Seeking once again the Lord's
help, I'd like to draw your attention to the chapter that we read together,
the Gospel according to Luke chapter 19 and the text you'll
find in verse 14. But his citizens hated him and
sent messengers after him saying, we will not have this man to
reign over us. Those who were Here this morning
we'll remember that we looked at the Jews and how they had
that great privilege of having God as their king. He was the
founder of their nation through Abraham and he established with
them a covenant and his laws and he was their god, he was
their king, he spoke to them through the prophets, they worshipped
him and he accepted their worship through the sacrificial system
and the priests and the high priests that were all ordained
by him. He went before them, provided
for them, he gave them a land that wasn't theirs, he made it
theirs, he gave them houses, he gave them vineyards and fields
and everything that they could possibly want and he drove out
the nations. He enabled them to have victories
over their enemies. In some cases they didn't even
need to fight and he was to them a father and he cared for them. He says I was even to them a
husband and yet they turned their back upon him. They were not
happy with their distinct privileged position as a particular people
but they wanted to be similar to the nations round about them. They wanted a physical king to
go before them into battle, a physical king to judge them and they wanted
someone to look to and made them feel good maybe. And if you've
ever been to London and you see there the King's Palace and all
all the guards and the English flag flying over the palace. It brings some stirring of pride. And this is England. And you
can imagine that these Jews, they wanted something to look
at, something material, something grand, rather than their invisible
god. And so they stepped out of that
way in which God had given to them that blessed privilege and
they said give us a king that he will reign over us so that
we can be like the nations. And really history repeats itself
as we come to the New Testament. The king, the Lord Jesus Christ
is born into the world and he is a king, he's the son of God,
he's the son of man, he is the son of David and he is the king
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to his own people and
his own people do not receive him and as we go through the
gospels we see as he comes to the end of his life they say
crucify him, crucify him. they do not want the king that
God has given to them and so Jesus in our reading gives a
parable regarding himself and that he is going to go away and
he's going to leave his servants in charge, he's going to gift
them with one pound each and they are to trade that money
and they're to serve him and then he will come again. But
in the chapter that we have in the verse that we have for our
text it says that his citizens hated him and sent messengers
after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us. And so the parable is speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a certain nobleman. We know that Christ
is a nobleman and he is the king. And he was to go into a far country,
which is heaven. After he had been crucified,
the scripture tells us he rises again on the third day. Forty
days later, he ascends up into heaven and he begins his work
of mediation between God and his people. He becomes their
high priest and he goes into a far country. and he calls his
servants and his servants are his ministers, the ministers
of the word of God and they are given a particular gift to proclaim
the gospel and to interpret scripture and to go forth through the rest
of time until Christ comes again and they're to exercise that
gift of the ministry so that when Christ comes they will have
traded well and that there would be we could say souls for their
hire that through the advancement of the kingdom people have been
saved through the the ministry of the Word of God and as this
ministry is preached as this gospel is preached as Christ
is proclaimed as King there are those in the world who say we
will not have this man to reign over us As the Jews of old said,
ultimately, we will not have this man, God, to reign over
us. We want another king. So in the
gospel days, people say the same. We will not have this man, Christ,
to reign over us. We want to be our own king. There is no King Jesus Christ. We are the king. I am the king.
I am the final authority in my life. that doesn't change the
fact that Christ is the king. There are people in England who
are anti-royalists and they don't like the fact that we have a
king. I mean we are a kingdom but it
doesn't change the fact people reject the king it doesn't make
him not the king he still is the king over them and just because
people reject the authority of the lord jesus christ as king
jesus does not make him any lesser king he is the king the king
the lord jesus christ and he is going to come again He is
the son of God. And as we looked at this morning,
we saw that God is king. He is the creator and the sustainer
of heaven and earth. He has all the power. He has
all authority. He is the one who gives the law. He is a sovereign over the whole
world. And as Christ then is his son,
so Christ is also a king. He's also the son of David. We read in chapter 18 with blind
Bartimaeus when he was begging. In verse 35, when it came to
pass as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man
sat by the wayside begging. And hearing the multitude pass
by, he asked what it meant. And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth
passed by. And he cried out, Jesus, now
son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before rebuked
him that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much the more,
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And so he was told Jesus
of Nazareth is passing by. But he cries out, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And so we go back to what we
looked at this morning and we saw that through the outworkings
of God, that God overruled the sins of the elders of Israel
and brought about a kingdom, a physical kingdom, a king to
the people of Israel, that first one was Saul. but through Saul's
sin and his disobedience the prophet says to obey is better
than sacrifice and to listen or to hearken and the fat of
ram's that kingdom was taken from him and given to another
and the other was David and David was promised that his kingdom
