WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.139 So let me read God's word for us to Samuel chapter 19 verse 9. 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:10.859 Throughout the tribes of Israel, all the people were arguing among themselves and saying, 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:15.259 the king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He is the one who rescued us from 00:00:15.259 --> 00:00:19.780 the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the country to escape from Absalom, 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:23.460 and Absalom whom we anointed to rule over us has died in battle. 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:26.940 So why do you say nothing about bringing the king back? 00:00:27.860 --> 00:00:32.719 King David sent this message to Zadok and Abathar, the priests, asked the elders of Judah, 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:37.980 why should you be the last to bring the king back to his palace, since what is being said 00:00:37.980 --> 00:00:43.280 throughout Israel has reached the king at his quarters? You are my relatives, my own flesh and 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:49.299 blood. Why should you be the last to bring back the king? Say to Amasa, are you not my own flesh and 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:55.640 blood? May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if you are not the commander of my army for life 00:00:55.640 --> 00:01:03.859 in place of Joab. He won over the hearts of the men of Judah, so that they were all of one mind. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:12.799 They sent word to the king, return all your men. Then the king returned and went as far as the Jordan. 00:01:13.819 --> 00:01:18.159 Now the men of Judah had come to Gilgal to go out and meet the king and bring him across to Jordan. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:25.379 Shimei, the son of Gerai, the Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King 00:01:25.379 --> 00:01:31.519 David. With him were a thousand Benjamites, along with Ziba, the steward of Saul's household, and his 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:37.620 fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed to the Jordan where the king was. They crossed at the 00:01:37.620 --> 00:01:41.239 ford to take the king's household over and to do whatever he wished. 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:47.679 When Shimei, the son of Gerai, crossed the Jordan, he fell prostrate before the king and said to him, 00:01:48.199 --> 00:01:53.739 My lord, do not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the 00:01:53.739 --> 00:02:00.000 king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind. For I, your servant, know that I have sinned. 00:02:00.399 --> 00:02:05.479 But today I have come here as the first from the tribes of Joseph to come down and meet my lord the king. 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:11.560 Then Abishai, the son of Zariah, said, Shouldn't Shimei be put to death for this? He cursed the 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:18.300 Lord's anointed. David replied, What does this have to do with you, sons of Zariah? What right do you 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:24.259 have to interfere? Should anyone be put to death in Israel today? Don't I know that I am king over 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:30.780 Israel? So the king said to Shimei, You shall not die. And the king promised him on oath. 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:37.080 Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, also went down to meet the king. He had not taken care of his feet 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:41.900 or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he returned 00:02:41.900 --> 00:02:47.740 safely. When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, Why didn't you go with 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:54.460 me, Mephibosheth? He said, My lord the king, since I, your servant, am lame, I said, I will have my donkey 00:02:54.460 --> 00:03:00.080 saddled and I will ride on it so that I can go with the king. But Ziba, my servant, betrayed me. 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:05.860 He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. My lord the king is like an angel of God, 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:11.080 so do whatever you wish. All of my grandfather's descendants deserve nothing but death from my lord 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:16.819 the king, but you gave your servant a place among those who eat at your table. So what right do I 00:03:16.819 --> 00:03:23.979 have to make any more appeals to the king? The king said to him, Why say more? I order you and Ziba to 00:03:23.979 --> 00:03:29.799 divide the land. Mephibosheth said to the king, Let him take everything, now that my lord the king 00:03:29.799 --> 00:03:37.780 has returned home safely. Barzillia the Gileadite also came down from Rogalim to cross the Jordan 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:44.519 with the king and to send him on his way from there. Now Barzillia was very old, 80 years of age. 00:03:44.819 --> 00:03:49.799 He had provided for the king during his stay at Mahanim, for he was a very wealthy man. 