One True Leader Over Life
Series: The Liberated Life (Colossians)
Brad Bailey – May 3, 2009
(NOTE: The following includes some sections in which a name precedes a section of thought. These were drawn from others and I have included their names to give credit. They were not quoted but rather simply used to capture a thought that may have been included in what was shared.)
Intro – Our ‘Authority Issue’
If I asked you if you have a leader in your life… I think a bit of reflection would allow many of us to realize that leadership is an issue we wrestle with. So many people who were in positions of authority… of control… of power… have disappointed us… or even deeply hurt us. As a result we may all have authority issues… and in part… for some good reason.
In a similar way…the very nature of deeming someone to be thought of as ‘superior’ is difficult.
We elevate some… but they usually don’t rule… and if so…we tend to think “Who do they think they are?”
But I believe what really lies within us is more of an ambivalence towards leadership… we actually long for that which can organize life… that which can set forth what is right… and HEROES who reveal something of a better way.
> Good news… is that there is one… who is both supreme over all other powers and is good.
It is the very reason that we worship God and the unique revelation of God in the person of Jesus.
It’s why we refer to our community as Christ-centered. And I realize that can also raise a challenge for some… who may wonder ‘Why are we so into Jesus? Why do we worship him in so many of our worship songs?’
As we continue in our series entitled “The Liberated Life”… we are going to engage the unique position that Christ holds over life… one which I believe that every soul is intended to know… and the has the very power to liberate us from lesser leaders.
This series is one of engaging what we call the Book of Colossians. It is one of the letters in the Scriptures from the apostle Paul… and ex-Jewish religious leader… now in prison…to one of the new gatherings of those who were coming to know Christ as the long awaited Messiah… the king not only of Israel… but of all.
As I said last week in our introduction… Paul’s letters are not just letters….but declarations and development of a subversive movement. The whole ministry of Jesus was a threat to the powers that be…. including both religious leaders… and Roman ruling leaders (beginning with King Herod.)
What is dangerous to the powers that have gained control… is when someone defies and renounces them. That is what Jesus did. That is what the ex-religious leader Paul did in following Jesus and teaching others. In this sense it is subversive.
In this next early part of the letter Paul declares how Christ is not only supreme… but uniquely supreme above all…. and he does so in the most profound and poetic of terms…
Colossians 1:15-23
The first way in which he notes the unique nature of Christ… is there in the first phrase…
Colossians 1:15 – “He is the image of the invisible God”
‘Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.’ (NLT)
1. Christ alone is the Supreme Revealer of God (vs. 15)
If the question is asked… ‘Who is God?’ or ‘What is God like?’…the answers may be rooted in some sort of human tradition… or unrooted in the human imagination. But what the Hebrew Scriptures testify to… is that of God who reveals Himself… His nature and will and ways.
Now for Paul as a Hebrew… this was what had initially been so powerful in the role of the Temple… and the function of the Torah. God was revealing Himself… in a place of meeting made possible by sacrifices… and in His Word made known and testified to in Scriptures. But it only prepared for the level of revealing that was going to fulfill as that preceded it.
The writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV), tells us:
‘In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.’ - Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV)
‘Previously Paul believed that it was the Tabernacle and Temple that displayed the glory of God. Now he attributes the same glory to the risen and exalted Christ who Paul witnessed on the road to Damascus. Just as a mirror gives a reflection of its image, the Son gives a revelation of the Father. The Image manifests and reveals what is hidden – it makes the invisible, visible. It is not a copy but is a projection of the real thing – Jesus expresses the reality of God. Since Jesus shares in the divine life he manifests the divine character. Jesus, as the Wisdom of God, reveals the Father whether Incarnate or not.’ - Michael Bird (SC)
God had a desire for us to enter into a relationship with Him, to get to know Him just as He is. So when the time was right, He gave us a perfect visible image that we could look at to reveal all of God’s character. The Bible talks about that image in John 1:14
‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’– John 1:14
Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, asked Jesus to show them God the Father. In response, Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
KIDS DISCUSSION - The relationship between God and Jesus is a natural point of confusion or at least one that naturally seeks some clarity. Every one of our children has asked questions trying to understand who we love and pray to … God or Jesus… and what their relationship is. It’s a great question. I’ve come to feel there is no better answer… than simply affirming that ‘Jesus came ‘to show us what God is like.’
