Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of
Series: General
Scripture: Matthew 27:11
Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min.
Date: January 25th , 2008
What does it Mean to Say “Christ is King?
Matthew 27:11-14 (NASB)
Now Jesus stood
before the governor, and the governor questioned Him, saying, “Are You the King
of the Jews?” And Jesus said to him, “It is as you
say.”
12 And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He made no
answer.
13 Then Pilate *said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify
against You?”
14 And He did not answer him with regard to even a single charge, so
that the governor was quite amazed.
Introduction I intend for us to spend some time in 2nd
Corinthians but this was a week when a question hit me hard, while thinking
about the events in
Now,
we have some Bible verses related to Jesus, Messiah as King, as follows:
·
Numbers 24:17 (NASB)
17 “I see him, but not now; I
behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth
from Jacob,
And a scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And
tear down all the sons of Sheth.
·
The entire 2nd, 45th,
72nd and 110th Psalms are devoted to predicting that
Messiah will be a king, and what His kingdom will be like.
·
Isaiah 9:6-7
6 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. 7 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 the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
·
Daniel 7:13-14
13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of
Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And
to Him was given dominion,Glory and a kingdom, That
all the peoples, nations, and men of every language Might
serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
·
Micah 5:2
2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of
·
Zechariah 9:9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
·
Luke 1:31-33
31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a
son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 “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; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will
have no end.”
·
Matthew 3:2
2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
·
1st Corinthians 15:27
27 For He has put all
things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are
put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in
subjection to Him.
·
Ephesians 1:20-22
20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from
the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name
that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head
over all things to the church...
·
Ephesians 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this
darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
·
Philippians 2:9-10
9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on
Him the name which is above every name, 10 that
at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
·
Hebrews 1:2
2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
·
Revelation 20:4-6
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment
was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded
because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who
had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon
their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with
Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the
dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the
first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the
one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has
no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him
for a thousand years.[5]
These are
just a few of the many biblical predictions that the Messiah would be a king,
just as Pilate asked Jesus. Messiah
would, in fact, be nothing short of King of the Jews, King of the Christians,
King of the World and King of the whole Universe. That is what He would be, was and will
be.
So if
that is so, what does it mean? We hear
this idea so much we hardly even think about it.
There are at least seven Christ the King high schools all over
the country. Churches are named Christ the King, mostly Catholic but also
Episcopal and Presbyterian.
We sing the idea without even really
thinking about it too much, as in the song Shout to the Lord, “Shout to the
Lord, all the earth let us sing, ‘Power and majesty,’ praise to the King.”
So what
does it really mean, when we say “Christ is King?”
It means
that we believe that He is and will be a King.
He does not and will not set up His reign as a constitutional monarchy with limited and separate powers. It will be an absolute monarchy. He will
possess all authority—and does now—to rule.
I think
if people really knew we think this is true—His future kingdom which will
envelop, govern and permeate all of human life and ALL life, in this current
culture people would think we are nuts.
Where we are living now is so insistent that a pluralism is true—every
religion has a little bit of truth and no one religion has a monopoly on truth
that for US to come along and proclaim Jesus Christ as King, is seen as
preposterous and even dangerous. The only way the world can relate to any sense
of Jesus’ claim on sovereignty or even uniqueness, is to deny it. That’s how we’re perceived by many today—many
in political power, in economic power and in educational power. So it’s a pretty wondrous thing we are
planting our flag on.
In The Chronicles of
Narnia – seven books that I hope all have read –
there are long periods of time when
Aslan, the Lion has not been seen. People almost start to believe he was just a
myth. But some still sport his logo—a lion on a shield in memory of him.
When I
think of our Savior as a King, it is relevant to us in three ways:
FIRST, we know that
His kingdom is already here. In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus was teaching His disciples, Pray,
then, in this way:
‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10
‘Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven. 11
‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive
us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do
not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.]’ We are to pray
that His rule and sovereignty will more and more be recognized and heeded. How often do we pray for that? But it is a basic part of what we should be
focusing on in prayer—not just healing and safety and emotional comfort. In fact, it is the second thing, Jesus
mentions for prayer, after holy is Your name! His kingdom is not just future and
theoretical. We’re supposed to be
praying that it will be NOW, and HERE.
