Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: I don't think any of us needs to be convinced that there is something fundamentally wrong with our world. The world is broken and we are broken, and if we ask the Bible why it is so, the answer comes readily and it comes clearly. It is because our relationship with our maker is broken.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today as we continue our message, The Preeminent Christ. And Jonathan, what do you mean when you say that our relationship with our maker is broken?

Jonathan Griffiths: According to the Bible, this is the crisis at the heart of the human story. This is the crisis at the very center of our world and the history of the world. God made us. He made us in His image. He gave us great privilege as a people who would have responsibility within His world to provide leadership and stewardship within His world.

But we decided in our human parents, and we do this ourselves, each one of us, we decided that we would live our way without reference to God. We would not live God's way. And in rejecting God, we have invited chaos. We have invited disorder, we have invited suffering, and we have invited as well the judgment of God. And so there is profound brokenness at every level in our relationships with one another and with our maker. And that's what's wrong with the world, the Bible would tell us.

Guest (Male): Well, that is what is wrong as we open up our Bibles together today. We're going to see what it takes to make it right. We are in a message called The Preeminent Christ. There's a little clue right there for you. We're in Colossians chapter 1 as we continue our message from our series Walking Worthy. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: In our local post office, in the village where we live on the wall behind the counter, there's a framed portrait of the Queen. This is not unusual, of course. It's been traditional throughout the Commonwealth to have pictures of the Queen displayed in key government offices, in some classrooms, on coins, on banknotes and so on, to remind people of the monarch to whom they owe allegiance and whom they in some sense at least serve.

Now, the portrait in our local post office is pretty faded these days. I don't think it commands too much attention. But the concept of this, which goes back to the ancient world, Caesar's image was stamped on coins throughout the empire, the concept has some kind of logic to it: keep your sovereign before your mind's eye that you might remember who it is you serve.

Friends, do we see Jesus for who He truly is? Do we have such a grand and such a captivating, such a glorious vision of Him that we are driven and we are moved to seek His honor in our lives, to walk worthily, to seek to please Him in everything we do and think and say?

If you don't yet know the Lord Jesus Christ personally, if you don't trust Him, if you aren't following Him, you won't need me to tell you that the key issue holding you back is the question of the worth of Jesus Christ. Is He worthy of your trust, of your worship, of your allegiance, your obedience? Is He merely a figure of history, a teacher on a dusty Galilean trail, a relic of the ancient world, or is He the sovereign supreme within the cosmos?

If He is the former, you should not waste your time any longer on Him. If He is the latter, you have no excuse for failing to bow the knee before Him. What do you make of Him?

If you've dismissed Him as an irrelevance or worse, can I urge you, look again at what the Apostle Paul has to say of Him? Hear this description of His supremacy and make sure you have really understood, really considered your decision and your response and its implications.

Paul insists in our passage that all things in this world, we've seen this, you and I included, were created for Jesus Christ. And one of the implications of that is that you and I will only find our true meaning and our true purpose in this world in knowing and loving and serving Jesus Christ. Does your life feel meaningful? True meaning is found in Him and Him alone.

Jesus Christ is supreme in creation and next He is supreme in redemption, verse 18. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. 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.

Now, so far, Paul's portrait of the supremacy of Jesus Christ has focused on His place of authority and privilege and so on within this present creation. But now Paul turns His mind to the work of redemption and to a new creation that is to come. He wants to focus on the supremacy of Jesus, not among His created people generally, but now among His redeemed and His recreated people. He is the head of the body, the church, Paul tells us. The body is the body of Jesus Christ, those who have been saved by His blood and then joined to Him by His Spirit.

Now, mention of the church at this point might seem rather out of place for some readers. We've just been talking about the universe, the cosmos, about thrones and about rulers and authorities. We've been looking at the grand sweep of things, very, very big picture. And suddenly the church is mentioned, front and center. That might seem strange to the modern ear because the church looks and seems so marginal to many, a collection of dusty buildings that are being turned into condominiums or bulldozed. That's what the church is.

