The Root of David

Revelation 22

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

Sermon Transcript:

Revelation 22. And I’d like to read verses 12 through 16.

Behold, I’m coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for, excuse me. Yeah, for each one what he has done. I am the Alpha nu Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

outside of the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolators, and everyone who loves and practices his falsehood, I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you about these things. For the churches, I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright Morning Star. Let’s pray  together.

Lord, our desire today in gathering is that you would receive glory in the highest places, the places that you inhabit. Lord, we pray that even as we open your word now and as reflect upon the scriptures, that God, you would guide us, that you would speak truth into us regarding what this title of Jesus means, the root of David, the descendant of David.

Lord glorify yourself today. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. What I’m gonna do this morning is I’m going to talk about this particular, uh, title, um, and then I’m going at the end add three particular ramifications I think for our lives as a result of that. We’ve been highlighting in this series that the book of Revelation was actually written at the end of the first century in 95 AD approximately at a time when the church was facing great opposition and persecution.

It was written as a message of encouragement to people that were struggling to not despair in the face of hard times. It enabled these Christian disciples to lift their eyes from their circumstances, disappointments, confusion. To a person and the person is Jesus Christ. And in this book there are a about 30 different ways Jesus is described.

We have been looking at some of those titles of Jesus Christ that were designed to give encouragement, support, strength in the midst of the stuff of life. They show the glory of Jesus as depicted in these titles. And some of those we’ve looked at was initially Alpha and Omega, that he is both the creator and the culmination.

It just doesn’t mean that Jesus is first and he’s also last. It is because in eternity there are all humans will be in an eternal state. It’s saying the uniqueness of Christ is that he was creator God. He was first, but that everything, he is the beginning of the Greek alphabet, but he is also what every part of, of life and history is pointing.

He is the omega. He is the culmination of it all. He’s the lion of Judah. And Pastor Jared talked about this, that he is the defender and he is our sovereign. He is both the king of our lives, but is also the lion that is directing our lives upon, uh, before whom we subject our wills. He is the lamb. And Pastor Mike talked.

He was the sacrifice and savior worthy, the only unworthy to open the seals revealing the plans and purposes of God the father, because he is the one who did the father’s work in purchasing by his own blood. People who now know and serve God. This morning we’re looking at. The root of David, that he is both the ancestor of David and he is the offspring of David.

We’ll look at what that’s about. Our focus today is actually verse 16. I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring or descendant of David and the bright and mourning star. Our sermon this morning is gonna try to explain these titles and then to bring those three ramifications to our lives.

First of all, he is the root of David. Jesus is the ancestor of David and the source of his kingdom. He’s the root. Jesus preceded David. My father-in-law was a, uh, science professor in a college and, uh, had his doctorate in biology. Mainly his field of study was botany, the study of plants. Um, when I first started out in my preaching ministry, um, I would often bring in history illustrations, illustrations from books I was reading, and I would dabble a little bit in science illustrations.

My wife was regularly mortified because somehow I always got the science illustrations just a little bit off. This was her background with her dad, but I’m waiting in again today to the field of botany. David Jesus is the root of David. If you take an acorn, and you know how an acorn can make this towering oak, it can take over a hundred years.

But basically when the acorn goes into the ground, the first thing that comes out of the acorn one, it is, it has germinated, is the roots. The roots go down. They begin to provide the, the nutrients, the, the, the, the life, the water that is necessary. And out of that, then will come the stem, which will burst through the, the, the surface of the ground.

And you will have an oak tree. The root is first, you can’t have this, this towering tree. Without the roots being the, the initial part of that germinating process, the roots precede the tree. Jesus is saying, I proceed, David. I am the root of David. I am the root of the kingdom. He is here declaring clearly his role as God, that I’m the one that chose David.

I’m the one that appointed him. I’m the one that was before him, this entire tree of the family of David. And, and the promised, uh, monarchy that would come out of him way back in 1000 bc He said I was the one that chose him, designed him, called him. I preceded David. I’m his route. Secondly, as the root, he also as the one that preserved David’s kingdom roots live on even after a tree is felled.

If you, if you saw off a tree and it, it, there’s, there’s no, there’s no, uh, foliage anymore. There’s no fruit. There’s no branches. But still there will be a root system that continues for a period of time. Jesus maintained. The Davidic line. Even in those seasons when the Davidic, uh, descendants were godless, which happened for generations, Jesus was sovereignly overseeing it, per, uh, preserving it, protecting heirs, even when they had rejected God themselves.

