Sermon Prepared by James McCullen
Email Preach Him with Dr. Jim

IS JESUS LORD?
Acts 9:1-6

Introduction
Recently we watched a discussion taped from the Larry King Live TV Show. There were two Homo sexuals, one Jewish Talk Show host with a nominal commitment to the Old Testament, and Dr. Albert Mohler the president of one of Southern Baptist Seminaries. The conclusions each group made were different. They were each discussing from a different set of rules.

The president of one of our seminaries, discussed from a strong Old Testament and New Testament bias. The Jewish man had a general respect for scripture but not a total allegiance to them. The two Homo-sexuals did not seem to want the Bible brought into the discussion at all.

Our society is rapidly moving toward a non-biblical base for of morality. In fact if you believe the Bible to be the very words of God you are in a minority. This brings me to the title of this sermon. Is Jesus Lord? If He is; who says so. If He is by what authority do we base our conclusions? Let me site some opinions about Jesus.

The Mormon Opinion
Jesus is a man who achieved great things. they teach that Jesus was a preexistent spirit--but they believe that about everyone. They say that Jesus' distinctiveness is not that He was God, but that He was God's firstborn spirit-child. I quote "His humanity is to be recognized as real and ordinary--whatever happened to Him may happen to any of us" (Elder B. H. Roberts citing Sir Oliver Lodge in Joseph Smith, King Follett Discourse, p.11 note). *

The Jehovah Witness Opinion
Jesus is a created being who was given the status of second-in-command. Jesus is "a god, but not the Almighty God, who is Jehovah" (Let God Be True, p. 33). Instead, they say that Jesus is "a created individual" who "is the second greatest personage of the universe" (Make Sure of All Things, p. 207). *

The Unification Church (Moonies).
Jesus is a man no better than we are. "It is plain that Jesus is not God Himself" (Divine Principle, p.255). These words of Sun Myung Moon clearly spell out the view of his Unification Church. Its teaching is that Jesus' value is no greater than that of any other man. Those who follow Moon's theology say that Jesus' work was a failure. *

The Islam Opinion.
Jesus is a prophet and messenger of God. According to the tenets of Islam, "Jesus . . . was only a messenger of Allah" (Surah 4:171 from the Koran). They also say He was a sinless prophet who never achieved the greatness of the prophet Muhammed. *

The Atheist Opinion.
Jesus is less than most people think He is. Those who embrace atheism have a low view of Jesus. Some cannot find it in themselves to place Jesus on as high a plane as such past notables as Buddha or Socrates. Bertrand Russell, a famous apologist of the atheistic viewpoint, said, "I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to history" (Why I Am Not a Christian, p. 19). *

So I ask the Following Questions:
 
 

Jesus said John 12:47-49
47 "And if anyone hears My sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. 49 "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak. NAS

Prov. 13:13
13 The one who despises the word will be in debt to it, But the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded. NAS

A.    The . . Precepts of Scriptures Declare Jesus Is Lord.

Acts 9:1-6
1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" 5 And he said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6 but rise, and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.

Acts 2:36
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified." NAS
 

B.    The . . People of Scripture Declare Jesus Is Lord.

        1.    The Mother of John the Baptist said: Luke 1:43
                    "And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? NAS

        2.    The Apostle Thomas said: John 20:28
                    "Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

        3.    The Apostle Paul said: Philippians 3:8
                More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, NAS
 

C.    The . . Prince of Scripture Declares Jesus Is Lord.

            1.    Prince Jesus Declared to His Disciples. John 13:13-15
                    13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. NAS

            2.    Prince Jesus Declared to His critics. John 10:24-26
                    24 The Jews therefore gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these bear witness of Me. 26 "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep. NAS
 

D.    The . . People of this day Declare Jesus Is Lord.

Recently I attended a conference where the minister said "we had 18 professions of faith Sunday. Some of you will ask were they really saved? I will answer I don't know, I will wait to see if their lives are changed, No Change no Christ."

I agree, If Jesus Is Lord in your life there has been and will continue to be change.
 

Illustration
Charles Colson told the following story in an address at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi:

I love the illustration about a man named Jack Eckerd. A few years ago I was on the Bill Buckley television program, talking about restitution (one of my favorite subjects) and criminal justice. Bill Buckley agreed with me. A few days later I got a call from Jack Eckerd, a businessman from Florida, the founder of the Eckerd Drug chain, the second largest drug chain in America. He saw me on television and asked me to come to Florida.

He agreed Florida had a criminal justice crisis, would I come down and do something about it? And we did. We got the attorney general of the state, the president of the senate; we got on Jack Eckerd's Lear jet; we went around the State of Florida advocating criminal justice reforms, and everywhere we would go Jack Eckerd would introduce me to the crowds and say, "This is Chuck Colson, my friend; I met him on Bill Buckley's television program. He's born again, I'm not. I wish I were." And then he'd sit down. We'd get on the airplane and I'd tell him about Jesus. We'd get off at the next stop, he'd repeat it, we'd do the same thing again, and I'd talk to him about Jesus.

