The King is Coming

Welcome! Kyle—one of the pastors. Today we’re starting a new (brief!) sermon series called “Advent” which will run today, Christmas and next Sunday. As I’m sure you know, the word Advent reefers to the arrival of a notable person or thing. So we might talk about the advent of the internet, for example. It’s the arrival of a person or event that is significant, such that it changes things going forward. If you think of the internet, for example, it’s changed the world and impacted our daily lives. Well, in a far more significant way, the arrival of Christ, his advent in the world, has changed everything. Even our calendar is based around his advent.

So we want to spend a couple of weeks thinking and meditating on this—and we’re going to think today about his first advent, or his promised arrival. On Christmas day we will consider his actual arrival. And next Sunday we’ll think about his second advent, or his second coming.

So let’s jump right in. We’ll be looking at a promise of the King’s coming from the OT book of Zechariah (please turn to ch 9; then read and pray).

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The Christmas time of year, in our culture at least, is not just focused on the arrival of the Lord Jesus, it is also focused on the arrival of presents. And so I thought I would share with you some of the more popular presents making the rounds in 2018:

Scruff-A-Luvs: Each Scruff-a-Luv comes as a matted ball of fur with only its eyes showing. Once kids wash, dry, and style its hair, their new pet is revealed!

Each Scruff-a-Luv comes as a matted ball of fur with only its eyes showing. Once kids wash, dry, and style its hair, their new pet is revealed!

Pie Face Cannon Game: Players have to aim and launch the whipped cream cannon in their friend's face.

Players have to aim and launch the whipped cream cannon in their friend's face.

Baby Alive Potty Dance Baby: The doll does a little dance to let Mommy or Daddy know she needs to use the bathroom. Once she's placed on the potty, she'll tinkle and kids can add a sticker to her reward chart.

The doll does a little dance to let Mommy or Daddy know she needs to use the bathroom. Once she's placed on the potty, she'll tinkle and kids can add a sticker to her reward chart.

LEGO 'Harry Potter' Hogwarts Great Hall Building Kit: It comes with a potions room, treasure room, sorting hat, and the Mirror of Erised—enabling Harry and friends to pursue their wildest adventures yet.

It comes with a potions room, treasure room, sorting hat, and the Mirror of Erised so they can take Harry and friends on their wildest adventures yet.

But buying presents is a very tricky business. You obviously have the financial limitations in play, but the other issue is the issue of relevance. Will the receiver of this gift see its value? Will they see its relevance? Will they appreciate the time and energy and thought put into the gift, or will they see it as something rather random and arbitrary? No-one wants to give a gift that, in the end, will be rejected.

And so I think it’s worth reflecting on the gift that God the Father gave the world. You see, when He could have given us anything, the thing he chose to give us was His Son. The Lord Jesus, promised to arrive as a King, was the one thing our Father thought we needed most. And so let’s think about that gift—let’s think about the Lord Jesus through the lens of this particular prophecy.

Who? [Who is this King?]

Before we dive into the details, let me just orient you to the book of Zechariah.

As you may know, the book of Zechariah was written many moons ago, during the reign of Darius, King of Persia. And this section in chapter 9, was written in 518 BC (2500 years ago!). Some (not many) Hebrews had returned to Judah but there was little evidence of the restoration that God had promised. The general mood was gloomy and dismal. Everything was a bit of a mess: the city walls lay in ruins, the temple was a pile of rubble, drought ravaged the land, and surrounding leaders harassed the Israelites.

God intervenes in this situation by raising up two prophets: Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai challenged the Israelites to rebuild the temple; Zechariah complemented that message by calling the Israelites to rebuild genuine spirituality. Zechariah called them to repentance and renewal--and said that, only if they committed themselves to genuinely obeying God's Word would they usher in the long awaited promises of blessing that were to define their future (read 7:8-10, 8:1-5).

So can you see that there are essentially two components to Zechariah's message: one of challenge/rebuke (rebuild the temple, appoint divinely endorsed leadership [Zerubbabel as governer and Joshua as priest], pursue justice) and also one of hope (God cared for his people, was soveriegn over the destinies of nations, and would certainly send his Messiah).

Think of the Messiah-figure like Bob the builder: “Bob the builder, can he fix it? Bob the builder, yes he can!” The Messiah was like that—his arrival would fix everything.

So Zechariah’s message of challenge and hope was centred, ultimately, around this King. So let’s get to know him.

Righteous

The adjective here refers to someone who is just, innocent, and altogether without guilt. A righteous person in the OT is someone who lives by God’s standards and embodies God’s character—someone who cares for the poor, who doesn’t accept bribes, who is absolutely impartial, who avoids violence, who practices generosity, who speaks words of wisdom, and on and on we could go. In a word, this person is perfect. A righteous person has a sensitive social conscience, personal integrity and piety, and a deep reverence for God.

And this is all the more remarkable when you remember that this is being applied to a King, a ruler!

Think of some of the rulers we are familiar with (pause)…how different is this King?

how different is this King?

Apply: Of all of the rulers that you know, here is a ruler that you can trust. Here is a King you can trust because here is a righteous King. His moral purity is a grounds for your trust in him.

Victorious

‘Victorious’ here translates a verb that means to bring victory or to bring salvation; he is a victorious king who brings the victory for his people. So the idea is not simply that he’s victorious but that he brings a victory for his people. The King who is coming is going to save and rescue his people.

What does this refer to? What victory did God’s people need? Well, in the immediate context, you’ll see that they needed victory from their political and militaristic enemies. But God never actually brought the Israelites that kind of victory from this point onwards—so what kind of victory did this refer to?

Well, we’ll come back to some of these in a few minutes—for now, it’s enough to see that this King is a victorious King, a King who wins the war on behalf of his people.

