Christ the King 2022
Opening song:
The good confession (chorus)
Call to worship:
pastor michael champoux
Psalm 2
song:
All hail the power
Historical reading:
pastor brett eckel
CCC art 7
song:
Jesus, thank you
Confession & Pardon:
Pastor Andrew loginow
Song:
Doxology
song:
Jesus is better
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
Christ the King 2022
Luke 22.14-30
Today is Christ the King Sunday and it is also the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is an American holiday but Christians all over the world celebrate Christ the King. Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of the church calendar year. The liturgical calendar begins every year with Advent, which starts next Sunday and ends with Christ the King Sunday. Christ the King is sort of like the New Year’s Eve of the church calendar. We end every year celebrating that Christ is King of all – everything we do is about Jesus!
Christ the King Sunday usually aligns with the American holiday Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving became a national holiday in the 1860’s when, in an attempt to unify the nation, President Abraham Lincoln decreed a national day of Thanksgiving every November. But the idea of a harvest feast of thanksgiving on American soil dates all the way back to 1621 when the Puritan pilgrims shared their first autumn feast with the Wampanoag tribe. This is one of the few occasions where the European settlers had peaceful relations with the Native Americans.
You may remember the story of the first Thanksgiving from school but do you remember the religious context? The Mayflower pilgrims belonged to the theological tradition of the Protestant Reformation. They were English Calvinists concerned with purifying the Church of England. The Puritans believed that the Church of England unbiblically married the church to the state. Even today the King or Queen of England is technically the head of the Church of England.
The Puritans believed that Scripture taught local church autonomy and that Christ alone was the King of the church. So first they went to Holland seeking religious freedom but they felt that the Dutch were a little too loose so these Puritans set out for what they called the new world. So when the Mayflower Puritans celebrated the harvest feast with the Native Americans it wasn’t just a celebration of thanksgiving but also a celebration of the kingship of Christ and their freedom to worship as they saw in Scripture. We stand in the same Reformed Protestant tradition as the Mayflower pilgrims. They were Calvinists who believed in the authority of Scripture and the autonomy of the local church.
Our text this morning is a perfect crossroad of Christ the King Sunday and the American tradition of Thanksgiving epitomized by the Puritans in 1621. In Luke 22 Jesus teaches about the weekly table of thanksgiving – the Eucharist. He also teaches us about his kingdom. And so this pericope is fitting for Christ the King Sunday and the American holiday of Thanksgiving. Every week at the Lord’s Supper we gather, in thanksgiving, around the table of our King.
The Table of the King
Our passage organically divides nicely– verses 14-23 tell us of the table of the King and verses 24-30 tell us of the King of the table. This narrative is familiar to us at Christ Community Church because we take the sacrament every week, not to mention we preached through the book of Mark recently. The point of the Lord’s Supper is that Jesus left us this religious practice as a tangible picture of his death and resurrection wherein Christians commune with Christ by remembering and proclaiming the gospel. This morning our focus for verses 12-23 is that the table of the King is a table of thanksgiving. In his transformation of the Passover into the Eucharist Jesus modeled thankfulness and he commanded us to thankfully remember.
Jesus Modeled Thankfulness
Notice in verses 17 and 19 that before Jesus took the bread and the wine Luke notes that Christ had given thanks. All 3 synoptic Gospels make note of this. The Greek word is εὐχαριστέω. This is why we call the Lord’s Supper the Eucharist because Jesus took the bread and wine and gave thanks before the passed them to his disciples. As Jesus Christ institutes the Lord’s Supper he shows us how we’re supposed to feel and act – thankful.
Remember that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write this text so we know for sure that it is the inerrant authoritative Word of God. God does not lie and so Scripture does not lie. That means that at the supper Jesus did not fake thankfulness. He did not merely give lip service of thankfulness to God. No Jesus genuinely gave thanks.
Also keep in mind that Jesus gave thanks to God the same night that he would be betrayed by all of his closest friends. Jesus gave thanks on the same night that he would be wrongly convicted to die by a kangaroo court. Jesus gave thanks the night before he would be physically beaten beyond recognition. Jesus gave thanks the night before he would bear the wrath of God for the sins of his people. Jesus gave thanks the night before he died.
Jesus Commanded Us To Thankfully Remember
What a healthy reminder for us as we come to the Eucharist this morning and as we all go to the Thanksgiving table this Thursday. Regardless of our circumstances we should be thankful. The worst thing that can ever happen to you is that you would bear the wrath of God for your sin. Jesus bore the wrath of God for all of the sins of all of the elect and he was still thankful.
