India #7 Christology Part 3

April 2024 India  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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INTRODUCTION
Thus far we have looked at Christ from a lot of different perspectives and scriptures.
We have seen Him as the fulfillment of the OT Prophet of Deuteronomy 18.
We have seen Him as the fulfillment of the High Priestly role.
We have looked at Christ as a man, and as God, as the one and only God man.
We have talked about His many roles in salvation.
We have talked about the depths of salvation.
We have talked about so much this week.
Which brings me to the question, why?
Why did God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit do all of this?
Was it for you and me?
No, that would be man centered.
All that our great God does, He does for His own glory.
And I believe we must talk about this, as a lead in for our discussion
All that God does, He does for His glory.
As YHWH is about to describe how He will save Israel in Ezekiel 36, listen to the reason why He shall do so.
Ezekiel 36:22 LSB
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, to which you have come.
YHWH is going to save Israel, not for their sake, but for His holy name.
He goes on to say so that….Ezek 36:23
Ezekiel 36:23 LSB
“I will prove the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am Yahweh,” declares Lord Yahweh, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.
Then the nations will know that I am YHWH.
YHWH will save Israel so that the world will know and honor Him as the only True God.
Isaiah 48:11 LSB
“For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.
Exodus 9:16 LSB
“But, indeed, for this reason I have caused you to stand, in order to show you My power and in order to recount My name through all the earth.
God raised up the nation Israel, delivered them from Egypt, not for their sake, but to make His name great throughout all the earth.
1 Samuel 12:22 LSB
“For Yahweh will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because Yahweh has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.
Do you get the idea, everything that the Lord does, He does for His own glory, including our salvation.
Ephesians 1:5–6 LSB
by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.
God saved you and I for His glory, to the praise of His glorious grace.
Peter echoes this thought in 1 Peter 2:9
1 Peter 2:9 LSB
But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
You were save so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ.
So, let me suggest that all of human history, all of prophecy, all of the Bible, points us to this next thought, it is all about our great King.
Everything ultimately points to Christ the King.
CHRIST THE KING
Revelation 19:16 LSB
And He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
This is how human history as we know it comes to an end with the second coming of Jesus of Nazareth.
All of the Bible points to this moment.
The entire book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ is focused on this one event, the return of the King.
Jesus Christ will return in all His glory, and lays claim to the earth and establishes His earthly kingdom.
Jesus will finally wear His crown, and will reign over the whole of creation.
The God/Man will reign supreme.
This teaches us so much about Jesus, it is almost endless.
First there is the prophetic fulfillment.
In Jesus, many many OT prophecies are fulfilled.
224 direct Messianic prophecies pertain to His second coming when Jesus shall claim His rightful place as king.
Every single book in the Bible touches on the return of Jesus.
1 in 5 verses in the Bible touch on the second coming.
It is the most important event in all of human history.
The King is coming!
Throughout the OT, the theme of kingship comes up again and again.
Even the incarnation has as its ultimate fulfillment, the throne.
Micah 5:2 LSB
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from everlasting, From the ancient days.”
When YHWH told us of the birthplace of Messiah, He made no mention of the cross, but only of the throne.
Messiah will rule.
The Davidic Covenant has this same thought in mind.
2 Samuel 7:16 LSB
“And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
YHWH promised David that David’s throne would endure forever.
Later, Isaiah would clarify how this would be fulfilled, through Messiah.
Isaiah 9:6–7 LSB
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.
The Christ will sit on the throne of David forever, and will rule with justice and righteousness.
The NT makes the same claims.
Luke 1:32–33 LSB
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of His kingdom.”
Jesus Himself would say…. Matt 4:17
Matthew 4:17 LSB
From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The King was in their midst, and the kingdom was at hand.
This is the theme of scripture, Jesus the great King shall reign and rule.
Second, it is God’s kingdom.
This means that the Kingdom over which Christ shall rule is far superior, infinitely superior to any other.
History records that there have been 21 great empires or civilizations that rose to prominence.
But every single one of them passed away with but a whimper.
They just faded away and or were conquered.
But the Kingdom of our great God and Savior will endure.
It is not like other kingdoms, for it’s king is not like other Kings.
You see other kingdoms and kings are sinful, and that is their downfall.
But when Christ reigns, it will be in righteousness.
Proverbs 14:34 LSB
Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.
Nations fail, because they are sinful.
But His Kingdom shall endure because His righteousness will permeate the kingdom.
Because the Kingdom belongs to Christ, it shall endure.
Third, the Kingdom of Christ is also now.
In the Colossians text there was a phrase that I ignored, He is also head of the body, the church.
To be the head over the body is to rule.
The head is king of the body.
When all is working as it should, the head makes a decision, and the body obeys.
Right now, my head is telling my mouth what to say, and out of my mouth comes exactly what the head desires.
