St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Christ The King Sunday November 18^th and November 21^st, 2004

Dear children who have been rescued from eternal darkness and destruction. Amen

For the sake of argument, let’s try and decide who was or is the greatest football player of all times. Some might show their slant toward the Packers and choose Brett Favre or one of the other greats from the 1960’s like Ray Nitschke. Others might look at a player like Walter Payton who once held the title for the most rushing yards. If you are a Detroit fan you might think about Barry Sanders, while others think of Jerry Rice, Jim Brown or Emmitt Smith. My Minnesota friends would say that has to be Fran Tarkenton and others would argue for Dan Marino. But how could you forget others, like Bart Starr, Joe Namath or Dick Butkus? In a way we could say that this is a title that is almost impossible to decide. Are we talking the greatest Quarterback, Running back or Defensive player? I have to admit that I am a big fan of Barry Sanders, because he was always very humble as he accomplished things that most others will never dream of accomplishing. But the real answer! is that we will never reach a consensus about who is the best football player of all times because everyone has great things to offer.

Today we are going to be looking at the only real "greatest player" of all times. The person we are talking about was very humble and yet very powerful. He was one that would do anything to make others better. It’s impossible to list all the qualities this person has. He is far stronger and better than all of the players, which we just talked about before. He is a person that single-handedly completed the greatest victory this world has ever seen. He defeated the three greatest enemies of all times -- Sin, Death and the Devil. He doesn’t have any weaknesses. He is perfect. He is able to rescue us and all people from any trouble or trials that may come into our lives. We certainly know who I am talking about, but this morning as we come to the last Sunday of the Christian Church Year entitled "Christ the King" Sunday, let us celebrate under the theme:

As we look at these words that the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in the city of Colosse, we see some beautiful words describing who Jesus, Our Great Rescuer is. Throughout the ages of mankind, there have been people who have diminished or ridiculed our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was no different in the apostle Paul’s time. The believers of Colosse were being pressured to throw away Paul’s words about a Savior who is all-powerful, and they were being pressured to replace their powerful Savior with an inferior Savior. The false teachers wanted the Colossians to put more trust in themselves and less trust in their Perfect Rescuer. It is for this reason that Paul uses these words of our text to open his letter to the Colossians. He wants to set the groundwork early on, and he wants all Christians to know who our Rescuer is and why our Rescuer is so special.

One of the greatest false teachings and temptations that the Devil likes to use is to say that Jesus was not truly God. The Devil would like all people to think of Jesus as someone who was a good person who couldn’t in any way do anything to save someone else. They use the argument that there is no way that God could become a man. They tend to point people to a logical answer, which says that God couldn’t be contained in a human body or that God wouldn’t come down to this earth in this way. They appeal to man’s human reason to tear down the power of Christ. What an abomination to the power and love of our true Savior. The world will do anything to tear down the Savior and what he has accomplished for us.

But our text for this morning speaks completely the opposite about Jesus. Jesus "is the image of the invisible God" and in Jesus "all his [God’s] fullness dwells". All of the power and might of the Godhead dwells in Jesus. These words clearly show us that Jesus was very special. He was powerful. He was God himself. This power showed itself as our text points out in what Jesus was able to do. Jesus as true God was present before the creation of the world. "He is before all things." He is eternal with no beginning and no end. And because we know he was here before the world was created, we can believe the fact that "By Jesus all things were created" and "All things were created by Him and for Him". Jesus took part in the creation the world. Most often we attribute this work to God the Father, but the three persons of the Trinity are ONE God and all are equal in power and mig! ht. They are all able to work together as the one Godhead.

As we look at these words, we certainly can see that Jesus had the power to accomplish anything that might lay before him. There was nothing that Jesus couldn’t accomplish. This is very good news for you and me, because we know that God’s perfect creation was ruined completely by man’s Fall into sin. Mankind was so ruined that every person who has lived on this earth was born into "the dominion of darkness." This is the darkness of sin and the darkness of the destruction of hell that was introduced into this world by the Devil and his leading Adam and Eve to sin. Every single person is born so deeply corrupted and rotten that all we know by nature is the darkness of sin and the damnation that sin brings us. We are all so lost in our darkness when we come into this world that we have no idea what God’s light is nor where to find it. Our darkness is so severe and so complete that we are 100% separated from God. There is no inkling in us that is good! . We are corrupt through and through. We were enemies of God.

