The God of Love and Fury comes as a Prince

Big Idea: We should worship our Prince.

Graffiti: Alexamenos worships god.

Know God.

The Old Testament God is the God of the New Testament as well. Love and fury come together.

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:36 ESV

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

How are God’s love and fury united?

The Wrath of God expresses love.

“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” - C.S. Lewis

Love doesn’t come from nature, other religions, history.

Historians ask - Considering the fact it was universally believed by all societies that we had the right to attack and enslave weaker people, and since everybody had always done it, the real historical question is “Why did it occur to anybody that it was wrong? Who ever first had that idea?”

The love of God expresses wrath.

Hosea 11:8 ESV

8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.

Luke 19:41–44 ESV

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Know yourself.

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry from The Peace of Wild Things And Other Poems (Penguin, 2018)

I want to be God… we’re trying to control our lives away from grief and pain

Pharisees - Ben Shapiro - let’s return to our values.

Sadducees - power players - playing for what’s comfortable

Crowd - going along with whatever seems good at the moment

What do you tend to be?

Rejoice in your Prince.

He comes to conquer you AND deliver you.

Psalm 2 ESV

1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

“I can’t do this on my own.”

Even the rocks will cry out.

I can’t conquer death, I can’t avoid pain, I can’t make everyone get along

I can’t keep the peace, I can’t make justice and mercy kiss.

I can’t get myself to do what I think is right ultimately.

I can’t make myself better.

“Save yourself.” - Jesus doesn’t come down from the cross.

Even though he knows the future.

Even though he knows the possibilities.

Zechariah 9:9–12 ESV

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Prisoners of hope - Are you one?

Community Group questions:

If God is both love and fury, what’s your response? How comforting is that? How challenging?

What do you tend to be? Pharisee, Sadducee, or crowd? How does that impact your relationships with others? With God?

What’s comforting about Christ’s conquering of you if you’re a believer? What would be challenging to non-believers?