Luke 2:8-14 — Messiah/Christ
Main Idea: Be comforted by Jesus’ rescuing reign as King of Kings.
JESUS’ KINGSHIP IS GOOD NEWS THAT CHANGES LIVES
• Is Jesus as King good news for your own life? In what way?
• How did someone tell you about Jesus? Can you do that too?
JESUS IS A KING WHO’S EXPERIENCED YOUR HARDSHIPS
• Do encouraging words or comfort mean more when the person’s been through the same difficulties you’ve gone through?
• If Jesus went through hardships, you can be like Him in yours.
JESUS’ PURPOSE AS KING IS TO GLORIFY GOD THE FATHER
• What’s the purpose you’ve been choosing to live for?
• Living for God’s glory brings certainty, security, & joy.
JESUS IS KING, SO ALL THINGS WILL BE MADE RIGHT
• What are you currently telling yourself is hopeless or too hard?
• Do the words fearful, angry, or bitter describe you, or do the words joyful & peaceful? Which set of words reflect belief in Jesus’ reign?
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
Today, we're looking at the very last name of Christmas that we see, which is the name Messiah, or Christ, Messiah, or Christ. And this is the name, the phrase, anointed one.
You might go, okay, well, what in the world does it mean for someone to be anointed, or the anointed one? Don't worry, we'll get to it. But we're going to read first in Luke chapter 2 and verses 8 through 14.
And if you would, read with me. In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Today in the city of David, a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.
Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors. There is goodwill toward man.
If you would, pray with me, and we'll dive into the message for today. Dear Jesus, you know every thought and intent of our heart. God, you know the difficulties, the burdens that we have brought with us in our hearts and minds this morning.
And Lord, you know the solution to all of those problems. So God, we ask that today we would find our rest in you.
Lord, thank you that you have proclaimed yourself by your actions, by your death, by your resurrection, that you are the king of everything. And Lord, may we recognize you as king and act in accordance with what your desires are for us.
We love you, Lord, and we pray this in your name. Amen.
2:08
Prophecies of the Messiah
Today, as we look at the name, the Messiah, the Christ, this is the anointed one. Now, for most times today, when we are going to give someone a position, we do not take oil and dump it on their head.
I don't know the last person in here maybe that got a promotion at their job, but I'm going to assume that it did not involve HR taking some olive oil and just kind of dousing you in it.
However, that was a very common way for people to crown a new king back in Bible times.
This was also something that was done for other offices, especially in Israel, that if you had someone that was a priest, that that was one of the ways that you dedicated a priest, and you said, this person is set apart for this purpose.
They were anointed to do the task. Nowadays, we might have perhaps like a swearing in ceremony where someone puts their hand on a Bible, or you can think even in a courtroom, we do that.
You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God. And we kind of have those types of things where people make verbal commitments. But in Bible times and in ancient Israel, you anointed someone.
And what we're told in three larger portions of the Old Testament is that there was going to be a king, an anointed one, one with a purpose, that would be unlike any other person. You see, in 2 Samuel 7, the Lord is conversing with King David.
Many of us are familiar with the story of David and Goliath, or maybe your favorite Bible passage is Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, penned by King David. And King David was talking with the Lord.
And in 2 Samuel 7, God made a promise to David that the promised seed of the woman, the descendant from Adam and Eve, that would crush the head of the serpent, that would end evil in our world once and for all, the one that would be the promised
seed, the descendant of Abraham, through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed. That child was going to come from the lineage of David, that David was the king. And there would come a descendant of David who would rule forever and ever.
And for those of you that know the Hallelujah course, and ever and ever. And that's what would happen. There was this wonderful promise that there would be a descendant of David on the throne forever.
But as we read through the rest of the Old Testament, we even get a few more things about this Messiah, the Anointed One. And one of those we find in Psalm 2, Psalm 2.
And in that portion of scripture, we're told that this Messiah is not just going to reign over the people of Israel. He's going to reign over the entire world. And that there will be opposition to his rule.
But as God puts it, the one who sits enthroned in the heavens laughs at them. And they try and scheme, they make plans against the Lord and against his anointed one, against his Messiah. But God will have none of it.
That Jesus will be the one that reigns forever. And then as we learned back in July, in Daniel 9, we're given one more piece to this puzzle. This descendant of David who will rule forever, but not just over Israel, over all of the world.
And we're told that the Messiah would be one that was cut off for the people. That is, that he would die for the children of Israel. But he would not stay dead because he would be the one to rule throughout all of the ages.
