Greatest Series

Look at the words here in verse 13. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness.” That word “rescued” means “to come in and take out by force”. It’s like Rambo or Arnold Swartzinhager or somebody who comes in and kicks the door down and walks in, snatches us up, and drags us off somewhere. I didn’t do that on my own.

There is an illustration of salvation that used to be one of my favorites until God, through a sermon, showed me it doesn’t work. It is the illustration of the life raft. It is like man is drowning and we throw him a life preserver and man has to reach up and grab the life preserver and then he is pulled in. You know the only problem with that? According to Ephesians 2, I was dead in my sins. Dead men don’t grab life preservers. I did not help God save me. I was lost and dead in my sins. I was guilty before a holy God, a holy and just God who must punish sin. God has to deal with sin. How does He do that? The wages of sin is death. When we die in our sins, we die eternally separated from God. We are in terrible shape and until we realize that, we do not understand the significance of Christ as Savior of the world. Jesus did not come to make me better; He came to transform my life. People don’t need to be better dressed up sinners.

Illustration: It’s like boys that start playing ball in school. These boys will come after school and go to practice and after they go to practice, these sweaty and nasty boys will take off their uniform and put back on their street clothes. Some of them even have the audacity to put on deodorant and cologne. They don’t understand that deodorant and cologne have prerequisites. You need to bathe first.

Our philosophy in our churches has become one of socialization. We need to learn how become better people. We need to learn how to be better organizers. God does not want to make us better; He wants to make us new. We do not understand that Jesus is Savior until we understand the guilt of man. All men are guilty before God and all men need salvation.

Jesus is the greatest because He rescued us and because…

He Alone Is Worthy

We can’t understand the significance of our sin until we look at it compared to the glory of Jesus Christ. We sometimes act like Jesus died on the cross because He had nothing better to do. Look at verse 15. “He is the image of the invisible God”. Jesus is the revealer of God. God came to earth and showed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not like God. He is not close to God. He is not almost God. Jesus is God. He was the us in the “Let us make man”. He was the us in “Who will go for us”. He is Almighty God.

Not only is Jesus the revealer of God, He is “the firstborn over all creation”. This does not mean that He was the first thing created. The word “firstborn” means preeminent. This means that Jesus was here when it all happened. He is the Creator of all things.

Colossians 1:16-18 (NIV)

[16] 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. [17] He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] 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.