You've come on a great Sunday if you're here visiting to celebrate in the baptisms of Ten and Matea. Great to have you two. What a weren't they great stories? How good is it just to celebrate? Uh declaration, testimony of life in Christ, and really uh really appropriate as we continue a series that we started last week in Colossians, which we are calling Life in Christ. And uh we saw just a visible uh declaration of that today. A declaration of two people who are choosing to identify in Christ's life, his death, and his resurrection, a life that every one of us is invited into. And uh this morning I'm gonna continue a series we started last week, celebrating that, going through, as we started last week, going through the book of Colossians, a letter that Paul wrote to a church in Colossae, located in ancient Asia Minor, uh in modern Turkey. A letter that Paul writes to a church that he didn't plant. We learnt this last week, a church that was planted by Epaphoros, but a church that Paul and Timothy have heard lots about, and so Paul decides to write a letter, encouraging them in their journey in their life with Christ. And as we looked at last week, Paul uh identifies and articulates that a life in Christ requires giving up some things, handing over some things, but also receiving a whole bunch. In fact, we uh what we get is far greater than what we give. And this morning we dive into perhaps one of Paul's greatest pieces of writing that we see throughout all his letters as he declares the supremacy, the greatness, the power, the might of Jesus Christ. Paul declares to the church in Colossae, and he declares to us today that Jesus is king. Jesus is king, he is supreme, he is overall, and if Jesus is king, then he requires, he invites us to make him king of our life. So why don't we dive into this passage today? If you've got your Bibles, feel free to open it up or your digital device. The words are going to be on the screen behind me. And let's read this passage from the letter to the church in Colossae, verses 15 to 23. Let's read this: the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for 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 firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on a cross. Once you were an alien alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. Paul, after this incredible flourish, these amazing declarations, these amazing words, Paul himself says, As a result, I am making myself a servant under the King, King Jesus. See, Paul understood kingship, Paul understood authority, Paul understood power. He was living in a Roman world where everything was traded on power, where there was one Caesar, where those in the empire of Rome, of which Paul and many were part of, and the people he is writing to in Colossae, his writing is saying, There, I understand that there is a Lord, or there is one that claims to be Lord, that is Caesar. Paul understood that the world, the world that he was in, the empire that shaped everything. And the Caesar, the king of the empire, shaped the experience, the world of the empire. What the Caesar said, what the Caesar uh commanded, impacted everybody within the empire. You know, we live in a world with powers and authorities and kings today, even though we don't necessarily call them kings. And the decisions that they make and that the powers that are exerted impact our lives as well and the experiences of those around the world, from the trivial to whether somebody gets to play in a World Cup game, to the price of oil, to our experiences as we drive past the Bowser, to actually people who experience great suffering, who step and lose lives because of conflict and war. See, power matters. It mattered in Paul's day, and it matters today as well. The king matters. Who is king matters. Who we make king of our lives matters. It shapes our life, it shapes our experiences, it shapes where we can where we go and what we can do. And as Paul recognizes that even though he is like we are in a world of power, there is another greater power. There are powers that we bend the knee to, that we bow to, that we choose to worship, that we are invited into another kingdom with another god or other gods of which we become citizens too. Paul understood the world of citizenship. In fact, Paul leveraged it. He understood actually in that time that he was a citizen of the Roman Empire, the Roman world, and that came with both costs and benefits. It came with rights and privileges. That was the world that Paul lived in, and we live with those kind of rights and privileges in our world today. Very practically, citizenship under a power matters. I came to realize this in a very visceral way a number of years ago when we decided to travel to America. The kids are really small, and um, and so we decided to go and visit family. And um Megan, if you don't know, is American and she's an American citizen. And we we learned early on that all our kids, by right of being born to Megan, are American citizens. And the rule is that if you want to travel to an Americ to America as an American citizen, you have to hold an American passport. So we've gone through this rigmarole a number of times traveling with our kids, they all have to have an American passport. It's really expensive. Well, anyway, we um we decided to go to America and in it just in my mind, I don't know what was going on, but I just assumed that because I was married to an