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In Search of the King
Turning Your Desire for Meaning into the Discovery Of God
By Thann Bennett Worthy Publishing Group
Copyright © 2017 Nathanael Bennett
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61795-858-8
CHAPTER 1
Who Is the King?
* * *
Who is he, this King of glory?
Psalm 24:10
The President is here."
I was nineteen years old when I heard those words. The setting was a nondescript Washington, D.C., office building where I was volunteering my time to help George W. Bush transition into the presidency. It was a historic process, as the United States Supreme Court had just finalized the contested election in the case Bush v. Gore. While I was not particularly politically active at the time, I had several weeks to spare before the spring semester of school began, and I decided to spend them volunteering for the presidential transition. After all, it would provide a front-row seat to history.
There was only one problem: the presidential transition team was not looking for additional volunteers. They told me not to come because there was no room or need for me. So like any hardheaded teenager, I ignored their instructions; flew from Peoria, Illinois, to Washington, D.C.; and walked into the transition office with my résumé in hand. They again politely informed me that I was not needed. So I returned the following day. And the following day.
On the third day of my unannounced and uninvited arrivals, the transition staff finally relented and agreed to take me on. I spent the next several weeks doing every menial job I could find — from making coffee to running copies. There were a few more exciting and substantive jobs mixed in as well, but for the most part I did anything possible just to be a part of the team. I knew I was not an essential component of what was transpiring, and that was fine with me. I simply wanted to be present. My only real goal was to associate with something greater than myself.
After several weeks of long days and short nights, I was glad to have experienced the whirlwind of activity, but I was grateful to be approaching the end. I was exhausted.
Then the rushed whisper spread quickly through the building:
"The President is here."
With that short announcement, all fatigue vanished. Everyone from the most senior adviser to the lowliest volunteer (me) lined the perimeter of the largest room and waited with anticipation for our turn to greet the incoming President.
It was my first real brush with royalty. In the United States, we have presidents rather than kings, but in this context the distinction is insignificant. My nineteen-year-old self had been chasing an association with royalty, and I was about to experience it.
Each of us has a deep and abiding sense that we belong to someone or something greater. An instinctual understanding that we were created for something beyond ourselves. A longing to associate with royalty.
To put it plainly, at some point, each of us comes to a place in life where we feel the need for a king.
THE KINGS IN OUR CULTURE
Our own culture — like every one that has come before us and all that will come after — offers seemingly endless options to satisfy our longing for a king. We are surrounded by temptations to pursue power, fame, or other accolades. We are inundated with the allure of the celebrity, the impressive feats of the athlete, and the charisma of the spiritual or political leader. Each of these appeals to us in a different way, but each has the potential to become the object of our pursuit of a king.
While not everything about these pursuits is inherently wrong, none will satisfy our deepest longing. None will quench our thirst for a king. None will reveal the true character and identity of the King we seek.
Nothing short of the one, true King of the universe can satisfy our abiding and divinely created desire for the King.
THE FUTILITY OF HUMAN KINGS
Our longing for a king has been visible in every culture and time. We know of countless examples where a people or a nation rushed to embrace a gregarious leader and place their trust and belief in him or her. In many cases, the result has been catastrophic. Consider the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. Hitler began as an adored politician but presided over the slaughter of approximately six million Jews and approximately five million others he deemed inferior. This phenomenon is in no way isolated to the past. As I write, political leaders in Syria are using chemical weapons on their own citizens, government officials in Sudan are at the center of an ongoing genocide within its borders, and the North Korean dictator has a habit of executing those who disagree with him — even if they are members of his family.
History is replete with leaders who had an insatiable appetite for dominion and control. Because these leaders pursued selfish, earthly ambitions, the people suffered. In each of these cases, the people's misplaced effort to crown a physical king backfired on them.
In some cases, the rise of a dynamic leader appeared to succeed for a while, as that leader presided over a time of plenty. But when viewed through the lens of the eternal impact on individual souls, even this success is very fleeting. Our hearts were created for intimacy with the King. We were made to commune with, worship, and serve the King (Ephesians 1:12).
