Worship the King | Carlos Velez | Calvary Church

I have a question. Uh, if you could just

talk to the person next to you real

quick. This is a very deep question that

I have here. Um,

when is the right time to take down your

Christmas decorations? Can you just find

out real quick? We can do a brief

survey. Talk to each other real quick.

I'm sure there's different answers. I

heard I heard someone here already

shouting out year round. Year round. You

keep them up year round.

>> Uh, no. That's not the right answer. Um,

some of you may keep them up for weeks

or months. Uh, uh, anyone already have

them down? Anyone ready take them down

yet?

Scrooges.

Actually, the here's here's the right

answer. Okay, I'm actually this has been

a question that everyone has wondered

for a long time. I'm going to actually

give you the correct answer.

What you need to do is you wait until

after the 12 days of Christmas. What

people don't understand is that the 12

days of Christmas don't lead up to

December 25th. 12 days of Christmas

actually start after December 25th. And

they go actually to January 6th, which

is three kings day. And so that's when

you can take down your Christmas

decorations on January 6. January 6 is

actually a holiday.

Oh, people were clapping for they're

like, "We've been waiting for this."

Someone finally answered. Uh January 6

is a holiday. Uh I grew up Puerto Rican.

We grew up celebrating Three Kings Day.

And so if you ever want to know, now you

know. Christmas decorations can stay up

till January 6th. And then January 7th,

they got to be gone. Okay? They're all

gone. Uh speaking of decorations, uh one

of my wife's favorite decorations that

we put up at Christmas is a nativity

scene uh that we have. And it's a

specific one. We bought it when the kids

were little uh and she loves it. It's

actually the little people nativity

scene. It looks kind of like this,

right? Oh, now that's not ours. That one

doesn't belong to us. Uh, actually that

belongs to two friends of mine, uh, Liv

and Meadow. Uh, and so what Liv and

Meadow do every year with their mom,

Andrea, is that they take these wise men

and they go on different adventures with

them. And then, uh, Andrea, their mom

posted on Facebook and social media. And

so, one of the adventures they do is

like, take a look at this adventure

here.

Now kids,

kids, does this make sense?

It I mean it's fun. It's fun, right? But

it doesn't make sense. Leelo and Stitch

weren't at the first Christmas, right?

How about the next one? Let's see this

next one.

It's Bluey. It's Bluey. Yeah, this this

is fun as well, but it doesn't make

sense, right? Because Bluey wasn't at

the first Christmas, right, kids?

You know what?

The first picture that we saw doesn't

make sense either.

You know why? Cuz the three wise men

weren't at the first Christmas either.

Actually, there's a lot of things we get

wrong with the story that we're going to

look at today.

The Bible, first of all, tells us that

the wise men did not come on the day of

Jesus's birth. They actually came later.

In fact, Jesus was probably about 2

years old. He wasn't in a manger. He was

in a house. And I earlier I said uh that

we were celebrating three kings day.

They weren't kings.

They were magi.

And the Bible doesn't tell us that there

were three of them. It talks about three

gifts. It talks about gold,

frankincense, and myrr. But it doesn't

tell us that there, in fact, it was such

a long journey, there was probably much

more than three.

And again, they weren't kings. They were

magi. What What is a magi?

Well, a magi was a wise man. He was an

astrologer. He was someone who studied

the stars. And and and by studying the

stars, they understood what was going

on. They understood the knowledge and

that's how they studied things. It

actually was very similar to a group

that was around Daniel in the Old

Testament. If you read the story of

Daniel, that is that's the group that's

kind of like those are like the magi.

That would be similar to them.

And what we need to understand is that

while there's no kings, these are not

three kings. They're magi. This story is

about a king. It's about a true king

that has come. And that true king is

Jesus.

Now,

I'm going to give this to the kids, but

adults, this probably help you, too.

Here's the big idea of the whole sermon.

Okay, here's the big idea of the whole

sermon.

Christmas

is not only celebrating Jesus's birth,

it is responding to Jesus's kingship.

So, the whole big idea of this whole

sermon that we're going to talk about is

Christmas is not just about celebrating

Jesus's birth. It's about responding to

his kingship. And in the story we're

going to read today, we're going to read

about three responses to the kingship of

Jesus. So, if you have a Bible, you can

turn to Matthew chapter 2. If you don't

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

own a Bible, if you don't have one, we

have Bibles in Seren. We have Bibles in

Quakertown. Uh take them home. If you

don't own one, keep it. It's our gift to

you. Uh we believe that the Bible is

filled with life-changing truth and we

want you to have access to that. If

you're using one of the church Bibles,

turn to page 657.

