A Prophesy of Posterity

I’m purely guessing about this, but I don’t know if any of you can say that last week you helped preside in a funeral for your birth mother, who gave you up two weeks after you were born. Anybody else say that? Man, you guys don’t live the life of adventure. I told you I was adopted before, but when I was around 30, my birth mother and half-sister found me, and we had kind of talked and gone to see them off and on a little bit over the years.

And then my birth mother died, and we had a funeral on Friday, and they asked me to be a part of the funeral. And I got there, and it was at First Presbyterian Church in Topeka, right across from the Capitol. It’s one of the coolest buildings you can get.

And the associate pastor of the church, who was a really cool guy, he said to me, I bet this really makes you feel awkward. And I said, yes, as a matter of fact, it does. It feels kind of strange, because this is not the family I grew up with.

This is not everybody. I didn’t know all the family and everyone there, and I felt out of place. Like, I was saying to Holly, I think I’m the black sheep of the family, because no one was supposed to know about this when I was born.

And I’m the result of what no one was supposed to know about. And I remember going into the room where the family was to greet my, who would be my aunt of birth, my birth mother’s sister. And her daughter was there, whom I never met before.

And she stood up, and I almost had no words, because she looked so much like me. And I remember, I was just looking at her, and her mom said, you know, he’s a relative, and explained it a little bit. And she said, well, I can see the resemblance.

And I was like, wow, I can see the resemblance, too. Now, I grew up being adopted not knowing anyone of whom I was blood-related to. So, I mean, that’s part of why it was so awesome to have a family of my own and see blood relation, although I’m sorry about some of the stuff you inherited.

I grew up, and when you think about psychology and biology, when it’s nature versus nurture, I was always big on nurture, because I didn’t know anything about nature in my background. I knew that what I learned, there are certain characteristics you learn from those you grow up with, like your gait is what they call it, the way you walk, the way you move, your mannerisms, even the way you eat, you pick up from those who you look up to. So I picked up a lot of that stuff from my adoptive parents, a lot of things in my personality from my adoptive parents, the only parents I knew, and meeting my family and seeing some of those traits and some of those physical things, the nature things, I could see some of those connections.

We all have something that we picked up from someone else. Whether it’s in our genetics and we can’t help it, or whether it’s in our nurture or our environment, things that shape us and mold us and make us into who we are. We have been going over Psalm 22, today is the last Sunday for Psalm 22, and the sermon series is entitled, Seeing Through Jesus’ Eyes.

It is an amazing prophecy in the Bible, where it looks like David got to see through Jesus’ eyes on the cross. I mean, he even opened by saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Eloi, Eloi, lam sabachthan, which is what Jesus said on the cross. And then he talked about what Jesus saw on the cross, a thousand years in advance.

And it’s one of the most amazing texts that God would give us such an amazing prophecy. Last week, after talking about all the moments that David had speaking through what he saw in Jesus, last week, he stopped, and he started praising God, and he started realizing that at the cross, something amazing happened. And then he stepped back, and David was praising God for what an amazing thing happened on the cross.

And this week, he continues on to that, but he takes that praise to a whole other level. Will you stand as you are able? Our scripture today is Psalm 22, 28-31. Even he who cannot keep his soul alive, posterity will serve him.

It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has performed it. The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God.

Thanks be to God. Amen. You may be seated.

After praising God for seeing what an amazing thing it was on the cross, remember we had the soldier last week in Mark, that Mark said, when he saw how he breathed his last, he said, surely this man was a son of God. And in that, there was something that David saw as well, that in the midst of what Jesus went through on the cross, he started praising God. And then he goes on this week to say, for the kingdom is the Lord, and it rules over the nations.

Now David, being the king of Israel, the greatest king in Israel history, conquered more people than anybody ever could have by the assistance of the Lord, said the kingdom is the Lord. Now there’s a sense of that meaning, our kingdom in our country is the Lord. We offer it to the Lord and we trust in the Lord, but he goes on to say, and it rules over the nations.

So there’s a sense of what David says when he sees what Jesus does on the cross, that says not just the kingdom of Israel, but the kingdom of heaven. The king of kings and the Lord of lords just gave everything on that cross. But in the midst of that, the Holy Spirit either told David, or David could just sense it by being in the presence of Jesus, that what Jesus did on the cross was not just for the Jew, but also for the Gentile, for the rest of the world, for everyone in the world.

And the sense of moving on from just blessing the kingdom of Israel to realizing the Lord is Lord over all the nations, that God is so much greater than what we see right here before us. It’s an amazing transition he makes. Isaiah as well, hundreds of years later, makes that same move.

He says in Isaiah 45, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. So when he says, turn to me all the ends of the earth, he’s not just saying, turn to me Israel.

All the ends of the earth, all these hints, all these things that were said in the Old Testament about us having a chance. And without Jesus on that cross, we are left out of the fun. Or the torture, depending on what you have to go through for Jesus.

All the ends of the earth will be saved. And in another sense, Paul said this and Peter said this in one of his sermons. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

There is a sense of going from, okay, this is your birthright, this is your blood, this is who you are, to a sense of saying in Jesus Christ, you can now be a part of the family of God. This is something that we so often take for granted because we’ve known it our whole lives or as long as we’ve been in church that we can be a part of the family of God. But it all started because of what happened on that cross with Jesus.

That if he wouldn’t have died for us. We’d be left out of the kingdom. And then in Isaiah 45, 23, it also says, that to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.

Every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father is how Paul takes that in Philippians. Every knee will bow.

