The Son of David

Jesus is the Son of David

1) Thank God for the opportunity

2) Pray for the sermon

Some of us grew up hearing Scripture verses about how Jesus is a descendant of King David. If we have ever read the beginning of the gospel of Matthew we see it right away in verse 1

Matt 1:1 “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

In fact the whole first chapter of Matthew is dedicated to tracing the lineage of Jesus

Often at Christmas time we are reminded of this in the story of Gabriel visiting Mary.

Luke 1:26-27 “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.”

Luke 1:32-33 “He will be great and will 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.””

Luke also in his gospel expounds on the lineage of Jesus in chapter three tracing his genealogy through David, through Abraham, all the way back to the first man Adam and showing that everything began with God.

Jesus being from the physical line of David is about as far as most of us understand this, however there is much more to Jesus being the Son of David than just a physical lineage which we began to see in our previous passage in Luke. The Son of David is a Messianic title. Jesus is the Son of David that will be given the throne of David, and his reign will be over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

This title of God originates in the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel chapter 7.

So you might be asking ... What is the Davidic covenant? Often times when people think about Biblical covenants they might think about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. We might properly associate the old Covenant with the Mosaic law and the New Covenant with the giving of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.

However God in Scripture we find seven different covenant that God makes to his people. We don't have the time to go through them all thoroughly but let me at least give you a quick summery of them.

Adam - If man sins there is judgment. God provides a Redeemer.

Noah - Not to destroy the earth with water again.

Abraham - Abraham would be the Father of many nations

Palestinian - Isreal would be scattered if they disobeyed God

Moses - Blessings and curses for repentance and disobedience

David - David heir would establish an eternal kingdom

New - God would forgive sin and put his law in the hearts of his people

Of the seven covenants five of them give promises of and proclaim the coming Messiah and his kingdom.

The Davidic covenant is one of the covenants that proclaim the coming Messiah and his kingdom.

Before I get further into the Davidic covenant I want to make a comparison.

Many of you are probably familiar with the Abrahamic covenant and how God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. The apostle Paul tells us in

Romans 4:13-16 “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,”

We find it first mentioned in 2 Samuel 7:1-17 . It is also repeated in 1 Chronicles chapter 17.

When we first start in 2 Samuel 7 we find King David talking to the prophet Nathan. We know that David was in the last years of his reign as the LORD had given him rest from his enemies and he had a house built from cedar. We know from 2 Sam 5:11 that Hiram the King of Tyre sent David cedar trees to help build his house of cedar and history records that Hiram reigned around 980 BC which would have been Davids last 10 years of ruling. So you might say that these are David’s retirement years.

However David was not content to sit back and go fishing. It is likely that David summoned the prophet Nathan and told him about his plans to build a temple for the LORD. From the Scripture we can see that David felt a bit unsettled that he had a house made of cedar but the place of worship was still a tent. Nathan’s immediate response to David was to go ahead and build the temple, to fulfil that which his heart was leading him to do because the Lord was with him.

I just want to take a moment to pause here. How often is this us? How often is this God’s people today? We see King David who has a heart after God’s and now has authority over Isreal and the prophet Nathan, a representative of God, both with a desire to see God’s kingdom fulfilled, and they make plans to do God’s work without consulting God. We don’t see that they prayed about this or that Nathan went and talked with God but rather they simply both agreed that building a temple must be God’s will at this time.

However that night God came to the prophet Nathan and told him to go to David and give him what we now know today as the Davidic covenant.

The very first thing God told Nathan to tell David is

Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD; “Would you build me a house to dwell in?”

The reason for this opening question is two fold. First, God begins by calling David his servant. The title of servant puts David in the same category of Abraham Moses, and Job, so God is telling David that he see’s David as one who is has a heart of service for the LORD. Most all of David’s life he has surrendered to God’s provision in his life and submitted to God direction. Now, instead of God providing for David David feels like he wants to somehow give God something back by building God a temple and God ask’s his servant “You want to build me a house?” God then proceeds to tell David that it is LORD that will provide for Israel and for David. It is God that will build David a home and an everlasting kingdom. It is God that will rise up an offspring from David to establish his throne forever.

2 Samuel 7:12-13 “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.”

Now the Davidic covenant is a covenant that is established through the line of David and while it applies to all of David’s line it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of David.

The prophet Isaiah said

Isaiah 11:1 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”

Jesse was King David’s Father.

Another common Scripture we hear at Christmas time is

Isaiah 9:6 “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.

However the next verse helps us to truly understand the context of the Davidic covenant and when this happens.

Isaiah 9:7 “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. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

By the time Jesus arrived the theology of a Messiah bringing an eternal kingdom from David’s line was well established and it is easy to see why people including his disciples misunderstood the timing of God in some of these prophecies. Many people who had believed that Jesus was the Messiah called him by the Messianic title “The Son of David”.

Matt 15:22 “And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.””

Matt 20:30 “And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!””

Matt 21:9 “And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!””

And John in his revelation tells us that Jesus himself confirms that he is both the root of David and that shoot or descendant of David.

Rev 22:16 ““I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.””