Although Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath brought about his persecution by the Jewish religious leaders (John 5:16), Jesus has nothing more to say about the Sabbath beyond the words he uttered in John 5:17: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” In the discourse in John 5:19–47, then, Jesus’ primary intention is not to develop a theology of the Sabbath, but to explain what he meant by his Sabbath defense in John 5:17—that is, Jesus here reveals the nature of his relationship to God the Father. Healing on the Sabbath was important, but not ultimate. Instead, Jesus healed on the Sabbath to illustrate and to announce the “greater works” (John 5:20) that the Father has sent him to accomplish. In this discourse, Jesus builds upon his statement in John 5:17, defining, expanding upon, and defending the idea that he works with his Father as a Son. Through this discourse, Jesus declares that the incarnate Son builds his kingdom by his word.

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My daughter, Evelyn, the oldest of our three children, turned five this past Monday, and she is a delight to my life. I love this little girl. She is a young lady because she's growing up way too fast for me as it is. But as she grows, we've been able to give her increased responsibilities around the house. I mean, this is kind of how it works. At the beginning, you can't do anything and your parents do everything. As you grow you, you have to start to inherit some more duties around the house.

One of those is that she is sort of always on patrol, always on guard to sort of watch out for the safety of her two younger brothers. Her younger brother Zachariah is about two and a half, and her and her youngest brother, Caleb, is just a little bit over one. So they just don't understand what might kill them as much as she does. So her job is when they start moving in that direction, as they inevitably and frequently do, her job is to sort of pull back on them, and we've talked with her about this.

Here's what happens when someone gets a little taste of authority, they start kind of having it go to their head. So there have been times where Evelyn has decided that she is not simply someone who is entrusted with the responsibility of caring for her brothers, delegated to her by her parents, but she is also the law giver in the house. So she has decided, we actually had to stop her from saying, "you need to obey me" to her brothers. When we have to say, "Evelyn, you're not the mommy or the daddy, that's something that is an authority that is reserved for the parents in the home."

Maybe you've seen this in the workplace. Maybe you have a co-worker, maybe someone who even started working after you did, who maybe gets a little taste of authority in the workplace, a little bit of responsibility, and they start getting a little bit too big for their britches and they start calling the shots and they start throwing their weight around, even though they have very little. Until someone has to step in and say, hey, we've given you this much authority, but you are acting as though you have that much authority.

I will tell you; this is one of the most frequent things that I have to think through myself as a pastor. There's a significant amount of responsibility and authority bound up in my position, but it's very easy to misunderstand. I am a sinner like all of you, and my sin seeks to twist that in ways that I shouldn't. Just as my daughter does, just as your coworkers do, and well, just as you probably do as well, right?

The text that we're looking at today is a text that is about authority and there are two chief questions about authority that this passage asks. Jesus gets really theological in this text, so we're just going to try to have to hang with our Lord as we move through this passage. The first question that we have to ask is what is the relationship between the authority of the Father and the authority of the Son? We will answer that question fairly quickly on this morning. A question that's going to take a little bit longer to ask then, is what is the relationship between the authority of Jesus Christ and the authority of the church? What's the relationship with the authority of the Father and the Son and what's the authority of the Son to the church?

And I'm going to give us the big idea that this passage teaches as we move through this. If you're a note taker here, here's what you should write down because we're going to refer back to it frequently as we work our way through this passage. It's this the incarnate Son builds his kingdom by his word.

Now this is a longer passage. John 5:19-47 that we're looking at this morning. So we're going to read through this in smaller chunks.

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.John 5:19-24, ESV

So as we work our way through this big idea, we're going to start with that chunk first and deal with who we are talking about. Again, our big idea the incarnate Son builds his kingdom by his word. So let's focus on that first part, the incarnate Son. Now, if we look at this passage, it's very important that we are absolutely, absolutely clear about what Jesus is saying and what he is not saying, because this is one of the biggest passages that have been most frequently cited by heretics who have taught falsely about Jesus throughout the history of the church.

