The majesty of Christ

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This morning I get to talk about something absolutely incredible and it's absolutely incredible because it's all Jesus and uh I've mentioned a couple of times I asked the question a couple of times there's not always in our day in our life where you can acknowledge that what you're doing or what you're involved in is 100 Godly and all good okay sometimes you've got to wonder if this is just a task or how does this feed into Kingdom work how is this going to honor God sometimes we wonder about that um but when we come to scriptures like this this is all God and uh there is a heart outpouring uh from the Apostle Paul as he talks here in Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 to 20. so if you've got your Bible and you should this morning would you turn to that section and we're going to read that together Colossians chapter 1 from verse 15 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 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 his cross may the Lord add his understanding to the preaching of his word this morning firstly let's just attack this straight up he is Lord of all creation that's essentially the first few verses talking about that as a theme he is Lord of Creation in verse 15 you'll see these words the image of the invisible God in Jewish writings back in the day guys Divine wisdom was referred to often as the image of God and so when Paul was was writing here he was referencing the the vernacular of the day and he was referring to the image of God and so from a Christian perspective not only do we see the personification of God's wisdom in Christ he is also someone that we can lay our physical eyes on because prior to Christ coming to the Earth God only existed as spirit and so we are able to now see Christ and certainly in the first century they had the privilege of seeing him in physical form that goes on to say that he's the firstborn of all creation and that doesn't mean that Jesus was the first being that was created that's a common misconception Port Paul was actually thinking of the Privileges and the rights of a firstborn son what he's essentially saying here is that um Jesus is first in the Kingdom he is priority number one he is the most high and he has ultimate and complete Rule and that's certainly where the idea of the firstborn son in Jewish tradition came from and they followed that idea that the firstborn son should Bear all of the the authority of the father does that make sense okay and so we Skip Along to verse 16 and it says by him all things were created and Jesus didn't simply come into existence when he was born of the Virgin okay sometimes we can think oh well that's when he started that's when he began um remember Jesus is God he didn't have a beginning he's eternal and by him all things were created he was rather the one through whom God created absolutely everything and at this point we're still in simple stuff right we we all know this as Christians who have been following Jesus for a little while we know these things but then he goes on to say Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities was Paul trying to get out there and he was using again something that was current at the time this Jewish terminology of the day to describe various rankings of Spiritual Beings okay so he was talking about Thrones and dominions and rulers or authorities what he was getting at was that all of those spiritual Powers regardless of rank were subservient to Jesus they were created by Jesus remember it says in that passage that he is Lord over all things not just the Earth but also over the things of Heaven what's more is that Paul was careful to point out that whilst Jesus was the agent of creation he is also the goal of creation ever wondered why God would make everything ever wondered why I mean we're a lot of trouble we're painful all right if you've had kids you you love your kids but they're painful I'm sure many of you are glad that they're going back to school poor teachers okay they're lovely little chariots they're beautiful but they're why would God in all of his wisdom create us I mean he could have created anything and that used to Boggle my mind why would God do that and it says it describes a little bit here from what Paul is saying is that while Jesus was the agent of creation he's the one through whom everything was made heaven and on Earth he we were also made for a singular purpose and that was to honor Christ that's it and you might say oh well that seems very selfish no it's not if you're perfect Jesus is perfect right if he's perfect then he alone is worthy of all honor and praise and he made us for the singular purpose of Honor honoring and glorifying him because it's right to do so that's our purpose and every time we divert from that we move away even slightly from that we're not fulfilling our purpose and I think as we get deeper into this section of scripture we'll see more and more of that come out through Paul's teaching but he who is Jesus is the goal of creation and that's not just for physical beings but also for Spiritual Beings we were all made to praise and honor him I've mentioned many many times whilst we have people in the building there are also spiritual forces here that you and I can't see okay and that's not the boogeyman because all of those things are subservient to the same God that we are subservient to we were all made to worship and honor him and so there is a great cloud of witnesses those who have gone before us those who are around us and the spiritual Realm you don't know who you're discipling ever thought about that you might think that you're discipling the people around you the young people in your life the older people in your life and maybe you are but there are also spiritual forces that are being discipled by your obedience to Christ now it's heavy isn't it That's Heavy Skip Along to verse 17 it says in him all things hold together uh this just shoots my arrogance down in flames because again we talked a little bit earlier about how many things that that needed to to line up in proper order in place and nothing