The Supremacy of Christ | Adam Ogborne

Well, good morning, church.

It's uh it's great to be here with you this morning.

My name is Adam.

I am the uh pastoral intern here, and it's great to be back, and I'm excited to dig into God's word uh with you this morning.

If you have your Bibles, uh I would ask you to open it up to Colossians 1, 115.

If you don't have a Bible, our ushers are going to be coming down the aisle.

And if you just put up your hand or flag one of them down, they'll get a Bible into your hands.

And you don't have to return this.

This is our gift to you.

We would love for you to have a copy of God's Word.

So Colossians 1.

But something I find interesting, and it's thinking about this this idea that we can trust professionals in our midst.

And who is really the most trusted professional and why do we trust them so quickly?

And I found out that doctors for generations are consistently rated among the highest trusted professions in the world.

And if you think about it, it makes sense, right?

We s we get sick, we get hurt, and we need to, you know, go to the doctor, we need something to heal us, we need surgery, you need some operation.

And we don't just trust anybody, we trust somebody that has the specialized skill or or knowledge to do so.

And we can't do that ourselves, right?

That's that's impossible.

It's kind of silly if you think about it, right?

Trying to do your own surgery.

And no one thinks this.

We don't try to do it ourselves, but we place it in the hands of someone who we know is capable.

So why do we trust doctors so implicitly?

Well, because we know they have the knowledge, they have the ability, and they have the tools to do it well.

We all we all know the level of training that they've had to go through.

They've been a decade of school after university.

It's a long time, especially for those in high school right now.

If you want to be a doctor, that's you know, you're a little worried.

But then there's they're supervised.

Uh, if they're in the OR, they're not left alone.

And they're really not left alone until they have uh shown their their capability in the OR and under the training.

So it only makes sense that if we get hurt and if we are sick, that we trust these types of people that have that knowledge and the skill and that power.

And this is the same thing in our lives.

Except when we run into problems, like really big like actual issues in our life, our first reaction, unfortunately, isn't to think we is to think that we can fix them.

And we try to control the situation.

But we often make a mess of these things, and we realize that all of our efforts end in failure, and we just make everything worse.

It's like trying to do our own heart surgery, right?

It's impossible.

What we need to do is to run to the one who has the knowledge, who has the ability, and the power to do something.

This is our God, this is our Christ, this is our Jesus.

And we are often like the person in need of a heart transplant, thinking we can fix our own problems, but what we need to do is surrender to the one who has control over everything.

And when I say everything, I mean everything, and we're gonna see that in the text right now.

So if you have your Bibles again, Colossians 1, 15, and we'll go through 20.

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

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.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body of the church.

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

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 the cross.

Amen.

Paul shows us here that because Christ is supreme over everything, we can surrender our lives to him.

Part of the problem is that we often think of ourselves more highly than we should.

We we think we have more control or power than we really do.

But what's important is that we need to be like John the Baptist, who says, He must increase and I must decrease.

We need to think of Christ so highly that when and at the same time think of ourselves so low and compared to him that we end up running to him faster and faster every single day with all of our problems.

And one way we can increase uh Christ in our lives and this understanding is to learn more about his character and his abilities and his works.

That way you'll be more ready to surrender to him, just like we do with doctors.

Now, I in my I teach high school, and what I like to do in high school is a thought exercise with my students, and it's to help show uh help them grasp how big certain numbers really are, and show the limitations of having only a cursory knowledge of something.

And what I end up driving them is to how big this number, billions or trillion really is.

And we're like, yeah, it's big, but most of us don't really fully grasp how big it is.

So I started off by getting them to guess uh how long a million seconds would be.

I let them think, and you know, they're kind of all over the place.

Uh but you know, weeks or in days, and it what it is, it's it's 12 days.

So a million seconds is 12 days.

You're like, okay, that that's good.

But the the real part of the exercise is then how big is a billion?

