July 5, 2026 | Christ Over All

Christ Over All

Colossians 1:15–20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (ESV)

In “Christ Over All,” Isaias Viñales preaches from Colossians 1:15–20 on the supreme authority of Jesus Christ over every power. Christ is Lord over the unseen powers of darkness, which tremble and obey at his command. He is Lord over sin, breaking its dominion through the cross and forgiving the debt that stood against us. He is Lord over death, rising bodily from the grave and holding the keys of death and Hades. He is Lord over earthly kingdoms, outlasting every empire and establishing a kingdom that will never be destroyed. The sermon calls believers to take comfort in Christ’s present reign and urges all people to bow before him now as Savior and King, before every knee bows at his return.

Transcript of Christ Over All

Well, good morning, church. It's always a pleasure, to be up here and to open up the Word of God with you all, and it was a great pleasure of mine this morning, to be able to sing.

I wanna go ahead and invite you to open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1, okay? And go ahead and open it to the very passage that we read this morning. That is Colossians 1:15-20.

This passage presents us with some themes that's really gonna govern the rest of our time this morning, okay? These are themes more or less that we have already been singing about and, reading about. Now, when we, come to this, and when we come to read this, I want you to hear this as Paul's confession, okay? And I want you to hear this really as the confession of the entire church of Christ. But even more than that, I want you to hear this as the very truth that God has to say concerning His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?

Reading Colossians 1:15-20

So with that in mind, let's begin in verse 15.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all thing, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Christ is Above All Thrones, Dominions, Rulers, and Authorities

I wonder if you've noticed this in really five sentences he names things like thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities. Every category, okay, of, of power that a first-century mind can conceive of here, he names. And he said that all of them, without exception, were created through him, created for him, and are held together by him, our Lord Jesus Christ.

So there is no throne in the universe that Christ did not make. There is no power out there right now, whether they're, the ones we can see or the ones that we cannot see, that operates outside of the Lord Jesus Christ's permission. There is not any authority that gets to say, "Christ does not apply to me." Not one. That is the claim of our text, and this is where we're going this morning.

We're going to really trace this theme of the preeminence, the supremacy or the authority, the reign of Christ, okay? And we're gonna do this, we're gonna look at this over four powers this morning, okay? The unseen powers of darkness being the first, the power of sin being the second, then we'll look at Christ's power over death, and lastly, his power over kings and kingdoms, okay?

And we're going to end where all of history ends, at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ when every one of those powers, whether we know them by name or not, bows before the majesty of King Jesus.

So my prayer has been that this sermon is, not a message to simply inform you, but Lord willing, to captivate and enrapture our hearts with the glorious majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ’s Power Over Darkness

So turn with me to Mark chapter 1. We're gonna hop around several places, and we're gonna begin with Christ's power over the darkness.

Now, one of the very first things Mark wants you to know about Jesus' public ministry is not so much the intricate details and substance of Christ's teaching. I wonder if you've ever noticed that about the Gospel of Mark. Although he does begin by telling us that Christ proclaimed that the time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God was at hand, and that he called people to repent and believe in the gospel, really, if you think about it, not much further explanation is given regarding the substance of Christ's teaching. For example, what does he mean by Kingdom of God?

He just doesn't say. But listen, Mark does want to emphasize a certain thing in Mark chapter 1 here. He spends so much time establishing the authority and preeminence of Christ. Let's trace this together.

Look at verse 3, where Jesus there is referred to as what? As the Lord. Look at verse 8, where John says that while he baptizes with water, Jesus would baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Okay, or you have verse 11, where God Almighty, the Father himself, refers to Jesus as his Son. Here we have the Son of God, and this one whom this gospel is about. Or look at verse 17, that pictures him as having the ability to call men unto himself and make them fishers of other men. And as we will see here in verses 21 through 28, okay, as he goes into Capernaum and into the synagogues, the crowds there were astonished and amazed because he taught them as one who had authority, unlike the scribes and the Pharisees.

You see, it's not because they've never heard teaching before. They've heard plenty of teaching from the scribes and the Pharisees, but they discerned that something was different. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna let that expand for us this morning. As soon as Mark tells us, look at this, that people were taken with his authority in verse 22. Do you see that? They recognized, they discerned the authority of Christ and that it was different.

