In his sermon 'The Great Head of the Church', Jason Dohm explores Ephesians 1 with a focus on verses 22 and 23, emphasizing the exaltation and authority of Jesus Christ as the head of the church. Dohm delves into three core truths from Paul's prayer: the hope of Jesus's calling, the riches of His inheritance, and the greatness of His power. He underscores that all things are under Jesus's authority, highlighting Old Testament references from Psalms and Daniel to affirm this. Dohm distinguishes between Jesus's relationship with the church and with the rest of creation, portraying the church as Jesus's body, with a unique and nurturing connection to Him. He also discusses the church's role as the fullness of Jesus, elaborating on the spiritual blessings believers receive through Christ and the assurance of His promises. The sermon concludes with an encouragement for believers to embrace their privileged position and exercise the power given to them through their union with Christ.

So I am the last in a long line of Ephesians 1 readers and as such I get the privilege of reading the entire chapter. Our text for today is verses 22 and 23 but we're going to begin in verse 1. Let's read together Ephesians 1. Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in him. In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe According to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all and all. He may be seated. The title of the sermon this morning is, The Great Head of the Church. Jesus is called the Head of the Church. And what kind of a head is He?

Oh, He's a great and mighty Head of the Church. Some mornings, the preacher comes into the pulpit knowing that he's just there for sweetness and light. And this is one of those mornings. Some mornings you come in and you know it's your duty to bring the weight of a text. But some mornings it's just sweetness.

We're in one of those sweetness texts. I couldn't wait to preach this morning because it is a text that just simply lifts up and exalts the greatness and the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We've now dedicated three weeks to what is a single sentence in the Greek. Verses 15 through 23 are all one sentence in the original Greek that Paul wrote. In the first week we looked at verses 15-17 where Paul relates that he's heard things about the Athesian believers.

What has he heard about them? He's heard about their faith in the Lord Jesus, and he's heard about their love for all the saints. He's actually received a good report about these growing Ephesian believers. And he responded to the reports that he got. He gives thanks without ceasing, and he prays for them.

And he says, am praying that the Spirit would enable you to know God. That the Spirit would reveal God to you. Then in the second week, we looked at verses 18-21, this was last Sunday, you had this beginning phrase, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. It's Paul calling on the Spirit to flood the minds of the Ephesian believers with light, so that they might know what is, what are, what is. They might know three Great truths.

One, the hope of his calling. Believers have every right to confidently expect that the things that are associated with the calling are theirs. Number two, the riches of his inheritance. There's a glorious future stored up for all believers that they have a claim to. And number three, the greatness of his power toward us who believe.

There's a grave emptying, glorifying power that is at work towards in on behalf of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Understand, these three great truths that Paul is praying would flood the minds of believers are bedrock for the believer. If your mind is flooded with light so that you really know in your heart of hearts of hearts that you have the hope of his calling and the the riches of the inheritance that stored up for believers, and that his power, his grave emptying power, is at work on your behalf, then you are standing on bedrock. And the sufferings, even the sufferings of this life, just are dwarfed by these three great truths. So that's what Paul has been about up to this point in this one Greek sentence.

This week verses 22 and 23 finishes the chapter. So we'll wave goodbye to chapter 1 at the end of today. No booing, please don't boo the preacher. And wow, that threw me off track. You did it to me Robert.

These two verses, verses 22 and 23 finishes the chapter and continues on the theme of the highly exalted Jesus. Look back to the end of verse 19 through 21 because this really launches us into these verses. The end of verse 19, According to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come. So Paul has launched into an exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ And now in these last two verses he continues on that theme. As we come to the text, let's ask the Lord to help us.

Oh, Jesus, you are highly exalted. Paul is just acknowledging the reality that you are great and greatly to be praised. Nothing is more fitting than that your people take up your praises on their lips and in their hearts. And I pray that this text would help us to do it this week. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

So we're going to really slice it thin this week. We won't even go verse at a time. We'll go half a verse at a time. So let me reread the first phrase of verse 22, re-read with me, follow along as I re-read the beginning of verse 22. And he, God the Father, put all things under His, God the Son's feet.

