The Purposed One

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

Well, we have a special event happening on Tuesday this week, don’t we? We’ve got a church wedding, which is super exciting, our first church wedding, which we’re all excited for. And of course, as you might imagine, lots of preparation has gone into it. Ming and Jess have been busy organizing different things, and they’ve been through pre-marriage Bible class, and different people are helping out in a number of different ways to make sure that it’s a really special day. And, you know, tomorrow I’ll be preparing things, and there’ll be a rehearsal in the afternoon, all so that we have a lovely time of rejoicing together, a time to celebrate and see them enter into a covenant bond together.

However, at the end of the day, this might be hard for them to hear right now, but at the end of the day, it’s just a day. It’s just a wedding day. It’s not the purpose, right? The wedding is just a means for a greater end, right? You have the wedding day so that you can, Lord willing, enjoy many years together in marriage. The marriage itself is the purpose of the wedding day, and sometimes people can get that order a little bit back to front.

A very long time ago now, probably going back 15-odd years ago, the average spend on a wedding was $78,000 in New Zealand. I’m assuming Ming and Jess haven’t gone that far. The average wedding, that’s right, $78,000 by the time you take everybody into account, which is just bonkers. And then they get divorced some 2 or 3 years later and do it all over again. The marriage is the purpose.

You know, sometimes we can approach the atoning work of Christ in that type of a light. I hope you realize that Easter, in a sense, though the cross is the centerpiece of history, it itself, the atoning work of Christ, is a means to a much greater end. There is a greater purpose behind the cross than just Jesus dying and rising from the dead. It was a means to accomplish things. And in our psalm, in Psalm 22, we get to see that. We get to see the purpose for which Jesus did Easter. Why did He suffer? Why did the forsaken one come and die and then be delivered, as we saw this morning? Why did all of this happen? Well, it was to bring about the purposes of God.

And I wanna highlight 3 primary purposes of God that we see here in Psalm 22 that are achieved in the Lord Jesus Christ’s accomplishment of Easter.

And the first of those is this: Jesus was forsaken and delivered in order to establish God’s praise. Jesus was forsaken and delivered in order to establish God’s praise.

Well, we all know the chief end of man, right? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Well, Christ’s chief end was the same, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And that means Golgotha was a part of Christ pursuing the glory of God. And in our Psalm, we get to see Jesus crowning his work, his crosswork, by establishing praise.

And so the first thing we see is that Jesus, having accomplished the work of salvation, becomes the great worship leader of the church of Jesus Christ. Have a look with me at verse 22: “I will tell of your name.” Now, just pause for a second. You have to put yourself now no longer at Golgotha, right? We spent the last 2 sermons kind of sitting at Golgotha with Jesus, meditating on Psalm 22. We’re now past that. Deliverance has happened. Jesus has now ascended to His Father. That’s where you wanna be thinking, okay? You’re sitting with Christ enthroned in glory and thinking about Psalm 22 in His mouth, and He says, “I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you.”

What’s going on here? That Jesus, having been enthroned on high, is now standing as worship leader over his people, the church, and declaring the praises of God. He’s declaring God to the people. “I will tell of your name.” What’s He doing? He’s acting as the worship leader, isn’t He?

I hope you realize that I’m not the worship leader. A change I made in the last church was I changed what was on the front of the book, ’cause on the front of the book, it used to say, “Worship leader and preacher.” And I said, “No, no, no, no, I’m not a worship leader. No, no, we have a service leader, and we have a preacher.” Why? Because there’s only one worship leader in the church, and his name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ leads the worship of God among His people. Now, yes, He works through representatives in our midst, but it is Christ, biblically, who leads worship.

And so how that works practically is when we gather together like this and the minister stands up and says, “Hear God’s call to worship,” he stands here as Christ’s representative, calling you to praise God, but it’s Christ Himself through His representative that is saying, “Come and worship the Father. Come and worship God.”