As soon as he says that, verse 23 tells us that a man possessed by an unclean spirit speaks up in the synagogue. "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

Now take notice of this. The demon's theology is probably, you know, better than half the crowd there, okay? It knows exactly who is standing in front of it. It knows exactly who's standing in front of it, and, even really more than that, it fearfully recognized that there stood someone who had the power to, what? Destroy it. And not just him, but the other clean spirits, "Have you come to destroy us?"

And Jesus, oh man, he doesn't negotiate. He doesn't perform some elaborate exorcism ritual or rite. He says in one sentence, "Be silent," as though this demon was speaking out of turn. And come out of him, and it's over just like that in the very next verse, 25.

Mark tells us the people were what? They were amazed. They were astonished because here in the man Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lord, the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit, is teaching with authority.

And listen to me, the proof of the authority wasn't merely rhetorical. Okay, this is so key, and this is so important. It was that the unclean spirits obeyed him. You know, sometimes we perceive authority because someone's stature, okay, demands respect and attention, right? At other times, we may be struck with how well someone can speak, or maybe we know they're a good decision-maker, and we think things like, "Wow, look at how good of a leader they are," right?

We can, attribute authority to someone because they just have a certain way about them. They're, they leave an impression on us. You've ever been there where you're just kind of taken with the rhetorical flourish or the presence of an individual?

But dear friends, this is not primarily why the crowd was astonished. This teaching with authority was primarily seen in the fact that when Jesus issued a command, even the unclean spirits obeyed him, implying that these spirits don't just obey anyone, but they obey Jesus. They obey our glorious and awesome King.

And I, want you to feel the contrast, okay? there's this, contrast with the scribes and the Pharisees that position and posture themselves, and then there's Jesus, who when he speaks, even demons obey him. And this pattern repeats across the Gospels until it really becomes overwhelming.

In Mark chapter 5, we encounter the Gerasene demoniac. Many of you know which reference I am, I'm, the, man I'm thinking about here. A man so possessed that he lived among tombs, among the dead. So possessed that chains couldn't hold him. They, tried to shackle and chain this man, and he would literally burst the bonds apart. So possessed that a legion of demons spoke through his mouth. You can read about it in Mark chapter 5, verses 1 through 13.

But here's the thing, when Christ steps into that situation to deal with it, He doesn't even strain. I don't know if you've ever seen a massive bodybuilder lifting heavy weights. When he's up and under that weight, you can see him pushing and exerting might. He is straining under the load. But not the Lord Jesus Christ. He walks up to that man in love, and He asks a name, and a few words later, 2,000 pigs are running into the sea, and a man who used to howl among the graves is sitting clothed and in his right mind. That's our Jesus.

And everyone else in the story there, they're absolutely terrified. They're frightened. The whole town had just given up on him. what can you do? What can you do? But Christ walked towards him like he's walking towards nothing at all. Why? Because that kind of raw demonic power compared to Jesus, it's like nothing at all, folks.

And it's not only... And think of this, he is so high, our Lord Jesus, he is so mighty, that he even has the authority to give this to others. Do you remember the 72 that he sends out? When he sends out the 72, they come back. Do you re- do you remember what they say? "Lord, even the demons are subject to your name." And Jesus' immediate response, at least in Luke chapter 10, is one of the most sweeping and cosmic statements in all the Gospels. He said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." And it was only after that we get the more famous, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this," right? "That the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

And this, what I wanna simply remind you this morning, is this is not a little side piece in the Gospel. This is one of the main rivers that runs shot straight through the Gospels. They're shot straight to, through with this kinda stuff from beginning to end. And every single time Christ meets the forces of spiritual darkness, my dear friends, the outcome is the same. They recognize Him. They tremble before Him. They obey Him.

But I wanna take you deeper because these exorcisms, and praise God for them, my people got truly liberated and set free from powers of darkness, but they're not the climax of this theme, okay? The cross is the climax of this theme, Because in Colossians 2:15 we're told that He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him or in it, the cross.

And the imagery there, though not apparent to many of us, is the language of a Roman triumphal procession, okay? So what, would happen is that a conquering general would parade his defeated enemies through the streets of the capital in chains, and they would be stripped of their armor. Man, they couldn't do anything. They were powerless, defenseless. They'd been defeated and conquered in battle. And then they would be displayed before the watching crowds as proof that the war is over, and that there's a new master of the world. Then it was Caesar, of course, in those cases, in the case of Rome. But what Paul does is he takes that picture.

Now, many people in Colossae, they would've seen that with their own eyes or at least known about that, okay? And he takes that and he says, "This is what happened at the cross."

