Christians in Crisis: The Lord promises rest

2 Samuel 7:8-16 ⁸You are also to say the following to my servant David. This is what the Lord of Armies says. I took you from the pasture, from following sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel. ⁹I have been with you wherever you went. I have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make your reputation great, like that of the great ones on the earth. ¹⁰I will set up a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them there. They will dwell there, and they will not be disturbed again. Violent men will not afflict them again as they did at the beginning ¹¹and ever since the day I appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies.

The Lord also declares to you that the Lord himself will make a house for you. ¹²When your days are complete and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your seed, who will come from your own body. I will establish his kingdom. ¹³He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he sins, I will discipline him with a rod used by men and with blows of the sons of men. ¹⁵My faithful mercy will not depart from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed to make room for you. ¹⁶Your house will stand firm, and your kingdom will endure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you—to God, who alone is wise, be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen. (Romans 16:25,27)

Since David was made king, God has blessed him with victories over ancient enemies like the Jebusites and Philistines. Now David is in the unique situation where there is peace and quiet around him. We’re told, “It happened that when the king was living in his palace, and when the Lord had given him rest from his enemies” (2 Samuel 7:1).

As David relaxed in his beautiful, brand new palace, something struck him as being terribly wrong. It didn’t seem right that he was resting comfortably in a palace fit for a king while the ark of the covenant of the King of heaven and earth was stuck in the tabernacle.

David shared his plan to remedy this injustice with his friend and pastor, Nathan. The king said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I live in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God sits under tent curtains” (2 Samuel 7:2). Since the time of Moses, God’s symbolic home on earth had been in the tabernacle – the tent of worship for the Children of Israel. David desires to build a magnificent, house for the Lord out of wood and stone. It would be a permanent dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant. There is nothing selfish or egotistical in David’s desire. He wants to glorify God by building a house for him.

But God has better plans. David isn’t going to build a house for God. Instead, God is going to build a house for himself. This house will be built first through David’s son, Solomon, and later through David’s great heir, Jesus.

David was a fighting king for Israel. He had the blood of Israel’s enemies on his hands. He still had to fight against the Moabites, Ammonites and Arameans. Instead of David, God would allow David’s son, Solomon, a king of peace, to build him a glorious home on earth. God would build David a house, not of wood and stone, but of kings. God told Nathan to tell David, “The Lord also declares to you that the Lord himself will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your seed, who will come from your own body. I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

From Solomon would descend a dynasty. David’s descendants would sit on his throne “forever.”

But “forever” was only about 400 years. First, David’s territory was split into two kingdoms with Israel in the north and David’s heirs ruling Judah in the south. Israel was eventually carried into captivity by Assyria and never heard from again. Judah was later carried into captivity by Babylon. After 70 years in exile, the Israelites returned home. But their glory days of freedom under David’s heirs was over.

Judah was ruled by the Persians. Then the Greeks. Then the Romans. Judah, now called Judea, remained just another province in someone else’s empire. For six centuries David’s throne remained empty.

But God’s promise to David remained. That promise was only partially fulfilled in Solomon. The promise found its true, lasting and eternal fulfillment in Jesus. “Your house will stand firm, and your kingdom will endure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.”

We hear in our Gospel lesson that the angel Gabriel came to Mary (Luke 1:27). Gabriel announced the fulfillment of God’s 1,000 year old prophecy to David. The angel said to her, “Listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:30-33).

God kept his promise to David of a throne that will be established forever. Mary’s Son – David’s flesh and blood heir – is also the Son of God. David’s greater Son was born in David’s birthplace of the little town of Bethlehem. He was born to live and die in our place so that, as David once wrote in one of his Old Testament hymns that God would remove our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Jesus then rose from his Judean grave to win salvation for all people to join him as saints around his heavenly throne. Through the grace of God and faith granted us by the Holy Spirit, we are made citizens of God’s kingdom through Jesus Christ – God’s only begotten Son and David’s heir. We are the spiritual Israel ruled by King Jesus from a heavenly throne that lasts forever.

Our forefathers in the faith have built beautiful sanctuaries like this one to serve as the house of the Lord here on earth. Not to feed their ego, but to glorify their God.

We thank the Lord of the Church for those who have gone before us to build this church and others like it. Because we need a place like this in a time like this.

