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Christ the King Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 (Denise Gelder) (Related Bible readings can be found HERE) Christ the King. What comes to your mind when you hear those words? Certainly nothing like kings and queens as we know them! We have seen royal occasions on TV -pomp and circumstance, processions, magnificence. wonderful crowns and tiaras, ermine robes etc. But Christ the King is a different King. He is King above all kings and Lord above all lords! He won't just rule a country or a nation, He he will rule the whole Earth and it will be from Jerusalem in Israel. Once He is crowned King and has his Kingdom, His rule and reign will be forever! (Hence we see much hatred of Israel and the Jewish people) Satan is doing his utmost to stop this happening and will useand deceive as many people as possible to help him unknowingly. But we know he won't win. He will cause many problems and deceive lots of people who he will lead astray, but if we belong to Jesus, we must be watching on the walls and keep close to Him to hear what He is telling us. Some will listen... and some won't. Psalm 72 gives some insight into the character of this end time and our last King - Jesus, Messiah. He will be utterly holy and righteous, He will judge the world fairly and govern righteously. The poor and afflicted will all be treated fairly. The Earth itself will be redeemed to its former glory, so food will be abundant. People will be blessed and will bless Messiah - Christ the King from thankful hearts. There will be restoration of God's commandments, no more changing of His guidelines, put there for our good. It will be wonderful, but it is only for those who belong to Him. Those who have recognised our separation from a loving Creator and have changed sides, back to the winning team with Jesus as head and not satan. Let's make sure we have made that decision... it is absolutely vital, a mystery we must solve. Jesus isn't King yet. Satan is ruling the world, but those who have left satan's side and are not obeying his rules now belong to Jesus. At present, Jesus is king in heaven and we believers on Earth are part of His Kingdom. We are royalty, working for him until he returns. A king must have a Kingdom and be crowned king. Jesus said to Pilate: 'My Kingdom is not of this world' At present, it is in Heaven, but there will come a time when God will say - enough is enough, and wrest the control of world affairs from satan's grasp. No more hatred of the Jewish people, no more persecution of Jews or gentiles, full restoration of God's laws and His wrath, His judgement, poured out upon the unrepentant and rebellious world system and satan flung into hell. To become King on earth, Jesus must have absolute sovereignty. He will not share His throne with anyone else. He must have a people to rule over - born again Jews and us gentiles. At the moment He hasn't a kingdom on Earth. He is still expecting more gentiles from around the world to change sides and choose Him and His Kingdom. This includes my family, my godchildren and many of my friends and those I've been asked to pray for. I am certain some of you are in the same position. When Jesus has all His gentiles fully committed to him, he'll turn His attention to wooing His people, the Jews, into a Kingdom on Earth. When He has achieved this, then he will have a Kingdom to rule over from every nation worldwide! What an incredible time that will be! No wars, no fighting, no sin, everyone abiding by the rules found in the Tanakh and the Torah (the old covenant/old testament). In a spiritual sense He has much of this now. He is seated at the right hand of His Father that is- He has authority to rule over His Church now - His born again believers. His father and ours has committed to Him all authority in heaven and on earth. But God never intended that His Son should set up an earthly Kingdom during his first coming. Jesus came as a baby the first time - in humiliation, to die in our place so we could be free and be forgiven for our sinful state - that is how we were born again. If He hadn't come, He couldn't have fulfilled the prophecy in Revelation 13 'the lamb that was slain' Nor could He have 'taken away the sin of the world' ( John 1) and many more prophecies (Psalms 72, 45, 22). Around 520 BC Zechariah, a priest and prophet foretells the coming of a messianic King who will rescue Jerusalem forever from her enemies (chapter 14). The Lord will become King over all the earth and we will keep His holy feasts. His reign and rule will be permanent and worldwide. Holy scripture tells us that many Jewish people recognised Him as their King when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Kings used donkeys as a sign of their kingship and roads were always levelled smooth out and prepared for the king's procession. We read that in Isaiah 40. Zechariah 9 and Matthew 21. The leaders didn't seem to understand or recognize this fulfillment of prophecy of Scripture, but many Jewish people did. They also should have known Daniel's prophecies, especially chapter 7, which says: 'To Him was