July 14, 2024, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Thank you, Jesus. Lord, in a time of turmoil, in a time when our television screens are blasting at us that the world is out of control, it is good to know that the Lord sits upon the throne. He laughs not at our sorrows and not at our pain but at the foolishness of the rulers of the world who think that they’re in control.
You have enthroned your son, Jesus Christ. He is at the right hand of the Father, and he is reigning, and his rule and reign are extending over the earth.
And, Lord, one day, the goodness of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. King Jesus is winning. When all around us seems crazy, King Jesus is winning.
Ever since his resurrection from the dead, Lord, your kingdom has been expanding on the earth. Your goodness and grace are continuing to go out to cover up the darkness that the evil one has planted and that we have cooperated with. Lord, it is our sin. The evil one could do nothing on this earth without our cooperation and agreement.
But, Lord, we repent, and we say we want to be on the side of King Jesus. And so take us, as sinful as we are, and clean us up. Forgive us, extend your grace to us, fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we might become increasingly more like Jesus in character and in power, and we would be agents of bringing the goodness of the Lord into the land of the living.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. Amen.
All right, turn to somebody next to you.
Well, if, you know, boy, you guys are kind of spread out. It’s kind of hot. I don’t know if it’s like a deodorant thing or what the deal is. You know, it’s like I always tell people, it can’t be my deodorant. I don’t wear any.
All right, so turn to somebody a long way away from you and say you’re a part of God’s army. All right. Yeah, you too, man. Right there. Just the two of you could just change all history. Pretty powerful stuff. And then you got the Johnson family.
Oh, my gosh. So there you go. All right, dear ones, Psalm 110. This is the most quoted Old Testament scripture in the New Testament, and that’s where we’re going to be tonight.
Let me read this psalm to you. I already read Psalm 2. This is the second kind of blatantly messianic psalm in the Psalms. And it goes like this:
1 The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.” 2 The Lord will extend your powerful kingdom from Jerusalem ; you will rule over your enemies. 3 When you go to war, your people will serve you willingly. You are arrayed in holy garments, and your strength will be renewed each day like the morning dew. 4 The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord stands at your right hand to protect you. He will strike down many kings when his anger erupts. 6 He will punish the nations and fill their lands with corpses; he will shatter heads over the whole earth.7 But he himself will be refreshed from brooks along the way. He will be victorious. (Psalms 110:1-7, NLT)
If you’ve ever heard of The Hiding Place and the author Corrie ten Boom, about a woman and her sister who were taken prisoner by the Nazis in World War Two because their family, a Christian family, were hiding out Jews, were protecting Jews from the Nazis, and they were found out, and they were taken prisoners. Corrie ten Boom was, I believe, the only one from her family to survive.
And she wrote the book called The Hiding Place, where they used to hide the Jews out, and also in reference to God being her hiding place. He got her through this terrible time. She recounts the story in the book of her father, a godly man. The family had been going through a Bible study on the book of Revelation when the Nazis came and arrested them. As they arrested them, they separated the family out.
And the father got in one truck to go to one concentration camp, and the girls got in another truck and were taken to another concentration camp.
These young girls, probably teenagers, this was the last time they ever saw their father on this earth. The last thing they saw happen to their father was horrifying. He was an older man, and he wasn’t moving as fast as the Nazis wanted him to move. As they were shuffling him off to this truck, some Nazi thug took the butt of his rifle, boom, hit him in the back.
And this old man collapsed to the ground. And the daughters saw that and began to cry and were looking aghast at the brutality already being displayed upon their father. But their father stood up.
And this is, man, this is a legacy right here. Dads, here’s a legacy for you, right? The father stands up, looks at his daughters, and the last words those girls ever heard their father say on earth came from the book of Revelation. Jesus is the victor.
After being hit by the butt of a Nazi rifle, Jesus is the victor on Corrie ten Boom’s tombstone. Those are the words. Jesus is the victor.
Psalm 110 is about Jesus, the victor. Well, the victor over what? The Bible gives us what I call a spiritual warfare worldview. It is a spiritual warfare worldview.
