Colossians 1:18a

Colossians chapter 1, beginning with verse 15, reading through verse 19, our focus is on the first part of verse 18. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all full, wholeness dwell. God blessed to us the reading of His sacred and holy word this morning. There was a Scotchman that once met with the well-known minister, Roland Hill, many years ago, and she stood there looking very intently at his face. And he said, well, good woman, you’ve looked at me long enough. What do you see? She replied, I was looking at the lines of your face. And he says, well, what do you make of it? And she gave an unexpected answer. She says, I was thinking what an awful rascal you would have been if you were not converted. We could say that is true of really all of us. When we think about the fact that if we were not converted, what would we be like? We would be certainly much, like the world around us. Paul, having given a description of the person of Christ, and he is in the process of addressing the issues regarding Christ here in verses 15 to 20, he divides, we could divide this section into two parts. One, Christ in the creation of all things, verses 15 to 17, and then Christ and the reconciliation of all things, and verses 15. 18 to 20. When the world was created, of course, God said that everything was very good. Everything was made perfect. And everything was without any taint or corruption involved in it. How is it then that the world is lying under the power of darkness as we read here in verse 13. How is it that that is the case? Well, the fall of Adam has subjected all mankind, as well as the animal kingdom, and even nature itself, to the power of sin and Satan and corruption. And thus there is a need for the reconciliation of all things, a restoration, a recreation, a recreation, if you would. And so we have to have to be a reconciliation. have a description of Christ and his relationship to the new creation in verses 18 to 20 here. He starts out with Christ’s relationship to the church. Then he proceeds to talk about Christ as the beginning or the root cause of the church. Christ, the firstborn from the dead for the church. Christ possessing all fullness for the church. in Christ reconciling all things for the church. Think about what you would be like, what the world would remain like if it were not for Christ redemptive work. We look forward, the Bible says, to new heavens and a new earth, and we look forward to those because Christ indeed will bring righteousness in. And there’ll be a new creation. There’ll be a renewing of all about us. But this morning I’d like to focus here on the first part of verse 18, and he has the head of the body, the church. What is the church? The word literally means a called out assembly. By the church here, Paul was not speaking about a particular. congregation, like the church at Colossi or the church at Corinth or any other local church. But Paul rather speaks of the whole election of grace. Here he is speaking about the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. What did we call the universal church, those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Wherever believers are, they make up part of this universal church. If they’re in heaven, we classify those as the church triumphant. If they’re on the earth, we classify those as the church militant, still in the battle. This is the church which Christ builds on himself, the rock, and will in the end, present to himself a glorious church without any spot or wrinkle or any such things. as the book of Ephesians chapter 5 indicates to us. Now, how do we understand Christ as the head of the church? There are several things we want to look at this morning. And one is this. Christ is the representative head of the universal church. Now, if you would, look with me in the book of Romans chapter 5 this morning. Romans chapter 5 in verses 12 to 19. The scripture says this. Romans 5, beginning with verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sin, for that all have sin. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. Who is the figure of him? that was to come. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift for the judgment, was by the judgment, one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses under justification. For if by one man’s offense, death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men on the justification of life. Whereas by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. Here we have Christ as the representative head. Now, when we speak about heads, we often talk about counting heads, and we talk about counting persons. We’re talking about counting persons. We’re talking about the head representing a whole body when we talk about counting heads. All the members that are attached to it. So we count the head, we’re counting those attached to it. In dealing with the human race, we see that mankind from the beginning was represented by one man. And that man, according to Scripture, was Adam. It was ordained that the whole human race should be, bound up in his loins and everyone would come from him. And so they would stand if he stood. They would fall if he fell. And thus the scripture says in Adam, all die in 1st Corinthians chapter 15. When he fell and the penalty of death fell upon him, spiritual death as well as physical death, that penalty passes on to all his posterity. And thus we, being represented by him, find ourselves facing the sin, the misery, the sorrow, and the death associated with sin. All mankind is affected by one man’s disobedience, we read in verse 19. Now, when it comes to reconciliation, the new crime, creation and salvation. God’s elect, all of them, are found in Christ as the representative head