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November 25, 2001
Last Sunday of End Time
Colossians 1:13-20
Pastor Joel Zank

CHRIST IS THE SUPREME KING!

(Colossians 1:13-20) For [God the Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 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 and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

In Christ Jesus our King, dear fellow redeemed,

Of the nearly two hundred countries that exist in our world, only twenty-eight of them can lay claim to having a king or a queen; and of those twenty-eight, only three have a traditional or absolute monarchy, that is, a system of government in which the king has absolute power. Nearly all the rest are constitutional monarchies, countries in which the king's powers are merely symbolic. In other words, in today's world the king has become a figure-head, having no power at all. So as we come to this last Sunday of our church year, the Sunday known as Christ the King Sunday, it may be a bit difficult for us 21st century Christians to truly appreciate what it means to have Christ be our King. But if that is the case, the Scripture before us today should make the significance of Christ's kingship abundantly clear. For the Apostle Paul tells us, CHRIST IS THE SUPREME KING as proven by the fact that he is the firstborn over all creation and by the fact that he is the firstborn from among the dead.

Nowhere in our text is Jesus actually called a king, but we conclude that he is one for the same reason that Pontius Pilate did-we're told that Jesus has a kingdom of his very own. Paul says, "[God the Father] has...brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves..." (v.13). And so Jesus says to us as he once said to Pilate, "You are right in saying I am a king" (John 18:37).

But what kind of king is Jesus? We might answer, the kind who was beaten and mocked by his enemies and, then, forced to wear a crown of thorns. He is the kind of king who was betrayed and forsaken by his closest followers and executed by his subjects. He is a king who could bleed and die, a king who has of flesh and blood like every other king before and after him. But that is where all comparisons must end. For unlike any other king of any other age, this Jesus is, as Paul says, "...the image of the invisible God" (v.15). Isn't it amazing that such a profound mystery can be expressed in so few words: "the image of the invisible God." Who can comprehend it? In the person of Jesus Christ all the qualities and characteristics of the immortal, invisible God meet up with human flesh and blood, so that Jesus is every bit as much God as are the Father and the Holy Spirit, prompting Paul to write in verse 19, "...God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him." Christ's humanity shares perfectly and completely in his divinity, subtracting from it not one ounce of divine glory or power. By learning to know Christ, the God-man, we learn to know our God.

And what do we learn of Christ? Paul teaches us that Jesus is the "firstborn over all creation" (v. 15). Now Paul isn't saying that Jesus is a creature himself. He doesn't say that Jesus is the first-created over all creation. He is the firstborn. This is a title of rank, a position of privilege used to describe Jesus' relationship to all creation. In a Jewish family the firstborn son held a position of great honor. To be the firstborn meant to be the leader. So it is with Jesus. He, God's one and only Son, is the supreme leader, the supreme king over all creation. And how is it that he has come by such a title? Paul tells us this too: "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities" (v. 16). As true God, sharing equally in all the accomplishments of the Trinity, Christ created everything that we see and everything that we don't see, including the angels of heaven who are referred to here by their various rankings as thrones and powers and rulers and authorities.

Not only did Jesus make everything, but Paul also says, "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (v. 17). Jesus is before all things both in respect to time and importance. As King of all creation, he continues to be of supreme importance to all things created. So much so, that if our king were to take his eye off of us and our universe even for a second, we and everything else would fall apart. It is Jesus with his powerful, creative word who keeps the planets, the sun, moon and stars all in their place. It is by the command of Jesus that our lungs keep breathing air and our hearts keep pumping blood. As his creatures, we literally owe everything that we are and everything that we have to our Creator-King. Paul agrees, saying "all things were created by him and for him" (v. 16).

