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New Hope Church – December 23, 2012
Joy to the World: Let Earth Receive Her King
Christ, the King!
Matthew 1-2
Ben Deaver
Intro
· Merry Christmas!
Review
· 1st Corinthians – The High Road of Love
· Joy to the World: Let Earth Receive Her King
o 1. Christ, the King!
o 2. The Spirit of the King within us.
o 3. The Return of the King.
o 4. The Eternal Reign of the King.
My goal this morning is to inspire you to follow the King!
· As we sing the songs, give gifts, eat food, reflect on the year, etc. I want to challenge you to follow the King! Many, many people say they follow the King but they’re words only. I want to inspire you to truly follow this King!
We want a King!
· We are cynical, distrusting, anti-authoritarian, individualistic, self-ruling people and yet…and yet I believe deep inside of us we all desire to be led. Yes, we want a King!
· Who’s seen The Hobbit?
o These last several weeks I’ve been drawn into this storyline. At the end of The Return of the King (third volume in LOTR) there are several appendices. One is a timeline. Thousands of years of history are covered. I noticed one date in the Third Age, 2941, when the events of The Hobbit transpire. I start looking for Aragorn.
o Aragorn in LOTR
· To fight our battles… To provide for us…
· Younger men want the older men to lead them.
· Younger women want the older women to lead them.
· Wives want their husbands to lead them.
· Sons want their fathers to lead them.
· We want a coach and a quarterback who can win us a championship!
· We want a President who can look out for our interests!
· We want a Pastor/Shepherd who genuinely cares about our family’s needs!
· We want to be lead…
· Ultimately, God is our King!
· But we have rejected Him.
Listen for how many times “king” is referenced. Just listen to these words from 1 Samuel 8…
Read out of my Bible.
1 Samuel 8
4Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel atRamah5and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways.Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”6But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to theLord.7And theLordsaid to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you,for they have not rejected you,but they have rejected me from being king over them.8According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you (the Exodus happened in 1446 BC – 400 years before).9Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn themand show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
10So Samuel told all the words of theLordto the people who were asking for a king from him.11He said,“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you:he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots.12And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and someto plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.15He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.16He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young menand your donkeys, and put them to his work.17He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.18And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves,but theLordwill not answer you in that day.”
19But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us,20that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”21And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of theLord.22And theLordsaid to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.”
All kings will fail us…
· Leaders are self-seeking. “He will take…” (5 times)
· Leaders lust for power.
· Leaders experience moral failure.
· Leaders have limited capacity.
· Leaders will die.
· I’ve experienced failure from leaders in my life many times…
· I’ve also failed those I’ve sought to lead…
Let’s get back to our story. God’s people want a king. Let’s look at the kings that led them.
We’ll ask two questions:
What did these kings accomplish with their life?
What did these kings accomplish with their death?
PRAY
Turn to Matthew 1 in my Bible.
Matthew 1 – The Kings of Israel
1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,the son of David…
King Saul (Bad)
· Saul (1050-1010 BC)
· 1 Samuel 9:1-2 Samuel 1:27; 1 Chronicles 10:1-14
· 13So Saul diedfor his breach of faith. He broke faith with theLordin that he did not keep the command of theLord, and alsoconsulted a medium, seeking guidance.14Hedid not seek guidance from theLord. Therefore theLordput him to death andturned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse. (1 Chronicles 10:13-14)
6andJesse the father of David the king.
· David (1010-970 BC) (Good)
· 1 Samuel 16:1 – 2 Samuel 24:25; 1 Chronicles 11:1 – 29:30; 1 Kings 1:1-2:12
· God promised one who would sit on the throne of David for eternity…
· 1 Chronicles 17:11-14
o 11When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.12He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.13I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him,as I took it from him who was before you,14but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.
· Jeremiah 33:17, 20-21
o 17“For thus says theLord:David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,
o 20“Thus says theLord:If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night,so that day and night will not come at their appointed time,21then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne…
· However, just ask Uriah how he felt about David as king. David slept with his wife, Bathsheba, while he was staying home from war when he should have been fighting for his people. And then David had Uriah killed in battle. Adultery, murder, doesn’t sound good.
· Then he died at a good age, full of days, riches, and honor. (1 Chronicles 29:28)
AndDavid was the father of Solomon bythe wife of Uriah,(SCANDAL)
· Solomon (970-930 BC) (Good)
· 1 Chronicles 29:22 – 2 Chronicles 9:31; 1 Kings 1:28-11:43
· The wisest man on earth.
