The Reign of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Today marks the Reign of Christ or Christ the King Sunday. This Sunday is the end of the church year. Next Sunday we enter into the Advent season as we anticipate Christmas and celebrate the fact that Jesus came and made his dwelling among us.
I looked at the final words of Jesus in the Revelation and he said:
12 “Look! I’m coming soon. My reward is with me, to repay all people as their actions deserve.
13 I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Each day that we live we are one day closer to the coming of Jesus. Sometimes as we change from one year to the New Year there is a feeling of relief. The sense of relief comes from a feeling that they can close the chapter on what has happened. A lot of people approach the New Year with anticipation that it will be better than the last. There are Christians that look at life that way as well.
As Christians, we should look at life with hope and anticipation that Jesus who came and died and rose again and ascended to heaven will return soon. That is the primary reason that I’m drawn to following the church year because we are confronted again and again with what God has done for us and what He has planned for us. Our theme for Advent this year is a Thrill of Hope, make sure you pick up one of the devotionals. We even have them for the kids.
I remember when I was in the Air Force that annually we looked forward to the promotion lists coming. The junior Airmen were automatically promoted once they had their time in grade and time in the service completed and they had good performance reviews. Once you hit the sergeant rank you had to compete with others in your pay grade and career field for the openings. You took a test to evaluate your knowledge both of the Air Force as well as the career field you worked in. Your awards and decorations, your performance reviews were all evaluated and you were awarded points based on them. The amount of time you have been in your current rank gave you points as well as the time that you’ve been in the Air Force.
One time a year the promotion list would be released and everyone both dreaded and looked forward to seeing it. There was always the hope that you would be promoted. If you didn’t meet the cutoff you had to wait until the next year to try again. There were times when you just wanted to give up because you thought it was never going to happen.
We can feel that way about the return of Jesus. We can feel that way about how God is or is not working in our lives. There are times in our Christian life that it feels like God is nowhere to be found. What I’ve discovered in my life is that during those times I have gotten off course, off track and need to make a course correction so that I focused on Jesus. Starting a new church year enables us to make any necessary course corrections so that we are truly following Jesus.
Today as we celebrate the closing out of one year and look forward to Advent beginning a new year next week we also celebrate Jesus, the great King of kings and Lord of lords.
Paul in our scripture passage this morning talks about thanksgiving and prayer as he writes to the church at Ephesus. He opens this passage with these words:
15 Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, this is the reason that
16 I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers.
You have to back up to the first part of this chapter to understand why Paul says:
Ephesians 1:15-16 “15 Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, this is the reason that 16 I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers.”
Paul had spent some time in Ephesus, laying the foundation for a church to begin there by his preaching but he only stayed a short time. When he left he told the group that he would be back if it was God’s will. A man named Apollos moved to the city and began preaching and teaching so that a core group of believers was developed.
Paul would later return to Ephesus and we read about in Acts 19 where we read:
1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul took a route through the interior and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples.
2 He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you came to believe?” They replied, “We’ve not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 Then he said, “What baptism did you receive, then?” They answered, “John’s baptism.”
4 Paul explained, “John baptized with a baptism by which people showed they were changing their hearts and lives. It was a baptism that told people about the one who was coming after him. This is the one in whom they were to believe. This one is Jesus.”
5 After they listened to Paul, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in other languages and prophesying.
7 Altogether, there were about twelve people.
So out of the work of Apollos and Priscilla and Aquilla and Paul we see the development of this church in Ephesus. So Paul is years later writing to them rejoicing in their faith in Jesus and says to them “this is the reason that I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers”
What a great reminder for us to keep praying for others. Do you ever find yourself praying for others and doing really good at it and then you get sidetracked and don’t pray for them for a while? I’m guilty of that. We start with good intentions but somehow we get sidetracked. Don’t beat yourself up about it, there is no use feeling guilty about not praying for someone you had committed praying about. Satan wants us to feel guilty and make us feel like we are not faithful Christians. If you’ve gotten sidetracked in praying for someone and it’s still a need that you should pray for, just pick up where you left off and start praying for them again.
What a blessing and honor it is to pray for someone else. What an encouragement it is to have someone pray for us. Thank you for your prayers for me, it is amazing the encouragement that I receive from your prayers.
Notice what Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus, he wrote:
17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers,
19 and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.
Do you ever wonder how you can pray for your pastor or the board members or even one another? Pray as Paul prayed. Look at the five things he prayed for.
1. Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
2. Enlightened heart
3. Know the hope to which God has called us
4. The riches of his inheritance
5. Know his incomparably great power
We all need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. I know in my life I don’t want to just run through life willy-nilly doing whatever pleases me. I want to please God, I need His wisdom and revelation in my life. A revelation is an act of God, it’s something that God shows us, it’s not what we come up with.
Paul prayed that the “eyes of your heart will have enough light to see” That seems like a really strange thing to pray for. Our heart, this physical organ that beats in our chests doesn’t have eyes to see. To those of Paul’s day, they would have understood that to mean their inner being, their inner self, the true you as it were.
That word enlightened is not one that we use very often. It means “freed from ignorance and misinformation”
We’ve heard a lot about misinformation in recent years. Our prior president spoke of the “fake news.” Just because it is on those “news” shows does not make it true. What is presented as news is generally opinion.
The only opinion that really matters is God’s opinion.
As Christians,we can get things wrong about God. Before we came to Christ we did live in ignorance about God. Paul is praying that the Ephesians would be set free from any false ideas and misinformation about God so that they can live the lives of victory that God desires them to live in. The same goes for us.
