The King of Christmas

Last week we saw how some wise men from the east saw a star in the sky and discovered that a king was born in Israel. They followed the star to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem where they met the Savior face-to-face. Now they may not have known the significance of this birth. They did not know all of the prophecies pertaining tot the Messiah, who he will be, and what he will accomplish. The baby born in Bethlehem was named Jesus because it means God is my salvation. He will save his people from their sins. He is called Immanuel, because God is with us.

Today we look at another prophecy as we continue to build our case for Jesus as king over all things. This is one not very common around Christmas time, but important in its own right. Today we will be in the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 23.

We walked through the grand narrative of the Bible starting in the end of July and finishing in November. When we read through this section of scripture, the goal was not so much to grasp the chronology of the prophetic books, but to pick up on the themes of each book. Jeremiah prophesies during the final years of the kingdom of Judah. He lives to see the demise of Jerusalem and to see his people exiled by the Babylonians as God had promised to do if they did not turn back to him. In chapter 23, we see the familiar pattern of calling out the wicked and offering hope.

Jeremiah 23:1–8 NASB95

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the Lord. “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. “I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’ “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”

The shepherds of verse one are not the typical shepherds we think of who are out in the field watching over sheep. Jeremiah is using a figure of speech to compare the kings of Israel to the shepherds who are condemned for ill treatment of their people, who are the sheep. The shepherd and sheep metaphor is used often in scripture to describe how one who has been entrusted with leadership ought to treat, or not treat, the ones he leads. The kings of Israel did a poor job of leading. They repeatedly broke their covenant with God.

Because they broke the covenant, they brought judgment upon themselves as we see in verse two. When the time of judgment is complete, He will gather whom He has scattered.

God is always faithful to his covenant promises. He never fails.

God was faithful to bring Israel back from exile about 70 years after they were exiled from their land. But this speaks of a future time when Israel will live in the land forever under a new king. There is a contrast here in verse four between the kings of Israel and these new shepherds. These new shepherds will care for the people properly. As a result, the people will not need to live in fear and none of them will be missing from the land.

God fulfilled his covenant promise to David through the birth of Jesus.

God will raise up a new king who will be a branch of David. Family trees provide such a great illustration of what is meant here. As you trace your family back as far as you can go, you begin to see visually how everyone is connected to the same branch, which is connected to the same trunk, and so on. The Lord promised David in 2 Samuel 7:16 that his throne shall be established forever. Only one who is a descendant of David can legitimately sit on the throne of Israel. This is why both genealogies in the gospels of Matthew and Luke are important. God, through Jeremiah, is reminding the people that the king to come is the fulfillment of God’s promise to David.

God’s future king will act wisely, do justice, and righteousness. The result of his reign will be salvation for Israel. He will be called “The Lord our righteousness.” But this can be no ordinary king. We have seen leaders rise and fall time and again. What makes us think this king is going to be any different? The coming king is like no other king before him. He can claim the name “The Lord our righteousness” only if he is the Lord himself.

The divinity of Jesus is one of the most important doctrines in all of Christianity. To be wrong on this is to be wrong about Jesus.

We believe that Jesus was no ordinary man. He was both 100% man, but also 100% God. He was not just a man who could perform miracles with the help of God’s power, nor was he a god, or any other heavenly being. He was and remains THE God. Perfect wisdom, perfect justice, perfect righteousness can only come from one who is perfect.

The Jehovah’s witnesses, for example, do not believe that Jesus is God. They believe that Jesus and the archangel Michael are one in the same. He is the first created being, and subordinate to God. But this is very problematic. For starters, it ignores Old Testament prophecy which indicates that the promised Davidic king is God himself.

Secondly, Jesus himself got himself into a lot of trouble for equating himself with God.

Is Jesus God Himself?

John 1:1-3, 14 - The Word, the subject of John’s gospel, is eternally existent and becomes a human being.

John 5:17-18 - The Pharisees knew Jesus was equating himself with God.

John 8:58 - Jesus claimed to exist before Abraham.

John 10:30-33 - Jesus claims he and the Father are one.

John 14:7-11 - To see Jesus is to see the Father.

Rev. 1:17-18, 2:8, 22:13 - Jesus refers to himself as the Alpha and Omega

If Jesus made these claims and it was not true, he is a liar and could not be our perfect sacrifice. But Colossians 2:9 says,

Colossians 2:9 NASB95

For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

The fullness of God lives in the human being Jesus Christ. This was necessary for salvation. If Jesus is not God, then he is not perfect. If he is not God, he is not eternal. If he is neither of these things, he is not our savior. Yet the Bible shows us consistently over and over again that the baby born in Bethlehem was God in the flesh. And Mary knew this.

Two of the most precious moments in my life were when I held my baby niece and Joshua, the child who wouldn’t be mine, when they were just minutes old. I cannot think of anything that makes you feel like you are holding something so fragile as holding a newborn baby in your arms. All of a sudden, the responsibility of protecting him or her falls on you. Your arms provide safety and comfort and support for the child you hold. It is indescribable. So when Mary gives birth to Jesus, not only had she had to feel those same feelings, but to know that the child she held was her creator had to be such a profound moment. In the fragility of a baby was the most powerful being in existence.

Music has a special way of communicating truth. One of my favorite songs is Here With Us by Joy Williams. Describing Jesus, verse two says this: “It's still a mystery to me. How His infant eyes had seen the dawn of time. How His ears had heard an angel symphony. Still Mary had to rock her Savior to sleep.”

How unbelievably mind-boggling it is that the God of heaven would come down to us, born as a baby, to save us from our sins. I didn’t think I was worth saving. But He did.

The king of Christmas is just that. A king. Having accomplished redemption for anyone who would believe, he sits at the right hand of God the Father today and will come again to rule the earth with perfect wisdom, justice, and righteousness. A time where all who live in his kingdom will be treated properly and where there will be nothing to fear.

I’m here today to tell you that Jesus is God himself, who came to save you from your sins. Maybe you are here today and you don’t know Jesus, but you want to. He thought you were worth saving. He came to make sure you will not spend an eternity without him. By recognizing that you have sinned against him and turning to him for salvation based on the sacrifice he made for you, you can be saved. I promise you that you will never find hope, peace, satisfaction, or purpose apart from him. Through Christ we have a new identity. Our lives have meaning. We have value. We have purpose. A child of the king is who you were always meant to be. Will you embrace that today?

Maybe you have been coming for a while but have yet to fully commit yourself to this church family. We want you to be a part of what God is doing here. We want you to be a part of the story he is writing. You can come forward and I will let you know how you can become a member of this family.

You might be asking what’s next. If you have never followed in believer’s baptism, that is step one. If you haven’t done that, let us know.

Finally, if you are a member of this church, remember that we are your family. If you came in today with a burden, I implore you to lay it at the feet of the God who knows, who sees, and cares. You can pray where you are but it would be my pleasure to pray with you. My encouragement to all of us in this Christmas season is to draw near to Christ.