Focused on Jesus

So great you could join us here whether you're in the auditorium or watching via video over next door in the venue service or watching on Facebook live. It's just so wonderful to have you a part of the service. My name is René, one of the pastors here and I want to talk to you about one of the many legends that surrounds one of the most amazing buildings on the planet, the Taj Mahal in India. It's surrounded by mystery and myth but one of the most intriguing stories concerns the man who built it, his name Shah Jahan and the story goes that he built it as a memorial for his beloved wife and he placed her in a simple wooden coffin.

She died far too young and he loved her so much that he wanted to memorialize her memory and he began building a tomb to her memory around the wooden coffin that he had placed right in the center of the construction. But as the Shah began to focus more and more on the intricacies of the building and the spectacular level of the design in the Taj Mahal, he began to pay less and less attention to the purpose of the whole thing. The story goes that one day the Shah was touring the construction site and he tripped over a simple wooden box that was covered with discarded debris and angrily he ordered the workers to throw it out, thinking it was just construction scrap, losing for all time his own wife's remains. The one whose life inspired the whole project in the first place.

Now we don't know whether that's true or not, that's a legend, but does that sound incredible to you that somebody could build something like this and forget the one at the center of it all? Does that sound preposterous? Well let me ask you this: could someone possibly build a temple and forget why? Could somebody possibly join a movement and forget the hero or could somebody possibly become a Christian and forget Christ? It happens all the time.

I want to invite you to grab your message notes. They look like this in your bulletins that you received as you came in this morning. We're gonna start a brand new series this weekend called Focused. This is an eight-week series going section by section through the book of Colossians in the Bible, excuse me, and I believe we really, really need to look at this as a church. All kidding aside, I believe that Christianity in our culture is in peril. I sincerely believe that our mission as Christians is in absolute mortal danger and not because of any outside opposition. Our mission as Christian believers is in serious danger because of us, because of Christians who have forgotten the one at the center of our whole endeavor, Jesus Christ.

Maybe you say, "Oh René, you're overstating that." Well check out this stat. This is from the Barna research group: 81% of Americans who identify as Christians say a good Christian life is quote trying hard to obey the commands in the Bible. And it's not just a slight majority, it's 81% of the people who say they are Christians. When asked what's the Christian life all about, it's about trying as hard as you can to obey the commands that are in the Bible. There's a lot of serious problems with that. First of all, that definition is never in the Bible and secondly, it makes the Christian life all about you and your effort to try really hard to be good, however you interpret that. But the Christian life, of course, is not about you, it's about Jesus and what he has done and what he continues to do in you.

But since 81% of American Christians define a Christian life that way, here's the next disastrous outcome of that. Ask the average American who is not a church attender today what are Christians all about, especially what are evangelical Christians all about today? I looked at a lot of different polls this week and let me just summarize them all. They all give an answer something like this: Christians, they're all about politics and enforcing their own brand of morality and try to grow their mega church empires. Why would people who don't regularly attend church think that that's what we're all about? Because we're off message. Because we act like that is what we are all about, focused on ourselves, focused on the issue du jour, focused on our own morality, focused on our own politics, focused on religion instead of focused on the person at the center of our enterprise.

We've built the church and we forgot the one at the center. And this is not just a modern problem; this started to happen almost instantly in the development of Christianity. Within about 20 years of the life of Jesus Christ, how do we know? Well, in the Bible, in the New Testament, there's a very ancient letter called Colossians. It was written by a church leader called the Apostle Paul back at about 60, and not 1960, I mean 60, period, 60 AD, and it was sent to Christians who lived in a city called Colossae. And here's one of the reasons I am so excited about studying this. I've been working on this for months now, and I love the book of Colossians in the Bible.

