Behold Your King!

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 31:1-16

Psalm 31:1–16 ESV

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. For I hear the whispering of many— terror on every side!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!

Scripture Reading: Psalm 2:1-6

Psalm 2:1–6 ESV

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

Sermon:

Good morning church. I truly was glad when they said to me. Let us go and worship in the house of the lord.

We got a little Few people, a lot of few people missing this morning, as A lot of the people who went up to the claris conference on Friday stayed up for the final day, which was this morning, But for those of you who are here, we're glad you're here. Glad you would worship hear this morning. One of the preachers when we were up there. I was a little jealous of he was a good preacher with a good style, it seemed to just come naturally to him. One of the things he said, almost every time he would he would start his his sermon by By saying, well what we're going to do today. We're going to read god's word. I'm going to say a prayer, and then we're just going to run to this text. That's actually my goal this morning. I don't say it nearly as eloquently as he would. We'll start by reading our passage. It's a shorter one. We've been spending a lot of time in Matthew. I mean, obviously, this is sermon 91 in this series. Taking various size chunks. This is one of the smaller ones. Only four verses. We're going to read our text. We will pray. And then our goal is to Here and understand. What God would have for us? This morning, Matthew 27. Versus 27 through 32

Matthew 27:27–32 ESV

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open. With a word of prayer.

Our father in heaven. Holy is your name. We do pray that your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Even as we see and read. Here, the ushering in in some ways of this kingdom. In such ignorable ways. Help us to see to behold our king. We thank you. That though there was a high price to pay, it was not one that you would shy away from We thank you. While we were dead in our sin and trespasses, You sent your son. We thank you that we may be made alive together with christ. That is not with our own work, or might or effort, but rather through the perfect work of our perfect savior that we are washed wider than snow. And so we thank you for the precious gift of salvation. For the hope that we have. Help us to see a fresh and a new. With a clear with clear eyes. With an open heart, the work of our savior. This morning to jesus name, we pray. Amen. It's an amen.

And part of the reason this morning, That i wanted to take. A smaller text, a smaller passage here. Is because as we've been taking these larger chunks, we've been spending a lot of time dealing with Theological import dealing with. What does this mean? What is this represent? Who is this? Telling us as we looked to, Jesus, and his trial. Our goal was to see how this told us, who we are. Who jesus is how we interact with those things as we looked at the trial beforehand. Jesus, not defending himself. We're we try to understand these things and sort of larger pictures and larger chunks, but here i wanted to dive in. To some of the nitty gritty. Because here today, Though we've spent 91 weeks in matthew. We're no longer approaching the cross. We're no longer running towards the cross, where no longer Seeing that on the horizon. That's no longer the specter. That hangs over matthew. As we read in verse 32, we're here. Simon. The Cyrene is compelled to carry the cross. It's no longer what may happen, the reality has arrived. And so this morning doing something a little different, i'd like to just Just sit in the shadow of the cross for a little while.

It's not easy. It's not always pleasant. This isn't a Place that naturally we would want to spend a lot of time. I was talking on Thursday at grace's group for me personally. Taking this slow, walk through the passion narrative has been helpful. Because there's a personal and temptations, maybe not the right word, a personal sort of thought that goes on is, we're reading these passages. This isn't what we want to read. We want to get past this because we all know what's going to happen at the end of the story. He doesn't stay on the cross. He's put in the tomb for three days, but doesn't stay in the tomb. For after three days, he arises in glorious victory, we tend to run to and rush to that. And that's good and right. We should run to the power of the resurrection for, that's what it works in us. Making us alive, but it's also good. To, as we titled this sermon this morning, behold your king. Here not in his glory. But in his shame. In his humiliation. In the mockery. In the pain in the suffering that he endured, that we might be made whole

And so if we were to do this exegetically, And just look at the text here. There's not much. That's being said, besides moving the story to where it will ultimately go. So what is Matthew's point here? Well, first and foremost, it is to show the inhumanity the ig-nobleness and the Unrighteousness of what jesus would endure. Part of what Matthew is doing here is moving jesus. Geographically literally from the governor's headquarters to the cross of Calvary. But part of what he does here. With beautiful irony and beautiful. A beautiful twist of what's going on here. Is showing us the heart. Of our king. And so the first thing i think we need to do this morning. Is acknowledge. The king.

