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Cornerstone Community Church: A Christ-Centered Place to Believe, Belong, and Become
Colossians 1:1-29
The Big Idea: God Is Calling Cornerstone Community Church to Be a Christ-Shaped Church!
The Big Picture: The Otis R. Bowen Center for Human Services
If you take Route 30 and drive 90 miles east, you’ll come to the quaint town of Warsaw, Indiana. If you make a right turn onto Main Street, you’ll find Kosciusko Community Hospital. Then, if you walk down a long hallway from the hospital ER going east, you’ll find the locked doors to the Otis R. Bowen Center for Human Services.
The Bowen Center, as it’s now called, is a five-country, government-run, psychiatric inpatient unit for individuals struggling with life issues. It’s a state-of-the art facility with the best of the best the world has to offer to hurting people. I know, because during the four years that I was earning my Th.M. at Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana, I worked at the Bowen Center as a Mental Health Counselor.
The Bowen Center sought to be a place to believe. The Chief Medical Officer had a clear, focused set of beliefs about emotional and mental health. He expected his philosophy of living and psychological belief system to saturate every aspect of patient care.
The Bowen Center also sought to be a place to belong. They desperately tried to replicate a family setting with a community feel. As staff and patients, we shared meals together, took walks together, played games together, laughed together, and cried together. Patients shared with us their dreams and their dash dreams, their hopes and their hurts.
The Bowen Center also sought to be a place to become—to become more healthy and mature as people faced difficult life issues. Every patient had their own primary care team focused on their individualized treatment—a psych nurse, psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, mental health counselor, and dietician. Every patient received group therapy, individual counseling; art therapy, and activity therapy.
While the clients at the Bowen Center may not have always verbalized it, they were all seeking an answer the question every person has always asked: “Where can I find a place to believe, belong, and become?”
And while the Bowen Center would have never admitted it, they were desperately trying to replicate the Church. In attempting to be a place to believe, belong, and become, the Bowen Center was trying to fulfill the calling that Christ, the Head of the Church, has given to His Church.
But here’s the problem with the Bowen Center. Though they provided the best the world had to offer, they left something out of the equation. They left Someone out of the equation. The Bowen Center, because it was a government-run facility, was not a Christ-centered place to believe, belong, and become. By omitting Christ, by leaving Him out of the center of the picture, a huge problem resulted. The same patients returned to the Bowen Center again, and again, and again.
Their symptoms were addressed, but not their souls. People were trying to solve their problems without a Savior. They were trying to find a place to believe, belong, and become without Christ. There is a Christ-shaped hole in our soul; a Christ-shaped thirst that we all seek to quench. And no one but Christ can satisfy our soul’s thirst.
We can all agree that the world’s problem is leaving Christ out of the picture. But when Paul wrote Colossians—which is our Scripture text today—he wasn’t focused on what the world was leaving out. He was focused on the Church. The church at Colosee wasn’t leaving Christ out of the picture, but they were adding other things to the picture that pushed Christ out of the center of their focus.
Here’s what was happening in Paul’s day, and it’s exactly what is happening in our day. False teachers were saying, “Christ is fine, but to live well, you need Christ plus human wisdom. Christ is fine, but to live maturely, you need Christ plus human systems of self-help. Christ is fine, but to live wisely, you need Christ plus human rules, regulations, and legalism.”
Here’s what Paul was saying to the church at Colosse, and here’s what Paul is saying to Cornerstone Community Church. God is not calling us simply to be a place to believe, belong, and become. The world offers that! The Bowen Center offers that! God is calling Cornerstone Community Church to be a Christ-Centered, Christ-Shaped place to believe—in Christ, to belong—to Christ, and to become—like Christ.
If Christ is not the center of what we are doing, then we may as well close our doors and give this place to the Bowen Center as a satellite office. But we’re not going to do that. Instead, we are going to continue to build on the Christ-centered focus that Pastor Chuck Wheeler and Pastor Steve Buchelt paved for us and with us. We are going to be a Christ-shaped church!
I. God Is Calling Cornerstone Community Church to Be a Christ-Centered Place to Believe—In Christ Alone!: Colossians 1:1; 1:4-6; 13-12; 2:6-7
We build on that foundation by being a place to believe—in Christ Alone! Paul begins his letter centered on Christ—focused on who he was in Christ and who the Colossians were in Christ.
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus…to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse”
(Colossians 1:1).
Paul was not an apostle of Peter, or of some great philosopher, or of himself. He was an apostle of Christ Jesus. The leadership of Cornerstone Community Church—our next pastor, our elders, our ministry leaders—we select them on the basis of their being of Christ Jesus.
But Paul doesn’t talk only about himself; he also talks about the members/attenders at the church in Colosse and here at Cornerstone. He calls them and us, “Holy and faithful brothers in Christ.” Now look around the sanctuary. Look at your spouse, parent, child, or friend next to you. That person is holy in Christ. That person is faithful in Christ. That person is your brother or sister in Christ.
Is that how we see each other? Is that how we treat each other? As we were getting ready for church this morning, perhaps running a little late, or perhaps feeling a tad grumpy, did we see and treat each other as holy, faithful brothers and sisters in Christ?
