Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
Hey everyone, Mark here. Welcome to the Mark Clark Podcast. In Ephesians 1, which is what we're in in this episode, Paul says something shocking. He says that we reign with Christ. Now, not in an arrogant way, and it's something actually we rarely talk about in the church. Rarely have I heard sermons on it. And so we wanted to explore it. And it's not that we reign in arrogance.
Mark Clark [00:00:27]:
It's an identity and authority rooted in Jesus' victory. So if you feel powerless or stuck, like you're in survival mode in life, this passage reframes who you are in Christ and how you carry yourself in the world and what you're able to accomplish. Super excited about this one. This one, when I preached it even and studied for it, it reframed a whole bunch of thinking in my mind. So hopefully it's helpful to you, and then share it with a friend, share it on social so we can get the word out about the podcast and about how the Bible has changed our lives. All right, let's get into it.
Mark Clark [00:00:58]:
Uh, really good to have you here, and we're almost going to wrap up the book of Ephesians chapter 1. All right, not the whole book, just chapter 1, uh, this morning. Um, and so as you turn there, uh, let me set up, uh, the verses that we're going to deal with this morning this way. Um, I don't know if any of you have ever had people come to your front door, uh, trying to sell you religion. All right, I don't know if that's ever happened to any of you. Has that Has that ever happened? All right, so I've had that. Usually it's guys in suits with little badges and they're riding bicycles and they come in twos. And they knock on your front door and they want to tell you about Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:01:32]:
Now, here's what usually goes down, all right? If it's kind of a Jehovah's Witness kind of guy, usually we sit down and we have a conversation and usually I tell them that, "Man, there's no way you can look me in the eyes and tell me that you sat down with the Scriptures one day and and just kind of read them as they sit, and this self-evident truth that you found there was that you deduced that Jesus Christ wasn't God, that he's actually the Archangel Michael, all right? There's no way you kind of came into this thing and said, "Oh yeah, I read my Bible and that's what I deduced," because right from the beginning it's talking about Jesus, his name is Emmanuel, and he's God with us, and the disciples and the apostles worshiped him as God. They said, "My Lord and my God," and he didn't reject their worship, and he, you know, Paul in Philippians says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and Colossians 1, that he made everything, and you know, end of the book of Revelation where he's talking, I'm the Alpha and the Omega, he's taking all these titles on himself, so there's no way you can claim one, you know, Jesus isn't God, all right, that's just not the self-evident reality of the text, and usually they leave discouraged, all right? Now, what happens when Mormons come to my door and we sit down and we talk, Usually I'm like, man, there's no way you kind of sat down, alright, read the scriptures, and they self-evidently told you that, you know, that we're all kind of going to have interplanetary sex and we all own our own planets, that the ancient Jews boarded a boat and came over to America, that the Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri, alright? There's no way that you just read the Bible and went, hmm, I just think that's True, all right, self-evident true. Now, here's what usually happens. They leave and they're discouraged, right? And they tell me that there's an elder who's gonna come to my door and answer all my questions, and then he never shows up and I'm disappointed. But what happens is, is the Lord then starts to work on my heart, all right? And he begins to kind of convict me with this reality. Hey, great, Mark, you're feeling good about yourself, all right? You own them. Yeah, what's up? I won, all right? I won. But here's the reality.
Mark Clark [00:03:49]:
When's the last time you did what you just challenged them to do? Which is approach the text and look for what is the self-evident truth that's coming out of the Bible and let it rock you and the way that you view your own Christian life. When's the last time you did that? Because here's the thing. If you went out, alright, on a desert island and you were just there by yourself living with Jesus by yourself and all you had was the Bible for 20 years and you read that, and you read the book of Acts, and you read the Gospels, you would deduce some crazy things that if you got dropped in the middle of contemporary Christian culture, you just would see an absolute disconnect. There would be an absolute gap. You would say, "Man, people, Christians must live by the Holy Spirit like it's air. You know, they must sacrifice everything. They must go and battle their sin." all the time. I'm not talking about sin management.
Mark Clark [00:04:45]:
I'm talking about killing sin. Because when I read the Bible, that's what it says. Christians aren't managing their sin, they're killing it dead. Man, people must live by the gospel. People must sacrifice everything to follow Jesus. Their money, their time, their lives, and then you would plop in here and you go, "Hmm?" All right, there would be a gap. And here's what I want to say. I think the gap between what the Bible lays out is a Christian life and what happens in our experience is right coming from here with what Paul's talking about.
Mark Clark [00:05:20]:
You pick it up in verse 20. He says this, that he, meaning God, and we ended here last week, worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. So, here's what believing that reality meant for the early church. It meant they sacrificed everything. It meant they didn't fear Roman sword. It meant they got their heads cut off. They got stretched out. They got tortured.
