The program, of course, brings to highlight some of the things regarding the Lord Jesus. And there's a lot of perceptions about who Christ is. And maybe it's your first time here, maybe you've been here a long time, but especially at Christmas time, we have this, if you will, this preconceived idea about who Christ is, why he came, what his purpose was. And of course, there's a whole lot of things that we're gonna go through in a very quick period of time, to describe who Christ was. Most of you have perceptions about a lot of things. Recently, if you watch the news, there's supposedly out in New Jersey, there's something flying around in the sky. How many of you have heard that? All right, the majority. And some are saying it's drones. Some are saying, who knows? Maybe it's planes, which I'm not buying. Maybe it's satellites. Who knows? When you hear about the word drones, especially knowing what's taking place in Israel and Gaza and with the different things taking place, Americans all of a sudden get this horrific picture in their mind, oh boy, Iran is watching us, they're watching our government facilities, and we get this perception about what's taking place. Now maybe you're in school, maybe you have a job, and especially during towards the end of the year a lot of folks get what are called basically a review of their work over the year and some of you are like wow you know I really had a great year and I can't wait to see my supervisor my boss and get my if you will review for the year and you walk in all excited and all of a sudden you look at the paper and it's like I had a perception I did really good this year but I'm getting all averages and not quite what I expected. Or maybe you've taken a test and it's like, man, I think I really did bad on a particular test. And you get the test results back and it's like you aced it. So we all have things, we have preconceived ideas, perceptions about things that happen in our life. We're going to look very quickly at Jesus. Again, this morning we did what I guess you could call the typical Christmas program where we look at a baby who comes and Everything revolves around a baby well, I've got one thing that's going to revolve around a baby because there's my new baby is in the back not my baby, but my Nora Christine Schmidt is here 15 days old So we got a real thing here I Now, if you're sick, stay away from my baby. No. She's just a little cutie and doing well, and I expect to hear from her sometime during the service. Anyway, but it's wonderful. Babies come. It's exciting. It brings life to everyone. And we've got several folks here that have just had babies. We've got some that are going to have some shortly. So it's an exciting time. But when you think about Jesus, we think mainly, especially during the Christmas time, about a little baby. And we kind of leave it there. It's like, oh, it's a cute little story. Jesus comes, we go to church, and we have a nice Christmas time, and we celebrate the birth of a baby, and then we go about our daily life. Well, I'm gonna shake up some of your worlds today, because we're gonna look at Jesus, that not only was he born, which of course is a miracle in itself, which we'll see, but he did not come just to be a cute little baby. He came literally, if you look up, we're going to talk about Jesus going from birth to one day being, if you will, the King of Kings. Matthew 1, verse 18, which is basically the narrative regarding what we just watched, but we're going to build on that this morning. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed, Now again, if you're not familiar with this, if you're new to the church setting, betrothed basically was a very strong legal binding engagement back in Jewish days. The couple didn't live together. They basically were committed to be married, but it was a legal contract. Just like in our day, you get married and get the legal paper. When you were betrothed, it was a legal paper. So she was betrothed to Joseph before they came together. In other words, they had no intimate relationships. She was a virgin, and she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Well, an angel had appeared to Mary, we won't go through the whole narrative, and had told Mary that basically she would be with child. The Holy Spirit would, if you will, place Jesus within her womb. Joseph had nothing to do with it. and he knew he had nothing to do with it, so he was a bit upset when he found out that she was with child. That Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. He loved Mary. He didn't want to embarrass her. He didn't want to, if you will, cause her shame in the community. So he's like, I'm just, I'm going to figure it out. We're just going to split up, but we're going to do it in as secret way as possible. