The King And Lord Of All Series

OPEN: You’ll notice up on stage here we have a Christian and an American flag. According to my research, the American flag on church stages became a prominent feature somewhere around WWI. And it especially came into prominence during WWII when (according to a Catholic resource) the flag was flown on stage to help people remember those who died in the war.

What I want you to do this morning is to stand with me and recite the pledge of allegiance.

“I Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, under God, indivisible.

With liberty and justice for all.”

(See note #1 at the end of the sermon)

To pledge Allegiance is to make a Declaration of Loyalty to someone or something.

A few years back John Rigle (a previous preacher here) wrote an interesting pledge of allegiance:

“I pledge allegiance to the Lamb, the only begotten Son of God.

He is the Messiah, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings.

He is Immanuel, God with us. He is Jesus.

He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent and yet He is in my heart.

He is the Lion and the Lamb.

I pledge allegiance to my Savior, Jesus. The great I AM.”

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb.

That is where my loyalty lies.

Jesus is my Lord and King…

And more than that, He’s my Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Now, you can be a Christian not be an American. You did know that didn’t you?

You can be from Australia, South Africa, France – any number of nations across the globe – and still be a Christian.

And you can be an American and not say the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

(That annoys me a lot when folks refuse to do that… but they DON’T have to).

So you can be a Christian not be an American.

And you can still be an American and not say the pledge of allegiance.

But you cannot be a Christian if you do NOT pledge your allegiance to Jesus.

If your loyalty is not with Jesus… you’re not a Christian.

Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father EXCEPT THROUGH ME.” John 14:6

If Jesus is NOT our Lord and King we could go to church all day long, every day of the week, and I would seriously question your salvation.

And, when Jesus comes again, it will be as THE King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Revelation 19:16 tells us “On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Now, what does it mean that is King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Well, let’s start with defining what it means for Jesus to be our King.

What does a King do?

A King RULES.

He COMMANDS.

He is to be OBEYED.

In John 14:23 Jesus said “If anyone loves me, he will KEEP MY WORD, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

And in 1 John 3:24 we’re told “Whoever KEEPS HIS COMMANDMENTS abides in him, and he in them...”

In John 3:36 we read:

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever DOES NOT OBEY the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

So – because Jesus is King - He has the right to command our obedience.

• If we keep his commands we show that we love Him.

• If we keep His commands He promises to abide in us.

• BUT if we do not obey the commands of our King… we will not see life.

That’s pretty serious stuff.

So what are these commands of our king?

Well the first command is pretty obvious: Give your life to Him!

If you don’t belong to Jesus, everything else is kind of pointless!

1. Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God

2. Repent of your sins – turn away from your past way of life

3. Confess Jesus as your Lord (we’ll talk about that next)

4. Be buried in the waters of baptism and rise us a new creature in Christ

5. Live the rest of your life to honor Him

BUT once we’ve “signed the contract” to belong to the Kingdom of Christ is that all we have to do?

No. there’s more that Christ expects of us. There are several commands Jesus makes of us, but there’s ONE COMMAND that Jesus makes that takes precedence over all the rest that Jesus expects of us.

What is that one command? Is that command that we should live a Holy and pure life?