{"id":33508,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/christus-imperator\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"christus-imperator","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/christus-imperator\/","title":{"rendered":"Christus Imperator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/18850.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration: <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Some years ago, the\ndistinguished publishing house of Grosset &amp; Dunlap brought together a panel\nof 28 educators and historians and asked them to select the 100 most\nsignificant events of history, then list those events in order of importance.\nAfter months of labor, the panel reported that they considered the most\nsignificant event of history to be the discovery of America. In second place\nwas the invention of movable type by Gutenberg. Eleven different events tied\nfor third place, and five events tied for fourth place. The events tying for\nfourth were the writing of the Constitution of our country, the development of\nether, the development of the X, the discovery of the airplane, and the\nlife of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus tied for fourth. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That should not come to us as any surprise, for in the thinking\nof most people our Lord Jesus is an afterthought, an . He&#8217;s important\nat times of baptism and marriage and funerals but not to be considered at other\ntimes. But let me make it clear this morning, so clear that there can be no\nmistake about it, that Jesus is not fourth but first. He is not tied with\nanybody but triumphant. He is not to be rated, for he is regnant. He is not\njust important but altogether imperial. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus is the Lord of Life.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration: <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When King George III of England\nwent to hear George Frederick Handel&#8217;s <em>Messiah<\/em> for the first time, it is\nrecorded that on hearing the great chorus which we call today the <em>Hallelujah\nChorus<\/em>, the king stood not principally out of recognition for the majesty\nof the music but principally because he recognized in his head and in his heart\nthe majesty of the imperial Christ. Jesus is the Lord of life. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration: <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">There is a story that comes to\nus out of the long ago of a king who organized a great race within his kingdom.\nAll the young men of the kingdom participated. A bag of gold was to be given to\nthe winner, and the finish line was within the courtyard of the king&#8217;s palace.\nThe race was run, and the runners were surprised to find in the middle of the\nroad leading to the king&#8217;s palace a great pile of rocks and stones. But they\nmanaged to scramble over it or to run around it and eventually to come to the\ncourtyard. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Finally all the runners had crossed the finish line except one.\nBut still the king did not call the race off. After a while one lone runner\ncame through the gate. He lifted a bleeding hand and said, &#8220;0 King, I am\nsorry that I am so late. But you see, I found in the road a pile of rocks and\nstones, and it took me a while, and I wounded myself in removing them.&#8221;\nThen he lifted the other hand, and in it was a bag. He said, &#8220;But, Great\nKing, I found beneath the pile of rocks this bag of gold.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The king said, &#8220;My son, you have won the race, for that one\nruns best who makes the way safer for those who follow.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now, if that is true, that one runs best who makes the way safer\nfor those who follow, then no one has run the race of life like our Lord Jesus\nChrist, for he makes it safer for us who follow. Only Christ could say at the\nend of his mortal experience, &#8220;It is finished,&#8221; and be absolutely\ncorrect in the utterance. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">We cannot say this. When we come to the end of our lives, we&#8217;re\nmore like Robert Louis Stevenson, who asked that these words might be put on\nhis epitaph: &#8220;Here lies one who tried a little, meant well, but\naccomplished very little indeed.&#8221; We&#8217;re more like Cecil Rhodes, the great\nindustrialist, who said, &#8220;So little done, so much to do.&#8221; Our lives\nare a mixture of wingless <em>Victorys<\/em> and armless Venus de Milos and\nUnfinished Symphonies. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But Jesus could say at the end of his experience, &#8220;The\nmission is accomplished. No thread is left untied.&#8221; There was nothing in\nhis life of which he had to be ashamed. And in so living, he made the way safer\nfor those of us who follow. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Not that he has made life easier for us. Life is a battle. It is\na contest. There is sting and hurt in it, and we are all conscripted drafted,\nif you will into the battle. Some here listening to my voice now are very young\nin the battle: their uniforms yet unstained, their banners untattered, their\nweapons not yet discharged. And others have been in the contest for a long\ntime, and they bear on their bodies the scars of their suffering. Some are very\nclose to hearing the sound of the last trumpet in that contest. All of us are\ncaught up in the warfare of the human experience. But if we belong to Christ,\nwe see in him a pattern for living, and we discover in him a power for living\nthat makes life safer for us. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You remember how in the ancient Greek legend Iole was asked how\nshe knew Hercules was a god, and she replied, &#8220;I knew because he conquered\nwhether he stood or walked or sat or whatever he did.&#8221; When we contemplate\nthe life of Jesus, we see in him and in everything he did: conquest. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration: <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A friend of mine who was a\nminister in southern California told me recently of a woman in a mental\nsanitarium there. She&#8217;d been in the sanitarium for many years with an extreme\ndepression. She used to just sit on a bench every day staring at the earth with\nno conversation, no response. And one day a new doctor who&#8217;d never seen her\ncame down the hall and greeted her. He said, &#8220;Good morning!&#8221; She made\nno reply. &#8220;What is your name?&#8221; he said. No answer. &#8220;Well, my\nname is Doctor Heven, HEVEN, and I&#8217;ll be by to see you again\ntomorrow.&#8221; Then he started away. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But she lifted her head and said, &#8220;What did you say your name\nwas?&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The doctor did not know the patient, so he did not know how\nremarkable it was that she was saying anything. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">He answered, &#8220;Heven, HEVEN.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now, somehow in the confused processes of that wounded mind, the\nwoman confused the word <em>Heven<\/em> with <em>heaven<\/em>, and she began thinking\nabout the place. As she thought about heaven, she thought about God, and she\nthought of God&#8217;s love made known to us in Christ. The next day she said to\neveryone she met in the hospital, &#8220;This is the day which the Lord hath\nmade.&#8221; And the day after that, &#8220;Yea, I walk through the valley of the\nshadow of evil, but I fear no evil.&#8221; Within six days she was saying,\n&#8220;I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.&#8221; Within five\nweeks she had been released from the hospital, and for the last fourteen years\nshe has been carrying out her responsibilities as a leading teacher in southern\nCalifornia. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Here&#8217;s a woman to whom the very memory of Christ, the very\nfocusing of her mind upon him, so ordered what was disordered, so calmed what\nwas stormy, so straightened what was crooked, that she could go out and live as\nshe lives today. Jesus, you see, is the Lord of life, the imperial Christ. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus is the Lord of Death.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But he&#8217;s also the Lord of death. There are many who are ready to\nacknowledge that our Lord Jesus is the pattern of what the human experience\nshould be at its best. But they do not acknowledge that he is the Lord of death\njust as he is the Lord of life. They do not acknowledge that he has in fact\nrisen from the dead. Oh, they will affirm that something happened to transform\nthe cowards of Good Friday into the heroes of Easter, to bring our New\nTestament into being, to move the whole worshiping community from devotion on\nSaturday to devotion on Sunday. But they do not believe that whatever happened\nwas our Lord&#8217;s rising from the dead. They believe that his body decayed into\ndust and is mingled now somewhere with the Syrian sands. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But over against those people I offer this testimony: The tomb\nof Jesus was empty. The New Testament affirms that. The New Testament, the most\ntested and authentic document out of all the ancient world, announces it. The\ngospel of the Resurrection was heralded not in some cultural backwater but in\nJerusalem, from the street corners and housetops. If there were any on hand who\ncould have refuted that doctrine, they would have done so then, but none did.\nWhy? Because the tomb was empty. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Some seek to explain this emptiness by saying that Jesus only\nfainted on the cross, and that when he was placed in the cool recesses of the\ntomb, he revived after a period of rest and then released himself. In order to\nbelieve that, however, we must believe that the Romans, who were experts at\ncrucifixion, did not know when a man was dead. We must further believe that\nJesus, after hanging nine hours on the cross, could be placed in a tomb for\nmore than two days with no food and no water, and there be so revived that he\ncould get up and walk on wounded feet and with crushed hands push away a stone\nthat it took many men to move; and having pushed away that stone, that he could\nthen overpower armed Roman soldiers and escape. It is easier to believe that he\nrose from the dead as the gospel proclaims. And the testimony that stands\nagainst the argument that he only fainted is this: the tomb was indisputably\nand unquestionably empty. