Sermon Tone Analysis

The Meaning of the Resurrection

Introduction

In , Jesus and his early followers came into the region of Caesarea Philippi.

While there Jesus asked them this question: Who do people say that I am?

They replied with the different rumors they had heard.

Some say you are John the Baptist come back to life, others say you are the prophet Elijah or Jeremiah that has returned.

Jesus countered their answers with a direct question aimed right at their hearts: But who do you say I am?

That is the question that must be answered.

How you answer that question determines everything about you.

How you answer that question determines your eternal destination.

Who is this Jesus?

Who is this man who has had more influence on the world than any other historical figure?

What do we do with this Jesus who seemingly came out of nowhere and left an indelible mark on the planet?

In the 1920’s the USSR formed the “League of the Militant Godless” for the purpose of stamping out faith.

A 1929 magazine cover [pic] showed two workers dumping Jesus out of a wheelbarrow.

But the League’s leader, Yemelian Yaroslavky, grew frustrated at his failed efforts to rid the nation of faith.

He said, “Christianity is like a nail.

The harder you strike it, the deeper it goes.”[1]

No matter where you turn, the impact of Jesus is stamped everywhere.

He has been portrayed in movies by a stunning group of A-list actors from 1898 to now.

Countless songs have been written and sung about him, from the first known Christian hymn recorded by the Apostle Paul in , to Justin Bieber’s Christmas album.

Though no one knows what Jesus looked like, with no commissioned paintings or sculptures, without even any physical description, his image, and that of his disciples, is the most popular in art history.

John Ortberg writes, “It is in Jesus’ name that desperate people pray, grateful people worship, and angry people swear.

From christenings to weddings to sickrooms to funerals, it is in Jesus’ name that people are hatched, matched, patched, and dispatched.

From the Dark Ages to postmodernity, he is the man who won’t go away.”[2]

His impact on the world is simply incalculable.

Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan wrote, “Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western Culture for almost twenty centuries.

If it were possible, with some sort of super magnet, to pull up out of the history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left?”[3]

Children were thought of differently because of Jesus.

Historian O.M. Bakke notes that in the ancient world children usually were not named until the 8th day.

Up to that day, there was a chance that the infant would be killed or left to die of exposure, especially if it was deformed or of an unpreferred gender.

This custom changed because of Christians who were followers of a man who said, “Let the little children come to me.”

Jesus never married.

But his treatment of women led to the formation of a community of believers, called the Church, that was so welcoming and affirming to women that they joined it in record numbers.

Jesus never wrote a book, yet his call to love God with all your mind led to such a reverence for learning that when the classical world was destroyed in the Dark Ages, it was the Church that preserved its knowledge.

It was the Church that gave rise to libraries, to places like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale.

Virtually the entire Western system of education would arise because of Jesus’ teaching.

Though he never held an office or led an army, truths he introduced have impacted entire civilizations by being cited in documents like the Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution.

Even in our traditions surrounding death, his influence is undeniable.

The practice of burial in graveyards and cemeteries was taken from early Christians.

The word for cemetery comes from a Greek word meaning “sleeping place.”

It expresses the hope of resurrection, which only Jesus can provide.[4]

H.G. Wells, the famous author and historian, wrote, “A historian like myself, who doesn’t even call himself a Christian, finds the picture centering irresistibly around the life and character of this most significant man….

The historian’s test of an individual’s greatness is ‘What did he leave to grow?’ Did he start men to thinking along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted after him?

By this test Jesus stands first.”[5]

Who is Jesus?

The answer to that question is the most important answer in the history of the world.

The answer to that question is the very topic of the text we are going to look at today in .

The Church in the city of Colosse had a great start.

It was planted by Epaphras, a ministry partner of the Apostle Paul.

The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, had taken root and was flourishing.

But over time, a false teaching began to creep in.

The Church became infected with a false doctrine known historically as Gnosticism.

One of the chief beliefs of Gnosticism is that all physical matter is evil, everything spiritual is good.

This meant a few things: 1) your body is evil and irredeemable, so you can sin as much as you’d like because that’s what evil bodies do; 2) God is not the Creator, because no god worth anything would ever create something evil like physical matter; 3) Jesus is just another guy, not divine, because God would never come to Earth in a corrupt human body.

TS - So this is a Church that is asking the same questions we ask today: who is Jesus?

Why does he matter?

Is he really worth my time?

definitively answers that question and settles it for all time.

– 15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

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.

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,

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.

TS – If there is any text in the New Testament that gives us the identity of Jesus, it is this one.

He is referred to, directly or indirectly, 15 times in 6 verses.

5 Glorious Truths regarding Jesus’ identity…Jesus is:

1. ETERNAL GOD

This text begins with one of the most incredible, awe-inspiring sentences in the entire Bible.

V. 15 - 15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

Though God is beyond our ability to see, he graciously gives to us a means by which we can know him.

The projected image of God is Jesus Christ.

The word he uses here for “image” is a great one.

It’s the Greek word eikon.

It was used in ancient Greek culture to refer to a couple different ideas.

First, it was used to refer to a portrait.

Our equivalent today would be a photograph.

So the picture of God is Jesus.

If you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus.

Jesus himself said this in – “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”

In fact, it was statements like this that got Jesus put onto the cross.

It was the crime of blasphemy that led to his crucifixion.

In , during one of Jesus’ teaching times, the people pick up rocks to stone him to death.

Why? - 33 They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy!