Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Gold - The Gift Series
73 Plays2 years ago
The sermon at Grove Hill Church focused on the story of the Magi and highlighted Jesus as a king unlike any other. It emphasized the importance of worshiping and accepting Jesus into one's life, as well as the transformation and restoration he brings. Pastor Ridley Barron passionately described Jesus as the King of kings and encouraged the congregation to embrace and worship him.
Timestamps:
00:00 Jesus's birth fulfilling prophecy causes turmoil.
03:05 Love fulfilled justice, gold for kings recognized.
07:47 Jesus offers forgiveness to all, surprises all.
09:41 Unexpectedly, he suffered and rose again.
13:08 Book on God's existence deepened my faith.
17:56 Hoax mastermind admits personal ethics inadequate.
20:04 Fascination with Christianity leads to unexpected journey.
25:42 Pursue lost, receive Jesus, resurrection changed death.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: The Magi and Jesus, the Unique King
00:00:00
Speaker
We've been talking about this very familiar story. We're going to go back to the passage of Matthew chapter 2, the story of the Magi. I hope you have enjoyed this to this point, have learned some things about this. But if you don't learn anything else, if you don't know anything else after this last three weeks, I hope you know this. Jesus is a king unlike any other. And that's where we're going this
The Magi's Journey and Herod's Disturbance
00:00:22
Speaker
morning. Matthew chapter 2, verse 1, we're going to start reading at the very beginning, it says,
00:00:28
Speaker
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea and the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed and all of Jerusalem with him. So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born. In Bethlehem of Judea, they told him, because this is what was written by the prophet.
00:00:56
Speaker
And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, because out of it you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
Symbolism of the Magi's Gifts
00:01:06
Speaker
Then Herod secretly summoned the wise man and asked them the exact time that the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him. After hearing the king, they went on their way.
00:01:23
Speaker
And there it was, the star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.
00:01:53
Speaker
We began week one by talking about frankincense and how that gift represented the fact that Jesus Christ would become our high priest. A role he continues to fulfill for us today as he intercedes before the father on our behalf. What an incredible reality that as you and I go to the father in prayer and as we one day will stand before the father, Jesus himself will be our intercessor who will stand on our behalf and say to God, this one belongs to
Jesus' Role in God's Justice and Kingship
00:02:20
Speaker
me. This one is my child.
00:02:22
Speaker
Then we talked last week about Mer. Mer says that Jesus is going to be our suffering servant. He is the Lamb of God. We know that because of the justice of God, our sin requires payment. All sin requires payment. And because of that, something had to be done to cover that cost for us. Jesus, as the suffering servant, did that for us when He went to the cross. I want you to hear this. The love of God did what the justice of God required.
00:02:49
Speaker
I want you to hear that because we live in a world that wants to talk about the love of God. That's a really good subject. Everybody likes to be loved, but we forget the reality that God is not only a loving God, he is a just and holy God. And because of that, there is a payment that has to be made for sin. Love did for God what the justice of God required in order for our sins to be paid.
00:03:13
Speaker
So throughout history, we have recognized that gold, the final of the three gifts, is something that has been recognized as gifts for kings, lots of different kings. And because it's Christmas morning, we got all our youngsters in here, I thought we'd do something a little bit different this morning to keep you engaged. I'm going to throw some images of kings up here. Let's see how sharp you are, all right? See if you can name these kings. Now, we're going to start off easy. It's going to get a little bit harder. I'm just warning you, all right? First king, who is this?
00:03:41
Speaker
Oh, that was the young one. Who was the young one? Way to go. Wow, she was on top of that. Yes, it is the Lion King, the Lion King. I feel at this point I should take somebody's child and hold it up and go, I want to know what that means. But anyway, all right, here's the next one. Some of you probably recognize this one better than others. Yes, the Burger King. Yes, absolutely. Some of you spend too much time there. All right. The next one.
00:04:11
Speaker
King Kong, yes, King Kong. I think I heard somebody say my mother-in-law, no. No, that was not fair, okay? This is day before Christmas, you gotta act better than that. All right, the next one, next one, some of my sports fans out there.
Quiz and Discussion: Famous 'Kings'
00:04:28
Speaker
LeBron James, King James, also known as the biggest flop artist in the NBA and the biggest whiner in professional sports. Just my opinion.
