As the kids are heading to the back and heading out of the room, you can turn with me to the book of Colossians. We are continuing our series. Still in Colossians 1. It's just such a dense letter. Like we're still in Colossians 1 after all of these weeks, but there's just so much to cover. As I was preparing this morning, I was struck by the fact we're spending 2 weeks in 5 verses, and I was agonizing over everything I felt like I wasn't saying and wasn't giving due diligence to in the passage today. This is just a dense, wonderful, beautiful section of the letter.
Before we turn to it though, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Oh Father, it is our heart's desire that we as Your people would live and breathe and do all that we are to the praise of Your glorious grace. We want to live to the praise of Your glorious grace. We want to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel. What better way to do that than to stir our hearts by gazing upon the splendor of Jesus Christ? So now in Your Word and through the power of Your Spirit, I ask that You would stir us up. Do what You have promised to do. For Your glory and for our joy. In the name of Jesus, amen.
You can read with me Colossians 1:15-20. We'll be looking this morning at verses 18-20. Hear God's holy and authoritative word. He, Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. And 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, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. 'For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.' The Word of the Lord. May He write its truth upon our hearts.
Well, if you know me or you're getting to know me, you might realize by now that I love I love hymns. Part of it is the tradition that I grew up in. We sang a lot of hymns. We sang basically exclusively hymns. I'm a hymn lover. I love lots of things about them. I love the four-part harmony that oftentimes goes on in hymns. I love the way that hymns are saturated with truth. You want to talk about just tons and tons of theological beauty that draws your heart into worship and doxology? That's what hymns do, right? One of the things I love about hymns, and this will come as no surprise either, is that they connect us to the history of the church. When you sing old songs, you can imagine singing them with the saints who have come before, right? So when you sing 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,' if you're nerdy like me, you sit there and you imagine being in Reformation Germany. Maybe even in Luther's church. Singing that great hymn. When you sing 'And Can It Be,' you imagine being part of the revivals going through all of New England and Old England as you sing Charles Wesley's hymn. I love imagining singing with the saints. Well, that's what makes this morning's text especially sweet. As we said last week, this is a hymn. Most scholars believe this is an early hymn commemorating Jesus Christ. Probably the earliest hymn that we have. The original Christ-centered worship song. A cool thought as we approach the text this morning.
And it really shows us something. For everything else we're going to say this morning, we have a main application point to keep in mind. Paul has taken this hymn and modified it to address things in Colossians, but it's a hymn. It's a song. It's words and truth that is meant to stir worship in our hearts. As we come to these words, Colossians 15-20, our affections should be drawn to Jesus Christ. This passage, verses 15-20, is just thick with glory. It's a good way to put it. I think it's sometimes hard to kind of conceptualize God's glory, right? It's sort of this intangible thing. It can be tough to get your mind around. In our passage, these verses are thick with glory. They're thick with glory because it's centered on the place where God's glory becomes most tangible: in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Person in whom the invisible God becomes visible and most imminent, most close, most near to us.
Now last week, we saw the first half of the hymn, how Christ is presented as the Lord of creation. We saw last week, verses 15-17, Christ as Lord of creation. We remember he used the imagery of a symphony. So we can see Christ as the composer and the conductor and the chorus of creation. Well, this morning as we go to the second half, verses 18-20, Paul shows us Jesus as the Lord of redemption. Jesus as the Lord of new creation. He's going to show us that in 3 specific ways. 3 points we'll look at this morning. So, how do we see Christ as the Lord of redemption?
6 · The pastor introduces the sermon's first main point—Christ as the glory of the church—by reading and paraphrasing verse 18, showing how it serves as a structural bridge in the hymn between creation and redemption themes
The first way we see it, the first way Paul shows us this is by showing us Christ as the glory of the church. We see Christ as the Lord of redemption when we consider Christ as the crowning glory glory of the church. Look at v. 18. 'And He (Christ) is the head of the body (the church). He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.' That verse is a bridge. It's a transition in the hymn. It marks the center point as they move from Christ in creation to Christ in redemption. We can even paraphrase it like this: The Christ who reigns as head of the cosmos is also the Christ who reigns as head of the church.
