Christ is The Head of The Church

Driving home: As one man has said, the fatal number in Christian theology is two.

Martin explains the Gnostic heresy at Colossia as adding 'other intermediaries' to Christ, contrasting it with Paul's gospel of 'Christ alone' and calling it 'the fatal number in Christian theology'.

Let me please to the letter of Paul to the Church of the Colossians, Colossians chapter 1, and I shall read verses 9 through 23, Colossians 1, verses 9 through 23, in order that we might read with greater understanding just a word of explanation as to why Paul wrote to this church, perhaps would be in order. He had received news of those that were plaguing this church, as most of those churches were plagued with one form of heresy or another, and though it may be a bit of an oversimplification, the basic heresy that was being spread there at Colossia was the heresy of two. As one man has said,...

0:03 - 1:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The full passage of Colossians 1:9-23 is read, followed by an explanation that the sermon will focus on verse 18, "He is the head of the body, the church," in light of the…

Martin compares the Colossian church's infection by Gnostic heresy to the contemporary church's susceptibility to the 'spirit of lawlessness' and rejection of authority, highlighting the need for immunization against worldly trends.

In the midst of this tremendous statement on the supremacy of Christ, for this is Paul's, basic way of attacking this heresy, he brings the Colossians back to the fact of who Christ is and what Christ has done on behalf of his people in fulfillment of the purpose of the Father. Now in the midst of this treatment of the supremacy of Christ, we have the statement of verse 18, which will be the particular focus of our study this morning, and he is the head of the body, the church. To state that we live in an age of unbounded lawlessness is to speak of truism or to utter a cliché, which perhaps is...

4:37 - 6:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Christ's headship as both organic, signifying a life union with His body, the church, and administrative, meaning He gives orders and rules His people, emphasizing…

Martin uses the physical head's inseparable life union with the body (e.g., not being able to remove one's head and function) to explain Christ's organic headship over the church.

Your head has a life union with the rest of your body. If you don't believe it, you better not do this. You better not do this. Don't take me seriously. If you could and then remedy it, I'd say try it. But you can't. It's irreversible. If you tried this, the results are irreversible. You get up with a headache some morning and say, I feel miserable with this headache. I think I'll just lay my head on my dresser and go off to school without it. Well, there are times when your teacher probably thinks you did come off without your head when she looks at your work. But you see, you can't do that. ...

24:38 - 25:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Christ's headship as both organic, signifying a life union with His body, the church, and administrative, meaning He gives orders and rules His people, emphasizing…

He illustrates the organic whole of the body by explaining that if someone hits your arm, they hit 'you,' conveying the deep, personal union between Christ and His church.

I can take them and place them somewhere else and they'll function just as well. But you can't take your head from off your shoulders and stick it on top of that humidifier and have it function. You see, there's a life union. And that's the concept that the apostle is emphasizing here. That Jesus Christ is the organic head of his body so that we may say in a real sense, my body is me. If you kids are out playing and your neighbor, one of the neighbor kids gets upset with you and comes around and whacks you good on the arm and puts a big black and blue mark, you come home and you say, Ma, Johnn...

25:22 - 26:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Christ's headship as both organic, signifying a life union with His body, the church, and administrative, meaning He gives orders and rules His people, emphasizing…

Martin describes the human head as a 'computer-like mechanism' where signals, information, desires, and ambitions are processed, leading to decisions and actions, to explain how Christ, as the head, initiates all life and direction for the church.

Yeah, but you say, my arm's me. Right. Why? Because you understand what it means that your body is an organic whole. And if someone hits your arm, they're hitting you. If they kick you in the shin, step on your toes, spit in your eye, they're doing that to you. And you come home and say, so-and-so did this to me. Why? Because your body is you. And so when the scripture says Christ is the head of the body, it brings us into that mysterious and yet wonderful biblical doctrine that we are organically joined to the Lord Jesus Christ so that the body of Christ, the church, is a living organism. And...

26:04 - 27:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Christ's headship as both organic, signifying a life union with His body, the church, and administrative, meaning He gives orders and rules His people, emphasizing…

He uses the example of the head giving orders to the hand (not vice-versa) to explain Christ's administrative headship, where He rules and directs the church.

But there's a second line of emphasis here. He is the administrative head of the body. That is, the head gives the orders. The hand doesn't tell the head what to do, but the head tells the hand what to do.

28:13 - 28:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Oh that we come to a new understanding that Christ is all. And in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.

Martin recounts the Covenanters in Scotland who died for the principle of Christ's sole headship over the church, refusing to allow human government to usurp His 'crown rights,' to emphasize the gravity of this doctrine.

That's why Paul could say with great spiritual perception the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And so if Christ is the organic head of the church, then as we face a new year of responsibility and privilege and demand and perplexing circumstances, and we'll face them, oh that we come to a new understanding that Christ is all. And in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. And then in the second place, if Christ is the administrative head of the church, then any intrusion of human authority into the life of the ch...

41:26 - 42:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray that God will make real to your heart and a fresh way that Jesus Christ is head of the church.

He refers to the book of Acts and the experience of Trinity Baptist Church's congregational meetings as 'pure spiritual experience' where Christ communicates His mind to the whole body, illustrating the practical reality of Christ's administrative headship.

One of the beautiful things about this concept being understood, it's illustrated again and again in the book of the Acts, is that Christ then in a marvelous way, ways that we cannot put in a test tube and trace out in mathematical precision, communicates His mind, not just to the leaders but to the whole body of His people. We know something of that experience. Many of us have testified that our congregational meetings have been as a pure spiritual experience as our times of prayer and worship, and it ought to be and it will continue to be if the headship of Christ is ever before us so that w...

48:59 - 50:27 Read in full sermon