When we were singing, I thought of this, and so this is not really quite on topic, but anybody familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism?
! You ever heard that? Raise your hand if you know. Heidelberg Catechism? Okay. There's a statement in the Heidelberg Catechism that's very precious and I want to read it.
Heidelberg Catechism question number one.
What is your only comfort in life and in death?
Answer. That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood and has delivered me from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven.
In fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I do belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, also assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
There's a verse in 2 Corinthians 5 that says,
This we judge, that one died for all, that all who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them.
And I thought of this while we were singing and I was just overwhelmed with thankfulness that He bought me and my life is not my own anymore.
I did such a horrible job running my life. It's complete.
Me running my life was horrible. You know, just so terrible.
And the illusion of freedom and autonomy that I had is just a lie. It's just a lie.
And He bought me from that. He made me His own.
And I'm free now not to run my own life.
He runs it better. He runs it better than I do.
That's the truth for anyone who's in Christ is you are purchased.
You're not your own anymore. He runs your life now. He's the boss.
And He does a way better job running your life than you do.
Okay, that's the understatement. That's the most understated understatement possible.
He said, Jesus does a better job running your life than you do.
He does a better job running my life than I do.
And I'm so thankful. This is my only comfort in life and death.
That I was bought. I'm not my own anymore.
It's related somewhat to this, but it is related to my topic.
But I just wanted to start off with that.
So today, my topic is a vision for the preeminence of Christ.
Or in other words, Jesus first.
About the simplest way to say it. Jesus first.
Okay.
That's what preeminence means in its first place.
Okay.
And my main texts are going to be in Colossians and in Ephesians.
And kind of a little background, what I've been thinking about.
The verse in Proverbs 29 and 18 says, where there is no vision, the people perish.
Okay.
So, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the microbe.
He's in the details.
He's also Lord of the macro.
Big picture.
Okay.
We need both.
All right.
And without big picture, we start to lose track of why are we doing what we're doing?
Why?
You know?
And He wants to communicate to us why.
He's a God of vision.
And that's really, that's where my mind and heart is not detail stuff.
It's more big picture stuff.
It's vision.
And there is no greater vision for the church than her savior.
And I aim to show that.
I think it's self-evident in the scripture.
The difficulty of preparing for this sermon is just weeding it down.
You could just say, read the New Testament.
And that's what it says, you know, but you can't just read the whole New Testament here.
But we need a vision bigger than us.
Okay.
We perish without vision.
We need the Lord to give us something outside of ourselves that's bigger than ourselves for life to have any meaning and purpose.
God made us that way.
This is, this is, this is in the heart code.
If we don't have this, we die on the vine.
So, Christ Church, our mission is on our website.
Our mission is the kingdom of God and all of life together.
The kingdom of God and all of life together.
I'll unpack that a little bit.
Some of you are very familiar with that.
Some of you, maybe not so much.
A lot of that comes from Matthew 6, 33.
Where Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all of these things, meaning all the necessaries, everything you need for life, will be added to you.
Make it simple.
There's one thing that's needful.
Seek first the kingdom of God, his righteousness.
And I got all the rest.
I'm God.
Okay.
I'm making this simple for you.
And this is our way of articulating that truth in the context of the church.
Okay.
Kingdom of God and all of life together.
And we're going to talk a little bit more about the details of that.
What are some of the implications of that mission statement?
And ultimately my goal is to answer two questions about this, this mission statement.
One is, how does Jesus fit into this?
Okay.
Kingdom of God.
Mormons talk about kingdom of God.
All right.
Jehovah's Witnesses talk about kingdom of God.
Muslims.
You know, there's a lot of people who claim obedience and worship to the one true God and are comfortable with this kind of language.
What differentiates us from them?
You know, I want to talk about that.
And what differentiates us is Jesus.
By the way, the true, the true Christ.
Okay.
We'll talk about why.
And then what's the point?
What's the goal?
Why?
You know, is there some ultimate reason that we should seek first the kingdom of God?
There is.
And it's important to know that reason.
Otherwise, we make God an instrument for our own selfish interests.
I want to be happy.
God's ways are good.
I want to be happy.
So I'm going to do these things so I have a happier life.
You know?
Or I don't want to go to hell.
