WEBVTT 00:00:01.770 --> 00:00:02.780 This morning. 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:05.340 I invite you if you've got a Bible. 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:06.780 We're in the book of Colossians. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.240 We're on the second half of chapter one. 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:13.000 If you're using a Bible out of the pew, it's page one 57in the New Testament, right? 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.460 Make sure you're in the New Testament section, but that makes it real easy for you to find. 00:00:16.340 --> 00:00:23.800 And what Paul is interested in sharing with the church of Colossae as the uniqueness and power of 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:25.300 Jesus. 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:28.580 Who is he? 00:00:30.380 --> 00:00:32.890 What does he mean to our lives? 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:37.860 In a sense, the type of Jesus that Paul shares is radical. 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:43.620 Radical meaning it's different from the usual, and it's an extreme change. 00:00:44.680 --> 00:00:50.100 Paul is making radical statements in the book of Colossians, chapter one all about Christ. 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:51.640 Why? 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:57.840 Because Jesus is the foundation of everything that his church stands for. 00:00:59.140 --> 00:01:06.160 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 00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:07.180 for who God is. 00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:17.470 After all, Jesus told the woman at the well, he who worships me must worship me, referring to himself in spirit and truth. 00:01:18.660 --> 00:01:25.360 Our spirit connects with His Spirit and in the truth of understanding who Jesus is, we connect with God. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:27.700 It comes in a right understanding of who Jesus is. 00:01:27.820 --> 00:01:34.960 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, 00:01:35.240 --> 00:01:39.810 and they began to delineate the deity of who Christ was and what he meant to the lives of the people. 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:47.400 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 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:52.120 the believers in all people, and the nature and the supremacy of Christ and all things in our lives. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:02:00.940 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. 00:02:00.940 --> 00:02:07.960 He uses the word to be complete, meaning this you 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:15.580 do not lack, but you are mature in everything and understanding of your relationship 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:17.230 to who Jesus is. 00:02:18.620 --> 00:02:23.190 Paul is emphatic of pursuing that nature of understanding Christ in the lives of the people. 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:32.110 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 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:37.080 different than any other thing that this world has to offer, because He is God and God alone. 00:02:40.020 --> 00:02:42.760 We saw last week as we begin to study this chapter. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:46.100 It was this book we found was written in prison. 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:54.880 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 00:02:54.880 --> 00:03:00.640 think about in those moments isn't whoa me or how horrible it is to suffer for the sake of what I've gone through. 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:07.780 But 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? 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:16.240 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 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:16.700 Ephesus. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.580 When Paul was on his missionary journey, he heard the gospel, went back to Colossae and he preached the gospel. 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:28.540 And it tells us in acts chapter 19 and verse ten, literally all of Asia heard the gospel. 00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:38.400 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 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:40.800 gospel flippantly about what I'm talking about. 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:43.700 I'm not talking about anything that you contribute to God whatsoever. 00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:50.980 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 00:03:50.980 --> 00:03:51.680 of Jesus. 00:03:51.820 --> 00:03:57.740 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. 00:03:57.900 --> 00:03:58.780 It is all about Jesus. 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:04.140 And it was that grace filled message that Asia was looking for. 00:04:05.720 --> 00:04:08.820 God, I'm trying so hard to live for you, but I just can't figure it out. 00:04:08.860 --> 00:04:09.320 Do you like me? 00:04:09.500 --> 00:04:09.880 Do you love me? 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:10.820 Do you care about me? 00:04:10.820 --> 00:04:12.300 Where am I in that position with you? 00:04:12.620 --> 00:04:16.980 And all of a sudden enters this message of God comes in the flesh on behalf of you. 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:18.620 He dies for your sin because he loves you. 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:20.260 You can't marry any of his love. 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:21.899 He just freely gives to you. 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:24.490 All you have to do is simply just accept it. 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:34.940 And let's be honest before a holy God, what could you offer before a perfect God? 00:04:34.940 --> 00:04:35.020 What? 00:04:35.340 --> 00:04:36.010 What would you give? 00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:40.940 I'm thinking about an eternity in heaven that is sinless. 00:04:42.260 --> 00:04:45.920 But you being sinful, how could you think, to even hope, to want to live there? 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:48.800 You needed his grace. 00:04:50.640 --> 00:04:51.560 You needed his love. 00:04:53.280 --> 00:04:58.830 And Epaphras teaches in that church, and all of Asia hears the gospel from Ephesus to Colossae. 00:04:59.900 --> 00:05:04.830 And it tells us in Colossians chapter one and verse six, literally the whole world heard the gospel. 00:05:06.260 --> 00:05:13.380 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 00:05:13.380 --> 00:05:20.480 and these doctrines of mysticism and Gnosticism in that century, and Jewish teachings of religious followings, of how 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:24.920 to get close to God, which was totally inaccurate, what Christ would talk about. 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:27.940 And he went down to Rome because he knew Paul was in prison. 00:05:27.960 --> 00:05:34.100 He said, listen, Paul, we've got all these beliefs that are now coming in, and the idea of who Jesus is getting, getting to be mixed up in these religious leaders. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:35.500 What do you need me to do? 00:05:35.500 --> 00:05:36.420 What do I do in this situation? 00:05:37.180 --> 00:05:39.170 And then Paul pulls out the pen and begins to dictate. 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:49.840 Dear followers, Jesus grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord, our father and our God, Jesus Christ, 00:05:49.840 --> 00:05:54.040 on behalf of me, Paul and Timothy, your brother. 00:05:54.200 --> 00:06:00.680 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. 