King Forever
Transcript
Good morning. So this presidential run has been very contentious. I don't know if y'all have picked up on that. But both conventions seem like they might would go into contested conventions. People showed up at the Democratic National Convention with Bernie supporters showed up and protested at the Republican one. Ted Cruz got booed off stage because he wouldn't endorse Trump.
People started chanting and yelling at him and booing. And it's just been it's been heated. And there's been a lot of angst over this this election. And I think it's going to get worse. I don't know if y'all picked up on that. I think it's going to get worse as we get closer to time.
Here's what happens to me every time there's a there's a presidential election. And every time this goes on, like it reveals something in my heart. I want so badly. I really, really want to believe the stuff they say. Like I want to believe that someone knows what the problem is and is actually going to come fix it. I want to believe that one of the candidates is a is a hero.
One of the candidates is going to come along and and actually accomplish like they're going to go into the White House and make things good or keep things good and defend us. And like I want so badly to believe all the promises that are made every time. Like I really want to believe it. Like I have to I find myself really longing for this stuff to be true. I think that's why people get so bitter, so frustrated. It's not that they don't think they don't think anybody can fix it.
They just start believing that these candidates can't somebody could have, but they're not here to do it. These can't. That's why people immediately start talking about Trump and Clinton. You're going to you're going to raise hopes and blood pressure like that. That's what happens. Like on either side, there's this desire and there's something in us that desires to have a good leader like we're supposed to.
And it's in anything like we're we're we're desire. We long for a good leader, someone to come along and help and to lead and to to to make good decisions on our behalf. Like we we long for this and it it doesn't matter. It could be at work. Having a good boss or having a bad boss makes a big difference. On its team, having a good coach or a bad coach makes a big difference.
Good teacher, bad teacher. Like it makes a difference. Just take a second. I think as I watch the presidential election stuff, I start realizing this isn't just in me. It's not just in me that wants this to be true. It's not just in me that somehow believes that there is a person who could show up and fix things.
Like I think we all kind of there's a there's a belief that somebody could. But take a second. And I just want you to think about somebody who's been a good leader in your life. Could be a parent. Could be a coach. Could be a teacher.
Could be a grandparent. Somebody who made a difference in leading well on your behalf that you just got to kind of follow. You just got to submit to. You just got to follow their leadership and you could trust them. When they made a call, it was it was for your good. When they made a decision, it was for your good.
You knew they were on. They were leading on your behalf. Maybe it was a boss. It was just easy to work for. See, as we're talking through our covenant series, as we're looking at the promises God makes, basically where he bends over and and makes a promise to humanity. He's he kneels and stoops to to promise something to people saying, holding himself accountable to I'm going to fulfill this.
He's given us his own Job description. One of the promises he makes is about a king. He makes a promise about a leader who's going to lead on behalf of others. And so that's what we're looking at today. We're looking at the promise made the covenant made. To David.
Of a king. So let's go to second Samuel chapter seven. Second Samuel chapter seven. And we're going to look at what this promise is. And then we're going to spend a little bit of time today just asking, talking about if this is true, if this promise is fulfilled, if this is real and we actually believe this, how does that intersect with our lives? Like, how does that affect us personally?
So we're going to look at the promise. We're going to talk a little bit about it and what it means. And then we're going to talk about how does that actually affect me when I leave? I go to work when I go to school. How does that affect me? Let's pray.
Let's pray real quick. God, we thank you that you're good. That we can trust you. We thank you, God, that as we all long for good leaders, as we celebrate good leaders, God, I'm just thankful that one of your promises is of a leader, that you promise to step into that void and you hold yourself accountable to keep your promise. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Okay, so here's what we've been looking at all along. We've been talking about everything was good in the Garden of Eden, but humanity rebelled. The fall happened. Sin happened. And so there was this big gap between us and God.
The relationship wasn't good anymore. We couldn't be in Eden anymore. We couldn't be in God's presence anymore. And it was a disaster of cosmic proportions. God in the garden promises the serpent that he will not win. He basically tells the serpent, this isn't going to be the end of the story.
You're not going to win. There's going to be someone who comes along and crushes you. Then God promises Noah, I won't destroy the earth with a flood again. He didn't say anything about other methods. He just says, not a flood. And he promises not just Noah, but everything.
So that promise is made to like all of creation. So the trees and the bullfrogs, they all get that promise as well. Then he comes and talks to Abraham and he says, I'm going to make you into a people and I'm going to give you a place and you're going to be in my presence. And then through Moses, he continues that promise and accomplishes it. So Moses and Joshua get to the promised land.
Moses gets right to the edge of it. Joshua gets to go in. And so God now has his people in his presence, in his place. That's kind of where we left off this past week. He's rebuilding us back up to what we had in Eden, but we saw that we're kind of still far away from that. And here's what happens.
The people eventually ask for a king. And in Deuteronomy 17, prior to them having a king, it says when you get in the land, you're going to want a king. And here are the rules for kings. So he knew they were going to get a king. He knew they were going to ask for a king. It actually says you're going to look around and say that everybody else has a king and you're going to want one.
Well, the other nations have a king. I know you're going to want one. You're going to ask for one as soon as you see that everybody else has a king and you don't. You can have one. Here are the rules. I get to pick who it is.
That's Deuteronomy 17. I get to pick who the king is. And then there were a handful of rules for kings. First three were this. The king cannot have too many horses. All right.
Second rule. Cannot have too many wives. Can't have a bunch of wives. Third rule. Can't pile up too much silver and gold. Okay.
Those seem like kind of odd rules. Like when kings get together and they talk about why they became a king. I think these are like some of the reasons. It's like when there's a king convention. It's like, man, what do you like best about being a king? The women.
What do you like best? The money. Third king's like, I like horses. Good. No, but here's the reason those three rules exist. Here's what he was attacking in that.
When he was putting guardrails around. The point of being a king. Like if you became a king. The reason you liked being a king was. Horses just meant power. It meant the ability to have chariots.
It meant the ability to have cavalry. Like it's when they listed out battles. They would talk about how many chariots they had. How many horses they had. Because that made a big difference in your ability to have power. To move quickly.
To send troops around. And so when he says, you can't have too many horses. What he's saying is the point of you being king is not power. It's not war. It's not your own greatness. You can't have too many wives.
The point of you being king is not your own comfort. Your own prestige. You can't have too much money. The point of you being king is not to gather wealth. To live a life of luxury. So he says those three rules are the rules for kings.
And the fourth one is this. They're going to make a handwritten copy. Which was the only type of copy they could have back then. Just so you know. They're supposed to make their own copy of the law. The king is.
He's going to sit down. He's going to copy the law. And he's going to have a priest basically say, yes, this is an acceptable copy of the law. And he's supposed to read it all the days of his life. So the king can't chase after power, pleasure, wealth.
He's supposed to know the covenant. Know the law inside and out. Because the purpose of the king was to lead his people in faithfulness to the covenant. That's the purpose of the king. And that's how it, if you read through 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. What you see is the king was the front runner for are we doing okay or are we not doing okay as a nation?
That's what the king did. He was, everything rose and fell on the king. Like if he was a good king, it was a good time. If he was a bad king, it was a bad time. They would all start off with this. This person died and this person became king.
And he was a good king because, it wouldn't say because he was really wealthy or because he warred well. What it would say was because he followed after God. Or it would say this person was a bad king because he did not follow after God. And the kings would either lead the people to worshiping idols, to chasing after sin. Or they would lead the people to faithfulness to the covenant. That's important because when God promises a king, what he's promising is a leader who leads in covenant faithfulness.