Like, not wanting to go to hell is a very good motivation.
The Holy Spirit gives us that motivation.
It's great, but it shouldn't stay there.
There's a lot more to the motivating work of a regenerated heart in the Holy Spirit.
There's a lot more motives that he puts in there.
And they're a lot bigger than just avoiding hell and just having a happy life.
Although, there's no life that's happier than being in Christ.
So, anyway, there's the two.
That's my aim.
To understand, in this mission statement, the kingdom of God and all of life together.
How does Jesus fit into that?
And for what purpose?
You know, what's the goal?
So, let's dive into question number one.
How does Jesus fit into this?
Well, Jesus Christ is the king of the kingdom of God.
Okay?
Very simple.
The kingdom of God has a king.
Jesus is it.
Okay?
Let's read in Colossians chapter one.
Let's start in verse 13.
Okay.
Verse 13.
Colossians 1.13.
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.
All right.
I had tons of verses for this.
I took them all out.
That's good enough.
The kingdom of his beloved Son.
He took us out of the kingdom of darkness that we were born into.
We got it natural from Adam.
We were all born under sin, under the wrath of God, in the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan.
And he transferred us out of that kingdom into the kingdom of his beloved Son.
That's the kingdom of God.
And Jesus is king over it.
Okay?
It's the...
I think...
I heard Josh say this one time.
I was actually trying to find the quote last minute, but I couldn't.
A definition of the kingdom of God that he likes to share a lot.
It's the realm of his uncontested rule.
I think I'm getting that right.
But it's where what he says goes.
When Jesus says the thing, everyone in there does that thing.
That's the kingdom of God.
So, Jesus.
The kingdom of God.
We're pursuing the kingdom of God.
Jesus is that king.
And so, you know, the title of this is,
A Vision for the Preeminence of Christ.
We're thinking through how Christ factors in to what our mission is.
Well, he is the king.
And we have not just a sort of, I don't know, an ungrounded, untethered, unpersoned conception of the kingdom of God.
It's a person.
We're married and under the reign and the rule of a person.
We have a personal relationship to our king, Jesus.
We're directly ruled now by him.
I'm not ruled by myself anymore.
I'm ruled by Jesus Christ.
So, the kingdom of God.
Jesus is king in the kingdom of God.
That's how he factors in.
Number two.
In all of life.
How does he factor into in all of life?
Well, let's just keep reading here.
Starting in verse 15.
Continuing on this thought here.
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.
I'm going to pause right there.
It's hard to get more comprehensive than that.
All things.
Okay.
He was the origin point of all creation.
God created everything through Jesus as the means.
In the beginning was the word.
The word was with God and the word was God.
You know, God said, let there be light.
Light happened.
Who was speaking there?
It was through Christ.
We're actually getting to revelation here on some stuff in Genesis.
Paul's unpacking some Genesis creation theology here for us.
He created everything through Christ.
For what purpose?
For him.
They're all made for him, for Jesus, for the son.
Which includes us.
And that includes all of our life.
Okay.
So we have a kingdom.
Kingdom of God.
Ruled by a king, Jesus.
In all of life.
All of which was created by him, through him, and for him.
That's the ultimate telos of everything.
It's for him.
For Jesus.
I'll continue reading there.
He's before all things, verse 17.
In him all things hold together.
And he's the head of the body, the church.
He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
That in everything, he might be preeminent.
Or as the NESB says, that he might have first place in everything.
Okay.
So.
Everything means everything.
Okay.
Jesus.
It's kind of a cliche statement.
He's Lord of all.
Or he isn't Lord at all.
You know.
He's either Lord of all.
What am I saying?
If he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all.
That's what it is.
If he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all.
He's over everything.
Every single piece of all creation.
His.
Okay.
Well, what about the part that's, you know, kingdom of darkness.
And I wasn't living like that before.
And I was living for myself.
And, you know, I wasn't obeying Jesus then.
It didn't seem like the reign and rule of Jesus was over my life.
He bought me.
And he put me into the kingdom such that that rule would be manifested on earth as it is in heaven.
Yes.
He did have an authority over me.
I was created for his purpose and I was rebelling against his purpose.
So he saved me and put me into his kingdom so that his purposes would be realized in my life.
And not just me all by myself.
But in the church.
