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This morning. I invite you if you’ve got a Bible. We’re in the book of Colossians. We’re on the second half of chapter one. If you’re using a Bible out of the pew, it’s page one 57in the New Testament, right? Make sure you’re in the New Testament section, but that makes it real easy for you to find. And what Paul is interested in sharing with the church of Colossae as the uniqueness and power of Jesus. Who is he? What does he mean to our lives? In a sense, the type of Jesus that Paul shares is radical. Radical meaning it’s different from the usual, and it’s an extreme change. Paul is making radical statements in the book of Colossians, chapter one all about Christ. Why? Because Jesus is the foundation of everything that his church stands for. And if you can’t get the pillar and understanding of who Christ is in your life, correct, then you don’t truly engage in worship and relationship for who God is. After all, Jesus told the woman at the well, he who worships me must worship me, referring to himself in spirit and truth. Our spirit connects with His Spirit and in the truth of understanding who Jesus is, we connect with God. It comes in a right understanding of who Jesus is. And what was happening in the church of Colossae is that they were taking everything that they heard about Jesus, and what people taught, and false teachers had entered into the church, and they began to delineate the deity of who Christ was and what he meant to the lives of the people.
And so Paul took an emphatic doctrinal stand, and the understanding of the hearts and the minds of the believers in Colossae, but not just the believers in all people, and the nature and the supremacy of Christ and all things in our lives. Matter of fact, in chapter one and verse 28, it tells us that what Paul was after in the life of the Christians was for them. He uses the word to be complete, meaning this you do not lack, but you are mature in everything and understanding of your relationship to who Jesus is. Paul is emphatic of pursuing that nature of understanding Christ in the lives of the people. And today, as we begin to examine Colossians the latter half of chapter one, what we want to do in our, in our hearts and our minds is just look at Jesus extremely different than any other thing that this world has to offer, because He is God and God alone. We saw last week as we begin to study this chapter. It was this book we found was written in prison. Paul, in the moments that he begins to dictate this book to the Christians at Colossae, is literally sitting in a Roman prison, and all he can think about in those moments isn’t whoa me or how how horrible it is to suffer for the sake of of what I’ve gone through.
But he he begins to write to the believers, thinking just about them, saying, if we could only see you mature in Christ, what that would mean? And the reason Paul finds out of the condition of the church in Colossae is because a man named Epaphras came down from Colossae into Ephesus. When Paul was on his missionary journey, he heard the gospel, went back to Colossae and he preached the gospel. And it tells us in acts chapter 19 and verse ten, literally all of Asia heard the gospel. Because of the power of Christ working in the hearts of people, and I don’t want anybody to be confused when I use the word gospel flippantly about what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about anything that you contribute to God whatsoever. When we talk about the gospel, we’re talking about first Corinthians 15, the first four verses of that chapter, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. There’s nothing more that you can add to this world that does anything more than what Jesus has already offered on behalf of you for your life. It is all about Jesus. And it was that grace filled message that Asia was looking for. God, I’m trying so hard to live for you, but I just can’t figure it out. Do you like me? Do you love me? Do you care about me? Where am I in that position with you? And all of a sudden enters this message of God comes in the flesh on behalf of you.
He dies for your sin because he loves you. You can’t marry any of his love. He just freely gives to you. All you have to do is simply just accept it. And let’s be honest before a holy God, what could you offer before a perfect God? What? What would you give? I’m thinking about an eternity in heaven that is sinless. But you being sinful, how could you think, to even hope, to want to live there? You needed his grace. You needed his love. And Epaphras teaches in that church, and all of Asia hears the gospel from Ephesus to Colossae. And and it tells us in Colossians chapter one and verse six, literally the whole world heard the gospel. But all of a sudden, in the growth of this church, in the beginnings of it, these individuals begin to enter in the church and begin to teach these beliefs and these doctrines of mysticism and Gnosticism in that century, and Jewish teachings of religious followings, of of how to get close to God, which was totally inaccurate, what Christ would talk about. And he went down to Rome because he knew Paul was in prison. He said, listen, Paul, we’ve got all these beliefs that are now coming in, and the idea of who Jesus is is getting, getting to be mixed up in these religious leaders. What do you need me to do? What do I do in this situation? And then Paul pulls out the pen and begins to dictate.
