Colossians
Colossians · JD McCulley · Feb 23, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926418503268

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so we're still finishing up the prayer of intercession that Paul prayed on behalf of the Colossians. This is the second prayer in the first part of Colossians. The first is a prayer of thankfulness in verse 3, I believe. And then 9 through 14 is what we've been working through and it's just been so rich with content and that we've taken a little bit of extra time to go through that. And so there will be a handoff here probably from the first 15-20 minutes of the class and we'll pick up with the next session with Courtney, but I wanted to just give us a real quick review of where we've been. In terms of an outline, we said we've got that salutation in verses 1 and 2, we've got the prayer of Thanksgiving, again that's verse 3 through 8, and then we've been working through this prayer of intercession, verses 9 through 14.

And what's coming up next, midway through this class, is to go right into the supremacy of Christ, which is really the major thrust of this entire book. And so we're about to head into the doctrine of Christology, as they would call it. But what I would like to call it is an opportunity to get very familiar with the deity of Christ, and that becomes personal because we are in Christ. And so as we look at the study of that, as Courtney takes us and leads us on into it, we get into a very, very personal view of who we are in Christ and what the Savior is in terms of his deity.

And so, excited to move into those verses, 15 through 23, and then it goes on from there, and we'll deal with that as we go. But what about this prayer? We've been working through this. We said that the root of Christian living and growth is the knowledge, or is knowledge, being filled with the knowledge of His will. And so behind that worthy walk that we all are thinking about, what is it that we're supposed to be doing? How are we supposed to be living? It all comes from a clear understanding and a knowledge of His will.

And it moves into a lot of different things. And we've used the analogy of the tree to talk about that. But it also teaches us the essence of prayer, how we might be able to pray for others so that we can see the fruit being born in their life. And we use the analogy of the tree. We've got the root, the trunk, and the four branches.

And that verse 10 should be 14, not 12. So just to review, the root there, we've got the root of Christian growth to be filled with the knowledge that's complete and accurate of God's will and spiritual, that's the source. So remember the knowledge comes through the source of the Holy Spirit. And it's the spiritual side, the source, the wisdom is the capacity to perform, and all spiritual understanding is the capacity to relate truth to concrete situations. And so this isn't just knowledge that you take notes in and put in your binder and it stays right there and you've got it on the shelf. It translates to spiritual understanding and spiritual wisdom, meaning that it has concrete implications in how you think and relate to circumstances and situations in your life.

And again, beholding. The trunk? The root gives way to the trunk. The trunk of Christian growth is to, on the basis of sound doctrine, walk in a way that is consistent with what we believe so as to bring Him pleasure. That's what the verse says there.

And again, how does this get done? Beholding the Lord through His Word. Branch number one, remember, was Christ's character. We said it is the production of Christ's character through us as a result of a worthy ground in the knowledge of Him. So you see this pattern. And you start to think, okay, there's a lot of things going on here, but really it all starts with that root factor, remember? That root factor of beholding Him in His Word, and as a result, we begin to see these branches come out of the knowledge of His will, growing in that knowledge.

So branch number two, remember, was increased production. Hey guys, welcome back. No, you're fine. So branch number two is closely related to the first. It's that increasing, the spreading. So the fruit starts to spread. And again, we're not sitting around looking at it and doing fruit inspection to one another. Paul wasn't worried about how much fruit they were producing. He wasn't sitting there pinpointing and picking on their fruit.

He was instead focusing on how can I pray for you so that you increase in the knowledge of his will. and your fruit will spread." It's just an outward expression of the doctrinal focus of beholding him through his words. So he's only asking that they would behold him in the knowledge of his will, or grow in the knowledge of his will. And then this increased production begins as a result of those things. And then finally, the third branch that we're reviewing, before we go on to that fourth, is the evidence of the third branch is God's power showing itself in the believer's ability to hold together. We said, what does a powerful walk look like? Remember? What were those two things that we talked about? What's that? Steadfastness. Patience.

