WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.519 Advent is this season when we celebrate Jesus coming to earth in the birth of a baby. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:21.039 ! The second son of the Trinity came to earth for us. This is a season that leads up to Christmas when 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:27.600 ! We celebrate his birthday. It's a season of anticipation, of hope, of longing, and of light. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:34.160 For the next four Sundays, our sermon series will be from four Old Testament passages 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:41.980 that were picked up by gospel writers when they described the birth of Jesus. So, today we'll look 00:00:41.980 --> 00:00:50.400 at Micah chapter 5. Next week we'll look at Jeremiah 23. The week after we'll look at Numbers 24, 00:00:50.400 --> 00:00:57.579 and the last will be Isaiah 9. You can see these passages on this card, so you don't have to 00:00:57.579 --> 00:01:02.979 remember what I just said. It's just… it's on there for you, so if you want to read ahead and look at 00:01:02.979 --> 00:01:11.920 those things. What we want to do is to look at how it is that the Scriptures display the glory of the 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:21.819 coming of Jesus, right? And particularly how He comes as a King in various ways. We're going to look at it 00:01:21.819 --> 00:01:28.219 in the original context of the Old Testament. We're going to connect to how the New Testament writers 00:01:28.219 --> 00:01:35.659 understood how they pointed to Jesus, and then hopefully connect it to our lives today as well. 00:01:35.659 --> 00:01:45.099 So, with that, I want to invite you to turn with me to Micah chapter 5. Micah is in the Minor Prophets. 00:01:45.099 --> 00:01:52.640 It's somewhere in the middle. It's past Ezekiel and before Matthew. So, that narrows it down just a 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:58.079 little bit, and I'm having to find it myself too. So, and I do not have a page number. We want to 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:06.899 apologize as we're looking for that because the Pew Bibles that we've recently gotten were repaginated 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:15.020 without us knowing it. And so, some of you may be struggling to know. There's an index in the front 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:22.319 that'll tell you what the page is, but some of you may have two different Bibles with two different 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:28.180 pages. So, we're working on figuring out how to get that information to you more regularly. But for now, 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:37.900 we just want Micah. Micah is between Jonah and what comes after it, Habakkuk, if that helps you find it 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:45.280 in your… So, we're going to look at Micah chapter 5, verses 1 through 5a, 1 through the beginning of 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:52.260 verse 5. So, let's go ahead and read that passage together, and then we'll look at God's Word together. 00:02:52.259 --> 00:03:00.199 Micah chapter 5. Now, muster your troops, O daughter of troops. Siege is laid against us. 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:07.620 With a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, 00:03:08.399 --> 00:03:16.219 who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be 00:03:16.219 --> 00:03:23.939 ruler in Israel, whose origin is from old, from ancient days. Therefore, he shall give them up 00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:31.680 until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers shall return 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:37.400 to the people of Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:44.680 in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:52.620 great to the ends of the earth, and he shall be their peace. Let's pray together and ask for God's 00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:59.120 help. Lord, we thank you for your Word. We thank you that you have given it to us so that we might 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:06.080 not have to imagine who you are, but that we might be able to read and understand so that we can know 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:13.540 you and your ways. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that helps us to understand your Word. Lord, I pray for 00:04:13.539 --> 00:04:19.379 help this morning that I might speak the words that you would have me speak, and that together, Lord, 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:32.560 we would sit under your Word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. In this prophecy, Micah gives us 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:38.539 a hope of a better king, and we're going to look at it in three sections. We're going to look at the 00:04:38.540 --> 00:04:44.340 urgent need for a better king. We're going to look at the humble source of a better king and the 00:04:44.340 --> 00:04:51.160 glorious fulfillment of the promise for a better king. So, if you're taking your outline, there it 00:04:51.160 --> 00:05:01.040 is. The first part is in verse 1 of Micah 5, the urgent need for a better king. The call here in the 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:07.700 text is to muster troops because siege is laid against us. With a rod, they strike the judge of 00:05:07.700 --> 00:05:17.620 Israel on the cheek. Now, Micah prophesied broadly in the late 8th and early 7th century BC. So, that's 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:28.560 broadly 730 to 680 BC. His time straddled a time in the history of Israel when calamitous things were 