Christ Is More Than Enough | Chad Lewis | Colossians 1:15-20

Thank you for joining us for a sermon from Sojourn North.

I'm excited about today.

I I think uh in our culture we know what it is to be first place.

Yeah, football season just kicked off, and um I already talked about a little bit that with friends this morning, but how about UK yesterday?

Something else.

That's more clapping than I've got for sermon.

So but uh we know what it's first place.

It's like, yes, we want to go championships, NBA, NHL, everything else, golf championships, there's four majors through the year.

But we have events that only take place every four years: the World Cup, big deal, soccer, and then the Olympics.

Once every four years, and we know what that center spot is representative of.

It is the gold medalist, it is the supreme honor you've worked your whole life, and you are the best in the world at something.

And it's it's huge, and that's a that's an honor uh that can't be taken away.

So we understand what it means to be first place, and in our lives there are things that are first place.

And we talked about it in Galatians that there are times where we drift and Jesus isn't first place anymore.

And we talked about post-Pentecost Peter drifting and Paul having to call him out.

We drift as well.

And so Colossians isn't asking whether something will be first place in your life, it's asking who is first place in your life.

And so, as we look at today's message, we we talked about it a little bit in our overview of Colossians uh two weeks ago, but this is the pivotal point, kind of the theological height, the summit of the mountain on Colossians.

Everything else is based on this, how we live our lives, because this is what is true about Christ.

Some theologians think this is a Christ hymn, that's why it's structured as such.

Whether it is, or Paul comes up with this on his own through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we know that these things are to be celebrated, and these are the truths that are the foundation of our very existence.

And so, with that in mind, if you wish, I'd invite you to stand for the reading of God's Word.

We're going to look at Colossians 1, 15 through 20.

And I'd invite you to think about three first as we look at this.

Jesus is first over creation, he's first from the dead, so that Jesus may be first place in everything.

So let's hear what Paul writes.

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

For everything was created by him 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, and by him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body of the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Well, today's sermon title is Christ is More Than Enough.

And the phrase that kept sticking out to me as I read this passage over and over again is Christ, first in all things, first place in all things.

And I did I did soul searching this week, and I think we it's good for us to do such things, just to ask, Lord, what parts of my life aren't in full submission to you?

What where have where have I held on to something or not had open hands with you?

And so it was it was a beautiful invitation, I think, from the Lord to slow down and to ask, where do I find myself in this story?

And so my question for you this morning, as we look in the scripture, is just to say, Lord, where am I in this story?

Where's my heart?

Where am I maybe begrudgingly obeying?

And obedience is beautiful.

But God desires to move us from a begrudging obedience to a joyful obedience to a full submission with open hands.

And so find yourself in the story.

The Colossian church needs this message.

We need it just as much today.

So here's the first point Christ is supreme over creation.

Verse 15 again.

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

Today I want to spend some time talking about these first, but I want to talk about firstborn and what this means.

It's the Greek word protocos, and firstborn is used two different ways in this passage: firstborn over all creation, and firstborn from the dead.

Now, firstborn does not mean that Jesus was created at some point or that he didn't exist.

Firstborn in the first century meant just the rights and the authority, the inheritance, the supremacy of the firstborn son.

It's interesting in dynamic equivalence translations of the Bible, like the New Living Translation, that translate from thought to thought rather than word for word.

They don't even say firstborn, they say supreme, because firstborn means supreme, and we don't see that in this day and age as they did in the first century.

But they would have seen that and said, this is supremacy.

Even the rabbis called Yahweh firstborn of the world.

Not that he was born, but that he is supreme over the world.

And Paul goes on to explain that the supremacy, this rank, this inheritance, this authority is because everything was created by him, through him, and for him.

And it's his.

And not only that, he holds all these things together.

So Jesus is supreme over creation.

In the past, I've had great joy in showing universe slides, and I've updated some of the stats because the more time goes by, the more the Hubble Space Telescope has been able to see, the more NASA has updated stats.

