Thank you, Kim.
Paul scheduled me to preach right after that song.
I'll get even with you, brother.
Would you open your Bible with me to the book of Ephesians, the second chapter, where we're
going to read verses 4, 5, and 6.
We continue today the series on the invisible war, today talking about the believer's position
and authority in Jesus Christ.
If you are a mother this morning, you undoubtedly find some significance in that role in your
life.
You should.
It's right that you should.
It is an important role.
Have you ever considered where you individually find your significance?
Often it is in the roles that we play in life as a mother, father, husband, wife, an employee,
what we accomplish.
Maybe it's our vocation that we find our significance in, or whatever we do the best,
better than other people.
If you are one who is a believer in Jesus Christ, there is another way in which you
have significance that is far more important than any human role or human achievement.
If you were to list those truths in the Bible that Satan most desires to hide from you,
what do you think would be at the top of the list?
What is it that Satan most desires to keep you from understanding?
We could talk about all kinds of doctrines, I suppose, and answer to that.
There might be a number of good answers, but I believe that there cannot be a better answer
than this.
Satan deeply desires to keep you from understanding who you are in Jesus Christ.
He does not want you to grasp your position as a child of God and understand the implications
of it.
Now, why is that?
Because he loathes that truth, and he fears it.
He hates it because this truth places redeemed human beings above him in the cosmic hierarchy,
in the spiritual realm.
He hates it, and he fears it because he knows that if a child of God begins to understand
who he or she is in Christ and to apply that truth, it's big trouble for him.
He seeks to shroud this concept and to hide and to conceal it from our hearts.
John 4 says, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
Greater is Jesus Christ in us by the Holy Spirit.
Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world, talking about Satan.
He despises this truth and trembles at its reality.
The one trusting Jesus Christ is united with Christ in position and is granted authority
to represent Christ to the world.
Now when we talk about position or identity in Christ, somehow and sometimes our minds
seem to go blank.
We have a hard time getting a hold of that.
It's not an accident.
It is a concept that is sometimes difficult to get into the way that we think, especially
in our culture.
But it also is supernaturally held back from our understanding.
Satan doesn't want us to grasp it.
But the idea of position and identity really is not foreign to us.
There are a number of nations in the world, including the United States, who this weekend
are in the process of evacuating their citizens from Yemen.
Now let's suppose that one of them is an American named John Smith.
Why should we taxpayers underwrite the cost of the Marines going into Yemen to rescue
John Smith?
Why can't he take care of himself?
The reason that we are obligated to do that is because he is an American citizen.
He is one of us.
He is identified with us.
He has the position of being a citizen.
And therefore we rescue him.
We evacuate him in the time of danger.
I see some of you during the week when you come by the office and a few of you come in
with picture ID tags.
I long ago gave up the idea that's because you're arrogant and like to look at your picture.
You know, walk around all day looking at your lapels.
Not bad, huh?
That's not why you wear that.
You wear it because you have to have identity to pass security at your company.
That tag shows your position.
It's your identity.
And with it you're able to get by security and go about your business.
So you see this idea of position and identity in Jesus Christ is not that foreign to us.
What does this position entail for us as believers in Christ?
Well, it means that we are spiritually one with Jesus.
That we have been united with him.
That's what Paul talks about in our text in Ephesians chapter 2.
Verse 4 says, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved
us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, our sins, he made us alive together with Christ.
Now, if you mark your Bible up, you may want to just underline together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him.
Can underline that phrase.
And seated us with him.
Again, we see the same phrase.
In the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
These phrases tell us that we have been made one with Christ.
Paul doesn't talk about it in this text, but in Romans 6 verse 3, Colossians 2 verse
20, he says in the first place that we died with Christ at the cross.
When he died, we died with him.
Spiritually.
Here Paul goes on to say that we have been raised up from the dead with Jesus Christ.
We have been made alive together with him, resurrected spiritually.
He says that we have already been exalted with Christ.
We have been raised up, ascended into heaven with him.
And he tells us that we are enthroned with Christ.
We have been seated with him in the spiritual realm.
Now when Jesus Christ went back to heaven 2000 years ago and sat down at the right hand
of God, and he did, he sat down to indicate that he is in the place of supreme authority
in all the universe.
He is the supreme authority.
He is preeminent above all.
And what the apostle Paul tells us here is this, that we have been seated beside him.
We are seated with him in the spiritual realm.
That is our position.
That's our identity.
We share in his victory, his life, his reign, and one day his likeness.
What a high and holy calling is ours.
We have gained an appointment by the grace of God to eternal royalty.
I saw a little bit of a documentary last night on the House of Windsor on public television.
Maybe you saw a bit of it.
And recounted Queen Elizabeth's coming to power and chronicled a bit of what she's been
through in the last almost 40 years, 40 years that she's been on the throne of England.
And the pomp and the pageantry, which seems a little foreign to us, but somehow which
attracts us, doesn't it?
I mean we're just so interested in what happens.
We don't have all that much pomp and ceremony here in the United States, like they do where
there is royalty.
And it showed the birth of her children and they're being reared in that palace, prepared
to reign as royalty over England.
That's nothing.
That's nothing compared to what you have been appointed to.
As one who is in Jesus Christ, you have been appointed to be a part of royalty, not of
a house or a line of kings in a small country in the world, but the royalty of the whole
universe forever.
Forever.
Because Jesus Christ will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords forever and ever.
And you are seated with Him in that place of enthronement.
Some of us struggle with self-esteem.
And of course our whole culture is so caught up in this whole idea of self-esteem, trying
to raise self-esteem of students in the schools.
That's one reason we don't have writing and arithmetic being done in schools as well as
we used to because there is so much emphasis on social goals and raising self-esteem.
And kids, listen, the self-esteem of the believer is not in self-independent of God.
Our self-esteem comes from self-united to Jesus Christ.
This is the whole answer to self-esteem for human beings.
It's not in who we are in ourselves or what we can do in the world.
Self-esteem for human beings comes in being redeemed by the grace of God and united to
Jesus Christ forever and forever.
We are given this position, this status, so that God may be glorified and so that we might
serve Him on this earth and in His eternal kingdom.
So what do you find your self-esteem in?
Or what do you find your identity or position in?
Is it in what you do, what you know, who you know, what you possess?
Only those things are unimportant compared to who you are in Jesus Christ.
You and I in Christ are fully invested as the children of God.
Colossians 1-12 says that we have been qualified to partake of the inheritance of the saints.
You're qualified, you pass already as united to Jesus Christ.
Now with this position comes authority.
With this position comes authority.
What does this authority include?
I suppose most of us today don't feel too authoritative or too powerful, especially
we had a late night last night.
You may be here tired and worn out, drowsy.
In Jesus Christ, however, you have power and authority.
Let's just draw a distinction between them because what I really want to talk about this
morning is authority, not power.
Over here we have our friendly state patrolmen.
Have you ever met him?
Good for you.
He gets out in the middle of the highway and there is a semi truck, a 16 wheeler, coming
down the highway at 60 miles an hour.
What does he do?
He holds up his hands like this.
Now what a dumb guy, right?
Does he really think he's going to stop that 16 wheeler?
Absolutely.
Why?
Because he's powerful and strong?
No, he's not Superman.
He has authority.
He has the authority of the state behind him.
What does the driver of the 16 wheeler do?
He puts on his brakes and he slows down and he comes to a halt because there is a policeman
standing in the road holding up his hands like this.
That's authority.
What I want to say to you this morning is that in Jesus Christ you have authority.
You may not be strong in human terms, but you have authority.
A few minutes ago we sang the chorus, majesty.
Did you notice the words?
I wrote them down.
Now I've lost them.
