The Hand of the Lord Who Holds All Things based on John 3:11-18, 22-36

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

An old African American spiritual hymn reminds us, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” “He’s got the tiny little baby in His hands/ He’s got you and me brother in His hands/ He’s got you and me sister in His hands/ He’s got the whole world in His hands.” That hymn could continue on and on to describe everything in creation that is in the hands of the Lord God.

Psalm 95:1–7 gives us a similar idea, “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”

Everything is in the hands of our Lord God. From the creation of the world to the Final Day of Judgment all things are in the hands of our Lord God. He knows exactly what we need in life. He takes care of all things.

Yet we want to be in control of things. We have all kinds of buttons and devices that make us think we are in control. Men tend to like to push a lot of buttons on the TV remote to surf the channels and try to avoid dreaded commercials. Women tend to like to keep the TV channel the same and wait out the commercials. In big cities there are buttons for crosswalks, but not all of those buttons work to get the light to change to green to cross the street. On elevators there are buttons to push to close the door or open the door faster, but they might not make much difference. We like to think we are in control of things when we are not in control of much. The little devices in our pockets make all kinds of noises to let us know about new messages or breaking news. We do not really have much say in what the leaders of our government decide or what takes place on the other side of the world. We like to think we have control of things, but we do not have much control at all.

Our sinful nature might tempt us to wonder if the Lord God really has all things in His control. We might be tempted to think that the world is chaos with no one in control of much of anything.

John 3:35–36 teaches us, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

God the Father out of His great love for us sent the Son of God, that is, Jesus Christ, to show us that love in action. You might have seen some artwork with Jesus Christ holding the whole globe of the earth in His hands. If we want to know God, then we learn about God through the loving actions of Jesus Christ in our behalf. All things have been given into the hand of Jesus Christ.

In the events of the passion of Jesus Christ we see that He came in humility as the suffering servant. He was betrayed by one of His closest followers, Judas Iscariot. He was whipped. He was laughed at. He was spit upon. He was laughed at. He was nailed to a wooden cross. On the cross He did not look like He had all things in His hand.

John the Baptizer knew that his job was to point people to Jesus Christ. John the Baptizer made the amazing statement of faith in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That is the same statement of faith in Jesus we can make today, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Even though Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, did not look like much on the cross, He won forgiveness of wrongs and eternal salvation for us there. God the Father showed His approval of the saving work of His Son, Jesus, by raising Him from the dead on the third day. He has been given all things into His hand.

Jesus Christ’s loving hand is at work today when young and old are baptized with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit to become adopted children of God. Jesus Christ’s loving hand is at work today when believers receive His true Body and Blood in, with, and under the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of all wrongs.

He truly has the whole world in His hands. He has people of all nations in His hands/ He has people of all shapes and sizes in His hands/ He has people of all ages in His hands. We are shown amazing mercy and gracious favor each day by our powerful God who has all people and all things under His loving control. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Thanks be to God that we do not have to have everything under control in life, because our Savior Jesus Christ has all things under His compassionate control. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.