From his hospital bed on the eve of open heart surgery, Pastor Bruce McIver asked his cardiologist, Dr. Dudley Johnson, “Can you fix my heart?”
The physician, known for being short and to the point, said, “Sure.” Then he quickly turned and walked away.
Following the 12-hour surgery, McIver asked Johnson, “In light of the blocked arteries that I had when I checked into the hospital, how much blood supply do I now have?”
“All you’ll ever need,” replied the terse surgeon, who again ended the conversation by walking away.
Upon his discharge from the hospital, McIver’s wife, Lawanna, asked the doctor, “What about my husband’s future quality of life?”
Johnson paused and then said, “I fixed his heart; the quality of his life is up to him.” (Bruce McIver, “Stories I Couldn’t Tell While I Was a Pastor,” Guideposts, 1991, p. 244-247)
When we came to faith in Christ, Jesus fixed our hearts. He gave us the capacity for a full life, but the quality of our lives is up to us. It really is! So what do we do to enjoy a high quality of life? How do we experience the abundant, full life that Jesus designed for us to live?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Colossians 1, Colossians 1, where the Bible shows us how to enjoy the fullness of life in the fullness of Christ.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (NIV)
If we’re going to experience a full life, then 1st of all we must…
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS IS LORD OF CREATION.
We must recognize that as the creator God, Jesus has the first place over all that He has made. The Bible is very clear here. Jesus is God. “He is the image the invisible God.”
When you look at a penny, you see President Lincoln’s image imprinted on that coin. Well, that’s the way it is when you look at Christ. You see God’s image imprinted on Him. In other words, Jesus makes the invisible God visible. He shows us what the invisible God looks like.
John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.” And Jesus Himself said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
(illus.) One of early church fathers in the third century (Origen) had a great analogy. He told of a village with a huge statue – so immense no one could see who it was supposed to represent. Finally, someone miniaturized the statue so people could see the person it honored. Origen said, “That is what God did in his Son.” Christ is the self-miniaturization of God, the visible icon or “image of the invisible God” to use the language of Colossians 1:15. (Dale Bruner, “Is Jesus Inclusive or Exclusive?” Theology, News, and Notes of Fuller Seminary, Oct. 1999, p.4; www.PreachingToday.com)
In other words, Jesus is the visible God, showing us what the invisible God looks like. And as such, He has the first place over all creation. He is in charge of it all! That’s what verse15 means when it says, “He is…the firstborn over all creation.”
This is not to say that Jesus was the first created in sequence, no! Rather, Jesus IS the first in status. The word “firstborn” speaks of a person’s status within the family, not the sequence of his birth. It speaks of the primary heir in the family, i.e., the one who would lead the family.
There are plenty of instances in the Bible where the one who was born first did not become the primary heir and the head of the family. For example, Abraham’s son, Ishmael, was born first, but Isaac, his younger brother, became the primary heir. Isaac’s son, Esau, was born first, but Jacob, his younger brother, became the primary heir. And Jacob’s son, Reuben, was born first, but Joseph, the one born next to last in the family of 12 children became the primary heir.
And on I could go throughout the Old Testament. The one who was born first does not necessarily have the title, “firstborn.” That is to say he was not necessarily the primary heir or the head of the family.
So when Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation, it does NOT mean that he was the first created; rather, it means that He is the head of all creation, the primary heir of it all.
Jesus is God. He is the Lord of creation, because He Himself created it all. Everything was created by him, through him and for him.
Colossians 1:16 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 – better THROUGH him – and for him. (NIV)
Jesus made everything there is, material and immaterial, visible and invisible. He even made all of the angels, the various powers and authorities in the spirit world. And Jesus is the first cause, the instrumental cause and the final cause of all creation. He is its origin, the means by which it came into existence, and its purpose. Everything was created BY Him, THROUGH Him, and FOR Him. Jesus is the creator God!
In William Steig’s children’s book, Yellow & Pink, two wooden figures wake up to find themselves lying on an old newspaper in the hot sun. One figure is painted yellow, the other pink. (Show picture of Steig’s book cover, Yellow & Pink)
Suddenly, Yellow sits up and asks, “Do you know what we’re doing here?” So the two marionettes begin to debate the origin of their existence. Pink surveys their well-formed features and concludes, “Someone must have made us.”
