April 21, 2024
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The word that the Lord planted in me for today is the sovereignty of Jesus. I feel like the Lord wants us to focus on that today.
Jesus Is the Blessed and the Only Sovereign
Our Lord and Savior Jesus is a sovereign King. He is blessed and He is Lord over all. The Apostle Paul described Jesus this way in his first letter to Timothy:
1st Timothy 6:
15 …He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords;
Sovereign means one possessing supreme power and one who exercises supreme authority. Therefore, Paul calls Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords. In Philippians 2, Paul reinforces the sovereignty of Jesus, His supreme authority, and His Lordship.
Philippians 2:
9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We know from Matthew 28 that all Jesus’ authority was granted by the Father.
Matthew 28:
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NASB)
Our sovereign King Jesus used that authority when He commanded us to make disciples of all nations and to teach them all that He commanded.
It is interesting that, after the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds recognized that His authority was superior to others who had taught them the word.
Matthew 7:
28 The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching;
29 for He was teaching them as [one] having authority, and not as their scribes.
This is an important lesson for us. We search for a good teacher within the Body of Christ, but Jesus is our Teacher, and He teaches as One with authority, unlike any other teacher we have had. Search for the words of Jesus if you want to learn His word. They have been recorded in the Bible; in fact, He is the Word of God made flesh.
We must bow our knee and confess Him as Lord, and we may have no one before Him. No priest, no minister, no saint, and no prophet can be held in high esteem before Him.
The World Is Against the Sovereign King Jesus
And so, we have established by biblical testimony that Jesus is sovereign and possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, but we find that the world opposes Him and His place as Sovereign King.
1st John 2:
18 ¶ Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.
1st John 4:
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
The antichrist spirit in the world manifests in the intellect of man and supports high and lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God. We must war against this spirit, but not in the flesh, as Paul instructs in 2nd Corinthians 10.
2nd Corinthians 10:
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,
4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
5 [We are] destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and [we are] taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
We war against the antichrist and intellectual spirit by taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So, when we hear the world’s logic, we hold it up and ask: “Does this thought obey the commands of Sovereign King Jesus?” For example, do we join in calling a brother a fool, when Jesus told us in Matthew 5:22 that would put us in danger of the fire of hell? Do we refuse to forgive, even though King Jesus tells us we must forgive in Matthew 6:14-15?
Instead, we are to destroy speculations and every lofty thing which is raised up against the knowledge of God. This means anything that opposes the word of God and suggests we are self-sufficient and do not need a Sovereign King, or an Almighty Father. Take captive every thought that rationalizes calling someone a fool, every thought that says: “that person does not deserve forgiveness,” and any other thought we have. The scripture says take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Does this thought obey Christ, our Sovereign King?
Our Sovereign King Acts on Behalf of the Trinity
Luke 24:
49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
We also see this in John 15, that Jesus is the One who sends the Holy Spirit.
John 15:
26 ¶ “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, [that is] the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me,
27 and you [will] bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
The Helper is sent by Jesus, but comes from the Father, and proceeds from the Father as the Spirit of Truth. So, our Sovereign King Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit from the Father. There is no way for us to receive the Holy Spirit without Jesus. There is no access to His wisdom, words of knowledge, prophecy, miracles, or discernment without Jesus sending forth the Holy Spirit. There is no access to love, joy, peace, patience, or the other fruit of the Spirit without Jesus.
Jesus acts on behalf of the Father when He sends the Holy Spirit. He is the Quarterback of God’s offense, and the Captain of His defense.
Our Sovereign King Is Coming Again
While the world and its antichrist spirit are opposed to the sovereignty of Jesus, we know the King is coming again to defeat evil and to rule the nations with a rod of iron. We saw this scripture from Revelation 19 on Palm Sunday.
Revelation 19:
11 ¶ And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it [is] called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
12 And His eyes [are] a flame of fire, and upon His head [are] many diadems; and He has a name written [upon Him] which no one knows except Himself.
13 And [He is] clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white [and] clean, were following Him on white horses.
15 And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Revelation 19:
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse, and against His army.
20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat upon the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. (NASB)
And so, the sovereignty of Jesus will be proven to the world and its leaders at the end of the Tribulation.
We Must Obey the Sovereign King
Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this:
Matthew 7:
21 ¶ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
Jesus is looking for us to be in relationship with Him. If we do not obey the King and do the will of the Father, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, Jesus will consider us as “…THOSE WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”
As we move forward in these days, let us contemplate the sovereignty of Jesus, and our relationship with Him. Let us seek His teaching and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to do the will of His Father. Last weekend, Nancy and I attended Church International, which is the ministry of Robin D. Bullock and Robin R. Bullock in Warrior, AL. I responded to the altar call and asked the Lord to heal my heart valve, but more importantly, I asked Him to align my life and my priorities with His will in the earth. I just feel like we are in an important time in history with the war in the Middle East, and we need to be about God’s work. We need to do everything we can to support Israel, and we need to be about the Great Commission, as spoken by our Sovereign King Jesus:
Matthew 28:
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NASB)
And here from Luke 24, Jesus said this:
Luke 24:
46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day;
47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48 “You are witnesses of these things.
49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
In these trying latter days, let us go and make disciples, teaching them all that Jesus commanded. Let us proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all the nations. As we said last week, Jesus promised to clothe us with power from on high to do just that. Let us go boldly and do the Father’s will, in Jesus’ name. And let us bow to the Sovereignty of Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords!
Let us pray.
Father God, thank You for the Sovereignty of Jesus, our Beloved Lord and Savior. He is the Blessed and the Only Sovereign. His name is above all names. Every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess Jesus as Lord! Thank You that He is coming again soon to rule and reign with a rod of iron. Help us by Your Holy Spirit to obey Jesus and to take every thought captive to that obedience. In His name we pray. Amen.
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