“Jesus is Lord.”
For Christians, it doesn’t take much for us to say those words. We read them in Scripture. We sing them in songs. We regularly pray them in one form or another. Yet, there is real power in that simple statement. The Lordship of Jesus is why He died. The Roman Governor Pilate was inclined to punish and release Him, but the Jewish leaders wouldn’t have it: “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar” (Jn. 19:12). That’s what was at stake: choosing a side. The chief priests made their position clear: “We have no king but Caesar” (Jn. 19:15). So, Jesus was crucified. He was quickly buried in a borrowed tomb while His followers ran and hid.
Then on Sunday morning, Jesus rose from the dead – and that changed everything. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me,” He told His apostles, commissioning them to go make disciples of all nations (cf. Matt. 28:18-20). And they did: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified,” Peter boldly proclaimed at Pentecost (Acts. 2:36). When the Jewish leaders arrested and threatened them for it, the resurrection was the apostles’ definitive proof that God had exalted Jesus “as Leader and Savior” (Acts 5:31). When those Jewish leaders later murdered the disciple Stephen, he died crying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit…Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:59-60, emp. added). He knew who was really in charge, standing at God’s right hand – and he was willing to die for it, “knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus” would raise him, too (cf. 2 Cor. 4:14).
That’s why proclaiming “Jesus is Lord” should really mean something. It took courage and conviction for Peter (a Jewish fisherman) to stand in a room full of Gentiles (relatives and friends of a Roman Centurion, Cornelius) in the city of Caesarea (the primary Roman outpost in Israel) and to say of Jesus, “He is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). Because do you know who else claimed that? Cornelius’ boss: Caesar, the Roman Emperor. And Peter would be subject to the emperor – but “for the Lord’s sake” (1 Pet. 2:13). He would “honor the emperor” – but because he first honored “Christ the Lord as holy” in his heart and followed His example (1 Pet. 2:17, 21; 3:15).
Through His death, burial, and resurrection, there can be no doubt: Jesus is Lord! We can clearly see that God has given Him “the name that is above every name, so 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” (Phil. 2:9-11). This is Jesus. He is Lord. Bow at His name!
As different people encountered Jesus, they had all sorts of reactions. How do you see Him? This is Jesus: learn more at https://www.georgetownchurchofchrist.com/this-is-jesus.