could go wrong just so that you could be here this morning all it would have taken was one seemingly small thing to go wrong and that would have thrown your whole morning out of work for some of you maybe that already happened and you're not feeling fantastic this morning and you only just got here there are others who couldn't even make it this morning look around we're not a full house and I will always say that because we are not there are a hundred thousand people in caboolture we are not a full house there are things getting in the way of people coming and honoring God and fulfilling their Divine Purpose you and I were blessed this morning just to Simply Be able to be here and to be present he is also Lord of redemption and we go through that in verse 18 he says he is the head of the body the body is the church and it says that Christ is the head or the ruler of the church and what does a head do it provides leadership it provides guidance but it's also the Avenue through which we are nourished without your head your starve I would argue that without your head you've probably got bigger problems okay but if we follow this to its natural conclusion if the head is not doing its job properly you're going to starve aren't you and so we go into all sorts of things and so this is this is the picture that Paul is painting he is the head of the body not the pastor of the church I am not your head I am simply his agent and while I am head of a physical institution on this planet I am not head of this church that's Christ if you're looking to me for Spiritual headship in this church you're looking to the wrong person I'm here to point you to Jesus verse 19 in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in other words everything that God is lives in Jesus all of God's wisdom all of his power all of his Holy Spirit and all of his glory reside in him in other words Jesus is God he is the fullness of God in verse 20 he does this to reconcile to himself all things and this is where you and I come in because in Isaiah 9 6 it reminds us that Jesus is the Prince of Peace right that Jesus is the Prince of Peace he's the one who will ultimately dispatch all opposition to God and bring a reign of peace and the cross is his marker the cross is the place at which we receive reconciliation or judgment right now we have opportunity to come to the spiritual cross and say Jesus I done wrong I'm stuffed up I have so many things in my life I thought I was following you and maybe I haven't been for the last little while or maybe I've never known you and I don't want to figure out more about you but I've come to you will you reconcile me will you bring me back to my rightful place in relationship with you the cross right now is a symbol of reconciliation but this coming a day when it's going to be a symbol of judgment you know Paul was not afraid of putting the fear of God into people and the fear of God is this judgment's coming because Jesus is coming back isn't he right he's coming back and if he's coming back how is he going to find us and I I keep drawing back to that original picture in the garden after Adam and Eve had sinned had rebelled against God had done the wrong thing and and God comes down to Spirit form and he says to Adam and Eve and says to Adam in particular Adam where are you that was a rhetorical question because parents we all know we know where our kids are we're asking them do you remember where you're supposed to be because you're not where you're supposed to be how is he going to find us Church he might not come back tomorrow he might be here tonight I don't know when that's going to happen and it's not for me to know it's for me to be prepared right he's given us the entirety of scripture to tell us this is Judgment in the Old Testament I'm going to take that away from you if you just come back into right relationship with me I've worked this whole human history just so that you can come back into right relationship with me because you remember you were created for me you weren't created for yourself you weren't created for your wife or for your kids you weren't created for your job you weren't creative for those things they're nice to haves if you have a loving relationship thank God for God's grace because he didn't have to give you that if you have wonderful little cherubs they're called children in your life thank God for them because he didn't have to give you them that's not your right it's Grace because he chose to give you good things if you're here this morning and you're going wow what an amazing service thank God for Grace because he didn't have to make this morning good it could have just been me and no Holy Spirit right and that would have been super boring I'm serious man if you're doing life without the Holy Spirit what's the point it's not life it's existence because if we're doing life apart from Christ who is the whole point of our existence who is the whole point of our creation then what's the point of that but church we have such a privileged position don't we man it doesn't matter how you might be feeling today I I recognize the hurt I recognize the pain I recognize the struggles I recognize all of the uncertainty I recognize the health issues I recognize all the stuff that's real that's valid but God is still a god we still have Supernatural purpose the kingdom is still influential across heaven and on Earth the king is coming back and one day all will be reconciled to him or they will be judged how will God find you there's no such thing as an okay sin there's no such thing as a nice sin and I think as as Paul was writing this letter to the Colossians that's what he's going to get at that's what he's getting at he's writing a letter of encouragement he's calling these people who were Christians who were who were trying to to claim a profession of faith in Christ in those very early days he was saying yes that's great but stop dabbling in all the and all the things that just aren't quite right at church the same call is there for us we are living in a society that's very very loud about some things isn't it yeah and we know in our god-given conscience that they're not right