Christ Church

The Majesty of God (What is “Reformed” Anyway? #1) (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

As a newer congregation with many newer folks, I want to spend the next few weeks going over some of the basics of what mean when we say we are “Reformed.” Historically, this name goes back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, but it is fundamentally based on the supremacy of God, revealed in Scripture, as the perfect Word of God. To say we are Reformed is to say that we want everything we think, say, or do to be God-centered and obedient to His Word. This is not to say that we have arrived, but it is to say that He is worthy. 

As we do this, we really do want to stand in the “old paths” and hold fast to the “faith once delivered for the saints,” but we want to actually live in this glorious house and not merely become the next museum curators. Or to change the metaphor, we want to fire these cannons at real, modern enemies, not merely polish them and rehearse how they were once used in the glory days of yore. 

The Text: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!…” (Rom. 11:33-36).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Having defended the absolute sovereignty of God over salvation, and arguing for both the salvation of the Jews and the Gentiles, the apostle breaks into this doxology of praise for God’s wisdom and knowledge and judgments (Rom. 11:33). Specifically, this wisdom is unsearchable and past finding out (Rom. 11:33). And Paul poses three rhetorical questions to explain what he means: Who has known what God is thinking? (Answer: Nobody). Who has taught God anything? (Answer: No one). Or who has given God anything such that God owed them anything? (Again: Nobody ever) (Rom. 11:34-35). And the doxology closes with the insistence that everything is from God, through God, and for God, and therefore all glory and praise and honor for all things belongs to Him, and Amen (Rom. 11:36). 

THE “GOODNESS” OF GOD

When we say that want all that we do to be God-centered and obedient to Him, it is important to define which God we are talking about. Instead of worshiping the true and living God, human beings are constantly twisting pieces of creation into idols that we call “the true God,” and center everything around that false god. Remember, Aaron called the golden calf, the “god who brought you out of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4). But many who say, “Lord, Lord” to Jesus do not actually know Him, and Christ says that He will say to them, “Depart from Me, I never knew you” (Mt. 7:21-23). Christ says that the difference is between those who obey Him and those who do not. True obedience requires a deep and abiding humility: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8-9). This is what we might call the “Godness” of God, His absolute lordship.

God is the “I am,” the Lord of Heaven and Earth, their Maker, their Governor, and He does whatever He pleases (Ex. 3:14-15, Ps. 115:3, 135:6). “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:35, cf. Rom. 9:15-20). 

THE GREATNESS OF GOD AND MAN

Sinful men naturally think that the higher the view of God the smaller and more insignificant the view of man. This was the offer of the serpent: Demote the Word of God in order to be promoted to Godlike wisdom. The slander is that God is greedy with His greatness, holding us back, and therefore, such a high view of God turns Him and anyone who worships Him into a moral monster, withholding good and therefore crushing human beings. But the exact opposite is actually the case: every attempt to pull God down always results in the degradation of creation. It is the utter transcendence of God that makes God able to condescend to man freely for our good. But this transcendence is His utter sovereignty and freedom and our absolute dependence (Acts 17:28). Man stands the tallest when He lies prostrate before His Maker: “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Pet. 5:5-6). But if you stand on your tiptoes trying to be great, trying to pull God down, demanding your life, you will only lose it. 

APPLICATIONS

God is Lord of Creation: Nature is not infinitely malleable: male and female, human sexuality, sin and righteousness, good and evil. You cannot redefine marriage as any sleeping arrangement. You cannot redefine justice as whatever the human judges decree. You cannot rename theft as taxes and government programs. He is Lord of all things because “of him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom. 11:36).  

God is the Lord of lords: All human authority is derived from the Lord Jesus, who was given all authority in Heaven and on earth at His resurrection and ascension (Mt. 28:18). This means that all human authority is limited. Only God has absolute, unlimited authority. Therefore, no human authority is free to change, usurp, or abdicate the assignments God has given: family – health, welfare, and education (Dt. 6, Eph. 5-6, 1 Tim. 5); church – word, sacrament, worship (Mt. 16, 18, 28); state – punishing crime (Rom. 13). In our day, family and church governments have largely abdicated their assignments, and civil government has usurped its assignment, with a myriad of self-deifying “programs,” in direct defiance of the Living God. 

