Christ over All - Colossians 1:15-20

Intro

Welcome - Guest, my name is Stefan

Let’s all get out eyes on God’s word together - Colossians ch. 1 is where we will be

Continuing our series, “Fully Alive” in the book of Colossians

We have seen so far that a fulfilled life is one that is submitted to God’s intentions for us

Though the world will promise fulfillment in all kinds of things, if we seek to find life in anything other than God’s will for us, we will be left empty

But if we will see that we were made on purpose, for a purpose, to reflect God to the world by living the life he intended, we will be fully alive, thinking and living like Christ.

Now, as you all turn to Colossians 1, wonder if you have ever had the wrong idea about something and the consequences were not optimal.

[Communion Story]

Listen: When you have the wrong idea about something, things can go wrong.

In the Colossian church, people had some wrong ideas about Jesus, ideas that they had allowed to creep in from the outside, so that the Jesus some were worshiping was not Jesus at all.

Hook - I am concerned that we might have a few things wrong about Jesus, perhaps we have let ideas creep in that have distorted our view of him.

We have listened to other voices and it has distorted our view of who jesus really is

And as a result, our lives as the outworking of those ideas are not reflective of Jesus, but more reflective of the world around us.

Paul knows, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the best fix for your life, the best way to correct the things that are not how they should be, is not self-help books. It isn’t a list of do’s and don’ts.

The best fix for your life and my life is that we have a clear view of who Jesus is, because that will impact how we live.

[Passage] - The antecedent of “He” is in v. 14 “in whom”

Big Idea: Following Jesus confidently requires seeing Jesus clearly.

And when it comes to Jesus, if we do not see him clearly, if we get things about him wrong, we cannot be confident that we are actually following him.

It is not enough to simply say that you believe in Jesus. Many people believe things about Jesus, but the details of those beliefs reveal that the Jesus they claim to believe in is not the real Jesus.

Muslims believe in Jesus, but only as a prophet.

Mormons believe in Jesus, but as a man who became God through his ongoing obedience

Jehovah’s witnesses believe in Jesus, but as a created being, similar to the angels.

Hindus believe in Jesus, but as an incarnation of the god Vishnu

Even atheists believe in Jesus, but only a good teacher or moral example

To believe in Jesus in the biblical sense, in the true sense means that you:

Believe what the Bible says about him and

Depend on him by faith for what the Bible says he accomplished.

We have to be clear about these things - Not confused.

This does not mean that your theology has to be perfectly wrapped up to be saved, but that we cannot be confident that we are actually following Jesus unless the most basic truths about him are clear.

And we as a church family must be confident as we follow the true Jesus together.

[Bridge] What must we have absolutely clear about Jesus?

What are the things that if we have them clear, we be confident that we are following Jesus

Paul sees two truths as being the necessary correction for the church in Colossae.

He is going to show us two essential truths that we must see clearly if we are to know that we are in fact following Jesus.

[Outline] I must see clearly…

The Person of Jesus: God of Creation (1:15-17)

When we talk about Jesus, the first essential truth about him is who he is - This is known as the doctrine of the person of Christ or the person of Jesus. Who is he? What is he? Where is he?

Paul is going to tell us 4 things about Jesus that make abundantly, undeniably clear that he is none other than God himself, who took on human flesh, and walked among us.

He is God

v. 15 - ‘He is the image of the invisible God.”

Two claims right out of the gate: God is invisible and Jesus images him.

In John 4 Jesus says that God is Spirit and in Deuteronomy Moses tells Israel that God hid his form from them on Sinai.

Because God is invisible, hidden from us, unless God shows you what he is like, you cannot know him.

A God who you imagine is exactly that - An imaginary God, who is really just like you.

But if he reveals himself, then you can truly know him, according to what he reveals.

Jesus, as the son of God, the second person of the Trinity, truly, fully God, walked among us and when he came down, he showed us what God is like.

He “imaged” him

The word here is the greek word, “Icon” from where we get our english word, “Icon.”

It is a word that communicates that something reveals the true nature of a thing.

Paul is telling the Colossian church that Jesus makers the invisible God visible to us.

He is saying, you can know what God is like because God showed himself to you in the person of Jesus.

