Perfect Love is Powerful Love (Midweek Advent 3)

Pastor Steve Bauer
Pastor Steve Bauer
Perfect Love is Powerful Love (Midweek Advent 3)
/

Perfect Love is Powerful Love


What is the perfect way of showing love? Months ago I was watching videos on Youtube. And there was a whole series of videos of wedding proposals gone bad. In one, there was a young man who proposed to his girlfriend in McDonalds. And, I suppose it’s not too surprising to learn, that she did not say, “yes.” If there was an image of perfect love in her eyes, that was not what it looked like. What then is perfect love in God’s eyes?’ That’s where God’s word begins here this evening. In 1 John 4, we read: “And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” (1 John 4:16 CSB17)


Perfect love in God’s eyes means remaining in him. Now, when John says that simple phrase, “remain in love” he means so much more than the bare meaning of the words on the page. Remaining in God is knowing perfectly and completely who God is: his absolute fairness and his absolute forgiveness. And it means holding that complete understanding in our hearts and minds continually. But there’s a problem with that, isn’t there? John tells us what that is: “In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17 CSB17)


God asks us to have perfect love. The enemy of and opposite of perfect love is fear. And the huge source of fear for us all is what John speaks about here: Judgment Day. How am I supposed to love the God who knows that I sin and how much I sin? Fear is the opposite of and enemy of love. But this isn’t just true when it comes to God. It’s also true when it comes to others. How can I show true Christian love towards others when there is real fear in my heart? I am afraid that I’ll mess it up. I’m afraid that, if I reach out and give some caring correction to that person, he or she will hate me. I’m afraid that when I show this perfect love towards another person, if that person knows me at all, he or she will say, “You stop sinning, then you can speak to me about sin.” God calls on us to have a perfect and complete love. But fear drives that out. Fear leads us to conclude that we are doomed on Judgment Day when we face our God and demoralized here as we face those in our every day lives. But look, my friends in Christ at what God says next: 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:18–19 CSB17)


Fear drives out love. But notice what God’s word tells us here: Perfect love drives out fear. And then John makes is clear the sort of love that he is speaking about. God’s love for us is the first love. Here, the word, “first” isn’t just first in time, it’s also first in priority. It’s first and foremost. When we start talking about perfect love, where do we need to start? We cannot start here in our hearts. Instead we need to start there in that child placed in a manger. We cannot start here on earth, we need to start with our Father’s love for us in heaven. That’s the priority: first look at God’s love for us in Christ. That love that he has for us drives out our fear toward him. For, if Jesus was born as true God and true man, and if he lived a perfect life in my place and died in my place, then all my sins are payed for and forgiven. And we can look forward to the Day of Judgment with peace and joy in hearts. the first place we go to; the foundation we build on is God’s love for us. And that love is a powerful love. Because of that love we are able to worship our God and lift our eyes above to him with a clean and clear conscience. One of the things we forget is to put ourselves in God’s shoes. That is risky sometimes. But here it is useful and even necessary. God loves us and proves it at Christmas. And because of that he does not want us to be afraid of him. I remember when I was a child there were two things my dad got angry at: fixing the car in the garage and when we children messed up. And I remember him walking into the living from from the garage with that determined look of pain and anger on his face. So I did what every child who wants to survive would do. I cried out in fear and ran into the corner, remembering that I had done something wrong and that Dad had, no doubt, found out. And when he saw me run to the corner, he stopped and stared at me. And the face full of anger became the face full of pain. For no one wants to be the father that is feared and people are terrified of. It’s true of our earthly fathers. It’s also true of our God above. His love for us drives out all fear. We are forgiven. So we can look up to him boldly with love towards him in our hearts. But John also directs our love in another direction. We read: 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.” (1 John 4:20–21 CSB17)


Perfect love is powerful love. It’s powerful as I show that love to God. But it’s also powerful love as I show love to others. How terrifying it is to want to reach out in love toward someone in our lives, but yet realize the problem is me. In the book of James it says, “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” (James 3:10 NIV11-GKE) What happens when, out of love for that person in our life, we say, “you need to stop lying” and then that person says, “you need to stop cussing”? What do we do? How do we show love toward that person? Notice where John directs our focus. We love because he first loved us. Again, not just first in time, but first in priority. Knowing God’s perfect love for us gives to us a powerful love toward others. For we are able to say, “I apologize for my sin for Jesus has forgiven that sin.” And those words are powerful. They are powerful because the person we are speaking to realizes that we are not speaking down to them. Those words are powerful because they show that, if God can forgive a sinner like me, he can reach out and stretch out with his perfect love and forgive that person too. And that sort of love frees us with its power. Instead of being afraid of showing love towards others, we are free because we know that God has forgiven us and God has forgiven the person we are speaking to.


