Behold the Greatness of God
(Part 2 - God the Son)
Col 1:1-18
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Jan. 27, 2008
*Pastor Michael Bird tells a story from his days as a young soldier in the Australian army. One Friday night, Michael and a few mates were ordered to guard a truck loaded with ammunition, and Michael said, “Well, as you can imagine most young men had other things planned rather than guarding a truck on a Friday night. -- So we sat around moping, not terribly pleased with the situation.
*Finally, an old man in a tank top and a pair of shorts approached us and asked us why we looked so frustrated. We told him about the stupid job we had and how we’d rather be out partying with our friends. He then asked us about the unit and what we thought about the hierarchy and officers. It was a time for us to unload a heap of stuff we weren’t happy about.
*He then asks us what we thought about the new commanding officer. We then told him that he was some pen-pushing looser from Canberra who we hadn’t met yet called Lieutenant Colonel Power.
*He then asked me my name and I told him. And I asked him his and he said, ‘Bob Power.’ -- It didn’t click automatically. I said, ‘Hey, that’s amazing. -- That’s the same name as our new. . .’
*Suddenly it dawned on me that this WAS the new commanding officer. My mind was filled with horrendous images of me cutting the lawn with a pair of nail clippers or washing floors with my tooth brush. Lucky for me Colonel Power had a sense of humor.
*One thing I did learn from that episode was that my relationship with him changed radically when I had realized who he was and the extent of his authority.” (1)
*The same thing is true with Jesus Christ. The more we realize who He really is, the more we will give Him the worship and praise He deserves. Let’s do that today! “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.” (Psalm 34:3)
1. Give glory to God the Son! -- First, because Jesus gives us life worth living.
*Jesus Christ gives us the only life worth living, and Paul shows us many reasons why in vs. 1-11. Let’s take a few moments to look at some of the wonderful blessings we have in Jesus:
*In vs. 1, the Lord gives us faithful friends like Paul and Timothy:
-Friends in vs. 3 who are always praying for us.
-Friends in vs. 7&8 who are serving the Lord for our great benefit -- helping us to grow in Christian love.
-Praise the Lord for giving us a life worth living! -- A life blessed by Godly friends.
*Then in vs. 2, it’s a life filled with grace and peace.
-In vs. 4, a life filled with faith and love.
-In vs. 5, a life filled with the sure hope of Heaven.
*Also in vs. 5&6, it’s a life based on the truth and producing Godly fruit. Then in vs. 9-11, it’s a life filled with God’s knowledge, wisdom, understanding, strength, patience and joy. And though we often fall short, it’s a worthy life. Jesus Christ gives us the only life worth living.
*We can see the transforming power of Jesus Christ in the life of a little boy named Ben. When Ben was just 8, his father abandoned their family. His mother worked at many jobs in order to support her children, but they were barely making it.
*Ben started goofing-off at school and never did his work. Mom saw his grades slipping, cut his TV time, and put him on a strict schedule of book reports that eventually brought his grades back up. But Ben still had a problem: He had an awful temper. There were even times when he threatened his mother.
*The turning point in Ben’s life came when he tried to stab a friend. He would have killed the other boy. -- But by the grace of God, his knife hit the boy’s belt buckle instead of his stomach. After Ben realized what he had done, he was overcome with sadness and fear. But Ben did the best thing he could have done. He turned to the Bible and found the guidance he needed.
*Jesus Christ gave Ben a life worth living. He decided to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. He only had $10 to use for college application fees, so he sent his one application to Yale. And the rest is history, -- For poor little Ben, the abandoned child, the class cut-up, and the violent young man, grew up to be Dr. Ben Carson, one of the best pediatric neurosurgeons in the world. He was head of the panel of doctors who conducted the first successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head. (2)
*Imagine the terrible waste, if Ben had not turned to Jesus. Now the Lord is not going to turn all of us into famous neurosurgeons. We may not even be able to spell “neurosurgeon.” But Jesus Christ will give us the best possible life we could ever live -- now and forever!
