We are wrapping up our sermon series, our Advent sermon series,
The Mess and the Miracle. We are going to be in the Book of Isaiah this morning
looking at a sermon titled Christ Mess, as we've talked about the mess that we
found ourselves all the way back in the beginning of the world, right?
And we've kind of gone through different aspects of that, broken relationships,
the mess within ourselves, the mess within our communities, even our churches,
that Christ has come to give a new and show a new way. But I want to ask,
and if you're new or a guest this morning, I like to ask questions,
do a little interacting. I never know what you're going to say,
but it's always a good time for the most part. What is some of your favorite
aspects of the Christmas season? Now, I'm going to take off the Advent Jesus
Church answers, okay, because I know that's number one for all of you,
so I just don't want you all to say that at the same time. What else?
What else do we like about the Christmas season? Family, okay. Music,
we'll come back to that. Gifts, absolutely, thank you, Joey. Others,
the lights, absolutely. Have you guys all gone to the one in Dyer behind the
Stardust Bowl? Do yourself a favor, get there early, but it is unbelievable.
And the one on Monroe here in Munster, he does a really, really good job as well.
Others, snow, I reject that. Others, peace, like peace of food or candy or just
peace. The world becomes peaceful. Yeah, you all caught that one too, yeah.
The world, we might get to that one in a little bit. Others, makes you think of
Bonquette. That gospel offertory doesn't get an applause, but Bonquette does?
Father, we come to you in this moment. Wow, okay, Bonquette, okay. Not going to
say anything, we're going to move past that one. Other people said others.
Traditions, sure, absolutely, yeah. Parties, absolutely. Cooking, okay, over
here. Music, right, so we've got two music over here. That's really the bridge to
this, we'll get to music in a second. Any others? The candlelight service.
Christmas trees. Your mom's cooking, nobody else's, but your mom's cooking.
And I agree with that, I agree with that. What? Wreaths, absolutely. We could go on
and on, there's so many things, right, almost 12 days of Christmas type thing
that we could do. No one said Christmas movies. That's, yeah, Christmas movies,
right? So once and for all, is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Amen. That was almost
louder than Bonquette, I appreciate that. But Christmas music, we have a couple
of music fans over here. What do you like about the Christmas music? I think that
was Joe and Parker, right? Joe Allen and Parker. Joe Allen, what do you like about
the Christmas music? Joyful, absolutely, yeah, like that offertory was awesome.
What about you? The message, right? Absolutely. And I think it's interesting,
there are so many people that right after, it seems like Halloween, there are
stations on the radio that start playing Christmas music. How many people love
that? How many people hate that? I'm one of them, yeah. But it's funny that we just
kind of, this genre of music comes and plants itself in our lives for maybe it's
a week, maybe it's two weeks, maybe it's a month, maybe it's all of fall, right,
however you want to do it. Does any of you, be honest, really listen to Christmas
music after January 15th? Why? The message is still good, it's still joyful,
don't we need that in our lives every day? Why don't we do that? Christmas
tradition, that our, we have been tradition, I'm going to say Christmas
conditioning, you know, get psychological about it, right, we've been always
conditioned to listen to this music just during this time of year. Some churches
like to get cute and do Christmas in July and they do something in July because
they know it's July and no one's there and you know, they're going to do it
anyway, don't worry we're not going to do that. But we've been conditioned for this
and what's interesting to me is the music. That for a lot of us, you know, when
we look on, when we turn the radio on and we hear rocking out to a way in the
manger. You guys rocking out to that in your cars? No. What songs come to mind
when you think of Christmas music, right, Umbrella of Grace, I don't expect you guys
to all listen to Christian music 24-7, 365, right, meaning you also listen to it
in your sleep. What songs really, when you hear it, you're like, that's the
Christmas season. What? Mariah Carey, absolutely. All I want for Christmas is
Bonquette, apparently. And so what else? What other songs that when they come on
they just hit? Trans-Siberian Orchestra, absolutely. White Christmas, Charlie
Brown's Christmas, yes, all of those, right. But when we think about those
Christmas songs, what was that one? The Last Christmas, that's the song about
Revelation. That's a different one, we're going to get to that in the fall. But
understand that there are aspects of those Christmas songs that just, man,
things just hit. But I guarantee you Mariah Carey wasn't singing about Jesus.
