Dennis Tuuri

# Matthew 28 – Sabbath Enthronement and the Lord’s Day

is Matthew 28. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Matthew 28. Now at the end of the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

And the guard shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angels answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid. For I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you.” So Mary went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word.

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice.” So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city, and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together.

They gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Then the 11 disciples went away unto Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.

When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen. Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for the wondrous gospel news that we read in this text, but really throughout your entire scriptures. Help us today to rejoice in that gospel, to understand it, that it may transform us and empower us. In Jesus name we ask it, and for the sake of the advance of his kingdom. Amen. Please be seated.

He is risen. Yeah, this is the gospel. This is the message that is proclaimed every Lord’s day. And particularly today, we look at that historical narrative, Matthew 28 and other places of scripture when we read about his resurrection. But what does it mean? What’s the point of it? Well, of course, every Lord’s day we talk about the explanation of that gospel news that he is risen. He is risen indeed.

And there are appropriate things to do with the resurrection, particularly with the resurrection account that we’ve read today. It is interesting to note, for instance, and we’ve talked about this before, but this gives us a wonderful picture of the first sent ones. Right? The women are sent by the angels and this sending of them to give news to his disciples is then confirmed by Jesus who also sends them. Now the word apostle in the New Testament means sent one. Now we don’t want to go too far down that path but it is very significant that the first sent ones in the little sense of the word apostle are women. Cannot overemphasize that.

We could look at the tremendous play of weak women and unbelieving or at least disciples who needed to be encouraged versus all the power, money, soldiers and might of the empire in confederacy with the Jewish nation on one side and you know a couple of women on the other and we’re here 2,000 years later. The women won and the women will continue to win. The church of Jesus Christ will continue to triumph in history because of this message.

But what does it mean? Well, you know, we can talk and the scriptures do that the resurrection is the proof of Jesus’s divinity. Or we can talk about the resurrection being the proof that our sins are now forgiven. Or we can talk about the resurrection being, you know, the authenticity to the witness of the church to who Jesus is. It affirms the Christian story and these are sort of demonstrations or proofs that the resurrection is, and those things are all true.

We could talk about the foolishness of what we do here today if the resurrection is not true. Paul made that mention of course in the epistles. But what I want to talk about today is another aspect of the resurrection that isn’t always stressed. Something that actually happened in addition to the resurrection in connection with the resurrection. What happened in terms of Jesus and something changed in his ministry and life. We want to look at that change today.

We want to talk about Sabbath enthronement and the Lord’s day. This is my last of seven sermons on the Sabbath. Fitting that on this seventh one, we would talk about the enthronement that God accomplishes on the Sabbath. And we want to talk about that a little bit. And then we’ll talk about the implications of that Sabbath enthronement and what the text talks about in terms of enthronement to Jesus himself. And then we’ll talk about it in reference to the church of Jesus Christ.

And we’ll see that toward the end of Matthew 28, we see those messages kind of applied here. You know, it’s another interesting thing about Matthew 28 is that the account does not happen on a single day. It may look like that to you, but it isn’t. They take some time to go to Galilee. This is a subsequent Lord’s Day worship service where Jesus comes to them and they worship Jesus on the mountain just like we’re doing here today.

And every time Jesus meets with us, this great commission is in essence repeated to us with all kinds of nuances, applications, details, but that’s what it is. So this is a subsequent Lord’s Day covenant renewal service that we read about at the mount of Galilee. And it is very significant in terms of Jesus declaring something that’s changed with him that changes them then and what they’re supposed to do in response to that. And he does it on the Lord’s day again in Matthew 28.

It begins with the at the end of the Sabbath, at the end the last of the Sabbaths as the first day began to dawn. And that’s a phrase filled with implications. The Sabbath is done. The Lord’s day replaces it. History moves forward. As we’ll talk about today, the Sabbath was always an eschatological event bringing culmination to something that God had done. And here on the Lord’s day, it’s the culmination of the great thing God has done in completing his work of redemption.

And so we have that significance. And so there’s this deep analogy, some would say, between the Sabbath and the Lord’s day. You know, I know the Westminster Confession talks about the Christian Sabbath. We’ve used the phrase Sabbath a lot in this church, but really the New Testament term is Lord’s Day. And there is a significant change that occurred with the Lord’s day. And that’s part of what we’re going to be talking about today as well.

