Video Transcript: God’s Fullness in Jesus

So he has begun by saying who Jesus is as the image of God, and the Lord of all creation, the Maker of all things. And now he goes on to say who Jesus is in relation to the church and in relation to his new creation that he's bringing about through His death and resurrection from the dead. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so 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. This ends the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word to those who listen. 

A pastor mentioned that somebody had recently started coming to his church, and this person who had started coming to the church was going through some serious marriage problems. She left her previous church in the midst of the pastor delivering a series of messages on how to improve your marriage. Now you might think how stupid can somebody get. Right when they're getting the messages they need, they bail out and you already know I'm not a big fan of church hopping for the sake of church hopping. Her reason that she gave for coming to a different congregation was she said, I need Christ and I never meet Christ or hear Christ proclaimed. All I hear is tips on how to improve a marriage. I know all that stuff, and it isn’t helping. I need Christ. Another pastor mentioned that a person came into his church and was having some really serious troubles in his life. And after church, he came up to the pastor and said, what a stupendous help that service had been, and that that message had been. It was a message that had nothing to do with that person's particular troubles. It was a message about the majesty and the holiness of Jesus Christ, and that really magnified Christ and at the end of the message, the person thought they pretty well received everything they needed to help them with their particular need. 

Now, it's not necessarily true that you never need a helpful word or some guidance and wisdom on the particulars of life. But what if the deepest need of every one of us is to know God's fullness in Christ, and to really magnify Him and know how great he really is and have our hearts resonate with that and have our hearts full of the greatness and the majesty and the goodness of Christ. A couple of weeks ago when I started preaching on this particular section of Colossians about the greatness and the supremacy in the sufficiency of Christ, I mentioned Dr. Donald Barnhouse’s sermon, where he speculated what might happen if Satan took over a city and if Satan took over the city, he said the bars would be closed, pornography would be outlawed, the children would be polite, the churches would be packed and Christ would not be preached. Now, we need to keep all of this in mind as we again turn to this passage that that the greatest practical need that all of us have is to know Jesus Christ and to know how great he is and to know who he is for us, and to know who he is within us if we belong to him at all. 

And so we want to begin by looking at this statement. He is the head of the body, the church. Now that's a picture a word picture that the apostle Paul uses quite a few different times in various parts of the Bible. He uses it in the book of Ephesians. He uses it in first Corinthians 12 at great length, where he talks about the different parts of the body and how one part can't say that he's better and more important and more needed than all the others, nor should he get an inferiority complex and say, I'm a nobody, I'm nothing, everybody could get along without me just fine. And there he's using the picture of a body to show how the parts interconnect and need each other. And he makes a similar point in Romans 12, where he says though we're many are one body in Christ and individually members one another. And in both Romans and First Corinthians, he is talking about spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. Different abilities or capacities or a sense of calling and what you're good at, that the Holy Spirit uses you to make a difference and to be a blessing in the lives of others. That's a valuable and important part of the Bible's teaching about being in the body. 

Here the emphasis is a little different though. The emphasis is first of all, not so much on us as different parts who are interconnected. But the big emphasis is simply on who is the head of this whole thing. And Jesus Christ is the head of the body of the church, and in saying that a number of different things become clear. One is that a head and a body are connected. They're united, they're one and the life of the head flows through to all other members of the body and the head enlivens and energizes all the other members of the body. The head gives the instructions and the life of the head is connected throughout the rest of the body and the whole nervous system and even as we know from study of physiology, the whole nervous system and all those interconnections are coordinated and connected in the brain in the head. And Jesus Christ is the head of his whole body. 

Now when we think of the unity of body and head and of that connection, one thing it means is that everything that happens to the head, happens to the rest of the body, and everything that happens to a part of the body happens to the head. The Bible speaks very often, of being crucified with Christ, of being raised again with Christ, of being seated at the right hand of God with Christ, of reigning over creation in Christ, because the head has made it. The head has been crucified, has been risen from the dead, has ascended and reigns and because he is the head, then what has happened to him is already taking place in us. What happens to the head happens to the rest of the body. And what happens to any part of the body happens to the head. Paul knew that from very bitter experience, and not just the bitter experience of his own suffering and a few verses later in this passage, he says, I fill up in my body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. He means that, that in his sufferings, Christ still has some more suffering to do, in a sense. And so we'll look at the meaning of that in a little while but worse than that was Paul had inflicted suffering on Christ. You remember what were the first words that Paul or Saul was then had heard spoken to him when Christ revealed himself? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? 

