Video Transcript: King of the Jews

Unit 01 03 King of the Jews 

Jesus was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes in the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led Him away and delivered Him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And the answered him, You have said so. And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you? But Jesus made no further answer. So that pilot was amazed. Now at the fees to use to release for the one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And He answered them saying, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up? But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him released for them Barabbas instead, and pilot again said to them, then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify Him. And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil Is he done, but they shouted all the more crucify him. So Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified, the word scourge means severely and terribly whipped. And the soldiers led Him away inside the palace, that is the governor's headquarters, and they called together the whole battalion. And they closed him in a purple row and a purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, Hail King of the Jews. And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him, and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they let him out to crucify him. And they compel the pastor by Simon Sirene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. That would have been to drug him to take away pain. And so he refused that. And they crucified Him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what it should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified Him. And the inscription of the charge against him read the King of the Jews. And with him, they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left, and those who passed by derided him wagging their heads and saying, Aha, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. So also, the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, He saved others, but he cannot save himself. Let the Christ that king of Israel come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. This ends the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word to those who listen.

When Jesus was born into the world, he was called the King of the Jews. The Wiseman, who came from afar, said, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews, we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. And when they came asking about the King of the Jews, the guy whose title was king of the Jews, Herod the Great, immediately set in motion, attempts to kill Jesus. So from the time he was a baby, he was known by some at least to be King of the Jews and efforts were made on his life. And then, of course, the charge for which he died, was that he was the king of the Jews in this story that we've just read of Jesus sentence and crucifixion. Just notice how often in that brief story, how often he's called King of the Jews. Pilate says, Are you the king of the Jews? He says to the crowd, do you want me to release for you, the King of the Jews? Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews? The soldiers mocking him say Hail, King of the Jews? The Sinai nail the bobbin says in three different languages, the King of the Jews, and when they're mocking him, they call him the king of Israel, come on down. So throughout this passage, and throughout Jesus life, King of the Jews is a very innocent and title for who He was. And his, the languages of Hebrew and of Latin, and Greek all proclaimed him King of the Jews so that anybody walking by would see the sign of the charge against him, but also have the title that was rightfully his. Until this morning, I just want to sync with you on the fact that Jesus is King of the Jews. And I have a really complicated outline, we're going to think about Jesus Jewishness, and about Jesus kingship. So it'll be a little more detailed than that. But those are the two main things we want to think about when we think about King of the Jews is that Jesus was very Jewish, and that Jesus wasn't is a king. Sometimes, we could ask today with the Wiseman, where is he who was born King of the Jews, because the Jewishness of Jesus is something that's really quite easy to overlook, and not pay much attention to I know sometimes when we're reading our Bible, and I mentioned Jews, the the kids that sometimes ask, well, what is a Jew? And are we Jews? Well, the answer to what is a Jew is, at one level, Jews are people whose great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And there are many people in the world, still today, millions of them whose ancestry goes back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so by their bodily heritage, they are Jewish people. A lot of Jewish people live in Israel. A lot of Jewish people live in the United States. A lot of Jewish people used to live in Europe, to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis killed 6 million of them. But there are many Jewish people still in the world today. And Jesus was a Jew.

