At the end of the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he tells us about the power God exerted when he raised Jesus from the dead and seated him on his throne. Picking up at verse 21, Paul wrote that Jesus has been exalted “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection 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.”
Have you ever heard anyone say something like, “You Christians are so narrow-minded; you should open up your minds and believe more than the Bible”? That used to seem kind of true to me. It kind of seemed Christianity was a small box while there was a bigger world out there that we were shutting out. But my growth in Christ, including studying “Ephesians,” made me realize that it’s the unbelievers and atheists who have narrow minds.
They are restricting life to just material composition; existence is only physical; therefore science is the only way to know what’s real. That’s their little box and they shut out spiritual reality. We find so much more than that revealed through the Bible and experienced in a relationship with Christ. There is a gigantic world beyond the physical level. There is a massive amount of activity that science is not equipped to discover. Here is an example of that. Jesus Christ has taken authority over all. His place is above any and every ruler, power, and dominion. He is Lord. He is King, and his Kingdom overshadows all other kingdoms – spiritual, political, economic, and personal. Jesus reigns.
Ephesus was located in what is now Turkey. It belonged to the Roman Empire. All their lives the Ephesians had heard, “Caesar is lord. Who Caesar is and what Caesar does and what Caesar wants is what matters. You live because Caesar lets you live. Caesar reigns.” And then they heard something new: “No, actually Caesar does not reign. Jesus reigns. So, things are different.”
In and through Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, God launched his Kingdom, his rule, his authority with the power to confront and defeat evil. He has the authority to run things and make things right. He has set up his Kingdom and brought a new way of life, life done his way and that means God’s plans and purposes will be accomplished. According to Psalm 72:19, the Lord’s “glorious name” will be praised forever and “the whole earth will be filled with his glory.” Because Jesus reigns.
A new dominion over the created universe has started. The whole earth, all the world, the entire creation will be remade. Through Isaiah, God promised, “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth” (65:17). And through Paul he promised, “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Because Jesus reigns.
A new regime has begun. There’s a new environment, a new culture which means there is a new way for people to live, a new way for relating to God and to each other and to the world. There’s a new way for being God’s people and for living it out in the world. We can find better ways of living. Better ways of making our marriages and families. Better ways for morals and ethics. Better ways of handling jobs and finances. Better ways to have relationships and friendships. Better ways to deal with our problems and to enjoy life. Better ways to accomplish important results. Because Jesus reigns.
A new power has taken over. There’s a new energy operating which restores the broken, frees the addicted, heals the diseased, finds the lost, reconciles enemies, and drives out fear. John describes it: “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him… We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:16,19). God-like love becomes the energy for how we live. Because Jesus reigns.
I once was leading a group session as a counselor at Kidz Ark residential treatment center. There were about a dozen kids in the group. We were outside on a deck between two buildings. There were 2 brothers in the group – 16, 17 years old. One of them had been in the facility for several months, one only a few days. They got into some kind of argument and it escalated until it was disrupting the group. I went over to them and told them to cut it out. The new guy kept it going. I stepped up to him, face to face, but not really in his face, and told him I needed him to settle down so we could continue the group. He took an aggressive stance – tensed muscles, clenched fists, staring me down. He was about my height but 20-30 pounds heavier – clearly 20-30 pounds of muscle. I started thinking: he’s going to hit me…and it’s going to hurt. But he needed to know some things. He needed to know that he was not running things; he wasn’t in charge and he wasn’t going to be in charge and that’s okay. He also needed to know that there was a better way to handle life than the ways he had learned – fighting, stealing, assaulting, vandalizing, running away. And he needed to know that I and the rest of the Kidz Ark staff cared about him enough to respect him, challenge him, and help him. To my great relief, he did not hit me. He calmed down and after group was finished actually apologized for his behavior. Several months later, when he was being moved to another facility, he hugged me, thanked me, and said he was scared. He wouldn’t have admitted such a thing that day in group. I told him I understood how he felt but I knew he could make it because he had made changes and was headed in the right direction.
Everyone needs to understand those same things about Christ’s relationship with us. You’re not in charge; you’re not running life. When you have faith in Christ, you’re in his Kingdom. He’s in charge and that’s okay; in fact, it’s very, very good. And you need to understand that his way of living is better than your way of living. You can accept and follow new desires, new dreams, new priorities, new behaviors that come from Christ. And you need to understand that everything he wants for you and everything he does for you, even when it’s hard, is because he loves you. He cares about you enough to challenge you and to carry you and enable you to love. His love is available to fill you and to overflow from you and energize all you do.
