The Preeminence of Christ: Part 3 - Reconciled to Christ
Colossians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
My parents divorce:
When I was 20
I helped my Dad move into an apartment
He had met someone else
They had made a covenant and he had broken that covenant
Not unique to my parents, that’s what separation and divorce is - a breaking of the covenant (promise) that you made on your wedding day.
Every marriage has its trouble.
We made promises, and we break them
Sorry guys, but we’re not perfect husbands
If you were here as we looked though Genesis, you might remember how we were looking at those themes, those threads that we’ve their way through Scripture.
God’s sovereignty in His creation
Made in the image of God
Sabbath rest: ultimate rest in Christ
Created with a purpose
Marriage: Genesis 2:22-24
Marriage is a prominent theme that weaves its way through the Bible
You’re gonna ask, “What does this passage in Colossians 1 have to do with marriage?”
I hope I can answer that. But first, let’s pray...
Marriage
Marriage
When Natalie and I got married, we made a covenant with one another before God: I don’t remember, but something like this:
[The Pastors Book: Page 141, 2 “Wedding Service”]
The wedding is the moment when a man and a woman make a covenant - a promise with one another to be faithful (monogamous).
One woman man - one man woman
For the rest of our lives - as long as one of us is alive, we are stuck together. Thick and thin. Rich or for poor. Sickness and in health. No matter what, in every step of the way.
Become one flesh
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
God hates divorce - why wouldn’t He? It is his institution. It is His way of seeing His people thrive. The family functions properly when all the components are there.
When Nat and I were young - and I was more of a jerk
I worked 7 days a week - Natalie, rightfully would complain
I stayed home one Sunday and we fought. “I should just go to work, anyways!”
What husband says that to his wife?
God rescued our marriage when we began to hear what He desired for a husband and wife should do
God designed the marriage to be a place where children are “brought up in the nurture and instruction of the Lord.”
The man and the woman were to be fruitful and multiply - and the children were to be raised to know God
Live joyful lives, hounoring God - Marriage is supposed to be something beautiful
Israel’s Husband
Israel’s Husband
The theme of marriage that begins in Genesis means significantly more than a mechanism for His creation to multiply and to thrive. An institution that He implements to ensure the proliferation of the species.
It’s an image of His relationship to His people.
Just as God often does, in the majestic way that only God can do, He develops an institution, the covenant of marriage that functions on a personal level, between a husband and wife, the most intimate relationship that two people can have - a marriage has the capacity to provide our greatest joy in life and our greatest pain - and God takes that relationship and uses it to describe Himself to His people.
To give us a picture of who He is.
Listen to these words that God speaks to His people, Israel:
[Ezek 16:8-14]
Isn’t that a beautiful thing!
God intentionally creates marriage to operate, or to affect us deeply on multiple levels. That’s how God speaks to us! He is the holy being that we cannot comprehend. Transcendent. We do not operate on the same level - planets and stars are spoken into existence. He breathes life into dust. No human can look upon God and live.
But, God speaks to us on a level that we can understand. God makes Himself known to His creation. He’s not hiding from us and then chastising us when we don’t believe in Him and recognize Him for who He is. He is invisible. He is transcendent. Therefore, He makes Himself known through His creation.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
God speaks to his human creation in a human way. He paints us pictures in the human experience so that we would know Him.
A tree that bears fruit for us to eat,
A sunset to watch across the landscape
The stars and the planets
The intimate relationships between a man and a woman.
A parents love for a child. An only child. A Son…
It’s almost impossible to fathom - that God is sovereign over all creation - and He brings it all together - all of it - for His purpose and for His glory.
In what way is He working in history and in our lives that we have no comprehension of?
If you’re married, your marriage is a picture of who God is to His people. That’s how He wants to be known to His people.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Do you see the connection with Ezek 16
God is so consistent in how He speaks to us. He is not a God of confusion - He is steadfast and faithful. He speaks so that you can hear… Not just on an intellectual level - but on a personal level at the core of your being.
Who knows a man better than his wife? Who knows your heart better than you do? God is transcendent and he is imminent. He is holy and you are unholy. He is far above you, yet He is very near to you.
God loves His people like the perfect husband who loves His bride. But the bride is imperfect...
How does Ezekiel continue to describe the bride, Israel?
“But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.
