JESUS IS LORD: NOT ONE AMONGST MANY

Sermon Notes, April 29, 2018

Rev. Garry McGlinchy

            Pastor Garry's sermon, the fourth in the series Jesus Is Lord,  was titled "Not One Amongst Many."  It was based on Colossians 1:15-23.

            We're told by our culture that all religions are equal.  This is religious pluralism.  Each religion has some truth in it.  But having A truth does not mean that they have THE truth.  The truth is that Jesus, the Christ, is the ONLY way to God.  (John 14:6)

            The first part of verse 15 of Colossians 1 says that the Son is the image of the invisible God.  Jesus is the physical embodiment of God.  He is truly God.  The second part of verse 15 says He is the firstborn of all creation.  He predates everything that can be dated.

            Verse 16 says that all things were created through Him and for Him.  Christ was at work in Genesis 1 and 2.  All creation is to glorify God: even people in primitive cultures have realized this.  He created government, showing us how to live civilly.  (Some governments do a better job of allowing its people to live civilly, but that's another subject.) 

            Verse 17 says He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  The physical reality is that if Christ ever let go, everything would fall apart.

            Verse 18 says He is the head of the church, His body.  We, the church, are His body; his arms and legs, hands and feet, doing what He says to do.  He is the first among the resurrection, the first to be raised for eternity.  Others had been raised from the dead, (Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, the widow's son) but they all died again.  Jesus' resurrection is the validation of who He is.

            Verse 19 says that He has all the fullness of the Father, and verse 20 says that all things, whether from heaven or earth, were reconciled to Him through Jesus, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

            Everything changed when Jesus died on the cross.  Verse 21 says that once we felt like running and hiding from God because of our evil behavior. But in verse 22 we see that Jesus' death brings us back to God, reconciling us to Him, so we are holy, in the pre-sin condition of the Garden of Eden.  Christ made us new!  He made us God's friend.  He didn't leave us in our sinful condition.

            Verse 23 tells us that we can stand firm in the assurance that we are right with God.  There is lots of uncertainty in our world today.  But we can know for sure that this gospel is THE truth.   The faith path we're on is the right one.  John 14:6 says Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him.