Come, Thou Long Expected King

Good morning everyone. At Christmas time we get to sing songs like we're about to sing uh come let us adore him Christ the Lord. But humbling ourselves to worship God Almighty in person in the person of Jesus Christ should be just a daily practice in our lives. David in Psalm 95 writes this and would you read along the underlined portions. Oh come let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. And his hands are the depths of the earth. The heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his for he made it and his hands form the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Would you stand and worship this great king with us? [Music] Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. [Music] Oh come ye, oh come ye to bed.

Come and behold him born the king of angels. Oh come, oh come, oh come, let us adore him. Christ alone. This is the light of the world we've been waiting for. Come bow before him. The Savior is born.

Let us adore him. Adore him. Christ the Lord. Sing choirs of angels. Sing in exaltation. Sing all ye citizens of heaven.

Glory to God. Glory in the highest. Oh, let us adore him. Christ the Lord. This is the light of the world we've been waiting for. Come bow before him.

Savior is born. Let us adore him. Adore him. Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. Yay.

Lord we greet thee. Born this happy morning. Jesus to be all glory. Word of the father now in flesh appear. Oh come, oh come, oh come. Let us adore him.

Christ the Lord. This is the light of the world we've been waiting for. Come bow before him. Savior is born. Let us adore him. Adore him.

Christ, let us adore him. Christ the Lord. This is the light of the world we've been waiting for. Come bow before him. Savior is born. Let us adore him.

Adore him. Christ the Lord. [Music] [Music] Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room. And heaven and nature see.

And heaven and nature see. And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world the Savior reigns. Let all their songs employ while fields and floods rock hills and plains repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat.

Repeat the sounding joy. Joy. Unspeakable joy. Overflowing well. No tongue can tell. Joy, unspeakable joy rises in my soul, never lets me go.

He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations true. The glory of his rightuous wonders of his love. The wonders of his love. He wonderers wonderers of his love. Joy, joy. Speak of joy.

[Music] I can tell [Music] you I [Music] never let me go. [Music] Heat. Heat. Oh god. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] The herald angels. shall sing.

Glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy by God and sinners recruited. Joyful all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies with angelic host proclaim. Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark the herald angels sing.

Glory to the newborn. Christ my highest man adore. Christ the everlasting Lord in time. Behold him come. Osprey of the virgin held and sele [Music] glory with you. Oh king [Music] of peace sign of righteousness.

ness and light to all he brings. His healing is leg [Music] to raise a son to earth. going to give them second birth. Hark your herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. in flesh.

In flesh, the God has seen. Hail the incarnate deity, pleases men and men to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel. The herald angels sing glory to the new [Music] king. [Music] [Music] children weep no More hope is on the horizon. Weery world behold your promised Messiah.

Angels let your song begin. Here comes heaven. Christ is born in Bethlehem. Here comes heaven. [Music] In a way no more love is broken the silence. Come let us adore.

The Savior is with us. Angels, angels, may your song begin. Here comes heaven. Christ is born in Bethlehem. [Music] Here comes heaven. Here comes heaven.

Now behold his glory. Glory in the highest. All the earth rejoice for Christ is Lord. Now behold his glory. Glory in the highest. All the earth rejoice for Christ is born [Music] over all who mourn.

breaks the dawn of salvation. [Music] Darkness reigns no more. For Jesus is greater. He is greater. Angels may your song begin. Here comes heaven.

Christ is born in Bethlehem. Here comes heaven. Angels may your song begin. Here comes heaven. All creation worship him. [Music] Here comes heaven.

Here comes heaven. [Music] God, we celebrate in this season that in a world of darkness, in a world with no hope, you came forth and said, "Darkness reigns no more. For I am greater." And God, we worship you. For because you are greater than the darkness in this world, we get to rejoice in the light and the light of your son. God, we're so thankful for the gift.

