A few comments on flow of thought. I will not go through the whole flow of thought of Colossians, but since we are tracing the issue of appropriating the riches of Christ as a solution to the problem, I want to make a few comments. In the break, I was just asked if I have really answered the question of why Paul does not focus so much on the heresy. I just want to make two points. First of all, I believe focusing on the problem will not solve the problem. That's the first point. Focusing on the solution may solve the problem. Second, the Colossian recipients of this letter will know when Paul says empty philosophies, angel worship, keeping of certain days, those are tips of icebergs, and they say, aha, this is mint. I am, I am mint, whatever. So he does not need to present so much. It's more our job to go back in history and to reconstruct it to see what is going on there. And then the lady that I talked with also suggests, and that's very wise, that perhaps Paul does not specified, because some people may say, well, I don't apply to any of these groups, so Colossians isn't for me. Well, yes, it is. All of the Colossians need to hear the Colossian letter, in fact, all of us need to hear the message of Colossians. It is the word of God. These are very significant factors, but the larger application is broader, namely, as you have received Christ so walk in Him, and that's a very broad statement. So thank you very much for that reminder. I want to focus a few minutes on Colossians 3.1 to 17, where I feel that Paul is presenting the appropriation pattern. You see 3.1 to 4.6 moves from the statement and the presentation of the problems to the state and conduct, and note that that's the sequence of Paul. Know your identity in Christ before you think of how you should act. We often get that wrong. We ask the question, what should I do? Rather than the question of, who am I? Do I understand myself in Christ? And so Colossians 3.1 to 17 in a specific way speaks about the process of dying to self and becoming a life to Christ. This is the exchanged life. You bring the emptiness. You bring your weaknesses. You bring to Christ the nothing that you have in order to receive from Christ the lot, the riches that He has. You apply in particular areas of your life to let go in order to appropriate that which He has. And so I think the very simple and the most concrete area is simply this. Identify one or two areas that you are struggling with right now. They may be struggles for the next 10 or 20 years. We're not putting time tags on these things. That's where death and becoming alive to Christ needs to hit in those identified areas. You can talk about becoming alive with Christ all day long and dying to self all day long. But the areas where you are alive to sin and dead to Christ need to be reverted and you need to become dead to sin and alive to Christ. Those specific areas, that's what you need to apply Colossians 3, 1 to 17, 2 and I myself included. I'm preaching to myself obviously. So that is the state of who am I in Christ? What has He called me to do as an individual as a person? Before I think of how I should act, how I should conduct myself, what is my life as a husband, as a father, as a friend, as a employer, as a employee, as a citizen in the city where I live? What are my responsibilities, what are my bases of conduct? And so this is so important to get this state behavior sequence clearly in your mind. And then you can read the climactic verse in 3, 17 and see how it's all summarized therein. Colossians 3, 17 says, and whatever you do, whether in word or indeed, do it all in the name that means for the sake in the interest of, for the sake of the person of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Here you see in this climactic statement that all things need to be brought under Christ and here I need to make a corrective statement so that you don't misunderstand me. Paul does not speak against using your brains, Paul does not speak against experience, Paul does not speak against conduct. He speaks about independent self-lives of intellectual pursuit, of experience outside of worshipping the head which is Jesus Christ and of conduct that is self-generated. See this is God's world. God has created relationships, God has created this universe, God has created nations and structures therein. And so our process is to bring all things under Christ, to do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a job of bringing things under Christ's authority. So use your brains, experience the life in Christ and find Godliness in conduct in particular in areas of life as you read God's word and as he tells you what he is building into your life but get it on the basis of who you are in Christ and get it and pursue it to His glory. So this is not a world denying gospel, it's not believe in Jesus and be monastically secluded from everything that's out there. No, you can be open to the world but not open to that world which negates God, which negates the supremacy of His glorious creation, which negates Him in the pursuit of signs and the arts. You need to pursue signs under the authority of Christ, you need to pursue the arts under the authority of Christ, you need to pursue social studies and social service