Jesus Christ Above All - Lord of the Church - Origin Sermon - 15 January 2023

It's always encouraging to hear how God is working through you.

I'm going to read this morning from Colossians chapter 1,

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 15. And then down to verse 20, we

divided the text into two parts. We looked at the first part last

week, as Jesus, Lord of creation and this week, we'll look at the

part, Jesus. Lord of the church.

Remember, Paul's writing to the church in colossae, who were

concerned and worried about the different powers that impact

their lives, whether it It be political powers of Empire,

whether it be local powers of family society and their local

religions whether it is the powers of Nature and other gods.

They were concerned about the powers that affected their lives

and impacted them. And so Paul is writing to assure

them of the power of God fully expressed through Jesus Christ.

He wants to assure them of their faith and allegiance to Jesus.

And so he writes to them. The son is the image of the

invisible. God, the firstborn over all

creation. For in him, all things were

created things in heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible,

whether Thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all

things have been created through him.

And for For him, he is before all things, and in him all

things, hold together and he is the head of the body, the

church, he is the beginning. And the firstborn from among the

dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy for God

was pleased to have all his fullness, dwell in him, and

through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether

things on earth, Or things in Heaven by making peace, through

his blood shed on the cross. Jesus had an amazing encounter

with his friends, Mary and Martha, and Lazarus, Lazarus had

died. And when Jesus arrived, they're

both sisters were concerned and upset.

That Jesus hadn't, come, and they both affirmed a sense of

faith. That if Jesus had been there,

John would be alive. Jesus makes the most astonishing

statement when he says will do you believe I am the

resurrection and the life, the one who believes in me will

live. And the sister who heard this

said, I believe. And it opened the way for Jesus

to do the most astonishing thing where the placement of her faith

was affirmed. She saw it in real time as Jesus

called out Lazarus, come out. And Lazarus was raised from the

dead. Lazarus would die again.

And be buried. But what if Jesus?

The Lord of creation who died on a cross who was buried and rose

again. Would he die again?

Would his power died with him, or would his power still be

evident and at work and the life of people and particularly in

the life of the church? This was a concern that Paul is

seeking to address when he says in verse 17, that Jesus is the

head of the body Verse 18. Sorry, Jesus is the head of the

body, the church. This Lord of creation is the

lord of the church. He is the one who is in charge

of it, even to this day. And so, Paul is affirming him

them that though. Jesus is unseen.

He is the lord of the church though.

Jesus isn't the one standing at the front of their Gatherings?

Jesus is the lord of the church not the person who stands at the

front. That's good news, right?

Yeah. Was that my wife?

It's good news, right? That I'm not the lord of the

church and neither are any of the worship leaders.

They're not the lord of the church.

Nor is there a secret person in the congregation who is Lord of

the church? Jesus is the lord of the church.

He is the head of the church and he has that.

Because the new creation that Jesus, as Lord of creation

began, is now to be expressed in the church.

His body. So, the church is the body that

makes the lordship of Jesus visible.

The church is the body that makes the lordship of Jesus

visible. How are we doing?

We're only doing as well as we surrender to Jesus as Lord and

Caraway the allegiances that we make to other powers and rulers

and authorities. And declare by the spirit of

God, Jesus is Lord. And learn to listen to his

voice. Jesus said of his church, his

sheep that they will listen to his voice.

How was your listening going to the Lord of creation?

The lord of the church. He is the head of the body, the

church Paul goes on to say, he is the beginning and the

firstborn among the dead. So that in everything he might

have Supremacy. He is the beginning and the, how

our anticipation, our reflexive move internally.

If you're familiar with the scripture is to say, Jesus is

the beginning and the end, he is the Alpha and the but Paul

interrupts that move here to highlight the reason why Jesus

is the authority in this period of life, he says Jesus is the

firstborn. He is the beginning and the

firstborn among the Dead. Among the dead.

So he interrupts here with the end, he's the firstborn among

the dead, that Jesus himself was buried.

And that when he rose from the dead, he brings the Dead with

them, who shall be transformed into life.

And so he didn't just Rise by himself, he rises with those of

us who would be dead without him.

And so now the dead in Christ shall be born with him.

So this is why in baptism when we Baptist someone we say buried

with Christ in baptism but raised to walk in you life.

Why can we do that? Because Jesus is raised for

eternity. and so shall those who by faith allow themselves to be

buried with him in baptism, My old life is gone, behold the new

has come and Jesus has Primacy of authority.

He has Power Among Us. Who have United with him.

In faith and in baptism. As your life United with Christ.

