WEBVTT 00:00:00.220 --> 00:00:01.920 Today we're going to study this idea of creeds. 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:04.140 And I'm going to invite you to turn to Colossians chapter one. 00:00:05.660 --> 00:00:08.100 We're going to pick up in verse 13. 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:15.140 And the reason we're studying the Creed today is because Paul has inserted a hymnal Creed in Colossians chapter 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:15.540 one. 00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:18.600 He does it again in Colossians chapter two. 00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:26.100 And in fact, your Bible is really full of them When you study early church history, tradition, when you study 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:33.240 Old Testament, you'll find there are lots of poetry songs written within 00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:33.920 Scripture. 00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:40.200 And the reason for that is because society was built on oral tradition to own any sort of paperwork. 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:43.120 During this time period, you would have had to have been a wealthy individual. 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:51.060 There weren't printing presses, there wasn't a Office Depot you could go to and pick up your sleeve of paper 00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:55.900 from or your box of copy paper in to even create a piece of paper. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.410 It took a lot of tedious work and effort and it was expensive. 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:06.820 And so in order for societies to understand teachings that were significant to them, they would develop creeds or hymns 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:08.640 to sing to one another. 00:01:08.660 --> 00:01:15.480 And so they would pass their traditions and their identity in oral ways of expression. 00:01:16.060 --> 00:01:18.780 And they would write these expressions in ways that were memorable. 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:21.880 And so throughout your Bible, there are actually portions. 00:01:21.880 --> 00:01:29.220 You don't see this in the in the English version of it, but there are rhythmic portions of scripture that are expressed in creedal 00:01:29.220 --> 00:01:36.320 ways or hymnal writings, some of which Philippians chapter two, verse five, Paul wrote, Have this mind in you, which is also in 00:01:36.320 --> 00:01:36.880 Christ Jesus. 00:01:37.580 --> 00:01:44.100 He goes on to describe Jesus, though being in the form of God took on the form of sinful man and humbled himself to death on the cross. 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:51.760 He writes about a creedal statement in First Corinthians 15 I delivered to you, which I also received What Paul is saying in First Corinthians 00:01:51.850 --> 00:01:52.300 15. 00:01:52.360 --> 00:01:58.520 Verse three is This is a statement the church has already been saying and I've received it and I'm passing it on to you. 00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:00.580 And so he writes it in First Corinthians 15. 00:02:01.360 --> 00:02:03.540 The same is true with Colossians chapter one. 00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:11.180 And so any time you get to a passage like this, you say to yourself, okay, this is such a significant place of scripture, because Paul 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:18.200 is either writing this as a song for the church to sing or a creed for the church to remember and recite together, or this is 00:02:18.200 --> 00:02:22.960 already something the church has been doing, and Paul has written it down in Scripture for us. 00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:26.840 What really attests to the significance of this is Paul's testimony. 00:02:27.480 --> 00:02:30.800 The validity of Jesus and who he is really important to us as a church. 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:32.600 It's where we develop our identity as people. 00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:35.680 It's what we stand for as a as a congregation. 00:02:37.260 --> 00:02:44.340 Paul when he's writing this creed, if we give if we give credence to Paul and where he's been in his life to the point of where he is writing this now, 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:46.260 this really validates this text. 00:02:46.480 --> 00:02:53.540 And the reason I say this is because, Paul, in Acts Chapter nine, if you remember his conversion story, he's persecuting Christians, he's 00:02:53.700 --> 00:02:54.050 killing Christians. 00:02:54.980 --> 00:02:55.840 Paul hates Christians. 00:02:56.680 --> 00:03:00.280 Paul on his way to persecute more Christians, encounters Jesus. 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:05.080 His life is radically transformed to the point when he composes this letter to us. 00:03:05.480 --> 00:03:08.380 He's in jail and his life is being threatened. 00:03:09.040 --> 00:03:11.840 In fact, the story tells us that Paul is released in Acts. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.580 We find out that Paul is in jail here. 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:20.860 History tells us he's released, he's placed in jail again, and he ends up being beheaded for his faith in Christ. 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:23.130 And so Paul is radically transformed. 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:30.800 And the transformation that he's experiencing, he expresses in this creed, there's nowhere else in scripture that I think we can turn 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:36.880 to that testifies more powerfully to the significance of who Jesus is than what this passage of Scripture says. 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:45.020 This passage is highly important to us as a church, especially when you place it in the cultural context of American society Today, when 00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:49.850 you study American Christianity today, American Christianity is on the decline. 00:03:50.220 --> 00:03:54.540 The millennial generation is made up of a group of people between the ages of about 35 to 20. 00:03:54.760 --> 00:04:01.760 Today, if you study just that demographic, you'll find that one third of that generation does not attend a 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:02.060 church. 00:04:02.060 --> 00:04:03.580 In fact, one third of them hate church. 00:04:05.420 --> 00:04:09.500 20% are less than 20% of that even state that they are committed to Christ. 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:17.160 So if you find yourself here this morning between the ages of 20 to 35, you are an anomaly within American Christianity and the church. 00:04:17.820 --> 00:04:17.920 Today. 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:22.079 Paul writes a creed like this in the first century, not so. 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:26.980 That just stands with the first century, but so that it's present within the church for all centuries. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:32.800 And so what Paul says here he's giving his life for he thinks it's significant for the church to understand. 00:04:34.260 --> 00:04:41.340 Recently, researchers studied America and asking the question, what does American Christian, what does America believe today? 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:44.220 Who is America's God of Christianity is on the decline? 00:04:44.580 --> 00:04:46.320 And what they walked away with was this. 00:04:46.340 --> 00:04:53.440 After 3000 interviews from the University of North Carolina, they came to the conclusion that what America's God actually is today 00:04:53.440 --> 00:04:56.200 is a moral, moralistic, therapeutic deism. 00:04:56.860 --> 00:04:58.970 And what that means is that they believe moralism. 00:04:59.220 --> 00:04:59.320 God. 00:04:59.440 --> 00:05:06.190 Us wants us to be good therapeutic gods here to make me happy and deism gods really not involved in our in our lives today. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.900 What Jesus tells us is far different from that. 00:05:11.060 --> 00:05:15.090 Jesus himself becoming flesh tells us he is not a deistic God, that God is very near. 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:15.720 God cares. 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:16.280 God loves you. 00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:21.140 In fact, God loves you so much that Jesus came even for our sin. 00:05:21.140 --> 00:05:26.140 God loves us in our sin and gave himself for us in that sin so that we can be reconciled to him. 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:29.610 As it relates to Jesus, moralism breaks down. 00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:33.660 God, God in moralism. 00:05:33.660 --> 00:05:40.760 What we find is this religious system that's established that communicates to us, I should 00:05:40.760 --> 00:05:44.800 say, it communicates to us that you are good based on what you do. 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:49.700 What Jesus communicates to us is that your value isn't based on what you do. 00:05:50.360 --> 00:05:56.160 Because when you follow that system to the end, what happens when you encounter people that don't do or can't do? 00:05:56.540 --> 00:05:57.620 And what about unborn children? 00:05:57.840 --> 00:05:58.830 Where is their value placed? 00:05:59.960 --> 00:06:07.240 Is their value on what they do as individuals being unborn, not having a system 00:06:07.280 --> 00:06:11.660 to merit favor moralism in that sense fails them. 00:06:12.700 --> 00:06:16.660 Worth for us when it comes to Jesus isn't based on what we do. 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:18.620 It's based on what's been done. 00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:26.540 Jesus has given his life for us and that displays our worth, which is where the therapeutic idea of God breaks 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:31.280 down this moralistic therapeutic deistic God breaks down the therapeutic, God breaks down. 00:06:31.320 --> 00:06:31.860 This ends God. 00:06:32.420 --> 00:06:34.140 God is interested in your joy. 00:06:34.200 --> 00:06:35.610 In fact, the fruit of the spirit is joy. 00:06:36.200 --> 00:06:38.980 But joy in itself isn't a isn't an end. 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:43.220 And what I mean is, maybe you've recognized in your life you want to be a better husband. 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:44.290 You want to be a better mother. 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:49.040 You want to be you want to conquer some character in your life that you feel like you're short in. 00:06:49.900 --> 00:06:53.460 And when you make that an end in itself, you rob yourself of answering the question why? 00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:56.380 I mean, why even do that to begin with? 00:06:56.880 --> 00:07:03.180 Without an identity in God, you have no framework for establishing why you would even want to function that way. 00:07:04.380 --> 00:07:09.800 And so this therapeutic idea of God's just interested in me makes me an end in myself. 00:07:10.320 --> 00:07:11.580 But here's what's true about God. 00:07:12.520 --> 00:07:18.080 God is the only being who finds the purpose for existence within himself. 00:07:18.780 --> 00:07:23.720 Meaning everything that's created finds its purpose for its existence outside of itself. 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:29.600 And so if you really want to find the joy for which you were created and the worth of who you are, it doesn't start in you. 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:32.920 It starts in the identity of the one who created you. 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:41.300 And one of the things that we've really robbed our culture of today is how to understand ourselves as it relates to God, because our educational system 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:44.340 is not established for us to think that way. 00:07:44.740 --> 00:07:51.840 And anyone who's present, who teaches in public schools or is a teacher in general that loves God, cares about Him, you are the people we 00:07:51.840 --> 00:07:54.880 need to pray for, specifically for our future generations. 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:03.120 Because the idea and the identity of who we are related to God really shares the value of who we are as people in God's care for us. 00:08:04.080 --> 00:08:08.120 And so we approach this creedal statement that Paul writes in this passage. 00:08:08.420 --> 00:08:09.840 It was great for the first century. 00:08:10.140 --> 00:08:12.380 It answered challenges the Colossian Church was facing. 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:14.280 It's great for this century. 00:08:15.060 --> 00:08:16.980 It answers challenges that we are facing. 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:23.980 There is nowhere you're going to go in life to experience a greater love than what God has given you in Christ. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:30.410 Meaning if you if you study religious systems today, religious systems are all about this. 00:08:30.540 --> 00:08:34.640 How you avail yourself to God, your value is found in how you avail yourself to God. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:36.210 What Christianity screams. 00:08:36.299 --> 00:08:39.860 This is your value is seeing how God avails himself to you. 00:08:39.900 --> 00:08:44.980 Jesus has given everything for you that you may enjoy relationship for him for all of eternity. 00:08:46.100 --> 00:08:53.480 And the beauty of who Christ is really experienced in this text of Colossians as Paul communicates it to us and our value 00:08:53.480 --> 00:09:00.080 is found as we relate to this word for creed that I think Paul is writing a creed here. 00:09:00.580 --> 00:09:07.580 This creed was much of this passage of scripture finds itself in the Apostles Creed, which was written early on in Christian 00:09:07.800 --> 00:09:08.220 church history. 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:11.200 But this word creed literally means, I believe. 