Jesus the King Is Born: Stop Faking It

Introduction

Second week of Advent. The preacher tells about a scene he came across recently in a shopping mall : between two luxury stores, someone had set up a life-size nativity scene. One couple stopped for a moment. Everyone else ? They walked past it the way you walk past a window display you see every day. Nothing special. Keep moving.

And yet, he says, that's exactly the picture of the first Christmas : activity everywhere, one lowly stable, one birth, and hardly anyone there to notice it. So this message invites you to go back. Not to the manger just yet : to a king. An unfaithful king, whose story shows why Jesus had to be born, and above all why he had to be born this way.

Message outline

1. A king from a believing family : who goes off the rails

• The preacher opens to 2 Chronicles 28. "Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn't do that which was right in Yahweh's eyes, like David his father." (2 Chronicles 28:1)
• Ahaz isn't an accident : his grandfather Uzziah had tremendous faith (before pride caught up with him), and his father Jotham is presented as a righteous king, a man of action, a man of faith. Ahaz comes from a believing family. And yet he goes off the rails.
• What does he do ? He casts metal images for the Baals. He burns incense in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. He makes his sons pass through the fire, the human sacrifices of the nations Yahweh had driven out before Israel (2 Chronicles 28:2-3). This "incense" isn't aromatherapy : it's pagan worship, with its rites of idolatry on the high places, on the hills, under every green tree.
• The text doesn't say why Ahaz turns away. The preacher offers a human hypothesis : his twenties. You have your health, less parental authority, the illusion of being free, of "doing whatever you want." Some of us know that thought well. Normally, the consequences of our bad decisions teach us that limits exist. But Ahaz "seems to be one of those people who never got the memo."

2. We reap what we sow : and we break a covenant

• The immediate result : "Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria" (2 Chronicles 28:5). Then into the hand of the kingdom of Israel, which inflicts a great defeat on him. Edomites, Philistines : everyone invades Judah, carries off captives, seizes the cities of the lowland and the Negev (v. 17-18).
• Two things happen at once. The first is simple, we all know it : we reap what we sow. If you run your life into chaos, chaos is what comes back to you.
• The second is more subtle : Ahaz and his kingdom are bound to God by a covenant. A covenant isn't a contract you cancel in January. It's a commitment forever, sealed with God, that only death can end. In that covenant, "the righteous will live by faith", and the king, in particular, was supposed to copy out the entire Law by his own hand and read it every day, precisely so he'd never end up in a situation like this.
• When the king betrays the covenant, it isn't "fine, we'll work something out, we'll pay some tribute." God withdraws. And where God withdraws, strength withdraws too. The preacher's image : it's "the gas in the car." Without it, the body of the car isn't much use. That's why small nations nearby suddenly overrun Judah as if Andorra, Monaco, and Luxembourg had invaded France and won. On paper, it's absurd. Spiritually, it makes perfect sense.

3. Ahaz's reflex : calling the wrong superpower

• What does Ahaz do ? Instead of returning to God (opening the Law he should have been copying out every day), he looks for help elsewhere. He sends to ask for aid "from the king of Assyria" (2 Chronicles 28:16), the superpower of his day.
• The result ? Assyria takes his money… and turns against him. The preacher's translation : picture a nation in the middle of a crisis calling on a rival superpower for help. You gather up a great deal of money, hand it over, say a nice thank-you, and then find yourself with a brand-new problem in your living room. That's Ahaz's situation.
• This scene may speak to you. When everything falls apart, who do you reach for first ? The superpower of the moment (a credit card, an algorithm, a network, an addiction, a toxic relationship), or the One you're in covenant with ?

