Themes of the Bible: The Lord is Come (Psalm 98)

 

Themes of the Bible: The Lord is Come (Psalm 98)

When I was in seminary, back in 2014, I wrote an essay titled, “Hermey Doesn't Like To Make Toys…” and posted it online, and it’s one of the few things I’ve created that’s ever gone remotely “viral.” It wasn’t anything monumental, more of my own frustration with the church’s failing to capitalize on Christmas as an outreach opportunity, and my own personal distain for the holiday season and what its “supposed” to represent, either to the world or to followers of Christ. The final admonishment was that we accept a feigned mask of joy, when the world is still filled with lots of evil. In fact, much of it is exasperated with the holidays. And Christmas time is a time that's supposed to be filled with joy. So whenever things happen that aren't joyful, whenever things happen that are tragic, maybe it's because I do this full-time ministry thing or where I teach the Bible and so whenever you're in ministry, whenever bad things happen, people a lot of times tell you about it, or seek after you because of it. But whatever the reason may be, I can tell you there's never been a Christmas season that I've gone through, where I have felt more overwhelmed by people's stories of pain and suffering and loss and grief and maybe you've been fortunate enough, and that hasn't touched you this past holiday season. But I think for a lot of us, maybe it's somebody that we lost, and this is the first holiday season without them. Maybe there is something going on, whatever. I know a guy who told me not long ago that he and his wife had just lost their three-year-old son in a terrible accident. And I'm sitting here and from now on every Christmas season this guy and his wife, that's what they're going to think about. That's supposed to be joy at Christmas, but there will never be a Christmas season that this tragedy isn't going to be at the forefront of their minds.

If you remember when we did the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, we talked about how we as believers, of course we grieve when we lose someone that we care about. When this tragedy strikes, we grieve. It's a human emotion. But unlike the world, we don't grieve as those without hope. We grieve because we do have hope and yet, it's still very hard. And you can speak to the fact that words don't do a whole heck of a lot. It's nice that people express those things. But as far as taking away the emotions that you are feeling, and the struggles that you're going through, words aren't alive.

We always talk about Christmas being a season of hope. You see it on cards, you see it in storefronts, you see it in commercials, that this is a season of hope and churches are at the forefront of that every year. We tell this fantastic story. It is an unbelievable story to a lot of people that there is a sovereign God over the universe, and He decided simply because He loves us so much to fold his glory down into this human form and take on our fallen flesh. He lives a lonely life, a mysterious life that a lot of people can't figure out. He lives a sinless life and what is his reward for doing that? He gets to die a martyr's death simply to open up a path to eternity for all of us. There is a lot of hope in that for you and I, and the life of Jesus may be mysterious because there is a lot of hope for us in it. All of us seek after that hope. But if I'm intellectually honest, I cannot help but acknowledge there is another explanation. And the German atheist Marxist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach gave this alternative; “What God really is, is a projection of my own needs that I've concocted. . .” He's saying that a person who loses a child finds that to be unbearable, and how do you find the strength to go on unless there is that hope that you'll see that child again? And so because of that, over time, a belief in God is going to develop because that belief brings the comfort that we as humans so desperately need. That's an idea, that God isn't really real. We create him in our minds to offer ourselves hope. Is that what we're celebrating? That honestly is the question that I'm putting before you today. Maybe a little heavy for what you were expecting. But I want to put that question in front of you, is all this Christmas stuff a creation of my human need for hope. And it's something that people a long time ago needed and so they created it, and then they passed it on to their children, and we needed it and now we're going to pass it on to our children. It's just this story that we're telling to try to comfort ourselves in the darkness of this universe that we're living in. We need to honestly ask ourselves that question. It's more important than anything else that you're going to ask yourself. And I would suggest, if you're going to answer it, then at least know why God's Word says that Jesus can at least understand the reason why we have hope. Why did God send the Son?

