Jesus, our Victorious King

  • Brian Thomas
  • Dec 9, 2007
  • Series: Topical

Jesus, our Victorious King: Implications for Kingdom Citizens
Mark 1:1-15

Introduction:

  • Primary theme of Scripture? (Kingdom)

Problems speaking of the Kingdom in the 21st Century:

  • Archaic and misunderstood phrase (inside the church, too)
  • We don't live in a monarchy and most countries that still pay homage to a royal line do more for traditions sake; they do not really reign in the true sense of the word, sovereign.
  • Those with King-like power we do know something about lead us to the conclusion that a Monarchy is Bad (democracy is good). We think of tyrants like Napoleon, Stalin, Pol Pot, Sadam Hussein, which leads us to the conclusion that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

SLIDE 2: The Magic Kingdom (Disney)

  1. Make-believe. The idea of Kingdom is one of fairy tales & myth.
  2. As kids in this fairy tale kingdom, we tend to project upon ourselves the idea of being the King (knight in shining armor) or the Queen or Pretty Princess.
  3. It is about happiness on earth. You can touch and feel this Magic kingdom. Jesus' Kingdom is by and large one that comes by faith.

SLIDE 3 Mark 1:1-15 (ESV)

  1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
  2. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,
  3. the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
    'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'"
  4. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
  5. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
  6. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.
  7. And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
  8. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
  9. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
  10. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
  11. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
  12. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
  13. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
  14. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,
  15. and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

 


SLIDE 4
I. The King Introduced

Characteristics of Mark:

  • Fast-paced and action-oriented (for a Roman audience)

- Matthew is like a Cecil B. Demil movie - old and epic
- Luke is like a Merchant Ivory film - flowery, endearing, and beautiful
- John is in his own category - he's like a PT Anderson film - sort of like the movie Magnolia - on the surface simple, but going deeper you start to see how mysterious and quirky it really is.
- Mark is frankly an action-adventure movie like Bourne Identity - hand held camera

Verse 1: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God

Jesus comes on the scene amidst two very different worlds: Jewish and Greco-Roman and the gospel transcends both those cultures as it does ours today, but it met these 2 worlds in unique ways.

Mark let's us know right at the beginning this is an account of Jesus Christ the Son of God. And this account is GOOD NEWS - Gospel. He doesn't spend time on his birth or early life, but introduces us to Jesus as he enters his public ministry.
David has said many times the Gospel - Euangelion - literally means good news. It is an announcement. It's official news - public fact for the record - and as we'll see Jesus' 1st century listeners had heard about the gospel before, it wasn't new news.

In fact, it was long expected, eagerly awaited news, which was why John the Baptist could draw such a big crowd. Isaiah had said long ago, "How lovely are the feet of those that bring - Good NEWS!

Mark also uses the title, Christ (Christos), which is equivalent to Messiah in Hebrew, to identify Jesus. This is a rich word saturated in Old Testament literature and prophecy. Mark states right at the outset, This is the Christ! THIS IS THE LONG PROMISED MESSIAH, which means, "Anointed One." (title of royalty)

Couple things need to be said. First, Israel had been waiting a long time for their promised King. 1st Century Jews considered themselves, by and large, to be in a state of exile, since they were under the rule and reign of a pagan emperor in Rome. Herod was a puppet king placed their by Rome to keep order and collect taxes.

In their minds, the promised Messiah would come and with military might overthrow the pagan powers, freeing God's people so they could keep Torah, and there would be peace in the land. In their mind this was primarily going to be a PHYSICAL Kingdom with Spiritual rewards.

So you can see why his followers where sort of let down when it became clear that Jesus' Kingdom was not going to meet these assumptions, especially when he was executed on a Roman cross (last week - Luke 24 - We had hoped...)

Secondly, John's baptism was not new to 1st century Jews. (Explain)

John's baptism was one of repentance, and Jesus said Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. What is repentance? Repentance (Metanoia) was a very politically charged word. I think in common pop-Christianity you get the idea of repentance being defined as just being sorry for your sins, and it is certainly that, but it is so much more. In the common Jewish vernacular it literally meant changing allegiances, changing sides, if you will; redirecting your entire life-view and attitude. It is a shift from one loyalty to another, from one kingdom to another.