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:55.660 The king said to Barzillia, Cross over with me and stay with me in Jerusalem and I will provide for 00:03:55.660 --> 00:04:01.500 you. But Barzillia answered the king, How many more years shall I live that I should go up to 00:04:01.500 --> 00:04:06.540 Jerusalem with the king? I'm now 80 years old. Can I tell the difference between what is enjoyable 00:04:06.540 --> 00:04:12.000 and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:17.800 the male and female singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:22.339 Your servant will cross over the Jordan with the king for a short distance, but why should the king 00:04:22.339 --> 00:04:27.779 reward me in this way? Let your servant return that I may die in my own town near the tomb of my father 00:04:27.779 --> 00:04:34.620 and my mother. But here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him 00:04:34.620 --> 00:04:42.459 whatever you wish. The king said, Kimham shall cross over with me and I will do for him whatever you 00:04:42.459 --> 00:04:48.759 wish and anything you desire from me I will do for you. So all the people crossed the Jordan and then 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:55.399 the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillia and bade him farewell and Barzillia returned home. 00:04:56.300 --> 00:05:02.100 When the king crossed over to Gilgal, Kimham crossed with him. All the troops of Judah and half the troops 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:09.000 of Israel had taken the king over. Soon all the men of Israel were coming to the king and saying to him, 00:05:09.340 --> 00:05:13.280 why did our brothers, the men of Judah, steal the king away and bring him and his household across 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:19.260 the Jordan together with his men? All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, we did this because 00:05:19.260 --> 00:05:24.379 the king is closely related to us. Why are you angry about it? Have we eaten any of the king's provision? 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:30.580 Have we taken anything for ourselves? Then the men of Judah answered them, sorry, then the men of Israel 00:05:30.579 --> 00:05:35.939 answered the men of Judah. We have 10 shares in the king, so we have a greater claim on David than you 00:05:35.939 --> 00:05:41.560 have. Why then do you treat us with contempt? Weren't we the first to speak of bringing back our king? 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:48.099 But the men of Judah pressed their claims even more forcefully than the men of Israel. 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:54.959 Well, that's God's word for us this morning. Do keep that open in front of you. We are going to 00:05:54.959 --> 00:06:02.879 follow along as we work our way through the story together. I think probably if you have been around 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:08.439 churches for any length of time, you might have noticed that Christians have this habit of calling 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:14.979 one another brother or sister. You might have heard that this morning as you walked in, but I know we 00:06:14.979 --> 00:06:20.399 live in a corner of the world where everyone calls each other bro, right? So it maybe doesn't stand out to 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:25.719 as an extraordinary thing, but the truth is that churches like to think of themselves and like to 00:06:25.719 --> 00:06:31.419 talk of themselves as being like families. Communities of people where their relationships 00:06:31.419 --> 00:06:38.739 between one another are strong and meaningful and purposeful. Now, it is definitely true that churches 00:06:38.739 --> 00:06:43.259 do not always live up to that hype, right? You might have experienced that. Brothers and sisters in church 00:06:43.259 --> 00:06:51.579 fall out just as much as brothers and sisters in families fall out. Maybe that's put you off church in the past. 00:06:52.379 --> 00:06:58.620 But still, you don't have to read much of the Bible to know that churches is meant to be a family like that. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:05.480 The New Testament calls the church the household of God, the idea that we are all in God's house and we are 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:11.300 brothers and sisters together. The house which is not this building, but the house which is the kingdom which Jesus 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:18.660 is building, a community with strong bonds between one another. In fact, this is meant to be the distinctive 00:07:18.660 --> 00:07:24.480 of the church, that the bonds between one another in the life of the church are meant to distinguish the church 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:32.220 from any other grouping in the world. You know, so things which would be strong enough to put people off 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:38.220 having a friendship or a relationship with one another outside of the church are set to one side 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:45.860 inside the church as people come together as brothers and sisters. So black and white, rich and poor, young and old, 00:07:46.700 --> 00:07:53.280 drug addicts and doctors, prisoners and police officers, taxi drivers and parking wardens, 00:07:53.840 --> 00:08:00.320 Arsenal fans and Spurs fans, all brothers and sisters together in the church. 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:08.680 And what I want to show you from 2 Samuel chapter 19 this morning is why that is the case. Why is it so 00:08:08.680 --> 00:08:14.920 that churches have relationships in them that you wouldn't see anywhere else in the world? Why is it that 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:21.199 the community of the church breaks down the barriers that the world sets up? What is it about the church 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:27.399 that sticks people together like that? Now, in order to see that, we are going to have to work our way 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:31.159 through the story and do a little bit of work together. But I think it should be obvious once 00:08:31.159 --> 00:08:38.379 we do that. It will help you if you've not been here before to know that this is the story of King 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:46.139 David. 