Head of the Body, Col, 1:18
Colossians 1:18 · Vern Peterman · Apr 25, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826235402065

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This is Colossians 1.18. One of the things we brought up last week and then at the end of March as we were looking at this passage is we made the point that Colossians 1.15-20 appears to be part of a hymn. One of the questions that came to me this last week was, well, wait a minute, how come you think it's a hymn?

Some of the things we pointed out is the repetition of words and ideas gets carried across there. The repetition of ideas is a kind of a Hebrew pattern of speech here. But what the Hebrews would typically do is they would repeat ideas but not the same words. They would restate the same things with different words. This instead follows more of a Greek pattern of repetition of the same words in great part.

And so this hymn has, for the most part, some exceptions, kind of Greek leanings in its pattern because of that. But it's that repetition of ideas and primarily, though, of words that leads people to that conclusion. Now, as we look at this, it's verse 18 that we're looking at right in the middle of it that is a part of it. So what we're examining stretched over a period of weeks is the words to this hymn that's, in our English, about six verses long. And yet, what we see in it is that there's richness that takes weeks for us to work our way through. So we'll still be taking another week to finish it off here. Let's take a look now at verse 18. One of the things we see is that we're kind of turning a point from 15 through 17.

Paul has described Christ as first of all, in verse 15, the expression of the invisible God, the visible expression of the invisible God, but he is also the source and the preeminent one of all the old creation. We brought out before that he is the one by whom all things were created.

He is the one who is the source, the designer of everything that was created. He is the means by which everything is created in the old creation. We'll talk about what we mean by that, so that's clear. He is also the one for whom everything was created. He is the designer, the builder, and the purpose for what was built. Everything in the old creation.

What's different here now in this verse What's different and makes it turn a corner is that Christ is now given as the head of the church and the one who is the originator of the new creation. And again, we'll talk about what that means here in greater detail. But that's the turning point that verse 18 becomes. 15 through 17 positions him with respect to the old creation. Verse 18 turns the corner and he's now shown in relationship as the starter, as the beginning and as the origin of the new creation. So here's the turning point that this verse points to. We see this here, these first several verses are outlining the old creation and his relationship to it, and now in verse 18, having the position with respect to the new creation. See that? Alright. Now, it's just kind of a quick outline for verse 18. Three ways that Christ is described. Real simply, He's the head of the body, which is the church. That is, the body is the church, okay? He's the head of that body. First point. Second point, He is the beginning. And we'll see more of what that means.

And thirdly, He's the firstborn from the dead. So we see those three points, Christ is described in those three ways. Now, there's a reason for that, there's an intended outcome that comes from those three points, and that's what he spells out next. So that, that's our clue, so that. So that he himself, Christ, will come to have first place in everything. That's the intended outcome from these three points that have been described for us.

God didn't just come and say, Christ is first. Whether you like it or not, okay? He said Christ is first, and there's reason. He spells out those three reasons. It's not just God's arbitrary statement. God has accomplished these three things in Christ, describes them these ways, so that there would be this outcome.

Alright. Now we need to stand back and look at things a bit. What we want to look at is the old creation. You're standing in it. Okay? We're in it. We're in the middle of it in terms of The material world, we're in the middle of it in terms of time. We're in the old creation right here. Except for one thing, as we'll see here in a little bit, we've got a gathering of people from the new creation. Alright, we'll get there.

Here's the old creation. The old creation was started, and that's what we see described beginning in Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the start of the old creation. Now, how does it end? The old creation has a beginning and an end. The old creation ends after the end of the millennium. This old creation will be ended. Okay? So the old creation has a beginning and an end.

Those things are spelled out clearly in Scripture. Now, this old creation had its beginning in Christ, and as we saw in Colossians 1, 16 and 17, it will also have its end in Him. So that's as we looked at previously. That's what you see in the book of Revelation.

He's the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. All those things are in reference to this old creation. Now we add the new creation into the picture. This new creation will also begin with Christ, but will have no end. Key thing to remember. We'll get to that in a bit. The new creation is different. It isn't as if God says, okay, we've got this old creation, it's got a beginning and an end, and now we've got this new creation, it also has a beginning and an end. The new creation has a beginning, no end. Different. We'll also see other ways that it's different. But that's the perspective, the contrast we need to begin taking a look at here. And notice too, and we'll look at it in more detail, notice too the connecting point.