And He put all things under His feet. In this phrase, Paul is teaching that all things have been put under Jesus' feet. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, under Jesus' fill in the blanks. All things have been put under Jesus' feet." So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, under Jesus' fill in the blanks. All things have been put under Jesus' feet.

I want to ask you to ask this text a question. So we're inquiring of the text. So what? So we have truth imparted to us in the Word of God. So what?

We ask this in the right way. If parents, if you have a son who said, so what? You might cuff his ears. We're not asking the text this question in that way. We're asking the text actually with the confidence that every word of God is true and necessary and precious and is given to us to impart a benefit to help us and we want to connect ourselves with it.

So we are asking these great truths, so what? Where is the benefit that God had in his mind when he gave us these verses? And the flow of the chapter gives us the so what. Look at verse 2, grace to you Ephesian believers and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul's not making up happy thoughts and just speaking nice things that would be well received.

In verse 1 he said, I am an apostle, I am a sent one. God has sent me to declare his blessing of grace and peace towards believers. Well Paul, what's the nature of the blessing that you're declaring over these believers and really over all believers? Verse 3. Over all believers.

Verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The nature of the grace and peace which God sent Paul as an apostle, as a sent one, he sent him to declare over God's people his grace and his peace. Well the nature of that is that every spiritual blessing has been given to believers in Christ and the key is in Christ. Can't you see the reality of this treasure trove of spiritual blessings is made totally dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every spiritual blessing is ours, but ours in and only in Christ.

Our receipt of what has been promised is only as good as the willingness and ability of the promise maker. Right? Our receiving what has been promised is only as sure as the promise maker is willing and able. And so Paul spends the rest of the chapter trying to convince us that the promise maker is eminently willing and able. Completely willing, his disposition towards us is a disposition of favor and love, and eminently able.

He can do anything at any time and he does on behalf of his people. And not only is this every spiritual blessing made totally dependent on Christ. Our experience of it depends on seeing it, on knowing it, on having it in mind. It can be true of us, but it could be out of sight for us, so that even though it is ours, we don't experience it. So that is the so-what of our text.

Paul is laboring with us to convince us that the promise maker is imminently willing and imminently able to give to us every spiritual blessing. That it really is stored up for us and he's dispensing it as we need it and as we call for it, as we desire it. In verse 22, Paul begins by saying that all has been put past tense under his feet. So this is the current reality. This has happened already.

All, or all things have been put under Jesus' feet. The Greek literally means to subordinate, to put in subjection under his feet. The first thing that I want to point out is that Paul isn't teaching new doctrine. Is it wonderful doctrine? You better believe it.

Is it new doctrine? No way! No way. Paul is restating truths that have been abundantly established in the Old Testament. I want to take you to four places that show this.

The first is Psalm 2, so please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 2. There are 12 verses, I'm actually going to read them all. Paul in Ephesians 1 is building on the truths of Psalm 2. Follow along as I read Psalm 2. Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh, The Lord shall hold them in derision. He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession You shall break them with a rod of iron you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel Now therefore be wise o Kings Be instructed you judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.

In Psalm 2, the Son of God is made the King of the nations, of all the nations, of the ends of the earth, and he's called God's Son, Jehovah's Son. Is there opposition to him? Yes, there is opposition. God laughs at the opposition and says, I have set my king, my anointed, my son on the holy hill of Zion. The Son of God is given the throne of the nations and is to be the object of trust.

Look at the very end of this chapter, Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. Secondly, Psalm 110. Turn to Psalm 110. I'll be a little more selective in Psalm 110. I'll read verses 1 and 2 and then 5 and 6.