Worthy is the Lamb: When finite human beings are granted a vision of the greatness and majesty of God it is humbling, but it is a joyful humility, a doxological humility that breaks out in grateful praise and worship. Every form of idolatry is a crushing weight, but submission to the Lord of Heaven and Earth in deep gratitude is what we were made for and sets us free. Because God is Lord of all, we are free to just be people. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:12).

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Biblical Sexuality Sunday 2024: The Pride of Women & Cowardice of Men (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

In January 2022, the Canadian government enacted Bill C-4, effectively criminalizing Christian preaching, teaching, and counseling that upholds Biblical morality for human sexuality. Many pastors in Canada have determined to preach messages annually until the law is repealed and have invited American pastors to join them in proclaiming God’s truth about sexual sin and the gospel of grace. 

The Bible teaches that when God judges a people, it often comes as a kind of suicidal sexual madness. Apart from God there is only sorrow and destruction, but sometimes when people defy God for a while, He turns them over to their degrading demands. Ezekiel describes the fruit of this “sexual liberation” as self-mutilation, murder of children, and complete destruction. 

The Text: “Thus saith the Lord God; thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria…” (Ez. 23:32-49).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

God calls the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and the southern kingdom of Judah “harlots” (Ez. 23:3) whom He names “Aholah” and “Aholibah” (Ez. 23:4, 36), which mean “her tabernacle” and “my tabernacle in her.” Samaria had built her own sanctuaries in Dan and Bethel with golden calves (1 Kgs. 12:28-29), imported from her adultery with Egypt (Ez. 23:8), and God delivered her into the hands of her Assyrian lovers (Ez. 23:9-10). But God says that Judah (Aholibah) was even worse, lusting after the Assyrians and the Babylonians (Ez. 23:11-31). 

So God declares that Judah will drink the same cup of judgment as her harlot sister (Ez. 23:32-33). The effect of God’s judgment will be a kind of violent, drunken madness that will result in them breaking the cup into pieces and cutting off their own breasts (Ez. 23:34-35). This madness also included murdering their own children in service to their idols, even while continuing to pretend Sabbath keeping and worship (Ez. 23:36-39). And even while these judgments were falling, Judah had the audacity to put on her makeup and get dolled up for additional rounds with other lovers (Ez. 23:40-44). God says that the just penalty for this kind of high-handed adultery is death so that all women may be taught not to act with such lewdness (Ez. 23:45-49).    

THE FRUIT OF FEMINISM

While God is certainly using symbolic language to condemn the idolatry of His people, the conclusion is not at all symbolic: “Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness” (Ez. 23:48). While men were responsible for and contributed significantly to the idolatry of Israel and Judah, women played a significant role. There is perhaps a foreshadowing of this in the harlots who came before Solomon, fighting over a baby (1 Kgs. 3:16ff), but of course Solomon went after many women who turned his heart away from the Lord to other gods (1 Kgs. 11:1ff). Ahab married Jezebel who imported Baal worship into Samaria (1 Kgs. 16:31ff). By the time of Josiah’s reformation, the houses of the sodomites were “where the women wove hangings for the grove” (2 Kgs. 23:7). And there were many wicked mothers in Israel (1 Kgs. 15, 21:1, 19, 23:31, 36, 24:8, 18, 2 Chron. 24:7). 

Feminism is no new heresy. It began in the Garden of Eden when Eve ignored God’s clear word and led her husband into temptation. And the fruit of feminism is elective mastectomies and abortion (Ez. 23:34, 37). Feminism always destroys women, children, families, and nations.

HANDED OVER TO OUR IDOLS

Ezekiel says that God gives wicked people over to this judgement. He causes them to drink this cup of madness (Ez. 23-32-34). Likewise, Romans 1 says that God gives people over to uncleanness and lusts to dishonor their own bodies with one another in sexual perversion because of their idolatry (Rom. 1:24-27). And what are those idols? They often incarnate in images of wealth and power, but they can often be boiled down to two fundamental sins: the pride of women and the cowardice of men. 

