OPEN: This is the fourth message in a series on growing in Christ. We're looking at the book of Colossians and using it as a primer if you will to show us the areas we should be growing in our walk with the Lord. Thus far, we've seen how the Colossians were growing - Paul says -- I've heard about how Jesus is growing you. I thank God for what I've heard -- about how your faith and how your love and how your hope is growing. The Gospel is doing it's work in your hearts and its showing itself through your lives. It's bearing fruit and you're productive, you're transferring that which has changed you into the hearts of those you have contact with. And he says you're growing in your knowledge of the Lord -- and he says I pray that your knowledge will grow even more. That it will just grow until you are filled up spilling over -- totally controlled by your knowledge of Jesus so that every action and every decision and every attitude and every word would be first be mediated through what you know about Jesus. Paul says I pray that you will be filled with the knowledge of God's will
Today we are going to look at a really important passage of Scripture. Now the Colossians obviously already know Jesus, but it's like Paul is reintroducing him all over again. If you had to introduce Jesus Christ to a group of people how would you do it? What would you say?
- Clip of Jesus being introduced at stadium by Steve Harvey -
Why This Re-Introduction of Christ?
Paul is finished with introductory comments -- he now moves on to addressing the problems he's learned about from Epaphras. Paul has pretty well dispensed with the opening thoughts; he has greeted them initially; he has thanked God for them in verses 3, and following; he has prayed for them that they would be filled with all the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and they would walk worthy unto all pleasing, etc., etc. He's gotten all the amenities out of the way, and now he drives right in on the main issue.
* Cultural Pressure: Epaphras is facing pressure where the reign of Christ is being compromised. There is cultural pressure that is flowing into the church that is causing the church to swerve away from it foundations. There is congregational compromise where some of these ideas are being accepted as normal.
* Congregational Compromise: We're all aware of the pressure of the world trying to squeeze us into its mold, but what had started happening in Colossae is the church had started embracing some of the world's ideas and incorporate it into the life of the Church. To the degree that Christians embraces worldly practices and worldly thinking they are weakened as the people of God.
* Contradicting Responses to the Problems They Faced. You see this as Paul addresses the specific issues working their way into the church. One person had this opinion, another person had that opinion. One person says, "we need more of this." Another person says, "We need more of that." Everyone is throwing their opinions on the table. And we know how difficult that can be to deal with. Person A says, "This is what I think we ought to do." Person B suggests that what we ought to do is this -- and it stands in contradiction to what Person A says we ought to do. A discussion follows -- each person weighing in on whether Person A's idea is better than Person B's idea. There is a vote -- there is a winner and a loser. One person walks away from the table with hurt feelings that their idea wasn't accepted. Another person walks away feeling a little full of himself because his idea was embraced. Threre's got to be a better way to do Church than that.
There has to be a constant resistance to the pressure of culture infiltrating into the church. There has to be a constant alignment to the teachings of the Word of God. Drift is common in our lives and in the life of the church. We have to constantly be aware of the need to realign ourselves with what God has preserved for us in the Bible. Ill of loosing anchor while fishing. A friend dropped it into the water but the rope wasn't tied off. No way to stay in one place when you are not tethered to something solid to hold you in one place. So Paul recognizes the drift that is occurring. So what's his answer? The Lordship of Jesus Christ over the Church.
Don't Forget Who You Serve:
Paul's answer was to remind them who they served. There were a lot of great things that were happening in their lives -- and Paul has applauded that but that didn't mean there were not issues that needed to be addressed. So instead of introducing formulas, and new methodologies and writing a new philosophy of ministry or coming up with a new 5 year plan for the church --Paul does something unique and powerful. He launches into one of the most powerful passages in the New Testament and reminds them of who it is they were serving. Folks we better be careful we don't forget who Jesus is. Don't take Jesus for granted. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords; and when we see Him we will automatically fall to our knees and worship before Him. The Bible says that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul wants to make it clear that Jesus is God; that He is God in flesh. Paul re-presents Christ, 'who is the only really, true, graphic, perfect, flawless, absolutely accurate image of the invisible God." And friends were it not for Him being in the image of God, none of us would ever be able to approximate it.
In one way or the other the weak areas in our lives and the points of defeat we are suffering are related to not knowing who Jesus is or not responding to his reign properly.
Last week I ended with the message warning us to be careful to avoid the irrational act of unresponsiveness. In light of the inconceivable love that Christ has given to us, does indifference make any sense? In light of the fact that the precious blood of the spotless Lamb of God was spilt on our behalf, not because we deserved it because we couldn't do anything about our sin -- in light that God was willing to put His only begotton on the cross for us -- does it make any sense not to be passionately committed to growing in every way possible? The writer of Hebrews asks, "How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3) James says "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." (James 1:23) He says -- that doesn't make sense -- it's inconceivable.
