Christ, The Coming King
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Introduction
Introduction
The people of Israel were seeking a coming king, and many put their hopes on this itinerant, preaching, miracle worker who had been traveling about the Judean countryside with a band of Galileans. The Jew’s were searching for the promised king that was prophesied in their Bible - Hebrew Bible - our OT.
Is this the promised king? Is this the king who will rescue us from the hands of our oppressors, the Roman empire.
We know how the story ends. In five days Jesus will go to trial, he will be wrongly accused and an innocent man - the only innocent man will be crucified, and in three days he will be resurrected from the dead, reveal himself to hundreds of witnesses, and then ascend to heaven where he now sits at the right hand of the Father. He is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
How about you? Do we recognize Christ as your King?
That’s what I’d like to explore this morning. What does it mean to call Christ your King?
But first, I’d like to pray...
Drawing Near to Jerusalem
Drawing Near to Jerusalem
3 to 3 1/2 years walking or travelling by boat around the Judean countryside:
talking to people, preaching, teaching, correcting, healing, raising people from the dead.
Yet his whole life of ministry has been marching towards this moment in time.
The most significant point in all of history
He has set his face “like a flint” towards the city of Jerusalem.
Foretells of his death and resurrection Matthew 20:17-19
And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Passover Pilgrimage: One f three annual pilgrimage feasts that required Jewish men to travel to Jerusalem
Population increase: 30 k to about 180 k
People would lodge in the city, or they would camp outside the city [21:17]
Economic boom: accommodation, food, supplies
People would congregate in the temple courtyard (33 acres)
Passover: OT commandment
Reminder of God passing over the Israelite homes during the tenth plague
They were to sacrifice a spotless lamb and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts and lintel
Passover was to retell the story of how God rescued them from Egypt
Remind Israel of their dependence on God for salvation
Pointing forward to Jesus, our passover lamb
This the setting in which Jesus and his disciples arrive at the city of Jerusalem.
The Triumphal Entry
The Triumphal Entry
Jesus sends disciples to get a donkey and her colt [21:2-3]
This was to fulfill the prophecy [Zechariah 9]
The Coming King of Zion
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The Jewish people were expecting the arrival of the promised King and Matthew includes this comment in his gospel to show that Jesus is indeed the promised king
Matthew’s original readers would have been mostly Jewish people
This whole passage is drenched in OT
Spread their cloaks: 2 Kings 9:13 Jehu is anointed by Elisha to become king and strike down the wicked king Ahab and his wife Jezebel
Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”
Palm branches were cut (John)
Associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, commemorating God’s provision in the wilderness
In the Roman world, they were used to celebrate military triumphs
The use of palm branches was deliberate to emphasize their recognition of Jesus as the coming king
They Jewish people were hoping for Jesus to come and liberate them from Roman oppression
Hosanna: Psalm 118:25-26 Lit. “save we pray”, or “I beg you to save”
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The people were crying out to Jesus, “Save us!” But save them from what?
Son of David: Everyone new that the king would be in the line of David
The prophet: Promised prophet better than Moses Deut 18:15-18
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Jesus is arriving in Jerusalem and is presenting himself as the promised Jewish messiah, the king who will come and save. The people obviously recognize Jesus as the messiah. Jesus has healed the sick, cured the blind, and raised Lazarus from the dead.
They recognize Jesus as king on the Sunday, but five days pass and their king is hanging on a cross. John 19:19-21
Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ”
The city, the disciples would have been in chaos, and we know that they scattered. What happened to the promised king? Was Jesus just a hoax. Humiliated, crucified, stripped, hanging on a cross in public. The crucifixion was meant to be the most humiliating form of public execution. It was designed to be excruciating and humiliating.
And this is the way that God chose to display his love for you.
This is the king you serve - one who gave his life for you.
Jesus Christ, Our Prophet, Priest & King
Jesus Christ, Our Prophet, Priest & King
The church has long identified Jesus as having held three offices, or positions: Prophet, priest, and king.
Three perspectives on what Christ has done for us, or how we might think about Jesus’ relationship to us.
I won’t spend a long time on each:
There were three major offices (positions) that were held among the people of Israel
Prophet: spoke God’s word to the people (Nathan to David, Elijah, Elisha)
Priest: Represented the people before God - sacrifices, prayers, worship on behalf of the people (Aaron (Levitical priesthood), Abiathar 1 Sam 30:7)
King: Ruled over the people as God’s representative (King David, Solomon ((some were good, some were bad))
Jesus fulfills these three offices:
Prophet
Prophet
Jesus as Prophet: He reveals God to us (all the fulness of God dwells in Him) His words and his actions show us who God is. If you want to know God, look to Jesus
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Priest
Priest
Jesus as Priest: He brings us near to God. He enters the eternal, heavenly Holy of Holies
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Jesus as Priest: he offers the final sacrifice
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Jesus alone is uniquely qualified to be our great high priest and represent us before God, because he is both God and man: 1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
King
King
Jesus as King: He rules over the church, and over all of creation.
Jesus didn’t become king on that day - He has always been king!
Present at creation John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
His kingship is not a worldly kingship. It is not granted to him by us: John 18:36
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Jesus was not elected king as if somehow it is put up to a vote. Pilate mocked him - the religious authorities mocked him: “You present this Jesus as king before us - but look what happened to him...”
Jesus is king, whether you recognize it or not: Phil 2:5-11
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Not “some will bow”
Jesus is King - there is no dispute. The question is, do you recognize Him as your king?
He has revealed himself to you - displayed his love for you - so that you would recognize Him as king over your life. He does not desire to force his kingship over your life - but one day all will bow - all mankind will confess that he is Lord. He so desires for you to see him as a loving King, who would give his life for you. Does that look like any ruler you would see in the world right now?
The Bible tells us that we are all slaves to something. Outside of Christ we are slaves to our sin.
Christ rescued us from our sin - just as he rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. He has redeemed you - he has bought you with his own blood. You have been purchased: Eph 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
If we have accepted Christ as our saviour, we accept Christ as our king, that we would submit to his rule over our lives. There is nothing that he cannot ask of us: Rom 6:22-23
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There lies the paradox - in order to be free from our slavery to sin, we become slaves to him who set us free. But now our master is the loving, kind king who serves us. He protects us. He adopts us into his family and calls us one of his own. We share in his Sonship.
How do we respond?
We listen to our saviour king and we desire to obey his commands for us - not in order to earn favour with him. If you have placed your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then you are redeemed. The penalty for your sin has been paid for once and for all. Christ’s last words on the cross were, “It is finished.” Christ has done the work for you. And now he work in you to sanctify you, to move you towards holiness and we yearn to kill the sin that remains in us. Jesus has given us a new heart - one that hates sin and seeks holiness.
Faith leads to salvation that results in works. Salvation is not faith + works. Salvation comes from faith which gives us a sanctified and regenerate heart which produces fruit. Our works are the fruit that naturally flows out of faith. This is the gospel! This is the good news! To say otherwise is to distort the gospel and to preach a false gospel.
This good news should bring amazing joy to you! Buy putting your faith in Christ, by calling him your king of you life, he has set you free from the oppressive weight in thinking that you must save yourself through your own works. What a weight off of your shoulders.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
What a king we have!
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
He is Lord, He is Lord
He has risen from the dead, and He is Lord
Every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord
