Your Art is Spiritual Warfare.

Today we need to think big.

Today I want to bring you a broad sweep 
from the letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians,
and tie together three ideas
that make a huge difference for
Artistic disciples of Jesus Christ.

The first idea is this:
Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God
the first born of all creation,
for in him all things were created,
both visible and invisible--
whether thrones
dominions
or principalities
or authorities--
all things were created through him
and for him.
Colossians 1:15-16.

The second idea is this,
and follows from the first:
For in Jesus
all the fullness of God
dwells bodily,
and you have come to fullness of life
in him
who is the head of all rule and authority.
Colossians 2:9

Third idea
that follows from the previous two:
If you have been raised with Christ in baptism,
seek the things that are above
where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above
not on things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:1-2

First,
Jesus is the Image of the Invisible God.
This phrase alludes to Genesis 1:26.
"In the image of God."
That phrase in Hebrew is B'tzelem Elohim.
The "bet" in that phrase is a preposition:
in.
Adam and Eve were created to be "in" the image.
Or literally,
the ones who stood in the place of God
on the earth.
They were made to be the "gods" of the earth.
God's full and total representative.
And up to that point,
we only know one thing about God.
God is the creator,
the maker of all things
Visible and invisible.

This idea is echoed in Exodus 31 and 35
when God tells Moses that he has called 
Bezalel.
The name Bezalel
is an anagram of this phrase
B'tzelem elohim.
God raised up a man,
and he acts on behalf of God
and creates
a model of the perfect relationship 
between heaven and earth.
But Bezalel is just a foreshadowing of Jesus
who though he was God
took the form of a servant,
and emptied himself.
All the fullness of God
dwelt in Jesus,
and although he made all things
and all things were made for him,
he came into a world
and a cosmos
that was in rebellion against him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he[d] might be pre-eminent. 19 For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

So Jesus
became a man
and made himself an icon of the Father.
Jesus became a physical representation of the Father
and then he took upon himself 
the cross.
And the cross,
although it was about sin,
it was also about something much bigger.
It was about restoring order in the unseen realms.
Jesus is restoring his pre-eminence
in the spiritual world.
And now
all powers,
all principalities,
all dominions,
and thrones,
must bow down to him.
Paul is linking the Incarnation
and the Image of God,
to spiritual warfare.
Jesus
the Icon, the Image,
the perfect portrait of the Father,
is now over and above all things.

And Jesus is not just a picture,
a shadow.
He is a living picture of
the fullness of God.
He is an icon backed up by the full
Presence, Power, and Person of God.
He is the full Image of God 
and has begun to reconquer
the heavens and the earth.

The second idea:
you have come into him.
Paul says in Colossians 2 
that when you were baptized
you were buried with him,
and also you were raised with him.
Mysteriously,
you have become B'tzelem Elohim.
You have become the Image of God 
like God intended for Adam and Eve.
You are now icons of the Father.
And with this
you are a creator,
you have dominion over the unseen realm
and the goal is you would experience
the fullness of God
living in you.
This fullness comes
through a transformation of your thinking.

The third idea.
If you have been raised with Christ
seek the things that are above
set your minds on the things that are above.

If you are the Image of God 
in the earth,
your job is not to fix earth and bring it up to heaven.
Your job is to tap into heaven
and invade every place on earth that is not
aligned with Jesus
who is over all things
and for whom all things were made.
Trying to fix things on earth
is exhausting.

In 2020,
I asked God to school me in the Kingdom of God
and one thing I have learned for sure,
is that this gospel of the Kingdom is so powerful
that even in the weak and watered down forms that people
have come to believe,
lives are transformed.
One of the things that has always mystified me
from my first Christian experience
is this weird belief
that the gospel is too strong.
People in sick and dying churches
try to weaken the truth and reality of the gospel
thinking that will make people interested.
They will try anything to get people
in the door
but preach the basic Christian message.
And things die.

