Jesus Is King! Series

Above All: A Study in Colossians

Colossians 1:15-23

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

4-23-2022

Lift Jesus High

In 1893, Chicago hosted the International Columbian Exhibition that millions were expected to attend. One of the exhibits was the “Parliament of Religions.” This would be a space where religious experts from all the different religions would come together and share their ideas.

D.L. Moody decided not to be a part of that exhibit but held camp meetings in tents in Jackson Park that drew 150,000 people a week!

When asked if he planned to speak against the Pavilion of Religions he said, “No. I plan to make Jesus so attractive that men would be drawn to Him!”

Epaphras, the founder and pastor of the church in Colossae, had come to visit Paul in Rome and tell him of the dangerous false teaching that was present in their midst.

This false teaching was a mix of Jewish legalism, Gnosticism, local folk religion, and Christianity.

They taught that God couldn’t have created the world because they saw matter as evil and God cannot create evil. Therefore, God could not have come in human form because the body is evil. Jesus, instead of being God was simply one of many iterations of God.

Instead of Paul hammering the false teachers and the heretical teaching like in Galatians, Paul takes another tactic.

He asserts the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ as the head of all creation and the Church.

He lifts Jesus name high!

Review

Two weeks ago, we studied Paul’s pray for these believers:

“We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and 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 giving joyful thanks to the Father…” (Col 1:9-12)

Remember that we can do a DUET in prayer with God for others:

We can pray that they

Do more good deeds for God

Understand God more and more

Experience the strengthening power of God

Thanking Him daily for their salvation

Turn with me to Colossians 1:15.

Prayer

A Hymn?

These verses that we will study today are a hymn. There is a lot of debate whether it is a hymn that Paul wrote himself, a hymn that Paul found and edited, or a hymn that the Colossians knew well and he incorporated it into his letter.

After reading way more about this than I should, I think it’s most probably that Paul composed this hymn to showcase the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ.

Jesus is King of Creation

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 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.

Jesus is God (v. 15)

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Paul ended the last section with these words:

“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.” (Col 1:13-14)

The mention of “The Son” and His saving work, sends Paul into doxology, a song of praise to Jesus Christ.

We know that God is invisible. He cannot be seen by human eyes. He is Spirit (John 4:24) and no one has ever seen God at any time (I John 4:12). Paul breaks out into praise in his letter to Timothy and writes:

“…who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.” (I Timothy 6:16)

Friday night, I was walking Luna at the lake and out of the bushes a large bear appeared. We both froze when the bear stood up on its hind legs. Then it started dancing, doing the Macarena! I assumed that it was a dance off so I started doing the robot. Well, this made the bear mad and he roared loudly. So Luna and I started doing the Macarena with him. What a sight! A human, a dog, and a bear all dancing by the lake. It was so cute I could hardly bare it.

Now, many of you actually sat up and payed more attention when I was telling that story. But we talk about the astounding fact that the invisible God became a human and we’ve heard it so many times that we yawn.

Let’s focus in one two words, “image” and “firstborn.”