I'm very excited to get back to Colossians and our great Christ hymn. So if you'd open up back to Colossians chapter one, we'll read just 18, 19, and 20 tonight. Remind you that the first part of this hymn, and starting in verse 15, we talked about the supremacy of Christ over all creation, and now we're sliding into the second half of this hymn, the supremacy of Christ over redemption, or the new creation. That's a good thing for tonight, looking at the supremacy of Christ. I think what a good week to talk about the supremacy of Christ. All right, so Colossians 1, starting at verse 18. Let's read from 15, it's too good. 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. Now for tonight. 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. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, please help us see it. Please help us see the supremacy of Jesus Christ, and by faith, help us to see his supremacy over this new creation that is here and is coming. And Lord, help us bow the knee evermore to our Supreme Lord Jesus Christ. If you would do these things, O Lord, we would be so full, so happy. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we'll start out tonight with a little hypothetical scenario. Imagine somewhere there's a really good king, and he has a really prosperous kingdom that he's reigning over, but then, for whatever reason, his people rebel against him, and they go and choose another man to rule over them. In this scenario, the king is still the rightful king, right? He's still supreme over his kingdom, but it looks like he has to reassert his rule at some point. I think this is an important scenario for you to have in your mind because this is a lot like the scenario we find in our passage tonight. If you can remember back, like I said, we've spent a couple weeks talking about how Jesus is supreme over creation, how he's the image of God, how he's the firstborn over creation, how he's the locus and the agent and the forerunner and the goal and the sustainer of everything in creation. But then at this point, I'm sure you can imagine someone scratching their head and thinking, well, It sure doesn't look like he's supreme over creation. Everything's so broken. Everything seems to be in direct rebellion against his will. How is he still supreme? So the second half of this great Christ hymn proclaims not only is he supreme over creation, but in his incarnation, he's also reasserted his supremacy over a renewed creation. It goes like this. Jesus is gonna renew everything, he is renewing everything, and then he's gonna still reign over it as he always has. So for our sermon tonight, we'll just seek to answer the question, we'll answer the question, how is Jesus still supreme? And we'll see four answers to this question. We'll see that he is the head, he is the beginning, he is the fullness, and he is peacemaker of renewed creation. Those four things, head, beginning, fullness, peacemaker. Those are our four things for tonight. So let's talk first about how Jesus is head. First reason we have, how we can see that Jesus is still supreme over creation and a new creation that's coming is that he stands at the head of his church. Verse 118 says, he is the head of the body, the church. Now, let's think about this for a second. When we're talking about how Jesus is renewing his creation, we have to think about where does he start I would say he starts with his church. In a sense, the church is where Jesus starts to reassert his reign over creation. The church is where Jesus begins to fix his creation. It's the already, and there's still some not yet, but it's the already. And the church is a people that Jesus has called out of darkness. It's a people he's given new life. The church is the place where Jesus is actively filling his people, and he's fixing his people, and the church now is the institution Jesus is using to spread his rule, to spread his kingdom over all the earth. And Jesus stands as the head of this church, this says. What does that mean? It means a couple different things in the Bible. We'll cross-reference some texts. Just think of what your head does for you. That's what Jesus does for his church. For one, your head commands your body, and your head directs your body, where it should go. So my commentator Hendrickson, he pointed out, in your cerebrum, there's located, among other things, the area that controls the various parts of the body. Cerebellum's called the coordinator and harmonizer of muscular action. This is what Jesus does for his church. Ephesians 1.22 says this. God put all things under his feet, there's the dominion, and gave him as head over all things to the church. He's the head because he commands and he directs his church. He rules over his church. And that's not all your head does. Your head also enables you to live and grow. Hendrickson says again, it's to the head that the body in large measure owes its vigorous life and growth. Can't live without your head, can't grow without your head. From the pituitary gland comes the growth hormone and so many other things. And this is also what Jesus does for his church, Ephesians four. It says, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Jesus's head directs the way, commands the way, but he also grows us, gives us life, and unites us. So you put that all together, and how is Christ still supreme over a fallen creation? He stands at the head of a new people, a new people that he's using to actively renew everything in creation, that's first. Now, just to slide a little application here, can't help it. All of this really helps us understand two things, helps us understand the importance of the church and Christ's importance to the church. In terms of the importance of the church, You know as well as I do, a lot of people really don't think the church is all that important these days. People think, well, I can just do my own thing. I'll just be close to Jesus in my own way. But look at all the implications of what this text is saying. It's saying the church, it's the center. It's the wellspring of all of God's work in the world. It's where Jesus is head. The church is the ordinary place of his salvation, but it's where you go to grow. It's where you bring