I. Intro: You know the Bible is an amazing book. It records wonderful miracles, testimonies of healing and redemption. It describes the human condition and gives us the cure for it. It gives us instruction on how to gain eternal life and how to lives out our lives on a day to day basis. But supremely it is a book about Jesus Christ. The gospels present him as God in human flesh. They describe how He lived a sinless life, died for our sins and was resurrected. In Acts the message of salvation in Christ begins to spread throughout the World. The epistles deal with the theology of Christ’s work and of the Church. And finally Revelation presents Christ on His throne, reigning as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
B. In all of Scripture there is perhaps no more important teaching about Christ than that found in Colossians 1:15-19. Sadly false teachers had already confused many believers in just a short 50-60 year span of time since the resurrection of Christ. In the Church at Colossae these false teachers denied the humanity of Christ. They insisted that Jesus was simply a lesser spirit descending from God. They said that all matter was evil and there was no way the Jesus ever existed in the flesh. Paul refutes this idea in the clearest possible terms in His letter to the Church at Colossae. Sadly, even today, this same type of false teaching is all around us. Many today would say that Jesus never walked the earth, or that He is not adequate for salvation, that you need Christ plus something else like good works in order to be saved. Sadly many Christians hold to this belief. But in this passage we see that there is no one like Jesus. Paul reveals to us much about the identity of Christ as he shows Him in relation to God, the universe, the unseen world, and the Church.
II. First Paul presents Jesus Christ in Relation to God
a. In this passage as we previously talked about Paul refutes the heretics idea that Jesus is inferior to God. Paul gives two powerful descriptions of who Jesus is.
b. First He is the image of the invisible God. Now you and I are also made in the image of God in that we have a rational mind, we possess intellect, emotion and will which enables us to think, feel and choose. Man has used his these gifts to achieve amazing things like space travel, medicines that cure terrible diseases and the like. However we are not made in God’s image morally, because He is perfectly holy and we are sinful. Nor are we all powerful, all knowing, or able to be all places at once. We are human.
c. Unfortunately the fall marred our original image. Before the Fall Adam and Eve were innocent, free of sin, and designed to live forever. But they chose poorly and forfeited these qualities when they sinned against God. Ever since then we have struggled with ourselves, our soul is born stained black with sin. But the good news is that forgiveness is found in Christ alone.
d. And we gain so much more than the forgiveness of sin when we place our faith in Christ. You see, when someone puts their faith in Christ they are promised that the image of God will be restored within them. Romans 8:29 tells us that “For whom he foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.”
d. And Jesus is the absolute perfect, accurate image of God. He did not become the image of God when He came to earth, but He has been the perfect image of God from all eternity. Hebrews 1:3 describes Jesus as the “radiance of God’s glory.” Jesus radiates the image of God like the sun radiates its rays of warmth. Furthermore He is the exact representation of Gods nature. Jesus perfectly possesses all of God’s character and love. That is why He said “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
e. Paul is emphasizing here that Jesus is both the representation and manifestation of God. He is God in human flesh. To think anything less of Him is evidence of a mind blinded by Satan.
f. And Paul goes on to describe Jesus as the firstborn of all creation. Some people think that this phrase argues for Christ as a created being, but that interpretation ignores the context here. The word used here for first-born means the son who had a right to the inheritance of the father. Jesus is the One who has the right to the inheritance of all creation. Everything in the universe belongs to Christ.
g. So far from being a created being, as the false teachers in Colossae, and many false teachers today claim, Jesus both existed before the creation and is exalted in rank above the creation. Simply put, He is Lord and Master of everything.
II. Secondly, there is Jesus Christ in Relation to the Universe
a. With the debates in colleges and universities raging about how we came to be here, its no wonder than 3 out of 4 students drop out of Church when they go to college. Some find their way back, most sadly, do not. We are presented with two different worldviews. The first is the one of the astronomer Carl Sagan who said in his book, The Pale Blue Dot:
b. Because of the reflection of sunlight . . . Earth seems to be sitting in a beam of light, as if there were some special significance to this small world. But it’s just an accident of geometry and optics . . . . Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The other is the Biblical Worldview, and the truth. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
c. In this passage Paul gives several reasons why Jesus Christ is head over creation. First and foremost Paul says that He is the Creator. The false teachers at Colossae viewed Jesus as the first and foremost emanation from God, but they thought that the creator of the universe had to be way down the chain from Christ.
d. Paul flatly rejects that claim in this passage. Paul emphatically states that by “Him all things were created.” The teachers at Collosae taught that all matter was evil, therefore neither a good God or a good emanation could have created the universe. That argument is used by some non-believers today, they look at the world around them and say, no way a good God could have created the World with some of the things that happen in the world like natural disasters and the like. But Paul declares that Jesus made all things, both in the heavens and in the earth, visible and invisible.