The question that naturally arises is: Why would Jesus need to be baptized? Certainly he didn't need to repent of anything, so why? (SLIDE 5)

II. The King Identified.

Most scholars agree that in submitting to baptism, Jesus was identifying with those he was going to redeem - sinners. And in this submission the fabric of the heavens are opened and the Father in turn identifies Jesus as his Son in v. 11 - "You are my beloved Son; in whom I am well pleased" - the Spirit descends, empowering Jesus to fulfill his vocation as Isaiah's Suffering Servant. You get this great Trinitarian picture of our Sovereign 3-in-1 God commissioning Jesus to the work of restoration - of making all things new.

Do you see the great paradox here? King Jesus leaves his rightful throne in heaven to fulfill his redemption project and in doing so he identifies with sinners, suffers temptation, hardship & emotional turmoil, and ultimately death.

His kingship is unlike any other before or after! A normal king would not go out in the highways and bi-ways and eat, drink, and speak with commoners. He certainly would not touch disease-ridden citizens. But that's exactly what this King did. And man was it confusing, not only to his followers, but to those in "supposed" authority.

John 18:33
33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
34 Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?"
35 Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?"
36Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world."
37 Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world - to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."
38 Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

I know Pilate gets beat up a lot by preachers, but I kind of understand his confusion. This king of the Jews is brought by JEWS to be killed. Pilate doesn't understand why he should be bothered with him - so they say, "Hey, he's a threat to the emperor - he's claiming for himself a kingdom."

But can you imagine Pilate taking a look at Jesus and thinking this poor beaten down Galilean as a threat to the greatest empire in the history of civilization?

He was Poor - A King collected taxes - he lived off the people - this king? He told his followers to share their possessions, to store up their treasure in heaven. He intentionally ministered to the margins of society, and those that were rich and did come to him, usually left Jesus as unbelievers, because the life he called them to seemed too narrow.

He didn't have an Army - not even a platoon (11 blue-collar dudes and a couple of busy-body women), and the most zealous of his followers, Peter, denied his king 3 times.

He didn't speak like a King - Jesus claims he came into this world to in fact be a King, but his authority doesn't come from this world.

Put yourself in Pilate's shoes and you may not only get a picture of why it was so hard for him to believe in Jesus, but why so many today have a hard time believing that the buddy Jesus printed on their cool t-shirt or trucker hat can possibly be the sovereign one of the universe!

But throughout his short ministry we get pictures of Jesus confirming his Kingship:

  • Teaching (specifically his kingdom parables)
  • Miracles he demonstrates power over nature itself, including life and death,
  • The cross we see the King complete the greatest act of love the world has ever known.

But the story doesn't end. Three days later he rises from the dead and in this act of power and victory the King vindicates himself by defeating the enemies of Sin, Satan, and Death thus ushering in a new age.

40 days later, Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father, where he is making a footstool of his enemies - and he sends the Spirit at Pentecost and the church is born, empowered to advance his kingdom.

What do we do with such a king? A normal king would send others out to fight their battle, or at the very least if they did enter the battlefield, they sat at the back with their generals and aides, running the war on a board like a chess match with relative ease and comfort - with no real threat to his life.

King Jesus not only identifies with us, he goes to battle for us, in our stead, and the cry of victory is, "IT IS FINISHED!"

(SLIDE 6)
III. The Kingdom Inaugurated

Some 2000 years later we find ourselves living in this Kingdom age, and it is filled with tension. It gets a bit technical, but we are living in what could be called an overlapping eschatological period. Jesus spoke of "these last days", which signifies this period of time, but it has yet to reach its "last day" (day of the LORD).

  • "realized eschatology"
  • "Inaugurated eschatology"
  • "already and not yet"

In v. 15 Jesus says, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

Through repentance and belief in the good news, King Jesus is calling his kingdom citizens together as his people - the collective assembly of all God's people in all nations and for all times. But we as members of this kingdom live in a state of tension - this already and not yet!

