Sermon Tone Analysis

Pre-eminence of Christ

FULLNESS IN CHRIST

Ron Dunn

Colossians 1:15-20

 

        Well, it's been quite a week so far.

I was reflecting that this week we have had people show us that we don't need to be afraid of living, don't need to be afraid of dying, and don't need to be afraid of growing old.

As everyday progresses, it progresses in the Lord.

As Diogenes became an old man, one of his students said, now that you are old, why don't you slow down and take it easy?

He said if I were a runner in the stadium, would I slacken my speed when I caught sight of the goal.

No, that's when you pour it on.

Abraham's greatest test with Isaac came at the age of 120 years.

Jacob's greatest encounter with God came 20 years after his first glorious encounter with God.

The fact of the matter is that there is no end to it.

It is always ever new, ever fresh, ever eternal.

15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:  16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;  20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled  22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

 

        I am haunted by something I read in the newspaper awhile back.

It was about a young secretary who on her lunch hour climbed out on the ledge of a tall building in which she worked.

She said she was going to jump.

All her colleagues gathered around trying to talk her in.

The police and firemen came.

The psychologist came.

She would not talk to anybody, and would not allow anybody to talk to her until they brought a minister and asked if she would let the minister talk to her.

She said yes.

He sat in the window talking to this young secretary out on the ledge.

He talked to her for two hours, and then she jumped.

I'm glad I was not that minister.

I wonder how he felt.

I wonder what he said to her.

What would I say to her?

If somebody is standing on the ledge and says I see no reason to live; if you can give me a reason to live, I won't jump, what would you say to a person in that situation?

There are some things worse than death, and living is one of them.

About 30,000 people every year in our country make that point.

I have been thrown into situations where I find myself again and again counseling with would-be suicides or the parents of children who have committed suicide.

This is the second leading cause of death among teenagers today in our country.

I've read what the psychologist, psychiatrist, and sociologist say about it.

They usually come up with something like this which is pretty much the truth I think:  that we are suffering from malaise of meaninglessness, that in our day people have no longer been able to define their lives because the old solid structures, the passports, the watch signs, the signposts, the things that by normal means we usually identify ourselves and define what it means to be alive have been wiped away.

So there seems to be no purpose to life at all.

It all is so meaningless.

I was struck by what Stuart Briscoe said the other night.

This young man who gave his definition of his life was "an accident suspended in space between accidents."

In 1940 the philosopher of the absurd and despair, Camu, wrote these words in his opening of the Myth of Sisyphus, "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy."

Yet, there is a part of me that says he is right because if life isn't worth living, what difference does it make if 2 x 2 = 4?  If life is not worth living and has no meaning to it, then what use is there in getting up and going to work?

What use is there in being married and having children?

If life is not worth living, if there is no meaning to it, no real defined purpose to it, then nothing else really matters.

Everything else is strictly meaningless.

I believe it is to that question Paul addresses himself in this letter to the Colossians.

There is one phrase that I want us to zero in on this morning.

I think the whole emphasis of this passage falls on a phrase in the middle of verse 18.  We'll read verse 18:  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; (and then comes this purpose clause) in order that in all things he (that is, Christ) might have the preeminence.

What Paul is saying is that everything that God has ever done, and everything that God will ever do, and everything that God is doing today in my life, as well as in the world, all comes down to this one purpose:  so that in all things Jesus Christ might have first place, that he might be preeminent, that he might be supreme.

That is the ultimate purpose.

I cannot define for you the immediate purpose of what may be happening in your life.

If you come to me and say why has God allowed this to happen, why does God not stop this, why does God not move in here and change things, I cannot give you the immediate reason for the things that are happening, but I can give you the ultimate purpose behind it all: so that in all things in my life, as in your life, Jesus Christ might stand first, preeminent and supreme.

It is similar to the same phrase that Paul makes in Philippians, chapter 2, when describing the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ, taking upon himself the form of a man and a servant.

He says that one of these days every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

I love to hear Vance Havner.

He used to say I never ask a man, will you confess Jesus as Lord.

I always ask him when will you do it?

The question is not will you do it because everybody has it to do.

You can do it here and now in salvation or you can do it there in condemnation.

But everybody has it to do.

Every knee will bow; every tongue will confess in heaven on earth and in hell.

The question is not will you someday acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.

The question is when will you do it, now or then.

You've got it to do.

You can go easy or you can go hard, but you've got it to do.

The ultimate meaning behind which every event in my life is structured—the good times, the bad times--all of it somehow dovetailing into that unique and eternal purpose of God:  that Jesus Christ might stand first.

First of all, I want to talk to you about the reach or the realm or the scope of his preeminence.

In what areas is Jesus Christ preeminent?

Are there some boundaries that you can cross over, and beyond that Jesus Christ has no rightful place?

Is there some place you can stick up a "no trespassing" sign in your life, and that's as far as Jesus Christ can go?

What is the reach of his preeminence?

Paul makes it very plain; he says that in all things, he might have the preeminence.

In other words, there is no boundary line.

There is no point at which you can go beyond the jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is to be preeminent in everything—in all things.

One translation reads like this:  that from every point of view Jesus Christ might have first place.

I like that.

For instance, let's take this building.

While we have doors instead of windows, we'll pretend that those doors are windows.

There's a window here; there's a window there; there's a window there; and there's another window there.

Then there are that many other windows upstairs.

If you go outside and look in this window, you will look into this auditorium.

If you go to the window back there and look into that window, you will see the same auditorium but you will see it from a different point of view.

If you go to this window back here and look into it, you will see the same auditorium but it will be from a different point of view.

The same thing is true of all these windows.

You are looking into the same room but you are looking from a different point of view.

I think Paul is saying that God is not going to be satisfied with the progress in my life until, from every point of view, every window you look through into my life, you still see the same thing—Jesus Christ preeminent.

In other words, I know that when I look into your life through the window of your religion, I am going to see Jesus Christ preeminent.

But what if I look into your life through the window of your home?

Will I see the same thing?

Christ in first place?

What if I look into your life through the window of your business?

Will I still see from the viewpoint of your business that Jesus Christ is first?

If I look into your life through the window of your leisure time, will I still see the same thing?

Jesus Christ preeminent in your life?

No matter at what point I view your life, from this angle or from that angle, I still see the same thing—that blessed consistency that Jesus Christ is first place from every point of view.