people to grow, to grow up into him, into the head, into this new renewed group of people. That's the importance of the church. But this point also shows us Christ's importance to the church. We've seen the importance of the church, but what about Christ's importance to the church? Brothers and sisters, he's the head. You know this. Jesus is everything to the church, which means he has to be everything for our church. He's head of the church. Jesus is the source of the church. He's the commander of the church. He's the director of the church, the unifier of the church. He's the nourisher of the church, which means as a church, and I know you know this, you're good at this, let's just renew our commitment. We have to believe his word. We have to follow his commands. We have to unify around his priorities. We have to grow his way. Christ is the head of the church. That's the first way he's supreme over a new creation. Jesus Christ is head of the church. And let's keep going. Second way, Jesus is the beginning. Jesus is the beginning. Also in verse 18, it says, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Now this kicks things up another level. Not only is Jesus the head of his redeemed people, not only is he the head of his church, he's also the head of an entirely new creation. That's what this is talking about here. Because Jesus is the beginning. That means Jesus is the starting point of all of creation's renewal. He's where it starts. He's also the founder. He's the founder of everything that's better to come. You think of the days when people wanted to start a new world out in the great American West. And what did they need? Well, they needed explorers to blaze the trail out West so the rest of us could follow. And that's what Jesus is for us. Jesus is our trailblazer to a bright new world, went ahead to heaven, went to prepare a place for you. But he's also more than just a leader into a new renewed creation. He's also the initiator. of a new creation. He's the signal. He's the stimulator of a new creation. He's the one that starts the new reality. He's the one that creates the new reality. In him, everything's made new. And then how did he do this? And we find out from the second part of this. He did this because he's the firstborn from the dead. He did this by his resurrection. When Jesus died, he took with him all of the sin of our old creation, and his resurrection is now the breaking through of an entirely renewed creation. Jesus' resurrection is when the new creation breaks in. It's when it punches through. I'll explain it a different way. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says Jesus is a first fruit. So if you're a farmer, you know that when your first fruits ripen, you get your first raspberries, you get your first tomatoes, more are gonna follow. In the same way when Jesus rises from the dead, he showed that there are so many more that are gonna follow. He says in John 14, because I live, you also will live. Now the staggering thing about all this is this is not just saying that Jesus is a new beginning for us. It's not just saying Jesus is the beginning, a new beginning for his church. It's not saying anything as limited as that. It's saying Jesus is the beginning. He's the beginning of the renewal of everything. Revelation 3.14 says this about Jesus. It says, Jesus is the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. Talking about a new creation. Remember when Paul uses the word firstborn, he's not talking about birth order primarily. We saw this a couple weeks ago. When Jesus is called the firstborn from the dead, Paul's not just saying Jesus was resurrected first, he was resurrected first. He's saying he also rules over everything that's about to be resurrected. Just like Adam was born first, and so he got the right to rule over creation, Jesus was reborn first, so he can rule over a new creation. He's the second Adam after all. Revelation 1.5 says, Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth. So by way of application, again, this should give you fresh hope. You should see this, say, he's the beginning. It's coming. Say, he's the firstborn from the dead. That means I can rise from the dead. Whenever you hear about it, Jesus's new life breaking through, his new body that broke through, his new abilities, his new reality, all of this, you're seeing the reality that's coming true for you. Not just for you though, but for all creation. Jesus is the beginning of all these things. He's bringing all these things and it makes it a lot easier to believe that these things are really coming when you see that they have already started happening in him. He came and showed them his wounds. Came through the wall. He came and they saw. Jesus is supreme over all the new creation as the beginning of the new creation. He is the firstborn from the dead. So we've seen he's the head of an entire new humanity in the church. We've seen that he's the beginning of an entire new creation that makes him supreme. Let's keep going, this is too good. All right, third, Jesus is the fullness. He's the fullness. Here's the third reason he's supreme over new creation. He is the fullness, it says, in him all of the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. This is saying exactly what you think it's saying. You're saying, is this saying Jesus is God? Yeah, this is saying Jesus is fully God. It's not just saying that God empowered Jesus a little bit. God put some stuff in him. It's not saying God just filled him with some divinity. It's not saying that. It's saying the incarnate son of God is everything that God is. It's him. Mybeal Commentary says, I think it's Mybeal Commentary, he said, all of God's attributes and activities, his spirit, his word, his wisdom, his glory, they're disclosed in him. I think Paul says it a little clearer in chapter two, he says, chapter two, verse nine, in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Or our confession we said this morning, he is very God of very God. So this is an incredible thing to say about Jesus. Anybody that knocks on your door and says, oh, he's not really God, well, this goes exactly against that so clearly, but we can go even further than this. It's saying he's