Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon
series, Broken Branches, where we're looking
at Jesus's family tree. And today we come to
one of the most famous members of Jesus's family
tree, King David. And God made a big promise
to David. He promised that he would become more
famous than any man ever known. That his kingdom
and his throne would last forever. That God's
love would never leave him. And let's see if
God's promises really hold true. When David's
life falls apart, is God still there? That's
what Rob's going to unpack for us in today's
sermon. Our reading today is from the book of
2 Samuel 7, verses 8 -16. Now then, tell my servant
David, this is what the Lord Almighty says. I
took you from the pasture, from tending the flock,
and appointed you ruler over my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you have gone,
and I have cut off all your enemies from before
you. Now I will make your name great, like the
names of the greatest men on earth, and I will
provide a place for my people Israel, and will
plant them so that they can have a home of their
own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people
will not oppress them anymore, as they did at
the beginning. and have done ever since the time
I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I
will also give you rest from all your enemies.
The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself
will establish a house for you. When your days
are over and you rest with your ancestors, I
will raise up your offspring to succeed you,
your own flesh and blood, and I will establish
his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house
for my name and I will establish the throne of
his kingdom forever. I will be his father and
he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will
punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings
inflicted by human hands. But my love will never
be taken away from him as I took it away from
Saul, whom I removed before you. Your house and
your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your
throne will be established forever. This is the
word of the Lord. My Uncle John is the one in
our family who has the most interest in genealogies
and family trees and stuff like that. He's the
one with the subscription to Ancestry .com and
maybe sends away for the DNA kits and, you know,
likes to stay up at night scrolling through a
bunch of names that he's never heard before.
But actually this past week, my Uncle John sent
me a copy of my own family tree, my mother's
side of the family tree. really, really interested
in it. I was kind of combing through it. Whoops,
it goes this way. It printed out kind of funny,
so I had to tape it all together. When I first
got it, I was like, ooh, maybe there's someone
really famous and exciting in my family tree.
And I, you know, maybe, wouldn't it be great
if, let's say you had like a great aunt who...
had an affair with Colonel Sanders, and now you're
like the heir to the KFC fortune or something
like that. But no such luck there. There's nobody
on this particular family tree of mine that's
going to give me any money anytime soon. But
one thing I did discover is that I come from
a long line of farmers and shepherds. Now, case
in point. A year or so ago, my mother bequeathed
to me this very old shepherd's crook. So the
story is, is that my great -great -grandfather
was a guy named Enoch. And he was born in 1855,
and he lived in Lincolnshire in England, right
on the north coast in a town called Northcoats.
And it was there that he grazed his... flocks
along the shores of the North Sea there. Now,
my grandfather, who himself lived to be 100 years
old, my grandfather on one of his trips to England
picked up this shepherd's crook and brought it
back to Canada. And then he passed it on to my
mother. And then more recently, my mother has
passed it on to me. And so it's very, very special.
I actually keep it in my office. If you've ever
been in my office, it's hanging up there on the
wall. And it's hanging there as a bit of a reminder
of a couple of things. One that, you know, I
come from a long line of farmers and shepherds.
And that's kind of my own family tree. But it
also reminds me that as a priest and as a pastor,
in a way, I am still a shepherd trying to Take,
you know, keep you guys under control. So don't
mess with me, guys. I'm not afraid to use this
thing if I have to. Now, listen, for the past
four weeks, we've been talking about one particular
family tree, not mine, not yours. We've been
talking about the family tree of Jesus. And the
reason we've been talking about that is because
when Matthew sat down to write the Christmas
story, he didn't start by writing about angels
and he didn't start by writing about mangers.
He didn't even start by writing about shepherds,
my people. No, what he started with, he started
with a long list of names with a family tree.
a genealogy. And as you read through that genealogy,
one of the things that is going to strike you,
one of the things that we have been learning
is that he didn't focus just on the superstars.
In fact, he seems to slow down and pay more attention
to some of the broken branches in that family
tree. People who were part of scandals, people
who had shameful lives and did horrible things
or who failed in many ways. Now, the question
we have to ask ourselves is, why did Matthew
do this? Why write a family tree this way? And
the answer is, is that Matthew is about to tell
the story of Jesus, right? He's writing his gospel.
