This is Jesus

  • Wes Van Fleet
  • Jul 3, 2010
  • Series: Topical

Colossians 1:15-21

July 3, 2010

Intro: Last week Adriel taught us about how the small town of Nazareth viewed it’s own Jesus as far to small and familiar. This left them a people who missed out on who Jesus really was. They disregarded who He truly was because they were far too familiar with Him. They lived with Him everyday and saw Him do normal human things like eat, sleep, and work. Like those of Nazareth, we too have grown far too familiar with this “small Jesus” who can do miracles. Most of us here probably believe in a Jesus who did miracles. Most of us here probably believe in a Jesus who was crucified and raised from the dead. BUT, practically most of us here believe in a Jesus from 2,000 years ago, not a Jesus that is alive and working today.

Not only is this Jesus alive right now, but I believe Paul’s Jesus is BY FAR the most MASSIVE Jesus we could ever imagine. Today I want to look at one of the most beautiful, huge passages regarding Christ in all of Scripture. We will look at the true identity of who Jesus is and how big He really is, now, not just 2,000 years ago. I hope to make clear how beautiful, holy, and completely big He is. As I read what Paul is telling us about this Jesus, really contemplate if this is the Jesus you know, or do you, like the people of Nazareth, still see Him as all too familiar, or do you see Him as someone who lived an amazing life 2,000 years ago but is not still doing so now?

Read Col. 1:15-17

Paul is showing us that Jesus is far bigger than any Jesus we could conjure up. Verse 15 says that He is the image of the invisible God. This means that God, who is far too unapproachable because of His holiness and our wickedness, has an image that we can see. This image of this invisible God was the one person that ALL THINGS were created through and for. I believe the fact that ALL THINGS were created through Jesus, sometimes leaves us with a far smaller view of Him then it should. We often limit Him by thinking about the creation story in Genesis. We seem to know that He created the heavens and the earth, He created light out of darkness, created the water, the land, the vegetation, the stars, animal life, and even us people. I believe this is what we think of when we think of Christ having ALL THINGS created through Him. The crazy thing is, if we were to leave it there, seeing Christ as the Creator of the physical things of the heavens and the earth, He would still be a Massive God.

BUT!!! The passage says ALL THINGS. I believe we have a habit of thinking of the word “things,” even in this passage, as just physical things. Things we can see, touch, experience, etc. So, we will talk these “things we can see” to show that these are true, but they do not even get close to showing the true massiveness of Jesus. Think about the complexity of just the people in this building. Think about how different your hair is than all your friends hair. Think about all the different shapes of eyes there are. What about all the different colors and blends of colors in people’s eyes? Some people’s eyes are close together, some are far apart. Just sit and think about all the different variations there are to a nose, to people’s lips, teeth, ears and so on. Do you see the uniqueness in such a small part of Creation? Yes, we all have similar qualities, but not one person has the same exact eyes, nose, mouth, and on and on. You see, these are all just small examples of the things we can see and touch.

What about the THINGS that we cannot see? What about the complex things like the way our brains work and function? Think about all the things your brain does. Imagine all the different thoughts you think during the day. Are they the same as anyone else’s thoughts? Imagine all the different ways each of us in here express our emotions different? Some express their hurts with outbursts of anger, while others keep it all inside. Some show their love for another person by being affectionate, while others show love in other ways. This week I spent a lot of time thinking of the complexity of all things with just us humans and how massive it shows our Creator to be. This is crazy stuff you guys!!! Seriously, I was blown away thinking that He has created ALL THINGS.  Science Facts: Think about this: There are more stars than all of the grains of sand on earth. Our galaxy has approximately 250 billion stars and it is estimated by astronomers that there are 100 billion other galaxies in the universe. The earth spins at 1,000 miles per hour but it travels through space at an incredible 67,000 miles per hour. This Jesus does not only hold what we can see together, but is holding ALL THINGS together. All the immaterial things that we are unaware of each day, He is holding all of that together as well. You see, Paul is trying to get us to this place where we feel the weight of how Big this Jesus is and how He holds ALL things together.

Holding together: Here is the crazy thing guys, not only were ALL THINGS created FOR HIM, but Paul says that He holds ALL THINGS together. This is huge!!! This is seriously crazy. Try to grasp this one, it is almost too big, it’s almost too MASSIVE for us to understand. This Jesus is holding ALL THINGS together. Think about it, Jesus is the one who holds your hips in socket while you get out of bed. Jesus holds your eyes in socket when you first open them in the morning. Jesus not only holds every single part of you together, He holds all movement of ALL THINGS together. The rubber of your tires stayed on the road on the way to church tonight because He held it all together. The ceiling above you right now is being held together by HIM as we speak. The sun is being held in it’s specific place by HIM. What Paul is saying is that Christ is the sustainer of life.  Have you ever really thought through this? This blew my mind when I sat back and thought about the chaos that would happen without Christ sustaining us. Think about every little breath you take! Acts 17:25 says that he gives to mankind life and breath and everything. He is sustaining us as we sit here!

