Praise the Lord!
Colossians 1:12-27
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - August 8, 2010
*John Piper once said: “To be supremely loving, God must give us what will be best for us and delight us most; He must give us Himself. But what do we do when we are given or shown something excellent, something we enjoy? We praise it.
-We praise new little babies: ‘O, look at that nice round head; and all that hair; and his hands, aren't they big!’
-We praise a lover's face after a long absence: ‘Your eyes are like the sky; your hair is like silk; O, you are beautiful to me.’
-We praise a grand slam in the bottom of the 9th when we are down by 3 runs.
-We praise the trees along the St. Croix during an autumn boat trip.” (1)
*C.S Lewis wrote: “The world rings with praise -- lovers praising their (ladies), readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game.
-Praise of weather, food, actors, horses, colleges, countries, heroes, children, flowers, mountains, even sometimes politicians and scholars. (2)
*Church, How much more should we praise the Lord!?! -- Speaking of Jesus, Hebrews 13:15 says: “Therefore by Him let us CONTINUALLY offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” -- Let’s make up our minds today to praise the Lord.
1. First: Praise the Lord for starting and sustaining life.
*Jesus Christ is the source and sustainer of all life. Paul tells us this in vs. 15-17:
15. He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16. 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.
17. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
*Jesus Christ is the Creator of all life, but that’s not all. He is the Sustainer of all life. “In Him all things consist” (i.e. In Jesus all things hold together). This means that Jesus Christ is the controlling and unifying force in nature.
*A few years ago, Louie Giglio told the story of the glue that holds our bodies together. Louie was talking about how inconceivably big our God is; how He spoke the universe into being; how with His Word He breathed stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire.
*Then Louie went on to speak of how this universe-creating God also knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder; how our loving Creator is also our sustainer. And Louie started talking about laminin. Laminin is a protein that is an essential part of the cell structure in almost all animal tissue.
-Laminin is what literally holds our bodies together.
-Laminin makes up the cell adhesion molecules that hold one cell of our bodies to the next cell. -- Without laminin we would literally fall apart.
*But the amazing thing is what laminin looks like. If you look up laminin in any scientific literature, this is what you will see. (I showed one of the pictures available online.) The glue that literally holds all of us together is in the shape of the cross. (3)
*Could that be just an incredible coincidence? -- You will never convince me, because Jesus Christ is both the Creator and Sustainer of all life. “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”
*How could Jesus do these amazing things? He could do them because He is God. Jesus is the eternal, almighty God, one with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. That’s why in vs. 18&19:
18. He 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. (First place in everything!)
19. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
*Listen to the way God’s Word describes Jesus in Heb 1:1-12. Listen and focus on the Lord’s infinite power and authority.
1. God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.
2. has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
3. who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
4. having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
5. For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, today I have begotten You''? And again: "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son''?
6. But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him.''
7. And of the angels He says: "Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.''
8. But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.
9. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.''
10. And: "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands;
11. They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment;
12. Like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not fail.''
*“Like a cloak You will fold the heavens up.” (I took off my coat and folded it up before saying) One day Jesus Christ is going to fold up the whole vastness of the universe just like that. -- Infinite glory and majesty! If people realized that, they would run to Jesus! -- And we ought to praise the Lord! Praise the Lord for starting and sustaining life.
2. But also praise Him for redeeming and reconciling people to God.
*We see the Lord’s redemption back up in vs. 12-14. Here Paul said 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 (or moved) us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14. in whom we have redemption thru His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
*In vs. 13, Paul tells believers that God “has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Without Jesus Christ, we are trapped in spiritual darkness, trapped by Satan, trapped by our own sin.
*The reason why we sin is because we were born with a fallen nature that desires and demands its own way. It has been that way ever since the Garden of Eden. That’s why Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; every one of us has turned to his own way.”
*All people struggle on some level with sin. Some years ago, Discipleship Journal surveyed its readers to find the areas of greatest spiritual challenge in their lives. Here are the top 9 things people struggle with: Materialism, pride, self-centeredness, laziness, anger or bitterness, sexual lust, envy, gluttony and lying. (4)
*And no matter how hard you try, there is nothing you can do by yourself to fix the problem. King Duncan says: “There are some situations in which we can not deliver ourselves. If a large ocean liner stops in the middle of the Atlantic, the passengers simply cannot get out, get behind the boat and push! Or as one old time preacher put it: ‘If a man is drowning, he cannot save himself by grabbing his hair and lifting up.’” (5)
*Salvation for us can never come from within. It must come from above. So, everyone without Christ is in great danger, because all of us have sinned. And the wages of sin is death. But Christians can say: “(God) has delivered us from the power of darkness and (moved) us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”
*God wants all people to understand that there was only one way these wonderful things could have happened. So vs. 14 tells Christians that in Jesus “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
*Jesus Christ redeemed us. He paid the price for all of our sins when He died on the cross for us. The only way for us to have forgiveness was for Jesus to take the punishment we deserved. -- And this is what the Lord did on the cross.