00:04:39
Speaker
Alright, next one, next one, getting a little bit harder, a little bit tougher here, may not be as easily recognized. Stephen King, yes, the great whatever. Write some really tragic stories. Yeah, yeah, here we go, the next one. Larry King, yeah, I knew most of my older people would know that one. Now this one's gonna challenge, we're gonna go way back a little bit with this one, you ready?
00:05:06
Speaker
Billie Jean King. You'll be a great tennis player, absolutely. Martin Luther King. Some of you are waiting for that one, weren't you? You knew that one was going to be in there. All right. Let me see who has the same heart of their pastor right here with this next one. This one touches my heart right here at Christmas time. You ready? Nat King Cole. Yes, nobody sings.
00:05:29
Speaker
Christmas song like Nat King Cole does. Beautiful voice. Stand in the music field. Here we go. B.B. King. Yes, absolutely. Thanks for playing along.
Jesus as King of Kings and His Humble Origins
00:05:42
Speaker
Guys, Jesus is not just another king. He's not just another person. He is, as the Bible describes him, the king of kings.
00:05:51
Speaker
I want to go over later in the New Testament. Paul writes these words. He says, God will bring this about. He's talking about everything he's talked about in Timothy to this point. God will bring all this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Who alone is immortal and who lives in an approachable light whom no one has seen or can see? To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.
00:06:20
Speaker
When Paul wrote this originally in the original Greek, it was impossible to state this with more emphasis. If he had had the abilities we have today, he would have said King of Kings, Lord of Lords, he would have italicized it, bold-faced it, underlined it, put exclamation points and probably three or four emojis around it to make sure that everybody got the point. There is nobody above Jesus. He is the supreme authority over every kingdom that has existed and will exist, and because of his authority, he rules the cosmos.
00:06:50
Speaker
Paul himself would say that in him life was formed and in him life is held together. But this is what makes this story so interesting because people were expecting a Messiah. They were expecting a king. It had been predicted for hundreds of years for the people of Israel. The problem is the Jews were expecting a king that would be born in a palace who would be surrounded by wealth and luxury and comfort and servants who would have the finest of clothes.
00:07:18
Speaker
What no one expected was that he would be born in poverty next to farm animals. They didn't expect that the son of a carpenter from Nazareth would be his father. They didn't expect that his mother would be a poor servant girl. Nazareth was a place that was not recognized for nobility. In fact, later, Nathaniel, one of his followers, would literally ask the question, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
00:07:43
Speaker
No one predicted this king would befriend prostitutes. No one predicted he would touch lepers. No one predicted that he would love those who religion had rejected. And this is a good place for me to hit the pause button and just remind you that no past that you may have prevents you from having a future in Jesus Christ.
00:08:02
Speaker
There is nothing you have done, nothing you are doing right now that keeps you from having the pleasure of knowing this king on a personal basis. The testimony of these people this morning as they stepped into the water is that they said, you know what? I don't care what my past held because Jesus holds it all in his hands. He has done what it has taken to satisfy the justice of God himself.
Jesus' Unlikely Followers and Revolutionary Teachings
00:08:23
Speaker
And because Jesus has done this, now I can know forgiveness.
00:08:29
Speaker
No one predicted that he would choose uneducated fishermen to be his followers, that despised tax collectors and rebellious troublemakers would be his disciples. No one imagined that a king would forgive an adulterous woman and when the law said she should be stoned, instead he would look at those who condemned her and said, who's going to dare be the first one? Let this be a reminder to you that God does not care about your resume. He's never asked for your resume, he's only asked for your obedience.
00:08:58
Speaker
He would confront the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He would overturn tables when people misused his father's house. They never imagined that this king would be applauded by outcasts, by the overlooked, by the immoral. No one expected him to stand trial for crimes that he did not commit.
The Unexpected Death and Resurrection of Jesus
00:09:15
Speaker
Nobody expected that he would be beaten, that he would be whipped, that he would be stripped naked and hung on a cross. The religious rejected him. You talk about church hurt. Jesus had the original church hurt because it was the church that condemned Jesus to death. It was the religious leaders who condemned him for no wrong. But instead, what Jesus looks for is not the religious. He looks for the broken. He looks for the hurting. He looks for the suffering.