Jesus actually oversaw the preservation of the line of David until he himself was born from that line. It’s a, it’s a startling thing, but this is what he’s saying. I’m the root of David, but I’m also the descendant, the offspring of David. The second title we see here in verse 16 of Revelation 22 is, I am the descendant or offspring of David.

Jesus is the son of David, an heir of his kingdom. and by that scripture presents a number of qualities that were true of Jesus Christ in that role. First of all, Jesus rescued the kingdom is a very fascinating verse in Isaiah 11, one, it says this, out of the stump of Jesse’s family, and Jesse was the father of David.

It’s a reference to David. Out of the stump of Jesse’s family will grow a chute, a new branch that will flourish and bear fruit. This prophecy of the David Kingdom is built on a common phenomenon of seeming dead stumps. It’s pictured in this, this visual, if we can bring that up. You see there, the little plant.

It’s right. Uh, that plant is growing out, that shoot, that sprout. All of you have had this. Have you taken a tree out and a stump? Many times you’ll have those shoots and they drive you crazy. Why do these things? I mean, I took this tree out. These shoots keep coming up. Eventually they’ll die out if you keep cutting ’em off.

But the, the concept is Jesus Christ was the shoot. Now what’s that talking about? Here’s what it’s talking about.

Many years ago, I, this is way illustrated to this. Many years ago I had heard a speech, it was actually when I was beginning to go into my ministry, um, I was looking towards church planning and I had been pastoring, uh, a small church in Indiana before I joined A B W E and went into church planning and I heard a guy speak and he was talking to people, pastors that were going into churches, particularly churches that were older and dying or, and just, uh, struggling.

And his talk was entitled, how to Grow a Living Tree Out of a Dead Stump. It was, it was a great talk. It’s a talk I, I, I’ve tried to think back in the last couple of weeks. I would say I’ve, I’ve shared the story of that video, of that presentation that he, he gave probably 15 to 20 times in talking to pastors that are going into a church.

Uh, younger pastors that are starting out are intimidated because an existing church and they’re not sure how to get it off the dime. It’s sort of been struggling for a while. And basically this was his concept. He say the way you build a living tree out of a dead stump is you look for the chutes, that there’s life that will come up from the root system around the side.

And he said, don’t think you’re gonna take that whole stump and immediately change the whole thing and get it following you and moving forward. He said, look for the living sprouts, the, the shoots. And what he meant was, look for people. That are, that you can invest your life in and start off by spending time with them and support them and build into them and have them become partners with you with such good counsel.

And basically he’s saying they will then help you create an entire new tree. And part of those that are part of the stump will will join with you. Part of them will just sort of stay around. There’ll probably be some that won’t stay, but he said, invest your lives in the shoots where the life of the tree is manifesting itself Here, Jesse, they’re talking about the stump of Jesse’s family, which basically is talking about the Davidic line.

And Isaiah is using this to point towards what Jesus Christ would become. So how does that have to do with him as the son of David? Well, in this way, Jesse was the father of King David, whose descendants God promised, would have a throne forever. He told them that in about 1000 BC that was part of David Rain a few years after a thousand and a few years before a thousand bc as the centuries went by, the line got weaker and weaker until at last it was cut off basically from the throne altogether.

What happened is their last king, the last member of the Davidic line, was a guy named Zakiah. He was Godless as many of his, uh, the people before him. His predecessors had been, and he was, uh, taken into captivity. It was a horrible scene. They, the, uh, the Babylonians actually took him. They, they watched him.

They, they made him watch his two sons be slain and then they blinded him. And they kept him in captivity for the remainder of his life. This was the end of the Davidic throne as far as all of history knew. That was in about 585 BC for over 580 years. This line of David has been a, a dead stump. It has been a stump that has been fell.

The tree has been filled. And even those that were the most ardent believers in God is somehow going to bring a, a, a king, uh, uh, uh, the Messiah, the promised heir of David. They had no clue how this could possibly happen. Nobody knew where the descendants of David were. They didn’t know that they had become a peasant family living up in an obscure town in, in Northern Israel.

Nobody had the books. Nobody was tracing for centuries. Where is. The line of David. The tree’s been cut down. It’s just a stump. And Isaiah says, ah, but there will be a shoot. There will be life that will come out. The very root of the tree will actually become the shoot himself, the the ancestor, the originator of the line of David, the root of David.

