July 12th, 2009

Announcements• bcbc-sundayschool@googlegroups.com• Please complete a survey if you have

not done so already• Sign-up to serve in a Class Ministry

Team• New Care Group Assignments• First class “Grow” function August 15th

• First care group function October

Bcbc-sundayschool.blogspot.com

Announcements• Notes for Missions (NYC, Serbia)

• Women’s Ministry Fall Retreat Oct 2&3

• Substitute next week

Can you name some religious people

throughout history who have made an

impact on the world?

Throughout history,

what do you think Christ has

represented?

Who is Jesus to the World?

"I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith, the gentle figure of Christ, so

patient, so kind, so loving, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retailate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek, I

thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man..."

“I could accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice, and a divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born. His death on the Cross was a great example to the

world, but that there was anything like a mysterious or miraculous virtue in it, my heart

could not accept."

Focal Passage

Colossians 1:15-23

Paul’s Colossian Epistle

• Written during Paul’s 2-year house arrest in Rome (ca. A.D. 60)

• Same year as Ephesians and Philemon

The City of Colossae• 100 miles east of Ephesus• Once prominent trade city• Known for wool production

The City of Colossae

The Church of Colossae

• Made up largely of Gentiles• No direct contact with Paul• Founded during Paul’s third

missionary journey• Evangelized by Epaphras who was

converted while Paul was in Ephesus

A Colossal Challenge:False Teaching

• Attacked the adequacy and supremacy of Christ

• Attacked Christ’s humanity• Encouraged Ceremonialism• Taught that secret knowledge

(gnosis) leads to salvation• Encouraged reliance on human

wisdom and tradition

It All Begins with Jesus

Colossians 1:15-17

Colossians 1:15-17He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation; because by Him everything

was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the 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 by Him all things hold together.

In His ImageHe (Christ) is the image of the

invisible God(Colossians 1:15)

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

(Genesis 1:27)

In His ImageHe (Christ) is the image of the invisible

God(Colossians 1:15)

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his

powerful word.(Hebrews 1:3)

Colossians 1:15-17He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation; because by Him everything

was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the 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 by Him all things hold together.

Creator or Created?…the firstborn over all creation

(Colossians 1:15)• By him all things were created (v. 16)

– Heaven & earth– Visible & invisible– Spiritual & physical

• All things were created by him and for him (v. 16)

• In him all things hold together (v. 17)

Christ the Head, Savior, and Lord

Colossians 1:18-23

Colossians 1:18-20He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place

in everything. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything

to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross—whether

things on earth or things in heaven.

What is Christ’s relation

to the church?

Christ and the Church

•The beginning of the church

•First place in the life of the

church

Colossians 1:21-23And you were once alienated and hostile

in mind because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to

present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him—if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the

faith, and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This

gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul,

have become a minister of it.

How are we changed

when we become Christians – and what

comes next?

Who is Jesus to you?

Luke 9:18-27

Luke 9:18-27 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"  They replied,

"Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago

has come back to life."

Luke 9:18-27"But what about you?" he asked. "Who

do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God." Jesus strictly

warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, "The Son of Man

must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests

and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be

raised to life."

Luke 9:18-27Then he said to them all: "If anyone

would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and

yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Luke 9:18-27If anyone is ashamed of me and my

words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in

his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are

standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of

God."

A Colossal Challenge:False Teaching

• Attacked the adequacy and supremacy of Christ

• Attacked Christ’s humanity• Encouraged Ceremonialism• Taught that secret knowledge

(gnosis) leads to salvation• Encouraged reliance on human

wisdom and tradition

Who is Jesus?• He is the eternal Son of God• He was involved in creation• He became man• He was the image of the invisible God• He shed his blood to save sinners• He was raised from the dead and

promises eternal life• He has all things under His authority

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I’m ready to

accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not

be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg

— or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity. 1942

You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can

shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can

fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any

patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity. 1942

Homework

Think about what you really believe about

Christ. Is he just a great teacher, a prophet, or a

religious genius? Are you just an admirer or are

you a disciple?