He's All That

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Don Filcek; Col 1:15-23 He's All That

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You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan Welcome to Recast Church.
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I'm glad that you're here. I'm Don Felsick I'm the lead pastor and I would I hope you've gathered together this morning to worship
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Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior. He is the reason that we gather together
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And I hope that he has come to mind this morning for you as You've been getting around and getting ready to come in here
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And I hope that you grow closer to him as a result of gathering together with his people And coming to this place this morning.
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I'd encourage you to check out the worship folder that you received when you walked in It's got different announcements and different activities that are going on in there
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Haley's picture is up there, but she is not running the welcome table this morning. It's actually Leah Klein is out there
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Haley is on vacation this week. We even let her take a break once in a while. So So she's not she's not out there
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But if you would do us a favor and fill out the connection card that you received when you walk When you walked in and Particularly if this is your first time with us and you fill one of these out and turn that in in the black box
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It's out there on the welcome table. Leah has a gift for you and She'll make it worth your while So it's worth filling it out and and turning it in and then
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Also, remember that those of you who have filled this out before there is a place for you to put out put down prayer requests
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And different things that are going on If you have any suggestions or comments Criticisms concerns anything like that You can put that on there too and we make sure to address those and then you can keep your own information
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Updated just by sharing that with us your email email address changes you move you get a new cell phone, whatever
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We appreciate it when we get updated information on that and then an offering envelope has been provided. We don't pass an offering plate and so Just make mention that there's a black box out there where you turn those connection cards in you can also use that envelope to give if you choose to we don't want anybody to feel pressured and obviously
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The main focus is if you're calling this your church and you acknowledge that as a spiritual act of worship to God We are not trying to pressure anybody into giving and at the same time we're extremely grateful for the way that God continues to provide for us and Just thinking about the expansion fund
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We do have an expansion fund that any gifts that are marked expansion fund whether on the envelope or on the check
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Line goes towards our eventual goal of building a building a goal That's becoming more and more reasonable as we go along and I'd encourage you to come to the family meeting tonight
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It's going to be held at the office meeting room just down the street here Right on Murray Street at the at the end before you get to the park on the left -hand side
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And you can see where that is on that website, too but We and just a highlight of We we love to see people out to this family meeting if you're calling this your church or even if it's your first time here
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And you're kind of curious and and and want to know what's going on I mean you can come to that meeting, but it's a place for you to get questions answered
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We're gonna spend some time praying for the church and for each other And so the focus is exactly when
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I say family time It's that's the that's the focus is a chance for us as a church family to get together now
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I want to point out that it could be a misnomer in the title because we don't have child care provided for you and part
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Of that is just an issue of space We don't have a facility Yet where there is a place where we can all meet and then have our children meeting at the same time someplace else other
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Than here, which we don't have this in the evening. So Just know I mean you could bring your kids and they could they could sit there and take it in too if you choose to Do that, but please come out 7 p .m.
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This evening down the street So with all of those things out of the way We're gonna be talking about the book of Colossians again this morning, and I just want to start off by saying
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Something that might just be really obvious to you and that is that Jesus is a Polarizing figure have you noticed that you say his name in public and you're gonna get a response from people around you
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You say it in your workplace. You generally get a response from people Maybe you've noticed that people have pretty strong thoughts and opinions about Jesus Christ There are bumper stickers saying that he was a liberal there are bumper stickers saying he was conservative
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There are bumper stickers saying he supports just about every idea that is out there Right just about almost anything that that people can come up with they've used
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Jesus to try to defend their position to some degree or another the picture that Paul paints of Jesus in our text this morning is
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Breathtaking in its scope. It is extremely significant in what it has to say about this figure this man
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Jesus Christ Jesus is not whatever we make him out to be The character and nature of Jesus is clearly spelled out for us in the pages of Scripture We don't get to define
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Jesus any way we want to But instead if we are wise We will come to the pages of Scripture and let
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God bear Testimony of who his son truly is and that's what we're gonna be doing today.
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We come to the word Intentionally, that's one of the reasons here at recast I walk through books of the Bible as I want us to be informed by the
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Word of God not my opinions not Don's thoughts Not Don's soapbox, but by the very
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Word of God where he is telling us how it really is in reality We believe this word is truth.
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And so we dig in to know who he is better and here in our text He's gonna be talking specifically about his son
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Jesus Christ We should listen to the testimony of God about his son And I think we live in an age where many well -intentioned people
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Well -meaning people have made Jesus out to be things like their own personal trainer
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To Jesus to some he's he's just a life coach or a personal guru who helps get me through Like your own personal
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Jesus some think of him like a good luck charm Who you know, I invoke his name when
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I want good to happen in my day or something to that effect many who even would be found attending church on Sunday morning would have kind of a
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Jesus who serves them model, right a Jesus who is gonna make me rich a Jesus who's gonna make me wealthy a
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Jesus Who's gonna take care of all of my needs? Colossians 1 is
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Here in the text to help fix that error Because Jesus isn't just a good teacher.
