Sermon Brief
Date Written: September 3, 2009
Date Preached: September 6, 2009
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: Back To School – Believers Edition!
Sermon Title: The ‘Enoughness’ of Christ!
Sermon Text: Colossians 1:13-17
Introduction:
Just recently in our area, we have seen many of our children and grandchildren start BACK TO SCHOOL! Many are going back to that education process that shapes and molds their minds to become productive members of society!
And today I want to start a sermon series that takes US ‘Back to School’ [so to speak] but in our ‘class’ we will not be going over the 3 R’s of education… you know - Reading, Riting and Rithmatic!
What we WILL be addressing are the very basics of our Christian walk, Who Jesus is, How important is Scripture, What happens to ‘make’ us saved AND finally WHO IS GOD! But to start out on this journey, I believe that there is NO greater subject than Jesus Christ!
Jesus is the best place to start because all of TRUE Christianity is centered IN Christ Jesus! The term “Christianity” that we use to describe ourselves comes from the ROOT word “Christ” … that is the Christ of our salvation! In Scripture we read that we are called Christians because we are seeking to live our lives as ‘little Christs’… Everything we do as a church IS SUPPOSED TO BE focused on Christ and based IN our relationship with Him!
Now there are many [even some who claim to be Christians] who will try to argue that fact and say that Jesus isn’t our only focus, BUT the whole of Scripture discounts this argument in that all lead up to Christ on the Cross and now all points back TO the Cross of Calvary… Scripture gives Jesus the title of “the author [creator if you will] and perfecter of our faith…” It is only IN Him are we truly Christian! It is Christ Jesus that draws us together today to this place! Amen!
And today is really a special day as we have come together to give Him praise, honor and glory that He deserves BUT also today we come together to celebrate!... To observe what we refer to as the Lord’s Supper OR Holy Communion!
This celebration today is based in our acknowledgment and remembrance of the selfless sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the Cross of Calvary… We celebrate this today because Jesus is our risen Savior, and it is only thru willingly His shed blood that we can know eternal salvation and life in Heaven!
For the Christian, there is NO other person or thing in our belief system that holds the position of royalty as Jesus does for us!
From the Apostles…
to the church fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries,
to Martin Luther of the Protestant Reformation,
to the revival preachers of the Great Awakening,
to the great revivalist of the 20th century (Billy Sunday and Billy Graham)…
all these men who are recognized as stalwarts of the Christian faith and they ALL exalted Christ to a very high and proper place!
Today in our world it is Christianity alone where Christ is elevated and worshipped as God! He is the MASTER of our creation, salvation and eternal deliverance. There are many other religious organizations who claim to be a part of the Christian experience… but they attempt to add to Jesus! In doing so they TAKE AWAY from His ‘enoughness’… from HIS centrality and sufficiency!
Scripture is very clear in that Jesus is sufficient! He is ENOUGH for all our spiritual needs and IS the sole provider of salvation to those who surrender their hearts to Him. Jesus is alone…ALL ALONE… when it comes to the role of Savior and Deliverer…in Acts 4:12: Speaking of Jesus, Peter says…
12 There is salvation in NO ONE ELSE, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.
You see, from the eternal perspective to the everyday living of this life…Jesus IS what it is all about! As believers, we know this intellectually! We say this all the time… we sing about how Jesus is all we need, BUT how often do we truly dig down in Scripture to understand the true nature of this belief that Jesus is our everything?
The Apostle Paul had a very HIGH and proper view of Jesus! And we too MUST have that same view of Jesus! As a pastor I have found thru 12 yrs of experience and 25 yrs of serving the Lord that Jesus is so much more than I could EVER know.
In fact, I could stand here all day today…hrs upon end, and extol the greatness and wonders of Jesus, and I could give you but a glimpse of who Jesus truly is! All we can see is in this life is the unfinished portrait… It is not that Jesus is an unfinished portrait… it is that we cannot comprehend ALL of who He is… not now!
So many professing believers who sit in our pews today simply cannot ascribe the right and proper honor, we see Him as…
The babe in the manger… so many believers today do not ‘see’ Jesus before this event!
