Our Marvelous King

Introduction

Read 2 Samuel 7:12-16

2 Samuel 7:12–16 (ESV)

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 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.’ ”

What do you think of when you think of a King?

Power

Authority

Tyranny

Rule

As Americans, we have rebelled against the notion of kingdoms and kings because of the oppressive nature of the king we left when we formed our nation. We do not trust just one man to be in charge calling the shots.

So we have, in essence, as Mel Gibson’s movie the Patriot, so eloquently put it, traded one tyrant 5,000 miles away for 5,000 tyrants one mile away.

I’m joking, of course. We have developed this system of a constitutional republic because we do not trust one man to be in charge of the entire government. We recognize there must be a system of government and of power, but we know there needs to be a series of checks and balances because we all know that every single one of us is corrupt from the inside out and cannot be trusted with power. Because power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

God’s Promise for a King

We have been looking at how Jesus is our Marvelous Savior as He has fulfilled the role of Prophet by revealing who God is to us, and the role of Priest by mediating between us and God by offering the perfect sacrifice so we can come to God in spite of our sinfulness.

There is one last office that God established through the Old Testament that Jesus has also fulfilled through His life, death, and resurrection, and that is King.

Here in 2 Samuel 7, we see a promise that God makes to David that will be referenced over and again. God promises to David that He will build David a house and that his throne would be established forever.

The Need for a King

In ancient times, people knew a king was needed because there had to be a system of government and authority.

A king was necessary for the

good of society, f

flourishing of human life,

protection of the people.

Yes, there have been terrible kings who have used the power entrusted to them for selfish purposes, but the role of King in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is a good thing.

It is a thing that God instituted Himself from the very beginning.

When God created man and woman, He created them to have a role of authority and dominion over what He had just created.

Genesis 1:26(ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Part of our role as image bearers for God is to exercise authority and dominion over the earth. But it is not our own authority. We are stewards of the authority that belongs to God who is King over all!

Authority and dominion have been corrupted because of sin. Adam and Eve chose to exercise authority in the way that sought to please themselves rather than in a way to bring glory to God and now all forms of government bear the curse of sin and corruption because sin reigns in our hearts. It does not matter how good the person might be.

So we are waiting for a king to come and reign perfectly.

God’s Promise to David

So God makes a promise to David. He promises him that his kingdom and throne will never end.

Double Fulfillment

Now, before we go too much further, I want us to see that this promise has a double or multiple fulfillments.

In verses 12-15, we see that God tells David that his offspring will be established and that he will build a house and that whenever he sins, God will discipline him as a father to a son.

We must first recognize that this does not immediately mean Jesus because Jesus never sinned. There is an immediate fulfillment to this promise as Solomon, who is David’s son through Bathsheba, will become king after David and will build a physical temple for God’s presence.

But this promise does not stop with Solomon. This promise actually includes the descendants of David who will rise up and become king and there is truth that when they sinned and rebelled, God disciplined them. But there is the line in verse 16 which tells us that there is still someone else to come to establish David’s throne forever.

Hint: The only King who can ensure that David’s throne endures forever is Jesus. In fact, after the exile, it seemed like David’s throne had disappeared, for there was no one reigning on his throne. So the people were looking for the King who would reign forever.

But what kind of King is this forever king going to be? We get a picture of this King based on what kind of King God is to David and to Israel.

King Jesus is Our Shepherd King

To understand the kind of King God is going to provide, we have to see how God Himself is relating to David and to His people.

This promise that God gives to David actually comes upon the heel of David wanting to do something for God. David has been established in Jerusalem and is now within his own palace.

But he sees that the ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence is still within the tent, or tabernacle that Moses and the Israelites built as they were wandering through the wilderness.

2 Samuel 7:1–3 (ESV)

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.”

David wants to serve the Lord by building a permanent house that will serve as the presence of the Lord upon the earth. This is not a bad desire, but it is not what God has asked for.

2 Samuel 7:4–11 (ESV)

But 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? 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 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 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.

God tells David, I have never needed anyone to provide me with anything.

God is King over Israel, yet He does not make Israel serve Him. Over and again, God has demonstrated His faithful love and care for His people. He has never needed anyone to provide Him with anything.

Acts 17:24–25 (ESV)

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

God is a King who does not need servants. He actually provides for His subjects all they need for life and flourishing. He tells David that instead of David building God a house, God will build David a house through this King who will come from his line.

Now we are called to serve the Lord, but its not that kind of service. We are not giving anything to God what He Himself does not already own.

And we see what God has expected of the kings who serve Israel by the kind of man David was when God chose Him. 2 Samuel 7:8

2 Samuel 7:8 (ESV)

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.

To be king is to be a shepherd. It is not to command and to take and to serve one’s self-interest. It is to serve the people that God has placed under the care of the king.

This is the kind of King God is promising to His people.

We have hints of these kinds of leaders within our democratic forms of Government. We call our political leaders “public servants,” because they are called to serve the interests of the people who elected them.