Israel was unfaithful to their Husband, to YHWH. How was Israel unfaithful?
They made for themselves kings that rejected God
They intermarried and took on the false gods of the nations around them
They began to worship Baal, and sacrifice their children to Molech
All that God called them to do they rejected - they were unfaithful to their husband.
The covenant that God had made with them - and they with God - they had broken.
The covenant between a man and wife is meant to be sacred. The connection that a husband and wife has is unlike no other. The love in a marriage is meant to be the most intimate. And it can be the most painful when that love is squandered, or taken for granted. What could possibly hurt more when a husband or wife who is unfaithful?
This broken relationship between Israel and their God is another picture for us - don’t miss out on this. Don’t let this pass you by...
His bride has been unfaithful, but He will not let them go. Despite Israel’s infidelity, God promises that He will restore the relationship with them - He promises to make a new covenant.
“For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant… … I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”
Wait - what? Who atones for the sins of Israel?
God says:
“I will make amends for all the wrongdoing that my people have done.”
“I will make the payment necessary.”
“I will take on the guilt of your sins.”
God makes a New Covenant with His people. They have broken the covenant that they made with their God, YHWH - been the unfaithful bride. But the Husband will not forget His covenant with His people. The Husband will remain faithful.
“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
God promises that one day He will make a New Covenant with His people. He place it in their hearts that they would recognize Him as their loving husband
The Preeminence of Christ
The Preeminence of Christ
Alright, that was the introduction, now we can get to the text.
The last two weeks we have been looking at the hymn - five verses - in Colossians 1:15-20
Jesus is supreme over all creation: All things were created by Him, through Him, and for Him.
Not only is Jesus the creator of all things - everything was created through Him - and that he upholds all things - He sustains all things… but He is the purpose for all things: All creation, seen and unseen; all history, past, present, and future - known and unknown - He is it’s rational. He is its purpose. He is the meaning behind all things. All of creation points to the glory of God - and “in Him (Jesus) all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.” (v.19)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And 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, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
When my parents got divorced, they decided what to do with the house. My Dad moved away and eventually started a new life with someone else - who I very much love and care for.
But my parents made no attempt to fix things. They didn’t go to counselling. They didn’t take a break and try to make amends. There was no reconciliation.
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things,”
What does that word reconcile mean?
To bring back together. To restore a broken relationship. When a husband and wife have separated and become estranged from one another, and they come back together, they have reconciled their differences. They have made things right.
When Paul writes that Christ is preeminent over all creation, he is telling us that Christ is at the center of it all. All things - all of human history finds its purpose in Christ - its meaning - its rational. All of creation finds its meaning in Christ. Not one stray molecule.
And all of creation is reconciled through Him and to Him.
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
If all of creation is reconciled to Him through the cross - all things were estranged - all things were separated.
Does that include you? What does Paul say?
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
The unfaithful bride was not merely Israel. They were a picture - an image - a reflection of the world we live in, a mirror for us to see ourselves in.
You were alienated. You were separated. You were hostile in your mind towards God. You were doing evil deeds. You were the unfaithful bride.
God has made Himself known to all humankind through His creation - through history - the entire cosmos had been made known to everyone through Jesus.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And 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, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
And yet we have rejected Him. Alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.
Just as Israel worshipped other gods, we too worship other gods.
We may bring in other religions - we all worship the same God
We worship the god of our jobs/career/money/property
We sacrifice our children on the alter of our career - latchkey kids
We sacrifice our children on the alter of convenience
We worship ourselves as our own god - we decide for ourselves what is better - we know better than God what is right and wrong
Christ is preeminent - supreme - central to all things - and He has done what needed to be done to reconcile you to Himself. The New Covenant has been consecrated in Christ’s blood. The blood of bulls would never suffice. Christ is preeminent in reconciling you and all of creation to Himself. God has atoned for your evil deed.
He has washed you and made you His bride “in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”
“And in that day, (the day that we are living in now) declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel,
and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
Christ has reconciled the broken relationship between His creation and Himself. He has atoned for His unfaithful bride - and now calls the church His bride.
What do you need to do? Place your faith in the bridegroom who would do whatever it takes for His bride.
Don’t take for granted the bridegroom. Christ is preeminent in all things. And He is sufficient in all things.
Paul says:
continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven…
Lets read together this hymn
Stand up and stretch your legs...
