Kingship of Christ in the Gospels
Pastor Martin moves from the Old Testament period of preparation to the period of manifestation in the Gospels, showing that from the very first verse of the New Testament Jesus is presented as the rightful King who fulfills the promises to Abraham and David. He examines Matthew 1:1, Gabriel's annunciation in Luke 1, the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2, and Nathanael's confession in John 1, demonstrating that Jesus' kingship was openly declared at his conception, his birth, and the beginning of his public ministry. He pointedly rejects the dispensationalist view that Christ's enthronement is postponed until a future earthly reign.
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A full transcript is available on the tab. 118 paragraphs, roughly 56 minutes.
Review and Introduction to the Period of Manifestation
As I have already suggested in our study of the Word of God this morning, we shall return to a consideration of the biblical materials which set forth the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of sinners, as a Redeemer who in the work of redemption functions as a prophet, as a priest and as a king.
Because it has been a number of weeks, in fact two months, since we considered this line of biblical truth, I shall take a few minutes to bring together the main threads of thought that we have sought to weave from the biblical materials and then proceed to consider again Christ as the king of his church. We are concerned in this series of studies to come to grips with some of the most basic, the most elementary aspects of Christian truth and doctrine, those teachings of the Word of God upon which the salvation of sinners depend. And we must always remind ourselves that when we are studying biblical doctrine,
we are not engaged in a detached intellectual exercise. The religion of the Bible is a religion in which experience and truth are inseparably joined together. And where truth is jettisoned, there can be no valid experience. And so to study doctrine is to study the tap roots of all true Christian experience.
We began with a consideration of the book out of which all truth or all our understanding of truth grows. The nature of the book we believe and obey. Then we considered something of the God whom we worship and confess. And we are now and have been for a long period of time in this third major area of concern, the salvation we receive and proclaim.
name. We've considered the objects of that salvation, and now we're concerned with understanding something of the central figure in that salvation, even our Lord Jesus Christ. We've contemplated him in the mystery of his person. Again, something utterly unique to the Christian faith. All of its blessings grow out of the nature of its central figure. He's able to do what he does in his salvation because he is what he is. And if he is not what he claimed to be, then he cannot do what he says he will do for sinners. And so the person and the salvation of Christ again are inseparably joined together. And we discovered from a careful analysis and
synthesis of the biblical materials that the central figure in the mystery of his person is to be acknowledged and worshipped and trusted as true God, true man, one person in two natures forever. And now we are drawing to a close a second area of concern with respect to this central figure, namely the majesty of his offices. He who is God and man in one person forever saves sinners in the office of a Redeemer who is a prophet, A priest and a king. Now we come then to pick up the threads of thought with respect to this third of his offices,
namely the kingly office of Christ. We establish from the scriptures that the biblical concept of a king brings together three lines of thought. There must be a throne, that is, the seat of authority, a scepter which symbolizes the authority and action and a kingdom which depicts the realm in which the scepter is exercised by him who sits upon the throne. And those three lines of thought you will remember are brought together in Psalm 45 and verse 6 and in many other portions of the Old Testament.
And now we're concerned to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is just such a person. He is a true king who has a real throne, who wields a real scepter in the establishment of a real kingdom. and the manner in which we are demonstrating this is to follow the pattern in which the materials themselves come to us. The Bible begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation and in a sense we are establishing the kingship of Christ from Genesis to Revelation.
We are looking at the materials, of course being very selective, not exhaustive, in the form in which they come to us And I have called the Old Testament the period of preparation. And so starting in Genesis and moving right through to the prophet Malachi, I'm sorry, Zechariah, we have seen that the scriptures of the Old Testament constantly point to the fact that the Redeemer of sinners who would be the seed of the woman, Genesis 3, of the seed of Abraham, Genesis 12, would be one who would come from the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49. He would be the son given upon whose shoulder would rest the government of God, Isaiah 9. He would be the one to sit upon David's throne, 2 Samuel chapter 7. And upon that throne he would be a king and a priest, Zechariah 6. And according to Daniel he would have a kingdom given for which there would be no end.
And so with that broad overview we considered the fact that Jesus Christ if he is to fit the predictions of the Old Testament had to be a true king. No other Messiah could fit the predictions that went before him. Now then, with that review behind us, we come to the second main body of the testimony of the Word of God concerning the kingship of Christ, moving out of the Old Testament into the New. And I've entitled this the period of manifestation.