For the last year, we have looked at this text right here. This ‘themes of the Bible’ sermon series. We have looked at this text, and we've laid forward why we can believe and do believe that that is the authoritative word of God. So, if the Bible is the word of God, why did God send the Son? What does His Word say about it? Three things. Number one, Christmas happened so that Jesus would come and pay a ransom that we simply could not pay. That's what Mark’s gospel tells us, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Here is the king of the universe. He did not come here to be treated as a king. Instead, he came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Why did Jesus come? Why the manger? Why Christmas? To come and pay a ransom that you and I could never pay. Let me ask you a question. Go back to Genesis chapter 3. What's going on in that passage? You have Eve who's out there in the Garden of Eden and Satan is tempting her and what does Satan say to her? ‘Did God really say that you shouldn't eat the fruit that's from any tree in the garden?’ By the way, notice that he doesn't roll up to say, ‘hey, nobody's looking. Go eat the fruit.’ No, he gets Eve to question what God really says. And he’s doing the same thing today. ‘Did God really say you shouldn't look at those pictures. I mean, there's the Bible. Does God really say that? You can't be with the person that you love? If you really love them then it couldn't be wrong if it's love.’ That's what he does all the time. Did God really say this. . .? It gets you to question God's word and what does she answer back? She says, ‘yeah, in a nutshell, God said that we can't eat that fruit from that tree. And if we do, we're going to die.’ He says, you're not going to die.’ And so what does she do? She grabs the fruit and she takes a bite of it. Now here's my question, though she died. She doesn't die immediately. I mean physically right? Because she keeps talking and then God comes down and issues the punishment on Adam and Eve. So, if I'm looking at this from the outside, God said, you eat this fruit you're going to die. Satan says you eat this fruit and you're not going to die. She ate the fruit. She didn't die. It sure looks like Satan was right in that equation. You know why? Because human beings are always concentrating on the ‘here and now’ we’re always concentrating on the physical. The physical is what we pay attention to. Is there a physical consequence to our sin? Of course there is. If you don't follow God's standards for sexual morality, you may get and/or spread a sexually transmitted disease, that is a physical consequence. But ultimately, a sexually transmitted disease is not why God has said, ‘This is the type of sexuality that human beings are to engage in.’ It's about the spiritual life. It's about obedience to God. So spiritual death is what God was telling Adam and Eve that's going to happen to you if you eat the fruit. And it happened immediately when they did. They were separated from God. And it happened to you too the moment you chose to disobeyed God, and run it the way you wanted to run it. You died spiritually as well. You are in rebellion to God and now death owns you, because that's the punishment. It's the debt that we owe. And all we could pay was our soul. That's the ransom that existed. But this holiday is about Jesus coming to pay that debt, to give his life in place of your life that you owe to death because of your rebellion. And once paid, you no longer owe that debt. It's what the writer of Hebrews said, like we were in last week. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. . .” (Hebrews 2:14). Why did Jesus come to pay a ransom? That's what Christmas was about.

He also came to heal spiritual blindness. Remember when Jesus says in John’s gospel, “I have come as light into the world, that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). Here He's talking about spiritual blindness. The truth is that you and I live and we suffer through a dark world in moral blindness. The world we live in, it's the world we read about in the book of Judges, where everybody's doing what is right in their own eyes. ‘I know what's true for me, I know what's right for me, and I'm going to live that way. And you know what's right for you and you're going to live that way. Morality is just a social construct that we come up with and you can live the way you want to live. And I shouldn't tell you any differently.’ That's what this society says, and it's all around us. And if you tell someone that God’s word shows people the way they should live, you're a hater. You're a bigot. That's what we are. Everybody does what is right in their own eyes. And what did Jesus come to do? To give sight to those who are walking around in blindness. This to solve the problem with moral blindness.

And then thirdly, simply to open Heaven's door, something that had been shut to us? You probably know, one of the most well-known verses in the entire Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” But wait a minute. We still die, right? Yes. But what do we know from the resurrection of Lazarus? You know, that those who die merely fall asleep, you're simply changed to live on. That's the hope that this couple who lost their three year-old has, that when his eyes closed in death, his body died, but his soul is asleep and he's living on and they'll see him again. You have eternal life because of what Jesus started at Christmas and finished at Easter. You see, by rejecting God with our sin, you and I chose this world that we're living in, we chose a world apart from God. God never wanted any accidental deaths of three-year-olds. He doesn't want it to happen, and he never intended for it to happen to us. We're the ones that chose it. Where God is there are no catastrophic wildfires that destroy communities and homes and people's lives. For God there is no Taliban oppression, preventing women from going to school and exercising their freedoms. There is no violent street crime where four and five-year-olds are gunned down during drive by shootings. There is no war with China on the horizon. There is no COVID, there is no pandemic, none of this. That's what God intended and that's who He, and what He is. And for a year, we've been looking at these major portions of Scripture, and we've seen it all every page of Scripture has been pointing to this moment when Jesus comes, and then it continues on and we've seen the promised hope that heaven holds for each one of us. God saves the best for last, and when you get to these final pages of scripture. And that’s where we’ll be next week, looking at the glories of Heaven. We're going to be in Revelation and we're going to look at a couple passages and see right in front of us about what God is telling us is awaiting us human beings who are saved by grace. So, your assignment last reading assignment for this series is to read Revelation 21 and 22. The Promised Land that you are going to read about for next week, and that we're going to talk, that is all made possible by what we're talking about today, by the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It is the hope of eternal life that is tied directly to Christmas.

