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Hey, good morning. If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join us
in Colossians chapter 1. We're going to look at verse 15. If you do not have a Bible, it would
be our great joy this morning to be able to gift you one. And so at the end of the service, or you
can come right now, right back here at this black table right in the back. There's some black Bibles
that are right there, and you can go by and grab one of those. It is a gift from us to you. We would
love for you to have a copy of God's Word. I want to echo what Pastor Dave said about all our first-time
guests. Hey, listen, we count it as a privilege and an honor that you were here. There's a thousand
places you could have been this morning, but you chose to be here with us, and we count that as a
blessing. At the end of the service, my wife and I will be right back there. If you wouldn't mind just
stopping by for just a second so we can thank you personally for being here. If you've got somewhere
to be, if you've got somewhere to go, hey, we understand completely. You don't have to, but we
would love for you to stop by. And then I would just like to say happy Father's Day to all of the dads
out there, right? Like that video listed the top 10 things, but there's a thousand more that we do,
and I am so appreciative and blessed to be able to be here at this church. And I was thinking about
this in the tenure and the time we came here when our kids were five years old, four years old, five
years old. I don't remember how old y'all were, but y'all were. How old were they, Aaron? Five. Thank
you. Mom always knows when dad doesn't. But here's what God's blessed me with. God's blessed me
with dads older than I am to come alongside and to walk through that with me as a young dad with my
kids and to speak truth and give grace to me in my life. God's allowed me to have men the same age,
the same journey as I am going through this, so we can do this together, so we can pick each other up
and encourage us. But then also the joy and the blessing, man, have some of those younger dads
to be able to pour in, to be able to invest into. And so for all of you guys, if golf is your thing,
man, I hope that U.S. Open is just like you want it to be, whatever that meal is going to be,
whatever that day is going to be. But here's what I want to say, and this is me from my heart,
right? This isn't a message. I'm not doing a Father's Day message, not preaching this for you,
but sometimes, man, I know that on days like this, the focus can be to make it all about you.
And guys, my encouragement for you today is make it about one of the greatest joys that God's given
you and make it about your family. Make it about your wife, your kids, whatever that that looks like
for you to be able to do that. I'm excited. My kids, Saturday is usually a little bit less stressful
day than Sunday, so they gave me my Father's Day gifts yesterday. And this is one of my Father's
Day gifts that my son and my daughter got me. My Nike polo, it makes me look about 20 pounds lighter
and a lot more muscular than I really am. Not really, but you know, just encourage me with that
this morning, all right? So, but happy, happy Father's Day. Well, here's going to be Colossians
115 this morning. Let me read this verse to you before we pray. It says, He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Would you join me in prayer? God, we thank you so much
for today and this time that we could be here, Lord. We thank you for the kids in the room. We thank you
for the dads in the room. Thank you for the moms in the room. Thank you for the families. We thank you
for the individuals. Lord, we thank you for the members and the guests. We thank you for every
person that you've brought here today. Lord, I thank you for that beautiful moment
when the voices off the microphone stepped back, when the instruments weren't being played.
God, and we could hear your church singing songs of praise to you. God, I pray that all that we do
this morning bring glory and honor to your name. God, and as we look at this particular passage of
scripture, God, may you do with it in the hearts of the men and the women and the children who are here
today, we're to draw them to yourself to convict us of our sin and to point us into the direction of
Christ. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, as we've been going through this series of
Misunderstood, one of the things that we're trying to do is kind of help understand that you and I,
as individuals, we bring certain perspectives to when we read the Bible. And what I mean by that is
is we bring past habits, we bring biases, we bring histories all to what we do. And what we're trying
to do is kind of peel back the personal part of us to bring back any misconceptions or misunderstandings
that we have and to put it into right perspective so that we can understand truly the passage of
scripture for what it is. This past week, my family and I had the opportunity to get up and to go on
vacation. We got a camper and so we took off to go to Lake Jocassee up in the upstate of South Carolina,
almost into North Carolina. If you've never been there before, the Bradbury is what would give it
a 10 out of 10. The lake, wonderful, beautiful place, mountains there, the water's cold, the water's
clear, wonderful, wonderful experience. Well, our next to the last morning that we got there, I woke up
and our neighbor that's right beside us and we had gotten to kind of know him and was talking to him
and he made this statement to me. He said, did you hear about the bear that came by your camper last
night? And while I like eating, I'm not necessarily a big fan on being eaten, right? So I heard the story
from him of what happened and then Aaron came out and I was like, hey babe, just to let you know,
last night about 30 feet from our camper was a bear. And the look that I saw on her face was,
this was just my last night camping, you know? And then I gave the perspective.
