The King Is Good, Bow Down to the King

Prayer

Repentance - Bow Down to a New King

I want to start this morning by going back to the beginning of the gospels, to the story of the birth of Jesus from the gospel of Matthew, the visit of the Magi, the wise men.

As Matthew tells us, this takes place after the birth of Jesus in Jerusalem, during the reign of King Herod. These Magi, wise men, come from the east to Jerusalem, searching for the “one who has been born king of the Jews.” They’ve seen his star and they’ve made the arduous trip in order to come worship him (after all, how many kings have a star appear in the sky to proclaim their birth?).

You would think this would be good news to those in Jerusalem (a newborn king!) - but it is not well received. Matthew tells us that they are disturbed. Especially Herod, the King, who pretends to want to go and worship the new king, but instead plots to destroy the potential usurper.

But God has other plans - and he is, after all, the Lord, the one who’s truly sovereign. God speaks to the wise men through a dream, warning them about Herod and his evil intentions, so they return home by another route - and then to Joseph, warning him to flee with Mary and the child Jesus to Egypt. Jesus’ life is spared, but the rest of the male infants born in Bethlehem are not - they are murdered by Herod’s soldiers.

Story provides a strong contrast between kings - especially what kind of kings they are. On the one hand, you have King Herod, whose desire to hang on to power drives him to commit acts of atrocity, and on the other, Jesus, the newborn king. And it provides an extreme reaction to happens when the news comes of a new King. What will the response be? Will this new king be acknowledged, bowed down to (like the Magi did)? Or will this news disturb those who hear it, like in Jerusalem?

Started our new sermon series last week - the Magnificent Kingdom, by focusing on Jesus’ big announcement, his main message, Matthew 4:17, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

We talked about the announcement - that Jesus was declaring that God’s kingdom, his reign, his rule - has now come, it is right here, now, in our midst, available to us. And, of course, the news of a Kingdom always means there is a King. And in this case it is Jesus.

Jesus tells us what the appropriate response, what we should do in light of the fact his Kingdom has now come to us. And that is to repent. To repent not simply in terms of our sinful behavior (though it absolutely includes that). But repenting in terms of complete change of mind. That we, as we talked about last week, take the red pill - that we would experience a complete shift of how we understand everything - who God is, our own lives, what we are to value, how we view (and treat) others, purpose of our lives - everything.

Something King Herod was definitely opposed to doing. He did not want a new king - he wanted to remain king, and so sought to destroy Jesus. And it’s a great example because it clarifies where repentance begins, this complete change of mind, our willingness to enter under the reign of God, to be a part of his kingdom - which means embracing the King. Repentance begins with joining the wise men in bowing down to Jesus, the King, and worshiping him.

Who Will Reign?

Now, we’ve talked a lot about the heart. If you remember, that’s what we finished with when we complete our journey through the book of Deuteronomy - it was all about our need for a new heart, a circumcised heart, heart that has undergone transformation.

Remember - heart is the center of who we are - it involves not just our emotions, but our rationality, our intellect, our will, all of it. Because this is true, to repent, to change how we think and live, requires repentance at the heart level.

Alan Hirsch & Rob Kelly, in their book, Metanoia, say it this way: The heart is also the seat of understanding, the source of thought and reflection, as well as the root of the will and therefore the origin of all resolve. In other words, the heart is the real source of all significant human actions. And because the heart is the source of all loyalties, its separation from God is what lies at the roots of rebellion and idolatry. The heart is not a neutral place; it cannot avoid choosing one lord over others. Each desire represents a lord; many lords are therefore at work in the same heart, each soliciting obedience. Seen in this light, the heart is a complex battlefield. Because it is the hidden source of all thought, desire, volition, loyalty, and hope, it can readily become the scene of deadly conflicts, as one desire competes with others and where one treasure must be chosen over many alternatives.