And we read Michael Heiser, and we kind of looked at that. The idea is that God has created two orders of beings in His image and likeness. One we would generically call an angelic order or a non-material.
They’re spiritual, they’re not physical. They don’t have bodies like us. They don’t have appendices that burst and kidneys that get stones and those sorts of things.
We call them the angelic realm or the spiritual realm. The Elohim gods. Some of them not gods, small g. God gives them authority over regions, and they’re part of his divine council.
And the Bible teaches.
There’s just a few places that the leader of this group, there was a leader of this group that led a group of them, maybe more than one rebellion, but it led a group of them in rebellion against God.
We’re not told how many times they rebelled. We’re not told if they were ever forgiven for their rebellion and then rebelled again. We’re told very little about this story, except we’re given enough to know that there’s a war in the universe between the creator of all things, capital G, God, Yahweh, and these angelic beings.
And in the middle, God creates another group of beings made in his image and likeness. Only these beings not only are spiritual, but these beings inhabit the physical universe that God created with physicality. These beings have flesh, these beings have skeletons. These beings are us humans.
And God created humans, and humans, through the enticement of the fallen angelic realm, joined the fallen angelic realm in their rebellion. And God is trying to get the universe back. He’s trying to get the world back. And there’s war going on.
And the whole Old Testament is about, I believe, that war, where God selects particular people, the Jews, and He begins to teach them what people should have known from the beginning: that there’s only one God, Yahweh. There’s only one God, one creator, one maker of the heavens, of the earth.
And all these other gods represented by these little wooden idols and statues people have, are small g. They’re evil, they’re bad. They’re leading you to destruction. They’re giving you bad ideas. Don’t follow them. Follow the capital G, God Yahweh.
And all he does is he takes one group of people and says, look it, I’m going to teach you the truth, and you’re going to be what I would call an island of monotheism, one true God in the sea of pagan polytheism, many gods, the demons, the dark powers.
You’re going to be an island, just something that just sticks out in the middle of this. You will be holy, you’ll be different, because you will believe in the one true God.
And through that island, or on that island, is a landing strip, as it were, for my real answer to the brokenness and war in this universe. I’m going to send a messiah. I’m going to send an anointed one who’s going to turn the tables on this war and set all things to right.
But I need a people. I need a place to go. Well, if it makes sense, right? If one God is going to send one answer, and that answer is going to be himself, that can’t be.
In the midst of paganism, if the son of God lands in a pagan culture, what happens? He becomes just absorbed. Great, we’ll take another one. We’ll take another one, which is what happened, in fact, in Latin America when Jesus was preached.
But he was preached, and it really didn’t get clear in many cases. And it was a religious syncretism between Latin American paganism and Roman Catholicism. And all of a sudden, you had the saints and Jesus and Mary, and it just became kind of another form of polytheistic paganism in many cases, sadly.
But there’s a war, and God’s answer is Jesus. And Psalm 110 says this: The Lord Yahweh said to my lord, David’s talking about Yahweh. The one true God said to my lord, Adonai.
All right, whenever you see in your Old Testament, lord, capital L-O-R-D, Yahweh. Whenever you see, capital L, but small o-r-d, Adonai. Adonai means master, lord, boss.
All right, Yahweh. The one true God, the one true God said to my master, well, David’s a monotheist. The one true God said to my master, God, sit at my right hand.
Hints of the Trinity. Hints of Jesus. In the Old Testament, Jesus quotes this verse. This is the most. Psalm 110 is the most quoted verse in the whole New Testament from the Old Testament.
Jesus quotes it in Matthew 23. It’s quoted several times in Hebrews. It’s quoted. Who else? I think Paul quotes it at one point. And so, more than any other verse in the Old Testament, Psalm 110, parts of Psalm 110 appear. And this appears.
The Lord said to my lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool under my feet.
What is going on here? The spiritual warfare worldview. Yahweh says to Jesus, adonai, sit at my right hand. What does that mean?