American and because I had American kids, that I could just go in as well. I I don't know what I was thinking, but I I do it that the reality and the importance of citizenship uh came home to roost when I stood in front of a lady at the Qantas desk at the Brisbane Airport when we arrived at Good Time, ready to fly to America, because Megan and the kids booked in and got their tickets, and then I stood in front of her and said, I'm ready to go get my ticket. And she said, Do you have your Esther? Anyone know what an Esther is? An electronic visa, which you have to get when you travel to most countries now. It's a beautiful money-making scheme. And somehow I'd completely forgotten to do an Esther, and that the blood drained from my face as I realized that I hadn't done an Esther, and it takes up to two days to get this electronic visa so that I could travel into America. And my blood drains. I look across at Megan, her blood hasn't drained, she's going red with anger. You didn't what? Are you kidding me, Andrew? I'm supposed to be traveling to America with these kids, and you're gonna be with me. And so panic just hit uh my whole world. And and so I'm shaking, I'm holding my my phone as I'm trying to apply for an Esther, and I'm I'm walking around the airport because I can't get coverage and I don't know what websites to go. And you know when when you start to panic, nothing works. And for half an hour, I I am in panic mode trying to figure out how I can get this visa so that I can go with my family to America. I couldn't work it out. I'm trying, I'm trying different, I'm trying to talk to different people, just panic. So I go back to the lady at the desk and say, Can you help me? I don't know, I can't make it work. I'm gonna miss my flight. She goes, Oh, oh, you just need to go to this website, and it happens very quickly. Here, let me show you. And I'm going, Why didn't you show me half an hour ago? Anyway, I managed to get on the plane. Reality is that we are citizenship matters, and I was not a citizen by association. There is something actually very valuable, something very important about being a citizen of a kingdom. And Paul understands this as he writes to the church in Colossae again in the context of Roman power, he says, I am a servant to the true King. See, Jesus is King, Jesus is the greater power, and that matters. It matters for Paul, it matters for the church in Colossae, and it matters for us today. It matters for us. See, we are by nature idol-making king or queen-making, if you want to use that term, people. We will find something to worship, we will find something to bow down to, we will find something to serve. And we can go right back to the Garden of Eden and we can see that Adam and Eve in that story, it's a story that's replayed over and over again. Seek to be like God. There is something in us that longs to be our own king, our own queen. I had AI do this up for me this week. This is a very shocking image, a very disturbing image of my heart a lot of the time. I want to be king. It is disturbing, but the beauty of AI is you can put in and say, just make me about 15 years younger and make me way better looking than I really am. And uh and that's what it turns out. My I'm not sure what's going on with my hands. I'm not quite sure the aspect is quite right. Now we we might laugh at that, but actually, in in our heart, we all want to be king. We want to be queen. You can take that image down now because it's uh it's disturbing me. And Paul writes to the church in Colossae and he says, Jesus is king. Whilst there are many different claims for our heart, and there is a longing for for us often to be kings and queens of our own life, Jesus is king. And he makes three claims in this passage, three distinct claims. Firstly, that Jesus is the creator king, secondly, that Jesus is the saving king, and thirdly, that Jesus is the reigning king. Firstly, Jesus is the creator king. Paul understands, and it is true, that creation matters. Who created matters. The last 25 years there's been a lot of discussion and argument with the rise of neo-atheism and neo-Darwinism around creation. A big move in the early 2000s to go back to science and this argument from uh from Dawkins and Harris, Hitchens and others to say that actually science declares that there is no creator, that that actually claims to for a creator are not only um unscientific, but they're actually dangerous. See, they understood and they understand that actually claims for creatorship is a very powerful thing. Creation matters. Who created matters. And so there's been all of this dialogue and arguments uh over creation. As I look at it, and maybe you're in this in this boat and you're wrestling with is is there a God? Do I believe in a God? Am I an atheist? Am I agnostic? Who am I? What do I believe? There's two very uh clear uh problems that I see in arguing that there is no creator. Firstly, if you say there is no creator, then you're arguing that something came from nothing, and something of great intelligence and of great design came from nothing. And secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, is if there is no creator with no intent, then how do we derive value, meaning, purpose, and morality? Something that we innately long for. Where does that come from? Justin Briley in his book Unbeliever, and Justin Briley spent many, many years talking with Christians and atheists, says this so