Sermon
Text: Matthew 21:1-11
Title: “Who’s King of Your Life?”
I. We want to rule ourselves and make
ourselves kings.
II. Jesus is THE King who rules over us.
JESUS, THE KING OF
KINGS, RULES US FROM THE SEAT OF HIS THRONE - THE CROSS.
In
the name of the Father, the Son + and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace,
mercy, and peace from God our Father, and from our LORD and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen.
The
sermon text for this, the First Sunday in Advent, is taken from the Gospel
lesson just read [Matthe 21:1-11. I would read again
these verses…
4 This took place to
fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a
colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
8 Most of the crowd
spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and
spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that
followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to
the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in
the highest!”
Dear
Brother and Sisters in Christ,
I.
Who is king in your life? Turn on the TV, the radio, log on to the
internet, or look around you and you will see who is king in the lives of those
that walk the world over to include ourselves.
I am a big sports fan and listen to
sports radio a lot when I am out and about. I volunteer as one of the chaplains
at Lutheran Child and Family Services in
Indy and was on my way over to lead chapel this past Wednesday and was listening
to a couple of people talking about sports contracts. They announced one baseball player’s demands
for his services for the next ten seasons.
This particular baseball player will be paid $25 million dollars a year
to hit, catch and throw a baseball.
Bill Gates the founder and CEO of
Microsoft has a net worth of over $72 billion.
He has one of the most expensive homes in the world estimated value
being about $150 million, with property taxes at $1 million a year.
The list goes on and on. And what does that say about the king we have
set up as a society? Money, it would
seem, seems to be king. So much so that
one popular TV evangelist proclaims that it is a sin to be poor. A former member of the Missouri Synod and
well acquainted with our confession, she says, “I am not poor. I am not miserable. And I am not a sinner.” Strong words for someone who is under the
curse of the Law.
We have set our sights on the material
wealth of the world and made money the end all to be all. And although I don’t think there are any
millionaires here in church today, and if there are your giving is down, even
though we aren’t in the same tax bracket as those mentioned earlier we do this
too don’t we? We set up THINGS as our
guiding light. We place vacations, days
off, our leisure time above the call to go to church on a regular basis. We spend more money than we need to on OUR
things than on things that NEED
our attention, like the spreading of the Gospel to the far reaches of our
planet. We are no different than the
Kobe Bryants and the Bill Gates of the world.
Truly, we inhabitants of the world
aren’t setting money up as king, but are setting ourselves up as his or her
majesty. We put ourselves first and in
doing so dethrone God and instead set ourselves upon the throne. Everything then revolves around us. Money, fame, importance, social standing, all
of this rotates around us as if we were the center of the universe And yes, we
believe we have God spinning around us.
II.
Embedded in our text today is a
prophecy. The prophet Zechariah writes
long before the coming of Jesus…
“Say to the daughter
of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
The
whole verse that is in Zechariah says…
Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O
daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king
is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a
donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Although
our text today is seemingly out of place in regards to the Church Year, the Palm
Sunday text is very appropriate for the this time of year also. For in these days of Advent we are
remembering the first coming and we are awaiting the second coming.
Christ the King is has come to us in
the form of a human baby and as we all know placed in the manger. In that trough made of nails and wood this
tiny Baby lay there and in the not too distant future, 33 years to be exact, He
would be laid on the wood of the cross and fastened there with nails.
For
what? For the sin of placing ourselves
above the King of Kings. We have tried
to elevate ourselves to the height king and overthrow the rightful King. And so Jesus came into this world on that
cold night in Bethlehem. He lay in lowly
circumstances, the feeding trough of animals to save the world. Already He knew what lay ahead for Him. He knew He would have to bear the sins of
all, the sins of you and me and take them all to the throne of His cross. There He hung with a circle of thorns for His
crown. And this He does gladly. For this is how much He loves us. And now the sin of placing ourselves first
has been erased. We have been
forgiven. Christ has cleansed us with
the very water and blood that has poured from His side. We receive this blessed forgiveness of our
sins through the Word, the Holy Baptism, through His Body and Blood. Here we are reconciled to our Father in heaven
and He no longer sees us as trying to overthrow Him, but instead He sees us in
rightful worship of Him the King of Kings.
And
now – in these days that we live in – we still wait for His promised return to
take us all to heaven with him. As we
have seen in the text today – GOD keeps His promises. Way back in Genesis 3:15 GOD promised Adam
and Eve a way out. That way out began to
come to be on that cold night of the first CHRISTmas. GOD indeed keeps His promises – and we look
to the day when He comes again with joy and peace much like the shepherds of
Bethlehem did that night the angels sang. Thanks be to GOD for His kept
promises. Amen.
The
peace of the LORD – which surpasses all understanding – will guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +
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