Genealogy and Advent: King of Kings, Part 3
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 31:48
0 ratings
· 9 viewsSince Jesus is King of Kings, we can rejoice in the hope of His rule over the whole earth!
Files
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?
If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
Prayer
The last two weeks we have talked about Christ being the epicenter of the New Creation...
As well as Christ being the blessing of Abraham to the nations!
This week, we turn our attention to the last title we see here in Matthew’s genealogy.
If you have ever seen or read the Chronicles of Narnia...
there is a magical land of Narnia that a young girl finds in her wardrobe.
The land of Narnia had been under the control of the White Witch who kept the land in continuous winter.
Narnia experienced continual winter but never Christmas.
This meant there was bitter cold for hundreds of years without the slightest bit of celebration.
This kind of Christmas-less winter is an experience all too familiar to us as humans.
We understand it from a core level of our being.
Our world can often seem marked by perpetual winter and NO Christmas.
Perpetual bitter coldness without the slightest ray of hope and joy.
World wars which are like blistering winter air on our face.
Hunger and poverty that feel like cold ice on wind bitten fingers.
All of it the bitter cold reminder that we live in a fallen world.
Just like Narnia was under the power of the White Witch that kept winter for hundred’s of years without Christmas…
So is the situation we find ourselves to when we turn to the NT.
The world is under the power and sway of the evil one.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Now before we go diving into what Matthew meant by this title, we need some background!
Acknowledge the Need for a King
Acknowledge the Need for a King
“Prone to Wander”
Unlike the people of Narnia, we were active participants in the winter season.
We were not simply just fallen pray to winter, we helped make winter, winter.
In the OT, at the end of the period we call the Judges we see the people of Israel in their darkest season yet.
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
There was no king in Israel.
Which meant everyone was their own judge and ruler.
Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
We Have Wayward Hearts
We Have Wayward Hearts
“Wandering Hearts”
We can’t think ourselves any better than them.
We would have been just as rebellious and wayward if we would have been in their position.
After the Judges, the people demand a king that they want and Saul becomes king.
But King Saul was a rebellious king who was not pleasing to the Lord.
The fact that God could give us a king and the king act as all the other nations shows us also that we…
We Have Rebellious Hearts
We Have Rebellious Hearts
“Bad to the Bone”
Not only do we have wayward hearts that wander without a king.
When we finally get a king, he is worst than we are…
We Have A Need
We Have A Need
“Just Ruler”
We need someone to lead us out of the perpetual state of winter.
We need someone to break this cycle of winter and introduce spring again.
How is this need going to be fulfilled?
1 Samuel 13:14 (ESV)
The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
Samuel is commanded to go to Jesse (David’s fathers) and anoint the next king.
There he will find the next king of Israel.
Not just any young man will do.
Not just any son of Jesse.
There is ONE particular son and by all appearances David is not that one..
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The LORD is the ONE who looks at the heart.
He does not look on the outward appearance.
All of Jesse’s sons passed by and Samuel rejected them all.
Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.”
And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”
Why do you think Jesse kept this son back?
It wasn’t because he was too young.
This is the same man who would later have said that he killed lions and bears.
When we think about Jesse’s view of David we need to have in our minds that he was rejected by his own family.
They didn’t enjoy having David around.
God saw the heart and saw that David was after His.
He would be anointed and go on the slay giants, fight wars, and become king of Israel.
Upon becoming king, David had to choose where his throne would be…
Where would David build the kingdom?
Remember the trajectory…
Abraham was God’s promise of blessing to the nations.
Now if you were David, and you wanted to be faithful to God’s promise, where would you build your kingdom?
The city of Jerusalem is only mentioned in Genesis 14:18-20 prior to David.
Jerusalem was the city that Melchizedek was prince over from which he blessed Abraham.
God has promised the land to Abraham like we saw last week.
David begins to pursue the land that he knew was God’s promise to Abraham.
2 Samuel—Your Kingdom Come Jerusalem: Promise and Defiance (v. 6)
it is appropriate to think of the city of Jerusalem in terms of God’s promise to Abraham. David came to Jerusalem to fulfill that promise.
We need to have in our mind the trajectory of fulfillment from Abraham to David and trending upward.
The presence of the Lord eventually came to dwell in the city of David. (2 Sam 6)
It is in this context that I want us to pause and consider the promise that God makes toward David.
2 Samuel—Your Kingdom Come Chapter 16: The Promise (2 Samuel 7:8–16)
God reiterated his promise to David in terms that prepare us for its fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus must be understood in the light of God’s promise as it was made to David.
Now it’s still blistering cold outside.
At this time, winter is still upon everyone.
We need to recognize the kind of king we need so we can begin to anticipate His arrival.
Recognize the Kind of King We Need
Recognize the Kind of King We Need
“God’s Promise”
“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?” ’
God tells David that His presence has never dwelt in a house.
He has always dwelt with the people in tents.
Instead of God allowing David to build, God promises to build a house for David.
The promise that God makes to David is astounding.
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.
God promises David that when he passes away one of his offspring/seed will sit on his throne forever.
It’s important to recognize the kind of kingdom God promises...
The Kind of Kingdom
The Kind of Kingdom
The promise is for a kingdom.
This promise is for a established kingdom.