So when you see the word Messiah or Christ, it's not Jesus' last name. It wasn't, you know, Joseph Christ and his wife Mary, and they had their son Jesus Christ. No, it's not a last name.
It's a title. And if you will, though, anointed one is certainly exactly what the phrase means. Whenever you see the word Christ, it is that Jesus is king.
He's king over everything. And this is what happens when the angels announce this to the shepherds in Bethlehem. You guys remember who else was born in Bethlehem?
If you know it, shout it out. David. This is the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And now David's descendant, the promised Messiah, the anointed one, has come, which is exactly what the angels say to the shepherds. And so if Jesus is this king, if he's the anointed one, then what does that mean for you today?
I'll be honest with you guys. Many times, as we think about Jesus being king, or even as we think about ourselves as Christians, we very often think about it like, okay, I've got to check the box.
I have asked Jesus to be my savior, and therefore now I am a Christian, and when I die, I'm all set. That's not the way that God designed your life and my life to work.
Instead, he calls us not just to acknowledge Jesus as our savior, but we acknowledge him as our Lord, as our king. Now, it's been a while since we have had a king here in America. We're in Baltimore.
I grew up in Colorado.
We don't have any cool, like, historical battlegrounds, but when I visit, you know, my in-laws, I pass by, like, all of these great Civil War things, and we've seen over in Baltimore, you can even think about times in American history where there
were battles that took place, and the War of 1812, and all sorts of different environments where there were battles fighting against the King of England and his forces. And when we think about kingship, most of us, unless you're a Tory, are like, no,
we don't want kings, we don't like kings. Well, the reason we don't like kings as Americans is because they do wrong by us. There was taxation without representation.
There was a belief that they were above the law, that they could do whatever they wanted. We saw that, frankly, in Scripture, even in the life of King David. But Jesus is a totally different king.
He is a king unlike any other. So if he's the king and he is, if he's the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, the one in charge of your life and my life, what in the world do we do about it?
8:51
Kingship Changes Lives
Well, we'll find this out as we go through our points for today. But the main thought that I want you to walk away with today is that you need to be comforted by Jesus' rescuing reign as king of kings.
Be comforted by Jesus' rescuing reign as king of kings. That Jesus is king is good news. And it's good news for you today.
We'll begin with looking at this first point, that Jesus' kingship is good news that changes lives. Jesus' kingship is good news that changes lives. We see this from the very first thing that the angels say.
They have good news of great joy. Jesus being in charge of us is good news. We are not doing a good job being in charge at any stage.
If I were to ask any of you, hey, do you feel like everything in your life is ordered well? That your relationships are good? That your finances are in great state?
That your health is doing fantastic? That you find purpose and greatness in your job? Most of you would go, well, I'm doing well in a couple of those areas, but I'm not doing great at everything.
And as we look at the world around us, we can look at our politicians and leaders. And I don't know a single person that would go, oh yeah, everything that's happening in the realm of politics, we're doing a great job.
We should be in charge of this for a lot longer. No, we're all failing. We are all dropping the ball.
And that goes from the highest levels of government. When you look at a local town and mayors and school boards and all of it, you go, we're really, really bad at running this world that God has given us.
That's why Jesus is good news, because there is a rescue from the brokenness and the fallenness that we have.
And for our brokenness and fallenness, you guys know this, it is not just as a result of, well, if we get a different set of people into each of those roles, then life will be idyllic. Then we will have utopia.
No, because the Bible says that our problem is not other people. Our problem is sin. Scripture says that everyone has sinned, that we have said and thought and done things that go against God's nature and His character.
It's why when we sin, it hurts ourselves and it hurts everyone around us. Because we are rebelling against the very God who created our world to work together. He created the world and said it was very good.
And we came in and we made it not good. Because we refused to follow and to obey God. As a result of that, Scripture tells us that everyone sits under the condemnation, the results, the consequences of our actions of sin before a holy God.
Just as any good judge would punish wrongdoers for the wicked acts that they have done against society and against other people, so our God must have justice for the sin that we have committed. But that's why Jesus came.
Because God loved you and I so much that He did not want us to suffer the consequences for our sin. And so He said, I will take the consequences on myself so that everyone that turns in faith to Jesus can experience forgiveness for their sin.
That as they repent, they say, I'm no longer king of my life. Lori, you're not queen of your life. Or Miss Judy, you're not queen of your life.