Now, the first thing we want to talk about then is Sabbath enthronement. And we want to go back, you know, to the beginning of time, to the beginning of created history, to the creation week itself. And the Lord God works for six days and then he rests on the seventh day. And one of the aspects of what he’s doing in rest is his enthronement in the world that he has created.

Now the Lord is always enthroned, right? It’s not as if God wasn’t king and lord. Lord means king. If God wasn’t that before the Sabbath rest, but he is now Lord in a different sense. He is now Lord over a created realm that had not existed before. Okay? And so when he comes to meet with Adam and Eve on the Lord’s day, he comes as the enthroned king of his people, the king of this new world that he has created.

The Sabbath is about his coming and resting at the end of his labors, at the completion of them, he rests as the Lord of all that he has seen. And in the context of that, he gives men work to do, which we’ll talk about in a couple of minutes. So, while God has always been Lord, mighty, powerful, all sovereign, etc., now he has created new worlds, and the Sabbath is about his coming in the context of that new world and occupying that new creation.

The children’s coloring page today is the temple that Solomon built and the throne specifically right in the Holy of Holies. God sat enthroned in his people. Now he’s always enthroned, but when they move through the wilderness, which has recreation sort of imagery going on after 40 years, they enter the promised land and now they had a tabernacle where God was with them. But now they eventually build Solomon’s temple.

And that picture you see, you know, Solomon’s temple is the picture of God coming now in the midst of the people that he has created, the new land he has built, so to speak, his work of delivering his people, and he sits enthroned in Israel. We just read in the Psalms that God sits enthroned in the praises of his people. David created the praises of his people as the worship environment on Mount Zion, and God sits enthroned in those praises.

So the Sabbath week is about the completion of real work that God did and the real enthronement of God over the dominions and what he has created in the context of the world. The Sabbath speaks thus of the consummation of an activity, right? He finishes what he starts, the Lord does, and he started something and then he finishes it on the sixth day and enters into enthroned consummation on that Sabbath. And that’s essential to understanding the Christian or the biblical Sabbath.

God completes things. Now, God completes things in time. Does God is God required to do that? No. Could God have just boom and it’s all done? Yes. But God chose to use a sequence of days to create the world. He chose to do this in the context of time and to show that time has an eschatology to it, an endpoint to it, a consummation to it. And he does this surely as the example for us.

Surely when we read the fourth commandment, in Exodus 20 and when the patriarchs observed the Sabbath even before Exodus 20 we see them imaging God they work six days and then they enter into Sabbath rest and by implication of course they’re being enthroned as well right God has established Adam and Eve made them on the sixth day and they sit enthroned God is their king but he also then gives them their dominion over the created world as king and queen as vice regents to him kings and queens under him they sit enthroned in the sabbath as well as rulers of God’s world.

So the sabbath is about among other things accomplishment God’s work and enthronement and so the sabbath has this theme to it six days of work we can connect this up to priestly activity and then a seventh day kingly activity. He becomes enthroned in rest on the Lord’s day. This is true of God and this is also by implication true of man as well. And man is given dominion.

Now this idea of priestly work followed by kingly enthronement exists in all kinds of ways in the scriptures. And one way I’ve got in your outline today is the movement from Adam to Noah. Adam cannot execute people. He cannot execute the judgments of the king’s sword against man. That remains for Noah, right? And the covenant that God makes with Noah following long after creation of Adam brings humanity into more of a ruling position, a kingly position.

So we can say that the Adamic covenant is primarily priestly or emphasis on priestly and the Noahic covenant advances beyond the priest to the king. We’ve talked about this movement from priest to king to prophet to true son in the context of the gospel movements Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and we see it in history. And it’s interesting because there’s a millennial perspective to this.

You know, Noah is born about the beginning of the second millennium and Abraham is born about the beginning of the third and David about the fourth and then the beginning of the fifth millennium is our savior. So there’s these millennial movements and it seems like there’s an advancement of man from Adam, priestly Adam to kingly Noah. And even in Noah’s life, by the way, he has his son in his 500th year, the beginning of his sixth day we could say.

