Intro: There was an article in a national news paper a few years ago that featured a denomination that wanted to radically reach those who feel alienated from church. Using market research and focus groups, this denomination has designed weekly services that deliberately de-emphasize Jesus Christ. One of the founders of the church has said, “The sad fact is the name of Jesus Christ has become for many people exclusionary.” Using Hindu and Zen, intermingled with a few verses from the Bible and recorded music by Willie Nelson, the leader of this group is quoted as saying, “We’re enabling people to discover God themselves, maybe through Jesus, maybe through Buddha, maybe through any number of ways.”
Most of us think that sounds crazy and some may even feel anger hearing that. I want to make you aware of something just as deadly that is infiltrating into the church, our church even today. It seems pretty harmless and most would brush it off and not give it another thought, but it is deadly to a church and even a whole community.
I’m talking about practicality. I have found myself infected with this disease at times and I’m sure you have had it too. Here is how it works. Instead of calling people to faith, repentance and submission to the supremacy of Christ, many of us tell people that Jesus wants to give them a happy marriage or a stress-free life. While Jesus will certainly change our lives, our marriages, and our stress levels when we bow before His preeminence, we must move away from “What Jesus can do for me” to “Am I living in light of His lordship?” We don’t simply “add” Jesus to our lives; we adore Him with our lives through our obedience. We must face the question and answer it honestly – Is Jesus 1st place in your life?
In addition, more recently the National Geographic Society released information about an ancient Coptic manuscript USA Today called “The Gospel of Judas.” Of course, even the National Geographic scholars admit Judas didn’t write it: He committed suicide soon after he betrayed Jesus. It was written by someone two hundred years after Judas died. In addition, this is not some “lost gospel” that’s going to change the Bible. In the first 300 years of the church, there were many documents written telling strange and unusual stories about Jesus not found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But again, this front page story makes people consider the question: Who is Jesus Christ?
Let’s see how these questions relate to our text this morning in Col 1: 15-20. Much of the false teaching taking place in Colosse had to do with the minimizing of Jesus. Many people thought He was important but not essential. They had given Him a place in their lives, without recognizing that He demands first place. Jesus was prominent to them, but certainly not preeminent.
Paul refutes at least three misconceptions in Colossians 1:
• The false teachers taught that God did not create the world because in their view matter was evil and logically, God cannot create evil.
• Believing that matter was evil, they argued that God would not have come to earth as a human in bodily form. A human is made up of matter (matter is evil).
• They did not believe that Christ was the unique Son of God but rather one of many intermediaries between God and people.
Our text this morning points to the Preeminence of Christ. God’s complete and perfect revelation is revealed thru the person of Jesus Christ. Our passage breaks into two natural sections with the last part of verse 18 providing the overriding theme: “…so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Look at vs. 15-17 with me [read txt]. We see here a powerful statement in scripture. We find 4 truths about Christ that reveal how Christ is Preeminent over Creation. Because…
I. Christ is Preeminent Over Creation (vs. 15-17). The Bible is a book about Christ the Lord. The OT provides details of His coming. The Gospels present Him as God in the flesh. Acts begins the story of Salvation in Christ while the letters detail the theology of Christ’s work and personification of Christ in His body, the church. Finally Revelation gives us a picture of Christ reigning as King of Kings.
Dr. John Mac Arthur states plainly about our text this morning, “But of all the Bible’s teaching about Jesus Christ, none is more significant than Col 1:15-19. This dramatic and powerful passage removes any needless doubt or confusion over Jesus’ true identity. It is vital to a proper understanding of the Christian faith.”
As mentioned in the intro, the heretics denied Christ’s humanity. Since matter was evil, God couldn’t come to earth and put on flesh thus this led them to deny Christ’s deity. I want to highlight 4 truths Paul talks about between verses 15-17.
1. He is God (15a). He is the Image of the invisible God. Images convey meaning beyond what words can say. Notice the pictures on the screen [pic here]. Do you get a sense of patriotism, perhaps sadness, or anger?
As powerful as this symbol is, it is simply a representation of a far deeper reality. The American flag is a powerful national symbol but it only represents what our country is all about. Christ is not a symbol! He is God! Paul describes Christ as the image of… God. This is not the same as man being created in God’s image. You and I are created in God’s image, but we are not Gods. Man is not a perfect image of God.
Illustration. For everyone here, Abraham Lincoln is an invisible figure. None of us have ever actually seen him nor have we met him. Yet we all know what he looks like because we have seen images of him in portraits and on coins. His image on the penny is his image, it is his representation – it is actually Abraham Lincoln we see. In the same way God, who is invisible, is represented in Christ. Christ is the representation of God – it is actually God we see.
