Welcome to Ontario Community Church, where we are encouraging, equipping, and engaging
lives for Christ.
I'm Pastor Patrick Daly, and each week I share sermons that balance the grace and love of
Jesus Christ with the truth of the Word of God.
Together, we'll explore Scripture using observation, interpretation, and application.
This helps us discover practical ways to live out our faith every single day.
Let's dive in together into God's Word.
Good evening, everyone.
Merry Christmas.
It's great to be here with all of you, friends, families.
Some of you I may not know, some of you I've seen before.
If you don't know me, my name is Patrick Daly.
I'm the pastor here, and it's a pleasure to meet all of you, or see you guys again.
You know, Christmas is a time of, it's a story of beginnings.
Beginnings of hope, the beginning of redemption, and it is the beginning of light that shines
in the darkness.
For many of us, we know what it's like to be in a dark room before, right?
At least I hope we all have.
And we know what happens when we turn on a light, how quickly the room is illuminated.
We can also think of times where the power might have gone out before.
And you're scrambling for your phone, or a lighter, or something to light up the room.
How quickly, and how desperately we look for something, could be our phone, it could be
anything to light up the room so that we can see what's in front of us, or what's around
us.
And you know how dependent we are on light.
We think of electricity, we think of all of these electronics that light up our faces,
the screens, and all of these things.
But when it comes to the Lord, we think of God providing the light from the beginning.
From the beginning of our Bible through Scripture and even today, it is the light of Christ
that shines for all to see, and for all to believe in Him.
I want to put on the screen here, kind of interesting to think about the Genesis account
here on Christmas.
We think many of us have read this before when it says, in the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void.
And what was over the face of the deep?
Darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face
of the waters.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light.
Some of you may have heard this story before.
If you haven't, it's a really good story, and you should read it sometime.
For many of us, we open our Bibles and we read about how there's this seven-day creation
story as it were.
Talking about the night and the day, we have the plants and the animals, the formation of
the world that's happening.
But even here in these three verses, we have to think for the spiritual truth that comes
from here, that there was darkness over the world.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light.
Many of us, we read that and we think of the physical light that's shining into the world,
correct?
But let's think for a moment how there is darkness in the world, and how we need the
light, love, and truth of Jesus Christ to shine in this world.
It's a way that many of us may not have thought of it before, but many times and very often
in Scripture we see things that can be viewed upon from a more literal standpoint.
But here, for this Christmas, I want us to think about this from a spiritual standpoint,
that there is darkness in this world.
There are many people who are lost and they may not have the light.
And when we think of the light that comes from the Lord, again, the light of Christ
shines for all to believe in Him.
The next verse I want to show you is from John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, which says,
in the beginning, many of you know this, in the beginning was the Word and the Word
was with God and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was what, church?
In Him was life.
And the life was the what?
The light of men.
What does that light do?
It shines in the what?
The darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
My friends, there is but a connection that we can think of in this Christmas story, that
the light of the world is here, being born in the manger.
We think of the hope that comes from Jesus Christ.
We think of the peace that surpasses all understanding.
We think of the joy that is inexhaustible and inexpressible.
And we think of the love of God.
For many of us, we've heard the name Ontario before.
If you haven't, well, this is where we are.
Did you know in Japanese, Ontario means grace overflowing?
I found that to be something in our little, there's a book.
Some of you want to check it out.
It's that 50 year history book of this church.
And someone a long time ago here at this church said that Ontario is translated in
Japanese as grace overflowing.
And what a great way for us to think about this when it comes to our Lord and the grace
that should be overflowing in this place.
It's a great reminder for us of the love that God has for us so much so to send his son,
Jesus Christ, to be born in the manger, to be the fulfillment of all of these prophecies.
And we think of that light.
Let us think of that light.
We think of this next slide here, the heart of the message, the same light that God provides,
the light of creation.
God's first words is let there be light and that it is a declaration that the light will
drive out the darkness.
The light of creation is a representation of the light of Christ that will shine in the
dark and broken world.
How we need the light in our life.
Amen.
We also see here the light of Christ.
Jesus the Word made flesh is the light of the world for us to believe him.
As you can see from these verses, from Genesis to the Gospel of John, Jesus the Word was
there in the beginning.
The light that God spoke into existence was fulfilled in Christ, the light of the world.
The birth of Jesus again was the fulfillment of prophecy.
It was part of God's plan, his redemptive plan for all of mankind that whosoever believes
shall not perish but have eternal life.
God in Bethlehem is Jesus to bring life and light to all people.
And from this light, again we see the representation, this symbolism, this parallel, the light
of creation and the light of Christ.
That third point then is the light for us.
That Christ light shines into the darkest part of the world and even in the darkest parts
of our life.
Some of you may have seen the light, but have you received the light in your heart?
It's a call for you to know who Jesus is and what a special time this is for us to think
of the Christmas story, thinking about such humble beginnings.
The Son of God to be born in a manger, you would have thought he would have been born
in a more suitable place, but yet there was that humble beginning.
And we think to ourselves, we are to, how many of you know that song?
Let it shine.
This little light of mine.
I'm going to let it shine.
There's a verse in there that says, hide it under a what?
A bushel no.
I'm going to let it shine.
And for you to know Jesus Christ, to have that relationship with him, to receive the
light in your hearts, let that light that comes from Christ, let it shine for others
to see how powerful and how illuminating it is when you have not just one, but many
lights that come from the Lord.
The light of Christ has come into the world and shines in the darkness.
Darkness has not overcome.
This is the hope of Christmas that no matter how dark the world is, no matter how crazy
and how busy things get, no matter what the anchors on television or your famous tiktok
influencers say, there is hope in Jesus Christ.
And this light of Christ is available for all.
Let us come to the light in faith in the presence of the Lord.
And tonight what I want us to do, we're going to get our candles and we're going to begin
lighting them.
And I want you to think of this message tonight.
You look at a candle, right?
Compared to the lumens, the lighting power of electricity.
When we think of the ancient times, they had oil lamps.
They lit them up and how one lamp, how one candle could make such a profound difference.
But tonight be a representation of the light, love and truth of Christ.
I have this image here kind of as an idea here.
Christ being the great candle as it were.
And us being the little flames that are being lit.
So what I want to do, I want to go ahead and start.
Mark, I will start with you.
We're going to light our candles to those next to us and those, don't let your light
go out.
Right?
As we light it, we can go to the next light.
It's open.
I don't want to go in.
Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.
Round your virgin color and shine, Holy infant, so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night, shepherds pray at the sign,
Silent night, holy night, son of God loves your life,
Radiant beach from thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace.
Jesus, born and by heaven.
And tonight as we hold our candles up, let us remember the light into the world.
That the light of Christ broke into the world on that holy night in Bethlehem.
And the light continues to shine in and through us.
Just as one flame can illuminate a room, Jesus Christ illuminates the world.
Amen.
Thank you for listening for this week's message from Ontario Community Church.
I pray that you are encouraged and strengthened in your walk with Christ.
For more sermons and resources, visit ontariocommunitychurch.org.
May God bless you as you live out His grace and truth every single day.
Thank you.