For our culture at large, the church is a relic of a former age, a social embarrassment, an annoyance to a society on a quote-unquote progressive path. Surely the church of Jesus Christ is just a collection of misfits and a people of no account. The world thinks nothing of the church, but Paul points us to the fact that the church of Jesus Christ will outlive the world. The church has the great dignity and privilege of being made part of the body of the one to whom the world belongs, the one who holds the key to the world to come.

Now, the materialist does not see this and does not know. The one who believes only in this present world and has no sense that anything lies beyond it, such a person can't make sense of this. But the word of God teaches and the people of God know that there is another world yet to come. There is a redeemed and a remade world, and Jesus Christ, He is the start. He is the forerunner, and His resurrection, it paves the way. Notice how Paul puts it in the middle of verse 18: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.

Now, the mention of the dead reminds us that Jesus Christ knows the reality of death. This is not a foreign thing to Him. He entered into the reality of death at the cross. He Himself died and was buried. He was tortured and He was crucified. He was put to shame in the eyes of the world. And that might have seemed like the end of everything. It might have seemed the unassailable justification for dismissing Jesus and His claims, but the death of Jesus upon the cross was not the end of anything. It was the beginning.

In His resurrection, Jesus opened the gate to new life, to resurrection life, which will ultimately be experienced in a new creation. Others will follow, the church will follow, but He is the firstborn from the dead. And the Father raised Him from the grave, Paul tells us, in order that, here is the purpose, that in everything He might be preeminent. That's the purpose. He was raised to rule and He was raised to reign. He ascended to the Father's side and He will return on a day yet to come to claim His kingdom.

Now, it was fitting for Him to be raised to rule and to reign. It was fitting because Jesus, the man, the carpenter of Nazareth, the teacher of Galilee, the prisoner of Rome, the sufferer upon the cross, He is none other than God Himself. In this man who came among us, verse 19, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. He truly was and is God in flesh, and all this was with a purpose, the coming of God to earth in the man Christ Jesus happened that God, verse 20, through Him could reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

Now, verse 20, that verse I just read, that verse could be the subject of its own sermon, the subject. As I prepared, I thought this could be the subject of many sermons in its own right. There's so much here that we could explore it at considerable length, over a considerable length of time.

And I may sense the fear in some eyes. We've been listening for some time already, and now he's throwing around reckless threats of making this thing longer. I'll keep an eye on the clock, I promise. But we need to take in something of the full sweep, don't we, of what Paul's saying here. The implications are enormous, aren't they?

Guest (Male): We're keeping an eye on the clock here as well. We're going to pause for just a moment. Don't worry, we'll get back to the message in a minute, so stay with us. But if you joined us a little late or you have to leave early, you don't have to miss Jonathan's teaching. You can always come to our website and you can listen online, just come to encounterthetruth.org, where you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. It's also a great place to go if you just want to find out more about Jonathan and this broadcast. Again, that's at encounterthetruth.org. All right, back to the message. Once again, here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: I don't think any of us needs to be convinced that there is something fundamentally wrong with our world. Whether you are a Christian believer or a convinced atheist, you will agree that things are not right. We all feel that, don't we? We all know it. Things are not as they could be, things are not as they ought to be. There is just too much disorder. There's too much suffering, there's too much sadness, there's too much pain. It shouldn't be like this. The natural world is in disarray.

Human society is full of discord and disorder. Nations are at war with one another, torn apart by divisions within. There's violence in our communities. Our bodies fail us and death comes to too many people far too soon. We are confronted with the realities of inequality and poverty and we see too many suffer for lack of basic necessities even in a world of plenty. The world is broken and we are broken, and if we ask the Bible why it is so, the answer comes readily and it comes clearly. It is because our relationship with our maker is broken.

