Colossians 1:12-23

The Reasons for Thanksgiving (1:12-23)

12-14– Delivered from the Domain of Darkness (New Kingdom), Qualified to Share in the Inheritance of the Saints

The Passage we are looking at today is considered one of the very most important passages about Jesus in the Bible, up there with Philippians 2, 1 Corinthians 15, John 1, which you’re familiar with if you’ve been coming Wednesday nights.

The first 5 verses are a poem, and then the other 3 verses Paul making his point clear.

Why should you be thankful? Because you follow Jesus. . . let me tell you about the one you now follow.

JESUS IS GOD 15, 19

Jesus is not a new God, different than Israel’s Yahweh; Jesus IS God, he has made Yahweh KNOWN

Image of the Invisible God – God is not physical, not visible, he is infinite – how could the infinite be seen - we cant see him like we see everything else, so humanity was left to guess about a lot of things. Think about how little the Old Testament saints really knew about God. Virtually all you know about God is what you know about Christ – He made the invisible visible!

John 1:18

In Christ we see who God is— Creator and Redeemer; what God is like— a God of mercy and love; cares for the downtrodden, gives answers to the doubter, comfort to the hurting, courage to the fearful, and one who sends his Son to rescue us from darkness.

Human beings are also made in God’s image, but the Son is the only satisfactory likeness of God. As the perfect image of God, Christ teaches us what God intended humans to be – Salvation is more than just a ticket out of hell, it is that We are “renewed in knowledge in the image of [our] Creator” (Col. 3:10)

We are made more like Christ, who is God.

JESUS IS THE CENTER OF ALL THINGS 16

By Him all things were created. ALL THINGS. Wherever you look, or whatever realities you think of, even if they do not acknowledge the fact, they owe their very existence to Christ. They are HIS handiwork.

For HIM, not for Israel, all things were created.

By Him, For Him.

It is likely when he says dominions or rulers or authorities, he has in mind, at least also in mind, demons and the powers of the spiritual realm . . . those too created BY HIM FOR HIM! The devil that we fear? Created By Christ, For Christ.

There is not an inch in the universe, physical or spiritual, that Christ is not Lord over.

JESUS IS PREEMINENT 17-18

Jesus is not one cult figure among many, he made the entire universe, including the materials that those little cult figurines are modeled from! Including those created things that you place at the center of your life instead of God.

Jesus was not a creation, He is preeminent.

He is BEFOREall things, and he CURRENTLY holds all things together – Both dimensions of Time, when he Stops holding all things together, everything will crumble.

Christ has precedence over all things in terms of time and status and is a kind of divine glue or spiritual gravity that holds creation together. God did not simply start things off and then withdrew from his creation; Christ continues to sustain the whole universe.

No creature or natural law is autonomous. Psalm 119:91 - ALL ARE SERVANTS OF GOD.

He is the Head of the Church.

He is the Beginning – this word beginning doesn’t do justice to what that word actually means – the word is more than beginning – it is the source of all other things, it is the spring that the river came from. EVERYTHING came out from God, and nothing that is is from anywhere else.

The Firstborn from the Dead

He’s already said that Jesus is the firstborn over all creation, which is a statement of rank – OT firstborn was the chief child responsible for keeping the family together

Inheritance was his birthright, and one that he has offered us.

NOW he says firstborn from the dead.

At harvest time, the wheat plant is CUT OFF from the stalk and dies, same word used for death in the Bible – cut off from the land of the living – however, if one seed of this wheat plant that has been cut off is planted, then there is hope. The seed can lay dormant until it gets what it needs, warmth, air, and water, and when it gets these things, a miracle happens. The wheat sprouts into life and begins to grow, bursting through the soil and climbing into the air into a beautiful wheat plant. With enough time, 1 seed can produce enough plants to fill a field and make an abundant harvest of grain.

John 12:23-24

Jesus was cut off from the land of the living, and Like a seed planted in the soil, Jesus was laid in the tomb, and laid dormant for 3 days, until like a seed he rose from the dead. And in so doing, he produced many seeds, an abundant harvest.

Christ’s resurrection is the source of the new life for others. He is the first in a sequence – Jn 14:19

At the moment, Christ’s resurrection is unique, but not for long, it will soon be acted out by a great multitude of others, a field of wheat beyond all imagination.

THAT JESUS RECONCILED YOU (AND ALL THINGS) 20-22

This poem is not just a picture of the exalted Christ, but of the gracious, loving, beckoning creator-redeemer God.

God’s purposes in creating the world and redeeming the world are fulfilled in Christ.

Redemption/Reconciliation is not an invasion from a different or hostile realm, the Lord of this world has come to claim his rightful possession.

In the beginning, God created all things Christ; in the end, God will reconcile all through Christ.

You do not reconcile yourself, Christ reconciled you.

IF ALL OF THIS IS TRUE ABOUT CHRIST, WHAT OPTION DO YOU HAVE BUT TO BOW, whether you like his particular views on certain things or not.

If Christ reigns over all things and reconciles all things, then every aspect of our lives should come under his rule.

IF YOU CONTINUE IN THE FAITH 23

You must bow. You must be faithful.

What does that mean? Obey perfectly? No, it means being faithful, like the faithful husband isn’t the perfect husband but he is faithful

Understand perfectly?

“Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” – Galatians 1

Thank God, because in Jesus Christ, God has revealed himself to be the one God of all things, the Creator and the Redeemer of all things. He reigns supreme over all. Because of his great love for you, God sacrificed of himself, so that he could redeem out of sinful humanity a people for Himself, and eventually will bring the entire universe into a new order and harmony and beauty. All this has been done and is being done through Jesus.