The King and His Kingdom

Good Evening Church…

Tonight we gather here to celebrate…

But what are we celebrating???

Your all here to celebrate Christmas Eve Service right?

And tomorrow you will all wake up, and you will celebrate Christmas…

I ASK YOU WHAT ARE YOU CELEBRATING???

I want you to pretend for a second that

Someone off the street, who you don’t know, came up to you and asked you tomorrow …”what are you celebrating?”

What would you say???

“CHRISTMAS!” The birth of Jesus…

And they responded and said “But why??? What is so important about the birth of Jesus???”

And you would say “Well its a great event in the history of the world!!!”

They reply and say “What makes it greater than any other historical event???”

How would you answer???

We as Christ followers should be able to answer this question to anyone who asks it…why are you celebrating…

The Word of God is going to tell us…

Open up to Isaiah 9…

At this point in history the people of Israel are receiving the word of God through the prophet Isaiah…

and up until this chapter it ain’t been good word…

Israel has disobeyed and the Lord is telling them that they will be punished…

That dark times are here…war, invasion, decimation, death…

Israel's sin against God is going to cause a great darkness over them…

BUT there is a hope in Isaiah 9…

READ V1-5

We see here a time of darkness…

The world is dark with the sinfulness of man…

Its the same today as it was then…

One thing about history is it repeats itself…

I mean horrific things go on in the world everyday…

Mass shootings, terrorist attacks, slavery, genocide, sex trafficking…

The world we live in is DARK…

Its been dark for thousands of years…

And it’s the sinfulness of man that has made it that way…

Our generation, and all the generations before us…all living in darkness…of sin and death

However, though we know History repeats itself…

We serve a God that loves us enough to send us a rescuer…

A Rescuer from this pattern of sin and darkness that we established all throughout history…

So God speaks here through Isaiah and He says…

-A Light is coming to light up the darkness (v2)

-Joy is coming to replace affliction (V3)

-The heaviness and burden of the yoke of slavery (of sin and death)

will be destroyed…

A SAVIOR IS COMING TO RESCUE YOU…to bring light and joy and freedom!!!

BUT WHO IS THE SAVIOR???

READ V6-7

A Child is born!!!

A Son is given!!!

He is the light bearer…

He is the Joy bringer…

He is the burden breaker…

And thats not all!!!

God says this promised rescuer will be the greatest king ever!!!

And He will bring in the greatest Kingdom ever!!! (The throne of David, there shall be no end!)

Now, many kings and kingdoms have been birthed in the history of the world…

The most powerful Kings in History were always the Kings who started the most powerful Empires…

The Persian Empire…was started by King Cyrus the Great

The Roman Empire… was started by the great Caesar Augustus

The Ottoman Empire…started by the powerful Osman the First

All 3 of these men ushered in these massively powerful kingdoms…

But what do all three of these kings have in common today…

THEY ARE ALL DEAD RIGHT???

Every single one of them is dead, they are NO LONGER KING…

AND WHAT DO ALL 3 OF THESE KINGDOMS THAT THEY BUILT HAVE IN COMMON TODAY???

THEY ARE ALL GONE!!!

They don’t exist anymore!!!

All of these Kingdoms failed because broken men can ONLY build broken empires…

The bible tells us that all men are sinful…

And history has taught us that the kingdoms of sinful men always fall

They thought they could build a better world…and in their brokenness they have failed…

We are the same today…

In the US today, we are always hearing talk of building a better country…

Making it safer, cleaner, richer, and more powerful…

But no matter what we do, or who we put in charge…

We are just as broken if not more broken… as any other dynasty in history…

We are a broken country led by broken people…

When we look back in history, all of these empires had the exact same goal…

To exalt the perfect king…

And to build the ultimate kingdom…

It takes a perfect King to usher in a perfect kingdom…

But no man in history has measured up to the task…except ONE…

The One being described here in Isaiah 9…

GOD SAYS HE WILL BE THE PERFECT KING:

He will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace

And the book of Isaiah says that this perfect King

He will Usher in a perfect Kingdom!!!

We talked a minute ago about 3 of the most powerful Kingdoms in the history of the world…

The Persian Empire…

The Roman Empire…

The Ottoman Empire..

We discussed that ALL OF THESE GREAT KINGDOMS ARE GONE…

DO YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT KILLED THEM???

