The Majesty of the Manger
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Welcome! I am so glad to be here with you today. Last time I was up here, I was very pregnant. So hopefully my lung capacity will be a little bit better this time. If I haven't met you, I am Pastor Lauren, and I am so excited to be with you today with our third week of Advent. Real quick, unrelated, I know you heard it from the guys, but I wanted you to hear it from me. Thank you so much for your generosity as we have transitioned with a new baby and just, we have not bought diapers yet because of you all. You guys have blessed us so much. I think we saw months worth of diapers left in our garage. So we are so thankful for that and for meals and gift cards. And then right after that, you guys have been so generous with Pastor Appreciation and just loving on our families. And so I just wanted you to hear that from me, completely unrelated to the sermon today, but thank you. Thank you for those that have given and sacrificed and served to fill in spaces when I was missing this the last couple of months. So thank you. Just wanted you to know that you are appreciated and you are so loved. And I just love the culture of generosity we have here in our SVC family.
Well, we are on week three of the message of the manger series. Pastor Chris started us off with the mystery of the manger and talked about Jesus coming and being fully God and fully man and how we can maybe grasp that on some level, but there's still so much mystery there. And it's a wonderful mystery. If we could figure God out, I would be concerned. So I'm glad there is still some mystery and that I am not God and I do not fully understand Him. And then Pastor Andre talks about the miracles last week of the manger and the multiple miracles surrounding the birth of Jesus and His incarnation and Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth and Zechariah and even the wise men coming. And then today we are going to talk about the majesty of the manger. So something you should know about me is I love Christmas. I know that is not the case for everybody. I know this time of year can be really hard for a lot of people, but I am so grateful that I just love it. I love, it's just magical to me. I love the music and the twinkle lights and the presents and the songs, just the movies, just all of it. Give me all of it, I want it all. And I get it from my father. Now I'm a pastor's kid, so he's used me in a lot of sermons, so I have the microphone this time, so I get to use him.
But my dad loves Christmas, and growing up, the first-ish weekend of December, he would make homemade donuts, and a big breakfast, we'd have like our nice Christmas dishes, and he'd play Christmas music, And that was our way of ushering in the Christmas season. And as a tradition, we carried on with our kids. In fact, my parents are in town. And so he made donuts with my kids yesterday to help us continue that tradition. But when I was a freshman in college, I was not going to be home in time for Christmas donut day. But I went to college about, we went to college in Indiana. My parents were here in California. And I was so bummed I was gonna miss it. And we looked forward to it every year. But I went to college about 15 minutes from my grandparents. And that Saturday morning that my family was doing Christmas donut day in California, I get a phone call that my grandma is at the front door of my dorm. And I go downstairs and she has a plate of homemade donuts. 'Cause my dad called her and said, "You gotta make my kid donuts." That to me is the magic of Christmas. I want all of it. I love it.
But we're gonna talk about the majesty today. The majesty of Christmas, I've come to appreciate it more and more. I've always known Jesus is the reason for the season. You know, we know that that's why we celebrate. The older I get, the more I appreciate what it truly means that our God came to earth as a baby. And truly, appreciating the majesty of Christmas makes it that much more magical. It just enhances the magic of Christmas for me. So what do I mean about, or what do I mean when I say majesty? Majesty is one of those words that I know what it means, but to explain it, I'm like, oh, what's the definition of majesty? So I did what we all do and I Googled it. And some definitions that came up were impressive stateliness, dignity or beauty, Royal power, a title given to a sovereign. All of these accurately describe Jesus. He is impressive and beautiful and he is sovereign and has royal power. So today we're gonna focus on his majesty and specifically his kingship. His kingship isn't necessarily something we talk about super often, but diving into this, I found it is just, it is an attribute of Him that I think is really important and it impacts our daily lives. So how do we know that Jesus is King? How do we know that? What does it mean for us practically to have a King?
Well, the Bible talks about Jesus is King and there are many prophecies of the coming King or coming Messiah. And Messiah means anointed one. And in Bible times, prophets would anoint the next king as a symbol of their kingship. So Jesus is the Messiah. He is the anointed one. And it was foretold in the Old Testament, thousands of years before Jesus's birth, that he would be king and that he would sit on David's throne forever. So we're gonna be kind of jumping around in scripture today. So if you wanna follow along, great. pleased you, we got Bibles in the seats. You can pick it up on your phone or we'll have it on the screen for you. But our first passage today is Isaiah 9, six through seven. And it says, "For to us, a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness. From that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." This is just one of many prophecies of Jesus's coming King. The Israelites in the Old Testament, they wanted a King. They were struggling to follow God and his way for them. They saw the surrounding nations had kings and they wanted a king. They wanted a ruler and a warrior to help them conquer other lands. They wanted a protector. They wanted a king. The problem is their only options for kings were humans. So there was not going to be a perfect king. There were good kings and there were a lot of really bad ones too. David is one example. He was a good king. He made a lot of mistakes, but the Bible also says he was a man after God's own heart. So he was a good king, but he wasn't a perfect king. And he wasn't going to live forever, so he couldn't sit on his own throne forever. Someone else had to come. Only Jesus could be that perfect king. We know from the first week of our series that he was fully God, and so therefore he could be perfect. He could fulfill this prophecy. But we also know that he was fully man. And so he had to come from a family line. Specifically, he came from David’s.
