The Return of the King

Each Advent season reminds us of one of the most amazing, life-changing, borderline unbelievable were it not for the sacred Scriptures, truth of the incarnation of God the Son.

J. I. Packer calls it,

“Of all the glorious truths of Christian theology, there is none more excellent and central than the truth that Jesus of Nazareth was ‘God made man...’”—J. I. Packer, Knowing God

We will stroll through the Scriptures this morning, knowing that at the back of our minds we are interacting with prophecy and hope. Prophecy, the foretelling of events to come, inspired and bolstered hope for God’s people. We are going to zero our targets on the facet of Christ’s kingship.

My hope and prayer is that as we meditate on the Return of the King this morning, we will...

Expectantly live for the return of the King

That word expectantly conveys an eagerness, like eager waiting for the coming Christmas morning. It also conveys joy. You are looking forward to that day, expecting it, like the arrival of a sweet baby girl.

Far greater than all the toys we can accumulate, or even the birth of a delightful child, we expectantly live for the return of the King.

I. The Foretelling of the King- Select Scriptures

We begin with the prophetic side of our focus this morning. We need to understand three truths with this particular point. We need to know the need for the King, the promise of the King, and the delay of the King. This will, I hope, set the stage for the unimaginable glory of the arrival of the King.

A. The Need for the King—the Garden Invaded (Gen. 3:1–7)

Why do we need a King in the first place? Briefly, God created everything, including humanity in His image, to be His co-regents and spread His glory from the Garden of Eden (temple-like) to the entirety of creation.

He was made perfect and upright (Ecclesiastes 7:29 “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”)

Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden, given several commands and one prohibition. God provided for all of Adam’s and Eve’s needs and wants, and all Adam had to do was obey. And lest we think Adam was like us, Adam had no sin nature. No other human being in the history of humanity had the ability, reasons, and revelation to obey God than Adam (the second Adam excepted).

But the throne room of this co-regent of God was invaded by a serpent. The serpent subverted God’s created order, called God’s Word into question, blatantly denied God’s Word, and questioned God’s character.

Eve succumbed to the devil’s temptation, rejecting her King and worshipped herself and Satan. Adam, the one charged with guarding the garden (cf. Gen. 2:15). Adam was to guard the Garden Temple from the unclean (not unlike the earthly Tabernacle of which we have been speaking), protecting it from invaders.

Adam chose, instead, to allow this serpent stay, to follow Eve in her sin, and to reject willingly the goodness of God.

The Garden had been invaded, but the criminals were exiled. The co-regent (king) Adam had failed. The King would need to come, and in this terrible and human-history changing event we call the Fall, we get a glimpse of God’s plan from eternity past (cf. Eph. 1:3, 11–12)

B. The Promise of the King—His Identity Stated (Gen. 3:15; Gen. 12:1–3; 17:6)

In the greatest travesty of betrayal, ungratefulness, deception, and pure hatred we have the first Promise of the King (the protoevangelium), and in this promise of the King we have His identity stated.

The undoer of the wickedness of the serpent (and consequently the betrayal of God’s coregents) will be undone…by the Seed of the woman. The first human to sin, Eve, would be the means by which the first sin would be undone. But His identity would be expanded in further promises of God, “farther steps,” as the 2LCF states.

To Abraham God enters an incredibly gracious covenant, and part of the promises of this covenant would be in Genesis 17:6 “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.” God promises Abraham seed, and through that seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and that seed would be a King.

C. The Delay of the King—His Coming Debated (Gen. 4:1; Gen. 49:8–12; 2 Sam. 7)

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,” O Holy Night! tell us. And long it was. The people of Israel, as we see the seed of Abraham expand and multiply, lived on these (and many other) promises. But the King delayed His coming, and this delay led to significant debate. We won’t dwell long here, but the debates raged as to Who the Messiah (anointed one) would be and what He would do.

*The restoration of Israel after exile and conquering

“Even in later times, the old hope of a glorious future for the nation [of Israel] maintained the supremacy.” -Emil Schürer

II. The Arrival of the King- Matt. 1:1, 18–25 (cf. Gen. 17:6; 49:8–12)

Can you imagine the utter joy God’s people experienced with the announcement and birth of this promised Seed!? We will not dwell long on the birth, at least not today. Instead, we will fast-forward about 33 years to connect the dots from our previous consideration.

A. The Need for the King—the Garden Invaded (Matt. 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–42; John 18:1–11)

We already noted the need for the King—the Garden of Even had been invaded. We turn our attention again to the Garden, but not the Garden of Eden. The Garden is about to be invaded, if we could use that word, and rather than fall, as did the First Adam, the Second Adam, the King conquers.

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.””

The Gospels proclaim the command and authority of the King—where sickness is undone, death is defeated, demons lay prostrate before Him—and all of this is meant to point to His authority to invade “the god of this world’s” territory and reclaim His people.

It is interesting that, where Adam failed in the Garden, Jesus succeeded. We needed the King to come deliver us from bondage. He does this, as we learn from Gen. chapter 3, by having his heel bruised. And this bruising of His heel, this humble king, confused many in Israel, including His own disciples. The Promise of the King was given—and His identity stated—to clear up this confusion.

B. The Promise of the King—His Identity Stated (Gen. 3:15; Gen. 12:1–3; 17:6; cf. Matt. 11:2–6; Acts 1:6)

The arrival of the King was different than most expected, though His identity was prophesied for years and His miracles demonstrated the veracity of His claims. He was not to be a deliverer of physical Israel, the promise of the King showed that He came to create and redeem true Israel, those who he foreknew (as Paul tells us in Rom. 8:29).

Because they confused His identity, they were also confused about His coming, and why the King was not conquering as depicted in so many prophecies.

C. The Delay of the King—His Coming Debated (Matt. 24–25)

The King will return in glory, but we do not know when. Although countless Christians develop timelines, creating charts and tying them into national or global events, the King plainly tells us, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows,” (Matt. 24:36)

Instead of worrying when the King is coming, we should be ready for the return of the King (Matthew 24:42 “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

III. The Return of the King

We could elaborate on the need for the King, that we need Him to return and consummate His kingdom. We could spend time on the promise of the King and describe His identity. We could talk about the delay of the King and debate it.

Rather than address each one individually, we will wrap them all up into one point: the return of the King. He is coming, the only question we need to ask ourselves is, “Am I ready?”

There will be two responses at the Return of the King—adoration and devastation.

Adoration—2 Thessalonians 1:10 “when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

Devastation—2 Thessalonians 1:5–9 “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,”

2 Thessalonians 2:8–12 “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Expectantly live for the return of the King

We have hope and we have a mission

We have a warning and we have an opportunity