The Coming King | Sermon by Dr. W. A. Criswell
John 18:33–37
Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art Thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world . . . .
[John 18:37]
In an unconditional covenant, the Lord God promised the land of Palestine to Abraham and to the seed of Israel forever [Psalm 105]. The same Lord God promised David that he should have a Son who would reign over the house of Israel forever.
The prophet Isaiah described that glorious Son and that glorious King in the seed and line of David [Isaiah 9:2-7].
Seven hundred fifty years after that prophecy, the angel Gabriel was sent to a little village in Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin named Mary to announce to her that she would be the mother of this foretold, foreordained Child [Luke 1:35].
And upon a night of nights the Child was born. The covenant King had come.
At about thirty years of age Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River and immediately went forth to declare the coming of the covenant kingdom, and to present Himself as the promised and covenant King.
He carried with Him the credentials of His royalty and His kingship by family descent. Through Mary He was descended from David through the line of Nathan, and through his step-father Joseph He was legally descended from David through the line of Solomon. Both by legal right and by blood inheritance He was a King.
He carried with Him the credentials of a beautiful and sinless life. He bore also the credentials of wonderful words and of wondrous works.
And at the exact time and in the exact manner foretold by the prophets, the covenant King came into the holy city of Jerusalem, riding on a donkey’s foal.
The crowd shouted with exultation and delight, “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the Son of David.”
But He is a rejected king. The Jews took the Lord Jesus to Pontius Pilate and accused Him of sedition saying, “He says He is a king.”
The Romans put a cast-off purple robe over His shoulder, put a stick in His hand for a scepter, and mockingly, scornfully bowed the knee saying, “Hail, king of the Jews.”
Pilate asked the crowds, “Shall I crucify your king?” And they answered saying, “We have no king but Caesar. Crucify Him!” “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.”
And He is an exiled king. The Lord Jesus, King Jesus, went away into another country [Luke 19]—up there, into heaven—and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High, waiting for consummation.
And in this interlude and intermission God calls out of the whole world a people for His Son.
Wherever there is a man who will turn and believe, he is added to the family of God—the church, the bride of Christ. But what of the kingdom? Is there to be no kingdom? Has God forgotten the kingdom? No.
Jesus is a coming king. He is coming under a two-fold simile. He is coming first as a thief in the night. And He is coming second as the lightning splits the bosom of the sky and shines from the east to the west.
He is coming as a thief to steal away His jewels, to take out of the world His pearl of price and His treasure hid in a field, the church. Then He shall come in the parousia, the apokalupsis, openly, and every eye shall see Him [Revelation 1:7].
He is coming in the glory of God as God the Son and the Son of God. He is coming in the glory of the angels as the Captain of the hosts of heaven. He is coming in the glory of the church as the Bridegroom with the bride.
He is coming in His own glory as the Son of God, as the Son of Abraham, as the Son of David, as the Son of man. He is coming in His own glory as the virgin-born Man, the crucified Man, the risen Man, the God-man, the manifest and eternal Son of the Highest.
He is coming as the King of the Jews. He is coming as the King of the nations. He is coming as the King of Kings. He is coming as the Lord God.
