Well, this has been quite a week in the news. We have seen the word
"panic" on the front page headline of the Contra Costa Times
this week, haven't we? I didn't like that. We have felt perhaps a
growing anxiety in our own minds and hearts. It's becoming more and
more evident in the media. People are afraid. I'm getting to the
point where I don't want to turn on the television anymore. Last time
I felt that was the week before the Y2K turnover. Do you remember that?
The question rising in peoples' minds is: Are we really in control?
Who's in charge? What a mess. Things seem to be unraveling. They seem.
The world actually has asked those questions many times before,
though it is more pertinent and more frightening because we have our
children and our parents to be concerned about. And the unknown enemy
lurks in dark places.
But the question is a good one, addressed by today's Scripture. There
is Someone who reigns over all, and that One is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Because that is true, there is no ultimate reason for fear. God
is at work. God is on the move. And God, holy and worthy, is in charge.
That is not to say that there are not forces at work in the world
today. You've heard of "the world, the flesh, and the
devil," all of which are against the purposes of God. The world,
the false gods that surround us. The enticement to divert our
attention from the sovereign Lord God, Yahweh, Jesus Christ. The
world is active. The world is scrambling right now. Can we save our
markets? Can we capitalize on the fear people are experiencing? Can
we make something happen here to our advantage?
The flesh is at work, as always. Each one of us individually is
struggling with those temptations and those decisions that are so
hard at times, everything from whether or not to read the Bible today
to whether or not to enter into an adulterous relationship, and
everything in between. Our flesh struggles and resists the Saving One.
The self, you know, is a big contender for God's place in our life.
But having one's self at the center of the universe is untenable and
unsustainable without chaos ensuing. Jesus, the submissive one,
demonstrated another way.
The world, the flesh, and the devil. Satan is also at work. Satan's
power is evident. I believe Satan exists. He is evil
personified. Jesus the sinless one is victor over the one who has
perpetrated evil. Satan's power is evident, but he has lost the war.
The Scriptures tell us that he was defeated when Christ died on the
cross. As the great evangelist D.L. Moody said, "My friends, you
are no match for Satan, but when he wants to fight you, just run to
your elder brother Jesus, who is more than a match for all the devils
of hell." Good words these days.
Those words point us to the truth that we affirm today. Though the
world, the flesh and the devil are working overtime, Jesus has never
changed, he remains sovereign. The one who defeated death, sin and
evil, did so on the cross in his greatest humiliation. When he said,
"It is finished," he meant the work he set out to
accomplish - the salvation of humankind - was accomplished at that
moment. Jesus, the saving one, came to our rescue. As he did so and
was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, he took his
rightful place in the universe transcending everything that was created.
The Scripture today says "he is before all things." He has
always existed. He is the head of the church. He stands as our
sovereign, the one in whom we as a church have life today. In
everything, he has supremacy. He has claimed it, and all creation is
called to submit to his authority. He holds everything together.
The concept of Lord is under attack these days. There was a
letter to Presbyweb.com this week from a Presbyterian who said,
"You know, I have trouble with saying, 'Jesus is Lord.' It has
no relevance to me. It has no meaning to me." Whoa! That is our
basic Christian proclamation. But the trouble is that we don't want
to say anything is lord over us. It is part of the human
condition not to want to submit to any authority. That's why Jesus
died on the cross.
We also have trouble conferring upon Jesus Christ the title of Lord
because we have so few human models that put a positive spin on the
concept. Lords we know lord it over and dominate and exploit.
Jesus, though, is Lord and defines lordship, and that's why we have
to take a little time today to talk about it. What is the Lordship of
Christ all about?
We look at the whole witness of Scripture going beyond these few
verses in Colossians. Jesus is Lord of the universe because he knows
more. You know, when a person knows more than you do they have some
authority to say something's true, right? We go to doctors because
they know more than we do about medicine. Or we go to an attorney
because an attorney knows about the law and interprets it to us. We
take their word for it because we don't know ourselves. The person
who has authority has the big picture in mind, because he or she sees
everything that's going and can put everything in perspective. That
is authority we don't have. Now Jesus knows everything. He
sees everything. He's aware of everything going on.
Jesus has the greatest perspective of anyone who's ever lived. Jesus
has more power than anyone who's ever lived. I don't know another
person who has been raised from the dead. Jesus himself called
Lazarus from the grave. It was by God's power that that happened, not Lazarus'.
Jesus has power. The power to hold the whole thing together. When
someone has power to do what I can't do, I defer to that person.
