Robert Morris - The Light of the World
Welcome to a very special Christmas edition. We're going to join our candlelight services today, hear a very special rendition of "O, Holy Night," and I'm going to share with you a very brief, but a very powerful Christmas message. So, thanks for watching today and Merry, Merry Christmas. Everything is ready, the moment is here at last. God is coming to help his people just as he promised in the beginning, mountains will have bowed down, the seas would have roared, trees would have clapped their hands. But instead, the Earth held its breath. And as silent as snow falling, He arrived when no one was looking, in the darkness He came.
There in a stable, in a little town called Bethlehem amongst chickens, and donkeys, and cows. God gave the world the most wonderful gift. A child who would change the world, his son. Mary and Joseph wrapped the child in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, they named him Jesus Emmanuel, which means, God has come to live with us because, of course, he had. God was like a new daddy. He couldn't keep the good news to himself. He'd been waiting all these long years for this moment. And now, he wanted to tell everyone.
So he put a special star in the sky to show where his son was. With all of the stars in the dark vaulted Heavens, this one shone brighter. It was God's spotlight shining like his son, lighting up the darkness, showing people the way back to Him. And like that bright star shining in the sky that night, this baby was going to be a light that to light up the whole world, chasing away darkness, helping people to see. And the darker the night got, the brighter the star would shine.
Merry Christmas. This is one of my favorite seasons of the year. And this is one of my favorite services of the year, our candlelight service. Jesus is truly the light of the world. And I want to take just a few moments and share with you why he is the light of the whole world. I want to read you one verse from the Christmas story, Luke 2:11 says, "The angel said, for there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord, who is Christ". I just want to take a few moments and unpack the word of Christ. Christ comes from a Greek word, which is Christos, and it means anointed. And in the Old Testament, the word was Messiah, that he is the Messiah, Jesus is the Messiah. And the word Messiah, actually also means anointed. The word Messiah is the Old Testament 39 times, 37 times it's translated Messiah.
So what does it mean that Jesus is the anointed one. And what does that mean to me? And what does that mean to you at Christmas, especially. Well, in the Old Testament, there were only three groups of people, who were anointed: prophets, priests, and kings. And they were commanded by God to anoint these people; prophets, priests, and kings, anoint them. And so the Bible tells us very clearly that Jesus is Christ the Lord, he is the anointed. Well, that's really good news for us. He's our prophet, he's our priest, and he's our king. And what does that mean to you, and what does that mean to me? When it says that Jesus is our prophet, here's what it means. It means that we can hear God. In the Old Testament, the only way they could hear God was if God spoke directly to them, most of the time, through a prophet. Jesus is now our prophet and he lives within us, every one of us. He was born into this world, yet through Christmas, he can be born into your heart when you accept him.
So it means that God speaks directly to you. Jesus said it very clearly in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and am known by them. My sheep hear my voice". It's all through the Bible that God wants to speak to us and Jesus came so that you and I can have a personal relationship with him. And we can hear God, in impressions in our heart through the scripture through the Holy Spirit. We can hear God. So Jesus is our prophet, he's our anointed one. He's the light of the world and he's anointed to be the light of the world. Secondly, Jesus is our priest. And here's what that means. It means that we can enter the presence of God. You see in the Old Testament, the only people who could enter the presence of God were the priest. They could go into the Holy of Holies, where the cloud was, where the Shekinah was, where God Himself dwelled between the wings of the cherubim. Jesus came and he's what Hebrews tells us, he is a priest forever, and he's our priest and because he's our priest, we can go boldly into the Throne Room, into the Holy of Holies.
I want to encourage you — we've been in this series about God's presence. I want you to know you can enter the presence of God because you have a priest who stands daily for you, according to scripture. And who has, once for all, bore your sins on the cross. So, Jesus is our prophet, that means we can hear God. He's our priest, that means that we can enter his presence. And he is the King and he is our king. And what that means is that he rules and reigns over everything in our lives, everything. Every situation, every family problem, every job problem, every financial problem, every emotional struggle.
Sometimes during Christmas, we know it's a joyous time, but sometimes because of a situation we're going through, we're battling to have that joy that we know we should have. Well, I want to encourage you that Jesus is, not only the King, he is your King. And that means that you can live victoriously in every area of your life, any area of your life. Jesus is Christ the Lord. You know, one of the most amazing things about the Christmas story is that when you look at it, it's so ordinary, other than Jesus. Here's what I mean by that. Mary and Joseph, ordinary people. Bethlehem, an ordinary city. Born in a stable, laid in a manger, ordinary. His father was a carpenter. But here's what was extra-ordinary, and we pronounce that word extraordinary, here's what was extraordinary about Christmas, the first Christmas. Jesus came and he's the Messiah, he's the Christ, he's the anointed one. And he's the light of the whole world.
The word Christmas means Christ mass, mass means celebration. It's the celebration of Christ. I want to encourage you to keep Christ in your Christmas because he's the one that can make your ordinary life extraordinary. And he's the one that can speak to you and give you a word to encourage you. He's the one that leads us into the presence of the Father and he's the one that rules and reigns over every situation in our lives. And today, at this candlelight service, as I prayed about what to share with you, I really believe the Lord wants me to pray for one specific area that he brings to your heart that you need Jesus to rule and reign in this area of your life. I think about that many times. I think, Lord, if I could just get victory in this one area, I feel like I could be so much closer to you, and I could do so much for you.
And I want you to just take a moment — here's what I'd like to ask you to do, just bow your heads and close your eyes, just for a moment. As we think about Jesus being the anointed one, and the light of the world, just take a moment and think about what's the one area you need to hear God about this, you need to be able to enter His presence and let Him deal with this area of your life. And you need to allow Him to be the King in this area of your life. And maybe, for some of you, maybe you don't normally attend church, maybe you need to let Jesus be the King of every area of your life. All of your life. And you can do that right now. But take that one area, and in your heart right now, say, "Lord, I know you're the anointed one. I know you can bring light where's there's darkness and I'm giving you this area of darkness in my life and I'm asking you to bring light".
And I'm going to pray for you and we're going to believe God to be the anointed one and the light of the world for each of us personally, not just for the whole world, but for each of us. So, Lord, I lift up my brothers and sisters to you right now. And, Lord, I lift up to you that area of my life and I lift up to you, the areas that we're lifting up. And I come in agreement that you're the anointed one. You're our prophet. You're our priest. You're our King. And you are the light of the world, but you're also the light in our hearts. And, Lord, at Christmas at this celebration of Christ, we are not going to go through this season and forget you. And so, Lord, we come to you right now, we submit ourselves, we submit this area, and Lord, we walk out of here victoriously because you are the King. You are the one that brings light to the darkness and we receive that light and we receive that victory in Jesus name. Amen. Merry Christmas.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this candlelight service and I pray that you do have a very, very Merry Christmas. As I said in the message it's always comforting to me at Christmas to know that Jesus Christ, God's only son, is our prophet, our priest, and our King. I can get a word from God, through Jesus the prophet. I can speak to God in prayer through Jesus, my mediator. And Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He rules and reigns over every situation in my life. I want to say thank you so much for watching. Many of you support this program with your financial gifts, and thank you very much. Many of you also do something at the end of the year. Thank you for doing that because your gifts allow us to take ministry all over the world. I love ya so much. I pray you have a very, very blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.