Whom are You Kissing this Christmas?

A Study in Psalm 2:1-12

Before Christmas day, one could anticipate being asked a variety of questions like: “Have you done all your shopping?” “How are you going to pay for all the stuff your wife has purchased?” “Where will you be spending Christmas day?” “How long do you have off work?” However, the question I wish to ask is by no means a standard Advent Season type, and it is certainly not the kind of question you might expect when you come to church. Here’s the question: “Whom are you kissing this Christmas?”

Most of us are familiar with a popular old Christmas song along these lines: “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” The lyrics go like this:

‘I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe last night. She didn’t see me creep down the stairs to have a peep; she thought that I was tucked up in my bedroom fast asleep. Then, I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus underneath his beard so snowy white. Oh, what a laugh it would have been if Daddy had only seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.’

Of course, we adults know that the Santa Claus mommy was kissing was her husband dressed like Santa. For those who have someone to snuggle up to during Christmas this song makes for warm, cozy, innocent family type emotions. For those who don’t, Christmas can be a very sad time. What I want to demonstrate from my strange question is that there is Someone who anyone can and everyone should kiss, even if they’ve got no one else. In fact, the person I’m referring to gives an invitation that also involves a command  — Kiss the Son of God, lest He be angry with you — Kiss Him with the kiss of reconciliation, submission, adoration and affection.

Psalm Two can be divided up into four sets of voices speaking. Listen to the first of these voices:

I. The Voices of the Universal Rebellion of Sinful Men – Ps 2:1-3

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  (2:2)  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, (2:3)  “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

A. The Voices of Society Speaking Defiance Against the God of the Bible  

1. They want no Authority to Give an Account To – All mankind is by nature “little god-players” with a determination to have their own kingdom, make their own rules and as a result will resent and rebel against any attempts to infringe upon their rights to kingship. In America there has been a massive attack on “the notion of authority.” The outcome of this battle has shown up in rejecting authority in the home, in the classroom, in church, and in government. Since the sixties violent crime has risen by 550%, criminal arrests of teenagers by 150%, illegal drug use by 6000%, births to unwed mothers 500%, and a whole generation of over 45 million killed by abortion in our country alone. The root of this destruction is abandonment of God’s law as absolute truth. It is rejection of God-appointed authority. 

The old Puritan John Trapp summed up the attitude of the world as he writes, “Resolved they were to run riot, as lawless, and aweless, and therefore they slander the sweet laws of Christ’s kingdom as bonds and thick cords, which are signs of slavery.” 

2. They want no Absolutes to Give Obedience To — Humanity defiantly rejects the thought of God’s kingdom and the rule of His Son. The moral teaching found in God’s law is construed as bondage instead of freedom. The gospel message with its call to repent of sin and submit to Christ as your only King cramps the desires and passions of men in rebellion against God. 

One man in speaking to a pastor said, “I think that anybody who holds to absolute truth is oppressive, intoler­ant, self-righteous, rigid, close-minded and an arrogant know-it-all.” There was a banner seen hanging between two trees in a local park, stating, “It isn’t wrong to think you’re right, but it isn’t right to think others are wrong.” Nice sentiment, isn’t it? It isn’t wrong to have personal con­victions or opinions about what’s right and wrong; it’s just not right to judge the opinions of others. Most Americans reject the idea of any absolutes that are universally applicable and knowable. This is true even in the Christian church. 

Our text raises the question, “Why do nations make a noise, or stay in an uproar or rage”? The Hebrew verb is not expressive of an internal feeling, but of the outward agitation which denotes it. The past tense of this verb (Why have they raged?) refers to the commotion as already begun, while the future in the next clause expresses its continuance. The word with which Peter, in Acts 13:25, renders this is the term “rage”, which in the Greek denotes horses that snort and neigh, and rush into the battle. 

Psalm 2 talks about nations raging, people’s plotting, kings standing, and rulers assembling against the Lord’s Anointed. Here the most powerful among men gather their strength of mind and arms against Jehovah and His Christ. This “corporate spirit of rebellion” shows more determination than a few individuals here and there. The Psalmist intends us to understand that this plot against God was not from a few renegades among the throngs of humanity. But it is the earth’s kings and rulers, the collective minds of men, allying themselves against heaven. Even bitter enemies, like Herod and Pilate, find themselves united in deliberate animosity against Jehovah and His Son. 

The battle in Psalm 2 is characterized as a battle over the ownership of the nations and over the laws that Christ’s kingdom people are to restrain the rebellious with. God wants the kings of the earth (political orders) and the judges (law-interpreters) to yield to Christ, lest he destroy them. This is spiritual warfare with political implications over the establishment of whose law will rule. 

In Acts Four, we see the believers affirming that the healing of the lame man that had prompted the religious leaders to threaten the church with violence was consistent with Christ’s own battle with the world system. If you take the time to read Acts 4:25-27, you will find they list three systems aligned against Christ:

Christ vs. Herod and Pontius Pilate – (political rulers)

Christ vs. the Gentiles – (national and international systems)

Christ vs. the people of Israel – (religious systems) 

We should always keep in mind that when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in power it doesn’t just address souls or personal morals, but it challenges and claims authority over the entirety of the world system’s laws, social and religious structures. It demands the release of the captives to serve God.

