The creativity of his mind is just an amazing
thing to me. Well, would you open your Bible,
please, with me to the Gospel of Luke and the
second chapter as we conclude the Christmas series
looking at the names with Christmas glory. Luke
chapter 2. I'm going to begin reading in verse
25. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon
who was righteous and devout. He was waiting
for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit
was upon him. It had been revealed to him by
the Holy Spirit that he would not die before
he had seen the Lord Christ. Moved by the Spirit,
he went into the temple court. When the parents
brought in the child Jesus to do for him what
the custom of the law required, Simeon took him
in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign
Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your
servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your
salvation, which you have prepared in the sight
of all people, a light for revelation to the
Gentiles. and for glory to your people, Israel.
I heard in the news a couple of days ago that
the spacecraft that we launched toward one of
the moons around Jupiter is beginning to send
back some more information. The information was
gathered a week ago but only received this weekend
here on planet Earth. We have received a message
from outer space. but it's not the first one.
There is a message that's been received from
outer space 2 ,000 years ago that is far beyond
anything that could be received from planet Jupiter.
For the message that we received from outer space
2 ,000 years ago is the message of God in His
Son, Jesus Christ. But even before that message,
God has been sending messages from outer space
since the beginning of creation. Listen to the
words of Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after
night they display knowledge. There is no speech
or language. where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their
words to the ends of the world. You see, from
outer space we have been receiving messages from
God for thousands of years. That's what we call
general revelation. That is, that God is giving
this revelation about His existence generally
to all men. His power and His wisdom are on display
day and night for people of every tribe and every
tongue to behold and to hear. But as gracious
as that revelation is from God, it is insufficient
for anyone to find salvation. For the sinner
to be saved, he must have specific knowledge.
He must have more than the general knowledge
that God exists in great wisdom and power. He
must have specific knowledge of the truth of
God's loving, self -sacrificing action at the
cross. in the death of his son. That kind of
revelation is what is called special revelation.
It provides an understanding of the personhood
of God, that he is an eternal being of moral
perfection. That he is a being of holiness and
justice, as well as mercy and grace. Like all
people in the world, we have need for the general
revelation from God, but we have a greater need
for the particular revelation of God's person
that comes in Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews
taps into this idea when he says, In these last
days, He has spoken to us by His Son. Now those
prophets that the writer was speaking about,
Isaiah and Jeremiah and Moses and all of the
rest, those prophets had delivered specific revelation
too. But they were looking forward to the fullness
of God's revelation in the Messiah. And the writer
of Hebrew says, now in these last days, God has
finally given this word. He has spoken by His
Son. The period of time from the end of the Old
Testament prophets to the coming of Jesus was
about 400 years. Malachi laid down his pen. and
there was no word from God for four centuries.
It was a silent period, and it was a dark one.
In those 400 years, Daniel's prophetic vision
of the destruction of the Persian Empire, of
the rise and fall of Alexander the Great and
the Greek Empire, and then the emergence of oppressive
Rome, all of those things played out in those
400 years. There were great civilizations that
came and went. Well -known thinkers, poets, and
historians who are revered in the world still
today lived and died in those 400 years. But
despite all of that civilization, all of that
culture, It was a time of moral and spiritual
darkness. It was into that darkness that Jesus
came as the light of revelation. That's what
Simeon calls him, a light for revelation to the
Gentiles. Jesus Christ came to bring the knowledge
of God to us as the light of revelation. Now
when we speak about him being the light of revelation,
we need to understand that this is a metaphorical
name. It describes what his life and teaching
were like. By what he said and how he lived,
he brought understanding that dispels the darkness
of ignorance. The lack of the knowledge of God
is darkness, but the gaining of the knowledge
of God is light. Jesus Christ is the one who
can light the way out of darkness for anyone,
Jew or Gentile. He can light the way out of your
darkness as well. First thing I want you to see
today is this, that Jesus Christ brings the light
of revelation to the Gentiles. That's specifically
what Simeon said. Gentiles, of course, are any
people that are non -Jews. It is a racial category.
There are Jews, and then there are Gentiles,
and obviously many more Gentiles. Gentiles were
ignorant of the true God. Gentiles were in darkness.
Now there's some exception to that. There is
some... A little bit of light that comes even
to the Gentiles down through the traditions.
We can see that in some of the oddest places.
For example, in some of the characters in the
Chinese language, you see hints of the truth
of the Bible in the way the characters are fashioned.
