Cornerstone Christian Community Church

Who is this King of Glory?

Our second 2012 sermon series continues our emphasis on the kingdom of God by asking the question, “What kind of king is God?” The psalm writer puts the question this way: “Who is this King of glory?” (Psalm 24:1, 8). If God’s kingdom has to do with God’s will to set all of creation right, then is God the kind of king who can actually get the job done? Can we fully trust his character and intentions? By exploring a variety of Psalms that speak of God’s kingship, this series will show that while God is indeed the King of glory—sovereign and highly exalted above all creation—he is at the same time the kind of king who is actively interested in and keenly attentive to all the affairs of this world and of our lives. His care and trustworthiness is revealed in every aspect of creation and especially in the story of his people as he works in and through them (and us!) to bring about his redemptive plans for the world.  This series will help us to rediscover the wonder of a glorious King that we can never control or domesticate, but who is exceedingly good, all the time!

Today's Christians often speak as if God's ultimate goal is for people to "go to heaven when they die." But do the scriptures really bear this out? A more biblical understanding of God's ultimate goal is that of the renewal of all creation, as expressed by Jesus in the Lord's Prayer: "May your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10, emphasis added). Jesus' favourite expression to describe his own life message was the "kingdom of God" (Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43). Although Jesus constantly spoke of and demonstrated it, today's church understands surprisingly little about the kingdom of God. What does it mean? It's an expansive concept to be sure, but in a nutshell, the kingdom of God has to do with God's will... to restore God's world... through God's people... in God's time. God's kingdom-- his sovereign rule and reign-- will one day come to earth in all its fulness to earth (Revelation 11:15). When it does, everything that's wrong with the world will be set right. Love, justice, and peace will prevail forevermore, and "the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas" (Habakkuk 2:14). At the same time, the kingdom has already broken into the world in the first coming of Jesus Christ. It's not fully here yet, but the kingdom is nevertheless "at hand" (Matthew 3:2). So the kingdom of God is both present... and future; now... and later; today... and tomorrow. The church exists that we might live as kingdom people, right here, right now. As we embody kingdom life together, we offer the world a winsome preview or foretaste of the future-- of what life on earth will be like when Jesus returns, God's kingdom has fully come, and everything wrong with the world has been set gloriously right. Put another way, our purpose as a church body is to live God's tomorrow today, and as we do, we will draw others into his kingdom.