Fished Into the Light

[00:00:01] Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:12] Epiphany it's the season of light. The light is growing outside and the light of Christ is shining and scattering the darkness in our hearts and in the world, and in a world full of unbelief. [00:00:30] And today that's pictured, I would say broadly, as the nations coming to Christ. Like the light has shined to the deepest, darkest places. [00:00:43] The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. [00:00:51] These are all regions that are far from Jerusalem. [00:00:57] They're the kind of surrounding regions. So if the light is set on a hill, if the light's there in Jerusalem, then those lower regions farther away, those are the places of. [00:01:18] Of deep darkness, the region and shadow of death. [00:01:24] On them a light has dawned. [00:01:30] Did you catch the Psalm, Psalm 22? [00:01:36] Did you realize that was Psalm 22, what we say on Good Friday, the psalm in which Christ's crucifixion is depicted pretty graphically, his hands stretched out and his mouth dry and his bones aren't broken, things like that. [00:01:58] So this is the second part of that same psalm. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. So we're talking about the ends of the earth. All the families of the nations. The nations, that's the word Gentiles, that's Greek for nations. [00:02:18] All the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. Again, for the Israelites saying this psalm as a prayer, they hear the nations and they're thinking of everybody else. Far away, down in those lower regions, the land of the shadow of death. [00:02:42] Kingship belongs to the Lord. He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship before him shall bow down all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Again, that land of the shadow of death, they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn. [00:03:08] Again, the Gentiles, through Christ's ministry and work, through his death and resurrection, a people was born that was yet unborn. [00:03:24] Christ came to make children of God so that you and I and everyone who believes in Jesus would be well, would receive the power to become children of God. Like John says in John 1, right. Born not of the flesh or the will of man or whatnot, but born of God, children of God. [00:03:45] So this people yet unborn, there is a people already Born. [00:03:53] When this is written like, who's the people already born? [00:03:56] It's the people of Israel. [00:03:59] The people of Israel were already God's people. And that not apart from Christ, just through Christ, in a more hidden way. You know, when Moses sets up the serpent on the pole and anyone who looks to the serpent is saved from death, that's Christ they're looking to Christ just kind of hidden in a mystery. They're trusting in Christ before his coming, before it's finished, before it's done. [00:04:37] Moses knew Christ. [00:04:40] All the saints of old, the saints of the Old Testament, they knew Christ just in a more. [00:04:47] A more hidden way. They had been born of God through Jesus Christ and had believed in him. So Christ uses that same example. Just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. [00:05:07] Says, yep, that was me. [00:05:10] And the trust in the salvation that God had provided through this serpent lifted up. That trust was directed to me. [00:05:20] And my crucifixion fulfills that, my sacrificial death for the life of the world. [00:05:26] And he says, and I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself. [00:05:31] Talking about his crucifixion. [00:05:34] By his crucifixion, he's drawn all people to himself. Picture that all people as this, spreading out to the ends of the earth, to the lower regions and bringing into the fold, into the flock of God's people, into his family, a people yet unborn. [00:05:57] This is why Epiphany starts with the wise men. Because the wise men are these men from the east. [00:06:04] There are these foreigners who are coming and seeing Christ for who he is. [00:06:10] It's the gathering in of the Gentiles to join those saints of Israel, like Simeon in the temple, remember him? [00:06:20] Or all those that Anna went to and told about the Christ. She went to those who were waiting expectantly for, for the Messiah, to the people already born in Christ. [00:06:43] Of course, in the midst of Israel, at the heart of the life of Israel, there were the religious leaders who demonstrate to us that it's not proximity to Jerusalem or the temple that makes children of God. [00:07:06] Jesus went well. Jesus healed the man born blind. Remember in John 9. [00:07:16] And then at the end of that whole sequence, their religious leaders say, so are we blind? [00:07:24] And Jesus says, well, if you had said that you couldn't see well, that would be no problem. [00:07:31] Then I could just enlighten you. [00:07:33] But now that you say that you see, yes, you're blind. [00:07:41] There they are at the heart of Israel's religious life. [00:07:45] But they're unseeing, the light hasn't reached them. [00:07:49] They don't see themselves as needing the light. They don't see themselves as that people unborn, needing to be born as children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And so they receive no help because they're blocking the light. They're unreceptive to the light. [00:08:15] All right. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. [00:08:24] Thanks be to God. [00:08:29] So now I want to go down to the sea. [00:08:31] Jesus, when he hears that John was arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. [00:08:37] And leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum and by the sea, in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, okay? So his going down to the sea. [00:08:47] Then Matthew connects to this passage about the people dwelling in darkness, seeing a great light. And then he goes to the fishermen, and he tells the fishermen that men, that people are at the bottom of the sea and that they're going to help get them out. [00:09:15] He calls them out of darkness into his marvelous light. [00:09:21] A couple weeks ago, we talked about Jesus baptism and how in scripture we should see ourselves in there like that. The pages of scripture weren't written for our information or as a manual or something impersonal or disconnected from our lives. But that scripture is presenting to us a world to hold in front of our eyes and to see ourselves in. [00:09:49] It's presenting a world for us to live in, a world to interpret our world. [00:09:57] And it's no different today. We see Jesus by the sea. And it's not just like, oh, okay, he's getting a couple of disciples, right? Like, this is how it's all happened. And we're just telling the story really slowly over an entire church year, you know? But at the end, we'll see the big picture. He got disciples. He went and preached. He died and rose from the dead. That's the important part, right? It's no. We hear this passage, and where are we to see ourselves? [00:10:29] At the bottom of the sea. [00:10:31] Because he said, I'll make you fishers of men. [00:10:36] And it's not like we don't need any fishing out of the sea. [00:10:41] Fishers of men. He's talking about all men, all people needing to be fished out of that sea out of darkness and death, out of the cold and into his marvelous light, out of the place where you can't breathe. [00:10:58] That's really what the sea represents, I think, is that place where human beings really can't dwell. [00:11:05] But fish somehow do of course, they've got gills and they use oxygen from the water and they, you know. Well, just think about what it looks like, though. [00:11:15] How do they survive down there? That's not how human beings survive. [00:11:20] We need air. [00:11:23] God began us by breathing into us the spirit of life, and we became a living creature. [00:11:33] That's our origin with the breath of life. [00:11:38] But the fish, they go around in breathless places. [00:11:47] That's not the life we were designed for. [00:11:51] So let's think about what that life is. If Jesus is saying that human beings are at the bottom of the sea, what does he mean by that? And how could we possibly see ourselves as fish underwater? [00:12:13] Well, for one thing, the darkness has to do with, well, not seeing clearly has to do with confusion. [00:12:24] If it's dark, we can't really make out our surroundings. [00:12:27] And so we're confused about what's around us or what's up or down. [00:12:34] The people Paul's talking to, the Corinthian Christians in the epistle reading are confused. [00:12:41] They can't see clearly. [00:12:44] They're saying, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, or, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ. [00:12:55] Is Christ divided? [00:12:58] There's confusion there. [00:13:00] They're supposed to be following someone. [00:13:03] Christ who called, called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. But they've now begun to mistake others for the focal point. [00:13:14] They've mistaken others for the object of faith. Why would they do that? Why say I follow Cephas at all? Why would you even say that? [00:13:28] Well, maybe there's a little bit of honor or glory to be had in. [00:13:33] In having been baptized by Cephas or Apollos. Or maybe one of them seems to carry more honor than the others. [00:13:47] So Paul says, well, good thing I didn't baptize any one of you. Well, maybe a couple of you, but I'm glad you guys can't say that because otherwise you might be saying they've gotten off track and they've mistaken a human being. They've mistaken the messenger for the message, and that's real blindness. [00:14:13] We have that danger. The obvious connection would be if you were like, I follow Pastor Vanderheide, I follow Pastor Woodward or some other pastor or non pastor or whatever. Right? That would be kind of the most obvious connection. But pastors aren't the only kinds of distractions that can look like the thing to follow or the source. [00:14:41] There are all kinds of other things. [00:14:48] Let's flip it for a moment. [00:14:52] Let's go back to the seaside looking down into the sea, okay? Because that's what Jesus does he flips it. He says, you guys think you're fishermen, but I'm going to make you fishers of men. [00:15:11] What do we fish for in the places of darkness and death? [00:15:17] To fill ourselves, to satisfy ourselves. [00:15:21] What do we mistake for life? [00:15:27] We've got a football game today. [00:15:31] We could think about that in a few different ways, right? Think of it as entertainment. Are we filling ourselves up with entertainment all the time. We just need something to do, something to cheer for or having lost Bo nix for today, for the season, maybe we're going to be, well, finding that we need to satisfy ourselves with winning or something like that. [00:16:02] I'll let you guys reflect more on that later. [00:16:09] Right? But there are all kinds of things that seem like life, that seem like delight, that really aren't ways to satisfy ourselves or escape hardship or anxiety or any of those other things that might trouble us. [00:16:35] Darkness. [00:16:36] We live in the dark. And the biggest danger is that darkness that we don't