A Reign Of Peace In The Turmoil

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Today's Old Testament reading will be in Ezekiel 37 verses 24 through 28 on page 725 in your few Bibles. My servant David shall be king over them and they shall have One shepherd.

They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my second servant Jacob where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever and David my servant shall be their prince forever.

I Will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will set them in their land and multiply them. I In their midst forevermore my dwelling place shall be with them and I will be their God and They shall be my people.

Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel When my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

The Kingdom of Peace in Ezekiel, Luke, and Psalm 2

New Testament reading today is in Luke 2 8 through 20. And. Some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As he said these things he called out he who has ears to hear let him hear. And When his disciples asked him what this pair is what this parable meant He said to you has been given to known the secret to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.

But for others they are in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this. The seed is the Word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard.

Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts So that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the word Receive it with joy, but these are not but these have no root.

They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns are.

Those.

Who hear. But as they go on their way? They are choked by by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil There are those who hearing the word hold it fast and in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with con with patience.

No one after lighting a camp lamp covers it with the jar or puts it under a bed. But puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden. That will not be made manifest nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

Take care then now then how you hear. For to the one who has more will be given and from the one who has not Even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. Then his mother and his brother came to him.

But they could not reach him because they because of the crowd and he was told your mother and your brother are standing outside desiring to see you.

Maybe see them. Thank you for your scene. If you'd open up your Bibles to Psalm chapter 2, please. Psalm chapter 2 will also be in Luke chapter 1 and 2. Psalm chapter 2 why do the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel. Together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. But he who sits in the heavens laughs the Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying as for me I have set my king on Zion my holy hill. I Will tell the decree the Lord said to me you are my son today. I have begotten you ask of me and I'll make the nation's 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. So now therefore Oh Kings be wise. Be warned. Oh rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the Sun.

Lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. But blessed are all those who take refuge in him God in heaven. Thank you for this time. Thank you for this Advent season. Thank you for your grace that's found in Jesus Christ.

We know Lord He is multifaceted in many ways Lord. His ministry comes down to us. He is a merciful God who shepherds us his His rod or his his staff gives us comfort as we the sheep of his pasture. We look to him to guide us and defeat us and we know Lord that he vanquishes our sin within us in his kindness.

We're also thankful Lord that he will defeat all of our enemies both his and ours. That one day righteousness will dwell completely and all sin will be dealt with not only in his church But also in the world and so we're thankful to celebrate those things this Advent season as we look upon him entering this earth.

That he came to be a king and he is a king. He came to rule and he does rule. So I pray God that we would hear the words of our King this morning. And that it would have its way in our hearts. So that we'd be the people that kiss the Sun and we'd be the people to be the people that find refuge in the Sun.

So that we do not perish in the way. Thank you for being so faithful and kind and gracious to us Undeserving people we praise you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Following after World War two there was a great Tumultuous event called the Cold War in which there was the East and the West were at conflict with one another.

And at the beginning of it in the 1950s There's the start of what was called the the space race or space to get out race to get out into space in which the Russians had the upper hand at the beginning in which they Sent out Sputnik and that was a satellite the first satellite ever to orbit to go into orbit around Earth.

And Sputnik was able to deliver a message from space, but it was sent Transmitted by radio beeps. It was Conveyed and radio beeps now America wanted to get into the race themselves. And they wanted to one-up the Russians for being a little late out into space.

And so they quickly got together a craft that could be sent out into space in orbit space as well. And they wanted to to deliver a message as well. But they didn't want to do it in radio beeps because that's lame, right?

They wanted to do it with an actual audio message. And so president Eisenhower recorded an audio message. They strapped it on to this thing that could go out into space a very early satellite. And this is the message that he gave to everyone in December during the Christmas season of 1958 he said through the marbles of scientific advance.

My voice is coming to you from a satellite Circling in outer space. My message is a simple one through this unique means I convey to you in all mankind America's wish for peace on earth and goodwill to men everywhere now this is when the Cold War was really heating up so the idea of peace on earth was quite a a Far-fetched idea, but nevertheless America president Eisenhower Recorded this this desire and they sent it off in this satellite.

Orbiting earth for the whole world to hear now this message of peace. I find to be kind of ironic. Because in their haste America didn't want to wait to make an actual satellite to get out there. They did the quickest thing they could do they used to the thing that they could use quickest to get out there.

