Hope Church LV Sermons
The Incomparable Christ :: Colossians 1:21-23
Well, as a church family, currently, we are studying verse by verse through the New Testament book of Colossians, and most recently, we have been in a series within that study entitled The Encomparable Christ, and in this series, we have been engulfed in one specific passage of Scripture. And it's a passage of Scripture that really brings clarity to the preeminence of Jesus Christ. We live in a day and time when there are many different opinions and ideas about who Jesus is, and depending on who you ask, you may get a different answer. And what we've really been trying to do through this study is look at what the Bible teaches is true about Jesus from a biblical perspective. Several weeks ago when Pastor Vance introduced this series, he talked a little bit about this word we chose to use in the series title, The Word Encomparable. And he talked about some definitions that really share our high view of who Jesus is and the reason that we chose this specific word. So as we conclude our series tonight, I felt it appropriate just by way of reminder to share a few of those definitions with you. The Word Encomparable. It's not a word that we use just a whole lot, but if you were to look up some definitions, here are some ways to define this great word Encomparable. It means imminent or standing out beyond comparison. It means so good that nothing else can compare. It means being such that comparison is impossible. It means beyond or above comparison, matchless, unequaled. And for us as a church, as we talk about and answer the question about who Jesus is, we believe that he is a preeminent king and he is matchless. We believe that he is so good that comparison is impossible. We believe he is beyond comparison. And every week in this series, we've been talking around a key truth. And we've never really said it the way I'm about to give it to you, but it's really been the essence of every message that we've given throughout this series. And here's the key truth from this series. There is absolutely no one like Jesus. Amen? Even on a Sunday night, you can say amen. There is absolutely no one like Jesus. And you can look throughout history and that truth has always been true. Before the foundations of the earth, he was there because he's eternal. At the dawn of creation, he was there because in him, all things hold together. The New Testament gives us glimpses about him being the only way of salvation full of grace and truth. And I would imagine in the room tonight, there are hundreds of people who could stand up and give testimony that Jesus Christ is the only life-giving, gracious, living Savior. And there is no one who is like Jesus. Joseph Stole said it this way. He says, "Make no mistake. Jesus is unequaled." He doesn't compete. Every hope, every confidence, every ache in our soul demands Jesus as he claims to be. There is absolutely no one like Jesus. So this weekend, we come to the conclusion of this series. So if you have a Bible, would you turn with me to Colossians chapter 1? And we're primarily going to look at verses 21, 22, and 23, but I want to begin reading in verse 19 so we can have a little bit of a running head start into our text. If you don't have a Bible, we're going to put these verses on the screen for you so that you can follow along with us. Colossians chapter 1 verse 19 says this, "For it was the Father's good pleasure, for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself. Having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say, whether things on earth are things in heaven and are texts for tonight. And although you were formally alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, in order to present you before him, meaning God, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. If indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. Our text tonight is loaded with truth, but the way I want to unpack it for us is I want to ask three final questions in this series, and all the answers come straight out of these verses. Here's our first question tonight. Who am I apart from Christ? Who am I? Who are you apart from Jesus? What's very important to understand that all of us come on the earth this way? We are all born out of our mother's wound apart from Christ. There is no such thing as being born a believer or being born a Jesus follower. The Bible actually says just the opposite. The Bible uses some extremely strong language to refer to us in our natural state. The Bible says we are born enemies of God and slaves to sin. Now I know that's not what we want to hear. That doesn't feel very good, but that's what the Scripture teaches us. We naturally gravitate towards evil. We have to learn what is good, not the other way around. And in verse 21, Paul gives three descriptive phrases to help us understand who we are apart from Jesus. I want us to look at those tonight. Here's the first phrase that he uses in verse 21. He says, alienated. What does that mean? That's a word that means estranged. It's a term that is used to describe a foreigner in a land that doesn't make sense to them. It's a word that implies isolation, loneliness, and a deep sense of not really belonging. Here's what the Scripture is telling us. That apart from Christ, we are estranged to the things of God. The things of God do not make sense to us apart from Christ. We experience loneliness and this longing in our hearts that there must be something bigger out there than what we're currently experiencing. And the tense of the language in this one little word alienated signifies permanence, meaning this idea of being estranged to the things of God, the things of God being foreign to us, it's a permanent condition, meaning there's nothing we can do in and of ourselves to change it. That's the first word he uses, alienated. Here's the second phrase he uses, hostile of mind. This is a phrase that means to have an attitude or an of an enemy or to be volatile. It's to have a desire to destroy the people around us. That's our natural condition apart from Christ. We're naturally volatile. Romans 8 says it this way, the mindset on the flesh is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. That's a description of us as humanity apart from Christ. Here's the third phrase he uses, engaged in evil deeds. And this phrase is really a product of the first two. If the things of God are foreign to us, and we are hostile, we