Jesus was born Jewish, his mother Mary was Jewish, his adoptive father, Joseph was Jewish. He was raised in a Jewish nation and Jewish homeland, according to Jewish customs. When the wise men came seeking Jesus, they did not say where is he who was born King of the Romans, whereas he was born King of the Russians, whereas he was born King of the Americans or the British or the French. They said, Where is the one who was born King of the Jews, they didn't go to Berlin, seeking Him or to New York seeking Him or to Moscow or anywhere else, they went to Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem, to Bethlehem, which was a Jewish city and a Jewish town. And Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that Jewish town and grew up in the Jewish town of Nazareth. When Jesus was eight days old, he received the Jewish sign of circumcision. He went his parents attended synagogue, every week for the teaching and worship in the synagogue. He and his parents went to the various festivals of the Jewish people in the great temple of Jerusalem. Jesus studied the Jewish Scriptures, Jesus fulfilled the Jewish Scriptures, and the prophecies and the hopes and the expectations of the Jewish people of Israel, like people. Jesus was called rabbi, the Jewish term for a teacher, Jesus was called by many the prophet who is coming into the world, because they knew the prophecy that there would be a Jewish person even greater than the Jew, Moses, a prophet would be kind of like Moses only greater, the prophet who was promised, and they knew prophecies of the anointed one Messiah are the Greek word for it is Christ, but their word would be mushy Akbar, Messiah. And they looked to someone who would be a rabbi and a prophet and the Messiah and all these titles, Jewish titles, were applied to Jesus and you really don't understand Jesus as fully as you could, if you don't understand what those Jewish titles for him mean. So the first people who came to honor Jesus were Jewish shepherds. Jesus, first followers were all Jewish, the 12 apostles were all Jewish, the women who assisted the apostles and Jesus, on their travels, were all Jewish women, the early church in Jerusalem was a Jewish church. Even the mission to the Gentiles often spread through a network of Jewish people. Paul would always go to the synagogue, or the local gathering of Jewish people and of those who are called God's hearers, who were non Jewish or Gentile people who would worship the God of Israel, knowing him as the one true God. And that's how the gospel spread when you read the book of Acts. It was always going to the synagogue and some to some of the people in the synagogue would get really riled and angry at the gospel but others would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him. And that was Paul's method. He says in Romans chapter one, that the Gospel is the power of God probes out for salvation, first for the Jews, then for the Gentiles. And that was his missionary method, he first go to the Jewish outposts, where there were already some worshipers of the one true God. And then he would use that as his launching base to carry the gospel to others in the area. So Jesus was a Jew and the movement, the early Christian movement was a Jew. Something terrible happened along the way. However, some Jewish people resisted the gospel and some Gentile people still had a lot of anti Jewishness, in their attitudes. And after a while the church and the Jewish people drifted apart, and some even in the church became very anti Jewish and cruel to Jews throughout the centuries, a terrible, terrible development, and they would accuse the Jews of being Christ killers. And that gives you the right to take away Jewish property and mistreat Jewish people and kill them if you wish, because the Jews were the price killers.

Well, now, there were some Jews involved in killing Christ, but because that's because the whole story happens among Jewish people. That's like saying that the Scottish people were William Wallace betrayers. Well, yeah, but William Wallace was Scottish himself. And the whole movement that he led involves the Scottish people. And some of the villains are Scottish. But so was he. Some of the villains in the death of Jesus were Jewish, but so was he, so is he. And so we're all those important followers of his. And really, if you want to be a follower of Jesus at all, you'll have to accept the title that the apostle Paul gives your children of Abraham, by faith in Christ Jesus, even even if you didn't descend from him bodily, you are related to Him by faith. And you come under that umbrella of Israel and become Jewish in that spiritual sense, in union with our Lord Jesus Christ. So when my kids ask our are we Jewish? Well, I say your mom's great grandmother was Jewish. So you've got a little bit of Jewish blood in you. But you're Jewish, because your children of Abraham by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, at any rate, Jesus was a Jew. And we need to keep in mind then that he is a Jew, for Jewish people. That's very important to remember in our time, too, because over the centuries, some Jewish people have taught their children that Jesus is not for Jews, if Jesus is any good at all, he's for