History of Reign
Hebrews 2:6-9
Man was made to reign
Crowned with glory and honor
Genesis 1:26-28
Mankind seeks dominion over nature, animals, and sin
Man does not reign
Man doesn’t reign over nature, animals, or sin
The fall is at fault
Christians struggle too
Yet at present (there is still hope)
Jesus reigned for man
The work of Christ
But notice the suffering
Christ provides for future AND present victory
We can reign through the fruit of the Spirit
It was June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. The French under the command of Napoleon were fighting the Allies under the command of Wellington. The people of England depended on a system of signals to find out how the battle was going. One of these signal stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral.
Late in the day it flashed the signal: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N---D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- -." Just at that moment one of those sudden English fog clouds made it impossible to read the message. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news that their country had lost the war. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the remainder of the message could be read. The message had four words, not two. The complete message was: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - -DE-F-E-A- T-E-D- - -T-H-E- - -E-N- E-M-Y!" It took only a few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was turned into victory!
My sermon is titled “The History of Reign.” No, I’m not preaching about whether it was a worldwide or local flood. I’m not preaching about what falls on the just and the unjust. I’m not even preaching on the reign of King David. What I am preaching about is the reign R-E-I-G-N of mankind and the history thereof.
This sermon comes from a study of Hebrews, Chapter 2. I’ll be focusing on verses 6 through 9. In the NIV it reads:
But there is a place where someone has testified,
“What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.”
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
The author of Hebrews quotes an Old Testament passage here. That someone who has testified is David in Psalm 8. If you were to look at that Psalm you’d see that it’s all about how awesome God’s reign is! This is the God who created the Heavens and the earth out of nothing. He formed the earth and flung the stars in the sky. The same God who saw a wicked world, flooded it, and started over. This God parts the waters, and sends fire down from heaven. He’s got the whole world in his hands. Yet, amidst all this power, God was mindful of man! He is concerned about us! He has crowned us with glory and honor! He has appointed us over His creation! He gave all things to us to reign over!
So before we get into any discussion of the history of man’s reign, we must understand that God reigned before He created the world, He has reigned throughout history, He reigns today, and He will reign forever. Only in that context will we have a proper view of man’s reign. I’m not preaching that man can reign in the way that God reigns. Men will not become gods as some would have us to believe, but man does have a very special place in creation. He was made to reign over all the earth!
And that’s my first point. Man was made to reign. This verse says that God crowned man with glory and honor and put everything under his feet. This takes us back to Genesis 1:26-28 where we are told:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
The creation of man, right from the very beginning, was designed for man to reign. He was made in the image of God. He was given dominion and authority over all the earth. He was given a reign.
This hunger for power of creation has been visible throughout history. Men are designed to rule over nature. You can see this in the explorers of the past. They set out to claim new territory. They sailed into the unknown in an attempt to take possession of the land. Once in the New World, they pressed on toward the other side. Men naturally seek to have dominion over nature. They attempt to climb the highest mountains, defy gravity, and see how close to class time they can stay in bed and still make it in the door before their name is called. It is natural for man to want to reign over the rest of creation.
But it’s not just nature. Men desire to reign over animals too. They try to domesticate them, they try to subdue them, they eat them, and they use them as servants. Darwinism labels this as survival of the fittest. All animals (and that includes men) come from the same bowl of gobbeldy gook. Man only reigns over the animal world because they are more highly evolved. Ever since Darwin, monkeys in the zoo have been asking themselves, “Am I my keeper’s brother?” The Bible, however, does not teach the theory of evolution. It teaches that God made it all out of nothing. It teaches that man was made to reign over creation.
But man wasn’t made just to have dominion of nature and the animal kingdom. Man was meant to rule over sin. Man was made to be holy. He was made to live the abundant life. He was made to live in victory. He was made to reign over all: the world and himself. Unfortunately, that brings me to my second point.
The second point is that man does not reign. We just saw how man was to reign over nature, over the animals and over themselves. I don’t think that even the most blurry-eyed idealist would say that man’s reign over creation is a complete success. To some, in fact, it would seem a complete and utter failure.
