Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

 

Sermon for Exaudi, Easter 7, May 17, 2026

To all those loved by God…called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Ephesians 1:18-23  ¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, ¹⁹and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe.  ²⁰It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  ²²God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church.  ²³The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (EHV)

Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            A form of idolatry has crept into our culture, and I pray that it hasn’t touched us.  That idolatry is the idea that a deceased loved one now in heaven is watching over, protecting, or helping those left behind regardless of whether the deceased was a believer or not.  This idolatry seems to be offered as some sort of comfort to the mourners, yet there is no promise in Scriptures that any part of it is true.  Even faithful Christians who depart this life to dwell in glory are not spending their moments in heaven helping us.  Their focus is on the Lord who has rescued them from the darkness of sin and death.

At the same time, there is one who has died, who didn’t stay dead, but rather was raised alive again to take up a position of glory, honor, and might, through which He is continually working for our everlasting welfare—Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

Our text is a continuation of St. Paul’s prayer for his friends in Ephesus, a prayer of the Holy Spirit that is for our help as well.  He prayed, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe.”  It is so important that our eyes not be clouded by the idolatry of the world.  Almost everyone in the world seeks hope for the future.  No one truly wants to face death without some assurance that there is something more, even if that something is just a meaningless nothingness in which there is no more pain as the atheists, Buddhists, and some others imagine.  Yet, our Lord lived and died and rose again to give us so much more for the future.

First of all, our Lord Jesus has won for us an inheritance of immeasurable worth.  Considering all that God had promised him, King David sang, “Lord, you are the cup that has been given to me.  You have secured an allotment for me.  The property lines chosen for me fall in pleasant places.  Yes, a delightful inheritance is mine.” (Psalm 16:5-6)  Through St. Peter the Holy Spirit blesses us with an everlasting gift in the Lord, “By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.  Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)  Thus, through faith in Christ, Christian believers inherit with Him citizenship in the Paradise of heaven where “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain, because the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Part of the idolatry that so easily infects is a desire for this world to be instantly better.  However, Jesus uses His power and authority to bring us to faith in Him as our Savior, so that He can deliver us, His dear ones, out of this existence of sorrow, trouble, danger, pain, and death.  Seeking greater riches of either peace or prosperity in this life offers little future consolation, because there will always be new trouble right around the corner as long as sin infects the world, for as St. John wrote, “The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.” (1 John 2:17)

Therefore, so that we might be welcomed into His family as brothers and sisters forever, Jesus took away our sin, and the condemnation we deserved for it, with His holy life and sacrifice on the cross.  Then, when the Father raised Jesus from the dead, Jesus returned to His Father’s side in heaven and was granted authority over heaven and earth to use on our behalf.

The Holy Spirit wants us to know how great Jesus’ authority truly is.  He had Paul write, “It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”  Before He suffered and died as the Lamb of God, Jesus told His disciples, “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.  I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.  This is the commission I received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18)  Jesus later told them why He did this; “No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

My friends, you all are Jesus’ friends, because He laid down His life to buy your freedom from sin and death and the devil’s control.  Furthermore, just as Jesus had authority to rise from the dead under His own power, so He has authority over everything and every power in this world, including raising you and me from the dead.  Though there are many seemingly powerful people and governments that often work against God’s people, ultimately, they have no authority over our eternal welfare, because Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

Accordingly, even if the devil or any earthly authorities will make our lives on earth miserable, or even kill the body, our futures remain secure in the glory of heaven, for all people must someday stand before the Lord in judgment, but through the faith the Lord works in His people by the power of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, Jesus has already declared all who believe in Him innocent, beloved of the Father, and His own children through faith.  Thus as the Scriptures declare, “Now, if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17)  So, we have a home in heaven.

What all this means is that there is no reason for us, in times of sadness, to seek comfort in anything other than our Savior.  Likewise, in time of great need, we have no reason to seek help from anyone but Him.  That doesn’t mean we will never ask our neighbors for help, and it certainly doesn’t mean we don’t have to help them.  Especially in the Church, we as one body will gladly and willingly work for the good of those around us, and even around the world.  Our command is to love the Lord with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, so as we consider the love Jesus showed for us as His friends, how could we do anything less?

Still, we know we have fallen short of loving as we should.  We also are forced to admit that sometimes our hopes for the future may be misplaced while we are immersed in this idolatrous world.  Yet, that is precisely why Jesus came into the world—not to lead us to be just better behaved, but to give us the life God always intended we should have.  Then, having been made alive in Christ, we live as His body here while we wait to be reunited with Him as our Head in heaven.  You could say we become His hands and foot soldiers here on earth until He returns to judge the world.

Thus, while we wait for Judgment Day, or the day He calls us out of this world in death, we will put our full confidence in the fact that “God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church.  The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

When God called Abraham to faith those many centuries ago, He promised Abram, “All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.” (Genesis 12:3)  Through faith in Jesus, that blessing has come to us.  Just as Jesus took humanity into the divine by becoming one of us in the flesh, so He now takes us into the divine family through the faith worked in us by the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the Good News of all Jesus has done for us and through the washing flood of Baptism.  In Jesus, all our sins have been removed and all our guilt wiped away.  In Jesus, we are made alive, and in His resurrection we have sure hope that we too will be raised never to die again.

At the same time, we know with full confidence that no matter what the devil or this world might try to throw against us, Jesus retains and uses the full authority of God to thwart anything that could truly harm us.  He doesn’t guarantee we won’t have trouble.  In fact, He promised we will because the world under the devil’s control hates us just as much as it hated Jesus. 

However, Jesus rose from the grave victorious over all things that could harm us, and seated at the right hand of the Father, He has all authority in heaven and on earth to bring us home to dwell with God forever in heaven.  Therefore, we “Give thanks to him and bless his name.  For the Lord is good.  His mercy endures forever.  His faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:4-5)  Today and forever, our eternal welfare is secure, because Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.  Amen.

To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.  Amen.