*Praise Him for redeeming His people to God. -- And starting in vs. 18, praise the Lord for reconciling us to God.
18. And He (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.
19. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20. and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
*In vs. 20, Jesus reconciled all things to God, having made peace through the blood of His cross. This means that Jesus loved us enough to bring us together with God. Jesus bridged the impassable gap caused by our sin.
*The gap was impassable in vs. 21, because we were “alienated” and “enemies” of God in our minds by wicked works. We were not neutrals sitting on the fence. We were enemies fighting against God, hostile, hateful to God.
*Sin caused a great divide between man and God. We truly need a Bridge to get across that great divide. And Jesus Christ is the only one who could bridge that gap.
*When missionaries went to the Auca Indians in South America, they ran into a problem, because there was no word in the native language for “reconcile” Then one day a missionary was travelling with Indians when they came to a deep ravine. They could go no further, but the Aucas quickly took out machetes and cut down a tree which fell across the ravine.
*Now they could safely cross. And they had a word in their language for the tree across the ravine. That was the word those missionaries used to describe reconciliation, closing the gap, bridging the gap between sinful man and a holy God, bringing two together into one. (6)
*Jesus Christ is the tree across the ravine to God. So if you have truly trusted in Jesus, if you have put your faith in the hope of the gospel, then in vs. 21&22:
21. You, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
22. in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight.
*We ought to praise the Lord! Praise the Lord for redeeming and reconciling people to God.
3. But also praise Him for making His home in our hearts.
*This is one of the greatest mysteries of the gospel. When we open our lives to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, His Holy Spirit literally comes to live in our hearts.
*Paul was willing to suffer the worst hardship to reveal this mystery to everyone he could. -- He talked about it in vs. 24-27, where Paul said:
24. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,
25. of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
26. the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
27. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
*People need to know the mystery!
*Tina was a young Southern Baptist volunteer missionary from Kentucky. She went on a trip to Asia with 22 other volunteers. Their mission team used basketball to go into nations where open evangelism is against the law.
*One of the Asian players asked Tina what she does when she feels alone. Tina told her that she has a friend named Jesus who is always with her. Then the Asian girl looked around at the people in the gym and asked, “Which one is Jesus?” (7)
*People need to know. And God wants them to know. Vs. 27 tell us that God willed to make known “the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
*The mystery is “Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory.”
-No one has ever been saved without the working of the Holy Spirit in their heart.
-No one has ever been saved without receiving the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.
-No one has ever been born again without the Holy Spirit.
-He is the third person in the Godhead who gives us the birth of eternal life.
*Salvation is a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for us. Salvation is a personal relationship with God, made personal by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” -- Christ in you, the Holy Spirit.
*When I was in high school, I was just as lost as I could possibly be. I thought Jesus was just a myth like Zeus and Hercules. But I remember this guy in my fraternity named Robbie. Robbie was one of the nicest guys in school. He didn’t drink or cuss. He was a good student and a good athlete. But my friends and I always called him “Crazy Robbie,” because Robbie had this crazy idea that he knew God in a personal way. Robbie even thought that Jesus Christ was actually living in his heart.
*We thought he was crazy. But about 7 years later, I found out that “Crazy Robbie” wasn’t crazy after all. -- He was saved! And the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ really was living in his heart.
*In 2 Corin 6:16 in the KJV we hear God say an amazing thing: “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
*“I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” -- What assurance! Christian, wherever you go, God is right there with you. Whatever you go through, whatever task God calls you to undertake, whatever trial you have to endure, whatever delights you enjoy or heartbreaks you suffer, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is right there with you. -- Praise the Lord!
*Believers, Jesus is not just in Heaven today. He is Christ in you, the hope of glory. -- And we ought to praise the Lord!
*Praise the Lord for starting and sustaining life.
-Praise Him for redeeming and reconciling people to God.
-And Christians, praise Him for making His home in our hearts.
*But if you have never trusted in the Lord, please do it today. Confess to Jesus that you are a sinner. Ask Him to help you turn away from all of that. Throw yourself on the mercy of the Lord. Trust in Jesus to forgive your sins and give you eternal life.
*Receive Christ in you the hope of glory. Then you will see that we have countless reasons to praise the Lord.
1. KERUX SERMON COLLECTION - ID Number: 9 - PREACHER: Rev. John Piper - LOCATION: Bethlehem Baptist Church; Minneapolis, Minnesota - DATE: 8/10/1980 - MAIN TEXT: Revelation 5:11-13 - Key Ideas: Praise - Title: Is God For Us Or For Himself?
2. (Reflections on the Psalms, pp. 93-95) (Part of Piper’s Sermon above)
3. Louie Giglio clip available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKYvhbcZv-I
4. Discipleship Journal, 11-12/92 -- (found at Sermonillustrations.com)
5. 02-22-04 email illustration from Sermons.com
6. J. Warren Kniskern, COURTING DISASTER (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), p 170. -- Found in Dynamic Preaching sermon “MAN, GIVE ME SOME BREAD: I WANT TO SEE GOD” - John 6: 35-51
7. “Commission” - January, 1998, p. 24
