Title: OUR BROTHER, OUR LORD

Focus: Jesus’ identity matters in our relationship with him.

Function: To move the people to increase our wonder, awe and loyalty toward Jesus.

Text: Revelation 1:1-8

Confession: Lord’s Day 13

INTRODUCTION

It happened years ago: I was the “new kid on the block” in that congregation, and I decided to visit Alice. Now Alice was blind. She had a heart of gold, but in order to get to her heart, you first had to go through a “crusty skin.” Her voice was gruff, and on the day that I called her to set up my first visit with her, she was in a bad mood. She thought I was a salesman. And she made it very clear that she did not want to be bothered by me. Then I explained to her I was her new pastor, and that I wanted to visit her and get acquainted with her. The change was remarkable. Once she understood who I was, she opened the door of her heart, and she apologized to me, and yes, we became good friends.

Alice’s change in attitude toward me underscores this truth: Our understanding of a person’s identity matters in our relationship with that person.

We see this truth also at work in public discourse and politics. For example, those who think that President Bush is a “clown”, unqualified, and unfit to be a legitimately-elected president, convey an attitude of subtle disdain and disrespect. As a result, much of our public discourse lacks civility and respect for those in public office. Our understanding of a person’s identity matters in our relationship with that person.

That’s also the case with Jesus. Our understanding of Jesus influences the way we relate to him and the way we speak of him. If you have a high view of Jesus, you’ll speak well of him; if you have a low view of Jesus, your lack of respect will come through. We need to grasp and cultivate a biblical view of Jesus. And that will lead us to a proper relationship toward him. So, who is this Jesus? He is our brother, and he is our Lord.

THE SCRIPTURE’S TEACHING

In general, the Bible teaches that all who follow Jesus are children of God. When we place our trust in Jesus’ claims and promises, we discover a change in our relationship with God. Those who do not know Jesus as Savior are in a hostile or frictional relationship with God. Their unbelief separates them from God. But those who embrace Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord discover that their relationship with God has become one of harmony, of “family,” or of friendship. In fact, the Bible says that believers in Christ Jesus are “children of God.”

Listen to some Bible texts:

• Mark 3:33 (When someone told Jesus that his mother and brothers had arrived and were looking for him, Jesus responded) “Who are my mother and my brothers?…Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Whatever we make of this statement, it’s clear that Jesus re-defines his relationship with his blood-relatives and with the crowd around him. Jesus redefines his relationship with us on the basis of our response to God’s will.

• Romans 9:8 (In discussing God’s relationship with Israel and the Gentiles, Paul says) “…it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” And writing to Jewish and Gentile Christians in Galatia, Paul underscores that all believers (regardless of their bloodlines or ethnicity) “…are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Chris have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

• All followers of Jesus Christ may take these words of the apostle John on their lips: (I John. 3:1) “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

But here is the question that we now must raise: Is there a difference between the way Jesus relates to God and the way we relate to God? In other words, is Jesus’ and our relationship to God the Father exactly the same? Also, we must ask: since we are children of God, is our relationship toward Jesus on the same level as His relationship with us? The answers to these questions are crucial for the way we live as disciples of Jesus.

And we have to ask these questions, because the Scriptures teach very clearly that Jesus is God’s Son. For example, when the angel Gabriel announced the conception of Jesus to Mary, he said: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Lk.1:35). And when Jesus began his work of teaching and preaching and healing, God the Father announced at Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan that “You are my Son, whom I love: with you I am well pleased” (Lk.3:22); and when Jesus was transfigured just before he entered Jerusalem to be crucified, God the Father said: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him” (Lk.9:35).

THE CATECHISM’S TACK

So, as we take upon our lips the Bible’s teachings, and confess that we are children of God and that Jesus is the Son of God, we need to take note of the Bible Teacher’s question in Lord’s Day 13: “Why is (Jesus) called God’s ‘only Son’ (or God’s only begotten Son) when we also are God’s children?” In other words, why do we make a distinction between Jesus’ relationship with God and the believers’ relationship with God?

