back to index2019-02-06: Wed Bible Study Lesson 4 (Colossians)
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I hope you guys had a good discussion. I had some questions that came in. Most of these 00:00:10.040 |
things are probably going to be addressed just from the regular going over this section. 00:00:17.840 |
I think I missed two. We had praise and prayer before we left and then I was gone for a week. 00:00:26.160 |
Usually it takes me about one or two sessions to jump back in. I forgot what time we were 00:00:29.520 |
supposed to start. Is this the right time? Am I too early? This is good? Okay. I got 00:00:37.840 |
to mark that. All right. Okay. So we're looking at verse 13 to 20. So let me pray first and 00:00:44.800 |
we'll jump right in. Heavenly Father, we ask Lord God that you would bless this time. Help 00:00:54.840 |
us to deepen our understanding of Christ and what he has done, who he is, would cause us 00:01:00.160 |
Lord God to deepen our appreciation of what it is that we have and that we would live 00:01:05.420 |
our lives according to the knowledge that we gain. We pray Father that you would bless 00:01:09.320 |
this time, bless the fellowship that we have, the conversations, the discussions, may it 00:01:14.280 |
all lead to sanctification of your church. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right. To 00:01:21.600 |
begin, just to kind of again, like each session we want to just give you just some hints or 00:01:27.480 |
some guide as to how to study the text. There was some confusion and I'm sure it's hopefully 00:01:32.760 |
it's cleared up by now. When I asked you guys to take some time to ask the questions, asking 00:01:38.240 |
a question was not your homework. Asking the question is to get you to study it. Okay. 00:01:43.360 |
Hopefully that was clear by now. The reason why I didn't want to give you the question 00:01:47.840 |
is because part of the study is for you to ask the question. Right? So that you can dig 00:01:53.260 |
and say, "Oh, what's going on here?" So that would lead to you digging and looking for 00:01:57.960 |
observations. Instead of me saying, "Hey, answer these questions," then you just answer 00:02:02.840 |
it and then finish your thing. So hopefully that's clear by now. So the homework for the 00:02:08.720 |
week is actually for you to take those questions that you may have discussed in your group 00:02:13.360 |
and do your best to answer it and then come. So if you haven't been doing that, hopefully 00:02:17.280 |
that'll clear things up. Okay. And then each session, we're not just going to give you 00:02:21.120 |
some guidelines as to what to look for. And then hopefully that'll help you in doing future 00:02:26.920 |
Bible studies. So the goal of this Bible study is not simply to know the book of Colossians 00:02:31.200 |
for me to study and then say, "Hey, here's what this passage means." The real goal for 00:02:35.600 |
this is for you to be able to go to your home and take the same principles and study 1 Thessalonians 00:02:42.520 |
on your own. Do quiet time in this manner. So you don't just skim through the book and 00:02:47.120 |
then say, "Oh, I understand it." Okay. So a couple of things in your handouts, right? 00:02:54.960 |
It begins with, I asked three things or three things to look for. One is where are the paragraph 00:03:01.000 |
breaks in this session, in this text, verse 13 to 17 or 20. Within the paragraph breaks, 00:03:10.320 |
what are the specific thoughts or teachings within each division? Meaning once you get 00:03:16.280 |
the bigger picture in the 20 verses, go in deeply and don't end with just a division 00:03:22.520 |
of these groups. But within that, what are the thoughts? What are the arguments that 00:03:27.240 |
are being made? And one of the things that will help you to do that is asking what are 00:03:31.880 |
the key words? I saw Pastor Mark's teaching and he kind of covered a little bit about 00:03:35.680 |
this last time. But again, we want to help you to do that. So we're going to jump right 00:03:39.320 |
in and we're going to look at the fourfold division, okay? At least that I found, okay? 00:03:45.800 |
I broke up. If you look at the second sheet, basically what I did was I copied the verses 00:03:52.860 |
on the sheet and I broke it down for you in thoughts, okay? Remember I told you that this 00:03:58.280 |
is what I do whenever I do quiet time or when I'm preparing for a sermon and I want to see 00:04:02.640 |
the thought flow of the author, I break it down into thoughts, right? So this is Jesus 00:04:08.320 |
Christ. He died for us. He came back from the dead. And so breaking it down like that 00:04:12.240 |
helps me to see the thought flow of the author. And so I did that for you here, right? So 00:04:17.760 |
whenever there's a comma or and or therefore, I put it in a separate line just so that you 00:04:22.600 |
can see the different thought flow. So, and I also gave you this because I want you to 00:04:27.160 |
take your notes on this, right? You're going to be taking some notes on this and this is 00:04:32.600 |
just a general outline. So I gave you some space for that. But I also want you, as I'm 00:04:36.960 |
going through the text and I want you to highlight where the insights are coming from. So the 00:04:42.200 |
most of the things that I'm going to be saying are things because we sat, I sat there and 00:04:47.560 |
and just combed through the text. It's not because of some Greek exegesis. It's not because 00:04:52.160 |
I saw this in a commentary or it's not because of seminary education. Anybody who picks up 00:04:56.600 |
