The sermon by Peter Allison, titled 'The Son of Man's Faithful Testimony Pt 2', explores the trials of Jesus Christ before Pilate and Herod, emphasizing His consistent testimony as the Son of God and King. The sermon draws contrasts between Jesus' ecclesiastical trial, where He was accused of blasphemy, and His civil trial, where He was accused of being a king opposed to Roman rule. It highlights the refusal of both Pilate and Herod to find fault in Jesus despite the insistence of the chief priests and the crowd. The sermon also delves into the historical and spiritual implications of Jesus' trial, contrasting the actions of the Levitical priests with their biblical heritage and the broader narrative of freedom through Christ. Jesus' kingship is portrayed as transcending earthly kingdoms, rooted in divine decree rather than human authority, and His suffering and humiliation are presented as integral to the salvation and liberation of believers.

Please turn to Luke chapter 23. Hear God's word. Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ the King. Then Pilate asked him, saying, Are you the King of the Jews?

He answered him and said, It is as you say. So Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowd, I find no fault in this man. But they were the more fierce, saying he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man were a Galilean. As soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

Now when Herod saw Jesus, He was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for a long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by him. Then he questioned him with many words, but he answered him nothing, And the chief priests and the scribes stood and vehemently accused him. Then Herod with his men of war treated him with contempt, and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate. And that very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other. Then Pilate, when he called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, You have brought this man to me as one who misleads the people.

And indeed having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning these things of which you accuse him. No neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him, and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him and release him, for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast. And they all cried at once, saying, Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas, who has been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city and for murder. Pilate therefore wishing to release Jesus again called out to them, but they shouted saying, crucify him, crucify him.

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." But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. So Paulet gave sentence that it should be as they requested, and he released to them the one they requested for who rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison, but he delivered Jesus to their will.

He says righteous judgments move us to give thanks. Give him thanks. Heavenly Father, Your word is pure, refined seven times. It endures forever. It is true.

We ask that you would open our hearts to understand these spiritual matters, which the natural man, which we by nature cannot understand except you, open our eyes. We ask that you would teach us and give to us a deeper and fuller understanding of Your sacrifice for us. And I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips and keep me from error. In Jesus' name, Amen. Where we have been considering Christ's suffering in his soul, Suffering that began in the Garden of Gethsemane where his human soul was greatly troubled, greatly distressed, and he was in great agony as he began to bear this unmitigated wrath of God as He prepares to be and is cut off from fellowship with His Father.

That perfect fellowship that He has enjoyed from all eternity, Nabosim of the Father. The fellowship that He enjoyed even in His human nature. He's being cut off from it. That fellowship through which all things are sustained. He's cut off from the Father as He begins to bear this infinite weight, suffering the wrath of God.

He's forgotten by His sleeping disciples as He is in agony and sweating these drops of blood. He has to be strengthened by an angel, something that is a humiliation for him as God. He's seized, he's bound, He's subjected to all manner of unjust actions in two illegal trials before illegally convened tribunals as the righteous judge of all the earth. He's forsaken and abandoned again when Peter denies with oaths that he has even knows Christ, let alone has any connection with Him. Something that we saw Peter does at least six and probably eight times, denying Christ with oaths and cursing.

Again and again, over an extended period of time. Over more than an hour's time. This wasn't just a momentary lapse, but Peter has abandoned Christ and left Him without any other witnesses. Of course, this is all by the determined plan of God. And then early at that early morning meeting of the Sanhedrin and we that we looked at the last week this light of light the truth the only one who has seen the Father, the Holy One of Israel, the light of the nations, the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the one by whom all things have been made.

This one is condemned as a blasphemer. And then This ecclesiastical portion of the trial concludes as when they bring Him to Pilate here. It concludes with that decision that's recorded in verse 1. The whole multitude then arose and led him to Pilate. Throughout this whole ecclesiastical trial, Jesus was the faithful witness, testifying that He is the Son of God.

