Text: Luke 6:35-49 NKJ

"But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and yourreward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind tothe unthankful and evil. 36"Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. 37 "Judge not, and you shall not bejudged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will beforgiven. 38 "Give, and it will begiven to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running overwill be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will bemeasured back to you." 39 And Hespoke a parable to them: "Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not bothfall into the ditch? 40 "A discipleis not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be likehis teacher. 41 "And why do youlook at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in yourown eye? 42 "Or how can you say toyour brother,`Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,' when youyourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove theplank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck thatis in your brother's eye. 43 "For agood tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 "For every tree is known by its ownfruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from abramble bush. 45 "A good man out ofthe good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of theevil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of theheart his mouth speaks. 46 "But whydo you call Me`Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say? 47 "Whoever comes to Me, and hears Mysayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 "He is like a man building a house,who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, thestream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it wasfounded on the rock. 49 "But he whoheard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without afoundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell.And the ruin of that house was great.""

Text: Luke 5:1-11 ESV

" On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing inon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by thelake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats,which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he satdown and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,"Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." 5 And Simon answered,"Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will letdown the nets." 6 Andwhen they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their netswere breaking. 7 Theysignaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And theycame and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, hefell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,O Lord." 9 For he andall who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they hadtaken, 10 and so also wereJames and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus saidto Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catchingmen." 11 And when theyhad brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him."

We human beings are by nature “seekers.” Our God created us with minds. We are, therefore, naturally curious and seek answers to our questions. Our God created us with bodies. We, therefore, have physical needs and seek thefulfillment of those needs. We at times refer to people as “pleasure-seekers” or “thrill-seekers.” Such people undertake activities that involve a good deal of risk and sometimes get hurt in pursuit of pleasures and thrills.

The Epiphany season of the church year is centered around Jesus’ glory as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. This has been revealed to us for our salvation. We see that this week in the events of Jesus’ baptism byJohn in the Jordan River. This remarkable event records for us God the Father’sproclamation of Jesus as the Son of God and His Chosen Servant in whom He iswell pleased. This is a powerful revelation of glory, to say the least! However,there was a second wonder that took place at the same time. It was theappearing of the Holy Spirit in visible form, resting upon Jesus and abidingwith Him. John the Baptist had been told to watch for this as a mark that thisperson was indeed the Christ who had come into the world. This element bringsus a powerful message concerning Jesus’ ministry. We are informed here not onlyof the glory of God in Christ but also of the Holy Spirit’s role in directing,empowering, and blessing the life and ministry of Jesus. We are informed hereas well about others chosen as God’s people to reveal His glory of salvation tothe world. Our text this morning takes us back to God choosing and thenanointing David, Jesus’ ancestor, to fulfill his role in leading God’s peopleto this central event in world history. This central event is when David’s Sonand David’s Lord would be introduced to the world as the Christ, the ChosenServant of the LORD.

We are in the early days of winter, the days when darkness has the upper hand. The nights are long, so thatmany of us go to sleep in darkness and awake in darkness. These hours of darkness are alreadyshortening, day by day; darkness is gradually giving way to the light. But in the fall the process will begin again,with darkness overtaking the light. Sothe darkness in nature advances and recedes, but it never completely goes away.

This darkness in the natural world is a reminder that there is another kind of darkness in thisworld: spiritual darkness. This is thedarkness that is the absence of spiritual light, the absence of the Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Light of theworld. Where He is known and believedthere is light and life. Where He is notknown or where He is rejected there is nothing but darkness and death. This world, infected by sin and with Satan asits god, is a dark place. The evidenceof its darkness we see all around us, and we see it every day.

Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our meditation is based on the Child Jesus in Egypt. You will see the Lord carries you into spiritually difficult situations for the purpose that His saving grace might shine.

A 10-year-old girl had gone with her family to see some Christmas light displays at various locations throughout the city. At one church, they stopped and got out tolook more closely at the beautifully done nativity scene. “Isn’t that beautiful?” said the girl’sgrandmother. “Look at all the animals,Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.” “Yes, Grandma,” replied the granddaughter. “It is really nice. But, there is only one thing that bothers me. Isn’t baby Jesus ever going to grow up? He’s the same size he was last year!”

Verse 5 of our text says that the darkness could not “comprehend It,” the “It” being Jesus and all He is. The literal meaning is that the darkness could not grasp It. The question is: does that mean darkness couldn’t grasp It like “comprehend It,” or does it mean darkness couldn’t grasp It like “could not destroy It,” like something you have in your hand and try to destroy? Perhaps it means both, for darkness cannot grasp Jesus in either way.

God, however, wants you to grasp what happened on Christmas—not in the sense of destroying it (which you can’t do), but in the sense of believing it and holding on to it. Godwants you to both comprehend and hold on to a couple of things in our text. One: that we have a Child born to us who is the eternal source of real life and light. Two: He is this for all the world. Jesus came to bring us all real life. The life our parents give us is not real life. Real life is the eternal,spiritual, and physical life Jesus gives us—life that conquers death and darkness. Grasp that life with both hands. It is for you!