The Kingship of Christ

AT his fourth visit to Bethany the Lord planned to reveal His Kingship. He wanted His friends to understand this and how they could enjoy the privileges of that Kingship, and paradoxically how to be humble and meek. To fulfill the prophecy of Zachariah 9:9 the Lord Jesus came that fourth time to Bethany on the way to Jerusalem to show His Kingship, and how to be brought under that Kingship through humility and meekness. Many believers only accept the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. They want Him only to forgive their sins and eventually to take them to heaven there to enjoy themselves forever in some corner. They do not understand the real longing of the Lord Jesus to make them His co-workers and partners, and that, for that purpose they have to be brought under His Kingship and Lordship constantly. In many cases, after many years of defeat and failure, they understand and give the right place to the Lord Jesus in their hearts as heavenly King. He has to be King of our hearts, home and church, and His authority must be fully exercised in our midst constantly, individually, as a family, and as a Church. To this end, on the fourth visit to Bethany the secret is revealed to us showing how we can be kept under the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ and how we can enjoy our partnership with Him as our heavenly King.

It was for a purpose that our Lord chose a colt of an ass and rode upon it to Jerusalem, even though He had the power and authority over all the beasts. In Mark 1:13-, we find Him living among the wild beasts-lions, bears, jackals and wolves and whatever was in the deserts of Palestine, and they were obedient to Him. It says He was with them. If He wanted to ride on a lion, He could have called such an animal to Him, and it would have obeyed Him, as did the fishes and all the powers of nature and hell. In Luke 5, He wanted all the fishes to come into the net, so all the fishes, whether small, medium size or large came into the net without any holding back.

In passing we should say that in that miracle, the Lord was showing how Peter and the Apostles had to give the Gospel to all people. Just as at the Lord's command all kinds of fishes came into the net, those disciples had to become fishers of men, and not only of the poor people, but also of the middle class and the rich people. They had to fish for men whether white, black, rich or poor. Thus the Apostles were prepared to preach the Gospel throughout the world. In John 21, however, there is a different kind of message. Here He was teaching them how to build the Church (vs. 15-18). He said "Feed my sheep" (v. 17). The Apostles were commanded to bring the believers to maturity. Not only were they to be saved through their ministry, but they had to be fed and brought to maturity. Our Lord was illustrating this in John 21 by commanding only the great fishes to come into the net. He wanted big fishes. The disciples were being prepared and taught how to bring believers to full age and maturity (Eph.4:13).

When we become fully matured spiritually, then we can live in oneness and unity without strife and jealousy. When we are babes spiritually, we go on quarrelling over small things; as were the people in Corinth who were quarrelling and backbiting. In John 21 our Lord was showing how the big fishes came into the net without quarrelling and strife, but were quietly together.

These illustrations also show our Lord's authority over all creation, and to return to our passage, though our Lord could have commanded any beast, even a lion to ride upon. He chose purposely a colt of an ass. Among all animals the colt of an ass is a very rebellious animal. The colt of an ass will not allow anybody to ride on it and those who try to do so do not have an easy time. I have seen a colt being broken to make it suitable to ride upon. Two men will hold the colt, and a third man will start whipping it to make it go the way the men want it to go. They will train it like this until it stops kicking and obeys them. The Lord also uses certain methods to break us till we say, "Lord I won't kick any more". The Lord tamed the colt. What a mystery! There were other animals like a mule or a horse, yet He chose an unbroken colt. When they brought this unbroken colt to Him, straightaway He sat on it, and there was no kicking. It carried the Lord Jesus with great joy and obedience.

Many of us however, are unlike this colt and need to be beaten many times. That is our nature; we are so stubborn. We do not yield to the voice of God easily. We only want Him to bless us and deliver us from difficulties. When it comes to doing His will we do not want that. We only want our will to be done. That is why many believers do not grow spiritually. They do not obey the Lord Jesus Christ implicitly. Yet with what joy and humility the colt carried the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus was showing His disciples at that time, if they wanted to be His true disciples, if they wanted to serve Him and follow Him, then they should be like that colt. By nature it was stubborn, but in God's presence it was perfectly humble and obedient. No man can break our will. All of us are very stubborn, and it is only after many years of beating that we become humble. We learn humility in so many ways, (c.f.Matt.l 1: 29). A yoke is used for two bullocks to labour together in pulling the cart or the plough. The Lord wants us to be His partners, like the two bullocks on the same yoke. Like these bullocks we have to be humble. Read Ephesians 4:2-7; 1 Peter 5:5,6; Philippians 2:5,8. Here humility and meekness go together. There are different kinds of pride in all of us, and that is why we find it hard to obey the Lord implicitly. The Lord has to break our pride in many ways. Sometimes He rebukes us and thus breaks our pride. Sometimes He allows many failures to break us. Sometimes the breaking comes through sickness.

Acts 10:10-16 shows us some of the different ways by which God breaks our pride. Here was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, yet God had to break his pride before He could use him in the house of Cornelius. The Lord had to break his national pride. Peter never knew that he was as proud as this. He regarded himself as a devout and humble servant of God, but God saw in him his pride of nationality. For this reason the Lord held him up there to break his pride. (Acts 9:43) He went there for a short time to pray for one person. He could have gone back immediately but the Lord kept him there for a purpose. Unknown to him all his plans were broken. God did not allow him to go anywhere till he had prepared him in His own way. In the same way He breaks our plans to bring down our pride and make us humble and meek. After a few days the Lord appeared to Peter. It is very clear that the Lord Himself spoke to him as he saw a sheet coming down filled with all four-footed beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air, and a Voice came saying, "Arise, Peter, kill and eat." Peter knew that the Lord was speaking to him and yet he says, "Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. Peter says "Not so!", as though he knew better than God. Some people today also think such thoughts!

