Messiah Lutheran Church:

based on 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

If you had the option of going back in time to witness one historical event, what would it be? If don’t mind the cold, maybe you go back to watch the Ice Bowl in person. If you’re thinking on a little bigger scale, maybe you go back to watch the signing of the Declaration of Independence. If you’re thinking biblically, maybe you’d like to see Jesus’ birth or one of his miracles. But have you thought about what it would be like to be at creation? Imagine it—God creating the universe. To go from nothing to everything must have been a pretty spectacular sight. It must have been amazing during the six days of creation—God said, “Let there be light,” and just like that, there was light! Today, we hear how God creates light in our lives. He says,

“Let there be light!”

1) to shine through unbelief, and

2) to bring to light God’s glory

God’s Word changes lives, but to understand where we are today, we have to know where we came from. Paul was someone who knew exactly where he came from. From the time he was a young man, Paul persecuted Christians. He had a burning desire to put an end to the “Jesus movement.” He would rather stone a Christians than hear about Jesus as Savior. And he was dedicated in his work! He started arresting Christians in Jerusalem, but that wasn’t good enough. He needed to put a stop to all Christians. He began to take trips just to find Christians, traveling by foot for days to hunt them down. Paul believed what he was doing was right, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Then one day, while he was on the road hunting down Christians, Jesus appeared to him. God worked on Paul’s heart, and he became a Christian. He went from someone who hated Jesus to someone who absolutely loved Jesus. So when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he knows exactly what it was like to be in the darkness of unbelief. Paul wasn’t alone in this darkness. He says that all unbelievers are also in this darkness. The big question is why. Why are there people walking around in spiritual darkness? We can thank Satan, the god of this age. Satan has blinded people to the truth of god.

It is like Satan puts blindfolds on people. And they reach out with their hands, they feel around, they try to take hold of something, but there is nothing to grasp. God is there, but the spiritual blindfold Satan puts on people prevents them from truly seeing God. Yes, all people know that there is a god because they can see God in creation, and their consciences tell them there is a god. But because Satan blinds them, they can only reject God’s Word as foolishness. To them, Jesus is worthless.

Do you know what the hardest material on earth is? Diamonds. Diamonds are so hard that the only drill that will cut diamonds is a diamond-tipped drill. The heart of an unbeliever, a heart in darkness, is as hard as a diamond. Nothing we do is going to cut through the darkness of that unbelief. This unbelieving heart is completely hardened against God. It hates God. It does not want to know him. It does not want to serve him. It absolutely will not believe that Jesus is the Savior. This is the heart Paul used to have. This is the heart we used to have. We used to have this hard heart, a heart darkened by unbelief, blinded to the truths of God’s Word. The god of this age had blinded our minds, and we could not see God. We were fumbling around in the darkness, in a world of sin, on the road to hell.

But then God showed us the light. The Holy Spirit enlightened us with the light of the Gospel. He shined the light of the Gospel and melted our hardened hearts. We were once blinded by the god of this age, but now the Gospel light makes us see. The Holy Spirit has enlightened us to the same message that Paul preached-- “Jesus Christ as Lord.”  Jesus is Lord, he is master, he is powerful and in control of all. We see by faith that he came to earth to destroy the power of the god of this age. With his perfect life and innocent suffering and death, Jesus defeated Satan. God said, “Let there be light,” and this light shined through the darkness of our unbelief.

The light of the Gospel shines through unbelief, and it brings to light God’s glory. Paul continues to describe this light of the Gospel in verse six. He says that this light is “the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” It’s only natural to wonder what Christ’s face looks like. There are two snapshots that give us a good idea of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The first is on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus’ face literally lit up. His face was bright; it radiated light. This light coming from Jesus was just a glimpse into the light of the glory of the Creator and King of the universe. But we also see the light of the glory of God in Jesus’ face during Holy Week. The Bible says that there was nothing about Jesus that was especially attractive, nothing about his appearance that would make people drawn to him. He had a beard, but parts of that beard were ripped off late Maundy Thursday evening or Good Friday morning. It was about that time that his face was beaten. It probably had blood dripping down it from the crown of thorns Jesus was wearing on Good Friday.

