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Thank you, Chris, and thanks, Liz, for reading for us. If you've got a Bible, you will find it really helpful this evening to keep it open in front of you. We're going to be on page 1182, colossians, chapter one. We're going to be looking at that together, just going through those verses. And I have a slide.

I have one slide tonight, so make sure you don't miss it. But I haven't got a clicker. So, Bella, if at the right moment you would just click onto that, I'll be very grateful. Thank you. Actually, now is the right moment.

Sorry, I should have told you that. As I see by opening illustration. There we are. On the 28 November 1979, a sightseeing aircraft took off from Auckland in New Zealand, headed for Antarctica. It was on an eleven hour round trip.

It had become a popular sightseeing tourist expedition. Halfway through the flight, in order to give the passengers a better look at the beautiful landscape beneath them, the pilot descended. He reduced his altitude. But instead of ice and snow in the distance, a whiteout immediately in front of the plane prevented the pilots from seeing Mount Erebus, an active volcano 12,000ft high, right in front of them. Meanwhile, oblivious to the danger, many of the passengers behind them were already busy filming one another in the passenger cabin, taking photos out of the windows.

Camera film later found in the wreckage, could still be developed and showed pictures taken just seconds before the crash. Tragically, everybody on board, 257 people, died that afternoon. It's hard to imagine how one single tiny error could cause such a terrible tragedy. But it was a matter of one degree of navigation. It's called, actually the principle of one degree, or the one in 60 rule.

The idea is that one degree will take you a mile off course for every 60 miles that you travel. Now, if you're going to Brighton, that's not very far. It only takes you about a third of a mile off course, about 500 metres. If you travel to New York from Gatwick, you'll miss it by 58 miles.

If you take a rocket to the moon, you'll miss it by 4000 miles. One degree. One degree wrong can make all the difference in the world. And, you know, the same principle can apply to our lives. Set the compass of our life, one degree wrong.

And after a lifetime of choices and decisions, you can end up, as the Bible would say, in destruction. The principle of one degree. It can affect a church's life as well. One degree off course. And a church can end up somewhere so different that if they had seen it before, they started they would never have imagined they would get there.

Well, that's why at our annual meeting back in April now, we talked about core convictions. Chris has already mentioned the journey we've been on as a church leadership, the church council, the PCC and the staff team and church wardens, discussing what is the DNA of this church? What are the core convictions that we hold, that express who we are, what we believe, where we're going tonight, we're going to think about the first one being Christ centred. Christ centred. We'll do three over the next three weeks and then a little break and then we'll do three more later.

Christ centred.

Now, all sorts of things can compete for the centre of a church.

Like a 90 degree error. A 90 degree error. If somebody says, you know, we should go over here, well, that's easy to spot, that that's wrong. In a church, you can usually spot the big errors quite easily. The bad things, the bullying leader, the belief that you're the only true church, the ideology or the wrong teaching that can take hold of a church and knock it off course.

Those kind of things are relatively easy to spot. It's the one degree errors that are the really dangerous ones, because without realising it, they'll take you a long way off course before you've registered. It's the good things that have become the best thing, the central thing. And in a busy church, like all saints, with so much going on, it's possible, I think, for good things to move into the centre and take the place of the best things. In a busy church where you have uplifting music, as we've just enjoyed, you've got vibrant ministries of one kind or another.

You have outreach into the local area, Bible teaching, a felt sense of the Holy Spirit's presence. All these things are good things. We want them in our church. Of course we do. But should they be the centre of a church?

A Bible centred church, a gospel actioned or a social action centred church, a spirit centred church, even those things aren't quite right. Social action ought to flow out of something else. The Bible and the Holy Spirit both testify to someone else. They both witness to Jesus. So in our first reading that we had this evening, it's the first Easter Sunday evening, Jesus appears to his disciples in Jerusalem, he does a Bible study and it's probably the shortest Bible study in history because he just says, it's about me.

The Bible is all about me. Did you notice that he said, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms, the Old Testament. He says it's about me, the whole thing is about me and what is written in the Old Testament. He says this is what is written. The messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

He says that is in the Old Testament. That is the message of the Old Testament is Christ centred. And if the message of the whole Bible is Christ centred, then a church should be Christ centred. Get it wrong and down the line you can end up somewhere very different. It's the principle of one degree.

