Unwrapping the Sovereign
Christmas Unwrapped

Thanks for listening to the podcast from Gary Combs and the Preaching team at Wilson Community Church in Wilson, North Carolina. Check us out on the Web at wccnc.org for more. And now here’s the sermon.

All right, Good morning, Church. It’s great seeing all of you here this morning. I love all the different reds and greens and all the great ways that we’re dressing and singing. I love this season, and it’s the season where we remember Christ Jesus most of all, and we’re thankful for a couple of items I’d like to bring to your attention from your bulletin.

One is a reminder that were taking up the Christmas missions offering this Sunday and next Sunday. And here’s a question for you. Who’s birthday are we celebrating? That’s right, Jesus. And so who deserves a gift? Jesus. And if you want to give Jesus a gift, give a gift to the nations because that’s his command, that we carry the Gospel to the nations . So give a generous gift above and beyond your normal tithe, and you can drop that in the bucket at the end of the service at one of these stations down front. So we would remind you to do that. If you forgot to bring it today, please bring it next week.

The other item is in your bulletin and you’ll see this flyer, this insert in your bulletin. This is a series that begins in January. On January thirteenth, we’re going verse by verse through the book of Nehemiah and we are calling this series rise up where Nehemiah came to the people of Israel. They said the walls are torn down and they responded, Let us rebuild. Let us rise up and build and whether it’s broken walls or broken people, God has called us to rise up and to see people’s lives change. So we’re making room for more. Save the date. You don’t want to miss a single one of these Sundays starting in January. So that’s a little reminder to let you know what’s going on at the first of the year.

So we’re in part three of the series entitled Christmas Unwrapped. And what we’ve been doing is just looking at how the wrappings of Christmas need to be pulled away so that we recognize the true meaning. Our series theme verse is found in the book of Luke chapter 2 where we read fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David, A savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. So we’re going to unwrap Jesus today.

We’re talking today about Jesus as King Jesus, the sovereign one that was born at Christmas. The one that is coming again as king. He is the sovereign over all. Now this impacts those of us who are control freaks. How many control freaks do I have in the house? You need to be in charge. Okay, Only a few of you and I noticed that your spouse is there looking at you like Come on, Come on. Like we all know which one of you it is. And if somebody leaves the keys on the table, you’re the one who will snatch them. I’m driving. I need to be in charge people like that.

And so whether you are a control freak or not, here’s the truth. All of us kind of want our own way, don’t we? I mean, we all want our own way. We want things to go the way we want things to go. We want our own way. And if I were to get to the heart of what the sin nature is, it’s that self is on the throne of the heart that self says, I’m the god of my life. I’m the king, I want things my way And even some of us who say we believe in God we still go to God in prayer saying, God, here’s a list of things I’d like to have happen over the next few days. And if you could work those out because it’s like God’s serving you instead of going to God and saying, What do you want for me? What would you have me do? What would you like this data to look like? We like being in charge, and we’re born that way.

I’ve got a bunch of grand kids. I don’t know if you’ve seen that we have eight grand kids and every single one of them want their own way. They’re all born that way. And so are we; all of us. So here’s the issue. If Christ is the one born king, we’re going to be looking at Matthew today where the Magi, the three wise men came looking for the one born king. If he’s the one king, then that means you’re not. And that’s really what it means. I think in many ways, to open, to unwrap the true gift of Christmas.

It’s to come to this conclusion. He’s king, and I’m not. And so at the end of this message, that’s my challenge for you. Throughout this message, I want you to think about who’s king of my life, who’s in charge of my life and what areas of my life am I still reserving under my control. I haven’t trusted them to Christ Jesus yet because I would challenge each of us starting with myself. Is there an arena in your life an area of your life that you’re still trying to be in charge? And would you consider recognizing that Christ is king.

So as we unwrap this idea of Christ as King, let’s look at the Book of Matthew. As we look at Matthew, the child Jesus was revealed to the wise men. It’s to be the one truly born king of the Jews. And as we look at this, we can see him not only as the one born king of the Jews, but the one sovereign king over all, And as we look at the text, I think we’ll see three reasons that we can recognize Jesus as the sovereign king overall.

So let’s look at Matthew chapter 2 those of you that have children and you’re planning to read the Christmas story. I try to get at it from the different places in the Bible during the month of December. This is Matthew and Luke are the 2 Gospels that have the Christmas story, though, that Matthew has the star and the Magi the star and The Wise Men and Luke has the Angels and the Shepherds and the baby in the Manger. So those of you that are reading those and for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Luke has the Linus version from the Charlie Brown Christmas because I think that’s how we know it. But this is from Matthew chapter 2.

Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, the King, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, Where is he who has been born King of the Jews, For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And you, o Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come, a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I, too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly, with great joy and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod. They departed to their own country by another way. This is God’s word.

We’re looking for three reasons that we can recognize Jesus as the sovereign king. Here’s the first by the miraculous signs of the word signs might also be miracles by the miraculous miracles. If you will, signs point to something other than themselves. Would you agree If you’re driving down the interstate and you see a sign that says Taco Bell next exit, you don’t pull up and park under the sign and look for a taco. Nonyou go off the next exit and you go find a Taco Bell. The sign tells you what exit to get off. We should not worship the sign. We should worship the Savior that the sign points to

and so the word sign throughout scripture, especially in the Gospel of John, is a substitute word for miracle. But it’s carefully chosen so that you don’t get all hung up on the miracle. Instead, you recognize that the sign points to the truth about Jesus about Christ here. The central miracle, the central sign of the Matthew gospel is the star. The star. What kind of star is this now? A few comments to get us together on what’s going on here in Matthew. And you’re going to be aggravated at me when I complete this. Because it’s going to mess up your mantle. Those of you who have been coming here a long time, you know? Okay, here it comes. It’s gonna mess up your mantle. You know, you got your nativity scene on the mantle, right? You’ve got your stable with baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You’ve got some animals and an angel, your shepherds and your wise men your Magi, right? You got them all there together. Well, they don’t go together.

The wise men did not come to the stable to see an infant. Now, if you look it says in verse one now after Jesus was born. So this is sometime after. How long after? If you read the whole chapter, you find out two years after. How do we know that? Well Herod asked them secretly. He got with the Magi says, Hey, when did that star first appear? Apparently they said two years ago because later in chapter two Herod had all the baby boy’s in the city of Bethlehem under the age of two murdered. So that’s what they told him. Hey, the star appeared two years ago, so he was making sure he killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem under age the age of two.

So Jesus is a toddler. He’s not an infant. He’s not in a stable. Where’s the app if you read the scripture says here that he’s in a house. Okay, they’ve rented a house now in Bethlehem. They’ve been here for a couple of years. So this is a different story in the sense that it’s farther along in the story, it’s just more convenient to cram them together on the mantle, right?

I told this some years ago when my children were still living at home, and I said, You know, probably if you wanted it to be accurate, you’d have your stable, your shepherds and the angel on the mantel. And maybe you’re maybe your Magi, your wise men would be somewhere out in the backyard or on the deck or something to be accurate. So I was the last one home that Sunday, after I preached that for the first time. My kids got home before I did, and I’m pulling up the driveway and I look over and there’s my wise men. They’re all up on the railing of the deck, so don’t take it too literally like my kids . But they were listening really close. My son Jonathan, who preaches at the Rocky Mount campus, was notorious for messing up the Nativity scene. He would put the cow on the roof, the lamb where baby Jesus goes, and he would rearrange it every day to see if we caught it. So don’t let people don’t let the people mess up your nativity.

So, as we’re looking at this, we see that Jesus and Mary are in a house and it’s about two years after his birth. And so he’s still in Bethlehem. So this is the city. And so two years after that, the Magi who are these guys? The Wise men. Some translations say wise men. Some say three kings. Where do we get the number three? There were three gifts. We don’t know how many there were. We don’t know there could’ve been easily thirty or three hundred. We don’t know. There were three gifts .

And so we say there are three wise men, but we don’t know. We don’t know their names. They’re not named. It’s more likely that there were at least thirty. Why else would they have caused such a stir when they pulled up in Jerusalem? Three guys on camels I don’t think would get a special appointment with the King. Possibly three hundred wise men with all these camels and gifts and all this finery in. I think there was a caravan that took quite a bit of time for them to put together.

These wise men saw a star appear that had never been in the sky. And these were probably Persian astrologers. The word Magi is where we get the word magic. And so there’s this pagan mixture of things. Why would God do that? Well, I don’t know. Why would God speak to you and me? Because we’re all coming out of a sinful background. And he spoke to these gentiles. They’re not Jewish. They’re probably from Persia. They probably had access to the Hebrew scriptures.