There is certainly much that can be understood about God from all He has created… but that is like a whisper… and as one little girl said it… Jesus is God talking ‘out loud.’ In Jesus, we see God’s compassion — out loud. In Jesus, we feel God’s power — out loud. In Jesus, we experience God’s love – out loud. In Jesus, we get a sense of God’s personality — out loud.
This is so vital…
It is vital… because it is this incarnated revelation of God that frees us from the vanity of being lost worshipping our imaginations… imaginations that by their nature simply emanate from ourselves… or are fed by the various ruling powers of that seek to control us.
It is vital because it opens our souls to the grand wonder and worth of Jesus. The first reason that we should have for worshipping Jesus is because He has perfectly and completely revealed God to us so that we might enter into a relationship with Him.
It is also vital because when we must live with limited understanding… as finite creatures unable to fully understand the infinite… it gives us the most personal grasp of God’s nature.
Philip Yancey
“I must admit that Jesus has revised in flesh many of my harsh and unpalatable notions about God. Why am I a Christian? I sometimes ask myself, and to be perfectly honest the reasons reduce to two: (1) the lack of good alternatives, and (2) Jesus. Brilliant, untamed, tender, creative, slippery, irreducible, paradoxically humble--Jesus stands up to scrutiny. He is who I want my God to be. Martin Luther encouraged his students to flee the hidden God and run to Christ, and now I know why. If I use a magnifying glass to examine a fine painting, the object in the center of the glass stays crisp and clear, while around the edges the view grows increasingly distorted. For me, Jesus has become the focal point. When I speculate about such imponderables as the problem of pain or providence versus free will, everything becomes fuzzy. But if I look at Jesus himself, at how he treated actual people in pain, at his calls to free and diligent action, clarity is restored.
-Philip Yancey, "The Jesus I Never Knew"
INCARNATION: ALL IDEAS ABOUT GOD MUST NOW LINE UP WITH CHRIST
It has been noted that in the light of the New Testament, the remarkable truth is not so much that Jesus is Godlike, but rather that God is actually Christlike. (God is Christlike and in Him is no un-Christlikeness at all). In the light of the New Testament revelation, all who would wish to know who God is and what he is like, need look no further than the person of Jesus (John 1:18, 14:9). From now on, all true perspectives of God must pass through the very particular lens of the man called Jesus of Nazareth. From our perspective as human beings Jesus becomes the reference point for all genuine knowing, all true loving, and all authentic following of God.
- The Shape of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, p. 37
2. Christ alone is the Supreme Ruler over all creation (VS. 15-17)
15b (He is) the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Agent in creation… in some way the mediating agent in all of creation
> Christ alone is the Supreme Ruler over all creation
Paul here begins describing the relationship between the Christ who became incarnate… and the Christ who has always existed as God the Son… eternally.
Naturally it is hard to describe the infinite in finite words. Verse 15 in most translations says He is the ‘firstborn’. Some have confused people by saying that this proves that Jesus was not divine. But the whole point Paul is making is that he is indeed both divine and divinely reigns over all. He is obviously not a part of he created order himself because he existed before it and was in some way the very One who brought it all to be.
The simple truth is that firstborn can refer to a chronological fact… but also firstborn can refer to the position one holds in their rights and inheritance.
Chris Talton (SC)
‘Think about what you know of Hebrew (Jewish) society of which Paul, the writer of Colossians was a part. What did it mean to be the “firstborn”? It usually did refer to the physical fact that the firstborn child was the child who was the first to be born in the family.
But it had a whole lot less to do with timing than it had to do with position and importance within the family structure.
