Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Colossians 1:15-23
Colossians 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers
or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
17 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 and the firstborn from
among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was
pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile
to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making
peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies
in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you
by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight,
without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.
This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
-- once
upon a time, three blonde women died and found themselves standing before the
pearly gates -- St. Peter met them there outside the gate and told them they
must pass a test before they could pass through the gates and enter heaven – Peter
said, "all you have to do is answer one simple question -- What is
Easter?"
-- the
three blonde women all sighed in relief -- the first blonde turns to St. Peter
and says "Oh, that's easy! Easter is the holiday in November when everyone
gets together, eats turkey, and give thanks for all they have" -- "No,
I'm sorry -- you're wrong!" St. Peter replies
-- he turns
to the second blonde and asks her the same question, "What is
Easter?" -- she replies,
"Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree, exchange
presents, and drink eggnog." -- St. Peter looks at the second blonde,
shakes his head in amazement, and tells that her she's wrong, too
-- he then
peers over his glasses at the third blonde standing there before him and asks,
"What is Easter?" --The third blonde smiles confidently, looks St.
Peter in the eyes, and says "I know what Easter is -- Easter is the
Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover --
Jesus and his disciples were eating at the last supper in the Upper Room and
then went to the Garden of Gethsemane -- He was arrested, and then Pontius
Pilate sentenced Him to death -- He was forced to wear a crown of thorns, and
was hung on a cross with nails through his hands -- He was stabbed in His side
with a spear -- He died on the cross for our sins and was buried in a nearby
cave which was sealed off by a large boulder."
-- St.
Peter smiles broadly with delight as the third blonde has answered correctly so
far – but then she continues, "Every year the boulder is moved aside so
that Jesus can come out...and, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more
weeks of winter."
-- so many
people have it wrong about Jesus – they just don’t understand who He is or why
He came to live among us – and so there are many false teachings and heresies
concerning the person of Jesus
-- some
people today still follow Arius’ lead and think that Jesus was simply a good
man – a good moral teacher – a created being -- but not God
-- others
think Jesus wasn’t real and is only a myth or a fable – others continue to
believe like the Gnostics, and say that Jesus was only a spiritual being and
wasn’t a man
-- and
others think Jesus was just a conman and a magician, who fooled his disciples
and the crowds with tricks and faked his own death and resurrection
-- we are
in the midst of a sermon series on the Nicene Creed because of these misunderstandings
and false teachings about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit – in this day of
fake news and deliberate misinformation, we need to know the truth – we need to
know the foundations of our faith – so that we can ascertain in our hearts who Jesus
is and why He came and so that we can tell others about the hope and the faith
that we have in Him and in the gospel plan of salvation
II. Who is Jesus?
-- this
morning, we are continuing in our study by looking again at the second clause
in the Nicene Creed that concerns the Lord, Jesus Christ – last week, we dove
into who Jesus was in relation to the Trinity – how He was not a created being
but was God from the beginning – the second person of the Trinity – of the same
substance and nature and being as God the Father Almighty and the Holy Spirit
-- that’s why the writers of the
Nicene Creed made sure to proclaim that Jesus was “God from God, Light from
Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the
Father” – and that through Him, all things were made
-- look back at verse 15, and you
will see a passage that corresponds to this teaching in the Nicene Creed
Colossians 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers
or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
-- going
back to our foundational truth of who Jesus is as the Second Person of the
Trinity, Paul writes here that Jesus is the "image" of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation – Paul is affirming here that Jesus is one
with God the Father – one in substance – one in essence – one in being – Jesus
is the physical manifestation of God the Father – the Word made flesh
-- these
verses go on to describe the role of Jesus as the Creator of all things – verse
16 tells us that it was in Jesus and by Him that all things were created –
things in heaven and on earth – visible and invisible – all things were created
by Him and for Him
-- that
means that Jesus – as the "firstborn over all creation" – existed
before creation and cannot be a created being – He was and is and shall always
be the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity
– so, contrary to the teachings of
Arius, Jesus was not a created being – contrary to what the Mormons teach,
Jesus was not Satan’s brother and not co-equal with Satan – Satan was created
as Lucifer by Jesus and they are not brothers
– and, finally, contrary to the
teachings of the Gnostics who said that everything physical was inherently
evil, we see here that all things – visible and invisible – were created by
Jesus – God does not create evil, so the physical world as Jesus created it was
not evil
-- these
verses sum up what we talked about last week and what the Bible makes so clear
-- Jesus is God Himself – the Creator of all things – of one being and essence
and nature with the rest of the Trinity
-- but we know that Jesus was also
a person – a human – who was born in Bethlehem to the virgin Mary – that He
ministered on this earth for about three years – and that He died on a Roman
cross because of the will of the Jewish leaders
-- even secular historians support
this truth – from the Jewish historian Josephus all the way up to modern
historians, most are in agreement that Jesus was a real person who was born and
lived and died in Israel in the first century
-- so, what does this mean? – how
do we rectify the fact that Jesus was a literal man who lived and died in the
first century AD with the fact that the Bible tells us that He was one with God
and that He was God?
