Welcome to the Westminster Pulpit, an extension of the worship ministry at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Please contact us for permission before reproducing this message in any format, and may this sermon nurture your life in a meaningful way as we proclaim our Savior. Tonight's New Testament reading comes from Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, verses 15 through 22. 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. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. I recognize that not all of you have been with us over our six weeks of Wednesday evening Lenten services, so for those who haven't been able to be with us, I'll give you a quick recap. Over the last six weeks, we've been looking at the theme of the glory of Christ as we've looked ahead to this week, this Easter week, where we would focus particularly on the death and the resurrection of our Savior. And over those six weeks, we begin by considering Christ's own prayer on the night that He was betrayed, His own desire that His people would behold His glory. And then we considered the glory of Christ's incarnation, the glory of Christ's humiliation, the glory of Christ's obedience, the glory of Christ's death, and the glory of His exaltation walking through His life. But tonight, as we look even more intently on the suffering and the death of Christ, and as we consider Him giving Himself up on the cross and shedding His blood for us, I want to widen our lens, if you will. I want to consider more broadly the significance of all that Christ accomplished in His work on the cross. I'm hopeful that tonight will heighten our understanding of Christ and what He achieved on His death, and I'm hopeful that it will magnify the glory of Christ all the more. And tonight in our New Testament reading, we read from Colossians chapter one. And if you have your Bibles and want to have your Bibles open, I will be primarily looking at one verse from this New Testament reading in Colossians chapter one, and that's verse 20. There, Paul says that through Christ, God was pleased to reconcile all things whether on earth or in heaven, to Himself, making peace by the blood of His cross. I want you to look at this verse as we consider the glory of Christ in restoring all things. Now, we have to know the context if we're going to talk about reconciling, restoring grace from Jesus Christ. But it doesn't take much to get that context. Just look around you. Scroll through your news feeds today or over the last few weeks. Talk to your neighbors and what do you find? You find enmity, you find hostility, you find conflict, you find brokenness, you find wickedness, you find suffering. And you find that evil and suffering are all around us and they hit us in the face. Two weeks ago, a student came here to Westminster to our ESL class. This student was recently come from Ukraine. And in that ESL class, the teacher presented the gospel, who God is and what God has done. But after the class, this woman from Ukraine said to the teacher, she said, I just don't know. You talk about God, but I don't know if my son is safe. And right now they are killing children in my country. They're killing children. How can there be a God, she said, when that is happening? How can a God let that go on? Just a couple of weeks ago, after many years here, one of our Congolese refugees shared in their class that one night there was a knock on their front door. And when her husband came to open the door, a man was there with a gun, and he killed her husband, and he killed her four children, and she alone escaped. These are people among us. This is the reality facing us. Maybe you say, well, that still feels out there. Come closer to home, and what do we find? One of our extended family members' neighbor came home finding that her husband had died suddenly in a car accident. Here in our congregation, in the last few weeks, our own members have faced strokes, cancer, conflict, loss. And whether it's you personally, or whether it's the news that we hear, or whether it's the people we run across, the agony of the sin-wracked world is all around us. And when it is, how can we not ask the question, Where is the just and loving God? How can we not ask the question, is there any hope in the midst of what is all around us right now? That's the reality that stares us in the face. But when we come to Colossians chapter 1, verse 20, we find that God is neither oblivious to evil, nor does He distance Himself from evil. In fact, He does just the opposite. God, the only God, the only one with the power and the majesty to confront suffering and evil, has a plan. And his plan is to send his own son into the midst of that evil, into the midst of that suffering, into the midst of that wickedness and that agony, in order to die. and through his death to defeat sin, suffering, and death once and for all, and to restore all things. To put it another way if I can, Christ's glory bursts forth as the one who meets evil, brokenness, and suffering, and reconciles all things to God, bringing peace. That's the main point of Colossians 1.20. And what I want to ask you to do tonight as we think about this verse is just to think about three questions. I want to ask, what exactly is broken? What is God's plan to fix it? And how is Christ's glory magnified in that plan? What's broken? What is God's plan to fix it? And how is Christ's glory magnified in that plan? That's our plan for tonight. So let's begin by considering what is broken. And the answer to that is quite easy. The answer is everything. You and I and all humanity are broken. In Colossians 1.21, Paul describes us as alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. That is, alienated and hostile towards God, and alienated and hostile toward each other. It doesn't take Scripture long to describe how we got there. If you were to trace the first six chapters of Genesis, you will find how Adam and Eve rebelled against God, took that fruit and ate it in disobedience of Him. But sin quickly spiraled from there. It went from taking an apple to Cain killing Abel to Lamech singing about his murders. To Genesis 6, the wickedness of man was great in earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And as power grew, injustice and oppression spread, and these were not abstract evils. They were real people, real men, women, and children harmed, violated, suffering. And lest we only think about the really wicked people out there, stop and consider that every single one of us in this room has contributed to the suffering of this world. Every single one of us have said words that have hurt and caused pain. Every one of us in our selfishness has ignored others or abandoned some. We have contributed to conflict. None of us is innocent when it comes to contributing to the sin and the brokenness and the suffering of this world. As Paul describes it in Romans 3, beginning in verse 10, none is righteous, no, not one. No one does good, not even one. And then he goes on to describe what that looks like. