A Jesus-Centered Faith (Centered #3)
About thirteen months after my wife and I got married — and about two months after our college graduation — we jumped in the car and drove to Chicago for a three-week missionary candidate school.
I used to tell people we went to candidate school and they thought I said Canada school. No, we were not studying our northern neighbor. We were learning what it would mean to be missionaries overseas. We were applying to serve at a school in Venezuela, and the process required three weeks in which they poked and prodded every part of our lives — our spiritual lives, our theology, our mental health, all of it — to see whether we were qualified to go.
Because it was a Christian training program, they started on a Sunday morning. We arrived Saturday night, checked into the dorms, and made our way to the chapel that morning without having met many people yet.
As we walked in, there was a group up on the stage — obviously the leaders. And as I watched them, one guy stood out. Not because he was taller or bigger than everyone else. The opposite. He was a little shorter than the rest, his suit was a little too big for him, he had an enormous bushy mustache and oversized glasses, and a grin plastered across his face that never once went away.
He seemed odd to me. Goofy. And in my head I decided: that is the guy who wishes he could be a missionary but can’t, so he hangs around the cool missionaries basking in their glory. And because they are a bunch of nice Christians, they include him and make him feel loved — but even they know this guy will never actually be a missionary.
Yes, that was extraordinarily judgmental of me. And I tell you the story so you know exactly how wrong I was.
It turns out the man with the goofy grin was a legend. He had served in Austria for more than ten years and had gone on to help smuggle Bibles into the Soviet Union, where he watched God do things that sounded impossible. He told us story after story of God working miraculously. This was not a wannabe missionary. This was the missionary everyone wanted to be.
He also had one of the sharpest minds you will ever encounter. He had entire books of the Bible memorized — not a verse here and there, whole books. He had all of Hebrews memorized, and he showed us, starting in chapter one and rolling into chapter two, and he could have kept going.
He could also speak remarkably fast. Some of you listen to podcasts at 1.5 speed to get through them faster. You could not do that with this man; putting him at 1.5 would be like 3.5. And yet he enunciated so clearly and crisply that you understood every word. If you have ever heard me close a meeting by asking, “Any comments, questions, or violent disagreements?” — I stole that from him.
If anyone at that three-week candidate school was a goofy nerd, it was not him. It was me, for having such a wrong impression of him.
We All Do This
Anyone else ever done something similar? You form an impression of someone, and it turns out you were completely off.
Maybe you saw the bushy mustache and the goofy grin and assumed one thing, and it turned out he was remarkable. Maybe you met someone incredibly good-looking with real charisma, and underneath they turned out to be mean and narcissistic. Maybe you assumed someone did not make much money and it turned out they had an enormous bank account — or the reverse: you assumed someone was wealthy and they were so far into debt they should not even qualify for the poverty line. Maybe you guessed someone’s age and were way off. Which is probably all of you regarding me.
We have all done it.
And I think a lot of people have the wrong impression of Jesus.
Some people think of him as a great spiritual guru. Others read the Scriptures, see the kind things he did, and conclude he was just a really nice man. Others read certain passages and conclude he was a jerk. Some hear that he is called a king. Some assume he was simply a man.
There are opinions everywhere, and we know it because we hear them constantly. There are professional Christians who make excuses for their decisions in the name of Jesus. There are politicians who justify how they vote — or how they treat their opponents — based on the reputation of Christ. Magazines put his face on their covers. Theologians debate him endlessly on podcasts and at conferences. Everyone is trying to tell you who Jesus is.
But what if they have the wrong impression?
Why Paul Wrote This
I think the Apostle Paul feared exactly this for the brand new church in the small city of Colossae.
These were new Christians who had heard about Jesus through a man named Epaphras, who came from Ephesus with some other disciples and shared the gospel there. Some people believed the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. But now there were cults around them, and all kinds of competing teaching, and various Jewish ideas about who this supposed Messiah was.
Paul worried that some of them would drift — that all those voices would leave them with the wrong impression.
So to a city he had never visited, to a church he had never seen, to people he had never met, Paul gave one of the greatest gifts he could give: one of the clearest, most poetic, most powerful descriptions of Jesus anywhere in the Scriptures. He wanted to eliminate any chance of a wrong impression.
And here is the thing: some of us think we already have the right impression. But there may be ways we are misunderstanding Jesus, or things about him we have simply forgotten.
The Text: Colossians 1:15–20
“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. 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.”
