Category: Jesus

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Jesus is Lord

I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

These are the opening lines of the Apostles’ Creed. They repeat the theme of the earliest Christian confession of faith: “Jesus is Lord.” This was a dangerous thing to say in the environment where the early believers lived.

First century Romans were compelled by the state to confess, “Caesar is lord!” The Romans attributed divinity to Caesar who was to be revered not only as a king but as a god. Emperors were invested with divine authority in religious ceremonies. The declaration, “Caesar is lord” was a unifying principle throughout the various regions of the empire. It was a test of the loyalty of the people.

There were many cases where Christians would be singled out for their refusal to say those words. Many of them paid with their lives when instead they uttered the confession, “Jesus is Lord!”

The apostle Paul included these words in one of the most profound Christological passages in the New Testament. He wrote of Jesus, “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that ‘Jesus Christ is Lord,’ to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians2:9-11).

In the time of Paul, these words were subversive. They taught the Christians to challenge the divinity of Caesar by declaring the absolute authority and deity of Jesus. No wonder Paul was martyred as an enemy of the state by the Roman government!

Whenever Christians today recite the Apostles’ Creed, or its equivalent, we are declaring that there is no higher authority than Jesus in our lives, that we worship him as we worship God. We are agreeing with Paul that his name is above every name.

Paul uses three distinct names or titles for Jesus in Philippians 2. “Jesus” is his human name. It was in common use among the Jews of his day. In his writings Paul mentions the name of Jesus over 200 times. Only four times is the name Jesus referred to without another title attached.

“Christ” is an honorific title referring to his Messiahship. It means he is God’s anointed king. In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed when they began their service for God. The title “Christ” meant that Jesus was divinely commissioned to be the king of Israel and to bring salvation to the world.

“Lord” denotes his authority as absolute ruler and divine sovereign. When the early Christians called Jesus “Lord,” they were actually confessing that Jesus of Nazareth is the God of Israel, Yahweh, the only true God. In Philippians 2, Paul is quoting the prophet Isaiah. In one of the most outstanding statements of monotheism in the Bible, the God of Israel says, “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. . . . Before me every knee will bow and by me every tongue will swear” (Isaiah 45:22-23). Without hesitation Paul applies these very words to Jesus Christ!

Is Jesus your God and savior? You cannot know God without knowing him. A university student wanted to share her faith in Jesus with a friend. The two of them agreed to read and discuss the Bible together. They read though the opening chapters of the gospel of John where Jesus is called God several times. After several weeks of study the young friend exclaimed, “Why, I see what it means. It means that Jesus is God!” She had been reading it for weeks and had only at this point come to the realization of it. It was not long after that that she committed her life to Jesus as her God and savior.

Jesus Christ is Lord.  He is now the Lord. In some parts of the world it is still dangerous to make that confession. The name of Jesus is cursed and blasphemed. Many people alive today have never heard his name uttered in reverence or prayer. So when we say, “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,” it is a witness to a world that needs to know him.

Someday every tongue will make that confession.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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What About Judas?

We are familiar with Judas. He was one of Jesus’ disciples. He has gone down in history as the embodiment of treachery because he betrayed the Lord Jesus.

Some have tried to rehabilitate his reputation by implying that Judas had a noble motive. He wanted to force Jesus’ hand, to apply the ultimate pressure so that Jesus would have to exercise his power for political purposes and impose his kingdom. But Judas was no hero. Nor was he a helpless victim. Neither was he a true believer who lost his salvation.

Jesus knew Judas’ real intentions and motives. He had said to his disciples, “You are clean, though not every one of you.” The apostle John explained this statement by saying that Jesus knew in advance who was going to betray him (John 13:11).

If we compare scripture with scripture we come to the conclusion that Judas had never been a believer. Jesus said, “‘The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him” (John 6:64). John’s observation is based on his close relationship with Jesus and his close observation of the character of Judas.

The New Testament portrait of Judas is that of a liar, a thief, and an imposter among the disciples. He was not a helpless victim. He was responsible for his actions which flowed from his greedy, evil nature. He craved the power and wealth that he thought would come to him when Jesus installed his kingdom. He rejected completely the spiritual teachings of the Lord Jesus and his emphasis on eternal life. Judas wanted a political kingdom immediately.

Jesus had called Judas a “devil”(John 6:70). This was because he knowingly gave himself over to the power of Satan. During the Last Supper in the upper room, the devil prompted Judas to betray Jesus (John 13:2). During the meal Jesus had told the disciples that one of them would betray him. when they asked who it was, Jesus gave them a sign.

“Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him” (John 13:26-27). Luke’s gospel agrees with John the apostle that Satan entered Judas and prompted him to betray Jesus to those who wanted to kill him (Luke 22:3).

Judas did not resist the devil. He surrendered to him. Jesus called him “the one doomed to destruction” (John 17:12). He said, “Woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24).

We ask ourselves, why would the Lord have allowed such a man to infiltrate the disciples and get as close to Jesus as he did? This is a hard question that defies an easy explanation. One possible answer is found in John 17:12, “so that scripture might be fulfilled.” Judas was part of carrying out what scripture had prophesied would happen to Jesus.

John  does not tell us which scripture it was. Judas was not predestined by this to be lost forever. He rather passed a point of no return in his stubborn unbelief. He willed himself to perdition.

Another possible explanation is that Judas is a reminder to the church of the subtle power of Satan. One of his strategies is infiltration. Peter and Jude, in their epistles, warn against false teachers who try to insinuate themselves into Christian assemblies and introduce erroneous teachings. Satan is behind this. He is the father of lies and the author of confusion.

Also, Judas is a warning to every individual about how close someone can be to the truth of salvation, and still be hardened in unbelief. Think of it! Judas heard Jesus’ teachings, observed his miracles, witnessed his love and compassion for people, yet he still went out into eternity lost.

This is one reason why we are told to pray, “Deliver us from evil.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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The Lamb of God

The recent celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus has me thinking of the reason for it all. It is found in the words of John the Baptizer as Jesus began his ministry. He pointed to Jesus and declared, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:28).

What was John thinking? Possibly he was recalling the time when Abraham and Isaac traveled to Mount Moriah to make a sacrifice to God. The story has recently been re-told in a film, “His Only Son,” released by Angel Studios. The movie depicts Isaac’s question, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham’s answer was, “God himself will provide the lamb for the offering, my son” (Genesis 22:7-8).

The film captured the ambivalence, the pathos, and the emotional anguish in the heart of Father Abraham. This was because God was testing his faith by asking him to do the unthinkable and sacrifice his own son. Against all human instinct and logic, Abraham was about to carry out this strange command of God. But then God intervened and did indeed provide a suitable sacrifice, a young ram caught in a thicket, to take the place of Isaac.

Abraham spoke more prophecy than he knew when he uttered the words, “God himself will provide the lamb.” Was John thinking of this story we he called Jesus the Lamb of God?

Or was John thinking of the Exodus of the Hebrew people from their captivity in Egypt? This was commemorated every springtime by the Jews in the Festival of Passover. Every Jewish family was to observe the feast with the sacrifice of a yearling lamb without physical defect. Every year the Jewish father would explain the story of the nation’s deliverance and protection when God judged Egypt for their oppression of his chosen people.

The Hebrews were to smear the blood of the lamb on the lintel and the doorposts of their dwellings. Through Moses the prophet God had told them, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” No plague, no destruction, “will touch you when I strike Egypt” (Exodus 12:13). It was the blood of those sacrificial lambs that shielded the Israelites from death and judgment.

Undoubtedly, John was thinking of the prophet Isaiah’s words, referring to Messiah, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). No Jew living at that time would have doubted that these words, and all of Isaiah 53, referred to Messiah, upon whom the Lord would lay “the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

John the Baptizer said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” His words are as relevant today as they were when they were spoken. This is because He takes away sin. Sin is anything that stands between us and a holy God. Sin is failure to do and be what God requires. Sin is doing what God forbids. The Lamb, Jesus, is able to take our sins away, to remove them, to expunge them, to cancel them, to forgive them,

This is a really happy promise. It involves the gift of eternal life, a clear conscience and peace of mind. How is this possible? How can one man, Jesus of Nazareth, take away our sin? The answer lies in his worth or value. He was perfect in the sight of God, without sin. Quoting Isaiah 53, the apostle Peter said of Jesus, “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Peter said that Jesus was “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19).

He could take away sins because as the Lamb of God he was sacrificed for sinners. That is the message of Good Friday and Easter. This sacrifice has infinite value because he himself has infinite value as the Son of God. Like John the Baptizer, I invite you to “look” trustingly to him, to Jesus.

I do not ask you to join, or to pay, or to perform, but only to believe in Him. Look only to Him, not to a preacher, or to a church, or to yourself. Look nowhere else, to no one else, and to nothing else. Only He can take away our sin and make us right with God.

Isaac Watts wrote the following words over 300 years ago:

“Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain/ could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away our stain./ But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away,/ a sacrifice of nobler name, and richer blood than they.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Come to Jesus

Occasionally you may hear someone flippantly say, “We had a come to Jesus meeting at work today!” What is implied is a confrontation in which a supervisor admonished a subordinate to correct a problem, or change a behavior. The phrase has become a secular cliche, borrowed from the church.