2 Samuel traces the reign of King David, one of Israel's most famous kings. And in the part of the 00:08:46.139 --> 00:08:52.019 story that we are in, he has been betrayed by his son Absalom. Absalom has kicked him out of the palace, 00:08:52.139 --> 00:08:57.340 kicked him out of Jerusalem, robbed the kingdom from David. And then there was a civil war, 00:08:57.399 --> 00:09:02.980 between Absalom's forces and David's forces. And David, with a little help from a forest, 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:10.779 defeated Absalom and his army. And then Absalom has been killed. Now, if you look at the passage that 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:15.439 we've just read, you'll notice then that having all those events happened, the passage this morning 00:09:15.439 --> 00:09:22.319 starts with a great deal of confusion. Absalom, the king, the one that they anointed as king, is dead. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:27.300 So who knows what's going to happen next? So much so that in the second sentence, all the people are 00:09:27.300 --> 00:09:34.960 arguing throughout all the tribes. This is like a national mess. And the exact nature of the problem 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:41.900 is spelt out at the end of verse 9 and 10. David, who is the most famous king, who has saved the nation 00:09:41.899 --> 00:09:50.840 from the Philistines, he is alive, but he's on the run from Absalom. And now Absalom, the one who most of 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:57.120 the nation had backed as the new king, is dead. So what are they going to do? He's being judged and 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:01.480 condemned by God. So there's national confusion. People are all going in different directions. 00:10:02.319 --> 00:10:07.539 What you've got at the start of the passage is the opposite of cohesion. You've got everybody 00:10:07.539 --> 00:10:13.799 splitting up and arguing all the time. You've got disunity, not unity at the beginning of the passage. 00:10:14.299 --> 00:10:20.500 All the people arguing all the time. There's also a really particular fracture in the nation, 00:10:20.620 --> 00:10:25.120 one which grows in significance in the Old Testament story. Now you might not notice this at first, 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:32.579 but if you look at the end of verse 10, the U there refers to the tribe of Judah. What's going on 00:10:32.580 --> 00:10:42.040 here is that the northern tribes of Israel are saying to Judah, why don't you bring your king back 00:10:42.040 --> 00:10:48.259 to Jerusalem? That fact becomes clearer at the end of the chapter when we find the arguments between the 00:10:48.259 --> 00:10:55.240 tribes carrying on in verse 41. We jump down to the end, the 10 northern tribes are arguing against Judah 00:10:55.240 --> 00:11:01.520 about who owns the king. It might be worth you knowing as you read the Bible that the nation splits 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:07.159 into 10 northern tribes and one southern tribe, that the 12th tribe, the tribe of the Levites, is kind of 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:13.500 spread all amongst them. And this starts here. You get to see it here. The northern tribes are saying 00:11:13.500 --> 00:11:19.079 to Judah that you've effectively stolen David from us to install him as your king. And they're arguing 00:11:19.079 --> 00:11:25.279 about it with one another. And Judah say, no, he's our flesh and blood. He belongs to us. Then Israel 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:31.079 bring up the ratio. It's 10 to 1. But none of that seems to get solved. And the end of the chapter ends 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:37.060 with those ominous words where it says the men of Judah pressed their claims more forcefully than the 00:11:37.060 --> 00:11:43.500 men of Israel. Literally, their words are heavier, more weighty, more forceful, and they carry the day 00:11:43.500 --> 00:11:48.280 for the time being. Now, there's more that could be said about that fracture, and I'll mention it 00:11:48.280 --> 00:11:54.080 briefly again in a moment. But notice for now that our passage begins with fighting and ends with 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:58.680 fighting. So there's squabbling and disunity at both the beginning and the end of the passage. 00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:05.759 And what you have in the middle is five different encounters with King David. First with the priests, 00:12:05.939 --> 00:12:11.479 then with Shimei, then Ziba and Mephibosheth, and then Barzillia. And we're just going to work through 00:12:11.479 --> 00:12:16.899 those quickly and see the theme pop out, hopefully, as we do that. So let's start first with the priests 00:12:16.899 --> 00:12:26.699 in verse 11 to 15. David's first action, as he is called back to Jerusalem, is to speak to these 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:31.879 Levite priests and send them ahead of him to ask Judah to bring him back to Jerusalem. 00:12:32.560 --> 00:12:38.360 But notice the detail of how he does this. In verse 12, he points out to them that they are his 00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:44.980 brothers. I'm from Judah, he says, you're my flesh and bone. David knows that it's not their family 00:12:44.980 --> 00:12:49.420 relationship which is the real issue. Instead, Judah's reluctance to bring him back as king is 00:12:49.419 --> 00:12:55.740 because, and you'll imagine this, wouldn't it, they all supported Absalom. A few weeks previous to 00:12:55.740 --> 00:13:00.839 this, those guys had come out to fight David. So of course, they're not going to now welcome him back 00:13:00.839 --> 00:13:05.259 in because, well, they are all traitors. And so they're going to be terrified that David is going 00:13:05.259 --> 00:13:12.559 to exact some kind of punishment on them. Under the command of a guy called Amasa, they'd marched out 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:18.019 against David. And notice what David does. He tells the priest to do something absolutely extraordinary. 