The boy in the Temple… there are many believers who do not realize the significance of His 1st journey into teaching and revelation.
The man on a mission… So many today only see Jesus for His physical miracles and compassionate words, but His mission was SO much more!
The Savior on the Cross… The cross is a very important part of who Jesus is, but is NOT ALL of who He is, and when viewed in the light of eternity it is but ONE event, as important as it is…just one event.
The Risen Lord… Conquering death, Jesus rises to new heights, however, what many miss here is Jesus’ ultimate destination… He is returning to His rightful Glory and Place in Heaven!
The Awaited return… Many believers today now see Jesus only as the One who is coming, and many have lost sight of what that coming represents. They believe it to mean world peace and harmony among nations… they miss out on the glory of God.
But I am here to tell you that past all these things… Jesus is so much more! So the question we have to ask is “Can we truly know Him? Can we truly see Him revealed in our world today?” We claim Him thru Scripture. We claim that we see Him thru our changed lives AND the changed lives of other believers. And I would say that those are ways that we CAN get a glimpse of who He is!
Scripture relates that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, that He is the same yesterday, today and forever, indicating his eternality. And when we go to Scripture we find that Jesus was foretold from as early in history as the Garden of Eden. Scripture tells us of a Savior to come to deliver His creation from death and sin… Jesus was there when salvation’s plan was devised from before the world began!
Then we see Scripture leading us to the place where Jesus took on flesh and was born of a virgin girl. It takes us to where He lived a perfect, sinless life that was filled with the compassion of God the Father. Scripture extols the fact that He was willing to sacrifice Himself and die a cruel and painful death for His creation… for humanity! We can read that He did this out of His love for us, this was played out by His willingness to fully and completely submit to the Father and His sacrifice for the humanity He so loved.
Scripture then reveals to us that Jesus rose from death in complete and total victory over the grave, shattering sin’s hold on humanity. And finally we see where Jesus is now interceding thru His blood for those who cry out to Him.
There is going to come a day very soon where Jesus is going to come again to this world… He will be revealed to all humanity… to those who believe and to those who do NOT believe… In ALL His glory, Jesus is going to take those who have submitted and surrendered to Him into His arms and deliver them into eternal life in heaven! And to the rest of the world, even tho’ they NEVER believed in Him… He is going to be their judge and this world will know His glory and those of this world will bow before Him as King of Kings!
Like I mentioned a little earlier, Scripture tells us that Jesus is the same, “Yesterday, today and forever…” that He is NEVER changing. In the book of Revelation Jesus proclaims that He is the, “Alpha (FIRST) and Omega (LAST)” … Jesus told those around Him that even before Abraham was… “I AM!” referring to His eternal status!
So when we look at WHO Jesus is… as believers, we can answer boldly that YES! YES! YES! Jesus is so very special to believers! And we tell the world this, and we read about Jesus, we sing about Jesus, we speak about Jesus and we SAY that there is NONE like Him! But do we fully comprehend the entire scope of just WHO Jesus truly is?
The nature of Christ was to reveal God to the humanity of creation! The ultimate purpose for Christ in this world was to reinstate a fragmented and scattered universe… fragmented by the sin of rebellion and disobedience!
In His death, burial and resurrection, Jesus accomplished both things: 1st by revealing in His true nature the love of God for humanity! And 2nd Jesus’ death fulfilled His purpose for coming by breaking down the barriers sin and rebellion, and establishing a way we could be reconciled from our sinful state and united with Him in salvation!
In our passage this morning we find Paul making a very definitive declaration about Jesus… Jesus is SUPREME! is his message to the Colossian church and ultimately to the whole world! But Paul’s declaration is sometimes misunderstood, you see Jesus is not only SUPREME in this world and for our needs… but He is SUPREME OVER all creation and throughout all eternity! Let’s look at Col 1:12-14 right now and see how Paul describes…
What God Has Done THRU Christ… (v.12-14)
12 …giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Here Paul reveals the personal nature of God as his implication here is that God has done this for EACH individual and thus for ALL humanity. Paul is speaking to those who have already rec’d Christ as Savior, but what he is doing here is clarifying their stance… and what God has done for them, but it indicates what God will do for ANYONE who will call upon His name and believe in Him!