Hirsch and Kelly raise what is the critical issue - our hearts are not neutral, we will always give our allegiance to something - or, many things. As a result, there’s a battle going on constantly in our hearts - who we will give ourselves over to.

Here’s the reality - we are all ruled by something, by many things. Our hearts are bound to desires and loyalties - often things we are not even aware of. Quite obvious with King Herod, he loved his power, his prestige - he did not want to give that up. Likewise, for us, there’s no shortage of the things that pull at our hearts.

To repent begins with our hearts, for our hearts to be transformed, as we embrace good news of the Kingdom - God’s Magnificent Kingdom. Repentance begins with giving our hearts fully and unapologetically to Jesus. To embrace his as Lord. As our Lord, our King, the one to whom we bow down to.

Over the next several weeks we’re going to break down this repentance, what it means to have a wholehearted “change of heart.” What it means to have a repentance of mind, a repentance in our souls, a metanoia of our will - all components that make up our hearts.

So that we can better understand what Jesus is calling us to do in light of the fact that the Kingdom of God is now in our midst. What does he want us to do, when he tells us to repent, to metanoia, to transform? What needs to happen within us if we’re going to come fully under the reign of God.

One of the speakers at the National Gathering captured beautifully what whole-hearted repentance starts with when he stated what he thought were the five words that best summed up discipleship. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be a learner, a follower - to willingly come under his leadership.

The five words come from Luke 5, story of Jesus calling the first disciples (we looked at a shorter version of the same story last week in Matthew 4 - here, Jesus is teaching a crowd of people along the shores of Sea of Galilee. Also there were Simon (Peter) and Andrew, washing their nets after a night of failed fishing.

Jesus, so he can speak to the crowd, gets into Simon’s boat, asking him to put off a bit from shore. After Jesus finishes speaking, tells Simon to put out into deep water and to let down his nets for a catch. Simon is not excited about doing this. He’s tired. It’s been a long, frustrating night. Here’s a Rabbi, a teacher (i.e., not a fisherman) giving him fishing tips. You can hear the reluctance in his response, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.”

But in spite of the reluctance, there it is, those five words: “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” But because you say so. I don’t want to do this, it seems foolish. But, Jesus, because you say so. Lord, he hurt me so badly, he should know what it feels like. He doesn’t deserve to be forgiven…but because you say so. Lord, I have so much to do, I don’t have time to do this…But because you say so...

Here’s the fun part, Simon gets a taste of the wonder and goodness of living under God’s reign, and he gets it immediately. He and Andrew let down the nets, just like Jesus told them to, and they catch so many fish, the nets start straining. They have to holler for their buddies to come help them. And when they finally get the fish in the two boats, the boats begin to sink! Can you even begin to imagine how many fish it would take to fill two fishing boats so full that they begin to sink?! No wonder they drop everything in that moment to follow Jesus.

Their journey with Jesus begins with that wholehearted act of repentance, an embrace of Jesus as Lord. I want to be with the guy who can do that. That’s the King I want to follow. I want to be a part of his Kingdom.

This is what I want to encourage you with this morning - we’re calling the Kingdom of God the Magnificent Kingdom because it is magnificent - full of beauty and goodness and truth. And it’s all of those things because the King is magnificent. Because Jesus is so amazingly beautiful, so wonderfully good, absolutely true and faithful.

As a King, he is a far, far cry from King Herod. Really, from any king, from anything else that has a conflicting claim on your life. All those things that pull on the desires of our hearts, that stir up that constant battling - they can so easily pull us away from Jesus. It’s why it’s so essential for us to see the glory and beauty and goodness of Jesus - so that we will desire him above all else.

It’s the main point of Jesus’ parable of the hidden treasure, a parable about the kingdom of God, Matthew 13:44 - The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Jesus is communicating that when you really get what the kingdom is about, what Jesus, the King, is all about, you’ll joyfully give up anything and everything to be with him. To follow him, to let him lead your life and have your heart - just like Simon and Andrew and James and John did. You will willingly repent because you have that which is the greatest treasure, bar none.

