Who is Jesus, Really

Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction in this service.

Father, we are so glad that we do not have to think, well, we've come and we hope that you show up.

That, Father, you are almost always more ready to move with power than we are to receive that power.

You are always more ready to speak than we are to listen.

You are always more ready to listen than we are to speak.

And that even our speaking and our listening is a gift from you.

So we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would move with power within us, that we might be honest about our questions,

that you might fan into flame within us a deep longing and yearning to know you and to be known by you.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

Some of you have never heard the Athanasian Creed before.

I like to call it, I should have had Matt give a bit of an introduction.

We've switched our, I wanted to have that creed in it so we're not having a gospel text.

I'm preaching on the Colossians text, which Shane read so brilliantly, so powerfully.

And if you listen to that text and it talks about Jesus, that creed is a bit of an explanation,

a further reflection upon what the Bible was teaching.

So if you're not familiar with it, you can Google it, Athanasian Creed.

It's well worth reflection.

So I don't know how many of you are listening very carefully.

It's not a test, not a quiz.

It's, as Shane read, Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 to 20.

Colossians 1:15–20

But if you did, then for Canadians living today, when you hear this text, it is a very hard passage for Canadians.

It's a hard passage for some who've grown up in very conservative evangelical churches.

It would be a main reason why many Canadians are not Christians, because the text, in fact, completely and utterly goes against naturalistic evolution.

And, in fact, actually, it's almost like people, Christians are, just even for me to say naturalistic evolution and Christianity in many people creates tension,

a little bit of worry, because it's one of those things that, for a lot of us Christians, we'd rather not think about.

We'd rather just sort of park it out there and not have to think about it.

But the fact of the matter is, is that given that naturalistic evolution, as taught everywhere,

and this is how Canadians would think it, naturalistic evolution is taught in elementary school, high school, university.

It's taught by the media.

It's taught by entertainment.

And it's viewed as being scientifically true.

Doesn't that mean that the text that we just read is wrong in a serious way?

That's the question.

Now, if you think I'm making this up or making it look more difficult than it is, let's open the Bible and have a look at it.

And for some of us who don't have Bibles, if you need a Bible, by the way, there's Bibles here as a gift.

You have to keep it if you take it, but we'd love it if you had a Bible, if you didn't have one already.

Look at the text.

And I'll just read the text through once.

I'm going to draw out a couple of things from it.

But you'll see that it's not as if it's saying, in fact, it's a very inconvenient text for a lot of Christians.

Because it's not as if it says, you know, creation, and it sort of slips in there once.

And you see it with a little quick, quiet voice, hoping that nobody notices.

In fact, this doctrine of creation is trumpeted by the text.

So listen to it again.

The sun, that's the he, the sun is the image or the icon, that's the Greek word, of the invisible God.

The firstborn of all creation.

Now just pause there.

Even the very word creation implies that there's a creation and that there's a creator who's created the creation.

It doesn't say he's the firstborn of the world or he's the firstborn of everything or he's the firstborn of the planet or anything like that.

It actually uses this word creation, which implies, well, that everything that exists has been created by a creator.

I'll read it again.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him, all things were created.

And not only does he create all things, just to make it clear, the writer says,

He created in heaven and all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created, said another time, through him and for him.

And I'm not going to talk at all really about this during the sermon, but that little bit about thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities or four different ranks or classes of angelic beings.

Okay?

But we're not going to talk about that.

But we're going to talk about that in a couple of weeks when the topic comes back up later on.

But listen again, the end of verse 16.

All things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, which implies creation.

And in him, all things hold together, which once again implies creation.

And in fact, it actually implies something else because, you know, there's this wonderful Bible text in 1 Corinthians that says that if Jesus hasn't risen from the dead, we of all human beings are most to be pitied.

And if, in fact, we have a text and we claim that a man who's dead is the one who holds everything together, to believe that a man who is dead holds everything together is another word for delusion and delusional.

So this text is making a very, very, very stark claim.

