Jesus – The King of Kings - Chronicles Of The Kings (Week 8)

What kind of King have we been searching for? Throughout history, every earthly king has fallen short, leaving us longing for a King who is perfectly faithful, righteous, and worthy of our trust.

In the final week of Chronicles of the Kings, we turn our eyes to Jesus—the King of Kings. Watch as Pastor Will Brown takes us through the final week of Chronicles Of The Kings and discover why He is the King our hearts have been waiting for.

Transcript

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Did you know the Bible has kings in it? I don't know if you noticed, but that was me. So I'm glad that I'm finally here to speak with you all in person. You don't have to sit through another video. But I'm truly grateful to be preaching with you guys today. And as Pastor Andrew said, uh it was 2010. I was an insecure freshman baseball player at Midland College when a campus missionary found me on the campus, uh, came to my practice and helped me move into my dorm room. And I did the purple book with this guy, and he invited me into a college ministry. For those of you who remember, it was called a revolution. Uh we were in the portables out beside the building. Come on, somebody. And I did not know that when I came into this church in 2010 and went to an Every Nation conference in 2011 that it would change my life forever. Uh and I'm so grateful, so glad that God interrupted all the plans that I had. Has God interrupted your plans before? I'm so glad he interrupted the plans I had and he brought me into this family because it really is a privilege. And so I just before I go any further, thank you. Uh, when I walked through the doors as a freshman, I felt so welcomed, I felt loved and cared for in a way that I had never felt in a church before. Uh so thank you for being that church to me so many years ago. Some of you were probably working at the doors whenever I walked through. Uh so thank you for honoring God, for making disciples, for loving people. It really is a privilege. Uh, before I go further, I want to introduce my family to you. Uh, you may know who I am. My name is William Brown. Uh, this is my wife, Alyssa, uh, my oldest daughter, Jocelyn, who decided to wake me up at three o'clock in the morning last night. Uh, I thought it would be the baby that did that, but it was her. Uh, she knew that I needed some extra prayer before today. Uh, Sage, right there in the middle, a little sweetheart, and then Lincoln, he is an absolute ball of energy. And then our newest edition as of July 2nd, baby Sophia, come on. Uh, we're so thankful. Yes, praise God. Uh, my wife was here during the first service. Like, it's it's amazing. She made it look easy. I think we're gonna have five more kids. Um, you know, before that's that's how you grow churches when you plant churches. You just you grow from the inside. Um, yeah, so super grateful to be here. Thank you, Pastor Andrew, for letting me preach. Um, if you have your Bibles with you this morning, I want to invite you to turn to Revelation chapter 19. This is gonna be our text today, Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 through 16. I'm gonna be reading from the ESV today. And if you are able, would you please stand with me as we honor God's word together. Revelation 19, starting in verse 11. John's vision says, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God, and the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. You can be seated. Let's pray this morning. God, we thank you. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for opportunities to sit under your word. And Lord, we ask that your word would do what only it can do. Would it bring transformation in us? And so, Father, what we know not, would you teach us? What we have not, would you give us today? What we are not, would you make us for your name's sake, for your glory alone. We thank you. And all of God's people said, Amen. Well, it's been an amazing series, hasn't it? Uh, I encourage you that uh over the last eight weeks, if you've missed anything, uh, to go and watch the series, go back and read uh the chronicles of the kings. Uh it's been really amazing to listen to all the pastors bring these kings to life for us in 2026. Uh, but here's one thing that you may have noticed, I'm hoping that you noticed as you followed along with the reading guide that you were given, um, but as also as you've been listening to the sermons, there is a pattern that has begun to present itself with the kings. Uh, this pattern is syncretism, sacrifice, and separation. Uh, in all of the kings, we see syncretism. This is kind of a religious cultural buffet way of living. You see, the kings were supposed to be different. These kings were supposed to keep Israel different from the nations around them. However, they became like the nations around them. They kind of took idols here, idols there, cultural practices from this country, cultural practices from that, and they became just like the nations around them. This