the Bible and starts to ask questions and take time to dig, you should be able to come 00:05:01.760 |
up with these same insights. So I'm going to show you, okay, these are some of the things 00:05:05.840 |
that I've observed and hopefully if you've done your study and and taken plenty of time 00:05:11.560 |
to comb through the text, you'll probably see like, oh, I saw the same thing, right? 00:05:17.960 |
Again majority of these things that I'm going to be saying is not coming from any commentary. 00:05:22.200 |
It's just from observation coming from here. Okay. Some of the questions that you ask, 00:05:26.680 |
obviously, it'll be helpful to know this information before. All right. If you look at verse 13 00:05:33.320 |
to 20, okay, and I'm not going to do this, ask you to do this now, but there are clear 00:05:38.400 |
breaks. If I was to give a sermon on these verses, it'd be probably a four-part sermon 00:05:45.800 |
because there's clearly four separate thoughts that are tied together, but then it's given 00:05:52.400 |
in four-paragraph form. So the first paragraph is found in verse 13 and 14. So that's the 00:06:03.800 |
first paragraph and that basically is, okay, I'm going to write it here, "who Jesus is 00:06:16.600 |
to us." Again, I'm just using my words, okay, that's what I observed. Second thought flow 00:06:26.200 |
I see in verse 15 to 17. Number two, "who Jesus is in light of creation." Okay. Oh, 00:06:49.200 |
did it move? All right. The third one is verse 18 along. Getting uglier and uglier as I go. 00:07:04.200 |
Anyway, you know what I mean. Okay. "Who Jesus is in light of creation." Okay. You can't 00:07:27.440 |
read it? Oh, sorry. Light of the church. And then the fourth paragraph, "who Jesus is in 00:07:46.320 |
light of the Father." So if I was to give, if I was preaching through the book of Colossians, 00:07:55.720 |
that would kind of be the breakdown of the thought flow, right? It's Christology broken 00:08:01.680 |
up into four parts. Who Jesus is in relation to us, what did he do for us? Who Jesus is 00:08:08.160 |
in relation to creation, right? He's the creator, he's the sustainer, all things are created 00:08:12.560 |
by him and for him. Who is Jesus in relation to the church? And then who is Jesus in relation 00:08:18.720 |
to the Father? All of it Christology, but in four separate parts. Okay. Again, the reason 00:08:24.040 |
why we do that is because you understand the thought flow of the author. It'll help you 00:08:29.360 |
to understand the details a little bit better because you'll see where the thought flow 00:08:33.680 |
fits. Okay. So that's the broad outline. So, and I gave on this sheet, you know, four and 00:08:44.040 |
then each one has the separate title so you don't have to write it down. So if you want 00:08:47.440 |
to take notes, you can take the notes here and make sure that you're making notes as 00:08:52.760 |
we go here. So the first thing that we see in verse 13 and 14, so you want to take it 00:08:59.280 |
section by section, right? So the first section, verse 13 and 14, who is Jesus in relation 00:09:04.520 |
to us? And it talks about redemption. So in redemption, he mentions how he rescued us, 00:09:11.280 |
transferred us, and redeemed us, right? These are all very important words that describes 00:09:17.340 |
our salvation. So he rescued us from what? Domain of darkness. So natural question is, 00:09:25.640 |
what is the domain of darkness? Who's in charge of this darkness? What created this darkness? 00:09:30.040 |
These are a lot of the questions that would come up in that. So scripture clearly says 00:09:34.480 |
in Luke chapter 22, 53, that the God of this age is Satan, that domain of darkness is, 00:09:40.680 |
who has the power over the domain of darkness? Satan, right? So when he said that, that's 00:09:45.960 |
found in Luke chapter 22, 53. So he rescued us from the domain of darkness. So the way 00:09:51.840 |
he describes us in our salvation as we were in bondage, in slavery, by the power of Satan, 00:10:00.120 |
whether we recognize that or not, right? He transferred us, right? He transferred us to 00:10:11.080 |
the kingdom of his beloved son. Now this is a very important word, right? He didn't just 00:10:17.720 |
rescue us from the domain of darkness. If your view of salvation ends with rescue from 00:10:23.280 |
the power of sin, right? We're no longer under Satan's control. And that's where a lot of 00:10:29.640 |
Christians end up kind of in this in-between world where we are safe from the penalty of 00:10:35.280 |
our sin, but now we're waiting to get to heaven so that we can enjoy heaven for eternity. 00:10:39.520 |
The Bible describes salvation as being rescued and being transferred from domain of darkness 00:10:47.360 |
to the kingship of Christ. And that's why in our church we read the book Lordship Salvation. 00:10:53.480 |
No, that's not the title of the book. Gospel according to Jesus, right? Which describes 00:11:00.240 |
Lordship Salvation because salvation is removing us from domain of darkness and then transferring 00:11:09.460 |
us to the kingdom. So when you say kingdom, you have a king, right? You have a king, so 00:11:15.040 |
we're under his rule. Okay? So that's the second thing that is described. And then he 00:11:20.360 |
said, well, how did he do that? He redeemed us, right? The idea of redemption is something 00:11:25.000 |
that was worthless, thrown away, and you pay something and you redeem it back, right? And 00:11:31.480 |
that's the idea of redemption. So he rescued us, transferred us. How did he do it? He redeemed 00:11:37.000 |
us. And how did he redeem us? Redeemed us from what? For our sins, right? He didn't 00:11:43.760 |
