Sermon Cloud

Intro/Opening: 

Contrary to the new spirituality and religion of the day all religions do not lead to God, are not all different ways to the truth. There is only the religion of the living and true God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or there is the religion of the devil, who appears as an angel of light, but leads people to the pit of eternal darkness. Light and Darkness; Truth and Error; Heaven and Hell - these the only options.

Trans: These form the context in which the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ is place, in our text this morning. 

READ: Matthew 4:12-17.

Trans: As the OT looked forward to the Messiah, so now Matthew proves to be the only true revelation of God and hope of salvation.  First proof we noted is that Jesus was on God’s sovereign time table. This week (2) the light of God in a dark world, and (2) shines the light: a message of hope and warning. 

(2) Jesus is light in a dark world (15-16). 

Trans: The first thing to note is: 

(A) The World lies in Spiritual Darkness (15). 

(15) “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.” 

Matthew has already informed us that all that is taking place is the fulfillment  of the word “Spoken through Isaiah the prophet.”

What was future is now present; what was a shadow is now the substance; what was concealed in now revealed in all the glory, majesty, and splendor of the the incarnate God; the Lord Jesus Christ. The hope of Israel, and all men, has come!

The prophecy being fulfilled here is from Isaiah 9:1-2. Turn there … 

*Brief context: 1-5 rebellion/hypocrisy/sin of the people has them headed in a course of judgment; 6 - God appears to Isaiah and reminds Him that He is on the throne; 7-8 - Judah’s faithlessness revealed in Ahaz; judgement is on its way: 8:5-15 - it will come at the hands of Assyria.

8:19-22 - nations decline and coming judgment simply the result of their spiritual darkness. They rejected God’s Word and turned instead to the demonic soothsayers and idolatry of the surrounding nations (*19). They have rejected the testimony of God’s Word and have “no dawn” (20), 

 As is always the case, with the unrepentant, when hardship comes from God for their sin, instead of being humbled before Him - they rage with anger. Thus, “when they are hungry they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness” (8:21-22).  The scene is grim.

Because of the inward darkness of their heart, they have rejected God’s Word, worshipped the idols of the nations and are experiencing God’s opposition, and are angry angry at their king and God for failing to relieve their misery; and so they are sinking further and further into iniquity and rebellion; they are in an absolutely desperate situation, and utterly without hope. If light is to come, it must come from a source outside of themselves. It must come from God.

9:1 And so it will:  “But,” one day “there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish,” particularly “Zebulun and Naphtali.” Now, He (God) shall make their way “glorious.” How? “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”

The sovereignty and grace of God is supreme: the people are rebels and will always slide down the slippery slope of apostasy and rebellion. They looked for hope in idols, in nations, their own king, and their own resources, but all have failed. If there is to be any hope in despair; any chance of restoration and salvation, it must come from God! He alone is the One who orders judgment, and He alone is the One who brings salvation.

So, just as it was in the days of Isaiah, so it was at the appearing of Christ: “people who are sitting in darkness”  

(1) The “darkness” of Isaiah foreshadowed the destruction and captivity that was coming on the people at the hands of the Assyrian Empire (cf. 9:4-5). However, the darkness of oppression was a direct result of their spiritual darkness (8:14, 19-20).

(2) It is the spiritual darkness that Matthew emphasizes. The state of being without the light of Jesus Christ. It is the darkness of spiritual night - blind to the truth and glory of God and with a nature bent  toward rebellion to God.

(3) Darkness is the condition of all men, not only the people of Isaiah’s day, nor the people living in the 1^st century in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali - but is the true condition of all men; all, from the moment of conception, come into this world with a nature of spiritual darkness and are brought forth into a world of darkness.   

Darkness, is a metaphor for the absence of light. It becomes a metaphor, a living illustration of all that stands in opposition to God.

Darkness is an apt description of this present world ruled by Satan; and of man’s present condition apart from Christ. It is a horrifying description - conjures up our natural fears of our fallen nature. 