We're going to be looking at Matthew

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, starting in verse one.

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 was who has

been born king of the Jews? We saw his

star when it rose and have come to

worship him."

When King Herod heard this, he was

disturbed and all Jerusalem with him.

When he had called together all the

people's chief priests and teachers of

the law, he asked them where the Messiah

was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea.

They replied, for this is what the

prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem,

in the land of Judah, are by no means

least among the rulers of Judah. For out

of you will come a ruler who will

shepherd my people Israel."

Then Herod called the Magi secretly, and

found out from them the exact time the

star had appeared. He sent them to

Bethlehem and said, "Go and search

carefully for the child. As soon as you

find him, report to me so that I too may

go and worship him."

After they had heard the king, they went

on their way. And the star they had seen

when it rose went ahead of them until it

stopped over the place where the child

was. When they saw the star, they were

overjoyed.

On coming to the house, they saw the

child with his mother Mary, and they

bowed down and worshiped him. Then they

opened their treasures and presented him

with gifts of gold, frankincense, and

myrr. And having been warned in a dream

not to go back to Herod, they returned

to their country by another route.

As I said in this story, there are three

responses to Jesus.

And what we need to understand is this

is that the true king has arrived.

And the true king evokes a response from

everybody,

but not everybody will respond

correctly.

In this story, when the true king

arrives, he exposes rival loyalties. He

invites unexpected worshippers and he

reveals a kingdom that will reach the

nations.

So, let's take a look at the first

response. We're going to take a look at

the first response and we're going to

look at it in this light.

The true king

confronts rivals. The true king

confronts rivals.

So the true king in this story is Jesus.

Now the magi are not kings. So the three

kings, they're not kings. But there's

another king in this story. It's Herod.

Herod was a really bad dude.

Really bad.

He was paranoid

and he did things because of being

paranoid. He he ended up killing his

family members. He killed his children.

He killed his wives. He was a horrible

person.

And part of the reason he was paranoid

was because he was an illegitimate king.

You see, in those days, you didn't elect

your kings. Your kings came through

bloodlines. You had a king and that king

had children and one of those children

would then become the king and that king

would have children and then one of

those children become the king and the

bloodline would be passed along and

that's how you knew who the king was.

They were connected to the bloodline of

the king. Herod was not. Even though he

had the title of king of the Jews, he

was not connected to the bloodlines

of any of those kings. In fact, Herod

was an outsider.

Herod's ancestry went back to Esau, not

Israel.

His ancestry went back to Esau. So, how

did Herod become king of the Jews?

Well, in conniving political maneuvers,

he's he's placed in that position by

Rome,

by Rome and Caesar,

the very enemies of the people of

Israel.

He's an illegitimate. He's a counterfeit

king

and he's and what does it say when when

he learns when the magi comes to him?

What does it say? He's disturbed.

He's disturbed by this. And all of

Jerusalem with him is disturbed because

when Herod gets disturbed, everyone gets

disturbed because he has violent

reactions to all of this. He has violent

reactions to all of this.

He's threatened

because it seems that the true king has

arrived.

Jesus threatens Herod's authority. Not

just Herod's authority amongst the uh

the Jewish people, uh Herod's self-ruule

as well.

Herod has tried to live a life where

he's controlling everything where where

he has violent responses to everyone to

try to control everything and be the one

in power.

And Jesus is born and steps into the

story as the true king, the one with

ultimate authority.

And Herod is threatened.

He's threatened

and he responds in a very violent way

when he says, "Go and tell the magi."

When he tells the magi, "Go go and find

him so I might go and worship him, too."

He's not trying to do that. What we read

later on is that what he's trying to do

is go and kill Jesus. He's trying to

find the baby. He's trying to kill the

baby so that this true king is

eliminated. That threat is eliminated.

Now, before you get too judgmental on

Herod,

we sometimes do similar things. I mean,

we might not go and

do some of the violent things that Herod

did, but

oftent times we try to preserve our own

authority, our own rule, our own

control.

We we live with this illusion of

self-ruule of self authority.

And when Jesus steps into the story of

our lives,

he threatens that self-ruule

and he confronts us with true authority.

And what needs to happen is that a

choice has to be made. Will we live

according to the response like Herod

trying to preserve this illusion of

self-ruule

or will we live according to a life of

underneath Christ's rule?

