The Supremacy of Jesus (Colossians 1:18-20)

This episode covers Colossians 1:18-20 and the supremacy of Jesus over His Church, His power over death, the fullness of God found in Him, and the reconciliation He accomplished through the cross.

Paul describes Jesus as the head of the body, the Church. Jesus does not simply call us into a relationship with Himself; He makes us part of His body and calls us to belong to one another. We cannot claim to love the Head while remaining disconnected from the body. The more we love Jesus, the more we will love what He loves—and Jesus loves His Church and the lost.

Jesus is also the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead. He entered creation but was not created. He existed before all things, and through His own power He conquered death. Because He is before all things, He should be before everything in our lives. Jesus does not settle for second place. He is supreme over our relationships, emotions, desires, decisions, plans, possessions, fears, careers, families, and futures.

Paul then makes an extraordinary declaration: all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus. Everything that makes God, God, is found fully in Christ. This gives us confidence and clarity about who Jesus is and why He alone can reconcile us to God.

We were not alright. We were separated from God and needed reconciliation, but God initiated peace. Through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, He paid the price necessary to bring us back to Himself. We do not reconcile ourselves through good works, shame, suffering, or trying harder.

The cross was God’s complete plan. Jesus paid for our reconciliation, made peace with God possible, and finished the work.

Additional Resources

• Watch or listen to Past Sermons
• Start With 7 (Daily Audio Devotionals)
• GOOD.GOD.GOSPEL. (How to Have Conversations Toward Salvation)
• Learn about Church Project Network and follow our NEW Instagram (@churchprojectofficial)
• Read this book by Jason: “A Church of House Churches: An Articulated and Applied Ecclesiology”
• Website

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey, thanks for joining us for the Rethink and Return Podcast. We'd like to think and we'd like to rethink. And then we'd like to return and base our thoughts on scripture. That's what we're doing with this ecclesiology of church project. That's what we've been doing since we started. And then we're also doing that in the Word. We're thinking and returning to the Word. And uh that's what this podcast is for. Sometimes we'll do leadership stuff, but we're not in that rhythm yet. So this is the only one we're doing right now. Always glad to do it with DeVito and me amigo.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Always great to ride shotgun. I just noticed like you're over here with your cool iPad, and I'm in my analog world of paper and pens.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

I'm an analog guy in a digital world. But I got to type it out in order to print it out for my sermon notes, and that's all I'm doing. I'm just these are just my sermon notes.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

It's all good. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

It's all I got. But no, you're I like what you do. Dave's been doing this for years, right? Like every sermon of mine, you have like a big thing. I do it's cool for me to look at it.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

I've done it since as long as I've been here, because I I and it helps me to learn when I write down. That's cool. And they say, you know, you uh, you know, you remember 10% of what you hear, you remember 90% of what you write down. So I always hope that we got a lot of people that are taking notes. I always hope more people will be there on a Sunday and take notes.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