So there is a past, present, and future reality to our salvation: we can say we have been redeemed, we're being redeemed and will one day be redeemed.

It is in and through this Kingdom that God is establishing his reign and continuing his redemptive mission. So...for now this kingdom is primarily a spiritual kingdom that is physically present in the church as she is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And...the gift of the Holy Spirit is but a foretaste of that which is to come. In fact in 3 places, Paul speaks of the Spirit as a deposit or guarantee of future redemption
(Ephesians 1:7-14)

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ
10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

(Explain: Arrabon - guarantee as commerce of full payment)

IV. Kingdom Implications (SLIDE 7)

1. Citizenship - A kingdom implies not only a King, but also subjects. By faith we are brought into the Kingdom of God as his kingdom servants. We in essence have dual-citizenship.

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil. 3:20.

2. New Identity - In Christ we are made new - we are not our own, because we have been bought by the blood of the King. Thus, we have a new identity. Our identity is not derived primarily by our ethnicity, nor by our gender, nor by our vocation, nor by our bank accounts, nor by our earthly parents, but through King Jesus we are now sons and daughters of the living God. We have a new identity as "CHRISTIAN". That is to be our source of our value, worth and well-being.

Just as the Father commended Jesus in our text with the words, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased," he now looks upon you and says, "You are my son - You are my daughter - in whom I am well pleased." DO YOU REALIZE THIS?

1 John 3:1-2
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

We have a new citizenship, we have a new identity, and we consequently have a new worldview as Christians.

3. Kingdom Worldview - We view life thru the eternal lens of the King. Worldview is defined by Al Wolters, "The comprehensive framework of one's basic beliefs about things."

Because of this new way of seeing things, we now posses a kingdom ethic. Our lives are radically transformed through this good news kingdom message. Our obedience - our service to the king - is motivated by love, not through the fear of a tyrant.

Tim Keller says, "In religion you obey in order to be accepted." But in the Kingdom of Jesus, "You are accepted and therefore you obey."

4. Kingdom Purpose - Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has sent me, so even now I am sending you." As kingdom citizens we now have a mission to fulfill.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus has delayed his return? Why he hasn't just come back and finished it all? I have. But then it dawned on me, what if he had come back before the Spring of 1993? Well, I would've been judged for high treason against the king, standing dead in my sins and sent packing straight to hell.

So personally, I am glad he has delayed. In fact, this is what Peter says:
"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

By delaying his return he is allowing his kingdom to continue to be built one soul at a time and we are privileged to now act on the king's behalf as royal messengers - as ambassadors, declaring to the world the news that you yourselves have found to be good and precious.

Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (Explain).

  • Withdrawn & Numb (inward focused)
  • Bitter & Hostile (blame-ward focused)
  • Purposeful (others focused - cared about making the situation better)

 

If anyone has a purpose to fulfill, if anyone should be other-centric, concerned with the peace and well-being of others, it should be US! Kingdom Citizens.

(SLIDE 9) Kingdom Summarized (Explain Slide)

In his book Christ and Time, Oscar Cullmann, writes of the kingdom of God in terms of WWII and the landing at the Normandy Invasion. He says that D-Day (taking the beach at the initial invasion) was necessary in order that final victory could be secured (V-Day). Likewise, Christ's first advent that we celebrate this during this Christmas season is like D-Day and his second coming and judgment will be like V-Day.

We now live in the times between, assured of final victory, but still fighting a very real and fierce battle against sin and evil.

 


(SLIDE 10) The King Returns

Before I conclude I want look at this well known passage about our King's humiliation and exaltation found in Philippians chapter 2 and I call you to submit to his authority this morning. Every knee will one day bow in acknowledgement of his Kingship. Let that day for you be today if you have not confessed your allegiance to Christ. Trust him for his gospel is good news, because he himself is a good savior and faithful King.

Philippians 2:1-11
1So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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