Dear followers, Jesus grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord, our father and our God, Jesus Christ, on behalf of me, Paul and Timothy, your brother. And he begins to share with him the significance of who Christ was and the foundation it brings to the church, because Jesus is everything. And this morning, as Paul begins the second half of chapter one, I’m going to just let you know Paul is just going to build on doctrine. Let’s lay our foundation, an understanding of what Jesus is. Who is he? How supreme is he? What does he mean in our lives? How important is this Christ really? What do we need to think about it? How do we need to believe about him? Because as we come to believe in him, then we learn the way that we should live in him and through him. Because what we saw last week, what you believe matters. Your belief matters. What you truly believe. You live. What you truly think is important. What you truly think in life is significant. You dictate in your living through the fruition and desires of your heart. Belief is the foundation to the way that we portray our lives. We use the illustration even of Nazi Germany, the Hitler and his followers. The Nazis didn’t wake up one morning and all of a sudden decide to kill and massacre millions of people.
It started with a belief that was incorrect, what they believed was important because it changed the course of history. What you believe is important, what you think about Jesus is important. And Paul begins to lay that foundation in what he presents to us is a radical God. How big is your God? How big is Jesus in your eyes? You know, today, if you were to go out through this world, you could ask people in the streets, do you think Jesus was a liar? No people. People don’t typically agree to that. No, Jesus isn’t a liar. Well, then, do you think he was a lunatic? Well, no, he wasn’t a lunatic. I mean, people followed him. What do you think Jesus was? Oftentimes in a postmodern culture of America, what you hear was he was a great teacher. He was a good moral leader. But can I tell you about all three of those positions? Liar, lunatic or just a good teacher? Jesus never left that window open for debate. What Jesus declared himself to be was God and God alone. How big is your God? How big is Jesus in your eyes? In the world where people would even tend to believe in multiple gods. I like engaging in conversations with those people who think that way, that there may be more than one God in this world. I simply ask them, well, what God do you follow? Okay, well, where did that God come from? Well, where did that God come from? Who started this whole thing? That’s the God I want to worship.
The one that has so much power in this world that he could begin this whole thing and set it all into motion. That’s the God I’m after. How big is that? God and Jesus? When he was on the scene with his disciples, he was listening to the common discussions that existed about him in the early, early history as he walked on this earth. And he says in Matthew chapter 16, he begins to come to his disciples, and he asks him the question, who do you say that I am? We ask you this morning, who do you say that Jesus is? Someone’s excited today. We’ve always got one back there. That’s all right. Who do you say that Jesus is? In Colossians chapter one and verse 15, Paul begins the discussion of who Jesus is in the lives of the colossian believers and not only just them. For this world who is Christ and who do we say that he is? He says in verse 15, as he begins to lay that foundation of understanding, he is the image of the invisible God. It literally comes from a coin term. It’s it’s the imprint that the Romans would use to pound the image of their leader upon coins that they would use to purchase items within the nation of Rome. Jesus is the imprint of God.
He’s literally. As you look at the reflection of the coin of the Roman Emperor leader, he is as that reflection of who God is. Who do you say that he is? Jesus tells us in John 14 nine, he who has seen the father has seen me. In John 1030 he said, I and the father are one. The reaction of the Jews and the John 1030 was anger. They it tells us in verse 31 they began to pick up stones to stone him. And Jesus asked them for which of the rules about broken do you go to stone? Me and the the Jews say, for I know the rules, except for the fact that you, being a man, claim to be God. Jesus in this passage refers to himself as the image of the invisible God. Paul goes on in reference to Christ. He begins, as he illustrates to us what it means that Jesus is the image of God. He. He portrays the nature of Christ through all avenues of from creation to to redemption, to the power of Christ and the life of people and his authority over us. He tells us in the very next part of chapter verse 15, the firstborn of all creation. And one of the problems that we have in our English language is that we take Hebrew and Greek understanding. We try to make application to it in our lives without hermeneutically or understanding it. Some of you know what that word means hermeneutics.