You know, they're like, okay, you know, thinking, and it's like, okay, maybe a maybe a month, maybe two months, maybe six.

It's 32 years.

Right?

For a bil a million to a billion, that that's the difference.

12 days, 32 years.

What about a trillion?

32,000 years.

Right?

So like it's just mind-blowing the difference.

That's what that's like five times longer than from now until Adam and Eve, right?

All of history, that's kind of crazy.

Right?

But now you have the understanding, you have a better understanding of the the word trillion and hopefully a little bit more appreciation.

But to get to the point, this is the same thing with Christ.

We say general truths that are really amazing and incredible, like he is all powerful, uh, he is all-knowing.

But if we leave it at that, it won't change us.

We we won't understand it.

So we need to dig deeper into his characteristics and his abilities and what he has done so that we are truly in awe of him and we can surrender to him without hesitation.

We need to know God.

We really need to know God.

We need to we need an intimate relationship with Christ where we can see his power and his ability to do all things.

This is the power of study in Christ.

We end up leaning on him more uh uh more and more each day when we see that he is truly the only one who is capable to do so.

So we can see in these verses that Christ is supreme over everything, he's supreme over first creation, he's supreme over the church, he is supreme over reconciliation, and if he is supreme over everything, then we can to then we can surrender to him in all things.

So, first let's uh what we see is that we can surrender to Christ because he is supreme over creation over creation.

As we look at what Paul wrote here at the at the beginning, we start to see how truly great Christ is.

If you're told to trust somebody with your life, you need to know whether that person is trustworthy, whether they are able to do what they say they can, and whether they have the ability and the power to actually follow through with that.

You don't just hand your life over to anybody, you evaluate them, you examine them, and you want to know can this person actually handle what I'm giving them?

This is exactly what Paul is doing here.

He's not just giving us information, he's building a case.

He is showing us who Jesus is so that when we are called to surrender, we understand why.

He is laying the foundation so that our surrender is not blind, it is informed, it is reasonable, and it is necessary.

It's necessary to surrender to him.

So, first he says in verse 15 that Christ is the image of the invisible God, and later on he says that the fullness of God dwells in him.

Christ is God.

And how amazing is that.

The savior that we have is not just a helper, he's not just a teacher, not a prophet, but he is God himself.

That means when we talk about surrender, we are not talking about giving our lives to someone who is limited and who has to learn or who has to improve in areas.

We are talking about giving our lives to the eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful God.

The one who sees everything, who knows everything, who has the authority over everything.

And we could stop right there and I could leave, and you'd be like, yeah, Christ, that's awesome.

But what but we need to know more.

We we need to, like understanding a trillion, we under, we need to know more about who Christ is, because the deeper of your your understanding of Christ, the easier your surrender becomes.

The deeper your understanding of Christ, the easier your surrender becomes.

This is the beauty of studying theology, by the way.

A little plug for that.

It informs us and it allows us to surrender to him easier and easier.

Paul then says that he is the firstborn of all creation.

Now, this is not this is not saying he was created, by the way.

This is speaking of his authority.

In ancient culture, the the firstborn, they had rights over everything.

They would inherit everything.

So Paul is not saying that he was created, rather, it's the fact that he is saying Christ has authority over all things.

And then he explains in in verse 16 there, for by all by him all things were recreated, 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.

That means everything you see and everything you don't see exists because of Christ and for Christ.

Think about that.

This is uh the universe is not random.

Life is not random, nothing is accidental, everything exists for Christ.

That includes you in your life.

And yet we live as if our life belongs to us.

And just understanding the creative power of Christ leaves me in awe of him more and more.

And the more I study his creation, it leaves me speechless.

One of the greatest privileges I have is I also teach sciences.

I teach high school sciences, and I get to study how the world works through biology and chemistry and physics.

And every time I learn something new, I can see the glory and power in his creation.

And here what's here's what constantly amazes me is that everything the scientists are trying to figure out, Christ already made.

Right?

He knows those things.