Or you have a man like Melchizedek. who lived
in a pagan city of Jerusalem but was nonetheless
the priest of the Most High God. But generally,
it is true to say the Gentiles are in darkness.
Even the Apostle Paul admitted such by these
words in Ephesians chapter 2. Remember that formerly,
you who are Gentiles by birth, were separate
from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel
and foreigners to the covenants of the promise,
without hope and without God in the world. That's
what you were like. But now, he says, in Christ
Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought
near to the blood of Christ. He pictures this
as the Jews as it were, being nearer than the
Gentiles being far away. And now he says, in
Christ Jesus, even we who were Gentiles by birth
and in great darkness have been brought near
to God. And so he exhorts Gentiles, as well as
Jews, in the fourth chapter of Ephesians, I tell
you this and insist on it in the Lord. that you
must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the
futility of their thinking. Now there's an interesting
little switch here. Before he said, you who are
Gentiles by birth, he addresses them that way.
But now he says, you're not really a Gentile
anymore. He says, you who have believed, stop
living like them, the Gentiles. You may have
been born by your first birth, a Gentile, but
you have been born again and by that second birth
you have been set apart to God. You've been sanctified.
You've been brought near. Now because of that,
don't live like those people, the Gentiles. They
are darkened in their understanding and separated
from the life of God because of the ignorance
that is in them due to the hardening of their
hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have
given themselves over to sensuality, so as to
indulge in every kind of impurity with continual
lust for more. The apostle says, you're no longer
like that, so don't live that way. You've been
born again. You have been brought near to God.
You have now the light of revelation. don't live
like those who are still in darkness. What we
see in this name, the light of revelation, is
that God chooses to be known even among the Gentiles.
And in becoming known, God is seeking His own
glory among the Gentiles. That is not wrong for
God to seek His own glory. In fact, it is very
good for God to do that because it is the knowledge
of God that is the greatest good a man can have.
And so for God to advance his glory by making
himself known among the Gentiles is to give the
Gentiles the very best possible gift they can
have. And when he does that, he brings light
to dispel the darkness that Gentiles were shrouded
in through the thousands of years. This relation
of darkness and light is a motif that is found
throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
For example, in the book of Genesis, it begins
by saying the earth was formless and empty, darkness
was over the surface of the deep. Darkness was
there. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the water, which suggests that there is some
expectation. that there is a preparation by the
Spirit of God doing this. And in the very next
verse it says, and God said, let there be light.
And there was light, and God saw the light was
good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
In chapters 3 through 11 of Genesis, what we
really have is the entrance of moral and spiritual
darkness into this creation. And then we see
its malignant growth in the human race, culminating
with the flood and the judgment that that was,
and then again at Babel. When the world rejected
the knowledge of God, it was turned to the lies
of false worship, exalting human thinking above
God's truth, and with that came all kinds of
immoral behavior. Into that darkness, in Genesis,
God also spoke again. And what he said was to
one man, his name was Abraham. And he said, Abraham,
get out to the land that I will show you. Remember,
Abraham was a Gentile. He became the father of
the Jews because his son was Isaac, his grandson
was Jacob, who was Israel. But Abraham was a
Gentile. But God gave to this man special revelation
and said, come out. And God appeared to him and
gave him promises. And then to his descendants,
the Jews, there came special revelation of God
through the law. And that nation had great privilege
because of that. They received the light of revelation
through the law, but they did not obey it. Isaiah,
Ezekiel, and Paul alike, declared that God's
name was even blasphemed among the Gentiles because
of the Jews' failure to live up to the light
that they received. Israel had that light. The
Gentiles were in darkness. What had been known
of God from the beginning was suppressed by the
Gentiles. Romans chapter 1 verse 20, for since
the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities
have been clearly seen, His eternal power and
divine nature. These being understood from what
has been made, so that men are without excuse,
although they knew God. They neither glorified
Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their
thinking became few when their foolish hearts
were darkened. And then, at the time when there
was the greatest darkness perhaps in the ancient
world, God spoke in His Son. And when God spoke
in Jesus, it was intended to be a light of revelation
to the Gentiles. You see, the Messiah was promised
to come from Israel, but Messiah was for all
the nations of the world. That is why even Isaiah
the prophet in the 42nd chapter of his book records
these words of the Lord, I the Lord have called
you in righteousness. Now God is speaking to
his servant, Messiah. I've called you in righteousness.
I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you.