Gentiles only. And if you were to follow Jesus and believe in Him, that would mean you stopped being a Jew. I spent my whole summer in Israel one year with a group called Jews for Jesus. So there are Jews for Jesus. But the irony is that you could be considered a Jew, if you're an atheist, or an agnostic who believes nothing. But if you are a Jew who follows Jesus, many of them will say you have renounced your Jewishness. Not so she's his own mother, Mary said that God has helped his servant Israel remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers, the coming of Jesus into the world was God's mercy to Israel. Nathaniel, one of the early disciples said, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. And when there were some Gentile converts who are tempted to think that God was just ditching the Jews now, and welcoming the other nations. The apostle Paul set them straight. He says, Did God reject His people? By no means he said, If you belong to God at all, it's because the Jewish people were the native olive tree and you were an outsider, but you were grafted in and yeah, maybe a few branches from the Jewish tree were cut off to make room for you. But God can can graft any Jewish people he wants right back into that tree. Again, God has not written off the Jewish people. Um, Jesus. On the other hand, God hasn't written them off. But another serious error is to think that there are other ways of salvation, that Christians have one way of salvation through faith in Jesus, but God has kind of a different path. For Jewish people. That's not true either. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father through me whether you're Jewish or Gentile, whoever you are, there's one way to be saved and to know God, and that's Jesus Christ. And so he is a Jew, for Jewish people. They need Him and they can have him and it's wonderful that many Jewish people even they are coming to know Jesus. And in my understanding of Romans 11, many more than near the end of the age are going to flock to know the Lord Jesus as well. Well, Jesus is a Jew. For Jews. He's also a Jew for Gentiles. God's original promise to the father of the Jewish nation Abraham, all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. And that offspring as the Apostle Paul explains the New Testament, there, it's not plural, but one seed, the Lord Jesus Christ is the primary source of that blessing to all the other nations. And so he's a blessing to ask. But let's never forget that salvation as Jesus himself put it, salvation is from the Jews. God chose the Jewish people and then chose one particular Jew to be our Savior. Why does that matter for us today? Well, a number of reasons. One is just the way we relate to Jews.

Some Christians have a horrible history of the way they have treated Jewish people. And we need to remember that Jesus and those early followers were Jews, that God chose the Jews in love, that he has not forsaken his purposes for the Jews, and that he says, Whoever touches the Jewish people touches the apple of his eye. Satan hates the Jewish people, because they are the people for whom the Christ came. And he has throughout history, tried to turn even the very Church of God against them to disastrous error. So whenever you know or meet Jewish people, you're to treat them with love, not with contempt or with hatred. It also affects how we relate to God. Remember this, here, O Israel, the LORD our God is one. Not there are several gods, the God of Israel is the only God on offer. He's the only one available. And so if we're going to relate to God, we need to relate to the God of Israel in praise him, as the God was grafted us into Israel as well. We also need to understand the continuity of history. God doesn't have plan A, plan B, plan C, Plan D. And if one of them doesn't work out, then he goes to a different plan. He had one plan all along. And it was to bring Jew and Gentile together into one body, in our Lord Jesus Christ. And he that plan unfolded, according to God's appointed times, throughout history. And a final point, there's others that could be made by this one emphasize the unity and value of the Old Testament as well as the new the Old Testament and the New were both written by Jewish people. But we sometimes disregard the old because we think it's just been replaced by the new. But there is tremendous amount to be gained by continuing to study all of God's Word in both Testaments. And so we Gentiles by physical birth, but Jews by spiritual rebirth, can benefit very much from focusing and being very aware of the Jewishness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, having looked at that, there's plenty more that could be said, but I won't say it this morning, because we need to move on to look not just at Jesus Jewishness, but now at Jesus kingship. Jesus declared the coming of the Kingdom of God, if you were to do a computer search of Kingdom of God, or kingdom of heaven, you would see all through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, especially those phrases, kingdom of God, or kingdom of heaven, really, they mean the same thing. Heaven is a polite Jewish way of saying, God, in that kind of context, it's not just saying, there's a kingdom called