(Audio/Video/Text)
Title: The Great Tangent (Part Four)
Intro:
This is the final section dealing Paul’s great tangent that runs from 3:2 all the way to 3:13. It is the most powerful, the most immediately applicable, and without question, these next two sermons are the most relevant messages to what we are dealing with as a nation than maybe anything else I have ever taught.
I implore you join me the next two weeks as we look at Paul’s final thoughts in this tangent and how greatly it applies to us today.
To offer a brief review of what the tangent has covered so far, here is the main idea from each of the first three sermons dealing with the tangent.
Review:
V2-4 “Here are the reasons you can trust my unique apostolic authority concerning the connection between the Jews and Gentiles…”
v5-7 “The Gentiles are also co-heir with Christ, and the type of unity that Paul is teaching between these two groups is the same type of unity we should be seeking in today’s society.”
v.8-9 “Paul identifies himself as the least of the saints” (most likely because of his previous persecution of the Church), this is one of the controversial verses that can have variant translations based on the manuscripts used for translation.
With all that reviewed, let’s look at the final thing that Paul says in this tangent, before he returns to his main point:
(read/pray)
Let’s deal with what Paul says in verse 10-11 today, because it alone is worthy of 10 sermons.
(that the) wisdom of God might be made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places…
J.I. Packer:
It is helpful here to recall Paul’s recent controversy with the false teachers in Colosse. He had argued in his letter to the Church that Jesus is the lord of all things, including the spirit world, and further that it is only in Jesus that heaven and earth are reconciled.
Accordingly, the establishment of peace between Jews and Gentiles in the church is a signal to the powers in the universe. For Paul, there is no deeper division in the human race than that between Jew and Gentile.
That these two groups could be united with each other through Christ displays the profound wisdom of God and proves even to supernatural powers that Jesus is Lord of the Universe.
(See Is. 9, I Cor. 2:6-10)
How unbelievably powerful and applicable is this idea to us here today in the middle of such racial tensions!
Whenever I get involved in a race discussion I immediately state it’s a spiritual issue and try to steer the conversation to the Cross of Christ, I have been accused of ducking the issues. I want you to listen VERY carefully to my response. It is based in scriptures like this and it is as controversial as it is true. I take a deep breath and as calmly as I can reply:
The Cross of Christ is the only thing that can bring peace to these human divisions. In fact, every man made mandate, weather a movement or new laws put into place does nothing but cause further resentment and drive and even larger wedge between the groups at tension.
If you need empirical proof of that I would simply say, look at all of human history.
Paul knew there was something HUGE at stake here, bigger and deeper even than the centuries old divisions and race hate between the Jews and Gentiles.
He knew the unity of these two groups through Christ would send shockwaves through not only the human world but also the principalities and powers in the spiritual places and this unity would display the supremacy of Christ over all things.
Imagine for a moment the power of this image:
(show slide)
The grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, The leaders of Antifa, and Isis, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama all worshiping Christ together, in peace, in unison.
You think that might break the internet?
And who would get the glory from such a radical reconciliation?
It is for this very hope, for this very reason, that the Gospel of Christ is most critical in times of the most societal sin, selfishness, and anger.
How does this apply to me? What is my responsibility in all this? Is this even possible?
THAT is the powerful thing we will address next week. DON’T MISS IT!
Let’s read on, Paul address that.