CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
September 18, 2005
CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR:
Our congregation Our college students
Our nation, military and leaders Various friends, relatives and co-workers
David and James in the military Hurricane evacuees
Carole Berry
JESUS IS LORD, NOT CAESAR
“And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).
When Pilate was told by the Jewish religious leaders that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, he went back “even more afraid” and questioned Jesus about His origins. Jesus did not answer him. Then Pilate said, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” As the Roman governor, he certainly had that power, and he was willing to use it in the name of Rome. However Jesus answered him this way: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” (see John 19:7-11). Up to this moment, Jesus’ message was to Israel. Even when challenged about paying taxes, He responded by saying that one is to give to Caesar what Caesar is due and to God what God is due. Now however He has challenged the authority of Rome itself. This would be seen later in the spread of the gospel.
Acts 1-12 is the message to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. The message was steeped in the fulfillment of scripture by Jesus. The challenges came from the Jewish religious leaders who often demanded that they cease preaching in His name. Peter’s answer was that they must obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29). That idea would also challenge the Roman world with the same message. Acts 13-28 is the message that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. Once Paul and others began preaching to the Gentiles, they were challenging the authorities, whether religious, cultural, or political. It wasn’t an overt act in the sense of overthrowing a government by armed rebellion. It was a message that there is only one Lord and God, and no earthly authority is it.
The Jews in the Gentile world followed their Judean brethren in stirring up trouble for Christians, Paul in particular. When a slave girl had a spirit removed by Paul, her owners arrested Paul and Silas and threw them into prison (see Acts 16:16-40). The message was Jesus is Lord not a spirit. In Acts 17:7, Jews stirred up so much trouble in the city because “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here.” In chapter 17:16, Paul is in Athens, a city full of idolatry. It is here that he speaks to the Greek scholars about the “unknown God” who sets peoples and nations in their places and gives life and breath to all. And He has a plan which is fulfilled in the Anointed One who was raised from the dead. From there Paul goes on to Corinth where he faced the local authorities though they care nothing for Jewish religious beliefs.
In all of this, there are two themes. One is an ongoing challenge to who is really the Lord of life. Like the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures who challenged idolatry and the selfishness of Israel, Paul challenged the Gentile world in the same way. Who is your Lord? Idols? What can they do? When we see that the economy is wrapped up in idolatry, Paul was seen as a serious threat. In Ephesus, they burned books because of the message of Paul. And when various authorities threatened Paul such as in Philippi, Paul appealed to Rome, the authority of the day. Which brings us to the second theme. Paul was headed to Rome.
Why Rome? Rome was the ruling authority, controlling the world from Britain to North Africa to Asia Minor and points east. The authority in Rome was the Emperor and what was known as the Imperial Cult or Emperor worship. At first it was the dead emperors that were worshipped. They had ascended into heaven where they would rule the earth with the gods. Daniel, a popular book of the first century world make the same point about God (see Daniel 2:21, et. al.) That changed. Now it was the live ones that demanded worship. “Caesar is Lord” was the claim. Paul was headed to Rome and as that became his chief focus, the clashes with authorities of all kinds became more frequent and intense. Often the charges against Paul were of a political nature. Paul made it to Rome, in chains, after an incredible journey in which he and two hundred seventy people were miraculous saved from a ship wreck. In Rome, as Acts closes, we read the following: “He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ -- with all boldness and without hindrance!” How would they understand that statement? The word “kingdom” means rule or reign. In the heart of the Roman Empire, at the very seat of power, Paul was proclaiming the reign of God in Christ. Jesus is Lord! The idea was to get the message to Rome and then it would go everywhere.
There is much more to this. When Paul wrote from a Roman prison to Philippi, he quoted a early hymn about Jesus (see 2:6-11). The last phrase makes the statement that Jesus will be recognized as Lord. That was a reminder to a Roman colony that though Paul was in Caesar’s prison, Jesus is still Lord, not anyone or anything else. In fact, in reading the New Testament, we should keep in mind that the underlying theme was the challenge as to who was really Lord. N.T. Wright expresses the idea that a religious claim wasn’t just that; it included the reality of everything - politics, culture, commerce, family life and everything else. There was no distinction between public and private life.
It is the same today. Who is Lord? Is it money (see Matthew 6:24)? In a movie about Wall Street, the actor states that “greed is good.” We have seen that in recent events such as Enron. For some money is lord. Others think that fame makes them lord. Consider actors and actresses as well as some singers and singing groups. Fame is lord. Then there are the politicians who think they know better than anyone else and cannot be questioned or challenged about anything. Politicians are lord. Even a President could see himself as beyond the law, a law unto himself, doing whatever he can without question. President is lord. While we do not have statues of gold or wood as idols today in this country, we have idols of the heart, idols we have made lord of our life. It could be as simple as television, the care of the house, landscaping, or a car. It could be more complex in which one maneuvers to control people with the power they have or have been given.
As Christians, we are not immune to this. Elders can become lords (see 1 Peter 5:1-4) rather than servants by controlling a congregation without knowing by failing to communicate with their fellow Christians. Preachers can do the same thinking that they cannot not be challenged by what they say. Some brotherhood papers have taken this role, acting as lord of the church, though justifying themselves with the idea of defending the truth. And one way this has been attempted is to see God from a deistic point of view. “God is no longer a player on the world scene; Jesus is Lord far away in heaven, or in the secret places of my heart, perhaps, but he can’t tell me how to run my business or which way to vote,” states N. T. Wright. Haven’t we seen this attitude? God has given us a mind to reason so why pray and wait. We can make decisions and know we have God’s approval. How do we know that? By the mind God has given us to reason! So prayer becomes meaningless. We end up more like Thomas Jefferson than Jesus.
None of the above is lord. Only Jesus is Lord. The Jews of the Old Testament had lost sight of that over and over again. The Assyrians (see Jonah) and Babylonians (see Daniel) learned that God was the King of the world. Caesar thought he was a savior by the military victories he had won, but in reality that meant nothing in the sight of God, who truly is King, ruling in heaven and on earth. Today, in developing the mind or attitude of Christ, we too must bow before Jesus as Lord (Philippians 2:5-11). Until we do, we are fighting against God.
Once we recognize and live under the rule and Lordship of Jesus, the world will see us as a threat, a challenge to its authority. Government will not like us claiming that Jesus is Lord. This is the underlying idea in the challenges to Christianity we see today, from the Ten Commandments, crosses and symbols, to various Christmas symbols being removed from public display. It is the idea behind the attempts to downgrade or destroy the family unit through divorce, immorality, an alternative lifestyle, or it taking a village (i.e. government) to raise a family. It is seen in the hysteria by evolutionary scientists and philosophers against the Biblical idea of creation or even the more secular Intelligent Design movement. The idea is that God is not Lord, the powers that be are through the use of legislation or law courts. Politicians want Christians to keep their Christianity out of the public square because it challenges their authority. What authority? They make laws, often in support of selfish desires and sinful behavior. They want that freedom, more hedonism and nihilism than anything, to do that. They see themselves as doing no wrong, infallible. If Jesus is Lord, then there is accountability. And accountability is a no-no.
There is not much difference between Paul’s world and ours. If we proclaim as Paul did that Jesus is Lord, we should not be surprised that we will be threatened. So we have a decision to make. Will we declare Jesus as Lord and live that way, or will we bow to the authorities or experts or famous who think they are lord?
George B. Mearns
Some thoughts for this article came from N. T. Wright, Shipwreck and Kingdom: Acts and the Anglican Communion” Titus online.clasicalanglican.net