WEBVTT 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:21.280 Good afternoon, everyone. 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:22.320 Welcome to you. 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:23.039 My name is Mark. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:25.600 I'm one of the leaders here at City Church. 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:26.640 Very welcome to you. 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:31.519 If you are uh new or visiting with us, happy new year. 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:34.240 Uh new year, new sermon series. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:39.200 We're in the book of Colossians, which please do keep that open in front of you if you can. 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:47.600 Um, we will be in for the next couple of months uh on the run-up to our uh church retreat, our weekend away, which will be at the start of March. 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:51.039 More information about that uh at the at the end. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:57.759 Uh, but why don't I pray for us and ask for the Lord's help? 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:14.959 Father, I pray uh that you would give us uh eyes now to see uh the majesty and the beauty of who Jesus is, and in doing so to be changed by him. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:22.879 Pray that your spirit would be among uh at work amongst us to that end uh for the glory of Jesus. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:23.920 Amen. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:46.000 We're some 2,000 years detached from uh from the events that the New Testament describes, some 2,000 years detached from uh from the person of Jesus walking uh on this uh earth in a little piece of real estate at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:02:05.840 Some 2,000 years detached from who Jesus is, and over that time, you know, a lot of speculation, a lot of uh perhaps confusion uh has grown up about the person of Jesus and about uh what he came to do, what his work was, what his mission was. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:20.719 Perhaps uh you come here this morning with or this afternoon with uh ideas uh about who Jesus is that you have been taught or that you have imbibed from uh from your cultural narrative of where you're from. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:26.240 Perhaps you just think that uh that Jesus was a uh was a good moral teacher. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:32.400 Uh perhaps Jesus' authority is not something that you readily desire to accept. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:45.120 Perhaps you simply see Jesus as irrelevant or struggle to see what his relevance might be uh to how you work, how you love, how you live, how you relate to people. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:57.919 Perhaps also you would say that you are a follower of Jesus, but in your life you betray that you don't see Jesus as sufficient. 00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:07.039 Implicitly or explicitly you might say something like, Well, I love Jesus, but I need this. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:12.800 I love Jesus, but I want that. 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:19.680 I love Jesus, but I need I need that relationship to work. 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:23.360 I love Jesus, but I need to not be alone. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:26.800 I love Jesus, but I don't want him to ask that of me. 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:31.199 I love Jesus, but I quite like my comfort too. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:35.599 Is Jesus actually sufficient for you? 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:51.039 It's good actually at the start of a new year to kind of clear the decks and get a clear vision of who Jesus is. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:04:03.680 To go right back to the first writings, eyewitness accounts of who Jesus is. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.680 Paul was somebody who met Jesus. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:11.439 Who met him after he rose from the dead. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:17.040 And he writes describing who this person of Jesus is. 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:21.199 That's so important for us, especially off the back of Christmas, right? 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:28.399 Because Christmas, we have a very uh we have a very kind of kitsch, uh, tweety uh view of Jesus. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:35.279 Christmas Jesus, Christmas Jesus, little baby, maybe looks a little bit weird, like in the Renaissance painting, gold dinner plate behind his head. 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.439 Uh you kind of have that that view of Jesus. 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:39.199 Uh he's kind of inoffensive. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:47.759 The little the the Jesus, uh, you know, little Jesus, meek and mild, coming in tinsel time Bethlehem, there's the shepherds, and there's the wise men, isn't it all lovely? 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:50.639 Uh let's go into you know Viganuary, right? 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:52.959 Uh don't vegany, why would you do that? 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:56.000 Um don't hate yourself that much. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:57.600 Um sorry. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:09.040 Um but that view of who Jesus is can make us lose sight of the Jesus who grew up to become a man. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:15.120 The Jesus who uh Paul says is the very image of the invisible God. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:26.160 And actually, what happens when we go through this passage is this passage helps us to understand the incarnation in a new light and actually blows the doors off Bethlehem. 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:40.480 Because we see that the one who became a baby, who stepped into human history and became frail and vulnerable in that sort of way, is actually the Lord of all, the one through whom all things were created. 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:43.439 It really is quite remarkable. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:06:03.439 We also need to kind of clear the decks at the start of the year, I think, because so often the concerns of life, the demands on our time, the circumstances that we face, they narrow our field of vision, don't they? 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:26.240 And so it's good just for a moment to have our horizon expanded so that we can feel our affection stirred again at the top of the year for who Jesus truly is and what he has come to do. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:45.439 We're gonna move through this passage, kind of taking it clause by clause, considering these descriptors, uh, most of them, eight of which uh I have summarized the person of Jesus, who he is, and then finally to think a little bit about what he came to do, what his work was. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:50.000 We're gonna move through the passage beginning at verse 15. 00:06:50.639 --> 00:07:00.079 The first thing that Paul says is he says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:05.439 That is, he has made the invisible God visible. 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:09.680 Now, there's a sense in which the Bible contends that every human being has done that. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:18.000 We spent some time in the last semester uh in the book of Genesis, in Genesis 1, end of that chapter, we're made in the image of God. 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:27.920 Each human being in some way puts on display and represents who God is to the world, to one another, and to the rest of creation. 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:36.720 We are all image bearers, and yet uh because of our rejection of God, because of our walking away from him, we have kind of marred that image. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:42.800 You can think of it a little bit like us uh us taking a myrrh and uh and cracking in it. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.879 That it still reflects, but it does so in a distorted way, and that's us. 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:53.040 We're image bearers, but that image is being distorted. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:08:04.319 And one of the things that Paul is contending for is that Jesus is the perfect image bearer, he is the perfect representation of who God is to the world. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:08.319 But not just so in the in that human sense. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:12.639 Jesus also means that in a in the divine sense. 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:23.040 So he could say to Thomas in John, uh in John's gospel, John chapter 10, Thomas comes to him and says, Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us, right? 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.199 This is you know just a little request. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:30.480 Show us uh the God of the universe, and we'll be satisfied. 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:38.080 And Jesus turns to Thomas and says, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:45.679 He is God come close to us, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, healed the incarnate deity, right? 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:51.200 He is the transcendent Lord of the universe, drawn near. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:56.240 He is the absolute one made imminent. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:08.240 This is something that each of our hearts, if we think about it, long for. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:23.039 Each of us long for something that calls us out of ourselves, calls us to something greater, calls us outwards and upwards to experience something transcendent. 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.039 Why is sex such an idol? 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:30.320 Why is sex such a compelling thing? 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:34.639 Because it's the most transcendent experience that you will have as a human being. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:44.559 We want that transcendent feeling of being called outside of ourselves. 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:59.679 And one of the things that Paul is continuing for is that that transcendent other, that divine being has come close to us in the person of Jesus. 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:08.879 And so he is worthy of our love, he is worthy of our trust, he is worthy of our worship. 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:17.679 We read on, uh He says He is the He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.840 I'm gonna skip over that and put it into uh into the third point. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:32.720 Verse 16, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:34.720 That's the second point. 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:37.759 Then by him all things were created. 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:38.960 How many things? 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:39.840 All of them. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:41.519 That's that's that's a lot. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:43.759 That's everything. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.960 We see that everything expressed in those phrases. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:50.159 Heaven and earth, visible and invisible. 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:53.440 They're like linguistic brackets uh in linguistic terms. 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:58.000 It's called a merism alpha and omega, beginning and end. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.759 It means everything in between. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.080 What is there outside of heaven and earth? 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:03.120 Nothing. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:12.240 It's emphasizing that Jesus is the creator, that he is the active agent in creation. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:18.799 Again, going back to our previous series in the book of Genesis, Genesis 1, what do we what do we what do we have? 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:20.960 We have a God who speaks. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:35.919 And God said, Let there be light, and God said, Let the waters be separated from the waters, and God said, and then there is the repeated refrain, and it was so, and it was so, and it was so. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:45.600 The implication being in Genesis 1 is that God's word, the thing that he speaks, is effectual. 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:48.879 It actually causes things to happen. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:55.039 It brings light out of darkness, it brings order out of chaos. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:01.039 You fast forward to the Gospel of John. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:03.360 How does it begin? 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:06.080 In the beginning was the Word. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:11.279 And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:15.759 He was in the beginning with God, for all things were created through him. 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:19.120 Without him was not anything made that has been made. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:22.720 You cast your mind's eye down to verse 14. 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:28.159 The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:32.320 The glory is of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:43.759 Jesus is the word that effective agent a creation made flesh. 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:45.440 How remarkable. 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:59.600 That phrase, the word, the logos in Greek, was even at that time an idea in Greek thought, in philosophy. 