Bridgetown Biopsies — Wave 3: Cosmic Supremacy / Christ Over Empire & Algorithm

Hunt scope: Col 1:16's powers list ("thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities") and Col 1:18's "preeminent in everything." The under-covered cluster from Wave 2: contemporary "Caesars" — political idolatry, money-as-god (mammon), workism, attention economy, social media as principality, expressive sexuality / desire. The 1st-century-Caesar parallels for the modern moment, not generic "the world is bad" preaching.

Channels queried: Bridgetown Audio Podcast (fafcd003-1c9f-4cb9-80d8-3627d4054168); spot-checks on Practicing the Way (ac323dc0-3dc4-4a1b-8a60-091762d4530f).

Cluster A — Caesar / Empire / Political Idolatry (Col 1:16 "thrones, dominions, rulers")

NT Wright at Bridgetown HSC25: "every modern equivalent of Caesar and Herod"

Source: "HSC25: Session 1," NT Wright at the Holy Spirit Conference, 2025-02 (released 2025-03-31), @ 32:21 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/c42aueamw5z6davy/HSC25_Session_18tyv8.mp3 Cultural pattern: the church's vocation to speak truth to political power, naming modern Caesars The biopsy (verbatim): "[the church] calls the powers to account. The earthly powers, it tells Caesar, Herod, every modern equivalent of Caesar and Herod that they are not God and that God is God. That they are not Lord and that Jesus is Lord." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Direct hit on Col 1:16's powers list. NT Wright — preached on a Bridgetown stage — establishes the move: there are "modern equivalents of Caesar and Herod," and Christian worship calls them to account by declaring Jesus is Lord. This is the Col 1:16 hermeneutic moving forward into 2025. The preacher can stand in this lineage rather than feeling like he's making a fresh political move.

Tyler Staton — Caesar's gospel was a mass-media tool / coin = ancient news feed

Source: "Beatitudes: Blessed are the Meek," Tyler Staton, 2025-01-26, @ 22:47 (and the surrounding 12:00–28:00 block) Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/mykz3dy4x83dk7n4/Meek.mp3 Cultural pattern: Caesar as mass-media propaganda machine — direct line to algorithmic feeds The biopsy (verbatim): "What does he say? He says, 'Bring me a coin.' What's on that coin? Caesar's gospel. Bring me a mass media tool. Bring me the ancient equivalent to the news feed on your phone. They brought him the coin and he asked him whose image is on this." [And later, @ 27:50:] "Christian worship is the most politically charged act we can ever perform. Christian worship declares that Jesus is Lord and that therefore by strong implication nobody else is king. Caesar's gospel was divine propaganda… Jesus is king all the way to Caesar's throne or he's going to die trying. The early church wasn't primarily viewed as a weird group of people who were suspiciously generous financially and suspiciously unpromiscuous sexually — they were that — but primarily they were people living according to the order of another kingdom." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Staton has already done the move the preacher needs: the coin = the news feed = Caesar's gospel = propaganda system. Col 1:16 names the powers; Staton has shown what the powers look like in pocket form. "Caesar's gospel" vs. Christ's gospel is the exact 1st-century / 21st-century parallel the preacher is hunting.

"Politics looks increasingly like a pseudo religion… America's new religious war"

Source: "Part 9: Future Church for the Future World" (Easter 2021), 2021-04-04, @ 4:08 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/h9tx4m/20210404_Sunday_Teaching_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: politics-as-religion, the Newbiginian "political religions" The biopsy (verbatim): "Politics looks increasingly like a pseudo religion, righteous, moralistic, unforgiving and fervently adhered to. America's national debate has taken on a religious complexion in both parties on the right and on the left. They call it America's new religious war." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Names the modern Caesar most members of a discipling-tradition congregation will recognize: the political party / ideology that has crept into the seat of "ultimate." Col 1:16's "thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities" lands directly on "America's new religious war."

"Many followers of Jesus on both right and left have been taken captive by ideology"

Source: "Part 6: A Pastoral Word on the Election & Politics," 2020-11-08, @ 47:10 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/r45rau/2997_Podcast_Nov_88vop0.mp3 Cultural pattern: ideology as captivity (the literal Col 2:8 word) The biopsy (verbatim): "Many followers of Jesus on both the right and the left and even in our own church have, in my view in humility, been taken captive by ideology. Best definition I know of ideology is when you take a part of the truth…" Connection to Col 1:15-20: "Taken captive" is the Col 2:8 verb (συλαγωγέω). The preacher can land Col 1:18 ("that in everything he might be preeminent") on the diagnosis that ideology — left or right — is what's currently preeminent in many believers' imaginations. This biopsy gives the preacher pastoral permission to name it.

