Let Me Tell You About My Jesus!
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning, Church!
I hope each of you are doing well this morning and want to say thank you for joining us today!
This morning, we are going to pick up where we left off a couple weeks ago in the Book of Colossians.
If you have your Bible’s with you, you can go ahead and be turning to Colossians Chapter 1 Verse 15.
The title I have given to today’s message is the same title as the song these kiddos just sang for us…Let me tell you about my Jesus!
And man am I excited for it!
There are many different views in the world on just exactly who Jesus is.
Some say he was just a man. A carpenters son, that’s all.
Some will say he was a good man.
Some say he was a prophet.
Some will even go as far as to say he was a prophet that performed miracles!
But few, in consideration of the entire world will give Him the title that He is just due…and that is, God!
No man in all of history has made an impact on our world like this man named Jesus.
Adrian Rogers said this — More attention has been given to Him; more devotion has been given to Him; more criticism has been given to Him; more adoration has been given to Him; more opposition has been given to this one person than all of the others.
Every recorded word that He said has been more sifted, analyzed, scrutinized, debated—every word—than all of the historians and the philosophers and the scientists put together.
Yet, He was here 2,000 years ago. And, after 2,000 years, there is never one minute on this earth that millions are not studying what He said.
Think about it—Here's a person who lived in a minuscule, tiny little land two millenniums ago; and yet, His birth divides the centuries—AD, BC; Before Christ and Anno Domini, the year of our Lord.
He never wrote a book that we know of; and yet, library after library could be filled with the volumes, the multiplied millions of volumes, that have been written about the Lord Jesus.
He never painted a picture, so far as we know; and yet, the world's greatest art, the world's greatest dramas, the world's greatest music, the world's greatest literature has Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, as its source.
Jesus never raised an army, so far as we know; yet multiplied millions have died for Him.
He never traveled very far from His birthplace; and yet, His testimony has gone around, and around, and around the world.
He only had a handful of little followers that followed Him there, in His ministry; and yet, today, over 30% of the world's population names His name—the largest such grouping on Earth today—Jesus of Nazareth.
A ministry of only three short years—public ministry; and yet, here we are, 2,000 years later, saying, "Jesus, Your name is wonderful," because His name is.
He had no formal education. He didn't attend the university or seminary; and yet, thousands of universities, and seminaries, colleges, and schools are built in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And, in my estimation, in my humble but correct opinion, no one can call himself, herself, educated who does not understand Jesus Christ.
The great historian Kenneth Scott Latourette said this—listen to this quote: "Jesus has had more effect on the history of mankind than any other of His race who ever existed." That's not a Baptist preacher speaking that.
To explain Jesus Christ is impossible; to ignore Jesus Christ is disastrous; to reject Him is fatal.
Understand who Jesus Christ is: To know Him is to love Him; to love Him is to trust Him; to trust Him is to be radically, dramatically, and eternally changed, to be transformed.
Human speech is too limited to describe Him. The human mind—too small to comprehend Him; and, the human heart can never really, completely, totally absorb who Jesus Christ is.
Jesus is above all, before all, beyond all and this morning we’re going to learn just a little bit, just barely scratch the surface of who Jesus Christ truly is!
So, with no further ado, let me tell you about my Jesus!
He is God Incarnate — (Vs. 15a)
He is God Incarnate — (Vs. 15a)
“Christ is the Visible Image of the Invisible God.”
The word “image” used here is the Greek word (eikon) – and it speaks of the likeness, the representation, the resemblance to someone or something.
Christ was the physical expression of our spiritual God!
But he was not just any representation; not just a resemblance to our God…no, the Bible says in Hebrews 1:3 that he was the “express image” of almighty God!
And the word used here for image is the word (charakter) and it means an “exact representation!”
Jesus didn’t just come in the likeness of God, not just a representation of God, He the exact representation of God in the flesh!
Fully God yet Fully Man!
The fulness of God compressed into the flesh of man!
John Phillips — He was God and always had been God. Only now He was “God manifest in flesh.” The birth of Christ marked a moment unprecedented in the annals of time and eternity. When any other babe is born, a new person is created and a new personality begins to form. When Jesus was born, however, it was not the creation of a new personality at all; it was the coming into this world of a Person who had existed for all eternity.