00:09:12.160 --> 00:09:17.980 And one of the things I think our generation lacks is something really to root itself in and to stand up on. 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:19.320 In fact, G.K. 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:23.400 Chesterton, 80 years even before today, in 1936, he died. 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:26.760 But he wrote this late in life as it relates to the modern man. 00:09:26.800 --> 00:09:27.580 And this is what he said. 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:28.080 Listen to this. 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:33.700 But the new rebel is a skeptic and will not entirely trust anything. 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:35.320 He has no loyalty. 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:38.220 Therefore, he can never be really a revolutionist. 00:09:39.040 --> 00:09:45.160 And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything for all. 00:09:45.420 --> 00:09:48.300 Denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind. 00:09:48.700 --> 00:09:54.610 And the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. 00:09:54.920 --> 00:09:58.780 Thus he writes one book complaining that imperial oppression insults the purity of women. 00:09:59.820 --> 00:10:02.790 And then he writes another book in which he insulted himself. 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:08.220 He curses the sultan because Christian girls lose their virginity, and then he curses Mrs. 00:10:08.220 --> 00:10:09.810 Grundy because they keep it. 00:10:10.020 --> 00:10:13.280 As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life. 00:10:13.660 --> 00:10:17.000 And then as a philosopher, that all life is a waste of time. 00:10:17.900 --> 00:10:25.080 A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:26.280 ought to have killed himself. 00:10:26.900 --> 00:10:29.720 In short, the modern revolutionists being an infinite. 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.290 It is always engaged and undermining his own minds. 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:37.630 In his book on politics, he attacks men for trampling on morality. 00:10:38.040 --> 00:10:41.560 In his book on ethics, he attacks morality for trampling on men. 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:47.520 Therefore, the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. 00:10:47.940 --> 00:10:52.940 By rebelling against everything, he has lost his right to rebel against anything. 00:10:54.900 --> 00:10:57.740 There are certain things in life in which we should stand for. 00:10:58.700 --> 00:10:59.060 G.k. 00:10:59.060 --> 00:11:03.780 Chesterton himself went on to write and said, The open mind is like an open mouth. 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:06.300 When you find something solid, close it. 00:11:07.780 --> 00:11:10.600 It's not to say God desires for us to be an ignorant people. 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.660 In fact, Scripture speaks specifically against that. 00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:16.420 Love the Lord your God with all of your mind. 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:19.040 God created your mind for His purposes. 00:11:19.740 --> 00:11:21.560 God wants you to know and grow. 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:29.580 But God, in creating this world, created certain verifiable absolutes of which we should stand on as people, which makes creeds 00:11:29.580 --> 00:11:36.620 important, which makes passages of scripture like this significant to our lives, and which should challenge us that we should stand for 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:37.120 something. 00:11:37.160 --> 00:11:40.100 And when we see something worth standing for, stand up on it. 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:47.740 When Jesus is declared in this passage of Scripture, the value of who he is signifies the value of who we are. 00:11:48.040 --> 00:11:52.040 And unapologetically, unapologetically, we should stand for it. 00:11:52.560 --> 00:11:59.600 Because it not only shows us the value of who God is, but it determines the value of who we are and a world of people that are 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:06.820 searching for something in themselves to find meaning when the answer to it is outside of us altogether in Christ and 00:12:06.880 --> 00:12:07.960 it's on that backdrop. 00:12:08.680 --> 00:12:15.780 Paul writes this story for us as an oral tradition for the church, but written that we could hold on to it for centuries to come, that we 00:12:15.780 --> 00:12:19.060 may proclaim the glory of who Jesus is in these moments. 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:27.030 Paul writes This passage from jail, knowing statements so extreme could cost his life and in his culture were unpopular. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:32.940 In our culture today may be unpopular, but for us it is. 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:35.330 It is the worth of who we are. 00:12:35.420 --> 00:12:40.140 It is the significance of the church and it is everything that we should be rooted in Jesus. 00:12:40.220 --> 00:12:41.220 And so this is what he says. 00:12:41.340 --> 00:12:48.540 And I'm just going to read us this passage and I'm going to break it down theologically for us so that we can understand what this verse or these verses 00:12:48.540 --> 00:12:49.000 say. 00:12:49.060 --> 00:12:56.240 Starting in verse 13, talking about Jesus, he says, For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom 00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:00.120 of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 00:13:00.880 --> 00:13:04.540 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:13:04.800 --> 00:13:11.170 For by him all things were created both in heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. 00:13:11.380 --> 00:13:13.980 All things have been created through him and for him. 00:13:15.560 --> 00:13:19.300 Verse 17, He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 00:13:19.540 --> 00:13:26.840 He is also the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. 00:13:27.580 --> 00:13:34.640 For it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made 00:13:34.640 --> 00:13:39.960 peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say whether things on earth or things in heaven. 00:13:41.960 --> 00:13:44.010 To break this passage down. 00:13:45.220 --> 00:13:49.620 Paul begins by defining the salvation of who Jesus is. 00:13:50.140 --> 00:13:54.400 In fact, if you were to categorically think about it, let me give you this outline in redemption, Paul. 00:13:54.660 --> 00:14:01.760 Jesus is described in Colossians 113 to 14 in creation, verses 15 to 17in the church, verses 18 to 00:14:01.760 --> 00:14:02.780 23. 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:05.960 And then in Paul's ministry, it concludes the rest of this chapter. 00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:15.000 But Paul, with boldness, is declaring this morning the significance of who Jesus is, not based on Paul 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.080 and his authority, but based on Jesus and his authority before us. 