We read this elsewhere in the NT as well:

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

John 1:18 (ESV)

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side [Jesus], he has made him known.

Colossians 2:9 (ESV)

For in him [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

Paul is establishing right out of the gate for the Colossian church, Jesus is God over all.

He is God made visible to us.

So by knowing Jesus you know God and can worship him clearly because you know him clearly.

It is all too common to see Jesus as merely human, but he claimed to be God, his followers called him God, and he rose from the dead proving that he had power of sin and death, as only God has.

He is not my buddy - He is God

And when we can recover a right view of Jesus as God, it will impact how we live.

So he is God, next…

He is First

“He is the firstborn of all creation”

Firstborn - In first position, not first to be made

Cf. David as seventh-born, but called firstborn by God in Psalm 89:27 “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth”

Paul is saying, no matter what things take prominence in your life, it is Jesus who is in the first position.

He is preeminent. There is nothing in all of the universe that can rightfully take his place

[Distortion]

But we get our priorities out of whack all the time.

Work, relationships, houses, kids, we put our focus and our energy, putting them in first place.

Some of them are important things, good things, even God-honoring things

But when I make a good things a God thing, then I am not seeing Jesus clearly.

When I am more concerned about temporal, lesser things than I am with putting Jesus first…

When other things are preeminent in my life, taking a higher priority…

…then I have not seen him clearly.

[Theological Correction]

But Jesus is God over creation - He is in first place, he is preeminent.

And when I see this, I can repent of making lesser things more important than him in my life

and I can reorient my life around Jesus, because he is first.

He has to be first in our priorities

He has to be first in our marriages

He has to be first in our families

He has to be first in our jobs

First in our church

First in everything

I grew up in the 90’s (or, the late 1900’s as I have heard some younger people say)

WWJD bracelets - The message was often reduced down to just a moral one, “WWJD if he were walking in my shoes, working at my job, going to my school…”

But the sentiment is legitimate - If Jesus makes God known to us and he is first over all creation, then in any circumstance, what would he have us do?

And whatever that is, that is what I must do.

Becaues Jesus is first.

Next…

He is Creator

v. 16, “For by him all things were created…”

In case you’re wondering, all means “all” - Everything. God himself is uncreated, eternally existing in the perfect relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. Anything else was created.

Side note: This is why when people object to Christianity by asking, “If God created everything, then who created God?”

Well, that assumes God was created… and a created God is not God, so its moot.

The God of the Bible is an uncaused cause, he eternally exists and is the creator of all.

So what did he create?

“…In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities”

Paul is stacking up terms here to emphasize whether physical or spiritual, if it exists, Christ created it.

Why is this important?

In Colossae, there was some kind of teaching that was making room for the worship of other spiritual powers, like angels, and other spiritual practices, .

“An angel seems to be pretty impressive, so it must be worthy of worship in addition to Jesus.”

When he says, “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” that is a way of referring to the spiritual powers that are behind cultural movements.

In the biblical worldview, there are unseen powers behind everything going on in the world. When we participate in them, we participate with those spiritual powers

Paul echos this in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

So Paul is arguing here, “Everything that exists, even those powers behind what is going on all around us, were created by Jesus, so it is Jesus who is deserving of worship and Jesus alone.”

Imagine looking at the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo walks up to you and tells you he painted it.

And you look totally unimpressed, like “Okay… I’m more impressed by the ceiling, actually.”

People would be like, “What’s the matter with you?”

It is HIS handiwork! The only reason it is impressive is because he did it!

Listen: if it is a created thing, then it is the creator who deserves worship, not the creation.

We should not be going to other, lesser, created things for meaning. We should not be enamored by the creation more than we are by the creator.

And so Paul corrects this way of thinking by clearly showing the church who Jesus really is. He is God revealed to us and he is first over all of creation therefore he is worthy of worship over any created thing.

And it isn’t just that he is the one who created, but he is the one creation is for.

v. 16b - “All things were created through him and for him.”

“For him” (eis as preposition goal or objective)

All of creation exists for Jesus, not just because of him.