A sermon series like this one on depression and anxiety is fitting any time of the year. But there is always Advent angst with all the pressures that come with Christmas – loneliness, poverty, missing family, added pressures at work, extra stress in school and college, and much more. On top of all that, this year has added anxiety over lockdowns and openings, the virus and vaccine, mandates and American freedoms.

All of that has led to a recent story based on a Gallup Poll reporting that Americans’ mental health ratings have sunk to a new low. According to the report, Americans’ assessment of their own mental health is worse than at any point in the last two decades. 76% of U.S. adults rate their mental health positively. That doesn’t mean much until you realize the data shows a 9% drop since this time last year.

The poll also found that most people are willing to continue following certain guidelines for their health. However, there is a growing number who are ready to be done with all this because it’s mentally harming them and those they love.

The report also shows that those who are frequent church attendees are the only group that did not experience a mental health decline in 2020. 46% of Americans who regularly attend religious services said their mental health is “excellent.” That’s actually a 4% increase from last year.

Why do you think that is? Why are Christians who are regular in worship better equipped to handle stress, depression and anxiety?

You are thirsting for salvation. Jesus is the water of life (John 4:14).

You are hungry as you travel through the barren wilderness of this world. Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:35).

You know what it’s like to walk in the darkness of depression. But in the darkness is when the Light of Jesus shines the brightest. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. For those living in the land of the shadow of death, the light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2).

You are humble enough to admit when you are weak. Jesus is your strength. “My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).

You are free to fail because Jesus is your success. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

You are free to be ordinary because Jesus is the extraordinary Son of God and Son of Mary, who sits on David’s forever throne.

You are anxious and concerned how everything will work out – not just this year, but all the time. But you trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

You are a bruised reed that Jesus will not break. He will not snuff you out like burning wick (Isaiah 42:3).

You live every day with the guilt that you are not the kind of spouse or parent or child that your family needs you to be. So every morning you remember your Baptism as those baptismal waters wash away your guilt and clothe you with Christ’s righteousness.

You know your faith wavers. That’s why you eagerly desire to receive the Lord’s Supper often for the centering and strengthening of your faith.

People become depressed and anxious because they feel like they’re going through all this on their own. Christians connected to a church know they have a family of believers who are encouraging them, praying for them and befriending them.

If you are worshiping online, you are able to connect with fellow members in the comment section on Facebook. If you are worshiping in-person, you are able to hang out with members over coffee and Kringle.

Even in a time when so much in society is shut down, we rejoice that our church remains open. While there are so many decreases financially, by God’s grace and the persistence of our members, not only are our offerings staying steady, but we raised over $28,000 for the roof. While everyone seems to be cutting back, God is growing his church here at Epiphany. Kayla and Randi, two moms of young students at WLS are being confirmed today. God has brought new families to us this year to make this their church home. We have people driving south from Oak Creek and north from Antioch to worship with us. Our worship attendance in the sanctuary is down, but our overall worship attendance has increased with so many people making use of our ability to worship online.

In the midst of this virus, the Lord of the Church is blessing us with a major shift in ministry with our merger with New Hope.

Why are people looking to worship in God’s house during a time like this? They know what they need. What you need.

By God’s grace, we are all looking for the same thing David looked for three thousand years ago. A better King. An everlasting Kingdom. A King who could accomplish the one thing that we truly need – not money or health or success; not the deliverance from any earthly problems or physical enemies. We need deliverance from sin, deliverance from death, and deliverance from the hell we deserve.

This is the King Jesus was born to be because this is the King we truly need. And so, this is the King Jesus was. Born to live as our substitute, he kept God’s law perfectly in every place where we have failed. Born to die as our substitute, he suffered the punishment that our sins deserved through his death on the cross. Born to conquer our spiritual enemies of sin and death and hell, he rose victorious from the grave. Through his saving work, Jesus established a kingdom that has far surpassed the earthly kingdom of his ancestor David. Jesus has established a kingdom of peace between us and our God that “will be established forever.”

Because of King Jesus, now we can find rest from all our spiritual enemies, physical depressions and mental anxieties. The best place to find that rest is in the house of the Lord. Amen.

God’s promise to David is a promise he made to us: Your house will stand firm, and your kingdom will endure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever. Amen. (2 Samuel 7:16).