“The Case for Christ - The Magi” (part 15)

'We have no King but Jesus'!

Have you heard this phrase on television or read it in the newspaper lately?

This was said in a short speech by a Statesman who stressed the importance of Christianity as the '...source of American law, culture and character.' 

To quote onward, he stated: 'There is a difference between a culture that has no king but Caesar, no standard but the civil authority, and a culture that has no King but Jesus, no standard but the eternal authority. When you have no king but Caesar, you release Barabbas - criminality, destruction, thievery, the lowest and the least. When you have no king but Jesus, you release the Eternal, you release the highest and the best, you release virtue, you release potential.' (end of quote]

As you can well imagine, the content of this statement has caused no small flurry among his colleagues in government. 

Here is a Christian Statesman voicing his allegiance to Jesus as his King. He is paying the Lord homage - homage in the finished work as the Christ, his Savior and his Lord.

He has seen what the best can be in the kingdom of Christ for any nation and he realizes what the worst is outside of Christ's kingdom.

For us, this comes at an opportune time since we are pressing onward to see Jesus our Savior in His place as King by the Gentile magi. 

The coming and the breakthrough of the Kingdom of God in Christ, for Jew and Gentile alike, was put into the foreground when the magi did Him homage as King. 

It meant the beginning of the destruction of the old: the universal Kingdom of God for all was here.

It was not just another kingdom but it consummated the whole historical process.

It challenged every other kingdom and judged all other policies and programs. 

Now - at this stage in time - we are at a point where we can form comparisons and make conclusions. 

We can see that no other birth, since the beginning of history, has involved such an important consequence to the human race.

We can see how various religions were simply religions of the races with no guarantee of eternal futures, with no stability of eternal truths.

A heathen god was supposed to support and vindicate his people.

A man could choose the god that could do the most for him.  

If that god did not do the job well for him, he could change his allegiance to what he thought was a more powerful and benevolent god.

And that could take place any number of times with no assurance of spiritual satisfaction nor progress.

But - it would not be so with Jesus as King.

When Jesus came, a whole new arrangement came in Him. 

His birth as Savior-King pledged the only distinguishing order among men that would satisfy spiritual hunger forever.

This tremendous dynamic of His Incarnation set both heaven and earth into motion.

We just cannot think of it apart from the Divine Power it is in redemption and judgment.

It transmits itself in everything and in all who are touched by it.

It throws everything into a crisis.

Even the heavenly realm could not escape its impact!

In Luke, we saw how the angels responded - I can just imagine how all the heavenly host must have been so anxious to applaud and shout out to the ends of the earth of the appearance of the King.

And on the other side, the very lowest and the most base, vile opposition prepared for battle: the clash was on!

The archenemy, the chief opposer of God, the one who leads all the spiritual hosts of darkness, went into action!

Christ's coming filled his empire with alarm!

If you would go over to the fourth chapter in Matthew, you will see how, soon after, he tried to counteract and deny Christ's rightful kingship over all.

He offered the control of all the earthly kingdoms of the world in exchange for Christ falling down to give him homage instead.

But Christ stood firm. At a later time, He said to Pilate, 'My kingdom is not from here, from this world...it has no such origin or source...'! (Jn 18:36)

So it is no accident that, along with the magi bowing before Christ as King, there is also the account of Herod, the Great, the earthly king, who seemed at the time to be more likely to govern the destinies of mankind than this little Child did.

It took no time at all for Herod to do Satan's bidding in trying to defeat God's plan in Christ.

And try he did - for, if you read on, his intention was to murder Jesus before Jesus was even two years old!

He tried hard - he had every male baby two years old and under massacred.

This tragedy, too, was a fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy, in 31:15, where he said: 'In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.'

You will notice that Matthew also quoted this in verse 18 of chapter two. 

But - Herod was outwitted and his attempt was futile.

Why? Why could he not kill off Jesus?

The Kingdom of God upon the earth was come, just as God had promised in Daniel 2:44: 'And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever.'

