King or Pawn?

We are in week 3 of our series, “Who is Jesus?”

We’re diving into the life of Jesus and seeing just who he really is.

Week one we asked if he was God or Myth?

We found that based on writings from early historians Jesus was definitely a real person.

The question is he who he said he was?

Is he the Messiah, the Son of the living God?

Last week we asked if he is a friend or foe?

We saw that Jesus truly is a friend of sinners.

That he came to seek and to save the lost.

And we should do the same.

We can’t reach the lost if we avoid them at all costs.

Today we are asking the question: is he a King or Pawn?

How many of you have played chess?

I’ve never played.

When I was a kid my dad said that if we beat him in checkers he would teach us chess but I never beat him and then apparently I got tired of losing and just stopped playing checkers with him.

So I don’t know a lot about chess.

What I do know is it is definitely a thinking game.

Meaning when you play chess you aren’t just thinking about what your next move is.

You’re trying to think of what your next few moves will be or what your opponent will do.

Magnus Carlsen is the current World Chess Champion.

He’s 30 years old but became the youngest GrandMaster in the history of chess at the age of 13.

He has said that it is possible for him to see 15 potentially 20 moves ahead.

He said, “But the trick is evaluating the position at the end of those calculations.”

The trick is he has to figure out what the position of the board is going to be in 15 moves.

What’s the board going to look like?

Think about that from the perspective of the life of a believer.

What if we realized that God sees the next 15 to 20 moves in our lives.

Because right now most people are NEXT MOVE people.

When trouble comes our way, what’s my next move?

When you get that tragic phone call, what’s my next move?

When you lose your job, what’s my next move?

And if we could just remember that there isn’t a move that happens in our life that God didn’t already see coming, we would live with much more peace.

Isaiah 46:8-11 NIV “Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. 9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ 11 From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.”

God knows the end from the beginning.

And he has used leaders and rulers and tragedies throughout the course of history to fulfill His plans.

The story of Jesus’ crucifixion is a great example of that.

During the time of Jesus, Rome was in control of Jerusalem.

But at the same time there were certain people like the Chief Priests and other religious leaders who had a certain amount of power over the Jewish people.

So let’s look at when Jesus was arrested and crucified.

John 18:3 NIV “So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.”

So these soldiers who are Roman soldiers are there to arrest Jesus.

But who sent them?

The chief priests and the Pharisees.

They had the power to arrest Jesus.

It goes on to say that they brought Jesus to Annas who was the father in law of Caiaphas and was at once the Chief Priest.

Even though he wasn’t anymore he was still heavily involved in things and had great influence.

After Jesus meets with him and gets questioned by Annas he gets sent over to Caiaphas who is the High Priest.

This is where they ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus says, I am.

So what do they do next?

They bring him to Pilate, the ROMAN authority.

Because the Jewish leaders can only do so much.

They wanted Jesus dead.

And the Jewish leaders didn’t have the power to do that.

They had to go to the Roman authorities for that.

John 18:29-36 “So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” 30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. 33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” 35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place. 37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.”

You see Jesus is being put in the face of some serious power and authority.

And everyone is asking the question, are you a king?

That’s what people are saying, is it true?

And by the time the Jewish people see Jesus hanging on the cross I’m sure they thought he wasn’t a king.

They must have started to think, clearly he was a pawn just being passed back and forth from the real people in charge like the Jewish leaders and the Roman leaders and it ended up getting him killed.

But looking back we know that he is the true King.

And we see now that theseJewish authorities and Roman authorities were the pawns being played by God to make sure HIS plan and HIS will went forward!

Because if Jesus didn’t go to the cross we could not be saved.

And God used people with bad intentions, wicked people to fulfill His plan.

We think that when bad things happen to us that it’s a shock to God.

Much like it was a shock to many followers of Jesus to see Him on the cross.

That God is scrambling trying to figure out what to do next.

But the truth is God saw your situation 15 moves ago.

God not only saw this coming 15 moves ago, he sees the next 15 moves as well.

It’s our job to trust and obey.

There’s another story in the Old Testament that I think shows how God works through people and difficulties.

In Daniel 3 we see the famous story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

After Babylon had taken over Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar told his Chief Official to find the top men of the Israelites.

Not only in looks but the smartest as well.

Daniel along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were four of the men chosen.

They trained for three years before they could be part of the King's service.