We go back to verse nineteen where Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing." You read that you rip it out of the context, you read it on its own, it sounds like the Son has limitations that the Father does not. That the Father is over here doing anything he wants to do and the Son really has some pretty strict severe limitations on what he can do, according to what he sees the Father do.

Well, we have to be very careful. To explain why we have to be careful, we have to actually back up to the verse right before this that we looked at last week, verse eighteen. Last week, we looked at how Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and the religious leaders of the Jews came to Jesus and told him, you shouldn't be healing on the Sabbath. In verse seventeen, Jesus answered them, saying very simply, "My father is working until now and I am working." So in verse eighteen, we read this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

This is a passage about the equality of the Son to the Father, the equality of the Son, to the Father. They're on the same plane, according to the Son's divine nature, his godliness. Again, Jesus is getting really theological here, so we have to just try to hang with him. According to his divinity, his divine nature, neither the Father nor the Son nor the Spirit is above any of the others. They all have equal authority because they are one God. The authority of the Father is the authority of the Son, which is the authority of the Holy Spirit. They share authority when we are talking about the Son in the form of God.

Yet Jesus does say here in verse nineteen that he is underneath, he's subordinate. He has to be obedient to the Father. Now why is that? Does this have something to do with his divine nature? No. Remember, Jesus became a human being. Jesus became incarnate. Jesus here is not speaking just as God himself alone, he's speaking as the incarnate, the human Son of God. This is about the incarnate Son. So Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son (or the incarnate Son) can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing."

Now, last fall, we preached through Philippians, and when we got to Philippians chapter two, the Christ Hymn, you may know this passage or remember it from this fall where we talked about Paul saying, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God in his divine nature, he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped." In Jesus, in the Son's divine nature, he's equal with the Father. Then Paul writes, "He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant."

The form of God, he's equal with the Father. The form of a servant, he empties himself of his rights, of his privileges, of his prerogatives, of his position, his place, his glory, his authority, his majesty. Right here in this passage, while Jesus is walking the Earth and his human ministry, he is like you and me and our humanity in the sense that we must be obedient and submissive to the Father. Jesus does this, he takes the form of the servant, because as we're going to see, it's necessary for our salvation.

So that first question how does the authority of the Father relate to the Son in divinity? The authority of the Son is the authority of the Father, which is the authority of the Holy Spirit. They are equal. In Jesus' incarnation, when he takes the form of a servant, he is obedient, humbly submissive to his Father in heaven.

So let's dig a little bit more deeply into this. Again, these are Jesus's words. If you have a problem with the text, you have to take them up with Jesus. These are intense things. Verse nineteen, "So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing."

Notice what Jesus is saying again, this is a passage about the equality of the Son with the Father, the equality of the incarnate Son with the Father. So what Jesus is saying is, look, whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. There isn't sort of this amount of things of authority, of glory that the Father has that the Son does not share. Whatever the Father does, so the Son does likewise. Then he puts it the other way, for the Father, loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. So all that the Father shows the Son the Son sees and does what the Father does.

Now this is where trinitarian theology gets a little bit tricky because we cannot understand that what Jesus is saying here. Is it that the Father is doing some things and the Son is over here sort of watching and observing for a while. Then the Son says, hey, I could do that too. You know, my children work this way, right? This is not the way that the Son works with the Father. What Jesus is saying is that everything the Father is doing, he does exclusively and nowhere else but in and through the incarnate Son.

Now let me show you what this means. So Jesus talks about two kinds of works that he does in verses twenty-one and twenty-two. He says, "For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will."

Now, this doesn't mean that the Father has a set of people that he has raised to life and given life to, and that the Son has his set of people that he does this with. What Jesus is saying is that everyone who receives life who is raised up from death, that is the work of the Father working in and through the Son. The orthodox church, the faithful church throughout history has always confessed that the external works of the Trinity are indivisible. You can't say the Father does that and the Son does that, and the Spirit does that, as though they are distinct persons. They're connected so that everything the Father does is in and through his son, including raising the dead and giving life. So that's the first thing. There are not two life givers or three life givers, but one life giver a God, the Father working in the center of the Holy Spirit.