Well, we have Daniel 7 where the Bible says, I saw one like the son of man coming before the ancient of days. The son of man, Jesus, coming before the ancient of days, God the father. And he says, take place at my right hand.
Sit at my right hand, and I will give you a kingdom, an everlasting kingdom. The promise to David, the covenant promised to David, there’s going to be a king on your throne forever. This is King Jesus, and you will reign over all the earth.
And now he’s saying, sit at my right hand in Psalm 110. What does that mean? It means, Jesus, your work is finished. So how can it be finished? We still got presidential candidates being shot at. We still got wars and rumors of wars. We still got chaos. Yeah, but it’s done.
The decisive battle has been won. The devil is defeated.
Seven events in a short period of time. In about a 70-year period of time, seven events took place that turned the whole course of the universe. It was the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension, the sending of the spirit, and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Those seven events turned all of history from, hey, we’re going south till we’re going north. We’re walking away from God to now all of history has turned, and Jesus has won. He’s won. It’s finished.
Tetelestai is the Greek word translated on the cross where Jesus says it is finished. The victory has been won.
Now we live in the times between the times. We live in the times when the decisive battles have been won. History has turned, and yet the devil is still fighting.
Some people think the devil is still fighting because he still thinks he has a chance to win. Other people think the devil is still fighting because he’s just fighting for time.
The longer he can keep us on a string, the longer it’s going to take for Jesus to return and all history to be summed up. Whatever reason, the devil is still fighting. The devil is still fighting. And so we’re still engaged in spiritual warfare. We still are engaged in struggle. But he is seated at the right hand of the Father. There is no competition. There is no other name in heaven and earth by which men and women might be saved in the name of Jesus.
How do we know Jesus is king?
Every time he meets a demon, what happens? Jesus wins. Demon loses every time.
In the book of Acts, Paul comes or Peter comes. And in the name of Jesus, they do what? They preach the gospel. They cast out demons. They heal the sick. The kingdom of God is expanding.
As I talk to you tonight, right now, the gospel is expanding rapidly in Africa and in Southeast Asia, and Cambodia is becoming a Christian nation, and all around sub-Saharan Africa is becoming a Christian continent. And, dear ones, there is no stopping it.
The devil can’t stop it anymore. He’s lost. He’s defeated. It’s over. It’s like World War Two. Berlin is getting surrounded. The Russians are on the east, the allies are in the south and the west. D-Day has been accomplished, and they’ve developed. The circle around Berlin is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and pretty soon, it’s just going to be gone.
That’s where we live. And the Father says, I am putting your enemies as a footstool under your feet. The Bible trash talks the devil. You’re under the feet of Jesus.
You see, in the Old Testament, sometimes when a king, when Joshua or another king wins a battle, they take the opposing king, and what do they do? They stand on their necks. Well, what’s that? That’s I’m the winner, you’re the loser. Language, all right? That’s macho guy language.
Like, you’re going, see that neck I’m standing on? You don’t want me to take my foot off that neck, because when my foot comes off that neck, the sword’s coming down on it. Your head is forfeit. You’ve lost. Sit at my right hand.
And all these spirits, all these small, rebellious demonic powers, try to rise up as an antichrist spirit and try to thwart the gospel, and they do great harm. I don’t want to minimize them. Nazi Germany, Soviet communism, radical Islam, secularism in the West, they do great harm.
But dear ones, fear not. They will not win. It is a game of cosmic whack-a-mole, all right? These little antichrist spirits, they pop their head up and they make a lot of noise, and they cause some damage. And pretty soon, Jesus comes along. Bam.
That one goes down, and he says, every enemy is ultimately going to be defeated. And the last enemy to be defeated is death.
You know what you and I are? We’re the mallet in Jesus’ hands. In the game of cosmic whack-a-mole, he applies us to the heads of demons. Boom. Took out another one. Took out another one.
I’m going to make your enemies a footstool. Your people will be a volunteer army. He says your people will willingly line up, Messiah, to be on your side. That’s who we are.
