The King Has Come.

KJ Washington

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[0:02] Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to Village Church this morning. My name is KJ and I serve on staff here at Village Church and I’m grateful for our opportunity together just to be able to dive into God’s Word together this morning. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

[0:19] Father, I ask you to help us as we dive into your Word, Lord. I pray that we see it as infallible and as authoritative over our lives, Lord. So we ask you to make much, ask us to help us make much of you during this time. [0:36] So we ask you to divinely intervene into this moment as we hear your Word, proclaim, Lord, so that it saturates our hearts and penetrates our minds and moves us towards a mission. In your name we pray. Amen. [0:49] If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew chapter 18-25. Again, that’s Matthew chapter 1 verses 18-25. [1:00] My desire for our time together is for us just to be able to gain a big perspective of the Christological prophecies that we will find in the Old Testament and to see the manifestation of those prophecies in Christ’s birth, which establishes ultimately as kingship. [1:19] And so what we’re doing this morning is we’re actually entering into our Christmas series as a church and what we’re going to do during our time together, we’re going to actually look back in the Old Testament and see how the Old Testament reinforces and builds a foundation for what we see in Matthew chapter 1 verse 18-25. [1:36] And so my hope is that we will have an appreciation for the Old Testament because it allows us to really understand the gravity and the need for Christ to come and to intervene into the world.

[1:48] So through our time looking at Matthew chapter 1 verse 18-25, we will begin to see that Jesus and God the Father, the Trinity was really setting the stage for all this to happen years and years before we get to Matthew chapter 1 verse 18-25. [2:05] So what we get to celebrate during the season, the Father is building the foundation for that years prior to. [2:13] Matthew chapter 1 verse 18-25, it reads as this,

[2:43] And so what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. [2:47] She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. [2:53] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet, behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name, Emmanuel, which means God with us. [3:04] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and he took his wife, but knew her not, and so she had given birth to the son, and he called his name Jesus. [3:14] This leads us to point number 1 this morning. [3:16] History was built anticipating the birth of Christ.

[3:20] History was built anticipating the birth of Christ. [3:24] What we see here is that conception by the Holy Spirit actually confirms a divine appointment. [3:30] So just imagine the fact of being Joseph in this narrative, and you’re planning on marrying the woman of your dreams, right? [3:38] You find out she’s pregnant. [3:40] Let’s be honest, many of us men in here, we’d be the ones that kind of run away from that moment. [3:43] If you’re dating her, you’re pursuing her in a relationship, and then randomly you find out, hey, she’s pregnant, you know it wasn’t you.

[3:51] You know, you would kind of look at her and you’d be like, hey, I need to get away from this. [3:54] But what we see happening in this passage is that the idea is that the baby, the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. [4:03] So there’s a little bit of different intentionality that we see here, right? [4:07] It’s not that somebody else had conceived this child in her, not that she was being unfaithful, but there was a divine appointment in this moment, in this text, [4:15] because God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, had sovereignly conceived a child and married. [4:24] That’s a divine appointment, right?

[4:26] See, there’s no way that God could not have planned out that Christ’s incarnational birth. [4:31] It’s actually the opposite. God had been planning out Christ’s birth before the foundation of the world. [4:37] Because if the Holy Spirit is the one that’s conceiving, that means that the Holy Spirit had the same knowledge, [4:42] because the Holy Spirit is God that knew from the foundation of the world that this child was going to come one day. [4:49] There’s a sense of anticipation there that we’re going to see later on. [4:53] See, God was simply meeting the needs of the people by providing the Savior who had been alluded to throughout history.

[5:02] See, I think many times we tend to be mistaken and think that God actually just pulled an audible with the birth of Christ. [5:08] As if in his sovereignty, God and I had been working in the midst of his creation. [5:13] His creation had been crying out the entire time for someone to redeem them from their sin, and God had the perfect remedy. [5:21] The Israelites didn’t need more self-help stories, but they needed someone to stand in on their behalf. [5:28] Doesn’t that sound familiar? [5:29] The moment they heard the prophecies about Christ, I can guarantee that they were ultimately looking forward to the day that Christ had been born.

