The Promised King - Pastor Tom Loghry
Pastor Tom digs into the Old Testament to explore the promises that foreshadowed Christ’s birth.
Transcript:
What is the meaning of Christmas? What is the meaning of all of this? It's not immediately obvious based on merely the surface details. A child is born in a stable. Well, that's certainly curious. It would fill some air time for channel 12's evening news and give the old men something to talk about at Dunkin.
It would probably get a few shares on Facebook and some shocked face emojis. But when all is said and done, it wouldn't really matter. Some buzz, some clicks, and then we'd forget about it. It wouldn't change anything. What's missing? is the backstory. Who are the parents of this child? He's a Jewish baby.
What's significant about that? What makes his birth so significant, not only for Jews, but for all people? We're pressing pause on our series on Abraham during the season of Advent, but these questions are tied into that story because Abraham's story is only part of the larger story of God's action throughout history for the salvation of humanity.
To summarize that story very simply, human beings were created by God to be with God and be the icons of his presence in the created universe. Adam and Eve rejected this call because they wanted to be their own gods. Every human being after them shares this impulse. We want to be our own gods. That can pretty much explain most everything that we see in society.
We want to be our own Gods. God could have just cast humanity aside, but he did not. God has willed to redeem humanity so that a remnant of mankind might be with him again. God's rescue mission began from the moment we fell away. It remained through the flood. It emerged most clearly when God made a covenant with Abraham.
Not only to bless him and his family, but to bless the whole world through Abraham. The covenant he made, is built on promises that would be fulfilled in the course of time. Promises that invite God's people to respond with faith. Through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came forth the people of Israel. They inherited God's promises, not because they were perfect or the best of all nations, but because God is faithful to His Word.
His faithfulness will be proven again and again throughout their history. Even when they were faithless, God kept his promises and continued to make promises, revealing more and more of his divine plan. The significance of the birth of Jesus becomes most apparent in a promise given 900 years before his birth.
A promise that the Jewish people clung to for 900 years. A promise given to King David. And we've read a portion of that promise already. We're going to be reading more of what the prophet Nathan has to tell David in 1 Chronicles 17. We'll start at verse 1. It says there, After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.
Nathan replied to David, Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you. But that night the word of God came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, This is what the Lord says, You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in. I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day.
I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites. Did I ever say to any of their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd my people? Why have you not built me a house of cedar? So just to kind of orient you to when this interaction between God and Nathan and David is taking place.
This is occurring about 900 years before Jesus is born. It's also about 900 years After the lifetime of Abraham, and we're talking about like 900 years, you realize we're using a pretty big scale of time here. It gives you some real perspective of how God works. Over time, things that seem like a long period of time for us, for God, is just a day.
It's just a blink of a moment over the course of human history. Now, what's going on here is that David has become settled in the city of Jerusalem and he's made the move to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the city. Sometimes it's easy for us to forget that the Ark of the Covenant wasn't always in the city of Jerusalem.
Originally, it was in a tent in Kiriath Jearim, and then when they were trying to transport it there, uh, they went to grab the Ark of the Tabernacle. Fellow is struck down dead. David's like, I'm not bringing that to my city. And so he said, I'll keep it on the outside of the city and the home of this guy named Obed Edom and his household was blessed because he was housing the Ark of the covenant.
And David was like, well, actually I'm thinking I'm going to bring the Ark of the covenant back into Jerusalem. And so that's what David did. Now, some of us aren't even really familiar with, well, what is the Ark of the covenant? The Ark of the covenant was. It was, it served as this meeting place between God and the people of Israel as it was situated in the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle.
So the tabernacle was a tent structure, and you had an outer court, and then you had a holy place, and then you had this room called the Holy of Holies where this Ark of Covenant of the Covenant was situated. Put there as though it was a throne for God and yet there was no image of God, which is what set the Israelites apart from all the other pagan peoples because they would have just had a cast image of whoever their God was. But all you have is a seat here basically with a couple cherubim putting their their wings across and this is the place where the people of Israel would meet with God through their high priests through Moses and it was the place where God signaled to his people that He was with them.
And that's something that I think sometimes we can forget just how important that is. It was very important to those people to have a very visible manifestation of that because peril lay at every side, whether it was disease or needing food or especially enemies, they wanted to know their God was with them and the tabernacle signified that to the people of Israel, that God was with them, that he was their God.
They were his people. But truth be told, I think this is something that all of us want to really know. All of us want to know that God is with us, that we aren't alone. So many of us feel alone in life that we're kind of just out there on our own, vulnerable to the vicissitudes of history of society. We all want to know that God is with us, and the Ark of the Covenant was a reminder to the people that God was with them.