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:09.660 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. 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:14.600 Let's lay our foundation, an understanding of what Jesus is. 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:16.040 Who is he? 00:06:16.080 --> 00:06:16.960 How supreme is he? 00:06:16.960 --> 00:06:17.980 What does he mean in our lives? 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:19.520 How important is this Christ really? 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:21.760 What do we need to think about it? 00:06:21.780 --> 00:06:22.880 How do we need to believe about him? 00:06:22.880 --> 00:06:28.340 Because as we come to believe in him, then we learn the way that we should live in him and through him. 00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:35.210 Because what we saw last week, what you believe matters. 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:39.270 Your belief matters. 00:06:40.620 --> 00:06:41.900 What you truly believe. 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:42.980 You live. 00:06:44.260 --> 00:06:45.780 What you truly think is important. 00:06:45.780 --> 00:06:48.160 What you truly think in life is significant. 00:06:48.400 --> 00:06:52.340 You dictate in your living through the fruition and desires of your heart. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.830 Belief is the foundation to the way that we portray our lives. 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:04.680 We use the illustration even of Nazi Germany, the Hitler and his followers. 00:07:05.020 --> 00:07:09.220 The Nazis didn't wake up one morning and all of a sudden decide to kill and massacre millions of people. 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:16.410 It started with a belief that was incorrect, what they believed was important because it changed the course of history. 00:07:16.520 --> 00:07:20.870 What you believe is important, what you think about Jesus is important. 00:07:20.900 --> 00:07:25.300 And Paul begins to lay that foundation in what he presents to us is a radical God. 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:30.210 How big is your God? 00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:39.960 How big is Jesus in your eyes? 00:07:39.960 --> 00:07:46.480 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? 00:07:48.060 --> 00:07:48.980 No people. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:50.560 People don't typically agree to that. 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:51.560 No, Jesus isn't a liar. 00:07:52.520 --> 00:07:53.600 Well, then, do you think he was a lunatic? 00:07:54.520 --> 00:07:55.860 Well, no, he wasn't a lunatic. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:57.240 I mean, people followed him. 00:07:59.520 --> 00:08:01.240 What do you think Jesus was? 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:07.660 Oftentimes in a postmodern culture of America, what you hear was he was a great teacher. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:08.970 He was a good moral leader. 00:08:10.600 --> 00:08:12.350 But can I tell you about all three of those positions? 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:15.460 Liar, lunatic or just a good teacher? 00:08:15.460 --> 00:08:17.740 Jesus never left that window open for debate. 00:08:17.760 --> 00:08:21.180 What Jesus declared himself to be was God and God alone. 00:08:23.280 --> 00:08:24.130 How big is your God? 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:31.660 How big is Jesus in your eyes? 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:34.240 In the world where people would even tend to believe in multiple gods. 00:08:34.419 --> 00:08:39.520 I like engaging in conversations with those people who think that way, that there may be more than one God in this world. 00:08:39.580 --> 00:08:42.059 I simply ask them, well, what God do you follow? 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:44.940 Okay, well, where did that God come from? 00:08:45.860 --> 00:08:47.320 Well, where did that God come from? 00:08:47.900 --> 00:08:48.860 Who started this whole thing? 00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:51.500 That's the God I want to worship. 00:08:52.220 --> 00:08:56.580 The one that has so much power in this world that he could begin this whole thing and set it all into motion. 00:08:57.040 --> 00:08:58.280 That's the God I'm after. 00:08:58.540 --> 00:08:59.540 How big is that? 00:08:59.580 --> 00:09:00.200 God and Jesus? 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:07.500 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 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:08.200 he walked on this earth. 00:09:08.400 --> 00:09:15.590 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? 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:22.540 We ask you this morning, who do you say that Jesus is? 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:27.260 Someone's excited today. 00:09:27.460 --> 00:09:28.700 We've always got one back there. 00:09:30.280 --> 00:09:32.240 That's all right. 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:33.630 Who do you say that Jesus is? 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:41.100 In Colossians chapter one and verse 15, Paul begins the discussion of who Jesus is in the lives of the colossian believers and 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:41.850 not only just them. 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:44.400 For this world who is Christ and who do we say that he is? 00:09:44.520 --> 00:09:51.920 He says in verse 15, as he begins to lay that foundation of understanding, he is the image of the invisible God. 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:54.010 It literally comes from a coin term. 00:09:54.280 --> 00:10:01.440 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 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:01.760 Rome. 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:04.160 Jesus is the imprint of God. 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:05.920 He's literally. 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:11.440 As you look at the reflection of the coin of the Roman Emperor leader, he is as that reflection of who God is. 00:10:13.060 --> 00:10:14.120 Who do you say that he is? 00:10:14.260 --> 00:10:18.320 Jesus tells us in John 14 nine, he who has seen the father has seen me. 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:22.180 In John 1030 he said, I and the father are one. 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:26.190 The reaction of the Jews and the John 1030 was anger. 00:10:26.640 --> 00:10:30.000 They it tells us in verse 31 they began to pick up stones to stone him. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.560 And Jesus asked them for which of the rules about broken do you go to stone? 00:10:34.560 --> 00:10:39.900 Me and the Jews say, for I know the rules, except for the fact that you, being a man, claim to be God. 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:50.400 Jesus in this passage refers to himself as the image of the invisible God. 00:10:50.900 --> 00:10:52.920 Paul goes on in reference to Christ. 00:10:53.020 --> 00:10:56.980 He begins, as he illustrates to us what it means that Jesus is the image of God. 00:10:57.180 --> 00:10:57.260 He. 00:10:57.340 --> 00:11:04.480 He portrays the nature of Christ through all avenues of from creation to redemption, to the power of Christ and the life of people 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:06.340 and his authority over us. 00:11:06.420 --> 00:11:13.530 He tells us in the very next part of chapter verse 15, the firstborn of all creation. 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:18.920 And one of the problems that we have in our English language is that we take Hebrew and Greek understanding. 00:11:19.160 --> 00:11:24.300 We try to make application to it in our lives without hermeneutically or understanding it. 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:26.360 Some of you know what that word means hermeneutics. 