Majesty, authority flows from his throne unto his own.
Did you notice what you sang?
Authority flows from his throne unto his own.
Majesty.
What does this authority that we have include?
Well, we could go on for a long time on this and we don't have time, so let me just be
brief and say first of all, we have authority in this sense that we have all that we need
to make disciples.
Turn back with me to the book of Matthew for a moment to the last chapter of that book,
the 28th chapter.
You of course recognize these words.
Meaning in verse 18 of Matthew 28, Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority
has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
You notice that?
He doesn't say all authority will be someday given to me.
He says it has been given to me.
It is mine now, he says.
Not only in heaven, but on the earth.
All authority.
And then he says, go therefore and make disciples.
Do you see any connection there?
There is absolutely a connection.
He is saying I have all authority and now I am delegating that authority to you to make
disciples.
I give you authority to do what is necessary to bring others to become obedient followers
of me.
Do we need this authority?
We surely do.
Because we are in a hostile environment.
Remember the biblical world view.
In this world there are invisible powers, holy angelic powers who are obedient to God.
There are evil satanic powers who follow the devil.
We are in a hostile world and we have to call people to become disciples of Jesus Christ
with all of the opposition of darkness against us.
The Satan blinds the minds of those who do not obey the gospel of God.
It is a supernatural blindness as well as a natural human ignorance.
But you and I have the authority to declare the word of God so that the powers of darkness
must back up and they have to shrink away because they cannot stand against the authority
of the servant of God which you are.
That authority does not reside in you because of you.
It resides in you because of Jesus to whom you are united, with whom you are identified,
who gives you your ID card.
So you have all the authority that you need to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ and
see others come to faith in Him and grow in Him.
The Apostle Paul understood this in Acts chapter 26.
Just turn there with me.
This is how he puts this account of his own commission.
What he says here, it was true of himself but it may be applied to all of us.
There's nothing uniquely apostolic about what Paul is saying.
In Acts chapter 26 verse 16, Jesus says to Paul, arise, stand at your feet.
This purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the
things which you have seen but also to the things in which I will appear to you, delivering
you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you.
What is Paul supposed to do when he is sent to open their eyes so that they may turn from
darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, for what reason?
In order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who
have been sanctified by faith in me.
Paul recognized as a result of this commission from Jesus Christ that he had authority.
I want to tell you, you have authority as well.
You are sent by Jesus Christ to this world with everything that you need, every bit of
authority that you need to tell others about Jesus, to pray for them, to open their eyes,
to buy back the powers of Satan.
Now you can't force them to believe.
I am not saying that.
But you have the authority to declare the gospel to them and to buy back the powers
of Satan that seek to hold them in bondage so that they can see and by God's grace believe.
In Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus said to us and to those disciples, Terry here in Jerusalem
till the Holy Spirit comes, but when he comes, he will give you power and you shall be witnesses
unto me.
Dear people, we have that power.
I want you to turn to one more text before I close and that's in Ephesians chapter 1.
Paul prays in these verses in the middle of the chapter that our eyes may be enlightened
so that we can see several things including in verse 19, what is the surpassing greatness
of his power toward us who believe.
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might which he brought
about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand.
Here's the thing I want to point out to you.
The power that is at work in your life is the same power that raised Jesus Christ from
the dead, exalted him to heaven and seated him at the right hand of God.
That very same mega power is at work in your life today if you're a child of God.
Now you say, well why am I not experiencing that?
What prevents me?
Well failure to understand your position.
Remember I began by saying Satan seeks to keep you in the dark about this.
Failure to understand who you are in Christ, a personal lack of freedom because sin has
created the stronghold in your life.
If you're in bondage to the world by peer pressure or by materialism, if you're in
bondage to personal sins of the flesh or in bondage to the devil, remember our enemies?
Then you can't experience the fullness of that power because of a lack of freedom.
Your need is to be free in Christ.
Absence of intimacy with Christ.
