Hans Hopgood preaches on the preeminence of Christ and the assurance of the church
A sermon by Hans Hopgood at Rivers Apostolic Centre, exploring Christ's supremacy over all creation and the peace available to the church through the blood of the cross.
Summary
Hans Hopgood delivers a sermon drawn from Colossians 1:15–20 and Romans 8:31–39, centring on the preeminence of Jesus Christ over all creation and over death itself. He argues that the church, like Adam and Eve before it, carries the mandate to reveal God to the world — an impossible task that God intentionally keeps humble, even gifting its leaders with thorns in the flesh, so that the church's survival and growth testify to God's power rather than human effort. Hopgood's central claim is that Christ's identity as firstborn from the dead means there is nothing — no sin, no failure, no persecution, no spiritual power — that can ultimately defeat the church or separate believers from the love of God. The sermon closes with an extended call to receive the peace of the cross, inviting those under condemnation or hopelessness to come as creatures, not as those who have overcome in their own strength.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Communion and opening prayer
Hans Hopgood: Move through this place, oh Lord. Heal our hearts and make us clean by the blood of the Lamb. We receive you.
If you haven't taken communion, come and take the bread and the wine. It is our cleansing. It is the power of God. We need the blood. We plead the blood. We receive the blood.
We receive your mercy this morning, Lord God. We receive your mercy this morning, Lord. Your mercy, your blood speaks a better word over our lives today, Lord. There is no narrative that can be written over our lives other than that which has been spoken through the blood of Jesus Christ. He has written a new narrative over our lives. We plead that narrative of the blood over our lives.
Who accuses? It is Christ who justifies. It is Christ who died. Who is it that condemns? It is God who justifies. We receive the blood. We receive what is written — the new word the blood has written over our lives. We receive that. We break the power the enemy has had over our minds, torment in the name of Jesus. We come against him. We break that power right now in the name of Jesus.
You have been given the mind of Christ. His very mind has been given to you. You have a new mind given to you. We receive everything — every thought that the Lord has about us, we receive that. Every thought that the Holy Spirit has about us, we receive that this morning, in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.
Reading from Colossians 1
I'm going to launch straight into the word this morning. And if you have your Bibles and you want to sit and read with me, open up to the book of Colossians chapter 1. If you are in an encounter with the Lord, remain there. Soak it in. Drink it in. Drink deep of that river that we were singing about.
Colossians chapter 1 — an exquisite piece of poetry, an exquisite passage of Scripture. One that should just liberate us immediately as we read it together. Colossians chapter 1, verse 15 to 20. Powerful portion of Scripture. I love this.
"He — Jesus — is the image of God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All these things were created by Him, 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."
The church's mandate to reveal God
Today I want to talk about the church. I want to talk about lots of things, but I want to talk about this unique entity called the church — the body of Christ. It is a unique entity in that it is the only entity on earth that exists to reveal God. It's an impossible situation that we've been put in. We are the entity that reveals God. Impossible. That is a unique mandate.
In the beginning, Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. They were created in the image of Jesus, because He is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. We were created in the image of Jesus. We are to look like Jesus. Adam and Eve were created in the image of Jesus, and they lived in paradise with God. They lived in Eden. They lived in the garden of immeasurable pleasure at the right hand of God — pleasures forevermore — and they lived in the unending revelation of His manifold wisdom. Pretty great place to be. They walked with God face to face, and they stood in His unfiltered glory.
From that place, they were given the mandate to take everything that they were seeing and bearing as the name of God and go out into the world and release that in all of creation. They were the administrators of every spiritual blessing that came from heaven out into the world. They were mandated to reveal God to all of creation through their lives.
And in the New Testament, the church takes on that same mandate. The church has been birthed into the new creation and has been restored to the original mandate to bear the name of God. We bear the name of Jesus. When the world looks at us, they should say, is that the church or is that the Lord? We bear the name of Jesus.