The very moment that looked to every onlooker like the powers of darkness were winning. Think about it. the, Sadducees and the Pharisees, they didn't agree about anything except, "We gotta take this Jesus out." Think about Pilate. He, there was this rabble crew, crowd creating a ruckus, and with, through politial, you know, political expediency he had settled the matter, okay? Think about the, way that He was railed and mocked. "This man saved others, but He can't save Himself." Or think about the betrayal when Jesus dismisses Judas, right? Who enters him? Satan enters him, right? Scripture refers to this hour as the hour of darkness.

You have the Roman nails, Rome's cross, this apparent triumph of every earthly and demonic power that allied against him. And Paul says it was actually the triumphal parade in reverse. Christ didn't lose that day. Christ disarmed them that day. The cross, which looked like defeat, was the procession. By death, he destroyed him who had the power of death.

And the demons in the Gospels, while they may have not known the cross was coming, I'm not sure they knew their defeat and their end was. That's why they screamed before, he even spoke a word of judgment over them.

And by the way, Mark chapter 1 is not the only place where the demons in the Gospels say, "Have you come to destroy us?" Same thing's uttered in Mark chapter 5 and other places. They knew he, who, he was, and they knew where the story was going. And we need to know where the story is going.

So dear church, whatever power of darkness you think is too entrenched, maybe it's in your families Maybe it's in your neighborhood. Maybe it's Knoxville. Maybe it's this country. You look around and you go, "Wow, how's, how things have changed in the past however many years." Maybe it's in dark places on the other side of the world. There is no power that's too ancient, too strong, too entrenched, that's been around for too long, that Jesus hasn't already stripped He has already shamed them publicly.

So there's no demon in the unseen world who looks at Jesus and thinks, "You know, we can take him." "We've got this." All right. You know, I thought he looked ... I thought he had more power than they, these other guys were claiming. No. No. They have ... They know, and they have always, known.

Christ’s Power Over Sin

Now, here's where I want to press this at a deeper level, okay? Because there's something more fundamental than the demons and Satan. It's that which gives them their stronghold and their grip in the first place. Can you guess what it is? What? Sin. That something is sin, folks. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:56, that the sting of death is sin. Not Satan, sin.

Satan's authority, okay, he's got some authority, but it's like a parasite, right? Parasites, they suck, and they live off the life of other things, right? It's parasitic. It lives off something else, and that something else is the legal and moral reality of human guilt before our holy God. Take away sin, and you have taken away the very thing that the powers of darkness use as their claim on us.

This is why Satan had no claim on Jesus, folks, because there was no sin in Jesus. So if Christ is going to be Lord over the unseen powers, he cannot simply overpower them with brute, raw strength the way one army perhaps could outma- you know, outmuster another. He has to deal with them. he has to deal with what gives them their claim fundament- fundamentally.

He has to deal with sin. And this is what the cross does that not even an exorcism can do. Think about that. An exorcism can't take care of that. In Colossians 2 again, verses 13 and 14, right before verse 15 that I just read, you know, a few moments ago, we read this: "And you who were dead in your trespasses, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."

So do you notice the connection? Verse 15, he says, "There's a public mockery of these principalities and powers and authorities." Christ has conquered. Christ has prevailed. And right here, we see that it's through the dealing of sin, through the setting aside of sin.

That word, forgiveness, okay, this is an act of sheer grace. Charizomai, it's the word, but it's an act, a gift freely given, not simply a, some kind of transactional thing, okay? The word for canceled is the word you would use for wiping a wax tablet clean, smearing the writing until it's just unreadable, gone, just completely gone. And then they ... Think about this other word, set aside. It means to lift up, to carry away till it's just out of the scene.

Okay, really, this is like Paul's way of saying what John the Baptist said in John chapter 1, "Behold the Lamb of God" who does what? "Who takes away the sin of the world," right? That's what's going on here.

So sin is not merely being, like, trying to be tamed or managed at the cross. It's not being simply relabeled or something like that. It's being wiped completely clean, lifted and carried away. Carried away.

And this is why Paul, in Romans 6, can say things that, sin's dominion. Okay, what's that? It's reigning. It's ruling power over a person. That dies in Christ's death. It's not merely sin's punishment, sin's grip, folks. Listen to this: "We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For sin will have no dominion over you," this is verse 14 now, "since you're not under law but under grace."

Now think about what kind of power we're dealing with here. Christ doesn't just forgive the debt of sin. Listen, if you got sin debts in this room, if you've never had a clean conscience, come to Jesus. He can deal with that.

