Sermon for July 21, 2019

This morning I’ll be reading Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 28.

And I'll be reading the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Colossians was written to the church in Colosse by Paul while he was in prison in Rome. This letter was written because of the threat of a false teaching that later became known as Gnosticism. This was beginning to threaten the message that Paul and the others had shared with them.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross — whether things on earth or things in heaven. 21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. 22 But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him — 23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it. 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for His body, that is, the church. 25 I have become its servant, according to God’s administration that was given to me for you, to make God’s message fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. 27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, as we begin this morning, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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This week,,, as always,,, as I prayed and tried to get my sermon started for today,,, I couldn't figure out what God was wanting me to tackle this week.

I have another sermon that I've been researching and looking at off and on and I thought at the beginning of the week,,, that might have been it but apparently I'm to wait until another time.

It wasn't until I really took the time and stopped and listened,,, during prayer,,, that I figured out that this scripture was what God wanted me to work on for today.

These scriptures begin in verse 15 with Paul describing several attributes of God that are visible in Jesus.

And they end with Paul describing a secret plan that is fulfilled by Jesus Christ in verses 27 and 28 that we will cover as we get to that scripture this morning.

(3:17)

With the chaos that our denomination is in at this time,,, it appears to me that a reminder of what we are supposed to be through Jesus Christ is needed.

If you are wondering what I mean by that,,, since you figured that our worries were over since the traditional plan passed,,, you only have to look at the emails and online posts that have been sent these last few months.

The fact that there have been several annual conferences that have defied the book of discipline and our Bishop's have done nothing to stop it or denounce it!

If the United Methodist Church doesn't begin upholding the Bible as we should then we are headed for a fall.

But,,, before we get too upset,,, let me remind you of one thing!

We are not the one's in control of this,,, the Bishop's aren't in control,,, no one is in control of this,,, but God!

He will take care of this and His will be done,,, no matter what is said or done.

There have also been several writers in support of the traditional plan that have published reports that dispute the things that have been going on even if the Bishops haven’t.

They also report information that gives us courage that nothing will change as far as the traditional plan goes.

So as always we must be vigilant and stay in prayer about this,,, that's the most important thing that we can do.

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As we begin with the scriptures this morning,,, Paul is defining who Jesus really is,,, so there is no doubt.

According to my Bible Knowledge Commentary,,, in verses 15 - 20,,, Paul gives 7 characteristics of Jesus that spell out exactly who Jesus is.

1 - image of God

2 - firstborn over all creation

3 - creator of the universe

4 - head of the church

5 - Firstborn from the dead

6 - fullness of God

7 - Reconciler of all things

It says that no comparable listing of so many characteristics of Christ and His deity are found in any other Scripture passage.

This shows Christ is the supreme Sovereign of the universe!

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First, Christ is the image of the invisible God.

Like the head of a king or a ruler imprinted on a coin, so Christ is “the exact representation of [the Father’s] being” found in .

As Jesus said to Philip, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” found in .

Anyone who saw Christ, the visible manifestation of the invisible God, has thereby “seen” God indirectly.

says “no one has ever seen God, but God the only Son … has made Him known”.

Here Christ is the perfect visible representation and manifestation of that God.

So Christ’s supremacy is first shown in His relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ is the perfect resemblance and representation of God.

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Then Paul tells about Jesus' relation to the creation of everything.

My Bible Knowledge Commentary says that

Even though it is grammatically possible to translate this as “Firstborn in Creation,” the context makes this impossible for five reasons:

(1) The whole point of the passage (and the letter) is to show Jesus' superiority over all things.

(2) Other statements about Christ in this passage (such as Creator of all [v:16], before all things [v. 17], etc.) clearly indicate His priority and superiority over Creation.

(3) The “Firstborn” cannot be part of Creation if He created “all things.”

One cannot create himself.

(4) The “Firstborn” received worship of all the angels found in .

(5) “Firstborn” denotes two things of Christ: He preceded the whole Creation, and He is Sovereign over all Creation.

In the Old Testament a firstborn child had not only priority of birth but also the dignity and superiority that went with it.

Some examples found in and .

When Jesus declared Himself “the First” found in Revelations 1:17, He used a word that means “absolutely first.”

“Firstborn” also implies sovereignty.

So “Firstborn” implies both Christ’s priority to all Creation (in time) and His sovereignty over all Creation (in rank).

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Paul's third characteristic of Jesus was creator of the universe.

In fact all things were created by Him,,, and for Him,,, and in Him.

They hold together because of Christ.

Christ is not only the One through whom all things came to be, but also the One by whom they continue to exist.

Two other New Testament verses parallel this description of Christ: “Through Him all things were made” (), and Christ the Son is the One “through whom [the Father] made the universe” ().

The Son’s Creation includes “all” things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

These indicate the entire universe, both material and immaterial.

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Fourth, Christ is the Head of the body, the church.