So you see, this phrase “head of the church” speaks of Christ the King ruling in His church.
This is why Jesus could proclaim, the kingdom is at hand.
The kingdom of Messiah was a big deal to the Jews and even the disciples.
So much so that the disciples were continually asking Jesus when was He going to establish the kingdom.
Even when Jesus spoke of his own death, they objected, hoping for the kingdom instead.
What they did not understand, is that the kingdom required the cross.
Without the cross, their could be no kingdom.
Without the cross, their could be no subjects in the kingdom.
Without the cross, the kingdom would be without a people.
In part, the kingdom is now, and Christ is on the throne.
This is not the final fulfillment, but a partial one.
Christ rules over His church, through which the principles of the kingdom might be seen,
More importantly, so that the King Himself might be known.
Did you realize, that the Great Commission has Kingdom realities?
Matthew 28:19–20 LSB
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Verse 20, teaching to obey all that I commanded you.
That is kingdom language.
People obey their kings.
The church has one God and King, Jesus Christ, and part of our responsibility is to teach others to obey the King.
This is the spiritual Kingdom of Christ.
It is not visible to the world.
1 John 3:2 LSB
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
The church in her spiritual glory is unknown by the world.
Our great King is not visible to the world.
But He will be.
But this spiritual kingdom is only a partial fulfillment, the fullness comes later.
Fourth, the King will come in judgment.
In many circles today, this is a forgotten reality concerning Jesus.
There are many in my country who no longer believe in hell, they no longer believe in judgment, and they have embraced the lies of a universal salvation.
Friends, when Jesus returns it will be to judge the world.
John 5:26–29 LSB
“For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
Now either Jesus is a liar, or there is a future judgment.
LET ME BE CLEAR, THERE IS A FUTURE JUDGMENT!
In that judgment all the evil doers, all those who have rejected Jesus Christ will be judged.
What kind of King would Jesus be if He left the wicked unpunished?
We rightly understand, that good government protects its citizenry, by maintaining law and order.
To maintain law and order requires that the evil doers be punished.
Matthew 25:31–32 LSB
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. “And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
This speaks of judgment.
The sheep are those who belong to Christ.
The goats are those who have rejected Christ.
Christ will judge who is His and who is not, and separate them, eternally.
Matthew 25:41 LSB
“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
This is what lies in wait for the goats.
Matthew 25:46 LSB
“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Paul affirmed this to Timothy in 2 Tim 4:1
2 Timothy 4:1 LSB
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
The King and the kingdom will be characterized first by His judgement.
The point is this, none shall enter into this Kingdom who are not found in Jesus Christ.
I am a firm believer that this message of judgment is crucial to the gospel.
Jesus warned people of the impending judgment.
John 8:23–24 LSB
And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
It doers not get any clearer than this.
To die in your sins is to perish into an eternal hell where there is great suffering under the wrath of God.
John 3:18–19 LSB
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
Again according to Jesus the lost stand in and under the judgment of God.
The terrible wrath of God.
The apostle Paul supports this doctrine of judgment.
Romans 2:5 LSB
But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
First, there will be a righteous judgment of God upon the unrepentant.
Second, every day, the unrepentant are storing up wrath for themselves in the day of wrath.
With every sin, the lost are adding to their account the wrath of God.
Throughout all eternity, they will suffer according to their deeds, according to the wrath they stored up for themselves.
When the great King returns, it will be to judge the world of sinners.
But the good news of the Bible, the gospel, is that it does not have to be that way.
ATTRIBUTES OF THE KING
You see, first and foremost our great King came to save.
He came to rescue and restore men.
In that one statement we see two great attributes of the King, He is the Redeemer and the Propitiation.
These two great doctrines must be understood in light of one another.
Jesus the King is the Redeemer.
Redemption refers to a slave being bought out of slavery.
Slavery in Israel was different than later slavery.
If a man owed a debt that he could not pay, then he became enslaved to the one he owed until the debt was paid.
But, if my brother was enslaved in this manner, then I could pay the price of redemption and purchase his release.
Redemption then deals with our release, is focused on the subject.
When Adam sinned, the entire human race fell with him, and was enslaved to sin.
In order to be set free from that condition, the price of redemption had to be paid.
Thus Peter reminds us, that we were redeemed not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Son of God our King.
He died that Titus 2:14
Titus 2:14 LSB
who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.
Notice the key thought, He redeemed a people for His own possession.
We like to think that it was all about us.
But the truth is, Christ redeemed a people for Himself, for His own possession.
The Apostle Paul had this thought in mind as he wrote to wives and husbands in Ephesians 5.
The idea presented is that Christ died for His bride, the church, and that He sanctifies His bride the church, so that He might present to Himself a glorious bride.
Ephesians 5:25–27 LSB
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.