Did you catch that?

It would not be subject to being negated, frustrated, nor prevented by any earthly force!

It shall never be destroyed and it shall stand forever.

That sounds very conclusive and decisive, does it not?

We are not surprised, then - are we - that all efforts - past, present, future - all efforts to replace or to deny the Kingship of Christ are doomed to failure?

It is good to let that be known - once and for all - and be able to say with those who know: 'We have no King but Jesus!' 

Men will insist on fighting against God over this one point: the Kingship of Jesus Christ.

Even those of us who call ourselves Christians have difficulty with that one point - are we aware of that?

But - it is always futile to try to take up arms against His Lordship over our lives: 'Fight ye not against the Lord God...for ye shall not prosper', Jeroboam was warned in 
2 Chronicles 13:12.

Who can fight against the Lord? 

Who can really do battle with the Almighty Sovereign King?

Have you ever tried it? How far did it get you?

Read on in 2 Chronicles sometime. Jeroboam and his army got caught between a rock and a hard place - the enemy was before them and behind them - they had no way out.

And '...At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam.' (v 15)

You will find that, in v 15, the King James version reads:
‘...God smote Jeroboam’. and - later - in v 20, there is an explanation of how it happened.

It reads: ‘...Neither did Jeroboam recover strength,’ or regain his power, get his power back again.

God routed him - it was a crushing defeat, to say the very least!

But - yes - that is what happens when we refuse to acknowledge Christ as our King - some routing-out takes place! 

Our failure is inevitable!

That is exactly what takes place when the low, the evil, the least, the base road is taken by one who calls himself a child of God.

It will not be a death blow physically but it is a death blow in spiritual progress.

We may as well face it squarely: it is folly to fight against the Lord of the Almighty power because we did not get our way today - or last week - or a year ago.

We cried, we screamed, we kicked, we blamed another, we cursed God, we sought to take revenge!

But - where did it get us?

Listen - substitute temptation and evil in your life and thoughts for the acknowledgment of ‘Jesus as King’ and you have the answer to what will happen.

It is treachery - it is base ingratitude - so forget about being 'angry' with God and trying to get 'even' with Him or with anyone else - you cannot expect to nor will you prosper spiritually!

Yes - evil offers certain immediate rewards - we know that.

But, as our Statesman said, that is when 'Barabbas has been released’ and the base, the least, the vile has been unloosed.
 
But in going that way, there is a long series of regrets and tragedies for having believed that the advantage we got from the evil path would be more lasting and without remorse.

Far better it is to bow down and 'do homage' to Christ as King - for such a life is a continuous reaping of the profound, satisfying, spiritual gifts of Life He freely gives.  

And there is where you will know that the Eternal has released unto you the Highest and the Best.

And you will know that every potential and every Divine Virtue is in your hand!

Yes - it is the Eternal Who releases these gifts to us - He is the source of them and the Fountain of them.

Believe it - act upon it - and you will see the truth of it for yourself!

His kingdom will reign. 

We are doomed to failure if we try to negate and counteract this going onward of Jesus the King.

Let that be known once and for all also!

To stand on the truth that ‘Jesus is King’ is not the easy and most comfortable way, of that we can be sure! 

So - we can easily understand why Herod, the Great, yelled to the worldly system: 'Kill Him!'

And it is equally no small surprise when the people cried out before Christ's crucifixion, 'Away with Him! We have no king but Caesar!'

The birth of the Savior-King was no small, insignificant event.

It will always stand between two convictions - two persuasions: is He accepted with sincere homage and straight-forward faith as the magi welcomed Him?

Or - is He rejected and opposed as Herod did?

The only real milestone on the road of life that will have acceptance and be endorsed is when we are able to say, ‘We have no King but Jesus!’

Yes - It is so! ‘We have no King but Jesus!’

Song: ‘All hail, King Jesus, all hail, Emanuel!’

Amen!   Let us pray!