under the authority of Christ. So everything that may be touched here in these areas is not absolutely to be rejected, it is good to have academic settings, it is good to reflect on truth. But if those academic settings have their own life, their own patterns and they are self-driven and self-serving and do not pursue the glory of God, you are pursuing empty deceit. Colossians 1, excuse me, Colossians 2, 8, see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy. So Paul does not argue, please understand me right, against thoughtfulness, against experiencing the presence and the love of Christ and love of relationships, he does not speak against Godly life. But see these are representatives of self-driven, self-serving, false humility type of items as he mentions elsewhere in chapter 2. So we need to understand it right, that there is a program or an approach of bringing all things under Christ in our life, in our conduct, in our thinking, in our pursuit, it is a whole world challenge, it is not a world negating life but it watches out and identifies everywhere. Whether this art form, this art expression, whether this thought form, this pursuit of scientific investigation glorifies God or not. Now we can't develop that in particular areas of what does that mean in the area of medicine, what does that mean in the area of law, what does that mean in the area of architecture, etc. But it all applies. It's a wide world that is addressed with this concern to live a Christ-centered life. So Paul is not appealing for us all to go to a monastery and say the world is hopelessly flawed, let's get out of everything. No, let's bring things under the lordship of Christ, but you can't do that unless you see the appeal of Paul in Colossians. You cannot come to that point of being open to the world when you are so attracted and so distractable by its powers. And so the word of Jesus applies, be in the world, but not off the world. Off the world is what Paul styles out here. Yes. In the presence for the interest of, when we have references to the name of something in the Old Testament, Jewish understanding, it's the person, the name represents the person. So when every knee shall bow in every tongue confess that Jesus is not lord, and then in his name we are saved, it's very much an acknowledgement of the person. And that applies here as well in Colossians 3, 17. We have a few minutes then to move on from the general approach in Colossians to Colossians 1, 15 to 20. Is one of the great descriptions of the majesty and greatness of Jesus Christ. And now that we know this outline here you see that at the very beginning of the solution here in 115, Paul presents who Christ really is. He reminds the Colossians of who he really is. I would love to spend at least half an hour explaining to you why this is not just a nice doctrine about Jesus Christ, but why this part of Scripture glorifying Jesus Christ is based in history and is based on how Christ Himself revealed Himself to Paul. He is not just spinning theological constructs, he is testifying to the greatness of Christ. The foundation of this great description of the majesty and sovereignty of Christ is nothing else than reflection of what He learned on the road to Damascus and from then on. When we read Colossians 1, 15, I am assuming you have read it and you know it and then we will go a little bit into it. He, namely Christ, drawing from verse 13, is the image of the invisible God, the first born, over all creation. For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together and He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the first born from among the dead, so that in everything He might have supremacy. God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, where the things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. This is one of the most supreme descriptions of who the Lord, who the master is, that the Colossians serve. And I am afraid that you do a little bit of what I do, to have a nice, neat, domesticated, tame, pretty Jesus. Now I am exaggerating again, but we would like to have Jesus the way we would like to have Him be. We would like to have Jesus so that we don't have to move out of our comfort zones, that we don't have to move across racial lines, that we don't have to move social lines, that we don't have to move into spheres that may be uncomfortable for us. So we want to have our Lord, our Jesus, rather than serve the Lord, serve who He is, and serve His purposes in a way He draws us to, which will always take us out of our comfort zones. Personal relationships, ministry, involvement, either the people that you call to are too rich or too poor. You know, I've had some hassle with some people by just being among some very rich people. That's not true, I resist that, because I serve the Lord, I want to be a free person in all areas, both rich and poor. Not free person in the sense of my own life, but in the sense of moving in those circles that God opens doors for me to minister in and preach the gospel to. So this, Colossian Him, breaks through all the barriers that you may place on your master, and perhaps the Colossians have domesticated their Lord, and have found Him to be fitting into their particular concepts in their