All Authority in Heaven and Earth. October 8, 2. 01. The Sovereignty of Jesus and His Unstoppable Mission. Greenville, South Carolina. My aim in this message is, first, that you would be filled with a well- grounded amazement at the absolute authority and sovereignty of Jesus Christ over this world and over his unstoppable mission to gather his sheep from all the unreached peoples of the world, and, second, that many of you would hear the voice of God calling you irresistibly to leave your home and go to a place of greater need for the everlasting good of lost people and for the fame of Jesus Christ. And I do mean you. You in your 2. 0s finishing college or beginning your career . You in your 3. 0s and 4. You in your 5. 0s and 6. And yes, you in your 7. American establishment about what the final chapter of your life is for. I have been sent by God from Minneapolis to Greenville, South Carolina, so that some of you ? And if you are called by God to bring an everlasting blessing to the people of your neighborhood, or your city, for the fame of Jesus Christ, nobody will be happier about that than I am.! God delights in those who pour themselves out for the sake of his name anywhere! Anywhere! So, I will say it again . For there are places . Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.? How much authority is included in ? What does this confidence in Christ? Who gave Jesus this authority which he has today, and did he not always have this authority even in eternity past? In Matthew 2. 8: 1. Jesus said, ? The answer is: God the Father gave it to him. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. John 1. 3: 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God . God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. John 1. 7: 2. Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. The Father knows his sheep and they are his. He gives them to the Son. He gives life- giving authority to the Son. And the Son gives life to all that the Father has given him! So when Jesus says, . Augmented reality may change the way we go about our day. Google's Tango and Microsoft's HoloLens are leading the way. Here is everything you need to know. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. He is with his Father the creator of the universe. The audacity to make disciples for Jesus from followers of other lords and other religions is based on the rock solid foundation of the words — and the reality — “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”.
He did not become authoritative at his incarnation or his exaltation. Before the incarnation, God the Son existed, but Jesus the God- man did not yet exist. Before the incarnation God the Son existed with all authority. But the God- man, Jesus Christ, had not yet died for sinners, and the sentence of condemnation hanging over his people had not yet been stripped from Satan. But it is precisely the God- man, Jesus Christ, and the crucified and risen Savior, triumphant over sin and Satan, and exalted to the right hand of God and installed as the Lord of the universe. So, yes, the Son of God always had total authority in heaven and on earth. But when he had done the great work of redemption once for all, God exalted him as the God- man, the Redeemer, the Risen One to his right hand and now, as never before, put the rule of the universe, and the mission of the church, into the hands of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, Son of God. So we ask now, secondly, How much authority is included in . The authority of Jesus in heaven and earth is his authorized rule in heaven and on earth. And the second thing to say is that what the Father has the authority to do, Jesus has the authority to do, because Jesus said in John 3: 3. So how extensive is that authority and that rule ? Here are ten biblical sightings of that authority. We see the extent of the authorized rule of the Son of God, first, in his act as the creator of all things. Jesus Christ is the Person who made the heaven and earth, and everything in them. We see the extent of his authorized rule, secondly, in his sustaining the world . All the electrons, everywhere in the universe, maintain their path and their speed by the will of Jesus Christ. All the motions of the immaterial souls of men and angels are held in being by Christ., Without his willing, all the material world and all the spiritual world would cease to be. We see the extent of his authorized rule not only in sustaining the natural world, but governing all of nature. And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. From the smallest bird, falling randomly from the branch in the jungles of the Amazon, to the most massive Tsunami, Christ rules. The wind and the waves did not get a mind of their own in the 2. As does all of nature. A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him. They did then, and they do now. And Satan cannot touch the children of God without permission (1 John 5: 1. Everything Satan did to Job he did by permission from God. And that permission so embodied the design of God himself that the inspired writer at the end of the book wrote Job 4. This is why John calls him King over all kings. And what this means practically is that no king, no president, no chief, no sheik, no premier, no prime minister, no governor, no mayor, no congressman takes office except that God through Jesus puts him there. The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, . And when the rulers are in place God governs what they do: . Every decision made by every ruler against the church and mission of Christ will, in time, backfire. We see the extent of his authorized rule in his authority over all disease. When Moses objected that he was slow of speech and tongue, God said to him, ? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? And Jesus has lost none of his power to heal between this day and the first century when . God can lift any disease he please at any time he please. Therefore, diseases are present or not by his decree, even if Satan is the immediate cause, as he was in the case of Job: Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Then his wife said to him, ? Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? No disease will stop his mission. We see the extent of Jesus. Human beings cannot escape the sovereign sway of God by darting down the alley of sin. Oh how crucial this is for world missions. Right at the center of the Christian gospel . Do you have a category in your mind and heart for this biblical truth: God can will that sin come to pass without himself sinning. The gospel, Paul says, is this: . And all the sinful details are spelled out there: Judas. All the ugliness of it was planned. And Isaiah cries in chapter 5. God saw to it that we would be saved . And Jesus himself in that very hour was totally in charge: . I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. And if God could govern this sin without being a sinner, he can govern all. God is never intimidated by the sins of men. When the rich young ruler turned away from Jesus because he loved his money more, Jesus said, . For all things are possible with God. Nobody causes himself to be born again. Nobody raises himself from the dead. But what is impossible with man, is possible for God: . I hope you believe this. The extent of Jesus. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? O death, where is your sting? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. This mission will not fail! So my answer to our second question (How much authority is included in . Nothing is outside his sovereign will. If he meets with resistance, he either allows it for his purposes, or he overcomes it for his purposes. His sovereign purposes are never thwarted. Which leads to one last question. What does this confidence unleash in the lives those who really believe this? It unleashes a torrent of hope- filled prayer for God in Christ to do what only he can do: send workers and save sinners. As Paul says in Romans 1. We say, O God, save them. Take out the heart of stone, and put in a heart of flesh. Cause them to be born again. Raise them from spiritual death. Incline their heart to Jesus. Open their blind eyes. Overcome all resistance, and make them your own. O may God unleash in your heart and family and church a great spirit of bold and confident prayer to the all- sovereign Christ for the people of the world. It unleashes hope- filled, bold and joyful evangelism, even among the hardest peoples of the world. Because nothing is too hard for God. No human heart is beyond the power of God to break. We are called to join God in doing what only God can do. I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. This is a glorious calling, Christian.
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