Who Is Your King? (AM Sermon Notes)
Father’s Day 2018
GIST: God is sovereign; we don’t like that, but that is exactly what we need.
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 2
Happy Father’s Day! Every sermon I preach is both an incredible blessing and an incredible responsibility. I don’t want to ever get in the way of God’s Word. This Sunday is no different. Yet, it is something new for me. I have been able to preach several times now on Mother’s Day, but have never preached a Father’s Day message before. Last year, would have been my first time, but my parents were in, so we all got to hear my dad preach on Father’s Day (which, of course, was extra special). Therefore, I’m excited to be able to do this, but also feel the weight of this message. I told you a couple weeks ago that every time I make hard statements from the pulpit, I’m directing those as much at me, as at any of you. Today, this is especially true. I want to be a Godly dad and am woefully aware of how short I fall of this every day.
I did not select a special “Father’s Day” passage for this morning. We’re continuing our “Summer in the Psalms”, and looking at Psalm 2. Now, like I said on Mother’s Day, I don’t think there is ever a message that will address only one portion of our congregation. God’s Word is powerful and speaks volumes. Nonetheless, I think this passage does have something specific to say to the heart of a father. At the very least, it spoke to this father.
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.
Often Psalm 1 and 2 are seen as connected, almost like two parts of the same point. Both stand out from many of the other psalms in that they have no title. It doesn’t say who wrote them or what they were written for. Sinclair Ferguson remarked that this was likely because they were supposed to be taken together as the title of the whole book. What does it mean to be God’s people? Delight in His Word and take refuge in His control. AMEN! And that control is precisely what this psalm is about.
Interestingly, this is also one of the most quoted psalms in the entire New Testament. It’s quoted 15 times...in reference to Jesus. Why? On the surface this reads like it would have been a coronation psalm sung for Israel’s kings. Yet, as you look closer it doesn’t take long to notice this can’t be about an earthly king. The claims are too great. So, either this is just hyperbole, or it’s pointing to something far more than an earthly reign. It’s pointing forward to Jesus.
It can be divided up into three major parts, each using a parallel structure to develop a central point. In general, here’s how it can be broken down:
1-3: Our natural state is to oppose God.
4-9: God is Sovereign/Jesus is the true King.
10-12: A warning to love God and live in the refuge of His love, or face the ultimate punishment for your rejection.
Now, before we get into our gist for today, I’m going to have to give Tim Keller credit for our outline. He didn’t use these words, but I was heavily influenced by his walkthrough. I’ll even link his message here. It is well worth the listen. That being said, what’s the gist for us this morning? God is sovereign; we don’t like that, but that is exactly what we need.
I. GOD IS SOVEREIGN (4-9)
We’re going to go a little backwards here and start with verses 4-9 and then go back to 1-3. The Psalm opens by talking about the vanity of man’s pursuits and then explains why they are vain. I wanted to start here because I feel like it lays a framework for us understanding the rest of the psalm. Let’s just make two big picture observations.
We Are All Looking For A True King. This is a kingly psalm. It’s steeped in language about rule and authority. To our modern ears, this can be a little distasteful, because we don’t like to think about anyone having that kind of power over us. Especially here (right?), in America, where our country’s very foundation was connected to throwing off the “oppressive rule of a king”. Yet, there is still something inside all of us that wants this. We’ve talked about this before, but you don’t have to spend too much time watching modern trends in popular film and literature to realize we’re all still looking for a hero to swoop in and save the day! Keller pointed out that even though America doesn’t have kings, we still try to make them out of our celebrities and politicians. Think about it, how often do people get extremely fixated on say a political figure. “If only he gets elected, then everything we fall into place.” Or the opposite! How often have you heard, “Well, we can’t hope for any change until so and so gets out of office. Nothing good can happen until we get somebody like such and such back...etc”. And this isn’t a new phenomenon. You guys know I love old stories. As long as stories have been told, heroes have been talked about. There is always the great king or white knight or whatever who comes and sets everything right. Why? Because we were created by the True King, and something deep inside us longs for that. We were made to be His, and all the pursuit of insufficient kings and heroes is a misguided pursuit of what is real!
