Latest / Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies / reDiscovering Jesus | Jordan Abrams | Week 01 Jesus is Lord

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reDiscovering Jesus | Jordan Abrams | Week 01 Jesus is Lord · Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online@madisonchurch.org be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
• 0:39
  Speaker B: So I have the privilege to get to be part of this class, in teaching this class this quarter and it's going to be me and Jason and we really are looking forward to talking about Jesus and kind of a parallel step of what the preachers are going to be. You know, their sermons are going to be about for the next quarter or so in talking about Jesus in different ways and really kind of following him. It's kind of crazy. I've taught Bible class essentially every quarter in one way or the other for about 16 years now, and only about one or two of those have been to adults. Everyone has been to teenagers or little kids. And so I'm be honest, I'm a little nervous about it, a little uncertain because it's just not something that I do. I teach a lot, but I don't teach people my own age or in my own life stage. I teach people a lot younger than me. And so this is intimidating. I was telling somebody this that the other day and he said, you know, it's about the same. They'll all be on their phones anyways. And so high hopes for you guys. But I am looking forward to this and studying together and talking about Jesus and looking at different attributes of him. And so tonight we're going to start with this idea. Jesus is Lord, and I really hope that this class is not just Jordan or Jason even lecturing and we come away with you all and us included, just nodding and then nothing changes when we leave. But it's an interaction between all of us and that, you know, I can learn from you, that you can learn from each other, that we can politely engage with each other and learn a lot from each other and so want to have as much discussion in this as we can because I think it's important that we learn from each other that we include in this some things that are very applicable to our, our stage of life. And so I hope that we can do that. So with that in mind, in thinking about discussion, let me ask this. So what has been the loudest controlling voice in your week? The loudest voice may be like a three year old that would be in ours. And so maybe loudest controlling voice in your week is why I went that direction with it. So what else? Okay, a supervisor for us it would be a 7 year old and an almost 4 year old have really, at times this week, each of them have had their loud controlling voice right there. Everything seems urgent, right? Everything around us has got to happen right now at this moment. And there's not any unimportant things. It seems like everything is that. So think about that loud, controlling voice. What does it demand of you? Maybe you didn't mention something, but think about that attention now. Okay.
• 4:28
  Speaker C: The best of me.
• 4:29
  Speaker B: The best of you. Yeah. Results. Results. Time. Okay? Yeah. Understanding them when you don't know how to understand them. You got a new baby at home. Be very applicable to that. Anything else? You think about it when it comes to these loud voices, they demand a lot from us. When we think about this idea of Lord Jesus is Lord. It's really not a word that we use a lot today when thinking about it. For me, maybe on a TV show or a history thing that we've read or a movie that we've watched is where we've seen this name. But maybe you think about a supervisor or a boss lording over you things or maybe that happens in relationships or just a lot of different things where that comes to mind. But generally speaking, it's not something that we use a lot. And I think maybe because we don't use it a lot because it's not something that's in our regular vocabulary. It's probably not something that holds the meaning maybe that even scripture that God intends for it to or like it maybe once did. And so I want to kind of look back at the very first time. The very first time that Lord is used in our Bibles is found in the book of Genesis. And can somebody read that for me? It's verses five through seven.
• 6:28
  Speaker D: These are the generations of the earth when they were created. In that day the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plain of the field had yet sprung up. The Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. And a mist was going up from the land and it was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.