And may you just continue to open our eyes and reveal to us your goodness and your greatness and just time in this time of when we get to look back at when Jesus came to this world and and began to fulfill all these prophecies said hundreds and hundreds of years ago. May you remind us of your faithfulness that as we're waiting on you that you are so faithful to fulfill your promises. God, we love you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. You can go ahead and have a seat for a time of confession. I love that phrase in Hark the Herald Angel sing where it says, "Joyful all ye nations rise.

Join the triumph of the skies." Um, when you think of the triumph of the skies, I imagine just that picture perfect maybe when I'm driving to school on a Monday morning and I don't want to be driving to school, but as I get on the interstate, you just see this beautiful sunrise and there's no doubt that the Lord handcrafted it. You know what I'm talking about? Like those sunrises that just make you pause and just be in awe. Um, when was the last time that you were overcome by wonder? Not just curiosity or admiration or respect, but total awe inspiring, ground shaking, undeniable wonder.

For me, I feel that most often um when I see nature, that is just something that there's no way it could have been man-made. um when I go to the mountains and when I feel so small in the midst of something so big and I imagine that the Lord is the one who created it. Um, when even when I go to the zoo with kids, I'm around kids all the time as a teacher, but when I go to the zoo with kids and I get to see them seeing what God has created for the first time, things that I have forgotten that are really amazing and watching like Reuben's eyes track with fish for the first couple times. And just seeing like how he's just amazed by that and how incredible it is that the Lord not only made the fish, but the Lord made the child who's admiring the fish and how beautiful all of that is. But even things like sound, when we get to worship, when you hear beautiful music, um whatever that beautiful sound is to you, um wonder draws us out of ourselves and into that which is beyond comprehension or explanation.

It reframes and reshapes the realities of our lives, refusing to leave us the same as we were a moment ago. It might only last a moment, yet its impact on our lives cannot be overstated. The birth of Christ is the wonder of wonders. Yet, does it awaken in you a deep and abiding sense of wonder that God would humble himself and put on human flesh and dwell among his people in the incarnation? I found that I don't stop long enough to feel wonder. It's a fleeting moment, but I don't feel wonder when I'm so busy and my mind is so flooded with other things of this world that I don't take the time to appreciate that it's from the Lord or how big it is.

Like when I see that sunset or sunrise, my first thought is, "Oh, I should send that picture to Instagram." Not like, "Lord, you made that." Like that is a beautiful work of art. Listen to the words of Elizabeth as Mary visits her after she found out that she was pregnant with Jesus. In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. And she entered the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth.

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." Elizabeth and the baby in her womb were filled with joy and wonder as they were greeted by Mary who was pregnant with our Lord.

And her humility and wonder should make us pause and ask if that too is our response that Christ has now come and dwelt among us and has fulfilled all that God has promised. So in our time of confession, the question we ask is, do we enter into this Advent season with a sense of awe and anticipation at the reality and the mystery of God drawing near in Christ? I'll say that again because there's a lot in there. Do you enter into the Advent season, the preparing for the coming? Do you enter into the Advent season with a sense of awe and anticipation at the reality and the mystery of God drawing near in Christ? Let's read this prayer together and go to the Lord and confess where we don't have that sense of awe and wonder for whatever reason and ask him to soften our hearts and slow us down to think upon the reality of the incarnation of Christ.

So let's read. Oh source of all good. What shall I render to you for the gift of gifts? Your own dear son. Herein is wonder of wonders. He came below to raise me above.

Was born like me that I might become like him. Herein is love. When I cannot rise to him, he draws near on wings of grace to raise me to himself. Herein is power. When deity and humanity were infinitely apart, he united them in indissoluble unity, the unccreated and the created. Herein is wisdom.

When I was undone with no will to return to him and no intellect to devise recovery, he came, God incarnate, to save me to the uttermost as man to die my death, to shed satisfying blood on my behalf, to work out a perfect righteousness for me. Oh God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds and enlarge my mind. Let me hear good tidings of great joy and hearing believe, rejoice, praise, adore. My conscience bathed in an ocean of rest. My eyes uplifted to a reconciled father. Take some time to think through that awe and wonder and where you can find that rest in adoring him.