And Brian's not king of his life. You see, Jesus is in charge. Jesus calls the shots.
And as we ask Him to forgive us, to make us new that He does so, that He places His Holy Spirit inside of us that would guide us into all truth, that we would be able day by day to become closer to God.
That scripture tells us the purpose for which we exist is to have a relationship with God. That day by day, we grow closer to the image of Christ.
That people in a month from now or two years from now go, man, Nate, Nate, there's something special about him that he looks a little bit like this Jesus that I'm reading about in scripture. That I feel love from God when I interact with Kitty.
That I experience generosity from Mary. And I kind of feel like maybe when they're telling me that God loves me, that not just that they believe it, but that it's real. That's what God has created this for.
So Jesus' kingship is good news that changes lives. Jesus is perfect, and Jesus is good, and he can give you victory over sin in your life.
Jesus can give you joy in your trials that even when you lose a loved one, even when you're going through financial hardship, you are able to find your identity and your future and your hope not in the things that pass away, but in him who reigns
forever, and in the fact that even death itself is not the end. And so because of that, we can have good news with Jesus' kingship. I loved this quote from a preacher in the 1800s, DO. Moody.
He said, It was my privilege to go into Richmond with General Grant's army during the Civil War. I had not been long there before it was announced that the former slaves were going to have a jubilee meeting.
These people were just coming into liberty. Their chains were falling off, and they were just awakening to the fact that they were free.
I thought it would be a great event, and I went down to the church, one of the largest in the south, and I found it crowded. One of the African-American chaplains of a northern regiment had offered to speak.
I've heard many eloquent men in Europe and in America, but I do not think I ever heard eloquence such as I heard that day. He said, Mothers, you rejoice today. You are forever free.
That little child has been torn from your embrace and sold off to some distant state for the last time. Your hearts are never to be broken again. In that way, you are free.
The women clapped their hands and shouted at the top of their voices, Glory! Glory to God! It was good news to them, and they believed it.
It filled them full of joy. Then he turned to the men and said, Young men, you rejoice today. You have heard the crack of the slave driver's whip for the last time.
Your posterity shall be free. Young men rejoice today. You are forever free.
And they clapped their hands and shouted, Glory to God. They believed the good tidings. Young maidens, he said, you rejoice today.
You have been put on the auction block and sold for the last time. You are free forever. Free.
They believed it, and lifting up their voices, shouted, Glory be to God. I never was in such a meeting. They believed that it was good news to them.
My friends, I bring you better tidings than even that. It's the cross of Jesus. It's His resurrection.
It's the fact that He has given you His Holy Spirit and His Church, His body to form you and to grow you, to minister to you. The fact that He has given you a home in heaven, is it good news to you?
Today, if Jesus' kingship is good news that changes lives, are you allowing Jesus to change your life? Are you allowing Him to be your King?
He has His instructions in the Word of God, the way that we live among each other, the way that we love, the way that we forgive, the way that we don't hold bitterness like we used to do, the way that we don't get taken hold by the addictions and the
vices that used to define us, we're now made new. Are you allowing Jesus to be your King? And if it's good news, are you telling others about it?
16:59
A King of Hardship
Secondly, today, Jesus is a King who has experienced your hardships. Jesus is a King who has experienced your hardships.
As I think about the passage and what the angels say, they don't say, you are looking for a baby that has like a nice glowing halo behind him.
They don't tell the men to go look for a baby that has perfect, flawless skin and is like floating in the air. They say it's a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.
When Jesus came to this earth, he didn't come equipped with superpowers. He was born just like one of us, experiencing birth the way all of us experience birth. He was one that experienced being placed into an animal's feeding trough.
First thing in his life, he has experienced every hardship that we face. Jesus knows every trial that we go through because he is fully human.
He has experienced betrayal, heartbreak, thirst, hunger, homelessness, terrible co-workers, abuse at the hands of religious leaders, injustice from his government, rejection by family members, and any other human hardship that you can imagine.
You might say, really? Jesus has been through the same stuff I have? Absolutely.
Isaiah would prophesy about him and describe him as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Jesus knew what it was to be sad. You can think in the Garden of Eden that he was under such stress and duress that he sweat great drops of blood.
My prayer, my hope for you all is none of you will ever experience stress as acutely as even Christ himself did. But know that the hardships and the trials that you are going through, Jesus knows what it's like.
Now, Jesus didn't work for Northeastern supply like Owen does, or Jesus doesn't, he's not a realtor like Dina or my dad.