And we do this in two ways. We do this by announcing the revelation of Jesus — this is who He is, this is what He looks like. And we do that also by releasing the surpassing greatness of His power according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come, to whom all things were put under His feet, who is head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
We are called to walk in that power. That's a lot of power. That's a lot of dominion. That's a lot of authority and rule that has been given to the church to reveal. And we would be forgiven — and we are forgiven — for feeling a little inadequate in fulfilling that, because it's been a while since I've seen the working of His great might that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. It's been a while since I've released that power, since I've seen the church release that kind of power.
Power made perfect in weakness
There's one thing that we must learn about releasing God's power, and it is a spanner in the works, unfortunately. Paul discovered that God's power is released and made perfect in our weakness. So what are we to boast in? What are we to walk in? We want to walk in God's power, but we must walk in the humanness of weakness and accept that and walk in that and boast in it — boast in its humble state.
Paul cries out to the Lord for the release of this power in order to establish churches. Lord, if we are going to raise up churches everywhere, they should be bursting at the seams with life. Lord, I'm crying out to you. Release that power that you promised from on high. Release it.
And it almost feels like it's at cross purposes with the Lord's mandate that the Lord would put a thorn in Paul's journey. He says in 2 Corinthians, "I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on boasting that I've been in visions and revelations of God. I've seen it." Although he speaks of a man he knows, he's speaking of himself. He says, "Fourteen years ago, I was caught up to the heavens, in paradise where Adam and Eve were — unfiltered glory. In fact, I saw so much that it was inutterable. I came back, and these were things that I saw that I could not speak about. They were so powerful."
And you would think that if God was going to make such an investment into Paul — such an investment of encounter — He'd be like, right, go, release that all over the world. But instead, "to keep me from being conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in my flesh, a messenger of Satan." Even the thrones and powers and dominions and rulers of which Christ was the firstborn over all creation — I created all of them. In fact, I'll take one of those, a messenger of Satan, and I'll shove it right in your side, to keep you from being conceited at the visions of the greatness of His glory. Because if you walked in that, it's a damage to my witness should you fall into pride and be conceited by the level of glory that I'd release upon the church.
Instead, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
He has no problem with putting the brakes on and saying, humility. There was a message preached on humility just a couple of weeks ago. Humility. That's what you walk in. You're the creature. I'm God. You're the creature. Be the creature. Just be the creature. Don't be God. Don't try to be God. Be the creature. I'm creator. You're a creature. Be human. Be flawed. Be humble. Be weak. Be dependent. That's how I made you.
The church kept humble
So the church sits in this paradox. It's mandated to be a great light to the world, but it is often birthed small, kept humble, and it seems sometimes even gifted with a thorn. Thank you, Jesus. Thanks for the gifts, Lord. More gifts. So that the church may continually be a testimony that it wasn't in our efforts that the church was birthed. It wasn't in our efforts the church was sustained. It wasn't even in our efforts that the church succeeded, but that it was God who was the author of the church. It is God who is the sustainer of the church. It is God who causes the growth, and it is God who is the source of its power.
But because the church is kept in such a humble place, it means that its leaders and its congregants are in frequent need of encouragement. Frequently. Please encourage us. We're in frequent need of it, because although our pursuit is for the great thing, we're often kept in this place of tension and trial. You need to be encouraged as well.
Paul had to dig deep to encourage his churches. He had to dig deep. And I'm sure the churches at times wondered if it was worth all the trouble. Where is the power of God? Where is the power of Elijah? When is Rome going to topple? Where is that? Is it worth it? Is it worth going through the really small, menial thorns in the flesh that seem to just slow us down all the time? Is it worth it?
Paul had to dig deep for a revelation to comfort the churches who were facing real, life-and-death persecution. Is it worth it? Paul had to stand there and say, keep going, it's worth it. Loving your enemies is worth it. Being betrayed is worth it. Living through famines and wars and rumours of wars is worth it. Living under the oppressive regime of the Romans is worth it. Having your property ripped off you is worth it. Losing your family to the lions is worth it. Watching your friends being turned into human lanterns to light the streets of Rome is worth it. Going through all the many trials and troubles that you are going through is worth it.