Psalm 110, starting in 1 and 2, a Psalm of David. The Lord Jehovah said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Skipping to verse 5.

The Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries.

Here in Psalm 110 we have the son of David. David doesn't call him his son here, but you'll notice the connection isn't being made by me. It was made by Jesus in the New Testament, where Jesus asks the scribes and the Pharisees, whose son is the Christ? And the Pharisees know the answer. They say, he's David's son.

And then Jesus quotes Psalm 110 and says, well then why does David call him his son? Honor is not supposed to flow from father to son. It's supposed to flow from son to father. So how can David call one of his sons his Lord? Well, the answer to that really would solve the puzzle for the scribes and the Pharisees, but they miss it there.

But the point is that the son of David, who David calls his Lord, is at God's right hand and is given rulership. And his enemies are subjected to him and put under his feet, made his footstool. That's exactly what Paul is saying in our text in Ephesians chapter 1. Finally in the Old Testament, Daniel 7. Turn to Daniel 7.

Daniel has this amazing vision in Daniel 7 Verses 13 and 14 Follow along Daniel 7 13 and 14 Daniel says I was watching in the night visions And behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. Kingdoms come and go, but not this kingdom. It's an everlasting kingdom.

All nations, all languages will serve him. And Now in Daniel 7, the Son of Man, this one like the Son of Man, by the way, that's Jesus' favorite self-designation in the gospels. In other words, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he's more likely to call himself the Son of Man than any other self designation. The Son of Man is given an everlasting kingdom and He rules over all. Finally, turn to Matthew 28, or you can just listen to Matthew 28, this is the Great Commission, or at least the beginning of the Great Commission.

Listen to Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20. This is after the resurrection, before the ascension. By the way, my understanding of Daniel chapter 7 is that that is a vision of the ascension for what it's worth. Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20. Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen." In Matthew 28, Jesus is actually declaring the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He is declaring that it has happened, that all authority has been given to him on heaven and earth, that the things that were said would happen in Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 and Daniel 7 and other places, We could have gone other places too. Our fulfilled, the Old Testament prophecy has been fulfilled. You might say, it doesn't look like everything is in subjection to Jesus to me.

Well, let me offer this test. Are disciples making disciples of the nations? Are disciples making disciples of the nations? Is there a war? Yes, there is a war.

But can this be accurately described as a victory march yes it can The disciples are making disciples is that because the disciples are anything no it's because Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and all things have been put into subjection under His feet. And so, those who are hopelessly lost are not hopelessly lost because he is over all things. And he can take captives for his kingdom and sweep those who are in darkness into his kingdom of light and no one can stop him. That's the test. Are his disciples making disciples of all the nations?

And the answer is a resounding yes. Look at a map of faiths in the world at the time of Jesus and now and it's astounding that the gospel is everywhere. And is advancing as we speak. God the Father has put all things under the feet of God the Son or as Paul said it in verse 20 and 21, God the Father has raised God the Son from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above every name that is named. All things are in subjection to him.

So back to Ephesians 1. Now the second part of verse 22. So follow along as I reread the second part of verse 22. And gave him to be head over all things to the church. And gave him, Jesus, God the Son, to be head over all things to the church.

In this phrase, Paul teaches that Jesus has been given to be the great head of the church. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, great head fills in the two blanks. Jesus has been given to be the great head of the church. So the one to whom everything has been subordinated, the one to whom everything has been put into subjection under his feet, has also been given to be the comprehensive head, the head over all things to the church. That sounds like unnecessary repetition.

After all, if everything is under Jesus, then of course the church is under Jesus too, since the church is part of everything but it isn't unnecessary repetition at all. Paul is teaching the special and very different relationship that Jesus has with his church. Yes, Jesus is over the church. There's much more to be said about Jesus' relationship to the church than just that He's over it and that the church is in subjection to Him. Let me focus on three words.

