We have seen that Jude promotes to us the idea of ascribing dominion and power to God and our Saviour Jesus and basically we have been considering reasons why we should do this.
We have looked at creation as one reason. And it is not just the initial act of creation that is significant. The ongoing power of Jesus over creation is also of importance. While on earth he demonstrated that power on many occasions, turning water into wine, walking on water, stilling the storm, increasing the small lunch of a small boy to feed thousands. All these are direct evidence of the truth of the popular hymn, How Great Thou Art that declares, “Thy power throughout the universe displayed’
And this is said of Jesus in Colossians.
COLOSSIANS.
CHAPTER 1.
16. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him
17. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
His power over creation is ongoing.
We have reflected on the fact that while on earth Jesus demonstrated His power in many miracles and in His authoritative preaching which proclaimed the need for repentance and belief in His soon to be completed work which would deal with the issue of sin and judgment. We have recognised that the work of salvation was overwhelming evidence of God’s power.
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 1.
16. I’m not ashamed of the Good News. It is God’s power to save everyone who believes, Jews first and Greeks as well.
1 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 1.
5. We know this because the Good News we brought came to you not only with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with complete certainty. In the same way you know what kind of people we were while we were with you and the good things we did for you.
We needed this defeat of evil through the instrument of God’s power because we had no power to save ourselves.
JOHN.
CHAPTER 3.
5. Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
50. Brothers, this is what I mean: Mortal bodies cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what decays cannot inherit what does not decay.
In these verses the Greek words for cannot , ou dunamai, mean “did not have the power
And the law was no help either.
ACTS.
CHAPTER 13.
39. and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
We have also seen that God’s ability to pay the ransom price, to pay the debt, through the sacrifice of Jesus, and thus set us free, is another reason to ascribe power and dominion to God
After His work on earth was completed Jesus returned to heaven.
What was heaven’s response?
1 PETER.
CHAPTER 3.
22. Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
And here in heaven we again find the twin reasons for ascribing power to Jesus are creation and redemption,
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 4.
10. the 24 leaders bow in front of the one who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They place their crowns in front of the throne and say,
11. Our Lord and God, you deserve to receive glory, honor, and power because you created everything. Everything came into existence and was created because of your will.”
REVELATION
CHAPTER 5.
11. Again I looked, and I heard angels, thousands and millions of them! They stood around the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders,
12. and sang in a loud voice: “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, and strength, honor, glory, and praise!”
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 5.
9. They sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 19.
1. After these things I heard what sounded like the loud voice of a large crowd in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God.
So Jesus entered heaven and there because of creation and redemption he continues to be ascribed dominion and power. It is our duty to do that as well.
Our perfect allegiance ought to be to God but we noted two impediments, the first being our mortal bodies which remain affected by the curse of sin and secondly the fact that God allows a beaten kingdom of darkness to continue to function under the leadership of a defeated Satan.
“Why?” we might ask. It has been suggested that we might not recognise the power of God in our lives, the power of God’s Spirit, the power of the written Word of God or the power of prayer unless there was another power at work, a power which is overcome as we utilise the way of escape that God provides. We are able to compare the two influences and are able to see that the power of God is far superior.
The frailties of our bodies and our weakness to overcome temptation and unrighteous acts in our own strength can be clearly contrasted with the power of God to keep us from falling into sin and to keep us safe in all areas of our life. How great is the power of God! How good is our God as He forgives us when we fail to give Him the absolute allegiance He deserves, but rather, at times, following the influence of evil and succumbing to its power.
As we have seen this is the present situation. So given that this is the situation we face what should be our response. Surely it should be the following.
COLOSSIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 13.
13. So behave properly, as people do in the day. Don’t go to wild parties or get drunk or be vulgar or indecent. Don’t quarrel or be jealous.
14. Let the Lord Jesus Christ be as near to you as the clothes you wea Then you won’t try to satisfy your selfish desires.
And what ought to be our desire?
EPHESIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
16. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
But before I leave this scenario as it exists at present I wish to consider what might be seen as a controversial topic. Where does politics which is part of our present existence rate on our priority scale? Is it above the Bible or does the Bible take precedence over politics? Where does God’s power fit in? Perhaps it is relevant in the light of recent health events and moral issues confronting us to consider these Bible verses. Consider what they might be saying to us.