John Wimber said, the church is at war. Eighty percent of the church doesn’t know it in the West, and the other twenty percent are trying as hard as they can to remain civilians. But, dear ones, you’re at war. The sooner you realize it, the better off you’re going to be.
Life isn’t going to be easy. You have an enemy. You have many enemies. They’ll attack your thoughts, they’ll attack your health, they’ll attack your family. But you know what? Greater is he who is in you than he who is attacking you.
And it’s time we rise up and acknowledge there’s a fight going on. We’re going to win that fight, and we’re going to pray through that fight, and we’re going to walk through that fight.
We’re not going to succumb to discouragement, and we’re not going to quit. We’re going to keep putting the right foot in front of the left and the left foot in front of the right, and we’re going to keep praying.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And it will, and it will happen through ordinary, normal people like us.
I think I was voted in my high school yearbook the most likely to be mediocre. All right? I mean, but I can tell you, and I’ve put this hand on people and they’ve been healed of sickness, and I’ve spoke in the name of Jesus and see people barf out demons.
Why? Because I’m some super anointed guy?
No, I didn’t get the big Holy Spirit package because I’m a pastor and you got the small Holy Spirit package because you have to sit out there and listen to me.
There’s only one reason I’m a pastor and you’re not. You actually have marketable skills. Now, there’s probably other reasons, but you know what I’m saying? We’re all in this together. There’s no big distinction. I’m a paid talker, all right? My job is to equip you so that you do the ministry. It’s not that.
It’s not your job to come and sit here and pay me so that I do the ministry. It’s my job to equip you. You do the ministry.
I got an assignment for you this week. Here’s your assignment. You can do any one of these three things. Really easy, simple assignment. Just do one of these three things. You don’t have to do all three. Just do one.
Heal a sick person, cast out a devil, or lead somebody to Christ. All right, we’ll grade next week. If you do one of those three things, you get an A.
If you do two of them, you get an A plus. If you do all three of them, you get an A. All right. If you try to do one of those three things, you get an A minus. All right? You’re good.
A volunteer army. And he says, you’re the dew of my youth. You’re young, you’re vibrant, you’re alive, you’re victorious. This is not an old, crippled, hobbled army.
I love this passage because I like being new and young and vibrant. When I get out of a chair, I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel young and vibrant. I feel like, well, I actually say this many mornings: Okay, here we go. Here we go. All right, first task, get the socks on. I can do this.
But no, that’s not how God sees me. That’s not how God sees me. God sees me as with that sword in my hand, that vibrant warrior advancing with him as his kingdom expands. That’s who we are.
That’s who we are. That’s what Psalm 10 says. Christ is the victor, and we are victors with him.
And then it talks about he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And when we went through Hebrews, we talked about Melchizedek. But a quick reminder, Melchizedek appears only here, Genesis 14, and in the book of Hebrews. But he’s an important figure in the Bible because he is a priest of God that precedes, that goes before the Levitical priesthood established by Moses.
What does that mean?
It means that there is another priesthood that is bigger, deeper, richer, more ancient, more profound than the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood is a copy of this other priesthood, this Melchizedekian priesthood, and Jesus is our perfect priesthood. That’s what Psalm 110 says. He’s our high priest.
And people would say, how can Jesus be the high priest? He’s of what tribe? Anybody know what tribe Jesus is from? Judah. Judah. I heard somebody whisper, Judah. Who whispered Judah? Jamie, you know it. You knew it. All right. The A student, the teacher’s pet. All right. Good job, Jamie.
Judah. How can he be a priest? He’s not a Levite. And the answer is. Oh, wait a minute. Not so fast.
Genesis 14. Abram wins this mighty victory over these five kingdoms. And he brings home all this loot, all this bounty. And the prince, the priest and the prince of Salem. Salem means peace. The prince of peace, the king of peace. The priest of peace. Salem is also short for what would become later Jerusalem. The high priest and king of Jerusalem.