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He's not just an example to us He's not just a life coach, but he is so much more than that as we dig into this text
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Some on the other hand err on the other side and see Jesus as out there somewhere even some in the church might think of Jesus as far removed from your day in and day out life and Our text this morning is gonna correct that error error as well
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Because we will find in this text this morning that Jesus is Lord of all things the restorer of all things and He is our only hope personally for restoration
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So let's open our Bibles to Colossians 1 15 to 23. We're gonna read this text together
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Again, it's Colossians 1 15 to 23 if you don't have a
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Bible with you or an app an app to navigate over to the Bible Then I just ask you to please raise your hand
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We've got some guys with Bibles back here but I just want everybody to have a copy of God's Word on their lap so that you can follow along and If you don't have a
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Bible at home again, there's some on the table on your way out You can just grab a Bible. We want everybody have a copy of God's Word, but Recast this is what
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God desires for you and I to hear this morning and I say that often on Sunday mornings But I just want us to be reminded and remember that this is
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God's speech. This is God's writing to us This is what he has for us this week
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And for some reason he has orchestrated the events such that I'm speaking on it and you're here listening to it
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And so it would it would it would be sensible for us to pay extra special attention to the reading of his word
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Colossians 1 15 to 23 he Just to clarify we're talking about Jesus Christ.
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He is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation
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For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all
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Things hold together and he is the head of the body the church He is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent
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For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross and you and You who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds
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He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death In order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him if indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast
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Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard Which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which
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I Paul Became a minister. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning
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Father I rejoice in the opportunity that we have to just reflect this morning on Jesus Christ your son
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He is the purpose. He is the center. He is the king. He is our Lord. He is our Savior and Father, I pray that you would impress on our minds to correct any errors that we might have even in our own hearts and our own thinking about Jesus Father there are many in the room who have used him to Win an argument or towards their own end or just even maybe we've thought of him in incorrect
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Understanding we've either had him to buddy -buddy or too distant father I pray that you would correct both opposite ends of the spectrum and recognize that he is indeed the cosmic sovereign
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Lord over all And equally close to us redeeming us by the blood of his cross And so father as we have an opportunity to lift our praise to you
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I pray that this wouldn't be a formal exercise like we're supposed to do music in the middle of a service But father that we would lift up our voices
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But not just our voices but our hearts and not just our hearts, but our very lives before you in worship this morning
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Father that we would be moved in our emotions and we would be moved in our thoughts equally father that this would not be some frenzied
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Enthusiasm without content and neither would it be content without enthusiasm move our entire beings in worship this morning
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In Jesus name. Amen Thanks a lot to Dave and the band for leading us in worship
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I'm I'm just grateful for their gifts and abilities You would not want to hear the sound that there would be if it was me attempting to do what they do
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So I hopefully you're just as thankful as I am about that Be sure to keep your Bibles open to Colossians chapter 1
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Verses 15 to 23 is where we're at in case you weren't here and you've arrived since we read it or you just lost your place
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Colossians 1 15 through 23 and that's gonna be our outline for the text is just walking through the pages of Scripture here walking verse
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By verse and so as we think about that Have that open and then remember if you need more coffee or juice or donuts
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I don't know if there's any juice left but coffee and and Donuts there while supplies last you can get up at any time during the message if you need to Or you can get up and stretch out in the back of that seat gets uncomfortable
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Our main purpose over the next half an hour or so is going to be to keep our focus on God's Word and just kind Of dive in and walk through this and so attention to God's Word is what we're trying to accomplish here.
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So Jesus Jesus What?
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comes to your mind When you hear that name
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Jesus Jesus What you think about this man
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Has the power to define Will define your destiny
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For eternity To some he's a fiction.
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He's a legend of history to some he was a Man who taught good life lessons who was a good example
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To about a billion people on the face of this planet He was a prophet who just brought a partial message that later needed to be added to and corrected
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I had a long conversation with a friend not too long ago, and she adamantly disagreed with me
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When I told her that Jesus Christ is my king is a king She was and is convinced that he was just a good teacher and multiple times in that conversation.
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She used the word example He's a good example Who came to just share an example of hope to us he was a herald in her words a messenger and nothing more
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And I'm going to suggest to you that the most important thing about your life today is the definition of your connection with this man
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Paul the Apostle is going to say some things about this guy who walked around Palestine in the first century
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AD that are Incredible if true, and I believe they're true
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Paul believed that they were true. They're recorded for us by the revelation of the Holy Spirit in Scripture And I would suggest to you it's extremely important that you wrestle with these things and come to Decide for yourself.
