Sermon Tone Analysis

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It continues to be my great honor and privilege to share the Word of God with this congregation.

You may be familiar with the expression, “falling down the rabbit hole.”

This is a phenomenon when we become so entranced by a subject that we go deeper and deeper in study so as to find out as much as possible.

Before you know it hours may have passed while you were singularly focussed on the topic and all the various aspects of it you were able to discover.

In our digital world, this is so easy to do.

One page links to the next.

Video after video.

All of a sudden its midnight and you’ve been staring at your phone for hours.

When used in moderation, this can be a good thing.

You can learn new skills or facts that can be applied to your home or work life.

But often this time spent falling down the rabbit hole is frivolous and a waste of time.

I remember one time fairly recently where I found myself completely wrapped up investigating and digesting the current standings of a small semi-pro soccer league in England.

Now this was ridiculous for a few reasons.

I knew none of the players.

I knew none of the teams.

I didn’t even recognize most of the cities the teams were in.

But worst of all, I don’t even like soccer!

But one thing led to another and there I was!

For anyone interested, as of earlier this week, the King’s Lynn Town Football Club were in first place in the Vanarama National League North.

If those words don’t mean anything to you, that’s okay because I don’t really get it either!

Falling down the rabbit hole for pointless things like semi-pro English soccer is a huge waste of time.

But there are times when intensive study and captivating has its benefitS.

That may be like creating a project For work.

Preparing for a test.

Or even getting caught in deep conversation with family or friends.

This morning, it is my intention that we would fall down the rabbit hole of something more worthy of our attention than anything we could ever imagine.

I hope that your curiosity is not just piqued, but consumed with the grandeur of our subject matter.

This morning we are continuing our look at the greatness of Jesus Christ.

Through our study of Colossians, we have already seen that He is the physical image of God.

He is the heir of all creation.

The same creation that He created!

He is before all things and He holds all things together.

These truths on their own are big enough to consume our intellectual efforts for an eternity, but the person of Christ revealed to us in Scripture is even more than that!

It is my desire that as we walk through our text today, that we would collectively dwell upon and fill our minds with the revealed greatness of Jesus Christ.

This is a plea for Christian Meditation, not an emptying of the mind for the purpose of enlightenment, but a filling of the mind with the Light of God shining to us through His Word.

As we dwell upon the greatness of God we undoubtedly praise Him for that greatness.

I would hope that as the truth of Scripture fills our minds, we would all proclaim as the Psalmist did in Psalm 104:

I sincerely hope that as we dwell on the Word today, that our intention is to be pleasing to the Lord.

To rejoice in Him as we take a deep look at the second person of the triune God, Jesus Christ.

Church, be excited as we look upon the person of Christ.

John Owen wrote, “The revelation made of Christ in the blessed gospel is far more excellent, more glorious, more filled with rays of divine wisdom and goodness than the whole creation, and the just comprehension of it, if attainable, can contain or afford.

Without this knowledge, the mind of man, however priding itself in other inventions and discoveries, is wrapped in darkness and confusion.

This therefore deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them.

For if our future blessedness shall consist in living where He is, and beholding His glory, what better preparation can there be for it than a constant previous contemplation of that glory as revealed in the gospel, that by a view of it we may be gradually transformed into the same glory?”

There is nothing more worthy of our attention and contemplation than the revealed person of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

With that in mind, would you open your Bibles to Colossians 1.

Today we should see five more treasure troves to explore in the character of Jesus Christ.

Let us begin with the first three of those seen in verse 18.

We’re going to parse this verse into three sections, each of which illuminating a fascinating truth about Jesus Christ.

The first we see is that He is the Head of the body, the Church.

I’d love to give you a clever note or title, but the Simplicity of that statement stands for itself.

Christ is the head of the body.

The body is the church.

While that is a simple sentence, it had profound implications.

When we think of someone heading up something, we may think that they are the leader of an organization.

While there is a leadership relationship between Christ and the church, it is much deeper than that.

Christ is not just the figurative head of an organization, Christ is the literal head of an organism!

Leaders of organizations come and go, just recently the department store Belk, or as my family says in Corbin, “belks”, has named a new Chief Executive Officer after the last one unexpectedly left for another company.

Organizational heads are constantly changing.

That cannot be said for the head of an organism.

Despite what some wild theorists out there may dream up, there is no such thing as a head transplant.

An organism without a head is left to flail about until eventually all motion stops.

I say all of this to illustrate Christ’s true relationship with the church.

Christ has full control over every part of the church.

Christ is the giver of life to the church.

Christ gives direction to the church.

We need to note three applications from this understanding.

First, as a body, those who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ are to work TOGETHER.

There is no need for rivalry, resentment, and discord in the body of Christ.

If you look to those who are sitting beside, if they share in the profession of faith in Jesus as Lord, then they are working WITH you as mutual members of the same body, working in concert to serve the head.

The church body metaphor is used thoroughly in 1 Corinthians 12.

For time’s sake today, I’m only going to bring up a few verses, but I highly encourage you to study that chapter and see the coordination there is between believers in service to Jesus Christ.

When it comes to our service in the body of Christ, please know that God has chosen you for your specific purpose as well as He as chosen me for mine.

We don’t have to be jealous of another person’s gifting nor downplay our own!

All those who are in the Body of Christ were CHOSEN by God to be there and serve the purpose He has for you!

God arranges the members.

He put the people where He needs them to be.

In our sinful flesh, we want to be a knee when God has placed us to be an elbow.

The knee isn’t greater than the elbow!

Stop tearing down others or even yourself and look for ways to joyfully serve in the body TOGETHER!

The next application of Christ being the head of the body, the church is that it is the purpose of the Church to serve Christ.

That means that everything we do in the church should be done FOR Christ.

This might sound simple and pedantic, but we really must give it our attention.

Christ, being the head of the church, means that all of the ministries we put on, participate in, or support must be focussed on Him.

I am not saying that this is the case in our congregation, but too often in the church world, sacred cows of tradition and personal preference take the place of the mission of the church, that is following the Lord.

We shouldn’t seek change in what we do simply because we like the thrill of change.

We shouldn’t hold on to things simply because that’s the way they’ve always been.

We SHOULD be sincerely desiring to follow the Lord and honor Him through submission to Him and serving Him effectively and efficiently in the context that He has placed us in.

The church is not here to serve my wants, my desires.

The church is here to serve Christ, its head.

May every decision we make and every project we start be done with the intent to serve CHRIST and Christ alone.

The final application of Christ being the head of the church that we will discuss this morning, is that if a group does not have Christ, they are not a church.

They may claim the name church.

They be given 501(c)3 status by our government, but a Christ-less organization is no more a church than a puppet is a real boy.

Now, Pinnochio is a fantasy tale.

The only way a puppet church can become a part of the real body of Christ is through the power of the Holy Spirit, convicting of sin and faith in the true Jesus shown to us here in Scripture.

Do not forget what we mentioned last week.

A false Jesus is no Jesus.

Any organization promoting a false Jesus is not apart of the body of the true Jesus.