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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Jesus,
Both Lord And Christ Acts 2:36 is one of my
favourite Bible verses. I will
quote it from the New King James Version of the Bible because I prefer
that it transliterates the Greek word "christos" as
"Christ" and not as "Messiah" as do most new
versions of the Bible. What we
read Peter saying here was directed to a Jewish audience, but it applies
just as much to us as it did to those Jews.
The text reads:
"Therefore let all
the house of The Greek verb tenses in
this verse make it clear. Peter,
fairly forcefully, told the Jews that they must assuredly know, beyond any
doubt, that the Jesus they killed was in fact both their Lord and their
Christ. Their Christ, or
Messiah, that they had been anticipating for centuries had finally arrived
onto the scene and they killed Him. Furthermore,
Jesus the Lord was their God in human form, as the title "Lord"
would have been understood by them, and they rejected Him.
Peter appears to me to have been dumbfounded, wondering how his
fellow Jews could have been so stupid.
So what does this mean for you and I, twenty centuries later?
Are we just as stupid? Like the Jews, we must
know beyond any doubt that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, and not just
Christ as I believe much of today's western-world evangelicalism's
preaching implies. As the
Lord, Jesus is the ultimate universal authority over all things material,
all things spiritual, and all other dimensions that may exist.
As the Christ, Jesus is the eternal Lamb of God whose sacrifice has
deleted our sin from the heavenly record.
Knowing that Jesus is
both Lord and Christ tells me that as Christ, Jesus gives Himself to us,
and as Lord, we are to give ourselves to Him.
I metaphorically picture our salvation, then, as a two way
relationship. That is, Jesus
serves us for our benefit as we serve Him for His benefit.
Contrarily, I believe much of today's gospel preaching portrays
salvation as a one way relationship with Jesus where we are the sole
beneficiaries of His estate. I think that would irritate Peter to no end.
He would surely tell us that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, not just
Christ. It's a fact of life.
What we sow we will reap. If
we sow an impoverished half gospel, as I think much of the Evangelical
church is doing, we will reap impoverished half Christians, and I don't believe there is such a person as a half Christian.
We can't preach Jesus being the Christ at the expense of Jesus
being the Lord, but that's what I see is happening, and the result is a
sad testimony to what we are sowing.
Peter preached it correctly. Jesus is both Lord and Christ. I suggest that the first post-Pentecost Christian sermon ever preached by Peter is an example of a good homiletically preached sermon. Let us follow his example.
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