One of the most important things to understand is captured in Genesis 1:27-28 which says, “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”
These are incredible powerful words: Be fruitful. Increase in number. Fill the earth. Subdue it. Rule over every living creature. Tame the seas and the fish, tame the ground and the beasts of the earth, cultivate the ground and every seed-bearing shrub, plant, and tree. The whole earth is yours!
But notice what isn’t on the list. God doesn’t ask Adam and Eve to rule over each other, or their fellow man. You know why? Because God reserved that role for Himself. 1 Timothy 1:17 says God is “… the King eternal, immortal, invisible…” and He’s “the only God, [to whom is due all] honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” But along comes the serpent who says, “Pssst. Hey guys. If you take this fruit and eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil!” Like God how? Like God the King of mankind. Like God in His immortality. Like God in honor and glory.
We have in the opening pages of Scripture Adam & Eve’s wholesale rejection of God as King. The minute they reject God as King, their world plummets into chaos. Everything become impossibly hard: child birth, labor, marriage, gathering food, ruling over the sea, sky, and ground. God essentially tells Adam and Eve, instead of subduing the earth, you will succumb to death. From dust you came, to dust you will return!
Isn’t it true that when God isn’t our King, things we should conquer… instead conquer us? This is what people refuse to understand. The world God created was one in which He’d rule as King eternal, immortal, invisible. The world we chose was one in which instead of God, we’d rule, as our self-appointed kings. We’d be lawgiver and judge unto ourselves.
From Genesis 1-11 the wickedness of mankind only increases until the inclination of people’s hearts were only evil all the time. Even after the flood, what does sinful man attempt? Humankind sets out to build not just a great city, but a tower stretching high into the heavens, so they could make a name for themselves. But in Genesis 1-11, every time a person rejects God as King,… God banishes, God curses, God punishes, God destroys, God frustrates, God confuses, God scatters. Without God as King, everything spirals out of control. We’re told the world evolved into its present order without God, but in reality the world devolves, without God… our world plummets into chaos, and our lives plummet into ruin.
In Genesis 4:7 God tells Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” If we were to be honest, we’d all confess that we’ve been horribly incompetent kings. Instead of ruling the sea, the sky, and the ground and every living creature on earth… it would seem the world rules us. Our sin rules us… our pride, our ambition, our shame and guilt, our pleasures, our flesh, our cravings and desires.
There is absolutely no blessedness in being your own king. But what is the lie that Satan continues to tell us? He keeps telling us, we can be blessed “being like God,” when in reality, we can only be blessed “being under God.”
So along comes Abraham. And what does God tell Abraham? God says, “I…”. Now let me stop right there. God says, “I.” “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Do you see? When we restore God to his proper place as King, only then can we truly be blessed. Only when God is King, can the earth (the sea, the sky, the ground and every living creature) truly be ours! If you usurp God as King you forfeit everything. If you enthrone God as King, you inherit the earth.
By the way, didn’t Jesus say something like, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth?” Who are the meek? The meek are those who have so emptied themselves that they're ready for God to take His throne in their life! How much turbulence do we need to experience in our Kingless, Godless lives before we become poor in Spirit, and mourn our sin, and become meek?
God tells Abraham that all people on earth will be blessed through him… through his offspring, his seed, through a descendent. The only way all nations are going to be blessed is if, whoever Abraham’s distant child, offspring, son will be, will somehow by his life reestablish “God as King” in the hearts of mankind.
Last week I demonstrated how all of Scripture anticipates the arrival of a promised child, a Christ, a Messiah, who would come, who as to his earthly lineage would be a direct of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah. What I didn’t tell you is that the word Christ, the word Messiah, means King. God promised Abraham he would send forth a King.. a King who would reestablish God as King over Mankind.
Let me break this down for you, so you can keep track with me.
Scene #1: Genesis 1-2.
God is the eternal, immortal, invisible King over all the earth. He is the one and only true God, to whom all glory, honor is due.
Scene #2: Genesis 1-11.
Man says, “I’m better without God… I’m better being my own King.”
Scene #3: Genesis 12
God says, “You can’t bless yourself. I will bless. I will send forth a child, a Christ, a Messiah, a Son, a King… through whom every person on earth can be blessed.
Scene #4: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua…
Through Moses God gives the Law, the Ten Commandments. But what were the Ten Commandments but a heavenly vision (a prescription) of how blessed life can be if only we’d let God be King, and truly let God rule, and if we were to not have any other gods before our God and King, and if as Cain was told, we were to not let sin rule over us.
What I love about the books of the Law is that God understands we cannot conquer the sin that so readily defeats us. In the Law, God makes provision after provision for mercy and forgiveness, so that even when we sin, there is always a way forward. So that even when we sin, the penalty for us sin is paid by a substitutionary sacrifice, so that we can be free to go on living under the rule of God as King, and for the glory of God as King. Every page of our Bible is oozing with mercy.