She wasn't, right. I don't know her, but I doubt it. But if we think about all
these Christmas songs that when they come on, we're like, that puts us in the
Christmas mood. Let's go decorate the tree, let's go wrap gifts, let's go do
whatever Christmassy things you do. Rarely do they have to do with Jesus. Yet
this Christmas season should be all about Jesus. Some of you are engaging
that like, okay, Pastor Downer, that's still, I like to celebrate. See, caught
that, not donor, but downer. Thank you for that. Yeah, the rest of you, catch up. But
have nothing to do with Jesus. That they have everything to do with getting gifts,
sometimes giving gifts. Don't know too many songs about actually giving gifts.
But there's a couple, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, All I Want for Christmas,
What Christmas Means to Me. And there's one song, What Christmas Means to Me. I'm
just gonna pull a little bit of the lyrics out. Candles burning low, lots of
mistletoe, lots of snow and ice everywhere we go, choir singing carols
right outside my door. It's hard not to get wrapped up in that. I hear those
lyrics, I just wanna, I don't know, a hot cup of hot chocolate and a fire and a
Christmas tree and watching whatever Christmas movies, some of ours in the
Holland owner house, No Judgment is Home Alone. And understanding that it's just
this season. And this season means something to us. Yet we're very good at
forgetting about this season, probably about January 15th. Because we're gonna
turn into something else. Or that's where it starts to get really cold and we start
to really not like this season because of the bitter cold that we get in the
Chicagoland area. But the meaning of Christmas, right, we like to put in these
bright lights, we like to put in the stars, we like to put even in Jesus. But
let me contend that the original idea of Christmas, the original meaning of Jesus
coming into the world isn't about lights, it isn't necessarily even about kind of
those fuzzy feelings we get. It's actually a lot darker. So let's think
about what Christmas would look like if there were no lights. If there were no
Christmas carols, right, you didn't have the story of Scrooge finding his way and
all of these things. We didn't have, you know, all those Christmas movies that we
love. What if all of that went away? What if there were no carols? What if
Christmas was just like any other day? How would we really take that as a
culture? I think a lot of the toy companies would really be upset, right,
because we're taking probably a lot of revenue out because if we think about it,
it is a time during this Christmas season, we're okay with spending a lot of
money. What if you were asked to spend a lot of that money in June? Would anybody
like sign me up? No, we've gotten it to the point where we just do it all kind of
in that one part of the year. But one of the things we have to pull out and we
have to engage this morning is that Christmas isn't always about that. That
there's actually a darker side to Christmas and that is the mess that the
Israelites found themselves and the world found themselves when Jesus was
actually born. Now I'm not up here to debate what time of the year the ancient
calendars or anything like that, right. Don't get lost in that. Nothing there
Selvitic that you need to worry about. But understand that Jesus came as a
prophecy that wasn't all that joyous as far as what the people were going
through. That the people were looking towards something. They were looking for
someone to do many different things and there were many different camps as to
what they thought the Messiah, the anointed one was going to do. They saw
the Messiah either as prophet, priest or king. And the thing is Jesus comes to
represent all of that. So let's jump into the book of Isaiah chapter 9. And so one
of the things we have to see is that we have in Isaiah 9 we have, you know what, I
think I actually gave the wrong texts. Yeah, I'm gonna start in 9. I think we can
take this one off. Yeah, go back really quick. Go to that one. Nope, that's right.
I'm wrong. Okay. But there were, but there will be no gloom for her who was an
anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt in the land of Zebulun and
the land of Naphtal, but in the latter times he has made glorious the way of
the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. So that's kind of
the intro if you're here, but here's really where I want to go. The people who
walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of
dry darkness, on them a light has shown. You have multiplied the nations. You have
increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they
are glad when they divide the spoils. So there we have this understanding of
where we were. There's where the world was, right? The Israelites were there.
They were walking in darkness. They have this understanding that something was
coming, but they were not getting it. Hundreds of years since the last
prophecy, right, that we see about Bethlehem in Micah and understand that
there is a darkness. There is a void. There is this thing that is coming,
something talked about through ages and ages and generations and generations.
That there is a darkness. And the funny thing about darkness is if you walk in
darkness long enough, you get used to it. How many of you have ever been
splunking? Yes, that's a real word, right? And splunking is when you go down into a
cave and you walk through the caves. And you can get to the point where there's
almost 0% natural light, light being able to reflect on anything so we can see it.