We know Genesis says “Let us make man in our image…” so, Humans are made in God’s image. So what is the difference? Being made in God’s image, we have the capability to rationalize. Similar to God, we have intellect, emotions, and a will, by which we are able to think, feel, and choose. We are not in God’s image morally because He is holy and we are sinful. We also do NOT possess God’s incommunicable attributes – omniscience, omnipotence etc… We are human, not divine. “Christ is the visible representation of the invisible God.” (J.B. Phillips). Here is what happened…
“The Fall marred the original image of God in man. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were innocent, free of sin, and incapable of dying. They forfeited those qualities when they sinned. When someone puts faith in Christ, however, that person is promised that the image of God will be restored in him or her. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10). God will make believers sinless like Christ when they enter the final phase of their eternal life.” (John MacArthur). Not only is Jesus God, but He is the “firstborn over all creation.” This means….
2. He is the unique Son of God (15b). In the early days of the church (near A.D. 315) there was Bishop from Alexandria (Arius) who “taught that God the Son was at one point created by God the Father, and that before that time the Son did not exist, nor did the Holy Spirit, but the Father only. Thus, though the Son is a heavenly being who existed before the rest of creation and who is far greater than all the rest of creation, he is still not equal to the Father in all his attributes—he may even be said to be “like the Father” or “similar to the Father” in his nature, but he cannot be said to be “of the same nature” as the Father. Those who followed his teachings were called Arians.
The Arians depended heavily on texts that called Christ God’s “only begotten” Son (Jhn 1:14; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). If Christ were “begotten” by God the Father, they reasoned, it must mean that he was brought into existence by God the Father (for the word “beget” in human experience refers to the father’s role in conceiving a child). Further support for the Arian view is found in” our passage, “Col 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” He said, does not “first-born” here imply that the Son was at some point brought into existence by the Father? And if this is true of the Son, it must necessarily be true of the Holy Spirit as well.” (Wayne Grudman, Systematic Theology pg 243)
They used this verse and a few others to make claim that Jesus was a created being. We have some religions that teach this today – the Jehovah’s Witness for example. But these texts do not require us to believe their interpretation of the text. In fact their exegesis of these passages is incorrect. According to Biblical usage and customs the correct exegesis/interpretation of text tells us that Christ has the rights or privileges of the “first-born. So Col 1:15 means that Christ has the privileges of authority and rule, the privileges belonging to the “first-born,” in respect to the whole creation.
This is one of the main reasons the Council of Nicea was formed and reason for the Nicene Creed in 325.
If you read the fictional book or saw the fictional movie, “The Davinci Code” you may have heard them make mention of the Council of Nicea in 325. But they had it all wrong. The claim in the book that is was a close vote concerning Bishop Arius’ teaching vs. orthodox views. The truth is the vote was more like 3 to 300 in favor of Christ and the Father being one and the same. Of the same ousia or substance.
3. He is the creator of all things (16). Just to make sure everyone understands what Paul means by firstborn in vs. 15 he explains it in.
Illustration: I want you to picture this scene. You get a knock on your door. It’s the Jehovah’s Witness. Of course, you have been a Christian for a while so you think it’s ok to let them talk – you can handle it.
They ask you get your Bible and turn to Col 1:15. Then they say something like, “See what it says? It doesn’t mean that Jesus IS God. It says He was the image of God.” Then they may show you a photograph of a person and ask, “Is that the person, or just an image of that person?” Then they have you read those words, “firstborn over all creation,” and then they say, “See, that proves Jesus can’t be God. It says he was the firstborn over all creation; that proves he was created and if he was created, then God created Him which means he can’t be God.”
“Jesus was the image of God, just like we were created in the image of God, and he was a created man just like we are.” And a lot of scripturally ignorant church members say, “Hmmm, you may be right.”
Well wake up church! All you have to do is read the next seven words and their false doctrine about Jesus crumbles like a house of cards. It says [read vs. 16].
This verse tells us that Jesus was present and participating in the Creation of everything. The early church father Irenaeus put it this way, “Jesus Christ is the glove that the Father puts on when He creates the world.”
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being (Jhn 1:3).
4. He Holds All Things Together (17). Not only did Jesus create the universe, He sustains it. Jesus is the super glue and duct tape of the universe [vs. 17]. He keeps everything from falling into chaos. Physicists have been debating how atoms and smaller, quarks hold together. They recognize the presence of what they term “strong force” yet they don’t know what it is. I know what it is. It is Jesus Christ. In Him all things hold together.
