Jesus is King. Colossians 1:15-20.

Truth: Amanda

Colossians 1:15–20 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 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.

Introduction

Good morning church. I wanted to take some time to start this morning by saying thank you for allowing us to be gone last week to New Hope Baptist church up near Ash Grove. We had a great day of worship, fellowship, heck a wonderful family even made food for all of us to say thank you for worshipping with them. We are so grateful to be apart of a church who understands that churches plant churches and that churches inject live and encouragement into churches. We will be praying for New Hope and their pastor, Jeff Braddock, His wife Scarlett, and their 3 kiddos for the next 3 months. We want to bathe his family in encouragement, appreciation, and prayer in these months, as well as raising up their church. We want to see God do a mighty work among those families and in their community.

And we believe we serve a God big enough to see it through. God’s church can’t be stopped, slowed, or derailed when it is called according to His purposes and working for His kingdom.

I want to say a word of thanks to Brother Wade, our Associational Director of Missions as well who filled in last week. He always does a great job and as encouraging as he is as our DOM, as a pastor I appreciate his friendship most of all.

Today, as all of the known world descends upon our small town like locusts to acquire all manners of nicks and knacks, and goodies, I also want to extend a hand of friendship to any who are here to worship with us as we open our Bibles today to Collisions the first chapter.

Tension

We as a church, have been traveling through the book of Acts and seeing God use the early church and the faithfulness of the beleivers to do amazing things and call many men and women to hear the gospel message of Jesus, and to put their faith and trust in Him. I was a great time of growth, or better yet, explosion of the gospel on the landscape of the world. Nothing like it had be seen before and by the way, you and I are gathered here today as the lasting legacy of this exact movement. See, it didn’t stop back then. That same movement circled the globe through the ages and is still happening today through you and I. We are the ones called to preach, teach, and share the gospel today.

Yet, as great as the story can be, and for sure it is, it can also move us to focus on how great those times where. Times when God was doing miracles and signs through the apostles, even causing us to ask ourselves why not today Lord? We’ve talked about that too, how God does do works in our world today, they just rarely make headlines.

We also might be tempted to sort of hero worship the apostles as a sort of super-Christian with special significance or powers and thereby diminish our own power or responsibility in the entire enterprise. After all, I can’t heal people or cause dead people to live again so don’t expect such things from me. Am i right?

the truth is we can some times be guilty after hearing such things in the book of acts that we miss who was responsibile for all of this work and whose power and glory were meant to be displayed. Today as we crack open the book of Colossians, my hope is that we would take note of whose glory is actually displayed in the book of Acts, and btw, in your life and walk today. Read with me this morning in Colossians 1.

Prayer

Exposition

Today we are going to read a familiar passage and just let it wash over us as we glory in the God who saved us.

Colossians 1:15–20 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 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. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 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. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

I’ll tell you, Paul hit this out of the Park as the spirit blessed his vision that day when this was penned. Woven words that paint the picture of God’s grandure and glory could never be written by me at my best. But more than any adulation I could give, they just paint for us Jesus so clearly and show us just how big our God is. Let’s unpack it together.

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God,

- the word “image” here means “a representation” but more appropriately “manifestation”. This was a direct slap in the face of the gnostic teaching that Jesus could not have been a real man. Gnostics believed that all matter was evil and all that was spiritual was good. Therefore, they denied that Jesus could have been fully human. They prided themselves on being men of wisdom and intellect.

Paul dismantles their argument by this passage as his statement directly correlates to Proverbs chapter 2 and 8 where Wisdom is said to be coeternal to God before creation. Here Paul is calling out these men, who claim to stand on the rock of wisdom. Not only is this wisdom they seek found in the bodily person of Christ, but is found in this man who is the perfect representation of the Father of all creation. Meaning- if you want to see what God is like, what he values, what he loves, how he acts, what he opposes, how he moves- then you can look at the Christ. Because Christ is the picture of what the Heart of God looks like. he goes on.

the firstborn over all creation. 16 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. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The term here “firstborn” throws people sometimes because in our world it means that you were the first created child. However, in both the Greek and Hebrew mind the firstborn child was the title of highest honor and not a temporal acknowledgment. It is not saying Jesus was the first created child of God but the son who held the highest rank of honor. In fact, we find in verse 16 that Jesus is the chief agent of creation in the first place. that all of creation was made for him. All that is was made by him and for him. Not only that but vs 17 tells us that his power and authority is what governs its laws to hold the world together. He is the author of gravity and thermodynamics, mathematics, biology, physics. He started it all, holds it all, and by his word, will end it all, bringing about the restoration of creation under his rule.