Ever since the first human beings rebelled against God in the garden, our relationship with Him has been fractured and we have been under His judgment. But the implications go beyond us personally. You see, at the creation, God entrusted to us human beings a stewardship of the world that He made. And when we sinned, the whole world over which we had responsibility came under judgment as well.

But the redemptive plan of God, the reconciling, saving plan of God in Jesus, it didn't just extend to plucking individual human souls out of the wreckage of this world and placing them in heaven. No, the plan was much greater, much grander, much more comprehensive than that. Notice again the comprehensive sweep of verse 20: and through Him, that is through Jesus, to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

Now, first human beings, Adam and Eve, they led the way in establishing the situation of enmity with God and the disruption of the created order, of making the mess in which we find ourselves today. The firstborn of the new creation, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to make peace with God, who rose from the grave to open the door to new life. He led the way in reconciling us to God and establishing a new order where the creation itself and the people themselves would be at peace with God. And in that new order, in that new creation to come, it begins actually with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It comes to us as we trust in Him and receive forgiveness and new life in Him, and it will come to full fruition in a day to come when Jesus Christ makes all things new. When He brings us to a new heaven and a new earth, a place where all things are as God intended them to be, where there is no sin, no suffering, no death, no disorder. No mass shootings in a supermarket on a Saturday.

You see, that's where the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's where the promises of God point us and take us. But the key to this, the basis upon which all this is possible is the work of Jesus at the cross. Through Jesus, God the Father was reconciling the world to Himself. He was making peace with us through the blood of His cross.

Now, in sin, in our spirit of rebellion against God, we declare that we will not have Him telling us what to do. That we will not be subject to Him, even though He made us, even though He's given us good gifts in His created world, even though we owe Him all that we have and all that we are, we determine, we just will not be subject to Him. That's the spirit of sin. And pushing God away, we then go on to live in ways that are right in our own eyes, ways that disregard His design for human life, and the result is chaos. We're seeing it all around us. We see it in our lives. The result is ugly. We see the fruit of this. We know it.

And we now have this fundamental problem of being at odds with the God who made us. We've waged war with Him, what a foolish thing to do. And as our Creator, we've dishonored Him, as our Judge, we've invoked His righteous judgment. And the great need of humanity is to have things made right between us and God. There needs to be a comprehensive peace settlement. This will involve payment for guilt for God is a God of justice.

How can it happen? We can pay, but the price of sin is death. We can pay with our lives. We can pay with our eternal soul, but there is no happy ending in that story. There's no hope. We've caused the trouble, so we should have to pay to make things right, but we can't. The debt's too big, the chasm is too wide to cross. But in Christ, God has come to us. Notice how Paul emphasizes that fact, verse 19. The fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ Jesus, who came to us to redeem and came to us to save.

This isn't God the Father sending a nameless functionary down to earth to sort out this situation down there. Like a king might send a junior diplomat off to a foreign country of little account to sort out a minor spat, so he doesn't have to deal with himself. No, God Himself has come in the person of His Son, in the person of Jesus Christ. He has come that in order that through Him He might reconcile to Himself all things. He's come to make things right, to make things new.

Sometimes in an international incident, it just takes a brief visit, key conversation, perhaps a well-chosen gift, a nice photo op, a diplomatic reset of some kind, and things can just move forward. It'll be all right. But here there is no quick fix. There is objective guilt to be addressed. There is a court case, there is payment required, but God did not come to us in Christ in order to demand payment from us. This is the wonder of it all. He came in Christ to make the payment Himself. He came to make peace by the blood of His cross.

Now, this is the wonder of the gospel. This is why the Christian good news really is good news. And I'm conscious that there will be some among us who actually do not know and do not have peace with God, who have not entered into this. Perhaps that is you. And it may be that you are acutely aware of that fact today. You are very conscious of the reality that things are not right between you and God. You know in your heart of hearts that you are accountable to Him. You know that you have wronged Him. You know that this must be addressed. Those may be burdens on your heart today. You're aware of these things. But let me ask you, do you know this?

