Colossians 1:15-23

Colossians 1:15-23

you ever in your life, come to the point yet where you feel like you just you just hit that wall mentally, emotionally, physically relational e you’re just out of gas, you hit that wall and you want to sit down because that last hit took it out of you and you’ve not stood up yet in your walk of God, you your christian walk of God has gone from a sprint, a mad sprint to a walk to a stroll, to a crawl, to a sit down show and you’re sitting down, you ever had that moment in your life where you’re where you took that hit that friendship, hit, that hurt from friendships, you took that hit from the world’s calling, You took that that that hit from your previous vices lingering in your life longer than you thought they would. And you’re left wondering about Christianity and jesus and this whole thing that start off so great and beautiful at the beginning and now it’s at a little little putter along the, along the walk of your life of God, anyone relate to that as people I know for me, a couple of years ago, probably three, some years ago I was there, I was all those different places and I was I was done. I’m like what about the joy? What about the passion? What about the what about that clear and compelling picture of christ that I first saw when I first became a follower of christ that that picture of the gospel of jesus christ did for me, that that image blurred and got faded and I had a friend who came along and who shared this, this massive recording of this seminary class going through all these different aspects of how you see christ in all of scripture and I was like, see christ in all scripture is something I’ve heard about, something I poorly attempted at that time as a pastor was kind of like, you know, I’ve heard that game, you know, 65 degree separation of kevin bacon, raise your hand, let’s listen anyone the rest of you, you’re not missing out much. But there’s this thing where like, you know, this movie has, you know, so and so and that movie has so and so that movie has so and so that movie has kevin bacon I think is the way the game goes right, right. And it felt like pastors would do that with their sermons. We’re rolling along, rolling along. But then one day you’re like, where did that come from? And they go to jesus, you know, on a cross, it’s like, wow, how is he gonna get there this week? And so I heard this and I listen to this podcast, it went from genesis exodus, leviticus numbers, Deuteronomy to the wisdom literature, to the song of songs, to the minor prophets. The major profits went through the apocalyptic literature in the old testament through all the old testament and pointing how all the bible points to christ, it’s like crisis like water, he gets out and he gets everywhere and he gets down the lowest points he gets the highest points he gets everywhere in your bible is dripping with christ. But I feel like those pastors not only unlocked this concept of what it means to be christ centered on your bible reading, christ centered on your understanding, but even christ centered on the old testament, I found it incredibly powerful. I think that is what I was reminded of when I was looking at this passage just last week. So let me pray for us. I’d like to drop a simple diagram I’ve held on my ipad for the last two years. Uh, and that helps a visual picture for what we’re talking about and let’s jump in God, thank you for today. Thank you for we’re at a variety of places as people. Lord read a variety of places as men and women and we need you Lord to get into every nook and cranny of our souls into every nook and cranny of our bibles. Help us to see you clearly christ see who you are in the bible or the gospel is sufficient. We need to see you clearly and not lose the love not lose the vision of you and I walk with you that we had at first when we first started following you, we commit this time and this day to you in jesus name. Amen. Okay, so I’m going to draw what was drawn for me and I have, I have a photo of my family when you unlock the screen but when you tap the screen you see this does that make sense? And so it’s like bull mirrors movements of christ christ chronological movement throughout all time. And so if you remember your bible like genesis exodus leviticus numbers, you get what I’m saying. The world was created up to when jesus came during advent during christmas remember jesus baby in a manger mary, joseph Wiseman, you tracking with me. So so God God was internally passed in heaven, you know an eternal being God jesus right, jesus was there with God the father God the son God the holy spirit was attorney passed but he was in heaven and then he came and he added that and here on earth Jesus did And then he lived for 30, 30 years or 33 years. This is a test, this is a test class, 30 years or 33 years. There we go after 33 years he died was in the grave for three days and he rose from the dead remember the cross that’s to symbolize the resurrection and then there was a period of time, post the resurrection. He walked, he talked, he was among God’s people, the followers of God and then Matthew 28 we covered a couple of weeks ago he ascended back to heaven where he sits on the throne of God in eternity in heaven you tracking with me. This kind of sounds familiar, But then there’s a promise that someday God will just will come back and he will judge the uh the world and there’ll be a new heaven and new earth established and and the whole world will be changed the second time, First advent. Second advent. Okay, meek and mild. He’s coming a killer king to judge the nations. There’s there’s this christ chronological timeline of his existence throughout the whole bible. So when you read throughout the old testament, you see him and you see how these new old testament, the new testament authors, they aren’t sourcing the other books as much as they’re sourcing the old testament. It helps you see how he got there and what is happening in the macro scheme of Jesus’s work among the people of God. And our passage today covers in 1st Corinthians 15-23. It covers it covers Christ in a very compelling way. And I want to title this sermon, Supreme Savior and you see all over your bible from the beginning of your bible to the end of your bible. How Jesus came to seek and save the Lost. How God sent his son jesus christ to seek and save the Lost. And he’s a