In v.12 [show v.12 here] Paul stresses the need for thankfulness on our part because God has opened the door to salvation and communion with Him. This door was opened through the actions and obedience of Christ in His sacrifice for us!
You see before salvation, God is our Judge and we stand condemned before Him, but thru Christ God changes roles in our lives… no longer Judge He becomes our loving and gracious Father who provides eternal salvation!
God adopts us into His family and the term Paul uses here is a legal term used in Roman Law of the 1st century. It stated that when adopted into a family…the adopted child could NEVER be disowned by the family! Once you become a member, you would always be a member! Likewise, when you come to Christ in salvation and you fully surrender yourself to Him, you are adopted into His family NEVER to be removed!
Before God sent Jesus, we were NEVER qualified for the inheritance that we can now claim as part of His family! Before salvation we were dominated by the evil of this world and the wicked ruler of this world, Satan! We were fallen, sinful and hopeless! But thru Christ and the grace of God we are qualified now to receive the blessing of His inheritance of eternal life and joy!
In v.13 [show v.13 here] we find Paul sharing that we have been rescued by God from the domain of darkness and transferred to a new location! Out of the darkness into the our inheritance of eternal light and life in Christ Jesus! We have been delivered by God thru Christ… whom He loves and therefore loves us as well!
So we can see that in v.13 Paul gives us a 2nd reason to rejoice…and that is our spiritual liberation from the dark master of this world. God drew us away from the evil one and unto Himself out of love.
In His death, burial and resurrection Jesus shatters the power and domain of Satan in our lives… when we accept His sacrifice and who He is, we are freed from the grips of Satan and transferred into a heavenly realm of deliverance.
Finally here in v.14 [show v.14 here] Paul declares that because of what God has done thru Jesus Christ we have been delivered from the guilt and eternal consequences of our sinful nature… God thru sending Christ on the Cross has cleared the way for us to be cleansed and made whole!
The word Paul uses in v.14 ‘redemption’ is the action by God in which the result is our forgiveness FROM our sin. We are pardoned… there is a remission of the penalty FOR our sin… we have received deliverance from the God of Heaven and are cleansed within.
So in summing up what these 3 verses represent… they tell us of what God has done THRU Jesus for all who accept Jesus as Savior! First we are forgiven, then we are granted and accepted worthy of our inheritance in Christ and finally we are delivered from the darkness of this world into a kingdom of light! When we contemplate what God the Father has done thru His Son Jesus Christ… how can we stop praising Him? How can we ever ignore or resist Him?
So when Jesus sat in that upper room with His disciples, it was His desire that they understood and had full comprehension of what He was about to do… that is why we celebrate the Lord’s supper today…to remember what He has done for us!
Jesus broke the bread and he told them… THIS IS WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR YOU… I have come to be broken for you… this bread represents my body that will be bruised and broken for a lost and dying world… for YOU!
Now as our deacons come to serve this bread of remembrance to you this morning I ask you to listen to Michael sing a old gospel song that reminds us of What Christ has done for us! As you listen, I ask you to pray to be cleansed by God of any sinful issue in your life, pray that your relationships are reconciled, pray that you continue in obedience to Christ… Pray so that you can partake of this communion justly and blameless…
[DEACONS PASS OUT BREAD ELEMENT HERE – pray for receiving here]
[Michael waits till they begin BEFORE he begins to sing]
[After Bread is passed out…I say]
And Jesus broke the bread and passed it out to His disciples and said, “When you eat this bread, eat it in remembrance of Me…in remembrance of My body being broken for your sinful nature! Do it in remembrance of Me!
We have seen what God has done thru Christ, now let’s take a look at 3 more verses to see…
Who Jesus IS…and the significance! (v.15-17)
Paul shares in v.15-19 the very pre-eminence of Jesus over all things! Paul writes:
15 He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; 16 because by Him [Jesus] everything was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him [Jesus] and for Him [Jesus]. 17 He [Jesus] is before all things, and by Him [Jesus] all things hold together.