I said, but we're okay. We don't have to worry about it. Because while he came 30 feet past our
camper, he sat down three feet away from someone's tent. Yep. Opened up their cooler
and ate all their food. So as long as there's a tent with a cooler, we're okay with the camper in the
refrigerator, right? Like it's just the perspective that we have. And that's what we've been doing a
little bit with, with this, with this series is understanding the perspective that the Bible
brings in the context of, of us so that we can fully understand what is God's word communicating
so that I could properly apply that in my life. Now this morning's Bible verse is a little bit
different than the ones that we've been doing. This morning's Bible verse is one that as I read it,
that you might think through, well, that's, that's not a misunderstood or misapplied Bible verse,
but this Bible verse actually has been frequently misused. And in the misusage of this Bible verse
has come from false teaching and heresy for a large group of people.
One of my first classes that I took was, was taught by in seminary was, was taught by a man by the name
of Dr. Stephen McKinnon. And as he was talking to the first day of the class, I'll never forget this.
We're, we're taking ethics. And he said that what we're going to discuss today is this statement.
While it's important to share Jesus with people, what's really important is that we share the Jesus
of the Bible with people. That sometimes what can happen is that individuals will say that they're
talking about Jesus and we'll hear them and others will hear them talking about Jesus. And so we think,
high five, we're on the same team, but the Jesus that they're talking about is not the Jesus that the
Bible was talking about. So let's look one more time about this verse. It says that he being Christ
is the image of the invisible God, talking about Jesus continues, the firstborn of all creation.
Well, one of the essential doctrines of the early church and the central doctrine for the church
today is, is to establish that, that Jesus is God and Jesus is man. There's the humanity of Christ
and there's the divinity of Christ and proper faith, proper doctrine requires this. Now, does it mean that
you fully understand it or grasp that? No, I've been studying this for years and this, in this concept is,
is still such a hard concept to wrap my earthly mind fully around that Jesus is God and that Jesus is man.
Things that I would think would stand in opposition of one another come into unity in the person of Christ.
And we see this from multiple points in scripture. Some of these are Colossians 2.9,
for in him, being Jesus again, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
John 10.30, from the words of Christ, I and the Father are one. John 1.1, in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word is Christ. 1 John 4.2,
by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is from God. But this foundational teaching has oftentimes
been attacked from those who claim faith in God. And throughout church history have been labeled as
heretics or cults. An example of this from biblical times would be the instance of the Gnostics. And
you'll see them referred to in different points in times throughout scripture. And they taught when
their essential beliefs was that all physical matter was evil and only the spirit or non-material things
were good. So what they would teach is all physical matter, this water bottle, my watch, you, me,
were all evil. So what they had to do then was reconcile the person of Jesus with this.
So they taught incorrectly that Jesus only appeared to be human, but he was not human, remember, because
physical matter is evil. And so he was actually a ghost or a spirit.
And there's lots of problems, there's lots of issues with that. When we look at the payment of Christ's death
on the cross, and not only that, but just who he said and who the Bible teaches that he is.
So the Gnostic phase isn't necessarily something that rings true for us in Lexington, South Carolina, but
there's the Jehovah's Witnesses, who believe that Jesus, there's lots of things they believe, but they
believe that Jesus was created by Jehovah, by God, as the archangel Michael, before the physical world
existed, and is a lesser though mighty God. They believe that God sent Jesus to earth as a temporary
man and nothing more than a man. And they believe that when he died, his humanity was completely
annihilated, and that he was raised from the dead as a mortal spirit. And when he returned to heaven once
again, and became the archangel Michael. So what in the world does Colossians 115 have to do with this?
Remember, it's important that the Jesus that we share is the Jesus of the Bible.
And that you and I, that our job, that our responsibility as students of the Bible, is to
say not what I can take away as far as removing things from the Bible. We want to take things
from the Bible and see the truths of God apply to our life. Not what I can remove from the Bible,
but also not what I add to the Bible. Not what I add to the Bible. Like as great as we may think we
are in our mind, as biblically sound as we may think that we are, that the Bible is set in full and
it's completed. And it does not need you, it does not need me to come back to this and say,
well then there's things that were left out, there's things that need to be included.