We see this battle intensifying today and here are some examples: 

Sam Harris in his book, The End of Faith, condemns what he terms “the lunatic influence of religious belief.” 

Columnist Christopher Hitchens writes, “All religions and all churches are equally demented in their belief in divine intervention, divine intercession, or even the existence of the divine in the first place.” 

British biologists Richard Dawkins, in his book, The God Delusion writes, “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the small-pox virus but harder to eradicate;” “Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness”  

Listen to Dawkins raging against the God of the Bible: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”‘ Dawkins shows that he doesn’t just disbelieve in the Christian God, he detests Him. 

This raging against the Lord’s Anointed, Appointed Son has been going in for millenniums. The infamous Roman Emperor, known as Julian the Apostate was determined to return the Romans back to their pagan gods and obliterate every semblance of the Christian faith. He is said to have pointed his dagger to Heaven defying the Son of God whom he constantly called the despised Galilean. However, when he was wounded in battle, Julian saw that all was over with for him. He then is said to have gathered up his clotted blood, and throwing it in the air, exclaimed, “Hail! Thou hast conquered, Thou Galilean!”  

We now listen to the second voice speaking in Psalm Two:

II. The Voice of the Unalarmed Response of the Sovereign God – Ps 2:4-6

Psalm 2:4, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (2:5) Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, (2:6) “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 

Spurgeon calls our attention to the obvious contrast between the attitude of the enemies of the Lord and the Lord Himself: “Observe, dear friends, the wonderful contrast between the violent excitement of the enemies of the Lord and the sublime serenity of God Himself. He is not disturbed though the heathen so furiously rage and their kings and mighty ones set themselves in battle array. He smiles at them—He has them in derision. You and I are often downcast and depressed and our forebodings are dark and dismal, but God sits in His eternal peacefulness and serenely overrules tumult and rebellion. The Lord reigns and His Throne is not moved, nor His rest broken whatever may be the noise and turmoil down below. Notice the sublimity of this Divine calm. While the heathen and their princes are plotting and planning how to break His bands asunder and cast His cords from them, He has already defeated their devices and He says to them, “Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion. You will not have My Son to reign over you, but nevertheless He reigns. While you have been raging I have crowned Him. Your imaginations are, indeed, vain, for I have forestalled you and established Him upon His Throne. Hear Him as He proclaims My decree and asserts His filial sovereignty. By God’s decree the Ever-Blessed Son of the Highest is placed in power and exalted to His Throne. The rulers cannot snatch from His hand the scepter, nor dash from His head the crown—Jesus reigns and must reign till all enemies are put under His feet. God has set Him firmly upon Zion’s sacred hill and raging nations cannot cast Him down! The very idea of their doing so excites the derision of Jehovah, He disturbs not His great soul because of their blustering. As if it were a banquet rather than a conflict, the Lord God, as Himself King, speaks to the King’s Son, even to His Anointed on His right hand and having acknowledged His royal rank, confers upon Him the highest honors.” 

A. The Voice of the Sovereign God Laughing in Derision

We now turn our ears from the voices of the rebels and the raging clamor of man to the secret place of the majesty of the Most High. What does God say? What will the King do unto the men who reject His only-begotten Son, the Heir of all things?

Notice the quiet, unperturbed dignity of the Omnipotent One, and the contempt which He pours upon the princes and their raging people – Here He does not take the trouble to rise up and do battle with them – He despises them, He knows how absurd, irrational, and futile are their attempts against him – He therefore laughs at them.

The prophet Isaiah gives a similar view of the almighty, majestic and one and only true God as he writes in:

Isaiah 40:15, “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.”

Isaiah 40:22, “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers”; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in”; 

Isaiah 40:23, “who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.”  

We hear His declaration in verse 6, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” God’s anointed has been appointed and He won’t be disappointed!

God’s King, being anointed and appointed by Him, is not subject to the voter’s ballot, the assassin’s bullet, the alluring bribe, the media’s broadcasts, or the scientists and philosopher’s babble. He has said to Him, “Sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies your footstool!”

The third voice speaking in Psalm Two catches our attention:

III. The Voice of the Uniquely Related Son of God – Ps 2:7-9

Psalm 2:7, “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. (2:8) Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. (2:9) You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

A. The Deity of His Person – 2:7

“The Lord has said unto me, thou art my Son…” He is not the Father’s Son by creation, as angels and men; nor by adoption, as saints; nor by office, as civil magistrates; nor on account of his incarnation or resurrection; nor because of the great love of God unto him; but in such a way as cannot be said of any creature nor of any other, (Hebrews 1:5); He is the true, proper, natural, and eternal Son of God, and as such declared, owned, and acknowledged by Jehovah the Father, as in these words; the foundation of which relation lies in what follows. 

“… this day have I begotten thee…” This act of begetting does not refer to the nature or to the office, but to the person of Christ; not to his nature, not to his divine nature, which is common with the Father and Spirit; wherefore if his was begotten, theirs must be also: much less to his human nature, in which he is never said to be begotten, but always to be made, and with respect to which he is without father: nor to his office as Mediator, in which he is not a Son, but a servant; besides, he was a Son previous to his being Prophet, Priest, and King; and his office is not the foundation of his sonship, but his sonship is the foundation of his office; or by which that is supported, and which fits him for the performance of it: but it has respect to his person; for, as in human generation, person begets person, and like begets like, so in divine generation; but care must be taken to remove all imperfection from it, such as divisibility and multiplication of essence, priority, succession, dependence, and the like: nor can the manner of it be conceived or explained by us. 