supreme savior for you christians. And and as we remember those questions at the beginning, as you think about your life and your walk with God? Now, how are you seeing christ today? How is your relationship your walk with God today is that vision that that picture of who christ is. Is it gotten blurry? Has it gotten murky with time as the pain and heartaches and trials of life and brought that into not high def resolution. So remember back to last week, paul was shifting from a greeting, he did a prayer and opening prayer for the colosseum church and he got into the what and the why he’s praying about and then he jumped into his main argument. And so paul is arguing something, he’s not just writing a hello, how are you? What’s going on? You know, he he has a purpose for his writing. Uh there’s a there’s a problem in this church. So we’re gonna we’re gonna cover this in a future week. But if you flip, if you’re on page 5 73 that’s in the Blue house bibles. If you flip to like I think it’s chapter two verses eight and nine, I’ll read to you. This is why paul’s writing. He says, see to it that no one takes you captive by human by philosophy and empty deceit, according to the human traditions, according to the spiritual, the the elementary spirits of the world and not according to christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him? Who is the head of the ruling authority, paul is addressing a bad thinking a bad theology. That’s drifting into this church their picture of christ, his humanity, his deity is becoming murky, it’s becoming not correct and that is the one of the reasons why paul is writing them as a church. So that is what he’s teeing up this morning. So like in golf you put the golf ball on the tee and you do a better swing than this, but then you you kill it, you whack that ball, paul just is setting up one of his main thrust of this letter and he’s gonna look at who christ is, the deity of christ because if you get who christ is, you miss everything you miss so much of what Christianity has to offer. Christ is the best part of Christianity. It’s the best part of what we get is what got you when you got saved christian, it’s christ and getting a murky view of christ this false teaching, this false deity of christ this human, this humanity of christ this this air and they’re thinking about corrupting christ corrupts the gospel and corrupts their walk of God. This passage covers an essential truth of Christianity and that’s christ. So verses 15 so that the main point of this passage is christ is your only hope, christ is your only hope and there’s three movements in this passage, there’s the who movement, looking at who christ is not who you think he is, but what does the bible say, christ is, I have a, I have a daughter, she’s six and she has three other brothers and with a parent of kids, you’ll say like, hey, go tell your brothers to knock that out and tell them to stop this or that. And she’s like, okay dad, and she goes in there, she’s like says, hey, you guys knock it off, stop it. And they looked at her and ignored her and kept going and then she came back and matches like dad, they didn’t listen, I’m like, listen sweetheart, go back in there and say dad said knock it off, stop that. And she’s like, oh yeah, like that’s important, say dad said so christians, the bible says who christ is not our culture, not you not me scripture says who christ is and that’s what paul’s gonna walk through with us right now, let’s look at colossians one verses 15, page 5 73 in the house bibles, he is the image of the invisible god, the first born of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible, whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things are held together and he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, he is everything he might that in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in the heavens, making peace by the blood of the cross and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled to his body of flesh for his death. And in order to present you holy and blameless and above approach before him. If indeed you continue in the face stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of with and of which I paul became a minister paul is address addressing gospel clarity, christ clarity and who the bible says christ is. So let’s look at that, let’s take our time. The first section there we’re gonna look at is who christ is and this is what who christ is verse 15, he is the image of the invisible God. The first born of all creation. First born means first of its kind. First of a kind. This is 30 years after christ died on the cross, paul is an old man and paul ran into christ on the Damascus road. He came and visited christ when he was walking on the Damascus road, persecuting the church, he saw christ in his conversion story, he saw christ as christ approached him and corrected him and put him in his place and and paul became a believer later in that Damascus road story, he had a personal encounter with christ, He is talking about the image of the invisible God the first born of all creation 30 years prior Paul’s an old man running this. If you want to see the invisible God, we’re supposed to look to christ the character and nature of christ reflects the image and character. Nature of God, jesus said whoever has seen me sees the father, I have, I have four kids, I mentioned earlier you’ve seen them, maybe they’re two of them got baptized this morning and they’re like a korean white version of me walking around and you might look at them and think that looks a little bit like mike, that’s an image of mike but I’ve had people my growing up telling me like you look just like your father. But the thing is I don’t look just like my father, I am not a carbon copy of version of my father, I mean if I was a clone of my father, I would still have a different character in a different nature. You get what I’m saying, clones or twins, they look alike, but they’re not the same. The theology of the trinity is christ represents the character and nature of God the father as they’re in a tangible image, we can we can grasp as people, this is God of the cosmos who was before all things will last after all that we see is destroyed and gone God of the fathers who is all knowing all powerful. Amish in the whole world is the whole galaxy, the cosmos, all of that sent his