typically would lead to sacrifice. You would see these kings uh begin to allow their people and themselves to break the first two commands of the Ten Commandments. Uh, they would exalt idols over them, they would sacrifice to uh man-made gods, and they would break what God told them to do. We see actually the worst piece of sacrifice happen whenever we followed Manasseh as he sacrificed his children. And then lastly, we see separation. See, both of these kingdoms were supposed to be different, were supposed to be separate from nations, but then they found themselves separated from God. They found themselves separated and in exile eventually, kicked out because of the things that they did. You see, from King Saul to David to Solomon, Manasseh, Josiah, even Hezekiah, even if there was a good king, this pattern persisted. It didn't last from one generation to another. Uh, they chose to become like the nations around them. I don't know why necessarily, maybe because they wanted more security, comfort, or uh they they cried out to God and God didn't seem to answer, and so they turned to other gods. One thing we know for sure, they found themselves separated from God. But, church, can I tell you this morning? This pattern exists today. You see, we wrestle with the same temptation that the kings wrestled with a long time ago. I remember times in my life, especially when I came here as a freshman in college, that I just wanted to be like everybody else. I just wanted to be accepted. I wanted their approval, and so I wanted this security of being on a team, and so I became like the culture around me. I became like my team. I adopted the things that they were doing. I found myself sacrificing to the things that they were sacrificing. I would sacrifice my purity, my integrity, my character, and I'd become like them. And then eventually I would find myself feeling separated from God. Separated both relationally, but also because of my shame, feeling separated from God's people. Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever experienced this in your own life? Have you seen this pattern in our culture today? Have you seen this? It seems like a revolving door over and over and over again. See, here's the point I want to make before we go on. We are like the kings. We are not that different from the kings that we've studied. And I hope that you've seen that. For some reason, we long for someone who can make things right, don't we? We long for someone who can make things right, but we repeatedly place our hope in leaders, systems, or ourselves in ways that leaves us wanting, don't we? You see, the Bible forces us to ask a question as we continue to read the Chronicles of the Kings, as we read from Judges all the way through, we're asking the question: will there ever be a king? Will there ever be a leader that we can hope in forever? Because all of these ones have failed. You see, we long for someone. We put our hope in leaders and systems. I don't know about you guys, but have you ever uh voted for a president that maybe didn't fulfill what they said they would do? And you were like, hey, wait, that's not what we wanted, right? Have you ever put your hope or expectations into an institution that maybe didn't pan out? Maybe you were asking your work to be something to you that only God could be to you, and by the end you felt kind of chewed up and spit out. If anything, I know that all of us have probably experienced a little bit of that disillusionment when it comes to a coach or a parent or even a pastor who couldn't bear the burden, the weight that we were placing on them, putting our hope in people who are flawed. You see, we do this in part. We see this actually in a very old sermon by a theologian named Thomas Chalmers. He had this amazing sermon. I'd encourage you to go listen. Well, you can't listen to it. They didn't have recording devices back then. You can go read it, uh, called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. What he talks about in this is that our hearts must lay hold of something. Our hearts are like vacuums that must be filled with something. See, the question is not, are we going to worship? It's what are we going to worship? Because our heart, the way that our stomach longs for food, our soul longs to worship something. We are going to lay hold of something. We see this pattern over and over and over again. We long for a king. Have you longed for your circumstances to change somebody? Have you looked at a moment in your life and thought, I don't know if I can go on anymore? Have you read the Psalms and empathize so greatly when he says, How long? How long, O Lord, will you forsake me? How long will my enemies have everything and I have nothing? How long? I need a king, I need someone. And so my goal today is to introduce you or reintroduce you to the king that we've been waiting for. Amen? And so that's what we're gonna do this morning. Now, I read from the book of Revelation, uh, this is an amazing book. I encourage you to go read Revelation. It's one