WHOSE CHILD IS THIS IN A BETHLEHEM MANGER? PART 1
IS HE YOUR KING? DO YOU WANT HIS KINGDOM TO COME
ARE YOU READY TO ANSWER AT CHRIST’S JUDGMENT SEAT
December 11, 2013
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Micah 5:2 – But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
In order to comprehend the prophecies contained in the Psalms of David, one must understand it in the context of the New Testament. When Jesus ministered to his own people in the Gospels, he was ministering to a people that had accepted the traditions taught apart from the Holy Word of God. The people were looking for a conqueror like David who had, by the end of his long reign, established a material kingdom that reached its peak of material glory in the days of his famous son, King Solomon. New Testament Israel had been taught their coming Messiah would be a direct descendant of David, and that he was coming to defeat all of Israel’s enemies, establishing a material kingdom much greater than the one of David’s time, which would last forever. One of the Lord’s last statements to his captor, Pontius Pilate, shattered the traditional Messiah teaching that Israel had received from the Priests and Scribes.
John 18:36 – Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
He will indeed come as the Lion of Judah at his Second Advent, but he came as the Lamb of God, his only begotten Son, at his First Event, as David prophesied in Psalm 2:7 that Messiah would be God’s only begotten Son. Messiah came as God’s Son in Bethlehem.
Psalm 2:7 – I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
In the same Psalm of David, God pictures him coming at his Second Advent as the Lion of Judah, which was what the Jews were expecting at his First Advent.
Psalm 2:8,9 – Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. [9] Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Christ has been waiting, as God’s Lamb of the First Advent, for the time when he will return as God’s Lion at his Second Advent, which is referred to in verse one of Psalm 110.
Psalm 110:1 – The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The same aspect of the separation time between the two Advents is referred to several times in Scripture, as in Hebrews 1:13.
Hebrews 1:1-6,13 – God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, [2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; [3] Who being the brightness of HIS glory, and the express image of HIS person, and upholding all things by THE WORD of HIS power, when he had BY HIMSELF purged our SINS, SAT DOWN on the right hand of the Majesty on high; [4] Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. [5] For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? [6] And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. [13] But to which of the angels said he at any times, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Psalm 110:1 – A Psalm of David – The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord Jesus Christ identifies himself as much more than the descendant, the son of David, when he asks the Pharisees two leading questions in Matthew 22:41-43.
Matthew 22:41-46 – While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, [42] Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. [43] He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, [44] The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? [45] If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? [46] And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Christ clearly identifies himself as not only the son of David, but as David’s Lord, making himself equal to God. And, in Hebrews 10:12-14, Christ clearly pictures his everlasting priesthood that allows him to intercede for all sins forever.
Hebrews 10:12-14 – But this man, after he had offered ONE sacrifice for SINS FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God; [13] From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. [14] For by ONE offering he hath perfected FOREVER them that are sanctified.
Daniel identified the Messiah as a man elevated to the throne of God, some 600 years before Jesus was born.
Daniel 7:13,14 – I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
This was the kingdom Messiah came to bring in, but he, along with his kingdom was rejected by Israel.
Matthew 4:17 – From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 6:33,34 – But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. [34] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
That kingdom is coming with the King at his Second Advent.
Zechariah 14:9 – And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be ONE Lord, and his name ONE.
There is only ONE GOD who has fulfilled the 3 offices of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Malachi 4:2,3 – But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. [4] Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
Ezekiel 37:24-26 – And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. [25] And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. [26] Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
The temple of Ezekiel 40 to 48 will be built at the end of the battle of Armageddon and stand for almost 1000 years. The kingdom will continue in the heaven age but there will be no stone temple in it.
Revelation 3:12,13 – Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. [13] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Revelation 21:22 – And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
The pillars of the church age will become the pillars in the house of God in the millennium.
Galatians 2:9 – And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
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