And then it goes to continue.

It gets, in a sense, to the safer religious part.

But if you notice, and this is a very inconvenient truth, the text, and it's just like John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

It's just like Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

It's just like lots of places in the Bible.

The Bible very clearly connects the doctrine of creation with the doctrine of salvation.

So, in other words, if it's wrong about creation, it's going to be wrong about salvation.

If it's wrong about the resurrection, it's definitely wrong about all things being held together by him.

Like, it's just wrong.

I mean, that's what we have to say if we have a brain.

Listen to what happened.

So it goes from the creation, very, very stark term.

And by the way, this is Jehovah Witness.

This is a Jehovah Witness graveyard, by the way, this whole text.

Because it's said in so many different ways very clearly this claim that God, the Son of God, is the second person of the Trinity.

And then verse 18,

And he, that is the Son, that is Jesus, is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Listen to verse 19.

And the word there, dwell, is actually the same word for tabernacle.

In other words, just as in the Old Testament it was believing that God was in some ways, in some sense,

present in the tabernacle in the middle of his people, that in fact, actually all of God's fullness,

all of God's fullness, with nothing left over, in fact, dwells, tabernacles in the Son.

Read verse 19 again.

And by the way, that's actually a very shocking thing.

We'll talk about that at the end of the sermon.

Going from these high, what we would consider to be abstractions of the creation and sustaining of all things,

down to blood on a cross is a very jarring move.

And it's intentional, obviously, by the author.

So, I mean, I don't have hours to talk about this,

but the fact of the matter is that most Canadians would say that science has clearly settled the idea

that science has discovered how all things have come to be.

And all things have come to be, fundamentally, through a combination of randomness

and randomness working on the basic normal principles of matter.

There's no direction.

There's no purpose.

It's just random.

And then once out of randomness life developed,

then the continued development of all things is still randomness,

but it's randomness connected with this mechanism called natural selection.

And that accounts for the creation, for the existence of all things.

That's just what would be taught.

If I was to say that at Ottawa, you, people would say, yeah, that's right.

Say that in your high school biology class, they'd say, yep, that's right.

Say it to the CBC, the National Post.

Yep, that's right.

But here the Bible is saying that all things haven't come about by such a mechanism.

That's what it's saying.

So what do we do?

So I want to just think about a couple of...

Here's one of the things about me.

Here's one of the things about me.

And it's maybe just the peculiarity of me.

Maybe it's the peculiarity of my vocation.

And the sermon's not about me.

But I think it's important for Christians to recognize

when they have either an oil or water view,

that they sort of have a little religious view,

and then there's their science view.

And the Bible doesn't allow that.

And it's best if we walk towards things that make us anxious about the biblical text.

In fact, that's partially what church should be about,

not just the worship on Sunday mornings.

That's why small groups are so important.

That's why having mentoring and discipleship relationships are so important,

where you have a context, a safe place,

where you can help people say,

you know what, to be honest, we have a fear around this, don't we?

Let's walk towards it so we can understand what the Bible teaches,

and let's help each other to understand it.

That's once again why church is important,

why small groups are important,

that we can walk towards things that make us anxious.

So here's the first thing.

This doctrine or teaching of evolution is a challenge to all worldviews,

all religions, all spiritualities, and all ideologies,

not just Christians.

Now this is something which nobody in our culture recognizes.

The way our, you know, people talk about social construction of knowledge.

Sorry, I just lost some of you for a moment.

But the fact of the matter is that people think that that's,

I've had this conversation time and time and time and time again

with people in coffee shops,

where they think that somehow applies to me but not to them,

as if somehow or another they're exempt.

Or if they come up with a challenge to the Christian worldview,

that they somehow or other think that they don't have to come up

with an account of that reality.

But the fact of the matter is,

just think about it for a second with the issue of racism.

If naturalistic evolution is true,

why isn't racism fine?

Like, why not?

If white people are in power,

why should I give that up?

Like, why?