Does man reign over nature? It doesn’t seem so. Man has polluted the planet. Water is undrinkable and smog is unbearable. Man can’t control the planet. Earthquakes destroy, hurricanes demolish, and tornado’s make towns desolate. Man certainly doesn’t reign over nature.
Does man reign over the animals? No! If you don’t believe me then just watch When animals attack on your local fox affiliate!
But worst of all, man does not reign amongst mankind or over himself! Some men are addicted to drugs, and some can’t help but gambling away their futures. Lost souls seem to fall deeper and deeper into sin and destruction. Just watch the news! Today you’ll find the latest updates on the war against terrorism. It was only a few months ago where a few men killed thousands of people. A few years ago some scholars got together to compute how many days of relative peace the world has had. After a careful look at history, they decided that since 3,600BC there have only been 292 days in which there was no war somewhere on the earth. That is anything but reigning.
All of this stems from the fall. Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They reigned in life, but then they fell into sin. They were thrown out of paradise. They lost they’re reign over creation. Genesis 3 tells us that women will have pain in childbearing, man will rule over woman, the ground will be cursed, work will be hard, and people will die.
And ever since then every man has existed in a fallen world. Every man has participated in this fallen state. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
G.K. Chesterton remarks, “Whatever else is or is not true, this thing is certain – man is not what he was meant to be.” Chesterton is right. Man is frustrated by his circumstances and defeated by his temptations. God recognized the fallen state of man in Genesis 6:5
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Some might argue that all of that relates to non-Christians only. Christians never struggle with this fallen state! But can any of us here honestly say that we are always the opposite of God’s description of man in that last verse. It would read:
The LORD saw how great his servants righteousness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only pure all the time.
Can any of us honestly claim we’ve reached this level of perfection? I know I can’t. Christians still struggle. We have trouble taming our tongues. Maybe we talk about our teachers behind their back. Maybe we cheat on our homework or exams. Maybe we’re constantly complaining about our roomate to our friends. Maybe we fail to persist in prayer. Maybe we lie on our worship attendance forms. Maybe we are inconsiderate of people after quiet hour. Maybe we rebel against the school’s laundry rules. Maybe we go too far with our boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe we accidently click on an inappropriate internet site, but let it linger for just a second. There are so many things we might do that show us not reigning over sin. Some people even have problems controlling their sleeping patterns!
It is so easy for us Christians to try and fight a battle (every now and then) on our own strength. It is so common to think that, by ourselves, we can overcome and reign in life. This is a very dangerous fight; one that man will lose every time. Man is a far cry from reigning in life! That is why the text tells us at the end of verse 8:
Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.
After encouraging you with the reminder of how great our God is, and then encouraging you further with the thought of how he created us to reign in life, I showed the utter depravity of man. Sin has worked its way through and through us. We do not reign. Everything is not subject to man. This might be depressing. But notice the “yet” in that last phrase. The NASB phrases it, “we do not YET see all things subjected to him. It seems God does not leave us depressed. He seems to have something up His anthropromorphic sleeve. Conveniently, this mysterious plan is the third point of the sermon.
The third point that presents itself from this text is that Jesus reigned for man. We admit that we don’t see man reigning. He is not doing what he was created to do. But we do see something else; something wonderful. “we see Jesus!” It’s verse 9.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
This is the greatest truth of all! Where man falls so short, God stands so tall. That same God as before: The LORD of creation and of all history, enters into His creation as Jesus! He enters into humanity! This must have surprised even the angels. I can just imagine what the angels might have said, “Oh, the humanity.” Who would have thought that God would become flesh?
But of course! This was the only way man could be redeemed from his fallen state. We didn’t deserve redemption. We had been made to reign, but we failed miserably. Even you and I! But we see Jesus. We see Him reigning. He’s crowned with glory and honor.
But notice the suffering. Some will tell you that reigning in Christ calls for a life without struggles; a life of health and wealth. They say that if we are in God’s will, then we’ll never get sick. We’ll gain great blessing from God (especially financial blessing).
