Thy Will Be Done…Luke 19:1-10

The Lord’s Day, January 13, 2013

Icthus: "Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ", (Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr), which translates into English as "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior".

[begin sermon with a notepad and pen; silently go up to folks and conduct the Icthus test; see who gets it]

Has anyone ever seen this symbol (car and historic), perhaps heard the story associated with it. Share Fish story.

[move back to pulpit]

There are lots of neat fishing stories in the NT, and very handily the Greek word for fish was also a wonderful acrynm to share a very basic belief about Jesus.

Jesus-the ManChrist- was the promised MessiahGod’s Son- He was divineSaviour- His purpose was to save people from their sins

Icthus- Fish… modern/ ancient images

The Bible makes it clear (just read 1 and 2 John) that believing the right things about Jesus is crucial

Has anyone seen this symbol before?

(carvings, crosses, etc)

It is a simplified and Latin rendition of Icthus. A Christian symbol for Jesus

Jesus Hominum Salvator ("Jesus, Savior of men")

It is important to believe who Jesus is! You can not underestimate the proper response to Jesus’ question to Peter: “who do people say that I am.”

Christianity, and our salvation, hangs on who Jesus said that He was.

Though Jesus and much of Scripture talk about belief and the importance of belief…

4x, Jesus in the Gospels, explicitly says “believe in me.” Or gives a call to believe in Him (John 7:38, 11:25-26, 12:46, 14:12).

4 TIMES!

Let me pose the very challenging question: Can you believe in Jesus and still not be saved?

Can you believe all those important things about Jesus our symbols portray from Scripture and what the One True Faith and Church have attested to throughout history and still not be saved from your sins= YES.

James 2:14, 18-20

Even the demons believe who Jesus is…

What a profound statement!

And if you look around you, look through society, ask people. You will see lots of people believe Jesus existed, or believe He is

God’s Son. They might even believe all the Gospels are true, and they might still not be saved, or what we would call a Christian. They may never have entered into a relationship with Jesus even though they “believed.”

We know now that Jesus only said believe in me 4 x but

20 times Jesus says “follow me” in the Gospels.

Casual belief= mental assent that something may be true. That is being a fan.

But true Christian belief incorporates not only belief (because that is important) but following. To say that you follow Jesus demonstrates that you believe. That’s why I like HIS-stately.

Faith without action. Belief without following, is utterly useless.

And so we come to a Christian term that combines believing and following together. It is perhaps the oldest recorded profession of faith in the history of the Church, originally written as part of a hymn 3-5 years after the death of Jesus.

Phil 2: 11= Jesus is Lord.

1 Cor 12:3- no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

To confess that Jesus is Lord is to bring together belief and action. That He is saviour and Lord. Jesus is Lord.

That Jesus is Lord means many things. Ultimately it means that you have humbled yourself to the Gospel message, surrendered your life to Him, and now he is in charge of your life. He has not only saved you, he will now lead you to continue to make you

into the person He wants you to become. To say that Jesus is Lord means that you are not just a fan, not just an enthusiastic admirer. It means that you have become a completely committed follower of Jesus. You would die for Him. You are a Christian, a follower of the Way.

We call this the Lordship of Christ. And it is important to be reminded of this, which speaks to two types of fans:

1. Someone who is actually the Lord’s but need a wake up call, to revaluate thier life, to see if this is continuing to be the case. And this is a great thing because when we are in the Kingdom, it takes time to become a better citizen. We are always growing in our humility and understanding of just how much Jesus demands total control over our lives.

2. Is that someone is actually a fan. Just someone, like the demons, who believe in Jesus, but has never given their life to Him, to save them, and to follow Him.

We can only say we are a follower, that Jesus is Lord, when we have come to know Him as such, ask for forgiveness and turned from our wicked past and chose to follow Him.

The Lordship of Christ is paramount and always important. And the more we commit, surrender, give up, yield our lives to His authority, the better off we are going to be, and the more joyful and meaningful our lives will become.

All this brings us to the point that you can only be a Yes-Christian. A Yes- Lord, Christian. No-Lord Christians DO NOT exist. The Lordship of Christ should turn our world upside down.

And over the next couple of weeks we are going to examine a little bit of what it means to call and have Jesus as your Lord. We are going to do some challenging soul searching.

To learn more about being a yes-Christian, we are going to begin by briefly looking at the cherished story we sang about today, about Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10.

Jesus enters Jericho, a large city on an important transportation route east-west. As he is walking a man named Zacchaeus enters the story line.

His name means “pure” which is ironic because we find out that he was a tax collector. Tax collectors were not very honest people and were certainly not the friends of the poor. See they were agents of the governing authorities appointed to collect the Roman taxes (which were not popular with the Jews in the first place). And that in itself was an innocent enough job, though it associated you with the despised Romans. But what made tax collectors really despised was that they took more tax than the government requested and pocketed the cash. If the tax was $10 they would charge $13.

But note, what kind of tax collector was he? A chief tax collector. This is the only time this term appears in the NT. Because he was a chief tax collector in a big city, on a major transportation route would have meant he would have been loaded. He also was a huge crook!

He was also a small man.

And Jesus is coming through his town. He has likely heard lots about Jesus and there is a crowd following Him. To get to the bottom of who this man was (that was his reason for being there- to see who Jesus was).

And being a short man in a crowd, he does what anyone would have done in a crowd with a celebrity, he finds higher ground. This happens to be a great big sycamore tree.

And he is up in this tree, just expecting to take a glimpse when the most unexpected thing happens:

Jesus calls to him by name (which likely affirms all that He had heard about Him)

And in speaking Jesus gives Zacchaeus a command.

Only two true responses- yes or no.

Experiencing God- When God speaks it produces a crisis of belief which will require major adjustments.

And at that moment we choose whether to say yes and receive the blessing of obedience, or to say no to God and receive the punishment for disobedience.

And this is the moment. How will Zacchaeus respond?

v.6 reponds in the affirmative by his action (following) and proclamation (calls Jesus Lord)- Yes, Lord.

Evidence of Jesus Lordship= He came (and likely believed because He called his name) Giving to the poor. Half his goods not just his salary Making ammends with those he had offended Action reveals that his repentance and faith/belief are

genuine. Repentenance, which the Gospel demands, is a total 180% in your life based in humility before God because of one’s sin.

Zacchaeus’ response was a “yes Christian” response. There is only one response to Jesus that is appropriate- Yes Lord. PERIOD

And by following Jesus, Jesus brings Salvation to His home.

He becomes a true spiritual son of Abraham and not just a physical descendant. He becomes not just a fan but a follower.

Are you a fan or a follower of Jesus?

Are you a yes Lord Christian?, because to be saved from our sins, that is the only valid response. To live life to the fullest in Christ- that is the only acceptable response.

Is Jesus your Lord? What a powerful question. One that we will begin to unpack in upcoming weeks as we examine the Lordship of Christ.