So they could hurry up and get the satellite out into space. So it's not too long after Sputnik and what they used was a rocket that was meant to hold a nuclear bomb. And so I I find that to be ironic isn't it?

It's a message of peace and it's being carried by a rocket meant for nuclear warfare. I think it's it's an ironic display of how everyone wants peace. Russia and America wants peace. Everyone wants peace, but we want it on our own terms.

That's the way peace operates that's the kind of peace that we want and even on an individual level we operate the same way. Don't we? You know, we we say I remember in high school here and all the time in celebrities.

They act like they're high school there. So you hear them all the time say no drama. I don't want drama, right? We don't like drama. We like peace but we want peace on our own terms if we're in an argument or or There's contention with another brother and sister in Christ or a spouse.

We want peace, but we want it on our terms. We want it on our terms and the question I want to ask does God work this way. Does God want peace and does he want it on his own terms? And the answer is a resounding?

Yes. Exactly what he wants. God wants peace and he wants it on his own terms. God works this way surely. His will is to bring peace to a situation that is engulfed in turmoil due to our rebellion. But his peace most specifically means destroying our self-rebellion.

So God operates on the same way, too. He wants peace just as we want peace, but he wants it on his terms just like in our rebellion. We want it on our terms. I can say emphatically. I could say absolutely emphatically.

If you want peace right now in your homes and your marriage and your friendships. The answer is always not to get your own way as we most naturally want to but it's to get God's way, right? And that's that's a nice bumper sticker Christian statement, right?

But it has to be true if we truly want peace. It has to be God's way and it should be our delight to apply God's peace or God's way to every area of our life. But nevertheless God certainly works this way.

God wants peace and he wants it on his own terms. Last week we spoke on turmoil. And we broke it down into if you remember three layers remember. And the first layer of turmoil is in psalm 2 is humans.

You remember they're raging they're plotting in psalm 2. They're raging they're plotting against God and his anointed if you remember. Remember, we talked about the second layer though. Who's behind that and we talked about satan.

Satan is behind the turmoil of humans that they do. Even when they don't even quite know that. And then the third layer is God is over it all for the sake of his son and his kingdom. We saw how God is sovereign and used in the turmoil brought by the first two layers to bring about the kingdom of his son.

Now today we're going to see how Jesus's kingdom is of peace. It truly is. It is it is one of peace. We'll see that in Luke 1 and 2 but also how this peace is brought on his terms. Not our on our own terms and we'll see that in psalm 2 and this is really needed to know.

Because if you do any kind of evangelism. If you do any kind of trying to tell someone about who God is and what he's doing again. They'll want that peace that you offer in the gospel, but they'll say they want it on their own terms.

They don't recognize that there is a need for repentance and a turn it away. And a turn away from the sin so that it's on God's terms. So it's very important for us to solidify. What is God looking for in the kingdom with the son?

What is he doing and that is to promote peace for the son to have peace. But of course it needs to be on his terms and not on our own terms. You understand that if God were a lot were to allow a kingdom for his son on the terms of the rebel.

To where the rebels would get their.

Um.

It would be on their terms God would be a very most unjust God. He'd be a God who is very unjust. He would be a God.

Who.

If he would allow such a thing He'd be the most unloving and be a very unjust kingdom. No for it to be a just kingdom for it to be a righteous kingdom. It must be peace on the terms that God has ordained.

This is needed To be understood in our own selves like charlie brown. We should be on the search for the meaning of christmas. Um, and we'll see how it's it's peace from the king on his own terms. So if you look in luke 1 We start in verse 26 if you want to flip over there We'll see the nature of what jesus is doing is is one of peace the first before we get to luke 2.

I want to take a quick second in luke 1 26 through 33 to see how um, When gabriel goes to mary and and and tells her She's going to have a son we can hear. Really we can it drips some of the words drip off of what we already heard from psalm 2 about this kingdom.

That is coming that god is establishing. And we see in verse 26 in the sixth month Of luke 1 The angel gabriel was sent from god to a city of galilee named nazareth To a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was joseph of the house of david and the virgin's name was mary.

And he came to her and said greetings. Oh favored one. The lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her do not be afraid mary for you have found favor with god and behold.

You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name jesus. He will be great. And will be called the son of the most high and the lord god will give to him the throne of his father david.