Illustrate: Can he fix it? Yes he can!

This is remarkable when you realise how big the problem is: its both internal and external; the problem is inside of them (psycho-spiritual) and outside of them (political, economic, social). But what makes the Messiah so remarkable is his ability to fix this hot mess.

So this King/Messiah is perfect and he is powerful. Usually, when you combine perfection and power the third attribute is pride—someone who is perfect and powerful is typically proud. But that’s what makes the Messiah so surprising—because look at the third characteristic: he is humble.

Lowly (humble)

This word has an economic side to it—in fact, it’s most commonly translated as poor. This King would be lowly, even poor. That was certainly the case for the Lord Jesus. He was lowly, humble, and poor. And, of course, it’s not primarily about an economic condition but mainly an attitude of mind: being lowly or humble in his mindset. Here’s one way to think about humility: it’s the opposite of an attitude of entitlement. So it doesn’t occur to the proud person to say thank you. A sense of entitlement means that we walk through life expecting that people owe us things. Expecting success and deference and praise, and when I don’t get those things—I get mad. I harbour a grudge. I build resentment.

Humility is the very opposite.

A humble person willingly impoverishes themselves for the sake of enriching others.

Riding on a donkey

Riding on a donkey

What’s the significance about this? A bit of a debate but I think the key is to see the contrast between the typical beast used by ANE warrior kings and this one. Normally, a conquering king would use a horse. Even in verse 10 we have a reference to warhorses, and again and again in the OT we see references to horses as animals used in warfare. They were primary military assets. The fact the promised King is arriving, not on a horse but on a donkey—shows us that he’s not here to make war, but to make peace. And that leads us from who the King is, to what kind of Kingdom he is going to bring.

What? [What kind of Kingdom?]

A Peaceful Kingdom

Take a look at 10a (read). This king is so committed to establishing peace that he will remove the three primary military assets: the chariot, warhorse, and bow. He will inaugurate a kingdom of peace.

He doesn’t just remove the military assets, he also preaches a message of peace (read 10b). Contrast this to the incendiary tweets of Donald Trump, this ruler’s message is one of peace.

And that brings us to this important word: peace. The hebrew word, rather famous, is shalom. It refers to completeness, wholeness, prosperity in every dimension.

In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight--a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed. Corenlius Platinga

And so peace here is not simply the absence of conflict, but the presence of harmonious relationships. It’s not just that Israel stops fighting with her enemies, its that she starts working and sharing and loving her enemies. Peace is a positive state of affairs—emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, relationally, socially, and even environmentally. And that’s the kind of peace this King is going to bring. That’s the kind of peace that’s going to characterize his kingdom. It’s a kingdom of peace.

A Global Kingdom

Read 10c. This righteous King’s peaceful rule will cover the earth. All the nations will bask in his peace. All the peoples will enjoy his blessing. It really is the fulfillment of our hopes—eternal, global flourishing.

This King and His Kingdom are so utterly unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. Our world, our country, our city, even (sadly) our own relationships—are marked by conflict. Hatred. Manipulation. Oppression.

The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression that is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year.

In 2018, toxic became a descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics. It is the sheer scope of its application, as found by our research, that made toxic the stand-out choice for the Word of the Year title.

Toxic is the word of the year for a reason—sadly, it’s an appropriate descriptor for much of what we experience. What’s breathtaking about this passage is that the promised King really is able to fix it all. The Bible’s audacious claim is that He alone is able to usher in true peace, shalom, ultimate and eternal flourishing and wholeness and restoration.

How? [How will he usher it in?]

The passage gives us some hints. Firstly, let’s go back to that word in verse 9: lowly. I mentioned that it’s commonly translate as poor. But it’s most common translation is afflicted. The King, the promised King, the perfect and powerful King, would be afflicted. Bruised. Cut. Beaten. So it’s a striking and puzzling image: a perfect and powerful King, coming in to Town in order to get beaten and afflicted.

Isaiah also prophesied about the Messiah, here’s what Isaiah said:

Isaiah 53:2–3 NIV

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

How does this work? How does his suffering usher in peace; how does his affliction fix anything?

Well, remember: the problem the Israelites faced (and the problem we face!) is multidimensional. It’s outside of us—sure. But the bigger and deeper problem is inside of us. The true locus of our problem is our soul. Our heart. The Bible’s diagnosis is that our first and greatest problem is the fact that we have rejected God’s King and tried to be our own rulers. We have sought to establish our own kingdom. And the result is a world full of self-important tyrants. We’ve rejected God, rejected his commands to love each other, and so we have a world full of hatred, discord, and enmity. A world of toxicity. So God gives us what we need. Not just a King who can fix the world, but a King who can fix us.

And when God’s gift to us arrives, when God’s promised King finally arrives, instead of punishing us—he takes our punishment. He becomes our substitute. He takes our place. He takes the consequences of our toxic thoughts, words and deeds. The perfect, powerful King becomes afflicted, beaten and punished. So that we might be forgiven, accepted, and loved.

And more than that, for those of us who have personally responded to this King in faith, his goal is to transform us completely. To renew us into His very image and likeness. The King has taken our place, thereby saving and rescuing us. But now the King seeks to change us, so that we might be righteous and humble and agents of peace in a world of hatred.

Allow me one final comment (and I’m preempting next week’s message a bit). We will one day all meet the King. The choice before each of us is what that meeting looks like. We can either meet him on a donkey, or we can meet him on a warhorse.

Revelation 19:11–16 NIV

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.

This Christmas, in the midst of all the gift-giving, let’s not forget God’s great gift to us. His righteous King, our Saviour. The bringer of peace! And to the degree that we welcome him into our hearts, to that degree will we be able to reflect his peace and love to those around us.

Amen.