The Lord is My Light – 2/18/24

Last week, on our way home from the mission retreat in Thailand, several of us got lost on the way home and ended up in London for a couple days. It was unfortunate. The first day, we took a train to Oxford and, with the help of a very kind friend who loves Jesus and all that is beautiful, we explored this ancient university town. Our friend has a Ph.D. from Oxford, so he knows all the famous places and the less well-known places. We paused at the spot where Ridley and Lattimer so courageously were martyred for their faith. The church where Thomas Cranmer recanted of his recantation. We climb the spiral stairs of Saint Mary’s, where you can get a bird’s eye view of the colleges. You could actually walk around the whole top there and see much of the city. He actually has a Ph.D. From Oxford. It’s quite alarming. We gawked at the Divinity School ceiling, built between 1424 and 1483. This is where the oral exams were given in Latin, in the form of a debate. We worshiped at Evensong at the college where C.S. Lewis taught. I could see the rooms that he lived in. We checked out the less well-known pub where the Inklings—men like Tolkien and Lewis and others—gathered when they no longer met at the Eagle and Child. We stopped at the pub where President Clinton supposedly “did not inhale.” We climb the stairs of Christ Church hall that are featured in several Harry Potter films. We stood in the dining hall under the looming images of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. This is the hall in Christ Church that is the inspiration for Hogwart’s Great Hall.

But one of the most stunning features of Oxford is one of its smallest: its logo, featuring three crowns that represent the Trinitarian God (Father, Son and Spirit) and the motto that appears on and in many of its buildings: “dominus illuminatio mea,” “the Lord is my light” from Psalm 27:1. The university is almost 1,000 years old, and for over 600 years this has been the motto of the school: the Lord is my light. In other words, if we are to escape the darkness of our depravity, delusions, despair, then the Lord is going to have to open our eyes to shine his light on us, or we will have no hope. The Lord is my light.

The irony is thick because Oxford University has been viewed as the bastion of the Enlightenment, a hothouse of humanism, yet still retains its original motto. And this motto shines a spotlight on the delusional assumptions of the enlightenment hubris. For example, Immanuel Kant in the late 1700s asked in an essay, “What is enlightenment?” This was his answer.

“Enlightenment is the man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another… Have courage to use your own understanding!”

Notice what Kant is saying is that true enlightenment is not “the Lord is my light.” True enlightenment is “your brain is your light.” It’s a bit ironic that he makes this statement quoting the poet Horace, as he’s arguing not to seek guidance from another.

Kant is paving the way, though, for what came to be accepted as a compelling narrative. A bit oversimplified, but basically has three parts to it, this so-called compelling enlightenment narrative. Number one, the classical world was full of light. Greco-Roman world full of light. Number two, Christianity plunged us into a thousand years of darkness. Number three, the enlightenment philosophers courageously led us out of the dark ages into noonday brightness. As historian Tom Holland, certainly not arguing from a Christian perspective, says,

“That nothing in this narrative was true did not prevent it from becoming a wildly popular myth.”

And new forms of this myth continue to arise. So, what do Christians mean when we say, “the Lord is my light?” Let’s pray and ask the Lord for insight.

Father, you are the God of light. You dwell in unapproachable brightness. In you is no darkness at all. Even the darkness is not dark to you. We are darkness. Our foolish hearts were darkened. But you, the light of the world, deliver us from the domain of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of your beloved Son. You have called us out of darkness into your marvelous light. You open our eyes. You enlighten our hearts. The unfolding of your words gives light. And we’re asking for that light now. Shine on us, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.

We’ve come to a significant transition in our journey through the Gospel of Matthew. You’ll see the shift at the end of Jesus’s temptation between verses 11 and 12. Matthew 4, if you’re not there yet, Matthew 4:11-12. Big shift between 11 and 12. Matthew actually skips a year of Jesus’ life. If you want to know what happened during that year, read John 1:19 through around 4:45. John describes that. Matthew here, though, is helping us understand what John the Baptist meant in John 3:30 when he said,

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

That seems to be what Matthew is referring to in verse 12.