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Do you believe these things are true? Paul has three distinct movements in the text that we're looking at this morning
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If you're the kind of person who likes to take notes and you're kind of a little bit more organized once in a while I like to throw you a bone and so I'll put some outline to it and the first outline first point of the outline is verses 15 through 17
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Paul Establishes Jesus is the Lord of all things. So that's my first point. He's Lord of all things and then in verses 18 to 20
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Paul establishes that Jesus is the restorer of all things and Then in verses 21 through 23, he brings it down more personal and he establishes that Jesus Christ can restore you
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He can restore you So let's launch out into the first point that Jesus is the Lord of all things
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Paul begins with the pronoun here in our verse in verse 15 He is the beginning of the verse.
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He is the image of the invisible God and so you need to go back and read verses 13 to 14 to define who the pronoun he is referring to and when you get back into 13 and 14 and study and dissect it you come to find out that the he is
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Jesus Christ in verse 15 and he is declared in our text right from the beginning an awesome statement the invisible image of the invisible
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God and so think about an image the word image and Probably many of you woke up this morning and looked at an image of yourself
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Right, you looked in a mirror and you got around and got ready and kind of try to cover up some blemishes and do this
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Or that to your hair or whatever you do But you probably looked at an image of yourself a reflection of yourself
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Now how many of you have you ever looked in a mirror? You've looked in a mirror and you've seen the image of something that was invisible
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No, right you don't you don't see an image of something invisible, right you don't see it at all And so obviously there's a bit of a conundrum going on here in the way that Paul is speaking
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You don't see the image of something that's invisible. Yet. Paul here says that that Jesus is the reflection of or the image of God who is invisible if you want to see the
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Father in other words Look at the Son You want to see what God is like?
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Look at Jesus It's an amazing statement right off the bat here in our text
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God who cannot be seen by human eyes has been revealed through his son
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Jesus Christ who can be seen by human eyes and was seen by human eyes and whom eyewitnesses have recorded for us the events of his life in Matthew Mark Luke and John and Jesus is also the firstborn he goes on to say of all creation and at first glance people can get bothered by this phrase
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And then as Paul goes on the trouble starts to get cleared up a bit at first It sounds to our ears like Paul is saying that Jesus was the first created thing
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But as the text goes on it becomes clear that Jesus is not merely something created But he himself is the creator of all things the text goes on it to go over the top to express his role in the creation of everything
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So if all things were created by him and through him and for him as the text is going to go on to explain
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Then he is certainly not a part merely a part of creation, but he is the one through whom creation actually came
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But what we miss then in this statement firstborn of all creation We miss because of our cultural differences with first century culture the time that this was written
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Because in first century culture this idea of firstborn meant the heir The rightful owner of the estate the rightful owner of the inheritance
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We don't think in terms of firstborn being in the position of inheritance like it was in that time And so when we move on to verse 16 and see
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Paul explain why Jesus gets to be the firstborn He doesn't say well because he was the first created thing
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That's not the that's not what he goes on to say, but it becomes more clear Why does he get to be the firstborn because by him all things all things were created?
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when we understand the word firstborn to be heir Paul is saying why does
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Jesus get to inherit the entire created order? Because in verse 16, he is the one who made it
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He is the rightful owner of it and therefore it is his inheritance that he indeed possesses all things
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He made it all the phrase all things occurs four times in just our first three verses
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Jesus created all things in the heavens above and on earth below Think about all the things that that I mean
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I'm gonna make a little list here But I mean things just although all the things in between this list stars nebula black holes quasars moons planets amoeba sunsets plants canyons islands snow snow clouds
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But just to be clear Paul goes on to say well, I mean, okay, everything you can see everything you can take in with your senses.
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It was created by Jesus But that's not sufficient for Paul He goes on to say not just the things that can be touched not just as not just the physical things but even the invisible things have been created by God and so then you begin to think of Maybe invisible things that are physical like you've never seen
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You know molecules, right? You you don't see the air and that's an invisible thing, but it's still an actual thing
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I mean, I don't we think we think of it that way but air is actually a substance, right? It's got but there's other things that he created not just air but but love authority emotions angels gravity physical laws that govern our universe
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All that is compatible with any experience within the cosmos has come about by Jesus says
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Paul all by him and all Dominions all reigns all rules
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All authority is made by him Interesting concepts when you think about where we're at politically, but nobody will occupy the office of president without the vote of Jesus Christ About as political as I'm gonna get this morning.
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So that's it. Not only were all things made by him But all things were created through him and for him
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Paul just keeps heaping on Prepositional phrases and he is before all things and in him all things hold together
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Paul is not allowing any wiggle room here for us to to get out from underneath the supreme and amazing and complete authority of Jesus Christ He covered the bases of any doubt regarding our view of Jesus So what you're saying
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Paul is Jesus is a pretty big deal, right? Like do you get that you guys looking at this? Do you get that that is
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Jesus a pretty big deal? He's saying he's a pretty big deal and and to the question Paul.