Without understanding it in the context of the century that it was written. Today, if we were to mention the word firstborn, all of us would have an idea of what that means, right? The first kid that we were born. Mine’s Greyson, right. What’s yours? That’s the firstborn. But in the ideas of a of a Greek or Hebrew mind, firstborn didn’t always mean that it was the child who was the firstborn out of a family. Firstborn was an order of prominence. What it’s saying is, out of all the people who were born the first one, this one has the authority and power. Typically in, in, in Jewish customs, when when a father would have children, the firstborn was almost always assumed to be the first child that was born in the family. He was given all the birthrights for the family. He was considered the the patriarch for the family. If the father were to pass, he was the leader of the brothers. Jesus in this passage of Scripture is also referred to the firstborn, but not always. Does it mean the first was born. If we read through Scripture, what we know about Christ is by all means he wasn’t the first born. In fact, we know Adam designed in creation was literally referred to in Scripture as the firstborn in Romans five. If you were to read in Jeremiah 31 nine, what you’ll find is Ephraim referred to in Scripture as is mentioned as the firstborn.
But yet Ephraim wasn’t the firstborn out of his, out of his brothers. Manasseh was. Genesis 4151 David in Psalm 89 and verse 27 is referred to as the firstborn. Yet David was the youngest out of a half a dozen brothers born in his family. It tells you that in first Samuel 16, verse ten and 13, but it refers to David as being the firstborn, because David became king of Israel. He was the one out of all the children born together. He was the one who had the authority and power out of all of his brothers. And what it’s saying about Jesus in this passage of Scripture, he is the image of the firstborn. He is, or excuse me, the image of God. He is the firstborn of all creation. Notice it doesn’t say the firstborn in creation, but the firstborn over creation of all of creation. It’s saying that of all the ones physically born in this earth that possess any form of body whatsoever, Jesus has prominence. Dominance. Jesus has authority. Jesus has the power. How big is your God? How big is Christ? In verse 16 it goes on to say, For by him all things were created, both invisible in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created have been created through him and for him. Listen to this passage of Scripture for just a minute.
It comes in Psalm 42, excuse me 44 and verse 24 says, thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb. Jesus, being a Redeemer, tells us it’s from the Redeemer, the one who formed you from the womb, I the Lord, and the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone. This passage in Psalm 44 and verse 24 says, God created the earth all by himself. No one was there to aid or help him. It’s saying in in Colossians chapter one verse 16, Jesus created all these things. All these things came through him. And it goes on to tell us all these things came for him, meaning this As Jesus created this world, everything that he put within this world was intended to reflect back to the glory that he possessed. It was all created for him as invisible. The spiritual world visible. The physical world that we live in, both heaven and earth. Whatever is possessed in this world, Jesus created it all, and it’s all intended to reflect back to his glory and goodness. Verse 17, he goes on to say, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, Jesus being before all things. It tells us in this passage is referring to his as Eternality. Jesus was there before anything else was. When we talk about existence, where it began. The answer is just simply Jesus.
When you open up your Bible and you read in Genesis chapter one and verse one, in the beginning, God never tells you how God got there. It never tells you where God came from. It just assumes God has always been. After all, Jesus is the one who created time. How could something come into existence before time was even possessed? Jesus is the one who created the idea of even being able to create. Before something was physically created, the idea of creating was was brought into fruition and Jesus was behind that concept. How can something be created before the idea of creation is there? It’s just God. Jesus has been there. He is eternal. And Paul goes on to remind the church in verse 18, he is also the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. When it comes to the direction that the church pursues when it comes to worship, it’s all about Jesus. He is the ruler. A church can’t survive if you cut off its head. It’s all about Jesus. And he tells us, reminding us again. He uses the word firstborn again from the dead. It’s almost like a false dichotomy of two words how can you be born and dead? But what it’s telling us about again in this passage of Scripture, firstborn doesn’t literally mean birth. It’s an order of prominence. We know Jesus wasn’t the first to die. Jesus wasn’t even the first person to see resurrected or alive on the Mount of Transfiguration.
When Jesus went up to to the Mount of Transfiguration, he was there with Peter and Paul just hours before his crucifixion. It tells us that Moses and Elijah came back onto the Mount of Transfiguration and talked with Jesus there as the disciples witnessed it. The firstborn from the dead doesn’t mean he was literally firstborn to come back. Moses and Elijah were there, but what it means is in the order of prominence. Jesus has the authority not only in life as the firstborn of creation, the firstborn of the living. Jesus has prominence over the firstborn of the dead. Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is the life. Paul is saying to the believers, not only do you trust him while you’re living, but you trust him when you die. Jesus has the power to do everything that you need in your life. So we ask ourselves, how can this be? How can Jesus create all these things and rule over the angels of the invisible world and the heavens and the earth? How is he eternal? How is he the head of the body? How does he have the power to resurrect us from the dead? Tells us in verse 19 as we go forward. For it was the father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. Fulness, literally meaning completeness. If you were to flip over to the next chapter in Colossians, in chapter two and verse nine, you would see the same thing reiterated by Paul.