• 6:57
  Speaker B: Alright, so I forgot to mention that verse four, I think actually technically uses the word Lord as well. But, you know, the idea of Lord here is actually this name that you've probably heard before is Yahweh. You know, it's God's name, you know, covenant name with his people, with his creation. And then God being next to it is actually the name Elohim. And so it uses different names for God here in these verses. From the very beginning, we see that names and titles, they matter. And so because they tell you they matter, because they tell you who you're dealing with and what they're allowed to ask of you. I don't know about you, but I was raised in a house that always said, yes sir or no sir or yes, ma', am, and no ma' am who was not raised in the house did that. A couple of you. A couple of you. I know Lindsay wasn't because it was a discussion that happened early on in our relationship. And so it meant when I was saying that, I knew that I was saying it to somebody that I respected, somebody in authority, and so they deserved, in my mind, respect. You know, think about that with like judges or cops or teachers, coaches, people that I think, you know, because of their position, they demand respect, they deserve that respect and authority. It's different when it's your brother or your sister or just a friend. We don't usually just tell our brother or sister, yes ma' am or no, ma', am, yes sir or no, sir. It's a little different than that. You know, in Scripture, you think about the name, the name Lord, it's more than just a descriptor of somebody. It has authority behind, has a sense of this person has this title. And the one who the name Lord is attached to is really given soul authority over everyone who calls him that. So we begin with the very first time that we see that in scripture. We're jumping quickly because I want to get to some very applicable things in this class. But think about when the first time that Jesus is Lord, that comes into play, it's in the book of Luke. So somebody else read this for me, please.
• 9:59
  Speaker E: And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be.
• 10:11
  Speaker B: For all the people.
• 10:13
  Speaker E: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior.
• 10:16
  Speaker C: Who is Christ the Lord.
• 10:17
  Speaker B: Alright, so we had the name Yahweh, this covenant name between God and, and what he's created and the Godhead. Then you had Elohim talking about God and now we have this in Greek, the word is Kurios. And so this name Lord is actually applied to who in this verse? Jesus and God. Actually, I think I actually have the. Yeah, there we go. So curious. It's. It's actually applied to both Jesus and God. So let me ask this. What do you think Luke is doing by using Lord for God and for Jesus? Yeah, yeah. They have their same person and the same authority. Right. It's not one is greater than the other. They both have this same importance. End this up. Jesus is who God is. So Luke isn't giving Jesus just a compliment saying, hey, he's Lord. Luke is making this claim about who Jesus is. And you can see that really play throughout the Gospel of Luke. You think about it really throughout all the Gospels that Jesus is, is Lord over sickness. And we could sit here and name time and time again where he shows that he's lord over sins. And you could talk about time after time where Jesus shows that he's Lord over those things and then he's Lord over death. And you could talk about time and time and time again where he is. He shows that in the book of Luke and then in the other Gospels. And so it's pretty neat to see that transformation of just him being introduced as Christ our Lord, into seeing him as Jesus is Lord. And that goes throughout the Gospels and kind of ends towards the end of his time on earth. In John chapter, this is after his resurrection and it's a scene with Thomas. Can one of you read that for us?
• 12:49
  Speaker C: Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him. My Lord and my God.
• 13:07
  Speaker B: All right, thank you, John. So why do you think the scars led Thomas to have that response? Well, they proved what you just said, that Jesus was lord over death. Okay, yeah, yeah. Think about what Thomas would have just seen, what he would just experience.
• 13:31
  Speaker F: I mean, it proves to Thomas that, you know, two things that it Was. It was Christ. It was Jesus that died on the cross, but it's also him that's with him, that it wasn't. You know, because if he had just shown up and he didn't have the holes, then it could have been. He could have misheard, you know, could have been hearsay. Somebody else was on the cross for Jesus. And so the holds proved it. And it also proved that he died on the cross, but he was there with them.