Which we'll talk about that.
But first, I think it's important to emphasize all of life.
This is this fights against the tendency to compartmentalize our life.
You do your Christian stuff over here and you do your everything else over here and you keep them separate.
This is like you keep Jesus on Sunday morning and you're willing to talk about Jesus on Sunday morning.
But you're not willing to let Jesus be Lord of how you talk to your wife.
You know, how you speak to your kids.
How you work at your job.
So everything means everything.
That in all things he might have first place.
Me.
Marriage.
Family.
Parenting.
Church.
Money.
Work.
School.
Politics.
Speech.
Sex.
Food.
Drink.
Hobbies.
Entertainment.
The way we dress.
The way we think.
Our emotions.
Our affections.
Our evangelism.
It's like surely that one's Jesus's boss of.
Well, there's a lot of bad motives to do a lot of things that look really good.
Okay.
Is he Lord of that?
Are you doing it for him?
You know?
Your time.
Your ambitions.
That in all things he would have first place.
Okay.
The whole thing he purchased, even though he had a right to all that,
before we were converted and we were in Christ.
Because he's God.
And everything was created for him.
He purchased us and redeemed us in order to make it so in our life.
And if we hold the name of Jesus, there's not a single square inch of territory in our life that he doesn't say,
mine.
And every day I go by holding back that little piece of territory, I'm in rebellion against God.
Okay.
And we're commanded to fear and tremble and say, hey, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
God's goal is not just our happiness, although that is part of it in his mercy.
It says his son would be preeminent in everything.
He would have the reward of his suffering.
He would have the reward that God ordained all of creation was made for in the first place.
It's all his.
Okay.
He deserves it.
He deserved it by birthright because he breathed everything into creation.
That's what God made it for.
And he deserved it by his substitutionary death on the cross.
He purchased us.
You know, double worthy.
So, in all of life.
In all of life.
So, we believe in a whole little Christianity.
A Christianity that doesn't get compartmentalized to church and giving money and doing a little
ministry there and doing a little ministry there and trying to buy God off to leave you
alone for all the rest of your life that you run yourself.
No.
He bought the whole thing.
Okay.
It's an all or nothing deal.
He's Lord and Savior.
You can't separate them from each other.
All of life.
So, do we go just do this Christian, Jesus is my Lord thing all by ourselves somewhere?
No.
It's together.
Okay.
We'll keep going to there.
So, this is, you know, again, the kingdom of God and all of life.
Jesus is Lord of all of life.
And it's together.
It's together.
Continue reading Colossians here.
And he's the head.
He's for all things.
And in him all things hold together.
He's the head of the body.
His body, the church.
He's 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.
He's the head of the body of the church.
We don't live under the rule of Jesus separate from each other.
And we are Christ's body under one head.
Okay.
You don't have this.
There's not a category for like, we're all just different members.
Okay.
We each do a different thing.
He made hands.
He made noses.
He made ears.
You know, spiritually speaking, the Bible uses this language to talk about the multivariate
body of Christ with the different gifts and the different members.
We don't each, it's like a thumb.
Like I'm a thumb and I'm just connected to the head, you know, like a head with a thumb
on it, you know, over here.
And then there's another one over here.
It's like, I'm the foot with the, you know, head.
No, no, no.
We're all together connected to Christ.
And he is the head over all of us.
And together through the working of the Holy Spirit, we imperfectly, there's sin.
Until Jesus comes back, that's not going to be perfect.
But increasingly more perfectly, represent Jesus.
You can't represent Jesus all by yourself.
I mean, we might want to.
And in certain ways we have that opportunity to represent Jesus, but it's only ever a portion
of his character and his grace.
And anyway, getting ahead of myself a little bit here.
That's the together part.
It's the church.
Okay.
The kingdom of God and all of life together.
He's before all things and in him, all things hold together.
Ephesians goes into this a lot.
So I'm going to, I'm going to flip over to Ephesians and read through a few verses.
See here.
Okay.
Bear with me.
I'm just going to read a lot of scripture here.
Okay.
I'm starting in Ephesians.
If you want to follow along, read an ESV.
Starting in Ephesians chapter one, verse 22.
Togetherness specifically in the church.
Okay.
Ephesians 1 22.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body.