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Is that what you mean? Paul says all things By him through him all things are after him all things are sustained by him and later
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He's gonna add in a couple verses all things are reconciled by him. All things are brought to completion by him
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From these prepositions we discern that he is the originator. He is the agent of creation. He's the purpose of all creation
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He existed before anything was even made and he is the sustainer of all things holding us together right now and There are two ways we need to deal with this first point
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From an academic perspective. I hope you understand that the testimony of Scripture is that Jesus Christ is indeed
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King Lord Master ruler over all things. I Hope you get that in here.
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I hope that in your mind that you are believing that and seeing it to be true But we should also align our thoughts with the truth revealed in the
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Bible and add to that What it does in our hearts we should also consider our hearts when we come to the end of these first three verses
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Jesus is awesome in the biblical cosmic sense he is all that and Obedient worship is the only reasonable response to this truth obedient worship
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But Jesus is not only the Lord of all things according to this passage But second of all in verses 18 through 20
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Jesus is shown to be the restorer of all things The one who can make all things right now In in his original creation was there any error was there any sin no there wasn't but humanity was created and and it's like Paul Leaves a little bit of a gap in in his explanation of history here
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And at the same time we already take it for granted that we understand that things are broken and fallen So he doesn't expound on Adam and Eve in the garden here in order to explain the brokenness
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But instead he just jumps right into the notion that things need to be restored And after setting up this exhaustive explanation of the rule and reign of Jesus Christ over all things
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It can feel like Paul lets the air out of the balloon by what he says next in verse 18 It's like Jesus cosmic power all things under his control all things created by him for him through him
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And by the way, he's the head of the church he's the head of the church to and Any of you kind of like think why funnel down so narrow all of a sudden
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Paul you've you've you've made this glorious grand Explanation of who
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Jesus Christ is and now the church Really? That's where you're gonna go with all of this content with all of his glory with all of his majesty
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You're gonna go to the church And until we come to a correct understanding of what the church really is.
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We will always be underwhelmed by it And I would dare say that many of us in this room have been underwhelmed at times by the church, right?
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Anybody anybody want to confess to that there have been times where you've been underwhelmed by church Is he's kind of like and I mean this church.
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I'm not offended if you've been under underwhelmed here at times That's that's understandable but it's a reality in our hearts where there are times when maybe we haven't really understood what we're talking about when we say church and So we have all different kinds of notions
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When we start talking about church We could spend a lot of time talking about a whole bunch of things that the church really is not
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That don't really define it But we could talk about hypocrites We could talk about stuffy musty church basements where I went to Sunday school class when
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I was a kid We could talk about vacation Bible school. I wanna program small groups cathedrals Catholic mass
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Pentecostalism, you name it all different kinds of things about church government about all different host of issues that the church faces
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Or ways that you've been offended or ways that you've been put off by people who called themselves Christians or by Organized structures or denominations or a whole host of things, right?
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Is there a lot to talk about when we talk about church? Is there a lot of emotion when we talk about church? Is there a lot of connectedness in our past in our history and our brokenness?
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With doing community with other broken sinners who are striving towards grace. Hopefully We hurt each other from time to time.
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And so when we talk about the church to say he's the head of the church We go. Oh jesus. Are you sure you want that job?
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Are you? Really I mean is that is that where you're gonna go with this paul is he's the head of the church
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But look at where paul goes to define the church for us in one quick brushstroke here He doesn't spend a lot of time defining it.
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But what he does to define it is beautiful. We Are the body as jesus is the head.
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That's what it means to be the church We are the body as jesus christ is the head. So the church Is simply those who are vitally connected to the head
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Those who are vitally connected to the head and who is the head jesus christ Those who are receiving their nourishment and their sustenance and their direction and their guidance from the head
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Jesus christ that is the church The jesus that we talked about That is all that Is the very same jesus who willfully willingly and gloriously and in his love identifies himself
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With this ragtag crew of worshipers In this statement paul identifies he is moving on from general creation
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To saying that he is over the new creation What is ask yourself?
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What is it that god is using in the world to accomplish his purposes? broken fallen people
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Who he is redeeming for his glory and his honor? People just like you and me
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He is using his church. What is his church? The gathering of broken and fallen individuals in need of a savior who are connected to the head
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That's what the church is He is the director of the redeemed people of god
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He is heading up the restoration process He is the beginning of the church the text says in context and he has priority is to have priority in all things
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He is the first one raised from the dead And he has the right to direct us.