ACKNOWLEDGE the King

In truth. This is what the soldiers do. though They don't know This is what they're doing. Just like we looked at last week. With the people said. His blood be upon us, they unknowingly said, their only hope. here too. These centurion soldiers. Are to be. Shown against. The one who will speak last in our passage, in the crucifixion of jesus. We'll get to him in a couple weeks. But the goal of Matthew here is to paint a picture here. This battalion of soldiers gathering around. Jesus mocking him spitting on him. Pushing a bloody crown of thorns upon his head, hitting him on this head with the crown of thorns with a reed. Give him to mock him, they are still here. Unbeknownst to them acknowledging the king. Later in Matthew there will be one solider, saying again the words of Peter, surely this was the Son of God!.

But here: Matthew. Chapter 7, verse 29. Kneeling before him, they mocked him. Saying, hail King of the jews. What they don't know Is the truth of what they say. What they don't know at this moment is they are saying words that they will once again say They've gotten a bit of a head start. They're kneeling before him. They're saying here's the king. One day. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord. We must acknowledge the king. But what we must see here. Is what the king would endure to save his people.

Just last night. I Came home. A little bit late. Willow was still awake? Desiree was tired after all day of watching, willow and so i i read willow her good night story. We've been working through and goes along with what we're doing on Sunday nights with the kids, the biggest story. And she kept telling me because her Desiree had been reading this too. About the crowd of thorns. With the porkies. We pushed it on his head. Even willow's mind, she knew what was happening here. What? I don't think she understands. She's four. Is the raw brutality of this? Didn't hurt like a thorn. It's a long jagged thorns. Piercing his flesh cutting down, probably to the bones. As they push this on his head, blood would pour down. Anyone who's gotten any sort of head wounds know those bleed more, we have more blood vessels there. The blood would ply rushing down into his eyes. And if it wasn't enough, just to have the the crown placed upon him, We're beating him. With a read. On that same head.

But still They still spoke the truth. And there then is the real truth, and here is what we need to hear here: That's my king. To acknowledge the king. Is to identify with him. Even here. My king. Suffered. And endured. The one who rules my life? Endured this For me. The one who faced this pain. This shame. This humiliation. That's my king. Say what you want about him. Hate them all you want, he's my king. That's what it means to acknowledge the king, you may mock him and say mockingly hail king in the jews. I will Acknowledge and worship him and say hail the high king of heaven and lord of my life! This leads me to my next point. We are. To praise. The king.

PRAISE the King

As we move here from acknowledging to praising this, this twist should be very familiar to us in Matthew. Matthew has been through the whole book of Matthew getting us to see. The difference between the crowd and the disciple. The difference between standing in wonder and bowing in worship. the difference between being amazed. And offering him all glory honor and praise.

We saw it in at the end of the sermon on the Mount way back in matthew, chapter 8. With the people were amazed for, he didn't speak like one of their scribes, but rather with authority. But they still need to follow them. We saw it in Matthew 16. In peters confession of the christ, other people saw me thought, he's a great prophet. He's a great man of god, only peter saw and knew he's the christ. The son of the living, god, Even last week as he's brought before pilot, we saw Pilot was amazed. This man won't defend himself. He stands up against these Unjust accusations and he won't even defend himself. He was amazed, he still killed him. Even as these soldiers acknowledge though, they do it in a mocking way. Who jesus is. It's not enough. You must praise The king.