If naturalistic evolution is true,

if human beings are just a product of accident,

if human beings might not have developed,

if randomness had worked in a particular way,

if there's nothing inherently special about human beings,

and in fact, if actually the fundamental thing that accounts for the reality of all things

is an account that the strong survive and the weak don't,

and that often the strong survive and the weak don't because the strong eat the weak,

then why should we believe in,

why is racism wrong?

Like, why are there human rights?

Like all critical theory,

well, why don't they have to deal with evolution?

Like native spirituality,

why doesn't that have to deal with evolution?

Like, the fact of the matter is,

is that this scientific account

is something that every system of thought has to answer.

This is always an important thing for us to remember

because sometimes when we try to account for the Christian faith,

it might not sound perfect,

but you know what?

I would suggest that every single time

you'd give the Christian account of a problem

and compare it to other accounts,

you'd end up saying,

gosh, that's a good account.

That's the best account.

I mean, native spirituality has no way of dealing with evolution,

nor does Hinduism or Buddhism,

nor does Islam,

and definitely not Marxism and feminism

and transgender and social justice warriors.

None of those things.

They've not even begun to ask those questions

in terms of how you give an account in light of this.

So it's not just a question that Christians have to answer.

Everybody has to answer it.

And here's the second one.

The second thing is that naturalistic evolution

is in trouble because of science.

Naturalistic evolutionary theory is in trouble

because of science.

Because the more science develops,

that particular account

that everything is due to randomness,

interacting with particular,

the properties of stuff,

and then naturalistic selection,

accounting for the growth

after life has developed randomly,

the fact of the matter is

is that as science develops,

that entire theory is problematic.

You see, one of the problems is,

for instance, the Big Bang,

which is what science has now come to believe,

that combined with the well-known law

of the second law of thermodynamics

that everything is running down,

those two truths

mean that you have to have a creator.

Like the Big Bang

means that things haven't existed forever.

Part of the entire argument for evolution

is that if you have forever,

then anything can happen,

including this.

But you don't have forever.

Science has now shown that doesn't happen.

Things aren't forever.

There was a beginning.

But the fact of the matter,

not only is there a beginning,

but there's this contradictory thing

that doesn't actually explain

how you could ever have a Big Bang

because the second law of thermodynamics

shows that everything is running down.

And not only that,

and this is a far more important thing,

is that the further science goes to develop,

can take science between now

and when naturalistic evolutionary theory

was first propounded by Darwin,

is the more that scientists study,

the more they see design,

and not just design,

but intricate design

that is irreducible.

A couple of weeks ago,

Daniel gave the illustration

of the mousetrap,

and that's a very, very simple thing

of something which is irreducible,

where you need wood,

you need pegs,

you need a spring,

you need a spring to be armed,

you need an arm to keep the other arm down,

you need peanut butter.

And the fact of the matter is,

is that the more science studies things,

they see something like a mousetrap

already put together.

In other words,

you don't just find pieces of wood

and pieces of metal

and pieces of this and pieces of that,

but to have an actual mousetrap,

you need it all to be put together and armed.

And just talk to some of the people

in the room here

who are scientists and who are doctors,

and they'll tell you

that you go into things,

what you discover,

as science,

as biology progresses,

as genetics progress,

what they find

is irreducible complexity,

and it's not just complexity,

it's complexity that is

clearly best understood

as a design feature.

So the fact of the matter is,

and this is something

which people don't want to talk about,

but as science progresses,

the theory becomes

far more complicated.

The third problem is

that we don't actually believe

in the account of naturalistic evolution

anywhere else.

And it's sort of ironic

because the big, big, big, big, big thing

which we believe it in,

when it comes to small things,

nobody believes it.

Nobody believes it.

Not one single person on the planet

believes it.

Perfect illustration.

I've used it before.

Let's say there's a young man

in this congregation,

and he's been dating a young woman,

and he wants to ask her to marry him,

and he knows that this young woman

loves going for walks.

