JESUS MADE BOTH LORD AND CHRIST
Richard M Brown
Acts 2: 32-36, 22: 1-10
John 4: 25-30
I want to call attention to these words of Peter in Acts 2: 36, where he says that “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”. I would like to speak about the greatness and the glory of the present position of Christ. Jesus has suffered on the cross and He has been buried; but I particularly want to call attention to the greatness of His present position. In this verse Peter brings out what God has made Him: “God has made him … both Lord and Christ”. The gospel involves the setting forth of what Jesus has done, but it also involves the presentation of what God has done with Jesus. It is wonderful to contemplate that God has raised Him from among the dead, and – let this lay hold of our hearts – there is even at this moment a living Man in the presence of God! How great that is! I trust that might sink into our souls with fresh power this afternoon.
God is having this great matter set forth in the gospel, what He has done with Jesus, having made Him both Lord and Christ. God has in mind that all should come to acknowledge the rightness of it; and also that all should come into the great blessing that flows as a consequence from it. In order to convey just how important it is to God that we come to an acknowledgement of it, I would refer to that well-known passage in Philippians 2 which speaks of God giving Jesus a name which is above every name, and it says, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father's glory”, v 10,11. I venture to suggest that that is the only instance when every being in the entire universe will have done the same thing. It speaks of “heavenly” beings, that would be the angels and glorified saints; and “earthly” beings, that would be those blessed on the earth; and it speaks of “infernal” beings too, literally, those under the earth, which, I take it, includes the devil and his angels. But all of them will be called on to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that He is so “to God the Father's glory”. One thing that involves is that, in the end, everyone will have to acknowledge that God was right about Jesus. Everyone will have to acknowledge that God was right to give Him, and Him alone, the highest place of all. It will be too late then for many to come into the blessing of it; but that is why God is setting it forth in the gospel today. God is having Christ heralded forth in the glad tidings, that we might take account of what God has made Him. So now it comes down to you and me.
You will notice that in verse 36 Peter adds four words. He could quite easily have said 'that God has made him, this Jesus, both Lord and Christ', but he adds, “whom ye have crucified”. Think of what that would have meant to those Jews in Jerusalem who were listening. We speak of the fact that God has raised Jesus from among the dead: that was a selective resurrection. In other words, there was a moment when Jesus was lying in His grave, and everyone else was lying in their graves, and it pleased God to raise Jesus and to leave everyone else in their graves. There have been some great men in the course of history: great leaders, great warriors, great thinkers, great administrators; but God did not raise any of them. The one Man it pleased God to raise was Jesus. God made a choice, and He raised Jesus. And Peter says that was the Man “whom ye have crucified”. What an awful moment of realisation for these Jews, that out of the millions who were lying in their graves, the Man it pleased God to raise was the one they had crucified. They had crucified Him; God had raised Him! What a terrible realisation! On the one hand, men regarded Him as worthless. Peter brings that out in another preaching, that He was the stone which they had set at nought, Acts 4: 11. Men did their worst to Jesus. They went as far as they could to hurt Him and to humiliate Him, whereas God, on the other hand, has heaped glory on Him! The psalmist says, “majesty and splendour hast thou laid upon him”, Ps 21: 5. God could not have given Him a higher place than the one He has.
So what does this all tell us? It tells us that naturally what men think of Jesus, and what God thinks of Him, are as far apart as it is possible to be. If I were to go out into the street and announce that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ, I can say, from some little experience, that some would mock, some might get angry, but I expect the most would just ignore me. They would be completely indifferent; it is not of interest to them at all. And so, in the gospel, God is setting forth His thoughts about Jesus because He wants to persuade you, dear friend. God wants to persuade you to come over to His side, to come round to His thoughts about Him. God wants you to see what it is in Jesus that is not only such a delight to His heart, but involves present and eternal blessing for you.