Well, Jesus lived on earth with the physical body.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Here we have it again.
Jesus, head of the church.
It is his body.
Okay, well, Jesus lived on earth with a physical body.
And he died, he was buried, he was resurrected, and he ascended to heaven.
He still has that physical body.
The church is indwelt by the spirit of Christ to communicate the presence of Jesus together.
And so together we are now imaging Jesus.
When Jesus was on earth, you could see him.
He was a guy and you saw in him the glory of God.
Now all the world has to look at Jesus is in heaven.
They can't see Jesus right now, but they can see us.
Okay, so now we are the ones who God in his mercy,
is living and dwelling inside of and communicating what Jesus is like to the world.
And actually it's a lot more than the world, as we'll read some passages about that.
But we're his body, okay?
We're the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Moving forward.
Ephesians 2, verse 19 through 22.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure, being the church, being joined together, not separate, together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him, Christ, you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Okay, same imagery.
We're growing into him.
The structures join together.
This is not a bunch of Christians doing their own thing.
You know, I do the, well, I'm like an evangelist kind of Christian,
so I go out and do my evangelist ministry.
And I'm like a prayer and intercession kind of Christian, so I'm going to go do that.
And we're all just going to have our separate ministries.
We all have our own calling from God.
We're all unique little flowers.
Well, there's a sense in which that's true.
But it doesn't look like Jesus unless it's like this.
Okay?
The whole structure is joined together.
And it grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
A place for God to live through his Spirit.
Okay?
Moving forward.
Ephesians 3.
Okay, this is the big one.
Ephesians 3.
We'll start in verse 8.
To me, this is Paul speaking,
though I am the very least of all the saints,
this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ
and to bring to life for everyone
what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God
who created all things.
So that through the church,
the manifold wisdom of God,
manifold is just like a varied, you know,
lots of different.
The manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known to the rulers
and authorities in the heavenly places.
This was according to the eternal purpose
that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord,
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence
through our faith in him.
There's a lot in there.
I mean, that, like, you could probably spend your whole life
just trying to unpack what he's trying to say there.
But I'm not even going to try to do all that,
but I'm going to pull out a few things.
One is that this mystery,
something about the unsearchable riches of Christ,
God had a plan according to his eternal purpose
to reveal this through the church.
So the manifold wisdom of God
would through the church,
through a very specific means,
not through individual Christians
doing their own individual thing,
through the church,
the manifold,
many folded,
different,
lots of different things
that are different from each other,
wisdom of God
would be manifested
to the rulers and authorities
in heavenly places.
I don't know if he's talking about angels
or demons
or both,
but it's very important to God,
okay,
because this is part of his eternal purpose
for the church.
This,
his vision is a lot more than just
saving a bunch of sinners from hell.
It has to do with
revealing
the unsearchable riches of Christ,
the manifold wisdom of God,
through the church,
through each one of us,
okay?
We'll talk a little bit more
about what that looks like.
Get into Ephesians 4.
Continue on through Ephesians here.
What does,
what does this manifold wisdom look like?
Continue on Ephesians 4,
starting in verse 11.
And he,
meaning Jesus,
gave the apostles,
the prophets,
the evangelists,
the shepherds,
and teachers
to equip the saints
for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ
until we all attain
to the unity of the faith
and the knowledge
of the Son of God.
To mature manhood,
to the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ,
so that we may be
no longer children
tossed to and fro
by the waves
and carried about
by every wind of doctrine,
by human cunning,
by craftiness
and deceitful schemes.
All right?
But,
so immaturity.
So instead of staying
in this place of immaturity
where you're easily deceived
and pulled all over the place,
rather,
speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up
in every way,
into him
who is the head,
into Christ,
from whom
the whole body
joined and held together
by every joint
with which it is equipped,
when each part
is working properly,
makes the body grow
so that it builds itself up
in love.
So,
what's the goal?
Maturity.
Personal maturity?
Just individual maturity?
Yes.
But it's not limited to that.
In fact,
if you limit it to that
and you just have a bunch of Christians
off doing their own thing,
having their Jesus quiet time
and not
participating in the church
in this way,
you don't have
mature manhood.
What's God's goal?
To grow us up together
to the measure
of the stature
of the fullness of Christ.