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He is preeminent in all things Therefore if he has to be preeminent in the church if he has to be um preeminent in our lives
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You've got to take this uh in stride and run with what paul says here He's passing on a baton of sorts to you saying christ is to be preeminent in your lives
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And where are you going to run with that in our sexuality in our financial decisions in the way? We communicate with others in our career decisions in our emotions
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In our actions and behaviors towards others around us in the way. We schedule our activities for our families in all things christ is to be preeminent
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What is preeminent? considered first Thought of first And he needs to have a hand
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In all things all things pertaining to the church and all things pertaining to those who are in his church
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And the reason we should hold him as preeminent in all things is found in verse 19. Why? Why talk in terms of this guy?
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uh in palestine Who lived 2 000 years ago? Why speak in terms of you're giving your life to him asking him to be your lord and savior coming in?
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And renovating and changing your heart. I mean, isn't this just a this is a guy who walked the dusty roads around judea
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This time look at what verse 19 says about him Why should he be preeminent in him all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell
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This is one of the most unqualified comments about the deity of jesus christ in all of scripture He is worthy of our worship worthy of our obedience worthy of honor
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Because he himself is god All the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell in the man christ jesus
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And god in christ was reconciling all things to himself through the blood of jesus shed on the cross
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Reconciling by the way think in terms of reconciling we use it a couple different ways, right? Some people reckon you reconcile a bank account, right?
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And uh, we're a really nice technical uh culture and society who likes to kind of line things out so we we um
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Might gravitate towards that definition more than we gravitate towards the relational component depends on how you're made up and where you find yourselves on the
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Myers -briggs temperament indicator or whatever, you know, are you a people person? Are you not a people person that type of thing?
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but um Do you think of reconciling?
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Primarily as a relational word, that's a relational word that conveys a level of brokenness, right?
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When two people need to be reconciled something is wrong And paul does an outright state in this context right here right now
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He's going to he's going to save the brokenness for the personal Here in just a moment at the my last point is where he's going to bring down a relationship with jesus christ to the personal
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Level level and how he can reconcile you here. He's talking more in general terms of reconciliation
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So he doesn't state outright that sin is the cause of the rift in our relationship with god but he does declare that the work of reconciliation was done by jesus christ the
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The work of restoration and bringing two warring parties together And he's going to describe how bad that war was between you and god here in just a moment
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But we need to be careful to understand the limits of the word reconciled as it pertains to all things
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Some things will be reconciled and brought into wholeness or completeness or brought into fruition with willing delight
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I for one am grateful to be reconciled and brought to my knees before my lord and savior on that great day
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Anybody else grateful for that you're looking forward to that you say I I am I am willingly
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Joyful at the notion of standing before god on that day I'm i'm looking forward to it, but others will be reconciled by judgment
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All accounts hear me carefully All accounts will be settled on that final day
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All accounts will be settled on that final day unless Unless It was settled on a cross just outside of jerusalem
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All accounts will be Brought to fruition and the relationship one way or another is going to be set right some to eternal condemnation and some to eternal glory
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But all of that comes through jesus christ Jesus is the restorer of all things
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Salvation is not strictly limited to the souls of mankind, but the world will be restored through him
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Peace comes to earth through his sacrifice His blood Brought peace
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His blood that spilled when they whipped his back his blood that poured down his face from the crown of thorns
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His blood that dripped off the cross from the nails driven in his hands and feet
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His blood that poured from his side From the hole made in his side by the roman spear
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There at that cross by the blood of his cross that awful amazing glorious uncomfortable
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Horrendous sacrifice is what it took to bring peace and restoration to the created order Right now
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Personally i'm i'm reading through the bible in a year I don't know if any of you are doing that I don't you don't need to raise your hand or whatever because then you lose the credit in heaven for it
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I don't know. I didn't want you to get credit in front of everybody else But i'm doing that i'm choosing to do that and i'm actually in the middle of leviticus right now
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Any of you ever read leviticus? He's Suffered through leviticus you made it. I mean it's glory It's the word of god and it's it's beautiful and it's awful and it's same right because there's a lot of blood in there
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Okay, have you ever noticed that there's a lot of blood there's carrying of entrails outside of this gross and i'm burning them outside of the city and there's all kinds of stuff that goes on in the book of leviticus and i'm
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Reading that and i'm thinking about that and i'm i'm meditating on that in the morning and i'm just thinking man I'm, first of all, i'm glad i'm a pastor and not an old testament priest.
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Okay? Anybody know what i'm talking about there? Um, I mean there's a lot of and i'm wondering is that a butcher shop?