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 13.
1. Obey the rulers who have authority over you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and he puts these rulers in their places of power.
2. People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished.
3. Rulers are a threat to evil people, not to good people. There is no need to be afraid of the authorities. Just do right, and they will praise you for it.
4. After all, they are God’s servants, and it is their duty to help you. If you do something wrong, you ought to be afraid, because these rulers have the right to punish you. They are God’s servants who punish criminals to show how angry God is.
5. But you should obey the rulers because you know it is the right thing to do, and not just because of God’s anger.
6. You must also pay your taxes. The authorities are God’s servants, and it is their duty to take care of these matters.
7. Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor.
Three times in these verses we are told that our leaders are God’s servants
And it is God who will judge their actions. No matter which political party is in power the Bible declares that God is the one controlling what they do and how long they will remain in power.
DANIEL.
CHAPTER 2.
21. You control human events— you give rulers their power and take it away, and you are the source of wisdom and knowledge.
And no matter who is in power, Paul writing to Timothy, outlines our responsibilities.
1 TIMOTHY.
CHAPTER 2.
1. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
2. for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
3. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,
This is what we read in the book of Titus.
TITUS.
CHAPTER 3.
1. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,
2. to slander no one, to be peaceable, gentle, demonstrating all meekness to all men.
Peter says this –
1 PETER.
CHAPTER 2.
13. The Lord wants you to obey all human authorities, especially the Emperor, who rules over everyone.
14. You must also obey governors, because they are sent by the Emperor to punish criminals and to praise good citizens.
15. God wants you to silence stupid and ignorant people by doing right.
And listen again to Paul.
ACTS.
CHAPTER 23.
5. Paul replied, “Oh! I didn’t know he was the high priest. The Scriptures do tell us not to speak evil about a leader of our people.”
Surely the message is loud and clear.
But are we following Scripture or are we allowing our political bias to be the determinant of our words, actions and attitudes? Is our allegiance to a political party or some political philosophy or to God and Jesus?
When it comes to society and its structures where did Jesus stand? Did He favour the rich or the poor? Did he follow established religion or advocate something different? What was His attitude to hypocrisy? Was He more interested in the needy, uneducated and outcast or in the rich, self-sufficient and privileged upper classes?
And I hesitate to add this but I believe it is something that we ought to reflect on. In terms of the current political spectrum if Jesus were a political identity, where would you place Him?
My final word is this. All leaders are human. They are tempted and often succumb and do evil things. God will judge them for their exercise of power. Also let us remember that sin is sin. There is no scale ranging from bad sins to good sins on which we are to rate political behaviour.
So even in politics the power of God is at work. He is in control and is working all things according to His own program.
So let us return to our main discussion. At present the people of God are genuinely seeking to ascribe dominion and power to Jesus. We, who are among them recognise the Lordship of Jesus. He is our Master. We are encouraged by Scripture to ascribe to Him the title of Lord Jesus Christ and our words, actions and behaviours should demonstrate our humble servanthood and attest to the fact that we worship Someone far greater, far superior to ourselves, Someone who loves us and cares for us in ways that only His power could allow, someone who is completely deserving of that worship.
And we ought to use the God provided tools of Christian living to help us in our endeavours, those being His authority, His Spirit, His Word and prayer
But we note once more those two impediments namely the continuing presence of evil and our mortal bodies subject to the curse resulting from the rebellion by humans against God.
Will the current situation continue? Will God continue to let our weak bodies and evil powers continue to cause us to ascribe to Him less than absolute, less than perfect, allegiance? No, He won’t.
And it will not be a band-aid solution but it will be swift, all-encompassing and permanent.
Let us consider the presence of evil first
Jude has already provided us with the key to God’s solution to this dilemma. Listen once more to what he says.
JUDE.
24. Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling and to make you stand joyful and faultless in his glorious presence,
Here he lists the key elements. We will be in our Saviour’s presence, we will be faultless and the sorrows of earth will be replaced with exceeding joy.
That is the exciting part. That is why we should let God deal with the present and take our focus off what is now to what is coming, or better still, Who is coming.