We studied the Book of Daniel earlier this year. And we learned that when the Jews were carried off into exile by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, he carried off all the stuff from the temple, including the Hebrew scriptures. And then when King Cyrus of Persia overthrew Babylon, he carried off all the Jews and all the stuff that Nebuchadnezzar took. He carried it off to Susa to the Citadel in Persian. So now he’s got all the stuff. And so these guys from the East had access to the ancient writings of the Hebrew and they were students of the stars. And they see this new star. It rises, and they went, Hey, we read that somewhere. Where do we read that? And it just cracks me up that some gentile pagan guys are over there looking for it. And the Jews aren’t.

And that’s something that’s just kind of ironic. I find they, I believe, saw a Scripture prophecy that’s in the Torah and the first five books of Moses. In Numbers. 24:17 a star will come out of Jacob a scepter will rise out of Israel. No, Strangely enough, that prophecy was given to a pagan profit, a Gentile, not a Jew. So we have it. Book ended on either end. This guy who gave the prophecy of the star and the scepter rising out of Jacob rising out of Israel, was Balaam with the talking donkey that’s who gave the prophecy God spoke through him.

Remember the story? The king of Moab was hiring him to curse Israel because they couldn’t figure out how to stop Israel and God they could tell God was for them. So he hired him. Balaam says,look, I can only say what God tells me to say. But I’ll take your money anyway. And he goes up there and he opens his mouth. The curse is real. Nothing but blessings came out. So the king of Moab says, I paid you to curse them and you bless them. He says, let me try it on this other mountain. And so they paid Balaam some more money and he goes on another mountain. He goes to curse and blessings come out. Well, let’s try this other place. I’ll look over here and for the third time, this king paid him again and Balaam opened his mouth to curse and instead blessed Israel again. And inside that blessing, he said a star will rise out of Jacob a sceptar will come out of Israel. So here we have a pagan profit, A gentile who God reveals it to..

And then, centuries and centuries later, we have these pagan Persian guys who were studying this prophecy of Balaam and they say, Hey, there’s that star and I don’t know how long it took them to travel to get together their caravan, buy their gifts and figure out how they were going. You wouldn’t go straight from Persia to Jerusalem because you gotta cross the desert. All of the people that were smart in those days would go up the Tigris Euphrates Valley where the rivers are and where it’s green. You go all the way up to Syria, and then you’d come down south to Jerusalem.

So it took quite a while to get there and the whole way they could see the star until they got to Jerusalem. And then they lost sight of it. Why did you go to Jerusalem? Well, the star appeared in the East, and it would show them. But isn’t that where King should be? Like, if there’s a king born to Israel, shouldn’t he be in a palace? I mean, that just makes sense. I think they followed the sign, and then they just made an assumption as any of us would do. Surely a king born of the Jews would be in a palace in Jerusalem. And so they go there, and they go and they ask and he’s not there. In fact, they aks to find out from his experts where he might be.

Now this star, many make much of the star. The Greek word for star here is Aster. It’s where get the word asteroid. It’s where we get the name of that famous winner of the first Miss Universe contest back there in the Old Testament, Esther. Her name means star that comes from that same word and and so here it could be translated star. But it’s some sort of light in the sky, and many scholars have suggested natural explanations for the star of Bethlehem. Some say it was a supernova. There’s a comet streaking across the sky. Others say it was a perfect alignment of the planets. These scientists were searching for a natural explanation of the Bethlehem star. Maybe they’re right, but I I’ve never heard of a star like this one that leads you this way towards the east. And then when you get to Jerusalem, it leads you south towards Bethlehem and then comes to rest.

Over the place where Jesus lives is a special star. The Shekinah glory of God saying there he is, right there because I want the whole world to know about him. And so they come for this is a miraculous sign. It’s a special star pointing to the birth of this king. And so they come looking following the star that apparently the people in Jerusalem couldn’t see. I guess if I were traveling south in this caravan and I saw the star, certainly I would stop in Jerusalem because it looked like it’s on the other side. But perhaps while they were in Jerusalem, they lost sight of it because of the lights of Jerusalem.

King Herod, who was not really Jewish. His great grandfather had converted to Judaism. He wasn’t a true Jew. He was a puppet king. Through political maneuvering, he become king of Judea under Caesar Augustus. He was a false king. And he was a cruel man. He killed one of his sons. He killed one of his wives. He was constantly paranoid that someone was trying to steal his throne. So this king that came and they came looking for the one born king of the Jews. And they see where Herod has supersized the Temple Mount. So it had been the little temple that Zarubabel had rebuilt. And now he had expanded it. It was grandiose. And to this day, if you go to visit Israel today, if you go to Jerusalem, you can still see the remains of Herod’s supersized temple. The Western Wall was built by Herod; it is now called the Wailing Wall where the Jews go because they can’t go to the Temple Mount because it’s under Palestinian control. And so he was called Herod the Great because he had built so many great things.