Jesus reigns and we can live in his Kingdom.
Now, look at this. This is astonishing. The end of verse 22 and verse 23: “and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Okay, we’re clear that when the Bible says “church” it’s not talking about a building, right? It doesn’t have anything to do with pews and pulpits and carpet and steeples, right? What does “church” mean? Right – it’s people.
Okay, but let’s be clear that when the Bible says “church” it’s not meaning just any group of people. It’s not saying that just any assembly of people who put the word “church” on their building and website and meetings is necessarily “the church.” What people is it? Right – the people who belong to Christ. People who have surrendered to Jesus reigning. People who have accepted God’s way of living. People who depend on the love of Christ to challenge and carry and enable them. The boys and girls and women and men who have turned their lives over to Jesus and have joined together to follow him.
Those people are his body.
Like he lived on earth in a flesh and blood body 2,000 years ago, he lives in the flesh and blood of his followers today. He relates to the world through his body, his people.
But there’s more. More astonishing. His body is “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” The church is the fullness of Christ. Not just has the fullness of Christ. Not just is filled with Christ. IS the fullness of Christ. The church is the total and complete presence of Jesus in the world. Through his people, Jesus fully expresses himself to the world. Through boys and girls and women and men who follow Christ, Jesus fully exercises his authority and power in the broken, out-of-control world. Through the church, the real church, the people of God filled with the Spirit of God, Jesus reigns. All that Jesus is doing as King of his Kingdom – the will and glory of God, the remaking of the heavens and earth, the better ways of living, the flowing of divine love – everything Jesus is doing as King of his Kingdom is expressed and operated in his people until everything gets brought back together under his Lordship and every rule and authority and power and dominion are actually submitted to him.
What does that look like? Jim Cymbala is pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City. God has done some amazing things in that church. Once a journalist ask Jim, “How do you define spiritual power?” He answered by telling this:
One Sunday, a former drug addict with the HIV virus told how she came to know Christ. She described in raw detail the horrors of her former life. The meeting ended, and I was exhausted. I had just started to unwind when I saw a street person named David coming my way. I thought, “This guy’s coming to hit me up for money.” When he got close, the smell took my breath away – urine, sweat, garbage, and alcohol. I pulled out a couple of dollars for him. David put his finger in my face and said, “I don’t want your money. I’m going to die out there. I want the Jesus that girl talked about.” I closed my eyes and said, “God, forgive me.” I felt soiled and cheap. Then a change came over me. I began to feel David’s pain, to see him as someone Christ had brought into the church for that moment. I spread my arms and we embraced. I talked to him about Christ. But it wasn’t just words. I felt them. I loved him. That smell – it had almost made me sick before, but it became beautiful to me. God put his kind of love in me. Divine love became supernatural power. The minute my attitude changed, David knew it. He responded to that love. The gospel got through to David that night. People in pain don’t need “Here’s a verse.” They need what I felt for David. When I’m looking at people through God’s eyes and I’m feeling how Christ feels, then spiritual power can flow through me to them.
The church is the fullness of Christ. Jesus reigning. Jesus loving and giving life.
Let me show you something that God once showed me. A man in the Jerusalem church named Stephen was doing miracles and telling about Jesus being the Messiah. The Jewish leaders took him into custody and interrogated him. Again he told them that Jesus is the Messiah and they had killed him. The leaders got angrier, and Acts 7:55 says, 
“But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Then this happened: “When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him… They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ Having said this, he fell asleep.” He died. You’ve heard someone else say those things as he died: “‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing… Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:34 & 46) Stephen saw Jesus at God’s right hand. He saw Jesus reigning. That didn’t stop his enemies. It didn’t stop the stoning. It didn’t keep him from dying. When Stephen saw Jesus reigning, he acted like Jesus.
When we know Jesus reigns, when we believe that and accept that, when we live under his authority and according to his Kingdom, we become like him. We become his images. We act like him. We feel like him. We love like him. When we know he is in charge and he is giving us a better way to live and he is loving us, then we become like him.
A prayer: Holy God, I accept the truth that Jesus reigns. I accept his authority over me and for me. I accept his ways for living. I accept his love for me and for all others. I accept my place in his church that he can express his love and power in the world. I accept your purpose that I become like Jesus. Amen.