Colossians 1:15-20 –

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For 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. ¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And 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. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Introduction

Imagine at the same time the hardest trial and the best news you could get concerning it. At the time Paul wrote this letter to the Colossian church, the world seemed fairly neatly divided between those who didn’t know what to do with Christians and those who wanted to see them crushed. I’ve met men and women around the world who are in terrible situations because of their faith in Jesus, having lost virtually every earthly good. Some of you have known or are experiencing now, significant suffering.

There’s no way for us to fathom the amount of damage and suffering sin has caused in the world. How many times have you wished for some measure of relief from it? How many times have you prayed for help or healing or deliverance?

Again, I wonder, though, what’s the most you’ve dared to hope for in your suffering? What’s the best news you’ve imagined receiving in it?

Whatever your answer, Paul’s letter promises something better, something infinitely better. Above all, he promised the Colossian Christians, along with all who are trusting in Jesus, that Jesus successfully gave His life to defeat sin and death and to bring about the complete restoration of all that sin has taken and broken. He promised a hope of glory and grace—past, present, and future.

The past glory/grace was about their union with Jesus and the deliverance, redemption, and forgiveness that come with it, the moment they put their faith in Jesus.

The future glory/grace is about sharing in the inheritance of Jesus and a time when all things will be right.

But Paul was also realistic about the fact that they needed present glory/grace as well. That, under the Spirit’s inspiration, he offered in two main forms. The second, which we’ll come to later in the letter, was in the form of instructions for the Christian life in the here and now. And the first, which we’ve been pressing into for the past few weeks, is a description of Jesus’ preeminence over all created things.

Last week, we considered Jesus’ preeminence over God’s original work of Creation (Genesis 1-2). Next week, on Easter Sunday, we’ll consider His preeminence over the coming recreation and His resurrection that proved it. This week, we’re going to consider His preeminence over all created things today.

The big idea of all three weeks is that there is great help in hardship when we know the hardship is caused by things made by Jesus, governed by Jesus, and that will be brought to perfect justice and conformity by Jesus. Understandably, then, the big idea of this sermon is that Jesus sovereignly reigns over every renegade thing that causes our difficulty, both inside and outside the Church. The main takeaway is to find and trust in Jesus’ promises concerning His sovereign grace through all that causes our suffering.

Jesus is the Preeminent Sustainer of Everything That Has Been Made

Jesus is preeminent over everything that has been made. And one way that shows up is in the facts that, “¹⁷ …in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church.”

This morning, then, with the Lord’s help, we’re going to marvel together that Jesus is the preeminent sustainer of everything that has been made and of the Church. First one first.

Again, v.17 says that in Jesus all things hold together, but what does that mean? I remember coming across three helpful categories in this regard years ago. All things hold together in Jesus in that He preserves, concurs with, and governs all created things, continually.

Preservation

Why do you look like you every single day? Why does water freeze and boil at basically the same temperatures continually? Why do oak trees grow and lose leaves every year? Why do objects fall at the same speed every time?

Perhaps more to the point, why do created things remain intact at all? Why don’t we simply dissolve into mist or just cease to exist at any given moment?

The short answer to all of those questions is that Jesus continually preserves His creation according to the order with which He designed it.

Hebrews 1:3, says it like this, “[Jesus] upholds the universe by the word of his power…”

One of the more powerful ways I’ve heard this said is that for us to cease to exist, Jesus wouldn’t need to do something (like send a consuming fire from heaven), He’d simply need to stop doing something. We hold together, consistent with our nature, because (and only because) He is continually, actively working to that end; not a deistic, impersonal preservation, but an active, loving, personal, purposeful one.

At the very least, that ought to bring about praise and peace in us no matter what this season of our lives holds.

It ought to bring praise in that it is an awesome display of the omnipotence of God. It is a glorious manifestation of the complete authority given to Jesus by the Father (Matthew 28:18).

We are right to look around and marvel at the fact that it is not the studs in the walls that are really holding the roof up in this room, but Jesus.

He is, right now, keeping the earth beneath us, maintaining the chemical reaction that turned the limestone, clay, sand, and water into the rock-hard cement that’s under our feet, holding fast the fibers of the wood in the walls and trusses, and keeping the molecules together in our shingles to prevent rain from getting in.

He’s doing the same thing for every body of every person in this room. He’s doing it for the sun and the lakes. He’s preserving the vibrating particles that allow us to hear the piano and one another when we speak and sing.

Jesus holding all things together, preserving them in the properties He created, is the only reason that science and engineering work.

And for all of that (and the trillions of other ways He’s preserving His creation continually), we must worship Him.

I’ve long wondered if this is why there’s so much power released in splitting atoms. I don’t mean to say that humans have found a way to break Jesus’ hold on things or to overcome His preservation of them. I only mean to say that it seems entirely consistent with this idea that something that requires magnification of at least 50 million times to see, has so much power in it. It’s a way of revealing the power of Jesus’ preservation (kind of the opposite side of the coin of the visible universe being 93 billion light-years across as a means of displaying the vastness of God’s presence and glory). Either way, praise Him for His preserving power, Grace.

There is praise, and there is peace in this knowledge, no matter our circumstances, in that it is Jesus who is knowingly and willingly holding together whatever it is that is causing us hardship. For some that’s a terrible thought, but for those of us who believe Jesus’ promises concerning His use of every trial for the highest good and glory, it is the surest source of the greatest peace.

Jesus could cause the source of your pain to cease to exist immediately by merely being silent. Knowing that He’s chosen to keep upholding it by the word of His power, and that He loves you (1 John 4:19), and that He has promised to cause all things to work together for your good (Romans 8:28), means that He must have something really good for you in the hardship.

That’s what Paul wanted the Colossians to understand and the peace he wanted them to experience when he wrote of Jesus’ preservation (holding together) of the source of their suffering. And that’s what I want for you all.

Concurrence

More than merely preserving all things, though, that all things hold together in Jesus also means that He is working concurrently with all things, at all times, in all that is done.

Essentially, that means that in every action of every created thing, Jesus is working along with it.

Biblically, we see this in God’s working in the falling of snow and hail (Job 38:22-23). We see it in His concurrence with the grass and plants of the earth (Psalm 104:14). We see it in the falling of the sunlight and...