A. A Christ-Centered Place to Believe Joyfully in Christ’s Victory: Colossians 1:4-6; 13-14
As Paul talks to us as those who are in Christ, he wants to remind us of our victory in Christ. He says it like this in Colossians 1:13-14.
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Cornerstone Community Church is a place where together we believe in Christ’s victory. That’s what Paul is talking about in these verses and it’s what the gospel is all about. We use the word “gospel” all the time, but sometimes we are unaware of what it even means. We know it means good news, but it’s not just any good news.
In Paul’s day, the word “gospel” was used as the good news that announced the king’s victory. A country would be involved in an extended war, at horrible costs and great sacrifice. They didn’t have the Internet, Twitter, or Cable. They would wait day after day for news of how the war was going. So, finally when the evangel—the runner who came with news of the war—would race into town, everyone dropped everything to hear the news. And when the news was, “The battle is over! The war is won! We are victorious!” then everyone celebrated the good news of victory—the gospel!
Paul is announcing that we believe not just in a victorious king, but in the One victorious Savior King of kings who has defeated Satan, rescued us from the domain of darkness, brought us into Christ’s victorious kingdom, and given us redemption—victory over sin and death. That’s good news! That’s the gospel.
Paul is teaching us that this good news should make a difference in how we live every day. Notice Colossians 1:4-6.
“Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you” (Colossians 1:4-6).
Our faith in Christ and our love for Christ’s people spring from our gospel hope—our sure hope that Christ has won the victory. We’ve already read the end of the story. The victory runner with the gospel announcement has already arrived to tell us the war is won.
Think of it like this. When Michael Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls, they had a great run of six World Championships. However, during that first Championship series against the LA Lakers, nothing was certain. In fact, if you know the history of Chicago sports, then you know that the word “choke!” is synonymous with Chicago teams. They could be up by a wide margin but still allow victory to slip away. So, as life would have it, instead of being able to watch what could be the title-clinching game, I had a church commitment. You know what I did—I taped the game so that I could watch it later.
But you may be very surprised by what I did when I watched the tape. I fast-forwarded to the end of the game! Most people don’t want anyone to tell them the end. It would spoil all the fun of watching. Remember the movie Air Force One starring Harrison Ford? Playing the role of the President, Ford’s character was a University of Michigan graduate. His people taped the big Michigan versus Michigan State football game. The President swore everyone to secrecy. He wanted to watch the game without knowing the outcome. Then someone spoiled the whole experience for him when they inadvertently congratulated him on his team’s victory.
That’s not me. I get far too nervous. But no nerves could survive when I fast-forwarded to the end of the game and saw that the Bulls had won. So now, I rewound the tape to the beginning. When the Bulls were down at half-time; I was relaxed. When they were tied with three minutes left; I was relaxed. Nothing could shake the foundations of my confidence because I had watched the end of the game; I had read the end of the story and I knew the Bulls had won.
Let me tell you something spiritually-speaking. We have read the end of the story—the gospel story. And … Christ wins! We win! Though life is hard; we win. Though we suffer excruciating pain; we win. Though we battle against sin; we win. Though our relationships sometimes are hurtful; we win. Nothing should shake the foundations of our confidence because we have read the end of the gospel story. God wins. We win. Good triumphs over evil. God triumphs once and forever over the Devil. Death, sin, and suffering are destroyed forever.
Cornerstone Community Church is a place where we remind each other every day of Christ’s victory. We’ve read the end of the gospel story! Christ wins!
B. A Christ-Centered Place to Believe Richly in Christ’s Supremacy: Colossians 1:15-20
God is also calling Cornerstone Community Church to be a place where we believe richly in Christ’s supremacy. Remember that in Colossians false teachers were telling them, “Christ is fine, but remember that in addition to Christ, you also need angels, the world’s philosophy, and rules, regulations, and legalism. Paul will have none of that! For Paul it is:
Christ + Nothing = Everything!
In a moment, I’m going to read how Paul says this in Colossians 1:15-20. When we put the verses on the screen and I read them, I want you to let the words sink in deeply, richly. Focus on everything they say about Christ our sovereign, sufficient, supreme Savior. Ready?
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).
That’s a lot, isn’t it? If I were preaching through Colossians, I might take an entire month, at least, just to walk us through these rich truths about Christ being supreme over everything.
But here’s what I want us to realize about these rich truths about Christ. In Paul’s day, new believers were expected to know these truths and to apply them to their lives. New believers. In the Greek, these verses read like a poem or hymn. They have a symmetrical, lyrical feel to them. I read at least a dozen different commentators who believe that these six verses were a baptismal hymn. These verses were sung every time a new believer was baptized. And in Paul’s day, people didn’t wait weeks, months, or years before being baptized. They often were baptized either immediately after accepting Christ as Savior or within a week.
What does that tell us? When someone shared the gospel—they not only shared about Christ’s victory. They also shared a depth of rich truth about Christ’s supremacy. It also tells us that the early church expected their believers—even new believers—to know a lot of theology.
“Theology.” That’s a scary word, isn’t it? But it shouldn’t be. These verses are theology—a theology of Christ’s supremacy. Paul expected new believers and old believers alike to know these truths and to apply them to their daily lives. Here’s how Paul commanded it in Colossians 2:6-7.