Sermons

Background study video: https://youtu.be/Ieh9cgV0tks

Ken’s Hill walk -breathtaking view
dog walkers “isn’t it beautiful?” Yes – but take it for granted

• New Job – amazing at first, then routine
• First kiss – unforgettable, 1000th routine
• New car – gleaming and want to do some long drives, then routine
• Get married – amazing, then routine.

Name for that – hedonic adaption!
We humans have a powerful propensity to adapt after continued and repeated exposure. Seeing the same thing, doing the same thing, or being with the same person again and again lowers its impact on our emotional experience. Put simply, we get used to things over time. (Cassie Holmes)

We get used to things and loose the wonder
Warning to Ephesus Rev 2:4 – go back to your first love!

It’s all about Jesus
regain awe and wonder, beauty and majesty
replacing the humdrum and filling our thoughts with lesser things.
For the Colossians the lesser things were taking them away from the purity of the gospel – making it gospel plus, or Jesus plus
legalism, rituals, mysticism

So in today’s passage in Colossians after Paul has done his intro and prayer of thanks, he gets straight down to Jesus
A fresh appreciation of Jesus. may have forgotten how glorious He is.
Take a look at Jesus and that will sort everything else out.

Sunday school picture – looks like a squirrel but is the answer Jesus?!

Col 1:15-23

Wonder at his supremacy, Wonder at his creation, Wonder at his salvation, Our response

Wonder at his supremacy
“He is the image of the invisible God” – Jesus is no mere human! If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus
He made the invisible visible – Heb 1:3 “The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

Firstborn
Twice in our passage – firstborn over all creation, firstborn from the dead.
Not about being born first – Paul was probably thinking of Ps 89:27 “And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.”
First born as in the one with the rank, the status and supremacy.
Price Harry is feeling it – writing the book Spare. The heir and the spare!
JWs say look Jesus was born, he’s not God – the verses show is that’s not the meaning. His role a firstborn meant he was the creator

Jesus is the most honoured – there is no-one higher than Him. He has the ascribed honour of being over all creation and the resurrection – the new creation.
Then after each first born we are listed the things he has done for that honour – his achieved honour.

Wonder at his creation
He is the creator not a creature!
All things were created by Him, through Him, for Him
When Gen 1 tells us God created the heavens and the earth – Jesus is the creator.
The Colossians had some funky views about angels, so Pauls tells them, Jesus created them too. All of them, whatever level – thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities – all created by him and through him

From the small seed to the furthest galaxy all created by Jesus.

V17 tells us in him all things hold together.
Some people have a view that God might be creator – starting it all off and making the laws of nature and then left it all going. Like a spinning plate left to spin and gradually slowing down.
No! He not only created it, but he is sustaining it – Heb 1:3 again – “upholding it by the word of His power.”
Every atom, every cell, every object, the whole universe is held together because Jesus is holding it together.
That’s my King!

No Jesus – the chair you are sitting on would collapse and you with it!
He is supreme over all!

Wonder at his Salvation
v18-22
He is supreme, the creator and sustainer of all things and He is the head of the church and our saviour.
Jesus in his humanity is 100% God and 100% Man – v19  “in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”
Phil 2:7 he emptied himself doesn’t mean he emptied himself of being God to become a man – emptying himself of his glory, holding back his preeminent status to humble himself.
Jesus is 100% human – growing, tiring, getting thirsty, hungry, weeping, bleeding and dying
Jesus is 100% God  – holding the universe together.
Has to be that way – humanity means he can be a substitute for us, deity means he is perfect and not just sacrificing himself for his own sinfulness.

Jesus came and bled and died to deal with our sin problem.
We were alienated and hostile in our minds v21, doing evil deeds – far from God and earning the wages of sin – death.
Jesus sorted that on the cross. Made peace for us by his blood!

Dealt with our sin by dying in our place
Dealt with death by rising again, bursting out of the grave, defeating death.

Our response

Have you started?
The passage gives us a before and after.
At the start  I talked about how we get used to things and they don’t amaze us anymore.
Well we get used to the before

The old kitchen with the door hinges that don’t work, the cracked tile and the corner hob that’s a bit iffy. You get used to it. And then when you get the new kitchen. Wowsers!
My porch! We’d gotten used to the scuffed walls, how many coats on the rack and the teenagers smelly trainers. You get used it. It’s the before. It’s cleared now, sanded, repainted and less shoes and coats! The after. Wowsers.
Most people are used to the before Christ – Paul her calls it “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds”
It’s normal to get angry, to swear, to lie, to cheat your taxes, to get drunk, to look at porn.
That’s the before. Stop and think – It’s as ugly as the old kitchen or tired porch. It doesn’t need a touch up. Our lives don’t need a new diet or a bit of self help. They need a radical transformation.
They need reconciliation -v20  sorting out the relationship we didn’t have with God.
They need peace v20 – sorting out the lack of peace that sin brings.
They need Jesus to present us holy and blameless and above reproach.

We can’t do that! There’s an urban legend about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, who loved practical jokes. As a joke, he once sent a telegram to each of 12 friends. All were men of great virtue and respected in society. The telegram simply read, “Flee! All has been discovered.” To his shock, within 24 hours, the story goes, all 12 had left the country!

Verse 23 talks about “after” if you continue in the faith. The implication there is you have to start in the faith! Have you started in the faith. Have you come to that point for recognition that you are alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds?
Put your faith in Jesus – Trust in his death and resurrection to bring you forgiveness and peace.

If you continue…
Does that mean its down to us?  Do we have to work and strive to stay in the faith?
Paul lists what that continuing is
i) stable and steadfast – older translations rooted and established
ii) not moving from the gospel of hope

Continuing means staying rooted and established in the gospel, what Jesus has done. Roots into Jesus’ grace
Not moving from the hope of the gospel or the hope of the good news.
The good news is Jesus has done it for us.
The Colossians were getting tempted to add to the gospel – rituals and regulations ( we will see that in later weeks) and so
Paul is telling us it is vital we continues with God’s grace plan not our efforts to please him.

It’s all about Jesus – he is wonderful
Wonder at his supremacy
Wonder at his creation
Wonder at his salvation
Stay rooted and established in who He is and what He has done.