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:27.520 When we read a passage of Scripture like this, I want to I want to challenge our attitude when we take a verse like this, because the way we approach this verse in 00:14:27.560 --> 00:14:29.140 serving this world is highly important. 00:14:30.180 --> 00:14:34.540 This verse is not here to bash people over the head with this verse or this. 00:14:34.860 --> 00:14:38.980 This creed, this hymn, this section of writing is here to serve us. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:42.020 That we may understand Jesus as He desires to be made known. 00:14:42.560 --> 00:14:46.880 The Bible tells us he who worships Him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 00:14:47.880 --> 00:14:49.660 We talked about last week in verse ten. 00:14:49.660 --> 00:14:56.660 It looked we looked at this in Colossians that when we worship God, we want to worship him as he has made himself known because none of 00:14:56.660 --> 00:14:57.960 us want to be misrepresented. 00:14:58.980 --> 00:15:01.190 None of us want to be maligned in our character. 00:15:01.580 --> 00:15:06.860 All of us desire that people know us as we desire to be made known right when it comes to you. 00:15:06.860 --> 00:15:08.360 You don't want anyone talking bad about you. 00:15:08.680 --> 00:15:10.200 You don't want people undermining you. 00:15:10.500 --> 00:15:12.700 You don't want people ripping you apart or tearing you down. 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:20.540 I think the same is true with Jesus, and the beauty of who he is significant, and his identity is precious. 00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:28.500 That God would become flesh and die for us is important for us to understand and to cherish that, not 00:15:28.500 --> 00:15:31.660 to undermine it, but to see the value of what it is. 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:37.580 And so he says in verse 13, as it relates to our salvation, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness. 00:15:38.140 --> 00:15:42.160 This idea of rescuing is for us to be taken from danger. 00:15:43.060 --> 00:15:50.180 That danger for us is the wrath of God because God is a Holy God and because God is a good God, God will judge 00:15:50.180 --> 00:15:50.760 sin. 00:15:51.400 --> 00:15:53.700 He cannot be a good God and avoid sin. 00:15:54.020 --> 00:15:55.300 Goodness demands judgment. 00:15:55.940 --> 00:16:03.040 If you were to come before a judge and a judge were to have a criminal in his courtroom and declare that court and that court that criminal is 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.820 guilty but not execute any punishment. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:09.580 You who are wronged would look at the judge and say he is not a good judge. 00:16:10.880 --> 00:16:15.800 The wrath of God is against sin to escape the wrath we need. 00:16:15.880 --> 00:16:18.060 Rescued from the domain of darkness. 00:16:18.900 --> 00:16:22.800 Jesus rescues us from that danger from the wages of sin. 00:16:22.860 --> 00:16:24.360 The Bible tells us it is death. 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:25.000 And it says this. 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:25.960 He transferred. 00:16:26.060 --> 00:16:27.140 Transferred us. 00:16:27.940 --> 00:16:32.480 This word for transferred literally means deportation from one kingdom to the next. 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:39.940 Jesus deports us from the domain of darkness and transfers us to his kingdom of the beloved son. 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:41.440 We belong to a good king. 00:16:42.300 --> 00:16:49.140 His grace is demonstrated to us and explains how in verse 14, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 00:16:49.780 --> 00:16:51.980 This idea for redemption is the word for ransom. 00:16:52.780 --> 00:16:56.040 It means to release a prisoner by making payment for them. 00:16:57.020 --> 00:17:04.280 When Jesus paid for your ransom on the cross, it tells us this that he forgave us, which literally means he canceled out your debt. 00:17:05.140 --> 00:17:11.960 You have the open opportunity to come before God at any moment because of what Jesus has done for you as you place your faith in Him. 00:17:12.800 --> 00:17:16.119 Christ created you for relationship in Him. 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:21.300 You exist that you may know God and enjoy him for all of eternity to the glory of Christ. 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:28.140 Paul starts his passage, this chapter unapologetically in what Jesus has done. 00:17:28.220 --> 00:17:34.060 And then He declares the significance of Christ not only as redeemer, but also as Creator. 00:17:34.060 --> 00:17:36.840 And he says this, in whom we have redemption. 00:17:37.020 --> 00:17:37.780 Excuse me. 00:17:37.780 --> 00:17:38.680 The forgiveness of sins. 00:17:38.740 --> 00:17:39.400 Verse 15. 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:42.590 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:45.880 He is the image of the invisible God. 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:48.100 Notice what it says about God. 00:17:48.600 --> 00:17:48.860 God is what? 00:17:50.100 --> 00:17:50.740 Invisible. 00:17:51.560 --> 00:17:54.780 When you study Scripture in John chapter four and verse 24, it says this. 00:17:55.540 --> 00:18:02.100 God is Spirit and Luke 24 and verse 39, it tells us a spirit has no flesh and bones. 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:10.040 The Bible tells us in John chapter one, Jesus became flesh in John one and verse 14, the Godhead took 00:18:10.040 --> 00:18:17.060 on flesh in Christ, which is saying to us, If you want to see God, if you want to see the concern of God, if you want to see the character 00:18:17.060 --> 00:18:20.880 of God, if you want to see how God interacts in this world, look at Jesus. 00:18:21.900 --> 00:18:27.640 The Gospels declare the glory of Christ in coming in flesh, God becoming flesh coming for you. 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:33.000 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:18:34.280 --> 00:18:37.030 Now I want to be careful with the second phrase, the firstborn of all creation. 00:18:37.320 --> 00:18:44.320 Because what we tend to do as people when we approach phrases in our modern time is we attribute definitions related to our 00:18:44.320 --> 00:18:44.880 modern. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:45.500 Earned day. 00:18:45.540 --> 00:18:50.260 And this word for firstborn does not mean Jesus was the first one born. 00:18:51.460 --> 00:18:55.280 This word for firstborn deals with the preeminence and authority of Christ. 00:18:56.940 --> 00:19:01.480 When you study the word firstborn in scripture, it deals with the authority of an individual. 00:19:02.140 --> 00:19:09.620 Meaning if I were to go visit a home during the time of Jesus or before this and I wanted to speak to the one in authority, I would say, where 00:19:09.620 --> 00:19:10.630 is the patriarch? 00:19:11.700 --> 00:19:16.560 If the patriarch had passed, my next question would be then where is the firstborn? 