Verse twenty-two, this is the second work that Jesus talks about, "Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." If you follow American politics at all, you know that we have very recently had a transition of presidents. Three or four months ago, Barack Obama was the most powerful man on the face of the planet. Now, he doesn't have the constitutional authority to ask for someone to pass the salt. He has no authority in himself because his term was over. Now someone else, President Trump, has taken up that responsibility.

Now, if we read Jesus as saying something similar happening that the Father may be used to judge at one time, and now it's the Son's term to judge, will misunderstand the Father judges no one but has given all authority into the Son because the Father judges all through the Son. Skip down just a little bit. This is coming to a point; I promise you just hang with the words of Jesus a little bit.

Verse thirty, "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." Jesus judges according to what he hears from his father. The Father judges no one, but the Father judges all through the work of his son.

Ok, the persons of the Trinity are working together. Why is this working this way? We all are kind of following this and saying, Jesus, what are you getting at? Well, Jesus says there's a very clear reason that the Father is working in and through the Son. It is so that verse twenty-three, "that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him." what Jesus says. He says the Father is doing this because he wants to put forward Jesus Christ for us to see and honor the Son. You can't honor the Father by going around Jesus because the Son is the image of the Father. The Son speaks the words of the Father. The Son gives life, according to the Father's work. The Son raises the dead according to the Father's work. The Son judges just as he hears from his Father. If you want to know and love and honor God, you must know and love and honor the Son, the incarnate son, Jesus Christ.

So how do we do this? Well, Jesus said in verse twenty-four, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." Here's my word in the sense of I believe that what you are saying is coming from the one who sent you, your Father. "He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."

Again, the big idea here that I have as simple as possible so we can work our way through this complicated text, the incarnate Son builds his kingdom by his word. We see a little bit of that here. Jesus says anyone who hears my word and believes him, who sent me has eternal life.

So what's the next part, the incarnate Son, we kind of know who this is and the way in which the Father is working in the Son. We now read that the incarnate Son builds his kingdom. Now read with me versus twenty-five through thirty and look for the word kingdom. That's what I'm arguing this text is about.

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 5:25-30, ESV

Did you find the word kingdom? Ok, if you did, you're a liar. It's not in there, but why am I saying kingdom? It's in verse twenty-seven. Notice what Jesus says, here's why I execute judgment, because I am the Son of man.

So again, American politics, this is like what we live and move and have our being in. So it's important to differentiate what the Bible teaches about the kingdom of the incarnate Son from the way in which the American Constitution is established, our government. In our government, a judge is an officer of the judicial branch. They don't make the laws congress is supposed to. They don't execute the laws like the executive branch. They are the judicial branch, they just they just try the cases. I don't really know why they do, ask a lawyer.

What Jesus is saying here is his capacity to judge is as the king, as the Son of Man. This prophecy, Son of Man, comes from Daniel 7:13-14. If you want to look back, there's this prophecy of one like a Son of Man. Daniel, a prophet writing from the Old Testament, says

13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.Daniel 7:13-14, ESV

So we're talking about the incarnate Son building his kingdom. He's the Son of man. He's building his kingdom. How does he build his kingdom? This is critical. If we're saying Jesus is the king, we ought to know what his kingdom looks like. Well, Jesus again references those two works of giving life in verse twenty-six and executing judgment in verse twenty-seven. So look at these verse twenty-six words, "The Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself." They are not two life givers, but one life giver. The Father gives life in and through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Verse twenty-seven, "he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man." Again, the Father, it isn't that his term of judging is over. He is judging all in and through the Son.

So here are the two works of the kingdom. One is to give life and in verse twenty-five, Jesus clarifies that he's talking about the spiritually dead who come to believe the gospel. Look at verse twenty-five, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."

The gospel here is at the heart of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Other kings build their kingdoms, by war, by violence, by amassing for themselves riches and wealth and power. Our king gave all of his power up, all of his riches, all of his glory, and he took the form of a servant. It wasn't by inflicting violence that he brought subjects to himself, disciples for himself. He underwent violence for our sin. Jesus Christ submitted to death on the cross for our sin. He established his kingdom because we were sinful and he came as a servant who was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross to establish his kingdom as the incarnate Son.