of the church or his elect people. They are represented by him. Thus we read in 1st Corinthians 1522 that in Christ shall all be made a lie. All who are in Adam come under the curse of sin. All who are in Christ. Christ are given eternal life. So that by the obedience of one, many shall be made righteous. Romans 519. That is, of course, by the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam represented all mankind. Christ represented the church. The apostle calls Christ the second Adam. In fact, in our text here in Romans 5 that I just read, Adam is a man. spoken of who is a figure of him that was to come. There’s a sense in which Christ and Adam have a connection, and that both are representative heads. So Christ says, because I live, ye shall live also. If you would, look with me at the book of Hebrews chapter 7 a moment. We see this representative idea also in verses 9 and 10 of Hebrews chapter 7. Now in this passage of scripture, Paul is, I believe who is the author, I believe of this book, is addressing the issue of the superiority of Christ’s priesthood over that of the Levittical priesthood. And you’ll notice what he says here in verses 9 and 10. And as I may so say, Levi also, we receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abel. for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Now in this passage, we see a reference to this Old Testament story about Malkisadict, the priest of the high God, and how Abraham met him returning from the slaughter of the kings and the rescue of Lot and his family. Abraham was truly the covenant head of his posterity in the line of Isaac and Jacob, and the Jews had special privileges as a nation. Therefore, when Abraham paid ties to Melchizedek, we’re told here, who was the priest of the Most High God, Levites, being in Abraham, paid ties as well. now why is this important? Because he’s talking here in a representative sense. What Abraham did was considered done by those Levites that were still in his loins, that were going to come forth from him. Now, Christ here comes after the order of Malkisadec, we’re told. And therefore, Malkisadek here is a representative, or a type, if you would, of the Christ who was to come. And the priesthood of Christ, who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, as the Psalms tell us. And when he blessed Abraham, it was like Christ’s blessing upon his people. The high priesthood of Christ was, therefore, superior to that of the Levites. For they paid ties to Christ, in this sense, when they paid ties to Christ in this sense, when they paid ties. paid through Abraham to Melchizedek’s order of priesthood. Now, just as Levi was in Abraham and represented by their head here, so every one of God’s children are in Christ and are represented by his glorious work of redemption. And thus you can say with Paul, I was crucified with Christ. Christ. Not that you were literally there, but you were in Christ, represented by Christ. And when Christ rose from the dead, it was triumphant over the tomb, and rose to victory, we read that the people of God shared in his victory. As Ephesians 2 tells us, He have quickened us together with Christ, hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So whatever happens to Christ here, we are represented by him so that his death, his burial, and his resurrection are counted on our behalf. His payment for sin on our behalf. And this is the benefit that we have of having Christ as our representative. He’s our representative head. Now let me make this observation here. It’s not sufficient for you and I to be content to merely be a member of a visible church somewhere. You may make a profession of faith. You may be baptized. You may join a particular church. And you may think, well, because I’m a church member, then I’m eternally secure. What is vitally important, here is that you belong to the universal church and are represented by Christ headship, not the downplay of the local church, and it’s importance. But what we have to realize there is a great danger of people who belong to a church somewhere, make some type of profession of faith, but really are not being represented by Christ. They’re not really of Christ. the great danger of the Roman Catholic Church is to believe that your salvation is assured as long as you remain a member of their church. My friend, you could be a member of a good and sound church and still lack true faith and then not be under Christ’s headship and parish. So here’s a key factor. Are you really being represented by Christ? Are you a member of the General Assembly and the church of the firstborn? Hopefully, the local church, is made up of those type of people that have that true faith. But we must realize that there are those, or at times, will join a church and do not have the association with Christ and are not represented by Christ as we find in this text. So you find Christ is the representative head of the church. Secondly, you find Christ is the governmental head of the church as well. In the book of Revelation, it’s interesting, Christ is called the king of the saints in Revelation 15.3. But look with me at Matthew chapter 23 and verse 8, if you would, this morning. Christ says, but be not ye called rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and you’re all brother. Christ is the head of the church as the king of the church. In other words, the supreme government of the church is vested in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the head, the chief ruler, the sole lawgiver of the church. Christ warns against religious leaders being such. One is your master, even, of course, Christ. The kingdom of God has only one king, and the entire church reckons. recognizes his rule and his authority over them. Civil