We say that we think biblically and we say that we act biblically, but is that actually true? If we put our life and what is taught and exampled for us in the book side by side what would we see? Would there be a difference or would there be a similarity? Would it make a great deal of sense if we did that and we discovered that there were significant differences -- places where what we are doing is very different to what is revealed on the pages of Scripture -- would it make any sense to look at that and just say -- well that's just the way we do things around here?
Let me show you a picture of a church wall in England. Notice the hole in the wall just right of the chimney. Now that's not a mistake. That's an intentional part of the construction of the church. It's called a squint hole. Does anybody know what its purpose was? It was an observation hole that came all the way through the outside wall of the church way to permit people who were undesirable to watch those who were on the inside to see what was going on inside. It was originally intended for use by lepors. The Church did not want lepers coming inside of their building so they built these little slits for undesirables to use on the outside of the building. They would stand on the outside and squint to see what was happening on the inside. This was literally built into the structure of the church -- there were insiders and there were outsiders. Most of these have now been boarded or plastered over and filled with bricks in churches in England. They look back at that kind of thinking with embarrassment. But that doesn't change the reality that at one time the people of the church embraced this kind of thinking.
During the time when slavery was still active in England and in America there were many pulpits that were used to not to fight against slavery but to endorse it. There were preachers and leaders in the church who were fighting for slavery. Using the Bible saying, "This is a good thing, we need to keep this going." During the crusades there where thousands of people who were killed in the name of Jesus. If all seemed perfectly acceptable and normal for them during their age and in their culture but was so absolutely contrary to what is actually found in the Bible. During World War 2 there was a church that was meeting on Sunday morning and the railroad tracks ran behind their building. As they were meeting the trains carrying the Jews to the death camps in Germany would pass their church and you could hear them crying and pleading for help as the trains passed by. So what do you do when you're trying to hold a worship service and the desperate cries of the hopeless are disrupting your service? Do you know what they did? The pastor told them to sing louder. So they started singing louder and louder to drown out that sound. Imagine how that would haunt you -- "What in the world were we thinking? -- Our answer to their desperation was sing louder?"
What's fascinating about all these kinds of things is that we can look back at them and say, "Wow that was so weird -- what in the world were they thinking?" But in their time and in the midst of their culture, facing the circumstances in which they were immersed -- they didn't think it was weird at all. There was this blindness -- there was this lack of true perception - there was this rationalization of why they had to do the things they were doing. No matter how far off it was from biblical teaching and example. They couldn't see how far off they actually were.
When people in future generations look back at us and read about what we accepted as normal -- what are they going to say about our generation that will be just as weird when they read the Bible and compare it to what we actually did?
Are We Living In the Light of His Lordship?
We look back at all these people in the past and we say, How could they do that? We look back and we judge Israel and say, "How could they act that way? How could they think that way? How could they not respond properly? How could they miss it by that wide of a margin?" When you're in the middle of it, sometime you don't see how weird things actually are. If you read about a group of people in the New Testament and it revealed that 85 to 90% of young people were falling away from the faith and in response to that when a call was put out for new teachers and deeper commitment and strong faith - in response everyone just sat there and no one responded to the call what would you say? If you read the story in the New Testament that there were some countries were people were being killed just for professing the name of Jesus, and yet they remained faithful. --that there were places all over the globe where just carrying a Bible could get you arrested and thrown into prison and yet these little groups of Christians stayed faithful and continued to meet studying the Word of God together risking it all -- putting it all on the line -- because their hunger and their thirst for learning the Word of God was that great. And at the exact same time -- there are these churches and Christians in free America -- and you can't get them to get out of bed on a Sunday morning to come to Sunday School because it too disruptive to their schedule or their comfort level. Do you think future generations will look back on that and say, "That was weird!." If you read that in the Bible would you think, "That was weird. How could they do that?" If you read a story of a group of people that left the church because they argued over a song that was being played, or some church over in the next town had a more rocking band." If you read that you would sit back and ask the question, "That was the depth of their love for one another?" Or if you read and the church began sanctioning men to marry men and women to marry women -- What would you think about a church like that if you read that story in the Bible?
The Church is called to think biblically and act biblically and respond biblically. We are to structure ourselves biblically. We are to relate to one another biblically. We are to love one another biblically. We are to use our tongues biblically. We are to reach out to one another biblically. Our life is to fit into this book under the reign of King Jesus.