Besides being the Lord of the universe He is also the church’s Head and it's also found in and 5:23).

The reference here is to the invisible or universal church into which all believers are baptized by the Holy Spirit the moment they believe in Christ found in .

This work of the Spirit began on the day of Pentecost (; ; ).

It is a special body in which there is “neither Jew nor Gentile” () but a whole new creation of God ().

The church is a “mystery … which was not made known to men in other generations” (; cf. ; ).

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Fifth, Christ is the Beginning and the Firstborn from among the dead (cf. ).

Christ was the first to rise in an immortal body (), and as such He heads a whole new order as its Sovereign (cf. “Firstborn” in ).

Also Christ’s resurrection marked His triumph over death (; ).

He was the “Firstfruits” of those who die () since, unlike others, He rose never to die again.

He “was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead” ().

So He continues to live “on the basis of the power of an indestructible life” ().

All this is so that in everything He might have the supremacy.

Christ is given first place over all Creation.

He is preeminent.

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Verse 19,,, The sixth description of the exalted Christ is that all God’s "fullness" dwell[s] in Him.

Later Paul wrote, “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (2:9).

According to my Bible Knowledge Commentary,,, is one of the most powerful descriptions of Christ’s deity in the New Testament (cf. ).

“Fullness”,,, a key word in Colossians, is used in 1:19 and 2:9.

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Verse 20,,, the seventh feature of Christ is that He is the Reconciler.

Through Christ,,, God will reconcile to Himself all things.

The earth itself will be reconciled when Jesus comes because it has been waiting with anticipation because it hasn't been the same since the sin of man.

Found in

It is important to note that people are reconciled to God (“to Himself”) not that God is reconciled to people.

For mankind has left God and needs to be brought back to Him.

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I spent several minutes this morning explaining these characteristics of Jesus so that hopefully they will help us remember,,, and really understand,,, just what He really is!

We have a tendency sometimes to take Jesus for granted and we don't give Him the praise and glory that He deserves.

In these verses this morning,,, Paul is telling all of this to the church there because they have been getting conflicting information and I'm afraid that's what we are hearing today,,, even from our own church!

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In verse 23 Paul says 23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

I believe that what God is telling us today,,, is to keep our faith in the Bible and don't let people that go against His word lead us down the wrong path.

It doesn't matter how loud or how confident they seem to be,,, if it goes against scripture then it's not right.

Scripture doesn't contradict itself.

There may be things that we don't understand but usually through prayer, study and explanation from others we can come to an understanding.

And even if we don't fully understand,,, then that's where faith comes in.

That's what Paul is saying in this verse,,, that we remain grounded and steadfast in our faith and are not shifted away from the hope in the gospel.

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Then in verse 24 Paul rejoiced that he was able to suffer for them what was still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions.

Paul did not mean that Christ's suffering on the cross was insufficient but that it was a believer's privilege to suffer for Christ,,, and it might be required of us also.

When Jesus confronted Saul on the Damascus Road,,, He asked him, "Why do you persecute me?" found in .

And since the church is Christ’s body, He is affected when it is affected.

For the sake of Christ’s body,,, Paul willingly suffered.

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Verses 25 - 28 are spent talking about the "mystery hidden for ages and generations".

The heresy that was hindering the church of Colossians boasted of a knowledge possible only through their mystical experience.

But Paul declared that the fullness of the mystery is found only in Christ.

By “mystery” he meant something once concealed but then revealed.

This contrasted with the Colossian heretics’ notion that a mystery was a secret teaching known only to an exclusive group and unknown to the masses.

The church was unknown in the Old Testament because it had been kept hidden for ages and generations.

In fact, said Paul, it is only now disclosed to the saints.

Since the church is Christ’s body, resulting from His death on the cross, it could not possibly have been in existence in the Old Testament.

Indeed, Jesus, when on earth, said it was yet future ().

Since the church is Christ’s body, welded together by the baptism of the Holy Spirit (), the church’s birthday occurred when this baptism took place (; ).

Paul was able to use this mystery to help the Colossians see the way that they needed to go and that way is open for us as well.

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As we begin our week,,, it's important that we try to remember these words from Paul to be sure that we stay on the right path and we don't listen to the voices of our world today.

Satan will try any means that he can to confuse us,,, even using the words of the Bible as he does it!

Also try to remember that Jesus,,, described by those 7 characteristics,,, is the key to our success and that knowledge should be derived from scripture, prayer and the Holy Spirit.

And there should be no conflicting information,,, at least as far as scripture goes,,, no matter how it is used.

That's what Paul was telling the Colossians then and that's the words we need to hear today,,, because it's only when we truly pay attention to scripture that we can stay on the right path.

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So as we sing our final hymn,,, let me remind you that the alter is always open,,,

If you feel God speaking to you,,, don't hesitate to come,,, maybe you just have questions,,, God will answer,,, you just have to ask Him,,, whatever the need may be,,,

As we sing the final hymn,,, come if needed!

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