Kingship of Christ

Pastor Martin opens a new series within Here We Stand on the kingly office of Christ. He establishes the biblical concept of a king as one who possesses a real throne, wields a real scepter, and rules a real kingdom with absolute, unrivaled authority, and distinguishes Christ's eternal essential kingship as the second person of the Godhead from the mediatorial kingship He receives as the God-man Redeemer. Tracing the artist's brush strokes from Genesis 3:15 through Genesis 49 and Numbers 24, he begins to show how the Old Testament progressively reveals that the promised Redeemer must come as a true conquering king from the tribe of Judah.

Pastor Martin continues his sweep through the Old Testament period of preparation, showing how God added bolder strokes to the prophetic portrait of the coming Messiah-King. Beginning with the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7, he traces the king motif through Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Isaiah 9, Micah 5, Jeremiah 33, Daniel 7, and Zechariah 6 and 9, demonstrating that the Old Testament builds inexorably toward a king from David's seed who would also be the mighty God, who would build God's true house, sit as priest upon his throne, ride lowly upon a donkey, and reign in righteousness to the ends of the earth. The Jews were inexcusable for missing such a king of grace.

Pastor Martin moves from the Old Testament period of preparation to the period of manifestation in the Gospels, showing that from the very first verse of the New Testament Jesus is presented as the rightful King who fulfills the promises to Abraham and David. He examines Matthew 1:1, Gabriel's annunciation in Luke 1, the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2, and Nathanael's confession in John 1, demonstrating that Jesus' kingship was openly declared at his conception, his birth, and the beginning of his public ministry. He pointedly rejects the dispensationalist view that Christ's enthronement is postponed until a future earthly reign.

Pastor Martin examines four pivotal Gospel passages in which Jesus Himself asserts His kingship: His refusal to be made a political king after the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6, the triumphal entry of Matthew 21 and John 12, His exchange with Pilate in John 18, and the taunts at the cross in Matthew 27. Christ never denied His kingship; He repeatedly corrected misconceptions about its nature while unequivocally claiming a real throne, real subjects, and a real kingdom 'not of this world.' Even Pilate understood what the Jews missed, and the dying thief found mercy by appealing to Jesus as King while He hung upon the cross.

Pastor Martin moves into the period of proclamation, the book of Acts, to demonstrate that the kingship of Christ was a dominant note in apostolic preaching. He shows that the very words 'Christ' and 'Lord' carry the freight of messianic kingship and supreme rule, and that Acts opens and closes with the kingdom motif framing the whole book. He then expounds the first Christian sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2, where Peter's climactic argument from Psalms 16 and 110 declares that God has made the crucified and risen Jesus 'both Lord and Christ' and that all forgiveness flows from a presently enthroned Savior who must be obeyed.

Pastor Martin completes his survey of apostolic preaching in Acts, walking through Acts 5, 8, 10, 13, 17, 20, and 26 to show that the present kingship of Jesus Christ was a constant note in evangelism whether to Jews, Samaritans, or pagan Gentiles. Paul's gospel of repentance and faith, the gospel of the grace of God, and the gospel of the kingdom are one and the same gospel. He concludes with three sober applications: all true preaching must include the note of an enthroned Savior, all preaching that omits it dishonors Christ and deceives men, and all teaching that deliberately denies it is another gospel. The sinner's basic problem is that he wants to keep the throne of his own life and still go to heaven.

Entering the 'period of explanation and confirmation' (the Epistles), Pastor Martin expounds Romans 14:9 as one of the clearest New Testament assertions of Christ's present kingship. He shows Paul resolving the conflict between the 'weak' and 'strong' in Rome by assuming that both have been received by God in grace and both are now under the government of Christ the King, for Christ died and rose again that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. From this he draws four principles: Christ's rule is a present reality to Him as Savior, a practical reality in every recipient of salvation, a matter of Christian growth in its working out, and a matter of life and death in its initial embrace.

Returning after illness and a trip to New Zealand, Pastor Martin expounds 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, focusing on verses 25-26: 'For he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.' After tracing Paul's argument that the bodily resurrection of Christ is the pledge and pattern of the believer's resurrection, he draws two pivotal assertions from the text: Christ is presently reigning as the King of grace (not merely a coming King), and the primary concern of His kingship is the salvation of His people. He closes with four consequences of denying Christ's present reign, and a caution against over-realized forms that would impose His kingship by carnal weapons.

