Allen Jackson - Game of Thrones - Part 1
The topic, the title, for this session is «Game of Thrones». There’s a great power struggle taking place in the earth. And we tend to think of it as the secular community does. I’m always a bit grieved when the Christian community sees the world through the same lens that the secular community does. It reflects how shallow our spirituality, our spiritual awareness, really is. I don’t think the best way to understand what’s happening in our world is a conflict between nations or a political struggle. Or even about forms of governance. I mean, all of those things are certainly in conflict right now. I mean, they’re tearing at the fabric of our world. But I believe underneath all of those there is a spiritual conflict.
Because I believe the most powerful forces available to a human being are spiritual, and I’m not denying the power of military weapons or economic power or all of those other things and they’re certainly legitimate. I don’t believe I’m being naive, but I believe the greatest power that shapes human destiny is spiritual. And that message has to begin in the Church. If it doesn’t begin in the Church, it will be delivered, but it will be delivered from the occult and it will be a dark spirit that will always lead to destruction. So a Church that denies, and I mean Church with a capital C. A Church that denies the spiritual power of the kingdom to which we profess we belong, leaves the world in an enormous deficit.
So this notion of a game of thrones is very relevant, I believe, and it’s very personal. You know, I prefer we not begin the discussion thinking about nations. I think it’s much more helpful to think in terms of our own individual journeys. Apart from God, every one of us are inclined to establish our own personal kingdom of self. That’s the reality of the way we come into this world. We enter the world giving expression to this intent. If you’ve been around a newborn lately, you know this is true, and I’m not impugning their character, I’m just observing the reality. When we’re hungry, we cry. Until somebody feeds us and then we’ll hush. If we’re uncomfortable, we cry, until somebody changes our diaper and then we’ll be quiet for a bit. It’s impossible to take that new child and say, «Wait. You be quiet while I eat».
They lack that much self-awareness. Appropriately so. But those principles left unchallenged in our nature will lead us on a self-destructive journey because in reality birthdays don’t change that tendency. We become a bit more sophisticated. We learn occasionally to hide some of the baser expressions of our selfish pursuits, but they are very much alive and well within us, and in an attempt to fulfill those selfish ambitions, we will pursue those things which promise us satisfaction. And we will do them with an unparalleled determination. What we have to remember and the role that the Church plays or a portion of the role, is to be aware that there are other forces involved beyond ourselves, that good and evil exist.
And here’s the punch line: they impact our lives. If you’re not living with the awareness that both good and evil forces impact you on a daily journey, you are at an incredible deficit. That’s like denying the reality of a virus or bacteria. The reality of a God who loves us and is willing to be known by us, and has actually made provision for our well-being, is a transformational reality. If you’ll accept those ideas that there is a God and he’s willing to be known, he’s not playing hide and seek with you, and that he’s made provision for our own well-being, if you will accept those premises, it changes your existence and your journey through time. But I’ll give you a warning, evil exists. And the fundamental expression of that evil, isn’t in murder or hate; it’s rebellion against God. The root of that evil is that it is rebelled against God. And evil will do everything with it’s in power to cause you to join it in that rebellion with the objective of disrupting God’s purposes. God’s love for humanity makes us the target of evil.
So there are spiritual forces at work to diminish your participation in God’s purposes, to distract you from God’s invitations, and if they’re left uninterrupted, they will bring destruction to your life every time. I’ve walked this way. I’ve walked with thousands and thousands of people now. Jesus of Nazareth is the ultimate expression of God’s love. I believe you can understand Jesus is a divine intervention in human history, a light shining in the darkness, an expression of God’s favor towards human beings, a King to reign in true righteousness and justice, in authority over our lives who truly seeks what is best for us. But here’s the rub in that. If you’re determined to be on the throne, there’s no room for Jesus to occupy that place. Then we should not underestimate the determination of our self will. He’s a redeemer from our broken world. He’s a King with the power to transform, to renew, and to bring fulfillment to any human life that will receive him as King.
So I have a question. And it really is the essence of this session today. Who’s on the throne in your life? Now I know we’re in church and the answer is Jesus, but really. If I interviewed your spouse or your kids or I looked through your calendar or in your expenditures, who is on the throne of your life? Well, it’s Easter season, and I’m gonna submit to you that Easter and the events associated with it changed Jesus’s friends forever. And I haven’t quite turned loose of that yet in my own life. I want to be changed by the events of Easter. Well, I’m a Christ follower with some experience, but I’m not satisfied. I don’t wanna be content with the place I’m in. I want to know what it is to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
You see, after Easter, after the Resurrection, and especially after Pentecost, they’re more than disciples. They’re more than students, they’re more than assistants to the Rabbi. Everything about them is transformed. Their attitudes, their understanding of Jesus was changed by the events of Easter. Up till that time, for 3 years, they followed him as a teacher, as a miracle worker, a healer, a Rabbi, even a Messiah, they were willing to say, fulfilling the prophets. But they did it in a very inconsistent way, haltingly, with bursts of insight and then with great deviations.
