Okay, just to be clear, the title of this message could be misconstrued to somehow apply to me as thinking of myself as a king, which is not in any way, shape, or form true. Negative! I am most certainly NOT a king – and I know it! Throughout the message I will, however, be pointing to various kings and the One True King.
Way back in the Old Testament, more than a thousand years before Jesus was born, things went sideways in Israel and the elders came before the prophet Samuel grumbling and complaining with a demand:
It’s in 1 Samuel 8. Here’s verses 1-9:
“As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.
“Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. “Look,” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.”
“Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the LORD for guidance. “Do everything they say to you,” the LORD replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.”” (NLT)
Ramah was Samuel’s home and the center of his ministry in the hill country north of Jerusalem. He had judged Israel from this place, built an altar to the LORD there, and maintained a prophetic community there. His sons were holding court in Beersheba, fifty miles to the south on the tip of the Negev desert –far from home and from dad.
So, the elders had a legitimate complaint, but their solution –installing a king to act as judge and ruler– was something motivated by a desire to be like other nations around them when the LORD had specifically made them to be different, set apart – a holy nation unlike the other nations ruled and led by God Himself.
And, as long as that word has come up, when I was at MANCAMP back in August, there was a preacher there who said that the word “holy” can be defined not only as “different” and “set apart” but also as “peculiar.” I later took the time to thank him for inferring that I had a certain degree of holiness in my character.
Anyway, Samuel does indeed tell them what a king will do. Here’s the remainder of the chapter:
“So Samuel passed on the LORD’s warning to the people who were asking him for a king. “This is how a king will reign over you,” Samuel said. “The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials. He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use. He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the LORD will not help you.”
“But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”
So Samuel repeated to the LORD what the people had said, and the LORD replied, “Do as they say, and give them a king.” Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.” (NLT)
God let them have what they asked for, and the result was Saul, followed by David, followed by David’s son, Solomon. Only David is considered a good king.
After Solomon, the nation of Israel split apart into Judah and Israel. The Bible records Judah as having eight good kings and twelve bad/inconsistent kings. Israel had 19 bad kings in a row. They never had a good king. Both Judah and Israel ended their eras of kings by being conquered and her peoples taken into captivity. Israel was taken into Assyrian captivity in 722 BC and Judah managed to survive until 586 BC when the Babylonian captivity began.
By the time Jesus comes on the scene, Israel is ruled by the Romans whose king or emperor is regarded as a god.
Now, we know that God did not look down and say, “Soooo, Israel, how’s that whole “king” thing working out for you?” But He could have.
My point here is, “Be careful what you ask for.”
God does indeed answer prayer. He will even grant you things you did not ask for or see coming. (AHEM) In all of what He does, it is motivated by His intense, overwhelming, indescribable love for us. Sometimes, that love takes the form of letting us learn from our own mistakes because He knows that is the best and/or only way we will truly and finally learn what we need to know.
God is the one who gave us free will and He did that because love cannot exist in the absence of free will.
I have heard people say they love their cars and it always made me cringe. A car is a big dumb chunk of metal and glass and plastic that cannot possibly love you back. It’s the same with phones. There are people who seem more attached to that piece of technology than they are to the people in their lives who actually and truly love them, but that phone can never love you back because, no matter how advanced artificial intelligence becomes, it’s still artificial –it has no will of its own – and it can never truly love you.
Which then brings us –as all things do and should – to King Jesus.
Going even further back in the Old Testament, right to the very beginning, we have Adam and Eve living in perfect harmony with God in the Garden of Eden. God is their loving Father. They have absolutely everything they need. They lack for nothing, but along comes the one who led a rebellion in heaven and convinces them that there is something more they should want, and that is to be like God.
So, as we begin to wrap our heads around what has happened and what is about to happen, I’d like to involve some of the veterans in the room.
For those of you who are not veterans, I would like to introduce you to something called the UCMJ or Uniform Code of Military Justice which is the federal criminal law and legal system that governs all members of the United States armed forces. It was enacted by congress in 1950. It applies across every branch of the U.S. military to ensure a single, consistent standard of discipline and justice.
So, veterans, under the UCMJ, what is the worst crime that it addresses, the crime that carries the highest penalty?
Premeditated murder and rape are high on the list as is shameful surrender, running away, and cowardice. Mutiny, sedition, and aiding the enemy can also carry the death penalty, but the one crime that carries a mandatory death sentence is spying. The word “treason” is not used in military justice, but appearing to be on our side while actively assisting the enemy in their mission to destroy our nation is the worst of the worst.
And that is exactly what happened in the garden.
Adam and Eve didn’t spy on God, but when the devil asked, “Did God really say…” Eve gave up the intel without a thought.
When those two bit into that fruit, they transferred their allegiance from God to the devil.
It was treason.
The one thing God had told them not to do, they did.
And in doing so, they demonstrated that they believed the devil instead of the LORD their God. In that moment, they lost their position as keepers and stewards of the garden and the whole earth. They could no longer be trusted to have dominion over the world.
(By the way, “dominion” is an important word here. It means: “Supreme authority, sovereign power, or control over a country, region, or group of people.” It will come up again.)
That’s why Satan is called “the ruler of this world” in the New Testament, but listen to the way Jesus uses that title in John 12:31:
“The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out.” (NLT)
Jesus said that on the eve of His crucifixion!
