And the evening and the morning were the eighth day. We should not be surprised at the pattern of darkness and then light, a pattern which we see not only in the creation of the world, but also in the re-creation of all things. And the beginning of the re-creation of all things is what we find in the Christmas story. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star”(Rev. 22:16).
A number of the events of the first Christmas occurred at night. The angels announced the good news to the shepherds as they watched their flocks by night (Luke 2:18). The wise men followed the star to Jerusalem, and then to Bethlehem, which meant of course that they were observing the star at night (Matt. 2:9). Joseph fled to Egypt with Mary and Jesus, and he did so at night (Matt. 2:14). And one of the most obvious things about Christmas, when we step back and look at it, is that the first Christmas happened in the dark night of the world. But what is God’s way? Evening, then morning, the eighth day.
Hear the prophetic word, spoken by Zecharias, father of John the Baptist. Speaking to his infant son, Zecharias said, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79). John the Baptist was prophet of the Most High. He was the prophet of the coming dayspring. He was the prophet of the one who would bring light to those who dwelt in darkness, and that would be all of us. From the fall of our father Adam into darkness to the birth of our second father, Christ, the world was wrapped in that darkness, a darkness that could not be removed. The enchantment was heavy. Lucy was distressed in Narnia when she found out it was “always winter, and never Christmas.” But our world was in far worse condition. Because of our sin, it was always Christmas Eve and never Christmas. But the dayspring finally arrived, two thousand years ago, it arrived. Christmas morning finally came, and the darkness fled.
Not surprisingly, our Christmas carols have picked up on this theme—”it came upon a midnight clear,” or “wake, awake, for night is flying,” or “how lovely shines the morning star,” or “as the Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day, that the pow’rs of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away,” or “amid the cold of winter when half-spent was the night,” or “disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight.” The darkness that surrounded the physical birth of Jesus was a striking metaphor for the spiritual condition of the entire world. And God, through the gospel, has brought us out of darkness, and into His marvelous light.
But we must not be simplistic. When the sun rises in the morning, it does not light the world the way a light comes on in a room when you flip the switch. The sun rises slowly. First you do not know if anything has happened or not. It may be just as dark as it was a moment ago, but maybe not. And some time later, you notice that the eastern sky is not exactly as dark as it was. There is some kind of light there. The stars that have been visible all night begin to disappear quietly. Soon there is just one left—the morning star, the planet Venus, the last reminder. This is the final indication that day is coming. The next event is for the sun to actually rise, for the day to come.
So Christ was born at night, and His arrival in Bethlehem was the arrival of the morning star. Note John’s language from the book of Revelation again. Christ is the root and offspring of David and He is the morning star. Because he was the root and offspring of David, He was born in the city of David, and He was born there in that city at night. But He was not just born at night—He was born in the very last portion of that night. He was born at night, but there wasn’t very much of it left. It was still dark, but not for long.
Our Lord’s birth was therefore the arrival of the morning star. It is important for us to allow Scripture to tell us what time it is. This is because if you did not already know, you could not tell the difference between a pre-dawn darkness and a twilight gloaming. Is the sun going down or coming up? And if you do not let Scripture instruct you on the difference between sinking twilight and pre-dawn glory, you might wind up the kind of person who wanders around in the bright mid-morning of the gospel’s triumph in the world, all while lamenting the prevailing darkness.
How are we to understand Christ as the morning star? Christ Himself is the Word of God, and yet you have your Bibles. You have the Word of God in Your hands. Christ Himself is the day star, the morning star, and yet Peter tells us that to take heed to Scripture is to have the day star arise in our hearts. This is how he puts it.
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:19-21).
Jesus Christ is the light of the world. In the heart of every converted person, He is the light within, the day star in the heart. This is clear and obvious enough, and yet reminders of this truth are always helpful. But there is another truth, one that needs to be preached constantly, for another thousand years at least. Whether men are converted or not, blind or not, and whether the day star has risen in their individual hearts or not, it remains the case that Jesus is the day star of the world, and the rising sun of the entire world.
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness [overcame] it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:4-9, emphasis mine).
