“Claim the Name”
Have you ever had one of those moments when you have to question your own sanity? The other day I found myself in the garage and I didn’t have a clue as to why I was there. Does this sound familiar? I hope so because if it doesn’t, maybe I should check myself in someplace. What usually happens to me is that I will get something on my mind and I can really think of nothing else. Then I start to do a chore, like going to the garage for an extension cord, and I totally forget why I am there. It happens a lot to me on Sunday morning as most of you know. You will tell me something at the back of the church and by the time I get up here, I will have forgotten. I’m terrible about this type of thing. I praise the Lord that we seem to be working around this. Anyway, this morning’s passage is one of those passages that really tell everything in a nutshell to a people who seem to have forgotten. Let’s see if we can take a little refresher course as to who Jesus really is.
As we begin this morning, I don’t have to remind anyone that we have just gone through another election. We have had to put up with months of rhetorical garbage from our politicians. Now we can only watch and see how they don’t understand America at all and we will have to put new people in again at the next election. The point I’m trying to make is that politicians have been doing these things for a long time. Barry Robinson tells a story of Theodore Roosevelt during one of his campaigns. A delegation called on him at his home at Oyster Bay, Long Island. We all usually think of Teddy Roosevelt as a rather earthy character and that is exactly what he was like here as he met this delegation with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up. He said to them, “Gentlemen, come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work.” At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for some hay. Then he called out, “John, where’s all the hay?” “Sorry, sir,” John called down from the hayloft. “I ain’t had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up here while the Iowa delegation was here.” It seems that politicians will go to great lengths to relate to their constituents. But let’s take a look at the even greater lengths that God has gone through to relate to you. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live for you, to die for you. He has gone through great lengths so that you may spend eternity with Him.
Paul is in prison in Rome writing this letter because he has heard that the Colossians were being told that their Christian faith was incomplete. He begins by telling them that Jesus is the image of our invisible God. We all know that we have never seen God. No one has. It tells us in the Old Testament that if anyone did see God, they would die. So we know that we cannot see God. Right? Well the answer is wrong. We have seen God. Many, many people saw God in person and they all lived. Look at all the disciples. They saw God, followed God and talked with God in normal conversations. I hope that we all remember reading in John 14:9 where Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
We have seen God. We have to be so careful in our world that we don’t get tripped up by Satan in the form of Biblical experts or modern science or anything else that tries to make us think negatively about God and Jesus. Basically, Jesus was born and was human. Therefore God would essentially look like all other humans. The word image here doesn’t refer to a perfect mirror image. It means a likeness. It only makes sense that God is not going to be an image of something that will scare us. He will have all the best attributes that humans can have. He will be a glowing fountain of love coming from someone who looks like us.
Then Paul finishes his first sentence here by saying that Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. I think that we generally have a misunderstanding of the term firstborn. We like to think in terms of birth order. In ancient times this was often the case. There were exceptions like when a girl was the first born. Generally speaking the first born male inherited everything. But this wasn’t always the case. We read in Psalms that David was called the first born. We see that Solomon was called the first born and he inherited the throne. What I am trying to say here is that it wasn’t necessarily the birth order that was important but it was the ranking with the father. If the father considered you to be the first born, then you inherited and in the case of Solomon, he became king.
Paul is telling everyone that God the Father considers Jesus to be his first born. In other words, Jesus ranks #1 over all things in creation. Not only is Jesus the image of God, but He also has control over all things of this world. There is nothing that we can look at or do or say that Jesus doesn’t have control. As you go back to your homes today, take a look around. Jesus is in control of everything you see. Let this be a great feeling of comfort!!
Then Paul goes into verse 16 and tells us for by Him, meaning Jesus, all things were created. There is also not a thing in this world that Jesus didn’t make. He created everything. Paul is taking the Colossians back to their roots to help them with their belief after others had told them that they were all wrong.
We have talked of this before and you all know that I believe the Bible when it says that God created the world and He did it in 6 days. Once again we have the Bible telling us this in Paul’s writing. We are reminded many times in the Bible that this actually happened. This is one of the areas at seminary where they try to tell us that the creation stories are just based on myth and folklore. They have their reasons for this and I’m not going to argue too much with them because there may have been stories about creation written or told before we find it in the Hebrew Bible.
The scholars tell us that many cultures had these same creation stories or similar ones long before the Jewish people came along. They also tell us that just about every ancient religion of the world had a flood story. This may also be true. Here is my thought on all of this. Usually ancient myths and folklore have a basis in reality. They are not made up out of thin air. So if everyone has this same creation story and the same flood story, wouldn’t it make sense that these events actually happened? I just don’t understand how so called Christian scholars can come up with crazy answers when the answers are pretty obvious.
Anyway Jesus made everything. We have a great series on how this all happened on DVD. Just ask Sharon or myself about it and you can watch it. It is only fair to warn you that it is 5-6 hours long, but it is very good. This Ken Ham series tells us how it was mathematically impossible for evolution to occur. He shows us the fossil evidence that supports creation and not evolution. It is just a very good series and I recommend it.