I see a lot of it actually. I see a lot of people taking notes, and that's cool. I mean, there's some stuff in here, especially what we're looking at right now. So good. A lot of uh Christology, a lot of theology of Christ, the doctrine of who he is. So here we go. Uh, we're in Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church, he's the beginning of the firstborn from among the dead. So Paul is helping the Colossians here understand who they're following. Because it's it's a default of people to flatten uh Christ and make him sort of equal. Like this is my lane, but equal, your lane is equal. Wow. I mean, I had that conversation yesterday with somebody who totally didn't follow Christianity and followed something else. Yeah. And they're like, hey man, for you, that's good. I've studied some of it. I'm glad to study more, but this is my lane. And I'm like, Paul here is going, I don't think you understand who we're talking about here. We're talking about Jesus, and this is a whole other level. And so he says some things about Jesus here that uh probably the Colossians haven't heard. And I think a lot of Christians today haven't heard some of this stuff. And that's why we make Jesus so normal, or we elevate him above normal human, but we bring him down to like like a normal prophet level, like put him at a Buddha or Muhammad or uh Joseph Smith or whatever. And I'm like, Paul's like, this doesn't, it's completely different. And so he says he's the head of the body, the church. Body metaphor, you know, the church is the body and the bride. I I said in one of the gatherings today, I'm like, it's hard for me to get the the bride metaphor for me, you know? Right. Because I'm like, never plan on being a bride, right? I never plan on, you know, wearing a wedding dress. So, like, but I understand it. I mean, it's cool. I mean, the covenant love, but you know, body is something that every one of us can understand. Yeah. And Jesus says here, You're the body, you're in the church, and I'm the head. And so, what do you think about this metaphor he chose?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Well, I mean, I I love it because the metaphor, we are living it every day. We have a head, we have a body, and it's it's hard. I think Jesus may have shown it and explained it this way, because it is the way we live. It's not some ethereal, you know, when we think about our bodies, that's a real thing. We think about our heads, that's a real thing, and the two being attached. Yeah. So I think it was, you know, of course, it's brilliant on Jesus' part to pick something that's always with us.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Well, and I think, you know, even when we get hurt, uh, we hurt, we get hurt a uh a little finger, and and the whole we hit we feel it over our whole body. Yeah, it affects the whole body. And so I just love how Jesus did a lot of work. Like scripture does a lot of work to help us know we're part of the body. Romans 11, 17, you've been grafted in among the others. 1 Corinthians 12, 27. No, you're the body of Christ, each one of you is a part of it. Romans 12, 5. In Christ, though we are many, we form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. And you know, I love this idea of the body, all the members belong to each other. Yeah, not one member says, I'm out. Right. In fact, Paul said later in 1 Corinthians 12, or earlier in 1 Corinthians 12, 21, the eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. Right. It's so wild how people in the church was people who claim to be Christians will say, I don't need the church. Yeah. Like Paul literally wrote to those kind of people. He said, You're you're a member of the body, every part belongs to the other. One part can't say, I don't need you. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. I there are so it it's a it's cultural Christianity in America today. It is. How do you know if you're a cultural Christian that doesn't line up with scripture? If you say, I want Jesus the head, but I don't want the church. I get I get the proclivity for it. It's not like you're special if you feel that way. The church is beautiful and it's full of broken people too. And so all of us could say, I love Jesus because he's not broken, but the church I don't want. But that's why Paul spent so much time over and over in Romans and Corinthians and Ephesians going, you're all part of the body, and you cannot say to the rest of the body, I don't need you. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Well, I think you hit on something. This is a a major nerve because so many people, this is a common idea.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

You know, I've heard people go, Oh, well, I can meet with Jesus on the golf course, or I can meet with Jesus while I'm out hunting or fishing. Of course, no doubt. You know, this that idea As you should be. Like we like we had you and I had a mutual friend back in the day that wrote a book called I Love Jesus but I don't like as a girlfriend.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

And it was a little it was a little booklet type thing, but it was that built around that idea that somehow we can we can still know God apart from the body. And yet when you do that, you you miss out on a dynamic. Well, you expressed it in a way that I wanted you to make sure that you say I mean it is true.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Yeah, I worship Jesus on a golf course, and uh although I I you know sometimes on a golf course I'm like Jesus, could you turn your back for a minute, cover your ears so I don't play golf much. I I'm not sanctified enough to play much golf.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Well, they say golf is a good walk spoiled, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yeah, well, I I wish I was great. I digress. Um, yeah, you can worship Jesus on a golf course or in a duck blind or climbing a mountain. I I do, I have, I love it. But man, for us to say, I want Jesus, but I don't want the church, it it's as if we're decapitating the head from the body. I thought that was so good. And we're carrying this head around. I love Jesus, but I don't love his church. But Jesus has attached himself, he's the head of the body, which is the church. So he's the head of the church. And so for us to say, I don't want the church, I don't need the church, or to treat the church so casually. I mean, we have the head which is fully committed to the body.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

But we got members of the body who aren't fully committed to the body, which our head is telling us be committed to the body.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

So I I think it's it's really elementary, I think ignorant, foolish to say I can worship him anywhere. That's not the question. That's not the whole point of this right now is our our obedience to Jesus, our sanctification, and he's chosen to build his kingdom through the local church.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