And in the story of Jesus, he's about to tell
people that God in Jesus has created this way
for us to approach God that doesn't depend on
anything that we have done. any achievement on
our part or any of the good things we've done,
but depends entirely on what God has done for
us in Jesus Christ, right? It's all what God
has done for us. And that is such a hard concept
for us to get through our thick skulls, whether
it was in the first century or in the 21st century,
that Matthew says, you know what, I'm going to
begin my gospel by painting this picture of all
of Jesus's relatives who messed up and had to
rely on the grace and on the mercy and on the
forgiveness of God, just like you and I need
to. Now, as Megan said, today we're going to
come to the most famous name on that genealogical
list. In some ways, it's the name that's most
closely associated with Jesus, and that is King
David. But true to Matthew's form and like he's
done before, it's really interesting to see what
he focuses on in David's life. Instead of highlighting
some of David's greatest hits and all the wonderful
accomplishments of David, he chooses instead
to center out what is perhaps the most embarrassing
moment of David's life. That time in his life
that I'm sure if he could go back, he would erase
and rather he'd just forget it all together.
Let's just kind of do a little trip down memory
lane. How does Matthew start the Christmas story?
This is how he starts it. This is the genealogy
of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David. Boom.
The very first name mentioned besides Jesus is
David. Now, of course, Jesus is not the son of
David. He's more like the great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great
grandson of David. But the point is, is that
he's the man who is most closely associated with
Jesus in the genealogy. Matthew continues. This
is the genealogy of Jesus Messiah, son of David,
son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac, the father of Jacob. Jacob, the father
of Judah and his brothers. Now, you remember
a few weeks ago, we talked about Judah, didn't
we, right? Anyways, he carries on. Judah was
the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was
Tamar. We talked about her a few weeks ago. And
Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father
of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab. We keep
on going. Amminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon,
the father... of salmon salmon the father of
boaz whose mother was rahab we talked about rahab
last week if you were here last week boaz was
the father of obed whose mother was ruth we never
got around to talking about ruth but she's got
a great story if we had more time we definitely
would talk about her we keep going obed was the
father of jesse and jesse was the father of king
david David was the father of Solomon. And now
what normally would happen here in the genealogies,
David was the father of Solomon, who was the
father of so -and -so, who was the father of
so -and -so, and keep on going. But no, this
is where Matthew does his thing again. He pauses
and says, no, David was the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been Uriah's wife. Now... I
want to raise my hand at this point and say,
Matthew, can I ask you a question? Sure, what's
the question? Of all the descriptions that you
could use to talk about who David was, why do
you have to choose that one? Why not David the
builder? Why not David the warrior? Why not David
the shepherd? Why not, you know, David the poet?
David the psalmist? David the musician? Why David?
The father of Solomon, whose mother had been
Uriah's wife. Why surface all that junk? Why
do you got to go into that dysfunctional story?
Why focus on the biggest failure of this guy's
life? Because, Matthew would say, that's the
point of the story that I'm about to tell. That's
the point of Jesus, the point of the gospel.
That's the point of Christmas. So today, what
we're going to do is we're going to look at the
life of David real fast in four parts. I've given
you some sermon notes so you can follow along,
try to get the most out of it. We're going to
look at it in four parts. A promise made, a promise
tested, a promise kept, and a new promise. So
let's begin at, well, the beginning. A very good
place to start, as Julie Andrews once told us.
David's story begins with a promise. begins actually
about a thousand years before Jesus, when there
was this prophet in Israel by the name of Samuel.
And one day, God says to Samuel the prophet,
Samuel, I want you to anoint a brand new king
in Israel. I've had it with the current king,
Saul. I'm so done with him, and I want to create
a new king. And so God sends Samuel to this small
and unimpressive town by the name of Bethlehem.
