Thank you.
J.B. Phillips, in his book, Your God is Too Small, writes this.
Many men and women today are living often with inner dissatisfaction without any faith
in God at all.
This is not because they are particularly wicked or selfish or, as the old-fashioned
would say, quote-unquote, godless, but because they have not found with their adult mind,
a god big enough to account for life, big enough to, quote, fit in with the new scientific
age, big enough to command their highest admiration and respect, and consequently, their willing
cooperation.
Phillips wrote this in 1952, but I think it speaks to our age today as well.
Certainly, discussion of God, and particularly the God of Christianity in public square, is
unfailingly characterized as a God whose weakness and insufficiency are on display in various
ways.
The hypocrisy of believers.
The growth of naturalistic materialism.
Increasing ignorance in what the Bible actually says about who God is.
The conflation of Christianity with social or political movements have all weakened our understanding
of who God truly is.
And have undermined the perception of God in the public square.
Maybe you're here this morning, and you feel this acutely.
You wonder about the God of Christianity.
Perhaps you're here exploring.
We're welcoming you.
We're glad you're here.
But, you know, I don't think this weakness is simply something that's outside of the church.
In fact, I think it's prevalent within the church just as much.
In our own hearts, we struggle.
We struggle to think, is God big enough for our modern world?
Is God big enough for the complexity that I face every day?
So often, we find ourselves excluding God and thinking He is too small in areas of modern
expertise like medicine or psychology or management.
We question God's ability to be big enough in the face of natural and human disasters.
We're in the face of personal pain and suffering.
In our modern world, our increasing sense of our own control makes us doubt whether God is
actually in control.
And as we face the ongoing and insistent gnawing of our soul that we were making
for something more in this life than what we're experiencing, yet we still doubt whether
God could be the answer, whether God could be the direction we could go to find the satisfaction
that our souls crave and long for.
And so, Phillips poses a question to us, our society and our church.
Is God actually big enough for the complexity of the lives that you face?
Is He big enough to command your highest admiration and respect?
Is He big enough to command your willing cooperation with Him in His plans for your life and for the world?
Is He big enough to command your life and for the world?
This brings us to our new preaching series for the fall.
We are preaching through the book of Colossians.
If you want to look there, you can turn there.
We're going to be dipping in and looking at a number of different passages rather than simply reading one.
So, I would recommend if you can pull one of those pew Bibles out, it's page 984.
And we're looking at the book of Colossians because in it, God speaks to us about this very question.
In it, God tells us who He is.
And in it, we are able to see the greatness of the God of the Bible and the God of Christianity.
As you're turning there, let me just give you a brief introduction to the book of Colossians.
It is a letter from the Apostle Paul.
It was probably written in about 72 AD, which would be near the end of his life.
It was written to a church that he had never been to.
Seemingly, what happened was there was a man named Epaphras, who you see in chapter 4, verse 12,
who had probably come to Ephesus where Paul had lived and ministered for a number of years
and had returned back to this town of Colossae and had proclaimed about the good news about Jesus
that he had heard from Paul.
So, Paul is in some ways the grandfather of this church.
But it seems, as we see clearly, he had never actually met them or been with them.
We see that in the beginning of chapter 2.
And so, this letter is a letter taken by two men, Tychicus and Philemon, to this church,
along with a couple of other letters, to be passed along to encourage the church and to remind them.
And it was written to encourage this new church about Christ.
Paul talks about his thankfulness, about the gospel work that he's heard about in them.
But he also writes with some concern.
Concerned that in the milieu of both Judaism and folk religion of the day,
that perhaps the Colossians were starting to think that Jesus was good, but not quite good enough.
That maybe Jesus was, as one commentator, Doug Moo says,
that Christ was most important, but most important among others who were pretty much like him.
In terms of spiritual options and in terms of their salvation.
Paul says, I want to remind you of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I want to remind you that Jesus is great and he is sufficient.
You don't need to turn to other rituals, other spiritual practices, other spiritual powers in your life.
For Christ actually is enough.
The hinge verse and the central exhortation is in chapter 2.
And if you want to turn there with me.