Jesus is completely God. If you’re looking in your new American Standard Bible at verse 19, one of the things you’ll notice about the word fathers. And I don’t even have to look at your Bible to know this. If you see the word father at all written in your verse, it’s going to be italicized. The reason it’s italicized is because it’s not in the original manuscripts. When the book of Colossians was actually written, the word father was the word God. And as translators translated into English for us to keep us from being confused over the Trinity or the functioning between God as He is Jesus and the God as He is the father. They inserted the word father to help in your understanding for that. Literally, the original manuscript reads this way, for it was God’s good pleasure for all the fullness of himself to dwell in Jesus. Jesus is God. How can these things be? Answer simply because he is God. Now, I’ll be honest with you this morning and say, every verse that we looked at is by all means doctrinal position and stance on the deity of Christ and his relationship to this world. If, as a follower of Christ, this is a great passage of Scripture to go to and understand who Jesus really is, it’s beautiful. But it doesn’t necessarily prove who Jesus really was. So when I came to know the Lord, one of the things that I was so passionate about learning was how to prove Christ to a scientific mind.
Is it possible to rationally explain that Jesus is God? That Jesus really lived? That Jesus really was raised from the grave. And there’s all kinds of great literature that’s out there on it. One of the books that I just wanted to suggest to you this morning, if you know someone like that in your life or you just want further evidence on the deity of Christ. Skeptics Who Demand a Verdict is an awesome book written by Josh McDowell. It follows in history the deep thinkers of life who started off atheist or agnostic, but later came to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of the world. It portrays the life of three men. It goes after Charles Colson, who was involved in the Richard Nixon scandal and Watergate. C.s. Lewis, who was a brilliant mind who taught at Cambridge. And Josh McDowell as well. Within that book, you’ll find several quotes of men who were considered top in their fields of understanding and and reason and logic. And what you still find is men, as they begin to investigate who Jesus was later on in years, came to accept him as Lord and Savior in their lives. Listen to this, doctor. Clark Pinnock, professor of interpretation at McMaster University in Toronto, says skepticism regarding the history and the credentials of Christianity is solely based upon irrational biases.
Meaning this when you look at the evidence of everything that Jesus has claimed to be, and you examine that evidence throughout history, the only reason you would never come to the understanding that Jesus is everything that he claimed to be who he was is because you have some sort of bias against the facts that are already present out there. Simon Greenleaf was a was a Jewish man. He was also considered the royal professor of Harvard Law School. He’s the guy when you think about Harvard Law, he’s the guy that started it. He would often mock Christians in his classes until he was challenged by his students one day just to examine the evidence relating to Jesus, and he came back with the statement, the resurrection of Jesus is one of the best established events in history according to the laws of legal evidence, and Simon Greenleaf gave his life to the Lord. John Singleton Copley, better known as Lord Lyndhurst, is recognised as the greatest legal mind in British history. He’s the Attorney General of Great Britain, the High Chancellor of England, the High Steward of the University of Cambridge. He held the highest offices ever conferred on a judge in Great Britain. At his death they were going through some of his personal belongings, and what they found in his personal belongings is a writing on Christ, and inside that writing they found a quote from him that said, I know pretty well what evidence is, and I tell you, such evidence as as that for the resurrection has never been broken down yet.
Lord Justice of England, Lord Darling said, no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict. The resurrection and true story that is of Christ. So when we talk about Colossians chapter one, the power of Jesus, It’s not only something that Scripture dictates to us as people and declares to us proudly as people. It’s something that the course of history has proven time and time again. How big is your God? How big is Jesus in your eyes? Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? And it tells us in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 16, Jesus response to Simon as he said, you are the Lord, you are the Christ. Simon Peter replied, you are the son of the living God. And Jesus said, I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And what Jesus is saying to Simon, Simon, based on the authority, based on the belief that you carry about who I am in your life, in your life. This makes you powerful. And when you think about evil, when you think about Satan, when you think about the gates of hell, when you think about everything that tries to pull you away from me, it will not prevail because of the power that I possess that you just saw in Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 15.
