Spent the day really looking at the Lifeway VBS “Illumination Station” for this summer. The curriculum and theme is all about Jesus being the Light of the World.
Spurgeon has a sermon from 1916 titled Jesus is the Light of the World. In it he said:
“That Jesus is the light—the light of the world—is to be seen in all parts of His blessed history. Look at Him in His cradle. Shines there a star above the house wherein the young child sleeps? Brighter far than yonder star is He who lies cradled in the manger. He has come, the predictions of whose advent had illumined centuries of darkness. As a babe, devout men hail Him, “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel.” To the eye of faith, what radiance emanates from the newborn babe!
Look, for the like was never looked on before. There God is veiled in human flesh. Behold the mystery of the incarnation. God is manifest in our nature, He dwells among us. The light is clear and dazzling.
Well might the angels have sung, “Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, goodwill towards men.” Sweet babe! You have pierced the thick darkness of earth’s sorrow, You have enlightened her scenes of sadness, infusing joy into her gloom. Your coming revealed the love of God, His sweet compassion, and His tender pity towards the guilty sons of men..”
The way God Spoke Light into existence is through His Word. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Light existed in eternity in the form of the Son, but was given as a gift to all creation in one moment of His utterance. That the Light would put on flesh and come dwell among us was prophesied for hundreds of years. In a moment it seemed that God was silent, but light came bursting out of the darkness in form of a baby.
In this VBS, we’ll teach that Jesus is God’s Promise. He alone is Perfect. He alone is Powerful to save. He is Proven and is the Plan from the moment light was spoken into existence in creation.
To close His sermon, we see a glimpse of heartache and loss at Metropolitan Tabernacle. Not that much different than the past year we have had at First Redeemer.
God has recently taken away some of our best workers, as you know. Oh! brethren, make up for the loss of one of the best of men, long known as a deacon and elder in our midst, who is now laid aside, his health departed, his strength prostrate. Oh! sisters, try to make up by double energy for the loss of that good sister who was a mother among you all.
Oh! let us all see to it that there are no gaps in the ranks of Christ’s army which are not quickly filled up with fresh recruits. If there should happen to be a vacancy, and the man has fallen who stood next to me, I will try, by God’s strength, to fight with both hands at this time till some other shall step up to take his place. Since Christ is our light, and He has ordained us to be lights in the world, let us shine to the utmost of our capacity until the Master shall take us to dwell with Him in the light forever.
We should double our energy to speak the truth. We need to be beacons of light and truth to those in our community.