b-a Who is Your King?

[0:00] Well, good morning, church. Name's Mike. I'm one of the pastors here at Shoreline, which is a lot of reasons.

[0:32] But God wants to speak to us today, each one of us that's in this room right now. God has a word for us from this text, I believe. And that's why he's gathered us in this room. And so I just pray that this word would affect each one of us wherever we're at this morning.

[0:48] So in 1893 in Calgoorley, Australia, there was a gold rush that uncovered large amounts of gold telluride, which is, as I've learned this week, it's a mineral compound containing legitimate gold that needs to be extracted.

[1:04] But the funny thing is that the mineral was mistaken for fool's gold, for pyrite. And as a result, it was basically considered of not much use. And it was used in building materials.

[1:15] It was used even for street repairs. So literally, Australia was paved with gold. And a few years later, people realized that it was actually authentic gold and reportedly began ripping up the streets to obtain the gold.

[1:31] Now, this is an example of historical irony. Historical irony. If you've heard the students in the room that haven't learned what irony is yet, it is when something occurs on the surface that is different from or opposite from what one would expect to occur.

[1:47] Now, as grave of an irony as the Kalgoorlie gold rush was, there is truly no greater irony than the condemnation and sentencing to death of the Son of God.

[2:01] Now, today, we're in the middle of the Apostle John's account of this great irony. And as we'll see, as we walk through this text together, John highlights irony upon irony that occurs in these historical events that occurred in time and place 2,000 years ago.

[2:18] Now, you might have noticed that prominent in John's account of Jesus' trial before Pilate and his crucifixion, which we'll see next week, is this title of king or king of the Jews.

[2:30] They appear 10 different times in these 30 verses. So John clearly wants us to take notice, right? He wants us to see Jesus as the king that he actually is and to see the kind of king that he is.

[2:46] And he wants us today, he wants his writers back in the first century AD, he wants us today not to respond to Jesus the king the way that the Jews and the Romans responded to him 2,000 years ago, in which they rejected Jesus as a fraud, the very king of kings they rejected as a fake.

[3:08] And John wants us to ask ourselves this question, who is our king? So I want to ask you, who is your king? Who sits on the throne of your heart and of your life?

[3:24] You might think that you don't have someone sitting on the throne of your heart and life, and I'll tell you that's not true because we are constantly, daily, continually ruled by something or someone that is driving our motives, that is driving our decisions, whether it's our own self-preservation or the ideologies of the world or a particular person who we want to please or, Lord willing, Jesus Christ, the king.

[3:47] Is Jesus your king? The one who became a lamb to take away the sins of the world, to grant us true and eternal life. Who is our king?

[3:59] Who is your king, friend, this morning? And we're going to keep coming back to this question as we consider the great irony and the main point of this text, and that's this, that rejecting Jesus as king was both the malice of sin and God's means of salvation.

[4:17] The rejection of Christ as king was simultaneously the malice of sin and God's means of salvation. Now that being the main irony, the main point, I think, of this passage, each of the five sections that we're going to walk through contain a related irony, and that's how we're going to step through this text together.

[4:37] And so the first one that we see is the Messiah rejected for a criminal. The Messiah rejected for a criminal. That's the first irony. In last week's text, we saw how the Jews, having determined Jesus to be guilty, right, before Annas, before Caiaphas, the high priest, they then brought Jesus to the Roman governor Pilate, basically asking Pilate to have him crucified.

[5:02] And Ian preached on this text last week that Pilate takes Jesus into his headquarters for questioning, and we saw Jesus declare that his kingdom is not of this world, right, that he has been sent into the world to bear witness to the truth.

[5:15] Now, Pilate, you know, missing the point of Jesus' profound words, but also determining Jesus to be innocent and posing no threat to Rome, he comes back outside and he states his decision to the Jewish leaders.

[5:31] He says, I find no guilt in him. This is the first of three times that Pilate declares Jesus' innocence. But the Jews apparently had a custom agreed upon by the Romans in which one prisoner would be released by the Romans at the annual Passover feast.

[5:50] And so Pilate asked them, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? Now, what we see throughout this text is Pilate is playing political games to try and simultaneously uphold justice, which was his job as the Roman governor here, and pacify the Jews.