Pastor Martin expounds Ephesians 1:20-22 as the third major epistolary passage for Christ's present kingship. In the middle of Paul's prayer that the Ephesians may know the exceeding greatness of God's power toward believers, the apostle asserts that the Father raised Christ, seated Him at His right hand far above every rule and authority and name, put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church. Martin walks through Christ's exalted position (figure, plain language, and time-span) and His exercised power, showing that these Ephesian believers in Nero's day were to view their King as enthroned now, drawing comfort, direction, and warning, while unconverted hearers are called to flee to the enthroned Savior whose hand still bears the scars of the cross.

Before turning to Revelation's great assertions of Christ's kingship, Pastor Martin lays out first principles for interpreting the book. Negatively, Revelation is neither a pre-written crystal ball of coded history nor a preview of a seven-year future segment. Positively, it is a lengthy letter sent by an exiled, suffering apostle to seven real first-century churches, and its contents are essentially ethical and practical, imminent and contemporary, conflict-and-conquest oriented, and Christ-centered. He shows that 'throne' occurs 45 times in Revelation compared to 15 in the rest of the New Testament, teaching believers in any age to have a 'throne fixation' on the Lamb in the midst of the throne. He closes with a brief look at Revelation 1:4-5, where the threefold description of Christ as faithful witness, firstborn of the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth meets suffering saints on the very threshold of the book.

Pastor Martin expounds the opening vision of Revelation 1:9-20, in which the exiled John on Patmos sees the Son of Man in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. After reviewing first principles of interpretation, he walks through the setting, substance, sequel, and significance of the vision. The overwhelmed apostle falls at Christ's feet as one dead, and the Lord's four-fold word of comfort anchors the book: fear not — your fears are groundless, your Redeemer is divine, His redemption is secure, and His dominion is universal, for He holds the keys of death and Hades. This vision of Christ in the midst of the churches, all that He is in person and offices, is the stabilizing comfort of the suffering church and a word of terror to every unconverted heart.

Pastor Martin expounds Revelation 4 as the first half of the great vision of the throne of God and of the Lamb. After the seven letters are dictated, John is beckoned through an opened door in heaven to see a throne set and One seated on it, surrounded by four living creatures and twenty-four elders rendering unceasing praise. He explains that before the church can understand the cycles of conflict to come, she must see the Creator God upon His throne, holy, almighty, and eternal, and hear the elders ascribe to Him worthiness because by His will all things were and are. The vision is a word of instruction and consolation for the struggling church (God is still on His throne, the rainbow of covenant faithfulness still surrounds it) and a word of terror to the impenitent who chafe against a non-negotiable divine sovereignty.

Pastor Martin expounds the second half of the throne-room vision, Revelation 5, in three movements: the problem of the sealed scroll, the answer in the Lion who is the slain Lamb, and the response of all creation in worship. He identifies the seven-sealed scroll as the completeness of God's counsels and purposes for the church and the world from that point to the consummation, and the worthy One as the Lion of Judah who prevails precisely by becoming the slain Lamb. He then draws four abiding messages from the vision: a word of consolation (the Lamb in the midst of the throne is administering every seal for His people's good), a word of instruction (might conquers by meekness), a pattern for imitation (true worship flows from seeing the worthiness of the Lamb), and a frightening warning that the Lamb will yet break the sixth seal in the wrath of the Lamb upon every impenitent sinner.

In the final sermon on Christ's kingship in Revelation, Pastor Martin expounds 11:15-18, the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the great voices declaring, 'The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.' Using the illustration of a family's photo album arranged in thematic cycles rather than chronologically, he explains that Revelation brings us to the consummation six or seven times under different figures. The substance of the vision is the proclamation of an arrived universal and eternal kingdom, and the worship of the twenty-four elders over the events that usher it in. The significance is a pointed word of admonition to the impenitent, a powerful summons to adoration for the saints, and a precious salve of consolation for the suffering church — for the kingdom is as good as come.