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Colossians 1:24-29

Give Me Jesus

  • Matthew Dodd
  • Weekend Messages
  • April 07, 2019

Words are powerful. Words can make you laugh. Words can make you cry. They can motivate and they can discourage.
During our study, we’re going to focus on seven memorable words from the Bible. These seven words will reveal God’s eternal plan for our lives and motivate us to experience the fullness of Christ every moment of every day. I believe these seven words from Colossians 1 will resonate in our hearts and encourage us to pray, “Give Me Jesus!”

  • Sermon Notes
  • Scripture

Give Me Jesus

Colossians 1:24-29

Introduction

 

1.Words are powerful.

2.Words can make you laugh. Words can make you cry. They can motivate and they can discourage.

3.Companies spend millions of dollars every year just looking for that memorable slogan, that catchy phrase, to brand their company and sell their products.

ILLUS Seven Famous Slogans…

4.During our study, we’re going to focus on seven memorable words from the Bible.

5.These seven words will reveal God’s eternal plan for our lives and motivate us to experience the fullness of Christ every moment of every day.

6.I believe these seven words from Colossians 1 will resonate in our hearts and encourage us to pray, “Give Me Jesus!”

Colossians 1:24-29

Context

1.The Apostle Paul was in prison because of his faith in Christ and his proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles.

2.Paul never met the Christians in Colossae, but he had received word that they were under attack for their faith.

3.So, Paul sought to encourage them to stay the course and finish the race set before them; to stay strong in their faith, empowered by the Holy Spirit, all for the glory of God!

I.Christ is in You (27a)

A.Christ wants you… each of you

1.In Christ, God’s mystery was unveiled, “the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints” (26).

2.What mystery has God revealed through Christ?

a.Jews are reconciled to God through Jesus.

b.Gentiles are also reconciled to God through Jesus.

c.Jews and Gentiles are one body, on equal footing, before God through Jesus Christ!

ILLUS – Sharing with the pastors in Mwanza, Tanzania that Christ has broken “down the barrier of the dividing wall”!

Galatians 3:28, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave or free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

B.Christ wants you… all of you

1.Through His death on the cross, Jesus paid the price to redeem you from slavery to sin so that you might become a member of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.

2.At the very moment a person confesses Christ as their Savior, their sin is forgiven, they are adopted into God’s family, and Christ through the Holy Spirit, indwells them working to conform them into the image of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. 

3.What does it mean that Christians are a temple of the Holy Spirit?

a.The tabernacle was comprised of three sections:

  • The outer courtyard
  • The holy place
  • The holy of holies, where the ark of the covenant was present with the glory of God residing over the mercy seat between the two cherubim.

 

 

b.Only once a year was a person, the high priest, permitted to enter the holy of holies where God’s presence dwelt.

c.On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on Israel’s calendar, the high priest entered the holy of holies, with fear and trembling, to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to make atonement for the sins that Israel had committed during the previous year.

d.The Greek word for the holy of holies is naos.

e.When Paul declared that Christians are a temple of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, he used the word naos, meaning we now are the holy of holies!

f.We are walking miracles and Paul was exhorting the Christians at Corinth to live holy lives because the Holy Spirit dwells within us!

ILLUS – It really comes down to choices.

APPL – Problem: Many Christians have an “Open Door”/“Closed Door” relationship with God.

Revelation 3:20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door; I will come in to him, and will dine with him and he with Me.

APPL – Christ gave His all for us and demands nothings less than our all in return. The Apostle Paul understood this when he said…

Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

C.Christ is all you need

1.Several years ago, I was thinking about this passage and started to reflect on “Who” Jesus is and “How” He has been revealed in the Bible.

2.I began to write down from memory every title, name, and description that referred to Him.

3.After I looked at what I had written, I began to worship and give thanks to our Lord. This is what I wrote…

Jesus is… the Son of God (Second Person of the Holy Trinity), the Word of God, Son of Man, Second Adam, Seed of Woman who crushes the serpent’s head, the Angel of the Lord, Seed of Abraham, Jacob’s Ladder, Lion of Judah, Root of Jesse, Son of David, Immanuel, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Mighty God, Prophet, High Priest from the order of Melchizedek, Passover Lamb, Christ/Messiah (Anointed One), Savior, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Giver of Living Water, Rock of Salvation, Healer, Redeemer, Sanctifier, Intercessor, Advocate, Mediator, Mystery, the Gate, Good Shepherd, the Vine, Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Narrow Path, Firstborn of all creation, Firstborn from the dead, Bridegroom, Head of the Body – the Church, the Radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, the Author and Perfecter of faith, the Alpha and Omega, King of kings, Lord of lords,… all things have been created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is currently seated at the right hand of the Father and there will come a day when the trumpet will sound and the Lord will descend and all things in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow before Him for God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above all names… that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

Psalm 23:1, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

APPL – Give me Jesus… He is all I need!

Ephesians 1:18-19, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

II.  Our Hope is Secure in Christ (27b)

Quote: The word “hope” means the “joyful confident expectation of eternal salvation” (Strong’s Lexicon)

Hebrews 6:19-20a, This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever

Psalm 25:3, No one who hopes in You will ever be put to shame

A.Make certain your future 

1.Are you certain about your future?

2.There are only two options: You are either in Christ or you are not.

C. S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”

Hebrews 9:27, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”

ILLUS – Dr. Criswell’s conversation with a theologian

APPL – Morning is coming! Death has been swallowed up in victory! That’s our hope!

1 Peter 1:3-4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you

B.Do all for the glory of God

1.The Hebrew word for glory is kabod. It conveys the idea of weight, authority, dignity, or splendor.

2. To the Jew, God’s glory gave meaning and weight to life because it signified His presence with His people; God dwelling with them.

3. For the Christian, the significance is greater since it means that Christ is in us.

APPL – Life can be tough. It will chew you up and spit you out. What do you do when you feel discouraged and broken?

  • Don’t give up!!!
  • Give God room to move.
  • God is doing something in you and through you.
  • We need a divine perspective.

2 Corinthians 4:16-17, Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

ILLUS – How pain has transformed my daughter’s life

Conclusion

J. Oswald Sanders, “Everyone of us is as close to God as he wants to be.”

Give me Jesus!

 

Colossians 1:24-29 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I [a]do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking [b]in Christ’s afflictions. 25 Of this church I [c]was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might [d]fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His [e]saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man [f]with all wisdom, so that we may present every man [g]complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His [h]power, which [i]mightily works within me.

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