Potentate

….He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

1 Timothy 6:15

Potentate – now that is a word that you don’t hear much anymore. In fact, it’s almost gone out of use altogether. A hundred years ago, Russia had its Czar, Germany had its Kaiser, and the Ottoman Empire had its Sultan. The world had very potent leaders that answered to no one; they were potentates.

Dictators are still around today, but it’s not the same. They usually rise to power by rallying the masses to revolution; then they also have to appease the same or they’ll fall victim to a new regime change led by new revolutionaries.

Potentates throughout the centuries brought fear and terror to those who were oppressed by them, as well as neighboring nations who were forced to pay tribute. These absolute rulers fared sumptuously, lived in palaces, and were envied by 99.9999% of their subjects.

Christ certainly will have unlimited power in His millennial kingdom. After that, He’ll become Emperor of the Universe for eternity. His authority will exceed everything that all earthly potentates ever obtained. But the Savior is no despot.

Jesus is the blessed Potentate. Instead of oppressing His people and siphoning their wealth for Himself, He serves them, saves them, and brings them increase. Christ will finally become the benevolent dictator that humanity always longed for but never received.

He’s also the only Potentate. There will be no political opposition, nor wars of aggression, nor power grabs of lesser kingdoms. The King of kings and Lord of lords will be the Supreme Commander of everything that really matters. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the blessed and only potentate. 

Galilean

When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean.

Luke 23:6

Galilean – not exactly a name for Christ – not really even a title. It is more like a label or pigeonhole where you put people beneath your dignity. Galilee was an insignificant region of an insignificant province. Back then, Galileans were what hillbillies or rednecks are to our culture today.

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples impressed everyone by preaching the gospel eloquently in more than 16 foreign languages. The amazement was even greater when someone said: “Look are not these who speak Galileans?” (Acts 2:7). Since these were simple, backwoods folk, the conclusion people came to was that they must be drunk and didn't know what they were saying.

Flavius Claudius Julianus was the nephew of Constantine the Great and the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He is known in history books as Julian the Apostate although the title he chose for himself was Julian the Philosopher. While Constantine and his sons embraced Christianity at a time when the faith was growing in the empire, Julian renounced the new religion when he ascended to the throne and became the last champion of polytheism in Rome.

Julian despised Christians and always referred to them as Galileans. They weren't educated or cultured like he was and he was distraught that so many of his subjects were abandoning the gods to follow Jesus of Nazareth. He idealized the philosophy of paganism and wrote books on the subject.

Initially, Julian had great success in battle but on June 26, 363 he found his small, Roman army surrounded by a huge Persian force. Mortally wounded, his aides brought him back to his tent where tradition tells us that he threw his blood towards heaven and shouted “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!”

Wow! Who’da thunk it! The emperor of the Roman Empire glorified Jesus Christ with the most demeaning of titles.

He Who Opens and No One Shuts

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens: I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

Revelation 3:7-8

Many years ago we took an eight year old foster son into our home who had been labeled “severely emotionally disturbed.” The title was well deserved because of an abused past and the fact that he would go into terrible rages. In one such episode, he ran into his room and locked the door. Using a hammer from the tool set he got for his birthday, he began to pound holes into the walls and doors. I had a key and so soon opened the door and asked him to stop. Defiantly, he told me he’d use the hammer on me if I tried to touch him, so I quietly watched him trash his own room. After more than 200 holes in the drywall, he was exhausted and ready to stop. We talked through the initial problem, but damage was already done for which there were natural consequences.

His hammer was now mine as partial compensation for property damage and the walls weren't repaired for about a year. However, the most significant result of his outburst was that the door came off and was never replaced..

When Christ addressed the church in Philadelphia he called Himself He who opens and no one shuts. Satan and worldly powers threw every obstacle in the way it could to stop the little church from sharing the gospel. They raged at the faithful Christians until they had no more energy left. Then, God quietly took the door off the hinges and there was nothing more to say or do. The Philadelphians returned, sharing the good news with the world around them.

“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). The enemies of God will try to slam the door of opportunity in the face of the faithful. But the Lord doesn't just open a window; he knocks down a wall. After all, Jesus is He who opens and no one shuts.

Awesome

He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name.

Psalm 111:9

Sometimes there seems to be a total disconnect between how people use a word and what it actually means. I've heard the term “awesome” used to describe a pizza, a football game, a sunset, a double rainbow, and a party. If I were to write a definition based on current use it would be, “A descriptive term that acknowledges an object or experience to be distinctively better than mediocre.”

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Perhaps the closest usage of the word to its actual meaning came when my son went skydiving for the first time. As I looked up at a small aircraft against the cloudless, blue, Kansas sky, I saw a tiny speck eject itself. Falling to the earth at 180 miles per hour I could clearly hear him yell, “Awesome!” However, if this really was awesome, he wouldn't have been able to speak at all.