He made the galaxies, he made the stars, the planets, he made the exact distance between the earth and the sun so life can exist.

He made water with properties that sustain life.

He made DNA that, by the way, has an equivalent of four letters.

He made it so complex with information that we are still trying to figure it out.

He made atoms, electrons, uh, forces, and energy.

He made everything.

And the deeper you study it, the more complex it gets.

And yet Christ didn't just make it, he designed it with precision.

Every law, every system, every interaction, it is it is held together perfectly.

And then we look at our lives and we think we know better.

Right?

We think we can control things better than the one who designed the universe.

May God open our eyes and behold his wondrous works.

But Paul doesn't stop there.

At the end of verse 16, he says, Christ created not only the visible, but the invisible, the thrones, the powers, the rulers, and authorities.

And here he was referring to the spiritual realm.

He mentions this throughout his other epistles.

Everything in that realm answers to Christ.

We often think of the spiritual world like it's this equal battle between good and evil, because that's, well, frankly, what we see in movies, and that's what our culture thinks, right?

And that's what is entertaining.

But that's not what the scripture teaches us.

We see in scripture consistently that even the demons have to ask for permission.

You can go through all the gospels, but one example here is in Mark 5.

The demons beg Jesus to send them into pigs.

They don't act on their own, they ask him for permission.

Even Satan operates under these limitations.

If you look in the book of Job, Satan cannot touch Job without God allowing it.

He can't go beyond what God permits.

There's no moment in this world where Christ is struggling for control.

There is no scenario where things are slipping through his fingers.

In fact, we have the whole story right here in front of us.

He tells us how things are going to end.

And we know what's going to happen, right?

Christ our King is victorious.

Amen.

Amen.

Our king is victorious.

But then Paul brings it even closer here.

He says in verse 17, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

This means Christ is not just the creator, he is also the sustainer.

So right now, in this moment, everything continues because he is actively holding it together.

Your heart beating right now is because he is sustaining it.

You can breathe right now because he sustains it and he allows it.

The world continues in order because he is sustaining it.

If he were to remove his sustaining power even for a moment, everything would fall apart.

And yet we act like we are the ones holding our lives together.

We act like everything depends on us.

We stress, we plan, we worry, and we try to control.

But the reality is you're not holding your life together.

Christ is.

And that's what changes everything.

Because catch this, if he is already holding everything together, then surrender is not losing control.

It is recognizing who actually has it.

Surrender is not losing control, it is recognizing who actually has it.

So why don't we surrender?

It's because we're afraid.

We're afraid that if we let go, things will fall apart.

We're afraid that God's plans won't match our own desires.

We're afraid that we won't be happy.

So we we cling to control, but we cling and it's like holding water in your hand, and the tighter you squeeze, the faster it slips away.

You try to control your future and you get anxious.

You try to control outcomes of scenarios and you become frustrated.

You try to control your relationships and yet and you get disappointed.

It's because you were never meant to carry that weight.

That is Christ's.

It's like you're this person needing a new heart, and instead of going to the doctor, you see the problem and you think you can fix it.

You try the surgery on yourself and you predictably fail and just make a mess of things and you just make it worse.

You know, that's what we do when we try to act on our own.

We face problems by ourselves instead of going to Christ, who is the one who can fix them.

We keep operating on ourselves, we keep making it worse, and then we wonder why everything is a mess in our lives.

The reality is we don't have the knowledge, we don't have the tools, we don't have the ability or the power, but Christ does, and he is inviting you to come to him and surrender your control.

So, what are you holding on to?

Your plans, your futures, your careers, your relationships.

The call is simple, but it's not easy.

Release control, trust Christ and surrender your life to him.

Because the one who created everything, rules everything, and sustains everything, and he is the one who is holding your life.

He controls the outcomes of every situation.

And Christ is worthy of this trust.

And what is awesome is that when you trust him, your stress then goes down, and then your rest goes up.

When you trust him, your anxiety goes down and your peace will go up.