7 · The pastor traces Paul's body metaphor across his letters, showing how Colossians adds the specific identification of Christ as 'head,' which in ancient understanding meant governing authority and supreme lordship over the church
Now that idea of the church as a body, that's not a new metaphor for Paul. In earlier letters, letter to the church in Rome, letters he's written to the church in Corinth, he's used this idea. It helps us to grasp this organic way that the people of God, all of us gathered here, are organically knit together. That in Christ, we become a part of one another. The church, Paul is saying, isn't just an institution. It's certainly not just a building. No, it's a body. Its members are related to one another. They're invested in one another. They're being built up into one another all through the work of the Spirit of the risen Christ. But here in Colossians, Paul adds a new element. The church is a body, yes, and Christ is the head of that body. Now the word head, when it's used metaphorically like Paul's using it here, typically refers to something that's the master or the chief. The head is to be envisioned as the Lord. In the ancient world, the head is viewed as the governing member of the whole body. The body does what the head decides. And so when you speak of something or refer to something as the head of something else, it's a way of saying that thing that's the head reigns supreme and has authority over that which you're referring to as the body. It's precisely the idea Paul has here. Listen to how he uses the same language in that sister letter written about the same time from the same location to the church in Ephesus. Ephesians 1:22, 'And God put all things under Christ's feet and gave Him as Head over all things.' to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. You get that sense of the authority behind the word 'head.' Christ reigns supreme over all creation and Christ reigns supreme over His body, the church. Paul isn't just saying that there's an organic connection between Christ and the church as a body. He's saying Christ is the unquestioned leader in this organic unity.
8 · The pastor develops a second dimension of Christ's headship—He is not only the ruler but also the nourishing source of the church, warning that failure to hold fast exclusively to Christ results in spiritual withering
But that's not all he's saying. Because Christ is head, He's also the source that the body draws its nourishment from. We would typically think the source you get your nourishment from is the stomach, right? But this idea of head is this idea that it nourishes the body. In Colossians 2:19, Paul cautions them that if they don't hold fast to Christ, they will lose sustenance. He's worried. Remember, there's these false teachers in Colossae who are coming alongside and saying, yes, great that you have Christ, but Christ isn't all that you need. This is a complex world we live in. There's lots of spiritual things going on. Wonderful that you've trusted in Jesus. Make sure you're doing these other things to check off these other spiritual things. Paul is combating that sort of heretical thinking in the church. And with that in mind, he warns them, if you don't hold fast to Christ, there are consequences, dire consequences for your spiritual health. Specifically in verse 19, 'By not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.' In other words, if you don't hold fast exclusively to Christ, If you're not exclusively drawing nourishment from the head, you will wither. You'll be like fruit that dies on the vine. Jesus' head isn't just the source of the church or the ruler of the church. He's the head in the way that He nourishes us and nurtures us and feeds us. We grow healthy in the Gospel. There's all this language in Colossians about the growth that happens in the Gospel. We grow in the Gospel because Jesus, our Head, wills it to be so.
9 · The pastor clarifies a crucial theological distinction: Christ's relationship to the church is one of organic union (a corporate Person) in a way that differs from His relationship to creation, carefully distinguishing this from panentheism
Paul's arguing for this idea of Jesus as a corporate Person. That's a weird word. This idea of Jesus as a corporate Person means that the Head contains everything that belongs to Him. So Jesus is the source of the church in a unique way. Not in the same way that He's the source of creation. When Jesus takes on flesh, He enters into the created realm, right? We talked about that last week. But He's not in and a part of all creation. That's sort of a Native American spirituality, right? This idea that the Great Spirit is in everything. It's in the deer. It's in the eagle. It's in the grass. That's not how we view Jesus having become immanent and taking on flesh. He has become a created being, but he's not in all of creation in that way. That's panentheism. It's a heresy. But it is in the sense how Christ relates to the church, to his body. There is an organic relationship between Christ and His people. When Paul says that believers are transferred into the Kingdom of His Son, he's actually envisioning a sense in which we become partakers in Christ. We become joined to Him and united to Him.
10 · The pastor establishes the universal scope of Christ's headship over the church while signaling a shift toward local application for the gathered congregation
Now, Paul's idea of Christ as the Head of the church, he's thinking in big C, Universal terms here, right? Christ is Head of the church in all places, in all times, everywhere. So all people who have ever been born again in the history of the church belong to the church and belong to the Head. All the church has fellowship with Christ. But that doesn't mean this truth is disconnected from local application.
