Who Am I?

“Who Am I?” Colossians 1:13-23

Philippians 2:1-2, 5-11

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, and participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Introduction

· Cross the most important event in history

· Why answering “Who is Jesus?” important – Eternal Ramifications

· Correct Answer results in our faith in Jesus leading to redemption and salvation

· Incorrect: Incorrect view or denial of Jesus = Dead in sin - Hell-eternal separation

· No answer is an answer - Denial

Last week

· VS 15-20: Versus show supremacy of Christ

· Supremacy in creation

· Supremacy over the church

· Supremacy in redemption

· Low view vs High view – Not only but…

· We learn that Jesus is the:

o Exact Image of God

o Creator

o Sustainer

o The Head of the church

o The Beginning

o The Firstborn – Creation and Raised

o Pre-eminent

Today:

Who am I?

· Answerdetermines Identity

o Values

o Priorities

o Actions

o Sense of purpose

· Society has strong influence in Identity

· Identity in earthly things will eventually fail

o Parent – kids leave

o Job – recession of retirement

o Status, wealth, possessions

o Religious – Works fail

· When it fails – Lostyour identity

What if: Identity in Christ

TJ read 2 Corinthians 5:17

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

· Identity never fails

· Christ never leaves not forsakes

· His love is never-ending

· If you are new creation with identity in Christ:

· How would this change your life?

o Less fear

o Boldness

o Confidence

o Earthly values gone – keep with Jones

o No worry about what others think

o Comfortablewith yourself

Our answer to Who am I? is directly linked to the answer of Who is Jesus?

It determines our identity

Prayer

Colossians 1:13-23

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Exegesis

· VS 21-22: Pattern Paul uses often

o Once you were…

o But now God has acted/intervened

o Now you are…

o The results are…

· We experience this pattern many times in life

Earthly Illustration from Tyler

Let’s unpack these versus startingwith an Overview

· Overview of VS 21-23: Paul now goes into more detail being more specific regarding reconciliation from VS 20 – Reconcile all things to God the Father

· Paul also gives us how reconciliation was accomplished

· Define reconciliation

VS 21-22 is repeating VS 1:12-14

12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Why repetition?

· Understanding the Gospel of grace is absolutely essential

· What Christ has done on cross for our redemption and salvation

· Prone to drift – Even with correct understanding

· Example: guilt of sin = works salvation

· Also, Spiritual warfare: Satan lies to us to take us away from Gospel truth

VS 21

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds

· Our condition before we came to faith in Jesus

· The result of sin Alienation – Eternally separated and hostile to God

· No peacewith God

· To sum it up – We were enemies of God

Ephesians 2:12

12 Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

· This is our state of total depravity

· We are in need of God’s intervention

· In need of a Peacemaker, a Savior

Hostile in mind, doing evil deeds

· All sin starts in the mind

Quote: Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Sow a thought and you reap an action; Sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

Romans 1:21 – Hostility in mind

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

· The evidence of hostility in mind are the evil deeds we do, our sin

· Looking forward, Paul provides what these sins are

Colossians 3:5-10

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

VS 21 highlights our “total depravity” of alienation from God

· Alienation is not simply a passive distance from God but an active hostility toward Him

· It impacts both our will and our mind.

· This is the opposite of Paul prayer for in 1:10

· The fruit of good works and growth in knowledge of God.

Turn to VS 22

22 He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him

Corresponds to Ephesians 2:13 - Repetition

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

· Our condition when we came to faith in Jesus

· How it was accomplished

· And the results

· No longer alienated and hostile

· Now reconciled to right relationship – peace

· All because of the grace of the Gospel

· Christ’s ultimate sacrifice of His body of flesh by his death

The Result:

· The Biblical doctrine of Justification

· We are now declared not guilty because of our sin

· Jesus paid the price

· Jesus now presents us to the Father as holy and blameless and above reproach before Him

· This is our eternal position in Christ

VS 1:23

· The context here refers to the false teachings in church

· Paul is addressingthe responsibilityof the Colossians in the interval between reconciliation and Christ’s return

· He’s encouraging them to persevere and endure in the faith, regardless of their circumstance

· Also Stressing that being faithful to the end is essential

23 If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

· Here, we’re talking about the foundation we stand on

· Jesus addresses this foundation in Matthew 7:24-27

Matthew 7:24-27

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

· I wonder what foundation you stand on?

· Now, we’ve looked the evidence of our alienation and hostility towards God

· Here Paul gives us the evidence of our faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

· Conditional verse: Important to understand this Biblical truth so we aren’t in fear of losing our salvation and reverting back to work based salvation

· Paul says we have reconciliation as we continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard

· This can give us the impression that we can lose our salvation

· Which means it becomes works salvation and not by grace

· Scripture is unequivocally clear this is not the case

What Paul is saying is:

· That he fully expected the Colossians to continue in the faith.

· That they will not fall away from the Gospel truth

· He had no doubt that genuine believers would be:

o Stable and steadfast in faith, not shifting from the hope of the gospel they heard

· In fact, Scripture teaches that those who do not continue in the faith, never came to genuine faith in the 1st place

This is a way we can examine if we have true faith or not

· Are we continuing steadfast and stable in our faith?

· Are we not led astray from the Gospel truth – believing false teachings of today?

Last, “The hope of the gospel that you heard”

· There is a term for studying the Bible called, an inclusio

· Like bookends, a starting bookend and an ending bookend

· It helps us to understand the most important point that the text between them points to

· Here the inclusio, or brackets are in verse 1:3-6 and VS 23

1:3-6

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth

1:23

23 If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven

This inclusio tells us how important belief in the Gospel is and how it changes our lives

Application

As we wrap up, I ask you:

· Who is Jesus? Is he just… or is He…

And then, Who are you? What is your identity?

· Established by worldly standards that will ultimately fail

· OR “in Christ” that never fails