On Good Friday, I was perusing through the newsfeeds and two things caught my eye. Both of them were news stories that make you immediately say: “That’s not right.”
The First Offense
The first story came from The King of England, Charles. AS the King of England, he was supposed to give a message to all the Christians in his realm about Good Friday and Easter. He is, according to their government, the head of the church of England. Therefore, you would think he would understand the obligation to encourage those who were members of the Church of England.
But King Chuck refused to do so. His excuse was that he thought it might be offensives to the Muslims in his country, so he remained silent.
I had to remind myself that this lack of declaration should not surprise anyone. Remember who Charles is? He is the royal adulterer. Not only was he in an adulteress relationship with Camila before his marriage to Princes Diana, but also afterwards. The man’s full depravity has been on display for decades. He even made it known long before he became king that he would be the head, not only of the Church of England, but also all religions in the realm.
Apparently, after his non-declaration declaration, he is no longer the King of the Christians in the realm… just the Muslims.
The last thing that King Charles would ever want to do, is affirm the true King of kings, who condemns Charles and his adultery. Charles refuses to Kiss the Son… He is in rebellion against the true King.
This is what refusal to bend the knee looks like.
The Second Offense
The second offense comes a little closer to home, by the way of Houston City Hall. They were in the habit of giving a proclamation about Good Friday and Easter, but also decided not to do so because it would offend the Islamic population of the city.
They gave no proclamation all.
Again, this should not surprise us. The Houston City Hall has been the center of depravity for years. The people of the city had no problem with a lesbian mayor, who served a number of years ago. For those of you who remember, at one point, she tried to demand that all the pastors of the city, submit copies of their sermons to see if they included hate speech against the Sodomites in the city.
We must understand that this is what we should expect from those who are outside of Christ. The resurrection condemns them. They hate Christ and His followers.
Why is this?
The simple answer: They love the darkness, rather than the Light of the World.
John 3:19-20
9 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed.
Why would we expect anything more of the Houston City Council, or the adulterous King of England? They have done nothing but emulate the depravity and darkness for the last 50 years. Yes, they made their proclamations at times, but Christ rejects their proclamations.
As Jesus said:
Matthew 15:7-19
7 You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:
8 ‘This people honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
9 But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’”
The beauty about the King of England and the Houston City Council is that they are no longer hypocrites. They are being honest about who they are. Their darkness is complete. They can try all they want to silence the good news. But it shall not work.
Nothing New
Realize that the attempt to silence the news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ has been going on since His death on the cross. The Pharisees tried the best they could to silence the possibility of the resurrection and then reality of the resurrection.
Matthew 27:62-66 shows their attempt to seal the tomb, thereby keeping Christ inside for good.
62 Now on the next day, the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ 64 Therefore, order for the grave to be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.
The seal they placed and the guards who were there failed in their charge. The tomb was opened, and Jesus rose from the grave.
Once that happened, then they tried to silence the reality of the resurrection. Turn to Matthew 28:11-15.
11 Now while they were on their way, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and took counsel together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this is heard before the governor, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” 15 And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.
They chose a lie instead of the truth.
King Charles and the Houston City Council are attempting the same thing. They are attempting to silence the reality of the resurrection, and if necessary, lie about it as well.
But what they are also doing, is joining hands with Pilot and Herod in the death of Christ. They become partakers as the ones who put Him to death.
Representative God
What do I mean by the fact that they join hands with those who put Jesus to death? Let’s back up a bit so that we understand how God deals with mankind.
First, we need to understand that He deals with us through representatives. This is often referred to in theological circles as federal headship. It is the driving principle in which our government was formed upon by the founding fathers of this country.
What it means is that throughout history, YHWH has used federal heads in place of all mankind, to represent all mankind. The first instance of this is with Adam in the Garden of Eden.
As the first man, Adam is our representative, so that when he willfully and knowingly fell into sin, the rest of mankind fell into sin as well (see Romans 5:12-21).
Most of us know that. WHAT I’M TRYING TO SHOW you now, is that this federal representation is also true when it comes to Christ’s death.
The question is: who is responsible for the death of Christ on the cross?
Peter gives us the foundational truth about where the responsibility of Christ’s death is found. in Acts 4.
Acts 4:26-28
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’
27 For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
Just as Adam was our representative in the Garden of Eden, so too, were Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the Jews, representatives of the world in bringing about the death of Christ.
- King Herod represented the Jewish leadership in putting Christ to death.
- Pontius Pilate represented the Gentiles, the city halls, the adulterous kings, in putting Christ to death.
- The Gentiles who were involved, the Roman soldiers, were our representative in putting Christ to death.
- The Jews that were there, were the people of Israel’s representatives in putting Christ to death.
What this shows us is that fundamentally, we are all guilty of Christ’s death. Had we been there on that day, we too, would have shouted “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
But please notice that when Peter makes this statement, His major focus is with the kings of the earth. He is dealing with those who are set up to govern the people. He is addressing the King of England. He is addressing Houston City Hall.
Peter’s message is an all-inclusive message of federal headship. Listen to his quote of Acts 2.
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’
Peter changes Psalm 2, where it says “anointed” to the Greek version of that: “Christos.” He is making it clear that the governments of the world should Kiss the Son, and that Son is Jesus Christ.
Psalm 2:12
Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
This is why those in leadership want nothing to do with Good Friday or Resurrection Sunday. They don’t want to acknowledge what took place and will seek to do whatever they can to silence the message of the empty tomb.
We know this because their forefathers in darkness worked doubly hard in attempting to squelch the reality of the resurrection. The King of England follows in the footsteps Pontius Pilate. In fact, it is more than that. He is joining hands in the death of Christ. This is quite sad given his heritage and his mother. But heritages is no guarantee against apostasy. So he delights in joining hands with Herod, and with the darkness of Islam.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Saddened yes, but not surprised.
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