God's Unbelievable Power
Sunday Evening English Worship
July 7, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Colossians 1:16 and others
Introduction: As most of you know, one of my favorite hobbies is studying about astronomy. I suppose if I decided to go back to school again sometime, I’d like to study this subject a lot more. So, tonight let me begin our study with a few amazing facts about our universe from the web site LifeHack.org:
1. Our solar system’s biggest mountain is on Mars! Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest mountain on any of the planets of the Solar System. The mountain is a gigantic shield volcano (similar to volcanoes found in the Hawaiian Islands) standing at 25+ kilometers tall and sprawling 600 kilometers across. To put this into scale, this makes the mountain almost three times the height of Mount Everest!
2. Voyager 1 captured the most distant photograph of Earth, our best "selfie" ever! In 1990, as part of the spacecraft’s ongoing mission, Voyager 1 turned its camera back on our home planet and took this picture. This became known as The Pale Blue Dot. Seen from 6 billion kilometers away, the Earth appears as a tiny blue speck in the depths of space. Astronomer Carl Sagan, who first suggested the idea of the photograph, noted, “From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.”
3. It is estimated there are 400 billion stars in our galaxy. Our Sun is essential to us, the center of our Solar System, and our source of light and energy, but it is just one of many, many stars that make up our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Current estimates suggest there are around 400 billion stars sharing our galaxy.
And this all leads me to my topic for this evening, God's Unbelievable Power. Last month I began talking about the infinity of God and how big He is. I also mentioned that I was going to start a 3-message set about the three "omnis" of God: God‘s omnipotence, God‘s omniscience and God‘s omnipresence. And tonight we will begin talking about this all-powerful God who is our best friend!
1. He Created Everything - Colossians 1:15-20 (NIrV)
And of course, we could begin tonight by Going right to the book of Genesis and looking at the beginning of creation. But instead I thought it would be good to look at the book of Colossians 1 tonight to get a really good view of this omnipotent God that we love.
15 The Son is the exact likeness of God, who can’t be seen. The Son is first, and he is over all creation. 16 All things were created in him. He created everything in heaven and on earth. He created everything that can be seen and everything that can’t be seen. He created kings, powers, rulers and authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. 17 Before anything was created, he was already there. He holds everything together. 18 And he is the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning. He is the first to be raised from the dead. That happened so that he would be far above everything. 19 God was pleased to have his whole nature living in Christ. 20 God was pleased to bring all things back to himself. That’s because of what Christ has done. These things include everything on earth and in heaven. God made peace through Christ’s blood, by his death on the cross.
In the world of astronomy, this first moment of creation is commonly called the "big bang." From absolutely nothing, Christ created everything in the whole universe, by himself and for himself. And not only did he create everything but the Bible passage we just read says that he holds all things together! Paul also tells us in this passage in Colossians that by that same power God was really happy to bring all things back to Himself by the blood of His Son! So, we can see here that God does indeed have all power, power enough to create everything, power enough to hold everything together and power enough to bring everything back to Himself through our Lord Jesus!
2. Nothing Is Too Hard - Jeremiah 32:17-19 (NIrV)
Now, moving right along let’s go to the Old Testament and read Jeremiah 32:17-19. And this reinforces the idea that God is all powerful and it reads like this:
17 “ ‘Lord and King, you have reached out your great and powerful arm. You have made the heavens and the earth. Nothing is too hard for you. 18 You show your love to thousands of people. But you cause the sins of parents to affect even their children. Great and powerful God, your name is the Lord Who Rules Over All. 19 Your purposes are great. Your acts are mighty. Your eyes see everything people do. You reward each one of them in keeping with their conduct. You do this based on what they have done.
Again we see here that God created everything. But Jeremiah goes on to say that nothing is impossible for God. We see that phrase in the life of Jesus again and again and again. Paul also tells us in Philippians that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him!
Jeremiah also tells us that God‘s love is all-powerful to so many people and that God‘s purposes are great and his acts are mighty. The next phrase, “your eyes see everything people do“ is something that we are going to talk about next month.
3. He Must Increase - John 3:29-31 (BSB)
Now we come back to the New Testament, to the book of John 3:29-31. Jesus calls his cousin John the Baptist is the greatest prophet ever and that may be kind of surprising. There were some pretty great prophets in the Old Testament and yet Jesus says John is the greatest of them all. And the gospel writer John says this about John the Baptist:
29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must increase; I must decrease. 31 The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all.