given dominion, a glory and a Kingdom that all peoples, all nations and all languages should serve Him. His dominion is an ever lasting dominion which shall not pass away and His Kingdom one that shall not be destroyed,' Jesus was actually crowned king by Pilate's soldiers. They mocked him cruelly, dressed him in kingly robes and put a crown on his head.. a crown-of-thorns. It surely was a very painful, agonising coronation and one they will or have paid very dearly for by God, Jesus's father (and theirs actually). Every single person is the work of His hands, even those soldiers and Pilate, who treated our Creator, Redeemer and Deliverer so horrendously. They certainly will have had to pay an extremely hard price for their wickedness. It was customary for everyone crucified to have something written above their head for identification... and there it was for all to see 'Jesus the king of the Jews' What a coronation! Our 2nd reading finished with Pilate saying 'What is truth?' Truth was staring him in the face. He had written it above Jesus' head. Jesus is truth. He stands for truth and in his book, the scriptures, we find truth ie. the way we are expected to live the life that Jesus has given us - His guidelines. The consequences are also spelt out for us when we break his rules. His guidelines are broken worldwide now so we should expect to see very hard times, bad policies, acts of injustice, rebellion, corruption, plagues, disorders, killings and increase of sicknesses, diseases and deaths etc, But if we, who understand this disorder, kept His commands, got on our knees or faces if we can and repented, spoke out how sorry we are for all this, talked to Jesus daily from our heart, prayed for those in authority, grieving for what we see and asking the Lord to show us anything we need to put right in our lives.. He might just act. Although Revelation, Daniel, Matthew, Thessalonians and others are warning us that things will only get harder. We are warned that there would be serious economic, political and social problems before the King comes to start his rule on earth, but one day, everyone of us will have to stand before our King, who is also a judge. But we won't be judged on points of doctrine or theology but on a life devoted to Jesus our King and what we did with the plan he has for each one of us. He will judge us on how we lived for him- a life of devotion and obedience to Him and a light to those around us in the place that he has put us. Complete trust in and faith in Him. He is a caring God, a perfect Father, reaching out to each one of us. Offering us a deeper relationship with Him and His Son, our King. Also offering an opportunity for wholeness, restitution, getting back what Satan's stolen from us, by our fallen nature, ancestors, sin and life in this fallen world, including our circumstances. We may need to make a complete U-turn, but he will show us if we ask. He only disciplines those He loves remember. We are living in very important days for the greatest time of all - the return of Christ the King to Earth to begin His rule from His throne in Jerusalem, worldwide rule. We are that chosen generation who could possibly see the return of the King, certainly the younger ones, our grandchildren may. We are seeing evil increase, we are seeing the Jewish people returning to Israel -many of them not knowing why they are going back to live there. But we know God will reveal Himself somehow to them and they will come to recognise Him as the long awaited Messiah. An awesome time! An amazing rule will begin, sin will vanish. There will be peace on Earth as a holy just and righteous King will reign worldwide forever! So let us keep faithful and push on through the hard times ahead trusting God's promises - that He will look after us if we keep our part. Daniel was given (thousands of years ago) an incredible prophecy which is nearing fulfillment. He writes: 'As I looked, thrones were placed and the ancient of days, God, took His seat, His clothing was white as snow. The hair on His head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames. Its wheels burning fire. The court sat in judgement. Books were opened and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man (meaning Messiah). He came to the ancient of days (God the Father) and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a Kingdom, that all peoples nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and His Kingdom one that should not be destroyed' Daniel 7. Daniel was shown the coming of Messiah. Many kingdoms were shown him, but eventually all of these kingdoms would fall to the authority of one supreme King, who would rule forever - Jesus In that scripture we saw a human-like figure entering God's great throne room and being crowned KING and then seated, sitting on His throne to reign. Daniel saw the coronation of Jesus. He may not have understood what he had been shown, but it's there for us to see. Please Father, give us a revelation of your truths and give us courage to stand for your truths, as Daniel did, no matter what is hurled at us. Amen |
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