But there's more, my dear friends. He breaks sin's rule. There is a throne, if you, and I want you to use your imaginations to picture with me. There's a throne that sin sits on in the unconverted human heart, okay? And when the sinner receives Christ by faith and Christ is entering in, the Spirit of Christ comes in. Listen, Christ doesn't negotiate a treaty with that throne. He topples the whole throne over. He just topples the whole throne over.

And that's why I don't wanna go, start with Christ's power over the demons and then simply skip to Christ's power over kings and kingdoms without stopping here. Because the deepest tyranny any person in this room has ever lived under or could ever live under is not a demon you can name, and it's not a government you can vote out. It is sin. And if Christ is only powerful enough to cast out demons but not powerful enough to dethrone sin in a human heart, it's like He won the skirmish but lost the war. No way. He has not lost the war. He has dealt with its root as God promised long ago. The seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

Christ’s Power Over Death

And remember, his heel would be injured in the process, right? That's the cross, folks. That's him dealing with sin. But there is one power left that in a way I like to think of it as sin answers to. It certainly leads to it. One final boundary that every king, every empire, every unconverted heart, all of us, eventually meets and cannot pass through.

What is it? Death. That's right. Paul calls it exactly that in 1 Corinthians 15:26. "The last enemy," he says, "to be destroyed is death." Last, not first, not always most visible. We could walk around and we probably won't see many dead people if we did that. Not most feared in every single moment, but last, meaning every other power mentioned, Satan, sin, every collapsing empire that we're gonna look at, eventually cash out into this one. All of them, without exception.

Every tyrant dies. Every army eventually buries its own soldiers. We're considering Independence Day, right? But every army, if you think about it, eventually buries its own soldiers. Death is the floor beneath every other power, the one thing none of them can escape, the one thing that finally humbles all of them equally, without exception. And it's precisely here at this floor, in this room or prison, if you will, that Christ walked in and he walked right back out.

And I wanna be careful here when I talk about the resurrection, okay? Because there's a way of talking about the resurrection, my friends, that treats it as a mere footnote, that treats it as something inconsequential, okay? As though the sole and only work, now we're saved by Christ alone, but as though the sole and only work, the only thing that matters is the cross.

But what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15? "If Christ is not raised, you're still dead in your sins," my dear friends. And in Romans 4:25, he says that Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that because Christ ever lives to make intercession, He's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God. It's absolutely essential.

Why do you think there's no other name given under heaven whereby men must be saved? You know, we get that bit of passage after Christ's resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the Father. Why do you think we get that? Because God is honoring the name of a dead man? No. Scripture promises all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know why? Because He is alive on the throne, and He can hear, and He can answer such a prayer. That's why.

See, there's a difference between a king who once won a war, Caesar won many wars, and a king who is alive on the throne today forever and ever. Christ is not a mere memory of victory. He is a living, reigning, interceding fact. Death did not get the last word on him, as he said, "Because I live, you will live also."

So it doesn't get the last word on us, dear Christian. We had a sister who just went home with the Lord. You know, because Jesus is alive, she's alive. You know that because Jesus bodily raised from the dead, that body which decayed and got sick with cancer and ended her life here will one day be gloriously raised in the likeness of Christ's resurrection. That's the truth we're dealing with here. But it's because Christ conquered death, my dear friends.

I love the portrait of Christ standing at the tomb of Lazarus before his own resurrection. I think it's something of a preview, really, of Christ's own resurrection. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die," what? "Yet shall he live." That's true of our dear sister. And that's not mere poetry. It's a claim about who holds the keys of death.

And it's one door. This door... You know, we got things like pickpocketers, right? They pickpocket houses and door. They could, break anything. It's amazing. You should s- watch it sometime on YouTube. some people are incredible at break, breaking into things. But listen to me. There is one room, there's one door no one's ever been able to get out of, and that's death. But there is someone who holds the keys to that room, my dear friends.

Listen to Christ's own words. Just like how in John chapter 11, he referred to himself as the resurrection and life, look what he has to say about himself in Revelation 1:18. He said, "I died, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades."

See how those things are linked? Not just Christ's death and him having the keys. Christ's death and resurrection, thus him having the keys of death and Hades. And he doesn't ask death for the keys, my dear friends. In the Gospel of John, he said, "This charge I received from my Father. No one takes my life from me," right? "I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, but I also have the authority to, raise it up again," he said So death is not really Christ's rival, it's Christ's prisoner. It's Christ's prisoner.