Mark Clark [00:05:48]:
They died. How does that translate into your life? Like, they came to a point where they really believed that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and for them, that changed everything. That he was seated at the right hand of God in authority. That changed everything for them. How does it change everything for you? See, I think the gap is because we don't really believe this stuff. I mean, think about it. If this actually happened, Jesus Christ historically— I'm not talking about he rose from the dead in your heart. I'm saying historically.
Mark Clark [00:06:29]:
A guy got up from death and then he didn't die again like the others, like Lazarus and the little girl that Jesus— right? They died again. Jesus didn't rise from the dead. He floated into heaven and he said, "Go on mission. Reach people." Now, if you're new to church, some of you might be going, "Okay, I don't believe any of this. I'm, you know, a product of my post-Enlightenment, post-philosophical worldview. I got educated in the West Coast." public school system, sorry. So some of you might be there, all right, and in your experience and in your philosophy, people don't rise from the dead. So this statement right when we start off is like, whoa, what are you talking about? In my experience, people don't rise from the dead.
Mark Clark [00:07:12]:
That's just the reality. And that's, I mean, that's what I walked into the church with. All right, my first experience with death and how irreversible death was was when I was 8 years old, I overheard my mom telling my grandma, we were up in a cabin, telling my grandma that they were gonna put my cat, Scooter, to death. All right, they were gonna murder my cat, all right? So I wasn't pumped about that. And so I protested and I said, "I'm gonna kill myself." And I ran out into the lake and I started to drown myself. Now, I don't know if you've ever tried this, it doesn't work, all right? So I started drowning myself in protest. "I can't believe you're gonna kill Scooter." And my whole family came out there. And then they all went in for dinner and I was out there, all right, 20 minutes, right, trying to kill myself.
Mark Clark [00:07:57]:
So that was my first point of, man, I don't think I'm gonna get Scooter back if he does. That's the reality. I mean, I sat as a 15-year-old over the casket of my father and I asked that he would get back up and he didn't. And then a couple years ago, over the casket of my stepfather, who I love very dearly, and asked him to get back up, and he didn't. But here's the thing, some of you deduce that because you can't raise somebody from the dead, and because you've never seen somebody raised from the dead, that it can't be true. And that's just the logic and deduction just doesn't make any sense, all right? Because the Scriptures constantly push against you and say, hey, listen, you aren't God. God does stuff that you can't do. God moves and flexes in ways that you could never.
Mark Clark [00:08:53]:
But I've never seen it. You've never seen an electron. No one has. But you believe it. Why? Because there's a textbook with people smarter than you that are authority, and they tell you electrons exist. And so we're constantly going, yeah, but I've never seen this happen. "Um, I don't have proof of this." And here's the funny thing about people who just adamantly don't believe in the existence of God, pure atheists. There's a couple tenets of atheism.
Mark Clark [00:09:22]:
They don't believe in God and they're very angry at him, which is weird, all right? They're like, "I don't believe that God exists. I hate that guy! Why do you believe in God?" Rrrr! Get the bumper stickers out. And I'm like, man, I don't get all jacked up for people who believe in unicorns. I mean, I personally don't, but when my daughter's running around going, "Hey, Daddy, my unicorns," I'm like, "Ah, get that out of my face. Don't push that on me, girl." What do I care if she believes in unicorns? Have fun, right? Whatever. It doesn't— hey, look, you believe in unicorns, I don't believe in unicorns, whatever. I don't know what— I don't have a bumper sticker, "I don't believe in unicorns. You're an idiot if you believe in unicorns." I don't know where that came from, but anyway.
Mark Clark [00:10:11]:
All right, the point is we get jacked up about something we don't even believe is true, and what the Bible does is it says, "Listen, you're not God. God raised Jesus from the dead, and that's supposed to be confrontational for you if you don't believe in the God of the universe. It's supposed to be a crisis of faith." So Paul starts off by going— He actually historically rose from the dead, that Christianity at its core is not some philosophical teaching. It's not some idealistic philosophy of life, that Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead. And Paul says in the book of Corinthians that over 500 people saw him in person, and then he says, "You can go and ask them if you want," which is a very risky thing if all you've done is kind of come up with a hoax. "Hey, let's all get together and say Jesus rose from the dead." If you went out to 500 people who are into that hoax, one of them might wink. And so the reality is where it led the early church was they got hurt, they got tortured, they got killed for this reality that Jesus actually rose from the dead. Now, here's what else he says.
Mark Clark [00:11:16]:
He seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. So Paul's going, man, I— this is where it led the early church. They went to the lion's den. They got eaten by lions. For these two things, believing that Jesus rose from the dead and He was seated at the right. Like, this is crazy stuff. Does this just blow you up? Clearly not. You guys need to drink some Red Bull before you come to church or something, man.