What's the connecting point between the old creation and the new creation? We'll take a look at that in more detail. It's our having been identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding that we were made, as believers, a new creation. It's that identification with Christ that accomplished the fact that we were made of the new creation. That's key for us to look at because it is the very beginning point of the new creation. It's interesting, you might think, well, the way God would do it is He'd have the old creation and He'd have that continue on and then He'd finally kind of get to the end and He'd say, okay, time to press the reset button here. Hit the reset button and now we're going to start the new one.

That's not the way He does it, is it? Isn't that interesting? He doesn't do it that way. Instead, right smack dab, time-wise, in the middle of the old creation, he says, let's start a new one. Very interesting. There is an overlap. And he doesn't simply take the old creation and say, well, let's scrap that, trash it, and then say we're going to start over. He begins the new creation right in the middle of the old creation. He begins with Christ. being made part of that new creation is entirely tied to having been identified with Christ in this, the beginning of the new creation. So, who have been crucified, buried, raised, ascended and seated with Christ. There's the beginning point of the new creation. By the way, this word new is not just relatively new as in sequence.

Have you ever had a new old car? I've had a few of those, believe me. Anyway, if you have a car and then you get another one to replace it, it may be more just the same, but it's new relative to you because you just got a new car, but it isn't necessarily new and kind. This is specifically making the point, and it's that Greek word kainos.

It is a new-in-kind creation. New-in-kind, not of the same kind. Not just new in sequence. Remember, there is overlap. It's new-in-kind. It's not just, I went from a Chevy to a different Chevy. The comparison falls apart. I went from a Chevy to a Ferrari. It's that kind. It's new-in-kind. It is quite different. not just new in sequence.

The next point, the new creation is populated, and this is key, this is the reason for the overlap. See the overlap in time? The new creation is populated by those of the old creation who have believed God. Populated by those of the old creation who believe God. That is why God didn't just say, Well, the old creation is trash, we're just starting over. He says, no, we're going to take those saved by belief out of the old creation and populate the new creation with those. Key point.

Now, all of these are saints. That's one thing that's interesting, although there are different peoples of God, The Jews were one people and the Church is one people. All of them are called saints. The word saints is used of those when Paul writes to the Church. He writes to the Church in various ones of them and calls them saints. But you will also find the word in the Old Testament applied to the Old Testament saints. So all those who are saved out of the Old Creation are called saints. It's a word that applies across the board.

Now, Colossians 118 is very clear on something, and we want to get that clarity as well. It says right off, He is also head. Very clear. Christ, that's the pronoun there, He. Christ is the head. There's no quibbling or lack of clarity on that. Of what? Of the body, the church. Of the body, which is the church. Just abundantly clear. The church is the body, the body of which the head is Christ. It is abundantly clear on this point, but we need to get kind of the background on that. So let's take a look at that.

This idea of putting the head and body together was something that Paul didn't himself come up with. Various aspects of Greek literature up to and including New Testament times, and even sometimes thereafter, had this idea of head and body involved. That was mixed in there. Some of the medical writers, of course, would use that. That's understandable.

Also, the Greek philosophers would use this picture of head and body, and they would use that as well. So it's an analogy that was used by the Greek philosophers for even several centuries. Plato, for example, was one of them that used this analogy. It was even Philo of Alexandria, who was a contemporary of Christ and of Paul in his earlier years, who wrote using this analogy of head and body.

Now, that's fine. So everybody understood what Paul was writing. The idea of headship even comes out of the Old Testament. There's a few passages you can check on it yourself out of Deuteronomy and Judges. where this idea of being head of something is referenced there. Here's one out of 2 Samuel. You have kept me, that is David, as head of the nations. So there's an Old Testament use of this idea of head. So we say, well, okay, that's fine.

What's so special about what Paul wrote? What's different about it? What did he do that isn't just duplicating what everybody else did? The New Testament applies this analogy of the head embodied to Christ in the church. That's new. Why? Because none of the secular writers, nor the Old Testament, knew anything about the church. That's for starters. We're not done, though. The New Testament authors wrote about a number of things. Only Paul uses this analogy. The New Testament authors, the other ones, didn't make use of this analogy. This is exclusive to Paul.