That was His testimony, that He is the Son of God. And He maintained that testimony throughout all these ordeal and the trials of that night. But then in this trial now that we're about to look at, before the civil authorities, Jesus continues to be the faithful witness, testifying to the rulers representing this Roman kingdom as the agents of Caesar, that he is now the rightful king above all other kings. To the church he testified that he was the Son of God. To these rulers, to these nations that are described in Daniel as the great beasts of the earth, He testifies that He is the King.

And so this begins a new phase in Christ's suffering and humiliation. And it's this trial, this phase that we want to look at this morning. And I'd like to look at This in three ways, three contrasts to bring out here in this trial before Pilate and in the priests, the high priests of Israel, the Levitical priests, the descendants of Aaron, of Aaron and Levi bringing their great high priest back to Babylon, back to Rome. So I want to look at the contrast between Israel and Rome that's shown here, between the high priests and Rome that is illustrated here, and between Christ and Rome. Israel and Rome.

See, Israel now enlists the help of Egypt and Babylon to destroy their own Redeemer. The Bible maintains that there are two classes of people. Two and only two classes of people. Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Israel and Rome, the Jerusalem above which is free, and the Jerusalem that is now which is in bondage. The city of man whose citizens are in bondage to sin and to Satan, and the city of God whose citizens are free and able to obey the law of God.

You see, Jacob, who I loved, Esau, I've hated. Cain's worship was not acceptable to God. Abel's was received. See, freedom is the ability to obey the law of God. Freedom is the ability to obey the law of God.

Freedom is the ability to obey the law of God. Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want. That's not freedom. That's actually bondage. Tyranny and bondage is the inability to obey the law of God.

All freedom comes through Christ's obedience. All freedom. That's how we are made free. It's because Christ has obeyed the law and He has done it in our place. His righteousness is that by which we are declared just.

And of course, his death is his sacrifice. His blood is that sacrifice that pays the penalty of our sin. But it's only because Christ has obeyed the law of God that we are set free, that we are given His Spirit and enabled to obey His law. See, God calls His people out of Egypt to forsake the house of bondage, And He brings us into the new Jerusalem where there is true freedom, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And it's Christ that brings us out.

He's the captain of our salvation. See, in the Exodus from Egypt, God brought His people out of the house of bondage and He put His yoke upon Him. A yoke that Jesus said calls us to take upon Him, us, because it is easy. His yoke is easy, His burden is easy, His yoke is light. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

See all these kingdoms of the ancient world that Daniel describes, Babylon, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, the Roman Empire, are part of that Egyptian axis of nations that seek to destroy the Messiah. Just like Pharaoh did, right, In the days of Moses. He ordered all of the male children to be destroyed, hoping in a satanic plot to destroy the line of Christ. That line that coming through Seth, that God promised Adam and Eve that would crush the head of the serpent. Satan is seeking to destroy that, and he always has been.

See, in taking Christ to Pilate, to be killed, these people are renouncing their deliverance. They're going back to eat out of the hand of Pharaoh. They're going back to the house of bondage from which they were delivered across the Red Sea and when they were baptized into Moses. They are just like the rebellious, unbelieving Israelites who are having been delivered out of this house of bondage, miraculously delivered from the army of Pharaoh who watched this army destroyed in the Red Sea as their carcasses washed up on the shore, as they were drowned in the sea that they had just crossed on dry land. They wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt where they could have their leeks and their garlic.

That's what Israel is doing here in bringing Christ back to Pilate. But the priests in Rome, these are the chief priests. These are the descendants of Levi, the physical descendants of Levi. They are the Levitical priesthood. And so while we have one, this one high priest of the tribe of Levi taking a competing high priest to Rome to be removed from their midst, There's really more going on here.

On his deathbed, Jacob cursed Levi for his fleshly quarrel with Shechem. In Genesis chapter 49, Jacob is going through all of his sons and giving his blessing, yet some of these blessings, some of these were not really blessings, they were curses upon them. And Jacob is referring in Genesis 49, he says, Simeon and Levi are brothers, instruments of cruelty in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council, Let not my honor be united to their assembly, for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and for their wrath, for it is cruel.