11 · The pastor applies Christ's headship to the local gathering, arguing that corporate worship is a means of grace where the Spirit builds up believers and makes tangible their fellowship with Christ and one another
That's why it's so important the way we gather together like we're doing right now on Sunday mornings. When we assemble here at Providence in our local body, we're giving visible expression to the way we have fellowship with Jesus. This gathering. When you say, 'I'm going to church,' right? Casual phrase. I'm going to church. It's a means of grace. Why do we say it's a means of grace? Because here in this gathering, in this ecclesia, this church, this assembly, the Spirit of Christ reigns in power. Here the Spirit of Christ is building us up. The Spirit of Christ is encouraging us and strengthening us, binding up our wounds from the previous week. Raising our gaze to heaven. We aren't just gathering with each other. We're gathering with others who are in fellowship with the Head. It's not just random people you're sitting next to and I kind of like this person. That's why I sit in this row. I sit on this side of the room. The people in this section tend to sing better. I sit over here because they sing a little more subdued. No, you gather and you sit here next to these people because these are people indwelt by the risen Christ. They have fellowship individually with the risen Christ, and together corporately we have fellowship with the risen Christ. We gather to sense that. To be reminded of it.
12 · The pastor warns of the spiritual consequences of neglecting corporate worship—losing one's sense of organic connection to Christ and ultimately losing grip on the hope of resurrection
To put it negatively, when we neglect gathering in worship with the local body, you neglect sensing the way you are organically connected to Christ. When you stop coming to the local gathering, you start to lose a sense of how you're connected to the universal gathering. Which is to say, you start to lose a grip on the hope of the resurrection.
13 · The pastor unpacks 'firstborn from the dead' as both chronologically first to resurrection and as founder of new creation, connecting this to the corporate gathering as a place to remember Christ's reordering of reality
In the second half of v. 18, Paul refers to Christ as the firstborn from the dead. That's a loaded phrase. Jesus is the firstborn. In other words, He's the first one ever to be raised by the Father to eternal life. The first one to experience death, be raised, and never die again. Lazarus dies and gets raised, and he dies again, right? But Jesus, when he dies and is raised again, never tastes death again. He's the firstborn of eternal life, the firstborn of the dead. But he's also firstborn in the sense that he is the head of a new creation. He's the beginning. That word beginning means He's the founder of the resurrected life. What we hope in as believers is that the resurrection is real and true and that Jesus as the beginning of that has founded something real. And so we gather together to be reminded and made freshly aware of the way Christ has reordered reality. That's why we say Christ is the glory of the church. In His resurrection as the risen reigning King of the new creation, Jesus is our living hope. He's our glory. He's our boast. He's the thing we exalt in. The thing we magnify. The thing we place all hope in this life in.
14 · The pastor applies the doctrine of Christ as the church's glory to dismantle false sources of hope—sermon series, preacher giftedness, worship quality, programs, buildings, numbers, or resources—insisting hope rests solely in Christ
Now, here's a practical implication of that. The fact that Christ is our glory and boast and hope and exaltation means that our hope as a church never rests in a sermon series. God wants His Word to be preached here. But our hope doesn't rest in a sermon series. And if we have one really amazing sermon series, it's going to change everything. And that's where our hope is. Our hope doesn't rest. Think about this. Our hope doesn't rest in the giftedness of the preacher. Our hope doesn't reside in the quality of our worship. The bigger your worship team, the more expansive the stage, that's a church that has a lot of hope. They've got a bell ministry. They've got lots of hope. Many of you are thinking, we've got lots of hope because we don't have a bell ministry. Like, bong. You ever watch that and they've got the wrist action and they hold it up? Those people exalt in their bell ministry. That's a total aside. Our hope isn't built there. Not in the bell ministry. Not in the skill of our drummer or our bassist. The ability of our backup vocalist to carry a harmony. Our hope doesn't rest there. Our hope doesn't rest in the brilliance and succinctness of our mission statement. Man, their mission statement is so memorable. That's a church that's going places. That's not where our hope rests. Not in the excellence of our programs. Not in the beauty of our building. It doesn't rest in the number of our members, the fatness of our bank account, whether our budget is in the black. For the little fledgling church facing persecution this Lord's Day in some corner of the world, their hope doesn't rest on whether or not the government is going to persecute them and crush them and whether they can withstand it. For the church in some corner of the world that's gathered with throngs of people, their hope doesn't rest in what they look at. Their hope And our hope rests in our head, in Christ Jesus, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
15 · The pastor transitions from the first main point (Christ as glory of the church) to the second (Christ as glory of God), maintaining the sermon's structural progression
Every person connected to Christ has the hope of redemption, the resurrection of the dead, and we gather together to stoke the flames of that hope. Second thing we see, we see Christ as Lord of redemption when we see Christ as the glory of God. We see Christ as Lord of redemption when we see Him as the glory of God.