Gave, had, and church. Gave. I hope you have a sense of the vast difference in simply being put in subjection under the feet of and being given a head. Paul is making the contrast here. It is one thing to be put in subjection under the feet of, and it's another very different thing to be given ahead.

Paul says that God the Father has given Jesus to believers as their head. Now what is a head? Overwhelmingly the primary meaning of the Greek word means the physical head. So yes, secondarily, it does mean the authority over, as in the head of a government. But what Paul is primarily doing is establishing a body analogy.

So the authority part of it is true, but not primary. What's primary is Paul starting to build a head to toe analogy, a physical body analogy. Finally, church. This is the first of nine times in Ephesians where Paul will use this Greek word, Ecclesia. It literally means an assembly where the people have been called out to convene.

An assembly. People have been called out to convene, to assemble. You might have heard it preached, called out ones. Of course it is true that unbelievers are called out of darkness into light. In the New Testament, this word, ecclesia, is used in two ways.

It's used many times for local assemblies. We see that in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2. To the church, the ecclesia of God, which is at Corinth. So he's writing a letter. It ends up in the hands of the universal church, but he's writing to a local assembly.

But it's also used in another way as the great church of all believers everywhere. The great church of all believers everywhere. Jesus actually uses it in that way in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18. Jesus says on this rock I will build my church, my ecclesia, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." He's not talking about a local assembly there, he's talking about all believers everywhere. The great universal church.

Clearly here in Ephesians 1, Paul is saying that Jesus is the head of this great universal church. He is the head of all believers everywhere. This is Jesus's assembly that He has called out to convene. As a side note, when your government tells you that church's meeting is non-essential, We have the right to point out that the name given to us by our head means gathering. It means gathering.

It means to convene. It's essential. Our head says, you're my gathering. Head says, you're my gathering. So if you're a member of Jesus' church, what kind of head have you been given?

A head to whom everything else has been subjected. As a believer, my head given to me by God is the one to whom everything else has been subjected. It's everything else is under his feet. He rules over everything else. Listen to what Matthew Henry says.

Matthew Henry says, it was a gift to the church to be provided with a head in dude with so much power and authority he is entrusted with all power that is that he may dispose of all the affairs of the providential kingdom in subserviency to the designs of his grace concerning his church." Now he just piled up some big words. What does that mean? What does this mean? That he may dispose of all the affairs of the providential kingdom in subserviency to the designs of His grace concerning the Church. Well let's start with designs of His grace.

He has plans to deploy His grace. And because all things are under His feet, He can dispose of the affairs of everything else to bring into reality his plans to deploy his grace to the church. Nothing can stop him because he isn't just the head of the church. Also everything else is in subjection to him under his feet so he can arrange everything around the designs of his grace concerning his church. We're back to the so what.

So what? Oh, he's in control of everything so that his designs of grace for his people can never be held back or thwarted or fail to come to pass because he controls not only his church but everything else. And so he can arrange things to make sure that the designs of his grace come to pass for his people. Unfailingly, they cannot fail. They cannot fail.

So we say to the text, so what? So His promises can't fail. So the hope of His calling is sure. So the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, they are out there for me in the future and I will make it to them because He is in control of everything. So that the grave emptying, glorifying power that was at work in Christ's resurrection, I can know with certainty will bring his purposes to pass in my life because not just Everything pertaining to the church is under him.

Everything else is under him. So he can control it all to bring his promises to come to pass. Verse 23. Verse 23. The first part of it.

Ephesians 1, 23. Which is his body? We'll stop there. Which is his body. Paul is teaching that the church is Jesus' body and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is his body.

If you're filling in blanks, Jesus' body. The church is Jesus' body. So now the body analogy, the head to toe, physical body analogy is complete. Jesus is the head, the church is the body. The church as Jesus' body will also appear nine times in the book of Ephesians and in many other places in the New Testament, we'll start bringing them in, probably one or the other.

