[0:00] We're going to begin our worship this morning. Let me read to you from God's Word in Zechariah chapter 9.! Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation as he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, full of a donkey.
[0:25] Today we'll be thinking about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We'll be thinking about the title, the Son of David, and how it applies there. And so as we do so, we're going to gather this morning, raising our voices, along with the crowd who welcomed Jesus to the city on that day, in the words of Psalm 118.
[0:43] This is in Sing Psalms, page 156 in the Blue Book. We're going to sing from verse 15 through to verse 24. Please stand to sing, if you're able.
[1:06] singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing, singing He does all things well.
[1:43] I shall not die, but I shall live. The Lord's great works I will proclaim.
[1:59] The Lord's of the air rechastened me. I've rescued me from death's domain.
[2:16] Oh, like the gates of righteousness, I tell the fear, thanks to God.
[2:34] This is the gate of God through which the righteous come before the Lord.
[2:52] You answered me, I will reply. Salvation comes on you alone.
[3:09] The stone that filled the child refused Has not become the cornerstone.
[3:26] The Lord himself has done all this Ages of marvel in our sight This is the deed the Lord does need In the dark's secret delight Let's bow our heads in prayer to God.
[4:14] This is the day the Lord has made. We thank you, Lord, and we rejoice today That we can say these words with confidence That you have appointed this day As a day of salvation.
[4:28] You have appointed it as a day of worship. You have appointed it as a day of memorial and rest Giving thanks for the finished work of your hands.
[4:41] We thank you, Lord, today that we gather, therefore, As people who have all of these reasons to rejoice and worship. Today we remember that you have made this world In which we live, in all of its beauty and intricacy And its marvel and wonder That we can see your handiworks in it As the psalmist says, It is a world which continually speaks To God's glory and to your character That we can see so much of you In what we see around us But we thank you that today We also remember the finished work Not just of creation But the finished work of Jesus We thank you for the resurrection We thank you that Early in the morning On the first day of the week That the tomb was found to be empty That that earth-shattering truth Had come to pass That death was defeated And hope abounds now to the children of man And so we pray today That you would fill our hearts with thanksgiving
[5:43] That as we worship you today We would lift up and glorify your name That you would help us To resound to the praise of your glory We come confessing before you today our sin We know we need the cleansing blood of Jesus To wash away all iniquity And so we ask today, Father That you would give us a true sense and vision Of Christ Jesus That we would recognize in him The one who takes away the sin of the world And so we ask and pray That today each one of us Would in our own hearts Acknowledge our sin and our shortcomings That we would not seek to hide from you The things that we have done amiss But that rather with that full confidence Of knowing that there is salvation And forgiveness and hope available That we would come clinging only To the blood of Christ And not our own self-righteousness Help us therefore we pray In our worship today To look to Jesus for cleansing and healing Help us to see him as the one Who has mercy upon us And may we therefore be blessed
[6:43] In receiving today the mercy And the grace of almighty God Renew us and refresh us in this we pray In Christ's name Amen So I have with me today An item from our house It's kind of hard to believe Six months and we're still Working on the house And what I have with me today Is the stage we are at at the moment We are laying New hardwood floors In our living room And so I have brought with me today The sample block It has the sticker on the back That tells you all the information About this wood And tells you what colour it is And what strength it is And how you should lay it And everything else And on the front you can see What it's going to look like And so we were quite impressed with this And thought that's the wood That we want for our floor You might be thinking to yourself Well why Gordon have you brought A piece of wood with you today?
[7:45] Why on earth have you brought A piece of wood? And Roddy was certainly asking me That question this morning When I was coming into church But my piece of wood is a reminder to us That today is Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is a Sunday On the Christian calendar It's called the liturgical calendar So the Sunday before Easter Is always called Palm Sunday And this isn't a piece of palm Obviously This is a piece of oak hardwood Floating Engineered timber So you wouldn't want to Wave this at somebody If it was Palm Sunday That's what people did though On the first so-called Palm Sunday Jesus was going into Jerusalem And people were waving palm branches And singing Hosanna to God We can read about it actually In Matthew's Gospel It's in Matthew chapter 21 We'll read verses 1 to 11 just now
[8:46] Just very briefly So that you'll get the picture And when they came near to Jerusalem And they came to Bethpage In the Mount of Olives Then Jesus sent two disciples Saying to them Go into the village in front of you And immediately you will find A donkey tied And a colt with her Untie them And bring them to me If anyone says anything to you You shall say to them The Lord needs them And he will send them At once This took place to fulfill What was spoken by the prophet Saying Say to the daughter of Zion Behold your king is coming to you Humble and mounted on a donkey And on a colt The foal of a beast of burden The disciples went and did As Jesus had directed them They brought the donkey And the colt And put on them Their cloaks And he sat on them Then most of the crowd Spread their cloaks On the road And others cut branches From the trees And spread them On the road as well And the crowds went before him
[9:46] And that followed after Were shouting Hosanna To the son of David Blessed is he Who comes In the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest And when he entered Jerusalem The whole city was stirred up Saying Who is this?