Yellow disagrees. “I say we’re an accident,” and he outlines a hypothetical scenario of how it might have happened. A branch might have broken off a tree and fallen on a sharp rock, splitting one end of the branch into two legs. Then the wind might have sent it tumbling down a hill until it was chipped and shaped. Perhaps a flash of lightning struck in such a way as to splinter the wood into arms and fingers. Eyes might have been formed by woodpeckers boring in the wood.
“With enough time,” Yellow says, “a thousand, a million, maybe two and a half million years, lots of unusual things could happen. Why not us?”
The two figures argue back and forth.
Then a man comes out of a nearby house, strolls over to the marionettes, picks them up and checks their paint. “Nice and dry,” he says, tucks them under his arm, and goes back toward the house.
Peering out from under the man’s arm, Yellow whispers in Pink’s ear, “Who is this guy?” (Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live?, Tyndale House, 1999, p. 97; www.PreachingToday.com)
I think that’s going to be the reaction of many when Jesus, our creator, shows up to judge our readiness for heaven: “Who is this guy?” they’re going to say. Well, “this guy” happens to be our Creator, not accidental chance.
You see, the prevailing world view of many is this: given enough time and chance, life on earth could have just happened without God’s intervention. In other words, “time + chance = life.” That’s what’s being taught in all our public schools today, and that’s what a lot of people believe. In fact, some researchers at the British Council of the Arts tried to provide an example of this “time + chance = life” theory with a well-known experiment that posed the following question: How long would it take for an infinite number of monkeys pounding on an infinite number of typewriters to compose a sonnet by Shakespeare?
Ravi Zacharias describes the experiment: A computer was placed in a cage with six monkeys, and after one month of hammering away at the keys… the monkeys produced fifty typed pages – but not one single word. This is absolutely amazing when you consider that the shortest word in English is only one letter, the indefinite pronoun “a”, or the personal pronoun “I.” Oh, there were plenty of a’s and I’s on those 50 pages, but not a single one with a space on either side.
Now, if these attempts could not even result in a one one-letter word, what is the possibility of getting just the first line of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, let alone a whole sonnet?
The entire universe (which of course is infinitely more complex than a Shakespearian sonnet) couldn’t have just happened. You will never get a sonnet – or the entire works of Shakespeare, or the entire universe, for that matter – by just allowing enough time + chance. And yet, “Some people still contend that the monkeys can do it every time.” (Ravi Zacharias, Has Christianity Failed You?, Zondervan, 2010, pp. 52-53; www.PreacingToday.com)
My dear friends, chance is not your creator; Christ is! And that gives your life meaning and purpose, if you choose to accept it.
Jesus is God, and as such He is Lord of all; He is Creator of all; and He sustains it all. He holds it all together.
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (NIV)
Think about it, if every atom in our universe contains protons in its nucleus, what keeps those positively charged particles together when there are strong forces which cause them to repel each other? That’s what the scientists at Fermilab are trying to discover.
According to a July 2009 Parade magazine article, the scientists at Fermilab are searching for what they have nicknamed “the God particle.” They believe that there is a special subatomic particle that allows all of the other particles in the universe to have mass and come together to form everything that is around us. According to one Fermilab scientist, without these so-called God particles… “atoms would have no integrity, so there would be no chemical bonding, no stable structures – no liquids or solids – and, of course, no physicists and no reporters.” (Stephen Ford, “The Race for the Secret of the Universe,” Parade magazine, 7-26-09, p.4; www.PreachingToday.com)
Well, the Bible tells us what that “God particle” is right here in Colossians 1:17. Only it is not a particle; He’s a person. JESUS holds everything together; and He is not about to let go, or else it would all go flying apart. Those positively charged protons in every atom would repel each other (show picture of atomic bomb explosion), and life as we know it would cease to exist.
Now, there is coming a day when Jesus will let go of His creation. 2 Peter warns us, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be [burned up]” (2 Peter 3:10). There will be a massive nuclear explosion, as the protons in every atom go flying apart, destroying the entire universe. (remove picture)
But until then, Jesus holds it all together. That means that Jesus holds you, the one He created for Himself. And that’s what gives our lives meaning and purpose if we choose to accept it. If we want to live the full and abundant life that Jesus designed us to live, then 1st of all, we must acknowledge that He is Lord of creation. More than that…
WE MUST ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS IS LORD OF THE CHURCH.
We must recognize that Jesus has the first place not only over all creation, but also over all His new creation, the body of believers that He is in the process of changing forever into His likeness.
Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church – i.e., He is its source and its leader. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
There’s that word “firstborn” again. This does not mean Jesus was the first one raised from the dead; He wasn’t. Before He died and rose again, Jesus raised a widow’s son from the dead in the town of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus also raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11).
No, Jesus was not the first one raised from the dead. Rather, He is the Lord of all those who will be raised from the dead – i.e., the company of believers that make up His church. Christ is the source of the church. He is sovereign over the church, so that He might be supreme over the church.
You see, Christ is not content just to have a part of our lives. He is not impressed when we as believers give him just one hour a week at worship. And Jesus doesn’t even want prominent part of our lives. Let’s say we give him a whole day every week or maybe an hour or two every day. No, that is not what Jesus wants.
Rather, Jesus wants the supremacy, the pre-eminence in every part of our lives. When we go to work on Monday, we work for Him, not our boss or ourselves. When we take care of our families, we do it for Him, not them. Even when we have fun, He is the One we seek to honor. Everything we do is ALL for His glory and for HIS pleasure. Jesus is Lord of the church. He is Lord of every believer, and the sooner we recognize that, the better our lives will be.
Matt Woodley, in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, talks about playing in a men’s softball league years ago when an umpire made a call that that enraged his coach. As it turned out, the coach didn’t agree with the ump’s interpretation of a specific league rule. So the game stopped as they engaged in a heated discussion. Finally, the ump sighed as he pulled a rulebook from his back pocket and proceeded to read page 27, paragraph 3b, section 1.
“As you can clearly see,” the ump said, “this rule means that my call must stand.” But the coach was unconvinced. He yelled at the ump, “But you’re not interpreting that rule correctly.” To which the ump replied, “Uh, excuse me, I think I should know: I wrote the rulebook.”
After an awkward silence, the coach walked back to the bench, shaking his head and pointing to the ref as he told his team, “Get ahold of that guy. He wrote the rulebook!” (Matt Woodley, The Gospel of Matthew: God With Us, InterVarsity Press, 2011, pp. 68-69; www.PreachingToday.com)
You see, Jesus not only enforces the rules; He wrote the rules. And the sooner we accept that, the more fun we’ll have playing this game called “life.” Quit arguing with the Lord and so get stalled out in life. Instead, just do what He says and you’ll discover that life is full of meaning and purpose, because that is what He designed it to be.
Jesus is Lord of the church. That is to say He is Lord of every believer, because He reconciled every believer to Himself. Through His death on the cross, He made it possible for everyone to be in right relationship with God. We who were once enemies of God can now be His friends because Christ shed His blood for us.
Colossians 1:19-20 For 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. (NIV)
Jesus, who is fully God, died on a cross for our sins so we could be reconciled to Him.
Colossians 1:21-22 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 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. (NIV)
You see, the false teachers in Colosse were teaching that people could get closer to God through the worship of angels by obeying certain rules and regulations, but they could never promise total and complete reconciliation. That’s because we could never make ourselves good enough for God
On the other hand, Christ can! Christ alone can provide total and complete reconciliation. Christ alone can turn enemies of God into those who are special to Him – holy in His sight. Christ alone can turn sinners into those who are spotless or unblemished in God’s sight. And Christ alone can turn guilty criminals into innocent citizens who are free of all charges. This is not our work. This is the work of Christ in us when we put our trust in Him.
When the Gospel first came to the Alaskan Thlinkit and Sitka Indians in 1879, they accepted it right away. John Muir, the famous explorer and naturalist, after whom Muir Woods in California is named, tells why in his book Travels in Alaska, published in 1915. This is the story he tells:
Soon before the Christian missionaries arrived in Alaska, there was a bitter war between the Thlinkit and Sitka tribes. They were all great fighters and pretty evenly matched. So they fought all summer, sometimes under cover, sometimes in the open, watching for every chance to fire a shot. It got so bad that none of the women dared venture outside to the salmon-streams or berry-fields to get their winter stock of food. As the winter approached, one of the Thlinkit chiefs came out of his block-house fort into an open space midway between their fortified camps. He shouted that he wished to speak to the leader of the Sitkas.
When the Sitka chief appeared, the Thlinkit chief said: “My people are hungry. They dare not go to the salmon-streams or berry-fields for winter supplies, and if this war goes on much longer most of my people will die of hunger. We have fought long enough; let us make peace. You brave Sitka warriors go home, and we will go home, and we will all set out to dry salmon and berries before it is too late.”
