Words To Remember - "Knowing the King of the Kingdom"

"But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33 - NRSV).

Last week we identified Jesus as "The King of the Kingdom"; and in that we saw that to confess Jesus as Lord, is to confess Him not only as God, but also as King, thus our declaration that Jesus is "The King of the Kingdom."

So, now that we have identified "The King of the Kingdom" as Jesus, we now turn our attention to "Knowing the King of the Kingdom."  In this, we look at Philippians 3:3-11, wherein the Apostle Paul says, "For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh---even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.  If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.  Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.  More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead."---NRSV. 

In the aforesaid verses, we see the Apostle Paul above all else wanting to know Christ Jesus his Lord (King).  But didn't Paul already "know" Jesus, after all, he was one of the greatest, and probably the most influential of the apostles in the 1st Century; so how could he say that he wanted to "know" Christ Jesus?  Well, Paul's knowledge of Jesus went beyond a head knowledge and went into a heart and experiential knowledge that ultimately was demonstrated in and through his life.  Paul wanted to have a continuous knowledge of Jesus that would result in a continuous changed life, and that is how we should want to know Jesus our Lord (King).

Now, if we are going to know Jesus, there are at least three things that are going to take place in our lives; and they are as follows:

1)  Surrender (to Jesus).  We must surrender our lives daily, if we are going to continually know Jesus.  The Apostle Paul was surrendered to Jesus, that is why he could say that he wanted to know Jesus.  Knowing Jesus, requires surrender to Jesus.

2)  Fellowship/Prayer (with Jesus).  We must continually be in fellowship/prayer with Jesus, if we are to continually know Jesus.  For how can we know someone if we never or hardly ever communicate with them; and that is what prayer is, communion and communication with God.  Therefore, we should make it a habit to fellowship/pray with Jesus daily.  Knowing Jesus, requires a life of fellowship/prayer.

3)  Word (of Jesus).  We must continually be in the Word of God, if we are to continually know Him.  We should make it a habit to read the Word of God daily, so that not only our head knowledge of Jesus increases, but more importantly our heart and experiential knowledge of Him increases to the point that our lives demonstrate His life.  Knowing Jesus, requires a life of being in His Word.