We Believe in Christ Our King and Judge

Dec 21, 2025 • Don Willeman

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“Human beings are not self-referential. You don’t make yourself feel loved by telling yourself ‘I love you.’ We are relational beings, and so we need something outside of ourselves to tell us we have value and worth.”

~Dr. John Ashley Null, Humboldt University (Berlin) and Anglican Bishop of North Africa

“But where, say some, is the King of America? I’ll tell you, friend, he reigns above….”

~Thomas Paine (1737-1809) in “Common Sense” (pub. January 10, 1776)

“There has not been a ‘when’ when the Father was not in existence. This, then, is true of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Put another question and I will answer it.

Since when has the Son been begotten? Since as long as the Father has not been begotten.

Since when has the Spirit been proceeding? Since as long as the Son has not been proceeding but being begotten in a non-temporal way that transcends explanation.”

~Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329-390) in “On the Son” orations 29, chapter 3

“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible.

“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only-begotten; that is of the essence of the Father, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered and the third day he rose again, and he ascended into heaven; from then he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

“And in the Holy Spirit.

“But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;’ and ‘he was not before he was made;’ and ‘he was made out of nothing,’ or ‘he is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.”

~The Nicene Creed (325 AD)

“…we are not entitled to such license, I mean that of affirming what we please; we make the Holy Scriptures the rule and the measure of every tenet…”

~Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c. 394), church leader from ancient Cappadocia; key participant in the Council of Constantinople (381AD), that confirmed and expanded the Nicene Creed (325 AD).

SERMON PASSAGE

selected passages (ESV)

John 5

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Philippians 2

4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Psalm 2

1 Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3 “Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,