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do Do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a son, which is exactly what was portrayed here this morning, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. You see, the thing about a little baby, if we get Jesus as nothing more than a little baby, which is wonderful, it's a great narrative. It's a great account to what happened. But if we simply look at Jesus as nothing more than a little baby at Christmas time, we miss the whole purpose of who Jesus is and was. What does it say? She will bring forth a son, of course speaking of Christ, and you will call his name Jesus. And what is this Jesus going to do? Well folks, he didn't do this when he was a baby, but he would do it as we're going to see. What will he do? He will save his people from their sins. May I say to you that the beginning part of the gospel story is definitely the birth of Jesus, the virgin born Jesus. But the real pinpoint, the crux of the message is that he came to save his people. He couldn't do that as a baby as we're going to see. Verse 22, so all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets saying, behold, the virgin, Never known a man, a virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. Why did God come down from heaven, take on the form of a baby and a human being? What was the purpose of that? Why did he do it? And the Bible says his name will be called Emmanuel God with us, and a little bit earlier, what is he going to accomplish? He will save us from our sin. And when they're talking about the virgin born Jesus back in the book of Isaiah, and there's over 300 prophecies that talked about what would happen at the first advent, 300, many different things that happened hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ came that were fulfilled exactly as stated. If you have a perception that Jesus is nothing more than a little baby, if you have the perception that Jesus is nothing more than a cute little child on a time when we get together on December 25th or 24th to share Christmas presents, you have a very wrong perception about who Jesus is. Well, let's pray. Father, I pray now in these last few minutes, as we open the word of God, that you'd speak to us from the Bible, that we might truly understand who Jesus is, that we might see that, yes, he came as a babe on that wonderful day when he was born, but that was just the beginning. of the greatest narrative, the greatest account ever given to mankind, that Christ Jesus came into the world, not simply to be seen as a virgin born baby, but as the one to whom would save us from our sins. Now, Father, bless our message as we quickly go through many different pieces of this, and we'll give you the glory for it in Christ's name, amen. All right, well, very quickly, we're going to be looking at one specific phrase that we're going to take through the New Testament, basically about this Jesus being the king of the Jews. And it's a very important statement that we're going to be looking at. Matthew chapter two, verse one. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born? king of the Jews. In other words, the people there, their perception was that when Jesus was born he was going to arrive and become the king. That's what they understood from the Old Testament. That's what the Jews were looking for. And quite frankly, even those that were against the Jewish people, they were looking at this Jesus. If he is truly the Messiah, he is the one that will be what? The King of the Jews. So Herod gets upset. He's concerned about his kingdom that this Jesus is going to grow up and take his spot. So he's not real happy about this so he wants to know where's this baby that's going to grow up to be the king of the Jewish people. Well when Herod the king heard this he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. They were concerned that this Jesus that they knew from the Old Testament prophets was going to come and set up his kingdom. but they had a very, very wrong perception. Verse 4, and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them, here's the issue, where the Christ, now Christ is the Greek word Christos, which basically if you went to the Hebrew counterpart, is the word Messiah. It's the one, it's the one who would come, the one that would be the king, the one that would be the savior of the world. And they wanted to know, they believed that the Christ was there, they believed the Messiah was there, but they had a total misperception about what his job was at that time. So they wanted to know, where's the Messiah? Where's this Jesus Christ going to be born? They said to him in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written by the prophet. Again, 730 some years before Christ was born, Micah in Micah chapter five verse two said this, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah in Southern Israel are not the least among the rulers of Judah for out of you shall come a what? A ruler. That is what the people were looking for. They wanted the Messiah to come. They wanted the King of Kings to come. They wanted Jesus to march in when he grew up and become the king and basically to throw the Roman government out of position. For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. So they had this perception. Jesus was coming. The Messiah was coming. The Christ was coming to do exactly this. To be the ruler of the people. But oh were they wrong. in their perception. This is a familiar passage. If you've gone to many different Christmas programs over the years, you will usually hear these two verses read. And it basically gives us a multi-thousand year look at who Jesus is. Isaiah, back again some 700 years before Jesus was born, gave this prophecy. For unto us a what? A child is born. Who's this child? That's Jesus. We're talking about the coming Jesus that will be born. The next step, one phrase, Jesus is born. That's our Christmas story. Number two, unto us a son, capital S, is given. So Jesus comes, he's born, and then of course, most of you know the account, what happens? when Jesus gets to be about 33 years of age. He's given. He's crucified. Daniel chapter 9 verse 26 said that he would be cut off, but not for himself, but for the people. Jesus came to be cut off to die for the sins of the people. That's exactly what it's saying here. For unto us a child, Jesus is born. Unto us a son, Jesus is given. Right behind me is the cross. It's a tremendous reminder that Jesus was given. But that's not what the Jewish people wanted. That's not what the Roman people expected. It wasn't what the Jewish leaders anticipated. They were looking strictly at what the next part of this verse is. All right, so we're going to jump now. There's a multiple, literally thousands of years wrapped up in this one verse. 