So he shamed the demons publicly. He has dethroned sin's dominion. He holds to the k- the keys to the one room every Pharaoh, every Caesar, every president and dictator, and quiet, ordinary sinner in this room today will ever be locked in, that one day will be locked in. He holds the keys, which means he alone decides who walks out, back out in the resurrection of the righteous.

Christ alone.

Christ’s Power Over Earthly Kingdoms

Now I wanna take you to everything we've seen, you know, about the unseen world. We have sin and death, and we wanna, I wanna turn it towards something we can see or that we experience: history, right? We experience it, but we know history past and these kinds of things. Think with me, you don't have to turn there, but of Daniel, right?

Daniel 2. King... And this Nebuchadnezzar fellow. The most powerful man on Earth in his generation. He's a ruler of, the empire that just had swallowed Jerusalem itself, and he has a dream. A statute, a head of gold, chest of arms and silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet of iron mixed with clay.

And then we read this: "A stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image, and it broke them in pieces. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."

Daniel, he interprets this, okay? And it's really a, beautiful interpretation. Each section of the statue is as an empire, successive empire. We have Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, and Rome, and its descendants. Kingdom after kingdom after kingdom, each one believing that it was the permanent one, that it was the preeminent one in its own time. And every single one of them gets crushed by the stone that, no human hands had cut.

And then we read this in that same chapter, in Daniel chapter 2, "The God of heaven," and I'm quoting scripture here, "will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. It shall stand forever." Stand forever. Not simply outlasts its rivals like some of these other kingdoms did, but forever.

And then, I love how Daniel does this, he doubles down in chapter 7 And we read this, is the famous vision of, of chapter seven. "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, 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."

That's not like some vague poetry about hope. I want you to picture this more like a, court scene that happened century before Messiah steps on the scene, where it's already declared what's gonna take place and happen.

And of course, maybe, some of you are, are I'm sure aware that Jesus' favorite self-designation, the way that he referred to himself the most, was the Son of Man. He is this Son of Man of Daniel chapter 7.

So there's these magnificent claims with prophecy and visions and all this, but how does history read? How does it actually read? Think of Egypt. Long before Daniel, their Pharaoh stood as the most powerful man on earth, right? Claiming to embody the gods of the Nile themselves. And God sent 10 plagues, each one a direct assault on a specific Egyptian deity.

And remember this, we're told that when Pharaoh went unto, you know, when Moses went unto Pharaoh's magicians were able to take staffs and turn them into serpents. It's not, it wasn't all entirely superstition. There was real demonic power there at work

And God turned again the, Nile to blood, the sun darkened, and the firstborn struck down until what even Pharaoh's own magicians admit, "This is the finger of God." And then by the way, in the Gospels, Jesus say, "If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." And then the sea that Egypt's army marched into closed over the strongest military machine right on the planet. Empire and false gods together like that in a single day, gone.

Let's think about Babylon. We just talked about Nebuchadnezzar, right? The very king who had the statue dream became so consumed with pride. it, it was probably great. It probably looked marvelous, but he looks out upon it and he says, "Is this not great Babylon that I have made?" I like to think he probably talked like that. I don't know.

But what happens? He's struck with madness, so he's eating grass like a wild beast and ox of the field. And so humbled until he learned in his own words, and I quote that, "The Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom he will." It's from Daniel chapter four.

And then his successor, Belshazzar, on the very night that he mocked God, the, by drinking the temple's sacred vessels, what happens? He sees, that hand appear. And essentially, it was his kingdom's death sentence on that wall, right? And that very night he was slain and the kingdom given to another. That's the very next chapter in Daniel cha- chapter five.

Then you have Rome. You know, Rome called its capital The Eternal City Rome called its capital the Eternal City. And here's Rome that conq- conquered, at the time of Christ, most of the known world at the time. They were the world superpower, right? And again, by every visible meas- measure on a Friday afternoon outside of Jerusalem, Rome ha- Rome had won, right? Pilate did his thing, and so everything was hush, and quiet. Order was kept. The peace, so to speak, was maintained.

But within three centuries, and even you could just read the remainder of the New Testament, and you see that the gospel spreads like wildfire across, the Roman kingdom. Where now even the gospel's inside official, Roman, you know, households and stuff like that. It's remarkable.

And think of this what you will, but think about it. Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross, and three centuries later, they're putting the cross on their Roman coins. not saying all of them are Christian, but the influence of the gospel spreading, of Christ, him crucified and reigning and saving because he's alive forevermore.

