The Empty Throne

The throne is empty but do we really want it to be filled? This advent series I wanted to match what we are already talking about, the idea of being in search of a king. Israel was in search of a king and all the kings they had where placeholder. Those kings, though put in place by God struggles with sin and the consequences of it. Like the Israelites where warned, in our hearts do we really want a king? The promise of a king though is something that we see echoed throughout the scriptures. But when we look at aLL THE EARTHLY KINGS AND EARTHLY LEADERS AND ALL THE EVIL THEY HAVe done and maybe feel a little downhearted about what it actually means to have a king. The most known promise of a future king is probably taken from, the book of Isaiah 9:6-7

Isaiah 9:6–7 CSB

For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

He will have dominion. over the earth it tells us. The promise of the messiah we see throughout scriptures was one that said He will have domionion over the earth, vindication over the wicked and the evil. There where two aspects to this kingly promise. One said a future King with the earth as His dominion. One passage also speaks of righteoussness that will come from the king.

Isaiah 11:1–2 CSB

Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

Zechariah 9:9 CSB

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

All the kings, all the leaders, all just placeholders That look forward to an eternal throne, an eternal king an eternal throne. and this is what we look forwad to, this is what we we will look into this advent season.

First we look into the idea that we have been going through for the past while, the empty throne and us in search of a king. Though the throne may be empty, it can still give us hope.

Week 1 – Hope: “The Throne Is Empty … But the Promise Still Speaks”

Base it on this passage in acts referencing life under the rule of David and how that was just a placeholder looking forward to Jesus

In the book of Acts we read about this. In chapter 13 Paul is visitng a city called Pisidian Antioch, which is in modern day Turkey. The ruins you can still see to this day. But Paul and His friends where there to share the message of the gospel. On the sabbath they went to the temple (we could learn something from this). The read through the law and the prophets and then once they did that the religious leaders where braver then me and invited Paul up to say something.

So Paul got up and shared a bit of a history lesson that we can learn from as well. He mentioned How God made them propser during their stay in Egypt. I find it kind of funny that Paul would refer to their slavery as a “stay” in Egypt. Even saying that God had prospered them through their slavery. what a way to look at it. But we read that God lead them, prospered them worked through them and through it all it says that God haD TO PUT up with them.

We can use the same history as well, though we are not Jewish we still get the main idea that man has always been trying to usurp God’s authority and do life on their own.

- Verse 17 shows how God led them out of the land of Egypt with a mighty arm. Leaving people without a doubt in their minds that God is mighty and overall. It was due to their own sin that they where in Egypt, and it was due to their own sin that they had to wander the desert for 40 years. (Verse 18) Their sin, thinking they could do it on their own and they did not need God, trying to take the place of God with stuff they built with their own hands. He gave them the land as an inheritance, and they messed that up. God gave them prophets to tell the people what God wanted of them, and they complained and wanted more, they wanted kings like everyone around them. We follow the story all the way to the promised saviour Jesus with that same theme that throughout all time, man has tried and failed to uphold the law, they always think that they can do it better then God can.

Acts 13:18 CSB

And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness;

Through all God had done for them, the still desired a king.

Acts 13:21–22 CSB

Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. After removing him, he raised up David as their king and testified about him, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man after my own heart, who will carry out all my will.’

- He told them throughout history how we have been guilty of trying to usurp the authority of God, how there has been need for a messiah and that this was God’s plan from the beginning. Though He always gave them a way of having a relationship with Him through the law handed down through Moses. What the law did is show us that we can not keep the law, we are imperfect, and we need the messiah. So, a sacrifice was needed. This is where we show that salvation was sent to us! Acts 13:26

Acts 13:26 CSB

“Brothers and sisters, children of Abraham’s race, and those among you who fear God, it is to us that the word of this salvation has been sent.

You remember, there was always a promise of an eternal throne, even when right now it seems that it is empty. We must Hope. Back to the OT we read that they struggled with this as well.

Through the judges they had people leading them and guiding them and God was to be their king. Though as we went through earlier there always was a promise of a future king. Judges 21:25

Judges 21:25 CSB

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.

The problem with the empty throne, is people forgot that they where supposed to serve God as king. then the promise came for an eternal throne through the line of David which we have been going through currently. David was promised the throne, that his family would reign but we will go through later on in samuel that they promise was not meant for him, but he was made to look forward to someone else.