That's how light works, I think. But you get into the darkness long enough, the
darkness becomes the norm. Your body actually starts to normalize the
darkness. Which is why if you've ever been in like a dark room for so long and
then you go out into the light, you can't just go out and be like, oh, this is
great. No, it's almost oppressive, right, how the light is. That the people, the
Israelites, they got used to the darkness. The darkness of the understanding that
something was coming and what happened. All around them, corruption started to
build. The corruption of the Romans, right, the corruption of the temple, of
the Jewish people, of the priests and the Levites, the Sadducees. That this
understanding that the darkness became the norm to me only emphasizes the light
and the hope we have in Christmas. The light and the hope we have in the Christ
child. The people who have walked in the darkness all of a sudden now are going to
see a great light. Let me ask a question. We know how the baby comes. We know that
story. We sing it. It's called, The Way in the Manger. We get it. What if the Christ
child came in the courts of Herod? What if this child was born in the glory of
the temple? I wonder if it would mean the same thing. That there's such a economic
juxtaposition that I know us in 2023, almost 2024, can probably resonate with.
That if right now, tomorrow, we hear on the news that this baby was born and is
sent to be the Messiah overall, I guarantee, I'm going to go out on a limb
and say 99% of us wouldn't believe it. What makes that very different from when
it actually happened? It doesn't. That human skepticism and human cynicism has
been around since the fall of man. We see that from the beginning of Genesis 3.
That Jesus is coming in such a way that he is going to overturn. He's going to
shine a light in all of the areas that we have been comfortable with the
darkness. And what is that darkness? That darkness could be defined as your own
idolatry. And to me, that's one of the most impactful things that Christmas does
is it shines a light on what I've been worshiping throughout the year. I'm going
to let that hang for a minute. Because as we center on the Christ, as we center on
the light of the world tomorrow, hopefully all of you come back and we
light the Christ candle. We read, we already read it in the Gospel of John,
that light came, the Word made flesh, dwelt among us. There was an intentional
act of the Savior of the world coming down to be with his people, to point to
the way of everlasting life. But even John talks about the world saw him but
didn't receive him, didn't listen, rejected. The stone that the builders
rejected became the cornerstone. It is so easy for us as a church to think high
and lofty, go, yeah, they didn't recognize him at all. They rejected what he had to
say. Let's be honest. I have a feeling we would be in a very similar place. Why?
Because we at times love the darkness. At times we love the ability to hide. We
love the ability to think that we are keeping things from other people. I
guarantee you in this room today there are secrets. I can make it super awkward
and ask all of you to stand up and give your deep dark secret and I guarantee no
one comes back next week. Because that would be super awkward. Because at times
we enjoy it. You can see it in the pureness of a child, right? Children that
learn what lying is seemingly just kind of out of thin air and, you know, some of
you may have had kids that are really good at it. Hopefully you have kids that
were not, right? And as parents it's a lot easier when your kid's bad at lying,
right, because it's a lot easier to figure it out. But this idea of darkness,
this idea of walking in darkness, notice it didn't say the darkness came and they
stopped and they waited. That story would be very, very different. If the Israelites
saw, okay, we're just gonna sit and wait. We're gonna wait until he comes. But they
got used to it. They walked in it. They lived in it and the darkness became a
part of who they were. God's chosen people, but they weren't so perfect. They
weren't always the light. They had darkness within them. And so we see this
hope. We see this light described for us as to what it actually means. Those who
have dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them the light is shown. The light
guides, the light protects, but the light also uncovers and exposes. I think about
in those movies where someone's in the interrogation room, right, or maybe some
of you use this as your parenting tactics when you're sitting down trying
to get the truth. You put a heat lamp up and you shine it in the kids face. Where
were you on this day? Maybe you don't. But I think about it in the movies that for
some reason that light shone and all of a sudden the truth, they tell the truth.