However, after Easter they have a completely different awareness. They’re more bold, they’re more determined, they’re more relentless. They have a new sense of purpose to testify as witnesses of what they have experienced. They’re no longer living within the system. They’re no longer just living within the system of attending synagogue and making the feast pattern to Jerusalem and observing the Shabbat. They have a completely different orientation for their lives. Their relationship with Jesus has changed. And their relationship with Jesus changing changes every one of their other relationships. They’re different after Acts 2.
So I’ve been walking around for days now, weeks, honestly, saying, «Lord, what’s at the root of, how do we or how are we in the place where we are, where Church can so easily seem like a perfunctory responsibility, you know, how often do we need to go? What do we need to do and how much do we have to give,» and, I mean, all the stuff. We’ve all asked those questions. I’ve asked those questions. How did we arrive at this place? When I read the pages of my Bible, and there’s a dynamic in them. And I’m not confident that I’ve got the whole response to that, but I do want to give you a piece of it that I believe is essential. And it’s they held Jesus in a place that we don’t. And I’m not accusing anybody, folks. We’re in this together, we’ve been working on this a while.
You know, we’ll say Jesus is Lord and we’ll call him King occasionally if nobody’s listening that thinks we’re too weird. But I mean beneath the veneer, if you peel back all the stuff, they held Jesus someplace different. And there’s a lot of evidence to that. I gave you just a little sampling in your notes and it could have been much, much longer, but you didn’t want to stay through the afternoon I knew. So Philippians chapter 2 in verse 9, the immediate verses immediately preceding tell you all the sacrifices, the choices that Jesus made. But then in verse 9, it gives us the punch line, and this is the apostle Paul.
So this is coming from Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee of the Pharisees. He’s got a overwhelming academic resume. And this is his analysis of Jesus. He says, «Therefore,» which is a summary word, «God exalted Jesus to the highest place and he gave him a name that’s above every name. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father». So if you wanna know who Saul of Tarsus understood Jesus to be, he hated him. He’d put you in prison if you said something about him. And he was so transformed by an interaction with Jesus that he has more than a 180-degree change. I mean, I know physically you can’t, but he’s transformed body, soul, and spirit. He said God’s given him the name that’s above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and you should understand that in the Roman Empire, that’s a reason to be crucified. If you advocate for any king other than Caesar, you put your life in jeopardy.
And when Paul is stalking the streets of the Mediterranean world, Caesar is still very much in power, and they are beginning to persecute Christians with some enthusiasm. When they had the first gathering of church leaders from the cities around the empire, most of them, the leaders from those cities, showed up with physical damage. Some of the early persecutions, there were two that were very prominent. They would sever your Achilles tendon, and blind you in one eye. So they would impact your ability, your mobility and your vision. In that first gathering of church leaders, they were almost all lame and lacking vision. And Paul said God’s given him a name that’s above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess. And yet we’ve arrived at a place in the contemporary American church where we’re reluctant to say that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. They held Jesus in a higher esteem.
Look at Hebrews 1. Different author perhaps. «In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he’s spoken to us by his Son». So the author of Hebrews is asserting that Jesus is the Son of God. «Whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word». So there’s this set of declarations about Jesus and his authority and his power. He holds the universe together. You know what we would say: «Well, you know, now we’re so much more enlightened». We’re 2 millennia further down the road of applying a scientific method.
We wouldn’t suggest anything as nonsensical as God holding our world together. Because we have a definition of our world that doesn’t include God. And in the same way we say that the church and the state should be separate, we say science and faith should be separate. You should never mix those two. You’ll diminish them both. I promise you God can stand up to the inspection of the scientific method. I promise. But we have been diminished because we have diminished our perspective on Jesus. We’re ashamed of him. We’re reluctant to take him into those arenas where the training is secular and it doesn’t make acknowledge, it doesn’t make room for a spiritual reality or a spiritual perspective.
And even though we hold those perspectives, we don’t want to take them into those arenas because there’s forfeiture, there’s pushback. Cancel culture is not new, folks. It was the real a long time before we got to social media and the opportunity to be de-platformed there. But Hebrews doesn’t stop there. It says: «After he’d provided purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. And he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs».
Do we believe that our Lord has the name that’s above all names? That there’s no spiritual being ever been created, ever acknowledged, that’s ever been given birth to, that transcends our Lord? The greatest honor of our lives is bearing his name. The greatest privilege we will ever be given is being an ambassador, a representative for him, in any arena where the Lord gives us the permission. There’s nothing better. Look in Colossians chapter 1, verse 15. This is Paul again writing to a church in a different city this time, saying of Jesus, he said, «He’s the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven, on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities».