You see we need to remember what Jesus said about the future. Let us consider some of His words.
JOHN.
CHAPTER 14.
28. You heard me say to you, ‘I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, then you would be happy that I am going back to the Father. Why? Because the Father is greater than I am.
And the last words spoken about Jesus and His work on this earth are as follows.
ACTS.
CHAPTER 1.
10. And while they looked intently into heaven, while He was going, behold, two men stood along side them in white apparel,
11. who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him going into heaven.
And the Apostles continued to confirm this promise in their words and writings.
TITUS.
CHAPTER 2.
13. looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
But here is something even more exciting. When He comes back it will be an exceedingly short visit because He will be coming back for one purpose, and one purpose only and that is outlined for us by his words in John’s Gospel.
JOHN,
CHAPTER 14.
3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
He will be returning to take all His redeemed ones back to His home, heaven. His home will become our home.
PHILLIPIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
20. But our homeland is in heaven. We are waiting for our Savior to come from heaven. Our Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ.
JOHN.
CHAPTER 14.
2. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you.
And this relocation to heaven will remove one of those presently existing impediments to our ascribing our complete allegiance to Jesus. There is no sin or evil in heaven. It is a sin-free environment. We will not be tempted, deceived, or opposed ever again. We will be free to worship our great God and His son our Saviour as we ought.
This promise of the return of Christ becomes the Christian’s hope – the sure and certain expectation that this promise will be fulfilled.
TITUS.
CHAPTER 2.
13. We are filled with hope, as we wait for the glorious return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
14. He gave himself to rescue us from everything that is evil and to make our hearts pure. He wanted us to be his own people and to be eager to do right.
TITUS.
CHAPTER 3.
7. so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
COLOSSIANS.
CHAPTER 1.
5. because what you hope for is kept safe for you in heaven. You first heard about this hope when you believed the true message, which is the good new
When will this return of Jesus happen? We don’t know. Many, spanning decades, have told us when this will occur but inevitably the date they have chosen for this event passes and they proved themselves to be false [prophets.
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 24.
36. No person knows when that day or time will be. The Son and the angels in heaven don’t know when that day or time will be. Only the Father knows.
Our responsibility is not to speculate but to live as we should as obedient servants giving our allegiance to our Lord and Master. We are to live a life that pleases and honours Him
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 24.
42. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
This is what John and Peter tell us.
1 JOHN.
CHAPTER 3.
3. And everyone who has this hope on him purifies himself, even as that One is pure.
1 PETER.
CHAPTER 1.
7. so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
But many who have believed in Jesus have died and they will need to be brought out of the graves if they are to go with Jesus to His home in heaven. There will need to be resurrection and there will be.
You see we are not yet in possession of the full spectrum of our salvation. Our bodies are yet to be provided for. God and Jesus are soon to bring about that reality.
1 PETER.
CHAPTER 1.
5 .Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for a salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of this era.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
19. If our hope in Christ is good only for this life, we are worse off than anyone else.
20. But Christ has been raised to life! And he makes us certain that others will also be raised to life.
21. Just as we will die because of Adam, we will be raised to life because of Christ.
22. Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us.
23. But we must each wait our turn. Christ was the first to be raised to life, and his people will be raised to life when he returns.
And again it will not be anything to do with our ability. It will be another demonstration of God’s power which as Jude suggests we should acknowledge.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 6.
14. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
EPHESIANS.
CHAPTER 1.
19. And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. That power is the same as the great strength
20. that God used to raise Christ from death. God put Christ at his right side in the heavenly places.
Have you ever considered what power will be required to raise the bodies of every one of God’s children when some of their bodies have been cremated and scattered on land or sea, some have been devoured by predators, again on land or at sea, some have been dissolved in various chemicals and some have been shredded in explosive accidents or in war.
But it will happen and Paul in those well-known verses in 1 Thessalonians gives us the exact details.
1 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 4.
16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
The sovereign power of Jesus and His right to dominion are incontestable. These divine attributes of Jesus are evident now and will be even more pronounced in future events. The next example of His power and right to dominion will be His return to raise dead believers to life and to take us all home, to His home.
How can we fail to acknowledge His power or to give to Him our complete allegiance?