November 23, 2008

• The Feast of Christ the King: (10) Kingdom-Obsessed People crown Him Lord of all

  Continuing in my series about Kingdom-Obsessed people...

  Many of you may know that a week from today the season of Advent begins, but did you realize that today is the Feast of Christ the King?

  Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race, ye ransomed from the fall,
  Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.
  Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.

  

  Are we crowning Him Lord of all?

  David Bennett asks

  Isn't calling Christ "King" antiquated and oppressive?

  I would say "no" on both counts. First, "Christ the King Sunday" has a much better ring to it than "Christ our Democratically Elected Leader Sunday." Joking aside, despite the success and value of a democratic form and government for secular affairs, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a democracy. God does not take opinion polls, nor can he be recalled or voted out of office.

  From Alan Redpath's "Victorious Praying: Studies in the Family Prayer" (London: Pickering & Inglis, 1971), 124-127:

  While it is true that Jesus is King according to our lips, in truth and in practice do we act in utter contradiction to Him? Do we acknowledge His right of sovereignty, Christian friends, but are not crowning Him in our lives? We say, "Thine is the kingdom"; we trust Him and receive Him as our Saviour. We believe that He indwells our hearts by the Holy Spirit. In theory He is King, but let me ask you, in practice, who is running your life?
  
  I remember visiting a town in the midlands of England where they make pottery–a dirty, smoky place called Stoke-on-Trent, where I heard of a man, very illiterate, who had been living a very bad sort of life. But one day he received Christ at a Salvation Army meeting, and showed he was truly converted.
  
  One Sunday morning he came home from the Salvation Army's holiness meeting very miserable.
  
  "What's the matter with you?" asked his wife. "I thought you said you'd got converted."
  
  "I am," he said, "but I'm so miserable today because everyone had red jerseys on but me."
  
  "Oh," replied his wife, "that's easy. I'll knit you one!"
  
  So she sat down and knitted him a red jersey that week, and the next Sunday he went to the meeting proudly wearing it. He came back home miserable.
  
  "What's the matter with you now?" asked his puzzled wife.
  
  "Well, you see," he said, "everybody else had some lovely white letters on their red jerseys, but I had none."
  
  "What can we do about that?" wondered his wife. "What are we going to put on it?" The poor woman couldn't read, either, so she didn't know what to do. As she say down at her window, she noticed that across the street a store had put up a new banner, so she decided to copy the letters and sew them on her husband's jersey.
  
  The next Sunday morning, he came home radiant!
  
  "Do you know, my dear, "he said, "everybody said that I had the best jersey of anyone there!"
  
  Do you know what was written on it? "Under new management!"
  
  Are you "under new management"? Is Jesus Christ King in practice as well as in theory? Is the kingdom of your personality His? Has He had a coronation day in your heart?
  
  "Thine is the kingdom," we say, and yet–
  
  "She is my friend, we assert, "and I will not give her up."
  
  "That is my home," we claim, "and everything in it belongs to me."
  
  "This is my money, and I"m holding on to it! It is my business,  and it must not be interfered with."
  
  "It is my life," we say, "and I will run it for myself."
  
  It is not the unbeliever who talks like that always; frequently it is the child of God. It is the Christian who in theory crowns Christ King, and acknowledges His right to rule, but in terms of six days a week's daily conduct talks of "my friend, my home, my business, my money," and God is not in them.
  
  The strange thing about it–and yet not so strange because it reveals a great truth–is that when in practice we go on saying, "my," none of these things are ours at all to enjoy. But when we can honestly look up into His face and say, "Lord Jesus Christ, I crown Thee Lord of all. I freely acknowledge Thy Lordship not merely in theory, but I put the crown upon Thy brow and fall at Thy feet. From this moment onward I am Thy slave and Thy servant–I am Thine, every part of the kingdom of my personality is Thine." When I say that, then all these other things are truly mine. For they cannot be truly mine until I possess them in Jesus Christ.
  
  A little child will say of his birthday gift, "This is my toy." He walks up the street from school with his playmates and points, "That is my house." He hears a heavier, familiar step on the front walk, looks out the window, then rushes to the front door and cries, "My Daddy!" But he did not earn the toy; he did not buy the house; he did not purchase his father. They were all his by gift!
  
  When I look up into His face and say, "Thine, Lord Jesus, is the kingdom," then I can say, "Lord, he (or she) is my friend, because he is Thy gift to me." He is mine because he is His.
  
  Can I say, "If Thou art in my amusements, my recreation, my fun, my money, Lord Jesus, then they are mine. If Thou art not in them, then they are not mine."
  
  If you think about it for a moment, honestly, that statement will answer every problem you may ever have concerning what you call worldly amusements. They are yours if He is in them. If He is not in them, then they are not yours. Otherwise His is not the kingdom. And if you are in doubt, give God the benefit of the doubt and cut it out. Let it be true from the depths of your heart to the circumference of your life. "Thine is the kingdom."
  
  Christian friends, is He Lord in theory only, or in practice also?
  
  

  Lord of every thought and action,
  Lord to send, and Lord to stay,
  Lord in speaking, writing, giving,
  Lord in all things to obey;
  Lord of all there is of me,
  Now and evermore to be.

  Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race, ye ransomed from the fall,
  Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.
  Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.
  

  Are you "under new management"?
  Is Jesus Christ King in practice as well as in theory?
  Is the kingdom of your personality His?
  Has He had a coronation day in your heart?
  Christian friends, is He Lord in theory only, or in practice also?

  Are we crowning Him Lord of all?
  Kingdom-Obsessed People crown Him Lord of all
  for He is the King and His is the Kingdom.
  
  

  ---

  Alan Redpath was pastor of Moody Church, 1953-1962. In Spring 1954 he gave a series of messages on the Lord's Prayer (which Redpath calls the Family Prayer). If you're one of those people who was raised on the Lord's prayer, I'd recommend this book. Too often we speak the words, but we don't think deeply about their implications for our lives...

  • 8:44 AM
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