{"id":18721,"date":"2017-12-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/jesus-the-light-of-the-world\/"},"modified":"2017-12-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T06:00:00","slug":"jesus-the-light-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/jesus-the-light-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus: The Light of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[441],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18721","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-christmas-eve-services","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Jesus: The Light of the World","sermon_date":"20171224","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":"","sermon_mp3":5273,"sermon_id":"1224171930561","series_or_event":441,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"8:12","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nJesus: The Light of the World\n\nChristmas Message\n\n12-24-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John 8:12\n\nI thought I\u2019d start off with a joke.\u00a0 What did Adam say the day before Christmas?\u00a0 He said, \u201cIt\u2019s Christmas, Eve.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 I know\u2026. You know who you can blame that joke on, right?\u00a0 What member of my family, and it\u2019s not my daughter.\n\nBut you know, when we talk about jokes the world system kind of think that the joke is on us.\u00a0 First of all, we\u2019re gathered here to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We celebrate it Dec 25th<\/sup> and our own scholars can\u2019t even agree when Jesus was born.\u00a0 I was reading one scholar and he said in his book Jesus was born December 5th<\/sup> 4BC.\u00a0 Another one said no, Jesus was born January 4th<\/sup>, 5BC.\u00a0 Another one said no, Jesus was born September 24th<\/sup>2BC.\u00a0 So who\u2019s right?\u00a0 I\u2019m not entirely sure that it matters who\u2019s right, the important thing is that Jesus was born.\n\nBut it is interesting to think about why is it that we have selected December 25th<\/sup> to commemorate the birthdate of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And it really doesn\u2019t have much to do with when Jesus was born; it has more to do with the companion holiday that can be documented historically, something called the Feast of Lights.\u00a0 And I wanted to talk a little bit this evening about the Feast of Lights because the Feast of Lights explains the background of so many things that Jesus spoke of.\n\nThe Feast of Lights can be documented as taking place in the Jewish month of Kislev, the 25th<\/sup>, which sort of overplays our month of December.\u00a0 So the Feast of Lights basically takes place either early December of mid December and so we have sort of decided that we\u2019re going to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ that same time period.\n\nBut what is the Feast of Lights exactly?\u00a0 Most Christians know almost nothing about it and yet it\u2019s the background for the Christmas season.\u00a0 It\u2019s really the background for our candle lighting service.\u00a0 In a few minutes this whole room is going to be lit with candles.\u00a0 So let\u2019s spend just a couple of minutes learning a little bit, if we could, about the Feast of Lights.\n\nSome of you already know a lot about it because we\u2019ve been teaching the Book of Daniel on Sunday mornings.\u00a0 We were in Daniel 8, we spent a lot of time talking about the Feast of Lights and some of you may be saying well I\u2019m glad I missed that.\u00a0 Well, cheer up, we\u2019re hitting Daniel 11 which is also about the Feast of Lights.\u00a0 So apparently the Holy Spirit wants us to know something about this. It\u2019s very prominent in the Book of Daniel.\n\nBut in what we would call the intertestamental period, that\u2019s the period between the two testaments, the prophet Malachi, I used to think the prophet\u2019s name was Ma-lach-ee, the first Italian.\u00a0 But it\u2019s actually Malachi; he finishes his book and then the Gospel of Matthew starts and there\u2019s a window in there of about 400 years.\u00a0 And some people refer to it as the silent years but what you discover is it was silent in the sense that no new books of the Bible were being written at that time.\u00a0 No new revelation from God, but it was not silent, God was fulfilling prophecies of the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Daniel and He was setting the stage for the coming of Jesus Christ that we read about in the New Testament.\n\nAnd there was a group of people that got control of the land of Israel during that time period, about 171 B.C. roughly, and they are called the Seleucid Dynasty.