Here you've got a believer Exemplifying powerful living through steadfastness and patience. And we said that a lot of the combination of those words had to do with people and circumstances. Your powerful walk is evident by your ability to endure long-suffering with people and circumstances. And that all comes from the source. And who's your source? It's Christ. And so this powerful living we think of, you know, we talked about last week a little bit, but the powerful living we expect to see something great and mighty, and we'll see some healing and some, you know, some major stuff happen. And Paul's saying, I pray that you grow in the knowledge of His will so that you have a worthy walk, that you result in the ability to endure in long-suffering and patience, you know, circumstances and people, and that the source is Christ's life in you, being able to endure that. So then we moved on to verse 13. We got halfway through it. I'll just read to give us a running start here. So we have this fourth branch.

Remember the thankfulness creators. What are the things that Paul says drive thankfulness in these believers' lives? And so we've talked about several of those things. We've talked about the fact that he rescued us and we looked at that last week and then we said that he also transferred us to the kingdom and that's where we ended up. That's where we ended up stopping last week before picking up here again. So what we're going to do is we're going to cover this whole kingdom to the kingdom of his beloved son side of things and finish out these last four things, the last two of the four thankfulness creators that we talked about.

Is everybody clear with where we're at in terms of how we're moving through this analogy of the tree? Any questions so far? Good? So fact number three, we said that we were rescued from the domain of darkness and were transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son.

And that word kingdom can bring a lot of confusion, I think, to a believer's life. What does this mean? And there's a lot of different schools of thought with regards to when is the kingdom? When does it start and what is it? And so, what I want to say here is just in brief, is that the kingdom here, is it spiritual or literal?

And that's a question that Bible readers and teachers have had to ask themselves throughout the entire New Testament when referred to kingdom. And so, what I take this is, is a literal kingdom of Christ that is set up at His second coming, and that is that this is in reference to the Millennial Kingdom. Mike mentioned that where there is a king, there is a kingdom. And so what we're saying here is that while he has not returned in a secret term to set up the kingdom, there is the ability to have citizenship in that kingdom.

You think about Philippians 3.20. Somebody look up that verse real quick and let's read that one. And whoever's got it first can go ahead and read it. 3.20? Yeah.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Where's our citizenship? In heaven. Are we in heaven? So is this a condition or a position? It's a position. And can you have citizenship somewhere that you don't presently reside in your condition?

So in the same way that you have a citizenship in heaven, you also already, because you have been placed positionally in Christ, you have a citizenship in the kingdom. And you'll have a place in that kingdom when Christ returns. And there's plenty of other scripture to help us understand that more clearly. But where there is a king, that is, his beloved son, there is a kingdom. So every believer, regardless of his present condition, is in the very presence of the Father positionally. So we are in Christ, we're seated. And just to clarify, I brought some of these points out when he talked through this particular passage.

The church is not the kingdom. And that's one school of thought, that we're bringing about the kingdom right now. And I don't believe that that's what the scripture teaches. We believe in a literal 1,000 year kingdom that we have citizenship in now, but we have no involvement in bringing about that kingdom. So we of the church are not building the kingdom. That's not what this is saying. But we've been transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son. So we have positional citizenship there, but we're not building it. And we're not the kingdom. The millennium when Christ will reign on David's throne is not now, it is future and yet to be. Okay? But it will. Question?

Because an old Nazarene guy and his wife brought me to Christ, and I'm not in the kingdom literally right now, but I'm prepared and ready for it because I'm in Christ. It seems like, I'm just curious, it seems like if that guy helped me find the Lord Jesus, and get ready to be going into the kingdom of this. We share the gospel with people that they sort of will end up in that kingdom. Yeah, let's take the... Yeah, go ahead, Mark. Positionally, we're in Christ. He's the king. So does that make you a member of the kingdom? Yeah. Or a member of the royal family? I think the answer might be both. I don't know. I was just saying it seems like we might be kind of noble if we're bringing people into faith and Christ. But we're not the ones that bring them. That's right.

So we introduce them to the Savior, right? So through the gospel a person believes they are placed in Christ. And Vern uses the terminology, we spend the rest of our Christian life catching up to our history in Christ. So if we're placed in the person of Christ, we have a lot of history to learn, don't we? And that history is really related to these factors. The crucified, buried, raised, ascended and seated.