And so, my brothers and sisters in Christ, love others just as Christ has loved you. But don’t start out there at home or at school or work. Don’t start with your love for others. First and foremost, start with God’s love for you proved to you in God taking on human flesh. Amen.



You Have Conquered With The Truth (Midweek Advent 1)

St. John the Evangelist
Pastor Steve Bauer
Pastor Steve Bauer
You Have Conquered With The Truth (Midweek Advent 1)
/

You Have Conquered With the Truth


How do you know? Just a few short weeks ago we cast our votes and our local and state representatives were chosen. But one of the parts of that process that got to be really frustrating were the ads. You would hear one ad saying “Bob Jones hates you and all people.” And with an ominous voice the ad would tell you how bad that candidate was. And then, the opposing candidate would do the same. And at the end of the month leading up to it you end up asking the question: how do you know what the truth is? The words we find ourselves in this evening have much the same context. But the issue the Holy Spirit brings to us is not politicians, but instead, preachers. In 1 John 4, we read: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1 CSB17)


John the Evangelist tells us that just as we shouldn’t believe every ad we hear or every article we see on the internet, we also should not believe every spirit. And he makes it clear in this verse what he means by the word, spirit. The spirits here are false prophets. And here it’s important also to understand the context in which John is speaking. The false teachers aren’t those on the outside of the church. Those on the outside of the church were a real threat. But that’s not what he’s speaking about here. Here in these words he’s speaking about false teachers on the inside of the Christian Church. And so, what John says is true: We are not to believe everyone who calls himself a Christian and preaches some semblance of the truth of God’s word. Instead we are to test them. But what is the test we should use? John tells us: 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.” (1 John 4:2–3 CSB17)


The litmus test, the knife that cuts through all the confusion is this: Does that preacher present all of who Jesus is? John places in front of us this amazing and massive truth that we celebrate this time of year. If we ask the question, “who is Jesus,” the answer is that Jesus is both fully and completely God and also fully and completely human. That’s the test. That’s the tool we can use to filter out false from true teachers. At Jesus’ conception there was one person, but there were two natures. Jesus was both fully God and fully human. And at the moment of his conception, Jesus continued to be both God and human forever.


Now all of this sounds like simple theology that we know already and can quickly pass over. But it’s not. There are two huge ways false teachers get this wrong. First, they are offended at Christ’s humanity. Long ago, Martin Luther had a long discussion and debate with a man named Ulrich Zwingli. And at the end of their long discussion, Luther and Zwingli agreed on 14 out of 15 theological points. That’s pretty good, right? But Luther refused to be in fellowship with Zwingli. He refused to commune with Zwingli because Zwingli said that, in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ body and blood weren’t there because Jesus body was at the right hand of God in heaven. Luther was frustrated that Zwingli couldn’t accept the clear and plain words Jesus spoke in the upper room, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood.” But what frustrated Luther even more was Zwingli’s lack of understanding of Christology. In Christ, there is one person. But there are two natures. Now think that through for a minute. Where Jesus is, both his divine and human nature are. Jesus doesn’t cease to be human in the Lord’s Supper simply because Zwingli wished it to be that way. Or to put it differently, what frustrated Luther was Zwingli’s lack of understanding of what happened on Christmas, not Maundy Thursday. And how did Luther arrive at this conclusion? He used the tool and test that John speaks about here. If a preacher is a true teacher he needs to know and teach all of the truth about Jesus, that he is fully human.


And this is a temptation we can fall into as well. Just as Zwingli was offended at Jesus’ humanity in the Lord’s Supper we can be tempted to be offended at Jesus’ humanity too. What happens so soon after Jesus is born? Our Savior has to run. And not only does he have to run, he is so frail and helpless as an infant, his parents have to carry him down to Egypt. It’s easy to be offended at how frail and human Jesus really is.


