Supreme and Sufficient

Welcome to River City this morning –  My name is Rodney and I’m one of the pastors around here – and I want to thank you for being here today. It’s not by accident that you are here. You could have chosen to be somewhere else this morning, but something in you said it’s time to get up and get ready. Time to go. You might have even faced some opposition or challenges this morning as you tried to get here. But you made it. We’ll talk more about that later. But for now:

To all who are weary and need rest; To all who mourn and long for comfort; To all who fail and desire strength; And to all who sin and need a Savior — This church opens wide her doors in the name of Jesus Christ, The Son of God and the friend of sinners.

Two things before you sit down: 1) KidCity and Pathfinders – that’s 6th grade on down to nursery, you can all head out to your classes. If you’re a guest at River City and have children you would like to send to class, but aren’t sure where to go or how it works, just follow the crowd out the double doors and look for Kelly or Angela back there who can help you get checked in and point you in the right direction AND 2) SECONDLY, take a few minutes to say hi to someone next to you, grab a coffee, get your Bible, and I’ll be right back.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR PHONE

[ 001 ] We are in the book of Colossians this morning, chapter 1, so I would love for you to have a copy of scripture in your hands today so you can follow along, highlight, underline, and interact with the scripture today. But we’ve been using the illustration of climbing a mountain to talk about the structure of this letter, that chapter one has us climbing the mountain of the glory of Christ as we move toward the summit in chapter 3, where we get the title for our series: Hide and Seek.

[ 002 ] If you’re new to scripture, and aren’t sure where Colossians is, go about 3/4 of the way through – look for one of these books, and then you’ll know if you need to turn to the right or the left.

As your finding Colossians, once again, this is a letter written by the apostle Paul to a church in a farming town somewhere in the middle of what is modern day Turkey, about 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. [ 003 ] The man who helped get this church off the ground, a guy named Epaphras, had some very serious concerns about the church and how they were merging Christianity with other religious beliefs and practices. So he got some advice from Paul on how to handle this.

And before Paul gets into any of his advice or warnings or caution or anything, he first thanks God for the incredible transformation of the Colossian people – they love the Lord, they love others, the gospel is growing in them and spreading to neighboring cities – and then Paul makes a very strategic move.

Right now , instead of listening to anything I have to say, you could go on the US Currency Education website and be trained for free on how to spot counterfeit money. [ 004 ] There’s a course you can take, and then a test at the end, the whole deal. And when it comes to training people how to spot fake bills, they could teach you all the latest forgeries and have you memorize the thousands of little errors to look for, and tell you all the ways people try to beat the system – but they don’t.

Instead, they get you to learn every single corner of the real thing. The way you spot a fake bill is you obsess over the real one. That way no matter what the latest forgery is, you’ll be able to see, hang on, something doesn’t look right. I might not know exactly what it is right away, but something doesn’t look or feel right.

In a culture where people claimed to have a new and better access to God, or some revelation that no one has ever had before, the Colossian church needed wisdom on how to know what was the Truth and what was a spiritual forgery. So Paul’s strategy is the same as that of the US Currency training program: The Colossians’ best protection against error (Lucas, 45) is to give them a heavy dose of the real thing.

And so we’re going to look at Jesus for the next 30 minutes. Nothing else. No side bar doctrines. No religious practices. No 3 step takeaway today for how you can be a better person, or a better business man or woman, or better leader in your community. In fact, I’m tempted to just read and re-read these 8 or 9 verses on repeat for the next 1/2 hour and just let the word speak for itself.

But we’re going to take the scripture line by line, and spend some time just letting the truth soak in. [ 005 ] If we’re using the dollar bill illustration, and looking at the real thing, here are the two sides of the bill: On the Front: Christ Supreme, and on the back: Christ Sufficient. Christ Supreme, and Christ Sufficient, or in other words – Jesus is Ruler, he’s the Head, the Lord of all, and that Jesus’ finished work is enough to get you from separated from God in your sin to holy, faultless, and blameless.