00:09:44
Speaker
No one imagined that when he was dying on the cross and being tortured for our sin, that he would dare utter the words, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing. No one understood that when he breathed his last breath, literally creation would scream out that the sky would go dark, that the earth would rumble under the weight of watching its creator be put to death. No one expected the stone to roll away.
00:10:14
Speaker
Talk about your surprise endings. And nobody expected his body to be raised to life. Nobody expected that our king would start out in a manger and would wind up on a throne. This is indeed an unusual story. It's an unusual way for God to show his love. It's not the way that you and I would have chosen. It's not the path that we would have predicted. It's definitely not the path that we would put our son through for people who would reject him.
00:10:45
Speaker
We've talked about this over the last few weeks. As we look at Matthew 2 and as we unfold this story, there's basically been three responses that we have seen in this story. And I want to dig into those just a little bit deeper today because I want you to examine your heart and ask yourself where you are. And only you know your heart. Only you know exactly where you stand before the Father today. Only you can determine your motivations.
00:11:15
Speaker
The Bible tells us that some opposed him. King Herod literally rejected him. He wanted to protect his kingship. All he was worried about was his agenda. All he was worried about was his popularity, his authority. So much so that he ordered that every single boy under the age of two be put to death around the town of Bethlehem. Some of you here today are here against your will.
Self-Reflection: Following or Rejecting Jesus?
00:11:43
Speaker
You are.
00:11:44
Speaker
I mean, let's be honest. Mom had to beg you. Your wife had to nudge you. Your husband had to look at you and say, baby, we need to be there this morning. Some of you are here because you're a CEO. Christmas Easter only. And this is one of the two times a year that you're gonna walk in the doors of the church. And every other day the rest of the year, you're much more like Herod than you are like a follower of Jesus. Some of you might say, I don't need religion.
00:12:14
Speaker
And you know what? Nobody does. Some of you might say, I don't need the God stuff. I'm doing just fine myself. I don't want anybody telling me what to do. And for you, your biggest concern is who has authority over your life. And can I just remind you that in the end, the ultimate authority will belong to this king? The ultimate authority will belong to the one we are here to worship this morning.
00:12:43
Speaker
So whether you know it or not, if you're not following Jesus, you're rejecting Jesus. That's the only two options you're given. If you're not following Him, you have said to Him, I don't want You in my life. I'm going to choose my way. I'm going to do things according to my plan. Nobody tells me what to do.
00:13:02
Speaker
I don't want some outdated archaic book or some archaic religion trying to tell me how to live my life. I don't want some religious principle or some stupid church to tell me how to live. I just finished up this week an incredible book that I would recommend to you guys that you read.
Faith and Misconceptions About Jesus
00:13:20
Speaker
I am a true follower of Jesus and have been since I was eight years old but I still grow in my faith day by day
00:13:28
Speaker
in the things that I am challenged to read and understand from Scripture. But this book even pushed me even further towards just an absolute incredible appreciation of all that Jesus has done for us, what God has done for us. It's a book called Reflections on the Existence of God. It's written by Richard Simmons, not the yoga dude from the 80s, but a different Richard Simmons, okay?
00:13:50
Speaker
And it's a fantastic book, and one of the things he talks about in here is skeptics. He talks about atheists. He talks about agnostics. Some of you here today, if you were pushed, would have to recognize that you are more of an agnostic than you are anything. An agnostic might not acknowledge there is a creator, but he doesn't believe that he has anything to do with his life and has no authority over his life. Can I just tell you it's the most foolish choice you can fall into?
00:14:15
Speaker
But when he's talking about these people, he says many of them choose this path because they've never really read up on what Jesus has done for them. They base their beliefs off of wrong information, misinformation. They base their beliefs on what the mass media might tell them or what their neighbor down the street might tell them who walked away from Jesus years ago. Can I just encourage you today? Don't reject Jesus until you've met him.
00:14:41
Speaker
Don't reject Jesus until you have checked him out. I am so thankful for the story of Jeremy Garrett who said, you know what? I pursued all kinds of things but I kept my heart open to see what it was that God really wanted to show me and it kept leading me back to the cross of Jesus Christ. And when you get to the cross of Jesus, my prayer is that you hit your face before him in recognition of what he has done for you. There is no greater gift.