-- that’s what the next section of
the Nicene Creed discusses – it tells us who this Jesus was and why He came and
what that means for us as humans today in the 21st century
-- the creed proclaims: “For us and
for our salvation, He came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit
and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death
and was buried. On the third day, He
rose again in accordance with the Scriptures.”
-- so, the
first thing we see is that Jesus was originally found in heaven – He was in
heaven as God Himself – the second person of the Trinity -- that is what we
talked about last week – and Paul brought that point home in verses 15-17
-- but the creed tells us that Jesus “came
down” from heaven – what does that mean?
-- hold your place right here and
turn over to Hebrews 2:14-18
Hebrews 2:14 Since the
children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his
death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the
devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear
of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in
order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to
God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he
himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being
tempted.
-- there’s a lot going on in these
verses, so let me unpack this for you – as you remember, our whole problem
started with the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden – when Adam and Eve
disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit and sin entered into the world and
into us – from that point on, all mankind was born with this sin nature inside
of us that separated us from God and that caused us to disobey His word and sin
against Him
-- but the problem was that we
could not get rid of this sin nature on our own – as flawed and sinful human
beings, we were incapable of following the law and of paying the penalty for
our sins – and just like it says in Romans 3:23, because of that, all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – all of us are sinners and stand
condemned because of our sinful nature and the sins that we have committed –
and there was nothing we could do about it
-- we couldn’t earn enough to buy
our way out of sin – we couldn’t do enough good things to make up for the bad
that we did – we were lost and condemned and separated from God the Father with
no way out
-- and because of God’s holy and
righteous nature, He could not just forgive us out of hand – that would not be
righteous – that would not be fair – that would not be just – we did wrong and
we had to pay the penalty for the sins that we committed
-- the problem was that there was
no human anywhere who could live a sinless life and fulfill the law and pay the
penalty for themselves, much less for the rest of humanity
-- and that’s where Jesus comes in
– it says right here in verse 14 that since the children – us – humans – since
we have flesh and blood – Jesus shared in our humanity so that He could live a
righteous and holy life in our place and by His death break the power of sin
and death in our life – reconciling us to the Father through His own sacrifice
on the cross
-- look at verse 17
Hebrews 2:17 For this reason he had to be made
like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a
merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he
might make atonement for the sins of the people.
