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Listen to the episode here: https://gospelofeverything.com/podcast/the-ruler-of-all-the-kings-of-the-earth/
Welcome to the Gospel of Everything Podcast, where we consider everything in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am your host, Jon Davis.
On this show, we do not obsess over the end of the world, but rather we are looking to see the glory of God show up in every area of our lives.
We are not waiting to go down in glorious defeat. We are expecting to win.
Hello!
Welcome to the next edition of the Gospel of Everything Podcast. I am Jon Davis your host and talker in chief.
I am looking forward to sharing with you something today that will give you courage and move you to act with power.
The Gospel of Everything Podcast is where we consider all of life in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and where I am looking to inspire, connect with and mobilize you, my fellow victorious kingdom ambassadors.
So what is a victorious kingdom ambassador?
A victorious Kingdom ambassador is someone who is not looking obsessively for the end of the world, but rather is looking to bring God's kingdom more and more into the world right now and also in eternity.
A victorious kingdom ambassador is someone who is not looking to change the world by humanistic man made ideas, but rather by embracing God's revelation and everything that flows from it.
A victorious kingdom ambassador is someone who is not looking to be saved by another political government scheme, but rather is looking to be saved by Christ and then expecting to live out Christ in every area of life and society.
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So let's start today by diving straight in to contemplating Revelation. Chapter one, verse five.
"Jesus Christ, the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth."
I want you to contemplate who he is. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Notice the present tense here, the present idea right now, at this very moment your Lord and your Savior is the ruler of all the kings of the earth.
Whenever you're listening to this episode, what is going on right now in history is the midterm elections in the United States about near the end of 2022 have just happened. It did not work out the way many people were hoping that it would work out. I think many people might be discouraged.
I was watching the news coverage of this election and everybody was expecting one side to win big and it did not happen.
And this was a Christian TV channel of some kind. It's one I had never seen before, and I'm not going to tell you their names, but there was a number of people that were well known on there talking about what was going on. And at the beginning of the night, it looked like that thing that everyone was hoping for was going to happen. Their party was going to win big in the United States in this election.
But as the night rolled onwards, it became more and more clear that things were not happening the way they thought it would.
And I could see what I perceived to be I don't want to judge anyone's heart, but it looked to me a little bit like kind of panic, shock, fear, things were going on in people's minds.
And it was interesting to watch how they responded, because what I saw as they tried to generate a lot of kind of positive faith energy, one person was concerned that they were making negative faith declarations. Another person was concerned that there was corruption in the election, because if what we thought was happening, it didn't happen, there must be corruption, then. Maybe there was, but by the end of the night, they were all charged up and proclaiming God, and that's what they should do.
So I don't judge them for that. But I couldn't help but kind of feel, as I was looking like this was all kind of covering over disappointment and maybe fear and not understanding why are things the way we are.
And basically there's something that we do as Christians, at least in the culture I'm in, is when things are going badly, sometimes we'll say, don't worry, God is in control, which is true, and this is a good thing to say, but I think often it's just kind of an emotional comfort thing. But have you ever stopped to really ponder, is that true in any way that means anything? And what are the implications?
What are the implications that right now, at this time, at this place in history, jesus, that guy that you worship, that guy that saved you, that guy that you sing about at church, that guy that you watch movies about, his story right now, he is the ruler of all the kings of the earth.
What are the implications of this?
I was just glancing at a John Piper article before I came onto the microphone here, and it was interesting. Some of the things he was saying, I don't remember them all, but I remember the general idea. But some of the things and this is these are my thoughts, not his, but they were inspired by the article.
The Ruler, What does the ruler of all the kings of the earth do? Well, he picks the rulers. He influences their decisions. He uses the rulers. He uses the kings of the earth to bring judgment.
He uses the kings of the earth to bring blessing
one way or another. He uses he picks the kings of the earth who they are, and he uses them to fulfill his purposes.
I'm not implying that means we don't have a responsibility to vote or campaign or do our parts, but God is in control. Jesus is the ruler, not in just a vague symbolic way. The article I was reading pointed out about how when Abraham lied, he did it with both Pharaoh and with I think it was Abimalech.