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:36.600 happening. In 722, the large nation of Assyria came down and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, 00:05:37.259 --> 00:05:45.779 and it was the end of that part of Israel politically forever. Ten tribes were scattered, 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:56.720 broken, and lost in many, many ways. And Micah, proclaiming God's Word during this time, 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:04.860 was saying this has come because of the judgment because Israel did not follow God. Their kings 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:12.460 consistently did not worship God, but turned aside to idols, the idols of the peoples around them, 00:06:12.760 --> 00:06:21.180 to worship instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they had failed fundamentally to trust 00:06:21.180 --> 00:06:27.519 in God to believe that God would be their protector and their provider. And instead, they turned to their 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:34.439 armies and to political treaties and to other ways to try to save themselves rather than trusting in God 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:42.420 to save them. And Micah puts a pin earlier on in the book about it was the kings in particular who had 00:06:42.420 --> 00:06:47.540 failed to lead them well. And so, you see in verse 1 where it says, 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:56.500 with a rod, they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. That is, the Assyrians came and they 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:05.360 dishonored the kings who were sitting in the throne because of their disobedience. 00:07:05.820 --> 00:07:12.840 Now, it is likely given the reference to a siege that this… many commentators think this part of 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:21.199 Micah's prophecy was written right around 701 because in 701 BC, the Assyrian army that had come down 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:27.659 20 years earlier and conquered the northern kingdom continued its push into the southern kingdom and in 00:07:27.659 --> 00:07:35.899 fact came to the doorstep of Jerusalem. And Sennacherib, the king of Assyria at that time, 00:07:35.899 --> 00:07:45.699 was ready to lay or laid siege to the nation or to the capital city of Jerusalem. And this was a 00:07:45.699 --> 00:07:53.219 terrible thing. You could read about this in 2 Kings 18 and 19, or if you remember, we read about this 00:07:53.219 --> 00:08:02.139 last spring in 2 Chronicles 32, or you can also read about it in Isaiah 36-37. It was during the 00:08:02.139 --> 00:08:09.659 kingship of Hezekiah, and Jerusalem was besieged by an army that they could not hope to defeat. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:23.899 God's holy city was in danger of being overrun and lost. And this is what Micah 5-1 shows us. There was an 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:32.480 urgent need. And though Hezekiah actually stepped up to the plate in that time and humbled himself and 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:38.779 turned to the Lord, and God miraculously intervened to deliver Jerusalem from Sennacherib, 00:08:40.860 --> 00:08:46.860 yet the faults of the kings and the faults of the sin of the people of Israel continued. 00:08:46.860 --> 00:08:56.440 And so, approximately 120 years later, the Babylonians came and did lay siege and conquered 00:08:56.440 --> 00:09:02.480 Jerusalem. And they salted the fields, and they broke the walls, and they destroyed the temple and the palace. 00:09:06.560 --> 00:09:15.200 God's judgment came upon God's people because of their sin. And there was a cry that came out 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:28.700 in the midst of this, a cry for a better king. Now, if you fast forward 700 years or so to the time of 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:34.460 the birth of Jesus, the people of Israel were in a similar circumstance, weren't they? They were under 00:09:34.460 --> 00:09:42.340 Roman occupation and rule. They had been a vassal state, in fact, basically ever since the fall of 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:54.480 Jerusalem in 586. They had a king, King Herod, who was a puppet, a puppet ruler for Rome, who did not honor 00:09:54.480 --> 00:10:00.899 God, who did not worship Him, and did not trust Him to be the deliverer of God's people. And they cried 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:05.519 out as well, God, will you send your better king? 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:16.220 There was an urgent need for something more. And friends, as we think about our lives today, 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:23.100 we aren't the nation of Israel, so our Savior won't be a political one. 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:32.120 But don't we also cry out for something better as we look at the brokenness of the world? 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:36.759 Maybe we look at the brokenness of our own lives, and we think, 00:10:37.340 --> 00:10:44.060 God, can you deliver me in this? How much are we like the kings of Israel of old, 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:50.480 where we seek for power and control to protect ourselves, where we worship other things, 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:57.600 wealth or achievement, pleasure or status, to save us, to give our lives meaning? 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:06.080 How often do we have other kings, lesser kings ruling our lives? 00:11:10.779 --> 00:11:18.720 Micah moves from this dire situation of an urgent need of a greater king to 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:27.060 the promise, the promise of a better king. But it comes in a surprising way. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:36.540 As we look at verse 2, we see that there's… Micah proclaims a humble source for a better king. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:43.340 Now, this is a remarkable thing, right? God chose Bethlehem to be the place 00:11:43.340 --> 00:11:51.040 where this king would come from. Now, Bethlehem is not a completely insignificant place. If you did 00:11:51.040 --> 00:11:56.019 look in a concordance, you would see that Bethlehem was a place, it seemed, 00:11:56.019 --> 00:12:04.299 where Jacob buried his wife, Rachel. It is, in fact, the city of Boaz, where Ruth and Naomi relocated to 00:12:04.299 --> 00:12:09.539 when they came back from Moab. And all of the wonderful story of the book of Ruth happened in 00:12:09.539 --> 00:12:16.799 Bethlehem. And of course, it is the city of David. It is where David tended his father's sheep on the 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:27.240 hillsides. It is where he came from. And so, there is this resonance of Bethlehem not being something, 00:12:27.699 --> 00:12:33.799 but in Micah's time, and I think throughout all of history, it's still been a small provincial 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:43.819 rural town. Not big enough even to have enough to contribute to the army of Israel when it gathered 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:52.740 for war. It's the equivalent of Podunk USA. Now, okay, I looked this up. Did you know that Podunk 00:12:52.740 --> 00:13:01.120 actually is a local word? Podunk was a region of Guilford. It is also, there's a Podunk River in East 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:10.100 Hartford. So, Podunk and Mark Twain was popularized, one of the people who popularized the idea of Podunk. 00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:17.759 There's also a Podunk in New York too, near Ulysses. Go figure. So, anyway, but Podunk is the middle of 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:27.920 nowhere. Insignificant. Small town. Nothing important happens here. But Micah says, 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:35.560 but you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah. That means you're so 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:44.459 small. You can't even contribute to the army. From you shall come forth a ruler. It's remarkable, isn't it? 00:13:46.359 --> 00:13:49.559 As you look ahead to the birth of Jesus, 00:13:50.439 --> 00:13:57.899 in our human wisdom, where would we have put the birth of Jesus? Maybe it would have been in Jerusalem, 00:13:58.239 --> 00:14:03.839 the holy city of God, the place where the temple lies, the place where the king sat. That would be a 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:11.340 good place for a king to come from, right? Or if not that, maybe, well, Rome. Because Rome was the 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:17.980 center of the world at that time. Rome was the place of power and influence. Rome was where emperors 00:14:17.980 --> 00:14:25.300 lived. And if not that, well, at least you would choose something like Athens, which is the cultural 00:14:25.300 --> 00:14:33.240 center of the world at that time, influencing art and philosophy in deep ways. But God didn't choose 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:43.500 any of those places, did he? God chose Bethlehem. Now, some of you were listening carefully when we 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:50.740 read Matthew chapter 2 earlier, and you realize that when Matthew refers to Bethlehem, he actually 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:58.139 changes the words a little bit. He says, you know, if Micah says, you who are too little to be among the 00:14:58.139 --> 00:15:05.419 clans of nation, to be among the clans of Judah, Matthew says, you who by no means are too little. 00:15:06.019 --> 00:15:10.419 And it's an interesting thing, and some people get tripped up by this. So, I wanted to clarify this. 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:19.199 Matthew was looking back at Bethlehem, knowing that it was the birthplace of Jesus. And he's saying, 00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:26.399 Bethlehem has always been a small place, but because of the birth of Jesus, it is no longer a small place. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:33.319 So, he's not contradicting what Micah was saying, but he was saying, now that Jesus has come, now that 00:15:33.319 --> 00:15:40.959 this fulfillment has come, Bethlehem has become a far more important place. It is no longer the least 00:15:40.959 --> 00:15:50.019 place in Judah, but it's now been given a place of honor. But when Jesus was born, it was still 00:15:50.019 --> 00:15:58.100 an insignificant place. It was a place of humility. And we know this from the story of the Bible, that 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:05.699 Jesus' birth was a humble birth in many ways. We tend to romanticize it, and we have great pictures 00:16:05.699 --> 00:16:12.939 of stables and stars and lights and kings and animals, and we mishmash all the stories of the 00:16:12.940 --> 00:16:19.420 Bible together in all sorts of not really historically, biblically clear ways. And we have this beautiful 00:16:19.420 --> 00:16:30.820 picture. But really, it was two teenagers who had relocated because of political contingency 00:16:30.820 --> 00:16:39.760 to a place where it wasn't their home. And they ended up having to have their child in uncomfortable 00:16:39.760 --> 00:16:49.600 and very common circumstances. A new baby was laid in a manger because there was no proper room for this 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:59.780 birth to happen. This baby was worshiped by shepherds, not by kings, not by priests. 