When you trust him, your frustration in this world, it goes down, and then your joy comes up.

Don't you want that?

Isn't this something we want?

This joy, this peace?

Trust him, and you won't be sorry.

I promise you.

But Paul doesn't stop at showing Christ's supremacy over the entire universe.

The one who created everything, the one who holds everything together, is also the one who leads and cares for his people.

So not only is Christ supreme over creation, but he's also supreme over the church.

That is our second point here.

Our church, uh we we surrender to Christ because he's supreme over the church.

If you look back at verse 18, it says, and he is the head of the body of the church.

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

The church really is an anomaly in this world, isn't it?

If you think about it, the church isn't built on status or power, but it's built on grace and mercy.

It doesn't divide us among race or culture or the rich or the poor, but it is united together in the work of Christ in the church.

Where the world will tell me how how great I am and how great a person I am, the church shows us how great Christ is.

You know, this institution was not made by human hands, and it is not ours.

It is Christ's.

The church points to the work that our Lord and Savior.

Has done the power and supremacy he has over life and sin and death, and it gives hope to those who are lost and hurt and broken.

The church is not just a gathering of people, it is a living body that belongs to Christ, and every part of it exists for him and through him.

As we examine the uh the work that Christ has done in the church, we we see he has supremacy over it because of these four things.

He died to purchase it, he rose to give it life, he sent the spirit to form it, and he's ruling at its head.

Everything about the church comes from Christ.

He's not just involved in the church, he is the reason it exists, and he is the one who sustains it every moment, just like his creation.

So first let's look at uh he purchased to die, uh he died to purchase it.

Acts 20, 28 says, uh the church was obtained with his own blood.

In Ephesians 5 it says, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

The church is founded on his substitutionary, sacrificial death.

Through his death we have forgiveness of sins and we receive his righteousness.

This is not some small cost to Christ.

This is the greatest cost that could ever be paid in all of human history.

The church is precious because it was bought with the blood of Christ.

He died for you, he died for us.

But he didn't stay dead.

We celebrated this not that long ago.

He didn't stay dead.

Second, we see he was raised to life so that the church and his people may have life.

That you would have life.

Without his resurrection, we would have no hope that we would rise from the dead and go to heaven.

He is the firstborn from the dead, the first true resurrected body that will never die again.

He paid the penalty for sin and conquered death because he lives, the church lives.

Because he conquered death, the church has hope beyond this life.

The life of the church is directly tied to the life of Christ.

And after he was raised, we see thirdly that he sent the Spirit to form the church and give us power.

At Pentecost, the church was formed and believers received the Holy Spirit.

He sent the Spirit and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Each member and each Christian is given gifts according to his will so that we can build up the body of Christ.

The church is not sustained by human strength, but by the power of the Spirit working in and through us.

It is the Spirit that unites us, equips us, and empowers us to serve one another and to ultimately glorify Christ.

And finally, we see at the end there that He is ruling at its head.

Christ is in charge of this church.

Not the pastors, not our elders, but Christ.

Everything we do must be for his glory.

In our every decision at this church, every program, every act of service must point back to him and to the gospel.

A church without Christ is like a body without a head.

And it's dead.

It may look active, it may look organized, but without Christ, it has no life.

I love the picture of Jesus in Revelation 1.

If you've never read it, I would suggest reading it.

But it shows him where he is in the midst of the churches, right?

The resurrected Christ, not before this.

The resurrected Christ is in the midst of the churches.

He's walking among them, he sees them, he knows them, he's caring for them, he guides, protects, he encourages and rebukes them.

He has the authority over the church.

But he also has this deep love for the church.

The church is his bride.

And he has this intimate relationship with it.

And in heaven, we will have this same intimate relationship with Christ if you are a part of the church, a part of his body.

He corrects it when it strays, he strengthens it when it's weak, and he is actively involved in our church.

Again, this is not something that's stopped.

It's not something just in the Bible and Revelation.