John 1:14 states:  “And the Word was made flesh.”  Incarnation is the theological expression that defines the above phrase.  The Latin word “carnal” means flesh. So, the Word was in-fleshed and dwelled among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

The word begotten has caused many to conclude that Jesus had a beginning. The word in the Greek is “monogenes.” Mono means one or only, genes means of a kind or species. Biology speaks of a particular grouping as the genus, the species, or the kind. Applying this meaning to the word begotten, we discover that John declared that Jesus was the One and only One of His kind. 

Contrary to what many enemies of the faith assert, we Christians are not tri-theist, worshipping three gods; nor are we mono-theist — worshipping a non-trinitarian god.  We are Trinitarians. 

Orthodox Christianity holds that the Three Persons of the Godhead are one in substance, one in the depths of common consciousness, one in purpose, with absolute equality, power and glory. They agree with one another in nature, being life, time, dignity, glory, or anything else pertaining to the Divine essence. In all these they are one and the same, consequently, co-essential, co-equal, and co-eternal. This is the mystery of all mysteries – the fact that God is One in Three and Three in One. He is not Three in the same that He is One, nor is He One in the same that He is Three. All true Christians are Trinitarians. We can hear someone saying, “Please explain the Trinity!” We can’t nor can anyone else!  If we could explain it, we would be God. 

Colonel James Irwin, one of America’s finest astronauts, was once asked about his experience of walking on the moon. His response was beautiful: “Far more wonderful than walking on the moon is the fact that one day God walked on the earth.”  

The song writer asks a profound, heart-stirring, mind-boggling question when he asks, “Mary, did you know that when you kissed that baby boy, you kissed the face of God? 

B. The Victory of His Purpose – 2:8

Psalm 2:8, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”

Father’s invitation to his Son is to be understood in His wondrous nature as the God-Man Mediator. Before he became God in the flesh, the Divine Son ruled over all. There never was a limit to the reign of Jesus as God, not even when He was hanging on the Cross—He was the everlasting Father even when He was “the Child born, the Son given. 

According to Paul, in Acts 13, the resurrection of Jesus fulfilled these verses in Ps 2 and the Lord Jesus Christ is now enthroned in the heavenly Zion in the place of absolute authority.

Acts 13:32-33, “And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’”

It is in resurrection power that Christ comes forth and God gives to Him dominion over the earth and all that is upon it. Because He lives and was dead He has the keys of Hell and of death. By virtue of His humiliation He reigns. For the suffering of death He is crowned with Glory and honor. The heavenly host proclaim His worthiness to take the Book and open its seven seals, singing, “For You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood.” He descended that He might ascend above all things and fill all things! He laid aside His Glory that He might be crowned with this new glory and honor and might have all things put under His feet as the Son of Man. We speak, therefore, of Jesus Christ the Risen One, who once died, but has now risen from the tomb and left this earth for the splendors of the New Jerusalem.

Our conviction is that this same Jesus is to reign over the whole world. The gospel will be universally victorious before His coming. The Great Commission will be fulfilled by the missionary enterprise of the redeemed people of God. A world wide dominion has been given to our Lord and assuredly His kingdom will embrace all the nations of mankind. The whole earth shall yet be filled with His Glory! The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head and clear the world of his slimy trail! 

Spurgeon passionately asks: “Do you think that the crucified Lord will be disappointed of the end for which He died? Will you venture to assert that a single drop of His blood was shed for nothing? Rest assured that He shall see of the travail of His soul, till even His great loving heart shall be content! God has said it, “I will divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He has poured out His soul unto death.” And you can be calmly confident that the Word of the Lord will stand! If Jesus is King, He is the only Potentate. Christians are enlisted under a banner which does not allow another standard side by side with it! They serve a Prince who will not share dominion with others—who will not submit that even a province shall be torn away from His government! He shall reign forever and ever, King of kings and Lord of lords. Hallelujah! Like a burst of thunder let all hearts that love Him say, Amen!” 

C. The Authority of His Position — 2:9

Psalm 2:9, “You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 

Who are these that will be treated like a potter’s vessel? It is not the subject nations, nor the inherited heathen, but the kings of the earth who stood up and took counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed; against these He will lift up His iron rod of stern justice and irresistible power! The stubborn and rebellious ones among the heathen, and in each of the parts of the world, who will not have him to reign over them; who treat his person with contempt, reject his government, disobey his Gospel, and despise his commands; towards these Christ will use severity, and will exert his power and break them in pieces. 