That we
would grow up
in every way
into him
who is the head
from whom
the whole body
joined and held together
by every joint
with which it's equipped,
all of us different
members,
each filled with the Holy Spirit,
each uniquely gifted
and equipped
for this upbuilding work,
each of whom
is essential.
I had so many verses
in Corinthians and stuff
that talked about this.
I just had to get rid of them
because it's for the sake of time.
But,
every member is essential
to this.
Jesus has his arm cut off.
Well,
it's just,
there's something about
the glory of Jesus
that's diminished.
Okay?
Well,
that's what it is
like today.
Jesus is the same
yesterday and today
and forever.
So,
his body now
is diminished.
The glory is diminished.
The character
and the full,
mature
representation
of Jesus Christ
on earth
is diminished
when
one member
is neglected
or
says,
no,
I'm not into that.
I'm going to go do my own thing.
You know?
Yeah,
you're like a Jesus.
You're like a church
kind of Christian.
I'm a Jesus kind of Christian.
You know?
Well,
you do you,
man.
No.
Like,
you're essential.
And God's not into
this
American,
Western,
individualistic Christianity.
He's not into it at all.
Okay?
He
sees that
as an affront
to,
it robs Jesus
of his glory.
He purchased us
for a lot more
than salvation
for hell.
It's so that we would be
part of his body
and
the eternal purpose
of God
in communicating
the character
and the manifold
wisdom
of God,
which is Christ,
by the way.
Christ is the wisdom
of God
to the world
and to the rulers
and authorities
in heavenly places.
So,
anyway,
to recap a little bit here,
you can get off point
really easily here.
Christ's church's mission
is the kingdom of God
and all of life
together.
How does Jesus
factor into that?
He is the king.
Okay?
He's king over
everything.
He bought
everything for himself.
Everything was created
for him
and through him.
And it's all for himself
because he purchased it
round two.
Okay?
It was all made
through him
and he deserved it anyway.
And then he purchased it
with his blood.
So,
the whole thing is his
all of life.
And our experience of it
is together
through his church.
And to the extent
to which
we try to divorce
from any one
of these things,
it's to our detriment.
And it's to the detriment
of the glory of God.
God is glorified.
He's chosen
a particular way
to glorify himself
and it's through the sun
and through the church.
Okay?
So,
to seek first
the kingdom of God
and his righteousness
is to seek
the advance
of Christ's lordship
and salvation
in all of life.
and as the body
of Christ
the body of Christ
the church
is the expression
it's the manifestation
of his kingdom
on earth
as it is in heaven.
Now,
Jesus taught us to pray
that your kingdom come
your will be done
on earth
as it is in heaven.
It's the already
but not yet thing.
He's already king
over everything
but we don't yet see
everything
manifestly
under the rule
of Jesus
where whatever
Jesus says
goes.
Okay?
But it's because
he hasn't come back yet.
When he comes back
it will be that way.
So where do we see
the kingdom of God
most clearly now?
Through the church.
The church
is where
the kingdom of God
is expressly
put on display.
Okay?
That's my point.
The kingdom of God
and all of life together
through Christ
and for him.
So,
take a little bit
of time here.
Let me see.
30 minutes.
All right.
I want to talk a little bit
about my second question.
So I said that
my goal here
is to answer two questions.
One is how does Jesus
fit into this mission statement?
A little bit of vision
of Christ
and how he factors
into that.
And the second is
like what's the ultimate
goal here?
To be happier?
To avoid hell?
No.
You get those things
but that's not
the ultimate goal.
All right.
So,
Christ's preeminence
and God's eternal purpose.
I'm going to share
a few passages about that.
Going back to Colossians 1.18,
this is the opening passage
that says that
he is the head of the body,
the church.
He's the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead.
That in everything
he might be preeminent.
That he might have first place.
Remember,
everything is created for him.
Okay?
Getting into
the big picture stuff.
The meaning for everything.
That the son
would receive
what God
created
everything
for.
It's for him.
Okay?
Read a few other verses.
Let's just not stick
with one verse.
There's more verses
that communicate this.
Ephesians 3,
verses 7 through 12.
I already read this
but this is,
actually,
I'm not going to read
the whole thing.
We read this.
It talks about
the unsearchable riches
of Christ.
It talks about
through the church
the manifold wisdom
of God is being
put on display.
And then he says
that it's according
to this eternal purpose
which he accomplished
in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
In Ephesians 1,
verses 9 and 10,
it says,
And he has made known
to us the mystery
of his will
according to his good pleasure
which he purposed
in Christ
to be put into effect
when the times
will have reached
their fulfillment.
Big picture.
What's everything
feeding up towards?
What is it?
To bring all things
in heaven
and on earth
together
under one head
even Christ.
Okay.
That's pretty big.
That's the mystery
of his will.
That's according
to his good pleasure.
That he's going
to bring all things
in heaven
and on earth
together
under one head
Christ.
Last verse,
1 Corinthians 15,
verses 24 through 28.
Then comes the end
when he delivers,
he meaning Jesus,
when he delivers
the kingdom to God
the Father
after destroying
every rule
and every authority
and power
for he must reign
until he has put
all his enemies
under his feet.
The last enemy
needed to be destroyed
is death.
For God
has put all things
in subjection
under his feet.
But when it says
all things
are put in subjection,
it is plain
that he is accepted
who put all things
in subjection
under him.
Basically,
he's just saying
God the Father
is not put in subjection
under the Son.
Okay.
He's the one
putting everything
under subjection
to the Son.
And when all things
are subjected
to him,
the Son,
then he,
then the Son
himself
will also
be subjected
to him,
the Father,
who put all things
in subjection
under him
that God
may be all
in all.
So,
everything was created
for Jesus.
That's the end.
Us too.
We're creations.
Okay.
So,
if you're in the
created category,
not creator,
guess what?
You were made
for Jesus.
Does it stop there?
No.
Jesus is doing it
for the glory of God.
Because when everything
is finally subjected
to him,
when all enemies
are put under his feet,
he will subject himself
to the Father
so that God
would be all in all.
It's for the glory of God.
And God has chosen
this specific way
to glorify himself.
There are other kinds
of ways to glorify God.
It's this way,
through the Son.
He's chosen one man
that is
authorized
to glorify God.
And it's the man,
Jesus Christ.
How do we glorify God?
By being inside of him.
And then God works in us
to will
and to work
according to his good pleasure.
Okay?
We're trying to
glorify God
our own way,
according to our own thoughts,
according to our own wisdom.
It's not acceptable.
It's through the Son.
That in all things,
Jesus
would have preeminence
first place.
And then
Jesus glorifies the Father.
That's what
he wants to do.
That's why he appeared.
I came to do
the will of my Father
and to glorify him.
That's
what Jesus
is oriented towards
is the glory of the Father.
And the Father
is pleased
to glorify himself
through his Son.
And the Spirit
glorifies
and reveals the Son.
It's a Trinitarian
glory.
It's a Trinitarian truth.
This is how they work together
for this ultimate goal,
which is Christ
to have preeminence
in all things.
And then he hands it
to the Father
that God would be
all in all.
Okay.
So,
what's the goal?
Everything I just said.
That Christ
would have preeminence
in all things,
subject himself
to the Father,
that God
would be all in all.
You know,
the Westminster,
I think,
shorter catechism
says,
the chief end of man,
what is the chief end of man?
To glorify God
and enjoy him forever.
It's glorious.
It's a very glorious thing.
It's a big problem
for us,
though.
You know why
it's a big problem?
Because all have sinned
and fallen short
of the glory of God.
No one has sought him,
not even one.
We have not enjoyed him.
That was our ultimate
creative purpose
for him.
And we all fell.
God saw that there was
no one who did good,
no one righteous,
not even one.
And you know what he said?
I'll do it.
He looked
and he found no one.
It says,
in Hebrews 10,
it says,
Behold,
it is written,
in the book concerning me,
I have come to do your will.
Sacrifices and offerings
you have not desired,
but a body
you have prepared for me.
Jesus
did God's will
when we failed
to do God's will,
and he fulfilled
the chief end of man,
which is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever.
And now,
he invites us
into that.
He said,
You didn't do it.
Like Esau,
we sold our birthright.
He says,
I'm the last Adam.
I did do it.
And now,
I poured out my life.
I bought you
from yourself
so that in me,
you can have
a fulfillment of that.
You can glorify God
and enjoy him forever.