Now, isn't that interesting that the very first
time Bethlehem shows up in the Bible has nothing
to do with Jesus. It has everything to do with
David. Anyways, Samuel, he arrives in Bethlehem
and he meets this man named Jesse. And Jesse
has eight sons. And he says, Jesse, I'm here
to anoint one of your sons, the next king of
Israel. Jesse's like, fantastic, let me get them
for you. And he brings in the sons. And then
one by one, the sons are brought in front of
Samuel. And Samuel looks at them and he listens
to God's voice, the nudging of the spirit. And
every time God says, no, not this one. No, not
this one. You know, he brings out the smart.
one no not this one he brings out the older one
no not this one he brings out the you know the
most athletic one no not this one no not this
one no not this one well he goes through all
the sons and he's like you know jesse this is
a bit of an awkward question but you don't you
don't have another son somewhere do you and and
jesse's like well actually yes i do but he's
out in the fields tending the sheep he's a shepherd
he's the youngest one he's the forgotten one
and he's And Samuel's like, it's okay, I'll wait.
And so, you know, Samuel sits down and they're
like, okay. So they go out to the fields. They
bring David in. And I can imagine that when he
walks in, he's dirty, he's smelly, he's sunburned.
He's like wiping his nose on his sleeve. He's
just a kid, right? And God nudges Samuel and
he's like, this is the one. This is the next
king of Israel. And Samuel's like, oh, okay,
God, whatever. This is your deal. Whatever you
say goes. And so Samuel takes oil and he anoints
David right then and there. And then he says
to David, David, I have something very, very
important to say to you. Listen to me. You are
going to be the next king of Israel. To which
David probably was like. okay, can I go back
outside now? Because, you know, my friends are
kind of out there and, you know, he, you know,
blows his nose and he runs out of the house again,
right? Because he's a kid, he's eight, he's 10,
he's 12 years old. What does he know about any
of this stuff? But a promise has been made, right?
And this story teaches us something, two things
actually right off the bat. The first is that
God does not judge people based on their appearance,
right? God saw a king. Where other people only
saw a shepherd. God didn't choose the tallest
one. He didn't choose the oldest one. He didn't
choose the strongest one. He didn't choose necessarily
the smartest one. But God saw something where
other people don't see. And the second thing
this reminds us is that God's promises always
begin with grace. At this point in his life,
David had done exactly nothing to earn God's
favor. There was no achievement he could point
to. There was nothing. about David's life at
this point that would say, oh yeah, he deserves
to be the next king. No. God's promises always,
always, always begin with grace, not our performance,
not our achievement. That is a key concept throughout
the whole Bible, by the way. Now. Let's fast
forward a few years later or many years later.
David is actually now king. And what is going
to happen is a new prophet named Nathan is going
to come to David to kind of renew and affirm
that. promise that was made and so Nathan says
this is what God wants to tell you David he says
God says I took you from the pasture and I appointed
you ruler over my people Israel and now I will
make your name great like the names of the greatest
men on earth now what a promise that is to have
a name that everybody on earth has kind of heard
of and actually it's not too far from the truth
Is it? Because I must do a quick poll with everyone
here. How many of you, before you came to church
today, had already heard of King David? Just
a quick show of hands. Right? See, so it's true.
Kind of in every country, in every language,
in every culture, everyone seems to know who
King David was. And then the promise goes a little
further. God promises David a lasting house.
Now, what is this lasting house? It means that
basically the descendants after David, God is
going to continue to extend the promise to them.
And at first, it'll be David's first son, Solomon.
But then, you know, from generation to generation,
God will continue to establish David's throne.
Forever. And then I think comes perhaps the most
beautiful and important line in all of this.
God says, when it comes to you, David, and when
it comes to all of your descendants, my love
will never be taken away from you or them. Now
that is an amazing promise. What a promise. That
is not your everyday contract. That is something
we call a covenant. A contract would sound more
like is, David, if you stay faithful, if you
stay godly, if you do all the right things, if
you obey me, then I'll love you forever. But
no, God is saying, David, even if you screw up,
even if you mess up, even if you fall and fail,
I will still be faithful. So at this point in
the story, everything looks amazing. Everything's
beautiful. Everything looks hopeful. A promise
has been made. And what a promise it is. But
now, before too long, that promise is going to
get tested. It's not long after God makes this
breathtaking promise to David that we read. in
one of the darkest chapters of the Bible, frankly.