So I want to take you on a little tour of our solar system, our galaxy, and our universe just real quick.

But I want you to think about this.

The very things we see in the night sky are the very things that were spoken into existence by our God.

So the first image is the earth.

This is a real picture.

It's taken from 22,000 miles above the earth.

The circumference of the earth is 25,000 miles.

We think Earth is enormous, and it is to us, isn't it?

It's huge to us.

But let's scan out a little bit.

Our solar system is this, and this is our sun.

It's fast, we we rotate around the sun and elliptical paths.

But how many earths could fit inside our sun?

1.3 million earths could fit into the sun by volume.

Now let's talk about the distance.

Earth is roughly 93 million miles from the sun.

And if you flew, I like to do this conversion where you fly in a jet airplane going approximately 600 miles per hour, because we can't, at least I'll speak for myself, I can't understand just the speed of light, you know, per second.

I can't even remember what it is.

186,000 miles per second?

280?

It's something like that.

It's fast.

Fast.

But I can think about 600 miles per hour in a jet airplane.

So if you were to get in a jet airplane and just go towards the sun, it would take you 17 and a half years of continuous flying to get there.

That would be a long trip.

I hope they have uh extra peanuts on that trip.

Unless you have an allergy, then no peanuts for you.

Now, our solar system, it's huge.

But our solar system is a tiny piece of the Milky Way galaxy.

You see that little statement there, there's Earth and our solar system.

The sun is it's a pretty big star, but there are bigger stars in our Milky Way galaxy.

The Milky Way galaxy has what's estimated 100 billion to 400 billion stars.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, is a hundred thousand light years across.

So our solar system sits about 26,000 light years from the center.

And so if you're in a jet airplane and you were just going from one edge of the Milky Way all the way across in a jet airplane, it would take you a hundred and twenty billion years to get across it at airplane speed.

That's the Milky Way galaxy.

120 billion years.

Now, this is where our head starts to hurt because the Milky Way galaxy is one galaxy.

I'll show you this picture.

This is one snapshot of galaxies in our universe.

NASA says this shot is approximately 15,000 galaxies.

Milky Way being one of the spiral galaxies in there, I'm not sure which one.

Now, what really will blow our minds is that this snapshot has 15,000 galaxies represented in this picture.

Astronomers believe there are two trillion galaxies in the observable universe, and that's an estimation.

Two trillion.

It's unfathomable.

That is what our God spoke into existence.

There are roughly eight billion people on the planet alive.

If every person who's breathing on planet Earth were put in charge of galaxies, each of us would get 250 galaxies.

The Milky Way being one of those.

Just one of 250.

I can't keep up with 250 many things.

I don't even know.

Just thinking about, it's mind-blowing.

I was talking with a friend yesterday, uh, my friend Scott Holman, I talked to every week for the last 18 years, and we were just thinking, like, what is eternity going to be like?

Why did God the vastness of all this?

It definitely declares his glory.

But the new heavens and new earth, we got this universe.

C.

S.

Lewis talks about us being able to transport.

You know how Jesus just appeared in the room in his resurrected body with the disciples?

That we could just appear different places, come back and say, hey, look at what God created.

Listen to this.

Here's some pictures.

I don't think we'll have iPhones in heaven, but I bet we'll be able to show some pictures.

Look at this.

Look at this stark construction.

Look how big this is.

All declaring the glory of God.

Jesus is supreme over creation.

All things created by him, through him, and for him.

Jesus is supreme.

Before there was anything, there was Christ.

And so Christ is supreme over creation, but Paul doesn't stop there.

He takes it to the next step and he says, Christ is supreme over redemption.

I want to read verses 18 through 20 again, because this is the gospel story.

He, Jesus, is also the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn, supreme from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.

And we think, hearken back to Philippians 2 when we were talking about Jesus, part of our triune God, pouring himself out, not grasping onto his rights as part of the Godhead, but relinquishing those rights to come be born a baby, helpless babe.