[6:10] Now, that's what's going on here. Pilate is hoping that the Jews are going to choose Barabbas, which actually makes no sense at all because Jesus hasn't even been declared guilty, but this is the game that Pilate's trying to play.

[6:25] But Pilate, his attempt failed. This first attempt fails because the Jews shout, not this man, but Barabbas. Now, if you have the ESV, the ESV here says that Barabbas was a robber.

[6:38] In fact, Barabbas was a renowned insurrectionist. I think as Matthew says in his gospel account, he was a rebel. And other translations say that he was one who had led an uprising against Rome.

[6:50] You see, Barabbas was actually, ironically, much closer to the picture of Messiah that the Jews had painted in their heads than Jesus, the true Messiah.

[7:01] Now, to deepen the irony even further, the name Barabbas, Bar, Abba, Bar, son of, father, it means son of the father. That's what Barabbas means, that the Jews have a choice to make here, do they not, between one son of the father and the true son of the heavenly father.

[7:20] And they sadly choose the former. One commentator writes, here is the deceptiveness of sin that has been evident since the Garden of Eden.

[7:30] There is a path that looks right and seems to be of God, yet it is actually against him and his ways. The people choose their own path of liberation rather than God's, and they therefore choose, and now he's quoting St. Augustine, not the savior but the murderer, not the giver of life but the destroyer.

[7:50] And how much like those first century Jews are we today, choosing our own paths of supposed freedom? This is what humanity does.

[8:01] We choose all sorts of saviors to liberate us from the bondage that we feel deep down in our souls. We feel it. Mankind feels that bondage, the fallen humanity that we are.

[8:12] Everybody knows this world is broken. You don't have to argue someone on the streets of whether that's true. And we all choose all sorts of kings to lead us into our own picture of goodness and righteousness.

[8:25] And the apostle John is begging us here to see that there is one king, there is one king, there is one savior, the God-man Jesus Christ. And he alone deserves to sit on the throne of our hearts and of our lives.

[8:41] So I ask, who is your king? Who is your king? Now here's the second irony of this text. The king mocked is a fake. So we move into chapter 19 here.

[8:56] Now I want to point out that structurally in this passage, 19 verses 1 through 3 is the central section of Jesus' trial before Pilate. And that trial includes last week's text, which began in verse 28 of chapter 18.

[9:11] And it goes through the ending of verse 16a in chapter 19. Now if you remember a couple weeks ago, John was oscillating back and forth between the inner scene of Jesus before Annas and the outer scene of Peter in the courtyard.

[9:26] And he's drawing out the contrast. And here in Jesus' trial before Pilate, John's doing a very similar thing. He's oscillating between this inner scene of Jesus and Pilate and this outer scene of Pilate and the Jews, which sometimes Pilate's bringing Jesus out, but these inner and outer scenes.

[9:44] And this, verses 1 through 3 of chapter 19, is the centerpiece of those seven scenes. And all that means for us is that this is the main thing. This is the heart of what John is trying to get across.

[9:57] And it's this mock coronation of Jesus. Now the first thing that Pilate does is he has Jesus flogged. And this flogging that occurs here in John, it's believed to be actually a second, a different flogging than the one recorded in Matthew and Mark.

[10:16] See, it's likely that while those floggings occurred immediately before the crucifixion, and they were so severe that many people actually died from the flogging itself, this flogging mentioned here was a lighter beating intended to pacify the bloodthirsty Jews.

[10:34] Now this is consistent with the text here because Jesus, again, he hasn't even formally been declared guilty yet by Pilate, which makes this beating all the more unjust, by unjust, by the way, because Jesus is not guilty yet, and yet Pilate has him flogged.

[10:48] And then the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. Now the thorns used in this pseudo-crown are likely from the date palm, the same tree from which the Jews would have obtained the palm branches, hailing Jesus as he arrived in the city of Jerusalem just five days earlier.

[11:14] What an ironic reversal. And the thorns on this palm could actually grow up to 12 inches in length. They were known for their ability to inflict pain. And I don't think it's a stretch.

[11:29] Considering John's garden references throughout the Passion narrative, we talked about one of them a few weeks ago, considering John's extensive use of symbolism to see in Jesus' wearing of the crown of thorns a reference to that curse of God upon mankind for the sin committed in the Garden of Eden.

[11:46] Listen to this. This is God speaking to Adam in the garden. And, Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

[12:00] By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. The curse of God upon mankind for sin.