In Brittain, they even go further as they call their leaders “ministers,” starting with the top elected official as the Prime Minister. The word “minister,” literally means “servant.” In a perfect world, this is what kings and leaders should be.

Of course, David and Solomon, as great as they were, were not perfect at being these types of kings. While they did serve their people, they also acted like the kings of the nations as they took things that did not belong to them.

In a few chapters later, you will have the story of David taking Bathsheba from Uriah. And Solomon will accumulate for himself wives from all the surrounding nations and will build up wealth and prosperity upon the backs of the people of Israel. This was not how God intended the kings to behave as they led His people.

King Jesus, however, is different. King Jesus did not come to be served. Yes, He called men and women to follow Him. He called them to repentance and obedience to His will. But He did not seek to take from the people He came to serve or to seek His own interests.

There was an incident where the mother James and John wanted Jesus to give them places of honor and authority by placing them on His right hand and left hand. As a result, the rest of the disciples were indignant at this request. So Jesus had to tell them what true greatness really looked like.

Matthew 20:25–28 (ESV)

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

King Jesus tells His disciples that true greatness comes from serving, and that is exactly what He Himself has come to do.

You want to know what King Jesus is like? Go back and read Psalm 23. As David is reflecting on God as a shepherd, he is also giving us a glimpse into the character of King Jesus.

And what is the path King Jesus takes to David’s throne on which He will reign forever? He lays His life down by willingly going to the cross for His people.

It is in the crucifixion that He dons His royal robe.

He takes upon His head the crown of thorns.

He takes His seat upon the cross.

And His royal scepter pierces His side.

And as He takes His seat, He triumphantly declares, “It is finished!”

Jesus claimed His throne, not through war, dominion, and tyranny. He claimed His throne through Humble obedience to the Father and through lifelong service to His people.

Philippians 2:8–11 (ESV)

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

King Jesus Alone Deserves Our Worship

Which brings us to what Jesus deserves because He is our great and merciful King!

While we cannot give anything to Jesus He does not already own, we are still called to worship and serve Him as our King.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

How do we do this?

It goes back to how God created us. If you will remember, in Genesis, God created us to be in His image, to exercise dominion over the face of the earth.

But it is not our own dominion and authority we are exercising. It is God’s authority He has given to us to steward over His creation.

So, if we are going to live as image bearers of God, then we are called to submit to King Jesus by exercising authority and dominion as He has showed us how. It is not about trying to be the greatest, but about becoming a servant.

Do you want to be great? Do you want to exercise authority as God has created us to do?

We exercise the authority of King Jesus by submitting our lives to Him in worship.

Yes, to worship is to sing our praises and to submit ourselves to the proclamation of His Word.

But worship goes so much deeper than simply what we do here on Sunday mornings.

To worship is to find our greatest worth and value in the character of King Jesus.

This means we are called to Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (ESV)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

With everything we are, we will seek to love the Lord more than our jobs, our possessions, our families, even our very lives.

But if we love the Lord our God, then we will exercise Christ’s authority as we also seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, which is the second greatest commandment.

1 John 4:19–20 (ESV)

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

This is why Jesus says, if you want to be the greatest, you must become least. You cannot worship King Jesus if you do not love your neighbor. How can you love your God whom you have not seen if you cannot love your brother who you do see?

So we worship King Jesus as we love and serve one another.

We exercise the dominion and authority of King Jesus as we teach our children and grandchildren how to love and worship Christ.

We exercise dominion and the authority of King Jesus as we make disciples of all nations. This means, if we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, then we must share with them the hope of what King Jesus has come to do for us!

You cannot love your neighbor if you are not willing to share what you know of King Jesus with them and invite them into this same relationship.

We exercise dominion and the authority of King Jesus as we die to ourselves and live lives of holiness that God has called us to!

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Seeking to grow in holiness and all the Spirit to do His work of sanctification in our lives is our spiritual worship. We cannot worship King Jesus if we do not want to be holy like Him.

We exercise dominion and the authority of King Jesus as we sacrificially give to meet the needs of others and to further the Kingdom of God.

Again, I want us to be clear here. When we give of our tithes and offerings, we are not giving to God something He doesn’t already have.

You cannot give to God because He already owns it all. But He is calling each of us to bear His image and to exercise dominion in our spheres of life for His glory and so we give a portion of what He has given to us so we too, can proclaim the glory and worth of King Jesus.

We exercise dominion as we give to support and further the ministries and outreach of the church, as we seek to meet others in their needs, as we see to show hospitality. We are leading as princes and princesses under the authority of King Jesus as we lead in this way.

We exercise the dominion and authority of King Jesus as we seek to forgive others when they wrong us.

We all want to exercise authority in our spheres of life because God has created us to do so.

Are we following the lead of King Jesus by becoming a servant to all, or are we simply trying to serve ourselves and missing out on the true greatness Christ has called us to?

If I have any worth it is to live my life for God - st Patrick