The Sovereignty of God; His Greatest Triumph

by Rev. Bernie Michaud
Family Life Pastor, Evangelical Congregational Church of Tyngsboro, Massachusetts

For the month of August I preached on the sovereignty of God — sovereignty meaning that God is the King and Ruler of the universe. He is fully in control and nothing that is done is outside His control. We looked at how God allowed Gideon to defeat the Midianites with only a few men, how Joshua saw God take the walls of Jericho down, how Esther was used of God to save the Jews and how Hezekiah got to witness God defeat the Assyrian army. Our theme statement was: God is sovereign, God is powerful, and God works on behalf of His followers. He does all of this for His own glory.

On the last week I preached on God’s greatest act of sovereignty which took place when God raised Jesus from the dead. The sermon went something like this:

Now I want to talk about God’s greatest act of power — the act that turned the world upside down; the act that saved us sinners, and defeated the power of death that once ruled the earth. I want to talk about how God raised His son Jesus from the dead. You see, on that day when Jesus hung on the cross, the world looked as dim as it could ever be. The people had waited for centuries for their messiah to come. Some walked with Him, some died for Him. Many put their trust in Him and many put their lives in His hands. On that day, nothing made sense. The one that they had expected to deliver them was dying on the cross. All hope was gone! If you think that you have problems, and all of us do, this was the biggest problem of all time. (Read Matthew 28:1–10) Our theme for this month has been: God is Sovereign, God is powerful, and God works on behalf of His followers. And, He does all of this for His glory. I have been saying that God is King and Ruler of the universe! He alone makes the rules and He alone rules. I have been saying that He is powerful. He raised Jesus from the dead. While Jesus was on the cross, it looked like Satan was winning. He may have even thought that he was winning. Certainly all the people who saw this who were followers of Jesus believed that Satan had won. Indeeed, things were as dim as they could have been. But by the power of God, Jesus was brought back to life. God did this in Satan’s face! In your face Satan! Our God is powerful beyond measure! He is an awesome God.

So God showed that He was the Sovereign King and He showed that He was powerful beyond all others.

But God did all of this to work on the behalf of His followers. God raised Jesus from the dead for us! God let Jesus die on the cross to pay the price for your sin and mine. Romans 4:5 says: He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. God raised Him from the dead to show once and for all that God has power over death. He defeated death for us so that we can have the assurance that when we die we will pass from life to life and not from life to death. That’s why we can now say, Oh grave where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55) You see, God’s greatest triumph was accomplished through the death and resurrection of His son. This was done for us so that we might live with confidence. Romans 8:32 says: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Do you get what Paul is saying here? God gave His son for you. He has already given you the very best He has. He calls us His children, His family. We can trust Him for all things. Jesus conquered death! Hebrews 2:14–15 says, Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is the devil — and free those who all of their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Why is this so important? On Easter we learn why the resurrection is theologically important, but today we are going to look at why it’s practically important to us day by day. It’s important because death spoils people’s lives. When we are young and a loved one dies it takes away our innocence; it puts fear in us. We begin to fear that death will take others that we love. We fear that death will someday take us. As people age death hangs over their head like an unpaid bill. Death causes people to crave escapes, causes people to do all sorts of evils just to cope. People have affairs. They drink, take drugs or throw themselves into work. They express their pain a little at a time through anger and depression.

But death no longer needs to be feared. Jesus conquered death. Now death is like a doorway from one existence to another. It’s not the end; it’s a transition from the temporary to the permanent. Paul said, (Philippians 1:21) For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. You can’t really live until you settle the issue of death. You can’t really live until you settle the issue of God being sovereign over life and death, and God working on behalf of those who faithfully follow Him. Paul understood this and was able to rejoice even while in prison. He was able to rejoice even on his way to death.

Lately no matter where I go I seem to see sparrows. I think about the verse that says that God takes care of each of them. I notice that none seem to be worried, none seem to be starving. They look happy. We no longer have to live our lives in fear; we can live with joy knowing that: God is Sovereign, God is powerful, and God works on behalf of His followers. I know that death is what people fear because I hear people saying, “The house burned down, but thank God no one was killed.” Or “The car is gone but thankfully we are all alive.” Every person and every generation does something to escape from the pain, to take the edge off. Some of our escapes are healthier than others but they all serve to help us avoid the pain of death.

We need to believe that: God is Sovereign, God is powerful, and God works on behalf of His followers. We need to know that God conquered death. Now we can have life, real life! We can also tell others who are going through this world alongside us that Jesus conquered death. And that life is available to them through Jesus. If you knew that at the hour of your death, that God Himself was going to come and take you by the hand and bring you into heaven, would you still fear death? The last words of Jesus on the cross were, Father into your hands I commit my spirit. (Luke 23:46) Do you get it? Do you believe it? God is Sovereign, God is powerful, and God works on behalf of His followers. Death no longer has to have a hold over us! If you believe today that God raised Jesus from the dead, then truly you can now believe that everything in your life is under His control and that includes the last hour of your life. What is it that you are facing today? For some of us this may be a dark day, a day that we can’t see beyond.

Do you trust God knowing that God is Sovereign, God is powerful, and God works on behalf of His followers? For others of us, this may be a day like all other days; a day that you are just going about your lives. But are you living just depending on your own strength, your own smarts and your own means? Are you afraid to give your lives fully over to God? Are you caught up in the sin of escape, anxiety, stress and fear? Do you trust Him or do you trust yourselves. God can be trusted with our lives!