Father, in this season of joy, Lord, we are so busy that we forget to just adore you and to rest in who you are and what you have done and to be in awe of how you chose to send your God, we're sorry for the places where we don't give you what you deserve and we instead give our attention and focus and our all to other things that don't deserve it. We pray for forgiveness, Lord. Pray that you would soften our hearts and open our eyes and open our minds to see where we can worship you in spirit and heart and thought in word and deed every day. We love you. Thank you for Amen. At this time, if we could go ahead and dismiss our 3 to 5 year olds as well as 6 to 7 year olds uh to their classes.

Good morning, church. Morning. Morning. Welcome to the season of Advent. Uh my name is Dwayne, one of the pastors here at the district. And uh what is Advent?

I'm glad you asked. Um the theme of advent comes from the Latin word adventis uh which simply means an awaiting period or or to wait or a coming arrival uh that we're expecting to happen. It it's the traditional celebration of the first advent of Jesus coming uh him coming as a baby born in a manger. And so we take time out of our year uh to celebrate this traditionally and in kind of a lurggical calendar. This follows the first Sunday after Thanksgiving and goes all the way to Christmas Eve. And so we we look at this, we observe this because again, this is a good thing for us to take time to celebrate uh and to remember that there was a long period of time where the people of God were doing this.

They were waiting for a Messiah. They were waiting for a king. They were waiting for a prophet, a a priest. And those are the roles that we're going to be looking at over these uh few weeks as we observe Advent season. And so Josh covered uh Advent or he covered Messiah, come thou long expected Messiah last week. And I'm going to be looking at the role of king today uh king as we are waiting for our savior to return and to ultimately make all things right.

And uh and last night I kind of had this moment of of of really feeling this and anticipating Jesus coming back to make all things right. Uh my son Ezra has been wanting us to put lights up outside uh on our house for for a while now. I mean, he just sees everyone else's and he's like, "Why can't we do that?" You know, he's kind of has that FOMO. And and I was like, "All right, you know, why not? Let's do this."

And so I I first spent the the first 30 minutes taking down the dead lights from last year. Um and uh don't judge me. Um I know some of y'all do the same. Um but anyways, I took those down and then spent about 3 hours uh just wrapping every single branch uh just about in in our tree out front. So just climbing around like a monkey. And and I was even just connecting one after another going from branch to branch to branch.

And so eventually like as I was finishing up the last one, I mean they're all lit. and I get the last one and right as I'm wrapping it all of a sudden they just they just all go out and and in that moment I'm thinking, "Okay, all right. Maybe it's like I plugged in the last one. It's too much breaker switch blue. Maybe it's one of those things." And so I go and check and and it's fine.

And so I get back or it it didn't it didn't switch over. And so I get back up into the tree and I'm just kind of with my cell phone looking around and I'm like, did I literally like maybe step on a bulb or or whatnot? I mean, there's over,200 lights at this point on this tree and and I literally could not figure it out. And so I just this it's dark outside and I'm in this moment where I'm like just sitting in silence in this tree in darkness just say, "Lord Jesus, just come back." Like just come back now. Like I I'm I'm anticipating him to just come and make things right.

And then awkwardly my neighbors pulled in like right at the same time and like they kind of pulled up in and I'm like, "All right, I'm up in this tree just dark right now." like do I say something when they get out of the car like just so that they're not like startled by me? Um I chose to be silent, but they also chose to kind of hang out in their car for like another 10 minutes and I'm like this is awkward. Um so anyways, that was that was my night last night and uh just really expecting Jesus to come back soon. Um but this season is a time for us to remember and rejoice, to watch and to wait. And it's observed again from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve.

And it builds on its angst, if you will. It it builds on its anticipation. Uh kind of like for for a lot of our young children, uh what they're longing for right now are those presents that are going to be under the tree. And as it gets closer and they even maybe see more presents, kind of gather themselves underneath the tree, uh there's this anticipation, this angst, this this longing for I can't wait for this moment. And as we walk throughout these these roles of Jesus, this come thou longex expected Jesus, each of these roles, our prayer, our hope for us as a church is that it builds our anticipation. It builds our angst for when Jesus is ultimately going to come back again in his second coming to again make all things right.

