The King Of Creation Is Our Rescuer

THE KING OF CREATION IS OUR RESCUER

November 26, 2006

LAST PENTECOST SUNDAY / CHRIST THE KING

Colossians 1:13-20

Fellow-Redeemed, Saints in the Lord:

We have come to the end of the church year. This doesn’t match up with the calendar year. Through the church year we have looked at many things such as how God had promised us a Savior, provided a Savior, promised us redemption and provided redemption. We saw how Jesus came as a very humble infant, died on the cross, but was raised again and ascended with great glory to sit at God’s right hand. We will confess that soon in the Apostles’ Creed. This end of the church year Sunday is also called the Christ the King. You might not hear that title used very often. You might hear Jesus born in Bethlehem, Jesus the Son of Mary and Joseph. One does not always hear of Christ the King, the Messiah, the One anointed to be king. That is what we are going to study today. The very King of Creation has rescued us. Our King of Creation has rescued us, and it causes us great reason to be filled with joy and thanksgiving this morning and every day of our life.

Our first passage from the Psalms talks about what happens when the world looks at Christ the King. It says the trees shout out. We know that if even the trees shout out, then we as believers will also praise the King of creation. Psalm 96: "They will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth" (Psalm 96:13). That is our righteous King. He will return as judge, not as Savior but to judge the world. Our King will come to judge in righteousness and truth. We look forward to that day. THE KING OF CREATION IS OUR RESCUER.

I. Christ has redeemed us in time;

II.To rule over us for all eternity.

I. CHRIST HAS REDEEMED US IN TIME

Colossians, of course, is another letter of the Apostle Paul to the believers at the city of Colosse. This city was a little bit different. Many of the cities that Paul had gone to and preached were Gentile cities, not very many believers. This fact meant it was a great struggle for those congregations to start, much less to continue and even flourish. Colosse was a city that was settled by a lot of Jewish refugees. So the struggle here was for them to give up their former Old Testament believing. They loved the sacrifices that they brought and that they did for their salvation. Many did not see the sacrifice that Christ had made for them. Paul had preached there and left. Then there was a Colossian heresy that arose.

In this opening chapter Paul gets right to the point. He wants them to concentrate on the fact that is important--Christ the King. He makes it very clear in verse 13: "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves." He had reminded these believers that they had been lost, and he reminded these believers that they had walked in the darkness. Paul reminded these believers that God the Father had saved them, rescued them. Then we notice that he puts the connection of God the Father and God the Son very close, doesn’t he? He rescued these believers from darkness and brought them into the kingdom of light of the kingdom of his Son. Paul wanted these believers to realize that God the Father who created all things and God his Son who has redeemed all things are the same God--the Triune God--Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Verse 15 continues: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." Christ, God and the Holy Spirit is the same God, but different persons. Why this emphasis? The Colossian heresy is the heresy that is still around today--Gnosticism, knowledge is supreme. People believed in knowledge. Human knowledge or reason cannot comprehend that God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are same the God. It doesn’t make sense humanly speaking. What happened? Another heresy that was here was the worship of angels. For some reason some of the Jewish people didn’t want to believe in Jesus as God’s Son. Remember? Jesus would show up with miracles and teach in the synagogues, and they would say, "Oh Jesus from Nazareth" or "Jesus, Son of Mary and Joseph," or "Jesus the carpenter." He didn’t seem very important. Jesus looked like them, walked with them, talked like them, and dressed like them. So they decided, "Let us worship angels. They are supernatural powers. They certainly are more important than that Jesus from Nazareth." This was also the Colossian heresy. Paul teaches them: "Well no, we have God the Father. We have Jesus who is the exact image of the invisible God."