[5:36] So what we’re going to begin to see is that God was setting the stage for the narrative that we’re reading right now throughout the Old Testament. [5:45] There’s a sense of anticipation that was set there. [5:48] So my point is for you to understand is that there is no type of anticipation that compares to the anticipation of the birth of Christ.

[5:57] So let’s personalize this a little bit. [6:00] What are some of the things that you most anticipate in your life? [6:03] Maybe it was the birth of your child. [6:06] Maybe it was the thought of your next job promotion.

[6:10] Whatever it may be, something was attached to that reality that allowed you to begin to visualize and desire the want for that reality to happen, right? [6:20] For that event to take place. [6:22] So when somebody knows they’re going to have a child, they’re excited because they know the child is coming. [6:25] They begin to look forward to the birth of the child. [6:29] It’s a sense of anticipation that gets parents excited about the birth of the child.

[6:37] So one example of anticipation for us today is to think through the royal priesthood or royal family in England. [6:46] If many of you all can think about this, you can think about any moment that a child is born in the royal family. [6:51] Everybody gets all giddy and whatnot. [6:54] Many of you know exactly what I’m talking about because you too lived in the sense of anticipation of a royal child. [7:00] Let’s think about when Prince George was born. [7:02] People lined up outside the hospital just waiting for him to be carried out.

[7:06] You saw people standing out whether it was in the cold or whether it was in the heat, just waiting for a baby to walk out of the doors and go to a car. [7:13] Think about how crazy that is. [7:14] The sense of anticipation that was there for this child to be born. [7:19] You saw other people that were waiting aimlessly at their screen waiting to click to just see the story of it happening. [7:26] There was a sense of anticipation that was there. [7:30] And the reason why that his birth was celebrated is because they knew that he was going to take the throne.

[7:35] They knew that one day if everybody else had passed away that this was going to be the child that was going to lead the nation.

[7:43] The drama was setting the stage. [7:45] The hype was there. [7:46] They were getting excited because they knew that this child was going to influence the world. [7:52] Which merits the anticipation for this birth.

[7:57] Yet the anticipation of the birth of Prince George has nothing on the anticipation presented in scripture about Christ’s birth. [8:04] The Old Testament is comprised of 39 books that is building the hype and excitement about one person who would change the world forever. [8:11] There were people who lived over a thousand years before Christ who who placed their hope in the fact that Christ would come one day. [8:20] They knew that Christ would be the one that would be the means of God fulfilling his plan to unite all things to himself. [8:28] See, redemptive history was built on the foundation of the exhilaration of God’s people because they had seen and witnessed God work through insufficient means of people. [8:38] But all of that was pointing them to the one that was perfect.

[8:41] Jesus himself. [8:44] See, God established Jesus came through the Abrahamic family and through his offsprings. [8:48] We see in verse one here in Matthew that the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David and the son of Abraham, is the connection for the family. [9:01] So we see in the foundation in the beginning, God was building this foundation. [9:05] See, the genealogy of Jesus connects Jesus with key people throughout scripture who God sovereignly worked through to bring about Jesus. [9:14] See, God established covenants with his people for the fact that he could point them to Jesus one day.

[9:22] In the moment that the covenant was established with Abraham, God was already pointing Abraham to Jesus. [9:28] It wasn’t that God wasn’t working through Abraham first, and then he just decided to bring Jesus into the game plan. [9:36] But the game plan was always Jesus. [9:38] Each time Abraham and the others that came after him had failed to live up to God’s glory, God wasn’t shocked. [9:45] God wasn’t disappointed because he knew that he was working through this family, building and growing the foundation to point to the day of Christ’s birth.

[9:55] So think about an example of Abraham having to sacrifice Isaac in order to be faithful to God. [10:01] Jesus was ultimately the one that would be sacrificed in order for his people to be reconciled to God. [10:06] Think about Moses and his opportunity to lead people out of bondage and slavery into the promised land. [10:12] Yet Jesus is the one who liberates us from bondage and slavery to sin. [10:16] Think about David, a man after the Lord’s own heart, but he was still tempted and drawn in by sin. [10:22] Then there’s Jesus, the perfect, sinless, and righteous Lamb of God who stands holy before us.

