Celebrating the Light (Christmas Eve 2025)

You know, ever since we've been here on Thanksgiving Eve, we begin our Christmas celebration. And while you come, the auditorium is dark on Sunday mornings. Some people like that and others don't like it.

In fact, I received an email this past week from a lady who was so upset that it was dark in here that she refuses to come back ever again. But you missed the symbolism of why it is dark. It won't be dark on Sunday because Christmas will have come and gone.

But the important thing is is that it's symbolic of the world that's engulfed in darkness. Ever since Genesis chapter 3, the world is eclipsed with the shadow of sin. And all of creation is steeped and entrapped in the snares of sin.

In fact, the world is completely and totally dark because of its spiritual blindness. The world is unable to see the glorious gospel of the Christ because they've been blinded by Satan himself. And therefore, the Bible describes sinners in this way.

In Proverbs chapter 2, Solomon says it this way, that sinners are those who leave the paths of righteousness to walk in the ways of darkness. In chapter four of Proverbs, Solomon says these words. He says the way of the wicked is like darkness.

They do not know over what they stumble. Man's mind is completely darkened to that which is true. And that's because of sin.

And so the solution was to send the light. And Christ himself, of course, is the light of the gospel. He says that he is the light of the world.

And he tells us that he enlightens every man that comes into the world. And therefore, our Lord is the solution to man's sinful state. And you would think that man in the throes of darkness would flock to the light.

They would embrace the light. They would, in the midst of all their stumbling around in their immorality and in their iniquity and in their idolatry, they would look for a way out. But man does not.

In fact, man cherishes his darkness. The Bible says in John chapter three, these words by our Lord, this is the judgment that the light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. Man in his sinful state loves to remain there.

He loves the darkness. Even though the light has come, even though the light has shone down upon us, man loves his sin. And yet there are those who have given their lives to Christ.

They've embraced the light. They enjoy the light of the gospel. And the Bible says that we've been rescued from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son.

He says that we once were children of the night, but now we're children of the light. We were children of darkness. Now we're children of the day.

In fact, the Bible says in Ephesians 5, verse number 8, we were formerly darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. Because of Christ, we are able to see the beauty of the gospel. And so as Christians, we celebrate the light.

We use this time of the year to accentuate that celebration. It's a celebration that's the last all throughout our lives, not just during a seasonal celebration. It's supposed to envelop us every single day of our lives.

And yet we take a moment during the Christmas season to focus in on Christ who is the light. So tonight, by way of a devotional, I want you to learn to celebrate the light with me and to be able to take it with you all throughout your life and to understand what it is that Christ wants us to celebrate. And we're gonna do that by looking at the characters in the Christmas story.

We're gonna look at nine specific characters that make up the Christmas narrative in scripture that all of them to some degree celebrated the light to give us the principles that will help us learn how we are to celebrate the light of the gospel. We're gonna begin where the gospel begins in Luke chapter 1 with the priest Zacharias. Luke begins at the beginning simply because the world is dark.

For 400 years, there's been nothing but silence. There's been no voice from heaven. There's been no angel that has spoken.

God has sent no prophet to Israel. The last thing that the prophet Malachi said was that the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And so for 400 years, people waited, but they waited in silence until one day the angel Gabriel broke the silence.

And so you have this priest performing his priestly duties in Luke chapter one in the temple in Jerusalem doing what he always does. And the angel Gabriel comes to him and speaks to him and tells him that his wife Elizabeth in her old age is gonna conceive, bear a son that will be a forerunner to the Messiah. But the problem is Zacharias doesn't believe in the certainty of the word that was spoken.

He doesn't believe in the reliability of the promises that have been given. And yet he's a priest. So the angel says, you will not be able to speak until after your son is born.

Some commentators will say that he was unable to speak and unable to hear. And probably that would be true simply because the word that is used is used of those in the scriptures who are both deaf and dumb. So it's possible that Zacharias was not just unable to speak as a priest, but he's unable to hear as well.

And so for nine months, Zacharias sat in silence. And the Lord had a purpose behind that. Because the very first principle that helps you understand how you celebrate the light is that you need to consider the prophecies of Christ.

