The Living One, Dead, But Now Alive

The Resurrection and the Believer’s Hope

But today we are going to be focusing on several things, we're going to be looking at what the cross is for us, but we're going to be focusing on what the resurrection means for.

The believer.

In fact, for today's message, it's titled, The Living One, dead but now alive. I'll repeat what Revelation chapter 1 verse 19 said, alive forevermore, alive forevermore. We praise a living God who has lived for us and died for us.

What a great day it is. So let us first lift up prayer to God. We're going to be in Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 22 today, and we'll be talking about a little bit of the context in there since we're jumping right in the middle of a book here for this morning service today.

And just as a reminder, we finished with the Gospel of John last Sunday, which is exciting. So we're still in prayer and thinking and trying to figure out what we're going to be doing for our next book as we expeditiously go through the text and try to learn more about God and worship him in through the preaching and the teaching and the reading of his word.

So let us be praying over just today's message as we all are coming together to worship God. Lord God, I express deep gratitude, Lord. I'm so thankful for this wonderful, beautiful day out, Lord. I thank you for the rain and for the weather that we have received here, Lord.

And God, I just hope and pray that we as a church can continue to grow as spiritual numerical.

Value, Lord.

God, that we might just know more about you, that we might be more thankful for you, Lord, that we might have a deeper, more meaningful relationship with you, God. And Lord, I pray that today, Lord, we would just have joy in you, that we'd be strengthened.

By you.

And Lord, God, that we would persevere in your name, Lord. Just let us remember what you have done on our behalf. Let us just remember your great, great supremacy in all things, Lord. And we just say this in your mighty name, Jesus the Christ, amen.

Christ in Colossians and the False Philosophy of Gnosticism

So we're going to be in Colossians chapter one, verses 15 through 22 today. But what we're just going to do is we're going to read from 13 through 22, just to help us kind of see what the context is going on here and see just what Paul is starting off here in this letter as.

But we're going to be reading from verses 13 to 21, but we're going to be taking special note of 15 through 22. So follow me, 13 to 22 in here.

It says,.

Now, just because we're not going to take special note of these verses here in the message, I just want to remind us that it starts out by saying, talking about God the Father, and it says that we are now in God the Son, his beloved Son.

We have been transferred from the dominion of darkness and placed into Christ's kingdom. And so the rest of this text is speaking about Jesus Christ. Verse 14, In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church. And he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself might come to have first place in everything.

For it was the Father's good pleasure for the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, and yet he has now reconciled you in his flesh, his fleshly body, through death, in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

Let's pray over the text.

Lord God, you have become flesh for us. Lord, all things were made for you and you became like us, Lord. All things exist for you, Lord, and yet you have done something that has completely and utterly benefited us, Lord.

God, we sing hallelujah to your cross, for it is through that blood that was shed for us on that cross that we have peace through you, Lord. And we have been reconciled by what you have done in your death, Lord, and you are risen.

And Lord God, let us just remember in reverence what we, in your name, have the privilege of being presented before the Father, that we would be holy and blameless and beyond reproach because it is you that have covered us, Lord.

So God, let us remember all these things, God. Let us imprint this text upon our mind and let us just be so thankful, Lord, and humble.

Before your throne.

God, we just say these things in your holy name, amen. So the context of what this book, the book of Colossians that we're reading from right now today, as is with every book in the Bible, the main theme of the text is, guess what? Jesus Christ.

That's how it is in every single book of the Bible. But something is specifically taking place in here. The reason that Paul has written this letter to the church of the Colossians in this text is because there has been men that have been coming in with what's called Gnosticism.

That was this philosophy, this type of heretical, evil thinking back in Paul's day that said that you gained spiritual, you exalted yourself through gaining more knowledge, and that the fleshly material world around us was actually evil and wrong.

And so they actually, there were some of these Gnostics that even taught Jesus Christ wasn't a physical human being because anything physical was evil and wrong. And so they had these very weird, wrong, evil, and sinful philosophies that they were teaching and it was influencing the church of Colossians.

And so Paul is writing us in here about something very important. It's about who Jesus Christ is, and he's trying to reconfirm to the church of Colossians, this is Jesus the Christ. In fact, let me read here in chapter two, verse eight.