Both in his death and in his resurrection, without his

resurrection, I am just as good as dead.

Paul went on to say that, woe to those of us who are in Christ.

If the resurrection didn't really happen, he recognized

that the moment of compelling belief in Christ is the

resurrection of Jesus. The firstborn among the dead so

that he might have Supremacy. In everything.

Is this how you see Jesus as having Supremacy in everything

or is there something in your life that you've kept as a

reserve to say? Well, this is really mine Lord.

This is my domain. This is my secret space of my

life and you can't come here. That secret space of your life

will be filled with death. Unless you open the doors to

Christ. To come and bring life where you

thought, there could be no life. He goes on here to speak of

Jesus in verse 19 for God was pleased to have all his

fullness, dwell in him. So not only did this Jesus come,

and do this, he did it as God with all of the fullness of God

in him. And so when we read the gospels

and see Jesus on the cross, it was no imposter.

It was no fill in. For God, this was truly God on

the cross being crucified. That is a mysterious thought.

But the Lord of creation. Was on the cross dying.

For what? For why?

Notice Paul says in verse 19, for God was pleased to have all

his fullness, dwell in him. And then 20, he gives the reason

and through him, to reconcile, to himself all things, whether

things on earth, or things in Heaven by making peace, through

his blood shed on the cross. When God died on the cross.

He was accomplish incur a Reconciliation move.

Now reconciliation is a strange thing to us because if you're in

a friendship and a relationship and you find that you are the

offended party, you are the one who has been wronged, what are

you waiting for? An apology.

I thought you said coffee and I said, I'm with you an apology.

You're waiting for the other person to move.

You're waiting for the other person to act.

You're waiting for the other person to soften their heart and

come and say you know I was really wrong.

I am sorry. I think this caused you a lot of

pain. And I am sorry.

Those are really difficult words to say, right?

Maybe you just need to practice it, you can turn to your

neighbor and saying I'm sorry. So now, you know, you can do it.

You can make that move. That reconciliation move, except

that's not what God did. God didn't wait for you to come

to him and apologize. God didn't wait for you to feel

sorry. God didn't wait for you to feel

the pain that he felt. God, moved first.

And all the fullness of God is present in the body of Jesus.

As he says, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down

because the father has given me authority to lay it down and to

take it back up. And so God moved first to love.

God moved first to forgive. God moved first to breathe life.

And all those who were dead apart from him.

God moves first to reconcile. What was unreconciled label.

It required blood. It required life and on this

occasion, he didn't ask anyone else to do it but he said I will

do it. in John 3, we spoke of this last month that that little

verse for God. So loved the world that he gave

his only son, that whoever believes in him shall have, God

loves you that much. Did he would move first?

This Rift between us and God. Created and creates hostility.

It creates, hardness it creates, Rejection, it creates Pride.

Pride is a strange thing when we think of sin pride is a strange

thing. When we think of Reconciliation.

But pride is not so strange in the academy, is it?

The pride of her accomplishments, the pride of

what we say, we will do the pride of what we can be.

There's an author. Her name's Frederica.

Matthews, Green. She's written a lot of books on

occasion. She writes for newspapers, like

the Washington Post and she says that when she was a kid, she had

lots of faith around eight or nine.

She would go around and tell her her parents that she wanted to

be a nun. And they're like, we're going to

have none of that. And so she learned pretty

quickly, that somehow being religious wasn't all that good.

Don't be too religious. And so, progressively over the

next 10 years of her life, she began to just shut it down.

Shut it down, shut it down to, ultimately, she would say, I've

tried to be an atheist. I've tried to be an act Gnostic.

I've tried even other religions. She said, the religion, she

liked the most was Hinduism. She said it's so colorful But

she said it was a strange experience that pulled her out

of all of that. She and her husband were on

their honeymoon and they had traveled to Ireland. and in

Dublin, What else do you do you visit churches?

She visited a church. And she felt very anxious as

they went in because her husband had just said the night before,

you know, I'm an atheist. But there's something about

Jesus. I've never encountered anyone

like this before. I know he's speaking the truth

but I'm an atheist. But if Jesus says there's a God,

there must be a god. She said that experience of him

completing an assignment in a class where he was asked to read

a gospel. Made her very nervous going into

that church. She said I didn't want him to be

a Christian. She said, when they walked

through the church, she went to the corner.

I'm just was sitting down when she looked in and saw a white

marble statue. It was a statue of Jesus with

his heart exposed. And Thorns were wrapping around

it and Flames were coming out of it.

