A Risen King

Most of y’all know that I don’t cook. In fact, I tried to make scrambled eggs one morning recently, and I remembered that I really have no idea what to do in the kitchen.

The eggs looked dull and tasted even duller. And I was reminded in that moment just how much I appreciate my wife, who normally does all the cooking in our home.

But there WAS that ONE time when I cooked an elaborate dinner for Valentine’s Day one year.

I had found a good dinner menu online. I’d bought all the groceries I’d need to prepare it. And I kept Annette out of the kitchen while I carefully followed the recipes for the different courses.

That night, we had candlelight, our best silverware and table settings, soft music and delicious food. Well, everything was delicious, except for the mustard greens. Turns out, I’m just not a fan.

Nonetheless, Annette was bowled over, both by the extravagance of the meal and by the mere fact that I’d attempted it.

I DO seem to recall that she was less excited about the pile of dirty dishes she could see waiting in the kitchen.

Now, some folks would take the lessons they’d learned from such a situation and commit themselves to learning how to cook WELL.

Not me. I’d hit a home run in my first at-bat, and I saw nothing to be gained by putting my perfect record at risk. So, I’ve been trading on the extravagance of that one meal for the past 20 years or so.

One of the morals of that story is that you might want to think twice about asking me for marital advice.

But the thing I want you thinking about as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, this morning is the idea of extravagance.

Have you ever received an extravagant gift? What I’d like to suggest to you this morning is that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ nearly 2,000 years ago represents the most extravagant gift in history.

A king — indeed, the King of kings and Lord of lords — gave His very life to save His subjects. And His kingdom was founded upon His resurrection.

Jesus Himself had talked a great deal about the kingdom of God. Indeed, it was one of His favorite topics during His three-year ministry on earth.

The Gospel of Mark, which is unique among the Gospel accounts in that it starts without an introduction, gets to the matter right off the bat.

Mark begins his Gospel account with these words:

Mark 1:1 NASB95

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Now, there’s a lot of information about Jesus packed into this short sentence.

He is JESUS, the Aramaic version of the Hebrew name, Joshua, which means God is Salvation.

He is Jesus CHRIST. The promised Messiah. The anointed one. The one whom the prophets of the Old Testament had said would be sent by God to save mankind from its sins.

He is the eternal Son of God. The Apostle John described Him as the Word of God and said that He’d been with God in the beginning and that all things were created through Him.

He is the one we read about in the second Psalm, where the Holy Spirit gives the psalmist the very words of Jesus, who says there:

Psalm 2:7–8 NASB95

7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

God had declared that Jesus was his unique and special and eternal Son. And, as this prophetic Psalm looks ahead in time to the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after His crucifixion, the psalmist also looks forward to the giving of the nations to Jesus as an inheritance.

By virtue of the power of His resurrection and God’s love for Him, Jesus WILL be king over the nations.

In fact, that’s what Mark announces in the verse we looked at a minute ago. He says this account is the “beginning of the gospel.”

That word that’s translated as “gospel” here means “good news.” But the Greek word there is a secular one and not a religious one.

In every non-biblical appearance of this word from the time, it refers to the announcement of a new king or of a great military victory.

So, Mark’s very brief introduction tells us that salvation comes from God, that Jesus is the one through whom God will bring salvation for mankind, that He is the unique and eternal Son of God — equal in the trinity to God Himself — and that Jesus has come as King.

And in verse 15 of this chapter, we see Jesus — this new king — announcing the establishment of His kingdom.

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

The kingdom of God is at hand. It’s here, right in front of you, Jesus says, because He is the manifestation of God’s kingdom.

And the appropriate response to this revelation, Jesus says, is to repent of your sins and believe that God sent Him to establish a kingdom on earth that’s like God’s kingdom in heaven — a place where God’s will is done in perfect obedience and faith.

But what IS the kingdom of God? And how does all this connect to the resurrection we celebrate today?

To help you to understand, I want to take you all the way back to the beginning, to the Book of Genesis. We’ll see what the account from the Garden of Eden can reveal to us about the kingdom of God.

We’ll see what part mankind was supposed to play in that kingdom. Then, we’ll follow the kingdom thread through the Old Testament and the Gospels to see mankind’s repeated failure to do what we were made to do.

We’ll rest for a moment in the extravagance of God’s solution to the problem. And then we’ll see the prophetic description of the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.

By the time we’re done, I hope you’ll see what an extravagantly gracious gift we’re celebrating today.

So, back to the beginning.

In the creation account of Genesis, chapter 1, we read that God created man and woman “in His own image.”

Now, God is spirit, so this doesn’t mean we were created to look like God. What the text is telling us is that we were created to reflect the character of God.

As the creator of everything, God is sovereign over it all, and it all belongs to Him. He rules over His universe.