It just says in here, this is once again, Paul addressing this issue of man-made philosophies that are not from God. It says in verse eight, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

And so this whole text that Paul's writing for us is an encouragement for us to remember who the Christ is, what he has done, where he is at in relationship to us. And so let us just remember that that is the context of what is being written here.

And that's the reason that we have this very strong language about Christ being first place in all things is because it's in combat. It's against this false philosophy of men back 2 ,000 years ago. Let us read here in verse 15, and keep that in the back of your mind, that these vain speculations about who Christ was, about the world around them.

This is Paul's argument for what the Christian's philosophy should be, that the Christian should remember these things. In verse 15, it says, and he, this is speaking of Christ, that is, the one who has died was buried and rose again for us.

And he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Now what does this statement from Paul here mean? He is the image of the invisible God. We're going to be making special note of several different scriptures throughout the Bible.

Today.

And we won't necessarily turn to all of them, but I would encourage you to please write them down and study these things out later on today. But we'll be quoting them somewhat quickly. But in John chapter 1, verse 1, it says, and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In verse 14, it says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us. He dwelt amongst us. And in verse 18, it says, let me turn to it so I don't misquote it, it's one of my favorite verses in John 1.

It says, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. And in 1 Timothy 6, 16, it says that he dwells in inapproachable light that no man has seen nor can see.

And so we have a God that is invisible to us in this way, that he's outside of us in this way. But we also have a God who has become visible for us in this way. In fact, the one who we are to look at if we want to see the express image of God is none other than Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 14, verses 7 through 10, Philip asks Jesus Christ, he says, Jesus, show us the Father and it suffices us. And Jesus responds back to him and says, Philip, have I been so long with you and you do not.

Know me?

Any man that has seen me has seen the Father. And so when we are to look to God, we are to look to Jesus Christ because Christ is the visible image of God because he is fully God. In fact, I want to read for us, if you're going to turn to a text, I would ask you to turn to this one, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3.

Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Hebrews 1, 1 through 3 says this, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us his Son, who he appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the world.

And he is the radiance, this is so important for us to understand, church, he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things. You're going to see this mimicked back in the book of Colossians.

And he upholds all things by the word of his power. When he made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Christ's name is above all other names and at his name, all knees will bow.

We see in this text, I want you to think, we are all human beings, right? And we all can look at each other and we all have similar features. I hope each one of us in here have two ears and a nose and two eyes, but none of us, even if there were twins in here, none of us could look at one another and say, you are the exact representation of my nature, the radiance of my glory.

None of us could do that to one another. But we see in here that the son can look to the father in this way. And the answer is, how can that be done? The answer is because that our God is one being in three persons, the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, that there's one being God and we worship this Trinity and Trinity.

In unity.

Let us go back to Colossians now. Colossians. So we see that out of the three persons of the Trinity, that God himself is invisible, but the express image of God is Jesus Christ, the son of God. That that's the one that we look to.

That's the one that has made himself flesh here on earth. He's the one that we got to walk amongst, that he got to walk amongst us. He lived that life perfectly and he died upon the cross. And we'll talk a little bit more about this here in a second as well.

But it says in here that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Now this term firstborn is used several times in this text. Says firstborn of all creation. And it also says firstborn of the dead.

And in that same verse, it says so that he might be first place in all things. Now, some false religions, cults, those that distort the truth of God will look at this and say the firstborn, that means Jesus Christ was created.

That means that he can't be God. Well, that's not true because we just saw in there that he's the image of the invisible. And not only this, but in verse 16, it says, for by him all things were created.

All things in that text means all things. If Jesus Christ is not God and he was created, he came into existence. That verse could not be said because it is Jesus, the Christ, the word that created all things.

Now your mind, I hope, takes you immediately to the very first verse in our Bibles. Genesis chapter one, verse one. In the beginning, God created. Now let's see here in verse 16, for by him all things were created.

Who is Jesus, the Christ? He is the God in Genesis chapter one, verse one. Now, when we read this text here again in verse 15, the firstborn of all creation. What does that mean? What does that Greek word for firstborn mean?

