In Jesus Holy Name November 24, 2013
Text: Colossians 1:19, 20, 15 Christ the King Sunday Redeemer
“This Lamb of God – He Is the King of Kings?”
Throughout the year our Sunday Gospel lessons have invited us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus from Bethlehem, to the Jordan River to the Jerusalem the Cross and Empty Tomb. Jesus Christ is truly King of the Universe. This is a FACT, whether we recognize it or not. Whether 51% of the electorate would elect him as King of the Universe, it doesn't change the fact that he is. And certainly at the end of the time, when the Lord comes in all his glory to judge the living and the dead, that fact will be apparent to all. We celebrate this feast day with great joy.
We heard the message of the angel to Mary and Joseph who were told to name their child, “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Soon, we will hear these wonderful words again.
During the past year we traveled to Bethlehem with the Wise men; walked with Jesus into the villages of Galilee. In the bible stories that were read we saw Jesus demonstrate his authority over the devil, illness and death. We listened with the multitudes and disciples, along the shores of Galilee. Our feet crossed the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane. We remember Jesus carrying the cross to Calvary, where the words of John the Baptist found fulfillment…”Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
That’s why we sang the hymn “Lamb of God”. And I hope the words “O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God I love the holy Lamb of God” are true for you. I know they are for me. But it is not what the people expected then nor now.
There is a poem I found that captures the mindset of a people who were looking for a Messiah. It is titled:
They Missed Him
They were looking for a lion,
He came as a Lamb,…….. and they missed Him.
They were looking for a warrior,
He came as a Peacemaker,……. and they missed Him.
They were looking for a king,
He came as a Servant,……. and they missed Him.
They were looking for liberation from Rome,
He submitted to the Roman stake, …….and they missed Him.
They were looking for Him to fit into their mold,
He was the mold maker, ……..and they missed Him.
They were looking for their temporal needs to be met, (when he fed the 5000)
He came to meet their eternal need,……. and they missed Him.
Today if you do not know why Jesus came….
He came as a Lamb to be sacrificed for your sin.
Will you miss Him?
He came to make peace between God and humanity.
Will you miss Him?
He came to model servant hood for all mankind.
Will you miss Him?
He came that we might have true liberty.
Will you miss Him? (author unknown)
On this Christ the King Sunday it may seem out of place to read about the crucifixion of Jesus. It is not the kind of text one would expect today. But is it? Jesus came as a different kind of King. He was not the kind of King that most people in Israel were hoping for. He came to ransom people from the iron grip of the fear of death. His sacrificial death as the Holy Lamb of God is what “justifies”. His resurrection from death provides the only true spiritual peace when standing before a holy and righteous God.
John Stott in his book “The Cross of Christ” writes: “How could any sane person worship as a god, a dead man who had been justly condemned as a criminal and subjected to the most humiliating form of execution? This combination of death, crime and shame put him beyond the pale of respect, let alone worship.”
The fact, that the Cross, became the symbol of Christianity and that Christians stubbornly refused, in spite of the ridicule, and death, as in present day Syria, to discard it in favor of something less offensive… can have only one explanation. The cross was not his final destination…. There is more to the story.
The Apostle Paul wrote: “We preached Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles…but to those who are called… Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
In our Thursday morning Sr. Bible Study through the Book of Acts we found an interesting verse. (Acts 20:38) Paul is preparing for his trip to Jerusalem. He is saying “goodbye” to many of his friends and those who are pastoring the church in Ephesus. He writes: “Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with his own blood.”
Did you catch that? “The church of God, which He bought with his own blood.” It’s an easy verse to pass bye. How could God, the creator of the Universe, purchase the “church” with his own blood unless he came to earth in the skin of humanity?
The Gospel of John states: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The glory of God which filled the tabernacle in the wilderness was now in Jesus.
The glory of God that filled the temple when Solomon dedicated the new temple in Jerusalem was now in Jesus. On the banks of the Jordan River John the Baptizer said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Only a just and holy God could satisfy the demands of a holy and just God. Rev. John Stott again writes: “If God has sent a man to us, as he sent prophets to Israel, we would have been grateful. If he had sent an angel as he did to Mary, we would have counted it a great privilege. Yet men and angels are creatures of his creative hand. By sending his own son, eternally begotten of His own Being, he was not sending a creature”….he created, No…He came Himself.”
Indeed, “How could the Father’s love be demonstrated if he had sent somebody else to us? No,….. since love is in essence self-giving, God gave himself in His Son.” “God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son.” (John 3:16)
When Jesus was on the cross, both the Pharisees who watched, and the criminals, beside him, taunted Jesus with this question. “If you are the king of the Jews, why don’t you save yourself? If you are the Son of God, why don’t you come down from the cross and we will believe you.” “Save yourself from the cross.” They said, “He saved others; let himself save himself if he is the Christ, the Son of God, the King of the Jews.”
