<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Jesus Wins</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">George
III of England, America's enemy in the Revolutionary War, felt terrible
about the loss of the colonies. It was said, in fact, that for the rest
of his life, he could not say the word "independence" without tripping
over it. He was an odd duck in many ways, but he had good insights. When
the fighting in America stopped, King George and all his royal cronies
in Europe were sure that George Washington would have himself crowned
"Emperor of the New World." That's what they would have done. When he
was told, on the contrary, that Washington planned to surrender his
military commission and return to farming at Mt. Vernon, George III
said, "Well, if he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
There is power in giving up power, in emptying oneself. Jesus knew it,
Pilate didn't. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Jesus wins, Pilate loses. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">William R. Boyer, A Confusion of the Heart</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">They Write Better Than They Know</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">It
is the accepted wisdom of priests and soldiers alike that one who
possesses power always uses it for his own advantage. Why be a king if
you cannot prove it by spectacular demonstrations of force and might?
For Jesus these mocking words must bring back the echo of an earlier
time when he is standing on the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and
hears the voice of the Tempter: "If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down from here" (Luke 4:9). He resists such a temptation then,
and resists it yet again. But the criminal evidently sees in Jesus'
refusal to bend to the demands of his powerful tormentors an authority
which is not compelled to prove itself. Is there a greater act of
authority, courage, and dignity than to refuse to save oneself in order
to save others? The criminal, with great effort, turns his head and
looks again at the inscription on the central cross. "Th
is is
the King of the Jews." Perhaps he thinks, "They write better than they
know."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">J. Will Ormond, Good News among the Rubble, CSS Publishing</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Prose</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">What
kind of a Kingdom has Jesus? No castle nor palace has he. No congress
nor parliament sitting, deciding what laws there will be. Perhaps he has
need of but two laws: Love God and your neighbor as well. To obey them
is all that is needed, as all of the saintly can tell.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">He
has neither army nor navy, no air force to guard the frontiers to keep
out the strangers unwanted and maintain the enemy’s fears. Immigration
he seems to encourage, of some quite disreputable, like fishermen,
publicans, sinners. To such he is hospitable.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">It
seems there’s no revenue service or taxes we must calculate. He surely
cannot run a kingdom on what we put into the plate! No 1040 form comes
in April to fill out before the fifteenth, with penalties charged for
nonpayment, beginning upon the sixteenth.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">No
currency’s here with his picture, no coinage engraved with his name.
And where are the posters and slogans proclaiming his power and fame?
And I see no trappings of kingship, no robes made of velvet and fur, no
crown made of gold set with diamonds, to befit our supreme arbiter.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Jesus
said that his kingdom was really not what Pilate had thought it had
been. It was not of this world. And its glory was not of the kind to be
seen. For those of us here in his kingdom, there is one other thing we
have known: of the kingdoms around in his lifetime, it’s the only one
left with a throne.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Andrew Daughters, The Kingdom of Jesus, CSS Publishing.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">______________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Freedom Riders</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Recently
I heard someone tell a story about the experiences of the Freedom
Riders in the American South during the '50s and '60s and their struggle
for civil rights. The story was a vivid illustration of how life
changes when Jesus has the last word, when Jesus is King.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">When
the Freedom Riders traveled through the South staging their sit-ins and
marches and protests, they were often arrested and jailed. The
guardians of racial segregation and the status quo were not going to let
them have the last word. While in jail the Freedom Riders were often
treated poorly and brutally in order to break their spirits. They were
deprived of food or given lousy food. Noise was blasted and lights were
flashed all day and night to keep them from resting. Sometimes even some
of their mattresses were removed in order that all would not have a
place to sleep.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">For
a while it seemed to work. Their spirits were drained and discouraged,
but never broken. It happened more than once and in more than one jail.
Eventually the jail would begin to rock and swing to sounds of gospel
singing. What began as a few weak voices would grow into a thundering
and defiant chorus. The Freedom Riders would sing of their faith and
their freedom. Sometimes they would even press their remaining
mattresses out of their cells between the bars as they shouted, "You can
take our mattresses, but you can't take our souls!"</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
Freedom Riders were behind bars in jail, but they were really free.
They were supposed to be guilty, but they were really innocent. They
were supposedly suffering, but they were actually having a great time.
They were supposedly defeated but they were actually victorious.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Why? They may not have said it, but they could have: because Jesus has the last word, because Christ is King!</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Steven E. Albertin, Against the Grain -- Words for a Politically Incorrect Church, CSS Publishing</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">History of Christ the King Sunday</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">This
is actually a pretty new festival in the church year. Its roots go back
only to the late 1800's, when the world's great empires--British,
American, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese--were all at war or
about to go to war somewhere.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
man who was the pope of the Roman Catholic Church at the time wrote a
letter in which he dedicated the world to Christ the King. In the
letter, he reminded the empires that God is present with the whole human
race, even with those who do not know God.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">After
World War I, another pope designated the last Sunday in October as
Christ the King Sunday, a day to remember that Christ received power and
honor from God and was thereby made ruler of the universe. Eventually,
Catholics moved Christ the King Sunday to the last Sunday of the church
year, when they were already accustomed to reflecting on Christ's return
at the end of time to rule over all creation, a theme which echoes
throughout Revelation, the last book of the Bible. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">David W. Miller, Reign of Truth</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">______________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Gandhi's Strength</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">In
the published diaries of Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Nazi
Propagandist, there are two or three references to Mahatma Gandhi.
Goebbels believed that Gandhi was a fool and a fanatic. If Gandhi had
the sense to organize militarily, Goebbels thought, he might hope to win
the freedom of India. He was certain that Gandhi couldn’t succeed
following a path of non-resistance and peaceful revolution. Yet as
history played itself out, India peacefully won her independence while
the Nazi military machine was destroyed. What Goebbels regarded as
weakness actually turned out to be strength. What he thought of as
strength turned out to be weakness. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Kevin M. Pleas, Sufficient Grace </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">______________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">King and Kingdom</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Ironically,
it is not so much the priestly or prophetic aspect of the work of
Christ which John highlights in his narrative of the crucifixion. Rather
it is the kingly role of Christ as the dying Savior which dominates
John's account of our Lord's final hours.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">I say
ironic because John's gospel does not feature the kingdom of God; nor
does he focus upon Christ's claim to be the coming king—until chapter
18. Whereas Matthew, Mark and Luke from the very beginning of their
gospels describe Jesus proclaiming the imminence of the kingdom of
heaven—the miracles of Christ as signs of the kingdom breaking-in to
history—the parables (which are completely absent from John's gospel)—as
parables of the kingdom, John only mentions the words "king" and
"kingdom" six times prior to chapter 18…</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The
rest of this illustration, as well as many additional illustrations and
sermons for this week, Thanksgiving, and Advent, can be accessed at </span></span><span style="color: black"><a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8BBwkEDQRaDUkNAQ9KDAtXUVw%3D"><span style="font-size: small"><font color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</font></span></a></span><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">.<br>
<br>
</span></span></div>
</font>