[10:29] All of those men and women that were presented in scripture were for the truth and the fact to point us to Jesus one day. [10:36] See, Christ created everything, and he’s been working from the beginning to get to the day of his birth. [10:42] See, redemptive history has given us the background and the introduction to Jesus’ story, [10:47] but we don’t want to limit the Old Testament to just being a background about Jesus since Jesus was ever present in the beginning of time. [10:57] See, Christ created all things, and he has been reigning from the beginning. [11:01] See, in Colossians chapter 1, verse 15 through 18, it says this.

[11:37] See, Christ had existed before all of his creation and is outside of all of his creation and was there from the beginning, reigning over everything. [11:46] See, we see his preeminence in the ability to create all things in mankind. [11:51] So we know that Christ was there in the beginning, so what we see is that history is just setting the stage for this to happen. [11:58] We just get to celebrate his incarnational birth, him coming in and reigning in the midst of the world. [12:04] As well, we see this in Genesis chapter 126 when God shows us his Trinitarian presence from the beginning. [12:11] He was there in the beginning, and Christ was always that plan of redemption.

[12:16] As well, we see that Christ is alluded to earlier on in the book of Genesis in what we call the first pronouncement of the gospel, [12:23] which is found in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, which is commonly referred to as the protoevangelium. [12:31] Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, reads as this.

[12:43] What we have happening here is what we would call protoevangelium, but what I would like to call it is a divine rope-a-dope. [12:51] If you don’t know what a rope-a-dope is, if you point back to the boxing life of Muhammad Ali, this is what he would do. [12:57] He would then, when he’s fighting his opponents, he would then get to a posture where he would lay up beside the ropes, and he would just take some hits for a while. [13:05] So as Muhammad Ali is fighting in the midst of the battle, he’s taking a bunch of body shots, right? [13:09] And so this is Satan ultimately bruising the heel of Christ, and so he’s taking the body shots. [13:15] But for the point is this, is that as Muhammad Ali allowed the opponent to wear down and to become tired, he would hit him with that fatal blow.

[13:23] And see, that’s what happens in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, is that Satan thought that he had abused Christ, he had bruised Christ, [13:30] but it didn’t do anything because Christ has taken the beating so he can give him the final blow. [13:35] That’s what we see happening here in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, with this proto-evangelium, or what we call the first pronouncement of the Gospel.

[13:44] From the beginning, Christ is setting the stage, he said, I got this. [13:48] Satan thought that he could bruise him a little bit, but Christ said, I’m going to finish it when I come into the world. [13:54] God is responding to the serpent in this passage by saying that there is going to be hostility between mankind and Satan, [14:00] where Satan will strike the heel of mankind, but the offspring of the woman will strike the head of Satan, as we just said. [14:07] The offspring striking Satan is Jesus himself, as we know, and he is the one who is going to defeat Satan once and for all. [14:13] Christ was there in the beginning and it was known what he was going to do in the future.

[14:18] This passage as well affirms that God’s plan to work through Eve’s family was all for the purpose to bring about his will. [14:26] See, God’s sovereign hand predetermined Jesus’ family’s lineage so that the power of God would be displayed. [14:34] From the beginning, it was clear that Christ would come to die on behalf of his people, but God had to sovereignly work in the midst of his family to bring about his plan. [14:42] To help illustrate this, I’m going to share a story here about myself because for myself, I find it really interesting to learn about family history. [14:49] If you are with me when I’m with my family, I love to just have the opportunity to be able to sit down with some older people in the family and ask them some questions. [14:57] I love learning about the past so I can understand the present and how we got to today, right?

[15:02] It’s really helpful for us to do that, but I can recall one time a few months ago where I went to the African American History and Culture Museum in Washington, D.C., [15:10] which is a very formative time for me as an individual because I had the opportunity to tangibly see the history that people talked about. [15:17] So for me, I got to see the shadows from slavery. I got to see the Bibles that people clung to. [15:23] I got to see how the story was being woven in history and how God was sovereignly orchestrating all things through a people to bring them to where they’re at today, right? [15:34] So he’s working in the midst of this people to get them to a point where they’re at today. [15:38] And so as I’m hearing these stories, I’m making these connections to the reality here.

