Monday, March 13, 2006

Jesus, The King (3-19-06)

Jesus, The King
Bible Study Time 3-19-06

The prophet Zechariah was speaking of the Lord Jesus when he said:

Zechariah 6:12-13 (NKJ)
12 . . . "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the LORD;

Zechariah saw the day when Jesus Christ would leave the glory of heaven to come to the earth and rebuild the Jewish temple. The faithful Jews had been looking for a kingdom since the time of Abraham. When God first called Abraham, God said:

Genesis 12:1-2 (NKJ)
1 . . . "Get out of your country . . . to a land that I will show you.
2 (And) I will make you a great nation . . .

Later, God spoke to Abraham again and said:

Genesis 22:17-18 (NKJ)
17 " . . . I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed . . .

From this statement the faithful Jews knew that they should look for one man who would come as the Messiah, or the Savior as we would say, and King David was one of those faithful Jews who was looking for this Messiah. He was, of coarse, overwhelmed when God told him that the Messiah would not only be the Seed of Abraham, but He would be of the house and lineage of David. In 2 Samuel 7, God said, David:

2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NKJ)
12 "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Do you see how the Bible is a progressive revelation? God reveals a little bit here, and then He reveals a little bit more as time goes on, and then later He reveals even more. Well, that’s the way the Bible is. If we study it all, and compare scripture with scripture, we start to get the whole picture of what God wants us to know.

The Messiah was going to be a descendant of Abraham, and He was going to be a descendant of David, and He was going to build a house for God. Now what does this mean, that He was going to build a house for God. Well, it means two things. First, it means that the Messiah will build the Jewish temple as Zechariah would later confirm. Second, it means that the Messiah would build a family of believers.

Mankind was kidnapped by Satan in the Garden of Eden, and it was God’s plan to provide a way for people to come back home to God. Those who are willing to come home to God become a part of the house of God or the family of God. God told David, “the Messiah will come from your house, but the Messiah will build a house for Me.”

Jesus Christ came as the Son of David to build a house for God. At one point, when Jesus was on the earth, He was told that His mother and brothers were waiting for Him outside. When Jesus heard this He looked around and said, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Those of us who hear the word of God and do it are welcomed as members of the house of Jesus Christ. We become a part of the family of God.

In Psalms, Chapter 2, David looked into the future and saw the time when the Lord Jesus will rule the earth in an earthly kingdom. He said:

Psalms 2:1-12 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision.
5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:
6 "Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion."
7 "I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

David saw the day when Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, would sit upon His earthly throne and rule for a thousand years. At that time, God the Father will declare from heaven, “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion . . . You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”

When we look at Jerusalem today, it’s hard to imagine that someday it will be the most powerful city on the face of the earth. People from all over the world will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Zechariah says that:

Zechariah 8:23 (NKJ)
23 In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"

Ezekiel described the vast dimensions of this future city of Jerusalem and then said, “the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”

But as strange as it may seem, the Bible is clear that some of the nations that are on the earth during the kingdom will not be pleased to have Jesus as their king. Of coarse, these people are people who do not know the Lord. They do not believe in Jesus and therefore they still have a sin nature.

Obviously, the sin nature is never satisfied. Jesus Christ will establish a kingdom in which the entire population of the earth will be provided with food and shelter. The air will be clean and the water will be pure. They won’t need hospitals on every street corner because people won’t need them. The people will be healthy. So David asks the question:

Psalms 2:1-3 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves . . . against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."

David asks, why? Why do these kings of the earth want to rebel against Jesus? But then he says:
Psalms 2:4-5 (NKJ)
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision.
5 . . . He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:

The Apostle John tells us in the Book of the Revelation that at the end of the tribulation period Satan will be cast into the bottomless pit where he will be bound for a thousand years. He will not be able to go out and deceive the nations as he does today. He will not be able to stir up the envy and greed and distrust which is so prevalent among the nations of the world today. But at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, Satan will be loosed once again. Revelation 20, verse 7 says:

Revelation 20:7-10 (NKJ)
7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth . . . to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.
9 (And) They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Those rebellious nations who are on the earth during the thousand year reign of Christ will not have the foolish courage to openly attack the Son of God, but when the devil is turned loose, he is going to be able to give these nations a false sense of confidence, and they will decide to overthrow Jesus Christ.

Well, they have no idea who they’re up against. They don’t believe in Jesus. They don’t know that He is the God of creation. So when they come up against Him, He sends down fire from heaven, and they are devoured.

Zechariah also predicted that this would happen, saying:

Zechariah 12:3 (NKJ)
3 "And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.

In Psalms 2, the Father says to His Son, who is the King of Zion:

Psalms 2:8-9 (NKJ)
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"

Then God adds a word of warning for the kings of the earth and particularly for those kings who will be on the earth during the kingdom. Verse 10 says:

Psalms 2:10-12 (NKJ)
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

This is a warning for all of the kings of the earth, but it’s also a warning for all of us as individuals. Today, God is offering salvation, eternal life, as a free gift to all who will receive it by faith. When Jesus Christ was dying upon the cross of Calvary, He said, “It is finished.” He had done all that was necessary to provide for our salvation. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

Romans 5:6-8 (NKJ)
6 . . . when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 . . . scarcely for a righteous man will one die . . .
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus Christ is God, the Son, and He was willing to take upon Himself a body of flesh so that He could die and offer His blood as the payment for sin. When he arose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He took some of that blood which He shed on the cross, and He placed it on the mercyseat in the temple in heaven. Because that blood was the blood of the spotless Lamb of God, God accepted it as the payment for all sin. It fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of God.

Today, God is offering salvation to anyone and everyone. It does not matter how good you’ve been or how bad you’ve been. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in church all of your life or if you’ve lived on skid row. All that matters is whether or not you have accepted by faith God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Those who refuse to accept God’s salvation, however, will be like the unbelieving nations of the kingdom. They will face the judgment of God. The other day I was preaching in Mineral Wells, Texas, and afterward a lady came up to me and said that she appreciated the message. She said she liked the fact that I spoke with in a nonjudgmental way with compassion and love, but then she said, “Although, when I got saved, it was because I was afraid of going to hell.”

Well, I thanked her for the compliment and for the thought because we should never forget the fact that there is judgment ahead for those who refuse the salvation of God. David said:

Psalms 2:11 (NKJ)
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way . . .

If you should die without ever accepting Christ as your personal Savior, without ever believing that He died on the cross for your sins, you will have nothing to look forward to in eternity except the fires of hell. Now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation, and blessed are all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ. John said:

I John 5:11-12 (NKJ)
11 . . . this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

If you don’t know Christ today, and you have not accepted His salvation, ask you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure being with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

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