Colossians Part 2

I. Introduction

A. Can you love family you’ve never met? Let’s keep this framework of writing a letter to our descendants. Speaking to them to keep Christ at the center against false teaching and natural calamaties.

B. Our text was a hymn used by Christians in the first century to keep Christ at the center of their existence. Our worship is critical as we respond to Christ’s supremacy as we sing.

C. “When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he was countering a clever company of false teachers who sought to replace the Colossians’ enthusiastic devotion to Christ with only a mild approval of him. They didn’t encourage anyone to forget Jesus altogether; they just said he wasn’t the only show in town. According to these false teachers, Jesus got equal billing with a vast number of spirits flowing out of God. They said Jesus could be prominent, but he certainly wasn’t preeminent” - Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary

D. Read Colossians 1:15-20

II. Supremacy in Everything!

A. Supremacy in Creation 1:15-17

Jesus is firstborn of all creation detonating not time but rank. He is the source and sustainer of all of creation. Nothing makes sense in creation without Jesus.

As it says here, “all things have been created through him and for him.” His DNA is at the core of everything good. It’s made to respond to Him.

As it says here, “in him all things hold together.” Definition of hell; an existence without the sustainment of Christ, total darkness and chaos.

Visible - To make visible that which is invisible! To bring heaven to earth.

Adam image bearer. We were made to bear the image of the invisible God to the world, thus making him visible. Where Adam failed, Jesus fulfilled.

Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) - 3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

Invisible - There are both evil and good unseen forces at work. Paul makes it clear that Christ is supreme over all.

There were three rebellions in Genesis in the seen that mirror exactly three rebellions in the unseen. Jesus work at the battle of the cross and victory of resurrection is both in the visible and invisible.

Colossians 2:14–15 (NIV) “14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

There is a lot going on in the visible, but I will submit to you there is just as much if not more going on in the invisible. Those two realms are overlapping more and more which is good and bad. Jesus is supreme in both!

B. Supremacy in Re-creation 1:18-22

A proper theology of Christ must include three works: Creator, Redeemer, and Re-creator. Jesus is the source, healer, and maker of all that is new!

Revelation 21:5 (NIV) 5 “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Reconciliation has the connotation of peace relationally. Peace not only in our relationship with God, each other, but also with the material and supernatural world. Reconciliation brings harmony over hostility which brings a new creation.

“reconcile to himself all things” that does not mean everyone or every being. It does however mean every context.

Jesus is the Head of the church, the vehicle of reconciliation. Jesus invites us to partner with him in re-creating as new creations!

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NIV) “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Only when Christ’s has supremacy do we become agents of reconciliation. In other words we can’t be supreme, it’s not our church.

Yet under his supremacy we become ambassadors with authority.

Jesus is the Fullness of God, the fuel of reconciliation.

Ephesians 1:22–23 (NIV) “22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Jesus held the fullness of the Father. We hold a portion of Jesus so only together can we bear the fullness of God necessary to join in re-creation!

Ephesians 4:13 (NIV) “13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

III. Conclusion

A. Need Jesus to be supreme in your context? Needs some things reconciled: Do you need harmony to overtake hostility? Jesus needs to be supreme!

B. Pray for Jesus to be revealed in your world as first and center of everything and everyone. Then watch his peace extend beyond what is seen but what it is unseen.