AM sermon for 6/10/07

My lesson this Sunday continues the series in Colossians (Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil) with a look at 3:1-4. This text helps us to focus on things above. Since Jesus has come from heaven, has been made in the image of the invisible God, has died for us, been raised again, then we need to keep our focus on things beyond this age. Look to the age to come, look to our hope.

AM sermon for 5/20/07

My lesson this coming Sunday will continue the sermon series from Colossians – Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil. The text will be 1:24-2:5 and the title will be “A Heavenly Ministry.” I wish I had the time to divide this text up into about three lessons. I will probably focus on 1:24-29 and talk mostly about imitating Paul’s ministry in trying to get the Word proclaimed. Of course that focus may change as I study the the text this week.

AM sermon for 5/6/07

My text this Sunday AM is Colossians 1:21-23. I will be focusing on what Jesus accomplished through his cross. The focus thus will be reconciliation. I will start by looking at our alienation from God. Paul says it’s an inward and outward corruption. Our minds and our deeds are evil. Evil here is defined is less than what God wants. In fact we are hostile to God because of this corruption. But God doesn’t allow the fact of our alienation to get in the way of his love for us. He sends his son who through his fleshy body reconciles us to God. The focus on Jesus’ body is possibly to counteract those who teach that Jesus was just a man and that when he was baptized the spirit of the Christ entered him. And when he died the spirit of the Christ left him. Wright (in his commentary on Colossians) thinks that Paul usually uses the word “flesh” for humans to emphasize their rebellion against God. So God is identifying with weak man by becoming just like weak man (minus the sin). So in the cross man’s sin is condemned and reconciliation takes place.

Verse 22 suggests that once reconciliation takes place Jesus presents us as holy, without blemish, and without reproach. Reconciliation is not just for salvation but also for sanctification. We are to be set apart as the holy people of God.

Some see in verse 23 a condition – our faithfulness. We need to remember that conditions and merit are two separate ideas. The gospel is given without merit because merit is gained by Jesus Christ on the cross and in the empty tomb. The gospel is proclaimed with conditions so that we might identify with the Gospel. This verse deals with one single condition after we have entered into the body of Christ.

It is fitting that these verses follow the wonderful portrait that Paul paints of Jesus in 1:15-20. Jesus came into our world to show us the way back home. He is the only one who could reconcile us to God. He is truly the complete one.

Insight for John 1:43-51

John’s account of Jesus calling his apostles of course differs from the Synoptic Gospels. Instead of Jesus calling them and they leave their nets, the ones who will become the apostles go and get each other. Once they meet Jesus and become convinced of who he is, they go get someone else.

When Nathaniel meets Jesus he is immediately confronted with a man who knows him – “Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.” Nathaniel is confused by Jesus’ pronouncement of his character. And so Jesus goes further – not only do I know you but I saw you under the fig tree. This is enough for Nathaniel, Jesus is indeed the Son of God and the King of Israel. Both are messianic terms. Jesus then tells Nathaniel he will see greater things that just being told where he was sitting. Jesus then alludes to the dream that Jacob saw on his way to Haran where he sees a ladder between heaven and earth.

Some interesting ideas pop up in the text. Compare Nathaniel’s encounter with the pre-resurrected Jesus to that of Thomas’ encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Jesus asks a similar question, just because you’ve encountered me personally do you believe? With Nathaniel he says that more will be coming. With Thomas he says that others will believe in spite of of not seeing. Of course Jesus asks the blind man who now sees (9:35) and the disciples (16:31) if they believe.

Although these are interesting insights into the text I want to stay with our theme “Keep your eye on Heaven” with the lesson. So my focus will be on 1:51, Jacob’s ladder. It seems that in this text the disciples are encountering Jesus who in John’s Gospel is portrayed as the one coming from heaven and believing in him because they are convinced that he is the messiah. Even though Jesus is speaking to Nathaniel while alluding to Jacob’s ladder, it appears to me that the allusion is for the other disciples and the readers as well. So then we may ask the question as the disciples should have asked the question – how is Jesus the bridge between heaven and earth? I’m going to suggest 4 ways that Jesus becomes the bridge.
1. He is two natures – one divine and from heaven, one flesh and from the earth (1:1,14)
2. He is come to teach us of heaven – they call him rabbi (1:38), he tells Nicodemus that he came to tell us of heaven (3:12)
3. He is the fulfiller of God’s plan – the one of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets spoke (1:45)
4. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29) – If Jesus forgives us our sin then we can fellowship heaven

Not sure where to take this for an application but will mull that over.

Application for John 1:43-51

As part of my sermon preparation I always go to SermonCentral.com and check out what others have done with the text. Actually what I really do is to see if they have any good illustrations. I tire of the ones I find at the various illustration sites because they are too trite. Sometimes I find personal illustrations in someone’s sermon that really fit.

I typed in John 1:43-51 at SermonCentral.com and got about 100 sermons. I don’t go through every one, I just read the short synopsis and then decide if it’s worth viewing. I noticed something as I perused the titles and synopses, most the sermons were about evangelism. I figured that evangelism would be the application for this passage but I don’t think that evangelism is the main point of the passage. It seems that John the Apostle is writing about Jesus and his entrance into our world. He gives several titles for Jesus – the Word, son of God, son of man, king of Israel, messiah, rabbi, lamb of God – all of which are designed to help us understand who Jesus is. This chapter is about the disciples coming to the realization that Jesus is the one they’ve been waiting for. He’s here! Now that they know that what do they do? They go and get someone and bring them to Jesus. That is the application of the passage but not the main point of the passage. Jesus is the bridge for heaven and earth, and we on the earth should tell others about this bridge.