| |
February 1, 2004 |
"God's Holiness" |
Pastor Brian Shimer
| |
"Jesus: God made Visible"
Col 1: 1-23
| I. |
Paul is writing to the church in Colossae. Before he deals with the needs there
| |
he lets them know he is praying for them. So before we talk about them, let us use his prayer and pray for one another. Be aware, is anyone alone, make a group of three.
Lord, I ask You to give ______________ a complete understanding of what You want to do in his/her life and I ask You to make them wise with spiritual wisdom. In this way, Lord, the way they live will always honor and please You and they will continue to do good and kind things for others, thereby learning to know You, Lord, better and better. I also ask You to strengthen them with Your Glorious power so that they will have all the patience and endurance they need. Finally, Lord, fill them with Joy and thanksgiving as You have enabled them to belong to Your Holy people. Thank You, mighty God, thank you! I pray this in Jesus' name, who rescued them. Amen!
| | II. |
The situation in the town of Colossae was something like this. I need someone
| |
to be Paul, you stand there. And Epaphras was the one who had first introduced the Colossians to Jesus and ministered among them. You stand there by Paul.
Now we need a small group here with your hands outstretched. These are those into asceticism. Your favorite word is "don't" -- don't taste, handle, touch…
Over here is a group with hands upraised. These are the angel worshipers. Jesus is fine, but angels are better.
And then there were those into philosophy. Pick up books and look at them. These were the ones who thought philosophy was a needed addition to Jesus.
And then there were those into ceremony. You in the back stand and look at your watches. You are watching for the celebration of special seasons, days, months.
Epaphras came and said, "Paul, here is the situation. There is no unity around Jesus. Everyone thinks Jesus is just fine as long as it is Jesus AND something else.
Well, if I had been writing the Colossians, I might have come down hard. But rather than be hard on these new Christians, Paul instead just lifts Jesus higher. He exposes the greatness of Jesus - better than philosophy, more powerful than angels, freeing us from needless laws and from a focus on seasons and days. The unity and focus is found centered in Him and Him alone.
| | III. |
Hear how Paul lifts up Jesus…
| |
Paul makes several statements-- "He Is…" and then states what Jesus is. Following these, Paul underlines them with an illustration, saying "For…".
In verse 15 Paul writes: "He is the image of the invisible God…"
Paul is not just saying Jesus had an outer "image" - like our photograph - of God, but that everything that was true of God was true of Jesus. AS Jesus himself said in John 14:9, if you had seen Jesus you had seen the Father.
"God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Jesus," Paul wrote in verse 19. And in chapter 2 says that "in Christ all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form."
Everything of God.
Then Paul also says, He is the FIRSTBORN over all creation.
That means that before anything was created, Jesus existed.
And the next line confirms this for IT SAYS "BY HIM" all things were
Created - just fathom what it says here…
The Visible and invisible things are not only things that cannot be seen daily but those that cannot be seen ever. And we know we cannot see many things daily. We cannot see the inner workings of our bodies without major work. We also cannot see the spiritual realm. All we can see is the physical.
But Jesus did not only create things on earth that we can and cannot see, but also the things in heaven -- and the list of the angelic rule is included.
These were the powers some were worshipping or adding to Jesus. But Paul writes: They are created by Jesus, for Jesus, why worship them?
All things were made BY Jesus and FOR Him… that means you and me, everything seen and unseen. No wonder every knee will bow to him!
And think of the hope this creator gives. Not only creator but redeemer, so if there is anything needing redeeming, it can be redeemed!
HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS AND IN HIM ALL THINGS HOLD TOGETHER.
Or HE HOLDS ALL CREATION TOGETHER.
Jesus is central to hope and to life in creation.
When people abandon Jesus, life begins to fragment.
Look back a few years to the college campus riots beginning with Berkeley in 1964. Theologian Francis Schaeffer says the students were reacting to a lack of meaning. Students were being taught that life lacked meaning. There were no absolutes. There were no values except the pursuit of personal peace and affluence.
After six riotous and tumultuous years - these same students were left disillusioned and apathetic. The same year they ended after the bombing of the Science Building at the University of Wisconsin, God moved onto the campus of Asbury College in Wilmore KY and a new kind of student movement was birthed.
Whereas the riots and drug culture of the '60s had destroyed lives and left many broken, disillusioned and apathetic, the Jesus encounter experienced in an 186 hour chapel service at Asbury College united students in purpose and mission. They traveled by car and plane all across the states sharing how God had showed up on campus. Everywhere they shared, the presence of God accompanied them. Jesus brought repentance, fresh anointing, renewal to many lives. Jesus held these students together and brought others to Himself through them.
The God-is-Dead theology of the 60s produced death, but Jesus, still alive, still head of the church his body, brings life, the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
| | IV. |
Does Jesus have the supremacy over everything in your life today?
| |
Notice the little repeated word in this passage is that word "all" -- It pops up again and again.
Is that the scope of Jesus' presence and influence in your life?
God was pleased through this Jesus to reconcile all things to himself, not just things on earth but things in heaven. What that means we can only guess! Did angels need reconciling? It points to the fact that the fall of man in the garden was so cataclysmic that there was work to be done in the heavenly realms. And God worked through Jesus to make it happen!
We will be returning to this magnificent reconciliation next week, but look again. What is Paul's message to those Colossians all divided up with different camps? Lift Jesus Higher! Make Jesus supreme. Anyone need to do this today - to say yes for the first time? To lift Jesus higher?
|
|
|