“Now when he [Jesus] heard that John [John the Baptist] had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.”

John’s arrest signals the fading away of John’s ministry and the rising up of Jesus’ ministry. He increases, I decrease. Jesus has rejected the king of darkness in the temptations, and now he rises up as the king of light.

Where he does this is significant. Look at verse 13.

“And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.”

Capernaum was a fishing village on the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. It was located along the Via Maris, which was a major trade route from Damascus up north to Egypt in the south. I took this picture last year overlooking the Sea of Galilee from the Gentile side. This is up on a hill. If you look all the way to the right, you get to Capernaum. This picture gives you a bit of a bird’s eye view of Capernaum today. The Millennium Falcon-looking building on the left is actually a Franciscan church and is the traditional site of Peter’s home, where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. The bright, broken structure is a synagogue that dates back to a couple hundred years after Jesus but is built on the remains of a synagogue that dates back to the time of Jesus.

Notice Matthew wants us to understand That Jesus’ move here to Capernaum is a part of a much bigger story than just some kind of geographical decision. Look at verse 14.

“So that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’”

Matthew is loosely translating prophetic words, 700 years old, from Isaiah 9.

The main question we want to wrestle with this morning is to try to understand why this reference, Isaiah 9:1-2, is so significant. Like why, coming right out of the temptation, does Matthew insert this prophetic fulfillment, leading right into the sermon on the Mount? It will also hopefully shed light on the significance of this promise of light dawning. So, three things we want to see about this.

First of all, the location of the darkness. Back in Isaiah 9:1,

“But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.”

So, it’s quite obvious in the Isaiah 9 passage quoted in Matthew 4 that the region Jesus is moving into, beginning his official ministry in, is a region of contempt. The Jews despised Galilee for its impurity, for its contamination by Gentiles, and for its vulnerability. If you look at 2 Kings 15:29, it describes this region as the very first region the Assyrians wiped out. It’s way up in the north, extremely vulnerable. So, socially, morally, geographically, militarily— gloom.

Second, the cause of the darkness. The context of this prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-2 is very important. If you look at the end of Isaiah 8:18-20, we’ll put it up on the screen.

“Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents [that is, things of wonder] in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. And when they say to you, ‘Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”

So the context is that of a people craving light but looking in the darkness for that light.

This is a huge principle. When we stop seeking the Lord, we don’t stop seeking, we just seek for light in really dark places. Look at the examples he gives here in Isaiah 8:19. Mediums (that is, witches), conjurers, occultists, necromancers. The Hebrew there is very interesting. It literally means “knowing ones.” Spiritists, in other words. It captures the craving to be in the know, to be fortune tellers, to gain this insider information, these dark secrets. Verse 19 describes them as chirping and muttering or squawking and moaning. They are enamored with the incantations and rituals. Whatever is unusual, whatever is mystical. Like, we don’t want to hear a plain word from God. We want to hear something mystical so that we’ll be in the know. They inquire of the dead, which is a rejection of God’s revelation and a desire to circumvent God and seek light in very dark places.

Look at the result, verse 22. This is Isaiah 8:22,

“And they will look to the earth”

Don’t forget that part. They will look to the earth.

“but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.”

Again, they’re craving light, but they’re looking in dark places and the end is distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. This is describing today, isn’t it? The more Americans seek to villainize Christianity and pull away from Christianity— it’s not that we stop looking, craving, seeking light, it’s just we seek it in darker and darker places.

One example. In 1990, there were 8,000 Wiccans in the US. Wicca is a 1950s reconstructionist pagan religion. It’s the combination of a bunch of things. It’s interesting if you look up in Wikipedia—not related to Wicca—one of the first definitions of Wicca is an earthly religion, a religion of the Earth. It’s so interesting that Isaiah said

“they will look to the earth.”

So, in 1990, 8,000 Wiccans. 2001, 134,000 Wiccans. 2014, about a million Wiccans or neo-pagans (Pew Research combines the two).