And so today looking at this idea of Jesus coming back as a king. Um for some of us we might think in our context we might think of our context of having a president. Um and and what I really want to look at a little bit is is it's not similar it's not similar in our role of having a president because when it comes to our president yes they have they have great power but at the same time they have also incredibly limited power. um so many checks and balances within our governmental system that we can't look at it in the same way. We can't look at it in the same light. It it would be easiest for us, regardless of your political kind of background to say like, yeah, every time there's a president that's elected, we can eagerly await four years for another one to come in.

Um but that's not the way that that it's worked out throughout our history. I mean, they would go through decades. they would go through generations of having the same ultimate authority or the same ultimate leader that the only way that that person's going to be dethroned is if if they either die or someone stabs them in the back. I mean, that's really the only two ways you get out of office when it comes to this idea of being king and having the ability to to decree anything and everything that you want. I mean, anything that you say goes. And so that's kind of what we're looking at is if Jesus is a king over who is he king and what kind of king is he?

Because in historical sense most people whenever they would get a king they would hope that their king would be benevolent and good and merciful. And yet because of fallen humanity oftentimes they would not get a good king. They would get one who was uh not merciful, who was vengeful, who was greedy, who might be harsh. And so they might go through a long time and a long period of just hoping for something better, something greater. And we're going to see what Jesus ultimately fulfills in this. And when it comes to kings, most church people are familiar with a few kings of the Bible.

King Solomon, King David, King Saul. uh maybe even around Jesus's time, you're familiar with the Herods, King Herod the Great, King Herod Antimus, King Herod Agrippa, um each of these types of kings. But there's also an interesting thing is that Israel was not always ruled by an earthly king. All right? It didn't start out that way for Israel. As the period of the judges throughout scriptures comes to an end, God was Israel's only king.

He was Israel's only king. They were ruled by just God himself. But the people of Israel are looking at the other nations and they're saying, "All these other nations have a human who is ruling them. They have a they have their own type of king." And we we want that. And and God's trying to remind his people.

I I've set it up differently for you. You're not to be like the other nations, but rather you are to be an example for the nations. that how I'm ruling you and how I'm being your king is actually working out better for you than all of these other nations in the way that their kings are ruling them and governing them and providing for them and so forth. And so God's saying you're in a better situation, but because of our fallen human nature, again, often times we don't want what God wants for us and we want to go a different route. And so the people call for a king, as 1st Samuel 8:5 says, we want a king to judge us. the same as all the other nations have.

And so, at first, God gave them gave them the kind of king that they were looking for. Israel's first king, King Saul, was tall and handsome. Kind of reminds me of Dwayne. Not myself, but Dwayne the Rock Johnson. All right? Like this tall, handsome uh wonderful guy.

That's kind of what Saul or what Israel was looking for. All right. we want this tall, handsome um and and literally it says in the Bible that King Saul like he he stood a foot above everyone or all the people. And so they're kind of looking around like who are we going to like first pick for kickball? Like whoever that guy is place him as our king. And so they go with King Saul hoping that he's going to be for them.

Kind of a manifestation of what God has kind of said he is for them. But King Saul seemed like the best option, but instead was foolish, jealous, and paranoid the majority of the time. The people wanted a king so that they could put their hope in him. And time and time again, these earthly kings just fail. They fail once and again. And when the Israelites needed King Saul the most ultimately to defend them against their kingdom uh with Goliath and the Philistines, I mean, this was kind of a winner takes all situation.

The Israelites find themselves in a battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines said, "You know what? We've got a giant. We've got Goliath standing at 9 feet tall. We're going to bring him out. And if you've got one guy who can come and defeat him, then we will gladly hand you over everything.

And these Israelites are thinking, "Hey, we've got a guy. All right. We we've called for the Lord to put a guy in our place. He's tall. He's handsome. He's perfect.

He's he's everything that we could want. He's the best of the best. King Saul, can you come out here and defeat Goliath for us?" If you know your Bible, where's King Saul? He's hiding. He's hiding.