Chapter 2, verses 6 and 7 is the key exhortation that Paul is giving to this church.
He says,
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.
Rooted and built up in him.
And established in the faith, just as you were taught.
Abounding in thanksgiving.
Paul's heart is that they would be encouraged.
And his means of doing so is he's going to lift up Jesus Christ before them.
And that's what we're going to talk about this morning.
Jesus Christ, the exalted one.
Jesus Christ in all of his greatness.
Jesus Christ who is sufficient for all of our needs.
So that's what we're going to look at this morning.
Let's pray before we dive in.
Lord, we thank you for this book and we thank you for this word.
Lord, we thank you that you have not left us to grope and to grasp about who you are.
But you have in fact made us able to know who you are by your word.
Lord, we thank you for this book and we pray that today and in the coming weeks and months,
as we preach through it, Lord, that you will bless us individually and as a community.
Lord, that we might see more clearly the greatness of the Savior that we have in Christ.
Lord, help us.
Lord, we confess our need to be instructed by you, to be reminded by you.
Lord, I pray for your help this morning that as we look at your word together,
that I might speak clearly and that my words would be useful in your hands, Lord,
so that we might all be encouraged to worship you.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
If you're following along, my outline this morning will be very simple.
As we're looking at the book of Colossians and thinking about his greatness,
we are going to look at Christ the preeminent one and Christ the sufficient one.
Those two things, and we'll break those down.
And as we do this, we'll start the first one.
Turn with me to chapter 1, verse 15.
We're going to see that Christ is the preeminent one.
You see that word preeminent in verse 20.
In other translations, you might see it being supremacy or having the first place.
Preeminence isn't always a word that we talk about today,
but it means taking the highest and the most central place among a community,
in our own hearts, in our lives.
And part of what Paul says here to this early church is that there is a God,
and we can know him fully, completely, because of Jesus Christ.
So look with me in verse 15 of chapter 1.
He's talking about Jesus.
You can see that from verse 13.
He says, he, that is Jesus, is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
And if you skip down to verse 19, it's helpful to see this too.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
These are striking, staggering statements.
We could spend all day simply camping out on this one truth,
that Jesus himself is the image of God and the fullness of God.
And the reason why we need to be reminded of this is because in our humanness,
because Jesus Christ became a human being and took on human flesh,
we often think less of him.
We often think of him as simply a good moral teacher.
We think of one who commends to us a better ethic for our world.
We might think of him as one who is a revolutionary to bring social change.
But in doing all those things, we see him as merely a better human being,
a greater human being than others around us.
And Paul speaks to this and says, no, no, no.
Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God.
And in him, the fullness, all of who God is, dwells.
And friends, what good news this is for us.
If we want to know God, we don't need to guess.
If we want to know God, we don't need to think,
well, what do I think he might be like?
God has come to us in Jesus Christ.
Christ and the very center and the very core of what Christianity is all about.
Of what the Bible is all about.
What the Bible is all about is that Jesus Christ is the one we can look to
to know everything we need to know about who God is.
Everything is in there.
So we need not look further.
Not only is Christ preeminent because he is the fullness of deity expressed in human form
so we can know what he's like, but he's also the preeminent one over all of the world.
Look with me in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 1 for a minute.
It says,
For by him, that is Christ, 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.
For those of you who are English majors, these two verses are a cornucopia,
a banquet of prepositions about Jesus.
Did you see them all?
By him.
That is, he is the means by which everything was created in the whole world.
Not only by him was everything created,
but we see at the end of verse 16 that all things were created through him,
the instrument, and for him.
That is, he is the goal.
Everything in this world was made for Jesus Christ.
Not only that, but verse 17,
he is before all things,
which means that he was eternally present before the created,
and therefore distinct from the created world in which we live,
and in him all things hold together.
Jesus not only formed all this,
not only was he the one by whom it came into existence,
but today, every day,
he is the one who holds it together.
He is the one who holds the gravitational constant
so the world doesn't fall apart.
He is the one who makes molecules hold together.
I'm not a scientist.
I'm about to get way in over my head here.