that they're not good so why do we mess with it why do we allow it to stay on the screen it's one thing For Those ads or those those shows to to to come up on your screen you had no control over that but you have control over whether it stays there you have control over whether you dwell on it you have control over whether you decide to take the second look if we're called to Holiness men because we serve a holy God and you go to well that's very simplistic life is complicated there are so many rules I mean if I make that choice I could lose my job yes you might I've shared with you many times before that there is becoming an increasing pressure and resistance to even preaching the gospel from the pulpit we are live streaming this this is going out to the world I'll be held to account for this one day no doubt it's not going to stop me why should it stop you I do this at at personal costs potentially it's not going to stop me I mean the poor the man who wrote this letter They Crucified him they beheaded him remember they martyrd him didn't stop him he's the same man who said to live is Christ and to die is gain what do you do with someone like that everything is a win-win I want to be like that a little bit later in in Colossians 1 we get our passage Colossians 1 verse 28 it says him we Proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ and that's our catech cry over this next little while is him we Proclaim if you mean wondering who him is now you know he is the image of the invisible God he is preeminent it was by him and for him that we were created so how can we do anything but Proclaim him you know Proclamation is so much more than teaching it's a declaration of the one whom you love and serve it's so much more than teaching because the teaching gives you a concept right and teaches you some things but a proclamation is a declaration of love if it's Christ you Proclaim in your life how are you declaring your love for Christ in how you live and what you say and that's a challenge because it's starkly different to the world in which we live you know Paul painted a pretty epic picture of the Risen Lord to these people and to us he clearly wasn't just a carpenter from Nazareth or a rabbi or a teacher from Jerusalem he wasn't just a Jew who did a bunch of good things he is God In the Flesh and everything was made by him and for him and we're going to Proclaim Christ by warning everyone of the coming judgment because that's what it says in that scripture we've got to warn everyone what are we warning them about well he's coming back how is he going to find you okay and it's it's easy to say that to one another because most of us for better or first we're walking with Jesus right at least we're trying to and we have some knowledge or idea of who he is and we've heard the gospel and many of us have received him as as Lord and Savior but we still need to be encouraged to Proclaim him right and that's it's called discipleship it's it's it's following the way of God but there are so many and I would say let's say a round figure 100 000 people in our community called caboolture who don't know him and how is God going to find them because there is a judgment coming the king is coming back and we're going to do this Proclamation with wisdom because that's what it says and wisdom can only come from God so therefore it's going to be powered by the Holy Spirit so not your words but his words not your way but his way so this is great for us because you don't need to have a certain qualification or a certain ability are you available that's the question how available are you if you're available God can use you if you schedule God out of your day you don't get to complain about Where's God in my life you feeling me yeah and we're going to do it so that we can all truly appreciate who Christ is because remember we were created by Him and for him and that's the whole point of Heaven see if you don't get that heaven's going to be healthier right why would you want to go to a place that is all about Christ if you don't love Christ why would you want to go to a place that is all about honoring and worshiping God in the form of Jesus Christ the lamb that was slain for you and I why would you want to go to that place for all of eternity if you don't love him and God knows that right he's not gonna he's not going to force Heaven on people who don't want Christ because if you were going to look at it this way Heaven is about Christ Heaven is Christ right and for those of you who are Christians Heaven's begun already because you get to celebrate an antichrist right now your eternity has already begun you just get to change your postcode when you die okay okay how good is that right um and right now sure we have our physical struggles we have our stuff that's going on and yeah they can sometimes get in the way of our Pure adoration and love for Jesus and and there's coming a time when all of that's going to be stripped away and we're not going to have to worry about that we're just going to have that our Pure restored relationship with Jesus and that's called heaven right but if you don't love Jesus why would you want to go to heaven if you don't love his way if you don't know who he is and how he works why would you want heaven God's not going to force Heaven upon you if you don't love his son he's a gentleman like that right he's not going to force himself upon you and that's what Paul is getting out here we've got a we've got to warn everyone the judgment is coming we don't get to blame God for hell because he didn't even make hell for us he made hell for the Angels but the Angels said we don't want you God and so God said okay well you can have hell if you don't want me you can have something else which is apart from life because God is life right he's a source of all good things he's a bringer of life he made everything if you don't want God you're saying you don't want life you don't want good things because he's a source they're not characteristics of God they are who he is if you want love in your life then you want God in your life like true love not just lust you're an attraction or a physical thing actual love if