Now, most of these Wiccans are grasping for new and improved enlightenment. Often, they are—not always—but often, they are a female version of Kant’s “my brain is my light.” As they describe, witchcraft becomes a means of protest and self-empowerment. Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman illustrate this in their how to guide called Basic Witches:

“[Empowerment] is your birthright… [The] mainstream wants you to fit into a predefined role. Witchcraft enables you to find personal purpose, truth, and intention. It allows you to discover the crafts, talents, and interests that make you, you.”

I thought that’s why we went to Hobby Lobby. Apparently not.

“You already have the potential to be a strong, self-actualized, powerful ass-kicking witch. All you have to do is recognize your abilities … and channel them into making some magic.”

So, you can see this is an interesting blend of Buffy the Vampire, Oprah, and the Little Mermaid with a little darkness mixed in. But the tragic part is these are individuals, and a swelling number of individuals, who are seeking light, but we will seek light in anything but the source of light. And so, the cause of darkness is looking to the earth. We’re looking for light in a really dark place.

Number three, the solution to the darkness. Matthew 4:16 is Matthew’s translation of Isaiah 9:2. Matthew 4:16,

“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

Notice three characteristics of this movement from darkness to light.

First of all, darkness is a way of life. Verse 16, “dwelling in darkness.” Dwelling literally means sitting, which communicates an acceptance of passivity, inertia. Secondly, no way out. The region and shadow of death, it’s the air we breathe. It’s the space we occupy. It’s the land we live in. It’s the culture we create. And this darkness inevitably slides into the permanence of death. Death fossilizes darkness. But third, the big one, light is a gift. “A light has dawned.” You can’t create this light any more than you can invent a sunrise. You can’t fabricate it or buy it on Amazon. A light has dawned. This daylight is a gift. And when you experience this dawning, this gift, it changes the way you think and view everything. As Oxford graduate and professor C.S. Lewis famously said,

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

That’s what it means. The Lord is my light. Matthew is about to explain the implications of this in the Sermon on the Mount. We’re going to learn, what does it mean to actually have an identity as salt and light? How does this light of life change the way we think about the law? The way we think about lust, greed, marriage, money. What does it mean in chapter 6:22 that the body is full of light or darkness? We’re going to explore all of that. But before we do, I want us to do an exercise this morning because darkness in the Bible typically communicates one of three things, or all three: depravity, delusion, or despair. Light typically communicates the opposite: integrity, purity, buoyancy, hope, vibrancy. We can experience light in micro manifestations or macro manifestations. What I mean by micro manifestations— I think a lot of us write these off as secular because Christians and non-Christians are experiencing micro manifestations of light every single day. It’s just really easy to write them off. What do I mean by that? You could call them “aha” moments, like moments where you assumed one thing and suddenly you realize, “woah, I was wrong” or “I couldn’t see that.” Let me give you a silly example.

Growing up, when I would hear the expression “you can’t have your cake and eat it too,” it bothered me. Who wants a cake they can eat? It’s a dumb expression. That was my assumption. But one day, and I don’t even remember exactly when it was, but somehow, I was enlightened and I suddenly realized, oh, the point is not whether or not you want a cake. The point is, you can’t consume your cake and keep your cake simultaneously. Yeah, I know that’s a dumb example, but have you had an example like that where something you thought, “that’s stupid,” “that’s ignorant,” you suddenly realize, oh, I hate that. That’s not the ignorant, this is the ignorant. And suddenly the lights go on. So, I want you—part of this exercise—I want all of you to think of an example of that. Something very mundane. Are you thinking of one? Something you assumed, thought you knew, didn’t realize, you didn’t know until, “aha!” If you can capture that feeling, what’s happening there is there’s a ray of light shining in. In some cases, it’s new information. Some cases, it’s just new perspective. Sometimes it’s a new season of life we’re going through to where suddenly we realize, whoa, that’s what that feels like. I never imagined it that way. And the beautiful thing is, the Lord of light—the source of light, the one who said from creation, “Let there be light” way before the sun was created—is constantly giving us these moments.