This is happening now.

He is still in the midst of our church right now.

He is guiding and protecting and building us up.

Don't you see?

This is it's all about him.

Hopefully you're seeing this.

It's all about Christ.

So how do we respond?

How do we respond to Christ's headship and his supremacy over the church?

We surrender to his leadership.

We obey his word.

We submit to the leaders that he has appointed over the church.

Hebrews 13, 17 tells us to obey our leaders, submit to them, because they are keeping watch over our souls.

When we resist the authority in the church, we are ultimately resisting Christ.

And let's be honest, none of us really likes to submit.

We want things our own way.

But again, the church does not belong to us.

It belongs to Christ.

He is the head, he is the authority, and when we surrender to his leadership, it is for our own good.

It is advantageous for us because the church is Christ's primary means of blessing for his people.

Blessing you, by the way, right?

That's what we're talking about.

You.

In the church, our our needs are met as we serve one another.

We grow together.

We are corrected.

We are encouraged.

We worship Christ together.

We hear his word preached.

We are shaped and molded into Christ's likeness.

We can find the joy, the peace, the hope, and the contentment that we all long for right here in the church.

The church is for the broken, it's the broken in spirit.

It's for those who recognize they need the help.

It is for those who need to grow.

It is where we find that support, accountability, encouragement.

It's where we learn to live in our faith in community.

It is where Christ works in us and through us.

So don't stay on the outside.

Don't stay on the outside.

Don't remain distant.

Don't try to hold on to control.

Surrender to Christ through his church.

Be involved.

Serve.

Submit.

You can trust Christ's leadership.

If the creator of the universe has made a place where he promises to bless you, would you stay away from that?

That's silly, right?

Why would you hold back?

Why would you try to do life on your own?

The church is where Christ blesses his people, and it is open to all who would come to him.

Because Christ is supreme over the church, we must submit to his leadership.

There's no other response that makes sense.

If he purchased it, he gives it life, he forms it, he rules it, then he deserves our full surrender.

So surrender to Christ, submit to his leadership, trust his design for the church, and live under his authority because he is supreme over all things and he is worthy of your whole life.

But even that raises a deeper question.

If Christ is the head of the church, if he leads it, sustains it, gives it life, how do we become a part of it in the first place?

How do broken, sinful people like us become his people?

And the answer is this it's through his work of reconciliation.

That's the foundation of everything.

So we can surrender to Christ because he is supreme over reconciliation.

If we look back at verse 19 and 20, it says, 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.

When you really stop and think about what Paul is saying here, it should leave you in awe.

Christ has reconciled all things back to himself.

That means what was broken has been restored.

What was separated has been brought back together, and what was once hostile is now at peace.

And how did he do this?

He didn't, it's not through effort or through moral improvement, but it's through the blood of his cross, right?

Through his sacrifice.

Christ has fixed our relationship with God so that we can now have peace with him.

I don't think we often stop long enough to feel the weight of this peace with God.

We are not neutral with God.

We weren't neutral with God.

We were not just off track or a little distant.

Scripture says that we were enemies.

We had rebelled against the holy God, and because of that, we stood under his judgment.

And this is where I heard a quote a long time ago, and I don't know who it's by, but this quote is so helpful.

It says, God saves us from himself, by himself, for himself.

You know, that can sound uncomfortable, but it's necessary if we're going to understand the gospel correctly.

God is perfectly just, he's perfectly holy, perfectly good, which means he cannot ignore any sin.

If he did, he wouldn't be the just and fair and loving God that he is.

If he overlooked evil, no one would trust him.

So sin must be dealt with.

It must be punished.

So that leaves only two possibilities.

Either you pay for your own sin, or someone else pays for it on your behalf.

And if you are the one who pays for it, that means eternal punishment from God.

That is his wrath.

That is, that's what hell is.

But this is where Christ steps in, right?

On the cross, Jesus takes that punishment for us.