00:17:00.820 --> 00:17:08.779 But by shepherds, the scoundrels, and the smelly ones who lived on the outskirts of town 00:17:08.779 --> 00:17:14.340 and slept among their sheep on the hillsides. 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:22.880 God's promise came from humble origins. You've probably heard this poem, but it's worth repeating 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:30.360 again. James Alan Francis preached a sermon, and in it, he included this description of Jesus. 00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:36.740 He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure 00:17:36.740 --> 00:17:43.079 village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. He never wrote a book. He never held office. 00:17:43.419 --> 00:17:49.279 He never went to college. He never visited a big city. Well, eventually he went to Jerusalem, but 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:55.459 he never visited a big city. He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place he was born. 00:17:55.460 --> 00:18:01.460 He did none of the things usually associated with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. 00:18:01.960 --> 00:18:08.980 He was only 33. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:14.720 and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves, 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:22.539 and while dying. His executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property that he had on earth. 00:18:23.059 --> 00:18:28.259 When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. 00:18:28.259 --> 00:18:43.079 Jesus came from these humble origins, and indeed his humility has characterized him 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:51.140 throughout all of his earthly life. And friends, this reminds us that the Advent season 00:18:51.140 --> 00:18:59.140 is one that reminds us that God's ways are not our ways. God delights to use the outcast, 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:08.320 the weak ones, the least of these, in his plans for the world. If you feel like you are one of those, 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:19.080 Jesus came to identify with you and to let you know that he sees you and that he knows you and that 00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:25.259 you have a king who understands and that in his love he has come to be your Savior. 00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:34.599 And for those of us who may not feel that way, who in the eyes of the world have much, 00:19:35.980 --> 00:19:41.939 we are given a bit of a warning in the humility of Jesus. Do not trust in these other things. 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:47.000 Do not trust in our status or in our wealth or in our opportunities or in our privilege, 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:55.299 but recognize instead that humility is the way of Jesus and that we ought to take no pride in what 00:19:55.299 --> 00:20:05.680 God has done in our lives. To not boast in anything, but rather to see that Jesus came as a humble king 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:15.940 for us. Now Micah goes on to describe this better king, this better king that will come in a time of 00:20:15.940 --> 00:20:24.779 urgent need, this better king who will come from humble origins, this better king who is a glorious 00:20:24.779 --> 00:20:30.900 fulfillment. I want you to look with me in chapter 5 again, verses 2 through 5, because it's a beautiful 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:40.799 picture of a glorious ruler who will turn around the circumstances. Remember, in the first instance of 00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:46.460 Micah is proclaiming, this is coming when the Assyrians are on their doorstep, when they are 00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:53.759 threatened with destruction, and it seems that darkness and despair are inescapable. And Micah says, 00:20:53.960 --> 00:21:01.759 no, even though the day may be dark, and even though this circumstance may not go well, yet in the end, 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:11.879 I will bring forth a ruler in the right time who will bring something glorious instead. He will be, 00:21:12.019 --> 00:21:17.680 as he says, from ancient of days. That is, he will come from the great line of kings of David, 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:25.000 at least, but perhaps I think this suggests even to a further lineage that this one who would come to be 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:35.220 the ruler is the one who was with God before the world began. This was the one who lived as the triune 00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:44.420 second person before the creation of the world, and yet who came to be the king, to be the light of the 00:21:44.420 --> 00:21:51.220 world. He will be the one who will bring his brothers back and restore them after a time. 00:21:51.220 --> 00:22:00.680 And you see this happening as Jesus comes. He brings people not just from the nation of Israel, 00:22:00.860 --> 00:22:11.180 but from every tribe and tongue and nation. He will be a shepherd. We're calling the rulership of David, 00:22:11.579 --> 00:22:17.000 the one who shepherded sheep in his youth and shepherded a kingdom in his adulthood. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:29.400 This one who will come will stand in his court, not like Hezekiah falling on his knees in abject fear, 00:22:30.180 --> 00:22:36.940 but who will stand and will rule in the majesty of the name of the Lord. 00:22:36.940 --> 00:22:47.700 He will be a better king than the kings who failed Israel. And he will come and he will bring peace on 00:22:47.700 --> 00:22:55.880 earth so that his people will dwell securely once more, and his greatness will extend to the ends of 00:22:55.880 --> 00:23:06.940 the earth. There will be no more Assyrians and Babylonians, no more Romans to threaten his people. 