Zacharias was a priest. He should know about the prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. But the Lord drove him to contemplate, drove him to concentrate on all the things that were said in the Old Testament, to get him to realize the importance of his son's birth, the forerunner to the Messiah.

And so he would think about things, maybe from Numbers chapter 24, which talked about how the star will rise out of Jacob with a scepter in his hand. He began to think about Isaiah chapter 9, Isaiah chapter 60, and Malachi 4, verse number 2, where the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. Now, why do we say that? Simply because after the son is born, what Zacharias says tells us what was on his mind when he speaks.

And so the Bible says in Luke chapter 1, verse number 77, that the Messiah, or the son, the forerunner to the Messiah, is to give to his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us. That's taken directly from Malachi 4, verse number 2. And then he says, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

That's taken from Isaiah chapter 9. And so we know that Isaiah would begin to understand more of what the prophecies were given because he doubted the certainty and the reliability of the promises that were given. And he was a priest.

He should have known them. And so the Lord drove him to consider the prophecies, to contemplate on those promises, to be able to concentrate once again because if you're gonna celebrate the light, you must know all there is about the coming of the star, the coming of the sunrise. That's why Christ says that he was the bright, or is the bright morning star.

That's why Peter says that when the day star rises in your heart, salvation has dawned. It's all about the rising of the sun, the brightness of the Christ child, the light of the world. So Zacharias teaches us that we need to consider the prophecies.

And then you go from Zacharias, you go to the angels. I'm sorry, to the shepherds. Let's go to the shepherds.

Because the shepherds teach us to embrace his deity. Embrace his deity. Remember, it's over 12 months later from Luke chapter 1 to Luke chapter 2.

John the Baptist is born. He comes, the Messiah is going to come. Ever since Zacharias received the promise that his wife would bear a son and the Messiah would be born after that, you have about a year between the two.

And so the glory of the Lord would shine all around the shepherd fields in Bethlehem. And the angel would say to them, for unto you this day in the city of David has been born a Savior who is Christ the Lord. In other words, who is born is important.

He is the Messiah. He is the Savior. And the shepherds would know about the God of Israel who was the only Savior.

And this Savior is the Lord. Now note, the glory of the Lord would shine all around them. And they knew from the book of Ezekiel that the glory of the Lord had departed from Jerusalem.

They knew that while they were in captivity in Babylon, Ezekiel had this vision of the glory of the Lord leaving the temple, moving out of the gates of Jerusalem, passing up over the Mount of Olives, out into the Judean wilderness because Ichabod had been written across the nation. The glory of the Lord has departed. That's what Ichabod means.

And so they were waiting for the glory of the Lord to come. At the very end of Ezekiel, the very last phrase in Ezekiel is Yahweh Shammah, the Lord is there. In other words, there is hope for Israel because the Lord will be there once again.

And so now all of a sudden, the glory of the Lord shines all around them. And now the shepherds know that the Lord is here. They know that the Lord is among them because the glory of the Lord is the presence of God manifested in brilliant light.

And he would shine all around them. And they would begin to realize that this Christ child is the Lord. He is God in the flesh.

This is the Messiah of Israel. And they would embrace his deity. And they would go with haste to see Mary in Bethlehem, to see Joseph in Bethlehem.

And they would go in haste to make known this statement that had been given to them because they wanted others to hear what they had heard. They embraced the Christ child. They embraced him as the son of God, son of man, son of David, Lord of the universe.

And when you wanna celebrate the light, it begins because you consider his prophecy and then you embrace his deity. And then number three, you long for his mercy. And that's where Anna the prophetess comes in.

Anna the prophetess, she was there when Simeon would take the Christ child into his arms. In Luke chapter 2, she was one who was looking for the consolation of Israel. And that word look means there's a longing in her heart.

Remember, she had been a widow for 84 years. And she had spent all of her time in the temple praying and fasting and talking to people, because she was a prophetess, about the arrival of the Messiah. And when Simeon would take in his arms the Christ-child, Anna was there.

And she would begin to speak more and more about the mercy of God upon them. Mary, when she spoke, spoke about how God's mercy was from generation to generation. When Zachariah spoke, he talked about the tender mercies of God.

You see, God gives mercy to those who are miserable. And those who are in darkness are in absolute misery. But the light had come.