Right, you see it in the movies. All of a sudden the detective shines the light and
now they just, they just, they plead all of their guilt. Like what is that
light? That the light not only shines but the light exposes. And we see as we
continue that you have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. What
I love about this is the light is reminding them of how he has been at
work even amidst the darkness. So think about the last year of your life. I'll
think about mine. In those pits that you may have walked through where you felt
God very vacant. You felt God very estranged almost. Understanding that it's
never God that walks away. It's our understanding of God and our, and what we
perceive as the presence of God in our lives. That we understand that that area
of darkness when the light comes it exposes that. It exposes maybe how far
we have walked away. But when the light shines it also shows where God has been
and will continue to be working. But I think we miss that. I think we miss when
the Lord exposes something and it's sometimes we feel like we're exposed and
we have to, we have to seek forgiveness and it's all about what we've done
wrong. Sometimes the light is shown to show where God has been working. Though he
is the light of the world, right, that is Jesus. We know in our lives he is working
even in those valleys of life and I know for a fact some of you are going through
those. And one of the greatest perspectives we can get as believers is
in those valleys in the non-Christmas times if you will. We have the
perspective that God is still at work. That's a little bit of that light
shining. That that light of Christmas is coming in every day of the year. But the
lights come to do something. It's caused to increase our joy as with the joy of
the hardest. It's caused us to be glad and as we continue go on to verse 4. For
the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian. In the darkness there has been work. That
work is being done. That the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God, is still at work. The
kingdom of God is active every day. It's not just Christmas, right, it's not just
the week of Easter. Yes though that's when we see a lot of churches filled is
during those two holidays. We need to recognize that the light is shining
always and what is the light doing? Bringing justice, bringing mercy, bringing
us to a place of humility, of understanding that the world is not about
us. For the yoke of the burden, the staff of the shoulder, the rod of the oppressor,
you have broken. For every boot of the tampering warrior in a battle tumult and
every garden rolled in blood will be burned as fuel of the fire. That is a
declaration my friends, a declaration that Christmas means something. That the
light of Christmas is there to remind us of where he's also been at work. But that
first Christmas, right, if you're following the story of the Bible, right, I
think about it when you remember those Indiana Jones movies when he's traveling
you see the plane hit certain cities and then go off and then hit a certain city
and go off. And remember there's only four of them, that fourth one we reject.
You think about the story of the believer, the story of Christ, the story
of God's people is coming to a point where now the trajectory is going to be
different. The trajectory is going to mean something far more. The trajectory
is now salvation in human form. Salvation fully God, fully man coming down to show
us the way. Sometimes I wish we could get a glimpse personally, intentionally of
what that first Christmas was. But let me ask, the guy that went to the market
every other day, did he not go to the market after Jesus was born? No he did.
Did the the war still happen that we're going to happen? They did. Did the temple
still have all the good, the bad, and the ugly in it? They did. It's not like the
minute that that child is born and breathed his first breath that everything
got better. Because Jesus was pointing to something. He was pointing to reveal
himself. We see it throughout scriptures. It's almost like this angst as he gets
older, right, we see that with the wedding at Cana. A woman he says to his mom, my
time has not yet come. There is a timing to all of this that in God's perfect
timing is meeting with each and every one of you to change the trajectory of
your life. I had the honor of sitting with a friend and a friend's family this
week as a loved one changed the trajectory of her life. That she was
going one way and recognized Christ as Messiah and now anew and now her life is
different. Her life is changed. The trajectory of her life completely turned
upside down. Well, pastor, as you talk about it this way, then why didn't he come as a
king? Why didn't he come as a conquering hero or some kind of, as we talked about
a couple weeks ago, just kind of like a like I don't know like Superman or some
kind of superhero? Why didn't he come in like we read about him at in the book of
Revelation? Because that wasn't his plan. Because that was not what was prophesied.
Because in my opinion, the gospel according to Pastor Jim, he came in the
purest form. Because if he would have come as an adult, there would have been
political ties to that. There would have been financial ties to that. Ecclesiastical
ties to that because there were already people doing that. There were already
little M Messiahs going, I am the one to come. I am the one to come. Guess what? No
they weren't. Oh, that's crazy. We don't have any of that today. Yeah, we do. People
that think they can read this in such a way that they know when the world is
gonna end and they get a bunch of people to follow them and they get a bunch of
money. He decides to come in such a way that I think not only turns heads, makes
us scratch our head, make us curious and wonder, makes us maybe even disappointed.