How did he do it? How did he manage to hold all of that back and go, guys, what you are going through now is worth it? And how did he encourage the church to stand against all they could see — the dominion of the powers and thrones and principalities that seemed to be in victory over them?
Paul's encouragement to the Colossians
One of the communities that Paul had to encourage was the church in Colossae. Paul is writing to the Colossians to fortify them in their faith in Jesus Christ whilst they are under pressure from various trials. He writes to the church in Colossae an exquisite piece of poetry to remind them of how they came into existence.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. By Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
Paul starts by zooming right out to the farthest macro view possible and says, if you want to have confidence that your little community will survive the hostile environment that it is implanted in, then you need to know that He is the firstborn of everything that has been created. All things have been created — whether they are in heaven, visible or invisible, whether thrones, dominions — all these things have been created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Paul starts there. Everything that we see has been created by Him, and because it's been created by Him, He has authority over it. Why does it feel like sometimes that is not the case?
This includes the things in heaven — they have been created by Him, through Him, and for Him. Things that are visible and invisible, whether they are the thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — even the spiritual entities that threaten our lives or war against us, messengers of Satan against our lives or tempt us to failure — have been created by Him, and He is the ruler and authority over them.
Even the things on earth — the Roman rulers, the Greek rulers, the powerhouses of their age, the empires — they were created by Him and appointed by Him. And it may look like the Romans are in charge, but they are not. And we can pray for them. We can submit to them even. We can come under it because He is over it. Even the rulers that threaten the existence of the church, God is preeminent over them because He created all things and they are created for Him.
But that doesn't answer everything. So Paul then goes deeper, and this is where Paul is able to really liberate his churches from fear.
Christ as firstborn from the dead
Paul goes on to say that not only is Christ the firstborn over all creation, but He is also crowned with the title of firstborn from the dead. This is where the power is.
And this means that even when — now I say when, not if — even when those created powers, whether they are invisible or visible, get the better of us. And even when — I say when — let him who says he has no sin know that he's been deceived. When you fail, and even when those rulers and principalities and powers tempt us to failure, and even when we succumb to sin, and even when death and sin and corruption enter the world, and even when relationships are fractured and brokenness enters, and even when the created thrones and dominions and powers and rulers seem victorious in their corruption of our lives — Christ did not for a moment despair, but rather entered into death, entered into our sin, entered into our corruption, into our brokenness, into our failure, in order to be crowned the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything He may be preeminent.
He is preeminent over them — the things that come against us — and He is preeminent when they do take us out.
And so Paul can confidently declare to all the churches, whether they are strong or weak, that it is precisely because Jesus is the firstborn from the dead that he can declare that there is nothing in heaven or on earth or under the earth, nothing that is dark or broken, no sin, no failure or temptation that is powerful enough to threaten the existence of the church. And Jesus puts the church in that category of victory.
Here's the church. Whether you're doing the thing or not, you sit in the category of victory over death. You don't even have to prove it. You don't have to prove His power. You just exist. You exist in the victory over death. And you start to become a testimony that death has been defeated. Because you're still standing. All you have to do is stand. And sing in the midst of it.
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.
So Paul is able to become the master encourager to the church because he had a revelation that the church was the witness that death had been defeated — because the church had been birthed from the underground, from death, through Jesus Christ on the cross.
Romans 8 — nothing can separate us
Paul writes this to the Colossians to strengthen them in their faith. And he writes similar things to all the small churches that he planted, telling them that although the church may be surrounded by all kinds of things that threaten its existence, whether external or internal, whether they are in heaven or on earth, nothing can destroy what God has birthed because He is preeminent over everything.
So he writes to the Roman church also in this similar vein, Romans chapter 8, verses 31 to 39:
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
It doesn't sound very victorious, does it?
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Paul is convinced. He calls that assurance. He is convinced. There is nothing that can take you out. Nothing that can take the church out. Nothing. It might seem like it. You might fall back into patterns. Sin has been defeated. Sin was condemned in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Death is defeated. Condemnation is defeated. Defeat is defeated. There is nothing that can defeat us.
