Serving a Crucified King speaks to a growing crisis within the contemporary church, one of misplaced allegiance and misguided discipleship. If Jesus Christ is who we claim him to be, then we must ask ourselves: Are we truly conducting our lives and constructing our communities in light of that astonishing reality? But, as long as the contemporary church continues to act in a manner so seemingly at odds with the mission and message of Jesus, it remains in a state of emergency. Albeit a serious charge, solving this crisis is of the utmost importance if we are to live once again in faithful obedience to Jesus Christ as king. The magnitude of the problem necessitates the establishment of a movement of kingdom citizens devoted to the cruciform reign of Christ and committed to a wholesale transformation in thinking and practice within the church. To this end, Serving a Crucified King is a clarion call back to the real work of being a disciple of Jesus in our society. Expect to have your thinking challenged, your heart moved, and your action re-oriented.

The kingdom of God and the atonement are two of the most important themes in all of Scripture. Tragically, theologians have often either set the two at odds or focused on one to the complete neglect of the other. In The Crucified King, Jeremy Treat demonstrates that Scripture presents a mutually enriching relationship between the kingdom and atonement that draws significantly from the story of Israel and culminates in the crucifixion of Christ the king. As Israel’s messiah, he holds together the kingdom and the cross by bringing God’s reign on earth through his atoning death. The kingdom is the ultimate goal of the cross, and the cross is the means by which the kingdom comes. Jesus’ death is not the failure of his messianic ministry, nor simply the prelude to his royal glory, but is the apex of his kingdom mission. The cross is the throne from which he rules and establishes his kingdom. Using a holistic approach that brings together the insights of biblical and systematic theology, this book demonstrates not only that the kingdom and the cross are inseparable, but how they are integrated in Scripture and theology.

This devotional covers Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday and is part of the comprehensive The Crucified King program.

Crowd: (Each person selects a phrase and repeats at random) Let him be crucified! Death! Crucify him! Let him die! Away with him! Pilate: Why. What evil has he done? Crowd: (At random) Let him be crucified! Away with him! Crucify him! Let him die! Narrator 1: So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. Based on Matthew's gospel, And Him Crucified is a complete worship service in readers' theater format. It brings the events of Jesus' last days into the lives of your congregation. It needs few rehearsals and no costumes or experienced actors. A vivid and powerful picture of the crucifixion of Jesus is drawn from these pages. Six readers and two narrators are recommended, however you may use nearly 25 different speaking parts. The theater is part of the complete order of service, lasting about one hour. The service includes suggested choir anthems. Bettie Scott, Wilmington, Delaware, is a musician and pastor's wife. She is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and holds a master's in music education from Temple University. She has taught in public and private schools and at Temple.

These superb works are without equal in modern literature. Schilder ''brings the reader into touch with the spiritual and temporal forces which converged during the Passion Week. He is careful to keep Christ central, and he blends in a masterful way this culmination of our Lord's earthly life with historical facts and psychological realities'' (Cyril Barber, The Minister's Library). Schilder was a noted Dutch scholar of the early twentieth century. The three volumes of this work were translated by Henry Zylstra. They first appeared in 1937. The three volumes cover three aspects of the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are entitled: Christ Crucified, Christ in His Suffering, and, Christ On Trial. In The Minister's Library, Cyril Barber states: ''Theologically accurate, abounds in suggestive insights, and provides exegetical illumination for a score of Easter sermons. It is a classic treatment on the passion of Christ. [It} deserves a place in every pastor's library. [The three volumes} cover the night of His betrayal to His condemnation . . . [it is] a learned, accurate treatment.'' That says a lot about this unique, very important work. It is simply indispensable to the understanding and feeling of the power of the passion of Christ. To put it into the words of the Apostle Paul, all should feel as he did, ''[Oh that I might] ''be found in Him . . . to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, having been conformed to His death, if somehow I may attain to a resurrection out of the dead'' (Philippians 3:9-11). Through the guidance and inspiration of God the Holy Spirit Schilder has captured the drama and the pathos of Christ's ordeal, and yet also passes on to the reader the triumph and the exultation of Christ as He completes His voluntary submission to the Father's will: ''Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but You prepared a body for Me. You did not delight in burnt offering and sacrifices concerning sins. Then I said, Lo, I come in the heading of the Book it was written concerning Me, to do Your will, O God'' (Psalm 39:6-9; Heb. 10:5-7). No child of God is completely mature until he or she has gone to Gethsemane and followed the trail of Christ as He approached the hour when He must endure unspeakable humiliation, pain, and the suffering of momentary loss of the Father's presence with Him. It is no wonder that He sweat blood at the prospect, for He was not ignorant of what He must go through in order to provide salvation for His sheep: ''The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep'' (John 10:11). No one will better draw you down to the depths of this drama, a scene which only one Person could have endured, than Schilder. You will not be the same after you have followed Christ through these stirring looks that Schilder gives you - you will be a better Christian, by far. This is a Best Set in Print. Schilder was a man of many gifts, without any doubt. Anyone who has read his writings, even some of them, will readily acknowledge that he possessed the ability to look at various theological questions in different ways and to express his ideas in sometimes eloquent ways which were often fresh and new. 560 pages, blue hard cover

For seventy years, we have been taught that Jesus died on the cross from asphyxiation (strangulation) because in the hanging position he was unable to exhale. This theory is not based on sound science. This book explains the medical cause of Jesus’s death and why even Pilate was surprised how soon Jesus had died. The dramatic changes that took place in Jesus’s body from the Last Supper until death are described in layman’s terms. To add to the injustice, Jesus’s condemnation to death was illegal under the Jewish law of his time—a fact supported by a review of the political and religious dynamics.