son, jesus christ to be the image of the father of his characters nature. He is the image of the invisible god, the first born of all creation, the firstborn talking about how he’s the first to rise from the dead Verse 16 for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him, christ is the first true man who fulfills the image of God. For us to see christ is the prototype all throughout this old testament, all throughout the old testament moses, Abraham, joseph, Isaiah, David, Malaki, Samuel, Samson saul, all of these kings, prophets, rulers. All these people had fatal flaws. They were semi images of the savior but they weren’t an actual savior. They had sinned their character, their nature there, they were not a perfect picture of who christ, who god is. They had sin and you’ll read about their sin all throughout the bible, these people and the 2nd 3rd chapter of the bible in genesis, it talks about how after the fall of men and women, how God knew this was coming. He promised a future savior who would crush the head of a serpent. Any of you ever crushed the head of a serpent, a snake anywhere crush of a snake, I’ve crushed one snake out of my life, it was in the lobby. Yeah, it was scary, christ came and he said you crushed the head of the snake with your heel, you get what I’m, that’s what the pastor talked about. The old testament christ was gonna come and crush the head of the serpent, the snake with his heel. And christ came here in the christ logical timeline to help redeem and store the image of who God is to men. All these semi saviors did not measure up, only christ measured up perfectly as the perfect prototype and he saved the nation of Israel and he saved the non jewish people, the gentiles us. These men were not the messiah, the pinnacle of all of creation is christ and how he came to reflect the image of God Verse 17 and he is before all things and in him all things held together, he is before all things and all things hold are held together by christ. In christ, the christian has all things and all the benefits of being a child of God are found in christ So if you remember the passengers read through, there’s a ton attached to that all things are held together. There’s a ton attached to that power Dominion ruler’s authority Creation seen unseen. If christ is holding all these things together. If christ is holding all of that together the cosmos together. If christ is holding everything together, I think you can hold your life together, christian even our hot mess lives we lead God can hold those lives together, christian that is who we are looking at today, christian, that is who we need to get correctly in our image of who God is and he’s the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead and in everything he might be preeminent, christ might be preeminent cream and it means before all things. So what place should christ have in your heart and your life a prominent place in the first place, you can pull out your pens and circle that verse in your bible. Or if it’s the church’s bible, you can circle that word pre eminent in the church’s bible. If someone in the first service didn’t get it, help them out. But christ should have the first place, you should the first place in your work, you should be first place for your life on sunday morning and on sunday afternoon and on monday morning you should have first place a preeminent place in your life on your hobbies. Your leisure is your vacations, christ should be preeminent in your life because he’s preeminent throughout the entire cosmos, let’s summarize he’s your creator, he gave you identity as the first board and he holds all things together. The preeminence of christ is your only hope christian the preeminence of christ is your only hope christian is before all things there’s authority power, there’s so much attached to who christ is but this is who christ is. That word preeminent. He’s a preeminent one. And then the passage shifts with paul It shifts the verse 19 for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross. Making peace by the blood of christ. You should circle that word reconcile. That’s that’s what christ did all throughout the whole bible from beginning to end. There is this this this drum beat this man, this mission, this mission occupation rescue reconcile thing that’s happening from the cover to cover. Instead, christ God would seek and save the lost. That’s the macro theme of the bible that christ will seek and save the loss to reconcile you to God. Reconcile means restore friendly relations between a cause to coexist in harmony. Make or show to be compatible. And that reconciliation is only found through the permanent one in him. In christ christ contains all of God and represents all of God to us without christ our relationship with God is irrevocably irretrievably broken. I’m trying to say this word right, irretrievably broken. That’s wrong too. We’re done. We have no other hope christian. Apart from christ reconciling us to God by the peace of the blood of his cross is encompassing and unifying of the jews and the gentiles have an access to God to be reconciled to God through christ work. And then there’s this y shift in this passage, it goes from who christ is, what he’s done. He’s a preeminent one, he’s reconciled and then it shifts to why and we need to remember remember why he came look at verse 21 you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by the death in order to present you holy and blameless above reproach before him if indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel which you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven of which I paul became a minister. This passage is basically saying, we are basically evil, We are not good apart from christ. I know there’s this theory in the world that we’re pretty good, we’re not that bad at people and the only bad people are the people on the other side of the political parties, they they own those those bad people somewhere else. No, the bible says no one has seeked him all have turned away, no one is no one is righteous, no not one, all of us are evil, wicked, completely saturated in our lost nous, our depravity. Apart from christ, I think of this passage in bocca bocca 1 13, it says your eyes are too pure to look upon evil gods not able to be in the presence of evil without evil burning up in his presence like that seems