Mark Clark [00:11:44]:
Holy smokes, you're putting me to sleep. Listen, He rose from the dead. Does that amp you up? Thank you! He's seated at the right hand of God. Don't let this stuff just wave over you like, "He's raised from the dead. He's seated at the right—" What? This is explosive stuff! This is supposed to ruin you! This is supposed to make you go, "I'll take a bullet for this!" It did for the early church. I'm not sure you guys would take decaf for this. I'm not sure. You pull up and you don't get the right parking spot.
Mark Clark [00:12:29]:
Pfft. I'm going home. I'll get my parking spot. What kind of sacrifice? This is the point. What does this do to your heart, to your mind, to your life that all of this is true? And he's saying he's seated at the right hand in the heavenly places. So here's what he's saying. Jesus Christ, we talk about this a lot here, and it's really important to understand it, that Jesus Christ is not who many of you grew up with Jesus being. He's not, I mean, we get these visions of him being this kind of liberal, dress-wearing hippie, all right, where he's just kind of walking around doing the peace and getting everyone to hang out and doing little philosophical stories.
Mark Clark [00:13:10]:
"Hey children, let's play in the rocks." And he's kind of this innocent guy, and we read the end of the Gospels where he's getting killed, and we watch The Passion of the Christ, and we begin to go, "Man, he's a victim. He's weak." And this text is going, "Listen, that's who he was for 33 years, 2,000 years ago, but check this, it's not who he is now. Who he is now is the resurrected sovereign God of the universe who's ruling and reigning." who's seated at the right hand of God. He has power and authority. He holds the universe in his right hand. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. That's the Jesus we're talking about. Now, some of you are like, "Okay, when are you going to start talking about me?" Listen, we've got to get Jesus right first, alright, before we can start talking about you and what all of this means for you.
Mark Clark [00:14:12]:
We'll get there, okay? But we have to get our Christology right first. Some of us were just kind of born and bred on, if you don't get to talking about me in 3 minutes, I'm sleeping and I'm out. Listen, he's going, I gotta get you to understand who Jesus is first because it has everything to do with your life. And so he says he's this authoritative— he seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. He has this reign. He has this rule. Now, some of you, when you read the Gospels and you read the stories of Jesus, some of this reign and rulership actually begins to seep through even his life as he lived it. And so he could walk up, as we talked about last week, and he could heal 10 lepers.
Mark Clark [00:14:55]:
He has authority and rulership over sickness, even yours. Even yours. He's sovereign over sickness. He can raise people from the dead. He's sovereign over death. He's sovereign over demons. Read the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1. You're not even out of chapter 1 and demons start coming out of people.
Mark Clark [00:15:16]:
When they see Jesus, they shrivel and they shout and they can't stand to be in His presence. And so He calls them out, and then they begin to talk and say, "Oh Jesus, You're Lord." And His response is, "Shut up!" Read Mark chapter 1, alright? We do some nice Canadian nicety thing like, "Hey, be quiet." You know, it's like in the Greek, it's this emphatic, "Shut up!" Why? Because I don't want to hear demons talk, right? Because they're full of lies, they're full of temptation. This is how Jesus deals with temptation, all right? He just shuts it up. You and me, that's not how we roll. We like sin, it's pleasurable, so we kind of play with it a little bit. We just kind of flirt with it, hoping it doesn't really do any damage later. And the Bible goes, "Man, that's not the way." Like, listen, some of you, There's that woman at work and she's cute. And you know, things with you and your wife, they've been— ah, there's been tension, man.
Mark Clark [00:16:12]:
I mean, if you go to Village, you've probably got like 3, 4 kids all coming at once. Your marriage is just— it's tough, man. You've got the kids and the cereal and the— ah. Your wife hasn't given you any attention. She doesn't look at you like she used to look at you. "But man, this girl at work, she does. You've never seen cereal in her hair. She looks good.
Mark Clark [00:16:41]:
And you know what? It's just flirting. We just talk a little bit." Amen. I can't wait to get to the lunchroom because I'm living out my 20s again. And so I do a little flirty and she does a little flirty and it's all innocent. And the Bible goes, that's not innocent. That's going to a bad place every time. How does Jesus deal with temptation and sin? Shut up! So next time you walk in the cafeteria and that girl says, hey, John, you want some cum? Shut up! What? Just chill, man. Shut up! John's gone crazy.
Mark Clark [00:17:22]:
My pastor told me to tell you. Shut up. That's how Jesus deals with demons. That's how Jesus deals with sin. Doesn't give it an inch. Because if you give it an inch, it'll grow and grow and grow and grow. And before you know it, you're, "How did I get here?" See, that's Jesus' authority. That's Jesus' power.
Mark Clark [00:17:43]:
That's how He reigns. That's how He rules. Now, here's the other thing about Him. Verse 21, He says, "He's 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. He's trying to give you a huge, beautiful, majestic vision of Jesus where he's supremely sovereign, that you would fall in love with this authoritative Jesus that, contrary to much theology, he is not the God who is an ambulance driver. He's not the God who kind of shows up after bad things happen to us and goes, "Oh, let me try to clean that up for you." He's the God who holds it all together from beginning to end. He knows. So some of us try to save God from being all ruler, all authority.
