A Heart for God

SUMMARY

Karl Ihfe concludes his series on King David by examining why Jesus is called the "Son of David" from Matthew 1 through Revelation 22:16. This title signifies hope, as David's reign represented Israel's golden age—a time when the kingdom was united, prosperous, and free from oppression. When people cried out "Son of David, have mercy" to Jesus, they were expressing hope that He could restore what was broken.

The title also emphasizes Jesus' humanity through His genealogy in Matthew 1, which breaks traditional rules by including women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba) and non-Israelites. This reveals that Jesus came not just for one ethnic group or gender, but for all people. Ihfe challenges us to follow David's example, who "served God's purpose in his generation" (Acts 13:36), and allow God's kingdom to break through in our lives despite our imperfections.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well it is good to be with you this morning. Today we arrive at the conclusion of our series on King David, the heart of a king. We're going to end up thinking some together about this connection between David and Jesus, and we'll see a lot of those here in just a couple of minutes. I'm not sure that I could have done this without the help of someone I consider a mentor. I've actually gotten to meet him once, but he would not call me his protege by any stretch of the imagination.

But John Ortberg, who developed this series a number of years ago. And I remember learning and hearing from him. And so I've tried to take and share with you the things that have impacted me. And I hope you've been encouraged by the work that he did, the wisdom that I'm so indebted to, the insights of this man, this king, this sinner, and yet at the same time, a man after God's own heart known as David. You know, I don't know if there's anybody in all of scripture that's had the high, the highs that David had or the lows that David had.

I don't know that I've ever come across someone. He had such deep and profound faith in God that as a young boy, a young shepherd boy would take on a giant nine feet tall named Goliath and do an incredible thing there. We learned about some incredible friendships, maybe the most incredible friendship we have in scripture. This picture of friendship between David and Jonathan, an amazing and powerful story. We stood with David, though, at the cave of Adulam, that place where we're reminded that feels sometimes like God is not present with us.

Where is God? And we're reminded that God does some of his most amazing work in caves, that God can resurrect dead things in caves. We spent some time dancing alongside David as he brought the ark into Jerusalem. And we stood and wept with him as he grieved over the loss of his son Absalom and the failures that he had in his life as a father. And so we wrestled some with what does it look like for us to speak words of life, to have courage, to face conflict, to deal with things rather than just to let them go.

We had compassion last week over David and remembering Mephibosheth and the power of remembering and using a name. And I was encouraged greatly this week. Had to have got to have a few conversations with some of you about learning a name and using that name in a way of blessing. Today I want us to think together about the story of David. I don't know that there's someone with higher highs or lower lows.

This morning I wants to think about, well, how does David get connected to Jesus? Because if you read your gospels, you read the New Testament, you're going to see this strong connection between Jesus and David. I hope as you go throughout the rest of this year and into next year that you'll use David's story to remind you of the power of worship, that you'll go to his psalter and read through and learn how to pray and to worship God. But I hope it also his story will be a warning, a reminder of what happens to us when we don't create space or room for God in our lives. This connection between Jesus and David in the New Testament, it’s pretty interesting.

There are several titles and we look at those in just a minute. But one of those Moses, Son of David. Have you ever wondered why is Jesus called the son of David? Where does that title come from? What is that about?

If you look back at the genealogy passage that Sarah read for us just a few minutes ago, we see it starts with these words. This is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David. If you flip in your Bible all the way to the back to the last book, the last chapter, the last recorded words of Jesus and Revelation 22 are these. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David.

Why was Jesus called the son of David? I mean, this wasn't a distinction that was given to any of the other Old Testament figures. I mean, there were some pretty powerful ones, aren't they? Abraham, he's not the son of Abraham, or Isaac or Jacob, he's not the son of Moses or Elijah. I mean, there were folks much more pure than David that could have been assigned this role.

We studied one of them last summer, remember the story of Joseph? But he's not known as the son of Joseph. He's known as the son of David. Why is that? What's going on here?

I think Ortberg argues that, that it doesn't have so much to do with David as it does the work that God was trying to do in David. In fact, he points to a couple of aspects that I think remind us or maybe challenge us to think about the power of this title and what it might have called out in those first Christians, but also, I hope, in us today. But two aspects of Jesus identity and mission that should ring in our minds when we hear that title. Son Of David, the first one is this. It's a title of hope.

You know, in Israel's history, David's reign is forever remembered as the golden age. It was the time when Israel shined its brightest. He was only their second king. The first one kind of ended in a train wreck. But it was under David's leadership that the kingdom would be united.