For unto us a child is born, to us the Son is given. Wow. For unto us a child is
born. There's a collective understanding that Jesus is born for all of us. I
remember when all three of my, not both, I have three, when all three boys were
born, right, we didn't say this, but it was a gift for Carrie and I, for our
family, that our family expanded. At no time did I think, oh my church family
expanded. We were down in Crown Point at first year. See, like, oh the church family
expanded. Oh, this is great. No, it was very personal. That's not this. No, it's
personal. It's for the world. For unto us, now the Israelites read it as them, but
as we know now with Jesus that he was coming to bring salvation. For unto us a
child is born, a son is now being given to us. And I love how Isaiah puts this,
right, one of the weeping prophets, right, this understanding of speaking into a
system that will want to kill it, to kill him and it. The government shall be upon
his shoulders. That on the shoulders of a crying baby, the government will be
radically changed. The life we know now will not be the life that will be
because of this baby. And the government will be on his shoulders. So when
anything has to do with the government, it's all about the title, right? It's all
about the title. I have a couple friends, you know, we know Cindy Dornell, her
husband was elected as a state senator. Our good friend Mike, who comes to church
every once in a while, he's a state, he's a house of representatives. Or you have
the president or the president-elect. It's all about these titles. It's all
about, you know, these titles should mean something, right? Back in the day, people
cared if you had the word reverend before your name. Now, not so much. But
understand that we have titles. We love that. Have you ever been corrected by a
doctor? Hi, this is my friend Steve. No, that's Dr. Steve. There's a reason. It's
been earned that we have these things. We enjoy these things in the world. Look at
the corporate ladder climb, right? If you're trying to get that next job, it's
because it's a title. A higher title sometimes means a pay raise. All of those
things until you get to the top. CEO, CFO, president of the organization, whatever it
is. I love how Isaiah speaks right to us today. The government will be upon his
shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. Why? Because we need
counsel. That people are lost and they need an opportunity to speak out the
crazy and for us to make sense and perspective of our lives. He shall be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. I don't know. I think that's kind of the
trump card, isn't it? But in a world that recognized other gods in a far more
thematic and maybe more artistic way than we do now. I mean, I think we still
have those. Technology, money, fame, all of those things, those are God's, lower
case G. Almighty God, everlasting Father, that he is the Father to the fatherless.
Everlasting, that we have this understanding that his love and this
power and authority is never going to end and this is him as a baby. He hasn't
even grown up and talked yet. We'll get there. Prince of Peace. Counselor, God,
Father, Prince, Prophet, Priest, and King. That is the Christ child. That's why it
makes a difference. So he has this title, right? In the world today, we earn that.
Rich, you were a superintendent of a school system, right, for how many years?
Eight. Superintendent, that's a big deal, right? That's probably the highest you can
get in an educational system. And understanding that he earned that. Someone
recognized that he was given that title. That was something derived, given to him.
This is what he was born with. He was born with these titles. He was born with
this identity. He was born with this understanding that this is what
he would be named. This is how he would be distinguished from everybody else.
But then he was going to do something. Of the increase of the government and the
peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to
establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness. From this time forth
and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Nowhere in there does
it say, with him, all of my days will be good days. With him, all of my wishes will
be grand. He's not a genie. He's not an ATM. He is the prince of peace. That he
was going to come and change everything. That nothing was going to stay the same
because it couldn't. Because when the light comes into the world, a light that
darkness cannot snuff out, that means something. As I land the plane this
Christmas Eve, what's your January 16 going to look like? What's your February
1 going to look like? Are you going to think about the light? Are you going to
think about, you know, Almighty God, the wonderful counselor, the prince of peace?
Because the one thing we know about the darkness, it's not dumb. Many times I
think Satan gives us these weeks. He gives the church these weeks. Oh, believe
me, he's still very active. But maybe, just maybe, he goes, all right, we'll give
him till the middle of January because they're going to forget about all this.
All these feelings, all these emotions, all these traditions, all of these family
times, these gifts, the singing, the candles, all of this light, all of this
joy, right, or this hope and love and joy and peace. All of this is on the front of
our mind. But maybe Satan's going, ah, just wait. Let's give him this time. We'll
hit him with the darkness again in January. Doesn't work that way, friends.
Isaiah tells us it's never going to work that way again. That darkness can never
overcome the light. God's coming into your mess. God is coming into my mess to
shine a light, to expose what needs to be exposed, to fulfill what needs to be
fulfilled, to guide what needs to be guided, to console what needs to be
consoled, to have an authority of an almighty God in it, the everlasting Father
to maybe restore those relationships. And finally, for all of us, and I raise my
hand first and foremost, will be the battle for our anxiety. That the Prince
of Peace will come. Paul will further understand this peace that passes our
understanding. And I think that peace is one of the greatest gifts that we get at
Christmas. But guess what? We're going to get it on January 26th, December 26th,
December 27th, December 28th, and so on until we're with peace in the flesh. That
is something we get. That is something that is given to us in this Christ child.
Tomorrow we're going to look at it in another different way. But sit in that
today, friends. Enjoy the traditions. Enjoy the holidays. There is nothing
wrong with it. But understand that that counsel and that might, that everlasting
love and relationship and that peace is for us, is for the church every day of our
lives. Let's pray.