And it’s at the beginning of his 600th year, the seventh day, the seventh century of his life, that the flood happens and Noah is then brought through the flood and enthroned in a new way that Adam wasn’t. Now man is to exercise the sword of the king directly in that particular realm as he had done in other realms. And so there’s this movement. You know, Noah’s a lot like Adam. Adam had a garden and Noah planted a vineyard.

Adam sinned and Ham, one of Noah’s sons sin and judgment of God is pronounced upon Adam. But the judgment upon Ham who images the sin of Adam is actually pronounced by Noah rather. And so there’s an advancement there as well from priest to king. Genesis 5:29 says, that Noah’s father called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the lot of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. This one will comfort us.”

Noah’s name means comfort or rest. Noah brings mankind to rest. And so he does it in the seventh century of his life. And he does it and advances mankind, so to speak, by way of imagery from priest to king. And then, as I said, he pronounces this judgment against Ham. We read in Genesis 9:25-27, then he said, “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants. He shall be to his brothers.”

And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be thy servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.” So Ham, Canaan is the servant of the other men. He’s slave. And so the judicial pronouncement from Noah, from man and his humanity, is that those who bless God are free men and those who work against the purposes of God are slaves to the righteous.

Now that’s the way the world works and that’s why the church really the people of God Christ’s body is in control in the world whether it looks like it or not. That’s the way it is. That applies today. Now a lot of weird people have tried to do this in a racial sense. Ham was probably the father of you know black skinned or dark-kinned people and so the blacks are cursed. Ridiculous. Of course it’s a matter of faith and it’s a matter of obedience or non-obedience to the God who gives man judicial reign now in the context of the earth.

So the Sabbath is about enthronement. The history of the Old Testament preparing us for the great movement from Sabbath to Lord’s day and the resurrection of our savior is also about enthronement. And if we were to think about it you know the in the 4th century we have the king David and we’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes. The fourth commandment is the Sabbath command relating to man’s enthronement and God’s enthronement specifically.

So we have this relationship. The change of day even is prefigured because in Deuteronomy 5, Exodus 20 relates the Sabbath commandment to creation and Deuteronomy 5 advancing it ties it to the completion of redemption. So God’s culmination of work in creation was the Sabbath. God’s culmination of the work of redemption remains the Sabbath in the Old Testament until Jesus comes and actually accomplishes redemption and that becomes then the day of the Lord.

And so there is this, as I said, analogy between the Sabbath and Christian Lord’s day that’s given to us. Now in your outline also I have a little structure for the seven days of creation and God begins by shining forth his light Shekinah glory and then he forms up the world then he fills the world with plants and then there’s more light references and then there’s more filling stuff going on.

The second and third decks of the three layer ship is planet is filled. And then in the sixth day he makes the preeminent former man. Man is homo faber. We talk about man as homo sapiens. Man who thinks. Homo adorans, man who worships. Another designation that history has given to us is homo faber. Man who works. Man is a former like God is. And he’ll reform the world.

I was uh lighting a cigar in front to my cat last night and the cat’s looking at me and I’m thinking lots of long memories of animals fire bad run away but now they’ve seen men control fire to form it and use it to form things and bring task to completion. That’s who we are. And so we’re this forming entity that matches the former God himself in the creation of the firmament.

And then finally we have Sabbath when God brings himself who is the light of course to mankind. So at the center of that structure what do we have? We have light. Light is a reference to ruling authority. Our flag has stars on it. The Muslim flag has a crescent moon on it. Flags of nations tend to have stars, moons, suns because God established that in the fourth day of creation. He made sun, moon, and stars.

Sun and moon as rulers over night and day or day and night. So God gives ruling lights. And when we read, for instance, I’m writing a Sunday school lesson on this judgment of Eden we just sang about today. And when we read about, you know, the lights falling from the sky, it’s the change of rule and authority in the context of the world. And so God establishes secondary rulers. He enthrones light as it were in sun and moon.

And then, you know, completes the cycle. And so this Sabbath consummation, enthronement of God is pictured as being related to rulers for him. Man in general is given the world to rule over. But also there are specific rulers in the context of the world kings the way that Noah became this king. So the Sabbath is related to enthronement and when we practice when we worship on the Christian Sabbath we acknowledge the enthronement of Christ the enthronement of God the culmination of his work and we acknowledge that he has also enthroned us.

