The Lord of Advent
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Anticipation is a proper word for today.
It is Christmas Eve. A day in which anticipation is in the air.
Children have been counting down for weeks.
They are anticipating receiving a gift or two from the hand of their generous moms and dads.
Parents are also in anticipation.
They are anticipating waking up at an unholy hour for the generosity to commence.
Many of you have been anticipating the day because you will see people you love that only get to come around once a year.
In fact a survey taken in 2015 concluded that 64% of Americans experience a post-Christmas depression because after months of anticipation, it just comes and goes.
Once all the traditions and nostalgia and the blitz of Christmas morning is over, people are left feeling empty.
This is because the old Dutch saying is true— “The anticipation of a thing is often equal to or better than the thing itself.”
But that is not the case with the story of the Bible.
The story of the Bible anticipates the coming a a one of a king Messiah.
A royal priest like the world has never seen.
And His arrival is not inferior to the anticipation of Him.
In fact, He is the very One that your soul has been waiting for.
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
This morning we are wrapping up our Christmas in the Psalms series by looking at Psalm 110. If you are a New Testament follower of Christ, it is imperative that you understand Psalm 110.
In fact, we might even say it is the Psalm that it is most important for you to understand considering that no other Psalm is quoted more in the New Testament.
In fact, no other Old Testament passage is quoted more.
Psalm 110:1 is referenced or alluded to 24 different times in the New Testament Scriptures.
The Psalm is written by David, which is important.
David has a special interest in the subject matter.
His perspective as the king who is promised to have a successor on his throne forever is important.
For we will see that as David looks for a child to come from his line, he finds his Lord and Master.
A Psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
The Lord sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
Your people will offer themselves freely
on the day of your power,
in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will be yours.
The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”
The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations,
filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook by the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.
I want to unpack the passage and help us understand what we are seeing in the text and then I want to draw our attention to three points regarding anticipation and the coming Messiah.
We will see David anticipating.
We will see the Scriptures anticipating.
And finally, the anticipation of our own souls.
TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS (v. 1, v. 4)
TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS (v. 1, v. 4)
We see two announcements in this passage—the first is in verse 1 and the second is in verse 4.
THE KING WHO STEPS ON THE NECK (v. 1)
THE KING WHO STEPS ON THE NECK (v. 1)
We start with verse 1 where David, and in God’s grace, the rest of us, are let in on a heavenly conversation.
The LORD (Yahweh) says to my Lord (Adonai), “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Who is talking here? We know that the LORD is Yahweh. This is God. But who is He speaking to?
It is someone that David calls His Lord or His “Adonai,” a name that is one of the most common titles for God in the Old Testament.
It means “Master” or “Ruler.”
In order for us to know who this is, we need the help of the New Testament, which so often quotes verse 1.
In Matthew 22, Jesus questions the Pharisees about the identity of the coming Messiah and asks them, “Whose son is he?”
They say, “The Son of David.”
He says, “Well then why does David, inspired by the Spirit, call his son his Lord?”
He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?
You see His point. How is the son of David also the Lord of David?
In Mark 12, Jesus is in the temple and He teaches the same thing and the people there understand what He is getting at and Mark says that “the great throng heard Him gladly.”
It is the same teaching from Jesus in Luke 20—He quotes Psalm 110:1 and then says:
David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
Jesus was showing the Pharisees and scribes and people in the temple that the Scriptures reveal David’s Son, the Messiah to be greater than him.
Moreover, the Messiah—the Christ is so great, that David recognizes Him to be Adonai.
This is God.
Psalm 110:1 is Yahweh speaking to the Christ.
The LORD speaking to the Lord.
God the Father speaking to God the Son.
And this is only confirmed more by what Peter says to the crowd he preaches to in Acts 2 at Pentecost.
Peter argues that David could not be talking about himself in Psalm 110 because David did not rise again and ascend.
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The second Lord in Psalm 110:1 is Jesus Christ.
The one that Paul says is seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20)
The author of Hebrews says Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven (Hebrews 8:1)
The words of Paul and the author of Hebrews come alongside the teachings of Jesus and Peter and confirm that it is the Son of God at the right hand Yahweh in Psalm 110:1
And what the Psalm reveals is that Christ will remain in session—seated at the right hand of the Father—until He makes His enemies His footstool (v. 1).
This is not a picture of someone kicking back and putting their feet up on an ottoman.
This is a picture of a mighty King conquering and placing his foot on the neck of His enemy, demanding surrender.
And this is what will happen when the Lord Jesus returns.
Everyone who has not surrendered to Him in love will surrender to Him in defeat and judgment.
The image of the Messiah-King carries on in in verses 2 and 3 with these contrasting images of the His enemies and His holy army.
Yahweh sends forth from Zion—His dwelling place—the mighty scepter of Adonai.
The Father sends forth His Son in authority to rule.
And He does this in the midst of His enemies.
This picture of the Messiah’s scepter is one of authority.
The king’s scepter was a symbol of His power.
And this is not the only time we see this in the Psalms.
We also see it in Psalm 2, where God’s response to the raging nations is to brush aside their conspiring and to put His King on Zion—His holy hill.
“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
And He promises His King, who His Son the nations. And He will rule with with a rod—with a scepter of iron.
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
In other words, the Messiah is ruling and exercising dominion the way Adam was supposed to before his failure and fall.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
And we have Jesus doing this ruling in the midst of His enemies.
He is ruling right now, as we speak.
He is capturing souls with the power of His Gospel, heart by heart and He is bringing them into His Kingdom—taking them from being a slave to sin to a citizen of heaven.
And He is doing this saving work in the world in the midst of nations who hate Him and oppose Him and seek to write Him out of the equation.
But they Gospel won’t be stopped.
The Lord’s authority will go out from Zion and the saving arm of the Messiah will redeem a multitude from every nation.
Satan is chained up from stopping the Gospel reaching every shore and saving a myriad of saints.
And those saints stand in contrast to the Lord’s enemies in verse 3.
Instead of opposing God, the redeemed wear brilliant garments that reflect the holiness of the King.
These are the people who have put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
These who those who have ended their war with God and joined the Messiah’s holy army.
And having been made pure from within, they are able and eager to offer themselves as freewill offerings to King Jesus on the day when He returns.
And on the day, the night of this world will be over, and the people of God will be brought forth as a bride adorned for her Husband in His youth.
They will be like the glistening dew of the morning, signifying that the old has passed away and behold, the new has come.
This is a brilliant picture of Christ for us on Christmas Eve.
The baby born in the manger is the King on Zion’s holy hill.
His little hands that Mary held, now hold a scepter of authority as He rules the nations and saves His people.
The child born to a lowly carpenter’s family now has an army of servants, doing His work in the world—fighting Satan and evil and death itself with the weapons of light that He has given us.
Jesus is the King. Yahweh has announced it.
THE KING WHO RETURNS (v. 5-7)
THE KING WHO RETURNS (v. 5-7)
And one day, verse 1 will come to pass.
The King who came in humility in His first Advent will return in power in His second Advent.
We see this in verses 5-7 and everything in this final stanza of the Psalm corresponds with the first stanza of the Psalm.
Verse 1/Verse 7: The enemies of the King will be His footstool/After defeating His enemies, the victorious King will drink from the brook and lift His head.
In Psalm 2, any earthly king who will not bow the knee and pay homage to the Messiah will “perish in the way”
But when the Messiah returns, He will not perish by the way, but He will “drink from the brook by the way.”
He will be strong and alive, like a man who has been refreshed.
Verse 2/Verse 6: In verse 2 we saw that the Messiah was granted authority/In verse 6, He is executing the authority.
He is judging the nations, filling them with the bodies of His enemies.
And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
I know…It’s Christmas Eve. But this is the reality of what will become of those who stand opposed to the authority of Jesus Christ.
The baby of Bethlehem is the Judge of the all the earth.
He will shatter chiefs—or “the head,” if we wanted to be more literal to the original language.
See, all of the raging nations and evil kings who oppose the Lord and His people throughout history, do not do so purely of their own accord.
There is an evil power behind them. It is the god of this world, as Paul describes him—Satan himself.