2. Give glory to God the Son! -Because He gives us life worth living, and because He is the source of our salvation.
*Jesus Christ is the only source of salvation! In vs. 12-14, Paul told us that he was:
12. giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14. in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
*In these few verses, God gives us 5 great truths about His salvation. In vs. 12, He QUALIFIES us to share in His everlasting inheritance. God has to qualify us by His grace, mercy and power. We cannot qualify ourselves! In vs. 13, He DELIVERS us from the power of darkness, and He TRANSFERS us into the everlasting Kingdom of His Son Jesus Christ. Then in vs. 14, He REDEEMED us. Jesus Christ paid the full price for our freedom. And Jesus Christ took the full punishment for our sins, so that we could be FORGIVEN forever! That’s what He did when He died on the cross.
*What do we have to do? We have to wake up to our desperate need for Jesus. We have to see that we are on a dead end road, and hopelessly lost without Him. But we also have to see that Jesus loves us, died on the cross for us, rose again from the dead, and that He offers His salvation to us. Seeing all this, we have to turn to Jesus, trusting in Him, opening our hearts to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
*Bill Bouknight tells us that the devil is not happy at all because the cure for our spiritual death is so free and available. So, in order to mislead us, he suggests that we don’t need to be saved and changed by God. The devil reminds us of our good deeds. We give to the Salvation Army. And we haven’t broken any law, except speeding, in a long time. So, who needs to be saved?
*Wallace Chappell tells a story about a college student named Elizabeth who came home for Christmas after having been “enlightened” by a religion course. She told her pastor, “I am not interested in a God who saves me; I am more attracted to a God who ‘identifies’ with me.”
*Then her wise pastor said, “Elizabeth, let me ask you a question. Imagine yourself on the 8th floor of a hotel in Nashville, and the building catches on fire. The stairs are blocked by fire. Let’s suppose that firemen, at great risk to themselves, manage to climb extended ladders to your window. At that point, do you want those firemen to just identify with you or to save you?” (3)
*Thank God that Jesus came to save us from our sins! Praise Him for paying the highest price. Praise Him for dying to give us His everlasting life!
3. Give glory to God the Son! -- Because He is the source of our salvation, and because He is the reliable revelation of God.
*As Paul said in vs. 15, Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” God the Son Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is the essential revelation of God the Father. As John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” No one can know the Father except through the Son. No one could have ever known the Father except through the Son.
*In John 5, Jesus healed a man who had been seriously ill for 38 years. But some of the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus because He healed the man on the Sabbath day.
17. But Jesus replied, "My Father never stops working, so why should I?"
18. So the Jewish leaders tried all the more to kill him. In addition to disobeying the Sabbath rules, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
19. Jesus replied, "I assure you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
20. For the Father loves the Son and tells him everything he is doing, and the Son will do far greater things than healing this man. You will be astonished at what he does.
21. He will even raise from the dead anyone he wants to, just as the Father does.
22. And the Father leaves all judgment to his Son,
23. so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. But if you refuse to honor the Son, then you are certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.
24. "I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.
*Jesus Christ is Almighty God, just as the Father and Holy Spirit are Almighty God. Jesus has always been God the Son, but 2,000 years ago He became a man to reveal God to us. So in John 14:9 Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
4. Give glory to God the Son! -Because He is the reliable revelation of God, and because He is the cause of all creation.
*Paul tells us in vs. 16 that: “By Him (By Jesus Christ) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
*Jesus Christ created the universe and everything in it! Stop and think about that. Think how great He must be to have created everything in the whole universe. “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.” (Ps 34:3)
*Think what an amazing job Jesus did when He created the world:
-A single drop of water is filled with so many molecules that if each one was the size of a grain of sand, you could build a road a half mile wide, one foot thick all the way from New York to Los Angeles.
-The surface temperature of our sun is about 11,000 degrees. Fortunately, we are 93,000,000 miles away. -- Just the right distance for life on earth to be possible.
-The earth is tilted just the right way for us to have seasons.
-Right now we are spinning at a thousand miles an hour.
-At the same time we are flying around the sun at a thousand miles a minute. -- But we don’t even have to hold on because the Lord’s design is so perfect.
-Our atmosphere is 21% oxygen. -If it was 45%, then the first time there was a spark -- BOOM -- the whole earth explodes!
*Think about our heart. It’s about the size of fist and weighs 12 ounces. -- But in 12 hours your heart will do enough work to raise 65 tons off the ground one inch. (4)
*All of these things and countless more give glory to the One who created us -- Jesus Christ! “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him (vs. 16).”