redeem us from poverty. He didn't redeem us from sickness or hard life or bad marriage. 00:11:51.040 |
All of these things are symptoms of sin. But it's the core issue is sin itself. So whenever 00:11:59.560 |
you have the false gospel, the false gospel promises redemption from all these things 00:12:05.960 |
that are hardship in life. But the Bible says the redemption happens when he delivers us 00:12:11.240 |
from our sins. So when he delivers us from our sin, then people who've been delivered 00:12:15.600 |
from sin into the kingship of Christ, then there's a reflection of that in the life of 00:12:22.680 |
a believer. He becomes generous. He becomes giving. He becomes gracious. He's concerned 00:12:27.280 |
about the poor. He becomes a better father, better mother, better son, better daughter. 00:12:32.800 |
But these are all byproducts of what happens at the core. But Jesus did not come to save 00:12:37.720 |
us from poverty. Jesus did not come so that we can have an easier life. So all of these 00:12:42.440 |
things are accurate descriptions of what happened to us. Now, how much of this did you understand 00:12:49.760 |
when you became a Christian? Probably you understood some part of it, right? You became 00:12:56.080 |
saved. You met Christ. So it was a supernatural encounter. Very few of us went through, you 00:13:03.200 |
know, went through like a college of information about our faith and what happened and the 00:13:09.360 |
end result of it is, oh, now I believe. Most of us went to a retreat and you heard a very 00:13:13.960 |
simple presentation of the gospel that Christ loves you, died for you, he can save you from 00:13:18.440 |
your sins. You felt the sin, convicted, and you asked for forgiveness. And all you know 00:13:23.360 |
is that if you ask for forgiveness, God's going to forgive you. Now you're not going 00:13:27.040 |
to be judged, you're going to be in heaven. And that's a very simple understanding of 00:13:31.760 |
the gospel, but that in and of itself is enough to save you. But after you save, it's like, 00:13:37.840 |
oh, what did that mean? Right? So even the Colossians, I don't think the Colossians when 00:13:44.520 |
they read this, understood all of this. Like, I already know all this. Paul is revealing 00:13:50.180 |
things about their salvation and about who Jesus is progressively. Because remember, 00:13:55.840 |
all of this revelation was coming through Apostle Paul, so they didn't have this information 00:13:59.280 |
before Paul. All they knew was they encountered Christ and they believed him. So these details 00:14:06.320 |
are probably new to them as it is to a lot of us as we're studying. But the more we understand 00:14:12.080 |
it, it gives light of purpose. I see a lot of Christians, like, you become a Christian 00:14:19.600 |
and you're looking for purpose, or you're trying to find yourself. It's because you 00:14:23.880 |
don't understand your salvation. You got stuck in between two worlds. You got saved from 00:14:29.480 |
your sins, but you haven't been delivered into the kingdom. Right? You have, but you 00:14:34.680 |
don't recognize it. You don't know what happened or what God is expecting. So a lot of people 00:14:39.640 |
are wandering around looking for the will of God. But the will of God is for you to 00:14:44.520 |
be under His will. Right? His will. Not, well I know God's will, but what is God's will 00:14:51.840 |
for me? Does He want me to be a doctor? Does He want me to be a lawyer? Does He want me 00:14:55.480 |
to do this and that? All of that has to be subjected to His kingship. Right? So if you're 00:15:00.880 |
trying to look for His specific will for you, independent of His kingdom, you're never going 00:15:07.380 |
to find it. Because God already revealed what His will is, to be under His will. And that's 00:15:13.120 |
what the purpose of salvation was, is to restore a rebellious people who are refusing to submit 00:15:19.760 |
to His kingship, to redeem them back, to transfer them from dominion of darkness into the kingdom 00:15:26.680 |
of His Son. Right? By forgiving our sins. So that's the first part. Okay? Second part, 00:15:32.820 |
who is Jesus in light of creation? He is the image of the invisible God. Icon. Right? Now 00:15:42.120 |
when He says image, He's not just talking about like, take a picture. Right? You know, 00:15:50.240 |
we take a picture, we take that picture, it's like this is the image of so-and-so. When 00:15:56.720 |
He says He's the image of the invisible God, He's talking about a God that they've never 00:16:00.520 |
personally seen. They couldn't see Him. Right? Remember the Bible says, whoever sees God, 00:16:06.240 |
he will die. He can't be in the presence of this Holy God. So a God who was distant, that 00:16:10.640 |
they heard of, right? They saw from a distance, they don't know what He looks like. Right? 00:16:16.200 |
They only know what He's revealed. Jesus Christ actually came. So that's why when the disciples 00:16:22.480 |
asked only if you would show us the Father, right? Then we would be okay. And then Jesus 00:16:28.480 |
says how long have I been with you and you still don't understand. If you've seen me, 00:16:33.200 |
you have seen the Father. Right? So this is going to go back later on when it says the 00:16:38.400 |
fullness of God dwelt in Jesus, meaning that every part of Jesus was the fullness of God. 00:16:46.160 |
So if you wanted to see Jesus, you don't go through Jesus to see the Father. Basically, 00:16:50.880 |
if you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father. Because He is the image of the Father. Right? 00:16:59.200 |
