All of Christ for All of Life: Christ Over All

Ishmael LaBiosa: Well, we are on our second week of a six part series simply entitled All of Christ over all of life through this little book in the New Testament the letter to the Colossians I put out two ideas to you last week and we're going to focus in on one key idea today but the idea that I put out to you last week was our lives are lived in different places and You could think of those as spheres. Okay, for example, I am a husband. That's a location of life that I live. I am a father. There's a location of life. I am a pastor. I am a citizen. And here's the reality, in all of these different areas, even though they overlap, even though they intersect, they all have biblical instruction. doesn't tell me everything I need to know in every one of these areas, but certainly sets the agenda in every one of these areas. And so the all of life concept that I put out to you last week is to think about all the different locations in which you live. And you can potentially be doing really good in one area. Say, you know, I'm doing really great as being a father. But you could be doing really bad in another area. And so the goal is that you conform your life to the teachings of Christ in all the areas of your life. And hopefully through this series, God the Holy Spirit will say, what about this area? What about that area? What about this instruction? And you conform your life to it. But you can notice that the First part of this title is All of Christ Over All of Life. And actually today, if you were to ask me, give me one text in all the New Testament that gives the most comprehensive vision of who Jesus is. There's no close second. Colossians chapter one verses 15 through 23. sets the agenda for who Jesus is. I think when you think about Jesus, I think we know how to talk about Jesus, but when you start talking about Jesus, you start to figure out, I've got a lot of pieces to put together. Let me just put this to you today. If I caught you in the hallway and I said, we have 60 seconds. We'll start the stopwatch and here's the question. I want to hear your 60 second answer. Who is Jesus? And you had to give me the answer. I wonder how you would answer it. Now the clock has started and most of you will say, well, he's God. I say, okay, good. I said, but is he also man? You know he is that too. I said, so is he like half God, half man? No, I don't think that's right. Okay, well, then is he more God than man? Don't ask me these questions, Rusty. You see, you're messing me up. Like how am I supposed to put the grammar together here? And actually, after 300 years of the church, pouring over and thinking over how to answer that question succinctly. You want me to give you the succinct answer? I can tell you're ready for it. No, you're not. You know, I need more eagerness from... that the... See, I was right. I called you out. Okay. That the simple answer is that Jesus is fully God, fully man. He's one person with two natures. And that's actually the answer that both all Orthodox Protestants believe that, all Orthodox Catholics believe that, and all Orthodox Christians believe that singular truth. He's fully God, fully man. one person, two natures, no other text in all the New Testament that unpacks for us who Jesus is greater than 1 Colossians chapter 1 verses 15. So let's turn our attention right here to this text as we explore the person of Jesus. I give you four big ideas today, but I want you to focus on the text more than the big ideas. Colossians 1 verse 15. 15, the first big idea to put Christ over all of life, should discern how Jesus reveals God and restored humanity to us. Verse 15 says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. So when we talk about God, I've noticed that some people kind of don't stick with me when I talk about God because here's the deal, God is a being like no other. God by His definition, God by definition doesn't have as many points of correspondence to us as we do to another human. Let me say God in His essence, the Gospel of John tells us, listen carefully, God is spirit. So God, is immaterial. You say, Rusty, I'm not tracking with you. Well, keep up. You know, God in His essence is immaterial. And there are many things about God that we have no point of connection. Actually, theologians call these ideas that they are so different than us that they're hard to communicate or rather impossible almost to communicate. They call them, you ready for this? ⁓ I thought this was a funny word. the incommunicable attributes of God. Isn't that a big word? It's a mouthful. And here it is. Is God is not bound by time. God is not bound by space. God is not bound by knowledge. God is not bound by power. You're saying, now Rusty, that's, you're getting really deep in the weeds. I know. And so when you start trying to think about God after a while, you know what I feel? And I mean, I'm the guy who went to seminary for a long time. I'm like, God, could you just make it a little more plain? And you know what Colossians chapter one verse 15 says? I did. That I took the immaterial, invisible God and I disclosed Him in Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God. So when you get confused and say, Rusty, I'm losing you on who God is, you know what Colossians 1.15 says? Well, look at Jesus. If you want to know who God is, take a glance at Jesus' teaching. Take a glance at Jesus' actions. See who God is by seeing Him in the person of Jesus. Notice, you also should hear another resonance here because in the very first chapter, the Bible says that we, were created in the image of God and in God's likeness. And while there are aspects of us that reflect God, Jesus is the perfect visible manifestation of who God is. Well, that would be enough, but then more is said in this text. He is the image of the invisible. I mean, think about that. The image of the invisible God. But then the second idea, the firstborn over all creation. So not only does Jesus reveal to us who God is, it gets better than that, Jesus reveals to us what humanity should be. Jesus possessed full humanity perfectly. You possess humanity imperfectly. You know, I think it's so interesting how imperfectly do we possess humanity? Well, in the heart of Jesus is a heart of self-giving. That's who Jesus is. And in the heart of corrupted