[12:10] See, as the soldiers are pressing upon Jesus' head this crown of thorns, they are unknowingly placing upon him the very curse of God for the sin of man.

[12:23] The curse that has afflicted humanity from the beginning of time. Jesus now bears upon himself to eternally free humans from that curse.

[12:37] But the Romans are completely ignorant of this fact, right? The Romans are completely ignorant that the one standing before them is actually the eternally existent king of kings and lord of lords.

[12:49] And so they continue in this mockery. They came up to him and they said, Hail, king of the Jews! And struck him with their hands. Now they're mimicking here the Ave Caesar, Hail Caesar!

[13:01] Mocking and abusing Christ the king, treating him with shame and contempt as a fake and a fraud. So there Jesus is.

[13:13] Can you picture this in your heads? There Jesus is, arrayed in royal garb, blood dripping down his face from this piercing crown, blood dripping down his body and his legs from the flogging that he had endured.

[13:26] You know, from eternity past, he had enjoyed unending glory with the Father. He prayed this in his high priestly prayer. And now he is emptying himself of that glory.

[13:38] He had clothed himself in human flesh and now he's subjecting his flesh to pain and humiliation. And yet, paradoxically, the revelation of his glory is growing brighter and stronger.

[13:56] How can we say this? Because he's bearing up under the weight of unthinkable injustice for what? For love. His love is on full display right now.

[14:08] This is the king. This is the king in all his beauty. Isaiah talks about loving the unlovely. That's what Christ is doing here. Bearing our shameful curse upon himself.

[14:20] That's glory. This is the glory of Christ seen in an unthinkable way. Is there any greater king than this, church?

[14:31] Is there any king, any ruler, any person, anything that would be willing to do this for us to surrender all for the sake of love?

[14:43] Is there any greater king than this? No, there's not. It's the rhetorical answer. And yet, I am duped.

[14:53] I am duped by the deceptiveness of my own heart, the deceptiveness of my own sin, the lies of the world, the lies of the enemy, Satan, leading me to think that there's actually a better kingdom, that there's actually a better ruler than King Jesus.

[15:09] This is what the Jews thought. They were blinded by their sin, their desire for self-preservation. Their hearts were hardened. Now, we've seen this over and over again in John's gospel, but their hardness of heart is in full display in these next verses.

[15:27] The third irony, God's son, God's son charged with blasphemy. Now, Pilate, for the second time now, declares, I find no guilt in him.

[15:45] And he proceeds to bring Jesus out before the crowd, bloodied from his beating, wearing the crown of thorns and this mock purple robe, and he declares, Behold the man!

[15:57] Continuing on this mock coronation scene, and what do the Jewish leaders shout in response? crucify him!

[16:08] Crucify him! The Pilate's second attempt has failed. He hoped that this beating and mockery would be a sufficient punishment for the Jews and satisfy them and he could get on with his day, but he's wrong.

[16:26] So he replies to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find, third time now, I find no guilt in him. Now, under the Roman law, the Jews do not have the authority to impose the death penalty.

[16:41] So Pilate, he's not literally telling the Jews to go take Jesus and crucify him. They can't. They know that. He knows that. I think we're seeing here that Pilate is exasperated and has a moment here of sarcasm to determine Jews will simply not be appeased, will they?

[16:58] Not at least with anything less than Jesus' death on the cross, which is what Pilate's trying to avoid. See, the Jews answer him, We have a law and according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.

[17:19] Now, if this sounds familiar to you, it's because if you were here, they said the same exact thing to Jesus back in chapter 10 when Jesus had claimed to be one with the Father. And they had said to Jesus, It is not for a good work.

[17:32] They're holding stones in their hands, right? Ready to stone him. And he sort of gave this cool maneuver and fended them off with truth from the word. And then they say to him that it's not for a good work that we're going to stone you but for blasphemy because you, being a man, make yourself God.

[17:53] And the Jews are likely referring back to Leviticus 24, 16, which states that whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. But what is the truth of the matter, church?

[18:05] Has man made himself God? No. God has made himself a man. That's what happened. God made himself a man. Jesus is not the one blaspheming here but the Jewish leaders.