And he will reign over the house of jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end you see those last few verses. Those words are dripping with where we left off last week in psalm 2. Remember the nations are raging they're plotted against god and god laughs because he Will accomplish his desire which is what in psalm 2 6 if you remember as for me I have set my king on zion my holy hill and so we see here a burst of of of of action divine action after thousands of years or hundreds of years of silence and now we can see that this is coming into full view.

This great prophecy or this great promise that as for me i've set my king on zion my holy hill and here we see Jesus is the great Fulfillment of this promise that's coming about. This is david's kingdom.

This is the throne of his father david and he'll reign over the house of jacob forever on that. Holy hill now. If we look at luke 1 46 We can see now that part of this rule of jesus is god's ability to handle his enemies on his own terms.

Um.

God can handle his enemies on his own terms. Um god wants is a god of peace. But it's peace on his own terms and part of that means that you need to destroy your enemies. And so we see that in in luke 1 46.

And mary said you remember this this this great song of mary. Um, And she says and mary says my soul magnifies the lord. And my spirit rejoices in god my savior for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold from now on all Generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. And verse 50 and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to abraham and to his offspring forever. And so we can see we can see here mary talking about how this god is a god who remembers his covenant remembers his people.

But in so doing he he brings down people who are mighty right? This is god who has peace on his own terms. We can see zechariah if we had time to go there. We can see he talks about the peace of this kingdom too in light of the fact that god brings down his enemies as well.

But i'll focus the last few minutes as we're in luke. I want to go to luke 2 with the story of the angels going to the shepherds. So we can see in luke 2 verse 8. In the same region there were shepherds out in the field.

Keep and watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the lord appeared to them and the glory of the lord shown around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them fear not.

For behold I bring you good news a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of david a savior who is christ the lord.

And.

This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was the angel of a multitude of the heavenly post praising god and saying glory to god in the highest and on earth.

Peace.

Among those whom he is pleased. So when the angels went away from the from them into heaven the shepherds said to one another let us go over to bethlehem and see. The thing that has happened which the lord has made known to us.

Then they went with haste and found mary and joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what had the shepherds told them now.

It's really interesting and this kind of goes to what we're saying last week that um that god, you know. You have the raging of the enemy. You have the raging of the world. You have the rage you have their plotting and god laughs at them and you can see that if if you know typically when a king has arrived.

And they are declared to be king. You want the you want it to be fantastic. You want it to be wonderful? You want the visuals to be awesome so that it further solidifies. So this guy is really king, you know when when a king is.

Uh, what's the word? Uh coronated I think is proper word. You want it to be a dazzling display, right? You want there to be gold over you want there to be riches you want it to be dazzling. You want all the great people all the greatest states to be there, right princes and everything to be there.

To display this king becoming king in his own right to have that authority. Well, I think you find amazing is that when jesus has announced to be king he's announced to be king by shepherds. Lowly shepherds.

These are people that are poor that don't have much money. It wouldn't be people that if you really wanted to to defend that this is the king of israel. You wouldn't want to use shepherds. Well, there's a certain sense where god laughs at his enemies that he's not worried about their raging not worried about their plotting.

But rather he is very calm and collected as he has shepherds go. And declare what they heard from the angels that this is the king that there is peace going to be offered to the world. And we know this baby was born in a cave.

Not in a palace, right? We know that this is god that simply is laughing at the enemy's advances. By showing this king of the universe displayed in such a lowly way. And the question that I have though moving forward, especially as we look at psalm 2.

Is it's been 2 000 years since that great. Just that great declaration from the angels, right? You know. Peace on earth goodwill for those who he's well pleased with. And you can imagine in your mind you would imagine that that this messiah would bring all sorts of peace.

Overarching right? It's been 2 000 years and yet we still live in a world. That's full of turmoil. So what do we do with that? Right? What do we do that? With the fact that jesus has been reigning now, so to speak for 2 000 years yet.

We still are full of turmoil this week alone, right? We hear the shooting in oxford, uh high school. This is a high school that was not far north from me at all. In fact, our schools were somewhat rivals.

Well, we'd be more rivals if our school would ever win a football game, but we played each other all the time. I know people went there. Uh and everything it can be hard for us to understand that if this is a jesus who is supposed to have peace on earth.