This was in part fulfilled when the nation of the Jews, those that persisted in unbelief and enmity to Christ’s gospel, were destroyed by the Roman power, which was represented (Daniel 2:40) by feet of iron, as here by a rod of iron. It had a further accomplishment in the destruction of the pagan powers, when Christianity came to be established; but it will not be completely fulfilled till all opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be finally put down, 1Cors 15:24; Psalms 110:5-6. Observe, How powerful Christ is and how weak the enemies of his kingdom are before him; he has a rod of iron wherewith to crush those that will not submit to his golden scepter; they are but like a potter’s vessel before him, suddenly, easily, and irreparably dashed in pieces by him. Nations shall be ruined, rather than the gospel church failing to be built and established in them. I have loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee, Isa_43:4. “Thou shalt have power to do it; none shall be able to stand before thee; and thou shalt do it effectually.” Those that will not bow shall break. 

In singing this, and praying it over, we must give glory to Christ as the eternal Son of God and our rightful Lord, and must take comfort from this promise, and plead it with God, that the kingdom of Christ shall be enlarged and established and shall triumph over all opposition. 

The writer of the book of Hebrews informs us of the present position and power of Christ Jesus: Hebrews 1: 3-4 –Amp Bible: “He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God's] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,” 

Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s being. Jesus isn’t the ABC’s of Christianity; He is the A to Z of it. He is the reality of all Old Testament rituals, the substance of OT shadows, and the author of salvation. He declared God’s purpose fully, displayed God’s power mercifully, disclosed God’s principles clearly, and demonstrated God’s presence flawlessly.

Hebrews 1:3, declares that the uniquely begotten Son of God, “sat down”– This is an expression that denotes honor, authority, satisfaction, and intercession. All authority has been given Him in heaven on earth! There is no limit to His legislation, jurisdiction, or administration. He is the Maker and Maintainer, the Originator and the Overseer, the Creator and Caretaker. He is the Captain of all conquerors, the Head of the heroes, the Leader of the Legislators, the Master of the Mighty, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The dynamics of nature and the destinies of the nations are directed by His nail-pierced hands! 

In light of this, I remind you that God’s Favor is His Grace Found in Jesus Christ – alone! It is true that all of God’s creation tastes of His mercy. The rain falls, the sun shines, the ground bears fruit for the righteous and the unrighteous. The mercies of God are new every morning. However, His grace and favor resides only upon those who kiss or embrace His Son. “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Lk 3:22).”I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (Jn 8:24).
“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish” (Ps 2:12).

The last voice we hear is a summons to kiss the Son, and to do it immediately: 

IV. The Voice of Urgency Requiring Total Surrender to the Son of God! – Ps 2:10-12

Psalm 2:10, “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. (2:11) Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. (2:12) Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Spurgeon writes: “Woe to all human societies and brotherhoods which are framed to resist the Lord! Mark the conflict and its end! It is brief enough. A stroke! Where is the hope of the Lord’s adversary? Gone, gone, utterly gone! Only a few potsherds remain. Oh for such a smiting of the apostasy of Rome! Oh for one touch of the iron rod upon the imposture of Mohammed! Oh, for a blow at Buddhism and a back stroke at the superstition of Brahmanism and at all the idols of the heathen! Woe unto the gods of the land of Sinim in that day! A single stroke shall set the potsherds flying. Why, then, should we fear, although they plot and plan? Although a solemn conclave of cardinals is held. Though the “Pope” fulminates his bulls. Although the Sultan ordain that every convert to Christianity shall be put to death; though the scoffers still revile at Christianity and say that it spreads not as once it did, a speedy answer shall confound them, or if not speedy, yet the stroke shall be sure!

Our King waits a while. He has leisure. Haste belongs to weakness. His strength moves calmly. Only let Him be awakened and you shall see how quick are His paces! He redeemed the world in a few short hours upon the Cross and I guarantee you that when He gets that iron rod once to working, He will not need many days to ease Him of His adversaries and make a clean sweep of all that set themselves against Him! If you want to see how it will be done, read, I pray you, Daniel 2:31, “You, O king, saw and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.”

It was a strange conglomeration—all the metallic empires are set forth as combined in one image—which image is the embodied idea of monarchical power which has fascinated men even to this day. The Prophet goes on to say, “You saw still that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

And so it is to be—the vision is being each day fulfilled. The Gospel stone, which owes nothing to human strength or wisdom, is breaking the image and scattering all opposing powers. No system, society, confederacy, or cabinet can stand which is opposed to the Truth of God and righteousness. Evil is short-lived. Truth shall yet rise above all. The Lord says, overturn, overturn till He shall come whose right it is and God shall give it to Him. Woe unto those that stand against the Lord and His Anointed, for they shall not prosper. “Be wise now, therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”

The only proper response to Christ is expressed figuratively: Kiss the Son!

Kissing can be a submissive sign, a social smack, or a sexual smooch. What is a kiss? There are all kinds of definitions of a kiss. Scientifically it is the ovicular juxtaposition of the oral protrusion of the outer cavity. From the negative view, it is the mutual interchange of salivary bacteria. More romantic is the view that a kiss is a secret told to the mouth instead of the ear. More passionate is the definition of Paul Verlaine who defines the kiss, “As the fiery accompaniment on the key board of the teeth of the lovely songs which love sings in a burning heart.” Someone defined a kiss as, “The cement, the glue of love that makes me one with you.” However you look at it, one thing is sure; kissing is a pleasant reminder that two heads are better than one. 

