“Christ, the Victorious Son”

Even the world (for those who are left in our culture that are still comfortable to), seems more than willing to celebrate the event, even rehearse the story with their children and grandchildren. They turn to the passages in Matthew and Luke, read portions of it in their homes and on the stage, show pictures of families sitting in front of a cozy fireplace burning warm and welcoming with the backdrop of Christmas decorations as they sip their hot chocolate or warm cider. Or they are shown standing around a person playing the piano or guitar singing Christmas carols about the baby, arm in arm, joyfully in familial contentment after having opened gifts and sat down at a feast of cultural cuisines. This time of year it is easier to be comfortable with the story of the Baby Jesus than it is to remember who that Baby truly was.

Take the year 1809. The international scene was tumultuous. Napoleon was sweeping through Austria; blood was flowing freely. Nobody then cared about babies. But the world was overlooking some terribly significant births.

For example, William Gladstone was born that year. He was destined to become one of England's finest statesman. That same year, Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. The child would one day greatly affect the literary world in a marked manner. On the American continent, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And not far away in Boston, Edgar Allan Poe began his eventful, albeit tragic, life. It was also in that same year that a physician named Darwin and his wife named their child Charles Robert. And that same year produced the cries of a newborn infant in a rugged log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. The baby's name? Abraham Lincoln.

If there had been news broadcasts at that time, I'm certain these words would have been heard: "The destiny of the world is being shaped on an Austrian battlefield today." But history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England and America. Similarly, everyone thought taxation and the Roman oppression was the big news--when Jesus was born. But a young Jewish woman cradled the biggest news of all: the birth of the Savior.

Adapted from Charles Swindoll by Rev. Lex DeLong, M.A., Dec. 2022.

On Christmas Day two thousand years ago, the birth of a tiny baby in an obscure village in the Middle East was God’s supreme triumph of good over evil.

Charles Colson

This time of year we often turn to those passage in the Gospels (and we will Christmas eve and Christmas day), but there is so much more about the coming of Jesus than just those brief narratives in Scripture.

Psalm 2 paints a poetic picture of a very different scene than the one that comes to most people’s minds this time of year. It is not a poem about that scene, but rather one about the person that baby is. Instead of starting with “peace on earth,” the poem leads with uproar. Instead of wisemen that come to honor the King Child, the kings of the world conspire rebellion. Instead of the nurturing love of a mother, there is the fury of God Himself. Instead of the sound or Christmas carols billowing through the countryside, there comes a heart stopping warning. At the end of the poem, we are left with a sobering choice, a choice between accepting that Baby for who He truly is and thereby find “peace on earth,” or reject Him and discover for ourselves the destiny that He has decreed for it.

N. T. Wright

Perhaps some of the fuss and bother about whether Mary could have conceived Jesus without a human father is because, deep down, we don’t want to think that there might be a king who could claim this sort of absolute allegiance?

N. T. Wright

Dwight L. Moody

Death may be the King of terrors … but Jesus is the King of kings!

Dwight L. Moody

Oswald Chambers

696 The Bible deals with terrors and upsets, with … all that the devil can do, and yet all through there is the uncrushable certainty that in the end everything will be all right.

Oswald Chambers

God has decreed that all His enemies will bow before Him, but blessing awaits those who choose to worship Him now.

Rejecting God will only lead to terror, but blessing awaits those who choose God now.

You can reject or accept God’s rule, but the consequence of either is up to God.

You can reject or accept God’s rule, but terror or blessing is up to God.

You can reject or accept God’s rule, but God determines the consequence of both.

You can reject or accept God’s rule, but God determines the outcome.

Terror or blessing, accepting God determines which is your destiny.

There is safety in accepting God as king and terror for those who rebel.

So far:

“Christ, the Promised King of Kings” : God wills for all

“Christ, The Promised Deliverer,” : God does for all

Today

“Christ the Victorious Son,” : God declares for all.

There is safety in letting God be your king and terror for those who don’t — because God is King!

The Enemies of God (Ps. 2:1-3)

++Nations roar against God (Ps 2:1)

++People devise replacements for God

++The rulers seek to break from God (Ps 2:2-3)

Do you see this in the world today? As time passes, the nations, people, and rulers of this world become more bold in their sinful rebellion against any idea of a God who decrees His rule over them. In fact, we know from Matt. 2:16-23 that Herod himself even tried to stop God’s decree by killing God’s born Son. As that narrative proves, no matter how resistant they become, God’s eternal decree still stands, God rules.

The Rule of God (Ps. 2:4-6)

++The world’s greatest power is laughable (Ps 2:4)

++The words of God terrifies (Ps 2:5)

++God determines the King (Ps 2:6)

Isa. 9:6-7 “6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

In the place of the rule of man, the rule of God will finally be revealed. Instead of a baby, there will be a King, a king like no other, who will rule in righteousness and justice, forevermore. This is what God has decided, this is God’s decree.

The Decree of God (Ps. 2:7-9)

++Christ came by the will of God (Ps 2:7)

++Christ is owner of all (Ps 2:8; c.f. Col. 1:10-11, 16)

++Christ is over all (Ps. 2:9)

God’s decree will unfold to an unavoidable crescendo for all who have ever or will ever live, a crescendo of His determinate decree.

1 Cor. 15:25-28 “25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.”

When this time comes, whether willing participants or not, the knee bowing decree of God from Phil. chapter 2 will be fulfilled and all who have ever lived will confess Jesus as Lord in humbled worship.

The Worship of God (Ps. 2:10-12)

++Reverence and tremble (Ps. 2:10-11)

++Acknowledge allegiance now (Ps. 2:12)

++Expect blessing and find rest in God’s Son

(high favor; full satisfaction; complete rest; peace)

There is safety in letting God be your king and terror for those who don’t — because God is King!

We fear man so much because we fear God so little. One fear cures another. When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.

William Gurnall

In this life, what do you fear? One fear erases the other, only one fear brings healing and peace. Fear God, worship Him alone, and trust His blessing.

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