humanity is a heart of selfishness. How far humanity has fallen. But when we say, God, I not only want to know who you are, I want to know what I should aspire to be. Jesus looks at us and says, well, I am the image of the invisible God and I am humanity at its highest par excellence. Jesus is the God man. You can see that that is not the easiest thing to put together. I read now for you ⁓ how the church has spoken about this. It says, confess the one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, complete in Godhead and complete in humanity. Truly God, truly man, of a reasonable soul and body, of one substance with the Father in Godhead, and one substance with us in humanity. Like us in all things except sin, He is recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. The distinction of the natures not being taken away by the union, the properties of each nature are preserved and come together in one person." All Orthodox Christians affirm that statement. Additionally, it says, He is so much God that only He can save us from sin and death. And He is so much man that He can truly stand with us, suffer for us, and represent us. He is not half God and half man. He is not God pretending to be man. He is not man who became God. He is one person, fully God, fully man forever. And that is ⁓ the church had to work long and hard to get their grammar right in speaking about Jesus. One God, ⁓ Jesus is fully God, fully man, one person, two natures. You say, well that's enough Rusty. Now think about this, but there's more. because the Colossian hymn has only given us this poem about Jesus, has only given us the first line. If Jesus is God and God by His very nature is eternal, then Jesus must have been present prior to taking on a body at creation. And that's what Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 want to tell us. The second big idea to put Christ over all of life We should acknowledge Jesus' role in creation. Verse 16 says, by Him everything was created in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things. It's a statement about Jesus. He is what we call pre-existence. He is before before the world began God was. Jesus was and by Him all things hold together. Two grand ideas here, God as creator and God as sustainer. And as we try to fix our focus on who God is, Colossians 1 says Christ was involved in creation because He is God. That is the big idea. What I've noticed is, ⁓ by the way, creation declares the glory of God. Full stop. Romans chapter one says that creation can disclose to us even the Godhead, the power of God, the majesty of God. But what I'd like to, and I've actually had some people say, actually did a whole series on this. Because I had some people say, know what, Rusty? I don't need to come to church. I just worship in the woods. And I said, well, that's fine. You can worship in the woods. But you know what I said? There are some things the woods can't tell you about God that the church can. Because actually, while creation is wonderful, it's incomplete. Listen, creation is not God. Christ is God and so Christ can tell us a lot more about God than creation can. So when people say, well, no, I just get so many warm and fuzzies in the woods, that's great. I will say that I do think there's different personalities. Melissa and I will be driving down the road and I'm not a good driver. I'm just gonna let you know, okay? I'm awful. you find here one day that I've died, probably kill myself in the car. Okay, because I am not a good driver. try to be a good driver, but I'm not a good driver. so when you're not a good driver, you usually have some help, you know, in the seat beside you. and, ⁓ and I deserve it. I'm not, I'm not, need the help. I need tutoring. But sometimes Melissa will be like, stop, stop. I'm like, ⁓ what am I not seeing? And then she'll like, the sun. And you mean the one was there this morning and the day before. ⁓ look how it comes through the clouds. I'm like, well, yeah, that's what it does, you know. And she said, doesn't it do something to you? I'm thinking, not really, to be honest. ⁓ You know, just not really. to her, mean, the other day I was actually, tried to work out ⁓ and I was actually, so, you know, you're supposed to. at my age, you know, you're supposed to do high, you know, interval training or something. So I thought I got to work out and then I do not want to get on the treadmill. So I went outside to try to like walk, run to go back in to live, to go walk out supposed to help me, you know, not fall apart. And if you visit the hospital as much as I do, you are highly motivated to go to the gym. Okay, I'm going to tell you, I don't need, I don't need a plan. And anyway, I was out there and there was a rainbow and I thought, I'm just going to take a picture of the rainbow in honor of Melissa. You know, it's moving me but not to the depths it probably should, but click, there it is. All right. But what am I trying to say? You guys needed a break from me leaning on you, so I gave you one. Listen, the revelation of God in creation is good. Want to hear the main point? Christ is more. Because you can stare at the mountains all day long and you never learn about the commands of God. You never learn about the plan of God. You never learn about the love of God. All creation declares is the majesty and glory of God, which is awesome. It's awesome. But there's so much you don't know. see, sometimes we can get lost in the grandeur of creation, but you ought to get lost now in the grandeur of the love of God that's demonstrated in the person of Jesus. Because here's the problem, creation is broken. The good creation that God made is broken, and now the place where death should not reign. Death is now a part of the creation. That was not God's design. So if you want to hear something that's even greater than creation, what Christ did. Christ who exists, the Bible says in the form of God, Philippians 2, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but he took on flesh to enter into creation. for the purpose of redeeming us. That is a more awesome truth than God created is that the very God who created humbled Himself so that we could experience new creation. And this is what Christ has done. And the third big idea, it says to put Christ over all of life, we should acknowledge Jesus' place