16 · The pastor traces OT 'fullness' language tied to the temple and shows how Paul reapplies it to Christ—the new and better temple where God's glory permanently dwells, unlike the old temple from which glory could depart
Verse 19, 'For in Him'—in Christ—'all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.' Paul gets a little bit repetitive here. But he's never repetitive without good reason. He's already established back in verse 15, we touched on it last week, right? The divinity of Jesus. He's the image of the invisible God. He makes the invisible God visible. There he's drawing our attention to the way the incarnate Christ is supreme in creation. Now he's showing us Christ's divinity. And how it has bearing on redemption. Now in the Old Testament, they would talk about this idea of fullness. And they would talk about it in a way to describe the way God's glory would come into a place. They would talk about the fullness of the Lord being there. Typically, it's used in reference to the temple. So Ezekiel exclaims in 44:4, 'I looked, and behold, The glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord. In the Old Testament, temple is the center of God's redemptive activity. It's the center of His presence where He takes up residence in the midst of the people. It's where atonement happened. So Paul is showing us that Christ is the new and better temple. The place—no longer a building, but the incarnate God-Man—where the fullness of deity dwells. The place where the presence of God is found. But Jesus isn't just a vessel for God's glory like the old temple. Remember the temple? It actually happens in Ezekiel. The glory departs from it. It's just a building that holds it. And it can lose it. Not so with Jesus. In Christ, all the fullness of God dwells. In other words, it dwells there. Every aspect of the Father's divinity is found and expressed in Christ.
17 · The pastor brings in scholarly support and multiple translations to establish that the Father's 'good pleasure' is election language—the Father sovereignly chose the Son as the visible center of His glory and the purpose of redemption's grand narrative
Peter O'Brien, a New Testament scholar, commenting on this passage says, all the attributes and activities of God—His wisdom, His power, His Spirit, and His glory—they're all perfectly and exclusively found and displayed in one place, Jesus Christ. Listen to how the NIV translates verse 19. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him. The NASB says, for the Father, it was the Father's good pleasure that all His fullness would dwell in Jesus. Remember, fullness language refers to glory. That word 'pleased' is election language. Paul is saying it's the Father's good pleasure that Christ would be the visible center of His glory. The Father— you ever think about this? The Father elects the Son. It's the Father's sovereign, willing choice that all the grand narrative of redemption, that all of it should be for Christ's glory.
18 · The pastor poses rhetorical questions to establish a crucial theological claim—the ultimate purpose of salvation is not human worth but the Father's pleasure in glorifying Jesus, carefully distinguishing this from denying God's love
So, I want you to consider these questions. What's the ultimate reason you've been saved? What's the ultimate reason we've been gathered into the church universally and locally? What's the ultimate reason why Jesus lays down his life. It's not because we are so worth saving. It's actually quite the contrary. Redemption doesn't happen because God loves us more than anything else and can't bear to watch us perish. Now, God does love us. Seth read this morning from Romans. God does love us. In fact, He intercedes to rescue us. But the ultimate reason, the greatest reason, is because it's the Father's good pleasure to glorify Jesus.
19 · The pastor reinforces the Christ-centered purpose of redemption through Ephesians 1:11, explicitly confronting cultural narcissism with the counterclaim that the story centers on Jesus, not humanity
What's the biggest reason why Jesus died on the cross? For the sake of God's glory. What's the greatest reason why He transfers people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son, to glorify that beloved Son. Listen to Ephesians 1:11: In Him, in Jesus, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that— here's the reason why you've been given an inheritance, here's the reason why you've been saved— so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. That's the end goal of redemption. That's the great purpose behind it. The glory of God expressed most brilliantly in the person of Jesus Christ. You are not the center of the story. And in our self-centered, narcissistic age, we need reminding of this. It's not all about me. It's not all about you. It's not even all about us corporately. Ultimately, ultimately, it's all about Jesus, the one full of the Father's glory.