Any time you study a passage like this, one useful Bible study technique is to look for patterns and repeated words. And as I studied this week, one two-word phrase jumped out: all things. In the ESV it appears five times in six verses, and I would argue it is implied in two more places. So seven times Paul reaches for this idea.
What we are going to see is that Paul wanted his readers — and by extension us — to understand five things about Jesus:
- He is God of all things
- He is over all things
- He is the creator of all things
- He is the sustainer of all things
- He is the reconciler of all things
1. Jesus Is God of All Things
Verse 15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
We know the “he” is Jesus because verses 13 and 14, which we looked at last week, were explicitly about Christ, and this flows straight out of that.
In that short phrase Paul packs an enormous amount of theology. First, there is God — he simply assumes it. Then he describes God as invisible, which should not surprise us either; Jesus says in John’s Gospel that God is spirit, and spirits are invisible.
What is surprising is that he describes Jesus as the image of God. Some translations make it explicit: he is the visible image of the invisible God.
Have you ever walked through a room in the dark? Even a room you know well, you go slower. You put your hands out.
Many of you do not know this, but I regularly take trash and recycling out here at the church, and the bins are back in a dark room. I walk right past the light switch, but I am cheap, so I do not turn it on. I walk through the dark because I am convinced the exit sign and a little nightlight will be enough. That worked until the day I cracked my shin on a chair. Ever since, I go through that room with my hands out in front of me.
All I would have to do is pull out my phone, turn on the flashlight, or flip the switch — and I would walk with far more confidence.
Jesus is our flashlight to God. If God is invisible, it can feel like he is in the dark, and some of us approach him with our hands out, feeling our way. But when you realize Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, you can approach him with real confidence.
Why? Because you can see through Jesus that God is love. Yes, the Scriptures say God is love. But it is one thing to read that and another to see it. When you watch Jesus willingly give his life for the sins of humanity, you are watching the ultimate sacrifice — that is love.
We also know God cares for us, not only because 1 Peter 5 says so, but because Jesus showed care. He fed the five thousand. He healed people. He spent time with them. He taught them. He cared deeply.
If you want to understand what God is like, look at Jesus.
But is he just an ambassador?
Maybe you are on the skeptical side, thinking: maybe Jesus is more like an avatar or an ambassador. You cannot really see the United States — it is a landmass — but when we send an ambassador, that person represents it. So maybe Jesus merely represents God without being God.
I think Paul anticipated that, which is why he clarifies in verse 19: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”
Most of you know I have four children, and one of my great delights as a dad has been watching my kids do things they love and are good at. Watching one of my daughters take up mock trial — something I had never done in my life — and be a natural at it. I used to tease her not to become a lawyer, and to remind me never to get into a debate with her, because she would win every time. Another of my daughters is an artist, and I can look at her work and know I am not just a biased father — people pay her for her art. She is genuinely good. For the last four years I have loved watching one of my sons become a leader on his robotics team; he just gets it, he comes alive doing it, and it is no surprise he is now off at university starting a mechanical engineering degree. And for several summers now I have loved sitting in the stands or standing on the field watching my youngest play baseball, because he simply understands the game.
I think God looks at Jesus and something in him swells with pride: it is so good to see my nature in him.
Now do not misunderstand. Jesus is part of the Trinity. The Bible teaches there is one God revealed in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and though they are three distinct persons, they are one essence, one nature, one God. The Father is fully God. The Spirit is fully God. And the Son is fully God.
So when Jesus took on human flesh and came to dwell among us, the fullness of God came with him. That is why we can say the first thing: he is God of all things.
2. Jesus Is Over All Things
Paul could have stopped there. Theologically, the next four all flow out of the first. But he is writing to people surrounded by Greek philosophy and belief in many gods, alongside Jewish neighbors who do not believe Jesus was God, and cults with every idea imaginable. So he makes it unmistakable.
The second half of verse 15 calls Jesus the firstborn of all creation.
We Western-minded Americans think linearly and chronologically, so when we hear “firstborn” we think of the first child out of the womb. In an ancient Jewish, Eastern mindset that was part of it — but just as important was the idea of position and authority. When they heard firstborn, it might well refer to someone else who had been placed in the position of prominence.
For instance, in Genesis 25 we have Esau and Jacob. They are twins, and Esau is born first, so he is the firstborn. And yet later in that same chapter, Esau foolishly sells his birthright — his position as firstborn — to Jacob for a bowl of soup. Nothing changed chronologically. Everything changed in authority and position, and Jacob became the firstborn.
