Christ is King!

[AI translation] This prophecy that I have just read from the book of Zechariah was fulfilled almost word for word 500 years after it was first uttered. Down to the smallest detail, everything happened as God had foreseen centuries before with the prophet Zechariah: on a donkey's back, a she-donkey on a colt, rejoicing with great joy in Jerusalem, giving a royal welcome to a poor and humble man whose dignity was simplicity and whose majesty was humility.There were many misunderstandings, false expectations, and sad asides in this whole scene of the flowery Sunday, but the one truth is that Christ is indeed Lord and King. And perhaps the whole purpose of the whole procession on Palm Sunday was to make Christ's kingship evident to all for once. For me, always, even now, Palm Sunday proclaims the kingship of Jesus Christ. And that is why I speak of it again today for who knows how many times, because there is hardly anything in the Bible that humbles and repents me more than the proclamation of Christ as Lord and King. There is hardly a greater untruth, alas: a lie, than when we say to Jesus, "Lord, my King! I am always reminded of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: 'Not everyone who tells me this is a liar: Lord! Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Mt 7,21) So, Christ is not Lord of all who say that He is, but only of those who obey Him, who testify that Christ is Lord and King by obeying Him!
The everlasting gospel of the flowery Sunday is, "Behold, your King is coming!" Let us go before Him and see if we can receive Him as King? First of all, I would like to note that this statement, Christ is King, is true even if nothing seems to be true, even if the opposite seems to be true, and even if one is unwilling to acknowledge it or does not know it. So I do not make Christ King and Lord. The apostle Peter said in his first Pentecostal sermon, 'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made him Lord and Christ, Jesus whom you crucified'. (Acts 2,36) Here, then, is the word that he who did not know it before, may know that God has made him Lord and King: 'He has exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:9-11) So it is true, as He Himself said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Mt 28:18b). Even Satan!
Yesterday my children and I read in our morning devotion the great high priestly prayer Jesus said for His disciples before He died. He begins, "Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son." (John 17:1b) And he says this on the eve of his arrest! At the time when the greatest humiliation, the greatest crushing, the greatest failure will begin in His life. When the least of His royal glory seems to be in view, even when all His royal glory seems to be about to be destroyed. Yes, because, in spite of all appearances, His royal dignity is asserted on the cross, for the chief priests and Pharisees, when they condemned Christ and crucified Him, did nothing but carry out the will of Christ from eternity, carrying out His predestined plan of salvation. His enemies, then, who had Him crucified: they were obedient servants of His royal will in carrying out His divine plan. All appearances were against His kingdom and yet against all appearances He was King and He was victorious! And so it is always with the Kingdom of Christ! Christ is King: it means that every event, every warfare, every success, every failure, every joy and every tragedy is His plan maturing, His will being accomplished. Even his enemies, though unconsciously, serve him!
There is no problem so far as the recognition of Christ's royal claim in the world at large is concerned. The difficulty begins when it is not in the world at large, but in the small world of the individual human heart that Jesus wants to enter as Lord and King! When the Lord of the world wants to be my Lord! When He to Whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given, now let all authority be given in my life. When every knee bows to the One at Whose name every knee bows, heavenly, earthly and under the earth: one day my knee shall bow! When the message of the Word becomes as unmistakably personal as our basic hymn, "Behold, your King is coming!" So, when it is not about the world, not about others, but about me and you personally: this is where the kingdom of Christ becomes problematic!
The other day I read a poignant story in a Dutch newspaper which illustrates what it means in practice to acknowledge Jesus as King. It tells the short story of how Rabbi Stostokovsky, a Talmud teacher at the Jewish seminary in Tel Aviv, once travelled from Haifa to Jerusalem. Sitting across from him was a young man who was reading a Hebrew New Testament with great fervor. The rabbi rebuked the young man severely. He replied by saying that he had given the scholar his New Testament as a gift. The rabbi read the four Gospels in a row that evening, locked in his room. At three o'clock in the morning he fell to his knees and began to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. "I have found over 200 passages in the New Testament that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is indeed the Messiah," he said. From that moment on, Christ became Lord and King in this man's life. How did he become Lord? By bowing down to Him, by surrendering to Him, by Christ exalting Himself before him in a way so amazing, so overwhelming, that it was impossible to bear and receive except on one knee!