00:11:27.220 --> 00:11:30.430 Without understanding it in the context of the century that it was written. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:36.300 Today, if we were to mention the word firstborn, all of us would have an idea of what that means, right? 00:11:36.340 --> 00:11:37.300 The first kid that we were born. 00:11:37.980 --> 00:11:39.140 Mine's Greyson, right. 00:11:39.260 --> 00:11:39.940 What's yours? 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:41.400 That's the firstborn. 00:11:42.060 --> 00:11:48.980 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. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:50.620 Firstborn was an order of prominence. 00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:57.140 What it's saying is, out of all the people who were born the first one, this one has the authority and power. 00:11:58.380 --> 00:12:05.580 Typically in Jewish customs, when a father would have children, the firstborn was almost always assumed to be the first child 00:12:05.580 --> 00:12:06.740 that was born in the family. 00:12:07.740 --> 00:12:09.800 He was given all the birthrights for the family. 00:12:09.800 --> 00:12:12.220 He was considered the patriarch for the family. 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:14.560 If the father were to pass, he was the leader of the brothers. 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:19.630 Jesus in this passage of Scripture is also referred to the firstborn, but not always. 00:12:19.800 --> 00:12:21.580 Does it mean the first was born. 00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:26.050 If we read through Scripture, what we know about Christ is by all means he wasn't the first born. 00:12:28.300 --> 00:12:35.250 In fact, we know Adam designed in creation was literally referred to in Scripture as the firstborn in Romans five. 00:12:36.680 --> 00:12:44.140 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. 00:12:45.180 --> 00:12:48.410 But yet Ephraim wasn't the firstborn out of his, out of his brothers. 00:12:48.680 --> 00:12:50.160 Manasseh was. 00:12:50.560 --> 00:12:58.150 Genesis 4151 David in Psalm 89 and verse 27 is referred to as the firstborn. 00:12:58.280 --> 00:13:02.640 Yet David was the youngest out of a half a dozen brothers born in his family. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:10.940 It tells you that in first Samuel 16, verse ten and 13, but it refers to David as being the firstborn, because David became 00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:11.780 king of Israel. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.140 He was the one out of all the children born together. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:16.760 He was the one who had the authority and power out of all of his brothers. 00:13:17.980 --> 00:13:21.740 And what it's saying about Jesus in this passage of Scripture, he is the image of the firstborn. 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:23.540 He is, or excuse me, the image of God. 00:13:23.740 --> 00:13:25.160 He is the firstborn of all creation. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:30.820 Notice it doesn't say the firstborn in creation, but the firstborn over creation of all of creation. 00:13:31.580 --> 00:13:37.440 It's saying that of all the ones physically born in this earth that possess any form of body whatsoever, Jesus has prominence. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:37.900 Dominance. 00:13:37.900 --> 00:13:38.980 Jesus has authority. 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:41.180 Jesus has the power. 00:13:46.560 --> 00:13:47.340 How big is your God? 00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:47.480 How big is Christ? 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:54.980 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 00:13:54.980 --> 00:13:56.000 or rulers or authorities. 00:13:56.420 --> 00:14:01.350 All things were created have been created through him and for him. 00:14:03.620 --> 00:14:05.660 Listen to this passage of Scripture for just a minute. 00:14:05.660 --> 00:14:12.940 It comes in Psalm 42, excuse me 44 and verse 24 says, thus says the Lord, your 00:14:12.940 --> 00:14:16.460 Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb. 00:14:17.060 --> 00:14:24.460 Jesus, being a Redeemer, tells us it's from the Redeemer, the one who formed you from the womb, I the Lord, and 00:14:24.460 --> 00:14:31.750 the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone. 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:38.610 This passage in Psalm 44 and verse 24 says, God created the earth all by himself. 00:14:38.900 --> 00:14:40.400 No one was there to aid or help him. 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:45.360 It's saying in Colossians chapter one verse 16, Jesus created all these things. 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:47.600 All these things came through him. 00:14:47.800 --> 00:14:55.500 And it goes on to tell us all these things came for him, meaning this As 00:14:55.500 --> 00:15:02.580 Jesus created this world, everything that he put within this world was intended to reflect back to 00:15:02.580 --> 00:15:03.800 the glory that he possessed. 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:09.180 It was all created for him as invisible. 00:15:09.540 --> 00:15:10.760 The spiritual world visible. 00:15:11.160 --> 00:15:13.400 The physical world that we live in, both heaven and earth. 00:15:13.400 --> 00:15:20.410 Whatever is possessed in this world, Jesus created it all, and it's all intended to reflect back to his glory and goodness. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:31.180 Verse 17, he goes on to say, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, Jesus 00:15:31.180 --> 00:15:32.320 being before all things. 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:35.400 It tells us in this passage is referring to his as Eternality. 00:15:37.520 --> 00:15:39.280 Jesus was there before anything else was. 00:15:40.280 --> 00:15:42.030 When we talk about existence, where it began. 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:43.580 The answer is just simply Jesus. 00:15:45.280 --> 00:15:53.140 When you open up your Bible and you read in Genesis chapter one and verse one, in the beginning, God never 00:15:53.140 --> 00:15:54.460 tells you how God got there. 00:15:54.460 --> 00:15:56.080 It never tells you where God came from. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.880 It just assumes God has always been. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:03.710 After all, Jesus is the one who created time. 00:16:04.580 --> 00:16:07.260 How could something come into existence before time was even possessed? 00:16:07.560 --> 00:16:10.540 Jesus is the one who created the idea of even being able to create. 00:16:11.540 --> 00:16:18.280 Before something was physically created, the idea of creating was brought into fruition and Jesus was behind that concept. 00:16:18.340 --> 00:16:21.000 How can something be created before the idea of creation is there? 00:16:21.260 --> 00:16:22.540 It's just God. 00:16:22.760 --> 00:16:24.040 Jesus has been there. 00:16:24.520 --> 00:16:24.970 He is eternal. 00:16:28.220 --> 00:16:34.510 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. 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:40.460 When it comes to the direction that the church pursues when it comes to worship, it's all about Jesus. 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:41.410 He is the ruler. 00:16:41.520 --> 00:16:43.320 A church can't survive if you cut off its head. 00:16:44.300 --> 00:16:45.160 It's all about Jesus. 00:16:47.300 --> 00:16:48.640 And he tells us, reminding us again. 00:16:48.680 --> 00:16:51.080 He uses the word firstborn again from the dead. 00:16:51.280 --> 00:16:54.560 It's almost like a false dichotomy of two words how can you be born and dead? 00:16:56.520 --> 00:17:00.820 But what it's telling us about again in this passage of Scripture, firstborn doesn't literally mean birth. 00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:03.480 It's an order of prominence. 