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born. Most of you would not be in this room today if you didn't believe that Jesus was born some 2,000 years ago. You believe in it. You believe that Jesus was true and the Son of God came to this earth as was portrayed here this morning But we left it at that The cute little baby grows up for one purpose and one person purpose only and that was to do what is shown behind me on the cross Luke chapter 19 verse 10 says, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save those who are lost. What does it mean to be lost? It means to be lost in your sin. It means to be going down a pathway that leads to eternal destruction from Christ. But he came to seek and to save those of us who are lost, which is all of us. 1 Timothy 1 verse 15 says, For this is a faithful and acceptable saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's why he came. His first advent was not to become king of kings and lord of lords. It was not to set himself up as the king of the Jews. It was come as Isaiah 53 tells us as the suffering savior to come and to literally die for our sins. But let's take a look at this. Here's what the Jewish people, here's what the Romans were expecting. So unto us a child is born, Jesus unto a son is given, which they didn't get at that point, the crucifixion. Now catch the next part of the verse. Keep in mind we're talking about what everybody perceived was going to be the king of the Jews. And the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his what? Government. Now wait a second, when Jesus came, was he running for public office? I don't know. Was he elected to a public office? No. Did he take over the rulership of Jerusalem? No. Did he become the head of Rome? No. None of these things that are being spoken about now have taken place yet. So what's going to be happening, and we're gonna show you a little chart to kind of make it make sense in just a moment. We have Jesus being born, we have Jesus being crucified, and now we're jumping ahead literally thousands of years. 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born. Jesus still hasn't come down and set up his earthly kingdom, which is what this is talking about. And the government literally will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase of his what? Government. It's like, wait a minute. What does the government have to do with Jesus? What does this being king of the Jews have to do with Jesus, the cute little baby that was born in the manger and we give presents about? Well, it says of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David. If you think back to 2 Samuel, King David, the king of Israel upon the throne of David which will be in Jerusalem and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. All right now for some of you of course if you've been in church and you're familiar with the biblical narrative it's like this makes perfect sense. For some, and especially if you're not a regular church attender, you read this and it's like, wait a minute, what is this talking about? I never heard this before. We always talk about Jesus being born, we talk about the crucifixion, we talk about the resurrection, but we never ever talk about Jesus coming down and being, if you will, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Well, folks, that's the next event that's going to be taking place with Christ. From the biblical narrative, here's where we are. If you look on the far left of the screen, you'll see the birth of Jesus, which is what we are discussing this morning and what was so wonderfully done by our young people. The next major event that we know about, of course, is the crucifixion, which is where the cross is. We're currently living in what's known as the church age. It's the age of the church. It's the age of what's known as grace. Now I'm not going to get very depthy into this, but if you know the Bible, if you understand God's prophetic calendar, the next thing that's going to happen after the church age ends and God's people are taken to heaven is a seven year tribulation right here on earth, Daniel 9.27. After that seven year tribulation period, What the Jewish people thought was going to happen at the first advent is going to happen at his second advent. You see Jesus was not scheduled just to come to this earth one time. He is indeed scheduled to come here again as we saw in Isaiah chapter 9. Jesus is coming again to do exactly what the Jewish people fought, to do exactly what Isaiah 9, 6, and 7 said, which is to set up his earthly kingdom on this earth, where he will indeed be the King of