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. And their paths are ruin and misery. The way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And the point is not that every single one of us does every single one of those things. The point is that apart from Christ, we are all included in that description. And we all are sinful. We are all broken by the fallen. We all contribute to and participate in. the suffering because of the hostility in humanity. But it's not just humanity that's broken. Scripture tells us that God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden, put them there on earth to rule it. Adam and Eve are to be representative leaders over all creation. And when creation's representative heads rebelled against God, Creation itself was broken and subjected to the chaos and disorder of the fall. In Genesis 3, verse 17, God said that because of Adam's sin, part of the curse is that the very ground would be cursed and thistles and thorns would be brought forth. Romans 8, verse 21 gives a visceral description of the very creation itself in bondage to corruption, groaning for redemption because of the effect of the curse. And whether we look around and see it in hurricanes and famine and pollution, wherever we see, we see evidences of the brokenness and chaos of creation. The great preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones put it beautifully when he wrote this. He said, Every spring, creation tries to escape its curse, doesn't it? It makes a great effort, as it were, to lift itself out of death and destruction, but it never succeeds. There is always an autumn, and there's always a winter to follow. The creation, too, is groaning, knowing it was never meant to be like this. Humanity's broken, creation's broken, but it isn't just Earth. Even the heavenly spheres were impacted by sin and rebellion. And while a portion of heaven and the angels did not fall, a great war is being raged right now in the heavenly realms, in the spiritual world also. A war between Satan and the fallen angels and those in submission to God, a war that impacts the heavens and impacts the earth. And so when we consider every level of what God has created, from the heavens to the physical creation to humanity, all are broken by sin. All are marred by alienation, hostility, and corruption. And that yields the agony that hits us in the face. No wonder Job and the psalmist and Paul and so many others cry out in scripture and no wonder so many of us cry out as well and ask, is there no escape from this corruption and this pain? But as we hear that cry, we go on to our second question tonight. What is God's plan to fix this broken world. For in His mercy and His love, God does have a plan, and we read it in Colossians 1 20, that He has a plan to reconcile to Himself all things on heaven and in earth. Now, all things is pretty comprehensive, isn't it? All things doesn't leave anything out. It means everything. It means that God plans to reconcile a people, a remnant of humanity to himself, restoring union and communion between man and God. It means God has a plan to reconcile creation, to free it from its bondage and to restore it to order and beauty and glory. It means that God has a plan to unite heaven and earth, the holy angels and the saints and the church and worship and eternal joy. Now, Martin Lloyd-Jones goes beyond this. He said, it's not just that God has a plan. God must have a plan. For if God does not have a plan to reconcile and restore all things, then the devil is ultimately the victor. And it is inconceivable, writes Lloyd-Jones, that God could leave this universe as it is and let the devil gloat for all eternity on any measure, on even a tiny fraction of a measure of success at wrecking God's plan or marring his glory. And so God must have a plan. And so it's no surprise that God has announced that plan all through Scripture. A repeated promise that there is a hope of all things being redeemed. of being reconciled to God, a hope of peace. I think of Isaiah chapter 11 verses 6 through 9. Do you remember that beautiful passage where the Lord promises a coming day when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them? They shall not hurt or destroy, and all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." Isn't that a beautiful picture of God's promise? Does that picture seem too good to be true? It's God's promise. His promise of reconciliation, the restoration of all things. I think of Revelation 21, verses 3 and 4, where we read that great promise. Behold, the dwelling place of God will be with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people. And God Himself will be with them as their God, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And then we read of the river of life, bringing healing to the nations. And we see again this beautiful promise of reconciliation and the restoration of all things, this promise of peace in heaven and on earth. This is God's promise. So what's his plan to bring it about? How's it gonna happen? How could God possibly bring such a victory over sin, suffering and death, such a complete and glorious redemption? Well, I can tell you it's not gonna come through science. God's plan is not scientific progress as if we could overcome famine and pollution and sickness and natural