While sharing a message based out of Colossians 1:15–20, Jeff Medders, the director of theology and content for Send Network, unpacked seven truths with a message entitled “Jesus Is…” about the nature and deity of Christ during the March 19 chapel service at the University of Mobile.
“My desire and prayer is that we would leave this chapel time with a larger view of Jesus of Nazareth than the one we came in with and that your passions would be ignited for Him,” Medders explained.
“That’s why I’m opening this way because I was your age when my life changed forever. I grew up in the church and was there all the time, attending every Sunday and Wednesday and anytime the doors were open. Then, in college, Jesus became the most important person in my life. I had struggled with lust and hid it because I was scared. Even though I went to church three times a week, I had almost no joy because I had so much shame and condemnation to go around, but then, Jesus Christ in all of His power and in all of His love and all of His kindness and mercy, zapped me out of my spiritual grogginess. That’s what I want for you today. I want you to grab Colossians 1, and I hope that all of our thoughts and impressions and views of Jesus would expand and see His glory.”
Holding all things together
In the first point of his message, Medders shared that Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
“Look at Colossians 1:15,” Medders told students. “It does not say Jesus was the image of the invisible God. It doesn’t say in verse 17, he was before all things. It doesn’t say he used to hold all things together. The apostle Paul wants us to see the significance and the power and the hope and that it says that Jesus is all these things.
“These statements that were written 2,000 years ago are just as true today when these reverberated throughout the Roman empire and the church in Colossae. They reverberate with that same truth and same power here on the campus of the University of Mobile. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the one holding all things together. Jesus is alive. That’s what we must grab today.
“Jesus of Nazareth is not a relic of history. He is alive and well. Yes, he was crucified in the first century by Rome. He was crucified on the outskirts of Jerusalem. There, that Roman cross that had been used to crucify other men and women was used for Jesus, and a professional Roman executioner did declare Jesus dead there at the foot of the cross. He was crucified in the busiest weekend in Jerusalem all year, declared dead by a public Roman executioner, buried where the government knew where he was buried, and then three days later, it was not just a spiritual resurrection, which it was because He did defeat sin, death and the devil, but it was a physical resurrection as well where that same man walked out of the tomb and Jesus is alive today. Here’s why this matters because if Jesus isn’t alive today, if He is just a memory, if He is just a mascot of the Christian faith, but not our living Messiah, then nothing else in Christianity actually matters.
“Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17, ‘And if Christ had not been raised…’ So, here’s what we are talking about, if Christ hasn’t been raised, you know what this means, your faith is worthless, Christianity is nothing and you are still in your sins. But if Jesus is alive, then everything matters and everything matters in this Book. If Jesus had stayed dead, we wouldn’t even know His name. There wouldn’t be a Christianity. There wouldn’t be the New Testament, and there wouldn’t be a University of Mobile. You wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be here. But since Jesus is alive that is now the greatest message in the world.”
Medders then asked students to reflect on the resurrection of Jesus and the personal implication for each of their lives.
“Eternity flows from Easter because Jesus is, and because Jesus is, everything changes by the way we talk about Him and the way we view Him,” Medders said.
‘Jesus is supreme and Jesus is God’
In the second and third points, Medders emphasized that Jesus is supreme and Jesus is God.
“Paul wants us to see there is no one like Jesus,” Medders said. “He is the most unique person in human history. He is no mere teacher. He is no mere philosopher. He’s no mere scholar. He stands above them all simply because He is God.
“If you wonder what the image of the invisible God is like, if you remember back in Exodus when Moses asked, ‘Let me see your glory. Let me see you.’ And God said, ‘You can’t. You’ll be vaporized. You can see my back as I walk by.’ God declares His attributes to him being merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
“Paul now says in the incarnation and the Son of God becoming a man, what we see in Jesus of Nazareth is we are seeing what God is like. You want to see what God is like, read the Gospels. You want to know God’s heart, look at Jesus. You see the mercy, you see the kindness, you see the love and the forgiveness, the wisdom, the grace, the power, the attention — this is the power of the doctrine of the incarnation that Jesus is God. He became human without losing His divinity. That changes everything the way we see Him, the way we sing to Him, the way we way we read about Him, that changes everything we live for.”
