For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In my recently published book on spiritual warfare in the church, I highlighted Jesus as the Commander-in-Chief. Actually, this title is really beneath Him. We call the US president by title. Really, Jesus is the King of kings. In this message, I’d like us to see ourselves as citizens who live in His kingdom.
You may not have realized it, but you are an expatriate. You are living in a country that is not your own. You have renounced your native citizenship and taken an oath of loyalty to a new nation. That is – if you are committed to Jesus Christ. And your adopted country is not a democracy; it’s a kingdom, and Jesus is King. So, today, we want to look at what it means to know Jesus as our King, not just as our Coming King, but as our King right now. You are a citizen of His kingdom, so consider the work of His cabinet, His Department of:
Labor – not by works, but by grace
Justice – we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law
Defense – put on the whole armor of God
Agriculture – the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world
Energy – divine power for all things that pertain to life and godliness
Economy – based on mercy, not money
Transportation – go into all the world and make disciples
Foreign policy – the gospel must first be preached to all nations
Education – transformed by the renewing of our mind
Health and Human Services – the great Physician
Security – “I will never leave you or forsake you”
Housing and Urban Development – “I go to prepare a place for you”
This eternal kingdom has the best of all priorities because it has the best leader.
What does it mean to know Jesus as your King, not just your Coming King, but your King right now? Here are five ideas. Knowing Jesus as my King means:
1. To submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ as His loyal disciple
2. To seek first His kingdom in all my motives, activities and relationships
3. To reject the cultures of this world, including man-made religions
4. To accept His invitation to enter an intimate friendship with Him
Living with Jesus as my King means:
1. Submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ as His loyal disciple
If you wanted to start a movement that would deeply affect all areas of the world and would be flourishing 2,000 years after you were gone, how would you do it? What kind of people would you select as your helpers?
King Jesus chose people a lot like you—ordinary people on the outside, but people with hearts hungry to know and obey God, people willing to pay a steep price to walk with God. And they "turned the world up-side down" in their day. King Jesus Christ is still looking for people like that – people willing to die to self; Luke 9:23-25.
Some prefer an easier road in the Christian life, but if every Christian had followed the easy road, there would be no Christian church, because it’s the broad road that leads to destruction, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:13). Discipleship is the narrow road of the kingdom of God.
It's a road strewn with obstacles, danger and mishaps, not a tour on a scenic bus or cruise ship, designed to fill our leisure with luxury. It's the trailblazing of the pioneer. The Master didn't say, "Follow me, except when it's raining, snowing, hot or uphill.” He didn't come to make life easy, but to make people great. He came to make disciples.
But what is a disciple? How will I know if I am one, or becoming one? In a word, disciples of King Jesus are those whose sole motivation is to be like their Master.
A disciple, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher, Luke 6:40.
So, who is your teacher? Who or what is most influential in your life? That is who or what you are becoming like.
“Becoming like Jesus is a lofty and worthy goal," you might say, "But unattainable!" That’s true. But should that put us off? Becoming like Jesus is a lifelong pursuit. But don't despair. You don't become a disciple only when you've arrived; you are a disciple when you are earnestly on the way.
On the way to gaining His WISDOM, that is ...
SEEING LIFE FROM GOD'S POINT OF VIEW;
On the way to accepting His LIFESTYLE, that is ...
EXPRESSING GOD'S GLORY IN EVERY PART OF YOUR LIFE;
On the way to developing His CHARACTER, that is ...
RESPONDING SELFLESSLY TO ALL PEOPLE AND IN ALL SITUATIONS;
On the way to committing to His PRIORITIES, that is ...
SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
At a conference in Florida I was privileged with forty other seminary presidents to sit under the teaching of Dr. Dallas Willard. In five excellent lectures he addressed the topic: TEACHING THE TEACHERS OF THE NATIONS. Willard stated a beginning proposition this way:
“It is God’s intent that the ministers of Christ and the people of Christ should be, in him, the light of the world, and should teach all people what reality is and how to live in it.”
To do this, he said, we must obey the Great Commission, which he paraphrased this way: “Make disciples of all nations, submerge them in Trinitarian reality, and teach them to do all I have commanded you,” Matt. 28:19-20. During the lecture he said immerse them in Trinitarian community. This requires Christian spirituality of a life of obedience to Jesus Christ, training ourselves readily and easily to live out the expectations of Jesus. By easily, he did not mean that total obedience to Jesus is easy, but that making the decision of what we intend to do will be easy. We will have so trained ourselves in obedience that it becomes natural to obey Him.
Immersing ourselves in Trinitarian reality needs elaboration. I take it to mean:
• Living humbly as creatures in a creation that belongs to God, and receiving and walking consciously in the fatherly love of God
• Relating directly in worship and obedience to the glorified Christ; taking the expansion of Christ’s kingdom as our primary reason for living, and
• Being filled daily by the Holy Spirit and growing in Spirit-controlled Christ-likeness and empowerment for holy and effective life and service.
Living with Jesus as my King means:
2. To seek first His kingdom in all my motives, activities and relationships
What is THE KINGDOM?
It was a question begging to be asked, but no one dared or thought to ask. The King used the phrase frequently, usually in the midst of a parable or story. Like when he said, "The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed." But no one asked the obvious – What do you mean by "kingdom of God?"
And yet by his stories, and more by his life, understanding of the kingdom of God gradually oozed into them. They began to understand it because they were experiencing it. The kingdom of God.
As we learn about being disciples, we need to learn about the kingdom of God. Why? Because that is the new nationality of the disciple; it is our Fatherland, the kingdom of which we are a part. No alien is granted citizenship without first learning the basic facts about his or her new country and government. So, we must learn more about this kingdom which demands our loyalty and spiritual patriotism.
