Sermon Brief
Date Written: November 8, 2013
Date Preached: November 10, 2013
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Building a Foundation for a Thankful Life
Sermon Title: The 2nd Piling – Jesus Is Savior
Sermon Text: Colossians 1:12-22 [NLT]
Essence of the Text: Paul was stressing thankfulness to the believers in Colossae because of what Jesus had done and who Jesus was to them!
Essence of the Sermon: Paul’s words still stress a thankful attitude toward Jesus for what He has done for us and who He is to us today!
Objective of the Sermon: KNOWING what Jesus has done & who He is allows believers to live out their lives with a thankful attitude and heart!
Introduction:
Today we continue our series on how to build a foundation of thankfulness in our lives! Last week we looked at the 1st piling in the foundation and that was that God is God, and because He is God we can be thankful… we should LIVE thankfully toward Him, in obedience and submission!
Today I want us to look at what I would call the 2nd piling of the foundation… and that is Jesus! Today we are going to look at what Jesus has done and who Jesus is to us as believers and why we should live THANKFULLY and serve God thru His Son, Jesus!
Now let’s go back to the underlying premise of our series… In Phil 4:6 Paul wrote, “…Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and THANK Him for all He has done…”
We know that when we have trouble in our lives, when we have difficulty or trial… we can go to God for guidance and deliverance, but Paul says no matter WHAT it is that troubles you, he says in EVERYTHING lift it up in prayer and petition…but to do so with a heart of thanksgiving!
I asked this question LAST WEEK, I am going to ask it again THIS week and will probably ask it every week of this sermon series! [show slide 2 here]
Do you have ANYTHING in your life today that you are worried about, fretting over, or weighing heavy on your mind? Do you feel that life has short-changed you? Do you feel as if you have gotten the ‘short end’ of the stick?
So often in life we focus on what we DO NOT have or what we have MISSED OUT on, but as believers, our focus cannot be directed toward the negative - our focus MUST be on what we DO have & what we HAVE!
God has said in his word that all we need to do is ask and he will provide for us, but Scripture tells us that what we ask MUST be tied to the focus of our lives…
I said this last week; God is NOT a prayer vending machine with us putting in our prayers and Him dispensing out our hearts desires…
Scripture tells us to come to Him, SEEKING Him and He will answer… when we SEEK HIM, our focus is NOT on our problems… when we SEEK Him our focus is not on what we want but don’t have… or what we think we have missed out on because life is so unfair!
As I said last week and as Scripture clearly shows us… God is a loving God, but in prayer we must approach Him with the right attitude & when Paul speaks about this here in our foundational verse - that ‘right attitude’ is coming to God with an attitude of THANKFULNESS!
Preacher, you have GOT to be kidding me! How can I possibly go to God with a thankful heart & attitude when I’m suffering so much? Well remember what I said last week, Scripture calls us to come to God with a thankful attitude, and Paul never said it would be EASY! It requires a heart that is intentionally focused on God & filled with thankfulness! But...
How can I be thankful when I am hurting?
How can I be thankful when my heart aches from the pain?
How can I be thankful when all seems lost to me?
How can I be thankful when it seems my world is crashing down?
My friends, being thankful in times of hardship and trouble is NOT something that will come easy! It is going to take an intentional effort and focus within your heart!
To build a life of thankfulness we must first begin with the foundation. Last week we looked at the first piling of that foundation as we saw how we can be thankful that God is God... and you are NOT!
I truly want our fellowship to have a great foundation of thankfulness in our hearts, but I know that we all can struggle with being thankful and we need some reassurances about the promises we have in God…
[show title powerpoint slide here]
The 1st piling for our foundation is that God is God! But this morning I want us to look at the 2nd piling that secures our foundation of thankfulness... and it is that Jesus is Savior!
Just who is Jesus... who is our Savior? Why is this reason to be thankful! Paul gives a great picture of who Jesus is and why we can be thankful! Let's read what Paul has to say... [read Col 1:12-22 here]
In 12-14 Paul tells us how God is God... and how He has made a way for us to share in His Kingdom... how He has fashioned a rescue plan for all who are lost... and that thru His Son, Jesus Christ, we can know freedom and forgiveness from our sinful hearts and we can know salvation...
This morning I want us to focus in on Jesus and how Him being sent by God to be our Savior is something that should create within us a focused and thankful heart and spirit...I can see 3 reasons for this:
1. Image of Invisible God -v15-17 (who is Jesus in relation 2 God?)
Paul begins with a beautiful depiction of the Christ whom God sent to save a lost world! Many today want to relegate Jesus to merely a great human prophet/teacher, but here in these verses Paul reveals Jesus' deity & equality with God!