Another example: in Psalm 89 the poet writes about King David and how great he is, and in verse 27 calls him the firstborn of kings. David was not even the first king of Israel, let alone the first king on earth. It means he is the highest, the preeminent one.
And Paul spells out what that means. Skip to verse 18: “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.” That word preeminent is a fancy way of saying over all things — the place of prominence, like a gold medalist standing above everyone else.
He is over the church
This is why we do everything we can to keep this from being my church.
Paul is talking about the church globally here, but I believe that whatever is true of the church globally should, as much as possible, be true of the church locally. The global church is remarkably diverse — if you follow Jesus, your brothers and sisters in Christ live in China and Africa and Indonesia; they are wealthy and poor, educated and uneducated. So the local church should be diverse where possible. Does your local church reflect your community — in age, income, background, education, and race? Likewise, God gave the global church a mission to go and make disciples, so the local church should adopt that mission right where it is. We may not be able to do everything the global church can, but can we do what we are called to do here?
And if Jesus is the head of the church globally, he should be the head of the church locally.
The reason matters: I am temporary. Yes, God used me to help start this church. But there will come a day when I no longer lead it — whether because death takes me, or it is time to retire, or you are simply finally sick of me. Something will happen, and I will no longer be the lead pastor here. And I would hope the Spirit of Christ keeps leading this church anyway.
That is why you will never see my name on the front of the building. It is why I am not on the front page of our website. It is why we do not build our invitations around any one staff member. Because it is not his church, and it is not my church, and it is not the elders’ church. In fact, it is not even your church. This is God’s church, and he has called us together to love one another, grow together, and go make a difference in this world.
He is over the living
The next phrase says Jesus is the beginning — not at the beginning, not from the beginning. He is the beginning. As we will see in a moment, all things were created through him and by him.
If he is the beginning, then he was there before Adam and Eve, before plants and animals, before any life at all. He was in that position before all of it, and he created all of it. So he is over the living.
He is over the dead
Then: he is the firstborn from the dead. There is that word again.
Jesus was not the first person to rise from the dead. Just within his earthly ministry we see him raise his friend Lazarus, and the daughter of a synagogue leader, and the son of a widow. That is three people raised before he ever rose himself.
And go back to the Old Testament. There was a prophet named Elisha, successor to Elijah. After Elisha died, a funeral procession was carrying a body out for burial when a raiding party appeared. In their panic, they dumped the body into the grave where Elisha’s bones lay — and the moment the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came back to life. He had to climb out of the tomb and then run for his life so he would not die again, because the raiders were coming. It is a wild story.
So Jesus is not chronologically the first raised. Which means, again, that this is about authority. Because everyone else was raised by God. Jesus raised himself. He tells us in John 10 that he laid down his life willingly, and then adds: so that I may take it up again.
That takes power. That takes authority. He is the firstborn from the dead because he is over all things — over the church, over the living, and even over the dead.
3. Jesus Is the Creator of All Things
Verse 16: “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.”
Notice Paul does not simply say Jesus created all things. He spells it out: in heaven, the spiritual realm, and on earth, the physical realm. The visible, the things you can see, and the invisible, the things you cannot. All of it.
But look at the last phrase: created through him and for him.
A week or two ago I came across a thread about a musician who, decades ago, made an album people still call his band’s greatest work. It made a great deal of money and people rave about it to this day. And when asked about it, he essentially said he did not care that people liked it — because it had been an intensely personal project. Whatever he was going through at the time, he wrote those songs for himself. It was essentially his journal. That other people connected with it was a bonus. But he honestly did not care.
Here is what I want you to realize: when God created all things, it was ultimately not for you.
I hope you get enjoyment out of creation — I certainly find myself happier out in nature. But he did not create it to make you happy. He did not create it to impress you, even though I look up at a starry sky and I am impressed. He did not even create it to make you worship him, even though I see a mountain range and cannot help but worship.
He created it for himself. He is a creative God. It is simply who he is. He cannot help it. He creates.
And what I want you to take from that is this: because he creates, and because he created all things, he created you. You were made in the image of God. That is why we are going to spend five weeks in September on exactly that idea.
You are not a mistake. You may be going through something genuinely hard right now. But God created you, and therefore he loves you, because he created you for himself.