"I'm a Christian but at the end of the day my personal truth and self-expression come first"

Source: "7 Letters: Pergamum," Christian Dawson, 2025-03-17, @ 12:19 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/jdmj56qun3xaupke/7_Letters_Pergamum9yanu.mp3 Cultural pattern: "individualistic syncretism" — the modern equivalent of the Pergamum compromise The biopsy (verbatim): "[I'm] more shaped by my ideology, whether left or right, than by the actual teachings of Jesus. The individualistic syncretism. I'm a Christian and at the center of, at the end of the day, my personal truth and self-expression come first." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Pergamum was the city "where Satan's throne is" (Rev 2:13) — the imperial-cult capital. Dawson preaches it as direct parallel for syncretism today: ideology + self-expression preempting Christ's preeminence (1:18). Maps cleanly onto the Colossian heresy structure.

Cluster B — Mammon / Money / Workism (Col 1:16's invisible "powers")

Tyler Staton — Mammon as a power that masters its worshipers

Source: "For the Sake of Others: For the Sake of the Poor," Tyler Staton, 2024-10-13, @ 11:31 (with sustained development from ~9:00 through ~32:00) Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/c9rsy6zac2jhsrcd/Needy_A.mp3 Cultural pattern: money as a personified power (literal "principality") — not metaphor The biopsy (verbatim): "According to Jesus, mammon is a force that could master a person every bit as completely as God. So mammon is more than money — it is an anti-God that finds its power in money and seeks to deceive, warp…" [@ 25:29:] "Mammon does have a unique pull toward devotion, and all who use money to try to master their world are in the end mastered by it. Those who make them become like them — lifeless, breathless. The image of God breathes into you…[mammon imprints] their inhuman image, meaning they rob you of the divine Imago Dei imprinted on your soul at first and take away your freedom." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Gold-tier hit. Staton explicitly preaches money as one of Col 1:16's invisible "thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities." Note the inversion of imago Dei language — mammon stamps its image on its worshipers; Christ as "image of the invisible God" (1:15) restores the image mammon erases. The preacher can point to this as Bridgetown's most direct treatment of a contemporary Caesar.

Caesar gets the money, but God alone gets us

Source: "Unforced Rhythms of Grace: Generosity," Tyler Staton, 2024-02-25, @ 15:35 and 14:40 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/z3knyk/Generosity.mp3 Cultural pattern: the coin / image / inscription move — Caesar vs. God ownership The biopsy (verbatim): "If the coin had Caesar's image and therefore should be returned to Caesar, what has God's image and therefore should be returned to God? Us. We do. Caesar can have all the money he wants. I don't care. We don't need it, Jesus says, but he cannot have you." [And @ 15:35:] "We belong to God and in God we have and will have all we need. So Caesar gets our money. Sure. I don't care, but God alone gets us." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Pairs Image (1:15) with Caesar's image — the preacher's "what bears whose image" is already a Bridgetown move. Col 1:15-20 says Christ is the Image; Staton has already shown how Caesar contests for that image-bearing.

Workism: the religion of work

Source: "Part 7: A Community of Contribution in a Culture of Careerism," 2021-03-21, @ 4:30 and 7:26 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/bz6xjh/20210321_Sunday_Teaching_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: work as quasi-religion / identity factory The biopsy (verbatim): "[We] have chosen the office for the workplace as the cathedral of the era. The religion of work. Derek Thompson, a staff writer for The Atlantic, calls it workism. Workism is among the most potent of the new religions competing for congregants. What is workism? It is the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production, but also the centerpiece of one's identity and life's purpose." [And @ 7:26:] "[For] urbanites, [work] has turned into far more — into a religion, into an altar on which people sacrifice their soul, their marriage, their family, their integrity, their spirit, and it is a bad religion." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Direct contemporary Caesar — work-as-god. Names the modern altar in the same vocabulary Paul uses for Roman cultic devotion. Col 1:18 ("preeminent in everything") cuts directly across vocational ultimacy.

Cluster C — Algorithm / Attention Economy / Social Media as Principality (Col 1:16's invisible "rulers")

Rich Villodas at Bridgetown — "Social media is a power and principality"

Source: "Q&R: The Ministry of Reconciliation," Rich Villodas in conversation with Tyler Staton, 2023-06-08, @ 8:56 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/xnsivg/20230606_QR_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: social media as a literal Pauline "principality and power" The biopsy (verbatim): "When you look at social media, look at the media — the media right now is a power and principality. Social media is a power and principality. I mean, you ever just, I mean, you watch cable news…" [Earlier in the same conversation, @ 7:13:] "Principalities and powers, the way that I think about it, is it's evil spiritual forces that take root in individuals, ideologies and institutions with three goals in mind: depersonalization, deception, and division." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Gold-tier. Villodas — speaking from a Bridgetown stage — does the precise translation move the preacher needs: Paul's "principalities" = today's media/social-media systems. The depersonalization / deception / division triad maps directly onto what Col 1:16's powers do when un-Christ-ranked. Pair with 1:20 ("through him to reconcile to himself all things") for the answer move.