Now, Paul writes of Christ as the head in 1 Corinthians 11-3, but he doesn't make the connection with the body of Christ. Interestingly enough, he goes on in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 to write about the Church as the body, but not Christ as the head. One of the reasons why we do Colossians and Ephesians in parallel is that it is those books that uniquely position and the church is the body.

See that? That's a unique teaching, and that's special, and that's why we study these two books in parallel together. So, what are we talking about when we talk about the head here? Is this what Paul had in mind? Maybe. Let's take a closer look. Ephesians and Colossians present in a unified teaching Christ as the head and the church as his body. Apologies to Hal there. OK. So in order not to personalize this, we'll use sort of a generic drawing there to get the idea.

Here, Ephesians and Colossians continue to weave together the fabric with this thread, with this idea of Christ as the head and the church as the body. And so what we see introduced here, we will continue to see through the books of Colossians and Ephesians. And Ephesians will particularly bring forth this truth in greater detail, and that's one of the reasons for looking at these two books together. The marvelous truth is introduced with this verse, but in fact we're going to continue to get further and further development of what this means, to have Christ as the head and the Church as the body. So the head and the body, what does it mean? It's fine to have the analogy. What does it mean? What's the significance of it?

One of the things as we go through these two books, we're going to find the head is the source of growth for the body. You cannot have a church body that is truly growing apart from Christ the head. Christ is the source of growth. And by the way, growing is not just numbers. That's not the point. It's spiritual growth, not just something we can tally as if we were a bunch of accountants. I'm not insulting accountants, I used to do it myself. The head of the focal point of growth, that is, as we look at it, he isn't just the source of growth, he is the point of focus as the body looks to grow. Not just the source, he is the point of focus, the one to whom we look. for that growth to take place. Not for just higher decibels in the loudspeaker system. Not just for more pews and big buildings and bigger numbers in the offering. All those things. It is instead spiritual growth that's being pointed at here. That's the focal point.

Christ is the savior of the body. That is unique. Christ is the Savior of the body. When we look to Christ as the head, it isn't because God said, just arbitrarily made some point and said, okay, Christ, these people need somebody to head them up, you do it. Instead, Christ is the very Savior of the body.

He paid the price to have that headship. Since He is the very one who is Savior, His position is headship. is intricately and intimately tied with that source of growth, the one to whom we look to grow. Okay. And the church is subject to Christ, who is the authority. That's one of the things that's true of headship.

And by the way, one of the points we need to make in the midst of that, I pointed out earlier that there were, for example, Old Testament passages that use the analogy of the head as being the head of something. And in truth, we use that in our culture, don't we? We say, who's the head of this outfit? And it's the idea of who is in charge of it.

The difference here is this. We frequently use the word in the sense of the head of an organization, who has the authority. There is that aspect to it, but it goes beyond that, and here is why. The head of the organization, in our usage of it, we look at it in an organizational application. is not an organization. The body is an organism. Key point. The body is an organism. There is life. There is the head and the body analogy, not just an organizational chart. Key difference. Christ is our life. We are an organism, not just an organization. Very important.

Those truths will be brought out as we go through the books of Ephesians and Colossians. But real important for us to get fixed in our minds right now. We're not talking about headship of an organization. We're talking about the head as the very source of life for the body. Okay. Now, what does it really mean, you might ask? Okay. Christ as the head of the church means he has the supremacy and authority and the place of directing his church body, most certainly, and Christ is the life of the church.

One of the key things to remember, too, as we look at this, for example, as a local expression of the body of Christ, it isn't just a social institution or a humanly based organization. You know, that's one thing that's interesting. As we deal with people out in the world, that's how they're likely to see us, isn't it? They're going to see us as sort of, well, this is a social institution or some sort of a human organization. The most important part of what's going on here at Holly Hills Bible Church, they can't see. Not directly. Christ the Head. Without Christ the Head, The rest of this, yes, it ends up being just human level, but that's not at all the point of what's being made here.

