John 14; Psalm 110
All right, we have three passages of scripture, Psalm 110, and then Ephesians 1, and then John 14. You’ll recognize John 14 in my father’s house are many mansions, many rooms. Ephesians 1, you’ll remember that in Christ we have all the blessings of heaven at our disposal. But our first reading, Psalm 110, is a psalm that we ought to know.
It’s a Christological psalm. It’s one of the most quoted psalms by the New Testament. And it’s a psalm about, it’s a psalm of King David, about King David. But remember, King David is just a type in a shadow of the greater David, God’s greater son. the Messiah. And so as we read this Psalm, you’ll recognize some David things, but some Christ things. And so Psalm 110 says, the Lord, that’s Yahweh, Says to my Lord, that’s David, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord, that’s Yahweh, sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord, that’s Yahweh, has sworn and he will not change his mind. Now, speaking of Christ, as Hebrews teaches us, he says, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So he’s not a priest of Aaron’s line, but of that strange Genesis figure.
Then he says in verse five, the Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter Kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the whole wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way.
Therefore, he will lift up his head and then over to Ephesians chapter one. So when we’re we’re reading first Corinthians on Sunday mornings, Paul is possibly maybe writing that from his ministry at Ephesus just across the water. And Ephesians 1 has the typical Paul greeting. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and is addressed to the saints of those who were in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. And then the greeting, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him, we have the redemption through his blood. In him, we have the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us all in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints. Hey, there’s two of our triad, right? I do not cease to give you thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope. to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?
And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things, the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And the back to John chapter 14. You saw hope finally came up in there, didn’t it? John 14, uh, Jesus. speaking to the disciples and says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God.
Believe also in me and my father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and we’ll take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, We do not know where you are going. How do we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father except through me. If you had known me, you would also have known, you would have known my father. Also from now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father?
Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do. The greater works and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the father may be glorified in the sign. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Amen. God’s great and gracious word.
So we want to think tonight about questions 50, 51 and 52 of the Heidelberg. Um, The Apostles’ Creed, it’s explaining, speaks of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. And then it asks, how does this glory of Christ our head benefit us? And then how does Christ return to judge the living and the dead comfort you? When the elders meet, we have a strange little word we use. We call it the session. Session meaning seated. When you men go home this evening, you will take your session on your throne of Lazy Boy, right?
My favorite movie quote is from that old 1980s movie, The Christmas Story, where they’re sitting at the dinner table and eating their meatloaf, beetloaf, and mashed potatoes. And just as the mother is about to sit down and take her first bite of food, the husband hands her his plate and says, can I have seconds? And you remember the narrator says, my mother has not had a hot meal in 15 years.
And you ladies know how this is. You’ve put in a 24-hour day with the children and family duties. And as soon as you just hover over your easy chair, you hear a cry. or a request, right? So your work is, what is it? Your mother’s work is never done. So there’s something about being seated that says, my work is finished. My work is complete.
And so when Jesus ascends up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, Uh, it’s called his heavenly section. Uh, he goes right back, uh, where he was before the incarnation. And he has that same place, that same position, uh, in heaven. And so he is seated there in heaven and the articles of faith say, and he sits at the right hand of God because Christ has ascended into heaven for this end. And it says that he might appear there. as head of the church by whom the father governs all things. And so how does God rule governments? How does God rule families? How does God rule the church?
He has under shepherds or ministers. He’s given parents to run the home. He’s given ministers to run the government. If you think of a British, set of terminology, the prime minister, the ministers of state, that sort of business. But he’s given elders and deacons and pastors to guide the church on earth for him. And so our denominations, maybe former, former, former book of government, we’ve probably changed it a few times. One of the ones we used to have said something like this, from the throne of glory, The Lord Jesus Christ rules his church through ministers and elders. That was a really sweet and wonderful statement. They took it out. I don’t know why, not because we quit believing it, but that would have been a good one to leave in. But what does Christ do from heaven?
He, for God the Father, rules and reigns over the church, and he does that through ministers and elders. And of course, deacons come along and help that ministry as well. So he appears there as the head of his church by whom the father governs all things. Now this glory, according to the catechism, benefits us two ways. There’s a first and then there’s a then. That then is the second one. First, by his spirit, he pours out heavenly graces. And then second, by his power, he defends and preserves us. Ephesians 1 tells us a bit about what God in Christ gives us as believers.