20 · The pastor anticipates and responds to a potential objection—that God-centered theology diminishes human joy—arguing instead that being displaced from the center actually maximizes joy because humans were created for something greater than self-glory
But that doesn't mean it's not still awesome news for us. To be displaced from the center of the universe is a really good thing. God is working tirelessly for His own glory in Christ. And the fact that He's doing that doesn't diminish our joy. It doesn't diminish the satisfaction we should find in redemption. It accentuates it. It makes it better. If God had made you the center of what was going on, He would be robbing you of pleasure. You were created for more joy than having you be at the center of reality. Why do I say that?
21 · The pastor demonstrates from Colossians 2:9-10 how believers participate in Christ's fullness through organic union, showing that self-centered glory is 'puny' compared to being filled in Christ
Well, look at how Paul uses the same fullness language in chapter 2 and how he connects the fullness of God in Christ to us. Colossians 2:9: For in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority. And you have been filled in Him. You can be the center of the universe and you can try to be filled in yourself, in your own self-glory. But even Michael Jordan, in all of his self-glory, is puny compared to the glory of those who are being filled in Christ Jesus, the center of the Father's fullness. Remember, Christ is a corporate person. There's this organic relationship. It means that even as He is full of divine glory, He makes us full of Himself.
22 · The pastor weaves together the morning's worship, Pauline prayer, and pastoral longing to show how Christ-centered theology produces maximum joy through participation in divine fullness, contrasting this with the poverty of man-centered theology
We sang it this morning. Out of His fullness. Out of His fullness. He showers us with kindness. Out of His fullness, He showers us with mercy. Out of His fullness, He showers us with grace. He showers us with significance, not because I'm the center of the universe, but because Christ is the glorious center of the universe. And as the head, He invites us to be partakers in it. Man-centered theology robs people of joy. Your best life now isn't found through self-help, self-esteem, or self-glory. It's found in Christ, the one full of the Father's glory. It's why Paul prays in Ephesians the way that he does. This is his prayer for the church in Ephesus. It's his prayer for us. Ephesians 3:19. That you would know the love of Christ. Right before that he says, the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge. I pray that you would know the height and the depth and the width and the breadth. Verse 19: Know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Why? That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. My prayers are puny compared to that. I pray that you would know the love of Christ. It surpasses your ability to comprehend it, but I want you to know it. And in knowing, that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness of God. It is very good news. That Christ is the center of the glory of redemption.
23 · The pastor transitions to the third main point (Christ in the glory of reconciliation) by reading verse 20 and tracing the narrative backward to the Fall, showing how sin disrupted the entire created order, not just humanity
Final thing we see Christ as Lord of redemption, as we see Christ in the glory of reconciliation. Verse 20: And through him to reconcile to himself all things, all things, whether on earth or in heaven, all things, making peace by the blood of His cross. Now, anytime you're talking about peace, if someone's making peace, it's sort of implied that there wasn't peace before, right? Anytime reconciliation is happening, it's implied that there's enmity before. So implicit in what Paul is saying here is that there has been a great disruption in the world. When Adam falls, when Adam and Eve sin in the garden, it's not just mankind that's thrown into rebellion. Paul pictures here not just humanity in rebellion, not just the serpent and Adam and Eve, but they sin and as the image bearers, as the apex of the created order, all of creation is thrown into turmoil with them. God brings order out of the chaos in creation, right? But in Adam and Eve's sin, chaos begins to exert itself again. As the title of the famous novel puts it, Things Fall Apart. As the theologian Bob Dylan puts it, Everything is broken. There's a rupture in the harmony of God's design. There's alienation between the Creator and not just mankind, male and female, but all of creation.
24 · The pastor establishes the scope of Christ's reconciliation work—not partial but comprehensive, encompassing all creation's moral, spiritual, and physical brokenness
Part of what redemption does is it reconciles all the created order back to God. There's going to be a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth. God's going to recreate through Christ. God's working to repair all the moral, spiritual, and physical confusion and brokenness. Now, how much of that is He working to repair? How much does Paul say He's reconciling? The redeemable parts? The good parts, the sections that are close to the beach, so they're good property, good investment. No, all things. All things are being reconciled. He's making peace to all things through the blood of His cross.
