Each week I hope to share thoughts from sermons delivered at First Alliance Church where we attend.
This week Pastor Paul delivered the third lesson in his series on Colossians entitled “The Supremacy of Christ”. The BIG IDEA he builds upon In this series is : “The gospel is the supremacy of Christ which absolutely changes everything.”
This week’s lesson was entitled Jesus + Nothing= Everything. You can listen to the lesson HERE. In my previous Pew Note post I had alluded to Christ+Nothing as a concept that had challenged me earlier in my journey. I was grateful Paul put some flesh (pun intended) on the subject today.
The defining issue at Colossae was the assertion that Jesus alone was not sufficient. Teachers were insisting that the Christian life required more than Jesus. Pastor Paul identified categories of additions to Jesus as: Reason (2:18), Ritual (2:16) and Rules (2:20-21)
Apostle Paul was absolute regarding the supremacy of Christ. (1:18). We live our lives in him. Who I am as a Christian is rooted in who Jesus is. To the extent my life does not reflect the image of Jesus, I am deceiving myself, and as Pastor Paul illustrated, living by moonlight. Moonlight is only adequate for short-term survival. To experience life in all it fullness, we need sunlight. Exposed to sunlight we will flourish and live fully. The Message’s paraphrase of 2 Cor.3:16-18 provides beautiful imagery of being exposed to sunlight.
“Whenever … they turn to face God …, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, … We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”
??2 Corinthians? ?3:16-18? ?MSG??
Compelling questions I am left with are: First, to what extent am I living in moonlight? Secondly, where do I find sunlight , …becoming brighter and more beautiful… as I become like Him…?
The balance of Pastor Paul’s sermon provides direction to a sun-drenched existence.