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.
Think of how Paul literally experienced this. He was a devout Jewish enemy of Christianity. He thought Jesus was a phony, that He was in no way the Messiah, so he was very hateful of the Christians and wanted them locked up. He received special permission from the government to go to Damascus and have them rescued, when Jesus appeared to Paul on the way in a bright vision from heaven and blinded Paul for a time. However, Paul was rescued from darkness and given his sight back both physically and spiritually when God sent a prophet to heal him. From that point on he saw that Jesus really was the Savior of the world. So God literally rescued Paul from darkness and transferred him into the light of Jesus. He never could have seen that on his own.
There’s a story in the Old Testament about a soothsayer named Balaam who was riding on a donkey, going to curse the Israelites. He couldn’t see it, but an angel of death was waiting to kill him on the way with his sword drawn. Thankfully for Balaam, the donkey he was riding on COULD see it, so it swerved out of the way. Balaam beat on the donkey, not realizing that it was going into the ditch to save his life. This is how many people live in this world - blind to the pathway they are on - leading to hell - beating Christians for telling them the truth and comparing them to uneducated donkeys. Yet they are in the darkness, even though many of them may be much smarter than we are. It’s the idea that they know where they come from - from a big explosion millions of years ago. They think that when they die they just become worm food. So they enjoy the temporary life that they have with nothing more to live for but the here and the now, not realizing that they are walking in darkness and straight into hell. It’s this blindness that people live with every day - when they do what they want to with NO CONSIDERATION for what God wants or what God demands.
And all too often we do the same thing, not stopping to consider, “What does GOD want me to do? How would Jesus look at this behavior?” We don’t fear the consequences of sin as we should. We don’t look at our spouses and our possessions as gifts from God to use to HIS glory. We have an unhealthy love with the temporary things of this world. We look at all we have as things to use for our OWN pleasure and joy. It’s bad eyesight at best. God calls it sinful.
Hell is simply a continuation of the blindness. It is described as darkness, with an eternity of weeping and gnashing of teeth. God closes the door and says, “No more light for you. You wanted to live in the dark and pretend I didn’t exist? Welcome to the darkness. Now you’re going to actually experience what it means to live without me.” That’s utter darkness. When Jesus was living on earth in His humility the demons BEGGED Him not to put them back down there.
But look back to the text at what Paul told 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. God the Father comes to the rescue by sending His Son! On June 23rd of 2018, twelve members of a junior football team in Thailand, along with their coach, entered a cave after practice. Shortly afterwards, heavy rains partially flooded the cave, trapping the group inside. After more than a week and a massive exploration, two British divers found them over two and a half miles from the mouth of the cave. The rescue effort ended up involving over 10,000 people, but between July 8th and 10th all of the boys were rescued. One diver died of asphyxiation from the rescue. Imagine what it was like to be one of those boys living in the cold darkness of that cave, seeing the first light of a diver coming through the water. How overjoyed the boys must have been to see someone come and rescue them and get them free! This was what God the Father sent the Son to do!
So Jesus entered this dark world, and He brought a different light we had never seen. He didn’t live in despair. He showed mercy and grace and forgiveness. He wasn’t even hampered by sickness or death. He healed them, showing God’s power and God’s love for the sick and the dying. Then He willingly went to the darkest place on behalf of all humanity, by entering into the depths of hell on the cross: being abandoned by His own Father. But even there He lived in hope that He would rise. Three days later He came forth from the grave with a firm message of light for all of humanity: “Death has been conquered!” He created a way out! He blew through death with the dynamite of His love. He created a new kingdom to live in.
Paul told the Colossians and us that the Father had already transferred them into this different kingdom - the kingdom of Jesus - the Son He loves. It’s not a kingdom of success or great health. It’s not necessarily even a kingdom of good feelings. It is a kingdom of redemption and forgiveness. It doesn’t have to do with relationships on earth as much as it has to do with our relationship with God. Within this kingdom - when we are transferred there, we have redemption. We have forgiveness.
In the early days of living on the range, the settlers used to burn an acre of grass near where they used to live. That way, if a fire ever came through, they could run into the middle of the already burnt field. That way, they would know that there would be nothing to catch fire. In Jesus, when we are baptized and brought to faith in Him, the Holy Spirit transfers us to that safe place in Jesus, where God’s wrath and the fires of hell have already burned. That’s where you are right now as you believe in Jesus. You have free and full forgiveness. Jesus already paid for it. You have His entire grace and mercy. You don’t have to worry whether you still owe God something, as if you haven’t already suffered for your sins. Jesus already paid for them. In your baptism and through faith you’ve already been transferred there. You’re already been rescued in the midst of the fires of life. No matter what happens, God wants you to know and feel the security of being in His love here and now.
Now we see Jesus, and we look at the world differently. 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. What this means is that we see Jesus as King in everything, even in death. Even when it seems there is no God, when we’ve been chased down to the brink of despair, Jesus is still somehow, and in some way, King. We’ve seen how Jesus rescued the Israelites from an Egyptian army by parting a sea in two. We’ve seen how Jesus raised a man from the dead after being in the grave for four days. We’ve seen Jesus convert Paul who used to persecute Christians and put them to death. So yes, we know Jesus is King through the eyes of faith.
If He has the highest rank, it means that He comes first in my marriage. I want to bring my bride to Jesus. My job is a gift from Him, so I want to glorify HIS name when I work. I see my house and my children as gifts of Jesus, and I want to take care of them to the best of my ability. I even see my own sickness and death as God’s way of saving my soul. Everything that I have, everything that I am, it all goes back to Jesus.
I watched a video on the internet of a little baby with bad eyesight getting glasses for the first time. When she sees her mom for the first time a huge smile goes on her face. She puts a face to the voice and she’s overwhelmed with joy. Isn’t that how life is meant to be for us when we see Jesus, even in the bad that happens in life? The Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to see that Jesus is King! So even while the thief was dying on the cross and Jesus was dying right next to him, he recognized Jesus as a king. Even though he was dying the same way the other criminal was, he died in hope that he was going to heaven. Jesus opened a whole different world to him and to us too!
We are living in the midst of an attempted impeachment, and things are getting ugly. You have two groups of people that are fighting with one another in the House of Representatives. One group is looking at evidence to try and remove the president from office. They can’t stand the man and they want to do anything they can to get him impeached. The other group is doing all they can to try and keep him in office. Meanwhile, we the citizens are wondering what is going to happen. Some are salivating. Others are getting angry. More may be panicking, while the rest may be ignoring the situation. As much as you may hate all of the politics of it, you have to understand that politics do matter. There are consequences to who we put in power. Presidents and congressmen have power, and we either suffer or succeed as a result of our leadership.
All of this fighting in this world is a consequence of the prince of this world who is trying to take over God’s creation. His name is the devil. He wants chaos. He wants death. He wants sin. He wants people to panic and rebel. He seems to be winning on many fronts.
But God the Father has sent His heroic Son to come and rescue us. When Jesus takes over your life, He gives you peace and comfort of knowing your sins are forgiven. The demons of guilt and despair and evil desires are drowned. You are given a new life to fight against this world. What a gift, to have Jesus as your King. He’s no Donald Trump. He’s no Barak Obama. He can’t be impeached. His work can’t be undone and His kingdom will never end. He’s the God of love and compassion and forgiveness. Among all of the temporary presidents and governors, Christ is our King, and we would want no other. Amen.