Well, obviously, the head considered himself to be persecuted when the rest of the parts of the body were being persecuted by Saul. And so what happens to the rest of the body is happening to the head. What happens to the head happens to the rest of the body. And this is a tremendous fact to be taken and understood by faith and to begin living in it now. Because if what's happened to Christ has happened to us, then the key to transforming living is not just to look at this or that principle or this or that thing, you ought to do a little bit better, but to count yourself dead to sin because you died with Christ. To count yourself risen. And to have his life in you. Because what happened to him happened to you. The resurrection life of Jesus Christ is alive and working in you, and count yourself as already having authority. Jesus had all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me and we have authority. He says he gives us authority to trample on the evil one and the powers that are arrayed against us. And the key to delighting in Christ and to having power and transformation in your own life is to know this simple fact what happens to him happens to you, and you have a living connection with him. 

Now, this is also key to the way that we deal with one another. Because he is the life that gives life to every part and member of his body. And so your life comes from Him and that same life taking a little different form lives in each fellow believer that you know, and this is what creates what the Bible calls the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the Koinonia or communion of the Holy Spirit, that connection that exists between one believer and another. This is also the key to really blessing and strengthening each other's lives. Dr. Larry Crabb who is one of the leading Christian psychologists in the country, he has written quite a number of books and in over his lifetime, he's had a bit of a journey. He had a lot of very valuable psychological advice in form of the Bible and many of his early books and they can be very helpful still today, if you read them. After about 25 years as a clinical counselor. He didn't feel what he was doing was a waste of time by any means, but he said the greatest need is not to have us fixing this or that problem or to look at a person and think the main issue in their life is the problem that needs managing or fixing. But if you're counseling a Christian, the main thing he has to discover the Christ life in them and what is already in them, that is beautiful. And in his book Connecting, he speaks of this recognition that you have the life of God in you and that another has the life of God in him or her. And the key is to realize that something powerful in you can touch something beautiful in somebody else and make both stronger. And so it's not a matter of just looking at this or that problem or getting this or that guideline, but looking deeply into the lives of each other, and then rejoicing in the good things you discover there. Joining with that person and fighting the negative things there that seeks to stifle or limit or weaken the Christ life. But the Christ life is central. And that's why this fellowship, this koinonia of the Holy Spirit is so important, because we need a heart to heart connection with God. And then in that heart to heart connection with God, a heart to heart connection with each other. And hi how you doing is an okay start. But it's not the same thing as a real heart to heart connection where we really know each other deeply and where we really strengthen each other deeply.  

When we're part of one body, we have the Christ life in each of us, and that Christ's life is meant to connect with one another. And that's one of my prayers and goals for the heart to heart group that we're going to be starting on the 29th of this month on Wednesday nights from about 7:30 to nine. It's not so much just a matter of learning more Bible content, but discovering also more of what God is doing in our lives now and the Christ's life in each other, and to really build up our hearts in our relation to God and in our relation to each other. This is one of the tremendous, tremendous statements about Jesus that's made in the whole Bible. He's the head of the body. And of course, that also does mean that he's in charge. But it also means that everything is connected to him that all comes from him that his life and energy goes through the whole body and that he's the one coordinating the different parts of the body. That's for headship as rule and authority of course, that too. And he exercises it in a little different way. You remember in Ephesians five, Paul says husbands, the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church's body, and the grounds for that. And how you live that out is therefore husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up. For the headship is not one simply domination, but of dying and loving and serving. And that is how each of us when we relate to our head, remember that he loved the church and gave himself up for us. 

Now, the next thing Paul says, after saying that he's the head of the body is, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Now the word beginning is arche, which is a little stronger word than just the first or the start. It is that of course. But we sometimes use the word archetype. And an archetype is the first or the model of everything else that's coming. We sometimes use the word higher arche. It come from the Greek word arche because arche can mean beginning or it can mean a ruler, and either one and it's kind of all that bundled up into one here in this verse. Now when it says he has the arche or the beginning, you have to hear that with the echoes of other parts of Scripture ringing in your ears. In Isaiah, at least three times that I'm aware of maybe more God says, I am the first and I am the last. So if you have somebody saying he's the beginning, it's saying he's that one who calls himself the first, the beginning. And again, when people ask, you know, where's that proof text that shows that Jesus is divine, that He is God, you know, the when your latest round of Jehovah's Witnesses knocks on their door, they want to fight over this or that proof text, and I just don't seem to get it that somebody goes around saying he forgives sins, and gives orders to wind and waves and calls himself the light of the world and the Good Shepherd and all those things that are said of God, He ascribes them to himself. If you don't have ears to hear it, then know showing of this or that text will probably do it. 