Abraham lied and said Sarah, his wife, was his sister because he was afraid they were going to see how beautiful she was and kill him because they wanted to keep her.
And Abimilech had a dream and he came to Abraham and said, what are you trying to do to me? This is Jon Davis paraphrased version. What are you trying to do to me? Why are you hiding this from me? You want me to die?
So I just want you to imagine that. Imagine the kings of the earth joe Biden and Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the Democrats, the Republicans, Elon Musk, all of corporate leaders, all the different kinds of leaders we have in society all over the world.
Might God speak to one of these in the same way that he spoke to Abimilech?
The king was going to do something, although the king didn't know what he was doing was sinful.
He was about to sin, and God warned him.
God can speak to kings, even wicked kings.
God can speak to anyone, and God can use any king. So basically, whoever wins anything, God is behind it, ultimately, right?
I want to give you a refresher of one of my favorite passages that I'll probably quote in half the episodes I ever do, but it's Matthew 28.
Jesus, just before taking off, just before flying out of here, said to the disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth, emphasis mine has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
I want you to contemplate yet again, and I emphasize the phrase and on earth, not because it's more important than the authority that Jesus has in heaven, but because it's the one that I think we have a harder time believing.
It's not that hard for us to believe that someday, when Jesus comes back, or when we all die and we're all in eternity, a million years into living on the cloud with our harps, jesus's will will be done.
It's like, no, right now, Jesus is the ruler of all the kings of the earth. It doesn't matter whether they acknowledge Him or not. He's the king either way. So if you're the king of a Hindu nation, Jesus is your Lord. If you're the king of a Buddhist nation, Jesus is your Lord.
If you're a king of a secular nation, Jesus is king.
We can rebel against him. We can try and pretend he's not the ruler of all the kings of the earth, but he is, and there's nothing anybody can do about it.
But I want you to notice the transition in that passage from Matthew 28, from Jesus's authority to who we are and what we are supposed to do, because it's literally Structured like Jesus tells them he has all authority in heaven and on earth, Therefore go disciple all nations, teach them to obey everything I've commanded you. Baptize them in the name of Jesus.
So you got conversions going on. You got discipling whole nations going on. You got teaching all the commands of God.
Jesus is God, remember? So this means the whole Bible.
So because Jesus is the authority, we are to go out and teach and preach and lead and guide.
I want to take a leap forward, backward, forward to John, chapter 16, verses seven through eleven. It's going to read through this.
I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment about sin because they do not believe in me about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will see me no longer about judgment because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
So the new ruler has condemned the old ruler.
But Jesus, have you ever just wished you could talk to Jesus in the flesh and I go out for tea, coffee, snacks, and just sit down and ask Him questions?
I always feel like my whole life would be better if I could do that. But, you know, look at what all the people that actually did have the chance to do that, how they responded to Him.
They didn't always respond to what you might think they would.
So maybe I wouldn't respond the way that I would, but Jesus said it's good that he's going away.
It's good that he's going away because he's sending the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
okay? So it's good that Jesus is not physically here, because when he left, he sent the Holy Spirit. And what did that Holy Spirit do?
Well, it's moving in the world here to convict about sin and righteousness and to judge the false ruler of this world, right?
But there is also this implication of who are we and what are we all about?
So I want to talk to you more about that. I'm going to read a lot of scripture today.
But in Ephesians one, the apostle Paul says I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you? What are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised Him from the dead and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, emphasis mine, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet, all things under his feet, and has made Him the head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
I want you to see this pattern again here. That who Jesus is, his authority, his power. He's above all rule, authority, power and dominion.
You never hear people say, I got to keep God out of government or whatever, keep religion out of politics. Impossible.
Because Jesus is the ruler of all the kings of the earth, one way or the other, he is the ruler.
Either he's coming in judgment if you refuse Him, or he's coming in mercy if you yield to Him, right?
But notice the progression from the authority and the power of Jesus being in the heavenly places to Him being the head of the church, the body. He is the head. We are the body.
So the first thing I'm wanting you to contemplate today is the power, the majesty, the authority of Jesus and how it's real and how he is currently the ruler of the earth. Nobody stands against him.
But the Bible keeps tying that into who we are and what we are to do
because of his authority. We act and we do and we preach and we live. Have you noticed a theme that I'm going out here, that's from what I say, every episode, we are victorious kingdom ambassador.
We're not victims here. We're not poor, helpless Christians that are mercifully being abused by the culture.
We are the body of Christ in a very real way we are an incarnation of Christ.
Now because of the way worldview is working in the world today. I feel like I need to clarify not in the Animistic way, because if you go to the Animistic religions, buddhism and Hinduism and Eastern religions in general, and something that has influenced our culture, the idea of people being an incarnation of God is like we are God. I am God. You're God? I'm God. No, nothing like that.
But the Holy Spirit is in you. If you're a believer,
you have the Holy Spirit in you, and therefore you and me, and we are his body.
So if you ever thinking, I just wish Jesus was here, I was daydreaming earlier about being in a room full of people saying, don't you just wish Jesus was here? And looking around at everyone and saying, he is here. His head, in a sense, is in heaven.
And by the Holy Spirit, we are his body. His incarnation. Now,
he was, to be clear, he was literally physically incarnated here on the earth. He literally lived, died, rose again, ascended to heaven, and he will bodily and literally return to this planet one day. Physically, that's all real.
But right now we are the incarnation of Christ. We are the manifestation of Christ. We are his body.
So the ruler of all the kings of the earth is our head, and we are his hands and his feet. You ever heard that in a song here and there?
Now we have a greater understanding of the body than just hands and feet and limbs. So in a very real way, we're all cells. We're all cells moving about a very large body of Christ, the body that is the manifestation of his authority in the earth and his rulership in the earth.
So don't be afraid of them, whoever them is in your life. If it's the theme of the other political party, or if it's the them of someone who's persecuting you, or the them that have evil plans to destroy all the youth through the corrupt schools, all those thems that are there, we are actually the victors here.
We need to remember that and we need to act like that. Each cell does its part. Some are creators of artistic beauty.
Maybe there's even some holy entertainers writers, actors, sculptors, builders, designers. Some are really good at generating wealth for themselves, and others through business. Some are good with science and technology. Some are teaching and preaching and missionaries and teaching children. Some are serving, some are loving.
Some are highly involved directly with confronting the powers of darkness, including the powers of darkness in the political realm.
Each of us is a cell in the body, or a hand or foot is the way the Bible actually uses it. But I'm kind of expanding the idea to say that all this authority of who Jesus is, is manifest through you and me. We are his action in the world during this time. The Holy Spirit in us is the action.
We are the conquerors, we are the victors. What is happening on our watch? What's happening on our watch? Are we taking dominion? Revelation, chapter twelve, verses ten through eleven.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven proclaiming, now have come I love this. Now emphasis. Now might have to look this up because I keep making a little commentary and I don't want you to be confused which parts of the verse, but back to the verse. Now have come the salvation and the power in the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah. For the accuser of our comrades pause and realize that Satan, the accuser of our comrades, has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before God, before our God.
But they have conquered Him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.
So I believe that's talking about first century murders for the most part there, but the implications for us today are very real.
We are living a life where we are conquering the devil, the old ruler, the fake ruler, the Poser, the one who's been defeated, and any authority he has has been removed.
Jesus has all the authority. We are conquering him, and that includes all of his servants, even the human ones.
We are conquering him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.
And when we conquer, there are really two ways that God conquers through us and God conquers directly by his spirit into the world.
He either brings people to Christ and they repent and are redeemed, or he casts them down. This is a strong theme throughout the Bible. The righteous will be forgiven, the wicked will be cast down.
So when you see the wicked doing their thing in the world and you're afraid of them, I believe you're probably afraid because you believe it's the end of the world. So hopefully after about ten years of listening to this podcast, you'll realize it's not the end of the world, it's not that time.