But the Bible, right here, says that Jesus reigned through suffering. “Well then” you may say, “how is that reigning. If there’s suffering involved then it ain’t my idea of reigning!” The suffering mentioned here is death. The text says, “Because of the suffering of death.” The answer to this objection is given at the end of the verse. He suffered so that “by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone!” We don’t have to bear the penalty for sin as Jesus did. Sin inevitably ends in death. Its punishment is an eternity separated from God. That is death, but Jesus died for us. He reigned in His life over sin. He was sinless and perfect. But he took the penalty of sin for us. So now, if we believe on this act of Jesus, we don’t have to live an eternity apart from God! But that’s not all folks!
The Scripture says “NOW crowned with glory and honor.” Wait! I thought He just died? Didn’t I just say that He paid the penalty of eternal death for us? Let me tell you that God goes beyond man’s fall! He more than compensates!
Christ not only died on the cross for our sins, He rose from the grave in Victory! Ray C. Stedman notes, “His death, you see, delivers us from the penalty of sin, but his life will deliver us from the power of sin over us in our present experience.” You see, we have victory over and empty life through the resurrection. It’s through Christ’s resurrection that we can live life to it’s fullest. Jesus reigned in man’s place so that man can reign in Him.
How is this relevant to our lives? IT IS LIFE ITSELF!!! I think the relevance is clear, especially to Christians who no longer see just a shadow of God’s plan. A better question might be, “How do I apply these truths to my daily life?” The ultimate question then is, “How do I reign in life through Christ?”
The first step toward reigning in life is, of course, salvation. I’m sure all of us here have admitted that we do anything but reign in life. We choose sin. We have a free choice and we choose selfishness. God’s prevenient grace shows us our sin, convicts us of it, and points us toward Christ. We confess our sins, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We all need to start right there. A realization that we are fallen. A realization that Christ paid the penalty for our fallen state.
But beyond that, after salvation, the truth of Jesus resurrection allows us to live victoriously. We no longer have to be ruled by sin in our lives. Through Jesus we can live victoriously. We can have an active love for God and man; a rejoicing in all kinds of circumstances; peacefulness and serenity of character and peacemaking among people; patience and longsuffering with persons, some of whom may not be easy to get along with; kindness toward others; goodness that seeks to aid others; faithfulness and dependability in one's relationships with God and other people; gentleness and meekness in accepting God's will and in dealing with others; and the ability to keep oneself in check and under control in all kinds of circumstances.
That is a description of victorious Christian living. It is the fruit of the Spirit. These come from the character of Christ and are always the result of living in Christ.
I know that we all display the gifts of the spirit at times in our life. But sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we’re not very loving to our friends, let alone our enemies. Sometimes we are negative and far from having a joyful spirit. Sometimes we get all stressed out are anything but at peace. Sometimes we are devisive and not peacemakers. Sometimes we are not patient. I know, I work in the computer lab. Sometimes we are mean, selfish, disobedient and prideful. We fall short.
This sermon is intended to remind us all of God’s grace and our total dependence on Him. It is meant to renew our passion and sense of awe. It is meant to remind us that inside what used to be a hallow shell, there lives the God of all. We can have victory over creation. We can reign over sin when we are in Christ!
I started with an illustration of a people who thought they had lost, but found out later they had won. Sometimes we live in defeat, but we need to realize that Christ has won the war. When Jesus was laid in the tomb on the first Good Friday afternoon. Hope had died even in the hearts of Jesus' most loyal friends. After the frightful crucifixion, the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding had crept in on the friends of Jesus. They had "read" only part of the divine message. "Christ defeated" was all that they knew. But then on the third day--Easter Sunday--the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding lifted, and the world received the complete message: "Christ defeated death!" Defeat was turned into victory; death was turned to life!
Imagine the impact the church would have in the world if we would realize, each day, how precious it is to have Christ in us. The greatest champion of all time. The man who defeated death, ruled over sin, and ruled in life. If we would live with that thought constantly on our minds, we would reign over life. Imagine the impact! Now let’s stop imagining. Let’s make sure we do it each and every day.
Man was made to reign
Crowned with glory and honor
Genesis 1:26-28
Mankind seeks dominion over nature, animals, and sin
Man does not reign
Man doesn’t reign over nature, animals, or sin
The fall is at fault
Christians struggle too
Yet at present (there is still hope)
Jesus reigned for man
The work of Christ
But notice the suffering
Christ provides for future AND present victory
We can reign through the fruit of the Spirit
It was June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. The French under the command of Napoleon were fighting the Allies under the command of Wellington. The people of England depended on a system of signals to find out how the battle was going. One of these signal stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral.
Late in the day it flashed the signal: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N---D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- -." Just at that moment one of those sudden English fog clouds made it impossible to read the message. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news that their country had lost the war. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the remainder of the message could be read. The message had four words, not two. The complete message was: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - -DE-F-E-A- T-E-D- - -T-H-E- - -E-N- E-M-Y!" It took only a few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was turned into victory!
My sermon is titled “The History of Reign.” No, I’m not preaching about whether it was a worldwide or local flood. I’m not preaching about what falls on the just and the unjust. I’m not even preaching on the reign of King David. What I am preaching about is the reign R-E-I-G-N of mankind and the history thereof.
This sermon comes from a study of Hebrews, Chapter 2. I’ll be focusing on verses 6 through 9. In the NIV it reads:
But there is a place where someone has testified,
“What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.”
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
The author of Hebrews quotes an Old Testament passage here. That someone who has testified is David in Psalm 8. If you were to look at that Psalm you’d see that it’s all about how awesome God’s reign is! This is the God who created the Heavens and the earth out of nothing. He formed the earth and flung the stars in the sky. The same God who saw a wicked world, flooded it, and started over. This God parts the waters, and sends fire down from heaven. He’s got the whole world in his hands. Yet, amidst all this power, God was mindful of man! He is concerned about us! He has crowned us with glory and honor! He has appointed us over His creation! He gave all things to us to reign over!
So before we get into any discussion of the history of man’s reign, we must understand that God reigned before He created the world, He has reigned throughout history, He reigns today, and He will reign forever. Only in that context will we have a proper view of man’s reign. I’m not preaching that man can reign in the way that God reigns. Men will not become gods as some would have us to believe, but man does have a very special place in creation. He was made to reign over all the earth!
And that’s my first point. Man was made to reign. This verse says that God crowned man with glory and honor and put everything under his feet. This takes us back to Genesis 1:26-28 where we are told:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
The creation of man, right from the very beginning, was designed for man to reign. He was made in the image of God. He was given dominion and authority over all the earth. He was given a reign.
This hunger for power of creation has been visible throughout history. Men are designed to rule over nature. You can see this in the explorers of the past. They set out to claim new territory. They sailed into the unknown in an attempt to take possession of the land. Once in the New World, they pressed on toward the other side. Men naturally seek to have dominion over nature. They attempt to climb the highest mountains, defy gravity, and see how close to class time they can stay in bed and still make it in the door before their name is called. It is natural for man to want to reign over the rest of creation.
But it’s not just nature. Men desire to reign over animals too. They try to domesticate them, they try to subdue them, they eat them, and they use them as servants. Darwinism labels this as survival of the fittest. All animals (and that includes men) come from the same bowl of gobbeldy gook. Man only reigns over the animal world because they are more highly evolved. Ever since Darwin, monkeys in the zoo have been asking themselves, “Am I my keeper’s brother?” The Bible, however, does not teach the theory of evolution. It teaches that God made it all out of nothing. It teaches that man was made to reign over creation.
But man wasn’t made just to have dominion of nature and the animal kingdom. Man was meant to rule over sin. Man was made to be holy. He was made to live the abundant life. He was made to live in victory. He was made to reign over all: the world and himself. Unfortunately, that brings me to my second point.
The second point is that man does not reign. We just saw how man was to reign over nature, over the animals and over themselves. I don’t think that even the most blurry-eyed idealist would say that man’s reign over creation is a complete success. To some, in fact, it would seem a complete and utter failure.