And so they saw the palace and they saw the Temple Mount in there like, Wow! And for a minute, it seems like they lost sight of the star. Has that ever happened to you? All the glitter of Christmas kind of wraps it up so you can’t see what’s really supposed to be seen. They kind of maybe get caught up in that. But as soon as they left Jerusalem, as soon as they started south towards Bethlehem. Behold, by the way, I’m trying. Get that word back in the English language. You’ll help me out. It’s in here twice. I like it. Behold, they see the star again since they got out of the light pollution. You know what I mean by, like pollution. If you’re in the city, you can’t really be a stargazer. You’ve got to get out in the country where there’s no competition for the lights. And then you can see the stars popping out everywhere.

Soon as they headed towards that little town of Bethlehem, which is in the sticks about a three hour walk from Jerusalem. They saw the star action and it was moving, and then it came to rest over the place where Jesus lived. This is a miraculous star. It’s a special sign. In this sign, the Apostle John loved to use the word sign. When he talked about miracles in the book of John, he had 7 signs he loved the number seven seven signs. The first sign was when Jesus turned the water into wine in the town. He tells his mother that t’s not yet my time. It’s not yet my time. And she tells the servants, Just do whatever he says. So he turns the water into wine. Who could do that? God only one who’s king over creation could do such a thing.

The second sign that John gives is when he healed the royal official’s son who was at the point of death. He did it with a word.

The third sign that John gives is the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, who was laying there on his mat. And he says, I can’t get in the water. When the angel stirs the water, the first one in gets the healing. This is some sort of superstition. He was believing and Jesus said, Do you have faith?, If you have faith, take up your mat and walk. He healed the paralytic.

John chapter 6. The forth sign was when He fed the five thousand with a little boys pack lunch. He multiplied the bread and the fish.

The fifth sign is Him walking on water. He walked on water. It’s kind of a cool story. He looked like he was going to just walk on past the boat where the disciples were. I don’t know what he’s doing. And then they saw him. They first thought was he was a ghost. And then Peter said, Hey, if that’s the Lord, can I walk out to you? And he says, Come on. He walked on the water. Peter did briefly.

The sixth sign is the healing of the man born blind in John chapter 9. He was born blind. God healed him. He got so excited he took off running; he didn’t even take a good look at Jesus and didn’t even get his name. He just took off, running in the temple, jumping and praising He asked the people, What’s wrong with you? I’m the man born blind. I can see come on. And so ultimately because he was telling this he got kicked out the synagogue for it because he was claiming that someone had healed him, someone that he didn’t know.

The seventh sign is the raising of Lazarus from the grave. After being there for four days, these are signs these are miracles that point to Jesus that he’s someone sovereign over all things. Even the winds and the waves obey him.

John Chapter 20 John, after giving these signs, gave a summary statement. He said. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Why are the signs here? Why are the miracles here? So you’ll recognize you’ll unwrap the Christmas story and say, Wait a minute. That’s not just a baby, That’s God, That’s the king of kings. And Lord of Lords. That’s why we have these signs.

What’s the greatest sign of all? Certainly, it has to be the ultimate sign, which is the resurrection of Jesus. He says Tthis is Jesus speaking says. When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, But no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah . For, as Jonah became assigned to the people of Ninevah, so will the son of man be to this generation.

What’s the sign of Jonah? How long was Jonah in the belly of the fish? Three days and Jesus Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, so the son of man will be in the belly of the earth for three days before he rises again. That’s the only sign. I’m going to give to that unbelieving generation, he says. I’m going to defeat death and the grave. Do you see the sign? Do you recognize the sign that points to his sovereignty?

Here’s the second. Here’s the second reason that we see Christ as sovereign it’s by the fulfilled prophecies. When Herod in verse three heard that they’d come looking for the one born king. Not for the fake king, not the appointed king, but the one born king to the line of David the Messiah, The Christ that troubled him and troubled all those in power. And he got them together, he said. Now where was that Christ supposed to be born?

