Psalms of Life: Christ the King

Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 10 views

Psalm 148 is a closing praise hymn for the book of Psalms. Within the song is the praise of the exalted one. On Christ the King Sunday we celebrate the exalted one who took the throne in a surprising way. Jesus' kingship compels a certain response from those who claim this faith.

Notes
Transcript

Scripture

Today is Christ the King Sunday as we look to the kingship of Christ. So I want to do something a little out of the ordinary. The Psalm for today is 148 and it is a praise Psalm. It is the whole world praising God. Christ the King Sunday is a day of praise and celebration and acknowledgement of the rule and reign of Christ. Jesus has dominion of all the world....it is through that lens that we can see the praise of want to talk about that through the lectionary text today as well as we consider how it is Jesus became King. Two places today, and
Psalm 148:
Psalm 148:13–14 NIV
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.
Luke 23:33–43 NIV
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Let us pray:

Introduction

Growing up there was this rite of passage at my neighborhood pool....
The King was the one who had all the power and strength
This is the kind of King they were expecting in Israel....Jesus has more power and strength than they could imagine but his Kingship is claimed in a shocking way.

Three Cheers Sneers

In Luke’s account of the crucifixion there is this running theme that Luke uses to show that he is the king. Luke uses irony to paint the picture. He tells of the people mocking Jesus as the King to show that He is the king. Jesus becomes the exalted one in the most upside down way imaginable. Luke shows it by introducing us to the people that are haters, essentially.

The People

First the people have their fun at the cross as they mock this supposed King....
Luke 23:35 NIV
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
He saved others!!!
, A woman busts into a party Jesus is at and anoints his feet....we do not know exactly why she was so thankful for Jesus but Jesus gives us a hint when he says “your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
: Jesus saves a demon possessed man
: The bleeding woman who touched the edge of his cloak…Jesus says your faith has “healed you”, same word…save.
: the young girl was dead....he says she is healed. Saved is the word.
: Heals men with leprosy....and again is it saved them
: Healing and saving the blind beggar
If Jesus has truly saved all of these people as he has claimed to, then why can he not save himself. In one swoop they discredit even the other instances.

The Soldiers

The second sneer comes from the soldiers. First the onlookers and now even closer to the ones around him.
Luke 23:36
Luke 23:36 NIV
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar
Luke 23:
Luke 23:36–37 NIV
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

The Criminals

Then the criminals. Luke gives us this unique interaction with others being crucified next to him.
Luke 23:39 NIV
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
All challenge him….SAVE YOURSELF! The criminal at the end has an additional motive. The irony is that Jesus could save himself…BUT in coming to save others Jesus could not/and would not save himself.
The people, the soldiers, the criminals. Friends as we talk about the kingship of Jesus…even today there will be people that roll their eyes or file this in the back of their mind because to ponder the kingship of Jesus for too long is to put into question every aspect of life. The common population doubted, the soldiers…the ones in charge. This is the powerful ones, politicians, rulers, they doubted and missed it. The lost one, the criminal did as well.

