Sunday Morning, December 20, 2020 AM

Can you feel the energy in the air? I don't know. It's palpable this morning. But we're glad that you're here to worship with us this morning at Sunnyside Baptist Church. If you're visiting with us, we're especially glad to have you here.

I've noticed a few new faces, so if you don't know somebody, go up and introduce yourself and welcome them to worship with us this morning. As we get started, we've got a few announcements just looking at the week ahead.

Definitely come back this evening if you're able to. We have our carols and candlelight service this evening. That starts at 530 this evening. And then Wednesday at 630 we'll have Bible study and prayer.

And then obviously Friday, Christmas Day, we hope that you can celebrate that with your family and friends. Our fighter verse for this week comes from the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21 verse 4, full of hope.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. So good verse to memorize this week.

There is obviously our Christmas mailbox. You're able to exchange Christmas cards with each other. Be sure and pick those up today. But also on that back table, the church has put together a little Christmas gift for each family.

You'll find that back there. There aren't name tags on them per se, but you do want to take one per family if you can do that, please. Also, we're coming to the end of this year. If you are in charge of any kind of budget area within the church and you need to make any additions or changes to that area, please let Jerry Brown or Patty Hines know in the next few weeks.

And then as we continue to deal with COVID cases, just continue to remember and be mindful of each other's personal space and try to try to remember that as well. All right, we've got a full morning this morning with choir singing, children's choir as well.

Any more announcements before we get started? Okay, we're gonna have a time just of preparation before worship time, and then.

After that's over, Randy Brooks will open us in prayer. Father, we just want to.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to meet today together and to worship, and we just pray that all that we do today will bring glory to you. We thank you so much for your Son. Thank you that you loved us while we were sinners and undeserving, and you sent your Son to be the Savior of the world.

Thank you for this body of believers. I pray that you would encourage our hearts today. Pray that you'd steal our hearts. And Father, I pray that we would remind everyone that we're around of the hope that we have because of Christ.

I pray that this Christmas season that we would just be a light to others, especially to the lost. I pray for Brother Michael as he comes and brings the word to us this morning, and Father, our time of communion.

I just pray that it would be precious. Thank you for all the many blessings that you've given us that we take for granted. I just want to thank you most of all for Jesus, and we ask these things in his name.

Amen.

Glad everyone is here this morning, either here in person or in line to worship the Lord. Would you please stand with me and we'll start our call to worship this morning. Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 56 verse 4.

Read with me together. In God whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? Our first song this morning is a tune you'll recognize to Christmas words, Jesus Christ is born today.

Bibles, open to the book of Deuteronomy. It's our scripture reading this morning. Deuteronomy chapter 28. We'll be reading verses starting at verse 45. Deuteronomy 28 verse 45. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God and keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever, because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things. Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lacking everything, and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed. It also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish.

They shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you.

And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns.

The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you in your towns.

If you're not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sickness grievous and lasting.

And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed.

Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you.

And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. And the Lord will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot. But the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul.

Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, if only it were evening. And at evening you shall say, if only it were morning, because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.

And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again. And there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.

Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, these are terrible, sobering, truthful words, for they come from you, Lord, that if we turn away from our life-giving Heavenly Father and the wisdom and instruction of His Word, we will find nothing but calamity and disaster and horror.

Father, today we live in a world that thinks it is so free and unfettered to do what is right in its own eyes. People who believe that they are casting off the chains of religion and morality, they don't realize that they are enslaving themselves unto death.

Father, at this time of the year, when we remember the gift of Jesus as a baby in the manger, Father, we thank you for enlightening our eyes, for showing us that true freedom is found in yielding ourselves to our Savior and our Lord.

Father, help us. Help us to share that good news with others. Father, we thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to worship Him this morning in spirit and in truth. Bless us this time of the year.

We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

You may be seated. As we continue our song service, we have two songs we want to sing together. Myself, as well as the choir, encourage you to sing with your whole heart unto the Lord, to worship Him in spirit and truth, as Kyle just prayed.

Our two songs that we'll sing together are, O Sing, a song of Bethlehem. That's on page 167. That's to the tune of Kingsfold. And then also we'll sing, Hallelujah, Christ Jesus is born.

