Last Pentecost, 24^th Nov 2013; New Hope        Col. 1-11-20; Lk 23:33-44

“No Matter Who Is President, Jesus is King”

I. The Lord is King Over All the Earth

In the fall of 2012, as we approached the election, I often saw the saying, “No matter who is president, Jesus is king” on Facebook.  That was a good thing to be reminded of.  The United States is a nation with a wide variety of viewpoints and concerns, and we may be more divided in our hopes and ideas of how to make those hopes real than at any time in the last 150 years.  We who know Christ must remember that he is the one who is in charge and that our hopes do not finally rest in this nation, as wonderful as it is, but in the Lord Jesus and his eternal Kingdom.

If you have taken world history in high school or college, you know that the history of the world is the rise of one nation after another, followed by the fall of that nation as one stronger than it arises.  In biblical lands, the Assyrian Empire was followed by the Babylonian Empire, which was followed by the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great.  That was followed by the Roman Empire, which began five centuries before Christ, took over the entire Mediterranean world and a great deal of Europe and lasted until five hundred years after Christ.  Meanwhile, Chinese dynasties rose and fell, and the Great Wall was built to keep out invaders – who came in nevertheless because they could find traitors to open the gates for them.  We know also of empires in the Americas, in Africa, and in India.  Every empire felt proud and strong for a time, but even in their most glorious days they were not the ultimate power.  That honor belongs to the Lord Jesus, who is the Lord of history, to whom all nations must bow and all rulers must give answer.

The Bible, from one end to the other, proclaims that God is sovereign, and that even the hearts of kings are in his hand.  Psalm 145:13 says, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.”  Paul writes in 1 Tim 6:15-16, “[H]e who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”  These are but two of the many verses that speak of God’s rule over the world and over history.  He is king, he always has been king, and he always will be king.

Our reading from Colossians tells us that Jesus is king – and that we who trust in him belong to his kingdom.  We read the glorious verses of Col 1:12-16,  in which Paul prays, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

In God’s astonishing mercy, we have been moved from Satan’s kingdom, “the domain of darkness,” into Christ’s own Kingdom.  He himself has qualified us to be in that Kingdom, so we need not fear judgment or rejection.  The Lord Jesus has accepted fully all who rely upon him and not themselves.  We belong not to the kingdom of darkness, but to the Kingdom of Light.

II. A Kingdom Open to Anyone

We learn some wonderful things about the Kingdom in today’s Scripture readings.  Looking at the Gospel reading from Luke, we see that the Kingdom is open to anyone.  The story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ tells us that two thieves were crucified along with Jesus, and that they mocked Jesus, telling him that if he was who had claimed to be, then he should show it by rescuing them all from the hideous and shameful death of the cross, a torture reserved for those who had rebelled against Rome.

But one of the thieves noted how Jesus behaved in this dreadful situation – Jesus did not curse those who had beaten him and nailed him to the cross.  Indeed, he had offered them forgiveness for treating him as they did while they were nailing his hands to the cross beam.  The thief saw a calm mind and a caring heart, and he began to change his mind about his fellow sufferer.  Verses 39-41 say, “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’  But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’”

The man knew he had done wrong, and that his punishment was richly deserved.  He had concluded that Jesus was innocent – indeed, that he was not only innocent, but a divine King.  In verse 42, he asked Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Here is a man who has admitted his wrongdoing.  He has the opportunity to repent, but there is nothing he can do in the way of good works, obedience to the Law, and any deed to merit God’s blessing and acceptance.  He simply confesses his need and his desire, to be in God’s Kingdom.

Jesus made a reply that assured the man of his acceptance: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  What welcome words were those!  The man was transferred from the “dominion of darkness” to “the kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son.”  As I said, the repentant thief could do nothing to merit God’s favor – he simply appealed to the mercy of the Lord Jesus.  That appeal is entirely in keeping with what our passage from Colossians says.  Paul does not rejoice that the Colossian Christians have worked their way from the dominion of darkness to the Kingdom of the Son – rather, he rejoices that God the Father has transferred them from death to life, from the realm of Satan to the Kingdom of God’s own Son.