Are you catching the imagery here? Are you catching the typology here? Melchizedek comes out to meet Abram and blesses him, and Abram tithes to Melchizedek, this high priest.
The tithe represents what you represent, God. I’m humbling myself and submitting myself to your priesthood, and I’m honoring your priesthood because what you represent is greater than me. And so Abram tithes to Melchizedek.
And then Melchizedek brings Abram refreshments. And you know what, Abram? You know what Melchizedek brings to Abram? Communion. Bread and wine. I mean, it’s there, right? It’s there. This is a type of Christ.
And Psalm 110 says, there’s coming a forever, an eternal priest, not of the Levitical order, not that he has to sacrifice animals, but of a deeper order, an older order, the order of Melchizedek.
And what does a priest do? I grew up in a Catholic church. I thought a priest said mass. But here’s what priest literally means. And this is what the Catholic Church tried to represent through priesthood. The priest is a mediator. The priest is a bridge builder. That’s what priest means.
Priest is the one who connects one side to the other side, a sinful humanity and a holy God.
How does a sinful humanity connect with a holy God in the Levitical priesthood? It’s through multiple animal sacrifices and the Day of Atonement and the temple and all that. That’s how God dwells with his people.
But there’s a priest coming, an eternal priest who doesn’t have to offer sacrifice day after day, year after year, who offers one sacrifice once and for all.
And he stands forever as a mediator, as an intercessor between a sinful humanity and a holy God.
And that priest is Jesus, and he is the perfect sacrifice. He’s the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He’s the perfect priest without sin, of the order of Melchizedek, to offer to God himself as the sacrifice.
And therefore, forever, he is the mediator of the new covenant between God and humanity.
And therefore, Hebrews 4 says he was like us in every way except without sin, so that through him we may come into the throne room of God and receive grace and mercy for every time of need.
Jesus now gives. How is it that you and I can boldly approach God in prayer and say, hey, God, got a final coming up, man, I need your help. And God says, oh, you want my help with a final? What about the other night when you’re not drinking? You weren’t asking for my help then. Well, actually, God, I did.
When I saw that cop behind me, I did ask your help. Why doesn’t God just take? Like I said, why doesn’t God just take?
I got to get me one of these, by the way. I got to get me one of those electric fly swatters. Those are so cool. I love those things. All right, so I’m going to get one of those.
Why doesn’t God just take a cosmic electric fly swatter when we approach him in prayer and go, you know what? You’re not worthy.
Because we walk in with King Jesus, and he sees us as his son and as his daughter. And therefore, Hebrews 4 says this. It really says this. This is in the Bible. You can check it out. Where we receive in the throne room of God grace and mercy. For this and every time of need, we come into the presence of God. Bold I approach his eternal throne.
The presence of the holy king of the universe, the blazing, consuming fire who Moses couldn’t see except his backside or would kill him.
The God of Mount Sinai, you know, the God of the burning bush, the God of all glory, the God who just, you know, people fall down in his presence and angels are eternally falling down.
We can walk into the presence of that God and he can say, all right, I got grace for you, power, resources to meet the need that you’re calling out for. And I got mercy for your sin. So I don’t judge you. All I do is I pour my goodness.
How good is he?
You are forgiven, and you are filled with the spirit to live this life. That’s what the priest Jesus does for us, and that is forever. Forever, Jesus makes intercession for us. That’s what I mean, forever.
Jesus is praying for us like, oh, you know, it’s not going to be like 10 million years from now. God’s going to say, well, you know, Father Kevin’s still struggling some. You got to help him. No, his intercession is, he did it once and for all. The bridge has been built. The breach has been healed. The relationship has been restored.
Because of what Jesus has done, he mediates the new covenant. We don’t have to kill bulls and lambs. We believe, and our sins are forgiven, and we’re made new.
And this is the meal we celebrate every week. It’s the meal of the new covenant. It’s so good, people.
And then it ends with this. The messiah will judge the nations. He will judge the nations. Psalm 2.
Listen, dear ones, the greatest deception of our time is that God is not holy.
