Christ Is Given
All Authority
“I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the
visions that passed through my mind disturbed me.” These are the words of the prophet Daniel after
the Lord had given him a vision of what would happen in this world for hundreds
of years to come. And who could blame
him! Because Daniel saw some troubling
and disturbing things! He saw a vision
of four terrifying beasts: the first beast looked like a lion with the wings of
an eagle that were eventually torn off; the second beast resembled a bear lying
on its side with three ribs in its mouth that was told to eat its fill; the
third beast looked like a leopard with four wings and four heads and it was
given authority to rule; and the fourth beast was the most terrifying of them all:
it had 10 horns and iron teeth with another little horn growing up that spoke
blasphemous words against God himself. We
know from the rest of the story that these four beasts represented four
kingdoms in succession: Babylon (under whose rule Daniel was currently living),
Persia, Greece, and Rome. And as Daniel
watched this vision play out he saw authority to rule given to each kingdom,
only to be ripped away and given to the next.
Because each kingdom was more powerful than the one before, each kingdom
was more violent and ruthless than its predecessor - and the people of God were
going to have to suffer under them all.
No wonder Daniel was troubled and disturbed by these visions! There was going to be wholesale shifts of
power throughout the known world in the near future. Kingdoms were going to crumble. Nations were going to fall. Chaos and disorder and upheaval were going to
be commonplace. And those who thought
they were in charge, were not going to be in charge for long.
But
after the chaos and disorder and upheaval are described in Daniel’s vision,
immediately following the description of the fourth beast, the prophet is shown
who really is in charge: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a
son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days
and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples,
nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be
destroyed.” There
may have been some powerful nations on the brink of world domination during and
after the time of Daniel; there may have been some kingdoms that would be able
to do almost anything they wanted to - at least for a time; but in the end the
“one like a son of man” would be given all authority and glory and power. And every single nation on this earth would
be under his rule because his kingdom would never pass away.
This
“one like a son of man” is none other than Jesus. The one who has been given the name that is
above every name, “that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”
(Phil. 2:10-11). Jesus was the one
who sat on the throne. Jesus was the one
who had all people under his feet. Jesus
was the one who was completely in charge of everything. Jesus was in charge. Not Daniel.
Jesus was in charge. Not Babylon
or Persia or Greece or Rome. Jesus was
in charge. Jesus still is in charge. And no one else.
We Aren’t In Charge
And that
includes you! You aren’t in charge
either. You are not in charge. And I
know that is tough for some of you to swallow… Actually, it’s tough for all of
us to swallow. Because we all want to be
in charge of some things at some times, don’t we? Especially of our own lives. We want to make the decisions that will
determine what we do or won’t do, we want to have a say in what is going to
happen to us, we want to be involved in the plans that are going to affect our
day to day existence. We want to be in
charge of at least our own lives.
And so I
hate to break this to you, but you’re aren’t capable of being in charge of your
own life! You aren’t smart enough, you
aren’t strong enough, you aren’t stable enough, you aren’t savvy enough to be
in charge. And if you’re not quite sure
that you agree with that yet, think about this: are you able to control things
that happen to you? You might be able to
adjust at times but you certainly can’t control the weather or the people or
the accidents that affect you. How about
this: do you have complete influence over something personal like your
health? You might be able to exercise
and eat right, but there is no way you will be able to avoid every virus and
bug and disease. Or consider this
question: are you capable of regulating how old you want to be? You might be able to do a few things that
slow the process down a bit, but you know just as well as I do that you cannot
do a single thing to stop yourself from getting older and weaker, more wrinkled
and more forgetful - it will happen and you will eventually die whether you
want to or not. You aren’t in charge of
your life - no matter how bad you want to be.
But let’s
talk about the most important issue when it comes to being in charge of your
own life: when you die will you be able to get yourself to heaven? Most of you know better than that. Most of you understand that there is nothing
you can do to get yourself to heaven.
You aren’t in charge of that. And
if you were in charge of that, you’d be in a whole world of trouble! How would you ever be able to get yourself to
heaven if it were up to you? By trying
harder? By doing more good things? By really, really, wanting it deep down in
your heart? Good luck with that… Nothing you do here is going to get you
there. In fact, anything you do here is
going to get you to hell, not heaven. You
don’t measure up to the standard God has set.
You aren’t in charge of eternal life.
You aren’t in control of what happens in this world. You don’t even have full authority over what
happens today! You aren’t in
charge. You can’t be.