We come on the Lord’s day as Adam did to meet with him. God expected Adam to bring in the fruits of the world to him. Lay it at his feet as sovereign. God gives the world back to Adam in that covenant ceremony of enthronement of him and his vice regent and Adam then goes out to reform the world some more and of course all of that was affected by Adam’s sin but that’s what the idea is and we get together on the Christian Sabbath we sing praises to the enthroned king and we ourselves also are enthroned and that’s really the next two points I want to talk now then about enthronement in the Old Testament as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ directly.

Turn to Psalm 2 if you will. Now, as you’re turning, you know what we do when we read the Bible is as Christians, we tend to read it, you know, interpreting things in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s proper, of course. We read Psalm 2 and think about Jesus, and that’s proper and good. That’s what it’s really ultimately talking about. But it’s also important to remember that there were historical reference to this stuff.

You know, it’s not some sort of abstract set of ideas about things. There are real historical events going on as we’ve described in terms of creation, the movement of the centuries and millennia since then, etc. God gives us a specific historical reference to what he writes in the Old Testament. Okay, so Psalm 2 first we have, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.

This is ultimately fulfilled in the confederacy of the Roman empire and the peoples represented by them. The empire with the rulers of God’s people. That’s what’s being described here are the nations of the world and the land. God’s people, the church, Jerusalem, the Jews of the Jesus’s time. They conspired together against Jesus. But David also of course was conspired against in the same way against the Lord and his anointed.

Well, David was the anointed of the Lord. And as anointed one, he suffered persecution, affliction. He was you know, sought after by an apostate king, etc. So, when we read his anointed here, yeah, we’re talking about Jesus, but first we’re talking about David.

Let us break their bands in pieces, cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.

This language is first and foremost about David and the Davidic kings. God establishes David in the context of Zion which David establishes the praises of God on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. And David is the one that God is talking about originally here. Look, you can do what you want, but I’ve anointed him. I’ve established him. I’ve coronated David. He is my king. And as a result of that he’s my son.

Strange language to us, son. David is the son of God, but he is. What does son of God mean in the Old Testament? Well, it primarily means people that are human rulers who rule in relationship in covenant with God. David doesn’t become divine. It’s not a statement of David’s divinity. It’s a statement of his kingship that he’s been enthroned as the king of Israel. Okay?

The one who sits enthroned in the praises of Israel has enthroned his own king. And that king is declared to be his son. This is David it’s talking about and later Davidic kings are being spoken of as well. So this Psalm 2 before we understand what it’s saying about Jesus we should understand what it’s saying in its immediate context about David and the Davidic kings. And what it’s saying is that when they are adorned or when they are enthroned when their coronation ceremony happens they become today I have begotten you today you have become my son and what that means is you become the ruler of me.

Now pagan cultures you know how they see this and it’s throughout the old testament you know Ben had you know we have these guys who are named the sons of their gods in the old testament and the idea is they’re partly divine they’re son of Marduk or whatever it is and a lot of times these names aren’t translated but that’s what it means son of the deity because that’s what kings and rulers and emperors were in ancient times that’s the language that God really establishes and people did it.

But of course, they mess it up by thinking that the man is divine. David never was divine. But he is the son of God. Something changed with David when he was coronated. When he was enthroned in that ceremony of enthronement, yeah, he’s anointed, but then the enthronement ceremony, the coronation itself, today I have begotten thee. And David sits as God’s ruler. And then God says, “I have royal prerogatives for you. Ask of me and I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

And David says, “I want to crush your enemies.” And God says, “Yeah, that’s just what I wanted you to do. Do that thing. Publish that decree. That’s what I’m going to do.” David does it. And then as a result of that, the royal prerogatives of the king, the Davidic line to wage war against God’s enemies. As a result of that, the kings of the earth are warned. You know, resistance is futile. You know, God will crush you.

