Only Jesus

Colossians 1:15-18

Kim Shin Jo, a gentle pastor from South Korea, died a year ago. But he was born in North Korea, and he went to South Korea not seeking asylum or as a defector; he went to South Korea as part of a team of 31 North Korean commandos to kill the South Korean president. He went to South Korea as a trained killer.

In January of 1968, he and a team of assassins went down into South Korea from North Korea, slipping through the woods. The team made it within a few hundred meters of the president’s residence before they were discovered. What followed was a fierce firefight, killing 30 South Koreans. All the North Korean soldiers were killed, except one who escaped and Kim Shin Jo, who was captured.

After months of interrogation, and through a surprising friendship with a South Korean army general, Kim Shin Jo’s hard heart started to soften. He later said, “I tried to kill the president. I was the enemy. But the South Korean people showed me sympathy and forgiveness. I was touched and moved.”

The South Korean government eventually released him. Eventually, he gave his life to Christ, and over the next three decades he worked for the military, became a South Korean citizen, and then married and raised a family. Eventually, he became a pastor. Today his life serves as a symbol of redemption for the entire country of South Korea. Reflecting on the day of his arrest, he said, “On that day, Kim Shin Jo died. I was reborn. I got my second chance. And I’m thankful for that.” [i] THAT is the power of Christ at work.

St. Paul knew that power of Christ. In Galatians he speaks briefly about his life prior to Christ. He says “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” (1:14). He was a brilliant man, educated by the finest rabbi of his day. He was a passionate man. As a Pharisee he was passionate about the law of God. So passionate that he committed himself to the destruction of all who claimed that Jesus was the Messiah.

In Galatians 1:13, he says, “You have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.” He was present when Stephen, the very first Christian martyr, was stoned to death. In the book of Acts, Luke tells us that Saul, as Paul was then known, “was ravaging the church” (Acts 8:3) and “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). He didn’t just want to make life uncomfortable for those who followed Christ. He wanted to eradicate them.

In Philippians, describing his life before Christ, Paul says, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:4-6).

That was Paul. That was the early life of the man who wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament, with a major portion of a 14th book, Acts, written by Luke, dedicated to telling the story of Paul’s life and ministry. That was Paul, until he encountered the power of Christ. Paul, along with his protégé and close friend Timothy together wrote the words we are looking at today as we continue our journey together through the New Testament book of Colossians.

What happened to Kim Shin Jo? What happened to St. Paul? He was on the fast track to greatness among his people and within the Jewish religion. He was well-positioned and climbing fast. And he was committed to the purity of Judaism so much that he was in the process of eradicating this new-fangled belief that Jesus, a crucified Jewish rabbi who some claimed had been raised from the dead, was the Christ, the Messiah.

What happened to these people? The power of Christ. The unparalleled, uncontested power of Christ to transform a life committed to the murder of all who called Christ Lord to a life committed to taking the good news about Jesus Christ as far as he could take it, even to the throne room of Caesar himself.

That is the power Paul and Timothy describe what is probably the most beautiful description of Christ in all of Scripture. Yes, ALL Scripture is breathed out by God and is useful, accomplishing God’s purpose for it. Yes, ALL Scripture is powerful and effective, because ALL Scripture has the life-breath of God and beats with the heart of God. But Some passages beat a little faster, and this is one of them, for here Paul and Timothy bring us face to face with he risen Christ in all his glory. Turn with me to Colossians 1:15-18.

This passage often has the heading “the preeminence of Christ” or the “supremacy of Christ.” Most of us only know the word “supreme” from buying pizza. We know it as the pizza that contains all the toppings. If we think about the Supreme Court, we get a little bit closer to the real meaning of the word. The Supreme Court is the panel of judges whose collective opinion on legal matters surpasses that of all other courts. To be supreme is to be superior to all others.

In World War II, with so many countries fighting against Germany, Italy, and Japan, there was the danger of the differing military forces, representing differing countries, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Russia, and others, each going their own way and doing their own thing. So General Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander. Every general of every country’s military, no matter how highly they ranked, answered to him. No military officer among the allied forces, no matter how highly decorated, outranked him. They all saluted him.

But far beyond any earthly commander, no matter how powerful, there is One to whom all will bow, before whom all powers will be brought into submission, and that One is Christ. Look at V. 15.

The word image here is the Greek word “Eikon,” and it means an image or representation. The idea is the nearest we can get in the ancient world of our modern-day concept of a photograph. In fact, one way the ancient Greeks used this word was in the description of two contracting parties in a legal document. When two parties entered into a legal contract with one another, the contract included a summary of the personal characteristics & distinguishing marks of each party, sort of a “verbal photograph.”

But the word can also mean “manifestation.” Jesus is no static photograph or image of God. He is the very manifestation of God Himself. He is Emmanuel, “God with Us.” If you want to see what God is like, look at Jesus. He is the full revelation of God. Nothing more is necessary. Every passage of Scripture is to be interpreted through the lens of Jesus.

Now, this wasn’t just Paul’s idea. Jesus said of himself in John 14:9: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” In Jesus we see God clearly. We see who God is, what God is like, and what God does. Jesus is the exact representation of God and the full manifestation of who God is and what God is like.