Behind the expression is the ritual of the altar call. It comes out of the revivalist tradition in America, in which preachers would issue fervent invitations to their listeners to come forward at the end of the sermon and make a public commitment to believe in Jesus as savior. Hence, the expression, “Come to Jesus.”

That’s not a bad idea. In fact, that is exactly what Jesus himself invites us all to do, whether we are in a church service or not. His words in Matthew 11:28 are called the “comfortable words” in that they offer comfort and rest for the soul. They are often read in liturgical worship services after the confession of sin. These words convey the timeless promise of forgiveness and acceptance.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” 

The Scope of the Invitation

The Lord’s invitation is for all kinds of people to come to him. The scope of the invitation is immeasurable. His words imply that Jesus welcomes all those who are burdened with the weight of guilt, with the shame of sin. That is all of us. Sin is the reason life is frustrating and unsatisfying. Sin is the reason we lack peace of heart. So Jesus is speaking to all of us sinners who know we have fallen short. All have sinned. All are invited to come.

The Promise in the Invitation

Here is a magnificent promise for those who are weary in their minds and hearts. It is the promise of rest. I had the joy of praying with an inmate in the Oklahoma County Detention Center not long ago. He asked God to forgive him for his sins and in simple faith he opened his heart to Jesus. After we prayed together he smiled and said, “I feel like a ten thousand pound weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

That kind of spiritual rest of mind and conscience is for those who come to Jesus. If you are weighed down by regret, shame, grief, guilt, you may be released from the burden of a guilty conscience if you come to Jesus. You cannot change the past, but Jesus can forgive you and restore your soul if you come to him. “The blood of Jesus, his Son purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

The One who Offers the Invitation

“Come to me,” Jesus said. We are not invited to come to a preacher, or to a therapist, or to a philosopher, or to a church, or to the waters of baptism, or to the bread and wine of communion. These all have their place, but they all agree that first we must come, in faith, to Jesus, and only to Jesus. He alone is the Savior, the Son of God, the Mediator, the Redeemer, the coming King. He is “the way, and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

He says “I will give you rest.” He always keeps his promises, He promised to die for sinners and he did. He promised to rise from the grave and he did. His promise is a promise of free grace. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

He does not say, “do,” or “join,” or “pay,” or “work,” to save yourself. Instead, he says simply, “Come to me.” Only God’s Son could make a promise like that and have the power to fulfill it. He promises the gift of eternal life. He died on the cross of Calvary to purchase this life for those who come to him. His gift is undeserved and freely offered.

What Will You Do?

I invite you to come to him now. Do not wait until Sunday. Come now. The spiritual rest he offers is for you today, not only after you die. Come to him. Pray to him. Confess to him, Lean on him. Trust in him. His yoke, he says, is easy. That means you can let him do the heavy lifting. He is ready and willing to receive you. He is not too busy, preoccupied, or distracted to listen to your prayer.

If you come to him in life, he will be with you in death. What will you do? To refuse his gracious offer is to reject him and devalue his word. To neglect his promise is to rebel against his invitation. The consequences of rebellion against God are dreadful and eternal. Surely you do not want to do that. So please come to Jesus and enter into his rest.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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The Arrogance of Jesus

Who does he think he is? He calls himself the Son of God. Really? Who talks like that? He says God gave him all authority in heaven and on earth, to raise the dead, to judge the world, to rule as King, to give eternal life to those who believe in him.

Readers of the four gospels in the New Testament are forced to come to the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth made himself the center of his teaching. He brazenly claimed to be the only way for human beings to reach God.

Who does that? What kind of person would say as Jesus did, “No one can come to the Father except through me?” Religious propagandists and cultists maybe. Mentally unstable people with delusions of grandeur perhaps. But such egomaniacs are worthy only of our contempt, or pity.

Surely Jesus’ statements about himself seem to be supremely arrogant!

That is, unless they are true.

If Jesus’ statements about himself are true, that means he is more than a human teacher. If he is right, he is contradicting the idea that all faiths are valid pathways to God. If he is speaking truth, then he is not a dangerous religious shyster, or a pathetic, unbalanced narcissist.

If he is right, then the apostle Peter was correct when he preached, “There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them’ (Acts 4:12 NLT).  If he is right, then he really is the Son of God who gave his life on the cross to save us from our sins.

The renowned Christian intellectual C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. he would either be a lunatic — on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Read the New Testament and come to your own conclusion. Did Jesus speak with arrogance, or with divine authority?

Pastor Randy Faulkner