Jesus Is Both Lord And Christ Series

You know sometimes we run across things in life that intrigue us and confuse at the same time. We don’t quite understand what we’re seeing – but we can’t look away. And sometimes we’ll do anything to find out more about it.

[Discovery channel giant snake and mummies story.]

Governments spend millions of dollars sending probes and people into space to find out just what’s out there. People will spend their entire lives digging up bones and fossils in the desert trying to find out what the past was really like. There’s some things in life that intrigue us so much that we’ll do anything to understand what we’re seeing.

Today we find ourselves looking at a moment like that as we continue our studies through the book of Acts. We’re in Acts 2 where the Jews that were in town for the Feast of Weeks, the day of Pentecost, couldn’t understand how the followers of Jesus were able to speak in the many languages of the world. “What does this mean?” “How can these simple Galileans speak in all of our languages?”

So Peter answered them in his great sermon and started out by saying that what was going on there was because of Jesus Christ, and that if they would call upon Him they would be saved as well.

[Read Acts 2:21.]

Now this was just the introduction to his message. [2] But before he was done preaching he would demonstrate to them that Jesus, the Jesus they had crucified, is both Lord and Christ. Let me read for you this sermon as Peter preached it.

[Read Acts 2:22-37.]

Now hopefully, this is one of those intriguing moments for you today. The fact that the Bible claims Jesus to be both Lord and Christ should cause us to wonder. Just what does that mean to me? How does that make a difference in my life? How does that help me pay the bills? How does that help me raise my kids? How does that help me with addiction? How does that help me with depression? How does that help me handle bullies at school?

Understanding that Jesus is both Lord and Christ and choosing to follow Him will make all the difference in the world in your every day life. Let’s look at how Peter establishes that Jesus is in fact both Lord and Christ. [3] He does it by examining the evidence, the relevance and the consequence of Jesus as Lord and Christ. First the evidence. [4]

Peter starts out by asking the people to think back to all the miracles that Jesus publicly performed in their midst.

[Read Acts 2:22.]

As we studied through the book of John last year we saw Jesus publicly working miracle after miracle to establish that He was in fact God. Changing the water into wine, healing the sick, calming the storm, walking on water, even raising people from the dead. These and many more signs Jesus gave the people to validate His claims. And Peter here calls attention to the fact that they all knew about it. There was no way anyone could claim that Jesus didn’t work all those miracles because there was just too many witnesses to the contrary. Jesus’ miracles were evidence that He was both Lord and Christ. [5]

Jesus’ crucifixion also supported this fact.

[Read Acts 2:23.]

Peter tells the crowd that Jesus’ crucifixion wasn’t just an unfortunate ending to His life, but that it was because of the predetermined plan of God. Isaiah 53 clearly prophesied that the Savior would suffer and die for the sins of the world and Jesus did just that. Jesus’ crucifixion was evidence that He was both Lord and Christ. [6]

But not just His crucifixion, but His resurrection as well.

[Read Acts 2:24, 32.]

The twelve apostles, Jesus’ family, and many other disciples had seen the risen Lord. Jesus even appeared to a group of 500 at one time after He was resurrected according to the apostle Paul. They didn’t just see a ghost or His spirit, but they saw Jesus Himself bodily resurrected. Something they were willing to die for. Something they were willing to live for! Jesus came back from the dead, just like He said He would, and they saw it for themselves. He must be Lord and Christ to rise from the dead.

And you know what else? These were things that were predicted hundreds of years before they happened right in front of them. [7] Fulfilled prophecy established the fact that Jesus was both Lord and Christ.

[Read Acts 2:25-31.]

In other words, David wasn’t talking about himself in Psalm 16:8-11. We know where he’s buried. He was referring to the Lord being resurrected some 700 years before it ever happened. This prophecy, (along with the other 300+ that Jesus fulfilled), is evidence that Jesus is both Lord and Christ.