He is risen! He’s alive! Because He lives, we have a future!
Many, if not all, of those declarations were heard and said in our Resurrection Sunday services all across this globe. And yes! Hallelujah! Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords! Yes! He did overcome sin, hell, the grave, and flesh! Yes! Jesus reigns as the authority of all creation as given by God the Father.
Jesus reigns. He reigns because He is King.
The question is, do the words you say and sing match the position He holds in your own life?
That’s a serious question. It’s also one that you, I, and all will answer at the Tribunal of Christ spoken of by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Essentially, modern day believers focus on Good Friday for Calvary’s Cross and the Lamb of God crucified for our sins. Our salvation is available and in progress. We also focus on the Third Day and empty tomb that guarantees life eternal after this flesh in the presence of God.
But what does the modern Christ follower do when pressed about our 4th day experience? The 5th, 6th, 7th, ten-thousandth day? What evidence exists in our lives that Jesus Christ is Lord?
Hear me out. Judeo-Christians are not among those who have a useless faith in a philosophy, ideology, or religion of a dead prophet or group whose leader or leaders are dead and have earthly bodies in manmade tombs. If Jesus’ body, however, had remained in the tomb, Christianity would be useless.
It would be fraudulent because of the testimonies of men and women willing to die horrible and violent deaths for a contrived story about a resurrection that never happened. And if that resurrection never happened, you got it – our hope for eternity after this life would be lost.
Instead, we do have a powerful faith that is valid and authentic with a hope, not just wishful thinking, but confidence in our life eternal.
Christ is King and reigns over all of history. His Church, His Body lives today and functions as Christ in us and we in Him to do good works, tell of the life-changing, but simple Gospel, and to live in the world, but not of it. Current events, like the validation of the Shroud of Turin, or the grave clothes of Jesus which features 50 puncture wounds at the head and face from the Bethlehem Spikes that fashioned the mocking crown of our Lord.
But back to the question: Does Jesus reign in your life?
Take a few minutes to watch the message from Resurrection Day in its entirety. But as you watch it and as you read the rest of this post, ask yourself this question: Does Jesus reign in my life?
God’s Kingdom doesn’t begin the instance we die and are in our heavenly bodies in the afterlife. Oh, no! Dear friend! We have missed both the message of John the Baptist, the forerunner and last prophet announcing the coming of the Messiah, and the message of Jesus Himself.
In both Matthew 3:1-2 and Matthew 4:17, from John the Baptist, also the cousin of Jesus, and the Son of God Himself, after his time in the wilderness and standing down the confrontation of Satan, the same declaration of fact is made: “Repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!”
Are you part of God’s Kingdom in this life, not waiting on your heavenly existence after death? Are you devoted to Christ the King in love, faithfulness, hope, and willingness to serve and forgive others as you want?
Jesus sees and knows who has Him as Lord versus those who attend a lecture on Sunday, taking away what is easy to adapt to your lifestyle, calendar, and budget. Put plainly, what we say and sing is easier than what we live. But we’re held to account by the latter, not just the former.
An old saying in the church circles goes like this, “Jesus is Lord of all or not Lord at all.”
Do you know Jesus personally? Do you love Him, fellowship with Him, and obey Him? He’s the Savior and Messiah that’s predicted in every single book of the Old Testament, who speaks to us through His Gospels in the first Person, and who was evidenced in the lives of changed followers inspired to write the rest of the New Testament, teaching God’s love, grace, mercy, and life-change for this world and “His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Yes! Jesus reigns as King. Have you made Him your King?
Admit your need of the Savior and the need for the blood of Jesus to cover your sins. Then confess those sins but also confess that Jesus is the Savior who saves you, the King who reigns in your changed life, and the Messiah who will return for His Bride, His Church, those set apart for His Name and will.
Yes! Jesus reigns!