Do you know that God came to us in the person of His Son and by His blood shed at the cross of Calvary, made the way for peace? The offer, the opportunity, the invitation is there for you, if you will come to Him in humility and in repentance and in faith and accept what Christ has done for you.

Paul wants us to know. He wants us to understand that Jesus Christ is preeminent, supreme, the first, before all and above all. He is preeminent in the creation. Not only was the cosmos made through Him, it was made for Him. And He is preeminent in the grand project of redemption. Not only did He achieve the work of redeeming sinners like us, the project was for Him as well, that He might be the head of the church, the ruler and the Lord, supreme in the new creation.

Now, this is the Jesus Christ whom we trust and whom we worship. Remember again what it was that was weighing on Paul's heart and motivating Him to write these things. He wanted those Colossian believers to walk in a manner that was worthy of the Lord. He wanted them to endure in faith, to keep going, to persevere right to the end. And of course, that need is so contemporary. It's contemporary for you and it is contemporary for me. You and I, we need to be helped and encouraged and regularly spurred on to live in a way that's worthy of the Lord, pleasing to Him. We slip so easily, don't we? Is that true?

We slide into selfishness and worldliness and compromise in all kinds of ways. We wander in our attention and our affections. We wane in our trust and in our faith. That's the reality. I don't need to know anything much about you and your Christian walk to know that that is true of you. But Paul's concern for the Colossians should be our concern today. The issues of the heart are the same. And so what is the thing that will make the difference for you and for me this week in the days to come? What's going to help us? We need help.

Well, surely it is seeing Jesus as He truly is in His glory and in His majesty. Seeing His true position in this world and in the world to come. It's a grand vision of Jesus Christ that we need. If you're flagging in your walk, if you're conscious that your walk is not worthy actually of the Lord who redeemed you, can I invite you? Can I urge you to turn your eyes toward the Lord Jesus Christ, the supreme one, the preeminent one in this creation and in the new creation to come? And learn again that He is worthy of your obedience, worthy of your trust, worthy of your life, worthy of your all. And learn again that it is fitting and it is right to serve Him and to adore Him. And remember again that doing so will never be a cause for regret. Let's pray together.

God our Father, we pray that You would renew in our mind's eye and stamp upon our hearts this vision of Jesus in His glory, His preeminence, His supremacy. And move us by Your Spirit to walk in a manner worthy of Him, to seek to please Him fully this day and in all the days that You give us, for we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. What a great way to wrap up this time together, thinking about and praying to our preeminent Christ. You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. Our series is called Walk Worthy and today's message is called The Preeminent Christ. And if you've missed any broadcast in the series, come and listen online. Our website address is encounterthetruth.org.

Encounter the Truth is listener supported. It is your generosity that keeps Jonathan's teaching on the station, so thank you for giving to and supporting this ministry. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a book Jonathan has picked out. It's called Worthy, Living in Light of the Gospel. And Jonathan, how is reading this book going to benefit us?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, I hope it's going to impact your heart and your life. I hope it's going to feed your soul. The purpose of this book is simply to encourage us who know Jesus to live faithfully as His people, to allow the gospel to transform our way of life. And I just find I need those encouragements, I need those helps, and I find it especially helpful if the book is readable and not too long. And this book, which is rich in content and thoughtful, it's written by seasoned theologian Sinclair Ferguson, who's always full of rich insight, but he's made it accessible. And it's designed to feed the mind, but to nourish the soul. And I believe it'll do that for you if you read it, and we'd love to get it to you.

Guest (Male): Well, a gift of any amount and we're going to say thank you by sending you a copy of Worthy, Living in Light of the Gospel. You can call, give your gift and request a copy. Our number is 833-99 Truth or give online at encounterthetruth.org. That's 833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org. You can also write to us at Encounter the Truth, PO Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Breda, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.