Like I said before, so many believers see Jesus entering the picture on that night in Bethlehem in the manger! But as I have said before, Scripture is FILLED with Christ from Genesis to Revelation!
In the OT the prophet foretold of a coming Messiah!
In the Gospels, Christ was presented from an eye-witness point of view… as God made flesh!
In Acts and the letters, Christ’s message and plan of salvation is spread from a small starting point into all the world!
The entirety of Scripture cries out the testimony of Jesus the Messiah… Of Jesus the Savior, Jesus the Redeemer, Jesus the Deliverer, Jesus the One to come, the One who has come, AND the One who will come again!
Even on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:27 relates how Jesus revealed THRU Scripture about Himself:
27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
In these verses we find Paul begins to share Jesus with these believers in a way they probably had never heard or had even thought of before this time…
You see at this time there were many false teachers trying to teach that Jesus was just a man, that He was NOT God! They would say that Jesus was good, but for salvation, Jesus was not enough… ONE had to do more!
Paul invalidates their teaching by offering a correct view of Jesus! He starts by saying first and foremost…[show modified v.15 here] …Jesus is the image of the invisible God… the word image here is the Greek word for Icon, which means image or likeness… but not image in that it is LIKE God but that it is THE image that reflects exactly WHO God is… Paul is emphasizing that Jesus was both, the manifestation physically of God…AND the representation in Spirit OF God!
Paul goes onto describe Jesus as the ‘first born of all creation’ to which many religions today point to and say that Jesus was actually a created being, but to do this takes this phrase totally out of context. You see Paul was using the term ‘firstborn’ as a revelation of STATUS… the firstborn represents position and status!
In other passages of Scripture Jesus is referred to the firstborn of the dead, and even though He was not the first person to be raised from the dead chronologically, out of all those who have been raised and will be raised from the dead…Jesus is positioned by God above all of them!
Paul then begins to address the enternality of our Savior in v.16 when he states that, [show modified v.16 here] “For by Him everything was created…” Here Paul is revealing that Christ was not only present at the creation of this world but His hand was active IN the creation of our world.
Paul stresses here the Christ’s creative hand was involved in ALL things, things in heaven and on earth, both seen and unseen… it matters not your position on this world, Christ’s hand was instrumental in creating you! Christ is eternal and is before ALL things…before the universe… Christ was!
And here in v.17 we find a statement that baffles many who read it as Paul states, [show modified v.17 here] “…and in Him all things hold together…” Does this mean that Jesus Christ is the bonding agent for all of the universe… Paul does tells us that Christ IS all and IS IN all… We also sing that Christ is our ALL IN ALL. But just what does this mean?
Paul shares that we are delivered by God thru Christ into our salvation and this verse tells us that Christ will hold us together… this morning I want to let you know something that will assure you that Christ will ALWAYS be there for you and will always hold you together!
As I was preparing for this sermon, Steven and I were discussing this sermon series and in particular this sermon about Jesus. I told him that I wanted to really drive home the point that Christ is the binding agent in our salvation!
Steven asked me how I was going to drive home that point, he asked me what my ‘finishing punch’ was going to be… that phrase or point that really drives it home! I told Steven that right then I did not have one developed just yet, but I was praying about it…
Steven said, Bro Bobby, if that is the direction of your sermon, and you want to drive home that point, then you absolutely MUST check out Laminin! I was baffled because I didn’t know what Laminin was? I asked him what laminin was and he said, “Bro Bobby, this is not something I can tell you about… you need to “google it” on the internet and SEE Laminin for yourself… and then you will understand why I said what I said!”
So I did, I googled the term “Laminin” and I found some information about Laminin. I found out that it was a cell adhesion protein molecule that is like the ‘rebar’ of the human body…what steel rebar is to concrete this Laminin is to the human body… it holds the cells together… it holds our membranes together… that it was literally the glue that holds the human body together!