00:17:04.980 --> 00:17:06.980 We know Jesus wasn't the first to die. 00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:13.670 Jesus wasn't even the first person to see resurrected or alive on the Mount of Transfiguration. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:19.260 When Jesus went up to the Mount of Transfiguration, he was there with Peter and Paul just hours before his crucifixion. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:26.740 It tells us that Moses and Elijah came back onto the Mount of Transfiguration and talked with Jesus there as the disciples witnessed 00:17:26.740 --> 00:17:27.579 it. 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:30.730 The firstborn from the dead doesn't mean he was literally firstborn to come back. 00:17:30.760 --> 00:17:33.340 Moses and Elijah were there, but what it means is in the order of prominence. 00:17:35.380 --> 00:17:39.800 Jesus has the authority not only in life as the firstborn of creation, the firstborn of the living. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:42.140 Jesus has prominence over the firstborn of the dead. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:44.760 Jesus is the resurrection. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:46.940 Jesus is the life. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.840 Paul is saying to the believers, not only do you trust him while you're living, but you trust him when you die. 00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:55.700 Jesus has the power to do everything that you need in your life. 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:01.740 So we ask ourselves, how can this be? 00:18:03.580 --> 00:18:09.540 How can Jesus create all these things and rule over the angels of the invisible world and the heavens and the earth? 00:18:10.760 --> 00:18:11.180 How is he eternal? 00:18:13.160 --> 00:18:14.220 How is he the head of the body? 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:17.820 How does he have the power to resurrect us from the dead? 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:22.100 Tells us in verse 19 as we go forward. 00:18:24.320 --> 00:18:27.620 For it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:31.820 Fulness, literally meaning completeness. 00:18:33.460 --> 00:18:38.660 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. 00:18:39.040 --> 00:18:43.240 Jesus is completely God. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:48.610 If you're looking in your new American Standard Bible at verse 19, one of the things you'll notice about the word fathers. 00:18:48.760 --> 00:18:49.940 And I don't even have to look at your Bible to know this. 00:18:51.560 --> 00:18:54.600 If you see the word father at all written in your verse, it's going to be italicized. 00:18:57.060 --> 00:18:59.650 The reason it's italicized is because it's not in the original manuscripts. 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:05.200 When the book of Colossians was actually written, the word father was the word God. 00:19:06.380 --> 00:19:13.540 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 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:15.490 Jesus and the God as He is the father. 00:19:15.780 --> 00:19:19.040 They inserted the word father to help in your understanding for that. 00:19:20.120 --> 00:19:27.180 Literally, the original manuscript reads this way, for it was God's good pleasure for all the fullness of himself to dwell in 00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:27.880 Jesus. 00:19:29.460 --> 00:19:32.560 Jesus is God. 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:35.700 How can these things be? 00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:40.900 Answer simply because he is God. 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:48.600 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 00:19:48.600 --> 00:19:49.560 to this world. 00:19:50.060 --> 00:19:56.640 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. 00:19:58.620 --> 00:20:01.820 But it doesn't necessarily prove who Jesus really was. 00:20:03.840 --> 00:20:11.360 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 00:20:11.360 --> 00:20:12.610 a scientific mind. 00:20:14.340 --> 00:20:17.440 Is it possible to rationally explain that Jesus is God? 00:20:18.040 --> 00:20:19.020 That Jesus really lived? 00:20:19.060 --> 00:20:21.300 That Jesus really was raised from the grave. 00:20:21.460 --> 00:20:24.180 And there's all kinds of great literature that's out there on it. 00:20:25.060 --> 00:20:30.800 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. 00:20:31.740 --> 00:20:35.290 Skeptics Who Demand a Verdict is an awesome book written by Josh McDowell. 00:20:36.560 --> 00:20:43.600 It follows in history the deep thinkers of life who started off atheist or agnostic, but later came to 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:46.460 accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of the world. 00:20:47.460 --> 00:20:48.920 It portrays the life of three men. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:54.780 It goes after Charles Colson, who was involved in the Richard Nixon scandal and Watergate. 00:20:55.460 --> 00:20:55.980 C.s. 00:20:55.980 --> 00:20:58.660 Lewis, who was a brilliant mind who taught at Cambridge. 00:21:00.040 --> 00:21:02.010 And Josh McDowell as well. 00:21:03.220 --> 00:21:10.380 Within that book, you'll find several quotes of men who were considered top in their fields of understanding and reason and 00:21:10.380 --> 00:21:11.060 logic. 00:21:11.080 --> 00:21:17.680 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. 00:21:17.860 --> 00:21:20.220 Listen to this, doctor. 00:21:20.340 --> 00:21:27.760 Clark Pinnock, professor of interpretation at McMaster University in Toronto, says skepticism regarding the history and the credentials 00:21:27.860 --> 00:21:31.440 of Christianity is solely based upon irrational biases. 00:21:34.340 --> 00:21:41.460 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 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:48.010 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. 00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:52.120 Simon Greenleaf was a was a Jewish man. 00:21:52.140 --> 00:21:55.320 He was also considered the royal professor of Harvard Law School. 00:21:55.600 --> 00:21:59.180 He's the guy when you think about Harvard Law, he's the guy that started it. 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:10.900 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 00:22:10.900 --> 00:22:18.200 resurrection of Jesus is one of the best established events in history according to the laws of legal evidence, and Simon Greenleaf 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:20.050 gave his life to the Lord. 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:30.160 John Singleton Copley, better known as Lord Lyndhurst, is recognised as the greatest legal 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:31.300 mind in British history. 00:22:32.780 --> 00:22:37.680 He's the Attorney General of Great Britain, the High Chancellor of England, the High Steward of the University of Cambridge. 00:22:38.040 --> 00:22:41.520 He held the highest offices ever conferred on a judge in Great Britain. 00:22:42.700 --> 00:22:49.880 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 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:57.100 that writing they found a quote from him that said, I know pretty well what evidence is, and I tell you, such 00:22:57.100 --> 00:23:02.280 evidence as that for the resurrection has never been broken down yet. 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:08.340 Lord Justice of England, Lord Darling said, no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict. 00:23:08.340 --> 00:23:11.380 The resurrection and true story that is of Christ. 00:23:14.820 --> 00:23:22.340 So when we talk about Colossians chapter one, the power of Jesus, It's 00:23:22.340 --> 00:23:27.840 not only something that Scripture dictates to us as people and declares to us proudly as people. 00:23:28.500 --> 00:23:32.260 It's something that the course of history has proven time and time again. 00:23:33.820 --> 00:23:35.170 How big is your God? 