We shall speak in a moment of two persons. Firstly, of Saul of Tarsus and how quickly he came to the acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord; “What shall I do, Lord?”, he says. Then of that woman in John 4 who had personal intercourse with Him, and she goes to the men of the city and says, “is not he the Christ?”. She says, 'It is what I have found Him to be.' In both cases it is not only a question now of the place that God has given Him, but what these persons found Him to be. It is one thing for God to make Him Lord, but the question I put before you this afternoon is, 'Is Jesus Lord to you?'. It is one thing for God to make Him Christ, but have you proved Him to be that? He is available to be proved by you. And as coming to Him you will begin to understand why it is that God loves Him, and why God has given Him the glory that He has.
It is a matter of great moment that it pleased God to raise Jesus. Peter says, “this Jesus”. The reason that is so important for sinners like you and me is that Jesus is the One who once took the sinner's place. Blessed truth that! Jesus is the One who came down from heaven and went to the cross in order to suffer and die for lost and guilty sinners. On the cross He answered to God for the sins of all those who have put their trust in Him. In the shedding of His precious blood Jesus has put God in the glorious position of being able to show mercy to whomsoever He will. How blessed that is! Jesus, through His precious sufferings and death, has given God a righteous basis to come out in mercy even to the vilest of sinners. Jesus, as I say, is the One who died for sinners. Now, it is that Man that God has raised from the dead; God showing thereby the value that He places on the work of Jesus. God has borne testimony in the most unmistakable terms to His satisfaction with Jesus by giving Him the highest place of all, by making Him “both Lord and Christ”. There is no reason why anyone should have any doubts at all as to the value of that work. It is important to understand that the gospel begins with the finished work of Christ. The work has all been done. That is where the gospel begins. We sung those words together -
All His toil on earth completed, All His work for sinners done;
In the glory
See Him, God's beloved Son. (Hymn 404)
What blessed news it is that all that needed to be done, if sinners such as you and I were to be saved, has been done. It has been done already, and it has been done by Jesus. Where is Jesus? He is in the glory now!
From that position Jesus is now available to all who would call upon Him. The scripture says, “the same Lord of all is rich towards all that call upon him”, Rom 10: 12. That reminds me of Joseph. You remember how Pharoah brought Joseph out of the dungeon and set him over the land of Egypt, and then he says to the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph”, Gen 41: 55. That is what God is saying today in the gospel. Is there anyone here who wants the forgiveness of sins? God would invite you to come to Jesus. Does anyone here want to receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit? God is pointing to Jesus as the Giver of living water. Anyone here who wants to come into the enjoyment of the blessings that God has in His heart for us? As “the Christ”, He is the great administrator of all the wealth of God, for precious souls such as you and me. God is calling attention to Him in that way.
I read about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus because I wanted to draw attention to the question that he asks in Acts 22: 10. On the Damascus road, Saul of Tarsus met Jesus for the first time, and it led him to ask a question which, I suppose, he had never asked before, “What shall I do, Lord?”. I think Saul of Tarsus was travelling fast in his soul. I want to suggest that not only has God made Jesus Lord, but in this scripture we see the point when He became Lord to Paul. We could look at this scripture in that light, how Paul reached that point so quickly.
Paul speaks about the way that he had been brought up, and you notice he refers himself as “being zealous for God”. Now that is an interesting thing. Here is a man who describes himself in his unconverted days as zealous for God. I might say that when we speak of being saved, or being converted, let us not think that that is only for the people outside, the people walking up and down the street. We all need to be saved; if we are not saved, we are lost. Each one of us needs to be converted. Yet if you had told Saul of Tarsus before his experience on the Damascus road that he needed to be converted, I think he would have felt insulted. He would say, 'Why? I am zealous for God, I keep the law, I read the scriptures, I say my prayers'; he was quite satisfied with himself. In that respect, dear friends, he is an example to us. Saul of Tarsus was a religious man. Perhaps if he had been alive today he would be the kind of man that would be a regular attender of the meetings. He would come to the gospel preaching week by week, sing the hymns, and so on. And yet he would probably have been the last person to think that he needed to be saved. He would recognise that the murderers, the thieves, the drunkards, needed to be saved, but not Saul of Tarsus; that is, until his experience on the Damascus road.
