Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in week 3 of this mini-series that is focused on Communicating the Vision for ODBC...

We set aside our study right now of 1 Peter simply because by the time we completed 1 Peter we would be near the holidays and we would have had to push this into next year…so we thought a good time to do this was now.

What is our Goal in this?

Purpose for this series:

To communicate who we are as a church and where we believe God wants us to go.

To encourage you to be an active participant in what God is going to do in us, through us, with us, and for us.

To equip you with the confidence that you belong here!

What is our Mission Statement?

Say it with me…Building Lives to Know and Live for Jesus Christ.

In other words, our mission is to be a disciple making church...

What does the acronym T.A.B.L.E.S stand for?

With TABLES we have identified 6 areas of focus for us to carry out our mission.

Say a brief comment regarding each one…this is what we are walking through on Sunday evenings

T eaching for Life Change

A dopting People as the Lord Brings Them

B uilding Christ-Honoring Families

L oving Each other as Spiritual Family

E quipping People to Serve

S haring Jesus with the World Around Us

How did we arrive at those?

We looked at what makes us…US…our spiritual DNA…what is important to us…we wrestled over what are the most important aspects of our life as believers and as a church....we call them our key principles…there are four…wanted to make them easy to remember so that all of us can use the same language when it comes to making disciples...

We then asked “how do we flesh these out in practical terms…TABLES becomes our “how to”…again we wanted it to be something easy to remember…again, that is what we are talking about on Sunday evenings...

So what we are doing on Sunday Mornings is communicating those key Principles that drive our application…they are what we care about…they identify our priorities.

Can you remember what our first one is?

Principle #1 – We Care About Glorifying God – Our primary responsibility, {both as individuals and a church}, is to glorify God in all things.

Everything we do is to be geared to proclaiming the wonderful character of God.

Our second principle comes from Colossians 1:13-29.

If we are going to glorify God then we must Care About Proclaiming Christ.

Principle #2 – We Care About Proclaiming Christ – We rejoice in the message of the cross and that everyone can be forgiven through his blood and restored to a right relationship with God.

Read Col. 1:13-29.

This passage is perhaps one of the most critical passages in the whole Bible concerning the true identity of Jesus.

It is vital to a proper understanding of our faith.

Main Point: Proclaiming Christ is Our Central Message!

4 Reasons we proclaim Christ

We Proclaim Christ Because He Redeemed us (13-14).

God delivers every believer through Him.

Verse 12 tells us this should be something that moves us to give thanks.

The terms rescued, dominion, and kingdom are all terms that comes from warfare.

There is a spiritual war taking place for the souls of every man, woman and child…it is a war that we cannot win with our own efforts.

Our only hope in that war is to be rescued by God.

God’s rescue mission is a transference from one dominion to another.

He brought us out of the realm of darkness.

God invaded Satan’s territory and delivered His people...“transferred” = describes a mighty king picking up a whole population and deporting it into another realm.

We are no longer in a kingdom of darkness, we are in a kingdom of light and love!

He brought us into the rule of His Son.

God provided redemption and forgiveness through Him.

Redemption and forgiveness are two terms that compliment each other.

Redemption belongs to the slave market…it involves the payment of a price to secure freedom…that price was the death of Christ…redemption is the emancipation from the slavery of sin…Paul speaks much about redemption in Romans…our sin separates us from God, we are born shackled to it, God’s justice for sin requires death…redemption through Jesus Christ alone settles God’s justice.

Forgiveness stresses the loving nature of God…with these two words we see both justice and mercy…it is a pardon, a release…a cancellation of debt...In Christ, God pardons the believing sinner…the guilt of sin was placed upon Jesus Christ…the penalty of our sin (God’s justice) as been removed (God’s forgiveness).

None of this is accomplished on our own…it is all of God!

He initiated our rescue and completed it through Christ alone!

We Proclaim Christ Because of Who He Is (15-20)

The Jesus we proclaim must be the Jesus of the Bible…who is this Jesus we speak of…Paul gives insight to who Jesus is...

The image of God

Image = eikon = statue = image or likeness

Same word was used when Jesus asked whose image was on the coin in Matt 22:20

Also used in Rev. in reference to the statue of the Antichrist.

What makes Jesus unique, is that while being 100% human, He is accurately and absolutely the perfect image of God.

He did not BECOME the image of God at the incarnation, he has been that from all eternity.

In Heb 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.

When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

"the exact representation of [God's] nature refers to an engraving tool, or stamp.

Jesus is the exact likeness of God.

That is why He could say, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

By using this term, Paul emphasizes that Jesus is both the representation and manifestation of God.

He is the full, final, and complete revelation of God.

He is God in human flesh.

2. The Firstborn over Creation

Firstborn – protokos– it can mean first chronologically, but its primary meaning is in reference to position or rank.

In both Greek and Jewish history the firstborn was the son who had the right of inheritance…but that right was not always given to the first son born…

Esau & Jacob – Esau was first chronologically, but Jacob was the “firstborn” who received the inheritance.

Jesus is the One with the right to claim the inheritance of all creation

Being firstborn means Jesus is highest in rank, not order.

Israel is referred to as God’s firstborn even though they were not the first people born they held first place in God’s view of other nations (Ps.

89:27; Ex. 4:22 & Jer.

31:9)

The point Paul is making here is that Jesus existed before anything was created and is exalted in rank above it.

3. Creator of the Universe

Heaven…earth…visible…invisible

He created the angels...Hierarchy of angelic beings

Thrones, Powers, Rulers, Authorities

All these indicate a highly organized dominion of the spirit world

The people of Colosse were engaged in angel worship and Paul’s defense here is that Christ reigns supreme over the angels.

Jesus is not an angel…he created them…and rules over them.

In fact the Scriptures tell us that the ANGELS worship HIM.

As the creator, everything that was created has its purpose anchored to Christ.

His purposes, His glory, To do with as He pleases

Everything is his, nothing is ours…that means you are His and not your own…your purpose for living is only fulfilled in how you live for Christ.

As the creator, he also keeps it all together.

He sustains it.

He maintains the delicate balance necessary to life's existence...

He is the power behind every consistency in the universe.

He is the One who keeps all the entities in space in their motion.

He is the energy of the universe.

In all of this Paul’s point is clear…Jesus is God…He existed before creation…created all things for Himself…and preserves it.

There remains no other conclusion.

4. Head of the Church

The church is a Body, and Christ is the head of the Body.

Not in the sense of the head of a company, but rather as a living organism, inseparably tied together by the living Christ.

He controls every part of it and gives it life and direction.

His life lived out through all the members provides the unity of the Body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-20).