The Supremacy of Jesus Christ
Text: Matthew 28:16–20 and Colossians 1:15–20 ESV
Join us on Sunday, July 12 as we begin our series on Matthew 28:16–20. We will begin our series by looking at the Supremacy of Jesus Christ as his basis for giving us the Great Commission .
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The Supremacy of Jesus Christ
Welcome
Welcome to the first Table Rock Summer Chapel! Thank you for bearing with us as we continue to try to flex and flow with our city and state regulations and with our facilities. My first welcome will be longer than most to give you a flavor of what to expect going forward.
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Table Rock Summer Chapel is a combination of Life Group and preaching. Since we are forced to have a smaller group in person and with adding a live stream, we pray people are able to be in groups worshipping together both live and remotely, and we want to both preach and exhort you to God through his word and to help you engage one another in discussion and connecting over the word yourselves.
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This summer we are going to use Matthew 28:16–20, the Great Commission.
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Over the next 8 weeks we are going to look at 8 different dimensions of this passage, turning it around like a beautiful gem and examining each aspect of it:
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Discipleship—we have savior who has called us to walk with him and to walk with others.
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Spreading—both to all types of people and across all of time and this entire planet.
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Prayer—while not mentioned directly in this passage, it is implied that we can come to our Lord and savior for anything.
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Sacraments—our Lord has given us ways to remember his call and to be unified in our oneness in Jesus Christ, specifically through baptism and communion.
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Trinity—our God is a Father, Son, Spirit—three in one, in wonderous glory and mystery.
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To the end of the age—our savior is coming back and we are joyfully awaiting that day.
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And today…our Lord Jesus is Supreme. There is none other like our God Jesus Christ, and he carries all authority, power and is himself God.
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Each time that we gather, the preacher will read their passages for the morning and will introduce the aspect they are going to preach on. We will then split up into groups and answer several questions.
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We’re going to use the Swedish study method to look at the passages:
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Nothing Swedish about it.
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What stuck out to you this time through?
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Did these verses raise any questions as you read?
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Where do we see Jesus in these verses?
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Identify and commit to something you sense the Spirit is leading you to do in obedience to the text.
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Who do you know that might benefit from what you’ve seen in this text?
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An astute and maybe cynical listener may wonder what it will look like doing this study method with Matthew 28:16–20 for the next eight weeks. I agree, that could be miserable by about week six. That is why I said each preacher will read their “passages.” Each preacher will bring a complimentary passage to the aspect of Matthew 28 they are discussing so we can use this study method on it.
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Typically, that is not how to study Scripture. We don’t come to a passage with the pre-judgement that it is speaking about whatever we want. But that is also the beauty of preaching versus just a small group. You have a preacher who has done the work to tell you that these passages and ideas go together, so we will trust that and study them together.
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A typical TR Summer Chapel afternoon will look like this:
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Worship (live or via playlist remotely)
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Teaching (live or live-streamed)
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Reading of Matthew 28 and another passage
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Prayer
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Introduction
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Small group discussion (first three questions)
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Short Preaching
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Small group discussion (last two questions)
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Conclusion
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Testimony
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Prayer
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Closing Worship (live or via playlist remotely)
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So, as we begin, would you stand with me as I read Matthew 28:16–20 and Colossians 1:15–20.
“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16–20 ESV)
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For 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. And 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, 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.” (Colossians 1:15–20 ESV)
Introduction
Who is this Jesus? This is a question that we want our friends and neighbors to answer, but sadly, many now in our post-Christian country have not heard a clear presentation of who Jesus is. And even more confusing, many who say they know Jesus present a skewed picture of him. Mormons proclaim Jesus as the literal progeny—an offspring—of Mary and a God who had sexual relations with her to produce Jesus. A man who lived well and finally attained Godhood through his actions, like they believe they can attain as well. Many of our Catholic friends present a Jesus who is God and has saved them through his work on the cross, but also lift up the works of people as part of the necessary process to be saved…mingling the grace and mercy of Jesus with the works of man. And some in our culture view Jesus as a good teacher and one way to be a nice person, though even if he was a real person what we Christians believe is viewed only as a good story to pass on morality and good works.
It is important for you, Christian, to know who Jesus is. How do you view Jesus? Especially as we come to this Great Commission, it matters who is making this commission of us. This was hard for his disciples, and it may be hard for you. Their entire view of Jesus had just been rocked—their view of who the Messiah would be, what he would do, was nothing like what they just witnessed. And as they come before Jesus here, in Galilee, they know they must worship him—they had seen him die and now he was alive again, but as Matthew notes, some still doubted.
There are many other passages we could have paired with Matthew 28 to highlight the very nature of Jesus: Romans 9, Philippians 2, John’s gospel is full of great statements about the nature of Christ from John 1:1 through John 10 and 17. This morning I have chosen Colossians 1:15–20 as a succinct statement to pair with Matthew 28.
