Restoring the Tabernacle to David

Amen. Turning our Bibles now to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 15,

Acts 15 · chapter mention

and I'll be reading verses 1 through 21.

Acts chapter 15, 1 through 21. And do listen and give attention because this

Acts 15 · chapter mention

is God's holy and inspired word.

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers,

unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

After Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them,

Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem

to the apostles and the elders about this question.

So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia,

and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles,

and brought great joy to all the brothers.

When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles

and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said,

it is necessary to circumcise them.

And to order them to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and elders were gathered

together to consider this matter.

And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them,

brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you,

that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the words of the gospel and believe.

God knows the heart. God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving

them the Holy Spirit, just as he did us, and made no distinction between us

and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test and placing a yoke on the

neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.

But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.

And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul,

as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

After they finished speaking, James replied, Brothers, listen to me.

Simon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name.

And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,

After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen,

and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it,

that the remnant of the nations, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,

and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord,

who makes these things known from of old.

Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those Gentiles who turn

to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols,

and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

For from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim

him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogue.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can be seated.

Let's pray. Please, Father, we ask now that your Spirit would be with us to

help us, guide us, and direct us, give us light, convict us,

and strengthen us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

So Acts chapter 15, as we said last week, is the Council of Jerusalem.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And one of the things this council is doing that is in the middle of the decision,

and particularly when James quotes from Amos the prophet is they are pulling

off the veil of something.

They are revealing the mystery of God to us.

In the Bible, the word mystery is used a lot in the New Testament,

and the word mystery doesn't mean like solving a riddle or a detective mystery.

Sometimes when you get a mystery novel, there's a crime at the beginning,

and then the novel is about finding out who did it, who done it.

But in the Bible, the word mystery is used differently.

Paul uses the word mystery to indicate something that has already been taught,

okay, but that is veiled or covered slightly so that you don't see it as well

as when the veil is pulled off.

It's like sometimes a good illustration might be a statue. We went to the Philadelphia

Museum of Art. There was some debate about the Rocky statue.

Was it real art or was it not? And the Rocky statue has Rocky standing,

you know, with both hands.

My Rocky fans are already smiling. You know what he did. He ran up the steps

of the museum and finally, when he was ready to fight, he stood there and he

bounced around. And so there's a statue there.

And I imagine when that statue was unveiled, it was first at the top.

Then they moved it. I think it may be back.

Artists didn't think it was real art because it was a movie.

But if they would have put a cover over that and they had told me there was

going to be a Rocky statue there, but it was covered with a veil.

And you saw underneath it, you know, two arms pointing up.

And you saw like a head and you think, that's Rocky at the top because I saw

the movie. I know what that is. When they pulled the veil back and the statue,

he actually has his boxing gloves on, which he didn't have in the movie.

So when they pulled that off, you would have been able to see his gloves.

You would have been able to see his face and you would have been able to see

him in his boxing jersey and shorts or whatever.

What do you call them? I don't box, so I don't know. But the things you box

in, you could have seen all the details once the veil was pulled off.

That's what's happening in our story today.

Acts chapter 15, the council of Jerusalem.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And to me, it's rather dramatic. At least for me, it was this week.

I hope it will be for you. this week, but towards the end of the conclusion,

when James steps up and says, all the prophets agree with this.

And then he pulls out this prophecy, like unveiling this prophecy from Amos that we read already.

And it surprised me at first, actually, not only because as Elder Joe mentioned,

we don't even know where Amos is, usually in the Bible, let alone.

I've never heard anyone say, oh, Amos, that's my favorite book of the Bible.

I mean, where did it come from? It was as if James is just pulling off a veil.

And then you see something about the promises of the kingdom of God to David's

kingdom, that always included the Gentiles.

But when you're reading the Old Testament, you don't see it as clearly as when

you get to the New Testament and the work of Christ and now the apostles pulls

off the cover, pulls off the veil, and it's there in front of you.

This is a mystery Paul talked about a lot in many of his other letters.

Listen to this. In Ephesians.

Paul says, having made known to us the mystery of his will,

according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him, that in the dispensation

of the fullness of times, he might gather together one in all things in Christ,

both which are in heaven and on earth in him.

So there was something told in the Old Testament, but it was a bit covered.

It was slightly veiled. But now in the New Testament is being unveiled.