I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." Jacob is referring to the incident at Shechem where Levi and Simeon took swords and destroyed the entire city. One of the men in Shechem had defiled their daughter and they were angry about it. And this man came with his father wanting their sister's hand in marriage. And they outwardly agreed. They said, yes, you can do that as long as you're all circumcised.

And the man was so lusting after this daughter that he agreed to it. And the whole city was circumcised. And then when they were in pain and incapacitated, Levi and Simeon came upon this city and killed everybody. They were quarreling in the flesh. They mocked a sacrament.

The very sacrament that was the sign and seal, the covenant of grace, the circumcision. They made a mockery of it and used it in the flesh to destroy people that they were upset with. This is the Levi of whom these priests are descended. This is the Levi that paid tithes to Melchizedek because he was in the loins of Abraham when Abraham paid his tithes. But on Moses' deathbed in Deuteronomy 33, Moses has a little different tune.

Moses blesses these people. And of Levi, he said in Deuteronomy 33, 8, Let your thumbum and your urum be with your holy one whom you tested at Massa, and with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah. Who says of his father and mother, I haven't seen them, nor did he acknowledge his brothers or know his own children. For they have observed your word and kept your covenant. They shall teach Jacob your judgments and Israel your law.

They shall put incense before you and a whole burnt sacrifice on your altar. Bless His substance, Lord, Jehovah. And accept the work of His hands. Strike the loins of those who rise against Him and of those who hate Him, that they rise not again." Moses is blessing Levi. He's saying they will be the teachers of Israel.

They will hold the Urim and the Thummim and bring the Word of God to the people of God. They would offer the sacrifices. They would offer the prayers of God's people in the incense that they offered up. They would teach Jacob, which is what the Levitical priesthood did. But it says, He says of them that they didn't acknowledge their family.

What's he referring to there? He's referring to the fact that it was Levi who took up a violent quarrel with those who celebrated the feast of immorality and adultery in the camp. And unlike their father, who took up a quarrel in the flesh, Levi's son takes up this quarrel in the power of the Spirit. This incident is recounted in Numbers 25. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.

And then the Lord said to Moses, take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders of the Lord out in the sun that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel." There was adultery, fornication, idolatry in the camp. And so Moses said to the judges of Israel, every one of you kill his man who was joined to bail of Peor. And indeed one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who are weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. These people are repenting of their idolatry and their adultery and fornication. And right in the midst of this repenting and weeping assembly, this man dares to bring a Midianite woman.

Now, Infinius, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, he's of the Levi, he's a descendant of Levi. When he saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. And those who died in the plague were 24, 000. And then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the children of Israel because he was zealous with my zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in my zeal.

Therefore, say, Behold, I give to Him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to Him and His descendants after Him a covenant of everlasting priesthood, because He was zealous for His God and He made atonement for the children of Israel." He wasn't storming against Shechem in the flesh with lies and mocking a sacrament that is a sign in the seal of the covenant of grace. He was storming against sin. And he was doing so in the power of the Spirit. See, Phineas subordinated the tie of blood as to the covenant of God. That's what Moses means when he said he didn't regard his family.

He who says of his father and mother, I haven't seen them, nor did he acknowledge his brothers. It was one of his own brothers, one of the Israelites whom he thrust through with that javelin. And so Moses gave to them in his blessing the Urim and the Thummim. It's with the aid of the Urim and the Thummim that they were to ask the Lord's will. It's with this means that they pronounced as the priests of Israel, God's priests, that they sought the Lord's will, proclaimed that will to the people, that they pronounced blessing or curse, acceptance or rejectance, peace or war.

They carry that heavy responsibility of binding and loosing on earth. It's a privilege that they have solely by the grace of God and nothing else. It's not what they deserved, it's what God in His grace of redemption gave to them. And so Phineas then is offered this covenant of everlasting priesthood. He's no longer battling them with the sword of the flesh.

He's battling on the spiritual plane with the sword of the Lord. But then Levi in Moses and Aaron contends with God. He has a quarrel with God. Remember God himself tested the Israelites at Meribah and Massa. And in this testing, God brought a quarrel against Levi.