And so to celebrate the light, once you consider the prophecy concerning the Messiah, and you embrace his deity, you realize who he is, you long for his mercy. Because his mercies are new every morning. And it's because of his mercies that we are not consumed.

And so you move to principle number four. And the fourth principle is where Mary, the mother of the Messiah, comes in. And she exalts his majesty.

And if you're with us on Sunday, we talked about how Mary would, with her soul and with all of her heart, would rejoice in God, her savior. Because her whole song is a song of exaltation where she would exalt the majesty of the Messiah, knowing in full well all that God had done for her. And she would begin to consider all the promises that had been given.

And she would accentuate the attributes of her God by talking about his mightiness and talking about his holiness and talking about his mercy. And she would recognize that God had shown her mercy in her humble state, and she would exalt the Lord. And when you celebrate the light, you wanna lift up the majesty of Christ.

When you celebrate the light, you wanna lift him way above yourself because that's what believers do. They wanna exalt the name of Christ. They wanna lift his name above their name, above everyone else's name, above everything else in their lives because Christ is preeminent.

And those who celebrate the light, they consider the prophecies. And then they embrace his deity, long for his mercy, they exalt his majesty. And number four, those who celebrate the light, they bow to his authority.

And there's a silent character pretty much throughout the Christmas story. We don't talk much about him. His name is Joseph.

But Joseph is the classic example of one who bows to the authority of God in his life. That's how he would celebrate the light. The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter 1 that he wanted to divorce Mary.

He wanted to put her away secretly. Why? Because even Mary could not convince Joseph that she had not been with another man. And so the angel Gabriel came to Joseph.

And the Bible says these words in the book of Matthew. It says these words. Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins.

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus.

As soon as he awoke from his dream, he immediately bowed to the authority of God in his life. And then as you read on in the story, it says, verse number 13, it says, now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord, that is the Magi, appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, get up, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt.

Again, he bowed immediately to the authority of God in his life. It wasn't like, you know what, I'll wait till the morning to go. No, I'll wait till it stops raining to go.

No, he obeyed immediately. He bowed to the authority of God in his life. And then you read on in the story.

After Herod dies, it says, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up, take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. He didn't say, you know what, I like it in Egypt.

You move me here, it's great here. It's warmer down south. The sun is brighter down here.

We just bought a house in Egypt. We don't wanna leave now. No, he got up and went right back to the land of Israel.

Why? Because if you're gonna celebrate the light, you need to bow to the authority of God in your life. You can't say you celebrate the light and then argue with God. You can't say you celebrate the light and debate with God.

No, when God says move, you move. When God says you do this, you do that. When God says you are to be the leader of your family, gentlemen, you lead your family.

Think about Joseph. He was the leader of Mary, the mother of the Messiah. She had to follow Joseph's lead.

So Joseph, in order to be the effective leader of his family, had to bow to the authority of God in his life, and the same is true for you and me. If you wanna celebrate the light, you need to first of all consider, contemplate, concentrate on the prophecy concerning the Messiah. And then you need to embrace his deity.

This is the enfleshment of God. This is the incarnation of the Son, God coming down to man. And then you long for his mercy, as Anna did as she was longing for the redemption of Jerusalem.

You exalt his majesty. You bow to his authority. And next, in order to celebrate the light, you need to radiate his glory.

When the angels came, and the glory of the Lord would shine all around, the heavenly host would say, glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth for those whom God, who truly fear the Lord. And these were the people who gave glory to God.

Angels never missed an opportunity to put God on display. Angels never missed the opportunity to glorify the name of their God. And when you celebrate the light, you always radiate with the glory of God.

That's why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, you do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God must be glorified in our bodies.

That's why Paul says in Ephesians chapter 3, verse number 21, let there be glory in the church. Why? Because we are the ones who are to reflect the radiant glory of our Redeemer in all that we say, in all that we do. Why? Because that's what the angels did.

And they were created perfect. And they always magnify and glorify the name of Christ. And if you wanna celebrate the light, then you radiate with his glory.

And then, if you wanna celebrate the light, you must adore his identity. And this is where the magi come in. Because the magi were led by this star.

And the star really, truly is not a normal star. It was a supernatural star. It was the numbers 24:17 star. It was the glory of the Lord. It was the presence of God manifested in brilliant light that took them from one place to another. And they followed that star until they came, Matthew 2 says, to a house.