Jesus will become that very shoot that will fulfill the promises that were made about the king that would one day come the heir of David,

the truth king would come and rescue the Davidic line. Secondly, Jesus fulfills the promises of the kingdom in one Samuel seven, verse 12, and following it says this. At talking to David, when your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I’ll raise up your offspring to succeed. You who will come from your own body, and I’ll establish his kingdom.

He’s the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I’ll be his father and he will be my son. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever. This promise beginning, it sounds like he’s talking about Solomon, who’s gonna build the temple.

But then he goes, father, and he says no. The the one I’m talking about, the ultimate fulfillment of this promise will be the king forever. His throne will be established forever. Jesus will never stop being the king. The third thing that is true as Jesus, the descendant of David, is Jesus will expand the kingdom.

In Ro. In Romans chapter 15, verse 12, we read this word, it says this in Romans 1512, the root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations in him. The Gentiles will hope. This was a shocking statement. Nobody really knew what it meant, but the idea is that his reign is going to be building a kingdom before whom the nations will bow and in whom they will find hope.

All peoples, all tribes, all nationalities, will be able to find hope and grace under the king whose kingdom is ultimately a kingdom of the heart. This is what is referenced in, in this verse here in Revelation 22 when it says, I am the root and the offspring of David. And then it says, and the bright morning star, I mean, what’s, what’s that about?

What’s the bright Morning star? I mean, I, I get how you say he was the root and, and then out of the root came the shoot. That is the offspring. But, but what does it mean he’s the Bright Morning star? Well, this is actually a phrase that was used by a guy named Baum. And Baum was a Alam, and Bayam was a guy that was a pagan prophet.

And when the Israelites under Moses were coming to, to enter the land of Israel, they were down in a land called Eden. And they were coming up under, they had come from Egypt, they’d gone through the wilderness, and now they’re coming up underneath Egypt and they’re on the, the eastern side of Eden. And they were about to enter the, what became the land of Israel.

The pagan kings hired Bayam to come and curse these people. And so Bayam came and instead of cursing them, he, he, he found what got put in his mouth was a blessing. And what he promised in his blessing was this, A star will come outta Jacob a scepter. This is numbers 24 17. A scepter will rise out of Israel.

He will crush the foreheads of Moab. The skulls of the people of she Eden will be conquered. Sarah, his enemy will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come outta Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city. Basically, he’s saying this morning, star, this star will, will have supremacy again.

He will be a king over all the earth and out of him. Nations will put their hope. And out of every people and tribe and tongue and nationality, individuals will embrace this king, the Morning Star. When I had the chance to speak recently at Before the the UN Delegates at by the Crew Ministries. Um, . It was a, it was a, uh, reception, so you had two hours.

Um, and, and I spoke in the middle of that, but we were with people the whole time. A standing reception. You were walking around getting to know people. And I had, I kept having crew members that would introduce me to people that were a part of, of the UN that were believers. Some of them, it was just a spouse.

And, and they would introduce this is, this is the wife of so-and-so, or this is the husband of so-and-so. They were believers. Uh, some were were senior staff. But it was striking me. I was thinking about us. I thought about this passage about he is going to be the one that is gonna expand the kingdom beyond Israel, beyond the David Kingdom as the Israelites thought of it, but to be a kingdom that permeates the entire world and conversations I had with delegates from a country in Eastern Asia.

A Middle Eastern nation, a delegate conversation with, with the delegate from a European nation, a West African nation, a Caribbean nation delegates, or their spouses or senior staff who had embraced Christ as their savior. And it was just such a striking visual to me. This is the king who was the root of it all, and who has now become the shoot that is the descendant of David, who is bringing a kingdom that really has permeated the globe and who are now providing as.

As the passage says here in Romans 15, the root of his of Jesse will spring up, one who will rise to rule over the nations in him. The Gentiles will hope. Jesus delivers. The third thing, the fourth thing is this. Jesus delivers the kingdom of God, the kingdom to God the Father. This, this is a striking passage and I’d like to read these verses in Fi, first Corinthians 15, where it talks about what Jesus does with the kingdom that he has developed, the kingdom that is represented all over the world, all over the globe.

What does Jesus ultimately do with that kingdom? Here’s what it says in one Corinthians 15, verse 23 and following, he’s talking about the resurrection. Be each in his own order. Christ the first fruits, then it is coming. Those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority in power, for he must reign until he is put all his enemies under his feet, the last enemy to destroy, be destroyed, his death.

