ADVENT
A CANDLE FOR CHRIST
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 2:11
DECEMBER 24, 2007
The word “christen” is a word that is often used in our culture. And time and the word christen can mean, “to baptize.” It can mean, “to dedicate.” The word christen can even mean, “to name.” It can mean, “to launch or initiate.” It can even mean, “to make Christian.” The word christen is used in so many ways in our culture. We christen little tiny babies and we christen large, giant cruise ships before we send them out to sea. We christen with water. We christen with oil. We christen with champagne. We do a lot of christening.
This word “christen” comes from the Greek word “chrio,” which means “to anoint,” “to anoint so as to bestow divine blessing,” and that’s the deal. For most of us, we want our lives blessed. We want everything in our world around us to be blessed and to be anointed, everything to be christened. The Bible tells us that on this earth, in this world, there’s nothing and there is no one more christened than that baby born in Bethlehem on Christmas Day—no one more blessed. In fact, that baby born in Bethlehem is the Anointed One, the Blessed One, the Christened One, the Christ. This title, the Christ, also comes from “chrio,” the word “to anoint” and it comes more specifically from “christos,” which means, “the Anointed One.” In the Greek language Christ is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew “masaih,” from which we get the word messiah. Both messiah and Christ mean, “the Anointed One,” “the Blessed One,” the Christened One.” And so tonight we light a candle to the Christ, the Anointed One, the Blessed One, the Christened One.
If you’ve studied the Bible or if you’ve come to this church for a period of years, you probably know that in Israel there were only three anointed offices. There was the office of Prophet, the office of Priest, and the office of King. It was the hope and the faith of all the Jewish people that one day on the stage of history there would arise the Anointed One, the Blessed One, the Christ, the Christened One, and that He would fulfill the three anointed offices. He would be the fulfillment of the office of Prophet, the office of Priest, and the office of King. Tonight, I want us to take a fresh look at what it means to call Jesus the Christ, what it means to say He’s the Anointed One, what it means to you and what it means to me—what it means to us very personally.
First, we look at what it means to say that Jesus fulfills the prophetic office. In the Bible the prophets of God are called, “Hoi christoi Theou.” This means, “The anointed of God.” The prophets of Israel were the anointed of God. So you come to Psalms 105, verse 15, and God says, “Do not touch My anointed Ones. Do to My prophets no harm.” Cause My prophets no harm. Do not touch My anointed Ones.” They were the anointed of the Lord.
To say that Jesus is the Christ, to say that He is the Anointed One, is to say that He has fulfilled the prophetic office, but I don’t think there’s any word in the English language more misunderstood by people. When people think of a prophet, they think of someone who predicts or foretells the future. They think of prophecy most naturally when they think of a prophet and they think of somebody who foretells the future. But this is to misunderstand the Bible. This is to misunderstand the Greek and the Hebrew because in Greek and in Hebrew in the New Testament and in the Old Testament the word for prophet in the Greek is “prophetes.” The word in the Hebrew is “nabi.” These words mean the same. These words mean simply, “to speak for God.” The literal meaning of nabi and prophetes is “to speak for God.” That’s really all a prophet is. A prophet is someone who speaks for God. These words can also mean, “to speak forth the Word of God.” So a prophet was somebody who simply spoke for God, who spoke God’s Word to the people. A prophet was somebody who spoke forth the Word of God. And to say that Jesus is the Christ, to say He is the Anointed One, to say that He has fulfilled the anointed office of Prophet, is to say that no one ever spoke for God like Jesus, for He is God’s own Son. Nobody ever spoke forth the Word of God like Jesus. The Bible tells us Jesus IS the Word of God. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Born in Bethlehem, Christ, the Anointed One, entered our world. And He is the Truth. He is the Word of God. If you’ve accepted Jesus as the Christ, understand tonight you have acknowledged that He has fulfilled the office of Prophet. He is the Word of God and He is Truth. That’s why the Bible says, “In many and various ways,” (this is Hebrews, chapter 1), “God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken through His Son.” He is the fulfillment of the prophetic office.
Twelve years ago, my dad, my father, passed away. My dad died. It was hard on the whole family. It was November 27, 1995, when my mother and father went to bed that night. The went to bed in their home in La Cañada, California and they just thought it was a normal night, a night like any other night. My mom had a cold and she had a cough. She was congested and she was coughing so much that my dad couldn’t sleep and my dad said to my mom, “I want to get some sleep. I’m going to go in the other bedroom.”
Dad went into the bedroom where my brothers and I had slept when we were growing up. There in the middle of the night, early in the morning, November 28, 1995, my dad had a massive stroke. He somehow managed to make it out of the extra bedroom back to Mom and he was able to touch Mom and wake her up but Dad couldn’t speak. Because of this stroke he could not speak and Mom tried to get Dad to sit down. Dad fell over, knocked over the lamp, and Mom called 911. They took my dad to Verdugo Hills Hospital in Southern California.