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:25.000 Look at verse 13. He says, priest, tell Amasa, tell Amasa who was the guy who was in charge of the army 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:32.279 that was marching against me, tell him that I appoint him in the place of Joab to be commander of my army. 00:13:32.839 --> 00:13:38.359 Wow, that's brilliant. Not only is it a brilliant thing, it's holding Joab to account for disobeying 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:44.539 David's orders and killing Absalom, but more clearly what's going on here is that this is him absolving 00:13:44.539 --> 00:13:50.120 all of that army against their responsibility for being traitors. Listen, Amasa, I know you let 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:57.340 the forces against me, but you are forgiven and you're now head of my army. What incredible generosity. 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:02.920 You're all forgiven. And the plan works, doesn't it? Verse 14, we're told that Judah's heart is swayed. 00:14:02.919 --> 00:14:08.959 David crosses the Jordan River and in verse 15, he's on his way back to Jerusalem as the king. 00:14:09.959 --> 00:14:14.939 Next, David meets on his way back the guy called Shimei. Now, if you remember Shimei, he's got some 00:14:14.939 --> 00:14:20.019 groveling to do because back in chapter 16, if you were with us, he met David on his way out of Jerusalem 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:26.219 and lobbed stones at him and hurled insults at him. He called David a worthless man or a scoundrel, 00:14:26.219 --> 00:14:31.120 I think as the NIV translates it. It's clear now, isn't it? That that was a terrible, terrible, 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:37.120 terrible, terrible mistake. That's like being at school and insulting someone terribly and then 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:41.820 realizing that they all substitute teacher, right? And you're like, oh, shouldn't have said that, 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:47.560 right? Shimei now realizes, oh my goodness, David is now the king again. I really probably shouldn't 00:14:47.560 --> 00:14:53.100 have been insulting him and throwing stones at him. And so he rushes down, doesn't he? Begging for 00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:57.799 forgiveness for the wrong that he knows he's done. It's all very good, isn't it? But in a way, 00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:02.740 it's unclear how sorry he is because in verse 17, he brings a thousand men with him, which reads 00:15:02.740 --> 00:15:08.139 rather like a garrison of soldiers just in case it gets ugly. But it didn't. And despite Abishai 00:15:08.139 --> 00:15:14.479 asking to kill him again, still in verse 22 and verse 23, David says to him, what does this have 00:15:14.479 --> 00:15:19.879 to do with you, sons of Zariah? What right do you have to interfere? Should anyone be put to death in 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:25.359 Israel today? Don't I know that today I am king over Israel? Verse 23. So the king said to Shimei, 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:34.680 you shall not die. How gracious of David to Shimei. After that, he meets Ziba and Mephibosheth. 00:15:35.580 --> 00:15:40.700 Ziba, if you remember, is the guy who's meant to be looking after Mephibosheth, the cripple. 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:50.159 Mephibosheth is crippled and he is Jonathan's son and David is being kind to him. But at the same time, 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:56.299 he has betrayed Mephibosheth. He told David a lie, didn't he? He told David that Mephibosheth was hoping 00:15:56.299 --> 00:16:01.899 to become the king himself. Anyway, now Ziba is also running across the Jordan to meet David and help him 00:16:01.899 --> 00:16:07.839 out with his bags. And when they get to Jerusalem in verse 25, they meet Mephibosheth. And David is told 00:16:07.839 --> 00:16:14.279 exactly what did happen. He's told that actually he didn't want to get his kingdom back. Instead, Ziba 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:20.379 had tricked him and abandoned him and left him stuck in Jerusalem so that he couldn't flee with David when 00:16:20.379 --> 00:16:26.279 Absalom arrived. It's not just Mephibosheth's word though, is it, that David gets to take? It's not 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:32.539 just Mephibosheth saying, no, Ziba didn't bring me with you, which is what I asked him to do. He has a 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:38.399 great witness to the truth of what he's saying. What is the witness of Mephibosheth to the truth of his 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:45.340 claim? Well, it's his smell. Yeah, he smells, he stinks. Why? Because he's not being looking after 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:50.419 himself. He's not washed his clothes. He's not trimmed his mustache since David left. It's kind 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:56.740 of gross really, isn't it? It sounds like he's really kind of stinky. But the guy is a mess. And I 00:16:56.740 --> 00:17:01.819 think we're to understand that means two things. One is that Mephibosheth hadn't hidden from Absalom that 00:17:01.819 --> 00:17:06.519 actually he wanted to be with King David. Every time Absalom bumped into him in Jerusalem, 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:13.279 Mephibosheth, you stink. He's like, yes, that's because I'm for David, not for you. And also it's 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:18.099 almost as if Mephibosheth has sort of in his own way joined David in exile in the wilderness, isn't it? 