We've got to understand what a king did, what the role of a king was, so we can understand what this promise was. So, if it was a good king, things went well. If it was a bad king, things went poorly because they make decisions on behalf of the people. So, like when your boss is, I don't know, an idiot. And they make terrible decisions. They make decisions on behalf of all their employees.
When your dad made a bad decision. When you're, when, one of the reasons we freak out about the president is because they get to make decisions that affect us. So, we care. Preferably, the president wouldn't be a moron. Like, if I got to vote, that's what my vote would be. Like, not a moron.
It's like one of the first things. Because they make decisions on our behalf. And so, the king makes decisions, leads on behalf of the people, and sets the tone for what this is going to be like. Alright. You understand what a king does? 2 Samuel chapter 7.
Now, when the king, that's David. So, there's been two kings. Sorry. Saul, they asked for a king. They got Saul. Saul was a pretty good king for a little while.
Then he kind of got off. Like, he wasn't following God the way he was supposed to. So, God anoints David to be king. And eventually, David is king. And we're picking up with David, the king. Who's like the high water Mark for all the kings.
If you got a king action figure in the nation of Israel, you wanted the king David. Like, he was the best trading card, whatever. Alright. Now, when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. Okay.
So, David built a castle, a house. And he looks and realizes that the ark of the covenant that has the tablets, has some of the other Aaron staff, some other things, in the ark of the covenant that represented the presence of God, it's still in the tabernacle. It's in a tent that moves around. And so he says, I'm in a house. God's in a tent. Now, he would have understood that God didn't, like, wasn't just limited by the tent, but he's basically saying, like, it feels weird for my stuff to be nicer than God's stuff.
Like, I feel uncomfortable now. Like, my house is nice, but we need to do something about this, but God can't just be in a tent. So he's basically saying, I want to build a house for God. Like, I want to make, we're in a place now. We're not moving all around. We have a capital.
Let's build a house for God. And Nathan says, Nathan's the prophet. Nathan says, go for it, man. So it's going pretty well so far? Four. But, okay, that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan.
Go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord. Would you build me a house to dwell in? Okay, so if you're Nathan, this dream vision didn't start off super well. I don't know what happened. Nathan's a prophet, so he speaks on behalf of God.
David asks him, like, says, hey, I want to build a house for God. Nathan's response is, go for it. And then Nathan goes to sleep, and God's like, what? So I don't know if Nathan didn't ask, if he just, I don't know how that works. Like, I know this happens to me, but I would have just thought it didn't happen to Nathan. Like, people ask me stuff, and I'll just be like, here's an answer.
And then later I'll, like, think, and pray, and read the Bible, and then have to come back and be like, remember what I said? I want to redact it. I want to say something helpful. I do this on a semi-regular basis. I don't know if Nathan had to, but he did this time. So God basically steps in and says, no, Nathan, and Nathan's like, got it, I'll tell him what you say.
All right, go and tell David. This is verse 5. Go and tell David, my servant. Go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling.
In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the Judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all of your enemies from before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.
And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly. From the time that I appointed Judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. Okay, let's see the promises he's made so far. He says, you're going to build me a house? I'm going to make a great name for you, and I'm going to plant my people in a place where nobody bothers them.
I'm going to have my people in my place safe. So he's reminding him some of the promises he's already made. He's making them again, and then he's saying this. Verse 11. From the time that I appointed Judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the son of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So God says, you're going to build me a house? You're going to build a place for me? And then he says, no, I'm going to build you a house.
And when he says that, what he means is, I'm going to build you a name, a lineage, a people out of you. And then he says, I'm going to have a king that stands before me forever. He'll be to me a son, and I'll be to him a father. And so this promise is fulfilled in two ways. It's fulfilled in Solomon, David's son, who builds the temple, and is the king before God, who God treats. He says, he'll be a son to me, I'll be a father to him.
That just means I'm going to treat him well. And when he sins, I'm not going to get rid of him like I did Saul. That promise is fulfilled in Solomon. And they would have understood that this was fulfilled in Solomon. But he says a few things in there that make it seem like, okay, it can't just be fulfilled in Solomon.
The biggest issue that can't just be fulfilled by Solomon is that he says the word forever three times. So, if he's going to put a king who will rule forever, either that's just hyperbole. Like he's just, he means a really long time. Or, he means that this lineage will continue forever. That will never be broken up. They'll always be one of these kings.
But he Acts like it's a singular person. He will be to me a son, I will be to him a father, and he will reign forever. So, literally, it seems like the promise is there's going to come a king who will actually reign forever. So, here's what happens. Solomon comes. He builds the temple.
He does not stay faithful. He gets a lot of horses, wives, and money. Three of the things he wasn't supposed to do. I think the least problematic was the horses. The wives and money seem to mess him up. Starts worshiping other gods.
God eventually tells him, look, this isn't going to work out for you. Like, you'll get to die safely. But, I'm going to tear this apart, the kingdom apart. He eventually tears the kingdom in half. One, he keeps Solomon's son because it's like, I'm going to keep some of the tribe of David together. But, eventually, both Israel and Judah, that's how it splits, cease to be nations, cease to have kings, cease to have a throne.
But, the promise here is that your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So, that's not happening. But, the prophets keep promising this promise. So, Ezekiel says this. But, I will save them from all the backslidings of which they have sinned and will cleanse them.
And they shall be my people and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them and they shall have one shepherd. Jeremiah says this in the midst of all of this going on. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. That's in like a family tree. And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. I think Isaiah saw it most clearly. He says this. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. So the prophets keep coming along and saying God's going to fulfill this promise.
There's going to be someone who comes in the line of David and he's going to rule forever. And Isaiah says, and we're going to call him God, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. So there's coming a promised king. And so God promises, I'm going to send a king. And here's why this matters so much and is so absolutely helpful. And I think it's one of my favorite promises and all the promises God gives and all the covenants he gives.
Here's why. God tells Abraham, I'm going to give you a people. I'm going to give you some land. You're going to be in my presence. Tells Moses the same thing and then gives him the law and says, if y'all follow this, you'll be okay. If you don't, this won't go well.
Then he tells David, I'm going to send a king. And he's going to last forever. And when you know that a king's role is to lead in faithfulness, what he's saying is, I'm going to send a person to guard these promises. He's going to keep them for you. I'm going to send someone to lead in keeping these promises safe, helping you keep the covenant. That's great.
Because I don't know about y'all. Every time something's been nice in my life, I've thought, man, I wish it could stay like this. Do you know why? Because I know it won't. Like every time something's been good, it's like, man, I wish I could just pause and keep this like this. Like I wish it could just stay like this.
This is great. I wish this boss could stay my boss. I wish this coach could stay my coach. I wish this relationship could stay like this. I wish this president could just stay the president forever. Because they're the best one we've ever had.
Whatever. Like, I don't know. Like you just, there's these moments in life where you're just like, I wish this could just stick. Sometimes I think, I wish I wasn't in charge of whether or not this stayed good. You ever have that thought? I wish someone else who was smarter and better would come and just keep this together.
Because if I'm in charge, I have a good idea. I might mess this up. There's these moments. And so when God says, hey, you know all those promises I've made? I'm going to send a person to lead in keeping them together. It's like, oh, that's the best one.
This is the best promise. I'm so glad this one came. I'm so glad you said someone's going to come and keep it together and lead in faithfulness. And so they kept saying, this king is coming. This king is coming. Someone's going to come.