HE IS OUR RESCUER
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13-14)
Notice what Paul says -- Jesus is our Rescuer. We have been rescued. Notice he says there has been a transfer -- we were in the dominion of darkness and we have now been transferred into the Kingdom of the Son he loves. Jesus has taken us from a place where darkness reigns and transferred us into a place with He reigns. That word "rescued" means "to come in and take out by force". It's like Rambo or Arnold Swartzinhager or somebody who comes in and kicks the door down and walks in, snatches us up, and drags us off somewhere new.
When Jesus announced His purpose statement he said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19) Jesus said, "I'm on a search and rescue mission." I'm here for the poor - I'm going to find poor people who feel like they've missed out and been passed over. I'm going to fill their life with riches they can't even imagine. I'm here for the prisoner - I've come to announce emancipation for those who have been held in bondage. Who are in the chains of addiction and enslaved by emotions and attitudes that bind their every move. I'm here for the blind - I've come as the great optometrist to break the scales off of eyes that no longer see good things in life. I'm here to rescue - I've come set captives free -- people who are being in a slavery against their will -- with no power to change -- no hope of freedom and no way into a future filled with hope.
Why grow? Why strive? Why sacrifice? Why serve? Why learn? Why study? In Response. Ill of scene in Saving Private Ryan. Many years after Private Ryan has been out of the military and he has raised his family and is now visiting a grave of Captain Miller in France - the man (played by Tom Hanks) who died rescuing him. He turns in tears to his daughter at the graveside and says, "Tell me I'm a good man. Tell me I've earned this." You don't ignore someone who has rescued you at the cost of their life.
He is The Revealer of God. The Son is the image of the invisible God, (Col 1:15)
Image means exact representation -- an unblemished replication. The triune, eternal, omnipotent, ineffable God is not visible. God is beyond visibility. In order for people like us, who have been made with finite, physical bodies and lives, to be able to know him, he had to make himself visible. The son of God became a baby born in a stable. He grew to be a man who taught, laughed, and cried, whose heart was broken, whose tenderness was obvious to all, the depth of whose wisdom was beyond any of his contemporaries' ability to plumb. "The word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth" John 1:14. The Message paraphrases the verse this way: "We look at him and see the God who cannot be seen. God's original purpose in everything he created, that is what we find in Jesus."
Now Catch This: Jesus is not like God. He is not close to God. He is not almost God. Jesus is God. Verse 19 says "God was please to have all His fullness dwell in Him." The word "dwell" means to "take up residence" and points to the incarnation. Col 2:9 says For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, There was nothing missing. He was the "us" in the "Let us make man in our image" He was the us in "Who will go for us" in Isa. chapter six. He is fourth man in the furnace with Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego.
Christ is God revealed in the world. If you want to know what God is like, look at Christ. He'll tell you what God is like. If God were man, we would expect Him to be sinless; Jesus was. If God were a man, we would expect Him to speak the greatest words ever spoken; He did. If God were a man, we would expect Him to exert a profound influence on human personality like no other being that ever lived, and He did. If God were a man, we would expect that He would do miracles with ease, and He did. If God were a man, we would expect Him to love, and He did. He was God, and God cannot be known other, than through Jesus Christ.
You can't understand who God is apart from Jesus, nor can you understand who you are apart from Jesus Christ -- or at least who you were meant to be. We can't ever understand our own significance or the significance of life apart from understanding how we relate to Jesus. The wisest man who ever lived spent a life of searching trying to understand how he fit into God's creation -- the meaning of his life. His conclusion was it's all just vanity -- a chasing after the wind. Without Christ nothing on the earth makes any sense. But with Him we understand who God is and how God loves us and how God cares for us and How God is faithful to us and God is gracious and how God is merciful and God prepares for us both now and in eternity. Jesus makes life make sense.
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor. 4:4)
Satan doesn't want people to know He's the image of God. Satan doesn't want people to know He's the only one who has a right to rule in the world. Satan doesn't want them to know so their minds are blinded by unbelief. That's a good verse to show somebody when they tell you Christ isn't God, and you could explain to them why they believe that.
He is The Preeminent One
the firstborn over all creation. (Col. 1:15)
That word firstborn will cause some people to do theological back-flips. The word is Prototokos and it refers to position. It has nothing to do with birth order or chronology. It is a word that means preeminence -- it has to do with rank and authority. This is one of those words where you have to be careful not to import a modern definition to an old word. The Jehovah Witness developed an entire theological system around a false understanding if what this word means. They say this verse declares Christ was the first born of Creation -- meaning he was the first element of God's Creation. He did not exist in eternity past. When Almighty God decided to create, he created Jesus first. The problem with that is that it doesn't line up with the biblical data. Firstborn is actually defined for us in the Bible.
Psalm 89:27 "I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth." Firstborn means preeminent -- the most exalted -- the prestigious one.