\u00a0 From the Seleucid Dynasty there arose a very wicked ruler that the Holy Spirit spends a lot of time revealing to us because he\u2019s sort of a type, if you will, a prefigurement of the coming antichrist.\u00a0 His name is Antiochus Epiphanes which basically means God manifest.\u00a0 So no ego problem there, right, in that name.\n\nAnd he basically brought in something called Hellenism where he wanted to create a monolithic Greek culture.\u00a0 The problem is the tiny nation of Israel stood in his way because they had their own culture, they had their own language, they had their own religion and so isn\u2019t it interesting that Israel is always in the way of people, kind of like how it is today.\u00a0 Today the United Nations gets together and votes and their latest vote and what are they voting against?\u00a0 They\u2019re voting against Israel.\u00a0 Israel, by the design of God, has always been sort of viewed as a hindrance to world progress.\n\nAnd so this man, Antiochus, was infuriated with the Jews because they were in his way of building his new world order.\u00a0 So he basically, during that intertestamental time period, beginning around 171, it stretches really to about 167 is when it got really bad, is he outlawed Judaism.\u00a0 He told the Jews you can\u2019t practice circumcision any more.\u00a0 We know that Jewish babies are circumcised, Genesis 17, on the eighth day.\u00a0 He outlawed that.\u00a0 As you know the Jews can\u2019t eat pork so he humiliated the Jews by bringing a pig and sacrificing it in their temple.\u00a0 He set up a pagan image (in the temple) of Zeus.\u00a0 And the Holy Spirit uses this as sort of a foreshadowing of what the future antichrist will do.\u00a0 As Solomon said, what has been will be again.\u00a0 [Ecclesiastes 1:9, \u201cThat which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.\u201d]\n\nAnd sort of to make a long story short, since I told you I\u2019d only talk for ten minutes, is there arose sort of a guerilla warfare movement within the nation of Israel.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the Maccabean Revolt, led by a man named Judas Maccabaeus, whose name means the hammer.\u00a0 And the only reason we know about this Maccabean revolt is the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees, which we as Protestants don\u2019t accept as inspired, yet they reveal very good history, sort of like reading Josephus<\/em>, and we see reading those books a lot about the Maccabean Revolt, how the Jews waged guerilla warfare against this man, Antiochus Epiphanes, and they were actually successful, although greatly outnumbered in liberating the temple.\n\nAnd this is something that God does for the nation of Israel over and over again.\u00a0 No matter what war they\u2019re in they\u2019re outnumbered and somehow they come out the winner.\u00a0 In modern times this happened in their War of Independence, 1948 in what\u2019s called The Six Day War, 1967, the Yom Kippur War, 1973, these are all wars that were basically self-defensive by the nation of Israel, and\u00a0 yet nobody bet on the Israelis in those wars. And\u00a0 yet look at today; there is today in our day the sovereign functioning nation of Israel.\n\nAnd so it was sort of like this in the days of the Maccabees; the Maccabees should have never won.\u00a0 And yet the Maccabees were successful in removing the Seleucids and Antiochus\u2019 diabolical reign from the temple and this happened on Kislev 25, 164 B.C.\u00a0 So from about 167-164 is three years of warfare and the temple is finally liberated from all of this desecration about 164 B.C.\u00a0 And this revolt and victory is actually predicted by Daniel, the prophet.\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 11:32 makes this prediction about 400 years in advance.\u00a0 It says, \u201cbut the people who know their God\u201d in the midst of this desecration by Antiochus, \u201c\u2026but the people who know their God will display strength and take action.\u201d\n\nThe greatest, most effective vessels of God in world history are people, first of all that know God, \u00a0if you don\u2019t know God you can\u2019t live for God and I\u2019m going to give you an opportunity in just a minute, if you\u2019re here today as an unbeliever to get to know God, to enter into a personal relationship with God.\u00a0 And so this victory happened Kislev 25th<\/sup>, 164 B.C.\n\nAnd there is something in Judaism called the Menorah, you\u2019ve seen that haven\u2019t you?