Show title slide. What is the one event, person, place, or thing that you have seen that has had the most impact on your life?

Transcription

1 Sermon, , Paul s Gospel Jesus Is Lord 1 Show video The Apostle Paul (Imbedded in PowerPoint. Also found at vimeo.com/ ) Show title slide. What is the one event, person, place, or thing that you have seen that has had the most impact on your life? Birth of a child? See a car accident? Last week we began a series on The Apostle Paul. Paul is extremely important to Christianity. He is a leader in the early church. He takes the message of Jesus to the world, to the Roman Empire, where before him it had not gone much farther than Jerusalem. He writes letters to individuals and churches about Christ and following Christ, many of which make up our New Testament. To understand Paul and what He wrote is to better understand who Jesus Christ is and what he did and how to follow Him. In the Book of Acts Paul tells the story of the one event, the one person he saw, that changed his life. He said, Acts 22:6-10 About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me? 8 Who are you, Lord? I asked. I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting, he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. 10 What shall I do, Lord? I asked. Get up, the Lord said, and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. After this, Paul repeatedly says that he saw Jesus that day. He really saw Jesus! He did not have a mystical vision. He never claimed to see Jesus again in this way after this. He saw and heard the real resurrected Jesus in that light and it was immensely important to him. And throughout it and in the retelling, he calls Jesus Lord.

2 Sermon, , Paul s Gospel Jesus Is Lord 2 In his letter to the Romans Paul gives a condensed version of what he calls his gospel his good news, and he says: Romans 1:1-4 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Beautiful, concise explanation of who Jesus is. The key! The power! The proof!?? His resurrection from the dead! How did he know that Jesus Christ is Lord? He saw Him alive. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus did not fail! He was not defeated! He was not a fraud! His resurrection proves that he was sent from God! Gospel means good news. A gospel in the ancient world was good news that was heralded to all people. It was usually the announcement that a king or emperor had either been born, achieved a great victory, or ascended to the throne. And it was good news because your life was going to change for the better. An inscription from a Roman city from 9 BC says, The providence that has ordered the whole of life... has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving it Augustus (Caesar), by filling him with virtue, and by sending him as it were, a savior for us, to make war cease, to create order everywhere... the birthday of the god [Augustus] was the beginning for the world of the glad tidings that have come to men through him... Glad tiding have come to all men because Augustus was born. In Isaiah, he foretells a gospel as an announcement of the Messiah. In ch 40, 41, 52, and 61. He says the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to set the captive free, to give sight to the blind... Paul says, he is that herald. He has the gospel Isaiah foretold. It is of a king. It is about Jesus. And it is this... Jesus Christ is Lord! How does Paul know? Jesus has risen from the dead. He has seen Him w/ his own eyes.

3 Sermon, , Paul s Gospel Jesus Is Lord 3 Look at Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The two go together. How can you say that Jesus is Lord? You only have to believe that God raised him from the dead. What marks Jesus as Lord? God raised him from the dead. Now in the Greek language Paul was using, Lord comes from kyrios. Kyrios could mean sir, master, king, or God. Caesar Augustus called himself Lord. Kyrios kaisar is Caesar is Lord. When Paul was saying Jesus is Lord, it was not without knowing that Caesars called themselves Lord. What did the Jew hear when Paul said Jesus is Lord. Look at Psalm 8:1 LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Here the first LORD with small caps is a translation of YHWH. In order to avoid saying God s personal name YHWH in vain, the Jews wrote Lord instead of Yahweh or Jehovah. The second Lord is an Adonai. Adon is Lord. It meant master, father, Lord, or owner. Adonai is the plural form of God, which like blows my mind since the Shema, Deut 6 says Hear O Israel, The Lord our God is One. Jews prayed this prayer called the Shema 3 times a day. God is called Lord in the Old Testament. Calling Jesus Lord is therefore the same as calling him?... God. In fact, the Apostle Paul tries to resolve the paradox for us in this in his letter to the Corinthians. He says, 1 Corinthians 8:6 Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. There is but one God echoes the Shema. And in this One God there is a Father and there is a Son, who is? Lord.