And they believed that it was going to be a political leader. Somebody was going to come and defend Judah and defend Israel and lead and set up a kingdom. The problem was it seems like they missed out on the forever thing. So I guess they thought we'll just have a kingdom and it'll last forever. And here's what happened. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary, who is a young girl who is not married, tells her she's going to have a baby.
And here's what he says in Luke chapter one. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. So God in this promise to David says he'll be to me a son.
He'll be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. The keeper of this promise, the coming king who will last forever is Jesus. How surprised are we right now?
It's Jesus. He's the one who comes and keeps his promise. He's the one who comes and fulfills it. He's the king in the line of David. That's why several of the gospels start off with genealogies. Because they're going to show you Jesus comes in the line of David.
He's the promised king. And his kingdom doesn't look like we thought it was going to look. He doesn't overthrow the government. He goes to a throne by way of a cross. His first crown is a crown of thorns. Jesus suffers and dies on behalf of his people.
He does exactly what a good king should do. He lives his life on behalf of his people. Serving them and leading them in faithfulness to the covenant. Here's what happens for those who believe in Jesus. He upholds the covenant for you. He defends the covenant for you.
He keeps you faithful. Like a good king should. You trust Jesus? I don't have to keep the covenant together. I don't have to keep behaving to keep it right. I don't have to stand before God and show him how great I am.
I get to follow after my king who leads in that. Jesus dies on our behalf to keep covenant faithfulness for us forever. Forever. Forever. Forever. Maybe I am the only one.
Maybe I am the only one who when I am following Jesus well thinks. I hope I keep this together. Maybe I am the only one who at times says God I hope I make it to the end. Help me remain faithful to you. Help me to say no to sin. Help me to before I take my last breath.
Help me to still love and follow you. But if I am not the only one. And if there are some of you all in here who feel the same thing. I just want to be there at the end. Take rest and comfort in the fact that you have a king who leads in faithfulness on your behalf. And he keeps it together for you.
And if you have trusted in Jesus he leads you in faithfulness to God. So here is what I want to do. I just spent some time this past week thinking about if Jesus is really an eternal king. And he is really my eternal king. And if I am a Christian. If you place your faith in Jesus.
Jesus is your eternal king. Just wanted to give us some ways that intersects with our life. Some ways that that affects us now. I think there is probably a thousand more. I think there is probably if you wanted to spend an hour this week. An hour every day this week.
Thinking about what it means for Jesus to be your king. I think you could come up with a lot of these. And I think that would be well spent time. But I have got four for us today. Four ways that if Jesus is an eternal king. And you are a Christian.
That this should affect you. Okay. Way number one. Joy, peace, and gratitude. And rest are eternally yours. Joy, peace, gratitude, and rest are eternally yours.
The benefits of having a good king are yours forever. There is just something about knowing that someone who is smart and good is in charge. That lets you calm down a little bit. There is joy in that. There is rest in that. There is hope in that.
There is freedom in that. Knowing that Jesus is a good king. Like there is moments when you just absolutely trust that our government is doing what it is supposed to. There is moments when your parents had to make a decision. But you absolutely trusted they were going to do it well.
The times that the coach had to make a tough call. But you absolutely trusted they would do it well. There is just some freedom in that. I got two quick stories about my dad that I think help illustrate this. Help at least help me remember and picture this. And hopefully it will help you.
When you are little you are afraid of the dark. Maybe you weren't. And that is cool. A lot of people are weird. Most everybody is little is afraid of the dark. And there would be times where you would like have a nightmare.
You would wake up and you would go get my dad. And you would be like hey. I hate to bother you. There is a monster under my bed. I hate to bother you. But there is like a giant creepy something in the closet.
I am pretty sure it is in there. I did not see it. I felt like I could hear it breathing. Like whatever. Like it was just moments. And so my dad would come in.
And he would like turn on lights. And he would open the door. And he would look under the bed. And he would be like look. He would have you look with him. He would be like there is nothing in here.
Nothing in here. Nothing you need to be afraid of. And he would say okay. Okay. Go back to sleep. As soon as he left.
That thing came back. I don't know how it got there. You go back out. And you tell him again. It is back. I hate to bother you.
It is going to eat me. And so he would come back. He would do it again. Sometimes he would do this. He would go okay. See there is nothing in there.
See there is nothing in the bed. Nothing going on. Nothing scary. He would say yes. He would turn the light off. And he would go see.
There is nothing to. Oh no you are right. Oh no. It has got claws and tentacles. And it is seeping ooze. And it is going to eat you.
Oh my goodness. And he would like yell. And then he would cut on the light. And go oh no. This is our imagination. There is actually nothing here.
By about the third or the fourth time. You came and got him. Here is what he would do. He would look at you and say. There is nothing. In your closet.
Or under your bed. I. Am the scariest thing in this house. And you need to be more afraid. Of coming and waking me up. One more time.
And telling me that there is something dangerous in here. I am the scariest thing. And go to sleep. And there was something so freeing. About knowing your dad was the scariest thing in the house. It really was.
Like that was imprinted on me at a young age. And the rest of my life. It was like. If anybody breaks in here. If something bad happens. It is an unfortunate day for them.
Because I live with the scariest thing. Like he is just here. There is something about having a king. That is the scariest thing in the universe. That is just so. Joy filling.
Comforting. And freeing. In the midst of trouble. And pain. That Jesus is the scariest thing. At the end of the Bible.
He kills death. I have said this before. I don't make the rules. I just. I just help explain them. If you kill death.
You win. You are the scariest. He is our king. Who died for us. He is good. He loves us.
He is on our team. He wants joy for us. And we get to rest in him eternally. There was another time I had a coach. A baseball coach. And he was yelling at me.
And I was little. And I was not used to having full grown men yell. He was just one of these coaches that shouted. Like some coaches. You know. Coach.
This one yelled. And. I remember being afraid of him. And I told my dad. I was like. He just keeps yelling at me.
And like I am afraid. He is going to like. Come at me. Like I don't know what is going to happen. But it seems aggressive.
And I think this is going to go bad. I have to fight him. And my dad was like. Look. He is just yelling. He is not going to touch you.
You are going to be fine. He said. But I will make you a deal. I said. What? He said.
As long as he is just yelling. You will be okay. You will be fine. If he touches you. I will break every bone in his body. And I thought.
Deal. Sounds good. So then when my coach yelled at me. I was like. Come at me bro. I know how this ends.
Touch me. It made being coached by him way easier. Because I knew how it ended. And there is something about having Jesus as the eternally forever reigning king of the universe. On behalf of those who place faith in him. That brings so much joy.
And rest. And gratitude. Like we are free. Because he is good. And he has already gone to war on our behalf. And he reigns on the throne eternally.
There will be a day when all of this is gone. And we will stand before him. Free. And loved. And all of that is ours now. All of that joy.
All of that gratitude. All of that freedom. Is ours now. That is why Paul can say things like. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us. An eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
As we look not to the things that are seen. But the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. But the things that are unseen are eternal. He says light and momentary affliction. The stuff you are going through right now.
It is going to pass away. And there is going to be an eternal king. And an eternity in his presence. And his joy and his freedom and his grace. He says in Romans 8. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time.
Are not worth comparing. With the glory that is to be revealed to us. They are not even in the same ballpark. All the joy. All the gratitude. All the rest.
Are ours already. Because we have an eternal king. Second way. I think this affects us. Intersects with our lives right now. Is you cannot set your heart.