Why were ALL these THINGS created? FOR HIM. Everything visible and invisible that we see or know was made FOR HIM. All these beautiful things that we can touch, taste, and enjoy were created FOR HIM. Every time we go to the beach and enjoy the sound of these beautiful waves just crashing down on the water, we were made to give HIM the glory for HIS beauty and creation. Every time we just devour the best mouth-watering food we could ever imagine, we were meant to give Him praise for HIS creation. Every time a loved one looks at you and smiles the most beautiful authentic smile, we were meant to give HIM THE PRAISE for letting us share in HIS beautiful creation. ALL THINGS were created FOR HIM!!

 And our right response should be to praise Him and thank Him, and glorify Him.

But we have not, and do not praise Him for ALL THINGS He has created have we? We just don’t!!!

Why? Why do we act as if ALL THINGS were created FOR US? We have taken these beautiful things and taken them for ourselves, as if they are ours. Right? How often do we truly praise Him for that beautiful smile that HE has created? We don’t! Far too often, if not always, we take His creation as ours, worship it, and then destroy it. When go to the beach what do we do? We walk all over the sand, splash around in the waves, burn fires, cook OUR food, and enjoy OUR time there and OUR creation. Right? What about when we go out to dinner with family and friends? We sit impatiently and want OUR waiter or waitress to bring us OUR food on OUR time, right? We have a way of seeing ALL THINGS as OURS and give no thanks and glory to HIM!!

What about the way we treat others? We often treat other people as they are OURS as well, right? We demand others to fill our voids, and when they fail we hurt them. We are harsh, we are unforgiving, we are angry, we are impatient, etc. Not only do we treat others as they are FOR US, but we clearly mistreat the image of God. Think through that, men and women made in the image of God constantly mistreat one another. We have taken what was made FOR HIM and made it FOR US, destroying it and not giving Him the praise He deserves.

 Ex: Think about it! We can see this in our lives when God takes these things that were created FOR HIM away from us. We hold on so tight to our little pleasures, our friends, our family and the second God takes these things away, how do we react? We get angry at God, we stop trusting God, and ultimately we stop believing in God. Romans 1 is clear that we do this. It states very clearly that God’s creation, US, have stopped worshipping Him to worship His creation.

In our fascination with ourselves and with God’s creation, we HAVE forgotten God. We have chosen to live as if He didn’t really exist.

But, our God WILL get His glory. In Job He calls out with these massive questionsin order to shake us out of our blind foolishness into seeing once again how MESSIVE He is. Listen to what He says:

            38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

            38:8 Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?

            38:12 Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place

            38:16-17 Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

            38:22 Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail?

            38:24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

            38:35 Can you send forth lightning, that they may go and say to you, “Here we are?”

            YOU SEE!!! Creation obeys Christ and was created FOR HIM!!! Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Why is it you guys that ALL His creation obeys Him except us? Lightning bolts answer to Him, the sun shines where it is supposed to, but we disregard Him and use ALL THINGS FOR US!! So now there is this MASSIVE divide in our relationship with this MASSIVE God. I do not believe we can fix this! I believe our relationship with Him is far beyond broken!! Not only can we not fix this, but there must be some crazy consequences for our misuse and abuse of HIS creation.

Consequences: We have undoubtedly sinned against the God of all creation. There must be payment for our misuse of creation. Our God WILL get His glory! Romans says that the wages of our sin is death. We deserve nothing less than death.  You see, we have caused this vast break in our relationship with our God that has left us deserving death, deserving wrath, and we have no excuse do we? So we sit here broken! We sit here and cry out what have I done?!?!

BUT!!!! We have an initiating God! Despite our thievery and misuse of His creation and worshipping things He made instead of Him, look at God’s response to us. Let’s read verse 19-20. It says: 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 his cross.

We have failed, abusing His creation and instead of getting even and destroying us, He continued to hold all things together. And this is where the most amazing thing happens. God decided to send His only Son, the One who created All THINGS and holds ALL THINGS together, to come fix what we had broken.  This is nuts you guys, this Jesus who holds ALL THINGS together came into this world in the flesh. As I thought about this, my natural instinct was to think, “Our MASSIVE Jesus became small.” However, Christ becoming flesh to come fix the broken relationship between the Father and us should move us to worship. We should worship him…BUT WE DON’T!!

