Learning to Bow
Col. 1:15-23
Kinesics. Ever heard of it? The study of nonverbal communication, or body language- the idea that people communicate not just with words, but with facial expressions, gestures, even posture. Take a mouthful of Aunt Susie’s soup and grimace and you tell her how it tastes. Talk to somebody who is constantly looking around and you suspect they’re not listening. Drivers on the highway clearly communicating their opinion even when you can’t’ hear a word they say. Bowing—kneeling---laying flat with your face in the dirt. What does that communicate? What do we say when we bow low? It communicates humility, humiliation; it says, “I’m not worthy to stand in the presence of this person.” Who deserves that kind of treatment?
The Bible says Jesus Christ does. In the NT all kinds of people bow low before Jesus---lepers, wild, demon-possessed people, frightened disciples who watch Jesus calm a storm on command. Each time they bow before Him, they communicate something important about Who Jesus is, and who we are. Bowing signifies Jesus Christ is worthy of worship, He is worthy for everybody to bow before Him, not just with our bodies, but our minds, with our hearts, our will.
Why? Why should I bow—why should you bow—before Him? What did they see in Jesus you and I are missing? What is it about Christ that could make us want to join them, bowed low before the Lord? The apostle Paul gives us the answer in Col. 1:15-23. Let’s read together.
PRAYER
Why should you bow low before Jesus Christ? Paul gives us 3 reasons:
I. BOW DOWN BECAUSE HE IS GOD. (v. 15-17)
A young woman brings home her fiancé‚ to meet her father, who takes the young man into his study. "So what are your plans?" the father asks. "I am a Bible scholar," he replies. The father says, "That’s good, but what will you do to provide a nice home for my daughter?" "I will study and God will provide." "How will you buy her an engagement ring?" asks the father. "I will study, and God will provide." The father asks "How will you support children?" "Don’t worry, sir, God will provide," Later the mom asks dad, "How did it go?" He answers, "He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I’m God."
No mere mortal deserves our worship. In the Bible whenever somebody tries to worship men or angels they always say stop doing that. Bow down only to God. When people bow down to Jesus, He doesn’t scold them, He welcomes their worship. Paul tells us why: Jesus Christ is God.
He is the image of the invisible God. (v. 15) God specifically tells the Jews not to make any images of God , because no human being can capture God’s glory- nobody but Jesus.
Jesus is God clothed in a physical body. He shows us Who God is, not by His physical appearance, but by His words, by His actions, by His power and love. Read the Gospels, focus on Christ, and you see precisely what God is like. Which Paul reminds us also means
He is the Creator of everything. (v. 16) The Bible tells us very clearly in
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
God made it all, for His own plan, for His own purpose, and for His own pleasure. But Paul echoes the rest of the NT in telling us that in Christ, the Creator became part of His creation; the Author entered His own story. For 33 years the same God Who created all things…visible and invisible…, v. 16 walked among us. Everything is made by Him and for Him.
He holds it all together. …in Him all things consist…(v. 17) He really does have the whole world in His hands, and nothing or nobody can take it out. He is in complete control of it all.
Suppose you met the Jesus Paul describes here: God in a human body, God Who made it all, the God Who holds it all together. How would you react? What would you do?
“I’d ask Him some questions. I think I deserve to get some answers about why He runs things the way He does.” Job thought that, but when God actually shows up, Job says
Job 42:5-6 5My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job bowed low before the Lord.
“Bro. Mike, Jesus and I are close. If He shows up I’d walk up to Him just like I would my best Buddy.” One of Jesus’ closest friends named John did see Him on Patmos and writes:
Revelation 1:17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. John bows low to Christ.
What about Jesus’ enemies? How did they react? When Jesus called on a man who was possessed by many demons, the Bible says
Mark 5:6-7 6When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” Even demons bow low before Jesus..
Why don’t you and I bow low before Him? Why don’t we bow our minds, our hearts and wills before Him in worship and fear? Because we don’t see Jesus the way Paul saw Jesus. We see Him as Hollywood portrays Him, or our own sinful imagination pictures Him. But get a good look at Jesus as He truly is, as God, and we’d follow the call of the psalmist who wrote: Psalm 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Dostoyevsky writes The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great.