In the Gospel records, we have what can be called the account of the manifestation of the Son of God in human history. The book of Acts we'll consider as the period of proclamation and the epistles the period of explanation, the book of revelation, the period of consummation. This morning we concentrate only upon a few of the pivotal passages in the period of manifestation. That period in which Christ in time in human history is manifested to men.
Now, let me remind you again at the point of appearing tedious, that all we are attempting to do is to demonstrate from the Scriptures that the only Savior of sinners, Jesus Christ, must be a King. if he is to fit the predictions of the Old Testament in the period of manifestation he must come with proper credentials. He must come with the evidence that he does indeed have a throne that he wields a scepter and that he has a kingdom. And we are doing this I remind you again so that we may behold our Lord as the Savior who is perfectly suited
to the need of sinners. He is a prophet, a priest, and a king in pursuit of His redemptive work because sinners need precisely that kind of a Redeemer. We need one who is our priest, who can atone for our sins and succor us in our weakness and preserve us by His intercession. We need a prophet who will instruct our minds in the knowledge of God, who is himself the truth so that we may rightly know God.
And we desperately need a king who can subdue us and having subdued us can preserve and guard us and one day bring us literally to share in his own throne as he himself has promised. So then this morning some of the materials dealing with the witness of the period of manifestation. Now, children, what's the first book in the New Testament? You all know it, I hope.
Matthew 1:1: The Opening Words Declare a King
If you don't, then you ought to start spending Sunday afternoons turning to the front part of the New Testament where they list all the books and you memorize them. But you say, Pastor, I know that one. First book of the New Testament is Matthew. That's right.
Now, do you know what the first words of Matthew's Gospel are? The first words of the New Testament. Don't look, but do you know what they are? For you may now look.
the son of Abraham. You say, well that doesn't sound very exciting to me. Well I hope before long it will be very exciting to you. As most of you know, Matthew wrote his gospel primarily with Jews in mind.
Now that does not mean it is a Jewish gospel that is tainted with legalistic overtones and therefore sub-Christian. That's heresy. I repeat, that is heresy. It is a Christian gospel record, but it is a Christian gospel record written primarily with Jews in mind.
We know this from many standpoints, not the least of which is that Matthew never stops to explain Jewish customs, Jewish terminology. He assumes that those who read this account of the life and ministry of Christ are knowledgeable in such things. Furthermore, it's evident that he writes with what we would call a polemic end in view. That is, he is concerned to convince his readers that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messiah promised in the Old Testament Scriptures.
This being so, every Jew who had any acquaintance with his Old Testament knew two things about the promised Messiah. He knew that he had to come of the family of Abraham because God had promised in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 to 3, Abraham in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Every Jew knew that the Messiah would come from the Hebrew nation. Furthermore, every Jew instructed in the Old Testament knew that Messiah not only had to be a son of Abraham, but he had to be a son of David.
For you remember when we studied 2 Samuel chapter 7, God had made this promise to David that there would not fail a man to sit upon his throne. And as the history of Israel becomes a sordid thing, and in my own Old Testament devotional reading, I'm reading that sordid history of idolatry and declension and judgment and departure from God. But again and again God says, yet for David my servant's sake. Yet for the sake of David my servant.
God preserves that seed of David. And every Jew knew that the true Messiah had to be son of Abraham, son of David. So it is natural that when Matthew begins his gospel, he begins with this powerful note. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.
And as though a Jew would say, Jesus Christ, who is he that I should be concerned with him? He says, son of Abraham, son of David.
He fits all of your expectations. And then if you have a paragraph version, you will notice that verses 2 through 6 trace the genealogy from Abraham to David. And then beginning with the middle of verse 6, David down to the captivity in Babylon. And then verse 12 to verse 16, we have a tracing of the lineage up until the birth of Christ.
Now you see for a Jew, this had a powerful impact. For immediately he must wrestle with this awesome fact that at least as to his bloodlines Jesus Christ meets the requirements of the Old Testament prophecies He is a true son of Abraham. He is a true son of David. And now follow more closely.
as surely as the prediction that he would be a son of Abraham limits him to the descendants of Abraham, the Hebrew nation so the designation son of David not only identifies him as someone whose bloodlines go back to David but as someone who is part of a dynasty which began with David Now you see, a dynasty is a ruling family that exists as long as that family rules. And when the member of that family no longer rules, we say that was the end of the Stuart dynasty in England.