particular comfort zones. And the greatest problem that we all have is to confess a great Jesus Christ and live with a very little Jesus, daily. That's the main problem, that's near Platonism, because we think great things and do little things. That's simple life. So Paul presents the great truth about the supremacy of Christ in no uncertain terms, but you can see note the context in which he does that. He speaks about the salvation that you have, Colossians, that we have. Now, let me tell you who saved you. You see, he doesn't just say, let me tell you something about Jesus. No, he says, you have received salvation and I'll tell you who saved you. I tell you where he was when the earth was created. I tell you who he is with regard to God. I tell you who he is with regard to the world. I tell you who he is with regard to the church supreme. He is above all things. And so some of the language that Paul uses in this short hymn is nearly breaking all the boundaries. It is you name it, and he is superior. He supersedes it. And it's not just a fantastic Jesus, but it is the exalted Lord. It is who he really is. He does not fit into the confines of the various thoughts and religions and patterns. He is not a religious figure in that sense. He is the truth. He is the creation mediator. If you look at Jesus, you see the icon of God, the exact representation of who God is. A paradox isn't it because it's the exact representation of the invisible God? How can you make something invisible, visible? That in the design of God, in the design of the Trinity, the invisible God is made visible through the creation mediator, Jesus Christ. Fantastic presentation when it says he is the image, the exact representation of the invisible God, the first born over all creation, that is not the first born off all creation, but he is the first one. In fact, you don't need to necessarily translate even more. You can say he has primacy over creation. So with regard to God, he is the exact representation. With regard to world, he is supreme. Why can we say that so clearly because of verses 16 following? For by him, namely the master you serve, Jesus Christ, by him, all things were created. That's what I mean by the word creation mediator. Wherever something comes out into manifestation from God, Jesus is there. He is making things visible. He is the mediator who intercedes on our behalf. He is the word of God bringing it out. So wherever something is coming out from the invisible God and relates to man there, the sun is incarnation. The physical life of Jesus is that. His speaking is that. His atonement is that. And here in creation, he is the one who mediates when God says, value he or and there be light, that there is light, he is mediating that. His all things were created things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible. Remember I said there was a little chiasm here. Chiasm, the literary structure of a, b, k, a, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. So this literary structure of chiasm says, all embracing everything. You name it, I'll just mention a few, but that means the whole thing. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, interpreters have wondered many times what is Paul talking exactly about. Some of these words seem to speak about demonic powers. Some of these words seem to speak more about political authorities, government structures, systems of powers in this world. And really I believe that Paul is addressing both. You name the power structure, visible or invisible, he is above them all. All things were created by him and for him, and obviously you need to understand the entire fall of the angelic world here from angel to demonic world when you see this whole question on the authority of Christ and the creation mediator of all the angelic beings. And verse 17 seals the whole thing. He is before, temporarily, before all things. And I think it's legitimate to say here, he is the creator of time. He is the creator of beginning and end. And therefore he is pre-existent. Therefore he is the eternal son of God before all ages. And in him, all things hold together. Well, if you want to know one more thing, the only reason, and that's both a very comforting and a very scary thought, the only reason we sit right now here, is because Christ facilitates billions and billions of conditions to be met for us to sit still on our seats. If you think of the fine balance in the universe, terms of speed and gravitational forces for the earth to hold its course around the sun, to maintain the right temperature which cannot deviate by many degrees for life to be possible. Rotational principles down to the varying microorganisms and atomic structures of our being, there are billions of conditions to be met. And it says here in this word that he holds all things together. He is the creation sustainer. Not only the creation mediator, but the creation sustainer holds it all together. Now the reason why this is frightening, because you need to enter the possible crisis. You need to enter the slaughter and shooting and Colorado into this equation. You need to enter the endless drama of human history, of Auschwitz, etc., into the equation of creation sustenance. But as one evangelist once put it, when he invited