Creation is meant to bring glory to God

You and I were made to glorify God

All of creation declares the glory of God

[Distortion]

When we do not see Jesus as creator and the one for who creation exists, we start to see creation as existing for us, for our enjoyment, for our exploitation

We fixate on created things

We look for satisfaction in created things

We become satisfied with lesser things

Because we erroneously think that creation is for us and so we lose sight of the creator, the one it is actually for.

What created, lesser things have your affection today?

What have you been spending your time, your money, your health, and your emotions on?

[Theological Correction]

When I see clearly that Jesus is creator of all and that all that was created was for his glory, then I will see my place in this world as being for him.

And I will live for him, just as I was created to.

And the fourth way that we see that he is God over creation is that…

He is Supreme

Jesus in eternity past preexists all created things, he is before them.

And because he is before them, Paul makes the point that it is all dependent on him, “In him all things hold together.”

Because the God of the Bible is eternal, all that comes after him is dependent on him. There is nothing in all of the universe that is truly autonomous.

Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus, “upholds the universe by the word of his power.”

The laws of physics does not ultimately maintain the universe. The word of God maintains the laws of physics.

Science does not ultimately describe the way the universe is. The word of God is why science can tell us anything at all.

The people who made the earliest scientific discoveries (Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo) believed they would find laws in nature because they believed in a law giver.

It was precisely because of their belief in Jesus that they believed they would find evidence of his handiwork in nature.

The universe is not self-explaining - It logically cannot be.

The universe is upheld by the word of his power

And because everything around me is sustained by Jesus, then it is ultimately Jesus who is deserving of the credit.

[Summary of main point]

So, the person of Jesus is clear: He is God over creation:

He is God

He is First

He is Creator

He is Supreme

Now, why does Paul start with Jesus as God, First, Creator, and supreme? Why does he not start with Jesus as savior?

It is common for us to fixate on the things that we experience about God: his love, his mercy, his generosity, his compassion, etc.

But if we fixate on those things apart from, or neglecting, those other attributes such as his holiness, or his righteousness, or his eternality, or his omniscience, we will not understand the basis of his love, mercy, generosity, compassion, etc.

Are you with me?

If I ignore God’s holiness, then I cannot rightly know and appreciate his forgiveness.

If I neglect the study of God’s righteousness, I cannot appreciate his mercy.

If I neglect God’s necessary attributes (the attributes that set him apart as God), then I cannot appreciate his relatable attributes (the attributes we share and experience)

To put it another way: If I neglect how God is not like me, I cannot appreciate how he relates to me.

So Paul, knowing this, shows us Jesus as God before showing us Jesus as savior.

This should be instructive for us - The Gospel is not just, “Jesus died for you.”

The Gospel is, “God became like you, lived for you, died for you, rose for you, and now you are the benefactor of his blessings by faith.”

It starts with Jesus as God.

Now with a clear view of Jesus as God of creation, Paul moves to the Second truth that we need to be clear about

The Work of Jesus: Cause of New Creation (1:18-20)

New creation is another way of saying, “Salvation”

Paul says this in 2 Cor. 5, that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation

So how can we be clear about Jesus as the cause of new creation?

Like I said a moment ago, we start with Jesus as God to understand Jesus as cause of salvation

So what Paul is going to unpack now is going to build off what he just revealed about Jesus as God

First, if he is supreme over creation, then he is in charge of new creation

He Directs the Church

v. 18 - “And he is the head of the body, the church”

The church is often referred to in the NT as the Body of Christ - Why?

Two reasons: Identity and Authority

A body is a collection of parts, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

We as a church are a collection of people, and the church globally is a collection of people, but our identity is greater than just the sum of the people.

And that identity is with Christ.

But why is Jesus head of the body?

Think about your own body - You have countless parts that are all working together for whatever you are trying to accomplish, or not accomplish.

And the body only does what the head directs it to do

So in a human body you have a unity of parts being directed by the head.

Our identity is in christ and our authority comes from Christ.

Paul is saying, “Because Jesus is supreme, those who bear his name are unified under his authority.”

Our unity as believers is not because we all agree about a bunch of things.

Our unity as believers is because we all submit under the headship of Christ.

It is our job as participants and members of this church body to submit to the headship of Christ, because he is supreme, not just over creation, but also over the new creation of which we are a part.