[9:59] And the crowd said This is the prophet Jesus From Nazareth Of Galilee So What's happening there is Jesus is riding into Jerusalem And he's riding On a donkey And all the people Are going around And they're getting Not hardwood flooring To put down on the floor That wouldn't be very practical But what they do is They get their coats So instead of grabbing bits Of wood They're grabbing their coats Like this They're taking their jackets off And they're throwing them On the road In front I'm not going to throw This jacket Because I'll probably Get in trouble for that But they would throw Their jackets onto the road And then when Jesus Rides by on the donkey He's walking Not on the road But on the jackets And you think That's a very strange Thing to do Isn't it?
[10:47] But it's just like Laying hardwood flooring The people thought The roads are too dirty For the king of kings To walk on The roads are too dirty For this Exalted holy person To come on We will put our jackets On the floor And he can walk on them And the reason They're doing that Is because they want To show That they recognize Jesus as their king They want to be able To say This is Jesus He's above us He's over us He's the one That we listen to And that we follow And that we Will go after And so by throwing Their jackets on the ground They're saying It's okay for Jesus To walk in our jackets Because we are beneath him He is our king It's quite a strange thought Isn't it?
[11:40] But that's what was happening On Palm Sunday They wanted to show That Jesus was over them Because they realized Jesus Was their king And so they were singing These words Hosanna Which means save me It's a cry to God To save us Hosanna To the one who comes In the name of the Lord Hosanna To the son of David They're recognizing That Jesus Is a king Who brings Salvation And so for us today We're going to be thinking About that a wee bit In the sermon We're going to be thinking A bit about Jesus As the son of David But the simple thing If there's one thing I want you to remember today It's this That we can show Every day That Jesus is our king That we should ask For God To give us The wisdom And the strength Every day
[12:40] To live for Jesus And to show Jesus Is the one That we follow And that doesn't mean That we throw our jackets On the road When we're coming to church But it does mean That every day We say Jesus Your word Is over me Your word Is what I'm going to follow Your ways Are how I'm going to go Where you call I will follow And when you offer Salvation I'll listen to you And I will believe In you And I will trust you We're going to say The Lord's Prayer Just now One of the things That we say In the Lord's Prayer Remember is Your kingdom come And your will be done On earth As it is in heaven So these are important Words to remember Because Jesus Is our king And it's his kingdom And it's his will Being done That we're praying for So let's pray Our Father In heaven Hallowed Be your name
[13:40] Your kingdom come Your will be done On earth As it is In heaven Give us this day Our daily bread And forgive us Our debts As we forgive Our debtors Lead us not Into temptation But deliver us From evil For yours is the kingdom The power And the glory Forever Amen We're going to continue Singing just now To God's praise This time from Psalm 130 In the Scottish Psalter This is page 421 In the Blue Book When Jesus arrived In Jerusalem It looked as if Everyone was Greeting him And welcoming him Gladly But not everyone Recognized their need Of him And this is a psalm Which is really about Us recognizing
[14:41] Our need Of God Our need of the Cleansing The cleaning The washing That God alone Can bring to us And that he brings Through the blood Of Jesus So we're going to sing The whole of this psalm To God's praise Lord from the depths To thee I cried My voice Lord Do thou hear And to my supplications Voice Give an attentive year Lord who shall stand If thou O Lord Shouldst mark iniquity But yet with thee Forgiveness is That feared Thou mayst be Please stand If you're able I will sing The whole of this psalm Lord from the depths To thee I cried Lord from the depths To thee I cried My voice Lord Do thou hear Of the voyance O Lord, who shall stand if thou, O Lord, should smile in me?
[16:04] Iniquity, but yet with thee, forgivenesses, that fear thou mayest be.
[16:24] I wait for God, my soul not wait, my hope is in His word.
[16:42] More than they lie, for morning watch, my soul waits for the Lord.
[17:01] I say, Lord, I may not do watch, the morning light to see.
[17:18] Let Israel open the door, for within her trees be.
[17:37] Unplenteous redemption is ever unquited.
[17:54] And from all its iniquities, He is the child redeemed.
[18:13] Would you turn with me, please, in your Bibles to read in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 1.
[18:43] Matthew chapter 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
[18:56] Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.
