Christ-Centered Thanks #2

Where is Christ? I ask you, where is Christ in the control room, in the mission control center of your heart? Where is He in relationship to that?

It's not uncommon for a king to use his position to gain wealth, fame, and prestige, and also, of course, more power. Hello and welcome back to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright, and today as Don brings his series, A Christ-Filled Thanksgiving, to a close, he'll show us that the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, used his position to do something very different when it came to power, position, and prestige.

Something that will no doubt cause our hearts to well up with tremendous gratitude. Let's find out more from our teacher as we join him right now for part two of a message called Christ-Centered Thanks, right here on the Truth Pulpit. You know that the Jewish leaders and the Pharisees who were the religious leaders in the day when Jesus came to earth, they were opposed to his ministry. They were jealous of him.

They were hostile to him. On multiple occasions, they were plotting his death before they were able to achieve it at the hands of the Roman government. And Jesus is telling a parable to them that we'll pick up in the middle to warn them and to warn them against what they were doing and also to set forth his preeminent position in the kingdom of God. So in Mark chapter 12 verse 7, I know I'm picking it up in the middle for the sake of time, those vine-growers said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. Jesus was telling a parable about a man who planted a vineyard, verse 1, and he sent workers to do it, and the people who came would beat his workers, send them away empty-handed.

They wounded them. And now, finally, as a climax, he sends his son, verse 6, he had one more to send, a beloved son. He sent him last of all to them, saying, they will respect my son. Jesus making a point about himself there. But in the parable, the vine-grower said, let's kill him, and we'll get the inheritance. And so, verse 8, they took out the owner's son, they killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. And Jesus asks this penetrating question, what will the owner of the vineyard do?

He will come and destroy the vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others. He says in verse 10, have you not even read this scripture? And he quotes Psalm 118 to them.

The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Jesus says, you Pharisees are fulfilling Psalm 118, you are rejecting me, I am the chief cornerstone, and you are rejecting me. And Christ applies the concept of the cornerstone to him, to his own person. In Acts chapter 4, this motif is picked up again. Acts chapter 4, Peter is preaching, and if possible, makes the application even clearer. He says in verse 10, as he's speaking to the Jews, Acts chapter 4 verse 10, now he's speaking after the crucifixion, after the resurrection. Jesus applied this psalm to himself before the crucifixion, Peter applies it afterwards.

It's locked up with bookends so that it cannot be missed. Acts chapter 4 verse 10, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands before you in good health. And speaking of Christ, it says, he is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders. You Jews rejected Christ, but he is the stone which became the chief cornerstone as Psalm 118 set forth. And so the Jewish leaders rejected Christ, preferred their position over submission to the God who was manifest in front of them. They knew what they were doing. They knew they were rejecting him. They knew he was sinless. They knew that his miracles could not be denied and they still rejected him. And what Scripture tells us is, is that this, in using this analogy, this precious stone, this chief cornerstone that they rejected becomes the basis upon which all of spiritual salvation is built, all of the church is built on this very one that the Jewish leaders of the time wanted nothing to do with.

That's marvelous. That is a matter of God overturning the wisdom and judgment of men in order to accomplish his own purposes. What men rejected, God set forth as the most important center of it all. And now what we find is this, is that the church against which the gates of hell cannot prevail, the church is built on Christ, the cornerstone. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 19, as the apostle uses many different pictures to show forth the great reality of the church and the people of God that are being built by the Spirit of God in response to the crucifixion of the Son of God. And so he says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. That's a blessed message to Gentiles who were separated from God and without hope in the world. Now you've been brought into Christ by the great work of the Spirit. And he says in verse 20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, here it is, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. How high and how lofty is the church of Christ?

How high and how lofty is this work that the Spirit is doing to conform us to the image of Christ and to form us and to build us into being a dwelling of God in the Holy Spirit? This is remarkable. This is highly exalted.

This is highly noble. This far transcends anything that is happening in the world around us. These spiritual realities to which Scripture testifies and that the Spirit of God is working out in our midst and Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of it all. And so, if I can switch metaphors here, we see this centrality of Christ in the building of the church, and we remember what Christ said. He is our bread. He is our spiritual bread. He is our spiritual drink. We feed off of him.

We live off of him. We must have him nourishing our hearts and causing us to grow. And yet, we never outgrow our need to grow in him and to abide in him. You see, Christ is the goal. Christ is the ultimate end of salvation. It's not that you get saved and then you move on to other things away from Christ. Christ saves you and then you move on to have a healthy and prosperous life and all of your dreams get fulfilled here on earth, you know, and Christ recedes into the background once the initial work of salvation is done. No.