See often times what ends up happening

is

when we reject Jesus the reason that we

reject him when it really comes down to

that is that we don't want him to rule

us.

We want to be ruled. We want to be the

ruler just like Herod did. So before we

judge Herod too strongly,

maybe we need to ask ourselves this

question. Where in my life

am I rejecting Jesus's rule and trying

to hold on to my own self-ruule?

So that's Herod,

evil king.

What about those magi?

What about those magi? What's the second

response that happens? Well, here's the

second thing we need to learn from this

story. The true king draws unlikely

worshippers. The true king draws

unlikely worshippers.

The magi were pagan astrologers with

incomplete understanding. They saw a

star and they were able to read the star

and the heavens and and they were able

to understand but their understanding

was incomplete. And so they that's why

they even come before Herod because

they're like okay we know where we need

to go but we don't know fully. So where

is this king of the Jews that was born

their knowledge is incomplete. And did

you notice where the knowledge

is brought to them? Did you notice where

their knowledge was made complete? Where

did that source come from? It actually

came from scripture.

It came from God's word. The teachers of

the law and the chief priests, what were

they doing? They were actually quoting

words from Micah. Micah 5:2.

Micah 5:2

Micah 5:2 says, "But you, Bethlehem,

Micah 5:2

Epha, though you are small among the

clans of Judah, out of you will come for

me one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from old, from ancient

times.

Okay,

we first have a counterfeit king in

Herod

who is threatened and responds with a

violent response of trying to preserve

his uh control. Now we have these pagan

astrologers who have an incomplete

understanding. They don't know fully who

Jesus is. They don't even know fully

where he is. They have to go and they

are taught

through scripture of where he they must

go to find him.

And yet even though their knowledge is

incomplete, what do they do?

They worship.

They worship. They see the star and they

are joyful. They they rejoice with great

joy and they worship. And the way they

worship is that they bring these gifts,

these expensive gifts of gold,

frankincense, and myrr. Now,

the worship that is said in the Bible

for these magi,

again, their knowledge is incomplete.

They're not worshiping Jesus,

understanding that he is divine,

understanding that he's the son of God.

This is more echoes of cries of of

ancient countries who would bring uh

delegates in front of the Israel uh king

of Israel bringing gifts and

acknowledging the sovereignty the

sovereign rule of this king. That's the

worship that's happening

because they don't fully understand

what's happening.

But what we need to understand is that

God often extends grace and draws people

to himself even without this full

understanding.

And maybe you're like the magi.

Maybe you're like the magi with some

questions of your own. Maybe you don't

fully comprehend the truth of Jesus. It

just doesn't fully make sense to you.

You still have a lot of questions.

Well, my question is which direction are

you headed?

As you look at all these questions, as

you're trying to figure out this

incomplete understanding and you're

trying to figure out this stuff, are you

headed like the magi towards Jesus?

Are you headed towards him?

You see, worship isn't

a complete comprehension without any

questions. It's a faithful response to

the truth that you have been given.

And the magi respond even though they

don't fully understand.

This is huge.

Why is it huge that the magi respond

with obedient worship even though they

don't fully understand? Even though

they're outsiders, even though they're

not part of the Jewish people, as if

they're proclaiming Jesus as king of the

Jews and they're responsing with

worship, why is it huge that they

responded this way?

Because the people who were supposed to

respond that way didn't.

Because the people who were supposed to

respond that way didn't.

Where did they get the news from Micah?

Where did they get the city of Bethlehem

from? Where were they told that this is

what Micah said? They got it from the

chief priests. They got it from the

teachers of the law. They got it from

the people who should have known.

They got it from the people who should

have been waiting.

They got it for the very people who

claimed that they were waiting for their

Messiah and their true king.

Did you notice what the response was

from the chief priests?

Did you notice what the response was

from the teachers of the law?

Nothing.

It was indifference.

They give the news to the magi and the

magi go obediently following to go and

worship with great joy. And what happens

to the ones who should have been

worshiping with great joy? The ones who

had been waiting, they do nothing.

Their response is actually one of

indifference. In fact, it's not only

indifference, it's one of rejection.

See, the third thing we know

from this is that the true king is

rejected

and he's triumphal.

The true king is rejected and he's

triumphal.

The Jewish priests and the religious

rulers flat out reject this true king.

It is the magi, a group of Gentiles, a

group of non-Jewish people

who go and acknowledge who Jesus is.

And here's what's very interesting in

regards to Matthew's gospel.

The Magi

are the first Gentiles, non-Jews, to

acknowledge who Jesus is. But Matthew

points this out. What happens is Matthew

begins to point out this pattern

throughout his gospel. And here's the

crazy part.