Remember the people complained because there was no water. And the Lord said to Moses, Take your rod, you and your brother Aaron, and gather the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield water. Thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock to give drink to the congregation and their animals. So Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock and said to them, Here now, you rebels, must we bring water for you out of this rock." And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their angels drank. And then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.

This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and He was hallowed among them." You see, according to 1 Corinthians 10, that rock that Moses struck was Christ. Moreover, brethren, Paul wrote, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." See, Moses was crawling against his own brethren for their murmuring and complaining. But he did so in the power of the flesh. God's Word is to be preached when His signs are demonstrated.

God's Words are to be preached around the sacraments. That's why we don't celebrate the sacraments anywhere, anytime. But they are always celebrated in conjunction with the preaching of the Word of God in the assembly of saints as God's people are assembled in corporate worship because God's Word must be proclaimed when His signs are demonstrated. And Moses, in failing to speak to the Rock, in failing to proclaim the Word of God, he failed to preach the Word of God when his sign was demonstrated. And he struck that rock that is Christ.

And so God denied these two great men of faith, God denied their entrance into the promised land. But you see Levi, through Moses and Aaron, acknowledged the justice and the goodness of God's sentence. They are humbled. They recognize the Lord is the sovereign. They humble themselves before Him.

God is willing to give those who quarrel, even in the flesh, a place in the kingdom of God by the grace of God, by grace. And so Moses sings then of God's grace to Levi in this song, in his song. You see now these high priests as the Levitical priests, as the descendants of Levi, are now quarreling. They are now quarreling again against the very One who came in grace to save them. More than just quarreling against Christ, they are now joining forces with Egypt and Babylon and the beasts, the nations that are described in Daniel 7.

These priests, the descendants of Levi, whom God has redeemed in His grace, are now joining forces with Babylon against the very one who has delivered them. They are rejecting the very Passover lamb that they were ordained to sacrifice. And so, these high priests are making a mockery of their office and their ordination as the priests of God, as the type of Christ. And Christ is standing there bound before Pilate. Christ and Rome.

It's our third comparison. Christ and Rome. Christ is that Son of Man that Daniel spoke of who is to destroy the nations with a rod of iron. Christ is that stone that Daniel spoke of that's cut without hands, that came down from the mountain and smashed into dust that blew away the statue that represents these nations of the ancient world. These nations that are arrayed against Christ.

These nations that under the dominion and reign of Satan were attacking Christ and seeking to destroy that line from which He would come. This very king is now standing in chains and fetters before Pilate, who is the representative of all these nations. He is Caesar's vice regent. He is Caesar's presence in the land of Israel. He's representative.

And the Levitical priests lead the Son of Man to whom has been given judgment over all the kings of the earth. They lead him to the beast himself. It's Satan's plan, which of course is only God carrying out His plan. It's Satan's plan that the King of Kings, the ruler of the nations, should be led before the beast bound in chains, beaten bloody, spit upon, destitute of all support. His disciples have left Him.

Every other person who could testify has left Him, even denying that they know Him. How can this one destroy Satan's kingdom? See Satan is mocking the Word of God. He's mocking the prophecies, he's mocking God. And we are in this crowd.

For our sake that Christ has gone back to the house of bondage. It's for our sake that He is humiliated, that He as the Son of Man, the King of Kings, the One to Whom is given all authority, should stand bound in chains, beaten, bloody, spit upon, destitute, humbled before the very beasts themselves. It's for our sake. Look to Christ, Fall at His feet and kiss them, for they are the feet and the body that has procured our salvation. He goes from the Hall of Judgment To the house of the Father he goes from the chains of bondage to the throne of freedom at the right hand of the Father And as the captain of our salvation He brings us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God He brings us into the glorious liberty of being able to obey the law of God.

See, this is the meaning of the opening of the law that's given in Mount Sinai. It wasn't a covenant of works, do this, keep these laws and then you will live. It's exactly the opposite. Moses told the people, the Lord God made a covenant with us at Horeb. He didn't make this covenant with your fathers, He made it with you.

