Power in the Pulpit | Colossians 1:15–23

Intro: Have you ever thought about how one has to have authority to forgive someone. Think for example, if _______ were to slap me, _________ could not forgive _______ on my behalf. Since I was the one that was wronged, I am the only one that can offer forgiveness for that person. When we sin, we sin against the almighty creator of the universe. For Jesus to make a way for forgiveness of our sins, He had to have ultimate authority. And that is what we are going to see in out text. Christ has made a way for our forgiveness because of the authority and power He has as God the Son.

Col. 1:15-20.

Exposition: Verse 15 says “He is the image of the invisible God.” Does anybody know what the second commandment is?” It says not to make an image to be worshiped. We often don’t understand that because we don’t worship statues. But in a lot of religions in the antiquity and even still today, building statues to represent the gods was a big part of their worship. It was once said about ancient Athens that there were more idols than people. There is a big problem with people doing this. The problem is that something that is created is bowed down and worshiped as if it is the creator. It is even worse that one would try to make something that resembled God. Anything on earth that we could make to try and resemble God would be an insult because it would fall short. But that does not mean God has never sent an image. No, in fact He has. Christ is His image. Jesus says in John that anybody that has seen Him has seen the Father. Now, people walking today have not seen Jesus. But we have good evidence that Jesus was the Son of God and he walked on earth. So the invisible God has revealed His image. He has done what we cannot do by sending Jesus in the form of a man. By coming to earth He was the firstborn of all creation. This is not saying Jesus was created. We will see shortly that Paul does not say that. But the term firstborn was a legal term. It was the person that was to receive the largest inheritance and be in charge of all the father’s business when he died. So of all things that have walked this earth, Jesus was the one with privilege and authority.

Exposition: We read in verse 16, “Col 1:16 “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” So we see that Jesus is the agent of creation. This is what we read in the beginning of the book of John as well, The Son of God was not just present at creation, he was a part of creation.

Explanation: Paul here is probably refuting a heresy that had begun to creep up that Jesus was a created being. In fact, this heresy has not gone away. Jehovah Witness still believe that Jesus was a created being and was less than God. But we see here that He was not created but instead is creator. Paul was probably refuting the idea that He was just a spiritual being, as this is what this language is referring to. Paul is confirming that there is a spiritual realm. There are forces at work in this world that we cannot see. But Christ is not equal with them because he is the creator of them.

Exposition: But Christ isn’t just the creator. Verse 17 says, “Col 1:17 “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” The word before can also be translated “above.” It means that Christ has authority over all those things. So though we live in a world where there are forces that we cannot see at work. I think we can see that with the direction of the culture. Christ is above these things. They have not overcome him. But it isn’t just these forces. Christ is above or before all things. In fact this verse doesn’t just say Christ is the creator of the world, He is still in control.

Illustration: Around the time of the finding of our country, there was a popular religion known as deism. Some of the founding fathers were deist. They believed that there was a god that had created the world and put into motion all the laws of nature, and then stepped aside to let the world function as it would. The illustration they used was a clock. At this time, before electricity, a clock worked by winding the back of it, then it would just tick on it it’s own to tell time. All a clockmaker had to do was create the watch, wind it, then let it go. But this isn’t a true depiction of how God operates. God created the world, and He is still the one holding the world together. He is still in control.

Application: So when you feel like your world is falling apart or that everything is out of control, you can trust in the truth that God is still in control. he has not given this world over to the evil forces at work. He has allowed them to operate and we don’t always know what God is doing, He has not stepped aside. He is still at work in our world. And we can trust that He is good and still in control.

Exposition: Paul then writes about Christ, Col 1:18-19 “And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Jesus also has a specific position in regards to us. He is the head of the church. This word has the connotation of both authority and source. Just like our head dictates everything. Why does he have this position? Because of what he accomplished. He is the firstborn among the dead. Here it is both position and order of birth. He is the first one to be raised with his spiritual body. We see instances in scripture of people being brought back from the dead. But all those people were resurrected in their spiritual bodies. Jesus resurrected with his resurrected body. Remember how the disciples had a hard time recognizing him. Christ raised Him up from the dead so he could be first. All of this is possible through the incarnation. Paul says all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. When Christ came to earth, he did not stop being God. He did not stop being God while He was in human flesh. No, he was fully God and fully human. Within his earthly body, the fullness of God dwelt. And this was for a purpose. It was not just pleasing to God that the fullness of God dwelt in the human flesh of Jesus. But that Jesus would accomplish what he came to accomplish. Paul writes in verse 20 Col. 1:20 “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” It was not just Jesus resurrection that saves us. It was not just the incarnation that saved us. Those things were a part of a plan that had a middle action. And that was his death. You see human beings have a sin problem. Sin separates us from God. It keeps us from having peace with God. And that sin has to be punished. So the Son of God came to earth and died a death for all humans. In order for the wrath of God to be atoned for, there had to be someone whose blood was spilt. The wages of sin is death Paul tells us in Romans. So Jesus came and he died on the cross for our sins. And then he rose again, granting us a promise that we too one day will rise as He did. He gave us the hope of eternal life. For this, God has placed Jesus as the Right hand of the Father. Which is his rightful place.

Exposition: Paul continues explaining how this happened in verse 19.