He’s walking through the org chart of the spiritual world. «Thrones and powers and rulers and authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he’s the head of the body, the church; he’s the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy». Now here’s the part that’s completely off the chart, inexplicable. There’s no answer given to it in scripture. Jesus of Nazareth has invited you and me not only into his kingdom, but to be his friend. «Well, Pastor, you know, I don’t wanna be overly emotional». I do! «Well, I don’t want to be an extremist». I intend to be.
The Bible is very clear. One day you will see the Lord. Just you. I won’t be there, spouse won’t be, kids won’t be there, boss won’t be there, neighbors won’t be there. Just you. And it’s worth thinking about that interview a little bit. When the Lord sees you and he checks the book. «Oh, middle of the road. Don’t want to be extreme. Welcome». I don’t think so. I’m not suggesting you have to be weird, folks. Weird doesn’t make you spiritual, it just makes you weird. I’ve met too many weird people trying to pretend they were spiritual. I’ve earned most of these marks. So that’s not what I’m talking about. The most intensely spiritual people I’ve known have been the most practical people. I’m not asking you to check your brain at the door.
In fact, church would get better if you bring it in the building with you. Most of us have been exposed to so much, so many times where it wasn’t required of us, we’ve used the imagination that our real efforts are necessary someplace else, that leftovers are adequate for church. Leftover appliances, leftover clothes, leftover resources, leftover time. If there’s not something I really wanted to do, maybe I could do something to serve the Lord for a few minutes. Let’s start to bring our best to the Lord. If he is supreme over everything, and he’s the head of the church, I would submit to you the church should reflect that. I think it’s really messed up that we would want anything less than that.
Look at Ephesians 1:22: «God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way». The reality is the first way most people are going to encounter Jesus is through his people. Well, that changes the equation. The first way most people are gonna encounter our Lord unless he gives them a personal revelation, and he does that with amazing expressions of grace. But for the overwhelming majority of people, they’re gonna have those first encounters with people a lot like you and me. Whew, that takes the grace of God. That takes the God of the imagination. He picked a bunch of cracked pots and said, «I’m gonna make you the marketing team,» right?
People have known us when we weren’t, and you can fill in the blanks after that: godly, holy, righteous, nor interested in any of the above. And then he begins to change us and we show back up and have* said, «We’ve met Jesus,» and they said, «Yeah, you needed to meet somebody». That’s the nature of this journey. But there’s an enormous pressure, culturally, the messaging in the employment arena, corporately and academia, academia mocks God today. It’s reprehensible, and we’ve accepted it, we tolerate it. Look in Revelation chapter 5. This is a beautiful picture.
John has a vision of heaven. And I just want to call your attention to the scene. To whatever extent you use your imagination, let’s step into the periphery of this, and the periphery is gonna put us miles and miles and miles away from the platform. When you see the magnitude of the gathering, you’ll understand, but it says: «They sang a new song». You know there are songs in heaven? Apparently when we get to heaven, I’m gonna be able to sing. Come on. That would take a Jesus whose name is above every name, okay? «You are worthy to take the scroll». This is the song. «You’re worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You’ve made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth».
You’re not gonna spend eternity floating on the clouds. Jesus is coming back here. Now you’re gonna get an upgrade on your earth suit. That’s another session. «Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand». You know what 10,000 times 10,000 is? A hundred million. That’s a bunch. US population a little bit more than 300 million, so about a third of the US population in one scene, which means you really can’t see it with any sense of, you know, you can see portions of it. That’s why when I said we’re gonna stand on the periphery of this, there’s a platform up there, but there’s 40 or 50 million people between you and the front of the platform. Except in this case it’s angels. «They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders». I always read this scene, I think, «What about those people that don’t like big church»?
Verse 12: «In a loud voice they sang,» there’s another song, «'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! '» A hundred million angels singing that. I can’t imagine. «Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and glory and honor». It’s an odd list to me. He already has a name that’s above every name. He’s worthy for that, it says, and wealth. I don’t have time in this session to unpack that with you. Maybe another time because we tend to think of wealth in terms of gold and silver or physical assets. This present world order is passing away. There’s nothing here that has eternal value.
So the reflection that Jesus is worthy of great wealth, it’s not about the stuff you and I are clutching. And he talked to us about laying up treasure in heaven where nothing can diminish it. But it intrigues me that the angels are singing. This innumerable company of angels singing that Jesus is worthy of power and wealth, wisdom and strength and honor and glory. «Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing,» yet another chorus. «'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! ' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen, '» so be it, «and the elders fell down and worshiped».
Is it safe to say that Jesus’s friends that made that journey with him for 3 years saw his suffering, his death, his resurrection, had that time with him, that they are changed? This is not the same crew following him through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus comes to give John this revelation, and John records it for us, and he’s perfectly comfortable with his presentation of Jesus. It sounds a great deal like what Paul said about him in Colossians. He has the name above every name that he said in Philippians. How have we come up with like an institutional Jesus? How have we come up with a Jesus where we quibble about secondary things and we get so bent out of shape about stuff that we withdraw from the people of God as if we aren’t ambassadors for a King? What has happened to us, church?