So if you've seen Him, you've seen the Father. That's what this means. Right? He's not just 00:17:04.800 |
saying that He's an imprint of Him. He's saying He is Him. So one, so we're talking about 00:17:11.880 |
who is Jesus. One, He's the image of the Father. Two, He's the firstborn of a creation. So 00:17:16.720 |
a lot of people who read this, again, this is one of those things that you have to do 00:17:20.000 |
a little bit more digging of context. So again, so that you don't end up in Paris. You have 00:17:26.040 |
to know what do they mean? Right? What did they mean? So firstborn in our culture, when 00:17:33.280 |
we say firstborn, secondborn, thirdborn, we exclusively, 100% of the time, we use it chronologically. 00:17:41.040 |
I'm firstborn. Right? An only child doesn't say I'm firstborn. You just say I'm only child. 00:17:46.680 |
Because whenever we say firstborn, we mean there's a second or thirdborn. This period 00:17:52.160 |
of time when they said firstborn, the word firstborn meant something more than that. 00:17:56.800 |
Right? As an example today, if somebody says He's the baby of our home, it means, it can 00:18:04.360 |
mean two things. One is, chronologically, He's the last. Right? But what's the other 00:18:09.760 |
meaning behind that? How can somebody be using that word? He's the baby of our home. Hmm? 00:18:16.440 |
Okay. Depending on the most needy. Okay. I was thinking, I was thinking something else. 00:18:22.400 |
That could be it. That's what the, right? What else could it mean when you say He's 00:18:27.320 |
the baby? Yes, youngest, chronologically, it could mean that. But what else does it 00:18:34.640 |
mean? He's cherished. Right? I was like, none of you thought of that? What's wrong with 00:18:45.280 |
you people? So when you, I'm not saying that that's what it means. I'm saying that's what 00:18:50.800 |
a parent could mean. That's how it could be understood. Oh, He's baby. Right? He's baby 00:18:56.080 |
or He's cherished at home. Right? So in the same way, in that culture, when they say they're 00:19:01.080 |
firstborn, firstborns naturally receive double portion of all the inheritance. Now, if you're 00:19:07.120 |
second, third, fourthborn, you might look at that and say, well, that's not fair just 00:19:10.160 |
because he was born first. The reason why the firstborn was given double the portion 00:19:14.560 |
was because he had the responsibility to carry the family line. So if you were Abraham's 00:19:20.480 |
descendant, whatever promises that was made, the firstborn was the one that was going to 00:19:24.520 |
receive that promise and go down that line. Even if you did not receive the covenant from 00:19:28.640 |
God, that family line's name. So 10 generations from now, what happens to the firstborn and 00:19:36.040 |
then his firstborn and then his firstborn was going to be the line that's going to connect 00:19:40.800 |
back to 10 generations earlier. So they gave him double the portion so that he would have 00:19:46.000 |
double the chance of being successful because it didn't just mean for him. It meant he had 00:19:52.840 |
the responsibility on his shoulder to carry his family line generation to generation. 00:19:59.240 |
So in that culture, when they said firstborn, it doesn't, it didn't just mean in first, 00:20:04.480 |
second, third, right? Chronologically. It meant that there was a special anointing upon 00:20:10.880 |
him. So when he says Jesus is the firstborn of creation, he's not talking about chronologically. 00:20:16.840 |
He was first and came second and then third. He's saying he's firstborn, meaning that there 00:20:21.960 |
is a special burden upon him of all the creation. So he, in other words, it's the cult, the 00:20:28.560 |
culture at that time would have understood this as he is what? Premier. He is above. 00:20:35.280 |
He is special of all the creations. Okay. Not necessarily chronological. So when he 00:20:41.800 |
says for God to love the world that he gave his only begotten son, right? Okay. That's 00:20:48.880 |
not the verse I was thinking about. Okay. I went somewhere else. Okay. Completely erase 00:20:52.640 |
that. Completely erase that. Okay. So when the Bible talks about him being firstborn, 00:20:57.560 |
right? In reference to Jesus, not talking about chronologically. So one, he is the image 00:21:03.200 |
of God, meaning he's God himself. He is firstborn over creation. In other words, he is above 00:21:07.640 |
all the creation and then that's exactly what he talks about, right? Starting from verse 00:21:12.480 |
three, "For by him all things were created." Right? Now, he just said he is preeminent 00:21:18.780 |
above all creation and then he explains why. Because he's the creator himself. All things 00:21:26.600 |
were created, all things through him were created, both the heavens and the earth, visible 00:21:31.920 |
and invisible, throne and rulers and authorities. So we can sit here and dissect, you know, 00:21:37.640 |
authorities and dominions, visible, invisible. But the point of this section is simply to 00:21:41.920 |
say everything that was created was created by him. Right? Seen, unseen. Heaven, earth. 00:21:51.280 |
All authorities, all dominions, everything that you can possibly think of is under his 00:21:55.880 |
rule. He is preeminent of all creation. He's the firstborn of all creation. Okay? It's 00:22:01.840 |
on his shoulder. All things were created through him and for him. So the purpose, he is God, 00:22:14.000 |
he is preeminent, he's the creator. And not only did he create everything, he said everything 00:22:18.800 |
was created for him. He didn't create us so that we can enjoy life. He created us for 00:22:26.520 |