of the only books that says you're blessed just because you read it. Uh, but there's a lot of imagery, there's a lot of unknowns about how things are gonna happen. And so I want to give you some expectation management. A lot of times, whenever we read the book of Revelation, we start asking what, how, and when, and we forget to ask who. Today we're only asking who. We're answering the who question, who's coming back? Who is this presented in Revelation? And so from the passage, we have two characteristics of the king that we've been longing for, the king we've been waiting for, and a final point that's a question that's gonna drive home an application for us today. So if you're a note-taker, come on somebody, uh, here are your points this morning. We have been waiting for a king we can trust. We've been waiting for a king who is just, and finally, why does this offend me? Verse 11, if we go back to your text. We are introduced to a king who is perfectly faithful and perfectly true. It says this, then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it is called faithful and true. You see, this passage, the names that are given right now encapsulate two dimensions of Christ's character. First, being faithful. This speaks to Jesus' absolute reliability. Jesus is the only king who was uncompromised. He's the only king who actually fulfilled what he said he was going to fulfill. He's the only one who didn't deviate from his responsibility. You see, when we look at the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, he's not like any of the other kings that we looked at, right? He's far different. He's reliable, he's uncompromised, he's stayed true to what God called him to do. Not only faithful, he's also true. Jesus is truth. Now, saying that he's true is not saying that he speaks with honesty, though he does speak with honesty. What it means is that he is truth. Jesus is the plumb line of all truth. Uh, he is different, he's the standard of all truth. And so here's what these two characteristics bring about for us today. Together, faithful and true, demonstrates Jesus' moral right to rule. How many of you, business owners or family leaders, could say, I have the moral right to lead, right? Jesus is different. He's not like we are. He holds a moral right. He's fulfilled every prophetic word. He's, if you go back and you look through at the entire Bible, this moment that we're looking at in Revelation, when Jesus arrives on the scene again as a conquering king, is spoken about 1800 times throughout the entire Bible. In the New Testament alone, one in every 30 verses talks about this moment that's happening. And if you go all the way back to Deuteronomy chapter 17, God knew that the people were gonna one day reject him and ask for a king. And so he put it into the law. He said, When you do ask for a king, it should be a king that I choose. And this king, he's not gonna be conquering like a military general, but this king is gonna look more like a priest. It says that the kings who sit over Israel should actually record their own copy of the law that's looked over by the Levitical priests, that they read on a daily basis, that they pray, that they wouldn't get puffed up and arrogant and think they're different than those that they lead. Jesus fulfills God's design for a king. He's the vision of righteousness, obedience, humility. He's the king whose authority transcends earthly powers. This is who Jesus is, faithful and true. His power structures are different. He didn't establish his kingdom through a conquest. There was no psychological warfare, no drone warfare to establish the kingdom of God. This alone was done by loving sacrifice. You see, he's unlike the leaders that we see today, and he's unlike all leaders that have gone before. He was uncompromised to provide security and prosperity. That's the thing that most kings thought about. How can I think of national security and my nation's prosperity? Jesus alone knew what we needed most. We needed some eternal security, didn't we? We needed some eternal prosperity, a reality that this life is not what we're living for. Amen? Like we needed something else, and Jesus secured it. He was uncompromised in his pursuit to get it. He didn't do what the other kings did. He didn't separate himself from the people that he led. He actually became a man and lived among us. He lived the life we couldn't live, he died the death that we deserve, the wrath that we are owed because of our sin. Jesus fulfilled for us. You see, other kings took from the people. Jesus gave everything. Jesus is a king that we can trust. However, we don't only need a king we can trust, we also need a king who is just, don't we? You see, the king that we've been waiting for, he possesses absolute authority. Absolute authority and certain victory. But here's how he's different. He's not corrupted by his power. Think about that. How power corrupts. Jesus is different. When we go back to the text, verse 12, it says, His eyes are like a flame of fire. On his head are many