[19:35] And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jehonichai and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
[20:16] And after the deportation to Babylon, Jehonichai was the father of Shealtiel and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud and Abiud the father of Elakim and Eliakim the father of Azor and Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim and Achim the father of Eliud and Eliud the father of Eliezer and Eliezer the father of Mathan and Mathan the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary by whom Jesus was born who is called Christ.
[20:58] And so all the generations of Abraham to David were 14 generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ 14 generations.
[21:15] Amen. This is God's word to us today. Let's bow our heads once again in prayer.
[21:25] Heavenly Father, as we have today read in your word a long list of names, most of whom we barely know anything about, we have to come, Lord, in the wonderful mystery of your great providence and recognize that in all of that story, in all of these centuries, in all of these generations, you were working out a plan to bring the Christ into the world.
[22:07] And you did this in sending your son, Jesus, to be a savior, to be a firstborn of many brothers and sisters so that today we can come to you in the words that Jesus taught us and say, our father in heaven.
[22:34] As a privilege, Lord, that has been worked out through the unmistakable hand of your providence, not just in the generations that we've read about in Matthew's gospel, but in the mystery of the generations that have gone before us.
[22:54] We can think of our parents. Many of us received the gospel from them. We can think of a long line going all the way back to days of awakening and revival and reformation in the church.
[23:12] And we see throughout all of that the mystery of your purposes being unfolded. We can truly see your kingdom coming.
[23:23] We can see the emergence of the kingdom of God. And so as we pray today, your kingdom come, help us to remember that what we are praying for there is something you yourself are already intimately involved in and care about and are working towards.
[23:43] We thank you that today we can see evidence of the Holy Spirit working in people's lives. We can see the marvel of the rebirth. We can witness and pay tribute to regeneration, awakening the hearts of men and women to the great truth that is in Christ Jesus, and enabling men and women to express faith and trust in him.
[24:08] And that, Lord, today is our prayer for our community, for our church family, for our home families, for the extended family of the nation in which we live.
[24:23] We cry to you, Lord, and we pray that you would remember us in your mercy and that you would bring many to know Jesus as their Lord and as their Savior.
[24:37] We want today to be able to say not only that your name is hallowed, made holy, thought of in a special and unique way by the people of this world, but that we would see that your name, Lord, is worthy of honor because your ways are worthy of honor.
[24:58] And so we long to see your will being done on earth as it is in heaven. We think, Lord, today of the issues that are before us as a nation. So often, Lord, the headlines in the news will focus on the economic situation.
[25:16] And we know, Lord, that there is a reality to that that affects many people. We know many people are in danger with jobs and lack of security. We know people long for employment and hope in that respect.
[25:29] And we pray for these things. But we also remember, Lord, that the moral heart of our nation is at stake as well. We see, Father, the decisions of our politicians and our leaders.
[25:43] we fear, Lord, that their ways are not your ways, that their priorities are not yours. We see it in the stripping away of the sanctity of life more and more in our culture.
[26:00] And as we lose more and more of that biblical rootedness that has informed how we think about the world, we're losing sight of what makes humanity special and precious and worthy of fighting for to the end.
[26:16] And so we pray, Father, for wisdom for those who lead. We pray for our own MP and MSP, that you would give them a heart that seeks after your ways.
[26:27] We pray for our counsellors locally. We ask that you would bless them in the decisions that are taken in our local authority. And we pray, Father, for those who serve in our community in these public roles as well.
[26:40] We think especially this week of teachers going back this week after a break, we ask that you would bless them. Pray for them as they are used to shape the minds of young people in our community, that you would help them, Lord, both with their educational responsibilities, but also the character that they will pass on in that environment.
[27:01] We ask and pray, Father, today that you would bless us each day with our daily needs being met. We think, Lord, of those in our community who are lonely and who are going through difficult times emotionally.
[27:15] We ask and pray, Father, that you would speak into their lives with compassion and tenderness. Give to the lonely friendships that are valuable and trustworthy.
[27:27] Give to those who are isolated a lifeline of hope and connection with other human beings who care passionately for their welfare. We know into that, Lord, again, we think of those who have public responsibility in that.
[27:42] We pray for our health service, for those who are involved in care for the elderly, and for adult social care in other ways as well. And we ask, Lord, that in all of these ways that compassion and grace would be shown, that your concerns would be reflected in what we do and in how we live.
[28:02] We want to pray today, Father, for your ongoing blessing on those who are struggling through the turmoil of life. So often, Lord, the traumas that we carry, the things that have been done to us in the past, and that the things that we have experienced, they remain with us and they blight our lives.