what purpose? That we would worship him. We weren't created to be worshipped. I mean, 00:22:37.240 |
think carefully how much of our life is dedicated in desiring to be worshipped. Wanting to be 00:22:44.480 |
the best basketball player, wanting to be the tallest, the best looking, make the most 00:22:49.600 |
money, live in the nicest house, want to be famous, whatever it may be. Even as Christians. 00:22:56.680 |
I want to be the best Christian. I want to memorize the most scripture. I want to evangelize 00:23:01.080 |
the most. I want to be the most sacrificial. If we're not careful, even the ambition to 00:23:06.440 |
be the best Christian is a, if you're not careful, could be motivated by a desire to 00:23:12.280 |
be worshipped within the Christian camp. And that's why Paul calls that out in 1 Corinthians 00:23:18.440 |
13. Even if I give my body to be burned, if I do not have love, it means nothing. Because 00:23:24.840 |
it can be motivated by a selfish, rebellious nature. Even martyrdom for glory. Whose glory? 00:23:32.440 |
His glory or her glory. So he says all things were created by him and ultimately it's for 00:23:39.440 |
him. And then finally he is before all things and in him all things hold together. Right? 00:23:46.680 |
Not only is it about him, the only way that we can even be sustained is if he's the one 00:23:52.320 |
who sustains us. In other words, all of this in creation, right, summarizes who he is. 00:23:59.120 |
So when we say God-centered worship, the moment it's not God-centered, it means absolutely 00:24:04.080 |
nothing. We join the rebellion. This is not an option between this church is about God-centeredness, 00:24:10.000 |
this is about the lost. The moment is no longer God-centered, you are part of the rebellion. 00:24:17.360 |
You're no longer in accord with what the scripture says we are. Right? Even the way we do church, 00:24:24.680 |
it's about us. My need, my desire, their need, their desire, right? No. Our desire went astray. 00:24:33.560 |
Because we rebelled against God. When God forgives us and restores us back into his 00:24:40.440 |
lordship, even our desires are corrected. Right? We, you know, in our generation we 00:24:48.240 |
talk a lot about how homosexuality is sinful, which it is. Absolutely. If there's anybody 00:24:53.680 |
who struggles with the theory of that, although the Bible doesn't teach that, absolutely wrong. 00:25:00.600 |
The Bible is crystal clear. There is no debate about it. Only reason why there's a debate 00:25:04.720 |
is because there's a camp that doesn't want it to be true. But if you subject, objectively 00:25:10.680 |
look at it, the Bible is not ambiguous about it. There are some things that could be debated. 00:25:14.660 |
That is not one of the issues that could be debated. But, but the problem is, because 00:25:19.920 |
we debate about the homosexuality issue, we think that that in and of itself, and we forget 00:25:26.600 |
that even heterosexual desires have been perverted. It's not just homosexual desires. Even the 00:25:34.920 |
people who are not homosexuals have perverted desires. Our desire for fame, money, sex, 00:25:41.640 |
all of that has been perverted. So when God forgives us of our sins and he restores us 00:25:47.160 |
back to his kingdom, he's trying to not only restore us back to his kingdom, but even our 00:25:52.240 |
very desires are to be redeemed. And then all of a sudden our desires become redeemed 00:25:59.560 |
for what he purposed, for his glory. Thirdly, who is Jesus in the light of the church? He 00:26:09.720 |
is also the head of the church. Now I want you to watch this. He talks about what he 00:26:18.240 |
did for us. He redeemed us. He talks in detail what he did. And then he talks about creation. 00:26:23.640 |
He doesn't say here, but it's assumed. All things were made by him and for him, sustained 00:26:29.360 |
through him. He doesn't say it here, in between here, but it's assumed. Though that's what 00:26:35.000 |
God intended, mankind is in rebellion against God. Right? He doesn't say those words in 00:26:40.600 |
between these words, but we know that. So when he says, and all of a sudden he jumps 00:26:44.720 |
to the church, what is the church in this redemptive plan? What creation is doing God 00:26:52.560 |
is trying to restore through the church. So the word church basically means a assembly 00:26:59.840 |
of called out people. It basically means assembly. This is not a new Christian word that all 00:27:05.200 |
of a sudden appeared out of nowhere. The word church was used to describe a sacred assembly. 00:27:11.700 |
So it was used during the Greek period to talk about their Congress. When the senators 00:27:18.980 |
would gather together and separate themselves from the common people to gather together 00:27:23.680 |
to do a sacred thing to take care of their country, they called that the church. A gathering 00:27:29.320 |
of called out people. That same word is used to describe the assembly of Christians. People 00:27:36.440 |
who have been called out from common, whatever was before, and then gathering together for 00:27:42.680 |
a specific purpose. That's the word that is used for the church. Now why does he introduce 00:27:48.080 |
that? Because the purpose of the church is to redeem what was lost in creation through 00:27:55.400 |
the church. So he's creating a new people. Right? He's creating a new gathering of people 00:28:04.840 |
because the gathering of people, what did that lead to in creation? Judgment. Power 00:28:12.320 |
of Babel. That's what that was. They gathered together, they assembled together. What did 00:28:15.680 |