In fact, there's a particular,

it doesn't matter if it's young or old,

just a man and a woman,

and they know that there's a particular place

that they love to walk.

And so the man comes up with this idea,

you know how I'm going to do it

to ask her to marry me in a way

which is just, I think, just so cool.

You might think it's corny,

but he thinks it's cool.

How about me and a buddy,

there's this really lovely place

where you come for a walk,

and there's a bit of a green hill

just on the side,

and why don't you and I

get some field stones,

and with the field stones,

spell out,

Sue, will you marry me?

Bob.

And so you think,

well, that's the coolest thing in the world.

Let's do it.

So you go there,

you get the stones,

you know, and the field stones,

you make all that little pattern,

so it's very, very clear.

You know, you look,

people walk by and say,

what are you doing?

You say, I want to ask this woman,

Sue, to marry me.

Oh, way to go.

Sounds cool, whatever.

Sounds lame, or whatever.

And then, you know, you do it,

and you keep your buddy in the background,

so no person comes and moves all the stones,

or something like that, you know,

and says, you know,

will you sue me, Bob, or whatever, you know.

But it keeps the message,

the message in the right order, right?

Because if you put Sue in the wrong spot,

it'll think you want to sue a person,

you just can't spell.

But anyway, you know what I mean, right?

Or you move the letters,

it looks all completely different.

And so finally,

the man and the young woman,

they're coming,

they're holding hands,

and as they come to the spot,

he sort of nudges her,

so she looks over,

and if she looks over it,

and then keeps walking with no comment,

and then you say,

well, what do you think about that sign?

She said,

you know,

there was an earth tremor the other day,

it's the weirdest thing in the world,

that that earth tremor caused field stones

to go in that pattern.

Like, who'd believe that?

You know what?

If that actually happened to you,

you could get people buying you beer for years

just to tell the story of the crazy woman

who didn't recognize the field stones saying the message.

Right?

And let me ask Jeremiah afterwards

how more complex DNA is to that.

Like, it's not just like twice as complicated,

it's like exponentially more complicated.

Nobody believes the theory.

Anywhere else.

If we got a message from space

that was going beep, beep, beep, beep,

in a certain type of pattern,

very, very simple,

we'd know that there was something out there.

And yet when it comes to the origins of all things,

we believe this theory.

And here's the final thing I'd like to say.

The fact of the matter is,

is that this passage of Scripture

is profoundly wise and wonderful

and fits with science and the Bible

and our experience

and in fact encourages science.

Now, I've said before,

and I'm not arguing against

the literal reading of Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

but what I think is

that the discussion between Christians

and the world

should have focused on texts like this

where John chapter 1

John 1 · chapter mention

where it says,

in the beginning was the Word

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

All things were made through him

and without him nothing was made that was made.

In him was life

and the life was the light of men.

And Christians should have had

our conversations with our secular friends

over John 1

and Colossians 1 verses 15 to 20

Colossians 1:15–20

and Hebrews 1 verses 1 to 3.

Hebrews 1:1–3

And that's where we should have had the discussion.

And here's the wonderful thing

about the doctrine of creation.

The doctrine of creation

tells us both that God creates all things,

but it doesn't tell us anything

about how deep creation is

or how big the backstory is

until we look.

I'll give you two illustrations

of what I mean by that

because you probably don't understand it.

This insight came in,

and I don't know,

I can't really say this.

Maybe we should turn it off for a second.

No, don't turn it off for a second.

You know, Andrew hangs around sometimes

after the service.

He puts things on the screen.

Am I allowed to say that?

I'm going to get in trouble.

Anyway, he does.

He puts music or something.

So maybe,

if those of you who know Star Trek

and those of you who know Q,

go back and go on Google

or look on YouTube

for some episode in Star Trek

where Q shows up.

And one of the things

that Q can do in that

is he makes everything,

he makes a whole pile of things

out of nothing.