He's terrified. He's not trusting in the in the ability of the Lord. He's not trusting that God has has the people of Israel behind him. He rather he's trusting in his own ability or really lack of ability in that moment. And so God instead of punishing the people for wanting something that God did not want for them, he does something unexpected. He continues to go the route through this idea of an earthly king.

And in removing King Saul, he does something that again is is kind of flipping upside down the economy of our world. All right. What they would have done in that moment and what they tried to do was all right, if it's not Saul, who's second best. All right. Who's our greatest warrior? Let's grab him.

Who's our greatest or our most intellectual person? Let's grab him. But but that wasn't going to work. And what God does ultimately is he goes to the farm and he goes and he finds a little shepherd boy named David. And David is just tending the sheep. I mean, he's one of the smallest guys that's in of the Israelite people.

And he comes out. He's of humble nature and stature. And ultimately, God works through him to defeat Goliath. You know the story. Throws the stone, kills him, defeats him, and then David becomes king. But he becomes king from a lowly place, a place of humility, and a place of a man after God's own heart.

But even David was not going to be the king, the great king that the people were ultimately longing for. He was what we refer to as a type of Christ. A type of Christ, one in whom we can see a foreshadowing of the king who's going to come. Similarly, in a lowly stature, a lowly place of humility. We see Jesus being born as a baby in a manger, a farm if you will. And we see Jesus ultimately fulfilling the type of king that we need foreshadowed here.

What was this type of king that the people were longing for that they were expecting? The Bible both Old and New Testament declares that Jesus will not only be the Messiah, as we covered last week, but will be king. You see this in Isaiah 9 6-7. And you're familiar with this, especially this time of year. It says this, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. This was written 700 years before Jesus's birth of the king that they would expect, the king that they would long for, the king that would rule not only their people, but according to this have no boundaries. He's going to be ruler. He's going to be king over everything that exists. You could imagine the angst in their voice if they sang, "Come, thou long expected Jesus."

because of the harshness that they've experienced from kings, because of the lack of ability that they've experienced from kings, because of the the unfulfilled promises that they've received from kings. finally being able to have one who actually rules with peace and with justice in a time that was just full of turmoil and not really knowing what day today is going to look like when it comes to provisions and what you need. And yet it should still be the same angst we should have today. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly because we still experience the same things. I mean there's there's no guarantee for us. No guarantee for us.

I remember like right at the beginning of co everyone talking about this just being um an unpredictable time or or a time in which we we could not really plan for this and and as if there was no real like guarantee. And I'm thinking when has there ever been a time that was certain? I mean every day that we walk through is uncertain. every day that we walk through is is uncared. Like it's there there's nothing that we do or or plan that we can go into with confidence that this will happen. Like we weren't in uncertain times.

We've always been in uncertain times. And we need a king who's able to promise us certainty that whenever he says something, we know that you can take that to the bank. We know that you can put your hope in that and your hope is not going to be left unanswered or unchecked. It's this prophecy about a king who would come to rule over not just the Israelites but have no end and no boundaries. It's this prophecy that terrified the kings of Israel who do not want to give up their thrones. We learn of this story with King Herod when he was outwitted by the magi.

It's this prophecy that Herod called for every child under the age of two to be killed in Bethlehem because again he didn't want the king of kings to come because that meant no longer can he be king. No longer can be he be lord. No longer can he be the ultimate authority. And as we know from the Christmas story, Jesus's family, they evade the decree and Jesus is born in Bethlehem which is literally called the city of David. Isaiah refers to this king who's going to ascend the throne of David. And we're seeing this king be born out of the city of David.

And the magi visit him to bestow gifts. And they don't bestow gifts because it's his birthday. They bestow gifts because you come to provide gifts to the new king, the new king. So, even the magi showing up from the east, and we'll get to that here in a couple of weeks, but as the magi come from the east, they're coming to literally lay stamp on the fact that this baby who's born is fulfilling the prophecy that there is a new king in town. There's a new king in town and he's greater than this king Herod. Greater.