they do? They would challenge God. So he scatters them. Right? So they all scatter and all of 00:28:22.880 |
a sudden Jesus Christ comes and he dies on the cross and then those people that he scatters, 00:28:26.880 |
what does he do? What's the first thing that happens? In Acts chapter 2. Remember in Tower 00:28:35.600 |
of Babel they're all speaking and in one language and they're all in unison. What do they use 00:28:41.200 |
that for? Rebellion against God. When the second Adam comes in Christ and he establishes 00:28:48.340 |
kingdom in the church, what's the first thing that happens? He gathers all these people 00:28:52.920 |
with different languages and then through the speaking of tongues they were speaking 00:28:56.840 |
to understand each other. So what was happening there? He's reversing the curse of the Babel 00:29:02.160 |
in the church. That make sense? So he's regrouping what was lost through the church and that's 00:29:11.420 |
why he says the manifold wisdom of God is being proclaimed through the church because 00:29:16.200 |
the church is the catalyst for salvation of the world. He's creating a new people. Now 00:29:23.320 |
why is this so significant? Because the church, you hear more and more people say I love Jesus 00:29:29.640 |
but I don't love the church. Right? You can't be a Christian if you don't love the church 00:29:37.480 |
because Jesus is the head of the church. That's just like saying I love your head but the 00:29:43.480 |
rest of you I don't want. Right? I want to marry your head. I guess I'm not disconnect 00:29:50.520 |
your head from your neck. So when we get married, as weird as that is, that's exactly what people 00:29:59.440 |
say because they don't know what they're talking about. You cannot separate the head from the 00:30:04.040 |
body. Right? Because the body is God's purpose of salvation. So he says he is the head of 00:30:12.080 |
the church. Second, he's the beginning. Meaning he's the one who initiated it. A church did 00:30:22.120 |
not come and all of a sudden she said I'm going to own this. He says I will, right? 00:30:27.680 |
I will, but I will establish my church and the gates of Hades were not forbidden against 00:30:37.480 |
it. So his intent, he says to make disciples of all the nations but what's the purpose 00:30:42.200 |
of making disciples? Is to build his church. So making disciples and building his church 00:30:47.800 |
are not independent things. Right? This is why the second book that we read is the master 00:30:54.400 |
plan for the church. Because if you don't understand God's intent for the church and 00:30:59.880 |
you don't understand the involvement of the church in our salvation and glorifying God 00:31:04.240 |
and worshiping, then again it's like worshiping the head but I don't want the body. Right? 00:31:09.640 |
You cannot be connected to Christ if you're not connected to the church. He is the firstborn 00:31:16.880 |
from the dead. Right? Now here, again the word firstborn could be used chronologically 00:31:24.760 |
when it's talking about Christ, it's talking about his preeminence. Here it's used both 00:31:28.480 |
ways. Right? He's a preeminent over all things, the living and the dead. But here when he 00:31:34.560 |
says he created the church, he started the church, well how did he do it? He died and 00:31:39.840 |
he resurrected. And so he was the first that came back from the dead with a new glorified 00:31:45.120 |
body and he paved the way for all of the other new creation to follow his same path to build 00:31:52.320 |
a new creation in the church. Does that make sense? What was corrupted and lost in creation, 00:32:00.020 |
he reverses the curse through the church, through his death and resurrection, so when 00:32:04.880 |
he's the first from the dead, he basically kicks the door open that we could not open 00:32:09.160 |
because of our sins. And so now when we get baptized, we are baptized, right, in union 00:32:15.500 |
with his death, but we are also united with him in his resurrected life. So he's the first 00:32:20.880 |
from the dead and then we will be second, third, fourth, and fifth. So that he himself 00:32:27.680 |
will have the first place in everything. So again, back to his intent. The purpose of 00:32:32.900 |
all of this is not simply so that you can be free and then yes, he kicked the door, 00:32:37.880 |
we can, we're free to do whatever we want. He said no, the purpose of this is to establish 00:32:42.800 |
Christ as King, because that's what was lost at the fall. Now before I go any further, 00:32:52.920 |
you know, this rubs some people the wrong way. This seems egotistical. Why does he tell 00:33:01.420 |
us to humble ourselves and then he keeps saying, you know, glorify him, it's only about him, 00:33:06.560 |
it's all about him, everything is about him. First, because it is, because it is, because 00:33:16.120 |
that's the truth. We're not like taking a bunch of different things and say, well we're 00:33:20.280 |
going to choose God to be the best. He created us. He has the power of life and death. And 00:33:28.600 |
if he is not glorified, we die. So think about it, I mentioned this before in sermons many 00:33:37.160 |
times, but if we've been created for the purpose of worship, when we function the way God created, 00:33:42.480 |
that's when we experience the greatest life. The greatest, when you experience the greatest 00:33:48.560 |
life is when you see something that you worship. That's why we're idol worshippers. The only 00:33:54.240 |
difference is which idol we worship. Because we were created for the purpose of worship. 00:34:01.920 |