Scripture says that Adam was not deceived in the garden, but the woman was deceived (1 Tim. 2:14), and this is one of the reasons given for why a woman may not have authority over a man in the church and be an elder or preacher (1 Tim. 2:9-14). What is it that causes a woman to dress immodestly, to try to use her body to manipulate men, or to usurp true masculine authority? It is the blindness and deception of pride – often pride in beauty, power, or smarts. 

But if Adam was not deceived, then why did he accept his wife’s offer? The most likely answer is that he despaired. Instead of fighting the dragon for his wife, instead of offering to die for his wife, he chose the cowardly path. Husbands and fathers who do not protect their wives and daughters continue in the same path of cowardice as Adam. We live in a nation overrun by male fear of female sin. But we ought to take a lesson from King Asa whose own mother made an idol, and Asa removed her from being queen and destroyed her idol (2 Chron. 15:16).

APPLICATIONS

Jesus said He came for prostitutes and tax collectors. He did not come for those who think there is still time to fix things, to make some adjustments. He came for the blind who knew they had no hope of receiving their sight. He came for sinners who know they deserve the full wrath of God (Rom. 8:23). He came for those who know that pride and cowardice are destroying them.

God’s judgement is a cup: “Thus saith the Lord God; thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation” (Ez. 23:32-33). Our families, our churches, our nations are full of drunkenness and sorrow. The corpses of our babies make the Nazi’s look tame. And now we have young boys being given puberty blockers and girls mastectomies. And all of this is come upon us because of our sins. 

When a culture gets to this point there is no going back. There is no political solution. There is no structural solution. We have driven the train off the tracks and into the canyon and we are in freefall. It is in this place of absolute inability that the announcement of the gospel comes. 

And this is the announcement: Jesus Christ the Righteous drank the cup of God’s wrath for you. Either we will drink the cup or Christ has. The glorious news is that if you will surrender all your pride, all your cowardice before Him, if you will acknowledge that you deserve His judgment, you will find that He has already suffered in your place. And you are forgiven and set free to be the man or woman God created you to be.

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A Marriage Tune Up (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

As we begin a new year, it’s worth reviewing some of the most basic assignments we have in our marriages. The central paradigm is the gospel, and the central duties are love and respect. But as with many of these things that we hear often, it is incredibly important that we determine by God’s grace not to be merely hearers of the Word but doers.

The Text: “Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Savior of the Body…” (Eph. 5:22-33).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Bible teaches that marriage is one of the central pictures of the gospel (Eph. 5:23-25, 32), and therefore generally speaking, the state of marriage in a land will tell you a lot about the state of the gospel in that land. This gospel is embodied by a wife submitting to her own husband as to the Lord Jesus (Eph. 5:22), and each husband taking responsibility for his wife just as Christ does as the head of the church (Eph. 5:23). This means that a wife is to obey her husband as the church obeys Christ in everything (Eph. 5:24). And husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, laying down his life for her efficaciously, making her pure and holy (Eph. 5:25-27). This love is exemplified in the way a man cares for his own body, nourishing and cherishing, again, just as the Lord does the Church (Eph. 5:28-30). A man leaves his father and mother to become one flesh with his wife, and this is all a great mystery that proclaims Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31-32). Therefore, a man must love his wife, and a wife must reverence her husband (Eph. 5:33).

HUSBANDS LOVE

The command is for husbands to love because men need to be reminded to do this and because it is what a wife particularly needs. A man more naturally tends to respect, but that is not the particular command given. Christ is the model of this love, and what the Bible particularly points out is the duty of taking responsibility for her as her head and sacrificing for her good (Eph. 5:23, 25-27). This requires you to understand the difference between responsibility and guilt: you may not be personally guilty for some sin of your wife, but you are responsible for all of it, just as you may not be guilty for some injuries in your body but you are responsible (Eph. 5:28).

This love also requires thoughtfulness about your wife’s needs. You are not to love her aimlessly. You are to love like Christ, which is to say efficaciously. You are to give yourself for her to make her more holy and pure (Eph. 5:25-26). And you are to do this in order to present her to yourself more glorious and lovely, just like Jesus does (Eph. 5:27). Loving your wife well doesn’t mean doing whatever she wants; it means doing whatever it takes to make her a better woman.