Transition: Christ has brought peace by His blood. But what does that mean? What does it mean that he has brought peace? Paul tells us in verses 21-23

Exposition: Col 1:21 “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,”

Illustration/application: The longer you walk with the Lord the more you are going to hear stories of people that God saved from very sinful lifestyles. You will hear how people were addicts, criminals or what have you. You will hear about how God changed their lives dramatically and how they are living for Him now. And praise God for those testimonies. Sometimes it’s easy to hear these stories and wonder if your testimony is equal. You may have come to know Christ young and lived a pretty calm life. And then you read verses like verse 21 and wonder if they apply to you. But we can all probably point to a time where we realized we were in need of Christ. We knew that we needed to turn our lives over to Christ. When we live a part from The Lord we are living in a selfish manner. We say we are the Lord of our lives, not Christ. We say that our way is better than his and we are not going to do what he says. Our natural state is to be enemies of God because we are claiming disputed territory. We were created by God. He deserves our praise and obedience. But when we are not in Christ we live for ourselves. We say we are not going to give him what belongs to him. So we are naturally opposed to the things of God. It doesn’t matter age you are when you come to know Christ. When we are living without Christ we are living in rebellion. We are living disobediently and we are living for ourselves.

Exposition: But what was Christ’s response to our rebellion? What did Christ do? He came and died for us so that we could have a way to be saved from the punishment we deserved. Verse 22 says, Col 1:22 “he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,” There was nothing we could do to save ourselves. We had sinned against God and we were not capable of paying the debt that was owed from that sin. But Christ came and allowed his body to be broken and his blood to be spilled in our place. And now when we stand before a Holy God he does not see our sin, instead he sees the righteousness of Christ.

Illustration: Can you imagine being guilty of a major crime and walking into a courtroom waiting for your verdict to be read. Or your jail sentence to be announced and the judge goes to read your verdict and he says, “not guilty”. Or he says, the sentence has already been served. In the first example you would almost certainly wonder why? You were guilty of the crime, the whole courtroom had seen the evidence. Or you hear him say that the sentence has already been served and you know you haven’t been to jail yet. The judge just looks at you and says, “Somebody who has never committed a crime switched places with you. They took on your wrap sheet and gave you theirs. They took on your punishment so that the judge would see their innocence when looking at you. That is what Christ did. Because he did the death that was required for our sin, God now sees his righteousness when looking at us.

Application: There is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God. We are always sinners and sinners can’t enter the presence of God. But the blood of Jesus washes away our sin and makes us right with God. It is only through Jesus death that we can be reconciled with God. It is only through his death that our sins could be paid for, and it is only through his resurrection that the power of sin and death can be defeated. Praise God.

Exposition: But Paul adds a condition to this. He says that Christ reconciled those who were once alienated from God, Col1 :23 “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” What Paul says here is concerning. Is he saying that we can lose our salvation in those moments of doubt? Is he saying that when our faith is shaking we are not saved? No, that’s not what he is saying.

Illustration: How many of you have friends that are fad people. If a certain pair of shoes become popular they have to have those shoes but as soon as their popularity starts to wane, they go and get whatever kind is popular. The best example is with music. They claim to love a certain type of music or a certain song, but after a while they aren’t even listening to that but they have moved on to something else. In reality, they never really committed to liking that thing. It was something that seemed cool at the time, but it was never going to be something they stuck with for a while. You’re going to meet a lot of people that do this with their faith. A lot of people will go to a camp where they can feel the spirit moving and they can see a lot of other people responding and they feel they should respond to. They may even stick with it for a while. But eventually, something else takes their heart. When the emotion of the moment, however long the moment, was leading them on, they were following Christ. But that moment changed. Other cares and concerns eventually took the place of the interest they had in being followers of Christ. What Paul is saying that if you are going to believe in the message of the gospel, believe in it. Jesus actuually said something similar in the book of Luke. He said Luke 14:27-33 “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Jesus said that before we commit to following Christ, we must be ready for all it entails. This isn’t to scare us, but so that we place our hope in the gospel. It’s so we don’t place our hope in a moment, but instead in the eternal person of Christ who will outlast every good moment and bad moment this world can bring us. The message of the gospel isn’t just something that we are preaching here at this particular time in your life. It is what all of history has been working towards since the creation of the world. Creation tells us that there is a God and the gospel tells us this God is reconciling us to Himself. When we believe in the gospel we are believing in the work of an eternal God. And Paul, who once was an enemy of God preached the same gospel that we are hearing tonight. We must never underestimate the size and scope of that which we believe in.

Col. 1:21-23.

Verse 21

Hostile in mind due to selfishness

Verse 22

Christ died so The Father would see His sinlessness

Verse 23

True faith is rooted in Christ and not anything else

Conclusion: There’s a saying that probably was serious at one point but certainly isn’t now. When talking about dating people will often ask, “Do you like this person, or do you like the idea of them?” While it isn’t used seriously very often, it does ask an important question. I think sometimes our life with Christ is similar. We like the idea of believing in Christ, but we don’t always like believing in Him. There can be a lot of reasons for that, but often it is because we just get caught up in regular life and don’t really give Jesus His rightful place in our hearts. But if Jesus is all that we claim He is, then he deserves that place. If Christ is the Son of God that came to earth and died to make a way for us, then there is no better person to place our faith in. If you need to discuss that further, please come see me. Don’t let the moment pass.