(1) Used to describe the place of eternal punishment for the wicked.  

(cf. Ex. 10:21 “which can be felt”) Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30 - “outer darkness” a reference to hell - a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

2 Pet. 2:17 (cf. Jude 1:13) - “for whom the black darkness had been reserved” 

(2) In the OT “darkness” referred to the mysterious existence of death, the netherworld/Sheol/Hades; and to the condition of ignorance, suffering, destruction. It is the condition of man brought about by the reality of sin. 

(3) Darkness is humanity enveloped in spiritual ignorance of God, rebellion against God, enslaved to sin, under the influence of Satan who is the “father of lies” “the spirit at work in the sons of disobedience,” who holds men captive to “do his will.”. 

So Paul describes it: Col. 1:13 - “domain of darkness” sphere of Satan’s rule and influence.

Eph. 6:12 - “against the world forces of this darkness … the spiritual forces of wickedness” referring to the supernatural influence of Satan and his minions in the spiritual realm. 

It was the power behind the opposition and crucifixion of Christ. 

Luke 22:53 - “this hour and the power of darkness are yours” a reference to the Lord’s betrayal and arrest in the Garden.

Luke 23:44-45 “It was about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.”

Spiritual darkness is never neutral, but is what propels men in their sin and opposition to the truth. Darkness is never neutral in regard to sin. 

It is what men desire: John 3:19 “men loved the darkness”  

Darkness is never neutral, but active. 

Rom. 1:18 it is “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness … [who] do honor Him as God or give thanks … [but are] futile in their speculations, and [whose] foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man … they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” 

Thus, being given over darkness manifest itself in perversions of God’s gift of sexuality, namely homosexuality “women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error … God gave them over to a depraved mind … filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strive, deceit, malice; gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.”

A summary picture of the spiritual and moral darkness of man would be Paul’s string of OT quotations on man’s condition, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there none who does good, there is not even one. There throat is an open grave, with their tongues they deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; they feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Therefore, darkness and death go hand in hand; thus, those who dwell in darkness, dwell in the - “Shadow of death” - for just as “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men for all sinned”

(1) A powerfully descriptive phrase: death is the result of sin; separation from God spiritually and eternally for the unbelieving. Describing the people to which Christ came, one author notes, 

“Those that are without Christ, are in the dark, nay, they are darkness itself; as the darkness that was upon the face of the deep. Nay, they were in the region and shadow of death; which denotes not only great darkness, as the grave is a land of darkness, but great danger. A man that is desperately sick, and not likely to recover, is in the valley of the shadow of death, though not quite dead; so the poor people were on the borders of damnation, though not yet damned - dead in law.” (M. Henry). 

(2) Death is the imminent reality before all men - all live in its shadow (illust: young location guy at studios). 

(3) The fear of death is the power of Satan over the unregenerate; it is the inevitable end of all men; and eternal death of all men apart from Jesus Christ. 

This the condition of the fallen world, the world held in bondage to the terrible realities of sin; spiritual death; physical death; the potential of eternal death. A world enslaved to sin; captivated by the evil one. 

The only answer to darkness, the only way to remove the darkness of a room is to turn on the light. The darkness of night is only chased away by the rising of the sun. So the spiritual darkness of men is only dispelled with the dawning of the Son of God - the light of God that dispels the darkness of sin. 

     (B) The Light of Christ dispels the Darkness. 

“Saw a great light … Upon them a light dawned”

The world that lay in darkness, the light of God has now come to her. Here, in this verse alone, is the great drama of the Gospel; the great glory of God’s unfolding plan of redemption. 

Isaiah promised that deliverance would come to the people: 9:3-5 “You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; they will be glad in Your presence, as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulder, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.”

From where would this salvation come? The mysterious God-Child. The Child who would be “Immanuel, God with us,”   “[the] Child [that would] be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulder; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace,” the “root of Jesse,” “[will be] a light to the nations” 

And, in chapter 53, the *Suffering Servant who would be “pierced through for our transgressions, … crushed for our iniquities,” - The real problem was the people’s sin, and therefore the true solution, had to first deal with their rebellious hearts. 

