The Phil Files

We are entering the holiday zone and the battle over keeping Christ in Christmas and God in Thanksgiving will heat up again. The minions of political correctness and marketers in the name of not offending anyone to whom they want to market their goods will homogenize this time, trying to keep everyone happy. In the process, they end up secularizing a time that for many of us should be holy ground. However, there is a misunderstood exception to this trend.

X-mas!

While some have used this abbreviation for Christmas to try and separate it from Jesus’ birth. The reality of the term, however, is exactly the opposite. X-mas is the ultimate way to mark Christmas as a time to honor Christ. Let me explain.

You see, the first letter of the word Christ in the original language, Greek, is chi — shaped like our letter x. When capitalized, it is shaped just our capital letter X. This was an abbreviation widely used by early disciples of Jesus to stand for Christ. It was probably more widely used in early years of Christianity than the standard cross symbol or the fish symbol. In many of the early copies of New Testament documents, X with a line over the top was used as the symbol for Christ. This appears to have been done for several reasons:

1. Clarity — because the word “christos” means “the anointed one,” but when used specifically for Jesus Christ, the symbol clearly set Him apart as God’s Christ, the Messiah.
2. Cross — the letter itself is shaped in the form of a cross and thus captures the full meaning of God’s Christ, the anointed one who went to the Cross of Golgotha for us.
3. Compact — it saved spaced in hand copied documents while highlighting Christ as special.

Sometimes we get bent out of shape about things that are important and vital to our faith. Having a holy passion for God’s holiness and respect for His name — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is often a good thing. But on this one, I fear we sometimes have what the apostle Paul calls, “zeal apart from knowledge” (Romans 10:2). X for believers means one thing — Jesus is the Christ. For me, that’s a good thing — a holy thing. I’m keeping X in my world, and I hope you do, too.

So I’m going to keep the X in X-mas. In fact, I want there to be a huge X in my heart and imprinted on my life. I want X to still mark the spot where the grace of heaven met the ugliest realities of humanity the Cross., There Jesus Christ showed who He was all along — the Son of God, the Lord of heaven and earth, God with us, King of King and Lord of Lords, the One who was and is and is to come, who freed us from our sins by blood, the Faithful Witness and the long awaited Christ about whom the prophets spoke.

To X be the glory.

Last Update 10.21.2008

“In Christ Alone” Colossians 2:6-15 for 10/26

Simple and well known songs and hymns about Jesus would be great for this day!
The formula for this Sunday is simple:  X + n < X  [How many good in Algebra? Math majors?]

Adding other religions or other religious agendas to Jesus only dilutes, poisons, or pollutes the simple message of Jesus. Anything added to Christ is really less than Christ! [Kinda like seeing a car with a dream catcher on the rear view mirror and an “in case of rapture” bumper sticker] But it isn’t just other religions that can pollute the pure message of Christ, it’s also making a religion out of following Jesus – loading it down with all sorts of stuff that Jesus never established! {We’re talking about syncretism and legalism as two different ditches we’re prone to fall into.}

Jesus Christ must be at the core of who we are so we will keep reminding folks to be in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus is our basis of salvation and our lives must be rooted in him. Call for us to keep our focus in the story of Jesus. Nothing can be added to this simple message – Galatians 1:3-9. If we add things, then the Gospel is less than the Gospel we substitute our “man made up” philosophies for God’s grace and what saves us.

While there is an element of exclusiveness that we need to emphasize here (remember the goal is for “everyone” used 3x in 1:28 and cf. Acts 4:12; John 14:6), there is also an element of liberation – we don’t need a bunch of other stuff, or teaching, or religion, just Christ.

We don’t have to be constantly looking to add some new religious practice or rite to the list of things to make us righteous, holy, and acceptable to God (we will cover more on this next week). Instead, we need to settle ourselves down into Christ and be rooted and connected to him – remember the Vine and the Branches in John 15 where Jesus says things like: “remain in me and I will remain in you” (v. 4) … “apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5). Also see John 14:15-23, where Jesus promises to come and live inside us through the Comforter, make His home with us, and reveal Himself to us. This is where fullness of life (cf. John 10:10 and Colossians 2:9-10) will be found!

I would love to have a video of one of our math professors/teachers doing algebraic equations and then they come up with the formula X + n < X

Preaching Ideas

Why isn’t Jesus enough? What makes us want to add more?