It is in this complete state of darkness and depravity we are living in that our great Rescuer enters the picture. Jesus came to rescue us from all the condemnation we deserve. Jesus came to bring us into his kingdom of light. He came to bring us redemption, which means that our Great Rescuer used all of his eternal power and might to save this whole world from the captivity of sin and death. He came and substituted himself for us and the punishment we deserved. He came and paid the price to free us from the captivity of darkness. Only someone who is completely supreme and full of power could fulfill such a mission. Our text says "through him he reconciled us to Himself." It wasn’t all to long ago that the Berlin Wall was torn down to show the peace that now existed between the two Germanys. There is now clear access to walk between East and West Germany. There is a freedom that wasn’t there under the communist rule. In much the same way the pe! ace that Jesus brought us is like the wall of hostility that was set up by all our sins, which has now been torn down. We now have free access to God. The barriers are gone. There is nothing blocking our path anymore. And this peace came "through his blood, shed on the cross." It is only through the love of our Great Rescuer that we are saved.

We know that all these things that Jesus speaks of about his death are true when we realize that Jesus also rose from the dead on the 3^rd day to show his work was complete and finished. He is called "the firstborn from among the dead" He is the only person to have conquered death on his own. It is this resurrection message that confirms all the words that Jesus has spoken about the peace he has brought us. It is this message that takes away all the fears we have dying, since we know salvation is ours and that God has the power to raise us up also.

As we look back throughout history we can see that there have been so many people we might call heroes or men who have rescued their nations and friends from troubles. But how many of these heroes or rescuers are still here today? The answer is obviously, none. No matter how strong these heroes of the past are, they still can’t live on forever. Alexander the Great died in his 30’s. The great rulers of Rome and other nations died before their conquests were completed. Many of them never even got to see their nations when they were at their greatest. But we see quite the opposite in Jesus our Perfect rescuer.

He has showed his power in the creation and we have seen his love in the saving of all people, but we see his grace in the fact that he continues to sustain the people of his holy Christian Church. Jesus is called the "head of the Church." The Church he speaks of is the group of all believers of all times. Jesus is not just sitting in heaven admiring the hard day’s work he put in to save the world from the tyranny of sin and the Devil. He is not just lounging back with a refreshment in his hand, hoping that his Church is able to hold up until he returns on Judgment Day. It says that "in him all things hold together." He is the glue and the strength that keeps his children going. Sad to say, it is not our own strength or our own hard work that keeps us on the right path. In fact, a close look at the path we have chosen most often shows us that we have missed the mark quite terribly. This missing of the mark we call sin, and our s! ins have warranted us eternal damnation.

What a comfort God’s grace then is for us! He has left us his revealed word in the form of what we call the Bible. Through this saving and gracious book of God, we know exactly what our Rescuer has done for us and what he will continue to do for us into the future. As we come to the close of another Christian Church year it is good for us to remember that God in his grace will sustain us. As we think of the end of the Christian Church Year, we see very clearly that God has promised to return. This we know for a fact. The questions we really need to ask ourselves is what makes us ready for his return? I pray that we will be able to say with the help of the Holy Spirit that it is trust alone in Christ our King, who is our great Rescuer. Hands down he is our greatest Rescuer and hero.

While the debate may rage on in the Gartner household or households around the world about which superhero is the greatest. We truly know the answer through faith who is our Greatest Rescuer. It is He who has never failed us nor has ever forgotten us. Our great Rescuer was willing to give up his life for our sins, only to take back that life three days later to show that our salvation is complete. As we look at the total package of our Rescuer, we see that Jesus as true God deserves our thanks and praise. Amen.