JESUS IS KING WEEK 1
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What is a King?
What is a King?
INTRODUCTION
My people!!! What is up ya’ll!
I am so excited for tonight and for this new series we are starting called, Jesus is King. This series will hopefully challenge you and challenge the way you view Jesus. And this series will set up our WKND theme “For My King.”
Throughout this series we are going to answer 3 main questions.
WEEK 1: What is a King?
WEEK 2: Why is Jesus King?
WEEK 3: Is Jesus your King? (PAUL FERNANDES )
And in week 4 we are going to hear an incredible testimony from a young man that survived a head on car crash and should have died but now lives his life for the King of Kings.
But tonight is all about setting the stage and answering the questions, WHAT IS A KING?
MAIN IDEA: A king is the one who establishes and rules over a kingdom.
A king is one who holds authority, sets direction, and influences the life of every subject.
Now when I think about what a king is, one man comes to mind. (SHOW CLIP FROM LOTR) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruQNLYaG_V4
You might be asking Thomas what in the heck did I just watch? Let me tell you thats cinema! That is a beautiful compilation of the greatest movie character in the history of movies.
Who has seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Who hasn’t seen it? Alright Kyle change of plans lets boot up fellowship of the rings. Students go ahead and text your parents tell them you will be here for the next 9ish hours. Actually we are going to watch the extend edition and thats closer to 11, 11.5 hours. I am just kidding we are not going to binge watch those right now but that is tempting because that trilogy is absolutely amazing! And everyone needs to watch it. Plus there are a lot of parallels and allegories about Jesus and God.
If you say Thomas I wouldn’t dare watch that it is so nerdy well I hate to break it to you but being a nerd is AWESOME! Back in my day being cool meant party, playing sports, and being popular. Nowadays being a nerd is being cool. So be cool and watch Lord of the Rings.
Now the question may be what does this have to do with what we are talking about tonight. What does the mighty king Aragorn have to do with our message tonight? Well first of all, I showed that video because I wanted to watch it. Could I have shown you a photo just like Po from Ku Fu Panda? Probably but then I wouldn’t have gotten to watch that sweet video on our epic LED wall. And this is relevant to what we are talking about tonight. Aragorn is a king, we are talking about what is a king? But more than that, Aragorn in this story is not like any other king, He is considered to be a king of kings, the king of all men. The one that unites all the kingdoms of men. Sound like anyone we know?
I brought up this extraordinary character because I actually don’t want to just establish what a king is? I think we all can understand what a king is to some degree. What I want to establish from the Word of God is what a KING is.
The difference is lowercase king vs Uppercase King. It is the same difference as god and God. A god and THE GOD. A king and THE KING.
So the real question is not just What is a King? But what is THE King?
So lets open the Word of God together and turn to 1 Samuel 8. We will be look at the whole chapter tonight so stay with me. Because in this chapter we are going to look at what a King is? An eternal king and what is the difference is between a king and the King.
***READ***
1 When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” 10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”
***PRAY***
This bit of scripture is an old testament narrative. So we are going to do our best tonight to walk through these 22 verses searching to understand what happened and how it applies to us today. The first verses we are going to look at is 1 Samuel 8:1-6. This is where the nation of Israel is making a request to the prophet Samuel for a king to rule over them.
See there has never been a group of people without some type of leadership, some type of rule and influence. Whenever a kingdom is set, whenever a kingdom is establish, that kingdom demands a king. That is what Israel is doing here.
A KINGDOM DEMANDS A KING
1 When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
They are looking to the other kingdoms around the world and they are seeing that everyone else has a king. They want to have someone visible and front and center that is able to fight their battles and lead them. To judge them as it says, to set the rule and law of the people.
But what they didn’t realize is that they already had a king.
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
But God as King was not like the rest of the world.
God’s plan for them was to be built different.
To look unlike the rest of the world. To operate unlike anyone else.
This is unseen and unknown and it required the nation of Israel to trust God. WHICH THEY BASICALLY NEVER DID!!!
God has had such patience with His creation. You know Scripture refers to patience as long suffering. And the nation of Israel has to be the reason why God says that patience is long suffering because it is clear. God had to have been suffering as He was giving His people everything they could have ever needed and they were still rejecting Him and turning from Him.
God created the Heavens and the earth.
He saved all of mankind through Noah.
Establish His covenant with Abraham.
Built a nation our Jacob.
Delivered that nation from slavery under Egypt.
Parted the Red Sea to keep that nation alive.
Provided water in the desert and mana in the wilderness
He preserved them for 40 years in the wilderness
God brought the walls of Jericho down & defeated Israels enemies in Canaan.