[28:25] We pray, Father, that into such darkness you would bring your light. Release people, therefore, from the chains of addiction, but also, Lord, the chains of sinful patterns that are unrelenting.
[28:38] So often, we don't forgive when we should. We don't let go of past wrongs that continue to hinder us as we move on in our lives.
[28:50] And so we ask, Lord, that you would bless and prosper those who seek to bring reconciliation in people's minds and relationships and experiences as well.
[29:02] We want to pray, Father, for our world today. It is a broken world, we know. We see it so often on the news, in the reality of what happens in the world around us. We remember, Lord, that there are many places where there is violence today, where there is uncertainty, and that in so many of these places, your people are very often at the heart of the distrust and the affliction that is visited in these lands.
[29:27] We remember the church in parts of sub-Saharan Africa today. We pray for the church in places like Nigeria and Sudan. We ask and pray that you would remember your children there and remember them in the midst of affliction and sorrow, persecution and violence.
[29:42] Bring relief, we pray. We want to pray today, Father, as well, for the peace of the world. We pray for an end to conflict, and we pray that that would come through reconciliation and blessing.
[29:57] We think, therefore, again, of the witness of the saints in places of conflict, that they would be given the grace to set examples of forgiveness and hope, that you would see good done.
[30:13] In all of this, Lord, we ask that your name indeed would be hallowed, that your reputation, your fame among the nations would grow, that men and women would bow the knee before you and recognize that you alone are God and there is no other.
[30:28] Help us then to worship you, to declare you, to witness for you, to make Jesus known in our lives day by day, and we ask all these things in his name. Amen.
[30:43] We're going to sing once again to God's praise before we turn back to the word in Psalm 72. This is in Sing Psalms, page 92 in the Blue Books. We're going to sing the first two stanzas and then the last two stanzas of this psalm.
[31:09] It's a psalm that recognizes the lordship, the reign of Jesus ultimately, and he is the one who is very much in mind as the royal character at the center of the psalm.
[31:22] Endow the king with justice, Lord, the royal son with righteousness, your people, your afflicted ones. He'll judge with truth and uprightness. The mountains will bring peace to them, the hills the fruit of righteousness.
[31:36] He will defend and save the poor and crush all those who them oppress. And then the last two verses of the two stanzas as well, verse 17, forever may his name endure, may it continue as the sun, all nations will be blessed in him whom they will call the blessed one.
[31:54] It's interesting that this psalm echoes the promise given to Abraham, we'll note it in just a moment, promise given to Abraham that in his seed, the offspring of Abraham, all the nations of the world would be blessed and it's through Jesus ultimately, this royal son through whom all the nations will be blessed.
[32:11] So we're going to stand and sing to God's praise and do the king with justice, Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[32:44] Amen. Amen. singing voy voy voy voy!
[33:34] voy as the sun. All nations will be blessed in Him, whom they will call the Blessed One.
[33:58] Thanks to the Lord, to His blessed God, His awesome deeds proclaim to man.
[34:16] His name He prays eternally, His glory fill the earth. Amen.
[34:48] Please turn with me in your Bibles back to Matthew's Gospel. We read there these opening words, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
[35:06] Jesus Christ, the son of David. Let's bow in prayer before we study the Word. Heavenly Father, as we turn our attention for a moment just now to the Word of Truth, we pray, Lord, that you would speak into our hearts today encourage us with a knowledge of who our Savior is.
[35:30] Help us to see Jesus clearly, to see who He is and what He has done, to recognize Him in His titles, and to worship Him for what He has done and how He has proved Himself worthy of worship in the way He fulfills that office and title as well.
[35:53] We ask that you bless us in this, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. One of the most groundbreaking movies in my, in fact, technically just over my lifetime, was released in the UK the Christmas before I was born, is the film Star Wars.
[36:20] It was an absolutely marvelous piece of cinematic theater, and I would encourage you, if you get a chance to watch it, you will enjoy yourself.
[36:33] But George Lucas, the director of Star Wars, does quite an impressive feat at the beginning of it. He launches that movie right into the action after what's called a cinematic crawl.
[36:46] Some text appears on the screen that you have to read, and the act of reading draws you in because you're concentrating on the words as they scroll past on the screen.
[36:59] And you're drawn into the story and immediately plugged into this amazing adventure that is taking place in the movie as it unfolds.
[37:11] And strangely, Matthew is doing exactly the same thing with his introduction. And you may be thinking, well, hang on a minute, Gordon.
[37:23] There are a list here of 42 names, most of which you've probably got wrong as you were reading them this morning. How on earth is Matthew catapulting us into the action of the gospel with this fairly long and fairly boring list of names.