These 3 great Empires ended because of 3 things…

The first was…

-Wars…All 3 of these empires were worn down by years and years of fighting wars

The second thing was…

-Injustice…Most of these Kings enslaved and treated their people poorly, created systems in which oppressed the people and made them dependent…

And finally…

-Corruption…In these empires, the kings and leaders were so corrupt…that eventually the society that they built had completely turned against itself…

Those 3 Empires are the 3 best the world had to offer…

And we know the EMPIRE ruling over the world today isn’t any better…

BUT the Lord tells us in the scripture today…

This new Perfect King, He will bring a PERFECT KINGDOM…

READ V7 AGAIN

Look at The traits of a Perfect Kingdom that will be ushered in by this perfect King!!!

-There will be No War but instead…Everlasting Peace

-There will be No Injustice but instead… Everlasting Justice

-There will be No Corruption but instead… Everlasting Judgment (complete perfection)

FOREVER!!!

This perfect King will bring the MOST PERFECT KINGDOM THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!!

This King like never before will bring in a Kingdom like never before!!!

That is what the Lord is promising here in Isaiah 9…

And in the last line of verse 7 the Lord gives us His word that these promises will be fulfilled…

The Bible says…

The zeal of the Lord of hosts WILL DO THIS.

He is telling the people of Israel…I will send you a savior…I WILL DO THIS!!!!

SO, THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION NOW IS THIS…

WHO IS THIS KING???

WHATS HIS NAME???

Listen to this…

EVERY PROPHECY NOT ONLY IN THIS TEXT BUT IN THE ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT…

POINTS DIRECTLY TO ONE MAN… JESUS!!!

Jesus is the child that Isaiah is talking about!!!

JESUS IS THE PROMISED PERFECT KING!!!!

It says in Isaiah…

-This King will be full of wonder and do miraculous things (Jesus came with miracles)

-This King will Counsel the people, advise and teach them (Jesus does this)

-This King will be called Mighty God (John 10 “I and the Father are One)

-This King will be Everlasting Father, the head of His family, the leader and protector of His children (Jesus is the head of the all, He leads us, He protects us)

-This King will be the Prince of Peace, bringing peace between a Righteous God and a sinful people…making enemies children…(Jesus justified you with His blood, made you in right standing with God, no longer an enemy but sons and daughters, a bride)

In Revelation…Jesus says I AM the King of Kings!!!

The King above all Kings!!!

JESUS IS THE PROMISED KING!!

The promised Savior!!!

Just Look back with me in Isaiah 9:1 READ! (GALILEE OF THE NATIONS)

Isaiah states that this promised, perfect King will bring light into the darkness first to Galilee of the nations…

Now flip over with me in the book of Matthew chapter 4…

Written over 700 years after Isaiah 9:1 was written…

Matthew 4:13-17 …..”And leaving Nazareth, He (Jesus) came and dwelled in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus’s Mission started in Galilee; this is where He first brought the gospel message that He is ushering in a new perfect kingdom…

His first miracle was performed in Cana of Galilee, where He turned water into wine…

And the bible tells us Jesus healed every affliction and disease to those who came to Him while He was there…

700 years after Isaiah foretold of the coming PERFECT KING….

Hallelujah!!! THE PROMISED KING HAS COME!!!

JESUS HAS BROUGHT LIGHT INTO THE DARKNESS!!

The promises The Lord made in Isaiah chapter 9 were fulfilled through the:

BIRTH-MINISTRY-DEATH- BURIAL

AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST…

And THAT Church is why we celebrate Christmas!!!

THE PROMISED KING HAS COME!!!

And He brings with Him a perfect Kingdom to replace our broken one!!!

SO WHAT IS OUR OUR ANSWER TO THE QUESTION…

WHY DO WE CELEBRATE THIS DAY???

We are celebrating the birth of Jesus because…

What God promises to do…He always does.

HE SAID HE WOULD…AND HE DID!!!

We see the proof of this when we look at the scriptures and see a king born in a manger…

And ultimately see it completed on the cross and in an empty tomb…

Church we are going to take some time tonight to not only worship the birth of Christ…that the perfect King has come…

BUT ALSO that He did EVERYTHING HE SAID HE WOULD DO…

He brought light into darkness…

He destroyed sin and death with His blood…

Tonight we remember not only the birth…but the death taken for us…

We will do that through communion…

(GARY COMES UP TO LEAD)