in the new thing that He's done. in the world, His place in the church. Verse 18 says, He is the head of the body, the church, He is the beginning. You ought to notice this phrase, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. Christ has entered the world, the world that He created, that has been broken by sin, and in the midst of the brokenness of the world, He has come and died on a cross. But then, He has risen again. is the firstborn from the dead and now is calling a people to himself so that that which Jesus accomplished on the cross and in the resurrection can now be yours. That he calls you from sin and death through the life that he now has. Creation doesn't tell you that, but Christ in his life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension reveals that to you. And this is a greater truth about the love and grace and majesty and mercy of God. I was out in the hallway and there was a couple that I just got introduced to and they won't mind me using them as an example because they told me that they had recently moved here to Appomattox and they had been long-term missionaries in Thailand. And one of the things that missionaries do, I don't know if they did it, But many missionaries, when they try to introduce the biblical storyline to a culture that has no idea about the Bible, they usually produce it in a storyline. And one of the easiest ways to talk about the totality of the Bible are through four words. Creation, that's the first word God created. Second word, fall, that we fell into sin. The good creation has now been broken. ⁓ Redemption. Christ has come. He's entered into the world, died on the cross in our place, our sin risen again, for our redemption. And then last word, consummation, that he will return, will finish the work, the dead will be raised and all things will be made new. Creation, fall, redemption, consummation. And we see here at this third point that while creation is good, redemption is better. that it's nice to know isn't this great God created the world. It's better to know that the world God created will be made new again. It's better to know that the sin that you have that you can't defeat has been defeated on the cross of Jesus Christ and through faith in him you can have life. That's better. I mean what's better to say look at this tree isn't it wonderful the handiwork of God yes and amen or to say look at this person whose God is made new. That's better. And so sometimes I do think that we need to set before the Lord and say, God, communicate to my heart who Jesus really is. I want you to see this fourth and final point. He's the image of the invisible God. He's God. He's the firstborn over all creation. He's humanity. He is creator and sustainer and redeemer. But listen, at the end of all things, He will reconcile all things unto Himself. He will be Lord over all. The reason that we put all of Christ over all of life now, you ready for it? Is because at the end of human history, guess where Christ will be? All of Christ at the end of human history will be over all of life. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's where we're going and what Christians are doing. before we get there in its fullness, we're confessing that in the presence, in the present, faith, saying, God, I see who you are. I hear your instruction. I see what the world will be. And before you finish the job, I confess you, I live in light of you. You are the King, order of my life in the way you want me to. And may I say very carefully, the areas of life in my life and the areas of life in your life, Well, we don't let Christ have the place that he has. Listen carefully. It's because we don't see Jesus. Because if for a moment we could see Jesus. we take off our shoes, because where we stand is holy ground. And how deluded are we as humans to say, I'm gonna live my life in the way I wanna live my life, I'm gonna do my thing, I'm gonna be my own master. That is a sign of profoundly broken humanity. I was recently talking to a very, a very powerful man. And he was telling me, he says, you know, my whole life I've had to deal with things. I said, well, you're right, you have. You've dealt with a whole lot more than I wanted to deal with. And he said, I speak and things happen. I said, okay, well, yeah, in your position, that's the way it works. He says, but recently my wife died. And he says it was something that I could do nothing about. He says, I called the doctors. I phoned the experts and guess what happened? She died. And he says, that was good for me. He said, I needed to know. There are some things I can't do anything about. Here's a guy who when he spoke, people moved. But when death came to the door, out of his control. Let me tell you, I actually said to him... I said, you're right, you have no answers for that. I said, but isn't it nice Jesus does? He's come right there to the place of human hopelessness and says, I have an answer, not just for the many problems, I have an answer for the problem. Jesus' last great thing was why we celebrated on Easter Sunday was not to deliver a great message, was not to ⁓ usher in a new cause. He says, I'm going in this grave and I'm going to come out the other side to show that I am Lord of heaven and earth. that all authority has been given to me. And if Jesus and only Jesus has that authority, then he is in fact Lord over all. And so I want to show you this last point that we should praise Jesus for his role as reconciler. Listen carefully. Jesus has come out of the ground, but the Easter Sunday message is part of the message. One day we're coming out of the ground. That was Easter Sunday and God's going to renew and God is going to renew all of creation and the world is going to be as it should be and there'll be no more death and there'll be no more pain and there'll be no more sickness. That's the end of the story and it says here in verse 19, for God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in him and Jesus and through him to reconcile everything to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross. whether things on earth or things in heaven. And you were once alienated and hostile in mind because of your evil actions, but now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him. If indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard, this gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and I, Paul. have become a minister of it. Listen to these awesome words and through him to reconcile everything to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross and that you are alienated, but now you've been reconciled. You know what I think sometimes? I think sometimes Christianity has become so familiar, we don't appreciate it anymore. Because what if you today really believe this worldview? You ready for it? You came from nothing. You're going to nothing. And whatever meaning you have in the moment, you can make it up. Many people in the world today believe that. Now that, I mean, just sit with that for a moment. You don't know where you came from. You don't know where you're going. Any, any version of ethics and morality and goodness is social construction. And you just do the best you can in some type of community engagement to try to make meaning in this moment so that your life has some type of purpose. Think about that. And now put this one on for size. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the world is both beautiful and broken because we've fallen into sin. But the God, very God who created took on flesh because He loves us. For God so loved the world, He sent His Son. And that He didn't turn away from our suffering, but He embraced it fully. He took on flesh, died on a cross in our place, solved the problem we couldn't solve, sin and death. rose from the graves victoriously. He didn't just send us a message, he brought his very self to us and demonstrated in time and space, in history, that he could go into a grave and come out the other side. And then when he came out of the grave, he says, I'm coming back. Trust me though. And then when he returns, listen carefully, if Jesus Christ really went out the, went in the grave and came out the other side, everything really, this isn't sentimentality, everything really is going to be okay. I mean, I'm going to put Pastor Coggins in the ground here. He's preached the gospel for 43 years in one place. But when the Lord, but right now to be absent from the body is for him to be present with the Lord. And it won't be too much longer. I mean, I hope a little bit longer, but get my kids raised, but I'm going to join him. It ain't that much longer. Think about it people. How much? It flies. But then I'm going to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord. And then one day the Lord's going to return. He's going to raise the dead and Christ are going to be raised and he's going to make all things new. there whatever Pastor Goggins and I didn't get to talk about, we'll get to finish it up for all eternity and me with all the saints who are redeemed. Like literally if Jesus of Nazareth Wind in the great and came out the other side and is going to return like literally everything's going to be okay. And that's not sentimentality. I'm not actually a sentimental person. Like that's that's and honestly if we see Christ as creator if we see Christ as Redeemer if we see Christ is the one who's going to consummate all things unto himself if that's what he's done I mean shouldn't he have first priority in the way I'm up. husband? In the way I'm a father? In the way I'm a pastor? In the way I'm a citizen? And these all of that, shouldn't he be calling the shots in all of these places? And not to be calling the shots in a tyrannical way, because he's not tyrannical, but to be calling the shots because he loves me and has given himself for me and the instructions that he gives are for my good. And so we only got six weeks and now they're almost now you're down to four weeks because I'm wrapping it right now. You know, I really don't think we can get a fullness of all of Christ. I think we can speak more truthfully about him. I think we can understand him more fully, but I don't think until eternity we're going to see his fullness. But hopefully in this series, we'll get more of Christ over more of our life. And that's my question for you today. What is your life need to be conformed more to the image of Jesus? Where is it? What sphere of life? And here's the deal. Don't try to come up with 10 things. Why don't you just come up with one? I know some of you are asking me for devotional thoughts. You know, last week, some of you prayed the prayer of Colossians 1. Why not slowly read every one of these verses? and simply pray in the morning, God disclose to me who Jesus is. And just, I you got to do a verse a day. It'd take you more than seven days. Sometimes I think you need to read fast. Sometimes you need to read slow. In Colossians chapter 1, 15 through 23 is one of those you need to pump the brakes and say, let me think about these phrases as they come my direction. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus, if you're here today and you never surrender your life to Jesus, why don't you say, God, I turn from sin and self and I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ for my salvation. I'll be right here at the front. Pastor Ishmael will be here at the front. If you don't know Jesus today, why don't you give your life to Him? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. God, that you have not left us in the dark. But God, you have revealed to us who you are. God, we're thankful that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. God, when we wonder who you are, we can look at Jesus. And God, some days we look at ourselves so disordered, so confused, and we ask, God, who should I be? And there once again, you say, well, You want to see what restored humanity looks like? Look at Jesus. And God, we're so thankful you created the world. God, you have come to redeem the world. And one day you'll reconcile all things unto yourself. God, from the throne you will say, behold, I make all things new. Death will be no more. Crying will be no more. Pain will be no more. And God, there in all eternity. You will be all in all. We will see you in all of your glory. God, before that day, may you be Lord in our life. God, may we confess your name right now. May we live according to your instruction right now. May we conform our will to your will right now. God, may you have more of us. God, may we have more of you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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