Goodwill to men and everything and yet we have so much turmoil 2 000 years later. In fact, we can even argue that perhaps it hasn't even gotten better. Um, it was not just wishful thinking by god, uh with what was going on with jesus as a babe.

When we think about turmoil in our own home. Some of you guys are coming into church this morning and there was turmoil in your home when you left. And you guys got to put on a nice face as you come here.

That's that's that's awful. That doesn't feel good for ourselves to have to come in and put on a face. And and fake and act like there's not turmoil within my own homes. Yeah, i'm supposed to read that jesus has brought peace 2 000 years ago.

Where's that peace at? And so it can be something that we really got to solidify in our hearts each christmas time as we talk about peace. The kingdom that that a peace that christus supposedly have brought but yet we see so much turmoil.

Where does that come from? Right? Especially when we're struggling with peace within our own homes. What peace are we even talking about here? It reminds me of that great hymn that I love listening to each year.

I heard the bells on christmas day. You remember the words and in despair I bowed my head. There is no peace on earth I said for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth goodwill to men, right?

It's the middle of the civil war. Um, and there wasn't much peace going on then but yet this baby Jesus was supposed to bring so much peace it mocks the song because there's so much turmoil is peace really something that jesus has brought.

Um, I want I think psalm 2 can really help us with that answer. I think it can really help us make sense of this the angelic declaration was not just god's best intentions.

But these.

2 000 years ago, it shows that He didn't just fall short of the mark Christ will defeat his enemies and bring total peace in the end. But first he uses the raging and the plotting to bring peace within his people first.

And that's kind of where we're going. I want to say that again Christ will ultimately bring an end to all the turmoil to all the sin. You know that sin is what causes a turmoil. But first he's using the turmoil to bring peace within his elect within his church first.

You see what i'm saying there that he wants to use the turmoil to bring peace to his church first. And after that is complete after his church has been sanctified. Then he will bring peace across the whole world with his judgment.

But one must come before the other and so in a way your sanctification is a guarantee of the enemy's imminent downfall. You want to know how we can know that jesus truly will bring peace is because he's starting with this church.

He's starting with this church. He's bringing sin to an end within his church first and we know that that is a down payment that one day he'll make an End of all sin across all the world once he is finished with his church.

Indeed he uses the turmoil of the world to further sanctify his church in his own time. And once he's done doing that then he will put an end to his enemies because he's done using them and that's kind of the direction I want to head to and I want to label it before we get there and so Going back to psalm 2 then we'll spend the next several minutes there.

And remember we ended in verse 6. Psalm 2 verse 6 as for me i've set my king on zion my holy hill. This is in direct response to the plotting the raging of the world. Remembering it was in vain. Remember, they're doing their plotting and they're raging in vain.

And we talked about the layers right and we already we already referred to that. And after god gets done laughing at their plotting at the raging in vain after he gets done Mocking them. He then says now let me tell you what's actually going to happen.

Not your rebellion not what you're trying to do. But this is what's actually happening whether or not you like it and you're actually contributing to it. He says as for me, this is what i'm doing and it's not in vain.

I am establishing my King on zion. I have set my king on zion my holy hill. You see that's what god is doing in history. What he's doing now despite the fact that people are raging and plotting against him.

He laughs at their trial he laughs at what they're trying to do and he says i'm going to use you in order to actually further my purpose and so in verse 7 We can get this king that he says i've set up all of a sudden he starts speaking.

And he says in verse 7 of psalm 2. I will tell the decree. The lord said to me You are my son today. I have begotten you. So again, this is the king god says i'm establishing my king on my holy hill and all of a sudden we hear the words of This king this anointed one and he says I will tell the decree the lord or yahweh.

The father said to me you are my son to get today. I have begotten you now again the immediate context. Of this right? So this always as we said last week. We see these old testament verses. They always have an immediate context the people who Initially heard that would always always had something to bear on their life at that moment.

But then there's always a far-reaching context of the great messiah of the great jesus christ to come and the great immediate Immediate context is god has produced a king for israel. And so when israel had a king.

You know the king david solomon or anyone that came after them. It was god who established that king not that king has established itself and that's really important. Because the idea is that the king is not the law god is the law.

God is one who established the king. And that's a very important advancement in culture, by the way. Um, we don't have time to get into it. But the idea that the king is not the law but god is king. Over or god is king over uh, the king.