On the promise. Of any lesser king. Can't set your heart on the promise of any lesser king. Here is what that means. You can care about the election. But you can't care so much.
That you lose your mind. Like you. You can't set your heart on. If this person. Is here. We are okay.
And if this person. Isn't. We are doomed. If this person is here. We will be fine. Everything will be magical.
But if it is this person. We are going to. We are going to crash and burn. And you can't allow your heart. To be set. On that.
You can't allow your heart. To believe all the promises. That money gives. Any lesser king. You can't let your heart. Believe.
All the promises. That a relationship gives. All the promises. That popularity. And prominence give. All the promises.
That power gives. All the prominence. That promises. That a job promotion. Gives. You can't let your heart.
Go there. Because you realize. That there is an eternal king. And all of these lesser kings. Will fade away. And will not matter.
And ultimately. History. Is already held together. By the one who went before us. To a cross. Three.
Submission. Is your appropriate response. If Jesus. Is your king. Submission. Is the appropriate response.
So we are used to. Democracy. Where you get to vote. And you can call your senator. And you know. This different stuff.
Kings. You don't get to do that. Kings get to do what they want. And so. It is actually. Very freeing.
To know that submission. Is the way I ought to relate to Jesus. Here is what I mean. If Jesus were a bad king. Submitting to him. Would be terrible.
It would be arbitrary. It would be ridiculous. He would make you jump through hoops. For his own good. When he said. This was bad.
And this was good. You wouldn't really be able to trust him. You might just be doing it. For his own pleasure. For his own joy. For his own.
Whatever. But see. We have a king. Who went to a cross first. So that we could even just be his people.
He loves us. He is for our joy. And our good. All of his rules. Are for our good. One of the things I love from the Old Testament.
Is it says that your law. Your precepts. Your teaching. Make. Wise. The simple.
That God is teaching. His rules. Make. Dumb people. Smart. Smart.
I love that. You ever. You ever. You ever. You ever. You ever.
You ever. In a class. And the teacher. Gave you the test. Before the test. Or gave you the test.
With the answers. Before the test. Do you. Do you know. Who did not. Immediately look.
Really excited. When that happened. The four smart people. They don't want the answers. To the test. They don't want to see the test.
They're going to do fine. On their own. And that's how they get to show. That they're better than everybody. Like the kid. That started crying.
When they handed out the test. Was the kid. Who had no chance. Of ever doing anything. He got the test. There were answers on it.
And he was like. I'm going to tell my mama. Right now. I'm passing this one. I'll wait until after. I take it.
Just in case. But. But I'm. I'm going to pass this one. And there was one kid. Who was like.
This whole class is stupid. That's because they were. Going to be fine anyway. One of the beautiful things. About having a good king. Who teaches us.
What life should look like. Is that if you aren't very bright. Things get to work out okay for you. Just by following what he says. If you've been in life long enough. To know that you don't always make the best decisions.
And that sometimes you chase after things. That end up being really stupid. And that often. If you follow your heart. Like Disney told you to. You're going to train wreck some things.
You're going to do it. Like if you ever see Jiminy Cricket. In real life. You're just going to punch him. Then that promise.
And that submission to a good king. Is how we respond to God. Is beautiful. And freeing. When you just get to follow someone. Who's good.
Who's wise. Who knows how it ends. And they say. This is how sex should work. Outside of marriage. And this is how sex should work.
Inside of marriage. This is what you should do. With your finances. This is how you ought to approach. Work and rest. This is how you ought to approach.
Parenting. In our house. We try to look at the Bible. And we'll go say. I'll go say okay. It's like my job.
To leave my family. I don't know if y'all know that. It's my job to do that. Anna has personal responsibility. But I will stand before God.
On how I led my family. For the whole household. So we all have personal responsibility. But I have responsibility. For our household as well. I love it.
I love it. When the Bible is really clear. On something I'm trying to figure out. Because I get to just say. Okay God. This is what you said.
I don't have to know why. I don't have to. I don't have to sit. And think about this anymore. I get to take it to Anna. And say Anna.
This is what the Bible says. We're going for this one. And at the end of the day. Today. We'll get to stand before God. And I'll get to say.
It's what you said. And I was just shooting for that. I'll stand accountable. For how well I followed it. But I.
As best I can. I get to just cheat. Look at the answers. And say God. Let me follow you. So.
If Jesus is your king. When y'all disagree. You submit. Simple as that. When Jesus is your king. And you disagree.
You submit. Number four. You begin to look like a citizen. Of his kingdom. Jesus is your king. You'll begin to look like a citizen.
Of his kingdom. So. Philippians 3 says this. But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it. We await a savior.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Who will transform our lowly body. To be like his glorious body. By the power that enables him. Even to subject all things to himself. So he's the king.
With all things subjected to himself. And our citizenship is in heaven. Where we await him. To come be our savior. So we'll begin to look like.
Citizens of that kingdom. And all kingdoms. All nations. All cultures. Have a certain. Here's what our people are like.
We just do. That's how it works. So the ancient. Spartans used to tell a story. About a kid who stole. A fox.
I don't know why they had foxes. I don't know where he stole it. But he stole it. And he had it under his shirt. And as he was sneaking off. With the fox.
An adult came. And started talking. To him. So he's holding a fox. Under his shirt like this. This is the story.
They used to tell their children. So if you want to. Looking for a bedtime story. Go with this one. So he's holding the fox.
The adult's talking to him. While he's holding the fox. The fox starts eating his stomach. Chewing into his stomach. And the kid. Doesn't want him to know.
He stole the fox. So he holds the fox. He doesn't. Give it away. That he's stolen the fox. And he talks to this adult.
Until the fox kills him. That's how tough Spartans are. It wasn't a problem that he had stolen. The issue would have been. If he had like. Whined.
While he got eaten by a fox. Okay. So Spartans are weird. I don't want you to get caught up in that. Every culture. Has certain stories that they tell.
Has certain. This is who we are. When there was the. The tsunami in Japan. I remember seeing pictures. Of the Japanese people.
For. It was like a three mile long line. Single file. Japanese people. Waiting to get water. And I was.
Baffled. By this. Because I was like. He ain't getting Americans. To stand in a three mile long. Single file line.
It's going to be a cluster. There's going to be some punching. Some shooting. Like. There's not going to be a. We've got water.
Line up. And we all go. Okay. Okay. I hope this only takes 12 hours. Like we're not doing that.
It's not happening. We made wristbands at Disney World. So that you can just like. Swipe. You don't got to stand there. Like I don't.
I mean. We got the little things they give you. When you want to eat. It's like. If you go do something else. This will buzz.
Because we ain't waiting. There's a certain thing. That goes along with a culture. And a kingdom. And who your leaders are. And how your nation works.
And I want to tell you something. As Christians. We're supposed to have. A citizenship in heaven. And a culture that comes from our king. So we begin to look.
More like citizens of heaven. So let me help you out. If you're a Christian. You will spend eternity in heaven. Because your king will get you there. That is your home.
This is temporary. That's your home. That's your homeland. So I want to tell you a little bit. About your king. And your homeland.
So that you can begin to realize. What kind of citizen. You ought to be. How this ought to begin to show up in your life. We're citizens of a land. With a generous king.
Who gave up everything. On behalf of his people. Who left his throne. And his wealth. And his praise. To go to a cross.
To be stricken with poverty. And to be mocked. And murdered. So when someone in my group. Needs help paying a bill. When I find out my neighbor.