Mark Clark [00:18:33]:
"Oh, he didn't know about this." Listen, we've talked about this often at Village Church. I have Tourette's syndrome, all right? So most of you know that. You watch me, I do little things with my face. And that grew, all right, to obsessive-compulsive disorder when I was 9 years old. One of you caring people called the office this week and said, "I just, I think something's wrong with your pastor. Do you know that his face twitches?" We're like, "Yes." Click. So, so that, all right, so, all right, so we know, all right? We're good? Okay, so now that happened when, you know, I'm 9 years old, I'm 10 years old, and nothing has happened. Doing weird noises, I start yelling at shadows in the night, driving my parents crazy.
Mark Clark [00:19:17]:
I start honking and quacking, I start doing my face, I start swearing at random strangers, usually 'cause I just wanted to, but I'd say, "Tourette's." And so, and so, so that would happen, all right? And that happens when I'm 9, 10 years old. Now, here's the thing. That just didn't start out of nowhere, all right? That thing was rooted down there. This didn't surprise God. As if He didn't know this was going to happen and then afterwards He's gonna come and clean it up. Like, hey Gabriel, come over here for a sec. Do you see that guy? Why is he making those noises? I don't know. Should we go help him? I don't know.
Mark Clark [00:19:53]:
Why is he saying that? I don't know. Did you know about it? No. Okay. So we gonna help him? Check this. Why doesn't He help me? If He's far above all rule and authority, help me out! So why not? I take great comfort. John chapter 9, Jesus comes up to heal a blind guy. He goes, this guy's blind. For the manifestation of the glory of God.
Mark Clark [00:20:39]:
That the praise of His glorious grace would somehow be a result of this. Now, I don't know how that plays out, alright? It might play out— I was up at Green Bay Bible Camp speaking a few weeks ago, and there was a woman— I shared this with them so they wouldn't think I was having a seizure or something— and I shared it with them, and this woman came up to me after And she just was weeping, weeping, and she said, "You don't understand. I have a teenage son who has that same thing, and we thought he was gonna be a write-off. He didn't think he could do anything with his life, but now we see you, and you're an inspiration." I'm like, "Who, me?" "You're an inspiration. We can see he might do something with his life." To the praise of His glorious grace and the praise of God that something good would come of that, some encouragement. Now the thing is, I didn't meet with him because as you know, I don't, you know, I love people with Tourette's but I don't meet with you. Alright, some guy called me up, he's like, hey, we got, I know this leader, I'd like to go out for breakfast with the two of you. I'm like, okay.
Mark Clark [00:21:42]:
He's like, he has Tourette's. I'm like, no. He's like, why? I'd like to sit and watch. Yeah, are you gonna sit and watch us quack and honk at each other? I'm gonna pick up 3 habits before the check comes. Alright? So some people have called me a Tourette's snob, alright? I love you, I just won't meet with you. So here's the point. Here's the point. He seated Him at His right hand.
Mark Clark [00:22:13]:
Any vision of heaven in the Old Testament, angels bowing, people bowing, Jesus gets to sit. He's not bowing, 'cause he's the one they're bowing to. He's on the throne. He's the ruler. He's reigning supreme over all things. What Paul is saying is this is the unseen reality. You take in a world through your eyes and your ears and your mouth and your taste and your touch, and you think this is the only universe in play, and the Bible says Things are not as they seem. There's a veil, heavenly places, and there's an existence of God and Satan and Jesus and heaven that it's in the heaven.
Mark Clark [00:23:00]:
It's behind a veil. So you see the world in front of you, but then there's a world, an actual world behind it that you can't see and feel and taste and touch, but it exists. It's there. And Jesus reigns there. Now, it's not the heavenly places like if you go up high enough, if we can build a rocket ship, right, powerful enough, we'll rocket into heaven and kind of just bump into the living room. Hey, what are you doing here? It's not that. It's God's space. It's a spiritual place where things are happening, and I've explained it this way before.
Mark Clark [00:23:32]:
It's the picture of Christmas where Herod is trying to kill all these babies because he thinks they're gonna challenge his power, and so he kills all the babies under 2 years old, and the book of Revelation says That's what was happening in historical reality. Let me tell you what was happening behind the scenes. There was a woman and she was pregnant and she was ready to give birth to a baby and she had her feet up in the stirrups ready to give birth. And Revelation 12 says, but a dragon waited to devour the child, but God grabbed the child and swept him up into heaven. Protection, the life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus. That that's the spiritual reality that's going on behind the scenes. That you, the Bible says, if you think what you feel and taste and touch is all there is in existence, the Bible calls you a fool. It says you are naive.