If Jesus can hold the universe together in perfect balance, He can also bring perfect balance and cohesion to your broken and confused mind. Most of us aren’t really concerned about why the planets keep spinning or why the molecules in our bodies are intact–we are more interested in worrying about whether we can keep our minds or families from breaking apart.
Jesus can give you peace and rest for your troubled heart. “Come to me all who are weary and I will give rest for your souls.”
In these verses we learn that Jesus is preeminent over all creation. Now we shift a little here and see in vs. 18-20 that Christ is also preeminent over His New Creation.
II. Christ is Preeminent Over His New Creation (vs. 18-20). [read vs. 18-20]. The Bible uses different metaphors to describe the church – a family, a flock, a kingdom, a vineyard, and a bride. But of all the metaphors probably the human body is the most profound.
That is what we find in vs. 18. Paul is not referring to the head of a company, but of a body because the church is not an organization; it is an organism. Jesus Christ is the Head of the church.
The human body can survive without a finger, a hand, arm, even a leg. If you cut off the head the whole body dies. Many churches seem to forget this. If Jesus Christ is not supreme in a church, then there is no church. That was part of the trouble at Colosse. They had lost connection to Christ and as a result they were experimenting with all sorts of false doctrine and sinful behavior. Jesus Christ is the head of FBC – not me and not any of the deacons (even though the deacons think and act like they are) and you are not either. Jesus Christ is supreme over this church and we bow before His authority.
The 2nd part of vs. 18b we read that Christ is the first resurrected. You may recall that there have been others who came back to life. The daughter of Jairus and Lazarus are two of them. That may make us wonder how this text can talk of Christ being the firstborn from the dead.
To answer this we need to look at the word firstborn in the same context as that of vs. 15. Again, firstborn, in this case (from the dead) is also used to denote the heir. So the meaning is that Christ is heir. He will receive the riches of the Father. He is supreme. It is also important to note that of those mentioned who have come back to life, only Christ is still alive.
This passage affirms, Jesus is the “firstborn from among the dead.” That not only means He’s the first, but that there will be other resurrections–ours! He’s the first in the parade, but there is more to come. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we have the hope that one day even our dead bodies will be raised and changed into a resurrection body like His!
At the end of vs. 18 it reads so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. Does He truly have 1st place in everything? Is he 1st place in your life? We know from the text that He is first above creation and the head of His church. Have you put him in that 1st place spot in your life?
What does 1st place look like? It is interesting that this question means something different to everyone.
A. His Fullness Dwells in Jesus. Verse 19 is a great verse. It gives God the Father great joy and pleasure to have all of “His fullness dwell in Jesus.” It greatly pleased the Father for the Son to have preeminence over creation and the church. Because Jesus is equal to the Father, He is the full embodiment of God’s attributes and saving grace. Continue thru vs. 20 Jesus God is able to reconcile all things to Himself.
B. Reconciliation. Reconciliation is the removal of hostility and the restoring of friendly relations to parties who have been at war. Paul also calls this making “peace through the blood of His cross.” “What God has done is to move towards us to restore harmony, patch things up, cease hostilities, bury the hatchet, smoke the peace pipe, and heal the breach.” (Max Anders NT commentary).
Conclusion. God has extended all of this to you as He extends His invitation to you. C.S. Lewis wrote, “We may not in passing think that Jesus was ever regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly 3 effects: Hatred, Terror, and Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.
It is impossible to give Jesus mild approval when you understand Him. Jesus Christ can be ignored or adored, but you cannot give Him mild approval. Jesus is our Creator, redeemer, and our Judge. You cannot be casual about that.
Paul tells us in Col 1 that Jesus has the right of absolute supremacy because of who He is and what He has done. That means 1st place in everything. That means Jesus deserves preeminence and not mere prominence in our lives. Nothing in our lives should occupy the spot that Jesus deserves – 1st place.
In the end, it matters little what Dan Brown, C.S. Lewis or Danny Rogers says about Jesus. It all comes down to this: Who is Jesus Christ to YOU? Be careful how you answer that question because it will determine your eternal destiny.
In Jesus we find a love that can never be fathomed; a life that can never die; and a righteousness that can never be tarnished.
In Jesus we find a peace that can never be understood; a rest that can never be disturbed; and a joy that can never be diminished.
In Jesus there is a hope that can never be disappointed; a glory that can never be clouded; and a light that can never be darkened.
In Jesus we experience a beauty that can never be marred; a wisdom that can never be baffled; and resources that can never be exhausted.
The Bible says Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end; the author and finisher of our faith. In Jesus you find everything you will ever need for this life and the next! That’s the supremacy of Jesus!