Peter wrote:
1 But false prophets also arose among the people. In the same way, false teachers will come among you. They will introduce destructive opinions and deny the master who bought them, bringing quick destruction on themselves.
2 Many will follow them in their unrestrained immorality, and because of these false teachers the way of truth will be slandered.
3 In their greed they will take advantage of you with lies. The judgment pronounced against them long ago hasn’t fallen idle, nor is their destruction sleeping.
Peter could have written that yesterday out the Church today.
Hope is such an awesome word. It is something that we all need. The kids are putting their Christmas list together and they’ll be hoping that they get everything on their lists. We hope we don’t get sick or get a bad report from the doctor. To hope means to “to desire with expectation of obtainment; to expect with confidence.”
As Christians, we say that our hope is in God. What we mean by that is that we believe and anticipate that the promises that we read in the Bible will be fulfilled in our lives. We live in confidence believing that Jesus is going to return. Paul was praying that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened so that “you may know the hope to which he has called you.”
One author described this hope that God has called us this way:
This hope refers to all the possibilities of spiritual growth open to those whom God has called.
Is there anything more exciting than the unfolding and blossoming of a life yielded to Christ and shaped by His indwelling Holy Spirit? A garden, dazzling with the radiant color of tulips and daffodils, roses and petunias, is beautiful; yet that beauty does not compare to the beauty of a courageous soul who has taken the rough and rugged soil of a stubborn will, a mean temper, and selfish impulses and, by God’s grace, through the recreating power of the Spirit, transformed and landscaped it into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Moonlight is beautiful, especially as it reflects on the smooth silk calmness of a glistening lake—but not nearly so beautiful as the unselfish lovelight sparkling in the eyes of one who has been made loving by the Spirit of Christ. A mountain peak, robed in fresh fallen snow, is a magnificently glorious sight, but not half as glorious as a mountain peak personality—one who has been made a giant by the Spirit. - 1
God’s desire is not to leave us where He found us but to transform us by the work of the Holy Spirit within our lives. And it’s that transformational work of the Holy Spirit that provides the next thing that Paul prayed which was “richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers.”
As children of God, we have a glorious inheritance. Look back up to verse 14. Paul wrote:
14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance, which is applied toward our redemption as God’s own people, resulting in the honor of God’s glory.
When you received Jesus as your Savior you received a deposit in your life that marked you as a child of God. That deposit was the Holy Spirit, God Himself. How awesome is that, that God has come and is living within you and me? As great as it is, it is just a deposit that guarantees our inheritance.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
12 Now we see a reflection in a mirror; then we will see face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I will know completely in the same way that I have been completely known.
We live in hope and look forward to that day when we will see Jesus face to face. Right now the Holy Spirit is that deposit of the greater things yet to come. He is doing that transformational work within us right now.
The key to all of this prayer that Paul prays is the fifth thing that he prays for and it’s this:
Ephesians 1:19 (CEB)
the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers.
I think we’re all guilty from time to time trying to handle life our own way. I know I have done that. We face a problem or an issue and we struggle through it, trying to fix it ourselves. We often think if we just try harder or come up with a three-point action plan that we’ll solve the problem.
We do that with spiritual problems as well. We think that if we just try harder or make a deeper resolve that we’ll conquer whatever the problem is.
Well, guess what? It doesn’t work that way. Listen again to what Paul prayed:
Ephesians 1:17–19 (CEB)
17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers,
19 and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers.
Paul’s prayer is that they might know the “overwhelming greatness of God’s power” Paul is referring to God’s overwhelming great power. Now – put your power besides God’s power. Which one is greater? Which one would you rather put your faith in? Yours or God’s?
Why then do we so often put our trust and faith in our power instead of God’s?
Look at the extent of that power beginning there in verse 19:
19 and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.
20 God’s power was at work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and sat him at God’s right side in the heavens,
21 far above every ruler and authority and power and angelic power, any power that might be named not only now but in the future.
22 God put everything under Christ’s feet and made him head of everything in the church,
23 which is his body. His body, the church, is the fullness of Christ, who fills everything in every way.
Stop and grasp that fact that the same power or strength that God exerted when he raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that works in you and me as Christians! That is the Resurrection power of God. That is why we gather on Sunday to worship God and the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead by the mighty power of God.
Who’s power would you rather trust? Yours or God’s?
The second thing about that power is that Jesus has ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father.
The third thing about that power is that Jesus has dominion over everything. Paul’s writing here is very similar to what he wrote to the Philippians:
9 Therefore, God highly honored him and gave him a name above all names,
10 so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
That is power, that is the power available to each of us today. One commentator wrote:
That same power of God, which did all of that for Christ, is available to us who believe. - 1
The call here is to bring the working power of God out of the past into the present. To be sure, we are to celebrate “the mighty acts of God in history,” but that should make us even more aware of Christ as present power. This is the paramount miracle—that His immeasurable power is available now to heal the sick, to drive out demons, to redeem our sins, to energize our wills, to renew our spirits, to reconcile our relationships, to bring peace.[1]
Let’s not just celebrate this great power of God at work in our lives. Let’s live this resurrection power. As we celebrate the Reign of Christ, let us celebrate the fact that God is the God of the past but that He is the God of the present and His power is available to work in your life today.
1 - Dunnam, M. D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Galatians / Ephesians / Philippians / Colossians / Philemon (Vol. 31, pp. 158–159). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.