He’s In Charge

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing Alright today? I’m fine, thank you. Happy in the Lord. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Glad to be alive and able to open up the Word of God and share it with you. It’s the best thing I know. I enjoy that. And thank you for being there on the listening end and many of you on the praying end as well. You do pray for me, don’t you? And I appreciate it.

If you ever think of me, pray for me that God will keep me blessed and spilling over blessing as long as I live. I want the last years of my life to be the best in every way so if you ever think of me you pray in that direction and I’ll do my best to share with you from God’s Word day by day as long as He makes it possible.

We’re looking at Ephesians, the first chapter we’re talking about the fact that the Lord Jesus had been placed in a position of authority over all of every authority in this world and that which is to come, He’s Lord of all. And it says, “Hath put all things under His feet and gave Him — this is Ephesians 1:22., “Gave Him to be head over all things to the Church,” the Church which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all and you had made alive. That sort of carried over to chapter 2.

Now what is this saying? It says the Church is His body. You are the extension of the presence of Christ in this world. Now what’s the logic of this? Verse 21, “He’s over all the angels and all the authorities in the world.” Verse 22, “He’s Lord over you as well in his church.” Verse 23, You believer, are the extension, the manifestation of Christ’s body today in this world. All the people will ever know about Jesus they’ll know through you and through the inspired inherent Word of God, the Bible. And all of this is true — chapter 2 verse 1, all of theis is true because you’ve been made alive spiritually. “And you hath He made alive, quickened, you who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

Now I just want to linger on a couple of concepts here because they are so rich and they will make a difference in the way you live if you get a hold of them. It says, “Hath put all things under His feet, gave Him to be,” He gave — this is Him, we’re taking about the Lord Jesus — gave the Lord Jesus, “to be head over all things to the Church. The Lord Jesus is the one who runs the Church.”
Doesn’t seem so sometimes, does it? But that’s true. He’s the final authority in the body of believers. All things in the Church which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. In other word, fullness, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all, pleroumenou, that means full to running over, the spillover of the presence of Christ comes through believers. Hey that’s something isn’t it? Now, He’s head over all things. And this includes the church. Now He says the church is His body, the fullness, the spillover like a cup that is flowing, running over of Him that fills all in all. Our Lord Jesus Christ, because He’s God, is present everywhere, omnipresent. God is everywhere but He is observably present. Are you with me? He is observably present in the lives of believers.

Now see, we don’t go for pantheism that says God is in everything. If you’re a pantheist, you worship the trees and the grass and the cows and the birds because all of that is God. No. That isn’t what the Bible teaches. The Bible does teach that God is everywhere present. That’s different. But He is observable. People can sense His presence in other words. When a believer is involved in the situation, He’s the fullness. Christ is the fullness. He’s the presence. He’s the spillover in the body of believers. He’s there all the time but he’s observable in the lives of people who know Him, who’ve been born again, who are dwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. That is the visible, observable, tangible evidence that Jesus is real. Now that’s an awesome mind-boggling concept. Do you realize that the only evidence that some people will ever have concerning the reality of Christ will have to come from your life. They don’t read the Bible but they observe something different about you.

I think so often in this connection of the scene that occurred, how I wish I might have looked in on it, a heartbreaking scene, I guess something one would never in the world forget. Dear missionary having lost his wife, she died in childbirth and the little new baby survived and so nursing mothers in the village there find her off in one of the island areas of the mission field were helping to keep the little child alive. Now the missionary was burying his wife. The light of his life had gone out, humanly speaking. Beautiful person she was and now gone. And the village gathered around the elders. And this missionary said, “Now you’ve heard me say that God is real and that He can make a difference in your life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to know that although today my heart is breaking with sorrow just as yours would be.” And there they stood with — many of them maimed because in that culture, they cut off a joint of a finger to show how their grief, how deep their grief was. And so many of them were maimed with fingers missing one or two joints here and there where they had chopped them off in their grief. And he says “My heart is breaking just as yours would, but I want you to know that the peace of God is real.”

Just at that moment his brother-in-law and his wife came out of the jungle clearing, they had dashed across the miles when they heard of the death. They’re in — just in that moment they came and greeted. And the missionary looked heavenward, smiled and said, “Hallelujah. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Ah, the peace of God that was real even in the moment of heartbreak. That same night they tell me, there was a rustling at the door of the little shack, the door — it wasn’t a door, it was just a string of beads hanging there as a small barrier, but enough to allow the night wind to blow through. Here stood the chief and the village elders and one of them said, “We want to know more about this savior, this God. What we saw today convinced us.”

He’s greater, He’s greater than the breaking of your heart, He’s greater than the sorrows you face. He’s greater than the opposition of Satan against your life. He’s greater than the temptations to which you are subjected. Jesus is greater. He’s Lord of all. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world,” the Bible says. And that fact, that fact is the tangible, observable spillover of the presence of the invisible God. They won’t see Him unless they see Him in you.

That’s why the songwriter wrote, “may others see Jesus in me.” That’s why you and I pray everyday that our lives “might show forth the excellency of Him that hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Why? Because we are God’s exhibit A in this day and time. We will be — the church will be God’s exhibit A in eternity that in the ages to come might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. He’s going to show you off in all eternity, beloved. That’s true but right now, your God’s exhibit A, to show what God can do and what Jesus is like. People will never know what Jesus is like unless they see Him in you. That is an awesome, awesome God. Isn’t it?

The church which is His body, the fullness, the spillover, pleroumenou is the Greek word meaning spillover of all things, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. God is there. He’s real, He’s everywhere, but He is observably real in a believer’s Spirit-filled Holy Spirit indwelt life. That’s something isn’t it?
Now, what is the fulcrum upon the leverage that all of this depends on? It says, if you put all things under His feet,” gave Christ to be head over all things to the church, which is His body,” the observable evidence of the person who’s everywhere, “filleth all in all.”

Now chapter 2 verse 1, “And you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.” What is our claim to any kind of attention from a heathen world? It is the claim made by a life that has been resurrected. Now you go back to the earlier there in the first chapter, he says, “that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ,” resurrection power, Paul says, I’m praying that you may have that. That you might know the greatness of it–know personally not just talk about it.

So now it comes down to chapter 2 verse 20 says, “You’ve been made alive.” Christ is the head over all things. He feels it all. He’s everywhere. God is everywhere present but He is observably present in the lives of people who have been made alive. This is more than what you say. Being spiritually alive is your only claim to any attention from the unsaved world around you. You may be ever so smart but somebody will turn up who was smarter than you. You may be ever so charming and effective with people but somebody else is going to outstrip your abilities and go beyond you. That’s the way the world is. Your only permanent claim to any attention from the unsaved world around you is to be spiritually alive. That is something that the world cannot explain nor indeed can they ignore it. You don’t have to make a speech about it, just be there full of the Spirit of God, full of His Word and full of love for the Christ who saved you by His death on the cross and His resurrection for your justification. Let me go on with this the next time we get together. It’s a great truth, isn’t it?

Lord Jesus thou art head over all things. And we worship thee, we love thee and we pray that today that would be visible in our lives. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!