It's not those who do things well enough, who live up to a certain standard well enough, who can offer Jesus the right set of gifts and talents and abilities and resources who measure up. Jesus says all those who hear the voice of the Son of God who hear the gospel and believe on Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son as savior, you will be saved. You have nothing to contribute to it. You bring nothing to the table. Jesus Christ, God of God, very God from all eternity past has come into this world for you, and you have only to listen to his word, his gospel, and believe it and that life is yours.

This is the way in which Jesus Christ builds his kingdom today. This is what the church is tasked with preaching to sinners. I'm a sinner. You are a sinner. We are all sinners in here. Look to Jesus Christ and be saved. He died for you, but death couldn't hold him. He's alive, and he reigns as the exalted servant. This work that Jesus Christ is doing now, the incarnate Son to build his kingdom now by the preaching of the gospel and by people coming to faith in Christ.

We'll go somewhere someday, one day, Jesus Christ will not just raise up the spiritually dead by the preaching of the gospel. Jesus says in verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine that all of those who are in the tombs, and this includes anyone else who is buried or cremated or whatever in any other way, not just those who are in the tombs. Every dead person, physically dead person will hear this voice and come out. Both those who have done good, that is those who have lived a life of faith, who have walked by faith and not by sight, who have believed and had life to the resurrection of life. Also those who have done evil, who have rejected the voice of the Son of God to the resurrection of judgment.

Jesus said earlier that the reason the Father puts the Son forward is so that all may honor, the Son, which we do by listening to his word. Now he tells us again, hear the word of Jesus, believe his gospel because the day is coming when, whether you like it or not, you will be dragged before the judgment seat of Christ. Either you will have his gospel and his work and his accomplishments as the incarnate Son of God who died for you. Or you will only have your own filthy, unrighteous works to offer before him.

This is real. This is real. What we do and believe now makes a difference in what will happen to us in the future. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or Jesus warns, we will go to the resurrection of judgment and the eternal condemnation in hell. Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son is building his kingdom by the preaching of his gospel

That is this focus of this third section, by his word. Now we've already seen that in a couple of places. Jesus keeps talking about his word and his voice. He keeps talking about what he's speaking and we've got to believe what he says. Jesus now focuses on his word in a very different way. The reason he does this in verses thirty-one to forty-seven. The problem is that the testimony of Jesus is disputed. People are looking at him and they're hearing this discourse for the first time and it's going right over their heads, and they don't believe a word that Jesus is saying. It's not just that they don't believe it or don't understand it, they reject it. You're not the Son of God. You're not equal with the Father.

So Jesus has to bring forward witnesses to demonstrate that the authority he is claiming to possess, that the Father is in him and working in and through him. That that is real. That's true. Read along with me in verses thirty-one to forty-seven.

31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Jesus says if I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true or not true or really, he's not saying he's lying. He's saying this wouldn't be valid or admissible in the court of law. If you are charged with a crime and they put you on the witness stand nothing you say on its own can exonerate you. That's just a recognition that some people might actually lie in order to avoid going to prison. The same principle is true here. Any quack can proclaim to be the Son of God, but just by saying it doesn't make it so. So Jesus is saying my testimony alone by myself isn't valid. I need other witnesses.

So in verse thirty-two, Jesus says there is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. Now Jesus is talking about the Father, but he can't go directly there because they reject the idea that the Father is his father. So Jesus starts with John the Baptist. Look at verse 33 you sent to John the Baptist, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

The religious leaders apparently liked John, they must have thought he was spunky and interesting, and they wanted to rejoice in his light, as the way that Jesus puts it, for a while. Jesus saying, didn't you hear him? He testified that I was the lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. Did you miss it? Then Jesus says, I don't want to rest my case in the testimony of a human being.

So he goes on in verse thirty-six, but the testimony that I have is greater than that of John for the works that the Father has given me to accomplish. The very works that I'm doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. This is one of the few places where we are reminded that we're actually still talking about Jesus's healing on the Sabbath. Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath and is saying, look at this, this is a man who was lame for thirty-eight years, I made him walk in a moment. These are the works that my father has given to me. Who else can do this? You should see these things and recognize that they bear witness that I come from the Father to do the Father's works that he is doing in and through me.

