Monday, June 3, 2019

The Peacemaker's Name is Jesus

A LORD'S SUPPER MEDITATION

Most of history's great peacemakers have been soldiers, who made war first.  Alexander the Great united the known world.  The Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) was the standard for civilization in Bible days, but it came at the cost of blood first.  American "peacekeeping" in WWII cost Hiroshima and 300,000 soldiers killed.  In Korea 33,741 US troops died, and more than 50,000 in Vietnam.  In the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, so far we’ve lost over 6,800 soldiers. 
The only successful peacemaker who didn't make war first was Jesus.  He came to bring a peace that settles the eternal gap that has existed between man and God since the fall.  It's a big gap! 
The question before the house is, How, and why, can Jesus make peace with God for everyone?  The text provides a two-fold answer.
His Supremacy

HE IS FIRST (1.18, 19a) 

Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.  He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead.  So he is first in everything.  For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.  Colossians 1:18-19

Jesus was the first person to be raised from the dead, who would never die again.  Paul says that Christ is the "beginning."  The word comes from a basic verb that means "to rule over."  It is used with the sense of the four corners of a boat sail.  Those corners are the extremities, the ruling scope and direction of what the boat will be allowed to do; the boat goes nowhere unless the sails permit it. 
Jesus is not only a model; He is the perfect essence.  We sang the hymn of Jesus being the church's ONE foundation.  That's it!  He is founder and foundation.
Jesus' firstness, comes from the fact that He is God.  We think of Jesus and the Christmas story, how He came into being as a babe in a manger.  It's true that the physical birth of Jesus was when He entered time and space as a man.  But that was the Incarnation.  It was the God putting on human flesh and bone.  He already existed in eternity with the Father.  But, at the manger the fullness of God came to be first among men.  He was first, raising from the dead. 
He’s not only first,

HE IS FINAL (1.20a) 

and through him God reconciled everything to himself.  Colossians 1:20a

Earlier in the chapter Paul shows us the creation account (Yes, your schoolbooks are incredibly naive!)
Jesus ruled over creation.  
Satan may be strong, and evil rampant; but this is still our Father's world.  A commentator shared the old story of Lewis's department store in Birmingham, England.  They wanted to expand their space, but there was a little Quaker chapel right in the way.  Lewis's sent a letter to the leaders of the chapel, Dear sirs, we wish to extend our premises.  We see that your building is in the way.  We want to buy your building.  We'll pay any price you care to name.  They got a reply back, Dear Sirs, we in the 'Friends Meeting House' note the desire of Lewis's to extend.  We observe that our building is in the way.  We would point out, however, that we have been on our site somewhat longer than you have been on yours, and we are determined to stay where we are.  We are so determined to stay, that we will happily buy Lewis's.  If you will, therefore, name a suitable price, we will settle the matter quickly.  It was signed, Cadbury (of the chocolate dynasty family, who would've been able to buy 10 Lewis's.)  The point is not the what things appear to be, but who signs the letter.  The church is not to assume a defensive posture; remember Who signed your letter!   
Because He rules over creation
Jesus also rules over creation's problems. 
There is a need for answers to war, racism, hunger, illiteracy, ecology and death.  Jesus has those answers!  Sometimes we have not because we ask not!  
Having ruled over the creation, and creation's problems, it is natural that
He also rules over creation's destiny. 
Do you remember New Age thinking?  It's not really new at all.  In truth it is old Eastern mysticism rehashed.  In that old paganistic belief time is cyclical, and we are bound to repeat lifecycles.  Reincarnation is anti-Biblical, anti-Christian and anti- common sense.  Scripture declares that we die once…we don’t keep coming back until we get it right!  No, God is moving history to a linear conclusion; His conclusion in Christ.  His plan from the beginning (knowing that man would sin) was to reconcile the creation back to Him.  Jesus was Plan A.  He is first, He is final, He is supreme!
The other reason how, and why, can Jesus make peace with God for everyone:
His Sufficiency
WE ARE RECONCILED

and through him God reconciled everything to himself.  He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.  Colossians 1:20

Through his blood...is how Paul describes the greatest news ever to hit this planet.  The blood of Jesus was sufficient to reconcile man to God.  Jesus was the embodiment of the necessary sacrifice to atone for humanity's sins. 
The word atonement is a theological, churchy word - but a great one!  Break it down:  AT. ONE .  MENT.
Reconciliation is no less than the process of Jesus, the preexisting, eternal God of the ages, entering time and space, dying on the cross as a man, that He might reach up into heaven, taking the hand of God Almighty, and, with the other hand, reach down to the lowest of the low – you and me – to put the two together.  Man reconciled with his God!  Jesus is sufficient to do that!  It's a good thing He is able at this point, because you and I know that nobody else is! 
Martin Luther, despite his tremendous contributions to theological progress was a constant target of depression.  In one of those times he said he seemed to see a hideous demon, listing his sins on the wall of his room.  The list was long, terrible, and accurate.  There were things that he did; things he should've done.  There seemed to be no end to the list.  Luther was powerless, paralyzed to stop the writer.  So he bowed his head and asked for help from the Savior.  When he looked up, the writer stopped and looked at Luther.  You have forgotten something, said Martin Luther.  And what have I forgotten? asked the demonic visitor.  Take your pen and write one more thing, Luther commanded,
Write:  'THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON, CLEASETH US FROM ALL SIN.'"
At the mention of the blood of Jesus the demonic visitor disappeared, and the wall was perfectly clean.  We have been reconciled.
WE MUST REMEMBER  (1.21-23) 

This includes you who were once far away from God.  You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.  As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.  But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.  Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.  The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.  Colossians 1:21-23

There was once a time when I was alienated from Christ.  I had not asked Him to apply that cleansing blood to my own soul.  There comes a time when the general must move to the specific.  Christ died for the whole world, but there comes a time when an individual must ask to be included.  That is when the world’s Savior becomes my Savior!
A little girl who was only six, didn't understand the songs, and the sermons put her to sleep.  But she always wanted to be at church.  One day she was asked what it was that she liked about being at church.  Without hesitation she replied, Communion.  The Lord's Supper was important to her.  Her parents and older brother went to the table and received the bread and wine.  She hadn't yet come to the time when she participated.  But, in this church, for all the small children, while the members received the elements, the pastor would lay his hand on the child's head and give her a blessing.  It was the touch that made the difference. 
This table is the touch of God. 
It is the remembrance of His supremacy - He rules over all creation. 
It is also the remembrance of His sufficiency - He rules over reconciliation.   Coming to Jesus in this way, to be reconciled, is the only way to answer the command from the Father, Be ye holy, for I am holy.  He is - And you can be!     It's a promise from the Father!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!


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[i] All Scripture quoted is from The New Living Translation (unless otherwise stated)  Title Image:  Pixabay.com
[ii] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

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