In Ephesians 3, he also says this. He says, when you read, now that you can

understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.

Again, a mystery, something covered, but now the mystery of Christ,

verse 5, he says, in which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men

as it has been revealed by the Spirit in his holy apostles and prophets.

Something that's pulling off the veil now.

That, here it is, that Gentiles, that Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the

same body and partakers of the same promise. Colossians 1, he says the same thing.

The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generation,

but has now been revealed to his saints.

To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of his glory and the mystery

among the Gentiles in Christ, which is the hope of glory.

All these days, the prophets have spoken of it. All these centuries, all these millennium.

In fact, the prophet Amos was written about 2,700 years ago.

Almost 3,000 years ago, the prophet Amos was telling us something that is now

unveiled right in front of our eyes.

And it's unveiled at this council of Jerusalem. And I wouldn't be,

I would be remiss if I didn't keep putting in ecclesiology and reminding you,

this is where we get our structure for our church. This is why we're Presbyterian.

We're presbyteros just means elder. So you'll notice that elders from different

churches gathered together in a higher council in Jerusalem and they gathered

together and they discussed and they debated and they came to a conclusion.

We have elders in local churches that meet in regional meetings that also meet

in general assemblies. It comes from this passage.

I just have to keep putting a plug in. Because sometimes you grow up.

When I grew up a Baptist, I didn't know why I was a Baptist.

I just was a Baptist. That's what I was because that's how I grew up.

So you need to know why we're Presbyterian. It comes right here from this scripture.

We saw last week that circumcision was talked about. That was the main issue.

That was the flashpoint.

Why did they circumcise? They circumcised unto the hope of Messiah.

And now that Messiah has come, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is

nothing. We're all one in Christ.

And the kingdom of God, even pointed to in circumcision, was never going to

be a Jewish or Abrahamic kingdom, never.

So now we get to this part of the council of Jerusalem where Peter speaks in a speech.

I'm going to get my, I'm sure. In fact, let me get a drink. The apostles and

the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

Excuse me. And after that, there was much debate. Peter stood up and said to

them, brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you

that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel.

And by the way, just as a note, Peter from this point forward virtually vanishes from the book of Acts.

He's just gone. Poof. He's been the central figure up into introducing Paul and Barnabas.

And now Peter makes this grand speech of the Council of Jerusalem.

And as if to say, my role in introducing you to the Gentiles is finished.

The rest of it belongs to Paul and Barnabas and the church to take the gospel to the world.

Peter makes this speech and he reminds them of what he has already been saying

in the book of Acts and to everyone else, that he heard from God directly that

the kingdom of David was going to be given to the Gentiles and there would be

no distinction between Jews and Gentiles.

He had a vision in Acts chapter 10. Remember the vision where we're now allowed to eat bacon, right?

Acts 10 · chapter mention

We can enjoy pork. We can enjoy a lot. Why? Because God is saying there's neither clean or unclean.

He says that, and a voice spoke to him against the second time,

what God has cleansed, you must not call common three times.

After that, Peter said, that means God has revealed it to me and I'm revealing

it to you. And then he goes on to say that not only that, but when the gospel

was preached to the Gentiles, they also received the Holy Spirit.

And immediately he says, let's baptize him.

We see that baptism has replaced circumcision as the sign of the covenant.

When you believe, you're to believe and be baptized. That's the order.

And baptism now is the sign of the covenant for all nations, not just Jews.

Baptism is the new covenant sign. That's why he said, can anyone forbid water

that these should be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have.

I'm going to draw that attention to you because Peter changes his description.

And in this very speech, up to now, Peter has been saying, they're going to

be saved just as we are. They're going to be baptized just as we were.

Later, you'll see him say, we're going to be saved just as they are.

Quite a magnificent little shift. You'll notice it.

So Peter is saying, this is a sovereign work of God. And as such,

we do not want to put a yoke on Gentile believers.

He says in Acts 15, 10, now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by

placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

It's fascinating. Remember, we have seen the connection between the ministry

of Christ and the ministry of Peter and the ministry of Paul.

And Peter is reiterating that because that's exactly what Jesus said.

I'm not here to put a heavy yoke on you. In fact, his call was a beautiful call.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.

He even says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and lowly

in heart and you'll find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Peter referring back certainly to the

words of Jesus who said, why are you doing what our savior Jesus never intended anyone to do?

