The Risen Jesus Is King!

Prayer

Two Responses

You may have seen this cross, this is cross that is often used in the Eastern Orthodox tradition of the Christian church. You may be wondering why it has these extra beams, including a slanted one. The extra beam at the top represents the sign that was affixed to the top of Jesus’ cross, the one declaring who he was, and his crime. It read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

But it’s the slanted beam I want to call your attention to this morning. This beam is there to signify the two criminals who were crucified on either side of Jesus. The slant represents the directions they were headed - the one pointing downwards is the criminal who continued to mock Jesus, rejecting him, he indicating that he would not be joining Jesus in heaven.

The upward side is the criminal on the other side, who really does something remarkable. I want to take a minute to call your attention to it. Luke 23:39-43 - One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

So, the first criminal, the one headed to hell, hanging on the cross, hurling insults at Jesus. Which makes you just kind of say, really? This is how you want to spend your last hours on earth - mocking someone else facing the same doom you are? Says a lot about human nature.

But the second one, he’s been seeing something in Jesus that has spurred a very different response. He rebukes the first criminal - hey, listen up, we’ve messed up, we deserve this - but this guy, this guy is innocent, he got railroaded. But then this, this is the really remarkable part...”Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Think about this, how ridiculous his statement seems to be. He’s talking to a man who, like him, is at that very moment nailed to a cross, who’s being executed as a criminal by Roman soldiers - who, by the way, are so confident this guy will be dead soon they are divvying up his last few belongings, the clothes that he, until a couple of hours ago, was wearing. The crowds below are mocking him as he hangs there. The majority of his followers have disappeared, there’s just a handful of them left. He is hours away from death.

And it’s to this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, that this criminal says, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He believes Jesus is indeed the king, and he wants to be a part of his kingdom. Please don’t forget me.

You might just say, he’s desperate, what does he have to lose? He’ll be dead soon himself. But still, as desperate as you may be, why would you put your faith in the most unlikely of people in that moment, a man hanging on a cross. To declare to him, I trust and believe you really are a King, and I give my loyalty to you.

Jesus responds, I will remember you. In fact, I promise you that this very day you will join me in paradise. You’ll join me in full forever life, more glorious than you could ever imagine. I’m betting the thief on the other side was rolling his eyes at that moment - there’s a couple of delusional fools. Just another excuse for the crowds below to mock Jesus - yeah, what kind of paradise is that going to be?!

I don’t know what that criminal saw in Jesus in that moment, but it was enough for him to take a chance, to entrust his life into Jesus’ hands, acknowledging that Jesus is Lord, that he is the King. It’s an incredible act of faith.

But what I do know is that two thousand years later, we can trust that Jesus kept his promise. That man who hung next to Jesus on the cross did indeed go upward - is indeed in paradise. He is with Jesus in heaven.

That same promise Jesus made to that man holds true for us today - we can trust that for the same reason we can know that man is with Jesus in paradise - and it’s because of what we celebrate today here on Easter Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that Jesus of Nazareth did die on that Friday afternoon after hanging on a cross for six hours. The Gospel of John tells us that the Roman soldiers confirmed he was dead by piercing his side with a spear, causing blood and water to pour out. His body was taken down, wrapped up in linen, and placed in the tomb of a wealthy man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea. That tomb was sealed with a large stone and Roman guards posted to ensure no one could steal the body.

Yet, on the third day, early Sunday morning, after the Sabbath had ended, several women, followers of Jesus, went to the tomb to finish the traditional preparations for the body of the deceased. What they discovered, much to their surprise, was that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty.

Jesus had risen from the dead. He appeared to Mary Magdalene, and later to the eleven disciples, and over the following forty day, before he ascended into heaven, he appeared to his followers numerous times - including, as 1 Corinthians 15 tells us, 500 at one time. Hundreds of people witnessed the resurrected Jesus. This is what the Bible, the New Testament, is all about - telling the story of those first followers and what they witnessed about Jesus.

