Sermon Tone Analysis

! I.     Introduction

            In an article in a church magazine I read the following, “More than 30 years of dictatorship by Mobutu Sese Seko, followed by seven years of civil unrest, have left Congo economically and socially bankrupt.

Civil workers have been without pay for a long time; families find it difficult to feed their children.

Many young people finishing university are without jobs.

The country has become morally bankrupt; conflicts are common in the society in general and the church in particular.”

Reuters, the news agency, reports a similar situation in Somalia.

“2 million people out of an estimated population of 9 million were already on food aid and more than 10,000 deaths from starvation were expected each month if help did not arrive.

Warlords have dominated the country since the ousting of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.”

The same thing is true in other countries of the world.

When there is no effective government, anarchy reigns and it easily becomes an unstable and often violent situation.

Sometimes it feels like that is true in the world as a whole.

The UN is not in charge, the US would like to think it is, but it isn’t.

Is anyone really in charge?

On Palm Sunday, Jesus was presented as king.

But what does that really mean?

Is He the one who is in charge of things in the world?

If He is, where do we see that reign?

What are the implications of Christ as King?

How does that touch me?

What hopes, encouragements and comforts are mine because of it?

!

II.

King of Kings

!! A.  Promise  Ezekiel 37:15-28

The theme of a king for the world is not an uncommon theme in the Bible.

We have been studying Ezekiel and there is a passage in Ezekiel 37 that speaks about a coming king.

It is a word of hope for the nation of Israel.

We have been studying Ezekiel since January 1 and for most of that time we have been talking about doom and destruction.

Ezekiel was in exile in Babylon speaking to Jewish people who had been sent away from their home in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was still there and many of their relatives were still in that city, but the message of Ezekiel was that, because of the sin of the people, the nation was being steadily dismantled.

God’s judgement was on his people because of their sin.

In 33:21 we heard about the final blow: “Jerusalem has fallen!”

How devastating!

However, beginning in Ezekiel 34, the tone of the book changes significantly.

The message of judgement has passed and there is a new message of hope.

It is a new message of what God is going to do in the future.

One of the passages in this section is Ezekiel 37:15-28 which speaks of a coming king.

In this passage, Ezekiel is once again told to produce a visual aid.

He is told to take two sticks.

On one he is to write Judah and on the other Israel.

Then he is to hold the two sticks together so they look as if they are one.

The message of God for the people in 37:22 is “I will make them one nation in the land.”

Ever since the days following Solomon, Israel and Judah had been divided, but here God promises that they will be united once again.

Then the promise God makes in the same verse is that “there will be one king over all of them.”

Further on in 37:24, God promises, “my servant David will be king over them.”

The rest of the passage describes the conditions which will exist under this new king.

The people will be cleansed from their sin because God will cleanse them.

The people will truly be God’s people.

Conditions will be good as one generation follows another in a place where peace is over all.

God will live among them and everything will be good.

What a wonderful message of hope!

Unification of God’s people, good conditions, peace, God among them and all of these promises and blessings because they will live not in a condition of anarchy under a sinful ruler, but ruled by God’s chosen king, His servant David, who will keep things in this condition.

This was a promise to people who were experiencing few of these conditions.

It was a promise to people who desperately needed to hear a word of hope.

But what happened to that promise?

!! B.  Presentation   Matthew 21:1-11

Today is Palm Sunday.

Each year on this day we remember that Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.

We celebrate this day because it is the day on which Jesus was presented as King.

One of the places in the Bible where we find this story is in Matthew 21:1-11.

As Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem, He sent two of his disciples to Bethphage to prepare a donkey and her colt.

The disciples brought these animals to Jesus and he sat on them and rode into Jerusalem on them.

The writer makes a connection with an Old Testament prophecy which comes from Zechariah 9:9.

In this prophecy one of the lines is “see your king comes to you…” As they went into Jerusalem, the crowd put their cloaks on the ground and others cut branches and laid them on the ground and there was a procession into the city.

In the procession, the people recognized what was going on.

This was not the first time such a procession had taken place.

In II Kings 9:13, there was another description of such a procession in which another king was presented to the people.

As the procession was going forward, the people were shouting and once again significant words were spoken about what was happening.

They shouted, “hosanna to the Son of David.”

In this phrase we see a connection to the prophecy in Ezekiel and others like it that speak of a coming king who is from the family of David.

What was obviously happening here, something the people in the procession perceived and which the writers of the gospels proclaim is that the promised king was being presented to the people.

He was coming into His city to take His place as king over all.

And yet there is something puzzling about this presentation of Jesus as king.

People had been presented as king before this and whenever they were, they began to rule as soon as they were presented.

When Israel asked for its first king, Saul was presented as king and after being presented, he began to rule.

David was presented as king and immediately began to rule over Judah.

When David was near the end of his life, Adonijah tried to present himself as king, but he was not supposed to be king so David declared Solomon king and immediately Solomon began to rule.

These are normal scenarios.

In these cases, the king was presented as king and then began to reign.

In the triumphal entry, the king, Jesus, was presented as king, but where was his reign?

Instead of beginning to reign following upon this presentation, we see rejection and very soon the death of the one presented as king.

!! C.  Present   Ephesians 1:18-23

However, if we think that Jesus was presented as king, but never began to reign we have not understood the whole situation.

Even though Jesus did not reign at that point, the presentation of Jesus as king was, accurate.

A short time later, he did begin to reign.

The situation which became reality after Jesus’ death and resurrection and is still the way things are today is spoken of in Ephesians 1:18-23.

Paul writes about his prayer for the people of Ephesus.

I love this prayer.

He prays that “the eyes of your heart will be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”

This prayer is loaded with hope and included in that hope is the recognition of the power of Jesus who is king.

Although the word king is never used in this passage, the idea of the rule of Christ as king permeates the passage.

It speaks of the power which Jesus received at the resurrection and ascension.

It speaks of the power of  Christ which is his now as he reigns as king with God the Father.

It describes that he is the king who is over all “authority, rule, power and dominion and every title that can be given.”

It encourages us that right now Jesus has all authority and all things are under his feet and that his power and authority is for the church, his body.

His reign is described as pertaining to the present age and the one to come.

As we read this passage, we see that the reality of Jesus being presented as king became true at his resurrection and ascension and is true now.

This is not a mystery or a wish, it is truth.

Jesus is indeed king over all things.

As one writer says, “the present course of history and the ultimate destiny of the universe are in his hands.”

!! D.  Pledge    Revelation 19:11-18