Small Group Time & Comments
To start this morning, I want you to take a minute or two to look at these two passages and think about the first three questions:
1. What stands out to you?
2. What question might these passages raise?
3. What does it say to you about Jesus?
Then, after about a minute or so, turn to some people near you and share just one of those thoughts—either something you found interesting, a question you had, or something you observed about Jesus. After five minutes I will pull us back, and we will continue on.
Preaching
Who is Jesus? That is what we were asking as we come to these passages. It is what some of Jesus’s disciples are concerned about, and it has to be in the back of everyone’s mind when he says to them “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” What does he mean, how did he get this authority, and what does it mean for you?
As Paul says in Colossians, Jesus is the very image of the invisible God. For God to know himself meant that he has always had a conception of himself and has been trinity. Jesus Christ was always destined to be God-Man by both the will of the Father and the desire of the Son. He has chosen to make known to us the immortal invisible God through flesh and blood. He is God himself. This makes him firstborn of all creation, not because he was at some point in history created by the father, but rather because he takes the place of preeminence over all creation as the one to whom all is promised. Like a prince ruling his father’s land is to represent his father, Jesus Christ has always, perfectly, stewarded creation and represented God rightly to his creation. Jesus is supreme.
As Colossians continues to state, Jesus created all things—things visible and invisible. Things in heaven and in earth. When God was creating the stars, separating the waters, and populating the air, land and waters, it was through the work of Jesus Christ. Each speckle on a sparrow egg, the scales on a salmon smolt, every sunflower in bright yellow and green field was carefully crafted by Jesus Christ. Every mountain stream that you have ever crossed and each hill and valley you have walked has been carefully crafted by our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is supreme.
And when heavenly beings were put in place to steward aspects of God’s creation, they were both created and commissioned by Jesus Christ for the eternal glory of God. An entire unseen world is all around us, and it answers to only one person—Jesus. Jesus is supreme.
He is before all and in him all things hold together. It was not only a one-time act that Christ did for us. Still today, every quark in every proton in every atom only spins and holds together by the power of Jesus Christ. Every baby’s heart begins beating at his command, and your heart continues beating today because God is currently willing it. But it is not only creation that holds together in Jesus Christ and who he is. His people find themselves in him only by his power. It is because of Jesus, through his Holy Spirit, that your heart one day began to soften toward God. You went from an enemy to a beloved son or daughter knowing that your God had loved you in infinite ways through Jesus Christ. He is the head of all creation and truly the head of his Church. He calls his church, empowers his church, and is the identity of his church. Jesus is supreme.
So much of this would have been true with only Jesus’s advent and his perfect life on earth. Yet he chose to also be the first to experience death and resurrection that he might be able to lead his people through the most difficult thing we will experience—death. The separation of soul from body is horrible and something that was never meant to be true of us, yet Jesus has chosen to be preeminent even in this. Death and life, creation then and now, your very soul—Jesus Christ is truly supreme!
This is the Jesus who says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus Christ, supremely good, supremely powerful, supremely God. But why? Why is this short phrase meant to point his disciples—and you and me—back to his supremacy as our very God in all these ways? I believe it is for the sake of trust. Jesus is about to define for his disciples, for you and me, our entire nature and purpose in this life. As we are found in Jesus Christ, we are now found in his purpose and his call. And, whether the fear that begins to creep in at this call is a small inkling or a giant boulder of dread, we find in the supremacy of Jesus what we need to embrace his calling.
This God does not need you to accomplish his ends. This God will not be thwarted by those who stand against him nor even your mistakes along the way. And this God is filled with joy to bring you into this process with him. This God who holds moons in orbit, keeps billions of hearts beating and hears the quiet, whispered prayer of every human as they lay down at night is calling you into his wonderful purposes. Jesus is fully God, and to have all authority in heaven and on earth means his supremacy has been secured by the blood of the cross. His death on the cross that created doubt for the disciples was meant to be a final stamp of perfected supremacy—it is finished! This is who is calling us on mission, both his disciples that day in Galilee and you and me this afternoon.
In seeing the supremacy of Jesus here in Matthew 28 and in other places like Colossians 1:15–20, what do you need to do in obedience to the Spirit this morning? In what ways should your trust in Christ be rightly challenged? Without us even discussing the content of the great commission, how can your heart be rightly aligned within the sovereignty and supremacy of Jesus Christ before you even think of what he would have you do? What would your days look like if you basked in this supremacy before even pondering the agenda or duties for your day?
Take a minute to think about this and then turn to your neighbor and discuss how the Spirit might be moving you this afternoon in conviction in these verses.
Conclusion
Jesus is supreme, and he is calling us into his purpose and methods—that is what this entire Great Commission is all about. And he can do this because he is ultimately trustworthy, and he is ultimately sovereign. Whatever God would ask me and you to do today, tomorrow, or with our entire life, it would be imminently accomplishable because it is an eminently supreme God we have in Jesus Christ. Find in his supremacy your joy and your hope today as we begin this summer discussion.