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.250 How big is Jesus in your eyes? 00:23:42.020 --> 00:23:44.590 Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? 00:23:44.600 --> 00:23:50.590 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. 00:23:50.840 --> 00:23:53.760 Simon Peter replied, you are the son of the living God. 00:23:54.100 --> 00:23:56.660 And Jesus said, I tell you are Peter. 00:23:56.980 --> 00:24:00.100 And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. 00:24:01.500 --> 00:24:07.870 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. 00:24:08.320 --> 00:24:09.700 This makes you powerful. 00:24:10.780 --> 00:24:17.920 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 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:25.280 prevail because of the power that I possess that you just saw in Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 15. 00:24:27.260 --> 00:24:33.020 I ask myself, when we get to the end of this, these verses in verse 19, why is this passage even here? 00:24:35.340 --> 00:24:42.460 We remember it's written to believers who already accepted Jesus, who already acknowledged him 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:46.660 as Lord and rescuer of their from their sins and their lives. 00:24:48.260 --> 00:24:54.030 But this passage is here because the believers in Colossae forgot how important he was. 00:24:54.600 --> 00:25:01.040 In fact, if you were to read revelations chapter two and three, you'll find the seven churches that surround the area of Colossae. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:05.200 And God is writing to them about where they're falling short in their relationship to him. 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:08.570 And he says this of the church of Ephesus, which started the church of Colossae. 00:25:09.180 --> 00:25:14.540 And revelation two four you have forgotten your first love. 00:25:17.060 --> 00:25:21.260 So when the church forgets the importance of significance and the role of Christ in their lives. 00:25:22.440 --> 00:25:27.320 They lose their power and their relationship to God. 00:25:28.060 --> 00:25:29.330 Why is this here? 00:25:31.220 --> 00:25:33.530 It's here because it's important what you believe. 00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:42.230 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. 00:25:43.100 --> 00:25:50.120 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 00:25:50.120 --> 00:25:50.660 book of Colossians. 00:25:52.780 --> 00:25:54.960 You need to see what Jesus said about himself. 00:25:57.840 --> 00:26:00.320 God had excuse me. 00:26:00.380 --> 00:26:05.870 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. 00:26:07.260 --> 00:26:13.830 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. 00:26:15.600 --> 00:26:22.720 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 00:26:22.800 --> 00:26:23.880 care for about our lives. 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:25.910 That would mean nothing to us as people. 00:26:27.780 --> 00:26:34.800 But does this big and glorious God care about you and about I mean, we as 00:26:34.800 --> 00:26:37.840 people have needs, don't we? 00:26:38.120 --> 00:26:41.360 It's no doubt once you turn on the news that we live in a broken world. 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:50.560 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 00:26:50.560 --> 00:26:51.250 they're still there. 00:26:53.140 --> 00:26:55.400 And if we don't have money, we just charge it to an account. 00:26:57.360 --> 00:27:04.780 If we're sick, we go crazy over finding a cure for a terminal illness to prolong death, but never thinking about spiritual eternity. 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:10.180 If we experience any emotional turmoil, a lot of times we'll medicate ourselves to dull the pain. 00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:11.860 If we experience physical pain. 00:27:11.860 --> 00:27:12.940 We'll medicate ourselves to. 00:27:13.360 --> 00:27:14.630 To dull the physical pain. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:14.880 Never. 00:27:15.120 --> 00:27:19.710 May be asking, why in the world is there some sort of curse that exists upon us as human beings? 00:27:20.780 --> 00:27:27.400 We seek more friendships to kill a deep loneliness in our soul through all kinds of social media that exists in this world today. 00:27:28.440 --> 00:27:35.660 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. 00:27:37.840 --> 00:27:39.840 We buy material goods for temporary happiness. 00:27:42.100 --> 00:27:47.600 Pornography is rampant across America today as a substitute for intimacy. 00:27:48.820 --> 00:27:55.960 Maybe an intimacy intimacy that we lack in a relationship with God, all the while prolonging the inevitable 00:27:55.960 --> 00:27:58.100 that we have problems in this world. 00:27:58.100 --> 00:28:05.120 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 00:28:05.120 --> 00:28:05.920 problems. 00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:07.660 The Bible refers to that as sin. 00:28:10.140 --> 00:28:17.220 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 00:28:17.220 --> 00:28:20.700 bad that it literally has pulled you from the power source that is God. 00:28:21.660 --> 00:28:28.970 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, 00:28:29.280 --> 00:28:36.360 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, 00:28:36.800 --> 00:28:42.160 and you never have any sort of functioning power going on whatsoever, you need to plug into that power source. 00:28:42.560 --> 00:28:46.980 Because of sin, we're dead from that relationship with God. 00:28:48.020 --> 00:28:48.980 Sin is a parent, right? 00:28:50.920 --> 00:28:51.280 C.s. 00:28:51.280 --> 00:28:58.340 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 00:28:58.340 --> 00:28:59.610 out into the world, and he would enjoy creation. 00:28:59.940 --> 00:29:03.800 While he enjoyed creation, he also recognized that there was just something wrong with creation. 00:29:05.020 --> 00:29:06.180 Animals turning on animals. 00:29:06.180 --> 00:29:13.280 It was a ravenous thing to watch things go through winter and die from malnourishment and not having enough food creation 00:29:13.280 --> 00:29:18.760 was a beautiful thing, but creation also had some sort of curse that possessed, and it began to challenge him and question him. 00:29:19.120 --> 00:29:21.080 How in this beauty is there still such destruction? 00:29:23.620 --> 00:29:25.900 At night we lock our doors for protection. 00:29:26.020 --> 00:29:27.340 We have prisons that are overflowing. 00:29:27.700 --> 00:29:34.720 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? 00:29:35.100 --> 00:29:38.140 Not only do we have needs from sin, but we also have a need from death. 00:29:39.080 --> 00:29:43.980 Anytime the Bible refers to death, what it often refers to is not just a physical death, a spiritual death as well. 00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:46.740 Meaning to us. 00:29:46.780 --> 00:29:50.840 If you want to spend an eternity with God, you can spiritually die and spend an eternity away from God. 00:29:50.900 --> 00:29:54.760 If you want to spend an eternity with Christ in heaven forever, you can spend an eternity with him forever. 00:29:55.220 --> 00:29:57.710 It's a matter of placing your faith in Christ. 00:29:59.500 --> 00:30:04.060 One day we will all physically die and death is a horrible thing. 00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:06.860 Matter of fact, it's not natural. 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:10.620 When God created us in the Garden of Eden. 00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:13.440 He never created us with the intention of facing death. 00:30:15.280 --> 00:30:17.710 That's why it's okay when death happens to get angry. 00:30:19.300 --> 00:30:23.030 It's a reminder to us as people that we live in a sin cursed world. 00:30:24.560 --> 00:30:29.750 The Bible tells us in Romans 323, the wages of our sin is death. 00:30:31.340 --> 00:30:35.010 The cost of our sin is our own death. 