And it's during that time that David would rescue them from their enemies like the Philistines, that they would be their most prosperous under his rule. Now it would extend a little further under his son, Solomon. But it quickly came to an end. And after his leadership, Israel would once again be divided into two. In fact, they would wind up in exile, ruled over by foreign powers.

And that power system lusted all the way up until Jesus showed up. You see, after David's kingdom, he was known as a hopeful king. By the time Jesus shows up in the first century, the glory of Israel, it's gone. It's disappeared. It's dried up.

For hundreds of years, Israel has been in bondage to somebody else. Powerful captors have come in and taken over, whether it was the Assyrians or the Babylonians, maybe it was the Greeks or eventually the Romans. They were not their own. That the luster had come off their idea. Their hope was to be a blessing to all nations.

And what we learn is now they're just another obscure, oppressed people. But they had this hope. They had this hope that one day a king would come and he would set all things right. One day a king would come and restore us back to power and glory and influence in the world, that our little kingdom would shine out and into all the world. And they said they'd be a king just like David.

And so when Israel thought about what that king would look like, that's who they thought of, was somebody like David, somebody who could make things right again. And so Jesus would be talked about as that one who would make everything right. See, Jesus shows up on the semen. Some people recognized him. They saw who he was and what it meant.

And so they used terms to connect their people back to that story again. This is the Messiah. This is the son of David. This is the one I went back and was reading through John especially. But you hear these passages, those first disciples who are calling others to find them.

Could this be the Messiah? Could this be the one? Come and see. Come and find out. They recognized that someone had finally come who had the power, who had the authority, who had the influence to restore Israel back to the way it was.

And so in your Gospels, when you come across someone crying out, son of David, it's often used by somebody who is s hopeless and who's helpless. And they're crying out to someone who can make a difference, who. Who could make things right, who could restore me back to the way that I want to be, the way God intended it to be. You may remember the story in Matthew 9 of the Two Blind Men when they heard Jesus was coming along. We’re told they called out, “have mercy on us, Son of David.”

Or maybe a little further in Matthew 15, that Canaanite woman, she comes to Jesus. She cries out, lord, son of David, have mercy. Have mercy. My child is ill. My child is demon possessed and suffering. Have mercy.

Or maybe you remember the story of Bartimaeus in Mark 9 or, excuse me, Mark 10, where he hears that Jesus is coming and he cries out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me”. And many rebuked him. And they said, knock it off, man. He's not interested. He's not listening to you.

You don't matter. Stick to your place. And he says, no, no, no. Son of David, have mercy. Have mercy.

See, Jesus loved it when people cried out to him for mercy. He was never too busy. He was never preoccupied with something else, something more important than to stop and show mercy, to give hope to people once again. So, church, let me ask you, what are you crying out to the Son of David for these days? What mercy, what hope are you longing for?

Maybe for you it's healing. I need physical healing. I need spiritual or emotional. I need relational healing. Son of David, would you have mercy on me?

Would you have mercy on this relationship? Would you have mercy on my body? Maybe for some of us, we need peace because we're stressed out and we're worried and we're anxious about this uncertain future or this uncertain time or these uncertain problems, these uncertain answers. Son of David, have mercy. For some of us, it may be for joy.

We're crying out for joy. Jesus, son of David, have mercy. Would you give me joy in the midst of my grief and my sorrow and my loss, but give me joy in the midst of my fear? Maybe for some of us, it's for a friend or a family member, right?

Like this, this woman who's saying, son of David, have mercy on my daughter? Some of us have been crying out, son of David, have mercy on my son or my friend or my neighbor or my classmate or my coworker. Would you have mercy? Because we want them to come to know the Son of David.

Church Would you take some time this week to cry out to the Son of David because he's the one who can bring hope. He is the one who can do for you what you cannot do for yourself. He is the one who can make a real change, a lasting change. Church Would we be willing to hear that title to be reminded that we get to serve the true Son of God? This title, Son of David was not only a sign of hope, this reminder that one is coming, that can do and set all things right the way we long for them to.

But not only that, it also emphasizes something else. Ortberg says the second piece, there's hope, but there's also the humanity that Jesus really was human. He was fully God, but he was also fully man. Maybe you remember the way that Paul opens his letter to the church in Rome, writing to them about being a servant of this gospel, this incredible gospel story. He says this gospel concerning God's Son who was descended from David.

And according to the flesh, he was a real person, descended from a real person, but he was also declared to be son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness. He's also fully God. Again, I invite you, if you have your Bible, to turn over to Matthew 1. Take a look at this genealogy here with me for just a minute as we think about the power of Jesus humanity. How many of you know your family tree?

