Chirst the King

If you go to your search engine and type in "Christ the King" you will be directed to web pages for various churches and schools. But Christ did not become popular as "King" while He lived on earth. Make no mistake- Jesus came to this earth to become King. He came to establish His kingdom. But during the thirty-some years He walked the dusty landscape of Palestine, He was not recognized as King.

Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, clearly presents Christ as the one who came to be King of His people. From the very beginning of the book Matthew establishes the kingly identity of Jesus. The first section of the book is a list of names. Most people will skip this list or just skim over the names. But if you look closely, you will see that the list traces the kings of the people of Israel from David until the time when they ceased to have kings. But the genealogy does not end there. It continues on a straight line right to Jesus. Matthew is very clearly informing us that Jesus stands in the royal line of King David. Jesus deserves to be seen for who He truly is- King Jesus.

How should our lives be different if we know that Jesus is King? First, we should submit to Jesus as our king. This means that we will trust that His way to God is right and we will accept His payment for our sin.

Second, we should use our time like Jesus is our king. A king expects his followers to come when called. Jesus calls us every day to spend time with Him in the Bible. Jesus calls us every week to spend time worshiping him with His other followers in church.

Third, we should use our money like Jesus is our king. Let's stop asking how much we have to give and begin asking how much we can give to our king.

Fourth, if Jesus is our king, then we should be His heralds. While we may not use the words, "hear ye, hear ye" we certainly should deliver the message of the gospel to the people with whom we have the privilege of interacting.

Finally, if Jesus is our king, then we should submit to the lower authorities that He has placed over us. Government leaders, church leaders, family leaders, school leaders, employment leaders- all of these people have responsibilities to serve us. We should serve King Jesus by submitting appropriately to these leaders.

Every part of the Bible was written by God for a reason (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Matthew didn't leave us to wonder why He included a genealogy at the beginning of the list. Instead, Matthew pointed to Jesus as Messiah and showed that Jesus came to be king. Are you living like Jesus is your king?