Now, it’s really important that you see it that way. I remember my mother telling me that when my eldest brother was small, he got a little bit confused, and little children can do this sometimes. And he got confused, and he started thinking that the minister at the front was God. And, you know, little children will do this sometimes. He’s always up the front, you know, and he’s very austere and important. And he said, “Oh,” he said something about, “God at the front. We gotta go meet with God at the front.” And my parents were like, “Whoa, wait a second. We got something confused along the line here.”

And yet, as a representative of God, it shouldn’t surprise us that this confusion might happen in the heart of a tiny little child. Because although we don’t believe in priests standing between man and God any longer because that’s Christ’s role, at the same time, when God’s people gather together for worship, the minister of Christ does stand between God and the people. God speaks through him to the people, and the people respond, and he prays on their behalf to God. This is not Catholicism. It’s biblical representation. This is why it really matters who you have standing at the front. This is why it really matters who leads you in worship.

Whose phone’s ringing? Down there somewhere? Oh, okay. All good. We’ll find it. Got it. Easier to just pause and then move on.

So, Christ’s representative stands here before you, but it is Jesus Christ himself who is leading you in all praise. He is the one who is promoting the praise of God. This was one of the purposes of his suffering and death, and this is why the praise and glory of the Church of Jesus Christ is focused upon the suffering of Christ.

It’s striking when you compare Old Testament praise to New Testament praise. Now, I love singing psalms, but there is an element missing in Old Testament worship that we find in New Testament worship, and it’s the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The suffering is there. I mean, we’re using Psalm 22, right? But I think it makes sense that given Christ coming and establishing praise as the worship leader, that with that same change, the theme of the people of God would change, so that the Apostle Paul would say in Galatians 6, “I boast in nothing save the cross of my Lord.” The cross has become the primary theme of God’s people, right? It’s atoning. It’s the atoning work. We have this shift that takes place so that the Church of Jesus Christ recognizes that at the centerpiece of everything it does is Christ’s atoning work, because that’s what Christ has primarily done for us, and that’s what he’s leading us into.

You see, he declares the name of God to us, and is that not done in any way greater than in his cross? God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Every time we look at the cross, we see the love of the Father, don’t we? So that the cross itself, and then the resurrection, the deliverance, and then the ascension of Christ to the throne becomes this marvelous thing that leads us to worship God, and we see this here in our psalm.

In verse 26, “The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord.” It’s the affliction of Christ that becomes the theme of the church.

And I think this is helpful for us, because are we not told to pray, “Hallowed be thy name”? The purpose we exist is for the glory of God as well. And so Christ, having accomplished the work, he now leads his church to do what? To give all glory and honor to the Lord, to render all praise to our God.

And I guess it challenges us. It challenges us to ask ourselves the question, are we taking part? Are we doing our part in the praise of God? When the church is gathered for worship, are we there? Are we living our lives as living sacrifices of offerings of praise and thanksgiving and worship to God because of everything that he’s accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ? What are you doing? What part are you playing in the worship of God? Or are you going through the motions? Are you tempted to give a little bit and keep the rest for yourself? I’m not talking money, I’m talking praise. To render a little adoration while you stockpile idols within your heart.

It’s a challenge for us. Is our life lived in praise of God? Because that’s what Jesus is busy doing in our midst, is seeking to glorify God among us, to raise up praise. To build a people of praise. That’s his goal among us, brothers and sisters, so that we would glorify his Father. Jesus exists to glorify God. Have you thought about that? He is the image of the Father, we confessed earlier, and between he and the Spirit, they render all praise to God.

And so we see Jesus establishing God’s praise among the church, and then we see that the forsaken one was delivered in order to establish God’s kingdom upon the earth, God’s kingdom upon the earth.

You know, we have to ask the question, well, how is Jesus going to establish praise upon this earth? Well, if you think of the logic of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,” “thy kingdom come and thy will be done” are the means whereby the name of God is hallowed. The name of the Father is hallowed through the upbuilding and the extending of the kingdom of God throughout this world, and by his will being obeyed, his kingdom citizens obeying the law, the will of God.

