Jesus Is Indeed Your King!

Last Sunday of End Time, Christ the King, Stewardship Sunday #3, 11/21/10
Jeremiah 23:2-6


Jesus Is Indeed Your King!
I. He is your righteousness.
II. Give him your allegiance.


Royalty is back in the news. In fact, this week it was all over the news as Prince William of Great Britain announced his engagement. No doubt we haven’t heard the end of it. And we likely won’t hear the end of it until well after the wedding has taken place sometime next year. Obviously some people love all the coverage, otherwise the news media outlets wouldn’t be offering it. But there are some people who have heard enough already. Some adore the pomp and circumstance. Others consider it to be a huge waste of money and time. Like it or not, British royalty is almost our last modern point of contact with a king and queen. Other than at times such as this when there’s a royal wedding being planned, we barely give such royalty a thought.

And perhaps that’s also true in our spiritual lives. As we gather throughout the year as God’s people we receive a steady spiritual diet of the truth that Jesus is our Savior and the Son of God. Those truths are regularly repeated in worship and various Bible study opportunities. But how often do we consider Jesus as our King? Even when we speak of his kingdom—as we do every time we recite the Lord’s Prayer—our thoughts about Jesus tend to focus more on the truth that he is our Savior than on the truth that he is our King. Does that analysis ring true for you?

If so, then it’s a good thing that every year on this last Sunday of the church year we recall the comforting and powerful truth that Jesus is our King. Even though we don’t tend to think of him often in those terms, it’s still true. Jesus is indeed your King. Let’s focus on that truth this morning as we study one of the Old Testament prophecies about our King, the one before us this morning in Jeremiah 23.

Part I.

For nearly two years now there has been great debate among the people of our country just what our government should be doing and shouldn’t be doing to offer assistance to businesses and individuals who are struggling economically. There were some huge bailouts of banks, investment firms and auto manufacturing companies. Many of us enjoyed economic stimulus money as part of our income tax refunds. These programs and others like them caused citizens to ask the philosophical question, “What is the role of government in our lives?”

In a much more tragic situation God’s people were asking similar questions during the days of Jeremiah the prophet. Things were a mess. God’s people were suffering for many reasons, and one of them was political instability. In Jeremiah’s day, Judah’s kings ruled for a lifetime. But during Jeremiah’s lifetime he lived under no less than 5 kings. That doesn’t sound so terrible to our modern ears, but it was a politically crippling situation for God’s people. By and large their kings were useless in leading the nation. Worse yet, they refused to listen to God’s word. They were leading God’s people away from the Lord, not to him. That’s why the Lord announced to the leaders of his people, “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done.”

But that wasn’t all. It was also a time of terrible international insecurity. Egypt was vying with a new world power—Babylon—for ultimate control. Unfortunately for God’s people, they lived right between the two. But rather than trust in the Lord to protect his people, Judah’s kings vacillated between the Egypt and Babylon to secure Judah’s position. And the results were disastrous. The battles cost Jews their lives, the invading armies cost Judah its crops, and the victorious foreign kings demanded Jewish gold and silver.

But really all these national disasters were only a symptom of a much deeper tragedy. I alluded to it before. The leaders of the people were leading them away from the Lord. The people no longer cared about the Lord or his word. True worship of the only true God was at an all-time low in the history of God’s people. The Jews lived as they pleased and worshipped false gods as they pleased. Those were the real problems.

So what was the solution? Who better to answer that question than the all-knowing Lord God? He said, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.’” He foretold the coming of a righteous Branch of King David. You and I know that this is none other than Jesus Christ, a direct descendant of King David. The Lord calls him a righteous Branch. In contrast to the wicked kings who were leading them now, here was a King who was and would always be righteous or holy. He would always do what is right. In fact, he would obey God’s law perfectly. In doing so, he would be our righteousness. You see, our deepest problem is not our financial situation, our political situation, or our employment situation. Our deepest problem is sin. We commit them every day, more than we can count. And we’re powerless to do anything about it. We have nothing to pay for them. On our own, our situation is helpless and hopeless. But here’s where your King comes in. He provides you with his righteousness. You talk about a bailout! He gives us the holiness he demands and, in doing so, he makes us right with our holy God. That’s what makes Jesus your King.

Jesus is indeed your King. He is your righteousness.

We’ve all learned the lesson over these past few years that government can’t solve all our problems. Sometimes the best it can do is put a Band-aid on them so that they hurt less and perhaps heal a little faster. But as soon as one crisis gets solved another arises. And it’s all because of sin. My sins and yours only add to the problem. But thanks be to God we have a King that overcomes sin! It’s the King who loved us enough to die for us. It’s the King who always lived a perfect life for us. And for that reason, he is the only one who can give us the righteousness or holiness we need to have an eternal relationship with him. That righteousness and that relationship are yours by faith in Jesus your King. What you so desperately need he graciously provides. Jesus is indeed your King!

Part II.

In medieval times when monarchies were the norm, the subjects of a king expected the king to assist them in a crisis, to do what he could to alleviate their suffering. In return, kings expected loyalty from their subjects.

That’s a concept which has faded with the passing of time, wouldn’t you say? Loyalty to a government official. We just don’t think in those terms. The election results from a few weeks ago are evidence of it.

In fact, we pride ourselves on our rugged individualism. About the only thing we’ll pledge allegiance to these days is the flag of the United States of America. Loyalty in the workplace is a thing of the past. So is loyalty to a particular brand of product. Even loyalty to institutions such as schools and churches isn’t what it used to be.

But what about loyalty to our King, Jesus Christ? Well, the fact that we’re here today is an indication that we still possess that loyalty. But if we’re honest about it, we’d have to admit that loyalty vacillates. Usually that’s a priority issue. We have to make decisions about how we’re going to use our time and worship of our King gets thrown into the mix. How do we balance the use of time that’s demanded of us—such as work and school—verses discretionary time—such as time for family, recreation and the Lord’s work? We all have limits on our finances, so we have to make choices on how we’ll spend what we have. The decisions we make say much about our commitment to Christ, our King. And if we were to step back and look at our commitment to Christ from afar, we’d have to admit that it vacillates.

At other times in our lives our commitment vacillates because of our outward circumstance. We let a particular difficulty in our lives drive a wedge between us and our Savior. That’s the opposite of what he wants. He tells us in his word that he wants to use a time of testing to draw us closer to him. But we vacillate.

Such a lack of commitment to an earthly king is explainable, even expected. But there’s no reason for a lack of commitment to Christ, your King.

So let’s address that this morning. You have a Savior whose highest will is that you live with him in his kingdom forever. There’s nothing in it for him. Out of the deepest and purest love for you he only wants to bless you eternally. That love stretches back into eternity as he knew you by name before he created all things. That love for you drove him to the cross. He continues to display that love for you now in your lifetime as he brought you to faith in him as the one who lived for you and died for you. He brought you into his kingdom through your baptism. He loves you enough to keep you in your faith through his word and the Lord’s Supper. Consider how faithful his love for you has been in this church year now drawing to a close. Consider how he has promised that faithful love to you in the church year we’ll open next week. He’s committed to you as your King. Give him your love-filled allegiance in return. Commit yourself to Christ, your King! Amen.