 

Wrong!!! He came from being in a perfect relationship with the Father and Spirit, came and lived as one of us, loved us despite us ruining ALL THINGS, lived the perfect life that we could not live, perfectly glorifying the Father. This should be enough to worship Him and give Him the glory He deserves, instead we continued in our rebellion!!!

How did we respond to Jesus in the flesh? We used Him. We used him for food when we were hungry, we used Him to heal our sick children, we used Him the same exact way we used His creation. Right? The Jesus that transcended the gap between God and man came to fix things and we used Him!!!

In John 6:26, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” And what else did we do to this Jesus who holds all things together? We hung Him on a cross!! We wrongfully accused Him of being God, we flogged Him, tearing skin and muscle and cartilage from His flesh! We broke and abused Him the same way we did His creation! We then hung Him on a cross like a common thief. We killed this Jesus!! We killed Him!!

But you see my friends, He had to be broken to bring peace between the Father and us. The last part of Colossians 1:20 says that he made peace by what? THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS!! This enormous Jesus came to fix things that we broke, but He had to be broken Himself to fix ALL THINGS that were His. HIS CROSS was necessary to bring peace between us!

John 6:51 says I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. AND THE BREAD THAT I WILL GIVE FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD IS MY FLESH.

Isa. 53:5 says But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we were healed.

This Jesus who created ALL THINGS for Him, came to die FOR US!! The God who holds ALL THINGS together, was broken FOR US!!! How ironic is that? HE who holds ALL THINGS together did not hold himself together! This is mind-blowing you guys!! I mean let this sink in for a second. The God who holds the sun where it is, keeps our joints attached to our bodies, who gives us our every breath…decided to go to the cross and pay for our sin. He went to the cross innocent and took on the torment that we deserved. He stood in our place and was charged guilty as we should have been, despite His innocence. He stood quiet before Pilate where we would have wailed and screamed and begged to be given another chance. The Roman soldiers pushed a crown of thorns between His skin and skull so we could receive a crown of reward. He was stripped naked and humiliated so we could be clothed with His righteousness. He willingly crawled upon the cross and had nails driven through His hands and feet and died upon that cross so we could die to sin and walk in His righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24). And this Jesus who holds all things together was raised from the dead so we could live with Him forever!! This is the  Jesus Paul wants us to see and to know!

Do you see what has happened? This Jesus has given Himself up in our place and died FOR US. He has died the death that we so rightly deserve FOR US!! Does this not make Him more MASSIVE than you ever thought of Him to be? I mean, this is crazy!!! He made ALL THINGS FOR HIM, we broke it all, and He comes and dies FOR US!

Guys, you know what else this shows us? When this Massive Jesus die FOR US, but it shows His MASSIVE LOVE FOR US. This is why He died you guys! Not just to fix what we had broken, but to show His MASSIVE love FOR US!! This is so beautiful. We did nothing to deserve this! But He came FOR US, to show us how much He truly loves us.

And now that we know that this Jesus is FOR US, we can now live FOR HIM. You see, all our hostility, all our anger, and all our self-righteousness was paid for by Jesus at the cross. Because we know this Jesus who loves us and paid our penalty is FOR US, we can live FOR HIM. Isn’t that crazy? We once were hostile and took ALL THINGS that were FOR HIM and made them FOR US, have now been showed the most MASSIVE love of all time and cannot help but live FOR HIM.

So what does this mean for us now? Because this MASSIVE Jesus is FOR US, we can trust Him and depend on Him. You see, we have this peace now between us and we can completely depend on Him. Like Tim has shown us over the past few months, the MASSIVE Jesus brought us these MASSIVE spiritual blessings by taking our sin upon Him at the cross. Remind yourself of these:

-This Massive Jesus has chose you before the foundation of the world

-We are holy and blameless in this MASSIVE Jesus

-We are now adopted and have a MASSIVE God that is FOR US.

-We have been redeemed by this MASSIVE Jesus.

-We have been forgiven by this MASSIVE Jesus, by His grace alone.

-We are sealed with the Holy Spirit and guaranteed our inheritance in the eternal kingdom of God.

-And we are HIS treasured possessions.

So, now we can live FOR HIM, because we know He is FOR US. This means that when we once took advantage of the beautiful things He had given to us for His praise, we can now give Him the glory for the ALL THINGS. When we lay at the beach and see and hear the waves crashing on the ocean we can thank Him and praise Him. When our friends and family smile at us we can give Him the praise and glory. When the God who holds ALL THINGS together takes away something that is HIS, we can let go and praise Him for the time we had with whatever it may be. You see friends, Christ is FOR US and we can be FOR HIM, which makes Him the most beautiful and valuable treasure that we can have. So…we now hold on too this MASSIVE Jesus as tight as we can and praise Him for who He is, and love but hold loosely all His creation.

 

 

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