Now, as David had moved the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, he was kind of struck by the disparity in terms of the housing situation for the Ark of the Covenant, where God would come and meet his people, and David's own living situation. He's got this nice palace made out of cedar. Well, the Ark of the Covenant is in a tent.
David's probably thinking, I would not want to live in a tent. So, it's like, why am I giving a tent to God? Doesn't he deserve so much more? And he basically expresses that to Nathan, and Nathan says, well, that sounds pretty good. I mean, I think your intuition is good here, David. Two thumbs up. Yeah, make a temple for God.
But then God comes to Nathan and says, Now, you gotta pump the brakes on this. You gotta tell David, no, that he is not the one to build a house for me to dwell in. And we ask, well, why not? Why did, why was it that God didn't want David to do this? Well, there's a, there's another reason that I think that we'll, we'll see as we go along, but the specific reason as it pertains to David was because David, As much as he was a man after God's own heart, he was not a man of peace.
He was a man that was required to engage in warfare. And we know that warfare is something that is sometimes necessary. There is such a thing as a just war. But nonetheless, it's a sign of brokenness. ,And the thing that we see throughout the Old Testament is that God likes to keep strict boundaries between clean and unclean life and death.
And so it's no surprise that , in 1 Chronicles 28:3 It says that David recollecting this said, but God said to me, you are not to build a house for my name because you are a warrior and have shed blood. So this is the primary reason why David is not the one to do this. He's a man of warfare. It's not befitting the presence of God in terms of building this temple structure.
, But there's something else here as well. You know, David has a sincere impulse here. He wants to honor God. , But God kind of pushes back a little bit here, too, against David's desire in terms of just saying, Well, David, none of this is really necessary for me. , I've moved from place to place in a tent with you all, and I've never asked you why haven't you built me a house of cedar.
In Isaiah 66, verses 1 through 2a, the prophet says this, this is what the Lord says, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being, declares the Lord. So, while we can appreciate the sincerity of David's impulse, God's pushing back here to say, Let's just be clear here.
I do not need a house. I'm the God of all creation. I've made all these things. The simple fact is that God does not need a piece of architecture. God does not need a roof over his head. He's far more powerful than that. God doesn't need David to do anything for him. In verses 7 through 10, God reminds David of his power by reminding him of what he has done and by telling him what he's going to do for David.
In verse 7, God continues, I took you from the pasture from tending the flock and appointed you rule over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you've gone and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name like the names of the greatest men on earth and I will provide a place for my people Israel.
I will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies. So what God tells Nathan to do here is remind David of my history with him.
Remind what I've already done for him. He was the youngest son in the family of Jesse, a mere shepherd in the field, and yet God chose to anoint him king. David didn't become king by the dint of his own efforts. It was by God's hand that he rose to this position. It was by God's hand that David was protected throughout all of that.
Because, if you'll recall, King Saul really wanted to kill him. He tried his best many times to kill him, and yet God protected him. Again and again, and God removed David's enemies so that he could realize this kingship. Throughout it all, God has been with David. Remember, when we're talking about the temple, that's one of the primary concerns about God being with us.
God has been with David through all this. So, God tells Nathan, remind him about the past, and now tell him something about the future. Tell him this, that I'm going to provide a place for Israel. That it will be undisturbed. That all their enemies will be subdued. Now up to this point, this is not the case.
He's not, David's not existing in perfect peace here, even though he's a dominant king. And, truth be told, we're still waiting for this. Now, David's son Solomon did enjoy a certain amount of peace during his reign, but it did not last. And peace certainly did not last for the people of of Israel from that point and you could say even up into the present where the Jewish people have suffered greatly.
But we also understand that in Jesus Christ, Israel has been redefined as the people of God by faith. So that includes both Jews and Gentiles. And so certainly, if we think about Israel in these terms, we could say the very same thing. We still are waiting for that peace, because even while we, in America, we enjoy a certain degree of peace, we know that the church worldwide continues to suffer persecution.
And so, what we see playing out in these promises, and we'll just see this more and more, is there's an aspect of now and not yet, where we'll see, like, a partial fulfillment, and yet, it's an indicator for something more, which is to come. Now all of this is good news for Israel, but God also makes promises specific to the family of David and to his son who will build this temple.
We pick up in verse 10b says, I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you. When your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.
I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever. And Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. So when God's talking about David's house, he's not, he's not talking about a physical structure.
David already has his house of cedar. What he's talking about is building a house, a household for David, a lineage. And he says that he's going to raise up your offspring, one of his own sons, to establish his kingdom. And that his throne will last forever. It's quite a promise to be made. Something that certainly would have filled David with great joy and anticipation.
And he says that this son will be different than, will be treated differently than how King Saul was treated. King Saul, because of his disobedience, was cast aside. He lost the kingship. God says to David, My relationship with your son is going to be different. I will be his father. And he will be my son.