heaven, which is a really cool place that you can get to someday. Now, in other contexts, heaven can mean that, but when, for example, the prophet Daniel says, to Nebuchadnezzar, then you'll know that heaven rules is that's just a polite, roundabout way of saying, God rules. So Matthew, often his gospel uses kingdom of heaven, the other gospels use the kingdom of God more means the same thing. God reigns. Jesus came into Galilee, and what was his gospel, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent, and believe in the gospel. So he's saying, This reign of God, this kingship of God has come very close to you, when he drives out the evil spirits. He says, if it is by the finger of God, that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And so he's proclaiming this kingdom. And people start getting excited, because a lot of them have been waiting for the kingdom to come. They've been waiting for the kingdom of God to come close, and for things to change. And so after Jesus does this amazing miracle, where he feeds 5000 people, that people are really excited about King and free food well,

and Jesus hightailed it out of there, because he knows they intend to come and make Him a king by force. And that's not the kind of kingship or the kind of timetable that Jesus was going to be working with. So when they intended to common make Him a king by force, and they didn't even say that to him. Jesus was just smart enough to know they're experts. And then of course, as God could also read hearts, and so he just went off to a mountain by Himself to get away from that expectation. Now what were they expecting? Well, they had their ideal King and the golden age of kingship in Israel were the reigns of David and Solomon. David gave him victory over foreign powers. And then David had a dream and a desire to build a temple for God. God said, Well, I don't want you to be the one to build the temple. But David still did gather a huge amount of wealth to go into the temple and laid the plans for building it. And then it was his son, Solomon, who actually built the temple. So kingship was something where you conquered those nasty foreign enemies. And you had a great place to worship God and temple worship was built and restored. If you moved a little later in history. Another example would be Judas Maccabeus, or Judah, the hammer. Israel was occupied by foreign enemies, by Greek and then by the Greek heritage that was ruling out of Egypt and out of Syria. And after Alexander's Empire got divided up at any rate, by the time of Judah, they were under somebody who was kind of a foretaste of the Antichrist, Antiochos epiphanies, a really nasty person who butcher babies and, and killed Jewish people and sacrificed pigs in God's temple and up arose Judah, the hammer, and he put the hammer down. And for three years, Judah and the other Maccabees, his brothers led a rebellion. And then the enemy leader, the king Antiochos, who proclaimed himself to be God suddenly died of unknown causes. We seem to know what the causes were, it was, and of course, God struck him down, but in terms of the battles that were fought due to the hammer was a major leader in that. And then when they had driven out the enemy, they cleanse the temple, and they rededicated it. And that's still celebrated by Jewish people in the Feast of Hanukkah. So you have a three year campaign, and then the cleansing of the temple. Now, here's another figure who was a king. Herod the Great was declared Kingdom Judea by the Romans, who was declared that in 40 BC, and there was one group of people that the Romans could never quite handle, and never drive out. And that was the Parthians. And they were a pretty tough bunch. And they invaded the Land of Israel and Herod led a three year campaign against them, and he succeeded in driving back and driving out the Parthian invaders, and after getting rid of the foreign enemies. Then Herod launched a major project to rebuild and refurbish the temple in Jerusalem after a long time, it was dedicated under Herod the Great's rule. Now, there were some people who weren't quite eager to see Herod as the King of the Jews, though that was his title. And they didn't really see him as the fulfillment of the new David coming to rule. He had a few minor problems such as he wasn't really very Jewish. He was from the Edomites. And from more the descendants of Esau, he also wasn't exactly the ideal godly king, seems how he murdered three of his sons and his wife and various other people and attempted to murder Jesus, you know, among his various crimes. So there was something about Herod where he said, Well, yeah, I guess he did drive out some foreign enemies, and he did rebuild the temple, but I'm not sure he's the king of the Jews, we were all hoping for. Well, along comes one of his kids who survived him, which was kind of hard to do, but he did. And Herod Antipas became king. Now, is this Herod, you know, he's the one who's ruling during the time of John the Baptist and Jesus. And his symbol was a read that grows beside the Sea of Galilee. Now, if you were to say, Who's the king of the Jews? Most people say, Well, I guess anthesis. If you had to say somebody was king of the Jews, I guess he's the guy right now.