we too must ask ourselves whether the common human longing for purpose and our experience of the transcendent can be fully explained by the unguided forces of physics and evolution, which naturalistic atheism tells us it all, it tells us is all that really exists. Why does why does creation matter? Why does the claim to be creator matter? Because it speaks deeply to purpose. Because what we believe about how we started ultimately impacts what we believe about who we are and why we are today. And Paul makes this profound claim that Jesus is the creator King. Verse 16 for in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. Paul says that he is uncreated. He was there at creation, he was there at the beginning. He's reiterating the words of John chapter 1: In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Verse 3 through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. Paul says that Jesus was at creation, and more than that, Paul says that God was pleased to have all fullness dwell in him. So Jesus is part of the creative process because Jesus is, as Paul says, Jesus has the fullness of God, or in other words, Jesus is fully God. And here we have to grapple with the challenges of Trinitarian theology. Is Jesus really God? You know, sometimes we, as we try as Christians, particularly, and the Trinity is very difficult to understand, we try and split out Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We try and make them distinct. And yes, they are three persons, but in doing so, we make the danger of saying that they all have different aspects of God. Paul is saying, no, no, no, the fullness of God dwelled in him. If you meet Jesus, you see the fullness of God. All of God is in him. This is what the early church fathers had to grapple with in the Council of Nicaea, in pushing back against the separation of Christ from the Father and the Son. And the Aryan heresy of saying that Jesus was not fully God but was superhuman. The church fathers gathered together in Nicaea and actually had to create a new word, homuusius. A word that says, not similar but the same, that Jesus had the same essence, was fully God, is God. You understand the power of this? That Jesus is God. When we meet Jesus, we see God, the creator God. Jesus was present in fully fully in God at creation. Jesus is God. Jesus is creator. The creation came through Christ. But not just that, as Paul goes on to say, Christ not only was at creation, who spoke creation into being, but Jesus is also the sustainer of life. Verse 17, he is before all things, he was before all things, and in him all things hold together. Or as the Hebrews writer says, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. Jesus is, Paul says, the creator King. But he's not just the creator king. Jesus is the creator king who comes down to creation in order to save creation from itself. Jesus, Paul says, is the saving King. Paul says the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Jesus makes the invisible God visible by coming down to earth, puts on human flesh, the fullness of God calms and limits himself by walking the earth, by coming down in human form, it just blows the mind. Now some of you may be saying, you know, thinking, how do how do we how can we know God? How can we know God? And I will say every time, if you want to see God, then look at Christ. Because in Christ you see God. If you grapple with the character of God and the nature of God, then look to Jesus. Because in Jesus you see God. And Jesus himself, as he walked the earth and cared for the broken and the poor and performed incredible miracles and did amazing work, turned the world upside down forever and ever. He came and he claimed to be God. One Saturday last year, when we were still in Brisbane, I got a knock on the door, and I went down it, and often, if it's a Saturday morning, it's a knock on the door. Well, it's going to be a Jehovah's Witness. And anyone get Jehovah's Witnesses? Maybe you're a Jehovah's Witness here today. You are so welcome. It's great to have you. And this guy knocked on the door, and we got into a great conversation about Christianity, and he found out I was a pastor, and he his key kept talking to me, which was really sweet. In fact, we had such a good conversation, then a couple of months later, he came back with a friend, and we had another long conversation. And at the end of the day, as we came, as everything boiled down, this was where the conversation was all about Jesus. And I had to say to him at the end, I said, at the fundamentally, dear friend, you need to understand that everything rises and falls on this person, Jesus. And I'm here to tell you that Jesus isn't just a super, super person or an amazing prophet or a son of God. But Jesus is God. It's where forgiveness, hope, freedom, and victory come. Comes from. And Jesus claimed to be God. And this is the contention between Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses. And I pointed him to John's gospel. And time and time again, Jesus makes the claim that he is God. He has stepped down from heaven to earth and he came to be God. One example. As Jesus is debating with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, we read in John chapter 8, Jesus says these words, Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am. Let me hit pause there for a moment. Jesus is claiming to say he was before Abraham. In fact, he is saying he was from before the beginning. And secondly, he makes this claim, I go aim me, I am. The same words that he used when God reveals himself to Moses at the burning bush. I am who I am. Jesus is explicitly claiming to be God. It's popular even not just for Jehovah's Witnesses, but in our world to say Jesus was a good person. He did some great things, but he wasn't God. Well, Jesus doesn't leave that open to us. He explicitly claims to be God, and the Pharisees knew it because as we continue to read, what do they how do they respond? At this, they picked up stones to stone him. They knew exactly what he was saying. See, Jesus walks the earth and claims to be king. He claims to be God. He's not just the king who comes and walks the earth, he is the saving king, the one who dies. Paul articulates this. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. He walked the earth and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on a cross. God empties himself and sacrifices himself through his son, Jesus Christ, in order that we may be reconciled. His blood is spilt in order that we can be reconciled to God, so that we can be in relationship with God, or as as Paul writes, making peace. God makes peace with humanity and with creation. God pours out his love upon us and restores, makes a way for us to be restored with him. Jesus is the creating King, the Creator King, but Jesus comes to be the saving king. Jesus, the fullness of God, gives up his life. It blows the mind. We can't fully explain it or understand it, but God becomes death in order that we may be set free from death. Jesus isn't just the saving king, though. Jesus didn't just die in order that we may be forgiven because we don't worship a dead king. See, thirdly, Paul says that Jesus is the reigning king. Jesus defeats sin and death. He is risen again and he is the head of the church. People, we don't gather in church to worship a dead God. We gather in church to worship the God who has defeated sin and death, who reigns and rules. We are invited into his kingdom. We are invited into his life. We celebrated it today. As uh Pan and Nat went through the waters of baptism. They didn't stay there. Praise the Lord. They rose up again, defeating, uh coming up in life, mirroring that which Jesus has done for us. We worship a living, reigning king, and we are invited to be citizens in the kingdom of the king. Citizens of the kingdom of life and light. And that should fill us with great joy and great excitement. Five years ago, uh I went to a ceremony with my wife, Megan, and uh here's a photo of it here. And uh Megan uh became a citizen of Australia. This is this is the uh the actual certificate here, and uh there was pomp and ceremony, and there were politicians, and uh and Megan had to say these words. I, as an Australian citizen, I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I uphold and obey. And with that, Megan became a citizen of Australia. Lovely to have you in Australia. Yeah, it's very exciting, yeah. Sorry, I didn't I didn't mean it to get all that exciting, but you know. You know how Megan became a citizen apart from paying a bunch of money and doing an exam? Well, she became a citizen through relationship. She was married to me. She managed to get a visa to stay here for a length of time and then she could apply for a citizen. Citizenship. It was through relationship that she became a citizen. And whilst the analogy isn't perfect, in the same way we become citizens of the kingdom through relationship with the king. God has made a way through both his death and his life in order that we can be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. And here's the good news, and we heard it this morning in the testimonies. We become citizens, not through work, not through money, not through passing an exam, not through our own wisdom or not through our own works, not through our own family faith. We become citizens or we are invited to be citizens through the simple act of obedience and faith, and everybody is welcome in. I'm here to tell you this morning, it doesn't matter what your story is, it doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter your background, it doesn't matter which country you came from, all of that is irrelevant. All of it has been dealt with, all of it has been paid for at the cross, and all we are invited to do is to receive forgiveness, to make Jesus King of our life, to bend the knee, to get off the throne and say, Jesus, I make you king of my life, I acknowledge that you are the reigning king, and I obey, I surrender to you. That is the invitation, the invitation of the reigning king so that we can participate in his kingdom. And Paul says this as he lands, and you read the passage again, but he says, But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation, if you continue in your faith, established and firm and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. We are called, we are invited to be in the kingdom where we make Jesus King. And when we make Jesus King, he becomes King over everything. Over our thought life, over our money, over our possessions, over our body, over our sexual desires, over our careers, over our future. We hand it all over to him, but in return we get everything. We get life itself. It's life in Christ, it's life under the king, it's a life of adventure, it's a life of true freedom, it's life living as we were created to be. And guess what? We