Sunday 22nd November - Christ the King (Next before Advent)
Theme: Christ the King
Readings: Daniel 7:9,10,13,14 Revelation 1:4b-8 John 18:33-37
Psalm 93
Collect:
God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.
Comment:
‘My kingdom is not of this world,’ said Jesus (John 18:36). But his kingdom includes us (Revelation 1:6); and it will include the whole world: when he comes again, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’ (Revelation 11:15). So we see two kinds of kingdom: the earthly kind that we all know and are involved with, the place of politics and armies and the struggle for wealth and power; and the heavenly kind, where God’s good and perfect will is done by every creature. The earthly kind should by rights be part of God’s kingdom – he is its Creator, he is its rightful king, his authority should be acknowledged by all. But God’s authority has been rejected and sin holds sway – all earth’s inhabitants are under the power of sin, evil happens to us all, and all of us who have the power to choose find it all too easy to choose the wrong thing. ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23), and death in this world is a fact of life, so to speak. This world is not yet God’s kingdom.
Not yet. But the heavenly kingdom’s invasion has started, for God’s King has already entered this world, and has already defeated the de facto spiritual ruler of this world, the one Jesus called ‘the prince of this world’ (John 14:30). Those who put their trust in Jesus and fully accept his authority over them are granted citizenship of his heavenly kingdom. We have been freed from our sins by his blood (Revelation 1:5) – freed from the wages that are our due, and freed from the authority and power of sin, free to live with God for ever, and free to serve him perfectly. Not that we can experience that freedom fully while we live on earth, for we still suffer evil circumstances, and we still make mistakes and take wrong turns. Yet God still accepts us for Jesus’ sake, and his Holy Spirit lives in us to pick us up and dust us down and set us on the right path to continue our life and work with him.
As members of God’s kingdom while living on earth, we have a particular role to play: we are all priests (Revelation 1:6). This seems to be a deliberate echo of Exodus 19:6, when at Mount Sinai God said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’. Priests in the Old Testament stood between God and the people, offering the people’s sacrifices to God, giving God’s blessing to the people and teaching them God’s ways. Our role as priests serving God is to bring the blessing of salvation to the rest of the world and to bring the needs of the world before God. Through us the kingdom of God continues to invade the kingdoms of this world.
It is vitally important that we really understand our status as Christians. We are, first and foremost, citizens of God’s kingdom by virtue of our adoption as members of God’s royal family. God is our Father as well as Jesus’ Father, and Jesus Christ is our King. All other Christians have exactly the same status: whether St John or Mother Theresa or the Virgin Mary or rich or poor or black or yellow – through faith in Christ we have all been forgiven and made sons or daughters of God.
It is equally important that we really understand our relationship with Jesus. He is our Saviour, who has rescued us from the dominion and condemnation of sin and brought us into the presence of God. But he is also our King, and we have been saved in order that we might enjoy the incredible privilege of knowing and serving God. Full commitment and complete submission to God is our highest privilege and greatest fulfilment. Christ cannot be our Saviour without also being our King.
Questions:
1) What are Christ’s claims on you, and how do you respond?
2) Who do you see yourself to be in your own eyes? In God’s eyes?
God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.
Comment:
‘My kingdom is not of this world,’ said Jesus (John 18:36). But his kingdom includes us (Revelation 1:6); and it will include the whole world: when he comes again, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’ (Revelation 11:15). So we see two kinds of kingdom: the earthly kind that we all know and are involved with, the place of politics and armies and the struggle for wealth and power; and the heavenly kind, where God’s good and perfect will is done by every creature. The earthly kind should by rights be part of God’s kingdom – he is its Creator, he is its rightful king, his authority should be acknowledged by all. But God’s authority has been rejected and sin holds sway – all earth’s inhabitants are under the power of sin, evil happens to us all, and all of us who have the power to choose find it all too easy to choose the wrong thing. ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23), and death in this world is a fact of life, so to speak. This world is not yet God’s kingdom.
Not yet. But the heavenly kingdom’s invasion has started, for God’s King has already entered this world, and has already defeated the de facto spiritual ruler of this world, the one Jesus called ‘the prince of this world’ (John 14:30). Those who put their trust in Jesus and fully accept his authority over them are granted citizenship of his heavenly kingdom. We have been freed from our sins by his blood (Revelation 1:5) – freed from the wages that are our due, and freed from the authority and power of sin, free to live with God for ever, and free to serve him perfectly. Not that we can experience that freedom fully while we live on earth, for we still suffer evil circumstances, and we still make mistakes and take wrong turns. Yet God still accepts us for Jesus’ sake, and his Holy Spirit lives in us to pick us up and dust us down and set us on the right path to continue our life and work with him.
As members of God’s kingdom while living on earth, we have a particular role to play: we are all priests (Revelation 1:6). This seems to be a deliberate echo of Exodus 19:6, when at Mount Sinai God said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’. Priests in the Old Testament stood between God and the people, offering the people’s sacrifices to God, giving God’s blessing to the people and teaching them God’s ways. Our role as priests serving God is to bring the blessing of salvation to the rest of the world and to bring the needs of the world before God. Through us the kingdom of God continues to invade the kingdoms of this world.
It is vitally important that we really understand our status as Christians. We are, first and foremost, citizens of God’s kingdom by virtue of our adoption as members of God’s royal family. God is our Father as well as Jesus’ Father, and Jesus Christ is our King. All other Christians have exactly the same status: whether St John or Mother Theresa or the Virgin Mary or rich or poor or black or yellow – through faith in Christ we have all been forgiven and made sons or daughters of God.
It is equally important that we really understand our relationship with Jesus. He is our Saviour, who has rescued us from the dominion and condemnation of sin and brought us into the presence of God. But he is also our King, and we have been saved in order that we might enjoy the incredible privilege of knowing and serving God. Full commitment and complete submission to God is our highest privilege and greatest fulfilment. Christ cannot be our Saviour without also being our King.
Questions:
1) What are Christ’s claims on you, and how do you respond?
2) Who do you see yourself to be in your own eyes? In God’s eyes?