When we left I gave him some of R. C. Sproul's books and I gave him C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, which had such an impact on me. I sent him my books. About a year went by and I kept pestering Jack Eckerd. And eventually one day he read some things including the story of Watergate and the Resurrection out of my book, Loving God, and decided that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected from the dead. He called me up to tell me he believed that, and I asked him some other things.

When he got through telling me what he believed I said, "You're born again!" He said, "No, I'm not, I haven't felt anything." I said, "Yes, you are! Pray with me right now." After we prayed he said, "I am? Marvelous!" The first thing he did was to walk into one of his drugstores and walked down through the book shelves and he saw Playboy and Penthouse. And he'd seen it there many times before, but it never bothered him before. Now he saw them with new eyes. He'd become a Christian.

He went back to his office. He called in his president. He said, "Take Playboy and Penthouse out of my stores. The president said, "You can't mean that, Mr. Eckerd. We make three million dollars a year on those books." He said, "Take 'em out of my stores." And in 1,700 stores across America, by one man's decision, those magazines and smut were removed from the shelves because a man had given his life to Christ.

I called Jack Eckerd up. I said, "I want to use that story. Did you do that because of your commitment to Christ?" He said, "Why else would I give away three million dollars? The Lord wouldn't let me off the hook." Isn't that marvelous? God wouldn't let me off the hook. I don't know any theologian who's better defined the Lordship of Christ than that. And what happened after that is a wonderful sequel and a wonderful demonstration of what happens in our culture today.

We are caught up with this idea that we've got to have big political institutions and big structures and big movements and big organizations in order to change things in our society. And that's an illusion and a fraud. Jack Eckerd wrote a letter to all the other drugstore operators, all the other chains, and he said, "I've taken it out of my store. Why don't you take it out of yours?" Not a one answered him. Of course not--he'd put them under conviction. So he wrote them some more letters. But then Eckerd's Drugs began to get floods of people coming in to buy things at Eckerd's because they'd taken Playboy and Penthouse out. And so People's removed the magazines from their shelves and then Dart Drug removed them from their shelves and then Revco removed them from their shelves.

Over the period of twelve months while the pornography commission in Washington was debating over what to do about pornography, and while they're trying to come up with some recommendations for the president about what to do which will result in laws which if Congress ever passes them will be sued by the ACLU and will be tied up in the courts for 10 years -- meanwhile, across America, one by one, stores are removing them. And the 7-11 chairman, who sits on Jack Eckerd's board, finally gave in two weeks ago and 5,000 7-11 stores removed it. And in a period of twelve months, 11,000 retail outlets in America removed Playboy and Penthouse, not because somebody passed a law, but because God wouldn't let one of his men off the hook. That's what brings change. --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 46-48.

Application

There was a change in Charles Colson's life and then there was a change in Jack Eckerd's life. You see, Jesus is Lord and everyone of us has too deal with that fact.
 
 

A.    If Jesus Is Your Lord You have Confessed Him and Will confess the Fact He Is Your Lord.
            Rom 10:9-10 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; 10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. NAS
 

B.    If Jesus Is Your Lord You have been Lead to Confess Him through the Spirit of God.
        1 Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. NAS

Illustration
I am intrigued by the man named Don Imus. He is a talk show host in New York and I've seen him on two or three different television programs. I personally believe that the Spirit of God is dealing with him, drawing him to Jesus Christ. One of his most faithful employees is a devout Christian and no doubt has witnesses to him.

Recently I saw Don Imus on the Larry King Live program and in the course of the conversation he said, "well, I'm a Christian. I'm just not one of those born again kind of Christians. He said, "one birth was enough for me." And the guest host said, "One birth for you is too much for some people." And they laughed. They seemed to make light of being born again. But friend, acknowledging Jesus as Lord is just exactly that. It is not only giving you a physical birth but a spiritual birth.
 

C.    If Jesus Is Your Lord You Will be Lead by Him.
            Philippians 3:8    More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, NAS

rubbish = That which is thrown to the dogs.

        1.    If Jesus is Your Lord and My Lord why the Problem with Certain Sins or dealing with certain
               needs; if Jesus Is Lord?.

                a.    Smoking.
                b.    Over eating.
                c.    Pornography.
                d.    Stealing from Him. (Not Tithing etc.)
                e.    Cussing talking like the world.
                f.    Lack of Witnessing
                g.    Time Commitments.
                h.    Forgiveness
                i.    Baptism.
                j.    Church Membership.

        2.    Jesus Is Lord Needs to be recognized as an Absolute in Our Lives.
                a.    The world says "Absolutes don't exist"
                b.    They just said an absolute by saying there are no absolutes.

Illustration Absolutes and Relativism
When Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe and other novels, was a university student, he lived in a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, now infirm and unable to leave the apartment. Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old man's door, and ask, "Well, what's the good news?" The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair, and say, "That's middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now.

The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C! " The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, one "still point in a turning world " Maxi Dunnam, Jesus' Claims-Our Promises.

Psalms 12:1-4
1. Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. 2 They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. 3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; 4 Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?" NAS
 

IS JESUS LORD? IS JESUS YOUR LORD?
 

*    Adapted from
        http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/q0205/page1.html