For the first few hours my dad was kind of awake and aware of who was in the room with him. Barb and I lived here in Colorado. My brother Greg and his wife Barb also lived here in Colorado. My brother Gary and his wife Anne lived in California. It was Gary who called us. We rushed out to California to see my dad and by the time we got there Dad had slipped into unconsciousness. We went up to his hospital room. I remember looking at my dad, kind of bending over the bed and whispering in my dad’s ear telling my dad I loved him, telling my dad that I respected him. I respected the man and the example that he had always been, but I didn’t know as I said these things whether Dad could hear me. Sometimes it seemed like he squeezed my hand a little bit, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know whether Dad could hear me.
We were there for some days with my dad. My dad never woke up and the doctors didn’t know how long he would stay in that coma-like state or whether he would live or die, although they didn’t think he would live. Eventually we came back here to Colorado. It was December 7, 1995, some days later, when my brother Gary called and said, “Dad is dying and the doctors say he just has a few more minutes. I’m going to put the phone up to Dad’s ear and you can say goodbye to him.” I told my dad again that I loved him and that I respected him. Again, I didn’t know whether he could hear me, and I don’t know to this day. And in a sense, it doesn’t matter because through the years I had told my dad many times that I loved him and I respected him.
My dad died that day, December 7, 1995, and went to be with Christ. My dad loved Christ. My dad served Christ and had embraced Jesus as The Christ, as his Lord and Savior. My dad had lived a life of service to Christ and His church and my dad is with Christ now. But Dad still can’t talk to me. I’d love to hear my dad say something. I’d like to hear my dad speak to me.
My dad used to call me every Sunday. I’d kind of sometimes look forward to the call, depending on what I was doing, but he called me every Sunday. He’d always say, “Is this #3?” because I was his third-born son. I wish he could call me now. I wish he could talk to me now. God has not set it up like that. People in heaven don’t talk to people on earth. It just doesn’t work that way. And yet I tell you, you come to the Bible, you come to this Book and it’s all about communication between heaven and earth. If you want to summarize in just a few words what the book is about, it’s all about communication between heaven and earth. It’s about man’s effort to communicate with God and God’s desire to communicate with man.
The Bible tells us that through the centuries God sent His prophets. He sent His prophets and they spoke for God and they spoke forth the Word of God. Many prophets in many parts of the world over many centuries spoke for God. Prophets were generally kind of run out of town. People didn’t like the Word of God and prophets would say, “Thus saith the Lord, you are oppressing the poor.” People didn’t like that. Prophets would say, “Thus saith the Lord, you are living lives of extravagance and materialism and ignoring love and justice and mercy and compassion and there are more important things.” People didn’t like that. Prophets would say, “You’re living lives of sexual immorality and you’re not honoring the way God intended us to sanctify marriage.” People didn’t like that. They would drive the prophets out of town.
God, in the course of time on rare occasions sent angels. There were angelic visitations. On even rarer occasions, there were theophanies, some brief physical manifestation of God. But fallen mankind really didn’t listen to the voice of God. So, God thinks in the course of time, “I’m going to do something incredible. I’m going to go to earth Myself and I’m going to take their flesh upon Myself.” And so God comes to Bethlehem in the person of His Son Jesus. He’s the Christ, the Anointed One, the Blessed One, the Christened One, and He is Immanuel. He is God With Us and the Word of God, the Truth. I promise you if you’ve accepted Jesus Christ then you acknowledge that even in this world of postmodernity, even in this world where some doubt the very existence of truth, you have acknowledged Jesus as the Truth, the Christ, the Anointed One, the fulfillment of the prophetic office.
We see the word “masiah” and we see the word “chrio” and we see these Greek and Hebrew words applied to the priests of Israel. Both of these words, as we have seen, mean anointed. The priests of Israel were anointed of God, anointed for the purpose of bestowing divine power and divine blessing upon the priests.
What do you think of when you think of priests? Just this last week my wife Barb and our granddaughter Abigail came into my office here at the church. Barb and Abigail oftentimes come into my office here at the church to say hi. Abigail is about 5 years old. Abigail doesn’t call Barb and me Grandma and Grandpa. She calls Barb Mimi, which I guess is French, and she calls me Papa, which is kind of universal. She came into the office this past week with Barb and she saw my robe was hanging on the door in my office. Abigail smiled and she said, “Look, Mimi. There’s Papa’s hilarious speeching clothes.” Sometimes Abigail, just talking to people, will say, “My Papa is a speecher.” That kind of makes some sense because I kind of give speeches. So Papa is a speecher and I have hilarious speeching clothes. I wear this robe tonight and if you come to church often you know I rarely wear a robe, but I wear the robe this Christmas Eve for Christ and for Christmas and to honor Christ and to honor my granddaughter, Abigail.
