Sermon Tone Analysis

Ruling over Angels

It’s crucial to our faith that we understand who we are as Christians.

We are the sons and daughters of God, a re-fashioned divine council that already participates in our Father’s kingdom.

But there’s more to it than that.

Yes, we are God’s family council—but to what end?

While we are already in the kingdom (Col.

1:13), we have not yet seen the full unveiling of that kingdom—we have not seen the world become Eden.

This

“already, but not yet”

paradox runs throughout the Bible in many ways.

In this chapter, I want to give you a glimpse of the “not yet” that answers the question “To what end?”

Kingdom Participation Now

Our participation in God’s kingdom isn’t predetermined, in this sense: We are not mere robots performing functions programmed for us.

That violates the whole idea of being God’s imager, his representative.

We were created to be like him.

He is free.

If we do not have genuine freedom, we cannot be like him—by definition, we would not be like him.

We are free to obey and worship, or rebel and indulge ourselves.

And we will reap what we sow.

Our sowing is not programmed.

But God is greater than we are.

He had a plan and it will come to pass.

Its success neither depends on nor is forced to adapt to human freedom.

We cannot undermine it—nor can the divine beings who are also free to choose.

Think about the heavenly council meeting I showed you in chapter 1.

I asked whether you believed the things the Bible says, and then took you to a meeting of God and his heavenly council in 1 Kings 22. God had decreed (and so it must happen) that it was time for wicked Ahab to die.

But God then let the spirit beings in his council decide how to accomplish that (1 Kings 22:19–23).

Predestination and freedom work hand-in-hand in God’s kingdom rule.

His purposes will never be overturned or halted.

He is able to take sin and rebellion and still accomplish—through other free representatives—what he desires.

As C. S. Lewis once said of God (in the book Perelandra), “Whatever you do, He will make good of it.

But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed him.”

To what end, here and now, are we God’s family council?

To participate with God in liberating people from darkness.

To show people how to live justly and with mercy—imitating God for those who need the illustration.

To defend and spread truth about the true God in a hostile world under the dominion of envious divine intelligences.

To enjoy life as God intended it.

All these callings are training for the kingdom to come.

As Paul asked the Corinthians, who had lost a divine perspective while bickering about the affairs of this world,

“Do you not know that we are to judge [rule] angels?” (1 Cor.

6:3)

He was serious.

Paul was getting at something specific in that statement.

Set over the Nations

The final form of the kingdom is yet to come.

When it does, the powers of darkness will be defeated.

The demonic gods will lose their dominion over the nations permanently—replaced by God’s glorified human family and council.

Look at what Jesus said in the book of Revelation:

Hold fast what you have until I come.

The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.

And I will give him the morning star.

(Rev.

2:25–28)

When Jesus returns to take his throne on a new earth—a new, global Eden—he will share it with his siblings.

The principalities and powers will be thrown off their thrones, and we will take their place.

Their dominions won’t be given to angels faithful to God—we will outrank the angels in God’s final Edenic kingdom.

Jesus will put his human brothers and sisters in charge.

Are you puzzled by that final statement in Revelation 2:28?

“I will give him the morning star”?

It does sound odd, but it speaks of our joint rule with Jesus over the nations after the evil powers are dealt with.

“Morning star” is used to describe divine beings (Job 38:7).

It is also a messianic term.

Since the messiah is divine, “star language” was sometimes used to describe his coming reign.

Numbers 24:17 says “A star will go out from Jacob, and a scepter will rise from Israel” (leb).

In the book of Revelation, Jesus describes himself this way: “I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Rev.

22:16 leb).

The wording of Revelation 2:25–28 is powerful.

Not only does Jesus say he is the messianic morning star, but he gives to us the morning star—he shares his messianic rule with us.

Revelation 3:20–21 takes it one step further so believers don’t miss the point:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock!

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, indeed I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.

The one who conquers, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also have conquered and have sat down with my Father on his throne.

(Rev.

3:20–21 leb)

To what end have we been made partakers of the divine nature?

Why does Jesus introduce us in the council as his brothers and sisters?

So that God can give us the dominion over the earth he originally desired.

Heaven will return to earth in a new, global Eden.

Eternal Eden

From the first chapters of Genesis, Eden was a focal point of God’s plan for man, the rest of his divine imagers, and his kingdom.

So it’s neither a surprise nor a coincidence that the last chapter of the book of Revelation takes us back to Eden:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

And night will be no more.

They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

(Rev.

22:1–5)

Did you notice that the Tree of Life heals the nations?

The nations, once dominated by principalities and powers, will be ruled by the new sons and daughters of God—you and me.

This wasn’t the first time the Tree of Life showed up in Revelation.

Speaking to those who believe unto the end, Jesus said in Revelation 2:7, 11, “I will grant [them] to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God … [They] will not be hurt by the second death.”

The reference to the Tree of Life is clearly Edenic.

The first death refers to physical death, brought by Adam’s sin and expulsion from Eden.

Since all humans, believers and unbelievers alike, are resurrected before judgment, the second death is the final judgment (Rev.

21:8).

Those who continue to live with God in a new Eden do not suffer the second death.

Why This Matters

Many Christians have an inadequate view of the afterlife.

Scripture doesn’t tell us everything about what it will be like, but some aspects are certain.

We aren’t going to be playing harps or singing endlessly while floating around on clouds.

We won’t just be sitting on celestial couches chatting with departed loved ones or well-known believers from the past.

Rather, we will be living the life Eden offered—we will be busy enjoying and caring for what God has made, side by side with the divine beings who remained loyal to him.