Jesus has all power – Sunday April 28^th 2013.

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”(Matthew 28:18)

Beloved in the Lord,

From time to time I hear people ask me why I talk about Jesus so much. The answer lies within today’s text, namely, Jesus has all authority in Heaven and on earth. Jesus has all power. He is greater, mightier, stronger than any enemy we can ever face. He is greater than any force be it natural or supernatural. With His death and resurrection He has broken the power of sin and death for all eternity!

Jesus said: “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” (Revelation 1:17-18)

Neither death nor the grave were able to hold Him down on Easter morning. Yes He died on Friday, but on Sunday He walked out of the tomb never to die again. He broke the chains of sin and death for all eternity. He is The first and The Last and The living One. He is alive forevermore and He has the keys or the power over death and Hades.

Jesus and Jesus alone can save us from sin and death, because only in Him is there salvation.

We read in Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

There is salvation in no other name, because no-one else has the power to break death. Jesus and Jesus alone has the power and that is why we glorify Him, honour His name and believe in Him.

People seek solutions for life’s questions in many and varied places, but there is only one who can really help and His name is Jesus. The Dalai Lama is a mere human who will die sooner or later. Buddha has long since perished. All men will die, but Jesus lives. He is the only one who can say ““All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

A reading of the Gospels show us this truth so clearly. Jesus was never confronted with a problem that He could not handle. In John’s Gospel we find that the first public display of His power was at a wedding in Cana. Jesus turned water into wine, thus saving the family a major embarrassment. In doing so He glorified God’s name and demonstrated His power. He began to reveal who He really was.

The second sign that Jesus did, revealed God’s glory in healing. We read in John 4:46-54

“Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” ⁴⁹ The royal official *said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus *said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. ⁵¹ As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. ⁵² So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”; and he himself believed and his whole household. ⁵⁴ This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.”

As I read this words it struck me that this father had a lot of faith in Jesus. He had pleaded with Jesus to come to his house and heal his son. Jesus simply told him to go home for his son lives. This man trusted in Jesus word and headed for home. He found that Jesus words were true, his son had been healed. Jesus did not have to be physically present to heal.

A little further in John’s Gospel we read how Jesus feed 5000 men plus women and children with five bread rolls and a couple of sardines. We had a closer look at that miracle last Sunday and we saw that God is able to do all things. We haven’t got time to go through the whole list of miracles, because there are too many. The blind received their sight, the dumb had their tongues loosed, cripples were healed, evil spirits were cast out, Lazarus was raised from the dead, ten lepers were healed and much more.

All of these miracles point us to the truth that Jesus has all power, all authority.

The afore-mentioned miracles all happened before Jesus went to Calvary. He did all of these things while in human flesh. He did these things before He was glorified and sat down at the Father’s right hand on High.

Jesus operated as a man relying on the power of The Holy Spirit. He had emptied Himself of His glory and come to earth as a man, born of a virgin. He was clothed in human flesh. Now after Easter, after the Ascension, He is glorified in His resurrected body and He resides with the Father in Heaven. He has been given all power and authority in Heaven and on the Earth.

Please understand what this means for those who believe in Him, for those who trust in Him.

Jesus taught: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. ⁹ Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. ¹⁷ This I command you, that you love one another.” (John 157-9;16-17)

Twice in these passages Jesus says that whatever we ask of The Father in His name, He will give it to us. When we pray in Jesus name, in faith and according to God’s Will, then we are promised that God will answer our prayer. This is mind boggling.

This means that the power and authority that Jesus has, is accessible to us, if we trust and believe in Him. He said: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7)

Please understand that this is not a blank signed cheque for us to use as we please. The key is abiding in Jesus. If we are abiding in Him, then our desires and our will line up with His. Our desire is that God’s will be done.

When Jesus walked the earth as a man, He did not go about fulfilling His own desires and achieving His goals and purposes. No – He lived to do the Father’s will. He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

Jesus will was completely submitted to The Father’s will. This is why the Father could do so much through Him. They were in complete harmony.

Now that Jesus is in Heaven, He has commissioned us to continue His work here on earth. We are to fulfil the Father’s will.

Our foundation text today is part of the great commission. Jesus said these words just before He left on Ascension Day:

“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.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Please notice that Jesus said that He has all authority, and then He commissioned His followers to go and preach the Gospel, evangelise the world. He then promised to be with them always.

All of these things fit together so beautifully. Our mission is to continue Jesus work here on earth. We are to go knowing that He has all authority, all power, and that He is with us and working through us always, wherever we may go.

We are never alone. We will never find ourselves in a position where He is unable to help us or provide a solution. He is with us always and He is all knowing, all powerful. He has all authority, all power in Heaven and on earth.

Let this truth sink deep into your heart today.

This truth will change the way you live, the way you react to things and situations and people. When we understand that Jesus has all power, all authority, and when we understand that He loves us, and that everything is subject to Him, then we can confess along with Paul that we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord.

I close with Paul words:

“³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:35-39

Amen

Pastor Colvin S. MacPherson Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sydney.

All Bible quotations taken from New American Standard Bible.