When the Stuarts no longer reigned, they may have continued to have children, but there was no dynasty. Well, the Old Testament predictions were very clear that David's seed would not merely be perpetuated as a family tree, but that the dynasty would be perpetuated. I remind you of this in the prophecy of 2 Samuel 7, and let's turn to it for a moment. And where all of this may not seem to make sense now in a few moments, I hope it will.
2 Samuel chapter 7. Here's that great prophecy. Verse 13. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Verse 15. But my lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. and thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever.
House, kingdom, throne. You see, the promise to David is very specific. That there would not only be the perpetuation of the family tree, but that there would be the continuation of the Davidic dynasty. He would have someone to sit upon his throne.
So when a Jew would open the Gospel of Matthew and he would read these words, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, he would be confronted immediately with the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was the king of Israel. David's son had to be king. This was not mere tracing of bloodlines. It was the assertion of the continuation of a dynasty.
Luke 1: Gabriel Announces the Throne of David to Mary
So every Jew was confronted immediately with this staggering claim. Jesus of Nazareth is King of Israel, who sits upon David's throne as the continuation of the Davidic dynasty. You say, Pastor, that's an awful lot to read into a simple statement, isn't it? Are you sure you're not putting something in that ain't there?
I'm absolutely certain. And to buttress that assertion, I direct you to Luke's Gospel, chapter 1.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, where we have the record of the visit of the angel to Mary, whose virgin womb will both conceive and be the place for the development of the man Christ Jesus.
And these are the words spoken by the angel to Mary. Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 26. Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. Notice Luke's little stroke of the house of David. And he came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that hath highly favored, the Lord is with thee. But she was greatly troubled at this saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this might be.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High. and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Now do you see the main strands of the angel's pronouncement? As Mary is disturbed at this angelic visit and this pronouncement of her being favored and singled out by God The angel then, as it were, responding to her wrinkled brow and to the perplexity upon her countenance says, here is the explanation of what is to happen. Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, verse 31, thou shalt call his name Jesus. Immediately Mary is given to know that in this one whom she will conceive in her womb is to be found the salvation of Jehovah.
For the name Jesus means Jehovah is salvation or the one through whom Jehovah will bring salvation. So that which she is to conceive in her womb is immediately identified as to his mission. His mission is a mission of salvation. He is coming to bring deliverance.
She must never think of the life that she feels in her womb. She must never look upon herself as she grows big with child. She must not enter into the throes of birth without this constant remembrance. The one conceived is to be Jesus, Jehovah's salvation is in Him.
There, in short, is a description of His mission. His mission is in His name, Matthew 1.21. Thou shalt call His name Jesus for...
The rationale for the name is the mission. He shall save His people from the Roman Empire. No, he shall save his people from their sins. So the first thing established by the angel is that the one in Mary's womb is to be understood as to his mission as the Savior from sin.
Second thing, he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. Here there is now a word concerning the identity of this person. His mission, he shall save. Who is he to accomplish so mighty a task?
He shall be called great because he is Son of the Most High. And here the angel lets her know that this is no ordinary child that she carries in her womb. As his mission is extraordinary, it answers to the extraordinariness of the person. He shall be called Son of the Most High.
So we have his mission. He shall save. The identity of his person, Son of the Most High. But now notice the next thing the angel informs her about.
And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. What is this third unit of thought? Well, it should be obvious.
If the name Jesus identifies his mission, he shall save. if the title Son of the Most High identifies His person, He is God the Son, then this third unit of thought directs us to the position from which He will save and which He will occupy as Son of the Most High. And what is that position? It is the posture of a king upon a throne who reigns with a kingdom that shall never end.
Do you see it? I'm not reading anything in. I'm just opening up what the angel said to Mary. So that as surely as Mary sees that swelling body in which is housed this one who will save, who is Son of God.
She is never to think of His mission or His person apart from David's throne which He shall occupy. And notice how careful the angel is. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end. Whatever kingdom He establishes, He will establish as the divine Son of God in pursuit of His mission as the Savior of sinners.