Jesus the King

There is a repetition here that students of scripture call a Chiasm. Chiasm is a pattern. In the middle of these three jeers is a recurring theme. Look at it again verse
· 35…Christ/Messiah
· 36-37…King of the Jews
· 38….King of the Jews
· 39…Christ/Messiah
One commentator writes: “Again, although the reference to Jesus saving activity came in the form of mockery from his opponents, Luke’s readers knew that Jesus is indeed the savior because of Luke’s earlier teaching on the subject. Luke wanted his readers to know that Jesus of Nazareth even in his death, no especially in his death, was the promised Christ, the King of Jews, and the savior of the world.”
Here we find the culmination and fulfillment of scripture. The death of the innocent Jesus. The love of The Humble King…to take on humiliation, mockery, hatred. The love of The Humble King TO STAND IN OUR PLACE.
Look at the end of the text. Luke is the only one to expound on the criminals that are being crucified.
“Aren’t you God?! Save yourself and save us!”
How many times have we done this? Its easy for me to relate to this criminal. The challenge towards God…well save me. Do something.
Then the other criminal says something so profound:
Luke 23:41 NIV
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
(41) “we are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve…But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Luke continues to set up these comparisons. Comparison for this one man to the other criminal and to the dissenters previously mentioned. This one man, maybe for the first time, actually gets it! He is coming to the realization that he deserves the punishment before him.
And it is out of this desperation that he says “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” This guy knows that the “wages of his sin is death….(by the way supreme irony here: the criminal being executed for his crime was infinitely better off than Israel’s high priest, who has just rejected God’s son)…So the guy knows that the “wages of sin is death,” and that he deserves what lies ahead. This is not a bargaining negotiation…this is out of desperation. Jesus remember me…cause I see know that you are the King and you will have a kingdom.
Bob Goff: Comfortable people have all the opinions; desperate people only have Jesus
One criminal has an opinion. Self-righteous, the other criminal knows he is down to one hope.
I think one of the clear indicators of where I am is self-righteousness. Preach this out a little....
I want you to see Jesus’ answer...
Jesus’ answer is beautiful. From the point of total loss. On the cross of defeat…he knows that he is hours or minutes away from the greatest triumph this world has ever seen. TODAY, YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.
Jesus’ answer is beautiful. From the point of total loss. On the cross of defeat…he knows that he is hours or minutes away from the greatest triumph this world has ever seen. TODAY, YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.
Not when you get everything worked out, not when you have come to church a few times, not when you have given X amount of dollars, TODAY. HE SAYS THIS TO A NOBODY. You see friends, the Love of the Humble King is received by the only one that put on humility and saw Jesus.
Luke is telling the story of the King. The exalted one of . The King who took his throne, not by power or force in the way we would think about it, but in death and defeating death itself. He took on all the shame, all the mockery, all the rejection, all the pain, and when he walked out of the grave it changed everything....On Christ the King Sunday, on this day going into advent we must respond to Him...
Matthew Bates puts it this way:  
“Jesus’s reign is a nonnegotiable portion of the good news. First, when the gospel is presented today by a preacher or teacher, most of the time this “Jesus reigns” portion of the gospel is either entirely absent or mentioned as an aside. The cross and resurrection get central billing, but Jesus’s kingship is tucked away offstage. 29 We need to recover Jesus’s kingship as a central, nonnegotiable constituent of the gospel. Jesus’s reign as Lord of heaven and earth fundamentally determines the meaning of “faith” (pistis) as “allegiance” in relation to salvation. Jesus as king is the primary object toward which our saving “faith”—that is, our saving allegiance—is directed. Jesus reigns right now. Second, Jesus’s reign corresponds to the present epoch of world history that we find ourselves in now. The first six stages of the gospel refer to events in the past with respect to Jesus’s life story—for example, he has already taken on human flesh, died for our sins, and been raised from the dead. But if Jesus has been raised from the dead, then where is he now? And what is he doing? It shouldn’t surprise us if the answer proves to be fundamental to all aspects of Christian life today. Jesus is currently the enthroned king, Lord of heaven and earth, and he is actively ruling until, as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians, “he has put all his enemies under his feet” (15: 25). He is also serving in heaven as the great high priest who has offered his own blood as a redemption for our sins, so he is busy interceding on our behalf (; ).”
Matthew Bates / Salvation by Allegiance alone 
Jesus did come to take away the sins of the world....but it is bigger than that. Jesus’ kingship is about kingdom and our citizenship. It is about dominion and our part in it. Too often we have reduced Jesus to simply a tolken of forgiveness or license to be who we want to be.
“Gospels of Sin Management” presume a Christ with no serious work other than redeeming humankind … [and] they foster “vampire Christians,” who only want a little blood for their sins but nothing more to do with Jesus until heaven.”
“What must be emphasized in all of this is the difference between trusting Christ, the real person Jesus, with all that that naturally involves, versus trusting some arrangement for sin-remission set up through him — trusting only his role as guilt remover. These” ― Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited
I love that Christ the King Sunday is the week before advent. It frames the incarnation in a special way for us. Going into the season when we are preparing for the birth…we know that the birth is a king. We have the ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension in mind as we go towards this birth.
is our worship of this exalted one:
Psalm 148 NIV
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created, and he established them for ever and ever— he issued a decree that will never pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and women, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more