So when the Lord returns and He shatters the chiefs who rival Him, He will be stepping on the Head who is behind it all.
Just as it was promised from the Garden after the fall of Adam and Eve:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
And then we have verse 3 corresponding with verse 5.
Verse 3: “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of power”/Verse 5: He will shatter kings on the day of His wrath.
His day of wrath and power and the same day. This is when the Lord, who is at the right hand of Yahweh, will get up and He will descend and establish His rule on earth in perfection forever
THE ONE OF A KIND PRIEST (v. 4)
THE ONE OF A KIND PRIEST (v. 4)
Now we look at the second announcement in the Psalm. It comes in verse 4:
The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”
Yahweh swears. He makes an oath.
And when God makes an oath, He doesn’t go back on it.
He will not change His mind. If He did, He would be transgressing His own faithfulness.
He would be breaking an oath, which is something that sinful fathers do, but not the Father of Lights.
And here, His swearing is about Adonai being a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
Now, Melchizedek is an interesting character.
He is a fairly mysterious and obscure priest whose name means “King of Righteousness.”
That tells us that Melchizedek is a sort of priest-king.
He is only mentioned five times in the entire Bible.
The first introduction to him is in Genesis 14.
He is identified as the king of Salem and as a priest of God Most High.
In that chapter of Genesis, Abram and his trained army go to war with pirate kings who have taken all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and they have carried off Lot, Abram’s nephew.
Abram and his men win the day and then Melchizedek comes to Abram to celebrate the victory.
And what does Abram do? He offers him a tithe and Melchizedek blesses him.
This is a bit jarring in the narrative of Genesis because once you get to chapter 12, Abram becomes the prominent figure of the book.
It is all about him and the covenant God made with him and his family.
And yet, Abram is inferior to Melchizedek.
That is obvious in him bringing this tithe and receiving a blessing from him.
So we are dealing with a priest who is superior—even to Father Abram who was sort of a king-priest himself.
The other important thing about Melchizedek is that he is not part of the priesthood of Aaron—the main line of priesthood in the Old Covenant.
Of course not!
He pre-dates it.
And this is key because Aaron’s line of priests went on for generations and generations.
When a priest died, there was another one to come in Aaron’s line.
And the reason this is so important for our understanding of Psalm 110 is that the New Testament tells us that Jesus, the Great High Priest who has offered Himself as the atonement for our sins, is not from Aaron’s line.
Instead, when it comes to the priesthood, Jesus is from the line of Melchizedek.
This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him,
“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.”
Melchizedek appears out of nowhere with seemingly no beginning.
He goes away, but his end is never mentioned.
And now, One like him has come.
A Superior High Priest who has no beginning and no end.
A Superior High Priest who has resurrected and ascended and has indestructible life.
A one of a kind High Priest that the greatest of saints bring freewill offerings to.
A unique Great High Priest who blesses those that serve the Lord.
Jesus Christ, the Anointed Messiah, stands alone as the High Priest of our souls.
He lived a spotless life and did what no other priest could do—not even Melchizedek—He offered Himself as a sacrifice for sins.
He laid Himself on the altar and poured out His life’s blood in our place.
He was bruised by the Father so that we would not be crushed by the wrath of God.
Yahweh’s Adonai, the Great and Superior High Priest, bridged the gap between God and man by stretching His own body as the Lamb who was slain.
And now, anyone who trusts in His atoning death to cover their sins, will be saved to the uttermost. Down to the very core of their soul.
The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
He is not just another Levitical mediator from Aaron’s line.
He is a one of a kind High Priest who brings us to God and then ever lives to keep us near to Him.
ANTICIPATION
ANTICIPATION
Now as we close this morning, I want to turn out attention to our word of the day—anticipation.
For in this text, there is a tension of anticipation.
There is the anticipation of David.
There is the anticipation of the Scriptures.
And as we read it, there should be an anticipation in our own souls.
And the anticipation is centered on the King-Priest revealed in Psalm 110.
The anticipation comes from an expectation that there is One who can both rule and avenge, while also being a Redeemer and an Advocate.