Firstborn means first, ruler, magistrate, preeminent one. You see, when we think of Jesus Christ, we have to remember that he is above all things. That he is first place in all things. So when we think of creation, we must remember that Jesus Christ is above it.

He is first place in it. When we think of anything, we have to remember the supremacy and majesty of Jesus, the son of God. Do not forget that. We'll make mention of this several times as we look through this text today, because it repeats itself for us here in a moment, this firstborn Greek word.

So in verse 16, again, it says, for by him all things were created. We read from Hebrews chapter one that already said that he has created all things. It was through Jesus Christ, he created all things.

And by his word, he upholds all things. Let's see what it says in here again. For by him, all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth. What Paul has just done is eliminated any sort of speculation for us, saying, well, maybe Jesus Christ didn't create the clouds.

Maybe Jesus Christ didn't create the heavens. Maybe he didn't create the angels. No, Paul is saying in here, there is nothing that has come into existence, that has come into existence apart from the word.

In fact, that is what exactly John 1 verse 3 says. He has created all things, and nothing exists apart from him and what he has created. And so already we see here for us that he is first place in all things, that he's the creator.

And here in just a second, it says for us, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things. He's made a list for us to say, look, Christ is first place in all things. He has created all things.

He is the ruler of all things. It excludes anything in this text. It excludes everything. It says that he has done it all. All things have been created by him. And we now see what the purpose of all things that have been created for.

They were created for him. Church, we all have a history in here, right? We all have days that have come before us to the point that we're here right now. There's a little child back here that he hasn't had a very long history, but he still has a history, yes.

If we look back through history thousands of years ago, we know and we see the story unfolding. And I want you to break that word down a little bit, his story. Whose story is this that we are in right now?

It's his story. History is his story. He's sovereign over it all. It's his story that's playing out.

And who is it for? Is it for us?

It's for him. All things were created by him and for him. It's all meant for Jesus the Christ. And in verse 17, listen to this, and he is before all things and in him all things hold together. So now we have seen these attributes of Jesus the Christ.

He is the image, the invisible God. He is first place in all things. He is the creator of all things. And now we see that all things have been made for his glory, for him. And he also sustains all things.

How many of you have counted the breaths that you have taken while under this roof today? I know you haven't. I haven't. But they were all created for him, and he sustained each one of your breaths that you have taken.

Each one of the times you have flipped the page in your Bible, each time you have moved your fingers, they have all been sustained by Jesus the Christ. Is he not worthy of worship? We've just looked at a couple of these verses for today.

And I hope your mind is immediately going to wanting to bow before the Lord God and praise him for what he is doing. He is your creator. He is your sustainer. He is before all things. Jesus, the God-man.

Christ the Head of the Church and the Firstborn from the Dead

Now, in verse 18, it says this. He is also the head of the body, his church. Now, immediately, if you profess... Now, when we just looked in this text, we have seen who is worthy of worship, Jesus Christ.

He is the image of the invisible God. He does all these things for us. He is worthy of our worship. He is worthy to be known. He is worthy to be feared. He's worthy to be loved. He's worthy of all these different things from us.

He is to be glorified. And immediately now, Paul says in here, he is the head of the body. If you fear God and you know him today, and your salvation has been purchased upon the cross of Jesus Christ, he is not only first place in all creation, but he's your authority.

He's your head. He is the one that is to direct you, and he is the one that you ought to obey as the one that gives you commands. He is the head of the body. Church, none of us came in here today without our heads on, right?

I'm pretty sure that we all have ours here. How many of us walk around in the world not considering the head of the body? Jesus Christ, that is above us. He's first place in creation, and he's also first place in his church.

Now, this word body in here is meaning all believers. All believers, both in the Old Testament, David, and Abraham, and Moses, and Noah. Christ is the head of them. Us today, if you profess faith in Jesus Christ, Paul, Peter, John, any of his disciples, anyone that knows and believes in the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, your head is Jesus Christ.

That is your authority. And now, remember, back in verse 13, and this is gonna be talked about a little bit more here in the coming text, but back in 13, in verse 13, it says here, you were amongst this dominion and power.