There’s a sense of it being isolated from just a certain group of people who are chosen to the world. And it’s a transition that David saw a thousand years before. But people didn’t recognize it at the time of Jesus.

And he rules over the nations. And then David goes on to say, all the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. Now, a psalm is a psalm because it is poetry.

You’ll see in the Hebrew poetry that there’s often repetition. What David does is repeat a lot of things, but there’s also a progression that comes with this. There’s a sense of repetition in the first part, the kingdom is the Lord’s.

And he rules over the nations. Kingdom rules. See, it’s connected.

And then you go on here. All those who bow down to the dust, all the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before him.

Worship, bow before him. Even he who cannot keep his soul alive. So there’s a sense here that David has of everyone being able to come into the presence of God and worship God being able to come before God.

Not just the prosperous, but also the one who goes down to the dust, who is lower than the dust. So there’s a sense of the rich or the poor, it doesn’t matter. Are you rich? Are you poor? Everyone has an opportunity to worship Jesus.

And then even he who cannot keep his soul alive, for those who can’t feed themselves, or for those who are sick, or for those who cannot get what they need, whether it’s health, or food, or whatever, all of those will worship him. Then David progresses another step. He says, posterity will serve him.

Posterity seems like one of those cliche words because it’s so vast. Basically, posterity means the seed to the nth generation. So what David is getting at here is a sense of forever, never ending.

That with what he saw Jesus did on the cross, it affects the next generation and the generation after that. And at every age to come after that, posterity will serve him. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.

It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation that what happens with Jesus is not just for those who were able to witness it with him, but then he’s already got that sense of eternity with what happened to Jesus right there. And he goes on to say, they will come and declare his righteousness. It will be told, they will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has performed it.

They will declare his righteousness, meaning people who were not of the family of God will be a part of the family of God. And all of them will have the opportunity to declare his righteousness. And then it closes with that he has performed it, that what David saw was the finality of what happened on the cross.

And many people connect that to John 19 and 30, where it says, therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And they connect he has performed it to it is finished. And that performance affects everyone from that point forward.

Ray Portland says, 50 years ago, my dad and mom gave me a new Bible. It was my senior year in high school, the first week of two-a-day practices. Anybody remember two-a-day practice? I still have to pause when I think about that.

And I crawled home that day, bone tired. Mom made me a special dinner since it was my birthday. And dad gave me a Bible with the following inscription.

But nothing could be greater than to have a son, a son who loves the Lord and walks with him. Your mother and I have found this book our dearest treasure. We give it to you, and in doing so, can give nothing greater.

Be a student of the Bible, and your life will be full of blessing. We love you, dad. September 7, 1966.

And then he wrote Philippians 1, 6. And he said, as I read these wonderful words from 50 years ago, it never occurred to me to think, dad doesn’t really believe that. It’s just religious talk. I knew he meant it, because I watched him live it.

He was a student of the Bible, and his life was full of blessing. And I wondered what he had. It took me a few years to get clarity in some ways, not surprisingly.

But on that day, on this day, so long my dad said something to me that left a deep impression. It moved me then, and it moves me now. What happens with that is, we have an impact on those around us.

That when David is talking about the gospel, and he said, it’s for everyone in every nation, but he also said, it’s forever. It’s for posterity. Posterity will worship him, meaning generation after generation after generation after generation after generation.

That it is for everyone, all time, no matter if we live in a world today where the world seems to say, the crucifixion doesn’t mean anything to me. We don’t walk around and say, ooh, you need to know more, without knowing that what Jesus did was for everyone, in every place, in every time. Billy Graham said it like this.

Every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the past generations. We cannot bear full responsibility for the next one.

But we do have our generation. God will hold us responsible as to how we fulfill responsibilities to this age and take advantage of our opportunity. Now, I like when Billy Graham transitions to this age, meaning this time we have.

This time in history that is finite, and we have this opportunity. And somehow there’s a sense in when David sees what God has done through Jesus on that cross, it impacts every generation. But just like David was called to be a part of it and call it out to everyone else, so are we called to call it out to everyone else, to talk about the crucifixion, and eventually the resurrection of Jesus, and how that today, and how that matters in our lives, that we play a role in that posterity, not just with those within our own house, but with people out in the world that are hurting, that are lost, that need God in their lives, that each one of us has a role, like Billy Graham says here, to talk about Jesus in this day and age.

The crucifixion has not passed its time. The crucifixion of Jesus impacts all time until Jesus returns again. And we are, like David, called to share about Jesus, to share that we all need Jesus.

And the crucifixion brought us from a point where we don’t have to walk around with the guilt, and the shame, and the hurt, and the pain that we have, but how we take this prophecy in Psalm 22 and serve every generation after this is just by talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, how amazing it is, how much God loves us, and how much Jesus dying on the cross changes everything for the whole world, for all time. This is not the generation for us, and when I say generation, I mean the age, for us to shy away from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is the time for us to let the world know how loved we are by God.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, thank you so much for Jesus. Thank you that he died on the cross for us.

Thank you that through him, we have hope. Through him, we have forgiveness. And through the crucifixion of Jesus, we are drawn into your presence.

Help us to praise you like David, to realize that what Jesus did is forever. The world’s always going to try to shut Jesus out, but it’s up to us to open the door so others can hear about God’s love, so others can know what happened on that cross affects us today in 2025, and it’s something that we need to talk about, that we need to live out, and we need to show others around us that we have been impacted, our lives have been changed, and that God loves us even more than we can imagine because of that cross. In Jesus’ name, amen.