Mat 5:17-20, The Supremacy and Preeminence of the King.

Sunday June 2, 2024

Idea: The humanity of Christ had to fulfill the type of the King who the prophets saw in His greatness as preeminent to all else.  

Mat 5:17-20

King and kingdom … the story continues. 

(despite the fall of mankind)

We expect an epilogue after the fall, but a new chapter has begun. We realize that we’ve only started - we’re in Genesis. 

The prophets all saw a King and His kingdom as the end. 

Zec 14:9-11 (could choose from many).

A kingdom envisages a total situation containing at least three essential elements: a ruler with adequate authority and power; second, a realm of subjects to be ruled; and third, the actual exercise of the function of rulership.

The kingdom that the prophets see is not only spiritual. It is more than a bare divine sovereignty. It is an actual, physical, historical kingdom that has its roots, or as its precursor, Israel, particularly Jerusalem or Mt. Zion.

The King is not Yahweh (alone). 

He is somehow to be God and Man. 

Man: “like the Son of Man” (Dan 7:13); “for to us a child is born” (Isa 9:6); “a virgin will be with child” (Isa 7:14).

God: “and is name Immanuel, that is, God with us” (Isa 7:14), “and He will be called mighty God, everlasting Father” (Isa 9:6). Zech 14:16-17.

In the prophets, the King takes first place; above the kingdom: Isa 9:6, the government will rest on His shoulders.

Jer 23:1-8.

This is the central theme of prophecy from first to last. The restoration of man’s lost dominion must come through a Person – He shall bruise the serpent on the head (Gen 3:15).

The kingdom is what it is because of Him (Isa 11:1-10).

We do not worship a system, even the laws. We worship the King. 

If you miss this then your Christianity will never be full. It will always lack true joy and wonder, the freedom of self, and the intimacy of others. 

The King has character, ability, function. 

Isa 11:2-5, wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, fear of the Lord, righteousness, faithfulness. 

Isa 12:6 holiness.

King of glory, strong and mighty in battle, Psa 24:8; 45:6

Mediator - the King is to be a descendent of David. He is to be human. 

Mediatorial kingdom: a rule of God through a divinely chosen representative who not only speaks and acts for God but also represents the people before God. A rule that has especial reference to earth and a ruler who is both divine and human (God and Man).

Human: finite, limited physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. 

Must begin as an infant (even before the fall, “be fruitful and multiply means infants).

Human means that He can suffer in ways that God cannot (I think God can … another time for that). He will hunger, bleed, feel pain, be thirsty, tired, stressed. 

The King is the humanity of Christ and His deity. 

His humanity has to become all that the Hebrew Bible (HB) says of Him (and He knew it). 

HB said that He would have to learn and mature mentally, physically, spiritually to become the character and strength of the King (this is why He could not die as a child, He had to develop as a Man to the stature of The King!). [click in] Psa 53:2.

HB said how strenuously the enemy would be so evil and try and stop Him from becoming what He had to and from fulfilling what He had to (Isa 42:4; 53:7). 

HB said how much He would suffer in accomplishing it all. 

HB said that even after He had become the character and ability of the King; He would have to be judged for the sins of fallen mankind, some of whom would be His subjects, and die for them (Isa 53:6). 

And … HB said that the grave could not hold Him - that He would rise again in victory (Psa 16:10). 

You need to worship Him. We do not worship ways and laws. 

All of the ways and laws come from Him, His character and ability, and without Him they are nothing!

In your chapter of this adventure story, you are to follow the King.