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:43.480 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 00:30:43.560 --> 00:30:44.360 of that death reigned. 00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:47.300 We need rescued from sin. 00:30:47.300 --> 00:30:48.280 We need rescued from death. 00:30:48.360 --> 00:30:50.090 But not only that, we need rescued from Satan. 00:30:52.520 --> 00:30:58.180 As Americans, we oftentimes fall short of thinking about the spiritual world. 00:31:00.500 --> 00:31:07.520 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 00:31:07.520 --> 00:31:09.880 lives, and it wants to hinder us from understanding who God is. 00:31:10.080 --> 00:31:15.800 It tells us in John 1010, the thief comes to steal and to kill and destroy. 00:31:17.520 --> 00:31:19.620 Nothing more powerfully Satan would desire to do. 00:31:19.620 --> 00:31:25.120 And among his church body, Christ's church body today, than to just rip us apart and literally destroy us. 00:31:25.280 --> 00:31:25.540 First. 00:31:25.540 --> 00:31:29.860 Peter says in five eight that Satan wants to devour your life. 00:31:30.620 --> 00:31:32.490 I mean, there's nothing pretty about that. 00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:36.590 And you know, the number one thing that brought the destruction of Satan was pride. 00:31:37.760 --> 00:31:43.700 It tells us in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28 that Satan desired to take the position and authority of God. 00:31:43.760 --> 00:31:44.640 He became prideful. 00:31:46.280 --> 00:31:47.880 He said, I'm going to become like God. 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:55.020 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? 00:31:55.040 --> 00:31:59.940 Eve, you can become like God. 00:31:59.960 --> 00:32:01.610 Pride. 00:32:02.980 --> 00:32:09.980 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 00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:10.530 us. 00:32:12.560 --> 00:32:14.480 I showed a book, evidence that Demands a verdict. 00:32:14.520 --> 00:32:19.160 We read Scripture on the deity of who Christ is and the power and authority that he possesses in the world. 00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:27.960 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 00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:28.240 pride. 00:32:31.040 --> 00:32:33.860 The Bible tells us that pride cometh before the fall and it leads to destruction. 00:32:34.280 --> 00:32:36.940 Does God care about us facing all these things in this world? 00:32:37.220 --> 00:32:41.680 And what he goes on to tell us in Colossians, starting in verse 20, he goes and through him. 00:32:42.980 --> 00:32:44.100 Through Jesus. 00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:51.740 And his concern for you to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I 00:32:51.740 --> 00:32:54.620 say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. 00:32:56.440 --> 00:33:01.900 And this is passages saying to us as people that Jesus literally he sees our need together. 00:33:01.900 --> 00:33:04.980 And he recognizes that based upon sin, we aren't perfect. 00:33:04.980 --> 00:33:07.280 We can't enter into the perfection of heaven. 00:33:07.280 --> 00:33:09.160 We can't come before God's presence being sinful people. 00:33:09.520 --> 00:33:13.800 But Jesus love for us brings heaven on earth, and he unites us together. 00:33:13.820 --> 00:33:18.320 That we may experience that relationship with him both now and for all eternity. 00:33:21.860 --> 00:33:22.360 Wow. 00:33:24.920 --> 00:33:30.420 And he does this through the cross tells us in Hebrews 922. 00:33:32.480 --> 00:33:36.540 Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. 00:33:38.100 --> 00:33:39.580 He's creating a word picture. 00:33:39.600 --> 00:33:44.690 And the idea is of the Jewish people who are now teaching the Gentiles in this world about Jesus and His sacrifice. 00:33:46.480 --> 00:33:53.600 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 00:33:53.780 --> 00:33:54.630 because they were unworthy. 00:33:55.800 --> 00:34:00.620 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. 00:34:00.640 --> 00:34:03.800 And they would literally, in sacrificing that animal, make that animal bleed. 00:34:03.940 --> 00:34:08.560 And everyone understood that the moment that animal started to bleed, that animal wasn't coming back off the altar. 00:34:09.040 --> 00:34:11.080 That blood was intended to kill that animal. 00:34:13.060 --> 00:34:15.500 It was a reflection of what Jesus was going to do on our behalf. 00:34:17.159 --> 00:34:24.400 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 00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:24.860 the cross. 00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:26.300 God is a just God. 00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:27.980 He demands that sin be paid for. 00:34:30.900 --> 00:34:37.900 And Jesus took that payment and he shed that blood with the understanding of knowing 00:34:37.900 --> 00:34:39.460 this when that blood was shed. 00:34:40.080 --> 00:34:47.550 So his life went and God brought justice in this world, but he also brought grace to us as people. 00:34:49.139 --> 00:34:56.239 You think for a moment of a time in your life when you were deeply wronged, and the way that it affected your 00:34:56.239 --> 00:34:58.290 relationship towards that person. 00:34:59.120 --> 00:35:02.600 Have you ever been hurt so deeply in your life that it required you to call the law. 00:35:04.220 --> 00:35:11.400 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 00:35:11.400 --> 00:35:12.450 against you? 00:35:14.300 --> 00:35:16.820 Do you know in that circumstance you have one of two choices. 00:35:17.140 --> 00:35:21.020 You can either seek justice and judgment in the life of that person who's wronged you. 00:35:21.260 --> 00:35:23.080 You can call the police and you can send them to jail. 00:35:24.120 --> 00:35:26.100 In some cases, I would say it's important to do. 00:35:27.880 --> 00:35:34.900 But, the other alternative to that is for the sake of that relationship, you absorb all 00:35:34.900 --> 00:35:41.980 that pain and hurt upon yourself and that person that's hurt you so deeply, no matter how deep 00:35:41.980 --> 00:35:43.280 those pains go. 00:35:43.520 --> 00:35:45.560 You say, what I want to offer to you is grace. 00:35:47.400 --> 00:35:50.330 This relationship is so important to me. 00:35:51.640 --> 00:35:54.440 And what Jesus is saying in this verse is the same thing about us. 00:35:54.500 --> 00:35:57.760 When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden for the first time, God was completely just. 00:35:57.940 --> 00:36:04.940 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 00:36:04.940 --> 00:36:05.840 before his presence. 00:36:06.040 --> 00:36:19.280 But what God did was he looked at our situation and he said, 00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:19.280 this pain that has broken us, I'm going to absorb the hurt. 00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:19.280 I'm going to take it. 00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:21.090 And what I'm going to do is offer you grace. 00:36:23.020 --> 00:36:24.690 Notice what it says in this passage of Scripture. 00:36:24.860 --> 00:36:28.750 It says that God reconciled himself to us in the very first line. 00:36:28.940 --> 00:36:31.300 Through him to reconcile all things to himself. 00:36:32.080 --> 00:36:37.800 It's not God reconciling us to him, it's man having to be reconciled to God because we are the ones who left him. 00:36:38.080 --> 00:36:44.920 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. 00:36:46.220 --> 00:36:52.180 The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter seven and verse 22, unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. 00:36:52.260 --> 00:36:52.580 And what? 00:36:52.580 --> 00:36:52.920 Jesus? 00:36:53.300 --> 00:37:00.510 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. 