the Kingdom: what it is - part
14
the king of the kingdom
This morning we continue in our series on the Kingdom
in which we have given shape and definition to the doctrine of the kingdom of
heaven. This morning’s message is
entitled the king of the Kingdom. Since week
one of this series, our simplified definition of the kingdom has been the community
or territory over which Christ reigns as king. Even our simple definition of the kingdom
identifies the king. So from the
beginning of this series we have known the identity of the King; that’s
Jesus.
But I would be willing to bet that even before we began
this series, you knew that. More than
likely you didn’t need me to identify the king of the kingdom of heaven. Before this series, even if you knew nothing
else about the kingdom of heaven you probably knew that Jesus was the King.
So this morning’s message won’t be an aha message but
an AMEN message. I probably won’t be
teaching you anything new, but together you and I will rejoice in what we
probably already know. This morning’s
message is not so much to identify the king – we have already done that. This morning’s message is to celebrate our
king; for he is worthy of worship. He
deserves honor, awe, adoration, glory, praise, reverence.
Let us adore him this morning as we explore Him and His
character.
BY
WAY OF COMPARISON
Sometimes the easiest way to describe something is to do
so by way of comparison. A while back I
asked a friend to give me a definition of the New Covenant without reference to
the Old Covenant. He said that’s pretty
much impossible because without an understanding of the Old Covenant, one will
have a really difficult time appreciating the essence and the glory of the New
Covenant. So in order for someone to
really understand and appreciate the New Covenant, it’s best to begin with a
look at the Old Covenant and move forward from there by way of comparison.
THE
KING OF OLD
While we could explore the person, mind, heart and
character of Jesus without reference to the kings of the old order, I think it
will help us to have a greater perspective and appreciation of our king if we
compare him to the kings of old. Turn
with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 8.
Remember that Israel made the exodus out of Egypt under Moses. He wasn’t a king, but more of a judge or
prophet. Then Joshua succeeded him as
the leader of Israel, leading them not as a king, but as a military leader in
the conquest of the Promised Land. Then
in the Land, Israel was led by judges for a few hundred years. During that time they didn’t have an earthly
king on the throne. God was essentially
their king. But eventually, they went to
Samuel who was their judge-prophet leader at that time and asked him to put a
king over them that they might be like all the other nations. Samuel warned them that that was a terrible
idea. First of all it was a rejection of
God as king. And second of all, on a
practical level…well, just listen to what Samuel told them.
1 Sam 8:10ff 10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for
a king. 11 He
said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and
they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of
fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others
to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks
and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his
attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and
give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your
cattle and donkeys he
will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you
yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from
the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
Clearly a bad idea.
But this is how the kings in the Old order operated. Even those who were considered good kings
like David and Solomon operated in this way.
Took the best of the people’s vineyards and gave them to his
buddies. Took the best of people’s
cattle for his own use, took a tenth of the people’s flocks, and made the
people his slaves.
PEOPLE
EXIST TO SERVE KING
The Kingdom of Israel was oriented in such a way that
the people existed to serve the king. The
king did not have the mentality that said, “I exist to serve these people.” His mentality was, “I’m the king. These people exist to serve me.”
That was the king of the old kingdom. He was MERELY A MAN like everyone
else, and yet, he was all about him, took from people for himself, made people
to serve him for his benefit. If you look at our king and his earthly
ministry you will find something different, something glorious and
magnificent. First of all, he didn’t
come to establish an earthly kingdom in which he would take earthly vineyards
from people, and make men to make earthly weapons, or make them to run before
earthly chariots.
And he certainly wasn’t just a mere man like everyone
else. He was God in the flesh. He was the great I AM. In him all the fullness of the deity dwelt bodily. He was the image of the invisible God. He was the radiance of God’s glory and the
exact representation of His being. If
there ever was a king who deserved to have people serve before him in an army
it was Jesus. If there was ever a king
who deserved to be able to take people’s vineyards and cattle, it was
Jesus. If there was ever a king who deserved
to be served, Jesus is that King!
But look what He said in Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as
a ransom for many.”
Though he was the only one who ever deserved to be
served, he said that he did not come to be served but TO serve. Wow. He
didn’t come to round up His people to serve begrudgingly and force labor upon them
or take stuff from people for his own benefit. He came to serve and give his life as a ransom. Don’t misunderstand me: we do indeed serve
him, but not in the way kings were served in the old order. And even if it was in that way, he deserves
it.
And we do not serve him because we fear him as a monarch
or dictator. The king has the power to
declare: put them in the iron maiden. Or off with their heads. We don’t serve him out of fear. We serve him out of a love for him, with obedience
and a loyalty that stems from his love and service to us. We are moved to serve him because he first
served us.
None of those kings in the old order ever really
deserved to be served in the way that they were. They didn’t deserve to have people run before
him in chariots and give their lives in service to him. If anyone ever deserved that, it’s
Jesus. But
that’s not the kind of King we serve. He
is the kind of king who served. He
knelt down and washed filthy feet. He whose
rightful position is at the right hand of the Father, set aside his divine
prerogatives and came to a people who would reject him and spit on him, and
ridicule him, and ultimately crucify him.