Jesus Is That True King. And this psalm points to that reality. Jesus is the King! Now, I don’t want to just say that and take for granted that this is the case. Where do we see in this passage that this is talking about Jesus? There are several points. First, in verse 2 where the nations are said to be plotting against the “Lord and against his Anointed”, the word translated Anointed is the Hebrew word for Messiah. While this could also have been used in reference to earthly kings, you take this in combination with the Lord saying in verse 7, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” and it seems to be pointing to someone far greater than an earthly king, someone who is the begotten Son of God. Does that ring any KJV memory verse bells? “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And if that isn’t enough, Jesus Himself told us this psalm is about Him. It has only been a few months ago that we read from Mark 12:35-37 where Jesus is explaining who He is to the pharisees. He used this passage to point to Him being more than just a descendent of David, but God Himself!
That being said, the picture we’re given of Jesus is one of both ruler and destroyer. He is said to have all the nations as His heritage and the whole earth as His possession, but is also said to break them like pottery. What is being said here? Isn’t this consistent with everything we’ve ever read about Jesus. Why did He come to earth? He came to establish His kingdom and to defeat sin. He is the true ruler of the world and only destroyer of sin and those who walk in it.
Now, I don’t want to skip over verses 4-5 where God looks at the vain plotting of the world and laughs. This seems harsh. And it would be very easy just to ignore it and move on. But what is being said here? The language used to intentional. It’s emphasizing the vanity of trying to plot against God. This is much like a little kid challenging an adult to an arm wrestling contest, or me challenging Jon (whose biceps are bigger than my head). I could get all puffed up and talk all kinds of trash, but at the end of the day, we all know how that would end. That’s the sentiment here. Yet, this is no laughing matter. Their efforts are in vain because the true king is God Himself, and they have set themselves against Him. We’ll come back to this, but let’s just note, it is precisely that which leads to their destruction.
II. WE DON’T LIKE THAT (1-3)
So we saw that we’re looking for a king, and Jesus is that king, so you would expect there to be some kind of rejoicing as the theme here. “We’re all looking for a king, and here He is!” Yet, that’s not how this psalm starts...or ends. Let’s look at the first three verses.
What Are The Nations Doing? The word rage here means to make a “noisy assembly”. So the picture is of the nations coming together in noisy, angry plotting against the Messiah, against Jesus. They might not agree on anything else, but they sure can agree on not wanting His authority. And this isn’t just political leaders. This is the natural attitude of all people. By nature, we are enemies of God. I know this sounds too harsh. We’ve addressed this before, is not believing in Jesus really the same thing as hating Him, as trying to destroy Him? Jesus claimed to be God in flesh who came to rescue you from your sin, so save you from the Hell you deserve, by taking that upon Himself. He also said that only believing in Him and giving Him control of your life will save you. Do you run to this truth, or run from this as folly? Look at the world. How many efforts have been made to discredit and remove Jesus and His Word from society? How many Christians are still being killed around the world today for their beliefs? Why?-->
Why Are They Doing This? Verse 3 gives us the key. They want to burst the bonds. This word is referring to yokes, as in what you would tie oxen together with. They reject the king because they don’t want to be yoked; they don’t want to serve Him. I told you Tim Keller noted that we are all looking for a true king. I would take that one step further and say many of us, if not all, want to be that king! And this is where I think this message starts smacking dads in the face a bit. I would venture to say this is true of all of us, but it might be especially true of the men in this room. Maybe I am completely different than the rest of you, but I can tell you that when I played as a kid, I never made myself the sidekick! I’d force my little brothers into that role, but not me. I was going to save the day, be the best, rule the NBA or kingdom, or wherever my little heart took my imagination that day. The first few lines of the Pokemon theme song were my motto, “I want to be the very best, like no one ever was!” At heart, I am no different today.
Men, let me just speak to you for a moment. How many of you see this in your heart, as well. Do you have a need to fix everything, to solve all the problems? Maybe you’ve grown past wanting to save the world, but what about your family? And when you find you can’t fix it, how devastating is that? See, this is why the nations rage. Not only do we want a true king, but we want to be that king. Therefore, we can’t stand someone who comes to takes that authority away from us because that takes admitting we need someone else to fix everything.