It was strange art. But suddenly, she realized as

she looked she had fallen on her knees. and she said it was if

there was a radio that clicked on in her head, Anna voice.

It said, I am your life. you thought that your life was in

your history, in your name, in your personality, you thought

that your life was the fact that your heart beats but that is not

your life. I am your life.

I am the foundation of everything else in your life.

She says, it was pretty indisputable as to, who was

talking to me? She said, I started reading the

Bible. I found that I disagreed with

Jesus about a lot of things. But something had happened to me

in that church and I realized that I didn't know anything

about the world. And she said, gradually, I came

to Faith? And my husband came to Faith and

then several months went by and our friend said to us, we'll

have you ever given your heart to Jesus.

Have you ever asked Jesus to be Lord?

And and she says, I didn't know quite what to say him.

I can only say well we're not Southern Baptists.

She said, you know, you have to think about where I live.

They were the most extreme Christians around in her town.

She said they're the only people.

I knew who asked is Jesus. Lord And he says, well actually

it's for everybody. And they said well, you know,

we're in graduate school. And he says, no even for you.

It's for you. Jesus is Lord.

And so she says the three of them knelt down and prayed and

asked Jesus to be our Lord. She says I had no idea what that

would mean, but I so wanted to find out.

Jesus is Lord of creation and he's lord of the church.

Do you know when we speak of the church?

And this passage in large part were speaking of This Global

sense of the Church of Jesus. He is Lord of the church, but

he's also Lord of these smaller expressions of it.

Whether it be here at origin, or at Tenth or at University

Chapel, or any other congregation in the area, these

gatherings of little congregations are expressions of

the church and Jesus is always seeking to ground into the place

a witness to himself to make this Bull by his body, his

lordship over creation, and over people.

And so, this is why we will follow him to langara and to

Oakridge and we will look to see that God would establish again

of visible witness of his creation and of his new

creation. My father used to say when

asked, do you witness? Do you do evangelism?

My dad will say, well, yeah. And I get up and I go meet with

the church. I remember listening to that as

a kid and thinking that's not enough, is that really enough

but it's the start, isn't it? To go and be a part of the

visible expression of the lordship of Jesus.

To make visible, what would be invisible?

As our connection together as brothers and sisters, our

connection together as the redeemed, the rescued, our

connection as the reconciled. I find that a lot of my friends.

Like to maintain a bit of humanity in their life and

mystery. And so they will say I'm

religious, I'm spiritual, but not religious I'm spiritual but

not religious. Our hyper individualism has

rejected the lordship of Jesus. And it is the lordship of Jesus

that calls us to Value his body. The church It is the lordship of

Jesus that calls us in some way to maintain connection, even

when our lives get complicated and busy and the seasons of our

life change, it is the lordship of Jesus that calls us back into

connection with each other. He says, by this the world will

know Your love for each other. That you are my disciples.

There was a pastor named Philip Johnson in 1969.

The year after I was born, he accepted an assignment to Pastor

11 churches in Newfoundland. Now, I don't know about you but

pastoring 11 churches would be really stressful, but he was

doing a circuit. So he pastored one church.

That was larger and then ten other little congregations.

He would travel to it on the weekend and they would meet

together on one occasion. The first time he went, he

traveled 40 miles. To go and visit a congregation

that morning. One person showed up It was a

fisherman who had traveled 20 miles.

And so while Pastor Johnson was tempted to say let's just pray

and go home. He realized, oh my we have both

traveled 60 miles to be here, so maybe I should run the service.

So he said we did everything. We did it all.

We did the hymns, we did the readings, we did the prayers, I

did the sermon, we did the Lord's Supper, we did the

benediction, we did it all, and he said, then I went to the back

door and I stood there and I shook his hand.

And he said, I didn't think it went all that.

Well, because the whole time that we did all of that

together, this man kept his head down. but at the door after

shaking his hand, the fishermen said Reverend I've been

thinking, I've been thinking for about 30 years to become a

Christian. And today is the day.

Nothing is wasted. Done in faith with Jesus, who is

Lord? Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we set our lives before you and thank you

for the son who is Lord of creation and Lord of the church

and we surrender Our Lives. Once again, we open our hearts

to you. We bend the knee and declare

that Jesus is Lord. Oh, Come Holy Spirit and fill us

revive. Vive your church, do your

creation work again in the chaos and mess of our lives and

relationships and busyness somehow break in Lord and

restore to us. Our first love, our first love

for you. Our first love for your church.

Oh, Come Lord Jesus and work Among Us.

Oh, Come Lord Jesus and work Among Us.