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Are they having a barbecue in the holy place or is this a you know? I mean because there's a lot there's a lot of sacrifice that's going on there and stuff, but the blood
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The blood and it's interesting. I had somebody tell me recently Uh, well within the last couple of years an interaction with somebody who was like now
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You're not one of those churches that's about blood Are you? like you're not one of those that talks about blood and sings about blood and all that stuff because it makes me kind of Queasy, but the fact of the matter is christ
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Suffered and died and shed his blood. So yes, we have to keep talking about blood Why do we talk about blood? Because it's the life that was shed for us that was spilled out on our behalf and it is our hope
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That a sacrifice was made on our behalf So yes
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Reading in leviticus. It's like just reflections and reminders of the necessity of the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins
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But jesus is not just a restorer of the created order through his blood and through his cross But lastly in verses 21 through 23 jesus gives restoration to his people
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Paul starts by explaining our condition without jesus. Where are you? Where do you believe that people are at?
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internally and spiritually without jesus Well, we can go with our gut on that one
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How many of you know somebody you've gone with your gut and you're like they're a pretty good person Have you done that before they're without christ, but you know, they're pretty good
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Because you go with your gut Or you can go with what scripture says about them And what scripture said about us before we came to understand.
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Jesus christ is king lord master and savior These are the words alienated alienated from god hostile in mind
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Evil in behavior evil in action The condition of humanity without jesus is not always apparent on the outside But I believe what scripture says here is indeed true
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It was true of me Now i've made jokes before that at age eight. I wasn't like cooking math with an easy bake oven or anything like that, you know
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Um, it's not like I was as bad as I could be but was I alienated from god as an eight -year -old?
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Right before I came to faith in christ. Absolutely If I had died at that point, where would i've gone? I I believe
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I would have been condemned because I had the knowledge and the understanding that was required of of what was required of me
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Faith in christ alienated hostile in mind evil in actions anybody willing to testify that you
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Don't know where you would be were it not for christ intervening that you'd probably be in a rough spot Many of us in the room.
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I think a lot of us you're not I mean many of us in honesty are kind of like I don't know if i'd be alive today
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If it wasn't for christ, I don't know what road I would have gone down. I might not be free
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I might be incarcerated. I might be who knows where right now were it not for christ And so we look at that with with joy and with hope knowing that he changes lives
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The condition of humanity without jesus is not always apparent on the outside But what scripture says here is true alienated hostile in mind
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Without christ each one of us was in opposition to god. Our minds were hostile to the rule of another I tell you you get down to that place with nice people
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With nice people talking about how they have a king who has the right to make shots
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Call the shots in their lives and you'll see some hostility You'll begin to see nice people turn mean very quickly at the notion that somebody else
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Gets to tell them what to do and what not to do. Have you ever seen that before? You ever had somebody who you thought was kind of a nice person?
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You're like they're not a believer But they're kind of nice and the minute that you start talking with them about how christ once has a claim on their lives
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Sometimes the gloves come off, right? I had that happen to me just within the last couple of weeks where somebody who is is genuinely like on the
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I mean very very um productive part of society and a very kind individual who
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Is generous but man the moment that you start talking about a king Somebody who has the rule things got pretty intense quickly
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Our minds are are the human the state of the human mind is one that is hostile to the rule of another
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We like our independence We were According to this text estranged from our heavenly father
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Lonely and separated from our creator and the way we thought and the things we did lined up in opposition to god
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Evil deeds by the way are not limited to murder and embezzling big money Evil deeds are any course of action that takes away from the glory that is due to god
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And any action that opposes the way he has ordered things so things like lying coveting cheating lusting
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Unkindness gossip gluttony And the list goes on and and who is jesus reconciled to god by his physical death on the cross
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Liars liars coveters cheaters porn addicts hotheads drug addicts
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Gossips gluttons and the list goes on He died so that he might present people like that To god as holy and blameless and above reproach the text says
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I get chills thinking about it me And the crud that i've done in the the messes that i've made
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In hostility and alienation against god now to be presented on that final day
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As holy and blameless and above reproach before who? the holy
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Father of glory God almighty to stand in his presence to stand before him and have jesus declare holy righteous and above reproach about me
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And about any who are in him because of his cross
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Because of the blood he shed for you and me It's a glorious thing Did you catch the weight of it?
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He has fixed the relationship between people like you and me And god almighty by dying a physical death on the cross
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Paul has described christ as lord over all Has described him as the restorer and corrector of all things
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But even more personal paul here wants to make sure that you know That he can reconcile you
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He can reconcile you All that is being asked of you is found in verse 23 here at the end continue in faith
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Do not shift from the hope of the gospel Those are the two things that paul is saying continue on in the faith
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Do not shift from the hope of the gospel. Obviously. He's writing to a church He's writing to those who he has every assurance and belief is in the kingdom
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And so i'm speaking to a church I have the assumption that the majority of you are in with christ and have done business with him
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And so my injunction to you is the same as paul's continue in the faith. Do not shift from the hope of the gospel
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Paul doesn't tell us by the way Look at it carefully because people get get all worked up and get their souls in a knot over things like this
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Verse, let me let me read it out loud here if indeed Uh that he'll present you holy and blameless in verse 22 and above reproach before him
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If indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope. Oh, no, can
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I lose my salvation? Oh, no, can I is if I if I shift away am I in trouble if I don't continue in the faith?