None more famous than 1 Corinthians 12 that talks about how the body and how the parts of the body relate to each other and perform different functions. And so I won't attempt to pre-preach those sermons here, but let me just introduce it by saying there's a rich doctrine of the church believers being the body of Christ and it informs how we relate to one another and how we relate to Jesus. So we start developing that rich doctrine here in chapter one. So Yes, Jesus is supreme over His church. He is head over all things to the church.

And yet, it is a fundamentally different and infinitely more wonderful relationship than he has to all outside of the church. He's still over, he's still supreme over all things and yet there is a fundamentally different relationship. We see this in Ephesians 5, If you just turn to Ephesians 5, let me read some select verses from Ephesians 5 that help us understand Christ as the head and the church as his body. Ephesians 5 verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and He is the Savior of the body. So to be the head of the body is also to be the Savior of the body in Ephesians 5, verse 23.

Look at verse 25, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. Look at verses 29 and 30. For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body and of his flesh and his bones." Paul is teaching that the head-to-toe analogy informs us about Christ and his leadership over the church. It is a leadership of union and of love and of nourishing and of cherishing, this head gives himself for his body.

So Paul appeals to you what you know about your own care for your own body. You have a head that's giving instructions, and often your head is giving instructions for the care, the nurture of your body. It says, no one ever hated his own flesh. No head hates the body, neglects the body. And so it's based on Christ and His care, His affection, His love, his sacrificing for his body.

So those inside the church, the church is Jesus' body, believers have been given Jesus as their head. What does that mean? It means He loves them. It means he loves them. It means he saves them.

It means he nourishes them. It means he cherishes them. It means he gives himself for them. Those outside the church, unbelievers, have been put in subjection under his feet. The differences in the relationship couldn't be more stark.

Yes, he is supreme over the church. Yes, he has real, unquestionable authority over the church, but it is an authority that's exercised in union with, in affection of, nourishing, cherishing, while to be outside the church is to be put in subjection under his feet. Could they be more fundamentally different? Finally, last phrase. The fullness of Him who fills all in all.

The fullness of Him who fills all in all. Here Paul is teaching that the church is the fullness of the all-filling Jesus. So if you're filling in blanks, fullness and all filling, fill in the blanks. The Church is the fullness of the all-filling Jesus. Now let's break this down little by little.

The church is Jesus' body, and the body is the fullness of Jesus. Do you see that? Look back at the very end of verse 22, to the church which is his body the fullness of him. The church is the body which is the fullness of Jesus. So the church is the fullness of Jesus.

Wait, doesn't that diminish Jesus? Doesn't that somehow make Jesus need the church? The church is the fullness of Jesus. We make Jesus full. What's ahead without a body, Jesus?

We give you the body. We are your fullness, Jesus. Of course, Paul is exalting Jesus, not diminishing Jesus in any way. Paul gives us the answer in the final phrase, who fills all in all. Jesus fills all in all.

Jesus is the all-filling one. Ask yourself this question, how did the body become the body? Was the body always the body? Were people born in Christ or were people brought into Christ? They were chosen before the foundation of the world and then Jesus came and spilled his blood to bring them into his kingdom to reconcile them with his father.

Listen to John 17 verses 1 and 2. John 17 verses 1 and 2. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may also glorify you as you have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him." Let me read that again. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him." Jesus says the hour has come. What hour? The hour of Jesus' substitutionary death. The hour in which Jesus would go and bleed and die in the place of sinners to satisfy God's anger against the sin of his people. He made himself an acceptable substitute.

He went to the cross and he's glorified in it. The hour has come. Glorify your son. How? By putting me on the cross.

By putting Jesus on the cross. It is the greatest display of His glory to save a people with his blood, to cleanse a people with his blood, to make a sin-stained people white, spotless, reconciled to his father. This is the greatest display of his glory. Did it add to his glory? He was always that.