We owe Jesus our praise, our allegiance, our trust, our time, our talents, our treasures, our very lives. Tell me, is the King getting what he's owed? Paul first wrote this letter to Christians who claimed to be loyal followers of Christ, but their lives told another story. They went about their daily business as if Jesus didn't even exist. Day after day, they put their trust in things created rather than in their Creator. They were paying homage to everyone and everything other than their King. Their sin is familiar to us, isn't it? We see people all around us committing this same sin. But it's even more familiar than that. We see this sin in ourselves. We're all guilty of it. Call it what you will, treason or rebellion. It's the product of a self-absorbed spirit that is present in our thinking, in our actions and conversations every day. It's evident in the way we choose to spend our time and our money on ourselves rather than offering more of these things as tribute to our King. This selfish spirit fuels the worry that consumes us. We're so wrapped up in ourselves, in our wants and needs, that we can't take a moment to consider and then trust that God our Creator is powerful enough and concerned enough to care for us. This sinful spirit keeps us from devoting more time to the study of God's Word and it keeps us from talking to him more often in prayer. We call him Lord and King, but then treat him like a stranger, and worse than that, like an enemy.

Our sin is an ever-present reminder of the sorry state in which we were all born-the state which Paul aptly describes in our text as the dominion of darkness. It's a kingdom of self-centered sinners, of God-haters and rebels where death is the ruler, claiming for itself the very people God had made to live with him eternally. Death wants to claim us. It points to our sin as proof that it deserves to have us, deserves to separate us from God, deserves to imprison us in hell forever. Death would seem to have a legitimate claim on us. We are all sinners and it is God himself who has sentenced sinners to eternal death.

What a helpless situation. Death's grip was too powerful for us to escape and we too sinful to appeal our sentence. But just when it seemed that our fate was sealed, the very God whom we have offended with our sin came to our rescue. Paul announces, "For [God the Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves..." (v. 13). How did this happen? Did God simply change his mind about sinners-decide we aren't so bad after all? Did he conclude he was making much to do about nothing? No, God didn't change his mind. Instead he sent his Son, through whom, Paul says, God was pleased "...to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (v. 20).

God didn't overlook our sin. He charged it to his own Son and then demanded that Jesus pay the only price that could satisfy God's holy anger toward every sinner. And oh how Jesus paid! With his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus the God-man reconciled God and man once and for all. The blood of Jesus Christ, the King of all creation bought our redemption, the forgiveness of sins. That holy blood secured our peace with God. It was the ransom Jesus paid to free us from the dominion of darkness.

But what about death, the ruler of that dark domain-what does he have to say about all this? He has no say at all. Christ the King has destroyed this would-be rival by destroying death's ability to claim sinners for hell. Paul says, "[Christ] is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy" (v. 18). Just as Christ is the firstborn, the ruler over all creation, so by his own resurrection on Easter Sunday he has become the firstborn, that is, the ruler over death. As the Supreme King, Christ has defeated death, and has brought this enemy into his own service, making death a doorway to heaven. By conquering death in this way, Jesus has established a new kingdom in which people can live free from sin's guilt and free from sin's curse of death.

And so right now, even as I speak, Christ is busy gathering for himself citizens to fill this kingdom, people who, through the faith he supplies, believe in him as their Savior and King. By God's grace, my friends, we are such people, a part of Christ's kingdom. We are the church, the members of Christ's body. We live knowing and believing that the blood of our King has secured our full and free forgiveness for all the sins we commit against him every day. His blood covers our selfishness, our rebellion, our greed, our worry, our neglect. We live forgiven always!

And that's not all, we forgiven sinners live knowing that the King of the church is also the King of creation who is ruling over everything for the good of his people. Every decision that is made by every government on earth, every scheme that is plotted by every terrorist on earth, every crime, every trouble, every sickness, every heartache is known by our King and more than that is used by our King to bless us and keep us as his forgiven people. Thanks to Jesus, even death when it comes to us must now serve us, transporting our souls to heaven until that day when Christ awakens our bodies as easily as he wiped death's sleep from his own eyes. What a great King!

Friends, we may not know a great deal about kings from the world in which we live, but the Scripture tells us all we need to know about the King of kings. He is no mere figurehead. He is almighty God who left his throne, taking on flesh and blood to make the supreme sacrifice for his sinful creatures and then victorious in his battle, he returned to his throne in heaven to bring his people safely there. Christ is the Supreme King and best of all he's our King-ours to serve and to thank for his love and forgiveness now and forever. Amen.