11/20/2016 Colossians 1:13-20 Series C Grace, Mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loved you with his very life. Amen.
There is this thing in our world today called the “journey of self discovery.” It’s exactly what it sounds like. People spend thousands of dollars and take extravagant trips to “find themselves” and whatever else that means.
What this tells me is that people in our world today are lost and looking for answers. When they examine their own lives, something isn’t to their liking and so they embark on this journey to discover whatever is lacking, perhaps they even seek to bring a new sense of purpose or meaning, new depth to their life.
This is nothing new. For almost as long as there has been people on this planet there has been a quest to find greater meaning in life, to want a life that is more than what you currently have. Even Adam and Eve, who were dwelling in absolute perfection embarked on that journey to have more in their lives when they ate the forbidden fruit from that ancient tree. They wanted to become more complete, to be more like God. They wanted to discover more about who they were, they wanted to be, what was in their eye, more complete. They wanted to be like God.
And that’s just it, when people go on these journeys of self discovery they are on a search to find God, or some semblance of him. People are looking for something bigger than themselves that they can become a part of. This desire is built into creation itself. Paul in Romans 1, puts it this way, “For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in all things which have been made.”
God has built his attributes and characteristics into his creation, not just his human creation, but all of creation, as a reflection of who he is and what he has done. Theologians call this attribute of creation “the natural knowledge of God.” A super clever name right? All of you have encountered this in some way or another. This is the thing that you experience on a clear summer night up north when you see the northern lights and declare “How could anyone not believe in God” Or when you are out on a beach, on a tropical coast somewhere with you family having a wonderful time and you declare, “God is wonderful, look at all his gifts we enjoy.” Or out a lake ice fishing and you are like, “man, life can’t get any better.” There is a universal feeling that there is someone to thank, for enjoying creation. Again, this is called the natural knowledge of God.
While the natural knowledge of God is great, and you can experience the wonder of the majesty of creation, it is limited. While it gives you a sense of “their is a god” it does very little to tell you who specifically that God is. This is one of the reasons that we see so many false gods, both in our world today, and throughout history. There are false gods ranging from the Greek god Zeus to the modern false god of the flying spaghetti monster.
In our text today from Colossians chapter 1, the apostle Paul gives us this wonderful declaration of joy that we know who this God his and what he is about. Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the church year, where we celebrate all that Christ has done for us and we celebrate who he is, namely the son of God sent to save us from our sins.
I want to go through our text for today and look at the beautifully written depiction of who our God is and what he has done. Feel free to follow along on the back of your service folder, in your Bible if you brought it with you, on a Bible app if you have one. We are in Colossians chapter 1, starting at verse 13. Colossians 1:13. Paul writes, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Right out of the gate we hear this wonderful message, God has delivered you out of the domain of darkness, into the kingdom of light! You have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Now if there has ever been a message worth thanking and praising someone for, this is it. Paul tell us specifically who this God is that we all know exists and he tells us why that God is important to us, what he has done for us.
Paul, in this text, declares the most important act of God, Paul tells how God has created and sustained a relationship with his human creatures. God himself has bought and made you a part of the kingdom of his son, his kingdom. This is not just any kingdom, this is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. You have a relationship with God because of what God has done for you.
And he uses this language of a kingdom under the reign of the perfect eternal king, God himself.. You are made a citizen of this kingdom, because Jesus redeemed you, he bought you with his precious blood and paid for your sins with his innocent sufferings and death. Because of this, you are forgiven and you belong in God’s perfect kingdom. Right now, you belong to God and you dwell in his kingdom..
What follows next flows like a hymn of praise, praising God for who he is and what he has done. Some scholars think it was an actual hymn sung in the church. Verse 15, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 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. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
So we know that there is a God, but how do we know that he is Jesus Christ? Paul again tells us. He created everything and he holds everything together. Jesus Christ is fully God. HE does all the things that God does in the Gold Testament. Jesus is not a lesser form of God as some teach.. Jesus is not a new God who came to us in the New Testament as others want to believe. Some argue that the God of the Old Testament was an angry God and Jesus is a caring and kind God who is all about love. That’s to simple of an answer. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. Jesus is the God who created everything. More than that, Jesus is the God who holds all things together, like you and me.
Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the church year. Today we celebrate Jesus Christ, who is king over all things, who created all things and holds all things together. In the days and weeks leading up to the election, I saw a post quite commonly on Facebook. It was a picture of an “I voted” sticker and it has the words, “No matter who is president, Jesus is King.” And that’s true, but what does it mean when we say that Jesus is king?
It means that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and he reigns above all things, including sin and death. Nothing has authority over Jesus. And that is a very comforting message for us today.
Before people are in the kingdom of Christ, they dwell in the domain of darkness. The domain, the kingdom which is ruled by an unholy tribunal, the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh. The kingdom of darkness is a place of sickness, hunger, famine, need, sadness, and death. The kingdom of darkness is what causes people to journey in hopes of finding the kingdom of light.
There is no secret about where the kingdom of light is. the kingdom of light is found in Christ. Christ’s kingdom is a place of peace, hope, health, joy beyond compare, life and light. When we say that Jesus is king, we mean that he reigns over all things including death itself, not just an election once every 4 years.
Paul continues, verse 18, “And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
In him, the fulness of God was pleased to dwell. In Jesus. We will be celebrating the fullness of God dwelling on earth very soon. The season of Advent begins next Sunday. Christmas is coming, there’s snow on the ground! The Joy of Christmas, which is just over a month away, is the joy that in Jesus dwells the fulness of God, that Jesus is fully God who has come to earth to save you from your sins. The joy is that God is not hidden in some far off journey. The Joy of Christmas is the hidden natural God, has become the plain to see, visible God in Jesus Christ. IN Jesus we know who God is and what God is about. God has come to bring you into his kingdom of light and he did it through the cross and empty tomb.
Jesus is king. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on some world excursion to find out who you are. You are a member of God's kingdom, you were made this member because God has called you out of the domain of darkness and placed you under the care of Jesus Christ in his kingdom of light. Amen.
Comments