The Supremacy of the Lowly Christ

The following sermon was written for Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, University of Rochester chapter, for their large group meeting on September 8, 2006.

I’ve been asked to speak tonight on the “supremacy of Christ.” Now there’s a fascinating topic, and there’s so much to say on it. What do you think of when you hear the phrase? It sounds like a kind of lofty theological phrase, to some extent, which means Jesus rules and reigns over all things, that He is the greatest being in the Universe, and perhaps it evokes phrases like “King of kings, Lord of lords.” It expresses power and majesty.

We think, maybe, of descriptions from the Scriptures of Jesus holding the entire world together. Perhaps the images of Christ in Revelation come to our mind – a victorious, conquering rider on a white horse; a shining being with fire in his eyes and a sword coming out of his mouth.

If the questions, “Is Jesus supreme?” or “Is He the supreme ruler of the world,” or even, “Is Jesus the most important person in the world?”, were put to most Christians, you’d be hard-pressed to find one who’d answer “no” to any of the questions.

But our churches and our Christian subculture tell a different story. Think about the following questions, all of which start with the phrase, “If Jesus is Supreme…”

• Why is He rarely mentioned in sermons?
• Why is He trivialized on logos and bumper stickers?
• Why do many worship songs make it sound like He’s my girlfriend?

Why is He rarely mentioned in sermons? Jesus has become an illustration, a self-help guru, and a giver of good morality. Let me issue you a challenge: take the next couple months and pay close attention to all of the messages you hear, if you’re a Christian and a regular church-attender. Pay close attention and answer this question: Is this sermon about Jesus, centered on Jesus, and rooted in Jesus? Does the message focus intently on the person of Jesus? Is the sermon’s point rooted in the character of Jesus?

Here’s what I think you’ll find. You’ll hear Jesus mentioned in the sermon. You’ll hear something about what He said, who He was, or what He did. Maybe. But even these references to Jesus will be in support of the point of the sermon. In other words, the sermon will be backwards: The pastor will have a point he’s trying to make, and here and there in the sermon, He’ll quote Jesus or use something He did as an illustration. But again, the point will be something altogether different than Jesus. Here’s how to be a better Christian. Here’s how to succeed at quiet times, to pray better. Here’s how to love people better. Here’s how to deal with the stress in your life. Here’s how to handle a friend’s betrayal. How to. How to. How to. It’s life improvement and self-help with Jesus as the ultimate example.

Our sermons are not about Jesus anymore, and it’s killing our churches.

Why is He trivialized on T-shirt logos and bumper stickers? – This might be a sensitive point for some, because you might have a closet full of Christian t-shirts, and your car might have bumper stickers. I know your intentions are good; I know you just want to witness. But listen carefully to what I say about this, and please know it’s not intended as a personal slam on you.

We’ve created what can be called a Christian subculture. We’ve mimicked everything we see around us, making a Christian version of it. We take slogans for products and turn them into slogans for Jesus. Let me ask you something: is a commercial for Mt. Dew or Tide laundry detergent important to you? Or is it rather trivial in the grand scheme of things? Right, trivial. Then what message does it send when we turn those trivial advertisements into ads for Jesus? Right…that Jesus is trivial.

And the bumper stickers and billboards. Derek Webb, writing from the point of view of Satan, much in line with what C.S. Lewis did The Screwtape Letters, writes this line: “Keep selling truth in candy bars, in billboards, on backs of cars…truth without context, my favorite of all my crimes.”

Just like you can’t just pull one random verse out of the Scriptures and out of context and use it, you can’t make slogans for Jesus in expect it to have any profound effect. In fact, it’s almost insulting to the human experience. The experience of each individual who reads a slogan is deep, wide, and powerful. A person who has gone through life facing trial after trial, abuse, and so on, is not going to be powerfully moved by walking down the street and reading, “Know Jesus, know peace; no Jesus, no peace.” That person’s story is too profound to be affected by slogans, and the story of Jesus is far too profound to be represented by slogans.

We don’t treat Jesus as supreme by trivializing him in our Christian bookstores.

Why do worship songs make Jesus sound like He’s my girlfriend? - If in the early church, a report went out to the Roman emperor explaining that Christians “sing hymns to Christ as to a god,” today the report might say that we “sing hymns to Christ as to a significant other.” Not all, of course. There are some wonderful songs being written. But I mention the song issue in order to raise a greater issue: our worship services, which have become increasingly trivial.

There is a really harsh criticism of liturgy, or structured worship services with memorized responses and so on, that is present in evangelicalism today. The criticism centers around the tendency towards what is called “ritualism,” going through the motions without really thinking or being affected.

In its place, we decided to turn the worship service into something exciting, a “What’s going to happen next?” event. It’s relevant, practical, and appeals to anyone who might come in. It’s just not reverent. It’s distracted my announcements, new programs, building projects, and edgy church growth strategies. Jesus has been left behind in an attempt to grow our churches.

The Problem with Power

Our churches are filled with the desire for power. Holy Spirit power, to bring healings and victory. Power to bring in converts. Powerful preachers, powerful experiences, powerful music, powerful worship, powerful revival services, etc.

