CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY (John 18:33-37) INTRODUCTION Today is the last Sunday in the Liturgical or church year. A new church year begins next Sunday with the first Sunday of Advent. The church year begins with Advent (the birth of Christ), and ends with Christ the King Sunday. The church year cycles through the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, rule and return of Christ in view. The cycle ends with Christ the King. This is helpful for it keeps the main events in the life of Christ before us each year. In our reading this morning we see Jesus standing before Pilate having been charged by the Jews with his claim to be a king. Pilate wanted to know if it is really true that Jesus is a King. We may also want to know this. Is it really true that Jesus is King? The wise men came looking for... the One who is born king of the Jews. After the feeding of the 5,000 the people wanted to make Jesus King. At the Triumphal entry the people thought He was going to reveal Himself as King. When Jesus was put on a cross a sign in three languages said that his crime was that he was King of the Jews. Jesus will tell Pilate that he was born for this purpose. But He didn t look like a king when he came. He didn t act like a king when he came. How many today see Jesus as a King? What should Jesus being king mean to us? Let s think about it this morning. PILATE QUESTIONS JESUS First let s listen again to Pilate and Jesus exchange. When Pilate summons Jesus to stand before him, his first and only questions was, Are you the King of the Jews? What was Pilate s MOTIVE in asking this question? Was he really interested in coming to know the full truth about Jesus? No, I don t think so. What was he looking for? Probable seeing if he was a threat to the authority of the Roman Empire. Jesus responded by saying, "Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?" Jesus was asking if Pilate came to this conclusion himself. Did Pilate observe in the behavior of Jesus that He was acting like a king? He was asking whether Pilate came up with this charge of being a king from his own observations or did someone else bring this charge against him. We all have our ideas about Jesus, but Jesus wants us to know truth. One day Jesus asked his disciples, Who do people say that I am? Then he asked them, Who do you say that I am? It is important that each one of us know the November 26, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 1
truth about Jesus from our own personal experience, not just what someone else has said about Him. The most important quest today is to find out who exactly Jesus is. Pilate s response confirms that he did not know from his experience about Jesus being a king. Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?" JESUS TESTIFIES THAT HE IS KING When Jesus began speaking aobut his kingdom that it is not of this world, Pilate responded by saying, You are a king then? Jesus answered in the affirmative. You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world.. This is Jesus good confession that Paul writes about in I Timothy 6:13 1 Timothy 6:13 NIV. Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,. This is an amazing confession! You say rightly that I am a king. It is amazing because it seems to be the opposite of Jesus life and teaching. He was born in a stable, not in a palace. He didn t have the trappings of royalty. He didn t have the beautiful robes, crowns, rings, throne, etc. He didn t have the court officers, armies, parliaments, etc. He was an itinerant preacher who preached about the kingdom of God. He had no home of his own. He lived under the stars and at the hospitality of his friends. He was more interested in the little children than the powerful. He talked about sparrows and lilies rather than taxes and tolls. And even more amazing he continually taught that he did not come to be served, but to serve others and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45). What kind of king is this? Jesus knew the purpose for which he was born. He knew from whence he came and why. His life was a FULFILLMENT of God s plan of redemption as revealed in the Old Testament and testified in the New. There were prophecies in the OT that the messiah was coming as a king. One such prophecy is in Psalm 2 (Psa 2:6-8 NKJV) "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion." {7} "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. {8} Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. November 26, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 2
At the very beginning of Jesus public ministry this statement was alluded to by the Father to the Son. At Jesus baptism the Father said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well please. This beloved son is the King whom the Father set on His holy hill, i.e. in God s kingdom. Jesus is the king in God s kingdom, not because he was elected king, nor born of human royalty, but because God the Father had appointed him king. This is what Jesus is saying to Pilate. Jesus goes on to explain the nature of his kingdom to Pilate. His kingdom is not a political one. It is a spiritual one. It does not rely on military might, but spiritual power. Its enemies are not other nations; but sin, Satan, evil, and unbelief. His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." Jesus kingdom is SPIRITUAL and the only way to see it or to enter it is through a new birth. