Last Sunday of End Time (Christ the King) – November 22, 2209

Revelation 1:4b-8 - Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. ⁷ Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. ⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

“Look, he is coming!” could be the most terrifying words ever heard. Imagine seeing the Son of God coming with the clouds in all his glory after you have spent a lifetime ignoring him! Imagine how you would feel if you had been the man who drove the spikes into his hands, or mocked him, or slapped him! Imagine how you would feel if by your words or your actions you said you wanted nothing to do with him. Imagine not hearing your own screams of horror because of the deafening cries of the other millions who also refused to call Jesus their Savior.

The Bible paints a bleak picture of what waits for the unbeliever when Jesus Christ comes to judge the world. The Lord of all will come with the angelic hosts at his side. All eyes will see him. All minds will realize that Jesus really is Lord and Savior of all. All unbelieving hearts will panic and all their mouths will mourn and howl. Their families, their bank accounts, their friends, their self-righteousness, their idols will do no good, leaving them only with their sins. Those sins will stare them straight in the face, choke them and send them to their knees as they wait in helpless terror for the Judge of all to render the horrible sentence. That sentence will be hellfire, endless hellfire; separation from God with nothing but an eternity to say, “If only.”

But those words, “Look, he is coming!” do not need to bring terror. For the believer, they can be a cry of joy and excitement, because they usher in the day God’s people have been waiting for. We will finally get to see our Savior face to face! Ahead lies an eternity to enjoy God’s love, praise that love, and return that love. True, we have a sinful past, but our Savior-Judge will not see those sins because they have been washed away by his cleansing blood. The Judge’s verdict will be “innocent,” because “the blood of Jesus…purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). We yearn to see the Savior return because we know his message will be, “My brother, my sister, I have taken care of your sins. Come now and enjoy eternity with me.” Oh, the blessings of belonging to Christ’s kingdom.

In the Gospel lesson appointed for this last Sunday of the church year, we are privileged to hear the conversation between Jesus and Pontius Pilate concerning Christ’s kingdom. Jesus responds to Pilate by saying, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place….You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:36,37). Of course, Jesus was not the king of the Jews in the sense that Pilate had asked. Such a kingdom could never have help one poor sinner. No, Jesus had come to establish a spiritual kingdom; one that could only be established by paying for the guilt of the sins of the entire world. The kingdom that Satan had offered Jesus in the wilderness on the condition that he bow down and worship the devil, could only be obtained by the cross.

So, Jesus surrendered himself into the hands of his enemies to become our Substitute and bear our sins and all their consequences. He willingly suffered, giving up his life in our stead, and won God’s pardon for us and all people. This was his Kingly work. It is for this that he was born, and for this that he came into the world, entering visibly into this world by being born a man, yet never losing his divinity. He was sent to reveal God in his pardoning, saving, grace for sinners. He came to testify to the glorious truth of salvation which comes to us from a source entirely apart from ourselves. God’s Son came from the Father to proclaim this overwhelming fact – God loved a justly damned world of sinners to such a degree that he sent and sacrificed his very own Son, that the end for those who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior might not be eternal damnation, but favor and life with God now and forever.

What a wonderful kingdom! And you are part of it! At the moment of your conversion you were brought into this kingdom, into His gracious rule of faith in your heart by the holy Word. You were made a believer. And you know you are a believer not because of your feelings, or what you see in yourself, but because Jesus himself said, “God so loved the world that he gave his Son for you.” Then he came and won the battle in order that you might be brought into this kingdom by faith. You are the reason Jesus came to establish his kingdom. Oh, what blessings are yours as a member of Christ’s kingdom!

The extent of these blessings jump right off the page as John writes his opening words of greeting, “Grace and peace to you.” Grace is God’s undeserved love. Grace is the love that seeks the good of the object. Grace is that love which loves regardless of the object being loved. And that’s foreign to our way of thinking. Human love loves because of something in the object. We love pizza because pizza, the object, tastes good. We love our spouse because of something in our spouse. But not God, he did not love us because of something is us. There was nothing in us to love. But that is precisely why it is grace. Our wretchedness moved him to show mercy by punishing someone else on our behalf. Now we are forgiven. That brings peace. Peace is the result of the forgiveness of sins won by that undeserved love. Peace comes from knowing that Jesus satisfied God’s anger over our sins. Peace is the quiet confidence that God is on our side in life’s daily struggles. And because of Christ’s rule of faith in your heart, that grace and peace are yours.

But John doesn’t stop there, he says, “Grace and peace…from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.” Here John references the three offices of prophet, priest and king that our Savior serves for our benefit. As the faithful witness Jesus fulfilled his office as Prophet, revealing God’s Word to us. Now, we can believe and trust his words through which he has brought us to the true knowledge of God. As the firstborn of the dead he fulfilled his office as Priest, giving his own life as a sacrifice for all. He was the first to rise from the dead, never to die again. Now, by his resurrection he has overcome death for us all.

This great Prophet and Priest is also our great King. All power has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth. He governs all other rulers and uses them to carry out his divine purposes. All are under the power of Jesus as he rules for the benefit of all believers. The raging of this sinful world cannot overcome our King, who watches over us. In times of deepest distress, we will know that he is control, not just of spiritual things, but also of the affairs of this world.

But how can we be so sure? Because he “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” Our Lord Jesus Himself bought us back with his own blood, so that Satan no longer has any right to hold us captive in sin. You see, we once were slaves to sin and captives of Satan. We were unbelievers. When we entered this world we were completely defiant to God. But with his death and resurrection, Christ founded a kingdom of grace and peace. By Baptism we received the right and access to it, and by faith we have entered it. Now we have been released from Satan’s grasp. Now we have been delivered from the punishment our sins deserve. Now we have been “made…a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.”

Here are more blessings! As priests in the kingdom of which Christ is king, we have the privilege of approaching God directly. We who are baptized into Christ, who died and rose again for us, have died to sin by the death of Christ and have been made alive with him by his resurrection. By this, we have free access to the Father. So, when sin troubles us we can enter the Holy Place through Jesus’ blood. We dare to come before God’s throne and receive forgiveness and power to win the victory. All our enemies are conquered, we are not to live as though defeated in this life. Let God, then, shut our lips to gossip and coarse language, lying and careless words. Having been brought into Christ’s kingdom of faith we are heirs of the everlasting kingdom of heaven.

So indeed, we rejoice at the words, “Look, he is coming with the clouds!” We are not like the unbelievers who have no hope. We know our sins are covered in the blood of Christ. The reign that has begun now with Jesus continues into eternity. As Paul says, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). We will not be weeping and mourning because of Jesus’ return. No, the lives of happy service we began on earth will continue in perfect bliss in heaven. What believing child of God doesn’t long for that day! The day when, “⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). All the blessings of the gospel kingdom be yours as you diligently watch and carefully prepare for Christ’s second coming.

Today is the last Sunday of the church year. What more fitting way could we end that with this grand confession of faith and hymn of adoration to Christ the King. Of all the things that this King could have chosen to show forth his glory, he picked this: to redeem us by his suffering and death, that we should live with him for eternity. How we long to see him as he is, to worship him perfectly, whose greatest triumph was the cross for us and for our salvation! “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”