If you read my posts much at all, you will hear me referring to King Jesus a lot. But what does it really mean, Jesus is king? And when you couple the fact that most of my readers come from a country that doesn’t have a king, then it may be hard for us to truly understand the consequences of Jesus being king.
First, let’s establish the fact that kingship is used to describe Him:
“So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33 ESV).
Pilate is not unambiguous about the royal claim he has heard about Jesus. And how does Jesus answer?
“Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:36-37 ESV).
But it’s not just a claim of royalty that makes Jesus a king worth submitting to. Here are some truths about the kingship of Jesus that makes Him worthy to serve and indeed, a king who we must wholly submit to.
He is not just a king, but Jesus is a King above all kings. He is the preeminent authority over all:
“to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,” (1 Timothy 6:14-15 ESV).
He is not merely a strong man who ascended to a throne, He is God Who ascended to His throne. This makes Him King because He is the Creator of all the world and all that is in the world:
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” (Hebrews 1:3-4 ESV).
He is King with all authority and His power is without limits. This means He rules over all His desires and no one can stand against Him. And the day will come when everyone will submit to His rule, either by choice or as a conquered enemy:
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11 ESV).
Jesus is King because His word, and His word alone, will serve to judge all men. He does not rule by committee, nor does He have to revise His law over time.
“The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” (John 12:48 ESV).
So, let’s put this all together. Jesus is my King because He is God and His word alone is law. There is no other power in all of creation that is able to stand in opposition to Him. He made all things and has the inherent right to rule over His creation, not to mention the absolute power to exercise His right.
And submitting to Jesus as King has its benefits. He promises eternal life and joy for those who wholly submit to Him. He promises the power and strength to overcome the world through Him if we serve Him faithfully. And He promises that no matter how strong evil seems to be, He has already won the war against sin and evil.
My prayer is that you submit to my King and make Him your King too; that you live under His rule according to His word; and that you lay hold of the power to overcome sin that He promises to all who submit to Him.
Today, this is your choice. But the day is coming when my King will remove that choice from you and if you are found to be an enemy to Him, He will compel you to kneel before Him and confess Him on the Day He will Judge you and all men.
Submit now by choice or submit later as a conquered enemy. That is the choice each of us face. And there is no power in heaven or on earth that can alter this final conclusion from happening.
What does it mean that Jesus is King? It means that He has the right, the power and the will to sit on a throne that is above all thrones.
When someone asks us to pray for them, they are telling us that they believe God hears our prayers.
Let's keep ourselves free from sin and repent when we fall so we can be another voice before the throne of God when someone needs our prayers.
The world is getting crazy, isn't it?
People killing, stealing and hating.
People watching all sorts of sins on the computer and on TV.
People lying and bearing false witness.
Children committing crimes once reserved for adults.
People openly challenging God and cursing His name publicly with no fear.
It's bad. But I suppose it's always been bad in some ways.
There really is nothing new under the sun.
But here is what I know.... When evil seems to be so prevalent that it swallows up God's goodness,
God looks to me and says,
“Don't worry. You stay faithful. I've got this.”
“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans 1:22-25 ESV).
I fear that we may have more idol worshippers today than we want to admit. And worse, I fear that many of us may be dangerously close to being idol worshippers than we may know.
An idol worshiper is someone who creates a god in his image and worships that creation. Thousands of years ago, skilled artisans would fashion images of wood, stone and gold to represent that creation so they could have something visible to bow down to.
But today, we skip the stage where we make a physical representation of the god we create. We fashion a god after our heart and call him the God of the Bible. Just like the Israelites fashioned a golden calf to represent the one true God, we often create our own god and call him the one true God.
In the end, if we serve a god who we create in our hearts, and not the God of the Bible, then we are steeped in idol worship. I humbly ask that we think about these questions to help determine if we are idol worshippers.
1. Is my understanding of God based on the portrait that the Bible paints of God, or is it based on how I want God to be?
2. Have I said or thought, “If that’s the way God really is, then He is not a God who I want to worship?”
3. Are we open to learning more about God and His majesty or are we content to worship Him the way we know Him to be today?
4. Am I looking for ways to please Him and understand His will daily or am I looking for ways He can serve and please me today?
The one true God demands that we seek Him, serve Him and submit to Him. If we have created an image of god in our hearts that has him submitting and serving us, then we have created an idol without physical representation to serve instead of serving the one true God.