This short evangelistic talk was given at the Grace Church Guildford Holiday at Home event on 27 July 2022.
What exactly does the Queen do? We all know some of the things that occupy her time, but what does an ordinary day look like? Well, the Palace recently released some information that allows us to see her normal daily schedule. The Queen wakes from her slumber each morning at 7:30 am. She stays in bed for a few minutes, listening to the ‘Today’ program on BBC Radio 4 before then getting up. Her personal assistant draws a bath that is exactly seven inches deep and kept at a perfect temperature by using a thermometer. Three royal dressers will help with clothes, while her hairdressers brush and style her hair and a maid brings her a pot of Earl Grey. The Queen has breakfast at 8:30 in the dining room. Afterwards, spending a few minutes on her balcony listening to the bagpipes. By 9:30 she is in her office, reading letters and responding to them as needed. After that, Her Majesty usually meets foreign dignitaries, always breaking for a light lunch at 1:30. At which, the Royal Chef will present the dinner menu in French for her approval. She then goes for a short stroll around the Palace gardens, before her afternoon engagements. Tea and sandwiches, which always have the crusts removed, are served at 5pm. If there are no special evening plans, she has dinner delivered on a silver tray in her private quarters at 8pm. After a few hours of reading, corresponding with Commonwealth leaders, and watching a little bit of TV, the lights are turned off at 11pm and her day comes to an end. That is a normal day in the life of the Queen. It is interesting to hear a little about what she does, isn’t it? But none of it is really that surprising. Meeting with world leaders, eating crustless sandwiches, walking around the gardens of a palace, these are the very things we all expect a Queen might do!
If you remember yesterday, Jamie was speaking to you not about a Queen, but about a King. There in Mark 8:27-30, we learnt that Jesus is God’s Messiah, Christ, that is, God’s King. The chosen one sent to lead and look after God’s people. Who is Jesus? Well, Jesus is God’s King. And yet, as we read on in the passage Jamie started with you yesterday, we quickly discover that unlike our own Queen, who does all the things we rightly expect royalty to do, King Jesus does something entirely different. Let’s pick up the story again in 8:31. This morning we are going to briefly think about two questions together: (1) What did Jesus do? (2) What will you do?
1. WHAT DID JESUS DO? (8:31-33)
You see the answer to that question there in 8:31, where Jesus tells his disciples that he "must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again." While Jesus was a King, he wasn’t treated like royalty. He wasn’t celebrated by his people, loved like we love our Queen. No, we see here that he would be rejected by his people. Instead of being honoured, he would be killed. Rather than celebrated, he would suffer. In many ways, Jesus would have more in common with Charles I than Elizabeth II. If you remember back to your school history, Charles I was King at the time of the English Civil War. He was famously captured by Parliament, tried and executed for treason, beheaded by his own people. And here we see Jesus is saying he will suffer the same fate, arrested by the people he came to serve, executed, not by beheading, but by crucifixion. Here Jesus is predicting all of this is going to happen, and Mark’s Gospel goes on to make clear that it did. In chapter 14, Jesus is e tried for treason, falsely accused despite doing no wrong, and in chapter 15 Jesus is executed on the cross. As he died, Mark tells us that there was a sign above his head that read ‘King of the Jews’. A king crucified by his people. It’s shocking isn’t it? Not how you expect royalty to be treated. Yes King Jesus had a crown, but it was a crown of thorns. We even see that in the passage, for in 8:32-33 Peter rebukes Jesus for even talking like this. Tells him off! And yet, while it might be a surprise to us and Peter, we see that this isn’t at all a surprise to Jesus. This King knew he would suffer and die. We see this here in our passage because Jesus is predicting what is going to happen, warning his disciples what to expect in the future. The cross did not catch Jesus unexpectedly, creep up on him. He knew he would be executed and yet he chose to continue anyway. He chose to go and die on the cross. While Charles I famously tried to escape his execution, we see Jesus was determined to go to his. Indeed, he says here he "must suffer...he mustbe killed...". Why did Jesus have to die? Why did this King have to be crucified? Well ultimately, this King had to die for the sake of his people. For the good of his kingdom.