look at people as our enemies with a desire to destroy them, we're going to gravitate towards evil deeds. We're going to do what's natural, and what's natural to us as humans is sin. That's our natural desire apart from Christ. So literally every person who's ever been born on the earth could say this, by nature and by choice, I am estranged to the things of God. I'm hostile in mind and engaged in evil deeds. That's verse 21. Paul answers the question for us, who are we apart from Christ? So here is the biblical conclusion from verse 21. Apart from Christ, I am permanently separated from God because of sin. That's the conclusion that apart from him, away from Christ, we are all permanently estranged or separated from God because of our sin. And there is no exception to that rule. It's every person who has ever been born on the planet. Harold Sanger said this, alienation and loneliness, hostility and fear, evil and self-destructive behavior are all the inevitable results of not being right with God. Here's a second question. It's very important because if that descriptor is our permanent reality, where does Jesus fit into all this? Well, here's the second question. What did Christ accomplish through the cross? I think most people tonight can get your head around the idea that we are stuck. We are alienated. We are hostile. We are evil by nature. Well, what did Christ accomplish through the cross? Now for most people, when you hear that phrase, you would say, well, the cross is where Jesus died, where he was beaten, where he bled, he was taken down from the cross and he was buried. And I agree with that. But here's the thing I want us to think about. What did those things accomplish? What was accomplished through the cross? Well, in verse 22, Paul says something very powerful. Here's what he says. He says yet, he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death. Paul uses a word here in verse 22 that he used last week in verse 20. It's the word reconcile. And we learned last weekend that reconcile really has two ideas. It's the idea of bringing back and the idea of harmony. And we said last weekend that any time we see the word reconciliation, it's because there has been a ruptured or a broken relationship. So here's what that means for us in the context of a relationship with God. To be reconciled means that our relationship with God that was destroyed because of sin has been restored through Christ. That through the person of Christ, we can be brought back into harmony with God. That's what Paul says here in verse 22. But practically, how does that happen? Well, to help us understand a little bit, I want us to look at two results of the cross. We could list dozens and dozens and dozens of results from the cross of Christ. But tonight, as we look at this text, as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's Supper, I want us to look at two results of the cross. And here's the first one. On the cross, Jesus freed us from the penalty of sin. One of the results of the cross is that we were freed from the penalty of sin. You see, sin has a cost. That cost is spiritual death and eternal separation from God. But what the Scripture says is that Christ stepped in our place and paid that penalty. The holy and righteous Son of God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He took on the punishment, the penalty of sin. Now, there's no way in words that I can articulate to you tonight exactly the severity of what took place when Jesus paid the penalty for sin. But I want to read a passage of Scripture from Isaiah 53 that just gives us some glimpses into that moment. The Bible says there was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance. Nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected a man of sorrows, acquainted with the deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried. It was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins. But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us like sheep have strayed away. We have left God's path to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. All the punishment for sin past present future was poured out on Jesus when he was on the cross. And when we think about that naturally our mind goes to the physical aspect of that suffering. And that's a major part. He was beaten, he was mocked, he was spat upon, he suffered and died on a sinner's cross. But the physical aspect of Christ taking on the punishment for sin is just the beginning. You see on top of the physical punishment that he endured, there was also the psychological pain and the psychological punishment. You see, Jesus was holy. Jesus was perfect. But in that moment on the cross, guilt and shame and embarrassment was laid on him. You see up until that moment, Jesus never knew what it meant to feel guilty because he was perfect. He never knew what it meant to feel shame. He experienced something that was the exact opposite of his nature. It was laid on Jesus and I assure you there was great psychological pain in that moment when he had the guilt of sin laid on him. But not only that, on the cross, Jesus also felt the wrath of God. You see on the cross, all of God's fury and hatred and vengeance towards sin was poured on Jesus. When you think about that, the Creator God, our heavenly Father, all of his fury and hatred towards the thing that destroyed his relationship with his price creation. All of that was poured out. It was exhausted on Jesus while he hung on the cross. But not only the physical and the psychological and the wrath of God, but on the cross, Jesus experienced abandonment. You see, Jesus faced all these things alone. The Bible says in that moment, God the Father turned away from his son because he could not look at the sin that was resting on Jesus. All of the punishment for sin was poured out on the Son of God on the cross. And I say that tonight to say this, it is extremely important that we recognize the severity of the punishment that had to be paid, the penalty that had to be paid for sin. You and I make flippant statements all the time and we don't even know what we're saying. When we have a bad day or something doesn't go the way we want it to, we'll make a statement like, "Well, God must just be punishing me for my sin." Or, "Well, God's making me feel guilty for my sin." That is absolutely an inaccurate statement. You see, God has assured us that believers will never know the punishment of sin because