If I asked you to name for me the most recognizable Christmas song of all time, what would you say? Rudolph, White Christmas, maybe Jingle Bells,

Well, on Billboards’ top five most recognizable Christmas songs, number five on the list was Rockin’ around the Christmas tree. When people hear that, apparently they think Christmas, I always think of Kevin McAllister with the cardboard cutouts that are going around on the train. Anyway, number four on the list is ‘the most wonderful time of the year,’ which is the biggest lie I have ever heard in my entire life. Number three on the list is White Christmas by Bing Crosby Number two, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You.’ So far, you think Christmas, yet these are all secular songs. Yet, Billboard said what still to this day remains the most recognizable song that makes people think of Christmas is, Joy to the World. Now, here's what's amazing about that. I don't know if you're aware of this, but that song is not a Christmas song. When Isaac Watts wrote that song, he did not write it thinking of Christmas. In fact, the original title of Joy to the World was ‘The Messiah is coming in His Kingdom. And that Messiah is coming was not Him coming as a baby. It was about His Second Coming. That's what it is. It was the second coming of Christ, that brings joy to the world. Now go back and look at those words and notice how they're looking forward and what they're anticipating. And you can see it makes a lot more sense. “Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her King, every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature will sing. . .” It’s a song about our Savior reigning. “Fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains will repeat the sounding joy. . .” While certainly when Jesus came to the earth as a baby, sin and sorrow continued. Thorns continued to infest the ground, but they won't at the Second Coming of Christ. “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.” This is the second coming of Jesus when He will rule the world with truth and grace and He'll make the nation's prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love. That was about Christ's second coming. So be here next week and you're going to see a better picture of that, and you’ll see that it's going to be awesome.

And the scripture that inspired Isaac Watts to write that song, it's Psalm 98. Listen to these words. [Read Psalm 98:4-9]. Both the text and the song, they are looking forward. I hope you all have great memories of Christmas and continue to make new ones, but Christmas isn't about looking behind. It's never been what Christmas is about. Read the Christmas story. What is the angel say to Mary, that it's all about looking forward. ‘Your son will be great. He will be called the Son of the Most High, He will give Him the throne of his father David. He will reign over Jacob's descendants, His kingdom will never end.’ It's all looking forward. And what does the angel tell Joseph? She will give birth to a son and your to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.’ The joy of Christmas wasn't right it is what is to come because of these events. And our experience of the Christmas season should, if we are properly Biblically centered and have that biblical theology, it should be the exact same.

We don't have angels telling us, but we have the word of God telling us. Paul writes that, “Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death” (1 Corinthians 15:23-26).

And you know what happens when that occurs? All the deaths accidental of three-year-olds, it's over. He has put death under his dominion and under his feet. I think if we focus only on the incarnation, that Jesus comes as a baby, we're missing the point of what this whole thing is about. It's what all of the Old Testament saints were anticipating and looking forward to. You and I can look back with happiness that it occurred. But in the midst of our strife, we should be looking forward to the second coming of Christ when never ending joy will be brought to the earth. When everything is made right.

To close, I'm not predicting the end of the world, but correct me if I'm wrong, but isn’t the master chess player that we have seen all year long in this text? When everything seems like it's going against the kingdom of God, when nobody recognizes that he's arranged his pieces just where they need to be. Look at what happened then when Jesus came. Jesus was born in a day when political leaders were tyrants, when outcasts had no voice whatsoever, when poor people were marginalized. He came in the day when babies were being slaughtered for convenience, when rulers were issuing oppressive dictates that strip people of their free expression, when sexual perversion was normal, and it was rampant and when priests and religious leaders are corrupted by money and power. That's what Paul called ‘the fullness of time’ and in that moment, all the pieces have been arranged, and Jesus descended to this earth. I mean, am I wrong in saying that we're living in a day when political leaders have become tyrants, when outcasts among us have no voice in the operation of society and poor people are marginalized? Where babies are slaughtered for convenience because ‘it's our right.’ Were rulers our issuing oppressive dictates that strip people of their freedom and their expression, where sexual perversion is normal, widespread, and rampant. And if you don't, if you're not complicit with it, if you don't condone it, well, then you're a bigot. And many of the religious leaders are corrupt and they seem to be more concerned about the size of their buildings and the size of their budgets and the size of their bank accounts than they are with the kingdom of God that they are to be building.

We live in the very same kind of days when Jesus descended to the rescue the people in those days who were desperate for hope. And in that moment that Paul called ‘the fullness of time’ in their desperation, Jesus came and today you and I are facing the same kind of turmoil. But we also have that ever present hope that one day soon, God the Father is going to turn right in his throne to his one son through whom all things were made, the one son that descended as a baby and died a murderer’s death on your behalf. He's going to look at him, the one that resurrected from the grave and now reigns with the Father, He will look at His Son and say, “Son, it's time. Go bring them home.” So say with me and say with the first century believers the final words of Scripture, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Let’s pray.