But John the Baptist says that he does not do what's right. He rebukes him for taking his brother's wife and Antipas throws John in prison. Jesus offers a bit of commentary about Herod Antipas. Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John, he says, Once you go out into the wilderness to see or read, swayed by the wind. You know, we sometimes read that. Yeah, well, yeah, he's just talking about a read flopping back and forth. But what he's really saying is good. You didn't really go out there to see somebody like Herod Antipas digit, because the read was Herod's symbol. You didn't go out there to see that kind of a guy. You go to see somebody wearing silk and fancy finery and all of that know that you go to palaces for that. We know somebody right down the road, who's got to read and all that fancy fancy clothes in his palace and he's not the guy we're looking for hizzy What did you go out to see? Profit? Yes. And I'll tell you more than a profit. So John was one who was prophesying the way for the real king that they've been looking for. And it sure wasn't Herod. At any rate, you've got these different possibilities for King. And then of course, you have the greatest power in the world, the Emperor of Rome. After the death of Julius Caesar, his adopted son Octavian, took over the Roman Empire after fighting with various competitors. And then Octavian declared his adopted father Julius to be God. And what does it make you when you declare your dad to be God? Well, you're the Son of God. And you're the supreme King and the Son of God has taken over the world and is bringing the peace throughout the world. And then, of course, after Octavian who renamed himself Augustus died, then his heir, Augustus Tiberius, Caesar took over. And when Jesus was given a coin, he would have had a coin during the reign of Tiberius, because that's who was Emperor at the time. And this is the coin on one side, it said, Augustus Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, hey, if your son of the Divine Gus was What are you, your son of God, and the other side had Pontifex, Maximus, Chief Priest. So the Roman Emperor is the chief priest and the Son of God. Now, what happens when somebody comes around saying, God is taking over? I am the king of the Jews. I am the Son of God. You the Roman powers are not going to be real thrilled about that. Herod isn't going to be too thrilled about that either. The chief priests who have been making pretty good money under the status quo and don't want that to get overturned, aren't gonna be too excited either about somebody saying God's taking over, he's come near. And so that's the accusation against Jesus. They began to accuse him saying, We found this man subverting our nation. These are some of the details that we have from other Gospels about what the accusers of Jesus were saying, you know, it we got the summary of it in mark where they call him King of the Jews. But here's what they're explaining. We found this man subverting our nation, he opposes payment of taxes to Caesar actually didn't, he just took that coin and said, Well, give to Caesar what Caesars and give to God, the things that are gods don't go around calling Caesars Son of God. Don't worship Him, you can pay his taxes, but don't go around worshipping Him. But anyway, they accused him of opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king. Pilate, you know, he just Pilate is king, this Carpenter, you know, who I by the time pilot got ahold of him, he'd already been beat up pretty badly, you know, the night before. So he's got this beat up, peasant. He's having a hard time taking him seriously as a contender for King or as a rival to Caesar the Son of God. So he wants to set him free because he knows that whatever this Jesus is, whether he's just a little Loony, and thinks he's something vague or whatever, he sure isn't a king. But the Jewish leaders kept shouting, if you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar, anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. Well, what was going on with Jesus, he wasn't exactly competing with Herod for Herod's position, or even competing with Tiberius Caesar, for Caesar's position. He had a bit higher position in mind, and a different way of being king. Jesus explained, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. Nor will they say, look, here it is, are there for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Wherever Jesus goes, is where the kingdom of God is. That's what he's saying, wherever I go, that's where the kingdom is. And Jesus says to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. But it doesn't mean my kingdom isn't in this world and has no impact on this world Jesus game, so that God's will would be done on earth, as it is in heaven. It's not an other worldly kingdom, in the sense of only being about some other place called heaven. But it's not of this world, the authority for it doesn't come from this world. It comes from God. My kingdom is not of this world, if it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place, his authority and his kingship and his rule comes from God Himself, not from how many swords he can get together, and how many armies he can assemble. So Jesus makes it clear that his kingdom is going to be proceeding in quite a different way than even David or Solomon, and certainly different than Parad, or the Caesars.