So Jesus does come to rule Israel and even as Isaiah promised to rule with no boundaries for he is king of kings and lord of lords. The New Testament affirms this as we see in Acts 17 1-7. This is where Paul and Silas make their way to Thessalonica. Here's what it says. Now when they had passed through Amphipilus and Appalonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in as was his custom.

And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the g from the dead and saying, "This Jesus whom I proclaimed to you is the Christ." That's him saying, "This this Jesus is the Messiah." As Josh looked at last week. And some of them were persuaded and they joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and also a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble. They formed a mob, set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason.

Jason was where Paul and Silas were hanging out during this time. Seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, and here's the important part. These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. The reason why this is important is because during the Roman Empire, Caesar is Lord.

All right? Caesar is ultimate authority. What what Caesar says goes and it was decree. It was law for the people to literally submit themselves to the expression Caesar is Lord. Caesar is king. Caesar is emperor.

I mean Caesar is ultimate authority. So anything and everything that he says goes and the people would have to submit to this. So it would be against the law for the people to give those titles or give those names to anyone other than Caesar. And that's why you see this flip in the New Testament of people beginning to say, you know what, there is a new king in town. There is a new Caesar, if you will. It's Jesus.

Jesus is Lord. And that's a direct breaking of the law of the Roman Empire to be able to declare that. And what's at stake to be able to declare that like that? That's not just you currently right now saying that there's a Democratic president and you saying, "Well, you know what? I'm Republican." Like like that's not against the law for you to say that.

But in current Jerusalem, Bethlehem, that is against the law. It's against the law for you to go against Caesar. And what happens is it's not just a slap on the wrist. It's a hang them at the stake, crucify them, put them on a cross, kill them, stone them to death. And so they're so persuaded that this Jesus who's coming and has come is king that they're willing to sacrifice their lives in order to proclaim the true and rightful king. The king not over just the Roman Empire, but the king who has no boundaries.

Jesus, the king of everything. And if you're wondering what Jesus is doing while these men and women, these Christians are declaring him king and lord after his ascension back into heaven during the time of the church and the gospel spread. We look at Revelation 1 4-5. As these people were losing their lives to declare him as king, this is what Jesus is doing. We see this. This is uh greetings from the apostle John to the seven churches.

John says this in in verse four. John to the seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. All right. He he's immediately out of the gate establishing something that no earthly king can say. I'm eternal.

I'm eternal. I mean, up to this point, if you were to Google any Caesar or any king that's ever existed in history, you're going to get a uh birth date, a start date of when they maybe came into being Caesar or into being king and ruling, and then you're going to get the date when they either died or were stabbed in the back. And that's it. Like, there's a there's a beginning and there's an end. And what he's establishing here is the king that we serve who is who was and is to come. He's eternal.

There is no beginning for him and there is no end for him. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne, before his throne. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful servant or witness, he's the firstborn of the dead. All you're like, that's a weird statement. What do you mean by firstborn of the dead? that is of the church of Jesus Christ.

The only way that you become a part of the church of Jesus Christ is your sinful nature has to be put to death. Your spiritual identity has to be put to death and then raised to a new life, a new life in Christ. Jesus Christ going to the cross and dying and then three days later being resurrected to a new life and a new walk is us realizing that he is the firstborn of the dead in that regard. And from there, him being the firstborn of the dead, everyone who now spiritually dies and is buried with him and then raised to walk in newness of life. That's what we celebrate in the illustration of baptism is representing us then following in line with our king who has done what we are also experiencing as we walk through that as well. He is not a king who stands and sits back and just says, "Do as I say, not as I do."

but is one who has gone before us and has modeled everything and anything that we need in order to be a part of his body, his church, his community, his family. So, he's the firstborn of the dead and he is the ruler of kings on earth. This is where we begin to get those phrases. He's king of kings and he's lord of lords. There is no one who stands above him when it comes to authority. He is king of kings and ruler of kings and lord of lords.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood. What kind of king is he? What kind of ruler is he? He's one that does not rule with an iron fist. He's not harsh. He does not shackle us, but rather is a king who frees us because of his love for us and what he purchased for us by the shedding of his blood that we'll celebrate with communion here in a moment.