Okay, it's an organism, living and growing. Okay, but you might say, but Vern, wait a minute, what does it really, really mean? Alright, let's try to answer that. It means submission to Christ in all things. Christ is after all the head. Now, I don't know about you, but I get really upset when my body does things I don't intend for it to do. Ever have that experience? Submission to Christ in all things. The body is intended to obey the head. We're in living union with Christ our head.

You might be very grateful that I don't sit here and stand in front of you with my head positioned over there or over there somewhere. Winnie especially is glad it's not on the piano bench. We like to have the head in relationship to the body, don't we? It's very disconcerting to us to have anything else.

That is exactly God's intent and the reason that we have this analogy in front of us. The head in relationship to the body is most certainly intentional and absolutely essential. That is exactly what God had in mind. Unity is based on a common relationship to the head.

We don't become unified just because somebody said, Hey, let's have a church. Everybody sign here. Let's get together in the same building, then we'll be unified. Right? Let's all get together, sit down and have one guy talk to us for a while and then we'll be unified. No. Unity is based on common relationship to a head that this world cannot see and cannot understand. But to the believer, it is everything. To the body, it's everything. The world will not fathom that. Okay, we're not done.

Diversity of function in serving the head. What's very interesting is the Lord has designed us so that we're more than just a couple of parts. You might think otherwise from time to time, but I'm not just a head and a foot, okay? If we think of our body parts, we're not just one particular piece of the anatomy connected to a head. The Lord has put diversity into our body parts, all under one head. And so the diversity of function in serving the head is part of God's design.

And the head and body analogy carries that out perfectly, carries it out very well. The Lord has gifted different people in this body in different ways, and that's exactly as He had in mind. Each one of us has different places that we serve in the body, some more prominently than others, certainly each in different ways than others, and that's exactly what He had in mind. That's what He intended.

Interdependence of function within the body as an organism. It's awfully nice when my body cooperates with the other parts. God intended for the parts to provide for the other parts. We've got all these different organs and the other parts will be missing the function of that organ if we take one out. We need the various parts because the Lord has placed them there for interdependence.

It's one of the ways I think it's important for believers to get the picture is we are to be interdependently dependent upon the Lord. See that? Interdependently dependent upon the Lord. Our dependence upon the Lord is 100% incomplete. In the midst of that dependence upon the Lord, we are interdependent upon one another subject to the head. See that? The Lord has not intended some believer out there to be just dangling by themselves. There is an interdependency that is a part of God's design and it fits with the body analogy that's been given us here. The absolute necessity of the head for the body to function.

It's kind of tough for us to think about, but we talk about crucifixion here. I'll bring up another one. The French came up with this thing that separates the head from the body, and what does it do? It terminates the function, the interaction of each. The absolute necessity of the head. We need Christ absolutely. It's not arbitrary. It's not a preference item.

We absolutely need Christ to function as a body. No church, even though it organizationally and in an earthly sense, may function. No church is going to be acting truly as the body of Christ without that being true. People can get together and put something together called a church, but it is only in relationship to the head that you have a church that's truly the church. Let's take a look here. We've got, last week, we noticed that there is this structure that comes up in this passage from 15 through 20, Colossians 1, 15 through 20, this hymn, if you will.

And we pointed out in verse 17, there's a kind of an emphasis in the Greek that doesn't come across easily in the English. And it's underscored, you know, he is, and I could almost say it, he is, okay? And we don't know exactly how they sang this when they did, but it could very well be that when they did so, that they placed emphasis on the he is, okay? Because the Greek structure seems to do that. In Greek, it's possible to put the pronoun, build it into the verb, and then just leave off the pronoun. If you add the pronoun, it's for emphasis. It's to make another point. So this was verse 17. What we find as we step into verse 18 is we find a similar structure. He is, is the way the Greek comes across. He most certainly is the head of the body.

The focus there, the pronoun is He Himself. That focuses on His personality and identity. He Himself most certainly is. That's the emphasis there. And then the second point, is the is part. He is eternally continuing in that position and role. So the first one talks about him personally and his identity. Most definitely him. It's he in contradistinction to any others.