Does man reign over nature? It doesn’t seem so. Man has polluted the planet. Water is undrinkable and smog is unbearable. Man can’t control the planet. Earthquakes destroy, hurricanes demolish, and tornado’s make towns desolate. Man certainly doesn’t reign over nature.
Does man reign over the animals? No! If you don’t believe me then just watch When animals attack on your local fox affiliate!
But worst of all, man does not reign amongst mankind or over himself! Some men are addicted to drugs, and some can’t help but gambling away their futures. Lost souls seem to fall deeper and deeper into sin and destruction. Just watch the news! Today you’ll find the latest updates on the war against terrorism. It was only a few months ago where a few men killed thousands of people. A few years ago some scholars got together to compute how many days of relative peace the world has had. After a careful look at history, they decided that since 3,600BC there have only been 292 days in which there was no war somewhere on the earth. That is anything but reigning.
All of this stems from the fall. Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They reigned in life, but then they fell into sin. They were thrown out of paradise. They lost they’re reign over creation. Genesis 3 tells us that women will have pain in childbearing, man will rule over woman, the ground will be cursed, work will be hard, and people will die.
And ever since then every man has existed in a fallen world. Every man has participated in this fallen state. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
G.K. Chesterton remarks, “Whatever else is or is not true, this thing is certain – man is not what he was meant to be.” Chesterton is right. Man is frustrated by his circumstances and defeated by his temptations. God recognized the fallen state of man in Genesis 6:5
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Some might argue that all of that relates to non-Christians only. Christians never struggle with this fallen state! But can any of us here honestly say that we are always the opposite of God’s description of man in that last verse. It would read:
The LORD saw how great his servants righteousness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only pure all the time.
Can any of us honestly claim we’ve reached this level of perfection? I know I can’t. Christians still struggle. We have trouble taming our tongues. Maybe we talk about our teachers behind their back. Maybe we cheat on our homework or exams. Maybe we’re constantly complaining about our roomate to our friends. Maybe we fail to persist in prayer. Maybe we lie on our worship attendance forms. Maybe we are inconsiderate of people after quiet hour. Maybe we rebel against the school’s laundry rules. Maybe we go too far with our boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe we accidently click on an inappropriate internet site, but let it linger for just a second. There are so many things we might do that show us not reigning over sin. Some people even have problems controlling their sleeping patterns!
It is so easy for us Christians to try and fight a battle (every now and then) on our own strength. It is so common to think that, by ourselves, we can overcome and reign in life. This is a very dangerous fight; one that man will lose every time. Man is a far cry from reigning in life! That is why the text tells us at the end of verse 8:
Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.
After encouraging you with the reminder of how great our God is, and then encouraging you further with the thought of how he created us to reign in life, I showed the utter depravity of man. Sin has worked its way through and through us. We do not reign. Everything is not subject to man. This might be depressing. But notice the “yet” in that last phrase. The NASB phrases it, “we do not YET see all things subjected to him. It seems God does not leave us depressed. He seems to have something up His anthropromorphic sleeve. Conveniently, this mysterious plan is the third point of the sermon.
The third point that presents itself from this text is that Jesus reigned for man. We admit that we don’t see man reigning. He is not doing what he was created to do. But we do see something else; something wonderful. “we see Jesus!” It’s verse 9.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
This is the greatest truth of all! Where man falls so short, God stands so tall. That same God as before: The LORD of creation and of all history, enters into His creation as Jesus! He enters into humanity! This must have surprised even the angels. I can just imagine what the angels might have said, “Oh, the humanity.” Who would have thought that God would become flesh?
But of course! This was the only way man could be redeemed from his fallen state. We didn’t deserve redemption. We had been made to reign, but we failed miserably. Even you and I! But we see Jesus. We see Him reigning. He’s crowned with glory and honor.
But notice the suffering. Some will tell you that reigning in Christ calls for a life without struggles; a life of health and wealth. They say that if we are in God’s will, then we’ll never get sick. We’ll gain great blessing from God (especially financial blessing).