4. God offers a sign : Ahaz fakes it

• This is where Isaiah 7 comes in. Despite our unfaithfulness, the preacher says, God remains a God of compassion. His "everyday" quality isn't judgment (he will judge one day, because he is just), it's grace. "He wants to lift up, not tear down."
• So God takes the initiative. "Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 'Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.'" (Isaiah 7:10-11) God sees that Ahaz is in trouble. He tells him : I can help you, and because I know you're fragile, ask me for a sign (any sign), so you can trust me.
• Ahaz hesitates… then answers in a very pious tone : "I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh." (Isaiah 7:12) The preacher's translation : he's faking it. He plays the spiritual card so as not to "bother" God, when everyone knows exactly who he is and what he's just done.
• And that's when Isaiah delivers one of the strongest lines in the Old Testament : "Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?" (Isaiah 7:13) In other words : you've already worn out everyone else's patience around you, and now you want to test God's too?
• This is an invitation. A moment where Ahaz could leave it all behind, receive the help he needs, turn the page. But "he's so deep in his own game that he can't." Like an addict who can't stop anymore : he just keeps going, keeps going.

5. The sign given anyway : the virgin will conceive

• God's answer : "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14)
• The preacher pauses on the Hebrew word almah : literally, "a young woman not yet married." In the Hebrew culture of that time, it was unthinkable for an unmarried woman to have relations. That's why, when this sentence was translated into Greek several centuries before Jesus Christ, in the Septuagint, the Jewish translators themselves chose a precise word : parthenos, "virgin." No other translation was possible. Virgin, plain and simple.
• Why that choice ? Because that's exactly the point God wants to make. "We need a king who isn't like us." We need a miracle. We need a king we can truly call God with us, because he will truly be God with us.
• The preacher heads off the modern objection : people 2,000 years ago weren't ignorant of how babies are made. They knew perfectly well. As C. S. Lewis put it, a miracle is always the exception to ordinary life. That's precisely the point. This couldn't happen in the normal course of things : it's God's intervention. A sign that can only come from him.

6. A child is born to us : the royalty foretold

• The prophecy doesn't stop at chapter 7. Two chapters later, Isaiah 9:6-7 spells it out : "For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David's throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this."
• "That's why it had to be a virgin," the preacher comments. Because Isaiah 9:6 says very clearly that the one who has just been born is God. But how can God be born, unless he takes on our humanity himself ? An ordinary man is too weak (through his sin, through his passions), to reign forever. God had to intervene sovereignly to declare that he reigns.
• What's both beautiful and tragic is that Ahaz had, at every moment, the chance to turn back. He never took it. But what Ahaz couldn't do, the Son does, truly, wonderfully.

7. A change of CEO : Jesus is the King we need

• The preacher's picture for anyone who likes finance : imagine a great company on the brink of bankruptcy, and an offer comes in from a rival, and it gets bought out. Picture how differently history would have gone if that other company had taken over instead. The whole story would have turned out differently. What was needed was a change of CEO.
• That's exactly what God has been offering since Advent began : a change of CEO. Ahaz, Uzziah, Jotham : none of them is enough. "Jesus is the King we need."
• Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy that counts the generations in groups of three : fourteen from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, fourteen from Babylon to Christ (Matthew 1:17). The preacher admits that, honestly, genealogies are usually the part "we skip." But this week, he stopped to look.
• Two sets of seven is the number of double perfection. From Abraham to David : perfection. From David to Babylon : perfection, but in judgment, because the kings failed to keep the covenant. From Babylon to Christ : fourteen more generations, all the way to deliverance. The point isn't to pull out a calculator and check the math. The point is that God is speaking to us and declaring : Jesus came at the perfect moment to set us free.
• "Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son. They shall call his name Immanuel'; which is, being interpreted, 'God with us.'" (Matthew 1:22-23) God the Son, Immanuel, came at the perfect moment in history to reign and to save.

