Jesus Came to Bring God’s Kingdom (Luke 1:26-38)

[Sermon from Joshua House at Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

Advent is about remembering and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. Advent is also about anticipating and preparing ourselves for the promised return of the Messiah. And continuing on the Advent series, “Down to Earth,” today, my sermon is titled, “Jesus Came to Bring God’s Kingdom.” So let’s pray and then dig right in.

Before we look at the birth of Jesus and the very beginning of his days here on earth, I want to take you briefly to the very last days of his life on earth and look at three images, three scenes from the life of Jesus, and I want you to store these images somewhere in your mind because they will serve as a backdrop to what we are going to be talking about for the rest of the evening.

The first scene is that of Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. A very huge crowd gathers to see this prophetic scene played out before their very eyes. Their hearts of full of hope and anticipation, and they are waving palm branches, and they are shouting in unison:

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

That’s the first scene that I want you to store in your mind. The second scene is just a few days after this triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And this scene is not a joyful scene like the first. Here, Jesus is betrayed by one of his disciples named Judas. After he is arrested, Jesus is tried by the High Priests and then eventually he is led to Pontius Pilate to be investigated. And in the heart of this inquisition, Pilate asks Jesus:

"So you are a king?"

That’s the second scene. And the third scene I want to ask you to store in your mind is that of the crucifixion of Jesus. As Jesus is hanging nailed to a cross, wearing a crown of thorns, desperately fighting for every ounce of oxygen, there are these Roman soldiers who are mocking him, saying:

"If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

So these three images - Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey, his inquisition by Pontius Pilate, and his crucifixion and mocking by the Roman soldiers - let these images sink in. We’ll come back to them in just a little bit. But now, please open your Bible and turn with me to Luke 1:26-38. If you don’t have a Bible, please feel free to grab one from either end of the stage. We are going to be looking at a lot of scripture tonight. Luke 1:26-38:

Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

This is the story of what has been traditionally called in the Catholic church, “The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary.” And what I want to do now is to look at this passage, along with a few others, and make four quick observations. And then for the rest of our time together, I would like us to try to figure out what it all means for us today.

The Birth of the King
The first point that I want us to observe is that this story of the birth of Jesus is the story of the birth of the King. What we learn from this exchange between Mary and Gabriel is the identity of the long-awaited Messiah, the King of Kings, and his name is Jesus.

Look at verses 32 and 33 again:

Luke 1:30-33
But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

"Son of the Most High." "Throne of his father David." "He will reign." At the heart of what Gabriel tells Mary is that she is going to give birth to a King. And not just any king, but a king whose nobility has roots in divinity. He is a king unlike any other king that was born before or since that time. The Jesus that we worship is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

So, let’s go back to the three images that we talked about in the beginning: The image of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the image of Jesus being questioned by Pontius Pilate, and the image of Jesus hanging on a cross being mocked by the Roman soldiers, all of these images relate to how somebody responds to Jesus being a King. For some, their response was to worship, like those who were waving palm branches, and shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” For others, their response was one of curiosity and confusion, “So you are a king?” And of course there were others who responded with violence and anger at the notion of a God who would come down to earth and die on a cross for the sins of the world. “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"So you are a king?"
"If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

What about you? What is your response tonight? I know there are many of you here tonight who would say that you are a worshipper of King Jesus, that you would align yourself with those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem waving palm branches, shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”

And I know there are some of you for whom, the notion of King Jesus intrigues you. Like Pontius Pilate, you say, “So Jesus, you are a king?” You find yourself somewhere in between belief and doubt.

There are some of you for whom this idea that Jesus is King is absolutely absurd. It bothers you. It annoys you. It makes you angry. You could easily see yourself standing next to the Roman soldiers who mocked Jesus on the cross saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. I have no need for you, Jesus!”

What is your response? Every single one of us, we must all come face to face with the fact that the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords not merely of Christians but over every single individual. And at the heart of the Christian faith is the question, “Who is your king?” Because whether we know it or not, we all serve a king. For some, our king is money. For some, our king is power and fame. For some, we are the king of their lives. We are all bowing our knee to a king. Who is your king? This leads us to our next observation.

The King and His Kingdom
The second observation from this passage is that this Jesus, this King is establishing the kingdom of God that will reign supreme over every kingdom of men. Look with me in verse 33:

Luke 1:33
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.

Some 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote this in Isaiah 9:6-7:

Isaiah 9:6-7
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Jesus is the fulfillment of this very prophecy. Jesus came to bring God’s Kingdom. The great narrative of the entire Bible, the story behind all the stories of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, the backdrop for everything that happens in the Bible is the great anticipation for the King of Kings to be revealed to the world, because when the King comes, so does his kingdom; because where the King is, there is the kingdom. The story of creation, the flood, the exodus, the exile, the prophets, everything is pointing to that moment of moments when this king will be revealed. And what Gabriel tells Mary is that this moment of moments has finally arrived. The king will finally be revealed, and his name is Jesus, and he will establish his kingdom.