He hasn't chosen to build his kingdom through rogue, individual, isolated believers. No, much of our sanctification happens through the local body. So much of my sanctification has and is and will be happening through the local church. So it's just dumb to use that as an excuse. And by the way, I did I didn't say today, but I'll say it now. I had into my, you know, I I can't find it, but your excuse doesn't excuse you. Oh, right.

unknown 8:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Your excuse doesn't excuse you. Yeah. You may be like, oh, it's hurt by the church. Get in line behind me, buddy. Right, take a number. Get in way behind line behind Jesus. Yeah. But I mean, he's staying the head of the body and he's been deeply hurt by the body. So that's not the point. Right. And can Jesus exist apart from the church? Absolutely. So for us to say things like I can exist without the church, it just goes back to the I cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. And it something's broken in our understanding of sanctification, our understanding of the church. If we say, I don't need the church. And so when people say I can worship Jesus on a boat in the lake, that's not the point. You're talking about a whole other thing. Right. Which is true. You can't worship Jesus. I don't know that you are, but that's not that that's not the whole point of church. It's a small part of the point of church. Right. The part of the point of church is that we belong to each other. And you can't belong to other people when you're out in the boat of the golf course.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

That's so true.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

That belonging to each other means I'm yours and you're mine. That's a really strong word that he used here for the church. And so for a I I get the excuse, I get the reason, but the excuse doesn't excuse you. If it did, I promise I wouldn't be sitting here.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

I just belong to the body.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Totally. But I I mean I think that people have to, you know, they this thought train of thought doesn't work anyplace else in life.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Like no one goes, well, I've stopped driving because there's too many hypocrites on the road. I'm just not, I'm not going. You know, no this idea that somehow that we can see church as something that's totally determined on our taste, our preferences, and if we don't like it, then we can go be Christian, you know, be be believers separated from the body, which I think just makes we got a bunch of Ichabod cranes. We got a bunch of headless people running around out there. You know, I people would I've run into this a lot. We're both churchmen, and people would say, you know, oh, I just believe that I don't need the church. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna be over here with my friends and just we're just gonna be over here. And I always would say, well, David Koresh called and wants his idea back. Yeah. Because that's where all that starts.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Well, dude, I mean, and we we create church in our own image, or people will be like, I got friends who are Christians. I'm like, you're not doing what we're called to do in the church. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, are you sitting under authority, somebody teaching you the word? Are you serving each other? Are you helping the less mature become more mature? Are we living in a diverse community like Paul talked about? Older teach the younger rich and poor, live in commonality and share their goods and possessions. All the things the church is supposed to be. You can't be fully sanctified without the church. So, what people are really saying is I don't want to be sanctified in the way that Jesus wants to sanctify me.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Because he chose to sanctify us through his church. Yeah. So I'll preach this till the day I die because it's all over the Bible. And so for Christians to excuse themselves from it with their own reasoning, it's incongruent with scripture. That's right. And that's why we have such a weakened Americana Christianity. Yeah. Because people are like, I'll watch church online. Yeah, but how do you belong? Where do you belong?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Belonging, I like to say, you know people's names and they know yours. Yep. You know people's needs and they know yours. And you know people's next steps and they know yours. That's right. Meaning I know people's names and they know mine. It's part of belonging. I know their needs. Like that part of churches, we're helping meet each other's needs. It's not just financial, although it would be, but all kinds of emotional, relational, spiritual needs. And I know their next steps and they know mine. We live in such community that people know they know where I'm growing and I know where they're growing. Yeah. They know what I need, what Jesus is calling me to do, and they're going to support me in that. I mean, this is all right, all throughout scripture about the church. So when people say stuff like that, I'm like, you're one of the most shallow immature believers I know because you've gone completely against almost every New Testament letter to a church. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Well, I mean, you're right. Because if anyone owns a Bible and they bother to look at the epistles, you know, they're all written to churches. Yeah. They're not written to individuals. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

They're not written to, you know, we want to treat the Bible like it's some like I'm just going to go over here by myself and do my own thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

And yet the promises, except for salvation, all the promises are written to people that are connected to the body.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

