Colossians 1:15-23
Intro:
[SLIDE]
…This is the first Church on the Green and you may have
been wondering – what will be the format of the evening? More than that, you’ll want to know
what is the purpose of the evening. What will we talk about?
Well I’m going to propose this as a starting point for
what we’re on about.
[SLIDE]
“To encounter Christ in the Bible and so to see the
true God and the true humanity.”
First of all – we want to encounter Christ – He IS the
reason for our gathering. All our
thinking about God and humanity, life, the universe and everything must
start with Him. We’ll see why
that is in a second.
Secondly we want to encounter Him in the Bible. We believe that the Bible is God’s
word to us about Jesus. Here
written down in black and white for all time is the authentic Christ, and
we want to ground our experience of Him in here. If you’re not yet convinced that the
Bible is the word of God we hope that as you wrestle with it, reading it,
seeking to understand it, you will see for yourself that it speaks to you
of Christ
Thirdly, we believe that in Jesus we see the true
God. I love Lord Byron’s
statement – “If God isn’t like Jesus Christ, He ought to be.” If God isn’t like Jesus, He ought to
get His act together. Jesus is
clearly God and in Him we see what the real God is like.
And finally, in Jesus we see the true humanity. Jesus shows us what being human is
meant to look like. Over the next
12 weeks we’ll be looking in the gospels at the events of Jesus’ life on
earth, when He walked as one of us.
As we see Jesus encounter the lonely and the outcast, the immoral
and the murderous – we are Not just looking at the prime example of a
good man – we are looking at God.
God doing humanity for us.
Jesus will show us what it really means to be a human being.
So to kick matters off I want to get you thinking
about these issues. So here are
three questions to consider God, Jesus and Humanity. Here are the three questions:
[SLIDE]
“What do you picture when you think of God?”
“What do you picture when you think of Jesus?”
“What does God think of when He thinks of you?”
Think about your answers to those three questions. Jot
down the answers on a piece of paper.
And I’ll throw over to your table groups now so that you can
introduce yourselves to one another.
So go around the table and say your name, where you’re from and
perhaps just offer one of your answers to the three questions…
Back from table groups:
I wonder how you got on with those three.
These questions have certain and profound answers in
the Bible. These are not issues
that we have to speculate on. The
Bible – God’s word to us, answers these questions with wonderful and
confronting truth. So let’s see
how it is the Bible answers these three questions.
[Read Colossians 1:15-23]
Talk
[SLIDE – Q1]
So what did you answer to the first question? When you think of God, what do you
picture? How would you draw
God? It’s a strange question
isn’t it. But often it reveals
that many people do have a
picture of God in their heads.
Some imagine a light in the sky.
Others picture an old grandfatherly figure. One woman I know said she pictures a
hand on her shoulder assuring her of His presence and love. I’m sure on the tables we had lots of
different responses – lots of pictures of God floating around.
And if we left this place and went out into
Clerkenwell I’m sure we’d have yet more ideas about who God is and what
He’s like.
[Spike Milligan]
Why is this?
What’s the problem? Why can’t we agree? Well the problem is there in verse 15. Why can’t we picture God? He’s invisible. Difficult to picture someone who’s
invisible.
And that’s not just annoying. It’s not just that God would be a
difficult Pictionary clue. In the
Bible – seeing God is caught up with the idea of knowing Him. To see Him is to know Him and to be
known by Him.
It is therefore a great problem that God is invisible
to us. He is unknown,
unreachable, alien to us. And the
reason for That is there in verse 21.
21Once
you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of
your evil behaviour.
We are God’s enemies.
The very way we think sets itself up in opposition to God. This is very serious because we can’t
escape our minds. We can’t just
get away for a few days to have a good clear think. We are held captive in our minds
because of our evil behaviour – bound into patterns of thinking which
simply Cannot come up with the truth about God.
That’s why we have so many different gods. Not because God’s unclear about who He
is – but because We have a terrible listening problem.
Well if we’re supposed to listen up – who should we
listen to? God’s invisible –
that’s no help. Where do we look
to see God?
How can
we picture God according to verse 15?
Answer: We look at Jesus – His image.
[SLIDE – “Jesus”]
God the Father is
invisible to us – we know this – BUT we have been given Jesus. The very image of His Father.
How do we know God – we study Jesus. All our thinking about God must
therefore be shaped by Jesus. If
you think of God and you Don’t think Jesus, then you’re not thinking
about the real God. The
real God is made visible to us only in Jesus.
And so church in general, and this service in
particular is really an introduction service. We are introducing you to Jesus in the Bible. Whether you’ve known Him for years, or
haven’t yet made His acquaintance, the essence of knowing God is to know
Jesus.
But then, if Jesus is
so important – what is our picture of Him? I wonder what your answer was to that question? Perhaps you had Jesus in a
manger. Jesus’ preaching the
sermon on the mount. Jesus
driving them out of the Temple, Jesus on the cross?
I wonder if you had the answer the Bible gives here.
Let’s have a look from verse 15:
15He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For
by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all
things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all
things, and in him all things hold together.
I wonder if you had the Bible’s answer:
[SLIDE]
‘Jesus – the eternal creator, sustainer, redeemer and
Lord of every particle of this universe’?
