"If the Tomb Could Talk"

Gospel Algebra

“God made Adam. He was not fashioned after any model. There had never been a human organism, and so there was nothing to copy. At the first attempt God made a perfect man. He made him out of the dust of the earth. If, out of ordinary dust of the earth and without a model, God could make a perfect man, surely out of the extraordinary dust of mortal body, and with millions of models, God can make each one of us a perfect being in the resurrection. Surely the last undertaking would not be greater than the first. See the gospel algebra: Ordinary dust minus a model equals a perfect man. Extraordinary dust and plus a model equals a resurrection body. Mysteries about it? Oh, yes; that is one reason why I believe it. It would not be much of a God who could do things only as far as I can understand. Mysteries? Oh, yes; but no more about the resurrection of your body than about its present existence.”—T. DeWitt Talmage

Propositional Statement

As Creator and Reconciler, Christ deserves our worship, prayer, and obedience. Let us give them to him from redeemed and grateful hearts.

Sermon in a Sentence

“Every area of life touched by sin also must be touched by grace.”

The Resurrection

The resurrection of Christ causes faith to rise in believers and denial and doubt in non believers. Two questions are raised: (1) did God die, and (2) did Christ rise from the dead? The cross creates controversy as to who was actually responsible: the Jewish leaders or the Romans. But the resurrection frightened the Jewish, was ignored by the Roman, and celebrated by the Christian. Friday was fatal and seemed like a failure, but the “first day of the week” brought new hope to the fledgling band of disciples. The Christendom foundation is grounded by the resurrection. Leaving Christ on the cross tells only half the story. The resurrection provides hope, renews one’s faith, and provides a preview for what is to come when Jesus cracks the sky and declares time no more. The resurrection allows us to sing “when we all get to heaven,” and that will be a day like none other.

The Epistle of Colossians

Three of the Prison Epistles belong together: Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon. Paul wrote Philemon, urging him to forgive and restore his runaway slave, Onesimus. Significantly, Onesimus an Tychicus traveled together to Colossae to with he news of Paul’s situation, and they carried the letter Paul wrote. The church at Colossae faced a serious theological threat. The Christians at Colossae faced a major threat to their orthodoxy. Like many letters, this one countered a specific movement threatening to remove the church from Christ. Paul affirmed the centrality of Christ in both doctrine and practice. While most scholars agree that a problem threatened the church, there is no consensus as to its exact nature.

Verse 15-23 has two clear thematic divisions. One section presents Christ’s relation to the created world. Paul answered basic questions about the origin and purposes of creation. The other section present Jesus’ relationship to the redemption of what he crated. Paul reminded the readers of the redemptive purposes of God in and through Christ.

The Invisible God became Visible through creation and manifested glory

“If you want to know what God looks like, just look at his Son.”

When Thomas asked Jesus to show us the Father, Jesus responded by saying that when you see me, you have seen the Father (John 14:8-11). Paul proclaims that the Creator is also the Redeemer by preventing Christ as supreme over creation and church. In the Greek world, the word “image” (eikon) conveyed one of two nuances of meaning. The image represented and symbolized what the object pictured. If this emphasis were primary, Paul would have said Jesus was the symbol of deity. Paul would have meant that Jesus exactly symbolized God. The second element of meaning in the word image was manifestation. It meant that the symbol was more than a symbol. The symbol brought with it the actual presence of the object. Thus J. B. Phillips translated it, “visible expression,” and by it Paul meant that Jesus brought God into the human sphere of understanding. He manifested God. The terminology is similar to Heb 1:3, where the writer stated that Jesus is called the “exact representation” of God, and John 1:18, which states that Jesus “has made him known.” The point is that in Christ the invisible God became visible. He shared the same substance as God and made God’s character known in this earthly sphere of existence. The revelation of God in Christ is such that we can actually see him, even with all of our limitations.

Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 215.