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.700 You know, you might be going off to the wilderness. I wanted to go with you. I can't go with you. So I'm 00:17:22.700 --> 00:17:28.440 going to live a kind of wilderness life inside of Jerusalem. Anyway, David's response in verse 29 is 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:33.720 to restore his inheritance. And amazingly, Mephibosheth replies that he doesn't want it. It is enough for him 00:17:33.720 --> 00:17:40.920 that King David has returned. Then you get a guy called Barzillia the Gileadite. I think that's another one of my 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:46.640 favorite names in the Bible, Barzillia the Gileadite. Back in chapter 17, Barzillia had been the guy who 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:52.839 provided for David and his family when they arrived in exile. And he is extremely old. I know some of you 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:58.559 are amused by that because he's only 80, isn't he? That's not extremely old, is it? Anyway, he is a very wealthy 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:03.179 man and he has provided for David. And David wants to extend to him the same kindness that he has 00:18:03.179 --> 00:18:08.579 received. So he invites him to return to Jerusalem with him. But Barzillia says he doesn't want it. 00:18:08.659 --> 00:18:13.819 I'm too old to taste the good food anyway. I'd rather stay here and be buried with my father and my 00:18:13.819 --> 00:18:19.980 mother, he says, and suggests instead that he takes a complete stranger, a guy called Kimham, with him 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:26.860 instead. Who presumably, maybe we're not told, but probably was a relative of Barzillias. Now David does 00:18:26.860 --> 00:18:35.019 that. And significantly in Jeremiah 41, there is a place near Bethlehem named Kimham, which I think 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:39.880 indicates that David has done for this guy everything he promised, even though he was a total stranger to 00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:45.680 him. Now that is like a super quick run through the passage, but just zoom out with me for a moment and 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:52.500 try and see the whole thing together. Okay, so it begins and ends with rivalry and fighting. And what 00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:58.580 you've got in between are five encounters with David, where in each of the encounters, and this is the key 00:18:58.580 --> 00:19:05.420 to understanding what's going on here. In each of these encounters, David is gracious to his enemies, 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:12.220 forgiving and promoting the captain of Absalom's army, who only a few days ago had been trying to kill him, 00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:18.759 allowing Shimei, the guy who'd thrown stones at him to go unpunished, restoring Mephibosheth and even Ziba, 00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:25.519 and giving a total stranger, Kimham, a place at his table, and eventually in a village outside Bethlehem. 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:34.640 Verse 14 is about the effect on Judah, but I think it sums up the whole thing. And that is that David has 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:41.880 swayed the heart of all the men of Judah to become one man with him. Now I grant you this is going to 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:47.580 unravel in chapters to come. But for now, in this little snapshot, and at this kind of overarching 00:19:47.580 --> 00:19:55.460 height, what you've got is this, okay? You have got the grace of King David being the glue of the 00:19:55.460 --> 00:20:00.700 nation, sticking it together. In other words, right at the center of the chapter, what the writer wants 00:20:00.700 --> 00:20:05.960 us to see is that it's not actually David's political skill. It's not his military might that 00:20:05.960 --> 00:20:11.220 is going to hold this fragile nation together. Rather, it is the fact that King David is consistently 00:20:11.220 --> 00:20:18.420 resolved to move towards his people in mercy and grace, forgiveness and love, to give them what 00:20:18.420 --> 00:20:23.420 they don't deserve and spare them from the judgment they do deserve. So much so that in the middle of a 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:29.259 chapter of chaos, at the beginning and the end, attention is just perpetually drawn to the graciousness 00:20:29.259 --> 00:20:36.240 of God's anointed king. The leader of God's people is gracious. He absorbs in himself the cost of 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:42.980 people's rebellion and restores them to himself. Interestingly, in 1 Kings chapter 12, the nation 00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:49.839 does split apart. This crack between Judah and the other 10 tribes becomes a huge rift and the nation 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:56.160 is split in two forever. And what is it that splits the nation? If you know the story, David's grandson, 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:03.339 a guy called Rehoboam, shows absolutely no grace and no mercy to the nation and it splits apart. 