Two Kings

Y'all ready to hear a story about the king? Would you turn to your neighbor and say, get ready to hear the story about a king. Some of you didn't do it. That's a bad sign. So it's dawn. It's real early. Like, the city's crowded, everybody's getting ready for this feast that's coming. They're also a little curious. They're a little nervous about what is to come. They kind of have heard whispers and rumors, but really it's all unfolding fast now. I mean, to be honest with you, what happened in the darkness of night is now going to come to light. Most scholars, I agree with them, that we're probably in an open courtyard of a palace, of an old dead king. This would be the appropriate place for this particular governor to hold court. You see, for the people who are now coming in and want to speak with him, you need open air. You need to be able to see this guy because they wouldn't be allowed to go into the closed residence of this pagan Roman governor. These are Jewish leaders and Jewish people who are now coming to him, and they could never go inside his home. It needs to be open air. Passover is about to start. Now it works for the governor as well because Roman law says that your judgments have to be done in public, and that's what they want. They want a judgment. You see, what they've done is they've brought someone to him after a night of really illegal proceedings, brutal things that are happening there. These religious leaders bring Jesus of Nazareth to Pontius Pilate because he's the only one. He's the Roman in charge of the region.

He's the only one who has the power to sentence Jesus to death, and that's what they're hoping for. You see, as they present their case, they're hoping that this governor will agree with them that Jesus is a threat to Rome, which is really kind of a joke because they don't really care about Rome. He was a threat to them. He was a threat to their status, to their position, to their wealth. He'd already called out their corruption. He was talking about life with God and who mattered, and there were people who were actually beginning to believe. Could he be the one? I mean the one, the promised one, the anointed one, Messiah. That's what Messiah means, the anointed one, the promised king. Now Pilate doesn't care or know anything about any of that. He's just getting a sense that he's been caught in something, and the trial does not seem right. So you'll see now if you read all of the accounts that he tries to move it to a different side, a different venue, it comes back to him. There are these back and forths where he'll talk to the crowd in public, and then he goes back in private to talk with Jesus. First time he goes back, he says, so are you really the king of the Jews? Now the answer Jesus gives him is, well, I'm not the kind of king you're used to. Like my kingdom is not of this world. My authority does not come from this place. Again, Pilate's not tracking with everything, but he hears the word kingdom, and he goes, ha, ha. So you are a king. Well, as you say, I'm a king, but that's why I was born. But I'm going to point people to the truth. You see, Jesus throughout his whole life is pointing people to the truth.

He tells them the truth about life, about life with God, about their failures and their hopes and their longings. He talks about who matters. He tells people about second chances. At one point he says, if you trust me in my way, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. In another place he actually says, I am the truth. Like come to me, I'll help you with this. You want to be free of religious superstition? You want to be free of your regret and your shame? You want to be free of your fear? Come to me. If you're weighed down, come to me. If you're living a life that has no meaning, if you're tired of grinding through your days with no joy or purpose or hope, come to me. Jesus says this over and over. And then he says, like right here with Pilate, anybody who's for truth, they're going to listen to me. There's almost a little bit of an imitation in here. Pilate, what do you think? You interested? Now whether it's because he's tired or cranky or just doesn't want to be inconvenienced by Jesus, he gives an answer that we're real familiar with. He just basically says, what's truth? I mean, you have your truth. I have my truth. What's truth? You see, at this point, all he wants is to get out of the mess. So again, back and forth, back and forth. But eventually he sentences Jesus to die.