He's speaking to the children of people, most of them who weren't even born when this covenant was made at Sinai. Moses says, God made this covenant with you because He made it with your fathers. He said, the Lord talked with you face to face and he said I am the Lord your God who has brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage you shall have no other gods before me. See I have already redeemed you from bondage so that you can have no other gods before Me." Christ, this King, is brought before Pilate. And then there's an immediate shift.

When Christ was in His ecclesiastical trial, He was accused of blasphemy, breaking the third commandment in the first table of the law. But as soon as he is brought to Pilate, the people begin to accuse Christ of being a king. They brought him to Pilate and they began to accuse Him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He is Christ, a King. Now why did they change this charge? They incite him of not paying taxes and subverting the whole nation, all lies, twisting of things he said.

They want to charge Jesus now with a fifth commandment violation, not submitting to the Roman rule. Christ the King, who fulfills all the Old Testament prophecies of the Davidic King, whose kingdom would have no end, who is the greater Son of David. He is now standing before this earthly king, being accused of breaking the fifth commandment, of not honoring the ruler that God has established. Now why did they do this? Well, the church, the priests in the church could be concerned about blasphemy, but Pilate wouldn't be concerned about blasphemy of a God he didn't acknowledge.

So they realized that if they came to him with this charge of blasphemy, the one that they decided he was worthy to die under, if they brought that charge, Pilate would just shoo them off like other Roman rulers have done when the Jews tried to bring questions of their law before them. They just said, what is that to me? I don't care about your law. I don't care about those things. Go see to it yourselves.

And so they realized that their plot and their plans wouldn't move forward if they brought this charge of blasphemy to Pilate, so they just make up something else completely out of the blue. Something that apparently, according to all the Gospels, they hadn't even discussed in their other trials. He's a king. He subverts the nation. He's not submitting to the government and the authority.

And so, the first question that Pilate asked is, are you the king of the Jews? Are you the King of the Jews? Are you the King of the Jews? And John tells us that in his account, that Jesus answered him with this question, Are you speaking this for yourself? Are you speaking for yourself about this?

Or did others tell you this concerning me? Jesus is calling Pilate to be honest here. Is this what His observation is? That Jesus has been a rabble rouser, inciting, subverting the nation, leading people to rebel against Rome? Is that what, Pilate, is that what you've observed in me?

Of course, if Jesus had been, Pilate would have known who he was. He'd have known about him a long time ago. Pilate would have been all over him if Jesus had actually been inciting a rebellion and he had the people in his hand. If he had wanted to incite them to storm Pilate's castle and execute him, he could have easily done that. And so Jesus asked him this question, is this what you've seen Pilate or is somebody else telling you this?

And so Pilate diverts the, he recognizes the thrust of that question and he diverts it with his own question, Am I a Jew? Am I a Jew? Do I know about these things? No. Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me.

What have you done?" John gives a little fuller detail on this exchange between Pilate and Christ about whether Christ is a king or not. John tells us in John 18.33, verse 36 actually, Jesus answered Pilate when Pilate responded to his question. Jesus answered and said, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.

Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then? And Jesus answered, You say rightly I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. See, Christ is a faithful witness here. He's standing before the beast of Rome.

He's standing before one who has the power of life and death. He's standing before one who would take offense to His claim to be a king, who would see it as a threat, and yet Jesus says very clearly, yes, I am a king. I am the king. I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. And everyone who is of the truth hears the truth.

Christ said his kingdom, though, was not of this world. That If his kingdom were of this world, then his servants would fight So that he would not be delivered up to the Jews, but his kingdom was not of this world now This statement by Jesus to Pilate is often used to tell us that Christians shouldn't seek to transform politics as we seek to transform every other area of our life. Because Christ's kingdom is not of this world. It's only a spiritual kingdom. And when we sit down at the table with all the other people in our nation, we need to recognize that they come with their laws and their ideas and we need to sit down and in a pluralistic way work out a consensus.