But let's just look at what it says in Revelation. In Revelation, we read I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God, who he is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. So it is the Lord God who says I am the Alpha and the Omega. At the end of the book Jesus says, Behold, I am coming soon. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Now if the Lord God says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, and Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, you do the math. What’s Jesus saying? He's the Lord God. And so when Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit says that Jesus is the beginning, He is the Alpha, the first letter of the alphabet, the Omega was the last letter of the Greek alphabet. He's the beginning. He's the end. And so it's another way of saying what has been said again, and again and again. But we need to hear it again and again and again, that he is one with the father, that he is equal in authority with the Father, and he's the beginning of all things, and including us. If you're in Christ the beginning, then you've got a new beginning. Then you are a new creation, that's where the rubber hits our road. It is great to say that God and Jesus are one, and that God is the first and the last, Jesus is the first and the last. But then the Scripture also says now if you're in Christ, then you've got this arche this beginning in you and you're a new creation, and the old is gone, the new has come. Tremendous thing to know Jesus Christ as the beginning.

And the firstborn from the dead. Now we already saw earlier in the chapter, the firstborn doesn't just mean you know, number one in the birth order, although that is true in a sense here, but also it means supreme in authority and one who has the rights of all inheritance. In First Corinthians 15, the apostle says, Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits, similar idea of first born. The first fruits of those who had fallen asleep. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. There again, the idea of head is used in a little different sense. Because Adam was the head of the whole human race and what happened to him happened all the rest of us. When he fell we fell. But there's a new head to the human race and as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall be made alive. He's the firstborn from the dead. Now, if you know your Bible, you might say, well, actually, he wasn't quite the first to be resurrected. Because, you know, there was a few stories with Elijah and Elisha, of boys who came back to life and a guy who got thrown on Elisha’s bones after that guy had died and he came back to life again. In Jesus’ lifetime he raised the son of the widow of Nain, he raised Jairus’ daughter. He raised his friend Lazarus. At the moment of Jesus death, a quite a few holy people came out of their tombs says the Bible. So how can you say, Well, Jesus was the firstborn from the dead? Well, again, remember I'm not talking just about birth order for one thing. And for another, the kind of resurrection that Jesus has is the source and fountain of life that comes to everybody else. And he's the resurrection life that brings life to all else in the world. And somebody like Lazarus rose to die again. Jesus rose with a whole different quality of life and humanity that simply cannot be killed. 

Now, when we think about being the firstborn from the dead, this was a very striking thing. I obviously striking somebody to rise from death. But if you were thinking like many Jewish people did, then it would be even more shocking. Because many of them had come to believe in the resurrection from the book of Daniel and Ezekiel and others had spoken of, Job of a resurrection to come and they had come to understand that at the end of time, all people are going to be raised and this resurrection is going to happen. What many weren't ready for was that the end of time would show up early. That the end of time would invade time, and that some one person would rise before all others and turn loose this divine power already in history even before the end came. And that's the Bible saying is that the resurrection has already showed up early in a sense, in Jesus Christ and that His resurrection life has been turned loose in the world. And so you already have the power of Him who raised Christ from the dead at work in you. You don't have to wait until the end of the world. He is the first fruits and your bodily resurrection will come at the end of the world. But already now that resurrection life that is in Jesus is released in his people. 

Now, Jesus in the book of Revelation, as the firstborn for the dead appeared to his friend John after Jesus had ascended to heaven. And John says that he heard a voice like the sound of many waters or like a waterfall, and he's turned and saw and and his eyes were like fire in his face was was blazing like the sun and I felt his feet as though dead. And then Jesus said, fear not. I am the First and the Last and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I have the keys of death and Hades. So he was so great and splendid that John just flattened by being in his presence and

yet John found out yeah, he's still my friend. He put his hand on him and said, It's okay Don't be scared. I'm that friend. But of course, I'm a little more than just your pal. I am the first, I am the last, I'm alive. And this is who Jesus is. Death is the last enemy and in many ways the worst enemy. And the Scripture teaches that he the first born from the dead has all power over death, and so death can't touch you or destroy you either. 