And the three individual letters, two to Timothy and one of Titus, were to pastors telling them how to pastor church.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Right, that's right. It's all about it is all about the body of Jesus and him being the head in our life. And I love today because it I think it makes people go, well, maybe I've maybe I've been doing that. Maybe I've separated the two. I've decapitated my my faith in the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

I mean, it look, it any of us, if we get in the word on our own, but especially uh a sermon preached, should make us go. I mean, that's why Paul told Timothy, correct, rebuke, and encourage. Yeah. I mean, sermons should be encouraging, but also correcting and rebuking. Yes. And maybe the two two to one. Two-thirds of it is this, and one third is encouragement. And so, you know, correcting and rebuking. And so we should let the word do that to us. Yeah. I mean, people get one sermon. I I'll be I'll be in this verse ten times as much as they'll be in it this week. So I gotta let it search my heart. And frankly, honestly, this hits me right now big because I'm like, I'm doing what I'm doing because I belong and I have to belong and will belong to a local body. Right. And so I just I choose to do it here because I think Jesus wants me to do it here. That's right. But it'll be somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

That's right. Where like, you know, I uh I grew up in a in a deeply churched culture, you know, and it had its pitfalls and it had people in it that were irritating. But I have to say, I've in the last probably six months, I've become more thankful for the fact that I got to church. Like I made it to church when I was a kid, like Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Tuesday visitation. Right. Like I was thankful that, you know, my mom said, You you got a lot of stuff to do, but we are not gonna miss church. That that it created a culture of faith in our household that I carry with me to this day.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Bro, I mean, you're touching on something that's big, and I don't know how much we want to get into it today, but it is something huge, which is you know, it's the responsibility of parents, right? The responsibility of husbands with their wives and wives with their husbands to get your family in the body. Yeah. I mean, when people will be like, well, they're gonna choose on their own, yes they will. That's right. Yes, they will, but but your your job though as a parent is to help them belong to a body. Yes. And so, man, we we we've had this with every one of our kids. And it it's it's part of the work of parenting, but it's also part of my individual responsibility to make sure that I and whatever God's given me dominion over, authority over, influence over in my own life, my own agency, you know, my own uh home and household. We we gotta care about this. And so if you're if you're if you say you love Jesus, but you don't want his church, you've gone against a significant portion of scripture. And I I don't know how you can keep being okay with it. And again, my commitment to the local church comes from not its constant pleasure, though it brings some beauty, it's a commitment, a conviction that he's the head of the body. He chose to stay connected to the body. Yeah, and if he did, and he told me I'm part of it, I have I have to do what Romans 12 says. Each member belongs to all the others. I'm just one person here. I belong, I gotta belong to a community of Christians.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

And I gotta be fully engaged in it. People gotta feel like I'm giving them all they got, right? And everybody else here should be feeling like everybody else is giving them all they got.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

He's the head of the body, the church, and then he's the firstborn from among the dead. So he's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead. So when we look at the beginning, we have to know that he was he was before the beginning. Like Genesis 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What beginning is it talking about? It's not talking about the beginning of God. Right, right. In the beginning, God created it. It's the beginning of creation. And then John 1 mirrors Genesis 1. It says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. So, like, he was God, so he's before the beginning. So Paul is trying to say here, this Jesus you're talking about, yeah, he he's what the church is all about. And he's staying connected to it. But also he he's a self-sustaining energy. He wasn't he wasn't sourced from another energy supply. Right. Like he he's he's completely independent of any necessity for an outside source to sustain him. He's the beginning. He's before the beginning. And he he's the un-beginning in any way. He's the uncreate, he's never not been, which we have no reference point. That's right. But he he's a self-sustaining source of power that's never not existed, and all power flows from him. And then he's also not only is he the beginning, the sustainable, self-sustaining source, he's the firstborn from the dead. Right. And that doesn't mean he's the first one to raise from the dead, but by Jesus' words, other people raised from the dead.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