But we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.
So what does all this mean? I'm pounding on some of my main themes here of this podcast.
I want us to have a victorious mentality. I want us to see far beyond our momentary trials and difficulties, because that's all they are.
And I don't just mean into eternity. I think we don't have a problem seeing this kind of vague sense of someday in eternity, you know, we're going to see the victory.
It's like, no, I want us to see the victory now.
And even if you don't see it in your lifetime, your kids are going to see it, or their kids. I'm talking about the real manifestations of God's power on this side of history as well as in eternity. So I want you to see 30 years down the road, a hundred years down the road, 200 years down the road, 500 years down the road. I don't even know how far, because I don't believe that anyone that thinks they know when Jesus is bodily returning actually knows. Lots of people think they know, but nobody knows.
God knows. God already knows when he's coming, right?
But we need to have a long term view and we need to have a long term victorious view. This is like a wrestling match. So when we see something that might feel like a setback, which on a complete side note, I think we sometimes put way too much emphasis on the political realm.
But the political realm is one of the realms that matters.
The civil government, the governing of the people of the world, the governing of the people of God is a part of what we are to take dominion. It's part of it.
I want us to know, act, talk, and live like the enemies of God will either be reconciled to him or cast down.
I want to read for you one of my favorite passages that I like to consider whenever anyone is being afraid, although I'm going to cheat and slip another one in that I just read in Acts two.
One of my favorite prayers in Acts chapter two is when they commanded, when the bad guys commanded the disciples to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. And they went to God and they said, Lord, consider their threats.
So whenever you hear the world, the people of this world speaking the words of the devil, trying to tell you, trying to threaten you, trying to threaten the kingdom of God, threaten the works of God, take it to God and say, consider their threats and stretch out your hand to perform miraculous signs and wonders. That's what they said. They said, consider, Lord, you consider their threats.
Well, let's read about this God and how he considers the threats of the systems and the people and the evils of this world.
Psalm, chapter two. Why do the nations conspire? I love the old version that says, why do the nation's rage? But why do the nations conspire?
And the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed one, saying, Let us burst their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.
I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you, ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling, kiss his feet or he will be angry and you will perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. And I love this last part and just kind of slipped in. Happy are all who take refuge in him. Let's just contemplate some of this. So the kings of this world are raging against God.
I've literally heard them raging against God.
And if they're not directly raging against him, they're raging against his principles and his laws and his ways and his ethical standards and the things that matter to him.
Or maybe they're railing against Christians. I've heard it tithe my own ears.
They're saying, let us burst their bonds asunder and cast tithe chords from us.
They wish to throw off the law of God, the ethical truth of God, the reality of who Jesus is. They want to throw him off.
The secularist movement in our country wants to throw off the authority of the living God, but they cannot because the one in heaven is you know what he says? He laughs. Another version says he scoffs at them.
It's like if 100 of us are marching down the street and then someone notices this little ant, teeny tiny ant on the road shaking his fist in defiance against us, how would you respond? You would laugh. You would laugh. And that's what it means here. God is like, really?
You really think you're going to be able to stand against me
and for Him? That's not arrogant. God's not being arrogant when he says that. It's just kind of like he's seeing tithe absurdity of a teeny tiny creature trying to stand against God, says he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury. I have set my king on Zion.
You know who that is, right? My holy hill Jesus, because he goes on to say, you are my son. I have forgotten you. He promised Jesus that he's going to make the nations his heritage and the end of his earth, ends of the earth his possession. He's going to break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.
So God is literally raising up this Jesus to rule everything and casting down everything and everyone that does not bow.
Now, we have another message, too, of mercy. One of the ways that you can do what it says in this verse, be wise, kings, be warned and be wise. Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling, kiss his feet or you're going to perish his wrath is going to be kindled, but you'll be happy if you take your refuge in Him.
So this is a constant message in the Bible that it's a warning.