e. The amazing thing is that by studying the creation one can gain a glimpse of the power of the Creator. The sheer size of the universe is mind-boggling. The sun has a diameter of 864,000 miles and could hold 1.3 million planets the size of earth inside it. But compare our sun to the star Beteguese, and the sun is puny. That star has a diameter of 100 million miles, which is larger than the earths orbit around the sun !
f. It takes sunlight traveling at 186,000 miles per second about 8.5 minutes to reach the earth from the sun. Yet to reach our next nearest star, Alpha Centauri, it would take more than 4 years to travel the needed 24 trillion miles.
g. Our milky way galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars and astronomers estimate that there are billions of galaxies. They estimate the number of stars in the universe to be 10 to the 25th power. That is roughly the number of all of the grains of sand on all of the world’s beaches.
h. In addition to the power of the universe, it also testifies to the wisdom of the Creator. A change in the rate of the earth’s rotation around the sun would be catastrophic to life. If the earth were just 5% closer to the sun or 5% farther away it would become either too hot or too cold for anything to exist. If the moon were a little closer to the earth huge tides would devour the continents. If the composition of the gases of the earth were to change ever so slightly it would be fatal to all life. And people think we are here by accident.
i. No, the testimony of nature to its Creator is so clear that it is only through willful disbelief that man can reject it. It is no wonder that in Romans 1:20 Paul declared “Since the creation of the World His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been so clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
j. A third reason for Jesus’ authority over all creation is that in Him all things hold together. Jesus not only created the universe, He sustains it. His will allows gravity to remain constant. He is the One who puts the stars and planets in motion. And He sustains them. Think about one of the smallest known pieces of matter. The atom. In his book The Atom Speaks a nuclear scientist named Chesnut states “Here are eight positively charged protons closely associated in this nucleus, with them are eight neutrons. Eight positively charged, eight with no charge. Now We know that like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. Everything that has ever been built with electricity relies on this principle, but what about the nucleus, why doesn’t it fly apart. Why do not all atoms fly apart?”
k. In other words, scientists do not know what it is exactly that holds the universe together. They really don’t know what keeps everything from just blowing up. They call this unseen force Nuclear Binding energy, but really don’t know exactly what it is or where it comes from. But we do. Jesus Christ, by His awesome power holds our bodies, and this entire universe together. Our Lord and King over all of the Universe !
III. Paul also describes Jesus in Relation to the Unseen World
a. In the latter part of vs 16 Paul says that Jesus is head over thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. The teachers in Colossae had taught that Jesus was like an angel. The believed that Jesus was not equal with God, but that He was a created spiritual being. But here Paul emphatically says that Jesus created the Angels.
b. Jesus is exalted far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but the age to come. For as Philippians declares “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth.” That is an amazing statement, Paul says that every person who has ever lived or will ever live will bow down before the name of Jesus. Presidents, dictators, generals, celebrities and all who consider themselves important will bow down and will call the name of Jesus.
c. Scripture is clear that Jesus is not an angel, but the Creator of Angels who worship Him and are under His authority.
IV. Finally, there is Jesus in Relation to the Church.
a. Paul presents several truths about Christ’s relationship to the church in this passage.
b. First, Christ is head of the Church. In the New Testament there are many words used to describe the Church. It is called a family, a kingdom, a vineyard, a flock, a building, and a bride. But the most profound metaphor used is that of a body. We are a body, and Christ is the head of the body. The church is a living organism, and as such, we are inseparably tied to Christ our Lord and to each other. He must control every part of the Church and give us our life and direction. In fact, His life lived out through the members of the Church provides the unity in the Body. We are all in this together, each of us has been called individually to serve Him, and collectively we have been called to love each other and to serve others. He has given our Church a diversity of spiritual gifts and ministries and he provides our direction. There is nothing that we lack to do what He has called us to do!!
c. Second, He is the source of the Church. The word beginning is used here is a twofold sense of source and primacy. The Church has its origins in Jesus, Scripture says that God “Chose us in Him before the foundation of the World.” It is He who gives life to His Church. As head of the Body, Jesus holds the chief position in the Church. He is the leader, the Lord of the Church. He will guide us to do as He commands if we will be willing and obedient.
d. Third, He is the firstborn from the dead. Of all of those who have been raised from the dead, or ever will be, Christ is the highest and the only one worthy of worship. As a result of His death and resurrection, Jesus has come to have first place in everything. In our lives and in all of Creation Jesus must be first.
Conclusion
a. And so, we see that Jesus reigns supreme over the visible world, the unseen world, and the Church. Paul sums up all of this by saying “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” All of the glory of God dwells in Jesus Christ. He is Lord. What about you, all of us have to answer for what we’ve done with Christ in our lives. Have we elevated Him to the highest place, or have we discarded Him and put Him off. He is Lord. What will you do today?