Isaiah 11:1, couple pages later says, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse." Jesse was David's father. "From his roots, a branch will bear fruit." Branch here is capitalized, meaning it will be a person. Jesus is the branch. So here again, we have another prophecy of Jesus's royal lineage. And then in Matthew one, we see his whole lineage laid out for us. I think sometimes at least growing up, I was like, why do we need all of these names? Why do we need to know his family history all the way back to Abraham? But it shows us where he came from. It shows us that he is in the royal line. He is the one to fulfill and sit on David's throne forever. The Israelites begged for a king. In New Testament, the Jewish people were looking for a king. We, even today, need him to be our king. We need him to redeem us, to restore us, to protect us. but only Jesus can do that. Only He can do it perfectly. Author and theologian Amy Gannett writes, "Jesus is the true and better King who came from the line of David, who would lead His people only in righteousness, who could ever be trusted to guide them in the pathways of Jesus." They were good Kings, but there was no one like Jesus. The thing about having a King though, is that a King has subjects and the subjects must bow down to their king, must honor and submit to their king. So when we, as human beings, choose to follow Jesus, we are essentially saying, you are my king, you are my Lord. I submit to your authority, to your sovereignty, to your majesty.
Philippians 2:9-11 says, "Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is Lord. Everyone take a deep breath, 'cause that's really hard to acknowledge sometimes, that we are not the king or queen of our own life, that we are not the Lord of our lives. We like, as humans in general, we typically like to have control. We like things to go our way, or is that just me? Okay, I like to have control. I like things to go my own way. And it can be really hard to let that go, to submit to Him and acknowledge that He is King, He is Lord, and His ways are better. When we look at the Christmas story, we see someone who also had difficulty submitting to Jesus's kingship. Pastor Andre talked about this last week and talked about King Herod and how he was, he heard of this baby king and was threatened by him. He did not want to humble himself. He refused to acknowledge his authority and even went so far as seeking him out to kill him and kill thousands of other baby boys just to make sure he had his bases covered. It's interesting though, because in stark contrast to that, we have the wise men. They went and searched for Jesus at great personal sacrifice. They went to find Him because they knew He was King. They knew He was the one that they had been looking for and waiting for. They wanted to worship Him.
Matthew 2:1-2 says, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?'" They hadn't even met Him yet and they knew who He was. "We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him." We know from different studies that the wise men took about two years to get to Jesus. So he was about two years old. He was a toddler. And these wise men came and bowed down and worshiped a toddler. Now we all know enough two year olds to know that that's humbling in and of itself, right? But they were willing to submit to him because they knew who he was. They were so convinced of his kingship that it didn't matter if he was two, 20 or 25, 80 years old, it didn't matter. He was their king. Many years later, around the time of Jesus's ministry, the Jewish people were under the oppression of the Romans and they wanted their king. They wanted someone to come save them. They were on the lookout of this king that had been prophesied in the Old Testament. They knew the scriptures, they knew that He was coming. They expected the Messiah to be an earthly king, to set up an earthly kingdom and to save them, to free them, to bring them redemption from the Romans. Unfortunately, that wasn't, or fortunately, that wasn't Jesus' plan. They didn't realize that Jesus would set them free. He would redeem them. He would save them from their sins and the consequences of their sins. He had so much better planned than anything they could ask or imagine. So although he was king, he wasn't what they were expecting. And because we're on this side of Jesus's death and resurrection, and we have the Bible, We know the end of the story. We know that he didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom, but an eternal kingdom.
Revelation 17:14 says, "They will wage war, they, his enemies, "will wage war against the lamb, "but the lamb will triumph over them "because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, "and with him will be his called, chosen, "and faithful followers." We get the spoiler alerts. We know what's coming. We know we have a king and he is gonna win. We're told that he will be triumphant. He will be the king of kings eternally. We have the opportunity now to make him the king and Lord of our life while we wait for that eternal kingdom. but it requires something of us. How do we do that? How do we put Jesus on the throne of our heart and our life now while we wait for eternity and take ourselves off of it? Well, I got a few ideas for us to help this process. The first thing is that we have to remember that our king wants a relationship with us. I don't know many kings that want a relationship with every single one of their subjects. Our king is different. He is good, he is loving, he wants our best and he wants to be in relationship with us. Does he want us to submit to him and to surrender to him? Absolutely, but he wants to be our friend too. He wants to be in relationship.