I ask myself, when we get to the end of this, these verses in verse 19, why is this passage even here? We remember it’s written to believers who already accepted Jesus, who already acknowledged him as Lord and rescuer of their from their sins and their lives. But this passage is here because the believers in Colossae forgot how important he was. In fact, if you were to read revelations chapter two and three, you’ll find the seven churches that surround the area of Colossae. And God is writing to them about where they’re falling short in their relationship to him. And he says this of the church of Ephesus, which started the church of Colossae. And revelation two four you have forgotten your first love. So when the church forgets the importance of significance and the role of Christ in their lives. They lose their power and their relationship to God. Why is this here? It’s here because it’s important what you believe. It’s important not only how you understand Jesus in your life, but how you share the nature of Christ in the lives of other people as well. When someone just represents to you Jesus, as simply a good teacher, it’s an opportunity for you to say, hey, you have never read the book of Colossians. You need to see what Jesus said about himself. God had excuse me. Paul presented to us a radical God, but not only did he present to us a radical God, he also presents to us a radical plan.
It does nothing for us as people to acknowledge that God is all powerful, unless we understand as people too, that God cares about us as well. What if there was a God who existed in this world, but he was off in some far off distance, unrelated to us in any sort of relationship or concern and care for about our lives. That would mean nothing to us as people. But does this big and glorious God care about you and about I mean, we as people have needs, don’t we? It’s no doubt once you turn on the news that we live in a broken world. I think one of the things that we’re good about in America is that we’re really good at ignoring and covering up and forgetting about our problems, even though they’re still there. And if we don’t have money, we just charge it to an account. If we’re sick, we go crazy over finding a cure for a terminal illness to prolong death, but never thinking about spiritual eternity. If we experience any emotional turmoil, a lot of times we’ll medicate ourselves to dull the pain. If we experience physical pain. We’ll medicate ourselves to. To dull the physical pain. Never. May be asking, why in the world is there some sort of curse that exists upon us as human beings? We seek more friendships to kill a deep loneliness in our soul through all kinds of social media that exists in this world today.
We as Americans are really good at busying ourselves to keep our minds occupied from thinking about the emptiness that might exist on the inside. We buy material goods for temporary happiness. Pornography is rampant across America today as a substitute for intimacy. Maybe an intimacy intimacy that we lack in a relationship with God, all the while prolonging the inevitable that we have problems in this world. And if we read Scripture, it becomes very clear, especially throughout the New Testament, that all of us, and even in our own personal lives, face problems. The Bible refers to that as sin. Isaiah 59 verse two tells us that sin creates a barrier in your relationship with God and Ephesians two one that actually your sin is so bad that it literally has pulled you from the power source that is God. Meaning this if you picture yourself for a moment as a computer and you want to plug it in to get power, and for it to function the way it’s supposed to, when you’re born in this world, you’re so dead in sin, and your relationship with God is if someone comes along and unplugs, unplugs your cord from the socket, and you never have any sort of functioning power going on whatsoever, you need to plug into that power source. Because of sin, we’re dead from that relationship with God.
Sin is a parent, right? C.s. Lewis, when he came to know Jesus as his Savior, one of the things that started him on that journey towards God is that he noticed he enjoyed creation and he would go out into the world, and he would enjoy creation. While he enjoyed creation, he also recognized that there was just something wrong with creation. Animals turning on animals. It was a ravenous thing to watch things go through winter and die from malnourishment and not having enough food creation was a beautiful thing, but creation also had some sort of curse that possessed, and it began to challenge him and question him. How in this beauty is there still such destruction? At night we lock our doors for protection. We have prisons that are overflowing. If you just turn on the news and see what’s taking place in Japan, it’s imperative that we as people have needs, right? Not only do we have needs from sin, but we also have a need from death. Anytime the Bible refers to death, what it often refers to is not just a physical death, a spiritual death as well. Meaning to us. If you want to spend an eternity with God, you can spiritually die and spend an eternity away from God. If you want to spend an eternity with Christ in heaven forever, you can spend an eternity with him forever. It’s a matter of placing your faith in Christ.
