Living Hope
Living Hope: An Easter Message • Sermon • Submitted
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· 13 viewsTheme: Jesus’s resurrection demonstrates his supremacy over all created things Purpose: To Live Free from the Fear and Full of Gratitude. Mission: Grow in Faith in Jesus' Supremacy. Gospel: Jesus is Lord of All Creation and the New Creation.
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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
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.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
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.
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 of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
What People Fear in Our World.
What People Fear in Our World.
Ask the Question what do you think people fear most in our world today?
Colossains World View:
Polytheism - They believed in a bunch of different gods and goddesses. They had a hierarchy, and they were often symbolized by natural elements like the sun, moon, starts, sea, planets, etc...
In order to live good lives Polytheists were in constant fear of making these gods angry or they would create a famine, or bring natural disaster, or whatever. So they had to either appease the gods/godesses through sacrifices and rituals or to manipulate them to get what they want - Think the Movie Hercules.
The Colossians had turned to a new way of thinking, and that was by putting their Faith in Jesus, but it’s not usually that when someone puts their Faith in Jesus that all of their old thinking just disappears and they know Jesus’ story perfectly, Often they carry some of the Old way of thinking with them and it takes time.
Paul and Timothy were writing to them, because while they believed in Jesus, that Old fear of the polytheistic world was putting pressure on them to give up on Jesus and appease/manipulate the “elemental Spirits.”
Today we may not have the same worldview battling for our attention, but we do have other worldviews that want to put fear in our lives and cause us to not put our Faith in Jesus, or to give up on our Faith in Jesus.
One example: The System of Saints in the Catholic Church.
https://www.safehome.org/home-safety/american-fear-study/
Jesus’ Resurrection Demonstrates His Supremacy Over all Things.
Jesus’ Resurrection Demonstrates His Supremacy Over all Things.
Jesus is Fully God and Fully Human
Human - The Image of Invisible God
God - Creator of all things.
Firstborn does not mean he was created, because he is the creator, but Paul explains it.
All things were created for him.
He is the Source and He is the purpose of Creation.
1. As science advances, we learn more and more about the world in which we live. This collection of award-winning videos focuses on microscopic organisms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyXrtODhJEA). Paul’s poem in Colossians declares that every created thing owes its existence to Jesus. This includes both worldwide empires and microscopic organisms. Christ reigns over all and reconciles all to the Father.
So for Paul he is going to say, that whatever beings that the Colossians think are gods (Paul would consider them in the realm of Angels and Demons) were Created by Jesus and therefore have no power, or authority over them.
Jesus’ death reconciles all things to himself.
Creation was subjected to bondage because of sin. Jesus’ death forgives sin and so that allows for anyone who aligns themselves with Jesus and creation to be in a relationship with their creator - the gods, the forces of this world have no power over Jesus’ death and forgiveness.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
He is the source of the church through his resurrection.
His resurrection shows that death, the ultimate prison for a world enslaved by sin is shown to be powerless in the face of Jesus.
So, Let’s Re-Cap.
Jesus is God who created everything and has power over everything. - including the powers and forces of our world
The world is in rebellion to Jesus
But Jesus comes as a human - defeats the rebellion and shows he is more powerful then the rebellions ultimate weapon Death
We Can Live Free From Fear and Full of Gratitude.
We Can Live Free From Fear and Full of Gratitude.
Describe the Movie Free Guy.
Man who lives in a computer game
The creators of the underlying code of the game made it with A.I. so the characters can learn and grow and live in this computer world with free will.
They sold there company to a big gaming company who used the underlying code illegally for a game where the A.I. characters are imprisoned to do the same thing all the time.
The Creators worked by entering in the game to reveal the truth of this illegal action, and to free their game for its intended purpose.
Through superior coding skill and partnering with “Free Guy.” They show the world the Truth, and the A.I. characters are freed to live in the Beautiful Island Garden that the creators intended in the beginning.
1. “In terms of its rhetorical function in the larger discourse this hymn establishes a christocentric foundation for all of the arguments that follow, thereby undercutting the logic of the Colossian philosophy, according to which something else needed to be added to Colossian belief and praxis for them to have a fully beneficial religious or spiritual life. ‘All things’ are repeatedly connected to Christ. Everything points to him. This hymn is also as far as one could imagine from Gnostic dualistic thought since it has a robust appreciation for creation and re-creation, and its vision of redemption includes resurrection. Furthermore, the hymn leaves no room for additional mediators between God and humankind. Christ is the be-all and end-all of all mediators. Angels and principalities need not apply. The hymn thus not only makes clear the basis on which the Colossians already have the salvific benefits they need and the reason they need not entertain supplements or replacements for what they have already believed and have been doing, but also provides a pattern or trajectory of the Christian life which involves death, resurrection, and eventual glorification” (Ben Witherington III, The Letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Captivity Epistles (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007), 129–30).
1. Commenting on verse 18, Ernest Martin writes, “The phrase the firstborn of the dead carries the meaning (and more) that Christ’s resurrection is unique. (Lazarus and others were resuscitated, and died again.) Resurrection means being raised to a new kind of existence. The risen Christ is, by these phrases in Colossians 1:18b, the founder of the resurrection community of life. Christ’s resurrection also prefigures the resurrection when he comes again (1 Cor. 15:20–23; 1 Thess. 4:13–17). Where all this leads becomes clear in the purpose clause that follows, so that in all things he might be first (EDM). The first stanza of the hymn celebrates the confession that Christ has first place in the old creation. The second stanza now affirms that Christ is also first in the new creation. Thus, he has become and is in first place with respect to everything. The dominant strain running throughout the hymn can be traced in four related words (each with the same initial Greek letters, pro/prō): firstborn (1:15), before (1:17), firstborn (1:18), and now first (1:18) as the climax. Christ holds first place; he is supreme above all. The significance of the repetition of all can now be appreciated” (Ernest D. Martin, Colossians, Philemon, Believers Church Bible Com
2. mentary [Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1993], 66).
1. The death of an obscure Jew on a seemingly God-forsaken hillock in a backwater of the Roman empire attracted no notice from the historians of the era, but it was the event that reconciles heaven and earth. The world may be corrupted, disordered, and ravaged by sin, but God still loves it; and God intends for it to fulfill its destiny in Christ. Sin has defaced Christ’s work in creation, but he came to undo its consequences and to bring concord in a universe out of harmony with God. The grim reference to Christ’s ‘blood’ and ‘cross’ brings us down from the lofty heights of preeminence and fullness to the squalid depths of human pain and suffering. These two words are combined to express cost and violence. Blood refers to death by violence (see Matt. 23:30, 35; Rev. 6:10; 19:2); the cross refers to humility and shame (Phil. 2:8). The head of the church is the one who was shamefully crucified (see Col. 2:9, 14, 20; 3:3). These last lines affirm, however, that God’s ultimate purpose is not to judge and to destroy, but to reconcile and to renew—to make peace (see Rom. 5:1–5; 2 Cor. 5:19). Paul also uses ‘blood’ to refer to the work of Christ’s atoning sacrifice. The cross establishes a new relationship between God and humans, which overcomes the rupture created by sin—estrangement from God, estrangement from other humans, and estrangement from created things. That peace can only be found now in his body. It is not yet an accomplished fact in the cosmos, but God’s ‘purpose, means, and manner’ of making peace have already been established” (David E. Garland, Colossians and Philemon, NIVAC [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998], 94).