Jesus is powerful, and there is no question that His supremacy involves his almighty power, his rule, his sovereignty. All of these things are essential to the person of Jesus, and we should learn about them and be in awe of them.

But let’s get right down to business. Think hard about your most difficult struggles – your deepest hurts, and your most intense battles with sin. Now I want you all to spend a good amount of time meditating on the power of Christ…and then tell me if you think you’re over your sin.

[Cue Jeopardy! them music]

No? Alright, let’s move on then.

The Power, Majesty, and Supremacy of Christ

Consider with me a couple of passages from John’s Gospel. The book of John is often broken up into two distinct sections: The Book of Miracles (or Wonders/Works), which is John 1-12:19, and the Book of Glorification, which is the remainder of the book. In any case, John 12:20-26 marks a radical turning point in the gospel. Having been almost thoroughly rejected by His own people, some Gentiles seek Jesus. Jesus seems to take this as a sign that His time had finally come (something He adamantly denied several chapters earlier at the Cana wedding). He says the following:

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

What do we think of when we use the term “glorification?” Honor, power, majesty, and the like. Jesus’ glorification is paralled with what? His death. The lowest point of his entire life. In fact, this point in the gospel of John marks the beginning of this kind of language, and the remainder of the gospel is almost a rush towards the cross. Again, just shortly after this statement, Jesus says something else that is very significant:

31Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

As with glorification, we expect the phrase “lifted up” to have kingly and majestic associations. It does not. John explains the phrase for us:

33He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

But what is accomplished with this death? The greatest military victory in history: the overthrow of the original Dark Lord, the ancient dragon, Satan himself. In other words, as Jesus died, evil was conquered once and for all. (Of course, you’ll object that evil is still quite rampant…wait for it, we’ll get there).

In fact, Jesus’ whole life is filled up with this mentality that the weakest moments are the most important ones. Jesus did not keep the company of the powerful; He kept the company of the outcasts. He hung out with the untouchables. He ate dinner with thieves and prostitutes. He did all the stuff that would make us Christians really uncomfortable, didn’t He? He even did all the stuff that would make a lot of non-Christians uncomfortable.

Seeing God in Jesus

We’ve done a lot of damage by emphasizing “power” as the key element of the Christian life. It’s usually rooted in a bad understanding of the Holy Spirit. Actually, not long after these statements were made, Jesus taught a bit on the Holy Spirit, and the lesson was really quite simple: The Holy Spirit would teach and remind them about Jesus. In other words, the Spirit’s job was not to come and proclaim Himself the all-powerful energy behind the successful, victorious Christian life. He came to point us back to the meek and lowly Jesus, who humbled himself, ate with sinners, got dirty, and died for us.

It is “better” for us that Jesus went away and the Holy Spirit came – Jesus said so himself. But that’s not because the Holy Spirit would finally come and give us the victory we were all looking for. It’s because Jesus, as God incarnate, was only present in one small area of the world at a time. The Holy Spirit would be everywhere, in the midst of us, and in us, to teach us about Jesus, so we could all know him – not just a handful of folks in Israel, but people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

When you think about it, Israel, under the Old Testament, had power, didn’t they? Miracles upon miracles. Thunder and lightning on Mt. Sinai. Plagues, signs, wonders. Prophets with power to stop rain, to raise the dead even. But the Old Covenant failed. The Old Covenant people saw an Almighty God, and they failed in their obedience to the covenant.

John opens up His gospel with some extremely important words:

1:18No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

In short, we cannot possibly see God properly unless we look at Jesus. It is only in looking at Jesus that we know God. I have little use for lists of the attributes of God. They are of limited help; looking at Jesus is far better. The Old Covenant people had attributes of God, words from prophets, and so on. But Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 that Old Covenant people could not even look upon the face of one who had looked at God; Moses had to wear a veil. It was literally impossible, simply by having a list of God’s attributes, to know God. But when it comes to Jesus, Paul says,

We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

With Jesus, we can look at the glory of God right in the face, and rather than being frightened, we are transformed. And what did Jesus say was His and the Father’s glory? His death. You want to know what glory and supremacy look like? Look at Jesus’ death. Look at the cross! It is in Jesus’ greatest weakness that His power was most effective.

Our Weakness and His Power

Now, for those of you who have been in church for some time, that theme might sound familiar. Paul had this “thorn in the flesh,” and we don’t know what that was, but it was incredibly painful for him, so much so that it made him weak and caused him to plead with the Lord that it be removed. The response? “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Same theme.

But that’s kind of vague, isn’t it? What does that mean? How to we tap into that grace?

Well, that’s where our thinking is backward once again. We’re thinking of power for victory. Some people talk as if, in weakness, we just tap into God’s grace somehow, and everything gets better, and it doesn’t hurt as bad, and sin goes away, and we get all peaceful and happy inside. My guess is that Paul’s weakness didn’t come anywhere close to going away, or even subsiding. Paul never says, “I trusted God about my weakness, and now I feel a lot better.” That’s the kind of thing we believe. “I was really struggling, and then I had a quiet time, and everything magically got better.” Sure, it happens. But not always. Instead of the weakness going away, getting better, subsiding, Paul actually determined to brag about the weakness instead.