Just by show of hands, how many of you kind of know where you came from? We have a few of us who do. I found that getting older, it matters more. Kind of learning the story of where I've come from, who I've come from. Some of us have some pretty famous characters kind of back in the family tree.

Some of us have some infamous characters. They're more than famous. Some of you today, I can tell just by looking at you, you're the infamous character in your family tree, that one day someone will look back on you. There's something powerful about knowing our story. Where we came from, it was certainly that day, that way, in Israel's day, they cared deeply about where they came from.

That was part of their story. Their identity, their history was being found in a story. But yet Israel's genealogies were pretty specific. They had some rules that you had to really watch for. Number one, if you're going to make a genealogy, it had to be number one.

Only Israelites. There was a power and the purity of coming from a pure bloodline. In fact, you may remember the priest that Brandon referenced a few minutes ago around the table in order to be a priest, you had to be able to show a pure bloodline all the way back to Aaron. If you couldn't show that line, you couldn't be a priest. You had to be pure.

So it was only Israelites, but not only that, it had to be only men. Only men were included in genealogies. That was the rule of the day. Women were not included. It would have been like naming the house pet alongside.

It just didn't matter. Superfluous information. Not only that, but you had to be not just a man, but a holy, righteous person. You had to be someone of good character, in good standing. No riff raff, no scoundrels, no half breeds.

You had to be the real deal. So look again now with me at this genealogy that Sarah read before. A moment ago, Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. And we go, okay, Matthew, hold on a second. Tr.

Does anybody remember the story of Tamar? Invite you to go Back to Genesis 38. Or maybe not. It's a pretty wild story, pretty scandalous story about this woman who's married off to this family, into this family, and the first son is so wicked that he is struck dead from God. And kind of in that day and age, you went to the next husband to try to provide or the next brother to provide offspring, and that brother was so wicked, he would not participate.

And so God strikes him dead. And Judah is kind of going, okay, dude, that's like two. Why don't you go home? Here's an idea. Why don't you go home and be a widow?

And then when my little baby kiddo grows up, then we'll see what we can do. Basically going, you're not my problem anymore. And so she disguises herself as a prostitute and sleeps with Judah and gets pregnant. I mean, it's a wild story. And here she is in the son of David's genealogy.

Not only that, she's a woman and she's not an Israelite. There's some debate. Is she Arabian? Is she Canaanite? Either way, it ain't Israel.

Okay, interesting. Matthew, let's go on. Jump down to verse five. Salon. The father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.

Hmm. Anybody remember the story of Rahab? I. You go back and take a look at that story. It's a little on the scandalous side.

She didn't disguise herself as a prostitute. She was a prostitute. That was her job. And yet somehow she's grafted into the story because she helps the spies who are there, spying on the land to come free, to be able to go back to their people. That's this crazy story.

She's Canaanite. She's a woman. We're like, Matthew, you're breaking the rules, man. You're forgetting the rules. Right?

Men, holy men, Israelite. Let's go back to the genealogy. Stay in verse five. Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Ruth.

Have you read the story of Ruth recently? Not an Israelite, not a man. She's a Moabite, right? Matthew's kind of losing track here, man. What's going on, dude?

Verse 6. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife. Does anybody remember who was Uriah's wife? Bathsheba. Has anybody read her story?

We looked at it a couple of weeks ago. Right again, all the rules are being broken here. Ma. What is Matthew doing? We see immediately there are four characters in the first six verses of Matthew's gospel that we go, shouldn't be there.

What's going on here? What is Matthew doing? I and I think Ortberg's right here, that he's pointing to something really important. That number one, this Messiah, he's one of one. There is no Messiah like this Messiah.

But not only is this Messiah come to take on the sin of Israel, he's come on to take the sin of the whole world. In other words, the good news of the son of David coming into the world, that Messiah returning, that will reestablish Israel, but not just ethnic Israel, but God's people. Is this God who will come for the entire world? This is good news not just for one ethnic group, not just for men, not just for holy men, not just for zealous, but for all men, for all women, for all people. Jesus comes saying, the kingdom of God is now available to anyone, Jew or gentile, male or female, saint or sinners.

See, Jesus comes and he takes on the guilt of prostitutes and pagans and Kings and earthly joes like you and me. And he offers us grace and forgiveness and hope to be a part of his story, that we could be grafted into his story. No matter our background, no matter what's happened to us in the past. Jesus says, I have a different future for you. Matthew says it's rooted right in the story, right in the genealogy, that the son of David is not just a hopeful story for some, it's a helpful story for all, it's a reminder that Jesus really came from a real family with real problems.