No matter how good a nation's leader may be, a human king simply cannot fulfill our longing for the King.
In 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites demanded a king to rule over them. Samuel warned the people that crowning a physical king would not only fail to address their needs but also would complicate their lives significantly. He warned that a king would take the best of their sons and daughters, as well as their fields and livestock.
Still the people insisted, "Give us a king to lead us" (v. 6).
So God granted the people their wish and appointed a king to rule over them. The result was a significant deterioration of the Israelites' relationship with the one, true King. The people missed the fact that crowning a human king would serve only to separate them from their real King.
When we try to force the crowning of a physical king in our lives, we do not address our need for the one and only King who is worthy to sit on the throne of our lives. In fact, it complicates our search for that King.
WHO IS THE KING?
Once we become aware of our deep longing and need for the King, the natural question is, "Who is the King?"
Who are we really searching for?
In Psalms, David frames the question like this: "Who is this King of glory?" (24:8). His question is both an acknowledgment of a desire for the one, true King and a query about the identity of that King. David is essentially asking, "I know this King is awesome and powerful, but just who, exactly, is He?"
This King should satisfy our desire to associate with something (or someone) greater than ourselves. His presence should comfort us and convey an abiding sense of belonging and security. This King, if He is to satisfy the innate longing in our souls, must be someone worthy of devoting our lives to, and He must be willing to accept us into His mission. He must deserve our praise yet desire our companionship.
This King must transcend this world yet be present in it with us.
There is only one King who can truly satisfy this longing in our souls. His identity is proclaimed by David as a response to his own question: "The LORD Almighty — he is the King of glory" (v. 10).
This conclusion might seem obvious to you. After all, Christians know plenty about the physical identity and character of our King. We even know His name — it is Jesus. In John 18, as Pilate was questioning Jesus, Pilate focused on the idea that Jesus was a king. In verse 37, Pilate asked Jesus, "So You are a king?" Jesus replied, "You say correctly that I am a king" (NASB). So if we are to believe Jesus, we know that He should be our King.
So why are so many of us still longing for a king? If we know intellectually that Jesus is the King, and we profess to know Him, they why does the longing persist?
In my own experience, this longing lingers when we are content with only a head knowledge of Jesus as the King but never truly discover what it means to walk daily with Him through service in His court. We think we know the King because we know His name, can recount facts about His life, and are familiar with many of His words. But our deep longing persists because we have yet to experience what it means for the King to be ruler of our lives in every way.
In John 6, after Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding the five thousand, the people were awed by Jesus's miracle yet deaf to His message. So they tried to force Jesus to be king — but in a physical, temporal sense rather than as the One who would sit on the eternal throne of their lives. The people accurately identified Jesus as the true King, but they failed to understand what His rule in their lives should look like. As a result, "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself" (John 6:15).
THE KING OF KINGS
I invite you on a journey as we learn together how to search for, discover, and serve the King of kings, Jesus Christ. Our focus will not be on misplaced pursuits of an earthly king but on how we can and will find the one, true King. We will learn how to see the King in our everyday encounters. We will experience the life-changing discovery that our search for the King is not conducted in His absence but rather right alongside Him. We will learn how to recognize His face and how to enlist in His service.
Many of us have an academic understanding of the identity of the King, the character He possesses, and even the role He is supposed to fill in our lives. Yet a head knowledge of the identity of the King does nothing to satisfy our intense desire for Him.
Our search for the King is aimed at something more. Our goal is not just understanding who the King is but also associating our name with His, intertwining our identity with His, and subjecting our goals and desires to those that He has for us. Our intimacy with the King goes far beyond simply understanding the identity of the King.
His name is Jesus, but who is He really? What is His character? What is His personality? What is His leadership style? And why do so many other things seem to crowd out our pursuit of Him? Why are we drawn to service of other "kings" in our lives?
