Being Part of His Church

Greetings All,

This weeks 'thought' comes from Frederick Faber (1814-1863). A. W. Tozer quotes him in his classic work, "The Pursuit of God," but gives no reference as to what book, paper or sermon he takes it from. Sorry about that!

Faber's words speak of Christ and the place He should hold both in our lives and in His Church. Enjoy.

"Wherever we turn in the church of God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle and end of everything to us... There is nothing good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor, because, if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the joy of heaven, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that might be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done, but then, that matters not, for we shall always be with Him, and we desire nothing more."

His words bring to mind those spoken by another man at a conference on Jonathan Edwards which I attended in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The man's name was Dr. John Hannah and the words he spoke have always stuck with me: "The day you find anything more beautiful than Jesus," he said, "is the day you can know you never knew Jesus."

When people add a little Jesus into their lives during the week or on Sunday morning, as nothing more than an attempt to attain wholeness (a religious element added into the mix to balance off their life), they have missed the whole point. Jesus doesn't offer Himself to us as one among many lovers. He offers Himself to us as the second person of the Godhead whom we are to love with "all our heart, and all our mind, and all our soul, and all our strength." (Mark 12:30).

The love of God is meant to consume us. It is meant to capture our hearts and captivate our supreme affections. Scripture intends that Jesus Himself be the object of our utmost devotion. He is to reign in our hearts with no competitiors, no co-regents and no equivalent rivals - no one and no thing that even comes close to His place or position. He is to be the one all-consuming passion of our lives, under which, or behind which, everything else falls.

As the Apostle Paul said, not expressing the view of a fanatical extremist, but the norm of every Christian's experience: "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him..." (Philippians 3:7-8) He is to have the preeminence or supremacy in the church (Col. 1:18), and if you are part of His church, that is the place He is to have in your life as well.

May it be so. Pastor Jeff

First-born of all Creation

Greetings All,

This weeks 'thought' comes to you from William Barclay (formerly Professor of New Testament and Hellenistic Greek at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland). It comes to you from his book "The All-Sufficient Christ."

I thought it would be an appropriate quote to meditate upon during Holy Week, since the events of this week make little sense, and have even less significance, unless we recall who it is that is being betrayed, put on trial by men, mocked, spit on, beaten, flogged and crucified.
It explains Paul's words in Colossians 1:15-16 where he says of Jesus:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him were all things created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible..." Enjoy!

"In its English dress the phrase "the first-born of all creation" is misleading. The word for 'first-born' is prototokos, and it has two connected but quite distinct meanings.

First, it has what may be called a time meaning, and does mean quite simply born first in point of time. If that meaning is taken here, it will simply mean that Christ was the first of created persons to be born. It would make him a part of creation rather than make him separate from creation. But the whole tenor of Paul's thought forbids us to take that meaning, for Paul is concerned to show, not that Jesus is simply a part of creation, but that he is above and beyond creation; and in any event Paul goes on to say that all things were created by him and that he was before all things. This means we must seek the meaning of prototokos along its other line.

Second... the word prototokos came to have the meaning of primacy in honor rather than mere priority in time. 'Israel,' says God, 'is my first-born son' (Exodus 4:22). Israel was certainly not the first-born nation in the point of time, but Israel was certainly the first-born nation in the plan and design and the heart of God.

God says of the Davidic king: 'And I will make him the first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth' (Psalm 89:27). There, quite clearly, the word 'first-born' has to do with place and prestige and honor and not with time at all... In the rabbinic writings God himself is called the first-born of creation, which can only mean that God is the sovereign of all creation.

So when Jesus Christ is called the first-born of all creation, it does not mean that he was the first created person to be born. What it does mean is that to him God has assigned the first place, the lordship, the sovereignty of all creation. Here, therefore, the translation of the New English Bible is much to be preferred: 'His is the primacy over all created things.' (By this term first-born) Paul lays down the sovereignty of Jesus Christ over the whole creation of God.

Jesus is also called, 'the image of the invisible God.' The word is eikon. This word is a regular word for that which is a precise copy, reproduction, or replica. An eikon is an accurate picture or description... So, then, to call Jesus the eikon of God is to say that Jesus is the perfect portrait of God. If you wish to see what God is like, look at Jesus. In Jesus the invisible God becomes visible to men. So, then, as Lightfoot puts it, Jesus is the perfect representation of God (See Hebrews 1:3).

Yet ordinarily we can go and look at the person of whom the portrait or description is a representation. We cannot do that in the case of the infinite and invisible God. So not only is Jesus the representation of God; he is also the perfect manifestation and revelation of God. In one sentence, in Jesus we see God. When we look at Jesus, we can say, 'This is what God is like.' And what a blinding revelation it is to see God in the one who healed the sick, and fed the hungry, and comforted the sorrowing, and chose ordinary men to be his right-hand men, and was the friend of those whom the conventional and the orthodox and the pious regarded with contempt and supercilious disgust. Here indeed is a revelation that changes a man's whole relationship to God."

With prayers that this week will bring for you a renewed sense of devotion, reverence and joy in Christ,

Pastor Jeff