Listen to the answer: “Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God—adopted by grace through Christ.” Note the difference: Jesus is the eternal, natural Son of God; believers in Christ are adopted sons and daughters of God. Believers relate to God as finite, adopted children in time. But Jesus relates to God on an equal footing, as a natural or eternal Son of God. Consider:

• Jesus did NOT become the eternal Son of God. Rather, he is from all eternity God’s only Son. As God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are from eternity, so is Jesus. When born in Bethlehem, Jesus did NOT become the Son of God; rather, the eternal Son of God came to earth to take on our flesh and blood. We are people bound to time; we are adopted as God’s children in this time, within time. But Christ has been, and always is, from eternity. Note also, then, that

• Jesus partakes of God’s eternal nature; that he is God of God, Light of Light. We carry the DNA, the genetic make-up, or the essence of our parents in every cell of our body. But Jesus has the very essence of his heavenly Father. Jesus’ DNA consists of Mary’s (which goes back all the way to our first parents in Paradise); but Jesus’ human DNA, or rather his human nature also—mysteriously—unites with the very essence of divinity, of the godhead of God the Father. In that sense, Jesus is the natural Son of God, from eternity. In his essence, Jesus always is and remains God or Son of God. We will never assume God’s divine nature. We will always remain creatures.

All of this means that in his relationship to God the Father, Jesus is uniquely different from us. He is our brother in that we relate to God as our heavenly Father. Clearly, Jesus’ Father is our Father. But God is our Father , because we are adopted children. God is Jesus’ Father because they are in essence ONE and in their relationship they fellowship as eternal Father, eternal Son.

Though we are brothers and sisters of Jesus belonging to our heavenly Father, in essence we differ, and therefore, we must also relate to Jesus differently than we might relate to one another. That’s why we call Jesus “our Lord.” And here’s why: “Because—not with gold or silver, but with his precious blood—he has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be his very own.”

Note that in relationship to us, that is believers, Jesus is far more than our brother. He is our sovereign King, our Master and our Owner; we belong to him! Turn the antenna of your heart and head toward the Bible’s teaching, and now listen again to these biblical echoes from L.D. 13: “Jesus has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil. And Jesus has bought us, body and soul, to be his very own.” In other words, though Jesus and all his disciples are members of God’s family (yes, we may say that Jesus is our brother), we must also say (and act) that Jesus is our Lord.

THE PASSAGE: REVELATION 1:1-8

I hope that by now your admiration meter of Jesus is going up by miles. And it should, for the scripture passage from Revelation 1 evokes the same response: This Jesus, this brother of ours, is divine and sovereign King. Consider, for example,

· the mystery of Jesus’ divinity:

In verse 4, the apostle John greets us with a Trinitarian blessing, emphasizing the relationship between God the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. Listen: “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ….” Here we are drawn into the mysterious, wondrous fellowship circle of the triune God. Jesus, our brother, is part of that unique fellowship circle of divinity. Note, also, how

· Jesus relates to us as Lord: He does so by fulfilling his three-fold office or calling. Listen: “…and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness (prophetically teaching and revealing to us God’s design and will for us), who is the firstborn from the dead (offering himself, once for all, as a sacrifice to pay for our sins, and then rising victoriously from the dead), and who is the ruler of the kings of the earth.” That is, who is our risen, ascended Lord.

In response to this greeting of the Triune God with Jesus’ awesome calling in mind, the apostle John issues a doxology, where he further emphasizes our relationship to Jesus: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen!” Ah, this Jesus is someone else! Unique: truly our brother. Truly our Lord!

So what? What’s the big deal that Jesus is our brother and our Lord? I have two pointers:

1. Always acknowledge Jesus as the eternal Son of God. Recognize that Jesus is unique. In all things like us, his brothers and sisters: fully human—except for sin, which points to Jesus’ godhead, his eternally exalted position as the Son of God.

As we recognize and acknowledge Jesus as the eternal Son of God, also celebrate the riches that come our way because of Jesus’ identity and work. For example: he has set us free from the power of sin and from the tyranny of the devil. We are no longer in the service of sin. In fact, we are in the service of the Lord Jesus. Yes, he is our brother before God the Father, but we relate to Jesus as servants. He is our Lord.

2. Know your place: by acknowledging Jesus as our brother before God the Father, and as our Lord in relationship to him, we come to know our proper place. Jesus is far more than our best buddy; he is far more than our spiritual “side kick.” We bow before Jesus as our King; we serve the Lord Jesus and do his bidding; we enter the presence of God the Father, by appealing to God the Son, in the power of God the Holy Spirit. We always must remember our place.

That place is on our knees. And it’s there that we cultivate our love and deep respect, our awe and wonder of Jesus—our brother, our Lord.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.