Needs help doing some work. I'm the citizen of a generous king. I open up my wallet. And my schedule. Because that's what my king's like. We're from a land.
With a sacrificial king. So when you're at school. And someone who's nerdy. Wants to be your friend. And the only way. To be their friend.
Is to lose some of your popularity. To take some of their nerdiness. Onto yourself. We've got a king. Who gave up his life. So that we could have life.
We've got a king. Who laid down everything. To sacrifice on our behalf. That nobody made it. To his kingdom. Outside of him.
Personally bringing them there. So yeah. We sacrifice. Because we're citizens. Of a different kingdom. When somebody who's.
In your group. Is consistently depressed. And they call you. They want to hang out. They want to get some lunch. And the only way.
They're going to be not depressed. Is if you. Leave that lunch. Being more depressed. You go to lunch. And you give them.
Some of your happiness. And you take some of their depression. We've got a sacrificial king. Who gave us. His goodness. And took our sin.
Of course. Because we're citizens. Of a different kingdom. In our homeland. Where we'll spend eternity. Sin has been destroyed.
And it's completely unacceptable. We have a king. Who hates sin. So much. That he would die for it. So of course.
We're people. Who fight against sin. We're of course. We're people. Who are open. And honest.
About our failure. Because we have a king. Who's already destroyed sin. On our behalf. And we're designed. To hate it.
In our new land. We'll live. There won't be sin. So we fight against it here. You show up to your group. And you tell them.
How crummy you've been. How petty you've been. How much you've lied to them. We're honest about sin. Because we hate it. We're designed.
To follow after him. In a kingdom. Where sin has been destroyed. We're from a kingdom. Of joy. And celebration.
And singing. So we have fun. Our king sings. Celebrates. In heaven. Every time someone becomes a Christian.
It says the angels celebrate. First of all. That's never gotten old to them. Because they understand what just happened. They understand that a new family member. Has just hopped in for eternity.
We come from a kingdom of happiness. So. We're free to be happy. And celebrate. And dance. Even without white gloves.
It doesn't have to be interpretive. It could just be straight up dancing. Alright. We come from a land of justice and peace. Where our king. Took on injustice.
So that we could have freedom. And justice and peace. So. We care about the marginalized. We care about the voiceless. We care about those who are.
Who are. Poverty stricken. Because that was all of us. We didn't have a voice. We didn't have. Any way to defend ourselves.
But Jesus rescued us. We come from a kingdom. Where death has been destroyed. So we get to be fearless. Because death loses. And it doesn't ultimately have sway over us.
We get to follow Jesus wherever he calls us. Even if that seems certain to go poorly. Because we know ultimately. It will be just fine. The band is going to come back up. If you're a Christian.
All the joy. And rest. And hope. Of having a good king. Is already yours. You can't believe the promises.
Of smaller kings. Submission is your appropriate response. To Jesus. And ultimately. We get to begin to look like citizens. Of a different country.
So we have a king. Who went to war. On our behalf. And his victory. Is ours now. Forever.
So he. He accomplished it forever. On our behalf. And so as Christians. We just get to follow our king. So the response.
For everybody in this room. Is the same. If you're not a Christian. It's to trust. Jesus. As your king.
To win on your behalf. To conquer sin. To set you free from it. And to bring you forever. Into faithfulness to God. To lead you in that.
And if you're a Christian. The response is the same. To continue to believe. That Jesus is your king. And follow him as your king. So that your life changes.
So that your heart changes. And so that you can forever rest. In the fact that he's won the victory. On your behalf. Let's pray.
God we thank you. That you're a good king. And that all the benefits. Of having a good king. Are ours. That we can trust you.
That we can follow you. That we can hold on. In the midst of. Heartache. And difficulty. That we can know.
The end. We can know that one day. We will be. In your kingdom. Where sin is no more. And death is no more.
And pain is no more. And crying is no more. Because you've conquered. All of those on our behalf. God I pray. That you would help us.
To live as citizens. Of your kingdom here. We would remember. What you're like. God that transitioning. From how we lived here.
To how we'll live. In eternity with you. Would not be a drastic jump. For us. Because we would begin. To be led by you.
Changed by you. Daily. God I pray. That you'd help us. To trust you. As our good king.
That came. And fulfilled. This covenant promise. Made to David. That you will reign. Forever.
You will stand. Before God. Forever. On our behalf. In Jesus name. Amen..
Aug 7
The Problem of Two Kings
Transcript
Good morning. How are you doing this morning? This side's doing good. Not hitting on much over here. My name is Chet Phillips. Excited to be hanging out with y'all this morning.
We're going to be in Matthew chapter 1. So if you've got a Bible, go to Matthew chapter 1. There should be some sitting on the rows. You've got some over there if you need one. And if you don't own a Bible, grab one of the ones on the rows or grab one of the ones on the table. And that's our gift to you.
Just snatch that on your way out. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 1. We're going to spend the next couple of weeks talking about Jesus as King and His kingdom. And so we've got to do a little bit of background work for us today to kind of set this, frame it up in our brains so that we can think about it correctly. So what happens is if you begin reading the Gospels, which are the accounts of what Jesus did while He was on earth, they're going to usually start, a couple of them are going to start with John the Baptist.
And John the Baptist is going to come before Jesus and he's going to begin to proclaim. They're going to say that he proclaimed, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then it's going to say that Jesus shows up and he begins to say the same thing. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And that sounds nice, but what are they talking about? Like what is the kingdom of heaven?
What do they mean by the kingdom of God? As Jesus goes through and He tells these parables, which are just confusing, illustrational stories. And so He tells parables about the kingdom and He's going to explain. Here's what the kingdom looks like. And He's going to do this over and over again. And so we're going to spend the next few weeks as we go through September and into October talking about the kingdom and unpacking what it is, how it works, how Jesus is a king, and what that means for everybody in this room and really everybody on this planet.
And so in order to do that, we've got to do a little bit of background work because we're ignorant, which just means we don't know. So it doesn't mean that you're dumb. So my dad used to, when I was growing up, he wouldn't call me dumb. He would just call me ignorant. And he said, ignorant. He'd be like, you ignorant boy.
And he was like, that's not offensive. You just need to learn things because you don't understand how stuff works. And so we're ignorant as far as how a king works. We just are. Like we base it off of maybe some books we've read, maybe some of our history classes that we had in school. So like maybe when you think of a king, you're going to think of King Arthur.
And he had like a round table. And he had some knights with him. And when you think of King Arthur, you maybe are going to think about a couple of different movies. Maybe Sean Connery is going to pop up in your head. Or you're going to think about the quest for the Holy Grail, which is a really bad understanding of who King Arthur is and what Camelot was like and all that kind of stuff. So we just, we don't get kings.
We don't. A good example of this is I was talking to Raz. He's one of our group leaders in our church. And he's from Australia. And I didn't know this. Australia still kind of fits under the Queen of England.
Did y'all know that? Like I didn't know that. The Queen of England can go to Australia and fire their elected officials. Just kick them out. Because she's the Queen of England. That's why.
That's why she gets to do that. And so I was like, wait, what? So like she actually showed up in I think the late 80s, early 90s and fired their prime minister and parliament. It was just like y'all are out. Or maybe it was just the prime minister and all the people around him. And then basically said y'all have to hold a new election.
And so immediately when he said that, like that was, that affronted my sensibilities as an American. Because it was like who on earth is going to travel over an ocean and tell us what to do with our government. So it was like immediately was like no, no sir. And so I was asking him more questions about it. I asked him. I said okay, do y'all pay taxes to Australia?