[37:43] But in fact, Matthew wants his readers to understand the importance of one of the titles he uses of Jesus. And what he's doing is he's drawing attention to this title, the Son of David, in these verses.
[38:04] David and this title, the Son of David, is central to Matthew's understanding of who Jesus is and who it is who on that first Palm Sunday, all of these years ago, went into Jerusalem riding a donkey and around whom the crowds shouted, Hosanna!
[38:30] Blessed be the name of the Lord for the salvation he brings. He does it, first of all, by telling us about the titles, Son of David, Son of Abraham.
[38:42] And both of these refer back to promises that were given. Abraham was promised a seed, an offspring. God had taken Abraham out and said to him, Abraham, look up at the stars of the heavens.
[38:55] See the sand on the seashore. Such will your offspring be. But then the promise kind of narrows in a little bit as well because Abraham's given more. He's told, in your seed, all the nations of the world will be blessed.
[39:10] And so Matthew, as he's writing his gospel to the church, which is not just a Jewish church, but is a Gentile church spread throughout the world, across the whole of the Roman Empire and in some places beyond by this point.
[39:23] Matthew is writing and saying, the blessing of the nations comes and flows through Jesus, the son of Abraham. He's the one who fulfills the promise given to Abraham.
[39:35] But then he also uses this other title, the son of David. And again, it's one of these covenant promises that's given in the Old Testament that David was given a promise by God that the Lord would establish his throne forever.
[39:53] So not that David would have a constant line of descendants after him into infinity, but that eventually someone would sit on the royal throne of David forevermore.
[40:09] That David's ultimate, final son would reign forever. And that covenant promise, that commitment on God's part, that's a covenant.
[40:20] It's a commitment that's made by a sovereign. The Lord makes that covenant with Abraham and promises that Abraham will have a descendant who will reign forever in his name.
[40:30] This is Jesus. And so when Matthew gives us this long list of names, he's catapulting us into that story.
[40:43] He's saying this story about Jesus is, you know, which so often we tend to think is just this little bit of the end of our Bibles, is actually all about the big bit at the other end.
[40:54] That the story of Jesus doesn't just come into a vacuum. Jesus comes as the fulfillment of these promises. And then Matthew just kind of underlines that for us a little bit.
[41:09] And he does it with 14 reasons why. And the 14 reasons are these little blocks that he gives of generations. 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the exile, and then 14 generations from the exile to the present, to the days of Jesus 2,000 years ago.
[41:30] And each time he's reiterating this structure, 14 generations, 14 generations. They're not literal because we know some of the sequence of the kings are missed out. There was actually an extra three kings in the descendancy.
[41:43] So it's a rhetorical structure he's using, a literary structure. It's not meant to be a true reflection of the exact number of generations involved. But nonetheless, he uses this structure to point us at something important.
[41:58] And the likelihood is that it's pointing us at the name of David himself. Because if you were a scholar of Hebrew numerology, you would know the number of David's name is 14.
[42:13] Hebrew text writes only the consonants, and the name of David has four consonants in it. D, V, D. And so you work through it.
[42:25] A D is the fourth letter of the alphabet, so that's number four. V is the sixth letter of the alphabet, number six. The other D, a four again. Four plus six plus four gives you 14.
[42:37] And if you were a student of that, then you would think immediately, oh, wow. there's 14 generations and there's 14 numbers in David's name and they must be connected.
[42:52] And it's pointing firmly and squarely to David as the significant person. So Jesus, when he comes onto the scene, is fulfilling and doing something relating to David in terms of who he was.
[43:16] And there's really three things, just to note very briefly. There's fulfillment, there's status, and there's mission. There's fulfillment because a promise has been fulfilled. A covenant promise made to David has been fulfilled.
[43:30] The covenant bond between God and his people through their head, through their representative, is now more firmly established.
[43:43] The covenant made with David was a promise to David that the people would be well led, that the people would be secure, that there would be a champion who would fight for them, that there would be a leader who would direct them, that there would be blessings found in the path that the leader would take them in.
[44:00] And as long as the leader walked in God's way and kept his covenant responsibilities and obligations as a king, blessing would flow. And obviously, the descendants of David, we know this, were failures.
[44:14] None of them lived up to it until eventually the kingdom itself was removed. And after the days of Shealtiel, things just disappeared completely. The kingdom disappeared, vanished, visibly.
[44:28] There's still records of descendants charting through them. Jews took pride in their heritage in that way, so they had a record. And that's what Matthew relies on when he has the genealogy of Jesus.
[44:41] And Luke relies on when he has the genealogy of Mary. But it's pointing back to this truth that the promise, the line of promise is unbroken. even if the people in there hadn't kept their side of the bargain.