Some years ago someone in another church said to me we should spend less time talking about Jesus and more time talking about goddess. After all, dont we believe in the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? So why just spend the focus, why put the focus on Jesus? Well of course we speak and sing and pray and talk about Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but Jesus Christ must be the centre. He is the one sent from the Father.

He is the one whom the spirit points to. He is the one through whom we access the father and can know the spirit. We can't talk about God until we first talk about Jesus. And that's what Paul says in Colossians. So if you have it there, have a look down in Colossians chapter one.

Paul is writing to these christians in the town of Colossae and he begins in verse 15 and he says that the son Jesus Christ is the image, the invisible God. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the only place where the unknown God can be made known. If we really want to know about God, then the first and last word has to be Jesus.

I wonder if you've had a conversation. I've had conversations like this and we talk to people, we can have long conversations about God and we think we're having a good conversation until some minutes in we realise actually we're talking about a completely different God. The God you have in mind is not the God of the Bible, the God revealed in Jesus that I'm talking about. If we want to know God ourselves and if we want to introduce our friends to goddess, then the place to begin is Jesus. Jesus isn't just the best place to know about God, he is the only place to know God.

He is the access point. He actually said that, didn't he? In John 14 six. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God. The way that God reveals himself to us. The way that we may come to God. But why is that? Why?

Why Jesus? Surely Jesus can't be the only way to God. What about all the people who lived in the Old Testament?

What about everyone who lived BC before Christ or in other parts of the world? They still knew God, didn't they? Before Jesus came to earth. Surely the world made sense before Jesus. Have a look down in verses 15 to 17.

Paul reminds us there was never a time before Christ. There was never a time before Christ? Yes. 2000 years ago, when we celebrated at Christmas. The word became flesh.

He became a human being. He was born at Bethlehem, but there was no time that he never existed. Jesus was alive and at work in the world long before he became one of us. Verse 15 says he is the firstborn over all creation. Now, in the Bible, firstborn is a title.

The firstborn in a family was the one who was the heir, who had the inheritance rights. Think of the struggle between Jacob and Esau, if you're familiar with them. Jesus is the firstborn. He's the heir of the whole creation. He'll receive everything one day.

Because verse 16. In him, all things were created. Everything exists because God the father created it through his son, Jesus Christ. His word and wisdom. There is nothing in creation older than Jesus.

It can't be because he created it. Empires, presidents, prime ministers, systems of government. Those in authority, they're only in charge because Jesus of Nazareth says so. Angels, angelic powers, authorities, those things we can't see. The Bible calls it the invisible creation.

All things have been created through Jesus. And for Jesus. Everything that exists, exists for Jesus.

Do you see why a church must be Jesus centred, Christ centred? It's all for him. From him, for him heading to him.

A generation or two ago, people used to ask the big questions. The big questions in life. Why are we here? What's it for? Where's it all going?

These are the questions that philosophers and religious teachers have asked for centuries all over the world. These are the questions that the religions of the world are supposed to answer. But now, in the west at least, many people have given up even asking the question. We've given up on the idea that there is an answer to these things. At least an answer that's true for everyone.

You have your answer, I have my answer. But an answer that's true for everybody. But when we find Jesus, we find the definitive answer to all those questions. Everything was made by Jesus and for Jesus. And it's going to Jesus.

Why are we here? For Jesus, what's the future of the world? Where's it all going? It's going to be inherited by Jesus one day. What is the purpose of our existence?

To be involved with Jesus today. Thats why were here. If were not involved with Jesus here. Now, of course we cant expect to find a place with Jesus on the day he returns and inherits everything. But if we seek to make Jesus the centre of our lives now, then we can be sure that there will be a place for us when he returns and he receives everything.

The whole creation is a gift from the father to the son. And as we're connected to Jesus by faith, we're caught up in that amazing, amazing story of reality. That's why we're here. It's what life's all about. That's why Jesus must be the beginning and the end and the middle of all our thinking as a church and as individuals.

Day to day. Verse 17 summarises it. We've been doing memory verses over the summer and I think this is a memory verse we missed out. This is a great verse to memorise and meditate on. Verse 17.

Jesus is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Jesus is before all things and in him all things hold together. Jesus is the logic that runs through everything. Jesus is like the operating system on which the world runs.

