbolize Jesus today, the light of Jesus is not just a candle that lights up a corner of the house while everything else remains dark. The light of Jesus is more like the sun that pushes aside every trace of darkness. On a bright sunny day you don’t scramble to turn on the indoor lamp so you can see. You’ve got the sun. You don’t grope for a flashlight because you’re in the dark. You’ve got the sun. If you have the sun you don’t need another light. If you have Jesus you don’t need another Light either. If you have Jesus you have it all. You will never be in the dark again.

Listen as the children tell us what Jesus, the Light of the World, brings us.