One of the differences between a believer and a nonbeliever is the nonbeliever won’t acknowledge the source of the “aha” moments. Whether it’s a math problem you just solved—which, hypothetically, I can imagine would feel really good—or a problem at work you figured out, or a relationship you saw reconcile, those “ahas” are magical moments and they all flow from the Creator of light. He shines brightness down on our world, often called common grace. It’s a grace with which atheists, Christians, everyone gets to benefit. But the purpose is that we might trace these beams of light back to the source. So, as you imagine, what is it like to have a micro enlightenment, like just one of these aha moments? Then I want us to take it up a notch.

What is it like to have a moment where you begin to see something that you hadn’t previously seen spiritually? One of the reasons this can be a challenging question is different ones of us grow up differently. For example, I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, so I can tell you the moment I learned I was a sinner in need of a Savior. It was like Saul on the road to Damascus: ray of light, I am desperate, cried out to Jesus, he changed my life. It was very dramatic. But see, many of you did not grow up that way. You grew up hearing the gospel as far back as you can remember, some of you. And so, your experience and experiences of “aha” moments may be different. They’re still very real. They may not be as cataclysmic, and you may tend to just write them off as part of your environment, but any true spiritual breakthrough is a miracle from the Lord of light and should not be presumed. So, I asked my wife, who grew up in a Christian home, “Tell me about one of your most prominent spiritual moments.” She didn’t even pause. She was just like *snap,* “Psalm 18. I was just coming out of panic attacks.” So, like several years of horrible darkness and she was living under this cloud like God was judging her. God was against her. And she was talking with an older lady mentor person and suddenly a light went on. As she was describing this just like a week ago, it was like it just happened yesterday, and it was many years ago because assumptions she had about God suddenly were blown away and she realized, God is not against me. He’s actually for me. And more than that, he is actually fighting against the enemy who is against me. What does that feel like to suddenly realize you have the most powerful person in the universe who’s actually fighting on your side, on your behalf? To give you an example, Psalm 18, this is some of where this light came from. Psalm 18:19,

“He brought me into a broad place. He rescued me because he delighted in me.”

What? He delighted in me? Why? Because he delighted in me. And suddenly this ray of light fills the room of darkness. So, I want to ask you, if you had any moments like that—totally different, maybe—but were things you assumed about God, about you, about other people… They’re not true, and God’s truth shines through in a very clear and powerful way.

Now, we have to be clear about the fact that these spiritual “aha” moments are not all positive. As a matter of fact, they can’t be. How do we know that? Look at verse 17. Jesus, beginning his ministry,

“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

What does repent mean? Repent! I’m calling it a negative moment. It’s actually quite positive, but it feels negative in the sense that I’m heading this way, I’m assuming this, but suddenly I’m convicted by the Spirit and called to this. That’s repentance. Nobody gets into the kingdom of heaven without repentance, so nobody follows Jesus without at some point— I’m not saying it’s all a cataclysmic, cleansing moment. It looks different for all of us. For some of us it’s a very quiet moment of recognizing, I am trusting in my own brain, in my own performance, in my own religiosity, in my own effort. And I turn from that, and I am turning to you, Jesus. If I am going to see anything clearly, if I am going to follow you, it is only by your grace through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. That’s repentance. And so, we all should be able to think of times. I can think of several just recently where the Spirit exposed thoughts of greed in my heart, lust in my heart, selfishness in my heart. And those are not, I call them negative “aha” moments, but they’re really quite positive because God is transforming us and rescuing us from darkness, calling us into his light. That’s not just out here. It’s in here. He starts in here, shining his light on our hearts so that we can see ourselves in him and others clearly.

So, I want to ask us all to think through this on a couple levels. One level is the Spirit right now is saying to some of us, you’re looking everywhere but the one source of light. Turn to me. Turn to me. That may be many of us. He is calling us to turn away from what will not lead to light. It could be an addiction, it could just be a distraction where our minds are always cluttered with garbage, bitterness, anger. Whatever it is, turn to the light. I believe the Spirit is calling many of us here right now to that.