– for this reason – for our
salvation – Jesus had to be made like us in every way – fully human – so that
He might become our merciful and faithful high priest and make atonement for
our sins
-- so, the Word became flesh –
Jesus became a man – the technical term for that is “incarnate” – we see that in
the creed – it reads that Jesus came down from heaven and was “incarnate” of
the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human
-- in order to save us, He had to
become one of us – the Word made flesh – fully human – and fully God – that was
the only way we could be saved
-- so, that’s what the creed is
affirming when it says that He “came down from heaven” and “became truly human”
– He didn’t
just appear in spiritual form and appear to be a human – it wasn’t a mirage or
a trick or a mask He put on – no, the Bible makes it clear – Jesus became one
of us completely – He shared in our flesh and blood – and was made like us in
every way
-- that’s
what Christmas celebrates – and that’s what we affirm and proclaim every Sunday
when we light these two candles on the altar – they represent Christ in His
dual nature as fully God and fully human
-- the Creed tells us that Jesus
came down from heaven, “for us and for our salvation” – we see in that phrase
the two-fold ministry of Jesus that we have already alluded to in our study so
far
-- first, Jesus came for our
salvation – He came to pay that penalty for our sins that we could not pay – so
that through Him we might have everlasting life with Him
-- that’s John 3:16 in a nutshell,
right? – “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son so that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”
-- verse 17 goes on to say that God
did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through Him
-- Jesus came down from heaven and
became Man so that we might be saved from our sins and receive forgiveness and
eternal life through grace by faith in His death on the cross
-- we read the same thing here in
Hebrews – look back at Hebrews 2:14 – it says that Jesus shared in our humanity
“so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of
death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in
slavery by their fear of death”
-- Romans 6:23 says that the wages
of sin are death – and that was the penalty that we all faced because of our
sin nature and the sins that we committed against God – we lived in bondage to
sin and death – we lived in slavery to sin and death – and Satan held that
power over us because he was the one who originally tempted Adam and Eve and
led to the introduction of sin into this world
-- but now Jesus has come to free
us – to bring us salvation – by dying on the cross for us – by making atonement
for our sins – atonement literally means that the payment for sin has been made
– Jesus literally sacrificed Himself for us so that He might pay the price for
the penalty of sin that we each owed
-- that’s
the main reason Jesus came – the Bible makes that clear – but Jesus also came
for another reason, and the writers of the creed point that out when they say
that Jesus not only came for our salvation, but He came for us
-- this
phrase points to the change that comes when we believe in Jesus and receive Him
as our Lord and Savior – Jesus didn’t just come to die on the cross for us – He
came to also show us how to live for God now in His power and strength
-- through
His death and resurrection, Jesus replaced our sin nature with a new nature –
He removed our hearts of stone and replaced them with new hearts that were
filled with His presence – and with this new nature inside of us – with this
power over sin and death that we have, we can live our lives free from sin and
in obedience to God
-- for
three years, Jesus lived among us as a righteous man – showing us how a human –
remember, Jesus is fully human – how a human could live in righteousness and
obedience to the Father – how we could live full and abundant lives right now
as God intended
-- we do
that by relying on Him and His strength and by being part of His church on
earth – turn back to Colossians 1:18-23
Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the
church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in
everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his
fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood,
shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies
in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you
by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight,
without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.