• 14:05
  Speaker B: It's more than a surprise. It's Jesus. It was more than that, right? It was a real thing. It was this guy I saw crucified as a part of that, experienced it. I think about first John, when John there, he wants people to know Jesus like he does. And he said, you know, I saw him with my eyes. Then he goes further. He said, I beheld him, I stared at him, I touched him with my hands. He goes on to say, I want you to know him like I knew him. You know, Thomas there, he's experiencing Jesus with more authority and really showing what is real there. This resurrection doesn't just create his lordship, it reveals it and confirms it. You think about First Corinthians 15. Paul talks about that appearance of Jesus after the. After his resurrection. It says he appeared to cephas and the 12 and more than 500 at the same time. You see, that confirms his lordship. It doesn't just prove it, but it shows that he has real authority, that his power is greater than death and his ways have dominion over our life. When it comes to choices, we default to the Lord's way of doing things. You know, Thomas used titles. He didn't just use his name. He didn't say Jesus. It's really, you think about the power in him, saying my Lord and by God. He used titles because it's a sense of surrender, a sense of recognition, but it's truly a sense of submission. He is submitting to Jesus as his Lord and God. You know, that would have been a moment that would have been huge. I think if you think back to their culture and probably led to him using that title even more, maybe even subconsciously than he would have just if it was today's time. Because there was somebody else in their culture at that time and in that area that was also claiming to be lord over everybody there, you know who that was? Caesar. Caesar. Caesar had claimed to be divinity, to be truly Lord. He wanted to be called that. He expected to be called that. And so you think about Thomas experience with. With Caesar's people being part of Jesus Dying and all that he had gone through and so calling Jesus Lord would have had a lot of implications to that. When early Christians said Jesus is Lord Caesar, not being Lord was definitely one of those implications. This phrase meant refusing to give ultimate loyalty to Caesar, claiming Jesus as Lord as a rival allegiance and could cost you your reputation, your livelihood, and even your life. It's not just saying, I like Jesus, I'm a fan of Jesus. It was committing to a rival. I'm a big Alabama football fan. I've grown up that way, for better or worse. The best years of Alabama football, I think are behind us, I'm afraid. It's pretty sad, but I remember really, really well. And maybe some of you big Alabama fans, and even just college football fans in general would remember the old national signing days and these college football players making these commitments to teams and just how awesome it was when they would commit to an out of state school called Alabama. So this kid, his name is Landon Collins and he was from the state of, who can tell me, L.A. and this day when he committed to Alabama and not lsu, his mama was mad. His mama was very angry because it was committing to the rival. There was pictures later shown of his whole family in LSU gear. I mean, it was something that really meant a lot to his family when he committed to that rival. It was a big deal and I should tell you, it was awesome. It was awesome. It was great. Today's college football commitments aren't really about that. It's a little different. There we go. Sometimes I think us committing to Jesus today is like a lot of college football players take it today to the school that's going to give them the most, who can make me look the best, where I'm guaranteed to have it the easiest, who can give me the most money, who can make the least amount of commitment. And when things don't go my way, when things aren't easy anymore, when I'm asked to do just a little bit more, when I'm asked to be an active participant in what is going on in the world and in the community, I can jump ship. I enter the transfer portal. I can find another place to kind of start over and start that whole process over again. Jesus, though, I think it was mentioned this morning, he's not looking for consumers. He's looking for lifelong, eternal commitments to his will and his ways. Saying Jesus is Lord is more than just a commitment to a sports team. It costs your life. But that commitment then would be rewarded with eternal life. Andy Crouch has this thing that you are A lot smarter than me. So maybe it would make sense to you from the get go, but it took me a long time to process this. He says this to put it another way, to say Jesus is Lord does not seem actually to entail saying Caesar is not Lord. Rather, it entails not saying Caesar is Lord. This minute grammatical distinction, simply a matter of where the negation is placed, seems to me to explain so much about the New Testament Witness. The affirmation Jesus is Lord requires not so much a strident denunciation of earthly lords as a studied silence concerning their pretensions. The answer to Caesar's inflated claims of significance is false. Further proclamation of Jesus the Messiah's real