So they plot against Him→
To What End? None. Verse one states it from the very beginning. “...the peoples plot in vain”. Why is it in vain? I love Spurgeon’s response to this: “[God] has already done that which the enemy seeks to prevent.” All the plotting accomplishes nothing because Jesus is the true King who came to set all things right, and hope is only in Him because only God is God!
II. BUT HE IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED (10-12)
And that brings us to the end of the passage. God is sovereign; we don’t like that, BUT His sovereignty is exactly what we need.
Warning. These verses start with a warning. Serve, rejoice, and kiss...or face wrath and perish. This is not a popular message today, but it’s not complicated. If we want to be wise, we need to serve the Lord, rejoice in who He is, and love Jesus. Serve: give Him everything. This means, you’re no longer your own, but His--wholeheartedly. Rejoice: like we saw last week, you are to find your joy in Him. Kiss: give Him your affection. This isn’t romantic kissing, but more like a child would kiss their parent. It’s a sign of love and respect--which He is due. This is the core of what it means to be a Christian, but it is not natural for us. That is why it takes the saving of Jesus to change our hearts!
Also, we need to note that the wrath here is not mindless or flippant. This is the result of the rebellion and plotting against God. It is real. We cannot discount or downplay that. Yet, we must also remember, it is not what we were made for→
Refuge. We were made for refuge. Refuge from what? The wages of our sin. It is so easy to miss this picture of Grace! Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (See also Romans 3:23-26*)
Joy in Trembling. And it is here that we find joy. In our service to Him (11) is both fear and joy. Why? When we see who He is, we’re shaken (Again, remember the disciples when they saw Him calm the storm?); but, because we know we’re His, we rejoice!
TAKEAWAYS
By nature, we’re looking for control.
We want someone to save the day, and we want to be that someone. The result of this rebellion is Hell. Yet, the true king came to rescue us from that fate.
True leadership follows the true leader.
Just like Jesus tells the disciples to be great they must be servants of all, we see here that a wise king is one who serves the true king. The same is true of all of us. You want to make a difference in your workplace and your home, serve Jesus with everything you have.
And don’t be afraid of what the world thinks about that. Keller pointed this out in his sermon, as well. We should not fear the world’s powers because God doesn’t. So often we are so timid when sharing our faith because we fear the consequences. But remember, Jesus has already won. Romans 8 is such a beautiful chapter. I recommend that all of you go home and read it, but for now, consider how it ends: “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)
True freedom comes through submission to our true purpose.
This might seem out of place, but let me clarify. The reason the nations raged was because they wanted to be free. We have this notion that freedom comes from being able to do whatever we want whenever we want to, but that’s just not true. Today, we’re going to recognize Brendan as he goes off to college. He is going to school on an athletic scholarship. They didn’t offer him this just because he’s a giant. He actually knows a little bit about playing football. Why? Did this happen because he just did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted? No. He had to sacrifice. He gave up time, sleep, and other leisure activities. And you know, I’m pretty sure not everything he did was enjoyable. When he was waking up for early morning workouts while many of his buddies were still at home snoozing, it would not have felt like fun. Yet, it is precisely because of these sacrifices that he is able to play at the level he now plays. This truth is even more true in our spiritual lives. Submitting to Christ frees us to be who we were made to be.
So, what in the world does this have to do with Father’s Day?
Everything. Dads, young and old, you will be looked to as a leader. The quality of your leadership, and mine, is 100% dependent on the reality of your devotion to Christ. I want to be a Christ-like dad. That means I need to realize some truths about myself. First, that at the core, I’m seeking myself. Second, that I need to throw that down and follow the true King. It’s only then that I will be able to lead like I should. It is only then, that I will be free to be the man I was made to be, and lead my children to experience that same freedom. If they don’t see this in you, if they don’t see you prioritizing Jesus, then they won’t be looking for it. They are going to follow in someone’s footsteps, but it will probably be the shoes setting closest to theirs.
God is sovereign; we don’t like that, but that is exactly what we need.
*“23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-26)
