TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall 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. Philippians 2:9-11
Listen: Philippians 2
TODAY’S MESSAGE
Jesus spent a great deal of his time on earth teaching. His moral lessons are so widely appreciated that some believe him to be just a moral teacher. Some think it was only after his death that others decided to portray him as God. However, when we look at history, we find that both Jesus and his earliest followers claimed he was God. Archeologists have found inscriptions, letter fragments and hymns that show this to be true. Philippians 2:5-11 is one first-century example where Paul either quotes or writes a hymn about Jesus being God.
The 20th century Christian writer C.S. Lewis famously said that someone who claimed to be God (as Jesus did) must be either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. He said, “You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Jesus as just a teacher is palatable. If he was just a teacher, then we can weigh his opinions against others and come to our own conclusions about who God is and how we are called to live. Jesus as God is significantly more uncomfortable. If he is Lord of the universe—then he is Lord of our lives. We can no longer cherry pick when to listen or ignore him.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
Grab your journal or notes app and write on the top of the page, “Jesus is Lord of my life, and I am not.” Then spend a few minutes writing down areas of your life where you are lord and struggle to allow Christ to be Lord. Pray and ask God for his strength to commit these areas, one by one, to him.
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