00:21:03.339 --> 00:21:09.099 And what you've got here is the opposite of 1 Kings 12. You've got the grace of David 00:21:09.099 --> 00:21:15.339 gluing the nation together, bringing people together. Now you might read that and go, 00:21:15.459 --> 00:21:21.319 okay, so David's graciousness brings people together. That's a great moral example, isn't it? 00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:28.419 And it is. If you are a father or a mother or an uncle or an aunt or a grandparent, 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:34.880 bringing people together in your family requires grace and mercy and forgiveness. It's the extent to 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:40.000 which you are able to extend mercy and forgiveness to one another that you will glue your families 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:46.860 together and not rip them apart. It's the same for a friendship group at school or a team at work. 00:21:48.019 --> 00:21:51.900 But if you've been with us for this series in 2 Samuel, you will know that the point of these 00:21:51.900 --> 00:21:57.980 stories is not just a moral example for you and for me. You and I are not David in the story. That's 00:21:57.980 --> 00:22:03.920 not how we're meant to read it. What's going on here is David is a signpost, a pointer forwards to a 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:13.380 future king, to King Jesus. The Bible would call it like a type. David is a type of Christ. This is how 00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:17.720 the Bible works, you see. So there is one story from the beginning to the end of your Bible. 00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:23.299 Now, it's written by lots of different authors, but it is inspired by the Holy Spirit all the way 00:22:23.299 --> 00:22:29.000 through. So there is only one story. The story of the Bible is the story of how the creator God, 00:22:29.059 --> 00:22:36.400 the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, saves a rebellious creation for an eternity with him in a remade 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:44.039 world. And the story centers on the plan of the Father, accomplished in the work of the Son, in the power 00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:50.859 of the Spirit. So much so that the Old Testament, before the coming of the Son, the birth of Christ, 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:57.119 that the story is shadowed in various different types. So what you've got in the Old Testament is 00:22:57.119 --> 00:23:02.359 the story of the whole thing summarized on a number of different occasions. Let me give you a few famous 00:23:02.359 --> 00:23:07.920 examples. Noah's Ark. What is going on in Noah's Ark is not a great moral that when it rains, you need to 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:14.860 build a boat. That's not what's going on. No, it is a type. The Ark is a type of Christ. A picture of 00:23:14.860 --> 00:23:19.440 the cross where we find rescue from the flood of God's judgment through the forgiveness of Christ on 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:25.940 the cross. Come to the cross, says Noah's Ark. Get in the boat. It's the only place of safety from the 00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:33.000 judgment of God. Take the rescue of Israel from slavery in Egypt. It's a type or a picture of Christ's 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:38.900 rescue. Christ is the true Passover lamb who is painted on the beams, not of our doorposts, but on 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:46.519 the cross, rescuing us from slavery, not in Egypt, but slavery to sin under the judgment that that 00:23:46.519 --> 00:23:53.160 deserves. And David, when we come to 2 Samuel, David is a type of Christ, a prototype, if you like, of the 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:59.819 king of God's people, the shepherd of God's sheep. I have a kingdom, says God, a people for myself, and I 00:23:59.819 --> 00:24:05.480 appoint a king to be ruler over them who will love them and take care of them and be gracious to them. 00:24:06.419 --> 00:24:12.460 And sometimes and oftentimes, David fails and points us to the fact that we need someone better than David. 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:20.700 And here in chapter 19, we see that what we really need to bring God's people together 00:24:20.700 --> 00:24:27.059 is a gracious, forgiving, merciful king. And that's exactly what we've got. 00:24:27.059 --> 00:24:32.599 When we jump forward to the New Testament, it's perhaps no surprise that we find that at the center 00:24:32.599 --> 00:24:37.759 of Christ's kingdom, the center of the church, the glue that keeps together this disparate group of 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:44.980 people is not Jesus's political skill. It's not his military might. It's not his brute strength. 00:24:44.980 --> 00:24:54.400 Instead, it is his grace and his mercy. It is not our commitment to moral living, which keeps the church 00:24:54.400 --> 00:25:02.120 together. It's Christ's forgiveness in the face of our immoral living. We have a king who takes sinners 00:25:02.120 --> 00:25:08.059 who were his enemies and moves towards them as a savior, cancelling their sin. You know, as we read 2 Samuel 19, 00:25:08.059 --> 00:25:15.940 we're to think, you know, I'm a spiritual amasser. I've marched out in rebellion against King Jesus, 00:25:16.099 --> 00:25:23.179 but in his great kindness, he's invited me to join his people and his army. I'm like Shimei. I've cursed 00:25:23.179 --> 00:25:29.339 Christ. I've thrown stones at his followers. I am full of regret for what I've done, but Christ has shown 00:25:29.339 --> 00:25:37.299 me grace. Mephibosheth and Ziba who have just not been wholehearted, they find mercy. I'm a stranger. 00:25:37.299 --> 00:25:44.220 I'm like Kim Ham. Who's ever heard of Kim Ham? No one, right? I'm a Kim Ham. I'm a nobody. Yet Jesus 00:25:44.220 --> 00:25:52.460 shows me mercy, gives me a place in his kingdom. No one too bad, no one too far away, no one beyond 00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:58.139 the pale, all brought together as one kingdom because like in 2 Samuel 19, King Jesus is full 00:25:58.139 --> 00:26:06.079 of grace and it's that grace which is the glue of the kingdom. Now let me kind of emphasize this and 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:10.500 rub this in a little bit more and I want you to jump forward to Ephesians chapter 2. It is going 00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:14.960 to come up on the screen behind me, but I do think it would help you to turn there in your Bible if 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:22.220 you can. So keep a finger in 2 Samuel 19 and turn to page 1174 which we looked at with the children 00:26:22.220 --> 00:26:29.099 and we're going to just look at Ephesians chapter 2 just a bit further down that passage. Page 1174. 