· 18 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.

A couple things we must note here. In this portion Paul makes 3 points for us.

1. Christ is the head of the body- by this we understand that a body, fit, active, and healthy can do nothing without its head. In the same fashion, the church can do nothing without the direction, power, and will of Jesus Christ. Truth be told we can do programming, and serve our community, and do a great deal of things in our own power- but we will never experience the kind of growth and transformation that is possible through the power of Christ. The adage goes- “churches always overestimate what they can do in 10 years and sadly underestimate what God could do in just 10 days.”

2. Paul then redirects us back to the resurrection of Christ. By Jesus being the firstborn among the dead, Paul calls us back to the fact that Jesus, who was dead, didn’t stay that way. This makes him more than a dead hero or legendary figure, but a living presence who is reigning today. That he holds a position that no other can claim. Baked within this statement, by declaring Him the “Firstborne of the dead” is the insinuation that there will be more borne from among the dead. Christ was just the first and those who are found in Him will join him in their victory dance over sin, death, and the grave. Not because they have his power but because His power and authority have been given to them through the power of the cross and the grace and mercy of Christ.

3. That Jesus, because of the Cross, is supreme over all. Over creation, over death, and over the church. He is the supreme power in all of heaven, earth and under it. His word is truth and power.

19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 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.

Here Paul shows us God’s mission in reconciliation. This ministry of reconciliation contains two parts that we must get right.

1. Reconciliation finds its origin the person of Christ. He is the precursor to the act. He is the one that started the reparation of the relationship. Romans 5:8 tells us

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

It doesn’t say, “while humanity tried desperately to repair their broken relationship with God, Jesus decided to reciprocate.”. He started it not us.

2. Reconciliation’s foundation is found in God’s primary attitude towards his children- love. For God so loved the world. It is not that Jesus somehow diminished God’s wrath and now changed his mind. Instead Jesus swallowed up the wrath of God on us. It was all poured out on him for our sake. And it was done that way because of the great love of God.

A God of wrath would simply have left us to the consequence of our sin, not make a way that cost him dearly for our disobedience. The cross, once and for all showed us that God was and is a God of love.

The picture of the bridegroom here resonates beautifully here for us. Christ to perfect groom loved his bride the church. However, we were an unfaithful bride. We ran from his love and cheated on him with the evils of the world. Yet as we were finally about to receive justice for our sin, Christ died for his bride anyway. He took her shame upon himself. His love for her was demonstrated once and for all, without her reciprocation. First came his sacrifice, then our repentance.

So, what should we do with such a passage. How should we react with knowledge like this? What implications should we take home with us. How do I need to change? What areas of our lives should look different if we embrace the kingship of Christ?

It changes how we approach the king. Jesus is not your buddy, your pal, your genie, or your slave- He is Lord. Years ago, a survey described the theological implications of how people approached Jesus based on what they expected the relationship to be like. They came up with designations people commonly feel into.

Treating God as a cosmic vending machine where we came to him with our requests, prayed the prayers and expected him to deliver our stuff.

God our buddy- who is there to pick us up when we are feeling down and encourage us in whatever life we are trying to pursue.

God our therapist who wants to help us think about ourselves in the most positive way possible so that we won’t live mentally pessimistic lives.

God our slave whose job it is to do anything we ask or want. And while none of us would endorse this idea how upset do we become when we ask or demand God do something for us and he doesn’t deliver?

Today I would add to that list that God is our endorsement. That he seeks to basically endorse whatever beliefs, causes, passions, or trends we say that we believe. People’s profiles and socials declare loudly and proudly in our day that “The Jesus I know says this or would never support that.” We use him as a bumper sticker of tacit endorsement over our own ideals while failing to learn or live by His.

I think this passage can show us some ways we need to change our approach to Christ.

