Teaching Series
Jesus Manifesto
Wednesday—Getting Clear About Christ

Series: Jesus Manifesto
Message: Getting Clear About Christ
Preacher: Jenniffer Ogden
Reflection: Japhet De Oliveira
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Beyond: J. Murdock
Live Purpose: Lydia Svoboda
Editor: Becky De Oliveira

Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.

Read: Colossians 1:15-23 in the New Testament for Everyone (NTE). Note 1–3 insights or questions. 

Reflect: These verses are simply drenched in depth. For a moment when I was laying out this sermon series, I thought we could literally preach through these nine verses, taking one per week. In fact we had done something very similar preaching an entire weekend in Denmark back in 2012 when the One project held a gathering focusing on these verses alone.  I opted, however, to cover the whole book as the meta-narrative of the entire letter is deeply inspiring and practical. I believe it speaks into our lives today. I believe that it calls us to answer the question, “Who do you say I am?” Which is the question everyone needs to wrestle with more than once. Who is Jesus? 

Above Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and dare I say it, above Christianity, is Jesus. There is no human, no voice, no paper, no pen, no tablet, no server, no intelligence that can contain who Jesus is. 

While I hope that is a welcome reminder to most, I know there are some who will be upset at this assertion. Primarily because it has an air of exclusivity. Can we really claim Jesus above all? I would answer with a resounding yes.—only because I believe that Jesus is inclusive rather than exclusive. I believe that all religions are an attempt to discover meaning. Christianity tries as hard as anyone else, but when Christianity is aligned with Jesus something quite remarkable happens. We love more. We welcome more. We have grace towards our enemy. 

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31, ESV)

I would summarize this is as “Live Love” or “Love Well.” The problem is that we have tribal warfare. We have forgotten the way of Jesus and the way of the disciples when the Church was birthed. The focus was not to tear anyone down but to point all eyes to Jesus. 

For in Him all the Fullness was glad to dwell  and through Him to reconcile all to Himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, through Him—yes, things on the earth, and also the things in the heavens. (Colossians 1:19-20, NTE)

The Spirit of God, the searcher of hearts is the one that speaks truth into our lives, and the promise is freedom:

He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved son. He is the one in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14, ESV)

Recalibrate: What do you do with the phrase “making peace through the blood of the cross?” What does it mean that the only way is Jesus. All? What would you say to someone who loves Jesus but has no tribal commitment?  

Respond: Share a prayer of thankfulness for all that Jesus has done in your life. 

Research: Read Mark 12 for the context. 

Remember: “Through His power all things were made—things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen” (Colossians 1:16, ICB). 

Japhet De Oliveira is administrative director for the Center for Mission and Culture at Adventist Health in Roseville, California.

Trace around the outline of your child. This could be on the pavement outside with chalk or on a large piece of paper with crayons. Ask your little one to help you fill up their outline. While you are doing this together write all the things that you love about your child on or around your work of art. Love changes how we do and see things. Looking at your child’s outline with your words of love all over it, know that this is how Jesus sees all of us. Jesus asks us to have eyes like Him and see what is lovely in all of His children.

Do you like to share? Do you like to share your stuff or do you like to keep it to yourself? Do you like to share your toys when your friends come over? Would you rather play with your toys than play with your friends? These are tough questions. Jesus shared everything with us. He is even sharing His family with us. I love that Jesus shows us how to share. Think of ways you can share at home and in your community.

I used to be a die-hard, true-blue fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. I spent my extra income paying for the specific cable package that allowed me to watch every home and away game each baseball season. When I wasn’t able to watch the games live, I had my DVR set to record every game so I could start it when I got home from class. I was so serious in my fandom that I had a rule with friends that they were forbidden to talk about any scores for games I hadn’t yet seen. Any random stranger who had the audacity to talk about sports would immediately bear witness to me plugging my ears, humming loudly, and streaking away from the space they were standing in. It was ridiculous how far I was willing to go to block spoilers. It got so bad at one point that I began distancing myself from friends who decided to make it their goal to spoil games for me. It became very lonely being a Dodgers fan in the way I was practicing my fandom. Suddenly life wasn’t as full when I was isolated from my friends just to keep up this silly commitment I made.

In Colossians 1:19, Paul talks about Jesus and His commitment to God. Paul says that in Jesus, “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Meaning that Jesus was fully committed to God to the point that there was no room for anything else. It was faith all day long without fail!

I spent a time where I had given up watching all sports of any kind in order to purge myself of these nonsensical habits. And I found that life was better when you were with good people rather than away from them. Surely a few things were different, and it was hard having games “spoiled” from then on. But I found more room in my life for the important things—like faith and family and prayer. 

What are you a die-hard fan of? Do you ever find that being a fan gets in the way of other things in life? Is it worth it? Why or why not?

“For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.” Have you seen a picture of our Milky Way galaxy? According to astronomers, there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. God is bigger than one hundred billion galaxies, and all of His fullness took on a human body in order to save the human race that He somehow loves with all of His infinite entirety. You simply cannot understand how loved you are!

Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
J. Murdock is associate pastor at Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado, where he focuses on youth and young adult ministry.
Lydia Svoboda is a junior theology major at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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