One of the guys who wrote the story of his friend Jesus, as I said in an earlier post this week, was Matthew. Matthew, like John, was one of the 12 disciples who followed Jesus around for three years, learning from Jesus how to shine light in the darkness of the world. Matthew tells us that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy we read in the previous post, a prophecy found in the Hebrew biblical book of Isaiah, a prophecy declaring that God would be born as a human baby, and through him the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Jesus was the light who entered the darkness. Here’s what Matthew said in his book about Jesus, chapter 4, verses 12-16,
“When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned’.”
In fact, Jesus himself would even claim the same. John writes in John 8:12, that Jesus once said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
How is Jesus light? This week on the blog, we’ve been talking about how darkness is not just physical. It is also spiritual, relational, and emotional darkness. When Jesus brings light into the darkness, the Gospel writer is saying that Jesus is the answer, the truth, the hope, the realness, the rightness, the fulfillment. We see this come to fruition in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, through which he defeated sin, death and the devil, so that when we give our lives to believe in and follow him, we can have his light in our lives.
How can we have his light in our life? Back in John chapter 1, starting in verse 9, John says, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. … Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”
God wants to give his light to you! You can become a child of God. Receive him, believe in him. Give your life to him. I would love to talk with you about how to become part of God’s family.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
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