Why do you do all this? Well, the Bible says that he's the head of the body, the church. He's the creator of all things, the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might be preeminent, so that he just be first. Number one in all things. Paul says much the same thing in Ephesians chapter one. He ties together a lot of these same things that we've been talking about in Colossians. God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one that come 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. That's quite a mouthful. But those kinds of things don't hurry through too fast. I'm going to hurry through way too fast this morning. But this is the kind of thing that you can spend a lot of time in, just meditating on the different aspects of it and how how great Jesus Christ is. 

Notice where it says he's far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. There again, he's using the various kinds of titles that were often used to refer to the powers, the spiritual powers, the angel powers. And he's supreme, above all those, and God has given him the name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, as Paul says in Philippians, two. And so you have this Jesus whose name is higher than any name, whose power is greater than any power, who has risen from the dead, and who, at the end of it says the church is his body, and the church is somehow the fullness of the one who is the fullness of God. Think of the church that way. 

Little later in Ephesians Paul says that God decided to show his manifold wisdom through the church, to the rulers and authorities. God uses the church to show off himself and his fullness. Now this is not just talking about little me and Jesus relationship where I get to go to heaven someday. Let's talk about something that God is doing among the people gathered for himself and connected as a body in whom he’s glorious and we need to understand what's going on here. And this is another reason why we need to have such an overwhelming sense of the greatness of Jesus Christ. Because until you begin to get at least a little glimpse of the glory of Christ, you don't know the glory in you, and you don't know the glory in your fellow believers. A little later in Colossians one we're going to read about Christ in you the hope of glory, Christ in you the hope of glory. What a statement that is, but you can't fully appreciate it until you first just know who Christ in Christ is. What a Christ he is. And then the thought that he's in you is just staggering. When you see His glory, and you say he's in me. he's in those fellow believers. I've got glory, they have glory. And a big part of your calling in life is to discover the glory and to live out the glory and to let that glory unfold. It is sometimes necessary to take inventory of the sins and the struggles and the crud and the garbage that you need to get rid of. But it is a deadly error to think that you are the sum total of the crud and the garbage and the stuff that's gotta go. If you believe in Christ, you have the glory. I wish I could preach on that longer today, but I'll have a chance I'm gonna get the Christ in you the hope of glory. My only point now is you need to know the glory of Christ, before you realize the glory in you. And before you realize the glory in somebody else, and it's also that not so that you go around with your nose in the air and say, well aren't I glorious. Maybe some of us need to do that for just a few minutes. You might need that if you have never understood the glory, that is yours in Christ. Maybe you just need to do that a little bit, but more so to glory in Christ than to glory in yourself. But to realize that he is first in everything and when you put him first and everything, then you discover your true glory, you lose your whole life, but boy, do you get a better one out of the deal. 

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. The early church had to deal with that kind of acclaim and to do it in light of the kinds of challenges that Satan was bringing to make Jesus just maybe the Archangel Michael, who became a human or maybe the first creature that was kind of a template for all the other creatures or all of the other methods that Satan used to detract from the glory of Christ. This statement,  for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell was given voice in a little different words and some of the great Creed's of the church. The Nicene Creed speaks of Jesus Christ as God of God, Light of Light, very God, a very God, begotten not made, of one substance with the father, by whom all things were made. That is the creates great definition of Jesus Christ as one with God and equal with God the Father. It goes on to say who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. The Athanasian Creed says, we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and human, equally. In this fully human person, the fullness of God was present, and before he became human, the fullness of God was eternally present in him and that is the wonder of the incarnation that one who was fully God could become fully human and live among us. As the Athanasian Creed goes on to say, as touching his Godhead equal with God as touching his manhood, subservient to God. So sometimes you'll read a verse or two in the Bible here or there where Jesus says, The Father is greater than I. well, that's speaking from the perspective of his manhood, but from a perspective of his Godhood, he's equal to God. These were the kinds of things that the church had to think through, especially in light of some of the wicked challenges that were brought to the greatness of Christ. And we don't need to reinvent the wheel. These things have been wrestled through and made very clear in the Creeds of the church and all they're doing is summarizing the great teachings of the Scriptures themselves. And 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. Ephesians one talks about the mystery of God's will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will reach their fulfillment. To bring all things in heaven and earth, together under one head, even Christ. There's gonna bring it all together under one head, Christ. He's going to reconcile all things to himself. Now, as we think about what has to be reconciled, we've got to face the fact that reconciliation has to happen where distance has been or where barriers have been raised. When there are barriers separating people or other things from God, the barriers have to be brought down. Where there are big distances that have opened up, those distances have to be closed, and we have to be brought back together with God again. And it's not just we have to be brought back together with him, we have to be brought back together with each other because different peoples have divided against each other and different spheres of life that were once in harmony has been split up. And God's plan is not just a salvage operation, to pluck a soul here and there. His plan is to reconcile it all and bring it together again under one head, even Christ Jesus.