The darkness cannot conquer the light. Once the light is present, there is not even a serious conflict. When the sun rose, we did not hear the sounds of scuffling before the darkness abandoned the field, and ran. We did not hear the clash of thousands of swords, or the turmoil brought by gigantic armies in collision. The sun rose, and that was it.
We therefore ought not to think that the world is still dark, and that when men are converted, they each become a little lamp, and if enough of them get converted, they will be able to form a consortium and pool their lamps to try to make a sun. The vision of the coming noontime glory does not depend at all on us trying to get some momentum up. The glory that is mounting into the sky does not depend upon us flicking our lighters, and cupping our hands around our guttering candles. The sun has risen, and it will continue to do what rising suns do. This sun will lighten the world, as it has already been doing, and the name of the Lord will be praised, from the east to the west.
Of course, individual responses to this declared word are individually important, but it is just as important to note what the response is to. The sun has risen. Christ has come. He is the king. The light covers the world. A return to heathenish midnight is a total and complete impossibility. Those who walk in darkness now are doing so in a world suffused with light. Those who walk in darkness are not doing what their unconverted ancestors were doing—walking in darkness in a dark world. They are walking in darkness when all around them is shining with golden light. This is hard to do—you have to remain blind, or hide yourself away in root cellars. There are ways to stay out of the sunlight, but they are difficult to accomplish. Not only so, but as the day passes, as this day increases and grows, as Christ approach His zenith, they will get increasingly difficult, and, at the last, impossible. Every man will have the experience that Saul had outside Damascus—confronted with a Christ brighter than the noonday sun (Acts 26:13).
“Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes” (1 John 1:8-11).
So the task of evangelism, now that Christ has risen, is not so much to run around at night, poking our flashlights into corners and cellars, and under beds. Rather, the task of evangelism is more like pulling back the curtains, and dragging our muttering friends out onto the front porch. “But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5: 13-14). Get out of that bed! Come out! Come outside! Christ will shine on you!
So the secularists don’t like the first Christmas, and it is certainly understandable why they don’t like the subsequent ones. But what are they going to do? Pass a law? This would be worse than King Canute’s acted out parable for his flattering courtiers when he commanded the tide not to come in—this would be Congress passing a law commanding the sun not to shine on any nations where their peculiar interpretation of the First Amendment was in effect. “After all, we have a wall of separation between the sun and whatever it is that we are doing. We must insist on strict separation of sun and state. And if things seem to be getting a little dark around here, we will just ask the president to sign an executive order, requiring more light. But no sun. Separation of sun and state.” And Christians are worried about these people?
Such laws, such foolish resistance, can cause short-term grief. Think again of Herod and the little boys he slaughtered at the first Christmas. But think also about how ineffectual it all was. Did he stop the morning star from actually rising? Did he stop the day from actually coming? Did he in any way preserve his reign, or the reign of others like him? Are not those slaughtered boys now with God, rejoicing in His triumph over every form of darkness?
In the same way, we must know that the message of Christmas is not that we have to persuade anybody of anything in order to get the sun to rise. The message is far more of a straight-forward good news declaration than it is argumentation that is trying to make a sale.
We are children of the light, but we are children of the light that has risen. The darkness of this world is no more. He came to make His blessings flow—light among those blessings—far as the curse is found. We were a sinful people, but Christ came to earth and saved us from our sins. We lived in darkness, but those who lived in darkness have seen a great light. The light was so great that it even came to Galilee of the Gentiles, and has been coming to every Gentile nation and tribe ever since. Christ has risen, you Christians rejoice! Christ has ascended high in the eastern sky, you Christians lift up your heads! This is the gospel—Christ conceived, Christ born, Christ living, Christ dying, and Christ coming back from the darkness of death. This is the gospel—Jesu, spare us, Jesu forgive us, Jesu defend us, and Jesu, shine upon us.
Jesu, joy of man’s desiring, we pray to Your Father now, and we do so in Your powerful and gracious name, and in the power of Your Holy Spirit. We thank You for shining on this poor world, for bringing light to every man, and for giving us words that we can pray to our Father, saying . . . Our Father . . .