How can this face show the glory of God? It doesn’t seem very glorious. But take a closer look at Jesus’ face. As Jesus is suffering on the cross, as his face is showing his pain, see what is not there—your face. You and I should have the same look on our faces that Jesus had on his. Jesus, though, suffered in place of you and me and everyone else. This is God’s glory--that Jesus died to save sinners. This is what is revealed in Paul’s preaching. As Paul said, he didn’t preach himself because there was nothing glorious in himself. There was no way that he himself could save people. So he didn’t get up in front of people and claim to be a great miracle worker. He didn’t promote himself as the end to people’s problems. He didn’t say that he could make people prosper in life. But he did preach Christ crucified. He preached the glory of God in the face of Christ, a face that personified God’s love.

Have you ever been to Mammoth cave? Mammoth cave in Kentucky is the largest cave system in the United States. If you take a tour of the cave, the first thing your guide will do is walk you down a couple hundred feet into the cave. He will politely ask you to turn off your cell phone. Then he will turn off the lights on you. It is complete and total darkness. There is absolutely no light anywhere. There is no ray of sunlight, no flashlight, not even a dim glow to help your eyes adjust to the darkness. And there is a feeling of helplessness because you can’t really walk around in complete darkness. You can’t see where you’re going. You might trip and fall or run into someone. But when the guide turns on the light again, you can see just fine and move around without worrying about what will happen.

This is the darkness of our lives apart from Jesus. What’s amazing is that we actually think we can help ourselves out of this darkness. There is a part of our sinful nature that makes us think we can, at the very least, help God get us out. There is the thought that we can help save ourselves. Maybe we can’t keep all of God’s Law, but we can keep some of it; that will help us be saved, right? Maybe we think we can choose to believe in Jesus, that the decision comes from within ourselves; that will help us be saved, right? Maybe we think we can get ourselves out of this dark cave if the Holy Spirit only gives us a little nudge here and there. But this is wrong. We can’t save ourselves any more than we could see in complete darkness.

In the face of this darkness, the glory of God is revealed in the face of Christ. As Paul knew, it wasn’t “Paul plus Jesus equal salvation” or “Yourself plus Jesus equals salvation” but simply “Jesus equals salvation.” Jesus is the light of the world. He is the light that no darkness can overcome. He lights up our lives with the good news that he is our Savior from sin. This is the light of the Gospel, revealing God’s glory. Through faith which the Holy Spirit gives us, we know Jesus as the Light, and the Light has now become our light. This light lights us up by giving us peace. This is a peace that someone in darkness can never know. This is the peace that knows that Jesus loves you, that your sins are forgiven, that you carry sin’s burden no more, and that you will spend eternity in heaven.

The light of the glory of God in the face of Christ is the brightest light the world has ever seen. It is brighter than even the sun. This is the light we have in us through faith, and this light now radiates outward. Pretend you are deep inside Mammoth Cave and the lights are out. Suddenly, a light appears off in the distance towards the cave entrance. Wouldn’t you naturally head towards that light? Like that light, God gives us the privilege of being lights in this world. It’s not that we reflect our own glory, but we reflect God’s glory in our lives. When we let our faith show in our lives, it’s like get to stand in a dark cave with a flashlight. We get to show God’s glory to others and say, “Look! Here is the light! Here is God’s glory! Here is Jesus, your Savior and mine!” We show this light to others when we tell them about Jesus. That means sharing the Gospel, because the light of the glory of God is found only in the Gospel. We show this light to others when we live as children of light, showing the Gospel by living as God wants us to live. We get to reflect Christ in our actions—he loved, so we love; he was humble, so we are humble; he was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of others, so too we are willing to sacrifice everything, big and small, for others.

It must have been an awesome sight at creation when God created light. God has shown us something even more spectacular, though. He has shown us Jesus, the Light of the world. This light has shone through the darkness of unbelief, and it has brought to light God’s glory. Praise God for showing us this light! Amen.