Over the years our Queen has made all kinds of wonderful sacrifices for us, hasn’t she? Of course, royalty does have some privileges, and yet for all the crustless sandwiches and strolls in palace grounds, Her Majesty has surely given more than she has got. Indeed, she has dedicated her life, all her time and energy and health, for the good of her people. And yet that is even more true of King Jesus. He literally gave his life for his people. You see, Jesus had to die because each of us deserve to die. The Bible tells us that each of us has sinned, that is disobeyed God, and because of this we deserve his just judgement. Like those citizens during the reign of Charles I, we have all risen up in rebellion against God, the Lord of all creation. Each of us in our lives have served ourselves, not him. No matter how loyal we might be to Elizabeth II, Christianity teaches that we have all committed treason against God, and so deserve eternal punishment. And yet, instead of wiping us rebels off the face of the earth, Jesus came to save us, to suffer the punishment, to stand in as a substitute for his people. And as he predicts here, he rose again three days later, showing that the sentence was served, punishment completed. Christianity teaches us about a King who gave his life for his people, was punished by God so that his people could go free. What did Jesus do? Here we see that he would suffer and die and rise again for the sake of his people.
2. WHAT WILL YOU DO? (8:34-38)
Now that we have answered the question ‘What did Jesus do?’, we must all ask ourselves ‘What will we do?’ That is the question Jesus turns to in 8:34, explaining, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’ Jesus asks the crowd that day, and each of us today, to consider whether you will be his follower, whether you will become a Christian. You see, Jesus’ kingdom is not like Her Majesty’s kingdom. If you are like me, you got British citizenship at your birth. I was born in Northern Ireland, as so from the first day of my life I was a subject of Her Majesty. Queen Elizabeth was my Queen because I was born into her kingdom. However, Jesus’ kingdom isn’t quite like that. For the Bible teaches us that we are not born as loyal subjects of Jesus, but rather born rebelling against him, breaking his law and serving ourselves. In order to come into Christ’s kingdom, we need to transfer, change our citizenship. Perhaps some of you have done that, you were born in another country and at a later point decided to become a British citizen, to take our Queen as your monarch, to join her kingdom. Well, that is what must happen if you are to take Jesus as your king, join his kingdom. We are not born Christians, we must become Christians. We must decide to follow Jesus. The Bible tells us that to become a disciple of Jesus we must repent, that is say sorry for how we have sinned against God and turn away from those things that he hates, and take Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We must turn from sin and trust in him.
We see here that being Jesus’ disciple is difficult, don’t we? It requires us to deny ourselves, say no to the sinful life we once led, to take up our cross, that is be prepared to suffer in the same way Jesus suffered. And yet, do you see that though becoming a Christian is costly, it is ultimately worth it? There in 8:36, Jesus asks, ‘What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? That is, what does it matter if we could live like kings and queens in this life, get all we ever wanted, not just crustless sandwiches or walks in palace gardens, but good health, a comfortable lifestyle, a loving family around us, what will all those things ultimately matter in the end when we die? What good will those things do us when we stand before God and he judges us for all the ways that we have sinned against him? What is the point in gaining even the whole world for a lifetime if it means suffering God’s punishment for eternity? There in that verse we see that Jesus is coming back, after rising from the dead, he ascended into heaven to be with his Father, and one day we will return to be with his people, to save them from God’s judgment coming on this world. And yet, if you have not taken him to be your king, if you are not a Christian on that day, then you will be an enemy of his kingdom, not a member. You will suffer the judgment of this king, not enjoy his love and peace. If you are ashamed of Jesus now, Jesus says that he will be ashamed of you then. If you will not come to him for salvation now, he will not come to save you then.
(1) What did Jesus do? See here that in love this king gave his life for his people, he suffered and died and rose again to save his people for the judgment they deserved for their sins. That’s what Jesus did. (2) What will you do? Will you accept him as your king? Come into his kingdom and become his disciple? Here at Holiday at Home, that is what we all hope and pray you will do. If you have any questions about that we would love to speak to you about them. And if you want to learn more about this king who died to save his people, well then please do come along to any of our services at Grace Church. We would love to have you join us as we learn more and more about what it means to be a Christian.
ALEXANDER ARRELL