The Future King

SERMON OUTLINE:

A great darkness (vs 2)

A great light (vs 2-4)

A great promise (vs 6-7)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• I waited all my life for an event to happen.

• The promise it might one day happened started on the 14th of November 1948.

• When Charles Philip Arthur George was born.

• All my lifetime he was referred to as ‘The Future King’.

• And Prince Charles became king upon his mother's death on 8th September 2022.

• At the age of 73, he became the oldest person to accede to the British throne,

• After having been the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales in British history.

• His coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.

• King Charles III has spoken out about climate change and the environment,

• Also, he seems to loathe modern architects and architecture,

• But for me some of his best-known quotes…

• “To get the best results you must talk to your vegetables.”

• “I learned the way a monkey learns - by watching its parents.”

• “All the time I feel I must justify my existence.”

• TRANSITION: 2,000 years ago, another baby born to be king,

• And as we examine his life, death & resurrection,

• He very much justified his existence!

• The apostle Paul wrote (1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16),

• “He was vindicated by the Spirit.”

• He truly was what or rather who he professed to be!

Note: The big picture.

• We are going back 800 years before Jesus was born into planet earth.

• The setting is not good, from a human perspective it is one of hopelessness.

• But from a godly perspective there is always hope!

• That hope is found in a baby, a promised future king!

Note:

• We are living in strange times, dark times, hopeless times.

• We see the wickedness of man as demonstrated in the wars of Russia & the Ukraine,

• Ans the ongoing conflict of Israel and Hamas.

Ill:

• An airplane pilot made an announcement to his passengers over the Tannoy system,

• "Ladies and gentlemen, we have some good news and some bad news, t.

• The good news is we are making great progress, the bad news is we are lost”.

• TRANSITION: Isn’t that a great description of our times,

• We are making great progress in every area of life, e.g., technology and medicine.

• And yet we are still lost, still battling the same problems of the human heart!

Quote: Rick Warren (from his sermon ‘Hope is My Anchor’):

“Wealth is idolized.

Truth is minimized.

Life is trivialized.

Abortion legalized.

Television is vulgarized.

Advertising is sensualized.

Everything is sexualized and commercialized.

Our consciences have been desensitized and anesthetized.

Education is secularized.

Free markets are monopolized.

Races are polarized.

Politics are polarized.

Sports are scandalized.

Morals and ethics are liberalized.

And in entertainment crime is sensationalized and immorality is popularized,

Drugs are legitimized, sin is glamorized.

The courts are paralyzed.

The breakup of the family is rationalized.

Manners are uncivilized.

Christians are demonized.

And God is marginalized.”

• TRANSITION: Isn’t that a sad description of our times,

• But that is not only true in our day.

• It was the same situation we read about in the book of Isaiah.

(1). A Great Darkness (vs 2):

“The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned.”

• Remember the background to these verses,

• God’s people had been split into two by a civil war:

• They a country divided:

• In the north was Israel – the northern kingdom;

• In the south was Judah - the southern kingdom,

• Both kingdoms were living in dark times.

• That darkness evidenced itself in at least two ways.

(a). Dark circumstances:

• Their circumstances were bleak,

• Assyria was a military aggressor;

• Assyria had already started invading Israel in the north;

• And it was only a matter of time before it would also conquer Judah in the south.

(b). Dark spiritually:

• Spiritually the nation was walking in darkness;

• Selfishness & sinful actions dominated in the majority of people.

Ill:

• Superstitions (2:6),

• Materialism (2:7; 5:8-9),

• Idolatry (2:8,20),

• Arrogance (2: 12-17; 5:15),

• Social disintegration (3:56,12-14),

• Sensuality (3:16-26),

• Alcoholism (5:11-13,22).

• Occult practices.

• And if you keep looking, you will probably find a whole load of other things going on as well!

Ill:

• In 1835 a man visited a doctor in Florence, Italy.

• He was filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep.

• He couldn't eat, and he avoided his friends.