I mean to England. Does Australia pay taxes to England? And he said no, we don't pay taxes. And I said you're welcome. They learned their lesson on that one. Just when you see an American and you think about the fact that you don't pay taxes to England, just shake their hand.
Tell them thank you. But we don't get it. We don't understand how kings and kingdoms work. We just, as Americans, we don't have a place for that in our head. We don't have a place for the authority. A good example of this is how much we freak out about presidential elections.
I mean America loses it over presidential elections. We will elect a president two years from now in 2016. And they're already talking about it. They were talking about it when Obama got elected. They started talking about the next election. I heard a conversation recently.
They were talking about Hillary Clinton. And they were saying should she line herself up with Obama? Should she separate herself from Obama? And they're going into statistics of when and how the parties flop back and forth and who's going to be president. And that person is going to be president for four years in a limited government. They can't just do what they want to.
President Obama can't just walk out tomorrow and say here's how America's running from now on. No. There's Supreme Court. There's people that decide on laws. He's got to take things through Congress. Like he has a very limited position and we feel like the president has too much power sometimes.
We hadn't even begun to scratch the surface of what a king looks like. So for us to understand as we read through scripture and Jesus shows up and says he's a king and that he has a kingdom. We got to know what that means. We got to understand what he's declaring how they would have heard it because we don't hear that right. It's like, oh, you own a castle? You got a moat?
That's cool. I'd like a moat, but I don't want to have to like cut the grass around it all the time. Like we don't, it doesn't hit us right. We don't understand. So let me explain just a little bit.
We're just going to do a little bit about how kings work and how they would have understood how kings work. So a kingdom is the extent of the rule and the reign of a king. So you have a king. The king has a kingdom. So wherever his rule and reign exists, that's his kingdom.
And he can have that kingdom. You can have a kingdom as long as you can defend it and rule over it. So you can have a kingdom as long as you're able to protect it. And so throughout history, kingdoms have just swallowed up other kingdoms. So President Obama recently with this whole Russia-Ukraine thing, he said you can't, he said we know that you can't redraw borders at the edge of a gun.
So the countries that we have have pretty much been the countries that we have for quite a while. That's not how history works. In response to that, it's actually, no, actually you can. You can redraw borders at the edge of a sword or the edge of a spear or on top of a chariot or at the edge of a gun because that's how borders get redrawn throughout history. So we've been in the United States for a while and we don't have to fight with Mexico all the time about our border.
We did, but we don't anymore. And pretty much now we buy things from people. But that's not how it worked in world history, in human history. It was you had a kingdom and your kingdom was your kingdom until a bigger, badder kingdom came along. And then they just owned you. So kingdom shows up.
We have a kingdom. Kingdom shows up. We get to decide, okay, they're coming at us. Can we defend ourselves? If we fight, can we stop them? So we sit there and we talk about it.
We look and we say, no, if we fight, we will all die. Okay. We'll call that plan B. Plan A will be, let's have a convo. Let's talk to these guys.
See how they're doing, what they want. And so that's pretty much what kingdoms would do. You would fight and defend your kingdom. If you could rule over it, you could. If a new kingdom showed up and they were badder than you, you could fight and die. Or you could surrender and pay taxes and then their kingdom ruled over you.
So throughout history we see Egypt had a kingdom. That's what we showed up there a second ago. Israel goes in and kicks out a bunch of these smaller kingdoms and becomes one kingdom. And then Assyria swallows that kingdom. And then Babylon swallows that kingdom. And then Greece comes up and swallows that kingdom.
And then Rome swallows that kingdom. And it was just who was the baddest? Got to have a kingdom. So whenever we hear kingdom declared. When Jesus says, I have a kingdom. It's automatically going to hit the ears of those listening to him as a militaristic declaration.
Kingdom advances against another kingdom. That's just how they work. Let me tell you how kings work. They're in charge. Period. Throughout history, that's how kings work.
So some of you are like, I'm the king of my own castle. No, you're not. Because your wife is in charge. She may let you pretend. But kings were in charge.
They were in charge. Period. They were in charge of how everything played out. So a king could just make a declarative statement. And that's what happened. And so we see throughout scripture.
I'll just give you some examples. Okay. So there was a guy named Xerxes. He shows up in scripture in the book of Esther. Xerxes. In Esther, he's called Ahasuerus.
Which was his Aramaic name. But Xerxes is his Greek name. So that's how we know him from history. But his name was Xerxes. He had a throne that was ginormous. And he used to sit on his throne.
And his throne had a big red carpet on it. If you sat on his throne, you died. If you touched the carpet that his throne was on, you died. So it was like throne, no touching. Carpet, buffer zone for the throne, no touching. He had 10,000 soldiers called immortals that surrounded his throne.
When they went into battle, they carried his throne. He sat on it. His immortals sat around him. And then his army won. And he just got to watch. That's Xerxes.
Did what he wanted. All the time. There's a guy in the book of Kings. His name is Aboni Bezek. Or Aboni Bezek. Ann and I just found out that we're going to be having a baby.
And so I'm throwing that name in the hat. Aboni Bezek. That's a heck of a name. But anyway, this guy was in smaller kingdoms. He had captured 70 kings. In the book of Judges, he had captured 70 kings.
And he cut off their thumbs and their big toe. Which, just so you know, you need your big toe to walk around. Like, it's important. So it makes it hard to walk. So they didn't have big toes and they didn't have thumbs.
The reason humans are in control of the world is because we have big brains and opposable thumbs. These are important. If you've ever had, like, a hurt thumb, it makes it really difficult to do anything. He had 70 kings that he'd cut off their thumbs and their big toes. And their job was to sit around his table and pick up crumbs with these two fingers. So they walked.
And when he was done eating, 70 kings picked up crumbs around his table to show his dominance. Because he's a king and he does what he wants. And the truth is, like, 70 of them, but they're not holding an uprising. Because it would be like this awkward standing slap fight that they would lose really quickly. You slap them and they just push you down. They'd be like, now pick up the crumbs.
They'd be like, okay. Somebody help me up. There's a King Nebuchadnezzar. I love this story. There's a King Nebuchadnezzar. This is in the book of Daniel.
He's a Babylonian king. He has a dream that freaks him out. And when you're a king and you have a dream that freaks you out, you get to call on people to help you with your dream. When you're you and you have a dream that freaks you out, you get to tell your co-worker and they get to think you're weird. But when you're a king...
Man, I dreamed I was a clown last night. Dude, I don't want to talk about your dreams. Like, we're at work. When you're a king, though, he said he has this dream and he calls all of his advisors and wise men in to answer questions and his sorcerers and stuff. And he says, I had a dream. It freaked me out.
I want you to tell me what the interpretation is. And so they say, okay. Tell us the dream. We'll tell you what the interpretation is. And he says, no. If I tell you the dream, you'll make up an interpretation.
And I won't know if you're telling the truth. You tell me the dream and then tell me its interpretation. And they say, we can't do that. And he says, cool. Kill all of them. Because he's a king.
And kings do what they want. There are no re-elections. There are no runoffs. There is no impeachment. The way you get rid of a king is to kill him or to have a bigger kingdom that takes over his. That's it.
Otherwise, they're king forever. So we're freaking out that we're going to have a president for four years. And he's going to have a limited amount of power in our government. This king was king because he was born a lot of times. Or because he got an army and was really powerful. That's pretty much how it works.