kings and Lord of lords. So after a period of time, after, again, the church age and the seven-year tribulation period, over and over and over again the Bible talks about Jesus coming to set up his kingdom on earth where the government will literally be on his shoulders. It's a marvelous thing. So when we're looking at this king of the Jews, when we're looking at the misperception of the Jewish people and the Roman people, and many of the folks that were just the commoners, if you will, they were looking for the king to come the first time, but they were so wrong. Their perception was so off. Well, let's look at the issue regarding this king of the Jews who will be the future king. Mark chapter 15, immediately in the morning, The chief priest, now Jesus has grown up. He's in his 30s now. The chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. We're talking about the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. And they bound Jesus. Wait a minute. The Jewish people were looking for Jesus to become the king, the king of the Jews. The Romans were looking for this predicted one in scripture to become the king of the Jews. But yet what happens? The council gets together, the Jewish leadership gets together, they find Jesus, they bind him, and they deliver him to the Roman government or to Pilate. Now Pilate again had a little bit of understanding about scripture and here's what he said. Then Pilate asked him, he's speaking to Jesus, he's thinking he's talking to this one who is to be the king of the Jews. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered him, it is as you say. Now his kingdom was not of this earth. It had not been put on this earth at this time. But Pilate understood something about Jesus. He understood a little bit about the prophetic picture. He understood a little bit from what the Jewish people were saying, that this Jesus is one who has this title, the King of the Jews. Well, Pilate was not happy that Jesus was in his presence. He wanted to get rid of him. He wanted to literally, as you know, wash his hands of Jesus. He didn't feel good about him being in his custody. So at the Passover, Pilate was accustomed to releasing a prisoner to them, whomever they requested. the Jewish people basically. And there's one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in the rebellion. Then the multitude crying aloud began to ask him to do justice he had always done for them. But Pilate answered them saying they wanted Jesus crucified. They wanted Barabbas to be free. They didn't want this Jesus to be set free because they thought he was a false prophet. Their perception was wrong. Mark chapter 15 verse 9 it says, but Pilate answered them saying, he's talking to the people, he can't find any fault with Jesus. And what does he say? Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? The perception is still there. He's the king of the Jews. Why should he be in custody? Why do you want me to treat him poorly? He's your king. For he knew that the chief priests, being the Jewish leadership, had handed him, Jesus, over because of envy. This Jesus was getting too much attention. The chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they were all upset because this Jesus was getting too much attention. Well, he'd done miracles. He'd raised people from the dead. He was healing people. He was casting out demons. There was nothing the Jewish leadership could do. So they were envious of him. They wanted him done away with. Verse 11, but the chief priest stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Well, Pilate answered and said to them again, what then do you want me to do with him whom you call the king of the Jews? There it is again. So they cried out again, crucify him, kill him. We want nothing to do with him. Get rid of him, Pilate, take him away. Was their perception wrong? Oh, they were so wrong. Because now they were inciting Pilate. They were inciting the Roman government. The Jewish people had no authority to kill anyone. So they go to the Roman government and say, listen, this guy's a blasphemer. This individual is not who he says he is. He's a false prophet. He's not the true Christ. Kill him. Pilate tried to wash his hands of him. So they cried out again, crucify him. Then Pilate said to them, why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, crucify him, kill him, get rid of him. So Pilate, wanting to do what? Gratify the crowd. Gratify the crowd. Let me ask you a question. When you're at work, when you're at school, when you're in your community, even maybe when you're with your family, And the name Jesus pops up. It's like, ooh, I don't know if we want to talk about Jesus. Jesus is can be embarrassing. Jesus can be controversial. Jesus can be something that we just don't want to talk about because it's too sensitive. And and we want to gratify the people that we're with. And we don't want to be thought of as weird or goofy or Bible thumpers or we're all Christians. And it's like we sometimes want to gratify the crowd. And it's like, let's just kind of put let's leave this Jesus thing alone. It's too controversial. I don't want to touch that, especially with my friends or my family. They might think weird of me. Well, Pilate was the same way. Here's the leadership in the government. And he said, boy, I don't want to be thought of badly by the people. I don't want them to go to Caesar and tell