He was always all of those things, but it displays his glory. Listen to what Lloyd-Jones says. Martin Lloyd-Jones says this, from the ascension to the second advent, the ascension to the second coming, we're right in there somewhere, the body of Christ has been growing and developing and there is a day coming when she will be complete and perfect, then the fullness of the Gentiles will have come in, and the fullness of Israel will also have been saved. Then the body will be complete and entire, and will have attained its fullness. So I must learn to speak of myself, humble and unworthy and insignificant Christian as I am, as someone who is essential and vital to the fullness of the mystical body of Christ.

What an idea! He just ends this by saying, just think about that. What an idea! That somehow Christ wasn't full until He had brought me in. His Father had chosen me, and He wasn't full until He brought me in.

And made God's plan and promise good. And as humble and unworthy as I am, I'm part of that. He made me part of that. What a privilege. It is Jesus who fills all in all.

If you're in Christ, it's because Jesus filled you with a righteousness that wasn't your own. What was your own was filthy rags. Even the best of it was filthy rags. He filled you with a righteousness from outside yourself which made you acceptable to his father so his father could pardon you and adopt you into his family. Listen to how Paul says it in Colossians 2.

Colossians continues to be an invaluable commentary on Ephesians. I mean the flow of thought is the same, the ordering is the same, the topics are the same, and in many ways Colossians is really good explanation for things in Ephesians. I'm sure we'll continue to hear a lot of Colossians. Colossians 2 9 and 10. Colossians 2, 9 and 10.

Paul writes, For in him, for in Christ, for in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power." It's all of our phrases from Ephesians 1. The fullness of God dwells in Christ, bodily, and we are complete in Him. He fills all in all. Our completeness comes not from ourselves, it comes from Him.

It comes from Him filling us with all the things that we aren't. And somehow that makes Him full. The fullness, the church is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. It's sort of circular. He fills us and it makes Him full.

Applications, let me give you four. Number one, consider the so what of these two verses. So what? All things are in subjection to Jesus, so what? He can keep His promises, all of them.

Not one of them will ever fail. Because all things are in subjection and under his feet. He can order all the providences of time, all the circumstances of life, they are all subject to him. He is willing to keep his promises and he's able to keep all of his promises. And the church isn't just in subjection to him.

The church is his body. So we have a fundamentally different relationship to him than all those outside the church. We are one with him. He saved us. He loves us.

He cherishes us. He nourishes us. That's a pretty good so what. I'll take it. Number two, how will Jesus rule you?

Not will Jesus rule you, that has been forever settled. Jesus will rule you. He is either your head, saving you, loving you, joined to you, nourishing you, cherishing you, or you are in subjection under His feet. How will Jesus rule you? Number three, believers soak up the privilege of being the fullness of Jesus.

God made a plan to include you. It wouldn't be complete without you. Not because of anything in you. This is to His praise, not your praise. And yet somehow He gives us this exalted position of being the fullness of Jesus.

The church is the fullness of Jesus. We are trophies of His grace. We get to display His glory. Number four. Believers.

Consider the implications that your great head fills all in all. This is for believers. Consider the implications that your great head fills all in all. What do you mean? Well, are you ever discouraged by your sins?

Ah, but you have a head who fills all in all. Are you ever discouraged by your circumstances, by your weaknesses, by your mistakes, by your history. Ah, but you have a head who fills all in all. Christians make lousy victims. I'll tell you that.

Christians make lousy victims. We have a head who fills all in all. Lloyd-Jones says, exercise that power. Exercise that power. You're joined to an all-powerful head.

It gives you access to power, to say no to sin, to worship Him without fear all of your days. To face the trials of life encouraged, boldly. You don't have to be afraid when your head fills all in all. God, thank you for the glories of this text. I know we've only scratched the surface today.

So much more could be said to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ our great head. We thank you for Him. Fill us with joy at the contemplation of these things. Make us a fearless people as a result of these truths. Let our minds be flooded with light so that we could see these things, know them in Jesus name.

Amen.