Brothers and sisters, think of the pattern. Egypt, gone. Babylon, gone. Persia's gone. Greece is gone. Rome is gone. The kingdom Christ established? What are we dealing with here? Fishermen, tax collectors, people who were formerly demonically possessed, prostitutes. Let's get raw. Let's get real. Unimpressive people. It's still here. It's still expanding. It's still growing. While the empire that crucified its founder, that fed its members to lions, that burned its books and its martyrs are museum exhibits. You can go to places in the world and learn about the rise and fall of these empires. That's not a coincidence of history.

That's what I wanna remind you. That's the Word of God playing out in real time. That's what it is. The stone is rolling. The mountain is still filling the earth. Or to use the words of Christ, this, that began like a little tiny mustard seed is, growing into this beautiful tree. And it won't stop because His dominion is one that will last forever and ever, my dear friends.

Christ’s Power Over Every Power at His Return

So we looked at Christ's supremacy, over darkness, over sin, through death, through these empires. But of all that, every plague on Pharaoh, every fallen empire, every empty tomb, you know, it's just a pretext. It's just prelude. 

Why do I say that? Because Christ's reign has not yet been fully seen by everybody. He pra- taught us to pray, right? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And one day it will be here in all of its glory. He says that He will come in His own glory and the glory of His Father and of the holy angels

Brethren, on that day, these CEOs and these executives, the rich and the poor, everybody will stand before Him. No one gets an executive bypass on that day. And we're told, according to Philippians chapter 2, that every single knee will bow before Him.

Now, we don't live this kind of life, but there have been men who walk the face of this earth, who for almost the entirety of their lives, they had people literally bow before them. But those men, along with those slaves that bowed before those men, will be doing exactly the same thing at exactly the same time, bowing before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And that is glorious.

And here's the thing, dear church, and if you can hear my voice, I'm talking to you. Every knee will bow and recognize the authority, the preeminence of, Christ. That's not the question. The question is, will you bow before it's too late? Will you bow before it's too late?

My dear friend, you and I will be bowing. But there are those who will bow as sons and daughters with joy, with great delight, because that one with, that they bow before is not only their Lord, but their Savior.

And then there's others. Revelation tells us that when Christ comes, they're crying out for the rocks to fall upon them, lest they face the wrath of the Lamb. What a sad thing when you have the same Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Come to Jesus.

And dear Christian, we have fears. We have anxieties. We have sins. We have things that are, hard and difficult, unspeakable things that words fail to express. But there is one upon the throne right now, reigning over this congregation as I speak, burning in hearts here this morning.

And He loves you. And He promises to never leave you or forsake you. And His promises and His purposes will hold fast. He is your good shepherd. You are His sheep. In light of your death, He is the resurrection and the life. In light of your sin, He is sin's destroyer. In light of the powers of darkness that oppress, He is the serpent crusher. And he's here.

I wanna invite you and call upon you this morning to be real with the Lord this morning, this Lord of glory and majesty. Your heart is naked before Him, you know? Sometimes we think we hide, but we don't. We can't Let him help. Let him come. Let him help.

You know, sometimes I've, I used to... I think of Revelation chapter three where Jesus is standing at the door and he knocks. You know he's talking to his church. Maybe Jesus is standing at your, the door of your heart this morning and saying, "Let me in." You go, "I'm a Christian." Well, they were too.

Closing Prayer

Let us pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, glorious Christ, we love you. But Lord, you know our-- I feel like Peter, Lord, after he denied you. You know, Lord, you know that I love you, and yet we're so often weak and frail. We're als- we're so often anxious and worried. We're so often of little faith. Have mercy on us, oh merciful Christ.

Restore us, heal us, renew us, strengthen us, encourage us, comfort us. Fill us with the power of your Holy Spirit. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Lord, complete what you have begun. Ripen your purposes, Lord. Be at work. And I thank you, Jesus, for what you've done for us, for trampling over death, for subduing sin, for binding that strong man who held us captive.

Lord Jesus, reign supreme in our hearts and in our lives. May Berean be, because of your light in us, a city set on a hill, the light of the world, the salt of the earth. We love you and we need you.

Father, I think especially of those suffering grief right now. Be closer to them than they could have ever imagined and fathomed. May it be unmistakable that you are there.

Thank you. And Lord, if there's any in this room who doesn't know you, who don't know you, re- just, Lord, draw them. Have mercy on them I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.