Peter Leithart has some interesting insights on a kiss: “A kiss is also an exchange of breath. A man and woman cannot exchange the kiss of the mouth without breathing into one another. That hints at a wider theological dimension of kissing. Humanity comes alive by a kiss, when the Lord breathes into Adam’s nose the breath of life. Humanity comes to new life with the breath of Jesus, the Spirit, breathed out on Easter and poured out on Pentecost. Yahweh kisses the world when He breathes on the Red Sea and lays bare the foundations of the earth (Psalm 18:15). With the breath of His lips, the Messiah slays the wicked (Isaiah 11:4). Job speaks frequently about the breath of God: His breath kills (Job 4:9); it clears the heavens (26:13); it gives life to humans (27:3; 33:4); it gives understanding to humans (32:8); it freezes waters (37:10). A kiss recapitulates the Lord’s breath on Adam, the Lord’s breath on the sea, the breathing of the Spirit Breath that keeps everything animate. It’s no wonder that we can be refreshed and even revived from a kiss from our wife or husband. It’s no wonder a young woman’s world can turn upside down with one stolen kiss.”

KISS THE SON! Not with a betraying kiss, as Judas kissed him, but with a believing kiss. With a kiss of agreement and reconciliation. Kiss, and be friends, as Jacob and Esau; let the quarrel between us and God terminate; let the acts of hostility cease, and let us be at peace with God in Christ, who is our peace. (2) With a kiss of adoration and religious worship. Those that worshipped idols kissed them, (1Kings 19:18; Hosea 13:2). We need to be daily learning how to do honor to the Lord Jesus, and to give unto him the glory due unto his name. (3) With a kiss of affection and sincere love: “Kiss the Son; enter into a covenant of friendship with him, and let him be very dear and precious to you; love him above all, love him in sincerity, love him much, as she did to whom much was forgiven, and, in token of it, kissed his feet,”( Luke 7:38). (4.) With a kiss of allegiance and loyalty, as Samuel kissed Saul, (1Samuel 10:1). Swear fidelity and reverence to him, submit to his government, take his yoke upon you, and give up yourselves to be governed by his laws, disposed of by his providence, and entirely devoted to his interest.

Psalm 2 can be summed up in a single great truth: “There is no refuge from Christ except that which is in Christ!” The only safe place from the wrath of God is in God. Everywhere outside of his care is dangerous. He is the only hiding place from his own wrath. The safest place from the wrath of God—the only safe place—is God. Come to God. Take refuge in God.

The gospel is that this unique baby, born without a human father – born the God-man — grew up a sinless man, died on a Roman cross to bear the punishment for our sin, and rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, where He sits at Father’s right hand – this Man – the Son of God — invites us to kiss Him in reconciliation and affection and enter into eternal life and joy with Him. 

Dr. Richard Selseur, was a Professor at Yale Medical School who wrote a book called “Mortal Lessons” – Notes on the Art of Surgery.” This surgeon and professor tells the story: 

“I stand by the bed where a young women lies, her face post-operative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish, a tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles in her mouth has been severed. She will be thus from now own. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh. I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they? I asked myself. He and this wry mouth I had made, to gaze at a touch either so generously. The young woman speaks, “Will my mouth always be like this,” she asks? “Yes, I say, “It will. It is because the nerve was cut.” She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles – “I like it,” he says. “It is kind of cute.” All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze before an encounter with God. Unmindful he bends to kiss her crooked mouth. And I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers to show that the kiss still works.” 

Twisted! -That’s what we are. And Jesus became twisted that we might know the kiss of God; that we might become straight. He who knew no sin became sin for us in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ.

 During this Christmas season, have you kissed the Son with the kiss of reconcilation, affection and adoration, of allegiance and loyalty? If not yet, when?  If not now, why not?

Kiss the Son least he be angry with you and you perish in the way!

 

He Came To Me!

Read Luke 10:30-36

The message of Christmas, which is the message of Christianity, can be summed up in a sentence taken from a popular gospel song: “When I could not go to where He was, He came to me!”  Nowhere is this truth illustrated as tangibly and powerfully as in the story Jesus gave that we call the “Good Samaritan.”  By primary interpretation, Jesus never gave this parable for the purpose of telling the Christmas story. Yet by secondary application we see it fleshed out in the deeds of the Good Samaritan. Jesus is the ultimate, original Good Samaritan. In Jesus, God made humanity His neighbor, when the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us! 

The Miserable Lost  

We read in Luke 10:30: “Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.” Mindful that this is not the primary interpretation of this story, permit me, for the sake of analogy, to allow the man who was assaulted in the story represent Adam, the first and foremost representative of our entire race. In the Garden of Eden, Adam turned his back on the Heavenly Jerusalem, the place of God’s presence and peace, and headed down to Jericho, the place of the curse. But he no sooner turns his desires toward the world, than he falls under the power of him who is a robber, a murderer, and a destroyer – the Devil (John 8:44). In Adam’s tragic fall, we sinned all! In him we were: (1) robbed of our true nature; (2) stripped of our right standing; (3) mortally wounded by sin; (4) and unable to rise in recovery. 

Sin and Satan have robbed man of his honor, defaced the image of God in him, deprived him of the glory of God, and stripped him of his original covering of righteousness.  

The Merciless Law  

Luke 10:31-32, “Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.” 

