Lord and Christ
Beloved People of God,
On Pentecost, Luke summed up the substance of Peter’s message as the Apostle’s witness to Jesus as the Lord and Anointed Messiah! Peter proclaimed, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2.36). Peter built his sermon on the fullness of Scripture, referencing revealed truth through the lives of God’s prophetic people. In the prophetic poetry of Joel and the psalms of David, the Lord was opening our eyes to His plan of redemption and transformation.
The truth is, when we are in Christ, when we have confessed the Lordship of Jesus as our Savior and repented of our sin, we are made heirs with Christ (Romans 8.17). Through the redeeming power of Jesus and the sanctifying work of His Spirit, we are given citizenship in God’s kingdom! Like the people on the day of Pentecost cut to the heart by Peter’s witness, we now ask, what must we do to be made right with God? Peter’s response was, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2.38-39). That’s it! That’s all it takes.
This public profession is what demonstrates we are the Church. In baptism, we are built together into a worthy dwelling place for the Spirit of God as we are—in Paul’s words—built “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone,” (Ephesians 2.20). It’s in believing that we become aware of God’s rich mercy and love; and just as God raised Jesus from the grave, so we are raised in His resurrection into the gift of God’s grace (Ephesians 2.4-10).
On our way to Pentecost, let’s take time to rejoice that we are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” and incline our lives all the more to the in-working of His Spirit as we reflect His mercy and grace to the watching world around us!
For Christ the King,
Brett