Poetic Justice
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Japanese saying “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down”
Means just conform like everyone else, or the world will beat you into submission
Elephant Jungle test
Pilot was 57 ex-fighter pilot, co-pilot was 33
Artificial horizon (attitude indicator) stopped functioning
Co-pilot’s worked but he said nothing
Warning buzzers sounded 9 times
Continued to bank right into the ground
All four crew members died
“Korean Air had more plane crashes than almost any other airline in the world for a period at the end of the 1990s. What they were struggling with was a cultural legacy, that Korean culture is hierarchical. You are obliged to be deferential toward your elders and superiors in a way that would be unimaginable in the U.S.”
This likely affected the lateral occipital region of your brain
Culture has a powerful grip on how we act as humans
This would not light up in an older Asian person’s brain
Why? CULTURE
You would likely say you’re seeing an elephant in the jungle
Older Asian’s would say there is a jungle with an elephant in it
Study at Stanford - Neuroplasticity allows culture to shape how we see the world
Sometimes though, we have to change the way we process the world
In spite of culture!
We are starting a 4 week series in Colossians
“Under Pressure” talks about cultural pressures Christians have to fight
And had to fight
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Church in Colossae (Cuh-loss-ee) started by Epaphras (Eh-puh-fris)
Told Paul “Things are great, but there’s PRESSURE”
This “pressure” is the basis for our series through November
Torn between two worlds - living in a third
Greek/Roman pressure versus Jewish pressure
Greco-Romans said “Jesus is another god!”
Jews said “You have to follow the Law!”
We’ll talk more about that in our 3rd lesson
Christians were caught in the middle
Greco-Romans said “Jesus is another god!”
Jews said “You still have to follow the Law!”
We’ll talk more about that in our 3rd lesson
Paul writes letter to thank God AND to challenge Colossians
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
The Poem
The Poem
Today we’re starting with a poem that Paul starts with:
He will keep referring to this poem - so will we
That’s why we’re starting here
Some scholars believe this was a common poem
Written to memorize the attributes of Christ, and Paul used it
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Who is Jesus?
Who is Jesus?
1. Divine
1. Divine
Let’s break this thing down
That means that Jesus is God
Let’s break this thing down
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
“Image” is the Greek word eikon (ee-cone)
It carries 2 meanings:
An image like a reflection or like a face on a coin
The manifestation of the unseen
Chevy Chase movie “Memoirs of an Invisible Man”
Paul didn’t use homoioma (ho-moy-oh-mah) which would suggests that Jesus looks similar
It’s like handing you a picture of me: “Looks just like you!”
It is me. It’s not, but it is...
Jesus is the Father. Well, He’s not, but He is God and He reflects the Father...
This is part of the mystery of the Trinity
If you want to understand this concept read the Athanasian (ath-uh-nation) Creed
That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
Means that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are 3 different but equal persons
AND at the same time make up one eternal and uncreated God
In truth, there is no good way to explain this
No water, 3 leaf clover, sun or a man who is a dad, elder and trucker
It is a mystery that is best understood through faith
When Paul says “invisible,” he doesn’t just mean you can’t see Him
Also means you can’t know Him
BUT - with Christ we see a tangible example of God walking on earth
This gives us the best understand of the Father we could possibly have!
That means we can know God today in a way that was once IMPOSSIBLE!
Kinda like how if you met the invisible man you wouldn’t know him
But with makeup you know he’s Chevy Chase...
2. Fully God, and Fully Man
2. Fully God, and Fully Man
The
Then Paul calls him the “firstborn”
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Some say "born” proves Jesus is less than God the Father - it doesn’t
Here’s how we know Jesus’ position:
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
Because He was “born”
1. Two sides to Jesus - well it’s actually one but two??
Just like a single God exists in 3 persons, Jesus exists in two natures
Jesus exists in two states
He is 100% man AND 100% God - He is NOT 50/50
Jesus is God
Jesus is God
We will read this in the 3rd message:
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
In other words, He is FULLY God!
He is NOT 50/50
Jesus is Man
Jesus is Man
You may remember details of Jesus’ humanity...
He STILL has flesh
Jesus let’s the disciples touch Him
He says, “Spirit
39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
He has a human mind
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
J.I. Packer said, “Here are two mysteries for the price of one.”
This means you have to recognize that Jesus’ “birth” refers to His humanity
He has a soul
38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”
Jesus is fully man!!
J.I. Packer said, “Here are two mysteries for the price of one.”
3. The Creator
3. The Creator
Being firstborn doesn’t mean He’s a little God born from a big God
It means He is the FIRST HUMAN! Even before Adam! Watch...
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Paul is saying Jesus created ALL THINGS! That includes Adam and Eve...
Paul is saying Jesus created ALL THINGS! That includes Adam and Eve...
Jesus was not created, He is the Creator!
Do you even know what that means?
Do you ever let yourself stand in awe of creation?
Let’s look at this creation for second...