It says, for he delivered us from the dominion of darkness. Church, your old head was a part of the dominion of darkness. You hated God, and now you love him, and honor him, and fear him, and now you are a part of his body, the church.

So not only is this just individually meaning that Christ is over you, but I want us to think and look around this entire room, and then look at our hands. Can we imagine living without one of our hands today?

Could we imagine not living with our leg? Could we imagine not living with our eyes, and our nose, and our ears? And some of us may have suffered some of these things. The reality of this is that we as the church have all been gifted with different ways to worship and serve our head, Jesus Christ.

How are we doing today? How are you doing today in doing this? This is both for the local body like this church, as well as the universal body. Are we forsaking the master by not sharing the gospel with our neighbors?

Are we not honoring him at the dinner table? Are we not honoring him in the way we behave when we're amongst the world? You are his body. Treat the head with respect, and honor him, and love him. And worship him through the way you behave.

Recognize the spiritual gifts that you've been given,.

And use them.

If you're the hand, do service. If you're the eyes, be watchful. If you're the ears, listen. If you're the mouth, speak the word of God. Whatever the example is, you have been given your gifts, and worship God with them.

And here it is again. It says for us this word, the firstborn. Once again, what does that word mean? It means first in rank. The coroner, the power, the chief, the magistrate, the rule. It says that he is the firstborn from the dead.

Church, I hope that you've recognized something in here. Have you seen the great distance between us as lowly, evil, dominion of darkness men compared to the one that sustains all things by the power of his word?

The one that has created all things, and they've all been created for him. He is so much greater than us. There's not enough words I could express that could tell us about how much greater our God is than any man.

And yet we see in here, the firstborn from the dead. It speaks of our God as having died. This is speaking about Jesus Christ. Speaking about Jesus Christ being risen from the dead. He is first place in the resurrection.

In John chapter 15, he says, I am the resurrection and the life. I wanna turn with us, and it's 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 14 and 17. And I would ask that you absolutely turn to these verses because I hope that this wording in here rings in our ears.

It rings in our ears, and it rings all day long for us as we are being very specific and remembering the resurrection of our great God. Verse 14 and 17, it says in here in 1 Corinthians 15, and if you don't know the gospel today and you are curious in the back of your mind, what is the gospel that this person keeps on telling you to repent and believe in?

I would encourage you to read verses one through four. That's the gospel message very shortly and summarized for us in verses three and four and 15 of 1 Corinthians. But we're focusing on verse 14 and 17, which is expounding upon the gospel message, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In verse 14, it says this, and if Christ had not been raised, then our preaching is vain. Your faith is also vain. Verse 17, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins.

Church, the first thing I wanna take note of in this text is worthless. Faith is only as good as the object that we're placing it into, and if we had faith in a Christ that had not risen from the grave, that faith is worthless.

If I placed my faith in a van that's out of gas, is that going to get me home? No, it is not. I have placed my faith in something that cannot do what I want it to do for me. It doesn't matter how much faith I have in it.

See, Jesus the Christ, through his whole ministry, has been teaching that he's going to be dying for his sheep, dying for the world, that by believing in him, we would have faith, that we'd be saved. He's been teaching this over and over and over again to his disciples, and then he has claimed titles.

He's the shepherd, he's the door, he's the way, he's the life, he is the I am, he is God in flesh. He has claimed these titles. Did you know, church, that any man on the side of the corner of a street could claim those very things?

They could have even been crucified, they could even be killed, but there's only one who validated everything he said in one glorious, miraculous act, and that is Jesus rising from the grave. And in that great resurrection, others rose from the grave with him.

And you know what else, church? You have risen with him. You have a newness of life in him. For I have been crucified with Christ and he is no longer I who live, but he lives in me. Back to Colossians chapter one, verses 18.

Let's read this verse again. It says, he is also the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself might come to have what? First place in everything.

Your mind should be immediately taken to every single verse that is found in the epistles and even in the Old Testament, since God is the same God speaking in both of them about him receiving praise and being above all things and him being on his throne, receiving worship from the angels, or even in Philippians chapter two, that he has been placed above all other names, that Jesus the Christ has been raised higher than all others.