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what happens here and what if I don't do enough what if i'm not good enough what if i'm not and You can begin to fill in all of the blanks of the ways that people feel about this stuff
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Paul does not tell us to be sure that we work hard to do more better and faster for jesus he says hold on to faith
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Which is trust In other words don't stop trusting jesus
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That's what his injunction is here to you not do more not work harder Not give more not attend more church services
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Hold on tight To who? jesus
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Keep holding on Don't give up your hope in the good news, he says
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If there is anything I would encourage you to hold on to and never let go It is your belief that jesus died to save you.
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That's what i'd encourage you to hold on to This is the message by the way that paul goes on to say is being proclaimed throughout the whole world
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It is the only hope for all of creation And paul testifies that it is the one message that he has to bring and he has been made a servant and a minister of this good news this gospel
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That's what he has to bring Jesus said it this way He said that a life built on trusting obedience to him is like a house built on the rock
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But a life that is not built on him is like a house built on the sand like a house built on sand
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Stable and steadfast the rock Or shifting sand
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Because your life is built on one of them the the foundation of your hope is one of them
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What you put your trust in is one of these two things Either that which is stable and steadfast jesus christ or that which is shifting sand all host of other things that cannot
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Carry you through the storm of judgment Continue in your trust of jesus christ
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And never let go of the hope that is found in the gospel That he gave his life to reconcile you to god
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Jesus is the ruler over all things. He is the only hope for a positive reconciliation with god in the end
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And this text could be fairly academic We could look at this deep study of jesus and as his children we could come to it here at recast and say yep
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Don you're sharing this i've read this passage before I already knew this about jesus I've been in with him for fill in the blank x number of years
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How many how many years you could just kind of move on through your week and go? Well, that was interesting or that was not interesting or that was kind of a sleeper or whatever
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You could say all different kinds of things about it But let me suggest a couple of applications As we head into communion and then into our week because we're all gonna leave here.
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We're all gonna walk out We're gonna get in our cars. We're gonna go our merry ways But there are some things that I think in encountering christ in this text.
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We ought to consider and think through carefully First of all is to really just take a moment to consider the place of jesus christ in your life
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Where is he? Is he preeminent? And that means that he is he is not number one on a list of priorities
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He is number one in every category So everything that you do is flavored and salted by jesus christ everything that you do
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Comes through him and to him and for him you hear the difference a lot of us think.
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Oh, yeah How does it go god work then no god family then or family? How do we go?
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You know, what's the order and it's god And then a subset of things that always start with god in them.
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Does that make sense? It's not oh Once you give him your time your first 15 minutes then everything kind of like the idea of the tithe or giving of our
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Of our resources. It's not oh I get the 90 and he takes the 10 The 10 is a reminder that he has it all.
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Okay. So that's just a that's just a reminder. That's kind of like Yeah, I mean it's it's a reflective thing give of the first fruits and then contemplate and consider
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That all of it is his Same with our time our effort our priorities all of those things
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So is he preeminent and then think of it in these terms in what areas have you set sectioned off a no fly zone for jesus?
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Sometimes do that accidentally sometimes that slides in sometimes it's intentional. There are places where you're like jesus.
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Don't go there This is this is the area this is the closet you're not allowed in in my life
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This is a no fly zone for you. This is just me time. This is just what I do And I want to say this because i've got this image
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I've had this image since sometime when I was in college, maybe even high school I had well -meaning people kind of describe my time in the morning with god this way
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And maybe some of you have heard this too. So I just want to correct it It's just thinking about his preeminence starting the day off with him or you know
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Really and then just kind of reflecting on him throughout the day Jesus is not a sniveling weakling
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Who is sitting on your sofa crying because you keep ignoring him every morning And have you ever had that sold that picture to you?
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He's there just with one dramatic tear Flowing down the cheek about to drip right there.
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He doesn't wipe it off just for dramatic effect and he's sitting there Trying to make you feel guilty because you know what you missed him again.
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Sorry jesus gotta run I'm out the door and out you go and there he is crying on the sofa. Is that the image that paul paints of jesus here?
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Because I didn't see the part about him crying like that. I saw the part of lord of the universe here, right?
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Do you get it? Like who is it that's waiting to meet with you? The king over all things and he happens to be
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Happy to meet with you if you'd sit down with him Anytime Anytime you don't even have to be listening to me right now.