So these are the identification truths. And we end up spending our Christian life growing in terms of learning what is already true of us in Christ. And so these are some of those different passages that teach it, and some are taught explicitly and others are implied. And Vern would say that this is not a complete and comprehensive guide, but it's helpful to start to see how these different five identification truths are being taught. So, who we are in Christ is something that we grow to learn.

And one thing that we learn in the book of Colossians, in this particular passage, is that we've been transferred, that is, wholly removed, positionally, from the domain of darkness where we were slaves. and we have been placed in the kingdom of his beloved son.

And it's interesting that the word beloved is used there. So to think about the family, the royal family, like Mike mentioned, that's an agape word. Beloved is an agape word. And so here we're talking about a kingdom where there's a love of a father for the son, and you are in him. You are beloved in the same way that his son is beloved by the father, you are beloved. And so you're transferred into a kingdom where the Beloved Son is the King, but you are in Christ. You are seated with him.

So when he returns, you know, that will transfer our position to a conditional reality, right? But at this particular point in time we realize that we have been crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated with the King. And while he is yet to reign in time at the second coming, the thousand year literal reign, we are already in that royal family as Mike mentioned. Well, Mike, that was your turn.

How would you like to explain that? I'll explain it this way. If you were a citizen of Great Britain, you would be a citizen of the British Empire. Well, what happens if your last name is Windsor? Are you a citizen? Yeah, but who's your mom? She's the queen, so you're of the bloodline of the very royal family. In other words, you're in the ruling class, so to speak. and you share the very life of one who is the king.

The members of the kingdom can either be in Christ or be going forward, can be the souls of just men made perfect, they can be members of the millennial kingdom. But we're going to rule and reign with Christ in the millennial kingdom. You've got to be royal family to do that.

And what this verse is telling us is that we already have citizenship in that kingdom, but what's even more important is that we are placed in His beloved Son. And so we don't want to get lost in the citizenship factor without seeing the personal factor. Does that make sense?

So, some of the New Testament references for that His beloved Son, it's consistently used for Christ. That's who we're talking about. Since it doesn't say specifically in Christ, this is another phrase for in Christ, because everywhere we see His beloved Son, we see that it references Christ. I really was impacted by the beloved side of things. Here we're talking about thankfulness creator. What is that? You've been transferred to a citizenship in the kingdom of His beloved Son.

And again, it goes back to that 2 Corinthians 3.18.

We're beholding Him, and we are in a state of awe of who we are in Christ, and catching up to our history in Him is what we're doing as we learn through the Word and take time to understand it better and more clearly. So this term sets up the whole theme for the rest of Colossians, which is, if you want to get technical about the terminology, it's Christology, the doctrine of the person and the work of Christ. And so in Paul's prayer he is addressing the various thankfulness or thankful creators and at this point he naturally begins to transition to a more focused teaching on Christ. And so before moving on to that teaching Paul mentions one more of those thankfulness creators and we have number four, redemption.

In whom we have redemption. So we've been transferred from the domain of darkness I'm sorry rescued from the domain of darkness and then transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption so We're not only citizens of the kingdom of his beloved son, that kind of relational love, the agape love, but it's also that we recognize we have redemption in that place. And that literally is in union with whom we have. So this is present indicative, meaning that it is true of you right now. It is a fact of where you stand today. You are set free or redeemed because of who you are in Christ.

Okay, so as a result of Christ's death and shedding of His blood, that's the ransom payment. And notice it doesn't talk about His blood here, but in Ephesians 1-7, which is the parallel passage, the divine commentary on this verse, it does say that. So I'm going to read Ephesians 1-7 just to get a little bit further light on it. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us, in all wisdom and insight. So, you know, this idea of being redeemed, I pulled a quote here and referenced it, but the freeing of captives, sinners, from captivity, that is sin, through the payment of ransom for them. So literally, in this case, it's Christ's death. His blood was the ransom payment. So the king, the very king, has redeemed us.

And that's where we're placed, positionally. And we have conditional realities based on that. We're set free. We're not just positionally set free, we are literally, conditionally now able to operate without the power of sin ruling our lives. We have a deposed monarchy of the old man, and now we have the Redeemer literally living his life through us so that the power of sin, in the terms of Colossians, the worthy walk, the bearing of fruit, all of these things that result are what the Lord is doing through us because we have redemption in Him. We've already been set free. We're not captives, we're not slaves, and neither were these Colossians.

