Dead Man

Shalom,

 

    Please begin by reading Col 2:8-15.

 

    There was once an extremely fascinating and bizarre coronation held in Russia.  This special event was held for Czar Peter III and Empress Catherine.  They were afforded a splendid affair that lasted for weeks.  Peter was carried through the streets from the Convent of Saint Alexander Nevsky to the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.  As priests chanted, the czar ascended to the throne and was presented with the imperial crown.  Catherine was at his side the whole time.

    It all sounds very regal and impressive, an occasion that any king or ruler would be proud to be a part of - but there was something very unusual about this elaborate coronation.  At the time it happened both Peter and Catherine were dead.  When Empress Catherine had died, her son Paul commanded that his father's body be exhumed, and that the otherwise undistinguished Petter III be placed on his throne to receive the crown he'd been denied during his life.  A dead man was crowned as czar of all Russia.

    It all sounds very foolish to us now, but let me ask you a question: Is there a dead man on your throne?  If we don't allow Jesus to occupy the throne of our lives, he won't sit on it.  Jesus never forces himself on us or makes us do anything against our will.  Not that he won't do all he can to get our attention, but he leaves our free will alone.  The King of kings and Lord of lords works hard to lead and guide us, but we individually choose where we're going.  Whether we allow our "old man" to have control or we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us determines our success as Christians.  The strength or weakness of our daily faith walk with Yahweh is directly related to the amount of control we take for ourselves.

    When we take the controls of our lives we're always headed for trouble, especially when we try to show off.  I'm sure most of you have seen this bumper sticker: "God is my co-pilot."  If you agree with that statement you're on your way to trouble, you're way off track spiritually.  Jesus is supposed to be the pilot, the navigator, and the president of the airline.  Sometimes he lets us fly the plane, but he always is the one in control, you know, the sovereign Lord of all.

    If Jesus is only the co-pilot, he's sitting in the wrong seat.  If he's only the co-pilot, that means we're still in charge.  If he's only the co-pilot, our throne is occupied by a dead man.  We must never put Jesus in second place, he's to be our Lord and Master.  We serve him, he doesn't serve us.  Yes, we have free will and he will allow us to use it whenever we push for it.  But never forget that he's the Sovereign Lord of all things and he controls all the outcomes.  We can cooperate with him and see his Kingdom built and his honor and glory lifted up.  Or we can use our free will and find ourselves in rebellion and in danger of missing out on eternity in heaven with our Savior.

    Rom 6:11 exhorts us: "In the same way, count yourself DEAD to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."  The word dead is nekros, meaning a corpse or as good as dead.  We've been given new life through accepting the cleansing and salvation found in the sacrifice of Jesus.  We're supposed to be dead to the power of sin while we live resurrection life.  We're changed, we're not supposed to be hung up in the flesh, but alive in the Spirit.  Resurrection life is from heaven, it's eternal and everlasting.  Yahweh is its source and the goal we should be aiming for is to spend eternity living out this amazing reality.

 

    Making Jesus our Lord is an extremely important part of this.  It's not something that we can ignore and get by without.  The Greek word we translate as Lord means - Supreme in Authority, the Controller.  It's our decision whether or not Jesus is allowed to be our controller.  Think about this: Would you rather have an imperfect, unreliable human in charge of your life, or the perfect and totally faithful and loving Lord of Glory?  Witchcraft's basis is found in trying to control and manipulate people.  It's the opposite of allowing Jesus to control us.  We don't need to practicing witchcraft on ourselves, trying to control things or even allowing someone else to control us.  We need to trust that our Sovereign Lord knows exactly what he's doing because he designed us and the world we live in.  Obeying him allows us to receive what's best for us.

    When we try to control our own lives we run into private religion.  Yahweh never said we could pick and choose the rules and laws we'd prefer to follow.  Our Father in heaven isn't running a Chinese restaurant.  There's no picking and choosing from a variety of options.  When we try to choose for ourselves we're living according to humanistic philosophy.  When we make all the decisions about what's best for us, we shut out the omniscient (all-knowing) God of the Universe.  How can we know what's better for us than our Creator?  It's absolute foolishness to believe that Yahweh doesn't understand our needs or desires when he's our designer and knows exactly how he created us.

