We are in a season where we are Rediscovering the Christ. Most of the teachings on all our platforms this month have centered around the subject of Christ and in this piece, I want to share with us on what has been titled: Jesus Christ, His Government and My Role in It. This piece is like an exposition of some kind and I want us to pay attention to it.

 

As members of the body of Christ, we have a role to play in the expansion of the kingdom of God and in the establishment of the government of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. We were not saved in the first place so that we can stand aloof and do nothing. We have been saved so that we also can contribute our quota towards the expansion of God’s kingdom and government. I want us to start our observation from one of the prophecies that talked about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah 7:10-16 and Matthew 1:16. The Bible says:

 

“Moreover, the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” ¹³ Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. ¹⁵ Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.”

 

“And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.”

 

The sign that God gave humanity that was supposed to mark the beginning of the end of the age, is the sign of a Messiah who will be born in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, this Messiah is different from any known messiah in the sense that in Him would be the salvation of the human race from the bondage of the devil. The apostle Paul showed us in Acts 4:10-12, it says: “let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. ¹¹ This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ ¹² Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” So, the coming of Jesus Christ is a significant sign to humanity that God is willing and able to redeem mankind back to Himself from the bondage of Satan.

 

That is why Jesus was angry with the Scribes and Pharisees when they asked Him to show them a sign in Matthew 12:38-40. It says: Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” ³⁹ But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In other words, Jesus was telling them that there is no other sign again anywhere. In the Old Testament, He was foretold as a sign that He was going to be born. Now that He has been born, Jesus was telling them there is no other sign anymore, other than the fact that He would die for their sins in order for the work of redemption to be completely fulfilled.

 

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

#1. Jesus Christ is GOD! This of course, has been a subject of debate over the centuries. Many have struggled to link the ancestral origin of Jesus in the flesh to a supernatural God who dwells in the realm of the Spirit. But the Bible gave us a succinct explanation of how this came to be. In 1 Timothy 3:16, apostle Paul wrote this: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh [the word manifested here is the same thing as: to be revealed], justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” Now, the reason there was controversy in the first place was simply because many don’t believe God can step down to the earth and mingle among men the way Jesus Christ did it. In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul wrote to the Philippian church this way: “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

 

#2. Jesus Christ is the Son of GOD! Even though Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is also the Son of God. Jesus being the Son of God is a pointer to the responsibility that is hanging on His shoulders. Sons are the ones that carry upon themselves the responsibilities of their fathers and not children. A proof of your spiritual growth and maturity is measured by how much responsibilities you are able to shoulder for the kingdom of God. Children don’t take responsibilities for anything; it is only sons who do.

 

What was the responsibility here of Jesus Christ here? JESUS CAME AS THE SON OF GOD TO CONQUER SIN AND DEATH. In John 1:29, John said: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Also, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 55-57 says: “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

#3. Jesus Christ is the Messiah! The name, Christ, is not the surname of Jesus. The word ‘Christ’ simply means ‘the Messiah’ or ‘the anointed one’. So, when we speak of Jesus as the Christ, it simply means Jesus is the one that God has anointed to be the savior of the world. Luke 2:25-32

 

“And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, ²⁸ he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

²⁹ “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation
³¹ Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
³² A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

 

THE GOVERNMENT OF JESUS CHRIST

 

What is the government of Christ and where shall it take place? Revelation 11:15 says: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” A kingdom talks about a physical territory that is headed by a king or a queen. For example, the United Kingdom and any other kingdom that you may think of. The government of Christ talks about a period when Christ would return physically to the earth and reign as the King of kings. His coming this time around would not be as a child who would be born through a woman as we have seen before. This time around, He would be coming as the LEADER OF A GOVERNMENT TO ESTABLISH THE KINGDOM OF GOD PHYSICALLY ON EARTH AND HE WOULD REIGN OVER IT.

 

Prophet Daniel foretold of this government in Daniel 7:27. It says: “then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most-High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.”

 

Revelation 20:1-4 says:

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. ² He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; ³ and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. ⁴ And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”

 

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS GOVERNMENT [ISAIAH 9:6-7]

 

What would make the government of Jesus Christ different from every other form of governments that we have seen in the world and that we are currently witnessing today? Isaiah 9:6-7 shows us. It says:

 

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

 

#1. His government will not be a confused government because He Himself is the counselor. Many governments of the world today are confused because there is no counsel. The Bible says in Proverbs 11:14: “where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” So, there will not be any confusion in His government because the counselor Himself is the king of the kingdom.

 

#2. His government would be a government of peace. There won’t be any form of chaos because Jesus Christ Himself is the prince of peace. People would not have to be running helter-skelter looking for peace outside the kingdom of God. For example, many Nigerians have traveled abroad all in the bid of looking for peace as a result of insufficient peace in their own country.

 

#3. There would be order, judgment and justice. The world as we have it today is in chaos simply because there is disorderliness and there is injustice. But Christ’s government would restore orderliness, judgement and justice all across the face of the earth. Genesis 49:10 (NIV) says: “The Scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.” The only reason nations shall obey Him is simply because He will establish orderliness, fairness, judgment and justice.

 

THE BELIEVER’S ROLE IN HIS GOVERNMENT

#1. We are to prepare the nations of the earth for that period of His return. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said to his disciples: “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. “There is no nation on earth that would escape the government of Christ when it comes and therefore, He Himself has urged us as His disciples to go make disciples of the nations of the earth. We have been commanded to teach them and observe the laws and commandments of God.

 

#2. We will be judges in His government. In 1 Corinthians 6:2-3, Paul said: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” When the government of Christ Jesus is established, you and I will be judges. We will rule and reign with Christ Jesus.

 

May the Lord found us worthy and faithful to tarry and complete our assignment here on earth in the name of Jesus.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!