Jesus is able to do anything that needs to be done. He doesn't do
everything we think should be done, but he is able to do everything
that can be done, that should be done. He's able. We never put limits
on what God is able to do. His will is another matter in specific
circumstances. Jesus is right and true. We spoke about that last
week. "I am the way, the truth, and the life," Jesus said.
Only Jesus, the sinless one, fully God yet fully human, submits fully
to the will of his Father. The only Savior of humankind. Only Jesus
is Lord. No one else can make the claim.
The evidence we have from the Gospels that Jesus is Lord starts with
his birth. What did the angels announce when Jesus was born that
Christmas night? "Born to you this day a Savior, Christ the
Lord." A baby, Lord at his birth. Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus
loved to work some of those healing miracles on Saturday, you know,
and drove everybody crazy because you aren't supposed to work on the
Sabbath. It wasn't work for Jesus. Healing was like breathing, and he
declared his Lordship over the Sabbath. Just before his entry into
Jerusalem, his self-awareness was evident when asking for the donkey.
He told the disciples, "Go and ask this person to borrow his
donkeys, and if he gives you any trouble, just say, 'The Lord needs
them.'" And then of course everybody waved their arms and sang
and joyfully acknowledged that he was the reigning one, calling down,
"Hosanna, the son of David."
Jesus certainly demonstrated his Lordship at his resurrection. The
testimony of the disciplines immediately after Pentecost gave the
evidence of his death, his atonement, and his resurrection, and then
declared, "This is how we know that God made this Jesus who
walked and lived among us both Lord and Christ." And now, we
know that Jesus is Lord.
He remains Lord. It wasn't a temporary title. In Philippians 2 where
Paul talks about Jesus emptying himself of all prerogatives and
appearances of being God, became a person, was obedient to his
heavenly Father to the point of death, at which point, Verse 9, God
highly exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is
above every name.
At this point our testimony proclaims Jesus is Lord! Savior! The
Christ! I'm trying to get my arms around this, because the Lordship
of Christ, while being such a basic concept to the Christian faith,
is also really big and hard to comprehend. So let us look at some
facets of lordship to which we can relate:
The first facet of Christ's Lordship is his majestic reign. The word
"majesty," that regal grand term, is attached to something
beautiful, huge, powerful, good. Christ reigns in majesty. He is
transcendent. He rises above mere human existence.
We caught a glimpse of this at the Transfiguration when, on a
particular day, he took three of his disciples up on a hill, and all
of a sudden, he just started glowing white, communing with his
heavenly Father, transfigured before them. We saw on the resurrection
day, or course, his new body. Mary Magdalene, a very close friend,
didn't even recognize him, thought he was the gardener because he was
so transformed and transfigured. In both cases, as soon as the
viewers caught on to whom they were seeing, their reaction was to go
flat on their face in worship.
Jesus is also powerful. He has power. He can exert his will. He can
put out a force that makes things happen. The writer of Hebrews
affirms, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact
representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful
word." Jesus doesn't even have to use muscles. All he has to do
is say it and it happens. That's power. Wouldn't it be great if you
could just wish it and it happened; if you could just say it and it's
done? That's power.
And he reigns in perfection. Jesus is the sinless one. Christ is the
image of the invisible God, God made visible to us. God's fullness
dwells in him in bodily form. Yahweh God, the Perfect One, the Holy
One, no one up to that point could look him in the eye for fear of
death. You don't survive looking at pure holiness. The Perfect One
now reigns in heaven.
From that viewpoint, one who is Lord, the Lord (not a
Lord), deserves worship. That is why we gather every Sunday. That is
what defines us as a people, that we recognize Jesus above all, all
creation and everything in it and every person in it. That One
deserves our worship. Philippians 2 again: "Every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the
Father." That's a great sight. God highly exalted him, and all
of creation will someday recognize and see Jesus. And even those who
don't believe in him, who are not saved by him, will know that he is
the Savior of the world. That's what the Scripture says.
So it is critically important for us in the church to be able to say,
without blinking or without looking down at our shoes, that
"Jesus is Lord." In Romans, Paul said, "If you confess
with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Those two just go
hand in hand. Prior to his resurrection, Jesus' claims could have
just been buried in the dust. He said a lot of things that we hear
deranged people today say. What validated Jesus' claims to deity is
that he rose from the dead. Wow. And he's still with us, still making
that claim and still inviting us to believe.