But the other part of the test is just as real. Jesus is fully human. But he is also fully divine. If Jesus isn’t God then you don’t have to be accountable to God. When Jesus says, “do this,” you don’t have to listen. When Jesus says, “stop that,” you don’t have to listen. But if he’s really God, then you have to listen.


So this test of confessing that Jesus is both one who has come in the flesh and is also from God is not just useful for seeing the false teachers out there. It’s also useful for seeing the false teacher in here, my heart. And that’s why the words which follow are so important to us as we prepare for Christmas: 4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.” (1 John 4:4–6 CSB17)


You have conquered. What a strange statement to make to people who had been conquered by false teachers out there and the false teaching in their own hearts. They hadn’t conquered anything. But look what John does: Christ has conquered in our place. And now he gives that victory to us. And that’s a victory that we need. We need a Savior was completely and perfectly human to pass this test that we cannot get straight. And that’s what Jesus did. The boy Jesus goes to the temple at age twelve. And in the final verse of that section we hear how he grew and became strong in wisdom.1 Jesus knew who he was and grew in that knowledge—even when we did not. And his growth covers our lack of understanding. And through that growth we can say that we have conquered.


We need a human to grow in wisdom in our place. But we also need a God to die for us. There is no human, no matter how perfect that person might be, who can take away the sins of the world. The only payment that can pay for our sins of not wanting to obey our Good and Gracious God is the payment that only God can provide. And this child that was born grew up and died. And Jesus, as fully human and fully God, died. And God said, “amen” to his payment. And so, because of that, we can say that we have conquered. Amen.



1 “ηὔξανεν καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο πληρούμενον σοφίᾳ” (Λουκᾶν 2·40 THGNT-T)

Who May Ascend The Mountain Of The Lord? (Midweek Advent 3)

Advent
Pastor Steve Bauer
Pastor Steve Bauer
Who May Ascend The Mountain Of The Lord? (Midweek Advent 3)
/

Who May Ascend The Mountain of the Lord?


Iwant to see it with my own eyes. There are so many states in our nation that have places that are beautiful. The internet has now figured out that I live in Minnesota. And so, now I see all these pretty places in MN. But evidently the prettiest place in MN is the north shore. You see the light houses and the pretty sunsets and you say to yourself, “I want to be there; I want to see that with my own eyes.” This evening, God’s word takes us to an even better place. Which would you rather see with your own eyes—the prettiest part of the North Shore, or our Triune God who made the North Shore and every other pretty place in the whole world? At the beginning of Psalm 24, we read: 1 The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; 2 for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.” (Psalms 24:1–2 CSB17)


Climbing up a hill and seeing beautiful lake Superior would be pretty. But that’s nothing to being able to climb up the mountain of the Lord and see the Lord himself—that would be wonderful. But there’s a problem. And in the words that follow we see what that problem is: 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” (Psalms 24:3–6 CSB17)


If you want to ascent the mountain of the Lord and see him with your own eyes, what do you need to have? You need to have clean hands and a pure heart. You need to have never ever done anything wrong in your entire life (clean hands). you need to never ever have thought any evil desire in your life too (pure heart.) And just to make sure that we aren’t so foolish as to think we have had clean hands and a pure heart, the psalmist gives some examples. First, he says that if you have ever told a lie, you cannot stand on God’s holy mountain. Second, if you have ever made a promise you didn’t keep, you cannot stand on God’s holy mountain. This is not a small issue, is it? More than anything, when we die, we want to be with the Lord on his holy mountain. But our sin separates us from God and his holiness. But note where these words go from here: 7 Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord of Armies, he is the King of glory.” (Psalms 24:7–10 CSB17)


The Psalmist urges us to receive the King of Glory. And then he asks the question that we all want to ask: who is the King of Glory? Here is where it’s good to know what glory is. The glory of the Lord was that pillar of cloud by day and that pillar of fire by night that followed the Israelites as they made their way from Egypt to Israel in the desert. It settled on the temple and filled it with smoke when King Solomon dedicated it for use. What did it mean? This was God’s special way in which he showed his people that we was with them, but not just in some abstract, distant way. No, instead, he was close to them to rescue them. That is what the glory of the Lord is.


But what else do we learn about this King of Glory? He is also the Lord of heavenly armies. He is the one who goes out and wages war for with angels at his command. For he is their king and commander.