So when Jesus declares that he's a king and when the Bible declares that he has a kingdom, it means something that we wouldn't hear. It means something to the people who were first listening that we don't get. It's like, okay, complete authority. Power. The ability to say, and it happens. It goes.
What you say is law and rule and final. And that your kingdom advances in a militaristic way. So that's how kingdoms work. So if you have a good king, you have a good kingdom. A generous king. A gracious king.
A king that fights on behalf of his people. A king that loves justice and peace. That's really good for the kingdom. If you have a ruthless, angry, bitter, psychotic king, that's a problem. Because a king rules over his kingdom with absolute authority. Okay.
That's just so that we get what a king and a kingdom is. Matthew chapter 1. I'm going to pray. We're going to hop into Matthew chapter 1. If you've got one of the Bibles on the rows, it should be page 523. So let's pray and then we'll look at Matthew chapter 1.
God, we thank you for this time that we get to gather as church family and open your word and learn about you. Pray that you would teach us. That your Holy Spirit would come and reveal to us truth about yourself. That you would draw us closer to you. We praise you. We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Matthew chapter 1. The book of the genealogy is Matthew chapter 1 verse 1. This is Matthew writing a gospel about Jesus, writing a story about Jesus, telling us what he did when he was on earth. This is how he starts. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Genealogy just means his lineage, his family history, his granddaddy and that guy's daddy and his granddaddy's daddy, that kind of thing. In the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, we're going to come back to that, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the first Jewish person. And so what he has immediately declared is that David was the first, like, legitimate good king. Saul was there for a while and then David was, like, the king after Saul. What he just started off with was Abraham, the first Jewish guy, David.
And he's saying that his lineage, he comes straight from Abraham through David to Jesus. That's what he's telling us here. Let me just pause for just a second and tell you this because I think it's helpful, although it doesn't really apply to what we're talking about today. But I just think it's helpful for us to know as people who live in the United States. Jesus was Jewish. Super, super Jewish.
There's some discussion in the United States about whether he was white or black. He was Jewish. Abraham to David, Jewish. Like, recently, like, we get in this discussion about Santa Claus. Jesus isn't up for debate. He was a real person.
He had, like, he was Jewish. Like, you don't get to come to me and be like, hey, I just want to let you know we're transferring you. You're Italian now. Like, that's not how that works. Like, that wasn't chosen for me. I'm going to be, like, pasty Scottish Iris my entire life.
You're not transferring that. Jesus was Jewish. Like, around Christmas, they were talking about Santa Claus, and then one of the ladies on Fox News said, she said, Santa Claus was white and Jesus was white. Get over it. No, no. He's Jewish.
Like, look, just so you know, for all the people in this room, in this book, no white people. They're not here, guys. They don't show up. So if you're always picturing, like, curly-haired blonde people, they're not here. No white people here. No blue eyes.
Wasn't here. There are some Africans in this book, but finding a white person in first-century Palestine would have been like, I heard a guy say it was like, it'd be like watching Bigfoot ride a unicorn through the middle of New York. It's just not happening. Amen. So just wanted to help you out with that.
Abraham was the father of Isaac. So it's the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. That had nothing to do with what we're talking about. That was just free for y'all. Abraham was the father of Isaac. And Isaac, the father of Jacob.
And Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And Perez, the father of Hezron. And Hezron, the father of Ram. And Ram, the father of Amminadab. And Amminadab, the father of Nashon.
And Nashon, the father of Sam. And Sam, the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed, the father of Jesse. And Jesse, the father of David, the king. Whew.
Matthew coming out swinging with this names on names on names on names. Just so you know, if you take a creative writing class, they're not going to tell you to do that. That's not how you start a story. Really hook people. Give a list of names for your main character's genealogy. That's what people like.
Nobody was reading that going, oh my goodness. This is a high quality literature. This is almost as good as my other favorite book, the phone book. Like nobody was doing that. Because we don't get what Matthew is saying. Jewish people, which is who Matthew is writing to, just freaked out.
Now, when a Jewish person reads this, they said, oh, Matthew came out swinging. And he's not playing around with what he's just about to tell us about Jesus. Matthew starts off and says, let me tell you about Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And then he goes through his list and he says, he's the son of David, the king. And Jewish people just said, oh, no. This has gotten serious really quickly.
And here's why. Old Testament, God comes to David and promises David. The God of the universe comes to the king of Israel, David, who's David the king. That's why he's listed that way. King of Israel had a bunch of kings. Judah had a bunch of kings.
David is the king. When you were a little kid in Israel and you were swinging a stick at a tree, you were being David. Everybody had the David action figure. Every time you threw a rock at a bully, you were being David. Like little kids were David. He's the king.
And here's why. God shows up to David and promises him that you will have a king that comes from your lineage that will be a king forever. That will never fail to be a son of David on the throne. And it will be an eternal worldwide dominion. That's the promise made to David. So that happens in 2 Samuel.
I'm going to go through and tell you just a little bit about this king that is over and over and over again prophesied in the Old Testament. 2 Samuel 7. There's going to be a king who comes from, this is God talking to David, comes from your body. I will establish his kingdom. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.
Your throne shall be established forever. Jeremiah 33. Prophets are declaring about this king. A righteous branch will come out of David. And he will never lack a man on the throne. Isaiah 9.
Another prophet throughout Israel's history who's declaring that a government will be on this guy's shoulders. He will be called God. He will be called Prince of Peace. He will reign on David's throne establishing justice and peace and righteousness. Isaiah 11. The Spirit of God will dwell on him.
And he will judge on behalf of the needy and the poor. Isaiah 42. He will judge the nations giving sight to the blind and setting captives free. Isaiah 49. Says he will be despised. But kings and princes will rise up and bow down to him.
Daniel 7. Daniel 7. Says that he sees a son of man. Which is Jesus' favorite name for himself. Says that he sees a son of man who's given authority, glory, sovereign power over all people's nations. Men of every language will worship him.
And he will have dominion forever. And a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Zechariah 14. Says he'll destroy his enemies and be king over the whole earth. Malachi 3. Says that God will send someone ahead of this guy to declare that he's coming.
And then he says who will be able to stand when he shows up. But throughout the Old Testament, over and over again, after this promise made to David, it's promised over and over. This king's coming. He's coming. He's going to have an eternal dominion. All other kings are going to bow down to him.
He's going to last forever. He's going to reign with righteousness and justice and power. And he's going to be sovereign over everything. And so when Matthew starts off and says Jesus came in the line of David the king, everybody's ears perked up and said, what are you trying to get at? Where are you taking this? I know you're not about to say that he's the king.
The promised king we all know about. Matthew chapter 2. That's what Matthew's saying. Matthew chapter 2. We'll see how this works. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.
Okay, so Herod is the king of Israel. It's really interesting that he's called king because they're ruled over by the Roman Empire. He's one of the only people in the Roman Empire who's ever allowed to be called king. So it just kind of points to his ruthlessness and political savvy that he's underneath another kingdom and still gets to be called king. So he says that Jesus was born in the line of David the king, and now he's telling us about another king.
In Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying. So wise men, this is why at Christmas you'll hear the song. We three kings of Orient are. Just thinking about these wise men. They weren't kings. They were wise men.
But they're from the east, and that's the Orient. In that song. That was also free, just so you know what you're singing about. Wise men came to the east from Jerusalem saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose. So a new star shows up.
That's why in all the nativity scenes you see there's a little star at the top. This is over top of where Jesus was. A new star shows up. We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. And all Jerusalem with him.