4. Jesus Is the Sustainer of All Things
Verse 17: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
A deist believes God started the world like a watch, wound it up, and then stepped back. What Paul wants us to see is that God is not like a mother reptile who lays her eggs and walks off wishing them luck. He is intimately involved. He is right there in the workings, holding it all together.
The reason you do not simply drift off into space is that Jesus holds you here with gravity. The reason your arm does not fall off is that he holds you together with skin and muscle and tendon. He holds you together.
But remember, he created all things — visible and invisible. Which means he can hold you together in the invisible parts too. Emotionally. Spiritually.
When you are going through something difficult, what sustains you? I have confessed here many times that I run to entertainment — a show, something on my phone, a game. I want to escape. That is what I let sustain me. Other people run to substances. Some run to a particular relationship or hobby.
Do not misunderstand me: some of these things are perfectly good. The problem is that we take a good thing and make it an ultimate thing, and that is when it becomes a bad thing.
So why am I running to a screen to sustain me when the creator of all things is right there, able to sustain me through all things?
Will you let him sustain you? It is not a one-and-done prayer. It is an ongoing, daily wrestling. God, will you sustain me today? Will you sustain me for this next hour? Will you hold me together?
The Greek word translated “hold together” can also be rendered continue or endure. Do you need to continue through something? Are you in something hard and you need to endure? Run to Jesus. Let him sustain you. Let him be the superglue of your soul, the band that wraps around you so you hold together.
5. Jesus Is the Reconciler of All Things
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they broke everything. Actually, it is theologically more accurate to say that sin broke everything through their rebellious act.
Think about the scope of it. They broke things spiritually — their relationship with God was fractured. They broke things emotionally — things between Adam and Eve fractured. They broke things physically — childbirth would now be painful, labor on the earth would be toil. They broke everything.
If you were with us two weeks ago when we started this series, you heard me spend time in Genesis 3, because I wanted you to see that God’s response to Genesis 3 is the cross. The cross is what God uses to undo the work of Genesis 3.
Which is why Paul writes verse 20: “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
The penalty for sin was death. God had warned Adam and Eve. But when they sinned, rather than let them pay the penalty themselves, God allowed it to be transferred to animals.
And notice: God was sustaining everything through all of this. Even as things fractured on the spiritual, emotional, and physical planes, Jesus was still holding it all together. If he had not been able to sustain it, we would simply have ceased to exist. The fact that we are here in this broken world at all is evidence that Jesus sustains.
But he was not content to merely sustain it. He did not wrap it in duct tape and call it good. He wanted actual healing — true healing, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. And he does it through the cross.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately realized they were naked, and they took leaves and tried to cover themselves. But as they were escorted out of the garden, we read that God clothed them in animal skins. And the only way God obtained those skins was through the death of a creature he had made. God had given that animal life — but because his image was in humans and not in that animal, God killed the animal, took the hide, and covered Adam and Eve.
The God who wanted to reconcile all things to himself did not want more animals to die. He did not want people separated from him. He did not want the broken relationship. So Jesus willingly came to this earth and willingly laid down his life for you.
Because just as he created all things — which includes you — and he can sustain all things — which includes you — he can reconcile all things, including you.
Reconciled to God
If you have a broken relationship with God, the reconciliation comes through Christ. Part of why we say we want to help the spiritually disconnected find and follow Jesus comes from right here. If you feel disconnected from God — even if you have attended church your whole life — the way back into a reconciled relationship is through Jesus.
Most people, when they recognize that broken relationship, mark the moment in prayer. They confess: God, I have this broken relationship, and it is not because of you, it is because of me. And yet you loved me so much that you came for me. Jesus, you died for me so that you might reconcile all things to yourself, making peace through the blood of your cross. So because you gave your life for me, I now give my life to you.
If you have never prayed that, use our communion time to do exactly that. Seek him. Be reconciled.
Reconciled to each other
But the cross does not only heal our relationship with God. If the sin of Adam and Eve broke the relationship between them, then the starting place for healing our relationships on this earth is also Christ.
It is through Christ that we can see races come together. It is through Christ — and I know how impossible this sounds — that we can begin to see political opponents come together. It is through Christ that the rich and the poor worship side by side. It is through Christ that all kinds of people become one.
So if you are struggling in your marriage, or you have a broken relationship with a parent or a child, or a former coworker or a current one, or a neighbor, or a former church member, or someone right here in this church — the starting place for reconciliation is Christ.
I cannot guarantee that praying God, I want this relationship reconciled will make it happen, because it takes two people to come together. But I can tell you that if you do not come to Christ, if you do not humble yourself, you are probably not going to see it happen at all.