I don't know if there's a story in scripture that takes us on the higher highs or lower lows than the story of David. And maybe that's why this is part of the story. It is to remind us that God can do anything, that God can resurrect dead stuff and dead people and dead relationships and marriages. God can do anything. And he invites us to be a part of his story.

One other verse I think as we finish this morning to remind us of the power, this connection that I hope we're building in our minds of when we hear that Jesus, son of David, it reminds us of hope and humanity. But also we're told in Acts 13, Luke tells us this. Now, when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep, he was buried with his ancestors. David served God's purpose in his generation. You know, David had some gifts.

He was a good looking guy. He did some stuff right, but he also did a lot of stuff wrong. But he served God in his generation and then he went to be buried with his ancestors. Invites us to stop and think about how will we be remembered? How will you be remembered in your generation?

Will you be remembered for serving God, for loving God and loving others the way that Jesus taught us to? Or will we make it about ourselves?

You know, my hope for us as we finish this series on David, that whenever we hear that term son of David, it will remind us that our sin and our brokenness and the failures of our past are not the end of the story. In fact, God can do some pretty powerful things with people who are willing, who are willing to step out into the light. You know, we sang a song just a few minutes ago. Church stand in the light Will we stand in the light. See, David is not coming back.

At least not in the way we think of it. In fact, Luke tells us the end of that verse we just looked at that he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed is from dust back to dust. But the next verse, if you Ve got one of those West Texas y'all's Bibles, circles 37, look what 37 reminds us. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. The true son of David did not see decay.

In fact, he's not dead. That tomb is empty. He's seated at the right hand of the Father in his reign, his rule, his authority. It's breaking in. It has already started.

And one day it will be fully here. You see, that's the power of the hope of the Son of David is we have a Savior who will one day make all things new. He will restore all things to the way God intended at the very beginning of the story. That day is really coming. But between that day and this day, will we serve God in our generation?

How will we live? We have this moment. We have this chance to let the kingdom of God break throughh in us, to begin to form this kingdom heart that is willing to be honest, just like David was, and pour out his soul before the Lord, who is willing to show compassion and kindness to people who didn't deserve it, who could never pay it back. And when he made mistakes and oh goodness, David made many of them, willing to humble himself and say, God, would you restore? I repent.

I change. You see, he was faithful to serving God and his generation. How will we serve him? How will you let the kingdom of God break through you a little more? This week we allow God to shape your heart that might one day be like David's a man, a woman after God's own heart.

So I just invite you, as we invite David and the team to come back up and lead us in our closing song this morning, I just invite you to open up your heart once again to God. Lord, where do I need hope? Where do I need to cry out, son of David, have mercy on me or God? Would you remind me that Jesus wasn't just this mythical character that the stories and legends are told about, but he was a real person from a real time and real place that his family was really complicated. And so I hope that you can take great courage in knowing if you've messed up, like really messed up, you're a good company.

David probably could understand that real well. In fact, there's several of us who could understand that real well here this morning. It's not about being perfect. It's about serving the one who is the true son of David. Let's pray.

Got our hope this school year as it begins, as we run into new opportunities, we ask that you would open our eyes once again to the hope that's found in the Son of David, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the one who has come full of grace and truth, the one who at time challenges us to step outside of ourselves, to put down our selfish ways, to get out of our own way and instead to follow you. God, would you give us the courage to take our next step on this journey? Would you give us the courage like that blind Bartimaeus or that Canaanite woman who just cries out, son of David, have mercy, oh God, would you have mercy on us this week? Would you open up our eyes to the ways that we need to cry out to you and give us the courage to do it. O God, remind us of the humanity of Jesus.

He was fully human. He lived our experience. He knows what it's like to face the things that we have faced. And God, he loves to show mercy. Would you help us be willing to cry out, to face it, to step into the light and to serve you faithfully in our generation?

God, we want your name lifted up here in Lubbock. God, we're praying that you would use us as your hands and feet to be that in-breaking of the kingdom in our schools, in our workplaces, in our homes and our neighborhoods and our small groups and our friend circles wherever you have us planted. God, would you help us to be faithful in serving you so that your kingdom might come more fully on earth as it is in heaven. And would you use us? God, thank you.

Thank you for David's story, for the reminder of the challenges that we all face in our human lives. But God, thank you, Jesus, for your story that reminds us it's not about what we can do, but what you have already done. Lord, help us to live in light of that truth. We pray in Jesus.