GPS Guide – December 13, 2018
KING OF KINGS
Thursday
Read: Acts 10:34-43, Romans 14:2-12
“Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (NIV:: Acts 10:34-43)
“One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’ ” So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” (NIV Romans 14:2-12)
Study: By New Testament times, Rome’s Caesar claimed worship as “Lord” (Greek kurios). There could only be one “Lord,” so to say Jesus was king and lord was risky. But even to Romans, Peter and Paul said Jesus was the true kurios, the Lord of all. With Rome’s military might pitted against Jesus’ seemingly naïve witnesses, the contest looked ridiculously uneven. It was—but 2,000 years of history shows that it was Caesar, not Jesus, who was over matched. One important way Rome demanded that citizens in its empire show their allegiance was to say, formally, “Caesar is Lord.” Picture the scene as Peter declared to this group of Roman soldiers, “This is the message of peace he sent to the Israelites by proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all!”. What “lords” has Jesus challenged and dethroned in your life?
Pray: Lord Jesus, you are Lord of all. That takes in all of the world’s big problems that sometimes trouble me, and it also takes in all of my internal struggles. Be Lord of all, inside me as well as outside. Amen