rulers, whether we talk about kings or presidents or whatever the case may be, have no lawful jurisdiction over the church. We ought to obey God rather than man. The Roman Catholic Pope cannot be the true head of the church. It’s villainous for a priest at Rome to assume Christ’s lawful authority. Look at the description of the head of the church here. Who is the beginning? The first born from the dead? The preeminent one, according to verse 18. Dare we apply that to a human being? That would be blasphemy. We’re told that Christ, in Christ absence, we need a head for the church. But this can be discarded for Christ promises the church at least spiritually that he would be with us to the end of the world. I recall the story about Moses. Remember when the Israelites were encamped around Mount Sinai and Moses gets called up on the mount. God visibly descends upon the mountain and Moses is supposed to go up and get the law. And he goes up into the mountain and he’s all alone up there on the mountain top on the mountain top. with the Lord. And the Israelites had to remain below, and they weren’t even allowed to touch the mountain unless they die. And God strikes them dead. So Moses is up on Mount Sinai out of the site of the nation, and for the Israelites, they thought, far too long. He’s been gone quite a while. And they say this, make us gods, which shall go before us, for as for this Moses, we want not what has become of him. And so they made the golden calf. We don’t know what happened to Moses. He’s been up there in the mountain. I don’t know what’s going on. So the person who is supposed to be their mediator, they reject, and here they go off on a tangent and make themselves a God. Dare we do the same thing by making some visible head of the church. Because we know what comes. with Christ now that he has ascended in heaven. He’s not present with us here and the earth. Should we repeat that foolish air of the Israelites in the wilderness? Why should we tolerate rivals to King Jesus? Let all the impostors be utterly rejected and condemned by us? There’s only one lawgiver. There’s only one person who has authority over the church, and that is Jesus Christ, who is the true head of the church. He is the one that can make laws. binding upon the church. Only a true king can do that. There’s only one law book, and that is the scriptures, which is binding upon the Christian. Jesus Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. If there’s nothing about showing love for Christ by keeping the Pope’s commandments, by keeping the commandments of our king and head. Neither Martin Luther nor John Calvin or anyone else is as mere servants of God able to make laws for the church. Christ is the law giver. Thus we demand, or thus sayeth the Lord from the king of the saints and nothing less. So you find Christ is the governmental head of the church. We don’t look to a man. We look to the Savior. The God man, the Lord Jesus Christ, to govern his church. A third point this morning is this. You find Christ, Christ is the conjugal head of the church. Now look with me at Ephesians chapter 5 and beginning with verse 23, if you would. Chapter 5 and verse 23. Read this. But the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands love your wives, even as Christ, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth in his own flesh, but nourisheth in. and cherishes it even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Now we recall how the Lord made Eve out of the body of Adam, from the side of Adam. And he has taken the church out of the side of Jesus Christ. She is of him, even as Eve was of Adam. she is of his flesh. She is of his bones. So there’s a mysterious union that we have here between Christ and his people, the church, that we see portrayed in the marriage relationship. Jesus is the bridegroom. His church is said to be the bride. They are espoused to one another. Out of love, the church embraces Jesus Christ as her head. She reverences and respects Christ. She is under the protection and care of Christ, just as a wife is regarding her husband. Now, as a husband exercises headship in the home, sacrificing himself for the benefit of his family, and the good of his bride, so it is with Christ. He laid down his life, the scripture says, for the church, so that she might be a glorious church. and all taint of sin be removed from her, as this passage indicates. This conjugal headship is a most sweet and tender headship. Is it not? The church is willingly submissive to her head because the church is full of gratitude and love to Christ for what he has done on her behalf. This conjugal. headship is illustrated in an old prophecy in the word of God in the book of Josea and it shall be at that day saith the Lord that thou shall call me Ishi shall call me no more Bali. Bali and Ishi both mean Lord but they have a different flavor to them. Bali means Lord, it means a ruler, but it could be someone who is stern, unsympathetic, even tyrannical. But Ishi, the other word, means a beloved husband. It speaks of tenderness. It speaks of compassion. It speaks of love and warmth. It’s not someone that’s cold and indifferent. Christ is always concerned for the welfare of his bride even when he chastens. My friends, we come to a passage like this, and we read the Song of Solomon. We read about the love there between the husband. and the wife. We should see portrayed in that the picture of our relationship to our head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our relationship to Christ is not the same as our relationship to some governmental ruler. Yes, there is the Christ is the law giver, but he’s also our husband, if you would. He’s the bridegroom for us. And therefore, it’s a loving, tender, merciful