The King and His Mission
So if this is a king unlike any other who is establishing a kingdom unlike any other, the question that begs asking is what is he doing? Or to put it another way, what is the mission of the king? Turn with me to Luke 4:14-21:

Luke 4:14-21
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

So here is the mission of this king who is establishing a new kind of a kingdom: Jesus says, “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he says in verse 21, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus makes the outrageous claim that what the prophet Isaiah wrote about some 700 years ago was about him. It was about Jesus being the king. It was about this king establishing his kingdom. And at the heart of this kingdom is a radical message of justice and peace. At the heart of the message of the king is the crazy notion that he is bringing good news to people who do not deserve it. It is good news to the poor and the downtrodden, the prisoners and criminals who have done wrong, the blind and the mute, those who have been pushed to the margins of society, the oppressed. This is the gospel. This is the good news. This is the great news of the kingdom of God.

You see, the gospel is the gospel when it heals the sick and the brokenhearted. The gospel is the gospel when it sets the captives free from sin and bondage. The gospel is the gospel when the orphans, the widows, and the immigrants in our midst are loved and taken care of. The gospel is the gospel when the hungry are fed and the homeless are given shelter. The gospel is the gospel when the weak are made strong and we speak up for those who have no voice. The gospel is the gospel when the prodigals from every corner of the earth run home to the open arms of Jesus. The gospel is the gospel when the kingdom of God is ushered in not just in our church, but in our homes, in our schools, in our dorms, in our slums, in our companies, in our streets. Do you know this gospel? Are you living this gospel? Jesus is inviting us to experience the power of this gospel. Jesus is inviting us to drink deeply from the life of this gospel.

The King and His People
And in this new kind of a kingdom established by a new kind of a king, for a mission unlike any other, we see that this king is calling to himself a people unlike any other. If you were to read through the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – and you were to carefully study the words and actions of Jesus, this King Jesus, his ministry was radically oriented towards the most unlikely people. Jesus was constantly surrounded by a ragtag bunch of misfits and troublemakers, the sinners and the tax collectors, the prostitutes and the lepers. It was as if Jesus felt most at home being with people whom the world rejected. These are the people of the King. King Jesus says, “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

So we saw the identity of the king. We saw that this king is unlike any other king, who is building a kingdom unlike any other. We saw that this king’s mission was to bring a radical message, the good news, to those who have been rejected by the world, and it is out of this collection of misfits and troublemakers that he is calling to himself his people, the people of the king.

Making the Mission of the King Our Mission
So what does this all mean for us today? Here we come to the meat of what I want to talk to you about tonight. What does it mean for us today that Jesus is king? What does it mean for us today that Jesus is establishing his kingdom? What does it mean for us today that this king has a radical orientation towards those in the margins of society?

What a king demands is not merely courtesy. What a king demands is not merely nice gestures. What a king demands is not merely good answers and good behavior. But what a king demands from his people is absolute allegiance. What a king demands from his people is complete submission and surrender.

So tonight, for those of us who would call ourselves Christians, let me ask you this: When you said “Yes” to Jesus, what exactly did you say “Yes” to? When you said “Yes” to Jesus, what did you mean by that? Did you say “Yes” to King Jesus? Then the first thing that you must realize is that in the kingdom of God, the king owns everything. The king owns your time. The king owns your energy. The king owns your money. Did you say “Yes” to King Jesus? Then the king owns your passions. The king owns your attitude towards the poor and the weak. The king owns your thought life. The king owns your sex life. Did you say “Yes” to King Jesus? Then the king owns how you make decisions about your career. The king owns the agenda you set for your life. When we said “Yes” to King Jesus, at the heart of that “Yes” was the setting aside of our own mission so that we can take up the mission of the king and make it our own. When we said “Yes” to King Jesus, at the heart of that “Yes” is the prayer, “Not my will, but yours be done!”

And King Jesus says that his mission is this: “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” So how do we make this our mission?

You say, “Insoo, I am a student as OSU. I don’t really know many people who are poor.” “Insoo, I work at Starbucks so I don’t normally hang around a lot of prisoners.” “Insoo, I am a Doctor. And unfortunately, the neighborhood where I practice and where I live, I don’t see too many poor people.” How do we make the mission of the King Jesus our mission?

