Christ-Centered

Introduction

Tell about myself - from Indiana, YP at the Well, Karly, KK, and Kendrick.

Do you ever think about how weird the solar system is? Like there are just these massive balls of rock and gas floating in, like nothing. And they’re moving in circles because they’re being pulled around the Sun. The sun is at the center of our solar system. But we didn’t always know that. For a long time, people thought that the earth was the center of the universe. But, the earth isn’t big enough. It wouldn’t work at the center; it wouldn’t be able to pull the planets (or the Sun!) into orbit and they would just go launching out into space. What’s at the center matters.

The question I have for us this morning is “what is the center of your life?”

I’ll answer for myself—the tendency I have is to make myself the center. If I’m not careful, the pull to put myself at the center comes up over and over again.

So, I need to Keep Christ at the Center.

Main Point: Keep Christ at the Center

Read Colossians 1:15-23

There is so much in this passage—every line could have its own sermon. So here’s what I want to do: I want to ask and answer two questions about Jesus from this passage: Who is Jesus, and what does Jesus do?

Who is Jesus?

The question, who is Jesus, is a question with a wide variety of answers. “Who is Jesus” could be met with answers ranging from misunderstood prophet, to legendary good man, to the divine son of God, to the patron saint of whatever movement you’re trying to start. I think one of the interesting things about Jesus is his widespread legacy. Everyone wants him on their team. So, according to this scripture, who is Jesus?

Jesus is the Image of God

The first sentence in this verse is that Jesus is the “visible image of the invisible God.” What an incredible statement. I don’t know about you, but I have never, with my eyes, seen God physically present with me. The Bible says, “God is spirit.” God is invisible to us—but in Jesus, God became visible. He took on a human body, he lived and walked and talked among us. He is literally God on earth.

But it’s interesting that Paul calls Jesus the image of God. He could have said representative or whatever. He said image. In the beginning, God created humanity in his image. It is part of the original nature of humanity to reflect God, to live like him, to take care of the world like him. We were made to be like God, but the story of the Bible is that we have failed to live into this calling. So, Jesus arrives, the true and perfect image of God, who perfectly lives like God.

We keep Christ at the Center because it’s only in him that we can really live up to the image of God that we’ve been made to be. When we put ourselves at the center, we actually become less human. We give into our worst impulses and seek our own good instead of God’s. But God created us in his image, to worship him and be like him. When we put Christ at the Center, we live as the image of God—the image the Jesus perfectly shows us.

Jesus is Number One

When I was in high school, we made a big deal about the junior golf rankings. Who was number one? Who is the number one player in the state or the country or the world. I was ranked number one in my mom’s heart. We spend a lot of time ranking things and people. Who has the best sales numbers, who is ranked number one in college football, who is winning in the election polls. However, all those rankings fall under the most important ranking: Jesus Christ is number one in the universe.

Paul writes that he existed before everything, and he is the beginning, he’s supreme, and finally he is FIRST IN EVERYTHING. He’s number one. And of course, he has always been and will always be number one—but I wonder how often we forget that? I have a tendency to get so worked up about my circumstances, what’s going on around me, what’s stressing me out, what I want, that I forget that Jesus is Number One. He’s should be my one passion, my one focus. He is first in everything.

I like that, because it doesn’t say he’s first over everything, but he’s first in everything. It’s not like Jesus is more important than my job and my family and my hobbies, so I should never spend time on those and spend all my time on God, but that Jesus is the most important IN everything so that he transforms my family and my job and my hobbies. When I remind myself that Jesus is number one, I keep him at the center, no matter what I’m doing. And when I keep him at the center, he changes every area of my life to follow him.

So, Jesus is the IMAGE OF GOD and he’s NUMBER ONE, but what does Jesus do?

What does Jesus do?

Jesus Created Everything

The first thing we see in this passage is that Jesus created everything. He is supreme over all creation and through him God created everything. Then it lists all the things he created—things we see and can’t see. Which means, he’s in control of everything.

The creator of something directs it, controls it, has the final authority and say over it. If you’re a painter, you decide the subject, the colors, the brush—you decide what the end product looks like. If you’re a writer, you decide the plot and the characters and the dialogue, and if you don’t like something, you cut it. If you build a robot and it starts getting ideas for world domination, you just yank the battery. However, even these analogies fall short, because everyone who’s every painted something, or written something, or seen I Robot, you know you things don’t always turn out exactly how you planned. But Jesus holds all the true authority in the universe. He holds it all together, even when it seems like its falling apart.

And it does seem like its falling apart, doesn’t it? I’m not sure where you’re at, but sometimes I look at the world and wonder what God is doing. I wonder how this can be his plan. I go back to Scripture and remind myself of the essential truths of Christianity. God is good. God is in control. God can make this new.

I keep Christ at the Center because all of creation is held together by him, and when I recognize his power, I can trust him. For me, one of the major reasons for that trust comes from the last thing I want to talk about.

Jesus Reconciled Everything

According to this passage, we see that Jesus reconciled everything to himself. This is the beauty of the gospel. Jesus, the Christ, the fullness of God, who is the image of God and is number one in the universe, who created everything that has ever existed, he took it on himself to reconcile a broken world.

When I was about 10, I was mad at my sister; I can’t remember why. We lived in Maryland at the time, and these surfer shell necklaces were super in, and she had one that she really liked. In my anger, I took her shell necklace, and I took a hammer, and I broke it. To make it right—to reconcile—I had to buy her a new one. I had to take the cost of my sin in order to restore the relationship.

This is the incredible thing about Jesus. In history of the world, God was the innocent victim of the broken relationship. We sinned against God, we broke the shell necklace, not the other way around. But instead of waiting for you and I to decide to change our ways, to come back to him, to pay the cost of our sin and restore the relationship, GOD DID IT FOR US. He made it right. He paid the cost. He reconciled us back to him. The good news of the gospel is that the God who is at the center of the universe gave up that center to take our place on the cross and that his suffering and death brought us back to God.

And this reconciliation spreads out to all of creation. It says that he made with everything in heaven and on earth through his death. EVERYTHING. The reconciliation we need with God, the reconciliation we need with an estranged family member, the reconciliation we need across racial and political and economic divides, the reconciliation we need with our roommate—it’s made possible at the cross.

Conclusion

We keep Christ at the center because Christ at the center reconciles us with him and with each other. We keep Christ at the Center because he changes everything about our lives. So, what can you do to remind yourself daily, hourly, minutely that Christ is at the Center? Maybe you need to re-arrange your time to allow for more focus on the spiritual disciplines, maybe you need visible reminders, maybe you need a friend to text you encouragement.

Keep Christ at the Center. He’ll change your life.

I want to close just by re-reading this incredible passage. Just listen. Praise God for Jesus.

Read Colossians 1:15-23