Now he does this to protect his own power. He does this to silence this crowd. I'm telling you, hatred was in the air. There were demonic whispers that were working their way through that courtyard. But eventually, he pronounces judgment. Jesus will now be executed. He'll be crucified, but first, a beating. Now, this is the kind of beating historians tell us that some people didn't even survive the beating. They never even got to the cross. That's how brutal it was. So I want you to understand now, Jesus has been beaten, he's been bloodied, like battered beyond recognition. The soldiers get in on the act and they put a purple robe on him because purple was the color of royalty. They jam a crown of thorns on him. And one last jab against the crowd, Pilate brings this Jesus who is so bloodied and so abused and mocked, he brings him out and says, here is your king. One of the other translations says, behold, your king. And amidst all of the cries in that moment for his crucifixion, the religious leaders cry out, we have no king but Caesar. Now, I want you to picture this. This is the only perfect man who's ever lived. This is the king whose kingdom reaches into eternity.

This is the one who humbled himself and did this for us. This costs him everything. He stands there and they say, we choose Caesar? Turns out, Judas wasn't the only one who betrayed Jesus that week. Turns out, they betrayed the king as well. Now, it's not the first time in their history that they've done this. If you go all the way back, all the way back to Abraham, he has this promise that his descendants will form a nation and that nation is to point people towards God. They are supposed to be so different and so good and so distinct that people ask questions and like all of the other nations will learn of the one true God. That was the plan all along. But now we're like years later, let's say 1000 BC or so. They're not different. They're not the catalyst. They're not the change agent. They're not the force for good that is pointing others to God. They are actually being changed by their environment. It's kind of flipped the other way. And so they now say to their prophet Samuel, we want to be like everyone else. We want a king like everyone else. The problem is they already had a king.

He had always been their king. Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech aholam, blessed are you, O Lord, our God, king of the universe. He has always reigned. Exodus 15, way, way earlier, said that the Lord shall reign forever and ever, but the people forgot this or they rejected it. And they said to Samuel, we want to be like everyone else. We want a king. God says to the prophet, don't take it personally. They're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me as king. Be sure to warn them what's gonna happen next. If you know the story, it doesn't go well. Saul is their first king. He's given to fits of rage. He dabbles in the occult. He has a psychotic break. He's defeated by his enemies, beheaded, and his body is hung off the city walls. I mean, this is not a great start. Second king is David. David, we know, David the great, but David also the great failure because he just had triumphs and he had tragedies all the way through his life. But through sheer force and the military and political genius of his life, he was able to take 12 tribes and all of these clans

and all of these families and all of these rivalries, and he united them into a nation. This is like 1000 BC. He has a son named Solomon. He does a great thing. He builds the temple, but he also leads the country down a dark path. His son continues down that path, and there's a civil war, and this early nation now falls apart. They have a civil war, they break apart, and they are never united again, not ever. Without going into great detail, we've talked about these kings of the north. They're terrible, they're evil. We ran into one of them during the story of Elijah. Eventually, they are overwhelmed and absorbed into another empire, and we never hear from the northern kingdom again ever. They're gone from history, they're gone. To the south, they had a couple of kings that were decent, a couple of good kings, but usually they keep drifting back into this horrible practice of worshiping these false idols, and there's some really dark stuff back there that we talked about, and eventually God, after years and years of warning, says, I will give you up to your own way and to your own circumstances, even though it breaks my heart.