Tyler Staton (3x in the Prayer Shaped Life series) — "We live in an attention economy, your imagination commodified by the little screen in your pocket"

Source: "A Prayer Shaped Life — Prayer as Be, Become, Do," Tyler Staton, 2025-10-05, @ 11:31; and re-quoted verbatim in "Prayer as Being with Jesus," 2025-10-13, @ 11:31; and again in "Prayer as Doing What Jesus Did," 2025-10-26, @ 11:31 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/a2amqhdu57zjvyay/2025_10_05_Podcast.mp3 Cultural pattern: the attention economy as the present-day medium of formation The biopsy (verbatim): "We live in an attention economy, your imagination commodified by the little screen in your pocket. And we live in a social society, filling all of our quiet and alone moments with a barrage of noise through messages…" Connection to Col 1:15-20: That Staton repeated this line three times in a single Colossians-anchored series in fall 2025 makes it core Bridgetown vocabulary right now. The phone is the modern altar. Col 1:16's invisible "rulers" includes the algorithm that commodifies imagination. Preacher can land 1:18 ("preeminent") directly on the question: what currently rules my imagination?

"The billboards are now inside our own neuroplasticity"

Source: "Part 5: A Community of Peace in a Culture of Outrage and Fear" (Future Church series), John Mark Comer, 2021-03-07, @ 8:50 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/tanqq6/20210307_Sunday_Teaching_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: algorithmic shaping has internalized — formation now happens inside the brain, not via external media The biopsy (verbatim): "The billboards are now inside our own neuroplasticity. And the data is in: not only is the digital age and specifically social media making us miserable, it is making us worse people. It's well documented…" Connection to Col 1:15-20: Names the precise mechanism by which the modern "ruler" rules — at the neural level. The cosmic Christ of Col 1:17 ("in him all things hold together") is the only counter-formation strong enough to push back on a power that has colonized the inside.

"Outrage is the new counterfeit of power"

Source: "Session 2: Panel Discussion with Q&R," Race & Justice Event, Bryan Loritts, 2020-09-22, @ 23:54 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/vhhvtm/Race_Justice_Event_Session_2bh5le.mp3 Cultural pattern: outrage as a counterfeit lord — the engine of social media engagement The biopsy (verbatim): "Currently, outrage is the new counterfeit of power. When people are angry and they just react, they feel like that's power." Connection to Col 1:15-20: A "counterfeit of power" is exactly what Paul's "thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities" become when unranked under Christ. Loritts gives the preacher a one-line diagnosis: the outrage cycle is a counterfeit, not real preeminence. Pairs with 1:18.

Cluster D — Expressive Self / Desire as Lord (Col 1:18 "preeminent in everything")

Charles Taylor at Bridgetown — authority → authenticity

Source: "A Prayer Shaped Life — Morning: Pray Scripture," Tyler Staton, 2025-11-10, @ 6:13 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/xtecbhnkqvkwujnx/2025_11_09_Podcast.mp3 Cultural pattern: the cultural shift from authority-based righteousness to authenticity-based righteousness The biopsy (verbatim): "Philosopher Charles Taylor and his seminal work A Secular Age wrote about how the West has changed from a culture of authority to a culture of authenticity. Previously righteousness was measured by the restraint of desire for the sake of a common moral standard, but in our modern secular world…" Connection to Col 1:15-20: Sets up the rival "preeminence" Col 1:18 contests. In the secular age, the authentic self sits on the throne — the self's desires are the ultimate authority. Christ as "preeminent" (1:18) directly displaces the authentic self as ruler. This is core philosophical scaffolding the preacher can name in one sentence.

"The world tells us to live into our desires — what it doesn't tell us is that our desires want us"

Source: "Part 8: A Better Yes" (Ephesians series), 2022-08-21, @ 24:35 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/5pn9gs/20220821_Sunday_Teaching_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: desire personified as a power that wants ownership of the self The biopsy (verbatim): "The world tells us to live into our desires. What it doesn't tell us is that we don't just want our desires, our desires want us." [And from the same sermon, @ 29:34, the long idol list:] "career, status, community, politics, approval, comfort, pleasure, power, moralism, control, education, appearance, affection, nation, family, stability, security, intelligence, autonomy, serving, safety, justice, sex, ethnicity, happiness — or maybe the hardest one to see of all, the self. It's become an attachment, an idol. It's possibly good things, but in the…" Connection to Col 1:15-20: "Our desires want us" reframes desire as an active power — exactly the move Paul makes with "thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities" in Col 1:16. The long list is a contemporary exegesis of Col 1:16 — every name on the list is a candidate for the throne Col 1:18 reserves for Christ.

