I want you to take your Bible’s with me and turn to Colossians 1 again. Colossians 1. We are going to be looking at just one verse this morning, but I want to read verses 12-20. So let’s go ahead and do that.
[!Bible] Colossians 1:12-20 - KJV 12. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20. And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
The one verse we are going to talk about today is verse 18. Look at that one again with me:
[!Bible] Colossians 1:18 - KJV 18. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
I’m going to preach to you this morning about Christ and the church. Or about the church and Christ.
A few weeks ago, I was driving through Decatur and I passed by a Unitarian Universalist church there. I thought “that’s interesting, haven’t seen one of those in a long time.”
Then, this week I was rereading one of my favorite books of all time: Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield. I was reading it to discuss it with Nathan and I noticed something. Before Mrs. Butterfield came to Christ, when she was still living in a sinful lifestyle, in fact, while she was in the process of writing a book about what was wrong with evangelical Christians, she was a member of a Unitarian Universalist church.
What’s the point? What’s the point of a church that doesn’t believe anything? I don’t want to just pick on the Unitarian Universalists - although they are probably the worst offenders. There are lots of Methodist churches, Episcopalian churches, Disciples of Christ churches, mainline Presbyterian churches and yes, even liberal Baptist churches that are in the same boat: they want to keep having church, but they long ago stopped believing what the Bible says about Jesus.
What is the point? You see, there are lots of people who want church without Christ. Almost every cult has two things in common - they use the name of Jesus - “Jehovah’s witnesses”, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” - they use the name of Jesus and then minimize Jesus. They deny who Jesus is.
But listen, you don’t even have to be a cult to have church without Christ. I’ve been in churches that on paper believe all the right stuff, on paper they would be an orthodox fundamental church but where Jesus isn’t emphasized. They talk about lots of stuff more than Jesus: preferences, politics, standards, morality - and Jesus is way down the list.
Church without Christ. Church without Christ is just a social club. Church without Christ is just a political group. At best it’s a neighborhood support group.
A lot of people seem to want to have church without Christ, and I’ve also met a lot of people who seem to want to have Christ without church.
You’ll meet people occasionally and they’ll say “I believe in Jesus, yes, I’m a believer, I have been for years.” "Really, where do you attend church?“ Crickets.
I’ve even heard people say “I love Jesus, I just don’t love the church.” Uhh. I don’t know man. It seems to me that the whole New Testament revolves around church life.
Well, I think our text this morning is going to clear up one thing, you can’t really have the church without Christ and you can’t really have Christ (at in all His fullness) without the church.
Look at our text verse again:
[!Bible] Colossians 1:18 - KJV 18. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Believe it or not, there are six things that this one little verse teaches us about Christ and the church. I can’t wait to show them to you, because they are all really important. Let’s pray and we’ll jump right into that.
So the first thing we are going to see as we study this this morning is…
Our text verse starts with the word “and” meaning that this verse is tied to the ideas that come before it. Right before this verse it was telling us how Christ created everything then, it says and and starts talking about the church. Christ is the head of the church. He is the beginning.
So an obvious idea here taught in this verse is that the church comes from Christ. You could think of the word head, in many senses. Almost all of them apply in this verse. Sometimes we talk about the head of a river - we are talking about where that river comes from.
The church comes from Jesus.
Listen, the church is not man’s idea. It’s not like a bunch of guys got together and thought “do you know we need, we need to meet together every week and do church stuff.” It’s not a human invention - it comes from Christ. It is one of three institutions ordained by God. He ordained the home. He ordained the government. He ordained the church.
None of those institutions are optional. They are all absolutely essential to living the life God has for you.
Jesus is the creator of the church and the church is His plan for the world so you can't really say "I believe in Jesus" and then disparage the church.
I've heard some people say "Well, I was hurt in church." I'm sorry about that, I really am. I too have been hurt by people in church. But do you know what, how many of you have ever been in a car accident? Well, how did you get here this morning? Surely you never got back in a car again right?
The church comes from Christ, He is the head of the church, and so it is not optional.
But there is another sense in which Christ is the "head of the church" that might be hinted at here, and that is the second thing this passage teaches us about Christ and the church. It is that...
Sometimes we use the word "head" to refer to the whole body. Like, people will say "counting heads" for taking attendance. Obviously, the whole bodies are here - but we just use "head" as a stand in. People talk about so many head of cattle in the same way.
The Bible teaches a concept theologians called "Federal Headship." Federal Headship teaches us that we didn't even have to sin to be counted as sinners, because our representative, our "head" Adam sinned for us. In the same way, we didn't have to live a perfect life to be counted righteous, because Jesus became our new "head."
This is taught in the book of Romans chapter 5.
[!Bible] Romans 5:18 - KJV 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Jesus is actually called the second or the last Adam. The first Adam as our representative plunged us into sin. Christ as the last Adam brings us righteousness.
[!Bible] 1 Corinthians 15:45 - KJV 45. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
So Jesus is not just "the head of the church" in the sense that He created the church, but He is the "head of the church" in the sense that He serves as our representative.
Another way to think about this is like this: Remember the story of David and Goliath? You had the army of the Philistines on one side and the army of Israel on the other. They were going to go into battle, but instead, the Philistines said "We'll put up one guy, and you put up one guy, and whoever wins, wins the battle for all of us." That one guy for the Philistines was Goliath, for Israel it became David.
Jesus is our representative, He is our champion, He fought the battle for us and won for us, and He serves as the great Head of the church - the representative of the church, the champion of the church.
All the people who have trusted Christ are "in Christ" we are represented by Christ, we are part of Christ's great congregation.