God became Man without ceasing to be God. The human and the divine were blended into One. The eternal Word “became flesh” to dwell among us, so that we might “beh[o]ld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
We can take the lines of His unique and perfect personality and project those lines into infinity—and that is what God is like. He is just like Jesus. What God is, Jesus is. What God does, He does. What God says, He says. There is not one iota of difference between God in heaven and Jesus on earth. Thus, He could say to Philip, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
For thirty-three and a half years, the Lord Jesus lived on this planet as Man inhabited by God. He set before us a flawless, moment-by-moment, audiovisual, full-color, three-dimensional demonstration of what God is like. He was “the image of the invisible God.”
The blending of the human and the divine in the person of the Lord Jesus was like the seamless robe that He wore, woven throughout to be one indivisible whole. It is impossible to say where the humanity ends and where the deity begins or to say where the deity ends and the humanity begins. The major heresies of the church have resulted from attempts to define the one at the expense of the other.
In the Gospels, we meet One who was very human indeed. He was born, He grew up, He went to school, and He worked as a carpenter. He became tired, hungry, and thirsty. He experienced all of the emotions of the human heart apart from sin. He asked questions. He enjoyed companionship. He was wholesome, delightful, and perfectly balanced at all times. He was a wonderful and attractive human being to whom all kinds of people were drawn.
At the same time, He was God. The demons instantly recognized Him as such and were terrified of Him. He had power to turn water into wine or to multiply the few loaves and fishes of a little lad’s lunch into a banquet for a multitude. He could walk upon the waves and still the storm. He could cleanse lepers, heal all kinds of sickness, and raise the dead. And He could do all of these things as a matter of course. His enemies could plot against Him but could not harm Him until He voluntarily allowed them to do so. Even then, although they nailed Him to a cross, they could not kill Him. “No man taketh [my life] from me,” He said, “I lay it down of myself” (John 10:18). Nor could they keep Him in the tomb. On the very day He had foretold, He rose from the dead.
Yet nobody can draw the line between His deity and His humanity.
We see him, for instance, sound asleep in Simon Peter’s boat. That was His humanity. The next moment, He stood amid heaving waves and howling winds and commanded them to be still. That was His deity. Where does the one end and the other begin?
We see Him at the tomb of Lazarus. He witnessed Martha's grief and Mary’s tears and He, too, wept. That was His humanity. The next moment, He summoned Lazarus back from the dead, undaunted by the fact that corruption had already begun its terrible work in his corpse. That was His deity. Where does the one end and the other begin?
This mysterious mix of the human and divine passes human comprehension. We know He was a perfect human being. We know, too, that He was eternal, uncreated, self-existing, the second person of the Godhead. It was not that as God incarnate now He was being Man, now He was being God. He was both—all of the time!
I love how Adrian Rogers puts it…
Adrian Rogers — My pastor friend, Jerry Vines, imagines Jesus Christ going into the temple and having a conversation with the teachers, when he was a 12-year-old boy. And, one of the learned doctors there strokes his beard, and says, "Son, how old are You?" "Well," He says, "On My mother's side, I'm 12-years-old, but on My Father's side, I'm older than My mother and as old as My Father."
You see, He was both God and man. Now, on His mother's side, He got thirsty; on His Father's side, He said, "I am the water of life." On His mother's side, He got hungry; on His Father's side, He took a little lad's lunch and fed 5,000. On His mother's side, He was homeless, and didn't have a place to lay His head; on His Father's side, He owned the cattle on a thousand hills. On His mother's side, He wept at the grave of Lazarus; on His Father's side, He said, "Lazarus, come forth," and raised him from the dead. He was God in human flesh. That's the word image…that’s the word “eikon”
I couldn’t help but to think about this word as I was studying… “eikon.”
We hear a lot about icons today don’t we?
“She is a fashion icon!” or “He is a male icon!”
“He/She is a sports icon!”
Listen to me this morning Church, young people are you listening to me…if so, say Amen…the best icon you can ever look up to is the original icon, the greatest of all icons, the only icon who can give you life eternal and that is the Lord Jesus Christ!
He is the eternal icon!
