“Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Not Caesar! Jesus! Paul is basically saying, “I don’t care what Caesar says. I don’t care what Rome says. I don’t care what popular opinion is. Jesus Christ has no equals! He is one-of-a-kind. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And a day is coming when everything in all creation will bow before Jesus and declare that He is Lord.”

On that day, all of world history will culminate at the feet of Jesus. And that day will be a day like no other. It will be a day of worship, and it will be a day of reckoning. Some knees will bow in praise; other knees will bow in shame— but either way, every knee will bow before Jesus. Verse 10 says every knee in heaven will bow. All the angels and all the saints and all the martyrs and all the loved ones who have gone before us will bow before Jesus. Verse 10 says every knee on earth will bow. Every human being who loves Jesus will bow. And every human being who despises Jesus will bow. Verse 10 also says every knee under the earth will bow. The devil and the demons and every unbeliever who died lost without faith in Jesus will bow before Jesus. Every founder of every world religion will bow before Jesus. Mohammed will bow before Jesus. Buddha will bow before Jesus. Joseph Smith will bow before Jesus. Every world leader will bow before Jesus. Hitler will bow before Jesus. Napoleon will bow before Jesus. Sadaam Hussein will bow before Jesus. Yasser Arafat will bow before Jesus. Every US president will bow before Jesus. George Washington will bow before Jesus. Abraham Lincoln will bow before Jesus. John F. Kennedy will bow before Jesus. President Clinton will bow before Jesus. President Bush will bow before Jesus. President Obama will bow before Jesus. And every other person who has ever lived will bow before Jesus. Nietzsche will bow before Jesus. Oprah will bow before Jesus. Einstein will bow before Jesus. Plato will bow before Jesus. I will bow before Jesus. And you will bow before Jesus. Every knee will bow before Jesus, because Jesus and Jesus alone is Lord.

And I want you to know that what I’ve just said is probably the most wildly unpopular, controversial statement you can make in our culture today. Generally speaking, our culture is okay with Jesus being your Lord or my Lord, maybe even with Jesus being the Lord of the church. But if other people and other religions want to call someone or something else Lord, then our culture says that’s right, too. Let me tell you something, Jesus Christ is not just your Lord or my Lord or the Lord of the Church. Jesus Christ is Lord of All. And that’s not a decision any of us get to make. You don’t accept Jesus as Lord. He is Lord. And the only question is whether you will bow before Him because you love and worship Him or whether you will bow before Him because He crushed you in your rebellion. And our culture may not like that. Muslims may not like that. Jews may not like that. So be it. They’ll bow before Jesus anyway. It’s the truth. Jesus Christ is Lord. And one day every knee will bow before Jesus and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.