When things go wrong in the church, it is because somewhere we have forgotten that this is Jesus’ church.

When there is conflict among believers, it is because we have forgotten that Jesus is supreme and so he is in charge.

Disunity in the body is a symptom of a deeper problem - It is a symptom of allowing someone or something else to be your authority in the christian life.

I watched so much disunity among believers over the past few years and at its root was an issue of submitting under a different authority than that of Christ.

When we see clearly that Jesus is head over the church, then we will submit under his headship and live confidently in unity under him.

But this begs the question, how is he the head of the church? What earned him that title?

And Paul answers that question with the second truth about Jesus as cause of new creation:

He Accomplishes Salvation

Because Jesus is creator and sustainer (As in v. 16-17), he is the initiator and accomplisher of salvation

v. 18 “He is the beginning” - Not simply a statement of time, but of being the initiator, the commencement of something

He was the initiator of creation in the beginning. In the same way, he is the initiator of new creation through his life

[Distortion]

Every other religion in the world says, “Do enough good, and God will approve of you.”

You have to initiate things with God, you have to clean up your life for God to accept you. You have to find your own way out of the dark.

[Theological Correction]

But not Christianity - Not Jesus.

God initiated salvation in Genesis 3:15 promising that an offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, bringing an end to the death that was brought into the world through sin.

Not only that, he did what was necessary to bring it to completion

Great exchange - 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

But someone will say, “How can I know that what he initiated, he completed?”

“Firstborn from the dead”

How can you know that Jesus accomplished salvation? Because Jesus rose from the dead.

Jesus’ resurrection proves that your sins really were paid for

Paul calls him the firstfruits, so that in everything he might be preeminent

Others were brought back to life, only to die again.

Jesus is the first to raise with a resurrection like his

A glorified body, a new body, the entrance of new creation

And we who follow Jesus by faith now have the promise of our own resurrection on the last day, to a glorified, new body in the New Heavens and new earth

Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

He initiated salvation, he accomplished salvation. That is why he is the head of the church.

His person informs his work and his work is what secures our hope.

Which then begs another question: How is it that he was able to accomplish salvation when no one else before could? Which leads us to the final truth about the work of Jesus in v. 19:

He Represents God and Man

v. 19 - “For in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”

Fully God - We have already touched on this, but Paul returns to it. Why?

Because the point he is about to make about Jesus reconciling all things is impossible without Jesus being fully, truly God.

Listen, if Jesus is not God, he is not able to represent God in offering forgiveness to humanity.

An angel cant offer you forgiveness on God’s behalf.

A person can’t offer you forgiveness on God’s behalf.

In fact, you can’t offer forgiveness for anyone except yourself.

Yes, in Mark 2 and Matthew 9, Jesus tells a paralytic that his sins are forgiven - And rightly, the religious leaders say, “No one has authority to forgive sins but God.”

And Jesus responds, “Bingo.”

Because Jesus is fully God, he can offer forgiveness on behalf of God

Paul knows this, and he makes sure that you know it too.

But he isn’t just fully God…

v. 20 - “Through him to reconcile all things, whether on earth of in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross”

Fully man - It was through the blood of the cross that all things were reconciled to God through Christ.

But why did he have to be human?

Because all of us are sinful from conception - All of our life is marred by the effects of sin so no matter what we do, we will still bring sin with us before God.

Just as Jesus represents God to us, so also he represents us to God.

Living every way as we do, yet without sin, hebrews tells us

Taking on our likeness, but being obedient to the point of death, Paul says in Philippians.

He lived perfect obedience that no one has before

So his death paid for all of our sins

So that we could have peace with God.

You need both - Fully divine nature, fully human nature in one person that accomplishes the one work that is necessary for new creation.

So Paul makes the point that the work of Jesus is the cause of New creation:

Because he is Fully God and Fully man, Jesus Christ, the God-man is able to be the cause of new creation, fully accomplishing salvation and sits as the head of the church.

[CONCLUSION]

I am a mere man whose words could never do justice to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

But thanks be to God for his inspired, inerrant, infallible word that reveals to us the truth of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

Jesus is over all and when we see Jesus clearly we can follow Jesus confidently.

Amen.