relationship that we have with Christ. There’s a warmth to this relationship that we have with our head, Jesus Christ. Let me make this observation. Due to this conjugal headship, persecution of the church provokes our Lord to wrath. Augustine had an interesting little comment. He said this, if a man should come up to embrace you, to kiss and honor you upward, and beneath, where the pair of shoes beaten full of nails, tread upon your bare foot. The head shall despise the honor done to it, and for the foot that’s smartest, say, why do you tread upon me? So when fain gospelers honor Christ our head, sitting in heaven, and oppress his members on earth, and oppress his members on earth, the head shall speak for the feet that smart and say, why treadest thou all man? what Augustine is saying here is no matter how much supposedly honor you’re giving to Christ, if you mistreat his bride, he’s not going to be pleased with you. Remember how Paul on the way that Damascus was confronted by Christ, and what did Christ say to him? Why persecuteest thou me? What was he doing? He was persecuting the church. But because, because of the headship of Christ over the church, it was Christ that took offense. Christ being one flesh with his bride is provoked by those who would harm his church. He sympathetically responds. All those who attack the church, regardless of how they feign any worship of Christ, are going to fall under the judgment of Christ, is what we’re told here by this. They will not be treated as a friend. They will be treated as a friend. enemy. So you find Christ is the conjugal head of the church. Fourthly, lastly, you find Christ is the natural head of the church. We read here about the head of the body, the church. And if you look at chapter 2 of Colossians and verse 19, we read this about our headship with Christ. And not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Here the church is portrayed as being like a human body. The human body is one unit, but it consists of various members. The head, the arms, the legs, the torso, and so forth. Each member is united one to another, but controlled and governed by the head. There’s a proper subservience of all the members to the head that makes the decisions so that all are necessary for the right function of the body. We lose an arm or a leg, it affects the body’s function. But the head is the key member. If you take a member and separate it from the head, of course, it will die. Decapitation kills the body as we. know. So the Church of Christ is one general assembly. It consists of many persons with many gifts, many abilities that Christ grants them, but all are united together under the headship of Jesus Christ. All the members bear his name. All made the drink of the same spirit of Christ. These members are placed in the church so as to be useful and beneficial to the body, and they’re all needed. The total number of them can either be increased or diminished. For the body of Christ equals the elect of Christ, the whole election of grace. It’s a mystical body. This body was given to Christ by the God of the Father, and Christ has purchased it and united it to him as the only head. So Christ loves it as his own body, and supplies, directs, and defends it. Now, of course, all this is figurative language. We’re not literally or any type of physically way attached to Christ. But why does Paul make this natural comparison? Well, the head is certainly indispensable to the life of the body, as we talked about. The head is the seat of the mental activity of the body, which influences and directs every single member of the body. So Christ here is the vital. idolizing head of all his people. He is our life. If we’re not attached to Christ, we die. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. We read in John 1. The life of every member of the mystical body of Christ depends upon the life of the mystical head, Jesus Christ. In other words, we see that Jesus Christ gives every believer life, spiritual life, and vitality. Not one true member of the church lives a life of his own. We cannot live spiritually without being attached to Christ. Your life is hid with Christ. Separation from Christ means spiritual death. Remember what he said in John 156. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is a withered. Without Christ is your head, you cannot function spiritually. There’s no life, there’s no guidance, there’s no graces, there’s no ability to do anything good in his sight. He that abideth in me, the Bible says. An I in him, the same bringeth forth fruit, much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. But with… Paul, we can say, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheth me. So what we learn from this also is that we’re utterly dependent upon Jesus Christ, and we ought to cultivate that relationship with Christ. Spiritual health of the believer depends on this relationship with Christ. When we let ourselves become lukewarm with regard to our love to Christ, when we, Let ourselves drift away in some fashion from Christ, our spiritual health declines. It is our connection with Christ that provides for our spiritual well-being. So in all these ways, Christ is the head of the church. The well-known minister, Roland Hill, may indeed have been an awful rascal if he had not been converted by Christ. Christ is the reconciler of a fallen world. And our text speaks of Christ first and foremost in his relationship to the church. The one that he is the head of and represents. His main focus is upon reconciling his bride, his mystical body. Are you part of this body? The church of the firstborn? That’s the question. Ask yourself, for we are united to Christ by faith, as the scripture indicates to us. Let us close with.