The moral law, as represented by the priest, and the ceremonial law, as represented by the Levite, combine to inform us that no mercy is to be expected from the law. It must pass by on the other side for it has neither pity nor power to resolve our plight. It cannot make any allowance for the fall and weakness of man. It is perfect and will not accept the imperfect. It is deaf to all repentance, remorse, and tears. There is no mercy for a soul naked of the robe of righteousness. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Through the agency of the law there is no healing for a wounded conscience; no pity from it, no justification by it, no pardon through it, no atonement of sin by obedience to it, no word of comfort is spoken by it. When the law of God comes with power, it opens up the wounds of sin, fills the conscience with wrath and terror, destroys all man’s former hopes of happiness, and leaves him where he found him! 

The Merciful Lord  

In John 8:48, the Jews called Jesus a demonized Samaritan. Although he wasn’t a Samaritan by birth, by choice he was, for like the Samaritans, He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Despite man’s attitude toward Him, he came to me! He journeyed to earth. He came down. 

A father was quizzing his young son about the content of his Sunday School lesson that was taken from the book of Daniel and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their experience in the fiery furnace.  “Look,” cried the king, “did not I cast three men into the furnace?  But there are four, and the fourth is like the Son of God” (Daniel 3:24-25). The father’s questions were met with the usual nonchalance of a dispassionate young pupil.  “Aw,” the boy said, “it was all about three men who fell into the fire.”  

“But,” the father persisted, “God helped them out, didn’t He?”  

“Naw,” the boy answered, “He fell in, too!”  What a profound insight! 

One incredible night, almost two thousand years ago, God fell into the fire of our human dilemma. Condescending to leave the glories of Heaven, He condensed Himself to fit the confines of a Virgin’s womb and be born in a foul-smelling cow stable in an obscure little town called Bethlehem. This birth was the inauguration of the “Good Samaritan’s Mission.” 

God became man. Yet, although He became what He was not previously, He never ceased to be all that He was before, that is God. He was just as much God if He were not man and just as much man as if He were not God. As a Son of Mary, He rested on her bosom without a human father. As the Son of God, He rested on the bosom of the Eternal Father without a Mother. As the Son of Mary, He is held in the arms of His frail mother. As the Son of God, He upholds all things by the Word of His power. As the Son of Mary, He lived in a simple house making furniture out of wood. As the Son of God his garment was space, his house was the universe, the clouds his chariots, the stars his diadem. This universe was spoken into existence by the Word of His power. 

1. HE CAME WHERE I WAS  

In order to fulfill His assignment as the “Good Samaritan,” He had to come to us. In order to get to us the Son of God must experience the eclipse his choicest glory; for this, God must be made a man, eternity must suffer death, the Lord of angels must weep in a cradle, and the Creator of the world must hang like a slave.  He must be born in a manger in Bethlehem, and die upon a cross on Calvary; unspotted righteousness must be made sin, and unblemished blessedness must be made a curse. The Righteous was given for sin, the Innocent for criminals, and the Glory of Heaven for the dregs of earth.

Jesus had to come down from Heaven’s glory, down to Bethlehem’s stable, down to Gethsemane’s agony, down to Calvary’s horror, down to the grave’s incarceration. Jesus uncrowned himself to crowns us; he put off his robes to put on our rags; he came down from Heaven to keep us out of Hell; he came down from Heaven to earth that he might take us from earth to Heaven when we die!  And Jesus did what he did without our deserving it or even desiring it!

When I could not, yea, would not, go to where He was, He came to me! 

2. HE SAW ME WITH COMPASSION  

Luke 10:33, “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.” Christ saw His fallen people before the fall, as they were chosen in Him, and given to Him, in all the glory they were brought into; when He loved them, and His delight was with them. When He came down to earth to redeem His Bride, He saw them lost, weak, wicked, ungodly, enemies and children of wrath – yet in compassion and love for them, He clothed Himself in their nature, took their law place, and bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood! Sealed my pardon with His blood! Hallelujah! What a Savior! How deep is the love of Christ? It is deep enough to reach the lowest, the meanest, the vilest, the least, the loveless, the most lost of sinners. 

In Luke 15, Jesus gave a three-part parable of the lost sheep, the lost silver, and the lost sons which revealed an amazing portrait of God.  It portrays Him as the grieving, seeking, loving, finding God who rejoices when a lost soul is brought back into relationship with Him. This special love of God obviates recrimination, reproof, and remuneration and offers full reconciliation and restoration. Luke 15:20, “When the father saw him a long way off, he ran to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him.” 

The song writer said in such a soul-stirring way as he testifies, “I was lost, but Jesus found me; found the sheep that went astray.  Threw His loving arms around me, drew me back into His way.”

 Francis Thompson, author of the classic poem, “Hound of Heaven,” was an opium addict in London who was on the run from God. During the day, he would get high on dope and then go to the Thames River to sleep on its banks. Often he would prowl around in the trash until he found a newspaper. After reading it, he would write absolutely brilliant articles the editor. One day while rummaging around in the trash he came across a Bible and begin to read it. He was especially enthralled by the story of Jacob and how God finally ran him down and came to where he was. 