We will never have to endure God’s wrath for our sins so we never have any reason to be unthankful. We should be thankful, first and foremost for the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus commands as much in the text. As he explains the meaning of the bread and the wine Jesus commands the church to do this in remembrance of him.
The bread and the wine remind us to be thankful because they tangibly represent the gospel. The bread represents the body of Christ broken for his people. The wine represents the new covenant in his blood shed for his people. Christ’s body needed to be broken and his blood needed to be shed because in Adam humanity sinned against the one true holy God who created us in his image.
For us and for our salvation Jesus came down from heaven, and lived the only righteous life in human history. Jesus never sinned in thought, word, or deed. This is what the bread represents. The unleavened bread pictures the sinless body of Christ broken for the elect. Jesus then died on the cross bearing God’s wrath for the sins of his people, pictured by the wine, which is the new covenant in Jesus’ blood.
Because Jesus died and rose again if you repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus alone you will be saved. Let’s break that sentence down. What does it mean to repent? To repent means to turn from your sin.
What does it mean to place your faith in Jesus alone? To have faith in Jesus means three things: (1) it means to know who Jesus is and what Jesus did, (2) it means to assent that it is true, and (3) it means to transfer your trust to Jesus alone. What does it mean to be saved? To be saved means that in Christ God forgives your sins (past, present, and future) and that you inherit the hope of eternal life. Eternal life starts now in your heart as your inner man is made new and eternal life is realized on the last day when Jesus raises you from the dead, declares you righteous at the judgment because of his life, death, and resurrection, and then you live forever in sinless perfection in the new creation.
If you are not a Christian then this is the most important thing you can ever do. This is more important than money, education, relationships, anything. If you reject Christ you will spend eternity in hell because of your sin. If you repent and believe you will be saved. If you want to have the best Thanksgiving of your life, trust in Jesus today. If you have any questions about Jesus and the gospel please come see me, or Pastor Kevin, or any of the Elders who have led in the liturgy this morning. We would love to tell you about how you can experience the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life today.
And if you are a Christian there’s no reason not to be thankful for the gospel as you come to the Lord’s Supper every week. On Thursday you should be most thankful for the good news of Jesus. We should also be thankful for the Lord’s provision. Everything we have has been given to us from God. This is true even for unbelievers; everything anyone has, has been given to them by God. It rains on the just and the unjust (Matt 5.45). In God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17.28).
And we should be thankful regardless of our circumstances. At the mountaintop and in the valley, we must give thanks. For richer or poorer, we must give thanks. In sickness and in health, we must give thanks. Church, this morning at the Eucharist and this Thursday at the Thanksgiving table give thanks.
The King of the Table
In verse 24 we transition from the table of the King to the King of the table. In verses 24-30 Jesus expounds on the nature of His kingdom. Lest we create too sharp a distinction between the two halves of this pericope, remember that the Lord’s Supper is a sign of Christ’s Kingdom. Jesus mentions the Kingdom of God in verses 16 and 18. And then in verses 24-30 Jesus explains the nature of his Kingdom typified in the holy meal.
Jesus’ Kingdom is Marked by Serving
After Jesus predicts the betrayal of Judas, the disciples argue about who will be the greatest in the kingdom. Jesus, who is the King of this coming kingdom, rebukes their worldly view of kingdom. First, Jesus teaches us that his kingdom is a kingdom of service. The Gentiles (which is another way of saying the world) revels in exercising lordship and authority. In the world the kingdom is marked by selfish oppression.
But that is not so in the kingdom of God. Jesus says that in his kingdom the leader is the one who serves. Christ once again offers himself as the chief example. In verse 27 Jesus says, I am among you as the one who serves.
We know from John’s gospel that at the last supper Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. He then gives them the new command to love as he has loved. This is where we get the name Maundy Thursday – Maundy from the Latin mandatum, which means, “command.” The command to love others was not new to God’s people but the newness of the command is that we are to love as Christ loved. It is a self-sacrificial love. It is a love that serves.
We call this doctrine Christus Exemplar. It does not mean that Jesus Christ lived and ministered merely as an example to us. But it does mean that Jesus’ life and ministry is an example to us. It is true that Jesus was inimitable – there is a sense in which his life, death, and resurrection are unique. He cannot be replicated. But it is also true that we are called Christians, “little Christs.” We are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he loved God and loved neighbor.
We are members of a kingdom led by a king who served. Jesus gave up the glory of heaven to be born in humility, live sinlessly, serve selflessly, and die vicariously. If that is true of the king of creation, how much more true ought this to be of his subjects? We must live lives marked by humility and service.