So if you long for reconciliation with someone, begin on your knees. Chase after the Jesus who brought reconciliation between us and God, and ask him to bring reconciliation here.
This may be humbling. As you surrender yourself to God wanting this, you may realize you have contributed to the brokenness. That can be a painful journey. But it will be worth it, because on the other side is something beautiful.
So What Was Your Wrong Impression?
Paul wants us to know that Jesus was not just a cool guy, not just a spiritual guru, not just another earthly king. He is God of all things — and as God, he is over all things, the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, and the reconciler of all things.
So now go back to where we started. After hearing all of that, do you realize you have been carrying a wrong impression?
Maybe you feel like God has not been there for you, so you have not been recognizing Jesus as God of all things. You have the theological understanding. You have some church experience and you know the stories. But if you truly examine your heart, maybe you have been living more like a deist — or a practical atheist.
Maybe you examine your heart and realize your prayers have been pretty thin lately, without much trust in them — and that reveals you have not believed Jesus is truly over all things. You have not been willing to hand him these things. You have been holding on and managing them yourself, because he does not seem to work in the way or the timing you want. And right now God is saying: trust me with that situation, that relationship, that financial crisis, that health issue. Give it to me. I am over all things.
Maybe you do not like yourself. You think God made a mistake when he made you. I am telling you right now that he did not. He is the creator of all things, and he created you. You are his creation. He loves you. He is passionate about you. How passionate? He was willing to die for your sins. He gave it all. So if you have been beating yourself up with negative self-talk, stop it. That is God’s creation you are slandering. Let yourself see that God loves you because he made you. That does not mean the feelings magically change — but it is the beginning of the journey. Because through the gospel, God can heal our relationship with him, heal our relationships with others, and heal our relationship with ourselves.
Maybe you are going through something so difficult you want to give up. You do not want to endure. You do not want to continue. And now you are hearing that Jesus is the sustainer of all things, and he wants to correct the impression that you are not going to make it. Run to him and let him hold you.
Or maybe you have a broken relationship and you realize you have not been seeking God about it, or you have stopped caring about that person. And God is saying: give it to me. Let me bring reconciliation, healing, restoration. Let us go on this journey together.
If any of those five is your wrong impression, now is the time to hand it to him.
Come to the Table
If you follow Jesus, come to these elements. As you hold them, remember that God delighted for his full presence to reside in the human Jesus, the only perfect human who ever lived — who then went and died in our place so we might have peace through his blood.
Maybe today you take them recognizing that it was the God of all things who gave himself for you. Maybe you need to reestablish your trust in him and take them knowing Jesus is over all things. Maybe you are seeking healing in how you see yourself, and you need to worship him today as the creator of all things, including you. Maybe you need to worship him as sustainer.
And maybe this is your chance to be reconciled. In the Gospels, Jesus tells his Jewish audience that if you are coming to the temple to worship, bringing your gift, and you remember a broken relationship — set the gift aside and go make things right first. Human relationships are that critical. They affect our relationship with God.
So maybe before you come to these elements you need to pull out your phone and send a text: can we talk later today? Maybe you need to slip out and make a phone call. Maybe there is someone in this room you need to walk over to and say, can we talk? Because God wants complete reconciliation. Sometimes the horizontal repair has to come before the vertical.
Father, Holy Spirit, there is nothing that can stop you. Humans set up borders, countries try to shut you out, we try to ignore you — and still you come into this building, into this room, into the minds and hearts of these people. So I give you full permission, though you need no one’s permission, to do whatever you want in these moments.
These are your people. You know them. Your image is in them. You love them. So do what only you can do. Jesus, we are so thankful for who you are and what you did — that you went to a cross to make peace through your blood so we could be reconciled to you and to one another.
If someone here needs to be reminded that you are God, draw them. If they need to be reminded of your sovereignty, bring it to mind. If they need to see you as creator, let them worship you as such. If they need to see that you are sustaining them, let them fall to their knees in thanks. Whatever we need, do — because it is impossible for me as one person to minister to every heart in exactly the right way, and I am so grateful you are a God who knows us and loves us.
As we sing, as we partake, as we pray — minister, heal, restore, reconcile. Help us have the right impression, and let us see that you, Jesus, are God of all things. In his name we pray, amen.
At any point during the song, feel free to come to the tables. These moments are for you and God to deal with together. And as you take those elements, do it in remembrance of him.