Peter said, “There is no other name given unto us by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Paul said, “I preach Christ and Him crucified …” (1 Corinthians 1)
Paul emphasized that the Gospel by which we are saved is simply this: Jesus who was died according to the Scriptures, buried and raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15; cf. Romans 6:1-6)
Paul strongly warned against any other gospel or adding to the Gospel (Galatians 1:5-9).
Paul declared Christ in us to be God’s mystery, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27-2:3).
Hebrews insisted that Jesus is God’s fullest and clearest message (Hebrews 1:1-3).
John reminded us that no one as ever seen God, but that Jesus has made him known (John 1:1-18).

So Jesus must be our focus, our salvation, our message, and our hope. So we need to live with Jesus as our Lord and not add anything to that simple message. Jesus is more than enough!

Daybreak

The focus will be on why Jesus isn’t enough. This Heartlight.org article summarizes is very well, Isn’t Jesus Enough? There will be a chorus or repeated phrase, “Jesus is enough” as we try to go over and over again the central core message, Jesus plus anything is less than Jesus!
The three points or commands that come out of Colossians 2:6-11 will be given as the final call of the message:

1. Sink the roots of our hearts down deep into Jesus as Lord! Are you reading the Gospels?
2. Let our hearts overflow with thanksgiving for what the Lord has done for us! [Offering]
3. Let’s not let anyone take us captive by their newfangled religious experiences or their old demands of traditions and rules.  [Video on X + n < X – Christ plus anything is less than Christ!]

Refresh

We will be doing cardboard testimonies at Refresh, so we will focus on the same message as Daybreak, but make it a bit more succinct and emphasize that the change, the transformation, the redemption we need in our lives is not going to come from religion, but from Jesus and our whole worship experience that follows, Cardboard Testimonies, Communion, Commitment to serve others, is a celebration and reminder of that. Point 1 will be driven home. Then we will respond to point 2 with the offerings. Point 3 will be driven home by the video which will lead us into the rest of the Refresh time.

Sundown

What I was hoping we could cover would be the exclusive claim of Jesus on our lives as Lord. It comes, of course, out of Colossians 2:6-10.
I believe going to Galatians 1:5-9 and emphasizing that we can’t add stuff to that Gospel or leave that Gospel is crucial. Paul describes that Gospel in clear and dramatic forms in 1 Corinthians 15:1-6 and I always love to emphasize how this is directly reflected in Romans 6:1-14, esp. vs. 3-7. Paul says pretty much the same thing in Galatians 2:20 & 6:14.

LIFE Questions

Why is it so hard to believe that Jesus is not only enough for us, but that all fullness in life is found in Him?

What are the key points of Colossians 2:6 that you think could bless you most in your walk with Christ?

How can we live our lives in Christ, rooted and built up in Him?

Notice that we are commanded to “continue” (or “walk”) in Christ, but that as we do, our faith strengthened. How are we strengthened? (cf. 1:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18)

Why is thankfulness so important to us in this context?

How do we avoid what Paul warns us about in Colossians 2:7?

I remember going fishing years ago with a friend who took his three year old grandson. We didn’t have children yet, so I wasn’t personally experienced with the tenacity of a three year old bombarding an adult with “Why?” questions. In four hours of traveling and fishing, this little guy had to ask “Why?” at least 200 times! (I promise, this is no exaggeration.) We would give an age appropriate answer, then the little guy would respond with, “Why?”

About two thirds of the way through the afternoon, I began to say, “Because God created the world round.” I know this is not a great theological insight, nor is it a great parental out, but it worked for awhile. It kept the follow up questions at bay. Until we got in the truck to go home. I gave my little answer and then he responded quizzically, “But Phil, why did God make the world round?”

Good question! And some questions are better than others. But the most important question of all is the one Jesus asks His closest followers in Luke 9, our reading for today:

//Inspiration: Luke 9:20
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

//Incarnation:
Who do I say Jesus is? This question is much more than a verbal question that I need to answer; this is a must question that I have to answer with the living of my daily life. Jesus stresses all the way through this chapter the importance of following Him for the sake of the Kingdom. So the question is about who I let rule my life and who do I trust with the meaning, significance, and ultimate destination of my life. So who is Jesus? He is God’s Messiah. He is the Promised One proclaimed by the prophets and feared by the demons. He is the misunderstood Son of Man and He is the one who notices the marginalized. He is the One who made the world!
So how does my life reflect his identity? How am I living up to the confession that fills my heart and flows from my mouth?

//Invitaiton:
O God, Father and Almighty, I thank you for revealing yourself in Jesus. I praise you for having a plan to redeem and bless all peoples in your Messiah, Jesus Christ. Now I ask that you help me demonstrate Jesus in my own life. And I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and my Lord. Aemn.