This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
-- in the
previous verses, Paul spoke of Jesus' divine nature -- here he turns his
attention to Jesus' physical nature and His position as the Creator of the new
covenant
-- through
His atoning sacrifice on the cross, Jesus created the church -- bringing all
those who believe in Him and put their faith and trust in Him into His fold and
making them part of His body -- when we express our faith and trust in Jesus'
death and resurrection, the righteousness of Christ is given to us and we
become one with Him
-- He was
the first to rise from dead never to die again -- and with His body and blood
He offers us eternal life with Him -- as we look forward to His return when all
things will be placed under Him in His kingdom
-- in
verses 19-20, we read of how Jesus reconciled us to the Father through His
death on the cross – the same thing we read about in Hebrews
-- through
His death on the cross and the blood which was shed, Jesus removed the curse on
creation, destroyed the power of sin and death, and bridged the gap that had
separated man and God since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden
-- the
Bible tells us that once we were God's enemies -- once we were separated from
God and alienated from His blessings -- but through Christ, we have been
reconciled – and now live in peace with God because of the blood that was shed
on the cross for us
-- and that
means that we can now live in righteousness with God – we are no longer bound
by sin and death – we are no longer held by sin’s grip, but are freed to live
our lives as God intended
-- the
power to do so is there – and Jesus lived among us for three years as a man in
righteousness and obedience to the Father so that we would know how to live in
the same way – now we have to make the choice as to whether we will live this
way or not
-- even on
this side of the cross, a lot of people still live with a victim mentality – “I
can’t help but sin – I’m only a human – it’s just who I am – I can’t do
anything else” – to quote Pastor Jeff Shreve, the Hebrew word in response to
this is “Baloney” – that’s just an excuse so that we can continue to sin and
live sinful lives in disobedience to God
-- in verse
23, Paul tells us here that we should continue in our faith – established and
firm – and to not move out from the hope we have in the gospel – that means we
are to live out our faith everyday – to believe the Bible when it tells us that
Jesus has overcome sin and death and that we no longer have to live our lives
trapped by temptation and sin
-- this
means that we can choose to live obedient and holy lives as part of the church
of Christ on earth today – to be His body – His arms and feet – showing others
how to live as Jesus lived and how to find peace and reconciliation and
salvation through Him
-- we’ve
been studying Romans 6 in Bible study – and this whole chapter is about saying
“no” to sin and living lives of righteousness through Jesus – as it says in
Romans 6:2, “we are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any
longer?” – and in Romans 6:11-12, we read, “in the same say, count yourselves
dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus – do not let sin reign in your
mortal body…”
-- in other
words, stop making excuses and start choosing to live lives free of sin – it is
a choice that we now have as Christians because of the power and presence of
Christ within us – and He showed us how to live this way during the three years
He lived and ministered to Israel with His disciples
-- so, the
main take-aways that I want you to get today are these:
1. Jesus came down from heaven to be incarnate for
us – He became fully Man and fully God
2. He came down from heaven for our salvation –
He came to die on the cross and to pay the penalty for our sins through His
atoning sacrifice in our place
3. He came for us – He came to claim us as His
own and to show us how to live for God as His body on earth today – as the
church – and that through His power and presence in our lives today, we can
choose to be holy and righteous inside and out – and learn to say “no” to sin
-- that is
what the Nicene Creed is affirming when it tells us “For us and for our
salvation, He came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the
Virgin Mary and became truly human. For
our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was
buried. On the third day, He rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures.”
-- next
week, we’ll be looking at Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the promise that He
is coming again in glory in the end of days
IV. Closing
-- let’s
wrap this up -- I read about this family who took their first-grader on a car
trip to Canada -- To help pass the time, the little six year old boy practiced
his new reading skills by calling out road signs -- He fell asleep just before
they entered Quebec
-- a short
while later, he woke up and looked out his window at the highway signs, which
were all written in French -- he was quiet for a moment and then said in a
worried tone, "Mom, I think I forgot how to read while I was
asleep."[forwarded by Michael Grice]
-- One of
the reasons that the early church gave us the Nicene Creed was so that we don't
forget what we believe and so we might not get led astray by the many false
teachings that surround us everyday
-- C.S.
Lewis wrote that more people leave Christianity because they have drifted away the
truth and not because they have been argued away – and, in the same way, a lot
of Christians fail to live holy and righteous lives today because they have
fallen for the lies of the devil that we can’t do any better – that we can’t
say “no” to temptation and sin, even though Jesus died for us to give us that
power and to make us His body on earth to live out the truth today
-- this
creed reminds us of who Jesus is and what He has done for us -- these truths
were taken from Scripture itself and put in a form that distilled it down to
its basic elements so that we might continue on in our faith and not drift away
from the truth that both saves us and helps us live righteous lives in His name
-- so, as we close today, remember
who Jesus is and why He came – and remember who you are in Christ – of the
power you have in Him – and of the ability that we have to say “no” to sin in
our lives today
-- may we hear the word of God and
receive it in us today and live the abundant and full lives that He wants us to
live
-- let us pray
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