So, in Matthew: “save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).” The Child is now revealed in the God-Man Jesus Christ, “God with us,” - He is the Light in their darkness, the hope through their despair. Against the backdrop of sin, darkness, and death sovereign grace and glory is on display.

Jesus shone first and most brightly here in the land of “Zebulun and Naphtali … Galilee of the Gentiles.” And so the prophecy finds it fulfillment here. 

(1) Center of His the majority of His earthly ministry. 

(2) First to witness His signs (John 2); His teaching; and observe His miracles.

“Light” is a Beautiful and picturesque term of the truth and glory and knowledge and presence of God through Christ - the dawning of the great light of Christ is the shinning and appearing of the great grace of God.

So, Zacharias looking forward to the ministry of Jesus, the Messiah, whom his son, John the Baptist, would announce, said: Luke 1:77-79 - “to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins … to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death” -

When Jesus Christ came into this world the true light light invaded darkness; truth exposed error and deception. John 3:19-21 “light has come into the world”

John 1:4 - “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men” His life (eternal life/life of God) is the revelation of God to men (Luke 2:32 - “light of revelation to the Gentiles”).

(2) In Scripture light often pictures God’s presence 1 Tim. 6:16 - “dwells in unapproachable light” (Is. 42:16; 2 Sam. 22:29; Job 29:3). This is the glory of the ministry of Christ! “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, as of the Only Begotten, full of grace and truth.”  

(3) Speaks of (a) holiness (“God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all”); (b) truth (John 8:12 (cf. 9:5; 11:9) “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life”  

The kingdom of darkness has utterly redefined light. 

To be “enlightened” in the world is to be set free from the shackles of biblical authority and enter into the freedom of human potential, intellect, and moral freedom. 

This is, in part, what is inferred in Satan appearing as an “angel of light” (2 Cor. 11). Just as in the Garden (2 Cor. 11:1-2), Satan present himself as man’s emancipation from the stifling constraints of Divine authority, when in reality he replaces it with his own cruel bondage.

Trans: Jesus Christ is the true light, and the light He shines comes with a message of … 

(3) The Light is a message of hope and warning (17). 

Trans: It is a message of hope because … 

     (A) Entrance to the Kingdom Revealed:

“From that time on Jesus began to preach and say …” 

“Believe on Me as Savior and then later obey Me, because you really should do that since I am God after all, and it really is the best thing.”

“Come and join My movement. I have a lot of nice, friendly, and really cool people you can meet. I won’t be to preachy and I will do my best to help you achieve your maximum potential in life. I will do my best to give you a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere that best suits your preferences, and lets you just be yourself.”

“Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Turn from your sin. Turn from darkness to Light; turn from error to truth; turn from sin to obedience; turn from rebellion to submission. 

Note: repentance and not taken place, and true faith has not been exercised until both have taken place. God does not accept the faith that wants salvation but is unwilling to turn from sin to obey Him as Lord. 

Notice: “He began to preach! It was authoritatively proclaimed.

Preaching has always beens God’s means of accomplishing His work of redeeming sinners. 

It was not a nice conversation where they all got around and shared their ideas. It was a message grounded in authority and revealed truth (“kingdom of heaven”). It is the word of the Living God preached. 

This message should sound familiar to you: it is the same message of John the Baptist. 

John was the last of the OT/OC prophets calling the people to repent toward God and the coming One - transitional figure. Jesus is the manifestation, the substance of the message. 

No longer is the message being proclaimed through the mouths of God’s prophets, but from the very lips of the infinite, eternal God, who is the King of kings, Lord of lord, the great “I AM” Himself!

It is a message that comes with *authority! (cf. 7:29). It is a command to be obeyed, not an option to consider. 