But you keep going into the complexities of the physical and material world,
the biological world,
and you realize Jesus is the sustaining power
by which all of those things happen.
And it gives us as believers the joy to be a scientist,
those who explore the creative and sustaining work of God
in the physical world.
The 19th century theologian Abraham Kuyper,
well-known quote that you should know,
and it's one of the quotes that, by the way,
Tim Keller uses in the book,
Every Good Endeavor,
which is the basis of the Sunday School.
So this is a good sort of plug for that.
There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence
over which Christ, who is sovereign over all,
does not cry,
You ride to the bus,
you ride on the bus in the morning,
your days in the classroom,
on the playing fields and in the labs,
Christ says,
Mine.
In the lecture halls,
in the departmental offices,
in the seminar rooms,
Christ says,
Mine.
In your morning commute,
your office desk space,
your boardrooms,
Christ says,
Mine.
In your friendships,
your marriage,
your leisure,
and your bedroom,
Christ says,
Mine.
In your homes,
in your laundry piles,
your playrooms,
and minivans,
and preschools,
Christ says,
Mine.
In your apartments,
in your shelters,
your tent cities,
in your food kitchens,
in your hospitals,
Christ says,
Mine.
In our neighborhoods,
in our state,
in our city,
in the countries that span the globe,
Christ says,
Mine.
The political powers,
and the societal structures,
and the economic markets,
Christ says,
Mine.
There is nothing in this world
that was not made by Christ,
and sustained by Christ.
And will,
in the end,
show that it was made for Christ,
for His glory.
Every part of your existence,
Christ rules over.
He claims the place of preeminence,
first place in all of them.
But He doesn't just rule it over creation.
If you look further on,
in verses 18 through 20 of chapter 1,
He says,
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.
So not only is God,
is Jesus Christ,
claiming a place of preeminence
over all of creation,
but He's claiming preeminence
over all of His new creation work as well.
For we might wonder,
how is it that Christ could be preeminent
in this broken, fallen world
that is full of pain,
and sorrow,
sickness,
and evil?
Well, His preeminence is demonstrated
in this new creation work
that He has begun,
and that He has started.
And it is based on His work
of His life and death and resurrection.
And His goal is to redeem individual people
from the death of the world
into the life
that is being joined with Him.
But it is not only that.
Did you see the end of verse 20?
It is also to reconcile all things to Himself.
That is, everything will be brought in
and under His rule and His reign.
And one day the world again
will be remade in a new creation,
a new heavens and a new earth,
where everything will display His glory
and His goodness and His beauty
and His majesty and His power.
So Christ is redeeming people today,
and He is redeeming the world
for an eternity that is yet to come.
Again, for those of you who are linguists,
look at the number of time
that all and every was mentioned
in these verses.
As a matter of fact,
I want to encourage you,
read through the book of Colossians.
Commit to reading through it once a week
for the next three months
as we preach through it.
And one of the questions I want you to ask is,
look for how many times do you see
all and every in your translation?
Because this Christ that Paul has proclaimed,
this Christ that we are proclaiming to you today,
is a Christ over all.
Over all creation,
and in His saving, redeeming work,
He is over His people, the church.
Friends, one of the implications of this today
is that we must see
that Christ is not merely a tribal God.
He is not merely the God of the Christians
who can be compared
and honored in the same way
with all other gods of the world.
We have the privilege
of proclaiming a God who says,
this is all mine
and I am the Savior of all the world.
And this has a sharp edge to it
because the Christ of Colossians,
there is no room for other Saviors.
There are no other paths to know God.
There is no other way out of sin.
Christ alone can do that.
And yet it also gives us the ability
to interact with the whole world
with graciousness.
We may never hate people
because of their religion,
but we may point them
to the one who claims over all,
mine.
The central act of this, as we'll see,
the way that this work is being done,
the way that Christ is showing His preeminence,
is through the preaching
of the good news of Jesus Christ,
this message of the gospel.
This is what He's doing in the church.
This is what He's doing in the world.
Friends, is your Christ too small
to save the whole world
and to redeem it?
Is your gospel too small to save you
from the depths of your sin and brokenness?
