Sermon Central
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Jesus The King Series
Contributed by Viji Roberts on Apr 6, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: The leading priest shout: "We have no king but Caesar!" Never would a Jew say such a thing ever with greater impunity and more importantly with greater arrogance.
"Away with him," they yelled. "Away with him! Crucify him!" "What? Crucify your king?" Pilate asked.
"We have no king but Caesar," the leading priests shouted back.
This is an incident that occurred over 2000 years ago. It is about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The leading priest shout:
"We have no king but Caesar!"
Never would a Jew say such a thing ever with greater impunity and more importantly with greater arrogance.
You must understand Jews are known to be proud of their race and for good reason.
They would never normally and willingly accept a non-Jew, in this case a Roman, to rule over them.
For them to acknowledge Caesar as king is strange on the least and depravity at its worst.
Something is wrong here.
They are rejecting Jesus--their promised Messiah. And not just rejecting but they were asking he be CRUCIFIED.
A Jew, being given up to a Roman death by the most detestable Roman method.
The most shameful death. The most gruesome death. The most painful death. In fact the term 'excruciating' comes from the pain of dying on the cross.
A Jew would never willingly have another Jew crucified. Here they do--a sign of absolute rejection.
We read, "He came to His own but His own received Him not".
They don't just reject Him, but crucify Him.
This is what they do to Jesus.
Of whom we read in Acts 10:38-39, "...Jesus of Nazareth who went about doing good, and healing all who were under the power of the devil...He, they killed by hanging on the cross.
What's wrong with the Jews?
You might ask, "Why would they do that?" Well, the truth be told, they were just mere representatives of the whole human race.
Jesus on the cross represents rejection by the whole world and that includes you and I.
We were all responsible.
How is that you ask?
To understand it fully we need to reach back to the earlier part of the unfolding story!
Time Warp
Let's time-warp to 1000 B.C. approximately. It's the time when Samuel was the Prophet and Judge over the children of Israel.
For long he had represented God's rule on the nation. But when he got old, people began to say
we want a KING -a king like the nations around us.
We read about this in 1 Samuel chapter 8.
Samuel is heartbroken, but God says and we read in vs. 7: "for it is me they are rejecting, not you.
They don't want me to be their king any longer.
Now it was God
Who had brought them to the Promised Land.
It was God who fed them in the desert.
Protected them from the scorching sun. Provided light during those dark nights.
He emptied the nations; He removed the squatters from the land God had promised Abraham centuries ago.
But now approximately four hundred years later, after God brought them to that land; having lived in the land that flows with milk and honey, they stand before Samuel demanding a human king.
-- A king just like the neighboring lands who would lead them into battle.
The imagery here is that of school children ashamed of their clueless parents.
Israel is ashamed to go to war without the regalia of a human king leading them into battle.
The fact of the matter is that God is not desperate to be their king.
Yet God graciously gives several reasons why that idea of theirs was not a good idea:
Sons ?: Drafted without a choice; Runners to go before his chariot.
People: Forced to plow his fields. Harvest his crops
Daughter?s : Personal assistants in his courts; Cooks and bakers
King: Take the best of their land, fields, vineyards, olive groves. Best of their cattle and beasts of burden. On top of all that make them pay royal taxes.
In fact, God says, this King you are demanding will be too demanding on you. You won't be able to bear it.
And still, they demand
"We still want a king like the people around us".
What's the real issue?
The real issue is they didn't want God to be their King. And that is not much different from us.
We seem by nature reject God from ruling our lives.
We want to be the master of our fate and the captains of our souls
The problem is not that we want NO king!
Thomas Carlyle
A 19th-century historian said "Society is founded on hero worship"
We have a fascination with Royalty. Some of us are still holding on to the last vestiges of a long forgotten era.
Countries with no Royalty fare no better. Ordinary celebrities will do. And we'd willingly go Lady Gaga over them.
We are designed for worship.
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