One day we will all physically die and death is a horrible thing. Matter of fact, it’s not natural. When God created us in the Garden of Eden. He never created us with the intention of facing death. That’s why it’s okay when death happens to get angry. It’s a reminder to us as people that we live in a sin cursed world. The Bible tells us in Romans 323, the wages of our sin is death. The cost of our sin is our own death. It’s a reminder to us of people as our rejection of God came to fruition in our lives through Adam and Eve, that because of that death reigned. We need rescued from sin. We need rescued from death. But not only that, we need rescued from Satan. As Americans, we oftentimes fall short of thinking about the spiritual world. We live so much in the physical now that we neglect to think that there is a spiritual force that’s working against God’s plan, that’s working against our lives, and it wants to hinder us from understanding who God is. It tells us in John 1010, the thief comes to steal and to kill and destroy. Nothing more powerfully Satan would desire to do. And among his church body, Christ’s church body today, than to just rip us apart and literally destroy us. First. Peter says in five eight that Satan wants to devour your life. I mean, there’s nothing pretty about that. And you know, the number one thing that brought the destruction of Satan was pride.
It tells us in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28 that that Satan desired to take the position and authority of God. He became prideful. He said, I’m going to become like God. And then when he was cast out of heaven, he goes into the Garden of Eden, and he appears before Eve and he tells Eve, guess what? Eve, you can become like God. Pride. All pride is in the life of man is to elevate ourselves in the position that God deserves in us and through us and over us. I showed a book, evidence that Demands a verdict. We read Scripture on the deity of who Christ is and the power and authority that he possesses in the world. But I can’t help but thinking, no matter how many facts that we present to people, they’re not always going to bow the knee, and they’re not always going to accept Jesus in their life because of pride. The Bible tells us that pride cometh before the fall and it leads to destruction. Does God care about us facing all these things in this world? And what he goes on to tell us in Colossians, starting in verse 20, he goes and through him. Through Jesus. And his concern for you to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
And this is passages saying to us as people that Jesus literally he sees our need together. And he recognizes that based upon sin, we aren’t perfect. We can’t enter into the perfection of heaven. We can’t come before God’s presence being sinful people. But Jesus love for us brings heaven on earth, and he unites us together. That we may experience that relationship with him both now and for all eternity. Wow. And he does this through the cross tells us in Hebrews 922. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. He’s creating a word picture. And the idea is of the Jewish people who are now teaching the Gentiles in this world about Jesus and His sacrifice. At the time of Israel, when Israel wanted repentance of sins, they would go to the temple and they went to the temple not because they were worthy, but because they were unworthy. And they went to the temple, and they went to the altar, and they took an animal with them to the altar, and they sacrificed that animal. And they would literally, in sacrificing that animal, make that animal bleed. And everyone understood that the moment that animal started to bleed, that animal wasn’t coming back off the altar. That blood was intended to kill that animal. It was a reflection of what Jesus was going to do on our behalf. And he says to us, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, that Christ died for our sins by shedding his blood on the cross.
God is a just God. He demands that sin be paid for. And Jesus took that payment and he shed that blood with the understanding of knowing this when that blood was shed. So his life went and God brought justice in this world, but he also brought grace to us as people. You think for a moment of a time in your life when you were deeply wronged, and the way that it affected your relationship towards that person. Have you ever been hurt so deeply in your life that it required you to call the law. Have you ever been hurt so deeply in your life that people around you were just aghast at how horrendous of an action someone placed against you? Do you know in that circumstance you have one of two choices. You can either seek justice and judgment in the life of that person who’s wronged you. You can call the police and you can send them to jail. In some cases, I would say it’s important to do. But, you know, the other alternative to that is for the sake of that relationship, you absorb all that pain and hurt upon yourself and that person that’s hurt you so deeply, no matter how deep those pains go. You say, what I want to offer to you is grace. This relationship is so important to me. And what Jesus is saying in this verse is the same thing about us.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden for the first time, God was completely just. When sin was present in this world to wipe all of mankind off the face of this earth, because he is a just God and sin is disgusting before his presence. But what God did was he looked at our situation and he said, this pain that has broken us, I’m going to absorb the hurt. I’m going to take it. And what I’m going to do is offer you grace. Notice what it says in this passage of Scripture. It says that God reconciled himself to us in the very first line. Through him to reconcile all things to himself. It’s not God reconciling us to him, it’s it’s man having to be reconciled to God because we are the ones who left him. But it’s Jesus who pursued us by going all the way to the cross for dying to die for our sins on our behalf. The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter seven and verse 22, unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. And what? Jesus? While we look at a hopeless eternity because of the sin that’s in our life, Jesus gives a hopeful future because of what he presents to us as people. In verse 21 and 22, look what it says. It says. And although you. He’s getting very personal here. You were formerly alienated from God.