So the church comes from Jesus, we are represented by Jesus. But there is another thing we can learn from this phrase "the head of the body the church" and that is...
Think about the relation of a head to the body. Your body does what the head tells it to. The body is controlled by the head.
If I were to walk up to brother Steve Roberts and just slap him across the face with no warning. Steve would be right to put his guard up. (Actually, Steve is a black belt, he would probably reflexively put me on the ground.)
But lets say I do that and I say, I'm so sorry, I don't know what got into my arm. It just does things on it's own sometimes. You would think I'm crazy. Your arms do what your head tell them to do. Whether consciously or unconsciously, our body is always getting instructions from the head.
Another way of saying this is that our head has complete authority over our body. Jesus has complete authority over the church. We are under His authority and only His authority.
Jesus is the king of the church and it's only king. He alone has authority over what we do. He alone has authority over what we believe.
Now, let's talk about the implications of this for a minute, because they are important.
If Jesus is the head of the church, then that means that only Jesus get's to determine what we believe.
Listen, our only authority for faith and practice is "thus saith the Lord." It is only the word. I'm a big fan of lots of people from history and I've learned a lot from them, but if we ask "why should we do this? Why do we teach this?" and my answer is "Well, Martin Luther said" or "Charles Spurgeon said." That is a bad answer. Our only authority over what we believe is the "head of the church" it is Jesus.
A second implication of this is if Jesus is the head of the church, then that means that only Jesus get's to rule the church.
There can be no council over churches. There can be no group of bishops or cardinals that tell churches what to do. The church is Christ's church. He is the head. We submit to Him and He rules the church through the Holy Spirit that He has put in us.
Anybody who presumes to take over the church and control the church, to add laws to the church other than what God gave us, is usurping Christ. They are putting themselves in the place of Christ.
So Christ is the creator of the church, Christ is the representative of the church, Christ is the leader of the church. Look at the fourth thing with me that we can learn from this one verse:
It says that He is the "head of the body, the church." That means the church is a body, and other passages teach us that the body has members, body parts.
Romans 12 teaches this. 1 Corinthians 12 does too. Listen to this from 1 Corinthians 12:20-22.
[!Bible] 1 Corinthians 12:20-22 - KJV 20. But now are they many members, yet but one body. 21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 22. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
Your body has parts. It has members. Fingers. Joints. Eyes. A spleen. All are parts of your body and do you know what? They each have a job to do. They each have been made for a specific purpose and they do their job - taking instructions from your central nervous system (aka, your head.)
If you cut off your head, your members are going to stop doing their jobs, because the head is always telling them what to do.
What does this mean for us as members of God's church? It means that we all have a job to do. If you are a part of the church, then you are a member and as a member, you are a body part and you have a function. You need to listen to the head, listen to Jesus, and do the job the head has given you to do.
What does the Head have you doing? What did He make you to do? Are you submitting to His authority and doing the work He has for you?
I've got to hurry, two more things this passage teaches us about Christ and the church.
The fifth thing, is this:
Our text says:
[!Bible] Colossians 1:18 - KJV 18. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
That in all things he may have preeminence. Think about that. That word "preeminence" comes from a greek word that just means "to hold first place."
Jesus is supposed to hold first place in the church. First place. He is to have the preeminence. It should be all about Him.
Do you know what most of our songs should be about in church? They should be about Jesus.
Do you know what most of the preaching should be about in church? It should be about Jesus.
It's my goal as the pastor here that Bible Baptist is a place that is all about Jesus. Where Jesus is talked about more than anything else. Where we truly give Him preeminence. Where we truly give Him first place.
Now, of course, to truly give Him first place, we have to do more than sing about Him and talk about Him, we have to submit to Him. We have to give Him first place in our life, first place in our marriage, first place with our kids, first place with our time. He is to have preeminence in all things.
You know, I really don't like most modern church names. We have a joke that a lot of them could be either a new contemporary church or a pot shop. You don't know. "The porch?" "Rise?" Pay attention to the billboards. It always gives me a chuckle.
But there is a church in Charleston whose name I actually love. It's "Christ first Church." We are to give Christ preeminence. We are to give Him first place in everything we do.
The church comes form Christ, the church is represented by Christ, the church should be controlled by Christ, the church is made up of members who get their jobs from Christ, the church should be all about Christ.
Now there is one more point and one more phrase I want to cover in this verse. Look at it one more time:
[!Bible] Colossians 1:18 - KJV 18. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
We've talked about how Christ is the head of the body and we have talked about how he might have preeminence - but I haven't covered that middle phrase "the firstborn from the dead." What does that mean and what does it have to do with the church?
We learned last week that "firstborn" doesn't necessarily mean first in order of time. Jesus was not the first person to be resurrected from the dead. He resurrected several people from the dead during His ministry.
So that's not what "firstborn" means here. "Firstborn" means "first in order of prominence." And here is what this verse is teaching us about Christ and the church:
Jesus is the firstborn from the dead - but all of us in the church, like Christ, are people who have been resurrected.
As Christians we are people who were once dead. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. But now we have been resurrected. We have been made alive.
[!Bible] Ephesians 2:1 - KJV
- And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
We were once dead, but we have been made alive by Christ.
Let's look at another passage and see what it says about this. 1 Corinthians 15. I've already referenced this passage once this morning. Listen to this:
[!Bible] 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 - KJV 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Listen, have you been made alive? Have you been quickened? Have you been spiritually resurrected.
Has the resurrection had an effect in your life?
I'm not asking if you go to church, I'm asking if you've been born again. Are you spiritually alive?
-Give salvation testimony-