I will make you to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles. to open eyes that
are blind, to free captives from prison, and
to release from the dungeon those who sit in
darkness. And then again in chapter 49 of Isaiah,
Messiah himself now speaks. And he says, and
now the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb
to be his servant. Isn't that interesting? 700
years before the virgin birth Messiah says he
who formed me in the womb to be his servant to
bring Jacob back to him and Gather Israel to
himself for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord
and my God has been my strength He says it is
too small a thing for you to be my servant to
restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those
of Israel I have kept I will also make you a
light for the Gentiles that you may bring my
salvation to the ends of the earth. This has
been called by some the Great Commission of the
Old Testament. For it is evident centuries before
the Great Commission was given by our Lord Jesus
that God makes it clear that His salvation is
to go to the ends of the earth. God is a missionary
God. He desires for the light of revelation to
go to the dark places. The dark places in the
suburbs. The dark places in Sarajevo. The dark
places of the inner city. The dark places of
Indonesia. All are alike to God and all are the
objects of his love. And he has sent his son
as a light of revelation. And he brings the light
of revelation to the Gentiles. But there's a
second thing I want you to see, and that is that
he also brings the light of revelation to individuals.
Because you see, when we talk about Gentiles,
it's a group. It's hard to get your hands on
it. It's like trying to get a hold of Jello.
Gentiles. So what I want you to see is that Jesus
is the light of revelation to individuals like
you. And it's necessary that he is, because not
only the personal darkness that is in man, but
the supernatural darkness that is around us.
The apostle says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4,
even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to
those who are perishing. The God of this age
has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that
they cannot see the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ who is the image of God. Satan
blinds the eyes of people so that when you witness
to someone they say, I just don't see it. They
couldn't be more biblical. They couldn't be more
active. They can't see it. because of the supernatural
blindness, not only the personal darkness, the
supernatural blindness and darkness that is upon
them. Indeed, if anyone is going to be saved,
it is the work of sovereign grace. It is God
entering into that darkness and opening the eyes
and lifting the darkness, just as He did with
Saul on the road to the Masters. In the Christmas
season of 1879, D .L. Moody was holding a meeting
in Boston, Massachusetts. About three weeks before
he got there, an agnostic reporter for the paper
in Boston was out walking the street one day
and he saw three little girls standing in front
of a window, one of them obviously sightless
to the blind. It was a toy store and her two
friends on one on either side were trying to
describe to her what that doll looked like in
the window. The reporter observed this and he
was so impressed that he went back to his office
and wrote an article that then appeared in that
newspaper about that experience and how difficult
it must be to try to explain to someone who can't
see what something looks like. Well, the week
passed, and Moody was in town to preach, and
this agnostic reporter was assigned to go hear
Moody. And so he did. And much to his surprise,
Moody used that newspaper account that he had
written as an illustration. And he said, just
as the blind girl couldn't visualize the toys,
so an unsaved person can't see Christ. in all
his glory. But he went on to explain that God
opens the eyes of anyone who acknowledges his
sins and accepts the Savior in humble faith.
And believe it or not, in that very meeting,
the newspaper man discovered the truth himself,
his eyes being opened. Paul says in Ephesians
chapter 2, as for you, you were dead. Dead in
your transgressions and sins, in which you used
to live when you followed the ways of this world
and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the
spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying
the cravings of our sinful nature and following
its desires and thoughts like the rest. We were
objects of wrath. But because of His great love
for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive
with Christ. Even when we were dead in transgression,
it is by grace you have been saved. And that's
my point. Whether you talk about darkness that
needs to be dispelled, or you talk about death
that needs to have life given, it is grace. It
is by grace. that we are saved, not of our work.
Wilbur Nelson is the speaker, has been years
past the speaker of the morning chapel hour that
some of us have listened to. He told a story
one time about a couple, a fellow gal who was
in Scotland walking along, talking and They began
talking about a mutual acquaintance of theirs
whose name was Mary. And the young lady said,
Mary has what I call a radiant personality. And
the other said, yes, that's right. She does.
And the first said, but how do you account for
that? How do you account for that in Mary? And
the young man pondered it for a moment. And just
about that time, they rounded a bend in the path.
And there, on the other side of the stream, was
a castle. And he says, you see that castle over
there? She said, yes, I do. He said, well, when
I was a small boy, I would sit here on this side
of the stream, and I would look at that castle.
And I could always tell how many people were
at home by how much light there was in the windows.
He said, if it was just the family that was there,
then there would be a dim light in the windows
of the castle. But he said if they had friends
over and a lot of guests, then there would be
a lot of light. He said, I even remember one
time when royalty visited, and there was light
flooding from every window of the castle. He
said, you know, I think that's Mary's secret.
She's entertaining a royal guest. You know, when
you and I entertain the royal guest, we get Christ
in our lives. When we invite him in, he causes
that light to be seen. And that brings me to
my third point that I want to make. Jesus Christ
is the light of revelation to the Gentiles. He
is the light of revelation to individuals. He
is the light of revelation through His people.
I read earlier Isaiah chapter 49 in verse 6.
about Christ being the light of revelation to
the Gentiles. It is interesting that the Apostle
Paul applied that verse to himself and to Barnabas
in Acts Chapter 13. Listen to these words. Paul
and Barnabas answered them boldly. We had to
speak the word of God to you first, speaking
to the Jews in that city. Since you rejected
And do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal
life. We now turn to the Gentiles, for this is
what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you
a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring
salvation to the ends of the earth." You see
what Paul did? Paul knew that that verse was
Messiah speaking in Isaiah 49. See, that's the
interpretation of it. But he says it applies
to us, Paul, to Barnabas and myself, as it applies
to you and me. He says, God has made us a light
of revelation to others. This, of course, fits
with what he said in Ephesians chapter five and
verse eight. He says, once you were darkness,
but now you are light. You are light in the Lord.
In Philippians chapter 2, he picks up the same
theme. He says, do everything without complaining
or arguing, so that you may become blameless
and pure, children of God without fault in a
crooked and depraved generation, in which you
shine like stars in the universe as you hold
out the word of life. There was a woman who was
complaining to a pastor. about her situation
at work. She was the only Christian that was
there, and she felt overwhelmed by the darkness.
She was often ridiculed for her faith. She went
to her pastor to ask his counsel about quitting
the job and trying to find a better one. And
after listening to her complaints, her wise pastor
asked her this question, usually put light, she
said, in dark places. And then the light went
on in her mind, and she realized that in the
dark place of that office, she was God's light.
Can you look at your situation the same way?
That place where you work? maybe your own family
situation. So you are there, God's light, you
are his illumination and who holds forth the
word of light. You see, God desires for his revelation
to go to the darkest regions of the earth and
the darkest recesses of the heart. But for it
to get there, he has to have someone who will
carry it. You and I, who are light in the Lord,
are bearers of the light. We go into the darkness.
We go into the inner city. We go to Sarajevo,
as some of you will in just a few days. We go
to our families. We go to that factory job and
bear the light of the gospel. For God illuminates
the darkness through us. When he was but a little
boy in Scotland, Robert Louis Stevenson, the
author, used to follow the lamp lighter around
his city. He would watch the man bring along
his ladder and the fire and go from lamppost
to lamppost, climbing up, lighting the gas lamp,
down up to the next room and through the city
he went. One night as he was watching to the
lamp lighter, he exclaimed to his parents, look,
look, there's that man out there punching holes
in the darkness. You see, that's what God's called
us to do. For we live in a dark, dark, dark world,
and it's getting darker. But you see, you put
light in dark places. And God has called you
and me to punch holes in the darkness that enthrounds
people around us. So my closing question is this,
to whom will you carry the light in 1997? To
whom will you carry the light in 1997? God has
placed you in a circle of influence. For a purpose.
And part of that purpose is to be light. And
to hold forth the word of light. And to punch
holes in the darkness for his sake. And the sake
of the one who came is the light of revelation.
And so let's allow that question just to focus
our thinking as we close the service. Lord, who
do you have out there for me? For who is it that
needs the light I'm bearing? And let them lay
that name upon your heart, or that group upon
your heart, and carry the light to them. Let's
pray together. There's a little chorus that says,
Lord, lay some soul upon my heart, and love that
soul to me. And may I nobly do my part to win
that soul for thee. May that be our prayer today.
Can you bring to mind at least one person in
your circle of acquaintance to whom you can bring
the light? Who would that be? Name that person
before God right now. And say to the Lord, I
will carry the light. to that one. Let's stand
together, please, and let's bow our heads. Let's
pray to the Lord that chorus that I quoted a
moment ago. Thank you for Jesus, for the light
of revelation, to the Gentiles, to the world,
to us. And show us our part as we carry the light
to others in this coming year. And may we dispel
the darkness, punch holes in the darkness as
we are used by the Holy Spirit to live out and
to give out. the word of life. Help us to hold
it high, to hold it courageously, to hold it
boldly in this dark world. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen.