The Promised King

Prayer

The Hope of a King who will rule with righteousness and justice

Today, as we begin the season of Advent, we’re starting a new sermon series we’re calling The Promise of Christmas.

The idea is this: wrapped up in those swaddling clothes is the great hope of humanity - that’s what we proclaim at Christmas. That this baby, this child, born in the humblest of circumstances, is the one who will fulfill the beautiful promises of God.

Throughout the Sundays we’ll be covering the following promises - the Promise of a Savior, as we’ll see in the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph is told that the child Mary has conceived will “save his people from their sins.” The Promise of the Light, people are living in great darkness, now a great light has emerged. The Promise of a Reconciler, one who will bring his people back to God, to be reconciled - not just with the Lord, but with all of creation. This morning we’re looking at the Promise of a King. One who will govern his people with justice and in righteousness. A ruler who will bring peace.

All these promises wrapped up in the baby, Jesus, that’s our great hope. And my hope is that this will be a season for us to share that hope. To truly celebrate who Jesus is and what he brings. That we will know the great joy the angel announced at his birth, Luke 2:10-11, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

Because, let’s be honest, we need that hope, especially when it comes to the idea of a king, a ruler. Because this is a place where we put a lot of misplaced hope.

For most U.S. Presidents today, their highest approval ratings come right after they take office. Then typically its downhill from there. Because reality hits - this President, and all the things they promised to do, all the problems they promised to fix - turns out so those are easier to say you’ll fix them than to actually take care of the problem. That’s even if they make wise policy decisions and aren’t overly corrupt or self-serving.

As much as any of us might prefer one political party over another, we ought to resign ourselves to the idea that the pendulum is always going to swing back and forth. That there’s always going to be enough dissatisfaction with the party currently in power that it will give the opposing party the advantage in the next election. Just wait a while, it will swing back. It always does.

Listen, we’re actually rather fortunate here in the United States - comparatively, our system of government has run really well. It’s enabled a level of freedom, equally and prosperity that far exceeds most of the world. As Winston Churchill once said, “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

When I was back in Dallas several weeks ago my cousin who lives in Chile, he and my uncle happened to be visiting at the same time, so we had a family gathering. I was sitting next to Ricardo, my cousin, and I’m not quite sure how we got on the topic, but we started talking about the political situation in Chile. Boom, he was off, talking about how terrible it was, how fortunate they were that the new Constitution they held a vote on didn’t pass - because it would have bankrupt the country.

There’s no end of bad rulers - as I was thinking about this, I realized that my parents lived under dictators in two different countries. Both my parents grew up in Austria, which was annexed by Germany, so they lived under Adolf Hitler’s rule until the Allies defeated the Nazi’s. Then several years later they lived in the Dominican Republic, which was ruled by another dictator, Rafael Trujillo, nicked “El Jefe”, “the Boss”. He reigned for over thirty years until he was finally assassinated.

Even today, we could go through the list of countries, they all have their political problems, many of which are terrible, under the rule of despots. Others just corrupt or poorly run. And it’s not as if there is uniquely bad time in history, this has always been the case. So you can see why this hope exists. Why we hope for a ruler that will come and reign with righteousness and justice - one who won’t get voted out in four years, but one who will reign forever. And the Promise of Christmas is, here he is, here is that king.

So let’s go back to the Gospel of Luke, where we see this promise being made in the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she will be the mother of this king.

Luke 1:26-33 - In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

So this passage begins with Gabriel, God’s messenger, coming to a young woman by the name of Mary, who lived in the town of Nazareth. Amazing enough that we have a visitation by an angel - but what makes this visitation even more amazing is how Gabriel greets her. Mary, an unmarried peasant girl, has virtually no social standing. And yet, Gabriel greets her with the highest esteem - she is favored by God. The Lord is with her. That greeting - and who is giving it to her - has Mary very much wondering what the heck is going on.

And then Gabriel delivers the unbelievable news - Mary, you will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to name him Jesus. And then, the promise, this son of yours, he will be great. He will called the Son of the Most High. He is going to be given - by the Lord himself - the throne of his father, David, the great king of Israel. In other words, this is the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one who will reign over the people of Israel, Jacob’s descendants, and he will reign over them forever. His kingdom that will never end.

So, just to make this blatantly clear - this is royal language. Mary will give birth to a son who will be king. He will be the king that God promised to his people a thousand years before when he promised David that one of his descendants will sit on the throne forever. In Jesus, the promised king has come. That’s what Gabriel is telling Mary and what we’re celebrating at Christmas. The ruler we long to have rule over us is coming.

We get an even greater glimpse of how this promised king will rule in a prophecy given by God to Isaiah hundreds of years before the angel Gabriel came to visit Mary: Isaiah 9:6-7, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

So this child who is coming, according to this promise, will be not just a king, but a great king. He will take the mantle of leadership, the government on his shoulders. He is going to take that burden on. Then the Lord, through Isaiah, gives a list of titles that will characterize how this child will reign, what kind of leader he will be.

First, this child will be called, Pelah Yoetz, Wonderful Counselor. He will be a king who will be an amazing advisor, a marvelous counselor - in other words, he will show great wisdom (which, honestly, how great it would be to see this attribute in more of our leaders). His wisdom will be greater than the wisest king who ever reigned, Solomon. It’s why he will establish and uphold his kingdom with justice and righteousness, because he will rule in wisdom.