Now, as this applies to just the way you live and even as it applies to the glory of Christ in you and in one another. You need to understand that God has given every person he created a domain, a realm in which you have a say about things. Sometimes that domain may not seem very big. Part of your domain is moving your arm. If you were paralyzed, you won't be able to do that and their domain is restricted in that sense. But your body is part of your physical domain. The people whose lives you touch are part of your domain or jurisdiction. The particular vision and talent and ability that you have is part of the potential or the real domain that you already have. Now, what Christ does is bring a whole bunch of domains that are at odds with each other and unites them again. That happens fully when Jesus comes again. But it begins to happen now when people who have the Christ life in them become the ambassadors of reconciliation. When the Christ life is in you, then that Christ's life is reaching out and tugging toward others and in your own domain of operation you are offering it to Christ. There's a picture in the book of Revelation where it speaks of the elders taking their crowns and casting them before the throne of Christ. This is what is going on in reconciliation. God has given each individual person an area or a realm in which you wear a crown of sorts. And the goal for the end of all creation is to bring your crown and offer it to his crown and find that all of those domains are in harmony again. 

This has a lot to do also, with the vision that we might have for our children. We are not simply trying to run away from big bad society or from dangerous spheres of life. There are a lot of spheres of life that because of sin are dangerous. If you go into politics, you will have ample opportunity to become a liar and a sleaze ball. Okay, and therefore all Christians should stay out of politics. No, you have opportunity, if you are particularly gifted and inclined in that way to say this is one of those spheres that Christ wants to bring his life to bear upon. Pick another example. If you go into business, you will have ample opportunity to become a greedy person who worships mammon and who uses people to get what you want. So beware of business. Make sure that you only are a wage employee. Because if you ever got to be a boss or an entrepreneur, you could be one greedy sucker who's just out to use people. Well, yes, that danger is there. And if you're going into business, you've got to be aware of those dangers. But there is also opportunity. Wherever there is danger, there is opportunity. And it is opportunity that the Christ life in you, makes that world of business and enterprise what it's meant to be.  

Think of the world of science. Oh man, you could go down the tubes there. You could become somebody who is just a devotee of naturalism where everything happened by randomness and chance, everything is just kind of a mechanical machine. There's just no room for personality or for anything. And if God has given you a particular glory, to be scientifically minded, beware of those dangers. But then be a mighty person realizing that if you have that particular glory from Christ and you stifle it, you're killing what he made you to be. And so claim that area. If you have artistic abilities or the ability to make others laugh, let's say. Or just to tell a good story or to present a good drama. Oh man, Hollywood is that pit of iniquity. You should never go into the arts because the you know, the artists are either weirdos or perverts or wicked and misleading everybody else. You can take that view of things. And no doubt the dangers are there. So are the opportunities. Christ wants to reconcile to himself all things, every sphere of life, as well as every kind of person and every kind of nation and all things in heaven and on earth. Shalom is what the Bible calls that peace, where Christ creates a harmony and a unity and maturity and a fullness the way things ought to be. Now we're only gonna get foretastes of that in this life. But we shouldn't despise those foretastes and Paul spoke of being ambassadors of Christ right now calling on the world to be reconciled to God. And each of us has our own domain, our own crown, and you get the opportunity already in this life to put that crown at the foot of his throne and in the next life to see that made perfect and Jesus is gonna say, You were faithful in a few things in this life. I think I'm gonna enlarge that crown in that domain. 

