On Sunday, December 1, 2019 at Wildwood Community Church, I preached a sermon based on Isaiah 9:1-7. This message was part 1 in the “Christmas Light” sermon series. Below you will find the audio from this message to listen to, download, or share.
To listen offline, click the link to download the audio:
To listen online, use the media player below:
To watch the stream of the entire worship service, watch the YouTube video below:
On Sunday, December 1, 2019 at Wildwood Community Church, I preached a sermon based on Isaiah 9:1-7 and Matthew 4:12-17. This message was part 1 in the “Christmas Light” sermon series. Below are a list of questions related to this message for personal reflection or group discussion.
Sermon Questions:
To access these questions in pdf format, click here.
To access all 31 days of the “Christmas Light” Devotional, click here.
To access the “Christmas Light” Playlist:
Light of the World
3,500 years ago, God called His people (the Israelites) out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the land that He had promised them. This is the story of the Exodus, and is recorded for us in the second book of the Bible. As the Israelites left Egypt God led them at night represented by a fire the people could see. Like a child is comforted by their night light, so the children of Israel were comforted in their journey by the fire in the sky, reminding them that God was with them.
Fast forward 1,500 years to the time of Jesus. While the rest of the Israelites were celebrating the Festival of the Tabernacle (remembering when God led them like a fire at night), Jesus makes an amazing assertion. He says in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” In this statement, Jesus was making a few VERY important points:
At Christmas time, we often have lights as a part of our decorations: on trees, on our homes, etc. This is so appropriate, because Jesus is the Light of the world! Lauren Daigle’s song “Light of the World” reminds us of that as well. As we sing this song, or look at Christmas lights, be reminded of God’s presence with us, and His desire that we walk in obedience following Jesus’ commands and example. If we do, we will have life as God intended!
Light of the World
The world waits for a miracle
The heart longs for a little bit of hope
Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel
A child prays for peace on Earth
And she’s calling out from a sea of hurt
Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel
And can you hear the angels singing
Glory to the light of the world
Glory, the light of the world is here
The drought breaks with the tears of a mother
A baby’s cry is the sound of love
Come down, come down, Emmanuel
He is the song for the suffering
He is Messiah, the Prince of Peace has come
He has come, Emmanuel
Glory to the light of the world
For all who wait
For all who hunger
For all who’ve prayed
For all who wonder
Behold your King
Behold Messiah
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
Glory to the light of the world
Glory to the light of the world
Glory to the light of the world
Behold your King
Behold Messiah
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
The world waits for the miracle
The heart longs for a little bit of hope
Oh come, oh come Emmanuel
To access all 31 days of the “Christmas Light” Devotional, click here.
To access the “Christmas Light” Playlist:
Do you like Christmas lights? I do. I love them. They are one of my favorite Christmas decorations. We hang them from our roofline on the outside of our house. We string them on trees and across the mantle inside our house. We make plans to drive around and see the lights OTHER PEOPLE put on their houses. It is all part of this season of celebration.
Why do I like Christmas lights so much?
Maybe it goes back to my childhood when I was scared of the dark . . . maybe I have stock in OG&E . . . or maybe, just maybe, it is because Light is one of the Christmas “decorations” mentioned directly multiple times in Scripture.
Isaiah 9:2 speaks of “a great light” that has dawned, and Isaiah 42:6 talks about a “light for the nations.” Both of these prophecies (given 700 years before Jesus’ birth) were pointing toward the day when a Child would be born that would be the “Light of men” (John 1:4). At the birth of this Child, the sky “shone” above the place where He stayed as angels sang (Luke 2:9). A new star rose in the sky, lighting the way for people of all nations to come and find Him (Matthew 2:2).
Who was this light? Of course, this Light was THE LIGHT . . . Jesus Christ. It is appropriate to celebrate the birth of Jesus by hanging lights, because (from the very beginning) the Christmas story has been about the Light of God shining into the darkness, and the darkness not being able to overtake it.
This is significant, because we live in a world of deep darkness. Just in the past week I have heard about:
It seems all around us are reminders of darkness. In the midst of this dark world, don’t you long for someone to “turn on the light”? What if I told you that Someone has turned on the light . . . in reality SOMEONE IS THE LIGHT!
I have found GREAT COMFORT in Jesus Christ. He alone lights the darkness and provides life in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death.
During the month of December, I invite you to join me at Wildwood Community Church on Sunday mornings at 9:45 and 11:00 as we bask together in the Christmas Light of Jesus. Over the next 4+ weeks we will cover:
More than anything else, this is a series proclaiming HOPE to all of us who are living in this dark world. We need not fear or despair . . . in fact we can worship and rejoice, because the Light has overcome the darkness.
The Light of Christmas . . . is Christ!
Make plans to join us this Sunday . . . and invite your friends and family to come and sit with you this month as we celebrate this truth together.
NOTE: I have written a 31 day devotional to accompany your Christmas season. You can access that devotional by clicking here, or you can subscribe to this blog and have each daily installment of the devotional delivered to your inbox each morning beginning December 1. The devotional is tied to 31 Christmas songs (and the Scripture behind them) and we have a playlist on Apple Music and Spotify.
In recent days much has been made about the separation of church and state. Prayer is often discouraged in schools and the workplace, curriculums are scrubbed clean of faith-based answers to fact-based questions, and people often prefer religion to be practiced privately, not shared publicly. This point of view wins the day much of the time in many people’s lives . . . with one notable exception. At Christmas time, people still allow the Sacred to invade the secular — even INVITE IT onto the public stage in many ways. What do I mean?
Our culture still celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ every December through music. Places where God is not welcome 11 months of the year are often platforms of praise from Black Friday to Christmas Day. All up and down the FM dial all Advent season, we hear deep theology being sung by today’s top artists. Every trip to the store during the holidays plays out underneath the soundtrack of the Savior. Rather than focusing on the irony of this reality, let’s enjoy it . . . and use it as a prompt for worship and evangelism during this busy season.
As we listen to this Christmas music, however, I wonder if we really know what we are singing. After all, most of these songs are very familiar to us . . . we sing them every year . . . but do we really understand what they are talking about? To say it another way, when we look at “The Christmas Carols” do we know the hope of Christmas past, present, and future?
This 31 day devotional will take one Christmas song each day during the month of December and provide a reflection on how that song helps us understand more about Jesus and what it looks like for us to follow Him. These devotionals are accessible in a variety of ways:
In addition to this, suggested versions of all 31 songs are available via Apple Music or Spotify via these links:
In Christ,
Pastor Mark Robinson