So he doesn't know all of the minutia of each thing that you have, but he knows what it's like to go through every category of hardship that you face. That's a king that we can relate to. He's not a king that had an easy kush life.
Instead, he was a hardworking guy. He was a guy who grew up in, if you will, kind of a mixed home that the dad that he grew up with wasn't really his dad.
That Joseph was there, Joseph cared for him, Joseph, if you will, adopted him, but it wasn't his real dad.
And you can think of his relationships with his half siblings and what those must have been like, and James and Jude arguing with young Jesus and having to figure out, oh, Jesus is always right. You're just so perfect, aren't you? Absolutely.
Jesus knows all of it. We're told in Hebrews chapter four that Jesus is the high priest. He's the one that relates with us and the one that relates to God and the one that's the go between between us.
It says that Jesus went through everything. He was tested in every way, just like we are, but without sin. And because he was tested just like we are, it says he is able to minister.
He's able to love those who are going through hardships because he goes, all right, Mary, I know what you're going through right now. I know what it's like to have, you know, family members and sisters. Think about that, Jesus had sisters.
This is what a wonderful god and king this is. He's not far off away in some towers. He is not uninterested in your life.
In fact, what we're told as the Apostle Paul, before he became the Apostle Paul, is on the road to Damascus to further persecute Christians and to throw them into prison, that Jesus intervenes on the road from heaven.
And he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting? And then, do you remember what he says? He says, me.
He doesn't say, why are you persecuting the Christians? Why are you persecuting my citizens? He feels the pain of his people.
The agony that you're going through right now in your illness, Jesus feels it. He is there. He is not disinterested in you.
He is the God who both has experienced our hardships and currently walks with us in each of our hardships. The Holy Spirit of God living inside of you, if you will, communicates that pain and that hardship.
So know whatever you're going through, your God is going through with you. You don't have to wonder if he sees or cares. He is walking with you each moment of the way through.
When God tells you to forgive, to consider hardships a joy or to turn the other cheek, he's not telling you that in some theoretical sense. He lived it. He did it.
He walked through it. And he's asking you to walk through that same process as well. Today, could you pray and thank Jesus that he knows all about our struggles and he will guide till the day is done.
As the old hymn says, there's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one.
So first, Jesus' kingship is good news that changes lives. Are you allowing it to change your life? Are you sharing that good news with others?
Jesus is a king who has experienced your hardships. So take comfort in the fact that he knows what you are going through.
22:53
Glorifying God
Thirdly, Jesus' purpose as king is to glorify God the Father. Jesus has an agenda to his kingship. The very first thing that the Angel Chorus says is, glory to God in the highest.
That was the reason that Jesus came over and over again. You can see this especially in John's gospel, that he says Jesus was the glory of the one and only begotten son from the Father. Jesus did not seek his own glory.
He said he gave the disciples the glory the Father had given the Son. In his miracles, he was drawing attention to the glory of God, that everyone would be like, God is so great, he's so good, as a result of seeing what Jesus did.
In his teachings, he taught so that people would glorify God. As he discipled the twelve apostles, it was so that they would glorify God in their thoughts, in their words, in actions, in attitudes.
And even as Jesus prayed, he prayed that the Father would be glorified in him. Everything that Jesus did was for God's exaltation and for God's glory. Jesus' agenda for his kingship is not, as some politicians, it's not to make America great again.
It's not to have, I forget what the Obama slogan was, hope or change or whatever the different lines were. It's more, it's a bigger scope. It's for a greater, more eternal purpose than any human or earthly leader has.
He lives for the glory of God the Father, that people would see the kingdom of Jesus and say that God is great, that he is loving, that he is worthy, that he is wonderful.
Jesus wants people to bring praise to God through actions that can be commended. Can I ask you today, that's Jesus' purpose, what's your purpose for living? I'm not saying, do you believe in God?
Though, certainly, you ought to believe in God. Through your choices, what is it that you are actually trying to accomplish with your existence? Why do you have the marriage quality that you do?
Why do you have the friendships that you have? Why do you come to Tabernacle? Is it for what you get out of those things?
Or are you living for the glory of God?
Is the point of your marriage that people would see the love that you have for each other and go, God must be real, because there's no way Bryon and Samantha are getting along that way without divine intervention.
Are you loving your spouse so that your spouse would go, man, I know Jesus is real, because Daryl is not the same person that he was before.