Well, I am not going to give you an easy out tonight. I am not going to say something easy like, “Give a few dollars to the poor.” I am not going to say something easy like, “Go spend a few hours in a prison and pray for them.” I am not going to give you an easy out tonight. Not because these are bad things. They are good things. But what is required for us to make the mission of King Jesus our mission is to not merely do the things that Jesus did, but we must also have the eyes of Jesus to see as he sees, and we must also have the heart of Jesus to feel as he feels. The actions of Jesus flowed out of deep conviction and deep passion. And it is only people who have deep convictions and deep passion that can change the world.

Discover Your Convictions and Passions
Some of you here tonight have huge convictions and huge passions. And you already know what King Jesus is asking of you. But what if you don’t? You’ve been living life following your friends around, taking the classes they are taking, majoring in the same things they are majoring in, working in the same place they are working in, so you’ve never had the opportunity to discover your convictions and your passions. Or maybe you grew up in a family where your grandfather was a lawyer, and your father was a lawyer, so the natural thing for you was to become a lawyer, so you’ve never had the opportunity to discover your convictions and your passions. And if that is you, there are two questions that you need to ask yourselves to discover your convictions and your passions:

The first question is this: What bothers you? As you look around the city, as you look around the world, what do you see that bothers you? As you look around the world, what makes your heart ache? As you look around the world, what brings tears to your eyes? As you look around the world, what pisses you off? What if that passion is not merely the result of your personality or upbringing? What if God put that there?

Maybe every time you see that commercial on TV about children dying of starvation in Africa, your eyes fill with tears and something in your heart screams for justice. What if God put that there? Maybe you see on the news a piece about a little girl who was abducted and was forced into sexual slavery, and you feel this rage rising up in you. What if God put that there? Maybe in your classroom, every time there is a discussion about immigration or maybe abortion, your heart begins to beat faster, and all you can think is, “It’s just not right!” What if God put that there?

So if you want to discover your convictions and your passions, the first question to ask yourself is this, “What bothers you?” The second question is, “What pain have you experienced in your life that God can use for his glory?”

For some of us here tonight, there may have been some painful moments and events that have largely shaped who we are today. If that is you, I believe that one of your greatest strengths can come from this place of weakness and brokenness. One of your greatest passions can flow out of that great pain you’ve experienced. And some of you have already experienced this. Your love for the poor grew out of experiencing poverty yourself as a child. Your passion for women who are going through crisis pregnancies flows out of your personal experience having gone through the same thing. Your heart for foster kids and homeless kids flows out of your experience having been adopted. I believe this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Our King Jesus can bring beauty out of pain. Our King Jesus can bring life out of suffering. Our King Jesus can cause all things to work for the good of those who love him.

So ask yourself, “As I look around the world, what is it that bothers me?” And, “What pain have I experienced in my life that God can use for his glory?”

What Now?
If that speaks to you, starting tonight, I challenge you to begin to pray for these things. And not just some vague prayer, but very specific prayer with two very specific questions: “God, I feel this passion for the children dying of starvation in Africa. God, I feel this burden for children in sexual slavery. God, I feel this passion for immigrants. God, I feel this passion for women in crisis pregnancies. What do you want me to do about it? That’s the first question. “What do you want me to do about it?” And the second question is, “God, who do you want me to do this with?” God, what do you want me to do, and who do you want me to do this with? You are asking God to give you your kingdom mission. And you are asking God to give you your kingdom team. And as God begins to bring clarity to your kingdom mission and your kingdom team, and when he says do it, may we each answer as Mary did when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your word.”

And as you do it, people are going to begin asking you why. “Why are you doing this?” “Why are you doing that?” “Why does it matter so much to you?” And at that moment, you have a choice. You can choose to honor yourself or you can choose to honor your king. It’s so easy to not to talk about Jesus, isn’t it? It’s so much easier to leave Jesus out of it, isn’t it? But here is the thing: There is much good that you and I can accomplish for the king and his kingdom. We can use our passions and our skills and our talents to do great good in this world. But the reason that you and I pray, “Let your kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is because only Jesus can bring true freedom. Only Jesus can bring true healing. Only Jesus can bring true justice. Only Jesus! Only our King Jesus! So as Paul says in Colossians 3:17:

Colossians 3:17
Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

In God’s Kingdom, everyone has a place. In God’s Kingdom, everyone has a purpose. In God’s Kingdom, everyone has an assignment.

One of my favorite people in the Bible is King David. His is an amazing story of God choosing an ordinary person for an extraordinary task. His is an amazing story of a man who said “Yes” to his King. His is a story of man, an imperfect man, a sinful man, who lived out his passion and conviction for God. His is a story of a man who understood his kingdom mission. And it says in Acts 13:36:

Acts 13:16
David served the purpose of God in his generation.

David lived to serve the purpose of God in his generation. And David died having fulfilled his God-given kingdom mission in his generation. Joshua House, may we serve our King Jesus and his mission with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. May we live as the people of King Jesus! May we serve the purpose of God in our generation!