Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
December 18, 2022
INTRO
Good morning! If you’re new here, I’m pastor Brent. I’m so excited for our Kids Christmas Program this morning! Our kids have been practicing for the last few weeks and I’m thrilled that they get to share the Christmas story with you.
I just want to say that we really value investing in the next generation, teaching them to know and love Jesus as Lord and Savior, and modeling to them a whole-hearted and whole-life discipleship. It is so fun to see them walking with the Lord.
We have been going through a series for Advent called “For To Us A Child Is Born” in which we are looking at the four messianic names from Isaiah 9:6 — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.
We’ve been talking about this question: What kind of king do we need?
We’ve seen that Jesus has perfect wisdom, perfect power, and perfect compassion and love. Today, we are going to tackle the last name, which is really the culmination of the description of the kind of king that we need: We need a Prince of Peace.
If you’re like me this Christmas season, you’re probably thinking, “I could use some peace right now.” We can so easily get caught up in the busyness and stress of the holiday season that we don’t have any margin to rest and enjoy it.
We have all the conveniences and technologies and luxuries of the modern world that are supposed to make like easier, and yet we feel worn out, fragments, torn in a hundred directions, and under more pressure than ever.
So, take a deep breath with me…ahh! Rest for a moment.
We need to talk about this word “peace.” In the Bible, the idea of peace originated in a Hebrew word called “shalom,” which means “wholeness” or “rightness” or “the way things are supposed to be.” It was so much more than mere lack of violence, as in political peace. And it was so much more than material comfort.
This word was all about God putting back together the pieces of our broken and lost world, starting with the brokenness and sin in us. God’s work in the world through the promise of redemption, going all the way back to the beginning of your Bible, was all about making a way to restore things to “the way they ought to be” in our relationship with God, our understanding of ourselves, our relationship with other people, and the brokenness of the whole creation.
APPLY — And so that feeling of guilt or shame due to our sin, the fragmentation we experience within ourselves, the relational strain between people, and the often ugly and evil world we encounter everyday is not the way things are supposed to be. And the way to peace, to true rest and joy and hope, starts by coming to know the Prince of Peace who alone has made a way for you to be whole again, for you to know God personally, for you to be forgiven, for you to reconcile relationships, and for you to be part of the new creation work he is doing in this world.
Open with me to Colossians 1. We are going to read a passage that teaches us about the fullness of Jesus being our Prince of Peace. This passage reminds us of the big picture of who Jesus, especially his supremacy over creation and his work to bring wholeness and peace through his redemptive work on the cross.
Background
Since we are jumping into a new book of the Bible, let me give you a little context. This letter was written by the Apostle Paul and by his protege Timothy sometime around 60-62 AD, about 30 years after Jesus. Paul was in prison, and Timothy was helping him. Paul wrote to a small and rather insignificant town called Colossae in what is now modern-day Turkey.
This city was very spiritual. They believed in the gods and goddesses of the Roman Pantheon. And because they were constantly terrified of offending the gods, they held elaborate rituals and ceremonies to please the spirits and to gain their favor and protection. This is the kind of environment that the Colossian Christians came out of.
At the time of this letter, there was some pressure or persecution happening to the Christians in Colossae. And when the going got tough, they were tempted to go back to their old ways of offering sacrifices to the gods. They wanted something they could measure and control. They were willing to settle for a lesser lord or look to a temporary savior.
And so Paul takes great care to set these Christians in Colosse back on a firm foundation. And he does it with a song. You see, this passage was likely a hymn or a song of the early church. This isn’t an accident. There is something about the truth of Jesus being the Prince of Peace that reaches down to your heart, and God created us to be wired to express ourselves with lyrics, rhythms, and melody. Paul recognized that this is an issue of the heart, and so he writes a song.
This is also the reason we are hearing from this passage today. I believe that in this Christmas season we need to rest again on the firm foundation of the supremacy of Jesus and the reality of the hope of the gospel. If you feel a lack of peace, if you sense that things aren’t the way they are supposed to be, or if you crave a King who can truly make you whole, listen to this powerful song about the Prince of Peace.
Let’s read. READ Colossians 1:15-20.