I want to finish with one more story from the Gospels, it gives us a glimpse of Jesus as King. It’s the story of what’s often known as the Triumphal Entry, what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. Matthew 21:1-11...As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 5 “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

This is a significant event - Jesus isn’t just walking into Jerusalem like he normally would, he’s making a statement by the way enters here. He begins on the Mount of Olives, which sits opposite from the city of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley. He requests his disciples bring him a donkey that is in the village ahead of them, along with her colt. They do, and Jesus then rides atop this donkey down into the Kidron Valley and into Jerusalem.

Crowd recognizes immediately what is happening - and respond by throwing their cloaks and tree branches on the road before him to create a sort of red carpet for Jesus, a road fit for a king. They are celebrating Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Anointed One, the King from the line of David who was to come and save Israel. You can hear it in the passages they shout from the Psalms, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

They are recognizing Jesus as King. And this is the first time Jesus has publicly embraced that title. He is riding this donkey into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophecy from the book of Zechariah, which Matthew quotes - “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

The scene is a bit of comical - a king riding a donkey, not the most majestic of the beasts of burden. But it’s actually beautiful. It gives us a glimpse of why we can wholeheartedly repent, give our whole hearts to Jesus, come under his reign - because it gives us a glimpse of who this king is.

This is not a king who comes in with a show of force, seeking to compel obedience (obey me or suffer the consequences). Not a king who comes high and mighty, making himself to be above, better. He is not seeking to lord it over us (though he could).

King who comes on our level (literally). Who comes, as Zechariah says, gently. He’s accessible, approachable, inviting. He comes to be with us, for us. Word gentle jumps out at me because we see it in only one other place in Matthew’s gospel, in Matthew 11:28-30. We’ve been speaking about hearts, this is the only place in the Bible where we find an explicit description of Jesus’ heart:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

The description of Jesus’ heart comes in the midst of his invitation to those of us who are weary and burdened - feeling the weight of what rules us in life - the burden of our responsibilities, the weariness of the expectation of others (or even our own self-imposed expectations). It might be personal struggles - financial, relational, health. Whatever is weighing on us, Jesus invites us to come to him.

Jesus invites us not just to come to him, but to take on his yoke - and this is key, because to take on his yoke is to take on his leadership, to come under his reign and rule, to live life his way. And why would we do this? Because the King is good. Because Jesus, as he tells us here, is gentle and humble in heart. That’s the very heart of Jesus - gentle, humble. He takes us in our weariness and brokenness. He loves us in the midst of our guilt and shame. He comes not to condemn us but to save us, to give us full and forever life.

There is no one and nothing better to rule your heart than Jesus. The Kingdom of God is magnificent because the King is magnificent. Whole hearted repentance begins with bowing down to Jesus.

I want to offer some ways for you to take some time this week to move more fully into wholehearted repentance. To embrace Jesus fully as your King. To confess fully and freely, Jesus is Lord.

One way to do that is to make Matthew 11:28-30 a passage you recite and pray every day this week. Jesus offers it as an invitation, respond to that invitation! Pray, telling Jesus that you come, you’re coming to me. That you willingly and gladly will take his yoke upon you, that you will willingly and glad obey him, live according to his teachings. Spend time thanking him for his heart, for the rest he gives you.

Another way to embrace Jesus as King is to do as the wise men did, bow down and worship him. Spend time in prayer on your knees this week. Offer Jesus words of praise for how good and faithful and loving and merciful he is. As the magi did, offer him gifts - the gift of your obedience, an act of service, willingly giving up something that has been claiming the allegiance of your heart.

I really want to encourage you to be unabashed in doing this. Following Jesus starts here, let’s be a church that fully embraces Jesus as Lord, that unequivocally worships him as King, the King of our Hearts.