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You could just meet with him on your own right now You don't have to I mean I certainly try to keep a little focus when you're driving on these roads, but you can
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Talk with him while you're driving You can talk with him while you're trying to finish that final exam students
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He's there And by the way, the notion that there is no prayer in school is
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I think it's one of the most like just It boggles my mind that christians rally around these kinds of things because guess what where there is a follower of jesus christ
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There can always be prayer always because all you have to do is just Talk to him
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You don't have to use your mouth But you can always be talking to god. He's not sniveling.
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Uh, he's not there. He's not he's not um Crying he is the creator Uh purpose and sustainer of all things and and he happens to be available to meet with you
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He's your king And I would humbly suggest that we all spend some time living for him meeting with him
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Seeking to know him better so that we know what he desires from us in our day Not that he's going to tell you who to meet with and who to cancel with and all that kind of stuff
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But he's he's going to guide you and direct you into living for him Second thing in application
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Is consider the place of the church in this text. The church is the thing that god is doing to restore humanity
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Those who have placed their faith in christ are brought into his body and we become his hands and feet to the world around us
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We need each other In order to express the redemption of christ to the world around us
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The church is a pretty big deal And i'm glad to be a part of this group A group of people who are growing in faith growing in community growing in service here in madawan
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You sharpen me You sharpen me And I hope that to some degree I sharpen you as well
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I would encourage you by the way, just as I mentioned at the beginning to come to the family meeting tonight 7 p .m Just to gather together and um, these are these are intentional times for you to just connect with others
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That maybe aren't in your small group Maybe you don't get a chance to connect with and to pray together to ask questions
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You know, i'll just i've got an agenda that i'm going to be going through i've just kind of like state of the state of the affair of the church and where we're at right now and What's what's going on?
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But man if you got questions, I'd love to go down rabbit trails that you're wanting to talk about But the church being a part of the church and being connected and lastly consider some adjectives that define your faith
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Think about shifting Stable Steadfast weak strong Misplaced All different kinds of adjectives that could define our faith
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But maybe you'd pick one this morning and say I think right now this is where i'm at in regard to my faith in in life
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We can place our hope and trust in all kinds of things but if you're in with christ don't let anything shake you from faith in him
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Hold fast to the hope that is found only in the gospel of jesus christ And as we come to communion this morning our text speaks clearly about the body and blood of jesus
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Both are mentioned in our text by name He has reconciled us in his body of flesh by his death the text says physical body died
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But all the fullness of god dwelt in him His body was broken to reconcile us with the heavenly father
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He was the sacrifice needed to bridge the gap between our sinfulness and god's holiness
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And we deserve god's wrath, but he took it for us and he has made peace the text says by the blood of his cross
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His blood is the source of the restoration of all things God was pleased to accept the sacrifice of jesus christ on our behalf
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So that anyone who comes to him acknowledging him as lord and asking for salvation in his name will be transferred from the category of alienated to the category of reconciled
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Reconciled with god And if you're in with jesus and have asked him to save you by your trust in him
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Then come to one of the four tables in the corners of the room during this next song And remember his body that was sacrificed to reconcile you to the father
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And take the juice to remember his blood that was that has brought us peace If you're still trying to figure out your relationship with jesus christ, maybe you're hearing your your um, you're just not sure
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I I certainly Would it would discourage you from coming and taking communion I wouldn't want you to feel pressured into going to one of those tables just because other people around you are we're not keeping track
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But just sit back and take in this song But if god is prompting you this morning, maybe maybe you just feel like a a nagging pull in your heart to know more about jesus christ
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Please come and speak with me at the end of the service I'll be outstanding by the door, but i'd love to step out of that line and talk with you
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If you want to grab my attention But i'd love to answer any questions you might have about being reconciled to god
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Through the king Who is jesus christ? Let's pray Father, I thank you so much for jesus christ
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The one who has reconciled us and has brought us from the status of alien Alienation and outcast when we were hostile in mind evil in our actions
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You have brought about reconciliation with you through the blood of his cross Through his body
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That was broken for us So father as we come to communion,
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I pray that you would help us to reflect clearly Father if there's anybody in this room who is not able to reflect clearly on what the cross means and what communion means because they haven't
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Been reconciled with you father. I pray that today might be the day of reconciliation for some You would give boldness and prompting in people's spirits if that's what's needed
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But then father for those who are gathered here who are indeed your children father that you would help us to walk out from this place with a steadfast hope
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Placed firmly in jesus christ as our hope for salvation We would walk with you.
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We would honor you in the way that we would In which we live our lives that we would meet with you regularly Not out of duty not out of obligation not out of some sense that maybe you're crying because we won't meet with you
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But father that ultimately you you give us these glorious and great opportunities You're always available to us at any time
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That we would take advantage of your grace towards us Each moment by connecting with you to know you better.