25 · The pastor raises and rejects a universalist reading of 'all things reconciled,' clarifying that while reconciliation ends in cosmic peace, human response is divided between those who willingly repent and those who are compulsorily subdued
Now, is Paul proclaiming some sort of universalism? If peace is made for everything and everything is reconciled at the end, is Paul saying everyone gets to sing Kumbaya in heaven? Hardly. Paul's grand view of reconciliation does end with peace and harmony. That's the trajectory where everything is heading. Towards peace and shalom and harmony. No discord between the created order and the Creator. So there are going to be scores of men and women who will willingly repent and be restored to right relationship with God. That's the vision John has in Revelation. People from every tribe and tongue and nation before the throne of the Lamb because they've been redeemed and they're worshiping Him.
26 · The pastor unpacks the Greco-Roman background of 'peace'—showing how Pax Romana included both voluntary submission and forced subjugation, establishing the conceptual framework for understanding cosmic reconciliation
But Paul is also drawing on a Greco-Roman notion of peace. Famous phrase, Pax Romana, right? The Roman peace that extends throughout the whole Mediterranean world. God's sovereignty, he utilizes it for the spread of Christianity. Thank you, Caesar, for building all these roads for my glory so Paul can wander around Asia Minor spreading the gospel. Pax Romana. Well, it's not just always peaceful in Rome. When warfare and rebellion would break out, Rome, Caesar, would send out generals, send out the legions to restore peace. And once they knocked down Gaul again, once they smacked the Goths in the mouth, once they walked into Jerusalem and flattened the temple, those generals would come back to Rome. They would have their triumph. The triumphant forces would march through the city and they would celebrate the cessation of hostility. Peace and harmony and reconciliation. Real reconciliation in a real sense, relationship is restored. Roman rule has been reestablished in the territories. But as those armies marched through the capital, the procession is filled with broken and vanquished soldiers. The conquered are in the triumphal procession. They're in chains. Their leaders are forced to come before Caesar and bend the knee. This is exactly what Paul has in mind here.
27 · The pastor applies the Roman triumph imagery to Christ's victory, showing how Colossians 2:15 describes defeated spiritual powers marching in Christ's triumphal procession, establishing two forms of reconciliation: fellowship for the redeemed and subjugation for the rebellious
Listen to the way he describes the triumphal procession of Christ in Colossians 2:15. 'He disarmed the rulers and authorities. He put them to open shame by triumphing over them.' He went out and He kicked Satan's butt and He chained him up and He's going to march him through heaven's streets. Just like in ancient Rome, the captives of war are displayed to magnify the glory of the conquering Christ. As the Lord of redemption of all things, whether on earth or in heaven, everything will be reconciled. It will be brought into right relationship with God. For the redeemed, we'll look at it in more detail next week, the right relationship is one of everlasting fellowship with God. But for those wicked principalities mentioned in 2:15, for rebellious people, it will be right relationship through subjugation and pacification and judgment.
28 · The pastor establishes from Philippians 2 that universal submission to Christ's lordship is certain, but the manner differs—free acceptance or compulsory imposition—with the cross as the historical act accomplishing both forms of peace
Philippians 2:10 explains, at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. All creation, every creature, angel and human, will one day bow the knee to Jesus, and they will confess with their mouths that He is Lord, and God will be glorified in it. That's what Scripture teaches about the culmination of redemption. God is restoring order through the Lordship of Christ. He had defeated the rebellion. There's one historical act that does it. In our passage, how does He do it? He makes peace. How? Through the blood of His cross. So now the enthroned Christ is undoing brokenness. The enthroned Christ is expressing His rule and authority all over the earth. Christ is King through his victory at Calvary. Through that victory, he has brought reconciliation and peace. As the theologian F.F. Bruce puts it, that peace is either freely accepted or compulsorily imposed. Principalities and powers, Satan and the kingdom of darkness over whom God has triumphed They don't willingly surrender to God's grace. They are pacified under the boot of a risen Christ.
29 · The pastor issues an evangelistic appeal, emphasizing the availability of mercy through Christ's cross for anyone who will willingly submit, regardless of their past rebellion
Now, don't be mistaken. There is massive mercy in the reality of God's reconciling work in Christ. Anyone can accept the gospel of lordship and salvation. Anyone can hear this and willingly submit to it. At the cross, the way of forgiveness is made through the blood of Jesus. All your past brokenness, all your rebellion against the Creator, whether you're knowingly thumbing your nose at Him or just in ignorance ignoring Him, At the cross, it's set aside.