I want to take a few minutes this morning to talk about why this is so significant - why this is our big day. Why this is the day that believers all over the world gather together to rejoice, to celebrate.

The Kingdom’s Firstfruit

Throughout Lent we’ve been talking about the Kingdom of God, about God’s Magnificent Kingdom, in all of its Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Our theme verse has been Matthew 4:17, From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This was Jesus’ main message, that God’s reign, his rule, as King, has now come near - it’s right here in front of you. Right here, right now.

Appropriate response is to repent. To do a complete turnaround of your life. We’ve talked about repentance being wholehearted, involving every aspect of who you are - repentance of mind, your whole worldview, repentance of soul, your affections, your desires, your passions, and repentance of the will, surrender your will to Jesus, to the King. Live in obedience to him - otherwise, he’s not really your king, is he? You’re still making yourself the king of your life.

Repentance is no small thing - it is meant to be, quite literally, life transforming. That’s what the word means, metanoia, transformation. But it is, as that criminal hanging next to Jesus (second one, not the first), though he was in a seemingly hopeless situation (in the midst of being put to death), as he discovered, it’s absolutely worth it. To repent, to give up the whole of your life over to Jesus, is the way to life itself. There is no other. He is the true King. He is the one who can not just promise - but provide - paradise.

This is what the resurrection of Jesus guarantees - it is the victory that assures us of ultimate victory. 1 Corinthians 15:20-26...But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

In this passage, Paul is making the case that Jesus actually did rise physically from the dead. He describes him, catch this, as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Those who have fallen asleep refers to those believers who have died. But his point is to say that the fact that Jesus rose again to new life is guarantee that we, too, will share in that resurrection life. When that first fruit appears on the tree, it is a sign of the coming harvest, more fruit will follow.

He compares Jesus to Adam, just in the same way that we share in death because of Adam - we share in his sin, we share in death as well. In the same way, those who are in Christ will share in his new life, we will be made alive. First, Jesus, then those who belong to him.

Jesus is our sign, our assurance that we can know the gift of eternal life. Not in and of ourselves, we have no power over sin and death, but only in Christ, in him. This all happens as we, like the criminal on the cross, embrace him as king. As our king.

And King he is. This is what Paul is making clear here - That Jesus has been made King of all because of his obedience to the Father. This is what Paul teaches us in Philippians 2, that Jesus humbled himself, he emptied himself, becoming a servant, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Because of this, God has given him the name above every other name, Philippians 2:9-11...Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is exalted to the highest place - that’s THE KING! Name above every other - name at which you should bow down, prostrate yourself - every knee should bow, doesn’t matter if you’re up in heaven, here on earth, or below. And profess, with your tongue, acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, he is King. This glorifies the Father. He has exalted Jesus as King.

And Paul is making clear here in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus’ reign will be complete. Everything - every other dominion, every other authority, every other power - he will destroy. Nothing will be able to stand against him. This is the Kingdom of God - everything under the rule and reign of God. Everything and everyone will be under his feet. That includes the great enemy of us all, the enemy that none of us could ever begin to defeat - that is, until Jesus defeated it. Death itself.

And I want to invite us to think for a few moments about what this means, what does it matter that Jesus will reign over everything and everyone. All of it, under his feet - including death itself.

In order to do that, we have to go back to the beginning, to see what God intended for us at the very beginning, when he created us, male and female, in his image. If you go back to Genesis 1, what you’ll see clearly is that God gave us agency. A will to enact. In a sense, our own rule and reign - we have, as Dallas Willard says, dominion over a limited sphere, say-so over our own lives, as least as adults. If you’re a parent, you have dominion over your children. We all have different areas where we have the authority and the responsibility. Essential to being a human. Why slavery is such a great evil, it denies that to people. God gave us dominion over his creation, the earth. But here’s the essential aspect - it only works when we align our will with God’s will. Willard, again - “We are meant to exercise our “rule” only in union with God, as he acts with us.” Our lives were always meant to be lived out in loving relationship with God, and with one another.