The greatest deception of our time is that God is just a kindly, senile old man who looks down at our sin and goes, boys will be boys, girls will be girls. Oh, well, what are you going to do? No, no. If you set yourself up as an enemy of God, you will be destroyed.
Well, I’m not an enemy of God. I just, you know, I just don’t want to be. I’m just not very extreme. No, Jesus is very clear. You love him or hate him. You love him or hate him.
You notice when Jesus walks on the earth, when he’s really revealed to that, nobody takes a middle stance, right? Ultimately, dear ones, you’re going to love him or hate him. You’ll be for him or against him. There’ll be nobody in eternity going, well, you know, Jesus, he’s okay. Buddha was okay. Muhammad was okay. Confucius was okay. Jesus is okay.
No, the Bible says people will call upon the hills to cover them up because his presence is so overwhelming and so terrifying. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
But some of us, our knees will bow and our tongues will confess with great joy and relief and satisfaction. Oh, my lord, you came to save me, Jesus, I humbly bow and worshipfully bow before you.
And others will bow and say, you are lord and I am eternally lost. The Jews missed the Messiah because they wanted the Messiah to come and bring his vengeance upon their enemies. Instead, his first act was to bring his mercy upon them and their enemies.
But don’t let that fool you that there won’t come a day when he will come as judge. That’s what Psalm 110 says. And he will judge the principalities and powers, the beast, the false prophet, Satan himself.
One day, I believe with our resurrected eyes we will see Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan, bow before King Jesus and confess Jesus Christ is Lord and I’m going to the lake of fire.
He will judge the principalities and the powers, and he will judge the human beings, the earthly kings and rulers, and all human beings who have sided with that side, who have said we’re putting our eggs in the basket of this world.
We’re putting our eggs in what our eyes can see, in the pragmatism of this world. We’re not going to put our faith in God’s son. There’s not enough evidence for us, and it’s too costly.
And besides that, he wants my money, and he wants me to be sexually faithful, and he wants me to be a goody two shoes, and I don’t want to do any of that stuff.
Maybe I’ll do a little bit. Maybe I’ll do a few good deeds that’ll get them on my side. Hey, God, you know, I helped an old lady once. No, even the pagans do that.
God is holy. He will destroy his enemies. You know what the word hell means? Gehenna or Gehinna.
And Gehinna is the valley outside of Jerusalem that was forever on fire to burn trash. It burned garbage.
Ultimately, you were created in the image and likeness of God. Every human being was created in the image and likeness of God. But to reject him is to reject that created destiny and become eternal. Refuse eternal trash, worthless, no good but to toss into the fire.
The king is coming back, and he will reward his faithful servants. He will destroy his enemies, and there will come a time where the valley of decision will be done and fates will be sealed. But he, he will be exalted.
Psalm 110 ends this way: but he himself will be refreshed from brooks along the way.
7 But he himself will be refreshed from brooks along the way. He will be victorious. (Psalms 110:7, NLT)
This warfare where he’s judging and destroying his enemies. In the middle of it, he dips down in a spring, and he takes a drink and says, my work is done. And then it says, he lifts his head.
Psalm 3:
3But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. (Psalm 3:3, ESV)
The enemy’s footstools under his feet. The king himself and those who follow him, lifters of their head, exalted.
One day you’ll stand before King Jesus, and your head will be bowed, and you’ll say, Lord, forgive me for I have sinned. And he will put his hand under your chin, and he will lift your head and say, son, daughter, well done, good and faithful servant, enter the preparation, the reward prepared for you.
You are forgiven, you are loved, you are accepted, you are mine forever.
He’ll lift your head. Psalm 3:3, thou, O Lord, be a shield about me. Be you, be my glory, and be the lifter of my head.
King Jesus will lift his head. He will be exalted. He is the exalted king of the universe. That’s what Psalm 110 says.
Corey ten Boom’s father had it right. Christ is the victor. Jesus is the victor. Paul wrote about it. Or actually, Paul probably quoted this. This is probably one of the earliest Christian hymns.