Quite telling that his next title is a divine title. This child will be El Gibbor, Mighty God or Strong God or Powerful God. This adds to what will make this king so great - not only will he know the right thing to do (because of his great wisdom), but he will have the power to do it. He will be able to carry out his acts of justice and righteousness, he will be able to accomplish what he intends. Power, when used rightly, is a good, good thing.

Third title he is given is Everlasting Father, or, in Hebrew, Avi Ad. He is the Eternal Father, the Father Who Lives Forever. As the angel Gabriel declared to Mary, his kingdom will never end. So not only will he know what to do, and have the power to carry it out, but the good he does will never be undone. A new administration will not come in and undo everything this king has done. You won’t see the back-and-forth of signing executive orders to undo what previous administration did, as we’re seeing now. No one will overtake the throne, no military coups - he will reign forever and ever. All the justice and righteousness he establishes will be upheld forever.

Finally, Sar Shalom. This child will be called the Prince of Peace, the Ruler Who Brings Peace, Who Brings Wholeness. He will establish a reign (because he is so wise, so powerful, because it is everlasting) that will be good. Good for all. A kingdom of peace. The people under his reign will experience peace, wholeness, they will be at ease, free from fear and worry, free to enjoy the fullness of life in this kingdom. You take all these together, that’s a heck of a promise of a king.

But, as we raised the issue before - will this promised King follow through?! Will he be the ruler that Isaiah (really, the Lord), so boldly proclaims he will be? Or is this just another case of disappointment, another ruler filled with promises who fails to deliver? Now, to be clear, his reign has not yet come in fullness - that will happen when he returns again. But thankfully, we can see the works Jesus has already done - and is doing now - that show us that he, and he alone, is the true King. The Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

One person who’s actually done a lot of work to document this is a historian by the name of Tom Holland, who wrote a book called Dominion. Interestingly, Holland is not a Christian. But in his study of history, especially Western history, he noticed that it was Christianity that had made profound changes - it literally remade the world. And the event that had the greatest impact on the this change is right there on the front cover - Jesus being crucified.

Jesus hanging on the cross, and nailed above his head is the sign that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” And it is this, the Promised King who became the Crucified King that changed everything. It demonstrated why Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the king we all hope and long for - the one who will reign in justice and righteousness.

Because on the cross, Jesus flips everything on its head - up until this time in history, the strong overpowered the weak. The people existed to serve the king. Rulers lorded over the people. But here was a king who came to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many. The strong becoming weak, laying down his life, so the weak could become strong.

Exactly what Paul lays out in Philippians 2, when he describes the depths that Jesus went to - emptying himself of his Godly power and glory, taking on human form, taking on the form of a servant, and as Paul writes, becoming obedient to death, and to the very worst form of death, death on a cross. And because Jesus went to the lowest of lows, the Father lifted him to the highest of highs:

Philippians 2:9-11 - Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. In other words, God made him king. King over all.

And it’s this great humbling, this self-giving love - not just for a few, but for all, that remade the world. That demonstrated why Jesus is the Promised King. All the moral assumptions and values that we hold today - those only came about because of Jesus, what he taught, what he did (especially his dying on the cross).

It was because of King Jesus that his followers began picking up infants left to die - infanticide was a common practice before then. It was because of King Jesus that his followers began to care for the sick and dying as a moral duty, and eventually hospitals were formed. Education for all came about because of King Jesus (first Sunday Schools were formed to teach illiterate children to read using the Bible).

The whole basis of universal human rights - that was never thought of in human history until King Jesus. This idea of taking seriously that everyone was created in the image of God, Jesus died for all - and therefore all persons have value, worthy of basic human rights. It was only where followers of Jesus fought against it that the practice of slavery became abolished - beforehand, it was practiced by all cultures throughout history.

The more and more people have lived under the reign of King Jesus, the more we have seen that he truly is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the king we have all longed for.

Practicing the Way of Jesus - Spiritual Practices that you might put into practice in order to live out the truth that Jesus is the Promised King.

So, the other week I was catching up on some news, listening to some of the commentators I follow regularly. And it was not good, I had a sense of honestly, disgust, from things I saw from both sides of the political aisle, both the right and the left. It was disheartening. But It was also a helpful reminder to me that our hope is not in our earthly rulers, not in a political party, not in any given administration. Which is not to say that we totally disengage from the political process - we want as good of leaders in office as we can get.

But it is to say that our ultimate hope is in the Promised King. We can make this a practice, to put our hope in the kingdom of Jesus, in Jesus as our true king. Which can be a very helpful and necessary thing, because it’s easy to get swept up in politics, become consumed by it. One way we can center our hope in Jesus is by praying as Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Pray our hope in Jesus as King, his return, his second coming when he will establish his reign forever.

Another way to practice our hope in Jesus as the Promised King is to live more fully under his reign. To let his reign be done in our own lives. To surrender to him as king over us. We do that by living in obedience to Jesus. How might you pursue practicing the way of Jesus by living in greater obedience? Daily Prayer of Surrender? Regular Practice of Confession? Is there an area of life where you know you are resisting God’s will in your life? Tell Jesus, yes, I will.

Prayer - Reflection - Pray to Jesus as king (approach the throne)