00:26:29.099 --> 00:26:35.559 Let me read to you from verse 13. Paul writes this to the Ephesian church. He says, 00:26:35.779 --> 00:26:46.279 but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by, not your good works, 00:26:47.199 --> 00:26:54.599 not Jesus's conquering military power, but by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has 00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:59.579 made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by setting 00:26:59.579 --> 00:27:05.139 aside in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in 00:27:05.139 --> 00:27:11.559 himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace and in one body to reconcile both of them to 00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:17.779 God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who are 00:27:17.779 --> 00:27:25.379 far away and peace to those who are near for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.700 Now the situation as Paul writes is slightly different to 2 Samuel 19 isn't it? It's not 00:27:30.700 --> 00:27:36.940 the fighting of 10 tribes versus one tribe, it's the rivalry between Jews and Gentiles in the church in 00:27:36.940 --> 00:27:42.000 Ephesus and his concern is that they see that the glue at the center of their church, the thing that 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:47.619 will hold them together, is not a shared cultural identity. They don't have one. It's not a shared history 00:27:47.619 --> 00:27:52.599 or a shared geography. They don't have that either. It's not a shared preference for a style of music 00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:57.739 or a preaching method, rather is a common experience of the gracious saving power of Jesus. 00:27:58.919 --> 00:28:04.000 So notice what does he say? Verse 13, the blood of Christ has brought those who are far away, he's 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:08.899 brought them near, drawing people from all nations to the center of God's plans and purposes. 00:28:09.539 --> 00:28:14.039 Verse 14, he makes peace not just between God and people but peace between people and people 00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:20.440 and not peace as in an abstract thing but a peace from Jesus and in Jesus. He describes it in verse 14 00:28:20.440 --> 00:28:28.180 as the removal of the dividing wall of hostility. Removed how? Well in the flesh, the body, the cross of 00:28:28.180 --> 00:28:33.539 the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 15 explains how this works because Jesus by his gracious cross does two 00:28:33.539 --> 00:28:40.379 things. He abolishes the law covenant designed to separate the Jewish nation from the world, meaning access 00:28:40.380 --> 00:28:46.060 to the spiritual heavenly eternal kingdom of God is not through joining a nation but coming to Christ. 00:28:46.700 --> 00:28:52.280 And the other is that he makes one new humanity from Jews and Gentiles together. Not just kind of 00:28:52.280 --> 00:28:58.060 enabling them to get along with one another, but like David in 2 Samuel 19 verse 14, enabling them to be 00:28:58.060 --> 00:29:06.480 as one man with one purpose and one goal. Verse 16 summarizes it as reconciling us both to God in one 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:12.960 body through the cross and thereby killing the hostility. Jump down to the conclusion with me. 00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:18.519 What's the result in the church of this shared experience of the cross of Christ? Well verse 19 of 00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:26.339 Ephesians chapter 2, consequently you are no longer foreigners and strangers. You're no longer people 00:29:26.339 --> 00:29:31.660 from different nations, different backgrounds. You're no longer people who like different things and 00:29:31.660 --> 00:29:37.040 support different teams, but you are fellow citizens with God's people and members of his household, 00:29:37.180 --> 00:29:41.540 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief 00:29:41.540 --> 00:29:46.740 cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the 00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:52.259 Lord, and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his 00:29:52.259 --> 00:29:58.519 spirits. The grace of the king is the glue of the kingdom. The graciousness of Jesus keeps the church 00:29:58.519 --> 00:30:04.460 together and that's the point of 2 Samuel chapter 19. You and I, we are, you can come back to 2 Samuel 19 00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:12.359 now, we are a company of people like Shimei and Mephibosheth or like Amasa and Ziba. By nature we are the 00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:18.539 fighting tribes of Judah and Manasseh, always something against each other. None of us deserve to be here, 00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:25.180 do we? But the glue of the church is the grace of Jesus Christ. Now let me suggest to you that there are a 00:30:25.180 --> 00:30:29.039 whole load of implications of that for us this morning, but I just want to draw your attention to two. 00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:38.420 The first one is this, the first implication of this is that belonging to church is really firstly 00:30:38.420 --> 00:30:46.960 about belonging to Christ. Belonging to church is really about knowing and experiencing for yourself 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:54.060 the grace of King Jesus. The truth is you can't actually short-circuit this to belong to the church in 00:30:54.059 --> 00:31:02.240 any other way. The church is founded on every individual experiencing this grace of the