SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). We received Him as…
• Christ (vs 6a).
• Jesus (vs 6b).
• Lord (vs 6c).
(2). We continue in Him by being...
• Rooted in Him (vs 7a).
• Built up in Him (vs 7b).
• Established in the faith (vs 7c).
• Overflowing with gratitude (vs 7d).
SERMON BODY:
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
ill:
• 800,000 words in the English language.
• 300,000 are technical terms.
• Average person knows about 10,000 words;
• And on average uses about 5,000 words.
• The oldest word in the English language is "town"
• "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is:
• "Uncopyrightable."
• The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
• Uses every letter in the alphabet;
• And was developed by Western Union to test telex/twx communications
• No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
• "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• TRANSITION: Now it’s easy to misunderstand some words:
• Years ago a colleague of mine Bob Telford was running a tent mission,
• After school they ran a children’s club and in the evenings a meeting for adults.
• The last children’s meeting finished Friday night;
• But they continued meetings for adults over the weekend.
• In those days Bob used to use Saturday mornings as a response time;
• A counselling time.
• And he said to the children on the Thursday and Friday evenings;
• “If you want to receive Christ, if you want to become a Christian,
• Then come along on Saturday morning”
• Saturday came around and one little boy turned up and said;
• “I am here for communion”
• Bob said; “We don’t do communion, you’ve got that wrong”
• But the boy insisted; “No! You said, come along to communion on Saturday!”
• Then Bob realised the misunderstanding;
• For a catholic “to receive Christ” means to take communion.
• TRANSITION: some words can have various meanings;
• Depending on your background or the context in which you use them.
• When the apostle Paul uses that expression; “Received Christ”,
• He is not talking about taking communion,
• Rather he is talking about the time these people were converted, came to faith.
The word “received” means “to receive as transmitted” from someone else (i.e. teachers).
Ill #1:
• The apostle Paul who wrote this letter was once a hater of Christians;
• He loathed them, he was angry with them.
• i.e. Rabbis joke.
• One day on the road to Damascus;
• He encountered the risen Christ,
• And the persecutor became a preacher.
Ill #2:
• He then preached it and taught it and passed it on to others,
• Such as Epaphras who you meet in chapter 1 of this letter.
• (Colossians chapter 1 verse 7),
• The apostle Paul had never visited Colossi (chapter 2 verse 1).
• But he did spend three years working 100 miles away in Ephesus.
• Acts chapter 19 verse 10 tells us that; People from all over Asia visited that city;
• They heard the gospel, got converted & returned home with the message
• One of those visitors to Ephesus who was converted;
• Was a man named ‘Epaphras’
• Ephaphras was a citizen of Colossi,
• And when he returned home he shared the gospel with his relatives and friends.
Ill #3:
• Many of the friends and relatives of Ephaphras;
• Also came to faith, they were converted and as a result a church was planted.
• TRANSITION: This “receiving” was more than a message,
• It involved a person – Jesus Christ!
• These Christians were those who had received him!
(1). We received Him as…
• Notice: The order of the name, ‘Christ Jesus the Lord’ is significant;
• I am told by those in the know, that:
• The exact Greek sequence of names and articles is unique here in the New Testament,
• So we will look at them in the order given.
(A). We received Him as the Christ.
Ill:
• Most people think ‘Christ’ is the surname of Jesus.
• But it is not so much a proper name as it is a title.
• “Christ” is a Greek word and Messiah is a Hebrew word;
• They both mean exactly the same meaning “anointed” or “anointed one.”
• TRANSITION:
• So it is not a surname but rather it is a title.
• He is the chosen one, the marked out one of God!
Ill:
• In the Old Testament part of the Bible:
• Three types of people got anointed: Kings, Prophets, and Priests.
• To be anointed was to be marked out, set apart for a particular calling:
• Jesus fulfilled all three of those descriptive callings;
• He alone was prophet, priest and king.
• TRANSITION:
• He is the chosen one, the marked out one of God!
Ill:
• There are many ways to Jesus but there is only one way to God!
• i.e. Bible, DVD, Song, Sermon, Friend….
• Quote: “There is one mediator between people and God, the man Christ Jesus”.
(B). We received Him as Jesus.