recognize. Have you ever seen the. [00:16:45] Have you ever heard the saying, it's just the air we breathe or just the water we swim in? Have you ever heard that one? Does it go quite like that? [00:16:59] So, like, if there's something that we don't notice, like, this is just the way we operate and we never even think about. [00:17:07] It's like this is just our context. It's just. It's like you don't even notice the air because it's always there and it's invisible. But for a fish, it'd be like, this is just the water we swim in. [00:17:19] Right. We're just used to it. [00:17:24] I think when we excuse our sins, when we excuse our habits or our wayward ways of thinking, we're forgetting the death that we're swimming in, and we need to remember the light. [00:17:48] That's what they're doing here in the epistle reading. [00:17:53] They're confused about who they're following, and that could be a fatal error. [00:17:58] They need to be shown. Look. That's darkness. [00:18:03] That's death. That's confusion. [00:18:05] That's not the life to which you were called. This is not the light to which you've been called out of darkness. [00:18:13] We need to be reminded that all the time. [00:18:19] It's like. [00:18:21] It's like being. Well, we. Okay, now I want to go back under the sea. [00:18:28] I remember the very. [00:18:31] The single spongebob squarepants episode that I've ever seen. [00:18:38] All right? [00:18:40] They're sitting under the sea and the hooks are coming down and they're all having a bunch of fun. The fish, they Grab the hook and they go, whoop, whoop. And then they. Whoo, sorry. They're being lifted up and then they let go. [00:18:57] And it's like, you know, they're at Disneyland or something like that, having loads of fun. [00:19:05] So that's just to get, you know, get you there, to situate you under the sea. And. And here come the hooks, you know, and the hook is coming, and it's shaped like a cross, you know, here's the. I don't think I can take this off or it'll take my microphone. Oh, nope, I can. [00:19:21] You know, here comes the hook. [00:19:25] And it's really. It's the way to life, the way to breath, the way to receive God's spirit. [00:19:37] Right? It's like we're there at Jesus baptism. [00:19:41] We're with him under the water. [00:19:43] Are we with him? You know, he grabs us and he takes us through death to life, so that we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. [00:19:55] Do we want God to fish in the deep places of our soul? [00:20:03] Think about that. All right, let's think about this. [00:20:07] Like, these ideas are transposed on the landscape of Israel, the land of the shadow of death. It's the place where the Gentiles live who haven't heard the word of the cross. [00:20:24] And Christ is shining light there and drawing all people to himself. [00:20:29] But you can also transpose all of this on yourself. [00:20:34] So you believe in Jesus and you've seen the light. You've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light. [00:20:41] Is there a land of deep darkness within you? [00:20:46] Within me that doesn't see the light? [00:20:53] I think there's. [00:20:55] There always is. [00:20:58] And it can be painful to let those dark places be exposed. And to let them be exposed, it requires sustained attention to Christ and receptiveness to his light to his cross. [00:21:16] The cross isn't always welcome because it means death. It means death to those things we'd rather let lie. Right? [00:21:30] Let remain hidden. [00:21:33] Christ says if anyone would follow me, he must take up his cross and follow me. That means dying daily to sin and living to God. That means not holding on to the darkness because we'd rather not have our. [00:21:47] Our dark deeds exposed, but rather letting the light shine there and take away our love of sinning, to take away our lust for honor or pleasure or whatever it might be. [00:22:06] That's the challenge of the Christian life. [00:22:10] And it's accomplished by Christ. [00:22:12] It's accomplished by the word of the cross. You hear the word of the cross and he comes to you, sacrificing himself for you. Offering Himself there on the cross. And you look to him. You look to the serpent on the pole. You look to Jesus Christ. Become sin for us. [00:22:31] Come in the likeness of sin to rescue us, to give us his life. Take our death and give us his life. [00:22:43] How do we let ourselves be fished? How do we receive his gracious drawing us to his cross and to his resurrection? [00:22:54] It's kind of a mystery. How do we do that? You know, to thank God that He's called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with his gift, sanctified us, keeps us in the faith. [00:23:06] May he do that for us to life everlasting. But we're not done. See, I could have said amen, But we're going to hang on for a second. Because he made his apostles. [00:23:22] Well, he made his disciples into apostles, sent ones. He made them into fishers of men. [00:23:29] And how did they do that? They went out to the nations with the word of the cross. [00:23:34] Which sounded like folly to those who were perishing. But to those who are being saved, it's the power of God. [00:23:42] Death, the death of the glorious one is the power of God. [00:23:49] Our own death, our own being united to him and his cross is the power of God. [00:24:00] That's the word that we bring to our neighbors, to our family. [00:24:04] It's the word of the cross holding Christ before us and remembering. We're always fish. [00:24:12] Fish to be drawn out of death into life. And then our life is in Christ. [00:24:20] In Jesus name. Amen. [00:24:22] Pick that landing spot.