I remember one clip,

I'm not really a Star Trek person,

I watch it occasionally,

that all of a sudden Q

would make it look like

the entire crew of Star Trek

was like Robin Hood.

All of a sudden,

there are horses

riding through the woods.

Now, the viewer knows

that Q just invented that

out of nothing

three minutes earlier.

But they're not riding on horses

that are three minutes old.

They're riding on

five-year-old horses.

The trees that are all around

them aren't three minutes old.

If you cut down a tree,

it would have the rings.

It would show that the tree

is in fact very, very old.

In fact, part of the episodes

are that the crew

is always trying to figure out

if it's an hallucination,

is it a vision,

what's going on,

but the things they read,

like, right?

I have that right, right?

Everything seems to work.

Like, it seems to be

completely and utterly real.

And what that means

is if you went into a world

that a situation

that Q is just created

out of nothing

and you brought

all of your science

and you cut down the trees

and the trees might have

80 rings,

100 rings,

150 rings,

20 rings.

It's a certain time of the year

that, like,

there's stuff on the ground

because, you know,

the leaves and other stuff

fell off the tree

onto the ground

and yet it's only

three minutes old.

You see,

in fact,

the matter is

is that God could have

created things

like this set,

but he didn't.

Sometimes,

when I have

one of my younger

grandchildren,

they get to a certain age

and they come to visit

from another city

and they come to church

and in some cases

they've asked

because kids,

in case you didn't know,

aren't allowed up on the stage.

So they ask

after the service

if they can come up

on the stage

because they're curious

because they find it

so fascinating

that a room

that looks real

that you can go behind it

and it's not real.

And God could have made

a universe like that.

He's God.

If he decided to do it,

he could.

But the fact of the matter is

is that the doctrine

of creation implies

it would be as if,

you know,

a set designer

makes not just a room

but a street

and streets

and a whole city

or something like that.

And the fact of the matter is

is you don't know

how big the creation is

until you look

but the doctrine of creation

just like Star Trek shows

it's an odd way

to comment on the Bible

but it's a good one

is that creation

out of nothing

can have something

which is unbelievably deep.

Why did God do it?

Well,

I don't know why God does it.

Those of us in the room,

those of you in the room

who are scientists,

they can say,

well,

it's really cool,

you know.

Like knowing this whole

back story

and depth to creation,

that's how we figure out

things that help us

to figure out diseases.

That's how we figure out

things that connect

animal research

to human beings

that allow science

to develop

and that's how we figure out

things about the nature of light

and that's how we figure out

all of these things

and the book of Genesis

tells us that God

created the earth

so that we could

tend the earth,

that we could be fruitful

and multiply,

that we could tend the garden

and God designed creation

whether he made it

in six days

or in one second,

whether he made it

5,771 years ago

or whether he made it

whatever the length

of time is,

is that once he created it,

it's deep,

it's thick,

it has a profoundly

huge back story

and you can't tell

by looking at creation

actually on one level

in a sense

how old it is.

Like you can't.

But does that mean that

and so this is

the wonderful thing

and in fact this is

and it's only been

in the Christian worldview

that science

was able to develop.

there's always been cleverness.

People have always been able

to figure out

how to do this

or how to do that

or how to do something else

but science isn't just

being clever.

Science is working on theories

and making connections

and from your theories

and connections

making new discoveries

and that's what science is

and science developed

out of the Christian worldview

because they understood

that it was creation

designed by an intelligent creator

so you go looking

for reasons and connections.

And if we understand

that the real battle

the real battle

is not over

whether the earth

is young or old

that's a really good question

but it's not that.

The real issue is over

whether or not

there is a creator

who has created all things

and sustains all things

and that that creator

is the triune God

and only the triune God

can possibly account for it.

That and the alternatives.

Once you understand

that the doctrine of creation

that God's created the world

deep, wide, big, thick

with a huge backstory

you are freed up to discover.

You are launched.

Go ahead and be a geologist.

Go ahead and be a physicist.

Be an astronomer.