That means that we pray that people—you, me, our families, our church
our town and out country will recognize Jesus as the Sovereign Ruler. We live and make lots of life decisions just
as if He were already physically in charge of our country. That’s hard to imagine, but there are many
choices people make that are more like He’s nowhere near at all and we don’t expect
Him any time soon!
SECOND, it means that I ACT LIKE Jesus
was already on the throne, let’s say in
If Jesus were there would He say, “It’s a natural right for a
woman to be able to choose to abort her unborn baby, even if it is half-born?”
Would He say, “You know, Moses and Paul
were wrong in what they said about homosexuality. I say any form of sexual
orientation is just fine.”
Would He say, “Only the wealthy may send
your children to select and private schools and no one should educate your
children personally—it will always be the responsibility of the state?”
Would He say, “As King I do not care how we
treat the environment. Go ahead and pollute and trash the landscape because I
can remake it just by My Word?” I cannot imagine that He would say any
of these things.
In fact
Jesus DID say some things that hint about what it might be like if He were king,
the kind of thinking that would characterize a “Jesus Administration.” Imagine with me how these words of Jesus
might relate to us if Jesus were actually here:
…Render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. Matthew 22:21 There should be a proper sense of
acknowledgement of the civil authorities and God’s authority. “Caesar” has a realm of authority and God has
the overall authority.
Put your
sword back into its place for all those who take up the sword shall perish by
the sword.
Matthew 26:52 Living by violence
will reap a harvest of violence and bring death, He seems to say. If Jesus were king one wonders if maybe all
arms and weapons would become obsolete and unneeded.
If Jesus were king
now, I think He would be saying to all, Mark 12:28-31
And one of the scribes came and heard
them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What
commandment is the foremost of all?” 29
Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O
THIRD, Christ the
King is relevant to me because I live in light of the reality of His
coming. Just an the occupied citizens of
France and other countries lived during World War II—anxiously awaiting the
Allied liberators, so we live in hope of the coming of the King! We get glimpses of what this will mean in the
Book of Revelation.
‘Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the
Nicolaitans. 16 ‘Repent therefore;
or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the
sword of My mouth. Revelation 2:15-16 This is an interesting warning to the Church
at ancient
‘And I
gave her [the woman Jezebel] time to repent; and she does not want to
repent of her immorality.
22 ‘Behold, I
will cast her upon a bed of sickness,
and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they
repent of her deeds.
23 ‘And I
will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will know that I
am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you
according to your deeds.
Revelation 2:21-23
When Jesus comes there will be no uncertainty about what is right and
what is wrong. Relativism will be judged as evil. He searches the hearts and minds and His
judgment will be crisply fair, according to the choices that people themselves
make.
It is similar to these
great words later in that book: And I saw heaven opened;
and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and
wages war. 12 And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His
head are many diadems; and He
has a name written upon Him
which no one knows except Himself. 13 And He is clothed with a robe dipped in
blood; and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on
white horses. 15 And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the
nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND
LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16 The government of Jesus the Messiah will
only need for Him to speak. Judgment, decisions, policies will all form just
from His Word. That will be enough.
Do you agree with me, that many around
us would maybe not WANT to live under a Jesus administration? There will be mercy and kindness and somehow
I believe access to the King, but there will be pure justice and an unwavering
righteousness. Would you want to live in a time like that?
Many things will change before we get
to that point. The blackness of evil will
grow far blacker than it yet is. The end
times, as Scripture describes them, will even affect the sky. And we shall all be changed before that time
comes. I love His appearing though, as
Paul phrased it, in some of his last words:
in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me,
but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8
[1] Currently, Queen Elizabeth II is also the Sovereign of 15 countries in
the Commonwealth of Nations:
[2]
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page4682.asp
[3]
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775675.html
[4]
http://www.answers.com/topic/absolute-monarchy
[5]
These verses are
cited as related to the