But let me show you why I think it's particularly relevant to us. Let me ask you, what city is this that I am describing? This particular city is in a resort area near the west coast. It is known for having great weather; however, it is subject to earthquakes. Its major industries are tourism, wineries, and fishing. It's about 90 miles south of a much larger city known as the city on the bay, which had beautiful buildings that tourists would love to go see. It's a center of new age spirituality where spiritual masters set up shop and teach enlightenment through things like special diets, channeling the spirits of angels, secret scriptures, and so on. What city have I just described to you? It sounds just like Santa Cruz, doesn't it? But this is Colossae, the city that was near the west coast of what is now known as Turkey. Colossae was sort of the Santa Cruz of its day.

Everything I just told you that was true of Colossae, and so the letter to the Colossians has real particular relevance for those of us who live here in Santa Cruz. Here's what the Colossian Christians were all about: they said Jesus is great, we love Jesus, but we want to go deeper. And so we're gonna learn deeper teachings from some of these enlightened masters here in town with secret knowledge, and we're gonna adopt strict practices like super strict diets because everybody knows that the more religious you are, the more strict your diet is, right? And we also want to have ecstatic visions and ecstatic experiences because these enlightened masters are telling us all about the visions and the dreams they've had, and so we want to kind of conjure that up, drum that up in our own lives. And in fact, if people do not do these things, they're probably not truly deep Christians like we are.

You could summarize all of this in a two-word phrase: Jesus plus. Jesus is great, but we want to add on to Jesus all of these extra teachings that people are peddling. Now what is the problem with Jesus plus? So what's the problem? Well, the end result of Jesus plus thinking is exhaustion, spiritual, psychological, emotional exhaustion because you're just never sure you've done enough. You're always thinking there must be some new teaching that I don't know about; there must be some new secret to a dynamic spiritual life that I've got to find. I know it leads to exhaustion because it happened to me, and I'm gonna be talking about this more in this series, but it's happening to some of you right now.

You remember how when you started the Christian life, you had a new vibrancy in your soul and now you're dry and you're cold and you're stale and you're tired, and some of you aren't even feeling that anymore; you're feeling nothing. So what is the cure? How can you recover that spiritual vibrancy? And some of you are just stepping back into church, maybe for the first time in your life or maybe after 20, 30, 40 years away, and you've heard people talk about finding joy in Jesus Christ, but you're coming into the Christian world, the Christian universe, and it all looks as intricate and as complicated and as big as the Taj Mahal, and so you're asking what's it all about?

Well, the answer to both of those questions is the Apostle Paul's answer to the Jesus plus problem. The Apostle Paul tells the Colossians, you guys are overthinking it; you're complicating something that's very simple. The solution to Jesus plus is Jesus is enough. That is the theme for his whole letter to them: Jesus is enough. In fact, here's the key verse: I'm gonna put Colossians 2:6 up on the screen and let's just read this verse out loud together. Let me hear you. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him. In other words, you grow deeper in the Christian life the same way you start the Christian life, by focusing on Jesus Christ.

In fact, let me just give you the whole point of the sermon in one word, all right? If you forget everything else, don't forget this one word. Because you ever have somebody ask you maybe at lunch after church, somebody who didn't make it to church that morning, say, "Hey, what was the sermon about at church today?" Probably you never have this conversation, but I'd like to imagine that you have this conversation, and the problem is you look at them and every once in a while you go blank and you go, "I don't remember what the sermon was about today." Has that ever happened to you? It's happened to me, and I preached the sermon. So I want you to get the point of the message today; it's one word: Jesus. Say that with me out loud: Jesus.

And in fact, to help drive it home throughout the message today, I'm gonna ask you several questions and they're gonna be all kinds of different questions about different things, and I'm gonna ask you to shout out the answer. And let me just give you a hint in advance: the answer will always be Jesus. And so there is absolutely no risk whatsoever to you of shouting out Jesus; you're gonna be right every single time. So let's just try it right now: what is the point of the sermon today? Jesus. And that's where Paul goes right away in Colossians chapter 1. He starts out and he says, "Colossians, you guys, I heard about your faith and the joy you had in Christ from the day one that you heard the message about God's amazing grace." I'm gonna be diving into some of the other verses in chapter 1 in our daily video devos this week, but I want to just cut to the chase and get right to verse 15.

