Matthew Series Week 4 - A Great Light has Dawned

This last Sunday Nick preached over Matthew 4:12-17, where Jesus goes to live in Galilee after his time in the wilderness. A big part of our focus is Jesus being the light that has dawned on those living in darkness. This is a common theme throughout Scripture, this contrast of light and dark (Isaiah 60:1, John 3:16-21, Romans 13:12, Ephesians 5:7-14, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:12-14, etc.). To drive this important concept home, Bottom Line from the sermon was

“Jesus is the light that rescues people from the darkness that leads to death.”

One of the pivotal concepts with the contrast of light and dark is that one living in Light or Dark is defined by it. A room that is pitch black is just that, dark by definition, lacking any source of light. By contrast a room with a lamp in it has light, and no matter how dark a room is, the darkness cannot overpower the light once it is turned on. The idea of dark and light makes sense on multiple levels when thinking about Christ and the Truth of the Gospel. They have a stark difference, but in the end, one of them easily overpowers the other. 

Repeatedly in Scripture this concept comes up, and when it relates to people, it comes with the hope that our identity change from dark to light is one of power, not dependent on us, but on Jesus, the unending source of light. As Nick said on Sunday, we need to perpetually live in what we’re defined by, and as a believer, it is the light of Christ, the Truth of the Gospel. 

We need to perpetually live in what we’re defined by, and as a believer, it is the light of Christ, the Truth of the Gospel. 

As a believer, I no longer am characterized by the dark, as Paul says in Eph. 5:8-9 “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)”. Paul didn’t say we were in darkness, but we “were darkness” and now “are light” because the fruit of darkness is more darkness, likewise the fruit of light, or the Spirit, is light or goodness, etc… It is impossible to be in darkness and in light at the same time.

In John’s Gospel he repeats this imagery often, starting right in the beginning of the book “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4-5. Nick read a lot of John 1 on Sunday because of this clear point and correlation to this imagery, that the light has dawned and that the darkness has not overcome it. Amen for that! 

To round out the importance of the Gospel narrative with Jesus going into Capernaum, Galilee of the Gentiles, is the imagery of Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven to the same area where God’s judgement against the unfaithful Israelites began in the 8th century BC when they were conquered and taken into captivity (Isa. 8:1–10; 2 Kings 15:29). 

It shows God’s mercy to the unfaithful, first that He would begin His public ministry in the same region God’s judgement on the Israelites began centuries before. Second that He would be going to where Matthew points out was towards the gentiles, away from Narareth. Jesus came to redeem and reconcile the lost to Himself, both the Jew and the Gentile, starting with the region of Israel where the Hebrews first fell into captivity, and then more broadly into the regions where more Gentiles dwelt. “Jesus withdraws from Judea to the Gentiles.… The ‘great light’ is no longer the law; it is Christ and the brilliance of the gospel.” -Origen 

In this passage we see God’s mercy to both the Jew and the gentile, both sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death, with darkened hearts and minds. But “the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” Thank you Jesus for your warming light of truth that melts cold hearts of sin, and brings life and light, defeating death and darkness for the glory of Your Kingdom. 

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Frank Thielman, “Matthew,” in Gospel Transformation Bible: English Standard Version, ed. Bryan Chapell and Dane Ortlund (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 1273.

Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1–7: A Commentary on Matthew 1–7, ed. Helmut Koester, Rev. ed., Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007), 159.