Is Jesus my Lord?

Good morning and welcome to our Lord’s Day worship service. Our message this morning is entitled “Is Jesus my Lord?” When you go on a holiday, there can be times when you stop to admire creation like a majestic waterfall or mountain range. Other times you pause to check the tires to make sure you can get through a difficult mountain pass.

I want us to pause on our travel through Luke in order to make sure our spiritual tires are ready before we proceed. Chapter 6 is going to hit us squarely in the chin like a Mike Tyson uppercut if our heart is not in the right place. Why do I say this?

Well, as we move through this gospel of Luke and especially this upcoming “Sermon on the Plain”, Jesus is going to teach some very hard truths of what life in Christ means. These are Christian ethics (moral principles that govern our daily behaviours).

These are not simply rules of don’t drink excessively or don’t lie or steal. These moral guidelines are rooted in the gospel. As redeemed sinners by the grace and mercy of God, we now live in a new way. Jesus gives us instructions or ethics as a way of living that is completely contrary to how we previously lived in our slavery to sin.

For myself growing up, I liked the idea of Jesus as my Saviour who would keep me out of hell by dying on the cross in my place. You could say that I loved the gift (no punishment) more than the Giver (Jesus). You could say I wanted things from Jesus but not Jesus for himself. I did not think of Jesus as my Lord, the one in whom I submit to in all areas of my life.

But at the age of 37, God truly changed my heart. The old was gone and the new had come. In being born again I had new desires and affections for God and his will. But I needed instruction on what that looked like. By grace, the Lord taught me through reading, praying and studying His word. I would like to say that joyful submission to Jesus was an overnight success, but 15 years later I am still far away from glorification. But in the kindness of God, he is patient with me as he continues to sanctify me for his glory.

By divine grace, this is who Jesus is to me. How about you? Are you submitting to Jesus as your Lord? Let me ask you a few questions so you can see where you are at:

Do I submit with my mouth, but my actions would say otherwise?

Do I believe that the teachings of Jesus are more like suggestions for a better life?

Do I believe that if I obey Jesus, God kinda owes me the desires of my heart? Like he is some kind of genie that if I do the right things he grants me three wishes?

Maybe for you, the Lord’s hand has been upon you in a special way, that your parents were faithful disciple makers and you have always seen Jesus as both Saviour and Lord. I am thankful to God for you and your parents. That is a great privilege and a most gracious gift. Give God much praise and thanksgiving for this.

However, for most of us, that is not our story and this is why I want to address this before we see how the Word (Jesus) brings us the word in his teachings.

For us to understand why we push back from submission to Jesus as Lord I want to point out three reasons. This is not a complete list but ones that are important.

We need look no further than our sinful nature that still lingers in us due to the fall. As Christians, we are given a new nature and the Holy Spirit to help us overcome this old man sin. But this sinful nature is very persistent. He will be a difficult and powerful enemy until we are glorified.

We become lazy. First as leaders we go our own way in forgetting to love Jesus above all else and that he has commanded us to feed his lambs, tend his sheep and feed his sheep (John 21:15-17). Meaning that we have abandoned solid and faithful teaching of the whole counsel of God for pragmatic church growth models that itch the ears of our listeners. We need to repent and ask God to forgive us. As believers, we become lazy in our prayerful study of holy Scripture for the sake of some force feeding on Sunday morning. Thinking that that is good enough. Let me ask you a question: If you treated your stomachs the same way as your souls, how malnourished would you be?

A third reason we push back on submitting to Jesus as Lord of our lives is that we lack biblical discipleship. As leaders, we have too often disobeyed the command given in the Great Commission to make disciples. To teach and show those under our care how to joyfully obey Jesus. We as parents are often too busy to disciple our children. I tend to think that why we fail to disciple is that we often just don’t know what steps to take.

I pick on us as leaders because we are the ones that God has called to lead and shepherd his flock. We take responsibility for this. We are trying to teach and model this life for you. We ask you to pray for us as we continue to think creatively in how to disciple and lead in a way that honours our Lord and King. Will you join me in repentance for this cavalier attitude to the precious will of God for us to be holy as he is holy?