There’s something, I don’t know how to explain it except to do the hand motions. Most people, well, all people who are in Adam and not in Jesus, they walk on the dirt of this earth knowing nothing besides that. But when you become a Christian, you still walk on the dirt of this earth, but your mind is raised up. Your heart is raised up to the heavenlies. And so we live in a different plane. Yes, our feet touch this earth and walk on this earth, but we seek things that are above where Christ is seated. And Christ from that place of being seated gives us all the blessings of heaven for the Christian life.
I was thinking this morning, the faith, hope, and love thing we looked at from 1 Corinthians 13. I was thinking how many theologians throughout the ages of church history have written on faith, hope, and love as the simple way to look at the Christian life.
And then I was thinking something changed after probably the 19, I don’t know, maybe the 1950s forward. I inherited a library back in 2008, a pastor’s library. And a lot of the books from that era take worldly terminology and concepts and baptize them with a little Jesus and God talk. And there we have, you know, how to live the Christian life. And to me, I look at those books sometimes and say that it’s so unrecognizable, but then you hear something about faith, hope, and love. And you see how backwards and backwards and backwards through Christian history, terminology from the Bible was used to explain to people how to live the Christian life, how to glorify God, how to enjoy Him forever, how to love God and serve neighbor, those basic things.
Well, there’s really no secret potion as a lot of books and authors and people on various platforms try to tell you, you just read the Bible, let the spirit bless you, and let the realities of heaven make themselves manifest in your life. We’re a word-centered people, we’re a sacrament-centered people, and we are a God-oriented people. And to really do it any other way is a placebo. To do it any other way is perhaps spiritual, but it is not Christian.
And so God, by Christ, the head of the church, through the power of the Spirit, pours out graces on us, his members. There’s a book that we read through at session from time to time called The Glorious Body of Christ. We don’t do anything to make the body of Christ glorious. It is glorious. The church is glorious. God gives to the church gifts and graces, and that glory shines.
We like to say of ourselves, we are an outpost of heaven. We are experiencing on Sundays on our worship services, a foretaste of glory, of what heaven will be like. And God, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, pours out those gifts and graces upon us. And so when we have the Bible taught, or the scriptures read and preached, or we have wonderful hymns to sing, or Psalms to say or sing, and we have each other’s gifts and graces of hospitality and help and service and government and church order and all the rest, Those are the blessings of heaven being distilled on us like the refreshing dew that comes down from the heavens. And so how does the glory of Jesus, our head benefit us? Well, the blessings of heaven come down on the church and the blessings of heaven come down on individual Christians and we are benefited or blessed by that. How do we obtain it? Well, we become Christians. How do we lay hold of it? We read our Bibles. How do we get more of it? We sit under the sacraments. How do we get more of that benefit?
We come to church, we serve at church. And we’re in that sphere, that realm where Jesus’ heavenly blessings rain down on his people. The other benefit that comes, though, is by the power of of Jesus, he defends and preserves us against all his enemies. One of the great blessings that we have of Jesus being in heaven at God’s right hand and being gone behind the curtain, the inner place, the sanctum, the holy of holies of heaven. He prays for us. He intercedes for us. We have a high priest there who can sympathize with us.
That’s the ministry, ongoing ministry of Jesus, the priest. His satisfaction for sin has been made, but his priestly duties continue in intercession. Then we have the prophetic ministry of Jesus. He’s preaching to us through the word and by preachers, governing us by the elders. But what about his kingly ministry? Part of his kingly ministry is to speak the word and to subdue us by salvation to himself. But what it speaks of here is the other side of his kingly work, where he defends and he preserves us against all his enemies.
That’s why Martin Luther was a big lover of Psalm 46. God is our refuge and our strength and ever present help in our time of trouble. We should be still and know that he is God. And so Martin Luther charging through the Protestant Reformation and dealing with his own struggles of the flesh, the attacks of Satan, and the prevalence of the world, and even Rome, you might say, weighed heavily upon him. He did great battle in his soul with those great enemies, but it brought him great comfort to sing the 46th. It brought him great comfort to know that his king was defending and preserving.
When we say the Lord’s Prayer, our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, when we pray thy kingdom come, As explained by the various catechisms, we are praying that people will get converted to salvation. They’ll quit following Satan, get out from under his dungeon and chains, and be freed to live for King Jesus. But we are also praying that Satan’s kingdom would be destroyed little by little by little by little until the day when the hastening of Jesus’ kingdom is fully advanced and fully realized. So when we pray thy kingdom come, we are praying in a sense that Satan would buzz off, that Satan would go away, that Satan would fail at his deceptions and his desire to devour and hunt down and all the rest with believers. So who is on our side, King Jesus? Where is he on our side from?