This is where, after the introductory comments, the Apostle Paul starts launching into the meat of his letter. It's a riff about Jesus Christ, and I don't want you to miss this because the Colossian problem was losing their focus on Jesus and being distracted by all kinds of other religious activities and ideas and so on. Paul responds to their error by refocusing on Jesus and talking about the depth and the beauty and the majesty of Jesus Christ. And so just to make sure you get this point, wherever Paul uses the personal pronoun of him referring to Jesus, I am just going to say Jesus.

Colossians 1 starting in verse 15: The Son, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Jesus, all things were created: things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Jesus and for Jesus. Jesus is before all things, and in Jesus all things hold together. And Jesus is the head of the body, the church. Jesus is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything Jesus might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus and through Jesus to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through Jesus's blood shed on the cross.

Let me ask you, church, who is this all about? It's Jesus. That's right. Now here's something I think is so fascinating: all the experts, kind of the ancient literature experts, believe that the whole section I just read to you is either a poem or a song lyric because of the way the Greek is divided and kind of the rhythm that the original language is in. Paul is either writing a poem, something like a spoken word piece, or he is quoting a song that Christians used to sing about Jesus, like when they got together to worship, like we were just singing about Jesus here in our auditorium. I love that because Paul's drawing them back to Jesus not by scolding and not with a lesson; he's drawing them back with art. I love that.

But just to give you a feel for the emotional impact of the riff that Paul goes into here, I want to play you the end of a sermon that was preached by a great African-American preacher named SM Lockridge. SM Lockridge actually spoke up at Mount Herman here in Santa Cruz back in 1979, and a church recently took the recording of the end of his sermon there and put it to new imagery. I want you to watch this video.

He's the King of the Jews. He's the King of Israel. He's the King of Righteousness. He's the King of the Ages. He's the King of Heaven. He's the King of Glory. He's the King of Kings. And he's the Lord of Lords. That's my King. I wonder, do you know him? He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He's God's Son. He's a sinner's savior. He's a sinner piece of civilization. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He is the loftiest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosophy. He's the fundamental doctrine of theology. He's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient savior. I wonder if you know him today. He's the King of Knowledge. He's the well-trained of wisdom. He's the doorway of deliverance. He's the pathway of peace. He's the roadway of righteousness. He's the highway of holiness. He's the gateway of glory. Do you know him?

Well, his life is endless. His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting. His love never changes. His words is enough. His rage is deficient. His reign is righteous. And his yoke is easy. And his burden is lighter. Our jock's looking private. Well, yeah, he's insatribal. He's incomprehensible. He's invincible. He's irresistible. His good acting and the rage is hopeless. Yeah! That's my King. That's my King. Amen! Isn't that awesome? Wow! Why am I even up here? How could I possibly follow that? That was amazing.

But I wanted to play that for you because that is what Paul is doing in this section of Colossians. He is just going off on a riff about Jesus Christ. And I think this is very instructive for us as Christians because the Colossians were in error that needed to be corrected. They were watering down their Christian theology. But Paul doesn't start by scolding them. Paul doesn't start by nagging them. Paul doesn't start by judging them. You know why? Because nobody in the world is walking around with a sign on them that says, "Please correct me." Nobody's walking around with a sign on them that says, "Please judge me." But you know what people are walking around with a sign that says? They're walking around with a sign that says, "Please inspire me." Inspire me.

Everybody wants to be inspired by something bigger than them, by something that's going to give them vision, by something that's going to give them hope, something that's going to draw them back to true north. And that's what the Apostle Paul does here. He starts, as he always does, with the inspiration before he gets to the correction. So we're about to dive into the details of this riff, but I don't want you to forget the cascading, emotional effect of this. It is so powerful.