Jesus Christ did not begin to exist 2000 years ago –
(v17) He is before all things. He
was there with the Father and the Spirit sharing their life of love
before anything else was.
And, verse 16, He
created all things. “All things”
that phrase is repeated twice in verse 16 and twice in verse 17. The Bible wants us to know the universal
Lordship of Christ. All things –
in heaven and on earth. Visible or invisible. Earthly rulers, spiritual rulers everything owes its
existence to Jesus Christ. Reality is what it is because He made
it that way.
You are who you are –
because you were made by Jesus.
You inhabit the universe you do, because it was made by
Jesus. You owe your life to
Him.
So (2) when you think
of Jesus, what do you picture?
The Bible sees the
very image of God – the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. And the very
reason for its existence. Do you
see in verse 16 – all things were made by Him and for Him. It’s
all For Jesus. We all live in His creation made for Him.
And of course that
begs the question – are WE for Him?
Everything in the universe is designer built by Christ, for
Christ – and that includes us. So
how are we living in His creation?
Are we for Him? If not,
then we are surely out of place in the world. Everything is for Jesus. But are we?
Well of course
not. And that is the essence of
sin. We live for ourselves and
sideline Christ. We were made to
love and trust Him. Instead we
live life on our own terms and say to Him – “You may rule the universe,
but you don’t rule me.” And that
is what has ruined Christ’s world – stubborn selfish humanity and its
ridiculous and futile rebellion.
We’ve seen in verse
21 that we were enemies of God because of our evil behaviour. We are at war with God and we sorely
need a truce. There’s nothing
more important than making peace with God. So how is peace made? Verse 19 tells us. Look with me:
“Through [Jesus] to
reconcile all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by
making peace through His blood shed on the cross
Jesus Christ makes
peace for us, through His blood shed on the cross.
The simple mention of
the cross would have made the Colossian readers of this letter draw sharp
breath. Such a humiliating and
excruciating death was generally reserved for slaves and barbarians. No Roman citizen could be crucified –
nor were they even allowed to let the word “crucifixion” pass their
lips. It was horrific to be
crucified. But verse 19 insists –
here hangs the image of the invisible God. Six inches of iron through each wrist, and one through His
feet. The creator and sustainer
of the universe. Straining for
each breath. God the Son, broken
and desperately alone. And the
blood that pours down that cross is how you and I find peace.
I don’t want to play
on the gruesome details of the cross because I think you’ll agree, the
really astonishing fact of the cross is not the blood itself – the
astonishing fact is whose blood is being shed??!
Who is hanging on the cross??
We often think about
the ‘what’ of the cross. Many Christians
can give terrific answers to the question, “what happened at the
cross?”
I was at a conference on Monday where a bishop spoke very
eloquently about the cross. He
used big words like penal substitution and atonement to explain how Jesus
took the punishment I deserved. He was a Bible man and a man I greatly
respect. But he never told me Who
was hanging on the cross.
That line in the song
we began with – Servant King – says it well. “Hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails
surrendered.” Do we see that it
is Jesus our cosmic eternal loving creator who gave up everything for
us?
Jesus isn’t just the
heroic fall guy, who comes to solve our problem with God. He is God the Son and He is laying
down His life for we who have only ever offended Him. Once we see that, our hearts are won
and the cross takes on new significance.
Jesus, my God was butchered for me.
And what is the
outcome – verse 22:
22But
now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to
present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
(3) What does God
picture when He thinks of you?
[SLIDE]
Well the one who
trusts Christ, who is reconciled by the cross:- He pictures you as holy, without blemish, free from
accusation.
That’s what the cross
was for – to take away all your sin and guilt and shame – Jesus took it
to Himself and He put it to death.
And now He’s freed you – you are holy, without blemish and free
from accusation.
If you’re a Christian
do you have that view of yourself?
It’s very hard to live the Christian life if you don’t see
yourself the way God sees you.
If you’re not a
Christian though – do you see yourself in verse 21 – alienated from God
and an enemy? These are hard teachings but the Bible insists that in a
world made by Jesus for Jesus, that those who are not for Jesus are His
enemies. But enemies who have a
wonderful hope. Christ is willing
to go to the cross to rescue you from the enemy camp.
As I close – we live
in a world that daily parades before us a whole glut of gods. Even TV talk shows see themselves as
spiritual guides. But the Bible brings amazing clarity in this
confusion. As we’ve seen, the
whole marketplace of gods exists in Jesus’
world. He is not one of them, He
is God of gods and Lord of lords. As Lord Byron said “If God isn’t like
Jesus He ought to be.” And when
we look at His life, His teaching, His death, His resurrection we see,
verse 19, the fullness of God dwelling in Him.
Let me throw back to your
table groups for discussion. Here
are a few thought starters you can use some or all or none of these – but
I want you to have the opportunity to think through together some of
these things.
[SLIDE]
….
Does tonight challenge your view of Jesus?
Does tonight challenge your view of the cross?
Do you find it easy to think of yourself or your
friends as “enemies” of God? Can
you see why the Bible uses that language?
Do you find it easy to think of yourself as holy?
Can you see why the Bible uses that language?
What place ought Christ to have in our thinking and
living?
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