And through him, what did he accomplish?

To reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

And this is the biblical storyline.

This is the bigger story that we've been talking about for many, many months now.

As we've looked at Galatians and Philippians and created for community, and now as we look through Colossians, that the bigger story is this.

It's that the world was created, and the vastness of the universe, and then our earth, it was very good that he created humanity, Adam and Eve.

And it was just at that point that creation was set, and then we don't know how much time passed in the garden, but we know that there's this great fall, cataclysmic.

And there's no place that on this earth that we're where sin is not touched.

And so death enters the world, destruction enters the world, sin enters the world.

And so there's creation, there's a fall, and because of that fall, there's separation from God, and there is no peace with God.

But ever since the beginning, even at that moment, God knew that this plan would be set into place, this redemption plan.

And so all throughout the Old Testament, there's a scarlet thread pointing to the coming of what he says by making peace through his blood shed on the cross, through the animal sacrifices, that could not take away sin permanently, but a picture of what was to come, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And so creation, fall, we're hopeless.

God doesn't leave us without hope.

He brings God with flesh, walks this earth, the perfect eternal sacrifice for us.

And then the story's not done because there will be a day of restoration where he makes all things new, the new heavens, new earth.

And even in this passage, Paul touches on all these things.

The fall is not explicitly mentioned, but it's implied because why would you need redemption unless there is the fall?

But then redemption, when Christ makes peace through his blood on the cross, and at the end, restoration, where Christ will make all things new, he stands at the center of every chapter of the scripture.

This is our God.

And he is the firstborn from the dead.

And if you think about those who are even raised from the dead in the scriptures, whether it's Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, the widow of Nain's son, all of these people who were raised by Jesus, anyone who was raised up, they died again.

So Lazarus died twice.

But Jesus is the first to be raised with a resurrection body.

And the beauty of it, that he can go places and appear places, he can eat food, picture the new heavens, new earth.

He is the first in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15, this is our hope.

It says Christ is the first fruits of all those who've fallen asleep.

He's the first to be resurrected, and all those who fall have fallen asleep, those who've passed, will be raised again.

Let me read Revelation 1.5.

It's the same truth that the Apostle John writes.

He says in verse 5, as he begins Revelation, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

And what did he do?

To him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood.

Don't forget the King of Kings, whom loves us.

And he set us free by his blood.

So this leads us to our last point.

Christ is more than enough for today.

And this is where the application takes point, takes place in big ways.

Because Paul says, He has done all this.

He's supreme over creation, he's supreme over redemption, so that he may be supreme in your life, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

So if Christ is first in creation over all creation, Christ is first in redemption.

Is Christ first in your life?

It's not just some cognitive ascent that we long to have that it's just like, well, I understand that.

It's an all-encompassing soul thing.

It's it's love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

It's it's all of us.

And it's a growing, it's a deepening.

It's not a one and done, it's a it's a daily life activity.

So the first question for application is is Jesus first in your life?

Or is it Jesus plus success?

And I do believe, guys, I want you to hear my heart.

It's not that I think in the complexity of our soul, the complexity of who we are as humans, that we we can relinquish what we can relinquish.

There are things that we there are things in my soul that I don't even know are there that I think God doesn't reveal to me until He wants to because He knows I can't handle it.

So I think I'm gonna go existential, okay?

So it's like this progression of sanctification, of becoming more like Christ.

It's up and down.

And God reveals, and then in that time we have this choice.

He gives us the agency to say, no, I'm gonna cling to this.

It's like smeagal with the ring and Lord of the Rings.

It's like my precious.

It's like, no, I'm gonna stay with this.

But we know that it brings us heartache.

Because the things of this earth can never satisfy our soul.

And as we get heartache after heart, it's like, Lord, I those things can't satisfy.

I come to you.

And so to say today, Lord, with all that I have, with all that I know of myself, I desire for you to be first in all things.

