15 Feb

2/17/19     Col. 1:1-23   “Jesus: The Glue That Binds Us!”

Everything we do is about Jesus Christ.  Let’s see if I can help you think like this which is way harder than it may seem.  It’s easy to talk the talk but a little harder to walk the walk.

I will begin today with a story from Jeffrey Smead.  There was a theological college in this country that invited to their annual meeting a renowned professor as their guest lecturer.  He spoke for 2½ hours establishing proofs that the resurrection of Jesus never took place.  This is a sad scenario but it takes place every Sunday in some form in many churches.  Anyway this guy quoted scholars and book after book.  He concluded that there was no resurrection and the religious tradition of the church was groundless.  Everything we know to be true was mumbo-jumbo because it was based on a relationship with a risen Christ who never rose from the dead.

He finished and stood back proudly and asked for questions.  There was quite a pause before and elderly pastor from the back of the auditorium stood to speak.  “Doctor Professor, I have one question for you.”  All eyes turned to him.  He then reached into a sack and pulled out an apple and began to eat it.  CRUNCH, “My question is a simple question”,….CRUNCH, …… “Now, I have never read those books you’ve read”…CRUNCH,… “And I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek”…CRUNCH,… “I know nothing about your scholarly authors”….CRUNCH, …He finished the apple. ”  All I want to know is: ….. This apple I just ate——was it bitter or was it sweet?”
The professor paused for a moment and answered in a scholarly fashion: ….. “I cannot possibly answer that question, …. for I haven’t tasted your apple”.  The elderly preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, ….. looked up at the professor and said calmly, …. “Neither have you tasted …. my Jesus.”

People, this is so very common place in our modern society.  We have people over here saying that we can do this type of behavior because the Bible doesn’t really mean that this is a sin.  We have others who will only follow certain parts of the Bible and ignore the rest.  We have people who demand proof.  I used to be one of those people.  For the first forty years of my life I knew it all and I had no time for God.  My quality of life was terrible.  I was totally down and out when I finally turned and asked Jesus into my life.  I am proof of Jesus.  The Bible is infallible and we cannot ignore any part of it.  If there is anyone here today who has never tasted Jesus, all you have to do is confess, repent and ask Jesus to be Lord and Savior of your life.  This is one decision that you will never, never regret.

Before we begin today, I think we should have a little feel as to why Paul is writing this.  Even though the civilization of the time was rather advanced, we would still call them rather primitive.  I don’t think anyone will disagree with this.  But they did have brains and they used them as we can see by some of the structures they built.  If the Temple were still standing today, we would have to consider it to be one of the wonders of the world.  They also had many religions.  One might almost say that in some areas, they had as many religions as they had groups of people.  In other words you could believe in anything and call it your religion.  There are movements of heretics like this today also.

At this point Paul is in prison in Rome.  He gets word that the church of the Colossians was in trouble because there were fringe people trying to get them to come back to their old ways.  They did this by telling them that their new religion was incomplete.  They would do better to worship angels and/or have special ceremonies that would honor other gods.  What I’m trying to say here is that they were falling back into their old way of life.

We have to be so careful that this doesn’t happen to us.  We live in a world where the word Christian has all sorts of negative connotations.  I find this hard to believe because Christians aren’t bad.  We do some bad things once in a while but we now have Jesus Christ who will take care of our sins.  Anyway, when we start a new church or help someone become a Christian, our work isn’t done.  It is up to us who are already on our journey with Jesus to walk alongside those who have just come to know Jesus.  Whatever world these people came from, you can be assured that the terrible, vile Satan will try to get them back.  Where ever they came from whether it’s from alcohol or drug abuse, pornography, adultery, homosexuality, stealing or any other sin of the Bible, Satan will be whispering in their ear, “This really isn’t all that bad to do and God really didn’t mean to make this a sin.”  This happens all the time.  It’s happened to me and I would guess that it’s happened to many of you also.

These are the people Paul is addressing.  He is going to tell them the story of Jesus once again so that they will remember just how great Jesus is.  This is such a powerful speech by Paul.  But by the end we should all realize that Jesus is the greatest entity that has ever existed.  Nothing is greater than He.

As we begin today, I want you to notice the first few verses which I’m not going to talk too much about.  Paul opens most of his letters with a very warm and welcoming greeting.  He does this even though he has some negative things to say.  He does this because he is trying to extend the grace of Jesus to all who hear this letter.  We all fall short of the glory of God but Jesus loves us anyway.  Therefore we have a very pleasant beginning.

I would like to ask you a personal question before we move ahead.  How many of you have been angry at someone and when you met them, the first thing you did was vent your anger upon them?  I know that some of us have tried this.  How did that go for you?  I have seen this several times when I was pastoring and it never turned out well.  Sometimes I wonder if we have concrete inside our heads instead of brains.  This type of behavior leads to more hurt and sour feelings than you can imagine.  You may get a load off your chest but the person you direct this to will never look at you the same way again, if they ever look at you at all.  People, being nice is always the way to go.

Now look down to verse 17 and we find that Jesus was there before the beginning of all things.  So in order to find the answer to; ‘who is Jesus?’ we need to look before creation.  Now I don’t know about you but I find that this is pretty hard to do.  We don’t have history books that go before creation.  We really don’t have anything except God’s word.  And God tells us who He is in so many places, from Genesis to Revelation.