Salvation is God’s action.  He transfers us from the realm of death to his own Kingdom.  His action is based not on our earning our way into his Kingdom, but in our admitting our need, our abandoning our own agendas, and our throwing ourselves upon his mercy.  Jesus did not tell the repentant thief, “I am thankful for your change of heart, but it’s too late; you need to do something more than just repent.”  Rather, Jesus said “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”  Salvation is God’s action, not our own.  To be saved means relying upon God and not ourselves.

III. A Kingdom Open to Anyone But Not Including Everyone

Two criminals were crucified with Jesus that first Good Friday.  One appealed to Jesus to remember him when he came into his Kingdom – and was immediately assured that he would be with Jesus that very day in Paradise.  What about that other criminal?  Was he brought into the Kingdom?

There is no evidence that he was.  He apparently continued to mock Jesus, sneering at his ministry and claims to kingship.  If Jesus really were the Messiah the mocking thief thought, why would he allow himself to be executed by the Romans?  It was the Messiah’s job to get rid of the Romans, but if the Romans were getting rid of him, then he could not be the Messiah.  The other thief wanted practical, immediate results, and when they did not come, he maintained his taunting distance.

One of the hardest things to understand about sin is that sin is not simply ignoring God’s commands, so that we do what he has told us not to do or fail to do what he has commanded us to do.  Rather, sin is a rebellion against the King of the Universe.  Sin is an attitude before it is an action; it is standing before the God of Heaven and Earth and telling him, “You’re not the boss of me!”  This attitude stands behind the disobedience involved in sinful actions.  Indeed, a person can be largely obedient to God, but be obedient for reasons other than God being wise Father and rightful King.  Some people obey God because it suits their purposes.  Some people obey God because their aim is to butter him up or impress him or otherwise get him to do something they want done but lack the power to do themselves.  Some people obey God because they want to earn their own place in Heaven.  Such people often wind up as Pharisees, who think that they are better than others, but who are blind to the depth and reality of their rebellion against the King of the Universe.

We enter the Kingdom only by God’s mercy.  We are incapable of earning our way into the Kingdom because we cannot even begin to know the depth of our rebellion against God.  We cannot correct what is wrong with ourselves.  C. S. Lewis once said that no man knows how bad he is until he tries very hard to be good.  Since God does not grade on the curve, but rather expects perfect obedience, we simply cannot do enough to merit his acceptance.

The second thief maintained his rebellion, and so remained in the dominion of darkness.  When he died, the yawning doors of hell closed behind him forever.  Such is the nature of sin, however, that he would rather endure the miseries of hell than be confronted with the undeniable rule and reign of God, for his heart was locked in rebellion.

The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom which is open to anyone, yet which will not include everyone.  Only those who admit their need, lay down their rebellious heart, and cast themselves upon the mercy of God will enter the Kingdom.  As someone once said, “One thief was saved, so that no one will despair of God’s mercy – but only one, so that no one will presume upon that mercy.”

IV. Our Goal: to Live as a Citizen of Heaven Even When On Earth

The repentant thief was promised that that day he would enjoy Paradise in the company of his King, Jesus Christ.  He died within a few hours.  We who are here this morning are people who have come to Jesus in the same way as that repentant thief – but we are alive.  While no one is promised tomorrow, we are not on a cross about to die, and we have a reasonable expectation of waking up tomorrow and the day after.  So what are we to do?  Do we simply go about our business as we please, or does trusting in King Jesus have any implications for our daily lives?

As the passage in Colossians says, God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”  We who love Jesus are his subjects, and as members of his Kingdom, it is our privilege and responsibility to live as his obedient subjects.  We have surrendered our rebellion and agreed to recognize Jesus as King – and not only to recognize him, but to love him and find our delight in obeying him.

