Jesus a Dictator

Text: Matthew 28:18

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Explain why the applies the word "dictator" to Jesus — not as criticism but as description of total, undivided authority.
2. Articulate why God's jealousy is a theological fact, not a character flaw, and what it means for worship and obedience.
3. State clearly why adding to, subtracting from, or substituting in Christ's commands is condemned, with at least two biblical examples.
4. Understand why neutrality toward Christ is impossible and why "broad-mindedness" as a religious concept is theologically incoherent.
5. Identify what it means for Christ to be the gravitational center of all loyalties and how competing loyalties are resolved.

Thesis

Of all rulers in history, none has exercised authority as absolute as Jesus Christ — and none has used that authority with such perfect kindness. His lordship admits no rivals, no revisions, and no neutral parties.

Burden

The title "dictator" is deliberately provocative. In the modern ear it carries the weight of totalitarian politics — arbitrary power wielded for a ruler's benefit, sustained by fear and force. That is not what the title means, and the parenthetical in the introduction makes the distinction explicit: none so arbitrary as Jesus; yet none so kind. The point is not tyranny — it is totality. Every other form of authority in human history has been partial, contested, or corrupt. Christ's authority is total, uncontested, and wholly good.

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18). Not some authority. Not spiritual authority with carve-outs for Caesar, custom, or personal preference. All of it.

Introduction

Different forms of government have produced different kinds of rulers. Republics, monarchies, oligarchies, theocracies — each has its dynamics, its strengths, its abuses. None has produced anything as absolute as the authority of Jesus Christ. Caesar could compel the body; Christ claims the soul. Parliament can pass laws for a nation; Christ speaks words that bind all nations for all time. A dictator controls his domain by force until the force fails; Christ's authority rests on who he is, and who he is does not change.

The reason this matters practically is that it defines the nature of discipleship. Following Jesus is not a partnership in which the terms are negotiated and the level of compliance is a personal decision. It is submission to total authority — and the call of this sermon is to do that with eyes open, knowing what total authority means.

I. God a Jealous God

The foundation of Christ's absolute authority is the nature of God himself.

1. God will not share with any other (Ex. 20:5). The second commandment is not a concession to cultural exclusivity — it is the statement of a theological fact. There is only one God. The requirement of exclusive worship is not arbitrary; it reflects reality. Worshiping any other is worshiping a fiction.
2. He must have the whole part or none. Partial obedience is not partial credit — it is disobedience. Saul offering the best livestock as sacrifice while disobeying the command to destroy them entirely is the defining example. "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22). Half-surrender is not surrender.
3. He is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). This language from Deuteronomy (4:24; 9:3) and repeated in Hebrews is not rhetorical. It describes the nature of God's holiness in relation to sin. A fire does not partially burn; it consumes. Holiness does not partially require purity; it requires it.
4. He will destroy all that oppose him. This is not a threat to be managed by moderate compromise. Every kingdom, every ideology, every system that sets itself against the lordship of Christ is already defeated — the question is only when the defeat will be manifested.

II. Must Do Exactly His Will

The Restoration Movement's hermeneutical cornerstone is embedded here: do what is commanded, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

1. Must not add to, take from, or substitute. This principle appears at the beginning of the canon (Deut. 4:2), at the end (Rev. 22:18-19), and at the doctrinal center of the New Testament (Gal. 1:8-9). It is not a minor refinement of religious practice — it is the structural requirement of obedience to a God whose authority is total.
2. Many examples of condemnation for departing from his will. Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire and were consumed (Lev. 10:1-2). Uzzah touched the ark to steady it and died (2 Sam. 6:6-7). These are not stories about an arbitrary God — they are stories about the seriousness of treating God's specific instructions as negotiable. His instructions were specific because his authority is specific.
3. He is strict and exacting. This is not a quality to apologize for. A God whose authority is total and whose will is perfect should be strict. The problem is not that God is exacting; the problem is that human nature prefers a God who is not.

III. Cannot Be Neutral

The call to total submission eliminates the middle ground.

1. "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me, scatters" (Luke 11:23). Jesus explicitly ruled out the neutral position. There is no inactive, non-enrolled, uncommitted relationship with him. Not joining is leaving.
2. No salvation outside of him (Acts 4:12). Peter's declaration before the Sanhedrin is one of the most exclusivist statements in the New Testament: "There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." This is a truth claim about the nature of reality. Either it is true or it is not.
3. Cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). The Aramaic mammon is not simply money — it is anything that functions as the organizing principle of one's life. Jesus is saying that the structure of human loyalty can only have one center. Attempting to maintain two competing centers produces paralysis, dishonesty, or the quiet elimination of one by the other.
4. If not his friend, his foe. There is no cordial non-relationship with Jesus. The person who has heard the gospel and is deciding — very politely, over a long period of time — is not in a holding pattern. He is in the "against Me" category of Luke 11:23, because he is not gathering.