disasters that way. And I can tell you it's not by politics. It's not that there's gonna be the perfect proposals and resolutions that will be formed or the right leaders elected that will bring this about. No, those are forever subjected to the same curse of those involved in them. But God had a plan. He had one plan. And one plan alone to reconcile all things, and it is a plan to do so through Jesus Christ. And more specifically, if you look at Colossians 1.20, Paul says his plan was to reconcile all things to himself through Christ, making peace by the blood of His cross. And there we come to it, don't we? On this night that we remember Christ betrayed, going to His death on the cross, that it was the cross and His death by the blood of the cross that God accomplished the crux of His great plan of reconciliation. The cross of Christ was the means of reconciling and restoring mankind to Himself. Christ's shed blood took the penalty that we deserved. Christ's shed blood washed away our sins. Christ's shed blood and His sacrifice of Himself was a propitiation to satisfy the wrath of God against sin and death. Christ's death on the cross tore down the dividing wall of hostility between God and man and between man and man. So that as Paul says in Ephesians 2.14, God reconciled both Jew and Gentile to Himself in one body through the cross, making peace. In Christ our sins are paid. In Christ our old man died. In Christ His righteousness is credited to us. In Christ we are made new creations. The old is gone, the new has come. So that as Paul says in Colossians 1 22 here Christ might present us holy and blameless above reproach before God We are reconciled to him and to one another through the death of Christ on the cross That's not all though Because the cross of Christ was also the crux or the means of reconciling and restoring creation as well. Romans 8, 21 puts it this way, it says, when the sons of God are revealed, in other words, when that great redemption and reconciliation of mankind as the representative leaders of the created world are revealed, When mankind is reconciled and restored to God in righteousness, then creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and it will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For creation, too, the old will pass away, and the new creation will come, reconciled to God, restored in order, beauty, and glory, a fit dwelling place for God and man, for all eternity. And right at the heart of that plan is Christ's death on the cross. And peace will be restored in heaven as well. You remember that passage in Philippians chapter 2 that traces the work of Christ and ends with Christ exalted to the highest place at the right hand of God? Well, if you follow what Paul says there, Paul's argument is that it was because of Christ's willing obedience to the point of death that God exalts Him to the highest place in the name above names, that every knee should bow before Him on heaven and on earth. because of Christ's death. He has been exalted above all. And from that exalted place in God's perfect timing, Christ will definitively end the spiritual warfare in heaven. He will overthrow Satan and his followers, and he will destroy them forever. There's a beautiful picture of this in Revelation chapter 19, where Christ, the faithful and true one, rides forth on his horse with the sword coming from his mouth. And how is he identified? What marks him? He is wearing the robe dipped in blood. He is the one who was crucified, who shed his blood. going to the point of death, that he might be exalted to the highest place, that through him, heaven and earth will be reunited. Angels and man will gather together around the throne of God and of the Lamb, and all things will be put under his feet. This great restoration and reconciliation will come about through the Lamb who was slain, through Christ who made peace through the blood of the cross. So is it a dark and a grievous day as we behold Christ on the cross? Yes. Yes, it is. For we consider that it was our sin and the evil and the rebellion of all humanity that could only be solved by the death of the Son of God. There is great grief in that. But knowing what we know, following the promises of Scripture, the cross becomes the decisive victory The cross becomes the key moment by which Christ and through which Christ will reconcile all things to God and win the restoration of all things so that they can again be very good in union and communion with Him. It's Christ who accomplishes this great redemption. Christ is God's plan for reconciling all things to Himself. So we've seen what's broken, we've seen God's plan, Christ, but I wanna last ask this question as we come to an end. How does this magnify Christ's glory? Well, John Owen, that great Puritan author, points out three specific ways that this plan of God magnifies Christ's glory. Will you consider these three specific things with me? First, Christ's glory is seen in that He alone was fit to be the head of all things. God's plan was a magnificent plan. It was an expansive plan. His plan was nothing less than to unite the holy angels who remained loyal to Him, along with the saints on earth and all creation, and to unite them in one eternal life under one head. One head would be over them all. But who could possibly bear such a responsibility? Who could possibly be such a head? Who could possibly bear the weight of such a position? Only Christ. Christ alone. The Son of God become man. This is what Paul says. He puts it this way in Ephesians 1, verses 21 and 22. He says, God set Christ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church. He is the head overall. And John Owen, reflecting on this, writes it this way. He says, In Christ this new family is held together. On Christ all its members depend. To Christ they owe their submission. All of God's blessings to creation now flow through Christ. And all of creation's praise to God now flows through Christ. Life, grace, power, mercy, comfort to the church, all things ruled again for the glory of God, all of it depends on Jesus Christ. Christ alone. can bear this role. In him, God was reconciling all things to himself, and