We shouldn't stand on the table and proclaim that Christ is the King and His law is the standard. I remember many, many people, many Christians, were very critical of people who have maintained the kingship of Jesus Christ in the civil arena. Think of Judge Roy Moore, who put a statue of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. He was twice elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama and twice removed by professing Christians because of that. They said, well, Christians shouldn't do that.

We shouldn't have a copy of God's law in our courtrooms. We're a pluralistic nation. When that clerk in Kentucky refused to issue marriage licenses to homosexual fornicators because it was against the law of Kentucky. There were many Christians who were condemning her for this stand, saying she should be obeying the law of the land, which they thought was a ruling of the Supreme Court. Of course, I think they're wrong in every possible account.

The Supreme Court ruling had nothing to do with that justice. It's not the law of the land. It's only applicable to the parties that are before the court. But also she was upholding the law of the land, which forbade her from issuing that certificate. But even if all that was wrong, it still would have been wrong for her to issue that because God's Word says you can't.

God ordained men and women to be married, not men and men and women and women. See, this comes down to this question, what is the nature of Christ's kingship? When Christ said His kingdom was not of this world, He wasn't saying it wasn't in this world. And he wasn't saying it wasn't to transform every aspect of this world. And he wasn't saying that he wasn't king over every aspect of this world, from our civil courts to our churches to our schools to our businesses to our homes to our real estate transactions to our purchases, our production of oil, and power, to our computer programming.

He wasn't saying that His Kingdom didn't invade those areas. It does. It might be easier to understand His Word in staying of this world to say from this world. That's what that preposition means. Act from this world.

It's not out of this world. Christ was not made king by the vote of some people. Christ wasn't made king because some man put a crown on his head. He wasn't made king because a congress or a parliament appointed Him. There was no nation of people that voted Him as King.

He was King by the decree of God Almighty. Today, God said, I have declared, You are my King. So Christ is saying his kingship didn't come from people, didn't come from this earth, but Christ is very much a king who reigns upon this earth. That's the whole point of, and this point is exactly why I read Daniel 9 this morning because there we see that these kings of the earth are indeed pitted against the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and it is this King who reigns over them and who destroys them. Just as Daniel said, and yes the Roman Empire fell before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And the Roman Empire acknowledged that Jesus Christ was king when its emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of that land. And that kingdom, of course, is gone. It was destroyed. It was overcome, overpowered by the blood of the Lamb and the saints and the kingship of Christ. So Christ here as this King who reigns over everyone is standing in chains, bound, spit in upon, beaten, bloody, humiliated for our sake.

He stands humiliated that as our King, He might redeem us from bondage to sin and to Satan, that He might bring us into liberty and into the kingdom of his marvelous light. And so he willingly undergoes this humiliation before the beast himself. And we can be ever grateful for his sacrifice, for his humiliation, so that we might be set free. Let us pray. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you that you are the reigning king.

Indeed, all of the earth recognizes this, and even the very year that we inaugurate today, the year of 2023. Is the 2023 year of your reign as the King of kings and the Lord of lords over all of the nations of the earth. They are all as a speck of dust upon the scales. We praise you, Father, for your grace that has translated us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the marvelous light of your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have set us free, that we may obey your commandments and keep your precepts and that they are not a burden to us but a delight and a joy, that out of our gratitude, for so great a salvation that you humbled yourself to, as the King of Kings, submit yourself to stand bound and beaten before these kings for our sake.

Because you loved us, not because we loved you, For we didn't. But we praise you, we praise your grace that has made us heirs, fellow heirs with Christ. We ask Lord that your reign might continue, that it might be advanced in our land, that everyone should know your word and know you as the Lord as their Savior. We ask Lord in faith and in hope, A sure and certain hope, founded upon the infallible promises of your word that are yea and amen in Christ. There is Lord no promise in your word that will ever fall to the ground.

We ask Lord that if we ever stand before Kings that you would in that hour give us your Holy Spirit and your grace that we might be as you were a faithful witness a martyr A faithful witness even to death That you and you alone are the King and the Savior of this world. In Jesus' name, Amen.