Now, on the details, I've gotten so much wisdom and insight myself from sermons that have been preached and books that have been written by people like John Orpberg and Max Lucato, Ray Steadman. I put the references to them at the bottom of the message because I want to give credit where credit is due. But the Apostle Paul says five amazing things about Jesus for us to refocus on this morning. First, Paul says, number one, Jesus is the God-revealer. The God-revealer. Look back at verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God. This word image comes from the Greek ekon, but I want you to look at this word for a second. What English word do you think we get from that? Icon. That's right. That means perfect representation, revealer. In other words, when I look at Jesus, when I read the Gospels and I see Jesus, I see God's heart.

I see God's heart for the lost. I see the soul of God for lost souls. I see how God feels about lost sheep. I see the heart of God. And it says he's the firstborn over all creation. Now, the term firstborn sounds like it means Jesus was born first. But this is a term used in the first century to mean the heir, the possessor, the owner. Basically, it means Jesus is the prince of all creation. And this segues perfectly into the next part of the song. Not only is Jesus the God-revealer, Jesus is the creator. He is the creator. Back in verse 16, "For by him all things were created, things in heaven, on earth, visible, invisible, thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, all things created by him and for him." All things, from the most amazing stars in the far reaches of space to the grandeur of our own redwood forests, these giant trees, to every tiny drop of dew on every leaf in every forest on the planet, to every tiny finger with every tiny fingernail on the tiny hands of every tiny toddler like my grandson, Freddy, Jesus thought it all up.

Oh, and by the way, guess what else he's thinking up right now? We just found out Freddy's going to have a baby sister or brother. Yes! More sermon material. Thank you, Jesus. But even as that baby is being knit together in his or her mother's womb, that is Jesus at work. And the point is this: anything you love about creation, that was his idea, that was his work. And this has real personal applications for you too. And this is where, you know, I appreciate the effectiveness of speaking to large groups about these truths, but sometimes I just wish I had the ability and the time to go up to every single one of you individually and just put my hands on your shoulders and look you in the eye and say, "Do you understand what this means for you if you feel like there is no hope for you?"

If you wonder sometimes if you are too far gone. Do you understand this means that if Jesus made the universe, he can make something brand new out of your life. So don't give up. There is so much hope for you because the one who created the cosmos can easily create something new in your life. Who is the one who can create something new in anyone's life, church? Who is that? It is Jesus. That's right. And then number three, Paul says, "Jesus is the sustainer." The sustainer. It's not just that Jesus made everything and then let it go. The next verse, verse 17, "He's before all things, and in him all things hold together." Every atom, he holds it together. And part of what this means is when you feel like, "Man, I got to hold it together." Jesus has the power to hold you together.

He's holding the universe together. And again, if only I could just put my hand on your shoulder and look you in the eye, I'd say, "I know you have said at some points in your life, I feel like my life is coming apart at the seams. I'm falling apart. I'm disintegrating." Jesus Christ holds together everything that we know, every atom in the known universe. So I know if you turn your life over to him, he can hold you together too. Again, let me ask you, church, who can hold you together? Who is it? It is Jesus.

And Paul is just on a roll now. Number four, he says, "Jesus is the ruler." The ruler over what? Of everything. Verse 18: "And he is the head of the body, the church." Now stop right there for just a second because the text is kind of making an amazing turn here. You'll notice up to now it's been about creation, and that's amazing enough. He made it, he sustains it, but now here's the new creation, the church. And that's his idea too. It's his idea. It goes beyond the idea of mere mortal men and women. And I've seen this, one of the blessings that we have here in the church is the church thinks it's important to send its pastors around the world on mission trips, and I've also been blessed to be able to go around the world to speak at different churches just in the last two or three years.

I think of what I've seen. I've seen chapels in India, where orphans that we sponsor worship in their children's home. I've been able to speak in theaters in Brazil where Christians are meeting and often watching our videos there. I've seen Christians worship in storefronts in Guatemala and under thatched roofs in Africa and in fishermen's chapels up in Alaska. And here in Aptos we meet over at Munski Hall or here in the auditorium. And in all these places, the buildings are so different, but even more than that, the people in these buildings are so different. There's young and old and black and white and Asian and Hispanic and Jew and Gentile all worshiping Jesus.