[15:43] And similarly to that, that’s what we see throughout the scriptures. [15:47] As we read the Bible, we read the stories of the people of God and how God brought them to the point where they’re at today. [15:55] As we read the Bible, we get to feel and empathize with the people that are going through their everyday struggles so we can ultimately make the connection to how we get to Jesus one day. [16:06] That’s why it’s pertinent for us to understand the prophecies pointing us to Christ in the Old Testament overall because it’s building this foundation and it’s pointing us to Jesus himself.

[16:19] See, all these people’s lives pointed to what God was doing in the midst of that people. [16:26] And to help illustrate this, we need to understand that the same way that God was working in the midst of one people throughout history, he was working through his people throughout redemptive history to bring about his plan of redemption. [16:37] See, God was working through Saul. He was working through Samuel. He was working through Ruth and Boaz. He was working through Nehemiah. He was working through Jonah. [16:47] He was working through Isaiah. He was working through Obadiah, all in anticipation of the birth of Christ. [16:56] It’s all set in this stage. All these people lives were pointing us towards God himself who came to reconcile the people to himself. [17:04] See, God uses redemptive history to build the case for our need for Christ.

[17:10] See, friends, the same way that people were looking towards the cross in the Old Testament, the church today stands and looks in anticipation for the day that Jesus comes back for his church. [17:20] While we wait, we remain grateful for all that he has done for his church by intervening into the world. [17:26] There’s a sense of anticipation for those waiting on Christ to come back. [17:31] But the people waiting in anticipation of his birth knew that they should wait because the entire time God was pointing them there. [17:40] God was pointing them to their need to be saved and to be redeemed. [17:44] That leads us to point number two this morning. Jesus came with a mission to save. Jesus came with a mission to save.

[17:51] See, the Father’s plan was always for Christ to come and to redeem sinners. [17:56] Matthew chapter one, verse twenty one through twenty three, reasons this. [17:59] She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. [18:05] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet. [18:10] Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. [18:16] See, Joseph had no idea that his wife was going to give birth to the son of God.

[18:20] But in his dream, it was revealed to him that Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that he would ultimately bear the sins of the of his people. [18:29] Again, it wasn’t like God was thinking, let me just look, God’s thinking, let me just pick a random child to do this. [18:34] But he ordained this family to be raised up so that Jesus could come out of this family to fulfill the mission that was laid out before him. [18:42] See, the birth account presented Matthew shares with us two things. [18:46] First, it shares with us and shows us that the people need a savior. [18:49] Second, it shows us that only God could provide what the people needed.

[18:54] Friends, I don’t know about you, but I needed God to intervene into the world. [18:58] See, I don’t know where I would be at if Jesus didn’t intervene into the world. [19:02] See, throughout the history of the world, we have all had the same need, regardless of whatever generation that you come from, [19:08] regardless of how good you think that you are, how bad you think you are, regardless of where your circumstances right now, [19:14] whether you’re in a higher tax bracket or a lower tax bracket, regardless of whoever you are, we all have had the same need. [19:19] And that’s a need for God to intervene into the world.

[19:25] And we know that this child, this baby that was ultimately born in the manger, because he couldn’t find a spot in the inn, the local inn. [19:33] Imagine that. [19:35] The child is trying to be born, you’re trying to go up to Chippenham Hospital, but you can’t get in, so you have to go into the city to be born. [19:41] That same child, God had sovereignly been working in the midst of his life to bring about this day that this child would go on to bear the sin of his people on his shoulders, to provide a way to the Father. [19:52] See, friends, without Jesus, we would still be isolated, hopeless, and broken. [19:55] But Jesus came and intervened in the midst of the world to redeem us.

[20:00] See, every writer in scripture was set in this foundation for the birth of Christ. [20:03] See, God was using them to prepare the hearts of his people for this day. [20:06] His son would come. [20:08] See, he gave them prophecies of what it would look like for Jesus to come and to save his people. [20:13] And this leads us to the book of Isaiah, where Isaiah mentioned our need for God to intervene in his own book. [20:19] He was communicating with the Israelites about their current circumstances and how God prompted him to share with them about the one who was to come and who would eventually reconcile all things to himself.