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus. John 3:3 NKJV Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." What should Christ the King mean to us? Reformed theology answers it this way in the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 26: How doth Christ execute the office of a king? Answers in this way: Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. Christ as King subdues us to himself, by his word and Spirit. He rule over us and defends us from sin and Satan. He restrains and conquers all his enemies and ours, especially death. JESUS BEARS WITNESS TO THE TRUTH Jesus confession before Pilate was that he is the King in God s eternal kingdom and he goes on to emphasize that this is truth. Not only was Jesus confession before Pilate in reference to him as being King it was his way of bearing testimony to the truth. Verse 37: for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." Pilate cynically asked, What is truth? This is a question we are still asking today, What is truth? November 26, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 3
We live in an age where truth has SUFFERED greatly at the hands of relativism, individualism, multi-culturalism, and a host of other isms. Truth is just a social construct according to the post-modernist. Truth is just how you see things. There is the ancient fable from India about the six blind men and the elephant popularized by American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887). The original fable is told from the point of view of a king who leads several blind men to an elephant and asks them to tell him what it is that they are feeling. The first blind man walked into the formidable side of the huge mammal and declared with certainty that what he found was a wall. The second took hold of the elephant s tusk and asserted that it was a spear. The third blind man felt the squirming trunk of the elephant and jumped back saying that it was, without a doubt, a great snake. A fourth bumped into one of the beast s large legs and declared it to be a tree. Another was led by the king to the elephant s flapping ear and proclaimed that he had definitely found a fan. The last blind man groped for what was before him, and grabbing the elephant s tail was convinced that the thing before him was a rope. The story is usually told to make the point that none of us have a grasp on the whole truth. One person sees things one way, and another sees truth in a different way. Each of us are holding a part of the truth, and everyone is right in their own way, given their individual experience. Leslie Newbigin, in his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society makes some important observations about this line of reasoning. First of all, If the king were also blind there would be no story. There would be no one to lead the blind men to anything. We also have to ask why the king only led each man to one part of the elephant, instead of allowing them to experience as much as they could and were capable of understanding. Our King is not blind and he can see the whole elephant. He has given us an understanding at the whole truth and that truth is Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Another important point to observe is that rather than each of them having a portion of the truth, none of them had a part of the truth, they were all completely wrong. What they experienced was not a rope, a snake or a wall, it was an elephant. All truth is God s truth and although none of us can see it all, but what we see is truth. And the most important point is: the elephant was still an elephant in spite of what their perceptions were. The elephant was unchanged by their imperfect understanding of what they were experiencing. Their misunderstanding came from November 26, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 4
their blindness. There is truth, unchangeable truth, objective truth, personal truth. And that truth is EMBODIED in our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus is the Truth. CONCLUSION Jesus is King. The prophets predicted it. The Father appointed him as king and has enthroned Him at his right hand. Jesus professed it before Pilate. What should be your response to Jesus confession before Pilate? It is to make the same confession with our lives. Of course to give a good confession that Christ is your King before others means that your actions need to back up your words. Does your life show others who is your king? Can someone look at your habits, your priorities, your relationship and tell where your allegiance lies? We must match our actions with our testimonies. As I have said, this Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. Interesting enough it wasn t until 1925 that this Sunday was actually put into the Liturgical Calendar. The one (Pope Pius XI) who designated the last Sunday of the Liturgical year as Christ the King Sunday had this to say about how it should impact us: "If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of [righteousness] unto God." This is a great statement. Our confession of Christ as our King takes on very practical measures when we truly live by it. It involves the WHOLE person: our minds, our wills, our hearts, the members of our bodies. Jesus is King. We owe him our allegiance, our loyalty, our very lives. On this Sunday the Christian Church Year comes full circle. It started at Jesus birth at the beginning of the church year and ends with Him as King. Will you come November 26, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 5
full circle and confess Jesus as your King? Will you give your ALLEGIANCE to Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. Will you do it with your mind, will, heart, body? Do it NOW! Amen? Amen! November 26, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 6