00:37:02.040 --> 00:37:03.780 In verse 21 and 22, look what it says. 00:37:05.100 --> 00:37:05.500 It says. 00:37:05.500 --> 00:37:06.680 And although you. 00:37:07.020 --> 00:37:08.180 He's getting very personal here. 00:37:08.700 --> 00:37:12.240 You were formerly alienated from God. 00:37:12.240 --> 00:37:14.100 Your relationship was gone from God. 00:37:14.100 --> 00:37:15.760 You were hostile to God in mind. 00:37:16.300 --> 00:37:20.980 Meaning, when we talk about sin, it's not just a matter of living sin out in your life, it's your heart. 00:37:21.680 --> 00:37:25.120 The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter five, from the heart proceeds the evil thoughts. 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:27.290 When we do bad things, it's not because. 00:37:27.980 --> 00:37:29.960 It's not because you were temporarily a bad person. 00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:33.320 It's because your heart is wicked and Jesus has got to change that. 00:37:34.460 --> 00:37:37.080 And he's saying to us, you are hostile in your mind. 00:37:37.140 --> 00:37:38.550 The things of your heart were anti-God. 00:37:39.040 --> 00:37:41.300 And then this is how it played out in deed. 00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:45.440 You had a wrong belief that was set in your heart and you lived it in your life. 00:37:45.500 --> 00:37:52.780 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 00:37:52.780 --> 00:37:53.000 him. 00:37:53.080 --> 00:37:55.740 It's beautiful. 00:37:55.960 --> 00:38:03.200 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, 00:38:03.200 --> 00:38:07.920 holy and blameless and beyond reproach. 00:38:09.620 --> 00:38:16.560 When God looks at you from heaven above, he wants to see the beauty of Jesus reflected on you and in you. 00:38:17.860 --> 00:38:24.920 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 00:38:24.920 --> 00:38:26.910 has done in your life. 00:38:28.220 --> 00:38:35.440 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 00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:40.460 you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. 00:38:42.670 --> 00:38:46.720 He is simply saying to the Colossian church, listen, church, I'm going to tell you all about Jesus. 00:38:47.320 --> 00:38:48.560 This is how powerful he is. 00:38:48.980 --> 00:38:50.280 This is what he's done for you. 00:38:50.560 --> 00:38:57.840 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 00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:00.820 from generation to generation within the church, of course. 00:39:01.540 --> 00:39:03.840 But not only just them, it's to us as well. 00:39:06.080 --> 00:39:09.740 If you're going to stand for something in this world, it might as well be for truth. 00:39:11.300 --> 00:39:17.040 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. 00:39:17.860 --> 00:39:20.220 Without the head, we are nothing as a body. 00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:23.920 Heavy doctrine today, isn't it? 00:39:25.120 --> 00:39:32.120 But this understanding and foundation of everything that Jesus is so important to how Paul is going to lay out the rest of this book and how it rings into 00:39:32.120 --> 00:39:37.870 the practical living of our lives, of how knowing Jesus relates to us in our day to day living and thinking. 00:39:39.160 --> 00:39:42.350 I'm reminded of a story of a lady who lived in Brazil, off in the country. 00:39:42.620 --> 00:39:48.810 She was a single mom who spent many hours away from the home, working to provide for her only daughter in the home. 00:39:50.160 --> 00:39:52.940 The story goes as this she was very poor and her daughter became antsy. 00:39:53.220 --> 00:39:53.660 She got older. 00:39:53.740 --> 00:39:58.120 She wanted more possessions and she knew that they were poor and she didn't want to live poor anymore. 00:39:58.560 --> 00:40:05.270 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. 00:40:05.420 --> 00:40:12.600 She would head to, she would head to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and she would become a prostitute, like many of the other ladies who were poor 00:40:12.600 --> 00:40:13.060 in the country. 00:40:14.900 --> 00:40:17.460 Sure enough, one day mom came home from work and daughter was gone. 00:40:17.700 --> 00:40:22.030 And all she saw was a note that said, mom, I'm headed to Rio de Janeiro. 00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:24.550 I'm off to make some money. 00:40:25.220 --> 00:40:27.530 I love you and hopefully I'll see you soon. 00:40:28.980 --> 00:40:36.140 The mom became frantic because she knew what that lifestyle represented, and she knew that her daughter likely would never come 00:40:36.140 --> 00:40:38.910 home, and if she did, it probably wouldn't be alive. 00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:43.080 And so the mother sold every possession that she had. 00:40:43.120 --> 00:40:44.580 She drove to the city. 00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:51.170 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. 00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:56.790 And then she traveled around the entire city of Brazil, and she began to drop off these pictures and all these businesses. 00:40:56.940 --> 00:40:57.940 And she wrote a note on each person. 00:40:58.060 --> 00:40:59.240 She would ask each business person. 00:40:59.640 --> 00:41:00.820 Listen, I'm missing my daughter. 00:41:01.020 --> 00:41:01.960 I don't know where she is. 00:41:01.960 --> 00:41:09.220 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 know 00:41:09.220 --> 00:41:10.500 that I care about her and come home. 00:41:13.040 --> 00:41:16.320 A few years later, this young lady was in a hotel. 00:41:17.800 --> 00:41:24.160 She's walking down the stairs, she's with a man and she's lived a life of prostitution. 00:41:27.280 --> 00:41:34.380 She begins to look over in a mirror to see her reflection, and she noticed in just 00:41:34.380 --> 00:41:37.000 a couple of years she's aged more than 15 years. 00:41:38.640 --> 00:41:43.360 And she begins to think of her situation and how pitiful it must seem. 00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:48.420 And as she looks at this mirror, she sees a picture of her mother. 00:41:50.780 --> 00:41:51.340 An excited. 00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:58.480 She runs over to the picture looking at her mom, who she hasn't seen for quite a while, and she pulls the picture off and she flips it over on the back and on 00:41:58.480 --> 00:42:05.450 the back of the picture there's written, I don't care where you are and I don't care what you've done. 00:42:07.100 --> 00:42:08.090 I just want you to come home. 00:42:11.020 --> 00:42:17.420 I think about the story of the gospel from Genesis to Revelation played in the Bible. 00:42:19.540 --> 00:42:22.560 That's Jesus's message in pursuit of you. 00:42:25.160 --> 00:42:26.700 He doesn't care where you've been. 00:42:28.320 --> 00:42:29.760 He doesn't care what you've done. 00:42:29.760 --> 00:42:34.850 And he has sold everything in his kingdom to come to this earth to die for you. 00:42:35.080 --> 00:42:38.820 So you would just come home. 00:42:41.060 --> 00:42:46.020 If you're experiencing an emptiness inside, it's only an emptiness that Christ can fulfill. 00:42:46.980 --> 00:42:51.480 If you're looking for purpose in your life, It's only a purpose that Jesus can give. 00:42:51.520 --> 00:42:55.830 Do you understand how important it is what you believe about Christ? 00:42:56.160 --> 00:42:59.640 Because if he's the creator of all things, he's the originator of joy. 00:42:59.860 --> 00:43:01.560 Just don't go in this world and look for joy. 00:43:01.740 --> 00:43:05.740 Look to Jesus, and in Jesus you find the joy that he's promised to give. 00:43:08.200 --> 00:43:11.860 Paul is bringing hope to the church of Colossians that they're seeking to leave behind. 00:43:13.140 --> 00:43:18.080 And what we find is if we carry this belief about Jesus, we understand how important it is in our relationship with him. 00:43:18.400 --> 00:43:18.600 We. 00:43:18.760 --> 00:43:20.160 We see a radical God. 00:43:20.160 --> 00:43:24.290 We see his radical plan, but we see a radical living. 00:43:25.580 --> 00:43:26.500 And this is Paul's response. 