He came not
to be served but to serve and to lay down his life. Greater love has no one than this that he lay
down his life for his friends.
THIS IS THE KIND OF KING WE SERVE: a king
who served. What AN HONOR.
OLD
KINGS WICKED, NOT JESUS
Again, we are describing Jesus by way of comparison to
the kings of old. As you read through
the books of Kings
& Chronicles what you read over and over and over is “so and so
became king of Judah at the age of ___.
He did evil in the eyes of the LORD…so and so became the king of Israel
at the age of ___. He did evil in the
eyes of the LORD.” There were a
handful that walked in righteousness, but by and large most of the kings in the
old order were wicked. Can you imagine
living in a kingdom ruled by a wicked king?
Can you imagine a government under a cruel monarch or dictator?
Even in our democratic system, we have a primary leader.
We are coming up on election season. It
seems every four years that people make the comment that we are going to
have to choose between the lesser of two evils.
Not so with Jesus.
There is no election day whereby we choose our ruler. God chose him before the foundation of the world. And that’s probably a good thing. We would probably choose a horrible leader if
we had the power to elect him. But look
at the King that God has installed on the throne in the heavenly
Jerusalem. Unlike those kings in the old
order who did
evil in the eyes of the LORD, our king is the very antithesis of
evil. Jesus is the epitome of
righteousness. It feels good to know
that the one in charge, the one governing our kingdom is a king of
righteousness.
JESUS REIGNS IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. That is the kind of King we serve and it is
an honor.
If Jesus’ reign was recorded in the books of Kings &
Chronicles, not only would it say that he walked in
righteousness like his father David, it would say that Jesus’ righteousness far
exceeded that of his father David. Throughout
those books David is held up as a standard of righteousness for kings. For the handful that walked in righteousness
we see them compared to David. For
example in 2
Chron 29:1-2 Hezekiah was twenty-five
years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of
Zechariah. He did was that right in the
eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. So David was pretty much a standard for
righteousness in the world of the Kings of Israel. Yet David was flawed. For the most part he was great but as you
probably know, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then conspired in the
murder of her husband Uriah to cover it up.
Jesus on the other hand was tempted in every way as we are and yet was without sin.
So the kings in the old order were essentially
wicked. But our king, Jesus on the other
hand is righteousness itself. He is the
very epitome of righteousness and his righteousness far exceeds David’s.
JESUS REIGNS IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. That is the kind of King we serve and it is
an honor.
A few weeks ago we looked at the typology of the
Kingdom. We noted that the OT story is a
type or shadow of the spiritual things to come in the NT. In the first century God brought forth the
substance, the antitype in Christ. He
brought forth a new creation, a New Israel, who he redeemed out of a spiritual
slavery in a spiritual Egypt, who then wandered in a spiritual wilderness for
40 years and then entered into the spiritual promised land, the heavenly
kingdom. We noted that the Kingdom of
heaven is the restoration of Israel to her former glory during the glory days
of Israel in the prosperous and peaceful reign of Solomon. So we identified Solomon as a type of Christ.
He was the son of David who ruled in justice, righteousness, peace, and built
the temple. Jesus is the antitype the
substance, the son of David who rules in justice, righteousness, peace and
built the temple. As with all types and
shadows, the antitype is far greater and more glorious than the type that foreshadowed
it. The same is obviously true with
Jesus. Jesus
is far greater than Solomon. Let’s take a look at Solomon and see how Jesus
embodies those very things.
Turn with me in your bibles to 1 Kings 3. From 1 Samuel, you will pass 2 Samuel and
then you will be at 1 Kings.
1 Kings 3:5ff
5 At
Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
Imagine
if the God of the Universe told you that!
6 Solomon
answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David,
because he was faithful to
you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness
to him and have given him a son to
sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now,
O Lord my God, you have made your servant king
in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my
duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you
have chosen, a
great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to
distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord
was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God
said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have
asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do
what you have asked. I will
give you a wise and
discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will
there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you
what you have not asked
for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father
did, I will give you a long life.”
Scripture
immediately records an event in which Solomon gets to exercise this wisdom.
16 Now two
prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of
them said, “My lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby
while she was there with me. 18 The third day after my
child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in
the house but the two of us.
19 “During
the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him.20 So she got up in the
middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was
asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. 21 The next
morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him
closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”
22 The other
woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”
But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living
one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.
So
Solomon told them to go down the street to the local DNA testing center and
just settle the matter.
23 The king
said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one
says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’”
24 Then the king
said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. 25 He then
gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to
the other.”
26 The woman
whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the
living baby! Don’t kill him!”
But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in
two!”
27 Then the
king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill
him; she is his mother.”
28 When all
Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because
they saw that he had wisdom from God
to administer justice.
We see in Solomon’s decision that he was indeed
exceedingly wise. God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and
a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. There was no on wiser than
Solomon. We owe most of the book of
proverbs to him and men from all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
One of the people who had come to engage Solomon’s
wisdom was the queen of Sheba.