Jesus Is In
Charge
A couple
years ago my wife and I went white-water rafting. We were in the raft with only four other
people and our guide. Our guide sat in
the back steering the vessel with his oar in the water while he directed us
when to paddle, how to paddle, and where to paddle as he navigated our raft
through rapids and around boulders and away from trees. When we were a few hundred yards away from
the bank where we were going to disembark, he asked if I wanted to take over
for him. It looked like relatively smooth
waters up to the point where we were going to get out and so I thought I could
probably handle it. It ended up that I
had no idea what I was doing. I
understood the basic concept of steering the raft with an oar and paddling
around obstacles, but I didn’t know how far the raft would turn with how much
paddling, I didn’t know how much the raft would rotate depending on the angle
of my oar, and I wasn’t familiar with how the rapids moved and influenced the
raft in different directions. And so as
we came up to a large boulder, I knew that we had to avoid it, I just didn’t
exactly how. And what seemed so easy for
the guide to do dozens of times before now was impossible for me. And we promptly ended up running into this
boulder, half way up this boulder, stuck on this boulder. Our guide shook his head, smirked, told us
what we had to do to get ourselves free, and we finally ended up making it off
the boulder and back to shore. I had failed
miserably - even on one of the easiest parts of the river. I was in way over my head. I shouldn’t have been in charge.
Our Lord
is good at reminding us every once in a while who should be in charge. He may let us pretend that we are the guide
in the back every once in a while, but only so that we end up turning the boat
around and running up onto a boulder. He
wants us to know that we can’t do what he does, we can’t be in charge. We don’t know what we are doing and we have
to rely on the expertise and ability of our God. And he is glad to do it! He wants to be in charge! He wants to rule and direct our lives because
he honestly cares about us. And so he cares
for us by doing things like manipulating the weather to do exactly what he
wants so that we benefit from it. And he
either blocks viruses and bugs and diseases or allows viruses and bugs and
diseases according to his perfect knowledge so that we either are spared or
tested. He manages the health of our
bodies, working inside and out, making sure the heart pumps and the lungs
expand and the internal organs function.
He regulates our age, aware of every hair that falls out of our heads,
conscious of the depth of every one of our wrinkles, remembering every one of
those memories that we have long forgotten.
Jesus is in charge of everything.
He navigates the waters with precise timing. He gets us around the boulders with expert
care. He carries us over submerged obstacles
that we won’t ever see.
But, of
course, he takes care of the most important thing too. He isn’t just concerned about your happiness
and your health and your age in this life; his number one priority is your life
with him in heaven. And so, being in
charge, he’s already taken care of that.
Because he was in charge he directed the world to where he wanted it to
be so that he could come to this earth as a human being at exactly the right
time. Because he was in charge he went
to all the right places and said all of the right things and performed all of
the right miracles as he lived here for just over three decades. Because he was in charge he influenced the
hearts of people to bring them to faith and used the minds of unbelievers to
carry out his purpose. Because he was in
charge he let himself be arrested, he let himself be condemned, he let himself
be crucified. And by his suffering he
gave you healing. By his death he gave
you forgiveness. By his life he gave you
a home. Jesus was in charge of your
salvation the entire time - from beginning to end and everything in
between. He knew what was coming, he
knew what was going to happen, and he knew how he was going to use it to save
you. And so now you are. You are saved! You are completely forgiven and a recipient
of the eternal life your Lord has won for you on the cross. Problem solved. Situation fixed. Case closed.
But only because Jesus was in charge.
Our Lives Are
Secured
And he
still is. Our same God is still in
charge of everything that happens to us.
Because remember: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and
his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Just like in the time Daniel, kingdoms will
rise and kingdoms will fall in our lifetime.
Nations will come to power and nations will fade away. Presidents will be elected, economies will
ebb and flow, power will shift from one place to the next. But throughout all the chaos and disorder and
upheaval, who really has the power? Who
really holds all authority in his hands?
Who really is in charge?
Your
life is completely secure, my dear Christian brothers and sisters. Because your life rests in the palms of the
one who is charge: the King himself. He
stands high above everything so that nothing can take you from him. And he will continue to direct and rule and influence
and command whatever needs to be done so that you, his most treasured
possession, will end up with him forever.
Who could possibly touch you if the King holds you in the palm of his
hand? What horrible thing can possibly
cause you any eternal harm if the King holds you in the palm of his hand? Who can even look at you, who can even think about you without the King
knowing? Your King is in charge of your
life in every single way. No person, no
problem, no president, no possible situation will ever be able to usurp his
authority. Jesus is in charge. And so rest easy tonight. Sleep well.
Jesus, your King, is in charge. Not
you. Not anyone else. Just Jesus.
Jesus is in charge. You’ve got
nothing to worry about.
Amen.
“Now
to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen.” - 1 Tim. 1:17
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