4 Sermon, , Paul s Gospel Jesus Is Lord 4 Jesus is Lord! He fulfilled God s covenant promise to deliver Israel from her captivity. Only He didn t do it as a conquering King. He did it as a suffering servant. How did Israel believe God would deliver and save her? He would destroy the pagan powers and principalities and make a new heaven and new earth. They expected it all at once on the day of the Lord in the last days. Jesus did that on the cross. He made a spectacle of the powers and principalities of the world. He destroyed sin and death. How do we know? He arose! He is alive. Therefore, He is Lord. He is God. He has fulfilled God s covenant promise to save his people. Only in an unexpected way. A way that starts with one man. Then, makes a new kingdom one by one. He is remaking humanity by his death on the cross and by his Spirit coming into the world. And here is how you will know all who are part of his kingdom. They are those who confess that Jesus in Lord. And in believing that God raised him from the dead, they are saved! Why? Because Jesus is Lord! (Black slide) Jesus is Lord of the world, of the cosmos. Jesus is Lord of the earth. Jesus is Lord of the ozone layer, of whales and waterfalls, and of trees and turtles. Jesus is Lord of your home, your marriage, your singleness. There is no part of human existence of which Jesus is not Lord. There is no area of our lives that is exempt from allegiance to Jesus as Lord. It s true of every one of our lives. It s true of every area of life. The good news today is that Jesus is Lord. It is the heart, the very center of the gospel of Paul: Jesus is Lord. He is King. He is Master. The challenge for us though is this... Jesus is Lord.

5 Sermon, , Paul s Gospel Jesus Is Lord 5 He commands lordship over our lives. He is our master. He decides what is good and right for us. He determines what is not good for us. He sets the limits. He determines the path. As Lord he is our master and leader. And for we who sin and go our own way astray, this is our challenge. Are you surrendered to his Lordship in all your life today? There was a saying popular some years ago that said: I don t know if that s exactly the best way to say it, because I think He knows we are not going to be perfect. But the essence is that a true follower of Jesus submits all his or her life to his Lordship. I d just like to apply this to our lives by challenging us in the 3 areas that we often have difficulty giving Jesus lordship in our lives. The first is money: 1. If Jesus is Lord of all, the great god Mammon is not. There was a god of money in Jesus s world called Mammon. He refers to it in Matthew 7. He says we can t serve the god Mammon and God. In the middle of the 20 th century T.S. Elliot asked whether our modern western society was founded in fact on anything other than the principal of compound interest. Capitalism is the best system out there, but it is not perfect. It can lead us to live like money is our god, our focus, our priority. Karl Marx is modern prophet of the money god on the other extreme. He claimed there is no God and that mankind is his own Lord. His teachings have done nothing but fail. Jesus says giving is better than receiving. He says saving is better than borrowing. He says trust in God, not mammon, and seek his kingdom and righteousness first, and all the things money buys for us will be taken care of by him.

6 Sermon, , Paul s Gospel Jesus Is Lord 6 Likewise, 2. If Jesus is Lord of all, the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love, is not. Jesus Lordship confronts all pagan idolatry we set up in our lives. We can call them by ancient names or modern. There is a god of sex in this world that enslaves millions, promises pleasure and happiness, but that gives only confusion and misery. Sigmund Freud might be called the modern prophet of the god of sex He would say mankind is the Lord of his own sexual freedom. Not so, Jesus is the Lord of all. He is the Lord of our bodies. Jesus says self-giving love in a faithful, heterosexual marriage relationship is his only plan for sexual activity. Any erotic love outside of those parameters is not his will for us. Lastly, 3. If Jesus is Lord of all, the god of power is not. I don t know if in the gods of Jesus day that should be Zeus or Caesar This week I heard a news story about a police officer in NY City who opposed a system of quota s for arrests and citations put in place by his superiors in order for them to meet some quality control targets. He was supposed to write so many tickets for this & that a month. So many stop and frisks. He was even instructed to make false arrests to fill quotas. When he started recording and reporting his superiors, he didn t find the support from above that he thought he would. He ended up suspended and committed to a mental health facility against his will in order to discredit him as mentally unstable. The abuse of power is not unknown in our country and time. Nietzsche would be our modern prophet for this idol. He asserted that the will to power was the highest human virtue. And that Christianity was a only crutch for the weak. But Nietzsche is dead and Jesus lives on. And Jesus would have those who submit to his lordship to live lives of meekness power under control. He would have us find the way of the cross that in weakness we find power. He would have a government where all public officials see themselves as answerable to a higher authority.

7 Sermon, , Paul s Gospel Jesus Is Lord 7 Imagine how our congress and president could be if they all saw themselves as answerable to a higher authority. And since Jesus is Lord of all, there would be nothing wrong with us asserting that they do that. Imagine how our homes and relationships could be different if we didn t fight to win, to rule, to control. Imagine if we would take the form of a servant and empty ourselves of our power for the sake of our Lord who did the same for our sake. Who is your Lord today? Is it money, sex, power? Is it some other idol? Food? Alcohol? Self? Today the good news for us is Jesus is Lord. He is risen! He overcame sin and death. If we will confess with our mouth that He is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead we will be saved. In a moment if you have never done that I would like to give you an opportunity to confess that Jesus is Lord. And the challenge for us all is this Jesus is Lord. He is our master. He is good and faithful and he desires us to be the same. But we go our own way. We stray from his Lordship. The solution is the same confess that Jesus is Lord. Agree with God that He is Lord, ask for forgiveness And ask for his help to live in the true freedom of his grace. Pray with me.