ORG SENT — There are two parts to this song that declare Jesus’ supremacy over everything and his ability to make peace, to bring wholeness and restoration to all things, including you and me. In the first part in verses 15-17, we see Jesus’ supremacy over creation. In versus 18-20, we see his supremacy over the new creation.
MAIN 1 — Supremacy over creation (vv. 15-17). (SLIDE 2a)
Look at verses 15-17 again. I want to point out a few important words here.
In verse 15, the words “image” and “invisible” create a juxtaposition. (SLIDE 2b) The idea of “image” is like that of a mirror: it shows the likeness of the real thing, it is the visible reflection of someone.
KEY — But Jesus is the visible reflection (the image) of the invisible God. He makes the unseen nature and character of an immaterial God a living and breathing reality. This emphasizes the deity of Jesus. He is God made flesh.
Not only that, but he is the “firstborn over all creation”. This does not mean that he was the first thing that God created. Instead, the emphasis is on Jesus’ ruling sovereignty and his closeness to God the Father.
KEY — Think of the term “firstborn” more in the sense of (SLIDE 2c) “firstness” or “primacy” or “preeminence”. Jesus existed before creation, and he is supreme over all of creation.
Verses 16 says that he created all “things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities…” These terms were the common language for the realm of spirits and good and evil powers.
ILLUST — Remember the context of Colosse — its no accident that Paul rehearses this song of the early church that declared that Jesus is the creator and Lord of everything in heaven and on earth, including the realm of spirits and powers. You see, the Colossians believed that the spirits and gods could unleash natural disasters, make them become sick, or destroy their livelihoods. But Jesus is Lord over all creation, including the realm of invisible powers and authorities.
But don’t miss this: it’s not enough to say that Jesus created everything. There’s an important feature here that is a unique claim of Christian doctrine. Look at the end of verse 16, “all things have been created through him and for him.” (SLIDE 2d) These two words, through and for, are incredibly important.
Everything was created through Jesus, (SLIDE 2e) meaning that he is the instrument of creation. He is the tool or the mechanism by which the Triune God made everything.
ILLUST — I can’t help but think of the creation scene in C.S. Lewis’ book The Magician’s Nephew, which is part of the Chronicles of Narnia. There is a scene in the book where a boy is standing in a place of utter darkness. Then Aslan the lion, the Christ-figure, begins singing. Out of his voice comes the very material of a beautiful creation: flowers, rolling hills, trees, creatures, everything! The song of Jesus’ voice is the instrument for creating the entire universe.
But we can’t stop there. The word for is just as important. (SLIDE 2f) This word “for” means that the purpose of creation is for Jesus.
In other words, the entire goal, the entire point of creating everything was FOR Jesus. He is the telos, the end-goal of everything. Everything exists for his glory, for his pleasure, for his purposes, and for whatever he wants. Jesus himself is the purpose for which YOU were created.
APPLY — Take a minute to wrap your mind around that. Everything in the universe has a purpose and a goal for existing — we exist for Jesus! The reason you exist is not for yourself. You don’t exist to make money, you don’t exist for pleasure, you don’t exist for your kids, you don’t exist to make your dad happy, and you don’t exist for your job, and you don’t exist as a meaningless pawn in the vast scope of history. You exist for Jesus Christ, God incarnate.
And friends, existing for the person of Jesus Christ is the most special and beautiful reason ever to exist! You know why? Because he made you, because he loves you, and because he desires to know you. You aren’t meaningless! You have purpose, you have love, you have meaning — its the person of Jesus Christ! Can I get an AMEN!
Verse 17 goes on to say that Jesus holds everything together. (SLIDE 2g) In other words, Jesus is the reason there is a cosmos and not chaos. He is the instrument of creation, he is the purpose of creation, and he is the sustainer of creation. Every aspect of the created order relies on Jesus from top to bottom, beginning to end.
APPLY — This is what we need to hear today: Jesus is supreme over everything you can see and everything you can’t see. He is supreme over your body, supreme over your family, supreme over your house, supreme over the dirt we walk on, supreme over history, he is supreme over angels and demons and all things in the unseen spiritual realm. You name it: Jesus made it, it exists for him, and he sustains it.