But He will pursue no mission as Jesus, Savior of sinners, in the plentitude of His power as Son of God, apart from David's throne, which He shall occupy and occupy forever. And the Holy Spirit has woven these things together in terms of the fundamental understanding Mary was to have concerning the birth of this one conceived in her womb. Now at this point a word must be said concerning a theory of biblical interpretation that says Well, he was Jesus from conception in his womb to save.
He always was and ever shall be the eternal Son of God as to his identity. But this business of the throne of his father David and of his reigning is bypassed throughout his entire life, throughout the entire church age. And it awaits fulfillment after Christ takes his own to be with him in a literal reign upon the earth for a thousand years and then that will end. You say, would anyone dare to teach that?
That has been taught, that has been believed, and that position is being violently defended by those who see increasingly serious questions cast over it. I read this morning from page 990 of the Schofield Bible in the introduction to the Gospels, and I do not do this to be nasty, to be unkind, to throw stones, but to give a word of corrective that bears upon the glory of Christ. The New Testament shows, well let me back up a bit, the Old Testament prophet was perplexed by seeing on one horizon, so to speak, both the sufferings and the glory of the Messiah, 1 Peter 1.10.
The New Testament shows that these are separated, Christ's sufferings and Christ's glory, by the present church age and points forward to the Lord's return at the time when the Davidic covenant of blessing through power will be fulfilled, Luke 1.30-33. The very passage I have expounded, Mr. Schofield says, awaits all through the church age until Christ returns in power, at which time He will then and only then begin to occupy the throne of David.
As the Abrahamic covenant of blessing through suffering was fulfilled in His first coming, So then you see we are told the blessing of his enthronement awaits his second coming. Now what do we say to that? Well we say to that that there is not a shred of exegetical reason for taking that position. Mary was informed that the one in her womb would be Jehovah's salvation in the uniqueness of His person and from the position of enthronement and of power And so in the first words of the New Testament we are confronted with this staggering and this wonderfully encouraging truth that Jesus of Nazareth in all of the
Matthew 2: Gentile Magi Worship the King
unglamorous credentials that He bore in the days of His flesh, that Jesus is claimed to be, or is purported to be from the outset, the rightful heir of David's throne. He is indeed David's son in a true dynasty, with a true throne and a real scepter and a real kingdom. And though, as we shall see when we come into the book of Acts and into the epistles, that there were stages in the unfolding of that messianic kingship, there are, as it were epochs in which he is raised to one level to another level in the actual exercise of that kingship. We must never think of him as redeemer in any other concept than that which
beholds him as our priest, as our prophet, and as our king in the language of the shorter catechism both in the days of his humiliation and in the days of his exaltation. Now turn with me please to the second group of witnesses, and that's in Matthew chapter 2. Here we've got a Christmas sermon in April. That's why I don't preach Christmas sermons usually at Christmas. We get them wherever they come naturally in the exposition. Now remember what Matthew is seeking to do. His opening words confronted his Jewish readers with the
fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the true King of the Jews. Now he is going to go on to add a bit of information which buttresses that assertion. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold wise men, magi, which is just a transliteration of the Greek word. These people, apparently astrologers and astronomers probably from Babylon, these magi came from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and are come to worship him. And when
Herod the king heard it, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written through the prophet, In thou, Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in no wise least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come forth a governor, who shall be shepherd of my people Israel. Now what is the significance of this section in Matthew's Gospel?
It is not my purpose to give an exhaustive exposition of the passage. All I am attempting to do is in the period of manifestation to demonstrate that Christ is a king from the beginning of his manifestation among the sons of men. Now the emphasis of this passage falls upon the fact that these are Gentiles who come. They are magi from the east who come to Jerusalem.
These are not Jews. These are Gentiles. These are what the Jews would call pagans. Probably as I've suggested, astrologers or astronomers from Babylon were the science, if I may put that in inverted commas, of astrology and astronomy was very much the in thing among learned people.
and somewhere they had received knowledge of the hope of Israel. It could well be that from Daniel's extensive influence in that area of the world, much of the Old Testament was either put in the hands of people in that area or the knowledge of it had been conveyed. But regardless of how they came to that knowledge, they had come to the knowledge that Israel's hope terminated upon one who would be manifested as her king. That much is clear from their language.
