Jesus Is The Head Of The Church

intro- This past week, Garrett has spent a great deal of time discussing the church with us. We have talked about the uniqueness of the church of Christ, how to be added to the church, the church being the bride of Christ, the fact that the church was not an afterthought of God but has always been His plan, why are there so many churches...

Tonight, I am going to wrap up this series on the church by talking about Christ being the head of the church.

This concept has been touched on this week. In case you had to miss some of the lessons, or are unsure of what this means...

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Colossians 1:18 ESV

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.

In this text the Apostle Paul is describing the preeminence of Christ. Meaning that in all things, He is first, He is foremost. The church is no different.

It is a fairly simple concept to understand. However, sometimes it can be a little hard to understand in practice. Since, Christ is reigning with the Father in Heaven and we do not see Him physically, how can we operate the church and keep Him as the head?

We search the scriptures diligently.

The most important element for keeping Christ as the head of the church is to continually search what the Bible has said to make sure we are not following man, but following Jesus.

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Acts 17:11 ESV

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

This passage points out a couple of things.

Diligently searching the scriptures is counted as a noble act.

There is nothing noble about being a blind follower. There is however, great nobility found in closely examining all things spoken to be sure that we are honoring God.

They examined everything that the apostle Paul said.

If they were as diligent in their treatment of the teachings of Paul, we must be even more diligent while listening to uninspired men.

It is an honor to preach. I am humbled every time I have the opportunity to communicate God’s word with His people. That being said, I understand that I am not perfect.

If we wish to be and continue to be the church that keeps Christ as it’s head, we will not be a people who listen to men without examining the text.

Peter wrote about being on the mountain of transfiguration with Christ, He saw the glory of Christ shining through as He was changed in his very presence…

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2 Peter 1:19 ESV

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,

2 Peter 1:19 ESV

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,

Peter’s point is that the scripture is to be believed even more than our very eyes and our experiences.

We cannot be the church that has Christ as it’s head if we are not diligent in our study of scripture.

We appoint Godly men, who care more about Christ, than they do themselves.

One of the easiest ways for a congregation of the Lord’s people to remove Christ as the head, is to appoint leaders who are selfish, or hungry for power.

in among other qualifications of elders, Paul wrote that elders cannot be:

open to the charge of insubordination

Anyone who isn’t good at following leadership will make a terrible leader.

arrogant

An elder cannot be someone who thinks of themselves as being on a higher plane than anyone else

quick tempered

An elder must be:

gentle

hospitable

self-controlled

within the church, it is crucially important that we appoint elders, and other leaders based on God’s criteria and not the worlds:

Sometimes people are tempted to appoint leaders in the church because:

They are good at business

They are prominent members of the community

They were in leadership positions for other organizations

None of those things matter. If we are to be the church that keeps Christ as the head, we must be diligent to appoint leaders whose primary concern is honoring their king.

We maintain an open heart.

Have you ever had something that you just weren’t good at? - “I’ll tell on myself, I am terrible at finding things. At least 3 times a week my wife will tell me to go get something… she will even tell me that it is on the 3rd shelf of the pantry. I’ll stare at that 3rd shelf for 5 min. I’ll tell her that it isn’t there, she’ll walk straight to that 3rd shelf and grab it… she then waits for the phrase that she takes too much joy in… “you were right, I was wrong”

It is never fun to learn that you have been wrong.. However, The Bible tells us that all of us have been wrong.

The apostle Paul

In his passed had been a terrible persecutor of the church.

- Paul wrote that he acted in ignorance… He simply didn’t know any better

- Paul said that he had lived his life with a clear conscience.

Even though he was persecuting those who were following Jesus, he thought he was doing the right thing.

We learn from this that a person can be genuine, and sincere, but still be just a wrong.

If we are to be a people who keep Christ as our head, we will be a people who always have a spirit of openness.

Whether you have been a Christian for 2 days, or 50 years, you do not know enough.

We are a people with Christ as our head, when we are willing to change when we see in the Bible that we need to.

People can offer advice and opinions, and we can choose whether or not we listen, but if the Word of God shows us error in our life, we are left with two choices

We reject Christ

We submit to Him as our head.

Conclusion- Have you submitted to Christ as the head of your life?