Matthew, when he wrote his gospel, is

actually writing to the Jewish people

specifically.

He's writing about the promised Messiah.

He's writing about the fulfillment of

Old Testament prophecies. He's writing

about the king that was promised.

That's who he's writing to. And yet he

goes out of his way to point out that

it's the Gentiles who speak the truth

about Jesus.

It is the ones who are not Jewish who

end up making statements about Jesus. As

Matthew goes on later on in his book, a

gentile, a man named Pilate, would have

a sign nailed to a cross. And what we

learn in one of the other gospels is

that that sign says, "Here is Jesus,

King of the Jewish."

a Gentiles speaking the words that the

magi said at the beginning of the book,

King of the Jews.

But in this part of the story, Jesus's

crown is thorns.

His throne is a cross.

And instead of the light of a star

blanketing the world, darkness covers

the land.

And in that moment again again

it is a gentile who speaks truth of who

Jesus is.

Matthew chapter 27 verse 50. It's on

Matthew 27:50

page 6081 in the church bibles.

And we hear of when Jesus is dying on

the cross. And we hear of his death. And

it says in verse 15, "When Jesus had

cried out again in a loud voice, he gave

up his spirit. At that moment, the

curtain of the temple was torn in two

from top to bottom. The earth shook, the

rocks split, and the tombs broke open.

The bodies of many holy people who had

died were raised to life.

They came out of the tombs after Jesus'

resurrection, went into the holy city

and peered to many people. When the

centurion and those with him who were

guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and

all that had happened, they were

terrified and exclaimed,

"Surely

he was the son of God.

Surely he was the son of God." Once

again,

it was the gentile voice that proclaims

the truth.

The ones who should have known, the ones

who were informed, the ones

who were promised in the Jewish

religious leaders in the Jewish people

and the teachers of the law, the ones

who should have been proclaiming the

truth of Jesus reject his kingship.

And yet Jesus is triumphant.

And what we see in Matthew's pointing

out of the magi and of the soldier and

of these gentile proclamations is that

Jesus is not just king of the Jews, but

his kingdom is far greater than that.

And the irony is that the Jewish people

had prophecies of this. We see this in

prophecies throughout the Old Testament.

For example, in Isaiah 11, in Zechariah

9 and Daniel 7, we read about this king

who would be a king that would have a

kingdom that impacts the whole world.

He, yes, Jesus came as the king of the

Jews.

But he was more than that. He is more

than that. He is the king of kings, the

king of everything, the king of all

nations.

and he's a king

that if you accept him as king

gives you a mission to go out into those

nations and proclaim his name.

Again in Matthew we see that we are

called to extend and expand his kingdom.

Matthew ends

his book

with the great commission in Matthew

Matthew 28:18

28:18. It says, "Then Jesus came to them

and said, all authority in heaven and on

earth has been given to me." Jesus now

is expressing himself as having complete

authority. And what does he say?

Therefore, go and make disciples of all

nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the

Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey

everything I have commanded you. And

surely I'm with you always to the very

end of the age.

Matthew ends his gospel with Jesus

sending out his disciples into all

nations to go and make more disciples.

And he begins his gospel with the visit

of the magi, a foreshadowing of the

global reach of Christ's kingdom.

And what we need to understand is this

is that Jesus

becomes king not by defeating his

enemies but by dying for them.

By dying for them.

What I mean by that

is something that we don't want to just

gloss go just go by real fast.

The Bible says that we enter into our

story as enemies of God.

And yet, while we were still enemies of

God, Christ died for us.

Jesus established his kingdom not by

coming out and wiping us out and

defeating us, but instead he established

his kingdom by dying for us. And he sets

the tone of his kingdom life. And he

sets the tone of the life we are to

live.

You see, following the true King isn't

simply about admiration.

It's about surrender.

It's about surrender. It's about laying

our lives back down in front of the

cross and giving up the illusion that we

are in control.

It's about giving up the illusion that

we are in control of our own kingdoms

and we accept Jesus as the one true

king. And in so doing, we accept a life

in his kingdom under his rule.

And in this kingdom, we live out lives

on mission.

Continuing what Jesus started, not

living out lives on mission out of

obligation, but out of a true response

of worship.

True response of worship.

So I guess

With that in mind, we're only left with

one question.

What's your response to the king?

Herod had the response that he was

threatened and he was responded with

defensiveness and violence.