And sometimes some prophets, rarely, but sometimes but no one by their own power. That's right. And so Jesus, by his own power, was raised from the dead. And so he has power self-sustaining, not dependent upon any power source. And he then took on our humanity where we are dependent, and he was killed, all power taken out of his body, and then he raised back to life by his own power. Like heart not beating, blood not throwing through his veins, right? Not like laying asleep thinking dead, no power source in his own body, but he raised back to life by his own power. Like this is the powerful, this is the powerful Jesus that we say we follow.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

I mean, well, I mean, I think you know, I said last week that we have to go through these verses slowly because people have to think about this. You've got to meditate over. We're not just saying that, you know, he just showed up when he was born. Like he's always been, and he has all power. And you gave some examples of uh resurrections in the New Testament that were different from his. That's right. You know, I thought that was I thought that was a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah, I mean, Mark Fabi told the little girl who 12 years old died, get up, you know, and she got up. Uh Lazarus and John 11 come out of the grave, and he did. Wrote Revelation 20, which is beautiful, verse 6 blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection, Jesus'. The second death has no power over them. Like our death, second that we were born spiritually dead, but but our physical death, no power over us. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

It's incredible stuff. I went up, you know, I always say, you got, I don't think people think deeply enough about what they're really carrying. Like when they gave their life to Christ, what the implications of that resurrected life on our soul and what that means to us here and in the afterlife. You know, like I was looking at your notes today, and like you said, you know, that Jesus is before, he's bigger, he's beyond, and he's more beautiful. Of course, it's always more anointed when it's alliterated, but I think that's the perfect summary of when we thought when we talk about Jesus, that he is before all things, he's bigger than all things, he's beyond it, and he's more beautiful than you can imagine. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Powerful, bro. Well, I mean, I need to remember, I need to be reminded that Jesus is more powerful than any power source on this planet. He's more powerful than any person, he's more powerful than any group of people, he's more powerful than any decision, any nation. He's more powerful than the creation he created. So and and and now we're knowing he's even more powerful than my own death. And so, what confidence should we be living with? Yeah, like that's right, whatever comes into our life, Jesus is more powerful than that. Yeah. So, I mean, we should be fearless, we should be just radically fearless. Um, not that doesn't mean reckless, but we should be fearless. Yeah, and I mean I I wrestle with fear. It's these things that help me know there's not there's not a source of power here. Sometimes it feels like it, right? But there's not a source of power here that's more powerful than this power. Right. And this power I'm now attached to.

unknown 21:20

You know.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Goodness gracious. It it it's I mean, think about that. It's wild. It's deeper than any whatever meditation retreat you go on to try to get to the other one created source, uncreated source of energy. Yeah. Like you could think more deeply and more deeply and more deeply about Jesus daily until you die, and we'll never get to the bottom of this well.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

I mean, uh, you know, I wrote in my notes today, like kind of what you just said. But when you think about other world religions, and basically if you take the resurrection out of our journey of faith, all you're left with is what other world religions do, which is basically try to reorganise. Organize their soul.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

You're exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

And they're basically just kind of trying to organize a soul without any resurrected power in it whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

So I had a good God gospel conversation yesterday with um someone who believed in, you know, Buddhism. And I said, you know, Buddhists and Christians have some things in common. And this person said, Oh, really? And I said, Yeah, I said, you believe that we're an eternal spirit. I believe I'm an eternal spirit, but you believe in a reincarnation into this place based upon your goodness of your past life that you'll improve or de-escalate down the chain.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

You you believe in eternal life through reincarnation. I believe in eternal life through the resurrection. So you you and I both believe we're an eternal being. Yeah. But so yeah, you're right. People are people are cre recreating the gospel in other ways. Yeah. The answers to God through other approaches. And for me, the gospel is it's the only comprehensive and complete and sufficient worldview.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

It does it all for me. It does. It does do it all. It answers all the questions. It doesn't mean I have all the answers, but the gospel answers all the questions. It does answer all the questions. And it it's what gives life to our journey with the Lord. Everything else, you know, we've said this before, all we're religions are always trying to reach up. They're trying to do something to get up to God. Christianity is God getting into us through his life, death, and resurrection. That's right. The whole motion is different. It's different. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