Speaking of the Lord’s 2^nd Coming Paul reminds the Thessalonians: “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.”  

This this the message of the gospel: 

Acts 26:18 - This is the ministry of the gospel: “to open their eyes to that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

1 Pet. 2:9 - “that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

Thus the true and faithful church of Jesus Christ is “the light of the world. A city on a hill” whose “light … shines” in the midst of a world of darkness and death. We are the light in the darkness. 

Acts 13:47 “I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles” the Lord speaking to the apostle Paul. 

Acts 26:23 (Paul before King Agrippa) “I stand this day proclaim light” the message of the gospel through the ministry of the apostle. 

In our proclamation of the gospel we are God’s light, the light of Christ in the world. This settles our mission statement - “We proclaim Him.” 

Any ministry of Christ that is a light must be built on the faithful proclamation of Jesus Christ, in all His fulness, as He is revealed in His Word. Matthew 16:16 “Who do you say that I am, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God … Blesses are Simon Barjona … and upon this rock [confession] I will build My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

And so we take the mantle from the John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus and pick up the proclamation of the King whose ambassadors we are. Our message is His message: “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” 

The light of the gospel we proclaim is the blazing beam of His glory as the message of salvation for sinners. We are the light house and buoy to a shipwrecked world going down into the darkness of the cursed and corrupted sea of the world.

The church is not commissioned to reinvent the message; only to be faithful to proclaim that entrance into God’s kingdom is available, but only to those who will bow their knee Christ in brokenness and obedience to the command. All must come in repentant faith.  

Repentance is not something a persons decides to do later after they believe on Jesus as Savior: it is part and parcel with saving faith (3:8). 

Repentance and obedience are not simply a one time deal that we do and then live however we want, it is a life long reality for the genuine believer; and ultimately the only true test by which a person’s profession can be attended with any real assurance. 

1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, awe lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness.”

John 2:23-25 - there is a faith that doesn’t save. It is a faith the believes the facts, but is unwilling to forsake all to follow Him.

We are a light in as much as we are faithful to the message of Christ, which is the message of repentance. This means that we must be faithful to that message in all that we do; we cannot compromise, or whatever we do we at that point cease to be a reflection of the light of Christ. 

This extends to preaching, counseling, conferences, VBS, evangelism, missions, etc. -  all must be motivated by the primacy of fidelity to the message of Jesus Christ. 

Transition: Repentance as the point of entrance into the kingdom, but the call to repentance also brings to light another reality: No repentance/No entrance into the Kingdom - no salvation!

(B) Exclusion from the Kingdom is a Real Possibility. 

Despite all her advantages, the light of Capernaum received would eventually be the grounds of her judgment rather than her blessing.

“And you Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I ay to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you” (Matt. 11:23ff). Judgement based on light received.

Spiritual advantage does not equal spiritual blessing, only opportunity. And, opportunity rejected only increases guilt and judgment. Severity of judgment is directly related to the amount of light rejected.

This means that there are many sitting in churches throughout our city, country, and the world who hear the gospel yet have not submitted their hearts to Christ, who each day are only increasing the severity of their eternal judgement. 

“The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God  … we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18-24). 

Conclusion:  

The world sits in the darkness of sin, rebellion, and spiritual ignorance; Christ is the Light of the World that exposes that rebellion and calls all men to repentant faith in His atoning work; the church and every Christian is the light of Christ in a dark world; the message of the church is Jesus Christ and the call to repentance toward Him. 

The message and proclamation of the gospel is the arm of God held in mercy and grace to rescue every sinner drowning in the sea of darkness to lift them up by grace. However, Christ is also set as the judgment for Israel and for all men who chose to love the darkness rather than the light. Who prefer the domination of Satan to the freedom, life, and light of Christ. 

Praise God that He has not left us in the darkness, but like beacon from heaven whose beams shine brightly through the proclamation of rescue of Christ to all, who like Israel looking at the serpent, will look with eyes of faith to the crucified and risen Christ.

 For we, as the church, are “ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”