Now, look at the end of V. 15 – V. 17. Not only is he the exact representation of the invisible God, he is also “the firstborn of all creation.” Firstborn. When we use this word, we tend to think of linear time. The firstborn child is the one that came first.

In that sense I am the firstborn son of David and Patti Goodwin, because I am the oldest. But that wasn’t the prime sense of the word for ancient Hebrews and Greeks. For them, any concept of time was only an indirect association for this word. For them, firstborn was a title of honor. It expressed sovereignty, status. So when my parents say I’m their firstborn, what they’re really saying is not only did I come first, but I am supreme over my brother and sister. Just don’t tell them that. They’ll just laugh at you.

In saying that Christ is the firstborn over all creation, Paul is saying that he is the one who has supreme authority over all creation. He has priority and sovereignty. Every power, regardless of what kind of power it is – spiritual powers, human government and power, cultural and societal systems – every power and every kind of power is subject to him. Under him.

Many throughout history have stripped these words from their context and ignored their primary meaning to teach that Jesus Christ was simply the greatest of all created beings. That is exactly what the Jehovah’s Witnesses do today. And not just them. Today it’s in fashion to talk about Jesus as a great teacher, a great human being, but nothing more than that. But that idea is nothing new. It goes all the way back to the early 300’s, when the heretic Arius veered away from the high view of the divinity of Christ that had dominated Church history for its first two plus centuries and claimed that Jesus was a great man, but nothing more.

This lead the Church from around the known world at the time to gather at the Council of Nicaea where they proclaimed with one voice, in what we call the Nicene Creed: “We believe … in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father before all the ages, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made.”

This is the same truth that Paul had in majestic language proclaimed more than 200 years before, that Jesus is the pre-existent Son of God, with sovereignty and supremacy over all creation … because He is the Creator! And this is no idea come lately, developed by the church centuries after the life of Jesus. Barely thirty years after the death and resurrection of Christ Paul is laying before us the full divinity of Christ, who emptied himself of all that was rightfully his as the preexistent Son of God and entered our realm of existence as Jesus, the Messiah. Emmanuel. God with us is the Creator of all that is.

All things that exist were made by Christ and FOR Christ. That means everything that is, is under Christ’s authority and is moving toward a place of acknowledging that truth. In Philippians 2 Paul says, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

EVERY person who has ever lived will bow their knee, acknowledging the supremacy and authority of Jesus, the exact, visible image of the invisible God. When he comes again, every knee will bow. But then, for those who refused to bow their knee before that moment, it will be too late.

Now, look at V. 18. He is supreme. Preeminent. He is the one to whom we are being conformed by the Holy Spirit. He is the only one worthy of worship and praise. He was the first to be resurrected eternally. His people, his family, his body … his church get’s its identity from him. Not from a denomination or a great pastor or leader. Not from a political party or nation. We get our identity from him!

As the King of Creation and our Sufficient Savior, he is the very Eikon, the full manifestation of God, so much so that Jesus can say “those who have seen me, have seen the Father.” The fullness of God dwelt within the human body of Jesus of Nazareth. Fully God, and fully human. As fully human, he could go to the cross for you and for me. As the King of Creation, fully divine, he could serve as the means of reconciliation between God and me. He is the Sufficient Savior. Nothing more is needed. Nothing less will do. And as that All-sufficient Savior, he is the head of the church. The church universal, and every legitimate expression of it, ultimately belongs to him.

Not to a Pope, bishop, or priest. Not to this pastor or that pastor. Not to this denomination or that one. The church belongs to him. Now, without a head, the body can’t live. I can live rather easily without a finger or toe. I can live without an appendix. I can live in a more handicapped way without ears or eyes, arms or legs. I can even live with someone else’s heart. But I cannot live without a head. There’s no such thing as a head transplant. A body without a head is dead, disconnected from that which unifies all the other parts.

The head is the seat of life. It enlivens, energizes, and directs all the parts of the body toward its desired end. It gives the body life and power. That’s exactly how Paul wants us to understand our corporate relationship to Jesus Christ. He unifies us. No other part can do that. He enlivens us and gives us purpose and direction.

This is not MY church. It is not YOUR church. It is Christ’s church. HE is the head, and we MUST go where he asks us to go, and do what he asks us to do, regardless of the cost to us. The church of Jesus Christ does not exist just to meet the needs of members or to ensure institutional survival, but to fulfill the saving purpose of Jesus Christ in the world.

In everything Jesus. Is. Preeminent. How dare we say there are other ways to God! How dare we say we don’t need Jesus to bring us into God’s presence! How dare we say Jesus is just one path among many! When we say those things, we ignore his power and glory and sovereignty. We cheapen his suffering and death on the cross. When we say the cross wasn’t, and isn’t, necessary, we laugh in the face of the preeminent one who is the manifestation of the invisible God.

I can say that until I am blue in the face, and never say it well. Sometimes, it takes a black preacher to do it right. I’ve used this recording before. If that offends you, I don’t apologize. We don’t listen to good music just once. No! We crank it up every time that song comes on. We hit the back arrow to hear it again. We should do that with good teaching too. And outside of the Holy Spirit-inspired writers of Scripture, no one has ever described Christ as well as the incomparable S.M. Lockridge. So I’ll let him close our sermon this morning.

[i] Matt Woodley, East Setauket, New York; source: “South Korean pastor is also a trained killer,” CNN Religion blog (8-9-2010)