Who's In Charge Around Here? Series

JESUS CHRIST IS LORD: SERIOUSLY!

WHO¡¯S IN CHARGE AROUND HERE?

The Supremacy of Christ

Colossians 1:15-23

INTRODUCTION:

A. We are in week 3 of a series of messages I am calling Jesus Christ is Lord: Seriously!

i. This series is taking us through Paul¡¯s letter to the Christians in the town of Colosse, but his words are just as significant to the Church and to us today as they were then.

(1) I want to begin again with a question, ¡°Who¡¯s in charge around here anyway?¡±

ILL> A couple of weeks ago Kay Clark told me about a conversation that she had recently with her dad. Kay¡¯s dad has been living with her and Charles while he is waiting for his new house to be built.

I don¡¯t really know what the discussion was about, but her dad finally asked, ¡°Have you forgotten who the father is here and who the daughter is?¡±

(2) I told her then that that was going to make it into a sermon someday because I think that that is a pertinent question that all of us need to answer¨CHave you forgotten who the Father is?

(3) Have you forgotten who¡¯s suppose to be calling the shots?

(a) Have you forgotten who it is that you have promised to serve?

(4) I think it all boils down to a struggle between 2 words¨Cprominence and preeminence

(5) You see, a lot of Christians have given Jesus a prominent place in their lives, but they haven¡¯t given him preeminence

(a) They really haven¡¯t allowed God to be in control of everything

(b) They really haven¡¯t allowed Jesus Christ to be Lord

(6) We need to make Jesus Christ thee priority in our lives and we need to take our relationship with Him seriously.

(7) READ: Colossians 1:15-23

b. Images or symbols have always been important to mankind

i. Symbols go back to the early days of man as archeologists and anthropologists have discovered drawings of symbols on rocks and in caves

(1) Today businesses spend millions of dollars each year coming up with symbols and logos that will represent their company or some product in the hope that we will instantly associate them with the symbol

(a) ¨CAnd it works!

(2) Take for example the following logos...What do they following images represent?

(a) Nike

(b) Batman

(c) McDonalds

ILL> When April was just learning to talk (and she¡¯s learned well, BTW) one of the first things she learned to recognize was the McDonald¡¯s arches. Every time we would drive by she would say, ¡°Mc Mc Mc¡± hoping we would stop. If we didn¡¯t stop she would cry. It got so bad that we would drive a different way through town so we wouldn¡¯t have to go by McDonald¡¯s.

(d) Jaguar

(e) Superman

(f) Windows - Microsoft

(g) Apple Computers

(h) Starbucks

(3) We have been trained to the point where every time we see these images, we associate it with the product

(4) It says in a brief moment more than what a lot of words can express.

ii. Paul has a tough task at hand because he is trying to do just the opposite

(1) He has an image in his mind and he is trying to use words to describe that image to us.

(2) The image that he has is of Jesus Christ and he wants us to share this image with him so we can have a fuller understand of who Christ is!

(3) Once we understand who Christ is, then we will understand why He deserves to be in charge

I> JESUS CHRIST DESERVES TO BE IN CHARGE BECAUSE HE IS OVER ALL CREATION

A. VS 15 - He is the image of the invisible God

1. The key word here is image

ILL> I have a brother who has been a mold maker for more than 20 years. He makes the molds that are used to make glass bottles.

I had an uncle, however, that was a master mold maker. He is the one who would make the original mold out of cast iron which would be used to make exact replicas or an exact image of the original mold. Years ago Avon had a president series¨Che had made some of the molds for those bottles.

2. That¡¯s what the word ¡°image¡± means here

a. But, he¡¯s not just a replica of the real thing¨CHe actually is God

b. God in the flesh¨CGod incarnate.

ILL> As one student of God¡¯s Word pointed out, ¡°Jesus is God with skin on.¡±

c. He is God¨Cwho had a hand in the creation of all things

B. Jesus Christ is God¨Cthat statement is so simple that you might wonder why I even bring it up

1. It¡¯s so simple that we may overlook its significance