When they come to Jerusalem, they say, where is he that is born king of the Jews? Israel's hope was in Messiah. Messiah was to be king. And it was Gentiles who were convinced that Israel's king would be interested in Gentiles.
as Gentiles they come to pay homage to a king they obviously believe that Gentiles will be welcomed in their homage. Now they didn't learn that from Jews.
But they had sufficient contact with the Old Testament Scriptures to learn it from the Old Testament Scriptures for one of the strands of emphasis in the Old Testament was To Him shall the Gentiles come. Upon His name shall the Gentiles trust. So they had in a sense a pure knowledge of the Old Testament hope of Israel than many of the Jews did. So here they come.
Convinced that Israel's hope is in Messiah. Messiah is King. Messiah will welcome Gentiles. Now they come to Jerusalem and they say, but we have a problem.
We're convinced through some peculiar phenomenon in the skies that he's been born. And we can't go into how they got that knowledge and the rest. All you can do is make guesses. The Bible is not clear.
We cannot say with certainty except to know that God was guiding them to this place. And so they come saying, where is his precise birthplace? And we read that Herod and the king and the Jews were troubled. So they have a confound.
with those who should know best, the chief priests and scribes of the people. And they say, now notice, look at the language. He inquired of them, verse 4, where the Christ should be born. But wait a minute, they came saying, where is he that is born king?
Now the inquiry is made where the Christ should be born. Now where did they make a shift from the king to the Christ? Well, because in Jewish thinking those things were interchangeable. The Christ, the anointed one, was to be king.
The king of Israel was the Messiah, the Christ. So you see, the terminology can be used interchangeably, no problem.
So they discussed the thing. What is their answer? They said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written through the prophet. And now this quote that we looked at several months ago, Micah 5.2.
Thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in no wise least among the princes of Judah. For out of thee shall come forth a governor, king of the Jews, the Christ, a governor, who shall be shepherd of my people Israel. Now you see how all those terms flow together in their identity. King of the Jews, the Christ, governor, who shall be shepherd of my people Israel.
And then you know the rest of the story. How that from this information and from further providential guidance by this unusual manifestation in the heavens. Verse 10. They actually come and find the Lord Jesus in a humble Palestinian house.
And it doesn't say there were three of them. It doesn't say there were kings. There could have been twenty of them.
It just says they. There had to be more than one. There were at least two. That doesn't say three, and they didn't come to a manger.
That isn't what the Bible says, all the Christmas cards notwithstanding. Verse 11, they came into the house. Now get the picture. They're looking for a king.
Israel's hope, Israel's Messiah. The one who shall be governor and shepherd of Israel. And now they come into a house, and what do they find? In a humble Palestinian dwelling, they see a child, marry his mother, and what do they do?
It says, they fell down and worshipped him, and opening their treasures, they offered unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. What are they doing? May I suggest that here we have, as it were, the first fruits of the fulfillment of God's promise made concerning his great king in Psalm 72. We read in that wonderful prophetic utterance concerning the reign of Christ, David's greater son, the greater than Solomon.
Psalm 72, verse 7, Sheba shall offer gifts, yea, all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him. And here God is at where in this marvelous stroke of genius by Matthew, He's writing to Jews who feel that Israel's hope is Israel's hope.
And if Gentiles ever become a part of it, it will be so insignificant as not to be accounted. And the first record of anyone paying homage to their king is not Jews. It's Gentiles from afar who come into a humble Palestinian dwelling in the presence of a humble little girl hardly out of her teens, if even out of her teens. And they look upon an ordinary little Jewish boy and what do they see?
