We sing that Jesus is Lord and we see His name on signs and bumper stickers, yet it is easy to let the word king become a distant church term that means very little from one day to the next. Most of us have never lived under a king, so the idea can feel like a title with no real claim on us. Scripture will not let the word stay empty. When Peter preached, he told the crowd to know for certain that God had made Jesus both Lord and Christ (). That is a claim on every part of our lives.
A King With All Authority
Before He returned to the Father, Jesus told His disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him, and on that basis He sent them to make disciples of all nations (). This is not the language of a ceremonial figurehead whose decisions are really made by someone else. Paul described Him as the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, to whom belongs eternal dominion (). His kingdom is not a democracy where the people vote to set its direction. He alone holds the authority, and He holds all of it.
A King Who Reigns Right Now
Many imagine Jesus setting up His kingdom only at some point in the future. Yet He promised that some standing with Him would not die before they saw the kingdom come with power (). Paul later wrote that God has already rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son (). The church is that kingdom, and Jesus reigns over it today.
How does a king rule a realm he is not physically walking through? In the Old Testament a king such as Ahasuerus governed a vast empire by issuing a written decree and sending it through appointed messengers, so that people across thousands of miles acted on exactly what he had commanded. In a similar way, the risen King gave gifts to His people, apostles and prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints and build up His body (). The apostles recorded His will, helped by the Spirit He promised would bring His words to their remembrance (). That same message was then entrusted to faithful people who would teach others also ().
Because the message comes from the King, no one is free to rewrite it. Paul warned that even if he himself or an angel from heaven preached a different gospel, it should be rejected (). Shepherds are to guard the flock from those who would rise up and distort the truth to draw people after themselves (). A congregation still makes ordinary decisions about its own work, but it has no authority to change what the King has established.
A King Who Never Changes
Human governments change their laws as the thinking of each generation shifts. The will of our King does not. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (). His teaching does not need to be updated to keep pace with the culture, which means we can trust it completely and build our lives on it without fear that it will quietly move beneath us. God raised Him and seated Him far above every rule and authority and power, and gave Him as head over all things to the church (). When we feel the pull to reshape the church around what people today prefer, the better question is always what our King desires.
The King Who Gave Himself
Think about who this King actually is. He could have called legions of angels, yet He allowed Himself to be arrested. He holds all authority, yet He knelt to wash His disciples’ feet. He is the One before whom every knee will one day bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (). And this same King gave His life on a cross for us. A King who loves us like that is worthy of our whole allegiance, not a part of it.
So the honest question is not only whether we admit that Jesus is King, but whether we are living as people who belong to His kingdom. Is there some corner of life we are still trying to rule ourselves, something we know He asks of us that we keep resisting? One day every knee will bow. The invitation today is to bow willingly, to give Him all of life now, and to serve gladly under the King who gave Himself for us.