00:23:07.040 --> 00:23:15.140 But the kingdom he establishes will be a kingdom secure and everlasting. When this better king comes, 00:23:15.280 --> 00:23:25.580 he will establish a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And he will rule in such a way that no power will 00:23:25.579 --> 00:23:35.639 ultimately be able to stand against him. No political power will defeat him. No spiritual power will be able 00:23:35.639 --> 00:23:41.639 to defeat him. Not even sin and death itself. 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:55.600 Friends, this is the better ruler that Micah predicts. This is the better ruler that we see 00:23:55.600 --> 00:24:04.820 coming to the earth in Matthew chapter 2. This is what the kings from Persia, the magi, 00:24:05.640 --> 00:24:11.440 however, we'll talk about that some other time, as they come and worship him, as they come and honor 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:18.340 him with gifts. Because God had given a sign that the fulfillment of what Micah had said so long ago 00:24:18.340 --> 00:24:29.820 was here. Remember the words that the angel spoke to Mary about this life that was growing in her womb. 00:24:30.779 --> 00:24:35.039 The angel said to her in Luke 1, verse 30, 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:41.940 Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and 00:24:41.940 --> 00:24:48.639 bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. And listen to this description. This is the fulfillment. 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:55.000 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the 00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:02.779 throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be 00:25:02.779 --> 00:25:16.639 no end. Friends, we know that Jesus has come. And we know that his kingdom has come and begun. 00:25:17.339 --> 00:25:25.079 We also know that this glorious hope that we see, we still long for that, don't we? We have an 00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:33.579 anticipation that Jesus' kingdom will come when he returns and establishes his kingdom fully and finally 00:25:33.579 --> 00:25:44.919 forever. Then we know, then we know that we will have the better king forever. And now we can live in 00:25:44.919 --> 00:25:52.639 faith, in faith that the king that we believe in will do this one day. And we can live with hope 00:25:52.640 --> 00:26:00.460 that the kingdoms of this world and the principalities and the powers that seem to wage war against our 00:26:00.460 --> 00:26:10.120 souls, that in the end they will not stand. This is the hope of the glorious king, the glorious fulfillment 00:26:10.120 --> 00:26:18.860 of Micah's prophecy. But there's one more thing we need to see in this passage. And that is this, 00:26:18.859 --> 00:26:28.439 that the manner of the coming of this king is the manner in the way that he becomes our savior as well. 00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:34.719 There's no way for me to say this better than what Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 2, 00:26:35.779 --> 00:26:39.119 starting in verse 6, describing Jesus. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:47.559 Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, 00:26:48.199 --> 00:26:54.719 but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, 00:26:54.719 --> 00:27:00.799 and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, 00:27:01.539 --> 00:27:03.719 even death on a cross. 00:27:03.720 --> 00:27:29.240 Do you see, friends, it's not just in the incarnation that we see Jesus' humility, 00:27:29.240 --> 00:27:36.039 humility, but it's in his work of redemption that we see Jesus' humility. He did not come 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:43.019 riding on a white horse with an army at his back to overthrow Rome and establish a new glorious 00:27:43.019 --> 00:27:54.359 kingdom on earth. He came in humility, and he lived in humility, and he went to death in humility, 00:27:54.359 --> 00:28:01.299 offering himself up in the place of sinners. 00:28:03.459 --> 00:28:08.039 As John says, he came to his own, and his own did not receive him. 00:28:09.879 --> 00:28:16.939 But to those who did, to those who believed in his name, he gave them the right to be called children 00:28:16.940 --> 00:28:27.840 of God. His humility was the key to his ultimate victory, and his humility established a kingdom 00:28:27.840 --> 00:28:35.259 that is more glorious and more beautiful and more wonderful than we could ever imagine. 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:44.620 This is our salvation, and this is the hope of our advent, that our better king is a humble king. 00:28:44.619 --> 00:28:54.919 He is the king that we most need. As we consider this Advent season, let us meditate on and adore Jesus, 00:28:55.219 --> 00:28:58.039 our humble king. Will you pray with me? 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:04.399 Lord, we thank you. 00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:16.080 Lord, we pray that as we come into this season of Advent, Lord, that our hearts would be rightly aligned. 00:29:17.820 --> 00:29:27.200 Lord, we confess how easy it is for us to build our own kingdoms or to long for other kings to be our saviors. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:33.799 Lord, even our culture can fill us with distraction. 00:29:36.480 --> 00:29:40.259 Lord, we pray for your spirit to help us 00:29:40.259 --> 00:29:45.279 to with clarity see the greatness of this humble king. 00:29:47.420 --> 00:29:49.920 And that our hearts would worship him alone. 00:29:50.980 --> 00:29:52.500 Help us in this, we pray. 00:29:53.160 --> 00:29:54.860 In Jesus' name, amen.