It’s found in Philippians, and it says this. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Although he was God, the Lord said to my lord, Adonai, Yahweh, second Yahweh, second visible Yahweh. Although he was God, he did not think equality with God as something to cling to.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. (Philippians 2:5-6, NLT)
What does that mean? It means the incarnation. He became a baby. He pooped his diapers. He relied upon his mother’s milk for sustenance. He entered into dirty, fallen, broken humanity the same way you and I entered into it through a woman’s birth canal.
I mean, I was there when my babies were born. They gave me my first child. They brought that child out. They gave me Megan. I said, here, hold it. It’s like, wash it off, man. That is a slime.
That’s Jesus. He was a slimy, probably had a little cone head and everything. Baby God, that. This is incredible. Instead, he gave up his divine privilege. He gave up his glory in heaven, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, his omniscience. He didn’t cease being God, but he literally laid those things aside to be fully human for a season.
And he humbled himself and took the position of a slave, a servant, a poor carpenter in an occupied country by the Romans.
He was a human being. He appeared in human form.
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8, NLT)
This is what C.S. Lewis calls the celestial dive, the God of all glory. Angels adore him. Dives into humanity, into the depths of humanity.
Not into a royal family, into a poor family, an impoverished family, a conquered nation, a dirty living on dirt floors and hanging out with smelly fishermen and being misunderstood and slandered and scandalized, doing no harm to anybody and facing the worst injustice anybody ever faced.
You faced injustice. Things have happened to you that haven’t been fair. Let me tell you something. Nothing ever happened to you as unfair as what happened to Jesus.
And he died the cruelest death of his time, the death of humiliation and shame and cruelty, with nails driven into his hands and feet, a crown of thorns on his head, mocked and sped upon and whipped, and he just drank the dregs, his friends abandoning him, justice being denied him, the people he came. Remember the island of monotheism. The island of monotheism. He created, shouting out, crucify him, crucify him. Every back turned on him almost. And he does that to enter into our depths as the perfect priest, and save him. But here’s how. That passage.
That passage doesn’t end there. I love how this passage ends. His head will be lifted up.
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11, NLT)
Hallelujah. Amen.
That’s Psalm 110. That’s Psalm 110. That’s the story, people. That’s the story. We’ve been invited into the humility and the exaltation of Jesus.
And when we join him, that is our lives. We humble ourselves. God, I’m a sinner. I die. I die to my flesh. I die to myself. I died a living life my way. And I humble myself. And I join you in your death. I submit to baptism. I go under the water, and I’m buried, and I die.
Then God has that. Therefore, you are exalted with Christ. He will lift your head when I’m dead and gone, which isn’t going to be for a long time.
Now, I’m not speaking that into being. It’s not going to be for a long time. It’ll be around a while. All right, 20 years from now, who knows? I still may be up here going, you know, one of these days I’m going to retire. But not yet. I don’t know. I don’t know how long. I mean, I’m going to do it as long as I can.
But you’re not going to forget this. You’re playing a game you already won. All right, that’s kevinism number seven. You’re playing a game you already won, and you’re at war.
You’re at war. But the decisive battle has been decided. And all you have to do is fix your gaze upon Jesus. And put the right foot in front of the left and the left foot in front of the right, and you will walk into glory. Amen. Amen.
The Lord said to my lord, sit at my right hand while we play a historic game of whack a mole. Here, take this mallet. What’s that mallet’s name? Stevin Johnson. Knock that one down. All right. Way to go, Stevin. What’s that one? What’s that mallet’s name? Mick Sheldon.
All right, bam. Got that demon. And you’ll walk into glory. We’re new covenant. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, King Jesus. Thank you, priest Melchizedek.
For the body and blood that poured out that we forever could find grace and mercy. You invite us to your table, and we want to feed tonight on grace and mercy that you have so freely given. We sang it. Oh, your grace so free. Washes over me right here. Wash us anew tonight with grace and mercy.
In your name, King Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