On Lord's Supper Day, they will come back and sit with you. Next week, we'll get to celebrate. So thank you for allowing that. Alright, Children's Church, would you come please? Merry Christmas. We have a saying we repeat to one another around Easter.

We say, He is risen. He is risen indeed. We need to come up with one for.

Christmas, right? I invite you to open your Bibles to 2 Samuel, chapter 12, and we will be reading verses 15 -25, focusing on the last two verses for our Christmas season. In the Lord's providence, I was not to preach the sermon last week, but this week.

And so I hope that you will bear with me. And is it okay if we do Christmas an extra week this year, since we missed? So next week, I'll be preaching on Christmas again from this passage. We won't get to all of it today.

As the Lord wills, we will celebrate His Son. So 2 Samuel, chapter 12. I wonder if anybody here today will be planning to listen to the recitation of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke by Linus.

Nobody with a blankie ever did it better. I've always appreciated that portion of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Listening to Linus with his blankie quote the Scriptures and speak about the truth of Jesus Christ.

Now that's a very famous Christmas passage. Even absolute pagans will run into that from time to time. This is a passage which is not a common Christmas passage, and yet there are plenty to choose from.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, my family, as we have occasion, are reading together through the Christmas stories in the Bible. And we have made it this far, as we have read. Every wave on Scripture's ocean crests with the foam of Christ's praise.

How much more do the depths sound with His name and teem with His glories? Our biblical navigational charts should be filled with lines that trace the person and work of Christ, the anticipation of His arrival, and the glories of His salvation.

When it comes to Christmas, there are places that are more familiar than others. Some ports are more famous than others. We are accustomed to the early chapters of Matthew and Luke and the first chapter of John as our traditional Christmas harbors.

But there are many others that exist and worth marking on your map. 2 Samuel 12, 24 -25 is just such a place. And since we won't understand what's going on in these two verses unless we read more of the context, we will.

But it is important to remember that this is after David has sinned with Bathsheba against Uriah, adultery, conspiracy, and murder. Nathan the prophet has confronted David with his parable about the rich and the poor man and the sheep, and he has said, Thou art the man.

And a list of consequences and judgments have been laid out before David. And so, one of those consequences is that this child, conceived by David and Bathsheba, will die. And this is where we pick up with our text.

I invite you, if you are able, to stand with me as I read these words. The words of our Savior, Jesus Christ, through His Spirit and the mouth of His prophet. This is the word of the Lord. So Nathan went to his house.

Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick. David therefore inquired of God for the child. And David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground.

But he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice.

How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm? But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead. So David said to his servants, Is the child dead?

And they said, He is dead. So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. And he came into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.

Then his servants said to him, What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. He said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept.

For I said, Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me. The child may live, but now he is died. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me. Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went into her and lay with her, and she gave birth to a son.

So he named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved him, and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedediah for the Lord's sake. These are the words of the Lord. Praise be to God, and you may be seated.

That is the title of this sermon, is Jedediah, and what that means, and what it means for Christmas. One of the wonderful traditions that my wife began in our family, something that we look forward to every birthday, is, we call it birthday blessings, is that we will, during our special birthday meal, you know the one where we'll have the cake, we take time, we go around the table, and each one of us will say something about the birthday person, the birthday boy or girl, something that we're thankful to God about for this person.

I am thankful to God about so-and-so because of this and that. We call those birthday blessings, and we do it every birthday, and it's something that came to my mind as I thought about this text, as I thought about this text in its connected context of 2 Samuel chapter 7, that we would give birthday blessings to Christ this season, that we would take the time to thank God, and to consider and to meditate on who Christ is, and what it means that God has given us His Son, and that we would give thanks to God for the Beloved, for that is the meaning of the name Jedediah.

God sent word to Nathan the prophet concerning David and Bathsheba's second son, whom He named Solomon, and He said, name him Jedediah for my sake, a name which means Beloved. What will you give thanks to God for this season, for the Beloved, for the giving of the Son of David, for the gift of Christ?

Our children don't like to go last in the birthday blessing category because one of the rules is that if someone says something about that person, you can't use that same thing. So the longer you wait in the rotation, the more creative you have to be.

But it requires you to give some thought, to really think about the person, to think about how it is that God and His providence has blessed you with this sibling, or blessed you with this parent, and so on.

And we ought to do that with Christ. We ought to have a new song on our lips, a new praise to give to God, new thanksgiving to give to God for His Son, Jesus Christ, and I believe that this is a passage that will aid us in that.