So when we worship, when we worship God, there's nothing beyond God. Because every other idol 00:34:10.300 |
you worship, something else comes up and that idol looks better and that idol looks better 00:34:14.200 |
and you jump from idol to idol to idol, from time to time, generation, circumstance to 00:34:18.840 |
circumstance. But when you become the worshipper of the living God, there is nothing to jump 00:34:23.400 |
to. Because you're worshipping the highest being. You're worshipping there is nothing 00:34:30.200 |
greater than that. Right? You worship Kobe, there comes LeBron. I don't know who's up 00:34:39.640 |
after that, Zion. Something's going to come and take its place because eventually it erodes, 00:34:45.320 |
they're eventually not going to be objects of worship, they're going to disappoint. But 00:34:49.920 |
when you worship God, it's permanent and it is eternal. And no matter how long we exist, 00:34:56.680 |
we're going to be gazing at God and there's going to be more things to be able to worship 00:35:00.080 |
God for eternity. That's how much his glory is. He doesn't fade, he's immutable for eternity. 00:35:08.840 |
We're going to be turning around and there's something else to worship that way. It's just 00:35:12.480 |
going to go deeper and deeper and deeper. That's who God is. He's eternal. His glory 00:35:16.840 |
is eternal. Right? And so if God created us for that, when we are restored back to worshipping 00:35:23.120 |
God, it's not egotistical. When he is glorified, we live. So all he is doing is restoring life 00:35:31.840 |
for us. And if that bothers you, it's because innately you're not a worshipper of God. Because 00:35:37.800 |
if you are a worshipper of God, you would recognize that that's when you feel the most 00:35:41.840 |
alive. And this, I'm not just talking theory, I'm already telling you something you already 00:35:47.800 |
know if you're a believer. Fourthly, who is Jesus in the light of his father? For it was 00:35:56.480 |
the father's good pleasure. Right? He didn't do this reluctantly. There's a fullness to 00:36:01.420 |
dwell in him. So this was another question that came up. Fullness to dwell in him, it 00:36:05.600 |
wasn't like God didn't give him a portion. He's not just a representative or image of 00:36:10.560 |
his goodness or image of his kindness. All that is about God is in Christ. So we look 00:36:18.900 |
at Christ and say, "Well, he was so gracious he died and the God of the Old Testament, 00:36:22.620 |
the father, is so vengeful because he wiped out the world and Jericho and he did all of 00:36:28.880 |
that. But Jesus comes and he dies on the cross, so it seems like Jesus and God the father 00:36:33.680 |
seem like different sides. Well, he says, "No, all the fullness of God dwelt in Christ." 00:36:41.680 |
He hates sin just as much as the father. The father loves sinners just as much as Christ. 00:36:47.360 |
If you've seen Jesus, you've seen the father. So if there's something about God you didn't 00:36:52.640 |
understand, the more you study Christ, the more you understand the father too and the 00:36:57.280 |
Holy Spirit. So the fullness of God dwells in him. And through him to reconcile all things 00:37:03.640 |
to himself. That's the goal. Reconciliation is the goal because every problem that we 00:37:10.720 |
have is because we've fallen away from the author of life. So if you've fallen away from 00:37:14.960 |
the author of life and you are trying to live, you're faking it. That's why if you say you're 00:37:25.840 |
a believer and you have no relationship with Jesus Christ, you have to take a step back 00:37:31.720 |
and ask, "Have I been reconciled?" Because that's what it means to be saved, to be reconciled 00:37:40.600 |
to the father. So if there's no affection, like zero, you love the gathering of people 00:37:48.960 |
more than Jesus himself. And I know there's times where we can be distracted. I know there's 00:37:56.200 |
times that, you know, our hearts not as vibrant as it ought to be. But if your continual walk 00:38:04.600 |
in life, you love the gathering of people more than God himself. You have to take a 00:38:11.320 |
step back and ask yourself, "Have I been reconciled with this father?" If he is as glorious as 00:38:18.640 |
the Bible says, why do I not? Why is that not my conviction? Because your sanctification 00:38:26.480 |
depends on it. The word of God is so, so, so boring if you don't know Jesus. I mean, 00:38:38.600 |
think about it. He's the image of the invisible God. He reconciled us, rescued us, placed 00:38:45.400 |
us into his kingdom. I mean, to somebody whose eyes has not been opened and hasn't tasted 00:38:52.520 |
the goodness of God, oh my gosh. Have you ever tried studying theology before you were 00:38:58.040 |
a Christian? Made no sense to me. Zero. I mean, I went to vacation Bible school all 00:39:06.840 |
my life. Memorized scripture, never missed any Sunday. I mean, I'm third generation pastor, 00:39:13.680 |
Christian family, so I can't remember a single day that I missed church. Every time I opened 00:39:19.360 |
up the Bible, none of it made sense to me. Nor did I have any desire. Only reason why 00:39:25.080 |
I did it was because you got candy for memorizing scripture, so I did it. And don't get me wrong, 00:39:32.240 |
I'm thankful that I did it, because all those candies that I sucked on eventually, after 00:39:38.880 |
I became a Christian, it was in my head. So I don't think there's anything wrong with 00:39:42.560 |
that, right? But that's all it meant to me when I wasn't a Christian. So non-Christian, 00:39:49.520 |
as soon as you open up the Bible, I mean, it is boring. All of a sudden your eyes get 00:39:55.320 |
