Colossians 1:18-20 · 5-day study

Put Back Together

Going deeper on Jason Shepperd's sermon at Church Project (The Woodlands, TX).

Week of Sep 13, 2026

The big idea

Jesus is over everything, beginning with his church, so he gets first place in your life and you can't pull away from his people, because he paid for peace with God on the cross.

Day 1 · FreeColossians 1:18-20

First Impressions

Three short verses, one very big Jesus

Read Colossians 1:18-20 out loud before you read anything else here. It takes about thirty seconds, and it might be one of the most packed stretches in the whole New Testament. In three verses Paul squeezes in a head, a body, a beginning, a resurrection, a throne, a fullness, a peace treaty, and a cross.

If you were at church on Sunday, you probably remember the picture that stuck: Jesus is the head, and the church is his body. It's a simple image, but it gets uncomfortable fast. A lot of us are fine with Jesus. The church is a different story. Maybe you've been hurt in one. Maybe you've been bored in one. Maybe you've just figured you can follow Jesus fine on your own. Paul's picture doesn't leave much room for that. A head with no body isn't a cleaner, simpler version of a person. It's not a person at all.

But before we get into the hard stuff this week, notice something. Paul isn't writing to scold anybody. Look at how the passage moves. It starts with who Jesus is: the head, the first one to rise from the dead, the one who comes first in everything. Then it moves to what God chose to do: put all of himself into Jesus. And it lands on why: to bring everything back to God and make peace. The whole passage is about someone doing something for us.

Pay attention to one small word in verse 19. Paul says God was pleased to have all his fullness live in Jesus. Not stuck with it. Not forced into it. Pleased. Even the cross, which is the hardest thing in this passage to look at, comes out of a God who wanted to do this. That changes the mood of everything. This isn't a God grudgingly putting up with us. This is a God on a mission to get us back.

Here's an easy way to hold on to the passage this week. Think of three words: head, body, peace. The head is Jesus and who he is. The body is us and where we fit. The peace is what he did to bring us home. Over the next few days we'll slow down and look at each one. Today, don't try to solve anything. Just read the verses again and let them be bigger than you expected. Circle the one phrase that grabs you most, and carry it around with you for the day.

Sit with this

  1. 1When you hear 'Jesus is the head and the church is his body,' what's your first gut reaction, and why do you think you react that way?

Journal prompt

Write down three words you would have used to describe Jesus before reading this passage. Then write three words Paul uses about Jesus in Colossians 1:18-20. What's different between the two lists, and which list feels more like the Jesus you actually live with day to day?

Days 2–5 are in the app

Carry Jason Shepperd's sermon through the whole week.

  1. 2

    Look Closer

    Three ways Paul says 'first'

  2. 3

    What It Meant Then

    A small town, a prison cell, and a letter read out loud

  3. 4

    The Hard Question

    Can you really have the head without the body?

  4. 5

    Carry It Forward

    From a hiding place in the garden to a healed world

Start this study free

Free while in beta. Journal and ask questions as you go.

Where the passage connects

  • Colossians 1:18-20

    Paul shows how big Jesus is: he leads the church, he is the source of life and the first to rise, he holds all of God's fullness, and he made peace through his blood on the cross.

  • 1 Corinthians 12:21

    Paul tells a messy church that one body part can't say it has no need of another, so Jesus can't be separated from his people (Romans 12:5 adds that we belong to each other).

  • John 11:43

    Jesus called a dead man out of a tomb, and together with the little girl in Mark 5:41, this shows the power Paul means when he calls Jesus the first to rise.

  • Philippians 2:6-7

    The one who held all of God's fullness did not cling to his rights but took on human limits and a servant's life, which is what Christmas is really about.

  • Luke 14:26

    Jesus says he must come before even our closest family and our own life, which shows that supremacy is something he demands, not a nice extra.

“If he's before all things that ever existed, he should at least be before everything in our life.”

Pastor, Church Project

“The more we love Jesus, the more we love his church.”

Pastor, Church Project

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This study is an original devotional inspired by Jason Shepperd's message “Church.Supreme.Fullness.Reconciled. // Colossians 1:18-20 // September 13, 2026” at Church Project. Watch the original sermon.