Worship Helps for Christ the King

Title: Resurrection of the Flesh
Artist: Luca Signorelli

This is a very interesting painting. It is based on St. Paul’s great resurrection chapter in 1 Corinthians 15. The painting is especially founded upon this particular Bible verse: “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). 

In the painting, two angels are blasting their long trumpets from the sky. There is action upon the earth. Skeletons are rising from the ground. Flesh and muscle and sinew are returning to their bodies. There is laughter and joy at the great reunion of flesh and bones; the great reunion of body and soul; and the great reunion of God’s saints embracing one another.


Worship Theme: Lord, keep us joyful in Christ our King! On this last Sunday of the Church Year, we rejoice in the fulfillment of God’s plan for our salvation through Christ our King. And we rejoice because our Christ our King reigns—the king who once came as a sacrifice; the king who still shepherds us day by day; the king who one day will conquer all our enemies. Rejoice in his reign and look forward to the day when every knee will bow with us before the king of kings and lord of Lords!

Prayer of the Day:
Lord Jesus Christ, by your victory you have broken the power of the evil one. Fill our hearts with joy and peace as we look with hope to that day when every creature in heaven and earth will acclaim you King of kings and Lord of lords to your unending praise and glory; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.


Old Testament: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 23-24
11For this is what the Lord God says: I myself will seek the welfare of my flock and examine them carefully. 12As a shepherd examines his flock when he is with his sheep that have been scattered, so I will examine my flock and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land. I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in all the settlements of the land. 14I will pasture them in good pasture, and their grazing land will be on the high mountains of Israel. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and they will pasture on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will shepherd my flock, and I myself will let them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured. I will strengthen the weak. I will destroy the fat and the strong, and I will shepherd them in justice.                     
20Therefore, this is what the Lord God says to them. I myself am going to judge between the fat sheep and the skinny sheep. 21Because you have shoved them with your side and shoulder and knocked down all the weak with your horns until you had scattered them abroad, 22I will save my flock so that they will not become plunder any more. I will judge between one sheep and another.
23Then I will raise up over them one Shepherd, and he will tend them, my servant David. He will tend them, and he will be their Shepherd. 24I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be the Prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken.

1. In the verses that directly precede this lesson, God rebukes the shepherds, i.e., the kings, leaders and priests of Israel for not being taking care of his sheep. According to God, our Shepherd-King, how will he deal with his sheep?

2. These verses were written hundreds of years after the reign of King David. So, who is this “servant David” that God would raise up to rule over his people?


Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:20–28
20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came by a man, the resurrection of the dead also is going to come by a man. 22For as in Adam they all die, so also in Christ they all will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ as the firstfruits and then Christ’s people, at his coming. 24Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has done away with every other ruler and every other authority and power. 25For he must reign “until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” 26Death is the last enemy to be done away with. 27Certainly, “he has put all things in subjection under his feet.” Now when it says that all things have been put in subjection, obviously that does not include the one who subjected all things to him. 28But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, in order that God may be all in all.

3. Explain the comparison between Adam and Christ in these verses.

4. What does it mean that Christ is the “firstfruits” of those who have been raised?

5. Evaluate. Verse 28 is telling us that Jesus is somehow inferior to God the Father.

Gospel: Matthew 27:27–31
27Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole cohort of soldiers around him. 28They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. 29They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, knelt in front of him, and mocked him by saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30They spit on him, took the staff, and hit him repeatedly on his head.
31After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

6. How did the King of kings show his love for us his subjects?

7. As we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, how can we be joyful as we see Jesus dying on a cross as a criminal?


Answers:
1. He promises to seek out and rescue the lost, to gather his sheep from every nation, to provide for all their needs and to strengthen them when they are weak.

2. This is a prophecy about the coming Messiah. God had promised that a descendant of David would rise up to sit on his throne. The Messiah would be the greatest king in the history of Israel. Jesus, a blood descendant of King David, is that king. He is King of kings and Lord of lords.

Since the time of David, Israel had called her kings “shepherds.” The men who followed in David’s line, however, did not shepherd Israel in the paths of God. So God made a promise: the Sovereign LORD would shepherd his people. Notice the first person pronouns in this lesson—we rejoice because we have a King who acts on behalf of his people, like a shepherd for sheep. God says, “I will guide them; I will guard them; I will seek them; I will find them.” Most importantly, God promised to raise up King David’s greater Son to be the prince of his people and their Good Shepherd. Rejoice in the Christ the King who shepherds his flock day by day!