The people in Colossae had no problem understanding what Paul meant -- only moderns could because we focus on a meaning for the word that is different from the way the word was originally used. Now in case you might be confused on whether Jesus is part of the created order -- all you have to do is look at the next thing Paul says.
He is the Creator of All Things For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things,...(Col. 1:16,17)
Why does Jesus have primacy over all creation -- He made it. John 1:3 says, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." Who created everything? Christ did. If he created everything he is not part of that which has been created. Yesterday during Bill's memorial service we were looking at Psalm 96. Psalm 96 is a wonderful passage of Scripture that calls all of creation to worship and praise. And why do we do that? Verse 5 says "all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord. -- He made the heavens." I spent just a few moments exploring what that means: In the sun, and you could put 1,200,000 earths, and still have room for 4,300,000 moons. That's big! The nearest star is 200 billion miles away. The North Star is 400 billion miles away. One particular star, the name of which always amazes me, "Betelgeuse" (beetle-juice) it's a star that is 880 quadrillion miles. Don't ask me how far that is. 880 quadrillion miles, and science says it is so big that it's diameter is bigger than the earth's orbit. That's a lot of material. He made it all. Notice it says everything was created by and for him. He created by Himself and for his own glory and enjoyment. Stop and think about that for -- Jesus created you just to enjoy you. You were created by him and for him.
He is The Sustainer and in him all things hold together. (Col. 1:17) To "hold together" means to prevent something from falling into complete chaos. He is not only the Creator of the world; He is the cohesion that keeps it all together. By Him everything came to be, and by Him everything continues to be. Hebrews 1:3 reminds us that He holds everything together by His powerful word. If He were to remove His sustaining power, everything would dissolve into disorder. And you see that time after time don't you? Where Christ's rule is ignored, there is chaos. Where Christ is honored and obeyed, there is peace and harmony.
He is the Head of the Church
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, (Col. 1:18) Sometime when you hear churches describe themselves -- it's really mind-blowing. "We believe in the autonomy of the local church" Do you know what you are saying when you say that? The word autonomy comes from two words: auto = self nomos = rule or reign. When a person says we believe in the autonomy of the local church they are saying we believe in self-rule. Really? Where do you find that in the Bible? Or sometimes you hear, "We believe in congregational rule." Again, I ask the question: Where's that in the Bible? Jesus is the head of the church. The church is not about man's rule at all. The church is about submitting to Christ's rule -- and his rule alone. The church is not ruled by Robert's rules of order -- The church is not to be ruled by some hierarchical ecclesiastical authority, The church is not ruled by a board or a committee or a pastor or any formula that puts man in a place of deciding what the church should or should not do. The Church is a group of people who gather together because they are overwhelmed and amazed at the splendor and majesty and grace and love of a savior who pulls them out of darkness and places them as heirs in his kingdom and then they gather together in reconciled loved submitting joyfully to the comprehensive rule of Jesus Christ as they seek to accomplish the mission that has been entrusted into their hands for the short period of time they have on earth. That's the Church -- It's a place where he has supremacy in everything that is going on.
Christ is the head and we are the limbs, and the organs, - those parts that function in response to the domination of the brain. We are inseparably tied together to the living Christ -- He is the head. We are the body. Notice is says here he is the beginning -- in other words the Church begins in Christ. He is the firstborn -- the one who is supreme and preeminent over the church. So that in everything that goes on in the Church -- he must have the supremacy. The great issue of the Church is submitting to the reign of Christ. The single most important question that should be asked in every decision and every plan that takes place in the Church is, "What would Jesus have us to do in this?" Now I'm not stretching anything am I? That's not a forced interpretation is it? That Christ's reign should be supreme in all things. To the degree that we as leaders fail to ask that in our committee meetings and in our planning meetings -- in response to the circumstances that we face on a monthly basis is the degree that we fail to be true shepherds of God's people.
He Is Our Peace. and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
-- Where does this peace come from -- it comes from Jesus Christ. -- You can't find it any other place. In other words -- this is not a peace program -- this peace is not wrapped up in a program -- it is wrapped up in a person. It is directly related to a personal relationship with Him. Now notice in this verse "in the world," what do you have? Trouble - tribulation. But "In me" you have peace -- This peace comes from being "in Christ" -- It is rock steady. John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." Peace is never found by rearranging circumstances in your life. It's received by drawing closer to the One is reigns over your circumstances. -- the Prince of Peace. Peace isn't established by rearranging circumstances on the outside. Peace is found by surrendering on the inside
CLOSE: I asked the question earlier: When people in future generations look back, what are they going to say when they read the Bible and compare it to what we actually did? A far more important question is what is the Lord going to say when he compares how we actually lived our lives with what He has revealed to us in Christ?