The first effect of that experience on the Damascus road was to show him himself. He came to see Christ – we shall come to that in a moment. But the first effect was to show him himself. In the hymn,
'Amazing Grace', the first thing the writer says is,
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear. He goes on to say,
And grace my fears relieved.
But the first effect of divine grace was that it taught his heart to fear. It was on the Damascus road that Saul of Tarsus learned to fear! He got such a view of himself! When he thought he was doing his best, he discovered he was doing his worst. When he thought that he was pleasing God, he discovered that he was fighting against God. He says later on, “I am ... not fit to be called apostle, because I have persecuted the assembly of God”, 1 Cor 15: 9. A man who said he was zealous for God came to see that. He speaks of a light from heaven; that is what the gospel is. I trust that light is shining in this room today. And I trust that, if never before, we might be brought to see ourselves as God sees us. How important that is! Saul got such a view of himself that he says, 'Away with Saul of Tarsus!'. He was finished with that man and all his self-righteousness. He learnt to fear on the Damascus road. He was conscious, I believe, that he could have been crushed. He says later, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men”, 2 Cor 5: 11.
Instead of being crushed he says later, “The grace of our Lord surpassingly over-abounded”, 1 Tim 1: 14. I love that: “surpassingly over-abounded”. What an expression it is! You get the impression that language was not enough to convey the sense that Paul had of the over-abounding of grace towards him. You think of Paul fighting against God, doing his worst, as we have said, and then this great tidal wave of divine grace brought him down on the Damascus road, and the voice of grace says, “I am Jesus the Nazaræan”.
The first thing Saul of Tarsus says to the Lord after his eyes had been opened to see Him is, “What shall I do, Lord?”. Now, how did Paul come to that so quickly? Paul was conscious that he had been pursuing his own wilful course, hell-bent and hell-deserving! And had the Lord simply left him to pursue his own course it would have been to his utter ruin. Paul says, 'I cannot trust myself any longer. When I thought I was pleasing God, I was fighting against Him. When I thought I was doing my very best, I was doing my worst. I cannot be trusted to determine my own course.' “What shall I do, Lord?”, he says, 'from henceforth I must submit my life to Him.' This was no flash in the pan, as men might speak; this was no knee-jerk reaction to his experience of being brought down on the road. We know that because he speaks later of counting “all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”, Phil 3: 8. A new principle had entered his life. A new principle was now going to govern him: from henceforth the Lord would be the one to determine his course for him, and, I think, he never regretted it. That is borne out by the fact that at the end of his life he should refer to “Christ Jesus my Lord”. You notice those words, “my Lord”; not simply, you see, that God has made Him Lord, but He was Lord to Paul.
The question I raise with each one of us here is, 'Is Jesus Lord to you?'. The first question is, 'Is He your Saviour?'. Have you claimed Him as your Saviour; have you exercised personal faith in Him and in His precious blood? If you have, the next question is, 'Has He become Lord to you?'. Have you committed yourself to Him without reserve? Have you entrusted your life to Him? “What shall I do, Lord?” Paul is saying, 'Lord Thou knowest best, Thou canst determine my course better than I can'. That is true, is it not? If we have come to trust Him as our Saviour, if we believe that Jesus is the One who has taken our sins away from before God, have we not already proved that He can do better for us than we can do for ourselves? What we could not do, Jesus has done! If He was great enough to work out our eternal salvation with God, if He was great enough to resolve that great question once and for all, to the glory of God, what can He not do for us now? And if He was prepared to come down from heaven in such wonderful love, to suffer and die for you, has He not already proved that He has your best interests at heart? Has He not put that question beyond doubt, that in love for you He was prepared to take up your cause? Who would you rather have as your Lord? I trust you might hear His tender appeal as it comes to you in the gospel today. He would appeal to each one of us here and, especially, to our dear young people; who naturally think that they have their lives before them, with their plans and suchlike, wanting to do this, wanting to go there, wanting to have this, and so on. Have you ever asked this question, “What shall I do, Lord?”. We can tell you, from experience, that it involves the greatest blessing to crown Him in your affections and come under His blessed sway.