Jesus is His human name that the Son of God took when he entered this world:
• Notice it was not given to him not by his human parents;
• As parents we want to choose the name of our offspring!
• And it was not given in the traditional sense of passing on of a family name.
• i.e. Anna.
• This name was given him by God the father;
• It was to Joseph the husband of Mary that the angel first announces this amazing name.
• He said (Matthew chapter 1 verse 21),
• “You shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.”
Ill:
• Kim Jong-un is the Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea;
• And supreme leader of North Korea.
• He is portrayed in the media as a cross between a power hungry madman and a clown.
• His father was Kim Jong-il;
• He was well known for making some outrageous claims.
• i.e. in 2000 he claimed to have invented the ‘double bread with meat’
• Or as we’ve known it for a lot longer, the burger.
• i.e. Another time, he claimed to have scored a massive 38 under par round of golf;
• The best Tiger Woods has ever managed is a measly 11 under par.
• Big claims, but ultimately false.
• The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Yeshua” in English, “Joshua,”
• Which means, “Yahweh (the Lord) saves.”
• And that name perfectly described why Jesus came into this world.
• i.e. Jesus himself said (Luke chapter 19 verse 10),
• “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Ill:
• John & Betty's Stamm were American Christian missionaries to China,
• They worked with the China Inland Mission (CIM), during the Chinese Civil War.
• In 1934 they were arrested and would soon be murdered (beheaded);
• By Communist Chinese soldiers.
• Just before they were killed the soldiers who would soon behead them,
• Overheard the soldiers discussing what to do with the Stamm’s baby.
• The men didn’t want to be lumbered with finding the baby a home;
• And they were fed up with her constant crying.
• So they decided to kill the baby as well as the parents.
While all this was being discussed there was also a prisoner waiting to be set free:
• His name was never recoded and no one knows what he was called;
• He spoke up and said to the guards: “Why kill her? What harm has she done?”
• One of the Communist Chinese soldiers shouted “Are you too a Christian?”
• He replied: “No, I am not!”
• They then asked him: “Will you die for this foreign baby?”
• Amazingly the prisoner answered, “If you let the baby live, I will,”
• John & Betty witnessed this prisoner being hacked to pieces before their eyes.
• And the baby?
• Little Helen Priscilla Stamm’s life was spared;
• Because of the sacrifice made by a s Chinese prisoner.
• TRANSITION: One man’s life given for a baby;
• Jesus the Son of God gave his life for a lost world.
• The just for the unjust, the perfect for the guilty that we might be saved!
(C). We received Him as the Lord.
• The Colossians received him as Christ,
• The Colossians received him as Jesus,
• But also received him as “the Lord.”
• In the New Testament,
• The name/title ‘Lord’ is the most frequently used title for Jesus Christ.
Ill:
• We rarely use this term ‘Lord’ in our daily lives,
• Some might occasionally use it to address or talk about someone;
• Involved in the political or legal world,
• But most of the time, it is an used word for most of us today.
• TRANSITION: We are all quite familiar with another word: boss.
• That is basically what Lord means;
• One possessing authority, power, and control.
Ill:
Beth Barry & ‘Simon says’
• TRANSITIION: The Colossians (and we) having received Christ Jesus the Lord.
• Are warned by the apostle Paul that they (and we);
• Must not trade this sovereign Lord for any other substitute,
• We received Christ Jesus the Lord. We must continue with Him alone!
(2). We continue in Him by being…
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Ill:
• Last week when I was preaching here at DRC,
• I mentioned the fact that a common road sign that you sometimes see says:
• ‘Work in progress’.
• I like that sign, it is a reminder;
• That every Christian is always a work in progress.
• After the service martin Fielder came and told me about Ruth Graham Bell;
• If you ever visit the Billy Graham Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina,
• There is a little garden with the tombstone of Ruth Bell Graham.
• The stone reads: ‘End of Construction - Thank you for your patience.’
• TRANSITION: No Christian ever is complete in this life;
• We are always ‘Work in progress’.
• Therefore we need to always be “continue to live your lives in him.”
(A). We Need to be… rooted in Him.
Ill:
• Years ago I was given a Christmas tree by Martin & Maureen Fielder,
• They handed me a small tree in a small pot.
