Jesus as Lord and Saviour

Jesus as Lord and Saviour (Peter)

introduction
1. You may have heard the question “Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour?” or something like it. Even though that quote is not exactly found in the Bible, it is widely considered to be the thing that sets Christians apart from everyone else. If you are a Christian, you will accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour.
Jesus as Lord
1. Saying Jesus is Lord basically means he is the Boss.
2. In the Old Testament, the word “Lord” usually meant God.
3. Jesus is God.
4. Some people debate who Jesus actually was. Some say he was just a good teacher or a prophet. However;
1. Jesus claimed to be God- this is why he was put to death.
2. Jesus said other things which actually a good teacher would never say;
1. “Be like me, because I am humble.”
2. Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do to me.
3. Wherever there are two or three gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.
5. “Come follow me.” Rabbis in Jesus' time would say this to people, as if to say “Come be my disciple, I will make you into a Rabbi just like me.”
1. Rabbis could choose how hard to make it for their followers. The things they would have to do would be called their “Yoke”. (A yoke is the thing you but on oxen when they till the ground in old farms. It's like something they have to carry/drag)
2. Jesus said “My yoke is easy”, as in, it's not hard to be my follower.
3. He also said “Whoever follows me will have to take up their cross”. In other words, the 'yoke' of Jesus is his cross.
4. If we say Jesus is Lord, we make him our Rabbi- which means we will become like him. But he died because he loved people. We may have to do the same if we want to be his followers!
Jesus as Saviour
1. Joke;
1. The Devil went to God with this complaint. “Jesus is totally out of date, he can't relate to the people at all anymore. He doesn't have facebook, or MSN- he can barely even type. I can prove that I am better than He is.” God agreed and I was decided that both Jesus and the Devil should have to compete to create a document which presents their case. They would have to use computers, and have a time limit.
2. So, the competition began. The Devil was working hard and fast, getting quotes on line, and citing them, creating graphics, even developing a power point in order to explain his brochure. Meanwhile, Jesus was doing the old two finger type. It was almost the end of the allotted time- the devil had created a sharp, full colour two sided document and accompanying multimedia presentation, and had nothing left but to print his document. Jesus had about 3 lines, with typos.
3. Suddenly there was a power failure. When it came back on, the Devil discovered that he had lost everything, but Jesus had not. Then God came in and said “Ok, lets see what you've got!” The devil protested, asking for more time, explaining that there was a power failure. But God declared Jesus the winner, due to his 3 lines. “That's not fair!” the devil cried, I had so much more!” “yeah,” God said, “but Jesus saves.”
2. We are “Saved by grace through faith”
1. Grace means “Gods free gift.” We don't earn salvation. It doesn't matter how good you are, you can never save yourself! No one deserves to go to Heaven!
2. We are saved through faith- this does not mean that if you choose to believe in Jesus that he will automatically save you. Jesus himself warned that a lot of his followers would not get into Heaven. On the other hand, it is possible that many no Christians will get there. To have faith means to believe that God can and will do what he promissed, and not to give up hope.
3. Saved from what?
1. When we say we are saved, we don't mean just saved from Hell.
2. The word in the bible that gets translated “saved” is also translated “healed,liberated, forgiven”
1. Healed- sin hurts us. Our own sins, those of others. Jesus can heal you from the dammage that sins have done to you. Some of you may have had serious sins committed against you- you may have been sexually abused, or bullied, or threatened, or had to choose between two parents in a divorce. Or you mayy have had an abortion. Jesus can heal you from the dammage of all of these things!
2. Liberated- Sins trap us. We might be addicted to sex or porn or drugs or alcohol or cutting or occult things. By the power of God, we can be set free from our sins! It may take time- Jesus never promised that it would be instant. But again, we are saved by faith, so we need to just keep on believing and hoping.
3. Forgiven- we might hate ourselves for what we have done. Again, you may have had an abortion, or maybe you had sex, or almost had sex, even just once and you hate yourself for it. Maybe you're ashamed because of your sins, and you think that no one who really knew you could ever love you. But God does. He will forgive you!

Freedom
1. Jesus wants to give us lasting freedom from sin. He does this not by forcibly preventing you from sinning, but by working with your free will to strengthen you and over time give you freedom!
2. Once you are set free, you will not even want to do the things you used to do. That is the degree to which Jesus can transform you!
Conclusion
1. In order to be a Christian, you have to make Jesus your own Lord and Savior. Make him your master, and let him save you from all sin! (End the talk with a prayer service, whereby you have people stand and be prayed over for each of the following things. Call out an issue, have those people who it applies to stand, and say a quick prayer of healing an freedom for them. They should not feel pressured to stand if they are embarrassed. Get someone to play background music and create the mood! People may stand for more than one issue)