I Pledge Allegiance
Notes
Transcript
I have grown up in an America of whose people are fiercely patriotic. A patriot is one who has an intense love and support for his or her country. Around the world, patriotism takes on many forms. Here in America it is stadium sized flags, immense fireworks shows, music, artwork, and numerous other things. We love our country, yet our country is not our home. As great as living in America is, there is a kingdom that is infinitely greater that you and I are called to be a part of, a kingdom in which Christ is king. At the center of it all is the resurrection.
Paul begins the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians reminding the church of the gospel he preached to them when he was there. He talks about the death and burial of Jesus, but spends the rest of the chapter building a case for the resurrection of Jesus and the implications both of its reality and if it is a lie. His words in this chapter are one of the most beautiful logical arguments I have ever read. Paul was a master at building a logical and reasoned case for why he believed what he believed, but this also included implications for its truthfulness. We will focus on the resurrection of Jesus next week, but what I want you to see this morning is what he says about the coming kingdom of Christ.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.
When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Palm Sunday commemorates what we call the Triumphal entry. This is that day where everyone laid their coats on the ground and waved palm branches as Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem. his event was identical to a king’s homecoming parade back in this time. What was taking place was no mistake. The people intended to make Jesus king. The people are shouting, “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The rule of Christ is a present reality.
The rule of Christ is a present reality.
Remember John the Baptist? What was his message to the people?
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Notice that John did not say the kingdom of heaven was coming, but at hand. There was in some sense a present aspect to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus comes, begins his ministry, and upsets the religious establishment by teaching the true interpretation of the Law. The Jewish leaders considered him blasphemous and put him to death. He rose from the grave three days later and made numerous appearances to his disciples and others.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven he said this in the book of Matthew:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Let me give you a quick grammar lesson. The verb tense is past tense. For us English speakers, verb tenses are pretty simple. We have past, present and future. In Greek it is a little trickier. The verb tense here mean that the action of having been given is already completed, but with continuing effect. It is also passive. This means that the subject, Christ, is not the performer of the action, but the recipient of the action. Jesus did not give himself this authority. He received this authority from the One who can bestow this authority, that is God the Father.
If what John the Baptist said 2000 years ago is true, and the kingdom of heaven was at hand then, and Jesus had already been given all authority on heaven and earth, then today this is a present reality. Jesus is not waiting for this authority. It is already his. This means that Jesus is already king. He is not waiting to become king, he already is king. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey could have been his coronation day, but he knew he was going to be rejected. He knew he would be arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. This is why he came. The sacrifice of Jesus was always necessary, but he is not waiting to be crowned king. He already has that title.
Jesus himself predicted this in Matt 26:64
Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Paul says it in Eph 1:20
which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Again in Col 3:1
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Then the author of Hebrews builds a whole theme around it starting in Heb 1:3
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
And again in Heb 8:1
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
And again in Heb 10:12
but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.
Then again in Heb 12:2
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
All these passages are either quoting from or alluding to Psalm 110:1
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God right now. Not later, when he manifests his kingdom physically, but right now as we live in the already but not yet reality.
Jesus reigns as king today, but his reign is contested.
Jesus reigns as king today, but his reign is contested.
Though Christ is king today, his reign is being contested. Though he is ruler of the nations, the nations are rejecting his rule. We have seen even in our own national history what happens when a nation acknowledges Christ’s right to rule. As checkered as our past is, God has blessed the United States of America. The further we drift from that, the more instability we see and what I believe is the withholding of the blessings of God.
The same can be seen in Israel. They developed an irrigation system that drip feeds plants the exact amount of water needed for them to thrive and now they are the number one exporter of dates in the world. The thing is these massive trees grow in the desert. Their ability to produce crops in the desert is astonishing. They are willing to share their knowledge and resources with the nations surrounding them, but the nations are more interested in exterminating them than forming alliances with them. God withholds blessings from those who refuse to honor him.
Psalm 2 speaks of this:
Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
“But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
‘You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”
Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
One day Jesus will return and establish his kingdom on earth where he will reign over the whole earth. There will not be other nations, there will just be one kingdom. For now, the nations are subject to King Jesus, as all authority has been given to him, but the nations do not acknowledge him as king. This is permitted for now while the Lord works out his plans and sets the stage for the final act. Notice in the beginning there is a recognition of the nations’ resistance to the Lord’s rule, but at the end there is a call for the nations to acknowledge the Lord and worship him. One day everyone will.
Because Jesus is king today, we owe him our allegiance.
Because Jesus is king today, we owe him our allegiance.
The call to follow Christ is a call to come and die to self and pursue Jesus with everything we have. If we go back to the subject of patriotism for a moment, would we say that we are so passionate for our country that we are willing to lay down our lives for our country? There are people that sign up for that all the time. The men who signed our Declaration of Independence were signing their lives away. They were risking it all so that 247 years later we would not live under tyranny, yet it seems today the threat of loss of freedoms is before us again. The disciples of Jesus were willing to go to their deaths to get the life-saving gospel of Jesus Christ to as many as they could. The thing that convinced them more than anything that this was a cause worth dying for was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The early Christians knew the reality of the kingdom of Christ and were willing to pay it all. They were that sure.
We get mad when people don’t recite the pledge of allegiance. We get mad when professional athletes kneel for the national anthem instead of stand. But there are many who are not the least bit concerned when they avoid the Creator of the universe’s phone calls. God is our heavenly Father and every day there is a phone call waiting for you. How long are you going to let God go to voicemail? We recite the pledge of allegiance not as blind obligation or because it is our patriotic duty. We do so because it reminds us of what we stand for.
Stand for Christ’s kingdom with greater zeal than you would stand for the USA.