Let me ask you this: how in the world has such a non-homogenous and frankly disorganized idea kept going for 2,000 years and going strong? Here's sort of a revelation I had after the latest round of pastor scandals. You know the most important thing about a church is not its human leadership. As important as that is, the Christian church has not lasted for 2,000 years because it has a cool org chart with all the right people in all the right slots. It has lasted because Jesus is actively holding it together. And Jesus is not only head of the church, Jesus is head of this church. This is not René's church or Mark's church. Anybody who has been here at Twin Lakes Church any length of time knows it's Valerie's church. No, just kidding. Whose church is this? It's Jesus' church.

And what's more, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead. What in the world does that mean? He is firstborn from among the dead. That sounds like something in a Vincent Price horror movie or something. Well, here's what it means. You all have a life. God gave you a life. And guess what? You're all going to have a death. Every one of you. So how does that make you feel? Here's something that will make you feel better about it. This says Jesus rose from the dead as the leader of all who will rise. That means if you place your trust in him, one day you will rise because he rose first. And then it says so that in everything he might have the supremacy. What's that about?

Little cultural background. I want to show you a very early example of Christian art. This is a carving in marble over 1700 years old. The main figure there with a scroll represents Jesus, Jesus enthroned at the end of all time. And then that figure underneath his feet, that's called the personification of the cosmos. That guy is a common figure in ancient Roman art, the personification of the cosmos. He represents all the kings and all the rulers and all the powers and all the authorities on earth throughout all time, visible and invisible. So what this is a picture of is of all powers being placed under the subjection of Jesus one day in the future when he returns.

Now what's interesting to me is this is a carving on the side of a Christian man's sarcophagus, his coffin. And so this is kind of a defiant statement of hope in face of this man's own death that one day all the death and all the dictators and all the disasters and all the disease will be under Jesus's feet. Jesus will rule even over them. And one day he will fix all the things that are so wrong with the world. And if I could speak to you all one on one, I'd take you by the shoulders and I'd look you in the eye and I'd say, "So when our world drives hope from your heart." When you look at the news headlines or you're watching TV or you're getting a text from a friend or you just received the doctor's report and you hear bad news one more time and your heart sinks so low, face your mind, fix your focus on the fact that one day there is someone who will make a decision. Someone who will make all things right. And who is that church? It's Jesus.

And listen, praise God, maybe your life is in chaos right now and frankly it's because you've been calling all the shots yourself. But now you'd like a new ruler, a new boss, a new Lord, somebody who can establish sanity and order in your life. Jesus is the one that you are looking for. And then look where the spoken word peace kind of lands. I love this. Number five is Jesus is the reconciler. The reconciler between humans and God. Going on to verse 19, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven." And then I love this phrase, "By making peace through his blood shed on the what? The cross."

You know, Christianity has inspired so much art, but there's one image, one symbol, one shape that has inspired more art, more music, more paintings than any other single image on earth ever: Jesus Christ crucified on the cross. From people like Rembrandt to Degas to Salvador Dali, artist after artist has become fascinated by the idea that God loves us so much that he didn't stay up in heaven demanding sacrifice from us, demanding that we initiate a relationship with him. He initiated, he provided the sacrifice so that we could know him. That is mind-blowing. And it gets better because don't miss this. This verse says that God was pleased to do this. Pleased to have Christ redeem you. God says to you, pleased to know you.

I have a friend who was raised in a very formal church and he says as a kid, he'd go to church and he'd see Jesus up on the cross and think, "God, that's impressive. He died for the sins of the world. That's awesome." And then one day as an adult, he was in his twenties, he said he went to church as usual and suddenly it just hit him right between the eyes. "Oh, that means me." And suddenly it wasn't just theoretical anymore. And he began to weep as he looked at Jesus on the cross and thought, "That includes me. And this includes you and you and you and you and you." Look how many times this next verse says the word you. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. Some of you remember thinking of God as the enemy. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you, what? Holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Right now, that's you.