As he continued to dwell on that story day after day, something miraculous happened. Francis describes his conversion in the poem, “Hound of Heaven”: “Yea, in the night, my Soul, my Daughter, Cry ?? clinging Heaven by the hems; And lo, Christ walking on the water not of Galilee, but Thames!”  He came to where Francis Thompson was and captured his heart forever. 

3. HE HEALED ME UP  

Luke 10:34, “So he went to him and bandaged his wounds.” 

Our “Good Samaritan” came to make us whole. There is more to being whole or healthy than not being physically sick.  There are many different types of sickness and thus the need for many different types of healing. For example there is a healing of the spirit, a healing of the hurts of the past, a healing of the demonized, and a healing of the body.

Healing of the Spirit begins with a miracle – a spiritual heart transplant (Ezek 36:25  “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. (26)  “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.(27)  “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”)

We need to be healed of the hurts of the past. These “soul?bruises” affect our relationship with God by producing false concepts of what he is like. This causes the person to be tormented by guilt, unworthiness, and fear of God’s judgment. It affects relationships within ourselves. The hurts of the past cause us to become angry, bitter, and rejected. It causes an inability to give and receive love. Soul-bruises leaves its victim chronically depressed, physically ill, and neurotically perfectionistic. Hurts of the heart affects relationships with other. Fearful of others finding out about our past. Fearful of getting close for fear of being hurt.

All of us have a desperate need to feel important to someone that really matters; to feel valuable, loved, admired, accepted, approved, and affirmed in life. But our inheritance of a sin principle, the things that happen to us or are done to us, coupled with our own personal involvement in sin causes us to spin webs of inferiority, inadequacy, guilt, rejection, unworthiness, and insecurity. This causes us to be guarded, protective of our emotional turf, withdrawn, feeling unloved, unaccepted and making it very hard to show and give love. This produces the barriers of personal inferiority, spiritual insecurity, and relational incompatibility. But our “Heavenly Good Samaritan” comes to bind up the broken hearted and set at liberty them that are bruised.

4. HE FILLED ME UP

Luke 10:34, “… pouring on oil and wine;” In ancient times wine was sometimes poured into wounds. Its alcoholic content served to aid in the healing of sores and wounds by killing bacteria which had infected the lacerations.  The blood of the Lord Jesus heals our sores for “by His stripes we are healed.”  I think we might say with Chrysostom, that the wine is the blood of the Passion and the oil the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The old life of sin leaves many wounds, but He who was wounded for our transgressions can heal the deepest of heart wounds. If the sin-scars are not removed, the sin-fester is cleansed by the oil of the Holy Spirit’s presence. “Such were some of you,” says the Lord, in reminding the saints in Corinth of their former associates in iniquity; but He also says, “but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of our God” ( 1Cor 6:11).

The oil of the Holy Spirit’s grace comes to us because of the “Good Samaritan’s” atoning sacrifice. The olive oil had to be beaten out of the fruit or pressed out by the mill. This serves to remind us that in order for the gift of the “oil: the Holy Spirit to be poured upon us, Jesus had to pressed by awful sorrow in Gethsemane, beaten by wicked hands at Gabbatha, and crushed by Divine wrath at Golgotha. Pentecost is made possible only by the Passover.

5. HE PICKED ME UP

Luke 10:34,  “… and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

“Oh amazing truth to ponder, the Lord Jesus, sinking to our deepest dishonor, raises us to His highest glory. Sinking Himself with our fallen humanity, He raises us to union with God. Substituting Himself for us, He makes us one with Himself. The love of our Good Samaritan has lifted us up from the dust of our sinful past, from the ash heap of our impoverished positions as bankrupt prodigal sons, and has washed us from our sins in His own precious blood and made us kings and priest unto our God.

The love of Jesus has lifted us out of the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son where we have been made fellow members of the household of faith, heirs of the Father and joint heirs with the Son.

His love is high enough to exalt us from guilty sinners awaiting execution on death row to glorified sons enjoying eternal life in the present ?? all the while we are waiting to enter the never ending bliss of Heaven!

“O amazing gift to ponder. He whom angel hosts attend, Lord of Heaven, God’s Son, what wonder, He became the sinner’s friend.

O glorious gift of Christ my Lord Divine, that stooped to save a soul like mine! My song will silence never, I’ll worship Him forever and praise Him for his glorious love!

6. HE SET ME UP

Luke 10:35, “On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him;”

King David graphically depicted man’s plight in sin and God’s rescue from that condition in Psalm 40:1-3a, “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. {2} He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. {3} He has put a new song in my mouth; Praise to our God;”

Hallelujah! Jesus came down into the pit of our fallen condition to get us, brought us up, cleaned us up, set us up, and tuned us up — putting a new song in our mouths, even praise to our God. He has set me up and I shall not be moved. He’s my rock; He’s my fortress; He’s my Deliverer, in Him will I trust!

7. HE WILL TAKE ME UP

Luke 10:35b,” and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.” He came to me! When I could not go to where He was, He came to me! And guess what? He is coming again for me! He left behind a note that reads: “Dear Son, I have gone to the Father’s house to prepare your dwelling place. Will return soon. Jesus”!