This was especially true if the physical first born was a girl. She would have never been referred to with the title “firstborn” because of the role that the firstborn was to serve in. Upon the death of his father, the firstborn was to become the leader or ruler of the family. He would make all the decisions for the family. He would become the head of the family. And he would also inherit a double-share of the father’s wealth. It was a place of preeminence.
It was also a place that could be lost due to sin or bad decisions.
Take the story of Jacob and Esau for example. Esau was actually the physical firstborn in the family. But he made some bad decisions in his life and sold his birthright – his right to rule the family – for a pot of stew. When their father, Isaac, died, Jacob the second born took over the rule of the family because he held the title “firstborn” (Gen. 27:29,37).
> By referring to Jesus with the title “firstborn”, Paul is saying that Jesus is the ruler of all creation. That is why the NIV translators chose to use the word “over”. Jesus has the authority or the right to rule all that exists.
He creates ‘everything’…‘all things’. The Greek uses an article (the) and it denotes “the totality of things”. This includes more than merely the material universe around us: more than stars, galaxies, superstars, planets, and solar systems, or even trees, grass, mountains and seas. It include all forces. Electricity, radiation, magnetism. It encompasses every realm, every sphere, every bastion, border, every dimension and domain.
Verse 16 –‘He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.’
Some have emphasized the powers held in the spiritual realms… such as angels, … and the pagans religions… held people obsessed with fate and superstition.
This is good and liberating news for the religiously oppressed… for Christ is above all spiritual powers… whether angels, astrology, and avatars.
Others have emphasized the political and economic powers that rule human lives. As N.T. Wright states, there is a legitimate connection, ‘for Paul the spiritual and earthly rulers were not sharply distinguished.’ (Tyndale NT Commentary, p. 72)
This is good and liberating news for the politically oppressed… for Christ is above all earthly powers.
Michael Bird (SC)
‘Paul then re-emphasises the fact of Christ is the Creator. All things were created Through Him and For Him. Jesus is agent through whom the Father creates the universe. Irenaeus said that Jesus is the Glove that the Father puts on when he creates the world. Even more amazing with no parallel in Jewish literature is that the universe was created For Him. Jesus is the starting point of creation and its goal. He is truly the Alpha and Omega. Jesus was not ‘Plan B’. The purpose of history and creation is for the Revelation and Glorification of Christ.
Sustainer of all things
He is the sustaining force that holds all things together. He is the unifying principle, the cosmic glue, that prevents the cosmos from degenerating into primeval chaos. And on a personal level, he is the one who holds many broken lives together as well.
Verse 17 – ‘He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.’
Albert Einstein dreamed of finding a single theory that would embrace all of nature’s laws. But in his quest for this unified theory, Einstein came up empty-handed. Others followed and pursued what has come to be known as the Theory of Everything, seeking to define all the laws of the universe in one theory. The British Scientist Stephen Hawking says, “The eventual goal of Science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe”.
Proponents of the theory of everything see the universe as a grand cosmic symphony.
If the universe is a grand cosmic symphony, who’s writing the music?
Science is rooted in a belief that there is order. Whatever order there is always presumes a more ultimate order… a more fundamental source of order. Paul says that source is personal in nature… a Creator who bears order and meaning. Order has come forth by the speaking forth… the directed intent… of God… and that Word is the living and pre-existent Christ.
In this truth lies what penetrates the false dualism separates spirit and matter as simply opposites. Rather Christ is a connection between the divine rule over all. In Him we have not merely an enlightened example to follow who reveals how to find spiritual reality in a detached impersonal undifferentiated existence… but rather the one who connects time and eternity… body and spirit… and personal existence with a personal God.
3. Christ is the Supreme Restorer of Life (vs. 18-22)
18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Christ alone has reconciled creation and Creator… and he becomes the leader of a new recreation. Whereas the first part of this text declared how Christ was the Lord of creation, i.e. the material universe, and all forces at work within it. We are now directed to see that Christ is Lord of the new creation, the new humanity.