He is the head of the church because of what he did for the church

As in the first stanza, two statements made about Jesus set the direction for the stanza. They relate to Jesus in his role of Redeemer. The first is, “He is the head of the body, the church.” In this statement, “church” is in apposition to “the body,” thereby explaining both elements. This is an organic concept of church. The metaphor of the church as “the body” was commonly used by Paul and adapted easily to many different aspects of the church’s life. It may stress the interdependency of the various parts of the body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12–26), the dynamic aspect of the body as it strives for maturity (Eph 4:15–16), the redemptive role of the head for the body (Eph 5:23), or the hierarchy of the parts of the body, the head being superior to the rest (Col 1:18). These diverse applications of the illustration point out the adaptability of the concept. Perhaps the emphases overlap on occasion since the metaphor is pregnant with possibilities. The common element in all is that of organic interrelationship. Each aspect of the body really is a part of the others.On other occasions, Paul used the organizational model of the church rather than the organic. Stressing authority relationships, the organizational model suited some purposes well. For example, it well described pastor/deacon relationships. Both the organic and the organizational models are appropriate, depending on the emphasis desired. In Col 1:18 the authority and direction-giving aspects of the head over the body receive the focus.In interpreting this picture, some important truths emerge. First, the organic picture illustrates the unity of the head and body. Although clearly Christ can and did exist without the church, the imagery chosen lends itself to expressing the concept that the head is incomplete without the body. Similarly, the body is incomplete without the head. This is more fully developed in Eph 1. From an earthly perspective, the church is necessary since it is the visible body of Christ. Most of what the world sees of the whole body, it sees not in the head, but in the body, the church. Thus the idea of corporate personality, so prevalent in the Old Testament, may emerge here as well.Another truth emerges in this statement. As Paul began to enumerate the areas of Jesus’ lordship over what is redeemed, he focused on the church. Indeed, redemption and reconciliation pertain primarily to the church since the fallen spirit beings and creation are not reconciled in the same way. Instinctively Paul’s thoughts turned to the church when he contemplated redemption.

Don’t be shifty, be stable on the gospel

In concluding this section, Paul took the theme of the gospel and again brought it to its universal significance. The gospel was the same message they heard, which, in turn, was the same gospel preached to every creature and was the message which had captured the energy of Paul. The literary pattern moves from the cosmic nature of Christ’s work to its application in the lives of the Colossians. It then moves from the message heard by the Colossians to that heard by all of creation. The movement, therefore, is from the general to the specific and from the specific back to the general

Another exegetical problem in this verse is Paul’s statement that the gospel “has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.” The Greek text differs from the NIV in the expression “to every creature.” In Greek it literally is “in every creature.” The point is that the place of the preaching is the creature (“in”), and “every creature” should be understood as “all humankind.” Paul hardly meant that every person had heard the gospel. That would defeat the point of his mission and his intense desire to preach where Christ had not been proclaimed. The point is that the gospel is the same gospel that was proclaimed from city to city. There is thus a universal aspect to the gospel which, as Bruce said, “is a token of its divine origin and power.”131 Wherever the gospel has been preached, it is this gospel which has been proclaimed; there is no other. This, no doubt, stands in contrast to the sectarian views being propagated among the Colossians, which were both of recent development and specific to the geographic territory around Colossae. Finally, Paul stated that he was a servant of that same universal gospel. Perhaps it was of significance to those who were changing the gospel from what it was originally to what they wanted it to be. Paul had no proprietary interest in the gospel—it was not his. Rather, he was privileged to be servant to it. Paul used the term “minister” (NASB; diakonos) rather than “bond-servant” (NASB; doulos), the common term for his relationship to Jesus Christ (see, e.g., Phil. 1:1, though the close relationship of these terms should be noted since the NIV translates both as “servant”). He was subject to the gospel and privileged to be a part of its propagation. This identification with the gospel served to remind the church that he, and it, had a stewardship responsibility with the things of God. Paul provided a twofold reminder and confirmation of the truth of the gospel: It was the same one preached throughout creation, and it was the one which Paul propagated.The central element of the gospel is the person and work of Jesus. In applying the hymn to his readers, Paul stressed this centrality both cosmically and redemptively.