them that I'm not a player. And he's like, I gotta gratify the people. So Pilate said, listen, I wanna gratify the crowd. So he releases this murderer Barabbas to the Jewish people. And he delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified. Now, when we're talking about scourging, we're talking about what was known as the Roman catenine tales. And I don't want to get graphic. Many of you may have seen the movie The Passion, which is very graphic. Shards of glass, metal tied onto the ends of leather straps. And 39 times, the big giant Romans would take it and slash it through the backs and the sides of individuals. And many individuals wouldn't survive that. Jesus was scourged. Why would you scourge somebody that you found no fault in them? Why would you deliver him over to the Jewish people to be crucified? Well, I will tell you the real reason, to fulfill prophecy. The punishment of Jesus then takes place. Now to the Romans it was punishment, to the Jewish people it was punishment, but their perception was so wrong. The reason Jesus went to the cross was to fulfill prophecy. The reason Jesus went to the cross was because he had to go, not because the Romans and the Jewish government said he needed to go there. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and the only way that that could be accomplished was for him to die for the sins of the people. Mark 15, 17, and they clothed him, Jesus, with purple, and they twisted a crown of thorn put it on his head and began to salute him. Hail, here it is again, King of the Jews in mockery. And began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews. Their perception was so wrong. One day Jesus will be the King of the Jews as well as the Gentiles in the millennial kingdom. Then they struck him on the head with a reed and spat on him and bowing the knee, they worshiped him falsely. And when they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, put his own clothes on him, and they led him out to do what? Crucify him. Jesus, the sweet baby. Jesus, the cute, sweet baby. loving baby Mary, the virgin who bore this beautiful baby Jesus, who then grows up to do one thing, which is to be scourged, which is to be mocked, which is to be beaten, which is to be crucified. Why did he do it? And they brought Jesus to the place Golgotha, which is translated the place of a skull. If you go to Israel, there's a particular place that they believe is Golgotha, right or wrong, and you look at it and it's a big giant, looks like a face on it. I don't know that that is at the exact spot, but Golgotha, literally the mountain, if you will, looked like a skull. And there Jesus, along with two others, was crucified, the punishment of Christ, the one who would be the future king. Well the proclamation about Jesus, then they crucified him and divided his garments casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken again by the prophets over some hundreds and hundreds of years before it was to take place. They crucified him, divided his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by the prophet. They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Folks, if you've, again, if you're not familiar with the biblical narrative, we've gone through three major prophecies that were filled exactly as God said they would be. They came to pass. Now we could go through 300, but I think you don't wanna stay here all day and go through all 300. If by the way, if you got a copy of the book as a visitor in the back, all of those prophecies are listed back there in the appendix. You can go through them. It's just absolutely amazing. God's word comes to fruition 100% of the time, including Jesus is on the cross and they're doing a lottery to get his clothes just as was predicted in Psalm 22. Sitting down, they kept watch over him there. and they put up over his head the accusation written. Check it out again. This is Jesus. Who? The King of the Jews. Look at him. The King of the Jews. He's on the cross. That little sweet baby is now on the cross because he's a fake. He's not the true Christ. He's not the true Messiah. If he were, he would set up his kingdom on earth, but he's not doing it. Oh, were they so wrong in their perceptions? You see, indeed, Jesus is to be the king. He is going to be the king of the Jews and the king of the Gentiles during what's known as that millennial kingdom. Revelation chapter 19 tells us that Jesus Christ is coming back. He's coming back. You say, really? I never heard that before. Well, most of you have. Jesus is going to come back with his saints. and he's going to come down to this earth. There's going to be a big major battle, which many of you have heard about in the news, they use it improperly, called the Battle of Armageddon, the great apocalypse. You'll hear the media talk about, oh, Armageddon is coming. Well, Armageddon is coming, but not according to what the news media calls it. Revelation 16, 16, the Bible says that Jesus will come back. All those who are against him will indeed be killed at that time, and he will walk into Jerusalem, build the fourth temple, and take his place as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He's coming again. The presentation of Jesus. Now we're going to close with this last thought here. Let's think now. I've given you a lot of material very quickly. I've given you a lot of Bible very quickly. And I want us to go back now