There is a true story about a pastor who gave long sermons. The people wrote a petition to him asking him not to preach for more than twenty minutes. He wrote down the message and gave it for twenty minutes, and then stopped, and began to pray. Whatever he had left out in the message he said in the prayer! He had been ordered not to preach for more than twenty minutes, and not to pray long, yet in that prayer he gave a long sermon. God is our Father and He knows all about us. Peter knew this, yet he said, "Not so Lord". This happened three times, and only goes to show how proud he was. Pride brings blindness and rebellion. God commanded the young colt to be brought to Him to ride on, and in God's presence it became very humble. Now Peter, when the Lord asked him. to kill and eat, should have said, "Surely Lord Thou wilt not make a mistake: whatever Thou commandest that will I obey". Unless our pride is broken we will not obey Him wholeheartedly.

Peter had a second rebuke in Galatians 2:11, where Paul rebuked Peter. There was still some hidden pride in Peter, so the Lord used Paul to break his pride. Different kinds of pride have to be broken in different ways. Paul himself was also in danger of spiritual pride. (2 Cor. 12:7) We can be proud of our knowledge or ministry, our visions, dreams and other talents. All of us are exposed to these dangers, so God uses different ways to humble us, even as He used a thorn in the flesh to keep Paul humble. We don't know till today what that thorn was. It must have been something very painful and unbearable in many ways. God can use many means and ways in His sovereignty, to keep us humble when we are blessed. In the same way David became proud of his victory and had to be humbled (2 Sam.24:1-4).

God has His own way of breaking all of us. David himself testified in 1 Samuel 17:47, and declared very boldly that he was not depending upon the sword or any other weapon. Yet, after winning many other battles in the strength of the Lord he wanted to take pride in numbering his people, to show to others that in his kingdom there were many mighty men of valour to fight the enemy. He commanded Joab to number the people. Joab reminded him that he had not fought any battle in his own strength nor by the strength of his army, but that it was the Lord that had fought for him. Yet the king's word prevailed and Joab numbered the people, till God's wrath fell upon David, and he was brought to the threshing floor, (2 Sam.24:15,16) to break his pride. A threshing floor is the place where men separate the grain from the chaff. David had begun to take pride in his knowledge, schemes and plans, but God was telling him: "David, what you call cleverness is nothing but chaff." He had to be brought to the threshing floor to be humbled and emptied, and to break and take away his strength and self-sufficiency. God does the same to us to make us depend upon Him completely. That very threshing floor later became the site for Solomon's temple (2 Chron.3:1).

For the same reason the Lord had to bring David to a threshing floor in 1 Chronicles 13:1-3. Rather than obey the Word of God, David used his worldly wisdom to bring up the ark of God (vs.7,9,10). It all became a failure because David took pride in his own arrangement to take a multitude to conduct the ark in procession. In Numbers 4 it is shown clearly how the ark should have been taken. The ark was not to be carried in a cart. It was to be carried on the shoulder of the Levites. David ignored this detail completely. He wanted to show off his army with its captains and leaders, and it all ended in failure. Many people take pride similarly in the work of God. They are ignorant of God's Word, and think it is oldfashioned. Instead they take pride in their degrees and their philosophy and to impress the crowds, they use worldly means and build buildings. For Gospel preaching how often they depend upon cameras and other means. They do not use God's Word as they should. In preaching they use references to back up what they say, but men can never go against God's Word. God uses different methods to break our pride in culture, in nationality and education. It is only through humility and full obedience that we can build the house of God: only through acknowledging the headship and kingship of God. To show this, the Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on the colt of an ass, as a humble person and not in all His glory. We find this colt of an ass walking on garments and honour given to it. If it had not obeyed but had started kicking then it would not have had the privilege of walking grandly on the garments. How that colt was honoured!

We have the same honour when we uphold the Lord Jesus in the right way. We in ourselves have no honour as God's servants, but when we obey the Lord fully, wherever we go we are showered with love and kindness in so many ways. If, however, we start kicking like an ordinary colt we also will be beaten.

The Lord Jesus is our heavenly King and we have to be brought under His heavenly subjection. Many of us preach Him as a prophet and as a miracle worker, but we do not preach Him as the heavenly King and the King of our hearts. This requires much meekness and gentleness, obedience and emptying. This fourth entry of our Lord Jesus into Jerusalem from Bethany was on a colt and showed that He was entering as a king. First of all we have to enthrone Him as King in our hearts, then in the family and lastly in the Church. Then only can we go with boldness and authority to preach the Gospel because we have the heavenly King enthroned within us.

Only when we give the Gospel with full authority and purity and in all humility can there be any results. In this fourth visit we find this great secret given to us. We see in Mark 11:8 what great joy was brought into the whole town. That joy began from Bethany and continued into Jerusalem. Bethany was a small village when compared with Jerusalem which was full of many people, including scribes and Pharisees and rich people. But they were totally blind spiritually. Though Bethany was a small village joy came from that place.

It is with a small remnant that the Lord will accomplish His purposes these days. Though we are few in number God can do great things through us if we keep humble and obedient. There should be wholehearted and implicit obedience without questioning. Do what He commands you to do. We find that when certain of them nearby asked the disciples what they were doing (Mark 11:5) loosing the colt, they replied that Jesus wanted it, so they let it go. So whatever the Lord demands of you give it quickly and willingly and joyfully and you will find the secret of His power for a triumphant life, a happy home and a living Church.