A Tale Of Two Crowns

Then you realize that Jesus is doing this, is enduring this, and is allowing this willingly for you.

FOR YOU ... AND ME ... AND THE PERSON YOU CAN'T FORGIVE.

[Isaiah 53:5-7 NLT] 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. 7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Conclusion:

[Bring out Crown of Thorns and King's Crown]

Two crowns- A Crown of Thorns (or of suffering) and A Crown of Glory (a King's Crown).

Jesus endured the Crown of Thorns [hold up crown] to be the king of your heart, the king of your life, and your deliverer [hold up King's Crown]. The King of kings and Lord of lords enduring ultimate suffering and pain to save us and give us the victory. And how have you honored Him today?

How have we submitted to His Lordship? How have we laid it all down to proclaim, "We believe you are the Christ who has come to save us!"?

Crowns have always been a sign of authority and Kingship.

Charlemagne wore an octagonal crown. Each of the eight sides was a plaque of gold, and each plaque was studded with emeralds, sapphires, and pearls. The cost was the price of a king’s ransom.

Richard the Lion-Hearted had a crown so heavy that two Earls had to stand, one on either side, to hold his head. The crown that Queen Elizabeth wore was worth $20 million plus. Edward II once owned nine crowns, something of a record. Put them all together, from all of Europe and from the archives of the East, all of them are but trinkets compared to Christ’s crown.

Revelation 19 says he had many diadems. He wears a crown of righteousness. He wears a crown of glory. He wears a crown of life. He wears a crown of peace and power. Among those crowns, one outshines the rest. It was not formed by the skilled fingers of a silversmith, nor created by the genius of a craftsman. It was put together hurriedly by the rough hands of Roman soldiers.

It was not placed upon its wearer’s head in pomp and ceremony but in the hollow mockery of ridicule and blasphemy. It is a crown of thorns.

The amazing thing is that it belonged to me. I deserved to wear that crown. I deserved to feel the thrust of the thorns. I deserved to feel the hot trickle of blood upon my brow. I deserved the pain. He took my crown of thorns... He offers to me instead His crown of life.

We must wear the Crown of Thorns before we can wear the Crown of Life and Glory.

Please stand?