But the Bible, right here, says that Jesus reigned through suffering. “Well then” you may say, “how is that reigning. If there’s suffering involved then it ain’t my idea of reigning!” The suffering mentioned here is death. The text says, “Because of the suffering of death.” The answer to this objection is given at the end of the verse. He suffered so that “by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone!” We don’t have to bear the penalty for sin as Jesus did. Sin inevitably ends in death. Its punishment is an eternity separated from God. That is death, but Jesus died for us. He reigned in His life over sin. He was sinless and perfect. But he took the penalty of sin for us. So now, if we believe on this act of Jesus, we don’t have to live an eternity apart from God! But that’s not all folks!
The Scripture says “NOW crowned with glory and honor.” Wait! I thought He just died? Didn’t I just say that He paid the penalty of eternal death for us? Let me tell you that God goes beyond man’s fall! He more than compensates!
Christ not only died on the cross for our sins, He rose from the grave in Victory! Ray C. Stedman notes, “His death, you see, delivers us from the penalty of sin, but his life will deliver us from the power of sin over us in our present experience.” You see, we have victory over and empty life through the resurrection. It’s through Christ’s resurrection that we can live life to it’s fullest. Jesus reigned in man’s place so that man can reign in Him.
How is this relevant to our lives? IT IS LIFE ITSELF!!! I think the relevance is clear, especially to Christians who no longer see just a shadow of God’s plan. A better question might be, “How do I apply these truths to my daily life?” The ultimate question then is, “How do I reign in life through Christ?”
The first step toward reigning in life is, of course, salvation. I’m sure all of us here have admitted that we do anything but reign in life. We choose sin. We have a free choice and we choose selfishness. God’s prevenient grace shows us our sin, convicts us of it, and points us toward Christ. We confess our sins, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We all need to start right there. A realization that we are fallen. A realization that Christ paid the penalty for our fallen state.
But beyond that, after salvation, the truth of Jesus resurrection allows us to live victoriously. We no longer have to be ruled by sin in our lives. Through Jesus we can live victoriously. We can have an active love for God and man; a rejoicing in all kinds of circumstances; peacefulness and serenity of character and peacemaking among people; patience and longsuffering with persons, some of whom may not be easy to get along with; kindness toward others; goodness that seeks to aid others; faithfulness and dependability in one's relationships with God and other people; gentleness and meekness in accepting God's will and in dealing with others; and the ability to keep oneself in check and under control in all kinds of circumstances.
That is a description of victorious Christian living. It is the fruit of the Spirit. These come from the character of Christ and are always the result of living in Christ.
I know that we all display the gifts of the spirit at times in our life. But sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we’re not very loving to our friends, let alone our enemies. Sometimes we are negative and far from having a joyful spirit. Sometimes we get all stressed out are anything but at peace. Sometimes we are devisive and not peacemakers. Sometimes we are not patient. I know, I work in the computer lab. Sometimes we are mean, selfish, disobedient and prideful. We fall short.
This sermon is intended to remind us all of God’s grace and our total dependence on Him. It is meant to renew our passion and sense of awe. It is meant to remind us that inside what used to be a hallow shell, there lives the God of all. We can have victory over creation. We can reign over sin when we are in Christ!
I started with an illustration of a people who thought they had lost, but found out later they had won. Sometimes we live in defeat, but we need to realize that Christ has won the war. When Jesus was laid in the tomb on the first Good Friday afternoon. Hope had died even in the hearts of Jesus' most loyal friends. After the frightful crucifixion, the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding had crept in on the friends of Jesus. They had "read" only part of the divine message. "Christ defeated" was all that they knew. But then on the third day--Easter Sunday--the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding lifted, and the world received the complete message: "Christ defeated death!" Defeat was turned into victory; death was turned to life!
Imagine the impact the church would have in the world if we would realize, each day, how precious it is to have Christ in us. The greatest champion of all time. The man who defeated death, ruled over sin, and ruled in life. If we would live with that thought constantly on our minds, we would reign over life. Imagine the impact! Now let’s stop imagining. Let’s make sure we do it each and every day.
posted by matthew at 9:51 AM
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