And I believe that if we can shut up that little voice inside of us that says, “um, duh, you already know this” – if we can hush that voice and listen, I believe the Spirit of God is going to do something in us and through us by his word this morning. But just like we pray before we eat a meal, we’re going to pray before we are fed by the Word of God. So I’m going to be silent for a few moments and in those moments let you pray silently right where you are. Let’s together thank the Lord for the spiritual food he’s about to give us. Thank the Lord that even if it’s not prepared exactly the way we like it, it is what we need for today, and we can trust that it will nourish our souls and help us grow.

PRAYER

We left of last week [ 006 ] in verse 13, where Paul wrote that God the Father has transferred us out of the domain or the authority of darkness, and into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him, in that Son, we have redemption the forgiveness of sins. That’s the setup for today, so here we go: [ 007 ]

Colossians 1:15–20 “He (the Son) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Incredible. As I said earlier, we’re going to divide this into two sections: Christ Supreme, [ 007 ] and Christ Sufficient. Who Christ Is and What He Does. So, first, Christ Supreme

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

The idea of “image” is something we’re all pretty familiar with, given the fact that every one of us have a camera in our pocket 90% of the time, and we carry around photo albums on our devices. And image is an exact representation of something. I take a picture of Mitchell, and now on my phone is now an exact representation (or an image) of Mitchell. Another example is a reflection in a mirror or on water. It’s an exact representation.

So where all this begins, before you get to Jesus on the cross, before you get to anything he created or said or any miracles he performed, it begins with this: Jesus is the mirror image of God. Hebrews 1 says Jesus is the exact expression of God’s nature. Philippians 2 adds that Jesus was equal to God. John 1 says Jesus was God.

If that’s true, we cannot say that God the Father has certain attributes or qualities, and Jesus the Son has his own attributes or qualities. [ 008 ] Whatever God the Father is, Jesus is. Some folks are in the habit of saying, the Father was revealed in the Old Testament through the law and judgment – it’s a picture of an angry and vengeful God in the Old Testament. The New testament shows us Jesus, a more loving and compassion version of God. He looks out for the weak, doesn’t kill anyone, and is generally a lot more easy going.

Those people have never read the book of Revelation. If you know you know. It says Jesus is coming back on a war horse with a sword sticking out of his mouth, and his clothes will be stained red with the blood of his enemies. It’s a picture of violence against his enemies. And, if you look at the God revealed in the Old Testament, you find a God who is very compassionate, very patient, very gracious with people. So, no. The two testaments of the Bible are not two different revelations of God. What the Father is, Jesus is and what Jesus is, the Father is – so much so, that Jesus said to his disciples in John 14:9 “…The one who has seen me has seen the Father.” That’s the foundation everything else builds on, because if we don’t start there, the second half of verse 15 is going to throw us off course already.

He is…the firstborn over all creation.

One heresy that often happens with this verse is when people wrongly assume that the word “firstborn” means Jesus was created at some point – like he didn’t exist at one point, until the Father gave him a beginning. Created him. Firstborn meaning he was the first thing God created. That very idea ignores the first part of the verse, which says Jesus is an exact mirror of the Father. The Father is eternal. For Jesus to be an exact representation of God’s nature, he too MUST be eternal. John 1:3 “All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.”

So then what does Paul mean by the word “firstborn”? In Western culture, we don’t really give special privileges to the oldest children like they did in ancient Judaism. Today if someone runs a family business, has a couple children, and one of the younger kids is more interested in the business or has a better knack for it, it’s not that big of a deal to skip the oldest and let the younger one run the show when dad retires.

But that’s not the culture Paul is writing from. In his world, the oldest son carried a lot of responsibility. You didn’t have the luxury of not being interested in dad’s business, because one day, everything the Father had was going to transfer to you. The moment you are born, it’s already a done deal. All of dad’s stuff will one day be entrusted to you as the one to call the shots and run the show.