If you're ignoring him, living life independent of him, not spending time in worship and personal
prayer and Bible study, then that lack of an intimacy with Christ is going to hinder
the power of God which resides in you.
So as we come to the Lord's table today, let's ask the Lord to show us if there be sin, if
there be strongholds, if there be bondage in our lives.
If surely if we have lacked intimacy with Christ, we need to confess that as sin and
renew ourselves to walk.
If we are ignorant of who we are in Christ, then let us seek to understand that truth
so that we can press on with all of the authority that Christ has given us in the world.
Tonight, I'm going to talk about a couple of other things that this authority includes
that I don't have time to talk about this morning.
But as we come to the Lord's table, let's ask the Lord to do a fresh work in our lives,
cleansing us, renewing us so that we may experience, experience who we are in Jesus Christ in our
walk in this world.
Let's bow together.
With our heads bowed and as our servers join me here in the front, I just want to give
a moment to allow the Spirit of God to bring to His culmination what He's been saying
these last few minutes.
Dear Christian friend, if there is some bondage in your life, if there is sin that is unconfessed,
if you have lacked intimacy and fellowship with the Lord Jesus, will you, will you this
morning before you partake of these elements get right with the Lord?
I hope you will.
If you need to talk with someone, our staff, others are available to help you.
We'd love to do it.
But don't go on living your life as a pauper when God has called you to be a prince.
Don't be robbed of your inheritance in Christ in this world.
Understand who you are in Jesus and the authority that He gives you to serve Him.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for this memorial, for these symbols of your sacrifice for us
at the cross.
As we partake of these elements, we do so with deep gratitude within for what you've
done.
We thank you for this bread that we're about to receive.
As we hold that peace in our hands, may our hearts be moved with fresh yearning to know
you better as the one who sacrificed herself for us and now who lives for us and in us.
Amen.
Far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.
How I love that old cross, where the dearest and best,
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.
O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction to me.
For the dear lamb of God left his glory above, to marry to die calvary.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.
In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see.
What was on that old cross, Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.
Jesus said, this is my body which is broken for you.
Eat it in remembrance of me.
Let's eat of it together.
Lord Jesus, for the cup reminding us of your blood, symbolizing your life being poured out,
bearing the wrath of God on our behalf,
we give thanks.
Amen.
It's okay.
Amen.
Our Savior said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Drink it in remembrance of me.
Let's share it together.
We serve a Lord who gave Himself for us, but who is no longer dead.
He arose from the dead after three days.
And today He is the Sovereign of the universe.
And we are citizens of His Kingdom.
The early disciples, having met with Jesus, sang a hymn before they went out.
And I'd like for us to sing a chorus before we go out.
It talks about Jesus Christ as the King.
All hail King Jesus.
And as we sing this, let us determine in our hearts that we are hailing,
we are exalting, proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ as King.
I invite you to stand together with me as we sing.
All hail King Jesus.
All hail Emmanuel.
King of Kings, Lord of Hearts, my burning soul.
Through an all-infernal dream, I go to praise Him.
And forevermore I will reign with Him.
Notice the identity there, the union, forevermore, I will reign with Him.
Now why is that true?
Because we have been seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly places.
No wonder the Apostle says to us that we are to live up to our holy calling in Christ Jesus.
We're to walk worthy of our calling in Him.
May it be so this week.
Now if you would like to participate in the Elder's Offering, which is used for benevolence,
please do so by using the offering box attached to the wall at the back door of the auditorium.
Thanks for your participation in that if you choose.
Now let's pray together.
And now our Lord Jesus, we worship, we proclaim the name, Emmanuel, God with us, God in us.
We thank you that you are present in our lives by the Holy Spirit.
And so as we walk into the world from this place of worship,
may we walk worthy of our calling, humbly, using the authority that you've given to us in yourself
to call others to come to be your disciple.
Now may the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be upon all who are His. Amen.