and think about what you watched this morning. The sweet little baby Jesus. Mary is there. Joseph is there. The angels were there. The shepherds were there. Who is this Jesus? But you, O man of God, and he goes through multiple things, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Did you catch that? Lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing. Wait a minute. This was written towards the end of the Apostle Paul's life. We're talking well after the death, burial, and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. And he's now saying, which he, Jesus, will manifest in his own time, he who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality dwelling in inapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power, amen. All right, let's see if we can pull this together. Simple question. And I want you to really think, please think for just a couple minutes here. If you're to die right now, if something happened, you were to breathe your last breath and it's over, it's done. The next thing you know, the medical examiner is here taking your body to the morgue and you're gone. They have your body, but where are you? Where's your soul? Where's your spirit? If you were to die this very moment, do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, not because, well, I think, well, maybe, well, you know, my perception is, do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you were to die that you'd go to heaven immediately at the point of death? Many of you do know that. But I can guarantee there's some sitting here right now, you have no idea where you're gonna go when you die. You're hoping. You're like, I've tried to be a good person. I've tried to do the best things. Listen, I showed up at Union Grove Baptist Church. That should be enough to get me to heaven. Nope, not even close. You see, the only way to have eternal life is what was portrayed here, if you could, when the little family was speaking. is to understand who Jesus is. He didn't just come as a little baby to be cuddled and to give presents and to have cute little things done. You see, Jesus came to do one thing, and that was to die on that cross for our sins. The King of the Jews hadn't arrived yet. That's coming in the future. That's coming during what's known as the Millennial Kingdom. That's still future. It hasn't even happened yet. Who is Jesus to you? Is He simply a little baby? Is He simply a little cute thing that we look at during Christmas time or is he indeed the king? You see God tells us in the future and I'm going to show it to you so you know that what I'm saying is from the Bible. There's coming a day in the future and here's what the Bible says. Now I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war. We're talking about the second coming of Jesus where he will be the king of kings. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, that includes all Christians that will be have been translated to heaven, all Old Testament saints, all tribulation saints. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, here it is, King of what? King of kings and Lord of lords. My friend, Jesus is not dead. Jesus has not died once and been buried and it's over. Jesus died. He was resurrected. That is the gospel, the death, bill, and resurrection of Jesus. And God makes it very clear. The Jews thought this was going to happen at his first advent. The Romans thought this was going to happen at his first advent. Wrong perception. They were totally wrong. Jesus came to give his life. to pay for your sins. Jesus came to give his life so that you might have eternal life. Jesus came so that you have no doubt about where you're going the day you breathe your last breath. Because the Bible says, for God so what? Loved the world, that's each one of us, that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believes in him, in his what? His death, burial, and resurrection, should not perish or go to hell, but have everlasting life, You see, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is indeed coming. And there's the verses, for God so loved the world, that's you, that's you. He loves you. That's why he came, because he loves you. For God so loved the world that he, what? He gave his only begotten son, that's Jesus. How did he give him? Through his death, burial and resurrection. And here's the promise. Do you think God's gonna lie to you? God doesn't lie. We talked about multiple prophecies that came through just as Jesus said, just as God said, just as the prophet said. Here's your promise. Whoever believes in him should not perish or go to hell, but have everlasting life. Now catch these next two verses, which we often don't recite. For God did not send his son Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be what? Saved. What does it mean to be saved? You say, well, I was in a car accident and God brought me through the car accident and saved me. It's not what it's talking about. Well, I could have died of cancer, but God healed me, so I was saved. It's not what it's talking about. He's talking about you're saved from sin and the penalty of sin. When you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you are saved from the penalty of sin, which is eternal separation from God for eternity. There's a real tough verse in Revelation 21, eight that makes it very clear that all people that don't come to Jesus will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Folks, God did not and does not want any of you to go through that. Here it is, for he, verse 18, he who believes in him and what in Jesus is not condemned. Are you condemned this morning? Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt when you breathe your last, do you stand condemned or do you stand forgiven? He who believes in Jesus is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. If you're a Christian here this morning, It's a great morning. It's a great day to rejoice and say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you for what you've done in my life. Thank you for changing me. Thank you for promising eternal life. Thank you for the Christmas time when we remember who Jesus is, when we get together with our families and we remember the birth of Christ and we exchange gifts because Jesus gave the greatest gift of all when he gave his life for our sins. And you should be thankful this morning and rejoicing. For those right now, and we're going to close with this. I've tried to make it as clear as possible. Why did Jesus come? Let's not have a false perception right now. Jesus came to die for your sins. That's why the little baby came. That's why he grew up. That's why he was put on the cross, not to be the king of the Jews at his first advent, but be the savior of your soul. Four quick things. One, Bible says we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, we're all sinners. Second thing the Bible says, because I've sinned, because you've sinned, if we got what we deserved, the Bible says we'd spend forever in that eternal place called the Lake of Fire, Revelation 21.8. But the good news is, as was portrayed this morning, and was so well done by the young people, that Christ Jesus came down from heaven, the Son of God, went to the cross, suffered as no man ever suffered, had all of our sins placed on his back. He was crucified, but that's not the end of the story. He was crucified, he was buried, and three days later rose from the dead, proving he was God. And now you say, what must I do to get to heaven? Last two verses, Ephesians 2, 8, 9. The Bible says, for by grace, God's free unmerited gift, for by grace are you, there's this word again, saved. Saved from sin, saved from the penalty of sin. For by grace are you saved through faith. Faith, I thought I had to work my way to heaven. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is the gift, the gift, Christmas gifts, it's a gift. And Jesus said, I got the best Christmas gift I can possibly give. I gave my life so that if you put your faith in me, you can go to heaven. For by grace are you saved through faith. It's not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works. lest any person should boast. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. If you've never put your faith in Jesus, how about doing it this morning? Whether you've been here one time or a thousand times, if you've never put your faith in Jesus, let's seal the deal this morning. Father, thank you for your love for us. Thank you for the word of God. Thank you for the wonderful presentation that reminded us of the wonderful virgin birth of Jesus. Jesus couldn't have a father or he would have had sin in his life. As the Bible tells us, sin is transferred through the male. But Jesus, the perfectly born, sinless, perfect human being, not only human, but God himself, came down from heaven, went to the cross, died on it, was buried, and three days later rose again. If you're here this morning, is the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart right now? Is he knocking on your heart's door? There's a Holy Spirit saying, listen, he gave you exactly what's in the Bible. It's not a false perception. It's exactly what's written in the word of God. It's from the Bible. It's true. If you're here this morning, maybe watching on the internet, would you receive that free gift this morning? You say, well, how do I receive it? The Bible said it's by faith. It's by faith. You can't do anything to earn it. It's by faith. Will you receive that free gift this morning? You say, I wanna go to heaven with all my heart. I do want that free gift of eternal life. I do want the assurance that when I breathe my last, I'll go to heaven. Then right there where you are, receive that free gift. Are you doing it? You say, how do I do it? Just receive it by faith. Believe on Jesus Christ, believe on his burial and resurrection and receive that free gift right there where you are. If that's you this morning, I'm gonna say a little prayer the prayer won't take you to heaven, but the prayer was simply a prayer of Thanksgiving Saying yes, I am receiving that free gift this morning If that's you this morning and you're receiving the free gift of eternal life Maybe you want to pray silently this little prayer of Thanksgiving right now Dear God I Knew this morning when I came into the church or when I turned on this show this morning. I knew that I was a sinner And quite frankly, I have no assurance. I had no assurance that if I died, I'd go to heaven. But this morning, it finally makes sense from the Bible that Jesus came down from heaven, died on the cross for my sins, was buried, and three days later rose from the dead. And this morning, I'm receiving that free gift according to the Bible. I'm receiving the free gift of eternal life by placing my faith in Jesus and Jesus