Jesus Is The Promised King Over All

Sermon Transcript

INTRODUCTION

What difference does Christmas make? There is a lot about Christmas that I love. Now that Andrea and I have a second and fifth grader, one of our favorite parts of Christmas is watching our daughter sing carols and our son play his massive tuba in Christmas bands and choirs. Maybe it’s because I’m not musical at all, watching them sing and play Christmas carols fills me with unspeakable joy. I love Christmas. But have you ever wondered: what difference does it all make? What difference can and should Christmas make the other 364 days of the year? What difference does Christmas actually make? That’s the question we are considering together from the Bible this Advent season.

Before we can experience the difference that Christmas makes, we must first behold the One whom Christmas is all about. This morning we are beholding Jesus Christ through Matthew 2:1-12, but last week it was Matthew 1:18-25. In last week’s passage the emphasis was on Jesus Christ being God with us. He is Immanuel; God the Son born in the flesh to save us from our sins. But this week, the emphasis is a little different. The emphasis is on Jesus Christ’s royalty. The emphasis is on His royal rule as the King over all kings. We see the emphasis on His royalty most clearly when King Herod asks the Jewish religious leaders where Christ the king was promised to be born. They answered by quoting from the prophet Micah, who prophesied that the Christ would be born in the royal city of the great King David, called Bethlehem. Matthew 2:5 – They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

[6] “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

The location of his birth reveals his royal identity. And that brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning: Jesus is the promised King over all. Jesus is the promised King over all. Now, let’s return to our question: What difference does Christmas make? What difference does it make the other 364 days of the year that Jesus is promised King over all? We’ll see two differences in our passage this morning 1. We can worship the true God (over idols) 2. We can be sacrificial (over selfish).

WE CAN WORSHIP THE TRUE GOD (OVER IDOLS)

The Bible indicates that we all worship, so the difference that Christmas makes isn’t whether or not we will worship, but who we will worship. Our default setting isn’t to worship the one true God; it’s to worship idols. Our default setting isn’t to offer ourselves to the Creator, but to build our lives around some aspect of his creation. Question: What idol – what created thing – holds your heart? Or, if Christ has set you free from slavery to idols, what idols still tempt you? The dirty little secret is that the idols we worship end up eating us alive. Shortly before his suicide, the novelist David Foster Wallace said this about worship and idols in a college commencement speech. “Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god . . . to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before [your loved ones] finally plant you. . . . Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful; it is that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.” Wallace was by no means a Christian, but he understood this simple truth: Everybody worships. Everyone builds their hope, happiness, significance, and security on something. The difference Christmas makes is that we can worship the true life-giving God over life-taking idols. We can worship Jesus, the promised King, rather than the idols that make our lives miserable now and forever.

Now this theme of royalty shouldn’t surprise us because in Matthew 1:1, Matthew introduced us to Jesus Christ by calling him the “Son of David.” David was Israel’s greatest king, but the greatest thing that ever happened to David was what God promised would happen to him. God promised David that he would have a royal son to sit on his throne forever. 2 Samuel 7:12-13 – When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. [13] He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. A royal Son! Now, King David was from the town of Bethlehem, from Israel’s royal tribe of Judah. Therefore, the Old Testament prophets who lived after David promised that David’s royal Son would be born in David’s city; Bethlehem. That’s why, when King Herod asked the religious leaders to tell him where Jesus the promised King over all was to be born, they answered, in Matthew 2:5, by quoting from the prophet Micah 5:2 and 2 Samuel 5:2. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

[6] “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Jesus is the promised King over all. In our passage, we see that there are only two possible responses to Jesus the promised King over all; worship Him as the true God or worship the idol of self. Herod chooses the idol of self. Matthew 2:1-3 – Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, [2] saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” [3] When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; Do you notice the royal overtones and the tension; royalty and tension? The narrative describes the days when Herod the Great ruled over Israel as the Roman-installed puppet king of the Jews; false-royalty. During this time, Magi came from the east – maybe Persia or Babylon – to worship the true king of the Jews. Of course, this troubled Herod because he worshiped the most common idol of all; self. The idol of self drove him crazy. He was so paranoid about maintaining power that he even murdered his own wife and some of his sons. When you build your life around yourself, your ambitions, your wealth, your pleasure, your comfort, being right, calling the shots, or being master over what you believe, King Jesus is a troubling threat to you; it makes you crazy. That’s one of two possible responses to Jesus the promised King over all; choose the miserable idol of self.