Your relationship was gone from God. You were hostile to God in mind. Meaning, when we talk about sin, it’s not just a matter of living sin out in your life, it’s your heart. The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter five, from the heart proceeds the evil thoughts. When we do bad things, it’s not because. It’s not because you were temporarily a bad person. It’s because your heart is wicked and Jesus has got to change that. And he’s saying to us, you are hostile in your mind. The things of your heart were anti-God. And then this is how it played out in deed. You had a wrong belief that was set in your heart and you lived it in your life. But what Jesus wants to do is lay a foundation of true belief in your life to follow so that you can live it right according to the way that God desires in a relationship with him. It’s beautiful. So it says in verse 22, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, in order to present you before him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. When God looks at you from heaven above, he wants to see the beauty of Jesus reflected on you and in you. It tells us in this passage that while you were hostile to him, the only way that this comes is through relationship towards Christ, through acknowledging what Jesus has done in your life. He goes on to tell us in verse 23, if indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
He is simply saying to the Colossian church, listen, church, I’m going to tell you all about Jesus. This is how powerful he is. This is what he’s done for you. And in verse 23 he says to him, this message is so important for you to stand on and stand for, because this is what brings the hope of eternity from generation to generation within the church, of course. But not only just them, it’s to us as well. If you’re going to stand for something in this world, it might as well be for truth. And if you’re going to stand for truth, you’ve got to stand for Jesus, because he is the pillar of everything that his church represents. Without the head, we are nothing as a body. Heavy doctrine today, isn’t it? But this understanding and foundation of everything that Jesus is, is so important to how Paul is going to lay out the rest of this book and how it rings into the practical living of our lives, of how knowing Jesus relates to us in our day to day living and thinking. I’m reminded of a story of a lady who lived in Brazil, off in the country.
She was a single mom who spent many hours away from the home, working to provide for her only daughter in the home. The story goes as this she was very poor and her daughter became antsy. She got older. She wanted more possessions and she knew that they were poor and she didn’t want to live poor anymore. And as she became started to get of age and become a teenager, her mom often worried as she went to work that one day she would come home and her daughter would be gone. She would head to, uh, she would head to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and she would become a prostitute, like many of the other ladies who were poor in the country. Sure enough, one day mom came home from work and daughter was gone. And all she saw was a note that said, mom, I’m headed to Rio de Janeiro. I’m off to make some money. I love you and hopefully I’ll see you soon. The mom became frantic because she knew what that lifestyle represented, and she knew that her daughter likely would never come home, and if she did, it probably wouldn’t be alive. And so the mother sold every possession that she had. She drove to the city. She went into the first thing she did, she went into this photo shop and she took all these pictures of herself, as many as she could purchase. And then she traveled around the entire city of, of Brazil, and she she began to drop off these pictures and all these businesses.
And she wrote a note on each person. She would ask each business person. Listen, I’m missing my daughter. I don’t know where she is. I don’t know what part of the city she’s in, but can I just leave a picture of myself somewhere in this business that hopefully one day she might find it and and know that I care about her and come home. A few years later, this young lady was in a hotel. She’s walking down the stairs, she’s with a man and she’s lived a life of prostitution. She begins to look over in a mirror to see her reflection, and she noticed in just a couple of years she’s aged more than 15 years. And she begins to think of her situation and how pitiful it must seem. And as she looks at this mirror, she sees a picture of her mother. An excited. She runs over to the picture looking at her mom, who she hasn’t seen for for quite a while, and she pulls the picture off and she flips it over on the back and on the back of the the picture there’s written, I don’t care where you are and I don’t care what you’ve done. I just want you to come home. I think about the story of the gospel from Genesis to Revelation played in the Bible. That’s Jesus’s message in pursuit of you.
He doesn’t care where you’ve been. He doesn’t care what you’ve done. And he has sold everything in his kingdom to come to this earth to die for you. So you would just come home. If you’re experiencing an emptiness inside, it’s only an emptiness that Christ can fulfill. If you’re looking for purpose in your life, It’s only a purpose that Jesus can give. Do you understand how important it is what you believe about Christ? Because if he’s the creator of all things, he’s the originator of joy. Just don’t go in this world and look for joy. Look to Jesus, and in Jesus you find the joy that he’s promised to give. Paul is bringing hope to the church of Colossians that they’re seeking to leave behind. And what we find is if we carry this belief about Jesus, we understand how important it is in our relationship with him. We. We see a radical God. We see his radical plan, but we see a radical living. And this is Paul’s response. I had to do this quickly because we’re running out of time. It says in verse 24, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction. Paul saying, man, I’m living dangerous for Jesus. That’s how important this message is. Whatever I need to do to put myself out there.