He raised up judges to deliver Israel from oppressors and gave Samson the strength he needed to defeat the Philistines.
And this is a short list of what God has done from the beginning of time leading up to when Israel rejects God and says we want a king like the rest of the world.
The thing that is so sad. Is we are the exact same today.
God has given us everything we could possibly need. And we are a people that cry out not fair, I want more, I don’t agree with, I want to know why, this makes me feel good, this is my truth, and on and on and on it goes.
GOD GIVES US EVERYTHING WE NEED AND WE GO… I WANT WHAT THE WORLD HAS.
So what does God do?
GOD GIVES THEM WHAT THEY WANT
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” 10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him.
God is patient and will suffer for us far longer than any of us would. But He will also give us over to our own desires and sinful passions.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
But He is also honest with us and doesn’t hide what the outcome will be if He gives us what we want. That is why He has Samuel warn the people of Israel about what a king really is.
WHAT IS A KING?
Now remember, this warning is about a king? What a king will be like. What an earthly, human, man king will be.
How we defined what a king was at the beginning was one who holds authority, sets direction, and influences the life of every subject. But God makes it clear what kind of authority, what kind of direction, and what kind of influence a lowercase king will bring to them.
11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.
Here is what is wild… When we hear this warning we go okay, thats not good. God has given us everything and this warning shows us that a king would bring ruin to us. But what did the nation of Israel do? The heard Samuel warn them as God instructed and they said nah, that doesn’t bother us. We want a king like that. We want a king like the rest of the world.
It is true though and we are the same way today. The king we want is an earthly king.
THE KING WE WANT IS AN EARTHLY KING
19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
As I have been studying and preparing this message, it has just been so abundantly clear that we haven’t changed. We still get everything we could possibly need from God and demand the things of the world.
We want an earthly king. We may not want someone literally to be a dictator and ruler over our lives but thats because we want to be that for ourselves. We want to do what we want, when we want to do it, how we want to do it. We want to be the king of our life because life then is easy, it is filled with instant satisfaction, it’s filled with what I think is right and not what is actually right. It means that I get to be in control.
I mean this is the root of the original sin. When Satan tempted and deceived Eve it was that if you eat you won’t surely die but you will be like God. You will be like the King. That was the original sin. They wanted to be their own kings. It is the same sin we have been falling to since the dawn of time. It is the same sin we fall to everything single day.
But students we have to make a stand and say enough is an enough. I can’t keep chasing after an earthly king. I can’t keep wanting an earthly king because I NEED AN ETERNAL KING!
THE KING WE NEED IS AN ETERNAL KING
The Uppercase King. Not a king but THE KING.
The King that doesn’t fade in time. The King that doesn’t take but gives and gives abundantly.
The King that is for ever and ever.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.
The King that is to be feared.
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
The King not just above every king but above every god.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
The King who is judge, lawgiver, and savior.
22 For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.
The King who is great and marvelous, just and true as it says in Revelations 15:3.
The King that is eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God. - 1 Timothy 1:17
The King that is the king of kings.
THAT IS THE KING WE NEED. WE NEED THE ETERNAL KING!
And the greatest mistake we can make is the greatest mistake Israel made. They rejected God as the king over them.
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
God has always been the King of the world. Before time began God was King. God is KING. God will always be King.
And the nation of Israel rejected Him as King just as so many of us do today.
CONCLUSION
We don’t have time to go through all of this but this request for a king brought a lot of destruction and ruin to the nation of Israel. The people anointed a king named Saul and he was not a good king. He was a king that looked like the rest of the world though. They got exactly what they wanted. Even though the nation of Israel rejected God, He didn’t turn from them. Instead He turned this situation, this sin around for His glory for His good as He often does like it says in Romans 8:28
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God anointed the King to follow after Saul and that king would be none other than king David and through the line of king David would come THE KING.
THE KING THAT WOULD NOT TAKE FROM US. THE KING THAT WOULDN’T LOOK LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD BUT THE KING THAT WOULD RESTORE US AND GIVE US EVERLASTING LIFE.
1 Samuel 8 helps us see the contrast: earthly kings demand us to give and give nothing in return, but the eternal King lays down His life for His people.
So what is a king? A king is just another man who holds authority, sets direction, and influences the life of his subjects. A king is the one who establishes and rules over his kingdom.
This questions doesn’t really matter though. A king is just someone who will fade away in time.
The real questions is what is THE KING? And what is already true and what we will seek to understand even better next week is that Jesus is the King.
He is the KING who hold authority over death, sets direction in life, and influences his subjects for eternity.
He is the KING who has established the world and rules over all creation.