He is from heaven. Psalm 2. Remember Psalm 1, blessed is the man who doesn’t sit, walk or stand in the way of the ungodly. But as the light is in the law, the Lord meditates on it day and night. He’s like the tree planted by streams of water. Well, we could not say they’re like chaff blown away. So you got Psalm one, the entrance to the whole Psalter entrance to the Christian life. Uh, happy, happy, happy if you follow Jesus. But what about Psalm two?
Uh, why do the nations rage? Why do they plot in vain? I’ve been reading through Joshua through the Bible plan, and there was a section I read about a week or two ago where these kings decided, the Gibeonites, remember they dressed up like Cliff Huxtable trying to buy a car and look poor, remember that one? They said, we’re from a faraway place, look at our wineskins, they’re cracked and rotten. You know, our bread is moldy.
And remember, they deceived and made a covenant. Israel made a covenant with people they should have put to death. And the Gibeonites were apparently really mighty. A couple of chapters later, you read there’s these several kings that say the Gibeonites have made a treaty with Israel. This is bad news for us. We got to go whoop the Gibeonites. And so the Gibeonites, when they hear their enemies are coming, they holler out to Joshua, hey, covenant maker, keeper, Come help us.”
And so they do, and all those kings from those little nations get routed and killed. I think they actually get stuck in a cave, put a bunch of rocks there. Later, after the war’s over, they pull them out, hang them, take their bodies down, toss them back in the cave, put the rocks there, and then it’s one of those great passages that says, and they are there to this day. I’m sure they’re not, but maybe they’re bones.
But that’s the idea, the nations, the kings, they plot, and they say, we’re going to go out against David. We’re going to go out against Jesus. I think of Herod, when he wanted to say, what did he say to the wise men? You go and find Jesus, the baby, the king of the Jews, and worship him, and then come let me know where he is, for I too want to go kill him. Right? Why do the nations rage? Why do the people’s plot in vain against the Lord and his anointed?
And so we have this cosmic battle between the seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent. And who will prevail? Well, the seed of the woman will prevail. She will, or the seed of Eve will get their ankles nipped at by the serpent. But one day Jesus will crush the serpent’s head. And so by his power, King Jesus defends us and preserves us. Not a hair can fall from our head and not a weapon formed against us shall prosper. And we have that great hope.
Then the question comes, how does Christ return? How does this come to judge the living and the dead comfort us? Y’all remember when you were in maybe middle school and there was the bully? school bully and they used to harass everybody and you know thump you on the head in the hall and punch you in the nose out on the playground and you remember one day somebody’s had enough and they just beat the stuffings out of them and everybody’s standing around who used to be terrorizing yeah take that right and they start talking smack you know they wouldn’t a day ago have done that but now that they see him on the ground and a foot on the neck They want in, they want to take a swing, they want to take a swipe, a punch, a kick. And that’s in a sense what we will be comforted with at the last day.
All those who have been persecuted for Jesus will see the recompense of God. Remember Paul says, repay no one evil for evil, for vengeance is mine says the Lord. And the Lord can repay so much better. Uh, there are people in my life, uh, particularly in church life, not here, uh, but in previous, uh, iterations of ministry.
And I wish they’d get a really, you know, bad case of the hemorrhoids like the Philistines did when they, um, when they stole the arc. I’d love to go, you know, unplug their power, you know, knock over their trash cans. You have those feelings, right? Or to take a key down the car, whatever it is we feel like, oh, I can, I could really get them.
God can do way better. He can repay the evils done against us so much more. And we have to live in that comfort that Jesus will come and all the wrongs of this earth. And there are some terrible ones. I can only imagine that Ayatollah Khomeini was not greeted by 70 virgins, but it’s hot where he is. And he might be looking up like the rich man did to Lazarus and say, could you please send a cup of cold water and go tell my brothers to repent while there is still time.
But it comforts us in all our sorrows and persecutions. We can have an uplifted head. Think of Stephen when he was stoned in the book of Acts. How did God comfort him? He gave him a vision of heaven. Imagine he didn’t feel a single rock. He didn’t feel a single blow. He didn’t feel a single pain in a sense because his eyes were already on that future and everlasting hope.