Jesus revealed a different kind of kingship, his main battle was against bigger enemies. His battle was against sin, against death against Satan, not against any particular ruler at a particular time. But instead against the one the Bible calls the ruler of this world, that is the devil, and against the powers that are always with a sin and death, no matter who happens to be in charge of governments at a given time. God is becoming king on Earth, as in Heaven, through the reign of Jesus, and that kingship is already active. Now Jesus didn't say the kingdom will come someday it'll come in its fullness in all its power and glory someday, but the kingdom has been among us. And Satan has been limited. Ever since Jesus came, He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. He said, The kingdom of God is near the finger of God is right here with you. So his kingdom is already at work wherever he's freeing people from evil powers, wherever he is forgiving sins, wherever he is healing people, wherever he's transforming lives, wherever he's working from the inside out, and not just enforcing his reign on people. His kingdom is often working secretly, like yeast in bread, or like seed in the ground that's just growing up quietly, when nobody's looking. And so Jesus says, My kingdom is not coming with all these big armies and trumpets and all of that, but it's going to change the world. And then, of course, when he does come again, then he'll come openly, and in power and glory, finally, to crush those who still remain as enemies. But in the meantime, his kingdom starts and operates in a very different way than the military leaders of his time. Now all of this was pretty hard for people to grasp while it was happening. And many of them did have expectations from the prophets, and many of them may even heard the prophecies, but they didn't put various parts together. They read the prophecies about a king, or the Messiah, or the son of David, and they read those prophecies and that he would defeat his enemies. And he would rule wisely and well. And so they look forward to somebody would be a king like that. They also heard prophecies about Yahweh the Lord Himself, coming as the ruler and shepherd of Israel. So they looked forward to a day when God would come himself to rain into rule, but they didn't necessarily think that God and the David King were the same person. And then there's a third figure, in some of the prophets, the prophet Zechariah talked about someone who would be suffering and would be pierced. The prophet Isaiah spoke to have a humble unimpressive servant, who would suffer rejection and torture and doubts were things he didn't do for sins that others committed. So you had these three figures out there in the prophets. And nobody really imagined that the King, the LORD, and the servant, could be the same person. But Jesus did understand that. And he of course, being that person understood it, and it could have been grasped if you really read the prophecies. All right, here's one from Jeremiah, the days are coming declares the Lord, when I will raise up for 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 righteous savior. So the prophecy of the David King is also a prophecy of the Lord, our righteous savior. So those two figures actually do come together right here in the same prophecy, or take the prophecy of the Lord burying his holy arm and the ruling King and the suffering servant. The prophet Isaiah says, See, my servant will act wisely, he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him. His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness. So will he sprinkle many nations and kings will shut their mouths because of him? So this promised servant who's going to be kind of ugly and rejected and not attracting people is going to be the arm of the Lord, somehow the Lord baring his holy arm, and then Isaiah says,

Who has believed our message, or to whom has the arm of the Lord then revealed? He grew up before him like a tender plant and like a root out of dry ground, he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to nothing in his appearance, that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yeah, we considered him stricken by God's smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. and by his wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of assault, He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shares a silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression, and judgment, He was taken away and who can speak of his descendants, for he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people, he was strict and he was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich and his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him, and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life, a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand, after the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their transgressions. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with a strong because he poured out his life on the death. And it was numbered with the transgressors. For he was made intercession for the transgressors. So that's the prophecy that Isaiah had, were of the arm of the Lord coming in power. And just before that, he says, You know, I've got good news, your God reigns, and he's going to bear his holy arm. And here you've got this servant that nobody wants to look at, and that everybody beats up on, and despises. And it turns out that the ruling King and the mighty arm of God is the very same person as the suffering servant, Who'd a thunk it. You would never have guessed that except it was right there, you know, staring you right in the face the whole time. That's, that's the way the Old Testament Scriptures are. Sometimes. It's staring you in the face the whole time, and you don't see it until you see it in Jesus. And then all of a sudden, you say, yeah, that clicks, and that clicks. And that's true. And that all goes together. Well, when it was all happening, we've read the story. What a ridiculous King. Pilot looks at him and says, Well, I know why they handed him over. They're envious. He's sure no king, he's no threat to me. He's no threat to Herod. He's no threat to Caesar. I think I ought to just cut the poor guy loose and get him out of here. But he couldn't take him seriously as a contender for a throne. Herod and his soldiers when they got a hold of him for a few minutes, they mocked him and laughed at him. Pilots soldiers mocked him and put the crown of thorns in the purple robe on him and laughed at the notion that he was king of the Jews. The crowds mocked him, the priests mocked him they could all you king of Israel, come on down. And then he died in disgrace. Everybody thought it was pretty hilarious that this person of all people would be considered King of the Jews. Is there anybody who doesn't think it's ridiculous to call Jesus, the King?

Only one. And he's the one that matters. Because after all, the suffering his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied. That's what God had said all along. He had said he's going to suffer, he's going to suffer for all those sins, but he's going to see the light of life again. And no one everybody was done laughing at the king God raised Jesus from the dead, and put him on the throne of the universe. And long after Herod and the various Herod's are buried and despised long after all, the various Caesars have done all of what they have to do. Jesus Christ lives and reigns and billions of people calling King because when everybody laughed at him and wrote him off, the only one in the universe who matters said, This is My beloved Son. In him, I am well pleased. This is the sacrifice I had appointed all along. And I accept that sacrifice for the sins of the world. This is the one through whom I'm going to give everyone eternal life and so His eternal life is going to go into him right now by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so He raised Him from the dead. He is a ridiculous king in the eyes of the world. But as the Apostle Paul would later say, the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. And what does God say after all that after Romans, Gentiles and Jews alike have killed his son, after they've done their worst? Does God just write off these Christ killers, whether Jew or Gentile? Well, the apostle Peter delivers a sermon to the very crowd, and the very leaders who had held for Jesus death, and he emphasizes that their God is the only God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified His servant Jesus, you handed him over to be killed. But now fellow Israelites, I know they acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the Prophets saying that his Messiah would suffer, repent them, and turn to God. What a blessing those words are, repent and turn to God that your sins may be wiped out. And at times of refreshing, may come from the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. This is the grace of God, less than two months after they've killed his son, God has a spokesman say right now you got another crack at it, you've got a chance to turn around and change your mind about this Jesus person whom you killed. God had His plan and His reasons for letting him be killed. But now if you want your sins to be wiped out, they can be if you want your Messiah, he has already come and he's coming again. If you want times of refreshing, well, here's how to get the refreshing the King of the Jews is the source of all forgiveness of sins. He's the source of refreshing, he is our life. Dear Lord, we pray that you will give us again a new appreciation for your great son, who came in the womb of the Virgin Mary and lived among the Jewish people as a Jewish man. And we praise you that you have invited us and called us and then grafted us into that great olive tree of Israel that we too may be part of the one great people of God. And we thank you for the kingship of our Lord Jesus for His merciful kingship in in coming and helping people to change from the inside out rather than just coming and crushing all who oppose him. We know that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And if that is how you had handled kingship, we would all have been smashed. And so we thank you that you have done this great work of mercy and Jesus, the suffering servant, the victorious Messiah, the Son of God Himself. We pray, Lord, that you will save us and keep us away from the errors and all the pretenders who would rival his kingship in our lives and help us Lord always to live in the joy and the strength and the confidence of the reigning Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, Amen.