Think again about your own life. When you are suffering, when you are anxious, when you are afraid, when your family is broken, when Satan is attacking you, or when your life is comes undone — Jesus is Lord over everything. There is nothing above him, nothing too powerful for him, nothing outside of his control, nothing he doesn’t understand, nothing he can’t do, and no person he cannot make whole again. Why trust in anything else? Why look for peace in anyone or anything else? He is the creator, everything exists for him, and he sustains all!
MAIN 2 — Supremacy over new creation (vv. 18-20). (SLIDE 3a)
You might wonder what this word “new creation” means. Let me cut to the chase for you: Through Jesus Christ, God is making everything new, and it starts with you and me being born again. It starts with repentance and faith, with the regeneration of our hearts. And through Jesus, sin and death and evil will be destroyed forever, and God will transform all of creation to dwell with us face-to-face in his kingdom in a new heavens and new earth.
And the living witness and prophetic proclamation of this redemptive work comes through the church, Jesus’ body. And Jesus is the head of the church!
This is a wonderful metaphor. The head gives direction, the head leads the body. Without the head, there is no control over the body. The whole body is dependent on the head to tell it what to do and to guide all of his functions. Jesus is not merely Lord over creation generally, but he is Lord over the church. But his lordship is a living relationship. That’s the most important part of this headship metaphor. The head and the body have an organic connection; there is a relationship that is living and breathing. (SLIDE 3b)
APPLY — I’ll ask you: do you have a living, breathing relationship with Jesus? Do you really know him? Is he your Lord? How about us as a church? Do we have a living, breathing relationship with Jesus as the head of New Life? The only source of life and the only leader of this church is Jesus himself. And we need to pursue a living, breathing relationship with him.
Verse 18 continues by saying that Jesus is the “firstborn from among the dead”. Here is that word again, “firstborn”, that we saw in verse 15. Jesus is the first to be resurrected. He is the first to become a new creation. (SLIDE 3c) He is the pioneer and the establisher of a new humanity. He is supreme as the one who initiates a new creation, just as he is supreme as the one who initiated the old creation.
You see, the fullness of God dwells in Jesus. Jesus is God, and Jesus is the only one who can achieve our salvation and make a new creation. Verse 19 makes it very clear that Jesus’ supremacy over creation, his supremacy as the pioneer of the resurrection, and the fact that he is fully God makes him able to reconcile ALL THINGS in earth and in heaven. (SLIDE 3d) He is God and he is human. So he is able to recreate humanity as a participant and a full sharer in our humanness, but he is Lord over all creation and able to save us because he is God.
You see, we are stuck in a place where we can’t help ourselves. Its simple logic: because we live stained with sin and because we are contributors to our own lack of wholeness and brokenness, we cannot save ourselves. Only someone outside of the curse of sin, only someone over and above creation, only someone who is Lord over everything can reach into our mess and fix it.
KEY — That is the crux of the incarnation of Jesus. God is coming down to save us. That is the reason Christmas is such an earth-shattering moment!
Friends, this is the heart of the gospel: Jesus achieved peace (shalom) by dying on the cross. (SLIDE 3e) As the creator, as the goal of creation, as the sustainer of creation, and as the fullness of God, Jesus was able to die as a perfect sacrifice and achieve supremacy over death by rising from the grave.
APPLY — Let me ask you: Do you know the Prince of Peace?
Friends, the people of Colossae were experiencing the same kind of anxieties, the same kind of illnesses, the same kind of fears for their family, and the same kind of desires for peace and protection that all human beings have experienced throughout history.
This song reminds us that there is only one Prince of Peace. There is only one path to wholeness, only one way to know God, one way to be forgiven, one way to restore the brokenness within us, one way to reconcile relationships, and one way to redeem the evil and sin of this world. His name is Jesus. And he died for you. He opened the way.
My challenge this morning is two-fold:
If you’ve never trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord and you desire to know the Prince of Peace who can bring wholeness and redemption, here’s the challenge: repent and believe. Join in the new creation, come to know the one who created you, give him your life.
If you’re someone who already follows Jesus, here’s the challenge for you: when things get difficult and you may be tempted to revert back to your old ways or trust in lesser lords or false saviors, remember that Jesus is supreme, he is the first, he is one who made everything and you exist for him. And he wants you to come to him to be refreshed this Christmas season and to find wholeness and rest in the king that we need, the Prince of Peace.