And the is talks about his continuing presence in that role. He is, and it's almost, you can hear them, here's this group, you can imagine singing in Greek, but alright, here's this group, and it's almost like they're putting emphasis as they sing this. He is, because the focus there is most definitely on Him personally, and on the continuity of that truth. He is the head of the body, it's not a statement just for Sunday mornings. He is, as the head of the body, is not something that you could say, well, he is most of the time, but somebody else is once in a while, too.

There is no presence of this headship without him. All right. Then it says there, he is the beginning. Now, what's real interesting, as we read through just purely Jewish writings of that time, One of the things that comes out that's real interesting is this. The Jewish rabbis during this era would write and they would say that God of the Old Testament is the beginning. So what does Paul do? He writes here in these verses. He, Christ, is the beginning.

It may very well be that as the Jews, and probably a significant minority of the people who were receiving this were Jewish, or had certainly Jewish background, and as they were reading this, I have to think that a number of them were saying, well, wait a minute, that's the position that God has. So this would have been seen by them as a claim to deity. They would have seen exactly that. The other thing that comes out of this, there's a couple of points we want to make.

It says, he is the beginning, and some translations have it this way. Literally, who? Who is the beginning? It's he who is the head of the body. That's the one who is the beginning. But next there, the the in front of the beginning is actually not in the Greek text.

So what that does, it puts the emphasis upon the quality and essential character of Christ as the originator of the Church. Remember we said that Christ was the one who began the new creation? So what's this saying? He is the one who originated the Church.

By what? His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, and us in our identification with Him. The other thing is we go into this next phrase here, the firstborn from the dead. This is another one where there's no definite article in the Greek. So what's the point? The point is here, it's the focus upon Christ's essential quality of being the first in time and sequence. The focus is upon that quality or character of being firstborn. All right, now, in this word, firstborn, we've looked at before in Colossians 115, prototokos. And I think Winnie has been having lots of fun transcribing some past messages, and that was one where it was a little hard to understand me, so I had to pass this along here. But prototokos is the word for firstborn, and we've seen it now the second time in Chapter 1.

Now, the firstborn from the dead, and the key message there is this is ek, is the Greek word for from, and it means entirely out from, unless there's some qualifying term for it. It means out from entirely. He didn't just kind of peek his head out and say, see, now, hi, but completely out from the dead. An exit, an out from.

And that's good because it's icky. All right, here we go. The next one here is from the dead. And that word there, it has the definite article there. Remember before I mentioned there wasn't a definite article, here it definitely has one. And so you have this necros, and we have a medical term, necrotic, like gangrenous tissue is necrotic, so they go and cut it out. That's where we get the term necros. And so the idea is the dead ones. He is completely and entirely the first one out from the dead ones. That's what the message is coming across as.

Now, one of the things we have to recognize is the Bible has other resurrections. You know that, don't you? So how come we're saying Jesus is the firstborn? That just doesn't sound right. We've got other resurrections and we've got them recorded in scripture of all places. I mean, it's right there, and it's inspired. What do you mean he's the firstborn? Well, let's look at the difference. First of all, here's 1 Kings 17. Here it tells about Elijah raising a widow's son who had died.

There is a resurrection for you. Doesn't that prove that this is wrong here? Not quite. Let's take a look here. Here's twice in the Gospels, in Mark 5 and John 11, Jesus raised a couple of different people, including the well-known Lazarus. And so there you've got a couple of cases of resurrection.

Doesn't that fly in the face of this Colossians 1.18?

Doesn't it mean Colossians 1.18 has a mistake?

Here's one here in Acts 20. Paul himself did it. Acts 20, 7-12. Paul raised Eutychus from the dead. Now there we've got a problem, don't we? Paul himself wrote this. There's a conflict. I guess the Bible's got a contradiction. Well, maybe not. Okay. What's going on here? These were not like the raising of Christ from the dead. What's the difference? The difference is, until Christ was raised, these resurrections were all bringing these people back into the old creation. This is one thing I can't imagine. Can you imagine Lazarus or Eutychus? You don't just die once, you die twice. Oh no, I'm dying again. This is tough times.

