Tasty Truth (7 of 7)
Series: The Image of the Invisible
Craig Smith
Colossians 4:2-6
I. Introduction
We’re wrapping up our series on the book of Colossians today. Next weekend we’ll have a special stand-alone message but then the weekend after that, September 10 and 11, we’ll be starting a new series called The End of the World As We Know It. I’ll talk a little more about that later in the message today. But for today, we’re going to talk about being the church.
I don’t know if anyone else had this experience, but I grew up going to church and at some point when I was a little kid, some very well-intentioned Sunday School teacher taught me this little thing. You put your hands together like this and you say ‘‘here is the church and here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.’’ It’s cute, but here’s the problem with that: this isn’t the church. This isn’t the church. This - the people - is the church. The church isn’t a building we come to, it’s a mission we choose to be part of. The church isn’t a program we participate in, it’s the people of God living out the mission God has given us.
For the last several weeks, we’ve been talking about the great mystery of the Gospel. And sometimes the Bible calls it a mystery because it’s truth that no one would have ever guessed. And there’s two pieces to that:
1. The Gospel is the surprising truth that everyone can come to God thorugh Jesus. You don’t have to be Jewish. You didn’t have to grow up in a religious family. You don’t have to have a track record of good behavior. You just have to be willing to follow Jesus.
2. The Gospel is the surprising truth that everything we need is ours in Jesus. As we’ve seen in the book of Colossians, Jesus isn’t just a teacher...he’s not just a prophet...he doesn’t just have insight and understanding about God. He is God. He’s the image of the invisible God. Everything that’s true about God is true of him and everything that we want and need from G ...
Series: The Image of the Invisible
Craig Smith
Colossians 4:2-6
I. Introduction
We’re wrapping up our series on the book of Colossians today. Next weekend we’ll have a special stand-alone message but then the weekend after that, September 10 and 11, we’ll be starting a new series called The End of the World As We Know It. I’ll talk a little more about that later in the message today. But for today, we’re going to talk about being the church.
I don’t know if anyone else had this experience, but I grew up going to church and at some point when I was a little kid, some very well-intentioned Sunday School teacher taught me this little thing. You put your hands together like this and you say ‘‘here is the church and here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.’’ It’s cute, but here’s the problem with that: this isn’t the church. This isn’t the church. This - the people - is the church. The church isn’t a building we come to, it’s a mission we choose to be part of. The church isn’t a program we participate in, it’s the people of God living out the mission God has given us.
For the last several weeks, we’ve been talking about the great mystery of the Gospel. And sometimes the Bible calls it a mystery because it’s truth that no one would have ever guessed. And there’s two pieces to that:
1. The Gospel is the surprising truth that everyone can come to God thorugh Jesus. You don’t have to be Jewish. You didn’t have to grow up in a religious family. You don’t have to have a track record of good behavior. You just have to be willing to follow Jesus.
2. The Gospel is the surprising truth that everything we need is ours in Jesus. As we’ve seen in the book of Colossians, Jesus isn’t just a teacher...he’s not just a prophet...he doesn’t just have insight and understanding about God. He is God. He’s the image of the invisible God. Everything that’s true about God is true of him and everything that we want and need from G ...
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