Practical Application on the Unsearchable Riches of Christ (Part 1/3)
The person of Christ has always
been controversial. He is either loved or hated, adored or despised,
worshiped or blasphemed, followed or spurned. It has been this way
since the beginning. Some brought gifts to the newborn King while
others sought to kill him. A few believed him to be the long awaited
Messiah, and others thought he was possessed by Satan himself. A
handful worshiped Jesus as Lord and cried tears of joy, but most just
cried “crucify him.” A small number obeyed Christ, but the
majority hurled insults and reviled him.
Yet, martyrs die for him, the
timid confess him, the weary run to him, and the lost trust him.
Whatever the case may be, you may hate him or love him, but you
cannot, however, ignore him! All of history revolves around Christ.
He is at the center of everything. His person, life, and death are
monumental. He changed everything by coming in the flesh, teaching
what he taught, doing what he did, dying the death he died, rising
from the grave as predicted, and then ascending to the Father, but
that is not all. He commissioned a band of men to preach his message
to the world, and preach they did! The entire known world was turned
upside down in a matter of years.
The importance of Christ, his
person and work, cannot be underestimated. Since his death and
resurrection, the world is different. Christians, his followers, are
willing to die for Christ. They do all things in his name, for his
glory, and for the good of mankind. It is, for the most part,
Christians who started schools, built hospitals, provided orphanages
for children, helped the poor and hungry, erected shelters for the
homeless, and a number of other ministries. Granted, non-Christians
do these things, but it is not as consistent and worldwide.
Believers go all around the world to minister.
Christ is a believer's all.
He is our identity! Christ is our everything. With that said, what do we now do? These next points should summarize what we do
as Christians. These ought to define who we are. Nonetheless, we
are imperfect and fail often, but, we should be motivated to repent
and strive to glorify God in all things. We don't do anything
perfectly, and that includes living the Christian life. There should
be growth and maturity, though; we should desire to live in such a
way that Christ is honored. We should be inclined to: believe on
Christ, preach Christ, teach Christ, obey Christ, grow in Christ,
meditate on Christ, evangelize for Christ, minister in the name of
Christ, put on Christ, walk in Christ, commune with Christ, rejoice
in Christ, and persevere in Christ.
Believe
First, believe on Christ.
Trust him. Look at all that the word has revealed about him. He is
God and man. He lived and died for sinners. He taught and preached
astounding messages. Disease and death were no match for the Lord;
he healed the afflicted and raised the dead. Christ is perfect,
holy, gracious, just, faithful, and loving. He fulfilled the entire
Old Testament. Christ saves his people; he is salvation. Christ
gives eternal life and forgiveness to those who repent and believe on
him. Think about this, Christ actually saves his people from the
just penalty of their sin. He wipes their sin away and removes the
wrath of God from them. Christ is amazing. He is believable. Even
when it is dark and life seems unlivable, believe on Christ. His
grace is sufficient. Your problems may not vanish, but Christ will
be with you and see you through. Don't trust yourself or others,
trust Christ. He cannot fail.
“Whoever believes in the
Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (Jn. 3:36). “Jesus
answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom
he has sent'” (Jn. 6:29). “Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread
of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes
in me shall never thirst'” (Jn. 6:35). “For this is the will of
my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him
should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day”
(Jn. 6:40). “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone
who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name”
(Acts 10:43). “I write these things to you who believe in the name
of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life”
(1Jn. 5:13).
Worship
Second, worship Christ.
Those who have believed on Christ, assuming that they have been
regenerated by the Spirit and converted, cannot but worship Christ.
How does a person not worship the one who took their place on the
cross, absorbing the wrath of God for their sin? How can a believer
not adore the one who put on flesh, hungered, thirsted, sweated, and
bled; him who was tempted, mocked, blasphemed, hated without cause,
watched, examined, judged, persecuted, tortured, cursed, beaten,
slapped, tormented, and murdered? We have to worship Christ because
we have been transformed. We used to be natural, dead in our sin,
and separated from God. Nevertheless, God did a supernatural work in
us, and now it is natural to worship Christ. It is our nature. We
can do nothing less.
The amazing thing is that
even if Christ did not come to earth and die, he would still be
worthy of all worship and praise because of who he is. He is worthy!
He does not have to do a thing, nothing is diminished, nothing is
taken away, and he is still beyond words! He is God. That says it
all. As God, he deserves every verse of song, every utterance of
prayer, every syllable of praise, every note of music, and every
joy-filled exultation simply because he is.
“And whatever you do, in
word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him” (Col.3:17). “Therefore God
has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above
every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil.
2:9-11). “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one
another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as
one who speaks the oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves
by the strength that God supplies- in order that in everything God
may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1Pet. 4:10-11).
Preach
Third, preach Christ. If
Christ is our Savior and Master, then he must also be our message.
We are to proclaim Christ and tell of his excellent greatness. Share
with others his splendor and majesty. Tell of how he saves from sin
and its penalty, brings life out of death, gives gifts of repentance
and faith, feeds the spiritually hungry, blesses with eternal life,
imparts peace and purpose, and renders joy unspeakable to them who
trust and believe on him. We are to preach at work, in the streets,
to our children, in the church, and as we walk and talk; everywhere
and anywhere is our venue.
It is because of who he is
that we believe in and worship him. Because we believe and worship
him, we also preach him. All of these go hand in hand. Something is
not right if one of these is missing. We proclaim what we believe
and worship. You do not have to be an ordained minister to proclaim
the message of Christ and witness for him. We are ambassadors for
Christ. We speak his gospel on his behalf. We are diplomats and
representatives of the King. We have to speak about him; we are
compelled. If we don't preach about Christ, the very rocks will cry
out. Go proclaim!
“How then will they call on
him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in
him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without
someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent”
(Rom. 10:14-15)? “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly
to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Cor. 1:22-24).
“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord,
with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake” (2Cor. 4:5).
“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said
to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness
of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning
from Jerusalem'” (Lk. 24:45-47). “Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on
behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2Cor. 5:20).
Teach
Fourth, teach Christ. It
follows that if we are saved by Christ, we are to worship him. Then,
since we worship him, it follows that we seek to worship him in all
things in everything we do. To do this, we preach and teach Christ. We not only teach
Christ as an act of worship, we teach Christ because of who he is and
what he has done for us, in us, and through us. Teaching Christ
ought to summarize our lives. We can teach Christ at home, to our
kids, at work, at church, at the ball field- anywhere can be a
schoolhouse in which Christ is taught. And since he is infinite and
eternal, you will never run out of things to teach about. Learn and
teach; teach of his existence and work in the Old Testament, his
names and attributes, his doctrine and ministry, his deity and
humanity, teach of his amazing salvation.
Teach Christ to those who do
not know him. Teach him to them that do. Christ is to be taught in
order to remove errors from people's thinking. Teach Christ in order
to warn of the judgment to come and the salvation that is in his
name. Teach Christ to the young and old alike. Teach Christ to
combat all the false teachings of today. Teach Christ so that others
will be equipped to teach him. Teach Christ because he is the Truth,
and a world that is consumed by lies needs truth.
“For I decided to know
nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1Cor.
2:2). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and
admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col.
3:16). “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for
every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ
Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing
and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of
season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and
teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound
teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from
listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2Tim. 3:16-4:4).
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