Let’s begin with a brief look at the the anticipation of the man who wrote this Psalm.
1. David anticipates a King-Priest to come.
1. David anticipates a King-Priest to come.
David’s heart must have soared as the Spirit inspired him to pen this Messianic Psalm.
His soul must have leapt as it was let in on this heavenly conversation between Yahweh and Adonai.
After all, David is a man who was given a promise by God.
A covenant was made between he and the Almighty.
In 2 Samuel 7, David goes to Nathan the prophet and says that he wants to build a temple for the Lord.
He doesn’t want the ark to reside in a tent any longer.
But God speaks to David through Nathan and tells him:
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
Solomon ruled after his father David.
Solomon actually built the temple that David longed to build.
But Solomon was far from perfect. And he died.
He was not the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy.
He was not able to sit on the throne and rule over God’s people forever.
But here in Psalm 110, David is let in on this conversation where he learns that a Messiah will come who will put his foot on the neck of every enemy.
He will go forth in authority.
He will rule in perfection in the midst of His enemies
He will shatter kings and chiefs and step on the Head of Satan
And He will not fall. He will drink from the brook by the way and lift His head.
And we know from Matthew 1:1 that this Messiah is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
So then, in this Psalm, David looks to a son who comes from His line and calls Him Lord—recognizing that the Messiah, Adonai, who will come from His line, is greater than he could ever be.
This anticipation has been met by an authoritative King and David is not let unsatisfied.
The Messiah is not a letdown.
The One who Israel was waiting on would have a majestic greatness beyond comprehension.
2. The Scriptures anticipate a King-Priest to come.
2. The Scriptures anticipate a King-Priest to come.
One of the reasons that Psalm 110 is so often quoted by the New Testament writers is that they read the Old Testament and they saw that the Scriptures themselves were pointing toward the fulfillment of this passage.
They read the Law and the Prophets and the History books and the New Testament writers said, “This Jesus—the entire Old Covenant was pulsating in anticipation of His arrival with types and shadows and covenants and prophecies.”
We could spend a long time talking about how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. In fact—we will spend eternity rejoicing over it.
But this morning I just want to track this idea of the King-Priest for a moment.
The Bible begins with God creating the world in six days and on the sixth day, He creates man and the animals for man to rule over.
As He creates Adam, He also commissions him.
We read Genesis 1:28 earlier, where God says that Adam is to have “dominion…over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Go be a KING in this Garden Adam.
And then in Genesis 2, we see how Adam has another job in the Garden.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
This might not appear to be much to get excited over, but this language of “working and keeping” is the language used to describe the work of the Levitical priests in the temple.
Meaning, God is saying, Go serve as a sort of PRIEST in this Garden.
So God makes Adam and King-Priest to rule the Garden and to work and keep it.
But we know that Adam fails in this task.
He breaks God’s commandment regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he performs an act of sin and he falls.
Death enters into the world.
So now, we are reading this Bible and we are left wondering, “Well if this Adam was going to rule the world in God’s place as His vice-regent and he failed—who will do that now? Who will rule in peace and end the chaos of sinful creation?
And, “If Adam was going to be this priest who works and keeps the Garden and be the representative for human ity before God, who will do it now?”
“Who will be the King-Priest that rules the world and represents God in the way that the Lord intended?”
Fast-forward to Genesis 12 and we meet Abram.
Abram has an army and he is going to war and conquering kings in Genesis 14 and meeting with an alliance of kings.
KINGLY activity.
Genesis also shows Abram going around and building altars in the Lord and praying on behalf of others and receiving a priestly blessing from Melchizedek.
PRIESTLY activity.
So is Abram the King-Priest that Adam failed to be? Is Abram the one who can rule the nations and intercede for God’s people?
Well, he was a great man, but no—he can’t be that man because Abram had an expiration date.
And he certainly was not perfect.
One more than one occasion he puts his wife in harm’s way to protect his own behind.
This can’t be One.
Then you get to Judges 6 and you meet Gideon, one of the judges who lead Israel after coming into the Promised Land after the generation of Joshua.