Okay?
Okay,
so,
the church is an embassy,
okay?
We're an embassy
of the kingdom of God,
and this is the truth
we're putting on display.
We're not putting on display
our good works,
our good ideas,
our excellent,
you know,
giftings and all that
kind of stuff.
We're just putting on display
the glory of Jesus Christ
because that's the purpose
of the church
is to glorify Jesus,
to be a place
where Jesus is
accurately represented.
Okay?
And so,
our sanctification
isn't even about ourselves,
it's about Jesus.
Okay?
So,
when he says,
be holy
as I am holy,
it's for his name sent.
It's not about
our personal happiness
and our self-betterment,
it's because
he deserves it.
He purchased us
for himself
that he might be glorified,
that he might fulfill
the chief end of man
in us
and through us
for his glory.
So,
in a church,
our church,
a church,
the church
is an embassy
of that.
That is going
to be
the universal
experience
throughout all
of creation
when Jesus comes back
and he ultimately
makes all things new.
It's all going
to be like that.
Okay?
But right now,
where do you see this?
Hopefully in the church.
That's the purpose.
That's why we're here.
Okay?
So,
some exhortations.
Try to finish it up
quick here.
Number one,
does Jesus have first place
in your life?
Okay?
Do you have a vision
that's bigger than yourself?
Are you using Jesus
for a get out of hell card?
Or a make me happy card?
No.
He bought you
for himself
for his sake.
You don't get to be a Christian
and have Jesus
not have first place.
There's just not a category
for that.
Okay?
It's a one or a zero.
Okay?
Either he's Lord
of everything
or you are still
not in Christ.
Okay?
Does Jesus have
first place
in your life?
Can you still have
areas of rebellion
in your life,
resisting the Holy Spirit,
and be a Christian?
100%.
But that's why
I'm preaching
the sermon right now.
Okay?
That's the whole point.
The Holy Spirit
uses the preaching
of the Word
to put his finger
on areas of your life
where you're holding back.
And he says,
mine.
It's mine.
I will have preeminence
in all things
starting with you.
Okay?
Second,
does Jesus have
first place
in our church?
I love the imagery
of the church
as the bride of Christ.
Okay?
So,
who is
the chief
in a bride's affection?
Well,
if it's a healthy bride,
it's her groom.
Okay?
It's her husband.
But I'm sure
you've seen brides
who are consumed
with themselves.
They love how pretty
they look.
You know,
it's all about them.
The wedding's all about them.
Everything's all about them.
You know,
he's just a means
to getting
her beauty
on display
for herself
and the rest of the world.
Okay?
Unfortunately,
we can be like that.
Okay?
You can be myopically focused
with yourself
and
you're not focused
on Jesus.
A healthy church,
her affection
is towards
her Savior,
her husband.
Okay?
Her affection
is for her husband.
His affection
is for us.
Okay?
And because we love him,
we love each other.
We love his church.
But it's for that reason.
It's very important
that it be for that reason.
Otherwise,
it's just humanistic,
self-interested love
and as soon as you do me wrong,
sorry,
get out of here.
Leave me alone.
You know?
Church hurt.
You know?
I'm not downplaying
the fact that there's
real wickedness
that's hurtful.
But if we want to be in it
to win it for the long haul,
we have to have
a bigger vision
than people
who make me feel good.
Okay?
Through Christ,
I have a connection
to each one of you
if you're in Christ.
That's the basis
of our fellowship.
And my orientations
towards Christ
and if we're healthy,
all of our orientations
towards Christ
and the church
is beautified
by his care
and his affection
towards us.
Okay?
Okay.
Kind of more
of a general question,
but I think it's good
in light of some
of this big picture stuff.
Why are you coming
to this church specifically?
Why are you coming
to Christ's church?
Okay?
There's a lot of reasons
for coming to a church.
I think some of them
are bad reasons,
at least ultimately.
So here's some reasons
that I think are bad
ultimate reasons
for coming to this church.
It's a smaller church.
Okay?
Probably pretty applicable
to us who came out
of a large church,
Bellicose.
So if you've said
that to me,
I'm not picking on you.
You're not the only one
who said that to me.
It's not bad
to enjoy a smaller church.
It's a bad ultimate reason.
Okay?