Scene #5: Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Chronicles.
1 & 2 Kings. At the risk of over-simplification, the people of God grow impatient with God’s promise to send forth a King. Instead of waiting for God’s Anointed, they plead with God, through his prophet Samuel, to “appoint a king to lead us like all the other nations have.” Not a King “like God,” but a King “like other nations.” So here we go again!
Samuel comes before God, and God tells Samuel, “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as the King. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly, and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” (1 Samuel 8:6-9)
God is quite clear what those who’d rather be ruled by men than God will experience. He says in 1 Samuel 8:11-19, “This is what the king who will rule over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands or fifties, others will plow his ground and reap his harvest and still others will make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants (people). He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When they day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen but the Lord will not answer you on that day.”
You know what 1 Samuel 8 resembles? It resembles a Facebook rant. Do we really think that any man will ever be a better King than God himself? When I turn on Facebook people rage about Bush’s wars, Clinton’s wars, Obama’s wars, Trump building his military machine. People rage about taxes and inequities. People rage about who they have to bake cakes for, and should they be coerced to bake a cake they don’t want to. People rage how they slave day and night and can’t rub two nickles together, while the powerful enrich themselves and their cronies. People rage what’s being done to their daughters by powerful people. Maybe we get the kings we deserve?
You know the best king God’s people Israel ever got was King David. He was a man after God’s own heart. So long as a man is a man after God’s own heart, his rule over us may be benevolent and good and beneficial. But men are filled with evil, and King David as no exception. If King David were King today he’d be in the headlines right alongside the perverted kings of Hollywood, the kings of television, kings of cable, and kings of Washington. We can rant and bristle all we want, but we can never say we weren’t warned. We are horrible kings over ourselves. We are equally horrible kings over one another. David was the best earthly king Israel ever got, but as great as King David was, he wasn’t at all what God had in mind!
Scene #6: God Promises to Send Forth a King “Like Himself.”
This king would be a descendent yes of Adam, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah… and quite specifically he would be a descendent of King David. Now quite honestly, the Old Testament, especially the Psalms, are filled with passages anticipating the coming of God’s Christ/Messiah/King. But its Christmas, and thanks to hallmark, the single most circulated passage of Scripture is to be about God’s promise to send forth a King.
Isaiah 9:6-7 declares, “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 greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. 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. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
Christmas is about one thing, and one thing only. It’s about God sending forth His King, not a king like us, but a King Like God… who will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves… who will do for us what no earthly king, republican or democrat will ever be able to do. This King will rule in peace, in justice, in righteousness, and in God’s power. Passage after passage in your Old Testament anticipates that a biological descendent of King David, but who is also of God, will come to earth to establish God’s reign forever.
That King, is our King Jesus.
Scene #7. God sends for His Christ, His Messiah, His King.
I wonder if you’ve ever heard the word “gospel” before. What does the word gospel mean? Did you know that gospel was a political term? Kings sent forth heralds ad nauseum, announcing whatever news they thought to be good. A gospel was a political announcement, with political implications, given by a King, applicable to everyone in a given Kingdom. When you pick up your New Testament and you read the word Gospel, it means one thing and one thing only. The gospel (good news) is that God has sent forth his promise King! By the way when the New Testament writers announce that Jesus has arrived, their first order of business is to biologically link Jesus not just to Abraham but to King David. In both Matthew/Luke’s genealogy, Jesus is a “Son of David.” Jesus is the one promised of old!
The magi travel from the east expecting to see who? A King. Herod is threatened why? Because he confers with the chief priests, and teachers of the law and discerns that according to the ancient Scriptures (our Old Testament) not only was a king about to be born… but the king was about to be born in Bethlehem, and not only is the Christ to be born in the city of David but he will of David’s own flesh.
When Mary receives word from an angel she will give birth to Jesus, she praises the Lord. Why? Well first the angel tell her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his Kingdom/Rule will never end!” (Luke 1:30-33).
But then Mary begins to understand the implications of Christ’s coming: “God has performed mighty deeds with his arm, he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble (meek). He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remember to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” (Luke 1:50-56)
I find it interesting that in most every sermon in Acts, in most every introduction to the gospel given throughout the Bible, Jesus King is linked to David. You don’t get any more New Testament than Romans. Romans 1, how does Paul announce the gospel? He says, “Paul a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness, was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord [King]…” (Romans 1:1-4)
If you are looking for something shorter, that fits within Twitter’s former character restrictions, there is always 2 Timothy 2:8. Paul says, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.” Friends that is the Christmas gospel, the Christmas headline, the goodness in a sentence! This Jesus has come, but not out of the blue. We’ve only been waiting for him since the beginning of time. And now he has come that God might reign from our hearts once again.