St John's Anglican Church

Lent 3     The King of God   

 

In what ways do you think that politicians contribute to the life of the church? Well, I don’t know what kind of answers you were conjuring up but the answer that I would have wanted to move on would be that they act as sermon catalysts. The things they get up to really afford the preacher with abundant illustrations to reflect upon.

 

I know what you might be thinking – “Is Rob going to crack a Julius Malema joke? Maybe he is going to crack a joke about taking on another wife just to keep up with the Zuma’s next door.

 

Well, believe it or not I am going to commend President Jacob Zuma on his manners and attention to protocol and etiquette displayed in his recent visit to Buckingham Palace this past week.

 

Let me read to you an extract from the Mail and Guardian

 

Staying at Buckingham Palace is not exactly the same as crashing at a friend's digs for a few days, as President Jacob Zuma found out this week.

Zuma, with his newest wife, Tobeka, plus a handful of his nearest and dearest in Cabinet, scored two nights in the most exalted house in England when they moved into the queen's official London residence on Wednesday morning at the monarch's personal invitation.

 

It was clear from the start that Queen Elizabeth II, a stickler for rules, was going to be a good, if stern, host.

"They were very clear in reminding us that you can't come in late at night," he said. "This is not like a hotel, where you can come and go as you please and they asked us not to come in at 1am and disturb the queen."

A simple handshake was also a carefully considered matter. "You know how South Africans give you a handshake that shakes your whole body? For the queen it must be different; the handshake needs to be of a much softer touch."

 

Well, the Mail and Guardian might have been a bit tongue in cheek here but the official dvd clips of the visit show a very respectful and humble Zuma bowing and nodding at all the right times to all the right people while giving the Queen his undivided attention. That’s just how it has to be when you are in the presence of a highly revered monarch. Queen Elizabeth comes from a long line of Windsors who have formed the lineage of her ancestry.

 

Turn with me to Matthew Chapter 1. A portion of Scripture that I bet you haven’t studied more than once – if ever. Look at it with me (mention names)

 

It is the genealogy of Jesus our Saviour descended from David.

 

So the first thing that we notice is that Jesus came from a long, long line of Kings who were all there because of the promise made by God to Abraham in Genesis 12.They were all Kings of Israel after God had redeemed his people out of the Land of Egypt. (We looked at these events over the past two weeks. God’s rescue plan for His people began the day that he brought them across the Red Sea and continued until the Kingdom had been established.

 

I watched a movie on Friday night called “Knowing” where Nicholas Cage acted as a lecturer who was clearly atheist and taught that the whole world and all in it, and the universe of which we are part just happened because of chance and some circumstantial mutations of a biological nature and “It just happened”. Well, in an awful Hollywood type way his philosophy is badly shaken. I would have liked to have got hold of the character myself and done a bit of fire and brimstone chatting into his ear to get through a couple of home truths.

 

How could all of this just have happened. It would all be so meaningless without the wonderful revelation of Jesus and the teachings of Holy Scripture to reveal God’s masterpiece for his world and for you and me. A masterpiece that was severely damaged in Genesis 3 with the fall of man but which has been subsequently restored to perfection by God through His King.

 

We saw on the first Sunday of Lent how God acted according to his promise to Abraham that He would bless the descendants of Abraham and bless them forever.

 

Well, this week we were taken to 2 Samuel 7 for the next great development in God’s plan. God uses the peoples jealousy of the surrounding nations to teach them a lesson. The surrounding nations all had Kings to whom they paid homage and honored above all others in his kingdom.

 

In 2 Samuel 1 and 2 we have the selection process which finally produced the young shepherd brought in from the fields to be anointed King over all Israel. Not his families first choice, in fact, he was almost entirely overlooked except that God was looking for him and made them go out and get him. The Lord Almighty says to David I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.   vs 8

 

In so many respects today’s reading echoes the covenant that God made with Abraham. If we look at verses like I will establish a house for you and I will make your name great we recognize that this Davidic Covenant is simply a re-affirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12.