So when Paul says Jesus is the firstborn over all creation, he doesn’t mean he was the first thing God created, he means that everything the Father has, he has entrusted to Jesus as the supreme authority. [ 009 ] Hebrews 1:2 “In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.”

So, Paul begins with: Jesus is an exact mirror of the Father, and the Father has entrusted all things to him as the full and final authority. How do we know? 16 For (or because) everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through him and for him. Jesus is the supreme authority over all of creation AND…notice the direction Paul steers the conversations – Jesus is the supreme power over all other powers – dark powers included – because he made them.

There have always been groups of people in the Church who have been almost extremely interested in who or what those invisible powers are – okay, thrones refers to this level of demons, dominions must mean another level, rulers and authorities are yet another level of demons or angels, and yet notice that Paul doesn’t give those invisible powers the time of day. He doesn’t waste a single word on figuring out the hierarchy of invisible powers - he’s busy praising the One who made them, and is supreme over them all! That’s the beginning of verse 17: [ 011 ] He is before all things, meaning, he is the orgin of all things, and by him all things hold together. Not only is he the CEO, he also is maintenance. Not only is he the artist and designer, he is also the engineer.

Now let’s be honest for a second. This can be a tough one to get our arms around, because most of the time, it looks like evil is winning in the world – and if you drill it down to our personal lives, they don’t always go super smoothly either. Sometimes parts of our own life look out of control too. So it’s not hard for us to wonder how it can be true that Jesus holds all things together when it looks like the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

And I would submit, that most of the time, our approach to life is too nearsighted. Here’s what I mean - We look at our financial stresses and think, well, it’s great that Jesus died for my sin, love it, thankful for it – but forgiveness doesn’t pay the bills. I need something more than Jesus. Or we look at the rising gas prices, corrupt world leaders who somehow get voted into office, or whatever, and we say, it’s great that my sins are forgiven and there’s an inheritance waiting, but that doesn’t make my kids safe at school. That doesn’t help make groceries affordable. Or the farmers watch the rain continue to pour out on fields that are already saturated, as crops that should have come off weeks ago start to mold, and they may be tempted to think, well, it’s great that my sins are taken care of, but that’s not my biggest concern right now!

And yet, look back over verses 15-17 (don’t look at the screen, look at the actual verses) and notice this v 15: he is firstborn, supreme, has full authority, over how much of creation? ALL. verse 16, how much was created by him? EVERYTHING. Visible, invisible, thrones, rulers and authorities – what was created though him and for him? ALL THINGS. Verse 17, he is before what? ALL THINGS. And what is held together by him? ALL THINGS.

What do you think Paul is trying to communicate?

There is nothing in all of creation – evil or otherwise – that is not under the full and complete lordship of Jesus Christ. Yes, for a time, Satan is the god of this world, and he accuses and sneak attacks and tempts. Yes, we still get sick and death and decay still take our lives. Yes the power of sin still still wrecks homes and countries and lives. But even so, it is all 100%, completely under the lordship of Jesus Christ and he holds all things together.

What does it mean?

If that’s true, then we don’t have to live in fear. If that’s true, then nothing happens that doesn’t run through Jesus first. I remember the first day that our son could drive to school with his school permit. 14 years old, in a sporty little red car and a bit of a need for speed, and I remember watching him leave the driveway with our three girls in the car with him. And I remember thinking – man, there goes my family, now in the hands of a 14 yr old boy who has to navigate through the worst intersection in Johnson county there at the cheese factory. And let me tell you – even though I trusted Jackson, and knew he was a good driver, that will put a spark in your prayer life. That will put some urgency in your prayers.

But if it is true that Jesus is holding all things together, and that he is supreme over ALL things, then if they arrive at school safely, it is because Jesus presided over their protection. And if they were in an accident at the cheese factory and Jodi and I lost all four of them in one moment – Jesus was no less supreme over their deaths. That was the truth that kept my heart at peace all those mornings and afternoons, and it’s what gives me peace even to this day, as two of those four are now married and doing their own thing, and the other two still have to navigate that intersection twice a day.