So our focus will be upon this passage, 2 Samuel 12, verses 24 and 25. What do we do with this passage? What we do with it says a lot about what we believe about the Bible. It says a lot about what we believe about Jesus Christ.

But I want to take our cue of how we use this scripture, how we understand this scripture, I want to take our cue from the promise that God originally gave David, that David would have a son, that this son would rule and reign on a throne, and God gave him such glorious promises, and do you know what David did in response to the promise of a son?

A glorious son? A beloved son? He praised God. In 2 Samuel 7, verse 29, this is how David finished up his prayer to the Lord in response to the Lord's promise.

He said,.

2 Samuel 7, verse 29,. Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing may the house of your servant be blessed forever.

Let's add our amen to that. Let us bless the house of the son of David. Let us bless Christ. Let us rejoice in the beloved and offer him blessings as we rejoice in his birthday. There are many birthday blessings that we could meditate on from this passage.

We'll see how many the Lord allows us to get through today. The first is simply this, and it's the fundamental beginning point, a point of truly conviction, that the son of David, that this Solomon, whom God named Jedidiah, is a predetermined type.

That God had decided beforehand that this son of David would be a picture of Jesus Christ. That there was something in the way in which God dealt with Solomon and shaped Solomon and worked through Solomon that would provide a picture of Christ, that would increase the hope of the believers in the coming Messiah.

You've got to wonder why God inspires this portion of Scripture. And ask this question, in what way is God boasting of his son here? That's always really the question if you're in the Word, reading the Word.

In what way is God boasting of his son here? Great question to ask of any text that you're in in the Scripture. Well, the background of the story is this. Back in chapter 7 of 2 Samuel, David came to a point in his reign that he realized that he had been inordinately blessed.

Remember that David used to be on the run. He was always on the run. I mean, he grew up as a shepherd boy out in the fields, and then he got into military life, where he was always out in the camps and in the countryside.

And then Saul tried to kill him, and so now he was on the run with his band of merry men. And he was all over the place, until finally, finally, after a civil war, after many years of war, he comes home to the city of David, to Jerusalem, and he's living in a house.

And then he reflects upon all that God has done for him, and he thinks about the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant, upon which is the mercy seat, the throne of God on earth, and it's in a tent.

David says, I'm in a house. And the Ark of God is in a tent. That's not right. I know what it's like to wander around. God's throne has been wandering around. It needs a permanent house. He shares his desire with Nathan the prophet.

And at that time, Nathan saw nothing wrong with that. David is trying to honor the Lord and serve God and reign in a wise way. So Nathan says, do all that's in your heart. But then Nathan gets word from the Lord, no, it shall not be David.

And Nathan comes back to David and says, it will not be you who builds God a house. You will not build a temple for the Lord, but your son will build the temple. And he begins to share with him about this son.

Listen to this promise, 2 Samuel 7 verse 13, concerning the son of David. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And again, he says in verses 16 and 17, your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever.

Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. What's the idea? The son of David will build the temple and will reign on an everlasting throne.

Now those are promises of God, anticipating the Messiah, but they are built upon other anticipations. When Jacob, whose name had been changed to Israel, at the end of his life, when he spoke concerning his sons, what did he say of his son Judah, the ancestor of David, the ancestor of Christ?

Genesis 49, 8 through 10. Jacob says this. Israel prophesies this. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your head shall be on the neck, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down to you.

Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

You know what Shiloh means? The one to whom it all belongs. The one to whom it all belongs. He comes from Judah. And so it is, when you think about the promises that God has been making all throughout the Scripture, even back to Genesis 12, what God said to Abraham, that all of the families of the earth would be blessed through the seed of Abraham, through the seed of Isaac, through the seed of Israel, through the seed of Judah, through the seed of David.

Who is this one who will bring blessings to all the families of the earth? It is Shiloh, the one to whom it all belongs. The son of David. And this is why Solomon serves as a predetermined type. A type of Christ.

A shadow. A picture of Christ.

How is that?

Because he was born at just the right time, amid sin and sorrow, he accomplishes peace, and he builds the temple, and is magnificently exalted on an enduring throne to spread the glory of God. Solomon is shadow.