I’m doing it. May I ask yourselves for a minute? If you had the cure for cancer, would you share it? The cure for Aids, the cure for social injustice, for slavery, for prostitution, for famine, for rape, for all sin that we experience, for loneliness. If you had the cure for that in your hands, would you share it? The Bible tells us that Jesus is wonderful. Counselor, everlasting father, Prince of Peace. Jesus. Verse 25 Paul goes on to share in the next three verses. I didn’t put them all up there, but just about his ministry. It’s so fun when you start living for Jesus dangerously in this world, and you start making a difference and you stand on that message and belief. You get so excited about what God’s doing, and he shares that God has called him as a stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God. Listen, God has called me to this people group to share this message, and I’m doing it, man. I’m living dangerous. I don’t care what it brings. I’m in a prison in Rome right now. But it’s for your sake and the gospel. The joy that Jesus promises. That’s how important it is that I’m laying my life down for it. And he goes on to say in verse 28. This is his goal. This is Paul’s goal for you. This should be our goal as a church.
We proclaim him. If you come to church and we stop talking about Jesus, please stop coming. Okay. I want a lot of people to come to church. I want our church to grow. I want Lehigh to have its own church. I want everybody grow in a relationship with Jesus. But I’m going to tell you now, we’re unhealthy if we’re not talking about Jesus. There’s a better one out there. Go find another one. Okay. That’s how you you go into any church in this world. If they’re not talking about the power of Christ working the lives of believers, don’t sit there. It says, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. Mature, not lacking for this purpose. Also I labor striving according to his power, which mightily works in me. Let me ask you in verse 28 for just a moment, we talk about being mature or complete in Jesus. Are you being discipled? Meaning do you have an older follower of the Lord who’s kind of come and put you under their wing to show you everything that Christ is, and to teach you how to follow after him? Do you feel confident in how to study the Bible, how to pray to God? How to live for him? How to serve him? Be mature. Second, as you’re mature with the Lord, who are you bringing under your wing? Jesus is giving you a message of power and influence in this world to change this world through him, one person at a time.
Are you discipling someone? Influencing someone else with the power of Christ? Verse 29, what Paul tells us is that he does this ministry. It’s according to his power, according to Christ’s power working in him. For those who are afraid to live for Christ and to stand up for the Lord. Can I just tell you to focus on verse 29 for just a moment? Paul is emphasizing the power of Christ working in him. You know, when we started a church in Lehi, I’m only 29 years old, knocking on 30 this year. It’s going to be a wonderful celebration. Everyone’s invited to come. All right. I don’t know where it’s going to be yet. Working on the gray hairs for that party today. Um, I first moved to Utah. I was 23 years old, and stepping into ministry was a scary thing, because what I lacked was a lot of experience. And what I just simply did was trust in what verse 29 talks about the power of God working in me. We talk about making disciples. That is a scary thing. Sharing Jesus with other people, especially if you don’t exactly know where to go when you find people like Mark. Sometimes it’s a scary thing, you know? But to live on that fear, you miss those opportunities, don’t you? You know, I think when Jesus works in our lives, he doesn’t give us the power that we need to handle everything that we’re going to face right now for the rest of my life.
You understand that? Meaning God only lets me worry about today because he knows if I’m such a spaz, that if he puts tomorrow on me, I’m going to freak out and run and hide under something. Right. God’s grace is sufficient. Paul says God’s grace is sufficient for me. God’s power is sufficient for you. How big is your God? And when you step out to do ministry for him, God’s going to supply you with the strength in that moment to meet that need. I’m not saying go crazy and go live in Egypt and stand on the corners and preach. You may not live very long, right? Or some country where the gospel is being prosecuted. If God leads you that way. God bless you. We’ll do everything we can to get you there. Right? But just take a step. Live a radical change and trust in that moment. As you’re stepping out for the Lord. You may not have all the answers. You don’t have to fake it. But just trust in the power of God working in you. And what you’re going to find is every step you take, his power is sufficient for you. Church what you believe is important. Do you see the significance of how big your God is dictates how powerful you’ll live in this world, how radically and dangerous and different you can stand for Christ because his power mightily works in you.