Here’s another way we don’t have to live in fear: Scripture talks about the world being under the sway of the evil one – the devil. The ancient serpent from the Garden. Revelation 20 speaks of an angel coming out of heaven to capture Satan and throw him in prison for 1000 years. You think Jesus couldn’t do that today if he wanted to? You think Jesus is waiting for Satan to have a breakdown in security so he can finally grab him, like he’s been trying all this time, but Satan just keeps eluding his grasp? Not a chance. If Colossians 1 is true, the only reason Satan isn’t already in the lake of fire is because Jesus hasn’t given the word to capture him yet. If ALL THINGS in heaven and on earth really means ALL THINGS in heaven and on earth, then even the devil and his demons are fully inside of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They don’t willingly submit to it, but that doesn’t mean they are outside of his rule and reign.

So even though our battle is against very real dark powers we can’t see, we don’t have to live in fear of them. We will see in chapter 2 that these powers have had been de-fanged. They have been disarmed, defeated, and publicly embarrassed at the cross of Christ.

Jesus is not only fully supreme over everything that was part of the first creation: [ 012 ] He is also supreme over the new creation (Lucas, 51-52): 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “celebrity preacher”. If not, a celebrity preacher is someone who started as a local church pastor, and then thanks to a good social media team, has reached a level of influence that goes far beyond the people in his own church. And after a while, these celebrity preachers are viewed as the authority on certain issues facing believers. You want to know about deliverance ministry – look up these guys. You want to know about solid doctrine and preaching – look up these guys. You want to know about Israel and end times prophecies, oh, you gotta read this guy’s book. You get the idea.

The trouble with that is that when a controversial topic comes up, something like divorce and remarriage, or speaking in tongues, or how much free will humans really have, and instead of searching the scriptures in prayerful humility – we just type into the search bar what does John Piper say about divorce. Or what does Jen Wilkin believe about whether or not women should be preachers? Or what does Josh Howerton say about speaking in tongues. And then we take up our own personal position based on what THEY say, rather than prayerfully considering it ourselves. I’ll admit, I’ve done that. And I’m ashamed of it.

That was happening all the way back here in Colossae as well. You had people claiming to be the authority on certain things, and that they had the secret sauce recipe for what God was doing in the world (cf, Lucas 52-53). So Paul makes it very clear to them and to you and I: Jesus Christ is the Head of the body, the church. He is the full and final authority. The men and women we look to for answers are imperfect. They don’t see everything perfectly either. Only Jesus does.

I might carry the role of Lead Pastor here at River City, but I’m a nobody. I’m not the authority on anything – including River City. Jesus is the Lead Pastor, the Head Shepherd, and by his Holy Spirit he fills and leads and guides the body. Elders and pastors work together to follow his lead.

So Jesus is the Head of the church, he’s the Beginning of the church; and verse 18 says He is also the Firstborn from the dead. We saw this word firstborn back in verse 15, and the meaning is still the same. Jesus was not the first person to be physically raised from the dead. There were a couple in the Old Testament, Jesus himself raised people from the dead, and a bunch of people came back to life the moment Jesus died … so there were several others before him who were raised from physical death (Wiersbe, 2:116-117). But when Jesus rose from the grave, his resurrection was the beginning of the new creation. The cross accomplished what it was meant to accomplish. His resurrection opened the door for not just our physical resurrection, but our spiritual resurrection as well.

So part one was Christ Supreme, and now part 2, which is much shorter, is Christ Sufficient. [ 013 ] Here’s verses 19-20: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

We tried to figure this out the other night, but my wife Jodi has been a volleyball coach for something like 15 years – 10 of those where one or more of our three daughters were on her teams. And when you coach your own children, you have to sort of wear different hats, right? When we’re at home, she has on the mom hat. No more coaching, just be mom. But at the gym, she’s the coach. She can’t be their mom and treat them differently than the other girls, or she wouldn’t be a trustworthy coach. But even then, it’s impossible for her to stop being their mom. When she’s at home, and the topic of volleyball comes up – it’s impossible for her to fully put aside the fact that she’s a coach and has some authority.

