Hope For A New Year Series

I. Intro

A. There is a poignant scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, where Jesus is carrying His cross down the Via Dolorosa. Upon seeing Mary, His mother, Jesus says, “Look, mother, I am doing a new thing.”

B. For us, every day is a new thing, but some days have more importance than others. Holidays, graduations… births and deaths… triumphs and tragedies

C. For the believer, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega—the true beginning and the end—and it will always serve us well to remember: He is the Author of our faith, and while we are living out the story, He is also the Finisher… and as He said on His cross, “It is finished!”

II. Hope Starts with the One Who Started It All (vv.15-16)

A. Jesus Is God in the Flesh (v.15)

1. “Image” = Gr. eikon = “copy”: both a representation of God (God so we can see Him) and a manifestation of God (God so we can know and touch Him) (Philip.2:6; John 1:14, 8:58, 10:30)

2. “Invisible God”—God does not have the same kind of body we do, so He created one and poured His own nature into it—Jesus is 100% man… and 100% God

3. “Firstborn”—not so much chronologically (as in, born before everyone else… though John 1:1 does make that case), but first in position / rank (Rom. 8:29)

a. In Greek and Jewish culture, “firstborn” had more to do with how much inheritance they were given than birth order—e.g., Jacob (Israel) received Isaac’s blessing, not Esau, who was born first

b. Paul can’t be referring to birth in the physical sense, because that would reinforce one of the heresies he is writing to the Colossians to refute

B. Jesus Is the One Who Made It All

1. “All things were created”—Paul leaves no ambiguity that Jesus is the Creator; reinforced later by John (John 1:1-3)

2. “In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible”—important to understand that Jesus is THE God, not A god (like an idol… or angel or demon)—physical AND spiritual realms

3. “thrones / dominions / principalities / powers”—angels; no distinction between holy or fallen, Christ is Lord of them all (Romans 11:33-36)

III. Hope Continues with the One Who Owns & Sustains It All (vv.17-18)

A. Christ Created the Universe (v.17)

1. Christ is eternal—He had no birth; He was there already at the beginning (Rev. 22:13)

2. He holds it all together (Heb. 1:3a)

B. Christ Created the Church

1. His MIND is what gives the Church its identity and will (Col.2:19)

2. He started it… not the patriarchs, not the prophets (John 8:58)

C. Christ Created Life… and Defeated Death

1. “Firstborn from the dead”—the first to be resurrected to eternal life (Lazarus died again; Jesus and His followers never will)

2. All humans have eternal life, whether we accepted Him or not (John 5:28-29)

3. Regardless of our belief, Christ is supreme!

IV. Hope Never Ends Because He Never Ends (vv.19-20)

A. Christ is Supreme Deity (v.19)

1. A heresy in Colossae was that Jesus could only be “partly” God, much as Muslims today think; Paul clarifies this by asserting that ALL of the diety of God dwelt fully in Jesus

2. “pleased to dwell”—as to this matter of “a new thing,” God is still creating, much as in Genesis 1, wherein everything He did, when He saw it, “God saw that it was good.”

B. Christ is the Supreme Sacrifice (v.20)

1. Jesus is the “tool” by which God restores relationship not just with people, but with all of creation

– This doesn’t teach that all will believe, merely that all will submit

2. Jesus’ shed blood is totally effective to accomplish that work

V. Conclusion

A. Jesus is fully God—He is the Maker of all things, and the one who sustains the universe, and literally creates each new moment—He is our Creator!

B. Therefore, everything in this universe is His property and, whether we believe it now or not, will one day publicly acknowledge this—He is our Lord!

C. More than Creator and Sustainer of the universe, He is also its Ransom—giving His own life to buy it back from sin and death, and providing permanent, eternal insurance for our its redemption—He is our Hope!