Christ means anointed one in the Greek Christ as Messiah is the Hebrew equivalent that means the same thing anointed one. Where was that messiah supposed to be born? And they said, Oh, the prophet said he’d be born in Bethlehem. Matthew quotes it right here. He’s quoting Micah five two now. Micah the prophet wrote 700 years before Christ. God told him seven hundred years before Christ was born. What city he would be born in

Now I’ve asked you this before. How many of you here with just a quick show of hands. How many of you here got to pick the city you were born in? I’ve never had anybody raised their hand. Some of you started to just because you want to be a joiner, but nobody did. I don’t think anybody got to pick your parents. Nobody got to pick the city. But it was prophesied seven hundred years before Christ was born that he would be born in the city of Bethlehem. And so they knew it. The Magi, the wise men, they didn’t know that part. And they went, Oh, because, you know, that’s a little town. You probably want to see it on the map from over in Persia. It’s just a little town, a three hour walk from here. And so they head down that way before they go here.

Herod has a secret meeting with them. He runs everybody out, and he just gets the wise men together. Says, Look, I’ve been wanting to worship that king too. We’ve all been looking for a sign. So what? You go down there and find him. And when you do come back and report to me so I can worship him, too , he’s such a conniving evil king, you know, he represents the king of the world, the kingdom, which has always been in war against the true king.

This is the purpose of Matthew. By the way, he’s put these two kings in the story together at the beginning so that you see the world, the king vs the true king. And he closes that way so that the grandson of Herod the Great Herod Antipas is the one who makes fun of Jesus. And he says, Hey, I heard you do miracles, do one for me. And Jesus stands there as a lamb who is silent and will not say a word. So he sends him back to pilot to be crucified.

You see, Matthew wants us to understand this contrast between the world system and God’s kingdom. Here’s what Matthew wants us to get if you get anything. Jesus is king. And so he’s setting it out in force here. And he says He shows us the signs that point to him. And then he shows us the prophecies that point to him.

Was Jesus aware that he was fulfilling prophecies. You better believe it. Look at Matthew, he says. Don’t think that I’ve come to abolish the law or the Prophets. I’ve not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them for truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away. Not an iota. Not a dot will pass from the law until it’s all accomplished. I came to fulfill it, not to abolish it.

When Jesus began his public ministry. He went back to the town he grew up in because after they left Bethlehem, they escape to Egypt for a while. They live there, and then they went back to Nazareth, which is where Joseph and Mary were from. And that’s where Jesus was raised. And so when he first was baptized and he’d fasted for forty days and been tempted by Satan, he went back to his hometown to inaugurate his ministry. And he goes to Nazareth and he goes to the place where he’s brought up.

We read this in Luke. He came to Nazareth, where he’d been brought up, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. These scrolls would be back in this big, beautiful, ornate wooden box in the synagogue. And the attendant would bring out the scroll with these big wooden handles at the end. Isaiah is one of the biggest ones, and he hands it to Jesus and Jesus unrolls it. And they didn’t have chapter and verse markings in those days. So you had to know your way around a scroll. Well, I think it’s a half turn this way and he rolls it. And the scroll the prophet Isaiah was given to him. They found the place where it was written. And then he read the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. You sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. Those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And he rolled it back up and he gave it to the attendant and he set back down and all the eyes of the synagogue were fixed upon him. Why did he choose that section? Why did he read it like it belonged to him? And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. If you continue to read, they go. Wait a minute, Wait a minute. Didn’t this guy grow up here? Isn’t that like one of the carpenters? But that’s one of the carpenters sons and Mary. I mean, she’s still here with us. I mean, who does he think he is? And they rejected him. And he said a prophet hath no honor in his hometown. He left.

He went to Capernaum and to make that his center of ministry, he began by reading it saying, I am the fulfillment of Isaiah and another place. He started talking about Isaiah, and he says, I tell you the truth, that this scripture must be fulfilled in Me.

And he quotes Isaiah 53:12, he says, and he was numbered with the transgressors for what is written about me is its fulfillment. So he said, I’ve got to be crucified. I’ve got to be numbered with the criminals. He’s quoting the Old Testament, saying, I’m the fulfillment.

On the road to Emmaus when the disciples those two guys were walking on the road to Emmaus after Jesus was crucified they are like, man, we didn’t see this part coming. We didn’t see that Jesus was going to be killed. We thought he was the king of kings. Now what do we do? We’ve been following them for three years. And then a third guy walks up and says, What’s up? What y’all talking about? Y’all seem sad. Have you been living under a rock? Have you not heard they killed the Christ they killed Jesus and we don’t know what to do. And he goes, tell me about that. And they started here. And then here’s what he says. This is Jesus, this third person that shows up with his God, he says, oh, foolish ones look at chapter twenty four and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with Moses, all the prophets he interpreted to them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself he goes did you not read this?