Now, can you think of any time where the Glory of the Lord appeared and angels were present there at the same time? Who is the King of Glory. Jesus is the King of Glory. When he was born Luke tells us that the Glory of the Lord shone around them and the shepherds were terrified. And also we are told that the night was filled with powerful angels. And that was perfect and appropriate because that baby born in Bethlehem was their king and commander.


Jesus is the King of Glory. But, let’s return to the question we first asked: Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The only one who can ascend the mountain of the Lord is the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. What does Jesus have to do with that? The King of Glory came to us to make an exchange with us. He takes our unclean hands and all the unclean actions they committed and exchanges them for his innocent hands. He takes our filthy thoughts and desires and exchanges them with his own pure thoughts. And the result is that, in those waters of baptism when we are brought into God’s family, God does not see our sin. Instead, he sees Jesus, the King of Glory and the commander of angels. He sees his own Son’s purity and sacrifice in our place.


And that cleanness and purity comes to us in a very simple, but special way. It comes to us through God’s word. Through God’s word he forgives our sins. Notice how that shows itself in our worship on Sunday mornings. Just about every Sunday morning how do we start our our worship. We confess our sins. We honestly confess the fact that our hands are not clean and our hearts are not pure and that our sins have put a wall between us and our God on his holy mountain. And then what happens? We hear that amazing news that the wall is torn down. Our sins are forgiven. And we have the privilege of spending the rest of our time in worship having more of our sins forgiven, growing in faith and encouraging one another.


Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The only one who may ascend the mountain of the Lord is the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. Is that you? We started out tonight saying, “no.” But we finish saying, “amen” and “yes.” Jesus the King of Glory and commander of angels has exchanged his glory for our sin and his purity for our sin. And now, whenever God calls us home, we have the joy of ascending his holy mountain and not seeing the North Shore. Instead we see so much more and better. We see God face to face. Amen.



If Only The Lord Would Come Down (Midweek Advent 2)

Advent
Pastor Steve Bauer
Pastor Steve Bauer
If Only The Lord Would Come Down (Midweek Advent 2)
/

If Only the Lord Would Come Down


What do you see? Being back in Minnesota at this time of the year reminds me of the years I went to school in New Ulm. And what I remember about this time of the year is flying back home. I didn’t fly home or anywhere very often. So when I was in that jet, both as it took off and as it descended and landed, I looked down had a good look at everything below me. And what I saw still sticks with me today. I saw snow. I saw all the multicolored lights during this time of the year. I saw the bring, busy places where people lived. And I saw the barren, open places where people did not live. All that I saw from above, flying overhead. In our psalm this evening, the psalmist asks a slightly different question, not what I see when I look down, but instead, what does God see when he looks down at the earth? In Psalm 14, we read: 1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.” (Psalms 14:1–2 NIV11-GKE)


When the Lord looks down, what does he see? He sees a world of fools. And in the words that follow, in a very detailed way, he shows us what a fool is. The fool says there is no god. But even worse, a fool is not just a person who says there is no god. A fool is a person who might say that there is a god, but then, by that person’s own life, he or she shows that they don’t really believe the words they say. For example, there was a pastor who did evangelism work on college campuses. And what he found out was that almost nobody would come out and say that they were atheists. Instead, they would say that they were ‘agnostics.’ They did not know if there was a god or not, but they were looking, hoping that someday they’d find god. The pastor challenged them, bluntly saying that they were lying. For if they were truly looking for God, there would be some evidence of that search in their lives. They might possibly sleep in on one Sunday. But on the next Sunday, you’d expect them to go to church to see if maybe that church have the true God in it. But their actions prove their words wrong. In short, to use the words here in Psalm 14, they are fools. They don’t just say there is no God. They also live their lives in such a way that they show they don’t believe in any God.


But notice where the Psalmist goes next. The Lord looks down and sees a world of fools. But if we ask the question, “how many fools are there,” Notice what the answer is: everybody. There is no one who does good. And if we didn’t get the point he was making in verses 1 and 2, he makes the same point in different words which follow: 3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. 4 Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on the Lord. 5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous. 6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.” (Psalms 14:3–6 NIV11-GKE)


How many have turned away from God? All. How many do any good? No one. How many call on and call out to God? No one. Notice this huge, ever-so-important point God is making to us in his word: Every person who comes into this world is turned away from God, with no ability to call on him and no desire to follow him. This is a fact that we need to keep reminding ourselves of again and again because each of us has a sinful nature, even now as Christians alongside our new nature, that hates it when we hear these words. We want to think that we can do our part. We want to think that there’s at least a spark of goodness in us that we can make use of to know God or earn him. And so, some churches, sad to say, teach that you can make use of this spark of goodness to reach out and choose God. Other churches say that because of this spark of goodness you can prove to God that you are worthy of redeeming. But what God’s word says here is clear and condemning: how many do any good at all? No one. We lie, we lust, we cheat, we steal, we put ourselves above all other people. And if we can’t do this publicly and get away with it, we harbor and tend these thoughts deep inside of our hearts.


