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As you have noticed already, we have a new theme for 2018: Grounded in the Gospel.
Here in a few minutes, we will be looking at Colossians 1 if you’d like to turn there.
Our theme verse for the year is found in Colossians 1:23.
we will spend some time with this verse in observation and interpretation here in a little while, but I’d like to take a moment and view how we are planning to apply this verse this coming year.
Paul instructs the Colossian believers to continue in the faith being grounded and settled.
In essence, to grow deeper in the good news of Jesus.
We too, as the church, should be grounded in the Gospel and we will grow together this year.
That deepening work must be: intentional, biblical, and continual.
And we will do that corporately two ways:
1.
New City Catechism
Today many churches and Christian organizations publish “statements of faith” that outline their beliefs.
But in the past it was expected that documents of this nature would be so biblically rich and carefully crafted that they would be memorized and used for Christian growth and training.
They were written in the form of questions and answers, and were called catechisms (from the Greek katechein, which means “to teach orally or to instruct by word of mouth”).
The practice of question-answer recitation brings instructors and students into a naturally interactive, dialogical process of learning.
In short, catechisms are less individualistic and more communal.
So, as a congregation this year, we are going to walk through these 52 questions and answers in each service, with the hope of grounding us in these important biblical doctrines.
Look at the back of your bulletins.
Q.
What is our only hope in life and death?
A. That we are not our own but belong to God.
We will also highlight in greater depth the truth learned in the weekly catechism in the Sunday evening sermon.
So, if you want to ground your life in the truths you are learning throughout the week, join us on Sunday night.
2. The Story
Have you ever wondered how the Old Testament and New Testament correlate?
Well, The Story is a 31 week chronological progression through the entire bible for the purpose of learning how it all fits together.
This book takes the mega-themes of passages and weaves them together into one chapter.
Here’s a closer look at what to expect:
VIDEO
This is going to be great!
And so, we have purchased copies of this book for each household within our church.
You may pick one up on your way out this morning.
Read chapter 1 this week, and come prepared for the sermon next Sunday.
So, these two tools are going to assist us in fulfilling our goal for the new year.
I hope you will take full advantage of these resources!
Are you there with me in Colossians 1?
If not, join me there.
Colossians is Paul’s response to the false claims that Christ was insufficient.
People were apparently saying that Jesus was a good start, but that other beliefs and practices had to be added.
Paul affirms that nothing needs to be added to the work of Christ, and as Lord of all creation, He is more than enough for every believer.
In vv.
19-23, Paul addresses our reconciliation with God.
Read Colossians 1:19-23
v. 19 - says “it pleased the Father that in Christ, all fulness dwelt” - referring to God being fully present in Christ.
Similiar to what Paul said in 2:9.
Gnostic heretics taught that Christ was a kind of “halfway house” to God, a necessary link in the chain.
But there were other, better links on ahead.
“Go on from Him,” they urged, “and you will reach the fullness.”
“No,” Paul answers, “Christ is Himself the complete fullness!”
Jesus was fully God - making Him sufficient for everything required for redeeming mankind.
His sufficiency is what provides peace (v.
20).
1.
Our Problem (v.
21a)
Our problem, as highlighted by Paul, is that all of mankind is inherently sinful.
Each of us, just like in Paul’s day, naturally fulfill the lusts of the flesh and are children of wrath.
By nature we are problematically sinful.
We are enemies of God, and we choose to live outside of obedience to Him.
In fact, our brokenness extends past willful sin and includes sin that we aren’t even aware of.
ILL: Aleah (OMG)
Our brokenness is really bad.
None of us are exempt, and there is no hope outside of Jesus Christ.
So, our problem is that by nature we are enemies of God alienated from God in our minds by wicked deeds, hopelessly living without Him.
And there is nothing that we can do, within ourselves, to fix this problem.
2. His Purpose (vv.
21b-22)
Christ came to reconcile unrighteous creation to a righteous Creator.
To reconcile means to restore to a right relationship or standard, or to make peace where formerly there was enmity.
Christ came to make peace available to those, who are by nature, opposing to His nature.
He provided a way to have a right relationship to us who had a fatal relationship.
Notice, this reconciliation is always us reconciled to Him.
We don’t reconcile God to us.
Ill: Piano tuning.
The piano is always tuned to the tuning fork.
Not the tuning fork to the piano.
impute = to credit
Christ did not credit our trespasses to us.
Rather he imputed (credited) His righteousness to those who come to Him alone by grace alone through faith alone.
But look with me at the means by which He accomplished this reconciliation.
v. 21b-22 “yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death”
This reconciliation came at the highest price.
It wasn’t enough for Christ to come in the miraculous way He did.
And it wasn’t enough for Him to only have lived a perfect life, like He did.
Reconciliation was made possible (v.
22) through the body of His flesh through death.
It is important to note here: Christ was not an angel or a nonphysical being; He had a body, and He endured suffering and death in His body.
By emphasizing Christ’s physical body, Paul may be combatting early gnostic-like influences that could have been at work in Colossae.
Gnosticism emphasized spiritual, nonmaterial reality over the material reality.
Some denied that Christ had a physical body at all.
Paul refutes that here.
We know that Christ, through physical pain and death, made it possible to be reconciled.
This was His purpose in coming.
And we stop and reflect on this most costly sacrifice, each time we partake of the elements of the Lord’s table.
That perfect Jesus would willingly give His body to be beaten and His blood to be shed for imperfect me-for imperfect you.
This is the means by which He fulfilled His purpose.
But there is a second element to His purpose, and it is found in the later part of v. 22.
He has reconciled us in the body of His flesh, to:
Present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.
This holiness was not something they needed to generate.
In fact, it is not something they could generate.
This is imputed holiness from the Holy One, Jesus Christ.
The Colossians cannot claim responsibility for their status before God; no human tradition or rule made them holy.
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