diadems. He holds all the crowns. He has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God. The armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white, appear, were following him on a white horse. From his mouth comes a sharp short sword with which to strike down the nations. And he will rule with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. See, because Jesus is faithful and true, he alone can judge. He has the moral right to lead and to judge and to execute this judgment with righteousness. He's a just ruler. You see, the imagery of the fiery eyes that Jesus rides out from heaven with. Nothing escapes at the sight of this king. If you go back and read in the Psalm, Psalm 93 through Psalm 97 talks about the king who will come, the king that will be established. And what we see about this king when we read it in Psalm 97 is that his fire, his sight goes out before him, and it burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world. The earth sees and trembles at this king. The earth melts like wax before the Lord. When you look at verse 11, it says that he in righteousness judges and makes war. We see how he does this in the passage. It says that a sword comes out of his mouth. Now, Jesus is not literally leaving heaven with a sword out of his mouth. But this is imagery that goes very deep. This is an instrument of divine judgment out of his mouth. It represents his uh his uh this metaphor establishing that his justice will go out, it'll be destroyed, not by military conquest, but by his authoritative word. When you go read the New Testament, you see different moments where this is talked about in Paul the Apostle in 2 Thessalonians, he says that this king will kill by the breath of his mouth. His word is irresistible, the power of it is authoritative. His judgment is not arbitrary, but it is exact. It's truth unfolding for all of us to see. See, Jesus, he's called the Word of God, He's the Alpha, He's the Omega, He's the beginning and the end. In the beginning the Word was, and He created by His Word, and in the end, He is gonna bring justice by His Word once again. This is a faithful, true, just King that we're introduced to. You see, Jesus is a King that we can trust because He is just. You see, I've heard it said this way on campus when I'm doing evangelism, and people say God is loving, and I'm like, He is loving. But Jesus is not just loving, He's loving and just. He must punish sin. He owes it to His creation that He loves and longs to bring back to its full potential that He must judge what has destroyed His creation, doesn't He? He's not like the other kings. You see, by His Word He pours out the wrath of God on all sin, all evil, all brokenness and wickedness, but by His faithful and true word, He brings dead things to life. He speaks things back into existence, He restores us. We hold this intention, God faithful and just, true and just He appeared first as a suffering servant, establishing His kingdom by laying down His life. But one day soon He will come back. He will come back as a conquering King by pouring out the wrath of God alone. We see this in Hebrews chapter 4, talking about the Word, who He is. It says the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, that it splits bone and marrow, soul and spirit, that it judges our thoughts and intentions. At the end it says that no creature is hidden from his sight. All are naked and exposed to the eyes of him whom we must give account. This king with fiery eyes and a sword out of his mouth, he is just. You see, other kings turned a blind eye to idolatry, but Jesus cuts out whatever threatens his kingdoms. Where other kings neglected their job, Jesus fulfills his role. Amen. We can look at this, and when we see this image of uh in Revelation 19, it this conquering king who's revealed to us, a king who's going to win, a king who can win. This image inspires both great joy but also fearful expectation. Am I right? I mean, this is a little scary, like let's be honest. Uh, we're used to the suffering, suffering servant, we're used to the lamb slain on our behalf. We don't always like to think about this conquering warrior king who comes to bring justice on uh his good creation. If you've ever watched uh C.S. Lewis's uh adaptation, I guess the movie adaptation to Chronicles of the Kings. So Chronicles of the Kings, Chronicles of Narnia. In in the first book, actually, I'm reminded uh there's a moment. The book is called The Magician's Nephew. And I really wish they would make that one into a movie because there's this creation moment. Where they're in absolute darkness, but they feel a powerful presence. And by the mouth of the lion, Aslan, creation becomes possible. Things begin to pop up, like trees are happening, like all these things are happening. And whenever the lion is kind of backing up, it's like painting the skies, the imagery that's used. And gets closer and closer and closer to the children who are standing there. They describe it as a kind of fearful expectation. Not afraid because they're terrified that this lion is bad, but afraid because they know that what they're looking for is capable or looking at is capable. He's capable of far greater power than they could ever imagine. You see, there's a moment in the movie, Chronicles of Narnia, where Mr. Beaver is describing Aslan to the children, and he says, This king, of course, he is not safe. But he is good. He's a good king. I tell you, and that's exactly Jesus who's presented to us in Revelation 19. This king who's not safe. Boy, but he is good, amen. He is good, he is faithful. And so it leaves us to ask the question again: will there ever be a king or will there ever be a leader that we can hope in? Well, the easy answer without me talking the last 20 minutes is yes. Yes, of course. See, Jesus is faithful, true, he's just, he's righteous. He will come and bring vengeance on all things that have destroyed his creation. He's gonna judge the living and the dead. He's faithful and true. He's made a way for us to get to him. He's satisfied the wrath of God that we deserve. He's bridged the gap. The thing that idolatry destroyed, the separation that we've all experienced, he's made it possible for us to follow him by his life, death, and resurrection. He is the true king. However, why does this offend me? You see, when you walk in this morning, if we did a survey and I asked you the question, do you believe that Jesus is faithful? You believe you can trust Jesus as King. If I said, Do you believe that Jesus is just, a just King? I would wager to say that every one of us would have agreed. Yes, Jesus is just. Jesus is faithful. But you see, it's not information alone that we need. Information doesn't always transform us. And I have to ask you, when you read your Bible, are you still comfortable? Reading your Bible should be a little bit of an uncomfortable experience. You see, because when I read my Bible, it tells me that I'm not like God. It tells me that I'm in need of a savior. It offends my flesh. And I ask myself on a regular basis as I read, I'll be reading something and I think, why does this offend me? What is it about this passage that makes me want to be different or challenges the way that I view and see the world? You may want to ask yourself these questions as you read the Bible. Because I can tell you this Jesus, through his word, he sees the world way different than we see the world naturally. And the kings that we've looked at over the last eight weeks, they've had all the information that they need. You know, for us, we sit with a phone in our pocket that has access to all of the world's information. And I would wager to say that all this information has not made us smarter, it's not made us more transformed, it's not made us better as a society. I mean, we've seen more death and bloodshed in the last century alone combined than all centuries put together. More education hasn't always been the answer. See, but I think that beyond the information, if we actually step into what may offend us, transformation's on the other side. You may read your Bible and you don't want to look at the things that offend you, but I promise you, transformation's available on the other side of being offended. So why does this offend me? Verse 16 says this. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You see, Jesus is not interested in sharing his titles with me. Jesus is not interested in sharing his titles with you either. And I think if we look back and we survey all of the kings and we ask one question, what is the thing that made them do the things they were doing? What made them uh become like the nations around them? What made them sacrifice to the false gods? What made them separated from God? I would say man's ultimate sin is our desire to be autonomous from God. See, autonomy means self-law. Man's ultimate sin is our desire to define good and evil for ourselves. It's our desire to rule our own little kingdom. How many of you know that you have your own little kingdom, a place that you want to provide security and prosperity? And sometimes when God seems silent, we turn to other things. I don't know if you've ever experienced this, uh, but as I've gotten older, I'm about to turn 34, and uh Pastor Chris Kelly tells me I'm in my middle ages for some reason. I'm still young, I don't know why he says that. Um, but uh I'm turning 34, and here's what's happened. There have been times where I think to myself, man, I'm a missionary, I'm a pastor, I'm gonna go plant this church. I'm so thankful for what God has done with me. But have you ever prayed before and God seems silent? Have you ever prayed and asked God for a circumstance to change and it didn't seem to change? I've sat in those moments and I've looked at the people I graduated high school with, I've looked at the people I went to college with, the people I played baseball with, and the people I work with sometimes, and I'm like, God, I'm doing all these things for you. Why are they making more money than me? Why are they more comfortable than I am? Why