What do you think of when you think of a priest? Do you think of hilarious speeching clothes? Is that what you think of when you think of a priest? Do you think of a white collar? Do you think of a priestly robe? Do you think of priestly vestments? Understand the priesthood has little to do with external apparel. By the will of God, the priesthood has to do with the heart. Do you want to know the heart of a priest biblically? The heart of a priest is found in the Book of Joel in the second chapter, Joel 2:17. “Let the priests weep at the temple porch and the temple altar and let the priests say, ‘Spare Thy people, O Lord.’” That’s the heart of the priest. The priest weeps for the people. The priest intercedes for the people. The priest cries out for the people to God, calling out for mercy. “Spare Thy people.”
I hope you understand because this is so important, the difference between a prophet and a priest. A prophet represents God to the people. “Thus, saith the Lord, this is the Word of God.” God to the people. But the priest, on the other hand, represents the people to God. Therefore, the priest has to love the people and feel the way they feel and be burdened by their needs and intercede constantly for the people in prayer. In the Old Testament the priests made sacrifices for the people and for the sins of the people, seeking the mercy of God.
On the altars of Israel, you see the priestly system and the sacrificial system. Of course, you know how the High Priest on one day of the year, on Yom Kippur, went into the Temple, into the Holy of Holies, and there the High Priest sprinkled the blood of animals on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant over the Shekinah, over the very presence of God, seeking atonement for the sins of the people. That same day, Yom Kippur, the High Priest vested the sin of the people on the scapegoat and sent the scapegoat out into the wilderness to Azazel, symbolically removing the sin of the people from them—Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the High Priest seeking to serve the people before God, in the sight of God.
Of course, Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Anointed One and He fulfills all three anointed offices, so Jesus fulfills the office of Priest and nobody ever loved the people like Jesus. That’s why He came in His incarnation and took our flesh upon Himself. No one loves you more than Jesus. No one loves me more than Jesus. In His love He came and lived a sinless life that He might be the perfect Lamb of God. And He went to Calvary’s cross to be the ultimate sacrifice for the sin of the world and bring the sacrificial system to an end. That day that Jesus died on Calvary truly was the day of atonement, the end of the sacrificial system, Yom Kippur, as Jesus took upon Himself the sin of the whole world and fulfilled the priestly office.
If you, this Christmas Eve, have taken Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Christened One—if you’ve taken him as the Christ—then you accept that He has fulfilled the priestly office and He has brought the sacrificial system to an end and He has made atonement for the sin of the world and He is, therefore, as the angel announced, Savior. You have come to Him and you have knelt at the foot of the cross and you’ve asked Him to save you from your sin because He loves the people. He is the fulfillment of the priestly office.
Finally, Jesus is the fulfillment of the kingly office. He is the Christ and He is the fulfillment of all three of these offices. In the Bible the kings of Israel are called” Christos tou kuriou.” This means, “the anointed of the Lord.” The title given to kings is very similar to the title given to priests and prophets, the three anointed offices, but you see, for the people of God in the land of Israel, no office was more anointed than the office of king. So Saul, David, and Solomon had anointing and that anointing was bestowed upon them through oil that had been blessed and it was the bequeathing of the power of God upon them, the anointed office of king.
Now, Jesus is the Christ. He is the Anointed One. No one has ever been anointed like Him, christened like Him, blessed like Him. And so He came and He fulfills the office of King. Therefore, the Bible tells us in Revelation 19, “Jesus Christ is King of Kings.” It’s an incredible title. “Lord of Lords.” In Philippians, chapter 2, we’re told that, “One day very knee will bow to Him. Every knee will bow in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth, and confess that Jesus is Lord and Christ, to the glory of God the Father.” He is King of Kings and He has all authority. Even at His First Advent, even at His First Coming, He said to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” All “exousia,” all power, all authority.
By that power, He raised the dead. He calmed the seas and rebuked the wind. By that power, He rose. Death could not hold Him. But He’s coming again. He is coming again. The scripture is clear. He will come as King of Kings. The first time He came primarily as Prophet and Priest. He will come the second time and He will come as King of Kings. The Bible says, “He will beat our swords into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” He will rule the nations when He comes again.
In the meantime, the gospel goes forth, the message of the Christ. The gospel goes forth to the nations and now is the time to embrace His reign. You don’t want to wait until the consummation, when He comes to judge the nations. You don’t want to wait. Now is the time. This Christmas is the time to embrace the reign of Christ, the Anointed One who is King of Kings. Now is the time to ask Jesus to be not only your Savior, your Priest, your Prophet, but your King, for He has fulfilled the three anointed offices.
