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THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS THE SON OF DAVIDROMANS 1:3INTRODUCTION Tens of thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina are currently living in mobile homes and apartments mostly scattered over the southern U.S. Our government has promised them that one-day they will be able to return home to New Orleans. The government has promised to rebuild New Orleans and to make it safer by building the levees that protect the city from floods stronger. So these families and individuals must wait for the fulfillment of the promise that has been made to them. They will have to live their lives now in these “foreign” cities waiting for the day of the promised return to their rebuilt and protected homes. The question that looms over the future of New Orleans is how long will these evacuees wait? How long will they live in their present locations as if they don’t really live there? What is going to keep them from forgetting the promise of returning home to New Orleans and making their home in Houston or wherever else they have gone? That’s similar to one of the most important questions that face all who profess to be Christians. We have been given a promise that one day Christ is going to return and take us home to be with him forever. He has gone ahead of us by his death and resurrection to insure a warm welcome for us in the new heavens and the new earth. He has told us that now we must wait, while living in a place that is not our home, for him to come and take us home. What will keep us from forgetting the promise of returning home and living as if we are already home? What will keep us longing for the return of Christ as our chief and greatest hope and not substituting longing for a big retirement account and many years of healthy leisure activities or longing for a wife or husband or longing to be healthy? This is a particularly important question for those of us who live in the affluence of the U.S. There is no more dangerous place to live than here if you want to be a Christian because the pressure to quit waiting for Christ to return and to live as if this is your home is extreme. God helps us in many ways to continue to believe the promise and to live longing for Christ’s return. This afternoon I want us to consider one of the ways he helps us. God helps us believe the promise that life lived with him in the renewed universe is better than life lived happily here by telling us that Jesus Christ is the son of David. Look with me at Romans 1:1-4. In the introduction to Paul’s letter to the Romans he identifies himself as a servant of Christ whom Christ has called to announce the good news of God. Notice, this good news was promised by the prophets over the course of many years and it was written down in the OT Scriptures. In other words, the subject of the OT is the gospel of God. What is that gospel of God? It is the good news concerning his Son. Right here Paul is referring to the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. The gospel of God is the good news about his Son who is God. The gospel arises out of the relationship between the Father and the Son in the fellowship of the Trinity. This divine, eternal Son of God became a descendant of David. He took on human flesh in the line of David. He is the Son of David. Part of the good news about the Son that the OT talks about is that the Son becomes the Son of David. I want us to spend the next few minutes thinking about what it means for Jesus to be the Son of David and how knowing this can help us hope in and long for Christ’s return. MAIN POINT The fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of David means that… I. You can count on God to keep his promises (2 Samuel 7:11b-16) There are chapters in the Bible with which every Christian should be familiar. These chapters record some of the critical turning points in the history of how God is saving his people. Here is just a partial list of chapters all of us should be familiar with: Genesis 1-3, 12, 15, Exodus 3-4, 12, 19-20, Numbers 14 and 2 Samuel 7. In 2 Samuel 7 David, who is the king of Israel, tells the prophet Nathan that he wants to build a permanent temple for the Lord. God then tells Nathan to tell David that while his desire to build a temple for him in the midst of Israel is a good desire, yet he is not the one who will build that temple. He goes on to say to David, rather than you building me a house, I will build you a house. By house he means he will make David's name to persist forever through the line of his sons. He tells David, "One of your sons will sit on your throne and reign over the nation of Israel forever. This son is the one who will build the temple for me." In the short-term David’s son Solomon became king and built the physical temple in Jerusalem. However, as made clear by the repetition of the word “forever” it is clear that this greater son of David is not Solomon or any of the other kings of Judah as they all died. Rather, based upon this promise and then a growing number of other promises through the psalms and the prophets there is an expectation in the OT that there is coming into the world one son of David who will rule over his people forever and who will build the temple. Jesus Christ is that Son. This is one of the clearest things said about Jesus at his birth. The angel Gabriel, when he announced to Mary that she was going to bear God’s son said this, “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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” Repeatedly, throughout his earthly ministry he is addressed as the Son of David. So the apostle Paul and the other NT writers acknowledge that Jesus is that greater son of David who will reign over his people and build God’s temple, which is his church. There is about 1000 years from the time that God promised to David that he would establish one of his sons on his throne forever and the birth of Jesus. You can imagine over the course of that time how often the people of God asked him how long they must wait. “How long, O Lord?” is a regular cry throughout the OT. It is always a cry relating to how long before David’s greater son will come and be their king forever. Believing Israel while wondering how long also confessed with great regularity that they knew that God was going to come and judge the world and save his people by his king. It is the distinguishing mark of God’s people that while they groan under the weight of a yet to be fulfilled promise, yet they continue to wait in hope for the fulfillment of that promise. We are in the position of seeing the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise with the coming of Christ and yet we also, like Israel, wait for the fullness of it. While we wait we groan. The ability of people to continue to wait for the fulfillment of a promise is