\u00a0 It\u2019s got the giant candlestick in the middle and four candlesticks on each side, and according to Jewish tradition in order to rededicate the temple the Menorah had to burn for eight days.\u00a0 The problem with that is the Greeks had been in control of the temple for all those years and they had so desecrated it that there wasn\u2019t enough oil, there was only enough oil for one day.\u00a0 So the nation of Israel said well, we need to be obedient to God, we need to be obedient to our traditions, so they lit the Menorah anyway and according to tradition guess what happened?\u00a0 God did a miracle!\u00a0 Even though there was one day supply of oil the Menorah miraculously burned for eight days.\n\nAnd all of this furnishes the background for what we call the Feast of Lights.\u00a0 And this year around this time the Jewish people have a celebration where they have the lighting of the candles for eight days.\u00a0 And it\u2019s basically commemorating what God did for them in the reign of Antiochus, the overthrow of the Seleucids, the Maccabean Revolt, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 And this became known as the Feast of Dedication.\u00a0 Why is it called Dedication?\u00a0 Because it was in this time period that the temple was rededicated away from service to an antichrist like figure to service to God.\u00a0 So it\u2019s known as Dedication, Feast of Lights.\u00a0 It\u2019s also known as what Jewish name?\u00a0 Hanukah.\n\nAnd you say well, I thought this was a Protestant Church I was in here, what are you going into all this Jewish stuff for?\u00a0 It is interesting that when you go into the New Testament Jesus Himself celebrated this feast.\u00a0 John 10:22-23 says this: \u201cAt that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; [23] it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.\u201d Speaking of Solomon\u2019s temple.\u00a0 So the Feast of Lights or Hanukkah is one of the two feasts added alongside the seven Jewish feasts that are mentioned in the Law of Moses, Leviticus 23, seven feasts total.\u00a0\u00a0 Leviticus 23,\u00a0 things that you know: Pentecost, Booths and so forth.\u00a0\u00a0 [The Feast of Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of Firstfruits, The Feast of Pentecost, The Feast of Trumpets, The Feast of Atonement, The Feast of Tabernacles.]\n\nSo to that calendar was added Hanukkah because of this event, this miracle that God did.\u00a0 And then one other feast was added during the time of Esther.\u00a0 Anybody know the name of it?\u00a0 Purim, which means lots, the \u201cim\u201d ending in Hebrew means plurality., \u201clots.\u201d\u00a0 And that was celebrating how God once again did a miracle on behalf of the Jewish people and rescued the Jewish people from the wicked plot of Haman, the Persian, to wipe out Israel.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that when you look at all this history all of these things are reoccurring in our own day.\u00a0 Persia, the modern day Persia is Iran, and the former leader of Iran, Ahmadinejad<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 <\/strong>How do you say Ahmadinejad?\u00a0 Just say genocide really fast and it sounds like Ahmadinejad.\u00a0 He would over and over again say he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. In fact, he did his doctoral dissertation on denying the holocaust.\u00a0 And we need to understand that there\u2019s a movement today\u00a0 to pretend like the holocaust never happened.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the holocaust gives world sympathy to Israel and what better way to remove that sympathy than to deny the holocaust ever happened.\n\nBut anyway, these recurring cyclical things is really what the Feast of Lights is about and it\u2019s what the Jews celebrate.\u00a0 And it\u2019s what Jesus was celebrating.\u00a0 \u00a0The nation of Israel, at that time, got the true light of God instead of the false light, the fake light\u2026 you know how today we talk about fake news, there was a fake light in this man, Antiochus Epiphanes, whose name means God manifest.\u00a0 The Jews rejected that and they wanted the temple rededicated for God\u2019s service.\n\nAnd when you understand this background then all of a sudden the teachings of Christ start to make sense. For example, Jesus, in John 8:12 says, \u201cI am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus entered history about 150 years or so after these events happened, these ideas were fresh in the Jewish mind and when He said I am the light of the world it was a phrase that was pregnant with meaning.\n\nJohn 1:9, of Jesus, says, \u201cThere was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.