And so he will also be the one who builds a house for me. Now, there's something very interesting about the way that this prophecy is related in 1 Chronicles 17, because it leaves out certain conditions that are included in 2 Samuel 7. Something to just know about the Bible is sometimes there's duplicate histories written.
So you have multiple accounts. We see that in the Gospels. You have four accounts of the life of Jesus. Now, these conditions are not included in 1 Chronicles 17, and it seems that it may be because of the situation in which 1 Chronicles 17 is being written in. 1 Chronicles 17 was written after the people of Israel had already gone into exile, so they'd seen a lot of failure already, and what the author of Chronicles is trying to do is set before them God's promises.
But we do see conditions to this promise. That the audience of First Chronicles would have already seen those conditions come into play. It's like in Samuel 7 verses 14 through 15. It says, I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.
But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed before you. And then when you go to Psalm 89, which seems to be inspired by this promise, we see very much the same. thing. We say in verse 30, it says, If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with a rod, their iniquity with flogging, but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.
So we see this dynamic where God is going to discipline the son. And in fact, these sons of David, because we see these kings fall apart again and again, and yet we see God promising that he's going to ever remain faithful. And this is kind of the dynamic of a father son relationship. The father doesn't abandon the son.
Now, we do see an imminent fulfillment of this in Solomon. And this is, this was David's own understanding. In 1 Chronicles 28: 6- 7, David says that God said to him Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts for I have chosen Him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving and carrying out my commands and laws as is being done at this time.
Now again, it makes sense that Solomon would be the one to fulfill to some extent this promise that God had made because he was a ruler in whose time great peace was enjoyed. And in fact, Solomon's name, this is kind of a fun fact, in Hebrew, Shlomo. Isn't that so much more fun than Solomon? Shlomo. And it sounds like Shalom, right?
Shlomo. Shalom. And his name means peace. And so it's very fitting that this king of peace would be the one who builds God's temple. So to that extent, in terms of building kind of the brick and mortar temple, Solomon has fulfilled this. But, in so many other ways, we see that he comes up short.
Because he has moral failures, he has failures when it comes to idolatry. , And yet God again promises his faithfulness. We see this all come to the surface in first Kings 11 verses 9 through 13 says, the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods.
Solomon did not keep the Lord's command. So the Lord said to Solomon, Since this is your attitude, and you have not kept my commandment, my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime.
I will tear it out of the hand of your son, yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. It's interesting, you go down later in the chapter to verses 31, 34 through 36, 39. We see God telling Jeroboam that this is the case, the one who's going to take these tribes away.
In verse 36 and 39, he says, I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my name. I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever. So again, we see kind of this now, not yet dynamic being played out, where we see a certain degree of fulfillment, and yet we do see these sons of David coming up short of what God was really promising, and that there's something more to come. And so when we get to Jesus, what we have in Jesus, really, is the true Solomon. And when we see the person of Jesus, And we think about Jesus fulfilling prophecy, fulfilling all of scripture. What he, when he arrives on the scene, what he is, what he's doing is really fulfilling all the characters that really preceded him.
So, like, when in Matthew 2: 15, it says that this is the time when Jesus had to, with his family when he was just a baby, they had to flee to Egypt because Herod was trying to kill them. It says that he stayed in Egypt until the death of Herod and so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, Out of Egypt I called my son.
Now, he's quoting there, Matthew's quoting there, Hosea 11: 1, and what he's talking about is the nation of Israel. But now he's saying that applies to Jesus, so that Jesus is the true Israel and that he's fulfilling all that God has desired of Israel. And so in turn also of the Son of David, and we see a direct comparison made by Jesus between himself and Solomon and Matthew 12:42 he says, the Queen of the South will rise of the judgment with this generation condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom.
And now something greater than Solomon is here. So Solomon was pretty, pretty awesome. He had his failures. But Jesus is so much more, so much greater than Solomon.
Likewise, we see that the New Testament offers, as they, as, as they've seen the fullness of the revelation of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection. They comment and point us to understand that Jesus has fulfilled this promise about this father son relationship. In Hebrews 1, verses 1 through 5, the writer of Hebrews says this, In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways.
But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son, today I have become your father. That prophecy that was given to David. Or again, I will be his father and he will be my son. Now we hear this.
Because again, in, in, during the ministry of Jesus at his baptism and his transfiguration, in Luke 9: 35, at his transfiguration, Luke records that a voice came from the clouds saying, this is my son, whom I have chosen, listen to him. So Jesus is the complete fulfillment of this father son relationship in a way that transcends again what was possible for the sons of David.
