The Promises of God
This term we’re looking at God’s promises through the bible. You could say the bible is a record of God’s faithfulness. It’s all about how God makes promises and keeps them.
In the first week we saw how powerful God’s words alone were. He spoke the universe into being. Then we saw his promise that after Adam and eve rebelled against him in the garden, they’d have to work the ground hard to get food out of it to survive, there’d be pain in child bearing, and they would eventually die. Since then we’ve heard about how God promised to Abraham to bless all people through his offspring beginning to reverse the effects of what happened in the Garden, how God later promised to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and then he did. We’ve learnt how God promised to be with his people in the desert. Every time God makes a promise he keeps it.
Today we’re jumping forward a few hundred years forward and we’re going to look at a promise, God’s promise to David, king of Israel.
I want to focus just on verses 12-13 today.
This is what God said to king David.
When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
So there’s going to be a son of David whose kingdom will last forever. There’s going to be a son of David whose kingdom will last forever.
Great news for God’s people.
But hang on. God said there’s going to be a son of David whose throne will last forever. Forever, as in starting from when he said it to now – and then on until forever in the future.
Can any one see an obvious problem there?
What kind of a man was ever going to fulfil that? How was God ever going to fulfil his promise of a King if he had to chose from among men?
Well that promise has not remained unfulfilled. The kingdom of David will remain forever, because Jesus has taken up that throne never to relinquish it. Jesus is the promised King. [SLIDE][SLIDE]
That’s my main point this evening, and if you take nothing else home with you this evening, remember that. JESUS is KING. [SLIDE]
How do we know it was Jesus God was speaking about? Well Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. He said that about himself, and the apostles believed that about him too. [SLIDE] Look at what Paul says. “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ” 2 Cor 1:20. The OT is full of promises waiting to be fulfilled. Questions waiting to be answered. Jesus is where the promises come true, he is the answer to every one.
Take this for example. What did God say to David about the promised King in verse 14? “I will be his father, and he will be my son”. Hmm. How about when Jesus rocked up. As he came out of the water after his baptism, a voice rang out in from the heavens “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Still not convinced this verse in 2 Samuel is fulfilled in Jesus? Well look at verse 12 ‘I will raise up your offspring to succeed you’. And Jesus is indeed a son of David. Have you ever wondered why there are long lists of who was whose father and so on in the bible? [SLIDE] It’s because the writers want us to know that Jesus is in David’s line. Jesus’ great great ….grandad was David. It all fits into the promise. But there’s more. God had said “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” No man could fulfil that. But[SLIDE] Jesus burst through the grave and out the other side to live for ever. There will be no end to Jesus. Jesus is the one who rules on God’s throne, for ever.
So [SLIDE] Jesus is King. [SLIDE]And that has some big consequences.
Let’s get back to our far away island, Archibaldina and Enry the extra terrestrial.
There’s no doubt in your mind. You Archibaldina know the Arrival of a Monarch requires action. [SLIDE]Her position, [SLIDE]her presence and [SLIDE] her power demand you do something. Because of where she is in hierarchy, because of who she is as a person and because of what she can do, the Queen requires a particular response. When the queen comes, you can’t just [SLIDE] whack on your swimmers and go and do beach yoga like nothing’s any different.. [SLIDE] Oh no
[SLIDE] It’s the same with Jesus. If Jesus is King because of his position, his presence and his power, because of where he stands in the order of creation, because of who he is and because of what he can do [SLIDE] we can’t just ignore him and carry on life as if he didn’t exist. [SLIDE] Jesus is King and requires a response. We’re going to look in turn at these three
So firstly, Jesus the King’s position.
The Queen arrives at the hotel, and the first thing you notice is that before you see anything of the queen loads of other people start flooding the building. The PAs and administrators making sure that all the right people are lined up for when she comes. The peculiar lady who comes and checks the loos are decent for when the queen gets in a spot of gastronomic bother. Each one of them carrying out the Queen’s wishes.
You see the Queen has a privileged position. Because of where she is in hierarchy, it is her place to give orders. The whole Island belongs to her. You just do what she says.
And so with Jesus. [SLIDE]Jesus has the highest, most privileged position. (you and me for comparison) He’s the King over all the earth. On that basis alone, because of his position, because he is so much higher than us, because he is so the top of the pile and we so aren’t, because every person, indeed every molecule owes its existence to him. [SLIDE] We should obey him.
Let me ask, do we believe Jesus is King? So are we prepared to obey him? For example, though of course this isn’t all there is to say, Not to join in the gossip about others at school, not to laugh at those who are weak, not to have sex until we marry, not to get drunk with our mates? Or actively, to sit next the person everyone else has written off in class, to honour our parents decisions, to take care of the new kids this year. Put it this way. If Jesus says do one thing, and I want to do another. Which one do I end up doing? Because of Jesus position we should obey him.
[SLIDE] Second, Jesus the King’s presence.
This was something you, Archibaldina really struggled to explain to enry the extraterrestrial before the queen showed. ‘You’ll just feel it’, you said, ‘she’ll have an aura, a sort of force field around her. Wherever she goes there’ll be like an invisible cloud of significance all around her. People tend to stare, they go wobbly at the knees and make ridiculous sentences with words in the wrong order. They know they’re in the presence of greatness, and that makes everything different. You feel you owe her something somehow. You catch yourself automatically bowing your head in honour…”
Well if that’s a fair description of what it’s like in the presence of an earthly monarch, how much more being the presence of God’s King. And actually that’s where we are now, and at any time in fact. Perhaps you’ve had a glimpse of what it’s like to be in the royal presence of King Jesus.
I wonder, do we [slide] honour Jesus in his presence? Or do we talk of him lightly even dismissively. For Christ’s sake, Jesus Christ. That’s the name of our ruler and judge were dialling up there.
Now don’t get me wrong it’s good not to take ourselves too seriously, we don’t want to prim and proper hypocrites, but do we ever make a joke of Jesus? Perhaps we’re tempted to laugh about his words in the bible, perhaps we joke about prayer, far more likely we’re just indifferent, unimpressed unmoved when he speaks. Does that honour Jesus? Have we ever sat there listening to his word, but our thoughts are somewhere else completely. Have we ever been challenged by him but instead of responding ignored him.
Jesus presence means we should honour him.
[SLIDE] Finally Jesus the King’s power.
Jesus is powerful.
Modern monarchs may be fairly powerless when it comes down to it. These days they command respect but not armies.
Not Jesus. Jesus is truly powerful. The bible says that he will come back not in humble form of an infant, but on the clouds of heaven with authority, glory and sovereign power to judge all peoples. [SLIDE] We may not see that now, but there’ll be a day [SLIDE] when there will be no doubt[SLIDE][SLIDE] Those who have recognised his rule, he will spare but those who don’t he will say I do not know you and throw them where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. [SLIDE] Jesus is truly powerful and we are right to fear Him. We don’t need to scared, not frightened because his awesome power works for those who fear him, not against them, but we should fear him.
I couldn’t put it better than C.S. Lewis when he describes how Eustace met the Lion Aslan. Aslan is the Christ figure in the book.
Eustace, who has been cursed and made into a dragon says, ``Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly towards me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came closer up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it.''
``You mean it spoke?''
``I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it.
[LAST SLIDE]
God promised a King whose kingdom would never fall. Jesus is that King. Let’s obey him, honour him and fear him.
PRAY
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