There's an impact, you know, to seeing and worshipping the Lord Jesus
Christ. I am drawing an illustration now from Bill Moyer's book The
World of Ideas II, in which he recounts the story of a
journalist, Jacob Needleman, who went to watch an Apollo 17 launch in
1975. These are Jacob Needleman's words:
"It was a night launch, and there were hundreds of cynical
reporters all over the lawn drinking beer, wise-cracking and waiting
for this 35-story-high rocket to take off. The countdown came and
then the launch. The first thing you see is this extraordinary orange
light which is just at the limit of what you can bear to look at.
Everything is illuminated with this light. Then comes this thing
slowly rising up in total silence, because it takes a few seconds for
the noise to reach your ears. And then the noise begins, and it just
enters right into you. You can practically hear jaws dropping. The
sense of wonder fills everyone in the whole place as this thing goes
up and up. The first stage ignites this beautiful blue flame. It
becomes like a star, but you realize there are humans on it.
And then, there is total silence. People just get up silently,
helping each other up. They're kind. They open doors for each other.
They look at one another, speaking quietly and with respect. These
were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder, the
experience of wonder, had made them moral."
What a great illustration. When we catch a glimpse of the holiness
and majesty of God, it leads to a different life. That's where we
come to the second facet of the Lordship of Christ, that Christ
reigns with authority. He has a will and all the knowledge and power
that renders him authoritative in all matters. His earthly ministry
was characterized by authority. People commented, "You know, he
teaches with authority unlike these Pharisees who just quote books."
Jesus speaks on his own authority. He was speaking for God. He
exerted authority when he chased demons out of sick people. He spoke
with authority and he was obeyed. He showed authority over the
elements on stormy days. He had moral authority. The woman caught in
adultery was not chastised by Jesus, but he did say, "Go and sin
no more." And I don't know about you, but the way I read that
and the way I feel that and hear that, I don't think she sinned
again. His authority gave her power to obey. He rules. He reigns.
Jesus has authority, and the human response to that authority can
only be obedience, that is, obedience or disobedience. I choose
obedience. I urge you to do the same. Jesus' authority is relevant.
It calls us to peace in this time of trouble. His authority calls us
to love in times of alienation. His authority calls us to
faithfulness in this time of sexual confusion. His will calls us to
wisdom in this time of foolishness, to giving away in this time of
accumulating. His will is relevant, and his will has authority, and
it calls for obedience.
The Lord grieves, though. Jesus said, "Why do you call me 'Lord,
Lord' and do not do what I say? Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord' and
do not do what I say?" Something doesn't compute. If he is Lord,
we must obey him. According to Diogenes Allen, a Presbyterian
theologian, the Latin root of the word authority means "that
which allows growth and life." Jesus' authority is exerted in
our life for our good, for growth in our life, rendering our
resentment of the authority of God in Christ foolishness. Why would
we resent what is for our own good?
There is a caution implied here. In the flesh we might be
willing to call Jesus Lord if it means, "Lord, exert your power
on my behalf, for me, for my stuff." But lordship means, really,
that we must submit to his presence and will.
Did you hear Jane Clayson interview Billy Graham's daughter in the
last couple of weeks? Anne Graham Lotz was interviewed on the morning
program. So she asked her, "Why didn't God stop this thing in
New York or at the Pentagon or do something about it?" Good
question. Here's what Mrs. Lotz said. "For years, we have told
God we didn't want him in our schools. We didn't want him in our
government, and we didn't want him in our finances. God was a perfect
gentleman in doing just what we asked him to do. So now we need to
make up our minds. Do we want God, or do we not want him? But we
can't just ask him in when disaster strikes."
So what is the alternative? We must believe and submit
ourselves to the sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ every day. It is
our duty not only to Christ but to our neighbors that we worship and
obey Jesus Christ as Lord, as a testimony against the fear and the
chaos the world is offering these days.
You notice that the advice from the higher-ups has been, "Go
about your business. Go shopping. Take plane flights. Live life as
normally as you can." Our act of faith as Christians is to find
not our freedom, but our master, and to submit to him in joy and
obedience. When we lift him up, exalted and powerful and bow before
him, the truth really will set us free.
That's what we proclaim today. Believe it. Trust in him. Wear your
"Trust God" pin. I saw somebody this week wearing a
red, white and blue ribbon, held together by her Trust God pin. I
love that idea. We're trusting the Lord because God is sovereign over
all powers and authorities. Let us proclaim together what the Church
has said from the beginning. Jesus is the Lord. Would you say it as
you stand? Jesus is Lord!