Paul says very clearly that something is really an infinitely great Someone: Jesus Christ, God in a human body, God the Creator, God the Sovereign Ruler of all. But that’s not the only reason we should bow. Paul also says
II. BOW DOWN BECAUSE HE IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH (v. 18)
During WWII, General John Galvin was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and Commander-in-Chief of U.S. European Command. He was asked what was it like to be in charge of so many men and forces. His reply: “I often feel like the director of a cemetery. I have a lot of people under me, but nobody listens.”
Take a long hard look at the church of Jesus Christ, and you might think He feels the same way: He has a lot of people under Him, but nobody’s listening. Statistics tell us many people who faithfully warm pews don’t pray much more or read the Bible much more than those who never darken the doors of the church. The divorce rate, the abortion rate, the rate of alcohol/drug use, the sex-before-marriage rate for people inside the church is not very different from those outside the church. And what about all the fussing and fighting and bitterness and bickering you see among church-going people? How is Jesus Head of this church?
To answer that question, you have to understand that when Paul, or anybody else in the NT writes about the church, they aren’t talking about a building or an organization---the church they talked about was people who live surrendered to Christ. The word translated church in the NT is ἐκκλησία= a group of called out ones. The word is used of any group of people called together for a specific purpose---it could be a political purpose, or a social purpose, or a business purpose. But for Paul the ἐκκλησία were people who united together for one specific purpose to worship—to bow down—before Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. In other words, an ἐκκλησία is by definition people whose hearts, minds, and wills are bowed before Christ as Master and King. They are saved people, but they are also surrendered people, people who follow Christ as His faithful servants and apprentices. Jesus is Head of His church because He is Lord of His people.
Now think with me about the implications of this truth: that means not everybody who walks into this building is part of Christ’s church. Vance Havner used to talk about the church within the church—the smaller group of people among those who attend church who are truly sold out to Christ. Attending church services—as important as that is—does not make you a member of the church of Jesus Christ anymore than walking into McDonald’s makes you a hamburger. Having your name on a church roll doesn’t make you a member of Christ’s church. Even being baptized doesn’t make you a member of the church Jesus heads. Bowing before Christ as your Lord makes you a member of His church.
Church buildings are important. Thank God for the beautiful building we have. Being baptized is important, formally joining the church is important, coming to church is important. You need to do that, but the honest truth is you can do all of those things and more, and still not bow before Him You can do all those things and still not be a member of Jesus’ church.
The Lord Jesus Christ demands your total allegiance, your absolute surrender, your loyal obedience, your ultimate love. Anything less makes you and alien from the church He heads.
Matthew 7:21-23 21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Jesus is not the director of a cemetery—He is the Head of His church. The question is, are you and I part of His church? You don’t prove that by having your name on a church roll, or singing in the choir. You can’t be sure you’re part of His church because you warm a pew, or even because you teach Sunday school or preach sermons. The real test is: am I bowed low before Christ as my Lord? Is He really my Master? Am I faithfully---not flawlessly, but faithfully following Him, obeying Him, loving Him above all others? Don’t ask that question about your neighbor---ask that question about yourself. Ask yourself, “Am I bowed low before Jesus in my thought? In my heart? In my words? In my actions?” Bow before Him, Paul says, because He is Head of His church. But finally, Paul says
III. BOW DOWN BECAUSE HE IS THE RECONCILER OF ALL THINGS (v. 19-23)
The Husband’s Guide to Home Repair
1.If you can’t find a screwdriver, use a knife. If you break off the tip, it’s an improved screwdriver.
2.Try to work alone. An audience is rarely any help.
3. Work in the kitchen whenever you can … many fine tools are there, it’s warm and dry, and you are close to the refrigerator.
4. Stay simple minded: Get a new battery; replace the bulb or fuse; see if the tank is empty; try turning it to the “on” switch; or just paint over it.
5.Regardless of what people say, kicking, pounding, and throwing sometimes DOES help.
6.If something looks level, it is level.
