It Is All About Jesus

A theological college in the United States invited to their annual conference, a renowned professor as their guest lecturer.

He spoke for two and one-half hours "proving" that the resurrection of Jesus never happened.

The professor quoted scholar after scholar and book after book.

He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless.

It was emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense.

After this verbal dissertation he moved back from the lectern and asked if there were any questions.

After about 30 seconds, an elderly preacher with a head of woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.

"Doctor Professor, I have one question", he said as all eyes turned toward him.
He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it. CRUNCH, "My question is a simple question",....CRUNCH, ... "Now, I have never read those books you�ve read"...CRUNCH,... "And I can�t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek"...CRUNCH,... "I know nothing about Nie-buhr and Hei-deg-ger"....CRUNCH, ...He finished the apple. "
All I want to know is: This apple I just ate------was it bitter or was it sweet?"

The professor paused for a moment and answered in an exemplary scholarly fashion: "I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven�t tasted your apple".

The elderly preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at the professor and said calmly, "Neither have you tasted my Jesus."
The 1,000 plus in attendance could not contain themselves; the auditorium erupted with applause and cheers.

The professor thanked his audience and promptly left the platform.
Beloved It�s all about Jesus, this morning and every morning.

Hear Paul�s Words to us today: (BIBLE) "For he has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son".

The Colossians were well taught well by Epaphras a faithful minister of Christ(v7) but it became clear to Epaphres that the Colossian Church was having problems with false teaching.

These problems were shared with Paul thus came the letter to the Colossians.
These false teachers were extremely confused about Creation and the physical realm. They insisted that matter was evil, including the human body.

They taught that Jesus Christ did not have a real body since this would have put Him in contact with evil matter.

The results of these false teachings were tragic, including extreme self-denial and austerity on the one hand to unbridled sin on the other.

After all, if physical world is totally sinful, you either try to enslave it or you sinfully enjoy it.

The truth is they really did not know Jesus. Jesus fully man and fully God.

In his letter to the Colossians Paul brings forth the truth of who Jesus is.

(1 Lift Finger) Jesus existed before Creation (v. 15). In our reading today Paul uses the term firstborn which does not refer to time, (Pause) it refers to status.
Jesus Christ was not the first being created, since the scriptures tell us He Himself is the Creator of all things. All Things!

Firstborn simply means "of first importance, of first rank."

Solomon was certainly not born first