Jesus is Enough

Scripture

Colossians 1:15–20 NIV

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And 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. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and 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.

Introduction

Good morning! I feel really fortunate to be with you for this week.

I am really grateful for all of you.

I’m grateful that you’re here at Western. You’re immersed into a unique environment… you’re at a Christian high school in the middle of Iowa, this is unique. You all have your own circumstances that you’re wading through, your own experiences, you come from different families, you might have different convictions.

But you’re here… right now, where God has placed you, and for that — I am grateful.

I do want to be clear on my intentions with you this week. We will make much of Jesus.

Jesus is important to me.

Not only because I believe He is God, and that He is good, and that He is for me… not just because I believe that He died for the sins of humanity, rose again, is sitting next to the Father, and will someday come again… but because Jesus has been everything to me when I had very little.

I grew up in Western Kansas, and I was born below the poverty line to a drug addicted mother, and I was raised in a violent and emotionally and mentally abusive home.

When I met Jesus at about the age of 18, what I gained in affection, in love, in identity, in purpose, in belonging, in a family — changed my life. At the end of the day, Jesus is all I care about.

I am married, I have three sons — and my greatest desire is that they have an encounter with Jesus that will drastically change their lives. Thankfully, they all know Jesus — but I want that relationship to grow.

I have very limited time with you and I can’t assume that all of you are in the same place with Jesus.

For some of you… Jesus is a sweet friend.

For others, you’re trying to memorize Bible verses like it’s going to get you into heaven.

Others, Jesus is an assumed part of your experience at Western so you can play sports and get a great education.

I have very limited time with you and so we have to make much of Jesus.

Can you all agree to that?

I’m going to talk about Jesus this morning in two ways that might be new for you:

I’m going to talk about:

The Supremacy of Jesus

and the Sufficiency of Jesus

Because I don’t talk to high schoolers very often, I asked Chat GPT to help me find 3 ways to talk about the supremacy of Jesus with high school students.

ChatGPT says:

Jesus is the GOAT

Jesus is the Boss

Jesus is the OG

When we talk about supremacy, we’re saying that something is “above” or “over” other things.

This describes power, authority, rank. It shows us how importance, significant, something or someone is.

Let’s try this out?

Who is the most supreme basketball player of all time? Kobe? Michael Jordan? Steph Curry?

See?! You’re trying to quantify and qualify who is the greatest!

The Bible makes the case clear: Jesus is the greatest ever.

That’s the Supremacy of Jesus.

The next thing we have to talk about is the Sufficiency of Jesus.

When I think of sufficiency, I think of sufficiency in relationship to my needs.

Here’s a picture of my youngest son, Graham. [SHOW GRAHAM PICTURE 1]

Graham needs to eat.

Not just that, but Graham LOVES to eat.

Graham will often tell us that he’s still hungry and wants to keep eating.

We know that Graham’s tummy is sufficiently filled when Graham’s face looks like this:

[SHOW GRAHAM PICTURE 2]

Sufficiency is when all of our needs have been met.

This is the relationship that Jesus plays throughout the New Testament.

He has met the greatest need for humanity: our freedom from sin.

And He gives us friendship, purpose, power, assurance of identity and a future.

If we surveyed the root of all of our needs: every one of them is met by Jesus.

This morning, I want to walk us through a passage where we see, front and center, how Jesus is the greatest in the world; and how the greatest in the world can meet every single one of our needs.

I want to take us to the Book of Colossians. Paul wrote this letter to the church at Colossae to encourage them with the truth.

Like Colossae, we live in an age where we constantly hear things that sound to good to be true, the book of Colossians calls it “hollow and deceptive” — these are things that try to be true but don’t have any substance to them.

In 2024, it could be the confusion around sexual ethics… it could be the idea that everyone has their own true, that truth is relative and subjective to our own experiences — that somehow, what’s right for you may not be right for me.

All of those things sound like they could be right… sounds good, but what do they mean?

Have you guys heard the phrase, “defense wins championships?”

Do you still need an offense to score points? Absolutely.

Paul isn’t providing a defense for Jesus, He’s constructing a sound offense for the church.

In Colossians 1, Paul gives us what we know of as The Christ Hymn, this is a confession of who Jesus is: the greatest of all time, the most significant person, and has accomplished the most important work — in the history of the world.

Paul wants us to know that Jesus is Supreme over Everything Made, and He’s enough for the Church.

In Colossians 1:15 Paul says that Jesus

Colossians 1:15 (NIV)

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

To be clear: Paul is making much of Jesus. This is what you call “exalted prose,” — he’s getting fancy with how he feels about Jesus.

When we, or Paul, talk about Jesus as the “image of God,” — what we mean, is that Jesus is what God is like. He perfectly exhibits Him in every way. One of the things that’s often a hangup for people in how they view God, is that they think He somehow reveals Himself to be different in the Old Testament. The BEST expression of who God is, Old or New Testament, is through Jesus. If you want to know God, look at Jesus!

And lots of people have gotten this wrong… some have believed that Jesus is just another of God’s creations… special, but not divine.

But it’s in His next statement that Paul qualifies how important Jesus really is. He says, “Hey is the firstborn over all creation.”

There isn’t anything, in all of the world, seen, or not seen, that compares to Jesus. Paul is wanting to convey His place to us: no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has comprehended — anything or anyone quite like Jesus.

In verse 16, Colossians 1:16

Colossians 1:16 (NIV)

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

Paul says, “for in Him,” or another way to read that is, “by Him,” “all things were created.”

