He said, look at it, he gave him as head over all things to the church.

He gave, God gave, listen to this,

the one who was already head over the universe to the church to be her head.

Hi, friend. This is Phil Johnson. Welcome to a special Grace to You broadcast featuring John MacArthur.

We're breaking from our regular schedule for a second day to bring you an important message

that John delivered some years ago at a national conference for Ligonier Ministries.

If you heard yesterday's Grace to You broadcast, you know that John and I had a discussion

that started in a very unusual way. We began by talking about a motion picture that is debuting this Friday titled The Essential Church.

This film focuses on the pressure that governments put on churches basically to shut them down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, it tells the story of how the church, John Pastors, Grace Community Church and Los Angeles found itself in a legal battle

subject to severe penalties over the issue of holding in-person worship services during the pandemic.

Now, at the heart of that situation was this question, who is the authority over the church? Is it the government or is it God?

And the message you're about to hear will provide a clear answer. So follow along now with John MacArthur as he begins a lesson

that he delivered several years ago at a Ligonier conference, but the content is as timely as ever.

The title Jesus Christ the Head of the Church.

This subject that's been assigned to me, Jesus Christ the Head of the Church, is a very, very serious subject.

And I'm pretty confident that just off the top, it might appear to you to be somewhat benign, somewhat ho-hum.

Certainly, we all know that. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church.

So maybe we need to look at history a little bit and find out just how benign this is or isn't.

Throughout history, I can honestly say there have been some notable servants of the Lord whose name was John.

And I'm happy to bear the name, although I'm quite certain I don't belong in the ranks of many who do.

One is John Huss. John Huss was and is well known and loved by many who know Reformation history.

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