Mark Clark [00:24:24]:
The book of Proverbs says, "Those who say there is no God, he is a fool." So of course there's more. You can feel it. C.S. Lewis said, if you got desires that are built in your heart, that nothing on this planet can actually feed, can actually satisfy, then that means you were made for a different world. A world that can satisfy those things. A world that can feed those things. What do you got? I just can't get pleasure enough. I just can't get contentment enough.
Mark Clark [00:24:59]:
I can't get joy enough. But I've tried women, and I've tried men, and I've tried jobs, and I've tried money, and I've tried relationships, but none of them fill it, none of them fill it. It's because God made you so that Jesus could fill it. There are heavenly places. The earthly place is not the only place that exists. There's a God, there's a devil, there's evil. Now, here's what he says, verse 21, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is named. There's two aspects to this I wanna explain to you.
Mark Clark [00:25:33]:
The Apostle Paul lives in a world where the Roman Empire reigned and ruled, and Caesar was the name above every name. The Roman Empire had all authority, all power, all rulership, and it claimed that anything you did with your life, if you lived a life and you wanted to go out with your friends, if you wanted to run a business, if you wanted to go to the cheap flicks on Tuesday night, you would have to pinch incense to Caesar and say, "Caesar is Lord." Caesar is savior. Caesar is God. He gave me salvation. He provides peace. The Roman Empire is absolute authority and rulership, and that's the only way you can live your life. If you want to go to the hairdresser, ladies, pinch incense to Caesar as you go in. Paul comes along and he goes, Jesus Christ is Lord.
Mark Clark [00:26:18]:
Now, we read that as like, yeah, okay, it's Christianese. He's— listen, it's treason. He's saying Jesus Christ is Lord and therefore Caesar is not. The Roman Empire is not. He's the name above every name. Paul's saying, "I'm gonna die for this." That statement right there, Paul dies for. That's how countercultural Christianity is. Would you take a bullet for this? Would you die for this? I met a pastor when I was in Turkey.
Mark Clark [00:26:52]:
And he was from Iraq, and he came and shared with us and told us all about his life. And he said, "Mark, every Sunday I drive to a secret church in Iraq and I preach the gospel, and it's 2 hours from my house, and I never know whether when I go home whether my family will be there, whether my children and my wife would have been raped, killed, and my village burned to the ground." But listen, I continue to advance the gospel because I refuse to trade out the eternity of people for my own comfort and my own ease. Paul is going, man, can you catch a vision where you're actually convinced of Christianity enough where you challenge the powers and the authorities? Can you get a vision of your own life where you would take a bullet for Jesus? If not, I'm not sure you believe this. I'm not sure you really believe in your heart of hearts, in your mind of minds, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is seated and sovereign over all things. There's a second part to this. The second part to it, and you can't get away from it, is the satanic or the demonic aspect of this language of all the powers, authorities. This is the way the Apostle Paul uses this language in the book of Ephesians, the principalities and the powers. And here's what begins to happen to us.
Mark Clark [00:28:23]:
Many of us don't actually believe in these things. We've seen way too many horror movies. We got mythology in our mind. We think that demon means your head spinning around and you're puking, and then we laugh, and then we shrivel it down to mean nothing.. But the reality is I've seen this manifested in my life— not in my life, in the life of other people in my ministry to which Jesus Christ is called to have reign and authority. That, that's the point. I've seen this when I was traveling in India to people who gave their life to Shiva or Vishnu, and I've seen it in South Surrey, who people who gave their life to money and their reputation as a Soccer mom, same power. Demonic, an idol, a spiritual reality behind the reality.
Mark Clark [00:29:18]:
And so C.S. Lewis said there's two basic things that people do with the demonic. Either on the one hand, they obsess about it. They overemphasize it. It becomes the reason for everything. All right, you know these people. Some of you are these people, right? It wasn't a nail that popped your tire. It wasn't you just locking your keys in your car.
Mark Clark [00:29:39]:
"That was a demon trying to keep me from Bible study." No, you're a moron. All right, you locked your keys in the car. That's how it rolls. There's no demon making sure that happened for you. On the other hand, There are people who say, "This stuff doesn't exist. I don't believe in evil. I don't believe in Satan. I don't believe in demons.
Mark Clark [00:30:01]:
I don't believe in any of it." And see, don't be so naive. Don't be so foolish. This is a part of life. And when you're in leadership, this tends to be you putting yourself out there as a target where these things actually take place, where when you're going out and you're on mission and you're reaching people for Jesus, you become in the target of these kinds of things happening in your life. And the question becomes, are you going to continue in doing that or shrivel backward afraid? You take leadership, you get on mission, you have to understand your friends, your family, everybody's part of the cost. And you begin to understand this is a big boy job. Christianity's a big boy job. If you want to affect— you want to know how you never get affected by any of this stuff? Do nothing.