I was fascinated by this description and so I decided to ‘see’ it as Steven had encouraged me to do so I clicked on images and googled Laminin… for a few moments I just sat there staring at the screen… I thought to myself… WOW! That’s laminin? That’s the cell adhesion molecule…that’s the glue that holds the human body together? I could hardly believe what I was looking at…
[Scream for joy here!] I am so excited about what I am looking at… I am thinking to myself… I am so fired up about LAMININ… I am so excited to share this information about laminin! So you are sitting there thinking… well I want to see laminin too… so I should show it to you so you can get excited to huh?
This is a scientific diagram of the laminin cell adhesion molecule… [show Laminin slide here! Keep slide on screen until next slide] That is just crazy isn’t it… I couldn’t believe it! I called Steven back and I told him WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW… what in the world? This is GREAT…this is WONDERFUL!
Steven told me that we should show everyone the actual electron microscopic image of the laminin molecule… I was so excited that I said YES! And here is what the actual laminin molecule looks like under the electronic microscope… [show actual laminin molecule slide here]
I thought to myself, what a wonderful and glorious thought… all the stuff in our bodies, our skin, our organs, our hair, all who we are is held together by a cell adhesion molecule that is in the perfect shape of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!
And I was immediately drawn back to v.17 [show v.17 here] this verse of Scripture and the emphasis that Paul places on Christ hold all things together. I cried and worshiped there in my study for a few moments as the reality of the Completeness and Enoughness of Christ was made so clear to me thru my study…thru the inspiration of the Holy Spirit…
People, we CAN know Christ! We can know our Savior! We can know our Creator…and we can know this because of what He has done and because of WHO He is!
Jesus was given by God to redeem us and reconcile us… but Jesus, who is God incarnate and is Supreme above all is so much more! V.17 tells us that Jesus is the very bond of life… Jesus is the glue that holds all the universe in place!
Jesus sat with His disciples, knowing that He was the glue that held them together here in this world, physically, but also knowing that He must shed His blood to open up the door for sinners to know and experience the forgiveness of Christ! So Jesus comforted His disciples by sharing that where He was going… that He would be preparing a place for them and that He would come again one day and take them to that place…
Jesus knew that His physical presence was important to the disciples but also understood that He had to go…so He established a way for us to remember Him… and He wants us to continue to remember Him until He returns!
Jesus’ death on the Cross is important in that He shed His blood for our sin. The Bible is clear in that without the shedding of blood… there can be NO forgiveness of sin. This lets us know 2 things… FIRST, that sin is a terrible thing and that we cannot take sin lightly! Secondly it lets us know how much we mean to God that He would shed the blood of His Son for OUR sin!
As our deacons come to serve the cup to you this morning I again call on you to approach this solemn time in prayer and inner reflection. I want you to prayerfully listen to the words of the song, Michael is singing and rest in the joy and blessing that Jesus shed His blood for the forgiveness of your sin!
[Deacon’s pass out the cup element here…]
Jesus came to become the perfect sacrificial Lamb for all of humanity, and while sitting in that upper room with His disciples… as He poured the wine and lifted the cup, Jesus said, “This cup represents my shed blood…when you drink this cup, do it in remembrance of Me!”
The death of Christ was not going to be some meaningless death, but Jesus knew that it was going to be the ultimate sacrifice for ULTIMATE salvation. Jesus was called ONCE to die and no other death would be needed…all could come to know Him if all would but choose to accept.
This morning we have went to Scripture and we have seen just how Jesus is sufficient for ALL… that Jesus is our Authority and that Jesus is sufficient for our sin and the redemption of our sin, but Jesus is not going to force Himself upon you!
This morning I know there are some out in this room that are deeply convicted by these words, I know that you are sitting there wondering what to do next. Pride is rearing its ugly head and you don’t want to reveal to anyone around you that you need God either to save you or forgive you!
I call on you to step out as Bro Steven comes to lead us in our hymn of invitation… as YOU all stand now and begin to sing… I bid you to come and surrender into the arms of your Savior!