1st we see Paul exclaiming that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. In Acts 17 at Mars Hill, Paul preach to the philosophers of Athens and had made reference to their altar to the 'unknown' God, which is the Greek word for 'forgotten' -- ag-noss-toss -- this is actually where we get our English word 'agnostic' thatrepresents something unknown or believed to be unknowable.
So an agnostic is not an atheist but they simply do not believe there is any real way that we, as humans, can truly 'know' that there is a God... to them it is 'unknowable'
So what Paul mentions in Acts 17 would have been the altar of what the philosophers believed to be ‘the unknowable God'! Paul preached to them that this ‘unknowable’ God can be known & that Jesus was this God and that he had resurrected from the dead.
Here in our passage this morning Paul uses that same argument, BUT he instead of ‘knowable vs unknowable’, we find Paul uses seen vs unseen.
God is spirit and thus impossible to be seen by our natural eyes, His ‘person’ is invisible to us as humans. Here, Paul tells us that Jesus was the VISIBLE image of what we faithfully accept to be the invisible God. So in other words, Jesus was God wrapped in flesh so we could see God!
Does it sound like you have heard this before? Last week we heard the words of the prophet Isaiah in proclaiming God's great love and presence among His people, but Isaiah also said this...
Earlier in his writings Isaiah had prophesied in 7:14, "Therefore The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel."
Then in Matt 1 we find the angel speaking to Joseph and He told Joseph the same words, but added, "...God with us."
In our passage this morning this is who Paul was writing about… Immanuel... the "God with us" is visible to all humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth! Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God!
Jesus was sent to reveal to the world what God 'looked like'... not in physical attributes, but to reveal to His creation His intangible attributes!
To reveal what most people could not see because as God He was so ‘other’ than the people! Jesus came to reveal God’s love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and His willingness to selflessly sacrifice for the creation He loved so dearly...
Jesus WAS the physical manifestation of the God of the Universe to His creation! Jesus was God wrapped in flesh... John relates this in his Gospel in 1:14 when he says, "...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." Jesus was God wrapped in flesh!
But Paul continues... He says in v15 that Jesus existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation...
This is quite a statement by Paul...basically what Paul was saying here was that Jesus was God! His virgin birth was merely the path He took to gain entrance to a physical body, but it was NOT his beginning...
Paul speaks of Jesus' pre-existence of all things, in other word his eternal nature! Paul uses the phrase 1st born of all creation as a statement of position...
The 1st born of a family had ALL the rights to the inheritance of the Father... NO other child had any say in the matter. In like manner, Jesus has TOTAL supremacy over all things created... NOT b/c He was born first, but b/c He is Creator!
Paul clarifies this in v16, “…by Him all things were created...” Jesus was active in the creation of the Universe. This is evident in the writings of Genesis when one reads Gen 1 & 2. But Paul continues...
Jesus was creator of things we can see... such as what Paul was speaking about in Romans 1 where he told the world that there was NO excuse b/c all one has to do is look around them and see what God has created...
BUT, Jesus also created those things we cannot see! The micro-universe that science is only now beginning to discover and gain a simple understanding of... things such as DNA... the very building blocks of life..
ALL things in this universe were created BY Jesus and FOR Him... He is sovereign and ruler of all! And Paul states that not only did Jesus pre-exist and create all things, but it is Jesus that holds all of creation together today... the things of nature that we take for granted that happen EVERYDAY, EVERY minute, every second, every milli-second... Jesus orchestrates ALL of that... He keeps it running!
But preacher, if Jesus created it and keeps it running, why do we experience sickness, disaster and death? Well, that is actually a subject for another sermon, but simply put, it is because sin entered into the world thru the decision of Adam... he disobeyed God and brought on the curse of sin that infects all of humanity!
Sin has spoiled our connection with God, it has separated humanity from the perfect creation of God, BUT thru Christ we now can be delivered...
This world will never regain its perfection as originally created, but we have a promise of a new world that we will experience because of CHRIST! But for now... Christ is holding all things together… He is keeping all things in Creation running!
We can be thankful that God is God and that He delivered us from darkness...but we must also be thankful that God sent His Son, that although being born of flesh, He has always existed and is God and Creator and in control of all creation!