00:19:16.860 --> 00:19:20.420 Because the firstborn was given the authority to represent the family. 00:19:21.620 --> 00:19:25.560 In this passage, when it's referring to the firstborn, it's declaring his authority. 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:32.880 If you want an example in Scripture, I would tell you Psalm 89 and verse 27, King David is talking about his son, Solomon. 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:35.360 Solomon is to take the throne of Israel. 00:19:35.360 --> 00:19:37.840 He's to be the third king over the nation of Israel. 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:39.620 Saul David Solomon. 00:19:40.220 --> 00:19:43.380 Solomon in this passage of scripture is referred to as the firstborn. 00:19:44.220 --> 00:19:46.840 Solomon, however, was not the firstborn child of David. 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:54.540 Solomon was somewhere in the middle of David's children, yet David attributes him as being the firstborn of his 00:19:54.800 --> 00:19:56.480 kingdom or of his family. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:56.640 Why? 00:19:57.180 --> 00:20:00.900 Because he's given the authority to rule on behalf of King David. 00:20:01.800 --> 00:20:06.180 Jesus, in referring to him as the firstborn, is not saying Jesus is the firstborn. 00:20:06.620 --> 00:20:08.380 It's declaring the authority of Christ. 00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:11.540 And if you're asking still, how do we really know this? 00:20:11.600 --> 00:20:13.860 My answer is read the next verse. 00:20:14.680 --> 00:20:21.740 Because what it says about Jesus in him being the firstborn of creation is how this came to be, where his preeminence and 00:20:21.740 --> 00:20:23.180 authority derives from. 00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:30.320 And so Paul says this for by him, all things were created both in heaven 00:20:30.540 --> 00:20:37.640 and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things 00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:40.100 have been created through him and for him. 00:20:41.520 --> 00:20:48.760 So when it comes to Jesus, Paul is very plainly saying Jesus created everything that exists both physically 00:20:48.760 --> 00:20:54.470 and spiritually heaven, angels, all of it created by Jesus. 00:20:54.600 --> 00:20:57.210 Anything in this world created by Jesus. 00:20:57.760 --> 00:21:01.680 This thought that Paul shares invisible, declares the spiritual world. 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:07.420 This visible declares the physical world, this thought of thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. 00:21:07.780 --> 00:21:12.670 When Paul would use these expressions, he would often use it in relation to the spiritual world. 00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:21.060 In fact, he said in the book of Ephesians chapter six and verse 12, we battle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual spiritual powers 00:21:21.060 --> 00:21:23.800 of darkness, of rulers and authorities. 00:21:24.800 --> 00:21:27.030 Paul is talking about the spiritual world. 00:21:27.320 --> 00:21:29.740 Jesus created all of these things. 00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:36.540 Nothing then exists apart from Christ, because Jesus has made all things sometimes for fun. 00:21:36.540 --> 00:21:42.220 I like to say in Greek the word all means all, and that is all it means. 00:21:43.600 --> 00:21:46.840 Everything is under Christ. 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:54.180 And so when you look at this word for first born, to just simply say Jesus is the first one born, not only alienates the identity 00:21:54.180 --> 00:21:57.620 of Jesus, but a completely undermines his authority as creator God. 00:21:59.260 --> 00:22:00.140 Verse 17. 00:22:00.180 --> 00:22:07.360 Paul goes on from there in this creedal thought for the standing of the church, and he says he is before 00:22:07.360 --> 00:22:11.620 all things, and in him all things hold together. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:19.880 He is also the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have 00:22:20.260 --> 00:22:22.020 first place in everything. 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:26.530 Again, Jesus is the one that holds this whole world together. 00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:33.920 Acknowledge him or not, The reason you're allowed to exist in this world is simply because the grace of Christ allows you to do so. 00:22:34.260 --> 00:22:36.460 That is the type of authority Jesus carries. 00:22:37.560 --> 00:22:39.220 He is the head of the church. 00:22:39.620 --> 00:22:46.760 And so for the church to dis acknowledge or deny or demean or to take away from the authority of Christ is to undermine the very 00:22:46.760 --> 00:22:48.450 preciousness of who Jesus is. 00:22:48.800 --> 00:22:50.860 And then it goes on to say, He is the firstborn from the dead. 00:22:51.180 --> 00:22:55.790 Again, this word for firstborn Jesus wasn't the first one ever resurrected. 00:22:55.960 --> 00:22:57.240 You can read the story of Lazarus. 00:22:57.560 --> 00:22:59.400 Someone Jesus resurrect himself. 00:22:59.700 --> 00:23:03.060 But what it means is that Jesus is preeminent over life. 00:23:03.620 --> 00:23:09.140 Once we go to the grave, Jesus is the one who has the authority to resurrect all all of us. 00:23:09.740 --> 00:23:16.940 He is the one by faith in him who will resurrect us in him for eternity so that it says this He himself will 00:23:17.020 --> 00:23:19.360 come to have first place in everything. 00:23:20.260 --> 00:23:22.640 This word for first place means preeminence. 00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:26.060 He is the preeminent one. 00:23:26.320 --> 00:23:27.440 He is God. 00:23:27.980 --> 00:23:33.600 And so in verse 19, it goes on, for it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. 00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:40.200 This idea for dwelling, it means this to be at home permanently. 00:23:41.300 --> 00:23:49.740 In fact, it goes further, not only to be at home permanently, it means to have always been at home permanently in 00:23:49.740 --> 00:23:53.260 him, the fullness of God dwells. 00:23:54.140 --> 00:24:01.220 In fact, Paul, as he declares this statement in chapter two of Colossians, then goes on to defend this statement and listen what he says 00:24:01.220 --> 00:24:01.970 in verse nine. 00:24:02.460 --> 00:24:09.980 For in him all the fullness of deity, which means God dwells in bodily form, verse 00:24:09.980 --> 00:24:12.320 20 and through Him. 00:24:13.560 --> 00:24:20.760 To reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say whether things on earth or things 00:24:20.760 --> 00:24:21.540 in heaven. 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:25.210 All of creation, the Bible tells us groans. 00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:28.800 All of creation is affected. 00:24:28.800 --> 00:24:30.120 Affected by the curse of sin. 00:24:32.100 --> 00:24:34.550 We as people can sometimes approach this with hypocrisy. 00:24:34.760 --> 00:24:36.290 And let me let me let me tell you what I mean. 00:24:38.140 --> 00:24:40.580 When things go well in life, we like to say, good job. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:41.260 I did that. 00:24:42.220 --> 00:24:45.720 When things go bad in life, we like to look at God and say, why did you do that? 00:24:47.260 --> 00:24:54.540 You know, it's interesting when you study what this passage says to us, what Romans eight says to us when all of creation groans. 00:24:55.840 --> 00:25:00.040 When you turn on the news and you see despicable things, that's happening throughout the world and it grieves you. 00:25:01.660 --> 00:25:02.680 You aren't acknowledging those things. 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:04.710 Contrary to a God who doesn't care. 00:25:05.660 --> 00:25:08.880 You're acknowledging those things in a way that images a God who does care. 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:13.170 And what I mean is Jesus cares about the curse of sin on this world. 00:25:15.740 --> 00:25:18.320 Jesus cares about those who are affected by sin. 00:25:19.820 --> 00:25:21.080 That's why Jesus came. 00:25:22.580 --> 00:25:24.800 And so when bad things happen and you get upset. 00:25:26.700 --> 00:25:28.000 You're not disagreeing with God. 00:25:30.340 --> 00:25:31.860 Jesus cares about sin. 00:25:32.740 --> 00:25:33.850 And the way that it affects you. 00:25:36.340 --> 00:25:39.480 In fact, Jesus desires to make peace. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:42.980 That's why Isaiah chapter nine says this. 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:45.030 He is he is the prince of peace. 00:25:47.380 --> 00:25:54.360 God desires to bring peace to our hearts, to this world, and to restore the brokenness. 00:25:56.080 --> 00:26:03.440 And as we place our trust in him, when that God pours wrath on sin to those that are acknowledging the beauty of Christ and 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:09.320 placing their faith in Him, you see the justice meted out against a sin that has destroyed our world. 00:26:11.980 --> 00:26:12.840 Jesus cares. 00:26:15.020 --> 00:26:22.120 He cares so much for you that even in our sin, he offered a way to experience his grace 00:26:22.120 --> 00:26:22.960 for eternity. 00:26:23.060 --> 00:26:26.920 Because God didn't create you to be a moral being. 00:26:26.920 --> 00:26:29.120 That's not the entirety of your existence. 00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:36.720 What God created you predominantly or predominantly for in him is your relationship to him that you would reflect 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:39.640 his glory through that for the rest of eternity. 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:44.540 God created you for relationship. 00:26:44.840 --> 00:26:46.690 God created you for his good purposes. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:55.260 Moralistic, therapeutic God or Deistic God that America worships today completely breaks down when you study the identity 00:26:55.260 --> 00:26:56.140 of Christ. 00:26:56.260 --> 00:27:02.760 If you think about this as it relates to Jesus, if you really think that life is about just doing the best you can. 00:27:04.100 --> 00:27:08.840 I mean, why would God create human beings who falter at it when he himself is better at doing it without you? 00:27:10.180 --> 00:27:11.540 He doesn't need you to do it. 00:27:13.300 --> 00:27:14.720 God can make it and he can make it perfectly. 00:27:16.980 --> 00:27:23.210 If your primary purpose for existing is moralism and you have a God that can already do it better than you, that is pretty depressing. 00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:27.180 God created you for more than that. 00:27:28.340 --> 00:27:30.460 Or something greater than that. 00:27:31.180 --> 00:27:38.300 God created you that you may relate to him and understand in his image that He is bore his image upon you and you connect 00:27:38.300 --> 00:27:39.720 to him as God. 00:27:39.720 --> 00:27:43.420 And through that relationship you reflect the beauty of your Creator in this world. 00:27:45.020 --> 00:27:49.300 You get to connect to Creator God and enjoy him for eternity. 00:27:53.080 --> 00:27:55.240 He reconciles all things. 00:27:56.940 --> 00:27:59.380 To himself. 00:28:00.140 --> 00:28:00.700 Paul. 00:28:00.780 --> 00:28:05.620 In fact, as the passage goes on, shares about his own suffering and ministry. 00:28:05.660 --> 00:28:12.700 He says in verse 23, If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have 00:28:12.700 --> 00:28:18.090 heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. 00:28:18.660 --> 00:28:23.650 Listen, this is the pillar of what you stand for in pursuing Jesus unapologetically. 00:28:25.800 --> 00:28:27.680 In verse 24, Paul goes on and says this. 00:28:27.700 --> 00:28:32.040 Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake and in my flesh. 00:28:32.300 --> 00:28:35.380 I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church. 00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:37.760 In filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. 00:28:39.600 --> 00:28:45.560 I mean, you think throughout the centuries the church has literally laid down its life to stand for this claim. 00:28:47.500 --> 00:28:52.540 And Paul in this passage says he's giving his life for what is lacking in Christ's affliction. 00:28:52.600 --> 00:28:55.360 What Paul is saying in this passage isn't that Jesus is lacking. 00:28:56.980 --> 00:28:58.480 Jesus's death is sufficient. 00:29:00.020 --> 00:29:01.160 We said this last week. 00:29:01.340 --> 00:29:07.480 But when we talk about Jesus, any time in life, we ever undermine the authority of what Paul has just said in Colossians. 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:12.250 What we end up doing is creating religion in its place to help met. 00:29:13.020 --> 00:29:16.860 What Jesus doesn't make up for religious living makes up the difference. 00:29:17.520 --> 00:29:20.260 What Paul says is that Jesus alone is sufficient. 00:29:22.120 --> 00:29:26.900 And in verse 24, though, he does say he's making or filling up what is lacking in Christ. 00:29:26.980 --> 00:29:28.780 What does he mean then, if Jesus is sufficient? 00:29:30.220 --> 00:29:37.540 In Acts Chapter nine, when Paul gives his life to Christ, it tells us he's on the road to Damascus and Christ appears 00:29:37.540 --> 00:29:38.240 before him. 00:29:38.460 --> 00:29:43.320 And the question Jesus asks is, Saul, why do you persecute me? 00:29:44.920 --> 00:29:47.340 What Paul is actually doing is persecuting the church. 00:29:47.780 --> 00:29:52.180 But the way that Jesus sees it is that Paul's persecution is actually directed towards him. 00:29:53.100 --> 00:29:58.880 And the same is true in the body of Christ today, that there are places within the body of Christ where we are lacking. 00:29:59.760 --> 00:30:06.960 It's not saying that Jesus is lacking, but what Paul is doing in serving is serving the body of Christ in a way that ultimately 00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:07.620 serves Jesus. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:14.700 And so we're the body of Christ Lacks Paul wants to serve to make Christ known because Jesus alone is sufficient. 