[20:30] So what we see here is that Matthew is using the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14, to begin to illustrate the mission that Jesus was on. [20:40] He uses this quotation shortly after sharing that he is going to take away the sins of the people, reinforcing that God was doing the work, the work that had been prophesied about years earlier. [20:51] Here’s Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14.

[21:03] See, it’s really interesting for us if you read the context of this passage because prior to this text, Ahaz didn’t want to ask God for a sign. [21:12] See, the times were chaotic in Israel, and Israelites were being pressured by other nations. [21:17] But despite the chaos and the uncertainty around them, Ahaz didn’t want to hear from the Lord to provide a sign for them. [21:25] Well, despite his wishes, he is still given a sign. [21:29] In a moment when everyone was looking for hope, Isaiah pointed the people to Jesus, the one who could provide eternal hope. [21:36] The Israelites had a clouded vision for their current circumstances and couldn’t actually think outside of their present circumstances.

[21:43] And God used Isaiah to point them to Jesus in the midst of the situation, since he is the only one that could provide hope. [21:52] So after this conversation, it was known that God would come to be of his people, and he would be the one to lead them. [21:58] And the Israelites were struggling with this vision, and they really need to understand that the vision that they needed only Jesus could provide. [22:06] See, friends, we’re similar to the Israelites in that we struggle with chaos. [22:10] Our world is really chaotic around us, and we see the craziness of our world. [22:14] We don’t know who to trust.

[22:17] We don’t know where to turn to. [22:19] But the only one that can divinely enter into our world to set all things right is Jesus himself. [22:27] Friends, cling to Jesus because he’s the only one that can accomplish his mission. [22:31] He’s the only one that can give us hope in the midst of the craziness. [22:36] We needed Emmanuel, God among us, God with us, to come in. [22:42] And so this is a time where the Israelites were struggling with their leadership ultimately.

[22:46] They’re struggling to have vision for what was next in life. [22:49] They needed somebody to come down and to lead them. [22:52] And God had the remedy for that as well. [22:53] Jesus was the one that was going to come and to lead this people that were crying out for salvation.

[23:00] See, later on we see in Isaiah, we see how Jesus would fulfill that mission that he was set on. [23:06] Isaiah 53, verse 11 through 12, reads as this.

[23:34] See, Jesus knew his purpose. [23:40] His purpose was to come and to provide atonement for the sins of his people. [23:44] See, the righteous lamb of God would have to sacrifice himself for the transgressions of others. [23:49] It was God’s will for Jesus to be crushed on our behalf. [23:52] See, the child’s birth we are celebrating this season was for the purpose of this moment to become a reality. [24:01] So as you’re looking towards the birth of Christ this season,

[24:04] you’re looking at the birth hopeful for the fact that you know that he did come, [24:08] that he did die, and he did raise from the dead after being crushed.

[24:14] See, that’s the child that we’re celebrating this season. [24:19] We know what led Jesus actually to anguish, actually led to his satisfaction. [24:22] He joyfully did this on our behalf, and God was all the time working all this out together.

[24:31] It’s always been God’s plan, and in this text Isaiah gets a taste of God’s plan here. [24:40] And as well in Matthew, Matthew gets a taste of God’s plan. [24:45] And Joseph gets a taste of God’s plan when he says, when he’s told by God, [24:50] this boy, this child will save his people from their sins. [24:56] That vision is being given to them for them to embrace. [25:00] Think about that. What a wonderful child to have born into your family.

[25:04] The child that would be everything that the world needs. [25:07] He had a large weight on his shoulders, but only his shoulders could bear that weight. [25:11] We see in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, it reads as this, [25:14] For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, [25:21] and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. [25:28] See, knowing our previous context, can you imagine being told that a child will bear the weight of the chaotic situation?

[25:37] Chaos is all around the Israelites, but they’re being told that a child is going to come one day, [25:42] and he’s going to bear the weight of the government on his shoulders.