But He placed Adam and Eve in the garden — this place of perfect contentment and peace —so they could be His representatives here on earth. They would be His regents, ruling in His name and in His image over the earth He’d created. We see this in verse 28 of chapter 1.

Genesis 1:28 NASB95

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God told Adam and Eve to populate the earth and to subdue it — to bring it under subjection. They were to extend the goodness of the Garden of Eden throughout the earth, ruling over creation in the goodness and righteousness of the God whose character they shared.

What we see in the Garden of Eden — at least, before the sin of Adam and Eve — is the kingdom of God manifested on earth. So, what do we know about it?

We know it was good. Everything God created, He declared to be good. We know it was righteous. There was nothing evil there until Adam and Eve introduced sin into the world by disobeying God.

We know it was in accordance with God’s will. The very laws of nature itself bent themselves to the will of God when He spoke.

We know it was a place of perfect peace. Only the sin of mankind brought division and violence and anger and hatred into the world.

We know it was the place of God’s presence here on earth, and He had fellowship there with Adam and Eve. Only after they’d sinned against Him were they exiled from His presence and the fellowship with God for which they were created was cut off.

And finally, we know it was a place of LIFE. Only after Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil did death enter the world.

But once it did, everything was broken.

By yielding to the serpent’s temptation to disobey God, Adam and Eve had cast their lot with the Satan.

Instead of serving God, they were serving the devil. Instead of ruling the earth in the name of God, they had made SATAN the ruler of this world.

God’s kingdom was now divided and under attack, and the humans God had created to be vice-regents of His kingdom were now exiled, separated from God because they lacked faith that He is good.

And that would have been the end of the story for Adam and Eve and for all humanity, but for the extravagant grace of God.

Even after they’d sinned against Him, God loved Adam and Eve, and He loved all those who would descend from them.

And so, in Genesis 3:15, He makes a promise to them — and to us — that HE will send a redeemer, one who would break the curse of sin and death, one who would crush Satan and put an end to his illegitimate reign over the earth.

And the rest of the Bible is God’s account of His work toward that end — first through the patriarchs of the Book of Genesis, then through the people of Israel, and later through the priest and kings of Israel.

But the people of Israel, along with their priests and their kings, all failed in their task to restore the kingdom of God on earth.

And they failed for the same reason that Adam and Eve had failed: They didn’t place their faith in the goodness of God, but instead turned after the false gods of their time and place.

God had promised Abraham that his descendants would make up a great nation. Later, He would say that they were a kingdom of priests.

In other words, it would be their job to demonstrate the goodness of God and to draw others to a relationship of blessing with Him. Here’s how God puts it in Genesis, chapter 12.

Genesis 12:1–3 NASB95

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Here, God calls Abraham to have faith that He would provide the aging man and his wife with an heir and that He would grow that family into a great nation that would occupy the land of promise and bless the world from there.

But Genesis ends with Abraham’s descendents enslaved in Egypt, because they lacked faith that He would provide for their needs during a time of famine.

And then, 400 years later, God sent Moses to perform a series of miracles in Egypt to demonstrate that God is sovereign over nature and all mankind and to rescue His chosen people, Israel, from their bondage.

And as they set out into the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, the people of Israel — God’s nation of priests — found themselves at the base of Mt. Sinai, waiting to meet God.

But when He appeared, they were terrified and begged Moses to meet God on their behalf. They didn’t want to hear from God themselves, because they thought they might die. In their terror, the people demonstrated that they didn’t trust in God’s goodness.

And so, God gave them priests who would mediate between Himself and His people. But right from the start, even the priests showed that they wouldn’t do God’s will.

And the people whom the priests had failed to draw into a relationship of faith in God continued to fall farther from Him, until one day, they demanded a king.

Which was a significant poke in the eye of the God who had created this nation and therefore held the rightful place of King over them.

We see this in 1 Samuel, chapter 8, where God speaks to the prophet Samuel after hearing that the people have demanded a king like those of the other nations.

1 Samuel 8:7–8 NASB95

7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 8 “Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.

And the sad history of Old Testament Israel demonstrates what a terrible choice the people had made. Violence, murder, famine, and war would be the hallmarks of the Kingdom of Israel.

Instead of ushering in God’s righteous kingdom of peace, they had turned to the same sins and the same false gods of the people God had sent them INTO the Promised Land to judge.

And that, in a nutshell, is the story of the Old Testament, except for the prophets.

For the sake of today’s message, I want to note just one of the kingdom prophecies of the Old Testament, this one from Samuel to King David after David had said he wanted to build a house for God to replace the tent in which God’s presence had remained in Israel.

We see this in 2 Samuel, chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7:12–13 NASB95

12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Now, David’s son, Solomon, became king over Israel after the death of his father. But Solomon died, and the Bible records his death. So, this prophecy can’t be about Solomon. And all the other kings of Israel died, as well, so it can’t be about them.