And so Paul knew, look, you've had the love for one another, you've had your faith placed in the object of Christ, you're already operating in truth and grace, but there's so much more to life because of who you are in Christ, and I want to pray for you on behalf of that. Isn't that interesting? Remember that Paul is praying for believers that are already grounded in the word to some degree. They have their basic knowledge together, but here he's reminding them of how they can be thankful for the very redemption they have.

And that result is the forgiveness of sins. And so sins literally missing the mark of God's requirement for righteousness. And they've been freed and have been removed from captivity in that way. And that's what we see in that last verse. So, in order to keep my time short and move into the next part of the verses, I wanted to just finalize this portion of the class with the fourth branch here, the attitude of thanksgiving. So remember, we went through verses 10 through 14 and we built out this last portion here. So a mental attitude of thankfulness in response to being qualified. What were we qualified for? Remember? What were we qualified for?

Our takers of the inheritance. The inheritance. Remember the inheritance part? And we were being rescued from what? domain of darkness, and we're being transferred where? Have been, I should say. We're not being, we have been. Present. Being of his beloved son. Being redeemed. Okay? Having been set free. That is the forgiveness of sins. And so we finalized this part of the verse 9 through 14 with recognizing that we've got the root.

That is the knowledge of His will, and Paul asks specifically for that. As a result, it's the worthy walk. That worthy walk gives light to four different branches, and this fourth branch that we've covered most recently has this idea of what are the areas that Paul had in mind that they could be thankful for. What are true of you right now that you can actually have thankfulness to the Lord for? And that's what he outlines, these four different areas here. So I mentioned the word son, his beloved son, that son, that very word triggers everything else that goes on throughout the remainder of this book.

And so I'll just pass the baton here at this point, it's kind of a, I'm not sure if you can, are you going to need the PowerPoint? No. Do we have any questions with regards to those verses or thoughts there? I mean, you've got your notes, so you can go back and reference pretty much everything we've said there. But if you've got questions, let's speak up and get it clear before we run into the next part. I have a question. Yeah, Mike.

It would seem to me that if we have been suited out and needed out to be the saints, in light, the inheritors, that we need to know what the light is, and that because God is light and in him there is no darkness at all, so it seems that we should be, the verses are telling us in addition that we are learning at this very moment what our position is, and the position is in light. where God is and from what we learn there will translate into how we behave. Am I making any sense? So the question is, my question is, how do I learn the life and how do I be spiritually intelligent about how I function? And I think the only way I get spiritually intelligent, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, is I have to be familiar with the position that God has placed me in.

That's first. Correct? Yeah. So just to kind of segue into where we're headed, when we talked the last couple of weeks about each of those different components of the tree analogy, for example, We kept going back to it, that we're not just filling our notebooks with the knowledge of what Colossians 9-14 says. We're saying that we're being introduced to a person through his word, and that it is in spending time with that person that we understand our history. And it's not just a mental exercise, but it's a getting acquainted with our Savior, right? Well and that's what I mean by I guess the Quaker ship is only in light. It's not outside of that. Right. Yeah. Yee haw. We're going to go. That's love. Love. OK. Lesson 4. Do you guys all have Lesson 4? If you don't, raise your hand and Craig will bring you a lesson. So, Lesson 4, Colossians.

Alright, I love these verses. I was so happy to get these that it worked out that I got to teach on these. Actually, I'll tell you, one of them about 20 years ago had a great impact on me and still does. In fact, Combining that with the knowledge now, the identification, it makes what I had before kind of go on steroids. I'll lead you into that and what it means, but these are great verses.

There are only three that we're looking at. We're looking at Colossians 1, verses 15 through 17. and incredible verses as we start to learn about Christ and the supremacy. And remember about how, what is Colossians versus Ephesians? What is the look? We went over this very first week about Ephesians is kind of the doctoral, that's final. What is the position you're looking from and to in Ephesians?

You guys don't remember that. The Michael. Kind of more from an explanation. What is Ephesians, it's kind of the pinnacle, we call it the PhD, the doctrine. Where are you seated in Ephesians? In the heavenlies, looking down. What is Colossians? on the earth looking up.