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 sons 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.’ ”
Established forever
Established forever
This son of David will…
Now it is easy to see that immediately after David will come Solomon who will build the temple.
But God’s promise for David is much larger than simply Solomon or the kings after him.
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.
He is promising an eternal throne to a singular “seed”, “offspring”
Promised Son
Promised Son
But this promise from God to David is bigger than simply building the temple.
2 Samuel 7:14 (ESV)
I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
The promise is for an offspring to be a son of God.
So, the kingdom of God has a threefold dimension, focusing on God as King, on human beings as the subjects of the King, and the universe as the place where his kingship is worked out.
Thomas Schreiner
It’s important that we recognize the kind of King...
The Kind of King
The Kind of King
Shepherd King
Shepherd King
“Leader Over Them”
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.
David was once a shepherd of sheep.
Now God wants him to shepherd his people.
This kind of king that is to come is a shepherd king.
A king who will...
Gently lead
Tenderly bind up
Sharply correct with his shepherd’s crook
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.
I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
Now we turn back to the NT...
D-V-D
D-V-D
“King of Kings”
For Matthew to say in Matthew 1:1
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Matthew’s genealogy actually ends with this pointed expression that centers on David.
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
It may not seem significant
Matthew stylizes his genealogy, dividing it into three generations of fourteen. And fourteen, as any good Jew would have known, was the number arrived at by adding up the values of the three Hebrew letters D-V-D, “David.”
Matthew, like all the other Christians, practically screams as he begins his story about Jesus, “King! King! King!”
The son of David means that Jesus stands within the line of the Messianic promise from 2 Sam 7.
The promise that God made to David is that there would be one of his sons to sit on his throne forever.
Matthew 1. Title (1:1)
The phrase identifies Jesus as the one through whom God’s covenant with David (2 Sam 7:16) will be fulfilled, the promised king.
Rejoice this is the Kind of King We Have
Rejoice this is the Kind of King We Have
“Our Consolation”
The Narnian winter was thick.
Cold and bitter as ever.
But something began to change.
Signs of spring began to crop up everywhere.
Snow began to melt.
Trees began to bud.
‘This is Spring. What are we to do? Your winter has been destroyed, I tell you! This is Aslan’s doing.’
Since Jesus is the King of Kings, we can rejoice in the hope of His rule over the whole earth!
What Aslan does to the curse of the White Witch is exactly what Christ does for us in His reigning over the whole creation.
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ,
while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
repeat the sounding joy...
-Joy to the World
Rejoice For He IS Born
Rejoice For He IS Born
“Son of David”
When we finally turn to the New Testament…
It shouts at us the identity of Jesus.
The angel declares to Mary that…
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.”
No more let sins and sorrows grow
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found...
-Joy to the World
It’s not simply the angel who declares it.....
Rejoice For He IS Confirmed
Rejoice For He IS Confirmed
“By the People!”
It’s the most unlikely speakers...
And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”
The blind men see it.
As opposed to those with sight.
Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw.
And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?”
The demon-oppressed see it.
As opposed to those who have no evil spirit.
And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
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.”
Gentile women see it.
Jewish leaders miss it.
The whole OT and into the NT declare that Jesus will be this promises son of David.
Rejoice For He IS God Incarnate
Rejoice For He IS God Incarnate
“Sit at My Right Hand”
The Pharisee’s and the religious leaders have just been challenging Jesus by trying to trap Him in His words.
Jesus turns the tables on them.
He asks them a question.
He did not desire to win an argument.
He was trying to show them who HE IS.
Matthew 22:41–42 (ESV)
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”
Now Jesus was not unaware of the answer.
He was trying to get these leaders to focus on the real issue.
He know His own question but wanted to see if these leaders would acknowledge it.
These leaders were asking hard questions to trap Jesus.
Jesus asks hard questions to bring liberty.
Their questions were hostile seeking Jesus’ demise.
Jesus was leading them toward truth and grace.
saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
So don’t miss what Jesus does here…
Jesus wants them to be started off on the same foot.
The Messiah is the SON OF DAVID!
He has the leaders acknowledge what Matthew has been telling us.
He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?
The issue Jesus is pointing at here is that the Pharisees held that David was far greater than his descendants.
But Jesus is pointing to the fact that if the Messiah is to come from David this means he would be inferior to David.
Jesus wants these leaders to acknowledge what the Bible says.
Like they were trying to trap him, he is going to show them they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Jesus point to them that David sees the Messiah as far greater than himself.
If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
This is a mystery yet unrevealed to them.
God is NOT speaking to Himself here.
The only answer to this question is found in the divine Son of God who will sit on His father’s David’s throne!
Brothers and sisters, this is where we find the beauty and the glory of Christmas time.
“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”
-C. S. Lewis
That the eternal WORD became flesh.
Dwelt amongst us.
Lived a perfect life.
Died a substitutionary death.
Raised from the dead.
And NOW sits on the throne of His father DAVID forever.
This Jesus is the ONE whom we glory in.
This Jesus is the ONE whom Christmas is all about.
So when we hear wise men and sages asking about....
saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
We cry out, “He has come!”
Since Jesus is King of Kings, we can rejoice in the hope of His rule over the whole earth!
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).