directly tied to their perception of the faithfulness of the one who has made the promise and the promise makers ability to do what he or she says. There are many evacuees from New Orleans who are not waiting for the government to fulfill its promise because they do not believe the politicians who make the promise to rebuild New Orleans. These people are working with all their might to begin a new life in a new place and will never return to New Orleans. We however, as Peter says in his second letter, “have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns…” We can be confident that Christ is going to return again and take us home because in his first coming he fulfills the promise made some 3000 years ago to David. He is the son of David who is reigning and will reign and who is building God’s temple, his church. Our longing and living for the kingdom of God and our refusal to make our home here is not in vain. The promise God made to David and through him to us is a certain promise because Jesus is the Son of David. The fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of David means that…
II. Christ is now ruling over his people (Isaiah 9:5-6 & Ezekiel 37:23-24) The most often stated work of David’s son is that he will reign over his people. In Isaiah 9:5-6 we have that great Christmas text, made famous in Handel’s Messiah, which says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase 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.” Here is that awesome picture of this child who is born in a manger, in the town of Bethlehem and who shares the name of God and who will sit on David’s throne and over David’s kingdom. Notice, at the end of the verse it says he will reign from that time on and forever. From what time? From the time of his birth. Jesus is right now ruling over his people, the church. In Ezekiel 37: 23-24 God says this about that time when he saves his people: “They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people and I will be their God. My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.” If you are at all familiar with the OT promises of God’s day of salvation, you can hear in this text another statement of the new covenant he makes with his people. God, by his Spirit, keeps his people from sin and causes them to obey his laws. But notice that this happens at the time when David is king over his people. Again, this promise is made about 550 years prior to the birth of Jesus. When God again installs David as king, then will he give new hearts to his people and keep them from sinful backsliding and cause them to walk in his ways. God’s salvation that occurs in and with and by king David is God’s restraining the evil in his people and giving them new hearts that delight in God’s law. If you are a person who has come to delight in obedience to God’s law to love him and to love others without expecting anything in return; if you are a person who grieves over your sin and who is trusting in Christ’s life and death as your only hope of heaven, then you can know that Christ is reigning over you right now. The son of David is your king and your shepherd. He is exercising all of his omnipotent power on your behalf to keep you from evil and to promote holiness in your life. The chief evidence of the present reign of Christ in this world is his church made up of people whose greatest ambition in life is knowing, loving and obeying God and Jesus, the Son of David, their king. The fact that we exist as a church and that you want to obey God is evidence that God has kept his promise to send David’s Son to be the king and shepherd of his people. Therefore, we are helped to long for that final day of the Lord when our hearts will be completely cleansed and we will live in perfect holiness with our shepherd and king. The fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of David means that…
III. He is the warrior king who will establish God’s kingdom on this earth (Ezekiel 37:25-28 & Revelation 19:11-16, 21:1-8 & 22:12-17) David is mentioned almost 1000 times in the OT. There are a number of things about him that are emphasized. One of the primary things that he is known for is being the king whom God used to subdue and conquer all of Israel’s enemies and to bring to Israel peace that lasted for almost 80 years. He is the warrior king par excellent in the OT. The prophets regularly emphasize this feature of the Son of David’s future rule. The Son of David will take over the world, conquering all of the enemies of his people and then establishing them in the land to live safely in abundance forever. The language describing both his conquering his enemies and his bringing back his people into a land of plenty is some of the most beautiful and hope creating language in the Bible. I want to read for you just a little bit of these descriptions of the Son of David’s work in establishing God’s rule on this earth as God’s warrior king from the book of Revelation and the prophet Jeremiah: Rev. 19:11-21 (NRS): “Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, "King of kings and Lord of lords." Rev. 21:1-8 (NRS): Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." Rev 22:13-17 (NRS): I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. "It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. Jeremiah 31:7-13 (NLT): "I will bring them from the north and from the distant corners of the earth. I will not forget the blind and lame, the expectant mothers and women about to give birth. A great company will return! Tears of joy will stream down their faces, and I will lead them home with great care. They too will walk beside quiet streams and not stumble… They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem . They will be radiant because of the many gifts the Lord has given them, the good crops of wheat, wine, and oil and the healthy flocks and herds. Their life will be like a watered garden and all their sorrows will be gone. The young women will dance for joy, and the men, old and young, will join in the celebration. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing." What God has promised to give us when the warrior king returns is infinitely superior to any pleasure you can experience in this fallen world. The reality of what will be ours when Christ returns is reason enough to believe the promise and to eagerly await our Savior. It is reason enough to not make our home here but to always be ready to go home with our Lord, the Son of David, Jesus Christ. The evacuees of New Orleans who wait and who eventually return to a rebuilt and protected city will only taste the joy that will be ours when the king returns. Tears of joy will stream down our faces as we greet him and enter into out eternal home. The fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of David means that…
© Copyright
2005 John Swanson.
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