We don't add works for salvation. We don't add difficult things. We don't add burdens.

We don't say you have to do extra work. Believe in the name of the Lord Jesus

Christ and you'll be saved, you and your household.

It's the opposite of Jesus. So the Jewish believers were trying to contradict

the words of Christ and the words of Peter and the words of the law and prophets

themselves, who never intended those burdens to be on God's people forever.

Just like, by the way, just like anything, it's interesting to me,

I'll take a side note into Christian legalism.

Christian legalism is the same thing. Isn't it funny? Christian legalism is

always like, well, you know, God just didn't make it clear enough that you shouldn't

drink wine, so we're just going to add it.

It didn't say that, but we're going to make it clearer. That's what these legalists,

well, we need to make it clear that these new Gentiles are truly part of the

covenant. So let's add things that God never added and God never intended to

be added. The opposite of Jesus.

Jesus liberates, Jesus liberates, and these people were trying to burden them.

And I want to point out what I mentioned just a second ago, Acts chapter 15, 11.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Peter says, but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord

Jesus Christ, just as they will.

It's a slight shift, but all throughout Peter's speech, as I'm looking back

in Acts, he's always saying, well, I guess since the Gentiles are believing

and they received the Spirit just as we had, he said, then I guess they can be included.

And I guess they got the Holy Spirit just as we had, just as we had. Now he switches it.

It's amazing. He puts Gentiles and Jews on a completely equal level with regard to salvation.

Peter makes an interesting switch. Now all people will be saved the same.

And we Jews are going to be saved the same as the Gentiles that are believing

in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 13, after they finished speaking, James now rises up.

James, the brother of Jesus, rises up and replies, Brothers, listen to me.

Simon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take for them a people for his name.

By the way, I'm resisting doing like four sermons in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

So just if I go really fast, just know that's why.

Because there could be a whole sermon just on this statement.

James stands up and says, guess what?

God is going to take from the Gentiles a people for his name.

This is absurd to a Jew because God had always up to this point had been contrasting

his people from the nations.

The circumcised were the special treasure of God. The circumcised were the center

of God's love against the nations.

And now James just stands up. Again, this is where this unveiling at the Council

of Jerusalem is so powerful. James just comes back and says, no, no, no, no.

The Gentiles are going to be a people for his name.

That's us, by the way. By the time we get through this, I really want you to

be almost as excited as David was. Remember, we're gonna get to where David

was dancing. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, amen.

I don't really want you to dance like that, but the enthusiasm of what's happening here is amazing.

Now, the people of God, and they were always given this title,

you are my special treasure. You are my people. You are a royal nation,

a holy priesthood to God. That's Israel, that's Israel.

And yet Peter comes along and says this, You, that's us, beloved, we are living stones.

We're being built in a spiritual house, a holy priesthood for spiritual sacrifices.

He goes on to talk about the building that the church of God,

the tabernacle, keep that in mind, the place where God dwells with his people.

It says, but you are a chosen generation. Get this church, that's us.

A title and a designation once exclusively given to Israel is now given to us.

You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

What? Yeah, Gentiles, church members, baptized.

His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you

out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Guess what he says, Peter. Peter chapter two, verse 10.

You who were once not a people, are now the people of God. That's exactly what James says.

He's going to take from the nations a people for his name.

And to the Jews there, especially those guys who are saying,

no, you first have to be a Jew and then you can be a Christian.

No, no. They would have blown their minds. No, there's no such distinction.

And we know that because James goes on further to draw from Amos.

This is a, for me, I know you can see your pain. For me studying this this week,

I'm wow, where did this come from?

Amos, like we said, who knows where Amos is? Who knows what Amos is about?

He's usually known as like the social justice prophet, you know,

Martin Luther King, let justice roll down like, you know, that's usually Amos.

That's all we know about Amos.

It's all about the judgment of God on Israel. Did you hear what was read today?

God's going to destroy them. There's nowhere they're going to flee.

They can go to heaven. They can go to hell.

There's nowhere you're going to go to escape the judgment of God.

But after that judgment,

In the future, one day, God is going to restore the tabernacle to David.

This is what James says. He said, and with these words, the prophets agree.

It's interesting too, because not just Amos, but all the prophets,

all the Old Testament, all the law are agreeing on this.

After this, I will return and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen.

I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore the tabernacle, restored to David.