Jesus is even in control of the things we cannot see... Sin entered the world thru man's disobedience and has marred God's perfect creation, BUT we can be thankful that Christ on the Cross provides a way out of this broken world… it provides deliverance into an eternal life with God in heaven...
We can see and recognize who Jesus is in relation to the Father... Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God and represents God in all His fullness... we can see this and it is a reason for us to be thankful and have a thankful heart and attitude in our walk with Him.
The 2nd reason I can see we have to be thankful that Jesus is Savior is...
2. Head of the Church - v18 (Just who is Jesus to believers?)
Well we can see where Paul speaks to this very subject when Paul says that Jesus is Creator, Redeemer and Savior for all believers! But Scripture relates that He is so much more! Here in v18 Paul stresses the leadership of Christ for those who accept Him as Savior!
Christ is the head of the church! I want us to see what Paul wanted his readers to understand about Jesus...Look what he says in v18... Paul says, "He IS..."
What Paul wrote is a present tense active and VERY declarative statement! The present tense used here represents a simple statement of fact that occurs or is occurring in actual/real time... in other words... Paul was saying that Christ IS leading the church now! Christ is the head of the church!
Paul had just written how Jesus had existed before all things...that Jesus is pre-eternal, ALL eternal... meaning that Christ, though his body is not here on this earth any longer, is still Christ and is still leading the church from Heaven by way of His Holy Spirit thru His disciples!
I want us to understand exactly what Paul is saying here. He is NOT saying that Jesus WAS the founding member of the church (although He is)
He did NOT say, "...hey y’all Jesus started this thing and now I am leading the way and continuing His work..." An approach like that would lead one to believe that Christ was important in the beginning but was no longer in the picture...
Here Paul reveals that Christ IS not only the founder but that Christ was and still IS the leader of the church! Christ IS in charge! NOW and forever more are the implications of Paul's words in this particular passage!
The church spoken of here is NOT a building, but those who have been saved and redeemed by Christ! The church is the people... the gathered people of Christ are the 'body' of Christ in this world! We are His ambassadors... we are His witnesses in this world!
His church moves forward by His direction through the guidance of Him thru His Holy Spirit in the obedience of His people... those who have surrendered their hearts to Him! The church moves ahead thru and in Christ... the church is the body of Christ... the people are the body of Christ!
Christ came to establish this church... to establish this new covenant with His creation... and He is supreme over all who have died to sin and have risen to new life in Him! Christ is supreme over all creation, but He is the head of the church... of all who have experienced new life in Him!
What Paul is establishing here is that Jesus was not only the beginning of the church, but He continues to lead guide and direct the church! He is our leader... not just our beloved founder! We all follow Him just as Paul followed Him when he wrote this letter to the church in Colossae.
• We must be thankful for God in giving His Son Jesus...
• We must be thankful for Jesus and His eternal nature and His willingness to fulfill the Father's eternal plan...
• We must be thankful for Jesus establishing the church, AND for His eternal leadership of HIS church... we are never without Him!
But what does all this mean? For the church, we rejoice in the salvation Jesus has given US, but what does it mean for us in this world? Does it have any implications for us... for those in the world around us?
We have looked at 2 reasons to be thankful that Jesus is our Savior, but I see one more... and this reason is not so much for US, but for those who don't know Him as Savior yet...
3. Savior of the Lost - v.19-22 (Jesus...not just for the believer!)
This letter from Paul was to the believers in Colossae... to those who had received Christ as Savior... to those whose eternal destiny had been resolved in Christ!
So was this a letter just to remind these believers how good they had it? OR was there another purpose to this letter?
Paul continues to reveal this wonderful relationship that believers have in Christ and the implication here is that they are NOT to keep it to themselves! Instead they are to share it with those who do NOT know Jesus as they do… as Savior!
Paul reveals that this plan of salvation executed by Jesus was pleasing in the eyes of God... it was something God was extremely happy about!
God was pleased with all Jesus accomplished and established while here in this world! Also, Paul proclaims that thru Jesus reconciliation to God was made possible for all of creation... and all of these things pleased God immensely!
What Jesus accomplished in death provided a pathway for all people to come to God. What He did for us cleared away the sin that separates us from having a right relationship with our Creator. He made a way for salvation for ALL people.
Now, this does not mean that everyone has been or will be saved... but what it DOES mean is that the way that was previously NOT blocked by the barrier of sin...THRU Christ has been cleared for anyone who will trust Him to be saved.
Because of Jesus we can have peace with God and be reconciled to Him by accepting Jesus as our Savior! Jesus died in our place... where WE were condemned Jesus stepped in and took the condemnation onto Himself and thru Him we are redeemed.