He is the law and the point being is that anytime there was a king of israel. It's because that he was begotten by god god had created that king, right? And so it's very important. It had very important immediate context there.

And these kings gained their power by god not by man. But the ultimate fulfillment here and one that we'll focus most of our time on is the father establishing the throne of messiah. And we talked about how this is not just a little nuance of the bible.

But the whole scriptures is about god the father establishing the throne of the son. That's what all scripture is about old testament new testament. It's all about the messiah and his throne being established.

The ultimate fulfillment is the father establishing the throne of messiah.

Yeah.

And really so we can see the ultimate Role of the monarchy in israel was to paint the picture of the great king that would come. A lot of people get that mixed up thinking that there's still some importance to israel outside of christ even today.

But what do they mean by decree if you see that if we see the ultimate fulfillment of christ it says. You know this this this one who has been anointed by god the father. He says I will tell of the decree.

Uh decree is an authoritative law or command. Okay, you hear a decree for something. It's someone who has authority and he's decreeing something and people must now listen to this decree. And I think this is really important because there's a contrast right the world is raging and plotting in vain.

They want all these things they want all these things. They want to rebel and god laughs at them and says, you know and holds them in derision and he says this is the decree. This is what's truly the decree.

This is what's actually going to happen. This is truth. This is the decree now the question we can ask before we get to it Is when was this decree?

Made.

Now we know in israel with for the actual their actual kings the decree was made when the king became king, right? That was the decree, but when was it made for jesus christ? When was it made for the eternal son of god?

Now there's all sorts of different understandings of when it could be at the resurrection. If you want to listen romans 1 1 through 4. At the very beginning of the letter paul a servant of christ Jesus called to be an apostle.

Set apart for the gospel of god which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son. Who is descended from david according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of god what in power?

So there's this idea that there it is. There's that decree coming to pass declared to be the son of god in power. According to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. So we can see that perhaps he was the decree was made at his resurrection his accomplishment.

But also we we know in the baptism and the transfiguration of jesus. What does god say the father say about his son? This is my beloved son whom i'm well pleased with right so the idea is maybe the decree about his son to have a kingdom.

Was there? Personally, I have no problem placing the decree jesus saying i've heard this decree. This is the decree that he has given me this kingdom. I have no problem placing this decree in eternity past.

That in eternity past there is this agreement between the son. And the father that the father would give the son a people and the son would reign in the kingdom. And so everything that happens in time and place after that and on earth is all to do with that eternal decree.

Or that covenant made between the father and the son. Everything that happens now on earth is because of this agreement that the father and son had together in eternity past. That's the purpose for everything that's ever happened.

Is for the father to give the son a kingdom based off of that decree or that covenant that eternal covenant made. Another verse we could look to is psalm 110 1 the lord says to my lord. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

It's as if we're peering into a conversation. Of the divine trinity right that's going on. This is what the divine trinity is doing right and we hear that this is where the decree is coming forth from from eternity past.

But nevertheless, this is the decree. No matter when it happens. This is what god the father is doing. And this is what the son has said. The father has promised him this kingdom, right? This is what's going on.

So everything that's happened is in light of this great decree. He says again in psalm 2 verse 7. I will tell the decree the lord said to me you are my son today. I have begotten you. And what will the father give to the son?

We'll look at verse 8. Ask of me and i'll make the nations your heritage. And the ends of the earth your possession. So again, he says ask of me the son is talking. He's saying the father said this to me.

I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. This is what the father has promised to give to the son. Heritage is like an inheritance. That's what heritage. Here i'll give you uh I'll make a nation's your heritage.

This will be your inheritance. Is what the father's saying your inheritance as my son will be the nation's. And possession means to take ownership. The father gives his son something that is the world now.

Our mind should go to who created everything the son. Jesus christ created everything but what happened with sin and the rebellion what happened to that world that the son had created? Well, it was given so to speak to the devil.

And we know that the devil is the prince of the power of the air. The one who is over all the actions of the rebellion of the world. And so the idea here is that the father creates through the son. The father gives the world to satan as he enticed man to sin so that by the father.

So that the father can then give the world to the son and how does. What does the son do. The father has given this world back to the son and and how does the son? Take it. What does he do with it? Well, he takes it by conquest.