The Christmas story is one of love coming to the rescue. No human illustration can ever begin to come close to capturing the full import of the redeeming mission of our “Good Samaritan.” With this “inadequacy” in mind, Ravi Zacharias, in his newsletter, tells a true story of love coming to the rescue of the rejected:

“Born in an impoverished home in Romania, little George came into the world without any arms. His distraught parents, believing George’s condition to be the results of a curse upon them, and being too poor to raise him with this handicap, gave him up to an orphanage. Laying in a crib, in filthy conditions, with several other babies, as people would walk by they would abruptly turn their glances away from baby George, for to them, too, his condition bespoke of an evil omen. Unloved, unwanted, helpless and hopeless seemed baby George’s plight. But God in His in His mercy had other plans. A Christian adoption agency heard of baby George’s condition and ran his story in their newsletter – a newsletter that had world?wide circulation. A lovely young couple in Connecticut, upon reading the story, felt impressed to adopt the baby. After several weeks of working with the adoption agency, the couple was told that in order to adopt the baby they must come to Romania and answer the questions of George’s mother.

After the two families met, through an interpreter the mother expressed fear and puzzlement at their interest. She said, “I have heard that in America they use babies like George for spare parts. Why do you want my severely handicapped child?  The young American couple had brought with them a Romania Bible just in case they got an opportunity to share their faith, so rather than attempting to answer, they opened the Bible to Psalm 139 and held it out to the mother to read. Quietly she begin to read, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made … my frame was not hidden from you … How precious to me are your thoughts O God! How vast is the sum of them.”

As she read those majestic words, the tears flowed uncontrollably down her face, and clutching the Bible to her heart she said good?bye to her son and handed him over to the keeping of his new parents.

The baby that nobody wanted; the baby that when the Americans came to adopt him, was one year old and weighed only nine pounds; that baby is today a fully contented, normal weight, bouncing 18 month old boy, with an extraordinary mental capacity, and with an ability to use his toes that most children of his age do not have with their fingers.

When baby George was weak, helpless and hopeless, they came to him from a foreign country, lifted him up from his condition as an armless, unwanted orphan; cleaned him up, clothed him up, and took him to their home to live as their beloved son!

That is the message of Christmas – Jesus has come to where you are. He wants to heal your wounds, clothe your nakedness, and fill you with his presence and power, set you up in safety and security, with the promise to never leave you nor forsake you. All those whom he picks up in salvation, He leaves in the care of the Heavenly Innkeepers, the Church. The Church is directed by the Universal Innkeeper Manager, the Holy Spirit with the promise to eventually personally return for us.

Glory to God in the Highest!

Christmas–God’s D-Day!

Christmas –GOD’S D-DAY!

(Take time to read Revelation 12:1-11)

 Look through your Christmas cards and note the variety of symbols that have edged their way into the celebration. If they are a “Happy Holidays” type cards, they will picture everything from New England towns buried in snow, to Santa and his reindeer. The religious cards focuses for the most part on the holy family and you don’t have to look very close to tell that they are really different from the rest of us. In fact, they are usually pictured with gold halos around their heads, amidst scenes of silent night were all is calm, and all is bright. Most of the cards stress words like love, peace, goodwill, cheer, happiness, and warmth. The truth of the matter is that we have taken the meaning of Christmas and rhymed it in carols, recited it by children in church plays, illustrated it on Christmas cards, so that it all it does is evoke the warm-fuzzies in our hearts. As a result, we have missed the central message altogether, i.e., Christmas was God’s D-Day — the Great Invasion — The Visitation from on High for the purpose of Liberation — A Declaration that the Final War was about to be fought and won by a Big God who would succeed by becoming incredibly little and dying horribly on a cross, rising triumphantly from the grave, and ascending victoriously to the place of absolute authority in Heaven, sending back One just like Him without a body –Holy Spirit, and then send out Spirit-filled, gospel-declaring believers to the ends of the earth until every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed! (Great God on Heaven – I just got the can’t-help-its! –GLORY TO GOD IN The HIGHEST!!)

 It’s highly unlikely that you’ll get a Christmas card with a picture on it of a screaming pregnant woman clothed with the sun and standing on the moon; with a seven-headed, crowned fiery red dragon standing before her waiting to kill and consume her baby! Yet Revelation 12 is a behind the scenes look at what Christmas was all about. With just a few words, John’s revelation summarizes and joins together the whole of Jesus’ life, from birth to ascension. It lets us peer into the world of ultimate reality – the spiritual realm of the heavenlies. It shows us what was really happening at the birth of the Son of God. It shows the proper response when hardships, persecution, and heartaches come one’s way. It shows how to be victors in life and not victims; how to conquer and not just cope with evil men and events. It shows how to face the future, not with a get-me-out-of-here outlook, but a let’s-get-it-on type of confidence that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation; that even though the spiritual war goes on today, the decisive battle has already been fought and won by the Man-Child, Warrior-Shepherd-King-Messiah – Jesus!

 Because Jesus was born, God has spoken finally and forever in the SON, life has purpose, love will win the day and last forever, the record of history has reason, Satan has lost and can’t ever win, death has lost its victory and the grave has been denied. Those who have come to Him in repentance and faith have been liberated from slavery to Satan and sin, crowned as king’s kids in training for reigning, and ordained as priest unto God and as Prophets going forth declaring, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

Have a “Mary” Christmas!

Wade