It's complete. Yeah. And so Paul goes on because he's trying to talk about the power of Jesus, and then he he he says, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Yeah. And I just said, is there a higher word? Then use that word.

unknown 23:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

I mean, if there's a higher word, use that word. But Paul's trying to use the highest word. He's using the highest word he has.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

And he's like, he's supreme. And if Jesus has a supremacy in everything, it should surely apply to apply to my own life. Yeah. I mean, he should be first and best and most. That's right. I mean, what would it mean to be supreme? You're first, you're best, and you're the most. Like that's that's what supreme would mean in my life. So when you over my own emotions, no, you're first. I I mean, my emotions aren't first, you're first. My desires aren't first, you're first. My temptations, not first. Jesus is first. Right. He's supreme. Like, you know, my possessions, I'm not first. Yeah. Jesus is first. I'm going to even reorient my possessions around Jesus. Wow. You know? And so, like, Jesus wants to be first. That's why, I mean, you go all the way back to Genesis and you look at even Cain and Abel first murder. What was it tied to? It was tied to an offering. Because God wanted not, he didn't want to just be first. He wanted it, he wanted to be best, and he wanted to be most. Right. He's like, give me your first and best and most. And Abel, he did it. Cain did not. And that's why God went to Cain. And he's like, since crouching at your door and it desires to have you, you must master it. He was like, I'm not first and best and most in your life. I can actually see that from your offering, by the way. But you need to watch out because this is actually a heart problem.

unknown 25:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

That's what God went and told Cain. And he didn't, he didn't repent, he didn't fix his heart problem, and it resulted in I murder my brother. Yeah. And the consequences of that were long lasting. That's right. And so, I mean, I think that's what Jesus talks so much about even our offerings.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Because he's like, I want to be first and best and most in every area of your life. Yeah. Finances, he said the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So he's like, I want to be first in your finances, man. That's right. And I want to be first with your purity. Like I mean, I know you have temptations and desires, but put me first before that. That's right. I mean, in everything, Paul said right here, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

So good. I mean, it's the steady application of practicing the supremacy. Like I remember one of my early memories of you know reading these verses was like, I, you know, I agree with it. I don't have any there's no pushback for me. Like, I agree with it. I thought, well, what am I supposed to do with it? And one of the things that helped me was that I was supposed to even scale my problems based on his supremacy. That you take any any kind of conflict or daily pressures of life, and you have to scale those those pressures in relation to the size and the immensity of the supremacy of the throne of Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Instead of letting my problems be supreme, I have to let him be supreme over all the crisis in my life. That if you imagine if you could try to imagine the immense size of a throne that has no beginning and end, and then you take your little problems and put them up, you know, underneath that, you're like, Well, I'm gonna be okay. Yeah, that's right. I'm gonna be all right. I'm gonna go through this.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

That's the work, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the work of our faith. Like we're working out our faith. That's right. Because, yeah, you we believe it, but then when stuff comes into our life, we gotta go, I gotta take that thought captive and bring it back under here.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Yeah, that's right. I thought that was so powerful, man. That is, it helped me so much to scale my life based on the supremacy. That's really good.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

So that in everything he might have supremacy. So he's supreme in everything. Yeah. And that's what we need to be pursuing. And then it says in verse 19 one of the wildest thoughts of all thoughts. Oh my gosh, I know, man. I mean, it's gracious. To just rush over that would be horrible. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him. I mean, to just sit in that. God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in Christ. So, what is all the fullness of God? That would mean everything that makes God God. Everything that makes God God, God was pleased. That would mean God the Father. He was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in God the Son. It's uh there's nothing else like it.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

No. And uh and like I circled that word pleased. He's pleased. I mean you think about God saying, I'm I'm I'm pleased that all of who I am dwells in Jesus. Like that to me, like when you read that verse, I was like, uh I almost couldn't get past the idea of God being pleased. And you know, yeah, it made me think of Jesus' baptism when he says this is my son, whom I'm well pleased, and all of the Godhead dwells in me. And he's like, God's God's like, that makes me happy.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

I mean, the pleasure of God. How do you please and already please God? Yeah, how do you satisfy an already satisfied God?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