We haven’t done very well with that, as should be pretty evident. And if you just think about it for a moment, the center of all human conflict, on every level - the personal, the social, the political - is a clash of wills. I want you to think a different way. I want your behavior to be different. That’s true in our family relationships - between spouses, between parents & children (just think for a moment about the last fight you had in your family). I do a little substitute teaching each week - I want the kids to do their work. Some of them don’t want to. That causes a clash.

People want what others have - so they get jealous. Or resort to stealing. We’ve had verbal fights in at our neighborhood association over whether or not to put speed bumps in. I love this quote from Willard, it captures it so well: “we presume to rule others - in opinion and word, if not in deed.

That’s more on the personal and social level - but consider the clash of wills on political level. The deep political divide in our nation that’s been particularly acrimonious for the last eight years. We have a clash of ideologies happening right now. Now, we try to resolve it civilly, by debating and voting on those things, but let’s face it, it gets ugly. Or clashes between nations - Russia invaded Ukraine because they wanted to control that nation - that war continues over two years later.

And of course, our wills clash with God’s. We want to live life on our own terms. Some of what God wants us to do, we’re good with, that’s a good way to live life. I want to be a good person. But there’s very much an element - and I feel this deeply, I want the say-so over my life. I want the final say. I want to be able to choose what part of God’s will I’m willing to obey - because there are parts that I’d rather do my way.

And this brings us back to why the resurrection, why Jesus’ victory is so essential. Because he is now indisputably, King. He lived in absolute obedience to the Father - as God intended. It was a costly obedience. It took him to the cross. That was the Father’s will for his Son, that the Son would choose to bear our sins upon him, dying the just penalty we deserved, by enduring the crucifixion. That’s why, as we quoted earlier from Philippians 2, God gave him the name above every other name, the name to which every single knee should bow. That Jesus would be King of all.

Like the two criminals on the crosses on either side of Jesus, we have a choice - we can willingly repent, honor Jesus as King, submitting our wills (our entire wills) to him, entering into his eternal kingdom. Or we can be like the other criminal and choose to live life on our own terms. According to our will. CS Lewis puts it this way, we can either say to Jesus, “Thy will be done.” Or he will honor our desire to live in our own little kingdoms, separate from him, and he says to us, “Thy will be done.” Which is what hell is, our decision to live separate from God.

But I want to take a minute to let you know what this is such good news, everything coming under the feet of the Risen King - because this is the only way life works. This is the way God designed it to work. All of creation, their wills aligned with God’s, living out their purposes, that dominion God has given them. It’s why the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and all of our mind and all of our soul and all of our strength. Our loving God above all else (including ourselves) means that bit by bit, we are integrating our rule with his. We are seeking his Kingdom, his rule, first!

And then, and only then, can we learn to mesh our kingdoms, our rules, with others - so we’re not clashing any more. So we’re not trying to exert our rule over the way they think, their opinions, their behaviors (or they over us!). This is what it means to live out the second great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself.

It’s hard to even begin to imagine what that would look like but if we can even begin to get a picture of it, we can see why this is good news, the Risen Jesus, King over all. I feel like a get a bigger taste of every year when I go to Capernaum summer camp...a taste of the Kingdom, people aligned, all working together for God’s great purposes... Get a taste of it here, too, at church.

And this is God’s great plan - to establish his Kingdom completely. No authority or power or dominion opposing, everything reconciled together through the blood of Jesus Christ. And the great enemy, death, destroyed. My hope and prayer for you today is that you won’t be like that first criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus. But you will be like that second criminal, will say to Jesus, Remember me. I want to be a part of your Kingdom. I repent and chose to bow my knee before you, acknowledging you as my Lord, my King. I do so based on the grace you offer me through your death on the cross. I commit myself to seeking your Kingdom, your rule, first. Thy will be done - in me.

Silent prayer - Continual repentance, give your life to Jesus - Wherever you may be (perhaps you’ve never given your life to Jesus, maybe you’re at a point where you have done that, but you aren’t seeking the kingdom of God first, but for all of us, always, continual repentance…)