Making Way For The King
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen! Isaiah 9:6-7 Isaiah here is prophesying the coming of our savior, the coming of Jesus, and more importantly, the coming of the king. Question: What is the one gift that Jesus wants from us that only we can give? It’s our worship. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” Matthew 2: 1-2 We have come to worship him. God wants more than what just what we can give him materially. He wants more than what we can just give him with our time and and our offerings etc. What he wants really from us is our worship. He wants us to give Him worship and so the reason why the wise men brought those different gifts unto Jesus is because the root of it was that they’ve come to worship. Worship -Reverence shown to men and beings of superior rank -To the Jewish high priests -To God -To Christ -To heavenly beings -To demons To show reverence in in the in the literal sense, in the ritual sense it means to bow down. Gifts they bowed down and worship, and what they were showing is reverence to him. Why were they showing reverence to Jesus? Because to worship means to show reverence to men, not just because, but to people and to beings more specific. Why do we worship Jesus? We worship Jesus for who He is. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,[a] for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Matthew 1:21-23 God came down to us and that is Immanuel. God with us. So we worship Jesus for who he is. We worship Jesus for what He has done. 9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. Timothy 1:9-10 NLT He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the good news. We worship Jesus for what He will do. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 NLT He has started a good work in us and He is faithful to complete it. Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]— Ephesians 3:20 AMPC This is infinitely beyond our highest praise, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams. God is able to do far more than what you can. Having said that, having looked at everything that Jesus does for us and who He is, in light of this, in light of this we bring Him a gift, because we are a gift. How? We give ourselves to Him. You see, Jesus wants your heart. And so when we say how do I make way for the king? You bring Jesus a gift. What is the gift? You are the gift. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1 NKJV Under submission to him, it is to make way for the king. It’s to make way for Jesus in my heart and in my life and so today as we really celebrate the birth of Jesus, I want you to think about more than just what Jesus did for us.