The Gospel message is a warning. God's judgment is coming. If you don't listen to Him, you're going to face the consequences of everything, of all of your choices. So there's an opportunity we live in a time where there's an opportunity for the kings of the earth to turn to God. That's what we're to be proclaiming, by the way.
I think it's absurd when Christians say, well, of course the rulers of this world won't follow God. It's like, well, actually, they're commanded too, and they are under the Lord Jesus, whether they acknowledge it or not.
Shouldn't we warn them? Shouldn't we warn them and say, hey, you're under the authority of Jesus? Shouldn't all the churches be teaching all of the people, everyone is under the authority of Jesus Christ.
Think of that if you're a policeman. Think of that. If you're a governor or a judge. Think of that. If you're the president.
Think of that. If you have any kind of authority over your employees, over your family. You are under the king, you are under the ruler of all kings. What are the implications of that accountability? This is why they used to have to actually take an oath.
They used to actually have to take an oath when they became a government official in this country. You have to take an oath acknowledging a state, amongst other things, a state of future judgment. But I want us to live lives of taking action with the intent to bring real fruit and change into the world, expecting to see victory, expecting to see some of the kings of the earth acknowledge willingly and joyfully come under the authority of Jesus.
In our generation or in the future generation, we should expect to see that happen.
We should expect to see some other rulers be cast down, like Pharaoh, who lost everything.
He lost basically all his power. He lost his whole army, he lost his first born son. He had everything taken away because of his rebellion.
When you're praying for the president, when you're praying for the governor, when you're praying for all people and all kinds of authority everywhere, understand, pray that they'll know and see that they need to yield to Jesus, they need to submit to Jesus.
And on one of these days I want to do an episode about all the implications of how we would structure our government and that I think the founding fathers made a mistake.
We can talk about why they made it when they did not explicitly put in the Constitution that were under the authority of God. It was a mistake, but that's a whole side note.
But I want you to think about Romans, chapter eight, verse eleven. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his spirit that dwells in you. Pause and ponder this, one of my favorite little quotes from the Bible.
The spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is in you.
Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Are you born again? If not, why not? But if you are, and most likely if you're listening to this podcast, you already are, the same power that took a dead man dead three days and buried and brought him back to life and raised him up over all the earth and all of the heavens and all eternity is in you.
That power is in you.
What does that mean when you go to work? What does that mean when you start a business? What does that mean when you teach your children or when you prepare the meal for the family? Whatever it is, I could list everything that we do.
What does it mean that the power of the resurrection is in you? Do all of it with power. Do all of it with. Power. And since we're contemplating recent elections, we should speak to the authorities, the human authorities, with power, recognizing the resurrection power of Jesus is in us.
And we declare with authority, you must yield to Jesus. I don't hear hardly anyone doing that.
There's a vague sense that we want America to be more Christian and we want our leaders to say Christian things. But I'm talking about everything. The laws we pass, the way we structure things, the way we do things, all of it.
Our teaching as Christians should be. Every single drop must come into obedience to Christ. Every law, every system, every method, everything.
And we must get to the point where we demand and insist that every ruler and leader promises and acknowledges to surrender to this authority. This is big.
What I just said is big. I don't know if it makes it less big that I have to stop and say it's big, but I just said some things are some incredible implications, but I don't believe Christians are really doing in the world right now.
We just have this vague sense of, you want a leader who goes to church and says Jesus once in a while? Like, no. Everything comes under his authority.
Everything. The Bible is higher than the Constitution, it's higher than the Supreme Court, it's higher than the legislatures, it's higher than everything because Jesus is the ruler of all the kings of the earth.
So just remember, the one who raised Jesus from the dead is in you, and that means everything. Speak, live, and act with authority. I hope that everything I have shared with you today gives you deeper and stronger internal courage and gives you a desire to act out your faith in the real world in the present time.
And I so very much appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode. If you have not already done so, please pause, take a moment, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss one moment of juicy goodness.
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Listen to the episode here: https://gospelofeverything.com/podcast/the-ruler-of-all-the-kings-of-the-earth/