people to come to a gospel message, it was not, why does God allow so much evil? But it was, why does God still give us a chance? So perhaps we can turn it that way around. It doesn't answer all the questions. But in light of the evil and the wickedness and the horror and the carnage, that is in this world, why does God still sustain this world? I believe Second Peter has an answer. It's because of his great mercy and great patience to save many. That this is still going on. There may be other reasons that we do not even fathom, that we do not understand. But it's not because God is interested in the furthering of evil, in the furthering of carnage. God is interested in mercy. And so he lets us sit, he lets us rest, he lets us live on a planet that turns perfectly around the sun. Picking up, picking up some speed in the winter time, isn't it, flying a little faster in the winter, a little slower in the summer? I don't know. I may be mixing it up, physics is so long ago, but we're picking up some speed that sometimes is slowing down. We come closer to the sun, one season, further away in the other, perfect balance, amazing, amazing. If you have a fever, how many degrees do you have more temperature? And if it just goes a little too high, you're in life danger, the margin of error, minimum. So Christ is the sustainer of all things, in Him all things hold together. That's the start. That's the start of the story of the Master that you serve, Colossians, and us here tonight. And He now moving into the second part of the Him, into the Redeemer, thus far we have looked at His relationship to the Father and His relationship to creation, now His relationship to redemption is being described, He is the head of the body. The true head, the living head, as we have seen from Ephesians, remember, the church, the Ecclesia. He is the beginning and the first born from among the dead, first born here means He is the first to have come from death to eternal life, to immortality, continuous immortality in the body, so that in everything He might have supremacy, even there. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him. This now speaks about the incarnation. This speaks about Christ. And through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, where the things on earth, the things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross, implied here is the fall of man, the rift, the cut, between the Creator and His creation, and the work, as a redemption mediator of Christ to bring all things back to God. Now obviously you don't need to be too troubled here about the all things. This is not speaking about universal salvation. This is not speaking about God redeeming all things through Christ and whether you believe or not you are redeemed, otherwise Paul would not address this epistle to the saints and those who are set apart in Colosse, in Colossians 1 and 2. He would not speak about warning of false teachings and those who draw them away, et cetera, et cetera. There is no question about the fact that all things is not used in a numeric sense of every hundred percent, but the offer of salvation is indiscriminate of ethnic background, language background, and tried, et cetera. Salvation is universal in that sense that is applicable to all mankind, but not everybody will be saved. We can see that clearly in Colossians. And so you see here that if you truly say, I believe you're hooked. You're hooked in the sense that you acknowledge that you are serving the creation mediator, the creation sustainer, and the redemption mediator. There is nobody greater. And if you say that some of these distractions are really great, really fun, really attractive, really cool thing again. You're saying, I don't believe in the Colossian. I do not believe in the confession of Christ. There are some things that are greater than he is. So Paul says you can't have it both ways. You can't, what do we say in America? Have your cake and eat it too? I never understood that, but anyway, be that as it may. I would say you can't keep your cake and eat it too. That's how I would say it. You can't have it both ways. Either you eat it or you keep it. You can't say, I believe in the supremacy and the fullness of Christ, and then say, but I'm really going to please myself and go my own ways. That is a statement of contradiction, and you need to see the writing on the wall. To conclude tonight, it simply remains for me to encourage you to take the call of Colossians personally, seriously, and to see how, again, Paul reads and studies the church and applies the gospel in a magnificent way to a state of midlife crisis, to a state of having grown and not continuing to grow. A state of life that applies to many people and many churches that is applicable throughout the ages and encourages us by saying, you know those problems were there in Colossia? They're there today. Paul does not condemn, he encourages. God does not condemn, he encourages. He beckons, he calls, he exhorts for us to appropriate and take seriously the call, particularly in Colossians 3.17 of how to appropriate and live in the state of Christ so that we may also experience Christ in his ways. Thank you very much. We are concluding here and you are dismissed at least for tonight.