8. Stepping down from the throne of your heart

• To close, the preacher makes it practical. "Jesus is the hope of every Ahaz in this world, in spite of us. Jesus is the hope of every Hezekiah who's doing their best in this world, but who knows deep down that it isn't enough."
• He brings up Martin Luther. The reformer carried around a deep, constant sense of guilt everywhere he went. He studied hard : it wasn't enough. He climbed the steps of a basilica in Rome on his bare knees, until they bled, to "do penance" : still not enough. In the end he had to step down from the throne of his own heart too, and receive this truth, it's God who makes us righteous, not ourselves. That's what changed the course of history.
• To receive life, you have to step down from the throne of your own life. That "bad king" ruling inside us has to give way. Jesus takes our weakness, our failures, our sins (nails them to the cross), and simply asks us to come and receive his grace.
• Christmas is the announcement of the Gospel. It's the incarnation of the King of Israel, the King of the world, the King foretold since the beginning of time who now calls the world to come to him. He is gentle. He is sovereign. He can lead you even through every complexity of your life. But you have to step down from your throne, place your trust in him, without faking it, without trying his patience, because he is King.

Key takeaways

• You can come from a believing family (Ahaz had Uzziah and Jotham for a lineage) and still go off the rails. Faith isn't inherited automatically : it has to be taken hold of personally.
• Breaking covenant with God is never neutral. Where God withdraws, strength withdraws too : it's the gas in the car. Many of our "lopsided defeats" are explained on the spiritual level before the material one.
• When everything falls apart, our reflex is to call on the superpower of the moment (Assyria back then, money/algorithms/toxic relationships today). It always ends up turning against us. Only the covenant with God holds.
• God takes the initiative. He even offers a sign to an unworthy king. Pretending to be too pious to "bother" God is just another way of running from him. "Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men?"
• We needed a King who isn't like us. Mary's virginity isn't a decorative detail : it's God's signature, a miracle that could only come from him, proving that the Child is God with us.
• Jesus came at the perfect moment in history to reign and to save. To receive his life, we have to step down from the throne of our own.

Personal application

1. Where in your life are you acting like Ahaz today, "faking it" piously so you don't actually let God intervene?
2. What "superpower" (a person, a human resource, an addiction, a bank account) do you tend to call before God when everything falls apart? What would happen if you called on God first this week?
3. Is there an area where you know you're "deep in your own game," like an addict who can't stop, and where God is inviting you to stop right now, receive his help, and turn the page?
4. Are you more of an "Ahaz" (someone living in spite of God) or a "Hezekiah" (someone doing their best but knowing deep down it isn't enough)? Either way, Jesus is your hope. What do you want to offer him this Advent?
5. What "throne" in your heart is Jesus asking you to step down from today, so he can truly take his place as King?

Verses cited

• 2 Chronicles 28 · Ahaz's reign, his idolatry, and his successive defeats.
• Isaiah 7:10-14 · God offers Ahaz a sign; the promise of Immanuel.
• Isaiah 9:6-7 · "A child is born to us… Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
• Matthew 1:17 · The 14 generations, three times over, down to Christ.
• Matthew 1:22-23 · Fulfillment : the virgin, Immanuel, "God with us."
• John 3:16 · "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son."

FAQ

Why is Jesus' birth announced through the story of an unfaithful king like Ahaz?

Because the promise of Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14) is given precisely to this unworthy king, who even refuses the sign God offers him. It underscores that Jesus' coming doesn't depend on our merit, but on God's faithfulness to his covenant. As the preacher puts it : "Jesus is the hope of every Ahaz in this world, in spite of us."

Does the Hebrew word almah really mean "virgin"?

It literally refers to a young woman not yet married. In the Hebrew culture of that era, it was unthinkable for an unmarried woman to have relations. That's why the Septuagint, the Greek Jewish translation made several centuries before Jesus Christ, chose the word parthenos, which unambiguously means "virgin." Matthew 1:22-23 picks up precisely this reading to point to its fulfillment in Mary.

What does it actually mean to "step down from the throne of your heart"?

It means recognizing that you can't save yourself, not through your own effort, not through your "education," not through works of penance, as Luther discovered the hard way. It means letting Jesus take the king's place in your life : handing him your weaknesses, your failures, your sins, and receiving his grace without playing at false piety. It's the "change of CEO" the preacher talks about.