do they have all the things that my heart longs for and I don't? And when God seems silent, I too, like the kings, become like them. I'm like, it must not be from my devotion to Christ. He must not, he's not giving me what I believe I'm owed. So therefore I turn to other things. I make an idol of my work, I make an idol of my family, I serve my family, and I put them in a position that only God could truly satisfy, but I'm asking them to become God for me. Have you ever done this before? Have you ever looked to the right and to the left and found yourself sacrificing to things that really aren't God? See, it's not the information alone. There's something that we have to do with the information that we have. We make idols of our family, our bank account. You see, there's a word that we used in the Middle Ages that we don't use today. See, this Jesus, this king, is deserving of our fealty. This is our undying devotion, our blind affiliation, our love, joy, and hope for this person. But the biggest thing that keeps us from encountering this true, faithful, loving, just king is our blind fealty to ourselves, our desire to serve our own little kingdoms, our desire to provide for us what only God can actually give us. We look to our family, to our job, and the world around us. We become like everyone else. With information alone, we become like the kings. Synchronism, sacrifice, and separation. We start looking at everything around the world and we want it and we sacrifice to it. We sacrifice our kids to it, we sacrifice our morals, ethics, and character to it, and we find ourselves separated. But can I tell you the way of Jesus? The way of Jesus, when we encounter right thinking, is truth, repentance, and faith. It's not synchronism, sacrifice, and separation, but truth, repentance, and faith that we encounter the news that we serve a faithful king. The king we've been waiting for, faithful and true, the king we've been waiting for, just right to judge. And we actually lower ourselves to that truth. And we say, you know what? Here's why I'm offended. Is Jesus king or am I? And so I'm asking you today, as we finish the Chronicles of the Kings, as we cap out the end of this series, over the last eight weeks, is Jesus King or are you? And only you really know. Only you really know who is deserving of your fealty, your devotion, your life, your love, and everything. But I want to reintroduce you. Those of you who have followed Jesus, you may have grabbed the reins again. Today it's a simple practice. There's nothing that you must accomplish so that he will see you. You see, the king that we've been waiting for all along has been waiting for us. The Bible says that this king we knock and the door would be open to us, that he goes about sending his spirit looking for those who would follow him, or this faithful and true king. He didn't leave us by ourselves. He's not gonna just bring justice and destroy us. He actually gave us away. Man, this faithful and true king offers us life and salvation if we lower ourselves, humble ourselves. See, Jesus established his kingdom when he laid down his life. We enter his when we lay down ours. We walk into his kingdom. We're able to approach the throne of grace with expectation as sons and daughters, as we experience this truth and we repent, and he gives us faith and he seals us with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption so that we can look at this day in the future. When the king comes from the clouds, when the sword is out of his mouth, when his eyes are flames of fire looking and we are not afraid. Why? Because we're covered by the blood of the Lamb, amen. This is the king that we serve, a faithful, true, and just King. And so this morning I want to give you an opportunity to respond. I want to ask you to respond as a prayer team comes forward in a moment to this news. So will you stand with me this morning? Jesus, faithful and true, just in every way. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. Lord, it's only by you. Lord, we thank you. You are a just and righteous king, that you're faithful and true to your word, that you didn't leave us alone, separated, alienated from you, but you became a man, you lived, died, and resurrected so we can know you, God. You are the King we've been longing for it. And so, Lord, for all of us who have tried to become the king of our own lives, who've tried to be the Lord of our own lives, Lord, would you give us the gift of repentance? Father, would you give us strength? Lord, I pray for those who need to be reconciled to you. Would you give them grace and mercy to say yes? Lord, I thank you that in your words you say that you gladly receive repentant sinners. Lord, that you are faithful to restore us. You're faithful to restore our marriage, faithful to restore what we believe we've broken and lost because of our sin and shame. That there's no guilt, shame, or condemnation for those that are found in you. God, we love you and we thank you. We thank you. And all of God's people said, Amen.