So this has some great demonstration of who Christ is and what it means on earth for us and our position and looking at who Christ is. And these verses again, when we look at them, have some incredible truths. And again, as you look at them, I think if you really meditate or think about these, these can have a great impact on you. And I'll go through them, read the verses. This is out of the New American Standard. verse Galatians 1, 15-17.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. powerful verses if you really think about what this is saying. And we'll tie it into our relationship with Christ too and what that means to us. So let's go over the first one.

Is Christ said to be the likeness of the invisible God or the exact expression of and image of God? Sorry, in the New American Standard, I think it's in the New King James too, it's image, right? In the New King? In the King James? So he's the image of this invisible God. So, what does image mean? I always like to go through the words, we read these and then what does it mean? So what does image mean? Likeness? Likeness? Representation? Representation? How about essence? Essence? It's the word icon. Icon? Icon? Stamped image of the same thing. Others? Equivalent to? Equivalent to. Good. So we have lots of them. So translate for me.

He's the icon of the invisible God? He's the stamped image? See, that's one of those ones where you use the same word. You know what I get into. People use the word in their description of the definition. Representation. He's the representation of the invisible God. Of course, I like to go to Webster's and see all the definitions. So listen to these definitions and see if any of these apply. So listen to them carefully.

Webster's Dictionary for Image. A likeness or imitation of a person or thing. A picture of an object formed by a device, as in a mirror or lens. A person strikingly like another. A mental picture or conception. A vivid representation or description. Those were the definitions. Do we have a pick? I think the end comes out the best. A vivid representation or description. I like Ironsides.

No, no, no, no. Okay, okay. I want these first to see if you, from a Webster dictionary variety, if any of these apply. How would Webster know? I'm just doing the English. We read the image of the invisible guy. And these are our definitions as defined in the English dictionary by Webster.

I think it's a problem that he's a representation rather than actually a presentation. Representation versus presentation. Did they use the word exact? Presentation has to do with sameness. A unity that's not in representation. I can represent you all day, but I won't get very close.

And you're thankful for that. What were we saying? Lightness or what could be moral lightness of personality or attitude. Okay. Moral lightness. Okay. He said that Christ is the exact, perfect, visible representation and manifestation of God. And Christ said, You have seen me. You have seen the father. Oh, you're getting ahead of me. You're getting ahead. No fair. Don't look at our inside and get ahead.

Yeah, I looked at these and I couldn't find any of them that really represented what this means here. And that's what, you know, when we read these things, when you read them, understand what the words mean. You know, we have an image and if you think of Webster's dictionary variety of this, I don't think any of these really apply. They don't really encapsulate what this image is. Probably the closest I thought was a person strikingly like another, leaving out the last part, which is a person. Maybe, kind of, but it still doesn't represent what it means in this verse, the image of the invisible God.

Well, he reveals the Father. You guys are just jumping way ahead. This is no fair. You're slow. But it has to mean that the absolute end line is in Christ. are way ahead. You're getting like all the verses that I'm going to go hit on this. I'm slow as Mike says, but you guys are way ahead. Smart. Very good.

You know, I looked at this and like I said, none of them really applied. So, I looked at the Greek word in this one and Zodiades, my guy, defines it as image, resemblance, or likeness. kind of a similar, you know, English, and as Mike said, you know, a lot of times, Zodiates could get all these words and do everything, but he could walk right by the Lord and not see Him. You know, he knows the words, but he really doesn't know how it all fits together. So even though I use Zodiates a lot, this one I think he really doesn't encapsulate what this means on the image of the invisible God. So, is Christ an imitation of the invisible God? No, so the image, it's not an imitation, it's not a copy or kind of a Xerox kind of like, but not really.

We looked at, at Colossians 2.9 we find, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Okay, so is that an imitation? No, it's not.

So therefore Christ is It's a radiant essence. I can't see the invisible God. You guys are getting way ahead. You guys are great. This is good. I said radiant essence. Radiant essence. We'll lead you into what that means. Therefore Christ is the exact image, likeness of the invisible God. Fully God and fully man.