Instead, what we see in these verses is an extension of God’s promise all the way back in Genesis, chapter 3.

This king would be a descendant of David, but He will never be deposed, because He will rule in the very name of God. He will do what mankind has failed to do — reflect God’s character in righteousness and love, grace and mercy, justice and forgiveness. He will crush Satan under His heel.

And so, as we leave the Old Testament, we find ourselves in much the same place as the people of Israel at that time: waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled.

And the first words we hear Jesus speak in Mark, the earliest of the four gospels, are these:

Mark 1:15 NASB95

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

And I want to tell you this morning that this is a radically extravagant pronouncement.

Think about it: Jesus, the unique and eternal Son of God, the one through whom all things were made, gave up His glory — the rights and privileges that were His in heaven — to come and live among us as a man, except without sin.

Jesus, the Prince of heaven, to whom His Father had pledged His kingdom, came not as a king demanding loyalty, but as a lowly carpenter preaching repentance and faith.

He who has every right to BE served came to serve US. He spent His time with sinners and outcasts, not with the religious leaders and influencers of society. He healed them and fed them and washed their feet.

He who is perfectly holy and righteous set Himself right in the midst of humanity’s filth and decay and said, “Follow me. There is a better way.”

He preached extensively about the kingdom of God. He taught that the only way to be part of it is through faith in Him and in His righteousness. Which is essentially the same message preached in the Old Testament.

But the religious leaders in Jerusalem at the time were unwilling to receive this message, and they rejected Jesus as their Messiah and King, just as they’d rejected God as their king during the time of the prophet Samuel.

So, they killed Him. They brought up false charges against Jesus and demanded that the weak Roman ruler in Jerusalem crucify Him.

But Jesus wasn’t dragged to the cross, kicking and screaming. In fact, this was always God’s plan to redeem fallen mankind.

At the cross, Jesus would offer Himself as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for mankind’s sins so that all who put their faith in Him and in His sacrifice on their behalf could be saved and have eternal life — life the way it was always intended, in the presence of and in fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Radical extravagance? YES!

Think about it: The creator of everything, who is sovereign over it all and over US all, suffered and bled and died on a cross to pay the penalty we all owe for our rebellion against HIM. Jesus died for the very sins of those who nailed Him to that cross.

And if that had been the end of the story, then we might be talking about the kingdom of HEAVEN this morning, but there’d be no place on earth for the kingdom of GOD.

Praise the Lord, though, the story of Jesus doesn’t end at the cross, because on the third day, God raised Him up from the dead.

And this, too, is radical extravagance. The radical extravagance of God’s eternal love for His son. The even more radical extravagance of God’s promise to love those who place their faith in Jesus JUST AS HE LOVES JESUS!

The radical extravagance of forgiveness of sins. The radical extravagance of the promise that all who turn to Jesus in faith will receive God Himself — in the person of His Holy Spirit — within themselves.

The radically extravagant promise that we who follow Jesus will be raised from the dead, just as He was.

And now, with Jesus having ascended back into heaven, Jesus-followers from all times and all places have been given the same marching orders that Adam and Eve received, that the Patriarchs received, that the people and then the kings of Israel received: Display God’s kingdom — His righteousness, His justice, His grace, His mercy — to the world so that others might come to a saving knowledge of Him.

Today, the Church is the visible manifestation of the kingdom of God. Sometimes, we do that well. Far too often, though, we do it just as badly as all those people in the Old Testament.

But Jesus said not even the gates of Hell would be able to stand against the Church’s work.

And God isn’t through with radical extravagance.

In the end, after the failures of Adam and Eve, of the Patriarchs, of Israel and its kings, and even of the church — in the end, the kingdom that Jesus established, He will inaugurate.

He will return one day as conquering King, riding a white horse, and He will vanquish His enemies. Death and sin, and all those who rejected Him and His free gift of salvation through faith, will be cast into Hell, along with Satan and his demons.

And then, He’ll do something truly extravagant. We read about this in the 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation.

Revelation 21:1–5 NASB95

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” 5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

What an extravagantly glorious promise this is! He will be our God, and we will be His people. He will be our KING, and we will be His subjects.

Finally, we will be who we were made to be. Finally, we will have unbroken fellowship with God. Finally, we will be in the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Finally, the kingdom of God will be on earth as it is in heaven.

The kingdom of God is at hand. There is only one appropriate response to this news: Repent and believe. Turn from your sins and turn TO Jesus Christ, the one whose sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection provide the ONLY way for you to be reconciled to God.

Jesus is God’s radically extravagant gift to mankind. Will you accept that gift today? Come and talk with me during this next song, and let me tell you more about our risen King!