7. Above all, if what you’ve done is stupid, but it works, then it really isn’t stupid.
You might be a pretty good repairman, but some things just can’t be fixed by human hands or ingenuity. Take a broken heart, or a broken relationship, or a broken world. You and I might be good, but we’re not that good. Only God can repair some things. Those kinds of repairs is what Paul talks about when he uses the word reconcile, reconciled in these verses. The word literally means the restoration of a relationship of peace which has been disturbed To put it more simply, it means to fix what’s gone wrong, to make things right again. And Paul says another reason why you and I should bow before Jesus is He is the only Person that can make everything right again.
He’s the only Person Who can fix what’s wrong with the world. (v. 19-20) Something cosmic happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God—something that polluted this world worse than any toxic waste ever did. Though the earth retains much of the beauty God gave it, the Bible says it is marred, broken--something is not quite right.
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Paul goes on in that passage to say all of creation is looking forward to the day when God redeems creation, when He fixes what’s wrong with this tired, cruel world. How does He fix it? V. 20 says through Christ. Christ’s death on the Cross was not just to save our souls, but to redeem God’s creation. One day, when He returns, He will remake everything into the paradise God originally intended. That hope is summed up by the apostle Peter in
2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
When will that day come? When Jesus returns and everything and everyone bows low before Him. That’s when this world will get fixed. But the good news is you and I don’t have to wait for that day for our own repair, because Paul says about Jesus
He’s the only Person Who can fix what’s wrong with you. (v. 21-23) All of us were born broken--- …alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works…(v. 21a) But through His death on the Cross, Christ reconciles us—He fixes us so we become …holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight (v. 22b). He doesn’t mean we become perfect, or that life becomes painless. Our bodies will have to wait along with the rest of creation for perfection. But what’s wrong on the inside of us Jesus fixes when we bow low before Him. But notice a condition to our reconciliation: if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel (v. 23). Jesus died to fix your relationship with God and repair your life. How do you experience this healing? By faith, or to put it another way by bowing down before Him as your Savior.
Paul is simply saying this: the only way this world is going to be fixed is when everything and everyone bows before Christ. But right now, you and I can bow before Christ and He will repair what’s wrong with our souls---the sin, the selfishness, the alienation from God and man. He will fix what’s wrong with you if you will bow before Him and believe.
In a remote Swiss village stood a beautiful church known as the Mountain Valley Cathedral. The church was not only beautiful to look at but it also had the most beautiful pipe organ in the whole region. People would come from miles away--from far off lands--to hear the lovely tones of this organ.
But one day a problem arose. Something went wrong with the pipe organ. Musicians and experts from around the world had tried to repair I, but nobody was able to bring back the lovely tone.
One day an old man appeared at the church door and asked to try his hand at repairing the organ. For two days the old man worked in almost total silence. Then on the third day--at high noon--the mountain valley once again was filled with glorious music. Farmers dropped their plows, merchants closed their stores--everyone in town stopped what they were doing and headed for the church. After the old man finished his playing, a brave soul asked him how he could have fixed the organ, how could he restore this magnificent instrument when even the world’s experts could not. The old man merely said it was an inside job. "It was I who built this organ fifty years ago. I created it--and now I have restored it. That is what God is like. It is He who created the universe, and it is He who can, and will, and is in the process of restoring it.
That’s what Jesus wants to do in you and me this morning. We’re broken people, and only the One Who made us can repair us. If you will bow before Him today, He will fix what’s wrong in your life.
Let me conclude with the words of the great preacher Alexander Maclaren, who once urged his congregation to
Set Christ in your hearts on the pedestal and pinnacle that belongs to Him, and then bow down before Him with all reverence and submission. Be sure you give Him all that is His due, and in the love of your hearts, as well as in the thoughts of your mind, recognize Him for what He is—the Lord. Many of us only see a part of the whole Christ. He is our Creator as well as our Redeemer, our Judge as well as our Savior.... Embrace the whole Christ, and see to it that you do not dethrone Him from His rightful place or take from Him the glory due His name. - Alexander Maclaren
That is my challenge to you this morning---to bow low before Jesus Christ. Will you do that today?