There are several reasons why our society insists on embracing evolution. It has been taught to us for 150 years so it is well established. Of course God is more established as He has been around forever. Another reason is that there is a lot of money involved in teaching and perpetuating this lie. But I think that there are a couple of underlying reasons that don’t get talked about too much.
As we have moved increasingly away from God, we have become far more independent. As this has happened, we have begun to think of ourselves as the center of the universe. What I mean is that we feel that we have control over most things that happen. We don’t like it when we don’t have answers for some of the big questions. Consequently we have devised a bunch of small minded theories that explain much of the happenings in the natural world. This is what has happened in our evolution science. We feel that we can explain how this pulpit will turn into a gorilla in 10 million years with a simple building block theory.
The trouble with this so called science and our modern society is that we think too small. These things are complicated but can be explained simply. We have a God who can do anything and make anything. He keeps track of billions of people every day. He knows all our thoughts. He is responsible for all living cells in the world.
Here’s a little logic for you. Science tells us that there has to be life to produce life. In other words life cannot come from anything that is not alive. Their theory is that life started in a giant pond a billion years ago or so where all the conditions were just right for life. The pond had warm water, it had the right pressure, and it had all the elements needed for life. Somehow life began. But wait a minute. By their own definition it couldn’t begin because there was no life in the pond to produce more life. On the other side of the coin, we have a God who is alive and loves us all. He is alive therefore He can create life. We don’t have to come from a slime pond. We come from a loving God who actually looks like us. This makes far more sense. We think too small. God is immense. God is much bigger than we can think.
The other reason why evolution is so popular is that we are selfish. We seem to think that God is only for ourselves. Think about your prayers for a minute. Even when I pray there are times that it seems that this is my own personal wish list. Evolution explains things so that we can understand. It may not be true but we understand it so it is easier to believe. We don’t understand God because, once again, God is too big, too powerful and too smart to understand. This is just my feelings on the subject but I think they have a certain relevance.
Paul also tells us that Jesus holds all things together. Jesus made things like gravity, molecular attraction and the spin of the earth. Did you know that if our earth were tilted one degree differently in any direction, life would cease on this planet? If we were any closer or farther away from the sun, there would be no life. If the rotation of the earth wasn’t just what it is, we would burn up. But it is God in His wisdom who holds all this together. It is God in Jesus Christ who has done all this for us. You know that I could just go on and on about this because I just love this stuff.
But Paul continues in another direction. Jesus is the head of the world, of all the people and everything in it. He is the head of the church. He is even in charge of the dead. Once again we see that when we die, we don’t really die. Other places tell us how we will see Jesus. We will be in a perfect place with the perfect person in charge. This is good news that we need to be sharing everywhere we go. Most people think that in order to have people come to Christ, we have to say the sinners prayer or do something similar. All you have to do to spread the word of God is tell everyone you know of this wonderful place where you are going. Evangelism is easy if you just tell people of the love you have for Jesus and that He has for you. You don’t have to do much because God will do all the hard work.
Look at the work He has already done. Paul tells of our assurance that we will be able to go to heaven. It is because of what Jesus did on the cross. He died for you and you and you. He took your sins, before you were even born, and put them on his back and went to the cross with them. And just when Satan was about to do a victory dance, Jesus jumped up from the grave because death could not contain Him. The tomb couldn’t hold Him. There is no way that Satan is more powerful than my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The most powerful being in the universe did all of this for you. You are that important. Don’t ever be afraid to claim the name of Jesus Christ for your own. He is your best friend in the universe. Don’t worry about science or what other people and experts say. Just believe in Jesus. Just believe.
This whole thing is like the story told of Dave Stone when he flew to Texas to be a guest speaker at a church in Fort Worth. The pastor met him at the airport and told him that they were going to play golf on probably the most prestigious golf course in all Texas. It seems that the pastor knew some people at the course and through some sort of golf miracle; they were going to be able to play there. Dave was all excited about playing there as he had always wanted to try this pro course. Now he was going to play with the big boys.
The reason that he was so excited was that it was designed back in 1963 by a man who was probably the best golfer ever to play. Byron Nelson designed this course. To put Byron Nelson’s achievements into perspective we need to remember when Tiger Woods had the incredibly hot winning streak where he won 5 tournaments in a row, the most in 50 years. Back in 1945, Byron Nelson won 11 events in a row. He dominated the sport. His golf course was beautiful and very hard. Dave Stone was in awe as he played this course.
But you know what? Dave said that playing this course was not the highlight of his day. The highlight occurred later that evening after Dave had finished preaching. He was standing in the back of the church shaking hands just like I do on Sunday. As he was about ready to leave an old man and his wife came to him and said, “That was a great sermon, I really enjoyed it.” Dave Stone replied, “Thanks, and—I really enjoyed playing your golf course today—Mr. Nelson.” Later on Dave said, “Here I was, shaking hands with a living legend of golf. We spoke for about 10 minutes and then he left. No matter how great the course was, it paled in comparison to its creator.”
No matter how great and wonderful this world is, it will pale in comparison when we get to meet its creator, Jesus Christ. He loves us that much. Thank you Jesus for always being there. Let’s pray.