you want love what you're saying is that you want God in your life because he's a source of those things and Paul knew that he was trying to plead with the Colossians that you gotta you gotta warn everyone because he's coming he's coming back and you've got to teach them with all wisdom it doesn't matter what you know it really doesn't or what you think you know or how little or how much doesn't matter if you've been to University or if you've never been to school it doesn't matter what you know is that God is God and that you are not and everybody around you needs to know that and by the way if you're a Christian I've given you my Holy Spirit and he's going to do all the teaching he's going to do all the work he's going to bring wisdom because remember we said wisdom was personified in Christ he is the living breathing walking image of wisdom of God's wisdom the Bible in history and personal experience reassures us of the goodness of God doesn't it not the goodness of humanity man we stuff things up badly don't we that's probably our superpower I feel like if there was anything that we could claim to be good at it's stuffing things up it doesn't matter how good you are doesn't matter how nice you are you're fantastic at breaking things and being rebellious right I mean I love you but I know you because I know me all right I am the chief sinner amongst us Paul says that about his writing and I look at him and I think man you're an apostle you did so many things but he knew his place because without Christ he was no better than you and I and we look at our world we look at our community we look at caboolture and we are no better without God we are no better so how are we going to do that it's a joyful thing to be reconciled to Christ by the power of the cross it's a terrible thing to fall under his judgment for failing to serve the purpose of which we were created if you're ever wondering what God's purpose for you is it's this honor him you that's what you were born to do it's what you were made to do it's what you were designed and created that was always the plan always the plan always the plan that's that's what heaven's about is honoring him glorifying him worshiping him and you go well how come he gets all of the honor and Glory that's because he's the only thing only person only being in all of Creation in Heaven and Earth who deserves it would you agree everybody else spiritual or otherwise is conceited when they say you should honor me you should worship me because everything else is broken and Fallen because of sin and Rebellion but God Alone deserves that honor in our praise now we know that right and now you know your purpose it's what we were born to do what are you going to do what are you going to do you have any of a number of choices and options that gotta come at you as soon as you walk out these doors perhaps even as we finish up our service this morning you're going to have choices to make you're gonna you have the choice to decide how you're going to honor God in your conversation with the person next to you as soon as Adrian steps down you have the choice to decide how you're going to wait in line for coffee this morning you have the choice to decide how you're going to be with your brothers and sisters in Christ as we seek to support chaplaincy later on tonight we've got our prayer and praise night we're talking about the the awesomeness of prayer this morning well we've devoted a whole service to that tonight because we believe that commissioning us as a church for the year is kind of a significant and important thing because we want to give the first the best of what we have at the beginning of the year and hopefully if God blesses that that'll be true for the rest of the year and so I encourage you if you don't normally come out to a night service that's okay change your rules the your rules you can change them if you've got something else planned if it's not something that you can you can get out of fine but otherwise why wouldn't you come to that we've got the full band here tonight we're going to be playing a lot of songs we're going to be singing we're going to be praising and we're going to be hopefully doing something of what we're going to be doing in eternity in heaven okay in a moment we're going to be taking up a special offering and that's going to hopefully provide some funds to some brothers and sisters of ours who are up on the the North Coast who have been devastated by fire and you can say that well they were a big church they could look after themselves that's not the point we can do something so why wouldn't we right because it's not our money it's not our money we have the opportunity to give so why wouldn't we and who knows what God's going to do with that so a question this morning is as we go if this is what we were born to do then what are you going to do what are you going to do we've honored some Ministry ladies this morning we've honored some chaplains this morning who have all chosen to be obedient to what God has asked them to do I wonder what God's asking you to do it doesn't have to be Japanese or Ministry leadership maybe it's to have a conversation with someone maybe is to is to forgive someone that you've been holding on to that that anger for such a long time but maybe you've now got to make a choice maybe you're hurting maybe there's a struggle in your life that you've never committed to prayer or perhaps never brought other spiritual people around you to pray for that situation maybe now's the time maybe now's the time when you're going to make that decision what's in your life that's getting in the way of you performing your god-given role Heavenly Father we acknowledge your goodness and your kindness again once again this morning because that's that's what we're made to do we pray Lord God that uh as we go out today as we go out this week Lord that as we're faced with the choices of life perhaps some things that have been there for a long time from the past but perhaps there are some new things that are coming oh God father I pray that we will weigh up every opportunity by Your Word by our design and by your call in Christ and we pray. Amen.