The Family Photo Album
Scripture Ref: Colossians 1:13-20 Hebrews 1:2 Romans 5:10-11
Ephesians 6:12 Ephesians 1:22-23 2 Corinthians 5:17-20
Hebrews 1:3 1 Corinthians 12:13
John 14:9 Romans 1:4
John 1:3 Hebrews 7:16
1. Introduction
a. Discuss why we take pictures and the effect they have on us when, at a later date we sit down and take a trip down memory lane.
(1) They allow us to recall past events and memories.
(2) They can show us what we will be like when we grow older (like parents and grandparents, for example).
b. The Bible is like a family photo album. While we have never seen God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit physically, the scriptures paint vivid pictures of who they are and what they are like.
(1) James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited—There is a painting in a palace in Rome by Reni. It is painted into the ceiling of the dome, over 100 feet high. To stand at floor level and look upward, the painting seems to be surrounded by a fog that leaves its content unclear. But, in the center of the great dome room is a huge mirror, which in its reflection picks up the picture. By looking into the mirror you can see the picture with great clarity. Jesus Christ, born in a manger at Bethlehem, is the mirror of God. In Him we see a clear reflection of the Father. Jesus said, ’If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.’ No power on earth has done more to tame the hostile forces of humankind, and cause us to beat our swords in tools of useful productivity and our spears into peaceful instruments of creativity than this Child of Bethlehem, who came in weakness to lead us in strength.
(2) When others look at us, do they see a picture of Christ? When we look into the mirror, do we see a reflection of Christ?
c. The following are photos or snapshots of Christ as Paul took them.
2. Christ as a Rescuer
a. Read Col. 1:13-14
b. Webster’s definition of rescue—to free from confinement, danger, or evil; to save or deliver; implies freeing from imminent danger by prompt or vigorous action. Synonymous with deliver, redeem, ransom, reclaim, save.
(1) Deliver implies release of a person from confinement, temptation, slavery, or suffering.
(2) Redeem implies releasing from bondage or penalties by giving what is demanded or necessary.
(3) Ransom applies to buying out of captivity.
(4) Reclaim suggests bringing back to a former state or condition of someone or something abandoned or debased.
(5) Save may imply a preserving or maintaining for usefulness or continued existence.
c. We are saved from a “dominion of darkness,” a realm where we fight against dark forces that are against us and what we stand to gain if we are victorious.
(1) Eph. 6:12—For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
(2) We are not fighting against human opponents as they are the real enemy and we can’t assume the battle can be fought by using merely human resources.
d. Through Christ we are rescued. We are brought from a rebel kingdom and placed under His sovereignty.
(1) The benevolent rule of God’s son.
(2) Freedom from external control.
3. Christ as Creator
a. A little boy was working hard on a drawing and his daddy asked him what he was doing. The reply came back, ’Drawing a picture of God.’ His daddy said, ’You can’t do that, son. Nobody knows what God looks like.’ But the little boy was undeterred and continued to draw. He looked at his picture with satisfaction and said very matter-of-factly, ’They will in a few minutes.’
b. Read Col. 1:15-16
c. Paul’s picture of Christ includes some vivid descriptions.
(1) The word translated image in verse 15 (eikon — i· kone) is the word from which we get our word icon.
(a) An image, figure, likeness; used of the moral likeness of renewed men to God the image of the Son of God, into which true Christians are transformed, is likeness not only to the heavenly body, but also to the most holy and blessed state of mind, which Christ possesses.
(b) Just as an icon on the computer is a representation of the entire program, Christ is an image that represents all of God.
(2) Christ is the image of the invisible God.
(a) Heb. 1:3—The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
(b) John 14:9—Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’
(3) When we accept Christ, we are continually recreated in his image.
(4) Much like the little boy’s drawing, when people see us they, hopefully, see a small glimpse of what God is like.
4. Christ as Lord
a. Read Col. 1:17-18
b. We were created to worship and to praise God. We were created in His image. Christ as the creator is also the glue that holds us together in Him. He is Lord over all.
c. The whole point of this passage is to show Christ’s superiority over ALL things.
(1) Firstborn in verse 17 denotes two things of Christ—He preceded the whole of creation and He is Sovereign over all creation.
(a) In the OT, a firstborn child had not only the priority of birth, but also the dignity and superiority that went with it.
(2) Christ is not only the One through whom all things came to be, but also the One by whom they continue to exist. Two other NT verses parallel this description of Christ.
(a) John 1:3 — Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
(b) Hebrews 1:2 — but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
(3) The Son’s creation includes all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible—the entire universe, both material and immaterial.
(4) Christ is the Head of the body, the church. Besides being the Lord of the universe He is also the church’s Head.
(a) Reference is to the invisible or universal church into which all believers are baptized by the Holy Spirit the moment they believe in Christ
(b) Ephesians 1:22-23 — And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
(c) 1 Corinthians 12:13 — For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
(5) Christ is the Beginning and the Firstborn from among the dead.
(a) He was the first to rise in an immortal body, and as such, He heads a whole new order as its sovereign.
(b) His resurrection marked his triumph over death.
(c) He was the “firstfruits” of those who die since, unlike others, He rose never to die again. He “was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).
(d) He continues to live “on the basis of the power of an indestructible life” (Hebrews 7:16).
d. All of this was that He might have supremacy or Lordship over all creation.
5. Christ as Peacemaker
a. Read Colossians 1:19-22.
b. Webster’s definition of reconcile: to restore to friendship or harmony.
c. We, as sinners, were reconciled to God through Christ.
(1) Romans 5:10-11 — For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
(2) 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 — Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
d. It is important to note: people are reconciled to God, not God to be people. Mankind left God, not the other way around.
e. To make “peace through his blood,” as stated in verse 20, means to cause God’s enemies to become, by faith, His friends and His children.
f. Reconciliation, or peacemaking, is necessary because we have been cut off or estranged from God in both our minds and our behavior.
(1) We are not inwardly hostile to God because of our outward acts of sin, rather we commit acts of sins because we are inwardly hostile.
(2) The result of Christ’s death is redemptive—to present us holy in His sight.
(3) Ultimately, because of Christ’s peacemaking we are without blemish, without fault, and free from accusation.
g. In Christ the accused become unaccused and the condemned are made free.
5. Summary
a. Our picture of Christ as a rescuer is that of a hero. He rescues us from ourselves.
b. Our picture of Christ as a creator, is one in which we become new creatures because of His creative abilities.
c. Our picture of Christ as Lord is one of stability in which He is complete of control of everything.
d. Our picture of Christ as peacemaker is one in which he calms the anger and the hurt and bids us to come home to our Father.
6. Invitation