So it isn't just a Xerox copy, it isn't a resemblance, it isn't an imitation, it isn't an image you copy like a Xerox. I think Chester McCauley put in, you have two different eggs. Here's an egg, here's an egg. They look alike, but are they exactly the same? No, it's not like that image. or appearance. He's fully God and fully man. So that image isn't just a copy or anything like that.

So who is the invisible God? He's an image of the invisible God. Who's the invisible God? God the Father, who's the Spirit? God the Father? The Trinity. All three of them. In wholeness, yes, that's right. I think in the image of the invisible God here, I think he's referencing God the Father. Because that's who, you know, when we'll get into other verses here about that. So, have we seen in other scriptures this thought that is brought out that Christ is the image of the Father? Can you think of other verses that would do this?

John 118. Okay, which is? has declared him. But that, yeah, declared being the operative word that, yeah, revealed. Others? Well, the one Joanne said, that John 14, 9. And that is? Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time, anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father. That was what Julian thought. That's exactly one of the verses I have. Jesus 14, 9 and 10. Jesus said to him in the New American Standard, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?

Again, is he the exact representation? Absolute lightness. Would you say that we might need to distinguish between God and his essence and nature as opposed to the three individual persons of the Godhead? As representation you mean? Well when it says that Christ is the image or the exact representation of God, I think you're talking about the nature of who God is, which includes all three people, all three persons. Yeah, we'll break it down in the next question about how are the others known in Godhead. Did I make myself clear? What I'm saying is all three persons of the Godhead share the same life and same nature. They are distinct persons, same life.

You don't know any of that without the Lord Jesus Christ and Him being. Right, and again the next question I think is the one that touches on I think what you're getting at is how do we know all the different... Well, how do we even know that God exists other than in His creation and in your conscience? But you wouldn't be able to apprehend the essence of God without Him somehow revealing himself to us, and he does it through his son. Yeah, we'll touch a little bit on that, on some of the follow-up questions. Yeah, in chapter 1, verse 19, it says that all the wholeness of the Godhead dwells in Christ. So everything the Father and the Holy Spirit are, Christ is. So, the image. He is the image. Another one that I had was John 8, 19. So they were saying to him, where is your father? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father also. Okay? So all these point to how Christ is the image, the exact representation God the Father or the Trinity and we'll see about how that's expressed to it with in the follow-up questions on how are the others revealed?

Yeah, I'm just one quick question. So are we pretty much kind of talking about as well like John 17 when Christ is like I'm in you and you are in me and we are so it's just it's just so it's just Clarifying their unity See, yeah, yeah, there's, and that's one of the best, both. It says the unity, which, which I love that passage of John 17 is one of my favorites. That does the union. I, the Father, all it, all it is is showing Christ and the Father as one.

Yeah. But the beautiful part, the, the benefit or the so what is, what are we? We're brought into that same unity. Yes. And that's the benefit of this whole union, is that we were brought in through the identification and all that. We were placed in Him. That's the beautiful part of that John 17. Not only the union part of Christ in the Father, but then later in the verse it says, we are part of that.

And He wants that for us. And share His glory. Get a hold of that one. For what purpose? To glorify Him. So that the world might know. So what's interesting about those verses is that if we're one in them, as Jim was talking about, as we walk in the light as he is in the light, what do people see? What's interesting is that the oneness with Christ that we enjoy is purposeful in that the expression of who God is is now manifested through his body, the church. And that's why we're here on the earth. The beautiful part about that is that in the Lamanial Kingdom in all eternity, we have that unity with him. That's incredible. That's like I said, when you start understanding what these verses are and how they apply or how they relate to our identification, this should blow your mind.

When you start realizing that as you see Christ now, and I'll get into this a little bit later, if He's the exact representation of God the Father, and that's how we know the Father and we look through in the Spirit, Do you see how the importance of how many times we say, or in the scripture it says, you know, to know Christ? It's to know Him. Well, when you start to know Him, you know all the glorious benefits of that, but also, who do you also get to know? God the Father, Holy Spirit. So, Christ is the one who manifests all these, or shows us. So, not only about knowing who you are in Christ, that's, you know, from an identification standpoint, but also as you know Christ, you know God the Father.

