Session 2: Ironman Week 8 Notes

You are still living one life, the integration of our hearts and minds is essential. Jesus Christ is the clearest and most definitive look we’ll get at the heart of God. He is visible image of an invisible God.

Colossians 1:15-20

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For 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. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And 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. ¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and 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.

Insight from the tables on Colossians:

Jesus is not just the first born of our lives, but He is the first born of all creation. In Exodus the first born was slaughtered and the rest of the family was saved, Jesus died for us so that we could be saved.

We get these images of Christ but who is He really? He is our Savior, we get a better picture of God from the bible.

Mark 2:13-17

The Calling of Levi

13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Jesus asks Levi to follow Him; to have a rabbi to ask a tax collector to follow Him was unheard of. In fact the Pharisees ask His disciples why He eats with the sinners…when it comes down to it we are no different. We are much worse than we think, but because of Jesus it’s much better than we imagine. Jesus didn’t come for the holy of holy, He came for all.

Luke 4:17 – Jesus reads this Messianic passage from Isaiah, which talks about the coming of the Spirit, the arrival of justice and compassion for others. He then sums it up by announcing it’s here.

Shalom – Peace (How big is your view of peace?), Nothing missing, nothing broken (wholeness). It’s human flourishing.

John 14:12 – Jesus told the disciples when He leaves the work He did the disciples are going to do…we are here to do His work.

• Proclamation: It’s not just about our lives (the Real Gospel) but it’s also about other lives (the Social Gospel)
• Justice: We need to be more aware of the people around us, who are suffering not because of their own personal decisions but because of systematic structures.
• Compassion: It’s about caring for other similar to us and different from us.

When His Word, Practices and Community meet the Holy Spirit through us, amazing things will happen.

How are we going to allow the Lord to use us today to do great things? How can we be out there more to do amazing things in His name?