[44:57] And so God does something merciful. He steps in to establish his covenant more fully. There's a fulfillment, therefore, of the covenant. There's a status that is confirmed as well because the status doesn't come from the palatial setting of what happens.
[45:15] Matthew tells us about that. That's why he tells us about the bit after the exile. Once the palace is lost, the palace is gone. So when Jesus comes into the world, he isn't born in a palace.
[45:29] You remember, that's what the magi, the wise men from the east, they thought when the king who has appeared has come into the world, he will be found in the palace. So they go to Jerusalem, they go to Herod, and they say to Herod, where is the king of the Jews?
[45:43] Because we have seen a star in the east. And Herod's like, what are you talking about? Interestingly, Herod thinks, this king who has been born, this son of David, is a threat to me.
[45:56] He must be eradicated. But the wise men, Herod asks the religious leaders and says, well, where will the son of David be born? Where will the king come from? And they say, oh, Bethlehem.
[46:07] And so off the wise men go to Bethlehem, and they discover in Bethlehem the king of kings and lord of lords. They discover him lying in a manger.
[46:20] They present to him their gifts, their gold and their frankincense in their mirror. This is the son of David. A status is conferred, not because of where he is born, but because of what he does.
[46:38] Because this son of David, he receives the father's affirmation. Remember, just a couple of chapters on in Matthew's gospel, Matthew tells us that Jesus went and was baptized by his cousin John.
[46:52] And when he's coming up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and a voice is heard from heaven saying, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. The father announces the status of Jesus.
[47:08] Right at the outset of his public ministry. And Satan sweeps in almost immediately, takes him away into a desert place and tempts him and says, you can have the glory, you can have the power, just bow the knee before me.
[47:19] Just do things my way. Forget the path that the father has given for you and follow in my steps instead and I will lead you and I will take you to a place where all the outcomes will be good.
[47:30] And Jesus says, no, get behind me, Satan, and so on. But the point is in all of this, the royal status of this person is established by the father.
[47:42] The father says, this is my beloved son with whom I am delighted and well pleased. And he is therefore on a mission.
[47:56] It's interesting in fact because Jesus at the end of Matthew's gospel, he confirms this. We call it the great commission. He's talking to the disciples and he sees all authority.
[48:06] In heaven and on earth, everywhere, it's all mine. Therefore, I am sending you out to make disciples of all nations and all peoples.
[48:20] And Jesus is claiming that authority because he is in fact the son of David. And so what Jesus says at the end of the gospel flows out of what Matthew tells us at the beginning.
[48:33] That Jesus has this fulfillment, thrust upon him. He has this status afforded him. He has this mission to go out and to gather in the flock of God's people.
[48:44] And that is today what he commissions the church to do. So Matthew is telling us right at the outset, this is important. This matters.
[48:58] This title, the son of David, is what Jesus is all about. And then he goes through his gospel and gives us lots and lots of examples.
[49:13] And the examples are all of people reacting to, normally because of his reputation, reacting to Jesus and realizing he is the son of David.
[49:26] And it's fascinating when you go through Matthew's gospel, there's two categories of people that Matthew wants us to see and I suspect that today that remains the case. There are two categories of people in the world, there's two categories of people in this church.
[49:41] There are those who get it, who see that Jesus is the son of David and what that means and there's those who don't. And who reject everything, in fact, that it means.
[49:55] So first of all, there's those who get it. One of the things you can track through Matthew's gospel is those who get it. There is particularly the blind. So Matthew, on three occasions, tells us about the blind who come to Jesus and call him the son of David.
[50:11] Matthew 9, you've got two men, blind men, shortly after Matthew himself is called by Jesus, who come to Jesus and say, son of David, have mercy on us.
[50:22] And then a little bit later in the gospel in Matthew 20 is Jesus is passing through Jericho. In some of the other gospels, there's the story of Bartimaeus who uses the same language. There's also another two blind men.
[50:32] It's interesting, the other side of Jericho. So it's as if Jericho is bracketed by blind men who say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. But there in Matthew's gospel, in Matthew 20, you can read about it, two blind men in Jericho who cry out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
[50:50] And then in Matthew 21, when Jesus has gone into Jerusalem after the triumphal entry, he goes to the temple and there's blind and lame people there in the temple who come to Jesus and ask for mercy.
[51:03] And they use the same formula, son of David, have mercy on me. Among those who get it, there are simply the blind.
[51:17] And they recognize that the son of David is an instrument of God's mercy. You know, today, that's what God's doing with us.