It kind of happened like this. It was a time
when David's soldiers, and a lot of soldiers,
went away to fight battles. But for some reason,
David had stayed behind in the palace. And as
he was hanging around the palace, kind of home
alone, like Macaulay Culkin, home alone, no one's
around. He's staring out the window one night,
and he sees this lovely woman who's bathing out
there. And he's like, goinks. Who is this? Hello,
hello. And so he calls his servant and says,
who is that woman? The servant's like, David,
don't get any ideas. That is Bathsheba, and she
is Uriah's wife. Hey, David, pay attention. David,
David, you know who Uriah is, right? Uriah, one
of your most loyal soldiers, that Uriah. And
David's like, you know, she seems like a nice
lady. I would like to talk to her. And they do
a whole lot more than talk. And a few weeks later,
Bathsheba sends a message to David. Guess what?
I am pregnant with your child. And now David's
got a real mess on his hands. What does he do?
He does what most people in power do when they're
cornered. He starts to manipulate things and
he starts to try to cover his tracks. And so
what he does is he calls Uriah back from the
battlefield, right? David says, oh, you're right.
You've been working so hard out there on the
battlefield. You deserve a rest. Why don't you
go and spend a little time with your wife, if
you know what I mean? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink,
right? Say no more, say no more. Go on down there
and spend a night. But Uriah's like, no way,
I can't do that. My fellow soldiers are out there
on the battlefield living and fighting and dying.
I can't go enjoy the pleasure of my wife with
all that going on. So then David tries again
the next night, only this time he tries to get
Uriah drunk first. Hey, Uriah, why don't you
go down? But no, he still won't do it. He's still
too noble. He is still too honorable. And it's
interesting because at this point, the stories,
you might be starting to think, oh, wouldn't
it be, maybe Uriah would make a better king than
David at this point. But no, God had made this
promise to David. But then David does something
absolutely unthinkable. He writes a letter to
his general out on the battlefield, Joab. And
he says, Joab, here's what I want you to do.
I want you to put Uriah right at the front lines
of the fighting. And then all of a sudden, when
the fighting is at its worst, I want you to withdraw
all the other men and leave him there alone and
surrounded. And then he... He licks the envelope.
He says, oh, hey, as you make your way back to
the battlefield, Uriah, would you mind hand delivering
this to Joab? And so he basically hand delivers
his own execution order to Joab. And the next
day, Uriah is killed in battle. Isn't it interesting
how one sin leads to another, which leads to
another, leads to a lie, which leads to murder
in this case. And isn't it true that sin rarely
stays private? It rarely stays small. It's always
growing. It's always multiplying. And that's
what happened here. And so what happens? Bathsheba
mourns the death of her husband. And then David
marries her. And from the outside, it looks like
it's all been covered up. It looks like no one
knows what just happened. But God knows. God
knows. God always knows. And we read that the
thing David had done was evil in the sight of
the Lord. And now God has got to make a decision.
Do I retract my promise that I made to David?
Or is a promise a promise? Now listen, right?
I know I said, I know I said it was an unconditional
promise, but who could have seen this? And I
mean, now that I see what this guy's really about,
and I mean, I have to do something about this.
I can't just let this slide, can I, right? Maybe
I should back out of my promise. The real thing
here we have to wrestle with is when it comes
to God, is a promise really a promise? Because
I don't know about you, but I know human beings
aren't so good at this. We might make a promise
and we might say this is a forever promise, but
then something happens and we're like, well,
yeah, I mean, I know I promised, but I didn't
plan all that happening. So no, I retract my
promise. Or maybe you actually have had someone
promise something to you and then they went back
on what they promised and you're still hurting
from that. So, is a promise really a promise?
Now, to David's credit, you know what he does
as soon as he realizes his sin has been exposed?
He falls face down at the altar in the temple
in front of God and he cries out and he repents
and he begs God for forgiveness. And if you read
Psalm 51, it is a wonderful telling of David's
heart -wrenching prayer for forgiveness. But
still, what's God going to do? What is God going
to do with a guy who has messed up so badly?
Well, David finds out, we find out, and this
is one of the greatest lessons of the whole Bible,
is that God always keeps his promise. Now, God
forgives David, but that does not mean there
was not a whole lot of pain. that followed David.
Oh, there was incredible consequences for his
sin. Because of his sin, David's life begins
to unravel. His family falls apart. His sons
start fighting each other. One son kills another
son. That general, Joab, he in turn goes and
kills David's favorite son. And then, you know,
the kingdom fractures. David is forced to flee
Jerusalem. What if David's son Absalom does something
absolutely horrid and disgusting with David's
wives right on the top of the palace? And as
if all of that weren't enough, remember that
child that Bathsheba and David had, that child
also dies. So yes, God's... Discipline was severe.