Now, you’re probably wondering why I chose this point and this Bible passage to talk about. And it comes down to the center of verse 30. It says, “he must increase...” What does that mean? Well, it goes back to the idea of the wedding, the bride and groom and the friend. When I first started doing weddings here in Sapporo, they’re almost always was a very special person who attended the wedding. In Japanese this was called a “baishakunin.” If you look in the dictionary, the translation into English is a “matchmaker.” It could be that in America we might call this person the “best man.” He was probably the one who introduced the young couple to each other. Thanks to him, the marriage could take place.
Once he introduced Jesus to the world, then John’s job was finished and he would decrease. But Jesus’ his job was just getting started and he would increase and grow more and more all the way through!
4. His Power Will Grow - Isaiah 9:7 (GNT)
And this leads me to our final Bible passage and our final point for this evening. Let's turn back to the Old Testament, to the book of Isaiah 9:7. And it reads like this:
His royal power will continue to grow; his kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David's successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The LORD Almighty is determined to do all this.
And this to me is the amazing part of thinking about God Who has all power. We could see so far this evening that this God of all creation can manufacture the whole universe out of nothing and that Christ Himself holds all of this together all the way till the end of time. But the idea that his ruling power, or at least our understanding of that power, is going to keep growing! We can see that clearly as the Gospel continues to spread from person to person until there are literally billions of people who are our brothers and sisters in Jesus!
But it goes further than that. The word "grow" in this Good News Translation and the word "increase" we saw in John 3 are pretty deep words. The idea that God's Kingdom and His royal power aren't just going to increase, or keep increasing, but they are going to keep on continuing to increase! And this is a point that I can't imagine. How can a perfect, almighty God keep growing in power? He's already complete and yet His Word tells us that His Kingdom, power, rule and influence are just going to keep on growing and growing! What an amazing God it is that we serve!
Conclusion: So, we have come quickly to the end of our time together tonight. I hope and pray that our Savior has opened your heart and mind to some new ideas about Himself. I also hope He has inspired you to look forward so much to His coming future kingdom which is going to get better, richer and more beautiful throughout all of eternity!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading our final Bible passage together.
Isaiah 9:7
His royal power will continue to grow; his kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David's successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The LORD Almighty is determined to do all this.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Dear Almighty Lord, it has been a real joy to share in studying Your Word this evening. It's so comforting to know that Your royal power will keep expanding and growing forever. Please bring Your kingdom of peace soon to our world. We also want Your justice to bring fairness to our lives even today. Guide us by Your wisdom and power as we go from this place. Please bring us back together again very soon. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.
July 7, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Colossians 1:16 and others
Introduction: As most of you know, one of my favorite hobbies is studying about astronomy. I suppose if I decided to go back to school again sometime, I’d like to study this subject a lot more. So, tonight let me begin our study with a few amazing facts about our universe from the web site LifeHack.org:
1. Our solar system’s biggest mountain is on Mars! Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest mountain on any of the planets of the Solar System. The mountain is a gigantic shield volcano (similar to volcanoes found in the Hawaiian Islands) standing at 25+ kilometers tall and sprawling 600 kilometers across. To put this into scale, this makes the mountain almost three times the height of Mount Everest!
2. Voyager 1 captured the most distant photograph of Earth, our best "selfie" ever! In 1990, as part of the spacecraft’s ongoing mission, Voyager 1 turned its camera back on our home planet and took this picture. This became known as The Pale Blue Dot. Seen from 6 billion kilometers away, the Earth appears as a tiny blue speck in the depths of space. Astronomer Carl Sagan, who first suggested the idea of the photograph, noted, “From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.”
3. It is estimated there are 400 billion stars in our galaxy. Our Sun is essential to us, the center of our Solar System, and our source of light and energy, but it is just one of many, many stars that make up our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Current estimates suggest there are around 400 billion stars sharing our galaxy.
And this all leads me to my topic for this evening, God's Unbelievable Power. Last month I began talking about the infinity of God and how big He is. I also mentioned that I was going to start a 3-message set about the three "omnis" of God: God‘s omnipotence, God‘s omniscience and God‘s omnipresence. And tonight we will begin talking about this all-powerful God who is our best friend!
1. He Created Everything - Colossians 1:15-20 (NIrV)
And of course, we could begin tonight by Going right to the book of Genesis and looking at the beginning of creation. But instead I thought it would be good to look at the book of Colossians 1 tonight to get a really good view of this omnipotent God that we love.
15 The Son is the exact likeness of God, who can’t be seen. The Son is first, and he is over all creation. 16 All things were created in him. He created everything in heaven and on earth. He created everything that can be seen and everything that can’t be seen. He created kings, powers, rulers and authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. 17 Before anything was created, he was already there. He holds everything together. 18 And he is the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning. He is the first to be raised from the dead. That happened so that he would be far above everything. 19 God was pleased to have his whole nature living in Christ. 20 God was pleased to bring all things back to himself. That’s because of what Christ has done. These things include everything on earth and in heaven. God made peace through Christ’s blood, by his death on the cross.