And so with hardship that we face for following Jesus with uplifted head, we look for the same person who previously offered himself for our sake, for my sake, to the judgment of God and has removed all the curse from me. And so there is one sense. We look for the judgment so that those who’ve hurt us will get it, right? We’ll get their due. But we also look for the day when the one who died in our place and was judged in our place and who has removed the curse appears and there before our eyes is our surety. Though we do not see him now, we love him. But one day we will see, we will look upon the lamb who still bears the marks in his body for the redemption that he worked for us. And so we will see the very same one who died on that cross and on that tree.
And he’s gonna come from heaven and he’s gonna cast all mine and all his enemies into everlasting condemnation. a couple significant trials that we’ve watched on the news lately. I think of the one where the fella out in Idaho killed all those college students.
And as they’ve retraced his steps and put the crime clearly on his shoulders, what did he do as the trial approached? He took a plea deal. And some of the families were happy it’s over with. But other families were not so happy. They wanted him to stand in court and face their accusers.
And that will happen for every unbeliever. That will happen for everyone who stands before the great throne of judgment. They will not escape judgment. They will have to give an account for the works they have done, whether good or bad. Wednesday, I think it is the ladies will be looking in the confession of faith at the last judgment.
And we’ve talked about how, when we die, uh, Christians, we, we die. Our bodies go in the grave until the resurrection, our souls go to heaven and enjoy heaven forever. Uh, when an unbeliever dies, their soul goes to hell, their body rest in the grave, but it’s not United to Jesus.
At the last day, the bodies of the just and the unjust will be raised up. The souls of both be reunited to their bodies and God will judge the living and the dead and the wicked will be cast into outer darkness. But those who find their righteousness in Christ, the advocate, will be openly acknowledged and acquitted in that day of judgment. Jesus, our advocate, will claim us. And so there will be a separation of the sheep and the goats. There will be a separation of the wicked and the righteous, one to everlasting life and bliss, the other to everlasting torment.
And so that ought to bring us comfort and joy. Now it ought to do a bunch of other things like make us evangelist. It ought to make us sad. It ought to make us weep. It ought to make us pray. But at least here it tells us it should comfort us. Hell should comfort us. Have you seen the recent famous people?
Hell’s not real. There’s only one everlasting living conscious place, and that’s heaven. Everybody else is just dead or annihilated. No, there really is, according to the scriptures, a hell. And it is everlasting. It is continual separation from God and continual judgment. But what’s our comfort? Well, it comes right at the end of the catechism. He will take me along with his chosen ones to himself into heavenly joy and glory. That’s what Jesus has promised. Isn’t it?
In my father’s house are many rooms, many mansions, uh, still zip through the obituaries, even attended a family funeral maybe a week ago. And you always read it and you always hear it. You know, Aunt Maud was a good person. Well, Aunt Maud was nice, right? I didn’t go to Aunt Maud’s funeral, but I’m just making this up. Aunt Maud, I’m sure, was very nice, and I’m sure she didn’t kick cats, and she kept her house vacuumed, all that good stuff. But she was born with Adam’s original sin, right? She was born with Adam’s original corruption, and from that flowed actual sins, even if she was the nicest person on the block.
And so our obituaries do not serve as report cards. And the Lord says, boy, St. Peter, open up the gate right away for this one. Send out the good car, you know, to drive them through, you know, the pearly, whatever, whatever we got imagined, you know, give them their wings the quickest. That’s not how it works. We simply are either in Christ or in Adam. And if we are in Adam, we are in sin, if we are in Christ. But isn’t that the world we live in?
Be a good person. Let your good outweigh your bad. And if your good outweighs your bad, God has to let you into heaven. To go to a funeral or to even have an obituary that does not speak of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I think is a missed opportunity for witnessing.
Why do we get to go to heaven? It’s simply because Jesus obeyed in our place, died in our place. Our sins are forgiven and his obedience or righteousness is given to us. And that is what makes us acceptable in his sight. And that is what causes him to take me and his chosen ones and to gather us to himself in his heavenly presence. Let’s pause and give thanks. Father, we give you thanks and praise for making a way to reconcile us to yourself.
We remember the clothes that God made for Adam and Eve, that you made for them. Their skins from an animal that had to bleed and die, its life was taken so that they could be covered. And we thank you that now our covering is Jesus. He’s taken our filthy rags and he’s given us his righteous robes. And that grants us a standing with you and the right to everlasting life. And we thank you. Don’t know why you have loved us or chosen us, but you have, and we’re grateful. So accept our thanks and praise. We pray in Jesus’ great name. Amen.