And there was the child, not a baby, but there was the child, right? And therefore, they would fall down, they would worship him, and they would give him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Why? Because they understood his identity. They worshiped his identity.

They gave him gold because he was a king. They celebrated his royalty. They gave him frankincense because they celebrated his deity. Why? Because frankincense was an incense offered only to God. And then they gave him myrrh because they celebrated his humanity. Myrrh was that which was used to embalm bodies and wrap bodies that were going to die.

They understood the identity of the Messiah. They knew he was the king. They knew he was God in the flesh.

They knew that he had come to die. And in their worship of God, they adored his identity. They adored him for who he was.

And if you want to celebrate the light, you adore the identity of the Christ child who is the light of the world. And then you come to Simeon. And Simeon would celebrate the light when he would trust in his sovereignty.

Because Simeon was told by the Lord that he would not die until he saw the Lord's Messiah. Remember, it's the Lord's Messiah. Christ is not Israel's Messiah.

He's not your Messiah. He's not my Messiah. He is God's Messiah.

And so the Bible tells us that Simeon was given this promise, that he would not die until he saw the Lord's Messiah. Now, how long it was before he was told that and he actually embraced the Christ child, we don't know. But he had to trust in God's sovereign plan for his life.

He had to rely upon what God was gonna do in his life, trusting the sovereign purposes of God so when he went to the temple, he would wait and trust and depend upon God leading the Christ child to him. So here comes Mary and Joseph and they had the Christ child. How did Simeon know that Mary and Joseph held the Christ child? Did he have a halo around his head so that when he came in, there was this glow about him? No.

Did Mary and Joseph have a glow about them? No. How did Simeon know? Every day he would go to the temple, every day he would wait, every day he knew that he was going to live until he saw the Lord's Christ and then he could die after that. And so he would tell everybody, I'm not dying until I see the Messiah.

And so people go to the temple, hey, Simeon's still here. He's still alive. The Messiah has not come yet.

But whenever Simeon would eventually die, you would think that the people who heard and saw him would know that the Messiah had arrived because he lived and trusted in the sovereignty of God. So the Bible tells us in Luke's gospel, these words when he takes the Christ child in his arms, he says, now Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light, a revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

When you celebrate the light, you truly consider, you truly contemplate the prophecies surrounding the Messiah. When you do that, you embrace his deity. You long for his mercy.

You exalt his majesty. And then you bow to his authority. You radiate with his glory.

And you adore his identity. You trust his sovereignty. And then the last thing you do is you explain his story.

And every one of them were involved in explaining the story, whether it was Anna, whether it was the shepherds, whether it was the angels, whether it was Simeon, all of them were involved in some way in explaining to other people the excellencies the extraordinary acts of God. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2, verse number nine, that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood designed to declare the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And when you've been called into the light, you celebrate the light.

And one of the ways you truly celebrate the light is that you just explain the story. You tell others about the extraordinary acts, the excellencies of God, the heroic acts of God. You want them to know that Christmas is all about the light that came into the world and that we truly celebrate the light of the gospel of Christ because he is the author of the gospel.

He is the good news that brings great joy. And that's why we as believers live in the realm of joy. That's why we rejoice, is because we understand the light has dawned.

We understand the sunrise from on high has come down to us and we embrace the light. Tonight as we close our time, what I wanna do is have you take the candle that you have in your possession this evening. And what I'm going to do is I'm gonna light my candle with the candle that's right there.

And as the men come down this morning, or this afternoon, excuse me, or this evening, I guess it's nighttime now, that they're gonna come down here. I'm gonna light their candles and then they're gonna walk down the aisles and light each person on the end of the pew and then you will light the person on the inside of you. And we're gonna sing a song, a very familiar song called Silent Night.

And as we light the candles, we're gonna sing this song together because it's gonna be a reminder to every one of us that we are the light of the world. Christ, who is the light, indwells us. That makes us children of the light.

And we should shine bright for Christ, not just at Christmas, but all throughout our lives. And may this be a symbolic gesture in all of our lives to remind us that the light has come. And if you've embraced that light, if you've given your life to Christ, you now become the light of the world.

And you shine so others might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.