That's right. This is the question you asked. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Yeah, and so like it does it, it goes back to the the baptism. Like, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Why am I so pleased? All my fullness dwells. All my fullness was in him. And and then we go, it gives us confidence and clarity to answer any question when people are like, Well, why why do you say Jesus is the only way? Yeah, right. Let's talk about that. Did God put all of his fullness in Muhammad? Right, no, not even the claim for that. No, did God put all of his fullness in Joseph Smith? Not even the claim for that. No. And so for us to say, Jesus is like one of these guys, like one of the prophets. No, all of the fullness of the Father was placed in Jesus' Son. And that's what pleased the Father. And he he can put all of his fullness wherever he wants, and he only placed it in Jesus. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Powerful stuff. And you said there was a word for this. There's a word for this whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Well, it's the idea in Philippians chapter two, uh, called kinosis, which is Jesus, how how in the world did he live human? It says being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being found in human likeness. So all the fullness of God in Jesus. But Jesus then sets the full rights of that to the side, not his identity, he doesn't change his deity, right? But he sets the full rights of that access to the side, and he takes on the very nature of a human bound by gravity, even down to needing to be born.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

I mean, he could have just superimposed as a 30-year-old on a mountain somewhere and come out and started his ministry, but no, took on, he was born because we're born. Right. And he lived and grew because we do, and then he suffered because we do. Yeah. And then he died because we do. And then he raised back to life because we couldn't. And so when we now see the crib at Christmas, we're going, whoa, goodness. The fullness of God dwelling in human form. So it pleased God to have all of his fullness dwell in Jesus. And then verse 20, and through Jesus, through the the fullness of God in human form, through Jesus to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Like, like what's this about? Like, it's not all about me. God's gonna use all salvation to glorify himself. It's just all pointing back to him. But I mean, the benefit for us, the beautiful benefit, we get to be a part of him glorifying himself. I mean, the pleasure, yeah, the pleasure of God is in Jesus. I mean, it's a dangerous thing to go, I'm the full pleasure of God.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Jesus died just for me. No, Jesus died for the glory of the Father, right? And for my good, but for the glory of the Father. And God was pleased with the fullness of God in Jesus. I don't represent the fullness of God, I don't have all the full attributes of God. Right. And so I'm I'm not Jesus. I don't have the full attributes of God. And so that means I'm I'm distant, I'm not okay. Right, right, right. And so we're we need to be reconciled because we're not all right.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Yeah. This is why reconciliation matters, because we're not alright.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

We're not alright. And you know, I I hear, I have heard a lot of people be like, me and God are okay, or we're gonna be okay. I'm like, well, what do you you just don't understand the devastation of your own depravity? You and God are not okay, and God would be the one who would know that, and he's trying to tell you, hey, we're not okay, but I want to be okay. Right. But you can't make it okay. You don't have the you don't have the means to make this okay. Right. It wouldn't it it's gonna take the fullness of my deity to make this okay, because your problem is really big. It's a sin problem, it's a death problem, it's a distance from God problem. You're not all right, but I want to make it right. That's what God's saying. Right. And so he initiated the reconciliation.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

That's power. I mean, it's powerful stuff. And then you went on to talk about, you know, that that he finished it, like he initiated it and he finished it.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Like he, you know, the the idea of reconciling, like that that term is an accountant term, means that everything's accounted for. Everything's where it should be.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Everything matches, like it's and he says it's been reconciled in, you know, he he he he says, where does he say it's in the interverse 20? Yeah, the end of verse 20, on earth and all things in heaven. Yeah, that's right. Like every like he said it right, not just here in our little sphere, but everything's been reconciled here and there. Like, think about the immensity of that.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Yeah, I mean, he he he's we don't understand how broken things are, and we don't understand the depth of the reconciliation that occurred through the blood of Christ on the cross. But it was huge. And uh, but we understand not being reconciled. I mean, with people we love, whenever something's wrong, I mean, if something's not right at home, about that, yeah. Something's not right at home, it doesn't matter what else is going on. Yeah, it nothing else feels right. And that's just a small picture for us. You know, pain in our finger is just a small picture for us that every part of our body is connected and it matters. Yeah, and not being reconciled to somebody you love, that is a little picture of what God was fixing between us. Right. And um, but he did finish it, and it says here at the end of verse 20, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. And um, I I love I love the idea that our reconciliation wasn't against his will. He wasn't like reluctantly reconciling us.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Like, oh, okay, I'll I guess I'll do this.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah, he he he didn't reluctantly reconcile with us, he he actually initiated it at great cost to himself by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. You know, Hebrews 9 22, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins or remission or removal of sins. So he shed his own blood, and um and that's it. You know, Jesus on the cross, he did say it's finished, it's finished. Yeah. And I think for me to go, the blood of Christ was so effective, it it did everything that needed to be done to reconcile me with God. It doesn't do me any good trying to continue to reconcile myself to God.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