\u201d\u00a0 And just as the Jews needed that true Light in their day how desperately today the human race needs the Light of Christ.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because when our forbearers sinned in Eden the light went out in the human race.\u00a0 Genesis 2:17 says this, God warned our forbearers, Adam and Eve, He says, \u201cbut from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely\u201d what? \u201cdie.\u201d\u00a0 Physical death didn\u2019t happen that split second; the process of physical death started, but they died spiritually, the light went out.\n\nA human being basically has three parts, body, soul, spirit.\u00a0 And when they rejected God in Eden the spiritual part of them died.\u00a0 The spiritual ability to relate to God died.\u00a0 The capacity to think the way God would have us to think died.\u00a0 And that has haunted the human race ever since.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Book of Ephesians, chapter 2 and verse 1 says, \u201cAnd you were dead in your trespasses and sins.\u201d\u00a0 The idea here is walking dead, that\u2019s what the human race is without the light of Christ.\n\nIsaiah 59:1-2 says, \u201cBehold, the LORD\u2019S hand is not so short that it cannot save;\u00a0 nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear.\u00a0 [2] But your iniquities have made a separation\u201d that\u2019s what death is, a separation, \u201chave made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.\u201d\u00a0 The greatest blight today on the human race is not just physical death; it\u2019s spiritual death.\u00a0 We are born into the world without the light of God.\u00a0 And the whole program of the cross and the resurrection of Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is that that light might come back on, just as the light came on in the temple there in the days of Antiochus, as the temple was liberated from Seleucid\u2019s reign, Seleucid control.\n\nAnd that\u2019s really what our church is all about; it\u2019s about the promotion and the proclamation of the light going on in people.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus Christ came into the world to do by removing the sin barrier.\u00a0 And simply by exercising faith alone in Christ alone the Menorah comes on in human being.\u00a0 And it\u2019s one of our greatest concerns that people can come to our church and participate in our activities and\u00a0 yet never have the spiritual light turned on because they never got saved; they never fulfilled God\u2019s condition of faith alone in Christ alone.\n\nIt\u2019s a little bit personal to me because I spent the first 16 years of my life in a church, being very religious and yet the light wasn\u2019t on, I wasn\u2019t saved.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t what the Bible calls regenerated.\u00a0 And so if the Holy Spirit is doing something, if He\u2019s knocking, whatever term you want to use, if he\u2019s convicting, what He is after is the light coming on.\u00a0 He wants the light to come on and He wants to take your temple, your body, which has been the domain of Satan and He wants the light to come on just like the Menorah came on in the intertestamental time period.\u00a0 And just as that temple was rededicated He wants your body to be dedicated to Him for His service.\n\nAnd as I\u2019m talking you can receive the gift of the Light simply by trusting in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something you have to raise a hand to do, join a church to do, walk an aisle to do, it\u2019s really a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you trust in Him and if\u00a0 you trust in Him and what He has done for you through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead and His bridging of the sin barrier between God and man, He promises\u00a0 you a gift, many gifts.\u00a0 But one of those gifts is the Holy Spirit coming into your temple,\u00a0 your body.\u00a0 The light comes on,\u00a0 you become alive in all three areas that God had Adam and Eve in before the fall.\u00a0 They were alive physically; they were alive at the soulish level and they were alive spiritually.\u00a0\u00a0 The spiritual light went out and when a person trusts Christ the spiritual light comes on.\n\nBeyond that, following up with this theme of light, and I\u2019m almost finished, Jesus made this statement in the Sermon on the Mount.\u00a0 He said to His disciples, [Matthew 5:14]\u00a0 \u201cYou are the light of the world.\u00a0 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, [15] nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. [16] Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.