Ravi Zacharias in his book “Jesus Among Other Gods” writes: “….Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was a moment preceded by eternity. His being, neither originated in time nor came about by the will of humanity. The Author of time, who lived in the eternal, was made incarnate in time, that we might live with the eternal in view.” Thus the Apostle Paul can write: “Christ died for us. Having “emptied himself” of his glory and taken upon himself the nature of a servant, He humbled himself to be born of a virgin. He was placed in a manger, in an obscure village in Palestine. He died in Jerusalem but rose from the grave and death. “For death could not hold Him.”
This is the “good news”…..“While we were still powerless, Christ died for us.” We had no power to save ourselves. As human beings are and we remain helpless to find true spiritual peace with an almighty, righteous God.
The heart of Christianity always points to cross where the blood of God himself, in Christ purchased our redemption. “For (Christ) is the visible presence of the invisible God the first born of all creation…. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him, and through him reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.” (Col. 1:15,19-20)
We live in a culture, a pluralistic culture where people like the phrase, “God is a God of love.” But too often they draw the wrong conclusion…by adding…”He would never send a good person like me to hell”. People are willing fool themselves into believing that a “holy God” will accept them, even though their behavior has been and is unholy. Don’t be foolish. Place your trust in the “Lamb of God.”
Because the eternal God is “Compassionate” toward us, Jesus Christ, became a man. Jesus did not have an earthly father descended from Adam; He did not inherit an unrighteous selfish nature which the Bible calls sin. Unlike the first Adam who sinned, Jesus lived a life of righteous perfection (Romans 5:12-21), resisting all temptations to sin (Hebrews 4:15), fulfilling all of God’s laws (Matthew 5:17), fulfilling all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), and dying as the only righteous man who has ever lived (Luke 23:47).
In His death, the righteous Jesus stood in place of sinners, paying the price for their sin, which is death. We all know….every human being dies. Pain and loss. Be honest. We don’t like it. But it is the human condition. “The wages of sin is death”. Is there any hope? Yes, the gift of God is eternal life through faith in Jesus…the Lamb of God.” (Isaiah 53:5-6, 12; Romans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). The only person who is righteous in God’s sight is Jesus Christ. It is because of God’s compassion that Jesus became the “Lamb of God” to graciously transfer His righteousness to us just as Adam transferred his unrighteousness to us (Romans 3:21-22; 4:4-6; 5:12-21; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8-9; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18).
What many people are unaware of, is that they do have a spiritual debt. God created each of us to honor Him by living in obedience to Him. Each time we fail in this obligation through sins of both omission and commission in our words, deeds, and motives, we accrue a spiritual debt to God. This is what Jesus was speaking of when He prayed that God would forgive our debts to Him (Matt. 6:12). Forgiveness of our debts to God requires a mediator, redeemer, and a ransom.
Mediator The mediator is the person who is the go-between, or “middleman,” between us and God to mediate our differences and bring about resolution. To effectively represent both God and humankind, the mediator had to be both God and man. Therefore, God became the man Jesus Christ, who alone is the mediator between people and God (1 Tim. 2:5-6; Heb. 9:15; 12:24).
Redeemer The redeemer is the person who pays the ransom for the debtor. Throughout Scripture, God is spoken of as our Redeemer (Job 19:25; Ps. 19:14; 78:35; Isa. 41:14; 43:14; Jer. 50:34). Throughout church history it has been continually accepted that Jesus is our Redeemer, which is why this congregation carries the name “Redeemer”.
True love is self-giving love. This is love, not that we loved God but that God first loved us. This holy God displayed His love at the cross when a holy just God inflicted the penalty for sin by bearing it Himself. “In Him the fullness of the Godhead dwelt.” He did not just proclaim truth, he said: “I am the truth.” He did not just show a way. He said. “I am the way.” “I am the door. I am the good Shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the I AM.”
The Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem knew what he claimed. (read John 10:22-33)
His life without blemish proved His absolute and eternal existence. On numerous occasions, His antagonists were challenged to bring contrary proof against him. Jesus challenged His adversaries to lay a charge of sin at his feet. They could not.
Every individual, whether in the 1st century, like Nicodemus, or in the 21st century, who comes to faith in the one true God, believing that Jesus is God incarnate, who died on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our acts of disobedience against a holy God, does so through a personal struggle. The spiritual struggle means that we must be willing stop depending on ourselves, our own actions in order to try and make ourselves acceptable at the Judgment Throne.
Jesus is a different type of king. Most kings rule by force. They are able to be kings because they can beat anyone else who thinks that they’d like to be a king, in Israel, Rome, Syria, Egypt or America. They expand their kingdoms by defeating others and taking their territory. Though Jesus is the creator of all—God Almighty—he does not rule by force but by love.
Jesus doesn’t rule from a throne, but rather from a cross. He rules with the power of love. When he was crucified, He could have answered the taunts of the people and the religious rulers. He could have climbed down from the cross and saved himself. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.”
Instead of taking the easy path, when taunted by the Pharisees, Jesus willingly chose to give up his life, on the cross so that that we might have forgiveness. Jesus was consumed by love for you and me.
“I was lost, I should have died, but You have brought me to your side,
Your only son, no sin to hide, You sent Him from Your side.
So that I might be called a “lamb of God.
O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the holy Lamb of God
O wash me in His precious blood, My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.” May it be so today.