• After Christmas the tree looked okay so I decided to plant it in my garden,
• I dug a pot shaped hole and lifted out the tree (complete with pot soil),
• And placed it in the hole I had dug and patted it down.
• A few months went by and one day Martin popped round;
• I showed him the tree that I had replanted,
• It wasn’t much to look at as it had died.
• Martin looked at the dead tree and heard how I had planet it,
• He walked over to the small dead tree and pulled it straight out of the ground.
• He then shook it and all the pot soil that was planted with it fell away,
• Leaving a sacking wrapped around the roots.
• The reason the tree died was because of that sacking;
• The roots of that tree were being prevented from taking in any water,
• And so the tree died.
• TRANSITION: A tree needs good roots to survive;
• And a Christian can only survive if connected to Jesus Christ.
(B). We Need to be… built up in Him.
Ill:
• This pictures in this illustration is of a building under construction.
• A building takes time, building indicates a steady progress toward completion.
• If you’ve watched a building under construction,
• Sometimes the progress is evident: the frame goes up or the roof goes on.
• But at other times, you wonder, “What did they do there this week?”
• Because the builders were inside working on things you couldn’t see,
• Like the wiring or plumbing.
• But those things too;
• Are also essential for the finished building to function properly.
• TRANSITION: Built up is an architectural term.
• It is in the present tense: “being built up.”
• When we trusted Christ to save us,
• Our lives found a brand new foundation;
• From then on, we grow in grace level by level, by level!
(C). We Need to be… Strengthened in the faith.
“Strengthened in the faith as you were taught”.
Ill:
• A Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade went to study with a talented old teacher.
• This gentleman put a piece of the stone into the youth’s hand & told him to hold it tight.
• Then he began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun,
• And almost everything under it.
• After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home.
• The procedure was repeated for weeks.
• The boy became frustrated—when would he be told about jade?
• But he was too polite to interrupt his venerable teacher.
• Then one day when the old man put a stone into his hands,
• Instantly, the boy cried out, “That’s not jade!”
• TRANSITION: God wants us to become so familiar with his truth,
• That when error comes along we can instantly recognise it!
We know of course that it is the Word of God that builds up & strengthens Christians:
Ill:
• Chapter 1 verse 7:
• Epaphras taught the Colossian believers the true gospel.
• This whole letter was written to teach the Church what they believe,
• And to watch out for error.
(D). We Need to be… overflowing with gratitude.
Ill:
• We have seen in recent months on our TV screens or in our newspapers;
• The damaged caused by flood waters.
• A river overflows its banks.
• When there is just too much water to stay in the normal flow,
• So it has to flood out over the surrounding land.
• Most of the time this is a destructive thing;
• The Telegraph newspaper (November 2017) reported that;
• The cost of flooding will breach the £5bn barrier,
• According to new estimates, as homes and businesses across the North of England;
• Continue to sustain damage from the rising waters.
• TRANSITION: The apostle Paul says we too should be affecting others;
• But not in negative way!
• Our gratitude to God for all that He’s done for us in Christ;
• Should flood out in ‘thankfulness’ onto those around us.
Ill:
• Too many Christians are more like Victor Meldrew;
• (The fictional character in the BBC One sitcom One Foot in the Grave).
• They are always moaning, criticising and finding fault!
• In this letter to the Colossians,
• The apostle Paul repeatedly emphasizes thankfulness.
• Five examples you can look up later when you get home!
• i.e. Chapter 1 verse 3, chapter 1 verse 12, chapter 3 verse 15,
• i.e. Chapter 3 verse 16, chapter 4 verse 2
• We should be known as people who are thankful!
• As the old hymn says; “Count your blessings name them one by one”
• Christian has both physical and spiritual blessings to be grateful for!
In Conclusion:
The apostle Paul uses a variety of metaphors in verse 7:
• Continuing (i.e. walking on a path);
• Gardening: being rooted like a tree;
• Construction: being built up like a building;
• Nature: a flooding river.
• There isn’t a logical connection between these illustrations;
• But they give us variety and show us from different angles,
• What it means to continue with Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way we received Him.
SERMON AUDIO:
Teaching version:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=r8WTWZHBjYefluo2ATbDDE0aS87ES7Bc
Gospel version:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=htR1ospX2g9BPQGvtm0eZkUcoXRZmWRB
