Article: King Jesus – Dr. Steve Kinnard

KING JESUS by Dr. Steve Kinnard

The life of King Jesus
Growing like Jesus grew

Jesus and growth
Caring like Jesus cared

The ministry of Jesus
Living like Jesus lived

Suffer like Jesus suffered

Jesus and discipleship
Loving like Jesus loved

The focus of Jesus
Sharing like Jesus shared

The great commission

Growing like Jesus grew

If you look into the well you see yourself reflected back. It is a wrong way to read the bible if you are reading it and you see yourself reflected because very often you see also, what you want the bible to say to you and therefore you see and hear what you want to see and what you want to hear.

We need to read the bible drawing truth from Gods word. A lot of people read the bible infusing the bible with what they want to hear and read not what God says.  We should hold on to the truth of God from the text we read.

Read the gospels, put Jesus in front of you, learn him and sooner or later, we become like him. Jesus is the very subject of the bible. Actually, we all need a Jesus with some skin on him. That is why God sent Jesus – with some skin on him.

I think we also put ourselves in the stead of Jesus in our lives. We expect even Jesus to behave like we behave! When it comes to perfection, we expect over perfection from the people we disciple because we seem to be “getting it all right” at those points in our lives.

Luke 2: 52 – …and Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and men.
How did Jesus grow? How Jesus grew is how we should grow as well. We ought to be growing more and more matured. If we are not growing, then it is not good. If we are not growing in Christ, we need to understand that there is something wrong there. If you are what you were a year ago, then you are not growing.

You should grow in 4 areas:

Jesus grew in wisdom

Wisdom is knowledge, experiential knowledge. You can be a wise person without even knowing how to read. You need to grow intellectually. Wisdom isn’t about intellectual knowledge. It is about making right choices. If I make the wrong choice, do I learn from that? Am I making the wrong choices over and over again? Am I learning from my mistakes, from other experience? from books, from experience? Do I know more bible now than I knew five years ago? This is part of growing. Do I have more scriptures memorized now than last year? If scriptures are in your heart, it keeps sin out of my life. Jesus knew the scriptures by heart. He wasn’t travelling in the wilderness with a scroll. Jesus was a wise person.

You should grow in Stature

Jesus means he grew up physically. He grew and became physically strong. It is more likely that Jesus worked more with stones, because stones were everywhere in Palestine. It was likely that he was a stone mason. He walked long distances. Yet he made that journey quite often. When he died, people were amazed at his stamina. Even in the crucifixion story. We need to take care of ourselves physically. Since we are the temple of God, then we need to take care of ourselves and be healthy. The healthier we are, the more we would be able to get to others. The more we are able to do this, the more we are able to reach out. How am I doing with this?
Jesus grew in favour with God

This means Jesus grew spiritually. Jesus was always looking forward to being with God. He was always spending time with God. He was in the word. He was a man of prayer. He got up all night to pray, to meditate on God’s word. He was so close to the father that he said He and the father are one. Am I close to God? Am I making great spiritual choices? Am I a person of prayer? Willing to stay up late or wake early.
Jesus grew in favour with men

Jesus grew relationally, good emotionally with others.  Even when he was angry with the money changers in the temple, he controlled his emotions? Am I close to people? Jesus was close to several people. He had an inner circle. Jesus had these relationships.  Even at the cross, Jesus was thinking about his mom even as he was dying at the cross. Jesus put his mother in the care of the apostle john, not his brothers who were not disciples at the time.

I should take my time to evaluate my life to see how I am doing in these areas. Find out which areas are you strong or weak in. don’t just work on the weak areas. Yet keep on working on the areas where you are strong while you keep on working on areas where you are weak. To grow like Jesus grew, I need to work on these areas.