Sermon Tone Analysis

Colossians 1:15a

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READ 15-22

We are heading into a section of Scripture that is packed full of truth about God.

It is theology, and quite deep theology at that.

Last week we had to face the theological term “redemption.”

This week we will attempt to dissect what it means that Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Next week the difficult phrase “firstborn of all creation.”

Then we have “by Him all things hold together.”

“He is the head of the body” “He is the firstborn from the dead” “It was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him” “Reconciliation” “Union with Christ”

 

Deep theology is not what most people get excited about.

An ad for a church in this area said “Are you tired of the same old yadda, yadda, yadda?

So are we!

What if church dealt with relevant issues, real relationships, and a faith that enhances every aspect of daily life?”

There is certainly truth in what they are saying.

Church needs to deal with relevant issues, real relationships, and a faith that enhances every aspect of daily life.

Anyone who teaches or preaches truth has to put time and effort into crossing the application bridge to help bring the truth home for us.

That is very true.

But here is what is frightening - for many people and even Christians today, topics like these in Colossians 1 would not fall into the category of “relevant issues,” but would actually land in the category of “the old yadda, yadda, yadda.”

And as a result there is a huge amount of pressure on pastors in America today to cut back on the amount of truth that they dispense in their churches, or to cleverly conceal it.

This is a frightening development for American Christianity.

But it should not be a surprise, because II Tim.

4:3 “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.”

Three observations:

1.       Truth is relevant

· relevant means it has practical value

· Truth is not always comfortable or exciting.

But that does not mean that it is not relevant.

It is very dangerous to ignore portions of truth because you find them difficult or uncomfortable.

Ex: Suppose you are driving down the freeway 25 miles over the speed limit.

And suddenly you have blue lights and a siren on your tail.

Truth is that there is a cop requesting that you pull over so he can talk to you.

However, you can choose to ignore that truth because it is uncomfortable.

But that would not be a good decision.

Eventually you will have 3 police cars surrounding you and forcing you off the road.

It might be uncomfortable to face truth, but it is certainly relevant, and it will become increasingly relevant the longer you ignore it.

· Let’s take another illustration.

Topography sounds rather intimidating.

Sounds like something that only a professor at a college somewhere would care about.

But if you were going to go ride a 4-wheeler in an unfamiliar area of wilderness, a topographical map would probably be important.

You might say “Don’t bore me with that topographical yadda yadda yadda, Just tell me how to make my 4-wheeler go faster.”

I know of someone at a Christian camp in the mountains of Wyoming who drove their four-wheeler right off of a cliff and nearly killed themself.

Truth – in the form of a topographical map – would have been much more relevant than they realized.

2.       All truth about God is supremely relevant

There is nothing more relevant than truth about God.

Today’s fashions will be tomorrows jokes; today’s hot new technology will be tomorrow’s old news; Today’s hot music will be tomorrow’s “classics” or “oldies.”

There will be a new cool fashion; a new cool technology; a new cool music.

What is very relevant today will soon be completely irrelevant.

America actually forsakes what is really relevant in order to follow fads.

But truth about God is never irrelevant.

It is always supremely relevant.

You see a church can only deal with relevant issues, real relationships, and a faith that enhances every aspect of daily life as it teaches and preaches and lives out truth about God.

And not just a few select truths; not just the truths that we like; not just the easy truths; but all truth.

All Scripture.

3.       Our commitment to truth about God is a reflection of our commitment to God Himself.

Let me quote from a modern-day pastor on the other side of that fence:

“Our concern with truth is an inevitable expression of our concern with God.

If God exists, then he is the measure of all things, and what He thinks about all things is the measure of what we should think.

Not to care about truth is not to care about God.

To love God passionately is to love truth passionately.

Being God-centered in life means being truth-driven in ministry.

Indifference to the truth is indifference to the mind of God.

Our concern with truth is simply an echo of our concern with God.”

 

Truth matters as much as God matters.

He is truth.

In loving truth you love and worship God.

John 4 the Father seeks people who will worship him in truth

John 8 If ye continue in my word, /then/ are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 17 Jesus prays that the Father would sanctify us with truth

I Cor. 13 love rejoices in truth

III John 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth

 

Christians must be characterized by a passionate desire to hear and learn not what they want to hear and learn, but what is true.

At Grace Bible Church we must be relevant; we must be practical; lives must be changing here.

But we will not seek to find relevance in the fads of culture.

We will find relevance by passionately pursuing the knowledge and application of truth, especially truth about God.

And we will endure sound doctrine; and we will love all of God’s truth from beginning to end, whether it is comfortable or exciting or not.

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Now to today’s text:

It is interesting that these truths in Colossians 1 are much more practical than most people realize.

Look at our text in verse 15:

· He is in the image of God; all humans are in the image of God, we have similarities to God; and so Jesus isn’t God he’s just in the image of God like all the rest of us

· He is the firstborn of all creation; if he was firstborn, that means that he was the first thing created; but he was still created like us.

So he is the most important created being, but he’s not God.

Because he’s created just like you and me.

· So Jesus is in the image of God just like all the rest of us; He’s created just like all the rest of us, and He’s not God.

· If He’s not God, he couldn’t die for your sins.

So you aren’t saved, because you’ve been putting your trust in Jesus and now we know that he can’t really help you since He’s not God.

If He is not God then he is blasphemer, and you are a great idolater because you have been worshipping a blasphemer.

And to quote J. Oswald Sanders, “the whole superstructure of Christianity crashes to the ground.”

Of course that is a very weak interpretation of this text, and it does not hold up under scrutiny.

But it helps us to see just how practical hard truths really are.

What does it mean that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God?”

There are two main things that the word “image” can communicate, and I think both of them are in view here.

1.

Image:

#.

Can mean *representation*:

1.       Illust: a penny has the image of Abraham Lincoln on it – the representation

2.       All humans are made in the image of God (Gen.

1:26-27) · ILLUST: PENNY – this is the likeness of Abraham Lincoln.

But how much like Him is it?

Was Abe bronze?

Did he only have half of a head?

This is a very imperfect likeness, but it is still the image or likeness of Abraham Lincoln.