Don't worry about those things

because you're just looking

at this wonderful profound world

that God has created

with a huge backstory

and he designed it out of love.

He designed it with intelligence.

He designed it with creativity.

And look for design

and rejoice in it.

And the fact of the matter is

is that design shows

that there must be a designer.

Just as seeing

Sue, will you marry me Bob

implies that somebody wrote that

and sustained it.

And I spent a long time on this

because it's a big problem.

I just want to suggest that

this text propels us

or grounds us

to launch into mystery

and into coherence.

It grounds us as Christians

to launch ourselves

into the mystery of existence

and into coherence.

Listen again to the text.

He is the image

of the invisible God.

Now, the word image

is a technical word.

It doesn't mean...

It could be that

if that's all you had,

you'd think,

okay, well, there's God

and it's his picture.

Like, you know,

like Lisa would much rather

have Andrew

than a picture of Andrew.

Like, the picture of Andrew

isn't the same as Andrew.

And it might be possible

that we don't know

the philosophical language

and you hear that

and you think

that it's just like

a picture of God.

But it's actually...

It's actually really,

really important.

If you go back

and read in Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

it talks about human beings.

One of the reasons

that racism is wrong,

one of the reasons

that anti-Semitism is wrong,

one of the reasons

that all prejudice

and discrimination is wrong,

is that out of all

of the things

that have been created

by God,

only human beings

are made in his image.

And every human being,

it doesn't matter

if you're from Asia

or from Africa

or from England

or Scotland or Wales,

it doesn't matter

if you're Inuit,

it doesn't matter

if you are

an indigenous person

in Peru,

every single human being,

it doesn't matter

who you are,

it doesn't matter

how handicapped you are,

it doesn't matter

how young

or how elderly you are,

you are made

in the image

and likeness

of the true

and living God

and have an inherent

worth and value

that is there by God,

not something

the state gives you.

The wise state

recognizes it

and does not try

to usurp to itself

the power to determine

the worth and value

of human beings.

It is a feature

of totalitarianism

and evil to think

that only the state

can determine

your value.

Christians have been

guilty of horrendous

racism,

but they should not

have read their Bible

and been led to that.

They cannot read

their Bible

and be led to that.

This particular,

and so you notice,

human beings are made

in the image

of God,

but God,

the Son of God,

is,

he's not in thee,

he is the image.

And it's a little

tiny bit like,

given that the word icon

and you use icon

now for computers

and you click on

the icon the way

that it doesn't matter

what,

you know,

it's Apple

or Microsoft

or whatever,

you click on the icon

and you get the whole thing.

The same sense

in the sense

when you click on

the God,

the Son of God,

you get all of God.

But it's not just

this phrase

because it doesn't

just say this,

the rest of it

helps to make it clear

that that's the way

you're to understand it.

And listen to this.

The Son is the image,

in other words,

he's fully God,

of the invisible God.

It's also telling us

that the God

who by his very nature

is invisible

has revealed himself.

We can't figure out

the invisible God.

Only the invisible God

can reveal himself

in a way

that we can understand it.

that's reason

to think

that by my mysticism,

by my technology,

by my poetry,

by my thinking

that I can figure out

the invisible

is foolish.

The invisible

must be made visible.

The invisible

must make himself visible

for me to have a sense

of the fullness

of the invisible God.

That's what the text says.

He is the image

of the invisible God.

The firstborn

of all creation

implies that

before creation was,

there was the Son.

Go back and listen

to the Athanasian Creed.

The relationship

of the Father to the Son

is not that he is made,

but begotten.

And even the language

of firstborn,

which Jehovah Witnesses

might want to talk about,

but here's the entire thing,

is we beget

what has our nature.

There's three women

in the congregation

right now

who are expecting a child.

The child will be human.

The child will be human.

Begotten.

Not made,

but begotten.

And firstborn

also implies preeminence.

For by him,

all things were created

in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones

or dominions

or rulers

or authorities.

all things were created

through him

and for him.

