FTR 1

Things Every Christian Should Know

Part 1

"Jesus is Lord"

Phil 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."

I want to talk to you today about the Lordship of Christ and what it means to every person that considers themselves a Christian.

DEFINITION: The Lordship of Jesus Christ simply means that Jesus rules supreme over every area of your life--your finances, relationships, sex-life, lifestyle--everything.

We might say He's the Boss--the buck stops with Him.

Jesus once said to His followers, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say” (Luke 6:46).

FACT: Someone or something will control your life.

Either selfish desires---the pursuit of money, pleasure, popularity, etc., will control us...

Or Godly desires---the pursuit of His will, and so on will control us.

Peter wrote, "...that we no longer should live the rest of our time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God" (1 Pet 4:2).

FACT: Jesus demands total control of our life--this is the meaning of Lordship.

This matters greatly because if the issue of Lordship is not settled, you cannot advance any further in the Christian life.

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Now let's begin with the burning question of the ages:

WHO IS JESUS? Who was He really?

We see people all the time creating Jesus in their own image--they make Him the Jesus they wish He was.

For instance, this last Easter week I actually saw a poster someone had made of Jesus smoking pot (God forgive them).

And I've read articles where Jesus was declared to be gay. (again, God have mercy on their soul)

I've seen black Jesus's, red Jesus's, white, effeminate looking Jesus's, hippie Jesus's and the list goes on.

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The FACT is that Jesus was none of these.

The real Jesus was an olive-skinned Jewish man, likely with short black hair and the typical long, curly sideburns Jews wore both then and now.

He was not handsome as the typical paintings show...

Isaiah wrote, "There is nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him." (53:2)

Jesus was no doubt a rugged man's man, a blue-collar worker accustomed to long, intensive hours of manual labor.

In short, on the physical side Jesus was a well built, olive-skinned, imposing specimen with nothing outstanding about His looks.

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But then we have who He was on the INSIDE, and that is anything but normal or typical.

John proclaims Jesus Christ is the Son of God (John 3:16).

In Hebrews He is also God the Son (Hebrews 1:8).

Matthew informs us that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18-23).

Both John and Hebrews say that He lived a perfect, sinless life (John 8:46; Hebrews 7:26).

His death on the Cross, thank God, provided a full payment for all our sins (I Corinthians 15:3, 1 John 1:7).

Three days later He physically rose from the dead triumphant over death, hell, and the grave! (1 Corinthians 15:4, Mark 16:6).

Then He ascended into heaven in clear view of all His disciples (Mark 16:19, Acts 1:9).

And now He is currently engaged in a ministry of prayer on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25).

Scripture predicts that He will one day return to the earth as both Lord and Judge (Revelation 22:12).

And now as the living Lord of heaven and earth, He demands our worship and obedience.

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Let's look in a fresh way at why Jesus had to come to earth in what amounted to a heavenly rescue mission...

Although they were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6-8).

As a result, mankind was plunged into rebellion against God.

Ro. 5:12 "When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned."

This sin and rebellion produced spiritual death throughout the whole human race (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-3).

Yet God, in His great mercy, way back in the garden, promised to send a Savior for all who would repent and trust Him (Genesis 3:15; John 3:16; Ephesians 2:4-9).

Now, by His death on the cross, Jesus Christ has broken the power of sin over all those who place their trust in Him for salvation.

1 Pet. 3:18 "Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God."

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The Bible records that when Jesus died on the cross He cried out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

He was really saying, “Paid in Full!”

He had paid the full price to buy us out of Satan’s ownership so we can be His very own.

The Bible calls this redemption, which means "to buy back!"

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On the Cross, Jesus ATONED for our sins.

It might be said that “atonement” means “at-one-ment.” Jesus’ death brought God and man back together.

Atonement means He took your hand and God's hand and joined them together!

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Now, what makes all of this so exciting is that God has entered into an unbreakable COVENANT with us through Jesus Christ.

Essentially, a covenant is a "promise of faithfulness."

Several times throughout the Bible we see that God entered into a covenant relationship with His people.

For instance, He entered into personal covenants with specific promises to Abraham and David.

The Bible you hold in your hand is divided into two sections called the Old Testament (Old Covenant), and the New Testament (New Covenant).

When we are truly born again by faith in Christ we enter into a COVENANT with God.

In that COVENANT, God promises to be ever faithful to us, and we promise to be ever faithful to Him.

We give Him our lives, He gives us His.

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This is the greatest exchange in the universe!

It gets even BETTER!

We give Him our sin and receive His righteousness.

We give Him our weakness and receive His strength.

We give Him our sorrow and receive His joy.

We give Him our spiritual death, and He gives us His spiritual life!

This incredible New Covenant is described twelve different times in the Book of Hebrews as a “BETTER” covenant (Hebrews 7:22).

Better because Jesus Christ actually lives inside of us, giving us both the desire and the power to do God’s will and walk in COVENANT RELATIONSHIP with Him.

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him" (Philippians 2:13).

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Now, we just celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

One thing we should understand is that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was literally God’s seal of approval on the ministry of Christ.

Romans 1:4 says, Jesus was “...declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

Now Watch this! Through His resurrection, Jesus claims Lordship over all people...

The Bible says, “For to this end Christ died and rose and lives again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:9).

One day every man, woman, and child will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord.

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But only those who bow to His lordship NOW are promised eternal life THEN.

“In Him we have redemption (only) through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

The bottom line of Lordship is this: Since we have been purchased by Christ, we now belong to Him.

1 Cor. 6:19-20 "Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body."

Hence, we are His servants (happily) and He is our Lord.

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Let me close with a simple illustration:

Suppose you purchased a car and paid the full price for it.

You shook hands with the dealer and he left to bring you your car.

Instead, he brought a box containing a steering wheel, a brake shoe and a tire.

You would immediately protest, “That wasn’t the deal! I paid the full price and I want the whole car!”

In the same way, Jesus Christ paid the full price for us.

He has the right to demand the full product.

Every area of our lives, not just some, must be surrendered to Him.

This is the Lordship of Christ!

PRAY