That unto the purpose, you see, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord

and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord,

who make all these things known from the fold. Just pulls back the veil.

And you see in the prophet Amos, like, I never recognized that.

I never saw that because Amos tends to be, and we think of it when we read it,

all about Israel, all about the judgment and restoration of Israel's kingdom, of the nation of Israel.

And here now, James is saying, it's been about the Gentiles all along.

And you missed it. It was covered.

And you'll notice something, and I hope, are we together? I hope that once you

notice it, you can't unnotice it. I can't.

Sometimes when you see something in the Bible, you just can't unsee it,

right? It's everywhere.

That's the way this is. That's the way it should be for us. When we talk about

the blessings of the kingdom of David for centuries, and I grew up in a church

where I was always told the blessings of the kingdom of David,

well, not for you, Gentiles, not for the church.

We're in a temporary period. And then someday later, those blessings are going to come true.

But actually, if you look at what's told from Amos and the whole kingdom of David, by the way.

Again, how did the kingdom of David come into existence?

It's interesting that you read, and I want you to notice this too.

It's a helpful way, I think. When you're reading the Old Testament,

and it happens all the time, you read a story, a narrative about this person,

and they're going here, and what?

All of a sudden, a story drops out of nowhere, right?

Abram goes up to rescue Lot. Yay, they win. They're coming back.

All of a sudden, everything stops in this city called Salem or Jerusalem,

and there's a priest and king and prophet named Melchizedek,

And it's like, doesn't make any sense to the story because all he was going

to do is rescue Lot and go back to the land.

But instead, down in the middle of this story, almost interrupting it,

is this prophecy. And Hebrews tells us later, oh, guess what?

Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. You see these stories all

the time. Pay attention to them.

They make sense, usually from the New Testament, when the veil is pulled off

and you're like, oh, that was the purpose all along.

In the coming of the kingdom of David, Guess what? David's kingdom would not

exist at all if it weren't for Gentiles.

You say, well, what's that? Again, you're reading Genesis 37,

you get to chapter 38, and there's this really weird story about Onan spilling

his seed and this and that, and Tamar, and all of a sudden at the end,

Judah, and Tamar tricks him into incest. You're like, what?

That's a weird story out of nowhere. Guess what? It interrupts the line of Judah.

And the law says, not until the 10th generation, can incest be restored and

enter into the holy of the Lord's?

Guess what happens at the end of the book of Ruth? Obed's birth,

10 generations of restoring.

The kingdom or the line of Judah was interrupted by incest. And guess what?

The story of Ruth begins with the story of Elimelech, a descendant of Judah

who dies and his sons die. And there is no hope. Guess what?

If a Gentile woman named Ruth the Moabitess would never have entered in that

scene, there would be no kingdom of David.

Ruth the Moabitess, a Gentile from a cursed land, comes in and interrupts our

story and revives, literally resurrects the kingdom of David.

And she does it, ironically, by marrying Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

a harlot, a Gentile who comes into this story seemingly out of nowhere.

And now we're told, and now we understand, I see, the whole kingdom of David

would never have existed without blessings from the Gentiles.

Are we together? Gentiles are the reason there's a kingdom of David.

And with the rise of David's kingdom, Gentiles would be blessed.

Gentiles are instrumental and Gentiles are all throughout it.

In fact, the book of Matthew begins with the genealogy of the kingdom of David.

And all throughout this genealogy, I think some of you years and years ago when

I preached through Ruth, you heard some of this, but it's amazing.

The book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham,

it goes on through, It has these weird people in here.

If you and I were going to choose our genealogy, we wouldn't put them in there,

right? Like Rahab the prostitute? Come on.

Like I've got some uncles. I got some uncles. You all have uncles like this.

And you're like, eh, if I'm writing my genealogy, Uncle Bob,

let's just not put him in there because Uncle Bob's a little crazy.

So, but here right in the middle, and it says it, and Jacob,

the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. What?

Would you put incest in your genealogy on purpose?

And Perez, the father of Hezron, Hezron, the father of Ram, it goes on.

And it says in Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz,

the father of Obed by Ruth.

And it goes on, even mentions that Solomon was born to Bathsheba,

the wife of Uriah, the Hittite.

Gentile, Gentile, Gentile, Gentile, critical to the rise of the kingdom of David.