But all these ones who were resurrected went through two deaths of the humankind. Isn't that amazing? Yes, it's miraculous that they were resurrected. The people to whom they were brought back were delighted to have them back, but the reality is they were only brought back into the old creation. is that, and we'll see here in more detail, it's being brought into the new creation that makes Christ's resurrection different. Being brought into the new creation makes Christ's resurrection different. In that, he is the firstborn. And the resurrections that preceded him are not like this. He is the head of the body of the Church.

He is also the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. Here again we see another emphasis. He himself explicitly has the pronoun in addition to the verb, just like we saw before, where he is the beginning. He himself will come to have first place in everything, not anybody else. And he himself will indeed, statement of fact, come to have first place in everything. Let's take a look at this, come to have first place, this word, ginomai.

Christ has been declared the victor over death. We've seen that implemented in history in Christ himself. Has anyone else at this point in time in history been brought into the new creation? Not yet. So what we see is the implementation of that victory, In history, the implementation of that declared victory will be shown in the rapture, the resurrection of the Old Testament and tribulation saints, and finally the resurrection of the millennial saints. So the last enemy of this, the old creation, to be abolished will be death itself. Death itself, 1 Corinthians 15, 26. Alright, let's step our way through this. So what's happened? Here we are in the old creation. Death has been introduced. Death has been introduced into this, the old creation.

Most definitely the case. What happens here is the resurrection of Christ from the death. He was the firstborn, the first in sequence. It will be shown in the church, implemented in history, in the rapture of the church. Paul describes to the saints at Thessalonica. Those who have died in Christ will be raised, and then those who are alive at the rapture, at the taking up of the church, will be brought together. Firstfruits. Now, then, seven years after that, the Old Testament and Tribulation Saints also raised, and then at the end of the millennium, the Millennial Saints. with the end of the old creation will come the end of all death. What does this do? This saves those out of the old creation into the new creation. This is a marvelous and amazing thing. The Lord doesn't just scrap the entire old creation. He says, I'm going to redeem these out and I'm going to make those the ones who populate the new creation.

Okay, and we see the final statement there, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. So what does it mean Christ will have first place? He has first place certainly as Creator and Savior of believers from the old creation. All things in the old creation will be under His feet. There will be no question about that. But finally, He's the firstborn in the beginning, the start and the source of the new creation, including populating the new creation with believers saved from the old creation. See, this is a marvelous thing.

As we look at Colossians 1.18, here you've got this one simple verse that's talking about eternity. Let's go and take one further look. Notice it says he's the beginning. Wait a minute, that sounds like something's missing.

Doesn't it say that he's the beginning and the end? But when we look at the new creation, what do you find? There's no end. So that's why it doesn't say he is the beginning and the end, it just says he's the beginning. Because the new creation has a beginning and an end. No end. So that's why it says he is the beginning. He is the one who starts the new creation. But it is not designed or intended, nor will it ever end.

What is amazing, what's miraculous here this morning as we gather, here we are gathered here this morning and we've got this fine gathering of people, but it isn't just a gathering of human beings. Every believer here this morning, is included in that new creation. He is the beginning point of the new creation, and we have been identified with Him. Our being taken into completely that new creation is yet to take place, and we will be joined with all believers of the Church in all time at the Rapture.

And this is a marvelous thing. Here we are, as I mentioned at the start, here we are right in the middle of the old creation. You look around, this is it. I'm using this remaining part of the old creation to look at it. Here we are gathering together and we look at, on the outside of each other, this is the old creation. And you might have noticed, This thing isn't going to last forever. But indeed, the Lord has brought this body of believers together to be the first fruits of the old creation brought into the new after Christ. Christ the firstborn. The first one.

What a marvelous thing that the Lord would, instead of just hitting the reset button and saying, I'm starting over again, saying, I'm going to redeem these ones at his expense. He says, I'll redeem these ones out of this world that has a beginning and has an end into a new creation with a beginning as He is the beginning, but no end.

Isn't that a marvelous thing? What a marvelous, Lord. Let's just pray and praise Him now. Lord, thank You for what a marvelous thing You've done because of who You are, because of Your very character. Lord, how precious it is that we can look to what You have done and what You have accomplished, that we can be joined with You as Your body here while we walk this old creation in our physical bodies, and yet even now are joined to the new creation. In Christ our Lord, we pray these things. In Jesus' name, Amen.