Colossians 1:15-23
Introduction
How does the outside world see the Christian church? There are basically three options. Either the church is good, the church is bad, or the church is irrelevant. There are those who think the church is harmful, that we have a negative impact on society. Sadly, there are churches and church leaders that have only strengthened that opinion. There is a growing number of cases of both sexual and spiritual abuse. It is no longer limited to just one tradition within the church, but is spread across all of them. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. It may be that the church had a certain prestige in society for a time that these things were not talked about, but they have been around for a long time. If the church exists to abuse power and authority, then it is a bad thing.
Some others would say that the church is neither good nor bad but simply irrelevant. The church is just a bunch of people who hold on to old fairy tales and myths. The church may have provided comfort at one point but now with advances in science and health care and psychology, we just do not need the church any more. Some might hold on for a while out of a sense of nostalgia, but basically, the time of the church is coming to an end. We are out growing the message of the church as adults have outgrown Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. If that is the case, if what we say and believe has no foundation in reality, then the church is irrelevant.
But what if the church is entrusted with an important message that is both good and true? What if, as we believe, that the church exists to share the gospel, the gospel that is literally good news? This is not to deny that the church has sometimes strayed into being harmful or irrelevant, but if the gospel message is really what we are supposed to be about, then the church might be a good thing, even if the outside world is skeptical.
Of course to answer this definitely, we will have to look closely what the gospel is. What is the gospel. The gospel was often summarized to me as “Jesus died on the cross so you can go to heaven.” There is truth in that but it is much deeper and that is what we are going to look at.
Who Jesus Is
The gospel, the good news, is all about Jesus. The first thing we need to understand is who Jesus is. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he spends a significant amount of time describing the gospel. Within that description, the largest section is on who Jesus is.
- The first thing Paul explains is that Jesus is God incarnate. This passage is one of the clearest descriptions of this. Paul is not just saying that Jesus is divine. The Colossians would have been familiar with the idea of demigods, heroes born of a god and a mortal. That is not what Paul describes. No demigod was ever described as being involved in the act of creation. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. God is invisible to our eyes and people in the Old Testament thought they would die if they saw God. Even the great prophets Moses and Elijah could only catch a glimpse of God. But in some way, when we look at Jesus, we see not a prophet of God but God himself. If you wonder what God is like, look to Jesus and you will understand.
- Jesus is also described as the head of the church. He is more than just the founder of our religion, he is the head of our body. A human body can have almost any part removed and still survive, at least for a while. The only removal that will cause immediate death is that of the head. The church as a body, relies fully on our ongoing connection to the head, which is Christ Jesus.
- Jesus is said to be the firstborn from among the dead. While people were brought back to life during the ministry of Jesus, that was different from what happened to Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the resurrection of the dead that God has promised for his people. According to Paul, here and in other letters, the resurrection of the dead has already started with Jesus. We will share in the resurrection when Jesus returns.
I want you to notice a pattern of time that is found here. Jesus, as God incarnate was involved in creation in the past. Jesus, as the head of the church is the connection that keeps us going in the present. Jesus, as the firstborn from the dead, gives us hope for our own resurrection in the future.
What Jesus Did
Having looked at who Jesus was and is, Paul looks to what Jesus did. As I said, the common understanding is that Jesus died so we can go to heaven. That is sort of right but it does not go far enough. Paul does focus on the cross here. He talks about the blood that was shed and the death of Jesus’ physical body. Please note that all of this assumes that Jesus was not a god visiting the land of mortals the way it is described in the myths. The image of the invisible God was made visible with a real physical body, just like ours. It was this that was crucified. But that crucifixion was more than just to get us a ticket to heaven. The point of all of this was to reconcile us to God, to be brought back into right relationship. This is important because the benefits of the cross do not begin when we die, they begin right now. We are adopted into God’s family right now and God wants a relationship with us through Christ right now, not just when we die. All of this takes place because of what Jesus has done on the cross.
How We Respond
We have seen who Jesus is and what he has done. But Paul does not end his gospel presentation there. Paul is writing to normal followers of Jesus and not just people interested in speculative theology. We need to respond to this message. How do we respond? Well, we respond in faith. That means that we receive the gift of grace that is offered to us, but it is not about just believing once. Paul talks about continuing in the faith. While praying a prayer and getting baptized is important, it is not the end of the story. The gospel is not something that you believe once in order to get your ticket to heaven. The gospel is something that you hold onto for all your life. And this is how we demonstrate that the church is not, when out is operating properly, either bad or irrelevant. We live out our life in response to the gospel, continuing in our faith. While people may be interested in how we first became a follower of Jesus, they are also interested in what our faith means each and every day. If Jesus is who we say he is and he did what we say he did, what does that mean for us as we experience the challenges of life? The gospel has a call to action and how we respond says something about true we believe it to be.
Conclusion
We want you to invite people to church. But when we say that, we acknowledge that people are uncertain about the value of the church. You might be uncertain about the value of the church. The church could be bad and the church could be irrelevant.
We believe the church is good and worth being a part of. Not because we are perfect and have it all together but because we have a message to share, a message that is both good and relevant. God cares about us, he cares for us so much that he came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the fullness of God dwells within him. The Jesus who in ages past created all things and in some point in the future will share his resurrection with us is now the head of this church. This Jesus, who was both fully God and fully human, died on the cross for us. Why? To reconcile us to God. We have been welcomed into the family because of what Jesus has done. This is a message that we hold onto and embrace. It is not just a part of our past, it is about our journey of faith. This is what holds us steady in the uncertainty of a chaotic world. This is our message and it is worth sharing.