They see no regal splendor They do not see a little prince Who is dressed up in all fine princely garb They do not see him under the tutelage of those Who train little boys how to be proper princes They see a humble little Jewish boy In a humble Palestinian dwelling And they prostrate themselves And they render spiritual worship Why? because the same God who had implanted that hope in their hearts through the Scriptures and had sovereignly guided them by this unusual movement of the heavenly bodies is the God who revealed to them the true nature of that little Jewish boy
that this was indeed the true King who had come to establish His rule in the hearts of even Gentiles And they render to him spiritual worship. They saw something that so few of the Jews saw in their own day. That his kingly rule was not a rule which would be manifested in riding upon a white charger and mowing down the Roman power. Here was one who had come to fulfill all of those gracious promises To receive Gentile outcasts And to make them the objects of saving mercy So at the outset then it is made clear
John 1: Nathanael Confesses Son of God and King of Israel
This true heir to David's throne Who shall rule over the house of Jacob Is no national king He is an international king He is the one before whom the kings of the nations of the Gentiles shall bow and shall own him as their king and as their God. Well I want to bring one final passage this morning. These two passages cluster around the conception and birth of Christ in the period of manifestation. what is his identity now that he is a full grown man formally entered upon his ministry is he identified as a king there as well
and the testimony of the gospel writers is again very clear turn please to the first chapter of John's gospel this will be the final passage we consider this morning John's gospel chapter 1 I would remind you briefly of the setting John has borne witness to his own identity. Who are you, John? Are you the prophet? Are you the Messiah?
No, I'm just a voice. My function is clearly defined by Isaiah and by Malachi I the voice crying in the wilderness My task is to point to the one who comes after me who is greater than I And now he has identified him in verse 29 And on the morrow he seeth Jesus coming to him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. John had this spiritual vision, or I should say this understanding of the spiritual ministry of Christ. He did not say, Behold, you're a legitimate earthly king, and if you own him, he will usher in some kind of earth.
No, no, no! A thousand times no!
Behold the Lamb of God. As you look upon him, you look upon him in whom all of the types and shadows of the Old Testament sacrificial system are to find their fulfillment. He is the Lamb who is bearing away the sin, not just of the Jews, but of the world. He is an international Savior.
He is the world's Savior. This is the one, he says, of whom I previously spoke. And then he goes on to identify Him in verse 34 as the Son of God. Lamb of God, Son of God.
And then in verses 35 through 42, we have the record of the call of two disciples by him who is Lamb of God, Son of God. And beginning with verse 43, then we have this moving story of the call of Philip and then Nathanael. And on the morrow he was minded to go forth into Galilee. He findeth Philip and saith unto him, Follow me.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael and said unto him, We have found him. You see, the Lord found him, and now when he's found, he says, we found him. So don't get upset with people who talk about finding the Lord.
Because that's true. Just so long as you know the previous truth, that you found him because he found you.
Isn't that the language of the passage? He findeth Philip and said unto him, Follow me. Thus found, Philip says, we have found him Notice how he identifies him We found him of whom Moses in the law And the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph As to his external earthly relationships That Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph Is the one who is Israel's true hope He is Messiah He is the promised prophet, priest, and king. And Nathanael, with a bit of skepticism, born out of a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament, says, can any good thing, that is the highest good,
that is Messiah, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith unto him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael saith unto him, whence knowest thou?
me. You have made a pronouncement about my character that touches the very well springs of my being, to speak of me as a true Israelite in whom there is no guile. That is speaking of inward spiritual purity. What contact have you had with me to make such a pronouncement?
How dare you make a pronouncement just upon first sight that touches the very deepest deepest springs of what I am? Whence knowest thou me?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And oh, how I must resist the temptation to open up what that under the fig tree might be.
But I will resist the temptation. But he said, I saw thee. I saw thee. And in that sight I knew all that you were, Nathaniel.
You thought you were shut up in the privacy of the intercourse of your own heart with God, feeding the springs of a guileless spirit by prayer and meditation. But I beheld you. I beheld you. I saw you.
Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art King. Of Israel.
And notice Jesus' response to that. Notice the response. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee underneath the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.
Jesus accepts that confession as an expression of intelligent faith when Nathanael identified him as to his person, Son of God, as to his position, King of Israel, then and now. Not out at the end of the church age. Not in some supposed millennium. But there and now, Israel's King.
Jesus said, Nathanael, you have rightly confessed me.
And if you've confessed on so meager, an evidence or meager measure of evidence, there is more to come. So that, Nathaniel, nothing to follow will ever cause you to rescind that confession. You will see in me nothing to make you question your confession that I am God the Son. That I am nothing less than a co-sharer in the divine essence.
that I am Son of God, equal to my Father, as touching all that makes me God. And Philip, you will see nothing to make you question that when you acknowledge me to be King of Israel, that I am indeed King of Israel. Do you catch the force of that? And as the Gospel record unfolds, as we shall see, God willing, next week, There is nothing to undermine the validity of that confession.