[25:47] Even when we today talk to non-believers throughout this Christmas season, [25:51] one of our greatest apologetics is the fact that a child bore the weight of the world on his shoulders. [25:57] As we’re looking at them, hopeful of all that Jesus had done for us on our behalf, [26:01] we’re pointing them to the fact that this child is the one that did all of that. [26:06] This child that was talked about previously in the Old Testament. [26:09] As well, I find it interesting here in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6,

[26:12] of the mature characteristics that are given to Jesus even before he is born. [26:17] Think about that. They’re told that he’s going to be the best counselor the world has ever seen, [26:21] and would be able to counsel anyone throughout any situation. [26:26] He states that he is God. [26:28] Could you imagine someone just telling you the years before all this happened, [26:33] that there’s a child coming who is God?

[26:37] We find out here that he’s this everlasting father who loves his people relentlessly forever.

[26:44] And lastly, he’s the Prince of Peace. [26:46] He makes peace between us and God. [26:49] All of this came in the package of one child. [26:52] The child that we get to celebrate this season. [26:55] The child that they were talking about for years before, [26:59] that came on a mission to save and to redeem.

[27:04] The reason why we’re celebrating Christ this time of year, [27:06] because he came and he fulfilled everything that is stated in the Book of Isaiah, [27:12] and in other places in the Old Testament. [27:15] See friends, as you worship Jesus this Christmas season, [27:18] remember that all that he has done for his people, [27:22] we aren’t just celebrating another birth,

[27:24] but the birth of a King. [27:27] The King who had paid all for us on the cross. [27:31] That leads us to point number three this morning. [27:33] Jesus is the King you need, not the King you want. [27:38] Jesus is the King you need, not the King you want. [27:42] See, people have a tendency to neglect the kingship of Jesus.

[27:46] Acknowledging Jesus as King does something to us on the inside. [27:50] It actually causes us to consider who actually has authority over our lives. [27:56] It’s especially hard at times to acknowledge that the birth we are celebrating is a King’s birth. [28:03] When it comes to the Christmas season, [28:06] we struggle to celebrate with a holistic perspective of Christ and his kingship.

[28:13] And we will only be able to fully worship Jesus during this season, [28:19] when we see him for all that he is worth. [28:22] It’s not just a birth of another child, but that’s royalty. [28:26] The same way people get giddy about Prince George’s birth, [28:28] you should get giddy about Christ’s birth. [28:30] You should be excited, you should be ecstatic to celebrate with other people,

[28:34] because this is a King.

[28:37] We’re celebrating the birth of a King. [28:40] So when we become complacent about this, [28:43] it’s going to hinder the mission for nonbelievers to understand about who Jesus is, right? [28:48] So the major difference between Christians and non-Christians during the celebration of Christ’s birth [28:53] is whether or not they identify him as just another historical birth, [28:57] or a historical birth of divine and eternal significance.

[29:01] When we will move away from just seeing Jesus as just another baby that’s cute, [29:06] but as a high priest who has come down to be of his people, [29:09] your perspective will change. [29:11] You will begin to see him as someone who changed the world forever. [29:15] This child was someone who came down to take away the sins of his people. [29:22] See, God was stamping his authority with that statement there in Matthew chapter 1.

[29:27] He was saying, this is the child. [29:29] This is the one that you’ve been waiting for. [29:31] Only a King could do this. [29:34] Friends, we know that redemption is only found in Jesus, [29:37] and that only a King could actually provide that type of redemption. [29:42] No other man could do it.

[29:43] No other child could bear that weight. [29:45] Only a King could do this.

[29:49] See, this baby in the manger is a King who we’ve been talking about this morning,

[29:56] yet he tends to not be the King that we desire. [29:59] Friends, the King we often desire is detrimental to our souls. [30:02] See, I’m not referring to a sanctified desire you might have for King Jesus. [30:08] I’m referring to the type of King you dream of having in your life through your flesh. [30:12] See, if we’re honest, we would have to admit our temptation is to believe [30:16] that our King should talk, act, and think, and lead in a particular way.

[30:22] When people encounter a baby Jesus, [30:23] they weren’t expecting to encounter a King in a humble and vulnerable manner.

[30:29] People often think about Kings as being a warrior-like leader, [30:33] which is hard for us to imagine a baby being in a manger as being this King.