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:05.360 Perhaps if you're a philosoph a philosophy student, you've maybe even looked at Aristotle. 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:14.639 The logos, the word, was this was this impersonal force, this impersonal force that uh that brought order out of chaos. 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:19.200 And John takes that term and says that Jesus is the fulfillment of that. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:24.799 He is that logos that brings order out of chaos, but it's not impersonal. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:26.720 It has a face, it has a nymph. 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:32.080 It walked on our earth, it walked our road and knew what it means. 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:38.000 To be hungry, to be thirsty, to grieve, to to be tired, to be vexed and angry. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:14:02.399 Paul not only wants to emphasize the scope of creation, heaven and earth, visible and invisible, but also wants to press home that Jesus is the creator of and therefore Lord over other philosophies and spiritualities. 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:10.240 That's what he means when Paul says that uh that Jesus is the one who created thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:18.399 Those are uh those are ancient Jewish ways of describing other spiritual powers, other spiritual beings. 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:23.200 They step back and say, uh, you're you wondering what it is that Christians believe. 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:25.919 You wouldn't call yourself a Christian, you're trying to figure it out. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:31.600 Well, one of the things that Christians believe or are is that we're supernaturalists. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:34.960 We are supernaturalists by necessity. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:40.399 We believe in a in a human being that came back from the dead. 00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:42.639 We don't believe that that's a metaphor. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:46.480 We believe that that really happened in history and that there's good evidence for it. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:48.559 Have a conversation about that. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:52.720 To be a Christian is to be a supernaturalist. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:55.039 We believe that miracles are true. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:56.799 We believe that that's rational. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:06.559 Because if there's a lawmaker who stands behind the laws of the universe and who has both the power and prerogative to tinker with those laws, then that's what a miracle is. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:11.279 A miracle is a tinkering with the laws of nature by the one who made them. 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:12.399 Do you see? 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:14.480 We are supernaturalists. 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:19.759 There are forces and beings outside of our field of vision. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:27.279 And one of the things that Paul is encouraging and comforting us with is that Jesus is Lord over them. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:31.200 There is a warning and an admonition there not to worship them. 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.320 But that thing that scares you. 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:43.039 It is under the control of the Creator. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:50.960 It is under the command of the one who says, Do not be afraid. 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:55.600 Third of our eight. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:57.840 Again, we continue on. 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:04.639 Verse 17, and he is before all things, and in him all things altogether. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:06.559 No, sorry, that's not the wrong one. 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:07.279 That's not the one. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:08.480 Uh, end of verse 16. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:09.679 It's been a long day already. 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:16.399 Um, after the little hyphen there, all things were created through him and for him. 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:22.879 That he is not only the agent of creation, Jesus is the goal of creation. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:30.000 And this is what I think Paul means when he describes Jesus in verse 15 as the firstborn of creation. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:40.799 Our uh Jehovah's Witness friends or our uh or our Muslim friends say, aha, look, he's a created being, the firstborn of creation. 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:43.200 He's not divine. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:48.720 Well, no, verse 18, verse 19 rather will directly contradict that. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:58.399 What rather I think Paul means when he says that he is the firstborn is that he is the heir, he is the one who will inherit all of creation. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.159 Because that's what the firstborn did in the ancient world. 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.599 All things were made for him. 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:25.119 God the Father so loves the Son that the world was made, so that all might behold and revel in that love. 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:31.440 God so loves the Son that the world might share in that joy. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:42.319 God so loves the Son that He has given those who trust in Jesus as a love gift to his Son. 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:45.599 All things were made for him. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:53.039 He is the goal, the end point, the apex of this world. 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:58.960 And then the verse that I accidentally read that he is before all things. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:12.640 Yes, this means in in terms of time, he is the eternal one, that that eternal divine logos, that that word who exists in eternity. 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:14.319 And that is necessarily true. 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:21.839 Again, that is a rational, reasonable uh way of describing God. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:30.640 It's kind of what it means to be God, is what Aristotle called the the unmoved mover, the uncaused cause. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:34.240 If you don't believe in that, then you just kind of get an infinite regression, right? 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:35.839 Well, uh, who made the God, who made the God? 