So these three men are working for the King.

One day the King decides to have a massive gold statue of himself made.

When it is done he makes a rule that when you hear the sound of the music playing you are to bow down and worship this image or they will be thrown into a blazing furnace.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not all about that.

Daniel 3:12-15 NIV “But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.” 13 Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, 14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? 15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

Think of the situation these men are in.

They’ve been going about their business, worshiping their God and it hasn’t been a problem.

Because did you notice the king said, not only do you not bow to this idol but you don’t worship our gods either?

So things have been fine for them for a while.

But now they are faced with this very difficult situation.

One that I pray nobody here ever has to face.

The king tells them, YOU WILL bow or you will be burned to death.

For some people this might be an easy choice.

Well I don’t want to die so I guess what’s the harm in bowing to this idol once in a while.

I can still serve God.

But these three men had a different thought in mind.

Daniel 3:16-18 NIV “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.

You see we hear that and think, yeah that’s the kind of faith I’m talking about.

Just believe that God will save you from harm.

Have faith that he won’t let anything bad happen to you.

That’s how we should live.

But what they say next is incredible.

18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Now we look at this story and say yeah they said that but we know how the story ends.

For those of you that don’t know they were thrown into this blazing furnace.

It was so hot that the soldiers that threw them in were killed because they were too close to the heat.

But the Bible says that when they looked into the fire they saw 4 men walking around.

That seemed odd since they only threw 3 in.

Daniel 3:25 “He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

Many people believe it was Jesus himself in that fire.

So they brought the 3 men out of the fire.

Daniel 3:28 “Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”

You see we look back at that story and say yeah but the story ended well for them.

It hasn’t always ended well for me.

But when these three men stood there and said, “But even if he does not... we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

They didn’t know how this was going to end.

They believed God would deliver but they didn’t know.

And they were willing to die for their faith in God.

Most of us would be in that situation and say, “really God? We stand up for you and don’t give in to what the culture around us is doing and now we’re going to die?”

How could you let this happen?

Or we would think that this evil king is going to stop them from fulfilling their destiny.

But the truth is King Nebuchadnezzar was just a pawn for the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

That what looked like a terrible situation for these three men, led to God showing his power and glory to a nation.

And now thousands of years later we are talking about this miracle.

The bottom line is that when tragedy strikes, it never catches God off guard.

He saw this moment before we were even born.

And because he saw this coming, he knows what the next move needs to be.

But we can’t know what that move is unless we keep pressing into him.

This past week within an hour I got a phone call saying that Kim Mullins passed away.

Those of you who came from our Rockford campus may know who that is.

I’ve known that family since we went to Calvary Assembly together.

It was so sad to hear of her passing.

Shortly after that I got word that the former Children’s Pastor from my church in Holland sister passed away.

She went to our church at the time and I had her oldest son in my Jr High youth group.

She was 37 years old and died from Covid.

So within an hour I get this news and just can’t help but think of how these two families have been rocked to the core.

Our friends from Holland had a son who just started his first year in college this fall and then her other son is in 6th grade.

Now they have to go on without their mom.

And it’s hard because we think we are supposed to live forever.

We at least should make it well into our 70’s and 80’s.

But the truth is like I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

We’re not guaranteed tomorrow.

And we look at these tragedies and it’s easy to feel like we lost.

The enemy just came at me and my family and he won.

I didn’t see that move coming.

There’s no way to come back from this and win.

But again we have to understand that this attack of the enemy was a move that God saw coming.

And He knows the next moves you need to make to get through this and ultimately, to win.

Because the enemy may think he’s got you.

That he’s caused enough struggle in your life to cause you to give up on God.

But if you can just continue to trust Him.

To not give up.

God will show you the next move and the next move.

And eventually you’re going to stand before God and He’s going to look at you and say, “well done, good and faithful servant.”

We have to remember that God sees the big picture.

He sees the lives that may be saved because of what you’ve been through.

He sees how your character is going to develop because of what you’ve been through and how that development is going to lead you to fulfill your calling.

We’re not guaranteed to live for 80 years on this earth.

That’s why we need to take advantage of every day we have here and live the life we are called to live.

And when storms and trials come remember that God saw this coming and he’s foreseen the next move for you.

Remember when you are the child of a King, you are never a pawn.

Nothing or nobody can keep you from fulfilling your calling.

Only you can, by giving up on God.

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