Lord 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:10.059 Jesus Christ personally and then being brought into the community that way. So if you're a visitor here 00:31:10.059 --> 00:31:15.519 or this is your first week in church in a long time, if you think I'd love to be connected with a church, 00:31:15.619 --> 00:31:20.179 I'd love to belong here, then let me tell you this is where it starts. It doesn't start with joining a 00:31:20.180 --> 00:31:25.180 voter, it doesn't start with attending super regularly, it doesn't begin by joining in with 00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:29.120 the singing of the songs and knowing how that harmony goes in over a thousand tongues, which I 00:31:29.120 --> 00:31:35.640 don't even know. It doesn't begin like that. It begins by coming to Christ and experiencing his grace 00:31:35.640 --> 00:31:42.440 and mercy. It begins by saying, I have nothing to claim here, I have no right to belong here. I, me, 00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:49.100 I have no right to belong here. I don't belong to God's people by my own good works, but by the grace 00:31:49.100 --> 00:31:54.920 of Jesus Christ, I have nothing to bring, no rights to claim. I am an amasser and a shimmy eye who deserve 00:31:54.920 --> 00:32:01.299 the condemnation of the King, but I have found him to be full of grace and mercy. On the cross you died 00:32:01.299 --> 00:32:07.080 in my place to conquer my sin, so much so that through his grace we don't only belong to him, but we belong 00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:16.480 to one another. So let me say to you this morning, if you have never ever joined the church, let me 00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:25.259 invite you this morning to join the church. Not by signing a card, but by coming and putting your faith 00:32:25.259 --> 00:32:33.039 and trust in Jesus Christ. Come that way and belong to us by belonging to Christ. Now the second thing to 00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:36.920 say is that if that's where church membership starts, if that's where belonging to church starts, 00:32:37.019 --> 00:32:42.960 the second thing to say is this is what church unity is all about. This is how church unity continues. 00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:51.379 As a church, we protect the unity of our church by making much of the forgiving power of Jesus. 00:32:52.659 --> 00:32:59.119 We protect the unity of our church by being honest about our sin and certain of our hope in Christ. 00:32:59.119 --> 00:33:05.779 I guess at that level, Mephibosheth, you could use Mephibosheth as a great example of what it means to be 00:33:05.779 --> 00:33:12.859 a Christian this morning. Okay, so this is what our church life is to be like. I would long that when you 00:33:12.859 --> 00:33:21.119 come to church, you can, like you could with Mephibosheth, you can smell our trust in Jesus. Not because we 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:27.679 haven't washed, at least I hope that's not the case, right? But that you can smell the fact that these people, 00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:33.500 I don't know everything about them, but what I know about these people is that they depend on Jesus 00:33:33.500 --> 00:33:38.360 and not themselves. I can see that. It's what they sing about. It's what they pray about. When they 00:33:38.360 --> 00:33:42.080 read the Bible, that's what they talk about. When they talk with one another, that's what they discuss. 00:33:42.700 --> 00:33:46.519 When they invite me to church and talk to me about what church belongs, that's what they say it's about. 00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:55.920 So can we smell our loyalty to Jesus? Can we smell that we belong to him and therefore belong to one 00:33:55.920 --> 00:34:03.819 another? This kind of coming to Christ should fuel our love. It should enable us to forgive each other 00:34:03.819 --> 00:34:10.579 when we make mistakes and when we hurt one another as we seek grace together. And let me say as well, 00:34:10.619 --> 00:34:15.480 at this particular point in our church life too, as we look to unite our church with another church for 00:34:15.480 --> 00:34:20.000 the sake of the work of the gospel here, we'll find, won't we, that lots of things about church 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:27.260 change. There'll be new people here. What's going to stick that group together? This, the grace of the 00:34:27.260 --> 00:34:32.619 king, the grace of the king. It's not that we're all the same. It's not that we've all got the same 00:34:32.619 --> 00:34:38.659 background, but that we've all experienced the grace of King Jesus. And that has brought us to him 00:34:38.659 --> 00:34:43.039 and that has brought us to one another. Let me pray and then we'll sing. 00:34:55.359 --> 00:35:01.299 Heavenly Father, how we thank you that in the life of King David here, we glimpse 00:35:01.300 --> 00:35:08.980 the beauty and the wonder of your grace to us in the Lord Jesus. Thank you that through Christ, 00:35:09.080 --> 00:35:16.039 you don't treat us as we deserve, but you invite us to belong to your kingdom. That though we were 00:35:16.039 --> 00:35:21.640 far off, though we were strangers, though we've insulted you, though we've been half-hearted and 00:35:21.640 --> 00:35:28.940 looked after ourselves and not others, though we have wandered from you, yet you invite us to come back 00:35:28.940 --> 00:35:35.059 to find mercy and grace and forgiveness. I just want to pray especially for us as a company of 00:35:35.059 --> 00:35:40.099 your people this morning. We pray, please, that you might help us to find our unity in the Lord Jesus. 00:35:40.900 --> 00:35:46.400 We pray that you might join others to our church through faith in Jesus Christ. Even this morning, 00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:52.059 we pray for the sake of your glory and in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.