dramatic. Well think about this, God made the sun, is what this beginning, this passage said, he made the cosmos everything, but he made the sun. If I can’t look at that sun because of the clouds, I can look at the sun. But if if I can’t look at that sun without damaging my vision and becoming blind because of the sun, messing up my eyes right, I can’t get close to the sun without being burned alive if God made that and he’s righteous and holy and pure, it makes sense that I can’t be in the presence of God and not just be annihilated like the sun would annihilate me. His eyes are too pure to look upon. Evil. Scholars will tell you when you study this passage that the city of colossians was built on a very earthquake prone region. And so when when paul you know underlines there, when he talks about being stable and steadfast, if you continue in the faith stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel, which you heard, I mean we don’t have earthquakes in Nebraska, but let’s say we fracked a bunch in this city and there was earthquakes in the middle of the country, this would be a great room to be in if there was an earthquake, we’re looking pretty good. You know what I’m saying? They in Oklahoma, they have fracking with oil and stuff and my dad’s in Oklahoma is getting random earthquakes. This building is a tank those christians did not live in. Thanks, you get what I’m saying? They didn’t live like this, earthquakes were a thing. If you had a region, I was getting shook it and say well I’m sure that would have been comforting words to the brothers in the city of colossians, stable steadfast not shifting like their whole world, but christians, Let’s look at verse 23 verse 23 makes you nervous. Maybe there’s areas in your life that are not stable, not steadfast, not shifting, they’re not standing on the solid rock of christ Verse 23. It makes you nervous. Maybe you do not know the preeminent one, maybe you have not been reconciled to God. If verse 23 concerns you, you should take note of that. But no, if you are a christian, your eternal security is based on christ performance. The preeminent one’s performance, not your performance because you didn’t save yourself just like those guys couldn’t save themselves all have departed the way of God and turned their own way all have sent But Christ the permanent one did not sin. So what’s next? After this passage we’re supposed to remember to be reconciled, we’re supposed to know that we are christ’s work was to reconcile us and he’s a preeminent one. He’s the only savior that’s coming. So what’s next? What we see next there? A little, a little bit of it at the very last verse in verse 23 I paul became a minister and he jumps into verse 24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and he continues on which we’ll cover next week. But there’s a whole bunch of heartache that paul’s been through. This is the end of his third missionary journey before maybe his fourth one. He’s been on the road leading a church planning organization for years. He’s been chipwrecked, beaten down to the point of like almost death, you know, hungry, thrown in prison several times. This man has been a beat up, gnarly guy who suffered deeply, but he’s not suffering for sin. He’s not suffering, suffering, proposing something stupid. He’s not suffering for getting a ticket by the cops, He’s suffering for being about the work of christ of seeing men and women reconciled to God. The preeminent one. He’s suffering for the sake of christ. So as we think about how we started this time this morning, you don’t know, christ and you don’t know about Christianity and all this stuff. And you don’t know if you’ve been reconciled to God made right with God and you don’t know this preeminent one. The bible is talking about the way you should know or could know him. Talk to me. Talk to someone, there’s many people here that can explain that to you. There’s great literatures we have out there in the library, library office lobby somewhere that can help give you resources. There’s a simple track. Remember reading through as a young boy who explain this to me the basics of what it means to know, christ If you’re a young christian, a baby christian, or if you’re a mature believer, have you hit that wall yet in your christian walk? Have you ran out of gas in your soul if you took that hit and had to sit down and you’re contemplating if I should get back up or not and friendships hurt you, The world’s call lingering in your ears and old vice is still in your life. You’re losing heart, losing hope and you’re hurting. I challenge you to look at what paul paints this picture of christ and see christ clearly the permanent one who’s the only one who’s allowed who’s able to save you are supreme savior. When that picture comes into into clarity, everything else is simpler. There’s this song that my Growing up as a kid when I was 892, I did when I was a little kid, there’s a song that was son at one of these churches were part of and the song goes like this. It says, Oh, soul are you weary and troubled, no light in the darkness to see. There’s a light for a look at the savior and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim and the light of his glory and grace. His word shall not fail you. He promised believe him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying his perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. We have to see christ clearly churched, the way the bible lays out christ who he is and that is a compelling christ that will give you the motivation to continue in your christian life, lovers at work, legalistic people, lovers are crazy and they love jesus, they love God, they just they’re they’re fine, they’re like the energizer bunny because they love the Lord. Men and women. Let’s pray Alright, thank you for the word of God and colossians and thank you for what christ has done, who he is, what he’s done and what we should remember. Lord I thank you for the finished work of christ of reconciling us to himself. I thank you for just a genuine authentic image of who christ is and what he’s done and what he’s given us. Lord I pray. We would let our minds dwell richly in that I prayed we would never settle for reading the bible or listening to the bible and any other version of seeing you in all the bible, we just love you and commit this time to in jesus name. We pray. Amen.