Is your life marked by serving others? Do you serve the church? Do you serve others above yourself? Men, do you lead your homes as servant leaders? King Jesus served others and his kingdom is distinguished by service. If you don’t serve at all, you should ask yourself whether you are a member of Jesus kingdom or not.
Jesus’ Kingdom is Already/Not Yet
The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom marked by service but it is also an inaugurated kingdom. The nature of the kingdom of heaven is already and not yet. Jesus hints at this in verses 29-30 when he says that just as the Father assigned the kingdom to him, he assigns it to the apostles that they may eat and drink at Jesus’ table. We miss what Jesus is saying if we think of this merely in the future sense. Like to say, “we will dine with Jesus at the table when he comes with his kingdom.” Jesus’ kingdom is not purely future, it is also present.
It is at the eating and drinking of Jesus’ table that we feel the already/not yet tension of the kingdom. These same apostles broke bread with Christ in Luke 24 after his resurrection (whenever you hear language of breaking bread in the New Testament you should think of the Lord’s Supper). They would also continue to take the Lord’s Supper every week with the church until their deaths. In that sense the kingdom was already. But the kingdom was also not yet because they were waiting for the eternal marriage supper of the lamb in the last day.
When Jesus died and rose again he inaugurated his kingdom. The kingdom of Christ has already started and we are members of it. It is a spiritual kingdom made visible through the church. And this kingdom is just as real as the world’s kingdoms that we see with our own eyes. Christians minimize the kingdom of Christ when we treat national and global politics as if they’re more real than Christ’s kingdom.
We witnessed this a few weeks ago with the midterm elections. If Republican or Democratic politics capture your heart and mind more than the kingdom of Jesus you should repent. America is small potatoes compared to the kingdom of Jesus. If you are a Christian your citizenship is first and foremost in Jesus’ kingdom, not America. We are members of a kingdom made up of brothers from all over the world and from every generation.
Do not fall captive to political idolatry. Jesus’ kingdom is real and it is the only eternal kingdom the world will ever know. We are reminded of this every week when we take Holy Communion. Just as the bread and the wine are tangible and real so is the Kingdom of Jesus. The Kingdom of Christ is already; it exists in the church; it exists in the hearts of all who have been justified by faith alone.
Lest we fall into an heretical full preterism we must also confess that the Kingdom of Christ is not yet. For millennia Christians have confessed that Jesus Christ will come from the Father’s right hand to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is physically coming back to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. To confess the second coming of Christ is orthodox. To deny the second coming of Christ is to deny Christianity.
Jesus’ Kingdom is the Fulfillment of the Old Testament
The kingdom of Christ is marked by service, it is already/not yet, and finally it is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus’ kingdom did not come out of nowhere. The Kingdom of Jesus is not separate from Israel’s history. The kingdom of Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise given in the Old Testament. We get a glimpse of this in verse 30 when Jesus tells the apostles that they will sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
What does that mean? Let’s first note what it does not mean. It does not mean that those 12 men will literally rule over all of the ethnic Jews in the new world. As if Jesus meant to communicate that Peter and his comrades would be rulers of old covenant ethnic Israel while all of the New Testament Christians are under different supervision. That is a bad hermeneutic.
What Jesus is saying is that the kingdom and message preached by the apostles stands in authority of the old covenant. The New Testament interprets the Old Testament, not vice versa. The person and work of Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the promises of the Old Testament and the Apostles’ preaching of that message is greater than what was preached by Israel because it is the fulfillment of Israel’s promises, story, and existence. Jesus says something similar when he says that John the baptizer is greater than anyone who lived before him and then that the lowest member of His Kingdom is greater than John (Matt 11.11). Jesus is saying that the Old Testament is the sign and the apostolic doctrine is the substance.
This is why we believe in Christ-centered hermeneutics. This is why we practice Christ-centered preaching. This is why every pericope in the Bible, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. This is why when you come to any passage in Scripture the most pressing question you must ask is, “why did Jesus have to die and resurrect for this passage to be true?” The kingdom of Christ is marked by service, it is already/not yet, and it is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
Conclusion
This Thursday we will gather for meals of thanksgiving just like the Mayflower Puritans did with the Wampanoag Native Americans in 1621. Of all of the things we’re thankful for nothing exceeds our thankfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through faith in Jesus alone that we find the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. And we remember the death of Jesus every week at the holy Eucharist. Every week at the Lord’s Supper we gather, in thanksgiving, around the table of our King. So as we give thanks at the table now, church, happy Thanksgiving and happy Christ the King Sunday!