You CAN know God! You can be reconciled to God! Is there a distance between you and the Creator? You can come to Him through Christ.
v20 also states that thru Jesus God has made peace with everything in Creation... so if God has made peace what do I have to worry about?
Well what Paul was saying here was the same principle as the first part of v20... this means that thru Jesus God had removed the curse of the Fall from creation, but it is only realized thru Christ. Humanity can only realize peace with God thru the saving work of His Son Jesus! Jesus opened the path way to salvation and peace with God!
Jesus did this for the world that was lost and hopeless on their own... because sin had entered the world all of humanity was subject TO sin and the eternal punishment it brings!
Because of sin the world was helpless and hopeless of ever gaining redemption, but Jesus came and brought with Him salvation from sin and a restorative peace with God.
In v21 Paul recognizes that ALL people were subject to this curse and bondage of sin and he reminds the Colossian believers that they must not forget from where Jesus had delivered them!
In v21 we read Paul basically saying, “…hey you are saved NOW but there was a time when you were NOT saved...” [read v21 here]
Paul is saying that God did this for those who were saved when they were not saved... so the implication here is what God has done thru Jesus for the believers who were saved… but the implication does not end there... thru what Jesus has accomplished, God will DO the same for those who are not saved! He will save all who come to Him!
So as as ambassadors for Christ, Paul is implying to the Colossian believers and by extension to US today as believers that we are to share what we have (our faith in Christ) with those who do NOT have...
We WERE once lost, separated... we were once immersed in our own self delusion and focused only on what we wanted… we once cared only about ourselves and did NOT care about God or what He wanted!
Paul description of believers BEFORE Christ was that we were God's enemies! God’s ENEMIES people… I want you to let that phrase… God’s enemies… sink down into your brain! We were at war, whether we realized it or not… we were at war with God!
We were at war with God over our soul, over our desires, over dominion in our lives! We wanted to reign as God in our own lives, but He as our creator wanted us to know Him and accept and receive Him as our Savior! But we ‘warred’ against Him, and denied Him for much of our lives… it was not until we rec’d Christ that we became His friends…
With that being said… with the fact that we were at WAR with God I want us to ask our self a question this morning. How many of your enemies are seeking to redeem you… not conquer you? We were at war with God over control of our lives… God did not want to conquer us and TAKE control… God wanted us to submit to His love and for us to give over control of our lives to Him!
There IS a difference… thru Jesus Christ and what He did on the Cross of Calvary, God does not come to us as a conquering victor over us… But God comes to us as a loving redeemer who wants to liberate us from the oppression of sin and this world on our soul!
When we were lost we were God's enemies NOT b/c He hated us, but b/c we hated Him... in our hearts we warred against His dominion in our lives! But in His infinite mercy and grace God has redeemed us who once warred against Him and now we are called to reach out to those who are NOW like we once used to be...
We are reconciled and restored in Christ b/c of what He did by dying on the Cross and now we enjoy a fellowship with God... we experience the presence of God in our lives thru the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the last phrase of v22 is a wonderful comfort to US who have been redeemed...
Paul tells us that b/c of Jesus, we who have received Christ as Savior, we are holy (set aside by God for God's purposes) and blameless (not perfect, but have eternal forgiveness b/c of what Jesus has done) and we stand before God with a clean slate!
How often in THIS life do we get to have the slate wiped clean? So how can you take this and apply it to your life? The most important thing you can do is acknowledge Jesus for who He is...
-- He is the visible representation of the invisible God - in Jesus you KNOW what God looks like!
-- He is the head and leader of the church -- in Jesus You have a leader for Your Christian walk!
-- He is the Savior of the World-- in Jesus we are saved, but ALSO we seek to see others saved!
Acknowledge Jesus as God... verbally acknowledge His diety to the world around you, Jesus was not just a great teacher, Jesus IS God!
Acknowledge Jesus as YOUR leader, as leader of YOUR Christian life!
Acknowledge Jesus as the Savior of the World by sharing YOUR faith, by telling others of what He has done for you and what he can do for them!
God being a loving and caring God is the first piling of the foundation for our thankful life as a believer...
JESUS, who was God wrapped in the flesh, who is leading the church and who saved us and wants to save those who are lost… is the 2nd piling in our foundation for a thankful life...
Are you thankful today? Are you living your life in a thankful manner? OR is your focus on what you don’t have or what you think you have missed out on in life?
Invitation here…