I I rely, that's right. I rely on the blood of Christ shed on shed on the cross and the resurrection that followed. And so that's why I said you shedding your own blood, you living in shame, you staying separated from God, none of that has any value. Right. The only thing that has value is by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. So good. It's this is the good news.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

I mean, I think the you know, I I wrote my notes that we start where he finished. You know, we start with the finished work. We don't go back and try to finish it ourselves. Yeah, that's good. That's real good. It says is finished, and that's my starting point. That's right. That's good. Right? We start where he finished.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Yeah. Well, that's beautiful. Yeah, I mean, that's how we enjoy grace and live by it, just knowing I can't do anything here. Right. So let me live out the life, you know. But the the this life properly lived in response to this grace is he's supreme.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

That's right. He's first in everything, he's first in everything, and also we're to be attached to the body.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

And see, I mean, we better listen to what the head said.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

And the head said, I made you part of the body, and I'm staying attached to the body. So if I'm staying attached to the body, you'll stay attached to the body too. That's a good word. I mean, this is the submission, this is our sanctification, and this is we need to think more correctly about Jesus. We do. These verses help us do that.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

They really do. And they I I hope that everyone listening will do their own rethinking and returning this week and go back and just walk through these verses, just stroll through it and think about it.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Yeah. I mean, when when scripture says meditate, that would mean, you know, what I do is I I'll take a phrase, a word or a phrase, and I'll just stop. Right. And sit on it. And and over and over, you know, and and by the way, just parenthetically as we close, two things. One, 19 and 20 are a self-contained gospel presentation. You can memorize verses 19 to 20, and and that would be the entire gospel conversation with if with anybody who's wanting to know the gospel, you know, 19 and 20 would do it. And secondly, the way that I'll memorize scripture is I will take a phrase and I'll meditate on it. So it's not just getting here, I get it down into my heart. Like I understand it, I believe it, I start to love it, you know. And once I get that phrase memorized and meditated on, then I'll go to the next phrase. So I'll do like a phrase. Okay. And then once I get that down, I'll go to the next phrase. I was telling somebody the other day, it's like playing guitar, you know, when I started playing guitar, like put my finger, I had to put my finger down. Right. Like over and over, I had to put it down. Once I got that down, you know, I'm doing G, then I I put the other one down. So I then go here, and then I have to do this. And once I got that, then I can do this one, you know? And so it's just over and over, and it was painful and it took a long time. But once you got it, you got it. And for me with scripture, like um, hey man, I'm gonna I'm gonna memorize this phrase because I want to know the gospel. So for anybody here, I'm like, you want to know the gospel, 19 and 20. God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in Jesus, yeah, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, yeah, things on earth through things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. And so you just remember that God was pleased to have all of his fullness in him. He was gonna reconcile to himself all things through the blood shed on the cross. So good, man. You just remember the three, these three things in these two verses, and then you're like, I got a gospel presentation ready to go. So I would say memorize uh these two verses and know what the gospel's saying.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

That's super helpful.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yeah. Well, hey man, thanks for being a part of the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Always good, man. Love the ride.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Thank you guys, appreciate y'all. And thanks for watching. I hope it's good for you. If not, stop waste your time. If it is good, like it, uh, subscribe to it, share it. You're loved. Have a great week ahead. See you soon.