In other words,

there's a purpose.

It isn't just one

dang thing after another

and then you die.

And the human race

has one thing,

dang thing after another

and then eventually

the sun becomes

a huge ball of fire

that obliterates

all life.

It isn't just one

dang thing after another.

There is in fact

a story with a beginning,

a middle,

and an end.

And if there is a story,

there is a possibility

of meaning.

And if we are made

in the image

of the invisible God

and have a worth

and a value

and a dignity,

it means that there is

in fact

the possibility

of a meaning

and purpose

for your life

and for mine

that cannot be found

apart

from our creator.

and he is before

all things,

verse 17,

and in him

all things

hold together.

You see,

that's what I mean

by on one hand,

this text,

it's a very small text,

a very simple text.

You can memorize the text.

You should memorize the text.

But it launches us

into this mystery

of the bigness

and the largeness

of the world

and also the coherence.

You see,

social construction

of knowledge

and social construction

of reality.

What is hidden

from most Canadians

but they feel it

at some level

is the fundamental

incoherence of things.

You have one way

of counting for existence

which is naturalistic evolution.

You have a completely different,

completely and utterly

separate from that,

different understanding

of what it's like

after you die

and you become

some wispy,

ethereal,

spiritual type of thing.

And in the meantime,

you have all of these things

if you see the beauty

of the world

and you see

your own longings

to either create beauty

or enjoy beauty

or communicate beauty

and you have that.

But how does that fit in

with anything else?

And then apart from beauty,

you have this whole other thing

of a concern for justice.

And then you have

this whole other thing

about trying to have things

like families

and friends

and social gatherings

and nations

that hold together.

But that's not connected

to evolution

and that's not connected

to the end

and that's not connected

to beauty

and that's not necessarily

connected to justice

although it is

in a certain type of a way.

And the fact of the matter is

is that most Canadians

live in a world

which is incoherent

and broken

and has no mystery.

You hear the Bible's profound messages

the same God

who created all things.

The Father, the Son,

the Holy Spirit,

three persons,

one God

who's created through the Son.

That same God

reveals His existence

in the person of the Son

in a way that can be seen.

And the same God

who's created all things

is the same God

who holds all things together.

And the same God

who's created all things

who holds all things together

is the same one

who will bring

is central to the purpose

of all things

and the end

of all things.

And all of the Greek words

that use

the telos word

implying an end

are the same words

in the original language

of Greek

that's used for beauty.

that the end of all things

is beautiful.

Like it's beautiful.

Beauty isn't something separate.

Beauty is woven into everything

and we know that

but it's coherent

within this Christian worldview.