And what is the purpose of this raising and exalting of Jesus Christ after he is risen from the grave? It's so that he would take first place in all things. We have a God that does not come in second place.

Or third place.

We have a God that's first place. He's the firstborn of creation. He is the firstborn of the dead. He is first. He is king. He is Lord. Now in verse 19, for it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him.

Now, what does this mean? The very next chapter in verse nine, it says, in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. The one that has created all things, the one that has created both the heavens and the earth, authorities, dominions, powers, he is first place in all these things.

And the fullness of those things dwells in him, that he upholds them. He is God in flesh. When Jesus, when the word became flesh, it is not as if he did not have all knowing and all power and all supremacy in him.

He has all the attributes of God in him. He is fully God and fully man at his incarnation. And so we see in this text that when the word became flesh, it was the father's good pleasure for the fullness to dwell in him.

God amongst man. And in verse 20, it says, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having been made, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

And I wanna make mention here of the final, or in the final sentence and phrase of verse 20, before we go back to the top here, it says things that are in heaven or on earth that he has made reconciliation of these things.

Paul is again, excluding any sort of possibility of something being outside of Christ. All of creation fell when Adam took a bite of that fruit that he was told not to. All of creation fell. And so since we have all fallen in our first father, Adam, we have been made alive in our second federal head, Jesus the Christ, who did something else for us.

Just as Adam partook of the first tree, Christ partook of the second tree. And he died upon the cross and he has reconciled all of creation to him. And in this text, it says, having through him, who is this him again, Jesus the Christ.

What does that word reconciliation mean? Reconcile means to have a better change of relationship from one place to another. Now, what was the reconciliation we see in this text? Once again, verse 13, we were once a part of the dominion of darkness and have been transferred, reconciled into his kingdom.

And it tells us the means of how this has taken place and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace. Now, I wanna pause right here. What does that mean? Because the world around us sells us on what they think is peace.

And they'll tell you to go, hmm, or something along those lines in this silly way to have this physical mental relaxation. That's not the peace that is being spoken of in here. You church were once enemies to God.

You had violated his law and you stood condemned before him. The wrath of God abided upon you. This is speaking of language of war in this text.

You were with war with God.

And it was your blood that was meant to be called out for the satisfaction of your sins that was gonna be poured out upon you for all eternity. And it is only through the one that lived the life that I and you could not live perfectly, obeying all of God's commands and what is called theologically his active obedience.

In his active obedience, he fulfilled all things that which we cannot obey. And then it is through the blood of his cross. This is what's theologically called the passive obedience. When a murderer is put to death by capital punishment, he is being obedient to the passive obedience.

It means that he has no choice in it. He's being put to death for the law that he has broken. Passive obedience, when we look to Jesus Christ and we see him upon the cross, we have to remember that that is the punishment that was meant and reserved for you and I.

It is through his active obedience, the life that he lived that I could not live that he has covered me with that righteousness. And it is my sin that has been imputed to him upon the cross so that I would be reconciled through the blood of the cross.

He has made peace for us. Now in verse 21, we'll make short notice of these things. It says, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile and more at mine and engaged in evil deeds, this is speaking once again in our prior unconverted time.

That we were at war with God.

We were haters of him. We did nothing but evil and sin before him that he has broken down this wall between us and he paid the price for us. Even why we were hating him, he did this. And it says in verse 21, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

The Empty Grave, the Finished Work of Christ, and the Call to Repentance

Church, today is Easter Sunday. And I didn't tell you happy Easter this morning.

I apologize.

Happy Easter.

Why is it a happy day?

He is risen.

The grave is empty. Church, Jesus Christ became sin on that cross. He did not become sinful on that cross. He became sin on that cross. I want you to now think that same God that has created all things, that sustains all things is now being taken off the cross.

Think about that for a moment. Just a few days prior to this day that we're celebrating, Christ's body is coming up off that cross. He has said to Telestai, it is paid, it is finished. And here's the body of Christ that comes off and he's buried in a tomb.

He is buried in a tomb. And church, at his resurrection, he proved all things that he had claimed, including that the thing that didn't come off that cross was our sin because that sin was paid fully.