In reality
the more gospel you preach
the more people you attract.
The stronger the medicine
the more attractive it becomes.
Jesus said if I be lifted up I will draw all men.

Jesus is the icon.
Jesus is the full representative.
He is the image.
And when we come into him
and are filled with the Holy Spirit,
we begin the process of transformation.
We have been taught a lie,
that we are weak,
broken,
fallen, 
and sinful.
As we fix our eyes on the Image,
we become like what we look at.
Jesus fixed his eyes on the Father,
and when he did this,
he only did what the Father was doing.
You become
what you worship.

And so Paul admonishes us
to seek the things that are above.
And the more you seek him
the more you find.
Like I said last week,
if we draw near to God
he will draw near to us.

And the implications
are tremendous.

Jesus is the creator.
You are in him
and are called to be a little creator.
You are called to be God in the flesh
wherever you go.
You are the name of God,
the image of God.
And so,
first
you have to become an inward masterpiece.
You have to become like Jesus.
And this becoming like Jesus is not a work of the flesh.
You cannot discipline yourself into a new creation.
It has to be a supernatural act.
And this happens
first through baptism by water and the Holy Spirit.
Second it happens by offering your body
as a living sacrifice,
and this is a daily decision.
This is happens through the renewing of your mind.
And this third one is tricky.
Paul tells us to Colossians 2:8 not to become 
prey
by philosophy,
empty deceit,
or human tradition
which are all expressions of elemental
spirits of the universe.
What is Paul saying here:
any idea that takes your eyes off
Jesus
in whom the whole fullness of God
dwells bodily,
you are listening to another spiritual force.

When I was in school they would say
"all truth is God's truth."
That isn't correct,
because truth is not information or thoughts.
Truth is a person.
And anything that does not find it's reality 
in God became a man
died on the cross
and rose again
overcoming all things in the created realm
is not truth.
The incarnation is everything.
And one further,
if you are turning to other things
you are actually submitting
to the spirit of anti-Christ
that denies the incarnation.

This simple test,
"Does it lead me back to the 
Jesus the Image of God?"
causes alot of things to just fall away.

Now lets come back to this notion,
God has called us to be the image of God
in Christ.
We are now on a pilgrimage to becoming 
fully a reflection of that image.
And out of us
flows the living water
of the Holy Spirit.
This flow is first for the healing of the nations,
but it is also teaming with life.
It is full of all kinds of life,
and when you fully embrace your call
as a little creator,
and the "B'tzelem elohim"
your creative expression becomes an extension
of Jesus the maker and creator of all things.
And all things
because of his cross
submit to him.

I mentioned that in these chapters
Paul connects Jesus
being the Image of God
to his dominion over the spiritual world.
All things are under him.
All things.
Nothing outside the kingdom
can withstand the Presence, Power,
and Person of God
that lives in you.
God is calling you to become the church,
to become the House of his Glory,
to become the temple.
And wherever you walk
you are taking territory.
You being you,
fully in Christ
is a weapon.

So many of us have been so secularized
that we think that we can compartmentalize 
our work,
our calling,
and our faith.
From the Biblical grid,
you can never be religious and secular.
No.
You are a new creation.
You are the image of God.
And your work
is an outgrowth of that reality.
If you are a little creator
representing God
then what you do
and what you create is 
by default
going to express that.
You don't have to try,
because what you look at 
where you set your mind
and who you are dwelling in
is going to change what comes out.
It is that simple.

And this is the next part,
and why we deal with so much spiritual warfare.
If you are the image of God,
and you are with Jesus, the fullness of God,
and you are setting your mind on him
and fixated on things that are above,
then what you do is taking dominion
in the earth.
You are making a sign
not only to the people around you
that points to Jesus and the cross,
you are making a sign in the unseen realm
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
and that the unseen realm
is His.

You are doing powerful spiritual
warfare
when you make things that take people
out of this realm
and focus them on the heavenly reality.
And this is why so much of recent art
is downward focused.
The enemy is looking for allies,
not victims.

This is not theory
this is reality.