Mark Clark [00:30:57]:
Do nothing. Be useless for the kingdom of God. Because you know what Jesus says? He says, very famous passage, "I will build my church." And then he says this, "And the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Here's what he means. You ever thought about the imagery of gates? Why are gates— see, we tend to think Satan, demons, they're on the offense, we run away, we're on the defense, we're ducking and weaving. Even the imagery of a gate is defensive. Jesus is saying you're on the offense, storming the gates of hell to rescue people back. It's not a joke. The church, you're the unstoppable force to go forward on mission, lit up with the Holy Spirit to rescue people from hell.
Mark Clark [00:31:49]:
Now, this plays out in my life. I sit with my kids, I pray with my kids protection, I pray that Jesus would protect them as they go to sleep at night, right? When my kids ask me about monsters and they say, "Daddy, you know, I'm scared. Do monsters exist?" I don't tell them no. That would be a lie. Monsters do exist. I tell them to trust Jesus who's sovereign over them. See, that's two different ways of parenting. No, there's no monsters, don't worry, honey.
Mark Clark [00:32:21]:
They're gonna grow up to what? Hee-dee-dee-dee-dee. Alright, no defense. Not even aware that Satan exists to kill and to steal and to destroy. But Daddy, you told me. Yeah, I know, I was just trying to not make you afraid, honey. No, you love Jesus. No. Don't hear me saying you go into your kid's bedroom before he sleeps and, "Jesus, I pray you protect Tommy from all the demons that are trying to kill his soul tonight," alright? I'm not saying that.
Mark Clark [00:32:48]:
Alright, your kid's gonna freak out! I'm saying your kid has a nightmare, whatever, you're going in, you're praying the presence of Jesus, the love of Jesus, you're giving them a hug. Again, I'm not throwing oil around the room, walking in with a big cross, "What'd you say?" Did you say you had a nightmare? That's not what I'm saying. Don't be crazy. There's something called the ministry of normal. Be ministers of normal to your neighbors, to your coworkers. Don't make them think that's how you live. That's not what we're talking about, but the point is, He has authority. He has rule.
Mark Clark [00:33:31]:
That they would love Jesus, cherish Jesus, trust in Jesus more than anything. That's the point to all of this. Now, where does all this go for you and me? Verse 22. It goes to a very crazy place. He says that all of this authority, all of this power, all of this accomplishment is gonna filter down in some measure, check this, to the reign and the rule of you and me as the church. Now, this is something we, the church rarely ever talks about this, and it's not something I talk about often because the text doesn't lead me there, but listen to verse 22. He, meaning God, put all things under his, meaning Jesus', feet, and gave him as head over all things. Check this out.
Mark Clark [00:34:27]:
To the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. So the church is doing this. The plan of God, the intent of God is to fill the universe with the authority of Jesus. And what Paul is saying here in this kind of weird convoluted way is that he's going to apply that authority, the means of which filling the universe with the authority and glory of Jesus is through the church, through his body, that there's some capacity even now in which you and I rule and reign through Jesus Christ. So remember, this was the plan. Remember Genesis 1? God created man and woman and he said, "Go out and be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it." Have a whole bunch of babies. At Village Church, we want to claim that verse. So we had like 30 babies last week, alright? This church, I mean, it was crazy.
Mark Clark [00:35:27]:
We love that verse. "Multiply, yes, we multiply. That's our life verse. Go, go, go." Right on the website, "We multiply." So remember though that God said, "I want you to fill the earth. I want you to subdue it." I want you to oversee. I want you to have authority over the birds and the fishes and the this and the that and the plants. I want you to reign. This is why the Bible calls us kings and priests.
Mark Clark [00:35:51]:
But I'm just a worm, I don't have anything to offer. You're a king! In Jesus Christ, you're a king and a priest. You rule. You reign. You're given responsibility. You're given authority. Jesus talks about this in the book of Revelation. In chapter 2, he says to the church in Thyatira, "I will give you authority over the nations." He says to the church in Laodicea in chapter 3, "I will grant to sit down, grant you to sit down with me on my throne.
Mark Clark [00:36:26]:
I will grant you to sit down with me on my throne." Go over to Luke 19. Luke 19, there's a great story Jesus tells about this kind of thing, and we rarely go here, so this is just unfamiliar to us, all right? Jesus tells a story about what it's going to look like for us to have authority and rulership. He tells this, Luke 19:12: A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling 10 of his servants, he gave them 10 minas. A mina is 3 months' wage in that culture. And he said to them, 'Engage in business until I come.' But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.' The question in your life: does God reign over you or not? Does Jesus reign over you or not? That's what all the talk about the kingdom of God is in the Bible. It's the reign and the rulership of Jesus. What he's saying here is there are some people, some of your hearts in this room, that that kick against and say, "I don't want God to reign and rule over me." You are his enemy, okay? You're not his friend.