the kingdom of David would continue for ever and ever We know that
that would not be possible but that is possible through the
Lord Jesus Christ in 2 Samuel 7 from verse 12. And when thy days
be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and I will set
up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels
I will establish his kingdom He shall build an house for my
name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father and he shall
be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children
of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took
it away from Saul, whom I put away from before thee. And thine
house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee,
and thy throne shall be established forever. And so as the prophet
speaks to David and tells him the extent of his kingdom, that
through his son Solomon that kingdom is going to be established
and that throne is going to continue forever, that he speaks of Solomon
his son that God would chasten him if he sins. But then he goes
on to, as it were, multiply the blessing or extend the blessing
beyond Solomon his son to an eternal kingdom that his throne
would be established forever. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, as we trace back his lineage, we can see that it goes through
King David. And we can see that blind Bartimaeus,
though he can't see, he has faith to lay hold of this truth that
this Jesus Christ is the son of David, the promised Messiah,
the king that was going to establish a throne for ever and ever. And so he is the son of King
David and therefore he is the King of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 22 and verse 70 as the Lord Jesus Christ
is sent to Herod, Herod says to him, Art thou And
they said unto him, Art thou then the son of God? He says
unto them, Ye say that I am. And they said unto him, What
need we any further witnesses? For we ourselves have heard of
his own mouth. And so before the Jews in the
judgment hall, they ask him, Are you the son of God? son of
David the son of God and he says you say that I am and they take
that as a confession that Christ is blaspheming and that he has
declared himself to be the son of God and so if he is the son
of God that means he is heir to the throne heir to the kingdom
of God. that Christ then has the power
of a king, he has the authority of the king, he has the eternal
riches of a king and he has the sovereign right of a king. We know that to save his people
he humbled himself and came under his law to put on a flesh for
the and to enable him to die and
such is the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ coming from that
heavenly kingdom with the Father in all its glory that he stoops
down and he puts on human flesh to enable him to die for the
sins of his people. And so not only then is he a
king, he is the king. When Jesus was before Pilate
it's one of the questions that Pilate asked about him in John
19 as the Lord Jesus Christ was
taken from being before the Jews in the temple. He's then taken
to Pilate in the hope that the Romans would put him to death. And as he is before the people
at the judgment seat, Pilate speaks and he says, it was the
preparation of the Passover, about the sixth hour. And he
says unto the Jews, behold your king. And they cry out, away
with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said unto them, shall
I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we
have no king but Caesar. then delivered him therefore
to be crucified and they took Jesus and led him away. And so
Pilate says to the Jews, your King, the Lord Jesus Christ,
King. And it reminded me of what we
looked at this morning. God was their King. That distinct
privilege that they had that invisible god who defeated their
enemies and it's like Samuel says behold your god behold your
king and they say no we don't want to have a king over us we
want to be like the rest of the of the nations and so as As Pilate
presents the Lord Jesus Christ to these Jews, he says, Behold,
your king, the king of the Jews. And they say, we don't want him.
Get rid of him. Crucify him. Crucify him. We don't have any king but Caesar.
We're just the same as you. We're just the same as all the
other nations round about. We don't want this Christ to
be our king. And John begins his gospel. with those words that Christ
was there in the beginning. But in verse 11 he says he came
or verse 10. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. He was in the world and the world
was made by him. This great king with all power
and all authority, the sovereign ruler of the skies was walking
this earth in a human flesh. But the world, the people of
the world rejected him as the creator, as the maker, as the
king. He came unto his own people, the Jewish nation, the ones whom
had been so blessed through all the thousands of years before
him. ones who had such a great privilege of having the law,
having the temple, having an intimate relationship with God,
being a particular and a special people. He came to them and they
rejected him. They should have been waiting
for him, the promised Messiah, and yet when he came, behold
your king and We have no king except Caesar. Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him. That's because the Lord Jesus
Christ's kingdom was not of this world. The Jews didn't want a
man from Nazareth. The Jews didn't want a man who
had nowhere to lay his head. The Jews didn't want a man who
rode into Jerusalem upon an ass's colt. The Jews wanted a king,
a proper king, one like David with visible power. and an army, one to overthrow
the Roman government and to establish them back as their own kingdom
once again but Christ didn't come to do that. He came to establish
a spiritual kingdom and as he is before Pilate he says that
my kingdom in chapter 18 My kingdom is not of this world. Verse 36. And Jesus answered, My kingdom
is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then my servants would fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence or not from here.
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered,
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Every one that is of the truth
heareth my voice. Jesus says my kingdom is not
of this world. The Jews wanted a physical kingdom,
they wanted again like they did in their old testament something
to see, something visible and glorious But Jesus says, I've
come to establish a spiritual kingdom. My kingdom is in heaven. It is an everlasting kingdom.