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:37.839 Well, who made the God, who made the God, who made the God, who made the God? 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:39.279 You know, you just keep on coming back. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:44.319 There has to be a point where there has to be a bottom to that, a kind of philosophical rational bottom. 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:51.920 And the rational bottom, Aristotle said, is that God is the uncaused cause, the cause of all things who is not himself caused. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:56.160 And Paul is saying that the man, Jesus Christ, is that. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:00.480 He was before all things. 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:05.039 He is the unmoved mover, the uncaused cause. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:15.680 It means that he was before all things, both, yes, in terms of time, but also in terms of the fact that he is the highest pursuit. 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:21.599 He is the loftiest idea in all of philosophy. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:29.920 He is the most worthy, most worthy object of all art and music and poetry. 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:35.119 He is our greatest pleasure. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:40.319 He is the most worthy pursuit of our life. 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:42.720 He is before all things. 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:51.519 And in him, second half of verse 17, in him all things hold together. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:58.079 The man Christ Jesus perpetually sustains the universe. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:08.640 The man Christ Jesus keeps your atoms from flying apart. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.400 He grants you every breath. 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:22.400 If that's not kind of mind-boggling enough. 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:27.839 That's also true at the cross. 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:33.039 That's also true on Good Friday. 00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:47.200 That on Good Friday, as Roman soldiers were paying him mock homage, scourging his back. 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:54.400 Ramming thorn and nail into flesh. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:58.720 He was allowing them to live. 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:03.920 He was keeping them in being. 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:06.720 He was granting them breath. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:10.480 Causing synapses to fire. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:16.720 He kept them in being. 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:58.400 Those who have no desire to consider to consider Christ. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:05.519 I have no desire to follow him or to be here. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:10.960 He's graciously keeping them alive. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:14.559 How remarkable. 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:21.440 Verse 18 continues. 00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:24.559 This is the if you want to know where we're at. 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:26.480 One, two, three, four, five. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.200 This is six of eight. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:31.440 He is the head of the church. 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:32.319 Do you see that? 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:33.200 Verse 18. 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:39.359 He is the head of the body that is the church. 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:49.839 It would be wrong-headed of us to think of uh to think of the church as uh uh, well, certainly not as a physical edifice, bricks and mortar. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:55.119 Uh that's not that's not the church, it's a church building, that's a building in which the church meets, okay? 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:00.720 Uh because the church is not a is not an organization or an institution, it is an organism. 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:15.599 It is a collection of uh of people that comprise the church, specifically those who uh are trusting in, putting their faith in, following, and who love the Lord Jesus. 00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:24.079 You hear people uh say things like, I love Jesus, but I don't really have any time for the church. 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:27.920 I love Jesus, but I don't really love the church. 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:32.000 And on one level, depending on what they mean by that, you can kind of understand it, right? 00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:40.480 You mean the church and the church in our land uh has not had the uh, let's say, the best reputation. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:44.160 Certainly, not the church is as as institution. 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:49.519 It's not covered itself in glory, to say the least. 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:54.000 And so you can understand why people might come out with something like that. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:06.880 But if we understand the church as the collection of faithful people, that is, people who have put their faith in Jesus, then actually it doesn't make sense. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:10.400 It's to say I love Jesus, but I don't really love his body. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:18.160 Or to put it another way, it's to say, I love Jesus, but I don't really love what he loved. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:22.720 Because he loved the church and gave himself up for her. 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:25.200 The church is his bride. 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:44.400 Such that Jesus is intimately connected with his church, he is not detached from it, it is part of him. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:56.799 And so Paul, who wrote this letter before he became a Christian, was on his on his way persecuting Christians, locking them up, putting them to death, having them stoned like Stephen. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:04.559 And Jesus, when he apprehends him, could look to him and say, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:09.759 Not why are you persecuting my followers, not why are you persecuting my church? 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:12.319 It's why, Paul, are you persecuting me? 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:18.319 So close is how Jesus identifies with us in our persecution. 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:46.160 What great news that is for our persecuted brothers and sisters across the world, in Nigeria, in Orissa, in India, in China, in Korea, Cambodia. 