Sermon 4 - Jesus Is Supreme Series

Introduction:

A. Some years ago, when Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show, he interviewed an eight year old boy.

1. The boy was on the show because he had rescued two friends in a coal mine outside his hometown in West Virginia.

2. As Carson questioned the boy, it became apparent to him and the audience that the young man was from a Christian home.

3. So, Carson asked him if he attended Sunday school.

4. When the boy said he did, Carson asked: “"What are you learning in Sunday school?”

5. “Last week,” the boy replied, “our lesson was about when Jesus went to a wedding and turned water into wine.”

6. The audience roared with laughter, but Carson tried to keep a straight face.

7. Then Carson asked, “And what did you learn from that story?”

8. The boy squirmed in his chair and it was apparent he hadn’t thought about this.

9. But then the boy broke into a big smile and said, “I learned that if you’re going to have a wedding, make sure you invite Jesus!”

B. That is certainly good advice, but I am here to declare that we had better do more with Jesus than just invite him to our wedding.

1. Jesus is way more than a wine maker.

2. Jesus is the supreme One – greater and more important than anyone else who has ever lived.

3. Years ago, Vernon Grounds wrote a book called The Reason for Our Hope and in that book, he attributed this quote to Napoleon: “I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity…Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible comparison. He is truly a being by himself. His ideas and sentiments: the truth which he announces, his manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things…I search in vain in history to find one similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”

4. That quote is certainly a glowing and accurate assessment of Jesus.

C. But today, we are going to examine an even clearer and more wonderful assessment of Jesus.

1. Our text for today from Colossians 1:15-20, is one of the greatest passages ever written about Jesus and His role in the universe and in history.

2. No paragraph in the New Testament contains more concentrated doctrine about Jesus than this one.

3. Many Bible scholars believe that these words comprised a hymn that was sung in the early church about Jesus and His supremacy.

4. And it may be true that it was an early hymn, and Paul may be the author of that hymn, but either way, Paul did not write these words in this letter in a vacuum or for no reason.

a. Paul didn’t sit down one day and decide to write a beautiful poem about Jesus and send it to the Colossians.

b. Rather, Paul wrote these words about Jesus in this letter in order to address an important situation and need in Colossae.

5. The false teachers in Colossae were questioning Christ’s exclusive role in providing spiritual renewal and spiritual empowerment.

a. The false teachers were arguing from cosmology to spirituality, suggesting that since the universe is filled with spiritual powers, then ultimate spiritual fullness can only be found by taking all of them into consideration.

6. What Paul wrote to counter that declares the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus.

D. Let’s look again at this amazing passage about Jesus: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col. 1:15-20)