Yeah. Of course Herod the king is troubled. He's the king. And these wise men from the east said, Hey, we study the stars. We study astrology. And the king has been born.
So they come and say, We want to see the king. And Herod's like, I'm here. And they're like, No, no. The king. The one that's been born king. The capital K king.
The one who's been prophesied king. The one that creation bends to king. We came to ask you because we thought you might be able to help us find him. But you're not who we're looking for. Appreciate the autograph. You can put it back.
We want to see the real one. And so Herod's troubled because he's a king. And there's another king born. Just for the record, You don't have two kings. Kings don't coexist. They don't have tandem thrones.
It wasn't like a cute thing they used to do back in the day. One king. That's how he got to be king. No other kings. So Herod's troubled.
And that makes sense because they just said, Hey, we want to see the king, The prophesied king. The one that's going to rule over you king. The one that princes are going to rise up and bow down to king. The guy who's in charge of you, Even though he's an infant. Herod's troubled. And assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
He did not misunderstand what they were saying. He knew the prophecies. That's why he gets the people who study the Old Testament and says, Where is he going to be? Because they just said that he was born. That a star showed up for him. And he's here.
Where does it say he's going to be born? Because he knew exactly who they were talking about. The person we just read about. And assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they told him, In Bethlehem of Judea. For so it is written by the prophet, And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah.
This is Micah the prophet says this. Still talking about this king. And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, Until it came to rest over the place where the child was. The child's Jesus. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
Then going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, And they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, They departed to their own country by another way. Okay. So they come.
They say, We saw this star. We're wise men. We study these things. We saw this star. We know what's happening. We know the old text.
Where is he? And he says, I don't know, but we'll find him. And he says, When you find him, let me know, because I want to worship him too. Now Herod's lying, and we'll get to see that in a second. And so that's what they told. They were warned in a dream not to tell Herod.
And they just to leave. And so wise men show up. And what they say is, We've seen signs that this is the king. We've seen signs that this is who we're supposed to worship. And their response is to an infant worship. And they open up their treasures, and they give to him, and they worship him as king.
13 Through 15, we're not going to read it, but it just says that in a dream, Joseph is warned that Herod's going to try to kill Jesus. And so they go to Egypt. So Herod does what kings do. He defends his throne with absolute authority. He just declares, Go in there, round up all males, two years older, younger, kill them. And they do.
But Joseph's family had been warned, and so they had left. Herod was a bad dude. He was kind of psychotic. He killed a lot of people. He killed a lot of his wives. He had more than one because he kept killing them.
He killed a lot of his wives and a lot of his sons. And one of the emperors actually said that it's better to be Herod's pig than his son, which is a Greek joke because pig and son sound similar. And so he made a little pun about, a little joke about, because he's Jewish, so Jewish people don't eat pigs. So he's like, if you want to be safe and live in Herod's house, be his pig, not his son, because he's going to kill you if you're his son. Because every time Herod started noticing anybody around him getting a little bit of power, he got rid of them, forcibly. So these wise men show up and say, we're here to worship the king, the capital K king, the prophesied king.
And Herod says, yeah, me too. Oh, that'd be great. Tell me where he is. And then when they trick him, he just kills all the infants he can find. Wise men want to worship, want to bow down, want to give everything in submission to Jesus. And Herod, because he has some authority, wants to defend it.
Now here's what's true. Jesus is the king in the line of David, the king, who is an eternal king. Which means that his rule and his reign comes to us through history because he is eternal. See, Jesus died, but he didn't stay dead. Everyone in this room is going to die. I saw a statistic recently that death rate in America is hovering right around 100%.
It's like 10 out of 10 people. It's really sad. Everyone in this room is going to die, and I can tell you something about you. You're going to stay dead. We won't have your funeral and then eat with you a week later. That's what they did with Jesus.
That's irregular. It is. And then he ascended into heaven, and he exists still and rules and reigns. And he is the eternal king who has eternal dominion. And one day he will return, conquer all of his enemies. Scripture tells us this.
And then he will have his kingdom forever. We have the same options that we hear in this story. We can, like the wise men, submit, worship. Or we can, like Herod, fight and defend our kingdom. Those are the options we have. Everyone in this room, you're going to make that decision.
If you decide to not do anything with Jesus, you've made that decision. I'll be king, thanks. I'll be in charge, thanks. That's how it works. Let me tell you something that's very true. You love being king.
It's your favorite. You don't think about it a whole lot, but you really love being in charge of what you do. I love being in charge of what I do. That's why I love being an American. That's why I own, like, 12 guns. Because I get to be in charge of what I do.
And if someone tries to keep me from being in charge of what I do, up until a point, let's go. It's go time. We love it. Let me tell you something else that's true about you. You're a terrible king. You're the worst at it.
You love it, but you're bad at it. You make horrible decisions. You give yourself the benefit of the doubt a lot, but you're terrible. Most of us are like, no, I'm a good king. I know I did eighth grade twice, and I'm in debt because I can't manage a budget. But I'm a great king.
And that's just not how it works. So the question becomes for us, is Jesus a good king? Because he declares that he's king. When a king shows up and declares that he's king, you have to do something with that. He is the eternal king. And so the question becomes, is he a good king?
Good king, good kingdom. Bad king, bad kingdom. Is he a hero? Is he a tyrant? And the second question that fits underneath that is, is he a better king than I am? Is he willing to do things for me that I'm not willing to do?
Is he willing to step in on my behalf when I can't fix situations? Is he a good king? Is he a hero? Matthew 1, verse 21 should be on the same page or a page back, depending on what your Bible looks like. Matthew 1, verse 21 says this. This is an angel talking to Joseph.
Jesus' adopted father. And he's talking about Mary. He says, Good kings defend their territory, ride in, and are heroes. You see, when you're in a place that's being ransacked, that has enemies, that's being torn down, you don't have walls, you don't have a defense, everything. A king rides up and says, I will fight for you. You say, thank you so much.
This place is a hot mess. We need some rules. We need some help here. Thank you. And when you feel like you have some control and some authority and things are going pretty well, you don't do that when a king shows up. But here's what it's saying.
It says that Jesus will save his people from their sins, which means that we have an enemy that we're losing to. That ultimately our problem is sin. That's what has marred us as humans. That's what's caused pain and destruction and rebellion. That's what's broken up our relationships. That's what's hurt us.
And that Jesus will save us from our sins. And what he did was he lived on earth a perfect, sinless life and died for us. That's why Jesus went to the cross. He died for us to pay for our sin. And then he rose again, rescuing us. And so I can tell you very definitively that Jesus is a good king.
And for every person in this room, he's a better king than you are. But ultimately, we've got the same two options. Follow, worship, love Jesus as king, or do everything we can to defend our own kingdom. With logical arguments. With excuses. With just, I don't want to get into that.
I don't want to think about it. I just want to do me. See, it's the choices. That's how it works. We're going to spend the next several weeks as we walk through this series. Just looking at what kind of kingdom does Jesus have?
What kind of king is he? We know that he's a hero that saves his people from their sins. But we're going to investigate a little more about what his kingdom looks like. But I just want everybody to know that Jesus is an eternal king. He does rule and he does reign. He is a good king.
And we all have the same options that they have. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing some more. We're going to praise Jesus as king. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that you are a good king.
That you did die on our behalf. God, we pray that through your Holy Spirit you would lead us. To like the wise men bow and worship you as a good king. Even though we seek to do everything we can to defend our own kingdom, our own sovereignty. Thank you, Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.