All these icons of our day and time, their pomp will one day fade and will bow in obeisance to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…the one, true, icon…Jesus Christ!
Not only is He God Incarnate but He is also God Eternal!
He is God Eternal — (Vs. 15b)
He is God Eternal — (Vs. 15b)
KJV — “the firstborn of every creature:”
The word “firstborn” used here doesn’t speak of Christ’s creation but rather the Greek word (prōtotokos) speaks of Christ’s position. The NLT does a great job of translating this.
NLT — “He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation”
When the Bible says here that Jesus is the “firstborn” of every creature it doesn’t mean that Christ was a created being…it simply means that He has preeminence over all things!
He is the supreme authority over all creation!
There never was a time when Jesus was not and there will never be a time when Jesus shall not be! He told the Jews in...
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Jesus is Lord over all creation which leads us to our next point of...
He is God the Creator — (Vs. 16-17)
He is God the Creator — (Vs. 16-17)
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
Friend you may not realize it this morning but Jesus is the very reason all of creation doesn’t fly off into oblivion!
The fact that you and I are sitting and standing here this very moment and not just a bunch of particles floating around in a vast expanse of nothingness is a testament to who He is!
He holds the heavens together! He holds the very expanse we know as out space together!
I was thinking this week that even our solar system is a picture of our nature in Christ!
The sun sits at the center and every planet in our solar system rotates around it in perfect unison and harmony and listen, even the distance of the planets in relation to the sun speaks of our relationship to Christ!
The closer to the sun you get, the more on fire you are for God and the further away from the sun you are, the colder and more distant your relationship with God!
There are some of you sitting here this morning and God is moving and stirring in your life and there’s one reason it’s happening…it’s because you’ve determined that you want to be closer to the SON…Amen!
And there are some of you sitting here this morning and you are cold! Even sitting here at this very moment, you know and God knows, that your relationship with him is distant, it’s cold, it may even seem almost non existent at times!
Listen to me dear friend, just as the sun never moves in our galaxy, the Son of God is never changing, never moving, always standing with arms wide open and all you have to do is come back to Him, Amen!
Praise God, if you are here this morning and need of that feeling of Revival in your life…come back to Jesus! If you are tired of feeling cold and distant, come back to Jesus!
He is the glue that holds the heavens together; He’s the glue that holds our planet together; He’s the glue that holds our families, our marriages, our lives together; and He’s the very glue that holds us together!
I want to share a little something with you this morning. A little something I learned some time ago but never knew when I’d get to share it with you.
Now, let me start by saying I’m no scientist and I don’t claim to know how the whole body works but did you know that there is a protein in our body, a little protein called laminin.
And this little protein is vital to our existence!
When you look up what laminin is on Google and ask if it is important to the body, the AI assistant says this...Yes, laminin is important because it's a protein that helps maintain the structure and function of tissues in the body.
In Layman’s terms, that means, “Yes, it’s important because it’s the glue that helps hold the body together!”
Then, I took it a step further and asked Google if the body could exist without this little protein called laminin and here’s what it said...No, the body cannot exist without laminin; it is a crucial protein that forms the foundation of basement membranes, which are essential for tissue structure and function in all animals, meaning its absence would lead to severe developmental defects and likely early lethality in an embryo due to the inability to form proper tissues and organs.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself… “Ok but what’s the big deal and what does this protein lamanin have to do with Jesus?”
Well, I’m glad you asked!
Without seeing this protein you would never give it a second thought but let me show you what this little protein looks like and then you make the call as to whether or not it’s significant or not!
Dear friend I can’t make this stuff up!
Down to the very cells of our being Jesus is exists as the glue that holds us together!
And if you are sitting here this morning and your life seems like it’s in shambles, like it’s falling apart; if your marriage is falling apart; if your family is falling apart; if your world seems like it’s falling apart; let me ask you one question…where’s Jesus in it?
Is Jesus the priority of your family? Is Jesus the priority of your marriage? Is Jesus the priority of your life? If not, then that’s your problem!
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the Alpha & Omega the beginning and the ending and everything in between and praise God He holds all things together!
Jesus is God Incarnate. Jesus is God Eternal. Jesus is God our Creator. Jesus is also God our Lord!