And maybe he's pricking your heart right now to some place that you're holding on, that you're clutching to, that you're saying, I will keep this, this is my precious.

And he's asking you to relinquish it.

To come with open hands and say, Lord, you are my good.

You alone are my good.

So Paul says, it's not Jesus plus success, it's not Jesus plus control, it's not Jesus plus financial security or perfect health or my own righteousness.

It's not, it's Jesus alone.

Christ is enough.

So that's the first application.

The second one is Christ is enough.

There are fearful things in this world.

I I think about two different things.

Uh conflict in the world with Iran.

What's it's huge.

Other one, AI.

Have y'all been tracking watching the news?

AI is gonna destroy us all, they say.

I don't know.

We can have comfort amidst fear.

Why?

Because the same God who created everything we just looked at is the same God who rules and reigns.

He's not in the heavens going, I hope AI doesn't take over, I hope it doesn't become superintelligent and spin out of control.

And I don't know what's going to happen.

I don't have a view into the future.

I know things on earth get rocky at times.

I know conflicts, wars.

Read Psalm 46.

We don't control that, but we do know whatever takes place that God is in control, that He's got you.

Whether, like the disciples who are freaking out on the boat and Jesus is asleep and they're like, Jesus, we're going to die.

Whether that boat sank, which it didn't, because Jesus speaks and calms the storm, or it stays afloat, they're with Jesus, they're okay, and Jesus will take them home.

Jesus will bring you home.

To have comfort in the midst of so much uncertainty.

And to be able to sit with the Lord and just say, Lord, I'm anxious, I'm hurting, to be where you are and not pretend that you're someplace you're not, because he can hold you in that place, in the place of desperation, in the place of unknowing.

And he's not saying, get out of that place.

Come on, come on, get out.

He's saying, I'm with you.

Great as thy faithful, I will bring you.

I will bring you for.

But trust in me.

So three beautiful firsts.

First over creation, first from the dead, that he might be first place in your life.

So as we come to communion today, I have this card in your bulletin, and maybe you've filled it out.

You can bring it this week or next week if you wish to participate.

The desire is that it's just an intentional step in community.

And the reason I put other down there, because it might be, I want to just talk to my neighbor.

I want to reach out to them more than I have.

Whatever it may be, it's you moving towards some sort of community.

And you will put this in here.

We have an elder meeting this Thursday night.

We're going to pull out the cards and we'll pray over them.

We'll try to help you get plugged in to wherever you've asked to be plugged in.

But it's us just saying, Lord, this is the next step that I want to take because you are first.

And you can place it here in this basket as you come.

And as you come today, as you take some bread and some juice back to your seat.

And our tradition here is that you take it and you just hold it, and I'll help us all participate in that at the same time after everyone receives the elements.

But if you're a Christian, you've surrendered to Christ, come forward with encouragement.

And remember, He's inviting you, saying, relinquish.

I know you thought this way would work or that it'd bring you happiness, but it can't.

Relinquish to me and find comfort.

This is our God who went to the cross so that we might be set free to have peace with God.

Let's pray together.

Father, I thank you for this amazing passage.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd move in our hearts, that you'd speak to us with challenge if that is what's needed this morning, with comfort for others, if that is what's needed.

And I pray that we'd be able to listen and hear.

Lord, for those who need to be challenged to relinquish some aspect that they've been holding on to, that they've been clenching with their fists.

This is mine.

And you gently invite us to open this up to you, Lord, to find freedom where we haven't found it before.

To find life where we haven't found it before.

And Lord, for those who are suffering and those who are in despair, those who are depressed, that look out and they don't see hope or on the horizon, that you'd bring comfort to them.

Those who are fearful of what may take place this day or tomorrow or in the future, that they could see, even in the vastness of the universe as we've looked today, that you are in control and you're good.

And even as the Apostle John said in Revelation, that you love us.

You're committed to us.

Jesus, be near us now and speak to our hearts in beautiful ways.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.