In 586 B.C., Jerusalem is conquered. The temple is destroyed. The king. is defeated, last king they see, the people are taken into, they're basically prisoners of war, they're taken into exile, they gut the land and take the people to another place. And amidst all of this heartache and all of this longing, there are these prophets who along the way would catch these glimpses of hope. Every now and then God would give them just a glimpse of the one who is to come. There is one who's going to make things right. There is one who's going to be different than any other ruler. He is king. He is messiah. He's like David, only better. He's called David's greater son. And this king is going to do things like no one else could ever do. And he will reign forever and ever. Can you even imagine it? And that's pretty much how the Old Testament ends. People longing for this king, this messiah to show up. That's it. Now you got 400 years between what we call the Old Testament and what we call the New Testament. There are no more kings, no more leaders. Ancient Israel is basically handed off from one superpower to the next. They go from the biggest bully on the block to the next biggest bully on the block. They go from Babylon to Persia to Greece to Rome, and Rome might have been the worst of them all. And that takes us to the time of Christmas and the time of Jesus, which some of you thought I had forgotten about. But you see, this is the season of Advent. And if we're going to talk about Advent, then we have to remember longing. And I want you to get a sense of the longing. God, are you ever going to come through? Are you ever going to keep the promise? You see, on this week that leads up to really Christmas week, if we're going to have this be more than nostalgia, we need to know what Christmas really means. I want us to celebrate the boy who was born, but I want you to understand what God was up to. And I want you to begin to ask yourself, what could that possibly have to do with me? That's the ultimate question today. How does this story with these familiar details, how does it apply to me? And I think Matthew can help us. We're going to go to Matthew chapter two. If you have your Bibles, we'll start with verse one. Verse one has so much in it. I mean, it'll keep us busy, but let me pray for us. And then we'll continue this story of the cake. Father, we come before you now. We are grateful. We're grateful that you loved us so much that you sent your son. Jesus, we are so grateful that you chose to humble yourself and enter into this story. Spirit, we are thankful that you're here with us, and we're asking for your help now

as we open the word that you inspired. Please now connect us and connect the dots so that we can see God, what you were up to. We ask all of this in the name of King Jesus. Amen. Matthew chapter two, verse one. Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in the province of Judea at the time when King Herod reigned. Now there's, it's just a lot there already. Bethlehem, everybody knows Bethlehem, right? If I were to talk to you guys at Mid Rivers and Fenton and Grant's Trail, and like right now, just shout out what you know about Bethlehem. Go ahead. We'll give you a second here. Go ahead. Just tell me what, okay, that's good. That's good. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so you guys couldn't, what they said was it is a little town, right? So we know that from the Carol. It's a place where Jesus was born. It's the place where David was born. So it's the city of David. So it is connecting David into the story. And somebody somewhere said, this is where David's great grandma, Ruth, was from. She's a hometown hero. So that's Bethlehem. Bethlehem means in the Hebrew, it means house of bread. House of bread. Let's speak some Hebrew. Do you know how to say house of bread in Hebrew? Let's say this together. House of bread. Here it is. Pa-ner-ah. Pa-ner-ah. Turn to your neighbor and... No, it's not true. It's not true. It's not true. Here it is. Beit lechem. Beit, house, lechem, of bread. We don't know why. There could have been a granary there. We don't know. What I find interesting about this is the writers of Scripture just aren't that, like, enamored with Bethlehem. Matthew mentions it five times. He's one that dials it in. Luke mentions it twice. John, I think, once. And that's it in the New Testament. So why is it such a big deal? Of course it's because Jesus was born there. But let me give you just a little bit more, because we know centuries earlier that Bethlehem is going to be a big deal. We're like in the 700s BC. We're back in that time where the prophets are warning people of what's to come, and they're trying to give them a sense of hope. That's what Micah is doing here. Chapter five, verse two. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah. Now that's just another way to say Bethlehem. Small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are of old, from ancient times. I'm telling you, there's so much truth in this verse that it barely fits there. I mean, it's just like you're squeezing a lot in there.

What Micah is saying is, I don't fully understand it, but there is a ruler, there is a king who is coming, who is like no other king ever. He rules, but his kingdom is from ancient, from times of old, before there was time. This is a timeless, eternal king, and somehow he's gonna be born into human history, and he'll be born, for all sorts of good reasons, in the city of David, Bethlehem. Now, what Matthew does is he tells us right here, when he gives us this idea that Jesus is born in Bethlehem in the time of Herod, what he is saying essentially is, I'm gonna tell you a tale of two kings now, because they lived in the shadow of this other king, Herod. Let me tell you about Herod. Herod liked to be called Herod the Great. That's your first clue that somebody's got the big head, when they want, you know what I'm saying? So Herod the Great answered to Caesar, everybody answered to Caesar, but he was known as kind of the king of that province, the king of the Jews, that's who he was. He was very powerful, he was very connected politically. It's said that in his youth, he was good-looking and powerfully built. There's one story about how Cleopatra, y'all know Cleopatra? She tried to seduce him. So he's very connected to these kings, to these Caesars, and to Rome, and all of that,

