30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 23 18-25 THE WILL OF MAN 04 Luke 23 20-23 Jesus is our King
📖 Luke 23:18-25
Thu02Dec2021 – Jesus is our King - Luke 23:18-25 - THE WILL OF MAN (04) - Bible reading: Mark 1:14-15
We are to be surrendered to Jesus as our King. He is the Lord and Master of our lives.
Luke 23:20-23 Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them. (21) But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" (22) Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go." (23) But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.
We are encountering here the will of man.
Man was insistent, insisting that Jesus be crucified. It was irrationality at its worst. Pilate was pleading with the crowd to be reasonable but he was unable to move them. They stayed fixed on their demand that Jesus must be crucified.
What is the issue here that we are confronting?
We have seen that Herod mocked Jesus. Herod considered himself as king and the accusation against Jesus was that He was the King. Herod’s mockery was on the matter of kingship. Herod's communication through his mockery of Jesus was, “You cannot be King. I am the king.”
The Romans mocked and beat up Jesus. Palestine was under the control of Rome. When a person from Palestine says that he is King, then it is defiance against Rome. The Romans made a mockery of Jesus saying that no king can rise up against the might and power of Rome.
The Jews accused Jesus of seeking to be King and rebelling against Rome. They were being crafty before Pilate saying that their loyalty was to Rome and that no one should be king other than the authority of Rome.
It was the matter of Jesus being King that was being put down aggressively by mockery, beating and craftiness, by all groups.
This issue of kingship began with the first temptation.
Genesis 3:5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil ."
The fruit that the devil invited Eve and Adam to bite into was to make them be like God, take God’s place and become the arbitrators of good and evil, right and wrong.
The devil was offering them kingship. This is about becoming judges, with the authority to govern one’s own life. The devil was inviting them to be the lords of their lives. Why should God be the Lord of your lives? You can dethrone God and you can take His place. This was the temptation.
By yielding to the temptation, man evicted God out of his life and enthroned himself. This has been man’s primary problem from the very beginning. We do not want to surrender to the lordship of Christ over us.
In the process of us governing our lives, we, in reality, came under the control of the devil, which was Satan’s agenda all along.
II Timothy 2:25-26 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, (26) and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
Man thought that he had ejected out God from his life and taken control but he wasn’t in control. The devil was able to dictate his agenda through man.
Whereas, the good news of Jesus is the good news of His kingdom .
Jesus came into the world, for God to once again take charge of His creation. Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom of God.
Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, (15) and saying, " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel ."
Here are other passages in the gospels about the Good News of His kingdom.
(John the Baptist - Matthew 3:2 / Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God - Matthew 4:17, 23, 9:35, Luke 4:43-44 / The disciples were trained on the work of the kingdom Luke 8:1, 9:1-2, 11, 10:11)
The important step to enter into the kingdom of God is repentance.
Unfortunately, we have reduced repentance to repenting of our sins, asking Jesus to forgive us of our sins, saving us from our sins, and inviting Him into our lives.
This is necessary but what is fundamental in our relationship with Jesus is to surrender to the lordship of Jesus.
Repentance, before Jesus, is to say, “I was governing my own life. I allowed the devil to govern my life but now I repent. I now surrender to the lordship of Jesus over my life.” This is the repentance that is needed.
Relationship with Jesus begins by coming into His kingdom, where He has complete authority over us.
This is what man resists.
We love to have Jesus as our Saviour, Healer, Miracle Worker, Provider, Protector and so forth but we struggle to surrender to His lordship .
Jesus has to be our King. If we do not submit to His lordship then we do not belong to Jesus and His kingdom .
What we see happening here is that man is resisting and insisting saying, “Crucify Jesus for we do not want Him as our King”. This is the will of man.
Thought to ponder
Who is on the throne of your heart, today? Is it you?