That we believe in the sufficiency and the fullness of Scripture, that we believe in the
authority of Scripture, that we believe in the perfection of Scripture, that it is set, that it is
done, that it is good, that it is whole, is complete, and everything we need for relationship with
Christ and for righteousness is found here. So they use this passage of Scripture and their false
teaching. They believe that God created Jesus as the archangel Michael, and that through God,
Michael, and all things were created. And they come to this conclusion by two errors. Two errors that
they make in this, in this particular passage. One is a language error. Look back at Colossians 1.15,
it says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. So,
the word, the language error here is firstborn. Firstborn. You guys know, Emma and Grayson are
twins, right? But it is always a thing in our house that we do have an older twin, and that older twin
Grayson loves to leverage the fact, I'm not going to call out names, that he is older than she.
And the younger twin, she doesn't like that very much, right? So we have this. So they use this
word of firstborn in the way that we would say that Grayson is firstborn. Correctly translated,
firstborn here, carries with it the concept of position, rank, or prominence. So an example of that would be
when we look at King David in Psalm 89. Psalm 89 verse 27. King David is referred to as the firstborn of the
kings of the earth. Now, here's what history, here's what the Bible, here's what we know about David.
David was the lastborn in his family, and he surely, when we read through the biblical narrative,
was not the firstborn king of the earth. But what we see here in God's man is God has chosen
who he is in God and what God has called him to. And so what we begin when we remove the language error,
what we see Paul is saying is that Jesus is before, Jesus is eternal, all created things,
that Jesus is different, that Jesus is divine, that Jesus is holy, that Jesus is perfect,
then all created things. So Jesus is not the same as you and me. Jesus is not created.
He's God. He's eternal. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and there was never a point where God created Jesus. This is who he is. So there's a language error,
but then there's an intentional translation error. And here's why I say intentional. They add the word
other to various places in Colossians 1, 15 through 16, even though the word other isn't listed
in the original text. Okay? Now, I'm going to do something that Berger and I, we talked about this
morning. We're like, this feels a little weird, but we're going to do this. I'm going to intentionally
put the wrong Bible verse on the screen. Please do not take a picture of this and post it. Look at the
heresies being taught at Willow Ridge Church, all right? This is the incorrect version of what we will
see in Colossians 1, 15 through 16, to help us see this intentional translation error. So he is the image
language of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. That was the language. Verse 16,
for by him all other things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or rulers or authorities. All other things were created through him and for him. Now,
this is the incorrect translation. But what they're trying to push across in the false narrative who
Jesus is is, yeah, sure, Jesus created, but he created all other. But God created him. And it's false.
And it's not only false. But it drives a wedge against the heart of what God is communicating.
Here's what I'm not trying to do this morning. I'm not trying to create in you a heart of hostility
against a group of people who believe something different than you or I.
What I am trying to create in you and in myself is a heart of desperation for the gospel.
That when others who would like to knock and share a heresy,
a lie that pulls people away from Jesus of the scripture, that our heart for them is not to engage
into a fight with them, but a desire that they would come to know the true Christ.
See, that's it.
You and I live in a world
of pick a side, draw a line, and then go to battle.
And there are the battles that we face.
But our mission, the battle should never deter us from the mission.
And the mission is what God has given us to go and make disciples, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ,
to see men and women, sinners lost in their trespasses and sins, come to faith in Jesus Christ.
In all that we are, in all that we do, this is our mission.
This was the heart of Paul as he wrote to the church.
This was the heart of Christ as he came to minister.
And this is the heart of us as we send, as we go, as we live in every moment for who God has called us to be.
So let's get some perspective.
Let's look at the correct verses.
And let's ask, then what is Paul communicating?
What is Paul pointing us toward?
What is Paul leading us to?
So Colossians 1, start reading verse 15.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
All things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross."
What Paul does here, under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives a wonderful and beautiful introduction to Jesus.
And I don't know what caused you to be here this morning.
I don't know if it was a conversation with a spouse, if your dad invited you to come with me on the Father's Day.
If this has just been a routine and you're here every week because out of obligation of who you are or whether you showed up for a thousand different reasons.
But what Paul does here, which is what I want to do, is let's have an introduction and kind of hang out for a minute with Jesus.
And just understand who he is.
Because when we understand who Jesus is, when we understand Jesus of the Bible,
we understand love beyond any other earthly comparison that we can draw from.
Like on this Father's Day, I love my kids.
I do.
Man, I am blessed with a son and daughter whom I love and who I firmly believe deeply love me.
I'm blessed this Thursday.
I will have the privilege of being married to my wife, who's way better looking and kinder than I deserve.
For 21 years.