Without those Gentiles, there would be no kingdom of David.

And now Amos points us to another story about his kingdom where he says, guess what, guys?

There's a story tucked into the middle of the prophet Amos, we're at the end,

where it reminds us of what's going to happen in the future when David's kingdom

is finally blessed by Messiah or Christ.

And it says, and he quotes, I will return and rebuild the tent of David that

has fallen. What is that story talking about?

Bible quiz, Bible quiz. 2 Samuel 6. I know you were going to say it.

I wouldn't have known it either off the top of my head. So 2 Samuel 6,

there's a strange story about restoring the tabernacle to the kingdom of David,

to Mount Zion, to the city where God dwells, the holy city.

David's kingdom was largely at peace. He wanted to restore the tabernacle.

He sent for the tabernacle to be brought. You know the story.

Yeah. And as the tabernacle is brought up, well, first it went to the Philistines,

right? And they were all cursed.

And before that, even Eli and all his sons are killed and they're all dying

in shame. And there's the tabernacle captured by the Philistines.

David isn't distraught. He doesn't know what to do.

So he says, let's bring it up. Uzzah touches the ark. Remember the story? And God kills him.

David is just like, what do I do?

And so the ark stays for 20 years in exile. And then David finally says,

we need the presence of the Lord in my kingdom.

Don't forget, by the way, that is the critical promise.

All the kingdom promises, not the land, it's not the victories,

it's not the gold, it's not the silver, it's that God's people needed God's

presence in their midst.

That's always the central promise of the covenant, that God would be with us,

that God would dwell with us.

So David finally sends away, and there's a story, multiple stories,

by the way, Chronicles talks about it, 1 Samuel 6 and 2 Samuel 6.

And so they finally, David says, let's move the ark.

Uzzah touches it, and he says, I'm done. And then it sits down in a funny place.

This is, again, when you read these funny places and these stories,

like, what? What is that about?

Well, it says that it was set down in a place. It says, so David would not move

the ark with him into the city of David, but took it aside and set it in the

house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite.

Another ite. You know, there's Uriah the Hittite, and now there's...

By the way, you know, if you know biblical geography, Gittite was referenced

to the city of Gath, where Goliath was from.

So here, again, seemingly out of nowhere, there's this Gentile,

a great guy, Obed-Edom. There he is.

The ark, David just says, leave it there. Let's see what happens.

And guess what? The Lord blessed the Gentile, Obed-Edom.

Sitting down the ark, just there it is, out of nowhere, he's hosting the ark.

And David says, wait a minute, this Gentile is getting blessed.

Let's move the ark to the city.

And by the way, Obed-Edom has a great, great history. Not only did Obed-Edom

later go up to the city of Jerusalem, but the Bible tells us that all of his

descendants not only worked in the temple, they became the guardians of the temple treasure.

Gentiles who rose, how? Well, with the rise and restoration of the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant.

Because of the blessings of God to Obed-Edom, David was encouraged to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.

And that, according to Amos and according to James and Peter,

that should have told us in forecasting, foreshadowing form,

that when God restores the fortunes of the kingdom of David,

he's going to push it out to the whole world,

and all the Gentiles will be able to come in.

His kingdom, David's kingdom becomes something of a paradigm or an example of

the blessings of God that would go to Gentiles.

And all throughout it, from its beginning with Ruth and Rahab and to its ending

with Obed-Edom blessing, being blessed by the presence of the Lord and indicating

to David it's time for the house it's time for the house of David to be blessed with what?

The presence of God. Every king's hope.

So the idea of David acting as a model for Messiah's kingdom.

And listen to what it says here. This is interesting too. And I just,

again, I wasn't just playing around with Bible AI this week, but it was fun.

You start looking at David's kingdom. Not only did it exist because of Gentiles,

and then it was when his kingdom was blessed, Gentiles were blessed.

There's an interesting list of names in 2 Samuel 23. A lot of times you skip these names. I do.

My daily Bible writing, I admit I'll go, okay. a narrative.

But in this list of name, it's interesting that David surrounded himself with

elite warriors, 30 special warriors like the Navy SEALs or the Green Berets

of David's kingdom. They were there. And guess what?

Almost all of them were Gentiles. You look at the list in 2 Samuel 23.

I won't read it all because it says, David appointed over his guard,

Ashel, brother of Joab, who was one of 30. Yeah, you would expect that, a Jew, brother of Joab.