Mark Clark [00:37:33]:
You're not his buddy. This text says you're his enemy and you hate him. "I don't want him to rule over me." Verse 15: When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him, saying, 'Lord, your minna has made 10 minnas more.' And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities.'" What? See, here's what happens. You and I live our life, and we're like, I can't wait for Jesus to say those beautiful words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And then at some point, our mind kind of blanks out for what comes after that. All right, it's just kind of white. He's going, I'll tell you what comes after that.
Mark Clark [00:38:30]:
You reign 10 cities. You rule. You have authority. You have responsibility. If you do well with the bit I gave you, this is what eternity's gonna look like. You got some reigning, some ruling, some leadership, some creativity to do as you fill the universe. And the second came saying, "Lord, your mina has made 5 minas." And he said to him, "And you are to be over 5 cities." Then another came saying, "Lord, here's your mina which I kept away in a handkerchief." He did what? "I kept it in a handkerchief. I was scared." I was nervous.
Mark Clark [00:39:15]:
I liked ease and comfort. I was afraid of you because you're a severe man. I mean, listen to these verses. This is talking about God, alright? We shrivel down God. He's a nice guy, don't worry, bring him home to mom, have a nice dinner. Listen to how this guy talks about him. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your words, you wicked servant.
Mark Clark [00:39:40]:
You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 'Why then did you not put my money in the bank? At my coming I might have collected it with interest.' And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him and give it to the one who has the 10 minas.' And they said to him, 'Lord, he has 10 minas.' I love that. It's like, hey, take that, give it to the guy who's got 10. Yeah, but that guy's got 10. Yeah, I know, I just said that. I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But from the one who has not, from the one who squandered the time and the resources and the mission that I gave him, for those of you who did nothing with what God has given you, now I don't want him to reign over me. I don't want him to rule over me.
Mark Clark [00:40:31]:
I don't want him to be in my life. Take what he has. And give it away. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. What's that? This is not the verse I share with my neighbor over the fence. So what if I don't believe in Jesus? He's gonna bring in front of the slaughter. Slaughter him! What? Here's what he's saying.
Mark Clark [00:41:17]:
If you are a follower of Jesus, you're a leader. You're an influencer already, in the present, right now, and some of you, here's the rub, You run away from responsibility. You run away from holiness, run away from influence, run away from leadership. The Bible says, hey, you're supposed to aspire to leadership, right? Village Church, you got Jesus as a head pastor, we got elders and pastors, we got deacons, we got coaches, we got ministry leaders. You got all the place in the world to develop, and then I sit with some of you and I say, hey man, I noticed sitting "but you got a ton of potential. Why don't we work together over a couple years and you could be a really strong leader?" And some of you shrivel and you say, "But what if I don't want to be a leader? What if I don't want responsibility? What if I don't want people looking at me? 'Cause it's so much easier to have no one looking at me. Then I don't have to be holy, I don't have to do anything with my life. I can sit, live with my parents until I'm 30." and just view my Christian life like I'm waiting to die and go to heaven.
Mark Clark [00:42:24]:
This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. And the Bible goes, you're a leader now. You're supposed to influence now. And some of you shirk that responsibility. Some of you men, you're supposed to lead your families. You're supposed to lead your wife, love, serve, die for, lead your kids. And some of you, I can see it in your eyes, you're afraid of that.
Mark Clark [00:42:48]:
I sit with you before you get married and I exhort you from the Scriptures. You're gonna lead this woman, right? Because here's the thing that all women feel and no guy understands. She's terrified to marry you. You think you're the man. You got it together. She looks at you like, "You're gonna drop me. Can you get a job, please?" and take off the jogging pants. And I see the fear.
Mark Clark [00:43:22]:
You're gonna lead this woman? You're terrified of her. And I don't blame you, man. You live in a culture where you have been torn down, ripped apart, made fun of. You're a second-class citizen. You're dumb. The last thing you should be doing is leading. And Jesus is going, man, men, women? What does it mean to influence your friends? What does it mean to actually be a leader? Because you're going to lead. You're going to lead 10 cities? You're going to lead 5? You're going to lead none? Could you lead Baltimore right now? Could you lead New York right now? That's what he's saying.
Mark Clark [00:43:55]:
It would do much for you to think about that. What if God gave me Baltimore? How would I do with it? All right, let me close out by reflecting on why I think Paul has done what he's done in this first chapter. He has unpacked, as you guys have been sitting through for however long we've been doing this, 3 months, he has painstakingly unpacked the sovereignty of God, election, predestination, the reign of Christ, Jesus rising from the dead, reigning and ruling, sovereignty. Just painstakingly done that. And here's the reason. He wants all of us to think differently about reality than we presently do. He wants to go, "I know you feel that cancer is winning." I know you feel evil. I know you feel your marriage.