The Bible says,
Jesus set each member
in the body
as he sees fit.
He's the boss.
You're not the boss.
My friends or family
are here.
Okay?
Ironically,
that's the reason
I started going to church
years ago
is because my mom
got sick.
Eden got sick.
And Bellicose was the church
that our family went to.
So,
and the Lord used that,
thankfully,
to give me a lot
of other reasons for it.
It's a bad reason, though.
Okay?
That's a bad ultimate reason.
More opportunities
for leadership.
That one kind of seems
more obviously bad,
you know?
That's a big church.
Kind of hard to climb
the ladder over there.
I'm going to go
to a small church
and, you know,
kind of level up,
you know?
People can really
appreciate me,
my gifts,
you know,
a smaller church,
you know?
Again,
yeah,
God does call leaders,
you know?
He gives us opportunity
to exercise our gifts,
but bad reason.
Real bad reason
to go to church.
It's close to my house.
I'm not picking on you,
Andersons.
I know you actually
live close here.
We're looking at
a church building
and it's close
to a lot of people's
houses, okay?
So,
I'm not just picking on you.
It'll be far away
from your house then.
Okay,
it's close to my house.
It's convenient,
all right?
It's not a terrible reason.
Sometimes God serves us
up some convenience.
That's great.
Thank you,
Lord,
for convenience.
I'm happy when I get it.
I love when God
gives me some convenience.
Bad ultimate reason.
Inconvenient lifestyle
communicated in the pages
of the New Testament.
Very inconvenient,
okay?
Jesus says,
it's going to be inconvenient.
Think about that
ahead of time,
okay?
Count the cost,
all right?
What's a good ultimate,
but there's a lot
of other bad reasons,
okay?
So,
I'm sure you can
think of some.
What's a good ultimate
reason to come to this
church or any church?
Jesus is worthy,
okay?
He died for all
that all who live
would no longer
live for themselves,
but for Him.
You don't get to
decide your life anymore.
Jesus decides your life.
He sets each member
in the body
as He sees fit,
and He's boss,
He's king,
He's the Lord
over everything,
and He saved me,
and He's going to keep me
all the way to the end,
and I'm so happy
to not be running
my life anymore.
I'm just going to do
whatever He says,
okay?
And He does
say things to us.
My sheep hear
my voice,
and they follow me.
It's the inheritance
of every Christian
as we can actually
hear Jesus talk to us,
and when He says
go, we go.
I might have all
these other,
you know,
I might have some
of these other
motivations going on
there,
but you know what?
I recognize them,
and I subordinate
them to the cross,
and I say,
no matter what,
Lord,
I'm going to set
all that stuff aside.
What do you want me
to do?
That's a good reason,
okay?
Last one.
Why advance the gospel?
Okay?
Got this awesome church,
awesome people,
friendship.
Why not just sit back
and enjoy our little
holy huddle,
comfortable friendships,
you know?
That Jesus would have
preeminence in all things.
That's why.
Okay?
That He would have
preeminence
in all things.
the existence
of every single person
has only one
ultimate purpose.
It's Christ.
It's for Him.
And they're living
in rebellion against God.
He bought them.
He made them for Himself,
and then He bought them.
Okay?
They have no right
to withhold their life
from Jesus Christ anymore.
He gave Himself for them
that they would be His,
and I'm excited
for them to be His.
And I want Jesus
to have preeminence
in all things.
I'm not satisfied
with my little
Christian huddle here,
however nice it is
to be in a small church,
enjoyable for a season.
If it's healthy,
it won't be like that,
and there'll be a lot
of inconvenient people
that you have to take care of
for His sake.
Jesus says,
if you love me,
feed my sheep.
That's what He said to Peter.
Peter.
So,
why advance the gospel?
That Jesus would have
preeminence in all things.
We need a vision bigger
than ourselves.
We need a vision bigger
than our own salvation,
than our own local church,
and this is it.
It's Jesus,
that He would have preeminence
in all things.
He's the purpose
for which everything was created.
I'm going to finish
with Ephesians 3,
20 through 21.
More of it as a benediction, okay?
Now,
to Him who is able
to do far more abundantly
than all that we ask
or think,
according to the power
at work within us,
to Him be the glory
in the church
and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations,
forever and ever.
Amen.