He is God our Lord — (Vs. 18-19)
He is God our Lord — (Vs. 18-19)
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
Why was God pleased to dwell in Christ Jesus His Son?
Because He lay down His life for His creation!
Dear friend, listen to me this morning…every other religion in the world has a deity and it’s all about what YOU must do in order to get to them but Christianity stands apart as the only religion whose God gave His life for His own creation in order that He might save them!
It’s not about what you must do to get to Him but all about what He did to get to us, Amen!
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus is God Incarnate. Jesus is God Eternal. Jesus is God Our Creator. And Jesus is God Our Lord! He gave His life for His creation; He gave His life for you and I and therefore He deserves the position of preeminence in our lives!
Jesus Christ is Lord of all but is He Lord of you?
Does He have priority in your life?
Is He the priority of your life?
If not, dear friend you better make Him the priority because one day you’re going to find out it was all about Him from the beginning!
“All things were created by Him and for Him!”
For His praise for all eternity!
Alan Jackson sings a song called “All about Him” and the Chorus says this...
It's all about Him
And the love that He gives
Redemption and hope
For all who have sinned
You can walk all alone, never find your way home
'Til you see deep within
It's all about Him
It’s all about Jesus this morning dear friend…always has been and always will be!
From the dawn of creation to the end when there will be a new heaven and a new earth created, it’s always been about Him!
Jesus is God Incarnate. Jesus is God Eternal. Jesus is God Our Creator. Jesus is God Our Lord and lastly this morning, Jesus is God Our Savior!
He is God Our Savior — (Vs. 20-23)
He is God Our Savior — (Vs. 20-23)
John Phillips — Paul has had us up on the heights. Now he takes us down to the depths. He has taken us out among the stars and back before the beginning of time and has set before us the deity of Christ. Now he sets before us the death of Christ. The contrast could hardly be greater. Paul has been reminding us that God has no plan, no program, and no purpose either for our planet or for all of the vast reaches of space that does not find its center in the person of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He confronts us now with the most amazing of all of the purposes of God—His purpose in redemption, His plan from a past eternity to save ruined sinners of Adam’s fallen race at infinite cost.
So the spotlight swings from the deity of Christ to the death of Christ, from the dizziest heights to the uttermost depths, from light unapproachable to night unbelievable, and from the thunderous applause of the heavenly hosts to the bitter blasphemies of murderous men. In a single sentence, down we come from the realm where Christ is crowned with glory and honor to the place where He was crucified in weakness and shame.
We are hurried unceremoniously to Calvary to see men nailing their Maker to a tree. And wonder of wonders, instead of God’s hurling His anathemas across the world and sending the chariots of His wrath to visit swift and summary vengeance on a guilty human race, we have the opposite. Instead of wrath, we have reconciliation: “Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven.” Instead of opening up hell to receive guilty, daring sinners, heirs of the Fall, God opens up heaven.
Vs. 20-22
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
Vs. 21
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
John Phillips — Reconciliation! Not once in the Bible is it ever said that God is reconciled to man. God has no need to be reconciled to us; we need to be reconciled to Him. The hostility is all on our part. God’s hands are outstretched to us in love and always have been. We are the ones who have turned away. The hostility is always on man’s side, not on God’s side.
We are the ones who have turned away from God, not the other way around. Some of us sitting here this morning are like Verse 21 there…and you are still far away from God.
If you’ve never been born again then you cannot be a friend of God and if you are not a friend of God then dear friend there’s only one other option. If you aren’t a friend of God this morning, then you are by default an enemy of God!
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
How do we become a friend of God? By trusting in His dear Son!
Have you done that this morning?
If not, what’s holding you back?
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Jesus died so that you can be saved!
To present you holy, unblameable & unreproveable in the sight of almighty God!
Won’t you trust in Him today?
Dear friend, there’s one thing I can assure you of with 100% accuracy and confidence…you don’t want to die lost in your sins and stand before almighty God without the precious blood of His dear Son applied!
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
If you’ve never trusted in Jesus to be your Savior make that move here today before it’s too late!
Don’t wait for a better time because there shall be no better time than today.
Now is the accepted times and today is the day of salvation!
Saved — Is Jesus the preeminent one in your life? Does he hold that position of supreme authority?
If not, make Him the priority here today!