WIVES RESPECT

The command is for wives to respect because women need to be reminded to do this and because it is what a man particularly needs. Women tend to more naturally love, and while that is certainly good (Tit. 2:4), the particular command is for wives to respect (Eph. 5:33). And this is also word for single ladies: your standard for a man needs to be not whether you do or could love him; your standard needs to be: do you respect him?

What is respect? Respect is honor, looking up to, thinking highly of, including the kind of trust that willingly submits to and obeys (Eph. 5:22, 24). Just as we live in a world that despises fathers; we live in a world that despises true husbands. And unfortunately many Christian women feel free to dishonor their husbands openly, making fun of them, talking them down, complaining about them, or simply being difficult for them, and it is often all dismissed with the hand-waving excuse, “but I love him.” However, the example a woman is given is the obedience of the church to Christ. How would you have the Christian Church submit to Christ? Then show the world in your submissive respect for your husband.

FELLOWSHIP MULTIPLIED

This love and respect is designed by God to result in a glorious unity and fellowship. But sin has twisted every son and daughter of Adam, and the curse has particularly attacked marriage, creating tension and hurt where there was none before (Gen. 3:16). This is why the only way for a marriage to have true Christian fellowship is by the blood of the Lamb: “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:7). If this is true of Christian fellowship in general, it is most certainly true of Christian marriage in particular. But the thing to underline here is that marriage fellowship is one of the primary contributors to all fellowship. What you are sharing with one another is either true Christian fellowship (koinonia) (1 Cor. 10:16, 1 Jn. 1:3) or else it is some kind of Satanic, pharisaical cancer. You are one with your spouse, and when you come here, you are sharing that with one another (1 Cor. 11).

CONCLUSIONS

Never forget that these instructions come as part of the great “therefore” of Ephesians 4:1. We love because He loved us first. We work because we are His workmanship (Eph. 2:10). Which is to say that all of this is only possible by God’s grace. But grace is not something vague, like a Christian version of “luck” or “good vibes” or random windfalls. Grace is the personal favor and blessing of God in Jesus Christ. It begins with His personal forgiveness, but it also includes the wisdom and power to obey all of His commands: we stand in His grace (Rom. 5:1-2).

There are particular strengths and glories that men and women bring to the world, and they take shape as men take responsibility and love their wives and as women submit to their husbands and respect them. Harmony is not the result of everyone singing the same music. Harmony happens when each part sings the part assigned to them.

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State of the Church 2024 – On Hard Work & Holy Ambition (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

In our day, it is commonplace to hear messages on the need for work/life balance, the need for “me time,” and the dangers of workaholics, ambition, and stress. And I am convinced that 99% of it is a siren song for laziness, apathy, selfishness, and cowardice. 

The Lord created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and our Lord Jesus remade the world in three days and rested on the first day, re-affirming the Sabbath principle and transforming the first day into the Christian Sabbath (cf. Heb. 4:9-10). But the Kingdom of God is taken by a kind of holy violence, that is, great struggle and ambition (Mt. 11:12). 

The Text: “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom…” (Mt. 20:20-28).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

One time Mrs. Zebedee and her two sons came to worship Christ, and she asked for her sons to be given places of honor at His right and left hand (Mt. 20:20-21). Jesus gently corrected her, insisting that she didn’t quite know what she was asking for (Mt. 20:22), but His question in return did not utterly reject the request. He asked whether James and John would be able to endure the suffering that would be required for that kind of glory and authority (Mt. 20:22). When they replied in the affirmative, Jesus granted at least that – they would drink His cup and endure His baptism, but those places of authority were prepared by His Father (Mt. 20:22-23). 

While the other ten were upset with James and John for even making the request (probably envious that they had not asked first), Jesus did not rebuke the brothers but exhorted them all to give up every semblance of Gentile power-grabbing (Mt. 20:24-25). Instead, His disciples must be committed to the greatness that comes through long service and suffering (Mt. 20:26-27). This greatness is principally illustrated and accomplished by the suffering service of Christ Himself, who gave His life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). 

