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.
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 the 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 if 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 is 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, how
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 move 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 into 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.
But 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 incur 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 saying 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, God
loves you that much. Did 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 her 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 it's 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.
It said, I am your life. you thought that your life was in
your history, in your name, in 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, we'll
have you ever given your heart to Jesus.
Have you ever asked Jesus to be Lord?
And and she says, I didn't know quite what to say him.
I can 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
a witness to himself to make this Bull 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 of 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 went 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. Vive 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.