[18:19] They're the ones blaspheming. But they're too blind, of course, to see it. And John says that when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

[18:33] Now first, we see here explicitly, we already knew it, but Pilate's not really driven by a sense of justice, is he? He's driven by fear. He's driven, as Ian said last week, by self-preservation, just like the Jews.

[18:47] But why is Pilate, why is Pilate afraid? Pilate is part of a very superstitious and polytheistic culture. Pilate likely has fear of the divine.

[18:59] And Matthew relates in his gospel that Pilate's wife sent word to him during the trial and she said to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.

[19:13] Pilate had just had Jesus unjustly flogged, beaten, mocked, and now he hears that Jesus is claiming divinity. He's rightly afraid and so he determines the need to further question Jesus and so the narrative moves again from the outer scene back to the inner scene and it brings us to this next great irony, the one from above considered under man's authority.

[19:39] Pilate brings Jesus into his headquarters and he asks him, where are you from? Where are you from? This has been the all-important topic all throughout the gospel of John.

[19:53] Where is he from? The Jews had asked Jesus repeatedly where he was from and Jesus' repeated reply was that he was the one sent from the Father.

[20:06] You remember the man born blind in chapter 9, he could see this truth, right? and he was dismayed that the Pharisees could not discern Jesus' heavenly origin despite his ability to cure blindness.

[20:20] The question now is will Pilate exhibit a similar blindness to the truth of Jesus' heavenly origin or will he not? But, Jesus gave him no answer.

[20:35] No answer. I mean, if you remember last week, Pilate had cynically dismissed Jesus' former witness to the truth by saying, what is truth? Why would Jesus continue to bear witness now to Pilate who dismisses the truth?

[20:52] But more deeply still in Jesus' silence we see fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant in which Isaiah had said that he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter like a sheep that before its shearers is silent so he opened not his mouth.

[21:19] Pilate's likely exasperated by Jesus at this point in addition to the Jewish leaders apparently nobody will listen to him and he says, you will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?

[21:34] Now considering Pilate's inability to control the Jews at the moment this assertion feels a little weak but nevertheless he does in fact possess the authority that he talks about but Jesus Jesus reminds Pilate the origins of this authority and this is a hint at the answer to Pilate's own question as to Jesus' origins right?

[21:58] Jesus answered him you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. First I want to say what a kindness of Jesus to even respond again to Pilate.

[22:12] Like Jesus is giving Pilate yet one more opportunity to see him and to believe in him and to find life in his name and that's what Jesus has been doing all throughout the Gospel of John revealing himself to people in loving and intimate ways.

[22:27] He's done that to so many in this room and I pray that if he hasn't done that to you yet or if you haven't seen that that he would open up your eyes to see how lovingly how intimately he pursues each one of us and reveals himself to us.

[22:43] You know the great irony though is that Pilate Pilate he's professing to wield authority over the one who formed him in the womb. Do you see this irony?

[22:54] The one who at that very moment was sustaining his life that's what Paul says in Colossians 1. the only reason that Pilate has any authority at all period but any authority at all especially over Jesus is because it has been granted to him by the Father and the Son.

[23:11] It's because Jesus the Son of God has chosen willingly to subject himself to Pilate's authority. So once again we see here that Jesus the King of Kings the Lord of Lords is emptying himself for the sake of love.

[23:28] And so St. Augustine writes this thus the kingdom which was not of this world overcame that proud world not by the ferocity of fighting ferocity of fighting but by the humility of suffering.

[23:43] The humility of suffering. Therefore Jesus says he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

[23:57] See Jesus he doesn't absolve Pilate of his guilt does he? Pilate is guilty. He's responsible for his part in the death of the Son of God and yet what Jesus is saying here is that Caiaphas likely the he that Jesus is referring to Caiaphas the high priest the representative of the Jewish people and so the people of Israel as a result they have the greater guilt.

[24:23] Why? because it's the Jewish people who were given the law of God and the temple and the prophets all pointing to the future Messiah who was to come who is now here.