And then another guy. And then this list, Shema the Horodite,

Elika the Horodite, Helez the Palatite, Ere, the son of Ekez, the Techoite.

And then there's Anathonite, and there's a Hushite, and there's a Hoahite.

I'm not going to get all the heights, actually, all the way through,

but there's a Netophetite, and then there is a Barhurite, and then there's a

Shalbonite, and then another Horite, and there's a Makakite.

There's a lot more ites, by the way. I won't read them all.

But all of a sudden you realize, oh my goodness, we should have seen this.

The rise of David's kingdom, Gentiles.

The blessings of the Ark of the Covenant, Gentiles. The overall blessings of

the kingdom of David, Gentile, Gentile, Gentile, Gentile.

Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Everything about the rise of David's kingdom was attended by the blessings of

God to the Gentiles. That was its purpose.

That was what it was pointing to when Jesus Christ would come and be with his

people and dwell with his people, it would not be a Jewish kingdom.

It would be a kingdom for all the world, a kingdom in which David's kingdom

would now bless the whole world. And that's exactly what happened with his son Solomon, isn't it?

David's kingdom was blessed. He gave his kingdom to his son.

Solomon built the temple.

And from Mount Zion, that great city that David's kingdom built all over the world, what happened?

Gentiles started coming to the city.

It's no coincidence that that kingdom's blessings brought a beautiful Ethiopian woman to the city.

And then she went back. Supposedly, she had Solomon's son, according to the Ethiopians.

But nonetheless, that's why it's not a surprise in our story in Acts that one

of the first Gentiles we see saved along the road is an Ethiopian eunuch

right there to show us that David's kingdom was a kingdom that was going to bless all the Gentiles.

It's part of the reason why we see David so excited When that ark started coming

back Up the mountain he could see it,

And that's when David started dancing, took off his crown. Now,

as a kid, I thought, when I read it first, I thought, David took off all his

clothes. That is kind of naughty.

But it looks like he just simply stripped off all his royal garments as if I

would just take off this robe, throw it down, and started dancing and started singing.

Remember, one of his wife, Michal, was jealous and angry, probably because her

father's kingdom had been stripped from her father and given to David because he was so indignant.

But he was so filled with joy at the blessings of the Lord because this was the hope of his kingdom.

This was the hope of David's kingdom. With King David rising to the throne of

Jerusalem, Gentiles came in the train of his royal garments.

That's exactly what Jesus Christ does.

And I'm here to tell you, like the old rabbis used to teach like this a lot.

Jesus taught like this from something to something else by saying how much more.

If the Lord takes care of the sparrows, how much more will he take care of us?

If the Lord does this, how much more? And I would tell you this morning as we

close, if David was rejoicing, if David was rejoicing over the ark coming and

the blessings to the Gentiles, how much more should we be blessing the Lord? Because we are that ark.

God's presence is now with us. We don't even think about this anymore.

We don't think, well, who's a Jew and who's a Gentile?

We all just assume that Gentiles are coming into the kingdom from all over the

world, and they are, and we are one of them.

This local congregation is a great expression of all the blessings of David's

kingdom through Jesus Christ where people from every tribe and tongue and nation

can come into the Lord and God dwells with us.

And we're gonna close this service with the Lord's Supper. He not only dwells

with us, he eats and drinks with us. He loves us, he feeds us.

So if David rejoiced, if David rejoiced with the restoration of the tabernacle,

how much more should we rejoice this morning and always

that the Lord has restored his tabernacle to the kingdom of David through Christ

and in us. Amen? Let's pray together.

Lord, now we thank you for David's kingdom. We thank you for the mighty way

in which, in almost surprising ways, you resurrected his kingdom with Gentiles,

and you blessed his kingdom with Gentiles.

Even Obed-Edom, who had no place in the house of the Lord, and yet he entered

into that great city, Zion, the city of God, rejoicing in his children's children,

were blessed in that city as gatekeepers of the temple of God.

Lord, if David rejoiced, how much more this morning Should we rejoice,

at the blessings that we have At the presence of God As we come to this table,

Lord Help us to remember with great thanksgiving,

That our entrance into this temple And the presence of God Who tabernacles among

us Came to us by his body and his blood Through his death on the cross Feed

us on this, we pray in Jesus' name Amen.