Jesus - The Messiah
There is much discussion about the monarchy of Great Britain. Although it is an important issue, it is very short term and concerned with a limited part of the world.
The Bible has a great deal to say about monarchy. But it is concerned with a world-wide context and with a mind-boggling time scale.
Some three thousand years ago writers contributing to the Bible described a king with world-wide power. A thousand years later a small group of people saw the king consecrated. In Bible times the consecration usually involved the anointing with oil. In this ceremony the king being anointed was bestowed with divine favour. It's from this ceremony that the king gets his name. The one who has been anointed is called in Hebrew "Messiah" and in Greek "Christ". So Jesus is "The Christ". So Jesus is the monarch who is written about so frequently in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
His title of "King" didn't go unchallenged. The Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, asked him point blank: "Are you a king?" Jesus replied: "For this reason I was born and for this I came into the world." Pilate was so convinced about the truth of Jesus' answer that he had the title: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" inscribed above the cross. All those people who passed Golgotha on that fateful day when Jesus was crucified saw what Pilate thought of Jesus.
But the story doesn't end there. A dead king is no use to anyone. God raised him from his grave and it is the risen Jesus who will reign on the earth. He will have world-wide power and "he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there will be no end."
There is much discussion about the monarchy of Great Britain. Although it is an important issue, it is very short term and concerned with a limited part of the world.
The Bible has a great deal to say about monarchy. But it is concerned with a world-wide context and with a mind-boggling time scale.
Some three thousand years ago writers contributing to the Bible described a king with world-wide power. A thousand years later a small group of people saw the king consecrated. In Bible times the consecration usually involved the anointing with oil. In this ceremony the king being anointed was bestowed with divine favour. It's from this ceremony that the king gets his name. The one who has been anointed is called in Hebrew "Messiah" and in Greek "Christ". So Jesus is "The Christ". So Jesus is the monarch who is written about so frequently in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
His title of "King" didn't go unchallenged. The Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, asked him point blank: "Are you a king?" Jesus replied: "For this reason I was born and for this I came into the world." Pilate was so convinced about the truth of Jesus' answer that he had the title: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" inscribed above the cross. All those people who passed Golgotha on that fateful day when Jesus was crucified saw what Pilate thought of Jesus.
But the story doesn't end there. A dead king is no use to anyone. God raised him from his grave and it is the risen Jesus who will reign on the earth. He will have world-wide power and "he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there will be no end."