Making peace. Where’s the peace come from? Well, when you reconcile and make peace or create shalom, it comes through, not just goodwill or social action, or this or that but by the blood of the cross. Paul never got tired of talking about the blood of the cross because that was the way that God had achieved all this. We read the book of Jonah this past week. Jonah was ticked off and he had good reason to be ticked off. A  city which had been very wicked, which had invaded many of its neighbors, had killed many people, which was psychological warfare, nice little things like lobbying the heads of enemies over the walls to psyche the others out, that devised all kinds of wicked tortures. This was the city of Nineveh that God let off the hook. And Jonah said, I am so mad I could die. How can you let Nineveh not be punished for all those vile things they did just because they repent and ask you to forgive them. You have no right to forgive them. Okay, you need to understand the force of his argument. Why does even God have the right to forgive these suckers? Romans three verse 25 that you're going to read this week explains it. He left the sins committed beforehand, unpunished because he had a plan to deal with those things. And it's the same plan he has to deal with your sins. He was gonna make peace by the blood of the cross. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been justified by His blood. 

Now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. There it is getting into something different. In that first text in Romans five the making peace is peace with God and it comes about by His blood. It's the only reason God has a right to forgive anybody. Even the Almighty God if he's going to be just can't just let wickedness go, can't just let it off the hook. It's got to be punished. And Romans three says in order to be just and the one that justifies those who have faith in Jesus and be able to let the sins committed beforehand go unpunished, he had to offer his son as a propitiation, a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. And so we're at peace with God through that. And then in Ephesians two, the latter part of the chapter Paul talks about this huge barrier that had come up between Jewish people and Gentile people, and where there is need for reconciliation, it's between us and God. But it’s also between different people groups, especially Jews and Gentiles at that time. And Paul says to his Gentile readers, but now in Christ Jesus, who once were far off, and he's here not just talked about being far off from God, but being far off from the people of God. You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace who has made us both both peoples one. So this peace with God also is the key to peace with each other.

A little later in Colossians, Paul says there's neither Jew nor Greek, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free. Christ is all and is in all. He's bringing together very, very different kinds of people. And just as he makes peace with Gods with the blood of the cross, so he makes peace with each other through the blood of the cross. It's the key to relating to each other. Otherwise, when you've been terribly wronged, and somebody says, Well, the Bible urges us to forgive. There's a sense in which you almost say it would be wrong or unjust to forgive, unless you are living by the blood of Christ and you're willing to see that person too cleansed and live by the blood of Christ. How blessed is the one whose sins have been forgiven, whose transgressions are covered. To whom the Lord does not count his sins against him. We just read that in Psalm 32, this week, the words of David. How blessed and he didn't know the half of it. He knew what it was to be forgiven. He knew what it was to seek God's face. He had never fully seen the glory of God in the face of Christ. He didn't know that there was more than just forgiveness more than just raining over his domain of Israel, but a plan of God to reconcile all things under the Son of David. To reconcile all things under one head, even Christ Jesus. 

Friends, I cannot you get into a passage like this and part of me says you can't go wrong because no matter how bad you botch it, it's such a tremendous passage that people got to be blessed. And there's another part of it says, You can't go right. No matter what you say or do you cannot possibly do justice to the Christ described in this passage. The only hope is that the Christ who is the head of the body is connecting right now with the Christ life that's in you and thrilling you with joy at who he is. Do you know Christ as the head of the body? Do you know Christ the image of God? Have you been reconciled to Him? Have you seen how your domain can be claimed for him so you can bring your crown to him and all things are gathered together under one head. Having dreamed and seen the glory of a world in which people and animal creation and plant creation which is groaning because of our fall into sin is all restored again and the opportunities you have already now to make just a little difference in the present creation and to realize that the angels and archangels too are part of those who are reconciled into that perfect harmony under the one who head, Jesus Christ. If you know that, and believe that, then live in the glory of that. Relate to each other in the glory of that. See the glory in one another that reflects the glory of the one head, Christ Jesus. And if you don't see that glory, pray today that God will make you part of this new life, this new creation that has come into the world in the presence of Jesus Christ. If you do know him, and you've never professed your faith publicly do that. He is the head of all things, his is the glory, give Him glory by saying openly and publicly, you belong to him, you're gonna serve Him forever. What a savior, what a God. 

We pray, Lord, that you will indeed help us more and more to see your glory that we may experience more and more of the fullness of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. That we we understand our place in this amazing plan. And this wondrous world and the new world that is coming about by the resurrection life already in us. Lord, give us courage and joy as we claim the domain that each has been given. And as we fight the battle against all that would oppose you in our lives and in the domain that you have allotted to us and the gifts you have given to us. Help us Lord to discover the yearnings, the deepest heart yearnings that are in us that come from the life of Christ in us and not be distracted and and pulled to the side by by the other things that are still part of the old man, the old flesh. Father, we pray that Christ may be all and in all and that we may rejoice always in Him. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.