HOLY AMBITION

Jesus does not say that desiring greatness and authority is wrong or foolish. Instead, He simply insists on two things: first, the only path to greatness is faithful suffering, and second, the results are in God’s hands. But if Jesus is the prime example, this does not mean that Christians should hope for minimal earthly impact or influence. Rather, if Jesus has been given the name that is above all other names through His obedient suffering, all Christians should seek to emulate that obedience to gain greatness under His name. For example, Paul says that he outpaced all the other apostles in his zeal for the kingdom, but it was God’s grace that enabled him (1 Cor. 15:10). It’s true that we ought rather be janitors in the Kingdom of God than dwell in tents of wickedness (Ps. 84:10), but that doesn’t mean our goal should be mediocre. Our goal should be to work hard for the King, enduring all trouble and difficulty gladly for His sake, and let Him use us where He will.   

FAITHFUL WITH LITTLE

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the talents, praising the servants who invested what was given to them and doubled the master’s money: “well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Mt. 25:21, 23). But the servant who buried his talent in the ground and merely returned what was given is called wicked and slothful, his one talent is stripped from him, and he is cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 25:26-30). And his most heinous sin is his view of the master as a hard and greedy man, which is why he is cast into Hell. But God is not hard and greedy; He is generous and bountiful. 

APPLICATIONS

We need Christians who know that their Father is a generous God who will give abundantly more than we ask or think – because He has already given us His son – and therefore, they study, work, and build with a holy ambition and deep, joyful expectation. 

The way God made the world requires the necessity of study and service first. There is a caricature of some of the younger generations (e.g. “Gen Z”) of a sort of entitlement mentality, insisting on easy, high paying jobs without proving your wisdom or worth. These are people who quit jobs after a few days or weeks because they are “hard” and they don’t feel very “appreciated.” This should be a completely foreign notion for Christians. We need young men hungry for vocations of leadership in politics and the corporate world. This is call for Daniels and Josephs, which is to say, these are paths of suffering, persecution, hardship, often with real leadership and authority, though only rarely with much temporal glory. 

This is why we have put such a premium on Christian education. But it is not enough to merely remove our kids from the public schools. We really do want our sons and daughters to be full of knowledge and wisdom, and this requires wisdom to know how to raise the bar while remember their frame. Related, while our sons and daughters are called to different vocations, this does not mean that our daughters need be less educated. Let us have wives and daughters as ambitious as Mrs. Zebedee and sons like her sons. 

We need young men hungry for pastoral ministry and missionary work. Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Mt. 9:37-38). It has always been the case, since at least the time of Jesus, that unbelievers are more eager to come into the kingdom than believers are to welcome them in. But there is a particular glory in the sacrifices of those who give their lives to proclaim the gospel because it imitates the life of the One who has received all glory and honor.

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Christmas & the Outer Darkness – Christmas Eve 2023 (Toby Sumpter)

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If there is one thing our land lacks, it is the fear of God. Romans 3 says there’s none righteous, none seeks after God, all are unprofitable, our mouths are like open graves, our tongues are full of poisonous venom, full of cursing and lies and bitterness, shedding innocent blood, destruction and misery fill our days, there’s no knowledge of peace, and the final summary of it all is: there is no fear of God before their eyes. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then the refusal to fear God is the beginning of all kinds of destructive insanity.

Even in the Christian Church, you do not hear messages on the fear of God, the wrath of God, the justice of God – even at Christmas, maybe especially at Christmas. But Christmas is all about the justice of God: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Is. 9:7). Christmas is all about the zealous justice of God, which ought to make everyone tremble: “Let all mortal flesh keep silence // And with fear and trembling stand… Christ our God to earth descendeth // Our full homage to demand.”

But Christians rush to the verses about perfect love casting out fear, and remember: the angels told Mary and Joseph and the shepherds to “fear not.” Of course there is a kind of fear that Christ came to take away: the fear of death, the fear of torment. But there is also a kind of godly fear that Christ came to restore: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. 12:28). “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). And Jesus Himself said, “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Lk. 12:4-5).