God's earliest intention was to create a people for Himself--a "kingdom of priests", a holy nation (see Exodus 19:5-6). Disciples are those kingdom people. But proper decorum in the kingdom must be learned, so we had better understand this kingdom of which we are a part. You wouldn’t visit the Queen of England in Buckingham Palace looking like a slob and acting like an idiot! We must learn to approach God with reverence and respect.
The kingdom of God for King Jesus meant the rule of God in the hearts and lives of people who know, love, and obey God. It is a reign, not a realm. It is not a place where Jesus owns governmental control. It is an active power in people due to the authority of God in their lives.
One time the Pharisees were asking Jesus about when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them,
The kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, "Here it is," or "There it is," because the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20-21
Jesus was affirming the presence of the kingdom in the lives of His followers, and yet it is obvious from many of the other teachings of King Jesus that there is a dimension of the kingdom that we know nothing about in this life.
So where is the kingdom? What is the kingdom? When God chooses to confront a situation, that is the kingdom of God. His kingdom is His presence and power in authority. The kingdom of God was most clearly seen when Jesus used His power to defeat the effects of sin in the lives of people.
His authority astonished everyone who witnessed his mighty acts and teachings. Luke 11:20 reports an interesting statement by King Jesus about the nature of the kingdom. He had recently expelled a demon, and for doing that he was challenged by the Pharisees regarding the source of his authority. They were suggesting that his strength came from demons. King Jesus made a quick rebuttal to that foolish notion and then said,
If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
So, King Jesus saw and taught that the kingdom of God has power over the forces of evil and the damning effects of sin on God's creation. God's kingdom will overrule every power that would attempt to undermine and diminish the creative work of God.
The key to demonstrating God's kingdom is the transformation of self-centered sinners (the way we all start out) into God-centered disciples. That is what King Jesus prayed for when he said, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." God's will is done by kingdom people—disciples.
Living with Jesus as my King means:
3. Rejecting the cultures of this world, including man-made religions
So, are you ready to start following King Jesus as your Master? Good. No doubt He will teach us how to attract a crowd by doing a miracle or two, like changing water into wine; perhaps He will tell us how to cleverly quiet our critics by saying things like, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render unto God the things that are God’s, etc., and, surely, we'll soon be learning the secrets of advanced spirituality that will enable us to heal the sick, raise the dead, etc.
If that's what the early disciples expected, they were shocked when King Jesus immediately took them up onto a mountain and sat down and began to teach them saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit-the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3-10
The Beatitudes are sometimes taken to be formulas that may be optionally applied to our Christian lives if we are willing to pay for that extra bit of blessing by accepting the sacrifice required. Sort of like getting better seats at the stadium if you are willing to pay a higher ticket price. But the Beatitudes are not an extra at all. They are fundamental and basic to Christian living.
The Beatitudes set before us the basics of kingdom living. If you expect to live in the presence of Royalty, the King of Kings, you need to know fitting behavior. King Jesus was not telling the disciples how to be happy, but how to be, and as a by-product of these attitudes they would be blessed.
Essentially, these verses tell us that the emphasis for disciples should be on:
THIS NOT THIS
be-attitudes do-activities
character charisma
relationships rules
mindset skills
teachability personality
availability ability
Some people seem to thrive quite well on external attributes and even seem to have successful ministries. Indeed, no doubt the disciples of King Jesus were not totally lacking in such attributes. But Jesus wanted a ministry that would come from people whose hearts, like David's, would be "after his own heart."
Living with Jesus as my King means:
4. Accepting His invitation to enter an intimate friendship with Him
One of the special privileges of being a disciple of King Jesus is that after we learn to walk with Him in obedience, He invites us into a new relationship. He told the disciples this in John 15:14-15:
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends…
Many Christians suffer from the loss of their first love. They cannot sing, “What a friend we have in Jesus because, like the second-generation Christians at Laodicea, they have lost their first love; (Rev. 2:2, 4). They excelled in church growth; they excelled in doctrinal purity, but they lost their first love. How does this happen? We stop obeying Him. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Why do Christians lose their first love?
• Contentedness; Israel (Deuteronomy 8:11-13); Is this you?
• Disappointment, tragedy; Is this you?
• Distractions, busy-ness; Is this you?
• Feelings of insignificance; Is this you?
This is a special problem for 2nd and 3rd generation Christians. No glorious conversion. No intense love or dramatic deliverance to begin with. But, God has no grandchildren. We may all be first-generation Christians. Our citizenship in heaven is not based on our parents’ citizenship.
How can I nurture my first love?
• Not by discipline(s)
• Not by living in the past
The key to nurturing you first love is to receive, to accept God’s love for you. To live in constant recognition of God’s love, grace and mercy. To receive God’s love experientially, existentially, emotionally. To SOAK IN GOD’S LOVE.
Today I want to invite you to submit to Jesus your King, to surrender to Him entirely.
• Maybe you are someone who has backslidden into sin, and not living under God’s authority; living for yourself. If a tug of conviction is in your heart, today is the day of repentance.
• Or, maybe you are a new Christian; you know Jesus as your Savior, but now wish to make Him Lord and King of your life.
• Or, maybe you’ve been a Christian a long time, but have never really been a disciple. You are not walking in obedience and friendship with King Jesus. You are living for yourself and are attracted to this world more than to the kingdom of God. Today, if you’d like to break that pattern of shallowness, disobedience and fruitlessness, you can receive Christ as your King by a sincere prayer of submission.
Someone has said, “He is King of all, or He is not king at all.” Let Him be your King.