Are you living in your friendships in such a way that people go, man, every time that I'm around Roy, or every time that I'm around Yvonne, I get encouraged. I feel like I have had a little touch of the divine come into my life.
I feel like God loves me because I've experienced it from others. Do you live for the glory of God? One way to know the difference in why you're living your life, what your purpose is, what do you talk about?
How do you respond when things don't go your way? Is your response what's right in the eyes of God? And so how can I foster peace or love or grace?
Or is your response, how dare they? Are you always talking about yourself? Are you always talking about the Lord?
Jesus would tell us, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Are you living for the glory of God?
26:34
All Things Made Right
Then lastly today, Jesus is king, so all things will be made right. Jesus is king, so all things will be made right. I love the end of the Angel Chorus.
They say, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. I think about that piece. I preached about it last Sunday online.
Guys, I hate recording stuff online. Well, for sermons, for other stuff, it's fine. But for sermons, I like being able to see you guys.
I like being able to proclaim it to you. Because when I see you guys, I remember that God has made some things right. I see people that have struggled with addiction that have now been clean for decades.
I see people that had kind of lost all hope, that gained new hope through Jesus. People that were once angry and embittered, that have found freedom in forgiveness and love. Marriages that have been reconciled.
People that were on their way to hell, that are now on their way to heaven as a result of the life-changing, making-all-things-right work of Jesus, the King. Into our chaotic, murderous, hate-filled world, the Prince of Peace came.
And can I tell you? Yes, he died on the cross 2,000 years ago, but he didn't stay on that cross. He was buried and three days later, he rose again from the dead.
Forty days after that, he ascended into heaven where he now sits at the right hand of the Father. And on the day when the Father sends him back for his bride, everything will be made right.
If everything is going to be made right, everything will end up being right in your life.
In the hardships that we go through, when we don't really have enough to make it to the end of the month, when we lose that relationship, God has not abandoned us. This life is not the end.
And so how do we approach our lives knowing that everything will be made right? We're able to walk with peace, with joy, with love. We don't have to live our lives in consummate stress all of the time.
We don't have to live constantly angry and bitter that humans can't fix the problems of our world.
We can operate knowing, okay, I'm going to do what I can while I can, while the Lord gives me the ability, and then I'm going to realize Jesus is coming. And when Jesus comes, everything will be okay. Jesus is in control.
No trial is outside of his intention to redeem. No world decision is outside of his sovereign guiding. And no conversation that you have day to day is bereft of divine intention for your benefit in becoming like him.
One day Jesus will return and judge all evil and reward all good. Every thought and word and action that you have this week will fall into one of those two categories, evil or good. Will you this week pursue what is good?
That when he comes, it's a joyous occasion. You don't have to live in sorrow for the way that you lived your week. You can live in joy knowing that you have pursued the Lord in his glory and his way.
Do the words fearful, angry or bitter describe you? Or do the words joyful and peaceful? Which set of words do you think reflect belief in the reign of Jesus?
In your life, it can be easy to be discouraged, to be disheartened. Can I tell you, there is hope in Jesus. There is joy to the world that the Lord has come.
There is peace on earth. And you can know today that the favor of God rests on you through his Holy Spirit living inside of you, through the fact that you have said, I reject being king or queen of my own life. Jesus is king.
He is the Lord. He's the one that calls the shots for me. Today, Jesus is king of kings, and he is Lord of lords.
Are you living under his commands? Are you comforted by the fact that he has suffered in every way that you have? Are you living for his purpose of glorifying God?
And are you living with joy and peace, knowing that he is in control and everything will be made right?
31:13
Accepting the King
Today, perhaps, if you're here and you do not know Christ as your Savior, you have not been living as though Jesus is your king.
Can I tell you that today, you can repent of living your life with yourself as the king, and you can turn to Jesus as the Savior from the penalty of sin, and you can ask him to be your king. You can make that choice today.
You don't have to be right with God for enough days to make it happen. You don't have to give some amount of money. You don't have to get dunked some amount of times in order to be made right with God.
It happens as we call on Jesus as Lord, believing in our heart that God raised him from the dead. We will be saved.
If you'd like to talk with someone about that even today, as we go to our hymn of invitation for this morning, several of our elders will be right up here at the front.
They would love to pray with you to open the Bible to show you how you can accept Jesus as your Savior, or if you'd like to talk with someone even later in the week, I would love to meet up with you and share how Jesus says that you can know him as
your Savior.