· The one who built God’s temple…and then built an even bigger house for himself.
· Too many women…foreign women…fell away…
· 1 Kings 11:1, 2-4, 6
o NowKing Solomon loved many foreign women…2from the nations concerning which theLordhad said to the people of Israel,“You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.3He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.4For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, andhis heart was not wholly true to theLordhis God,as was the heart of David his father… 6So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of theLordand did not wholly follow theLord, as David his father had done.
· And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father… (2 Chronicles 9:31)
7andSolomon the father of Rehoboam,
· Rehoboam (931-913 BC) (Bad)
· 2 Chronicles 10:1 – 12:16; 1 Kings 12:1-14:31
· Did not heed the advice of the older men but listened to the young men.Put a heavy burden on the people…
· The Kingdom was divided under him…
· And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David… (2 Chronicles 12:16)
and Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
· Abijah (913-911 BC) (Bad)
· 2 Chronicles 13:1 – 14:1; 1 Kings 15:1-8
· Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. (2 Chronicles 14:1)
and Abijah the father of Asaph (aka Asa),
· Asa (911-890 BC) (Good)
· 2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14; 1 Kings 15:9-25
· Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. (2 Chronicles 16:12-14)
8and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat,
· Jehoshaphat (873-848 BC) (Good)
· 2 Chronicles 17:1-21:1; 1 Kings 22:41-50
· Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David… (2 Chronicles 21:1)
and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,(SCANDAL)
· Jehoram (848-841 BC) (Bad)
· 2 Chronicles 21:1-20; 2 Kings 8:16-24
· 18And after all this theLordstruck himin his bowels with an incurable disease.19In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor,like the fires made for his fathers.20He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departedwith no one's regret.They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. (2 Chronicles 21:18-20)
· Matthew skips three kings and one other leader…
o Ahaziah after Joram (841 BC) (Bad) – 2 Chronicles 22:1-9; 2 Kings 8:25-27 (evil) assassinated by Jehu
§ Athaliah (841-835 BC) (Bad) – a usurper; put to death
o Jehoash reigned after Ahaziah (835-796 BC) (Good) – 2 Chronicles 24:1-27; 2 Kings 11:21-12:21
§ So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. (2 Chronicles 24:25)
o Amaziah reigned after Jehoash (796-767 BC) (Good) – 2 Chronicles 25:1-28; 2 Kings 14:1-22; put to death
and Joram the father of Uzziah (aka Azariah),
· Uzziah (790-739 BC) (Good)
· 2 Chronicles 26:1-23; 2 Kings 15:1-7 – Pride at the end of his life. Leprosy.
· And Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, “He is a leper.” (2 Chronicles 26:23)
9and Uzziah the father of Jotham,
· Jotham (751-736 BC) (Good)
· 2 Chronicles 27:1-9; 2 Kings 15:32-38
· And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David… (2 Chronicles 27:9)
and Jotham the father of Ahaz,
· Ahaz (743-728 BC) (Bad)
· 2 Chronicles 28:1-27; 2 Kings 16:1-17:41
· And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. (2 Chronicles 28:27)
and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
· Hezekiah (728-695 BC) (Good)
· 2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33; 2 Kings 18:1-20:21
· Prayed for healing. His life was extended. Then he experienced pride but eventually humbled himself again.
· And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. (2 Chronicles 32:33)
10and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
· Manasseh (695-642 BC) (Bad)
· 2 Chronicles 33:1-20; 2 Kings 21:1-18
· So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house… (2 Chronicles 33:20)
and Manasseh the father of Amos (aka Amon),
· Amon (642-640 BC) (Bad)
· 2 Chronicles 33:21-25; 2 Kings 21:19-26
· And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house. (2 Chronicles 33:24)
and Amos the father of Josiah,
· Josiah (640-609 BC) (Good)
· 2 Chronicles 34:1-35:27; 2 Kings 22:1-23:30
· And he died (after an arrow wound) and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. (2 Chronicles 35:24)
11andJosiah the father ofJechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
· Confusion here…
o Jehoahaz (609 BC) (Bad)
o Jehoakim (609-597 BC) (Bad)
o Jehoachim (597 BC) (Bad)
o Zedekiah (597-586 BC) (Bad)
· 2 Chronicles 36:1-23; 2 Kings 23:31-25:30
· I can assure you they are all dead.
What do all these kings have in common?