God. It's saying he's the fullness of God in a body. But this phrase, it's also a quote from Psalm 68. Psalm 68, verse 16, especially in the Greek, says the same words. Pleased to dwell. Connection's a little clearer in the New King James than it is in the ESV. Psalm 68 verse 16 says this. It's talking about the mountain of God, talking about Mount Zion, talking about where the tabernacle would be and the temple would be. It says, why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks? This is the mountain which God is pleased to dwell in, or desires to dwell in. Depends on your translation. Same words, yes, the Lord will dwell in it forever. Psalm 68's talking about a temple in Jerusalem. Remember, in ancient times, God was pleased to dwell with his people, except he was in a temple. Pleased to dwell with his people in a temple. And actually, the language in the temple language is that God filled the temple with his presence. This is talking with much the same language. Here's that language again. And the beautiful thing here is that Jesus didn't come anymore to just fill the temple. The fullness of God is dwelling in man. Jesus the beautiful thing about the temple was it wasn't just a place where God lived with his people it was a place where God's people could come and make atonement and Fix their sin problems so that they could live with him in peace So you see what Paul's saying? He's quoting the psalm. He's saying that in Jesus God has God has fully come down into creation with all his fullness and And in Jesus, Jesus is God come in the flesh to reassert his reign, absolutely, but he's also coming to reassert this reign by providing a place where rebels can be atoned for. He is the place of atonement. He is the substitute for that temple. That's why he's supreme over his new creation. He's supreme because he started a whole new humanity. He's supreme because he's the beginning of a whole new creation. He's supreme because here he is stepping into his creation, reasserting his reign as the very place of atonement for all people who had put their faith in him. And this keeps building to our fourth point. Let's go right into our fourth point. It's so related that Jesus is the great peacemaker. So far we've seen Jesus has begun his renewal over the church, he's begun his renewal over creation, and for our fourth point, we get to see how. How? How's he renewing all of this? How's he fixing all of this? Verse 20 says, talking about God, God through Jesus, through Jesus, God is reconciling to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace, by the blood of his cross. Now again, I know you know this. What's the problem with the world? Why does the world need to be renewed? You know it's because of our sin. It's our sin. Our sin has robbed this world of its peace. Our sin has brought hostility between man and God, between man and man, between man and creation. But one more way that Jesus is supreme over creation is he's come to fix all of this. And how does he do that? Well, it says he made peace by the blood of his cross. So if the problem with this world is sin, if that's the thing that shattered all of our peace, if our peace is what shattered all this sin, then the cross is where Jesus did away with that problem. If you think about it, the cross of Christ shows us two ways that God makes peace. On the one hand, at the cross, Jesus took on himself all the sin of all of his people. His people's sins died with him there on the cross, and so he took all that sin away. Problem solved. Problem of sin solved. On the other hand, the punishment of Jesus on the cross, as he was being punished on the cross, it shows us how one day God will fix the rest of the sin problem. for all those who don't repent and come to Him in faith. Showing Jesus as God pours out His wrath and His punishment on Jesus shows how God will one day remove this sin problem from creation, take it away to hell, to outer darkness, and punish it forever. God also says to that, problem solved. So there's two ways Jesus makes peace. He either makes peace by taking away the sins of repentant sinners or by taking away unrepentant sinners out of creation. Then, once all that sin is finally taken care of, once it's all gone, once it's taken away from repentant sinners, once unrepentant sinners are finally taken away, then creation can finally know the peace. that it's meant to know. Romans 8.21 says, upon Jesus' second coming, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. All this is to say, Jesus is creation's peace. He himself is creation's peace. It's at the cross that his peace has finally begun to break in. But at this point, I think it'd be helpful for us to look at a limitation to Jesus's peacemaking and one way his peacemaking is bigger than you've maybe ever even thought. First of all, I think it's important to remind you that when Paul says that God was reconciling all things to himself through Jesus, he's not talking about universalism. He isn't saying that every human being and every fallen angel will be saved. This would go against a mountain of scripture. And this would be an example of a time when all doesn't mean all, without exception. That's the only limitation we see to his peacemaking here. There are some that will be punished. But then second, we don't just need to see that one limitation on his peacemaking. Second, we also need to see how limitless Jesus's peacemaking is, because it's limitless. This passage is saying that through Jesus's work on the cross, God was reconciling so, so, so much to himself. Paul says all things, things on earth, things in heaven, all kinds of things. Paul's talking about something we're so used to thinking about our individual salvation. He's talking about something so much bigger than just us. He's talking about a cosmic reconciliation. He's talking about a reconciliation of all that's spiritual, reconciliation of all that's physical. It's a promise that's all over the place in the Old Testament. All throughout the Old Testament, God promises someday he'll bring shalom. Someday he'll bring ultimate shalom. So I'll just give you one for example, a big one for example, and it's so perfect that Pastor Trice preached this morning on