And David has this rod of iron and the authority that the enthroned human king of God in the Old Testament had is compared to a rod of iron as opposed to you know the Sennacheribs of his day or whoever it might be later in history or the Philistines of his day whoever it was they’re earthenware vessels they shatter if you just drop them don’t have to do anything to them they just fall apart and God’s enthroned king is a rod and he’s not just a rod he’s a rod of iron and this is David okay.

So the text tells us that David has this decree that he’s been given from God. And it’s interesting that let’s see in the scriptures the references on your outline. See if I can find mine. Second. No, that’s not having trouble finding the verse I wanted to quote. Well, later at the enthronement or coronation ceremony for King Joash, much later one of the Davidic kings in the south, the one whose brothers were all taken and killed by Athaliah, the wicked woman. Later at Joash’s coronation ceremony and the verse is listed on your outlines.

It says that when they coronate him and put the crown on his head, they give him the testimony. You what is that? I think that’s what we’re talking about here. It’s this testimony that God now has an enthroned king in the midst of Israel and Joash will rule in the Davidic line. So, so too has reference first to David and his coronation and as a result becoming the son of God and then it has reference to the Davidic kings and this testimony that God makes about his enthroned kings that he makes in Psalm 2 is true of later ones as well.

Now we know that ultimately Psalm 2 talks about Jesus, right? Of course. So what does this mean to us? Well, what it means is when we read in Acts 2 as interpreted by the New Testament or Psalm 2 is interpreted by the New Testament that Jesus Christ is begotten by the father on a particular day. Right? Today God says is this time that I have begotten you. He was not begotten before that.

Now don’t freak out. We believe in the eternal begotteness of the son. That’s something different though. That’s the relationship of the son to the father. The son is always the son. The father is always the father. But when we read Psalm 2 and many other reformed commentators. No, that’s not what’s being talked about here. We’re not talking about the eternal begottenness of the second person of the Trinity. We’re talking about Jesus, the incarnate Christ here.

And what we’re being read about here takes place on a specific day at a specific event. And from that time forward as God was enthroned in the world that he made, even though he’d been king all along, Jesus is enthroned in a new sense over the dominions over in the context of the nations of the earth. Recall Psalm 2.

What happened with the resurrection was the enthronement of Jesus Christ. Today I have begotten you rule over the nations in a way that has not been manifest up to now. That’s what’s going on in Acts 13:33. God has fulfilled this for us, their children, in that he has raised up Jesus, the resurrection. What does it mean? So what? As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.

God helps us interpret this aspect of the resurrection in Acts by telling us that the resurrection means that on that day 2,000 years ago, the Lord God the Father made Jesus king of all the world. He enthroned him. He became the son of God in a sense of rule and reign like David and the Davidic kings had been. In a sense that he had not been until then something real happens here and the reality of the resurrection implies the re doesn’t imply it’s explicitly tied in the text in Acts 13:33 to the reality of the begottenness the son of god not his eternal begottenness but Jesus Christ now given rule and authority over the entire world.

This same thing is stated in Romans 1:3-4. Paul gives this introduction Paul a bondservant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of Christ. That’s what we’re talking about, the gospel. And he’s going to tell us right away what that gospel is, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son. Okay? So, when we read his son, there are references where it’s talking about the eternal sonness of the son, second person. But when we read the son, frequently in the New Testament, we’re reading about his son, the son of God, the ruler of God over the nations of the earth. And that’s the way it’s being read here. At least we’ll see that’s this explanation concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, our king.

You see, he’s son, he’s king, who was born of the seed of David. So, he’s actually born physical lineage, the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Now, Paul says that because of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, God declares him to be the son of God.

Now, the word declare doesn’t mean he restates something that’s already been true. The word means a performative utterance. Now I don’t believe in this in terms of marriages. But some people believe that marriages are created when the priest says I now pronounce you man and wife. It’s a performative utterance. That’s when they become man and wife. I don’t believe that. I believe it’s the covenant that they enter into. And so we declare that to the congregation but we don’t make it happen.

But you know sometimes what our words speak makes things happen. It’s called a performative utterance. A declarative utterance that makes something happen. And that’s the word that’s being used here of Jesus Christ. He is declaratively uttered by the father to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. It’s the same message. The resurrection means that Jesus Christ is now king of kings and lord of lords in a way that he wasn’t before the resurrection because he now has taken on humanity.