He takes the wrath, he takes what we deserve, and he bears it on himself.

So when I say God saves us from himself, what I mean is that Christ is absorbing the judgment of God so that we don't have to.

And the second part of that, where it says God saves us by himself, you know, this is not something we contribute to.

It's not something we earn.

It's not something we complete by adding works on our own effort to his complete work on the cross.

The entire work of reconciliation is done by Christ alone.

We didn't initiate it, we didn't deserve it, we didn't help complete it.

Christ did it.

This is what secures our salvation.

That's why when we don't strive to survive.

We surrender to what has already been done.

The work is finished.

Amen.

The work is finished.

We don't have to do anything.

The payment has been made, the reconciliation has been accomplished.

And the final part of that verse, or the quote, says, God saves us for himself.

And this is really the goal of it all.

Not just that we, he didn't just save us so that we could escape judgment, but that we would be brought back into a relationship with him.

This is more than just forgiveness.

This is a restoration of us.

It is being brought near to God, to know him, walking with him, and being his, this full reconciliation.

This is why Paul says in Romans 5 that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That hostility is gone.

The barrier has been removed and this relationship has been restored.

And what do we do in response to that?

And what can we do?

What can we do but receive it, accept it?

We don't earn this peace, we receive it.

We don't work our way into it.

We trust in what Christ has already done.

When we surrender to Christ, God no longer sees our sin, but instead he sees the righteousness of Christ that has been credited to us.

Our sin, past, present, future, has all been paid for.

No matter how big, no matter how awful or messy it is, it has all been paid for.

This is why it's such good news.

You don't have to live striving for it.

You don't have to live trying to prove yourself.

You don't have to live wondering if you've done enough.

You can rest.

You can rest.

But Paul also reminds us that this reconciliation is not just personal, as great and awesome as that is.

Are you still holding on to the control you think you have?

Or are you willing to surrender to it?

Because reconciliation is not something you achieve, it's something that you receive.

Christ has already made the peace.

The only thing left is whether you will accept it or not.

So surrender to him.

Rest in his work on the cross.

Trust in what he has done, because Christ is supreme over reconciliation.

He is the only one who can make you truly right with God.

So what have we seen this morning?

We have seen that Christ is supreme over creation.

He has made everything, he sustains everything.

Christ is supreme over the church.

He leads it.

He is its head.

He is supreme over reconciliation.

He alone makes peace between us and God.

And because of that, there is nothing in your life outside of his authority.

Nothing too big, too broken, too small, nothing too far gone.

So the question is not, can Christ handle your life?

The question is, will you surrender your life?

Some of you are still trying to fix your heart by performing your own surgery.

You are just making a mess of things.

You're holding on to control.

You're afraid to let go.

You're afraid his plan will be better than yours.

But but listen, the one who created everything, the one who holds everything together, the one who died to save you, is the one asking you to trust him.

So what are you holding on to?

Your future, your family, your health, your plans, your sin?

Let it go, because Christ, because when you cling to control, you lose freedom.

But when you surrender to Christ, you gain peace.

Church, run to Him, surrender to Him, trust Him in everything, because Christ is supreme over all things.

He is worthy of your life.

I'm going to finish by praying through the Psalm 111 again.

So let's bow our heads as I as we pray through this.

Praise you, our Lord.

I will give you thanks.

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with my whole heart, in the company of the upright in the congregation.

Great are the works of you, Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

Full of splendor and majesty are your works, and your righteousness endures forever.

You have caused your wondrous works to be remembered.

You, Lord, are gracious and merciful.

You provide for food for those who fear you.

You remember your covenant forever.

You have shown your people the power of your works, and in giving them the inheritance of the nations.

The works of your hand are faithful and just.

All your precepts are trustworthy.

They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

You sent redemption to your people, you have commanded your covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is your name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom, and all those who practice it have a good understanding.

Your praise endures forever.

God, would you open our eyes to see your wondrous works in this world and in our church?

Amen.