Who can bring a charge, even when a charge is warranted? Plenty of charges that are warranted against my life. Plenty. Who can bring it? It is God who justifies. He did the work.
Who is it who condemns any of us, even if a condemnation of our actions is warranted? My actions warrant condemnation? Christ Jesus is the one who died. That's His answer. It doesn't seem like an answer. Who is it that condemns? Christ Jesus died. Finished. End of condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For I am convinced that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul calls it assurance.
Christ's preeminence and the peace of the cross
Christ is the firstborn over all creation and the firstborn from the dead. As the firstborn over all creation and the firstborn from the dead, and as the firstborn of the church, Jesus is charged with the responsibility to shepherd what He has created. He is the shepherd. He is His brother's keeper. He is the head of the family. He is the beginning. He is the author. He is before all things, over all things. He sustains all things.
He just stands and delivers this to the churches who are fainting because of fear. Many people would probably throw their hands up and go, well, fate — let's just, we're being delivered into the hands of fate. The Romans, who knows what's on the other side? We're just sheep led to the slaughter. Why should we even be hopeful, joyful? Why could we even sing?
And Christ has done all of this so that He may give us peace. Paul's goal was to give Christ's peace to the church by announcing their assured position in Christ's finished work. Paul says here that Jesus is preeminent over all things and sustains all things, and He reconciles all things and makes peace from all things through the blood of His cross. His goal is to give us peace.
There is plenty that condemns us. Paul preaches peace through the blood of the cross. Not just peace by knowledge, but peace by the blood. And this revelation should give us immense peace and confidence in all things — whether the thing that He has created in our lives is our family or our work life or our community or anything under the sun.
Jesus is the author of everything created and the sustainer of creation. And it doesn't hinder God's plan that some of the things that were created, and the things that test our journey by thrones and dominions and powers and rulers and authority, work against us and tempt us to fail. Even if through those rulers and thrones and dominions things go really bad — through failure, sin, error, corruption — Jesus entered into death to become the firstborn from the dead, so that He may be preeminent over our failures and make peace with us by the blood of His cross.
So today I want you to be convinced. It's a hard one to swallow. It's a blessed assurance. It's a gift. It's hard to receive. Really? Not condemned? Nothing on earth or in the heavens can separate me from the love of Christ? Nothing?
That's the devil's job — to try and convince you the other way. God did say free gift, and that His blood is enough. But did God really say — because, you know, you really are a failure. I'll take you to court. Accused and condemned. He's got you.
Paul says Christ has got you. He's got you. He's got your journey. He's got your lives. He's accounted for your sin. He's accounted for your failure. He is preeminent.
Closing worship and altar call
Let's stand and gaze through the peephole of that revelation and worship together.
That in all things you may have the first place. That in all things you may be preeminent. Worthless idols will be exposed for what they are. You alone will be exalted in that day. You'll be seen as rightful king, and from our hearts we'll sing. All is for your glory, and all is for your name. All is for your glory, that in all things you would have the first place, that in all things you would have preeminence. Catch me up in your story, all my life for your glory.
I just want to invite you to come in your humanness. Come as the creature to the foot of the cross. Don't come as God who has defeated your own sins, who has overcome your own failures. Come as a human. Come as a creature. Come with your condemnations. Come condemned. Come accused. Come as you are. God is ready to release the full weight of His glory upon you. The full measure of His glory. The full mercy of His blood upon you, in Jesus' name.
We come to you, Christ Jesus. We come to the cross that speaks. It speaks a better word. It speaks freedom. It speaks life. It is the giver of life. The cross is the power of God unto our salvation. We receive the work of the cross into our hearts. We say, Lord Jesus, your flesh was crucified and I have been crucified with you. My flesh is crucified with you. You died and I have died with you. You were raised to life and I have been raised to life with you.
I pray, Lord, that our spirits would burst into ignition. Would burst into new creation ignition, Lord. More of the new wine in the crushing. You are making new wine in the crushing. You do not stand over us to condemn us, but you are making oil and wine — pressing the oil and pressing new wine.
Lift your hand if you have been feeling condemnation or hopelessness.