Theological term
Mediatorial Kingdom
6 sermons · All terms
The Trial Before Pilate, Part 2
Standing before Pontius Pilate, Jesus declares the nature and origin of his kingdom — not of this world, not advanced by force, but established by truth and governing the hearts of those who hear his voice. The passage exposes the judicial sham orchestrated by the Sanhedrin while simultaneously revealing Christ's sovereign composure as the one who knowingly drinks the cup appointed by the Father. The exchange reaches its climax in the release of Barabbas — a vivid, providentially arranged emblem of substitutionary curse-bearing, the just taking the place of the unjust. Meditating on this before the Lord's Supper, the sermon calls believers to gratitude and renewed confidence in the truth that governs Christ's kingdom.
The Command from the Mount
Matthew 28:16–20 presents the risen Christ commissioning his disciples from a mountain in Galilee — a location Matthew treats as theologically laden with the entire biblical theology of mountains, from Eden to Sinai to Zion. The sermon traces that mountain typology across Genesis, Isaiah, Hebrews, and Zechariah to show that the Great Commission is nothing less than the eschatological commencement of the new covenant. Christ's declaration — 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth' — is expounded as the mediatorial kingly inheritance he receives by virtue of the perfection of his redeeming work, not a restoration of suppressed divine glory. The commission therefore binds the church to gospel proclamation, believer's baptism, and the continual instruction of the baptized, all undergirded by the abiding presence of the exalted Christ through his threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.
The Trial Before Pilate, Part 2
Standing before Pontius Pilate, Jesus affirms His kingship while making clear that His kingdom does not originate from this world and poses no military threat to Rome — it advances solely through the proclamation of truth. The sermon works through John 18:33–40 under two heads: Pilate's examination of Jesus (vv. 33–38) and Pilate's cowardly compromise (vv. 39–40), drawing in the parallel account in Luke 23 to trace Jesus' transfer to Herod and back. Pilate's threefold declaration of innocence, Herod's contemptuous mockery, and the crowd's demand for Barabbas together underscore the great exchange: the just for the unjust, the holy Lamb standing in the place of guilty, vile, helpless sinners.
Live Stream - April 13, 2025
Philippians 2:9–11 sets forth the exaltation of Christ as the direct consequence and divine vindication of his humiliation. The sermon works through three considerations in the nature of that exaltation — the consequences of Christ's humiliation for the sinner (freedom from sin's penalty and power, from Satan's bondage, from the law's curse, and free access to God), the Father's approbation of the Son's finished work, and the manifestation of Christ's divine identity in the name given above every name. The significance of the exaltation presses toward a universal, unavoidable submission: every knee will bow and every tongue confess, whether in saving faith now or in compelled acknowledgment on the last day. The sermon closes by pressing sinners to confess Christ willingly in the present day and by reminding believers that the pattern of Christ's humiliation leading to exaltation both grounds their salvation in his active and passive obedience and shapes their life of humble, others-centered love in the church.
2LCF Chapter 24 - Of the Civil Magistrate, Part 2
The institution of monarchy in Israel, recorded in 1 Samuel 8, exposes the perennial danger of substituting a new form of government for trust in God—a sin Israel had already committed in 1 Samuel 4 and against which God had vindicated himself in chapter 7. The passage illustrates that total depravity applies not only to individuals but to corporate institutions, and that governments possessing legitimate divine sanction can nonetheless exploit those they govern. The sermon concludes with a survey of four historic approaches to the church-state relationship—Erastianism, Roman Catholic theocracy, theonomy, and the two-kingdoms framework—arguing that the two-kingdoms distinction, wherein Christ rules the church by his Word and the civil order by natural law, provides the most scripturally defensible framework for Christian citizenship.
Exhortation and Doxology
Paul's charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:13–16 is framed by two weighty divine witnesses — the life-giving Father and the Christ who confessed the truth before Pontius Pilate — and calls every gospel minister to keep the apostolic commandment without spot, blameless, until the Lord's appearing. The sermon examines the gravity of that charge, the eschatological horizon that shapes it, and the doxology to God that it provokes, displaying five divine perfections: the blessed Potentate, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, sole possessor of immortality, dweller in unapproachable light, and the One whom no man has seen or can see. Faithfulness — not popularity, church size, or personal ability — is the measure of ministerial success according to the apostolic ethic. The congregation is exhorted to pray for those in gospel ministry, to pursue the knowledge of God including the doctrine of the Trinity, and to see faithful preaching as the ordinary means by which God saves sinners.