Heavenly King

Who is the authority to which all other authorities must answer?

Who is in charge? Who can make decisions without threat of reprisal because they are answerable to no one else? When Rome ruled the world, it was the emperor. In medieval times in Britain the king had absolute rule. When a new Prime Minister or President takes office, they set out what they are going to do now they are in power. They have the power to revoke previous laws and institute new ones. The government has the power over life and death in some places. In the UK if you want to start a business or a school, you need the government’s permission. Football clubs, trade unions, and charity organizations exist by permission of the government and are regulated by them.

What about local churches? Do local churches exist by permission of the government? Most Western societies lump churches into the same category as charitable organizations, seeing them as one more kind of voluntary association. Are churches just another service provider, like a garage to service your soul or a petrol station to fill up your spiritual tank?

We are taught by the Bible that an individual Christian should submit to the authority of the king nowadays that being the state or government. But remember that those rulers are God’s “servant”. The king or government rules but it does so only by God allowing it. Churches should abide by the laws of the land when it comes to matters such as adhering to building regulations (if it has a building), health and safety rules for where groups meet, or paying the rent and other bills and taxes. In that sense, churches are like every other business or charity. But let’s be clear: the local church does not exist by permission of the government. It exists by the express authority of Jesus Christ.

The British Monarchy is a constitutional monarchy. This means that, while The Sovereign is Head of State, the ability to make and pass legislation resides with the elected Parliament. Because of this we have lost the original significance of the idea that a King has absolute authority. But our heavenly King has just that. Answerable to no one, when we make Him our Saviour, we honour Him with allegiance to His rule. Whether they know it or not, acknowledge it or not, Jesus is the authority to which all other authorities must answer. Jesus will judge the nations and their governments. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, and he gave his church the authority to spread throughout the nations. His church will advance and cannot be stopped. The boundary lines of the nations won’t stop it. The executive orders of presidents won’t stop it; legislation of prime ministers won’t stop it. Not even the gates of hell will slow it down.

The local church is one of Jesus’s agents on earth. This has implications for what the local church is and what it means to be a participant in a local congregation’s life. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians 1:15-20: He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So, he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. You can find that statement in the letter to the Colossians.

We must not underestimate our church which is global, nor should we underestimate our local congregation which is a branch of a worldwide movement. Do not belittle it. Do not misshape it in a way that misshapes your Christianity. The church is not a business or a charitable organization, and though it is a family, we are much more than that.

Ephesians 3:8-11; “Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

For the disciple, the follower of Jesus, the Christian, the local church is not a club. It is not a voluntary organization where membership is optional. It is not a friendly group of people who share an interest in religious things and so gather each week to talk about God and discuss the Bible. It has a heavenly king and that elevates it to be so much more. The church is not a mere service provider, so it’s ironic that we refer to church “services”. In business the customer has all authority, we are told they are always right. If we come to the church as customers, we have missed the point. Sometimes it’s as if we are telling people to pull into the church car park at 10:30 a.m. and get themselves serviced, a tune-up for your soul. We promise it will only take an hour because we do not want to inconvenience them. Perhaps we do this because we have reduced the idea of church to being about preaching taking place in a building and taking the Lord’s supper in that building so church takes place in that building. The knock-on effect is that:

• People begin to think it’s fine to attend a church indefinitely on a Sunday morning and that’s all there is to it.

• People will get baptized then walk away as though they have done what is needed to be saved and no more commitment is needed.

• Visitors take the Lord’s supper as though there is something magical about it.

• Christians view the Lord’s Supper as their own private, mystical experience rather than an activity for believers collectively. After all, one of the words for it is communion.

• The idea comes about that our Monday-to-Saturday lives are separate from what takes place in the building on a Sunday.

• Christians make major life decisions (moving, accepting a promotion, choosing a spouse, etc.) without considering the effects of those decisions on relationships in the church.

• Christians buy homes or rent with a great deal of consideration for work, school and university but less regard for how factors such as distance and cost will affect their ability to serve their church.

• When people move away from where the building is it is as though they are leaving the church.

• The baptized don’t realize that they are partly responsible for both the spiritual welfare and the physical livelihood of the other members of their local congregation, even those they have not met.

I sound very grumpy don’t I with this catalogue of things that seem to go wrong because we are so church building centric. Feel free to prove me wrong. Individually we might get a lot right, but collectively what are the Lord’s people demonstrating when we forget we serve the heavenly King and replace him with too small a view of His church because of our failings in a local congregation.

We do not have the authority to conduct our Christian lives on our own. If Jesus truly is your heavenly King, then if follows you are in a Kingdom. Even here on earth there are rules that determine if you are fit for the kingdom, you live in. Church is not something we do when it suits us, or we can fit into our busy lives. It is so much more important, it is:

THE HIGHEST KINGDOM AUTHORITY ON EARTH BECAUSE JESUS IS ITS KING!

The local church is the authority on earth that Jesus has instituted to give shape to my Christian life and yours.

The events and teaching of the Old Testament points to when the church was going to be established. The teaching and writings of the New Testament look back to when the church was established. Is it possible that our view of church is too small. After Christ died 120 frightened people were sitting waiting because Jesus told the to wait. When the waiting was finished, Peter preached and 3,000 by obedient faith were saved. Not long after that 5,000 were saved. They had no buildings, no business meetings, no set time for Bible class, after all, what was a Bible? No worship or cleaning Rota’s but there was persecution and still more people were baptized. How did they do that? It was because Jesus was their King.

Whilst the government of a nation is its citizens highest authority on earth, I believe the local church is the highest authority on earth when it properly follows the teachings of the Word of God.

Jesus built His church, it was already built, we were added to it when we obeyed the gospel. You are only added by obedience to His Word, and you can be removed from the church by your disobedience to His Word. All of this is under the authority of God’s Word. God’s Word has established the basic structures of life in the Kingdom and even how you become a citizen.

Jesus is Savior and Lord. He has died on the cross for the sins of everyone who believes and follows him. When you open your Bible, don’t look for signs of a club with its voluntary members. Look for a Lord and his people bound together by His blood.

WE ARE NOT A CLUB, BUT AN EMBASSY

We are strangers and aliens on this earth. Christians must look forward to their homeland. They wait for the day when the “kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,” when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Rev. 11:15 ESV; Phil. 2:11).

Until then there is a place on earth where the citizens of heaven can, at this moment, find official recognition and asylum: the local church. Churches represent Christ’s rule now. They affirm and protect his citizens now. They proclaim his laws now. They bow before him as King now and call all people to do the same.

Philosophy will not save you.

Religion will not save you.

Your parents’ faith will not save you.

Your grandparents’ faith will not save you.

Being born in a “Christian country” will not save you.

Getting your head sprinkled as a baby will not save you.

Only Jesus Christ the heavenly King can save you.

The church represents the kingdom authority that Christ has given not to us as individual Christians but to us collectively as the church. Jesus did not leave us to govern ourselves and to declare ourselves his citizens. He left an institution in place that both affirms us as believers and then helps to shape and give direction to our Christian lives.

When you get fed up with your local congregation make sure you have the right view of the heavenly King. Then remind others of who you are all serving in your local congregation. Worldly governments rule with power, coercion, and manipulation. Jesus Christ our heavenly King leads with love. That makes our local congregation so much more vital and important than any earthly government serving any earthly king. That raises the view of what the church is and elevates who you are as a child of the heavenly king.