One deception in Paul’s day that still finds it’s way into sermons today is that when Jesus came to earth, he stopped being God so that he could be human. The false teaching is that he became fully man, but no more. And they quote verses and have their reasons. But Colossians 1:19 says otherwise. Jesus was fully human. No question. But he was also fully God. Paul emphasizes that the FULLNESS of God was present in Jesus, and God was fired up about it. That word translated “fullness” means”the sum total of all divine power and attributes.” The word “dwell” there is just as important. We might use the word to describe a house – a place to dwell. But the word here means more than just “living inside.” The form of the verb means “to be at home permanently” (Wiersbe, 2:118).

So the fullness of God – All God’s qualities and activities—his Spirit, word, wisdom and glory—are perfectly and permanently displayed in Christ. Jesus was not 75% man, 25% God. He wasn’t 50/50. He wasn’t even fully human and 99% God. He was 100% God, 100% man. Why is that important? Why does it matter?

Two reasons: 1. Because Jesus Christ was and is fully God, He is able to do what no human could ever do, verse 20: reconcile lost sinners to a holy God! He had to be human so he could die, and he had to be God so that his death would accomplish what it was intended to accomplish. And 2) It means you don’t need more than Jesus in order to get to the Father. It’s not Jesus on the cross, plus dressing the right way makes God love you. It’s not Jesus on the cross, plus speaking in tongues. It’s not Jesus on the cross, plus belonging to the right doctrine or denomination.

The next two verse are a summary of the gospel: Colossians 1:21–23 “Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. This is where every baptism story or testimony begins, right? Once I was. For me personally, I was once self-righteous, arrogant, and judgmental, thinking God was lucky to have me on his team. I didn’t see it at the time, but in my “religious perfection”, I was alienated from God. Estranged. Separated. I thought I was doing God a favor, but my actions were evil in that they were self-centered, full of pride, and it made me an enemy of God.

So all of our stories start with a “once you were…” It’s in Ephesians 2 and it’s in Colossians 2 – once you were dead in your sin. That’s where our story starts. Sin doesn’t make us bad, it makes us dead. So Jesus didn’t come to make us good, he came to make us alive. The bad news starts with “once you were…” but the gospel starts with, “but now…” Once you were dead, but now you have been made alive. Once you were far from God, but now you have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

“Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. Verse 22: But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, and here’s why: to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him.

If you grew up in a Baptist church, I’m sure someone has said to you at some point in your life: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” What is that wonderful plan? To reconcile you to your Creator! The wonderful plan that God has for your life is one where Jesus takes you by the hand, and brings you to the Father and say, look: I have done the work to make him holy, faultless, and blameless. I have done the work to qualify her (verse 12) to share in your inheritance, because I have rescued her from the domain of darkness and transferred her into our kingdom, and her sins are completely covered by my blood.

But it’s not about just getting into heaven – Remember last week, verse 10? What does God expect of a Christian while we’re here? That we walk worthy of the Lord – that our behaviors, actions, attitudes, etc, are in step with the kinds of things God wants for our lives, and benefit others. The gospel comes with an “IF”.

Jesus has reconciled you to the Father by dying in your place, and his goal is to one day present you morally pure, legally innocent, and complete. But you have a role to play in that, verse 23 – if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which, Paul says, is the gospel that he has proclaimed.

So as the band comes to lead us out this morning, here are the next three steps we’ve taken up the mountain today:

Jesus is fully God. He showed us visibly what the invisible God is like. He is the Creator and sustainer of all things. Everything is fully and completely under his Lordship, including the devil and his minions.

Jesus is the Head of the Church. He is the full and final authority over our gatherings. He is the full and final authority over what we can know about God. He is the authority over what is TRUTH.

Jesus’ goal is to present you holy and complete. And he expects our willing and eager participation in that process.

SOURCES

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

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996)

Peter T. O’Brien, New Bible commentary: 21st century edition, 1994