So how, looking at our Psalm, how then is Christ going to establish praise upon this earth? Well, firstly, it’s by fulfilling vows. Have a look at verse 25. “From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear Him.” I’m gonna perform some vows, Jesus says. He ascends to heaven. He says, “I am going to fulfill my vows.”

What are these vows? What things has he promised to do while he was upon this earth? Well, you might think of 3 primary things, 3 primary things that Jesus has vowed and promised to do.

Firstly, he promised to send a helper, didn’t he? He promised Pentecost. He said to his disciples, “It’s better that I go away because when I go away, I will send the helper to be with you. It’s better for me not to be here because then I can send the Holy Spirit.” And so Jesus, having died, having been crucified, having been raised from the dead and ascended back to heaven and seated down at the right hand of God the Father, what did he do? Well, Acts 2, he poured out his Holy Spirit, right? He poured out gifts upon the church. He gave the Spirit of God to equip the church of God to do the mission of God and to establish praise. It’s in spirit and truth that we worship God, isn’t it? It’s by the Spirit of the living God that we’re actually able to praise God, and he fulfilled this vow.

Now, what other vow did he fulfill? Well, we read of it today in Matthew 16, “I will build my church. I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will never overthrow it.” Now, what is the church? It’s a worshiping organization, isn’t it? And so he says, “I am building a worshiping organization, the church, and no one’s going to get rid of it. It will last forever. It doesn’t matter how grim it gets and how oppressive the devil might be, my church will never be overthrown. I will build it.”

Now, has he done it? Yes. We’re two thousand years down the track, and the church is still here. A lot of political parties have come and gone. A lot of countries and nations and dictators and rulers have come and gone, and the church of Jesus Christ has never been overthrown. Stalin killed five million Christians. There’s still a church in Russia. Nigeria is systematically attempting to wipe out all the Christians, the terrorists there. The church is still in Nigeria. The China, the Iron Curtain, the Bamboo Curtain went down, and what happened? All the missionaries got kicked out. And do you know what the missiologists said? They said, “The church will be dead. There’s not a chance. It’ll die.” Do you know when the missionaries went back in, there was way more Christians than when they left? Even though the church was sorely oppressed and persecuted, the church flourished. Why? Because Christ’s fulfilling His vow. “I’ve made a vow, and I will do it.” And He did it. He built His church. At Pentecost, on that day, He established His church, and off it went. And come hell or high water, the church marched on, and the blood of the saints was the seed of the church, wasn’t it?

But there’s another one. There’s another vow. It hasn’t been fulfilled yet. He’s vowed to return, hasn’t He? What did He say in John 14? “Don’t be troubled. Don’t be troubled, my disciples. If I go away, I’ll come back, and I’ll take you to be with me forever.” He made a vow to His disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.” Well, yeah, He hasn’t come yet, you’re right. But that doesn’t mean He won’t come. A day is coming when He will fulfill this vow too, and all eyes will see Him, it says in Revelation one. And so the saints cry out in Revelation 22, “Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha, please return. We long for Your presence again.” But it’s a great encouragement. He will return one day.

And so he’s fulfilled these vows, or He’s fulfilling these vows. But then you’ve got to ask yourself the question: Well, how is He doing this? He’s made these vows to build and to accomplish His purposes, to accomplish God’s purposes, and to establish praise on the earth. What are the means whereby He does that, having ascended to the right hand of God the Father?

And the first of these is through repentance. Have a look at verse 27: “All the ends of the earth shall remember you and” what? “Turn.” Turn to the Lord. What is repentance? It’s turning. It’s turning from one thing to another thing.

Now, do you remember the core message of Jesus’ preaching? What did Jesus preach as He traveled around place to place? “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come.” And He sent forth His disciples and He said to them, “Go house to house, go town to town, go wherever you’ve got to go and preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God has come.’”