[24:37] It's the Jewish people who are handing over their very Messiah to be crucified. The one who had come to free them from bondage to sin to rule over them in justice and righteousness the good shepherd who was to come and lead them into abundant life their true king crucify him they have the greater sin yeah Pilate is also guilty yet all of us are also guilty every human of every generation born into the race of men of Adam is responsible for the death of Christ so another early church father Saint Athanasius writes this that it was our sorry case it was it was our sorry case that caused the word to come down our transgression that called out his love for us so that he made haste to help us and to appear among us church we rejected

[25:42] Jesus as king it was the malice of sin the sin of men that rejected Christ as king and yet at the same time God sent Jesus the king to walk this path of suffering and death to become for us salvation do you know of another king another ruler another leader so powerful yet so humble so exalted and yet so lowly do you know of another king filled with such inexplicable love and is he your king is he your king this great irony of man's sin being used as God's means of salvation it comes to the foreground in this final section of the text and we see this irony the king offered up as a lamb despite despite Pilate's inability to see Christ for who he is at least he's all the more decided about

[26:45] Christ's innocence and he further seeks to have him released but the Jews cry out if you release this man you are not Caesar's friend everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar now you see what the Jews are doing here they've already leveled a political charge against Christ he claims to be king and now and also a religious charge against Christ that he claims to be the son of God and Pilate finds both of them to be without base they're baseless Jesus is innocent he's unworthy of death so the Jews adjust they adjust their aim and they fire at a different target Pilate's own reputation something actually near to his heart now friend of Caesar may have actually been a literal group like a prestigious title that people were given it's we're unsure but either way Pilate is currently enjoying some level of favor from the Roman emperor Tiberius and it's highly ironic though speaking of more ironies that the unruly

[27:48] Jews who despised Rome who tried to cast off their rule are now threatening Pilate with this claim you know potential disloyalty to Caesar but in this clever maneuver they're trapping Pilate they're forcing him to make a choice is he willing to risk his political reputation for the sake of this seemingly innocent Jewish man so hated by his own people will he choose the king of the Jews or the Roman emperor well the answer is obvious is it not as this trial reaches its climax Pilate brings Jesus out and it says and he sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement in an Aramaic Gabbatha of course more irony is at play because although Pilate sat on that judgment seat 2,000 years ago Jesus is right now right now church right now Jesus is sitting on a throne on a judgment seat and Pilate is going to appear before him and Pilate is going to give an account before the judge of the universe just like all of us will but there's a double irony for in reality

[29:00] Pilate has abdicated his judicial responsibility to uphold justice he's caved to the pressure of the Jews in spite of the clear truth of the matter and so he hands Jesus back over to the Jews and he says behold your king behold your king and they cried out away with him away with him crucify him Pilate said shall I crucify your king the chief priest answered we have no king but Caesar these are yeah these are the religious leaders of God's chosen people the ones who are supposed to model faith in God for the Jews how should they have responded we have no king but God Pilate that's what they should have said but they're so set on killing Christ so determined to cast him off that they feign loyalty to Caesar and denounce the very faith that they claim to uphold this is the height of hypocrisy just like

[30:09] Pilate the Jews are faced with the choice of kings and foolishly and ignorantly choose to reject their true king so Pilate delivered him over to them to be crucified the apostle John had said in his prologue to this gospel the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him he came to his own and his own people did not receive him here he is rejected by his own people now there's a verse that I skipped over that I want to go back to it's verse 14 John says that it was the day of preparation of the Passover and it was about the sixth hour now what that means is that this is the time of the day when the Passover lambs would be slaughtered in Israel in Jerusalem and it's simultaneously now the point of the trial at which a final decision has been made to offer Jesus up to the slaughter upon the cross to become as John the Baptist had declared in chapter one the lamb of

[31:26] God who takes away the sin of the world you see mankind's rejection of Jesus as king was the malice of sin indeed but at the very same time it was God's means of salvation see in God's divine sovereignty he has wielded the sin of man to provide his own son the king as the spotless lamb for the sins of the world apostle Peter captures these two truths in his sermon at Pentecost when he tells the crowd this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God he said you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men man killed Jesus but it was according to the plan of God and John is connecting this sacrifice to that annual Passover sacrifice in which an unblemished lamb would be killed as a substitutionary atoning sacrifice for their sin now those are big words and they simply mean that the lamb was slain in the place of people to satisfy

[32:39] God's anger that's what that means the lamb in the place of people satisfying God's wrath and anger for sin for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and Jesus the king of kings the lord of lords who from eternity past enjoyed unending glory with God the father is emptying himself completely out of love for us he is becoming for us that true that final unblemished Passover lamb dying once for all for the sins of the world for the salvation of mankind what a king is there a king unlike there is a king unlike I'm sorry there there is no king like Jesus right he's unlike any other and I want to ask is he your king is he your king now if you're here this morning and he's not and that means that you have not repented of your sin you have not put your faith in Jesus as the king and savior of your life