It’s speaking of his humanity that he has assumed for himself. And so, humanity, as we’ve said before, comes of age in Jesus Christ. Something real transpires on this day of resurrection that we celebrate. And the realness of what’s transpired is the enthronement of Jesus Christ on the Lord’s day to now be son of God and to bring man into that ruling authority over all the world, very much like God and Adam on the first Sabbath day.

So, God does these things. He declares Jesus Christ to be the son of God. Today I have begotten you and to what end? That you might rule over the nations. Right? Ask of me. Jesus asks, God says, rule over all the kingdoms of the world. And what happens at the covenant renewal service a week or two later, whatever the Galilee worship time was about, Jesus, what does he tell them?

This is what he says. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. He talks about a new event. This is the gospel. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus because of the resurrection. Because God raised him up. God also then declared that he now has power and authority over all the earth. And as a result of this, he then tells us because he’s enthroned in Lord’s day and this renewal pattern that Psalm 2 talked about when David did it and Joash do it.

There’s a renewal of this kingly portion of the covenant throughout time and in covenant renewal services Jesus comes to us today as the enthroned king and says because of the resurrection that was the moment in history when I became king of kings and lord of lords in its fullest sense and I brought humanity into that position. And because of that, now you go out and convert the nations. They’re toast. He’s got the rod of iron.

He’s going to rule over the what seems to us to be the powerful nations around us are compared to brittle pottery. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Psalm 2. And because of that, you know, as we sang earlier from Psalm 22, all the nations of the earth will come to Jesus Christ. He will convert every last one of them.

The same thing’s told in Hebrews 1:3-5. We read about Jesus Christ and verse three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins—Good Friday. And sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high—the resurrection, having become so much better than the angels so that he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name.

For to which of the angels did he ever say you are my son today—point in time historical event not abstract concept to which of them did he say today I have begotten you. This is what Hebrews says happened at the resurrection of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. And again I will be to him a father. He shall be to me a son. The relationship of father and son is what the covenant is all about. It was what David was now to God the father. Psalm 89 describes David now as a son to the father and the God is a father to him.

When God makes covenant with his people in the Old Testament, he says, “I’ll be your father.” They say, “We’ll be your son.” It’s what this relationship is all about. And Jesus brings humanity into this relationship of father and sonhood at the resurrection. And then it goes on to say that when he again brings the firstborn into the world. He says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”

And so there’s a change now in from Psalm 8 to man being created a little lower than the angels. Hebrews 2:5-9 talks about this is not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying, “What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you have care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels, and you then have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

And then later, verse 8, we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. It’s talking about Jesus. He is the one who was lower than the angels in his incarnation in humanity. And at his resurrection, he then is given all power and authority over the kings of the earth. A real historical event with real historical implications for the rest of created history.

And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the proper one enthroned on the Lord’s day. The shift of days acknowledges this completed work of God.

In Acts 2:24, we read that God raised up Jesus having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it. Now it’s interesting that the word there, the pains of death, it’s not the normal pain or suffering word. It’s the word for birth pangs. It’s the word that women have when you go into labor. So Jesus Christ, God raised him up. He loosed the birth pangs of death. Yeah.

You know, so we have this wonderful biblical understanding of the world that’s so different from ours. Death was to be the place of punishment for sin and suffering and hell and to those in Christ. Death is the tomb becomes a womb from which Jesus raises up in the event that we celebrate the historical reality. We several right here 2,000 or so years later the birth pangs of death. That’s really significant.

Jesus Christ came through those birth pangs. He moved out of the tomb into and that became a womb from which he was born. Finally, Luke 20:36, speaking ultimately of Jesus, nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. So, how did Jesus become a son of God in the sense that Psalm 2 and other places of scripture talk about he became a son of the resurrection?

It was in his resurrection that Jesus Christ, the incarnate second person, becomes the son of God, the ruling authority over the kings of the earth. Jesus was always Lord. He was always king. But new things have happened and God has brought a work to completion after 4,000 years. He’s completed the redemption of his people. And Jesus now is king in a way that he was not before because the world situation has changed.