Jesus truly is the Son of God, God incarnate. Now, in Jesus, there's something that's fantastic that happens because this Sonship that He has is now extended to us all so that we can become the sons and daughters of God, and then which also ties back into this promise. About God having a temple built this passage is so amazing 2nd Corinthians 6 16 through 18 We see all this come together here.
Paul says what agreement is there between the temple of God and idols for we? And the we he's talking about there is the church. We are the temple of the Living God as God has said I will live with them and walk among them And I will be there to be their God and they will be My people again, we're thinking about God's presence with his people and we're talking about the temple Therefore come out from them and be separate says the Lord touch no unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father to you and then notice what Paul's doing here He's at he's offering a little bit of an editorial kind of prophetic fulfillment here He says I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters Says the Lord Almighty.
So what Paul is saying here is that In Jesus, we are made sons and daughters, and more than this, we, in fact, are the temple that God has desired. God has not needed a building. In fact, He doesn't really need anything, but He has invited us to be His temple, His living temple, in which He is glorified and magnified.
And we recently preached through 1 Peter, so you might remember this in 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 5. It says, As you come to him, the living stone rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We are the fulfillment of God's promise to David, this promise of a temple that would be built. And the one who has built it is Jesus Christ. It's not us. It's not Solomon. It's Jesus who has made this possible. And so, the architectural temple has been superseded. And we see this recognized very early on in the church, even while the physical structure of the temple is still standing.
When the Sanhedrin dragged Stephen before him, one of the charges they made was that they said that we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place. And what they're talking about is the temple. They say this in Acts 6: 14. And what's interesting is in Stephen's testimony that he gives in the next chapter, he doesn't deny this. In fact, he really offers a case for explaining why the temple is not, the physical temple is not so important anymore. This will sound familiar because we've, we've read Isaiah 66, in Acts 7, verses 45- 51, Stephen says this, After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them.
It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed God's favor, and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things? You stiff necked people. Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Again, Stephen's basically quoting from Isaiah 66 here.
And what he understood was that Jesus is the true king that was promised. And Jesus is building this new temple in the church so that the physical structure is just a shadow of what was to come. And there's something even more that we can anticipate, which John tells us in Revelation 21: 22, he says, I do not see a temple in the city.
He's speaking about this new Jerusalem that descends upon earth. He says, because the Lord God almighty and the lamb are its temple. Now, it's interesting. He says, I don't see a temple, but then he says, there is a temple. The Lord, God Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple. And again, if we're thinking about the temple, the tabernacle, being this place where God manifests his presence and meets his people, the reason why we no longer see a physical temple here is because God is with his people.
Everything has been brought together in the end. And that's what we have to look forward to, is that everything will come together and we will be with God forever. So to bring this back to the beginning, when Jesus was born, the Jewish people were longing for the arrival of this promised king. First Chronicles was written about 400 years after the time of Solomon.
And the Jews were familiar with how Solomon came up short despite building the temple and how every other king had come up short. And at the time that the text was written, the people had just returned from exile. Everything was in shambles. The temple was a shadow of its former glory and they had a Persian governor instead of their own Davidic king.
First Chronicles reminds them of God's promises, promises that they long to see fulfilled. Jesus is born of the tribe of Judah, and of the line of David. His birth comes as good news because he brings with him the fulfillment of God's promises. The promise that God's temple will be built, not out of brick and mortar, but by bringing together God's people.
As spiritual stones, the promise to bring true and lasting peace for God's people under his rule as the king of kings. His rule does not wait. Jesus is king today, and every believer is a citizen of his rule. One day his rule will be revealed completely. All eyes will see him, and the enemies of God will be no more.
But even now, we can enjoy the peace of his rule. We can enjoy peace because we know that he has overcome our sin, death and the devil. Nothing can touch us. We do not fear those who can only destroy the body but not the soul. We rest secure in the victory of Christ.
The meaning of Christmas is this. God has kept his promise to give us the king we need, and through him, make of us the true temple that he desires. Let us pray.
Dear Father,
we thank you that you are faithful to your promises, even when we are unfaithful. That even as the sons of David came up short, your promise remained. That you would bring forth a king. who would build your temple.
This temple would be not something made out of mortar and stone, Father, but would be us, would be your people. And as you gave the Apostle Paul insight to look across prophecy and see how this all came together so that we would be included, that we would be your sons and daughters, and that we could call upon you as Father.
Father, we give you, we give you thanks for this and for this joy that we have in this season remembering that our King has come, that we are the temple of God and that you will dwell with us, that you will bring all your promises to pass. And that we will enjoy eternity with you. We give you praise in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed the sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate Rhode Island, just around the bend from Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we celebrate the Advent season.
It's our joy to welcome you into our community. .
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)