Here’s the way I read it. Paul’s weakness didn’t go away at all. It didn’t subside, and it was just as difficult as ever to deal with. But that wasn’t the final word for Paul. The final word was that Jesus had already come to suffer in the same way he did, but on his behalf.

Receiving the grace of God in Jesus will not always result in joy and peace; sometimes it’ll be just enough to get you through. Jesus wasn’t joyful and peaceful in Gethsemane, and he wasn’t sinning either. Life hurts, and it’s really hard.

Here is where Jesus is really supreme:

It would take a strangely befuddled person to believe that this world is not broken and messed up. Wars, violence, diseases, disasters, broken relationships, death – these are all signs that something is dreadfully wrong. Let’s make no mistake about it, though: the world is broken because God broke it, and God broke it because we rebelled against Him. And this does not mean that God is trite and gets his feelings hurt easily. It’s because He’s just. We would demand justice if someone wronged us or hurt someone we love. God was exercising justice when He broke this world in response to our rebellion.

But God’s wrath against sin was not his final word. God’s love in Jesus is the final word. When Jesus demonstrated his supremacy by coming down to earth, taking on our likeness, and suffering and dying, he did it (and here’s the key!) for you. This is the only comfort, as the only catechism puts it, in life and death.

When Jesus died and then rose from the dead, because death had no claim on one who had not sinned, a new age dawned. I spoke earlier of Jesus’ death dealing a final blow to evil, defeating it once and for all. What Jesus accomplished right in the middle of history was something that wasn’t supposed to happen until the end of all time. Evil will be finally defeated at the end. But Jesus’ death and resurrection caused that new age to dawn right in the middle of the present evil age. Healing was introduced into the broken world. Evil and suffering are not over, but it is only now a matter of time. All who are united with Jesus share in his victory over death, and it is only a matter of time before that victory is completed in our lives. For us, it will likely be at our deaths. For some people, some day, it will be at Jesus’ final return.

The World’s Power and Jesus’ Weakness
On a broader, but equally important level, the world is obsessed with power.  Military, political, and economic power are central to existence on the world right now, it seems.  But if “God so loved the world,” then we need to think good and hard about how the church is to be in the world.  How was Jesus to Israel?  Meek, humble, and lowly, even though he was ultimately supreme.  Likewise, we the church rule and reign with Christ, but our reign is not one of overwhelming power.

Jesus commissioned his disciples to take His mission, via the church, to the rest of the world.  We should realize, then, that the church is to the rest of the world as Jesus was to Israel (yes, that’s N.T. Wright language).  We are sent with his message and mission to the entire world.  And we are to be like Jesus in doing so.  We do not represent the supremacy of Christ primarily by displays of power or by giving in to the temptations of political power plays.  We carry the simple gospel message that God is reconciling the world to himself through Christ.  We do so with humility and a servant’s heart, not arrogance and condescending attitudes.
Some Application

There is so much application from this, it’d be hard to cover it all. Let me suggest a few things to get you thinking:

• Christ is Supreme in the Scriptures: It is clear from what Jesus Himself says about the Scriptures that they are not to be used “topically,” as a sort of medicine cabinet for spiritual growth and solving daily problems of life. They are about Jesus. Listen carefully: You do not have life in the Scriptures. The Scriptures point to Jesus, who is the Giver of Life. Jesus is the point. The Bible is not an answer book; it’s a book about Jesus.
• Christ is Supreme in our Suffering: The only comfort that exists, the only lasting comfort, is that Jesus suffered with us and for us, though He did not have to do so. We don’t overcome our suffering by our faith; we unite with Jesus, who also suffered and one day will end all suffering.
• Christ is Supreme in our Churches: As Jesus was to Israel, so we are to the world. Any way of thinking about church that isn’t vitally linked to who Jesus is will be a terrible mistake, even if there are 10,000 people in the church. It’s not about strength, power, influence, and growth. It’s about love, humility, weakness, mercy, and grace. If the Church does not look to the world like Jesus looked to Israel, we’ve created a church that Jesus did not intend.
• Christ is Supreme in the World: He is king of the world, and his reign is extending through the preaching and acting out of the gospel.

Questions for Reflection:

I’ve been asked to provide questions for you to consider in small groups afterwards. Here are a few:

• What should the nature of the church be, given that we are to continue Christ’s mission to the world? In other words, what does a loving, self-sacrificial church look like? How would this inform our goals, our worship, and our fellowship?
• What would a Christ-centered approach to the Scriptures look like? How can we stop reading the Bible as a theological textbook or a self-help manual and start reading it as the story of Jesus?
• What should Inter Varsity at U of R look like, in light of the supremacy of Christ in His life on earth? How can we be self-sacrificial servants of the campus around us?
• Jesus said that His disciples were not taking up swords and fighting because His kingdom was not of this world.  What, then, does it look like to take the powerful message of the gospel of the supreme Christ out into the world?