In the world of astronomy, this first moment of creation is commonly called the "big bang." From absolutely nothing, Christ created everything in the whole universe, by himself and for himself. And not only did he create everything but the Bible passage we just read says that he holds all things together! Paul also tells us in this passage in Colossians that by that same power God was really happy to bring all things back to Himself by the blood of His Son! So, we can see here that God does indeed have all power, power enough to create everything, power enough to hold everything together and power enough to bring everything back to Himself through our Lord Jesus!
2. Nothing Is Too Hard - Jeremiah 32:17-19 (NIrV)
Now, moving right along let’s go to the Old Testament and read Jeremiah 32:17-19. And this reinforces the idea that God is all powerful and it reads like this:
17 “ ‘Lord and King, you have reached out your great and powerful arm. You have made the heavens and the earth. Nothing is too hard for you. 18 You show your love to thousands of people. But you cause the sins of parents to affect even their children. Great and powerful God, your name is the Lord Who Rules Over All. 19 Your purposes are great. Your acts are mighty. Your eyes see everything people do. You reward each one of them in keeping with their conduct. You do this based on what they have done.
Again we see here that God created everything. But Jeremiah goes on to say that nothing is impossible for God. We see that phrase in the life of Jesus again and again and again. Paul also tells us in Philippians that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him!
Jeremiah also tells us that God‘s love is all-powerful to so many people and that God‘s purposes are great and his acts are mighty. The next phrase, “your eyes see everything people do“ is something that we are going to talk about next month.
3. He Must Increase - John 3:29-31 (BSB)
Now we come back to the New Testament, to the book of John 3:29-31. Jesus calls his cousin John the Baptist is the greatest prophet ever and that may be kind of surprising. There were some pretty great prophets in the Old Testament and yet Jesus says John is the greatest of them all. And the gospel writer John says this about John the Baptist:
29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must increase; I must decrease. 31 The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all.
Now, you’re probably wondering why I chose this point and this Bible passage to talk about. And it comes down to the center of verse 30. It says, “he must increase...” What does that mean? Well, it goes back to the idea of the wedding, the bride and groom and the friend. When I first started doing weddings here in Sapporo, they’re almost always was a very special person who attended the wedding. In Japanese this was called a “baishakunin.” If you look in the dictionary, the translation into English is a “matchmaker.” It could be that in America we might call this person the “best man.” He was probably the one who introduced the young couple to each other. Thanks to him, the marriage could take place.
Once he introduced Jesus to the world, then John’s job was finished and he would decrease. But Jesus’ his job was just getting started and he would increase and grow more and more all the way through!
4. His Power Will Grow - Isaiah 9:7 (GNT)
And this leads me to our final Bible passage and our final point for this evening. Let's turn back to the Old Testament, to the book of Isaiah 9:7. And it reads like this:
His royal power will continue to grow; his kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David's successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The LORD Almighty is determined to do all this.
And this to me is the amazing part of thinking about God Who has all power. We could see so far this evening that this God of all creation can manufacture the whole universe out of nothing and that Christ Himself holds all of this together all the way till the end of time. But the idea that his ruling power, or at least our understanding of that power, is going to keep growing! We can see that clearly as the Gospel continues to spread from person to person until there are literally billions of people who are our brothers and sisters in Jesus!
But it goes further than that. The word "grow" in this Good News Translation and the word "increase" we saw in John 3 are pretty deep words. The idea that God's Kingdom and His royal power aren't just going to increase, or keep increasing, but they are going to keep on continuing to increase! And this is a point that I can't imagine. How can a perfect, almighty God keep growing in power? He's already complete and yet His Word tells us that His Kingdom, power, rule and influence are just going to keep on growing and growing! What an amazing God it is that we serve!
Conclusion: So, we have come quickly to the end of our time together tonight. I hope and pray that our Savior has opened your heart and mind to some new ideas about Himself. I also hope He has inspired you to look forward so much to His coming future kingdom which is going to get better, richer and more beautiful throughout all of eternity!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading our final Bible passage together.
Isaiah 9:7
His royal power will continue to grow; his kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David's successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The LORD Almighty is determined to do all this.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Dear Almighty Lord, it has been a real joy to share in studying Your Word this evening. It's so comforting to know that Your royal power will keep expanding and growing forever. Please bring Your kingdom of peace soon to our world. We also want Your justice to bring fairness to our lives even today. Guide us by Your wisdom and power as we go from this place. Please bring us back together again very soon. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.