It's always encouraging to hear how God is working through you.
I'm going to read this morning from Colossians chapter 1,
beginning in verse 15. And then down to verse 20, we
divided the text into two parts. We looked at the first part last
week, as Jesus, Lord of creation and this week, we'll look at the
part, Jesus. Lord of the church.
Remember, Paul's writing to the church in colossae, who were
concerned and worried about the different powers that impact
their lives, whether it It be political powers of Empire,
whether it be local powers of family society and their local
religions whether it is the powers of Nature and other gods.
They were concerned about the powers that affected their lives
and impacted them. And so Paul is writing to assure
them of the power of God fully expressed through Jesus Christ.
And he wants to assure them of their faith and allegiance to
Jesus. And so he writes to them.
The son is the image of the invisible.
God, the firstborn over all creation 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 For him, he is before all things, and in him all
things, hold together 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 for God
was pleased to have all his fullness, dwell in him, 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. Jesus had an amazing encounter
with his friends, Mary and Martha, and Lazarus, Lazarus had
died. And when Jesus arrived, they're
both sisters were concerned and upset.
That Jesus hadn't, come, and they both affirmed a sense of
faith. That if Jesus had been there,
John would be alive. Jesus makes the most astonishing
statement when he says will do you believe I am the
resurrection and the life, the one who believes in me will
live. And his sister who heard this
said, I believe. And it opened the way for Jesus
to do the most astonishing thing where the placement of her faith
was affirmed. She saw it in real time as Jesus
called out Lazarus, come out. And Lazarus was raised from the
dead. Lazarus would die again.
And be buried. But what of Jesus?
The Lord of creation who died on a cross who was buried and rose
again. Would he die again?
Would his power died with him, or would his power still be
evident and at work and the life of people and particularly in
the life of the church? This was a concern that Paul is
seeking to address when he says in verse 17, that Jesus is the
head of the body Verse 18. Sorry, Jesus is the head of the
body, the church. This Lord of creation is the
lord of the church. He is the one who is in charge
of it, even to this day. And so, Paul is affirming him
them that though. Jesus is unseen.
He is the lord of the church though.
Jesus isn't the one standing at the front of their Gatherings?
Jesus is the lord of the church, not the person who stands at the
front. That's good news, right?
Yeah, was that my wife? It's good news, right?
That I'm not the lord of the church and neither are any of
the worship leaders. They're not the lord of the
church. Nor is there a secret person in
the congregation? Who was Lord of the church?
Jesus, is the lord of the church.
He is the head of the church and he has that.
Because the new creation that Jesus, as Lord of creation
began, is now to be expressed in the church.
His body. So, the church is the body that
makes the lordship of Jesus visible.
The church is the body that makes the lordship of Jesus
visible. How are we doing?
We're only doing as well as we surrender to Jesus as Lord and
Caraway the allegiances that we make to other powers and rulers
and authorities. And declare by the spirit of
God. Jesus is Lord, and learn to
listen to his voice. Jesus said of his church, his
sheep that they will listen to his voice.
How was your listening going to the Lord of creation?
The lord of the church. He is the head of the body, the
church Paul goes on to say, he is the beginning and the
firstborn among the dead. So that in everything he might
have Supremacy. He is the beginning and the our
our anticipation, our reflexive move internally.
If you're familiar with the scripture is to say, Jesus is
the beginning and the end he is the Alpha and the but Paul
interrupts that moved here to highlight the reason why Jesus
is the authority in this period of life.
He says Jesus is the firstborn. He is the beginning and the
firstborn among the Dead. Among the dead.
So he interrupts here with the end, he's the firstborn among
the dead, that Jesus himself was buried.
And that when he rose from the dead, he brings the Dead with
them. Who shall be transformed unto
life? And so he didn't just Rise by
himself, he rises with those of us who would be dead without
him. And so now the dead in Christ
shall be born with him. So this is why in baptism when
we Baptist someone we say buried with Christ in baptism but
raised to walk in you life. Why can we do that?
Because Jesus is raised for eternity. and so shall those who
by faith allow themselves to be buried with him in baptism, My
old life is gone, behold the new has come and Jesus has Primacy
of authority. He has Power Among Us.
Who have United with him. In faith and in baptism.
As your life United with Christ. Both in his death and in his
resurrection, without his resurrection, I am just as good
as dead. Paul went on to say that, woe to
those of us who are in Christ. If the resurrection didn't
really happen, he recognized that the moment of compelling
belief in Christ is the resurrection of Jesus.