Messiah is substance. Jesus makes use of this when he's teaching. And he says, the queen of the south came to see Solomon arrayed in all of his glory, but behold, I tell you, someone greater than Solomon is here.

Solomon is shadow, but Messiah is the real deal. Jedidiah is the type, but the only begotten beloved of God. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment. Now, we can rejoice and give thanks to God in this. You think about any kind of birthday or Christmas celebration that you are involved with.

What is it full of? Well, someone is planning. Someone is preparing. There are invitations. There are arrangements. There is discussion to get ready for whatever this event is. How much more so the lead up to the coming of the Messiah?

How much more planning and arrangement and discussion and direction did God give in preparing the world for his son, Jesus Christ? God shows his skillful providence in history. He executes his plan with exquisite preparation.

He models for the people and for the nations the manner in which the Messiah would come. God sets forth the son of David, a man of peace, called his beloved, all in preparing the world for the coming of Messiah, for the coming of Christ.

So I am thankful for the beloved, for God has arranged and he continues to shepherd all of history into the fold of his glory. And that fold is Christ-shaped. Secondly, we can give thanks for the providential trial.

We find this comforting word about the son of David. We have this moment where God affirms his earlier promises and he builds upon them. But notice when it comes. When is the birth of Solomon? When is the coming of this son of David?

It happens in the midst of a terrible time of grief. I mean, I cannot fathom the emotional torture, the bone-wasting grief and shame that David and Bathsheba have been through since their first night together, since the fear of being found out first sparked in their hearts and then turned into a firestorm of conspiracy, murder, and lies.

Hellish is not too strong of a word to describe their experiences. But then they are found out. Then they are confronted. Then they are exposed. David is exposed by the prophet Nathan. And then while David fasts and mourns and prays for seven days, Bathsheba holds their dying son.

It is in this fog-filled hollow of grief that God moves to keep his promises, his promise of a son of David, foreshadowing Messiah. We read, David comforted his wife, Bathsheba. Does it seem odd to us?

Does it seem odd to us that God would orchestrate the arrival of the son of David out of the ashes of sin and shame and death and grief? Now, it's not as if God found the situation and said, well, this is a big mess.

Look what you all did. My goodness. How did this happen? Oh, well, let's make the best of it. Let's see if we can't get something good out of this. When God looks upon the situation of David and Bathsheba, when God looks upon your situation, when God looks upon the situation of the world, he's not looking at some run-down house that he's planning a remodel.

God's not flipping houses. What happened in the text? What happened in the story that we read? God killed their child in judgment upon their sin.

That's what it says.

That's another thing about what it makes you feel like, but it is what the text says. Now, the death of a child is not to be understood as God's direct judgment upon parents, unless the scripture says otherwise.

And here, particularly, it says otherwise. It says, in direct consequence for your sin, your child will die. God judged what David and Bathsheba did in sin. He exposed their sin and shame and guilt. He brought serious grief upon them.

His word of judgment made it clear that they would suffer the loss of their child and then face even more troubles ahead. And so here they are, David and Bathsheba, freshly tossed in the wake of their grief, eyeing the coming storm of more consequences,.

All due to their sin,.

Suffering under God's righteous and holy judgment. And it is in that moment that God arranges for comfort, hope, and grace. He keeps His promise. David, you're going to have a son. God had arranged, don't you see, in David and Bathsheba's life, don't you see, God had arranged for that sad situation because of sin, because of the guilt of sin.

And think about the time in which Christ was born. Isn't it also true that God had arranged for the sad situation in the world and in Israel, that He had subjected the creation to futility, but in hope, that He had extended Israel's exile beyond the 70 years of the Babylonian dominance to even 77.

Daniel 9 and Matthew 1 both make it clear that the exile really only ends with the arrival of the Messiah, the son of David. And so the trial, the diminishment, the 400 years of silence after Malachi, the troubles, all of it, all of it, God had arranged as judgment against sin, the crafting of a night into which His beloved would arrive, a light in darkness, a risen son over a new creation.

And what did this necessitate other than this? The death of His son. The death of His son. Judgment upon our sin. Let's rejoice in the beloved this season. Let us offer Him birthday blessings. I think it can be very hard to celebrate birthdays.

Sometimes when your family is going through a deep season of grief, is it okay to celebrate? Is it okay to have joy? Sometimes it can be difficult to celebrate Christmas when you're missing loved ones or estranged from family or sick.