I read of the woman in John 4 because she came to it that He was “the Christ”. That was a remarkable thing, was it not? She says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?”. In other words, she was saying, 'Through personal intercourse with Him it is what I have found Him to be, and I would like you to come and prove it for yourself.' This woman knew a few things, she knew about Jacob and the history of the well, she knew about the great point of dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans as to the place where one must worship. She had an important secret too: she knew that Messias was coming, and that He would settle all these questions. But this weary Stranger by the well told her of something she had never heard of before, something called “living water”. Have you heard of the gift of living water? The Christ is the dispenser of this wonderful gift of God. It is the Holy Spirit.
I would like to interest you in the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. If your sins have been forgiven, if you are sheltering under the blood of Jesus, I can assure you that it is God's mind you should receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You might wonder why Jesus speaks of “living water”. I think it is because He particularly wanted to emphasise what the Holy Spirit can be to us in the way of satisfaction. I have met plenty of persons who have peace in their conscience, but I have not met so many who have a satisfied heart. I say that, if you will bear with me, as moving among the brethren. There are many who have peace with God as to their sins, but not as many who have a perfectly satisfied heart. That is the proposal. The Lord says, “whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever”. As I read those words, I have to ask to myself if I believe them. Do I really believe that Jesus can give me something which can perfectly satisfy my heart? This woman may have led a sinful life, she certainly was not right in her current relationship, but one thing was clear, that she had an unsatisfied heart. So she says to Him, “Sir, give me this water”. Oh, that such a desire might be awakened in the heart of each one of us today!
Jesus says to her, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him”, and He adds, “and he would have given thee living water”. None of us needs to be in any doubt about His readiness to give. “He would have given thee living water”, Jesus says. I think this woman was spellbound as she listened to Him; she was entranced by Him. So she goes to the men of the city. Maybe these men of the city would have regarded her as a disreputable woman; maybe she was the kind of woman that normally they would not have passed the time of day with, but there was something different about her this time. There was something compelling about her this time, and that is because she had met the Christ, God's anointed Man! It was not only a matter of what God had made Him, but what she had found Him to be. “Come,” she says, “see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?”.
We began with the way God is setting Jesus forth. God wants men and women, boys and girls, to know what He has done with Jesus, having made Him “both Lord and Christ”. God is appealing to men through the gospel. And like this woman we too would add our own appeal. We have had to do with Him ourselves and would say to you, “Is not he the Christ?”. She says, He “told me all things I had ever done”. 'He knows all my history, He knows everything I have done and knows it better than you do,' she would say to the men of the city, 'and yet still He loves me!' And we would say that too, dear friends; it is what we have proved Him to be. We would appeal to you to come. Why would you not come? If you knew He was in the street outside, would you not come? It says of the men of the city that they went out and came to Him. If you knew that the Man who had been made both Lord and Christ was outside on the street corner, you would come, would you not? And yet you can come to Him right where you are! That is the appeal in the gospel, that you might come to Him, that you might have personal dealings with Him. I can assure you that you will have a time never to be regretted. It will stand you in good stead both for time and eternity.
God has made Him both Lord and Christ, but the question today is whether you will crown Him in your heart, whether you will surrender yourself to Him; whether you will commit yourself to Him without any reserves, no regrets, no holding back. See the place that God has given Him! He is in that place at this very moment, available to you, rich towards all that call upon Him!
West Norwood
28th August 2022