00:43:28.040 --> 00:43:30.380 I had to do this quickly because we're running out of time. 00:43:31.160 --> 00:43:38.280 It says in verse 24, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in 00:43:38.420 --> 00:43:41.120 filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. 00:43:41.180 --> 00:43:43.880 Paul saying, man, I'm living dangerous for Jesus. 00:43:43.880 --> 00:43:45.500 That's how important this message is. 00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:47.740 Whatever I need to do to put myself out there. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:48.360 I'm doing it. 00:43:49.400 --> 00:43:50.560 May I ask yourselves for a minute? 00:43:50.640 --> 00:43:52.580 If you had the cure for cancer, would you share it? 00:43:53.700 --> 00:44:00.830 The cure for Aids, the cure for social injustice, for slavery, for prostitution, for famine, for rape, for all sin that we experience, 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:01.720 for loneliness. 00:44:02.240 --> 00:44:05.020 If you had the cure for that in your hands, would you share it? 00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:11.250 The Bible tells us that Jesus is wonderful. 00:44:26.900 --> 00:44:26.900 Counselor, everlasting father, Prince of Peace. 00:44:26.900 --> 00:44:26.900 Jesus. 00:44:26.900 --> 00:44:28.340 Verse 25 Paul goes on to share in the next three verses. 00:44:28.540 --> 00:44:30.920 I didn't put them all up there, but just about his ministry. 00:44:31.860 --> 00:44:37.170 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. 00:44:37.560 --> 00:44:44.580 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 00:44:44.580 --> 00:44:46.660 that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God. 00:44:47.020 --> 00:44:51.740 Listen, God has called me to this people group to share this message, and I'm doing it, man. 00:44:52.520 --> 00:44:53.270 I'm living dangerous. 00:44:53.320 --> 00:44:54.180 I don't care what it brings. 00:44:54.180 --> 00:44:55.480 I'm in a prison in Rome right now. 00:44:55.500 --> 00:44:57.220 But it's for your sake and the gospel. 00:44:57.720 --> 00:44:58.840 The joy that Jesus promises. 00:44:59.240 --> 00:45:01.610 That's how important it is that I'm laying my life down for it. 00:45:03.080 --> 00:45:04.060 And he goes on to say in verse 28. 00:45:04.640 --> 00:45:05.290 This is his goal. 00:45:06.160 --> 00:45:07.320 This is Paul's goal for you. 00:45:07.380 --> 00:45:08.790 This should be our goal as a church. 00:45:09.600 --> 00:45:10.500 We proclaim him. 00:45:11.600 --> 00:45:14.100 If you come to church and we stop talking about Jesus, please stop coming. 00:45:14.280 --> 00:45:14.920 Okay. 00:45:15.080 --> 00:45:16.740 I want a lot of people to come to church. 00:45:17.280 --> 00:45:18.140 I want our church to grow. 00:45:18.360 --> 00:45:19.380 I want Lehigh to have its own church. 00:45:19.460 --> 00:45:20.730 I want everybody grow in a relationship with Jesus. 00:45:21.160 --> 00:45:23.800 But I'm going to tell you now, we're unhealthy if we're not talking about Jesus. 00:45:24.460 --> 00:45:25.240 There's a better one out there. 00:45:25.240 --> 00:45:25.720 Go find another one. 00:45:25.960 --> 00:45:26.880 Okay. 00:45:27.400 --> 00:45:29.420 That's how you go into any church in this world. 00:45:29.440 --> 00:45:34.190 If they're not talking about the power of Christ working the lives of believers, don't sit there. 00:45:35.800 --> 00:45:42.860 It says, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in 00:45:42.860 --> 00:45:43.760 Christ. 00:45:43.970 --> 00:45:47.700 Mature, not lacking for this purpose. 00:45:48.860 --> 00:45:54.520 Also I labor striving according to his power, which mightily works in me. 00:45:55.500 --> 00:46:00.980 Let me ask you in verse 28 for just a moment, we talk about being mature or complete in Jesus. 00:46:02.560 --> 00:46:03.520 Are you being discipled? 00:46:05.820 --> 00:46:12.370 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? 00:46:14.560 --> 00:46:17.700 Do you feel confident in how to study the Bible, how to pray to God? 00:46:18.340 --> 00:46:19.300 How to live for him? 00:46:19.400 --> 00:46:20.350 How to serve him? 00:46:22.360 --> 00:46:22.580 Be mature. 00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:27.000 Second, as you're mature with the Lord, who are you bringing under your wing? 00:46:28.860 --> 00:46:33.690 Jesus is giving you a message of power and influence in this world to change this world through him, one person at a time. 00:46:33.900 --> 00:46:35.480 Are you discipling someone? 00:46:35.480 --> 00:46:37.160 Influencing someone else with the power of Christ? 00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:43.900 Verse 29, what Paul tells us is that he does this ministry. 00:46:43.920 --> 00:46:48.190 It's according to his power, according to Christ's power working in him. 00:46:49.880 --> 00:46:55.370 For those who are afraid to live for Christ and to stand up for the Lord. 00:46:56.540 --> 00:46:59.140 Can I just tell you to focus on verse 29 for just a moment? 00:47:01.040 --> 00:47:03.380 Paul is emphasizing the power of Christ working in him. 00:47:03.420 --> 00:47:08.120 You know, when we started a church in Lehi, I'm only 29 years old, knocking on 30 this year. 00:47:08.280 --> 00:47:08.920 It's going to be a wonderful celebration. 00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:10.380 Everyone's invited to come. 00:47:10.460 --> 00:47:11.260 All right. 00:47:11.560 --> 00:47:12.610 I don't know where it's going to be yet. 00:47:13.340 --> 00:47:14.920 Working on the gray hairs for that party today. 00:47:17.040 --> 00:47:18.100 I first moved to Utah. 00:47:18.100 --> 00:47:25.560 I was 23 years old, and stepping into ministry was a scary thing, because 00:47:25.640 --> 00:47:27.000 what I lacked was a lot of experience. 00:47:29.340 --> 00:47:35.760 And what I just simply did was trust in what verse 29 talks about the power of God working in me. 00:47:37.080 --> 00:47:38.350 We talk about making disciples. 00:47:39.140 --> 00:47:39.920 That is a scary thing. 00:47:41.440 --> 00:47:47.400 Sharing Jesus with other people, especially if you don't exactly know where to go when you find people like Mark. 00:47:52.180 --> 00:47:53.620 Sometimes it's a scary thing, you know? 00:47:55.980 --> 00:48:02.140 But to live on that fear, you miss those opportunities, don't you? 00:48:03.300 --> 00:48:10.660 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 00:48:10.660 --> 00:48:12.360 now for the rest of my life. 00:48:12.420 --> 00:48:12.820 You understand that? 00:48:14.740 --> 00:48:22.120 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. 00:48:22.280 --> 00:48:22.380 Right. 00:48:24.120 --> 00:48:25.380 God's grace is sufficient. 00:48:25.540 --> 00:48:27.790 Paul says God's grace is sufficient for me. 00:48:29.220 --> 00:48:32.180 God's power is sufficient for you. 00:48:32.920 --> 00:48:33.620 How big is your God? 00:48:35.360 --> 00:48:42.920 And when you step out to do ministry for him, God's going to supply you with the strength in that moment to 00:48:42.920 --> 00:48:43.710 meet that need. 00:48:45.040 --> 00:48:49.680 I'm not saying go crazy and go live in Egypt and stand on the corners and preach. 00:48:49.940 --> 00:48:51.560 You may not live very long, right? 00:48:52.200 --> 00:48:54.460 Or some country where the gospel is being prosecuted. 00:48:54.820 --> 00:48:55.700 If God leads you that way. 00:48:55.700 --> 00:48:56.240 God bless you. 00:48:56.240 --> 00:48:57.700 We'll do everything we can to get you there. 00:48:57.700 --> 00:48:57.800 Right? 00:48:59.120 --> 00:48:59.940 But just take a step. 00:49:01.960 --> 00:49:05.200 Live a radical change and trust in that moment. 00:49:05.200 --> 00:49:06.340 As you're stepping out for the Lord. 00:49:06.340 --> 00:49:07.180 You may not have all the answers. 00:49:07.500 --> 00:49:08.400 You don't have to fake it. 00:49:09.580 --> 00:49:11.880 But just trust in the power of God working in you. 00:49:11.960 --> 00:49:19.770 And what you're going to find is every step you take, his power is sufficient for you. 00:49:20.040 --> 00:49:23.910 Church what you believe is important. 00:49:25.460 --> 00:49:32.460 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 00:49:32.460 --> 00:49:37.060 stand for Christ because his power mightily works in you.