So what is this godly fear? It is an acknowledgement of God’s utter immensity and power and perfection and justice. It is an acknowledgement of your own frailty and weakness and utter dependence and deficiencies. All things exist and hold together by the power of God’s omnipotent Word, and therefore we are all walking and living every moment on the high wire of God’s kindness, suspended over absolute eternity. Your heart trembles to see madmen walk across wires suspended between skyscrapers. Maybe you get sick at the thought of being in outer space or sky diving. But we are all constantly walking the high wire of existence, a hairsbreadth between us and forever. We all live in outer space. It is only God’s merciful will that keeps us from flying off this globe into the darkness.

But then add to this reality the fact that we have all repudiated, cursed, and defied the One who holds us at every moment. He holds us, giving us every breath, every heartbeat, and we demand our own way. He gives us life and health and every good thing, and we are full of bitterness and complaining. We are held up by His almighty power, and we struggle and kick and curse. In our sinful folly, we demand to be left alone. We try to run away from Him – which means, in our sinful insanity, we are trying to destroy ourselves. Like foolish toddlers on a balcony without a railing, we scream and kick and insist that God let us toddle around by ourselves. God is light, and He is the light of men, the light of all existence. Without Him there is only darkness, complete and absolute darkness.

It’s often been said that the night before the birth of Christ was the darkest night in the history of the world. And there’s something profoundly true about that. But it’s also true that wherever Christ has not yet come or wherever Christ has been rejected, wherever people insist on continuing in their sins, insist on going their own way, in that place there is still great darkness. Of course, so many people, even Christians, don’t want to talk about the darkness. They only want to talk about the light: grace, love, and joy. Isn’t that what Christmas is about?

But Jesus Christ, the One whose birth we are celebrating, is the One who came speaking, perhaps more than anyone else in the Bible, about the darkness, about judgment, about Hell. Jesus said the tares are the children of the Wicked One growing in His Kingdom that will be gathered up and thrown into a furnace of fire. Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a great net cast into the sea, and when it is pulled up to the shore, the bad and wicked are separated from the good and cast into a furnace of fire, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus repeatedly warned cities of their reception of Him, saying that their judgment would be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus said that those without a wedding garment will be cast out of the Marriage Feast, into outer darkness. He said that the one who buries his talent in the ground will have his talent taken away and be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said those who refuse to cut off hands and pluck out eyes that cause offense will be cast into hell, into fire that is never quenched, where the worm never dies.

When the Light of the World comes into the world, the first thing you notice is all the darkness. We cannot talk about the birth of the Light of the world, without talking about the darkness of the world, the darkness in our lives. And when we do that, it must cause us to tremble. The King has come, and we have rebelled. The Lord of Glory has appeared, and we have been plotting against Him. There is a kind of fear that He came to banish, and it is the fear that we see in our first parents in the Garden, the kind of fear that tries to hide. But you cannot hide from the Lord of all Light. In His Light everything is manifest: every thought, every word, every glance, every act. All is plain as day to Him. The kind of fear that tries to run away, tries to hide is foolish, fleshly fear of punishment. But godly fear trembles because we have offended our Father’s love. Godly fear falls to the ground in worship because we have not honored our King. Godly fear acknowledges that true justice would mean our destruction. It acknowledges that it would be good and righteous and holy if all sinners were cast into Hell for our insolence. Godly fear wants nothing but the glory of God because He is worthy, because He is the King. Godly fear does not run from the King. Godly fear stumbles toward the King, trembling and full of joy. Even if we perish, it would have been worth it to be so near the King.

John Bunyan once called godly fear a “blessed confusion.” It’s the confusion of knowing the greatness of God and the frailty of being a creature, the confusion of knowing the goodness and holiness of God and the shameful filth of our own hearts and lives. And in the midst of that confusion, hearing the words, from our Savior Himself, Come. Come and welcome. Come into the feast. Come into the light. And the fear of the Lord drives you in, trembling with joy. Because Christ has come for us. Christ was born for us. All is grace. All is gift. All is Christmas.

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Is. 9:2).

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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