Advent 2020 - 5 - The Promised King

God’s promises, it is what we have been going through and what this means for our lives. Jesus came to earth as a baby which is what we celebrate this Christmas season.

We have this great message of hope and peace that was given to us and all mankind but so many people have missed it.

Even back then people missed the hope that was promised when Jesus was born. And what was promised is that the messiah that was coming was going to be the king that was promised from the line of David.

They had not had a king for a while and the promise of one to come was something they likely would have been waiting for.

But what they would not have expected is the king to come as a humble baby boy who was born into a life of relative obscurity.

But Jesus was King, he came to offer peace and salvation just not in the way that people thought. He first was born to offer salvation for our sin and to establish His kingdom in which He does reign.

There where some people though that recognized this even as Jesus was a baby and then a toddler. The shepherds came to worship Jesus.

The 3 wise men bringing gifts came to worship Him as well, as the king they knew was prophesied. Even Herod at the time, paranoid as he was feared this so-called king born so made a decree to kill all the male babies under a few years of age.

As we investigate How Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of a coming king, we will look into what was going on at the time and why this.

We may not completely understand the significance of a king over us but it has great importance to our lives today.

We do have a king, and we are going to learn why that is important, even this time of year.

The Prophecy

First, we go back to a bit of history. We are going to be going to one of the last books in the OT. We go to the book of Zechariah to focus on a different prophecy of the coming Messiah.

It is around 540 BC, around 200 years after the prophecies of Isaiah and Babylon took captive the people of Judah.

During the time of Daniel and His friends we read of king nebuchadnezzar. It was prophesied to him that His empire would and end at the hand of the Persians.

Along comes Cyrus and the Persians and we read in the book of Ezra that when Cyrus took over Babylon, he ordered that the Israelites go back to their own land and start rebuilding the temple.

Ezra 1:2-4 2  This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 Let every survivor, wherever he resides, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.”

So that is what the Israelites did, the went with all the precious metals and such that they had and started to go rebuild the temple and the land they went to.

But a few years after the building had started it ended as opponents of the people arose and scared the Israelites into stopping the rebuilding.

Then along comes Haggai, Zechariah, and Zerubbabel. Darius the great was now king of the Persian empire and they sought his assistance.

They finally could again start the rebuilding of the temple. But there was again another problem. There priorities had become messed up.

According to the contemporary of Zechariah, Haggai, the people had become so focused on their own buildings and their own things that they needed to forget that and focus on rebuilding the temple of God.

Haggai was kind of a smack saying hey guys, get your priorities straight. Zechariah was more of an encouragement.

Why this is all important is because you have to understand that when they came Back, everything was likely in ruins. It would have been a very daunting task to rebuild everything from nothing.

So God told them not to worry, for He is in control Zechariah 4:6 So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of Armies.

Do not worry the Lord told them, for If I tell you to do something, I will provide everything for you to do it.

Then He gave them hope that it would happen in their lifetime Zechariah 4:9 “Zerubbabel’s hands have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you.

Things seemed all but impossible for them, but the Lord made a promise to them, that He would provide, and that a king was going to come for them, in triumph. They would notice this king by the way he fulfilled the prophecies of messiah and they way He came riding into Jerusalem.

Zechariah 9:9  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.

The Fulfillment

They had been waiting for a while for the promised Messiah that would come in a certain way. Well, it was the celebration of the Passover. The city of Jerusalem would have been packed full. Who can tell me what the Passover celebration was to celebrate?

There would have been great hopes that the messiah would come and save them during this celebration. A time when they had been saved from the might of the Egyptians, they would have expected the messiah to come and save them again.

They would have been expecting the new king to come in riding on a donkey. This would have been a significant thing.

A conquering kind would have come riding in on a great horse. But if the king was going to come in peace, then instead he would come in on a donkey.

Well people would have been hearing about Jesus and all that He was doing so to see him come riding in on a young donkey that had never been ridden before, after all that He had been doing people got caught up in the tumult and started to worship Him as king.

Matthew 21:4-5 4  This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: 5  Tell Daughter Zion, “Look, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

Through all this we know they were saying “Hosanna” Matthew 21:9  Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting: Hosanna to the Son of David! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

which is taken from Psalm 118 and means Psalm 118:25 LORD, save us! LORD, please grant us success!

Jesus was claiming to be the king that was promised so long ago. But what significance does this have to our lives today? Especially at Christmas time?

Application

There have been kings, Lords, presidents, prime ministers, governors, and leaders of all sorts. A long time ago Israel was different thought.

They where supposed to worship God as their king they needed no one else but they refused to listen. So the long line of Good and bad rulers started it’s course.

Then amongst the devastation caused by their own sin their was a promise and a hope for a future king, lin the line of David who would be the king of king and the lord of Lords.

This was a great hope for them and for us as well. Then comes Jesus who came and fulfilled that. But first he came to save us from our sin.

The first step in all of this? A king asks for complete devotion and when Jesus established His kingdom on earth when He came, and He is the ruler of that Kingdom. He asks of us then to accept the message of salvation that He offers to all who would believe in Him as Lord of our lives

Ask Jesus to forgive your sins, this time of year we remember the great hope and salvation that came in the form of a baby and we can not walk away without responded in worship to the one who came to die for us.

We need to remember that Jesus being King of kings is that there is no one above Him and he is the only one worthy of our complete devotion.

Jesus is over all and above all, there is no one greater than Him. He is the greatest of all and unlike other kings He loves us, wants a relationship with us so that we may glorify Him.

What this information as Jesus being king of kings and Lord of Lords and saviour of my soul is it Impels me to more sincere worship.

If this is really who Jesus is, if this is really what He did when He came to earth as a baby so many years ago then He deserves nothing less then sincere worship.

How often though is our worship of King Jesus just religious ritual or self-serving worship? How much of what we do is just because we where told to, or maybe the way that we have always done it?

Self serving worship and religious ritual is not sincere worship, it is not the devotion that is due to the king of Kings. What about what we do in our regular life, not just on Sunday morning.

If we remembered King Jesus was with us and saw everything, we did maybe it would change the way we worship Him in our whole life, even when we are on our own.

This means that in all we do whether we are driving to work, walking my dog, watching tv our sincere worship means living a life of praise to the one who gave us freedom from our sin.

Our allegiance is to Christ and His word, our worship is our whole lives lived for the glory of our Lord.

What we are called to is a more intimate relationship with Jesus. Our values will start to change. Our culture holds high self-centered values but what sincere worship of King Jesus will do is change our values to reflect the Kingdom of God in our lives.

Our priorities will change from ourselves to King Jesus priorities. Jesus will come first, our family second and others third.

So, let us take the mission that we have, to spread the message of King Jesus. And for your own life, live a life of sincere worship, and total devotion to the one who gave His life for us.

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