Christ The King Sunday  November 22-23, 2025

“Bigger Than Us”  Colossians 1:13-20

Rev. John R. Larson  Ascension Lutheran Church  Littleton, Colorado   

            And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  (Colossians 1:10-14)     

            Do you pay attention to the attendance that we have at our worship services at Ascension?  How many come at 4:00 on Saturday?  Sunday at 8:00?  The 10:30 service?  If you do, you may have noticed that the Saturday afternoon service numbers have gone down recently.   Any idea why?  I think I know.  It gets dark around 4:30 now and our service doesn’t get over until about 5:00.  And some of our folks don’t drive at night.  In March I think the numbers will pick up again when more daylight has come once again.

            The dark has a great effect on many people.  Many people have Seasonal Affective Disorder (the acronym is SAD), a period lasting 4-5 months when we have less sunlight.  Usually this is from November until March.  This can be really tough for folks in Northern Canada and Alaska they have only a few hours of sunlight a day.  A lot of people don’t like the days after we fall back in early November.  We start going to bed at 7:30.

            People get hurt in the dark.  People lose their way in the dark.  Some people get disorientated in the dark.  The darkness can be unsafe.  Darkness can be deadly. 

            Darkness can try to take over our life and our soul.  Our reading from Colossians speaks about the “dominion of darkness”.  A spiritual darkness can take hold of us.  It can have a rule over us.  Paul in Ephesians warns us, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.”  (Ephesians 5:11)  Jesus said in John 3, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”  (John 3:19)

            Sometimes darkness is apparent.  One breaks their marriage vow.  Darkness.  One watches pornography.  Darkness.  One lives in bitterness towards another.  Darkness.  Stealing.  Filthy words.  Course jokes.  Dark.  Dirty.  But sometimes this dominion of darkness is covered up so nicely.  I can tell another, “I’m just too busy”, but what I’m really saying is “I don’t really care about you.”  Too many times we neglect the people that God desires us to care for. 

            Do you struggle against that darkness?  Sure.  Sometimes our sins and our attitudes and our choices seem bigger than us.  They win.  We lose.  But there is someone bigger than them.  Sin can have dominion.  It can have its reign and rule.  But there is one who is stronger and greater.  Verses 12-13 in our reading say this, “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”

            When some kids are on the playground and they want to prove themselves to their friends they start talking big and cocky.  “I’m faster than you.”  “I can jump higher than you.”  “I can throw the ball farther.”  And then the brilliant conversation begins between the two: “Can not!!”  “Can too.”  And sometimes a comparison of their dads gets added to the debate.  “My dad can beat up your dad.”  (I’m glad I never had to prove that one – and I’m sure my dad was glad he didn’t have to prove me right, either.)

            But we do have one who is bigger than our sins and bigger than our failures and bigger than our death and bigger than our darkness.  Jesus.  “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”

            The Bible tells us of the then, and the now, of once being under the rule of the devil and now being under the power of God, “For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.)”  (Ephesians 5:8-9) 

            Our God is bigger than our sins.  Jesus has the authority and the dominion over sin.  Jesus is bigger and greater than the prince of darkness – the devil.  The day that Jesus died was purposely made dark.  But the day that He rose, it was miraculously brighter than the sun.

            Colossians 1:15-20 is known as “The Christ Hymn”.  To show that He can take us from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light, we are told who Jesus is.  Jesus made all things which exist.  By His power all things hold together.  He is the one who died, rose and leads all believers into their eternity.  This is how the “Christ Hymn” goes:

             He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  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 and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.”  (Colossians 1:15-20)

             It is evident in this world, and in our lives, that there is a dominion of darkness.  It is sad how our lives can be so severely hurt by darkness and evil.  It is sad to see how this world is fractured by such evil. 

            But these words, in this brilliant chapter, tell us of someone greater who does something greater in our lives.  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12)

            Will you and I stumble into darkness?  Yes.  Paul gives this warning to believers, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”  (I Corinthians 10:12)  But the great news is that the light of Christ’s love, His forgiveness, will come to us when in repentance we seek Him.  The Proverbs says, “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.”  (Proverbs 24:16)

            Years ago a book was written with the inviting title, “Your God is Too Small”.   The author, J.B. Phillips, was correct in his argument.  So many of the things that we run to, to find our peace and security, our hope and foundation, the things that become our gods, are puny, weak, impotent.  They can offer us no help.  But our God, our Savior Jesus, is not inadequate to meet our needs.  Later in Colossians this is what we hear: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.”  (Colossians 2:9-10)

            There are many things that can be bigger than us.  We can be overcome by too many things.  Our guilt, our sin may overwhelm us.  But our God is bigger.  Greater.  Of our Lord Jesus, and of us, it says, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”                 

            Our God is bigger than us.  Jesus is bigger than us.  He is bigger than our sins and struggles.  He belongs to us.  We belong to Him.  Amen!!