Recent census said that more than half of Britons today identify as SBNR, spiritual but not religious. 53% of us are spiritual but not religious. 53% of people want a spirituality that is bigger than themselves and they're right to want it. But Jesus is that. He is that.

Stars and galaxies and animals and trees and planets and oceans and our life and the human race and our purpose and our destiny. Everything fits together only with Jesus at the centre. It only makes sense with him at the centre because he is the logic that runs through everything. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

I think I mentioned before a conversation I had years ago down in Plymouth on the street with a member of a cult who was trying to persuade people to do a personality test. Maybe you've seen them, you do a personality test and you sign up for one of their courses and so on. And he said to me, we've got room for Jesus in our system. I think he thought that would please me. Well, one of the early christian leaders in Africa, Athanasius of Alexandria, he said the only system of thought into which Jesus Christ will fit is one in which he is the starting point.

The only system of thought in which Jesus Christ will fit is one in which he is the starting point. You can't slot jesus into another system. He is the system.

If you've done religious studies at school or at university, religious studies departments will try and study Jesus as part of a bigger course on religion. But jesus isn't part of a bigger thing, a bigger system. He doesn't find his place among other truths. He can't be proved or validated by any argument. It's not that other things make sense of Jesus.

Jesus makes sense of everything else. He's the answer and everything else is the question. He built the theatre, wrote the script, he's the star of the show. And everything else only finds its meaning and purpose as part of the supporting cast. Without Jesus at the centre, it doesn't make sense.

That's why a church must be Christ centred. That's why things in our lives only hold together with Jesus at the centre. Put anything else at the centre and sooner or later it will all fly off in all kinds of directions.

How about this? We sometimes talk about laws of nature almost as if the universe governs itself like a big machine. Gravity, magnetism, motion, the behaviour of heat and light and so on. But they are not abstract laws of nature. They just describe the way that Jesus normally holds everything together.

When people object to the miracles that they see in the Bible or today, because they go against the laws of nature, that's not a problem for you if you're a Christian, is it? Because Jesus isn't bound by the so called laws of nature. He's perfectly free to behave however he wants to. The fact that he normally acts in one way doesn't mean he always has to. If he wants to, he can feed 5000 people, he can walk on water, he can raise the dead with no problem at all.

It is, after all, his creation. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

If I only think that Jesus is an idea, a Sunday night, or maybe somebody with some helpful insights to improve my life, then I've completely misunderstood who he is. He certainly does teach us how to live and show us how to live. But he is also life itself. He is the beginning and the end. The logic behind everything, the word of God who holds everything together and stops everything collapsing into chaos at every moment.

It's Jesus of Nazareth who does that. Jesus isn't just the founder of a religion. He is the founder of the universe.

Verses 18 to 20. Paul shows us that Jesus, who created the universe and will inherit the universe, has also rescued the universe. Have a look down. Paul speaks about Jesus overcoming death. He talks about reconciliation and making peace.

He's taking us back to the garden of Eden. He's reminding us that after the Father created everything through Jesus there was a cosmic catastrophe. Our first parents joined with Satan and rebelled against the Lord God and dragged creation away from Jesus, away from the light and life of the world and separated from him. The world ever since has been characterised by darkness and death and decay and pain and injustice.

In these verses, Paul shows us that Jesus isn't only the centre of creation, but he's also the source of its rescue, its redemption through his blood. Have a look at verse 18. He is the head of the body, the church, the beginning and firstborn from among the dead. So that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Church. Church is the name that we give to everybody who has been restored through Jesus. That group of people is called Church and Jesus is the head of the body, the church, the beginning and firstborn from among the dead. Did you notice how he's described? He's the head.

We're the body. We're so joined it's a single unit. Now, I was a bit nervous when I wrote this illustration and I know I'm on dangerous ground here, but when a baby is born, the most painful thing is for its head to come out. Once the head is out, the rest of the body comes relatively quickly without as much pain. Please don't hit me.

Afterwards, Jesus suffered and died and came out into resurrection life so that his whole body, the church, might follow him into new life, delivered from the agony of hell and judgement. He's the head, we're the body. That's why church must be centred on him. He's the head. It shouldn't be centred on teaching or music or social engagement or any other ministry.