[51:29] He's come to us with Jesus as an instrument of his mercy. And it's a fulfillment of the promises of the scriptures, particularly of Isaiah, where Isaiah says, the servant of the Lord will come and one of the things he will do is he will bring sight to the blind.
[51:51] And it's interesting that the cry for mercy, it's a word in Greek that means give me relief. Release me from this miserable experience that I have been afflicted with.
[52:04] And Jesus brings that relief, he brings that freedom into the experience of these blind people. Same in Matthew 12.
[52:17] And Jesus, on this occasion, casts a demon out of someone. And the crowds are astonished. And they ask themselves, they ask the question, could this be the son of David? Because once again, what you see there is the people recognize the son of David is the one who brings this messianic hope, the hope of the Messiah breaking into this world as the one who has the authority to drive out Satan and bring to an end all of his destructive works.
[52:46] He just brings deliverance to people. The promised son of David. There's another category of children running around at the temple when Jesus arrives there.
[53:01] The children run about saying, this is the son of David. And they're singing, Hosanna to the son of David. And the scribes and the Pharisees hate this. And they want to rebuke these kids. They want to say, no, don't let children speak this way about you.
[53:14] And Jesus quotes the words of Psalm 8 and says, out of the mouths of infants will come praise to God. I say that today to young people here. Don't ever think you're discounted from following Jesus.
[53:29] That you're disallowed or that there's a barrier or there's something that says you're not entitled to join in in the praise. It's not. It's for you as well. Salvation is for us.
[53:42] That God has brought us redemption in the person of Jesus. And for all of us, therefore, to love and respond to him and worship him. There's another interesting category as well in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 15.
[53:59] There's a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus. And she's very interesting because she's a pagan. It doesn't mean that she's ethnically Canaanite.
[54:10] It means that she's religiously Canaanite. She still worships the Canaanite gods from the Old Testament who are still worshipped at this point in places like Tyre and Sidon.
[54:21] And Jesus goes up towards Tyre and Sidon in Matthew 15. And there he meets a Canaanite woman who says, Son of David, have mercy on me and on my daughter because she's grievously ill.
[54:33] And the impression you get is she's tried the Canaanite gods. She's tried going to the Canaanite god of, do I find the name in my notes here?
[54:46] The Canaanite god of of Eshnum. It's a huge temple of Eshnum in Tyre.
[55:01] Just three miles away from where that incident took place. And she's gone hoping that the Canaanite gods would bring deliverance to her grievously ill daughter and found them to be empty, false, worthless, powerless to help.
[55:16] But she's heard about Jesus. And she says, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And so once again, there's that sense that someone who has found everything else to be empty and worthless and in her desperation turns to Jesus, discovers that the Son of David is the one who can help, who can bring deliverance.
[55:44] And today, I'm sure there are people here like that. There's people who've turned to Jesus in their desperation and have said, have mercy on me.
[55:58] I'm sure you've worked with people like that. You've ministered in people's lives like that. I'm sure you've experienced it yourself. People have discovered that Jesus is trustworthy.
[56:20] There's another group though, and that's the ones who don't get it. And there's an interesting couple of categories here. On the one hand, there's the scribes and the Pharisees. Throughout Matthew's gospel, the scribes and the Pharisees repeatedly say, shut up.
[56:36] When someone says Jesus is the Son of David, they know full well what that claim means. And their response is, nah. We're not having it.
[56:47] Rebuke the children. Tell the woman to be quiet. Who on earth do these blind people think they are saying that Jesus is the Son of David? The Pharisees see Jesus as a royal threat to their power.
[57:06] I think that's the bottom line with them. Jesus had said that they were enslaving the people, that they were misleading them and misdirecting them. so they see Jesus as a threat.
[57:20] And maybe today there's people like that here. Maybe today, quite simply, you're quite happy being in control. Maybe today you're quite happy saying to yourself, I know how my life is mapped and charted out.
[57:35] I know what's up in front of me. If I was to recognize Jesus as my Lord, then that might make changes. It might mean I have to stop some things.
[57:45] I have to part with some things. It might mean that my life is no longer my own, that I no longer have authority and control. And I don't want to figuratively bow the knee to someone.
[57:56] I don't want to listen to somebody else's instructions and call on my life. Maybe even as a Christian you're a bit like that. You don't want to recognize the authority of the Son of David and his call on your life.
[58:18] Maybe because it's a call that's expensive. It's costly. It means giving up something that you find very comfortable. So he calls us into ministry.
[58:33] Or he calls us into service. Or he calls us into giving. the Son of David is not someone to be trifled with because his call is costly.
[58:48] but he's worthy because of who he is. The other group of people and this is quite where we hit Palm Sunday just briefly just at the end.
