Psalm 110The Sunday after Ascension05/13/2018
Theme: The Ascended Lord conquers….
1)…by completely destroying his enemies
2)… and out of love for his people.
Of David. A psalm.
1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” 2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies. 3 Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy majesty, from the womb of the dawn you will receive the dew of your youth.4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth. 7 He will drink from a brook beside the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
Brothers and sisters of the Ascended Lord,
On Mother’s Day, many beautiful descriptions of a mother can easily come to mind. Mothers are loving, kind, and caring. Even the Bible in Isaiah 49 and 66 makes a point to compare a mother’s love to the love God has for his people.
One of the descriptions that may not immediately come to mind is protective. They want to make sure that their child is safe and protected. Children sometimes get so focused that they forget their surroundings. So when my daughter saw the beach, she started running toward it and did not see the 4 lane street in between her and the beach. My wife moved as fast as any Olympic sprinter, so that she could pull my daughter back from the oncoming traffic. She was protective, a fitting adjective for mothers.
When you think of Jesus, you might think of him as loving, caring, peaceful, and willing to help. You may not think of him as a conquering King, who totally wipes out and annihilates any who would dare to oppose him. Yet, the Bible describes our Messianic king in such a way. Our king crushes the opposition and the rebels. He does not tolerate wickedness, rebellion, and sin.
Maybe we are tempted to say. He is not my King. My king would not do that, yet that is the truth that David tells us in Psalm 110. So on this festival of the Ascension, let’s celebrate that our King has ascended into heaven, that he has assumed all authority and power he earned for our Ascended Lord conquers.
First, we see that he completely destroys all his enemies. In Psalm 110, we have two proclamations from God about our conquering king in verses 1&2, and verse 4. 1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” 2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies.God proclaims to Jesus, David’s descendant and Lord, that he will make his enemies a footstool for your feet. That he would conquer his enemies, by the power of God. This is not a power that he got when he was baptized. This was the power that he had from the very beginning. Jesus even uses this verse to prove to the Jews that he was true God and the Savior that God had promised.
When God talks about making his enemies a footstool, you just have to look at Joshua 10, where Joshua places his feet on the neck of the defeated kings. It was a reminder that God would conquer their enemies for them. This passage is a reminder that God will defeat all his enemies, including the devil, the world, and our sinful nature.
The way he conquers, however, is completely unorthodox. Although he is true God and has all the power in the universe at his fingertips, our King does not conquer his enemies with “fire and fury,” with a blitzkrieg of fury, or with “shock and awe.” He does not wipe them off the face of the earth in an instant, but in pure grace, he rules in the midst of them. He allows them to exist, because that is how he defeats his opponents. He does not use the most powerful weaponry. Instead he uses his kingdom that comes out of Zion, out of Jerusalem.
What is this weapon that he uses? Next week we will celebrate the Festival of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples and the proclaimed God’s Word for many people to hear. On that day 3000 people were converted and they went back to their homes to share that same message about their conquering Messiah. By each proclamation the plans of the devil and the world were shattered. People were enlightened and saved. The weapon that God uses to conquer is no other than his Word. The Word convicts all people and holds everyone accountable to God; the same Word also comforts sinners that all their sins are paid in full.
This Word gives us a warning to us today. It tells us what happens when you are the wrong side, when you reject God’s Word today. “He will crush kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.” For those who reject God, who tell Jesus that they don’t need what he has done, that they have a better way of getting to heaven, it will be scary when our king returns. Be careful that we don’t fall into this trap. Although God has called us, saved us, given us faith, the devil, the world and the sinful nature continually work to lead us away from God in his Word, to say that we know better than what God knows, and to constantly doubt and distract us from his Word. If we cut ourselves off from God’s Word, we may soon find that we are not friends of Christ, but his enemies.
Brothers and sisters, we can’t give up on Christ for one second. Satan is not giving up on trying to pull us away from Christ, so we can’t give up on hearing that Word. That Word destroys the doubt that Satan creates; that Word obliterates the distractions of the world; that word annihilates every lie of our sinful nature. Brothers and sisters, cling to the Word that God has given you. If we should take our enemies lightly, thankfully we have our King.
Our Ascended Lord is like a mother bear. If you are not aware, the worst mistake you can make is to come between a mother bear and her cubs. Because a mother bear is more than just a protective mother. She has the mindset that any threat, big or small, is a lethal threat to her children. She will absolutely kill that threat to her cubs.
Our ascended Lord also has a similar mentality. He fights for us against the devil, the world and our sinful nature. When he returns, they will be eliminated. Until then, he defeats them by using his Word to draw people to his truth or to strengthen us, so that we don’t succumb to temptation. We pray to him for strength and guidance through that same Word.
Maybe we might be uncomfortable with the way that God says he will defeat his enemies. What are you praying for in the 3rd petition? When you pray, “Your will be done,” you are praying that not only God’s will is done, but that any will that would try and stop his will is defeated. God reminds us that he has conquered Satan will. He rose again from the dead to proclaim his victory over sin and death. Every time a person is converted or when a believer remains strong in the faith, Jesus shows that he completely destroys his enemies. Today he also gives us the strength to face down the devil. He writes in Peter, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Trust in our ascended Lord and in his Word, and you will victory over the devil, the world, and our sinful nature.
This conquering Lord does not just simply show us the power of his Word by his victory over his enemies, but he also shows his love for us. We should not miss the 2nd proclamation about this king in verse 4. “4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” This king is not only a king, but he is also a sworn priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
What does that mean? Who was Melchizedek? Let’s read Hebrews 7. “This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.” Before God had set up the Levites, a tribe of Abraham’s descendants, as the priest, God mentions that there was a priest, who received an offering from Abraham. Thus Abraham showed that the priesthood of Melchizedek was greater than the priesthood that would come from his own descendants.
“15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.” Jesus was a better priest, because he cleansed us sin by his one sacrifice and he made himself a guarantee of the better covenant.
Jesus saw the danger of our sins, he put himself between hell and us, like any mother does. When they see danger coming toward their children, they put themselves in between the danger and the child. If a dog is charging at her child, the mother will not only put herself between the child and the dog. She will also let the dog know that its behavior will not be tolerated.
Jesus did the same thing for us. As our great High priest in the great order of Melchizedek, he stepped between God’s punishment and us. He took on all that punishment, so that we may have eternal life. Now he does stop there. He continually intercedes for us today. When we do sin, when we succumb to temptation, Jesus intercedes on our behalf to the Father. “Look upon my work,” he says. “I have paid for that life. Father, forgive them.” God does that, because we have the great high priest and king.
By this forgiveness which he daily pleads for us, we are refreshed as soldiers in God’s army to go live our lives of thanks. When we are tempted, we go to our high priest to be reminded of our forgiveness and we are strengthened to serve him with the same love he has shown us.
On this Ascension Day, we will remember our conquering King, not only for the great love he has shown us, but the power he demonstrates through the Word as he defeats every evil plan of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. With the church through every age we pray, “Your will be done on earth, as in heaven.” Amen.