peace with animals someday and Isaiah 11. Isaiah 11, as I read it this week, Isaiah 11 talks about a spirit-filled Davidic king. Man who's filled with the Spirit of God, who's a king from the line of David, who will one day judge the world with equity, he'll get rid of evil, and he'll bring in an era of perfect, eternal, unparalleled peace. You think, well, that sounds like Jesus in this passage, does it not? And Isaiah describes it so beautifully. He says in Isaiah 11, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them. Skip a little, he says, It's over and over again. Scripture gives you a vision of a world that's just filled with peace. When we're finally at peace with animals and the elements. When all the nations are gathered together to worship the Lord in his presence with one voice. When God finally lives in the midst of his people. Perfect, unbroken, eternal fellowship. This is the peace that Jesus accomplished at the cross. It's breaking through into this world. Will be completed someday. This is the peace that he's begun to reassert in the world through his church. He's the beginning of it himself. So now to start wrapping up. Let's just answer our question one more time. Our big question for tonight. How is Jesus still supreme over a fallen world? Well, the answer is that Jesus is asserting and renewing his reign over this fallen world. He stands at the head of a new humanity who he's using to renew the earth. He himself is the beginner and the initiator of a new creation. In Jesus, the fullness of God came to make atonement and to reassert his reign. And through Jesus, God has made peace with all creation at the cross. Peace that's here and coming. In short, it's not just that pre-incarnate Jesus is supreme over all creation like we saw in previous weeks, that is certainly true. It's also true that in his incarnation, Jesus proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, he is still supreme over a creation that he is renewing. And I wanna show you one more reason why he's supreme. I wonder if it occurred to you while we were reading this that there's something here that just doesn't seem to fit. What I mean is when you think of supremacy, do you usually think of supremacy as being consistent with a cross? When I think of supremacy, I usually think unquestioned rule. You don't ask questions, you just do what I say. That's supremacy. Supremacy usually to me isn't dying a violent death at the hands of your creation. Supremacy to me usually doesn't mean dying a death as a common criminal, falsely accused. but that's all a part of the beauty of our Jesus, isn't it? Brothers and sisters, when he suffered the violence of God's wrath, when he suffered the shame of the cross, he showed us he's supreme in every way, every way. He's supreme in power and in grandeur, absolutely, but he's also supreme in humility and he's supreme in peace. and grace, and mercy, and he's supreme in all of it. Every possible attribute, he's supreme. He's supreme as conqueror. He can and he will wipe out all sin with just a word from his mouth. He's also more than a conqueror. He doesn't just destroy evil. He patiently comes and renews it and transforms it. And that, that's a supremacy other religions know nothing about. Jesus has shown himself to be supreme in every way, in war and in love. And so now for just one more closing point of application, and just drive it home to you, Jesus is supreme. Is he supreme to you? I don't doubt that there's somebody in this room who's hearing all this about the brokenness of creation and you're thinking, well, I'm broken. Some of you are hearing about the way that sin has brought hostility, hostility between man and God, hostility between man and man, man and creation, and you're thinking to yourself, yeah, my sin is part of the problem. I know there's hostility between me and God. He would not be happy with me, and it's making hostility with me and other people, and it's not, and you want peace. Our passage has the solution for you. You make Jesus supreme. Go to Him. You confess your sin to Him. You ask Him for forgiveness. You follow Him as Lord. You say, you're my Lord. I'm going to follow you. You do this. He will bring you into His redeemed humanity. He's the head of His church. He'll do it. He will give you a new life and a new identity that's fit for a new creation. He will. He's the beginning of the new creation. He'll be pleased to dwell in you. That's the next step. He'll be pleased to dwell in you, giving you perfect peace with God by what he did at the cross. He is the fullness of God. He brought peace by the blood of his cross. Just make him supreme. That's how you're saved. Make him supreme. And I could say the same for all of us longtime Christians here tonight, too. We've already talked about how he's to be supreme in our church and supreme in our hope. He's the beginning of all our hopes. but is he supreme in your life right now? I mean, he is supreme objectively, I'm not taking that away from him, but is he supreme to you subjectively? Is he supreme above all your relationships? Are you spending time with him? Is he even above your family, even above your friends? Is he supreme in your priorities? Are you all about his kingdom or your kingdom? Is he supreme in your conscience? Would he be pleased with how you're living? Is there a sin that needs killing? I know this is the kind of thing I'm always challenging you to consider, but honestly, I don't think I can bring this challenge enough. We need it every week, because don't we start to slip over time, over time. It's he's supreme this week, and then next week we're like, oh, not so much. But this fact is incontrovertibly true. Jesus is supreme over all creation, new and old. So it's only good and right that we should see Him this way and treat with Him this way. Amen. Let's pray, shall we? Lord Jesus, you're supreme. Hmm. We just say that it's objectively true. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would make yourself supreme in our hearts and lives. We pray that in Jesus' name. Until the day when you show yourself supreme over all things by your final appearing, Lord Jesus, come, we pray. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.