[30:40] 1 Samuel, chapter 8, verse 19 through 20, reads as this.

[31:08] Friends, our temptation is to yearn for a King that would be able to fit in with the rest of the world. [31:16] That’s our temptation. [31:17] Our temptation is to have a ruling authority just like every other nation. [31:24] For the most part, we struggle to see someone as King if they’re not leading us into a fight. [31:27] [31:27]

[31:27] We struggle to see someone as King if they’re not leading us into battle.

[31:30] Even though Jesus does fulfill that, [31:33] it could be that same type of struggle for us to submit to him as King [31:37] because you might struggle to see him in that light [31:40] because you worship him as a baby during the Christmas season. [31:45] Because we don’t tend to think about children in that light, right? [31:49] You don’t tend to think about them about what they’re going to do in life.

[31:52] You see them for where they’re at right now.

[31:56] See, the Israelites wanted to be like the other nations. [31:59] They were envious of what all these other nations had accomplished through war. [32:04] And they wholeheartedly believed that if they had a King that led like everyone else, that they would be okay.

[32:11] And that’s what we see throughout the book of Isaiah as they’re pointing towards Christ. [32:16] They were in the same predicament. [32:17] They were looking for a King that would lead in a particular way, [32:20] that would do particular things to get them to a certain spot or situation, [32:26] to provide for them salvation. [32:29] But that’s not the King we need.

[32:31] That’s not the King that God has provided for us. [32:36] Most people just want a King who would lead like the way that they would. [32:40] That’s why some here today struggle with Jesus as King. [32:43] The thought that he would enter into the world in a humble manner [32:47] and then leave humbly on the cross is foreign to you. [32:50] And that’s why you struggle with the Gospel.

[32:54] Because we have a King that came down humbly to fight on behalf of his people, [32:59] that doesn’t shy away from his authority or his reign or dominion over his creation, [33:04] but he’s still reigning over his creation in the midst of all of that.

[33:11] See, Jesus is our greatest example of a King. [33:14] And as the Israelites were interacting throughout the Old Testament, [33:18] they were hoping for a King, but the entire time God’s saying, [33:20] no, I got you a King, he’s coming. [33:23] But God responds to the Israelites, he provides for them the King that they want, [33:27] and then we’ll get to see what happens a little bit later.

[33:31] See, I guarantee that your first inclination of a King wouldn’t be for him to come and die. [33:37] That wouldn’t be my first inclination. [33:38] When I think about a King, I don’t think about a King going to sacrifice himself on behalf of other people. [33:42] I think about a King staying away, tucked away in his tower. [33:47] If somebody wanted to, they could have came and murdered baby Jesus. [33:51] That’s a very humble state.

[33:52] We’re talking about God here. [33:54] If God wanted Jesus to enter into the world as a man, he could have done that. [33:59] He could have did that, he could have came and died for the behalf of the people.

[34:04] But this is King Jesus that we see in Scripture. [34:07] That he’s humble, that he had divine purpose. [34:09] And we have an opportunity to worship him with our lives, and so I don’t want to neglect that during this season [34:14] just because we’re celebrating his birth. [34:18] Friends, the King you want is detrimental to your soul, [34:21] and God has given us the opportunity to share with others and ourselves

[34:24] during this Christmas season about who King Jesus really is. [34:28] So we have to go back and remind ourselves that this is who we are worshiping.

[34:36] And I’ll be honest, this season is one of the easiest seasons to share with others about Jesus. [34:40] Because regardless not if they actually follow Jesus or not, [34:43] they’re talking about the birth of Christ, they’re celebrating the birth of Christ during Christmas, [34:47] and it leads to some easy conversations.

[34:51] But if you misunderstand his kingship in your life and that he is a King, [34:57] you won’t take advantage of that opportunity to point those people to the King.

[35:03] And then we can miss out on this great opportunity that we have

[35:09] to share with others about Jesus and his kingship. [35:12] Friends, I hope you realize that Jesus is the King you need. [35:16] You don’t need any other idol that you’re placing at the forefront of your life. [35:19] You need Jesus. [35:21] You need a God to intervene into the midst of the chaos to fulfill his plan of redemption [35:25] to establish his kingdom ultimately.