00:30:16.500 --> 00:30:17.620 And so Paul serves in this way. 00:30:17.900 --> 00:30:25.100 He shares this creed and this way so that we as the early church could take such a creed and stand for it and serve the church to serve the 00:30:25.100 --> 00:30:25.420 world. 00:30:26.360 --> 00:30:32.200 We don't bash people over the head with this truth, but we get underneath of them and we serve them with the beauty of who Jesus is. 00:30:33.120 --> 00:30:37.860 One of my stories, one of the stories that I love in church history and American church history has to do with D.L. 00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:38.260 Moody. 00:30:39.380 --> 00:30:43.080 A parliament of religious leaders were coming to Chicago, getting national attention. 00:30:43.900 --> 00:30:44.980 It was in the late 1800s. 00:30:46.140 --> 00:30:47.400 They were teaching on world religions. 00:30:48.600 --> 00:30:54.980 People interested in world religions are supposed to come to decide if they want to be a part of these religions and how all religions are the same. 00:30:55.160 --> 00:30:55.500 And they're not. 00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:55.980 They're not. 00:30:56.040 --> 00:30:58.960 They don't they don't believe their creeds are all different. 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:02.760 But here they are in this parliament of world religions. 00:31:03.500 --> 00:31:04.300 And D.L. 00:31:04.300 --> 00:31:06.530 Moody wants to share and he decides, you know what? 00:31:07.020 --> 00:31:14.220 When these teachings on religions end, I'm going to I'm going to take a different lecture halls and theatres and churches 00:31:14.220 --> 00:31:15.280 and I'm going to rent them out. 00:31:15.340 --> 00:31:22.400 And when these lectures are over, I'm going to then invite people into these lecture halls to proclaim to them and people who heard what Moody was going to 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:23.680 do, they encouraged him. 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:30.320 They said, when these lectures are over and you go to proclaim the gospel, you need to bash these religions, of which D.L. 00:31:30.620 --> 00:31:31.940 Moody said, I will not do that. 00:31:32.700 --> 00:31:39.800 But what I am going to do is when these people come out of these lecture halls into the presence of me who is going to proclaim the gospel, all I want 00:31:39.800 --> 00:31:43.020 to do is share the beauty of who Jesus is. 00:31:44.360 --> 00:31:51.560 If people in this world could just see the worth of who they are in light of Christ, that they're not trying to avail themselves to 00:31:51.560 --> 00:31:58.580 a God, that they that God be satisfied with them, but rather God has unveiled himself to them, that he loves them in their sin, that his their 00:31:58.580 --> 00:32:01.360 worth isn't based on who or what they do. 00:32:01.460 --> 00:32:08.880 Their worth is based on who he is, their identity in him that God has created them to love Him and lavish His glory on them for all 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:09.600 of eternity. 00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:14.880 To see that God and savor that God to find their identity in that God. 00:32:14.980 --> 00:32:16.040 That is what's freeing. 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:20.420 That is why the early church spread so quickly throughout the Roman Empire. 00:32:20.800 --> 00:32:27.960 They go before slaves and before children and before women who are treated as property, and they begin to proclaim 00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:35.000 the beauty of who they are in light of who Christ is, and to see that and to savor it amongst religions that 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:37.300 teach your worth is based on what you do. 00:32:39.520 --> 00:32:40.320 It's beautiful. 00:32:42.940 --> 00:32:43.340 D.l. 00:32:43.420 --> 00:32:44.600 Moody proclaimed that message. 00:32:46.860 --> 00:32:47.180 D.l. 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:52.420 Moody is known as an historical evangelist in American church history. 00:32:52.420 --> 00:32:52.700 Really? 00:32:52.760 --> 00:32:53.100 In world history. 00:32:55.220 --> 00:32:57.240 But, when you study the evangelism of D.L. 00:32:57.300 --> 00:33:04.400 Moody, history tells us at no point in his ministry did he see more converts to 00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:05.150 Jesus. 00:33:06.280 --> 00:33:12.390 And during the time that he rented these lecture halls to proclaim the beauty of Christ in the midst of the religious parliament that came to Chicago. 00:33:15.860 --> 00:33:18.740 We all approach a like this at different places in our lives. 00:33:21.720 --> 00:33:26.720 God doesn't care what denomination you want to say you belong to when you enter into eternity. 00:33:29.620 --> 00:33:30.820 God cares if you belong to him. 00:33:34.300 --> 00:33:35.440 God wants you connected to him. 00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:39.700 God cares about where you are in Jesus. 00:33:42.480 --> 00:33:44.140 God wants you to understand the beauty of who Jesus is. 00:33:47.260 --> 00:33:50.040 Find your values who of who you are based on him. 00:33:52.620 --> 00:33:54.880 There is nowhere you will go that will love you more. 00:33:57.700 --> 00:34:01.020 There is nowhere you could be that could give you a better identity than what Christ can. 00:34:03.960 --> 00:34:08.460 We should say, with tears in our eyes that the American church is declining. 00:34:11.400 --> 00:34:18.520 Having tasted the goodness of a society that was enriched in Christianity for so long, we have forgotten the beauty that we have held on to because 00:34:18.520 --> 00:34:20.100 it was founded upon Jesus. 00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:27.080 Paul says in verse 28. 00:34:28.739 --> 00:34:29.190 We proclaim. 00:34:32.600 --> 00:34:39.370 Admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 00:34:41.340 --> 00:34:46.219 I don't know where we get in society today that those who proclaim to follow Jesus are the ones that are considered unwise. 00:34:46.620 --> 00:34:47.870 But Paul in this passage says. 00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:49.679 That is wisdom. 00:34:51.780 --> 00:34:52.580 At every man. 00:34:52.620 --> 00:34:54.870 What he's striving for would be complete in Jesus. 00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.270 That you would see yourself in Jesus as Jesus sees you for this purpose. 00:34:59.520 --> 00:35:04.380 Also, I labor striving according to his power, which mightily works within me. 00:35:05.860 --> 00:35:13.200 Paul is reiterating this again, and we said this last week, When it comes to faith, the power of your faith isn't found in 00:35:13.200 --> 00:35:14.700 how much you wishfully believe in. 00:35:14.700 --> 00:35:15.840 Whatever you believe in is true. 00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:21.080 The power of your faith is found in what you believe. 00:35:22.060 --> 00:35:24.060 And whether or not what you believe is true. 00:35:24.920 --> 00:35:27.940 It's the authority of what you believe in and whether or not it can sustain. 00:35:29.860 --> 00:35:31.420 In Christ. 