what glory belongs to Christ alone, who fills this role. That's the first way we see Christ's glory magnified. The second, Christ's glory is seen in how completely he repairs such great devastation from sin. I think it goes without saying, doesn't it, that the greater the problem, and the greater the desperation, the greater the glory of the person who brings redemption. I don't know if you all, like my family, have been watching any March Madness over the last few weeks. If you have, you know that there's great fame for the player who rescues his team from certain defeat by hitting two three-point shots in the last 15 seconds to win the game and rescue them from certain defeat. Far more so than a player who happens to make the same baskets early in a game that's a blowout. Now the rescue at the end brings great fame. Certainly, I think we would say that one who pays off a great debt for a family who is hours away from being evicted from their home, from losing their home because of that debt, far greater honor and thanks to that person than to the one who merely pays for my dinner because I can't find my wallet. Now, the greater the problem and the greater the desperation, the greater the glory in the one who brings redemption. And these examples are almost too cheap to draw comparison? Because how much greater than either is the depth of destruction caused by sin? How much greater the desperation of you and I who have no means of living according to the law of God and our fallen sinfulness. The visible manifestation of the beauty and the glory of God is twisted by sin and corrupted, which means that great, great glory will belong to the one who could possibly set these things right and who could possibly redeem us from our sin. The extent of the pain and the suffering that we have talked about even tonight How could anyone possibly bring about a redemption and a reconciliation of the kinds of devastating agony of suffering faced by even the people in our congregation as they've mentioned in recent weeks? All of this means that great, great glory belongs to the One who could set things right, to the One who could redeem us and reconcile us to God. All glory goes to the One who entered suffering, injustice, cruelty, and death Himself in order to bring them to an end and to restore all things. You know, all through Scripture we have this sense of longing. If you read page after page of Scripture, it's like there's this sense of necks craning to see how in the world could God solve this? He says He's going to, but how? When? You see it page after page. You hear Paul and John cry out, Oh Lord Jesus, come. They're looking for that final day when this could possibly happen. We read even that the angels in heaven were longing to look in to see God's plan and how he was gonna bring this to pass And then comes Christ Christ Who brings peace through the cross? The cross is our hope it is our salvation and great great glory belongs to Christ who repairs, rescues, redeems, and restores all things through His death on the cross. That's the second reason this magnifies Christ's glory. And finally, the glory of Christ is magnified by the perfect security of the restoration that He achieves. Here's what I mean by that. If you bring about something that is good and wonderful, but it doesn't last, There's only so much glory in that. It's sort of like me trying to fix plumbing. And I'm under there, I fix the plumbing, look, it works! And then 30 seconds later, there's the water dripping and leaking again. There's no glory in that. It doesn't last. But in a similar way, if the restored creation can also be threatened, it diminishes the glory of the one who restores it. But what do we find in Christ? We find in Christ the new creation will be perfectly secure forever. You remember Isaiah's picture of the wolf and the lamb and the calf and the lion and the little child leading him? It's a picture of creation in an eternal, unthreatened peace. Isaiah says that this picture will be accomplished when the root of Jesse stands as a signal for the peoples and his resting place is glorious. What's a resting place? A resting place is where you sit down when the task is done and the plan of God is complete and there is no threat to His rule or to His reign anymore. Revelation 21 says that death and pain will never be anymore. Revelation 22 says there will no longer be anything accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be front and center, and His servants will worship Him. And the picture is an entirely unthreatened, secure forever, perfection of life. And that very secure Security and perfection of all things will only magnify the glory of Christ all the more. For it is he who brings about this perfectly secure restoration of all things. And so this is my hope tonight. My hope tonight is that we come out of the world and we know, we've seen, we have felt the agony of the brokenness of the way things are. But we come tonight to fix our eyes on Jesus. We come tonight to fix our gaze on the blood of the cross by which God has reconciled all things to himself in Christ. And as we do so, We find ourselves facing great hope and a great salvation and singing great glory to such a savior. And we find ourselves coming to this table, which visibly and tangibly reminds us of the shed blood on the cross. Here is our hope displayed. Here is our security put before us. Here is Christ's glory on display. May we come to it with faith, trusting in him alone. Let's pray. Oh Father, what a plan You had. A plan worthy only of the majesty and the power of the one and only God. And what a plan to magnify the glory of Jesus Christ. May that be our thought tonight as we look to Him in faith. Stir our hope, stir our praise, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The Westminster Pulpit is courtesy of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You are welcome to worship with us on Sunday mornings at 8 or 11 a.m. To learn more or have questions about the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus our Savior, contact us at westpca.com. Thank you, and may Christ be glorified through this ministry, the Westminster Pulpit.