"Be true to your authentic self through the free uninhibited expression of your desire"

Source: "Part 6: The Body as a Living Sacrifice," 2023-04-02, @ 17:20 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/ykjz8a/20230402_Sunday_Teaching_Audio_11.mp3 Cultural pattern: the cultural script of expressive sexuality / desire as identity The biopsy (verbatim): "Be true to your authentic self through the free uninhibited expression of your desire. And the free expression of my desire is a human right. It's a matter of justice and injustice. So the cultural script…" Connection to Col 1:15-20: Names the script the modern Caesar of desire reads from. Col 1:18 ("that in everything he might be preeminent") cuts across "free uninhibited expression of desire" as the rival sovereignty.

Cluster E — The Direct Cosmic-Christ Counter (Col 1:16-18 in Bridgetown's own voice)

Tyler Staton preaching Col 1:15-23 directly

Source: "Part 2: Know God" (The True and False Self series), Tyler Staton, 2022-05-01, @ 11:22 and 3:46 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/babt9r/20220501_Sunday_Teaching_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: [direct preach of the passage] The biopsy (verbatim): "For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Reference point — Staton has preached this exact text. Worth pulling the full sermon to hear what he did with verse 16 specifically. The preacher should know what Bridgetown vocabulary already exists for this passage so he can extend or distinguish.

"Jesus is king seated on a throne in the heavenlies above everything in the air"

Source: "Part 4: Dead Now Seated" (Ephesians 2 sermon), 2022-07-24, @ 24:07 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/xstbdj/20220724_Sunday_Teaching_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: Christ above contemporary cultural rulers, not just ancient ones The biopsy (verbatim): "This line from Ephesians is burning in me. Jesus is king seated on a throne in the heavenlies above everything in the air. Jesus is above all principality, power, rule…" [Then @ 22:11, the full citation:] "Paul in Ephesians 1 said, the Father seated Jesus in the heavenly realm above all rule, authority, power, dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come." Connection to Col 1:15-20: Col 1:16 echoes Eph 1:20-23 — the same powers list. Staton's "burning" delivery here is the kind of "preeminent in everything" energy Col 1:18 demands. Worth listening to the full block (~22:00–25:00) for cadence.

Paul's ascription: "He is the Lord of all creation… set at the right hand of the universe"

Source: "Part 3: A Community of Orthodoxy in a Culture of Ideological Idolatry," 2021-02-21, @ 31:10 Audio URL: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/9yuugj/20210221_Sunday_Teaching_Audio.mp3 Cultural pattern: Christ supreme as the antidote to ideological idolatry — preached with the modern political-religion frame already in place The biopsy (verbatim): "He is the Lord of all creation. He is the Christ-King whom God raised from the dead and set at the right hand of the universe, who one day will return to put the world to rights and will judge…" Connection to Col 1:15-20: This sermon's whole frame — "ideological idolatry" as the air we breathe — is the Wave 3 frame. The cosmic-Christ ascription comes at the end as antidote. Same shape the preacher's sermon will take with Col 1:15-20: name the modern Caesars, then proclaim Christ supreme.

Notes for the preacher

Tyler Staton's "Mammon" sermon (10/13/2024) is the single richest hit. The whole sermon is a study of one of Col 1:16's invisible "powers." If pulling one sermon to listen to in full, this one.
The "Beatitudes: Blessed are the Meek" sermon (1/26/2025) does the Caesar-coin / Caesar's-gospel / propaganda-machine move from minute ~12 to ~28. Worth pulling that block for cadence and structure.
Rich Villodas's "principalities and powers" Q&R (6/8/2023) gives the preacher Bridgetown-stage permission to say "social media is a principality" without sounding fringe.
NT Wright's HSC25 line ("every modern equivalent of Caesar and Herod") is a one-sentence licensing of the entire Wave 3 hermeneutic move from a figure both Bridgetown and the wider church recognize as authoritative.
Avoid duplicating Wave 2 — the Mark Sayers algorithmic-image biopsy and the Brooklyn-stoop fragmented-mind biopsy are already there. Wave 3 leans into the political/economic/medial powers, where Wave 2 leaned into the internal/identity powers.