2 Samuel 7:15 CSB

But my faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

2 Samuel 7:16 CSB

Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”

His eternal kingdom was not for Him but for His family. This idea is echoed throughout the OT. Isa 55:3

Isaiah 55:3 CSB

Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David.

You see this all looked forward to someone that was to come, someone greater, but the promsie echoed through the ages till it seemed like it would never come to pass. The kingdom of Israel became divided, the kings became increasingly worse and the there was a long time of silence. all the while the throne seemed empty, awaiting the day of the coming messiah. so we move back to the NT.

Acts 13:22–23 CSB

After removing him, he raised up David as their king and testified about him, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man after my own heart, who will carry out all my will.’ “From this man’s descendants, as he promised, God brought to Israel the Savior, Jesus.

Acts 13:33 CSB

God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm: You are my Son; today I have become your Father.

The thronbe in Israel was vacant, even with the kings it was always meant to look forward to Jesus. The throne is still empty in a sense, occupied by false leaders and charlattans but the promises stands that Jesus will one day come and fill the throne.

So far we have been essentially going from our time in 1 samuel to acts. I do not generally jump around like this but to follow the theme we need to remember what Jesus said to the people, why they missed the point. You must remember that the throne, going into the NT, was empty and the Israelites where looking for their messiah, but they where looking for the promised king that was going to come. That is what Paul was reminding them of in the book of Acts that we read through.

But if you go back to what Jesus taught He knew that he came to reign but the first time he came for a different reason, He came for salvation, to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:9–10 ““Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.””

Hope In salvation

The empty throne that we see gives us hope, which may seem counterintuitive. The first candle we light is the light of hope. Though this world seemed without out hope, with the promsied throne seemingly empty what do we do? God is still in control, he still reigns. what we are going to look at a little later is that The empty throne on earth will one day be filled by Jesus. That is part of our hope. But in the meantime we also put our hope in the salvation that the birth of Jesus offered. You must take the salvation that is offered by Jesus or there is no hope.

not only this but we must share this salvation message of hope with others around us. It matters much what we say because throughout history, all of it has been pointing to Jesus, our need for Him and the fact that He is coming again. History has repeated itself again and again, people try and usurp the authority of God and think they can do better but the bible points to our need for Him. If you would like an idea what a gospel tract like this looks like let me know, I have a good one based on this.

Second, we need to focus on This is content centered evangelism. Not everyone is going to like this, like the apostles, people may not like what we have to say. The world is telling us that all paths lead to Jesus and we are saying there is only one way. Some churches meet in the middle and try make the message easier for the people by being sensitive to those that do not know Jesus. But we can not water down the gospel. It matters much what is in the music we sing, and the scriptures we read and the sermons we preach. Lives are too important to worry that the message that we share might be offensive to someone. People need to know the whole gospel.

It is not wrong to want to attract people to Christianity by presenting them with an attractive program and meeting their needs. But that is not enough. So, we have them in the church now what? We must get people to understand the glory of the truth of the gospel. They need something so much deeper then just an experience but the truth of the scriptures. This is the only lasting truth worth having.

Hope in a future kingdom

Our Advent hope is the promise that we see in celebrating the birth of Jesus that the empoty throne is filled, by Jesus. Heaven and earth as we see it is temporary and will be rebuilt with Jesus as ruler. The Kingdom of heaven is here and at the same time will one day come.

“I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.”

ALso our hope is in the future return of the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesusbirth points to his promise to come back as he left. He told us to look out for Him to come back. so what do we do about it? It involves trust and surrender. It is because of the human problem. We want to decide what is right and wrong for ourselves. Nothing has changed since the Garden of Eden. We do not wish to be told by our Creator that something is wrong for us when everything appears so delightful. Neither do we wish to be told that something is good for us when it looks as though it is going to take a lot of effort and may actually bring us some pain. We want to hold the place of God in our lives and have God serve us, supplying our needs as we dictate. So faith always involves letting go of secure footholds and (apparent) certainties to do things God’s way.We must surrender our everything to Jesus and put our hope in His future return.

Point: Even when Israel has no king at all (Judges) and then the wrong king (Saul), the promise of an eternal throne is already on record. Isaiah grabs that promise 250 years after David and says, “It is still valid—even when you’re about to lose everything.” Advent Hope: The first candle burns because God’s word never fails, even in the darkest centuries.