The firstborn among the dead so that he might have Supremacy.
In everything. Is this how you see Jesus as
having Supremacy in everything or is there something in your
life that you've kept as a reserve to say?
Well, this is really mine Lord. This is my domain.
This is my secret space of my life and you can't come here.
That secret space of your life will be filled with death.
Unless you open the doors to Christ.
To come and bring life where you thought, there could be no life.
He goes on here to speak of Jesus in verse 19 for God was
pleased to have all his fullness, dwell in him.
So not only did this Jesus come, and do this, he did it as God
with all of the fullness of God in him.
And so when we read the gospels and see Jesus on the cross, it
was no imposter. It was no fill in.
For God, this was truly God on the cross being crucified.
That is a mysterious thought. That the Lord of creation.
Was on the cross dying. For what?
For why? Notice Paul says in verse 19,
for God was pleased to have all his fullness, dwell in him.
And then 20, he gives the reason 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.
When God died on the cross. He was accomplish incredible.
A Reconciliation move. Now reconciliation is a strange
thing to us because if you're in a friendship and a relationship
and you find that you are the offended party, you are the one
who has been wronged, what are you waiting for?
An apology. I thought you said coffee and I
said, I'm with you an apology. You're waiting for the other
person to move. You're waiting for the other
person to act. You're waiting for the other
person to soften their heart and come and say you know I was
really wrong. I am sorry.
I think this caused you a lot of pain and I am sorry.
Those are really difficult words to say, right?
Maybe you just need to practice it, you can turn to your
neighbor and say I'm sorry. So now, you know, you can do it.
You can make that move. That reconciliation move, except
that's not what God did. God didn't wait for you to come
to him and apologize. God didn't wait for you to feel
sorry. God didn't wait for you to feel
the pain that he felt. God, moved first.
And all the fullness of God is present in the body of Jesus.
As he says, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down
because the father has given me authority to lay it down and to
take it back up. And so God moved first to love.
God moved first to forgive. God moved first to breathe life.
And all those who were dead apart from him.
God moves first to reconcile. What was unreconciled label.
It required blood. It required life and on this
occasion, he didn't ask anyone else to do it but he said I will
do it. in John 3, we spoke of this last month that that little
verse for God. So loved the world that he gave
his only son, that whoever believes in him, shall have
life. God loves you that much.
And he would move first. This Rift between us and God.
Created and creates hostility. It creates, hardness it creates,
Rejection, it creates Pride. Pride is a strange thing when we
think of sin pride is a strange thing.
When we think of Reconciliation. But pride is not so strange in
the academy, is it? The pride of our
accomplishments, the pride of what we say, we will do the
pride of what we can be. There's an author.
Her name's Frederica Matthews Green, she's written a lot of
books on occasion. She writes for newspapers like
the Washington Post and she says that when she was a kid, she had
lots of faith around eight or nine.
She would go around and tell her her parents that she wanted to
be a nun. And they're like, we're going to
have none of that. And so she learned pretty
quickly, that somehow being religious wasn't all that good.
Don't be too religious. And so, progressively over the
next 10 years of her life, she began to just shut it down.
Shut it down, shut it down to, ultimately, she would say, I've
tried to be an atheist. I've tried to be an act Gnostic.
I've tried even other religions. She said, the religion, she
liked the most was Hinduism. She said this so colorful, But
she said it was a strange experience that pulled her out
of all of that. She and her husband were on
their honeymoon. And they had traveled to
Ireland. and in Dublin, What else do you do you visit
churches? She visited a church.
And she felt very anxious as they went in because her husband
had just said the night before, you know, I'm an atheist.
But there's something about Jesus.
I've never encountered anyone like this before.
I know he's speaking the truth but I'm an atheist.
But if Jesus says there's a God, there must be a god.
She said that experience of him completing an assignment in a
class where he was asked to read a gospel.
Made her very nervous going into that church.
She said I didn't want him to be a Christian.
She said, when they walked through the church, she went to
the corner. I'm just was sitting down when
she looked in and saw a white marble statue.
It was a statue of Jesus with his heart exposed.
And Thorns were wrapping around it and Flames were coming out of
it. It was strange art.
But suddenly, she realized as she looked she had fallen on her
knees. and she said it was if there was a radio that clicked
on in her head, Anna voice. That said, I am your life. you
thought that your life was in your history, in your name and
your personality, you thought that your life was the fact that
your heart beats, but that is not your life.