I think sometimes people say… I think people wonder, “What’s it like to embrace the reign of Christ? What’s it like to become a Christian and to call Jesus, ‘Christ’? What’s it like to embrace Him as King? What does that feel like? How does that work?”
This past year one of the favorite movies that I saw was the movie “Ratatouille.” That might tell you something is strange about me, but Ratatouille was an animated feature and I think kind of a classic. Ratatouille is about a rat. This rat is a master chef and that’s a bummer for a rat because a rat’s not allowed in the kitchen. A rat is not allowed in the kitchen, but this rat is a master chef and so in this movie you have the rat becoming friends with a person, with a human being, and then the rat begins to try to guide and control and master the human being so the human being can do all the cooking for the rat. The rat sits on the head of the human being and starts pulling the hair strings of the human and guiding his actions and trying to control him.
Eventually in the movie the rat is underneath the chef’s hat working in the kitchen stealthily. Of course, I want you to see a little scene from “Ratatouille” where the rat is trying to train his friend, but it’s not easy to control a person is it? It’s not easy to control a human being. It’s not easy to make them reach forth their hand and put some money in an offering plate. It’s not easy to make a person get down on his knees and pray. It’s not easy to make a person walk into an inner-city soup kitchen and help the poor or into a Sunday school class and teach some little kids. It’s not easy to control a human being.
It’s certainly not easy for a rat, and it’s not easy for God, not easy for Christ. But I hope you understand Christ doesn’t want you to simply be a puppet on a string. He wants you to understand the beauty of His reign. He’s given you freedom. You have free moral autonomy. You would not be morally culpable if you didn’t have volition. God has granted this great gift of freedom, and when you come to Jesus, you still have free will.
Some people wonder, “Well, what’s it like to have Christ reign over me? Does He kind of get inside your head and start pulling the hair strings? It’s not like that at all. You see, it’s a love relationship, you and Christ. It’s all about love. As you experience His love and the amazing depths of His love and then as you begin to love Him, you want to know His will. As you love each other, you want to know His will. As you love Him, you begin to want to please Him in discipleship and spiritual formation and growth is this process over time where in this love relationship you know more and more of His will and you seek to please Him more and more as time goes by. That’s what it means to embrace the reign of Jesus.
The amazing thing about Jesus is that He is so loving that He wants to share His reign with us. That’s what the Bible tells us. He actually wants to share His reign with us, His people. The Greek word for reign or rule in the Bible is “basileuo,” sometimes “sunbasileuo,” which simply means, “to reign with” or “to co-rule.”
The Bible again and again tells us that we who believe that Jesus is the Christ will reign with Christ forever and ever and ever. This is the amazing promise of the scriptures. So, 1 Corinthians 4, Revelation 5, Revelation 20, Revelation 22, Romans 5, 2 Timothy 2—you can go through many, many passages and you see the same promise that we will reign and we will rule with Christ. This is His desire for us.
You say, “Well, what’s that going to look like?” And I don’t know. There’s mystery—beautiful, glorious, awesome mystery—to the gospel. In Genesis 1:26, God gave humanity dominion over the earth. God gave us dominion over this planet. He gave us reign that we might reign with Him on this planet. We’ve abused our dominion, haven’t we? We’ve abused our dominion. We’ve abused the environment. One day we’ll given an account to God who gave us that dominion in the first place, but the Bible is clear that in the life to come we who belong to Jesus will reign with Him forever and ever throughout the New Heavens and the New Earth and we will rule and reign over all the works of God’s hands. Jesus wants it that way. That’s the nature of His heart and it’s incredible.
In “The Chronicles of Narnia,” where the great lion is Christ, He shares His reign with His people. Through the genre of fantasy, a profound truth is shown, that Christ wants to lovingly share His reign with us.
My mother is in the hospital and has been in the hospital these last 5 days. She’s experiencing renal failure, kidney failure, and congestive heart failure. She’s still mentally sharp. We love my mom very much and we’ve gone each day to be with her. We just came from the hospital an hour or two ago. Yesterday as I was with my mom, we said a little prayer together and I tried to tell my mom how much Jesus loves her. Of course, my mom knows that. It was my mom who told me how much Jesus loves me. I don’t know how long my mom has. She’s approaching her 95th birthday in February and we pray that God would give her more time, but I can tell you this. When my mom leaves this world, she will enter into her inheritance. She will enter into her inheritance and some day with all of the people of Christ she will reign and rule forever and ever.
My mom, long ago, accepted Jesus as the Christ, the fulfillment of the prophetic office, the Word of God, the Truth; and the fulfillment of the priestly office, the Savior of the World who died for us and loves us; and the fulfillment of the kingly office, for Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He will reign forever and ever. I want to make sure this Christmas Eve that you have a chance to embrace Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Blessed One, the Christened One, the Christ. Let’s look to the Lord together in a word of prayer.