Is your Savior big enough
to be able to save even this world?
Christ has come to redeem all things
so that all things He might be preeminent.
Friends, as we see that this is what Colossians
is telling us about who Jesus is,
J.B. Phillips' questions come back to us.
Is He worthy of our loyalty?
Do we give Him the esteem and honor
that He deserves?
Do we trust Him?
Do we give Him our affection and our love?
Jesus Christ is claiming
the gravitational center of your life
such that everything you do
and everything that you are
is meant to revolve around Him.
Him is the creator.
Him is the sustainer.
Him is the redeemer.
This is what it means to be rooted
and grounded in Christ.
This is what it means to know Christ.
Not only is Christ, however,
in Colossians,
lifted up as the preeminent one
who says to all of the world,
mine,
and who has worked His saving work
so that it might be so.
But it is also,
as we see the rest of the book unfold,
we see that Paul is encouraging
the Colossians
and encouraging us to recognize
that Christ is sufficient.
That is, He is enough
for us to know God
and to walk with Him
and to walk in Him.
There are three different ways
in which He is sufficient.
First, He is sufficient
for our salvation.
Turn with me in chapter 2
to verses 13 through 15.
Verse 13 of chapter 2 reads this,
And you who were dead
in your trespasses
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with Him,
having forgiven us
all our trespasses
by canceling the record of debt
that stood against us
with its legal demands.
This He set aside,
nailing it to the cross.
He disarmed the rulers
and authorities
and put them to open shame
by triumphing over them
in Him.
Again, friends,
this is a passage
worthy of a whole sermon.
We'll get there.
That's why we're doing series
and we'll go through it
more slowly.
But to see that
what Paul is reminding
the Colossians about
is that when Christ died
on the cross,
He did all that was necessary
to take care of sin.
He doesn't spell it out here,
but He's putting the application
on the logic of the gospel,
which is that all of us,
all men and women,
have rejected God
and therefore are under sin.
And the wages of that sin,
the result of that rejection of God
is death itself,
physical and spiritual death,
separation from God,
and experiencing His judgment
upon our sin and our rebellion.
But that what Christ has now come
is that He has come
and in our place
died for us.
And in doing so,
He has paid the debt.
Did you see that language?
He has canceled
the record of debt
that stood against us.
We owed God our lives
for our sin.
Christ said,
I will pay that for you.
The sin that we bore,
Christ took it
and He nailed it to the cross
so that by the public display of it,
the world might see His triumph
over sin and death.
He has conquered
through sacrifice and suffering
and He has taken away
what would be ours,
that is condemnation and death.
And He has freed us
from what enslaves and controls us,
triumphed over the power of sin
and the spiritual powers
in the world
that align themselves
against God and His kingdom.
Friends, we often have a tendency
to slip into the desire
to think that we must atone
for our own sins.
But somehow it's up to us
to try to fix the problem
that we've created by our sin.
And I tell you that this is a lie.
We will never be able to do it.
No religious rites and rituals.
No spiritual calendars and holidays.
No moral improvement
and being a better person.
And no serving the world
and even sacrificially
trying to make the world
a better place.
No being a good boy
or a good girl.
No personal success.
Not even church involvement
and activities
have the power to save us
from our sin.
All of those things,
which may be good
in and of themselves,
find themselves unable
to bear the weight
of saving us from our sin.
And we love to turn to them
to save us
because when we can be in control
and we can measure them
and we can say,
look, I've done this.
I've jumped this high.
I've been this good.
Isn't that good enough?
And we avoid facing the fear
that in fact,
in the face of our sin,
we are completely unable
and helpless.
And we don't want to acknowledge
how enslaved we are
to sin
and how much we love it
rather than God.
But Christ comes
and Christ says,
I will do for you
what you can't do for yourself.
I will die in your place.
I will do all that is necessary
to nail that to the cross
so that you might be free
from its power,
so that you might know
the joy of salvation,
so that you might know
the power of being forgiven
of that sin
and welcomed
and accepted in love,
being fully known
and fully loved
by the God of the universe.
This is what Christ
has opened up for us
and He is sufficient
for all that is needed
for that.