Now where in the world did Nathaniel ever get the notion that the Messiah of whom Moses and the prophets spoke, who is Jesus of Nazareth, would be son of God and king? Well, he knew, among other things, the second song in which those two things are woven together. Thou art my Son This day have I begotten Thee Yet have I set my King Upon my holy hill of Zion And as an Israelite who longed for a spiritual salvation Who longed for a Messiah Who would fulfill the true expectation of the true Israel
One who would come as the Lamb to bear away sin. One who would come as the suffering servant of Jehovah to take away the sins of His people. Nathanael saw in Jesus Christ that King. And he gladly bowed to His scepter of grace.
Application: No Salvation Without His Enthronement
And embraced His government and His grace. and entered in to all the blessings of his salvation.
Let me say in closing, if you, my friend, are ever to come to Nathaniel's blessedness, that is, to be saved from the guilt and power of your sin, it will be by this Redeemer. The only Redeemer of God's elect is our Lord Jesus Christ. and He redeems in the fullness of His office of Redeemer as prophet, as priest and king. And in the language of John 1, if you will not have Him to be the Son of God as to the identity of His person, if you will not have Him as the Lamb of God, if you will not have Him as the King of Israel, you will have no salvation.
Salvation is not to be found in some undefined and undefinable Jesus experience. It is not to be found in some kind of indistinct and undescribable leap of faith to some unknown Christ. Salvation is found in Him who is the Lamb of God, who is the Son of God, who is the King of Israel. Without his identity as son you cannot be saved For he said if you believe not that I am he You shall die in your sins Without his death and resurrection you cannot be saved For without the shedding of blood is no remission And my friend without coming to grips with his kingly authority and power
And his enthronement you cannot be saved you deal with one who is a king as well as the Lamb and as well as the Son of God. Therefore to every impenitent sinner who would be his own king I say to you this morning my friend kiss the Son bow to his scepter come to grips with the reality of his enthronement as king and seek mercy at that throne from which mercy is dispensed to needy, helpless sinners who will kiss the scepter of the Son. And dear child of God, though I can't pause to expound it this morning,
it will come in a subsequent message, how your heart ought to leap within you to realize He became this King in pursuit of your salvation and mine. And the kingship exists. ultimately for the good of sinners as well as the glory of the King. And the Scripture tells us in Revelation 3.21 that the throne upon which He sits as King has got room for all of His people.
He that overcometh shall be granted to sit with Me in My throne even as I overcame and sit with My Father in His throne. Oh, the glory of the kingship of Christ. You see, a Christian does not stand off and feel threatened by the kingship of Christ. He realizes it's a kingship exerted in the interest of the salvation of His people.
Closing Prayer
And He's defeated the enemies of His people and He reigns in power to do what? To bring us through all our enemies here and in the world to come. until He sits us down at His own right hand and gives us to share in His throne. Oh, God be blessed for such a Savior as our Lord Jesus Christ, the great prophet, the great priest, the great King of His people.
Let us pray.
Our Father Oh how we praise you this morning For your dear and only begotten Son How we thank you that In him There is this regal authority and power Not to destroy But to save though we know the hour is coming when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory and exercise his regal rights to crush his enemies we thank you that he now is a king and a priest upon his throne
willing to receive the neediest of sinners who will come and seek mercy from an enthroned Savior O Father bring sinners boys, girls, men and women in this place this morning, bring them to bow before this gracious Savior King. And we pray that those of us who have been brought to embrace Him as such may have a new appreciation of the glory of His kingship. May we feed upon Him who as our priest has died and intercedes, who as our prophet instructs and teaches, who as our King reigns to subdue us and to defend and protect us
and to bring us home at last to share in the glory of His eternal throne. Oh, what rich things you have stored up for your people. Help us, oh, help us to have a faith strong enough to lay hold of what is promised and strengthened by that hope, may we so live as to bring honor to Him, our great King. Thank You for Your Word.
Thank You for Your Spirit. Thank You for all Your gifts to us. Receive the praises we now offer in the worthy name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thank you.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
Jesus identified from the opening words as son of David, son of Abraham
Gabriel announces the throne of David to the unborn child
Gentile magi worship the newborn king of the Jews