00:25:49.279 --> 00:26:03.039 The Christ is not far, not far from those brothers and sisters, not far from those who languish in forgotten cells. 00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:07.359 He is the head of the body of the church. 00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:12.799 And so, by implication, we love the church because we love Jesus. 00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:19.680 We love being committed to one another because we love Jesus. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:24.400 We love serving one another because we love Jesus. 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:43.599 We love speaking the truth to one another because we love Jesus, we love encouraging one another, building one another up, making that extra effort to be here, to be at communicate, because we love Jesus and we love being part of his body, that expression of his body that means here. 00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:51.920 To love Jesus is to love the church. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:26:59.680 That same verse continues on in the second sentence. 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:00.960 He is the beginning. 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:11.519 The firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent or supreme. 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:15.440 He is the beginning of what? 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:20.799 Well, we saw that he was the active agent in creation, but he is the beginning of something else. 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:31.279 He is the beginning of a new creation, of a new existence, of a new heaven and a new earth. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:33.519 And how do we know? 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:36.559 Because of his resurrection from the dead. 00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:41.839 Christianity really does rise or fall on Jesus' resurrection from the dead. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:52.799 If it didn't happen, then all of the hope is gone from Christianity. 00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:58.640 But because Jesus has been raised from the dead, and he is the firstborn, what does the firstborn do? 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.759 The firstborn assures us of more to come. 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:11.759 He gives you assurance that just as Jesus died, you will die, and just as he rose again, you will rise in him on that last day. 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:13.680 And it's not a metaphor. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:20.319 It is a physical, existential, eternal reality. 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:26.720 But that's not just something to look forward to, that's actually something to place your hope in now. 00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:32.319 A hope of renewal. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:36.559 A hope of restoration. 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:39.920 A hope of reunion. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:53.119 Hope for a day when the Lord will make all things new, and mourning and pain and crying will be counted amongst the former things. 00:28:53.359 --> 00:29:00.559 The resurrection lifts our gaze to that and gives us hope. 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:04.240 And that's such good news. 00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:05.599 Do you know why? 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:12.000 Because outside of faith in Jesus, the things that we hope in tend to be circumstances. 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:17.119 We tend to put our hope in a circumstance. 00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:23.839 Relationship, career, bank balance. 00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:30.000 The problem with that is that all of those things are changeable. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:33.200 Certainly in an ultimate sense. 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:38.799 The one who you love will die. 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:42.319 Have a great day. 00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:45.599 Do you know what I mean? 00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:54.960 If you want a royal are going to get married next month, and one of the things that you will say, until death do us part, one of you will die. 00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:02.400 Not in, you know, not in the short term, but that circumstance will change. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:10.880 If your hope is in the other person, then your hope dies too. 00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:18.799 And when hope is dead, you're really in a tough spot then. 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:28.960 But if your hope is not based in a circumstance that is changeable, but on a person who is eternal, then hope can never fade. 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:35.440 Spoke in this last service on the last service at 10 o'clock. 00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:42.400 With someone who has gone through the ringer a little bit over the last couple of weeks. 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.720 And yet they were saying about how they can still rejoice. 00:30:47.839 --> 00:30:49.920 How they can still have hope. 00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:54.720 Not because of the circumstances that they find themselves in, because they're painful. 00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:01.440 But because the gospel gives them a hope that is imperishable. 00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:05.359 Kept in heaven for us. 00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:17.759 And if Paul in verse 19, it's almost as though he wanted to disabuse us of any other notions that we might have about Jesus. 00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:22.240 This is the final one before we look at his work, and there's only one point there. 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:27.359 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. 00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:30.880 How divine is Jesus? 00:31:32.079 --> 00:31:32.799 Fully. 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:38.640 The fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him. 00:31:39.279 --> 00:31:42.319 There is no rivalry between Father, Son, and Spirit. 00:31:42.400 --> 00:31:48.240 The Father was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son. 00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:54.240 He is not a lesser God, a demigod, a philosopher or sage. 00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:58.319 He is not merely a moral teacher, he is fully God. 00:32:00.079 --> 00:32:09.519 And the glory and the beauty of that phrase in the book of Colossians only really comes into the four in the second chapter. 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:11.359 And I'll give you a little insight into it. 00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:17.599 Because one of the things that the Colossians were wondering, and maybe you're wondering, is is this it? 