We'll look a little bit about that in Romans 1. We see that in all of creation. We see His power in that. Do we get to know Him by that? In Romans 1, are you familiar with that passage? It's like 120 or something like that. where it says about the power we see in creation, God's power. Does that tell us about, give us a picture of who he is?

No. You can't really know him. All you know is his power. You know of his power. But you can't say you know him like I know Mike. It's not like that. I know an attribute, but I don't know him through those verses. Okay, but I've heard so many people say that...

They're wrong. Just kidding, just kidding. Wanda, you're so nice and everything. People have no excuse, and it's somewhere in the scripture, because they can look at nature. And that's Romans 1. And that's to know that there is a God, and He's powerful. 119 and 20. Romans 119 and 20. That shows us that there is a God and He's powerful.

But do you know Him through that? No, but they say other people should know. Well, you know that there's a God. All men are without excuse as far as knowing that there's a God. It's evident in all creation. They don't know Christ. See, everybody tries to use that as you should know Christ.

It's not. All that does is say that there is a God and without excuse that the guy in the deepest darkest jungles of Africa, oh, he didn't know. He didn't have the script. No, he has seen through creation that there is a God and he's powerful. That's what that verse says. He's without excuse.

Well, that's the difference between Romans 1 is God where the rest of as Abba Father. Knowing God as Father is not knowing God as Father. Intimate. Abba Father, the translation is daddy. That's the intimacy that we have with him. Romans 1, 19 and 20, do you know that intimacy through that creation, that Abba Father?

No, but I could go all the way back to that, up the river or down the river, whatever that book is. What's going on down the river? I don't know what's up the river or down the river. What were we talking about? It was a book we read. It's a missionary book. It's a what? Missionary book. But those people didn't know. Yeah, I've gotten a part of that read. I haven't read the whole thing. But again, the Romans verse is just saying there is a God and He's powerful. Everybody knows that. It's been revealed in creation. You know, before, as a believer, I think I may have said this.

I was in high school and I was backpacking and way deep in the mountains and, you know, in the clearing, and it was just an unbelievable night. The stars were, I swear, I could touch them. I didn't know, I mean, I just remember it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I was not a believer, but I knew there was, there was something, a God of power or something. It hit me really hard when I was back there and I just saw, I just knew, and it comes to mind the Romans verse at that point. I just knew that there was something out there, a God or something that created all this. And I just remember very stinkly, it was just a, wow. And I didn't become a believer years later, you know, ten years later or more. But I just remember that time and I was like, wow, something hit me. I was all by myself, looking up, and it's like, man. And now, retrospect, looking back at the Romans verse, that's where I was thinking of.

Yeah, so we could say that the creation shows that he exists, basically proves it, but doesn't explain it. Exactly. So how do we know him? Through Christ. Paul's book about the beginnings and being without excuse, John begins his gospel with the word existed in eternity past, before time existed he was there, and he came and manifested We're going to get to a lot of those. When you think about John, or what John's book was, John was written after all of Paul's. So, John was basically saying, giving more proof that Christ was the Son of God.

And he wrote that we might believe in him. Right. So, his was, like I said, most people, you know, well, John's before all of Paul's. It was actually written after. So, he was putting the exclamation point on who Christ was. When you look, John's distinctly different than the other Gospels.

It's like a petition starter kit for some people. We've all had friends who said, there is no God. And I think you have to fix that problem first to go, wow, I now see this creation. There is a God. Now let me try to figure out who this God is. to be in the woods like you were, and you see this thing you can't explain. I think the Roman verses say they're without excuse. Everybody sees. They just deny. So they're without excuse. Nobody. There isn't an exclusion. There isn't a legal loophole that says, well, you know, Fred over there, he couldn't really see it. They're without excuse. So everybody knows that there's a God.

So, getting back on the image, so we went through John 8, 19 and 14, 9. Those are ones that, again, if you knew me, you would know my Father also. He who has seen me has seen the Father. So, Christ is the one who manifests or shows us, kind of puts in a person what God is, okay? So therefore, from the Colossians verse 15, Christ is the image of God the Father.

It makes sense with all the other verses and things we looked at. Jesse McCullough put it this way. He defines the image here as a likeness derived from an original. He goes on to say, first we have the idea of representation. Jesus is the perfect representation of deity, because he is deity. Second, we have the idea of manifestation.

Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Who is God? God is Christ. It just hits me too, and everything you tiptoed around here is that Christ is visible. He is seeable. So we can see God in him. That has never been true until he came in the flesh. Yeah, and that's a good point.

Who's the closest who got to seeing God? What do you mean? Anybody who's gotten close to seeing God? The only one I can think of is Moses. He hid in the cleft of the rock and saw the backside. But we have through the scriptures... I'm just saying, from seeing God, no one has seen the Father. We see that in scripture. The only one I can think of, like I said, is Moses.

He got in the cleft of the rock and he saw the backside of the glory. He could be used as a lighthouse for weeks or months or whatever because the glory was on him. The Holy Spirit's ministry is to take the things of Christ and reveal them unto us. And that's what he's doing.

You know, Jim brought out 2 Corinthians 3.18. From glory to glory, he's transforming us.

But the process is first that the Holy Spirit shows us through the Scriptures, the visible Christ. Visible through the Word. But, you know, as that is my last question on question number one. If this is all true, is it important for us to know Christ? That's the key. We get to see the visible, fully God, fully man, but we also see what? The Father. We get to see the exact representation of God in Christ.

So is it important for us to know Christ? Two reasons from identification. If we know Christ, who do we know? Our Father and what? The Holy Spirit. Who we are in Christ. If you know Christ, do you know who you are? Because where are we positionally? In Him. So, if we know Christ, we get the benefit of knowing who we are, but then we also get the benefit of knowing who God the Father is.

He's the exact representation. Well, what is this? First of all, I'm wondering where you get all this information that maybe we would like... You mentioned something that started with a Z. And then you mentioned McCullough. Chester McCullough. Chester McCullough is a pastor who's passed away. Where was he? In Oklahoma? Kansas City. Yeah. He's a good reference. McCullough? McCulley. How do you spell that? C-A-L-L-E-Y. C-A-L-L-E-Y. Oh, Zodiatis. That's a Z word. Zodiatis is just...

Spiros Zodiates, he's a guy who defines Greek words or puts a lot of definitions. I like him because he gets more than just the basic definition you get like on a study Bible or something like that. Zodiates gets more into the depth of where these words are and they come and where they're applied in different definitions. And how do you spell his name?

Z-O-D-I-A-T-E-S. Yeah, Donna's got it on. She's got actually the Bible with Zodiates. Yeah, you can get a Bible with that. Oh, you can? Yeah, Donna has. So it has the Greek. Yeah, it has the Greek in it, so a lot of the things. And yeah, you can get just the definition. Zodiates just has more definition, but as witnessed by this, I don't... He has the definitions of the Greek words, but he doesn't put all the words together to make who Christ is. He's great on definitions, but he doesn't know the truths that are expounded by those words.

We really need to depend on the Holy Spirit showing us grace. Not all these tools, but let the word speak, let the Holy Spirit, using the words of the Scripture, regardless of the language, show us Christ. Right. He's given us these tools to help. If you took our Holy Spirit class, it's Holy Spirit's job to reveal Christ.

That's the ultimate one. He may use Zodiatis. He may use, Chester, he may use maybe in desperate measures. He may in desperate measures use Mike occasionally. Oh, it's been fun. I haven't been able to abuse him. The buzzer went off. You can stop talking now. Our mutual abuse society here.

I thought that was my coffee. Okay, we got through question one. Yeehaw! So we'll continue on next week and take a look at those. And actually there are going to be a couple that are going to be answered. I think questions 7 and 8 I think are going to be answered in previous questions because they tie into what we talked about in some of the upper questions. But take a look through all the questions. Come and we'll have some good discussions. So let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for any time we can gather together and study your word. We thank you again just for your word, and we thank you for the Holy Spirit. the one who reveals Christ to us through the Word.

We just begin to understand to know Christ is to know you, and that is exciting. As we know Christ, we also know who we are because we are placed into Christ. It is amazing to just read through your Word and see who Christ is. Again, what that means to each and every one of us who are believers. Father, we just again thank you for this time. We pray, I believe, Roger's teaching. Just pray for him as he gives us the word and to prepare our hearts to receive it. We thank you for this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.