Jesus knows in verse thirty-seven, he finally calls the Father as a witness. He says, "and the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent."

How do you get around this? There's an impasse here. I mean, this is just sort of an argument. Jesus says the Father sent me the Jews say, no, he didn't. I mean, is that just supposed to go around forever in circles? Jesus then brings out the witness to the Father's witness. In the Scriptures, this is a critical move in verse thirty-nine. He says, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."

Jesus is saying, look up to this point. You may have thought that when I was speaking about my word, hearing my word, hearing and believing the voice of the Son of God, you may have thought about just what I'm seeing right now. From our perspective, we may have thought that Jesus was just talking about the New Testament. When he talks about the scriptures here, again the New Testament hasn't been written, the Scriptures he talks about is the Old Testament. Beginning to end, all 66 books of the canon the entire Bible bears witness to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is saying, look, you are blind men staring at the Mona Lisa. Your eyes are in the right place, but you have no idea what you're seeing there. The scriptures testify to me. They are mine. The scriptures are my word telling you about who I would be, about what I would teach, about what I would do, including the passage in Deuteronomy about the prophet that God would send, in whose mouth I will put my words. Including also the passage from our assurance of pardon, where the author of Hebrews says that "Long ago, in many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but that in these last days he has spoken to us by his son. He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature."

When you look at the Son in his incarnation, you see the Father. Jesus is saying, listen to my word from Old Testament, to search the scriptures. Jesus, though, says I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe? Verse forty-four, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? "

Then finally, Jesus rests his case, not with another witness, but technically an accuser.
"Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

The Incarnate Son builds his kingdom by his word. This is why the scriptures are everything to us. Not because if you memorize every word in this book that you would be saved on the basis of such an amazing achievement. It's not like that. It's because in this book, Jesus the Incarnate Son, the crucified, resurrected ascended son rules and builds and judges his church. The way that he does this right now is by proclaiming to us the gospel.

This doesn't tell about a tyrant who's coming into the world to sweep away people who have no chance to believe in him. The proclamation of the kingship of Jesus is that your king took the form of a servant for you. The way in which Jesus rules his church is as a servant. He is the one on the last day who will actually sit us at the table and dress himself to wait on us in the banquet, in the new heavens and the new Earth.

Understand there will come a day when Jesus will take the throne as the Son of man to judge the world. Not as though he's his judgment is different from the Father’s; he judges just as he hears from the Father. Not as though it's different from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, although Jesus hasn't made it explicit, is very much involved in this. The day will come when the Incarnate Son will come to judge the world. The question is, do you hear the voice of the Son of God in his scriptures and believe?

To answer the second question earlier, how does the authority of the Son, the Incarnate Son, relate to the church? The answer is the only authority that I or anyone else have in the church is the authority that's mediated from the scriptures. I can't make things up to you. I have opinions. I mean, ask my wife, I have a lot of opinions, but they are not things that I should proclaim from up here because they are not the decrees of the incarnate Son.

The scriptures are our king, not because they themselves are king, but because they testify to Jesus. Let me leave you with the words of Jesus in verse 40. Jesus says, "if you search the scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." One commentator, a man named Lenski, said, "Here, as always, Jesus in his interactions with his enemies, disputes with them while holding out life to them."

Do you believe? Do you know, Jesus? Are you growing in the way that Jesus is ruling and reigning over you in his word? We can't get too big for our britches. Jesus is still on his throne. He is still the soul king of his church, and he rules by his gospel in the word,

Pray with me. Lord, we ask would you give us your word? Would you teach us by your scriptures? Would you lead us to know and believe you are incarnate, resurrected, the exalted son. The one to whom you gave the name above all names at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess in heaven, on Earth and under the Earth that Jesus Christ is Lord. To your glory Father, we pray that you would do all of this and more according to the power of your Holy Spirit. It's in your son's name. We pray. Amen.