Do you know the amazing power of Christ that literally makes you kneel before Him? I, too, first knew His royalty and power in my life when I kneeled before Him to ask forgiveness for my sins, when He stood before me as one who had the power to forgive my sins! One comes to know Jesus as their personal Lord and King when Jesus exercises the most awesome act of grace! Think about it, what is grace? It means that for you and me and the hundredth and hundred thousandth person, the Lord simply forgives all the debts we owe Him! What a great Lord and King is He who can do this! To forgive, to cancel so many debts, without my being hurt, without my being made poorer by it, and so that He is even more rich in glory! The Apostle Paul says: "Where sin increases, grace increases much more" (Rom 5,20b) Have your sins already increased His grace? Have you ever been able to receive Jesus as King? That is, have you ever been able to receive Jesus with your sins, with a willingness to confess and repent? Is that how you have come here now? Do you have repented sins, sins from which you want to be cleansed, to be delivered? To everyone who has brought a sinful heart to the church today on the feast of the Feast of the Remembrance of the Lord's Prayer, the Good News is addressed personally to him or her. Behold, your King is coming, who is righteous and redeeming..."
But Christ's kingdom does not end here, it is just beginning! The problem is that for many people of faith, it ends here, that is, at the acceptance of grace! But that is why the Lord had mercy, that is why He made known this undoubted proof of His royal power to someone, so that he might now live for Him, serve the King! In one word, what a man of faith should learn more and more every day! That word is obedience! Jesus Himself says in John's Gospel, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of this doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17) What this means is that you know Christ to the extent that you obey Him. At the same time, you come to know His divine power, His royal glory, His lordship over your life, as you obey Him! It is through obedience to Him that His Kingdom becomes a reality in your life!
For example, you can know the reality of forgiveness of sins by obeying His call, His word with which He calls, "Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden." (Mt 11,28) So you obey: you go and bring your sins to Him and thank Him for having spoken to you in this way: "Your sins are forgiven you." (Mt 9,2c) And as you go to Him, as you ask and give thanks, you are already truly receiving forgiveness of sins. Or, for example, you hear the command to love your enemy: you are incapable of it, you can only hate your enemy, because you have every reason to do so, etc. But because He said: you are ready to obey, and if you are really ready, you will find that you will succeed!
When a believer obeys the Lord, he always wins! Obedience is the means by which a believer will experience that Christ is truly Lord and King in his life. Obedience means that I go where the Lord has just told me to go and the moment I go, I experience that my King, to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given, is coming to meet me! "Behold, your King is coming to you" means that your King is bringing you victory, victory over sin, over death, over the nature of yourself, over your wickedness, and that is why you can now fight against sin, against all the wickedness of your old man, and even against death.
It is just as the Lord gave the land of promise as an inheritance to the Jewish people who were delivered from Egypt. And for this very reason, because he gave it to them, because victory was in principle already given to them: for this very reason they themselves had to conquer that land by armed force, by hard but successful fighting! Thine is the kingdom of God, thine is the victory over sin, thine is the triumph of the King over Satan and death: therefore go forth and fight the good fight of faith!
"Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, rejoice, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy king cometh unto thee; he is righteous and a deliverer, poor, and sitting on an ass's back, that is, a female ass. We have said that this prophecy has come true literally, down to the smallest detail, 500 years later! In the same way, literally and down to the smallest detail, this other prophetic vision, described by the Apostle John in the heavenly apparitions, will come true: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat on him was called Faithful and True, and judgeth righteously, and maketh war. And his eyes were as a flame of fire; and on his head were many crowns; and his name was written, which no man knoweth but he himself. And he was clothed in a robe smeared with blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies of heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white and clean linen." (Revelation 19:11-14) Those who could rejoice greatly as a King coming on a humble donkey's back, can rejoice even more greatly as a King coming in glory and power. All of us who are the people of the humble King through His blood and obedience to Him: with such joy we look for, desire, hope, and confidently believe that our glorious King is coming, coming to us, Who is "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev 19:16)
Amen
Date: 2 April 1950 (Palm Sunday)