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:20.640 Is this Jesus it? 00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:22.559 Is there any more? 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:25.519 Is there more that I have to do? 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:28.720 Can I have Jesus in a little bit of that? 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:33.200 Is Jesus sufficient for my flourishing? 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:36.720 Is he sufficient for my life and happiness? 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:40.960 That's all the sorts of things that the Colossians were wondering. 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:46.480 And Paul says here in verse 19 that all of God was in Jesus. 00:32:47.039 --> 00:32:51.599 All that is in God, you have seen in the person of Jesus. 00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:58.720 And then in the second chapter, he'd say, and you are united to him by faith. 00:32:59.119 --> 00:33:01.039 You are in him. 00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:07.759 And so all of that fullness of God, you have access to it by faith in him. 00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:14.720 You, Christian, if you are trusting in Jesus, you lack nothing. 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:22.240 God has withheld no good thing from you. 00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:27.839 And I don't mean that in a material sense, because perhaps some of you are struggling materially. 00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:35.119 Or in a relational sense, because perhaps some of you are longing for a relationship. 00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:44.640 But if you see that you are in Christ and Christ is in God, can you not see that you lack no good thing? 00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:58.799 The greatest benefit of being a follower of Jesus is not that you get stuff like eternal life. 00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:04.000 It's that you get God. 00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:22.960 And finally, Paul switches in the final verses, and this is much quicker, to talk about his work. 00:34:23.199 --> 00:34:25.440 And how amazing, given what we've just looked at. 00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:33.760 This one who is fully divine, the image of God, the head of the church, the one who created all things, the one who is the goal of all things. 00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:36.719 What did that sort of person do? 00:34:38.880 --> 00:34:43.280 He reconciled all of humanity to himself. 00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:44.400 How? 00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:48.800 He did it by the blood of his cross. 00:34:52.800 --> 00:35:02.000 This Jesus who was fully divine made himself nothing, so that we could be at peace with God. 00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:04.239 And oh how we needed it. 00:35:04.960 --> 00:35:06.719 Verse 21, 22. 00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:13.679 What is our diagnosis, biblically speaking, outside of faith in Jesus? 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:17.599 We're alienated, cut off, wandering. 00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:18.800 Don't you feel it? 00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:20.559 Don't you feel it? 00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:23.360 Or remember it? 00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:36.559 That before you were a Christian, that restlessness, that looking for something that just was fleeting. 00:35:38.719 --> 00:35:39.840 Alienated. 00:35:40.159 --> 00:35:42.079 Doing evil and hostile. 00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:48.480 You see, it is not as though humanity lies cut off and neutral towards God. 00:35:48.559 --> 00:35:51.199 It's actually that we really don't want anything to do with Him. 00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:54.400 It's actually act of hostility. 00:35:56.639 --> 00:35:58.960 It's not just meh, I could take or leave Jesus. 00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:01.920 It's that no, I don't want him anything anywhere near my life. 00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:02.960 Thank you very much. 00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:04.239 I'm happy enough. 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:08.719 It's shaking our fist at the heavens. 00:36:13.679 --> 00:36:17.280 And what did Jesus do for us while we were in that state? 00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:32.880 He has reconciled us, verse 22, in his body of flesh, by his death, in order to present us, you, holy and blameless and above reproach before him. 00:36:33.760 --> 00:36:36.960 We are no longer alienated if we trust in Jesus. 00:36:37.119 --> 00:36:40.079 We're no longer alienated, we are reconciled. 00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:43.360 What a glorious thing reconciliation is. 00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:12.320 And so Paul says, Stay there. 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:15.679 Don't move from that. 00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:18.559 That's what you build your life on. 00:37:19.360 --> 00:37:22.000 That's where you center your hope. 00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:24.159 That's where you place your trust. 00:37:24.320 --> 00:37:25.360 Don't move on from that. 00:37:25.519 --> 00:37:28.079 There isn't, there isn't Jesus, you know, do bit of Jesus. 00:37:28.159 --> 00:37:32.079 Jesus will get me started on my spiritual walk, but then I'll move on to other things. 00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:34.639 I've matured beyond Jesus. 00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:35.440 No, no, no. 00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:42.880 Jesus said, Paul's saying, plant yourself there and put your roots deeper into Christ. 00:37:43.360 --> 00:37:45.199 Don't move from there. 00:37:46.719 --> 00:37:50.480 That is who Jesus is and what he has done from you. 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:58.880 Jesus satisfies all of the deepest longings of our hearts. 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.480 We crave beauty and transcendence. 00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:07.760 And in Jesus we see the face of God. 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:11.840 We crave intimacy. 00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:15.519 And Jesus has drawn close to us. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:18.639 He is God made flesh. 00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:21.760 We crave acceptance. 00:38:23.679 --> 00:38:25.760 Jesus has reconciled us to God. 00:38:26.719 --> 00:38:31.360 So that we are no longer alienated but adopted into his family. 00:38:35.599 --> 00:38:36.880 He is the locus. 00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:50.400 He is the focal point of real, satisfying, life-giving, joy-sustaining faith. 00:38:52.960 --> 00:39:09.519 Let us at the gateway to the year expand our horizons and to encourage one another with the full scope of who Jesus is.