Christmas Eve

We’ve gathered together tonight to celebrate history. And we’re not retelling a fairy tale with fictional characters. We are remembering a real baby who is born in a real town about 6,000 miles away from here at a real point in history that divided history into two eras. And that not only divides history, but divides humanity into two groups.

I’ll put this up here on the screen. You think about that last song we sang, “All Hail King Jesus.” Nate mentioned we’re singing truths that have been sung for 2,000 years, ever since Jesus was born. Think about humanity. It’s been divided ever since that day into two groups. One, those who revere Jesus as king of their lives, and [two] those who reject Jesus as king of their lives. All of humanity, including everybody in this room, everybody listening online, all of us fall into one of these two groups. And there’s no riding the fence here. No matter who you are; no matter where you come from; no matter how old, young you may be; no matter what you have done or not done. At this moment, you either revere Jesus as king of your life, or reject Jesus as king of your life.

A Question Everyone Must Answer: Do You Revere or Reject Jesus?

So, if I could, I’d like to ask you a question. Obviously, not to answer out loud, but I do want to encourage you to answer this question quietly and personally and honestly—meaning, not just in your head or even just in your heart, but look at your life and answer the question: Which of these two groups am I in?

And I’m guessing there are some, maybe many, who would say, “Yeah, honestly, I’ve never revered Jesus as king of my life.” And if that’s you, again, I’m sincerely, really glad you’re here. I don’t believe it’s an accident you’re here. And I want to invite you to consider the possibility, just the possibility, of changing your posture toward Jesus on this Christmas Eve.

Others of you might say, “You know, I’ve revered Jesus as king of my life at different points in the past, but if I’m honest, I’m not living like Jesus is the king of my life in the present. I’m doing things my own way. I’m not looking to Jesus each day as my king. The reality is, I feel pretty distant from Jesus.” And if that’s you, I believe God has brought you here to bring you back to knowing and enjoying Jesus as the king of your life.

And then some of you might say without reservation or hesitation, “Yes, I’m living with reverence for Jesus as my king.” And if that’s you, I hope, I trust that will only deepen in the next few minutes. 

The First to Call Jesus King
Regardless of who you are, I want you to just think with me for a moment about the first people on this planet to call Jesus “king.” Because they weren’t the people you would expect. We know them as the wise men. But we have a few misconceptions about them that we probably need to clear up. First, we often talk about or picture how many of them in the Christmas story? Three. But the Bible never tells us there were three of them. We know they brought three gifts to Jesus. We’re never told there were only three people. For all we know, it could have been three or seventeen or twenty-five. We don’t know.

In addition, we sing songs like “The First Noel” to talk about these wise men looking up and seeing a star shining in the east beyond them far. The problem is, they were actually in the east, and they saw a star shining in the west. They saw a star shining east of them and traveled in that direction. They would have messed up the whole story. So, we don’t want the wise men going the wrong way. So, just be careful when you get to that line in that song. 

And finally, a note on timing. These wise men traveled a long way to get to Jesus. Some estimate hundreds, if not up to a thousand, miles, and they were not doing it on United Airlines—which means they got to Jesus a long time after the shepherds who saw Jesus on the night he was born. By the time the wise men got there, Joseph and Mary had likely settled into a home; Jesus was probably months old. So check your nativity scenes that you have set up in your homes, where we usually have the wise men around the manger with the shepherds. It’s not true. So just go home tonight and take the wise men, kids, put them on the other side of the room. It’s going to be a little while before they make it. Actually just wait and pull them out in late spring, early summer. It’ll be a little more accurate that way. 

But when these wise men do finally arrive, it is an astounding scene. Listen to this story of the first people to call Jesus king. Starting in Matthew 2:1 … 

“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.’” 

Now, these guys were not your ordinary fellows. They almost certainly had a high position wherever they came from. It was evident in the wealth they brought with them. They likely didn’t travel alone; likely traveled with a caravan, possibly even with soldiers to protect them, which is part of why their presence in Jerusalem later in this passage is so obvious when they arrived there. 

You know what’s interesting? A few days ago, I was praying specifically for the Parsi people of Iran and India. There’s about 150,000 in this people group. They’re one of the oldest surviving Zoroastrian people groups. They worship Ahuram Mazda, which they believe is the creator god. And as I read about them, I learned that Persian kings like Cyrus and Darius were likely believers in Ahuram Mazda, as well as these wise men. It’s pretty amazing to think about this people group that exists today as descendants from these men who traveled to Jerusalem to see Jesus 2,000 years ago. So, let’s keep reading their story. 

“When Herod the king heard this (the story about these wise men following a star to worship the king of the Jews), he was troubled. (Remember that word “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, oh 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.’” 