open. This Jesus that we're studying is not a theory, is not somebody far off. This is 00:40:00.640 |
the Jesus that you met. This is Jesus that you're longing to see. And all of a sudden 00:40:05.760 |
you're not studying theory or theology. You're studying your Savior, who loved you and died 00:40:12.000 |
for you, where you feel life and joy and purpose. And all of a sudden the Word of God starts 00:40:16.720 |
to make sense, right? Even the hard parts, it's like finding a puzzle and trying to bring 00:40:23.560 |
it together, right? And only the Holy Spirit can open his eyes to that. So through him, 00:40:28.840 |
reconciling, having made peace through the blood of the cross, through him, right? Having 00:40:35.060 |
peace with God. One of the questions that I asked is, where does anxiety come from, 00:40:41.440 |
right? Ultimately, ultimately, I'm not saying that you can't be anxious about your finance, 00:40:46.360 |
your future, but ultimately anxiety comes from being disconnected with God. Because 00:40:51.400 |
God is sovereign, he's in control. Anxiety comes because you're not, you're uncertain 00:40:55.480 |
about the future. You're uncertain about what's going to happen, right? You're uncertain that 00:41:02.120 |
you want something and it's not going to happen. But when you believe in a sovereign God who 00:41:05.560 |
loves you, cares for you, who is in control of all things, I'm not saying that we don't 00:41:10.960 |
struggle with anxiety, but anxiety is not what characterizes your life. When you have 00:41:16.600 |
peace with God, God gives you the peace of God. Because you know that whatever happens 00:41:22.480 |
in your life is in God's hands. But if you don't believe that, that's where anxiety comes 00:41:25.920 |
from, because you have no control over what happens tomorrow. If I do this, and what if 00:41:29.480 |
I don't get that? If I do this, and what if I don't receive that? Then what happens in 00:41:34.560 |
my life? If you don't believe in a sovereign God who loves you and has control, he was 00:41:40.160 |
willing to send his only son to die for you. How will he not along with him give you all 00:41:45.080 |
things? So if you believe in that, all of a sudden God gives you peace. When anxiety 00:41:50.920 |
comes, he's in control. What you meant for evil, God meant for good. So the peace of 00:41:57.080 |
God, right? Peace with God gives you the peace of God. So Christian can feel anxious, but 00:42:05.520 |
anxiousness cannot be the primary character of a Christian, if you believe in a sovereign 00:42:13.040 |
God. Because it's illogical to say he loved me enough to send his only begotten son, but 00:42:21.560 |
he doesn't love me enough to provide for my needs. It makes absolutely no sense. So he 00:42:29.920 |
says he came having made peace through the blood of his son Jesus Christ. I say whether 00:42:35.120 |
things on earth or things in heaven, in other words, there's nothing that is outside of 00:42:38.920 |
God's sovereign hands. We went through it pretty quick, but I mean it's pretty heavy 00:42:46.040 |
stuff, but every single part of this, again, like I said, if I wanted to really jump into 00:42:52.920 |
it and to dissect all of this, this would probably take at least four weeks to do. But 00:42:57.080 |
the goal of the study is to get you to seek insight for yourselves. None of the stuff 00:43:03.560 |
that we went through now is something that you have to read a commentary to get. The 00:43:08.840 |
more you sit in front of your Bible asking questions and seeking observations, jotting 00:43:13.840 |
down notes, eventually you become better and better at it, and you'll see a lot of the 00:43:19.280 |
things that you observe, and then you go to the commentaries and he's saying the same 00:43:23.240 |
thing, right? So my goal is to get you to be confident to be able to study the Word 00:43:29.160 |
of God so that you can compare your notes with the commentary instead of getting your 00:43:34.760 |
notes from the commentary. Okay? All right, so the four questions, discussion question 00:43:39.840 |
three, why is it important to be precise about Jesus' identity? Can someone be saved if they 00:43:48.000 |
reject Jesus as the second person of the Trinity? If you're a Jehovah Witness and say he's not 00:43:51.840 |
God, he's just a God, can that person be saved? Use scripture, and please if you're a small 00:44:02.640 |
group leader don't let that discussion go completely off tangent and say, "Oh yeah!" 00:44:08.680 |
So you're small group leaders because we're hoping you will guide this conversation. All 00:44:14.240 |
right? Three, have you been reconciled to God? What are some things you would expect 00:44:18.160 |
from a reconciled relationship with anyone? Not just delivered from domain of darkness, 00:44:24.840 |
but you've been transformed to the kingdom of his son, right? By redemption from forgiveness 00:44:31.840 |
of sins. So what does that reconciliation look like with God? Do you have peace with 00:44:36.240 |
God which leads to peace of God? How do you explain anxiety when God says he's given us 00:44:40.040 |
peace? What do you think is the source of this anxiety? Okay? All right, let me pray 00:44:44.480 |
for us and then you can get in your small group. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this 00:44:54.240 |
time. I pray for the time of discussion will be fruitful. I pray, Lord God, that the things 00:45:01.640 |
that we've studied that we would not just leave it with knowledge and tickling our ears, 00:45:06.880 |
that we would not just be hearers, but to be doers of your word. In Jesus' name we pray.