I want to pose a pivotal question and then challenge each of us to linger on it for a moment, because an honest contemplation will fundamentally change the way you pursue the King. In fact, it will transform your search for the King into your discovery of the King.
The question is this: If we have a desire for the King, and if we know who that King is, then why are we still searching for Him instead of serving Him?
It is this shift between knowing the identity of the King and actually enlisting in His service that we will pursue in these pages. In this book we will explore what it means to submit to the kingship of Jesus and the fulfillment that comes from serving in His court.
THE KING'S FACE
Too often we have a disconnect between our mental understanding of the King and our practical recognition of Him. In other words, we are looking for the King when in reality He is all around us and we are failing to recognize Him. We are missing evidence of the King's work in our daily lives, and more importantly, we are failing to recognize the King's presence. Opportunities for service to the King are all around us, but we look right past them.
The simple truth is that we do not know the King's face — at least not as we should. So many times, our intentions are sound. We want to serve the King, and we are searching for ways to serve Him. But we have no idea what He looks like.
Think of someone you love deeply — maybe your spouse, parent, or child. When you think of that person, what image comes to mind? Their face, correct? When we love someone, we memorize their facial features and can recall them at a moment's notice — even long after they are gone. The face — and especially the eyes — is often called a window into the soul. So as we seek to know the character of our King, it is crucial that we learn to identify His face.
As the old hymn urges us, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus / Look full in His wonderful face." That type of intimacy requires a singular focus — an absolute dedication to knowing Him.
Fortunately, we are told what the King's face looks like if we will just take the time to look.
Consider this:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:31–40)
The King, on the day He comes in glory and assumes His eternal throne, will say, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these ... you did for me." The rest of Matthew 25 deals with those who were divided on the left (the goats), and their verdict stands in stark contrast to the sheep, who were on the right: "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me" (v. 45).
When we stand before our King, our service (or lack thereof) to those around us will count as service (or lack thereof) to the King. When we encounter those around us, we must understand that each person reflects the image of our King. We must understand that service to those around us is service to our King.
We are looking to prepare a feast for the King when the beggar on our street is hungry. The beggar is the King.
We are trying to place a royal robe on the King while many around us are cold and naked. The cold and naked one among us is the King.
We say we possess spiritual freedom for anyone who will accept it, yet countless among us remain spiritually bound. The captive is the King.
We are searching the ends of the earth for the King when our neighbor does not know Him. Our neighbor is the King.
We lament to a friend in need that we wish we knew how the King would have us help him. That friend is the King.
We talk with coworkers or church members about how to serve the King. Those coworkers and church members are the King.
We walk past stranger after stranger, looking for the face of the King. The face of each of those strangers is the face of the King.
The point is this: the King is everywhere we look. He is in our friendships, our workplaces, and the places of need that surround us. Opportunities to serve in His court are abundant. But it is impossible to serve the King until we can recognize His face.
Unlike the King's unchanging character, His face constantly takes on new identities in our lives. The face of Jesus is represented through new people, new needs, and new situations. While we should rejoice in what the King has done in days past, we cannot rest on yesterday's experience with Him as the way to recognize and embrace today's experience with Him. The King is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), but it is easy to walk right past Him because we do not recognize His presence in our everyday encounters.
Do not walk past the King. Recognize the royalty that exists in the faces you encounter every day. Each of those faces is not just important to the King; each of those faces is a reflection of the King.
KING RODNEY
I have worked in the same office building for nearly ten years. I have walked the same street every day and have seen many of the same faces day after day. One of those faces belongs to a man named Rodney. Rodney walks with crutches because he has only one leg. He does not have a home or a family. He carries the few possessions he owns in a plastic bag he can manage with his crutches. You might think I know all of this because I have seen Rodney every day for almost ten years and have taken the time to get to know him.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from In Search of the King by Thann Bennett. Copyright © 2017 Nathanael Bennett. Excerpted by permission of Worthy Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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