And He calls us
to come and believe.
And that's really
what chapter 2
of Colossians is about,
is just unpacking
the sufficiency of Christ
and the insufficiency
of some of these
other patterns.
But it's not merely
that Christ is sufficient
for entering into
that life with God,
but it's that He is sufficient
for the ongoing growth
in and experience
of our life with God.
Look at chapter 3,
verses 9 through 11.
Basically what Paul does
at the end of chapter 2,
he warns them,
hey, don't believe
that there are other things
out there,
other philosophies,
other rituals,
other spiritual experiences
that you really need.
You don't need those things.
In chapter 3,
he basically says,
instead what you need
is Christ.
He says,
set your mind on Christ.
Seek the things above
where Christ is.
And then in this great description
of how to,
of what the Christian life
looks like,
it's not these other things.
it's putting off sin
and putting on Christ.
So verse 9 says,
do not lie to one another
seeing that you have put off
the old self with this practice
and have put on the new self
which is being renewed
in the knowledge
after the image
of its creator.
Here there is no Jew,
or no Greek and Jew,
circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian,
slave, free,
but all.
Christ is all
and in all.
You see, friends,
we often live in a world
where just like
for our salvation,
we think we need to add something
to what Christ has done.
So in the church,
how easy is it
for us to think
that we need a Christ
plus something else
in order to live
a faithful life with God?
Right?
We need Christ
plus really good
spiritual disciplines
or really hardcore
ascetic practices
or social activism
and serving the poor
or serving in the church
and finding ourselves
busy in those things.
We need Christ
plus deeper theological understanding
and a knowledge
of the original languages
and a deep understanding
of systematic theology
and historical theology
and biblical theology
to really know.
As a church,
often we think
we need Christ
plus some good marketing,
some sleek leadership strategy
or better counseling techniques.
friends,
in all of these things,
we are prone to say
that Christ
is not enough.
And we often
deny what
chapter,
or verse 4
of chapter 3 says
that Christ
is our life
and we also
then pursue life
outside of Christ
as well as within Christ.
We think Christ,
life with Christ
is good
but we really need
more than that
and so we live
our lives
for the praise
of our peers,
our parents
or our professors.
We need Christ
plus good grades
or a successful career
or achievements.
We need Christ
plus a date,
a boyfriend
or girlfriend,
a happy marriage,
kids who grow up
and do well.
Christ plus
a lot of money
and some really sweet hobbies
to keep us going
in our later years.
Christ plus freedom
from poverty
or physical suffering.
And look friends,
there is nothing wrong
with any of those things.
They are all good things
if they flow from Christ
and are done in Christ
and are done for Christ.
But when we think
these things are going
to replace Christ
or somehow add on
to Christ Himself,
they get warped,
they get twisted,
they become idols
in our hearts.
And in taking them on
and giving them
that place
in our lives,
we deny that Christ
is sufficient,
that Christ
is all
for us.
friends,
pursue
many things
that God has called you
in this life,
but pursue Christ
first.
Believe that knowing
Christ first
is going to be
the one thing
that you can't give up,
the one thing
that you can't lose,
the one thing
without which
nothing else matters.
when we do this,
then we can live out
what he says
at the end of chapter 2,
verse 17,
when he talks about
doing all things
for the glory of Christ.
Friends,
we're prone
to hedge our bets,
to think Christ is good,
but maybe we need
these extra things too.
Paul tells us
in the book of Colossians,
no,
Christ is all,
Christ is enough,
Christ is everything.
Not only is sufficient
for our salvation,
not only is sufficient
for our life
with him
on this earth,
but he is sufficient
as well
for the purpose
of your life
and the purpose
of the church.
Chapter 4,
verses 2 through 6,
we see Paul
moving ahead,
thinking about
having proclaimed
these things.
He then,
he's sharing
out of his own life
a bit.
He says,
continue steadfastly
in prayer,
being watchful in it
and thankful.
In the same time,
pray for us,
pray also for us
that God may open
to us a door
for the word
to declare
the mystery of Christ
on account of which
I am in prison,
that I may make it clear
which is how I ought
to speak.