Jesus doesn't just come to be king of the Jews, but has established himself as king of the earth, a ruler of all kings. And what kind of king is Jesus? What I'm about to show you is a clip um that I that I believe at least for me is motivating and encouraging and establishes hope and peace and rest. That having Jesus as king is the greatest honor and privilege of our lives both now and for eternity because of the the way in which you describe him as king. the way in which the Bible describes the type of king he is. Again, it's it's easy for us right now to be in such a hyper uh tension and political environment within our country.

Uh, I mean this is going on all around the world as well where people I've had conversations just even this last Thanksgiving with with non-believing family members who put all their hope in political parties and and and on both sides of the coin. Some who who are on full board with who's in office and love that, but every four years are incredibly fearful that if it's an exchange of power that then their hope for what they believe to be a great future is gone. And then on the flip side, people who don't like who's in power and and can't wait four years for someone else to come in to like it. It's it's putting your hope in something that is never going to actually meet the expectations of your hope. The expectations of your hope. And what we get to do as Christians is is is I we just kind of get to sit on the side for a second and not laugh and mock at it, but we get to sit on the side as citizens of heaven and say, you know what, this is not my first this is not my first priority.

This is not my first care. Do I need to be involved? 100% absolutely. But am I putting all my hope in who's elected? Absolutely not. Because again, I know according to Romans 13 that even those who are put into power and those who are put into roles of kings and Caesars and emperors and presidents and governing authorities, man, they're underneath the sovereignty of God.

Even if you might even disagree with who's in position during the the different years that we have and the decades that have doesn't mean that God is no longer sovereign and still in control and is working out all things for the good of his people and for his glory to ultimately shine throughout all of the earth. Like that's going to happen regardless of who gets elected. And so we're able to step back for a moment and not freak out when something doesn't go our way. We're able in that moment to say, you know what, I want to share with you a king that I believe is greater. And the way the Bible describes him is a way that's going to provide for you peace and hope and rest regardless of what's going on in our in our world. And so I want to share with you a clip.

This is from uh this is from 1976. All right. This is before uh about 99% of us in this room were born. All right. Um even Greg, he's not in here. Oh, he is in here.

I'm sorry, Greg. I had to do it, man. Um, but even even before that, this is this is a clip from SM Lockage, and some of you might have already heard this clip in the past. Uh, but this is him preaching on the sovereignty of God and King Jesus. And it's almost like uh if you were introducing Jesus, this is the way he kind of envisions how that introduction would go. And so we're going to listen to this clip and then after the clip, we're going to enter into a time of communion as we celebrate and submit to this type of king that is greater than any king who's ever existed on our earth.

So let's take a moment and listen to this. The Bible says, "My king is a king of the Jews. He's a king of Israel. He's a king of righteousness. He's a king of the ages. He's the king of heaven.

He's a king of glory. He's the king of kings and he's the lord of lords. That my king know my king is a sovereign king. No means of pleasure can define his limitless love. He's enduringly strong. He's entirely sincere.

He's eternally steadfast. He's immortally graceful. He's implying powerful. He's impartially merciful. Do you know him? He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.

He's God's son. He's a center savior. He's a centerpiece of civilization. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He is the lost idea in literature.

He's the highest personality in philosophy. He's the doctor of theology. He's the only one qualified to be an allianced [Music] and the heises and he and the he and he guides. He heals the sick. He cleans the lepers. He forgives sinners.

He discardes debtors. He delivers the captives. He defends the evil. He serves the unbulous. He resto the he [Music] knowled. He's a wave of wisdom.

He's a door of deliverance. He's a pathway of peace. He's a roadway. He's a highway. He's a gateway. Do you know where his life is good everlasting?

His love. His word is his [Music] righteous. He's [Music] irresponsible. couldn't stop it. [Music] I wish I could preach like that sometimes. Um, but I'm also white and Jesus was not.