[59:02] The other group of people are the crowds on Palm Sunday. So as Jesus comes into Jerusalem and as the crowds throng around and as they see something of the significance of here is a man entering Jerusalem riding a donkey and they remember the prophecy of Zechariah and they say hang on Zechariah says that the king will come humble riding on a donkey and here's Jesus entering the city riding a donkey and so they make this connection they say this must be the son of David this must be the promised Messiah the one who's going to come and do what?
[59:40] well he's going to come and he's going to restore the throne the Jews had this massive expectation that God's purposes for them were to re-establish them as an independent nation of their own so he's the one who's going to win the referendum for us and by referendum they mean armed military revolt he's the one who's going to get independence for us he's the one who's going to boot out the Romans he's the one who's going to re-establish the sanctity of the temple he's the one who's going to remove the gentile influence from our nation he's going to make it all well that's what the son of David is going to achieve and so when they're singing Hosanna to the son of David as Jesus enters Jerusalem you can be pretty sure they don't mean David have mercy on me they don't mean we are blind and we need to see they don't mean we are oppressed by demons and we need your authority to cast them out they don't mean have mercy on me for my daughter's sake because she is ill and I cannot find a cure they mean boot out the
[60:49] Romans I want to say this particularly to young guys today there's a younger generation that are discovering this in you the folk who listen to Jordan Peterson they find that Jordan Peterson and his like will say very appealing things about Christianity about even Jesus that Jesus has a good influence to play in shaping people's moral outlook and perspective on the world it's incredible even Richard Dawkins one of the architects of new atheism has conceded that actually the west needs Christianity to survive because our entire civilization is built on Christian principles and that's like the crowds who want Jesus for what he offers them by way of political direction and influence
[61:51] I want a Jesus who makes sense to me on my terms I want a Jesus who's going to come in and be rational and sensible and help us to establish some sort of order and perspective on the world that makes sense and everything is going to be okay and there's nothing inherently wrong with that so long as you don't miss the salvation if you isolate Jesus from his salvation and the hope of the gospel if you cut Jesus off from the teaching of repentance that he is the one who comes as the sin offering to take away that sin that's at the heart of the covenant with David it's at the heart of the covenant with Abraham the blessing for the nations isn't that Jesus has a political way of living a sensible!
[62:43] pattern for life that makes sense for people it's that he brings salvation from our sin it's that he sets us right with God that he is God's king on the throne of David ruling over God's people and leading us forever into the glorious future that belongs to the children of God in the new heavens and the new earth if that's not your Jesus you've got him wrong if that's not your Jesus you've forgotten what's most important and so today as we gather on Palm Sunday as we look forward to Easter ultimately the resurrection and we celebrate that next Sunday there'll be a family service you're very welcome to come along and bring your friends but also as we think about Good Friday in between as we think about the cross the Golgotha road that Jesus treads because that's what he does as a son of
[63:45] David he comes in and he goes the path when he arrives in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday he goes up to the temple he's a pilgrim he goes there and he leaves because the temple's finished it's about to be torn down and replaced with something altogether better his own body and blood shed at the cross the cross is what we need if we want to understand and grasp just who the son of David is and so today will you join me in coming to the son of David and saying to him Hosanna to the son of David save us son of David because you alone can wash away my sin you alone can take away my guilt you alone can bring the mercy of God to me let's pray lord this day may Christ come in may Christ come in to the lives of people here who do not know you may Christ come in to our lives and show us mercy abounding to sinners and show us what he achieved at the cross of Golgotha that there he died in the place of sinners like us and that he has risen now to everlasting life
[65:23] Hosanna to the son of David amen we're going to conclude our worship today singing in psalm 134 again the sing psalms version page 175 this is the last of the songs of ascent it's the last of the songs that pilgrims would sing as they went up to Jerusalem and the picture behind this psalm is of these pilgrims arriving at the temple and they're asking for God's blessing they're basically saying Hosanna save us be merciful to us may the blessing of God come to us and that's what we look for if we recognize Jesus as the son of David we want him to bless us the one who made the heavens and the earth to bless us from his throne so let's sing the whole of the psalm to God's praise praise the
[66:31] Lord all you his servants as you serve with one accord praise the Lord and your night watches in the temple of the Lord raise your hands within his temple to the Lord your God give praise he who made the earth and heavens bless you from his holy place let's stand to sing praise the Lord all you his servants as you serve with one accord praise the Lord in your night watches in the temple of the Lord praise praise Lord and the praise you from his praise he who made the earth and heavens bless you from his holy place now the grace of the
[67:44] Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with each one of us now and always Amen voy!
[68:17] Thank you.