It is through repentance of sinners that Christ accomplishes His purposes. It is not through holistic approaches of spiritualism. There is no advancement of the kingdom of God without repentance. And it’s striking that one of the core features of the Reformation was the rediscovery of the doctrine of repentance. Because prior to that, for a long time, it had been penance due to a bad translation into Latin, where they had mistranslated the word metanoeo into penance, meaning to do something to God to get Him to forgive you. And they discovered in the Greek text that they had gotten it all wrong, and it was repent. And so Martin Luther, in his 95 Theses, writes, “When Jesus said, ‘Repent for the kingdom of God,’ he meant a daily repenting, a constant turning from your sin and turning to the living God.”

And this is why our message continues to be what? Repent. And as long as I’m a preacher, do you know what one of my themes will be? Repent, for the kingdom of God has come.

And let me ask you: Have you repented? Not will you repent, have you repented? Because if you haven’t, do it. Turn to Christ and live. Because that’s what Christ’s doing here. That’s what He’s doing in the world. He’s sending forth ambassadors of reconciliation to proclaim the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, so that men, women, and children might repent and find eternal life.

And so you’re invited today by Jesus Christ Himself, because of His accomplished atoning work, repent. Turn from your sin and live. Do you remember the words of God in the Old Testament? “Why will you die?” Remember, God pleads with His people. He says to them, “Why will you die? I would that you would live.” I do not delight in the death of the wicked, but would that every man would repent, and I would heal him.

It is the preaching of repentance that is the means of Christ to build his kingdom in this world. Brothers and sisters, do you wanna see the gospel go to the ends of the earth? Cry out to God that he would raise up workers for the harvest field, that he would send forth preachers into the jungles, and into the cities, and into the high places, and into the low places, preaching repentance.

But do you see how far Christ is going to do this work? It’s beautiful. Verse 27, he says, “To the ends of the earth.” The ends of the earth shall remember, all the families of the nations. Now, how many are excluded from this? None. He doesn’t say some of the nations, some of the families. Just all of them. In other words, people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every people will come and be saved. This is what Christ is doing.

And look at us. We’re a picture of that here, aren’t we? Some of us were born here, and we can track our family history back a long time. Others of us, like me, are almost fresh off the boat. Others of us are from China, and from Vietnam, and from all corners of the world. And what’s God done? He’s saved us, and he’s made us a family. He’s made us a people because Jesus Christ is accomplishing the purposes of God to make a whole host of people.

And how long will he do this for? Well, he’ll do this until verse 28, until everything is returned to his Father. It says in verse 28, “Kingship belongs to the Lord.” Now this is David speaking to the Lord, and it’s fitting for us to say this is Jesus speaking to his Father, “Kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.”

And this is why I can say that, because in 1 Corinthians 15 we’re told that Jesus Christ will one day return everything to his Father. One day, Jesus Christ will have accomplished the mission given to him by his Father, and he will bring the finished kingdom of God like a bride to his Father and say, “Father, here is my bride. The work is done.” And his people will dwell under the presence of the Father, in the presence of the Lamb for all of eternity. It’s a picture of the work being finished, Christ’s work being accomplished.

And brothers and sisters, here’s the exciting part. You and I are a part of it. Reformation Bible Church is a part of this work of Christ. I hope you realize that it’s not mere accident that has brought this church into existence. I hope you don’t think it’s the mere accident of a fall that has resulted in Reformation Bible Church existing. This is the will of Christ for his kingdom. Well, it might not be how we thought it should have been done, but we’re not Jesus. And so Christ, by his authority in order to advance his kingdom, has established Reformation Bible Church in Auckland at this time. For how long? Who knows. Will we always be in Tahuna School? Who knows. But Christ’s doing a work here.

And so if Christ is extending his kingdom to the ends of the earth, why shouldn’t we be excited at the possibilities of what Christ might do here in this place among us? Who knows what Jesus might do among us, whether it be in our life or in the lifetime of our children? I mean, who knows what this church looks like once everyone here has gotten married and they have grandchildren.

Brothers and sisters, we should be filled with excitement and hope for what Jesus is doing here. You see, we need to have better frames of reference. We’re often all too earthly-minded, aren’t we? And we focus on us and what we’re doing, and we forget that Jesus Christ is at work here. Jesus Christ, the King, is on the scene doing the work of God in our midst. So be encouraged and be hopeful.