I am your life. I am the foundation of
everything else in your life. She says, it was pretty
indisputable as to, who was talking to me?
She said, I started reading the Bible.
I found that I disagreed with Jesus about a lot of things.
But something had happened to me in that church and I realized
that I didn't know anything about the world.
And she said, gradually, I came to Faith?
And my husband came to Faith and then several months went by and
our friend said to us. Well, have you ever given your
heart to Jesus? Have you ever asked Jesus to be
Lord? And and she said, I didn't know
quite what to say him. I could only say well we're not
Southern Baptists. She said, you know, you have to
think about where I live. They were the most extreme
Christians around in her town. She said they're the only
people. I knew who asked is Jesus.
Lord And he says, well, actually it's for everybody.
And they said, well, you know, we're in graduate school.
And he says, no even for you. It's for you.
Jesus is Lord. And so she says the three of
them knelt down and prayed and asked Jesus to be our Lord.
She says I had no idea what that would mean, but I so wanted to
find out. Jesus is Lord of creation.
And he's lord of the church. Do you know when we speak of the
church? And this passage in large part
were speaking of This Global sense of the Church of Jesus.
He is Lord of the church, but he's also Lord of these smaller
expressions of it. Whether it be here at origin, or
at Tenth or at University Chapel, or any other
congregation in the area, these gatherings of little
congregations are expressions of the church and Jesus is always
seeking to ground into the place eyewitness to himself to make
this. A bowl by his body, his lordship
over creation and over people. And so this is why we will
follow him to langara and to Oakridge and we will look to see
that God would establish again of visible witness of his
creation and up his new creation.
My father used to say when asked, do you witness?
Do you do evangelism? My dad will say, well, yeah.
And I get up and I go meet with the church.
I remember listening to that as a kid and thinking that's not
enough, is that really enough but it's the start, isn't it?
To go and be a part of the visible expression of the
lordship of Jesus. To make visible, what would be
invisible? As our connection together as
brothers and sisters, our connection together as the
redeemed, the rescued, our connection as the reconciled.
I find that a lot of my friends. Like to maintain a bit of
humanity in their life and mystery.
And so they will say I'm religious, I'm spiritual, but
not religious I'm spiritual but not religious.
Our hyper individualism. Has rejected the lordship of
Jesus. And it is the lordship of Jesus
that calls us to Value his body. The church It is the lordship of
Jesus that calls us in some way to maintain connection, even
when our lives get complicated and busy and the seasons of our
life change, it is the lordship of Jesus that calls us back into
connection with each other. He says, by this the world will
know Your love for each other. That you are my disciples.
There was a pastor named Philip Johnson in 1969.
The year after I was born, he accepted an assignment to Pastor
11 churches in Newfoundland. Now, I don't know about you but
pastoring 11 churches would be really stressful, but he was
doing a circuit. So he pastored one church.
That was larger and then ten other little congregations.
He would travel to it on the weekend and they would meet
together on one occasion. The first time he went, he
traveled 40 miles. To go and visit a congregation.
That morning one person showed up.
It was a fisherman who had traveled 20 miles.
And so while Pastor Johnson was tempted to say let's just pray
and go home. He realized, oh my we have both
traveled 60 miles to be here, so maybe I should run the service.
So he said we did everything. We did it all.
We did the hymns, we did the readings, we did the prayers, I
did the sermon, we did the Lord's Supper, we did the
benediction, we did it all, and he said, then I went to the back
door and I stood there and I shook his hand.
And he said, I didn't think it would all that well, because the
whole time that we did all of that together, this man kept his
head down. but at the door after shaking his hand, the fishermen
said Reverend I've been thinking, I've been thinking for
about 30 years to become a Christian.
And today is the day. Nothing is wasted.
Done in faith with Jesus, who is Lord?
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we set our
lives before you and thank you for the son who is Lord of
creation and Lord of the church and we surrender Our Lives.
Once again, we open our hearts to you, we bend the knee and
declare that Jesus is Lord. Oh, Come Holy Spirit and fill us
revive your church, do your creation work again in the chaos
and mess of our lives and relationships and busyness
somehow break in Lord and restore to us.
Our first love, our first love for you.
Our first love for your church. Oh, Come Lord Jesus and work
Among Us. Oh, Come Lord Jesus and work
Among Us.