And we who are saved by the precious blood of jesus, we praise him, ever more fervently for this is what purchased our salvation. It's this that he would endure that he would shed his blood that we might be washed cleen. So we praise him all the more. We bow in adoration to our king. We kneel before him. Holy holy, is he. We've gone here before we'll go here again. Revelation chapter 5.

In the throne room of heaven. Jesus. It's given the scroll. And all of a sudden,

Revelation 5:8 ESV

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

So here we have the throne of heaven. With the four, the four living creatures from the four directions, north south east and west. We have the 24 elders, praising him and in their praise is the prayers of all the saints. And here is the song that is sung for all time forever in eternity. In heaven to our king:

Revelation 5:9–10 (ESV)

And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

for [because! since! FOR] you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation,

and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

and they shall reign on the earth.”

all praise and glory and honor to him. So we have to see him. Here. We must be hold our king. Even in this moment for this moment is all part of what purchases are salvation. Here. At the cross. As the crown of thorns is placed on his head, the blood is spilled by which we are washed clean, praise to The king.

Though they mock him, though. They seek to humiliate him, though. They seek to strip away. Even his humanity with these undignified actions. Praise. To the king. Here. Not even in the shadow of the cross... but Here at the foot of the cross. Praise. To the king.

This weekend. Was listening to tom shriner. Talk about the beauty of the cross. And he said, the beauty of the cross is this. This is where god's love and his wrath. They meet, it's where his mercy and his justice, they meet. Here at the cross. And so, as we read this, And we see this man simon the cyrene carrying the cross. As we get next week and we see him there hanging on the cross, Praise the king.

But i'd like this morning to end with a bit of an application. Though, in all honesty, praise the king, couldn't get much better application than that, we can push it a little more. We're also called. To imitate.

IMITATE the king

Okay. It was Martin Luther. Well i don't know if he first said it ever. Sort of published it. And first place, i read it. That looks to verse 32. To a man of cyrene Simon. By name. And they compel this man. To carry the cross of jesus. Is Martin Luther who said: this is us. This is our call too. Part of the reason. We must see the suffering of jesus. It's because we're called to imitate him. We're not called. To live this life of. Rainbows and bubble gum. We're not called to live this sort of Pollyanna life, skipping through to all of the great, wonderful happy times.

Were called. To endure. We may be called. To suffer. We are called. By our savior himself, if any man come after him let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me. That's what we're called. Not ease. Some trial. And some trouble. But how can we endure how? When life is piling on us. When when the days and weeks and months of pain are piling on us over and over again. How do we do it? It's this - We realized we don't do this in our own strength and might we imitate our king.

If jesus could endure this for me. What can i do? In service to him. There's a rather famous quote. Gk chesterton made here is the DAVID version: He says the christian life. Has never been tried and found wanting. Rather, it's been seen as hard. And left, untried.

This is our call. This is our command. We must imitate the king. Like simon this man of cyrene. We must pick up the cross. We are called. To endure much. For the cause of christ. But the hope is the prayer is and we'll talk about this more on thursday. That as we. Imitate the king. It is for first and foremost, his glory. But also, For our good.

And so, here we stand.

As we close this verse of matthew. Our savior. With a crown of thorns on his head. After being mocked, spit on beat struck, with a reed whipped mocked stripped again. Marching to the cross. But we know, This is where we find healing.

Our king. Though, he endured. Is now ruling and raining. we know that though he came here this first time. In the state of humiliation. To suffer. He's coming again. In power and victory. Though here. There's an entire battalion of roman soldiers. Kneeling before him and mocking him. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess. not just some battalion every knee. Ever. Every person, every man woman and child that has ever lived on the face of god's green earth will one day bow before the king. So acknowledge him now. Basking is mercy. It's not enough. Just to give lip service, we must praise the king. Worship him. He is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. To him. Be power and might and blessing forevermore. And then, we must Like, simon the cyrene. Take up our cross. And follow him.

Let's pray.