And I love her.
Thank you for the woo.
It should have been more like a Ric Flair woo, though, you know.
Thank you.
There we go.
I love her.
And she loves me.
But as much as I love these three people, it pales in comparison to the love that Christ has for them.
It pales.
Whether you're a follower of Jesus, or if this is the first time that you've ever heard his name,
I believe that there's some really good sweetness when we can just end this service by understanding even more so who Jesus is.
Because the truth is, whether you're a part of a false religion, or you're a part of a body of believers, or you don't know what you're a part of,
we all desperately need the Jesus of the Bible.
So what Paul tells us, number one, he says that he's the image of the invisible God.
That he's the image of the invisible God.
Folks, get this.
Jesus is God.
That the man who walked the streets of Jerusalem is God.
That when you looked at him and you saw him, you saw God.
That when he called Lazarus from the dead.
When he laid his hands on the eyes of the blind.
When he sat down and broke bread with the disciples.
When he hung on the cross.
When he walked out of the tomb.
When he stepped into the room where they were all hiding.
When he ascended to heaven.
He is God.
The second thing that Paul tells us is he is the firstborn over all creation.
That he is before.
That he is over.
That he is different.
That there's no part of creation that is him.
He's before it all.
Eternal.
It says that by him, by him all things were created.
That he's the active agent of creation.
That when we look and we see of God working and moving in the Bible, it's Jesus.
It's not just picking up Jesus in the New Testament with the Gospels.
It's picking up Jesus in Genesis 1-1.
And that we can walk through and that we can see the beauty of the hand of Jesus.
Yes, he does not come in the form of man until the New Testament.
But we can see the hand and work of God.
We can see the hand and work and move of Jesus.
This is who he is.
That he is before all things.
There has never been a time, nor will there ever be a time, that he has not existed.
That he is eternal.
That in him, the Bible tells us, all things hold together.
All things hold together.
Who's the glue of your family?
There's some grandma.
Maybe you think it's you.
And you know that without that person, man, this family's going to fall apart.
He is that for creation.
He is the sustainer.
The song that we sang as little kids is true.
It's not a nursery rhyme.
He literally holds the whole world.
He holds the cosmos in his hands.
He is the head of the body of the church.
Folks, it's what makes God's word authoritative.
He is our authority.
He is your authority.
He is my authority.
There's not a special loophole for me because I'm a pastor and I get out of that.
He is our authority, the head of the body, the church.
He is our truth.
And he reconciles what the Bible tells us.
He reconciles all things to himself.
Now, guess what Paul's pointing us to?
Here's what we get to see.
We get to see the cross.
Jesus is working.
Jesus is drawing people to himself as he brings people back into right relationship with God.
And it didn't come by decree of his voice.
It didn't come through a law he commanded, but it came as means by his death hung between two criminals on a cross.
He reconciles us.
He reconciles us through the blood of the cross.
He reconciles us through the cross.
Just let it sink in.
Not because of our great sin.
Because of the condemnation and the wrath that we deserve.
God came here and got on a cross and died.
Not in theory.
Not in concept.
But through the very spilling of his blood.
That's the introduction to Jesus.
That's his love.
That's his compassion.
That's how much he cares.
Why in the world would anyone ever want to lessen that?
And not just cling to the beauty of who he is.
I'm going to close with verses 21 through 23.
Paul says, and you.
Church, this is you and me.
You and me.
And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind.
Doing evil deeds.
He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.
In order to present you holy and blameless.
And above reproach before him.
If indeed you continue in the faith.
Stable and steadfast.
Not shifting from the hope of the gospel.
That you heard which has been proclaimed.
In all creation under heaven.
And of which I, Paul, became a minister.
It's not just who is Jesus.
But Paul says,
it is who is Jesus
for you.
The world wants to take
and say,
this is who Jesus is to me.
The Bible says,
this is who Jesus is for you.
Do you see the difference?
When we say,
this is who Jesus is to me,
I want to pull out the parts of Jesus
that I don't like
and cast them aside.
But when the Bible says,
this is who Jesus is before you
because God knows what we need
when we don't realize what we need.
And we need the wholeness
and the fullness of Christ.
And you,
you and me.
The Bible tells us
who we were before Christ.
Like, you see,
we weren't just good people
that occasionally did bad things.
Like, I think that's what
we want to believe, right?
Oh, I mean,
it was just,
it was a good kid
that just maybe occasionally,
no, no, no, no, no.