IV. Broad-Mindedness

The culture's preferred alternative to Christ's absolute authority is "tolerance" or "broad-mindedness" — the idea that being open to many positions is a virtue superior to commitment to one.

1. Mistaken ideas of tolerance. Tolerance in its proper sense is a civic virtue — treating people with dignity regardless of disagreement, not using social or governmental force to compel conformity of belief. That is a good thing. It is not the same as saying all beliefs are equally valid.
2. "Broad-mindedness" as a cheap counterfeit. The person who says "I believe in being broad-minded about religion" usually means "I refuse to take any religious claim seriously enough to evaluate it." That is not intellectual generosity — it is intellectual evasion.
3. Lazy thinking will not pass. The question "Is Jesus Lord?" is not a question that can be deferred indefinitely by appealing to broad-mindedness. It is a claim about reality that either is or is not true. Refusing to engage it seriously is not neutrality — it is a decision, dressed up in courtesy language.
4. The difference between broad-minded and scatter-brained. A mind that is open in the sense of being ready to receive true things is genuinely broad. A mind that is open in the sense of being unable to close around any true thing is not broad — it is scattered. Christ's authority calls for the first kind of mind, which receives it.

V. Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces

Physics provides an analogy for the two fundamental orientations toward Christ.

1. Centripetal force brings toward the center. Conviction, conscience, the drawing of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the gospel — these are centripetal. They pull a person toward Christ as the organizing center of his existence.
2. Centrifugal force flees from the center. Pride, comfort, social pressure, the desire to remain one's own authority — these are centrifugal. They produce the impulse to maintain enough distance from Christ's authority to keep options open.
3. "In Him all things hold together" (Col. 1:17). Paul's cosmic Christology is the theological statement of the centripetal principle. The universe's coherence is not independent of Christ — it is derived from him. To move away from him is to move toward incoherence.

VI. Conflicting Loyalties

Every person organizes his life around something — a career, a family, a nation, an ideology, a religion. The question is not whether you have a center, but what it is and whether it is adequate to hold everything else together.

1. In Christ all loyalties harmonize. The person whose primary loyalty is to Christ does not have to betray his family in order to be faithful to his country, or betray his country in order to be faithful to God. The hierarchy of loyalties ordered under Christ's authority is coherent.
2. Men group around certain centers of loyalty. Political parties, ethnic identities, economic classes, social movements — each functions as a center of loyalty that demands some measure of devotion. These centers compete. Each claims priority in moments of conflict.
3. Jesus must be the center of our loyalties. Not one loyalty among many — the center around which every other loyalty is ordered. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matt. 22:37). This is the first and greatest commandment because it establishes the ordering principle for everything else.
4. These must never conflict. When they seem to, it is because something other than Christ has been placed at the center. Restoring the center resolves the conflict.

Application

The practical test of this sermon is the question: What do you do when Christ's command conflicts with something you want, something everyone around you is doing, or something the culture insists is acceptable?

If the answer is "I adjust Christ's command" or "I ignore it for now" or "I find a way to read the text that doesn't require this particular change" — then something other than Christ is at the center. That is the diagnosis this sermon is designed to produce.

The good news embedded in the title is the parenthetical: yet none so kind. The authority of Christ is not exercised for his benefit at the expense of yours. His commands are not arbitrary inconveniences — they are the structure within which human beings flourish. The narrow way is narrow because it is the right path, not because God enjoys restriction.

Conclusion

Caesar had all the authority of Rome. His edicts could move armies, execute citizens, and shape the course of nations. His authority ended when Rome ended. Christ said: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18). Heaven and earth — not Rome, not a century, not a culture. Everything. Forever.

That is a different kind of authority than any human ruler has ever claimed or held. And it is exercised by a man who went to a cross so that the people under his authority could live. The dictator of the title is also the Lamb of Revelation 5:12 — "worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." The authority is total. And it is entirely good.

Invitation

The invitation of this sermon is to bring your loyalties into order. If Christ is not at the center — if something else is functioning as the organizing principle of your life — that is the thing to confess and reorder.

For those not yet in Christ: claiming him as Lord requires the specific acts he himself stipulated. Believe in him as the Son of God. Repent of every loyalty that has been placed above him. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). That act of immersion is the public declaration that his authority now holds the center.

For Christians already committed: the renewal of loyalty is not a one-time event. The centrifugal forces are constant. "Hold fast to the Head" (Col. 2:19) is written to people who already know him.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 81. Primary text: Matthew 28:18 (stated by Boles). The title "Jesus a Dictator" is Boles's original — retained as the correct canonical title. The content throughout is about Christ's total, undivided, and benevolent authority — not tyranny. Doctrinal audit: Restoration Movement hermeneutic (add/subtract/substitute forbidden) stated explicitly with OT examples (Nadab and Abihu, Uzzah); neutrality toward Christ ruled out by Luke 11:23; Acts 4:12 exclusivity stated without softening; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38). No OCR errors.