It's Jesus who's the head of the church, the creator, the redeemer, the one who has the supremacy. So I want to ask you, as we come to an end, how big is Jesus in your mind? Is he just a friend to you? Is he just that?

Is he just an idea?

Is he big enough to handle what youre facing this week, all your issues? Because the Bible says he is the one in whom all things hold together. He can handle everything.

In verse 19, Jesus isn't a watered down version of God. It says in verse 19, God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. In Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth isn't just a first century teacher or a figure from the past or whatever. Jesus is God on the strongest possible setting.

When we look at Jesus we see exactly what God is like. And the reason he became one of us 2000 years ago is in verse 20. So that through Jesus God could reconcile everything to himself. Through Jesus blood shed on the cross that God could reconcile everything to himself.

Sometimes we personalise it as if now we must personalise it. Jesus died for me, but it's more than that. This verse says that the death of Jesus reconciled the whole creation. Stars, galaxies, oceans, heaven and earth. Jesus blood shed on the cross 2000 years ago had a cosmic effect.

When I was at primary school, it was nuclear war that was going to kill us all. Do you remember? We had to watch those videos. They were terrifying of what to do in the event of the alarm going off. It was like hide under a door that was propped against a wall, as if that was going to help us.

Then when I got to secondary school, it was the ozone layer that was going to kill us all. It was chlorofluorocarbons, cfcs. Do you remember those? These days, it's something else these days. Of course it's rising sea levels.

It's global warming. Now don't get me wrong. As christians we want to care for God's creation. We're stewards, but we are not the saviour of this creation. We want to love our neighbours in other parts of the world by using the resources of this world responsibly.

But if we think we can save the world or that it's down to us to save the world, we've got a very inflated opinion of ourselves. We're the stewards, not the saviours. The destiny of the whole creation was settled 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross and reconciled all things to his father in heaven. Even the biggest problems of the world think what they might be. Jesus is the answer.

But what about us? What about you and me? What does it mean for us today? Paul's taken us to the creation of the world. He's taken us forward to its future as Christ's inheritance.

He's taken us in our thinking through death into resurrection life. He's taken us into the Trinity, the life of God himself, Father, son and holy spirit. But where do you and I fit into all this? How can we be part of the church? Christ's body?

The answer as we end is in verse 23. How can we be part of it? Verse 23. By trusting Jesus.

These final verses say that once we were enemies of God. Our thinking, our assumptions, they were all wrong in God's eyes. We were dysfunctional. Why? Because of our evil behaviour.

Verse 21. See, good in the eyes of Jesus is loving God and one another with all of our heart, soul, minor strength with every fibre of our being, laying our lives down for each other. In practical ways, that is, to love. But instead, every single one of us naturally focuses on ourselves, our own desires. And all that does is show us how alienated from God we are.

But verse 22, the death of Jesus that rescues the universe will also transform you and me and bring us into Christ's body. Trusting in Jesus makes us friends rather than enemies of God. He took away our sin, our pollution at the cross and he received the punishment that our sins deserved. So that now, verse 23, we want to hold more and more firmly onto Jesus, not moving away from him. There is nowhere else to go.

If he is all those things that we've seen, then there's nowhere else to go, is there? We don't move on from Jesus.

We can always go deeper into Jesus. There's always more. We'll never come to the end of who Jesus is, but there's nowhere else to go.

One degree off over the long run, it will take you far off course in your own life as a church. But set the compass right of your life or of a church. Get the centre right, in other words, and everything else finds its proper place. So that's our first core conviction. We want to be Christ centred.

We gratefully focus on God's son, crucified for our sins, risen, glorified and returning. Before we sing again, shall we pray to Lord Jesus Christ? We bow before you tonight and we are so sorry that in our minds you have shrunk so small.

We're sorry that we have made you something else. Lord Jesus, you are everything.

The beginning and the end.

The firstborn from among the dead. The glorious son of man returning to make all things new. Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that you would grow in our hearts by faith. You would become bigger and bigger to us. We would trust you with every area of our life.

We would look to you, Lord, for all the answers to all our questions. And Lord, as a church, we would hold you out, Lord Jesus Christ, to this village and to this area. Because we know that you are the answer that every one of us needs.

As we go into a new week and a new day tomorrow. Lord Jesus, go with us. We pray. Help us to think and live for you. And we ask, lord, for your namesake.

Amen.