The Sitka chief replied: “You may well say let us stop fighting, when you have had the best of it. You have killed ten more of my tribe than we have killed of yours. Give us ten Thlinkit warriors to balance our blood-account; then, and not till then, will we make peace and go home.”
“Very well,” replied the Thlinkit chief, “you know my rank. You know that I am worth 10 men and more. Take me, and make peace.”
The Sitka chief promptly accepted the offer. The Thlinkit chief stepped forward and was shot down in front of the warriors on both sides. Peace was thus established, and everyone hurried home to gather their supplies for the winter.
That Thlinkit chief literally gave himself as a sacrifice for his people. He died that they might live. Therefore, when missionaries came to Alaska telling how Jesus died that we might live, they had no trouble accepting it. They knew that they had sinned against a holy God. They knew that they were at war with Him, so when they heard that Jesus, the Chief of all chiefs, the Maker of all the world, gave His life to balance our blood-account with God, many of them put their trust in Christ and began to follow Him as their chief. (John Muir, Travels in Alaska, Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1915, p. 197; www.PreachingToday.com)
My friends, that’s the only way to live the full and abundant life Jesus wants us to live. We must acknowledge that Jesus is Lord of all creation. We must acknowledge that Jesus is Lord of His new creation, the church. And we must personally…
TRUST HIM TO BE OUR LORD.
We must trust Him to have the first place, the preeminence, the supremacy in our own lives. Colossians 1 says, you experience full and complete reconciliation…
Colossians 1:23 “if you continue in your faith” – or more literally, SINCE INDEED you remain in the faith.
There is no doubt here. Our reconciliation with God is not a question of “if.” It is a sure thing because of what Christ has done for us. All we need to do is trust Him with our lives, and the moment we do, He establishes us in the faith. That’s what the rest of the verse goes on to say.
Colossians 1:23 [Since INDEED] you remain in the 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. (NIV)
The gospel is the good news of what Christ did for us on the cross, and the moment we trust Christ with our lives, He firmly establishes us so that we are not moved from our hope in the Gospel.
The town of Colossae was in a region known for earthquakes, so these words were especially comforting for the Colossian believers. Some of them had probably had their homes “moved” from their foundations during one of the many earthquakes. But here they learn that when they build their lives on the foundation of Christ Himself, they are established on a firm foundation. They are unwavering, and they shall not be moved.
How a about you? How about me? Where have we placed our trust? If our trust is in ourselves, then we will be moved and shaken every time our world is. But if our trust is in Christ, then nothing, not even the greatest earthquake, can move us from the foundation we have in Christ. It really is the only way to live.
My dear friends, if we want to experience the full and abundant life Jesus designed for us to live, we must acknowledge that He is Lord of all creation; we must acknowledge that He is Lord of His new creation, i.e., everyone who believes in Him. Then we must trust Him to be Lord of our lives individually.
It’s not enough to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord of everybody. I must trust Him to be MY Lord. You must trust Him to be YOUR Lord. We must trust Him enough to give Him the supremacy in our lives, not just a part, and not just a prominent part, but the preeminent part in all we do.
I like the way Ray Ortlund put it on his blog some time ago. He said our hearts are multi-divided like it is in many board rooms. “Imagine,” he says, “a big table, leather chairs, coffee, bottled water, and a whiteboard. A committee sits around the table in your heart. There is the social self, the private self, the work self, the sexual self, the recreational self, the religious self, and others. The committee is arguing and debating and voting, constantly agitated and upset. Rarely can they come to a unanimous, wholehearted decision. We tell ourselves we’re this way because we’re so busy with so many responsibilities. But the truth is that we’re just divided, unfocused, hesitant, and unfree.”
Ortlund says, “That kind of person can ‘accept Jesus’ in two ways. One way is to invite him onto the committee. Give him a vote too. But then he becomes just one more complication,” just another voice adding to all the confusion. But there is a better “way to ‘accept Jesus,’ and that way is to say to Him, ‘My life isn’t working. Please come in and fire my committee, every last one of them. I hand myself over to you. I am your responsibility now. Please run my whole life for me.’” (“#9: What Does It Mean to Accept Jesus?” Ray Ortlund: Christ Is Deeper Still, blog, 6-4-10; www.PreachingToday.com)
Don’t just give Jesus a part in your heart and life. Give Him the supremacy, the ONLY part in the boardroom of your heart. Then you will be free, focused and undivided in your pursuit of the abundant life He designed for you to live.