In the fourth and fifth points, Medders noted that Jesus is the owner and the sustainer of the Universe.
“I hope that you would feel your thoughts of Him and your affections begin to rise with point number four,” Medders said. “We exist for Jesus. Your purpose in life is Christ. You are in a wonderful time in your life. You’re having so much fun in college — learning, studying, doing all kinds of fun things on the weekend, spring break, summer, just having a blast. You’re meeting other people. You might be finding your significant other. You’re thinking about your career and about your purpose in life and what you’re going to do after college. The Bible has an answer for you on what the purpose for your life is and why you exist and that’s Christ. If we took an audit of your life now, what would it show that you exist for? Is your life geared towards Christ, making Him known and honoring Him?
“He didn’t create everything and step away. He is involved in everything in the universe. Who keeps gravity gravitying? Why does physics physic? It is because of Hebrews 1:3, ‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact impression of His nature — sustaining all things by His powerful word.'”
With the sixth point, Medders emphasized that Jesus is first and asked the students introspective questions to ponder and reflect on, as he shared a quote from pastor and author John Piper.
“Where does Jesus rank in your life?” Medders asked students. “Is he supreme, or is He a side dish? Is He first, or is He ignored? As the great pastor and theologian John Piper would say, ‘Is He the blazing center of the solar system of your life by which all other planets find their orbit?’
“Jesus is first, and there is no one else. If you’re a believer, I just hope in this short meditation through Colossians 1 that your heart and your affections and your vison of Jesus is growing — that you’d be delighting in Him and that Jesus is more amazing than what you thought. Jesus is more incredible and more awe-inducing, more affection-igniting and more worship-producing than you ever imagined before, but my other concern is that maybe some of us have been around Jesus a lot but have never been in Jesus. We’ve been around Christian things but never actually found ourselves in Christ. The difference between that is a Christian and a non-Christian. The difference between that is heaven and hell.
“Maybe you’re thinking, ‘There’s no way I can be forgiven. You don’t know what I’ve done. I’ve broken God’s laws and have committed sins that I’m embarrassed to mention. I’ve done things that make my stomach sick when I think about them at night when I can’t go to sleep. My parents have no idea about the things I’ve done in my life. They would never talk to me. They would be ashamed of me.’ I know what the internal dialogue can be, and Jesus says in the Gospels, ‘Whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out.’”
Willing to save
With the seventh and final point, Medders shared with students that Jesus is willing to save you as he reminded them about the need for repentance, salvation and living for Christ.
“God finds pleasure in extending grace to you through His Son, Jesus Christ,” Medders said. “Where there is sin, Jesus says, ‘That’s what I came for. I came to forgive and came to make you new. I came to take your sins upon myself.’ That’s why the apostle Paul says Jesus made peace through His blood shed on the cross. It was on that real hill in Jerusalem, those real nails that pierced Jesus’ skin, that real blood that dripped down His hands and legs and that real blood that puddled at the foot of the cross in that soil there — that’s how God is saying, ‘You want to be forgiven? You want peace with me? I’ve made a way.’
“You may notice in your studies and as you look at the world, there are a lot of empires that establish peace by steamrolling others. God extends His terms of peace not by steamrolling you and me, but by saying, ‘My Son will be crushed for you. Jesus will die on the cross for your sins. He will take all the things you are ashamed to mention. He will take all of your condemnation. He will take all of your sins against Me, and He will die for them, and then in turn, He will give you His perfect life, His obedience, His right standing in the courtroom and throne room and family room of heaven. He will take that and download it into you. It’s not just copied and pasted. It’s downloaded into your DNA to where you become so righteous in Christ that you are so forgiven, you have such a right standing with God that a day will come that the earth will have to spit you out again and you will rise again from the dead because of Christ.
“Jesus is willing and thrilled to reconcile you, but all you must do is believe. It’s not a magical prayer to pray. It is with empty hands of faith saying, ‘I have nothing to bring except my sin. Jesus, will you take it? Will you forgive me? I believe you died and rose for me. I believe that you’re God and King. I believe all that you did it for me.’ It’s one thing to know that Jesus died. It’s another thing to know that Jesus did that for me, and that’s what I want for you today. If you do know that, then worship and praise Him and thank Him. Let the cry of your heart be only Jesus, only Jesus, only Jesus.”
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