Reign in Our Hearts Acts 1:12–26; 1 Peter 4:12–19; John 17:1–11
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Heavenly Father, and our ascended Lord, Jesus Christ.
We’re going to talk about our Lord’s reign over all things, but especially His reign in our hearts.
Before Jesus ascended, He told His disciples, in Matthew 28:18, All authority in Heaven and earth has been given to me. That’s an interesting statement.
If Christ is the true Son of God, very God of very God as we say in the Nicene Creed, and He is, then wasn’t the power and authority over Heaven and earth already His?
When Jesus said, “All authority… has been given to me…”, He meant according to His human nature, which began when He was born, or before that, when He was conceived.
According to His Divine nature, as the eternal Son of God, He has always had all the attributes and power and authority of God.
When He became human in Jesus of Nazareth, He took on all those attributes and powers of God as a man.
This is a great miracle, but one that made it possible for Jesus to save us.
Sometimes Jesus showed His divine nature and power in His life and ministry on earth, like when He did miracles, and especially when He rose from death.
Most of the time, however, He didn’t use His divine power nor show His divine glory, especially when He suffered and died for us.
But now that He has won redemption for the world, and has returned to Heaven, there’s no longer any reason for Him to refrain from exercising His almighty power and authority, and revealing His divine glory.
And so Jesus prays in today’s Gospel: 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Take me back into Heaven, where I came from, where I’ll never again set aside My divine power and glory but will rule with all authority and reign in majesty forever.
Another way we put this is to say that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God, as we say in both the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.
Seated at the right hand of God is a way of saying that Jesus has and exercises all the authority and power of God, because He is God, truly and fully.
So when Scripture says “the right hand of God”, it means His almighty power and rule.
In ancient days the king would hold his scepter in his right hand, like a rod, symbolizing the power of His rule over His subjects.
The king’s word was the law of the land.
Jesus, in a sense, serves as the right hand of God.
Instead of ruling with a scepter, God rules with His Son, who won the right to rule by redeeming the world.
What this means is that our Ruler is our Savior. The One who rules over us loves us so much that He died for us… and is so powerful that He rose for us.
What an incredible thing – the One who rules us, is the One who saves us. What a wonderful Ruler to have!
As the king’s word was the law of the land by which people were judged, Christ’s Word is the law that judges the world…
But thanks be to God, His Word is also the Gospel that saves the world.
Jesus rules us, not by His law alone. If He did, as sinners who’ve broken God’s righteous law and disobeyed His holy commandments, we’d be eternally condemned and forsaken.
But having died and rose for us, Jesus rules us with the Good News that, repenting and trusting in Him, our sins are forgiven, and our souls are saved.
Now He uses His right hand to bless and protect us.
The Easter Psalm, Psalm 118, proclaims and praises God’s right hand of power that has saved us.
Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! 16 The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!” I will not die but live, and declare what the Lord has done for me.
The One seated at the right hand of the Father has done mighty things for us – He’s won our righteousness, overcome our death, and rewarded us with eternal glory, not for anything we’ve done, but for what He has done for our sake.
His people are rewarded for His righteousness.
However, the right hand of God, His almighty power and eternal reign, do us no good, unless He reigns in our hearts.
By Baptism, through the Holy Spirit’s gift of repentant faith, God’s reign becomes mighty in our hearts and our lives.
The Epistle for Ascension Day, from Ephesians 1 says, 18 … that you may know… the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and … the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, 20 that he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places…
… far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above
every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Those words are so rich, so full of power and blessing.
God’s Son, who reigns above in glorious power, who fills the vast, created Universe with Himself, also fits into your humble heart, where He would reign with love, filling your soul with His peace, your heart with His grace, and your mind with truth from His Word.
There’s a British patriotic hymn, I Vow to Thee My Country, that illustrates this heart of faith.
The first verse is about loyalty to king and country. The more important verse, the second verse, is about loyalty to Christ and Church. It goes:
And there's another country I've heard of long ago
Most dear to them that love her Most great to them that know
We may not count her armies We may not see her King
Her fortress is a faithful heart Her pride is suffering
And soul by soul and silently Her shining bounds increase
And her ways are ways of gentleness And all her paths are peace
Her pride is suffering…
As our Epistle says… to suffer for Christ, let us not be ashamed, but honored.
And, her fortress, is a faithful heart…
Your heart is a fortress of faith and love when Christ reigns in you, a mighty fortress!
Jesus ascended to the right hand of God, to reign over Heaven and earth and the Universe, but especially to reign in you, in your heart.
When Christ is your King, what’s in you is amazing!
Without Him, life is in vain… you go through life trying to fill your heart with different things, and lots of stuff, and various causes, but nothing works.
Our stomach can hurt when it’s empty, but an empty heart hurts far worse.
What truly heals and fills and enriches the heart is the eternal Gospel, that perfect love and grace from above.
When Christ reigns in our hearts, our lives are full of riches from Heaven, so much so that our cup runneth over, as the Psalm says, our soul overflows.
As Christ reigns in us, His abundant love rises up in us and spills out of us, for us to richly bless others with.
May Christ reign in you powerfully, graciously, victoriously, and abundantly.
And may the peace of God, that passes understanding, guard your heart and rule your mind in Christ Jesus, who reigns over us, in us, and for us. Amen.