No, no, no, no, no. We cannot think that way. Christ saved us in order to become the preeminent object of our affections and the preeminent object of that which we love and that which we aim toward. We are built in Christ and Christ is our goal. We started in Christ, we finish in Christ, and everything in between is about Christ. That is true salvation and I would want to say in kindness and in a word of earnest caution to those who have pictured salvation as something else and you've been rooted in thinking that it's something else about Christ making your life happy or giving you exactly the family that you want or giving you exactly the earthly circumstances you want, you know, and that's your idea of salvation. Friends, you may not understand the gospel. If that's what you think it's about, it's about earthly attainment and Christ being the axle grease which makes your car move, no.

No, Christ himself is the focus. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Christ alone is the object of our affections and that's what true salvation produces in the heart. And so I ask you whether that's what's in your heart. Is knowing Christ, loving Christ, is that the preeminent affection of your heart even if you stumble around and, you know, we all stumble in many ways? At the end of the day, what is it that you love the most?

What is it that you want the most? Where is Christ, I ask you? Where is Christ in the control room, in the mission control center of your heart?

Where is he in relationship to that? Because it's his glory that we preeminently love if we are in Christ. Isn't that what the apostle John meant when he said in John chapter 3 verse 30, he must increase, I must decrease? And yet we have multiple generations of Christians that have been conditioned to think about Jesus being the one who helps fulfill their earthly ambitions. With no regard of loving him, obeying him, longing for him and seeing him face to face.

Oh, no wonder scripture warns us that there will be many on that day that Christ says to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. These things are glorious in their application to the believing heart as we embrace these things. But oh, what a warning and a caution they are to those who have their life focused on something other than him. Christ is the cornerstone. Christ is at the center of it all for the true believer and for the true church. Secondly, let's go on and see how this psalm is used elsewhere. Christ is the king. You'll remember that in the Old Testament, God elevated David to the throne of Israel. And in 2 Samuel chapter 7, he promised David that he would have a son to sit upon his throne. And what scripture tells us is that Jesus Christ is that greater son of David.

He is the king of Israel. And going back to Psalm 118, we'll see how this plays out in New Testament times. But grounding this in the original prophetic psalm, Psalm 118 verse 26, we see the psalmist saying this. Psalm 118 verse 26, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. What you find as you read the gospels is that the people were quoting this psalm as they hailed Jesus at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Look at Matthew chapter 21 with that little bit of background in place. Matthew chapter 21. And in verse 6, I'm assuming that you know some of the surrounding context for the sake of time. Verse 6, the disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their coats on them, and he sat on their coats. This itself was in fulfillment of a prophecy that Zechariah made, as you can look later at verse 5. And in verse 8, for our purposes tonight, this is what we want to see.

Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And the crowds were saying, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. Now, as we know, they hailed Jesus one day and basically crucified him the next, but their shouts of praise during his prophesied entry into Jerusalem were in fulfillment of this recognition that Psalm 118 speaks of. Look down in chapter 21 to verse 42, and you'll see how these link together what we were saying in our first point and the second point. Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? This became the chief cornerstone.

This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And then in verse 45, you see this. The chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, and they understood that he was speaking about them. The crowd rejected Christ because he was not giving them the earthly deliverance that they wanted, and the Pharisees stirred up their fickle emotions against him a few days later.

They didn't realize it at the time. Christ came as a king, but he came in his first advent in order to give spiritual deliverance to his people. He came in order to give his life, and he was like a seed that had to fall in the ground and die in order that life might come forth, the inherent life in the seed could come forth and bear fruit. At his second coming, he'll come and establish his throne in Jerusalem. But we see in the usage of Psalm 118 how the scripture ascribes to Christ the title Son of David. We see that the praise given to him is rooted in the psalm, and we see that Christ is this king that was promised. He is the greater son of David, as you see even in the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, you see the line of Christ being established showing that he was entitled to the throne of David by genealogical descent.

And one day, still future to us, Israel will greet him in his rightful capacity as king. Look at Matthew chapter 23 verse 37, and in this text which ends with this quote from Psalm 118, Matthew 23 verse 37, Jesus says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. He attributes the moral cause, the moral culpability for their loss of salvation was with them and their unwillingness, not with the God who ordained salvation.

