JESUS IS LORD
- I Corinthians 1:1-9 NKJV
- The history of this letter: Paul writes to Corinth, an ancient city of Greece.
- the most prominent Greek metropolis of Paul’s time.
- Corinth was intellectually arrogant, materially affluent and morally corrupt. Sin of every kind flourished in this notoriously sensual city. Sounds a lot like Seattle!
- with Priscilla and Aquila and his own apostolic team, Paul founded the Corinthian church during his 18-month ministry at Corinth during his second missionary journey.
- The church was made up of some Jews, but mostly of ex-pagan Gentiles. After Paul left, a variety of problems occurred in the young church, requiring Paul’s apostolic authority.
- Paul had two primary reasons in mind as he penned this letter
- 1) to correct the serious sin that was reported to him which the Corinthians viewed lightly and Paul regarded as serious sin.
- 2) provide counsel and instruction on a variety of questions, including doctrine, personal and corporate conduct and purity.
- As with most of his New Testament letters, much of what he addresses is specific to the Corinthian Church. There is doctrine that flows throughout all the NT, but you will see some specific issues that Paul Exhaustively covers- Specifically Sexual immorality and Spiritual Gifts
1. Jesus Is Lord Is Central to the letter
- In this letter in just nine short verses, Paul references Jesus as Lord five times. IMPORTANT
- This is not arbitrary, but to remind this church of what was the most important thing to any individual or church: Jesus is Lord. Perhaps they had forgotten this
- When we lose sight of this- we too can lose our way and fall into serious sin.
- It changes how you view God, the Bible, the life of the Christian- When you minimize Jesus, you elevate yourself, give over to your flesh and end up in Destruction
- Making Jesus less than he is, makes it easier to walk by yourself and live for yourself.
- One of the ways that the Church defends against this heresy is through Creeds.
- Creeds simply remind you of your beliefs- easily remember who you are- NCO Creed
- The historical nature of creeds and confessions demonstrates how the Christian faith has held its ground over time. It has grounded us and kept us from heresy and error. (I want to get to it)
- the Nicene Creed reaches all the way back to AD 325, when the earliest version was adopted at the Council of Nicaea. Seventeen hundred years is quite a shelf life!
- But it is not the oldest confession, for there is one that reaches back even earlier, to the earliest days of the church. It’s only three simple words: Jesus is Lord.
- This earliest confession can be found throughout the New Testament
- Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
- 1 Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
- some try to argue that the New Testament never really identifies Jesus as God
- nothing could be further from the truth. To confess Him as Lord is really to call Him Yahweh.
- He is not just a teacher or healer or miracle-worker but God in the flesh.
- Why is this so important? During the early years of the Roman Empire, Caesar began to institute a plan to unify Rome, and it would be under Caesar worship. He began referring to himself as “Caesar is lord” and required everyone living within the empire to respond once a year at a pagan temple with these same words under the threat of loss of life, loss of money, loss of job, loss of family. Christians were confronted with a real threat Confess Caesar or lose.
- This is serious. The end times government system will be a revived Roman Empire and we will see some of the same things transpire that happened in the early days of Christianity.
- You should settle this now.
2. You must believe that Jesus is Lord.
- Confession of the Lordship of Jesus involves two components:
- A profound doctrinal conviction about Jesus. (What you believe to be true)
- A radical personal commitment to Jesus. (How you live out your belief)
- One way the early Church reinforced this belief and practice was through worship
- Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- These verses present to us the climax of what has been understood to be an early Christian hymn, referred to as “the song of Christ.”
- In this scripture, The apostle presents a powerful case for the deity of Jesus. He does this with three points of application to Christ: 1. The title of deity: Lord 2. The text of deity: Isa 45:22-23
- Isaiah 45:22-23 “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23 I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.
- 3. The worship of deity: Every knee will bow to Him
- In making such a statement, the early Christians said a great deal about the identity of Jesus Christ.
- Theres actually other scriptures that Scholars believe are worship texts as well
- Rom 11:33-36, Col 1:15-20, 1 Tim 3:16, 1 Pet 2:21-24, Heb 1:3-4, Rev 4:8-11 and 19:1-4.
- Rom 11:36 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
- Col 1: 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or [a]principalities or [b]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
- 1 Tim 3:16 READ
- Read the worship of Revelation 4 and 19 you’ll see who they say is Lord.
- But how do we know that the word LORD means GOD
- In the Old Testament, God identifies Himself with four Hebrew letters, equivalent to YHWH in English, which some pronounce “Yahweh.”
- This divine name is rendered in our English Bibles most often as LORD, with small caps.
- When the Hebrew version of the Old Testament was translated into Greek, nearly all the occurrences of Yahweh—over 6,000 of them—were rendered with the Greek term for “Lord,” kurios.
- to say “Jesus is Lord” is not just to call Christ Master but to affirm that He is fully and completely God. You are calling him YHWH- GOD
- This established title for Jehovah (the covenant keeping God of Israel), becomes very significant that the early followers of Jesus used this title for Him without hesitation.