The consequences were horrible and the follow
was real, but God's commitment was unshaken.
Astonishingly, through all that chaos, through
all that bloodshed, through all that backstabbing
and heartbreak, God never withdrew his promise.
The pain was real, but the promise was eternal.
And you might say, well, I honestly don't understand
how God could do that. How could a promise last
through all of that? And the answer is that the
promise actually never rested on David's side.
It was always up to God. It rested on God. Our
promises from our side often fail, but God's
promises stand forever. And that is why, now
we're getting to Christmas, that is why Nearly
a thousand years later, after all that failure
and after all that embarrassment, a man in David's
line named Joseph travels with his pregnant wife
named Mary to that same small town where it all
started, Bethlehem. And there she gives birth
to David's distant... the great, great, great,
great, great, great, great grandson of that flawed
king. And they name him Jesus because God keeps
his promises. And if you're Matthew and you're
a former tax collector and you have broken more
than a few promises yourself and you know what
forgiveness is all about, then there is no way
you are skipping this part of the story. David's
failure. isn't just part of the story. It's the
point of the story. When God makes a promise,
he keeps it. And even our biggest failures will
not cause God to go back on his word. That's
why Matthew wrote, when he wrote, he probably
had a smile on his face when he said, and then
David is the father of Solomon, ah yes, whose
mother had been. Uriah's wife. I've got to underline
that and make sure I include that because that's
what the story is about. And here's what Matthew
knew. Matthew knew that that promise that God
made to David was being renewed. And in Jesus,
God makes a new promise. Now, not just to one
king, not just to one family line, not just to
one nation, but now to the whole world. It's
a brand new promise. It's a brand new promise
God has made. It's a brand new covenant between
God and all humanity. But again, it is not based
on our faithfulness. It is not secured by our
obedience. It is grounded entirely on Jesus's
sacrifice. This is the promise. This is the promise
that began in the manger, but it's most fully
revealed on the cross and on the empty tomb.
And just as God kept his promise to David, despite
his sin, God would keep this promise to you and
me and the whole world through David's even greater
son, Jesus Christ. And that is why when Jesus
was born, The angel says, I bring you good news
that will be for all the people. All the people,
not just the good ones, not just the smart ones,
not just the tall ones, not just the oldest ones,
not just the strongest ones. All the people,
right? And that includes the ones who think they're
better than they are. And that also includes
the ones who think they don't stand a chance.
And then isn't it beautiful how the angel says,
In the town of, say it with me, today in the
town of David, a Savior has been born. I actually
hope that for the rest of your life, when you
read those words, they just land a little differently
for you. The town of David, not David the hero,
David the sinner, David the man who needed grace.
Today in the town of David, a Savior has been
born to you, and he's the Messiah, the Lord.
David's story tells us that God doesn't bypass
broken branches. He works through them. And so
many of us, whether you're sitting here and you're
confident, or whether you're feeling ashamed,
whether you're strong, or whether you're struggling,
even if you're a faithful churchgoer, We often,
we relate to God as if we're negotiating. We're
like, God, listen, I'll do better. God, let me
do this, God. God, I promise this time it'll
be better. God, surely what I've just done is
worth something to you. But as long as we approach
God that way, we will never have peace. Because
peace doesn't come from trying harder. Peace
comes from the promise. God's promise that is
greater than your failures. That is greater than
your guilt. That is greater than your last mistake.
That is greater than your next mistake. So this
Christmas, you can have peace with God, not because
your sins don't matter, but because your sins
have been dealt with in Jesus Christ. So Jesus,
you see, he was descended from a shepherd, but
Jesus was actually also called the good shepherd.
who lays down his life for his sheep. In fact,
Jesus was called the Lamb of God who took away
the sin of the world. So the invitation to you
is simple. This Christmas, don't come to God
with all your promises. God, I promise you this.
God, I promise you that. Instead, come to God
and trust his promise. Because the same God who
kept his promise to David will keep his promise
to you and me. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks
for tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This sermon was recorded at Trinity
Church Streetsville on December 21st, 2025.