Says this, then in verse 28, when all things are subjected to Christ, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him. That God may be all in all two phrases here. It says, ultimately Jesus will deliver the kingdom to the Father. It says at that moment, then when everything’s subjected to Christ, then the son himself will be subjected to him who put th all things in subjection under him, that God may be all.

In all, this is remarkable scene that all that Jesus has done, being the land that was slain, being the one who has been the root of David, who is now the descendant of David, who is the king, uh, providing hope to peoples all over the world, will bring those peoples from every ti tribe and tongue and nation.

And we’ll bring them to his father, subjecting himself to the father, and saying, this ultimately is the kingdom for you. So what are the ramifications of this? If Jesus is the root of David, if he is also the descendant of David? Three simple ramifications this morning. The primary role of J among Jesus of Jesus among his people is the role of King.

We look at him, scripture says, he’s our brother. He’s our savior. He’s our deliverer. He’s our shepherd. There are countless titles, but the primary role from cover to cover of scripture is that he is designated among his people as their king. It’s striking that the primary designation of the one who would come in the Old Testament was the Son of David.

It is the picture of the Messiah. Who would come? Jesus himself, the primary name he took for himself when they, when he talked about himself, he constantly said The Son of man. The Son of man, I am the son of man. It again, was a Messianic title. It was a title he took. Even the word Christ, when you use the word Jesus Christ, it literally is Jesus.

The Christ wasn’t his last name. It was his title, the Christ. Is the word that that we get the word Messiah from. It’s the same thing. The Christ literally means the anointed one, anointed to what He was anointed as king. He is Jesus the king. And as Jared pointed out when he said this, foundationally reminds us that as Jesus willingly subjected himself to the Father, he’s our king.

We are to live our lives recognizing the primary role of Jesus as much as he is our friend and our shepherd and and our savior, and deliver. He is our king and we have the privilege to being a part of his kingdom. The second ramification is that even in the darkness and silence, God is still writing his story

afters, King’s, Atia. Was arrested and conquered by the Babylonians and thrown into prison until he died in Babylon. The people of Israel participated in what is known as the 70 years of captivity. The entire nation, or, or all of the prominent people of the nation were forced to go to Babylon. They lived there for generations for, for 70 years before some of them were allowed to come back.

When the Persians basically conquered the Babylonians, even in their return, they were always under a foreign power. First the Israelites returning to their land were under the Persians. Then they were under the Greeks. Then they became under the Romans. There was no King of Israel. There was no fulfillment of the Davidic line.

There was no hint of an individual that could appropriately be called the King of Israel at this time. The son of David, in all that time called historically, particularly for the 400 years just before Christ, the silent years, it seemed like nothing was going on. It seemed like everything had been broken.

All you’ve been left with is a feld tree and just a stump. Long since cut off and irrelevant was the tree. Even those most fervent that God would fulfill. This promises about a king saw nothing but a stump, but God was at work. God’s purposes and sovereign plan were still at work. No one would’ve understood at that time that the root of David, that the originator of David.

Would also become the shoot that would actually be the descendant and the fulfillment as the son of David, the King of Kings in Lord of Lords. It’s a reminder in the silence and darkness of our lives in those seasons, which some of you are really in right now, when it seems my whole life just seems like, I mean the, the tree’s been felled, things have not gone like they thought.

It just looks like a dead stump is here, and I’m just trying to hold on. Where’s God, what’s going on? Why isn’t he answering and, and doing what I I long for him to do? Why isn’t he moving in the people that matter the most? To me, it’s a reminder that even in the silence and the darkness, God is still working.

And the third thing, . Jesus teaches us the godliness of honoring authority. Jesus, the kingdom was delivered to the Father. It says there in one Corinthians 15, Jesus subjected himself, submitted himself to the Father Marin and I read every night in bed we’ve been reading, we just finished the book of First Peter.

Um, and we just read a little section and pray about it. And it struck me as we’ve gone through that book, how often Peter is saying to believers, follow the pathway of Christ in honoring authority. And he actually talks in chapter two and three and he says, just like Jesus was subjected to those that wronged him and in suffering, it is the opportunity to hon to, to manifest a godly spirit by honoring authority.

And he says, what, what? What praise it is if, if you honor those that that treat you well. But he says, do like Christ, honor those under whom he was subjected to the harshest treatment and still live, uh, honoring them, accepting suffering. I think Jesus himself honor, uh, pictures the, the willingness to honor authority as he joyfully brings to his father the kingdom.