Walk in wisdom
towards outsiders,
making the best use
of time.
Let your speech
always be gracious,
seasoned with salt,
so that you may know
how you ought to answer
each person.
Friends,
as Paul holds up
the greatness of Christ
and he says,
as you,
as God's people,
are to be caught up
in him
and to see his greatness,
he then says,
people who know
the greatness of Christ
want others to know
how great he is as well.
People who know
the greatness of Christ
will proclaim
to the world
that they ought to turn
and come to him
to find him
to be preeminent
and sufficient
for them.
This is the mission
of the church.
This is why we are here,
to display the glory
of Christ
in our broken vessels,
in our feeble
little lives,
but to do so
so that the greatness
of who Christ is
can be seen
and not only be seen,
but that we might give
verbal testimony,
that we might talk about
how great Christ is,
that your prayers
would be for God
to open doors,
that your lives
would be salty,
that people would want
to know,
what is it about you
that I don't understand?
That I want to know
more about,
that your words
would be full
of Christ
and of his goodness,
that you would be ready
to speak boldly.
This is what Paul
then talks about
at the end of the…
for the rest of the chapter.
He talks about his friends
who are doing ministry
with him.
He's talking about
his partnership
in the gospel
with these other men
and women.
friends,
this is what God
has called us to.
This is God's plan
that Christ,
the preeminent one,
might be made known
through the weakness
and the frailty,
but the reality
of Christ being that
for us as church.
And this is Trinity's plan
as well,
to know Christ
and to make him known.
And we're not going
to do it through
super slick
marketing programs,
through great mass
outreaches.
There's nothing wrong
with that.
I just want you to know
if you're coming to Trinity,
this is the reality.
This is how we do it.
Through people
who know Christ
and live for Christ
in their everyday lives
and invite others
to come
and see the glory
of Christ
in our midst.
Christ.
This is what God
has called us to.
He's called us to do it
on Prospect Hill
and over in the Hill District,
from Southern Connecticut State
to Fairhaven Heights,
the suburbs
and the shoreline
and the inner city,
to the scholar
and to the tradesman,
to the gown
and to the town,
men and women,
boys and girls
from every tongue
and tribe
and nation
who come
within our purview
into our area.
We want to make
this Christ known
so that in all things
Christ might be preeminent.
Let me just say briefly,
as a pastor,
as we have seen God
grow our church
and as we're facing
potentially some new challenges,
thinking about our space,
thinking about our services,
thinking about changes
that may come
in the future.
It will be so easy
for us as a church
to get distracted
by those things,
so easy for those things
to become the things
that fill our conversations
after church
and our online discussions
and our emails.
And we may spend
far too much time
worrying,
fearing,
complaining,
griping,
exhorting,
encouraging.
Who knows?
I don't know how good
it's going to go,
but we're going to have
to wrestle through
these things.
But the reason why
we picked the book
of Colossians
to preach on
in the midst of this
is because this is
what Trinity
is really about.
The buildings
and the services
are merely means
for us to potentially,
by God's grace,
lift up Christ
so that He might be seen
as preeminent,
as glorious,
and that this nation,
this country,
this county,
this city,
this neighborhood
would see the greatness
of Christ
and would turn
and give Him
the honor
and the worship
that He is due.
Friends,
this is my hope
for our church,
is that we would
give Christ
such esteem,
such loyalty,
such faith,
that we would give Him
so much admiration
and willing cooperation
that through us
He might use us
to extend His kingdom,
to make us
a place where Christ
is known
and proclaimed
to His glory.
Let's pray.
Lord,
we ask this morning
that You would help us.
Lord,
help us to
face,
Lord,
the inadequacies
of our view
of who Christ is
and the fears
of our hearts
that He won't be sufficient,
that He's not trustworthy.
Lord,
we pray You would help us
to see how great Christ is
so that our God
might not be too small
for the complexities
of our world
and the realities
of our lives.
That as Christ claims
His preeminence
and says to the whole world,
mine,
Lord,
that we would say to Him,
yes,
we are Yours.
let Your will be done
on earth
as it is in heaven.
We pray these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.