 

In our reading today David acknowledges the power and might of the Lord God Almighty and vows to build a great palace for him. How could the old and battered ark of the covenant suffice for the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Well, to cut a really lovely story short because of time – suffice it to say that David was being a bit presumptuous to dictate what God should do.

 

The writer of this week’s teaching, The Revd. Vaughan Roberts, makes a valid point here where he says that “Here is the difference between Christianity and all other human religions: Human religions begin here on earth with human beings deciding who God is and how we will worship him, and it can never work because our brains are just too small. God takes every initiative and our role and religion is to follow God and not the ways of man.

 

God would take every initiative in appointing David and David’s successor and every King until the final appointment of Jesus – God’s King! As we read in verse 12

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.

 

Let’s see how that all came about through the passage of scripture.

 

Verse 12 clearly refers to Solomon, David’s son, doesn’t it? After all verse 13 which follows says:- 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. It did apply to Solomon – who typically messed up as all sinners mess up – but the promise became also the prophetic promise of the KING who was to follow ultimately in God’s plan to restore His masterpiece.

 

Isa 9:6-7

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

 

Vs 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son.  Ring any New Testament bells?

 

So, now let’s make a thousand year jump through History to the River Jordan at the opening session of Christ’s public ministry. John sees him coming and announces him as the redeemer “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Then God speaks down from Heaven with the words “This is my Son, whom I love: with Him I am well pleased.” Again Eugene Peterson catches the significance of the moment by translating the sentence as "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."

 

He is THE one.

 

God’s King is not appointed by a democratic vote or a military junta or a dictatorial coup – God’s King is chosen by God and enthroned forever.

 

Isaiah goes on to say 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.

 

Jesus – now the end of the genealogical line of miserable sinful kings – the Holy and anointed one who will reign forever. God’s King. Christianity was not a human development but a revelation from God by becoming incarnate and dwelling among us so that we might enter into God’s Kingdom with God’s King being sovereign over us.

 

Jesus tells his listeners that the Time Has Come – the Kingdom of God is amongst you – Why did he say this – because the King has come

 

We are members of that great Kingdom as Redeemed and Sanctified believers. We are built into the spiritual house that God pointed to in verse  10 I will provide a place for my people …… and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own

 

Don’t you love the way 1 Peter 2:4,5 puts it…

 

come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 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

 

Once again do you see that Jesus is the central subject of the whole Bible – The Old lays the groundwork for our faith and the New fulfills it – all through Christ – The King of God.

 

Well if we are in the presence of a Living King within the Kingdom of God here on earth then that should determine how we live out our daily lives shouldn’t it?

 

While Jacob Zuma might have been well schooled in how to behave before Queen Elizabeth, our course material suggests just 4 ways in which we should respond to being in the presence of the ultimate and final monarch.

 

BUT what arrogance is it that when you come to worship and honor your King each Sunday that you don’t even come in with reverence and awe. I don’t mind you saying hello to one another at the door but then you come down the aisle and you remember where you are and you bow the knee and worship him. What arrogance that last week as we were worshipping the King in song two people in the congregation were reading the Iindaba and not even bothering to participate. What arrogance when we were talking about the Presence of our God through the sacrament of Holy Communion that more than one person knelt down while still chewing gum. Don’t point fingers at Jacob Zuma on this one.

 

Humility is the mark of the true believer. Humility before the King and then – by the example of the King of Kings – humility towards one another.

 

Do you want me to carry on in the same vain with the next three characteristics?  Maybe not – I don’t want to get too hot under the color. Perhaps I can leave it to you to take home with you for homework.

 

Ask yourselves the question. Am 365 24/7 aware of being in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord’s Is he sovereign over me with regards to my:

 

1. Humility
2. Obedience
3. Outreach to others
4. Hope for the life eternal

 

The Book of revelation brings us the final picture of Jesus reigning in glory and being worshipped and glorified by every living creature. As Paul speaks of the King he does so in these words….

  

Phil 2:9-11  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

 

That is the great day when the masterpiece will have been completely and utterly restored – even better than it was before at the beginning of the Bible. Why, well because you and I will be in this time!