Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, December 19, 2021

Cosmic Jesus!

Today Pastor Michael is talking about a bishop from the fourth century, Nicholas.  Nicholas lived in Myra, a city in western Turkey, then a Greek territory.  

Nicholas came from a wealthy family and loved to help others.  He did so secretly, to not draw attention to himself.  He heard about one family that had a big need and he wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t know that it was him assisting them.  So, he actually went on to their roof and dropped a bag of gold down their chimney.  As luck would have it, a member of the household had hung some stockings on the fireplace to dry.  The gold bounced into the stocking!  Pretty cool, Nicholas!

Eventually people found out that Nicholas was secretly helping people and the story of “Saint” Nicholas spread far and wide.  It inspired a lot of generosity and a lot of giving.  The Dutch particularly loved St. Nicholas and called him “Sinterklass”.  When Dutch immigrants came to America, they brought the story of Sinterklass and it became modified a bit to the story of Santa Claus!

Christmas isn’t just about Santa, it’s also about Jesus.  And Christmas Jesus is likely everyone’s "favorite" Jesus.  But Jesus is on another level.  Not very far from  where Nicholas grew up is Colossae.  Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians,  the book of Colossians in the New Testament.  In this letter, Paul explained to them that Jesus was much, much more than “Christmas” Jesus.  It was not the boy Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, or even the resurrected Jesus.  It is literally, “Cosmic” Jesus!  Jesus is more than one thing; he transcends eternity!

Following the Bible verses listed below, Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  God is not a material being, He is a Spirit.  Jesus is God!

Saint Nicholas comes back in to the story now at the First Counsel of Nicaea (founded by Constantine the Great), where they are wrangling with the subject of Jesus and God being one, incarnate. This study is also called the study of the Godhead in Christianity. They had studied the Epistle to the Colossians and were firmly convinced that Jesus and God are the one and the same.  Now, they had a dissenter amongst themselves, Arius, who did not believe in Trinitarianism, the belief that God is one God in three co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  

Arius taught that Jesus was a created being, that He was not fully divine, but that He was a really, really good guy that does point us to God.  However, this didn’t then, nor now, jibe with the Bible.  No one was more upset on that than Nicholas.  He listened and listed and was getting madder and madder when Saint Nicholas walked across the room and punched Arius right in his mouth!  

Saint Nicholas knew the Cosmic Jesus, the one and eternal God.   He wasn’t created but is the Creator of all things!

Today’s verses can be found in Colossians 1: 15-20,  John 1: 1-18, John 10:30 and John 14:9. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!