Could you imagine what it would have been like to be on the road to amaze us with Jesus? Open it up to Moses, to the prophets and that I there was on that page, and there I was on that page, and there I was on that page, and there I was on that page , and there I was on that page and they went Oh, my God.

Later, they said did our hearts not burn within us as we heard him. He is sovereign. All the prophecies over three hundred messianic prophecies. The Old Testament prophesied concerning him, and he has fulfilled them everyone.

And then finally, here’s the third reason because of the miraculous signs because of the fulfilled prophecies. Finally, the confirming worship when the wisemen left and they saw the star, they went and they found Jesus. And they rejoiced. Yeah, with exceeding great joy. I don’t know what that looks like exactly. But I got something in my head; they kicked at their heels. Boy, I mean, they hooped and hollered They rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Man oh, man, that must have been something. They were excited when they got there.

They went into the house and they saw the child. Notice it says Child; it doesn’t say infant like it does in Luke. Not a baby but the child . He’s a toddler now. He’s about two years old. He’s probably standing there and something about this star of the way it reappeared. The way they’ve journey for two years. To get here, you’d have to be on this journey. They saw him and it all came together. They fell down on their face and worshipped him. I think he went from being one born king of the Jews to one born king of their lives. Right there. Something happened. Someday we might see the MagiI there. Then we’ll finally found out what the real names are and how many of them there are. They fell down. The Greek word here for worship is ( ). It’s where we get the word prostrate. Fall down on your face and worship the Lord. You’re the king and I’m not.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever really surrendered your life to the Lord? Have you ever done that? The man born blind that we referred to from John Chapter 9. Jesus heard that he’d been cast out of the synagogue. And have you found him? He said, Do you believe in the son of man? And he answered. Who is he, sir that I may believe in him. Jesus said to him you’ve seen him. You need to see who is speaking to you. They said, Lord, I believe once I was blind but now I see.

The disciples worshipped him when Jesus ascended Luke Chapter twenty four. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him. The people at the triumphal injury entry on the original Palm Sunday they worshipped him in fulfillment of the prophet Zechariah 9:9. He came in riding on a donkey and the people said, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. The pharisees got worked up about it. They said teacher, rebuke your disciples . And he said I’ll tell you, if I tell them to be silent, the rocks will cry out. Creation itself will worship me the fulfilling signs, the fulfilling prophecies. Those who worship in these are proofs that Christ is king.

We’ve unwrapped Christmas for you today. It’s not just a baby in a manger. It’s not just a toddler in a house with his mother, Mary. This is the son of God born king and in John’s revelation we talk about when we read about his return. I’d like to close with this, John writes. I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head or many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He’s clothed and his robe is dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God and the armies of heaven . Arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty on his robe and on his thigh. He has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is Christ. This is the king. This is the sovereign. He has come and he is coming again.

Have you surrendered your life to him as savior Lord and King, Will you surrender the throne of your heart? Would you bow down in your heart now and say you are God, you are king and I am not?

Let’s pray, Lord. Thank you for the Gospel of Matthew and for this opportunity today, to be reminded of Christ that he’s king over all authorities. He is King, whether we recognize it or not, he is king. But it changes everything when we do. Lord, I pray for the person right now. And you know who you are right now. In your seat, would you surrender? How’s it been going? Trying to be in charge of your life. How’s it turning out for you? Would you surrender control right now and say I need Jesus. I need him. Pray with me, dear Lord Jesus I am a sinner and I believe that you died on the cross for me that you rose from the grave three days later and that you live today. Would you come and live in me, forgiving me of my sins and making me the person you want me to be? I declare right now that you are my saviour. My lord, my king. I give you my life praying that prayer, believing the Bible says you will be saved. Others are here this morning and you have received Jesus as Savior. You’ve received him as Lord perhaps, but you’ve still got areas of your life that you’re holding on to. Holy Spirit right now, would you show us that place? Is it ? your finances? Is it your possessions? Is it a relationship that you shouldn’t be in? Is it your parenting your marriage? Is it your job? Is it your school? Is it some hobby or something? Maybe it’s an addiction that you’re hanging on to and you can’t let go of this. This is mine right now. Holy Spirit, Touch Hearts. We want you to be king of all sovereign over all, we declare it in Jesus name. Amen.