00:15:10
Speaker
Not only did some oppose him, some of them dismissed him. Some of them dismissed him. The Pharisees didn't oppose Jesus, they just dismissed him. Why? Because again, they had their plan on how things are supposed to work out. They had their checklist. This is what we're going to do. This is how we're going to do it. And if you don't play according to our rules, then you don't fit in to our plan.
00:15:30
Speaker
This is bizarre. In fact, the most bizarre part of the story because these are the guys who knew the scripture better than anybody else. They could quote the Old Testament literally word for word. And for many of them, they were great rule followers. But good people don't get into heaven. Only saved ones do. Good people don't make the cut because the Bible tells us none of us are good enough. Micah 5.2 was quoted
00:15:58
Speaker
right there in front of King Herod. And as they acknowledged that there was a prediction that Jesus will come, they literally wouldn't bother to go five miles down the road and meet the Savior who had been sent on their behalf. Same thing happens many times for us today. Some of you have been invited to church by friends all year long.
00:16:19
Speaker
Come and experience what God is doing at our church. Come and experience this Jesus that I have fallen in love with. Come and be introduced to the Savior that I have built before and have given my life to and submitted my agenda to. Come and meet Jesus and you'll go, nah, nah, it's too inconvenient. You've been invited to read God's Word along with somebody and you're going, no, I just don't have time for that kind of thing.
00:16:47
Speaker
Some of you have been invited to love on others through service, through ministry, and you go, no, not part of my plan. I got to get to grandma's house today, get those presents open. Got to be a part of what's going on down the road at this. I got to be a part of what's going on here. My calendar just doesn't allow room for it.
00:17:06
Speaker
Going back to this book that I just recently read, one of the most amazing facts that came out of it is that many of the ones who call themselves atheists, and I'm talking about all the way through the ages, all the way back to the early Christian church, most of the atheists would admit that when they came to the facts about who Jesus was, they didn't disagree with the facts, they just refused to submit to the facts. And so literally they would go, I believe Jesus was real,
00:17:36
Speaker
but he doesn't meet up with my plans. So I'm going to put him on a shelf, I'm going to ignore him, and I'm going to go on with my life.
Modern Dismissals and Ethics vs. Faith
00:17:44
Speaker
Sadly, some of you may have seen the interview that just recently was done with Dr. Anthony Fauci. Have you seen that? Online interview where he was talking about his Catholic faith.
00:17:56
Speaker
And in the midst of the interview, he said, I walked away from Catholicism a long time ago, not because I didn't agree with it, but I didn't think I needed it anymore. I thought my own personal set of ethics were enough to keep me in line. Keep in mind, this is the guy who masterminded the biggest hoax in America and the world with the COVID agenda. And yet he said, he said, my personal ethics are enough to get me by. There's gonna be a rude awakening for somebody
00:18:27
Speaker
And I'm not just talking about Anthony Fauci, I'm talking about any of us who choose to believe that somehow we're the exception to the rule that Jesus must forgive us of our sins if we are ever to know our maker, forever to have a relationship with him. They ignore the facts, many of them, because they don't align with their preconceived notions of God, things they've heard along the way.
Personal Faith Journey and Jesus' Transformative Power
00:18:52
Speaker
The last group is the group that we're most excited about. This is the group we want to be a part of. It's those who choose to worship this king. The one who someday will come again. The one who sits at the right hand of the father. The one who intercedes for us now. Wise men back then bowed and worshiped him. So what's your response? Again, are you going to look at Jesus and say I don't need you? That I can do this on my own?
00:19:20
Speaker
I got this. It's all under control because if you look at your life, you're going to know it isn't under your control. Are you going to oppose him? You may not call it that. You may not say I'm directly opposing Jesus, but your life says everything but that. Your life says that I'm the king of my own kingdom. I am the one who sits on my throne. I am in charge.
00:19:48
Speaker
Maybe by most people today, you just simply dismiss them and say, you know, yeah, it's a really good story, but someday I'll get to that. Someday I'll come around. As a kid, for me, church was just religion. It was rules, it was rituals, but there was something about it that kept my attention growing up. Something about it that kept pulling me back, and it was not just my dad yanking me by the arm on Sunday morning saying, you're going to church or else.