[33:42] I just want to ask what is it that is keeping you from submitting to his loving kingship what is it can you name it can you put your finger on it and I want to encourage you to do two things I'm not going to try to convince you right now because we don't have time for that and that's something the Lord needs to do but I want to encourage you to do two things talk to a Christian about it talk to a Christian about the thing that's keeping you from enthroning Jesus as your king and I want to ask you to do something else don't stop receiving the word of God clearly if you're in this room and you're here then you are under the preached word of God pursue the word of God read the word by yourself read it with another Christian pray to God about what you're reading and see if he does not confirm that word in your heart now it's striking in this passage how blinding sin is right both the Jewish leaders and Pilate are blinded by their pride by their desire for self-preservation right it prevents them from seeing Jesus as the true king that he really is and submitting to his authority and it's striking to me in my own life how often

[34:55] I am blinded to Jesus' leading presence right before me because of my own sin you know Jesus the king is right in front of me no Jesus is right inside me right Jesus is inside me by the power the presence of his Holy Spirit he's guiding me he's talking to me he's revealing himself to me and yet how often I am blinded by my pride my desire for self-preservation in church this is why we need to pray early often all day submitting ourselves continually to the kingship of Christ we need to pray may you be our king you alone that was ironically a daily prayer of the Jewish chief priests may you be our king you alone of course just like them we profess submission to his kingship and yet constantly bow ourselves before all sorts of other kings and if you've come into this room and you're in that place where you feel the weight of guilt know this though that

[36:03] Christ paid for that guilt on the cross and the mark of a true Christian is repentance right we continue to sin but we repent and we turn back to Christ and we turn from that sin and receive afresh his grace for us and we submit afresh to his rule but one more point of application more striking than the blinding nature of sin in this text is the shining glory of Christ the glory of his self-emptying love his sacrificial love and humility humility this is what's on display most of all in the passion narrative the glory of Christ and Jesus is showing us that the economy of his kingdom is love and humility that's the economy of Jesus' kingdom as Jesus' citizens as citizens of the kingdom of God he calls us to engage with one another and with the world in the same manner with love and humility and what that means is that elders in this room myself the other elders here husbands in this room fathers in this room especially we are called not to be domineering not to wield our authority over those that are under us with harshness but to lead with sacrificial love with service with humility with compassion that's how the leaders of the church and the home are called to lead like Christ and you know the same is true of mothers leading your children every day the same is true of ministry leaders whether it's the music team or shoreline kids or the greeting team the same is true friends of bosses of chiefs of officers and that is so counter cultural to lead others in love and service and humility no your employee does not have to get you the cup of coffee right you could actually get it for them and that's just a silly example but can you imagine if all of us in this room in our workplaces were leading others with love humility compassion service like Christ this is how we're to engage one another in the world and church if our king the king if he were willing to endure us pressing the crown upon his head driving the nails into his hands and his feet for the sake of love shouldn't we be willing to suffer the tiny pinpricks of others for love you know what I'm talking about because you're all in relationships and relationships are messy and we get pinpricks and I injure you and you injure me and we offend one another and instantly the pride the self defense it comes out the anger it comes out and look at Jesus humbly enduring the injustice for love ladies you were in

[39:06] Ephesians 4 just a couple days ago Paul says that I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner what worthy of the calling you have received with all humility gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace this is the economy of the kingdom of God this is the way of our king our savior let us walk in it you know as we do so we're following in the footsteps of Jesus we're sharing in his suffering even and when we do that we're promised the joy of fellowship with him loving intimate fellowship with the king of kings and the lord of lords if you've experienced that before then you know friends you know I know that many people right here know this that the king is no fraud you've experienced his presence his guiding presence his loving presence you've experienced his glory he's more real in those moments right than this very moment in time he's more real period whether you've had those moments or not he is more real than right now more lasting than the heavens and the earth he's more constant than the rising sun that's our king crown him with many crowns the lamb upon his throne hark how the heavenly anthem drowns!

[40:43] all music but its own awake my soul and sing of him who died for thee and hail him as thy matchless king through all eternity!

[40:56] Thank you.