significance. I just want to say I'm very proud of myself for not tripping up and reading that, because that's how big those words are to me. So let me say this a little easier for you. That makes it easier for me. The affirmation that Jesus is Lord. Really saying that doesn't simply require you to make Caesar the main character of your life or not the main character of life and let everybody know it. It's not look what I oppose. It's more look who I serve. See, early Christians, they didn't win people over by loudly being anti Caesar. They won people over because they were unmistakably Jesus people. So much so that their loyalty showed up without them having to make a speech or for us to post every day. I think it hits home with maybe a lot of us. You know, online people are constantly announcing what they're against. Sometimes I agree, sometimes you agree, sometimes we strongly disagree. But I wonder how persuasive that is. I wonder what it does to a person when they become known mainly for what they're opposed to instead of what they're for. I wonder what it does when people are known for that they are against all these things and not that they are known for being for Jesus. So let me open this question up. So what would it look like this week for your commitment to Jesus to be so clear you don't feel the need to broadcast what you're against? What does that look like for us? Each of us has a way that I think that this applies to us, us differently in our own circumstances and what we have going on, kind of with some help of some different articles and stuff, put together this litmus test to see where we measure up as far as answering these questions for ourselves to think about where our kind of commitment to Jesus goes. Don't answer how you want it to be, but answer what your last week has been like and let's go from there. Let's be real. Trust me, I'm being very real in all these. By the way, let me say this real quickly. These questions and stuff, and anything I say, I promise you, is stepping on my toes a lot harder than it has any chance of stepping on yours. Because I spent a lot of time in thinking about this stuff this week and it's made it very personal for me. Where does my attention go first when I'm stressed? Does it go to Jesus or something else? What gets my quickest yes? When something is asked of my time or energy, attention, Is it work, demands? Is it kids, sports, my comfort, my approval, or Jesus? What do I protect most fiercely? My image? My rest? My time? My money? My control? My time of worship? My time with God? My time with God's people after a hard day? What do I run to for saving? Salvation, Prayer, scripture, people, mind numbing routines, Phone, TV scrolling, other things? If you watched my week, what would you conclude is ruling me? These were hard questions for me to look at. These are hard questions for me to sit with and to kind of digest. Because the instant answer to all of these was not as good as I wish it had been. See, Jesus is Lord isn't just a claim or a rallying cry. When it's easy or popular. It's the allegiance that shapes every aspect of our lives. Lord means Jesus gets the final say. That's hard. When we have a tendency to even lose our filter sometimes, like things get really stressful, things get really hard and me personally speaking, and maybe you can identify with me that, that as things get more stressful or we start having stronger discussions at home, things get hard between you and somebody else or things that are going on in your world, you start to lose a filter and maybe even those levels of yourself that haven't completely claimed Jesus as Lord start to show up and that stuff that's deep down inside starts to come out and it makes it a lot more real, a lot more difficult. And we start to see parts of us that maybe could do a better job of claiming Jesus as Lord. You know, I think about all this and I think, hey, we're a connect group and the thing that connects us here, we're all similar because we have kids the same age, right? That's kind of what gets you into this classroom. And so I thought I'd ask this. What do your kids see as Lord of your life? That's a hard one. I hope they would say Jesus, but our seven year old Mallory will a lot of times say your phone is down or your work schedule. Kennedy, our three year old sees me hurry a lot, sees me always in a rush. Excuse me. Always going from one thing to the next, saying, hey, we got to hurry up, we got to go, we got to get out the door, we got to do this. Hey, let's go a little bit faster, Ken. Come on. Come on, kk, let's go. You can do this. Hey, grab those and let's. As you would see, that is something that's controlling. In charge of dad. What or who do you want your kids to learn is in charge? When life gets stressful, it's tough stuff, isn't it? Applies to our kids. What's the lord of their life right now? You tell me what's lord of your kids lives right now? I'll answer first so that you can take the pressure off you. But I'd say for, let's say Kennedy, her baby dolls like, she is like mama to these baby dolls. And if, you know, going anywhere without that right now is really, really hard. Or her snacks, certain snacks really hit home with her right now. We