[35:27] So the chaos that all these people lived in the midst of, for some of us, that’s a reality for us. [35:32] And we needed this baby to come and to reign over us. [35:37] Second Samuel chapter 7 verse 12 through 16 reads this.

[35:45] This is God sharing to David here.

[35:57] So even though the people of today are not the same, [35:58] [35:58] And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. [36:02] And I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. [36:05] When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, [36:10] with the stripes of the son of men.

[36:12] But my steadfast love will not depart from him, [36:14] as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. [36:17] And your house, your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. [36:22] Your throne shall be established forever. [36:26] So even though the people thought that they had received David, [36:30] that they had David, this great king who we know that fell short in many ways,

[36:35] God reminded David that the king that was going to rule and reign on the throne forever was coming. [36:41] We see that fulfilled here in Matthew chapter 1 verse 18 through 25. [36:45] That king is Jesus himself.

[36:49] See David’s kingship wasn’t the epitome of kingship, [36:53] but God was pointing David to the future king that would establish the throne forever. [37:00] And that’s the king we need guys.

[37:03] Not the king you sometimes want, but that’s the king we need. [37:06] That’s the king that we have the opportunity to worship this season. [37:10] And I believe this text is extremely relevant that we just read to Joseph, [37:13] because as he’s confronted by this divine appointment that God has set up before the foundation of the world [37:19] to build the case for this baby to come that we talked about, [37:22] he’s fulfilling all these prophecies that this is the king.

[37:29] I know some of you all are kind of like, man, I went a long way around to get to this point, [37:33] but he had to build this case for this king, this child that we get to worship and to celebrate. [37:41] So I hope we see that the Old Testament is relevant to us here.

[37:46] God built the case for this. [37:48] In his sovereignty, God orchestrated the birth of Christ before the foundation of the world [37:52] so that he could intervene into the midst of the chaos to redeem his people from their sin. [37:58] Christ did the work of a king, and he is worthy of our worship. [38:01] Worship Jesus this season and forevermore. [38:06] That’s my call to you guys.

[38:08] So as the band comes up, I pray that we would consider this as vital for our lives, [38:15] as the necessary means for life, for hope, that Jesus is the one that we all need.

[38:24] That we understand that God, before the foundation of the world, [38:28] was building the case for this moment so that Christ could be born. [38:31] So that allows us to be hopeful. [38:33] That allows us to be joyful of that, because we get to celebrate the birth of a king this season. [38:40] On Sunday mornings here at Village, we have the opportunity to be able to take communion. [38:44] We have the opportunity to take part in a commemoration of Jesus’ life, his death, his resurrection,

[38:51] where we get to take the bread, which represents his body that was broken for us on our behalf. [38:57] As well, we get to take the juice, which represents his blood that was broken for us on our behalf. [39:03] And so we have this opportunity to come together as a church to celebrate all that Jesus has done for us. [39:10] That this baby was the one who had came to fulfill this. [39:14] So the opportunity that we can be reconciled to God, that we could be with God forever. [39:19] That we could be established in this relationship with him.

[39:22] And so I want to challenge you as you come to the table to be grateful for this season [39:26] that we get to celebrate the life of Christ and that he reconciled us to himself. [39:31] But if you’re a non-believer here today and that you’ve heard about Jesus’ kingship, [39:36] that you heard about the Old Testament was building the case to point to Jesus today as king, [39:42] I want to call you to faith in Jesus. [39:44] I want to call you to trust Jesus as your savior and that he is the king of your life

[39:48] and that he came to die to reconcile a people to himself. [39:52] And that he wants you to be part of that people. [39:54] And if that’s you, I want to encourage you to have a conversation with somebody. [39:57] If you would go out into the four-year area, there’d be somebody out there that would love to have a conversation with you [40:02] about what it looks like to follow Jesus. [40:05] So I want to encourage you to do that.

[40:07] Before our church family, the people that follow Jesus, anybody that has faith in Jesus, [40:12] I want to encourage you to come to the tables today, joyful of his kingship, [40:16] knowing that he’s ruling a reign on his throne. [40:18] We get to celebrate his birth this season. [40:21] Come to the table today.