Outline of a Talk given to Mosaic on Christ the King Sunday

Today is the final Sunday of the Church Year, known as Christ the King Sunday …… This Sunday reminds us that everything we believe about who Jesus is and what he has done has this one great implication for us, that Jesus is King OR to us biblical language JESUS IS LORD

“Jesus is Lord” …. Is in fact just two words in greek. Just two words but which are the earliest, simplest and yet most profound summary of what it means to be a Christian.

To be a Christian “you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans10:9

A confess which is supernaturally enabled ” …..

So saying Jesus is Lord is both the essence of Christianity and essential to being a Christian.

Jesus is Lord, is Christianity distilled to its purest form.

In fact Alan Hirsch says that these two Greek words are the “spiritual core to which we must return if we are to renew the church in our day”

But what does it mean in practises to say, Jesus is Lord.

Well there is a passage which explains to us what it meant for the earliest generation of believers

Philippians 2:5-11
New International Version – UK (NIVUK)
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

Saying Jesus is Lord is about having

1. A THEOLOGICAL CONVICTION ABOUT JESUS

Saying Jesus is Lord means having a theological conviction about Jesus, about who he is and his relationship with God the father, it means being convinced as the writer of this hymn was that Jesus is 100 % God. We know that is what they believed because they

TRANSFERRED A GOD TITLE TO JESUS

kyrios in Greek meant different things depending on the context, it could just mean a polite title like “sir” but for the earliest Christians it was a title given to Jesus, he was known as THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

The background to its use here is Greek translation of the Old Testament which used kyrios to translate YAWEH, the most sacred name of God.

so to say Jesus was Lord was tantamount to saying Jesus was God.

TRANSFERRED A GOD VERSE TO JESUS

Isa 45: 23 By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.

The composer of this hymn shows that the background to his use of the word Lord is the OY by taking a verse that clearly about Yahweh and applies it to Jesus. The honour that belongs to Yahweh also applies to Jesus.

TRANSFER GOD LIKE WORSHIP

“bowing before” …. The final part of the jigsaw that shows that the theological conviction of the earliest Christians was that Jesus was god is shown in the way that the language of worship, was transferred to Jesus, Jesus was the object of worship which was only appropriate to God.

2. RADICAL COMMITMENT TO JESUS

The second thing that Christians meant by saying Jesus is Lord, is that because of their theological conviction about Jesus they had a radical commitment to Jesus

The fundamental message of the Roman Empire which it proclaimed to all it’s citizens was that Caesar is Lord. That he was the one with ultimate authority over them.

To proclaim Jesus is Lord was for the first generation of believers to give Jesus that place of ultimate and unchallenged authority over their lives and deny Caesar that place.

It means having the same radical commitment to Jesus Lordship today.

John Stott explains the all encompassing nature of Jesus’ lordship and our commitment to it

“The two-word affirmation *Kyrios Iesous* [Jesus is Lord] sounded pretty harmless at first hearing. But it has far- reaching ramifications. Not only does it express our conviction that he is God and Saviour, but it also indicates our radical commitment to him.

The claim Jesus is Lord excludes all other claims of ultimate loyalty, confessing the Lordship of Jesus means being committed to rejecting and subverting the lordship of Caesar that is whatever claims the position of authority over our life that jesus should have.”

3. A MISSIONAL VOCATION FOR JESUS

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

Our theological conviction about Jesus and radical commitment to Jesus works it’s self out in a Missional vocation for Jesus. We live to serve GOD’S mission

God has exalted Jesus above EVERY name

So that

“EVERY KNEE, EVERY TONGUE …. UNDER HEAVEN AND EARTH”

Will confess he is Lord.

The implications of Jesus is universal it is for everyone, every where at every time.

God desires that every one comes to acknowledge Jesus is Lord, that they come to this radical conviction about Jesus and so make a radical commitment to Jesus.

If it it is God’s desire that everyone acknowledges Jesus as Lord, it must be the mission of God’s people to work towards that goal for His glory. We give our lives by word and deed to persuading people that Jesus is Lord.

Alan Hirsch in his book THE FORGOTTEN WAYS shows that it’s this commitment to Jesus as Lord which activates, inspires and and energises missionary people movements which impact cultures.

So let’s not just remember that Jesus is Lord because it’s Christ the King Sunday, let’s live out the conviction, commitment and vocation that stems from it.