And so we see Christ establishing praise, Christ establishing God’s kingdom, and then lastly, we see the forsaken one being delivered in order to establish covenantal offspring, in order to establish covenantal offspring.

One of the things that’s often bothered me has been a scoffing remark often out of the mouths of non-Reformed people who will say, “Oh, you grow your church through breeding.” Maybe you’ve heard this comment before where Reformed covenantal people have big families and baptize their children, and they don’t really do any evangelism. They just grow their churches by having lots of children. And it’s intended pejoratively. It’s like a slight. I’ve never understood why it’s meant to be rude. And yet, do you realize that one of God’s primary means for building up the kingdom of God is through godly families? And do you know that’s exactly what Jesus is doing in the Psalm here?

Have a look with me what Christ is producing here. Verse 30, “Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn.”

What are we being shown? We’re being shown a picture of Christ’s faithfulness to work out his purposes through covenantal homes. I mean, have you ever thought about the marvel of the fact that you get a man and a woman and they get married and they have babies? I mean, I know that’s not particularly marvelous. It’s pretty normal. But all of a sudden you go from 2 souls who love the Lord to 8. And do you realize that every single child born into a Christian home is a sinner deserving the unmitigated wrath of God, and yet through the covenant of grace, God saves them, redeems them, and makes them eternal joys. I mean, that’s a profound thing.

It really bugs me, like unbelievably bugs me when people say, “I wish I had an exciting conversion story like you do.” I wanna slap people when they say that. Do you have any idea at the miracle it is that a person gets born in a home and walks faithfully with their God and never departs from his ways when they’re born in sin? That’s mind-boggling because the normal thing is sinners walk in sin, right? That’s the norm. By nature, we are sinful, and so by nature, we should live in sin. What a profound mystery it is that by faithful parenting, by taking the means of grace and applying it to children under the covenant of grace, little sinners grow into godly saints.

Brothers and sisters, don’t look down upon the mystery of God establishing his kingdom through generational faithfulness.

I remember witnessing to a guy who had been in the church for a little bit, and he said to me, and I’ve never forgotten this. He said to me, “Why would I join the church when your children leave?” Do you understand the logic of this? It’s a pretty solid argument, right? Well, your children who are reared in the church are leaving the church, so it can’t be that great.

Now, counter the flip of that. Show me a church where God’s offspring walk humbly with their God and I will show you a church where sinners get converted. Do you want to see more evangelism? Do you want to see conversions in the church? Be faithful in the home. The greatest testimony that you can be in this world is to be a family where Christ is honored. Where your children walk in respect and they honor God and they love their Lord and they honor their father and their mother. When that happens, you shine like a light.

And this is not just Psalm 22. There’s a striking thing that happens in Isaiah 53. If you have a look at Isaiah 53 with me, you remember the suffering song in Isaiah 53 that’s often used at Easter? Isaiah 53. So from Isaiah 53, you get all of this incredible description of being despised and afflicted and bearing griefs and being crushed for our sin and a lamb being led to the slaughter. It’s really palpable. It’s almost like throughout Isaiah 53, it’s just like he dies, he dies, he dies, he dies, he dies, he dies, he dies. I’ll get that back in a minute. He dies, he dies, he dies. And then we read these words, verse 10. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, which means the death of Jesus Christ, right? He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.

Isn’t that a strange movement in the song? He dies, he dies, he dies, he dies, he dies, he dies, he dies. He shall see his offspring. Why? Because it is through the death and the resurrection of Christ that the Abrahamic promise to your offspring is fulfilled. And as Christ ascends to the throne, the fulfillment of all of the promises of the Old Testament of a seed are fulfilled.

And so as a parent, you can take up your child and you can say to them, the Lord has promised you shall be my people and I shall be your God. And you can promise Christ is at the right hand of God to welcome you to the Father. And he has promised in your baptism to wash you.

Now, there’s so much application that could come from this, right? Parents, raise your children to know the Lord. This is Christ’s will for your family, that you would raise your children to love the Lord, to love your Father, to obey him. That’s the easy application.

