The Supreme Son - Part 2

Last time:

Introduction of main body of instruction

Hymn/poem confession

Refutation of false teachings around the church paul starts with some of the highest, loftiest, grandeur verses on the primacy, centrality, and supremacy of Christ

Last week we looked at this Supreme son over all of creation

Relationship first to God

We saw Jesus as the Image of the invisible God

Showed how that pointed to the divinity of Christ. Showing how Jesus is the invisible God made visible.

Relationship to creation

Firstborn - rank or priority

Before - Preexisted creation

Then we saw his role in creation

Agent In Creation - Both physical and spiritual

“By him all things were created”

Sustainer of Creation

Vs 17 “in him all things hold together”

While the cross was holding him, he in fact was holding the cross together

Goal of Creation

16b “…through him and for him”

Everything that exists exists for his glory

This week

Supremacy over New Creation

Define Church - Church is not a place but a people

Paul talks about universal & local

Universal - Col 1 18,24

The universal church is community of the saints, the elect, believers

Local - Col 4:15-16

Colossae

Body

Different metaphors for the church are used to convey different meaning

Bride - Show his love, intimacy, devotion

Household - Adoption, family, belonging, inheritance

Body - Used to show unity, function, connection, roles, etc

I want you to see the grand role of the church in God’s eyes

This may seem at first glance as thought Christ is diminishing his cosmic role by mentioning the church, but it actually is magnifying the role and value of the church.

Christ loves his church so much that why he came. To die for her. He is in the church and the church in him

Paul has experienced this first hand…

TURN

Acts 9:1–6 “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.””

By faith, you are a part of that body, of that bride, of that household.

What is just as magnificent and wonderful and awe-striking as Jesus being supreme over creation is the fact that he is supreme over the new creation, his church.

Christ has a unique relationship with his church than he does creation

Here Pauls emphasis is not on the body itself but on Christ, the head SHOW

Head

Authority or rank

Colossians 2:10 “and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

Nourishment - Sustenance

False teaching saying you need additional sources & experiences in addition to Christ

Colossians 2:19 “and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

Applies to local church

The church and a church will only make it so long as they hold to the head.

We see churches across the west and the world imploding because of this one reason

They have let go of the head to grab onto politics, culture, “seeker sensitive”, liberalism, you name it.

Barbara brown taylor in her book “Holy Envy” says this ““The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. … Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.”

You’ve let go of the head.

Let us be a local church, let us be a people that do not let go of the head, that never stop clinging to Christ in our ministry, in our families, in our lives.

He is our only head, he is our only authority, he is our spiritual nourishment an sustenance, he is our only hope in life and death.

How do you hold fast to Christ?

I think it’s a lot of things

Spiritual disciplines

Prayer

Colossians 4:2 “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

Scripture

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom…”

Worship

Colossians 3:16 “…singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Confession & Repentance

Killing sin

Colossians 3:5 “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you…”

Community Fellowship

Serving

Never walking past the Gospel

Colossians 1:23 “if indeed you 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, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

In col 2 he is talking about those who have gone past the gospel to look for more.

We do not look for more because there is no more to find. All we have is all we need

Beginning, the firstborn from the dead

Where firstborn in vs 15 means rank

He created all things

He is before all things

He was in the beginning Jn 1

Certainly rank is in appropriate but here it is focused on a temporal priority

Word “beginning”

Archē

Use in Gen 49 3 & Deut 21 17 & Rev 3 14

Founder, source, used of ruler earlier

Firstborn from the dead

God died

God rose

Different than other resurrections

Your hope is in the resurrection 

1 Corinthians 15:17–19 “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

Verse doesn’t stop there… The grave is empty

1 Corinthians 15:20–22 “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

You will rise as well

Death has no dominion over us. Death will be swallowed up=

That in everything he might be preeminent (first, greatest, highest rank, superior)

His superiority is put on public display in his resurrection!

Why is it that we can trust this supreme one to hold the world together - The grave is empty

Why is it that we can know all things are going to come under submission to him - The grave is empty

Why is it that we can rest in his sovereignty amidst the chaos of this world - the grave is empty

Why is it that we can have a peace that is beyond all understanding - The grave is empty

in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

Could be said, “God, in all his fullness…”

The fullness of the divine presence of God is completely made manifest in Christ

In a culture that was saying, “Christ is good but you need more spiritual experiences or that God could give you more” Paul says, “Absolutely nothing of God is lacking in Christ”

In a culture now that says “all roads lead to god” “Jesus was one of many”

Jesus is the way the truth, the life, no one comes to the father except through him!

You don’t need special experience

Cleave to antiquity

You don’t need secret revelation

You don’t need to speak in tongues

You don’t need a special man to intercede

You need to see that God has given you everything in Christ, All that you could ever need or ever want is found in Christ

That’s all that we have and it’s all we have to give

We don’t have to get clever, we don’t have to get cute

This is why the church in the west is in the state that it is…

Trying to find the fullness of God in trinkets and schemes.

The work of the teacher is to lead people to find their fullness in Christ alone: he does not possess anything beyond Christ to give to his people

 R. C. Lucas, Fullness & Freedom: The Message of Colossians & Philemon, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 53.

reconcile to himself all things… making peace

Reconcile… making peace

To creation

All of the creation was made by him and through him and for him, yet creation itself has been involved in the conflict with it’s creator

Romans 8:19–23 “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

To spiritual realm

To humans

Are all humans saved?

Jesus taught on hell more than anyone else in the bible

Colossians 2:15 “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

Triumphing over them

no, this doesn’t teach universalism

Peace

It doesn’t take perfect vision to see how terribly wrong things have gone in this world…

Sin, division, violence, death, murder, the slaughter of babies in the womb that is celebrated, the mutilation of children

God knows this and in a remarkable display of grace and mercy has done something about it.

He has bled out on a cross

God will restore the proper order that was broken. The proper order of things will be reestablished

Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Christ is lord

The authority, the position, the power, the glory of God will be undeniable

Obs

Christs supremacy demonstrates his sufficiency

The question Paul answers in this hymn and the question we have is this. IS CHRIST TRULY ENOUGH

Remember, it is his kingdom we have been transferred to

Is he enough to save me

Is he enough to keep me & hold me

Is he enough for my joy

Is he enough to satisfy

Is he enough for me?

He is sufficient for you

So let us with Paul, worship this great God and king