John 15:15 says, "I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you." So the first thing is remember, he wants a relationship with us. Secondly, we must submit to his kingship. We must surrender to him, just like the wise men did. We have to choose his way over our way. And I do not stand up here as someone teaching this because I have it figured out. I promise you I do not.
The Lord typically gives me a word or a phrase for the coming year to focus on in my study, in my just everyday life. It's just something that I can be intentional with throughout the year. Well, this time last year, the Lord gave me the word surrender. And I'm just gonna tell you, If the Lord gives you the word surrender, buckle up. And I knew something was probably coming. If I needed to work on surrendering more to Him, there was probably something coming down the pike. And there were, there were so many opportunities this year for me to practice surrender. We had our fourth baby. There were some professional things that were opportunities for me to trust Him. There were things that didn't go my way that required me to pivot. And I'm still pivoting. Like don't, I do not have it figured out, but it was lots of opportunities for me to say, or to ask myself, do I trust him as my king more than I trust my own ways? That's a hard question to ask. And there were some days, if I'm honest, I wanted it to be my way. I had to surrender my plans, my will, my timeline. I wanted it to go the way I thought it should. But these opportunities to surrender and these situations throughout the year grew me deeper. They took me deeper in my relationship with Jesus and my faith in Him and to grow my trust in my Lord and my King.
Next, we must choose humility. Being humble, like I said, can be so hard 'cause it's not necessarily our natural inclination. But if the wise man can bow down to a toddler, we can bow down to the risen King. I wonder sometimes if it's easier for us to focus on some of the other attributes of Jesus, like savior, friend, shepherd, because they kind of make us feel good. You know, baby Jesus at Christmas time is cute and cuddly and makes us feel good, right? It benefits us in some way. But Jesus is King? That requires us to humble ourselves and acknowledge that He is King and we are not. Humility. We have to practice humility. And lastly, we must keep an eternal perspective. Jesus isn't just king right now. He's not just an earthly king that will pass away. He is an eternal king. And so when it's hard to submit, when it's hard to be humble, when it's hard to go His way or choose His will for your life, Keeping that eternal perspective that it is not just about right now, it is about eternity, makes it a little bit easier. Here's a secret sauce for you though, okay? Here's what makes this work. We make that choice to submit to Him over and over and over again. When you choose to follow Jesus as your savior and you make that choice, that's a one-time decision. You don't have to keep asking for salvation. He's given it to you, it is a gift. But our part, our submission sometimes require us to do it over and over again. Sometimes day by day, we have to keep submitting minute by minute in some occasions. We have to keep choosing Him to make Him King over and over again. So all of this is the majesty of Christmas. It's the majesty of this manger that when a baby came to earth, he was the fulfillment of so many prophecies and promises. He was the answer that we were looking for that we all need. Fully God, fully man. came as a miracle, not only to create the coming physical kingdom, but an eternal one, and to be the King and the Lord of our lives right now.
So my prayer for us this Christmas season is that we would celebrate the magic of Christmas. Go to the parties, eat the food, make the donuts, Have presents, do it all, go see the lights, celebrate with your people, enjoy the magic of Christmas, but let that magic be even better by remembering the majesty of who was in that manger. Remember that he came to have a relationship with us, to identify with us as humans, to be the perfect King that no one else could be for us, to save us, to redeem us, to protect us. And as we leave today, I just have a question for us. You can just kind of take with you and maybe think about this week and answer for yourself. I gave you some ideas of things that can help, but we all have to answer this for ourselves. What would it look like for you to trust Christ alone, to be your king and keep him on the throne of your heart? What does that look like for you personally? How do you practically live that out? Worship team's gonna come up and I'm gonna pray us out. But I pray that you are encouraged to not forget that even though he came as a baby, he was still our king. He's still the Lord of our hearts. And if you don't know him as the Lord of your heart, as the king in your life, please come talk to us. Let us share that with you. If you have questions, we'd love to answer them. But for those of us who've already made that choice, what an added part of Christmas we get to just celebrate even more.
Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this time. We thank you that we can fellowship together and celebrate the Christmas season with all of the fun and the magical things that come along with it. But help us to never forget the majesty, the grandeur of Christmas, because you are King. You sit on the throne right now, God. You are King eternally and in our hearts today. We praise you that you are King. We praise you that your way is better. May we submit and humble ourselves before you, our King and our Lord in Jesus' name, amen.