And since all things

are held together through Him

that means that justice

and mercy

and goodness

and truth

and beauty

and family

and friends

and neighbors

and nations

that there is this possibility

that there is

at the heart of all things

broken and marred

by the fall

by sin and evil

which has come into the world

through human beings

through Adam and Eve

and then for every single

other human being

that adds to the bentness

and the brokenness

of the world

but before all these things

at the end of all things

and held together

even now

in brokenness

and scarring

is this same God

who holds all things together

the Father, the Son

and the Holy Spirit

and the same God

who creates and sustains

the same God

who is the source of beauty

and of justice

and truth

and mercy

and love

and community

and friendship

and life

who is the God of life

is the same God

the very same God

who redeems

and no Christian

has to choose

between being saved

and being smart

between being saved

and doing art

between being saved

and pursuing justice

between being saved

and working in the government

to see a just social order

or in business

to create a just economy

you don't have to choose

between things

because the same one

who saves

is the same one

who is the source

of creation

the source of beauty

of meaning

of truth

and that's too big

for any one person to do

there's this mystery

this mystery

profound mystery

of coherence

of this

unending vistas

that we can enter into

and it's the same one

who opens our eyes

to these unending vistas

and grounds our longings

and our yearnings

is the same one

the same one

who takes on flesh

and dies a death

of crucifixion

at a point in time

in history

and sheds his blood

in the mystery

of the gospel

can't you see

it's only if you

understand this

that you understand

how it is

that this one death

can fix

all creation

listen to verses 18

and he is the head

of the body

it goes from

these wonderful things

he is the head

of the body

what is the body

it's the church

this means it's

in a sense

it's the church

it's the same church

you and I

have a local church

but we are connected

to other true believers

in Christ

in all the other

gospel shaped churches

and we're also connected

to the true believers

in Christ

that have worshipped

today in Sydney

Australia

in Nairobi

in Nairobi

in Kenya

and in Singapore

and in Beijing

and in Vancouver

later on in the day

and in Japan

we're all part of that

not only that

but we're also

we're part of the same

body as Augustine

who's been dead

hundreds of years

and Calvin

and Mother Teresa

and Francis of Assisi

and Billy Graham

just one body

the church

but he is the head

of that body

the church

he is the beginning

the first born

from the dead

because the God

who truly does exist

is a God of life

not a God of death

death is a result

of sin

and God saw

our death

and our sin

and our inability

to deal with it

and out of love

and justice

and mercy

and compassion

acted

to do what we could not do

for ourselves

but to reconcile us

to him

that in everything

he might be preeminent

for in verse 19

for in him

all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell

and such a wonderful phrase

right

look at this

how it goes

for in him

all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell

and through him

to reconcile to himself

all things

whether on earth

or in heaven

making peace

by the blood

of his cross

only the creator

can count

for all of the creation

only the gospel

is the means

by which

a human being

can be made right

with God

by faith

and trust in him

and to receive

the gospel

you go

and you look

at the world

this is my father's

world

I wonder about

quarks

I wonder about

DNA

I wonder about

dance

I wonder about

business

I wonder about

government

I wonder about

how I can speak

against racism

I wonder how I can

act against abortion

I wonder what I can do

to make things

more prosperous

I wonder about

how I can bear witness

to Jesus

I wonder how I can

share

how wonderful it is

that he died on the cross

for me

and wants you to

receive him too

that's the world

you enter into

friends

please stand

Andrew if you could

put up the general

thanksgiving

thanksgiving

I think this general

thanksgiving

was written by

Cramner

back in the

1540s

that's a long

time ago

and I think

in many ways

we're going to

say this prayer

we're going to

pray this prayer

every Sunday

at the end of the

sermon while we're

going through

Colossians

I think it

brilliantly

encapsulates

so much

of the Christian

message

and so much

of what the

book of

Colossians

is trying

to communicate

for us

so I invite

you to pray

it with me

and then I'll

just say an

extemporaneous

prayer in

closing

before

I think it's

Matt who's

coming up

to lead the

intercessions

let's pray

join with me

almighty God

father of all

mercies

we than

unworthy

servants

do give you

most humble

and hearty

thanks

for all your

goodness

and loving

kindness

to us

and to all

people

we bless you

for our

creation

preservation

and all the

blessings

of this

life

but above

all for

your

inestimable

love

in the

redemption

of the

world

by our

Lord

Jesus

Christ

for the

means

of grace

and for

the hope

of glory

and we

beseech you

give us

that due

sense

of all

your

mercies

that our

hearts

may be

unfaintedly

thankful

and that

we show

forth your

praise

not only

with our

lips

but in

our

lives

by giving

up ourselves

to your

service

and by

walking

before you

in holiness

and righteousness

all our

days

through

Jesus

Christ

our

Lord

to whom

with you

and the

Holy Spirit

be all

honor and

glory

world without

end

amen

father thank you

for the gospel

thank you for your word

thank you for science

thank you father for those in this room who you've blessed with fine minds for science

for mathematics for medicine for government for good public service for good business for art

thank you for

various vocations for various vocations to live in such a way that we are always thankful for jesus and can bear witness to him and all this we ask in the name of jesus and all god's people said amen

thank you so much for Ciao被

my