It is the kingdom of light, which will never pass away. And within
that kingdom, there is no sin. There is nothing that will defile.
They are all washed and made whiter than snow. They've all
been redeemed by their saviour, the King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ he was in the world but he was
not of the world. He was in this dark world yet
he was the light that came into the world and his people those
who have believed and trusted in him also are the same. We are in the world but we are
not of the world. We are citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. We are strangers and pilgrims
that pass through. We don't belong here. We have
a heavenly passport. Our passport is, as it were,
stamped with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't belong
here. We've been redeemed. We are passing
through, we are traversing through this valley of the shadow of
death. We are going home. The Lord Jesus
says my kingdom is not of this world and so we say that our
kingdom although we are citizens of that kingdom. His people are
citizens of that kingdom. At the moment they are strangers
and pilgrims, aliens and foreigners walking in the world but they
are going to a heavenly kingdom. In chapter 14 we looked at Marian's
funeral service He says, let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. And so Jesus says to Pilate,
my kingdom is not of this world. In our text it says we will not
have this man to reign over us and the nobleman has gone off
into a far country and he's gone to a far country to establish
a kingdom and he's building mansions for his people. He says do not
let your heart be troubled. We know in this world the scripture
tells us you will have much trouble. As we looked at this morning,
we can look at the trouble that we're in and we can think that
other people have an easier life and we want to step into their
shoes and there is constant trouble. But Jesus says, don't let your
heart be troubled. Though I am not here, I've given
you the comforter, the Holy Spirit, and I have gone away from you
to prepare a place for you, to bring you into my Father's house,
the kingdom that is a kingdom that is not passing away. It
is an eternal kingdom that Christ has gone to prepare a place for
for his people. And there he is even today. And so he is the king who came
from his spiritual kingdom. He came down onto this physical
kingdom of darkness to establish and to redeem a people for himself. And so he's the king who came
to save and to die for his people. 19, it tells us there that when the
Lord Jesus Christ came before Pilate that they began to mock
him because the Lord Jesus Christ had said that his kingdom was
not of this world. Pilate answered him and said,
are you a king? Jesus says, yes I am. And as they looked at the Lord
Jesus Christ, they wondered, well, what sort of a king is
this? A king without an army, a king
without a crown, a king without a robe, a king without a palace,
a king without a horse, a king without a chariot. And so they
begin to mock the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Pilate scourges
the Lord Jesus. And then the soldiers plait a
crown of thorns and put it on his head. So he exchanges his
golden crown for a crown of thorns. When we were in Kenya, we used
to see the acacia tree, I think. and had thorns maybe two inches
long and if it jabbed you then it would somehow sting or hurt
more but had something on the thorns. We used to say well that
was how the trees would have been in the area of the Lord
Jesus Christ when they plaited the thorns upon his head was
not as thorns that we know in our country but long thorns. And the Africans would even use
them for sewing. They would tie thread on the
end and use them to sew. Such were the strength of them. And so the soldiers plaited a
crown of thorns for the Lord Jesus Christ. The king, the king
of kings, made to wear a crown of thorns, mocking him. You think
of the Lord Jesus having all of that power at his disposal. He says, I only have to pray,
ask my father and he will give legions of angels to fight. Yet he restrains. that prayer,
knowing that the will of the father is that he redeems the
people for himself. He wears the crown of thorns
and he experiences the mockery and the taunting of the soldiers. Then they put a purple robe upon
him. You know that kings normally
wear a royal apparel or a royal robe. When King Charles was at
his coronation and the great robe that he wore, that's the
clothing of a king and they mocked him and they put on a purple
robe on him and they hailed him. hail king of the Jews and they
smote him with their hands. Then they crucified him. We know a king normally would
sit on a throne. The throne is the symbol of power,
of authority, majesty and the king of kings they nailed to
a cross. And so he exchanged his throne
for a cross so that his people might be able to live, that his
people might be granted eternal life. this King, the King Lord
Jesus Christ, the King came to save his people and he endured
the mockery of men, his own creation despised and rejected him, but
he willingly endured it so that his people might be enabled to
live. we know on the cross the Lord
Jesus Christ experienced the wrath of the Father. From eternity
past there had been that union, that oneness with Father, Son
and Spirit. We could say that that royal
gaze that was once so experienced by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, as God the Father says,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased as he looks
upon his Son and Christ basks in that light or that favour of
the Father, that royal gaze. But now upon the cross, that
royal gaze is gone. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? The darkness that was upon the
face of the earth and as he died the rocks rent themselves. This king gave his life for the
salvation of his subjects so that they may have eternal life. We know that the grave could
not hold him He rose again the third day that he may be the
perfect sacrifice for his people. He rose again for their justification,
cleansing them from all of their sin. Then he ascended up into