    The people in Israel got into trouble for building personal altars.  Yahweh's clear instruction was for them to worship only in Shiloh or Jerusalem depending  on when each was the center of worship.  But some of them felt it was too far to go, or that this rule seemed too restrictive, or that they could worship him better right at home.  They built personal altars in defiance of a direct command from their God.  It's a lot like the folks who'd rather stay at home and watch their favorite TV ministry, complaining about how hard it is to make the effort to get to church.  The major reason our Father wants us to worship together is for the fellowship.  He knows we need fellowship and the encouragement of others.

 

    Yahweh is very explicit in his Word when it comes to who's in charge of our lives.  He wants to be number one, and he'll jealously guard that position.  Isa 42:8 says, "I am Yahweh; that is my name!  I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols."  If he's not allowed to hold first place, he'll let us receive what we deserve just like he did with the nation of Israel.  And often what we deserve is the direct fruit of our unspiritual behavior, not necessarily a direct punishment from him.  The consequences of our sin is often painful enough without our Father adding to it.  Christians can get themselves into deep trouble by making decisions outside of Yahweh's sovereign control.  Doing that puts us outside his will.  Removing him from headship/Lordship places us outside his protection.  Don't allow a dead man to sit on the throne of your life.  You'll find that things will really stink if you do.

    Yahweh will allow a person to start his own cult, if they really want to.  A cult is defined as a religious group which teaches doctrines or beliefs which deviate from the broad consensus of orthodox Christian teaching.  Cults most often deal in half-truths and distortions.  Attending the Church of the Good Old Boys in the Woods or the Church of I Can Worship God Anywhere is a perversion of Yahweh's truth.  Not attending any church because they all have problems is to be cultish, too.  The idea that we can somehow find Yahweh other than in the places he has told us to look is from the pit of Hell.  It's a doctrine of demons, and all too easily bought into by humanistic reasoning.

    We all need to regularly evaluate our belief system against the Word of our Lord.  Doing a regular checkup to determine if we're still in line with the Bible is healthy.  A little preventive maintenance can keep us from a major repair job.  If we find ourselves straying from the clear Word of God, we need to get back in line or we'll wander into the Deadman Zone.  It's a dangerous place we must avoid at all costs, because it's a place of death.  We need to be striving to stay in places where life is available instead of spending time in the wilderness of sin and death.

    But we humans seem to have a fascination with death.  We use the word in various forms in our language, no matter what that language is.  If I get caught, I'll just die.  I'm dying to meet the new pastor.  I'm dying for a drink.  We have dead batteries, fires that die, and people in trouble are sometimes called dead meat.  HOW ABOUT DYING FOR JESUS?

    This week across America people will be reveling in death, celebrating Halloween.  It's a time of glorifying ghosts and evil spirits.  It's a time of watching movies filled with death and destruction.  People will be excited by being "scared to death."  None of this glorifies our Father in heaven or our Lord Jesus.  The only death we should be excited about is the one which will place us in the direct presence of our loving Father in heaven.  Psalm 116:15 says, "Blessed in the sight of Yahweh is the death of his saints."

 

    The worldly Christian isn't concerned about the things "that pertain to life and godliness" (2 Pet 1:3).  When the dead man is in control your life will be characterized by spiritual indifference, instability, and lack of discipline.  When we begin to give lip service to Yahweh's truth and ignore anything of real substance we're in the dead zone.  The solid Christian life requires personal effort.  Being alive in Christ doesn't happen by accident.  It happens on purpose - when we purpose in our hearts to live a life that honors and glorifies our Savior and Lord.

    Gal 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."  If you're holding back areas of your life from your Lord's influence and control you're not living in his will.  The dead man has no place on your throne if you know Jesus as Savior.  Remove him, remove the stink of decaying flesh, and let your Lord have his rightful place.

 

    Blessings & Peace,    Mike