2 Samuel 7:1-17

I want to help you not only see this advent text but also have the tools to read the entire Old Testament as the Christian Scripture that it is through the season of Advent, yearly and daily, and be able to lead yourself and others well. 

The only way to do that is not just preach you a sermon but give you some tools and point to some observations from 2 Samuel 7 using those tools so that you can imitate the example we give you this morning. 

Framework For Reading All Of The Old Testament

All Scripture predicts Christ’s person and work. 

1. Prophecies 
   1. Isaiah 9:6-7
2. Messianic Psalms
   1. Psalm 22

All Scripture prepares for Christ’s person and work. 

1. Redemptive, salvific, unmerited, super-natural grace doesn’t just spring up out of nowhere in the New Testament. God’s people were prepared for this through God’s activity among his people and his record of that activity in his word. – Bryan Chapell
2. Galatians 3:24 (ESV) So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

All Scripture reflects Jesus’ person and work. 

1. Scripture will reflect back to me some parts of God’s nature that is manifested in the work of the good news. 
   1. Holiness
   2. Mercy
   3. Patience
   4. Kindness
2. Scripture will reflect back to me some parts of humanity and humanity’s need for Jesus.
   1. Dead ends (Kings)
   2. Bridges (Kings / Prophets)

All Scripture results from Jesus’ person and work. 

1. God saves by grace alone by faith alone in Jesus alone…whether they fully understood it or not. 
   1. 2 Chronicles 30 and Hezekiah’s prayer of faith for salvation. 
      1. 2 Chronicles 30:11-20 
   2. The indicative comes before the imperative and the eternal gospel makes it that way. 
      1. Exodus 20:2
         1. You are God’s, he has made you his own. 
         2. Therefore, obey him and act like it. 

2 Samuel 7:1-17 Advent Observations

1. 2S7 – Reflects God’s nature: God kindly condescends to man’s very broken understanding of God’s presence among men in order to show them who he is. 
   1. Acts 17:24-25 (ESV) The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
      1. How does Paul know this? Genesis 1-2. 
2. 2S7 – Reflects God’s nature: God kindly comes to be with his people. 
   1. Pentecost: Acts 2:14-21
3. 2S7 – Prepares: God will indeed come and dwell among men in the tabernacle of humanity. 
   1. John 1:14. 
4. 2S7 – Reflects man’s sinful nature and the wages of sin in the garden: David will sin. Solomon will sin. Both will leave the people needing rescue and reminding them that man cannot save himself and needs God to intervene. Both are going to die, thus the promise to give David a son after his death. 
   1. These kings and their sons leave us and leave us wondering who will be the Son of David that will not need to be replaced or let us down? 

Advent Application

1. Jesus has tabernacled among us, he has condescended to take on a flesh that could die, and he was crucified, buried and he rose from death and ascended to fill all things and have all of the created order brought under him as his footstool when he advents again. 

Closing Missional Corporate Prayer

Ezekiel 36:37-38

1. “Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.” – Ezekiel 36:37-38
   1. Increase our people.
   2. Increase our holiness.
   3. Increase our sending.