The truly awesome is so terrifyingly intense that someone experiencing it is unable to speak because he is awestruck. The Apostle John’s vision of Christ on the Isle of Patmos was awesome. When he saw the Son of Man who had eyes like a flame of fire, a voice like many waters, and a sharp sword coming out of His mouth, John fell down like a dead man. There was just too much to process so the mortal yielded to the immortal.

Moses climbed up a flaming mountain alone to encounter an Awesome God. The writer to the Hebrews described it this way: “And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I am exceedingly afraid and trembling’” (Hebrews 12:21).

Soon and very soon, the Lamb will break the seals of God’s judgment on the planet that crucified Him. John foresees it this way: “Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains” (Revelation 6:14-15). In that day when people experience Awesome, they’ll be fleeing from the wrath of the Lamb and not thinking about pizza.

Defender of Widows

A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.

Psalm 68:5

We’re told in James 1:27 that: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” But this concern for single moms…is it just a God the Father thing or is it something that is part of Christ’s character?

When Jesus went with His disciples to the town of Nain, He observed a funeral procession go by. Scripture tells us that He had compassion on that widow who just lost her fatherless son (Luke 7:11-15). He told her not to cry, raised the boy back to life, and reunited them.

Widows were remembered in Christ’s teaching. An exploited widow was the focus in the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:2-8) where the bottom line is that God answers prayer. The Lord also denounced hypocrites who devoured widows’ houses and for a show made long prayers (Luke 20:46).

Just a day or two before Jesus was betrayed, tension was building as He taught in the Temple. A crowd gathered to watch Jesus teach while the religious leaders tried to pull Him down. When no one was looking, a widow put two cents into the collection box (Luke 21:1-4). No one noticed her insignificant offering. No one noticed, except the One who sees all things and He blessed her for giving everything she had. It doesn't say what happened next but I expect that He somehow provided for her because on the Sermon on the Mount, Christ taught “that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly” (Matthew 6:4).

Since there’s no mention of Joseph after Christ began His ministry, it is generally assumed that he died, leaving Mary as a widow. As the first born son, it was Jesus’ responsibility to take care of her. Not even the anguish of death allowed Him to shirk that obligation. While He was hanging on the cross, He asked His disciple John to take her to his home and provide for her. Even to the very end Jesus was a defender of widows. 

Our God and Savior

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:1*

Hold onto your hats! Here we go again, another God-title of Christ. That’s because accepting His deity is essential in knowing who He is.

You don’t have to look far to find Christians who disagree with each other. Doctrinal disagreements happen frequently in the same local church, but most saints congregate in groups of like-minded people so that they can label those of other persuasions “the weaker brethren.” Since it is easier to divide than to prayerfully seek the truth, Christendom is now broken down into more than 10,000 denominations, organizations, and sects.

Many, if not most, agree on the basic principles of faith but others have major areas of contention. That’s why sometimes members of other churches seem way out in left field but other times they appear in another ballpark all together.

Christ is the God of the universe. To see the Savior as a Great Teacher, Wonderful Man, Dear Friend, Archangel, or one of many Sons of God but deny His deity is to totally change the game and there cannot be common ground.

Everyone wants a Savior. Nobody wants to go to hell. But who we come to is our God and Savior; the offices must go together. God didn't delegate our salvation to a super-human or mere archangel. He came in a human body to take on Himself the sins of the whole world.

Our salvation is not only supernatural, it’s divine. A Savior who is less than God cannot destroy the works of the devil or reveal the true power of grace. The bottom line is that to be saved, we must accept Jesus Christ as our God and Savior.

*see also Titus 2:10, 13; 3:4; Jude 25

Rock of Offense

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense…..”

1 Peter 2:7-8*

These verses point out obvious contrasts: Believers/Unbelievers; Precious stone/Stumbling block. The first is two distinct groups of people; the second is two aspects of the same rock.

Everyone at some point in their lives must focus on Christ. Their perception of who He is will determine their reaction to the same. If discovering the Savior is like finding a many carated, flawless diamond in a field, the response will be one of joy, excitement, and fulfillment. However, if someone trips over that same piece of geology multiple times, it becomes a rock of offense that produces resentment, frustration, and anger.

Jesus gets in people’s ways. He makes them feel uncomfortable or inadequate so they want Him to just go away. When He doesn't (because He is everywhere) they try to run away. They go further from the light, and the further down the tube they fall, the deeper they go into the slime of sin. But that doesn't work either, because the Lord still reaches out with His nail pierced hands to the sinner to pull him out.

At this point, one of two things happen: 1. Faith takes hold of the Savior’s hand and everything changes, or 2. Nothing changes except for intensity. Frustration and anger builds along with an acute sense of being offended.

Few, if any, are truly indifferent about the Savior if they really have known Him. To those whose lives He has transformed, He is precious. To those who have rejected Him, He makes them mad and offended. He is their “Rock of Offense.”

*See also Isaiah 8:14 and Romans 9:33