Who Is This King?

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship this morning, let us take a few moments and prepare our hearts to receive His word.

Let’s pray together!

Well, here we are. We are only two Sundays away from Christmas.... which sounds crazy. I told you that this time of year goes by super fast.

I always seem to find myself in a dilemma around this time of year. I am a traditionalist… I know that may come as a shock to some of you… but when it comes to Christmas I am a traditionalist. I don’t like Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I don't like decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving. No Christmas movies or cookies. I don't like shopping early for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I want to keep the holidays in the order they come in… does that make sense?

You see, this puts me in a dilemma, because once Thanksgiving hits.... everything seems to accelerate. Time seems to spend up. Calendars get full. Kids have programs. People are having parties. Shopping needs to be done… but the stores are fuller because everyone is shopping it seems. And it seems that my traditional way of wanting to live life.... gets in the way sometimes.

All I want to do is to be able to celebrate Christmas with my mind on Christ....and yet I have so many other things fighting for my attention… fighting for my affection.

This is the dilemma that all of us face. The world wants to tell us to be busy. To try to hurry to get everything together so that you can do more “stuff”....and don’t get me wrong…the “stuff” is good. We should use the fun stuff as an opportunity to point to Jesus… but if all we do is get lost in the fun stuff... then we have missed the whole point of why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Body:

This is why we are walking through this series. This allows us to gather together to remind ourselves of why we celebrate. It gives us the time and the space to refocus our hearts. This is why we are doing this series: Advent- The Arrival of the King. And for the last two weeks we have focused on two very important things: 1. Prepare Him Room. Actually taking the time to slow our lives down and focusing on Him. This is a good thing to do. We have to be intitnal about doing this.

2. Why Do We Need This King? Last week we focused on reminding our selves our need for the KIng.

These have been the driving questions of our time together. What I want to do this morning is shift our focus just a little bit and ask the question:

Who Is This King?

Every once in and while, we need to take a step back and remind ourselves of who exactly Jesus is so that we can worship Him in His fullness. That is what I want us to do this morning. I just want us to think about who Jesus really is so that we can worship Him this season.

There are 6 truths that I want us to see this morning as we think about the coming of our King.

Jesus is the promised one from the Old Testament.

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. (Gen 3:14-15)

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. (Deut 18:15)

When we think about Jesus coming to earth, our thinking needs to start here. God, in all of his fullness, had a plan from the beginning of the world to come on a rescue mission. This plan was put into effect when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and God made a promise that He was going to send someone to come and crush the snake…we talked about this a little bit last week.

But besides a snake crusher, we see that this one who was going to come was going to be like a prophet. He was going to come and declare the Word of the Lord to the People…and they were to respond yo Him by listening to Him.

This is exactly what we have in Jesus. Jesus coming on that blessed Christmas morning was aobut God being faithful to His promise and plan. Jesus’s birth reminds us that we can Trust God when He speaks. We can take Him at His word

This leads to the second thing that I want us to see this morning as we answer the question… Who Is This King?

Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

23 I will establish over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will shepherd them. He will tend them himself and will be their shepherd. 24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken. (Ezk 34:23-24)

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. 13 This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11-15)

When you think about a King… I think that they last image that ever would come to our minds is that of a shepherd. A shepherd was one of the lowiest jobs a person could have. A shepherd was someone who stayed out with His sheep all day long. He watched over them. He cared for them. He ministered to them! He feed them. He protected them. When one of the sheep would go wandering off, he would go after it and bring it back to the flock.

This is what Jesus does for us. He identifes with His people. He is with them. He takes care of them. He feeds them. He protects them. He ministers to them…and when one of them goes wandering off… He goes to that sheep and brings it back to the flock… because this King.....He is the Good Shepherd.

But not only is this King a Shepherd.....

Jesus is God in The Flesh

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.(Col. 1:15-17)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life,, and that life was the light of men....14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

I think that we hear this truth so much that we lose our sense of awe at what is going on. When we are talking about Christmas and we are talking about the baby Jesus....we are talking about GOD coming down and putting on Human flesh. We are talking about the one who created everything… The sun, moon stars… the planets…life…all life....even your life.....the one who created time itself.... stepping down outside of time into time becoming a babe. We are talking about the creator of life coming and making Himself dependent on humanity for life.

We are talking about GOD WITH US! This is who Jesus is. If we have ever wondered what God would be like with us.... all we need to do is look at how Jesus was when He was on earth. He came to reveal God to us. We could not get to Him…so He came to us. This is at the heart of Christmas.

And yet, Jesus was doing more than simply revealing God to us. He came on a mission.

Jesus is the One Who Was Coming To save His People From their Sins.

4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.(Isaiah 53:4-6)

God the Son stepped down from heaven to come and save us from our sins. WE had rebelled against God....that has been evident in all of the passages that we have seen this morning, but God was not going to leave us in that state. He had a plan…and that plan was for God the Son to come and give His life for us.

When Jesus is born.....this text has already been spoken. Jesus knows what He is coming to do. He is not caught off guard. This was the whole reason He came. As we looked at earlier, He has come to lay down his life for His sheep.

You see, the central problem in Scripture is that humanity has rebelled against God and broken His laws. We have violated His Commands. Due to our sin we deserve God’s wrath. We deserve Hell. That is our state outside of Christ.

Christ came as a babe to come and pay the penalty for our sins. The one who knew no Sin, God the Son, came and gave His life for sinners, You and I, so that we could be forgiven and made right with God. Jesus died for you. Jesus paid for your sins so that you could come to God and now ask for forgivness by trusting, not in your own works, but in Christ. And becuase of His death and resurrection....

Jesus has ALL authority in Heaven and Earth.

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. (Matt. 28:18)

6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

When we are talking about this King, we are talking about ONE who has ALL authority in the world. Think about how much we need to be reminded of this in our context. If we look around, our world seems to be falling apart. There is brokeness everywhere....but this truth reminds us that it will not always be that way. Jesus is the one who is actually in control. Jesus is the one who has actual authority…and there is nothing happening in our world that has not come through His hands. We may not know the exact reason…some of if could be to bring judgement upon nations....some of it could be to bring people to the end of themselves so that they turn to Him… but no matter what...We know that Jesus is leading all of history to it glorius end…and that brings me to the last point I want us to think about this morning as we think about the King.

Conclusion:

Jesus is Coming again.

This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, 8 when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength 10 on that day when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed.(2 Thess. 1:7-10)

44 This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:44)

We know that Jesus came the first time as a Baby....the next time He is coming back as the King and warrior. We know that since God kept His word the first time, we have no reason to doubt that He will keep this promise as well.

The Scriptures remind us that we are to be alert and ready because Jesus could come back at any moment. We do not know the day or the hour. We do not know the exact timing of these events…but we know this.....this Jesus who was killed for our sins, rose again three days laters....and then He ascended into heaven......and One day He will come back again. He is coming to establish His kingdom and Rule....of which there will be no end. He is coimg to fix all of the brokeness that we see and feel every day. He is coming again to dwell with Man. This is the hope of the Gospel message. This is the story line of the Bible. This is what God is up to. This is Who Jesus is....and we are just scraching the surface. He is so much more.

I want to encourage you as we continue to celebrate Advent…remember, there will be a second Advent. There is coming a day when Jesus- the Promised One, The Good Shepherd, God in the Flesh, The One Who Saved Us From Our sins, The One who has all authority, comes again! Keep your eyes on Him. Keep your focus on Him. Keep seeking after Him. Give Everything to Him. He is here for you. Never forget that. He will never leave your nor forsake you. Keep looking unto Him this season.

Let’s Pray Together.