Was this end times talk, or was He referring to His defeat of sin, death, and the devil on the cross?
Do you remember in John 18 when Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, the personal representative of Emperor Tiberius who was regarded as a god, and he asked Jesus if He was a king?
He did that because he had heard that said, and if Jesus was calling Himself a king, well, that was a big problem because Tiberius certainly wasn’t going to share his throne with anyone.
Jesus replied that His Kingdom was not of this world. (Notice that He most certainly did not deny being a king, but his answer made it clear that He was not attempting to knock Tiberius off his throne.)
When Jesus stepped out of that grave alive, all claims to who was and is the king ended in that moment. When Jesus said in Matthew 28:18 that ALL authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him, that left ZERO for the devil or anyone else.
His death redeemed us. Jesus paid the death penalty for us. It was the only way we treasonous rebels could be restored to our position as keepers and stewards of this earth. The Father’s forgiveness could only flow out of the sentence being carried out.
And, since there was only one human being in all the history of the earth that could endure the sentence of death for all humans past, present, and future and redeem us all, it had to be Jesus, God’s one and only Son.
He was the only one who could defeat our foe by giving up His own life in exchange, as payment, for all of ours.
But what the devil didn’t see coming was that Jesus would walk out of that tomb ALIVE!
That changed everything.
Because Jesus was 100% God and 100% man, He did what only He could do. He paid our price, He took our punishment, and the penalty for treason was fully paid.
An ancient part of Christianity is the belief in “the harrowing of hell.” It’s hinted at in 1 Peter 3:19 where it says Jesus preached to the spirits in prison. It’s long been accepted that this happened during the three days He was in the tomb. And, when He descended into hell, He took back the keys of death and hell. That’s in Revelation 1:18:
“I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. “ (NIV)
That’s why we say He defeated sin, death, and the devil! He kicked the devil out of his position as ruler of this world! That’s why Jesus is KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS! And, as King over the universe and everything in it, He has the power and authority to transfer dominion of the world back to humanity – just as God intended it from the beginning!
But, wait a minute, then why is there still so much evil in the world?
The devil has not yet been locked away in the pit. He’d still love for people to believe that he’s the ruler of the world, but that’s a lie. He hates people. His only power is over people who believe his lies and do not believe Jesus is LORD.
Because if Jesus is LORD, if Jesus is King, there can be no other king!
HALLELUJAH!
And, here’s the deal: In the Kingdom of God where Jesus rules and reigns, His people are not only set free, they are adopted into the family of God!
Every other king and ruler has subjugated those they reign over – they have been made subjects, or worse – slaves.
God says everyone who sins has been made a slave to sin. Jesus said that in John 8:34 and it’s all over the Book of Romans.
But we have been set free!
And that concept of freedom changed the world forever. Over half of the world's nations (195 to be exact) trace their modern sovereign origins to formal declarations of independence or constitutional anti-colonial revolutions inspired by what happened in this country in 1776.
I think I may have mentioned this before, but the red, white, and blue flag of the Dominican Republic has it its center, a Bible open to John 8:32: “
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
And, because we are adopted into the family of God, (which you can find in the first three chapters of Ephesians) and Jesus is King, that makes us members of the royal family. We even have God’s own Holy Spirit living within us as the guarantee of our inheritance!
As members of the royal family, we are not only witnesses to the awesome power and love of God in Christ Jesus, we are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God! That’s in 2 Corinthians 5:20.
Peter says it even more gloriously in 1 Peter 2:9:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”(NIV)
That’s an amazing verse, and when we get distracted by the cares and concerns and first-world problems we deal with every day, it’s important to remind ourselves of who we are – and who we are not.
Please, please do not refer to yourselves as “just a poor sinner saved by grace.” Yes, I know that’s a popular phrase, but it’s not true. That phrase, (perhaps unintentionally) attempts to empty the cross of its power. You WERE a poor sinner. Now, you have indeed been saved by grace and that means you are a NEW CREATION in Christ Jesus! (2 Corinthians 5:17.) How could you possibly still hold the identity of “sinner” and be encouraged to come before the throne of grace boldly as it says in Hebrews 4:16? You are all children of God, children of the Most High King and you are, in fact, seen by God not only as His beloved children, but as saints! Here’s 1 Corinthians 1:2 from the Amplified Bible:
“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (set apart, made holy) in Christ Jesus, who are selected and called as saints (God’s people), together with all those who in every place call on and honor the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:”
I do not tell you any of this, Huntley Community Covenant Church, because you need to be scolded or chastised for not acting like a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession – because you are already doing this!
I saw you during that Wednesday Night Supper. I saw you loving God and loving others that night and many other times before that. I see you participating in prayer together, studying the Bible together, loving God, loving each other, and loving your neighbors.
I see you acting like you know who your King is – and so does your King!
I tell you all this to encourage you, to tell you to keep it up, to remember all of these things when the enemy or our souls or just day-to-day life tries to distract you or wear you down.
Your King sees you and He loves each of you beyond what you are able to think or imagine. Keep it up. Keep living a life of gratitude and praise in the secure and certain knowledge that loving God and loving your neighbors will and is having eternal consequences.
And never forget that you are loved and treasured and valued by the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!
God sees you and loves you, He is active and moving in and among you, and I cannot wait to see what He will do in you and through you!
HALLELUJAH and AMEN!
(Photo by Felix Mittermeier, courtesy of Pixabay)
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