Christ is the Supreme Restorer of Life
Verse 19 -20 “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
There is no one else who bears the potential to reconcile God and humanity… for he alone is both ruler of creation and then submits himself to the created condition in order to defeat the rebellious grip that holds it… through his surrender… and sacrifice.
And out of this reconciliation… comes a new recreated life… of which he is ‘the firstborn from among the dead.’ (vs. 18)
Ray Stedman –
‘The resurrection of Jesus is the only resurrection that has ever occurred on this earth. Lazarus, and all the others who came back from the dead, were simply resuscitated: they came back to the same life they had left. We may even feel a bit sorry for them because they had to come back to take it up again. But Jesus was truly resurrected. He was given a glorified life: he came from the grave at a far higher level than he went in. He returned in a glorified body, subject to different laws and governed by different principles.
It also implies (as it did in verse 15)…’the owner, possessor, of the new creation. He is the One who alone possesses the resurrection life that he gives to each of us. That is what John is saying in
1 John 5:11-13 (NIV)
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 (NIV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Something new has begun… and we become a part of it’s expansion. That is what the church truly is.
Verse 18 – ‘And he is the head of the body, the church’
The church is the embodiment of a new creation that began in Christ.
It is so important that we hear this… and begin to allow our understanding of what the church is begin to change… and be transformed. It is the beginning of a new created order… because and to the degree that it bears the life of the resurrected Christ within it… and within it’s members.
There are so many reasons that might be obscured… so many ways we may fail to bear the life of Christ within us… but it still does and it will prevail.
More than an organization… it is an organism.
More than an institution… it is the incarnation of Christ within new beings and bodies.
More than a place for the flawed and fearful to wait for a better future… it is the starting place of a new and eternal created order.
This all relies upon Christ as the only restorer of life. He is the ‘head of the body.’ Paul is making a very simply way of understanding how we live as part of the new creation.
Stedman – ‘If you stand in front of a mirror you will notice, I hope, that there are two divisions of the body. The knob up on top, with more or less hair, we call the head. It is the control center of the body. The rest of the body, with its appendages of arms and legs, etc., is all part of the trunk. That is a body---and the head runs the body!’
We all know that both as a collective… and as individuals… we can become like that which has ‘lost it’s head’ We can become as crazed as a chicken with it’s head cut off… not a great condition.
The more that Christ is embodied … the more that the church flows and reveals the new and subversive movement that Christ began. The more that we as individuals allow him to rule and reign within us… the more that we become a light to others.
Closing:
Christ, is not merely someone who lived and died and of whom we read and learn - He is someone who, because of His resurrection is alive forevermore and whom we meet and experience! In His resurrection, Jesus, the Christ, has shown that He has conquered every opposing power; and, that there is nothing in life or death that can bind Him!
All the authority issues in the world will not stop the reality that only one lies behind the created order … and it is not any earthly king… nor religious rule… nor spiritual principle… it is He who bore our shame and separation with his humility… suffered for our sins with his sacrifice… proved more powerful than any power ever raised up… with His rule… showed that not might but love is the ultimate power that prevails.
There is simply no one else who intersects our existence in the way that Jesus the Christ has.
No other figure has ever been the fulfillment of historical prophecies that are fulfilled in him alone.
No one else who fulfilled prophecies of suffering and then being raised to glory… of being executed in profound innocence… and then rising from the dead as a declaration of his greater power.
No one else whose teachings radically transformed the way human beings live and love… ways of truth and equality and mercy.
No one else who stands so unique that every system of religious and spiritual belief have sought to connect to him or integrate him.
We stop treating him like the ceremonial royalty of England or similar nations… where they honored with lots of pomp but all real power is now taken up by the politicians and parliament.
Let us embrace that One is supreme.. one and only one who truly reigns. One and only one who is good.
Resources:
N.T. Wright, Tyndale New Testament Commentary (Colossians and Philemon)
Colossians Remixed by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmant
Sermons on this text by Michael Bird and Chris Talton (From Sermon Central)
Ray Stedman sermon ‘The Reason For The Season’
