Heaven and Earth

Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” —Matthew 28:18

When Jesus returned to the earth from His resurrection and first ascension into the heavenlies as the first born again man, He spent 40 days teaching men secrets pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Those meetings must have been something! The revelation that flowed from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords must have been astounding! I used to get all worked up because nobody ever recorded what was said. Then one day, God's Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, "Kenney, what I felt was important for you to know was recorded. It’s right there in your Bible."

I jumped up out of my chair and grabbed my Bible. Sure enough, it was in there. That's when God began to open the scriptures to me concerning these 40 days of teaching. At the end of Matthew, we find what we call the Great Commission. So many times in the past, I had just read over this, focusing on the directive to go into all the earth and make disciples, but missing something of great importance.

In this brief record, Jesus revealed something vital about His new ministry. He declared that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him. Up until I read this, I had assumed that God the Father bestowed the authority over these two majestic realms upon Jesus when He ascended into the heavens, but that wasn't the case. God began to reveal scripture after scripture to me concerning this particular event.

Long before this day, God had shared the authority over the earth with His first son Adam. He told him, “Here is the earth and everything on it. Subdue and take authority over it. Multiply in it.” When Adam bent his knee to the spirit of rebellion and the devil by disobeying God, Satan became his new lord. It was at this point that the partial authority Adam had on earth was seized by Lucifer. After the father of lies had acquired this power over the earth and everything in it, he went about attempting to destroy it.

Sure, God still had ownership and partial authority on the earth, but He had given a share to Adam, and Satan had stolen it from him. Jesus came to take it back. After Jesus suffered on the cross, His spirit was dragged to the pit of hell to suffer what the Bible calls the agony of death. There, the demons mocked and tortured the author of life. But early on the third day, His Father declared Him justified and breathed His breath of life into Christ’s spirit.

With new life, Jesus rose from the floor of hell and threw off the demons that had tortured Him. He marched straight to the throne of Satan and, as the Bible declares, made a show of him openly. He stripped him of all the authority, power and dominion that once belonged to Adam. Then He took from him the keys of death and hell. In victory, He preached to those who were waiting in the bosom of Abraham and led those many witnesses out of the depths of earth.

Then, with His own blood in His hands, He entered the heavens and stood before the Father of Lights. He presented His blood as evidence of His sacrifice and laid the authority, dominion and keys which He had violently taken from the devil at the feet of God. It was then that God proclaimed Jesus as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Right in the devil’s own domain, Jesus took back what he had stolen. He defeated him in front of every demon under the devil’s command. Satan's power over man and the earth had been destroyed! There is nothing to fear from demons, there is nothing to fear on this earth, and there is nothing to fear from the devil himself because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus—and the devil isn't getting any of it back!

Scriptural Context Matthew 28:16-20

Concept Reinforcement God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." —Genesis 1:28

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. —Acts 2:24

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. —Colossians 2:15

I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. —Revelation 1:18