but this guy was all about his power and his throne. He had 10 different wives, 40 kids, it was all about consolidating power, it was all about his throne. The one wife that history tells us he loved, Mary Omni, he actually killed her just to protect his wealth. He killed his mother-in-law too, just to protect his wealth. What a sweetheart, right? I mean, that's who he is. He had two sons that kind of got sideways with him, he had them executed. When his barber stood up for the sons, he had him executed. On his deathbed, I could tell you story after story about what happened on his deathbed, but at one point, he got wind that one of his sons might have been just a little bit too excited that old dad was finally gonna pass, and he has him executed. This guy is all about protecting his kingdom, and he had a kingdom. Like, he was powerful, he was wealthy, he controlled the major trade routes in the area, he, by one estimate, had, his wealth was about 10 times the gross domestic product of his entire country. He was wealthy. And when he wanted to show people that he was in control and that he was powerful, he built things. He commanded things to be built. He built miles and miles of aqueduct throughout the region to carry water.

He dug a deepwater harbor and built Caesarea Philippi. You can still go to those ruins on the coast of Israel. He built hippodomes for gladiator contests, he built amphitheaters for all sorts of events. If you've ever heard of Masada, this famous fortress in Israel, he built Masada. He built the temple, the temple that we'll go back to after Christmas and we'll see so many of the stories that happened there with Jesus and with Paul and what happens at Pentecost. He built that massive temple complex that still, if you go to the old city in Jerusalem, the ruins of that temple still command attention. He built all of that, but he also built on top of a mountain, you know, we've been talking about mountains. Well, this is a man-made mountain, really. It starts off as a hill and then he builds it shovel full by shovel full. What I want you to see, and you can kind of look and see, it's artificial, he builds this thing up. It's a couple thousand feet by the time you get going there. It's a lot that's going on and on top of it, he builds his summer palace. It's called the Herodium. Now, the Herodium was even on top of this and you can kind of see up there in the distance. It was nine stories tall and the towers went even further. The whole point there was to build it tall enough that the rooms on the top could catch the cooling breeze

from the Mediterranean Sea. I mean, it was like his own version of air conditioning. There's so much that was going on there, 45 acres of buildings, 200 acres of palatial grounds with pools and theaters. It was a thing, but he built it on his own little mountain that he himself had built. And you know where he built it? You know where the Herodium is? You can see these ruins today. Just a couple of miles from a little town called Bethlehem. You see, what I want you to understand is that Bethlehem lived in the shadow of this mountain that was built for an evil king. So when he built it, Matthew tells us in one sentence that this is a tale of two kings and that Herod lived in these times. He's telling us trouble is coming. When you begin to think about kings and what it is that they demand, it's a lot. And what Matthew is saying is there's a new king in town. Now we're going to talk about this new king in a second. We sing about him all the time. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Yeah, it's not a trick question now. You don't trust me after Panera, I know. But let earth receive her king. Her king. We sing about this all the time. Well you see it in the story.

Like the very next phrase, we don't have time to go into it today. But the very next phrase Matthew is setting up is these wise men from the east, these magi from the east, come into the palace because that's where you would go, right? They're coming to Jerusalem. They're going to talk to the king. It's the common sense place to go. And what's the question they ask? Hey, where's the one who's been born king of the Jews? But he's here. We saw his star. Herod is incredibly upset by this. You see, when the king of the earth, when the king of the universe is born, that is either incredibly good news or a big fat threat. For Herod, it was a threat. I don't want this king, I don't want him to take my kingdom away, I don't want anything about him. You see, if there are other kings in the land and there's a greater king that shows up, those kings can either submit to him or they can fight against him. I want you all to hear me say something now as clearly as I know how. There are Herods in the land. There are Herods in this world who hate Jesus, hate the word of Jesus, hate the work of Jesus, and will do everything they can to silence and to stop the kingdom of Jesus. Because of our relationship with the Lausanne Congress and just access to a variety of things, I just want to give you a couple of little ways to keep perspective on this. So the first one here, this just shows a map. According to a survey recently, 360 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination. Now, the definition of that is these are people who are either, their churches are looted, burned, destroyed, they're taken back, or it's people who personally are arrested, they're threatened, they're kidnapped, they're raped, they're tortured, or even killed for

their faith. Now, the next survey is this. What it shows is that 312 million suffer extreme violence in these 76 countries. Y'all, I could go through country after country after country that has what are called anti-blasphemy laws, and in places like Saudi Arabia and Mauritania and Brunei, and I could just go through the whole list. It's punishable by death if you start to proclaim someone like Jesus is king. I can tell you that in certain places like Eritrea and Nigeria and Burkina Faso, pastors are threatened. In places like Haiti, they're kidnapped and held for ransom. We live in a day where herods push against the kingdom of God. And that last bit that I told you about, the violence that happens, that has grown. It has doubled in the last 30 years. So what am I saying to you? I'm saying that when I am around people, friends that I will not mention by name, I will not be specific because we will not endanger them, but friends that you will be encouraging and serving and blessing and supporting next week when you come back and you participate in that Christmas offering. You need to know that when they get me aside in person, they will say, Greg, we are literally under attack. I was in a meeting last week, two weeks ago, with some leaders from around the world, pastors, and we're dreaming together. All of the continents were represented, and we were just trying to figure out, how do we finish the task of proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth? How does that work in America? How does that work in Africa? And so we're celebrating, we're weeping, we're lamenting, we're praying, we're dreaming, we're planning. All of those things. I'll give you more of that later.

I just want you to know, when I'm in the presence of people who are facing real persecution because of their faith, I'm humbled. And if I'm going to be really honest with you, I get a little ashamed of my own complaints. I'm like, oh wait, so that was what I was worried about? I'm telling you there are people who are being persecuted because they proclaim the great name of Jesus. But I want you to hear something. Jesus is still the king. And I'm telling you, Jesus and his kingdom are moving forward and we will stand by our brothers and sisters who are suffering and we will come alongside them and we will remind them in tangible and in very powerful ways that they are not alone. You need to hear me on this. This is not a new thing. Evil hates the kingdom of Jesus. It has forever been trying to silence it. But year after year and generation after generation, the church prevails and the kingdom advances. Not because of us, but because of the power of our resurrected king. And I believe that. And some of you are like, I don't even know if I should clap. I don't want to encourage him. He's getting a little wound up. Listen to me. That's part of the perspective. But now we've got to make it personal. You see, now we've got to get to a place where like, oh, I don't know. You're going to start growling at me or grumbling a little bit because if Christmas is going to be real, then we have to ask, what is God up to? And what does that mean to us? Is it possible that we have a touch of Herod in us? You're like, wait a minute, I'm not killing anybody.

I don't want anybody to die. I'm not working against Jesus. Well, first of all, good. That's good to know. But is it possible that you and I have just a, I don't know, what would we call it? A little Herod syndrome, a little Heroditis, a little Herodosis. Now, that one sounds weird. It's like if you forgot to brush your teeth, you got some Herodosis. No, that's not it. Herod syndrome. Let's just say, do we have a little bit of a Herod syndrome? Like we love when it's like, yeah, you go get him, preacher. But then when those truths kind of come back to us, I'm just saying, just theoretically, is it possible that when truth comes to us and we hear something and it's like, oh, wait, no, that's what the word is saying. Oh, wait, I got to treat people that way. Oh, wait. Is it possible ever that we ever say, we won't say it out loud, but that we just go, you know what? I'm just going to keep this little part of my kingdom, just this, you're king, go get him, Jesus. But I'm just going to keep this little corner of my life just for me. Is that possible? Is it possible that you and I ever think to anyone, let's just start with anyone. You're not the boss of me. Yeah, let's make it awkward. Would you hang out with four or five people around you? When was the last time that thought came to your mind where you went, you're not the boss of me? Go ahead, talk to each other. We'll just start in a general way. When was the last time you went, nope, you're not the boss of me? Go ahead.

All right, anybody here ever thought you're not the boss of me? I mean, this is so difficult. Some people don't even want to talk about it. Some people don't even want to go there. It was an English pastor from way back who put it this way. He said, when you hear the claims of Jesus, you run in fear. Like you say, not anymore, I got to get out. You attack him in anger or you kneel in surrender. Because Jesus just keeps taking away the middle ground. So did anybody here just, when was the last time that you just, you said, you're not the boss of me? You don't have to tell me. But has anybody ever said that? Have you ever thought that? A lot of times it's when I'm already going to be doing something and then somebody says, you know, you ought to do this or you should do that. And I'm like, yeah, you know what? You're not the boss of me. Anyone familiar with the illusion of control? let me help you with that. You ever pushed the close the door button on an elevator? Have you? Like, it's kind of awkward if somebody sees you doing it, but you're like, you can hear them coming down the hall. It's like, I'm not riding with them. Come on, come on, come on. Or you hear somebody who like really coughing or sneezing and you're like, please, Lord, please. Right? Right? Fact check me on this. Did you know since the early 1990s, those buttons have no function? Because of federal law, you have to provide a certain timeframe for people to get in and out of an elevator who have mobility issues. You have to give them time to get in and out. And so on most elevators, you're not doing anything. Now, some of you are like, no, I am. Cause as soon as I pushed it, it was magic. Do the timing on it. Cause it was probably just time for it to close. The question is, why do you keep putting those buttons in elevators? And what people say is

because it gives them, it makes them feel better. They have the illusion of control. I'm doing something. I'm getting something done. Here's the thing. Herod was in charge of a lot, but Herod thought he was in charge of everything. He had the illusion of control and the God of the universe is so in charge that he sends his son to be born right under the nose of this evil King, the prophecies, the plan of heaven. It all comes down to this peasant boy who is born in the shadow of the Herodium and spends his first night in a feeding trough and Herod can't stop it. But I need you to now know this. Jesus didn't enter the story to humiliate and power up on Herod. He didn't enter the story to prove to Herod, like in one fell swoop, you are not the boss of me. I mean, that's how Herod plays, but this whole thing wasn't about politics. It wasn't about palaces. It wasn't about power moves. It was about Jesus humbly entering the story and inviting anyone, anyone to turn to him. I mean, Herod, you, me, he's calling sinners to repentance. If you'll come to me, I'll give you a life that's like no other life. Now, the little bit that you know about Herod, do you think he was really happy? I don't think he was happy. I think he was afraid that another King was going to take something away from him. So what do we have in common with Herod? I think sometimes when we hear Jesus talk about, hey, those who lose their lives will gain it. Those who surrender their lives will find a sacrifice. That kind of starts to freak some of us out. We're like, man, I don't know. If I get too close to the King, it's going to cost me too much. Never mind that what He's offering you is so much more than you can imagine. You see, I want to just say this out loud. Some of us, most of us have a hard time with people who have too much power. So we see Jesus as one of those people, and we forget that He's a King like no other. Some of you have been hurt by someone who overreached. They abused their power. They might have, heaven forbid, they might have abused you. And ever since then, you have vowed that you will protect yourself, that you will not in any way be vulnerable. You will not trust. I get it. It makes sense. By the way, I just want to say I'm so sorry. If somebody has done something in the name of God to you, I want you to understand that it's not God's way, and that was not God. But there are these moments where we defend our hearts and say, I'm not letting anybody in. You've got to hear me, that seems legitimate. I get it. But if we wall off our lives to where no one gets in, I'm just asking, and we can talk about this if you want, but I'm wondering if

we're giving evil the last word on something. I wonder if God has something more for you. See, the truth is, even with God Himself, we sort of defend ourselves against and say, I don't know that I can let you in. You're too much in charge. But I'm telling you, He's good. He's good. This Jesus is good, and He is like no other King you've ever heard of or will ever meet. In fact, He will lay down His very life for you so that He can close the gap and do life with you. He has your best interest at heart, this King, and that's why we started the day the way we did. That's why we started with Jesus standing before Pilate. Jesus, this battered, bloodied, and bruised King standing before Pilate. Now, let's just connect the dots. I as most scholars will suggest, this took place in the palace a dead king. Do you know who that dead king was? It was Herod. This was Herod's palace in the western part of Jerusalem. That's where Pilate more than likely had his court. That's the same palace that the wise men, the Magi, came into all those years earlier saying, hey where is he who is born the king of the Jews? Are you getting this? Are you connecting these dots? So they're asking years earlier where is the king? Jesus is right here standing before Pilate and this angry crowd. But he didn't come to Jerusalem to to do battle with Rome. No, it was much more than that. He came to fight evil and to break the stranglehold that sin had on our lives. They were expecting a rebel. They were expecting some military champion. But that will never win you a lasting peace and a freedom that stretches into forever. God sent his son who is our Savior. Yes, he is our king. But first that king is going to die on a cross for you and me. I want you to understand this baby in a manger that we so worship and we are so grateful for and it is so appropriate to come back to this story. But I need you to know where it leads is a man who lived his life perfectly. Who is more than a man. He is God in the flesh. He's bloodied. He's bruised. He's wearing a purple robe. He's got a crown of thorns on his head and he stands before you and I say behold your king. You see as we now go into Christmas week I want you to remember that what happened there in front of Pilate, now we go deeper into that dark day. And there was a battle waged but it was a battle where only the blood of one was shed. All the pain, all the evil, all of the sin heaps on this

one life and somehow because he is God it's enough. And by his stripes, by his wounds we are healed. Come on. We can worship that kind of a king. Don't you think? Don't you think the best way for us to do that as we enter into Christmas week is to celebrate communion together. If you have not received God's forgiveness and I want you to understand this is not for you not yet. Please understand that we do this as a way to remind ourselves of how much Jesus loves us but we also do it to remind us how much he loves you. This could be your day when you actually accept that forgiveness and you say in your own way forgive me Jesus you be king. I'll trust you. I've got questions but I need you and he will come into your life. What we want to do now is to to give this to the each of our other sites so that you can celebrate and worship together and then we'll see you next weekend and beyond for Christmas services. So Merry Christmas. But for those of us now who are here let me just take you back hours earlier. Jesus is standing before Pilate the night before. He gathers with his disciples. It's a Passover meal. We told you that. He takes two simple tangible elements that are highly symbolic the bread and the cup and he gives them a way to remember what is now about to happen in front of them. They have no way of anticipating this but they would never forget it. And so Jesus says in this moment in the middle of the meal he takes the bread and having broken it he says this is my body which is for you. Whenever you do this remember me. After the meal Jesus takes the cup and he says this is my blood. This is the new covenant. The new way. This is how sins will be forgiven. This is it. There will remember how much I love you. Remember what I paid for you and I to spend eternity together. Y'all this is why that baby was born. Let's do this in remembrance of our King. If he's the King and I really do believe he is then all of the words that we sang and all of the things that we celebrated earlier and all of the things that were about to happen at our Christmas services it's all true and he is worthy of it all. Amen. He is worthy of it all. But I want you to understand something. This King humbled himself

in ways we can barely imagine. Philippians 2 tells us that as he does this, he humbles himself and he is obedient even unto death on a cross. But after his resurrection, we are promised that every name will bow at Jesus. Every knee will bow. Every voice will proclaim that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I want you all to now stand with us as we sing because this Jesus is King and his name is higher than any other name. Would you join us now as we worship this King who is worthy?