In those rare times I fly over Minnesota, I see ice, snow and lights. But what does the Lord see from heaven? He sees a world of fools. He sees a world of people who either says there is no God or shows by their actions that they don’t believe the words they say. These are the sort of truths that drive you ask, ‘Is there any hope for us? Is there any help for us?’ The psalmist cries out these words: “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!” (Psalms 14:7 NIV11-GKE)


If only! The psalmist cries out an impossible wish. He says, “If only Salvation would come down from heaven to us.” What right does an abusive father have to ask the abused child to spend time with him? What right does the adulterous wife have to ask the husband she cheated on to spend time with her? What right do we have to ask the holy, perfect and just God to come down to us?


We have no right at all. But, what the psalmist speaks as an impossible wish, the Lord turns into a powerful promise. It is at this time of the year when we focus on the fact that the Lord did come down. Purely out of his own grace—his undeserved love towards a world of fools, he came down. He took on our humanity so that he could not just say, “there is a true God out there”, but instead, he would be that true God for us. He would be the one who would seek God because we don’t. He would be the one who would call on God because we can’t. All this he would do, and in Christ, did, for us, to take away our sin.


If only the Lord would come down. But he did. Where does that leave us here this evening? In our final words, we read: “When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!” (Psalms 14:7 NIV11-GKE)


The Lord came down. Jesus took on our flesh and blood to take away our sins. He earned our salvation on the cross. And he delivered that forgiveness to us through his word. In our salvation and in our conversion we have no part. This was all God’s work. Well then, what is our role? We cannot earn our salvation or make ourselves Christians. But we can do what God invites us to do here. We can sing. We can be glad. We can rejoice. For this impossible wish, that the Lord would come down to a world of us fools came true. He came down to us to redeem us and convert us and give us true wisdom from above. So let this time of preparation, this time of Advent be a time of sober reflection on the fact that we, in so many times and ways are fools. But don’t let your thoughts stay there. Also rejoice that Jesus has taken away your sin and given to you his wisdom in his word. Amen.


Christmas Is a Collision of Kings (Midweek Advent 1)

Advent
Pastor Steve Bauer
Pastor Steve Bauer
Christmas Is a Collision of Kings (Midweek Advent 1)
/

Christmas Is A Collision of Kings


That isn’t going to end well. One of the interesting parts of growing up in Montana is that you have to deal with problems that people elsewhere don’t really have to deal with. When we were children in school the teachers would set aside special time to have a special talk with us as a class. What was the talk about? Evidently, when you became a teenager and got your driver’s license, every teenager had this unquenchable urge to beat the train to the intersection. And if a train and a car collide, who is going to win? Now, the trains in MT could be more than a mile long, so you could see the incentive a person might have to beat the train. But still, train always beats car when they collide. This evening, as we look at Psalm 2, we see a collision. But it’s not a collision of cars. It’s a collision of kings. What will happen when the kings of the earth collide with the king that the Lord has chosen? In Psalm 2 we read these words: 1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his Anointed One: 3 “Let’s tear off their chains and throw their ropes off of us.”” (Psalms 2:1–3 CSB17)


What happens when the Lord’s chosen king and the kings of the earth collide? The kings of the earth plot and plan. In a few weeks down the road, on Epiphany, we’ll see this in more detail. The Magi came to Herod asking for advice. And we might make fun of Herod because he was a sad excuse for a king in a super-small territory in the far-flung nether-reaches of the Roman Empire. But Herod knew what we might not. As soon as the Magi spoke about the king prophesied from of old, there was a collision of kings. And whenever there is a collision only one walks away. And Herod wanted to be that king, who at the end of the day walk away from the wreck.