There is another option; the Magi. Ironically, though Herod the king in Israel worships the idol of self, the pagan Magi show us the other alternative; come and worship King Jesus; the true God. Who are the Magi? Kevin DeYoung, in The Biggest Story Storybook Bible, which we’ve used for family devotions, writes about the Magi, “They came to worship Jesus. They saw a star…in the sky, and they knew that a heavenly King had been born. The wise men weren’t kings themselves. They were magi, astrologers and priests from a pagan land. They may not have known much about the Bible, but somehow they were much closer to the truth from a distant country than King Herod was from right in Jerusalem.” Even if you’re far off and doing things that displease Him, you can too can be led to Jesus the promised King and worship the One true God. As soon as the Magi learn where Jesus the promised King over all is to be born, they immediately leave to seek Him. That’s what wise men still do. Wise men still seek him. No matter how busy you are, wise men still seek him. Now notice what the Magi do when the star leads them to Jesus the promised King over all, born in Bethlehem, the royal city of King David. Matthew 2:10-11a – When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. [11] And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Remember, the Magi were from pagan lands and had limited knowledge of the Bible. Yet, when the star led them to Jesus the promised King, they put away their idols and worship Him. They worship the true God over idols. Herod miserably worships the idol of self; building his life around himself. On the other hand, the Magi rejoice exceedingly with great joy and bow down to worship Jesus the promised King over all. That’s the difference that Christmas makes; you can worship the true God, Jesus the promised King, over idols.

This brings me to two questions: First, What idols do you need to put away? Remember what idolatry is. The New City Catechism says that “idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.” This is where King Herod’s example is informative. Herod is worshiping the most common, deadly idol of all; self! Self-glory! Where are you serving yourself rather than Jesus the promised King and true God? Are you serving yourself with your money, your time, your sexuality, your beliefs, in your marriage, in your family, in our church? Like Herod, your idols will keep you always hungry, sometimes full, but never satisfied. What idols do you need to put away?

Second question, and it’s related to the first: How can you increasingly enjoy a life of true worship? Maybe you’re like the Magi, maybe you don’t know a lot about Jesus the promised King. Like the Magi, maybe you followed a star, or the invitation of a pretty girl, to get here. Here is what you really need to know to get started: Herod is the false king who lived to kill and Jesus the promised King who lived to die. Matthew 2:6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. He was born to die for the forgiveness of all your sins, especially your idolatry, and then he rose to give you eternal life. Crack your heart open to him. Receive Him as your King and Savior with the empty hands of faith. Like the Magi, fall down and, with exceeding gratitude for his grace, worship Him today, and never stop. That’s where you start. If you’ve already started, how can you increasingly enjoy a life of true worship? It’s our duty and delight! What is true worship? I love the way The Westminster Larger Catechism describes it: The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honouring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of him; believing him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in him, being zealous for him; calling upon him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to him with the whole man; being careful in all things to please him, and sorrowful when in any thing he is offended; and walking humbly with him. That’s the difference Christmas makes. We can enjoy offering that to Jesus the promised King each Lord’s Day, each morning in our personal quiet times, and with God’s people and our families all week long, over groveling out the feet of gods that are not; that over-promise and under-deliver! That’s the first difference Christmas makes. The second is similar, and far more brief.

WE CAN BE SACRIFICIAL (OVER SELFISH)

I want you to notice what the Magi do after they fall down and worship Jesus the promised King. Matthew 2:11 – And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. When you come to personal faith in Jesus the promised King who lived to die for your sins and rose to give you new, true, eternal life, not only do you fall down and worship him, you are also freed, out of overwhelming gratitude, to sacrificially offer everything you are and everything you have to him, over the misery of being selfish. Out of gratitude, we sacrifice to him our time, our treasure, and our talent. But the emphasis in our passage is on giving him our treasure; our money. That’s the difference Christmas can make.

The Magi were likely wealthy. Their treasures were the gifts of the rich. Some of you are quite wealthy, though most of you aren’t. The great news is that you don’t have to make six figures to be sacrificial over selfish. Sacrificially giving doesn’t flow from financial affluence, but from gratitude that the promised King over all was born to die to save you from your sins. One of the greatest acts of sacrificial giving recorded in the New Testament was done by an extremely poor church. 2 Corinthians 8:1-3 – We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, [2] for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. [3] For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, That’s the difference Christmas makes; we sacrificially offer our treasures to Jesus the promised King, over being selfish.

I see this difference in you, Citylight Church. Last week a friend of mine, who doesn’t attend Citylight, but generously partners with our church financially, sent me a text asking about our church budget. He’s taking a pastoral ministry class in seminary and wants to learn. So, I shared it with him. He replied via text, saying, “Thanks for sending that…I have one question about your budget – what is “church giving” in the amount of…(a dollar amount that represents 16.5% of our budget). If it’s private you don’t have to tell me. But I’m trying to understand and Analyze it all. Thanks.” So I replied and told him that is the projected amount of money that our church will give away this year to support international missions and missionaries, to help plant churches, train pastors, to fund compassion partners in Philly to relieve present and eternal suffering, and so forth. I told him, it’s a high %. It represents 16.5% of our budget. He replied, “Ya that is high. I love it though!” Citylight Church, you make that possible. By regularly and generously, out of gratitude to your King, giving sacrificially, over being selfish, you are making it possible to advance the gospel through Citylight Church, and far beyond. If you’re not yet in on that adventure sacrificially, get in on it today because that’s the difference Christmas makes. Jesus the promised King was born to die for your sins and rise to give you eternal life; bow down in gratitude and worship Him over all competing idols and rise up to cheerfully sacrifice your treasures to Him over being selfish. That’s the difference that Christmas makes.