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 1:15-17
He 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 Image
He (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 Image
He (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 1:15-17
He 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 1:18-20
He 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 1:21-23
And 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 9:18-27
Then 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 9:18-27
If 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?