Comets have vapor trails 10,000 miles long (perimeter of country)
But all the vapor could fit inside a ping pong ball
Saturns rings are 500,000 miles in circumference
But they’re about a foot thick
If the sun were a beach ball, the next star is in Australia
Data storage facilities all over the world
SUPERNAP in Vegas has 1.4 million sq ft of servers
Google has one, Microsoft, Facebook, DuPont, NSA, Amazon, Apple...
All with millions of sq ft of servers for data storage
DNA can hold ALL of the data that exists in the world...
Not just every movie, song, Word doc and photo...
But also all the COPIES of every one of those things
And fit it into our basement!
DNA can do that, and we haven’t even come close to matching those capabilities
You want to tell me that came into existence by chance?
No, that’s God… That was JESUS’ handiwork!
What does that tell you about Him?
He is the first of everything because He is God
But there’s more!
Jesus is also the firstborn of another type of birth...
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
The firstborn of the dead? Oh, the resurrection!
That means that Jesus died and rose again, and he was the first to do that!
But He won’t be the last!!
If you believe in Christ Jesus, you get to be born of the dead too!
Each of us was dead!
Some of us still may be that way
We’ve lived our lives in ugliness and sin
We don’t deserve to be with a holy God
We don’t deserve to live - we deserve an eternity facing the wrath of God
I know because I definitely lived an ugly life before
You can’t find a sin in this book I haven’t committed
I am the lowest of the low...
Brandon - You know you have to be obedient right?
He couldn’t see it in me! He only knew who I was
But God knew who He was and who He created me to be!
BUT, that isn’t my whole story - and I hope it isn’t yours!
God doesn’t care who you have been!
He only cares who He can make you to be!
We are born again by the Grace of God and the power of Jesus Christ!
God doesn’t care who you have been!
He only cares who He can make you to be!
4. The Head of the Church
4. The Head of the Church
And Paul is saying “I need you to know this!!”
Why? Because there’s this little part we kinda skimmed over
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
“He is the head of the body, the church.”
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
This means Christ is both the SOURCE of the church and its AUTHORITY
How is Jesus our SOURCE?
You’ve heard the military term “Cut off the head of the snake?”
It means if you want a military victory, you kill the general or king
In other words, the source of an army’s strength is it’s leadership
1999 Korean Air Cargo 8509 crash story
Pilot was 57 ex-fighter pilot, co-pilot was 33
Artificial horizon (attitude indicator) stopped functioning
Co-pilot’s worked but he said nothing
Warning buzzers sounded 9 times
Gen. Edward Braddock was near Pittsburg clearing French troops
Continued to bank right into the ground
All four crew members died
Clearing roads and were attacked by French and Native American forces
“Korean Air had more plane crashes than almost any other airline in the world for a period at the end of the 1990s. What they were struggling with was a cultural legacy, that Korean culture is hierarchical. You are obliged to be deferential toward your elders and superiors in a way that would be unimaginable in the U.S.”
Started Battle of Monongahela (Mun-ong-guh-hee-luh)
Culture has a powerful grip on how we act as humans
So does leadership
If you take out the leader, you take out the mission
Jesus is the highest leader in the church
We seek this leadership through prayer, fasting and reading the Word
We also perform for Him using the gifts He has given us
If we took Jesus out of the picture, there could be no church!
5. The Savior
5. The Savior
Finally, Jesus is our Savior
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
I can’t stress enough our need for Jesus
We talk about the fullness of God - the word pleroma (play-roh-ma)
Technical term used for cargo ships
When every last piece of the manifest has been loaded
The attributes of God exist completely in Christ
They didn’t leave out sovereignty, benevolence, intelligence or good looks
Jesus has it all baby!
But a lot of us don’t struggle with that part of it
We struggle with how that relates to us...
That fullness was not put into a church, or a bunch of priests, or some temple or a task that we need to accomplish
That fullness is in Christ, and in Christ alone!
The same applies to the ability to reconcile things to God
If you want to know God, you find it in Christ
If you want to know peace, you find it in Christ
If you want to know goodness, you find it in Christ
And if you want to be saved, guess where you have to go? It’s Christ
Closing
Closing
Some of us haven’t been giving it to Christ
Some of us have been trying to do it all ourselves
Before this poem, Paul says this in verse 9
Maybe some of us have even quit doing that...
You see yourself as ugly, rotting and dying in your sin
You look at yourself and think you are worthless and don’t even want to try
Maybe you think like I do sometimes...
If people only knew about me, they’d just see that I’m fake
I don’t have it together, I shouldn’t even be here
If they knew who I really was they’d toss me into the street spit on me
To some degree you’re right, you can’t do it
I sure can’t do it, the Law made that pretty clear
But what if our reaction to that wasn’t to just give up and wither
What if the good news is that Jesus, in the fullness of God, can repair that?
Will you at least consider that?
Before this poem, Paul says this in verse 9
Back in , Paul says this
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
The first time Paul hears of the Colossians, what is his reaction? PRAYER
Today is kinda our “day one...”
It’s my day one as a teacher here...
It can also be your day one to start fresh with God
It can be your tenth day one, or your hundredth day one...
But in Christ it’s still an opportunity to start something with Him
Explain prayer up front