Jesus Is King Of A Different Kingdom

11.20.19 Colossians 1:13-20

13 The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, 16 for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and all things hold together in him. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might have the highest rank. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself (whether things on earth or in heaven) by making peace through the blood of his cross.

You enter a sports stadium and all you see around you are banners and pictures of the team and its heroes. Go to Michigan State and you see Magic. People are wearing jerseys and buying food with team emblems on them. Everything screams of the team. It’s sometimes referred to as “my house.” It’s different but kind of similar when you think about going to a presidential library. The name is on the front of the library with pictures, busts, and quotes throughout the library. The house is built around the one person instead of one team.

In today’s text, on this Christ the King Sunday, God talks about a much bigger house that is built by One Person, by Jesus: in the house of creation. Paul writes, in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and all things hold together in him. The adverbs are all inclusive: all things are created THROUGH him and FOR him and IN him.

All things come THROUGH him - He created them all, so His signature is on everything. Walk into a Frank Lloyd Wright home - you can tell by the design that it is obviously his. The same goes with Creation.

But that’s not the end of it by far. Paul says that ALL hold together IN him. That means that nothing could exist or would exist if Jesus didn’t give it the power to live or design it to live that way. He is the divine glue which keeps everything sticking together as much as it does. He can be nothing less than divine.

Think also of the little word FOR. All things are FOR him. You might compare him to the lake at the bottom of the mountain in which all of the rivers are designed to flow to, but also the One at the top of the mountain from which the rivers all flow from. He wants the fish, the birds, the music, the work, the laughter, marriage, children, sports, all to flow back to HIM and to be used to glorify HIM. So Jesus preached about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field to point back to HIS providence.

Paul, who wrote to the Colossians, also said to the men of Athens in Acts 17

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

God designed this world so that people will see there is a designer and try to figure out who He actually is. I think of how for many years the Aztecs had many different drawings on their walls, and it all seemed to have a certain design to it, but nobody could figure out what the designs actually said, until someone was able to break the code. A librarian finally broke the code between 1880 and 1890. Now it is clear what these codices are actually saying. So also God the Father wants people to see who the Son is and bow before Him as their Lord and Savior.

We couldn’t figure out the code because God’s Word says that we were too buried within its own darkness of sin and unbelief. So God had to come to the rescue. Paul explained that this is what God the Father did for Paul and the Colossians. The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.