But our spiritual condition
and what God says,
the spiritual condition
apart from Christ,
that we're,
we were alienated from God,
that we were hostile
in mind.
And we just didn't do
a couple of bad things.
The Bible tells us
that we did evil deeds.
That this is who we were
before Christ.
But because of His work
on the cross,
because of Him
taking the wrath of God,
because of Him
taking the payment
and the punishment
for all of our sins,
that He did a work,
that He reconciled
in His body
by His death
in order to present
you and I,
those evil people,
hostile that we are,
that we'll be restored,
that we'll be fixed,
that we'll be made new,
that the Bible tells us
that we'll be alive
in Christ.
He reconciled us,
that He made us
blameless,
that He made us
holy
and above reproach.
Have you ever gotten
the better end
of a deal?
Let me tell you about
the deal that we got
with Jesus.
He got all of my
and all of your,
the nasty,
the evil,
the wicked.
He got it all.
And you see,
He never did
any of those things.
He's perfect,
blameless,
holy.
That's who He is.
But He took
all of my nasty,
my nasty past,
my nasty present,
and my nasty future.
Every evil,
wicked thought,
word,
deed that I will ever do
and that I've ever done.
But then He gave me something.
And I got the better end
of the deal.
And so did you.
But He gave me
His holiness,
His righteousness.
So now,
who I am
in Christ
is alive,
a new creation
in Him.
So Paul calls us.
He says,
now,
now that this is
who you are,
I love these words.
Continue
in
the faith.
Continue
in
the faith.
When Jesus,
His early words
to the early
disciples,
and Jesus
didn't have a car,
right,
didn't exist.
Jesus would have been
on the lower end
of things,
economy-wise.
That's why you never hear
about Jesus
riding on animals
until you
see His entrance
into Jerusalem.
And if you remember
that donkey
that they rode,
that he rode,
they had to borrow.
And he would go
and as he called
people
to
himself,
he said two words.
Follow me.
Church,
sometimes
I think we can make
simple things
more difficult
than they need
to be.
I don't know
what to do next.
I don't know.
We can overthink
something terribly.
Continue
in
faith.
what does that
mean?
Just
follow
Jesus.
On a day
that we celebrate
culturally dads,
man,
I'm so grateful
for my dad.
over the last five
years,
I've had the
privilege and
opportunity
because of the
sickness that my
dad's been
diagnosed with
to watch what I
thought would
turn him bitter
and angry.
I've watched
it soften
his heart
and I've
watched it
solidify his
faith.
So today's
a great day
to celebrate
my dad.
But my dad
can't do
for me
what Jesus
did for me.
And the
challenge that
I have for
you this
morning is
this.
If you're a
follower of
Jesus Christ,
there's some
times this week
that you got
it wrong.
How do I
know?
Because I
did too.
And we
all did.
Know that
God is
bigger than
your sin.
Continue
in
faith.
If you're
not a follower
of Jesus
Christ,
you've got
questions,
you've got
doubts.
Would
today
be the
day
that we
just didn't
introduce you
through Paul's
writing
to a
concept,
but we
introduced you
to a
person.
And you
may feel
that the
world is
stacked against
you,
but could
you believe
this morning
that Jesus
is for you?
That there's
not a sin
that you've
committed
that's
too big
that he
can't
forgive.
That there's
not a part
about you
of who you
are that
causes him
not to
love you.
And would
today be
the day
that you
put your
faith in
the God
of eternity,
Jesus Christ,
who died on
the cross for your sins
and who rose
from the dead
and through the
power of his resurrection
you can walk
in the fullness of
hope and peace
not just in
this life but for all
of eternity. Would you pray with me?
God we thank you so much
for the power of your word
God we thank you for the
truth that you proclaim
God we thank you for every
person who is in here this
morning for whatever
journey for whatever reason for whatever
brings them here Lord they're here today
God we pray that the truth
of your word would
ring true in their hearts
that God if there's
anyone here who doesn't know you
that today would be
the day of their salvation
God we do lift up others
who have wandered from the truth
who believed a lie
God they're not the enemy
for us
they're the object
the people
to share
so they'd experience
the hope
that comes in Christ
in Christ alone
God work
and move
in only
how you can
we thank you
Jesus did
not die
for those who deserve it
because there would be none
he died for us
it's in his name we pray
that's it for this week's message
be sure to check back next week
for a new episode
and in the meantime
you can visit us online at
willowridgechurch.org
or by searching for
Willow Ridge Church
on Facebook
Instagram
and YouTube
thanks again for listening
and I'll see you next week's message