00:35:31.420 --> 00:35:36.420 Paul is saying Jesus sustains this work that works within him. 00:35:38.340 --> 00:35:45.380 It's founded not in the strength of his faith, but in the God who has given the ability to even have faith in him because of what Jesus has done for 00:35:45.380 --> 00:35:45.480 him. 00:35:47.380 --> 00:35:52.670 And so with deep conviction, he shares this creed with the early church that they may hold on to it unapologetically. 00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:56.800 So that others can see their love. 00:35:57.060 --> 00:36:03.640 The love that God has had for them and has for them that they may come to embrace this Jesus who cares so tenderly for them. 00:36:05.720 --> 00:36:07.550 To love this world as Christ's love. 00:36:10.240 --> 00:36:13.230 Or to love those in this world, I should say, as Christ loves. 00:36:15.160 --> 00:36:18.900 In the 1500s, there was this reformation taking place in Europe. 00:36:20.580 --> 00:36:24.100 It occurred in different places, different times throughout European countries. 00:36:26.060 --> 00:36:27.300 In the 1520s, it hit Scotland. 00:36:29.300 --> 00:36:30.990 In the midst of a church that was facing persecution. 00:36:33.420 --> 00:36:39.060 Man by the name of Patrick Hamilton was martyred in 1528 at the age of 24 because his conviction in Christ. 00:36:40.420 --> 00:36:45.680 George Wishart was martyred in 1546 at the age of 33 because his confession of Christ. 00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:53.460 George Wishart had a had a disciple named John Knox, who was imprisoned, placed on a rowing ship and exiled at one point in 00:36:53.460 --> 00:36:55.270 the 1550s away from Scotland. 00:36:56.880 --> 00:37:04.720 It was during this time, but that a man named Walter Milne came on the scene in 1558. 00:37:04.720 --> 00:37:11.920 Milne was brought before a trial in which he was determined to be a heretic and condemned to die by burning 00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:12.560 at the stake. 00:37:14.180 --> 00:37:15.510 He was 82 years old. 00:37:17.660 --> 00:37:22.660 Milne received his conviction under Queen Mary, who you probably know in history as Bloody Mary. 00:37:22.660 --> 00:37:25.540 When you turn on the bathroom lights and do circles until you flip the lights back on. 00:37:25.540 --> 00:37:27.760 Right? 00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:30.600 Bloody Mary was notorious for persecuting the church. 00:37:32.540 --> 00:37:33.460 Killing hundreds of Christians. 00:37:35.500 --> 00:37:36.880 Million at 82 years old. 00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:44.100 History records us that he just ragged and ripped apart his body, barely made it to the stake in 00:37:44.100 --> 00:37:45.440 which he would be burned upon. 00:37:45.820 --> 00:37:47.160 And he confidently informed the crowd. 00:37:48.280 --> 00:37:55.340 The cause which I suffer this day is not for any crime laid to my charge, but only for the defense of the faith of 00:37:55.500 --> 00:37:59.320 Jesus Christ set forth in the Old and New Testament unto us. 00:37:59.940 --> 00:38:07.000 I praise God that He hath called me of His mercy among the rest of his servants to seal up his truth with my love, which, 00:38:07.080 --> 00:38:12.240 as I have received it of him so willingly, I offer it to his glory. 00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:18.240 Milne went on to say, From his ashes, a hundred ministers will come. 00:38:20.540 --> 00:38:27.620 John Knox, who was exiled at this time, talked of this execution and says man of decrepit age did so 00:38:27.620 --> 00:38:34.620 highly offend the hearts of all the Godly that immediately after his death began a new fervency among the whole people? 00:38:36.120 --> 00:38:40.580 It tells us in history he's burned at the stake at 1558. 00:38:40.580 --> 00:38:45.580 Within ten years, Scotland has over 250 ministers for the gospel in this land. 00:38:46.220 --> 00:38:51.420 By 1574, there were over 500 ministers in Scotland. 00:38:52.940 --> 00:38:56.350 You know, I'd like to say you could read that story and think that's great for Scotland. 00:38:56.480 --> 00:38:57.830 What does it have to do with America? 00:38:58.320 --> 00:38:59.740 Well, here's the prominence for America. 00:39:00.140 --> 00:39:05.460 The persecution in that area continued so much so that believers went to Geneva, Switzerland. 00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:10.860 They wrote the Geneva Bible, which is the first Bible in English that has study notes. 00:39:12.060 --> 00:39:15.120 They took that Bible to America, we call them today Puritans. 00:39:16.480 --> 00:39:23.900 The fire of persecution that was established in this area against Jesus is what led people to this land to found itself 00:39:23.900 --> 00:39:24.860 upon Christ. 00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:32.960 The Bible that we carry in our pews today is the new American Standard Bible, which is the predecessor of the Geneva Bible, which was 00:39:33.120 --> 00:39:39.260 carried in the blood of saints, who lived for the statement that we're reading, Colossians Chapter one. 00:39:43.540 --> 00:39:44.620 The beauty of who Jesus is. 00:39:47.080 --> 00:39:48.640 Has been the anthem of the church. 00:39:51.780 --> 00:39:55.440 To undermine a statement. 00:39:55.440 --> 00:39:56.220 Of Christ. 00:39:58.580 --> 00:40:00.350 It's to undermine the beauty of Christ. 00:40:02.520 --> 00:40:03.540 It's not even Christ. 00:40:05.620 --> 00:40:07.750 You can put the name Jesus on it all you want. 00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:11.540 But it doesn't make Jesus. 00:40:14.060 --> 00:40:18.680 Today, our tendency is to take a God that satisfies us and to shape him into whatever form we want. 00:40:18.820 --> 00:40:22.110 And sometimes we even say, that's Jesus and it's not. 00:40:24.240 --> 00:40:29.600 Jesus, according to Colossians, is this He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:40:29.900 --> 00:40:32.900 For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth. 00:40:33.180 --> 00:40:39.180 If it's visible or invisible, Jesus made it, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him. 00:40:39.240 --> 00:40:40.200 And he is for all things. 00:40:40.840 --> 00:40:43.230 And he, in all things, hold together. 00:40:43.620 --> 00:40:45.360 He is the head of the body, the church. 00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:50.180 He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. 00:40:50.540 --> 00:40:57.740 For it was the father's good pleasure, for all the fullness of the deity to dwell in him and through him, and to reconcile all 00:40:57.740 --> 00:41:01.200 things to himself, having made peace for us through the blood of his cross. 00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:06.280 Through him, I say whether things on earth or things in heaven. 00:41:07.580 --> 00:41:09.490 Anything less than that. 00:41:10.100 --> 00:41:10.700 It's not Jesus. 00:41:12.680 --> 00:41:19.720 But Jesus has come that you may know Him and celebrate him and 00:41:19.720 --> 00:41:26.060 enjoy him forever, regardless of how unpopular it may make you. 00:41:26.460 --> 00:41:32.020 The beauty of who Christ is the anthem of the church and the freedom of this world.