As subjects of the eternal King and members of his Kingdom, our ultimate loyalty belongs to him, and our lives are to be lived in light of that loyalty.  When I was growing up in the Presbyterian Church, someone said that there are three words that summarize the Christian life: guilt, grace, and gratitude.  We recognize and confess our guilt, confessing to God our need for his mercy.  In his grace, the Lord extends his mercy to us, based on the death of Christ – as our Colossians reading says, the Lord used the death of Christ “to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”  From that point on, we live in gratitude for what God has done, obeying him in recognition of his great mercy and love, and joyfully following his leadership to honor him.  Guilt, grace, gratitude.

The New Testament was written to explain those three words and how they are all centered on the Lord Jesus – and a good bit of the New Testament is dedicated to talking about how we may live in such as way as to honor and bless the Lord Jesus, our King.  There is no way I could capture all that on one Sunday morning, so I won’t even attempt it.

But I will take a few moments to say that living as a subject of King Jesus has two basic dimensions: an inner dimension and an outer one.  In Col. 1:9-10, just before our reading for today begins, Paul says, “from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  Paul says that we are to grow in knowledge, which is part of the inner dimension, and to “bear fruit in every good work,” which is of course the outer dimension.

We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are to live according to our citizenship.  God is to have our ultimate loyalty, even though there are many things that clamor for our loyalty.  We can often recognize the lure of things that are attractive but also clearly evil and selfish – but usually God’s strongest competitors are good things.  Money is a good thing, in its place.  Authority is a good thing, in its place.  Pleasure is a good thing, in its place.  Patriotism is a good thing, in its place.  All these things are excellent, as long as they are servants but not masters.  Part of living in a way that honors the Lord Jesus as Lord is to use these elements of life in a way that reflects that, as good as they are, none are in the place of ultimate loyalty.  We can use them to honor Christ.  That is the inner dimension of being a subject of King Jesus, having hearts that view things around us from his values.

The outer dimension is what we actively do to reveal and to extend the Kingdom of God to those around us.  I'm a Facebook friend of Bryan Bywater and of a number of you all – and as I have read the posts about what New Hope does for so many people, I have been humbled and delighted.  Especially given the size of the congregation, it is an amazing set of ministries you are part of, and which show the heart of the King at work through you.  I am sure that as you seek to love others in Jesus’ name, you keep seeing other needs and other things that could be done – and you think, “Maybe we could be part of that, too.”  You are using money, authority, and other potential idols as servants of King Jesus, and that is a wonderful thing.  God is at work in you and through you.

I do not know what other things the Lord Jesus may have in mind for you, in terms of anything concrete.  I do know, however, that his goal is that he be King of your heart and King of your actions.  He has been, is, and will be at work both within you and through you to make his kingship real in your heart and revealed in your lives.  That is his ongoing work of grace in all those whom he has transferred from the dominion of darkness to the Kingdom of Light through his Son.

We belong to a kingdom that transcends time and that transcends space.  Men and women of ages past belong to it, men and women today belong to it, and, should the Lord delay his return, men and women of untold generations will belong to it – not only in the United States, but all around the world.  We are part of a kingdom of millions upon millions who know and love the Lord Jesus.

In 1958, a U.S. soldier wandered the streets of Berlin to see the sights. Despite the bustling new life in parts of the city, reminders remained of the destruction of World War II. Walking through a residential area one evening, across the cobblestone street he saw an open space edged with flowers. In the center stood the stone front of what had been a church. The building was no longer there, but the rubble had been cleared away in an attempt to fill the empty space with a little park. The former church's main door was shaped in a Gothic arch, and over it was carved into the stone in German: HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL PASS AWAY BUT MY WORDS WILL NOT PASS AWAY.

As he stepped through the arch where the doors had once been, of course he wasn’t inside anything.  What was once a place of worship had been reduced to a patch of stone pavement and open sky.  Not so with the Door – Jesus Christ!  As we step into Christ, we enter into his unshakable, eternal presence.  It cannot be reduced; it can only be experienced – forever.

To our eternal King, ruler of heaven and earth, be glory now and forevermore. AMEN.