30 · The pastor illustrates the immediacy and availability of reconciliation through the thief on the cross—demonstrating that even a lifetime of rebellion can be instantly forgiven through repentance
If you turn to Jesus now, it will be set aside as quickly as Jesus sets aside the rebellion of the thief being crucified next to him. Remember that story? He's dying on the cross. The one thief mocks him, and the other thief recognizes what's going on. Repents. Right there, a life, just a horrible life. The guy's being crucified as a thief, and Jesus turns to him and says, 'You will be with me in heaven.' Reconciliation, peace, available to anyone who would turn to him.
31 · The pastor balances mercy with warning—those who refuse Christ will face compulsory submission and judgment, presenting the congregation with an urgent binary choice
There is great mercy, but for anyone who refuses who fails to surrender to their rightful King, who fails to come into proper relationship willingly to Jesus Christ, they will reap the fruit of that rebellion. There will be a day when they are forced to submit, and they will receive the punishment they deserve as a defeated enemy. That's not pleasant news to give to people, but it's accurate and it's true. In the end, everyone will submit, Paul says in Philippians. Every knee will bow. The question is, will you be counted among those who do so willingly and look upon that day with joy and expectation? Or you will be forced— will you be forced to bend your knee? Will the weapons be ripped from your hand, bent by Christ's power?
32 · The pastor pivots from evangelistic warning to pastoral instruction, transitioning from addressing the unconverted to addressing believers about the ethical implications of redemption
Now, if you're in that former category, Those who anticipate that day. Those who look forward to it. If you've come to Jesus and received redemption through His death and resurrection, Paul's not just describing those things here. He's calling you to a new way to live.
33 · The pastor returns to verse 18's purpose clause—Christ's preeminence—and establishes the ethical imperative: believers as members of the new humanity must live to bear witness to Christ's supremacy
Verse 18 concludes by saying that the very reason Christ is made the head of the church, the head of the redeemed, is so that He, Jesus, can be preeminent. Christ will one day establish the new creation. He's in the process of doing it. It's an already-not-yet. Even as God in His mercy is already creating a new humanity, the new humanity is the church. These redeemed who are being purchased and gathered in. In other words, if you've been made a part of His body, you've become a member in the new humanity, which means you should live in a way that bears witness to Christ's preeminence.
34 · The pastor issues comprehensive application across multiple spheres of life—work, parenting, marriage, witness—calling believers to make Christ preeminent by pursuing maximum joy in Him, grounded in the eschatological promise that Christ makes all things new
He's the head of the church. God has made Him the head because He's the firstborn of creation. He's the beginning so that in all things He might be preeminent. Because He's your head and you are His body, you should be living in such a way as to make Jesus preeminent. We don't live for the broken kingdoms of this present age. We live in the hope of the Kingdom to come. Paul intends here for Christ to be made known through the body, that the head would be made known, that the church would go out and testify. The church should go. It must go and bear witness to the preeminence of Christ. So how do we reflect the preeminence of Christ? By magnifying His work. By living life in a way that seeks to find maximum joy in Jesus. So we order our lives. We prioritize our lives to reveal Jesus as preeminent, Jesus as supreme, Jesus as glorious and worthwhile. Jesus as the fountain of delights. We pursue enjoyment. He's not saying live a dour life. Pursue joy. You have to be a pursuer of joy if you're a part of the body of the risen King. But pursue joy with Christ ever and always at the center of that joy. Make Jesus preeminent in the way you work faithfully. Make Jesus preeminent in the way you parent patiently, in the way you love your spouses generously, in the way you witness to neighbors in word and deed. Make Jesus preeminent and glorious in the way you live your life so that the world beholds Jesus your Head as worthy of glory and honor. There's a really cool phrase, the very last book of the Bible, Revelation, way towards the end, John is beholding the new heavens and the new earth. And he sees Jesus, the one who's seated on the throne, and he says to John, he says, 'Behold, I make all things new.' makes all things new. What Paul's saying in Colossians 1 is that we should live in light of that. Behold, he makes all things new. So I live and breathe and have my being in such a way that Christ is seen as glorious and enthroned and preeminent and utterly satisfying.
35 · The pastor closes the sermon and transitions to prayer, signaling the end of the message
Would you bow your heads?