He escapes the bounds of space and time, He is not like anything we have ever encountered before. Paul explains a little of what this means and what role Jesus plays in creation when he says, “For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

Whatever we see — whatever we don’t see — owe their existence to Jesus.

And they don’t just owe their existence to Jesus, but their very existence is for His sake!

They exist to bring honor and glory to the person of Jesus.

Now… there’s a lot wrong in the world, and lots of the world that are still living in rebellion to Jesus, but that doesn’t change the truth about who Jesus is — and how He is over everything.

The whole world, everything we see and don’t see, has been put on notice that THEY’RE ALL HIS!

Some day everything broken — everything that lives in a state of rebellion — has to respond to Jesus.

Every addictive tendency, every broken home, every ounce of abuse, every hungry person, every fatherless child, every evil person, — will stand before the One who has held them up.

This is the one who holds the whole world in balance! And Paul makes this clear in Colossians 1:17

Colossians 1:17 (NIV)

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Everything belongs to Him, for His glory — and we are witnessing, before our eyes, the redemption and the healing of the world.

This is what makes Him the greatest of all time.

He takes what is broken and He repairs it.

He takes what is sick and heals it.

He takes what is wrong and makes it right.

In His power — every part of creation, undergoes a NEW CREATION.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, “if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.”

Jesus says in Revelation, “Behold, I come to make all things new.”

We’re waiting for the end of those promises: where we finally see that we’re new people, and we live in a renewed world.

There’s two things that have to be done away with in order for us to see this:

Sin and death.

They go hand in hand.

One leads to the other.

And this is another reason why I have to make much of Jesus, why I believe He is the greatest — in all of human history — because He’s the only one that has a sure plan to deal with the things that keep us away from the future we know we should be living.

We all know something is broken in the world.

We all know it’s not supposed to be like this.

Am I right?

He’s the only One who has an answer for sin and death — the enemies that keep us from how it is supposed to be.

Paul is slowly moving us into verse 18. He’s communicating to us how Jesus matters, why He matters, why He is worthy of all truth and honor and attention and glory.

Jesus is renewing the world and He’s bringing with Him an entire force of those whom He says are NEW CREATION.

He is changing the world through the power of the church! He is renewing the world through His NEW CREATION.

He’s fixing the world and part of how He does that, is He uses us.

Think of like this…

Imagine the world is at war.

And the Army to stop the forces of evil are called THE NEW CREATION.

Jesus has effectively said, He’s the One leading the charge. He’s at head of the fight, securing the victory.

Look with me at verse 18. Colossians 1:18

Colossians 1:18 (NIV)

And 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.

He’s leading the charge for the New Creation, which is us; and in verse 18, it says “He’s just the beginning,” He’s the very first wave of Resurrected Power to cover the earth in renewal. To make wrongs, right. To heal what is broken.

But if Jesus is the beginning, that means there are more waves coming.

That’s you.

That’s me.

That’s us.

That’s everyone who is on Team Jesus, who’s convinced that He is the greatest the world has ever seen.

Because of Jesus we’re gonna see the world changed in front of our very eyes.

Because of Jesus, we’re gonna be a part of the world changing in front of our very eyes.

And as it unfolds… as the world is healed, as the world is fixed, as children get parents, and broken homes are repaired, as cancer is eradicated, as relationships are reconciled, as wars cease — it’s because Jesus is the greatest. This is what Paul says, “so that in everything He might have the supremacy.”

Like I said, the greatest defense is a really good offense.

I’ll put all of the hollow, all of the deceptive, all of things that sound too good to be true but aren’t — and I’ll put them against Jesus and I’ll find Jesus winning every time.

I think you’ve been given too small a picture of Jesus… and you’ve been given too small a picture of Jesus if He isn’t the hero of every story, the remedy for every wound, if He can’t meet our greatest needs.

Jesus alone is enough, He’s sufficient, to meet our great needs.

Paul’s got us, though…

He explains to us how Jesus can do this.

He tells us how Jesus could possibly be enough, and Paul does so in two of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Colossians 1:19-20

Colossians 1:19–20 (NIV)

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and 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.

I’m not a math guy, but I appreciate how straightforward math is. 2 + 2 = 4

There’s a logical progression.

Paul gives us a logical progression.

Here’s how I’d explain each part:

—

For was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him

Everything that God is, Jesus is

—

by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

God’s response to sin and death is Jesus’ death on the cross

—

through Him, to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven,

and that resulted in the repair of the world.

—

Here’s how we’d explain this:

Jesus is God’s answer to the problem of sin and death in the world, and He has saved the world through His death on the cross.

Paul knows that whatever hollow and deceptive untruths that are running around in Colossae don’t have an answer like that for the problems of the world.

And we don’t either.

No amount of belief in yourself, or politician in Washington, or working harder or being better, can do what Jesus does.

Jesus is enough. He’s enough because He’s over all. He’s the greatest of all time and He alone can give us exactly what we need.

Here’s where I think we go with this…

For everything we see that is broken in the world, we turn to it and say, “Jesus is enough.”

Nothing that the BOSS, the GOAT, or THE OG can’t handle.

I don’t mean that, by any means, in a trite, or cute way.

He’s making everything new.

Every person He has encountered. Every person He has yet to encounter.

Every area of brokenness.

He’s doing it AND He’s using you to do that.

I can’t spend any time on that this morning with you all, about how He plans to do that, only the confidence that He does.

What I do know… the greatest the world has ever seen, has a plan to, whether we see it or not, to answer our every need.

Prayer