1 Kings 10:1-5 1When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with
camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came
to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too
hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of
Solomon and the palace he had built, 5 the food on his table,the seating of his officials,
the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings
he made at[a] the temple of theLord, she was overwhelmed.
Solomon was so great and so wise that the queen of
Sheba came to see and hear in person.
So Solomon as a king was phenomenal. God gave him the opportunity to have it
all. And he chose wisdom that he may
govern God’s people well. God liked that
and made him the wisest man who ever lived.
He was able to make even the most difficult decisions in wisdom, wrote
the proverbs, people came from all over to see him and hear him. One was the queen of Sheba.
Solomon as the king of Israel in her glory days was a
type that foreshadowed Jesus as the King of the gloriously restored Israel –
the kingdom of heaven. Solomon was a type of Christ. If Solomon was great, then Jesus would be
greater. If Solomon was wise, Jesus
would be wiser. And this is exactly what
we see in the text.
In Matt 12:42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this
generation and condemn it; for she came from
the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than
Solomon is here.
Jesus as the antitype of
Solomon, is greater than Solomon.
Solomon was a great king over a glorious Kingdom; Jesus is a greater king
over a more glorious kingdom. Jesus is
one greater than Solomon.
As we saw Solomon was
challenged with difficult decisions. The dead baby is hers. The queen of Sheba challenged him but nothing
was too difficult for him. Jesus had
some similar challenges in his ministry.
One of them is somewhat reminiscent of Solomon.
Matt
22:15ff 15 Then the
Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.16 They
sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that
you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by
men, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us
then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus,
knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me
the coin used for paying the tax.”They brought him a
denarius, 20 and he
asked them, “Whose
portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,”
they replied.
Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Jesus was wiser than
Solomon and rendered decisions in wisdom greater than that of Solomon.
John 7:46 “No one
ever spoke the way this
man does.”
Matt 7:28-29 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not
as their teachers of the law.
Luke 4:22 All spoke well of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.
So Jesus is greater than Solomon and wiser than
Solomon. Solomon went down in history as
a great king. But Jesus is greater! That is the king we serve and it is an honor!
In week 2, we poked fun at our friend Solomon. The Law decreed that the king should not
accumulate much gold or horses, or have many wives. Solomon, as great of a king as he was walked
in direct violation of those things as he received about 25 tons of gold every
year, he had 1400 chariots and 12000 horses, he had 700 wives of noble birth
and 300 concubines.
What about Jesus?
Did Jesus accumulate much gold?
He had humble beginnings was born in a manger, not a palace, and as he
said, “foxes have
holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.” It seems that the only gold he accumulated
was that which he received from the Magi when he was an infant.
Did Jesus accumulate horses? As far as we know he didn’t own one. In fact he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey he
borrowed.
Did Jesus accumulate wives? During his earthly life not even one. The only wife of Jesus is the one heavenly
bride, the church, the New Jerusalem, a bride to whom He is ever-faithful.
So in all of Solomon’s excellence, we see serious
failures. But in Jesus, the king of the
Kingdom, the antitype, we see one who is greater than Solomon, one who far
exceeded Solomon’s excellence in every way.
That is the King we serve and it is an
honor.
JESUS
HAS IT ALL
In Jesus we have one who has it all. Jonathan
Edwards said that what makes Jesus glorious is “an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.”
Not only is Jesus completely just, but he was also
merciful and compassionate. His
marvelous majesty is mixed with meekness.
Though he was given all authority and dominion and
power, he walked in complete submission to his heavenly father.
Though he could sit down with the teachers of the Law
and baffle them with doctrinal paradoxes he could sit down with common people
and fishermen and tell stories and give illustrations they could relate
to. In one scene we see him going toe to
toe with the teachers of the law asking whose son is the Christ? David?
Then if he is David’s son, why does David call him lord? Then in another episode we see little
children coming to him.
In one breath he calms a storm and shows his sovereign
authority and ability to control all things and then we see the same mouth
unopened as he is led like a lamb to the slaughter.
In Jesus we have a lion and a lamb. In Jesus we have the lion of the tribe of Judah who rules with an iron
scepter. And yet, in Jesus we
also have the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The man who hung on the cross bleeding for the sins of
his people is the same Jesus who sits at the right hand of God as the King of
Kings. So often the church only sees
Jesus as the guy who hung on the cross.
He is certainly that, but he is also the king – the one who has authority,
dominion, and sovereignty over all things.
Our king is the very same one who shed his blood to atone for sins. He is not only the Lamb, but also the Lion.
Jesus was the only one who ever deserved to be
served and yet he came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
The only one who ever deserved to have people lay down their life for him and
yet he laid down his life for his people.
THIS IS THE KIND OF KING WE SERVE. AND IT IS AN HONOR.
www.ncfgeorgetown.com preterist fellowship, preterist church Austin
tx, Church in Georgetown, Texas. Reformed church Georgetown, Texas Preterist
church Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone. Associate pastor Jesse Gutierrez, Sermon
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