Let’s pause here. Did you know this is a quote from the Old Testament here written by the prophet Micah? Micah 5:2. Did you know that this is one of 300 specific prophecies, predictions, references to the coming of Jesus that we read in the Old Testament? Think about that for a minute. Over a thousand years, spanning the history of the Old Testament: 300 specific prophecies, predictions, promises that were fulfilled in detail in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Mathematicians say the probability of one man fulfilling 10 of those prophecies is about 1 in 100 billion. Jesus fulfilled all 300 of them! This is no coincidence. 

Now some have asked, Is this made up? Did New Testament writers like Matthew just change the facts about Jesus to fit Old Testament prophecies? But the reality is, these books were written and circulated right after Jesus’s death. People easily could have said, “Hey, Matthew, you know that wasn’t true.” Historically, all this fulfillment was verifiable. 

Others have asked, “Well, is it manipulated?” Some claim Jesus just arranged the details of his life so that he would fulfill certain things he’d read in the Old Testament. But let’s just think about that in just the first two chapters of Matthew. Think about this one in Micah 5 that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. I’m not thinking Jesus was in Mary’s womb saying, “Hurry up. We got to get there before this happens.” Before this in Matthew 1, Isaiah 7:14 prophesied that a virgin would give birth. Well, that was obviously not something that as a baby Jesus was controlling. 

Later in the chapter, Matthew quotes from Hosea 11:1 about how Jesus as a baby would have to flee to Egypt with his family. I’m pretty sure as a parent, I’ll just say my two-year-old is not making the decisions on where we move or how we travel. Jesus was following the leadership of Joseph and Mary in that decision. In fact, this whole story about a star appearing that would point leaders from the east to a king was promised in one of the earliest parts of the Bible, Numbers 24. And then later in Isaiah 60, we see a promise that a light will shine and people will come from the nations to worship, specifically bringing gold and frankincense. This is no accident; every detail here, and it’s not made up or manipulated. This is God saying to us as clearly as possible, “Jesus is the one who through different people over the course of centuries I promised would come.”

So the story continues …

“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.” 

Now, we’ll pause there, because King Herod had no intention whatsoever of worshiping Jesus, or anybody else for that matter. King Herod believed he was the king of the Jews. He’d been given control of Judea around 40 BC, and his title was king of the Jews. He was a bloodthirsty tyrant of a king. Whenever he suspected anybody was plotting to overtake his rule, he would have them killed. Even to the point of murdering his wives and his sons at various times when he didn’t trust them. This is why he was so, remember the word, “troubled” by this news—because he was the king—and all Jerusalem, it says, was troubled with him. Likely because they didn’t know what Herod was going to do. And if you know the rest of the story in Matthew 2, and what he does to baby boys all throughout the city, they had good reason to be concerned about what Herod might do. So Matthew continues,

“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.”

This is actually the first time that we see the star move literally, supernaturally leading them to Bethlehem; God arranging the constellations to lead these men to the place where Jesus is. We can only imagine what this looked like. You don’t normally picture, okay, now I’m right under this star. But it was clear to these wise men who studied the stars. They were in the right place, and they were giddy. Listen to what Matthew says, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

Don’t you love that? That’s like quadruple joy. Rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And then watch this …

“ And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.”

That’s shocking. Prominent, highranking, influential, powerful men from nations beyond Israel bowing down and worshiping a Jewish baby. You bow down when you’re in the presence of someone who is far superior to you. And you bow down, you’re saying, “I’m low. you are high.” And that’s what these prominent men are saying.

“Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.”

Just like Isaiah 60 had said, gold, a picture of royalty fit for a king. Frankincense, an offering given to deity. In the over 100 times we see frankincense mentioned in the Old Testament, it’s almost always referring to offerings to God himself.

And then myrr. This is an interesting one. A perfume that was often used to prepare a body for burial. It’s an interesting baby gift. Ladies, take that to the next baby shower you attend. Pull out a perfume used for burial. There’s so much more going on here than even these wise men realize, because they don’t know that this baby boy, this king, God in the flesh, will one day be hoisted onto a cross; where he will be offered wine mixed with myrrh to dull the pain, which, by the way, he will refuse. They don’t know that once this baby dies, a man named Joseph of Arythea will use myrrh to prepare his body for burial.

Don’t miss the point here, friends. This baby was born for one reason. He came to die for us. We have all sinned against God. It looks different in every one of our lives; it’s played out in every one of our stories. But we have all turned aside from God and his ways to ourselves and our own ways. And as a result of our sin, we are separated from God. And if we die in the state of separation from God, we will spend eternity in judgment due our sin. But God loves us so much that he has not left you and me in this state. God has come to us in the person of Jesus, who lived a life of no sin, which means he did not deserve to die. But the whole reason he came: he chose to die on a cross. Why? To pay the price for our sins. He died the death we deserve to die.