00:20:18
Speaker
There was something about the story that even as an eight-year-old, I thought, man, this is really, really different. It's bizarre. It's outside the norm of what most of the world talks about. So at eight, I accepted Christ, but I began a journey that took me in the different route than what I anticipated. And it wasn't until I was about 15 years old I came back
00:20:48
Speaker
to the realization that this king was different, that this king was not what I had created him to be. He was something entirely different, something far better than I could have dreamed on my own. It was this idea that a king, a king, the king of all kings would literally abandon his glory, would be born to a young virgin girl,
00:21:17
Speaker
that he would reach down to the lowest of the low, a king who came for people just like you and me. He loved me right where I was and he forgave me. Not because I was good, but because he is good. So let me tell you about my king. I had a seminary professor warn me once, he said, Christmas is the toughest service to preach.
00:21:46
Speaker
And I said, well, why? He said, it's what I call a pass-through service. A lot of people come, but they're only passing through. They're only here because grandmas invited them. They're only here because it's the day of the year when you're supposed to be at church. They're only here because the season demands it. And my prayer has been all week long that not one of you would just pass through without seeing the Savior. So let me tell you about my king.
00:22:15
Speaker
He's not some distant, angry, uninvolved judge who's just waiting for you to mess up so he can crush you. He's not the man upstairs. He's not the big guy in the sky. He's not your homie. He is not anything short of everything. He's the king of kings. He is the Lord of lords.
00:22:41
Speaker
He introduced himself to Moses as the great I am. And what that means is very simply that whatever you need, he can be for you. He can meet every need that you have today. He can embrace your emotional state. He can embrace your grief this morning. He can embrace your lostness this morning. He can take away the guilt and the shame of your pattern of life today. He is not like any other king.
00:23:12
Speaker
My king is the king of righteousness. My king is the king of ages. My king heals the sick. My king opens blind eyes. My king heals deaf ears and he strengthens the weak. My king delivers the captive. My king restores those who are broken. My king is a shelter in time of trouble. My king is a light when the world is dark and light never loses. It always drives back the dark.
00:23:38
Speaker
My king is the Prince of Peace, he's the Lamb of God, he's the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and end. He is the great parentheses around all of life and nothing escapes his notice, not even your heart this morning. He is the resurrection in life and because of that, we don't have to face death and be in fear.
00:23:56
Speaker
His goodness is indescribable. His power is incomprehensible. His grace is irresistible. At His name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And guess what? At His name, the darkness trembles. There is nothing you have to fear. In His presence, demons flee. Death cannot defeat Him. The grave could not hold Him.
00:24:25
Speaker
That Jesus is my King. And I would love for him to be yours. Will you pray with me?
Conclusion: Prayer and Gratitude for Salvation
00:24:37
Speaker
I thank you, Father, because you're a giving God. I thank you because out of your kindness and compassion, you didn't leave us to our own sinful path.
00:24:53
Speaker
You didn't leave us to face the consequences of our poor choices or our sinful rebellion. Instead, like the best of fathers, you loved us enough to send your son. And for some of us today, that's just information. It's just information, information that we put in our head and then we walk away and we dismiss you by the way we live our lives.
00:25:22
Speaker
For some of us this morning, it's not information, it's been transformation. What was once dead has now been brought to life. What once lived in fear has now had fear removed. What was once part of darkness has now been made part of the light. My prayer this morning is those that have been transformed in this place would become bolder witnesses every single day of this year ahead. That we not would just take
00:25:50
Speaker
advantage of the opportunities but we would look for the opportunities to find the lost actively pursuing those who are removed from Jesus but for those this morning who are honest with themselves and say you know what I got a lot of information about Jesus but I've never allowed the transformation of Jesus I pray that today is the day they would receive him that they would take that step of faith that step of trust
00:26:20
Speaker
We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for a manger in Bethlehem. We thank you for a perfect life lived with disciples who followed him. We thank you for a cross that led to his death, a grave that was a temporary residence for three days, but for the resurrection that changed death for all of us. Father, may we receive this gift today.
00:27:13
Speaker
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.