all that punishment was poured out on his son. That should move us tonight as we think about the cross. All of those things were exhausted on Jesus. There is never going to be a day for the believer when God the Father rubs guilt, shame, or condemnation in your face. All those things were poured out on his son so that we can stand today as free children of God, free of guilt, free of wrath, free of shame, free of embarrassment, free of condemnation because Jesus took on the penalty of sin and set us free. One of the things I love to do is to read some of the old hymns. Can I get an amen tonight for the old Baptist hymnal? Does anybody know about that? Before I came to Las Vegas, this is all I knew. But I was thinking this week about a hymn that I think communicates what we're trying to get our hearts around with this idea. I'm going to read you a couple of verses. "There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains, and sinners plunged beneath that flood they lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away, wash all my sins away, and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away." "Aer since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die." That's possible. That can be a reality for us because on the cross Jesus freed us from the penalty of sin. And that's why he'll never throw guilt or condemnation in your face. Now God will convict you of sin, but he will never throw those things in your face because they have been paid for through the cross of Christ. So when those moments come and you do sense something about guilt or condemnation, here's what you need to know, it's the enemy. The enemy will always point you to who you are in Adam, but the Holy Spirit will always point you to who you are in Christ. That's significant. One glorious result of the cross is that Jesus freed us from the penalty of sin. Here's a second result of the cross. On the cross Jesus freed us from the authority of sin. Another aspect that Jesus freed us from through the cross is the authority of sin. As I said earlier, we were born on the earth, slaves to sin. It was our master, but through the cross, through the death of Jesus, we have an opportunity to be moved from being slaves of sin to being slaves of Christ. Colossians chapter 2 says it this way, you were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all your sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. You have died with Christ and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. You see, the reality is if Christ has paid the punishment for our sin and all of our guilt and condemnation is gone, then the enemy has nothing to accuse us of because all of our faults have been wiped away through the sacrifice of Jesus. Hebrews chapter 2 says it this way, "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also per took of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death." That is the devil. The word Satan literally means adversary or accuser. But when I'm declared free, dead to sin and alive to God, the enemy can bring no more accusations to me or you. And when we identify ourselves with the death and the life of Jesus, the authority of sin over us is held powerless. It's held inactive. It has no grip on us any longer. Miles J. Stanford said it this way. He said, "Should we reckon ourselves to be weak in reference to sin?" No, it is lower than that. "Should we reckon ourselves to be dying?" No, lower still. "We are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin." Some believers say that they are very weak. But what does that imply? That they have some strength. But when a man is dead, he has no strength. We must act on the fact that we are dead in reference to sin. We must take our place on the resurrection side of the cross. And in so doing, we leave behind the old self-life for the new Christ life. You see, when we embrace the totality of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, we can embrace a new nature. We can embrace the Christ life over the old life. Here's another quote that I think brings clarity to this reality. It's by John Piper. He says, "The death of Jesus was the decisive defeat of the rulers of this world, the devil. And as Satan goes, so go all his fallen angels. All of them were dealt a decisive blow of defeat when Christ died, not that they were put out of existence. We wrestle with them even now, but they are a defeated foe. We know we have the final victory." I love this part. "It is though a great dragon has had his head cut off, and he is thrashing about until he bleeds to death. The battle is won." For many people, because we do not know, the principles are the truth of Scripture. We never even knew that we could claim this promise and identify with Jesus in this way. But it's a powerful reality. Everything the enemy says to us is a lie. And all his powers were stripped away on the cross. When you and I understand the power that is in the cross of Jesus, it changes the way that we approach every day. Now, this principle doesn't apply to our commitments. This principle doesn't apply to our self-help. But when we choose to say, "Lord, I die to sin, I identify with your death on the cross, and I identify with your resurrected life on the third day." His resurrection power is now available in us, and we can count ourselves as dead unto sin, and the enemy's power being taken away and alive to Christ and pursuing him with our whole heart. Galatians 2 says it this way, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me, and the life which I live now in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me." The beautiful message of the cross is that through Jesus, we've been offered a new nature. Our old nature has been placed in the place of death, and it is foolish to listen to anything that the enemy has to say, because our new nature through Christ is one of life and hope and joy. So here is the biblical conclusion for this question. Through the cross, Christ completely dealt with sin once and for all. That's the reality. What did Christ accomplish through the cross? He dealt with sin once and for all. He took on the punishment of sin and stripped sin's authority away for all those who would put their faith in his work and in his life. Here is a final question for us. Question number three, "Who am I in Christ?" It's great that we can talk about who we are apart from Christ. It's great that we can talk about these principles of what was accomplished through the cross, but here's a major question that we need to know the answer to, "Who are we in Christ?" Understanding our new life in him changes the way that you and I approach every single day. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, "Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come." And in the end of verse 22, here's what Paul does. Just as he gave us three descriptors of our old life, he gives us three descriptions of our new life, of our identity in Christ. You can see the New Testament not only tells us who Christ is, it tells us who we are because of who Christ is. Warren Wiersby said it this way, "The most important thing in our Christian lives is not how we look in our own sight, or the sights of others, but how we look in God's sight." And the words we're about to talk through, they're true regardless of how you feel, regardless of what other people say, regardless of our emotions, the words we're about to look at that Paul gives us at the end of verse 22 are true biblically. So look at the end of verse 22, here's what he says. He says, "In order to present you before him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach." Now, to understand how significant this is, you have to understand the first phrase, in order to present you before him, meeting God, this phrase was a legal term. It was a term that was used in a court setting, and here's the idea, that we are being ushered into a courtroom to be presented before God the Father, and Jesus is going to place us in the mind's eye of our heavenly Father, and he's going to do so with great confidence and zero doubt. That's the tense of this phrasing that's being used. Jesus ushering us before our heavenly Father, and doing so with great confidence and letting him see all of us. Here are the words Paul uses to describe us in that moment. The first word is holy. Word holy means to be set apart. It means there is no hint of sin or evil. You say, "I don't feel holy." Well, I don't either, but here's the reality. Christ is holy. And when I put my faith in him and I am found in Christ, the Father sees me through the righteousness of Jesus, and therefore I am declared holy. That's the first word Paul uses. That's what we are in Christ, not because of our righteousness, but because of his righteousness. The second word Paul uses is the word blameless. Jesus is going to present us before the Father as blameless, meaning without blemish. It means the absence of wrong, meaning there is nothing about me that could be rendered unholy. That's significant. Here's the third word, beyond reproach. The phrase means free from accusation. It's another legal term that means there's no accusation that can be brought against us when we are in Christ. There's nothing to understand this contrast. We've gone from verse 21 when Paul says, "Apart from Christ, you are alienated, hostile in mind, and engaged in evil deeds." And now we move through the reconciliation of Jesus. We are brought before the Father as holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. That is the glorious message of the gospel that we can put our faith in Jesus and through him be taken from spiritual darkness and death into spiritual life in his kingdom. So here's the biblical conclusion for this third question. In Christ, I am given a new standing before God. In Christ, in him, in his righteousness, I'm given a new position that does not change before my heavenly Father. And there's no sin, there's no act, there's no person that can ever take that away. That relationship is secure. Those truths, those realities about the gospel show us exactly just how incomparable Jesus Christ really is. So here's what that means. If in Christ, I'm made righteous. If in Christ, I'm made right with God. If in Christ, I am holy, I'm blameless, I'm above reproach. That means my whole life should be spent for one purpose, to know Jesus and be identified with him. That's the whole thing. That's why I hope we say this, knowing Jesus is the ultimate pursuit of your life. There's nothing greater than that. That's why we say at hope that if the sun sets you free, you are free indeed. And so many of us walk in such a way that we're tangled up with the old life, because we do not understand the new nature we've been given in Jesus. The Bible says this, that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Here's the problem. We don't know the truth. If you want to begin to understand this new relationship, who you are because of who Christ is, we must meditate on this word. We must pray this word. We must learn to apply this word to our lives. Well, as we talked about this text several months ago, we felt that an appropriate response to this clear message of the gospel would be to celebrate together the Lord's Supper. So I want to invite our team to come and we're going to prepare. But as we do it, there are several things that I want us to be very, very clear on as we observe the Lord's Supper tonight. First of all, this is symbolic. This Supper doesn't save you. This is bread and juice. But what it symbolizes, the picture that it gives us is extremely significant. This Supper is also a celebration. Jesus said, "Every time you do this, I want you to remember me, and I want you to proclaim my death until I come again. Every time we celebrate this Supper, it is a celebration that we have a relationship with God through the sacrifice and the life of Jesus Christ." The Scripture also says that this Supper is to be taken seriously. It's not to be something that's just tagged on to the end of a service. It's not something we just do out of a sense of routine. That's why it hoped. Every time we observe the Lord's Supper, we dedicate the whole service to it. We wrestle with these realities about the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus so that we are in a right frame of mind before we celebrate the Lord's Supper. In 1 Corinthians, the Bible says this, "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself and in so doing, he is to eat up the bread and drink of the cup." Before we participate in this Supper, we're going to have a few moments of examination. You see, to approach the Lord's Supper out of a sense of routine communicates hard-heartedness. To approach the Lord's Supper with unconfessed sin really communicates arrogance. But to approach this Supper with a spirit of humility and dependence, I believe is honoring to Jesus. [BLANK_AUDIO]