Midian is oppressing Israel and God has Gideon lead a troop of warriors to destroy them, much like Abram.
After the victory, the people cry out for Gideon to be their ruler and for his children and grandchildren to be their ruler.
Is this the KING? Is this the new and better Adam who can rule in God’s place?
Well, Gideon refuses the crown, but he is still adorned as a great ruler.
However, he is no great priest. In fact, he makes an ephod of gold and it becomes an idol for all of Israel.
The ephod was an upper body garment that was supposed to be worn by the High Priest as a symbol of holiness as he represented God to the people.
Gideon took this symbol of holiness and ultimately made an idol of it. And all of Israel played the harlot.
And as soon as he died, their sin went further as they started bowing down to the idols of Baal again.
I’d say Gideon is not our guy.
He was a great man who did not finish well.
He is not the King-Priest to undo Adam’s curse.
Well what about David?
We know he was a king—the greatest Israel ever had.
And then in 2 Samuel 24 he is building an altar and sacrificing burnt offerings. Maybe it is David?
Maybe he is the King-Priest that the Scriptures are anticipating?
Well—2 Samuel also shows us David committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed by sending him on a kamikaze mission.
And we have David in Psalm 110 recognizing that there is someone greater than him to come.
And we know that great One that is anticipated is not Solomon because he was an adulterer and idolater.
He was the King who built the temple, but he took many wives and worshipped the gods that they brought into his home.
In each of these men, you get a shadow of the King-Priest as the Scriptures anticipate a new Adam.
You get types of king-priests who resemble something of what God commissioned Adam to be, but these are all sinful men who die like Adam.
THE ONE OF A KIND JESUS
THE ONE OF A KIND JESUS
And then, we have Jesus.
The king from the order of Melchizedek.
One of a kind.
Unique.
Unlike Abram and Gideon and David and Solomon, He did not soil His priestly robes.
He lived a perfect life.
Unlike those other men, He did not need to offer a lamb that would be a symbol of a coming Messiah.
He offered His own spotless life on the altar of the Cross.
And unlike those men, He died, but rose again, conquering death and then ascending to the right hand of the Father—taking His rightful place as Adonai. Lord.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus is the King-Priest that the types and shadows of the Scriptures anticipate coming.
He is the Second Adam.
He did not fail in His covenant with God.
And now He rules and intercedes and He will do it forever.
3. Our souls anticipate a King-Priest.
3. Our souls anticipate a King-Priest.
This is good news of great joy for the human soul.
Like Abram and Gideon, we are sinners.
Like David and Solomon, we are adulterers and idolaters.
We do not love God the way we should.
We do not love our neighbors the way we should.
We do not do what we ought to do and we do what we ought not to do.
All have fallen short of the glory of God.
Our sin separates us from God.
More than that, it puts us at odds with God from birth.
We need someone to reconcile us back to our Creator.
This is what Jesus the High Priest came to do.
He died in our place and took our punishment.
It is the most magnificent gift ever given.
We must repent of our sin—the very sin that saw the High Priest slaughtered at Calvary.
We must turn away from it and believe in Jesus.
We must trust in His death on the Cross to save us.
And this Priest’s resurrection and ascension to the right hand of Yahweh tells us that He is not just a Priest, but to those who trust in Him, He will be their King.
And they will receive the blessings of His Kingdom forever.
But be warned on this Christmas Eve, just as old Ebenezer Scrooge was warned by the ghosts that haunted him—those who reject Christ as the Priest have no reconciliation with God.
And when the King returns, his foot will be on the neck of those who are still opposing the Maker of all things.
**ASK THE BAND TO RETURN**
**ASK THE BAND TO RETURN**
But today is a day for mercy.
God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Humble yourself before the infant King this morning.
For He is the One that your weary soul has been waiting for.
He is the One that the Scriptures were waiting for.
He is the One that David was looking for.
And He has come.
He has lived.
He has died.
He has conquered.
He is the King-Priest—announced and anointed.
Turn to Him on this Christmas Eve and He will bring you back to God and He will give you the Kingdom.
He is the One you have been waiting for—and you will find that He is everything He has promised to be.