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So some say the friends of Jesus came and stole his body away in\norder that they might claim he had risen from the dead. They could announce the\nresurrection gospel and there would be no body to refute their claim. But in\norder to believe this, we must believe they overpowered the Roman soldiers and\nstole the body away. We must also believe and I find this utterly impossible\neven to conceive of that they were willing to die for what they knew was\nuntrue, that they were willing to be crucified and skinned alive and thrown to\nwild animals, that they were willing to endure unspeakable punishments and\ntortures for what they knew all along to be a lie. Most people will not die for\nwhat they know to be the truth, let alone for what they know to be a lie. The\nearly disciples knew it was not a lie. Why? Because the tomb was empty. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Some say his enemies came and took the body. The Jews took it.\nThe Romans took it. Thus, if there were a resurrection claim, they could\npresent the rotting corpse and in that instant stop all that gospel nonsense.\nBut they never presented the body, because they did not have that body. The\ntomb, you see, was empty. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration: <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I have visited most of the\nworld&#8217;s great tombs. I stood beneath the monumental pyramids that were raised\nover the moldering heads of Pharaohs. I stood on the marble balcony of the\nTombeau de Napoleon in Paris and looked down on the casket that encloses the\nbody of the little Corsican. I stood in the quiet solitude of the tomb of\nAbraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, where the remains of our sixteenth\nPresident lie in a bronze casket sunk down in tons and tons of concrete. I&#8217;ve\nbeen in the crypt of St. Peter&#8217;s and stood before the white marble simplicity\nof the tomb of John XXIII, that great and good man, the tomb always surrounded\nwith flowers and burning candles. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">At every one of these places I have thought to myself. <em>Sic\ntransit gloria mundi: So passes the glory of the world.<\/em> But at the center\nof our faith there stands a tomb that is empty. For Jesus Christ, the glory has\nnot passed, for he is risen: Lord not only of life but Lord also of death. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration: <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The legend has it that the\nsphinx, a creature half woman and half lion, used to lie stretched upon a rock\nat the entrance to a city. And when anyone would approach the city, she would\nput a riddle. The riddle was this: What goes on four legs in the morning, two\nlegs at noon, and three legs at night? And if the traveler could not answer the\nriddle, and none could, she would push that traveler off the cliff to\ndeath. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then one day Oedipus came, and Oedipus answered the riddle. What\ngoes on four legs in the morning and two at noon and three at night? Man. In\nthe morning of his years, he crawls on all fours. In the noontime of his life,\nthe middle years, he walks upon his two feet. At the end of his years, he walks\nupon two legs and a cane, when night draws near. And the story goes that when\nthe sphinx heard the explanation of the riddle, she was so ashamed that she\nherself leaped to her death. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Death has been the sphinx that has been stretched out across the\npathway of all our human experience. Death has been the riddle, the enigma, put\nto us that no one could answer. But then came Jesus. And in Jesus we see death\nitself die. We see the last great enemy defeated. We see that one thing that\ncould stop us is able to stop us no more because he is alive forevermore. Not\nonly is he Emperor of life, but Emperor of death as well. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus is the Lord of life after death.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus is also the Lord of life after death. We have no\nphotographs of heaven. And yet we know that if the creative genius of God is as\nwe know it to be, then the beauties of earth are only a beginning for what he\nhas fashioned there. But we&#8217;re not able to imagine it. It is outside our order\nof being. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration: <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Think of it this way: here&#8217;s a\ncolony of grubs living on the bottom of a swamp. And every once in a while, one\nof these grubs is inclined to climb a leaf stem to the surface. Then he\ndisappears above the surface and never returns. All the grubs wonder why this\nis so and what it must be like up there, so they counsel among themselves and\nagree that the next one who goes up will come back and tell the others. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Not long after that, one of the grubs feels that urge and climbs\nthat leaf stem and goes out above the surface onto a lily pad. And there in the\nwarmth of the sun, he falls asleep. While he sleeps, the carapace of the tiny\ncreature breaks open, and out of the inside of the grub comes a magnificent\ndragonfly with beautiful, wide, , iridescent wings. And he spreads\nthose wings and flies, soaring out over those waters. But then he remembers the\ncommitment he has made to those behind, yet now he knows he cannot return. They\nwould not recognize him in the first place, and beyond that, he could not live\nagain in such a place. But one thought takes away all the distress: they, too,\nshall climb the stem, and they, too, shall know the glory. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Even so, we cannot know heaven. And those who have gone to\nheaven cannot come back and tell us of it. Oh, we use words. We say the streets\nare gold because gold is the metal of eternity. It does not rust or tarnish. We\nsay that music will be there, because music is the most perfect of the arts,\nlifting us out of ourselves. We say that the gates are of pearl, because the\npearl comes out of the agony of the oyster, and we come out of the hurt of life\ninto the glories of the kingdom of heaven. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But the grandest thing we can say of heaven is this, that there\nwe shall be with Christ. That&#8217;s what he said to the dying thief: &#8220;This day\nthou shalt be with me in paradise.&#8221; And that magnificent promise in John:\n&#8220;In my Father&#8217;s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told\nyou. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,\nI will come again, and I will receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may\nbe also.&#8221; That&#8217;s the greatest glory in heaven. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration:<\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\"> I heard of a little lad named Kenny\nwho developed leukemia. The disease progressed rapidly. Soon he was unable to\ngo to school, then unable to go out at all, and finally confined to his bed.\nOne day he asked the question his mother had most feared hearing.\n&#8220;Mother,&#8221; he said, &#8220;what is it like to die?&#8221; Though she&#8217;d\nsteeled herself for that moment, she couldn&#8217;t handle it when it came, so she\nexcused herself and went out of the room. And there in the bathroom she prayed,\nher knuckles as white as the porcelain in the sink top. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then, guided by God&#8217;s Spirit, I believe, she went back into the\nbedroom and said, &#8220;Kenny, you remember how when you were a very little\nfellow you sometimes would fall asleep in my bed? And how the next morning,\nwhen you would waken, you would find yourself in your own bed and in your own\nroom? Do you know how that happened? That happened because while you were\nsleeping, your big brother came, or your father came, and he lifted you up and\ncarried you so gently to your own bed and to your own room. That, Kenny, is what\ndeath is like.&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The youngster smiled, for he understood. A few weeks later he\nfell asleep, and while he slept, his elder Brother and ours, his Father and\nours, came and lifted him up and took him off to his own room and to his own\nbed. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">How do you see Jesus? I see him as the Book of Revelation sees\nhim, riding on a white horse. His vesture is dipped in blood, and on that\nvesture and on his thigh is a name so holy that none of us can know it. And\nbehind him riding are the legions of heaven. First come the enemies he has\ndefeated: sin and death and principalities and powers. Behind them, all also\nrobed in white, come Moses with the multitudes he led out of Egypt, Joshua with\nthe legions he led in to take the Land of Promise, Gideon and his 300, Elijah with\nthe 7000 who had not yet bowed their knees to Baal, Peter and the thousands who\nresponded to his preaching, and Paul and the scores who came to Christ through\nhis announcement of the gospel. And behind them follow the lame and the halt\nand the blind and the old and the young and the rich and the poor. Then come\nthe great missioners of the church, the great gospel heralders to all the\nworld, representatives of every tribe and people. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">They come regiment by regiment and army by army and legion by\nlegion all behind this One who wears crowns and crowns and whose Word is of\nsuch power that it is like a  sword from his mouth. As they follow\nthey cry out, &#8220;He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the\nLord of life. He is the King of death. He is the Sovereign of life after death.\nChrist the victor; Christ the imperial. Christus Victor! Christus\nImperator!&#8221; <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">The late Bruce Thielemann served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in\nPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He held degrees from Westminster College, Pittsburgh\nTheological Seminary and a certificate from St. Andrews University in Scotland. <\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n      <\/span>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Bruce W. Thielemann<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today Tape\n# 55<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A resource of Christianity Today International<\/span>\n    <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[307],"tax_ctp_authors":[1025],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[4134,4370,4414],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33508","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-bruce-thielemann","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-heaven","tax_ctp_tags-life-death","tax_ctp_tags-majesty-of-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christus Imperator - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/christus-imperator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christus Imperator - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Illustration: Some years ago, the distinguished publishing house of Grosset &amp; Dunlap brought together a panel of 28 educators and historians and asked them to select the 100 most significant events of history, then list those events in order of importance. 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