Jesus’s resurrection is his enthronement. And not only that, but it is our enthronement. What’s the significance? Well, the significance of he is risen. He is risen indeed. Is that means that he now rules over all the world and he declares that all power and authority has been given to him. And then he says, “Go you, therefore,” well, we’re not him, but we’re united to him, you see. And the text I just read, while having its first understanding with Jesus, is really about us, of course, isn’t it?

We are the sons of God. He talks about sons of God plural because we are sons of the resurrection. We’re united to Christ in his death and resurrection in that tomb becoming a womb. And as a result of that, we’re sons of God. Now we’re little kings under the great king now of humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ. And even Psalm 2 and its great description of Jesus ruling first David and then Jesus coming, the rod of iron. That’s us as well.

Revelation 2:25-28. He talks to the church at Thyatira. He says, “Hold fast what you have till I come. And the one who overcomes and keeps my work works until the end. To him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with the rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessel. As I have received, he says, from my father.”

Now, let’s not get distracted. This is not talking about the end of all things. Well, if they overcome, eventually in time, Jesus comes back and that’s when we get the rod of iron. Well, who would we rule over then? What nations of the world would be left to rule over? We’d all have rods. Nobody’s a vessel of pottery anymore. So it can’t be talking about that. It’s talking about real contemporaneous events to a particular church.

You overcome through the trials and tribulations that you face and God gives you rule and authority over the nations. But the significant thing is that what that means in time and history that the resurrection means that you and I, brother and sister, you and I have the rod of iron that Psalm 2 describes. Jesus has received authority from the father. He’s been enthroned and coronated. And as a result of that he enthrones and coronates us in the same way that God became enthroned in the praises of Israel and called them to go out with his message.

In the same way that on the seventh day on the Sabbath day God sits enthroned in the midst of the new worlds he’s created. He’s going to take his man that he’s created as the ultimate worker now for him and he’s going to enthrone him over the works of his hands as well. And so this enthronement, the message of the resurrection enthronement is our enthronement as well. And that means everything’s changed.

That means all the trials and tribulations, all the little pictures of death that we go through, right? They’re birth patterns to something more glorious, to something powerful and alive, to life itself. Jesus doesn’t get to be raised from the dead if he doesn’t die. Without death, there’s no resurrection. Kind of obvious, but think about it. Without our sufferings, we don’t have the glory. All of our sufferings, little, big, seemingly indifferent, or just horrible things for us to endure, these are birth pangs.

Brother and sister, Jesus has burst the tomb. He’s made it into a womb from which he’s been born by the resurrection, and we share with him in that resurrection.

Another aspect of the Sabbath, and I bring it up now because it’s a response to what we’ve talked about here, what we do with this? This is really amazing truth, historical truth. And what do we do with it? Well, the other thing that God did on the Sabbath, which informs us on our Lord’s day, is consecration in response to his consummation and his coronation. Everything is consecrated to his purposes.

In response to Adam, had he succeeded and not fallen into sin. In response to, you know, his work and his coronation as vice regent under God. He was required to consecrate all that he did to the services of God. Go. The Sabbath, the Lord’s day, is about consecration. It’s about the proper response to the gospel. The gospel is in Jesus’s resurrection, he became enthroned as king.

And we became enthroned with him as king. And because of that, that means as true kings, we don’t do like Adam did. We don’t do things independently, autonomously, apart from the command of God. That’s what Jesus said, right? All authority has been given unto me, newly given at the resurrection. And in Lord’s day worship, in the covenant renewal service, he reminds us of that. He gives us a mission to go, therefore, and what’s the task?

Teach them to observe all things that I’ve commanded you to consecrate everything we do in relationship to the law of the king. So, it’s the same message and enthronement of Jesus, our enthronement in him in the Lord’s day. And the required response from that is to leave this place with consecration at the center of our being. An understanding, a belief in the reign, the present reign that Jesus has over this world, our present reign, the church’s reign as well.

And the right response to that is the elimination of fear of death through the great message of life that Jesus brings and a consecration of all things that we are and have to him.

May God fill our hearts with that today. Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for the tremendous truths that Jesus Christ was begotten as son, ruler of the kings and queens of the nations of the earth at the resurrection. Bless us Lord God seeing our connection to this. May we consecrate all that we are and have to the services of the king who has made us kings and queens under him. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.