So who is God?  God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  There is no way you can have one of these without the others.  We all know that Jesus was born into this world and that is correct.  However, this doesn’t mean that this was the beginning of Jesus. This was the beginning of the physical Jesus.  Jesus has always been with God.  Jesus was totally God and when He came to the earth, He was totally God and totally human at the same time.  I don’t know how all this works but I know it’s true.  So when God created all things, Jesus and the Holy Spirit also had to be present.  The part that is really confusing here is that Jesus wasn’t part God and part human.  He was all God and all human.  How can that be?  Ask Him when you get there.

This is important not so much to understand but to embrace as truth.  Part of the importance of this is trust.  Jesus has always been there in the eternity past.  He is always with us today when we call out to Him.  And He will always be there into the future because He tells us so in many places in the Bible.  The Bible is the inspired word of God.  Don’t pick this part and that part and ignore the rest.  Read and study all of the Bible and you will see this wonderful promise that He will be with you for eternity.

Now I could go on and on with this but I have a couple more things to say.  Jesus has not only been with the world forever but He also made the world and everything in it.  Because Jesus has always been with God, He therefore helped God make the world and the universe.  Paul talks about this as does John.  There are too many cross references not to believe this.  If you have a Bible with cross references, follow them in some of these other passages.

The Colossians were in need of some reinforcement.  They were starting to go back to their old ways without God.  So they needed a little propping up like we all do.  We need this today also.  I would like to see everyone come to church every Sunday because I can only prop you up for 7 days.  I can only help you get through the week in front of you.  If you don’t believe me, then think about this.  I’m going to make this easy.  What did the pastor talk about 3 weeks ago?  I would guess you will really have to think about it.  But don’t feel bad because I can hardly tell you exactly what I preached about last Sunday let alone 3 weeks ago.  That’s why we need to come every week.  I may not know exactly what I preached about last week but I can tell you that I preached about Jesus Christ.  Every time I get into the pulpit I talk about Jesus Christ and the love that He has for you.

And what better way to do it than to say that Jesus has been with us since the beginning of time because He loves you and you and you.  Or that He was the one who made everything around you.  Think about this real hard for a moment.  All the flowers, crops, trees, animals that you can think of were brought about by Jesus.  Jesus brought many of you together through marriage.  Jesus gave some people enough brains that they could invent all the wonders that we enjoy today.  Can you imagine someone from the 1800’s being here and seeing what a computer can do?  It’s mind boggling!

Look at all the buildings we have.  Look at all the machines we have.  Look at all the chemicals we have.  Jesus was at some point a part of everything we have and there are no exceptions.  It’s Satan that makes things bad.  It’s Satan that puts pornography on the computers.  It’s Satan who gives us all the trash that’s on TV.  It’s Satan who has us dress like we are going to an orgy instead of the county fair or a class play or even church.  That’s one of the reasons I cast him out before we started.

There are so many wonderful things that Jesus does that I haven’t had time cover in my 13 years of ministry.  But I would like to add one more thing today.  Just recently I saw a lamp made of Popsicle sticks.  But if that lamp didn’t have some glue on those sticks, it would be nothing but a pile of sticks.  It would be worthless.  If you have a pile of sand, you really can’t build much with it unless you add a little concrete and water.  The concrete holds it together so we can have buildings and roads.

It’s the same way with us.  We need Jesus in our lives because He holds all things together.  If you don’t know Jesus Christ then this isn’t going to make much sense until you do.  Jesus Christ is in charge of every person in this world.  He puts us in situations where we meet people we need.  He puts us in places where we can get to know Him.  He will never force Himself upon anyone but He also isn’t even a stone’s throw away from anyone either.  John Wesley called this prevenient grace.  It is the presence of God everywhere in the world.  It’s the grace that anyone can grab onto at any time.

God sent Jesus Christ to the world that the world could be reconciled to God through His Son’s death.  There isn’t a person in this world that Jesus doesn’t want to have a personal relationship with.  We are the ones who do the rejecting.  We are the ones that send ourselves to hell.  But through Jesus Christ, I have brothers and sisters all over the world in Christ.  He is the one who holds it all together.

This all goes back to the beginning of this sermon when I said that everything you do is about Jesus Christ.  This is because He has always been there and He will always be with you in the future to eternity.  He has made everything for you in this world and the best part is that He has also made a place for you in the next.  Your name is already on the door.  And of course the best part is that everything is about Jesus and He holds everything together.

Jeff Strite tells this story of clergyman walking down a country lane when he saw a young farmer struggling with a load of hay that had fallen off his cart. The boy was all hot and sweaty and looked very upset.  “You look hot, my son,” said the preacher. “Why don’t you just rest a moment, and then I’ll give you a hand.”  “No thanks,” said the young man. “My father wouldn’t like it.”  “Don’t be silly,” the minister said. “Everyone is entitled to a break. Come and have a drink of water.”  Again the young man refused saying that his father would be upset.  Losing his patience, the clergyman said, “Your father must be a real slave driver. Tell me where I can find him and I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”  “Well,” replied the young man, “he’s under the load of hay.”

How many people do you know that are under the load of the hay of life.  How many of your friends or family would go to the wrong place if they died today.  People, time is running out.  I’ve just outlined 3 reasons why Jesus is so great in our lives.  There are many, many more like not being able to love without Jesus.  Or you will never have peace without Jesus.  Jesus is the glue that binds us together for eternity in the most wonderful paradise there can ever be.  When I think how great heaven is I know that I’m only covering maybe 1% of its wonder.

Please don’t let this broken world hijack your ticket to eternity.  There is not much about this world that is good and right.  Thankfully we have Jesus who will help you on your way.  When in doubt about a situation read your Bible and pray.  Go to Jesus with any and all things.  He will answer.  He will help.  He is the answer.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.