Maybe some of you just got out of prison or jail. I hope you know you're welcome. Maybe some of you are still in a prison or a jail of your own shame. No matter who you are, if you place your trust in Christ right now, he sees you as holy, without blemish, free from any accusation. You're clean, you're pure, no more hoops to jump through. In fact, if you're taking notes, I want you to take a pen and go back over your notes and change the word "the" in each point to "my." Jesus is my God-revealer. Jesus is my Creator. He's my sustainer. He's my ruler. Jesus is my reconciler. And that is awesome.

Now, if that is all true of us as believers, why aren't more believers just thrilled about the idea of staying centered on Jesus and sharing this amazing good news? Pardon me, with other people. There is only one thing in the whole world that can take away your joy in all this. And Paul warns about it in the very next verse. He says, "If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the Gospel." Do not move from the Gospel. He's not saying you will lose your salvation. He's saying, like the Taj Mahal story, it's so easy to move from the center. It's so easy to be distracted from what's at the center of all this. And the way to keep growing spiritually is to simply stay focused on Jesus, thinking about Jesus. This can fascinate you for an eternity.

I love how Karl Barth, one of the greatest theological minds of the 20th century, total Brainiac Swiss University professor, was once asked in an interview, "What is the most profound theological truth you know?" And he famously answered, "Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so." And he meant it. And that's exactly what Paul means here. Your biggest need in life, your biggest need for your spiritual life, the biggest thing you can do to help your marriage, the biggest thing that you can do to help your own children, the biggest thing you can do to help your own peace of mind is to keep preaching the Gospel to yourself every day because it is so easy to get unfocused.

So how do you do that? I want to suggest an experiment this week. Take these notes and put these truths up. Tape them to your bathroom mirror. Put them in your Bible or by your bed. Read the Bible verses connected to these points every day this week and just sense yourself growing in wonder and gratitude over this. And then as you come back each week during the series, you'll find Paul talking more about how a simple focus on Jesus changes everything.

You know, I was thinking SM Lockridge might recap the verses that we've looked at today, something like this: Christ is creator, maintainer, and container of all God's glory. Christ is the leader. Christ is revealer. Christ is the healer of all God's creation. Every king, tribe, and nation, by Christ they exist. Every atom, every angel, by Christ they persist. Of all the church, Christ is head. Christ is leader of all who are dead. And all creation, Christ reconciled. All things tame. And all things wild. He is boundless, limitless, peerless, matchless, bigger, stronger, higher, longer. When you're far from God, his forgiveness is enough. When you've called him an enemy, his love is enough. When you need help, his power is enough. When you need guidance, his word is enough. Jesus is enough.

Church, who is enough? Who is enough? Let's stay focused on Jesus and let's focus on him together in prayer right now. Would you bow your heads with me? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Jesus. And we just want to focus on him and worship right now. Now with every head bowed and every eye closed, let me just address everybody in this room personally. Because as S.M. Lockridge would say, "I wonder if you know him today." Do you know if you've ever turned your life over to the care and control of Jesus? Let me just tell you, there is no decision you could ever make that could possibly have greater impact on your life. And I just want to invite you to do that right now in this moment.

Maybe you're not sure you've ever done that. This is your chance to make sure to settle the issue. And here's the way we're going to do this: I'm going to pray a prayer out loud, and if this prayer reflects your heart, just pray these words silently in your heart after me. Lord, thank you for reconciling the world to yourself through the death and resurrection of Christ. And Lord, I want to turn my life over to Jesus right now. I want to live for Jesus and live like Jesus and live in the presence of Jesus and live in the power of Jesus. I receive you into my life.

Now with our heads still bowed, maybe years ago you prayed a prayer like that, but you know you need to refocus on Jesus. Pray something like this: Jesus, we love you. We worship you. We long to pour out all of our hearts in adoration to you. I want to build my life on you. I don't want to be distracted. I want my message to be Jesus. So thank you for being our God revealer and our forgiver and our sustainer and our friend. Receive our worship now and we pray this together in Jesus' name. Amen.