And so there were consequences for their rebellion. Verse 38, behold, your house is being left to you desolate. Verse 39, for I say to you from now on, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They ascribe that to him in his first advent, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. When Christ returns to earth, there is going to be a conversion of Israel, there will be a supernatural saving of Israel, and they will look and they will see their Messiah, and he who they once rejected, they now will welcome. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

And God will manifest his great faithfulness to the nation of Israel by producing a national conversion, a national repentance at the second coming of Christ when they embrace him like they should have the first time around. And at that second coming, Christ will reign as king over the earth. And the majesty, the majesty of his people welcoming him, saying blessed is he who comes, the second coming of the Lord, there is going to be this reception of Christ, this recognition of his king, and this glad reception and submission to him, blessed is he. Praise God, he is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. And so Christ is the king. We see this from the way that the New Testament applies Psalm 118 to his person.

And thirdly and finally we see this. We see that Christ is the sacrifice. Christ is the sacrifice. He's the cornerstone, he's the king, he's the sacrifice.

Look back at Psalm 118 one final time where it says in verse 27, the Lord is God and he has given us light. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. In Old Testament times the animal was tied to the altar and then slain. In Christ what we have is not the sacrifice of an animal, but a sacrifice of the Lord himself. He wasn't strapped to an altar, he was nailed to a cross and offered up as the sacrifice which would atone for the sins of his people. It was there at the cross where he paid for our sins with his precious blood. The animal sacrifices were done. They were shadows pointing to the ultimate reality of the sacrifice of Christ. The repetition over and over again of the Old Testament sacrifices is done away with in the New because Christ is the sacrifice. He is the ultimate sacrifice, the fulfillment of all of the shadows that those other sacrifices were pointing to but had no efficacy of their own.

Christ is the cornerstone, Christ is the king, and Christ is the sacrifice. How can that be? This is utterly contrary to everything that we know earthly about what people with power do. They don't do this to themselves. They don't sacrifice themselves.

They use their position to accumulate wealth and power to themselves. This is the testimony of 6,000 years of human history. And yet what we have here pointed to us in Psalm 118 is something that is utterly contrary to normal human experience. You have the cornerstone, the one who is the royal thread that runs through pre-eternity to eternity future, eternity past to eternity future, and he is the bright royal purple ribbon that runs through it all. He's the center of human history.

We measure time by him. And he's the king. And yet this king humbled himself coming down from heaven to live in human flesh, giving himself as a sacrifice on the cross for the sins of his people, his guilty people.

What do you make of that? What kind of unique otherworldly character is this that one of his exalted majesty would step down like that in a Philippians 2 kind of way? Although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard his equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This king gave his life for us.

Amazing. Well, might we all take our shoes off because we're standing on holy ground here. Christ the king humbled himself to be the sacrifice for his own people, to secure their well-being. He gave himself up for our well-being. We who were not looking for him, he was looking for us.

We who rejected him, he was looking to accept us and to purchase us for his own. Through the cross and in his own person, he is the cornerstone upon which a people for his own praise is built. We are part of a great plan, but the glory of it all belongs to Christ. We have received great mercy, but the glory of all of that belongs to Christ. And so as we look at Psalm 118 through New Testament eyes, as we understand something of the greatness of who Christ is and what he has done for us, what do we do?

What do we do in response to this majesty? Go back to Psalm 118 and we come full circle. Verse 29, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his love and kindness is everlasting. You see, our thanksgiving is always, rightly, a Christ-centered thanks. It starts with him, it ends with him, it is to his glory. Well, friend, if you'd like to hear this message again, or maybe like to share it with a friend or loved one, just go to thetruthpulpit.com.

That's thetruthpulpit.com. Well, Don, as we bring this series to a close, how about some final thoughts on thankfulness and gratitude? Friend, I've always been convicted by what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5.18. In everything, give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. When we look at the world, we see cause for a troubled heart, but when we lift up our eyes to Christ and we see him in glory, that causes us to find renewed hope and gratitude as the Spirit of God works in our heart. And so as we close this series about a Christ-filled thanksgiving, my friend, let me just encourage you, think about Christ, read about Christ in the Scriptures, and meditate on that, and you'll find that all things will be well. When your mind is centered on Christ, it has a transforming impact on your heart, and the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That is good reason to give thanks. And friend, we trust that our time today has been an encouragement to you, and we do hope you'll join us again next time right here on The Truth Pulpit, teaching God's people God's Word.