But a whole bunch of you are not parents. Some of you are way past the point of having children. Some of you are yet to get to that point. But do you realize covenantal homes do not work themselves out in isolation? Covenantal homes do not work themselves out in isolation. They work themselves out in covenantal community.

And so if you don’t have a child, do you know what you need to do? You need to minister to the children in this church. If you’re elderly, be a grandparent to every child in this church. They’re your family. If you’re young, be an older sibling and encourage them in the Lord. Set a godly example for them. Show them the way of Christ so that their parents might come to church on Sunday and say, do you see that young person over there? That’s what it looks like to follow Jesus. And do you see that elderly couple? Go and speak to them. They will show you the way of Christ more clearly.

Do you know why this is important? Well, ’cause parenting’s really hard work. It’s tiring, and sometimes you wanna give up, and you come to church, and you’re worn out. And then it’s beautiful. You sit down, and then you see the church gather around your children, and you see young people out on the playground with the little ones, and you see young ones carrying Malachi around, and you see the elderly helping them with their food and taking them for strolls in their pram, and the parents can just sit down and go, “I can make it through another week.”

What a wonderful witness this is. And you know what, brothers and sisters? This is Christ’s work among us. This is what it means to be Christ to one another.

You see, Christ is achieving the kingdom of God in order to establish the praise of God through God’s covenantal means. I’ve always marveled at the fact that every time we had a child, and every time I see a child born, it’s one of the strange privileges of a minister is you get to go all the places. You know, you’re there when people die, you’re there when people just start — well, not when they give birth, after they’ve given birth, fortunately. You’re there at all the different events, and it just marvels me every time I’ll go in and they give me the baby, and I pray for the baby, and I sit there and I hold this little child, and I think to myself, “You know, this child, barely 2 days old, and here sits before me someone who is going to spend eternity either in God or not.” That’s a just incredible thought, right? And we have the privilege as a community of seeing Christ establish His kingdom through them.

I mean, look around our church, brothers and sisters. There’s little children everywhere. We’ve got pregnant mothers now, and Lord willing, more pregnant mothers eventually. What does it look like in a generation? I said to someone the other day, and I said it tongue in cheek, but I kind of mean it. Can you imagine what New Zealand would look like if every single Christian in New Zealand had 10 children and raised every single one of their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord? Now, statistically, let’s assume for a second that 2 of every one of those families reject the covenant, and so there’s only 8 left. What would New Zealand look like in 5 generations? You’d change the entire landscape of New Zealand, wouldn’t you?

And isn’t it striking that the Muslims know this really well? They’ve taken over England. I mean, they talk about immigration. It’s not just immigration that’s the problem in England. I mean, it’s a problem. The birth rate of the average UK home is something like 1.4 or something ridiculous, and the Muslims are having 8 children. Well, it’s kind of obvious what’s gonna happen, right?

Now, look, I’m not telling you to go have 10 children. You’re welcome to have 10 children, but I hope you get my point here. It is being advanced with every soul born into this world.

And so I think, brothers and sisters, I think this is a helpful reminder to us that Easter is not just a time of reflection. We can treat it like that, can’t we? It’s a time for us to reflect on the death and resurrection of Christ, and it is. But it’s not just a time of reflection. Easter is a call to action. The cross is a call to action. Peter tried to avoid the cross, didn’t he, in Matthew 16? “Far be it from you, Lord. You’re not gonna die. Far be it for you to die.” And what does Jesus say to him? He doesn’t just say, “Get behind me.” He says, “Get behind me,” and then He says, “If you wanna be my disciple, Peter, and everybody else, take up your cross and follow me.”

Easter is a call to action. It’s a call to do that which Christ is doing in our midst because the wonderful thing about everything we’ve said today is that Christ has not done these things. Christ is doing these things. Christ is establishing praise. Christ is building a kingdom. Christ is working out God’s covenantal purposes.

And so we can have confidence to walk out from Easter and see the kingdom of God advance, the covenantal purposes of God advance, and thus the praise of God established in New Zealand.

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