This season, let us remember that God arranged for the son of David to come in the midst of the most difficult time. He gave us His beloved in the midst of our sorrows. I'm thankful for the beloved. He came into our sin-soaked, shame-rotted, guilt-ridden, grief-broken world.

And He came to save and to reign and to win. And our beloved, we have hope. This naturally leads us to a third birthday blessing. We're thankful for the beloved that He came in the promised time. This is connected to the providential trial that Jedidiah, or Solomon, was born at just the right time.

See, David comforted his wife Bathsheba and went into her and lay with her, and she gave birth to a son, which is exactly what Nathan said to David. In 2 Samuel 7 -12, he says, Now when your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant or your seed, your son who was born to you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.

The promise was that a seed would come forth from David, and when David died, God would raise up that descendant to rule upon his father's throne. Now, David had many sons. He had many sons, and two of them tried illegitimately for the throne.

But in God's promised time, the promised son was born, and then eventually he was established upon the throne. We are reminded in this that God is the blessed and only sovereign. Scriptures tell us that He is King of kings and that He is Lord of lords, that He alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.

And to Him is honor and eternal dominion. And this, that He brings about all things in their proper time. He brings about all things in their proper time. And it was in the fullness of the time that God kept His promise, and He sent forth His Son, the Son of David according to the flesh, born of Mary, born under the law to redeem us, that we might receive the adoption as sons, all in His good timing, so we can rejoice in the Beloved and offer birthday blessings.

What would it have been like, you think, for David and Bathsheba, waiting for the birth of their second child? All the mixed feelings of grief and hope, worry and joy. But in God's good time, He comforted them with Solomon.

In God's good time, He comforted the world by giving us the Son of David, Jesus Christ. And the Christmas story reminds us of God's good timing, and that waiting upon God is a good thing. Some of my children don't want to wait until Friday.

They don't want to wait for their birthday to come around. It would be difficult for us to wait upon the Lord, but we should be thankful for the Beloved. He came at just the right time. As we fear God, as we wait upon Him, we should know that the times in which we live are all in His hands.

And lastly for today, for this morning, another birthday blessing, the peaceable task. And she gave birth to a son, and He named him Solomon. See, the promised seed arrives, the Son of David, and He is named Solomon, which means what?

Peace, shalom, shalomim. They named him Peace. That is in direct contrast with his father. Listen to the way that David made the contrast and made the connection. In 1 Chronicles 28, 3 -6, David at the end of his life, making sense of it all.

But God said to me, You shall not build a house for my name, because you are a man of war, and have shed blood. Did you hear that? He didn't get to build a temple because he was a man of war, and have shed blood.

Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. For He has chosen Judah to be a leader. Remember? Pointing back to Genesis. And in the house of Judah, my father's house, and among the sons of my father, He took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel.

Of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons, He has chosen my son Solomon, whose name means peace, to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.

He said to me,.

Your son Solomon is the one who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be a son to me, and I will be a father to him. And so it makes a little bit more sense, doesn't it, when Jesus Christ comes down to the Jordan River and meets his relative, John the Baptist, and he is baptized in the heaven's part, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove comes down upon the Messiah and anoints him.

And the word from heaven, the Father, He says, This is my beloved son. This is my only begotten beloved son, in whom I am what? Well pleased. Well pleased. You see, connected to the building of the temple is God's concern about war and peace.

David was a man of war. Solomon, whose name means peace, would have a peace-filled reign. David had four decades of war. Two civil wars, in fact. Solomon would have four decades of peace. So God declares Solomon, the son of David, his son, to reign in Zion and build the temple and make a lasting peace.

Son of David, to reign in Zion, to build the temple and make a lasting peace. This is the gospel of God promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, born a descendant of David.

The son of David comes as a man of peace. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved. So we can rejoice. I mean, this Christmas we can rejoice and we can offer a birthday blessing.

I'm thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ because we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the son of David who brings peace. Peace between God and man. And the reconciliation of man to man.

How?

Through his gospel. Through his light. Through his suffering. Through his death. Through his resurrection. Through his ascension.

Through his reign.

I am thankful for the beloved. In him we have received the peace. We have now received the reconciliation. In fact, we are ambassadors of that reconciliation. Reconciled in one body to God through the cross.