So, get past that part of the video. Um, but that is the king that we serve. I mean, the Bible as you read it cover to cover, you just continue to see time and time again the benevolence of Jesus and the generosity of Jesus and the gift that Jesus is to us as a people in need of a savior, in need of a king to rule and govern us. And that is exactly that what we give our lives over to is Jesus as king. And there's a submission there. All right?

Like we we don't rule and reign our own little kingdoms that we are establishing for ourselves and the lives that we are building. Like everything that we do is in submission to him first and foremost. That's why I love as we were walking through um the last book of the Bible that we preached through, we in James, we came to this place where where we talk about we envision for our lives. This is what I'm going to do tomorrow. This is how I'm going to plan my life. And at the end of the day, that's not going to happen.

Like Lord willing, we'll go and do this and such and such. Lord willing, like he is our authority. He is our king and he is the one that dictates our lives. And so our budgets are dictated by the Lord. Our our families are dictated by the Lord. Our relationships are dictated by the Lord.

We are in submission to him. And that is a good place to be because of the type of king that Jesus is. It allows us to have hope and it allows us to have peace and allows us to have rest regardless of what's going on in our world. And as I mentioned a few moments ago, this is a king Jesus who does not sit back and send his people to the front lines in order to sacrifice themselves for the advancement of his kingdom. But he goes to the front lines, primarily the front lines of the cross, to sacrifice himself, to break his body, and to shed his blood in order to defeat the the actual Goliath that we're talking about, to defeat sin, death, and evil for us because we can't. We can't.

But our king goes and does that. And as we enter into this time of communion, that's what we are celebrating is our king who went before us to the front lines and laid his life down in order to provide victory for his people. Victory over sin, victory over death, victory over evil, so that we will be able to rule and reign alongside of him for the rest of eternity. Like that's a good deal. That's a good deal. And that's what the procla proclamation of the gospel is.

You don't have to do anything. Jesus did everything. You accept it. You trust it. You believe it. And by believing it, you are welcomed into the family of God as a child of his with him as king.

As king. And so let's take a moment and stand. If you do not have the elements yet, you can go back to the table and grab the elements and come back. As you come back, we will worship our King Jesus. And we will thank him that he is a king who sacrificed himself for us on the cross. [Music] [Music] Paul said, "For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus On the night when he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, "This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. We are proclaiming the Lord's death as we partake of this. We are proclaiming that he is Lord, that he is king and he became that by means of sacrificing himself and ruling over everything through the victory over sin, death, and evil as he resurrected three days later.

So, let's honor him. Let's worship him. Let's celebrate him as we partake of communion together right now. And let's pray together. Lord Jesus, your righteousness is our shity. Your sovereignty is our sanity.

and your love is our satisfaction. How could we have possibly imagined that your humble advent entrance through a stable would lead to the stabilization of our universe and that your cradle would eventually rock our peaceless world. Truly, there's only one government and one peace sufficient to meet the needs of our sinful hearts and our broken world. Even though we await your second advent, you already are already ruler of kings on earth and of everything else. King David's throne has become a throne of grace from which you actively rule the world with your truth and your grace, Jesus. joy to the world indeed.

For indeed you are zealously making all things fit the counsel of your will, your purposes of your heart and delight of your father. You, Jesus, the lamb of God, the lord of lords, and the lamp of the new Jerusalem, the church, you are working in all things for your glory and for our good. No one and no thing can derail, deter, or distract you from bringing to completion your good work of redemption and restoration. You don't promise to do all things easy, but you always do all things well. Forgive us, Lord, when we get impatient with your timing, when we don't enjoy all your providences, when we second guessess your involvement. We've lived long enough to know you do some of your best work when we're actually feeling the absence of your presence.

As the gospel of your kingdom continues its transforming work in our lives, may it advance through us for the blessing of our neighbors and the nations. Give us more joy than than we've ever had in loving and serving others. Jesus, intensify our hope in the day you will return. and finish making all things right, King Jesus. So very, amen. We pray in your mighty and merciful name.

Amen.