The magi were imperfect in their

understanding. Yet they responded with

worshipful obedience.

The religious leaders, they comprehended

and they were informed, but they were

unmoved and ultimately rejected Jesus.

These are the three responses of the

characters in the story.

What is your response?

What is your response to the true king?

You see, you can't experience the truth

of Christmas without experiencing a

response to Jesus. Jesus's offer to each

one of us as a gift

and we must respond to that offer.

What does that look like?

Kids, I told you at the beginning that I

need your help at the end as well.

And here's the deal. Um, if you didn't

know this about me, I'm a big fan of the

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

And so kids, I need you to think, just

tell someone next to you like, who's

your favorite Ninja Turtle?

See, I grew up Raphael was my favorite

turtle.

Now is Leonardo.

I've changed.

And my kids know that I like the Ninja

Turtles. And my oldest son actually uh

for the past couple years has we give

stockings on Christmas and and he

usually puts gifts in my stocking for

me. And one of the gifts that he gave

me,

I just real This is embarrassing. Okay,

so one of the gifts he gave me was a can

of ooze from the Ninja Turtles. And

inside the can of ooze was one of the

characters of the Ninja Turtles. And I

thought it was really cool. I thought it

was actually a really cool gift. Um, so

here's the deal. Really liked it. Really

excited about it. Really happy that I

got that gift.

It's on the floor next to my night

table, completely unopened.

Haven't opened it at all. Have no clue

which which Ninja Turtles in there.

Haven't opened it.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself,

it's only the 28th. You're okay.

I left out a detail

that was from last year's stocking.

For over a year, it has been on the

floor next to my night table completely

unopened. Now, I own it. I own it,

but I have definitely not experience the

joy of that ownership.

I've definitely not experienced that

gift the way it was meant to be

experienced.

I think at times

we sometimes treat the gift of Jesus the

same way.

Yeah, we may have accepted that gift of

Jesus, but it's kind of to the side.

We admire it.

We even might

acknowledge it from time to time,

but we haven't truly responded and

experienced that gift of Jesus the way

that it was meant to be experienced and

the joy that that brings.

Jesus isn't just the gift of a savior.

He's the gift of a king.

And in order to experience that king and

the joy that that king brings, you have

to live under his rule in his kingdom.

And the most dangerous place we can be

is a place where we admire and

acknowledge the truth of Jesus but never

fully accept Jesus himself as our Lord

and Savior and King. You see, the true

king laid down his life for outsiders

and rebels. And he invites us not just

to celebrate, but to bow, to bow down,

to trust, and follow and worship.

There needs to be a response to the

king.

You need to respond to the king.

So, what's your response to the king?

If you've never responded,

if you've never accepted Jesus as your

savior and as your king, the Bible is

very clear about how to do that. In

fact, it's found in Romans chapter 10 is

Romans 10 · chapter mention

one of the verses that we read and it

says this in verse 9. If you declare

with your mouth Jesus is Lord and

believe in your heart that God raised

him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is with your heart that you

believe and are justified, and it is

with your mouth that you profess your

faith and are saved.

That's it.

But when you do that, when you accept

Jesus as Lord, now you live under his

lordship.

You live in his kingdom, under his rule.

And you respond not out of obligation,

but out of gratitude and worship,

living out lives on mission.

And so if you've never accepted Jesus as

your king, we'd love to talk to you

after the service today. Come on up

front. We'd love to pray with you. But

if you have, if you have accepted Jesus

as your king, if you've accepted that

gift of Jesus,

are you experiencing that gift

to the fullest?

Are you living out the kingdom life?

Are you living out a life that is lived

according to Christ's rule, not your own

illusion of self-ruule?

Don't accept the gift of Jesus like I

accepted my Ninja Turtle gift.

Owning it yet not experiencing the joy

that it brings.

Experience Jesus to the fullest.

Following him and responding to the King

with hearts of obedient worship in

gratitude, in love and in joy.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness and

your love. And we thank you for the

ability to call you king.

We thank you for the fact that while we

enter in as your enemy,

because of your loving sacrifice, we can

now call you

king.

Our loving king, our caring king.

the king that we yearn to follow because

we

desire to just show our gratitude, that

we yearn to follow because it just

brings so much joy into our heart.

So Lord, wherever it is that we are

setting up obstacles to your rule,

wherever it is that we set up

barriers where we try to keep control

and do self-ruule, I ask that you would

tear them down

and that you would let us experience the

gift of following you to its fullest.

We love you and we thank you and we pray

this in Jesus name. Amen.