As we now move forward, let us be reminded that being a Christian means that out of a grateful heart for Jesus dying in our place, we now live according to God’s will. His will that is clearly laid out in his word. As Jesus is the Messiah, he is King, Priest and Prophet. He is the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy from Deuteronomy 18:15-18

[15] “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—[16] just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ [17] And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. [18] I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

Luke writes in the book of Acts 3:18–23

[18] But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. [19] Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, [20] that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, [21] whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. [22] Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. [23] And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

As thee Prophet, Jesus conveys God’s word to his people because he is God! To “listen” is to obey the teachings of Jesus. It is not just intellectual knowledge but from understanding what Jesus says, we apply it to our lives. This is what “listening” means. Faithful obedience to Jesus. Since all Scripture is God breathed, this means that we submit to it all, not just the parts we like.

In the new covenant of grace you respond to Jesus out of joyous and affectionate obedience to the King of kings. As we read last week from 1st John 5, his commands are not burdensome because from a changed heart at conversion, the Spirit living in us wants to obey. Imperfectly for sure, but an innate desire from a new nature that loves to be obedient to the Holy One our Creator.

One great consequence of not listening to Jesus but still going through the motions is that it destroys the health of the church. This is called practical atheism. I quote from R. C. Sproul:

“What is deadly to the church is when the external forms of religion are maintained while their substance is discarded. This we call practical atheism. Practical atheism appears when we live as if there were no God. The externals continue, but man becomes the central thrust of devotion as the attention of religious concern shifts away from man’s devotion to God to man’s devotion to man, bypassing God. The “ethic” of Christ continues in a superficial way, having been ripped from its supernatural, transcendent, and divine foundation.

Biblical Christianity knows nothing of a false dichotomy between devotion to God and concern for man. The Great Commandment incorporates both. It is because God is that human life matters so much. It is because of the reality of Christ that ethics are vital. It is because the cross was a real event that the sacraments can minister to us. It is because Christ really defeated death that the church offers hope. It is because of Jesus’ real act of atonement that our forgiveness is more than a feeling.

The church’s life and her creed may be distinguished but never separated. It is possible for the church to believe all the right things and do the wrong things. It is possible also to believe the wrong things and do the right things (but not for very long). We need right faith initiating right action. Honest faith—joined with honest action—bears witness to a real God and a real Christ.”

You see, we have a high and holy calling as the children of God to live out our faith in loving devotion to the Almighty God. Since Jesus is God as our elder brother, as our bridegroom, as our friend, as our Saviour and as our Lord let us think very sincerely about who Jesus is to each of us. If we are cavalier and indifferent to the Lordship of Christ, we will practise practical atheism. Having a form of religion in going to church, giving of our tithes, even eating of the Lord’s Supper while at the same time, as soon as we leave the building of the church we live as if there is no God to serve in our daily living. We will continue to act as if God winks at our sin because a lightning bolt didn’t smoke us.

As we take this pause in our Luke journey to “check our tires” and make sure we are ready before we press on, did this strike a cord within you? Did this cause you to see that you have been serving a Jesus that is not the biblical Jesus but one of your imagination? If so, humble yourself before a most merciful and gracious King. While Jesus is Lord, he is also the lover of your soul. He died for you so that you would forever live with him.

Going forward, pray for God to give you an open and willing heart to hear and embrace his beautiful doctrines. To surrender your life to the lordship of King Jesus. Be willing to be challenged as our hearts still have that sinful nature lingering that wants to draw us away from our God. Trust in God that through the resurrection power living in you that you can put the old man to death each day and live to the glory of God through joyful obedience to Jesus our Saviour AND our Lord. This is gospel centred Christian ethics.

Hear the encouraging words of the psalmist:

Psalm 119:1–3

[1] Blessed are those whose way is blameless,

who walk in the law of the LORD!

[2] Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,

who seek him with their whole heart,

[3] who also do no wrong,

but walk in his ways!

We don’t work to earn our salvation as that is finished in Jesus our Sabbath Keeper. We now work in bearing fruit of the Spirit so that all nations will be blessed through us for God’s glory! We want Jesus to be praised and exalted by us being living sacrifices.

PRAY

Benediction:

2 Peter 1:2–3

[2] May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. [3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, (ESV)