*What does this mean for us? It means that our God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is bigger than we can possibly imagine. Nothing is too hard for Him. It also means that God is paying attention to the smallest details of His creation. He cares about all of His creation. He cares about you. As Bill Bouknight once said, “Every new baby bears the fingerprint of Christ.”
*All things were created through Him and for Him. This also means that God has a perfect purpose for all of His creation. So Bouknight said: The primary purpose of every person in this sanctuary is to be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ. Our world is moving inevitably toward its final destiny: when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (5)
*Jesus Christ is the Creator, Sustainer, and Cause of all creation.
5. Give glory to God the Son! -Because He is the cause of all creation, and because He has the strength to sustain us.
*Jesus Christ has the strength to sustain you today. As Paul said in vs. 17, Jesus “is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” This means that Jesus is the glue, He is the force, the power that is holding everything together in this universe. Jesus is holding everything together physically. There are somewhere between 50 and 75 trillion cells in my body. And Jesus Christ is keeping them from flying all over this room.
*He is holding everything together physically and spiritually. Sometimes you may feel like you are being ripped apart, but trust in the Lord. He will hold it together for you.
*Hugh Redwood, told about a time years ago when he was at the breaking point. He was physically exhausted, emotionally drained, under severe nervous strain, confused, perplexed, and stressed out, not knowing which way to turn concerning some highly important decisions he had to make.
*Hugh was staying at a friend’s house prior to speaking at a big meeting. His friend said to him, "Hugh, you look tired. Would you like to escape all this chatter, and rest in a room upstairs?"
*Hugh said that he would like that very much. To his delight, he was led to a beautiful, peaceful room. A bright fire was burning; an easy chair was sitting nearby. And at his elbow there was a little table with a Bible on it. The Bible was open to Psalm 59, where the first part of vs. 10 says, “My merciful God shall come to meet me.” But in the margin, someone had written this paraphrase, “My God in his loving kindness shall meet me at every corner.”
*Hugh Redwood said when he read those words the message came to him as light in a dark place -- Light from the very heart of God. It lifted him, consoled him, encouraged him, revitalized him and gave him the strength to do what he needed to do. (6)
-“My God in his loving kindness shall meet me at every corner.” Jesus Christ has the strength to sustain you today. And because of the truth in vs. 18, Jesus has the strength to sustain you forever. That’s because Jesus “is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
*Jesus is the “firstborn from the dead.” He is risen from the dead and alive forevermore! This changes everything for us forever! Donald Sensing gave a great illustration of this truth. It was a story he heard from one of his professors. And Donald later wrote:
-One day in class, Dr. Bond told of a classmate in college who had never been to church. -- Never read the Bible. She loaned him a Bible and asked him to start with the Gospel of Mark, since it was the shortest and simplest to read.
*He told her later that he opened Mark not long before bedtime, and became so engrossed in it that he couldn’t put it down. He read through the trial and crucifixion of Christ with growing dismay at what was happening to Jesus. And when he read of Jesus’ death on the cross, he said he was too shocked to continue. He put the book down and went to bed. (7)
*But the next morning he learned that death did not conquer Jesus. Jesus conquered death forever for all who trust in Him! What a difference a day made! What a difference 3 days made! That man’s night really was turned into day, and yours can be too. Praise the Lord!
*Jesus Christ is the cause of all creation, the reliable revelation of God, and the source of our salvation. But who is Jesus to you? Now is the time to trust in the Lord, follow the Lord, serve the Lord, worship the Lord. Open your heart to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, as we go to God in prayer. Behold the greatness of God.
1. SermonCentral sermon - “Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ” by Michael Bird - Col 1:15-20
2. Patricia Sellers, "I’m the Luckiest Person I Ever Met" FORTUNE, Aug. 10, 1992, p. 93. (Found in christianglobe.com sermon “Putting A Face On Jesus” by King Duncan - Col 1:1-14)
3. christianglobe.com sermon “Naming the Divine Baby” by Bill Bouknight - Matt 1:18-23 - 2001
4. SermonCentral illustration contributed by Guy McGraw
5. christianglobe.com sermon “Who Is This Jesus?” by Bill Bouknight - Col 1:13-20
6. christianglobe.com sermon “Timing Is Everything” by Mark Trotter - Matt 11:2-11
7. “One Hand Clapping” - blog by Donald Sensing - 02-26-04 Post: “About the Violence” - www.donaldsensing.com
