HE IS ALREADY A KING

Jn.6:15 – So Jesus, aware that they intended to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself, alone.

This was really the turning point in the ministry of Jesus; until now it was all about the miracles and the changed lives. Obviously the crowds didn’t quite understand. Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of God, the people wanted an earthly king and an earthly kingdom and they wanted it right then. The next day the Lord would begin to tell the people about His coming crucifixion. What the crowds couldn’t see was that the King was already there, His kingdom was just a very different kind of kingdom.

You can see the same mistake being made in the church world today. It seems many Christians and ministries start off on a good track but at some point things begin to come off of the rails. The emphasis begins to shift from the heavenly kingdom to everything the Lord can do for us on earth. He obviously does those things: heals true sick and feeds the crowds with a little fish and bread but these things are not the real essence of who He is. Here is how Augustine describes this.

“Yet he who shrank from being made a king, was a king [already]; not made king by people but one who would bestow a kingdom on people.… For he ever reigns with the Father, in that he is the Son of God, the Word of God, the Word by which all things were made. The prophets had foretold his kingdom. Christ, by being made man, made the believers in him Christians. There will consequently be a kingdom of Christians that at present is being gathered together, being prepared and purchased by the blood of Christ. And this kingdom will be made manifest after the judgment when the glory of his saints shall be revealed.… The disciples, however, and the multitude who believed in him thought that he had come to reign immediately, and so they would have taken him by force to make him a king, seeking to anticipate his time, which he kept secret.”

So what kind of King are you longing for? Some may think they want one who just makes their present life as comfortable and luxurious as possible. The problem with that is that our hearts long for more than just fish and bread. Our hearts long for Jesus to be in us and to walk with us on a daily basis. Nothing less than that can ever satisfy our hungry hearts.