- Early Christians were known as Jewish people who believed that Jesus was God.
- The conclusion simply cannot be avoided: On the part of the early disciples (being of Jewish background) saying “Jesus is Lord” was equivalent to saying “Jesus is God.”
- Think about the powerful implication here: The apostle teaches that one day there will be: “Universal acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus” with 1.) the confession of the mouth and 2.) the bending of the knee. EVERYONE will CONFESS and BOW. Everyone
- When Christ appeared to Thomas he confessed, “My LORD and my God” (John 20:27-28 ). This profound doctrinal conviction about the identity of Jesus was equally a radical life-changing commitment.
3. You must live out JESUS is LORD
- When someone willingly and wholeheartedly confesses Jesus as Lord on bended knee, it results in a transforming dedication of life to Him.
- Paul Alexander conversion- At work- with guy, had been in church, never said “Jesus is Lord”
- It is an acknowledgment of: 1.) His right of ownership over my life and of 2.) my lifetime commitment of service to Him.
- This knowledge and confession should lead to a radical personal commitment to Jesus Christ
- Colossians 3:23-24 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for[a] you serve the Lord Christ.
- Romans 14:9, the Apostle wrote, “For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” And in I Corinthians 6:19-20? “…you are not your own—for you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.”
- The truth is that you were Bought by the Lord Jesus at great price (His own blood)
- You are now Possessed by the Lord Jesus as our owner (you are not your own)
- At His service as His servants
- A radical commitment of life means there is no part of a life outside of the Master’s authority.
- This means all your hopes, dreams, plans, etc. are laid before Him. HE can do whatever he wants with YOU.
- You don’t own your thoughts, your wants, your desires, your activities, your money NOTHING
- Going to basic- They took EVERYTHING. Didn’t even get your own underwear.
- EVERYTHING is on the Table when you’re a Christ follower and you need to be HONEST that you’re not just giving into your own fleshly desires for what YOU want.
- years ago- Disney trip- Crystal and I felt shouldnt Go- Later leg biopsy couldn’t have walked.
- But MORE than that- What I think I deserve, my desires, my wants, my life. NO
- To understand servanthood you need a good definition of a servant:
- “One who has no plans of his own, no time of his own and no possessions of his own—but is totally dedicated (in plans, time and possessions) to the will of his Master.”
- There is so much freedom in relinquishing your life to the Creator of all things.
- You don’t have to have it all figured out. you just have to obey His commands.
- Do you live your life under the Lordship of Jesus? Can you say he owns ALL of you?
- Many people sing “I surrender all” but really “I surrender most”
- In Luke 6:46, Luke recorded a stirring question from Jesus indicating that it is possible to confess with the mouth—without a radical commitment of life to back it up. Jesus said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”
- even more dreadful is that large number of people on judgment day who will say, “Lord, Lord…” and will be exposed as workers of sin.
- Scripture warns that in the last days a gospel would be proclaimed and widely accepted that will offer counterfeit salvation void of lordship.
- Many will worship a fictional Jesus- they will profess the Lord Jesus, but live contrary to His will. Lord becomes just a title rather than a position He holds in our lives. The Buddy Jesus
4. You must take this seriously-
- Getting back to Paul’s opening to the letter, he states a few things concerning Jesus’ lordship and demands some reflection from us:
- The church acknowledges Jesus as Lord- any church that does not meet these standards of doctrinal purity that Jesus is God and He is Lord over the church; ceases to be in the truth.
- The gifts lift up Jesus as Lord- the charismatic gifts not only have not ceased, but continue to operate in accordance with Christ’s lordship. WE do not own these gifts, we are merely stewards of the gifts. Jesus is Lord over the gifts. The minute the man begins to lift himself up because of any gifting, he ceases to lift up Jesus.
- We will make it to the end if we hold to the confession Jesus is Lord- when we are radically submitted to Him in our plans, time and possessions; we can have assurance that He will hold us fast until the end.
- IF HE is not your LORD, you have no assurance. It doesn’t matter what you proclaim with your mouth. He knows the heart, none of us can fool Him.
- We are a part of the fellowship of saints when Jesus is Lord- We are no longer called sinners, but we are saints when Jesus is Lord and we have fellowship with one another.
- This does not mean we might fall into a sin from time to time, but we no longer continue to live a life of sin. We are saints and we have fellowship as long as we continue to walk this path.
- There is NO FELLOWSHIP with the Body when Jesus is not Lord. This is why the church is not an organization like the Moose Club where anyone can be a member.
- We become a part of the Body as we identify ourselves as being born again and baptized into the body of Christ.
- We will be blameless on that day when Jesus is Lord- When we keep Jesus as our Lord, we will be found blameless on that day. This word “blameless” means free from all criminal activity. No sin will be held against us. NO guilt, no shame. WE walk and live in freedom from our sin and the hand of the enemy.
- CONFESS JESUS AS LORD. LIVE IT OUT. WALK IT OUT. 100% In Every way to HIM
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