Then for others of us, I think our “aha” moment may be that we haven’t had any “aha” moments in a long time. Do you follow me? Like we’re crusty. We’re borderline hard. I had an interesting talk about a month ago when we were at the Cross Conference. A college student came to me after one of the sessions. He asked me a great question. He said, what is it like for you to go to these sessions? I don’t remember the exact words, but it is this idea: what is it like for you to go to these sessions teaching worship as a pastor who knows what they’re teaching? I think his assumption was that when you’ve been pastoring a long time, you know more than I think we know, but it was a great question. You know a lot of what is being taught, how do you go and really receive what you might think you already know? Great question. I’ve thought a lot about that since then, thought about how the Word of God is living and active and so, we never come to the place where we stop having “aha” moments. Never. And if we ever do, it’s scary. If I, as a pastor, can sit under teaching and have the assumption, oh, I’ve taught that. I know that. Got that down. Hebrews says,

“exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest anyone be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin hardens us slowly over time, where we begin to assume, I got that. And so, I believe the Spirit is saying to a lot of us, Lord help me never assume I know. We talked a little bit about this in the Isaiah 40 series a year or two ago, what it’s like to daily be in awe. Like, Lord, I don’t want to lose that awe. I want to keep having “aha” moments. I want to be able to open your word, a passage I’ve studied for years, maybe taught for years, and I want to hear what you have for me in this moment. Are you with me?

I think this is big as we prepare to go into the Sermon on the Mount and hear some of these stunning words of Jesus. Are we ready to have spiritual “aha” moments? Or are we all crusted over figuring, I know this. Jesus said in John 9:41 after saying,

“I am the light of the world,”

he said to them, the religious leaders,

“If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

Wow. You can get to the place where you assume, I see, we see, you see, we all see. There’s nothing new. What we’re assuming is the Word of God is just words on a page, Spirit is done speaking, that Christianity is essentially this pool of knowledge and I already have it and so, I’m good to go. That is extremely dangerous. Proverbs 4:18 says,

“the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, it shines brighter and brighter until full day.”

That means the path of the righteous is like a sunrise. For many of us, we’re at a stage where the rays of light are beginning to shine and the Spirit is saying, stay with me. There’s more. And the sun keeps coming up. And it keeps coming up. And it gets brighter and brighter until full day. And that’s when we’re with Christ. Full day. We see as we are seen. We know as there is to know. And it’s not just a ray of light (like, I know something); it’s, Lord, I want to know all that you have for me to know. That’s not just an accumulation of knowledge. That is a transforming brightness. He shines on us, so we have some work to do now. If the Spirit is saying that to some of us who maybe right now are having our very first spiritual “aha” moment— The Spirit is saying, come to me. Stop looking to stuff and status for your brightness. Come to me. For others of us who have just grown accustomed, crusty, our prayer might be, Lord, soften my heart, open my eyes. It’s like what Paul said in Ephesians 1:18 when he prayed for the Ephesian believers, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints. That’s to believers, so let’s cry out to our Father.

Father, forgive us when we try to make our brains our light. We try to make our friends our light. We feel a brightness when we can figure something out, or when we are well thought of or well connected. Or money our light when we have enough saved and have enough to pay our bills and some leftover, then we are hopeful and feel bright. Or our health are bright. Lord, we tend to look for light in dark places. You are the Father of lights. You are the source of every good gift and every perfect gift that comes from you. You are inviting us now as we, this week and next week, prepare for this life-transforming journey through the sermon on the Mount, we are asking for you to be our light. The Lord is my light and my salvation. We have seen the past couple of weeks the desire our enemy has to deceive and to destroy. There is no one but you who can whisper and darkness tremble. There’s no one but you whose splendor outshines the sun. So, please speak, shine on us. And if that comes in the form of deep conviction. Let us receive that now. And if it comes in the form of deep comfort. You do what we need. Please provide what we need. And we’ll praise you. In Jesus name, amen.