\u201d\n\nAnd what are these Jews, these Hebrews that He\u2019s talking to thinking of?\u00a0 They\u2019re thinking of the light that went on, the Menorah, through the liberation of the temple from Seleucid\u2019s rule.\u00a0 And so the plan and program of God is not just for people to get saved; that\u2019s wonderful, that keeps you out of hell (which is a good thing, amen!)\u00a0 But now God wants to use\u00a0 YOU as His ambassador of light to a world that is sick and it\u2019s sinful and it\u2019s war torn and whatever difficult situation you\u2019re in He wants to give you a ministry, whether it\u2019s at your church, your job, your family, and He wants to use you as His ambassador of light.\n\nAnd some of you are saying to yourselves, well, you know, Andy,\u00a0 you really don\u2019t know the year that I\u2019ve just had, 2017, I am just so tired.\u00a0 You know, I\u2019ve been trying to life for God but I am just fatigued and I am just wiped out.\u00a0 But let\u2019s go back for a minute to the oil.\u00a0 The light doesn\u2019t burn by itself; the light only has power when the oil is empowering the flame.\u00a0 God, in the days of the Maccabees did a tremendous job, did He not, providing miraculously oil for the light to burn.\u00a0 And God wants to give you extra oil tonight, for your life, for your struggles, for your ministry.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t expect\u00a0 you to let your light shine through your own power.\u00a0 He wants to empower you!\u00a0 And in the Bible oil is referred to as what?\u00a0 Anybody know?\u00a0 The Holy Spirit.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is analogized over and over again to oil.\u00a0 Isaiah 61:1 says, \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners;\u201d\u00a0 notice that Jesus says \u201cthe LORD has anointed me\u201d oil, empowerment for His mission.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just Christ that was empowered for His mission; that Holy Spirit is available to us as well.\n\n1 John 2:20 says, \u201cBut you have an anointing\u201d speaking of oil, \u201cfrom the Holy One, and you all know.\u201d\u00a0 So really my message tonight is really two-fold: if you\u2019re here and you\u2019re unsaved you need the light to go on.\u00a0 That\u2019s the greatest need you have and that can happen simply by trusting in Christ and Christ alone where you\u2019re seated.\n\nBut my second message, using this background of Hanukah, the Feast of Lights, is to remember that as you move into 2018 I know some of you are going through really severe struggles; I see the prayer requests.\u00a0 But the Lord wants you to understand that you\u2019re not to walk through those things on\u00a0 your own strength.\u00a0 You\u2019re not to walk through those things in\u00a0 your own power.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re not to do your ministry to your own ingenuity.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re to rely, by faith, moment by moment, in the oil of the Holy Spirit so that your light can shine.\u00a0 And it\u2019s just a matter of facing life and saying, you know Lord, I can\u2019t handle this\u2014and the Lord sweetly says you\u2019re right, you can\u2019t, but I can do it through you.\n\nSo if you\u2019re unsaved\u00a0 trust in Christ and get saved so the light can go on.\u00a0 If you are saved and you\u2019re struggling this year try to do something different than what you did in 2017; try to rest in the provision of God understanding that God doesn\u2019t expect you to have a ministry and fight life\u2019s battles through your power as the anointing of the Holy Spirit\u00a0 is available.\n\nSo those are some things that I\u2019d like for us to keep in mind as we now light our candles.\u00a0 So music team or Chris or one of the two is going to come up and we\u2019re going to sing Silent Night and before the we start singing Silent Night we\u2019re going to have Earl Chandler\u2026 now Earl, don\u2019t burn the church down.\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 He\u2019s going to light the light and then he\u2019s going to pass it off to the next person, then you get your candle lit and pass if off to the next person and by the time we\u2019re finished it will be a beautiful time because this whole room will be filled with light and we can remember what the Light is all about.\u00a0 We also have people from the back working their way in with candle lighting as well.\u00a0\u00a0 And then once we conclude I\u2019ll come back with a few announcements and a closing prayer.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t