Was our salvation only about us?
No, it was more about Jesus the King.
Who was redeeming a bride for Himself.
A bride who would honor, adore, worship and glorify her Groom throughout all eternity.
But the debt was more that just a mark against us, it was also separating us from God.
Which is why Jesus by necessity is also the propitiation.
Propitiation is a little known and understood doctrine.
Propitiation deals with the sacrifice by which the wrath of God against sin is averted.
Redemption deals with man’s need.
Propitiation deals with God’s demands.
The basic reality is this, sin is an affront against a holy God.
All have sinned, therefore all have offended God.
This is why David would say in Psalm 51:3-4
Psalm 51:3–4 LSB
For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And pure when You judge.
All have sinned against God, and God is offended by our sin.
So much so, that God is angry with the sinner every day.
So much does God hate sin that He stores up wrath against the sinner, everyday.
And David knows that YHWH is justified when He speaks and acts against sin.
The truth is, the sinner stands in great peril before an angry and wrathful God.
And if that were the end of the story, it would be devastating.
But, the Father formed the perfect plan.
What most fail to see is the great dilemma within the nature of YHWH.
YHWH is holy and righteous and therefore cannot look upon sin, cannot tolerate sin, and must judge sin.
That does not bode well for the sinner.
In short, God must judge all sin in order to uphold His holy and righteous character.
But at the same time, YHWH is gracious, loving, compassionate and merciful.
He wants to save sinners, it is His nature.
Therein is the great paradox, how does a holy and righteous God who hates sin, save sinners?
The answer is, propitiation.
The plan of God formed in eternity past was for the Son of God to come and die as a penal substitutionary atonement.
Penal in that is met the demands of the law.
Substitutionary is that is was for others.
Atoning in that it covered the sin committed.
That is propitiation.
Because jesus fulfilled the just demands of Holy God and His holy law, that same Holy God was satisfied.
God the Father was well pleased with the life, death, and atonement of His son.
His wrath was turned from man, and upon Jesus.
The Father could not simply declare man righteous, He had to punish sin if He was to protect His great holiness.
Thus in the cross of Christ we see how this was accomplished.
Jesus died in the place of sinners, having become sin on our behalf, and suffered the death that we deserved.
And for that reason, the Father was satisfied.
Justice had been carried out.
Sin had been punished.
The wages of sin had been paid, Jesus died.
The Father was propitiated, and was now free to pour out His grace, love and mercy on all who would believe.
It is an amazing truth, that Christ my King would die for me.
That is not how the world works for sure.
In our world, subjects die for their king.
Nations go to war, and young men die in battle fighting for their king.
But not in Christ’s kingdom.
In that realm, the King died for His subjects.
CONCLUSION
I want to remind you, the Bible speaks far more about Jesus the returning King than Jesus’ first coming.
That does not mean that one is more important than the other.
But it does teach us some essential truths.
First, you cannot have the kingdom without the cross.
This was the great error of the disciples.
They wanted Jesus to simply establish the kingdom on earth right then, and reign supreme.
What they did not realize was their need for a Savior first, before they could enter the kingdom.
Without the cross, their could be no kingdom.
Second, the cross and the Kingdom are forever linked together.
It is not that one is more important than the other.
But that they are forever linked.
Linked because the One who died on that cross is the very One who now sits on the throne.
He not only died, but now He rules.
The Savior is the King.
Third, we are negligent if we fail to make this clear.
That the cross and the throne are related is clearly stated in the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:19–20 LSB
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Make disciples!
The first step in making disciples is evangelism.
Nobody can be a disciple who is not born again.
Evangelism is the means YHWH uses to draw people to Christ and cause them to be born again,
But that is not the end.
Next comes obedience.
The Great Commission is more than evangelism, it is obedience.
Jesus is our King, and He deserves our obedience.
When we teach others to obey Christ, we honor our King.
Again, we saw this in Ephesians 5.
The King redeemed for Himself a bride, and is now purifying her for Himself.
He is sanctifying her, removing all sin and impurities, that He might present to Himself a bride of whom He is worthy.
What does this mean for us as preachers, church planters, and teachers?
Preach the word!
Preach against sin, both to the lost and the saved.
In my country sadly the church is in decline in most places.
The reason is, it is now unpopular to preach against sin.
But friends, if you are to be like Christ in your ministry, then you too must preach against sin.
The first message of Jesus was focused on sin.
Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
if you want to know the King, if you want to enter the Kingdom, then your sin has to be dealt with.
Thankfully Jesus did that already.
Now, men must believe.
They must believe that Jesus is the King who died for them, and why He did so.
How can they understand those great truths if they do not understand their sin?
The answer is they can‘t.
The bottom line, people who do not understand their sin, will never see their need for a Savior, and they will never enter into the kingdom.
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