the right hand of the Father. And our text says, but the citizens
hated him. and sent messengers after him
saying we will not have this man to reign over us. And so
there were those who were sent out with their pound and these
are the ministers of God, of Christ and they were to go and
they were to deal and trade and to bring back growth to the master
when he came again because he says to them, occupy until I
come. And so although Christ laid down
his life and experienced the mockery and ridicule of men and
the displeasure of his father yet he rose again the third day
and ascended up into heaven and is at the right hand of the throne
of God. But he says occupy till I come
and he is going to come again and even those who today reject
him and say we will not have this man to reign over us He tells us there, but those
mine enemies, verse 27, which would not that I should reign
over them, bring them, bring hither and slay them before me. We don't really like hearing
about kings who have ultimate authority. and dictators in our
land because normally when a man has absolute power it goes to
their head and they end up ruining things. But Christ has absolute power. All authority has been given
unto him in heaven and on earth. And he has commanded his people
to go forth and to preach the gospel, to declare that Jesus
is King. As Isaac and me went to London
last week on Tuesday, we went to St. Thomas' Hospital and then
afterwards we went for a walk around and we ended up in this
subway with graffiti all over it. And I took a picture of Isaac
standing there. And when I got home, I looked
at the picture and written right at the top, someone had spray
painted, Jesus is King. Jesus is King. And the amount
of people who would have walked by there and maybe saw it, it
declares a truth, a fact. just because as I've said that
people don't believe it doesn't alter that fact Jesus is king
and he has all authority and all power and he is going to
come again and when he does come again he's going to bring about
the final judgment he's going to separate all of the nations
he's going to separate all people into the right hand and to the
left hand those who have rejected him as king who do not fall under
his authority he will cast them from himself he has that authority
there will be no trial because the scripture tells us that those
who do not believe have condemned themselves already they are self-condemned
by the rejection of the truth. In John 3 it tells us he that
believeth not he that believes on him is not condemned but he
that believes not is condemned already because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten son and this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. everyone that doth
evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his
deeds but should be reproved. And so Christ is going to come
and he will return as the scripture tells us and he will bring about
that final verdict of those who have rejected his authority as
king and he will cast them from himself he says bring them to
me and slay them before me they will be cast into hell for all
eternity. just because we live in a democratic
society where people have the choice to vote there is no choice
to alter that Christ is King. No democratic vote will remove
Christ from his throne. He is there and he is there today
and he is going to come and he is going to come again to bring
about that final separation and that final judgment. but his
citizens hated him and sent messengers after him saying we will not
have this man to reign over us. And so the Jews twice rejected
God as their king, once in the Old Testament saying give us
a king and second time in the New Testament saying that Christ
was not their King. This is the King of the Jews
was written on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Jews
said to Pilate, say not that he is the King of the Jews, but
that he said he is the King of the Jews. And Pilate said, what
I have written, I have written. This is Jesus. the king of the
Jews or may we be enabled by the Holy Spirit of God to fall
under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and be a citizen
of him in the kingdom of light and heirs of the kingdom of heaven
with a passport stamped with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
which will enable us to enter into heaven at last, to be with
the Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever. May the Lord add his
blessing. Amen. Let's sing our final hymn, number
271. 271. My captain, sound the alarm of
war. Awake, the powers of hell are
near. To arms, to arms, I hear him
cry. It is yours to conquer or to
die. In him I hope, in him I trust,
his bleeding cross is all my boast. Through troops of foes
he'll lead me on to victory and a victor's crown. O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the
bombs bursting in air, I cross my end to rise again. And as to God, my love, I know,
I'll be his cherubim faithful. He's my help, he drives my ship,
I'll hold my compass for my bill. He's a great Jew, my Lord is
a great man too. ? Of thy lecture on the vine ?
? Which taught to hurt my foes to hate ? ? What Jesus kindly
did to spread ? ? His opening banner o'er my grave ? ? My hope within my trust ? ? And
it grows, it's all my last ? ? Future of heart, till he may walk ?
? Till victory at the winter's cross ? King of kings and Lord of lords,
we acknowledge thy sovereign rule and authority over all things
and we pray that we may be made to bow before the Lord Jesus
Christ as king rather than to wait for that great and final
day of judgment when all will fall and bow the knee. We ask,
Lord, that thou work within our hearts to cause us to submit
and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. We pray thou be with us and now
as we depart from each other and as we sit around thy table
do bless and meet with us we pray. Forgive us Lord of our
many sins and do make up where we fail. Now may the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Father and
the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit do rest and
abide with us each now and forevermore. Amen.