3. Through Adam and Eve’s sin, all mankind fell and became subject to death. We are born dead spiritually. We will all face physical death someday. Because of our sins we all deserve eternal death in hell. But in Jesus we have been made alive. With his suffering and death, the payment of sin was made. His resurrection is proof that we too will be raised and will live forever with him in heaven.

4. If the story of Christ ended on Good Friday, there could be no joy at all. Had Christ not been raised, we should be pitied more than all men, as Paul says in the verse immediately preceding this lesson. But the story didn’t end on Friday—a whole new chapter started on Easter Sunday morning! Christ has indeed been raised, and that means he is the firstfruits of the dead. When the Israelites brought the firstfruit offering to the Lord, they confessed that the whole harvest belonged to God, and they rejoiced at the greater harvest that was coming. Through the resurrection of Jesus, God promised that a field full of souls will follow the firstfruits from death to life. Until then, Christ will reign as king until the Great Day comes when he reverses everything Adam ruined and destroys every enemy that stands against the Church. Then our joy will be complete, and God will be all in all. Rejoice in Christ the King who will conquer all our enemies!

5. Verse 28 is a difficult verse. The Bible states clearly in many places that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal in power, glory and authority (John 10:30). No one is superior to the other. Jesus however humbled himself to come to earth and obey the will of his Father (John 14:28). How can this be? As Professor Carleton Toppe once wrote: “Such is the mystery and wonder of the Trinity and of the God-man Jesus Christ” (The People’s Bible: 1 Corinthians, p.148).

6. Our King did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus showed his love for us in this: that as King of the universe he allowed himself to be mocked and tortured by a handful of ignorant unbelieving soldiers. In love, he allowed himself to suffer the physical agony of the cross. In love, he willing suffered the punishment of sin in our place. Our King truly deserves our honor, service and praise!

7. Joyful? How can this make us rejoice? The scene would seem like bad satire if not for its sad reality. Petty little men in a tiny little fortress bully the One who created light from darkness and divided land from sea. He deserved the finest crown, but look what man gave! He deserved the noblest scepter, but look what man handed him! He deserved the sincerest devotion, but look what man offered! He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. The King of heaven came to earth, and look at what man gave him! He could have swept them all away; he could have condemned us like he had the fallen angels. Man deserved nothing more—but look at what the King gave! He gave his holiness for our sin and his death for our life. This scene is joyful because we know how it ends. The picture of our King wearing a crown of thorns is not tragic, but rather it is full of grace. We have a King in Christ who left his heavenly throne and regnavit a ligno crucis (“reigned from the wood of the cross”, Justin Martyr; Augustine). Rejoice in Christ the King who came as our sacrifice!


Putting your faith into action

A reading from the Book of Concord for Christ the King
Baptism promises and brings: victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with His gifts.  In short, Baptism is so far beyond us that if timid nature could realize this, it might well doubt whether it could be true.  Think about it.  Imagine there was a doctor somewhere who understood the art of saving people from death or, even though they died, could restore them quickly to life so that they would afterward live forever.  The world would pour in money like snow and rain.  No one could find access to him because of the throng of the rich!  But here in Baptism there is freely brought to everyone’s door such a treasure and medicine that it utterly destroys death and preserves all people alive.

We must think this way about Baptism and make it profitable for ourselves.  So when our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say, “Nevertheless, I am baptized.  And if I am baptized, it is promised to me that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body.”  For that is the reason why these two things are done in Baptism: the body is sprinkled and the Word is spoken for the soul to grasp.  The soul lives through the Word, which it believes, but the body lives because it is united with the soul.  By Baptism we are made holy and are saved.  No other kind of life, no work on earth, can do this. – Large Catechism, Part IV, Baptism (paragraphs 41-46)


1  All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him Lord of all.

2  Hail him, ye heirs of David’s line, Whom David Lord did call,
The God incarnate, Man divine, And crown him Lord of all.
The God incarnate, Man divine, And crown him Lord of all.

3  Sinners whose love can ne’er forget The wormwood and the gall,
Go, spread your trophies at his feet And crown him Lord of all.
Go, spread your trophies at his feet And crown him Lord of all.

4  Let ev’ry kindred, ev’ry tribe On this terrestrial ball
To him all majesty ascribe And crown him Lord of all.
To him all majesty ascribe And crown him Lord of all.

5  Oh, that with yonder sacred throng We at his feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song And crown him Lord of all.
We’ll join the everlasting song And crown him Lord of all.

Text: Edward Perronet, 1726–92, st. 1-3, abr., alt.; A Selection of Hymns, London, 1787, st. 4-5, alt.


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