Mark Clark [00:45:02]:
I know you feel your friend. I know you feel all of these things are sovereign. Let me peel back the veil and tell you what's real. What's real is Jesus is sovereign. Jesus is reigning. There's a God. There are demons. You have to trust in Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:45:21]:
He wants to change your mind because here's the thing. There's a war going on for your mind. The only way you're gonna be able to fill this gap, the only way you're gonna be able to live this stuff out is if you start to fill your mind with the realities of the scriptures, of the gospel, of the reality of the reign and the rule of Jesus rather than— listen, every day you get up, you turn on your TV, there's sermons being preached to you telling you how to think. Every time you go by a billboard, every time you walk you watch a commercial. There's constant messages coming at you. It's a battle for your mind, for you to think a particular way, to act a particular way. Every time, this is what life's about. You work as a policeman for 35 years, get your money, and then go retire somewhere and kick your feet up and do nothing.
Mark Clark [00:46:11]:
If I give you more money, you know what you're supposed to do with it? Get a bigger lawn. Get more property. Well, what about using my money to help the kingdom of God, advance in the world, eternal things instead of temporal things, huh? He wants you to think different. People come up to me and they say, you're telling your little children, I got a 5-year-old, a 6-year-old now, a 3-year-old, and a 1.5-year-old. You tell all your little girls about Jesus all the time. Do you know you're brainwashing them? You know, you teach them the Bible, you're gonna brainwash your children, you brainwash them with Jesus, you brainwash them with salvation. "Do you know that you're doing that? You know your kids, there's 170 kids down here on a Sunday morning at Village Kids, you're just brainwashing them." And my response to that is, you're darn right I am! Of course I am, 'cause if I don't, someone else will. You will.
Mark Clark [00:47:07]:
Or Grey's Anatomy will. You wanna know what life's all about? McSteamy, then when you're done with him, McDreamy. Alright, that's what life's all about. He's traded up. You don't think we get brainwashed every time we watch Friends? That'll brainwash you faster than anything else. You'll amuse yourself to death. You'll laugh yourself into spiritual death. And I go shopping with my kids and they're walking by, I mean, Here they are, 3 little girls, and there's a half-naked girl out on a big billboard.
Mark Clark [00:47:46]:
She's got her lingerie on. Bam! And my kids are going, "Is that what I'm gonna grow up to be? No. Let's go to Abbotsford. The ladies wear long things there. They make them themselves." Here's the solution to our mess. The church comes at it like, "The solution to your problems is to change how you behave." Okay, so when you come into a church, the solution is change what you do. That tends to be the gospel. So when I came into the church, it was, "Okay, you gotta pull up your pants, make them less baggy, turn your hat around, and start listening to this terrible Christian music." And I was like, "Man, this sounds like a really bad version of Radiohead." They're like, "This is my favorite Christian band, Radioheart." Oh, okay.
Mark Clark [00:49:08]:
Change what you do. Stop smoking. Stop swearing. That's behavior modification. It'll never change you. You know what Jesus does when he starts his ministry? Read the Gospel of Mark. First words out of Jesus' mouth in the Gospel of Mark. First words.
Mark Clark [00:49:26]:
Repent. You know what the word repentance means? Change your mind. Metanoia. Change how you think. Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand. You want to change our city? You want to change your household? You want to change our country? You gotta change how you think. Some of you walk in here, you think that God's your friend, but He's not. He's your enemy if you don't know Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:49:51]:
Some of you walked in here and you think that all paths lead to heaven. They don't. Only Jesus leads to heaven. You're thinking wrong. You're defining your identity wrong, and the gospel comes at you and says, "You gotta change the way you think about life." Think about everything. And if we could get the 1,200 of us to change the way we think, to go through a transformation of our mind, we will change our city. We'll change our country. That's on you.
Mark Clark [00:50:23]:
So let's pray. Father, my honest hope, my honest desire is that we would have our minds absolutely transformed, absolutely changed by the gospel of Jesus, that we would really in our minds actually believe, and then it would filter down to our hearts and therefore our actions, our affections, that you reign supreme. That everything around us, all the powers, all the authorities, that those things are not actually sovereign, that You are sovereign and that You can change our life even sitting here right now. There are people who came in here totally disconnected from You, that You would confront them where they are with the reality that You have risen, You have died for them, that You came and lived the perfect life for them. You went to the cross and died for their sin, but then You didn't stay dead. You rose from the dead to offer new life. You're seated at the right hand of God, sovereignly reigning and ruling. And if we entrust our life to you, you give us eternal life, and we don't even have to fear death.
Mark Clark [00:51:20]:
We don't have to fear any of the stuff that keeps us awake at night. That you would do your work among us in this room, even as we worship, as we sing these couple songs in response to your word going out, that we would actually sing them responsive that we would actually respond to your word going out. And even as we give, that we would give from a point of worship to see the gospel go forward, to see advancement, that we would give generously because the gospel has dropped, changed our hearts, and opened up our hands, that we would be his body and bring the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. As it is in heaven, fearlessly, for the praise of your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.