It’s always been that way. It was that way in King David’s time. It was that way at Jesus’ birth. So what then is the Lord’s response to the plotting and planning that the kings of the earth take part in? 4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them. 5 Then he speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath:” (Psalms 2:4–5 CSB17)


Notice how the Lord has two reactions. First, he laughs. This reminds us that the Lord wasn’t just in control. He was in complete, absolute control. There is nothing any king of the earth could do to overrule or over throw the king that that Lord chose. And second, after the laughter dies down, the Lord terrifies them in his wrath. These are words to pause and ponder. What happens to every earthly king that takes his stand against the king the Lord has chosen? The Lord limits their power while they are a king here, and then when they die he gives the every reason to be filled with terror as they collide with their own well-deserved judgement in hell.


It’s good for us to walk through these words this evening. For in these words we see our own temptation to sin. For when we see Christians cut down in Africa or sent away to torture chambers in China or the freedom of religion in our own nation be put in quotation marks as if it’s in the same made-up category as pink unicorns—when all of this happens, our great temptation to sin is that we forget these words. We forget that right now our Lord is laughing. Their pathetic and petty attempts to out-rule and overthrow Jesus are laughable in God’s sight because he is in complete and absolute control. And we forget that for all the evil they plot, plan and then produce, there is wrath waiting for them at the end of their time here.


These words are a reminder of our sin. But they are also a reminder of the Lord’s love for us. If the Lord is laughing at the kings of the earth and all their plots and plans, then in our own hearts, we can too. And if the Lord promises to bring them just wrath for trying to overthrow Jesus and destroy his church, we can be content and at peace with that.


Christmas is a collision of kings. And when that happens, the Lord threatens to make these kings afraid. But what happens next is surprising and shocking: 6 “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” 7 I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” (Psalms 2:6–7 CSB17)


What happens when kings collide? First, the Lord opens up and reveals to them mysteries that he and he alone knows. He lets the kings of the earth in on the secret that God the Father has begotten his Son…from eternity. This passage has presented translators with problems for hundreds and hundreds of years. First, the word here is usually spoken of a mom giving birth to a child.1(Psalms 2:7 BHS-T)}} But fathers don’t give birth to sons. Second, How can the Father give birth to the Son from eternity? This here is not speaking about Mary giving birth on Christmas. Instead, it’s speaking about the Father having the completely unique relationship with his Son from eternity. This is an amazing mystery that we struggle to understand. But, in these words, who is the intended target for this amazing mystery? The very kings that take their stand against Jesus are the ones who are addressed. And that makes us ask the question, “why?” God answers that question in the words which follow: 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will break them with an iron scepter; you will shatter them like pottery.” 10 So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling. 12 Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment.” (Psalms 2:8–12 CSB17)


What happens when kings collide? The Lord threatens to make them afraid. But notice what happens here: the Lord is inviting them to be afraid. No, my friends in Christ, fear isn’t always a bad quality. Fear in the bible doesn’t just mean being terrified and trembling. It is also a positive attitude. As is says here in our version, “reverential awe” (Psalms 2:11 CSB17). The Lord goes out of his way to win these unbelieving kings over not with threats of wrath, but instead with invitations of awe and wonder.


This too reminds us of our sin, doesn’t it? For, when it comes to the leaders of the land and rulers of the world that take their stand still today against Jesus, the Lord’s chosen king, what, so often, is our attitude towards them? Our temptation is that if they take their stand against Jesus, then the Lord should waste no time and just put them to death and send them to hell. But that’s not Jesus’ desire and plan. No, instead, he wants them to take their refuge in him. And how do we know this? He tells us: “All who take refuge in him are happy.” (Psalms 2:12 CSB17)


Just as he took you, as cruel and rebellious as you are and shared with you mysteries that the unbelieving world does not understand, so also, he wants to do the same with the rest of the unbelieving world. He wants them to look at not just this amazing mystery that God the Father from eternity begat his own Son, but also the amazing mystery that this Son took on our humanity for us, to save us from our sin—even the sins we commit when we forget that God is in control, laughing at the plots of kings—even the sins we commit when we forget that we too at one time were just as unbelieving and rebellious as the the godless kings of the earth. Those sins are forgiven in this mystery of the Lord’s chosen king taking on human flesh and blood for us.


What happens when kings collide? First, the Lord threatens to make them afraid. Second, he invites them to be afraid—filled with holy, joyful, reverent fear. Amen.



1 ”יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ“