Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : January 4, 2004
The Same Old Message Never Gets Old
Epiphany
Say, did you just hear the big news? I just read it again this morning, and I still can't believe it. The United States actually sent people to the moon, and they made it, and they came back all in one piece! That's amazing news, isn't it? Just think of all the things that could have gone wrong. Oh, you must have heard that already, so it's old news to you already. But this one I'm sure you didn't hear -- this guy named Emmerson...or Edgarson...no...Edison, yeah, Thomas Edison, invented something called the light bulb. Some incandescent thing or other. Amazing thing -- you can actually carry it around like a candle but it doesn't go out. So you must have heard that one, too, huh? I suppose Christopher Columbus discovering America is nothing new? Ah, here's one I'm sure will be something new for you -- Jesus Christ died for your sins. Does that sound like familiar news, something you've heard before? Of course that's familiar; it's what we are all about as Christians, after all. But sometimes I'm afraid that we act as if we have heard it many times already, and we go about our lives as if it doesn't affect our lives too much. Well, this morning, I've got some news for you. It's something that you've heard every time you've come to church here. Jesus Christ lived and died for your sins. That is an old message, the same old message you know already, but it is The Same Old Message that Never Gets Old. This morning Isaiah is going to show us two parts of that message about Christ that should never get old for us. Christ's light dispels darkness and Christ's light attracts attention.
The fact that Christ's light dispels darkness is clear from the first two verses. "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you." Did I catch you taking these words for granted? It's easy to do that. We are talking about some common, everyday things like light and darkness. But when Isaiah encourages us to arise and shine, we really have no good reason to do it until we have read verse two. "Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples." Those words bring to mind a picture, as Isaiah is always good at doing. The darkness that is being described is the kind that we would experience when a terrible storm is coming and dark storm clouds accompany it, like when a tornado is about to strike. I can remember one time during a tornado warning when the entire sky was filled with dark, ominous, threatening clouds from which a funnel could emerge at any time. But as I looked at the sky I was amazed to see one small patch of sky that was as clear as a cloudless day. When that patch of blue somehow came my way and I was in sunshine while everything else around me was in a terrible storm, it was like a dream -- it seemed like it was unreal. It seemed like something was wrong. But then as soon as it had come, it was gone and I saw the small patch of light rapidly fly away. That is the kind of picture Isaiah paints. The whole world is covered in darkness -- terrible darkness -- because of the terrible state all people find themselves in because of their sins. Everything is darkness -- except for a small area where the Lord's glory shines through the gloom and darkness. "The LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you." But in our busy lives, we often miss that glory of the Lord, don't we?
The saying goes: "The only way to know where to go is to look back and see where you've come." That is true of these words of Isaiah, as well. For example, you will never appreciate the words, "Arise, shine," if you are standing up. Try it -- you tell someone who's already standing to stand up and they'll look at you like you make no sense or have lost your marbles. But you tell someone who's sitting down to stand up, and he knows exactly what you're saying. When Jesus healed a paralytic and told him to rise, take his mat and go, the paralytic rejoiced and the crowd was amazed. Why? Because he used to be paralyzed, but at one word from Jesus -- "arise" -- he could walk and jump and run. If the man could already walk, no one would have been impressed. When the angels came announcing the good news of a Savior who was born, people who couldn't see their own sinfulness wouldn't understand. When Christ said, "It is finished," from the cross, only sinners could appreciate it -- only sinners who saw their deep need for a Savior because they saw where they were lying and drowning -- in the cesspool of their own sins.
What is your reaction when I say, "Jesus lived and died to take your sins away"? Do you look at it like a moldy piece of cheese -- something that was good once but now is just old and worthless and meaningless? When you hear that, do you say, "I've heard it all before"? Do you often act like it makes no difference in your life what Christ did for you? If you can't rejoice in the gospel, or if it has become old news to you, then you are to be pitied because you have somehow put yourself back into the darkness and walked away from the light, at least for a time. If your life is so full of stuff that when someone reminds you Jesus died for your sins and you get no joy or relief from that message -- if it sounds like the words are used so often that they have cobwebs draped all over them and are meaningless and you still want to say the same horrible things to your spouse or your children or your parents as if you've never heard those words before -- then I encourage you to sit and look around you and see what all those thoughts and words and actions have earned you.
Remember last week when you said those bad things about someone else and cut them down? -- you get hell for it. Remember when your mom told you to clean your room or wash dishes or take out the trash and you did it, but reluctantly and muttering under your breath? -- you get hell for that. Remember that unkind word you shot at your spouse or parents or friend or children? -- you get hell for that, too. How about the time you went to church because you knew that you should go, not because you wanted to go? Hell, again. Remember that opportunity God have you to witness your faith to someone but you decided to do something else instead? Need I go on? Look at your life and what do you see as you sit down? All your sins piled around you higher than the sky, and just one of them sends you away from God's presence for eternity. And on top of it, we often still have the audacity to look on the gospel message as if it's just the same old thing that I've heard over and over again. That has got to be the worst sin of all -- taking the gospel for granted.
And so with all those sins piled around us and drowning us, where will we go when we die? To heaven. Isn't the gospel amazing? Jesus lived and died for your sins. That same message most of you have heard for years is the same old message that you need to hear this morning and every morning because it never gets old when we see what we deserve as sinners. It's the same old message of sins forgiven freely that amazes us every day when we look in the Bible because God's mercies are new every morning. It's the gospel message that Isaiah places before us this morning: "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you." Who us that light? John 1 says, "In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Now that we know the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, we shine with the gospel light ourselves. We can't help it. It's too wonderful to keep inside. The phrase "your light has come" tells us that something happened in the past -- in this case, in the distant past -- when Jesus was born and lived and died and rose again. But even though those things happened long ago, they have far-reaching effects on us today. Christ, by living and dying for us, picked us up from our paralyzed and dead position in our sins as we sat in our sins, and he gave us new life. Now we don't have to live in those sins any longer. The old has gone, the new has come. As Isaiah says only a little later (Isaiah 61:3) Christ came "to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Now we live as children of light because the light that Christ has brought into our lives has dispelled our darkness.
The same old message that never gets old tells us something else as well: the light Christ has brought into our lives also attracts attention. I'm sure you've seen bugs attracted to lights. They can't help but go towards the light. When we let our light shine, people will notice. Just like one of those huge beacons that are sometimes used at grand openings and shoot straight up into the sky so that people from miles around come to see what the source of that light is, so it is with the Christian. When we just let the light in us shine out, people will be attracted by that gospel light. Look at how Isaiah describes it. "Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." That is what we celebrate at Epiphany. From the lowest to the greatest, male and female, young and old, God's gospel light is meant for everyone. The wise men are typical of the gentiles who are also included among God's people because of Christ and the Holy Spirit's work.
I'm sure you've heard all those stories before -- the invention of the light bulb, man walking on the moon, Columbus discovering America. That's old news, but it still affects your life. Look at the gospel every day of your lives. It is the same old message that you need to hear each and every day because it, too, continues to change your life, but to a greater extent than any bit of news. It has brought you new life and salvation and forgiveness. Don't let that same old message get old for you. Instead let Christ's light shine in your life. Amen.