And then, the good news doesn’t stop there, because he didn’t stay dead for long. Three days later, he rose from the grave in victory over sin and death, so that anyone anywhere, no matter who you are, no matter what you have done, if you will turn from your sin and yourself and trust in Jesus as the Savior and King who died on the cross for your sins, rose from the dead so that you could have life, God will forgive you of all your sin and restore you to relationship with him now and forever. This is what the Bible calls the gospel, the good news. And it is the greatest news in the world. And it leads every single person within the sound of my voice to a choice: Will you revere Jesus as king, or are you going to reject Jesus as king? And I want to urge you on this Christmas Eve not to reject him. I urge you, do not choose, as Herod did, to live as king over your own life. Do not choose to live in opposition to the only King who can give you life.

As I stand before you right now, I have two people really close to me who are suffering with terminal diseases. I went to visit one of them a couple of weeks ago. He’s in the hospital this Christmas. The other, I’m going to visit, Lord willing, later this week. He’s about to receive hospice care at home. And I’m guessing I’m not the only one in this room who’s feeling the weight of this fallen world on this Christmas Eve. So, how do you rejoice exceedingly with great joy in this world of sin and sorrow and suffering and death? Here’s how: You know and trust in the King who came 2,000 years ago to conquer sin and death. And you know and you trust in the King who’s coming back one day to usher in a kingdom where people from every nation, tribe, people, and language will bow around his throne.

And on that day, there will be no more hospitals and no more hospice and no more cancer and no more tumors; no more sickness, no more disorder, and no more disease. On that day there will be no more sin, no more strife, no more war, no more sorrow, no more suffering, and no more death. For all who know and trust in Jesus the King, you can rejoice exceedingly with great joy today because you know that one day he will wipe every tear from our eyes. And God will be with us, and we will be with God forever—free from all the effects of sin and death in this fallen world. This is the hope for all who revere Jesus as king.

So what is keeping you from revering him as king? I want to lead us into a time of prayer, and I want to offer two specific invitations to all of us. The first invitation is for some of you to say in this moment, for the first time, I choose to truly revere Jesus as King of my life. And some of you up until this point have rejected Jesus as King of your life for a variety of different reasons.

Others of you may have given lip service to Jesus as King. Maybe you’ve gone to church, maybe even called yourself a Christian. But truth be told, you’ve not truly, authentically, personally worshiped and submitted to Jesus as the King of your life in such a way that if you were to stand before God right now, it would be clear. Jesus is not reigning in your heart as the King over your life. And when we pray in a moment, I’m going to invite you to say to Jesus on this Christmas Eve, what better time to say, I want to revere you as King of my life from this point forward. Not only Christmas Eve … what a time, what more urgent time is there?… not one of us is guaranteed tomorrow. And are you going to be glad five minutes into eternity that you held on to that which kept you from revering the One who could give you eternal life?

And then the second invitation I want to offer is for others of you to say in this moment, for the first time in a while, I choose to return to Jesus as my King. There are some of you here who at a point in your past made the choice to revere Jesus as your King, but over time and for a variety of reasons, you’ve become distant from him. And truth be told, your life hasn’t necessarily looked like you’re worshiping and trusting and following Jesus as king of your life. And if that’s you, I want to invite you to return to Jesus in this moment; to turn from sin in your life; to turn from yourself, from living your own way; and to say, “Jesus, I want to return to you as the King of my life tonight.”

Oh, I want to urge every single person within the sound of my voice, Don’t be Herod in this story. Don’t choose to to let the pride of Herod be the mark of your life. “I’m king. I do things my way.” Don’t do that before the God who loves you so much.

Observation (What does the passage say?)

• What type of writing is this text?
  _{(Law? Poetry or Wisdom? History? A letter? Narrative? Gospels? Apocalyptic?)}
• Are there any clues about the circumstances under which this text was originally written?
• Are there any major sub-sections or breaks in the text that might help the reader understand the focus of the passage?
• Who is involved in the passage and what do you notice about the specific participants?
• What actions and events are taking place? What words or themes stand out to you and why?
• Was there anything about the passage/message that didn’t make sense to you?

Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)

• How does this text relate to other parts of the Scriptures
  _{(e.g., the surrounding chapters, book, Testament, or Bible)?}
• What does this passage teach us about God? About Jesus?
• How does this passage relate to the gospel?
• How can we sum up the main truth of this passage in our own words?
• How did this truth impact the hearers in their day?

Application (How can I apply this to passage to my life?)

• What challenged you the most from this week’s passage? What encouraged you the most?
• Head: How does this passage change my understanding of the Lord? (How does this impact what I think?)
• Heart: How does this passage correct my understanding of who I am to the Lord? (How should this impact my affections and what I feel?)
• Hands: How should this change the way I view and relate to others and the world? (How does this impact what I should do?)
• What is one action I can take this week to respond in surrender and obedience to the Lord?

[Note: some questions have been adapted from One to One Bible Reading by David Helm]