drop off Mallory at School at 7:30, 7:45 each morning and she comes to the church building with me in my office till 9 o' clock and it's almost. We walk in the door and she's got to have a snack. It's like you just ate breakfast. You know, for Mallory, probably school, you know, controls a lot of things. And then her way, if she doesn't get her way a lot right now, you know, it may be the end of the world, at least to her. So what about your kids? What's lord of their life right now? You know, whatever that is. Each kid at each different stage has different things that is quote unquote lord of their life. And our goal as parents obviously is for them to see that Jesus is lord of our lives and them to then learn that as they grow up to see that displayed in us and then it's not just this thing that is just going to click with them. If we're not continually teaching that, I think and displaying it in what is going on around them. If they don't see it now, then then it's not just going to magically appear one day. So this guy, a guy's name is Michael Jr. Go look him up. He talks about James, the brother of Jesus and how much pressure that would be because he's just James and not James christ. So Michael Jr. I'll put a Link or something in our group. Me, because you got to see it, because it's funny. But I was thinking about the pressure of James. And James, actually, if we think about it early in the Gospels, he talks. We see that his family doubted him, that they were skeptical of who Jesus is. But then in the book of James, you see him call himself a servant of Jesus Christ, our Lord. So you go from this is just my brother to he's my Lord. Man, if I was to do that with my brother, it'd take a lot of ego. I'd have to get rid of a lot of pride to be able to call my brother Lord. Especially, you know, all the skepticism that I would have about him and all this doubt he is who he thinks he is or says he is, but a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. When your brother becomes your Lord, this skepticism to calling that, you would have to see a lot of things, right? You would have to see a lot to grow. And ultimately you see him a resurrected Lord. And I'm sure that that made a ton of difference. Let me ask this. Where is Jesus authority hardest for you to accept? Because it feels too costly, intrusive, limiting, too humbling? Because I think that's where James would have been. You know, it had been hard to call your brother Lord when it cost so much. So for you, where is it hardest to accept? You know, it's hard to accept His Lordship in conflict because you've got to humble yourself. I want to win the argument in Jesus way. A lot of times feels like losing when it's actually the best way, the way to peace in relationships, in life. You see, that's what Jesus says lordship does. It stops being theoretical and becomes personal authority. This is a quote that I heard a long time ago that I think really hits home with this. A difference that makes no difference is no difference at all. Kind of confusing. A difference that makes no difference is no difference at all. So saying that Jesus is Lord and, and it really making no difference in how we spend our time, how we talk to each other, how the kindness we show to each other, the humility that's shown, the fill in the blank, how you act as a husband, a wife, a parent, a co worker, a boss, if it's not making a difference, then, then Jesus as Lord doesn't make a difference at all in your life. I planned on ending with. That's a great question too. But with this, we see that Peter, at the end of Jesus time on Earth, has the opportunity to kind of recover from A lot of things. You know, he was a follower. He was ready to fight for Jesus. And then he denies Jesus. And then Jesus gives him the opportunity to make things right. And each time he calls him Lord, he says, do you love me more than these. Peter says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And each time he tells them to do what? Feed my sheep? Then do this. Do something. You see, if we're the Lord's, if Jesus is Lord of our life, then it requires action. It requires us to do something with it. And so I want to give you some homework. This is a lifelong pursuit of things. You can take a picture of this, but evaluate where you spent your top three blocks of time this past week. Which one causes the most anxiety, distraction, numbness to the world around you, impatience, etc. And choose one way, one small practice for seven days to prove that Jesus is Lord. Text it to yourself. Text it to yourself so that maybe you'll get it and you can see it more. Set it as a reminder to remind you every day when you wake up that Jesus is Lord. See, if I'm Lord, I'm so inadequate. If I'm Lord, I can't do enough to provide for my family. If I'm Lord, I can't do enough to be the right kind of husband. If I'm Lord, I can't do enough to provide for my kids or be the example to my kids. If I'm Lord, it's not what's needed. But we've got to desperately be seeking Jesus as Lord every single day. It's a lifelong pursuit of putting him on the throne. Wake up every day choosing that Jesus is going to be our Lord. Love you guys. Thank you for listening and participating in class.