don't need to live under the fear and anxiety of being our own God or king anymore, because that's just too much. We are set free to live like Christ, and that's the beautiful thing about becoming a Christian. As we enter into the kingdom, as we make Jesus King of our life, as Jesus comes into our life through the power of his Holy Spirit, we actually become more like him. We become more like Christ. You know, Megan is now a citizen of Australia, and she's becoming more Australian. You know, I've noticed this. Just the other day, we were watching the Brisbane Lions play, and she was actually starting to yell and scream. She's beginning to love AFL and not that terrible sport called baseball. You know, Megan loves a good lamb roast. They don't do lamb roasts in America. Did you know that? I know they've missed out. I know, outrageous. I know. Megan has learned to love the movie The Castle. I didn't want to show her the movie when I first met her. I don't think she would have married me. But now, I actually think that Megan's starting to sound just a little bogan. I've just I've just no I've just noticed a few little unfortunately, however, she still doesn't like cricket, so please do pray for her. Um hey, when we make Jesus King of our life, when we step into the kingdom, we get life, and we become more and more like Jesus. And let me tell you, King Jesus is good. As I said before, if you want to understand and know who God what God is like, look at Jesus. Jesus who lived the perfect life, who surrendered his life for us, who showed us what true love looks like. That's what I want to be like. That's the invitation. Make Jesus King and become part of the kingdom. And this is no insignificant offer. As I land this morning, this invitation to make Jesus King of our life is no insignificant matter. This is of ultimate importance. Who you make king of your life is of ultimate importance. It matters. Just as I said when we started, the king of our lives will dictate how we live our life. C.S. Lewis says this Christianity following Jesus, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. And the invitation and the question for us this morning is this Who is your king? Who is your king? Who are you living for? Who are you serving? Who are you obeying? This is the ultimate question. Because as Paul writes to the church in Colosse, and as we read it and hear it today, this is the question. Will you make Jesus the Creator King, the saving King, the reigning King, King of your life? In a moment, we're going to worship the King Jesus. We're going to stand and we're going to declare with our hearts, if you're willing, that Jesus is the reigning King. But before we do, I'd love to provide an opportunity for anybody here this morning. Perhaps as you're sitting here, you know that you haven't made Jesus King of your life. And you want the freedom and life and the joy and the comfort and the peace that comes from handing over control. As scary as it is to Jesus, that's your heart today. And I'd love to create a moment for you right now to make Jesus king of your life and to step into the kingdom and to step into the freedom that comes with it. So just right now, I'm just going to invite the church, every one of us, just to bow ahead and close our eyes. Come on, with every head bow and every eye closed. If you are here, I'm going to lead you in a prayer in just a moment. If this is you, but I'm just going to invite you in this moment, if you're here and you want to make that step of saying, I want to make Jesus King of life. I'm tired, I'm done with following other kings, following other rulers. I want to make Jesus King of life. If that's you in this place right now, I'm just going to invite you just to put your hand up high in the sky. And I'm going to lead you in a prayer in just a moment. If that's you, just put your hand up high in the sky. Say, that's me this morning. I want to make Jesus King of my life. Awesome. I see that hand over there. That's so good. Anyone else? Yeah, I see that hand. That's so good. Anyone else? Awesome, mate. Thank you. Thank you. Can you put your hand down? Anyone else? Yes, awesome. I see that hand. I'd like to lead those of you who put your hand up, or even if you didn't, the invitation is for you to pray this prayer. It's a prayer that says, please, sorry, sorry. Please, thank you. And I invite you to pray that prayer. In fact, I'm going to invite everyone to pray this prayer after after me, just a above a whisper. It's a declaration of commitment. It's in some ways that that statement of saying, Jesus, I'm making King of your life. I'm stepping out of my kingdom and into your kingdom. So come on, if you're willing to pray this prayer, let's pray this prayer with those who put their hand up just after me. Dear Lord Jesus. I thank you that you love me. I thank you that you came and you died for me. I thank you that you are the saving king. I recognize that I've made myself King. I've made myself Lord of my life. I've rebelled against you. And I've sinned. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I ask that you wash me of my sin. And that you will fill me with your love. That you'll fill me with your presence. That you'll fill me with your spirit. I make you king of my life. I choose to follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hey, why don't we just celebrate today with those who prayed that prayer, made that declaration? So good.