It changes how we approach Jesus. The truth is Jesus is King. And When we approach the king, it is with reverence and humility. This king created all, hold the world together with just his word, and is the author of time, matter, space, and you. Despite all of that he is still approachable by us. Jesus was the ultimate expression that this King, with this power, and this authority, could still be met with. He calls us to a loving relationship but never let us confuse his loving kindness as if it were anything less than that. He is Holy and we are his. You don’t waltz into the court of the king, kick off your crocs, talk on your cellphone and pretend you own the joint.

It changes how we worship. When we approach the throne of Jesus, in awe of his character, power, authority, and grace it is hard to not become overwhelmed with humility and gratefulness. That is why we seen people in the Bible throwing themselves on the ground before God as they pray, David danced naked before God in his famous line in 2 Samuel “I will become even more undignified than this.” When I first came to church I didn’t understand why people would raise their hands, or cry while singing, or bow down, or pray out loud. It seemed so strange to me but after knowing Christ, tasting his love and grace and mercy, I have a hard time understanding how we cannot be moved by him. If I’m completely honest, sometimes I care more about what people will think of me than who I’m worshiping. But David taught us a lesson. When God is the object of our worship, It doesn’t matter who else is watching because we sing, dance, pray, and posture ourselves before an audience of one. And he is worthy of all worship. Often times when we worship with aren’t giving all we’ve got.

RAISE YOUR HAND ILLUSTRATION

So, when we come in here and worship together on Sundays- GIVE HIM ALL YOU’VE GOT. This is the King of Glory and he doesn’t care if you’re in key or polished. He cares about the heart you bring to his throne. Does it cry out for him? Does it seek to honor him above all? Does it recognize its desperate need for his provision?

It changes how we pray. Because Jesus is in control of all- we can trust him with all. We really can. But, we must realize the example of Jesus. When faced with the upcoming pain of death and reality of the suffering He took his heart to the Father in Gethsemane

“And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus showed us that when we pray, we bring our honest heart before God. Whether that heart is angry, scared, joyful, broken, or peace filled- we bring it honestly before the Lord without masks. However, even in the midst of fear and death Jesus still surrendered his want to God’s will. Let us never forget that he controls everything and we serve by his will not the other way around.

It changes how we see control. Jesus’ plan of salvation was much harsher than the ABC’s. Matthew 16, Jesus tells us his plan

“24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[b] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Jesus outlined for those that would follow him that it would cost them. They would first choose to lay down their position as the king of their own life. They choose to give that control over to him and follow his teaching. Then they are to take up his instrument of pain, torture, humiliation, and disgrace and follow in his steps. In short, I want you to be willing to live for me, through me, and even be willing to die for me.

Notice what he didn’t say here. He didn’t “if any man would follow after he will write checks, be gifted or talented, teach Bible studies, serve at Hope Kitchen, or teach Awana for 10 years.” Jesus is not interested in what you have to bring to the relationship because he is interested in your heart not your assets.

(Show Couch Picture)

 Amanda and I were about to be married and she had been garage-selling and collecting furniture for months. We talked on the phone about what we were going to do with my stuff at college. I had this one couch that I’d had for 4 years. It was covered in the sweat of at least 40 guys and started as a soft tan color which had now become dark grey over the years. All the Febreze in the isle couldn’t help this thing. So, Amanda made the executive decision that night on the phone “You are not bringing that gross thing even near our house!” In that same way, God doesn’t want our junk. He will prepare us and qualify us beyond what we can do ourselves. He doesn’t want our stuff he just wants all of us.

(Knock chess pieces off the board but the king)

So, the question is have you given Jesus all of you? Have you made him the King of your life, the Lord of all or are still trying to play games with him. Have you given him 90% of your life with some areas still left in the control of you? Have you trusted the God who holds all of creation in place with the places of your life that scare you or cause you anxiety? If you would be honest today and say that you’ve never given God full control and held him as the king he is the first step for you can be today. It starts by you laying down your king in surrender to the true king.

Landing

In the book of Acts, in the early church, in Paul’s missionary Journey’s, heck, even in Paul’s own spiritual transformation and ministry, Christ is the main character. God grew the church. God healed the broken and saved the lost. God called men and women, awakened sleeping hearts, caused hostile attempts against the church, his bride, to fail and the gospel to catch fire. He is the image of the invisible God. He is God’s glory incarnate. And the beauty and power shown at Calvary is still available today to you and to me.