The Queen Of Sheba & Jesus

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA & JESUS

1 Kings 10:1-7

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: True doctor office stories

1. JOKE.

a. About to have a blood test, Janet nervously waited while the nurse tightened a tourniquet around her arm. "I understand you're from Huntsville," she said. "Are you a Sam Houston State fan?"

b. "Absolutely!" Janet replied. "Well," the nurse continued as she raised the needle, "this may hurt a little. I'm from Nacogdoches!"

2. JOKE.

a. We brought our newborn son, Adam, to the pediatrician for his first checkup. As he finished, the doctor told us, "You have a cute baby."

b. Smiling, I said, "I bet you say that to all new parents." "No," he replied, "just to those whose babies really are good-looking."

c. "So what do you say to those with homely babies?" I asked. The doctor said, “I just tell them, ‘He looks just like you!’"

B. THESIS

1. In Jesus’ own day, the scribes and Pharisees pretended to care about whether Jesus was the Christ. They could have been easily convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah if they had only taken the trouble to examine his credentials.

2. They had the Law of Moses, the Word of the prophets, the testimony of John the Baptist and the miracles. Surely they could have connected the parallels between Jesus of Nazareth and the Messiah who was to come; but they refused to thoroughly investigate his claims and took it for granted that he was an impostor, and therefore rejected him.

3. About them God said; “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men” Isa. 29:13.

4. They pretended to want to know God, but made no real efforts to seek Him. Now remember; these Pharisees were very religious. They went to every church service. They read the Bible daily. They prayed. But it was all part of a routine for them; their hearts weren’t reaching up toward God. Could we fall into the same category?

5. We’re going to look at a person who was an earnest seeker of the Lord and gage our lives against hers to see if we really are seekers of God, or pretenders.

C. TEXT

1 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, 5 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings 1 Kgs 10:1-7.

D. TITLE: “The Queen of Sheba & Jesus.”

I. SHE HEARD & SOUGHT OUT

A. SHE WAS A SIGN TO US

1. Now Solomon was a type of Christ; he was the son of David; but there is a greater son of David – Jesus Christ. And this woman, the Queen of Sheba, represents a lost person seeking Christ. Let’s see what lengths she went to to seek Him.

2. Jesus said, “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).

B. THE EFFORTS SHE PUT OUT

1. The land of Sheba was located some 1,200 miles south of Israel. It corresponds to modern day Yemen. As she served in that country, the sailors and merchants that passed through shared the word of the greatness of King Solomon. What their testimony said about him was this: There's Nobody Like Him!

2. So she considered the distance, the dangers, the expense, the loss of time and money if the claims proved false; the loss to her reputation for chasing after a fairytale. She “counted the cost” of seeking out Solomon/Jesus and she determined that He was worth the risk and effort! The benefits – in her mind – would be worth the risks.

3. Now imagine the Lord Jesus telling the Pharisees that if the Gentiles, the “far-off ones,” should go to such lengths, then what were they doing? Because a greater than Solomon was here! The earnestness of the Queen of Sheba to learn the truth and meet the King was contrasted to the lack of effort by the Pharisees to learn about Him.